Godly Misfits

And put them, for the first time, together in a movie.

It would turn out to be the last completed film for each of them.

He would die 12 days after the film was finished, and she would die the following year after its release. Now, they were two of Hollywood's biggest icons, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.

The film was titled, The Misfits. And it was finished November 4th, this particular month, November 4th, in 1960. Two days later, after it was finished, Clark Gable had a heart attack. And then 10 days after that, he was dead. The film was released on what would have been his 60th birthday, that is February 1st, 1961. And as I said, the year following that, Marilyn Monroe was dead. Now, the name of the film, The Misfits, was very appropriate to the plot itself. The movie plot. The Misfits. The movie plot. Very appropriate to the plot, and that's why they named it The Misfits. And also, number two, the reality of them working together.

Clark Gable was a very hard worker. Would do his own stunts, many of them.

It was stressful him working with Marilyn, with her antics, her lack of promptness, and everything else. But the stress of working together, along with Gable doing many of his own stunts, triggered his heart into a heart attack and death. Now, the plot was about two people that were misfits. And the ironic reality was that, again, in their working relationship, they were actually misfits. And when you talk about fits and misfits, things that fit and things that don't fit, you know, we hear people use that kind of terminology. Well, you know, he's just not the right fit for the job. You know, a company's looking to hire somebody, and so they're interviewing people. And then assessing things after the interview, one might say to the other, well, she's just not the right fit for the job. Or he's a square peg in a round hole. Or, well, it's just not a very fitting situation. The situation is just not a very fitting situation.

One of my, well, actually my greatest Hollywood character was John Wayne.

I grew up on John Wayne.

John Wayne's last movie was very, very fitting to him and his career. It was the shootest. And I know that any number of us in here have seen that. But the shootest was a very fitting finish to his movie career. Most of his movies had been Westerns, and he wound up dead of cancer June 10, 1979. And the reason that movie was so fitting that he made about three years before his death, the reason that that was so fitting is because it was about a gunfighter, the shootest. They were called shootists back then. The shootest was about an aging gunfighter who was dying of cancer. And of course, John Wayne would go on to die of cancer three years later, and it was his last movie. Very fitting.

The word misfit. Webster's defines it this way in their brief form. Misfit. Something that does not fit. Well, you know, that's obvious.

As a garment of the wrong size. A lady puts something on, your wife puts something on, and she says, how does this fit me? Or how do I fit it? They don't usually say, how do I fit it? How does this fit me? You know, does it fit or not fit? And husbands, you got to be careful.

But as a garment of the wrong size, state of being unsuitable.

Another definition is, as far as misfit, is a person poorly adapted to his job. I mean, we see that all across the board so many times. People that are just poorly adapted to their job. It says a person poorly adapted to his job or poorly adapted to society, etc. But the term misfit is an interesting term. And again, everybody really knows you don't have to go to Webster's to know what misfit means. You don't fit in.

You don't fit in.

You feel out of place.

Everybody on the planet.

Everybody in America, everybody at some time with something has felt or will feel out of place. Well, just simply feel out of place. Well, feel like they didn't really fit in. It might be with a social group or circle. It might be with a certain gathering. You might go someplace, for whatever reason, where there's nobody there that you know. And you just don't feel necessarily like you fit in. It might be with a group, a school, a neighborhood, a community.

You change schools. And it's a whole new group of people. And it takes a good while, possibly, before you feel like you really are beginning to fit in there. But that feeling of not fitting in can range from the minors to the majors, from the little leagues to the major leagues, from the small time to the big time.

For those who are striving to hold their ground with truth, the world around them is moving further and further away from them.

For any one of us who is striving to hold our ground with truth, the world around us that we're surrounded by and encased in is moving further and further away from us, from the truth. The gap between us is growing wider and wider, and the contrast is becoming more and more pronounced and undeniable. As our world fits the description of Romans 1, and I'm not going to go read there, but as it fits the descriptions of Romans 1 more and more, as our world fits the meaning that Paul told Timothy warned him of in 2 Timothy 3 verses 1-5, and I'm not going to turn there, in the latter days, perilous times, and there's a whole list of things that were being going on, we, me, I, you, we, misfit more and more. As our nation declares its sins as Sodom, as Isaiah said in chapter 3 verse 9, more and more, we fit less and less. And not fitting, being a misfit, may not fitting. Being a misfit is good. It's good. Let me go back to Webster's. Something that does not fit, state of being unsuitable, a person poorly adapted to society. Being one of God's misfits is good. A misfit of God means it is a non-fit with the world. James 4-4.

James 4-4. It says, you adulterers, and society is full of such anymore, and adulterers know you're not at the friendship of the world. If you really, really fit in, if you can fit in just anywhere with all that's going on, friendship of the world is enmity with God.

Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. A non-fit with the world is a fit with God. 1 John 2 verses 15-17. 1 John 2 verses 15-17. Love not the world. That's not talking about the people. You can love the people.

You can separate between sin and sinner. But not loving the things that so many are caught up in, and that they're promoting. Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, it's like James 4.4 where we read, the love of the Father is not in him. Because God doesn't love the things that people get caught up in that are contrary to him, that are contrary to peace and happiness and fulfillment.

For all that is in the world, notice how it's identified. The lust of the flesh. It doesn't say the flesh is bad. The lust of the flesh. Eyes aren't bad. Eyesight's a wonderful thing. The lust of the eyes. And life is good. We want to live. It's natural to want to live, have life and live and have good quality of life. It's the pride. The pride of life is lust and pride. Those things that corrupt otherwise good things is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passes away. And the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God, abides forever. As we look around at society, as we look around at the world around us, do we feel like we don't quite fit in? When the kids are trick or treating, when they are practicing, even though the innocent little children don't know it, but the parents should know, are practicing principles that are ungodly, extortion, and reflecting a measure of the other world, the darkness.

And me going to Walmart and just walking through all of the Halloween, you know, walking by, passing the Halloween costumes and candy. I don't feel good. It doesn't give me a good feeling. It makes me feel I don't belong in this section. I don't belong in this practice. I don't belong with this. It's good to have feelings along that line. I don't want to feel like, oh, this is wonderful. This is nice. I'm very comfortable with this. I'm not. I am not comfortable taking kids at their most innocent little age and start ingraining paganism in them at that early age, so you can capture their hearts and minds and affections for the paganism. I'm just, I'm not good with that. Never have been. On the sigh ability, sigh ability scale from one to ten, what do you rate? You have to ask yourself, I don't know where you rate. On a scale of one to ten, on sighing and crying, on the sigh ability scale, where would you put yourself? Would you rate at a two? Ten being the highest sighing, one being, you know, the least amount, zero being nine. Where would you rate? Would it be a two? Would it be a ten? Would it be an eight? And how important is that rating? Your personal rating. Notice Ezekiel 9-4.

It says something about God. It says something very important about God.

You and I have to live in this society. God has to observe it. He doesn't have to live in it.

Now, through His Spirit, He's living in it through us in that sense. You and I live very directly in it, yes, but God has to observe it. In Ezekiel 9 and verse 4, He told Ezekiel something that was very significant. And the Lord said to him, He said, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and make a mark, as the Hebrew can be rendered, or set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that do what? That sigh and that cry, that have a certain amount of discomfort and anguish, and that sigh and cry, why? For all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. If it was in our day and time that Ezekiel were walking, and his words do still walk through the land with his people, with God's people, those who walk through the midst of Atlanta, those who walk through the midst of Chicago, where four thousand are killed each year, just with the violence, the gun violence. Walk through the midst of New York City.

Put a mark upon the forage of the men that sigh and that cry, for all the abominations that are being done in the midst thereof. That's a pretty significant statement.

When God looks at me, would He put a mark on my forehead to no take that I am one that sighs and cries, that's bothered by, that gets upset by what I see going on around me. 2 Peter 2, because if I don't really fit in, I am going to be bothered. I'm going to be bothered because what's around me is not fitting. It doesn't fit what I know is of God. In 2 Peter 2, verses 7 and 8, along this order of sighing and crying, breaking into the context, talking about Sodom and Gomorrah, it says in verse 7, and delivered just or righteous light, vexed, and there's that King James word vexed, which just means frustration, basically. It was vexed or frustrated with what? The filthy, conversation, or that is conduct of the wicked. For that righteous man, notice what it says, for that righteous man dwelling among them, he had to live in the midst of them, in seeing and hearing with what he saw and what he heard vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. It bothered him. There wasn't a day that he wasn't bothered by it. God noticed that. It was important to God. God was pleased with light. He was pleased with seeing that he was bothered with all the societal garbage around him and the cultural rot that was engulfing everyone. And we are very rapidly filling up the cup of measure that Sodom and Gomorrah did.

They had all kinds of sins. God was pleased to see that light didn't fit in. Not all of his family came out with him. He only came out of there with his wife and two unmarried daughters. His married daughters, his grandkids, the rest of the family, fit in. They stayed. They didn't come out. He was only he, his wife, and two unmarried daughters. He didn't fit in. He was a societal misfit. There was a dear lady who had been in the church a long, long time.

And she was in the process of dying. We didn't know how much time she had left.

She was elderly, still had her mind very sharply. And I was trying to visit with her extra times in the days leading up to her death. A veteran of God.

In one of those visits I made with her, she looked up at me from her bed and she said, you know, she said, I just don't fit in this world anymore. She said, I just don't fit in it. She said, I increasingly feel out of place in this world that has developed and is developing around me.

And you know, we talked about that. And I shared with her that, yeah, I'm a lot younger. I'm a lot younger than you are. But as the state of this world grows uglier and uglier, and the beauty of God's coming age looms more and more desirable, yeah, I don't fit in either.

You know, when God calls us to His truth and we respond, we begin to be a square peg in a round hole. We just don't fit any more the same way. I was born and grew up in a time and place that culturally could be best expressed with this kind of terminology. Now, I was born in Itawamba County, Mississippi, not even half a mile, maybe a quarter of a mile from the Tishomingo County line. The supposed setting of, oh brother, where art thou, that was dealt to they had in the movie. It wasn't the hill country of Northeast Mississippi. But Itawamba County, Mississippi. And in 1950, when I was born, culturally, the way life was, it could be expressed this way about almost anybody in the county.

County born, county bred, and county dead. The emphasis being on the county, the county line. People would be born in a county, they would grow up and spend their life in that county, and they would die in that county and be buried in that county.

And some people probably never even crossed the county line, let alone got out of state and went to another state. Now, in that case, they might have crossed over into Alabama because I grew up that, where I grew up, was just nine miles from Alabama, the Alabama line. But county born, county bred, and county dead. The world of that time was the county, and the limits of a lot of people's world was the county line.

And that was true across so much of America, rural America, for that matter. And in the summer of 1961, we really, my mom, my dad, my three brothers, myself, in the summer of 1961, we really started moving beyond that world. Mom was involved with the truth, dad became involved with the truth, and a church was established. A church that was close enough for us to attend was established in Memphis, Tennessee, 150 miles away, one way, two-lane road, curbs, hills, shared it with everything but horse and buggies, you know, log trucks, tractors.

It'd take at least three hours to get the services. Services might be three hours long in some cases. It'd take about three hours to get home, and we fellowship for a long time afterwards. But anyway, it was a full day, but we went way off to Memphis, Tennessee, 150 miles away. And then that fall, we went 500 miles away to a place called Big Sandy, Texas, for the Feast of Tabernacles. You know, our approach and our actions was a total misfit to such a world.

Our church-going didn't fit the community model. They could not grasp it. The relatives on my dad's side could not grasp it. Most of Mom's immediate family, we were all involved in the truth together. Of course, there was extended relatives. They didn't understand it either. But on my dad's side, I remember my grandma being a couple of things that she said. I mean, they just could not understand it. Bill, speaking to my dad, Bill, can't you all find a church around here that you like? Well, there's a Baptist church right down here.

There's a Methodist. You know, he grew up Baptist. There's a... Wait, wait. It's a church of God? Well, there's a church of God right down here. Can't you find a church around here you like? Could not grasp it. Boy, it just did not fit. It did not fit in. It did not fit in with the lifestyle. It did not fit in with with the community model. And then later on, as the years went by, one day she said, Bill, y'all are a church on wheels.

And we were. The wheels always turn. See, the truth truly not only sets us apart like John 1717 said it would, but it takes us out of place with them. We no longer truly are fully fit in. We become, and here's your title, godly misfits. Godly misfits. That's what we become. We become misfits.

Misfits because of God and are responding to Him. Godly misfits. How can you not be a godly misfit when no more Christmas, no more Easter, no more church on Sundays, no more catfish and pork chops, no more Saturday hunting and fishing with your hunting and fishing buddies, no more Friday night football games, no more Saturday NASCAR racing, Talladega or wherever. Now go on Sunday, but no Saturday. No more business dealings on Saturday. How can those things be incorporated into your life? You give this up and you give that up and you don't do this, and you not be a misfit. And you become a misfit because you're doing the godly thing. You're doing what is of God. No more honoring of yourself and them over God. God, sorry, you're second. I'm first, and these are my buddies, friends, family. They're first along with me, and then we're all in first place with me and with each other, and you're second. No more of that. It gets flipped. God, you're first. I come second. My buddies come second. My family comes second. You are first. You know, the Matthew 22, 37, chapter 22, 37, Scripture, about to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, might, and being.

And the Matthew 6, 33, to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. That's Matthew 6, 33. That doesn't set well with them, because it means they have to come second or even be totally dropped off in some activities. And then your change of beliefs. Everybody around you believes and has believed, and the preachers are still preaching the immortality of the soul, that the real you can't die. And you come to realize, oh, yes, it can, because I don't have an immortal soul. I am a soul, and I'm mortal, and I can die. And if I die, I'm dead. And it's kind of like a type of sleep in which there's no consciousness, and God can wake me through resurrection someday, but no.

You give up that absolutely such a hardcore, traditional belief of the immortality of soul, which also means you give up the traditional doctrines of going to heaven when you die, because you go to the grave when you die. You don't go to heaven when you die. You go to the grave. It also means there's not an ever-burning hell fire. So there's no hell fire anywhere right now going on where the torments that are screaming day and night, burning forever, never burning up. And then you come out of the Trinity, because the Trinity is pagan. It's false. It's not true.

And you start talking about and preaching and living for the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of what? The kingdom of God. You mean going to heaven? No, I don't mean going to heaven. I mean the kingdom of God. And the truth in reality is that someday, with a purified and eternalized earth and heavens around it, what we call the third heaven, the throne of God, heavenly Jerusalem, is coming here. Revelation 21, coming here someday. And the plan of salvation? You mean this is not the only day of salvation? This is a day of salvation for the first verse, and there's a millennial reign of Christ when He's going to offer salvation to the nations. And then there's the general resurrection, a time and opportunity. See, all of that, all of a sudden, you're out of sync. You're not in sync anymore. You don't fit in. And guess what? The numbers is on their side. You're the minority. The numbers is on their side. And the response and the reaction is, you don't fit. You don't fit. Acts 17.6 is interesting. I want to just read it. You don't fit. You don't fit in. You're too different. You've got things upside down. Acts 17.6, just to read the statement, and when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city. They took hold of these firstfruits, crying, notice, these that have turned the world upside down. These were people of truth that were taken.

They were firstfruits that were taken, and it was said of them, these. And I'm sure they're pointing their finger at them. These that have turned the world upside down. They've come here also.

They've come here also. It doesn't fit the society around it. It is a godly misfit. I have lived all of my life as part of a minority. Huh? You're a white man. You're Caucasian.

You're Anglo-Saxon, and you're saying you are part of a minority? Absolutely.

From my childhood on, I have lived as part of a minority. I lived it in school. I lived it in the community. I've lived it all my life. The minority of the firstfruits, because the firstfruits are a minority. The numbers have never been on my side. And in this age, the numbers will never be on our side. In this age, the numbers are with everybody else. The numbers are not on our side. We are a minority. The firstfruits truly are a minority. And I have lived my entire life not truly fitting in. With the world at large, with society as a whole, I fit in less and less. I fit into the world of these United States, this nation. I fit into it better in the 50s than I did the 60s. I fit into it better in the 60s than I did the 70s. I fit in in the 70s better than I did the 80s, because with every decade that's come along, the world that I was born into has changed more and more and more and more. And it's getting to where? More and more of the nation. More and more of the nation. The customs, the practices, the corruption. I don't recognize. I'm not comfortable with. I am more and more out of place with it. I don't fit the world of abortion. I do not fit the world of abortion. I don't fit the world of same-sex marriage. I put marriage in quotations. I don't fit the world of paganism. It bothers me each year, more and more, how this unseen spirit that works in this world starts with greater efforts and greater success at capturing the hearts, the minds, and the affections of people when they're just little bitty fellas, little bitty girls.

I don't fit in the world of paganism. I don't fit. This season coming up, which actually started shortly after the feast, this season that we're into, this not the physical season of the fall, in early winter, and don't even mind winter that much, but this season of the religious nature that we're going into is the season each year that I am obviously the most uncomfortable in.

I don't fit in the world of false doctrine. I don't fit a world that is moving further and further from God in every arena. And I mean we are moving further from God in every arena. And those who are trying to hold the line, even out in society with basic values and morals, who are trying to hold the line, they are shrinking in numbers. I don't fit a world that's declaring their sins more and more as settlement to Mora. And again, even in the most basic fundamental things of God, basic morals, basic values, the world of 2019 has moved so far away from the world of 1950 that I was born into. I stand on the ground of the truth. I stand on the scriptures. And as I stand on the ground of the truth, I watch the society around me moving further and further and further and further away from that. And the gap that is opening up is bigger and bigger and bigger. It's undeniable for those, as Christ said, who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and who do truly seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Misfitting. I want you to turn with me to 1 John 3.

1 John 3.

Misfitting. The first fruits have fought this battle since the beginning of time. Human time, that is. Since the beginning of human time, the first fruits have fought this battle of misfitting. Since the beginning of human time, starting with Abel. Notice what it says here. The Apostle John in 1 John 3 verses 12 and 13. Goes all the way back to Cain. Not as Cain who was of that wicked one. Now who was the wicked one, Satan? That's what he's saying. He let himself be dominated. He gave into the influence. God warned him. God told him. But he let himself be ruled, influenced by the wicked one. Not as Cain who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And then it says, and why did he slay him?

Gives you the answer right here. Because his own works were evil. Cain's works were evil. And his brothers were righteous. He couldn't stand the fact that the good works of his brother showed up his own evil works. So he got rid of his brother. And so John says, he uses that example to point out something to us. He says, Marvel, not my brethren. If the world hates you. If the world hates you. The faithful first fruits. Now, compromising ones will blend in more, but the faithful first fruits are going to be up against that to some degree.

In Hebrews 11, the faithful first fruits don't fit in. In Hebrews 11 and verse 9, it says, by faith, talking about Abraham, he sojourned. That's like a traveler, temporary time.

He sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country. But it wasn't his at that time. When he was in the land of promise, he was sojourning as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles or tents with Isaac and Jacob. The heirs with him of the same promise. And then you look at verse 13, and it says, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I mean, we're going to inherit the earth someday, yes. But it's not God's world right now. And it's not his society.

It's not his age. And we're strangers and pilgrims. And then, in some cases, like verses 36 through 38, it can get downright nasty for those who don't fit in. Thankfully, it's not like this all the time, but it can get downright nasty. And others had trial of cruel maulkins. Verse 36, you know, they didn't fit in. Just like Cain killing Abel because Abel's works were good and showed up Cain's evil works. And others had trial of cruel maulkins and scourgings. And scourgings, yes, moreover, of buns and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawed asunder. The tradition says that Isaiah was put between two planks and sawed in two, that that's how he was killed. Somebody was. It says saw and asunder. We're tempted. We're slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. They're destitute, afflicted, tormented. You and I, at least at this point in time, we frankly have it pretty good, don't we? Of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Remember Christ's words in Matthew 10.16. You'll recognize them. I won't turn there. Matthew 10.16, he said, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Can you picture in your mind with a mental image, can you see some sheep out in a pasture and there's a whole bunch of wolves? There's a pack of wolves and here the sheep are there mixed in among the wolves. It doesn't fit. It's not a fitting situation. I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Sheep in the midst of wolves is certainly a misfit and that's the point that I'm making. Of course, he goes on to say, to be harmless as doves and wise as serpents. Let's recall again 1 John 3.13. We don't have to turn there, but, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. When you look at 1 Peter 4, we will turn there.

Marvel not, brethren. Marvel not if the world hates you. He says in 1 Peter 4 verses 1 through 4, For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. You know, God calls us and gives us an opportunity to make a change, to live differently, and that difference makes us stand out. He says, for the time past of our life may suffice or sufficient. It suffices us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, banqueting, abominable idolatries. But notice what he says in verse 4, Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. Hey, we're going to buy a couple of cases of beer, and we're going to go down to the river, and we're going to really put one on this Saturday night. We're going to fish, and if we fall into the river at a sober-us-up momentary, we go back to putting another one on.

Guys, you've got to count me out. Huh? And I can't go with you. Why? Well, y'all aren't going to like it, but I'm changing my ways. Oh, sure you are. And when they really realize you do, think they want to hang out with you? You don't fit in anymore.

I had an uncle that tried to quit smoking. He'd been off about a week. A friend came up, and they, I think, took the guns and just walked down through the woods to do a little squirrel hunting or something. And my uncle's friend pulled out a pack of cigarettes and took one and said, hey, you want one? And my uncle said, no. He said, I'm quitting. He said, well, you could smoke just one, couldn't you? Well, yeah, I guess I could smoke just one to fit in, go against what he was trying to do. He was right back on them, and he never quit them.

They think it's strange. You don't fit anymore. No longer running with the same crowd, doing the same thing. See, departing from evil, departing from wrongdoing, it causes something, too. Isaiah 59, 15. Isaiah 59, and verse 15, it says, yes, truth fails. Do we see truth failing? Again, there's two levels of truth. There's the basic level, basic values, basic morals, basic, basic, and then there are the deep things of God. Well, in society that has had at times in the past much more basic, solid, basic truth, hard work, honesty, integrity, basic human character. Do we see truth failing in our nation? Absolutely, in more ways than one. And notice what it says, and he that departs from evil. Well, guess what? If you call somebody, if God calls somebody, opens their mind, gives them an opportunity, and they begin to respond to God with repentance. They begin to respond in a way they start repenting and changing. They quit doing what they know they shouldn't do. They now know, I shouldn't, no, I shouldn't be doing it. They knew they shouldn't been doing this all along, but they just hadn't come to grips with it. Well, now they start quitting that, they quit this, they start cleaning up their life, they start cleaning up their company, they start turning around. They depart from evil. That's what repentance is about. But what does it do to you? Makes Himself a prey. Going to be targeted now. Makes Himself a prey. And it says, the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. God was very displeased that Cain killed Abel. But He also knew that it set a very classic example of the reality of what we deal with in this age, and He also knew that He would resurrect Abel in due time.

And it's even a little bigger than that in the sense that in 2 Timothy 3.3, and you can just jot it down, but in 2 Timothy 3.3, in that list of things that make for perilous times is this phrase, despisers of those that are good. In the course of you doing the right thing and living a right life, there will be times, and there will be people, who despise you for doing good. Not fitting in, because we're doing the right thing and it shows and it indicts. Lot didn't fit in, and they knew it. And remember how they turned on Him? They made this statement, they said, this one fellow, it's there in Genesis 19.9, says, this one fellow, well, he came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge. He's going to judge us. He's going to call our hand. Well, now, we will deal worse with you than with them. And if you know the account, even when they were struck blind by the angels, they still tried to come through the door. Amazing. Noah didn't fit in his world. If he had, guess what? He would have drowned with them. Noah didn't fit in his world. He was a godly misfit, and he was a very godly misfit. Enoch didn't fit in his world.

They went after him to kill him. That's in Scripture, if you know where to look. They went after him to kill him, and God simply transferred him, moved him to a safe location.

Enoch and Noah lived by the admonition that we have in Titus 2.12. And you can turn there with me, if you wish. But Enoch and Noah lived by the admonition of Titus 2 in verse 12. Here's the admonition, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

They applied the admonition that we read in Philippians 2.15. I mean, they literally applied it in Philippians 2.15, that you may be blameless. You think about Noah and Enoch, and we read this applied dust. Well, they were living it also. That you may be blameless and harmless or sincere, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst, in the middle of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. If I get up here and tell you, you need to shine as lights. You don't have to be all verbal and all of that, but you really need to set a good example and shine as lights. I'm telling you to buy trouble, because if you shine as lights, you're going to hurt some people's eyes. They're not going to like it. See, I could think of Christ's words in John 3, verses 19 and 20. See, shining as lights can indict.

Abel's good works indicted Cain for his evil works. And in John 3, 19 and 20, it says this, Christ says this, and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. They don't want light shining on their deeds. For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved or discovered, as the margin can say. And then added to that, with Enoch, Enoch called their hand. Do you know what the core of his message was to that world he preached before Noah? Do you know what the core of that message was? You can find it in Jude 14.

And in John 15, this was the core. It doesn't cover everything he covered, but notice the heart and core of his message. He called their hand.

And again, it got some of them so upset they went out to kill him, and God spared him at that time, moved him out of the way, put him in a safe location at the time, did what it was necessary to preserve him from them. We might cover that at a future time.

Jude 14, and Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, preached of these sayings. Now think about this. He's preaching to that world. Behold, you peoples, you've got to listen. This is what's coming down. The Lord's coming with 10,000s of his saints. He's coming back, and he's going to have 10,000s of saints with him.

Because obviously, when he does return, the saints are going to be resurrected, or if their life changed, and meet him in the air on the return. But this is what Enoch was preaching, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds. You're ungodly. You've got ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. He was preaching that. Noah called their hand. He built an ark as a testimony and a witness, and he taught and preached of what was coming. As people gathered and made fun and joked, it was an opportunity for him to tell them why he was building it. Enoch and Noah, great grandfather and great grandson, had a lifestyle and a message that did not fit. They were godly misfits. They had a message that wasn't audience friendly.

It was a message of repentance, and our telecasters can tell you that if they want to start losing audience, they just have to start talking about repentance.

Because that's not what people want to hear. Now, they talk about repentance, but I'm just saying, they know people don't want to hear about repentance. They want to make me feel good speech, make me feel good. Joel Osteen, or something like that. That's what the public in general wants. It's not audience friendly. It was a message of repentance. Think about the essence of Noah's message. Think about the essence. Just try to set you back in that time in the context, and think of the essence. Folks, brethren, if you don't repent, you're going to drown.

Not Noah, but them. If you don't repent, you're going to drown. If you don't repent, you're going to drown. His message didn't fit the society. It was out of step. Have you ever wondered about how many siblings did Noah have? How many cousins? How many aunts? How many uncles?

How many nephews? Nieces? Obviously, they saw him as a misfit, didn't they? He did not fit the course of their world. And that world was so bad that Christ uses it as a marker or comparison of what it will become like in our day and age leading up to Christ's return. He did not fit the course of their world, and not a single one of them was on the ark. Only Noah and his wife, his three sons, and their wives. God has called us to a way of life that does not fit this world. And he has given us a message of warning and hope and a call to repentance and a pointing towards the kingdom of God. And it burns the eyes of many. And it burns the ears. And it gets in the way of what they want to do. It indicts how they're running their life. It doesn't fit their agenda. It is abrasive to the hearts and minds of the carnally-minded, the natural mind. And those who bring such message don't fit in. Those that stand for such don't fit in. And the more a society degenerates and moves further and further away from the truth, then the more and more of a misfit are those who stand on the truth and won't budge from it. The gap opens up more and more. But a misfit in this world translates into a fit in God's world. Remember what we read 1 John 2.17, But he that does the will of God abides forever. The truth is not audience-friendly.

God's way of life is not audience-friendly. A call to repentance is not audience-friendly. And again, the basic reason is given in John 15 verse 19 when he said, If you were of the world, the world would love his own. And as long as you are of the world, you do have the love of the world. They do love you. But because you are not of the world, you come out of that. But I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And that's pretty strong language. There are differing levels of misfitting. Depending on where you are and who you're with will determine the degree of not fitting in. But the more corrupt the crowd around you, the less you're going to fit in, and therefore the more you're going to stand out. That's just simply the reality. And the more you hold the line and the more you won't yield to corruption, the more you don't fit into the world, the society, the culture. Misfits. God's misfits. God's godly misfits. As we wrap this up and close it, let me give you five points. What does it take to be and to remain one of God's successful misfits? Because I don't want to live most of my life as a misfit and then become a fit in the society towards the end.

And all that investment and sacrifice and everything is just blown away with the wind, just gone with the wind, washed away down the river. No, I don't want that. I've lived all of my life as a misfit. I want to continue to be a misfit, a successful, godly misfit. And not succumb to society's pressures to fit in. Let me give you just five pretty quick points. Number one, it takes staying close to God and His ways. I don't care what time you have to take to do it. I don't require what it requires of you in terms of focus, focused attention, concentration, study, whatever. Whatever it takes, you have to stay close to God and His ways. You have to.

And that's why that's been emphasized so much. Number two, and of course some of these follow suit and overlap, obviously. Number two, it takes being in love with God and Jesus Christ.

It takes being in love with the Father and the Son. Let's put that in a little bit different wording to make it kind of clear what it means to be in love with God the Father and Jesus Christ. Be in love with their ways. Be in word. You know, they are the personification of their ways. Their ways totally reflect them. Be in love with their ways and with their coming world. See, the Son of Risen said it. Risen said it. Risen said it. This cycle will go. The earth will orbit around the sun in its orbit and it will spin. It will keep going until eventually all of this age will be history and the kingdom will be here and will be resurrected, glorified sons and daughters of God, ruling over and assisting Christ with the salvation of the unnumbered billions. God knows the number. We don't. But unnumbered billions will have opportunities in the general resurrection after the millennium, but even the repopulating of the earth during. Be in love with God's ways. Be in love with their coming world. Because if you are, you're in love with them. And number three, it takes fearing the Lord, which is very simply one main thing to hate evil. It takes fearing the Lord, which is to hate evil. That's Proverbs 8.13. That's what it says. People say, well, what is the fear of the Lord? Well, one of the definitions of the fear of the Lord or fearing the Lord is Proverbs 8.13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Think of it this way. The more that I can look at an evil act and realize just how hurtful and damaging and wrong it is, to the depth that I understand the damages that does, that evil act, the more I hate that act and hate that evil. And God says, the more you hate the evil, the more it puts you close to me because I hate the evil also. That's why it talks about fearing the Lord is to hate evil because the more we hate the evil, the more we also will want to make sure we're not anywhere involved in that kind of evil. And that puts us on good ground with God because He also hates it. And if you want to say, well, if you're the Lord, you'll be turning away from evil. And there's other aspects to it, but I will let that suffice for that. Point four, it takes hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

You know, absence from the dinner table makes you hungry. I mean, eventually you get hungry and you want to go back to the table, but you keep a good appetite by eating, eating properly all along, you know, properly because you keep the appetite mechanisms, you know, that's tied into that working well. And when you eat in a healthy way with a healthy schedule, eating in the way that you should keeps the appetite mechanism in good shape. It takes hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Point four, Matthew 5-6. Matthew 5-6, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And again, as I said, these will overlap and they mutually support each other. But you have to do what it takes to keep your appetite, your spiritual appetite. And number five, and this is so crucial, it takes a love of the truth. Not just the truth. We've had people who had the truth, but they didn't have a love for it. And they gave up the truth because they didn't love it. You have to love the truth. You have to develop a love of the truth and not lose it. It's crucial. Crucial.

The love of the truth. You know, there's an interesting thing. I'll read this scripture and then just closing the point or two. John 844 makes an interesting statement about Lucifer.

John 844 says, You are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. And this is in regards to love of the truth. And it says this in that verse, An abode not didn't stay in, he was in, but he didn't stay in, he abode not in the truth. He was created in the truth. He was given the truth. He was trained in the truth. He was encased in the truth, but he didn't stay in it because there's no truth in him. He was encased in truth, but he didn't stay in it. He stepped out of it because inside him there was no truth. He didn't love it and didn't want it. Again, a fit in Satan's ways is a misfit in God's ways, and a fit in God's ways is a misfit in Satan's. And in this world, in this age, in this society, in this culture, godly misfits. That's what we want to be.