Jesus Bought A House - Part 6 | Pastor Paul McGee

Amen greetings in Jesus name today.

Glad to have each one of you in the House of the Lord Amen.

It's always a good time to enter in double doors when it's cold

outside Amen to be in God's house Amen with each one of you

today. Amen.

And all of our guests that are here this morning, those that

are visiting from other places and assemblies today, we greet

you. We're glad to have Lucy cook

with us this morning. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Lucy, we're glad to have you

today. And then the sister, Grace's

sister Lily, was here today. And I went by to see what she

was really called or going to be called by Piper, you know,

Auntie or whatever it was. And it's weedy.

And so there's a story behind that.

And if you want to know that, you need to talk to Alex and

Grace and Lily, All right. Because if I start to tell the

story, I'll butcher it. Amen.

I at first I thought maybe she meant like Wheaties, like what

you eat for breakfast. But that's not the case.

So we're glad to have her this morning as well.

Even we're going to be turning to the book of First Peter

chapter #1 First Peter chapter #1 a couple weeks ago.

I used this as a launching pad as well.

Whenever we talked about where God dwells, everything changes

and I want to use it as a launchpad again today.

Amen. For us, we've been talking a lot

about the holiness of the Lord and the impact on our lives with

that, and how there's a whole lot that's into that, more than

what many times we subscribe to and then what people propagate.

And so I want to talk about it some more today.

And first Peter chapter #1 Amen. The Bible says in verse 13,

these are the words here of Peter writing here.

He says, Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,

and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto

you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children,

not fashioning yourselves according to the everybody, say

former lusts, or that can be former desires in your

ignorance. Verse 15 But as he which hath

called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation,

because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy.

Amen. For a little while today, I want

to speak to you under this heading.

You'll understand it before we're finished.

Echoes of salvation. Echoes of salvation.

Amen. Can we pray one more time?

Father, we come to you today. We're so thankful, Lord, for

this opportunity. I pray, God, those who have

gathered together, Lord, in this place, in this house this

morning, God, we center our lives, Lord, around your word

today that your word stand among us.

I pray God that it lead us and guide us.

Let it Lord, touch us anew and afresh.

I pray God, every heart and mind, God to be touched today.

Enlighten us, God, bring his spirit of revelation, Lord, into

our lives today and will not fail.

Lord, to thank you and praise you, Lord, for what you

accomplish in this place. In the lovely name of Jesus, we

pray Amen. And everybody say Amen.

You may be seated this morning. So glad for others that are back

that have been sick and such God touched your body, Amen.

Appreciative of that, Amen. So we've been talking about the

holiness of God for the past several weeks and then adopting

that holiness in our own lives. Of course, when we receive the

Holy Ghost and have taken on his Holy name and so on and so

forth. But when we consider the idea or

the concept of holiness for humanity or Saints of God or for

children of God, as it would, it would be when we received the

Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost comes inside of us and even the Bible

tells us in the book of John and such that that spirit that we

receive will lead us and guide us into all truth, right?

It, it is a on board teacher in our lives.

It's on board teacher in our lives.

And in doing so, that spirit that we receive, we find

ourselves over a process of time that we become more like him,

right in attributes and characterization, in ways we

become more like him. And so holiness to a certain

degree is is becoming like God, but also that in doing so, we

are glorifying him in this earth, right.

So that whenever someone sees you, it's not re singer in

particular that they see, but it's the Christ in you that they

see and that gives glory then unto God and returns glory unto

him. So us living a holy life in the

world, in the. Context that we live is making

God known around us, and that's very.

Essential Amen to our Christian walk, But another purpose that

we kind of dabbled in a little bit last week throughout the the

the whole time that we had here together is another purpose of

holy living or a holy life is its ability to safeguard us in

this walk that we have here below.

Able to protect us in this walk. And so Peter wrote in the

setting of Scriptures that I read to you today, that we

should be obedient children, no longer fashioned or no longer

conforming ourselves to the former lust as in our ignorance

or the former desires as in our ignorance.

Again, the apostle Peter was describing and indicating that

there was a time in our lives when being ignorant of the

things of God and the ways of God and the holiness of God,

that we live according to our own understanding and we lived

according to our own human desires.

In essence, we were. US driven or me driven?

You know, whatever I wanted, I just fulfilled that right.

We are me and US driven and Paul even describes this and other

other epistles that he wrote to the church throughout the New

Testament. He describes this US driven or

this pre Christ time before people come to Christ time

whenever he wrote and I got a lot of scripture today and

Ephesians 2 and verse 12. He says that at that time he's

speaking to people who were Gentiles, unbelievers with

without God before they had their Christ encounter or filled

with the Spirit. He said that at that time you

were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel

and strangers from the covenants of Provice.

Here's their condition then was having no hope and without God

in the world. But we understand according to

Scripture, that when you've experienced the new birth,

namely being born of water and being born of Spirit, that when

you receive the Holy Ghost and have been born again, you have

also along with that received a great hope in your life, right?

If the Bible says it's Christ in you, the hope of glory, there's

a great hope that you have received in your life that in

actuality it crescendos it it comes to its climax whenever the

Lord Jesus Christ will return and get his church, or as Peter

described it in our text this morning at the revelation of

Jesus Christ. What that is saying is as we

walk this walk, talk, this talk and allow the impressions of

God's Spirit to be lived out in our life, we have hope someday

of an everlasting life. Amen.

As they say in that, that that place, that Yonder beyond the

blue sky, right, that where that Crystal River is, where there is

streets of gold and gates of Pearl, we have a hope of

everlasting life. And so here is the the call it

problem, but here is the warning.

The thing that we must be conscious of is that in order

for that everlasting fulfillment hope to take place someday,

which is still yet in the future, there's a lot that can

happen between right now and then in our Christian dirty

right now and then in our Christian life.

And one of the biggest, one of the biggest dangers that we face

them between here and now is being overtaken by what the

apostle Peter calls our former lust.

One of the greatest adversaries is our former lust.

That's the reason why in another of the epistles, the apostle

Paul advises in Galatians chapter #5 and verse 16, he says

this. I say them, and this is an

admonition. Amen.

He's talking to the Church of Galatia.

He's telling them walk in the Spirit, Walk in that spirit that

you received and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

He says if you'll, you'll make a determination, if you'll, if

you'll get in a, a, an association and a grouping with

God to walk according to the spirit that you received inside

of you. He says you'll not fulfill you

for sure. Increase your chances of not

fulfilling Amen. The lust of the flesh or the old

desires and the former desires that you once fled to.

Verse 17 says for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and

the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary the one to

the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.

We were just even talking about it in our connect group this

past Wednesday night and you can read Romans 7.

It talks about a warring that takes place in our members and

it's the warring of those former lust and that new spirit, that

new life that we've been called to and every individual sitting

under the sound of my voice. If you've had a man that that

experience of being born again, you have the spirit and you also

have the contingency over here that's constantly looking and

luring and vying for your attention of the flesh.

You understand what I talk about when from day-to-day there's a

war that happens between your flesh and between your spirit.

Paul is advising us. He understands.

He understands that the the, the, the, the, the pitfalls, if

you will, of humanity, of being ensnared once again by what what

they were once ensnared by. Here's one fact for sure.

If that's all you ever knew prior coming to the Lord, then

that's what your life was comfortable with.

And it's easy to fall back to a level or a place of comfort

that's known to you than it is to walk in a place that is

unchartered water for you, Amen. That, that we just automatically

respond to certain things. We might have had some coping

mechanisms before we come to the Lord.

And whenever life got crazy, we just went to that.

And that's what we typically did.

But now that you're a child of God, Amen, And those same, same,

similar problems arise, Amen, that frustrate you.

You, you got to not just lean back on the old ways, the

formulas to cope, but now you lean upon the one whom you have

received inside of your life to help you cope.

There's a war that's taking place in our members.

And so notice now if you look at Galatians there chapter #5 and

you should. But the apostle Paul describes

the kinds of behavior that that go alongside with human lust,

what human lust produces. You can look at it there in the

Scriptures. There's a list of things.

That list is not exhaustive. It's not like, well, this is all

there is and nothing more. But it's a sampling of some of

the behaviors that spin off of our human desires and our human

lust, what the Bible calls the works of the flesh, the works of

the flesh. But he doesn't just stop with

describing the works of the flesh.

He goes on a little further in Galatians 5, and he talks to us

about the attributes or the fruit of the Spirit of love and

joy and peace and gentleness and goodness and meekness, Amen, and

temperance and all these other things.

He declares these things. So they're 2 dynamically

different list. When you read about the works of

the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, as a matter of fact, you

don't see one thing listed in the work of the flesh and it

also listed in the fruit of the Spirit.

These are two separate, Amen, separately categorized groups

that don't necessarily have any interplay with one another.

But he talks about all this and when we get to Galatians 524,

the scripture says, and they that are Christ, that's that's

Christ with an apostrophe S, that's possession, meaning that

those that are his, those that belong to him have crucified.

Now when you think about Calvary and you think about the crucifix

that that was a merciless killing, there is, there isn't,

there's no mercy found there. It's quite gruesome.

It's quite deliberate. Nailed to a tree for hours, huh?

First, seemingly not being quenched and the Lord wasn't

taking the vinegar in the water and the things that was going to

sedate or try to ease the pain, but nonetheless brutal, right?

That's the same picture and word that the apostle uses how we

need to approach our flesh. Oh, that's as that's as radical

as we should be toward now see that that starts getting closed

on it because sometimes I want to treat my flesh like a 2 year

old and I just slap its hand. Amen.

But that's a far cry different picture than taking that and

putting it and tying it and nailing it to a tree to be left

there. Amen.

He said those who belonging to Christ, those that are Christ

have crucified A merciless killing the flash.

Notice now he gets very specific the flash with the affections

and the lusts, the flesh with the affections or the passions

and the lust or the desires said we're going to put that we're

going to crucify that we belong to him right where we've been

Holy Ghost filled. We had his holy name applied to

our life and baptism, Amen. We're reading his holy word,

Amen. And so we're going to crucify

those things that doesn't fall under the umbrella Amen, of of

His Holiness, Amen and his attributes.

And here's what I know. When we fail, when we fail to

put our fleshly lust, those intense human desires.

Amen to death. What I understand is this.

When I don't do that, I'll find myself more prone to constantly

giving in to them, reembracing the former things more,

continually being overtaken by them.

Jude, the book of Jude. There's just one chapter in

Jude, but Jude describes those who failed or who did not.

They had not the spirit. They did not crucify their flesh

as a result of it with their passions and their desires, but

he describes them in stark terms and I'm just going to hit a few

verses of Scripture. Jude starts out, he calls them

that they are ungodly men. They have ungodly deeds, of

course, because they have not the spirit of Christ.

They're just driven by their passions.

But Jude says in Jude one and verse 16, he says these are

murmurers, complainers. Look what he says here, walking

after their own lust, and their mouths speak of great swelling

words, having men, persons and admiration because of advantage.

Look what verse 19 says. These be they who separate

themselves, sensual, not having the spirit.

I want to just point out something real quick about that

particular verse. They separate themselves.

Separation happens when you're holy, and when you're not holy,

you're going to be separated until one thing or separated

into another thing. So just to give the common call,

oh, hole in this garbage, that separation garbage, if you

don't, if you don't lean into that, you're still separated

into something. You'll always be separated unto

something always they've separated themselves all right

and to sit sensual, not having the spirit look at verse backing

up. Look at verse 12.

He said these are spots in your feasts of charity when they

feast with you, feeding themselves with fear Clouds they

are without water carried about of winds trees whose fruit

wherewith without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots,

raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering

stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

He's basically saying these that have have not the spirit.

These that are the termed as the ungodly, they're not walking in

the spirit. They're walking after their own

lust. They have not the spirit.

Verse #4 of Jude even says they deny the only Lord God.

They don't have the spirit, so they're walking after their

lust. That's expected when you don't

have the Spirit to walk after your own lust, but whenever you

get born again of the water in the Spirit, Amen.

The Lord has some expectations of us.

Not only that we said this in weeks gone by, and I wish I

could take all of this and funnel into one lesson, but it's

impossible. But the fact of the matter is,

whenever we're in a love relationship with God, we just,

we, we, we, we do, and we interact with Him in ways that

is pleasing to Him. Amen.

So the greater. Tragedy then the Scripture is

not for these that are ungodly, that have not the Spirit and

then are walking after their own lusts.

But the greater tragedy of this of the of the Scripture is to

have the Spirit and then not walk obediently to the Spirit.

If you ever woke up 1 morning having the Spirit and you decide

that you're going to deny the Lord the one who bought you, you

don't just wake up 1 morning and accomplish that.

That happens progressively. It's not like what today I'm

just going to jump ship. No, there's been some thought

processes there there there's been some things already let

loose stuff, huh? There's been some safeguards

already neglected. There's there's a there's some

walls like we spoke of last week that are in I'll repair.

And in shape. We've allowed things into to

hijacked our core values and our our desires, our own lusts, our

former lusts have been given the upper hand in our life.

And literally today I believe in scripture.

We see through the Scripture that there's not an honest

believer that wants to end up like that.

No one sets in their mind that that's the way I want to end up.

And so the question is then, then what, what, what can we do,

Pastor McGee, what, what must we do?

How, how can we protect ourselves from, from the the

greatest enemy of our lives? Sometimes our own lust, our

former lust. And the answer this morning,

part of the answer is we need to pursue then His Holiness.

We need to pursue His Holiness because it's been designed by

God to be a safeguard and a protection.

Amen for you from the deceitfulness of sin and the

destructive power of sin. Now let's be clear this morning,

we live in a real world and the world that we live in and the

places and things that are around about us and before us,

they are calculated today. To appeal to our fleshly

desires, to appeal to our former lust, and to entice and to tempt

and to lure. In a sense, this morning, this

is just the Bible, OK? But in a sense, the world itself

is our enemy. James 44.

Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity or hatred

with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a

friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Paul told us this little review. Remember in Romans 12 when he

said Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the

renewing the new living translation says it like this.

Don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let

God transform you into a new person by the changing the way

that you think. So I so with that folks, I got

to be careful about my attitude toward the world that I'm living

in the way that not just that my association and my interaction

with it. We, we just don't blow wind on

any fire in the world just because it exists.

Oh, dear pastor brother Boyd, I, I served under for about a year

down in Florida. He says if you see the world

making a Stampede towards something in the world, he says

it's probably not proper for you to be along with the group in

the Stampede. We got to be careful.

We said it last week in first Peter.

Be sober, be diligent because your adversary, the devil, has a

roaring line. Seek walking about, seeking whom

he may devour. You know what Jesus said

concerning that adversary, what Jesus said concerning that

devil. And John 12, he called him the

Prince of this world, or the ruler, or the commander of this

world. Paul went further in his

epistles and called him. He called him the Tempter.

Amen, because our adversary today is seeking to consume us,

and namely seeking to consume us in our own lust, in our former

lust, he uses the world that he rules to parade a continual

stream, if you will, of allurements and enticements.

Amen before us it is designed to stir up passions inside of us,

designed to stir up desires of our flesh inside of us.

Amen. It is, John said.

It's the lust of the flesh. The voice of the worldly system

that Satan is commanding is the lust of the flesh.

You deserve this. Amen.

That that. That's what we're swayed in.

You deserve this. No, don't worry about that.

You deserve this. It's the lust of the flesh.

It's the lust of the eyes, Amber.

It's the Well, look what? Look at everything that you're

missing out on. Come on.

All right, come on, Come on. Look at everything that you're

missing out on. It's the pride of life.

You know, you could be a little bit more if you did XYZ.

Yeah. Glory, glory, glory, glory.

Here's the fact of the matter. It's OK.

Amen. Society attempts to normalize

sin. I'll go a step further.

There are in certain areas that our government attempts to

normalize sin. But if we say this is the book

that we live by and the book they'll be open at Judgement Day

to be judged by, then if it differs from this book, say what

you say. Because whenever I stand up

here, it's not going to be some amendment.

I stand up before. When I stand before God, it's

not even going to, it's not going to be some document, some

club that I'm a part of that I stand before.

When I stand before God, it's going to be the book of life.

It's going to be this word that he's given me as an open book

tests off throughout this journey.

I want to yes, yes, yes. So we we have these things go

on. So, so the world there's this

disparating of temptation and and you know what happens our

former lust, that other aspect in our lives.

There's that pool. It's like a magnetic pool that's

taking place. And so as as my flesh tries and

wants to respond to the desire. You know what happens though,

whenever I've I've I've adopted and have allowed holiness in my

life. Holiness stands guard between

the two, between the allurement. And the pull of my own fleshly

desire. Holiness stands guard between

the two. So we see that in God's Word,

the Bible, that both the devil and the world can be as

spiritual enemies to our walk with God.

But again, what I want to point out to us today is one of our

real enemies is our own passions and lust, James said in James

114. But.

Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and

entice. There's things out there, but

it's my own lust that draws me really to it.

What's going on inside of me is what draws me to it.

There's lures, there's enchantments, yes.

But see, that's the reason why then one thing may not affect

Reese, but another thing may affect me because he don't have

a natural propensity of lust toward that thing, but I do.

And that's reason why we can't get into this measuring thing of

people. So I just don't know why they

have so much. Problem with that.

Well, you don't have that propensity of lust in your life,

but there's something in you that they don't have.

They're looking at you and saying, I don't know why they

have. We all don't have the same

categorical lusts are all the same besetting sins.

Brett Bishop McGee, Amen. That there's the drawing of a

song. There's some of us that have

others different than others. But The thing is, they are there

and they're prompted from right here.

Ourselves, but whenever we allow God's Spirit and holiness to

stand guard, filter, be, be a wall, then even those.

Own things in our life that when the world parades, that the

holiness is there, it's going to help us.

Amen. To keep control from giving in

and holiness is there. It's going to help us to stay

maybe more under control whenever the devil would lash

outlook what Peter says in first Peter 2 and verse 11.

He says, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and

pilgrims and note this next phrase.

It's such a powerful phrase. He says abstain from fleshly

lusts. Notice the last part of this

phrase. This is important.

Which war against the soul, folks, this is what we're

talking about here, is not temporal matters like your body

that has so much time up on the earth and then will die and will

decay in the ground. What we're talking about here

are eternal matters because even after your body is long decayed

in the ground, your soul's going to live somewhere.

Hear me today. He says abstain from these

things because these are things at war against your soul.

We talked early, honey, the trip from here to glory.

We want to make it. There is a hope of everlasting

life, but there's a lot of stuff that can happen between now and

them. And I want to walk and walk and

be in tandem with God and abstain from some things in so

much that you know what? Amen.

There's not going to have to be the enticement of what's going

to impact the eternity of my soul.

Because we're not talking about just things that affect you as

you live this life. We're talking about things that

will affect your afterlife. Verse 12, having your

conversation again, many times, I ain't going to say all times,

but many times, the New Testament scripture, when you

read the word conversation, particularly in the epistles,

it's describing conduct and behavior.

You can look it up in the Greek for yourself if anybody wants to

dream in Greek and Hebrew, having your conversation or your

conduct and behavior honest. Among the Gentiles, the

Gentiles, there's like two groups, Jews, Gentiles, they

seem as believers, unbelievers, so he says.

Having your conduct and behavior on us among those that are

unbelievers, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers,

they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify

God in the day of visitation. Amen.

They're going to give you a hard time.

You live in You live in trying to live a righteous life in a

unrighteous world. They're going to give you a hard

time. Why do you do that?

Why do you not do that? Well, that's crazy.

You go what church 3 * a week, blah, blah.

They're going to give you a hard time.

But when it's all said and done, the hope is that they'll see the

good works in you that they'll behold.

And again, that's giving glory to the spirit of the one whom

you have received. Yes, because just the same

they're like, oh they're crazy. I can't believe they do that or

do this or church 3 * a week. They're also going to see the

moments of time that all hell is broke loose in your life and

you're still walking with a smile on your face and there's a

joy in your step. How's that accomplished again?

Abstain from fleshly lust. How do we glorify God through

good conduct? We got to pursue holiness.

In holiness, some see it as isolation from the world.

It's incorrect. It's purpose is not to isolate.

It's purpose is to insulate. Jesus said John 1715.

I pray not, Thou should us and he's speaking toward his

disciples. I pray not.

And he's talking, He's praying for them.

He said, I pray not that thou should just take them out of the

world, but thou should just keep them from the evil.

He says keep them in the world, but keep them from the evil.

Whenever we're not removed from the world, that allows then the

Church, the body of Christ to still love, remain in a loving

engagement with the world. But when we're kept from the

evil, that means that there is a holiness that is kept intact.

So we got to avoid the isolation trap.

We, we can't be isolated. We must never be isolated, but

we must be careful to separate holiness from love.

Holiness may make us different from other people, but love will

seek to bridge the gap in relationship so that the spirit

that you have can reach out through you to them.

Amen. Holiness will distinguish you

without removing you, but love will allow you to engage without

compromise. Here's what we got to be careful

of our our newfound relationship with God, said Brother McGee.

I got a lot of old friends I know.

And then maybe, maybe they need the same experience that you

have. Maybe they need the same

experience that you have. Maybe they even see some of

that. Or maybe they think you're crazy

and you probably. Are.

But here's one thing I do know. If you constantly surround

yourself with the same old friends and you find yourself

then being LED away from God, LED away from what you have

experienced, here's what I know. You can't be light to others

when you're still succumbing to the darkness.

My my. Advice to you is to.

Find your footing in God. Mature your footing in God.

Huh. And then you'll be able to be an

uncompromising like, does that mean just right now you can

still be kind and friendly and all that, but you might not need

to swallow up your life with their environment and

surroundings. OK, Paul told Timothy in First

Timothy 4/6. He said, take heed unto thyself.

He's saying, know yourself. Let's put in these terms.

Know your weaknesses, right? Amen.

Know your propensities. Know know what you have a a

likelihood to do when set in certain environments and places

with certain people. Let's just get real, real

practical this morning. Some people are more apt to be

followers and blend in with whatever surrounding they're in.

And some people are more apt to be leaders right and usher

others along the way. Plain and simple.

Amen. He says, Take heed thyself, know

yourself, and unto look at the end.

It's not a or, it's A and and unto the doctrine continue in

them. For in doing this, thou shalt

both save thyself and them that hear thee.

So folks, if I know myself, if I know that former lust that's

inside of me and that war that goes on to my members and I know

I know how it wants to operate my life.

I've already figured out whenever I'm around, Oh Joe cool

over here that I used to do stuff with illegally.

Amen. That when I'm around here, that

thing kind of kind of has drawn me that way.

And I start flirting around with stuff that I used to flirt

around with that maybe I need to know myself and get more

involved in the doctrine in God's word and allow that to

find some security and some high off points of my life.

Because I want Joe Cool to be saved.

But I, I can't chance at this place, my salvation by trying to

get in that environment. But if I can get to know God and

I can get to know God's Word, and I can grow on my truth, it

will save me and it will also have an impact on Old Joe So.

Holiness is is aid. It helps protect us.

It helps protect us from committing sentence and some

assuming. I'm not going to get real deep

in this today, but suffice it to say some assume that salvation

is just permanently guaranteed that that whole mindset is

really a a careless and risky mindset.

The Bible has has many warnings in Scripture.

When you read the epistles which are written to the church,

there's a lot of warnings here admonishing believers to be

resolute in their faith save they fall from grace.

There's a farming analogy that used in Hebrews and this this is

where the namesake of this lesson comes from.

If everybody said, when he's going to talk about that goes to

salvation for the earth, which drinketh in the rain that cometh

OFT upon him. This is Hebrews 6-7 and bringeth

forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed, receive a

blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns

and briars is rejected in his nigh and cursing, whose end is

to be burned. Verse 9 But beloved, we are

persuaded better things of you and things that accompany

everybody, say, accompany things that accompany salvation.

Though we thus speak, the writer of Hebrews is saying the Ryan,

the rain from heaven, it falls indiscriminately.

The rain falls indiscriminately upon all the ground, all types

of ground, all places and locations of ground.

But each grounds response to the rain will determine what is

brought forth in the ground and upon the ground there will be

some that will have herbs that will respond in one manner.

There will be others with briars and and thorns according to what

has been invested in the ground. However, in speaking about all

that, he comes to verse 9 and says, but beloved, you know

what? There's better things that we

are expecting of somebody that has received salvation.

Now watch this now. Now I'm going to slow down here

a little bit. I don't feel like I've been

going real fast today. Anyway, notice here he says, and

the things that accompany again the word accompany that

accompany salvation. The.

Word that is translated accompany, again, it comes from

a Greek word. We're not going to say it or

give you the number of it. You can look it up.

There's stuff online, you can find that if you want to.

But the word translated accompany means, our common

English meaning if you just look it up in a regular dictionary is

to go with or to add to, all right.

It doesn't mean equal to. It doesn't mean the same as, but

to go with or to add to. And so if just looking up in a

regular English Dictionary, the passage is telling us that there

are, there are some things that go along with salvation.

They're not equal to salvation, but they accompany salvation.

They go along with salvation. And so the idea, the idea is

much stronger, though, than just the notion of going with

salvation in, in, in the meaning of the Greek word.

The writer is not saying that salvation.

Follow me very clearly here. The.

Writer is not saying that salvation exists on its own and

that other things occasionally walk beside it.

That's not what the Scripture is saying, he says.

There are. This is the meaning now.

He says that there are qualities and evidence that are

inseparably connected to salvation.

Let me say that again. There are qualities and evidence

inseparably connected to salvation.

In other words, salvation is known and salvation.

Is verified by what is going along with it.

The Greek meaning of the word accompany.

It means to hold fast. To cling to, to be bound to, to

be closely connected with. And so we're not talking about a

loose association. No, it's describing something

that grips salvation, adheres to salvation, that remains attached

to salvation. The things in view do not merely

follow salvation, they fasten themselves to salvation.

The Greek word translated here as we look a little bit deeper

into it, the Greek word accompany.

It's from a root word. If you were to look at the Greek

word in it among some other letters, but in it you're.

Going to see the word echo. It's where we get our English

word echo. How many here knows that an echo

is not an independent sound? If there's an echo, it has a

source. Echo is not an independent

sound. It's not separate or independent

sound. It is a continuation or

reflection of some original voicing.

The original voicing existed first, but the echo is as a

result of it. Salvation is the original voice.

It's the original voice, but there are things that accompany

salvation. There are echoes of salvation,

and if they exist, it's because salvation exist.

Come on. Oh, God.

Hey, man, I'm standing over here, you know, in some little

mountain thing, and all of a sudden I hear what I think is my

wife's voice. I know she's there somewhere

because I've heard the echo of her voice.

The echo is proof to me that she exists.

The apostle says, he says I'm feeling like this rain and this

ground and some briars and some good.

He said, I'm thinking that though there's something better

for those that have been born again of the water spirit,

there's something better for people like you because there's

some things that accompany salvation.

And it's not briar, it's not thorn.

There are some echoes of salvation.

And one among those echoes of salvation is our holy life, our

holy living, the way that we reflect the original voice in

our life it. Amen.

Jesus said night. I got just a little bit of time

here. Jesus said that that to make it

all the way into everlasting life, He even gives a little

parabolic say, saying he talks about a gate that is wide in a

way that is broad, and he talks about a gate that is straight in

a way that is narrow. And he admonishes them entering

in at the straight gate, right? Because broad is the gate and

wide is the way, wide is the gate, and broad is the way that

leadeth unto destruction. But this straight gate, narrow

way, lead this unto everlasting life.

Just reason with me here very practically today.

It only takes a matter of seconds to walk through a gate,

but it takes some time to walk the way.

If you boil down when I was born of the Spirit at 8 years old at

South Gibson Apostolic Church, it was just a short matter of

time to enter the straight gate. But since then, until now,

almost 40 years, 39 for the past 39 years, I've been attempting,

with the help of the Spirit, to walk the narrow way.

How long do you think it takes to walk the way that leads to

eternal life? You'll take a lifetime.

You'll take a lifetime. And if we don't listen to me,

and if we don't have things that accompany our salvation,

remember we have some things that accompany our salvation

that help keep our feet attached to the way, then we might

jeopardize making it to the end. I wish I could tell you this

morning I'm listen, I'm not trying to be boom boom up here

today, but I wish I could tell you that everybody that's ever

experienced the power of God left this life under that same

experience. Just getting real honest with

you today. I've stood by too many caskets

and where the dirt's been turned over in graveyards where I was

there when they were born again. But eternity seems to be in

jeopardy. How in the word you know that

from McGee because some things that had accompanied their

salvation. The echoes getting silent.

I'm trying. Not really folks, I just.

Think, I mean for analogy purposes again, there's no

analogy that's perfect, but if you just thinking about an army

that's that's an. Attacking an enemy and its

objective, of course is VV. They want victory.

And so they want to emerge victorious and they don't want

to be defeated. And so as a result of that,

they, they are equipped with weapons and they're equipped

with armor and they're equipped with transportation and

communications and food and, and a Medical Center and, and so on

and so forth. Forth all these things for the

purpose of victory. Well, God will first save you,

but then he puts he puts other things in your life that

accompanies your salvation because your path is going to be

fraught with some spiritual dangers.

You already got the war. You already got the things that

you're more prone to than other people sitting beside you.

You already got the war. And so our objective is, when we

come to the end, that we arrive victorious to the entrance of

everlasting life. But to do that, yes, I need

salvation. But I need the things that

accompany salvation. I need the things that cling to

hold fast and grip Amen, a hold of my salvation.

And so just as the armor of the army Amen, is going to keep them

from some of the assaults of the enemies, I need some other

things along with my salvation that's going to protect me and

safeguard me and be a first line of defense for me.

Stay with me, I'll hurry. Too close.

So, he said. I'm saying that we got to be

careful not to to confuse the gate with the way.

Well of Time said. Being born again, that's your

birth certificate. It starts.

It's not over. It starts at the beginning.

It's a new walk, a new life. That's where it starts.

The gate's the only. Beginning of the way.

Enter through salvation, through that new birth.

That's the gate. But God expects us again to add,

said, no, he don't. Yes, he does read the Scripture,

even second Peter chapter #1 he, he reached to him about faith.

He said you'd be given this faith, He said, but besides

this, he said, give diligence, add to your faith and you're

going to see a list of other things.

Add to your faith this and then add to that this and add to that

this. What is that?

Things that accompany or echo. Salvation.

There's some qualities in our life that should be inseparably

connected to what we have experienced.

They're going to be AIDS and helps then Sister Ray to keep us

from going off the path. He doesn't want you to walk

alone. He wants you to have an

entourage. Our Lord wants you to have an

entourage around about you because we live in a spiritually

dangerous world. We live in a spiritually day

with a spiritually dangerous Prince of this world.

And we have danger that still resides in us, Our former lust

that wants to creep up their head.

And we're just saying, you know what, I'm getting up tomorrow,

what are you doing? We're going to the cross.

What are you talking about? It's crucifying day again.

And then after Monday, Tuesday, what are you doing?

We're going to the cross. What's going on?

It's crucifying day again. Because not every.

All of our flesh is not like Christ's flesh.

Christ bound Himself to that tree.

They thought they bound Him, but He bound Himself because of His

love toward us. He stayed there.

But you know what my flesh tries to do is trying to wiggle the

nails. Out and trying to get off.

I show back on Wednesday. Oh your left hands down.

Is it flesh? Because they don't want to be on

that tree. Come on, they don't want to be

on that tree. Why you think Jesus told us?

Disciples, take up your cross and follow me?

Because in that culture, any man that's carrying a cross is

fixing to be crucified. Every day.

That man's kind of what's happening, he's crucifying the

flesh today. Cover what's that man doing?

He's crucifying the flesh. Today cannot allow one day to

pass by without mortifying the deeds of the flesh.

And one of these days, perhaps in Yonder blue, Amen, the day

when the last trump shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall

rise 1st. And we which are alive and

remain, and the Lord shall be caught up together, and we stand

before God. Maybe at that moment we'll be

able to be like Christ and say the same little words that he

saw when his flesh was on the cross and say it is finished.

But until then, we're going to go through some grueling agony

and pain and war in our members. But every day I can be

victorious. Amen.

Through His spirit, through salvation and all the things

that accompany the echoes. Amen.

Hallelujah. Someone say thank you Jesus.

Let's bow our heads today. Well, Brendan McGee, I wish he

was more inspirational today, folks, this, this is

inspirational. God's Word will keep you.

His Spirit will keep you. All these things will.

But there's a will inside of us. We have the will, Amen, that we

can give ourselves to. It's the very same thing Adam

and Eve faced in the garden. They had a will, whether or not

they would eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or

whether they want. And the Lord is a gentleman.

He is not going to override our will, but He is luring.

He is wooing us. To Him there is a will, and I

got to come before the Lord, even as Christ did in that

garden of Gethsemane, and say Father, not my will, because my

will has former lust. My will wants to involve itself

in all the works of the flesh. Not my will, but thine will be

done when we pray that Lord's Prayer and we come upon some of

those words. Amen.

Your Kingdom come. Your will be done in earth as it

is in heaven. We're wanting heaven to come

down in earth. We want the Kingdom of God's

Kingdom to come down here. And that looks different than

what the Kingdom of the world is like.

He's here. He's here.

He's here. Maybe you're here this morning.

You said, Brother McGee, I don't have the Holy Ghost.

I don't have the Spirit of the Lord.

I've never been born again. Ladies and gentlemen, I

introduce you to the gate. I introduce you to the gate.

And it's a gate to be walked through.

It's a gate to be kneeled by today.

Amen. Through repentance.

Amen. Inviting the Lord with that

afterthought of you looking over your life saying, God, I've

looked over my life and I've seen where I've been led by my

human desires. I see where I've been LED, Amen,

by things that I want and desired.

I did whatever I wanted. I did what I thought, you know,

just just somehow fit into the crowd, Amen, of the society in

which I live. But Lord, I want, I want, I need

an alteration of my life today. Amen.

It's that it's that that second look, it's that change of mind

about how life has been lived to this point of time.

Every individual upon the face of the earth we need to enter to

the Lord through a means of repentance.

Hallelujah. And there is waters here.

We had three baptized last week that took on the name of Jesus

Christ in watery grave as we were.

Call it as baptism, baptize you and mercy you in water.

Speak in the name of Jesus Christ over you for the

remission or the removal of those sins that you repent

about. In the step of repentance,

whenever you receive the Holy Ghost, your house, this temple

has been swept clean from all of those things that are unlike

God, the repentance and baptism. And it opens up an invitation

for God's Spirit to move inside of your life.

And the Bible says, and they began to speak in other tongues

as the Spirit gave them the utterance.

It is a work of the Spirit, folks.

That's the gate. And it's every day after that

that we're saying to the one who really owns us because we're not

our own anymore about us with his blood Lord, how do you want

me to Live Today? How do you want me to walk

today? How do you want me to respond

today? And we add them to our faith.

Oh, some, some holiness that safeguards and protects and

guides and instructs and helps and undergirds.

These altars are open this morning if anybody would desire

to pray. It might be somebody else here

today that you've already walked through the gate and you're on

the way right now, but there are voices, there are allurements.

There are things, Hallelujah, that are hollering out to you

and calling out to you that's vying for your attention.

And you're, by the help of the Holy Ghost, trying to keep a

strong hand on some former lust and former things that wants to

usurp the authority of God in your life.

Hallelujah. There's some, though other

things in your life. There's some echoes of

salvation. You, you start part of this

journey, but there's some things that's been added to it.

That's, that's helping bolster your walk and helping keep your

feet planted on the straight and the narrow Hallelujah.

You're, you're trying to be alike to those who knew you

formally. You're concentrating to know

yourself and know the doctrine and know God's word, hoping by

doing so that it will help save you and also reach out to those

that you formerly knew. God can help you today.

God can help you today. Hey man, Brother Mason,

Hallelujah.