Are You Following After Peace and Holiness?

You know, one thing that I thought about so very deeply, you know, when these things were happening to me, of how wonderful the truth of God is. Because ignorance is not bliss. You've heard that saying, haven't you? Ignorance is bliss. It's not bliss, and it's not happiness to be ignorant. Remember, brethren, when you did not know God's plan of salvation? I remember what it was like. You know, you didn't know about the Sabbath. That was the first thing I learned about, by the way. It was a fantastic discovery when I saw it, when I was, I think it was about 16, somewhere in there. And I was baptized pretty early, by the way. And then the next big thing I discovered, I don't know again how old I would have been. I think by that time was about 17. I discovered the Holy Days. That was a big discovery to me, and I didn't know that before. And I started keeping them. And I remember the first day of atonement I ever kept, I kept the wrong day.

When you're 17, that's a big mistake. I ended up fasting two days instead of one day. And boy, that was a commitment on my part. I began to wonder, you know, I don't know about these Holy Days, especially this one where you don't eat. And, you know, one of the greatest discoveries when I came to understand this, which just blew my mind away, is the resurrections. Remember when you first learned about the first resurrection, and that there would be a first resurrection, and that would be a resurrection to eternal life, and to being a spirit being? And then the next thing I learned about was the second resurrection.

And that answered a lot of questions for me that I didn't understand before, because, you know, then I understood that there would be a resurrection, a general resurrection, everybody would come up who never knew God, who never came to know the truth. And, of course, there were many other things. One of the booklets that I read before I started attending the church was, Why Were You Born? That was a big, big revelation to me.

And there were so many other truths, God's family. Understand about Jesus Christ's pre-existence. Understand about law and grace. It wasn't law or grace, but it was law and grace. That you need both. And you could have this list, and you could go through all of the list. It's a long list, a lot more than I'm stating here to you, that we had revealed to us. Think about that. Revealed to us. Because the world in general doesn't understand these things, and doesn't see these things. However, brethren, knowing the truth cannot be equated to being holy in God's sight.

You know, I've found through the years, there are many people that know the truth. It's a fallacy to think that you're holy because you know the truth. That's not what makes us holy, brethren. Knowing the truth doesn't make us holy. It doesn't sanctify us. What makes us holy, brethren, is the application of truth. You can know the truth all of your life, and still die an eternal death.

In fact, you could be the only one on the planet to know the truth, and still not have eternal life. And God would not consider you to be holy just because you know the truth. And what makes us holy, brethren, is application of the truth and God's Holy Spirit that is given to us when He sanctifies us, sets us apart from the world. And Jesus Christ said that we are set apart by the truth. And what He means by that is not just by knowing the truth, but by the application in our lives of the truth.

And, you know, we are instructed in God's Word, brethren, to follow after holiness in our lives. Now, that's not just a spiritual-sounding phrase from Paul. He really means it. We have to follow after holiness in our lives. Let's go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 and verse 12. We could break into the thought here because, of course, Paul begins this discussion up here in verse 12.

But we'll break into the thought in verse 12 of chapter 12 of the book of Hebrews. He says, Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. So, in other words, strengthen yourselves. Don't be discouraged. Don't be downcast. Because of the knowledge that you have, because of the truth that you have, be encouraged. Again, knowing the truth is a wonderful thing. But he says, And make straight paths for your feet. Make straight paths for your feet. What does it mean by that?

In other words, with those feet, walk in straight paths in your life. Don't be like a drunkard, you know, who sort of, when he walks, he does the S, you know, kind of a walk, because he's weaving all over the place. And it says, Up, I'm sorry, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. In other words, there'll be a healing process take place if we walk in straight paths. He's talking about spiritually here. Pursue peace with all people and holiness.

So, we ought to be pursuing peace with all people. Get along with everybody. And later he explains why you got to get along with everybody, why you got to be at peace with people. You know, we welcome anybody to the United Church of God. If you want to come to the United Church of God, we would not prevent anybody from coming to the United Church of God. But what is our the cottossel to that? You have to come and what?

Dwell in peace. We don't want anybody coming who does not dwell with us in peace.

You know, we want people who are coming that have right attitudes, in other words, that are willing to hear, willing to listen, and willing to have a right attitude. And by that, I mean an attitude of being cordial, of being loving toward people, not lashing out at people, not hurting people, but helping people. No, we welcome all such people who are that way. And that's what Paul says, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Nobody's going to see God unless you are pursuing peace and holiness in your life.

And it says, looking carefully, lest anyone fall short, fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble, and by this many become defiled. Lest there be any fordicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. And it says, for you know that afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. You know, remember, when he realized he had lost his birthright, then he put on the seriousness, oh, father, how could you do this? How could you give up, you know, my birthright, to Jacob? And he couldn't get it back once it was gone.

Well, brethren, here we're told again by Paul to follow after peace and holiness in our lives.

I want to talk to you about this, the remainder of the sermon. I think it's very fitting, because of the news we just heard, you know, from Mr. Luker to talk about these things. How important they are. Are you following in your own personal life after peace and holiness?

Because unless we are, brethren, we're not going to see God. And if we're not following after peace and holiness, then our lives are one big charade, aren't they? They're not very meaningful if we're not following after God's way of life. You know, I was talking to my son recently, and I said, you want to, you know, choose a goal that has a future. You know, don't choose a goal that doesn't have a future. And, brethren, unless we're choosing holiness in our lives and to walk in peace, you know, our lives do not have a future. Again, like I said, though, knowing is only half of the formula. Knowing is not enough. I think sometimes we've prided ourselves too much in just knowing.

You know, we've had people that think that they know all about prophecy. And where are they today?

A lot of those people fall by the wayside because they just, maybe they did know some things. Maybe they did. But they didn't stay around. They didn't live it. And that's sad. It's sad to see anyone.

That will not get us across the great chasm, brethren. Just knowing will not get us across the great chasm from mortality to immortality. I don't know if you remember the story of the Wylie Coyote. I thought about this last night when I was looking at this topic.

You know what a major rule of a carpenter is? What is a major rule of a carpenter? What's that?

Yeah, measure twice. I think it was... who said that? Oh, Sharon said it?

Sharon, are you the carpenter and your family? No, I'm just kidding.

Well, you might be. But you measure twice, but you cut only once. How many of you have ever not measured twice and cut it and then found it was too short? All of us have, have we? That's why the rule. But you remember Wylie Coyote and the roadrunner? Of all cartoons, I'd have to say, I know there's a lot of violence in it and some will disapprove, but I am an adult.

And but the Wylie Coyote, you know, remember, he would try to get the roadrunner. He wanted to eat the roadrunner, skinny bird out in the middle of the desert. And the coyote, no matter what acme tool he ordered, you know, it was a rocket. He'd strap it to his back and he'd fly across this canyon because the coyote was on the other side. And so he'd fire that rocket up and it would shoot across the canyon and he'd almost get to the canyon. And it looked like he was going to get that coy, that, that roadrunner. And what happens every time? The rocket would sputter out and you know, the, the roadrunner, of course, would escape again. The coyote would be one big puff of dust at the bottom, you know, of the, of the canyon. Well, brethren, falling short of God's mercies about like that, you know, strapping a rocket to our back and not making it all the way across the canyon, but going down like a lead balloon and falling, falling from grace is that way.

Being short on God's mercy is that way. Grace through Jesus Christ enables us, brethren, to have salvation. And we're admonished not to fall short of God's mercy or His grace.

And we can come up short and lose that grace. Let's do this in Hebrews 2. Hebrews has a lot of information about this. I'm not going to, of course, go over all of it, but, but in Hebrews 2, verse 1, let's notice here, it says, therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. I like it, what it says in the King James. This is New King James. It says, slip away. You know, people who leave the church, you know, they don't just leave all at once, usually, they just slip away. You know, it's like slow, you don't see them, and pretty soon they're gone. I mean, it just slowly happens. And it's like a balloon with the air just sort of seeps out, and pretty soon it's, all the air's gone in it, and there's nothing left. But going on down verse 3, it says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? So, in other words, what happens is it slips away because of neglecting the great salvation God is offering us, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. And so, here, notice in verse 1, though, it says, therefore. Whenever you see that word therefore, by the way, it's not just to make a sentence here, it's for a reason. Before here, we were told by Paul that we heard all these things from Jesus Christ, who, remember, is the Son of God. The Son of God told us these things. He says, therefore, we must give the more earnest Heed and not neglect the great salvation. Let's go to chapter 3. So, we can't neglect the great salvation. We let it slip, and we begin to mess up. We begin to do things contrary to God's way of life. And in this world, you know, it's easy. You can get by with just about anything in this world. You really can't.

I mean, nobody's going to judge you. I mean, you go down here and work for some company down in San Francisco. How are they going to stand in judgment of you? I mean, they're sitting all over the place. I was talking to one gentleman that used to work at Levi Strauss down there. He doesn't anymore. I think he moved to Europe. But he said he was the only straight worker at Levi Strauss. Everybody else was gay. You know, so if he wanted to, he could live a very raucous lifestyle, and probably nobody would give it any thought whatsoever. The only thing is, you know, when we start measuring ourselves by this world, I'll tell you, we're in a heap of trouble. A lot of trouble.

Because we ought to be measuring ourselves, not among ourselves, because if you do that, the Bible says you compare yourselves among yourselves, you're not wise. You better compare yourself to Jesus Christ. Forget about comparing yourself to me, or Mr. Crow, or Mr. Petworth, or anyone in the church, and thinking, well, I'm better than so-and-so, or at least I'm better than so-and-so. Because, you know, to God, that means nothing. Zilch. I love Mr. Crow and Mr. Petworth, and all of you here. But, you know, really, your judgment of me is not going to determine whether I'm in the kingdom or not. It's God's government. God's judgment of me, and God's judgment of you that's going to determine whether you're going to be in the kingdom. So don't worry about how others live. You know, we ought to worry about if a godly person comes to us and says, you know, think about this and turn from it. Don't go that direction. It's not a good way to go, because that's what teachers are for, to give us that direction. But Hebrews 3, let's notice here, you know, sin again is so prevalent in the world. It says, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God.

Beware of that, that exhort one another daily, while it's called today. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. You know, if you analyze sin in the way that sin is, and I'm not going to stand up here and tell you I've never sinned. I've sinned, and I've made mistakes in my life, and I've thought big mistakes in my life.

But, you know, one thing I have tried to do is I've tried to analyze how did I ever get into that sin? How did it happen? How did it occur? And I keep coming down to this.

It was the second look, the second look. It wasn't the first look, it was the second look.

The first look, you look away. But if you look back again, that's when you start making your mistakes. Because we can't avoid the first look, can't we? We can't avoid it because, I mean, you're going to... we all live lives and we all have eyes, don't we? In ears. But it's the second look, or the second listen, you know, that gets us, you know, that scintillates the senses, and it leads to another, and that. And what happens is it leads to death. It's as simple as that, or as difficult as that. But, you know, that's why Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am. He realized what a mess he was, humanly speaking. And it wasn't just Paul, it's all of us, brethren. We're all subject to what Paul was going through. And we all would be saying, you know, this flesh is just wretched. And God, you know, I recognize that. But again, don't let sin harden you. Don't think because you see it out in the society and the world out here, it's going to be okay for you.

Even if you can get away with it, which you may be able to do, sometimes you might live in a town where you're the only person. You might live in a state where you're the only person. You could live in a country where you would be the only person. But God is still going to hold you accountable.

I mean, if it matters to you, and hopefully it does, it means a lot to you. Hebrews 4 in verse 1, it says, therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. You know, lest any of us rather than be like that, a wily coyote with that rocket strapped to the back, you know, not quite making it across the canyon, but falling to our doom. And we would fall to our doom. The coyote keeps going, doesn't he? In the next cartoon. Hebrews 4 verse 11, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall, it says, according to the same example of disobedience. Here's the word fall again.

Like that old wily coyote falls, we could fall, brethren, fall flat of our faces.

You ever seen anybody that fell, brethren, that have fallen? I have seen quite a number through the years of people who have fallen and usually bump into them, you know, two, three years after the fact, and they look different and they seem different. They're not the same people.

Something happened to them. Something happens to people. And, you know, if you've been around for a while, you know what I'm talking about. They're just different. I've talked to people, in fact, when you talk to them, it's like they know that they're different. They know it themselves.

They know something, and they want to weigh back. They want to come back. But, you know, there is a scripture that tells us there remains no more sacrifice when a person starts willfully doing something. Although I really do believe that no matter how serious it may be, if a person really wants to come back, they want to make it back, brethren. All they need to do is kneel down and sincerely pray for God's forgiveness and cry out to God, and He will accept us.

That's the kind of merciful God that we have. Just a loving God in every sense of the Word.

Chapter 10. I don't want to take too much time here.

I think I've got a little more time on the watch here. Is that 20 after?

10 till. Oh, okay. Yeah, my watch is correct. I thought I had the wrong time. But Hebrews 10 verse 26, it says, For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, because the idea is when you learn the truth, you live the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the Spirit of grace? You know, we're talking about pretty serious things here. When we turn our back and we walk away and we don't realize again how we're living and we end up again fallen. It says, partly while you were made a spectacle both, it says, I'm sorry, I'm reading too far down here. We were in chapter verse 29, right?

But it says, for we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and again the Lord will judge his people. So we know God is a God of love and mercy, but he's a God of judgment too. But then here Paul says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.

You know, it's a wonderful thing to be in the embrace of the Father in heaven, but to fall into the hands of God is a different story. In other words, to be one against God, to be one who is disobedient to God and then to fall into God's hands is a very, very dangerous proposition. Because we're talking about eternal life, aren't we? In eternal death here. And we know that God doesn't do that capriciously with people. No, not at all.

But willful sin is a dangerous thing. It's a dangerous thing. So, brethren, never get into the frame of mind where you say, I know it's wrong, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. Nobody can tell me what to do. It doesn't mean you can't repent, by the way, but it has to be sincere. God's not going to hear somebody that repents and it's kind of from the teeth out and it's not from the heart. And don't think he can't know that, brethren.

You know, Paul tells us again that we cannot sin willfully and expect that there will be a sacrifice there. You know, God's grace, brethren, is useless against somebody who willfully sins.

It can't do anything for it. That's not what the sacrifice of Christ was designed for.

Willful sin cannot be forgiven. Breaking God's law, in other words, brethren, with impunity day after day after day, knowing that you're doing that, there's no sacrifice for that.

God did not sin to his Son for that kind of thing. Now, he's not talking about sin that we commit out of weakness here. He's talking about sin that we willfully commit. I think all of us sometimes know what we're doing is wrong, but we do so out of weakness. I'm not talking about that sin.

So I don't want you to say somehow that Jim Tuck, you know, came in, he spoke before you, and he talked about something that we don't talk about in the church in that way. I'm talking about willful sin, not sin committed out of weakness here. God very much forgives sin out of weakness. But I guarantee you, if you sin out of weakness and your heart is pierced through, you have a sincere repentance. When you sin willfully, there is no sincerity. There just is no sincerity that is there.

You know, here, I'm not going to turn to it, but in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1, Paul says, We then, as workers together with him, also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

There are a lot of people in so-called religion that believe once saved, always saved.

You know, that you can't do anything that will keep you out of heaven. Well, first of all, we don't go to heaven when we die. You know, and the earth is going to be the inheritance of those who are righteous, who are going to be resurrected. And Christ is going to come, and he's going to rule on the earth. And we're going to be with Christ wherever he is.

But, you know, let's not receive the grace of God in vain. God's grace is given to us, brethren.

Let's make sure that we continue to change. Let's make sure we continue to repent.

You know, the Apostle Paul warned the Galatians. Do you remember what had happened to the Galatians? I'm not going to, you know, turn to it. But Paul warned the Galatians. Remember, they had turned from the true gospel. And the gospel had to do with grace. It had to do with God's kingdom.

It was a gospel of the kingdom of God. Unfortunately, they wanted it to turn to something else altogether. You know, they were turning, remember, to Gnosticism.

That's a whole subject which I won't go into. And he said it was another gospel, which is not another gospel. And he says, anybody that preaches another gospel, he says, I pronounce a curse on you.

In fact, he pronounced a double curse on anybody preaching any other gospel, except the true gospel. And there's only one true gospel. But in Galatians 5 and verse 4, you might want to write this down. He said, you have fallen from grace.

You know, as soon as you buy into that, when you buy into that, you have fallen from grace.

And in the Greek, by the way, that word fallen comes from the Greek word ek-pipto. It's spelled the way it sounds. E-K-P-I-P-T-O. And you know what it means? It means to become inefficient. In other words, just like we said before, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. The grace of God that was given, in other words, would have no effect, no impact upon somebody who has fallen from grace. You know, it does a sin, or in other words, no good.

Grace doesn't. If the sinner thinks he can go out and sin and go into the confessional and confess to the the Holy Father, they're sins and they're remitted.

And he says, go out and, you know, I want you to run around the church five times, do the rosary, you know, do the, what do they ring around the rosary? What do you do? Count the roses? Rosary?

Whatever it is that they ask you to do. You know, genuine reflect, you know, and all the other things.

We know that that is simply not godly. No minister, no servant of God can remit sins, only God can.

And God, brethren, said that the Galatians had fallen from grace.

When they rejected the true gospel in favor of another gospel, they didn't have grace anymore.

You know, and brethren, if we fall from it, in other words, we make it inefficient in our lives.

Another meaning is take none effect, has no effect on us. And what that means is grace, brethren.

Grace is a wonderful thing. Like I said, the truth of God is a wonderful thing. Grace is a wonderful thing. When you have committed sin, I mean, and you feel awful, you're torn up about it, brethren, and you can go and you can throw yourself on the mercy of God and ask His forgiveness and promise Him as much as lies within you that you're going to straighten your life out and you're going to live right. You see, then grace has an impact. It changes.

But grace can be ineffective if it's used as sort of a little ointment, you know, to soothe it. So you can go out and sin more. But be careful. Be aware. And we know that Paul dealt with people that wanted to go into into Gnosticism. He dealt with people that wanted to go back into Judaism.

You know, they want to go back to the rituals of Judaism. You know, as he dealt with both sides of it, it's like in the church, you know, the old saying, what goes around comes around. You know, we've had the same thing in the church. A lot of ideas come through. Mr. Armstrong dealt with things in the 50s that we've dealt with in the in the year 2000, you know. And even recently, he dealt with these things. So we see it comes around. It's the same old same old. Life doesn't change much.

It doesn't change much. Just, you know, technical things change, you know, but people don't change. So Paul wasn't talking about, you know, these poor Galatians turning to the Sabbath and, you know, turning to these things. Nothing wrong with keeping the Sabbath. That's God's command. Nothing wrong with keeping the Holy Days and the other laws of God. Let's go to 2 John 7.

2 John 7. 2 John 7.

Paul says this, and brethren, this is truer. It seems each generation go on. It gets worse and worse. It says, For many deceivers have gone out into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. You know, there were a lot of deceivers that way. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. It was the spirit of the antichrist. Anything that was against Christ.

The other night I heard somebody talking about Jesus Christ like he was, you know, somebody living down here in San Jose or up in Oakland, and who had some pretty good ideas.

You know, but no one special. No one special. Just somebody who was very popular, that had some good ideas. They treated him like, again, he had no divinity at all. But going on, and it says in verse 8, Look to yourselves, lest we do not lose those things we work for, but that we may receive a full reward, it's possible for us to lose what we've been working for. We can lose out on the kingdom of God. Now, this year has been my 38th year in the ministry. This coming July will be my 39th year. Unbelievable. You know, I remember Patty when you were Patty, without anybody. No children. I remember you. I remember a lot of the college students that were that way. We all have changed. And you've grown into a wonderful woman.

I knew you when you were just a girl, though. And my wife, too, I knew her when she was just a girl.

But it's amazing. What happens? I don't know why I thought of that. Well, I guess because you're sitting here. But you know what I mean by that, I guess, is that we've come too far. You know, I've been at this a long time. Longer than 39 years. And I don't want to come up empty.

You know, when I was in the hospital and I was sitting in that bed and I hated the hospital, I'm a bad patient, I'll tell you. I really am. I think I told you this, but I tried to act like a good patient when I was around the nurses, you know, and the doctors. I really did.

But when they weren't there, I took my wife by the arms and I said, Get me out of here! I wanted to get out of that hospital so bad you wouldn't believe it.

I tried to escape a number of times, you know. But the nurses tackled me. I mean, it was amazing to me. Even in the middle of the night, I was one time, I remember I tried to get up. I don't know where it was going, but I tried to get up in the middle of the night and I mean, this big nurse, very big nurse, tackled me. And I said, Look, I was just going to stand up. I'm not going anywhere. And I really was being truthful. I was going to stand up. And she tackled me. So they just wouldn't let me out of bed.

I didn't get out of bed until the last two weeks I was in the hospital.

And only then, twice a day, they'd only take me on a walk about two times a day, in the morning and in the afternoon. And I'd get to go out and see the sun.

And to begin with, I couldn't walk very well. I told Mr. Dunlap that, by the way, he's going through a lot of the same stuff. He was telling me he got one of these four-pronged canes.

I said, Wayne, I had one of those, believe it or not. He said, I didn't know you had gotten to that. And I said, well, I sure did. They wanted to give me a walker. And I just couldn't see myself with a walker. I mean, I'm no grandpa. Well, I am grandpa, but I couldn't see myself there. And I ditched the four-pronged cane real fast. I mean, I really did. It wasn't long, and they gave me just the walking cane. Having a cane's not bad. Just a cane. I mean, you can twirl it. It has some style about it, is what I'm trying to say.

And so anyway, it was... Now, why am I talking about these things? I don't know. But I know it related to what I was saying that was spiritual. But I can't remember. I'm sorry. That's one of the bad things. Sometimes I lose track of where I was. And that's bad when you do that in your own mind. You lose track about where you were. But anyway, it'll come to me tonight when I'm laying in bed. And what in the world was I talking about? I remember I started out by I was in bed, right? I think I was in bed. I'm just joking with you. But let's see.

Now, we covered 2 John here, but it says, look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we work for. I think the point I was getting at when I was laying in that hospital bed, I thought to myself, God, what have I accomplished? See, I told you it'd come to me, but what have I accomplished? What have I done in my life? And I know how the years have sort of gone by. And I said to God then, I said, I'm not done yet, God. And I hope you're not done. Because if God's done with me, what can I say? But that's what I was trying to say. And here John is saying, you don't lose those things you work for. And again, I have to admit, though, what had I done? What had I accomplished in my life? I tried to be a good minister. I tried to serve God in every way I could. But what had I accomplished? Unless God knows, quite frankly, I have to tell you, I don't know. I really don't know what I've accomplished. But I am going to continue to do what I've been doing. Because I know that's right. I know what God has called me to do is right. And I intend to do it as long as he will have me. But he says that you may receive a full reward.

Now, when we look at the gist of this verse, by the way, here, he's not talking about squeaking by here. He's talking about that we do not lose the things we work for here. That we not lose salvation in everything we work for, which will bring everything to nothing if we don't make it all the way across, that chasm between immortality from mortality, I should say.

Another thing that we have to do, brethren, we have to do is avoid getting into an attitude that is wrong. Now, I know that a lot of times when you mention anything about attitude in the church, there's always something or someone in the congregation will say, why are you always talking about attitude? I've heard people say, well, you know, if somebody does something wrong in the church and somebody gets upset, the church always says they have a bad attitude.

Well, you know why the church says that? It's because they have a bad attitude.

And frankly, when we get into a bad attitude, because somebody mentions about being in a bad attitude, what does that mean? What does it mean? They're in a bad attitude, right? Because attitude is everything. You know, with a good attitude, you can do anything. You know, a fellow named William James, I think, said that. It was a transformative idea. With a good attitude, you can do anything. And people use it in business, by the way. But with a good attitude, brethren, we can do anything also in the church that God has us to do. Let's go to Hebrews 12 in verse 15. Hebrews 12 and verse 15, again, go back to what we somewhat read here. I think we read part of this here. But here, notice, it says in verse 15, looking carefully.

Does the King James say, diligently there? I think it does. But it says, looking carefully or diligently lest anyone fall short, again like old Wile E. Coyote there with a rocket strapped to his back, of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up or springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For we know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. So he sought that repentance, but he couldn't again get God's forgiveness, and he lost out. Remember on the birthright. So, brethren, never allow yourself to get into an attitude, a bitter attitude about something. Is there anything, brethren, that has bothered you, that is eating at you? Better get rid of it, better repent of it, better change. Bitterness can cause you to stumble, stumble on out of the church, and fall from God's grace if you harbor it up. You know, against anything. Doesn't matter what it is. Over the years, it can build up and build up, and pretty soon, you know, it's like a pump eye. That's all I can stand, and I can't stand no more. And somebody ends up out of the church. It destroys, brethren, the peace that Paul is saying that we need to have, and it destroys that peace within a person who harvests. You know, modern medicine has shown that emotions like bitterness and anger can cause problems such as headaches, backaches, allergic disorders, ulcers, high blood pressure, and heart attacks. Can cause you to have heart problems just by being bitter. And one person's bitterness, think about this, brethren, can impact and destroy the peace of an entire congregation. That's why in the United Church of God, we say, you can come and be with us and meet with us, but you have to meet in peace. So we don't want anyone with a bad attitude.

You know, we don't want anybody to come into the church and be in the church if they harbor bitterness. We don't want somebody to, again, defile the congregation in that way.

You know, anybody's welcome, but they can just leave their bitterness at home. You know, don't bring it with you here. Don't be here with that, because we simply will not tolerate it.

And, of course, Mr. Crow and Mr. Pedworth look at those things, and we'll talk about those things.

Always, again, deal with mercy and be up front with people, but that would be the standard practice.

You know, you're welcome, but if you have a bad attitude, your attitude's not welcome.

You know, we don't want that here. We don't want it in the church at all. So one person's bitterness can impact the whole church. And the word defiled, brother, means make the church unholy. And this is a holy convocation here, a holy congregation. And that's what Paul says, make straight paths for your feet. In other words, don't permit yourself to veer off and to harbor this bitterness. Certainly, brethren, also, I think it goes without saying, don't become an immoral person or a fornicator, as the Bible says here about Esau, that he was a profane person. And like I said, you know, so prevalent is sin in the world today in this liberal, upside-down, topsy-turvy world that is out there, brethren, that, you know, it's like people expect it. When people get, you know, interested in one another, they want to live together. You know, a lot of times people are not even getting married. Of course, people used to call that shacking up, you know, and some of us still call it that, by the way, if you've been around a while, just living with each other. And we view that as living in sin, not living according to the laws of God. You know, God has called you and me and made us separate from the world by the truth and by our living of the truth. We're sanctified by the truth and by God's Holy Spirit. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 3. He says here, Paul says, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. So this is the will of God, that you be sanctified, that your sanctification, your holiness, as it were, that that word means holy, being holy, that God has called you to be holy, that you abstain from sexual immorality. And actually the word sanctification means a state of being pure or a state of purity. And the truth obeyed, brethren, and God's Spirit is what purifies us and makes us white, going on that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification. It says an honor. In other words, in holiness and honor. You know, our human bodies are like a vessel, and we should know how to take care of them. They're a temple, as we know, of God's Holy Spirit, as it says in another place. And it says, not in passion of lust.

We live in a lustful world. Not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God. In other words, someone who doesn't know God lives that way. Live in passion. You know, I think it was a column like Ann Landers, and there was some person. I was going to call them an idiot, but I won't do that. But they wrote and said that they were married, and they were interested in somebody at the office, and they were married. And they were married to a person, and that they had a good marriage. But this man, I think it was a man, had met this woman who was also married, and it was like he felt that they were soulmates. You know, you've heard that, haven't you? The soulmate thing. And he was asking this Ann Landers, whoever it was, I don't think his Ann Landers is dead, and I thought so. I don't know Ann, by the way, but I think she's gone. But some other person like that. But he was wondering if he should pursue that love interest. And I thought, of all the dumb questions to ask. You know, he's married. He's married. His marriage is good. And in one nurse, should he pursue this love interest of somebody who was also married? And he was saying also in the letter that he wasn't sure whether or not this person who had this marriage, whether their marriage was happy or not. Again, I wouldn't call him an idiot, but I guess I did, didn't I? You know, call him an idiot. But I'm just thinking, that is the way the world is.

You know, and I think the whole world has gone mad, brethren, except me and thee.

And sometimes I wonder about thee. You ever heard that old, is that an Amish saying? I think it is.

The whole world's gone mad. Let's see now. I think I finished reading there.

There's so much you can go through and read. But here Paul is just talking about here, again, how that we shouldn't be like the Gentiles. He says that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such. And here's a very sobering statement here. God is an avenger of all such. People who get involved in fornication, people who get involved in adultery, God is an avenger of all such.

That's a pretty sobering phrase right there. And it says, as we also forewarned you and testified, for God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit. So we better think about, think twice about the kind of things that you see in the world today.

You know, God tells us there are things that will keep us out of the kingdom of God.

You know, if they go unrepentative, obviously. Let's go to Galatians 5.

I won't take a lot of time with this, but because of the works of the flesh.

But in Galatians 5, in verse 19, but here in verse 19, he says, now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lewdness.

And then you can go on down here and talks about it. He said, I've told you before, and I tell you again, these will keep you out of the kingdom of God. You won't be in the kingdom of God. And so, interestingly, when we look at the works of the flesh, what are the first two that are mentioned? Adultery and fornication. So how important is this for us, brethren?

Again, let's just keep in mind and be aware that Paul is warning us we've been called to be sanctified. We've been called to be holy as God's people. And not, let such a thing be named even once, to borrow a phrase from Paul. And obviously, we need to turn from our sin, completely repent, and never go back to it as God's people. Always be on our guard for it, because how does it begin? Like I said, how does sin begin? It begins with a second look.

Looking again at something, and how many people again have looked again and ended up sinning and going on and making very big mistakes in their lives. You know what, brethren? You don't have to blatantly break God's law to displease God. You don't have to blatantly break the law to displease God. All you have to do is devalue what God considers to be important. That's all you've got to do, to devalue what God considers to be important. Now, I looked at the example of Esau, and I won't take the time to go back there to look at the example of Esau. And I saw no evidence in Scripture, maybe just simply what Paul says himself about this, that he puts Esau as being a fornicator. But in the example that you read about when he gave up his birthright, there is no example of Esau committing fornication. Go back and read it. And in fact, it says that Esau married among one of the daughters of Canaan. You remember that?

That Jacob was told to go marry, you know, of his own people. I think it was in Panoram, is where he had to go. And Esau saw that it displeased Isaac and his mother about taking of the daughters of Canaan. And he went and he married one of the daughters of Vishmiel.

And Esau displeased him. But he fell in favor from God because he devalued his birthright.

He didn't care about his birthright. And how about us, brethren? Our birthright means eternal life and much, much more ahead of us. So we don't have to disobey God. All we have to do is undervalue what God considers to be valuable. You know, we can undervalue the church service here, not treat it with respect that it deserves. This is a holy convocation. The Bible commands us to be out. We can undervalue that. Some do in this world of their own convocations. You go to some groups and you're liable to see anything. You see women wearing the big puffy house shoes to church on Sunday morning. Maybe the curlers in their hair, you know, and other things.

I don't know, do women wear curlers anymore? I haven't seen curlers like that. Joan wears curlers. Not to church, I mean to choose. But in the world, the world undervalues its own services, but we should not undervalue the services of God, the congregation that meets as we do on the Sabbath.

Do we let our careers, by the way, get in the way of the church? Do we let it get in the way of the things that we need to be doing in terms of God's Sabbath and God's holy days? Does that take a precedence over what God commands? Do our hobbies, some people let their hobbies get in the way.

Some people let their friends get in the way. In other words, they devalue what God has commanded, what God has said. You know, the church is not a social club. I'm not here because of my friends.

I'm here because God commands me to be here. And you know, I'm here and I have friends because you also think that way. I suspect you wouldn't be here either if God, you know, did not instruct you to be here. But, you know, we don't let our family even take precedence over what God commands us to do.

And let it come between us and the important things that God has commanded us to do.

Are we willing, brethren, to sell our birthright for one morsel of food? One morsel of bread?

Well, brethren, as we run the race, let us not neglect the great, great salvation that God is offering us. And let it slip away from us such that we fall from God's grace.

Truth, as I said at the very beginning, brethren, is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

And you know what? Grace is a wonderful, wonderful thing, too. It's a great blessing.

It's wonderful when we sin that we can go before God and we can get his forgiveness. We can receive his forgiveness. So, brethren, let us endeavor to keep not only that truth, but let us follow after holiness and let's follow after peace and let us do the truth that we learn that we might have salvation, brethren, in that day when that day comes. So, let's again, as God's people, endure to the end. Jesus Christ said those that endure to the end, the same are going to be saved.