Jesus is the Narrow Way

It's good to see the brother growing and persisting in the faith. Colossians chapter 2, it's not easy to follow Christ and to be found faithful, in fact it's difficult and it's a narrow road and there's lots of exits off of the narrow road, lots of exits to get into a wider place. But we have to resist the temptation to take the easier way and to go through with God.

There's times when we go through things and we say suffering is too great, suffering is too much, I need a break. And we take a decision for right now to make things easier, but getting back, you don't just cut back in and get up the trail somewhere, you actually come in maybe at the exact same place where you left the trail, or maybe even it set you back and you end up going back. But the scripture says that we're not to be those that shrink back to destruction, we're to be brothers that press on, even if it's difficult, to the saving of the soul.

That's God's plan for us, that our souls would be saved. You say, what are you talking about? I got born again such and such a day. That's the beginning of the journey.

And then there's a road to walk, there's a narrow way to follow. To walk as Jesus walked and as you walk, it gets narrower and narrower and the incline becomes greater and greater and your strength becomes less and less as you carry the cross up that hill. Because as a brother shared, if anyone desires to come after him, we know Jesus, he sweat great drops of blood in that garden as he decided not to do his own will, but to do the will of him who sent him.

And if you want to walk the way of Jesus, you're going to have that wrestle in the flesh, between the flesh and the spirit and say, Lord, not my will, but yours be done. And when you settle it in your heart that you're going to go the way of Jesus, be certain of one thing, you're going to have a cross on your back and the hill will be steep, but the Lord will be there to help you carry it. A lot of times we become deceived by the flesh, we become deceived by the voices as you think of Pilgrim's Progress and all the different voices that were along the journey with the brother there.

Trying to find an easier way, trying to get you to become bitter, trying to get you to become unforgiving, trying to get you to see what you're missing out on. And it can be very, very difficult. Some days it seems like nobody wants to follow the Lord, nobody's interested in serving Christ.

And we become weary, we can sit on the side of the road like blind Bartimaeus, we can become spiritually blind. He said he became that those who are blind they might see and that those who see might become blind. You can reverse, you can have good sight in the Lord, good insight, you can have a prophetic gift and you take some bad turns and some bad decisions and you find yourself professing to be wise, but you're living like a fool.

You're living for the flesh, but you're talking the talk, you quote the scriptures, you know all the right words, but all of a sudden those words start getting mixed. There's a mixture. When you mix flesh and spirit, there's no certainty that the strength of the foundation become weak and brittle.

Just like we see the statue of Nebuchadnezzar when he has the vision of the different kingdoms. It starts out as gold and then it goes to silver or bronze or, and then all of a sudden there's iron and mixed with clay and then the feet are clay. Clay is not strong.

When you have a mixture, then you won't be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, you might be strong in the flesh, but you will fall. So we have to be vigilant, we can't be ignorant of the schemes of the enemy. It says for the lack of knowledge the people of God are perishing because they don't understand the way of the spirit that leads to life.

Because the word says the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. I had a brother call me not too many years back and he said, you know what, the reason why your church don't grow, see you gotta change the name of your church. Your church is called the narrow way.

He said that's why your church isn't growing because you're called the narrow way. I was talking to the powers of darkness. I said I can't only say what the spirit of God says.

The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. You say well what do you mean the gate is small? Jesus is the gate. And when the gospel changes the gate gets wider.

When the gospel changes, when it's not a gospel that accords with godliness, then the gate gets really big. You can have Jesus plus all kinds of have the flesh and Jesus too. That's a worldly saying.

Have your cake and eat it too, right? Oh how sweet to walk with Jesus. But you have to trust him more and more. You can't trust in the flesh.

The gate will get real wide. It won't be a highway of holiness you're on. It'll be a highway of hell that leads to destruction.

Pretty soon you'll be flipping on the ACDC and you'll be singing that stuff while you're worshiping the Lord in the church. And the rest of the week you'll be living like a devil. And you deceive yourself and you become blind.

You know the Laodicean church? You say when a brother says how you doing? Good. Brother we're not doing good. Compared to who? Compared to Jesus? Compared to how he walked? How are you doing compared to how Jesus walked? Could be doing better.

That's a good way to answer. I have but still I ask for more. By the grace of God I'm overcoming.

That's a good answer. Good. No, we're struggling with things and when you struggle and when you're not overcoming and when you're getting frustrated and when you're getting anxious and when you're getting angry and when you're getting bitter, you know in your own heart that the Holy Spirit is calling you to a higher standard and he wants to purge us of the wood, of the hay and of the clay, the stubble.

We need the Lord to do a cleansing and there's only one way that can happen. Put the fire on it. He's got to put the fire on it.

He says in Peter in chapter 4 and verse 17, don't think it's strange brothers concerning the fiery trials that are coming to try you when he sends that man to your work. When the co-worker at work rises up and puts you in your place to humble you because you haven't humbled yourself and he comes and humbles you and you get you all worked up and angry and everything. What is the Lord showing you? There's a mixture.

When he sends that half naked woman and you think man I should have just stayed in my cave and then you're struggling with the lust. What is the Lord showing you? There's a mixture and we need the Lord to purge us of the mixture. So we need the fire to come.

So you have to ask for the fire to come. He'll send his fire but he doesn't want us to be consumed in the fire but to be refined in the fire. He said the Holy Spirit is a consuming fire just as God himself from the end of Hebrews 12 is a consuming fire.

And he said that we need a baptism of the Holy Ghost which is a baptism of fire. When the tongues came on their heads they spoke in different languages but I'm telling you that's not where it ended that's just where it started. Because brothers shared how many ways those brothers were persecuted and suffered for Christ.

And how many ways when they took that brother Apostle Paul who was once Saul and they tried to beat Jesus out of him and he didn't get angry and punched him in the face or swear at them. He overcame. By the blood of the lamb and the word of his testimony he overcame.

They couldn't stone Jesus out of Paul. They couldn't beat Jesus out of Paul. He was more than a conqueror through Christ who gave him strength.

And that is what the Spirit will do. Will refine you and purge you and cleanse you of all the filthiness of the flesh and even the filthiness in our spirits. Even our spirits need to be purified.

Because no one knows the motives and intents of the heart but the Lord. We can think our motives are great. We can think our motives are pure.

Until you start to do some reflecting. Why did I take that decision there? Because really I didn't realize it but I was manipulating so that things could go my way. I was manipulating so I could get it my way.

And we spend a lot of time manipulating to see that people see it our way. We can even lie in our beds and meditate on how I can manipulate in a very subtle way so that everybody does it my way. Well I'm telling you your way is not the way of the cross.

As the heavens are higher than the earth so his ways are higher than your ways and his thoughts than your thoughts says the Lord. So it's good to get light on ourselves. Brother says we gotta be salt and light.

You're not gonna ever be salt and light until you get light on yourself. To see those areas where you need to humble yourself. Because if we humble ourselves he'll lift us up.

Things are gonna be very dark until the sun rises. The morning star rises. Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts.

That's when you're gonna be light my friend. That's when you're gonna be salt. While you're walking around claiming the promises and you're still darkness.

It says we're not of darkness but of the day. So that this day doesn't overtake you as a thief. So when buddy comes to you and he throws his slander and his sand and his mud in your face you don't react.

Because you're already expecting him to come to try to rob from you. You can't expect anything different because you know the source from which these people are drawing. They're drawing from dirty wells.

There's at best even a lot of persecution come from even the lukewarm Christians. That's where a lot of it come from. Oh you think you're holier than the rest of us.

You're holier than us. You're just self-righteous. If they can get a rise out of you in pride then what is it showing? There's a mixture.

There's a mixture. There's not humility and pride. You can't have humility and pride.

When you get that rise that comes out and the flesh reacts and responds. What does that prove? That I'm not crucified. There's an area of my life that has to be put to death.

As it says in Colossians 3 that if you get angry it says then put off all these anger, bitterness, resentments, lusts, all these different things. Put them off. How do you put them off? With the power of the Holy Spirit.

Because we can't do it on our own strength. But we can acknowledge that we need help. You know that's the first sign.

You want to go help somebody? I sit down with them and I say well what's going on? Well my wife is this and my wife is that and my co-worker is this and my co-worker is that and my kid is this and my kid is that. And I say okay I can't help you. Why can't you help me? Because you haven't looked in the mirror lately.

You're the problem. When David sinned he done gross sins but he said when he finally got exposed against thee and thee only have I sinned. It's all my fault.

Full stop. If you can come to a place when you see something coming out of your own heart and you can say it's my fault. Now we're getting somewhere.

Anything like okay it's my fault but oh that's mixture. Because now you have a reason to be angry. Maybe only 20% reason or maybe 80% reason but you are making excuses.

And the Lord keeps allowing stuff to manifest that he might purge us and burn it out of us. That we might become pure and holy before him in love. Everything that becomes holy and righteous must be purified with fire.

They put the fire to it. To purge it. If there's nothing left there's nothing left.

But praise God when we get refined in the fire there'll be something left. Your faith which is much more precious than gold which perishes even when it goes into the fire. When the fire gets hot enough even the gold perishes.

But your faith will not fail if it's genuine. So when you get refined your faith becomes purified. You know when you refine gold it might be gold in a raw form.

But when you put the fire to it and the dross, the Lord takes the dross, the uncleanness, the flesh, the hardness out of your life. The gold becomes less. But it becomes more pure.

Then you put the more fire to it. It goes from 10 karat. Some of us get excited we get a 10 karat ring.

And then it's still fairly hard because there's a lot of other alloys there. But then you know the Indians they like to get 18 karat maybe 24 karat for their wives and things when they get married. It's very very very very expensive.

And it's very very small stuff. But it's very very pure stuff. They don't want the 10 karat.

That's a garbage. A poor man will wear that. But someone who is rich in the Lord you can see that their faith has been refined.

They might be very small in their own eyes and people might see them as very small in the ways of the world and not very successful. But to God they are very precious. Very precious.

Because it's not about quantity with a lot of garbage. But it's about quality. And very precious.

You know it speaks of a man and I think this man is Jesus. It says a man went out into a field seeking hidden treasure. You know when I go out to pick a special ring recently I picked out an anniversary stone for my wife for a 35th anniversary or whatever we had there.

And it's a very small stone but a very costly stone. 10,000 something. That's a lot of money.

What kind of stone? They start explaining to me and I start thinking about the revelation of precious stones. You are precious stones. Rejected by men but chosen by God and precious.

You know and these very small very precious very precisely cut to reflect the light. You know that the Holy Spirit is able to precisely shape you and cut you so that the light can reflect from you from all sides depending on no matter where men are looking they can see Jesus in your life as brother shared. They cut them in a special way so that the light reflects in a very special way to become brilliant.

And all the different stones it speaks of in revelation. You have different stones. We become like special gems.

His jewels. It says in Malachi the day I make you my jewels. Where as a man spares his own son who serves him faithfully.

Them that feared the Lord. That's the key to it all. When you fear the Lord a man who's a lukewarmer he don't have no fear of God.

And when you ask him how he's doing he says oh man my business is growing. Making big bucks this year. Increasing goods.

I got lots. We got more space. Everything is going great.

I don't really need nothing. The Lord just blessed me. I'm just a blessed man.

But what does the scripture say? What does he say? He said you do not even know that you're a beggar spiritually. That you're a pauper spiritually. You don't know that you're wretched in God's eyes.

That you're miserable because you're trying to hang on to stuff so people don't steal all your stuff. You don't even see that you're spiritually blind. And that you think you're clothed in the white garments but you're naked.

Your shame is exposed before me. And he counsels them to repent. Repent he says.

Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice. This isn't to the unconverted.

This is to the church. Who think they're in a good way but they're in a bad way. That's why Jesus said many times to the brothers.

See to it you're not deceived. Because a brother can be deceived thinking himself to be something when he's nothing. He can be deceived thinking himself to be spiritual when he doesn't know Christ.

He can be deceived because he's dotted every I and crossed every T yet his whole life is full of mixture. You say how's that possible? The one apostle Paul who was then Saul according to the law was blameless. That guy did not know Christ.

And I'm telling you he did not know God. He thought he knew God. He knew all about the words of God.

But he hated Jesus. And if you don't like Jesus then you don't like God. People say oh I believe in God.

Good. You're one of those professors who believe in God. You just like the demons.

They believe in God. But there's only problem with you. You have no fear of God.

No demons have a fear of God. They shake when they hear the name of Jesus man. Hell trembles at the name of Jesus.

Colossians chapter 2 verse 2 that your hearts may be encouraged. The purpose of the word the exhortation is that we would be encouraged. You say well that's not very encouraging.

I'm feeling very convicted. But you know if I go to the doctor and I have a bone cancer and I'm needing help and the doctor says brother it's good to see you. I have the test results but it's too discouraging.

I don't want to talk about that. I just wanted just to tell you that you know make the most of your time here. You know are there any regrets you have in life? Why don't you take a vacation and while you still can.

I mean well you know. What are you saying doctor? Nothing. I'm not saying anything.

I'm just saying you know live your best life now. He'd be a liar when he knows something's not right. And if there's an opportunity to make it right.

Sin is like a cancer. It gets not just into your flesh. It will go right into your bones.

It will make you sick as brothers share. Sin will make you sick. Many many times Jesus said not in every time but many times.

He said your sin are forgiven you. The sins are forgiven you. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

Pick up your mat and walk. He said to another man be healed and when he came back he said see to it that you don't go back to your sinning. Otherwise something worse is going to happen to you.

Sickness and sin very much related. So we want to make sure that our hearts are right before the Lord and that our cups are clean. The inside I'm talking about not the outside.

Because the outside can be clean. The inside can be filthy. We're so worried about the outside of the cup and dish.

But it's the inside of the cup and dish. That's what matters. That's where the greed is.

And the self indulgence is. That's where the pride comes from. The bitterness, the anger and all that stuff.

And so when it manifests and I see the cancer, I can be very discouraged. But then I can get encouraged because I can do something about it. I can repent.

I can confess it to a brother. Because the scripture says if I confess my sin, he is faithful and just. Not that the brother can do anything for me.

But he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from this kind of cancer, this unrighteousness. When you confess your sin, you're coming off your high pedestal and you're becoming someone who's real, genuine. That's what we need to do.

We need to be genuine. God sees it anyhow. The more we're genuine, then there's opportunity for change.

That we would be encouraged, knit together in love. The common denominator, how many of you have taken math? You want to find the common denominator. You get to the bottom of the matter.

You get into the foundation of the matter. What is the common denominator? I'm going to tell you what it is in this Christian life. It's love from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith.

There you're going to find fellowship, my friend. That's where your brothers are going to knit. You might have a fellowship like this, just like there were 12 apostles, but they weren't all knit together the same.

When Jesus would go and he had something special he wanted to do, he took Peter, he took James, he took John. There were other times they were all there. It's not that he loved them any less or any more, but the reality was those brothers spent a lot of time alone with Jesus and different things because they had a desire to go further, to go deeper.

Even, I would say this, when they went fishing and discouragement came in their heart, Peter said, I go fish. It was after the resurrection, but Jesus wasn't with them all the time, 24-7. He's just like he is now with us, so to speak.

The Holy Spirit reveals himself in meetings and different things and we can become discouraged and say, you know what, I'm going to invest in my business. I'm going to invest in what I'm good at, so I can get some joy out of this life. But then we don't seem to find the same success that we used to when we were in the world.

We're not finding the satisfaction that we used to get and kind of feeling even guilty about it, that we're not doing the right thing. And then there's a voice on the beach and it's the Lord. But no one knows it's the Lord, except one man.

Only one man knows it's the Lord. Only one of the twelve, well not all twelve were there, but the closest ones were there. Only one of them knew the voice.

John. John knew the voice. Why did John know the voice? Because he was the one who would often recline on the chest of Jesus after the dinner.

He would be the one. It was opportunity for all of them to recline, but John would be the one who would get as close to Jesus as he could. He knew he heard his breath.

He heard his heart. He heard his voice. He knew his God.

And when the brothers said they didn't recognize the voice, John said, it is the Lord. And Peter in his zeal throws off his garment, acknowledges his nakedness and plunges himself into the sea. He wants the Lord.

Transparency before God. Being knit together in love, attaining to all the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom all are hidden, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I was sharing this parable about a man who went through the field. And while he was walking through a field, he found hidden treasure. And then he received so much joy over this hidden treasure.

We talked about the treasure. It's very small, precious pieces. But he found a lot of it.

And then he hid it again. He covered it back up again in the field. And then he began to sell everything that he had for one purpose, to buy that field.

He sold everything that he had. Can you imagine? You found hidden treasure of greatest value. And so you said, in order for that claim to be mine, I need to buy that field where that treasure is hidden.

So he sold his boat. He sold his RV. He sold his business.

He sold his carpenter shop. He sold everything. All that he had in his natural life.

He sold the opportunity to be king when they wanted to throw him on top of their shoulders and drag him into Jerusalem. He sold all of that, that he could have had in the natural, so that he could buy that field. It says of Christ, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have the eternal life.

He saw a church that was not yet revealed, hidden in the world. And he gave his life for that world. He gave his life for that field.

It says the field is the world in 1 Corinthians 3. The field is the world. He gave his life for the world so as to redeem us as his own special treasure. Malachi chapter 3 says, then they that feared the Lord spoke often to one another.

And the Lord hearkened, or he listened in from heaven, so many kilometers and miles away. He hearkens in to hear the things that you are talking to your brother about him. That's what he's hearkening in to listen to.

The things, when you're having fellowship with a brother or a sister, he's listening in to see the things that you're saying about him. And he writes them down in a book, the things that you're saying about him. And he says they shall be mine, them that feared the Lord, on the day that I make them my jewels, my special treasure.

Do you want to become his special treasure? Then at a young age learn the fear of the Lord. Because when you learn the fear of the Lord, when somebody pokes you, you will not respond and give them a piece of your mind. You'll be careful with your speech.

You will not respond and retaliate or get even. You will choose the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord are the hidden things, as it speaks of here.

The hidden things, the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord.

The beginning of understanding is the fear of the Lord. It's like a key to unlock these things in your life. If you don't have a fear of the Lord, then you will not be careful with your eyes.

If you don't have a fear of the Lord, you will not be careful with your tongue. So we want to be careful with these things, so that we put off those things that come into our heads. And we put on those things that come from the spirit, from the heart.

So we walk worthy of the calling of God. I'll just paraphrase this here. As you have received Christ in verse 6, as you've received Christ Jesus, so walk in him.

There's a way in which we should walk that is pleasing to the Lord. We have an example of how Jesus walked. Emulate your life the way that Jesus walked.

The way that he had compassion and mercy on the masses. The way he would listen to the voice of his father and he would be led by the spirit to go to this place or go to that place. He says in verse 7, rooted and built up in Christ, established in the faith.

We want to be rooted and established like a tree, like a cedar of Lebanon. Rooted and established in the faith. So when the winds come, we're not easily tossed over.

It can happen many times. A brother can become discouraged. He can get in unbelief.

Sin can manifest. He can say it's useless to serve God. And all of a sudden, he topples over because he's not surrounded by around the brothers.

He doesn't humble himself. And where the tree falls, my friend, even if he falls in Ontario somewhere, that's where he'll lie. Nothing's going to change until we humble ourselves and repent.

Where a tree falls, that's where it lies. Whether to the east, whether it falls to the west, to the north, or to the south. Brother, who's going to help you if you fall and you're alone? That's why fellowship is important.

So we can come around, come alongside one another, encourage one another, before we fall. Because we have been given grace. Now it says this, after we're rooted and established in the faith, there's something we have to be careful of.

It's called mixture. Religion with genuine faith is mixture. Philosophy with genuine faith is mixture.

Sociology, psychology, men's wisdom is mixture. It's not from Christ. It's Christ and man.

There's no strength to stand there. There's godly wisdom and there's man's wisdom. That's mixture.

And there's something here that we have to beware of. Verse 8, it says beware. When it says beware, it's for us to take heed to.

It's for us to be careful about. Because we've been raised in this world and our minds have been set on worldly things. And when we get born again, we have to be purged.

We have to be refined and we have to renew our minds to get the mixture out and stop trusting in our own wisdom or the wisdom that we've received through the teachings of men every day. So that we begin to walk in the genuineness of our faith when it doesn't make any sense. Like it would make no sense if an opportunity comes that's just too good to pass up to pass it up.

But unless you're hearing from the spirit. And the world might say you're foolish. But in the wisdom of God, we are wise.

Because a wise man, he can foresee evil. And he hides himself. He says it's time to walk away.

May the Lord give you understanding in these things. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy. When you start to receive the word of God and then some man comes along with something that sounds good.

But you don't understand whether it's truth or whether it's man's wisdom or what it is. Because you don't know the scriptures that well. You can't identify that it's earthly, central, and demonic.

That wisdom that's coming from men. Empty deceit. Philosophy according to the tradition of men.

According to the basic principles of the world. And not according to Christ. It's a mixture.

Beware. For in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. And we are complete in Christ who is the head of all principality and power.

Now I want to skip to verse 20. So when we got born again, we were baptized. Why were we baptized? Because it replaces circumcision.

Baptism becomes a circumcision without hands. So it's not like trying to be holy, trying to be good, trying to do things that are right. We're dying to the old life.

We're dying to those things that that hold us back. We're dying to sin. We're letting go of who we are in the world.

Our identity apart from Christ. We're letting that go. And so it says in verse 20, if you died with Christ, that means you were buried with him in baptism into death.

And so also it says in Colossians 1, then if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is seated. So what did we die to when we were buried with Christ? We died when we got born again. We started to die to the basic principles of the world.

And it says that in verse 8, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world. We have to die to psychology, sociology, philosophy, wisdom of men, what makes sense. If it makes good sense, seek no other sense.

All this stuff, all this wisdom of men, it's foolishness to God. And so these are things that we have to die to. Why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations? Even do not taste.

Oh, do not touch. Oh, do not handle. It has an appearance of godliness.

It has an appearance of righteousness, which concern things that perish with the using according to the commandments and teachings of men. These things have an appearance of wisdom, but it's a mixture. It has an appearance of self-imposed religion, but it's a mixture.

It has an appearance of false humility, is what it is, but it has appearance of humility, but it's a mixture. Neglect of the body has zero value when it comes to the lust of the flesh. So in the old covenant, they had circumcision.

It was, hey, be careful not to be excessive in any one area. Be controlled when it comes to certain things, especially sexual things and other things. And here's the commandments.

All those commandments are good, but what does it do? All that stuff I can't have. Not only is there one tree in the garden I'm not supposed to have, now there's 10. There's 10 trees that I can't have.

Adam couldn't handle even one tree in the garden he couldn't have. Now there's 10. Now he can't have it.

What does it produce? A desire to go after all those things. Even though you know you shouldn't have them, it's producing a desire to go after them. And so religion tells you, don't taste, don't touch, don't handle those trees.

But it doesn't do anything in regards to the lusts that are in the heart. We need an inner circumcision and that happens through baptism. If we're buried with them in baptism unto death, having died to what we're held by.

So if I think, okay, well, you know, I'm just going to cut half of that Doberman's tail off, you know, because it's too painful to cut it all at once. And we'll just make some small incisions along the way. It's kind of like a man who's a chain smoker deciding he's going to go from three packs a day to 2.75 packs a day and do it over time.

You know, there's a day coming, he's going to smoke six packs. Because all he's thinking about is, okay, how am I doing? Can I have one more today? Or I got to cut back and self-imposed religion. It just produces death in you because the flesh is an open grave.

It never has enough. You will just want more and more. If you think I'm just going to cut back a little bit, you'll think I'm nuts to all this and you'll just go and eat all you can eat.

But if you die to what you're held by, you say, well, you know what, I'm going to go cold turkey. Well, that's going to be very hard. But you will only be hard for a few days.

And after that, it's going to get easier rather than battling forever. So if the Holy Spirit gives you conviction and you say, you know what, I'm not going to be slave to these pills no more. I'm not going to be slave to the cigarettes no more.

I'm not going to be slave to this stuff no more. I'm going to trust in the Lord with all my heart. And I'm going to suffer with him, even though it's going to be hard.

But in the end, I'm going to be free. Because whom the son sets free is free indeed. And now you're going to start to walk in submission to the ways of the Spirit.

Having died to what you're held by, but you're not going to just go with the basic principles of the world and some scriptures and some wisdom. You know what, you'll just become one of those Nephilim. You become one of those spiritual beasts who mixed with the daughters of men, those sons of God who had this mixture.

They had a godly upbringing, so to speak, but they were fleshly, full of flesh. And when they saw the daughters of men, they went after them and they conceived and they gave birth to the Nephilim and these giants, the worst kind, men of renown. You know, some of those men of renown are spoken of in Moses, Dothan and Korah.

They were men of renown. They resisted the truth. They rejected the word of God the way it was instructed by Moses.

And they resisted Moses in the wilderness. They said, we hear from God too. We have a call of God on our life.

We are Levites. And then there was a show down between Moses and Korah, the rebellion of Korah. And God answered.

And Moses said, God judged between you and me. And Moses got very low on his face and allowed God to get to work. The earth opened up and swallowed these men up.

These were the men of renown, men who had no fear of God, had no fear to speak against God's anointed, to touch his prophets, no fear of God. Jude speaks of men like these, who sit in the fellowship, spots in your love feast, while they feast with you without one key thing, fear. They don't have a fear of God.

Therefore, they don't possess godly wisdom. They have mixture. Double dead, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars, they've left their place, whose reserved blackness and darkness forever.

Do not taste, do not touch, do not handle. It has an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion and false humility, neglect of the body, but it does not make you born again. And it does not give you genuine saving faith.

So when we see these things, because some of us, we still have some of this, that we're carrying, then we have to die to what we're held by. We have to die to these kind of craftiness and deceitful plotting that comes into our minds. And we have to repent of it and confess it to the Lord, and purify our souls through obeying the truth, through the pure word of God, the pure milk of the word, that we might grow thereby, that our faith and our spiritual growth might become evident, as brother David shared, that people would see and would taste in our life that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength. Don't trust in yourself, trust in the Lord.

The Lord does not delight in the strength of men's legs, or in the power in his back, or what he can all do. The Lord delights in the one who knows him, the one who is humble and contrite, and who trembles at his word. That's where he dwells.

He dwells in the high and lofty place, and with him, or her, he's humble, who's contrite, little in their own eyes, but very precious in the eyes of God, very valuable. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word.

Thank you for your truth. Help us, Lord, not to have a mixture of godly wisdom and worldly wisdom. Help us to be able to identify the mixture, and to be able to repent of it and turn from it.

We would not seek to save our lives in this world, but that we would lose our lives for your sake. In Jesus' name, we thank you. Amen.