Loving God - God’s Truth - and God’s Way

Well, brethren, God called me quite a long time ago. As I can tell, some of you have probably been around. Some of you I've known for years. And so I know that we have some old-timers in here, but we also have some younger people. So we have a mix.

And I'm impressed that you actually have a pianist, and not just one pianist, but at least two pianists in this small congregation. So that's a... I know of some larger congregations that don't have any pianists. So that's wonderful that you have that. But God started working with me personally when I was a teenager. I was 18 years old. But my mother had started...

she had gotten the plain true since I was three years old. So she would actually tell us certain things like, Well, you know, we really should keep Saturday as the Sabbath as she was taking us to church on Sunday. She would tell us that. You know, there was a Methodist church only a few miles from where we lived out in the country. And it was convenient, and she wasn't totally convicted, but she was learning.

She was reading the Plain Truth magazine. And then she would tell us, as my dad was eating bacon, and it wasn't beef bacon, she was telling us, well, we really shouldn't be eating pork. And so actually I grew up not really eating hardly any pork at all because of my mother's influence.

Actually, my mother did start attending United after I came. I think she realized that if God could work with me and bring me to the truth that maybe she should start doing something about it herself. It was my sister, though, who's four years older than I am, who first started attending Ambassador College. She was going to Ohio State University, and then she began reading the Plain Truth herself and became convicted and got accepted to Ambassador. And then my brother came along. He's two years older than I am, and I think the first Sabbath he ever observed was at Ambassador College.

Somehow he got accepted because of my sister, I guess, and she was a good example. He got accepted. And then I come along. It's my turn, and I'm thinking, well, maybe I'll go to Ambassador College. You know, I've got a sister and her brother there. And what happened, though, was my brother came home during Christmas break, my senior year in high school, and my dad's quizzing him and asking him questions.

And he says, Mike, how many girls have you dated there at Ambassador College? And Mike says, well, I'm not sure, you know, maybe 35 or 40. And I thought, well, that sounds pretty good. That sounds, you know, I kind of like the idea of that. But then he asked another question. He said, well, how many of you kissed? And my brother said, well, you know, we really don't kiss the girls at Ambassador College. And I thought, well, boy, I don't know. I'm 18 years old.

I was a good boy, but, you know, I wasn't that good. So I thought, man, I don't want to go a thousand miles from home with a bunch of religious fanatics. You know, to me, that's that's how I looked at looked at this at age 18. I hadn't really studied the Bible a whole lot. You know, I'd start to read. I could make it through Genesis, but Leviticus, you know, it was hard. You know, I don't know how many times I started it, but never really completed it.

And so I wasn't really that grounded in the truth. My mother would tell me things and I believed her. She was a good example in many, many ways, but I really hadn't proven it for myself. So I thought, well, you know, a thousand miles from home, religious fanatics, not really for me. So I decided I'd go to Bowling Green State University, which was in Ohio, where I grew up about 90 miles away or so. And I was all set to go. And then my sister comes home that summer and she's very disappointed in me.

And she says, Mark, why aren't you coming to Ambassador College? And to this day, I'm dumbfounded because I looked her in the eye and I said, Carol, I guess I'm just not man enough. And that really, really shocks me even to this day that I said that, because I don't know that, I don't know how much I'd really thought this through. But she confronted me with this question and I just said, I guess I'm not man enough.

So there must have been something telling me, you know, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe you should be going to Ambassador College.

But instead, I was more interested in chasing girls than I was in following God.

And so I had to really take a harder look at myself. So when I went to Bowling Green, I actually started watching the telecast. I started getting the magazine, the Good News or the Plain Truth or whatever it was back then. Started getting the magazine and reading it and studying it and reading my Bible. And then my brother sends me a plane ticket and says, come on out and visit us at Ambassador College, which was a big sacrifice because he didn't make all that much money. But somehow he came up with a plane ticket and I flew out to Big Sandy and I really fell in love with the campus and with the people there. And God was clearly calling me at this time and convicting me. I left there with a full briefcase of every single booklet that we published. When I left there, my brother had an old briefcase and we filled it up. We went to the print shop and we got every single booklet. And I actually started reading them when I got home and going through each one of them and going through the correspondence course.

And just, you know, really changing my life a lot. And I decided, well, I'll go to Ambassador College next year. So I finished the semester I was in at Bowling Green, applied to Ambassador, and came the next year and was actually baptized early on. Like one of the first people to be baptized at Ambassador College that year. It was August or September, I think, when I was baptized because they kind of put me off. I wanted to get baptized around Passover, but they knew I was wanting to go to Ambassador, so they kind of put me off. But I didn't waste a lot of time because I really believed God was calling me and showing me the truth, showing me his way of life.

So I haven't really looked back, you know, since then. I've remained faithful through it all.

And, you know, I can't say I've kept everything perfectly by any means. You know, I'm still a sinner, like all of you. You know, we're all sinners. We all fall short of God's glory.

You know, none of us are perfect. We sin in various ways. You know, some people have bigger temptations in some areas of their life, and others have other temptations in other areas of their life. But we all have one thing in common is that we've all sinned, and we've all fallen short of God's glory. And the wages of sin is death, and frankly, that's what we deserve.

But we're still alive. You know, God's merciful. I'm sitting here standing, actually. I'm not sitting. I'm standing here looking at those of you who are sitting, and God's very merciful to all of us. And I think if we understand that and really truly believe that, then we're going to always be heading in the right direction. But today, I'd like to ask you a question. What is seeing you through thick and thin in God's church for how many of you have been around 40 years or more in the truth?

Okay, I'm looking around at several. Anyone more than 40? Anyone 50 years? Okay, we've got several over here that have been around over 50 years in God's church or in the truth of God. How many of you over 30 years? You know, that okay, a few have added some 20, some... So anyway, it's pretty clear that the old-timers here, they're here for a reason. Hopefully they'll always be here, you know, because we can never take things for granted because we had some people that have been in the church a long time, and then they drift away eventually. But what I'd like to do is share with you what I believe is one of the biggest reasons why people stay in God's church.

At least for me personally, I've analyzed this quite a bit, and I've thought about it.

Obviously, God's Spirit is the key. You've got to have God's Spirit, but besides that, I believe it's God's Spirit that gives us a genuine love for God, a love for His truth, and a love of His way of life. In fact, the gentleman who gave the prayer mentioned loving God and loving His ways in the prayer today, so I took note of that because that's what I was planning to talk about. So God's certainly here inspiring things as I see it.

So do you have a genuine love of God? Do you have a genuine love of His truth?

And do you have a genuine love of His way of life? Are you empowered by God's Spirit to love Him, to love His truth, to love His way of life? And also, do you go beyond that? Are you empowered to love each other? It's not enough just to love God, to love His truth, to love His way of life. It has to be translated into learning to love others. And Mr. Bradford brought out the need for reconciliation. You know, whenever we sense something's not right between us and someone else, we should try to reconcile out of love. You know, that's why we go to our brother out of love, you know, to sort things out, to improve things, and to learn to walk together more faithfully. So, brethren, I'd like to encourage all of us today to seek to grow stronger in the love of God, in the love of His truth, and in the love of His way of life. So that means we need to think about it. We need to dwell upon it. We need to allow it to be a motivating force in our lives. So, in a few minutes, I'll share three things with you. But before I do that, I want to go to basically a very important verse that talks about the love of the truth and why I think I was inspired to give this sermon. Let's notice it in 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, in the first several verses, Paul is talking about what is going to happen in the future. It's prophetic. What's going to happen in the future. He talks about someone who's referred to as the man of sin being revealed, as a son of perdition. He talks about someone who's going to oppose and exalt himself above God and above God's ways of doing things in his life, God's lifestyle. He says in verse 7, For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. And then he says in verse 8, And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. So, we have no doubt as to what the time frame is. The time frame is the return of Jesus Christ and what Christ is going to do to this man of sin, this lawless one, this one that has risen, tried to rise up and basically take over, and God's going to deal with him and he's going to destroy him at his return. And then verse 9, it says, The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all powers, signs, and lying wonders. And other places in the scriptures, we read about a beast that's going to rise up and a false prophet that will be doing signs and wonders and such things, and they'll be working together against God. And Satan is going to be the force behind them. And then in verse 10, it says, And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, and why is that? Because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. So it's going to be critical in the very last days that we love God's truth and that we're willing to die for God's truth. We're willing to die for God and his truth, his way of life, if we want salvation. Because Christ is coming a second time, and he's bringing salvation with him. That's what the scripture says. He's bringing salvation with him for those who are faithful, for those who are called, chosen, and faithful. So it is important that we consider there will be some very difficult times that will come upon the face of this earth before Christ returns.

Much more difficult than what we've been dealing with with COVID. You know, this is minor. It's going to get a lot worse. Maybe it'll get better before it gets worse. I kind of hope so. But it is going to get worse eventually. And God is going to intervene, though, to make sure that some are saved. You know, some will be saved alive. If it's not for the elect's sake, then none would be saved. But God is coming back, and people will be saved. Verse 11, it says, And for this reason God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. You know, if you don't have a love of the truth, then you're going to believe a lie. You're not going to believe the truth. You're going to believe a lie that they all may be condemned, who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Okay, so being human, you know, the Bible does talk about the pleasures of sin. You know, remember, Moses had to forsake the pleasures of sin so that he could fulfill the role that God had for him.

And we also have to make the same decision that we're not going to walk in unrighteousness, but we're going to bring every thought into captivity, unto the obedience of Christ. You know, that's our goal. That's what we're striving, working towards.

We're not going to make it perfectly in the flesh, you know, because the human heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. We don't even know it very well. You know, we want to know it better, to understand it better, and it's good that we're here today trying to be taught by God so that we can be better instructed and be better prepared for what's going to come down the road. Verse 13, but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. So God specifically called you and brought you out of the world and opened your mind and sanctified you by the power of His Holy Spirit. So this is a high and a holy calling, and we have been called for salvation. We are among the first fruits, you know, and that's no small thing because of the billions of people on the earth today, only a very small flock, a very small handful, are going to be in the first resurrection. And if you look out through the last nearly 6,000 years of human history, there's going to be a very small number that will be in the first resurrection compared to the billions and billions that have lived. So this is not something we should take for granted or we should ever take lightly. This is such a wonderful thing. We've all won the lottery, so to speak, the spiritual lottery in a sense. It's much more important than winning any other kind of jackpot or lottery. To be called now and to be chosen now, that's priceless. You know, it's priceless. So going on here, he says, verse 14, to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught. Now he's not just talking about some traditions. He's talking about the commandments of God as well. You know, these are God's truth. It's God's law that we are to observe and to keep and to stay faithful to. So stand fast and hold the traditions, the laws of God which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. And now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, may he comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. And God will do that in our lives if we surrender to him. And that's really what this is all about, isn't it? Learning to surrender, learning to let God work in your life and just allowing him to do the work in us rather than us trying to do it ourselves. Because frankly, we're all knuckleheads, as was already mentioned. So that's the beginning. The foundation is pretty clear from the scriptures that if we don't love the truth, and I would say at the same time we don't love God and we don't love his way of life, there's going to be some very hard times ahead for all of us as God wants us to learn these lessons.

So again, it's God's Spirit dwelling in us that makes all the difference in our lives. You know, it's yielding to the Spirit of God. So let's talk about basically three aspects of loving God, loving his truth, loving his way of life. And the first one is, let's allow God's the love of God, his truth, and his way of life to become the number one guiding force in our lives. You know, I think those of us who have been in the church as long as we have 40-50 years, especially, I would hope that it has been the guiding force in our lives. It's not how much money we make. It's not the career or the job or anything else. You know, everything else is insignificant in comparison. The reason we're here on the Sabbath is because this is important to us. Now, this is the guiding force in our lives. You know, and some that are younger, you're still trying to sort that out.

You know, whether or not you choose to select this way of life as your way of life, now these are things that we're all faced with eventually. So I would encourage you, as I did back when I was a teenager, we've got to be man enough, we've got to be woman enough to do the right thing. For me, the right thing was to embrace God's truth, embrace his way of life, make it my way of life, and make it the guiding force in my life.

So again, we should ask ourselves, do we truly love this way of life so much that we would die for it, that we would lay our lives down for others who also believe in the truth?

Obviously, how we live our lives is important. Our daily life, you know, if we're not starting our day with prayer and Bible study, we're likely not going to have such a great day.

You know, it's, at least for me, it's worked very well that I'm a morning person, and I like to study the Bible in the morning, and I like to pray in the morning because it gets me off to a good start. Now, my wife is more of an afternoon person, and she's more diligent than I am. So if you're an afternoon person, that's okay as long as you get it done. For me, it works to do it in the morning. Not that my wife doesn't pray some in the morning, but she'll do a lot of her Bible study later on in the day, which for me, never works that well.

But the important thing is that we're consistently going to God in prayer, and we're learning from God by studying His Word. It should never get old for us. You know, God's Word should never get old.

In the last few years, I've kind of been reborn in a way in my Bible study because I've basically been getting a new Bible every year, and I'm marking it with different colors, about 10 or 12 different colors. And it's really helped me to really focus on what each verse is saying because I have to categorize each verse. You know, is there prayer involved here? Is God telling us to pray or to fast? Or is it the Holy Spirit that we're talking about in this verse? Or is it commandment-keeping righteousness? Or is it sin? You know, just what is there? And I can look at the page, and I can see all these colors, and I can tell, okay, there's some righteousness going on here. There's also some sin. God's Spirit is at work. I can see the yellow color for God's Spirit. So if you're having a hard time deciding what to study, you might, if you've never done that, just get a Bible. Maybe you've got several on your shelf. Get some colored pencils. That's what I use. And start marking your Bible. And you might find that it'll really help you in your Bible study. It has me. I mean, I've studied the Bible all my life, but the last few years have been especially meaningful to me as I've been doing this. So just one thing to share with you, but allow God's way of life, the love that we have for God and His truth, to be the guiding force in our lives. We're all familiar with Matthew 6, 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Okay, that is our calling, is to seek first the kingdom of God, to seek His righteousness, and to just learn to love His truth more and more. You know, I have no doubt that God instituted a commanded assembly, each Sabbath, because we need it. He did it for us. He did it for you. He did it for me. Just think where we would be if we didn't observe the Sabbath. Wouldn't it be so easy to drift? You know, if you weren't here every Sabbath, fellowshiping together, I think it would be much easier to drift, to drift away. But the weekly Sabbath is a reminder, first of all, that God is the Creator. It goes back to creation, back to Genesis. It shows us, what our relationship should be. God is the one that we owe everything to. He's the Creator.

That's why we're here. So every Sabbath, we come and we're to be taught by God's ministers, by others that God's working with, and that God's revealing truth to. And God works with every single one of us in various ways. You know, we're all called. We all have an important part of the body.

Not everyone can be the mouth. You know, we have to have some good strong legs. We have to have some good strong arms. We have to have a nose that can smell. You know, we have to have every part of the body. Everyone has an integral part to play in the body of Christ. And I like the fact that we changed ministerial services to ministerial and member services some time ago, because we're all in this together. You know, and I enjoy coming to visit the brethren just as much as I do the ministry. You know, I like to get around and see all of the elders. I know the Morrisons have been here for what? Forever. Pretty much 40 plus years and have been very faithful servants.

The Bradfords and Joanne, his wife, a fae, they've been very solid and faithful in this area for a long, long time. But I really enjoy getting to know everyone. It's a tremendous blessing that we're all brothers and sisters in Christ. And the Sabbath is so vital, you know, so I'm glad that you're here. And I would forgot to say hello to those listening in on the webcast. Also grateful that you're that you've joined us. You are assembling with us even though you're not here in person. So we appreciate you doing that. That's showing your faithfulness to God and to His truth and His way of life. And hopefully you'll be able to join us before too long. If it's health that's keeping you away, we certainly pray that that will clear up.

What about a burning desire? Do you still have a burning desire in your life? Is this still something that you are very excited about? You know, I can say I'm as excited now as I've ever been in God's way of life, God's truth. I don't think I've lost the first love. You know, I believe the first love is still very strong within me. And I see that in a lot of us who are hanging in there and are being faithful. You know, we have the love of God and His truth and His way of life, and we haven't lost that first love. And so I commend all of you for sticking in there and being good warriors, soldiers for God. You know, that's a commendable thing. And, you know, there's a word diligently, and we find it in Hebrews 11. So let's go there, read this together. Hebrews 11, verse 6. This is obviously the faith chapter.

It says, but without faith it is impossible to please Him. And I think that's our goal, isn't it, to please God? You know, if we can please Him, then everything else should be just fine and dandy. If we keep God happy and pleased about us and our conduct, then, you know, we've pretty much won the battle. We need to keep doing that. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Okay, this word diligently, according to Strongs and Thayers and those types of resources, this English word is translated from a Greek word that means to search out, to investigate, to scrape, to scrutinize, to require. This is something that we should be compelled to do, diligently seeking God. We should diligently seek Him all day long, starting out first thing in the morning and continuing throughout our day. And we must have faith in God and believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So let's continue to do that. In John 17, it says that we're sanctified by God's truth. You and I are sanctified and set apart by the truth of God. Sanctify them through your truth. Your Word is truth. This is the truth of God, and we are sanctified when we live by every word of God. So we're sanctified by God's Holy Spirit and by His Word. We're set apart by the truth of God. Refusing to eat unclean foods is something that we should do because God clearly made some things fit for human consumption and some things weren't.

And He made that clear in the book of Genesis. So we should continue to differentiate the clean and the unclean. The holy and the unholy. We're called to be holy. God says, even as I am holy.

So we are called to become like God is, and God is pure. God's perfect. That's our goal, to become just like God. So we're sanctified by the truth that God has revealed to us. Again, it sets us apart. You know, we don't believe in the Trinity, even though some religious faiths say that. They basically say that's the litmus test. If you don't believe to take Trinity, you're not really a Christian. I remember we were banned from being a part of a homeschool group because we wouldn't sign off on I'm a believer in the Trinity. We found another group that would accept us, and it was a pretty decent group. But, you know, the fact is that the scriptures tell us the truth. So we have to be students of the Bible. We have to continually do the research.

In John 13, it also shows something else that sets us apart. Makes us different. John 13, verse 35, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love, one to another.

Now, obviously, this is a deep agape-type love that we're talking about here that someday will grow to the point where you would truly be willing to lay your life down for another. The same kind of love that Jesus Christ had when He laid His life down for you.

You know, that's what we're looking for. That same kind of love where we would truly be willing to lay our lives down for each other. That we would humble ourselves, empty ourselves as Christ did, and be willing to die for one another.

So that first point, again, make that the guiding force in your life. You know, you talk to God about it, you pray about it, God help me to love you more, help me to love your truth, help me to love your way of life. It was shocking to me back in 1995 that some people so quickly gave up on God's way of life, God's truth. You know, I can only conclude that they I can only conclude that they really weren't convicted. How could you give up on something that you truly loved? You know, how could it be so easy? If it's something that you truly love, you know, I don't think it comes that easy. But, you know, if you're just doing it for other reasons, then, you know, I could see maybe someone doing that sort of thing if they weren't really convicted. I mean, for me, I came out of the Methodist Church and I started studying various religions. I took a comparative religion class at Ambassador College and I proved why I left the Methodist Church and came to the Church of God. And when I was told that, no, we're going to go back to all of that. To me, that's like the dog going back to the vomit. You know, that was not something I was interested in doing. All right, so the first point again, let's make sure it's the guiding force in our life from now on. If it hasn't been, make sure it is from now on. And secondly, realize and allow God's love, His truth, His way of life to see you through all the hard times that are coming. You know, if you don't have that kind of love for God and His truth and His way of life, then the trials and temptations of life can overwhelm you. You know, they can get the best of you, but not if you truly love God and His way of life. And you have faith in Him and know that He will be your deliverer through all trials, through all problems. You know, we're all going to have trials. We're all going to have problems of various degrees as we go on in life. As I get older, I have more health issues. Not as easy to go up and down the stairs. I can still do it pretty well, thankfully. But I can see, you know, in 10 years from now or 15th, I'm not too sure I'm going to be able to make those stairs as easily as I can now. But we all have to trust in God to deliver us through whatever comes in our life, whether they're health trials or family issues, you know, issues with our children. You know, those things come up too, but we have to place our faith and trust in God and know that God will deliver us through all these things. So we know that Satan is the great tempter. We know that human nature is corrupt of and by itself in many degrees. And we have to fight against Satan. We have to fight against our own nature, you know, in order to do the right thing.

God gives us the strength through the power of His Spirit to do the right thing.

But it has to be that love that's motivating us and guiding us through it all. In John chapter 15, verse 26, it speaks of a helper that Christ would send, that God would send to the disciples after Christ's death. He says, But when the Helper is come, which I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth—again, it's the Spirit of Truth. It's not the Spirit of error or deception. It's the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father. It shall testify of Me, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. That gives us the discernment. And then in John 16, also speaking of the Spirit of Truth, says, However, when it, the Spirit of Truth, has come, it will guide you into all truth. For it shall not speak on its own. And I don't refer to it as a he, because that's confusing. It's not a he. It's the very power of God. It's His essence. It's a Spirit force that works in us. It says it will guide you into all truth. It shall not speak on its own, but whatever it hears, it shall speak. The Holy Spirit can motivate us to understand, to hear, to even speak at times. And it will show you things to come. God's Spirit dwelling in you will allow you to walk in the Spirit and to reap the benefits of doing so. There are great benefits in learning to walk in the Spirit. With God's help, you will produce abundant fruit. The Bible speaks of producing the fruit of God, the fruit of the Spirit. Love and joy and peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness, self-control.

These are all the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. And God is changing us. And as long as we continue to change and to endure, then we will be given victory over death.

God will give us victory over death. Of course, that's Galatians 5 verse 22, which I just mentioned about the fruit of God's Holy Spirit.

When you walk in the flesh and produce the works of the flesh, your conscience should also grieve you. It shouldn't be easy to sin. You shouldn't take it lightly. If you're taking it lightly, then obviously you're not close enough to God, because it should actually hurt us. When we sin against God, there should be something that hurts us. It talks about how a godly spirit is grieved when we do something we ought not against God and His ways. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 7, and let's read that together. And this has always been really helpful for me through the years to understand this.

What true repentance really is, because a lot of people think they've repented, but unless you experience what it's talking about here, you really haven't repented. Not fully, not completely. And we know that repentance is also a gift that God gives us. He gives us, as we seek Him diligently, then God will grant us repentance. He looks on the heart.

It's the thing of the heart. So in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 9, Paul says, He says, But you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing, for godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation. Certainly not something to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world is what produces death. When a person is just sorry that they've gotten caught, or that they're having to pay a price for it, that's not really true repentance. That's just being humanly sorry that you're having to pay a price. There's a law that God puts into motion that's called the law of sewing and reaping. And when you sow bad seed, then eventually you're going to reap that crop. And, you know, if you're just sorry that you're finally reaping the crop, getting what you deserve, that's not true repentance. True repentance is understanding that you grieved God himself through your sins. You hurt God, in a sense, because you're supposed to love God. You know, God's the one that you owe everything to, and you've decided to sin against him, because sin is a decision. You know, when we sin, we make a decision to sin. You know, it doesn't just grab us and make us. It is a decision that we do make. Now, it can be an overwhelming impulse or whatever, you know, a temptation that comes upon us, especially if we're not close enough to God. You know, the Apostle Paul said, oh wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from this body of death, I don't think his body was any different from yours. No, we all have a body of death. You know, the flesh, when we lean toward the flesh and allow the flesh to get the best of us, then we will sin against God. On the other hand, when we allow the Spirit to guide us and we walk in the Spirit, that's also a choice. That's a decision. Choosing the right thing, and yielding to God's Spirit in our lives. So, getting back to these verses, he says, For Godly sorrow produces repentance, which leads to salvation, because God looks on the heart and God grants repentance when he sees that you are sorrowful for the right reasons.

But the sorrow of the world is what produces death. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner, and what diligence or what carefulness in the King James it produced in you. What clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal. That's what sin should do when we repent of it. Now, we should have a greater motivation to no longer go down that path. It's easy to overlook some of these things and get into a pattern where it's not like it ought to be in our lives. We really should seek to obey God, and when we fall short, there should be something that drives us to our knees to ask for forgiveness. Forgive me, Father, for I've sinned against you.

You know, David in Psalm 51, a very moving psalm of repentance. But it took David quite a bit, didn't it, to see his sin? God had to send a prophet, and he didn't see it right away even then.

Nathan had to tell him a story, and then he says, you are the man. You know, you're getting all upset about this animal, this pet that was sacrificed or eaten. Someone had taken that lamb and gave it to some rich people. Whatever the story is, you know the story.

Took this pet and gave it to some people. Obviously, it didn't really matter to the person that was doing that. He says, you're the man. You know, you took someone's wife.

You took another man's wife. You defiled her. You know, you're guilty. You're the man.

So, you know, you're going to get all incensed about this. What about looking at yourself?

And so, David was finally able to do that and repent of his sin.

He says, in all things, you proved yourselves to be clear. And there is a certain clearing of the self that comes through true repentance. You know, that's what really gets you back on the right track. Because life can be pretty miserable if you aren't repenting. Because it'll weigh you down.

You know, it'll really take its toll on you. But once you truly repent of it and start moving in the right direction again, then you can breathe a sigh of relief and go on and know that God is with you. So, repentance actually leads to more faithfulness and a greater obedience to God.

Another thing to think about is, you love God, you love his truth, and you love his way of life when nothing's going to deter you or derail you from that course. You know, the course that leads to the kingdom of God, if you won't allow anything to derail you from that, then you have a love of God and his truth. It's greater, it's more powerful, it's stronger than any other desire that you might have. So, brethren, let's go to 2 Timothy 4 and let's notice what Paul says about the battle that we all must engage in as God's people. 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4, verse 7, he says, verse 7, Paul says, I fought the good fight, I have finished the race. Paul knew that before long he would be dead. It wouldn't be long he was able to dodge the bullet for quite a while, but he knew that his days were numbered. And he says, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Finally, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness. Paul had to fight against himself. You know, he was that wretched man. The things that I don't want to do, I find myself doing.

The things that I should do, I don't do. Oh, wretched man that I am who's going to deliver me from this body of death. He said, I fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I've kept the faith. Finally, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day when Christ returns. The day that we're all looking forward to is the return of Christ on that day. And not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Now, we love the fact that Christ came the first time to die for us, to pay the penalty for our sins, to sacrifice himself for us. We also are longing and looking forward to the day when he returns. And he brings salvation with him, our salvation. That's what Christ is bringing with him when he comes. So we too must fight the good fight until our number's up. Some of us, you know, may not have too long. You never know. It just depends. We really don't know what tomorrow will bring, no matter how old we are. You know, we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. So it is a love of God, his truth, and his way of life that's going to save us in the final analysis. If we don't love his truth, if we don't love his way of life, then we won't be in his kingdom.

It's pretty simple. So we have to learn to love it. We do need to be faithful, and we do need to continually stir up the spirit that God gives us. You know, the scripture talks about that. If we're not stirring up the spirit of God, then eventually we're going to quench the spirit, and God may even take the spirit away from us. David was concerned about that. That was part of that prayer, wasn't it? Please don't take the spirit from me. When he finally woke up, he pleaded with God not to take the Holy Spirit from him. So back in 1995, and some of you were around in 95, we were challenged in a huge way in regard to whether or not we loved God. Did we love his truth? Did we love his way of life? Many showed by their actions that they really didn't love God. They didn't love his truth. They didn't love his way of life because they didn't cling to it. They didn't stick with it. You know, they cast it aside.

Maybe some were deceived for a time. Some have come back. Some saw the error of their ways, but too many haven't. And thankfully, God's the judge. He knows whether or not they were ever converted in the first place. And thankfully, he's the judge, not you or me. And we have to trust that God knows exactly what he's doing and that he's going to do the right thing.

I remember one man, though. He actually was a minister for a time, and he had some issues.

I know he wouldn't even mind if I mentioned his name. I don't think I will. But he came back after being gone 30 years. He was once a minister, and he was no longer a minister. He'd become an alcoholic.

He basically conquered the alcoholism, but then he got into other issues, gambling and women and other things. But one day I got a call from him. This was years ago. I got a call from him, and he was crying. Clearly repentant. It was a week or two, or maybe not even a week, before Passover. Passover was coming very near, and he was pleading with me to let him come to Passover.

I'm talking to him, discussing this with him. My thought was, well, why are you calling me now? This has been 30 years ago.

He said, well, God was always working with me the whole time. I knew I was wrong. I knew it.

But I was weak, and I continued in that weakness for all this time. But now God's giving me the strength, and I know I need to be there. I said, well, look, I'm not going to tell you you can't keep the Passover. If this is something you believe God's leading you to do, then you should be there with us. If you take it unworthily, God knows. That's obviously not a good thing. But if you believe that you've truly repented of your sins, and that God is leading and guiding you to come to Passover, please come. So I think he sat by my wife. I was giving the service, and I think he cried through a good bit of it. But for the next 10 years, he was there every Sabbath, except on rare occasions when maybe he wasn't well enough. And you could tell life took his toll on him. He used to be a big guy. He was all hunched over. He was small, as frail.

But he had to drive at least an hour every day to come to church.

And for about 10 years, he set a wonderful example of a repentant person. So I know that God never gives up on us. If we don't give up on him, no matter how sinful we've been, if we truly have a heart to repent, God was very merciful to him to allow that kind of behavior to go on for as long as it did.

But thankfully, we have to learn to forgive others as God forgives us. That's insane a lot, isn't it? You know, God is very forgiving, very loving, very merciful.

Well, it's been wonderful to get around and to talk to congregations like this one.

I pray that God will continually stir up his Spirit within you.

Brethren, let us together try to make the United Way as close to God's way as we can.

I'm partial to the United Church of God, obviously. This is where I believe God put me in the body of Christ. You know, this has been a wonderful home for all these years since 1995.

I believe God was in the inception of the United Church of God. He continues to be working in us. So, let us strive to make this United Church of God as much like God as we possibly can, to be united in our efforts to serve him and obey him. Let us allow God to achieve the impossible in our lives. You know, God can do that. Let us become a church without spot or wrinkle. We're not the earth there yet, I don't think. We're not a church without spot or wrinkle. But, you know, God looks on the heart, and one day he's going to change his church into spirit.

And then we will be without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.