Separation

[0:00] Psalm 1. You might want to read along in your Bible, or we've got the words that we'll project here.

[0:18] Blessed is the man. And we'll just have an opportunity, maybe for those that would like to stand and read along, you can read the words behind me or in your Bible as we read the Word of God together, shall we?

[0:32] Let's stand together. Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the sink of the scornful.

[0:46] But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.

[1:01] His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

[1:13] Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

[1:28] Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for your precious Word. Lord, for our hearing of it, for our hearing of it, receiving of it, and acting upon it. Lord, that you would be glorified in every soul that hears this message.

[1:41] It won't be just that we'll hear it, but we will actually do it. Lord, to your praise we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Separation.

[1:52] Separation, that's the theme of this message here tonight. God describes here the separated man as the blessed man. And in this psalm, God calls us to separation.

[2:05] He commends separation, and God blesses separation. So this is a topical study really, if you like. We're going to look at that Bible doctrine of separation, the doctrine of separation, by exploring three things that are negative, and three things that are positive about separation.

[2:27] For, as we've seen here on the screen, there's a separation from three things. I'll put to you in these three matters about separation.

[2:40] There's probably more we could say. But separation from deception, separation from doctrinal error, and separation from defilement. And then on the positive side, separation unto heart purity, holiness, and honoring our Lord.

[2:57] So firstly, I'll put to you in these separation from some things. From, firstly, the danger of deception. Now, some would want to dabble with sin, as the psalm we started with talks about how we should not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

[3:15] We shouldn't walk alongside the ungodly. And then it says we shouldn't stand with them. And then it says we shouldn't sit with the world and its scoffing crowd.

[3:27] You see a gradual ramping up here. Walking by them, standing by them, and then sitting with them. All getting really cozy with the scoffing crowd.

[3:38] And this really shows, if you like, a slip sliding away. A declining. A gradual, you know, take it to the next level. As some would talk about, while it is taking it to the next level.

[3:49] The next level downwards, downwards, downwards. Where we're standing, and then actually sitting alongside that subtle yet deadly attraction away from the Lord.

[4:00] It's that magnetic pull of the world. It's something that's a dangerous deception. And bit by bit, some would excuse it. And grow to accept it by increasing degrees.

[4:11] They tolerate it. Walking in the counsel. Oh yeah, I'll listen to a bit of this, a bit of that. Standing by them, and then actually sitting with them. Getting very cozy and comfortable with the worldly crowd.

[4:24] Growing to accept it by degrees. Tolerating it until they get more comfortable with it. Till they are deceived. And fully led astray. Fully held in the grip. In the power.

[4:34] In the condemnation. First they've sucked in by the counsel. The ungodly counsel. Next is the ungodly associations. And then ultimately a full on godlessness.

[4:46] God calls us to use discrimination. We're talking in the positive sense. We should be discriminating in the sense of discerning, judging. That there should be a distinction between godly and ungodly.

[5:00] That's the discrimination we need. Of course we're not to be racially discriminating. But we should be spiritually discriminating. In the sense something is clean. Something is unclean. Something is righteous.

[5:11] Something is unrighteous. Something is of God. Something is not of God. And friends we need that discernment. That discernment against deception. Because friends this whole world is in the grip of the power of the evil one.

[5:25] As we read in 1 John 5 verse 19. And it says, And we know that we are of God. And the whole world lieth in wickedness. Notice the global reach of this deception.

[5:36] It's global. And of this world. Our Lord says in John 15 verse 19. He says, If you are of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

[5:49] Therefore the world hates a few. We cannot have a compromising connection with anything in the world that is against God. We cannot have a mixture.

[6:01] We cannot mix with the spirit of the world. We are not part of the world. He has taken us out of the world. We are passing through this world. We are not part of the world. We are not part of the world. We are not part of the world.

[6:12] We are not part of the world. While we are, by the same token, we are actually in the world as in reaching the world. So there is that distinction.

[6:23] We are not of the world. And yet he has put us in the world as kind of missionaries, if you like. And that could be said truly of our Lord as well.

[6:34] Because we know of our Lord, he was called the friend of sinners. And he was known to be amongst them, and with them, and reaching them, and touching them, and they touching him.

[6:46] And yet of our Lord, on the other side of the coin, it says of him in Hebrews 7, 26, describing him as that great high priest, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made high than the heavens.

[7:03] So he's one who's undefiled. He's not stained by the world. He's holy. He's blameless. He's righteous. So as much as he was the friend of sinners, as much as he mingled with the sinners, he was not of them.

[7:15] He was reaching them. He was there as the ultimate missionary, separated from them. And as that says, well, we should be like Christ, that we are in the world, but not of the world.

[7:29] That doesn't define us. It's not who we are. We don't belong to this world. He doesn't want us to be bigots or hypocrites. But we are called to be separate in that righteous sense, as our Lord was in it, but not of it.

[7:44] He was a friend of sinners, yet separate from sinners. And we are called to be such a people. It's a kind of strange kind of couple of things, really, isn't it?

[7:56] That we're in it, but not of it. We are meant to be reaching our world, yet distinct and different, devoted people to God.

[8:07] And Paul urges us to abstain from all appearance of evil, to be careful of even the hints of it, even the appearance of it.

[8:19] Don't let the devil go in a foothold. Don't give the flesh opportunity. Don't even start on that slippery downward path. Don't dabble. Don't mess. Don't risk. That's sin.

[8:30] That can so easily be said. David talks about how that he estends all thy precepts concerning all things to be right.

[8:41] And he says this, I hate every false way. So there is such a thing, if you like, as a holy hatred. A holy hatred. It's right to hate some things.

[8:53] To be against some things. If something has the least potential to harm our Christian life, to damage our devotion to Christ, to shipwreck our faith, to steal our energies away from him, then we should keep a wide berth from that.

[9:09] Put a barge pole between you and that which is questionable or a temptation for you.

[9:21] And learn to hate every false way. They're strong words, aren't they, really? To hate it. To have a loathing, a dread of it. It's something that you don't want to toy with.

[9:35] To hate every false way. So we should be warned of the danger of deception, of compromise, to steer away from it, well clear of it. To give it a wide berth and to get right away from it.

[9:48] And Paul exhorts in Thessalonians to the second letter of the Thessalonians. He says, If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.

[10:01] Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now there's occasions where we come to that question. How close should we be to different ones?

[10:13] I know the question has risen in some situations lately. Have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

[10:29] Now be wary of deception and those who choose this path. Be discerning in your actions, in your associations. Ephesians 5 tells us this. Paul says, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

[10:45] We should be against some things. We should speak against the unfruitful works of darkness. Guard ourselves from them. Avoid them at all costs. And get the message out to others. There's a reproving.

[10:56] We want to warn people. There's a rightful warning. So we've talked about this separation of the first thing to be separate from is the danger of deception. The second thing to be separated from is the danger of doctrinal error.

[11:11] Doctrinal error. Not every teaching is true teaching. Not every teacher is a true teacher. Some are false teachers. Some are false teachings. False doctrine.

[11:21] And of course we know in the context of 1 Corinthians 5, it's talking about a situation of sin in the church. Leaven is how Paul talked about it.

[11:34] As being like yeast in that lump of dough. And he says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6, he says, Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

[11:46] The situation was sin there. But likewise, leaven can refer to false doctrine. The Lord talked about the leaven of the Pharisees. The leaven of their false teaching.

[11:57] And a little sin, a little false teaching can make a big impact. A little can affect a lot. And it's the same with us in the Christian life.

[12:09] And that's why I do try to urge people when I hear that they're tuning in to certain preachers to be careful. You know, sort the bones out from the meat.

[12:20] You know, there might be some good content, but you've got to spit the bones out. There's a lot of teaching out there, especially on the internet now, that anyone can tune into.

[12:30] And friends, you've just got to be careful. Because there is doctrinal error. We can end up sitting in the seat of the scornful. Now, if you start to get off onto false doctrine, you end up sitting in the seat of the scornful.

[12:45] When false ideas move you so far away from the truth. And friends, we told of the last days as many warnings, as I've talked about in recent messages, of that great falling away.

[12:55] It tells of false prophets to come. It tells of false teachers. It tells of an abounding iniquity. Where sin will abound. And it's talking about a spirit of deception that will come. And these are all warnings that the Word of God is filled with.

[13:08] But we are warned to be alert to doctrinal error. It's a clear warning to have that discernment. Does the teaching line up with God's Holy Word?

[13:20] Is it consistent? Some will pick, cherry pick verses and make it say something that is actually out of accord with the whole Word of God. And so you've got to be careful where some like you say, I know Julie likes to say, if you take a verse out of context, you're left with a con.

[13:37] You know, that can happen where you take something and you misconstrue it and you misapply it. It's not who it's speaking to or what it's speaking about or relevant based on the context of the verse to apply it.

[13:52] Wrongly, you can be left with an error. And so we've warned many times, the Bible warns us about being carried away by strange teachings.

[14:02] That's Hebrews 13 verse 9. It talks about doctrines of devils or demonic doctrines in other words. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1. Now some doctrine, some teaching could actually be from the enemy of our soul.

[14:16] So we must have our eyes wide open when it comes to doctrinal teaching. Recognise the danger of that which goes against God's Word.

[14:28] Paul tells Timothy these words in 1 Timothy 6, 3 and 5. He says, So if the teaching isn't biblical, it's not the whole Word of God, the whole truth of God.

[14:55] If it's not doctrine that accords with godliness, we should keep clear of such teaching and such temptations. Paul talks about some that they would pervert even the gospel of Christ.

[15:07] You know, some would give a gospel which is watered down or misconstrued. Or it could be even taking things and not really presenting the gospel clearly.

[15:21] But putting things into the gospel message that could be actually false teaching. That someone could actually get a false gospel. Now that's pretty serious stuff, isn't it?

[15:32] Some that would actually pervert the gospel of Christ. And then we see Romans 16, another warning of Paul. He says, So like the church of Corinth, much of the church today is full of a lot of disunity, carnality.

[15:56] There was worldliness in the church of Corinth. There was doctrinal error. There was an abuse of spiritual gifts. They had a whole lot of things wrong. And the church, it seems today, is a bit like that too, I think.

[16:12] And we see the Holy Spirit through Jude urges the need to contend earnestly for the faith. Once delivered to the saints. A contending. It's like a contention. It's a fight. There's a fight on for the truth.

[16:24] And Jude 1 verse 3 in party, he says, I'll exhort you that you should earnestly contend. You know, there should be an earnest fight. An earnest contention for the faith, he says, which was once delivered unto the saints.

[16:38] So we cannot compromise with wrong teaching. We can't get wishy-washy on matters of doctrine and truth. These are vital things. We cannot tolerate wrong teaching that dishonours the Lord or dilutes or perverts the very gospel.

[16:55] We must unite against false teaching. We cannot unite with false teaching. We must rather stand strongly for sound doctrine. And that means we should apply ourselves as students of the Word of God.

[17:09] And search the scripture. See if these things are so. Because there's a decline away from God's truth. And it's quite widespread. Where there's an acceptance of error.

[17:20] You know, it just astonishes me. I've got to be frank, when you go to like a Christian bookshop like Curon in a city. And, you know, the best sellers are all by pretty much false teachers.

[17:31] They're just, it's like, you know, the top ten pretty much. And it's just, these people are into quite wacko false teaching. And I think the best place to get a Christian book is go to the op shop and look for the oldest ones.

[17:45] They're generally better than the new ones. And that's not always the case. But there's this decline. There's a decline away from God's truth. And it's all quite odd and accepting of error and false teaching.

[17:59] And we've got to be so careful and so discerning. And, you know, try to read some material with good content. Now, we've got a church library here. By and large, there's good material there.

[18:10] So, have a look in there and feed your soul with some good sound teaching. So, we must read false teachers. We must reject error and contend.

[18:21] You know, combat error. There's a combat going on. There's a fight for the faith that can earn its contention to stand up for God's holy truth. In the day when deception abounds, this whole world is full of wickedness.

[18:33] We should be separated people. The separated man, the separated woman will hold fast to the truth at all costs. He will be alert to the danger of deception and the danger of doctrinal error.

[18:47] And thirdly, alert to the danger of defilement. Friends, another danger for we that want to be separated is defilement. Defilement.

[18:57] And that can come in different forms. You see, Paul tells the Corinthians again, 2 Corinthians 6, verses 17 through 7 verse 1. He exhorts the Corinthians and he says, Wherefore, come out from among them.

[19:12] Talking about the sinful crowd, the sinners that would accept that which is sinful. He says, come out of that. And be separate, he says. And touch not the unclean thing.

[19:25] Don't even touch it. And he says, and I will receive you. And I will be a father unto you. And you shall be my sons and daughters, say the Lord Almighty.

[19:36] 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. So there's a danger, I put to you, that want to be separated, there's a danger of defilement.

[19:51] Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement. Defilement speaks about being dirty. You know, this world's dirty, isn't it?

[20:02] We see the dirt that is pumped out, that's pumped out like an effluent pipe into lounge rooms, through the idiot box.

[20:12] We see the filthiness, the defilement that comes. And this world is filthy and dearthing in God's sight.

[20:24] And that's the norm now. Judgment looms. Friends, one day we'll stand before the judge. And some will not stand justified on that day.

[20:36] You know, it talks about the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. It's got the sense that they won't stand justified on that day.

[20:48] But they'll stand guilty. They'll stand condemned. And the stain of their sin will be seen by all. For they're dishonoured and they're shamed. So now is the time to get God's cleansing.

[21:00] To be cleansed in our hearts and minds. To break all ties that may dishonour our Lord. There's a boundary set. There's a separation.

[21:11] You know, sometimes we can skirt around things. We don't have a real defining line. A defining boundary. But friends, there is a dividing line that our Lord draws between righteousness and unrighteousness.

[21:26] Between light and darkness. Between Christ and Satan. Between the temple of God and the temple of idols. God doesn't want us to be defiled. But to be clean.

[21:37] To be cleansed. Sin will break fellowship with God. It's a big issue. We see that it will even hinder our prayers. Such that He will not hear us.

[21:48] The psalmist says here, Psalm 66 verse 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart. If my heart's just dwelling on sin. The Lord will not hear me.

[21:59] He will not hear your prayer. And so unconfessed sin in our lives is a great hindrance to prayer. So identify sin. Avoid it. Flee from it. Cleanse yourselves from all defilement.

[22:11] Be separated. Perfect holiness in the fear of God. This is a call to believers. Perfect holiness in the fear of God. Now I need to do that. Let's all be honest.

[22:23] We all need perfect holiness in the fear of God. It's a perfecting. We don't. I don't know that we get fully perfect this side. But there's a perfecting. We should be perfecting holiness.

[22:36] We should be growing in holiness. We should be wanting more holiness. We should be aspiring to more holiness. Aspiring to more of Christ. As we talked this morning. Less of me and more of Christ.

[22:48] More of him. So the separated man will be alert to separation from the danger of deception. The danger of doctrinal error. And thirdly the danger of defilement.

[23:00] One leads to another. The separated man on the positive side now will heed God's call to be separated unto. Three things. Some things. Three of which I'll speak of.

[23:11] To be separated unto God. Three more things we can talk about just now that we can be separated unto. And the first one we should be separated unto that call to heart purity.

[23:23] God calls us to a pure heart in the sight of God. And it reads here in James 1.27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this.

[23:34] To visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. And to keep himself unspotted from the world. God wants us to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.

[23:48] Do we have this kind of faith? A pure undefiled faith? A purity of life that goes beyond skin deep.

[23:59] A heart purity. A heart made clean by faith. We know it's only his cleansing that can wash our hearts. But there is a walking team. We are called to walk.

[24:12] And there's an intent that he wants us to have to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. To guard the purity of our life. To guard those entrances, those gates, as it were.

[24:25] The eye gate. The ear gate. To guard your purity of your life from sin. To be faithful to God. To be unspotted. It tells you a purity. That takes an integrity, a resolve.

[24:39] Because nowadays it's almost like we're called to a mixture. You know, the world would cause to have an ungodly mixture. We read of that in Leviticus 19, verse 19.

[24:52] Where God warned Israel against mixture. And the mixture there. And he was using this kind of illustration of sowing with mixed grain. Grain that was mixed.

[25:03] Different kinds of grain. Wearing different kinds of garments. Mixed garments. And mixing their species of cattle. Of course the analogy really is about the mixture, spiritually speaking.

[25:13] Now we can picture it with oil and water. But really the world and the God-fearing are separate. There's a separation. We should be separated from sin.

[25:25] Just like oil is separated from water. And God wants that for us. He wants that cleansing. That we would be pure and undefiled. He doesn't want us to be a mixture.

[25:37] Where we're messing with the world. Where there's a mixture with the world. Because it doesn't delight in Him. And our delight. The godly man. The blessed man. Our delight is in the law of the Lord.

[25:49] It's in that. That we meditate day and night. The Bible speaks about the washing of water. By the word. And so our Lord doesn't want us to be a hodgepodge. A mishmash. A dangerous mixture. Where there's a contamination.

[26:03] A compromise. But rather that we should be. Aspiring to that heart purity. Before God. He calls us for that. He wants us to be pure.

[26:14] To be dedicated. And clean. Another call unto. Is a call to holiness. I'm not touched on some similar things today.

[26:26] But it's a command from our God. To be a holy people. It says be ye holy. Even as I am holy. And it's His command to us. And holiness is something.

[26:37] That is because of our new birth. We're newborn creatures. That's why another reason why we should be separate. And another reason why we should be separate. Is because we want to obey Him. He's our Lord.

[26:48] He's our Saviour. He's our Father. And we want to be faithful. Think of it. The call to holiness. The separated man.

[26:58] Is called to holiness. Have you experienced the beauty of holiness? Because being holy. Is not some dread. Unpleasant thing.

[27:11] That's irksome. But it's actually a beautiful thing. Holiness is something beautiful. It's something that should be sought. It's something that we should want.

[27:23] And we delight in. And love. There's a beauty of holiness. The beauty of holiness. So there's a beauty that's within and without. That there's something that we belong to Him.

[27:36] And He belongs to us. It's a beautiful thing. Holiness. And holiness speaks of our belonging to God. The Holy One. Holiness speaks as the Holy Bible.

[27:48] It's something that belongs to God. It's precious. It's right. It's true. As in the holy city. Where we'll one day be together. That knowing Him. It's a wonderful thing.

[27:59] It's a beautiful thing. The holy city. Yet to come. So the call to holiness. Is a blessing. It's actually a blessing. Now the Psalm 1 talks about the blessed is the man.

[28:11] And there's a blessing in being set apart. Unto Him. A blessing that comes. That we are different from the world. Because we're devoted to Him. Our Lord.

[28:22] We walk not in the counsel of the ungodly. We are grounded rather on truth. We're planted it says. By the rivers of living water. We're planted by the river of water.

[28:34] And we're not blown away like the chaff in the wind. As those who know not the Savior. The Lord does not call us ungodly. But He calls us godly.

[28:46] That He would call us godly. That He would make us godly. It's a blessing isn't it? And so as believers we call to holy living. And that holy living is a setting apart.

[28:57] The word holy or holiness. It speaks about setting apart. It speaks about a separation. A separating. As God told Abraham. Get out of that country where he is from.

[29:10] Genesis 12. The Ur of the Chaldeans. He says get out of that country. And from that people. God told Israel. Get out of Egypt. Exodus 12 through 14.

[29:20] The writer of Hebrews says let us go out to Him. Outside the camp. Hebrews 13 verse 13. Then we see our Lord urges the church to come out of religious Babylon.

[29:36] Revelation 18 verse 4. He says come out of her my people. Come out of her my people. That ye may be not partakers of her sins. And that ye receive not of her plagues.

[29:48] Speaking about Babylon which we could consider to mean religious Babylon. False teaching. The enemy and his works.

[29:59] Come out of that. We're to be separated from that which is error. That which is of the world. The flesh. The devil. So let us rather be Christ like people.

[30:11] Live as God's holy people. This is the call of God. Separation. It's a wonderful Bible truth. And it's a blessed Bible truth. It's not something that's irksome.

[30:22] But something that's a blessing. That we are a blessed people as a separated people. The word separation is a Bible truth. That apparently it relates to the word horizon.

[30:35] So there's a separation. As you see the horizon. As you see the sunrise. The sunset. You see the horizon. There's a separation there isn't there? From the earth and the heaven. And in Genesis 1 verse 4 it says God separated the light from the darkness.

[30:51] Peter preached at Pentecost. He says get saved. Save yourselves out of this untoward generation. You know this generation. This world Peter says is crooked.

[31:02] So save yourselves out of it. Save yourselves from it. This crooked untoward generation. There's a separation there. Get out and come to God's salvation.

[31:15] And you see at the end of the book. There will be the ultimate separation. When there will be the dwellers of the holy heavenly city. There will be separated from those outside of it. You can read that in Revelation 22.

[31:28] Verses 14 through 15. It talks about the separation of the dwellers. Of the heavenly holy city. Yet to come. There will be the ultimate separation. So friends.

[31:39] This is not to say. That as a church we should be isolated. Or secluded. Or you know become some. A little holy club. In the sense that we're cut off.

[31:49] From the lost. That's not what we're saying. We actually want to influence. And impact. And reach. Our world for Christ. Yet all of us.

[32:00] The Bible calls us. We're called to be saints. And that's a very special truth. Isn't it? We're set apart by God. Unto God. An old time preacher said.

[32:13] This. Which. Captures it really well I think. Attachment to Christ. Is the only secret of detachment. From the world. Attachment to Christ.

[32:25] Is the only secret of detachment. From the world. So the more we're attached to Christ. The more the. We're not stuck on the world anymore. Right?

[32:36] If we're stuck on Christ. We'll be detached from the world. The more we cleave unto God. The more we. Lean upon him. And. Wrap our.

[32:47] Arms around Christ. The world will drop away. There'll be that detachment. And. So that separation unto God. Affects that separation from sin.

[32:59] The more we love our God. The more we trust him. The less we hang on to the world. So the separation is a wonderful truth that we can know.

[33:10] God divides his people. He divides us from the world. And. We see that even with the walls around Jerusalem. They were there for strength. And. For security.

[33:21] For peace. And protection. Separation. And the walls were a good thing. To be separated from. The enemy. The enemy that was against them. But the enemy wants to break down those walls of separation.

[33:33] So it's good to be mindful that separation. Is under attack. God causes to separation friends.

[33:45] So we see there's a call to heart purity. To holiness. And thirdly to honour the Lord. Just the last point. Here as we. Just wrapping up here. The last point. To honour the Lord.

[33:57] We're not only separated as we covered before. Separated from deception. There's a lot of false pitching. Doctrional error. There's defilement. The world. The world and the devil. Wants to.

[34:08] Foul you up. And make you unclean. In God's sight. But there's a cleansing. On the other side. There's a. There's a heart purity. Your heart can be made pure. By faith.

[34:19] You can have holiness. In. In the day by day. Practicality of life. And we see. Separation. Really. And this is the ultimate. It's a call to honour. Your God.

[34:30] To honour God. It's the testimony of the church. It's. Separation is needful. For the testimony of the church. You know. The world just laughs at Christians.

[34:40] When some creature falls. There's some big name. Well known creature. That comes crashing down. And the world just loves that. Don't they? And the gossip magazines.

[34:52] And that's. Maybe. They should be ashamed. Such ones. But the world just delights in that kind of story. Because the devil wants to discredit the church.

[35:03] To accuse the brethren. But God wants his church to be a blessed gathering. A holy people. Redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

[35:14] That we should be living testimonies for God's glory. And power. That we should be by those rivers of water. That we should be bearing fruit. That we should be those who delight in his word.

[35:26] That we meditate in it. And that we should be those people that he calls blessed. So separation is needful. He wants us to be such. And truly this is the blessed life.

[35:38] A lack of separation actually dishonors our Lord. When we have that ungodly mixture. When we don't care about those things that we should be ashamed of.

[35:52] There's a loss there. There's a loss of credibility. There's a loss of the testimony of the church. And it dishonors our God. So I urge you today as individual believers.

[36:03] To love what God loves. And to hate what God hates. As the psalmist cried. I hate every false way. Now if we want to please God. We'll actually hate the devil's ways.

[36:15] And the devil's errors and fault. And we'll want to be in God's truth. Pleasing our God. So it's almost like you've got to be intolerant.

[36:28] In a good way. Of the enemy. It's like it's been said. You're supposed to have your boat in the water. Not the water in the boat. So we are not to be of the world. But in the world.

[36:40] So make that decision today. To honour our God. Really you've got to renounce self-ownership. You know.

[36:51] You are not your own. We talked about this morning. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. It's like you don't belong to you anymore. You belong to him. You know. We're just.

[37:01] What's the thing you said James? We're kind of just ranting. Or yeah. What? How does it go? We're just. We're just. This is. This is just our temporary dwelling.

[37:12] But our ownership. The one who owns us. This vessel that we are. We are in his ownership. We belong to him now. For that temporary season.

[37:24] That we're living in these clay vessels. And so for the meantime. Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin. To sell. To the world. And reckon yourself. To be alive. Living.

[37:34] In that new way of living. Living unto God. A separation. Again. It's a beautiful thing. It's the beauty of holiness. It's a beautiful way to live. It's a blessed way to live.

[37:46] There's a blessing for you. It says blessed is the man. Blessed is that one who's separated. So again. We've covered those things. Of deception. Of error. Of defilement.

[37:57] We've seen. For we should be separated unto. To God's heart. But for our hearts to be made clean. To have our hearts washed. To have a holiness that he grants us.

[38:10] It's Christ. He is our holiness. And to have that life lived. To his honour. Blessed is the man. Blessed is that man.

[38:21] Let's pray. Lord we thank you that. We know. Through your word. That salvation is a gift. It's not of works. Lest any man should boast. And Lord.

[38:31] Whatever. Messages we might take. To make ourselves holy. Will fall far short. Lord. We know. Holiness only comes from you. You are our holiness Lord.

[38:43] And it's only as we let you. Have your way in us. That we trust you as our Lord. That we walk in your ways. That you can affect. A holy walk. That we'll be honouring to you.

[38:55] Well we pray for every soul. That is in the hearing of this Lord. That each one might know. That blessedness that comes. As we simply trust. Your saving grace.

[39:07] And know. The power of. Your love. That you showed us at. The cross. Where you took our sin. And paid for it there. That that's our only grounds.

[39:17] Of salvation. And yet Lord. Now. As saved people. Help us to be. Mindful. That we are to be a separated people. To be separated from. That which would dishonour you.

[39:29] And to be separated unto. That which would honour you. Lord. Help us to have. Such a heart. And we pray. Each one will be encouraged. To meditate on.

[39:40] That which will help us to grow. That we'll be like that blessed man. That has that. That company. Of the blessed. That has the. Word. That we can meditate upon.

[39:53] And to have that assurance. Lord. That surely. You know our way. The way of the righteous. And that righteousness is. Thanks. Entirely to you.

[40:04] Lord. Help us to live. As we accord with that. That you've called us to be. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.