Where Are You Taking God Today?

Once there was a dual member of the Church. This member had a Sabbath side and a weekday side. On the Sabbath, you got the member that was absorbed in godliness, in righteousness, in pursuing the things of God and the Kingdom.

On Saturday night, it's time to rest from those things and party. It's time to go out and see some entertainment that was a little bit edgy, but you know, you kind of have to recover from Saturday, and there's Saturday night. Sunday followed, and Monday, and Tuesday, and on the job, and with friends, and at home with the TV, and with books, and the radio, and other things that came to mind.

And some of the things and the words that came out of the mouth, and the stories, and sort of the rumors and the gossip. And then it was Friday night again. It's time to have that special Sabbath begin, and the costume changed, and the mind changed, and you came back to the Sabbath member once again. Have you ever known anybody like that? I know at times, to be honest with you, I have been like that in my lifetime.

And we need to be one person, a genuine member of the body of Christ. A righteous person, 24-7, as it were. Not 24-6, a godless, worldly person. And then 24-1, a godly person. Let me ask you a question.

Where was Christ on the Sabbath last week?

Where was Christ during this past week?

It's a good question. Let me ask it again. Where was Christ last Sabbath, and where was Christ this past week?

Well, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16 and get a partial answer of that. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16 says, Do you not know that you are the temple, which in the Greek means the dwelling place, of God? That's where God was last Sabbath, Jesus Christ and God the Father. They were in you. I always find it interesting how people can come into church and think, Oh, I wonder if God is here. Or some people mistakenly think that if two or more are gathered together, God shows up.

We are the temple, the dwelling place of God and Jesus Christ ourselves. And that the Spirit of God dwells in you, question mark, would be the identifier or the qualifier of that condition.

In John chapter 14 and verse 15, Jesus gives an additional qualifier. If you love me, keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper that it may abide with you forever. In other words, that helper will never leave you, never forsake you. Who do you think this is talking about?

Do you think it's just sort of a pinch of God that He puts in our mind and we sort of go with that? And we think, well, God is somewhere else. He's off somewhere. Maybe if we come to church, He might be there.

Let's read on and see what He's saying here. Who is this helper that's never going to leave or forsake us? It will abide with you. It will live with you. It will be in you forever. The Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive because He neither sees it nor hears it, but you know it for it dwells with you. Indeed, it dwells in you.

He said to the disciples here, it dwells with you. What's He talking about? He's talking about Himself. This helper dwells with you, notice the next phrase, and will be in you. Come Pentecost in 31 A.D. Jesus Christ, the helper, the Spirit came into them.

In the next verse, verse 18, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. See what this Holy Spirit is? It's very personal, isn't it? It's very God, it's very Jesus Christ, it's very them connecting, being unified with us, and them dwelling in us in the special way that Spirit beings, the God beings, do that. I don't know how that happens.

But here He's telling us a component, or an aspect, of the component of the Holy Spirit in us, in that it is God dwelling in us.

In verse 23, Jesus answered and said to Him, If there's a qualifier, anyone loves Me, He will keep My word, and My Father will love Him, and we will come to Him and make our home, Greek word, residence, with Him. So where is God right now? Where do you think Jesus Christ and God the Father are right now? If you are their home, and you are their residence, and He said, we will come and make our home with you, and I will come to you, this puts a whole new view, doesn't it, on our responsibility of being the temple, the residence, the home, of God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know not in the sense that, yes, they are in Heaven, and yes, they are on the throne, but they are also telling us that they are residing in us. What kind of responsibility does that give Me, I have to ask? It's very, very different than just thinking of the Holy Spirit as just a little pinch of the mind or the mentality of God, but rather some of God actually dwelling in Me and dwelling in you. So the question is, where are you taking God today? That's the title of the sermon. Where are you taking God today? The reason I'm asking this question is because that personalizes it, doesn't it? It just brings it right home. Every thought we think, every step we take, every decision we make, if God is living in us, where are we taking Him or trying to take Him, as the case may be?

You know you conduct yourself righteously on the Sabbath, and we push ourselves to do that. Where will you take God tonight? Where will you take God tomorrow? They say character is demonstrated best when you're by yourself and no one's watching. Where will you take God when you're alone and no one's watching tomorrow, next week, for the rest of your life?

In 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19, we are told that this is an important thing for us to consider. Do you not know that your body is the temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have from God and that you are not your own? In other words, it's not our prerogative to just take God anywhere we want.

We are actually to be going where He wants us to go, not us taking Him where we want to go. We're to follow in the footsteps of Christ, we're to follow God. He is our shepherd. For you are brought at a price, and therefore for glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. This is exciting to me, and since studying this through recently, I have a whole new perspective of what I think and what I say and where I go and what I choose. I'll give you an example just to start things off. The other day I went to the video store and had to return a video.

I dropped it off and I thought, well, I'm kind of busy, I don't have time for a video, but maybe there's something here, it's a big place, it's got to be something. I walked in there and I thought, well, now I'm alone, my wife's gone, out there with the new grand baby, what am I going to watch? I started down the aisles, looking, looking, looking, looking, and I don't know that.

Well, that looks like a good movie, but I want to wait and see that with her, I don't see that alone. So, keep looking. Well, that's a documentary, but she ought to see that too. And there's all kinds of junk. I went through that place for an hour and walked out of there. Some of them I thought, you know, that looks kind of interesting, but murder and mayhem? Am I going to take God there? Are we going to go home and sit down and watch everybody get blown up and killed and, you know, right there on the covers, like somebody's got a knife and then the next one you go over, somebody's got a gun, next one you go over, you know, some crazy things.

I'm thinking, where am I going to take God in all of this stuff? And I just finally left. I just, not going to do it. Just not going to do it. Now, I only use that as an example of if you begin to think when you do and say and go, where am I taking God? It can really have an effect on what you choose to do.

In Galatians 5, verse 16, it says, walk in the Spirit. If the Spirit of God is in us, we should walk in that Spirit. If that's God in us, we should walk in God and in godliness. If we walk in godliness, it says, you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. There is a huge helper right there, just realizing that God is in you, and the things that maybe you would want to say or think or do, those shouldn't be done. Not in the presence of God, certainly not trying to tote God along.

And therefore, you won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that's in your body. You've got the carnal side, you say, let's go this way. And you say, wait a minute, God's there and He's inspiring you to say, hello, I'm here.

Are we really going to do this? I don't think so. And the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you cannot do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, what is the Spirit? God in us. You are not under the death penalty of the law. That means salvation is in your future, in my future. If we are led by God, we are not under the penalty of eternal death.

Because we're trying to do what's right. We're trying to live a godly way. We'd like to give you some places today, five places that God does not want to go. Five places that God does not want you to take Him. And two places He does want you to take Him. Since you're the temple of His Holy Spirit and you're going places, I think it's good for us to stop and examine some of the places that He wants to go and some of the places simply He's not going to go. The first place is God will not go with you to visit Satan. You ever think about that?

If you're going to go over and have a little rendezvous with the devil, do you think God's going to go along? Oh, you know what? It's been a busy day. It's been a tough day. Let's go out and party. Let's go out and get with the world and do some crazy thing. That's Satan's night world mentality. I think God's going to say, Oh yeah, it's been a long day up here in heaven, too.

He's going to go over and hang out with the devil for a while this evening. Kick back!

He says in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 15, And what accord has Christ with Belial? Which is a term referring to the devil. What accord has Christ in the devil? You think you're going to go get those two together? There's enmity between them. They are arch enemies. They are having a universal war that's going to conclude at the return of Jesus Christ with one of them being bound. We shouldn't think that we can take God with us to go visit Satan. In fact, to show how strong enemies they are, Jesus Christ gave a little parable, a tiny little parable. It's almost from His perspective. If you want to see it from His perspective, He gave us just a little parable. It's found in Mark chapter 3 and verse 27. It almost doesn't fit within the context of the other passages around it. It's just sort of dropped in there as an insight. He says, No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house. Now, what do you think that means? Well, that's all about what Jesus Christ is planning to do. He says, No one can enter a strong man's house. That's this era, this world, this cosmos with Satan, the devil, and his demons ruling it. He is a very strong man. Unless first, he binds the strong man. Of course, you know in Revelation 20 and verse 2, he laid hold of that dragon, that serpent of old, who was the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And then he says, and then he will go in and plunder his goods. And we're going to help him. Go in and plunder the people. Plunder humanity, as it were, for godliness, and establish a kingdom, and take that over. But do you think that you can schmooze with both of these rifles? I think at times we think we can't. Sure, it's okay. I've got God in me, but I'm just going to do a little detour over here and do something that's not right. I know I shouldn't gossip, I shouldn't do that. But I know I shouldn't lie, but I know I shouldn't be around that type of mentality.

But in Matthew 16, verse 22, let's notice an example of whether or not God is going to go with us to be with Satan. Just for a little visit, just for a moment, just to sort of switch minds for a minute. We've got the carnal side, and sometimes you just gotta go to the carnal side. Get in touch with your carnal side. I've been spiritual all day. I'm going to get in touch with my carnal side.

God thinks God's going to go there. Matthew 16, verse 22-23. Then Peter took Christ aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Lord, far be it from you, this won't happen to you. You're not going to die. We're not going to let that happen. We're going to keep you from dying for the sins of humanity. We don't want to change the status quo here. We don't want to knock the devil off his throne.

We don't want anybody to have their sins forgiven and be in the kingdom of God. Peter's not saying that, but that's what Christ is hearing, you see. Because he says in the next verse, You get behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. See, when we get into that carnal side, when we get into our own way of thinking, God identifies us with being of Satan. And notice what he said. He didn't say, well, okay, we'll go over there and hang out.

No, you get behind me, Satan. How many times has God said that about John Elliot? I wonder. I'm shamed to even think about that. I'm just ready to apologize and go forward from here, because how many times do we think or say things that we consider little? And yet, God can't go with us or do things or wander off into things of this world, of Satan's world. And be told, get behind me, Satan.

You are an offense to me, because you are not mindful right this minute of the things of God, but of the things of men. Do you think God will be okay at our raunchy party, our raunchy entertainment, our raunchy thoughts, our raunchy words? See, here's the problem we create for ourselves when we decide to take God around the devil. The problem is, not with God. The problem is, we are exposed to a very dangerous situation. 1 Peter 5.8 says, You be sober and you be vigilant because your adversary, and you notice what's being said here?

It's not our adversary. It's not us. It's no longer God and me and you. And you know, you be careful. Don't take us there. No, all of a sudden, it's your problem. You be sober and be vigilant because your adversary, a solo problem here, the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I don't know if you've ever gone head to head with a lion bare-handed, but it's a very unfair fight. Very unfair. And you don't want to go there without armor. And that's the whole point of 1 Peter 5.

You don't want to go there by yourself. If you do, you're armorless. Without God, you're absolutely armorless. The solution, if we have to mess with the devil, and in fact, we all do, the solution is found in Ephesians 6 and verse 11, and that is, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil. You can't do that by yourself.

So if we say, oh, yeah, I'm going to go over here and be with the devil and God's going to come with me, he's not going. No, you're going on your own. And that's a very dangerous place to be, isn't it? Terribly dangerous place to be. So what's the solution? Put on the armor of God, and what is that?

Verse 14 of Ephesians 6, Stand therefore, having your waist girded with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. What is truth? Jesus Christ is truth. He's the way, the truth, and the life. He's the logos. You be girded with God. You have God in you. You have righteousness. How do you have righteousness? You and I can't do righteousness, but if God is in us, He can do righteousness. The whole point is, if you have an encounter of Satan, have God with you. Then you're in good shape. You're really in good shape. But if we go over there and try it alone, it's going to be absolutely horrible. We've got to resist Satan. We've got to hate his devices.

We've got to hate his way and never just sort of decide, oh, I just wander over there. God's going to go with me. The second thing that God doesn't want to go with us into is sin. God and the Holy Spirit actually aren't going to go with us into sin. We all sin. Sometimes we become weak and we have these passions of envy and jealousy and lust and greed and vanity and whatever else wells up. And the Holy Spirit tells us, don't do that.

And we say, oh, but I've got to do that. And we just do it. You think God is with us in sin?

Transgressing against the Holy Spirit means to transgress against the God that is in us, that part of God that dwells in us, to knowingly, willingly have God there and then right in his face decide to do the antithesis of everything that he stands for. David was a man after God's own heart some of the time. Some of the time. David was obedient to God some of the time. God was with David some of the time. You think God was in David and with David all of the time? Let's look. Let's go back to 2 Samuel 11 and verse 3. 2 Samuel 11, beginning in verse 3.

David's home from a battle. The battle is still raging. He goes up, looks down and sees a woman. She's going through purification rites. And verse 3, sinned and inquired about the woman. And someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who's fighting for you and your army? And then David sent messengers and took her. You think God is with him? Hey, David, what are you doing? Well, we're going to go down there and get this woman. Oh, don't do that. Oh, yeah, we've got to do that. Oh, well. Okay. No. And she came to him and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity.

And she returned to her house and the woman could see. So she sent and told David and said, I'm with child. Verse 14, in the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab, the head of his forces, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He said, God is with him. He's just hanging out there, going through all this. And then he schemes and says, let's see. Hmm.

Well, bring your husband home. Okay, that didn't work. All right, what I'm going to do is I'm going to write a letter that says here, take the bearer of this letter and kill him. Right? The husband of this woman I'm having this affair with, kill him. And we'll let him bear his own death sentence to you and you kill him. God was in that? Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, then pull back from him, that he can be struck down and die.

You have lust, you have covetousness, you have lying, you have murder. These are not things that God is going to be part of. God was not along for that ride. It just says in verse 27, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Following the events that took place, what was David feeling? There's two notable things that David mentioned in Psalm 51, which is a Psalm that he wrote following his repentance from this thing that was ongoing for some time. Psalm 51 verse 11, Do not cast me away from your presence.

Why did he say that if he didn't feel like he had been cast away from God's presence? And the second thing he says, And do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Why would he say that if he didn't think that God had taken his Holy Spirit from him? God doesn't go with us into sin. In the next verse he says, Restore, which the Hebrew means return back.

Return back to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit. Something had been lost, and something needed to be restored. And it was God, no doubt, in him. Isaiah 55 verse 7 talks about returning to God, those who have God needing to return to him, because he's not there. He's gone. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord. There was a separation. Your sins and iniquities, they have separated you from God, we read in the Bible.

God is not there for sin. Sin is ultimately going to be rewarded with final separation, permanent separation from God. In Galatians chapter 6 and verse 8, it says, For he who sows to his flesh will of his flesh reap corruption. You know what corruption is? Corruption is when you rot, and you blow it up, and you burst, and you rot, and you stink, and it's really, really nasty. That's corruption. So if we sow to our flesh, that's what we're going to reap in the short term, and then ultimately the lake of fire.

God's not going there. God's not about corruption. God's not about the lake of fire. The lake of fire is where Satan is. You know, the beast and the false prophet are cast into a small lake of fire, Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem.

It's representative of the lake of fire. Satan the devil is captured and bound, and he's thrown in that burning pit, symbolically. You can see what's going in the lake of fire. Ultimately, all those who reject God in the flesh will burn up in the lake of fire. God's not going to go with us there. He's not going to go with me into the lake of fire. He's just not going to do that. But in the third resurrection, we don't go into this literal lake of fire with God.

But it says, He who sows to the Spirit. Now, if you sow to God living in you, you will of the Spirit of God reap everlasting life with God, where God is. The Bible's all about that. God is going to be with the godly forever. So, point number two, don't think that God will go with you into sin, or into the ultimate consequence of sin, the lake of fire. It's not going to happen.

And third, God will not go with you into relationships with Satan's children. Now, to be blunt, not all the children today are children of God. God says in 2 Corinthians 6, 17, through the Apostle Paul, You come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and if you do that, I will receive you.

God's only going to receive us. He's only going to be with us and in us if we are separate from the children of Satan. Now, we were all the children of Satan. Jesus said, You are of your Father the devil. But some of us have been enlightened and have retreated from that. Those activities, those mentalities. And if we desire to go back and be joined together, then the opposite of this would take place and God will not receive us. In Jude, the book of Jude, it only has one chapter. In verse 18, they told you that there would be mockers. Mockers of God, mockers of church members, mockers of God's truth. See, here's the problem. The children of Satan are mockers of God, his truth, his way. Why would God want to go get involved in relationships of people that mock him? And why would we? It says, In the last time these will happen, who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts, ungodly, the opposite of God in us. These are sensual persons who cause divisions. Who causes divisions? Satan causes divisions. That mentality causes divisions. God does the opposite. He stitches together, heals relationships. Not having the Spirit. Verse 20, But you, beloved, there's something unique about you and me, we are called beloved. Building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Don't sever that relationship. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Don't have the love of God removed. Don't have God and His love removed. You keep yourselves in that. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. You know, we came from a dysfunctional father, Satan. You talk about a dysfunctional father. Extremely dysfunctional. Just think it through with Satan and the demons and all the dysfunction that is there. He's a liar. He's a murderer. He's the father of it. He has no future. He's suicidal. He wants to get you killed. Frankly, Satan wants to kill all of us. He wants to wipe us out. God is not going to go along with children of that. And He does not want us to go there. If we choose to go there and have bonding relationships that are covenant-type relationships. Notice what he says about this. In 1 John 3 verse 7, Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as God is righteous. He who sins is of the devil. See, it's not just a whole world full of really nice people and we all are just the same. Righteousness are the children of God, and those who sin by a way of life, they are of the devil.

Verse 10, And this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. So we have to separate ourselves from the children of the enemy of Jesus Christ. And God's not going to go with us into those relationships. Now, if you'd like some proof of that, let's go to 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14. We'll see God tell us that himself. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14.

We are called the light of the world. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the light, is in us. That's where he lives. We are now the light of the world because he is in us and he is the light of the world through us. What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? Now, I'm not talking about in casual relationships, working relationships, pseudo-niceties and friendships and neighbors and things like that. I'm talking about two people whose lives become inexorably entwined in some way. Covenant types of things, contractual types of things. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. Now, notice what all God has said. I will dwell in them. I will dwell in them. And I will walk among them. And I will be their God. And they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. And if you do all these things, I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. But notice the qualifier. He doesn't just say, Okay, you're my sons and daughters, and I'll be with you, and I'll be in you. No? If you do these things, if you separate yourselves, then he says, I will be a father to you, and you'll be my sons and daughters. The fourth thing that God will not go with us into is the rejection of godliness and God's laws. God lives in you if you have his Holy Spirit. For those of you who haven't been baptized yet, but appreciate God's Word, you appreciate his ways, you're trying to do it the best you can, you are sampling God, you are sampling his nature, you are sampling what he is, what he stands for, what his kingdom is, the bounty of his love and his graciousness, all the good things of God. Hebrews 6.4 talks about the person who decides, having sampled all that, to say, I don't want that, I don't want that. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gifts and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. These are the people who have really sampled what God is about and have tasted all these things, the good Word of God, the powers of the age to come. You have tasted the millennial life now and then, verse 6, if they fall away, fall away, they don't cling to it, they let it go. They say, I don't want that. I don't want godliness, I don't want love, I don't want the kingdom, I don't want the millennium, I don't want these things. I want to pursue something else. It's impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. You know what people do when they taste it and then they leave? They just slander God. Oh, I live that way of God. It was terrible. It was awful. I was in the church and we had to do this, we had to love our brother, we had to tithe, we had to give to other people. We had to think about this world tomorrow, nothing for me and nothing for myself. And it was always humility and happiness. I'm sick of that. Don't go there. It's terrible. What are they saying? They're putting God to open shame.

For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated receive a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars and is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned, but, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, the things that accompany salvation.

We are not going that way. But if we ever did, God will not go into what's called the unpardonable sin or the transgressing against the Holy Spirit. You can't transgress against the Holy Spirit unless the Holy Spirit's been in you.

In Luke 12, verse 10, Jesus Christ says, Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. People can trash the name of God. They do it all the time. In our neighborhood, you just open the doors and the kids in the park are taking God's name in vain in terrible ways.

That will be forgiven them. And he says it right up to him. That's not a problem. That will be forgiven them. But notice the next. But to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit. How do you do that? Those kids can't blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. They don't have the Holy Spirit in them. They don't have God living in them. To those who have God living in them and then they blaspheme against God, it says that it will not be forgiven.

They're not blinded. They've sampled. They've tasted as we read in Hebrews. And they've rejected it.

It says in Hebrews 10.29, Of how much worse punishment do you suppose, He will be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified as a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of God's graciousness. See? That is a place God's not going to go. And that's considered the unpardonable sin. That's the end of it.

The fifth place God will not be taken is into false doctrine. Now be careful with this one because we all go there from time to time, believe it or not. We'll all be reading our Bible. We'll all come up with some concept, some construct. See things a new way. It says in 1 Timothy 4 and verse 1, Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith. How do they depart from the faith? They've got something in their head that says, I know more than the church. I know more than the ministry. I know more and I'm going to go to this other doctrine or thinking or a way of living. Some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. See, that's the only place you can go. If you have a doctrine different than the one that Christ gave the disciples, it's written in the Bible and transferred down through the church, through the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and pastors and teachers who are there to prevent every wind of doctrine blowing through the church. If you fall for anything else, it's a doctrine of demons. And yet we all come across these little things. Ooh, that one's interesting. Oh, that's an idea. I kind of have this. The church teaches that, but I feel this. But what are you saying? God feels this, and I feel this. Is God divided? Is God truth and error? Is God going to go with you or me into false doctrine? Jesus Christ, after all, is the Word. He is the Logos. He is the truth. It says in Ephesians 4 that there is one Lord, one faith. Just one. In 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15, it states that the house of God, the church of Jesus Christ, is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now let's understand this very clearly. From God's own Word, it's the church that is the pillar and the ground of truth.

So when you or I come up with something else that's different, what do we have? We've got something that's not of God, something that is not of truth. There's no good that can come from seeking or believing something contrary to what God has taught. Only confusion and arguments that come from personal heresies. And I know we all get them from time to time. We think, Oh, what about this and that? Oh, I think this and that. We ought to do this. And what are we saying? We want to do something different than the church. We want to believe something different than the church, which Christ established. And Christ is guiding and continues to be the pillar and the ground of truth. It's the church of the living God. It's not somebody else's church. I didn't make up the church. I'm in the church. You're in the church. But it's Christ's church. It's His body.

Even if it's a minor point and the church teaches this way and you believe that way, God's not going to go with you into error. It's not going to say, Okay, I know I've taught this forever, but you bring up a new point.

So I'll teach this, but we'll go that way. I'm for this, but we're for that. That would be dumb, wouldn't it? You know the Scriptures, God's not the author of confusion. He certainly says the house divided against itself cannot stand.

Now, there are a couple of places that God will go with us. These are encouraging. God will go with you into righteousness, into good works, into godliness. God will go with you into righteousness. 1 Peter 1, verse 20, says that, He, Jesus Christ, was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in God, who raised Christ from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

Since you have purified your lives in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. See how all this works together? Our knowledge of God came through Christ revealing it, and He was sent here and revealed, manifested to us physically, so that He could show us God in the Kingdom. And when the Spirit lives in us, they through the Spirit dwell in us so that righteousness and righteous acts for eternal life are created.

God goes with us into righteousness. Verse 23, having been born again, or the Greek word, geneo, engendered from a new Father, one from above, our Father in Heaven, we are engendered from above, beginning a new family we have been attached to, and adopted in that full Roman sense of sonship, total sonship, into a family that we didn't initially belong to. Not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed, through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. And right now, it's living and abiding in you and me. When we are in that state of mind, Hebrews 13.5 kicks in, and only when we are in that state of mind.

When we are pursuing righteousness, and we are taking God in the right direction, which in actual fact is God taking us in the right direction, but it seems like we are doing it, doing these righteous acts, which actually God is inspiring us to do, so He is doing them. Then Hebrews 13.5 kicks in, where the latter part it says, For He Himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. He's never going to leave or forsake us, but we often leave and forsake Him and go places we don't take Him.

The first five things I mentioned were places we leave. We depart. We leave God behind, because He's not going there. But He'll never leave us or forsake us when we are pursuing godliness. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. What is the Spirit?

The Helper. What's the Lord? He is the Helper. That's the one living in us. I will not fear, what can man do to me? After all, I have God living in me. You can say that. What can man do to me? God lives in me. And when I'm pursuing Him, everything can only work out well. Well. The last point is that God will go with you into His Kingdom. I know it's kind of a reverse, but as we pursue the Kingdom of God, God will go with you all the way into that Kingdom. Actually, we will go with God all the way into the Kingdom.

But from our perspective, as we travel this road, this difficult, narrow path, God will take us all the way. In John, I'll read three Scriptures from John. John 17, 24, Jesus, in His Prayer to God from the Garden of Gethsemane, says, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am. We're going to be with Him. That they may behold my glory which you have given me. We're going to be with Him in glory.

For you love me before the foundation of the world. In John 14, 4, He says to us, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. He will go with us. He will bring us to Him and bring us with Him. And we will be together forever.

Verse 16 of John 14, and I will pray the Father and He will give you another help, or that He may abide with you forever. God's going to live with us for all eternity. He will go with us into the Kingdom and stay with us, the Spirit of truth. But you know it for it dwells with you and will be in you, as we read before, and now is in us. I will not leave you orphans.

I will come to you. So, brethren, God is your helper. God has put His Spirit in you. And in fact, God's Spirit in you is God living in you. The question is, do you appreciate God living in you? Are you really a good dwelling place? And am I a good dwelling place for God the Father and Jesus Christ? We need to watch every step that we make, everything that we say, because we want to take God to good places and we want Him to always be with us. So, as you go on from here, and as I go on from here, let's ask ourselves the question, where are we taking God today?