Sincerity

with the preparation of gospel speech and so forth. All those articles, garments that we're supposed to take on, those weapons of apparel, we could say, but they're weapons of defense and offense, both. I don't know, I probably wasn't realizing the connection I just felt the last, I don't know, half year.

Maybe it wasn't that long I was going through this, but I guess the warfare in my personal life, I was feeling, sensing with fighting these battles. I'm still in fighting, but sometimes just the overwhelming burden, just the oppression from the enemy, I was sensing at times. But I can stand here this morning, I just want to give a testimony of even God's faithfulness through all of that.

I know there's been times my prayer life has, I guess, changed, been changing some through this. How I pray. Romans 8, it talks about sometimes there's deep groanings in the warfare, there's groanings which cannot be uttered.

There's groanings I sense in my heart. And I just thank the Lord. I don't know how much to say, but the Lord has given me some gifts of the Spirit in the area of prayer.

And it's just been a blessing of when the Spirit takes over and can pray things that we just can't verbalize anymore. And it's been a good journey. But along with that came the confirmation also from the Lord.

I believe that it's a word that was spoke to my heart that there's tough times ahead. I just, I receive that. I know there's, I just have the word, feel I have the word there's going to be suffering.

Might be some lonely roads, but that's OK. It's a blessing to have the witness of the Spirit that helps you pray in this warfare. So let's do that just now.

Let's come to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, I do thank you for this time we can come together, look into your word. Thank you for your precious word that we have that was breathed, God breathed from your own heart that we still have today in our very midst, Lord.

We have it on the written page, but most of all, we have you in our heart, Lord Jesus, by your Spirit. As the word says that we are the temple of God, you desire to dwell in us, to walk in us. I pray you would do that this morning.

Walk in our midst this morning, Lord, in our hearts. I just, I plead, oh, Father, you would not miss us, Lord, but you would walk in our midst and lead us into the way everlasting, to the ways of God, to the way of the cross leads home. I pray you would just be glorified.

May Jesus be lifted up as the head today. I also pray for those that can't be here. I know many are struggling with sickness.

I just pray that you would reach forth your healing hand to each one and touch each one. I pray for each one that is struggling here this morning, Lord. I believe there's people here that are struggling, that are not doing well.

I just pray they would be encouraged in this fight, this warfare. They would not give up. Pray we would be an encouragement to each other that the feeble, the hands that are hanging down would be lifted up, and the feeble knees would find a straight way to walk upon.

I pray for those that are serving in other places. Pray for Brother Caleb this morning. Pray you would bless him today and strengthen him, make him an able minister of the gospel.

And Sister Melinda, I just pray for her that's many miles away. I just pray her strength, Lord, and make her an able minister of the gospel also, Lord. I believe you're doing that.

I would pray for the Schrock family also, especially that you've given wisdom, grace, and we miss these people that are out from among us. I just ask that they would be strong in you, Lord. And I would even pray you would send forth more, Lord.

Send forth more workers into your harvest field. The work is great. The labors are few, Lord.

Would you please send them forth? First of all, in our own families, my own heart, our own families and our neighborhoods, that wherever your heart is beating, Lord, I just pray you raise up labors and send them forth. Pray in Jesus' name. Okay, Ephesians 6. I don't know how many months I spend in here.

I just took my time going through this last part of the chapter here about the whole armor of God. So today brings us here to chapter six, verse 21, just a closing here. And I many times read these letters that Paul writes and just kind of read the closing, just kind of hurry over maybe the time, just kind of a closing.

I like to read this this morning and maybe not hurry across it this morning so much. Verse 21, it says in chapter six of Ephesians, it says, but that ye also may know my affairs and how I do, take against a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord. Shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts.

And if you just wanna turn over to Colossians chapter four, he ends that chapter also with a lot of salutations and a closing here. Colossians four, verse seven, it says, all my state shall ticket this declarant to you. It's almost, not quite verbatim what he shared here in Ephesians six, but it's very similar.

All my state shall ticket this declarant to you. And again, it says he's a beloved brother and faithful minister and a fellow servant in the Lord. What a testimony of a young man.

I believe he was a young man. It seems he was a young man. He's a beloved brother and he had a faithful minister.

Here it says a fellow servant in the Lord. I don't know what kind, what you're striving for in your life, men and women, young and old, but to have this testimony of being faithful and to be beloved in the Lord, a beloved brother. I don't know if there's anything better that you wanna go for than that.

And it seems there was something good about his heart and Paul trusted him, this ticket guest, to share what's happening in my life. I just want you to go, ticket guest, and tell them everything, all these churches, these churches. He did the same at the Colossae and here at Ephesus.

I want them to know, let's have an open flow of communication of what is happening. There's nothing to hide. I have no hidden agenda.

That's something that I, Elson Miller, needs to learn yet. I'm learning this open, I tend, I probably tend, I've tended growing up to become somewhat of an introvert. Well, I wasn't married for many years and I seem to do well, I felt I did well in the shadows, but I'm thankful the Lord had other things in mind already in my life.

In my flesh, I would just love to be on the back bench, that would be me. Just be there, just sit there and not have to come up here. But I will say by the grace of the Lord, I want to be up here, I wanna be used by him.

So allow the Lord to make you a Tychicus, to be a faithful brother, a beloved brother, and a faithful minister in the Lord. That should be the goal for every one of us, to not dwell in the shadows. So I thank the Lord for his faithfulness in my life, but I'm still learning this.

I want to learn to have this openness that ye also may know my affairs and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister of the Lord shall make known to you all things. I think that should be the hallmark for us as Christian brothers and sisters. We are on the same page with nothing to hide.

There's a flow of fellowship and of our spirits. Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts. You find that heart of Paul in his ministry planting churches, all the churches he had.

He says in 2 Corinthians about all the things that came upon him, he says, and all the difficulties he faced. And one thing he says is, and the care of all the churches. So he was very busy.

Paul's heart almost seemed to, he was just begging God for a bigger heart to include everyone. I don't want to miss anyone. He had a big heart.

And that should be our desire, that we could have a heart we big, we include everyone. Then he says, verse 23, peace be to the brethren and love with faith. From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mentions God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he says, verse 24, and we'll probably spend most of our time here this morning just on this verse. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.

And I would just so encourage this morning as we knelt up here in the front to pray, one of the young brothers prayed that we would be able to worship you Lord in sincerity. I just like to look at that word today, sincerity. We just might just take that word and maybe put it on the microscope and just see what it means and how it applies to my life and to your life.

The word sincerity. And I think I shared this before that the word sincerity is not used that many times. It's used a few times in the New Testament and the Old maybe, maybe in the New Moor.

And it has a few definitions. The one thought is it comes from a potter's house, how pottery is made. And just recently I was in the auction and I've seen this many times in an auction and something that's very desirable for especially the antique buyers and especially buyers, probably more among women than men, what I've noticed, when they have one of these clay crocks, they're big and some of them are different sizes, especially the big ones.

But the first thing they always do is check for a crack. If there's a crack in that, it just brings the price down right away. And most of the time, but always the auctioneer, that's what he'll mention, does he have a crack? If it's not, it's a good one, it's sincere.

That's where the word sincere, one of the meanings of the word sincere, sincerity comes from. Something that has been formed, it has had a good mixture of clay, it need to be unadulterated by foreign objects, materials, but when everything is right, the good possibility that thing will be sincere. And the way they check these vessels would hold them up to the sunlight to see if they're sincere.

If there's any cracks in them, they would just collapse them again and reform them. So if we're held up to the light, and yesterday as I was meditating, I was just there in my room and the sunshine was just coming very bright on right where I was at. I just tried to look at the sun, of course, well, I didn't really try, but I just kind of was basking in the sun, just realized there was nothing hidden from the sun.

You just feel so, if you just take the time and just lay in the sun with your face, close your eyes, of course, but there is just kind of that feeling there's nothing hidden. There's just absolutely nothing hidden from the sun. And that's the meaning of sincerity.

There's just really, there's no fake. There's just, it's genuine. I have this little saying, this little plaque on my desk that says integrity.

The meaning of integrity. It's just basically who you are when you're all by yourself. I don't know exactly how it's worded, but the thought is integrity is just who you are, who you are without an audience.

Integrity reminds me something that is real. This is many years ago, probably back in 90, late 90s, I spent some time in Haiti and I remember one time I bought, I needed some time keeping device. We didn't have cell phones back then.

I honestly go back before the era of cell phones. So we needed some time pieces at times. I was just looking for a wristwatch and back where we lived, there was no, nothing like that available.

So I was at Port-au-Prince one time and there's all these street vendors, these people selling things. I thought, well, I'll just buy a wristwatch. One had a nice array and he had a Rolex.

He had some Rolex. Well, I just wonder if that's Rolex, but I'll buy one. He bartered and got it for a pretty good price.

So the Rolex worked for, I'd say a few weeks and started making trouble. So I'm wondering if this is a Rolex. So I'll take it apart, see what's wrong.

Might just be a battery. He took it up, opened it up and it's plastic, just plastic. So it's an imitation, but you know what? I think that's a lot of Christianity today is just that imitation.

That's what we wanna steer away from. That's just my encouragement. If I could lift up a standard, a principle in our hearts, in our hearts today, by the word of God, to be sincere, to be real.

So this word, grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, in a genuine way. And if you think about it, that love, I don't know when this was written as far as in a chronological manner compared to when Jesus spoke to this church, this very church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter two. He says, it's the first church he spoke to.

He says, I've somewhat, he blessed them for all the good things they were doing, but then he says, I've somewhat against you because you have left your first love. I believe that something of that sincerity had dropped out of the equation. So you left your first love.

And here it's telling us that the grace of God is be with all those that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Grace, who doesn't want the grace is simply, if you just, I've heard many definitions and I've heard sermons on this, and there's many things that in Titus two talks about the grace of God that brings salvation and has appeared to all men, but it teaches us. But if we just shrink that thing down, if we just, I'd say the most lowest denominator, if you just, the sum of it is just favor.

It's God's favor. Grace is God's favor. If we think it's negative or good, his presence, his wanting to have an influence in our life, it's God's favor.

So we want God's favor upon our life. And here in Revelations, God is, Jesus is saying, my favor, my favor is somewhat being blocked by your loss of your first love, that sincerity. That's what you had expressed initially.

So he was encouraging them. And he told them actually to repent. You need to repent and go back to that sincerity.

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just mine, it's all of us. That's the first love.

We want to have that grace, that uninterrupted flow of grace, that favor upon our life. But we can hinder that flow by the lack of sincerity or the absence of that, coming away of that. And this word sincere, there's about four or so different meanings in the original Greek for how sincere has been translated, but they're all, they're so closely intertwined, they're almost one and the same.

But this one is, here, it means, it actually, when you look it up, it's the opposite of the negative part, which the negative part would be corruptible, decaying, but this meaning actually means incorruptibility. It's an unending existence, a genuineness, immortality. Immortality, and it's undecaying in essence or continuance.

I like that. It's undecaying in essence or continuance. That's the meaning of sincerity here.

It's undecaying in essence what its nature is, or continuance. Sincerity, God's heart is that we are sincere in heart, and this is something that will continue. There's a longevity to this.

There's a longevity to this undecaying essence is how this is explained here. And that, it's the people that are retaining that heart, that God's favor is shining upon them. His flow of grace is flowing into their life.

You'll also find this also in Titus 2, chapter two, talking to Titus himself. Titus 2 is often, people hear Titus 2 was referring to, that's the chapter talking to women, but here it's actually talking to a young man in verse six and seven. It says, young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded.

In all things, showing themselves a pattern of good works, in doctrine, showing uncorruptedness. And that word uncorruptedness is related to this. Sincerity is the opposite of sincere.

Corrupt would be the opposite of sincere. So these are related. It says, showing uncorruptedness, gravity, sincerity.

It's almost like he had to repeat it twice. It's uncorruptedness, gravity, and sincerity. Uncorruptedness, sincerity, they're almost like the one and the same.

This is how, this is the pattern, Titus. Your life needs to be after this pattern here. You need to be sincere.

Not this in-between thing, not trying to have one foot in either camp. Titus, you need to be sincere is what he's telling him. He says, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you.

So that isn't Titus. This is the same word here that we have in Ephesians. A few other times where the word sincere or sincerity comes forth is in Philippians 1. We know that scripture, how Paul is telling them, he's writing to them how some are preaching Christ of goodwill and some of not a goodwill.

They're not sincere. They're opposite of sincere. It's not honest, what it actually means there.

They're not being honest. So we don't wanna be in that camp. We don't wanna be like Paul was referring to those, to not being sincere, not being real, not being genuine.

Just recently I came across, I'm going through Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel right now. The other morning I came across this verse there, Ezekiel 22, and it really spoke to me as far as what God has for me, for my responsibility, my calling. But here he's talking to his people that have walked away from him.

They have left their first love. We could say they were not sincere. And verse 26 of chapter 22, God is speaking.

He says, her priests have violated my law and have profaned mine holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and profane. Neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean.

And I think this is, I know this is God's heart for us as priests, especially God. Jesus says there in Revelations one that he has, God has made us unto him, priests and kings, each one of us, if we're born again, especially men, fathers. God has made you a priest, and your calling is, I believe with all my heart, your calling is to be able to show the difference between the clean and the unclean in your home, in your own heart, first of all.

It is a standard that needs to be rooted in your heart, a principle. That you be able to show the difference between the holy and the profane. That is sincere.

There's no blending together. Actually, one of these meanings had the thought also of not mixture, not having a mixture. Another scripture would be in 2 Corinthians 8, Paul is writing in the context of making up money or giving and tithing, he says that I might prove the sincerity of your love.

The way you're gonna prove it, really, is not just by words, it's how you open up your pocketbook and how you're gonna share. We do, we prove this genuineness, sincerity by what comes out of our life, the things that comes out of our life. The dictionary would give the definition of sincerity, it would give it as, it's a freedom from deceit, hypocrisy, and falseness.

There's an earnestness. It also mentions earnestness. And that is what I've sensed growing up as a young boy.

I remember seeing some young men, young girls even, as they, how they looked at life. And I could see the influence of their fathers. Some were just so innocent, so sincere about where they were going.

They were so innocent, sincere. They knew, they knew what was right. And they didn't make any deviation from that.

And you just, looking back now, I just appreciate, I can just look at some of those lives yet today. That sincerity, that foundation that was built, there's a blessing upon God, there's a favor. That favor of God has been upon them down through the years.

I just, I'm blessed with that. We need to, we need to impart into our, in our children's lives, some sincerity. Just lift that up in their hearts, some sincerity.

Not this, not a mixture, but a clearness. One of the meanings also of the sincerity is found like in 1 Corinthians 5, that chapter we have about the sin that they had in church at Corinth. It says we should no longer keep the feasts with the unleavened bread of malice and wickedness, but with the, or with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Truth and sincerity. That is how we should be. Our lives should be clear.

The word there in the Greek means a clearness, a purity. It's that's the word that has the meaning as tested by the sun's rays. That's in 1 Corinthians 5, verse six through eight.

I don't think I'll read those. But in 2 Corinthians also, I think I'll read that one there. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 12.

Paul writes this to the same church at Corinth. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, or our walk of life in the world, and more abundantly to you. You see the connection of the grace of God and the sincerity.

If he would not have allowed the godly sincerity to work out in his life, there would be also no grace of God upon his life either. Those two walk hand in hand. 2 Corinthians chapter two, verse 17.

It's the next chapter says, Paul is again still talking to them. He says, for we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God. Actually, the word corrupt just means the opposite of sincere.

Which corrupt the word of God, but as a sincerity, but as of God. In the sight of God speak we in Christ. So that is really the proper view of sincerity.

A sincere heart is recognizing God is there. God is watching. I'm doing this as unto God.

God is my witness. That brings a sincerity in our life and a heart in our life. In Hebrews 7, 26, we have this testimony of how Jesus, the high priest, our high priest.

In verse 26, I'll just read this. You don't have to turn there. In verse 26 of chapter seven, God is talking about, or Paul or whoever wrote this, this is God's testimony of Jesus, our high priest.

Remember, what we as the priests, the old covenant there in Ezekiel, they were not being faithful, showing the difference between the clean and the unclean, the profane and the holy. But here is God's testimony of his son, Jesus. Verse, I'm sorry, verse 24.

But this man, talking about Jesus, because he continues to ever have an unchangeable priesthood. That's that undecaying essence. In essence, or continues, this is Jesus.

And we are called to be like him. This man, because he continues to ever have an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now listen to verse 26.

For such an high priest became us, or became proper for us, who is holy, is harmless, is undefiled, separate from sinners. Made higher than the heavens. If there's anything, if ever a person was sincere, it was Jesus, to become our high priest.

Anything less would not have been sufficient to intercede between, be the mediator between God and man. God saw a very important, this is so important, that this man is holy, he's harmless, he's undefiled, he's separate from sinners. Made higher than the heavens.

I know some people will struggle with this, even the very word separate, that gives the idea of the Pharisees, they were set up, they separated themselves. Well they did, but it was a totally different, totally different reason they did that. They separated just unto themselves.

They weren't separated from sin. They actually were in sin. But for Jesus to save us, he had to be separate from sin.

But that doesn't mean that he doesn't connect with us, he doesn't try to reach us, no. But it doesn't, he's not talking about a condescending way or a condemning way. No, but the priest had to be holy.

And it is the same holiness that God is calling us to. And this is where things get very foggy in our day and age anymore. Just the other Sunday, or last Sunday, I was talking with a couple that had walked with the Lord many years, and they talked about, they're just communicating.

Remember, you remember, yeah, I remember, they remember. 30 years ago, when some of this was happening, or 30, may close to 40 years ago, I'll just call it this, when the charity churches were starting, when that movement started, the seriousness, the sincerity that was the hallmark was, say, a trademark, we could say, of what was happening. How that thing was birthed in the sincerity, in the reality, in the genuineness.

People repenting, they sometimes didn't have, just quote, church like this, when that was happening in the onset. People were weeping, they were crying, they were standing in line to give their testimony to clear their hearts. I just, we were just asking each other, what happened, what happened to that? What happened to the sincerity? And they are getting worried at times, they hear, well, people say, well, we're not there.

We shouldn't expect that anymore. You know what, I believe God still expects that. That's what I'm praying for, that's what I'm longing for, my family.

I don't care if I never become prosperous in this world, I'm a failure in a lot of ways, but I don't wanna fail, I don't wanna fail, brothers and sisters, in this way of being sincere, being real, genuine. Remember those times, I remember those, my wife was converted during those times. I was out there, I remember talking about, people would come, she was converted and living with her sisters, and she got rid of some things, she burned them one night.

Actually burned some things. I don't know what it was that you burned. What was it, I don't know.

Maybe I shouldn't ask her publicly. But there's things that she burned. People were burning clothes.

People would come actually with clothes. Can you still believe that? People came with clothes that felt were not pleasing to God. Put them in the burn barrel, they'd burn them.

Music. Whatever the Holy Spirit was working their heart, this is not sincere. They would bring in, as they did in Ephesus, this very church here, the church at Ephesus, they had the same experience.

Witchcraft. People brought them, they burned them. What happened? I remember my wife was talking about, when she burned them, I guess, Elvin and Rachel came.

Hey, what did I smell? There's something, what's happening here? There's fire. She said, well, I just burned something. Would to God that we could have that again, that we would see there's actually, there's a difference between the profane and the holy.

There's a difference. There's a difference between the clean and the unclean. You know, we can say, well, that's just not hard.

I know it starts there, but my friends, these things spill out. Our heart are just like, they're the seedbed of where everything comes out of. That is why, that is what was motivating people back then.

The Holy Spirit in their heart caused them to take away, clean up their heart, first of all, whatever was not from God, was not pleasing to Him. They got rid of that. You know, and what is happening today is a lot of, I just say, we have altar calls.

People come and they, yeah, sometimes there's crying, there's weeping, and yeah, I put this on the altar, but really, what was put away? You look at the life and it just keeps going right on the same. But it's just, here's what happened. That's all that matters.

It is, I know that's all that matters, but you know, I heard of a young person just recently testifying, if the heart is right, everything else matters. And I unashamedly say, I'm in that camp. I might be the only one, but I wanna be in that camp, that everything, my whole life, my whole life has been bought by the precious blood of Jesus and I'm set apart.

I feel I'm set apart, not to be better than others, no, but I'm set apart for His honor and glory. And out of that, really out of that, the Lord wants us to be unified in that. And from that, we can reach out, we can minister to the sinners as Jesus did.

He reached out, He ate with them. That is what we need to be doing. But they need to see something, they need to see something different.

If we're just trying to be buddy-buddy and I'll come on your level and I'll stay there, we've missed it. Such a priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. You know what, that word, I found it very interesting, that word separate here, it's the same word we read in Luke 16, when the rich man was in hell, after it was over.

It was forever too late for him. Started, had that dialogue with Abraham. Says, I'd like to have Lazarus come give me some water, I'm suffering in this flame.

And Abraham said, there's a great gulf fixed. That word gulf is the same word as separate here. You just look it up in the Greek sometimes.

Not many times it is used, but this word separate, this word gulf is the one and same word. Years ago, some 20 years ago, I worked over here, Freedom Hills was in Bladensburg and we went to Mount Zion and I remember this, this thought came out one time, someone shared about, they believe God's heart. We often have this maybe thought about where do we draw the line? Where should we draw a line between the clean and the unclean and about the profane and the holy and just many things in life.

Where's the line? But they got this from this, this thought. They believe God would, what God would have is God actually drew two lines. He created a gulf.

I believe a lot of Christianity wants to just call society evil and good. Jesus was, he was separate from sinners, but he spans that mighty gulf to reach you and I, did he not? But he didn't say, his citizenship isn't here, our citizenship isn't here, shouldn't be, nor should it be here. But I believe that is where a lot of Christianity is landing up in the gulf, they call it the gray area.

Not quite sure what is right or wrong, trying to mix the two together. And God says there is no mixing. When we were in Tanzania, my boys are not so little anymore, but they were a lot smaller back then, but they always enjoyed playing with the little chameleons.

These little chameleons were very interesting, just these little lizards. And you watch their eyes, their eyes were kind of top of their heads and one eye could be here and the other over here. They could almost seem, they could operate in two different worlds at the same time.

And I just, I think about many times, I wonder if many times we are living amongst and we're surrounded in our society, in our nation by chameleon Christianity. We can so easily adapt. And they could, depending where you place them on a green bush, they'd be green.

You put them up on a wall that was like this color of brown, they would change to brown. It wasn't almost just instantly, but it was just gradual blending, all of a sudden they were that color. Just very handily, I just blend here, I can blend there, whatever protects me, whatever takes care of me.

That's what a chameleon, that's his defense, that's his protection, chameleon Christianity. We don't want to be there, my friends. Let's be clear, let's be sincere.

Let's be free from deceit, from hypocrisy and falseness. Allow an earnestness to be in your heart, in my heart. So, I'm gonna turn to 2 Corinthians chapter six.

I believe we're getting the idea of sincerity is the opposite of corrupt. Corrupt means to have maybe another mixture in it. We're trying to do some water samples.

We have to do it occasionally every two years for our foster license. So, I just got a bottle the other day, and they're so concerned that you have to be very careful that nothing else goes into this bottle, but just exactly what's supposed to go in there, because it'll affect the outcome. It'll affect the sincerity.

There's many things like that we can take from nature. Natural things, you have a wrong mixture, it has a wrong result. And in Christianity, it's as important as anything.

If we have the wrong mixture, we'll have a wrong result. It will not be a proper result. But in chapter six of 2 Corinthians, I'm gonna read from verse 14 to chapter seven, verse one.

Paul says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with darkness? What concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them.

This is the goal. This is why he has all those prohibitions, because ye are the temple of the living God. If we profess Jesus has saved me, he's washed me from my sins in his own blood, his Holy Spirit dwells in us.

This is what the testimony from the Lord is. What he wants from us. You are the temple of the living God, as God has said.

I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God. They shall be my people.

God walks in sincerity. Wherefore, what's the wherefore therefore? Wherefore come out from among them. So we can ask, well, what is the them? What are you talking about? Well, I believe it's the unbelievers.

It's the unrighteousness. It is the darkness. It is Elial.

It is the infidel. It is idolatry. That is what we're supposed to be coming out from.

We're supposed to be separate from these things. Not, like I said, I wanted to have this clear. Not in a standoffish way, we're better than thou.

Not at all. But Christ has called us into a separate holy life. Six times, he says, he uses six different descriptions not to be unequally yoked.

That means to be yoked differently. You look that, I looked all these up and it means to be not to be yoked differently. And remember, those priests were not showing the difference.

God puts a difference between things. Here, God is saying, don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. That doesn't say you should never talk to them.

Like you can't work with them. But there are associations as Christians that you just cannot yoke up with. Then it says, for what fellowship? Fellowship just simply means participation.

What participation has had righteousness? What participation do these two have? God has come this direction to bring us over here. God always moves this way to bring us back. What fellowship? What participation has light or has righteousness with unrighteousness? Just simply means participation.

And what communion? What communion has light with darkness? You try to bring light and darkness together, it just doesn't work. It just gives gray area. That dwells in the gulf.

That's in the gulf. Communion means, it's just simply a stronger form of that word participation, of fellowship. There's just no communion.

There's just no, back and forth. What concord has Christ with Belial? That comes from a Greek word, or we get the word symphony. There's just no harmony.

There's no harmony, those two. They play two different tunes. There's two different beats about that music.

It just won't work. It's just discordant. What concord has Christ with Belial? We don't, there's just none.

It's just, it's dissonance. There's no harmonious effect. And you know, what is of a greater dissonance if we profess Jesus Christ in our heart, he has washed us in his blood, but we're walking to a different tune of a redeemed person? It's dissonance.

What part has he that believeth with an infidel? Or what portion? The Greek word means what portion or what share has he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement? And I found that interesting. That includes the thought of what kind of vote, the agreement vote or voice. And if we allow, if we allow this to dwell over here, this always has a voice and a vote.

It just does. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them.

I will be their God and they shall be my people. These are tremendous promises. It's something we all want.

It should be. We all are desperately longing for God has a testament. I dwell in that person.

I'm walking that person. I am their, I'm his God. They're my people.

Because something has happened in here. They're set apart in their hearts unto me. Not to be better than thou people.

No, but they're special, they're peculiar people. And it's from that setting, it's from there that we are a light to the world. We attract people unto God.

Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. There's the word separate again. And touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you.

You know, we can just try to just spiritualize all this. There's nothing tangible, there's nothing real. It's just all, you know, I can do it.

Maybe some time I just give my life to the Lord. I believe that that giving is God takes you at your word. He's serious, he's sincere.

Are we gonna be sincere? Let's keep on reading. Wherefore come out from among them, be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. And we'll be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

And I think verse one in chapter seven should go with this passage here. Then it says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, the inside and the outside, the flesh, the body, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. I also want to turn to 1 Corinthians 3, 17.

Maybe we'll start with verse 12, actually. Let's just take this in here. Verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

This is chapter three of 1 Corinthians. Now if any man build upon this foundation of Jesus Christ, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, haze, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. Notice how often it says work in these couple of verses.

Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare that sunlight, that sunlight, that judgment day is gonna be the sun, it's gonna prove the sincerity or disapprove it. Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yes, so as by fire. It seems as if these are actually Christian people. I could just say, well, just as long as you make it inside, and don't worry so much about this sincerity thing and all this being sold out to the Lord, you still might be able to make it.

He might give the indication that spirit will still be saved, but I don't have, I don't feel I have the authorities to just tell you as brothers and sisters, just relax, just as a laid back approach. No, I know God's calling upon my life is to lift up a standard of God's best, God's very best for us, to go for the gold. Then it says, know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Here it talks again about God dwelling in us.

Then it says, verse 17, if any man defile the temple of God, and that word is, that means not corrupt. To corrupt is the opposite of sincere. Sincerity is something that is not corrupted.

Sincere is something that is pure, is unadulterated by other ingredients. If any man, we could say, brings some other ingredients into his heart along with God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Verse 18, let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. So there again, we see God's heart of purity, of heart and life, the temple of God.

Our bodies are really the temple of God. And he's very concerned that we reflect him in the things we, I'll say even to the things we eat, how we treat our body with the things, our diet and so forth, overeating and unhealthy and all that. We are the temple of God.

We've been called into sincerity to a real, genuine reflection of his Holy Spirit in our life. Second Timothy, similar passage. Second Timothy two.

Verse 19, here Paul is writing to his young man, his Timothy, says, nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and of earth, and some to honor, some to dishonor. If a man therefore purges himself from these, or we say from the vessels of dishonor, he shall be a vessel unto honor. He will be a vessel that is sincere.

One that has gone through the fire and has been formed by the potter and it's gone through the proper temperature exposure and it is genuine, it is sincere. There's no hairline cracks and there's no gaps. It is trustworthy.

It's sincere. If any man purges himself from all those dishonorable things, the things that we've been called to come out from, he shall be a vessel unto honor. Sanctified, that means cleaned up and set apart and meet a proper for the masters to use and prepare unto every good work.

Then it says, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And that word pure comes, gives again the thought of that uncorrupted, that sincere. We call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

Put yourself in the company with those that are calling on the Lord out of a sincere heart, a pure heart. That's his encouragement to Timothy there. Flee youthful lusts, don't think you can bring those into the house of God, which is your body, your temple.

You can add those two together. No, God is dwelling there by his spirit. He is not wanting other guests there beside himself.

He wants to be there, he wants to rule and reign. Remember how we started that in the Lord, the faith of the Lord Jesus be with all those that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Loving the Lord, there's a Lord, talks about a Lordship.

Not only loving Jesus, we hear a lot about Jesus today and I'm glad for that, but there's also a loving, a loving his Lordship. If you just look up the word Lord, if I would say, just ask anyway, what does the word Lord mean in the New Testament? You look it up in the Greek, what does it mean just in the simplest form? Lord, master. Yeah, that is very good.

It means master, someone in supreme authority, in control. So do I love my Lord? Do I love his control? Do I love him as a master in supreme authority? Loving him, love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Love the Lord as the master.

Love him as Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Love him as Christ, the anointed one in sincerity. Here it says to flee, flee the youthful lust.

It doesn't say we should resist them. I think that's something we need to have clear in our hearts. God never tells us to flee the devil.

Tells us to resist the devil, but to flee the lust. Flee the youthful lust, but resist the devil. It's not the other way around.

God's provision for temptation for you and me is to flee. That's his only provision for temptation is to get out of there. Flee it.

Not all that glitters is gold. You probably heard that saying. I've heard the term of fool's gold.

People have been misled by that during the California gold rush and out west. Many people got their hopes up many times by fool's gold. It wasn't the real thing and it's a letdown.

Let's not be the same with our Lord. Let's be of a sincere heart. Realize he walks in our heart by his spirit.

And he wants to teach us. He wants us to be able to discern between the clean and the unclean, the profane and the holy. And that starts inside.

It starts with attitudes and motives, sincerities. It's undecaying in essence and continuance. Just recently I heard someone just give a caution, encouragement.

I'd just like to do the same. When you hear people minimizing, trying to minimize God's holiness or trying to subtract, trying to not make the gulf as it appears, said beware, beware. And I had to, I went to Jude, is it verse about, I have to turn there.

The book of Jude, just before Revelations. Basically that whole book is about Jude earnestly, talking about earnestly contending for the faith. Jude is just trying to bring the reality there's going to be an insincerity in his last days.

Please, please, he's begging. Stay with the sincere people, or with the sincerity. But it says in verse 17 of Jude, it says, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord, there's the term again, Lord Jesus Christ.

How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. You know, if you look up, what mockers means, it's not really talking about what those people you face out there in the gay pride parades. Those out and out people.

It actually talks about, it means those that deride and the false apostles. It's actually, the mockers are actually people that are teaching, but they're minimizing God's holiness. They're minimizing God's standard.

False apostles are called mockers. Is it not a mockery? If God has called me, redeem my life from corruption, has redeemed my life from sin, but I still continue it, it's making a mockery of what he testifies, what he says he'll do. Is it not? Isn't that a mockery? Now I confess there's many times that I've, I had to break my heart on how I have mocked him.

And to think about that. I think there's this one song we, I don't know, we hardly ever sing it here. How Great is the Father's Love to Us.

There's a, in the one chorus, I mean the one stanza talks about hearing my name among the scoffers. When Jesus was before Pilate and all those, and Herod's men of war mocked him, every time my life is not portraying this set apart, this genuine sincerity, I'm mocking the Lord. Am I not? Or am I taking it too far? I believe I am.

If he, if I profess I've been saved from sin, I'm a Christian, and I am living like I've not been saved, I believe I'm a mocker. And that's what it means in Jude 17. Doesn't mean those are just, they don't care at all.

We're just throwing everything off. It probably includes that, but in the context, talks about the false teachers. We can be a false teacher, I can be a false teacher, and each one of you can do that with your life, without a whole lot of teaching with our life.

Our life is also testimony. Actually our life is, sometimes our life teaches so loud that we can't hear each other's words. So that's just a caution.

If you hear a minimizing of God's, or God wants to take his people, I just say beware. Beware. We cannot mix, it just doesn't work to mix the two together.

Remember one day we were walking to work, the boys and I, when we were in Tanzania, helping some widows, and I heard our two helpers, Castro and Moses, were laughing. All of a sudden they started laughing, and I couldn't get all this language, and I said, what's so funny? He says, well, someone threw a dead dog into someone's pombe, which is, they make their own homemade brew there, and someone had a big five-gallon barrel, I mean 55-gallon barrel drum of that made, and someone pitched a dead dog, and I don't know how they had to drink quite a bit of it until they discovered it, so they were just laughing about that. Well, we shouldn't drink pombe to begin with.

But just to think of that grossness, having something like that, adulterating that mixture that was not supposed to have that in it, and it was about the same time, just close to the very same time, we were doing a job in that same area, might have been about the same day, that they wanted to treat us with a little bit of a drink, so they brought some Pepsi, they still have them in the glass cans there, and occasionally that would be kind of refreshing, but the one I was handed, I drank until I got this far to the bottom, and it started to taste different, and I looked, and there's a sediment on the bottom, it looked like sand, just like, I don't know how much, spoonful of sand, it just yuck. And it just kind of gave me a, it gives me a world picture of, think about how we're supposed to be presented in the presence of God, that desire to be sincere, to be set apart, to please Him, and if He comes down, He's drinking the cup, and what is here at the bottom? Please, I just plead with all of us, let's be sincere, let's not give Him any of those surprises, let's not be a mocker, that we minimize God's holiness and His godliness, and anyhow, I had some other scriptures, but I think this is sufficient, and I just want you to pray for me, please, I say that sincerely, please pray for me, I don't want to be found in the last days, I come up for the judgment seat of Christ, and be found wanting, I don't, we don't do this in our own strength, I know that, but I still believe we have a choice, we can choose how much we allow God to work that in our hearts, I know we do, those are choices that we have, that reside in our hearts, that are our responsibility, how much of His favor are we allowing to flow into our life, or how much are we blocking that, by being insincere, if you have a valve, and there's a flow of liquid through that, that valve is not sincere, and it's closed, there's no flow, but if you're sincere, if that thing's sincere and open, there's an uninhibited flow, okay, well let's pray, thank you Father in heaven for.