2 Corinthians 7 - Pastor Jonathan Shelley | Stedfast Baptist Church

Amen we're here in chapter seven of our study through second Corinthians and I feel like the

doctrine and what's happening in these passages is is really great content but unfortunately it's

very difficult language and so I think a lot of times things are missed and so my goal through

these chapters is really just to try and and break things down and hopefully we can really

understand what the chapter's saying but it says here in verse number one having therefore these

promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit

perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now I want to take a few minutes to really unpack this

particular verse in the Bible but it is telling us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the

flesh and spirit which makes sense considering our previous chapter and our previous chapter

it's really emphasizing separation and so separation from the idolatry separation from

unbelievers and it's trying to say hey come out from among them and be separate say at the Lord

and that he wants to be a father unto them and that they're going to be a good ambassador

and there's a lot of language just kind of describing the process of sanctification

in a practical sense practically speaking if you want to be more holy if you want to be

more Christ-like you can't hang out with the world and be really godly you can't just be with

false religion and be really godly you have to separate yourself in some way practically speaking

meaning you're gonna have different friends you're gonna actually go to church you're gonna be around

God's people these are just practical steps to help us in the cleansing of ourself from

the flesh and cleansing ourself from what the Bible says the spirit here notice perfecting

holiness in the fear of God the word holy means to be set apart now the Bible will use different

words to say the same thing it'll just say sometimes this is set apart sometimes it'll

say sanctify sanctify is in a lot of cases the process of setting something apart holiness is kind

of like you've arrived at being set apart so there's the idea hey i want to set this apart

so then i sanctify it by setting it apart trying to set it apart and then once it is set apart it's

holy so you know when we're striving for holiness we're striving to sanctify we're trying to set

separate something we're trying to make it different we're trying to make it unique we're making it

stand out and perfecting again is completing accomplishing this particular goal and notice

what causes you or what should be the motivation for us to set ourselves apart the Bible says the

fear of God so how in the world could you then downplay the fear of God if this is what actually

motivates us to be Christ like you know there's this idea that you're sanctified just fully

in every way the moment you get saved and this is not true act this is not true according to

Bible there is a sanctification that happens in the sense that you've been set apart from the world

as now you're saved you've been sanctified in the sense that now you're a son of God so you've been

set apart in that sense but then there's another practical step of acting like a child of God

that's a progressive sanctification that we should go through in the rest of our lives

so you an identity become a child of God but then you should start acting like a child of God

by separating yourself and allowing God to be a father to you in a practical sense and of course

that's what chapter six is really articulating and notice what causes you to be sanctified is the

fear of God whereas I've heard preachers get up and say well actually we're automatically

sanctified and the fear of God is a wrong spirit it's demonic it's satanic you know and again

that's the exact opposite of what the Bible is saying the Bible is actually saying the fear

of God is what caused you to be sanctified and isn't it funny that the same guy who teaches your

automatically sanctified is becoming less set apart through his actions and let's be specific

we're talking about Joe Jones okay Joe Jones a guy that used to be a fundamental Baptist

and used to have a lot of high standards that come with typical fundamental Baptist

you know beliefs he just it just changed his church is no longer fundamental Baptist church

it's like heritage of grace community I don't know what it is it's just a bunch of words

thrown together it's a word salad but the guy is now you know now we don't need to wear shirts

and ties at church anymore and now it's just a house church and now you know it doesn't matter if

men dress like men women dress like women it's just you know just all these different beliefs

and all these different standards that a lot of fundamental Baptist have it's just like

no we don't need that we're not going to do that anymore and so in fact they're not separating

themselves anymore they're actually becoming more like the world and then he also simultaneously

teaches that we don't need to fear God that it would be wrong to fear God that Christian shouldn't

fear the Lord this is a bad attitude that God won't punish Christians you know we'll sometimes

suffer the consequences of sin because they have natural consequences but it's not that God would

actually really be actively punishing his children or or doing anything like this to them

whereas the bible teaches the exact opposite the bible says that for whom I love I

chasen he's like hey those who I love I rebuke and chasen you know be zels therefore and repent you

know he's telling like hey if you be without chastisement then are you a bastard and not a son

as Hebrews clearly articulates so again these ideas are really ingrained and everywhere in the text

that hey sanctification is a process after salvation and it's something that we

accomplish through the fear of God now what are we fearing exactly we're not fearing hell

hell has been taken off the table if you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ you are saved

you can never go to hell that's very clear in the bible and once you're saved you're always saved

you have eternal life you're a child of God you're now as an identity of child of God you can

never change that nothing will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our

Lord but that doesn't mean that you're absolved of all consequence and what I I try to articulate

sometimes when I'm preaching the gospel or you know if I'm going out I'm knocking on someone's

door and I'm talking to them about the gospel is I'll say well look if you get saved your eternal

consequence has been satisfied but your temporary consequence in no way has been satisfied meaning

that if you do something against God you've sinned against God there can still be consequences

in this life for that sin and getting saved isn't going to stop you from receiving that

if anything it causes you to have a higher likelihood of being punished and receiving

consequence in this life but your eternal consequence has been satisfied because think about it that's

what Jesus really did Jesus really died and he really went to hell and he really bore our sins

and he really rose again from the dead so he took care of and satisfied our eternal consequence

for sin but he did not say well now if you lie steal cheat commit murder there'll be no

earthly consequence and God would never punish you it's exact opposite and in the same way that

a father loves his children you know a father or mother that loves their children they will still

punish them and the reason why they even punish them in the first place is because they love them

according to the bible the bible says he that spared this his rod hated the son it doesn't

say he loves them it says he hates them because the reason why you punish your children

is because you love them you want them to be well behaved and you don't want them to

suffer the consequences of bad actions of bad behaviors of destructive lifestyles and so you're

trying to warn them and teach them to be good and to have good manners and to have a good lifestyle

and a good you know conscience and a good attitude and these things are important to help them be

successful in life and so someone that doesn't want to punish actually has the bad spirit

now this is important I think and just for me when I read verse number one I get a little

confused when I see this you know it says from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit because a lot

of times in the bible the word spirit typically is referring to things of god or is talking about

like the holy spirit and so it's it's like how do you have the filthiness of the spirit

but the bible actually does bring this up a couple different places and I want to

go through some verses with you to look at this but go to first Corinthians chapter two

and let's kind of get an idea of what we're talking about because the bible is saying

that we can have a filthiness in our spirit okay now what I I believe and I didn't even look this up

you can look it up yourself but what I believe the bible means by spirit is a couple different

things here's some synonymous words that I would use to describe spirit would be attitude

mentality desire or affection and I think that you know we we even understand that

even though you're saved you can still have a bad attitude you still have a bad mentality

you can still have bad desires you can still have bad affections and the bible talks about

the spirit of man as being distinct from the spirit of god now I'll show you this look at

first Corinthians two verse number 11 for what man know what the things of a man save the spirit

of man which is in him even so the things of god knoweth no man but the spirit of god so notice

the bible's contrasting the spirit of man from the spirit of god so we have a spirit that's within

us and it says here in verse number 12 now we have received not the spirit of the world

but the spirit which is of god that we might know the things that are freely given to us

of god so again the bible is talking about the spirit of man versus the spirit of god

so I was talking about the spirit of the world versus the spirit of god so even though you're saved

you still are going to have the spirit of man period and then number two you can have bad spirits

affecting you in this world which the bible is describing a spirit of the world what is that

like a mindset of the world an affection of the world an attitude of the world being a

worldly Christian this would be someone having a bad spirit okay and so we have to understand

that even though you're saved we want to also try to get away from those type of spirits and

those type of attitudes and those type of mentalities that the bible is warning against let's

let's go to a few other verses and we'll see some of this look at if you would

Ephesians chapter four Ephesians chapter number four and how the bible talks about

it's important for us to clean up our spirit now what is the spirit of man well

you know I think in other passages when we contrast these ideas there's the idea of

like the spirit of like an animal versus the spirit of like a man and in the sense that

you know an animal doesn't fully understand what it's like to be a human and a human doesn't

necessarily have the same attitudes as an animal so you know who understands what it's like to

be a man that would be a man right mankind understands what the human experiences and animals

have a different experience and of course Jesus Christ the bible even says that he took he was

a partaker of our nature so that he would know what it was like to be like us and to have that

kind of experience okay and so but here's the thing being a man and all that is to be

mankind and all the attitudes and all the mentalities and all the things that

all the experiences that we have are not the spirit of God and so you can't understand the bible on

your own you still need the spirit of God to enlighten you and to teach us the word of God

and so that's why the carnal mind doesn't understand the things of God that's why false

religion can't understand the bible fully now they can understand the the the carnal aspects

of the bible okay a carnal person can understand the carnal truths found in the bible you know

the bible says hey honor your father and mother it doesn't take a spiritual person to understand

that you should obey your mom and dad okay it doesn't take a spiritual person to understand

that the death penalty is what God requires for murder and that that's the right attitude okay

it doesn't take it doesn't take the spirit of God to know that children should obey their

parents and love their parents and the fathers should love their children and children should

love their fathers and but these are this is what the bible describes natural and a natural

thing would be what's in the spirit of man in the spirit of man is the attitude to love mom and dad

and for mom and dad to love their children and for you to obey and all these different things these

are just carnal truths that can be understood whether you're a Baptist a Christian saved not

saved lived on an island live in a community it doesn't matter it's just normal now the bible

warns in the end times there will be some people that are given over to a a like unnatural

state of mind and it warrants that there will be people that will be lovers of their own selves and

there'll be people without natural affection again this is an exception this is not the norm

because just virtually everyone just loves you know these these things that are what we call

natural men love women that's natural you know it'd be weird if a man doesn't love a woman

he loves men that's unnatural and it's just as unnatural and disgusting as gross as that is

would be for a woman who doesn't love her own children or would hurt or harm her own children

that's an unnatural that's without affection okay and you know I understand that obviously having

children can be difficult and I understand having relationships can be difficult but there's just

a natural love that we have for these things there's a natural tendency for these things

and that is not of God so if you see someone that loves their children deeply we can't be

conclude this person's saved this person's of God you know I heard Matt Walsh get up and he teaches

like a really weird universalist doctrine not even like a very traditional catholic doctrine even though

our catholic doctrine even though he's a catholic he's kind of basically teaching universalism and

he was basically just saying if anybody just loves anything then I think God can work with that

and I think that they're gonna ultimately find their way to heaven you know and it's just

like look it's not thou shalt love anything and go to heaven it's hey believe on the Lord Jesus

Christ and thou shalt be saved okay and the you know to love anything is just to be normal

okay that's the default to not love anything is extremely weird reprobate unnatural you know

not the normal human experience at all okay and even reprobates in many cases still love

something they might love disgusting things they love something okay and even reprobates could

still love their own selves or love their own you know family members that like them back or

something it's not a godly attitude to love those that love you okay so those are the normal

natural things okay but along with our normal natural instincts sometimes we still have

desires that are wrong you know it's normal for a man to love a woman but you know what it's

wrong to commit fornication it's not that it's unnatural it is natural and in the spirit of man

you know he may have that desire to commit fornication but you know what that's not the spirit of God

that's the spirit of the world it's the wrong attitude and so if you get saved as a young

person if you get saved as a teenager you need to reject that spirit that you have the

commit fornication that attitude that desire that affection and you need to clean it up

and have a godly affection and say hey I am going to you know wait until I get married

it's not that it's not that it's like gross or weird or something it's normal it's natural it's

the spirit of man for that you to have desire one toward another but what is the spirit of the

world saying hey if you like them it's okay but the god's word is saying no you need to wait

no god word is saying hey you need to have this attitude you have to have this affection

Ephesians chapter 4 look at verse 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

and that you put on the new man which after god is created in righteousness and true

holiness so notice according to the bible we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds

meaning we have to get the right attitudes the right mentalities the right desires

have to be constantly refreshed in us and we're constantly cleaning ourselves up with this

that's why hanging out with the right people is going to help you have the right spirit

if you're hanging out with the wrong crowd well they may entice you

to do the things of the world it's not that they're not natural they are natural they're natural to the

carnal mind they're natural to the world they're natural to what they want to do but you know what

you have to get around the right people they're going to help you to have the right attitude

and that's perfecting us and true holiness and and going to church and again even in church you

can have bad people wanting bad affections i'm just saying in general hey you want to be around

people that want to serve god you want to read the bible you want to actually serve god

and we need to constantly renew ourselves why are you on a Wednesday night hearing the word of

god being preached hopefully it's to renew some of your spirits renew some of your attitudes

some of your desires and be recalibrated to say hey this is the right mentality this is the

right attitude that i should be having here oh go to 2nd timothy chapter one 2nd timothy chapter

one and i'm just kind of going to i'm just picking out a few verses on this but i think

this is an important point i'm spending a lot on verse one but i think i struggle a little bit

was just how that's that word spirit is being interpreted here and i think this is important

to understand 2nd timothy chapter one look at verse number seven the bible says desiring

i'm sorry i'm in the first 2nd timothy chapter one verse seven for god have not given us the

spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound mind so again notice this is a bad spirit

being afraid so you're afraid of what the world will say about you you're afraid of what the

world will do to you for serving christ or being godly and god's not giving us that spirit so

that's a spirit that we need to clean ourselves up of and not being afraid of man not being

afraid of this world look at james chapter four just flip to the right a little bit more james

chapter four so i'm just trying to give you there's there's so much more that could be

best to let the the bible tell us some of the spirits that it's bringing up so you don't want

the spirit of fear that's a bad spirit that we need to clean ourselves up from here's another one

the bible brings up in james chapter four verse five that was hitting on do you think that the

scripture says in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy so notice again like the

bible is saying hey we sometimes have this spirit in us of envy and it's causing us to lust

after or desire things that we shouldn't desire and of course again this is something that we need to

clean up we need not be envious we need to not desire that which we shouldn't have go over to

first peter chapter three verse number four and then on a positive side so it's kind of like saying

don't have this attitude here's an attitude the bible is telling us to have first first

peter chapter three verse four but let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which

is not corrupt even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of god of

great price so selling women a good spirit is one that's meek and quiet of course there's

a tendency for you know in our culture especially in our society especially for women to give

it over to feminism and and to really try to assert themselves to be manly and to be loud

and outspoken and hear me roar and and all these women getting up and saying men need to just shut

up and it's like what is the bible saying the bible is saying that a godly woman is one that's

a meek and quiet spirit you know i can't i can't even imagine my wife getting on a video

to the world and telling men that they need to shut up like can you imagine that

like i would just i would i couldn't believe it you know but there are there are pastors wise

getting on the internet just telling men they need to shut up and you know it just it just wild

and of course feminism never even makes sense anyways because you know what what is it they

usually are saying men need to shut up about well i would say number one is probably abortion

you know you see a lot of women getting up and saying you can't talk about a woman's body

you know this is my body my choice is a big mantra and they're saying you're not allowed to talk about

it and men shouldn't talk on this issue they don't know what it's like but but this is what's funny

to me in their logic men are not allowed to bring up abortion or talk about abortion whereas most

abortion doctors are men so you can have a man abort the child you can go to an office where

a man will explain to you what abortion is well probably not probably not if he did you probably

wouldn't do it but he'll at least tell you just some general instructions of what the procedure

will be like and then he'll go in and he'll he'll perform the abortion and he'll get paid for the

abortion but god forbid a man would say hey you shouldn't have a more abortion but it's like

those men need to shut up but the men that will actually perform the abortions they can

talk about it apparently it's like no how about just men can talk about whatever they want

now again i get like there is general wisdom and not necessarily being really dogmatic about

things you've never experienced you know if you've never been in the military and you're just

trying to explain exactly what it's like to be in the military you know maybe you're not always

going to give the right advice you know hey if you're a single guy and you've never had kids

you may not be the best person for everyone to go to and explain how to have and raise children

but you know what if a single guy gets up and just says what the bible says about being a good parent

you know if there's nothing wrong with that you know there's nothing wrong with someone

getting up and explaining what the bible says or here's another thing there's nothing wrong

with a single person someone that's never been married saying hey when i'm a parent this

is what i want to do with my kids or this is what i believe or hey i think this is bad parenting

because you know hopefully they are forming good opinions before they even have kids that they

could recognize like hey that doesn't look like a good form of parenting over here or hey this

doesn't look like a good idea over here and getting mad about those things it's okay for

them to have those opinions i'm not going to sit here and say single guys can't have opinions

because they're a single guy but you know what i'm not going to ask them for dating advice

because i personally you know don't think they're the best advice giver on that here right i'm not

going to go to a divorced person and say hey give me marriage advice i'm struggling in my marriage

i'm just i'm not going to do it but wait i'm not saying that they can't give their opinion

because maybe they'll say hey don't do it maybe they give good advice but you know what it's

silly when we have women in this world getting up and saying that men cannot speak on quote

women's issues or a woman's situation you know oh well you've never experienced it you know there's

women getting up saying you can't talk about postpartum depression because of this lindsay

klancy trial or case or something but according to the cdc only one and eight women experience

postpartum depression clinically diagnosed with that particular diagnosis after a birth

so does that mean seven out of eight women can't talk about it because they've never had it

i mean how what's the logic and again according to the the case she didn't even have that she had

postpartum psychosis which is a different even more different diagnosis than pbd so can only

those people talk about it it's like oh well you can't talk about murder because you've never

murdered anybody you know what you can't pastor shelly you can't talk about you know

other groups of people because you're white so you can only talk about white man

but here's the thing if i get up and only talk about white people and white issues then

i'll be considered a bad person too right i mean what have i said i'm only going to talk about

white white issues and white people and white things like everybody's like oh you're racist

or something it's like hey you know shouldn't we just be able to talk about anything we want

you know it's like hey you talk about issues with other groups of people you're bad you

talk about things are going with women you're bad how about we just get to say whatever we

want we say what the bible says that's right isn't that the isn't that the first amendment

anyways you know i like the first amendment now you're not obligated to listen to anybody's opinion

you know i you can do whatever you want but at the end of the day it's silly to have women getting

up and just saying like hey men can't have an opinion men shouldn't be talking when the

bible is saying that women are the ones that are supposed to be meek and quiet i mean think

about the logic god is saying women be quiet and then you have a woman getting up saying men

should be quiet i wonder which spirit that is well i'll tell you this it's not the spirit of god

it's not the spirit of meekness it's not the spirit of quietness it's a filthy spirit that needs

to be cleaned up by the word of god oh how dare you say that well i'm gonna say whatever i want

so buck was that about this church go if you would to uh go back to second gurney chapter

seven look i'm not saying that women aren't smart i'm not saying that women don't have good

opinions i'm not saying that women can't have experiences that you learn from look i talk to

my wife all the time and she teaches me things all the time and you know even about these issues

these these postpartum issues because i've had we've had eight pregnancies seven children

i've been there i've seen it you don't think i can't speak from experience you think you

plus years of going through that you think i was like oh pastor shelly doesn't know anything about this

like was i just not paying attention for the last 12 plus years i think i could

intelligently speak about it especially from a man's perspective from a male perspective

and again if the whole goal is to educate men on this issue wouldn't you want a man that's gone

through that to explain to other men what's going on or or now we're supposed to have

hey let's have my wife have a class for all the men to explain to them

what postpartum is like you know that doesn't even make sense it's silly it's just not what the bible

says it's not real okay what is the right attitude for women being meek and quiet

what's the right attitude for women being submissive of their husband what's the right

attitude for women asking their husband for help asking their husband for guidance and look

we're not trying to shut down conversation we're trying to have conversation in the right places

it's like hey you want to talk about this talk to your husband about it don't go blabbing your

mouth a bunch of other women and and saying it online and just trying to exert your opinion

you know what did it accomplish for a woman to get up and scream at a bunch of men to shut up

oh you're trying to shut down conversation well that conversation sure

but you know what why don't you take all the effort energy and talk to your husband about it

you know and talk to somebody that wants to listen or wants to hear about it okay

you know and at the end of the day we need to make sure that we're cleaning ourselves up

with the right attitude oh well you know that that's just your opinion no it's what the bible says

and why would a woman do this why would a woman decide you know what i'm not going to blow my

mouth off i'm not going to you know tell men to shut up it's because they have a fear of god

they're perfecting holiness in the fear of god and they say you know what this attitude is the

wrong attitude is the wrong opinion and so i want to fear god and i want to have the right

kind of attitude and i want to you know be meek i want to be quiet what is meek it's humble right

what is the opposite of this thinking that you're well not everybody's built like me

emotionally and physically not everybody can handle what i can handle not everybody's as smart

as i am not everybody knows everything i know that's the opposite of meek meek is thinking

lowly of yourself you know what would be a meek attitude a woman saying i need a man or i need

a husband or i want his opinion instead of saying what my husband doesn't know anything about this

my husband couldn't help me in any issue you know this is what i get accused of saying like

women should ask their husbands at home like well what is what does my husband know about which

you know detergent to use in the washing machine and i'm like first of all maybe he does i mean

like let's let's see let's go to the company that makes the detergent and see if men are in charge

that maybe even created the detergent it's like what do you know about fixing the washing machine

you know it's like the washington breaks you have to have your husband come in and fix the

washing machine and then you're going to claim what a man know about you know washing machines

it's like he can fix it okay and maybe he can't but they don't get some other dude in there to

fix it you know i like tag team or whatever when's the last time your washington broke down

you had a bunch of chicks come in and fix it you know and it's just silly look i'm not saying

that women can't be intelligent but it's silly to then just act like guys are buffoons and can't

figure out anything they couldn't know about cleaning or they couldn't know it's like okay

let's go find a professional cleaning company and let's see who's running it

let's i mean again it's just it's just crazy their logic

but again why it's not the right kind of logic it's just an attitude it's a bad attitude okay

what would be a meek attitude hey i think that men are actually can be smart and men are actually

intelligent and we need men and you know what i'm kind of impressed with the infrastructure of

america you know i'm actually kind of impressed with all the technologies and the advancements

and hey you know here's an attitude how about the fact that ai is just kind of amazing

yeah who made that you know and in which you know it's cool about ai it can literally answer anything

where do you think we got all those answers from it's like you ask ai anything it can basically

tell you everything i guess it was just a bunch of women getting together explaining to ai how

everything works right you know this attitude is a bad attitude we need to recognize hey

we need to be meek we need to be humble we need to ask other people things oh why go to church and

here's some guy tell you you know what the bible says well that's a meek attitude right and even if

you're smarter than pastor just saying i need church anyways maybe even if i'm smarter than him

he can give me a better attitude you know or we can remind me of something you know the guy

that doesn't need church well he's he's so separated he's usually mega ultra super separated or

whatever but then he ends up not being separated when you really look at his lifestyle he goes to

holy grace community whatever you know heritage something but again you know think about this

holiness you know we're perfecting holiness in the fear of god what's another way to look at this

how about marriage and i'm spending a lot of time on this but this is important think about marriage

what is it typically called holy matrimony what what is that mean okay well matrimony is the

union of one man one woman together in a marriage what would make it holy what what is holy matrimony

when you're getting married you know what you're saying you're saying i only want to have a

relationship with you in this way like i'm setting you apart you apart from all other women

you know as a husband you're saying this is my wife and i'm setting her apart from all other

women this is my wife and i'm gonna exclusively be with her and i'm gonna have and hold her and i'm

gonna love her for better or for worse not anyone else that's what makes it holy that's what makes it

you know set apart that's the sanctifying process here and so when it comes to god

what what are we doing we're setting god apart and we're saying hey this is this is my god

and i'm gonna i'm gonna serve him and i only want to worship him and i only want to be with him

and again this is major in the context of chapter six this chapter six is like idolatry you know

we don't want to go to the houses of idolatry and we don't want to go to the house of false

religion and we don't want to be participating in this ecumenicalism you know we need to

separate ourselves and make god holy right in the sense that this is our only god you know

we need to make america holy by saying hey only the god of the bible is going to be worshiped

we need to get rid of the hinduism we need to get rid of the idolatry of the roman catholic church

we need to get rid of islam and we need to be a holy land and say hey this is only for the

this nation is going to be separated under the god of the bible that's what makes it holy

hey you're you're standing on holy ground this is only for god right this is a place only for god to

be you know this is what the idea of holiness is being separated okay and we're we want to separate

ourselves unto the god of the bible perfecting holiness in the fear of god unfortunately our

nation doesn't fear god because if you feared god you wouldn't want these other religions in

there because we want to anger god we want to make god upset we want to disappoint god you know if you

love your wife you're going to only be with your wife if you're being with other women you're showing

a lack of love you're showing a lack of holiness for your wife and so we want to perfect holiness

by thinking about our wives and being with our wives and separating ourselves under our wives and

doing good under our wives you know this is what it means to be holy in the same way that our

nation needs to be holy unto the god of the bible and of course in verse one it says having

therefore these promises what are the promises well the promises are rewards you know when you

sanctify so when you separate yourself under the god of the bible and you serve the god of the

bible well in chapters five and six it's bringing up the idea that there's going to be

rewards for those who actually serve god in their life and so why why would i separate myself

why sanctify myself why become holy for the reward okay why why be exclusive in marriage

there's a reward to that there's a reward to having one person that you both are in holy matrimony

together there's a special bond there it's different than than people there's out committing

fornication and doing whatever they don't have the same rewards of marriage you know even

just carnally speaking you get married you can file jointly your taxes and you get a bigger

tax break by simply being married that's one of the rewards of marriage and getting married

officially and so there's going to be reward system there's a reward system to separating

yourself under god and serving god these are these are promises what's another promise

that he'll be a father unto us that's what he said in chapter six at the very end he said

hey if you come out from among them be separate he's going to be a father unto you so by separating

ourselves and sanctifying ourselves unto the lord he's going to treat us differently and

he's going to be like a father unto us and that's a promise that he's making to us he's

saying hey you separate yourself unto me i will be a father unto you you don't want

him to be an enemy you don't want him to be going against you you don't want to be distant

from him you want him to be like a father unto you where he's protecting you providing for

you guiding you and of course that happens with what sanctifying yourself separating yourself

so we get the fatherly relationship we get the rewards that come and we're doing this so so

let's reverse one again having therefore these promises rewards having a father relationship

dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting

holiness in the fear of god we want to get the right attitudes and the right behaviors

okay and we want to do that in the fear of god we're fearing that god would what punish us

discipline us chasing us that there be consequences for not being holy and what's not being holy

being exactly like the world acting like the world behaving like the world doing the things that

the world's doing then you're going to suffer the consequences you're not going to have god

as your father you're not going to receive reward and of course not only that you can

receive punishment and for being in rebellion okay let's look at verse number two receive us

we have wronged no man we have corrupted no man we have defrauded no man

I like this verse because you know what he's basically saying he's saying you have no legitimate

reason to not treat us with love respect and receiving so you know this is kind of sad

but in America today you have churches that are at odds with one another or you know because you're

of a certain camp or flavor of fundamental badness they won't receive you but it's like wait a minute

did I wrong you no did I corrupt you no did I defraud you no well then you're supposed to

receive us okay but again if someone wronged you then you have justification potentially not

want to receive that particular person if someone had corrupted you well you have reason not

necessarily receive that brethren if they defrauded you then you have a particular reason not

necessarily receive that brethren but you know you can't just reject the brethren for for no

reason without cause what should be the default we should receive the brethren and again this

could look in a few different ways obviously wrong them maybe they did they like trespassed

against you they stole from you they lied about you they they attacked you they're saying negative

things about you it makes sense that someone would say hey I don't want you to come to our church

because you're lying about us or you're attacking us you're saying bad things about us or another

one corruption if they're coming in with a false doctrine they're coming in with the

wrong bible or they're coming in with the wrong gospel or they're they're they're bringing

something into the church that's corrupting the church well sorry you can't come in with

this heresy you can't come in with that false doctrine or defrauding them you know in some

sense that they're they're saying one thing but it's not true whatever that is it could be

you know hey they're coming under the guise of being friendly but they're there as an

infiltrator to spy out or to take advantage or rip you off financially or whatever it is

but he said hey we didn't do that to y'all so you're supposed to receive us

verse 3 I speak not this to condemn you for I have said before that you are our hearts to

die and live with you great is my boldness of speech toward you great is my glorying of you

I am filled with comfort I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation for when we were coming

to Macedonia our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side without our findings

within our fears nevertheless God they comforted those that are cast down comforted us

by the coming of Titus and not by his coming only but by the consolation wherewith he was

comforted in you when he told us your earnest desire mourning your fervent mind toward me so

that I rejoiced the more so in verse 3 he's saying hey our hearts are with you notice he said

you are in our hearts to die and live with you he's like hey I'm right or die I'm with you guys

I love you guys verse 4 great is my boldness of speech toward you meaning that you know he's

he's very confident in the love that he has for them and he's very positive towards this church

okay and he says great is my glorying of you he's talking positively about the church

he loves the church you guys are a great church I am filled with comfort and exceeding joyful in

all our tribulation so he's been comforted during his difficulty and he's been in jail

he's been in prison he's been going through difficulty you know people trying to kill

him verse 5 for when we were coming to Macedonia our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on

every side without we're fighting within we're fears so he's saying man I was going through a

hard time like just every day every second of every day is just a constant fight constant

persecution no rest notice our flesh had no rest whether that be like they're just not getting

sleep they're having to go from town to town house to house they're running they're kind

of running for their life in many cases a lot of fighting a lot of issues a lot of fears of the

government there's just constant pressure there's people watching them and he said verse 6 nevertheless

God that comforted those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus so even though

he's going through a hard time even though life's difficult right now even though he's being

persecuted even though he's on the run he's saying I was comforted though when Titus showed

up and he said and not by his coming only so not only that he see him but by the consolation

wherewith he was comforted in you when he told us your earnest desire your morning your fervent

mind toward me so that I rejoice more so he's basically saying like hey I was on the run

I was having a hard time I'm going through a lot of persecution a lot of people are against me

a lot of hate but then Titus showed up and I felt I felt like comforted a little bit like

okay well at least I got Titus you know to go with me you know and like sometimes going

through difficulty it's just nice to have a friend or someone that's there just someone

that can go with you but not only that Titus was there that Titus had a good attitude Titus is

like refreshed Titus is like happy Titus is like going strong and why was he he was going strong

because of the church the church basically energized Titus and then Titus is energizing Paul and

he's giving him comfort and he's helping him feel better about his situation notice he

said he told us your earnest desire your morning your fervent mind toward me so he just like hey

the fact that the church cared about me just motivated me to keep going you know think about it

someone that's being persecuted heavily and being attacked constantly just knowing that

there's people out there rooting for you kind of just helps you just keep going and keep

pushing through and saying okay it's still worth it you know it still means something

and so it's important that when someone's going through difficulty when someone is

struggling especially being persecuted for the cause of Christ that there's just people

they're saying like hey i'm with you man hey we're we're on your side hey we're praying for you

hey we're upset when bad things happen to you because we know you're a good guy and we know you're

going through this difficulty you know unfortunately some people kick me when they're down it's

like something bad happens to them that you're serving god something bad happens to them and

they're like well you kind of deserved it or maybe it's because you're serving god you know and

i've heard this i've heard people in our churches you know just not directly but just indirectly

people just you know maybe they're serving god and something negative happens they get a flat

tire or they lose their job some of the bad happens and like their mom or dad will be like

oh that's because you're going to a cult you know or that's because you're going to a bad church

or you know you go soul winning and something bad happens or you you maybe spend a lot of

money or whatever and it's just like oh well that's because you're wasting money going to

this place or doing this is like you know people kicking you when you're down as opposed to the exact

opposite of hey i'm with you hey let me help you out or hey i'm praying for you oh man that's

terrible i'm sorry that happened to you you know and again for paul he's saying man the fact that

titus showed up and he was encouraged by the church and he sees that the church is rooting for

you it really encouraged him and you know we've had pastors that go through difficulties

you know you pastor me he gets his church bombed he comforts people like that when you say hey

we're sorry that happened to you but we're you know we're with you and we're fighting for you

and we're excited that y'all are gonna keep going and pressing towards the mark you know we have bad

things and people stick up for us it helps us feel you know better or whatever you know our friend

pastor anderson going through a lot of difficulty when people go online or they send him a card

or they're telling him whatever it helps encourage him to want to keep going not to kick him when

he's down you know and kick people when they're down it makes a difference even to people like

apostle paul i mean the possible we think is like the greatest kitchen ever but even him he needs

comfort even he needs encouragement even he needs refreshing because sometimes when you're in the

front lines and you're in the in the midst of a battle it's difficult and when you have other

people that are praying for you caring about you concerned it helps you feel like okay this

matters okay i can keep going says in verse eight for though i made you sorry with a letter

i do not repent though i did repent for i perceive that the same epistle that made you

sorry though it were for but a season so again why is this important to him though

because think about it it's like you you leave your church the church is doing bad things and

you're like i kind of have to tell them that they're doing some bad stuff and you send the

letter well then you're kind of like you're kind of worried like how how are they gonna respond

but see when when the news comes back that hey they got your letter and they did they fixed it

they fixed the issue and now they're on the right path and they're praying for you

you're just like yes you know praise god and he's saying like when i wrote this letter

you know at first when i it's like you he writes the letter he sends it in the mail and

then he's like trying to get it back out of the mail he's like oh man i don't know if i should

have sent that because he's saying at first i repented okay that's what he means he says for

though i made you sorry with the letter i don't repent but he says though i did repent

so he's saying at some point after writing the letter and sending to them

he kind of doubt crept in his mind and he was kind of like i don't know if i should have done that

or i don't know how that's going to go down or i'm kind of worried how they're going to take that

but he's saying in hindsight right now i don't repent because he sees how it worked and he's

like wow i'm so glad i did even though after i did it initially i was kind of like oh i don't

know if they're going to take this well and then when they got right he's like i'm so glad i

sent it now you know what i think it's really important about verse number eight is that it's

separating two words okay he says for though i made you sorry with the letter i do not repent

okay though i did repent for i was saying you know what he's contrasting he's not saying that sorry

and repent are the same word right because he's saying hey i made you sorry with a letter

i do not repent so you can't say that's that repent means sorrow here okay because that would be

contradiction it even gets it even gets clearer in verse nine now i rejoice not that you are made

sorry but that you sorrowed two repentance for you were made sorry after a godly manner that you

might receive by us and nothing for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be

repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh that notice of the bible and consistently in these

three verses use of the word sorrow and repentance not meaning the same thing at any point in fact they

can't be the same thing because you can't say hey i'm so glad that sorrow worked to sorrow man

so glad that you're so sorry that you came sorry no everyone that reads this knows exactly

what it's saying what does repent mean changing your mind i'm glad you were sorry so that you

changed your mind he's saying i don't change my mind for having written this letter even though

i had changed my mind but i then realized no i'm glad i didn't change my mind i'm glad i did do it

and again why because it's made them sorry and he's saying clearly in verse number nine

that they were uh not that you were made sorry but that you sorrowed two repentance

so think about it if repentance means sorrow that statement can't make sense

because he's saying hey i'm i'm glad for something not that you were sorry but that because you were

sorry do you understand what i'm saying let me let me impact this a little bit more because

this is a really important point all right in verse number nine now rejoice not that you

were made sorry but that you sorrowed two repentance okay if repentance means sorrow

then that is contradictory to what he just said of saying not that you're sorry because again the

whole point was i didn't want to just hurt your feelings i didn't want you to just feel bad

i wanted you to change but here's the thing if i said oh i didn't want you to be sorry

so that you could be sorry that doesn't make any sense he's saying the only reason i made you

sorry was so that you would change but i wasn't hope i wasn't wanting you to be sorry i didn't

like that you were sorry i didn't rejoice that you were sorry i'm just simply rejoicing that you

changed and you know what this proves that repentance is not about being sorry it's about

changing because getting saved is not about how sorry you feel it's about believing on the

lord jesus christ and changing what you believe yet isn't it so funny that your repent of sins

group will go to this passage in the bible to prove that you have to repent of your sins to be

saved meaning you have to actually feel so sorry that you are not going to sin anymore or something

whereas what the bible teaches is that you can't stop sending number one and number two it's not

about how sorry you feel it's about changing your mind now again this is not this passage isn't

even about salvation okay that's another point that's really important here he's not saying

i'm so i'm so upset that none of y'all are saved and so i wrote a letter so that y'all would get

saved he's saying hey you guys had some things that you were screwed up on and i was sending you a

letter that you would get those things right okay and that they repented okay and they were made

sorry after a godly manner that they that you might receive damage by us and nothing notice

that you can make someone feel sorry and they have no damage

oh that's damaging you hurt their feelings according to the bible you can you can hurt

someone's feelings without causing any damage these are these are really important points done

pack and again it doesn't the truth doesn't hurt people okay now it may hurt your feelings

but it doesn't damage you the truth should not damage you the truth should help you

but the truth may really hurt your feelings it may cause you to feel sorry and to feel sorrow

but the goal is to what to change for godly sorrow work of repentance to salvation

not to be repented of now again what it says salvation here but we're not talking about

it's salvation of going to heaven or hell we're talking about is being saved from

whatever they're doing that's bad save from the consequences of that or save from something

that's bad save from a bad spirit save from a bad attitude save from a bad action and again here

it's the godly sorrow work of repentance to salvation not to be repented of meaning that

you know if you actually have a true godly feeling about something you'll change and never

do it again you say hey you know I was I got drunk and I realized that that was bad and I have a

godly sorrow over it to where I'm not going to get drunk anymore whereas a non godly sorrow would

say well I feel bad about it but then they get drunk the next night okay because he says but the

sorrow of the world were death it's like you can feel bad and still it didn't it didn't really

change anything you just you're just sad you got caught or you're just sad there's a consequence

but a godly sorrow says I don't want to do it anymore a godly sorrow is actually a change

meaning that hey I got drunk but I'm not going to get drunk I'm not going to drink anymore and

I'm not going to get drunk anymore and what a godly sorrow does is it leads to repentance

to be saved for the salvation of what of alcohol the salvation of drunkenness the

salvation of the destruction of your life that can come through alcohol and through drugs

and through fornication you know someone commits adultery hey they need to have a godly sorrow

over that where they're never going to do that again someone steals they need to have a godly

sorrow over that where they're never going to do that again you know your wife runs her mouth

online she needs a godly sorrow which is never going to do that again okay hey whatever it is

a godly sorrow say hey I'm not gonna do that hey you railed and you got caught

or you were slandering someone and you got caught well I'm gonna have a godly

sorrow I'm not gonna do that again that was a bad attitude that was a bad spirit and I want to be

cleansed and the holiness and the fear of God and I want to not do that anymore and go through

that direction anymore and this is the salvation that we're talking about we're not talking about

going to heaven or hell folks and again what is the context well in chapter six remember in

verse two for you say it I have heard thee in a time accepted in the day of salvation have

I suckered thee billed now is the accepted time billed now is the day of salvation

meaning hey if you're saved you need to get out of that house of idolatry today or now is the

accepted time now is the day of salvation to leave that house of idolatry to leave that false

religion to leave those bad friends to leave that that bar hey it's like hey when should you

quit drinking now hey when when when should you quit committing fornication now when should

you quit adultery now hey when should you quit just being a bum or a drug addict or whatever

hey when should America quit Islam now now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation

hey when should America drop all the bad bible versions and get a king james only right now

now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation and you know what our country needs

a godly sorrow so that we can be saved from these wicked attitudes and not go back to them

we need to be saved from Hinduism we need to be saved from Islam we need to be saved from these

modern bible corruptions we need to be saved from these bad attitudes and these bad spirits

hey we need to be saved from communism hey we need to be saved from women governors and women

presence I know it hasn't happened but hopefully it'll never happen and you know we need to

be saved from these bad attitudes hey we need to be saved from feminism we need to be saved

from all these wicked, you know, evil people

that are attacking soul winning

and bad attitudes and bad spirits.

Today is the day.

Hey, you know, we need to be saved from Zionism.

This is a bad doctrine.

You say, when is the right time for your church

to give up on Zionism?

Now.

Now is the accepted time to take that Israel flag

out of your church, I won't call it stupid,

but I'll call this flag stupid, all right?

Take it out of your church and get rid of it.

Now.

Now is the accepted time, you know,

and all these fags sympathizers,

we need to be saved from them too.

You know, praise God, if you're in a church

we already saved from fags,

but you know what, you need to be saved

from fags sympathizers too.

Because it's just, it's a cancer

that's causing so many problems in our society

and so many problems in churches today,

and we need to be saved from that.

You know, be saved from the reprobates today

by understanding that fags are homosexual predators.

They all are, okay?

They are pedophiles and they will hurt

and harm children and you need to be saved from that.

And in the fear of God, you need to get away

from these people, believe in what the Bible says

about them so you don't become Genesis 19.

So you don't become Judges 19.

So you don't become Genesis nine like Noah

who has even taken advantage of a family member.

And unfortunately, let me tell you something,

a lot of these predators harm family members.

Don't, do not put your family around the uncle,

do not put him around the, you know,

you're some relative, some brother or brother-in-law

or hey, this is my mom's new boyfriend,

he used to be a homo, there's no used to be, okay?

You cannot make that which is crooked straight, all right?

That which is crooked cannot be made straight.

And all God's people said?

That's right, all right?

Hey, no fags allowed.

I don't even like that word.

Well, you know what?

I don't like it either.

But if we, here's the thing,

if America implements Leviticus 2013,

then I'll stop saying it for a day.

No, but I mean like, why are you so offended by the word?

You know?

I mean, it's like you're either offended by the word

or the people.

And at the end of the day, you know,

if you get rid of the word,

well then pretty soon you're just gonna have them

everywhere, you know?

They get offended by that word,

so it helps me to like keep them away from us.

Look, we need to realize that we need to have

a godly sorrow and we need to be safe from some things.

We need to be safe from the spirit of the world.

Well, I don't like that, you know,

the world doesn't believe that,

the world is pro that, well,

but I don't have the spirit of the world,

I have the spirit of God.

Yeah, I did, yeah.

You know what I also am just mad about?

All these, all these Baptist who keep attacking us

and you know what their number one thing is?

Oh, there's these people

that are just so against the sodomites.

There's all these pastors that preach too hard

against the sodomites and stuff.

It's like, what spirit are you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because you know, we're just saying what the Bible says.

I mean, how can I get up and quote the Bible

and be too over the top?

I mean, if the Bible is saying

that they're suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,

if the Bible is saying that they're supposed

to be stoned to death,

if the Bible is saying that they're reprobate,

how can I even be over the top?

What is over the top at that point?

I just, I just, I'm not,

I'm not gonna be cool with that.

You cannot be over the top with this group for me.

I don't even know what that means.

It's scary.

I'm scared of you.

I'm afraid of you if you think

that I'm even being over the top.

You know, there's like Jeff Owens, I think it was.

Some people thought that he was over the top

and is preaching on that particular issue.

He still didn't offend me.

Still didn't offend me.

I'm not gonna be offended by that kind of preaching.

And I will continue to preach it no matter what.

Look what it says in verse number 11,

for we hold this self same thing,

that you sorrowed after a godly sort,

what carefulness it rod in you,

ye what clearing of yourselves, ye what indignation,

ye what fear, ye what vehement desire,

ye what zeal, ye what revenge.

And all things you have approved yourselves

to be clear in this matter.

He's saying, look, when you have the right attitude,

when you do something wrong,

and you have the right attitude,

what is the right attitude?

I want to fix it.

I want to fix it.

It's saying, hey, you're careful now.

Hey, if someone calls you prideful

and it's based in some legitimacy,

you should think like, I need to be more careful

and I need to try and make sure I'm not being prideful.

You know, ye what clearing of yourselves.

Hey, I want to make sure I'm getting rid

of whatever this is in my life

that they're accusing me of.

Hey, what indignation.

You know, you're upset about the situation,

but you know you're upset with yourself.

You know, when people are just blaming everyone else,

it shows that they didn't really get it.

And it's not a godly sorrow.

What fear, you know, if they're not fearing God

and the consequences of this, it's not a godly sorrow.

You know what kind of exhibits a godly sorrow?

He usually gets a bad rep,

but you know what kind of exhibits a godly sorrow

is Simon the sorcerer.

Because as soon as he gets called out

for his pride and for his bad attitude,

he's like praying to, you know,

he's asking Peter to pray for him

so that he's like, hey, will you pray

that these things won't happen to me?

He's showing you like he has a fear of God.

And that's a good attitude.

You know, people like Josh Howerton,

he'll get up and say Simon the sorcerer is not even saved.

Okay, and then he'll point to that example

as a reason why he's not saved.

And I'm thinking like, but this guy's kind of demonstrating

the fear of God after getting called out,

that seems like the right thing.

I get it that he was sinful.

I get that he had an issue there,

but you know, being saved is not gonna stop you

from having bad attitudes or bad behaviors or bad desires.

And of course, the spirit of God will cause us

to fear God and wanna change when we get called out,

when we do something wrong.

Hey, what zeal, what desire?

What revenge?

What's the revenge?

The revenge is not to get the person back

that called you out.

The revenge is to do the right thing.

Saying, hey, I was guilty of this.

I had this bad attitude, but I want to revenge

in the sense that I wanna get it right.

And I wanna have a chance to get back

to the right attitude, the right behavior,

the right desires here, the right zeal,

and get back at the sin.

Get back at myself for whatever bad attitude I had.

You're not avenging other people.

But you know what I noticed?

A lot of people, when they get called out

or someone just even graciously mentions them or something,

they lose their mind, they get offended.

And instead of trying to fix the problem

or feeling like, hey, maybe I should address the issue

in my life, they get offended.

And again, that's the whole point of hard preaching.

The hard preaching is so that you'll be like,

hey, I need to fix myself, not getting mad at the pastor.

Not getting mad at the preacher.

Not getting mad at the guy that called me out

but saying, hey, I wanna fix this issue.

I see what the Bible says.

That's right.

God wants me to change this.

So I'm gonna do it.

But most of us don't want,

most of us wanna justify all of our actions,

all of our behavior, all the things that we did.

And I'll tell you this,

most people cannot take ownership for their wrongdoing.

And it's very frustrating.

And think about it as a parent.

As a parent, you don't expect your children to be perfect.

Your children make mistakes all the time.

And you know what?

You're not so much as concerned

with how often they're making mistakes

as how they react when you call them out.

You'd almost rather your kids make more mistakes,

but when they get called out,

they genuinely get it and they're asking for forgiveness

and they're taking ownership to try and fix it

rather than they only get caught once today or something.

But when they get caught, they're flippant,

they're excusing the behavior.

They're always blaming.

I mean, for some reason, our kids,

they always blame the toddler.

It's like, who got this cup out of the cabinet up here

and filled it with ice and poured it over here

and it's like the toddler.

You're like, bro, no.

Like it's not a miracle worker child over here.

She's not super human.

She didn't fly up there and do this.

It's like, why'd you punch your brother, the toddler?

It's just like, no.

It's like, why are you always blaming someone else?

And look, anytime it's like,

why did you punch your brother?

It's like what they did first.

It's what they did or what's going on.

It's never taking ownership for what they did

or how they behaved and they never start with what they did.

They always start with what someone else did.

Look, this is not the right attitude.

The right attitude is to take ownership.

When you're called out,

appreciate the person that's calling you out,

fix the issue.

And again, that's what he loves about this church

is he called them out.

They got called to the carpet and yet they fixed it.

They fixed the issue.

They cleared themselves in this matter.

Notice that they cleared themselves in this matter.

It's, we're all gonna have issues.

We're all gonna make mistakes.

But how do you respond when you get called out?

And you know what I've noticed,

and this is why sometimes I do this,

is like when I feel like there's someone

that's causing problems or whatever,

sometimes we'll just call them out

because here's the thing,

when you call them out especially publicly,

you end up seeing what kind of attitude and spirit they're of.

Are they gonna get clear in this matter?

Or are they gonna dig in and do it even worse?

And it just becomes really clear.

It's like, hey, I think you're railing about this situation.

It's like the railer just gets more vicious

and more railing.

And the guy that had the right attitude

would be like I'm so sorry and would fix it

and be careful and be cautious about it or whatever.

And again, that's why sometimes

it's important to have open rebuke.

The Bible warns about open rebuke because it's a reality.

But usually calling something out

helps figure out where this person's at,

what their motivations are, what their heart issue is.

And of course the possible way to do this at the church,

calling them out, add a letter, it was public.

And of course, because of this public letter,

they got right.

Think about the logic of,

people will say like everything should be private

or something, but it's like these are epistles

written to the whole church.

Calling them out and sometimes calling out specific people

with really specific issues in the church,

I mean, that's the whole context here.

Look at verse 12,

wherefore, though I wrote unto you,

I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong,

nor for his cause that suffered wrong,

but that our care for you in the sight of God

might appear unto you.

He's saying he called someone out.

But he's saying that wasn't the main reason.

I wasn't like writing this epistle

just for the guy that needs to be called out.

And I wasn't writing the epistle

for the guy that got harmed or injured

by this particular process.

I'm just kind of doing it in general

so that the whole church can get right.

Okay, he's saying, but that our care for you

in the sight of God might appear to you.

And he's saying, I want it to be clear that I care about you.

You know, a lot of times people call you out

because they care about you.

If they stop calling you out,

it's usually because they don't care about you at all.

Okay, and so you don't want to be careful

because here's the thing,

someone gives you a criticism,

someone says something to you and you respond poorly.

Well, then maybe they're never gonna give

that criticism anymore.

They kind of see how you are

and then they're gonna stop caring about you.

Okay.

Hey children, you know why your parents love you so much

is because they're always trying to get you to fix things.

If they didn't love you, then they wouldn't.

You know, maybe you have a bad attitude sometimes.

Maybe you have a bad spirit sometimes.

And you know what?

Your parents are trying to help you with that,

to get over things.

Don't think, oh, my parents are always on my case.

They're probably trying to help you

because they care about you.

They love about it.

They love you.

Oh, my dad's always on my case.

Oh, my dad's always upset with this attitude.

Or dad's always upset with this behavior.

Or dad's always upset with me doing this.

Okay, well, maybe he just wants you to get it right

or fix it.

And you know what, if your parent didn't,

it showed that he actually doesn't really love you.

If your mom and dad aren't on your case

and are not paying attention and are just like,

just leave, that shows that they don't care

about you as much anymore.

And they're just fed up with you

and they're done with you, okay?

The one that's putting up with you

is the one that loves you.

The one that's disappointing you

is the one that loves you.

The one that's giving you that information, loves you.

It's like, oh, Pastor Shelley preaches

really long sermons.

It's because he loves you.

Think about it.

I mean, if you just showed up

and I just started preaching 10-minute sermons,

doesn't, didn't really explain much of the Bible,

would you say that I care about you?

Who's the pastor that cares about you?

The one that wants to give you all these,

oh, this guy never says anything negative to me.

Is that the one that cares about you?

Or is it the one that's saying,

hey, you have a bad attitude,

you have a bad spirit, hey, you need to fix this,

hey, you need to get this corrected?

I mean, what's the guy that cares about you?

And you know, I preach sermons, this is what's funny.

I love verse 12 so much, okay?

This is so funny about it.

It's like, you get up and you preach a sermon

and this is like, is that about me?

But isn't that kind of attitude?

He's like, oh, he wrote that epistle because of me.

You know, the guy that got wronged.

No, he wrote the epistle about me

because I'm the one that got wrong, you know?

The guy that did wrong, he's like,

I didn't even preach it for either of y'all.

I was just doing it because I care about the whole church

and I want things to be fixed.

And it's like, as a pastor, you get it up and you're just like,

hey, I want to preach about this idea

or this subject or whatever

and it's probably going to affect a lot of people.

And it's like, ah, that was about me.

Well, yes, but no, okay?

And that's why my attitude is always just yes.

And what I find is so funny is it's like,

he's like, Pastor Shelley's attitude.

It's like, when I'm preaching,

someone comes like, was that about me?

And I'm just like, yes.

And there's like people that are like attacking me.

It'll be like, hey, were you preaching about me?

No.

You're like, come on, bro, it's pretty obvious, you know?

But it's just funny.

That's why I always adapt the attitude.

Am I preaching about you?

Yes, I am.

Yes, I'm calling you out.

Why? Because you know what?

We need to take some ownership

and you know what the preaching is for you.

But don't get offended about it being personal.

Don't get it offended if it touches you a little bit.

Don't get offended if it's like,

I think I've said something like that before.

I've had this attitude.

You know what you care about?

Is it true or not?

That's right.

And look, even myself included.

If someone preached about me,

but like what they said was true,

I'm just like, yeah, well, you know,

they're right and I need to fix it.

Or, hey, you know what?

This is an attitude that I should change

or have a better behavior about.

You know, it's usually we don't like it

when it's about us and it's a lie.

And it's not true, okay?

That's where it's kind of offensive.

I care more about the truth

than I care about my own personal feelings.

Verse 13,

therefore we are comforted in your comfort,

yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we

for the joy of Titus,

because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

For I have boasted anything to him of you.

I'm not ashamed.

But as we speak all things to you in truth,

even so are boasting,

which I made before Titus has found a truth.

And his inward affection is more abundant toward you,

whileest he remember the obedience of you all,

how with fear and trembling you received him.

I rejoice therefore

that I have confidence in you in all things.

So he's basically saying, hey, look,

I was comforted by what happened with Titus

and I was right about bragging about you guys.

You know, anything that I boasted him about saying,

hey, this is a good church.

They love God.

They can handle it.

They can handle the hard preaching.

It was right.

And you know what?

As a pastor, as a preacher, as a Christian,

I love churches that can handle the Bible.

I love churches that can take correction.

I love churches that can take the truths of the Bible.

You don't have as much desire

and as much boasting in a church

like they can't handle that doctrine.

They couldn't handle that sermon.

They couldn't handle that chapter.

They couldn't handle that word.

They couldn't handle that idea.

That's not as much fun as the church.

Hey, here's a church that loves the truth.

Here's a group of people that,

hey, if you tell them they're doing something wrong,

they'll fix it.

You come into a church and say, hey,

you're soul winning needs to improve in this area.

Instead of them getting offended,

they're just going to fix it

and they're getting better at soul winning this area.

Hey, a church is struggling with gossip.

You get in there and say, hey,

you guys are struggling with gossip.

They're going to stop gossiping

and they're going to get right on that particular issue.

Right?

Whatever the issue is in the church,

you've got a God committing fortification in the church.

He's going to get right on that issue

and the church is going to get right.

The church is going to back up that issue.

Hey, you're kind of off on the Lord's Supper here.

Let's do it this way.

They're going to get right on the Lord's Supper.

Hey, they're hanging out with the wrong kind of people.

They're going to say, you're right.

Let's stop hanging out with the wrong people

and let's get in church.

Instead of being like, oh, he's wrong about that

or he's naive or I can handle it.

Every Christian can handle it, right?

No, I'm so strong in my Christian life.

I can hang out with those people.

I can do that kind of stuff.

I can go to those places.

You know, the mature Christian would say,

I'm not going to go there or hang all these people

because I don't think I can handle it.

The temptation is too strong.

I don't want to have that kind of spirit.

I don't want to pick up their attitudes.

No, no, no, I can watch Modern Family

and I won't be affected with feminism.

Can't, really?

Oh, I can watch this and do this

and I can listen to this

and I can go hang out with those people

and I won't be affected.

I'm so strong.

I'm an awesome Christian.

No, no, no, what a meek, humble attitude would say,

hey, I'm going to separate from those people.

And I want to serve God.

You know, what's the whole essence of this chapter?

Getting right with God and taking Christianity seriously.

Why? Because it can help others.

It can encourage others.

When a church takes Christianity seriously

and takes the problems that they have seriously

and encouraged Paul.

And you know what?

We need to take Christianity seriously.

We need to take being a steadfast Christian seriously.

We need to take being a fundamental Baptist seriously

so we can encourage other people.

There's a lot of people trying to deconstruct the faith.

Trying to tear down Baptist.

They're trying to tear down fundamentalism.

They're trying to tear down the King James only position.

They're trying to tear down soul winning.

They're trying to tear down all these attitudes.

But you know what?

If we take it seriously

and we're not making a joke out of being a Baptist,

we're not making a joke about being a fundamentalist.

We're not making a joke about our belief systems.

Well, then you know, I encourage other people.

You know, we believe that

you don't have to change anything to be saved.

You just believe in Jesus Christ.

But you know what?

What if then we come in here

and we didn't change anything?

Well, then we could make our doctrine look silly.

Right?

I mean, if we say, you know,

hey, we give Christian liberty,

but those that get saved

are gonna be entwelled by the Holy Spirit

and when they hear the conviction of the Holy Bible,

they're gonna become holy

and they're gonna separate themselves

and they're gonna become like Christ.

But then if none of us are being sanctified,

none of us are being holy,

you know what?

We're gonna make Christ doctrine look bad

and we're gonna be bad ambassadors of Christ

and the ministry's gonna be blamed.

The ministry's gonna be blamed

because we didn't actually do what the Bible is saying here.

And so we wanna make sure

that we're not a bad example for Christianity.

We're not a bad testimony

for the Word of God,

but rather we're separating ourselves

and we're perfecting ourselves in holiness.

And of course, you know,

this is gonna encourage other people

to do the right thing

when they go through tribulation,

when they go through difficulty.

And you know, I would say

another application we could take from this is,

you know, when you take things seriously,

you help those that are teaching you.

You know, if you're a student

and you're going to class in any capacity,

you know what, take your studies seriously

because it'll help your teacher

feel better about the class.

Hey, if you're a kid,

take your parents' rules more seriously,

take their instructions more seriously

because it'll encourage them as a parent.

You know, if you're a kid,

you won't do anything your parents say,

you don't care what your parents say.

Like it's gonna discourage your parents

and they're not gonna wanna keep investing in you.

If you actually take your parents' instructions seriously,

it's gonna encourage your parents.

You know, as members of this church,

if you take church seriously,

if you take reading the Bible seriously,

if you take soul winning seriously,

it's gonna encourage me as your pastor.

I mean, I can't imagine if I got up

and I scream and yell about going soul winning

and then no one goes soul winning,

well, that's gonna really discourage me as a pastor.

You know, if you get up

and you preach on church attendance

and then no one comes to church,

well, it's gonna be kind of discouraging as a pastor.

You get up and say, hey, husbands, love your wives

and then husbands are being jerks and selfish.

Well, then it's gonna discourage the pastor.

You know, hey, we should have Christians

take the Bible seriously.

We should take our Christianity seriously.

It's gonna encourage those that are leading and teaching.

And you know what, as a church,

we need to be taking church seriously

so it'll encourage our sending church.

It'll encourage other churches

to take Christianity seriously.

And you know, this church taking their Christianity

seriously helped the apostle Paul.

And you know what, we should try to do that

in our lives because, you know,

our behaviors affect way more than ourselves.

They affect other people and other Christians.

And you know, what we can learn from this lesson

is that when we perfect in holiness,

it's not gonna just only affect us,

it affects so many other people.

And let us not be accused

of not taking Christianity seriously,

but those that are actually steadfast

and growing in holiness

and trying to draw closer to the Lord.

Let's close in prayer.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for your word.

Thank you so much for these instructions.

Thank you for giving us an opportunity

that when we strive to be set apart

and we strive to draw closer to you,

that we receive special promises

and rewards of you being a father unto us.

I pray that you would help us to be an encouragement

to other Christians, to other pastors, to other churches.

I pray that you would help children

to encourage their parents

and for members to encourage their pastor

and for us to all take our roles and lives seriously,

that we take Christianity seriously.

And I pray that we would take marriage seriously.

And I pray that we would understand what holiness is

and that we'd actually have a fear of God

and would be motivated to do the right thing.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.