Double-Mindedness

The title of the sermon today is, Double Mindedness. What is one of the most miserable conditions that you could be in? Well, one of the most miserable conditions, I believe, is a state of indecision. One of the great maladies, diseases, evils of the time, is indecision. Some people are saying, I just don't know what to do. Tell me what to do and I'll do it. It's really frustrating fighting the unknown. To be in the fight, sometimes not knowing really who the enemy is. Of course, we know who the ultimate enemy is in the spiritual sense, and that is Satan. And, of course, we can join in his army, or we want to remain Christian soldiers with God and Christ. Maybe to be in a fog with no sense of direction. Maybe you're coming into LAX, as we have done, and it's all fogged in, and they put you in a holding pattern, and you don't know where you are, and you lose all sense of direction. You don't know if you're going north, southeast, west, or whatever.

So, of all of the conditions that I dislike, one of the main ones is to be in a state of indecision. We see people confused, upset, full of anxiety, not knowing what to expect. They're disoriented, their heads are spinning. Reminds me of what we used to have in our playground when I was in elementary school. We had a merry-go-round. You get on that merry-go-round, and at first, not as as it goes around, it seems like it's really a joyful kind of thing. It's almost euphoric, spinning around on the merry-go-round, and then you get off of that thing, and you find it's hard to walk. Sometimes you're dizzy after you get off. The merry-go-round could be analogous to the world when a person is thoroughly enmeshed in this world, committed to gaining success, fame, and fortune in this world. He's not torn between two worlds, not in a state of indecision.

He's thoroughly committed to it with all his heart, mind, and soul instead of the verse we heard read from Matthew 22 verses 37 through 40, of loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul, loving your neighbor as yourself. He's committed to pursuing fame and fortune in this world. There's no indecision with some people. But this state of indecision in the Bible is called double-mindedness at times. And I believe that one of the greatest problems that we collectively face today, you and I as individuals and collectively, might be this thing of double-mindedness. If you would turn to James chapter 1, how serious is double-mindedness? Well, double-mindedness will render you spiritually impotent. You will have no spiritual power really if you are double-minded because God, as we shall see here, says, don't think you're going to receive anything from me if you are double-minded. In James chapter 1 verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that gives to all men liberally and upbraids not and shall be given unto him. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering, not in a state of indecision or double-mindedness. He that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and toss, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So the Bible wants us to be decisive, wants us to have our whole heart and affection trained upon God and upon Christ and upon the truth. Some of the symptoms of double-mindedness might be we want to obey God, but we don't want to obey God. I don't think many of us would say, well, I don't want to obey God, but really it's through our actions that God is more interested in. We believe that this is the church, the church of the living God, but at times it's like we don't really believe that is the case. We want to believe the best about our brother, but we don't want to believe the best about our brother if we always did, as it says in Philippians chapter 4, and none of us do this perfectly. I know I don't. I try where it says in Philippians 4 verse 8, maybe we should turn back there and read it in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are good report. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.

The Bible makes it clear that you cannot serve God and mammon. We have to be single-minded if we really want to serve God. Sometimes we want to be wholehearted, but something seems to always leave us with one more yeah-but. I want to do yeah-but. And if we can get rid of the yeah-buts, we'll be a lot better off. We want to go to church, but we don't want to go to church. Have you ever been, have you ever said, I really don't want to go there today? I have. Maybe you always.

See, the mind of the flesh is ever present with us, and it will be with us until the day that we die. We want to give our wholehearted trust, faith, and confidence to God, but sometimes it seems by our actions we don't. We want to visit the sick, the widows, the orphans, but do we really?

We heard the scripture about pure religion and undefiled. We want to live by every word of God, but do we really? So many have one foot on the dock and the other in the boat, and this approach is fine as long as the boat is docked at the dock.

And you can have one foot on the dock and one foot in the boat for a while. I've been in that position fishing before. I have one foot on the dock, one on the boat, and somehow scrambled to get back in. But sooner or later the boat is going to leave the dock, and when the boat leaves, you have to determine the position you're going to be in. If you don't determine the position, are you going to stay on the dock, or are you going to be in the boat, or are you going to be caught in between and fall in the water and drown? You can do the splits, as they say, for a while. You can be double-minded for a while for a certain period of time, but the person who persists in this posture of double-mindedness will eventually have to let go, either scramble to the dock, or get in the boat, or fall in the water and drown. I can tell you for sure that double-mindedness quenches the Spirit. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 19, quench not the Spirit. Mr. McCarville read from Ephesians, grieve not the Holy Spirit. See, when we quench the Spirit, the very life essence of our being, that new life we have is squeezed out of us. And we're left, once again, just to the flesh. In Matthew 25 and the parable of the Ten Virgins, it's all about those who have oil in their lamp, symbolic of the Holy Spirit. And once again, it portrays, in a sense, double-mindedness or indecision, in that some have oil in their lamps and some don't. One of the interesting things about Matthew 25 for me really is that they are all going through the same form.

Apparently, they're all going to church. They're taking maybe their Bibles with them and whatever else. But for some reason, some are in the position of indecision, double-mindedness, one foot on the dock, one foot in the boat. Matthew 25, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins. And you might pick up the context of when that will happen. And we'll do that after I give the couple of comments here.

There's a particular time, it says, when this will take place. That is, the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins.

The basic attitude described there in the last part of Matthew 24 has to do with whether or not when Jesus Christ comes, you will be a faithful and wise servant and be doing.

So let's go back and read 46 and just above there in 24. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods, but an if, but an if. That evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delays his coming. Now, none of us would go around saying, I don't think my Lord delays his coming. Or we may say, and I have said from time to time, well, maybe we've got more time than we thought we had. But that's not necessarily something in my heart with regard to what the Bible is getting at here. What the Word of God, what Jesus Christ is really the spokesman here is getting at. Is that in the heart of the person, he's saying, well, I don't really think that Christ is coming anytime soon. And it's almost like, I don't know if he's ever coming. Therefore, I'm going to go do what I want to do. And especially has to do, as we shall see, with human relationships.

Verse 48 again, But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delays his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. We have seen a lot of smiting of fellow servants.

In the history of the Church of God. And it didn't just start in recent times. You can read of it in Paul's epistles. We gave a sermon last week about the green-eyed monster and the jealousy that even existed among the apostles of who would be the greatest. Verse 49 Shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunken. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then, there shouldn't really be a chapter break in, then when that's going on, then shall the kingdom of heaven be like an unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. When that is going on, the smiting of fellow servants to eat and drink with the drunken, to end in heart and through the way that people behave, they're saying in their heart, my Lord delays his coming. It's not, well, I've really studied prophecy, and I'm really looking at this and these signs and that sign, and so on. You might say, well, maybe we got more time I thought we had. This is a heart condition. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish, and they that were foolish took their lamps and no oil with them. They were had the form, but the Holy Spirit had been quenched and the very life essence been squeezed out of them.

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps while the bridegroom carried. They all slumbered and slept. I mean, neither category has much to boast about. They all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, behold, the bride comes, the bridegroom comes, go you out and meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said, and the wise give us a veer oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, not so lest there be not enough for us and you, but go you rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. As we've said so many times, salvation is individual and specific. And we are all standing before the judgment seat of Christ. And those who are at standing haven't been called today will eventually stand. We read last week that every knee shall bound, every tongue shall confess that God is who He says that He is. And one of the great lessons, I think, maybe that God is teaching us now is, just like He wanted Israel to learn after the death of Joshua, after they were settled in the Promised Land, was that you looked at Him as God and King. You know, He didn't appoint anyone to take the place of Joshua and to sit in the seat of Moses that particular time. The leadership was to be from the twelve tribes. And Judah had the first responsibility. You could read about that in the book of Judges. But, of course, they failed miserably. Verse 10, And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man comes. So the message here is, of course, to be ready at all times, and that it is individual, it is specific. Now, the rest of this chapter, in which you heard the last part of this chapter in the sermon, and this is not my focus mainly here today to cover the rest of this, that what this does, the last part of this, is gives you the three main facets of how you can be ready. And it has to do with what you do with your talents, what your relationship is with God, and how you treat your fellow man. And that gives the key for having the lamps full at all times.

So what about you and I? Do we have one foot on the dock and the other in the boat?

And as I said, this approach is fine for a while. When the boat leaves or when the bridegroom is actually there, then it's too late. There are scores of people in the Church of God gifted with much verbiage and knowledge. It seems that we read the Scripture very often that not many wise, not many noble are called. And we know that we are not the great of this world and all of that. But on the other hand, we have a tremendous amount of talent in the Church of God. We have people that are gifted when it comes to speaking, to writing, to music, to human relations, and all those kinds of things. But on the other hand, those can be used for destruction. Words are among the most powerful things that we have. In fact, one person wrote that words are mightier than the sword. Well, actually, he said the pen, meaning to write, writing the words, the pen is mightier than the sword. We have all kinds of gifted people, but we could become like the Athenians, the people of Athens, Greece, the cradle of so-called Western democracy, the cradle of Western education, the cradle of Western thought and philosophy, goes back to Athens, back to Greece. And Paul showed up there one time on Mars Hill and confronted the people there. And he told them, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious or too religious in a superstitious manner. And all you want to do is to hear some new thing. Now, one of the things that attracted many of us to the Church of God, I don't think it was you can speak for yourself, had to do with there was something new, something exciting, not only about the approach to Scripture and the truth, but also an understanding of world news and various things that got us interested in the Church and in the truth. But that that bait, that some new thing, is not the total substance. The total substance is to become as God and Christ are. And we can ask ourselves, are we on a knowledge trip or are we on a conversion trip? Paul says, knowledge puffs up, charity edifies, or love builds up.

So, in so many ways, and another thing I've said so often is we need to close the gap between what we know and what we do. So, we have to move into the area of doing. Blessed is that servant whom my Lord shall find so doing. And moving into that arena, and we must have more than just form as we've seen in the parable. Let's go now to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Second Timothy chapter 3, one of the great prophecies in the New Testament, so descriptive of the times in which we live. In fact, if you had never read a newspaper or heard a newscast in recent years, if you wanted to know the condition of this world, just open here to 2 Timothy 3.1. There it is! There's hardly anything that's going on in this world that's not covered in these seven verses here. Second Timothy 3.1, this also know that in the last days, perilous time shall come. I mean, this world is in a state of transition, chaos, confusion, anxiety, upset, like we have never seen. And we can let that spill over into our lives and into the church and destroy us. And that's what the devil wants. Perilous time shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves. This is one of the most narcissistic kind of ages that we have ever lived in. You remember Narcissus went to the river, according to the legend, the myth, and he looked in the river and he saw in reflection of himself. And he was so beautiful, handsome, that he fell in love with himself. And so we have people today who are in love with themselves. It might go from the highest office in the land all the way down to the people you see here under the bridges here at the interchanges in Houston. In love with themselves. Men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetousness, or covetous that we talked about last week, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Don't stand up for that which is right. Oh, no! Now, if you listen to the late the late shows with people like Jay Leno and others, Letterman and so on, I mean, when they talk about getting drunk, when they talk about illicit sex, when they talk about homosexuality, when they talk about drugs and all those kind of things, the audience claps. But you talk about someone who is really trying to stand up for the truth and see what is said about them. You know, Leno opens several nights with casting aspersions on Sarah Palin. I don't think Sarah Palin is a saint, but at the same times, according to her verbiage, she does stand for some of the traditional values that this country has stood for and the people of God have stood for through the ages. Continuing in verse 4, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, just like those 10 virgins. See, they're double-minded. They want to be, but they just can't quite make it. But denying the power thereof from such, turn away. What is the power thereof? The power thereof is that we can be transformed into the image of the very Son of God. The power of God in this context is that we can be more than just go through the form. We can be more than just double-minded. We can be more than just indecisive. Please turn to Romans 8, verse 29. Romans 8, verse 29.

Romans 8, verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. See, through the power of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have a new mind. We become a new creation. Now, the flesh doesn't just keel over and die. The carnal mind doesn't just keel over and die. But now we have the spiritual power to overcome the carnal mind.

As long as we're in the flesh, of course, we can always plunge back into the world. And you sometimes wonder why do people of this age so desperately desire to be accepted by the world? And I'm still perplexed by what happened to us in 1995 in the Church of God.

Of course, it began in the early 90s. Actually, it began before then. I'm not going into that story at the present time of how it began. But anyhow, how could people who had devoted their lives to this, that is, to the truth, and ostensibly serving God, want to just plunge back into the world?

And why are people of this age so desperately desiring to be accepted by the people of this world? And you have it. It begins in daycare in today's world. And then it goes from daycare into pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, preschool, all the way through school. And they have their little cliques in which if you don't conform to that clique, then you're on the outside. And we see young people today killing themselves because of what they call bullying.

Anything from cyber bullying to verbal bullying and physical bullying in the schools of the day. A lot of it has gone on. I've read about here in the Houston area. So we have the spirit of the times that says, you either conform or you don't. I recently saw a cartoon. It showed a row of students sitting in a classroom. And the two words that were written on above it was, obey and memorize. Obey and memorize. I mean, when I was in school, beginning, I mean, it began really in the third grade, we chose upsides and played tackle football on the playgrounds at every recess.

The third grade was playing the fourth grade, and the fourth grade was playing the fifth grade. We started intramurals really early. And we were playing tackle football. We had no helmets and no pads. In today's world, there was an article recently about they had a really severe coal spell in Europe, and especially in Great Britain. Well, the kids can't even go out into the playgrounds for fear that they will trip on the snow or do something like that. I mean, it's just come to the point that every step is regulated.

And when you, what's the point of this? When you come to that point, now, on the other hand, you may say, well, we got all of this lawlessness and all this rebellion. We do have that. But at the same time, we are teaching conformity at every level. And we are developing and the rest of this cartoon showed a row of students that everyone was dressed the same.

Everyone looked the same. We used to have our detractors at ambassador that says that Ambassador College is a yellow pencil factory. That we want to turn out every student to be the perfect Joe Ambassador yellow pencil. Well, that was not the case, but detractors can say that. But we have come to the point today that to a large degree, that's the way it's going. Obey and memorize. Be a good boy.

Sit down. Shut up. And our test scores, compared to test scores of the other nations, continue to plummet, though we have poured more and more money into education every year. One of the great reasons, then, why people are so anxious to be accepted by this world and to be double-minded, you know, we have had so many of our young people who would try to play, as they say, both sides of the street to give the appearance that they were really with it.

And then, as soon as they left home and went to college, it's all over. They say they never darkened the church door again. Notice in John chapter 9, the fear of social ostracism.

It's been written that the fear of social ostracism is one of the greatest fears of humankind. John chapter 9, the backdrop to John 9, is Jesus Christ healed a young man who had been blind from birth. And then the Pharisees heard that he had done this on the Sabbath, and they began to accuse him and question people as to how this happened, who's responsible. And notice this fear of social ostracism is so strong that would cause parents of this young man to deny the very power of God.

In John 9, 17, they say unto the blind man again, what say you of him that has opened your eyes? He said he's a prophet. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called his parents of him that had received the sight. They asked them saying, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son, that he was born blind.

But what means he now sees we know not or who has opened his eyes? We know not. He is of age. Ask him he shall speak for himself. These words spoke his parents because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was the Christ should be put out of the synagogue.

So we have today a lot of people who profess one thing and do quite another. And many are playing with disaster in their devil-mindedness. So we can ask ourselves, are we losing our conviction?

Conviction. We know the truth. We know the truth. We know how we learned the truth. We know that we would not be here if God had not called us. We know that God raised up a church and he raised up faithful servants through the ages. And we know that the work of Herbert Armstrong, we know the work of many who've gone before, that we might sit here today. But what about our conviction? And what does God say about indecision? Well, we've already read from James that let not a devil-minded man think he's going to receive anything from God. Let's go to 1 Kings 18. 1 Kings 18. This here gives the account between Elijah and Ahab and the priest of Baal. 1 Kings 18 and verse 20. 1 Kings 18 verse 20.

So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people and said, and here God through Elijah is trying to lead a reconciliation process, that they would be reconciled to God.

God often sent his prophets to people to try to get them to turn from their ways to be reconciled to him. How long shall you halt between two opinions? How long will you be devil-minded? If God be God, serve him! And if Baal be God, serve him. And one of the things that has crept into the church is and it goes way back, and I don't care to discuss it because it would cast dispersion on people who are dead and gone, but it's like we can be a part of the jet set, and we can do this, and we can do that, and we can be like thinking at times we are of royalty. We're like the royal family. I don't know of a more dysfunctional family than the royal family of Britain, if you can name one. Bring it forth. It's more dysfunctional than they are.

But anyhow, you can't be both. You cannot love the world and at the same time love God.

So how can we cleanse our heart and mind of double-mindedness? So, in the time left, I want to give you the formula that will cure double-mindedness. I don't believe any of us want to continue our so journey here on earth in a double-minded state.

Many of you have worked in mathematics or chemistry and have done equations and formula. This is more really an anachronym than it is an equation. But if we put S plus W equals 3 plus 3C. S, I see all of you writing diligently, S plus W plus 3C equals WH. So what do each one of these stand for? The Spirit plus the Word of God plus conviction, commitment, and courage equals whole-heartedness. Not indecision. Not indecision. Once again, S plus W, the Spirit of God and the Word of God plus conviction, commitment, and courage equals whole-heartedness. The Spirit of God and the Word of God. The Spirit of God and the Word of God convicts us.

Now we may be convicted of a lot of different things. You remember during the days of the Renaissance as the Western world began to come out of the Dark Ages in which the Italians really led the way. It would be hard for some people to admit the Italians did this, but they did. In John 16, if you'd be turning there while I'm talking, men began to peer up into the heavens and come to the realization that the earth was not the center of the universe, as Aristotle had taught, which false doctrine had been adopted officially by the Catholic Church due mainly to the work of Thomas of Aquinas.

And there were men who looked up in the heavens and said, no, the earth is not the center of the universe. Well, we have the moon that's going around the earth and we have the earth that's going around the sun. And actually, we are in heliocentric universe, not universe per se, but our little solar system. You know, what was it two weeks ago? They said they're like sextillion stars out there that they never knew existed before. And I didn't make up sextillion. It's something like that. And they became convicted of certain truths, and some gave their life for it. Now, when it comes to spiritual conviction, here's how it happens. John 16, verse 7. We're talking about a cure for double-mindedness to be convicted by the Spirit and word of God to the point that you know and you know that you know that if you're the only person left on earth that is faithful, like Elijah said, well, I'm the only one left. God said, well, I have 7,000. I haven't bowed their knee to Baal. But let's say you were living in and amongst the people of Baal. Daniel went to graduate school in Babylon, and he remained faithful. If you know and know that you know and you have the Spirit of God and the word of God, and you are convicted and committed and courageous, you can be wholehearted. Indecision can be defeated.

In John 16, 7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, Jesus speaking, is it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter, and the Comforter is identified in John 14, 28 as the Holy Spirit, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I go, I will send him unto you. The Comforter in the Greek is masculine, therefore masculine pronouns doesn't make it a person. And when he is come, he will reprove. Now that's our key word, reprove. The Greek word here is elencho, E-L-E-N-C-H-O. And that word means convict. What does convict mean? It means to lay a weight, a knowing on your mind and in your heart. No man can come to me, Jesus Christ said, unless the Father draw him, he draws them through his Spirit of his own will. Beget he us with the word of truth. It is not an accident that you or I are here today. It is a direct result of God and his interfacing with us in a very direct way. You are known of him. If I don't go away, the Holy Spirit will not come. Verse 8, when it is come, it will convict the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see him see me no more. And through that Holy Spirit, we can come to understand and be given the Spirit of understanding and understand so many wonderful spiritual truths of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. How be it in this case should be yet, how be it when it, Talmuma, the Spirit of truth, which is neuter, is come, it will guide you into all truth. For it shall not speak of itself, but whatsoever it shall hear, that shall it speak, and it will show you things to come. The Holy Spirit does not speak to us directly in the audible world sense, but it says here that the Holy Spirit does not speak of itself, but it speaks of what it hears and what does the Holy Spirit hear. All of God's works are done in truth. Thy word is truth, John 17. So thus you have the Spirit of God and the Word of God coupled together to convict you. Let's go to Romans chapter 10. We're talking about being cured from double-mindedness. What is the formula? What is the solution? The Spirit of God and the Word of God plus conviction, commitment, and courage will result in us being decisive and wholehearted. In Romans 14.10, but why do you judge your brother? That's not the one I want. I don't know what I said. I want Romans 10.14. Not 14.10. Sorry. In Romans 10.14, how then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? See, the Holy Spirit, if God was speaking audibly through the Holy Spirit, he could audibly speak through the Holy Spirit to every person on earth and convict them of the truth. There would be no need of human beings, the church, and all of that.

How shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And so, the Great Commission to take the gospel to the world. And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed, the gospel, Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed our report. So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So you have the Spirit of God that convicts. I mean, you can preach the Word of God all day out on the street corner. I've told you the story about my mother and going through the correspondence course and saying, well, son, if I could find a Baptist church that met on Sunday, I'd go to it, because I believe that's the day. But if the Spirit of God is not really working with a person and opening their minds and convicting them and laying that weight on their minds, then they're not being called, apparently. And I know with the rest of my family, one of the reasons why they don't want to talk religion with me is because they know, if they ask me certain questions, they will have to admit that's the truth and they don't want to hear it, because they don't want to give up what they're doing at the present time. So we have the Spirit of God and the Word of God that convicts us. The Word of God, the Spirit of truth, it proves us to be guilty by the evidence and all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Then, if we fall on our knees and repent before God, then He will be merciful and forgive us of our sins and restore us and ask that we walk in faith. And then, from that point on, we need to take a spiritual bath every day. How do you take a spiritual bath every day? Let's go now to Ephesians 5 and verse 26. In Ephesians 5 verse 26, maybe we should read 25 and get a little bit of the context. Husbands love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the church, gave Himself for it. There was no double-mindedness in Christ or God for God so loved the world that He might sanctify it, set it apart, cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word. So that's how we can take a spiritual bath every day. We can be washed in the water of the Word. The old song we used to sing in the Baptist church, have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? Well, the blood of the Lamb has to do with initial repentance and coming into the knowledge of the truth and having our sins forgiven and ready to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. And then, after that, we need to be washed in the water of the Word.

That He might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now, let's look briefly at the three C's. A convicted person. We said that conviction has to do with laying a weight on a person's mind and heart, that such and such is true. And of course, initially with us is to lay that weight on the mind that I am a sinner. Then, in a part from God and Christ, I am going to die.

But the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So, a convicted person has a knowing within himself that he should do a certain thing, should take action, a certain action. In that case, it can be equated with conscience. Conscience is a knowing within yourself. Remember, I talked about how your conscience, to a large degree, is shaped by your culture. And I even talked about how, in some of the cultures in various parts of the world, that they believe that cannibalism is good. It's a spiritual, religious matter that you could eat the flesh of another human and be made spiritually stronger.

But our conscience is to be shaped by the washing of the water of the Word. To act from conviction means that you are internally controlled, that external circumstances will not prevent you from acting, though it might cost you your life. If we look at Revelation 12, verse 11, which describes what will be going on at the end of this age, in Revelation 12, verse 10, a picture is presented, described of Satan before the throne of God, slandering the brethren day and night. And then verse 11, after he is cast down, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. You know, many people have given their lives because they were convicted of certain truths. As I talk about those Italian astronomers, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake because of upholding some of those beliefs. Others were threatened with their lives. Galileo recanted at the last moment. They said he uttered under his breath, on the one hand he confessed orally to the authorities that he had recanted, and then under his breath say, the real truth. Of course, you don't know about those stories.

You can read the plain word of God to some, and they are not convicted. So we know about God calling us. And if our conscience hasn't been seared, contents has not been seared, then we can respond to the word of God. Now, the problem that a lot of people get into, and I fear some dear ones that I love dearly, may already have crossed this line. That is, after hearing the truth so many times and rationalizing it away or rejecting it, they finally come to the point that their heart is hardened and their conscience is seared.

A lifeline is broken and there's no way back. We have young people who labor under the assumption that as long as I'm not baptized, as long as I'm not baptized, then I can be double-minded. I can keep one foot in the church and one foot in the world. So some have delayed baptism into their 50s, thinking that somehow that it's all going to work out. And really, if it came down to it, maybe they would not even know.

On the evening after Thanksgiving, we had all the family gathered around. We had eleven people there in the room, my daughters, sons-in-laws and granddaughters and their husbands. We were playing a little game, in which I would give them Bible clues about certain people and events. And actually it was names, mainly. And give them Bible clues as to who that person was. And one of the things I said, and we were talking about Isaac, and I said, the son of promise. There was only one person who stumbled. And finally, I said, if you don't get this, we're sending you back to ABC. He was there in 2002, I think. Anyhow, he finally came up with Isaac. The point is to really be enmeshed in the Word of God and to know and know that you know.

And also, to think that you can sit and hear and not do anything about it indeterminately is not true. If you go to Proverbs 29.1, Proverbs 29 and verse 1, this is a verse that we should all be aware of. Proverbs 29 and verse 1. He that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. Now, conviction and commitment go hand and glove. Notice 2 Timothy chapter 2. Commitment has to do with placing in sacred trust or giving charge over. God has placed his precious truth with us. And in addition to that, not only has he given us the truth, he has given us part of his very essence. The Holy Spirit that we hold now, as Paul talks about in Timothy, in earthen vessels. His very spirit and essence in an earthen vessel.

In 2 Timothy 2 and verse 1, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses. The same, commit you. And that word means place in sacred trust, to entrust with, to put officially in custody, to hand over, to set apart, to bind as by promise or pledge. Commit you to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. So God has given us this. He's placed it in sacred trust with us. Now we talk about courage, and courage is a product of conviction and commitment. Courage is a product of conviction and commitment. Time after time, God instructs His people to perform courageously. After Joshua became a leader over Israel, God told him time after time to be courageous, to respond courageously.

There are a lot of stories that you could read about of people who've overcome tremendous obstacles and done many courageous things. But one of the most courageous things we can possibly do is to be courageous and bold for the truth of God.

If we define courage, it would be the attitude of being willing to face and deal with anything recognized as difficult, painful, or dangerous instead of withdrawing from it. It's a quality of being brave and fearless, like we read from Revelation 12 and verse 11. And they overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Whatever action we take in our lives, we must count the cost.

We must count the cost. There is also another cost factor, and that is the cost factor of unintended consequences. For every action, there is a consequence. For every action, there is a consequence. And we have to seriously consider the consequence. I want you to look at Psalm 73 and the dilemma of the psalmist here. I've been in this dilemma many times, and to some degree, I still am to this day. It is not pleasant to be in this situation.

In Psalm 73 verse 1, truly God is good to Israel, even as such as are of a clean heart.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Then the psalmist describes how that it seems that people who don't really trust God, believe God, do what they should do, are blessed while, on the other hand, you're having the big trials. And that's one of the pitfalls that we can all fall into.

Then he comes to himself.

Verse 12, Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world, they increase in riches. Barely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence, see? For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, if I just go out and wham-bam and tell everybody what I think and the way it is, behold, I should offend against the generation of your children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.

Until I went into the sanctuary, the temple, the presence of God, then understood I therein.

Surely you did set them in slippery places, you cast them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors? As a dream, when one awakens so, O Lord, when you awake, you shall despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved. I was pricked in my reign, so foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you, you have holden me by your right hand. You shall guide me with your counsel afterward, receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon the earth that I desire besides you. You see, when he became single-minded, then things turned out all right. My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all them that go a whoring from you. But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare his works. So here we are, brethren, we can be wholehearted. We can seek God with our whole heart. I encourage you, and I've asked you to do this three or four times in the past, but I'm asking you once again this week to read Psalm 119. And also to note, maybe underline, the word wholehearted. So we have to repent of double-mindedness, allow the Spirit and Word of God to cleanse us, convict us, and then we have to act on that conviction, be committed to it, and to act courageously for the rest of our lives. Let's close with Hebrews 10 and verse 32. In Hebrews 10 and verse 32. But call to remembrance the former days in which after we have been illuminated, we endured a great fight of affliction. Partly while we were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while we became companions of them that were so used, for you had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully in the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance.

So Paul is saying you did without some things, maybe sold some of your possessions, to help me out. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while, in he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe in the saving of the soul. So brethren, let's go forth wholeheartedly.