Foundational Truth Part 5

Everyone again tonight. We thank you very much for coming. Let's start in James chapter one tonight.

Epistle of James and chapter one. I want to spend just a few minutes looking a little more at this relationship that we have been brought in that my brother mentioned in prayer. And once we discover just how precious it is, the need to keep that guarded.

So, because the devil will try to destroy it. These things that we've spoken about. It's not gonna be an easy road.

A Christian life is not easy. There's a constant battle and we have to be aware of that. Now, James chapter one.

And let's look at verse number 18. James one in verse 18. And here is what we read.

Now notice this, I want you to enjoy these words. Of his own will begat he us. With the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation, creatures.

Isn't that beautiful? Of his own will. You might take the last four nights, everything that we've touched upon. I just briefly touched it last night.

Someone that is so hateful of God, full of darkness, defiled by sin, dead in sin, in Adam. Why would God ever place us over here in Christ and save us? Of his own will. I cannot explain that to you.

Like you and I do a lot of things for many, many different reasons. I was thinking of it today. Really, if I was to analyze my life, how many things are done because I just know that's what has to be done.

There's like a, an outward pressure, obligation put upon me and I just do it. That would probably wipe out a pile of things that I do. How many other things are done just for show? That's probably gonna take a big lump of them and wipe them out.

And then I was thinking, in my life, how many things are done with no coercion, no pressure from the outside? Pretty humbling. God was pressured by no one to save you. He wasn't tricked into it.

He wasn't coerced into it. It was of his own will, he saved you. Isn't that marvelous? Doesn't that put a totally different spin, as it were, on God's salvation? Yeah, you know, why is it, why is, I think this is what we think because we carry it from our unsaved days.

We think that God is so distant, uncaring, so big, doesn't have time for me. You think of it from a human level. As a person gains importance and their life becomes more, I guess, responsible, they move up the totem pole, we would say, a CEO, a president, they keep going up.

In our mind, it's like their time for others gets less and less and, well, they don't really think about me. We are now looking at the ultimate person, God, managing the universe. And there's something that that heart in us does.

It makes us feel like, well, who am I? Would God actually have time for me? Like, is God not busy enough? I need us all to think of these words. The reason he saved you, the reason he showed an interest in you, of his own will. That is tremendous.

I just lodged that in your brain. Let's go to John 17 for another reference. We're just gonna quickly look at a few verses before I jump into what is on my mind.

John 17. I know these words, verse three, are quoted many times, but we wanna just sort of think about it for just a minute or two. John 17, verse three, words of the Lord Jesus.

If someone ever asks you, why? Well, what does it mean to be a Christian? Well, here is the definition. John 17, verse three, from the mouth of the Lord Jesus. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

So not only did God save me of his own will, but he has brought me into a relationship. He has given me the ability so that I can know him and his son. Isn't that something? You can see this thing getting bigger, can't you? This almighty God, all-powerful God, actually wants you and I to know him.

Can you imagine? Now, listen, I'm a Canadian. I'm fascinated by your American politics. Absolutely, Hollywood could not produce something as magnificent as it.

It's just unbelievable. If President Donald Trump called me up and said, Scott, number one, I'd be marveled how he knew my name. I want you to get to know me personally.

I'd be telling everybody about it, whether they liked him or not. Do you realize, I think, do you realize? The most powerful person in the known world, he personally knew me, yeah, and he called me. And he said, I want you to come down to the White House, live with me, I want you to get to know me.

Like, that would be tremendous. Well, we're now talking about the God of heaven, the God of eternity. Like, you talk about outside this world.

That's beyond definition. This is what we have been brought in. This is what is right there in front of us.

This is what the flesh doesn't want us to enjoy. The world doesn't want us to enjoy this. The devil doesn't want us to enjoy this.

So we're just sort of building these blocks. Of his own will, he saved me. And then we move to step number two.

He says, Scott, I want you to get to know me and my son, Jesus Christ. That is, that's just simply mind-blowing. Now, we could go to John chapter four.

I won't take time to turn there, but the father seeketh such to worship him. That is the primary reason why God saved you. After you get to know, as you're getting to know God, it will produce worship and he wants it.

Now, you might stop and think and say, okay, how can I tell an all-knowing God something that he doesn't know? You can't. But we have been given a book. And do you know what every single one, we all have the same Bible, but do you know what every single one of us have? We have a very unique personality.

And God wants you to take the truth of the word of God about himself and just mix it in with your personality. That is unique from every other person around you. That's something only you can do.

But you gotta take time to do this and to think that God actually desires worship, the overflow of your heart. You ever stop and think that you can actually, let me say it this way, you can actually bring a smile to the face of God. Me? I've had a hard time impressing my wife.

Forget about her for a minute. Forget about all of that. Get occupied with what this Bible is trying to bring before us.

God saved you and I so that he can enjoy us. That, isn't that hard? I mean, as I'm saying that, you're probably thinking, what? How can that be? How can that be? But that's what the Bible teaches, dear child of God. And these are things, very simple things, elementary things that we need to be constantly bringing into our minds.

This, you can't feel this. Well, okay, I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna enter into this until I really feel.

No, no, no. You just have to accept it by faith. This is what God wants from me.

So there's gonna be a fight. There's gonna be a struggle from within, a struggle from without. Let's go to Ephesians chapter one for another verse.

Ephesians chapter one. Once again, these are well-known verses, very simple, but if you connect them all in one glorious chain, they kind of thrill your little heart. Look at Ephesians chapter one, verse number five.

There's so much in this. This is the longest, verse three down to verse 14 is the longest paragraph in the New Testament, what we have right here, but we're just breaking into the first part of it. Verse five, having predestinated us onto the adoption of children or son-placing.

That's the idea that I've been brought into the family of God. We touched on it the other night, and God's nature has been given to me so I can know him. Having predestinated us onto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, notice, to himself.

You'll read the very same idea with the nation of Israel. God took them out of Egypt on the wings of eagles to himself, isn't that something? I find it amazing when I stop and think that every single Christian throughout the world has got an entire God to themselves. He's not divided amongst all these people.

I can come into his presence at any time, and I have his full attention and a focus for as long as I want it. You ever speak to somebody and you just, you kind of get the sense they're trying to get away from you? Yeah, it happens to preachers too, yeah, don't worry. Sometimes it's those stuck-up preachers that it happens with, and you feel like saying, oh, sorry, am I interrupting your time? Isn't it wonderful that God never treats us that way? Never, never would he turn away a child of his.

Never would he say, oh, just a minute, I gotta line up about 100 people, just take a number, please. No, I think that's tremendous. All right, come back to the verse.

According, listen to this, to the good pleasure of his will. The good pleasure, this is something that is pleasurable to God. We found out earlier that just of his own will, he begat us, okay, fine, that's just his will.

Now it's going up quite a bit. There's actually pleasure, his good pleasure. I'm doing this for a purpose, Scott.

I have saved you for a purpose, for a goal. And if you take advantage of it, it's pleasurable to me. Why do we find that so hard to imagine? That's why you and I love, eh? Because it comes from God.

God loves like, I was gonna say God loves like us, but no, no, totally different. We're at human level. It's affected by sin and faults and failures.

But the very fact that you and I can love one another or appreciate one another or find pleasure in things, we got that from God. That's where it came from. God is unaffected by sin.

And I want you just to think of the time you spend reading, thinking upon Christ, maybe you go out for a walk like today on a nice sunny day, and you're just, you got a little Bible in your hand or a little, it's on your phone or whatever, and you're just thinking on something. Do you understand that that is actually bringing pleasure to God? It doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter how many years you've been saved.

It doesn't matter if you're a preacher or an elder. We tend to get all these different classes. Well, certainly God must enjoy the preacher Scott more than you.

Same blood that purchased me, he purchased you. Could we get this into our head that we are all of the same value to God? Okay, get that into your head and just think upon that. Let's go to John chapter 15.

Now, as we move into this, this just goes way beyond anything I'm able to explain to you. John chapter 15, I'm thankful it's in the word of God because if it wasn't, I wouldn't believe it. And the Lord Jesus is telling us this.

John chapter 15 and verse number nine. This is all has to do with the relationship that we have been brought in. I'm building up to a point here for a reason.

John chapter 15 and verse nine. Look at this. As the father hath loved me, so have I loved you.

You say, what? Here's the son and he's being loved by the father. Think of the size of that love. Think of the fullness of that love.

No restrictions whatsoever. And then the Lord looks at his own disciples. He's looking at us and he says, so have I loved you.

Your wife doesn't love you like that. And wife, your husband doesn't love you like that. Your mother doesn't love you like that.

Your father, your grandmother, with the one that bakes you cookies doesn't love you like that. This is a love that goes beyond anything. This is what gives value to us.

As Christians, as humans. Maybe I'm speaking to somebody here and maybe you've had a rough upbringing. Don't allow the flesh to keep bringing that chaos before you.

It's gone, it's over. Many, many people are constantly allowing the flesh to drag the past into the present and all it does is spoil the present. That's all it does.

Live with what you have right now. Enjoy it, enjoy it to the fullest. But the flesh will not like you.

It doesn't want to see you enjoy this. So here's the son of God looking at that tremendous relation. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you.

That's tremendous. I wish I could explain that to you the way I'd love to. But right now, presently with Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, he looks down upon this earth and you're not a number.

You're not just one of a thousand or one of a hundred, individually. He knows everything about you and he absolutely loves you in spite of all your failures. And that's something, eh? In spite of all your failures.

Let's go over to John 16, just over a chapter. John 16, verse number 27. This is another amazing verse that is often read far too quick and it's beyond words.

Look at verse 27. For the father himself loveth you. Wow.

Okay, okay, okay. You might sit there and say, okay, okay, okay. I can somewhat grasp the fact that the son of God loves me because it's evident he came from heaven and he came down into this world and he died upon the cross for my sin.

I can somewhat grasp that a little bit. But the father that sent the son, he loves you. When was the last time you thought about that? I'm at it.

I got you at a disadvantage because I've been thinking on this for tonight. So don't feel guilty. But see, this is, this to me, sometimes, you know, I said this other night, or it was the other night or I said it to someone.

It's almost like we almost think we have to read so much to try to get something from God. You could take one part of a verse and spend all day on it, all week on it, all month on it, and just let it feed you. Give the spirit of God time to shine light in your mind.

It's not our intelligence that opens these things up or brings us into the enjoyment of it. It's when we are willing to give the spirit of God time just to reveal, to illuminate our minds. And you will discover once you start to study the Bible, it's just like the roots of a tree.

You go down once, it branches, it branches, it branches, it branches, it branches, and you kind of, wow, how much further can this thing go? It'll go on for all of eternity, dear child of God. All of eternity. Tremendous to think, isn't it? Finally go to John 17, verse number 23.

John 17, verse number 23. Here's what we have. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me.

Do you understand that the Father loves you and I the same way He loves His eternal Son? That is staggering. How can a, I'm not eternal. I am a finite, weak creature.

And the Son of God is eternal. How can the Father's love to the Son be the same to me? How can that be? I don't know. I'm lost.

I just take it. There's what it says. I just accept it.

And I ask God for help. Help me to enter into it. Help me to enjoy it.

Help me to walk in the dignity of that, in the joy of that. Wouldn't that take the whole hum, door on its hinges out of normal Christian living? To be conscious of that? You see, these are the things. You see, truths that we have been looking at for the last number of days, these are positional truths.

These are things that are only grasped by faith. This is the way God sees us. Now, you know what God wants us to do? God wants us to take that tremendous truth and allow it to affect us practically every day.

But you know what we do? We turn things around. We allow our practical situations to almost taint positional truth. The practical is changing all the time.

There's ups and downs. We're all gonna face the ups and downs. Positional truth, what we've read tonight, never changes.

We'll never alter. Even when I'm at my lowest, as I said the other night, even when I'm committing sin, sin, he still loves me. I'm still his child.

Oh, the joy, that communion is, I'm not enjoying it. And sin does grieve our Father. We understand that.

But his love, his desires for me, his concern for me, it never wavers. Isn't that tremendous? Now, you almost feel like stopping and just bowing your head and worshiping, don't you? What a God that we've been brought into. Tremendous.

Now, with that being said, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter six for a minute. 1 Corinthians chapter six. Now we're gonna bring some practical teaching before us.

1 Corinthians chapter six. And look at what we read here. Verse number, we could read verse 19.

It kind of part of the section here, but you can almost hear the explanation from Paul. What? And you can, the excitement in his words. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God? And ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You see, because of what Christ did for us and the love of the Father, I want us to stop for a minute and just simply think of yourself. I don't even own me anymore.

I don't. I don't have ownership of this body. This entire body, including the soul and the spirit, this entire thing has been purchased by God.

It's owned by God. You ever stopped and thought of that? Everything that comes from this mind, everything in this mind, everything about me, God says, I own you, Scott. Therefore glorify me, spirit and body.

See, salvation does come with a cost. It definitely means something. For someone to have a cavalier attitude of like, oh, I'm saved, I don't care what I do.

I just put a big question mark over that. I wonder, do they really understand just what happened in their life? Oh, we remember the day when we were in our sins and the dread of judgment of God was before us. And that moment we saw that Christ died for our sins, right at that moment when the spirit of God took up a dwelling place, I was owned, locked, stocked and barreled, bought by God Almighty.

Therefore, when you start to make plans for your life, make sure you check with the owner. He has got the best intentions for you and I. I remember as a young believer hearing Eugene Higgins give ministry and he quoted a verse in the Old Testament, God is for me. He says, go home, put that in front of your Bible.

I did that. And my old Bible home, I still have it in the front. God is, I think it's the Psalms, God is for me.

God is for me. Good to remind ourselves, not only does he own me, but God is for me. You know, that's something the children of Israel missed, wasn't it? They enjoyed this redemption.

They were bought by God. They were brought out. That's why, dear child of God, I would encourage you, if you wanna find out who God is and all about God, you make sure part of your reading is the Old Testament.

All those different examples are written for our learning. And we can see how God worked with his redeemed people. And we can learn lessons because they had a lot of mistakes and we can learn from them.

So it's only wise for us to do that. So let's go now to 2 Corinthians chapter seven. 2 Corinthians chapter seven.

I wanna read an expression here. 2 Corinthians chapter seven. And look at verse number one.

And we're gonna look at these promises in a minute, but I'm just looking for an expression. 2 Corinthians chapter seven. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves.

Now that's something that's in the active voice. That simply means that's something that you have to do. You have to do this.

Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. You know that word filthiness, I'm gonna do something here now that's probably going to embarrass the hall cleaner. But if I was to go over here and if I was to run my finger across the top of this thing, by the way, who is supposed to clean the hall? You couldn't see that up there, could you? That's what that word means.

It's just a stain, just leaves a mark, little tiny bit of dust. Do you know what happens to us daily with all of these tremendous promises, with all that God has brought us into, our interactions with the ungodly, what we see, what we hear, without us even becoming aware of it. Do you know what's happening? We're just being stained.

There's a filthiness that we pick up. That's emphasizing once again, John 13, the Lord Jesus said, listen, if you don't let me wash you, you have no part of me. That's the importance.

I'm coming back to this again, dear child of God. If the only thing you do as a result of this week of ministry is just increase your reading of the Bible, five minutes, praise the Lord. 10 minutes, I'll shout hallelujah.

15 minutes, I'll do a somersault for you right off here. And if you just did that consistently from now to the day I die, I'm just gonna add a few more minutes into the busyness of my life, just so I can get to know more of this one who wants to know me. I'm not gonna spend my time on frivolous things, things that are just a 100% waste of time.

No, we all know, it's interesting. I just heard it today on Fox News. They say, they called it the, I don't know, Generation Z or Z's or whatever they call them.

I don't know what they're called now, but anyways, you got all these different names. Not my generation and not the one below me, but the one below them. They're getting phones at, like they said, roughly around 810.

There is such an addiction. They say the average person is checking 80 times a day. Such a, you know what they said? These fellas down in California that supposedly develop all these things, they are now sending their children to schools that don't allow iPads and iPhones in the building.

Amazing. These so-called bright bulbs that are giving us all this technology, they are realizing the addictive, numbing, wasting, draining filth just burns us out. Oh, quiet, we must be all a bunch of addicts.

Must have really hit a sore spot. I am absolutely saddened when people, now, we'll see what happens at your conference. Just look around.

How many people are able to disconnect from 10 to 12 without checking their phone? Amazing. How many people on a Sunday morning when you sit down with the Lord in the midst to remember Him, how many people are able to disconnect for an hour and a half? We all know you go to a restaurant, right? There's a family together. Every one of them.

They're trying to enjoy friends that are miles away and they can't even enjoy the people that are right around them. Isn't that sad? That's sad. Do you know what that is, dear child of God? Yes, yes, we know there's a place for it, but don't let it become a distraction.

It's a filthiness that will just, it just starts to build, slowly starts. Sin is like a very fine wedge. We never feel when that paper-thin edge starts to inject into our lives.

We never feel it. And the devil behind it just starts to slowly hit that wedge. And before we know it, we've drifted and we're not even aware of it.

That's the importance of getting back to the Word of God. That's the importance of coming to a ministry meeting like this and not thinking it's for somebody else, but when you're sitting here and you're impressed by it, do something about it. Don't go away saying, whew, that was great for an hour.

I do the same thing. I've gone to conferences and I have been convicted of what I heard. And then I go Monday, I fly home and it's like, on to the next conference.

And it becomes almost a professional thing. We're just here to entertain one another. I mean, get a television, put it up here instead of me.

It'll do a lot better job than me. I'll ever do. Do we want to enjoy our God? That's what we're coming down to.

This is not super spirituality. Oh, you're just gonna be a super Christian. You're not gonna have any fun.

Listen, if you show me someone who's enjoying their God, I'll show you someone who is happy. I'll show you someone who is a joy to be around. This is not to elevate my brother Cal, but we went for a walk along the water for an hour.

We just talked about the Bible the whole time. And by the end of it, we were like, oh, I was boring. No, we weren't.

I've said to my brother, Luke Chapman, did not our heart burn within us while we walked along the way? Why is it that we're so afraid to talk about the Lord to one another? I can't understand it. We have sing songs or you get, we call them sing songs. I don't want you to call them here, but anyway.

Get around and it's almost like someone brings up something. Here's what I was enjoying the Lord. The whole room goes quiet.

You almost think you pulled out a gun. And as soon as so-and-so has his little spiel and then everybody goes back to talking about everything else. Isn't it pathetic? We all have the life of God.

Let us work at promoting it in one another. Enjoying it. Share what you have been enjoying.

I want you to understand. This is coming from a preacher's perspective, okay? I have gone to places and an individual praise. I never thought of that before.

Wow, that was good. I've heard people give ministry. Never saw it from that angle.

It thrills me. That's what it's all about. Nobody is at such a level where everything, they've thought of everything.

Peter Oroszak and Murray used to preach a lot and used to tease one another. And Peter would bring up a thought and Murray would say, oh, he said, I saw that the first night I got saved. Yeah, we like those little jokes like that because it's part of getting along with one another.

But can we understand that this book, Christ, is so full? Let us enjoy our Savior. Let me encourage you. Whatever's going on in your life, try to look at it and find out what could we cut out? What could we do? What could we do to simplify our life so that we could leave time for these marvelous things? I'll be 100% honest with you, okay? Occasionally, I watch movies.

Do you know 99% of the time how I feel after I've sat for two hours? And allowed Hollywood to entertain me? Hoo, what a waste of time that was. I'm just being honest with you. And then you start to reflect back and you go, could I not have put that two hours to better use? Every minute you spend in this book, you'll never go away empty, never.

You know that, don't you? We all know that. We just know that if we're willing to give a little time to the spirit of God, he will fill us, right? And when you get that, isn't it marvelous? Isn't it a joy? And you're all by yourself. I sometimes call it holy laughter.

You know, I'm in my study and I'm studying and Wilma would hear me go, isn't that something? What, I just saw this in the Bible. And she might say, oh, I saw that. Oh, great, good for you.

Maybe she does that. I don't know, it doesn't matter. There's a joy.

That's my spirit, communion with him. You know, Corinthians says, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. You can't get any closer than that.

How do you divide one spirit? You can't. Okay, so coming back. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us.

Now, what is the incentive? There's something that's happened. Sometimes our chapter divisions throw us off and we think that everything's disconnected. Okay, look at the promises.

Go up to chapter six. Look at the promises starting in verse number, the latter part of verse number 16. Here's what it says.

We got seven. I will dwell in them and walk in them. There's two right there.

And I will be their God and they shall be my people. Now, those promises have been given. Now, there's three commands that are issued by God.

Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Here comes more promises. And I will receive you and will be a father unto you.

And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Do you wanna know something? This is the only place in the Bible where you actually get the reference to daughters. There's something very unique here.

When we got saved, we had son placement. And the idea behind that is because of the culture, the firstborn, the son. The son is the one that inherited what the father had.

The daughters, sorry, but they didn't get anything. They had to marry to get something. But here is something very unique.

Sons and daughters. Can I encourage the sisters? Maybe you think your place is, I don't do much in the assembly. You can bring an enjoyment of your God into this meeting that will lift this entire assembly.

You're not some, whatever, seat warmer. Absolutely not. There is a tenor that you can bring.

You enjoy your God. And he says, you'll be my daughter and I'll be your father. The brethren, enjoy your God.

He will be your father. It's interesting, we just assume that these things are so easy, but we have a dear sister back home. She had a rough upbringing.

Her father had no time for her. Father ridiculed her, abusive. I remember the first time I was speaking on God is your father.

And you know what her mind did? Oh, oh. It doesn't sound appealing to me, Scott, she said. And then she started telling me some of the things that happened.

Well, I said, I want to assure you, dear, that your heavenly father is nothing like any earthly father. Not even close. They're not even the same class.

Sometimes, see what I mean by the past? The past can come into the present and almost impede this relationship. If no one else loves you, no one else cares for you, do you know what is paramount? Your father in heaven, your father. You know, let us never take that for granted.

I find it amazing. You're just driving down the road in the car and you just start to talk to your father. Father, I need help.

You're not talking to yourself in the car. You're not. Your father is listening.

He's there. You might not feel anything. Hopefully you won't.

The truth is not for us to feel it. It can only be enjoyed by faith. So enjoy that.

Now, here's what I want you to think of. There's a number of places we could read. God is jealous.

That's Exodus. God actually says, this is my name. My name is Jealous.

You ever thought of that? We often think of God's names, Lord, Jehovah, Almighty. One of God's names, it's only once in the Bible. My name is Jealous, Jealousy.

Imagine that. Do you know why? Why? Because he wants all of you. Every part of you.

He doesn't want to share you with anybody else. He saved you all for himself. My, and then you read seven times in the word of God that he is jealous.

He is jealous. It's amazing. How many times? This is all being brought out with the nation of Israel.

I brought you out to myself. Think of the effect it had upon God when he saw the nation go into the land. I didn't say this the other night, but why did God leave the flesh with us? Well, you go back and learn a lesson from the children of Israel.

God says this, I'm gonna bring you into the land of Canaan and I am going to purposely leave nations to test you, to prove your love to me. That's why he left the flesh with you. It's to prove us.

And can you imagine the effect it has upon our God when he has saved us to himself and we start to let our affections run toward the world? Come on, husbands, how would it affect you if your wife started to blink her eye at another man? I'd be offended. I'd be wondering, hey, what's going on here? Vice versa, you could switch the thing around. All of us.

Isn't it wonderful to be, those of us that are married, just to be given to one person? It's something that I pray daily for. I ask the Lord every day, help me to love my wife and help me to be true to her mind, heart, and body. I want to love that woman until I die.

I want nothing coming in between us. I'm just being honest with you. I think we need to be honest about these things because we're in a world that's so full of eye candy, right? And what the eye starts to look at, the heart starts to follow.

That's all around us. Now, that can be anything. I'm thinking now of God and me.

I want you to think of your life. What are you sinking your energies into? Do you know what everybody has the great idea? Well, you know, when I retire, Tal must have her maid, boy, he's retired and he's got all kinds of time to study. Do you want to know why? I'm sorry, I'm picking on your brother.

Do you want to know why he's studying the Bible now? Because he was studying for the last 30 years. Make Bible study a habit. Make it your habit.

Make it your go-to whenever you have free time, okay? I know life is busy. We were talking at home. You got to balance kids.

You got to balance your wife. You got to balance assembly, everything else. I know you have a number of young elders here in La Crosse.

Can I tell you this? This assembly, this might sound a shock. This assembly is not more important than your wife or your children or your God, okay? I love the example of the 12-year-old girl raised to life. First person she saw was Christ.

Then she saw her mother and father. Then she saw the disciples. You put God at the top of everything and every relationship will fall in its proper place.

Husband and wife, you having problems? Bring God into it. And the closer you get to God, each year, the closer you'll come together, guaranteed. That's why I encourage elders everywhere I go, as oversight, get together and pray for the assembly.

It'll bring you closer together. It will get you focused on God. These things are real.

There's more to life than just what meets the eye, the physical. There is the spiritual dimension of the whole thing. I wanna think, well, I should quickly read it.

Let's have a look. We have a jealous God. One more thing I should say.

Look at the very last part of verse 18. Set the Lord almighty, almighty. I want you to do a test.

I want you to do a homework. Trace that word for me. You're gonna find it 10 times in the New Testament, okay? You're gonna find it many times in the Old Testament.

I'll tell you what the equivalent is. The equivalent, there's all these different words for God in the Old Testament. You know, Jehovah and all those different words.

There's a word in the Old Testament, El Shaddai, Shaddai. That's the word. This is the word, almighty.

Do you know what it is? It's actually, I mean, it sounds crude, but it's really the breasted one. If you were to go over to Israel today, the Hebrew letter Shin, it's Shaddai. It's the most precious letter to a Jewish person.

They actually, when those old Orthodox Jews wrapped that little box, they actually make sure the ribbons make the S for Shaddai. You see a mother breastfeeding a child, that's Shaddai. It's the one that's protecting, comforting, and it's the one that's feeding.

That's how this section ends. This is what God wants to be to you and I. He says, I want to feed you. I want to protect you.

I want to embrace you, bring you as close. Can you imagine a mother feeding a child? Could she bring the child any closer? You couldn't get any closer, right? Now, listen, here's what's amazing. This shows you the inspiration of Scripture.

You go through the Old Testament. I'll have to look at my notes here. You go through the Old Testament and you're going to discover, okay, let me ask you this.

Of all the books in the Old Testament, where do you think El Shaddai appears the most? Appears in the book of Job 32 times. Nothing comes close to it. Now, if we didn't know that, here we are reading the book of Job and it almost is like there's this little game between God and Satan, right? God says, have you noticed my servant, Job? Job, okay, go ahead.

I'll let you take a run at him. Just don't take his life. That's kind of the, and we would read that, go, hey, what's going on here? This just doesn't seem right.

Look what this man's going through. You know what the Spirit of God does? The Spirit of God interjects that Shaddai. This is the Shaddai dealing with Job.

There's care, there's protection. There's love here. So I just marvel how the Spirit of God so carefully protects.

Now, you come into the New Testament, 10 times in the New Testament, you'll read it here. Do you know where the other nine appear? Book of Revelation. There's John.

History tells us he was dipped in oil, age of 90 or whatever, thrown in the Isle of Patmos, abandoned. And the very first person he sees, the Almighty Shaddai. God hasn't abandoned his servant, no.

And what Shaddai is gonna do is he's just gonna give this man a vision on those cave walls that'll just take his mind out of the situation and boom, off into the future. What a book when you read it, eh? You see how the Word of God so carefully puts all of these things together. Here's what I can tell you, only having been through a few rough things in my life to this point, God is for me.

There is a God that's over everything. Whatever happens, God hasn't stepped off the throne. Keep that in your mind, let it thrill you.

So let's read the warning here now, verse number 14. Here's what we have. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

You see, this relationship has to be guarded. It has to be, because I'll tell you why. God cannot and will not embrace you and I if we're embracing the world, if we're embracing the wrong things.

That's the filthiness. That's what will spoil these tremendous problems. Now, there's a tremendous longing in the heart of God.

Scott, I want to embrace you. I want you to enjoy me. But here I am, one foot in the world, dabbling, one foot.

I'm just barely doing enough to maintain my Christian testimony. I'm the one missing out. Because God says, I want you, Scott, all for my own.

I want you, but you're drifting. Then sometimes God, because he's jealous, because he bought me, sometimes God can bring in a sickness, a judgment. What's he waiting for? I want you to realize your mistake and turn around.

That's how sure it is. What we need to realize here tonight is this. The moment I put my faith in Christ, I was owned by someone else.

And he has full right to do what he wants with me because he owns me. Here's the problem. I start to get away from God here.

And God is very gracious and he allows time to float by, hoping, longing that I'll change. And all of a sudden a sickness comes here, an accident, a death, an ill, whatever. Do you know what we don't do? We don't often connect this dot with this dot.

I don't believe for one minute that every sickness, every death, every whatever that Christians go through, I don't believe they're all natural. Difficulties, don't believe they're all natural. Breakdowns in the home, breakdowns in the car, breakdown, losing your job, whatever it might be.

I don't believe they're all due to natural causes. I think a lot of it can be traced back to there's disobedience in my life and I'm experiencing the chastising hand of God. He will do it.

So let us, this is why this warning is so clear. Let's read it again. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

Now, you know what he does? It's amazing the grammar. You go through this section with this one in, you go through this section and you find out just how he breaks down that one statement. Because the very next statement is this, for.

Often when you have the word for in the New Testament, because. Now he's going to give four reasons, four different pictures to explain this first expression. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

You take even back in the Old Testament. You know what, God? God is a very gracious God. God even told the nation of Israel.

He says, listen, don't be yoking together two different animals. Don't. Don't take a bullocks and put a little goat in the yoke with him.

The bullock will tear the goat apart. Don't do that. Be considerate.

The very same idea. God never envisions you and I yoked. Be it a marriage yoke, business yoke, social yoke, whatever yoke.

This covers all different yokes. God never, why? Because we are so different from the ungodly. So different.

It's impossible to find common ground between a believer and an unbeliever. If you want evidence for that, just on the marriage, go around and talk. I've had people come to me when I'm getting ministry on this.

I remember I married an unsafe person. My life was miserable. My life was miserable.

Now thank God for those situations when it does happen and God does come in grace and he saves them. Sometimes that does happen and we thank God for it. But for someone to knowingly, willingly go into a situation and the emotions get attached and they start to get linked, I'll guarantee you what's gonna happen.

The sinner's gonna pull you down. That's what's gonna happen. And the whole chapter says, God says, I want to be your father.

I want you to be my son. I want to be the one embracing you. Come to me, the almighty.

You see the whole reason for that, the way it, that's why I like starting at the end of the section and work my way backwards. So it's almost like the goal is set before us. Don't, I want you to value your relationship with your God so much.

Don't let anything break it, okay? I can tell you of a man, business joke. Oh, he didn't have the money, but the other guy had the money. Well, he's a Christian, the other guy's not.

Restaurant, other guy wanted to sell liquor, he didn't, he's a Christian. I told him, don't do it. That man today is gone, gone.

But he also lost the business too. Lost everything, lost his wife, lost his kids, lost his testimony, elder of the assembly. Do you know the thing that happened? He ended up marrying a drunk.

Just a mess. I almost, I almost look at that and I was so involved in this life and I just, it didn't need to happen. It didn't need to happen.

I do believe the man is genuinely saved. But just now a life full of difficulties because I'm gonna do things my way. Check with the owner, check with your owner.

Get it from the word of God. Okay, I want you to think of these words here for a second. Look what we have.

I want you to notice this word, fellowship. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Do you know what you can do? He actually starts from the far end and he works his way all the way to the source and you end up with Christ and Belial. Then just before that, it was light and darkness.

And before that, it was righteousness and unrighteousness. See what he's doing? That's why, be ye not unequally together with unbelievers. Because ultimately it goes right down to, can I say it this way? To God's.

Belial, he was acknowledged as a God by many, the ungodly and Christ. That's how dangerous this is. This is not just, we're not just playing church.

God help us. We're not playing church. These words, fellowship, fellowship, that's just a general word for sharing.

Can I encourage you? Can I warn you? God wants us to be friendly, definitely, to win people for Christ. But whatever friendship you have, never let the thrust of the gospel out of it. And once they get to a point where they are rejecting the gospel, you start to back away.

Never let that, always. I remember a guy at work, I work, cable splicer up, sorry, a few minutes after here, but it's a Friday night, I'll sleep in tomorrow, right on. So here I am, I'm up the pole with this guy and we were working together for a whole year and we're slung off the line and we're talking and eight hours a day, seven and a half hours a day, you get to know a guy pretty well.

And nice man, nice, nice man. I really, I tried to get him to meeting, just his parents were saved, he wasn't saved. And we go to work on Monday and he'd tell me about the religious shows he watched and I tried to witness to him.

And after how many months of working together, he says, Scott, why don't we go fishing on Saturday? I said, Blair, I work with you five days a week. And if I wanna go fishing, I'm gonna go fishing with my wife and my kids. There's a point, you can only go so far.

This man just kept resisting the gospel, resisting the God. He wouldn't come out to a meeting, he just wouldn't. Oh, he listened to all these things at home, but he would not come out.

And I just realized, okay, I'm only gonna go so far with you, man. Just so far. Okay, then you come to the second word, communion.

That's the idea of enjoyment. There's a, listen, I find it to be dangerous when a Christian is more comfortable with sinners. That's like the brightest red light you could ever face.

I am more comfortable, I enjoy being with the ungodly than being with the saints. There's something not right. The word of God says it can't mix, it just can't.

You come to the next one, concord. That's actually where we get our word symphony. Music, these are musical notes.

You know what, in a symphony, how one note goes with another note. What happens if the guy in the trumpet, all of a sudden, he's off, boom, and the whole thing crashes. That's what it's like when you take the ungodly and the godly, and you put them together and they're trying to do something together.

It's out of order, it's out of sound. It just doesn't sound right. Quickly, look at the last part.

We have verse number, okay, the latter part of verse number 15. Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Now, this is amazing. I'll have to abbreviate this for you.

And what part hath he that believeth with an infidel and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols for a year, the temple of the living God? Do you know what he does in the last two sections? He takes the general statement, be ye not unlikely of the unbelievers, then he gives us three examples, Christ, light, and righteousness, as opposed to belial, darkness, and unrighteousness. Now he takes it and he applies it to the individual and then to the collective sense. You go from the individual, the believer, then to the temple.

You know something that's happening to us today? We might be all right in the individual sense, but the more I travel around, there's an awful lot of assemblies trying to take worldly methods in to a spiritual temple, looking for results. Just stick to the book. Just follow the book, that's all.

Just follow the Bible because God says, I will make sure it will not work. And here's something that we don't like about God. Unlike our kids, our kids do something and mom and dad are there to fix it and put a bandaid on it and make it all better.

Do you know what God says? He says, if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. God says, I'll make sure you do. I'm not gonna go easy on you.

So sometimes people are in a bed full of disaster. Do you know why they're there? Because God made sure the road they picked, they got the end of it. That is sad.

That is so sad because it's so unnecessary. So I trust that what we started with tonight, that tremendous relationship, tremendous. Could I encourage you? Don't let anything interrupt it.

Give your all to it. Enjoy it. And then when the rapture happens, you just step from enjoying the Lord here, you just step to enjoying him in heaven.

That is how you can live a victorious Christian life. So I trust it's been a help to you this weekend. This week, let's bow our heads.

Thank you very much for listening.