A Source of the Problem

There's a lot of problems in the world forever. We just need to look at their mind. And we see all of those. It relates in nations, with its crime, with its marriage problems, divorces. And sometimes we wonder, why has all this happened? And obviously we do know that one of the major causes is definitely Satan, which is stirring the pot, deceiving everybody and causing problems, like we heard in the sermon.

But there is one other major root. I'm not saying it's the only root of problems, but there is one other major root of problems. And that's what I want to talk to you today about, that one other major cause of problems, which are the reasons of problems in the world, problems in society, problems amongst people. And in the first letter of Peter, Peter is talking about different problems that the brethren are having. And then he goes on to the second letter, which is the second letter of Peter. So if we turn to the second letter, he then starts that letter in the sense like tying up to the previous letter, and introducing problems that are occurring amongst the brethren in the church.

So the first letter of Peter is problems up there from outside, and the second letter is problems inside. But he kind of breaches that in the introduction of second Peter. So let's read from verse 1 through 4. It says, I remember one day I was in Portugal and somebody told me, there's nowhere in the Bible that says Jesus Christ is God.

And he says, well, he's the Son of God, but doesn't say he's God. Well, yeah, it's a direct statement that says he's God and Savior. But continue then, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So yes, God the Father and Jesus, the family of God. But let's grow in that grace and peace. So he wants us to grow in not only in knowledge as we read at the end, but he wants us to grow in grace, applying that knowledge, what is right and wrong in the correct way as well.

And peace, because when we do things the right way, when we do the right things the right way, there is peace. There is peace. So they're going to be multiplied to you in the knowledge. So it's going to be based on the right knowledge. It doesn't come to be based on deception. It's going to be on the right truth, which God and Jesus Christ give to us. And it goes on. As He's divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life. God's divine power, which is the Holy Spirit, has given to us all things. So God, after we repent, accept Christ, we repent, we make a commitment to live the right way, we receive the Holy Spirit, which is He's divine power.

It's His strength, it's His help for us to do things the right way. And He says, He's given to us all things that pertain to life. Now, obviously, He's talking about eternal life. Not just life. You and I have life, but, yes, it pertains to our life, to have a happy life, but pertain to eternal life. And it's all things that are required for us to have eternal life.

So we receive God's power. Now, God's power is very powerful. Through God's power, God created the heavens and earths, and earth. God created animals and things around us. Now, He's only given us a subset of that power. He's only given us a subset of that power.

His power is all encompassing. But you and I have only received a subset of that power, and that is the power that you and I need to have in us, you know, all things of that power that we need to have eternal life. And God needs, in other words, to live a life like God, to be like God, to be like Jesus Christ, to have the full stature of Jesus Christ. So God is given of His power just a segment of that power, and that segment is power for us to change ourselves. He has not given us power to change anybody else.

He has not given us power to change our spouse. I mean that you're going to have more than one spouse, but I mean, I was in plural, you know? So let's not misunderstand that our spouse, okay? And you never know if people take things out of context, let's say, or George said. Anyway, so God has given us a power which has all things needed in that power. Think of it like in that toolkit of power, of spiritual power.

Everything you and I need to have eternal life and to be godly, in other words, to be like God, in other words, to have the full stature of Jesus Christ. He's given us that power, power to overcome. So let's go on real. Through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. And we received that power because we learned of Christ and we learned about God. And because of His glory and His power and what He's done for us, we are able to do that.

By which have been given to us exceeding great and precious problems. In other words, we have a wonderful promise, which is so big that sometimes we don't even begin to grasp it. And I think that's the problem quite often because if we don't grasp it, what it is, if we don't have that vision of the goal, we may be done make the full effort to go to that vision. So it's given us seemingly great and precious promises. Yes, to be in His family, we can't even begin to comprehend what that's going to be.

We just cannot. I mean, we see through a raw story. We just can't even fully understand that. That through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature. It was through these, through overcoming, through having the power of God's only Spirit, you, by you striving towards that goal, that you might be partakers. You may change your life from a human nature to a divine nature so that finally when the Spirit beings will have a full divine nature, that you be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped.

Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Having escaped the big trap that we all have in this world through lust. Brethren, this is one of the roots of the problems that we have. Lust. Put it another way. It's desires. It's desires. Very simply, it's fleshy desires or desires of things, or desires of money, or desires of pleasure, or desires of whatever. It's lust, desire to have something which we don't have right through. And that's the problem. God, through the power of His Spirit, imparts to us the power to overcome that. The power to overcome those weaknesses of our flesh through lust so that we can have divine nature. That is the root of one of the problems in this world.

Turn with me to Romans 6, verse 12. Romans 6, verse 12.

Romans 6, verse 12. Therefore, do not let sin rain in our mortal bodies, in our physical bodies. Do not let sin rain in your mortal body that you should obey it. It was you should obey those fools, those attractions of sin in its lusts.

You see, sin starts with desires, lusts, passions, an attraction like a bite. If you've done any fishing, you know, you put out a bite, and it's got a little bit of glare, a little bit of thing, and the fish don't do it. You know, it's some sort of an attraction. And that attraction then gets bigger. That desire gets bigger. And when it's conceived, it's sin. Whatever it is, whatever it is, we all have our, maybe our weaknesses. Whatever it may be, you think about your own. And it's a little bit, it's got something small, a little desire, a little feeling, oh, I just feel like this. And next thing, you allow it to think in your mind and meditate, and then it gets bigger and bigger, and that becomes life. A volcano and next thing, you practice it. That's why it says, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it, that you should obey that sin in its last. You see, it starts at the last, you obey that, and next thing becomes certain. Well, let's in fact, therefore, read this section of Romans, because we just highlighted one verse, but let's read this context. And we're starting verse 1, Romans chapter 6, verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Oh, because God gives us pardon, forgiveness, and that's God's grace, so we can have more pardon, more forgiveness, more grace. We need to sin more, so we have more grace. Ridiculous, that's what Paul says. He says, certainly not ridiculous. How shall we, who died to sin, live any longer in it? In our brethren, when we were baptized, we died to sin. We said, I give it up. You went into... you were buried in a watery grave, because you said, I'm giving it up. How can you live any longer in it? Or verse 3. Well, do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, we were baptized into His death. We were baptized into Jesus Christ. We were not just baptized in the name of Christ, but we were baptized into Jesus Christ, into that name, into that family, into that body, which is the Church of God, which is the spiritual organism. We were baptized into that body.

We were baptized into His death, because that body died as well. Therefore, we were buried with Christ through baptism and to death, symbolically, of course. I didn't keep you under the water, or the minister didn't keep you under the water long enough that you could physically die, but symbolically, that was a meaning, right? That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, you and I were raised from that watery grave.

It's like when we are putting the water back to theism, then we're taken out of the water. We're resurrected, we're raised, just like Christ was raised from the dead by the power, by the glory, of the Father. Even so, we also, now that we've been, quote-unquote, spiritually resurrected after the baptism, we need to walk in a new life. We need to walk in a new man, and no more the old way, but the new way. That's what we promised at baptism. That's as clear as a bell. I mean, it's so clear. I can't understand how the world can't see it. But again, it's like we were in the sermon at the Little Deception there. What was the word used? I wrote it down. I thought it was very good in the sermon. I said, plausible deniability. I thought, you know, that's what it is. People just kind of deny a little bit, and they don't want to know anymore, so that I'm not going to be accounted for it. And, you know, brethren, we've got to walk in a new life. That's the commitment you and I made. Now, we know we all fail, and God is merciful, but we need to look at some of the things we really struggle, and we need to change. Full stop. Full stop.

As simple as that. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified within, that the body of sin might be done away. So the body of sin, that body, that mentality, that thinking, those lusts may be done away, then we should no longer be slaves of sin. In other words, we no longer obey that pool, those lusts of sin. That's so plain. We've got to now obey God's laws. For He who has died has been freed from sin. Yes, we who have died at baptism, that old man, those sins have been, past sins have been forgiven by Jesus Christ's blood. They erased, we've been freed from those past sins. God, erased, delete, kill, bang, God! It's all gone. But now we're going to live in a new life.

Verse 8, now if we died with trust, we believe that we also shall live with Him. Yes, we'll have eternal life with Him, provided we are walking in the newness of life, like Him, putting on the new man. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. And so we will die no more, spiritually speaking. We won't have, in other words, the second death of physically speaking. Of course, we'll still die, and we'll still be wrapped at first death. But spiritually speaking, we will live forever. Obviously we die when there's death, we sleep, we're not alive. That's not what I mean. But the point is, we have that hope that we will have eternal life. Death no longer has the many and every of Christ, and therefore He will resurrect us without death, because He has power of the dead. First step, for the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, that the life that He lives, He lives to God. So now He lives a life without sin, of course, He lives to God, and we are to walk like Him in the same newness of life. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. In other words, stop sinning, but alive to God by obeying. In Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse 12, therefore do not let sin reign over your mortal body, but you should obey it, and it flusts.

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness, in the words of obedience to God. For sin shall have no dominion over you. Why? Because you're overcoming. You're fighting it. You're putting it away. Because you are not under the law, but under grace. You're not under the penalty of those laws that you broke in the past, that penalty has been erased. And that has been forgiven to you by grace. Therefore you're not under the penalty of those laws that they've been fighting for you freely. And therefore, that sin has no more dominion over you. Brethren, when we lust, and we allow that lust to dominate us, and we become slaves of that lust, we end up in sin. That is the root, or one of the major roots, of the problems in the world. The other root, of course, is Satan, and the influence of the world. But we have the power to overcome it through God's Holy Spirit. And that's why the world is full of problems today. Because of the lusts of the world, there are wars and rumors of wars, and fighting, and killing, and crime, and marriage problems, because people are listening to their selfish lusts. Sure, there is a broadcast of Satan, and that's next week, we'll talk about that. But now, this week, we need to look at, hey, we've got to do our part. We have an accountability, and we've got to overcome it, and we've got to dominate this. We've got to control. We've got to have self-discipline, self-control. Now, look at how lusts affect people. We're going to take an example of how lusts and this lust leads to a way of thinking, as we're doing the sermon after, the set of way of thinking. And now, this deceptive way of thinking caused certain problems to certain people during the time of Christ. So, we're going to look at an example there, and that is in John chapter 8.

And we're going to start reading in verse 31. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, you know, they said, oh, well, yeah, well, yeah, that sounds good, what He's saying, we believe what He's saying, you know. If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now, I want to ask you, if you were standing there with Christ, and Christ had told you those words, now put yourself there, and Christ, you know, you're this person, speaking to you, and He says, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If you heard that, would you be offended? Would you be upset? If I heard that, I wouldn't. I think most of us wouldn't. But you see, there's a subtle point here that Christ was saying, and they were clever, and they picked it up, and they got offended. They got offended. Look at verse 33, and they answered Him, we are either the sevens, and we have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, you'll make, you will make us free? In other words, what Christ was telling them, you don't know the truth, and therefore, you are in prison, and they said, we know the truth, you, we are not in prison, we are free. And they got offended with that statement. There were no clowns. They were quite clever, those people. Don't worry. But they were using it with the arm of the last sin, in the arm of the embassy, so they didn't see the issue there. And then Christ continues, verse 34, most surely I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And the slaves are not abiding in our house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. And we shall be free. If the son makes us free, Christ's sacrifice makes us free. You know, we believe and repent and get back past, His blood freezes. We shall be free indeed. Christ is saying, you are enslaved by your lasts. You've got lasts for exaltation. You've got lasts because you want to receive praise of power, because you want to be the teachers, and you upset that I am the teacher, because you want to be the teachers. It's this power struggle. They want, they had a desire to be in charge. And you know that, you know, there's a problem there. Because they were being controlled by their lasts, by their desires, they were slaves of sin. Verse 37, I know that you are Abram's the sinner, and I picked up the point about being Abram's the sinner. I know you are, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you've seen with your Father. And they also then said to him, Abraham is our Father. And Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham's children. If you were the Abraham's children, you would do like Abraham. But now, you seek to kill me. A man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God, Abraham did not do this. You did the deeds of your Father, and I picked that up very clearly.

And then, looking by Septuene, we were not born of fornication.

You know what they sang to you? You're Christ. You are a son of fornication. Your mother committed fornication.

It's a serious accusation they did to Christ. A serious accusation! And we have one Father, God.

You know, brethren, saying that Jesus is born of fornication is a serious deformation of character. A serious deformation of character.

Really! Jesus said to them, if God were your Father, you would love me. For I proceed forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself, but He sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to my word. You are of your Father the devil, and the desires of your Father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there's no truth in Him. When He speaks a lie, He speaks of His own resources, for He's a liar and a father of it. You see, brethren, their lusts pushed out respect for the truth. Their lusts pushed out respect for the truth. And when we have sins, whatever they are, people lie and hide and push out respect for the truth. They actually want a little bit of mistruth to hide this sin.

That is a problem that was happening there. So, brethren, where did this begin? Where did it begin?

Right at the beginning, with Adam and Eve. Turn with me to Genesis 3. Genesis 3 verse 6. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, was desirable for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, it was desirable to be seen, and a tree desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and hide. And then she gave it to her husband to Adam, and he also ate it. See, that desire enslaved them and led them to sin. That's a problem. When we have desires, it enslaves and leads us to sin. Whatever the sin is, like in the case there, they accuse Christ with terrible things.

And you and I must control those who desire it.

Look in chapter 4 verse 3 through 7. In the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the truth of the ground to the Lord. You know brethren, at that time they were already offerings. They were already offerings. I would not be surprised that this was an offering representing the Passover. I would not be surprised because at the Passover you're supposed to bring a lamb, and if you bring an offering like fruit or something else, that is not good enough for the possible. No wonder God was very upset with Cain. I would not be surprised that that would have been... Anyway!

So Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat, and the Lord respected Abel and his offering. You can understand why. You can understand why. And then that goes on. But he did not respect Cain in his offering, and Cain was very angry in his countless felt. Cain was really upset that God did not accept his offering. After all, he was given an offering of the first fruits of his ground.

But that's not what God wanted at that specific offering time.

And so the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?

Verse 7, if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you. And you should rule over it. Bread. He sang. You're upset with your brother. There's hostility. And hostility, this thing is blowing up. There's going to be sin soon. Big sin. Why? Because there's certain desires, certain lies of yourself. This desire is for you. There's this desire. And you must rule over that desire. That's what he sang. You're going to rule over that desire.

You're going to rule over that attraction, that pull.

You and I must control desire. That's self-discipline. Self-discipline needs us to forsake human musts and obey God. We are restraining our desires. Because God has given us certain appetites. Yes. For who must rule over them? He's also given us certain guidelines. For how to use those certain appetites.

For instance, God has given us food. And the desire to add food. Beautiful. What a blessing it is. But it can also be a curse, which we are gladness and probably eat.

God's given us drink. And what a blessing it is. Even wine. It is a blessing. But it can be a big problem. Because it can lead to the drunkenness if you don't control it. And obviously, if you have a problem like that, you always, quote-unquote, in a recovery mode. So you better be careful. You've got to always be on a watch-out. You've got to control it. You've got to control or rule over that desire. That's what we read behind verse 7. God's given us various desires. The desire of sex, but only in marriage. God's given us possessions and things that you and I can have. But He's also told us not to be greedy, not to be selfish, and to share, not to steal. He's given us guidelines on how to use possessions. For instance, money. Money can be a blessing. But the love of money is the root of evil. Why? Because it's a desire. It's a love which is uncontrolled.

God's given us speech. Speech is good. We can make friends. We can have relations with people. We can encourage people. But under the desire of speech, we can say words that cut that hurt. We can give gossip and slander like they did in Christ. They slander the saying that He was a son of communication. God's given us a mind with the capability and the desire to be creative, to create things. Like we appreciate when people bring flowers, and we have flowers here, and people do things with flowers, or do things with cards, and go out of their way and do things, creative things. It's beautiful. But we have to avoid the wrong use of those thought processes in areas of vanity, pride, and malice.

So, brethren, God therefore has given us His Holy Spirit, which is a power to help us control our minds. That Holy Spirit is a vine, it's a spirit of love, it teaches us a way to go. And continue reading in Genesis 4, let's read in verse 8. Now Cain talked with Abel and his brother. Cain talked with Abel and his brother. And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel and his brother and killed him. He did not control his desires. Sin was at the door, indeed sin occurred. Verse 9. Before we go back, you see, Cain was not happy to see Abel being more obedient than him.

Why? Because that made Cain look bad. In other words, it hurt his pride. And pride is a desire to be esteemed as self-respected. So because Abel's sacrifice was accepted, death made Cain angry because it hurt his pride. You see, Cain did not say, I am accountable for this problem because I did not do the right thing.

He did not accept his unaccountability. You see, Brethren, carnal people attack those who stand in the way of their selfish desires.

Sometimes they do it openly, and sometimes they hide it. So, when God approached Cain, in verse 9, says, Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother? Where is Abel your brother? What did he say? I don't know. Why are you asking me? I don't know. He lied. Pure and plainly, he lied. You can't look up for him yourself, type of thing. That's what he says. I'm not your brother's keeper. I don't know where he is. You want to look for him? Look for him. And obviously, there are many implications there than that, of course. But the point is, he lied to how he strayed. He lied to God.

Now, obviously, God is better, but we can see the point here where this problem began. Brethren, you and I, as it says there, as God told Cain, he said, You've got to rule over these desires. You've got to rule over. And God has given us the power of His Holy Spirit to help us rule over. It's like a special tool. It's like you want to do something in the garden or at home, and sometimes you don't have the right tool. It's very difficult. But you get the right tool and say, Oh, this is now easy. God has given us a tool, a leverage capability to help us overcome our own lusts, our own passions, our own desires. That's the Holy Spirit. But it's up to us to use it. The tool is there. Do we use it or not?

Turn with me to James 1. James 1, verse 12.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation.

We all have tests. We all have trials. We all have challenges. We all have temptations that are around lusts or whatever it is. We have different tests and temptations and pressures. But he says, for when He has been approved, it was when we've overcome, we've ruled over it, we've ruled over these lusts, we've ruled over these things.

We've been approved. We've kind of passed the test. He says, you'll receive the crown of life. That's eternal life. Crown of eternal life. Which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. In fact, what have we heard in the sermon? Love Him. We need to love Him. Let no one say, when He's tempted, I'm tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil.

Nor does He Himself tempt anyone. God does not tempt us. Why? Because God has no selfish desires. Nothing can tempt Him. He's got no selfish desires. He's only got desires of goodness towards you, about that concerning love towards you and I. But it's our flesh that must endure the passion. Verse 14, that each one is tempted. We are tempted when we are drawn away, when we are pulled, when we are attracted like a magnet.

You know, you think about it as children who used to play with magnets of same polarity and different polarity and you kind of pull them out, but you get them and they go like this. It attracts. It's a very strong pull. These pulls of human nature are very strong.

We've got to fight them. We've got to keep away, you know? And you've got the magnet to do it is keep away from it. Don't bring it near because it's going to boom! It's going to get together. You've got to keep it away from it. We're going in the opposite direction. This is Yahweh. When desire... I say Yahweh. Every man is drawn away by his own desires. By our own lusts, our own desires, our own pulls. And that is enticing. That kind of gets bigger.

It gets bigger. And if you leave it there, that pull becomes bigger and bigger. And when the desire is conceived, it brings forth sin. It really causes you to say like it caused pain. And when it's full ground, the result of that is death. Eternal death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from the path and comes down from the Father of lights. We feel there's no variation of shadow of turning.

Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. By his own will, God brought us forth. He begotten us. He made us begotten children of God. By the word of truth. By the truth. Then we may be a kind of first-prout. So then we may be the first-prout of his creatures.

Like first-prout of the field, we're going to be a kind of that, but spiritual first-prout. We are begotten by the word of truth. Not perception, not lives, but truth. Pure truth. Read a little bit further in chapter 4 of the same book, James chapter 4, verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires, your lusts, for pleasure, than war in your members? Where do these troubles come from? From our own desires. And he says, you lust, and you do not have. You desire, and you don't have, and you murder, and covet, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have, because you do not ask.

And you ask and do not receive, because you ask for the wrong purpose, that you may spend it in your pleasures, in your desires, in your lusts. If you ask so that you're doing that, so you can serve others, and it's a whole different attitude.

But when you ask just for selfish pleasure, why is God going to give more of that to you? Adulterist and adulterist. Why were they adulterist and adulterist? Because they had made a covenant with God called the Old Covenant, to obey God, and to follow God, and to do the right things with God, to stay loyal to that covenant. And that's what they promised. They said, yes, we will do.

They said, in front of Moses, right there in Mount Sinai, yes, we will do. And God said, I wish he always had that mind. But they broke that covenant. It was like a marriage covenant, being married to God, and they broke that covenant, they committed fornication. In other words, they had adulterist and adulterist spiritually speaking. Do you not know that friendship with the world is coming to you with God? Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you think that the scripture says in fine, the Spirit who dwells in us? There is the human spirit. There is the Spirit of man in man. The Spirit of man in man, if your Bible's got it in capitals, it's wrong, it should not be in capitals, because it's the Spirit of man in man.

The Spirit that dwells in us, that's the Spirit of man in man in us, yearns jealousy as desires. And we have to overcome them. We're going to rule them with what? With the power of God's Holy Spirit, which is God's power. All the good things come from God to fight and overcome that. But the Spirit that dwells in us, which is the Spirit of man in man, yearns as a pull, as a desire for the wrong things.

But he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the prop that gives grace to the humble. When you and I understand how evil lust is, which is in us, that's why at baptism I make sure that we all understand, and we're not just repenting of what we have done, but we're repenting of what we are. I underline that a number of times. We're going to repent of what we are. That is the Spirit of man in man, as it says here, yearns jealousy. That's what we are. That's what we have to repent. So when you and I understand how evil that lust in us is, and it is in us, it's present in us, it's what we are, that is very humbling.

It is very humbling. Because we all say things wrong, say imperfections, we all have to repent of things. And that's why he says God resists the prop that gives grace to the humble. Because when we recognize that, and when we humble ourselves, and we go to God for forgiveness, he forgives us. But there is a Spirit of repentance, which means of not doing it again. And that is very humbling. Our people, our nation, our country, and our countries around the world are paying a heavy price for listening to this human desire of lust. Because they disobey God, and they do as they please. It's the modern age. You do as you please. Look with me to Proverbs 29 verse 18. 29 verse 18 says, where there is no revelation that people cost off restraint. In a margin model, marching has a prophetic vision. When there is no vision of what we've got to do, and God's given us a good vision to be sons and daughters of God. He's given us a goal to be His children. It's a wonderful vision. It's a wonderful goal. As we read early on, precious glory that we can't even begin to understand and comprehend.

Because we have that, we have some restraint. We want to overcome. We want to have that self-discipline to keep ourselves clean. But when people don't have that vision, that's what's in this world. That's why Satan is deceiving the world, so they don't see the purpose of mankind to be children of God. That's why he deceives the world with going to heaven or going to hell, or the Trinity, or things like that, so that people don't see the goal. And once they don't see the goal, they cost off restraint. You see, the people then go wild. And that's what we see in the world today. People are just going wild. That spirit of murder is in the world. We see killings, beheadings, and things like that. And it's just some terrible brethren. And I fear, I fear, for a few years down the road, because we are arming and teaching people that are not kind of the most ethical people, put a just mild name, how to kill others. And we're arming them and giving them that capability. Really, those people are going to turn against us. And we've trained them to turn against us. Those are the unforeseen consequences of things that we do today. And it's frightful. It is frightful. Because there's no restraint. There's no profundic mission. The people cost off restraint. But happy is he who keeps the law. Because the law is the guidelines of God to have proper love. It's the ten little rivers that keeps that water of love guidelines where to channel love in those ten rivers.

Brethren, this world is gone wrong. There's no question about it. We must put on the new man. We read the scriptures. Put on takeoff, old man. Put on the new man.

Brethren, I want you to remember that model prayer. The model prayer says, give us this day our daily bread. You don't have to turn eggs in Matthew 6. You don't have to turn eggs in. That is obviously our physical bread. But it is the spiritual bread that you and I need every day, which is God's only Spirit. Please let us not forget to pray every day for the power of God's only Spirit. That we may have that power in just a greater measure, as we heard during the Day of Prophets. That we may have that measure, a greater measure, every day, so that we may reach this type of fullness. We need to work on that, brethren. We need to pray for that. Give us our daily bread, our daily portion of that bread of life that is God's power for His Holy Spirit, that is Christ living in us. You and I need to remember that every day. We need to pray that day. And then it says, lead us not into temptation. You know, brethren, what it means is it says, lead us. God, lead us. We're not into temptation. See, lead us the right way, because our human nature is leading us into temptation. So lead us not the way that our human nature wants to go. We need to be praying that every day, because those temptations, those desires are there, and they come like they come through your blind spot. You know, when you drive and suddenly you think you're going to turn left, and suddenly there was a car in your blind spot, and there's somebody on the left. I didn't even notice. These temptations come from a blind spot. Satan knows how to put them there, right there on the blind spot, and cast to us when we're not expecting. So we need to pray to God. Lead us in the opposite direction, and deliver us from the power of that evil one, which is Satan and that evil. Deliver us from that power. That is not for me alone, but it's for us. The pronoun is us, not deliver me, not give me the deliberate, not lead me, but it's lead us and give us and deliver us. The pronoun is for us, for one another.

We need to keep that in mind every day. Let's turn back to the scripture we started with, which is in 2 Peter chapter 1. We are coming to the feast, and we're coming to see that God is going to bring peace into this world, and God is going to fix the world. But in meantime, our job of doing God's work is twofold. And our seal describes it beautifully. I think God inspired it. Because, yes, we've got an outward responsibility of preaching gospel. That's part of doing the work. But also, part of doing the work is preparing people, which means you and I have to be working on ourselves to be prepared to be changed with the power of God's Holy Spirit, and working on us to become more like God. You know what's putting God in us in us. And that's what these verses which I started the sermon with, and I want to conclude with as well, which is 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 and 4. He's a vine power. God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, has given us to us all things that pertain to eternal life and Godness. It's given us all the power that we need to do that our part. We just need to use it. We mustn't quench it. We mustn't kind of put it away. We must use it. It's there. And it's the power of God. You can overcome because you have the power of God. You just have to pray for it, that you have it, dilute, and pray that God would lead you in the opposite direction, and help you with that. And you are going to do your part. This is through the knowledge of Him who called us to glory and virtue, by which we have been given to us a exceedingly great and precious promise. We have a prophetic vision! You see, when there's no vision, where there's no prophetic, people don't restrain. We have that prophetic vision that through these you might be partakers of the divine nature. That you and I, which are the power of God's Holy Spirit and those tools, we can use it with that vision, which gives us the hope, which we're going to go onto the feast, and we're going to have that vision more clarified, is going to give us the hope and enthusiasm to actually use that tool of God's Holy Spirit to prepare people. That's God's work, preparing the people so that we have a people to rule, which is righteous, which is not corruptible, which is not subject to bribes in the world tomorrow, which is going to be you and us, those of us that persevere to begin and overcome. Who said, maybe partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through this problem, or this source of problem that you and I have to overcome, which is human lust, human desires. Brethren, these desires are very strong. These desires are very strong. But you and I must recognize our desires, and we have to control them with God's Holy Spirit.