Clean Transcript

Holiness and Obedience

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• on Interstate 75 doing 10 and 15 miles an hour. And of course, I saw so many in the ditch on each side of the road going home. And every now and then, somebody would pass me doing 30, 40, and then I'd pass them on up the road because they were in the ditch. But I'm thankful that I do live in South Georgia. I got a good friend, lives up in Michigan, and he just texted me, he said, 15 to 20 degrees and snow, snow, snow. I said, that's why I live in the South. I'm sorry, you know. But, you know, I just thought of something, and I know some of you folks in here are as old as I am, and some probably older.

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• In fact, talking about the rain, when I was a boy, we lived in a old farmhouse, tin roof, and I used to tease people. I used to say, when I was a boy, my mother carpeted our bathroom. And she liked it so much, she ran it all the way into the house. Of course, we didn't have showers back then, but in the summertime, especially when it rained like this and that eave where all the water came off, that's where I had my shower. I'd get out under that eave and just shower, and boy, that was the greatest thing in the world.

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• You can't do that up here, though. Not in the cold anyhow, so but I'm thankful for the Lord's grace and mercy and allowing us to live that is for sure. I want you to open your Bibles if you would please tonight to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. There are a lot of messages I want to preach and I may end up tomorrow night combining two messages just to try to get the other things out that I want to share with you. But I want you to look tonight.

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• The message is going to be very simple, but I hope very straightforward. And I pray that it'll be extremely helpful as well. Notice if you would, 1 Peter chapter one, and let's begin reading there with verse 13. The title of the message is Holiness and Obedience. Notice if you would, verse 13. Peter writes, "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 former lust of your ignorance, but as he which is called you is holy. So be ye holy in all manner of conversation." You know, I could begin by asking, do you have a desire to be holy or do you have an inclination to be holy? I could also ask this question. Do you understand the essence of holiness? One of the complaints that I've heard from Christians all over the country is that they have failed in holiness. I've heard people say, I've tried to live a holy life, but I ended up miserably failing.

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• And I would turn around and ask, do you even know what holiness is? And sometimes they would at least hit in the right direction, but most of the time they would confess they really had no idea. So the question would have to be asked, how in the world could you live a holy life if you really do not understand holiness, or if you really do not understand the essence of holiness? We don't even understand the beginning of it, much less the ending of it as well. And then when you consider the fact that by nature, in our flesh and in our minds and in our desires, we actually recoil at the thought of holiness.

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• Now, I want you to hold 1 Peter, but I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly to the book of Galatians, chapter 5. And let me show you something that is stated very plainly there. Galatians, chapter 5. Notice, if you would, please, verses 16 and 17. Galatians 5, verses 16 and 17. Look what the Bible says. We're talking about holiness, but he says in Galatians 5, verse 16, "This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth or fighteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."

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• And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. So we need to mark this down in our minds, that we're never ever going to live a holy life and we're never ever going to be holy as long as we are fulfilling the lusts and the desires of our flesh. Now, when I talk about the lusts and the desires of our flesh, I'm referring to that which is contrary to God and contrary to the Word of God. Certainly, we live in the flesh and God does, in His grace and mercy, allow us to enjoy things in our flesh. He allows us to enjoy life and food and family and friends, a lot of things. But when we're talking about the flesh tonight, we're talking about specifically those things that are absolutely contrary to God. So you're never, ever going to be holy as long as you're actually pleasing your flesh. Why? Because the flesh is fighting against that which is holy and the spirit is fighting against that which is fleshly.

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• That is why the Bible says in the book of Colossians, you can turn there just a few pages over. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Look in Colossians 1 and verse 10. Look what the Bible says. Colossians 1 in verse 10, "that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." So you're not going to walk pleasing unto the Lord as long as you're walking in the flesh. You're not going to walk pleasing to the Lord as long as you're walking in ignorance. So we can either please the Lord or we can please ourselves.

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• And I must remind you of this. When we choose to please our flesh, when we please to choose ourselves, we're violating the first commandment because we're actually placing ourselves above God. And the Bible says, "Thou shalt have no other gods above me." So it is indeed idolatry.

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• Now, if you look back at our text in 1 Peter, chapter one in verse 16, here is a very plain command. He says, "because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy." So here's the command that you and I are to be holy. So when you look at this command you can understand there really and truly only two alternatives. We can either be obedient or we can be disobedient. We can be obedient or we can be rebellious. That's it. There's no other alternative. So he's commanding us to be holy for I am holy saith the Lord. Now I've preached a series of messages on holiness from 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and I actually dealt with verse one of 2 Corinthians chapter seven where he said, "having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit perfecting holiness in fear of God." Now when you look at verse one of 2 Corinthians chapter seven it begins with "having therefore these promises." So you would have to ask yourself, what promises?

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• And then you have to go back to 2 Corinthians 6 in order to find the promises. So he said, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves, note if you would, from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So I preached a whole series on that, and then I preached a series of three messages on this text, on personal holiness.

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• Then I got to thinking for some time on this passage. And what I wanted to do was this. I wanted to take this text and reduce it down to where you and I could not only grasp it and understand it, but to be able to apply it in our lives on a daily basis. So I wanted to try to condense all of those messages that I've really preached on holiness so that it would be available to each of us in our own mind and our own understanding.

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• Now, before I get to 1 Peter 1, I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 4, because I want you to see another passage that is intimately connected with what I'm talking about tonight. So if you look in Psalm 4 and verse 3, Psalm 4, verse 3. Now, I don't know about you, but when I look at this verse, Psalm four and verse three, it's a very exciting verse, and it should excite each one of us to personal holiness. Look what he says in Psalm four and verse three. "But know, here is something you must know as a child of God. But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him." Isn't that amazing? He says, "but know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself." Let me give you a couple of things in this passage. First of all, you need to consider the fact that God sets apart him that is godly for himself.

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• Now, the word "sets apart" literally is from the Hebrew palal, which means to distinguish, to make distinct, to mark out, and to separate and to set apart. So God then distinguishes and marks out and sets apart those that are godly for himself. Secondly, in this verse, the Hebrew word for godly is the word chasid, which literally means godly or holy or saintly. Whenever you talk about a holy man, you're talking about a godly man. When you talk about a godly man, you're talking about a holy man. And either way, you're talking about a saint, because a saint is supposed to be holy and godly. So if God is holy, and He is, He said, "Be ye therefore holy as I am holy." So a godly man must necessarily be holy. Thirdly, in this text, the Bible says that God has set apart him that is godly for himself.

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• In other words, here is a distinguished group. Here is a distinguished class. Here is someone that is placed in a very unique position. God has set him apart for himself. That's why David said in the latter part of that verse, "therefore, the Lord will hear when I call upon him." Yes, God's going to hear because God has set him apart for himself.

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• Now, when I was in school many, many moons back, and I'm sure that you understand this phrase, there was always someone in the class that the rest of the class referred to as the teacher's pet. Have you ever heard that phrase? Well, he's the teacher's pet. Or she's the teacher's pet. Sometimes there were a couple of them. You know, and most of the students, and I remember this quite well, most of the students would kind of be envious of that one who was marked out as the teacher's pet. And we never stopped to realize the reason that individual was called the teacher's pet was because that individual always did the homework, always had the answer, always studied, always did what he was supposed to do. And the rest of us didn't do that.

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• And so the teacher naturally would give him something extra and special because he obeyed. It was just that simple.

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• Now, I don't know about you, but I'd really like to be in that class where God says, I'm putting you here for myself. I'm separating you. I'm making you distinct. I'm setting you apart as a special pet, if you would please, because you obey me. And that's when David said, God's going to hear when I call upon him.

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• Now, let me say this very clearly. In order to be holy, one must first be regenerated and converted. There are not going to be any Pharisees or any hypocrites or any unsaved church members who are going to be holy. Now, you might have some hypocrites and some Pharisees and some unsaved church members who are moral and kind and possess maybe a certain degree of uprightness, but they can never ever be holy apart from the act of regeneration and conversion by the grace of God. So anyone who's not really genuinely converted and regenerated will never ever be holy. What in the world are we going to talk about when we talk about holiness and obedience? Peter tells us in 1 Peter, once we are saved, once we are regenerated, once we are converted, exactly how we are to be holy. He tells us also how we are to grow in holiness. And the fact of the matter is we should be more holy each day. We should grow in grace each day. We should be more holy this week than we were last week.

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• We should be more holy this month than we were last month. Now, I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, please, to 1 Peter 1 again, because I want to share this with you tonight, and I hope the Lord will impress it upon your mind. If you'll look in verse 13, look what Peter writes. 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."

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• Now, here is my first point. I'm only going to have two tonight. So I want you to listen very carefully. Holiness begins in the mind. That may shock you, but holiness begins in the mind. That's why he says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind." Holiness begins in the mind. Everything begins in the mind. Your mind controls your attitude. It controls your actions and your conduct. Some of you have seen the website and maybe even heard Alex Jones on the InfoWars, but he had a slogan. He had a motto and that motto was this: "There's a war for your mind." Well, that may be true in the political field, and sure it is, but it is especially true in the spiritual field and in the spiritual realm. Everything begins in the mind.

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• The Word of God teaches very clearly in Proverbs 23 and verse 7. Listen carefully. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." You remember when I came here several years back, I preached a message on keeping the heart. Anybody remember that message? Yeah, several of you do. And let me just point something out. The Bible says in Proverbs 4 and verse 23, "Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life."

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• Now, I'm not going to repeat that message, but I am going to tell you this. And I told you this in that message. That when God says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence," he's referring to your mind. Because in the Bible, your heart is your mind. The very first time the word heart is found in the Bible is Genesis 6 and verse 5. When God saw the imaginations of man's heart was only evil continually. So I pointed out the heart can imagine. And if the heart can imagine, that means the heart can think basically. And then I pointed out also the heart can speak. Because in Genesis 27 verse 41, the Bible tells us that Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father will soon be over."

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• "Then I'll kill my brother Jacob." So the heart can speak. Then we saw in Proverbs 5 in verse 12, where the heart could either receive or despise instruction. And then I pointed out in Matthew 5, verse 27, where the heart is intimately connected with the eyes. For you remember our Lord said, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." And then I took you to Daniel chapter 4 and showed you where the heart was the mind because God said to Nebuchadnezzar, "Let his heart be changed from a man's and let a beast's heart be given unto him."

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• And then after seven years when he was restored, he said, "My reasoning returned unto me." So the heart then is the mind.

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• Now, I told you all that just simply to say this. When Peter said, "Gird up the loins of your mind," he's essentially saying, gird up the loins of your heart, because keeping the heart and keeping the mind are basically the same thing. Now, what does he mean when he says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind"? You would have to be an oriental or at least have to know oriental history.

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• Because back in Bible days, men and women both wore long robes. And when a man wanted to run, or when he was going to do some heavy work, some hard exertions, what he would do, he would take that robe and gird it up under his belt. You can't run in a robe. And so if you're going to run, if you're going to do something very difficult, you have to get that robe out of the way.

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• And here's what Peter's saying. You get your mind in gear. You gird up that mind. You get it ready to think. You get it ready to act. You get it ready to follow through with what I'm saying. You gird up the loins of your mind. Now here's a good question. Why does holiness begin in the mind? Let me show you. Hold 1 Peter, but look back in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter one. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Look in Colossians chapter one and notice if you would please verse 21. Colossians one and verse 21. Here is why it begins in the mind.

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• The answer is very simple. It is because that is where we are, particularly the enemies of God. Colossians 1 verse 21, "And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." We were enemies in our minds. If you would turn back very quickly to Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2, Galatians, Ephesians, and notice if you would please verse 3. Ephesians 2 and verse 3. Watch what he says.

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• In fact, let's read verse 1 just to show you he's talking to Christians. He said, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." So you've been quickened and you've been saved. "Wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation that is our conduct in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." And then when you skip down to verse 17 of chapter 4, Ephesians 4 verse 17, he says this, "This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind," that is the uselessness, the worthlessness, the wickedness of their mind.

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• So the reason holiness starts in the mind is because that's where we were primarily, the enemies of God. May I remind you that I told you last night about Adam. Do you remember when Adam rebelled against God, he first rebelled in his mind. Your actions always stem from your thoughts, from your thinking. So Adam thought incorrectly, he thought unbiblically, he thought wickedly, and therefore he acted biblically. Every sin begins in the mind. Every act of holiness begins in the mind. Every attitude of holiness begins the mind. Everything begins in the mind because the mind is the battleground. Whoever or whatever controls your mind controls your life. It's very simple.

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• The world wants to brainwash you. And on the other hand, God wants to brainwash you. The only problem is one is wicked, that's the world, and the other is godly and holy. The mind is indeed the battleground.

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• Now, let me tell you what the difficult part of girding up the loins of the mind really is. Here's the difficult part. We like our thoughts. We like the way we think. I want to show you, I want you to hold 1 Peter, but turn back in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs chapter three. I could quote it, but I want you to see this. Look in Proverbs chapter three, if you would please. Proverbs chapter three.

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• And let's read verses five through seven. Here are verses that you probably can quote. But I want you to think of these verses in light of what I'm telling you. Everything begins in the mind. Look in Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding." Don't trust your own judgment. "In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil." So he says, be not wise in your own eyes. Don't think you have the answer. Don't think you know it all. Don't think that you're right. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, you must acknowledge him, that he is wisdom incarnate, that He knows what is right, that He knows what is best. I'll guarantee you that you have said at one time or the other in your life, "Well, I know what's best for my life" or "I know what's best for me."

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• In reality, you do not. This is why it says, do not lean to your own understanding. Do not be wise in your own eyes.

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• Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 55. Look at what he says. Isaiah 55. I'm just trying to show you the difference now between fleshly thinking and biblical thinking. Watch this carefully. Look in Isaiah 55. Again, here's a very prominent passage, well-known, beginning with verse 7. But look at it in light of what I'm teaching you. He says in Isaiah 55 verse 7, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts." Wow.

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• "And let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my way, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

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• Now I find this interesting in verse seven. He said, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts." Do you realize it's the thoughts that mark out your way? If you're going to turn from your way, you have to turn from the way of thinking, which leads you in that way. And therefore he goes on to say, "My thoughts are higher than your thoughts and my ways are higher than your way, saith the Lord." So if we're going to learn to think biblically, if we're going to learn to think scripturally, we have to learn to lean not to our own understanding. We have to learn not to be wise in our own way. We have to also learn that there's a vast difference, the difference between heaven and earth, between God's thoughts and our thoughts and God's way and our way. And if we want to walk in God's way, we must learn to think the way God would have us to think. So there's no other way other than walking in the flesh and walking in our way.

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• So we're either going to be obedient or we're going to be disobedient. Now, everyone in here understands that when we are converted, initially we must forsake our way and forsake our thoughts. If you don't, you're not converted. You haven't turned, you haven't repented, you haven't changed. But once we have been converted initially, after having rejected our thoughts and rejected our way, we must continue to do that and choose his thoughts and his ways.

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• And the difference, as he pointed out, is the difference between heaven and earth. So here's the difficulty for proud human nature to say, "I'm foolish. I really don't know. I really don't have the understanding." How many of us would be willing to say like Solomon? Basically, "I'm but a child. I don't have sense enough to come out of the rain." That's basically what Solomon said. And do you realize it is our proud, arrogant heart that does not want to admit that we really and truly do not have the answers. We really and truly do not know what is right without God.

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• Now I want to show you the emphasis on this in the New Testament. So I want you to turn to the book of Romans chapter 12 again. Here's a very prominent passage. One that probably you can quote, but I want you to see it in light of what I'm trying to teach you. Holiness begins in the mind. Watch if you would Romans 12 verses one and two, I'm going to refer to this just a little bit later, but watch it carefully.

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• Paul writes, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." It's not unreasonable. It's reasonable. And then he says, "And be not conformed to this world." Don't be pressed in the mold of the world, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? "By the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." So he says, in order for you to have your bodies presented unto God as a living sacrifice, you must, you must have a renewed mind. And if your mind is not renewed, you're going to be conformed to this world. It's that simple. May I tell you, the Bible says in Ephesians 4 and verse 23, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Isn't that amazing?

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• When you get to the book of Colossians, chapter 3, verses 9 and 10, he says, "Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." So here is a renewed knowledge that only comes from a renewed mind. How about this verse?

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• I want you to listen carefully. Philippians 2 and verse 5. "Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus." Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus. What he's telling us that we have to learn to think the way Jesus Christ thought. When you look at Philippians 2 verses 5 through 11, you'll find the mind of Christ, first of all, is a humble mind. He humbled himself.

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• That's what the Bible says. It's not only a humble mind, but it's a submissive mind because he came and submitted himself to the will of his father. It's interesting. He said, "Let this mind be in you." Did you know in 1 Peter 4 in verse one? He said, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind." Over and over in the New Testament, we're commanded to have the same mind that Jesus Christ had. Now I do want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I want you to see this. I'm sure that you can quote it, but I want you to see it in light of what I'm teaching you. Notice 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Notice if you would please beginning there with verse 5. In fact, let's read verse 3. We'll begin with verse 3, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3. He says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh."

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• "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Now, he says, this spiritual weapon that we have is mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What is your stronghold? It's your mind. Watch this. "Casting down imaginations and every high thing or literally every high thought that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." So he is saying that we must have our every thought in obedience to Jesus Christ.

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• Now, what did I tell you earlier? The most difficult thing for you and I is to come up and say, "Lord, I know what I think. But my thoughts are not always right. They're not always scriptural. They're not always biblical. And so, Lord, I want to find out what you think and what you say, and I want to do what you say." Holiness begins in the mind.

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• So when Peter says, "Gird up the loins of your mind," that is essentially of him saying, you bring every thought that you have into captivity to Jesus Christ. Now, go back in your Bibles to 1 Peter 1. We're still on verse 13. Look at it. He says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind." So you understand what that means. You have to learn to think the way Christ thought. You have to learn to think the way God tells you to think. He says, "Gird up the loins of your mind." And then he says, "Be sober."

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• Now, when he commands us in this passage to be sober, this word has absolutely nothing to do with alcohol. It has nothing to do with drunkenness. The Greek word here is nepho, which literally is translated four times in our Bibles as sober and two times as watch. What the word means is that we are to have a calm and collected spirit and that we are to be temperate and circumspect in ordering our thoughts according to the Word of God. So, he says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober." Think seriously. Think accurately. Think biblically. That's what he's saying.

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• And then he said, "and hope to the end." In other words, if you are thinking right, and if you're doing what is right, obviously the end is going to turn out right as well. We're to hope to the end, that is, we're to look forward to the completed and perfect will of God in our lives. So, here's another question that you have to ask. If we're going to gird up the loins of our minds and we're going to think the way God thinks, how do we know what God thinks? And you know the answer to that.

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• It's revealed in His Word. Let me give you a verse, Colossians 3 and verse 16. Here's a verse that you ought to memorize. Colossians 3 verse 16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, singing and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." What did he say? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. What does that mean? That means when you have a thought and you just wonder whether or not that thought is right or wrong, you ought to immediately have a scripture come to your mind that lets you know whether it's right or wrong. You know, while I'm on this, let me say this.

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• Most people never read their Bible. Most Christians hardly ever read their Bible. You say, how can they be a Christian and not do that? Well, I can assure you that there are people in this room who have not read their Bible today. Probably may not have read it this week except for just being here in church. How in the world will you ever know what the Bible teaches if you don't read it and reread it and reread it and reread it?

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• I will tell you this. When God saved me years ago and called me to preach, I had a hunger to know the scripture, I wanted to know the Bible. So I put myself on a reading schedule. I read through the Old Testament every month, and I read through the New Testament every week. And I did it over and over and over. No, I wasn't watching TV. A lot of things I was not doing, but I was just reading the scripture and seeking to understand it. And ever since then, I read the Bible through, I go back, I start reading the Bible through again. And that doesn't count my own studying, that's just my own reading. And I'm just simply saying this, how in the world are you going to ever know the scripture if you do not read the scripture? You know, I tell people, someone says, "Well, I've never been to college. I've never been to a Bible college." Let me tell you, you may learn about the Bible in Bible college, but the only way you can learn the Bible is to read it and study it yourself.

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• And you're never, ever going to know what God says and what God thinks, unless you know the word of God. When our minds are renewed and our thoughts are biblical, then our actions are going to be holy. Thoughts produce actions. The will is activated by that which we believe. David said, "I believe, therefore have I spoken."

  #54 | 38:19 to 38:48 | cleaned

• Now, I've just made a point, and I hope I've made it clear. Holiness begins in the mind. Once you have your mind right, I want you to see what is next. Look in 1 Peter 1, verse 13. He says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Ah, now we're going to come to the second point. Holiness that began in the mind, with right thinking, holiness ends in obedience. Verse 14, "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust of your ignorance." Note, if you would, "as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust of your ignorance." Do you know, as you read the Bible, have you ever noticed that there are children of obedience and there are children of disobedience? In Ephesians 2 and verse 2, we read it earlier. He said, "Wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."

  #55 | 38:50 to 40:13 | cleaned

• And then, of course, in Colossians 3 and verse 6, he said, "For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." Now, if there are children of disobedience, there are children of obedience. That's why he said "as obedient children." You know what an obedient child is? Everyone does. An obedient child is one that hears and submits and obeys. Let me tell you something, I want you to listen carefully. An obedient child is one that hears and submits and obeys. Get ready. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience.

  #56 | 40:15 to 41:24 | cleaned

• I read an illustration years ago, I've never forgotten it. About the little boy who was out playing with his friends. And his mother called him and said, "Johnny, supper is ready." He just kept playing. Few minutes later, she called again, "Johnny, supper is ready." He kept on playing. Third time, "Johnny, your supper is ready." One little kid said, "Johnny, don't you hear your mother?" He said, "Yes. But I don't have to obey her until she puts her mean voice on."

  #57 | 41:28 to 42:11 | cleaned

• You know what she had done? She had trained him to disobey. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Well, I'll read my Bible tomorrow. I'll pray next week. I'll do what God tells me to next month. Now, delayed obedience is disobedience.

  #58 | 42:15 to 42:39 | cleaned

• Now, the Greek word for obedience here literally means obedience, compliance and submission. It refers to someone who hearkens and hears the counsel, the warnings and the commands and then acts upon them. Samuel, I think, is an excellent example. You remember when the Lord spoke to Samuel, he thought that Eli was calling him. God said, "Samuel, Samuel." And what did Samuel do? He jumped up and he ran to Eli. And he said, "Eli, what is it that you want?" Eli said, "I didn't call you."

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• "Go back and lie down." The second time, the same thing.

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• Third time, he runs to Eli and said, "Surely you did call me." And Eli realizes that God is calling the boy. And he says, "You go back and lie down. And when he calls again, you say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant heareth.'" That's obedience. When God speaks, we hear, we obey. An obedient child is one that hears and responds submissively. There's no rebellion. There's no complaints. There's no whining, just obedience. We know the word of God. We know the will of God. And when we know in our minds that which God has commanded, then we must obey. You know, the Apostle Paul in Romans one in verse nine, he talked about serving the Lord in his spirit. And certainly we must have our spirits involved in serving the Lord, but it was not his spirit that was carrying him all around the Roman Empire, it was his body. But the spirit motivated the body. And when we have our minds right, our thoughts and our spirits and motivate our body to serve him. So if we are obedient children, I want you to look in your Bibles, verse 14, he says, "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust of your ignorance."

  #61 | 43:22 to 45:08 | cleaned

• In other words, our pattern is no longer the way we used to live and what we used to do. Our pattern is now the word of God. An obedient child is not going to fashion himself according to his former lusts. Now, I don't know about you, but I am really thankful that the word "former" is in there. Because that means we've repented. It means we've changed. We're no longer like we used to be, and we're not even thinking that way. We don't want to have our bodies that way. No, no, no. He said if we're obedient children, we're not going to fashion ourselves the way we used to. Do you realize the best of God's children have had their times of lust and ignorance and they've had their times when that was the scheme of their whole lives.

  #62 | 45:08 to 46:02 | cleaned

• We sing Amazing Grace and John Newton was an old sorry drunkard and slave trader and wicked as he could be. And yet God saved him. Some of the greatest men that you and I admire today in Christian circles have been wicked, vile, reprobates before God saved them. And each of us the same way. We may not have been drunkards, but we had our sins. And the truth of the matter is the Bible tells us that we at one time walked in times past, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power there. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom we also had our conversation in times past, fulfilling the lust of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the enemies of God.

  #63 | 46:04 to 47:01 | cleaned

• Yeah, we were like that. And so therefore, he says, no, no, you're not fashioning yourself today like you used to be. You know, we talk about our lusts. And usually when you hear the word lust, it's associated with sexual sins. It does not necessarily have to be associated with sexual sins. The word lust is a very simple word, epithumia in the Greek. Thumos means passion or desire.

  #64 | 47:02 to 47:31 | cleaned

• Epi is a preposition, upon. So your lust or whatever you put your passions or your desires upon. Doesn't matter if it's a car, doesn't matter if it's a woman, doesn't matter if it's money, doesn't matter if it's a house, whatever you place your desire and your passion upon, that is your lust. So you can have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life as well. And so an obedient child is not ever going to fashion himself according to the former lust of his ignorance.

  #65 | 47:31 to 48:03 | cleaned

• That's why I said in Ephesians four, that we're not to walk in the vanity of our minds as the Gentiles or as a heathen walk. No, we no longer desire that. We're not going to fashion like that. You know, one of the verses that I really love is found in Psalm 25 and verse seven, where David said, "Lord, remember not the sins of my youth." And you know, when I read that, my mind went back to some of the sins of my youth. And I remembered them. And I got to pray and I said, "Lord, like David, remember not the sins of my youth."

  #66 | 48:05 to 48:52 | cleaned

• And then I had to add, "And the sins of my middle age and the sins of my old age." Because we're sinners. But we're not fashioning our lives after those things, even though we sin. That's why he said "as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts of your ignorance." And let me tell you something. Let me just encourage you with this. When he says "fashion," you remember that word?

  #67 | 48:53 to 49:29 | cleaned

• Back in Romans 12, two, when he said "be not conformed to this world," the word "conformed" in Romans 12, two, and the word "fashioned" in 1 Peter chapter one and verse 14 happens to be exactly the same word. So he said, do not be conforming yourselves according to these former lust in your ignorance, don't be ignorant and don't do what you used to do. Isn't that amazing?

  #68 | 49:31 to 50:01 | cleaned

• Now he said, "But be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord." If we learn to think right, it ought to end up in holiness. I want to tie it together for you. Listen carefully. It is impossible to be holy and disobedient at the same time. If you're holy, you're obedient. If you're disobedient, you're unholy. So there's no such thing as a holy disobedience. So if you're holy, you're going to be obedient. If you're disobedient, you're unholy.

  #69 | 50:03 to 50:41 | cleaned

• We know that we've been called to be likened to our father. "Be ye holy for I am holy." You cannot separate holiness and obedience. Do not separate what God has put together. It's impossible to be holy without being obedient at the same time. We must know him. We must know his word. We must know his will. We must submit and we must obey. The second thing is this. We must learn to think biblically in order to act biblically. Our thoughts must precede our action. Thought always precedes conduct. If you cannot think right, you cannot act right. If you cannot know what God's will is in your mind, you're not going to do God's will with your body. Holiness and obedience go together, and whoever or whatever controls the mind controls the body. When you try to separate holiness and obedience, you know what you end up with? Phariseeism.

  #70 | 50:42 to 51:55 | cleaned

• And our Lord condemned the Pharisees over and over because of their hypocrisy. They were claiming to be holy and when they were totally and completely unholy because they were disobedient. There is a verse that has always been very challenging to me. And I want you to look at it. I want you to turn to your Bibles to the book of John chapter eight. Let me make a statement. Listen carefully. Holiness

  #71 | 51:57 to 52:42 | cleaned

• is conformity to Jesus Christ and his word. And you cannot be holy unless it begins in your mind, because in your mind you must think of Jesus Christ and you must think of His Word. I want you to look at John 8 and verse 29 at what our Lord said. Our Lord said, "And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him." Here's my question. Would you like to do always those things that please the Father? If you want to walk pleasing unto Him, you must learn to gird up the loins of your mind and not fashion yourself according to the former lusts of your ignorance, but walk according to His Word and His will. "I do always those things that please Him." I think of that verse. I think of my sins.

  #72 | 52:44 to 54:14 | cleaned

• And I think, oh God, if I could just do that for one day, for one hour, for one month, for one year. Just do those things that please you. That is holiness. That is obedience. Never separate what God has joined together. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We thank You for Your Word. Lord, help us to understand how important our minds really are and how important Lord it is to read and study your word and to know it and to apply it and to live it. We cannot act holily unless we think biblically. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

  #73 | 54:15 to 55:19 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T16:26:29Z