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[0:00] I want to talk tonight about a virus. There's a virus spreading. It's spreading and it's dangerous.

[0:20] ! We've heard about the swine flu, the pandemic that's hit, or a potential pandemic, the emergency that the governments of this world are facing. The infection control is contagious. It's spreading. A virus easily spreads.

[0:39] And when a virus spreads, it's important to stop the infection, to prevent the spread of the infection, to avoid getting contaminated, to be protected from the virus. Now we see people walking around with masks on and things and wearing gloves and washing their hands and being very careful who they mix with.

[0:57] But there's an even more dangerous virus than the swine flu. Much more dangerous virus, the sin virus. And it's very much active and contagious, contaminating people.

[1:11] We see that in 2 Corinthians 6, verses 17 onwards. It says, God says, God says, Don't touch the unclean thing.

[1:35] You know, as we see with the swine virus, they're being very careful about surfaces you touch and about communication of sneezing and so on and coughing. People need to be very careful that they're not in contact.

[1:47] And like that too, the Bible says, Touch not the unclean thing. And as a Christian, we can all be stirred too to think about, how does this apply to me? How is sin a virus and a contaminant?

[2:00] It's harmful. It's deadly. Think about sin. The Bible talks about sin a lot. It's dangerous. It's like a bacteria or a germ. We know the common sayings when people have wet paint.

[2:14] It says, Do not touch wet paint. It's got a big sign on the wall. So what do the people do? They go and touch it, don't they? A wall that they may not have normally touched, but just because it's got a sign on it saying, Do not touch wet paint.

[2:26] They go and touch it. And it's like with hot stoves and things, isn't it too? The Stein says, danger, hot stove. People just go and have a look and just suss it out. And sometimes we're just drawn to touch those things that we shouldn't touch, to partake of those things, to be contaminated, to touch the unclean thing.

[2:45] And we can get infected. We can get contaminated. And the Bible says we should steer clear of it. Who and what we make contact with can contaminate us. It can rub off on us. That which we contact can get transferred.

[2:58] And back in the Bible, we see how the lepers of the day in the Old Testament days, the lepers of old, they would go around, as it talks about in Leviticus 13, verses 45 and 46, Leviticus 13.

[3:13] They were to go about and they were to wear torn clothes and cover their lip and cry out, unclean, unclean. Had to cry it out loud. And I believe they had a bell or there was some special significance.

[3:28] They had to warn people around about them that they were contaminated, that they were dangerous to be around. And they would cry out, unclean, unclean.

[3:39] Stay away from me. I'm contagious. I have leprosy, a skin disease that is highly contagious. And leprosy is like a picture of sin too. You know, in the word, that leprosy is really a bit of a type, a bit of a picture of how sin is.

[3:56] It's infecting. It's dangerous. We need to keep away from lepers for our own safety. There's a danger from contact with them. If you were in the Bible days where we don't have modern medicine and you had contact with leprosy, it could mean that your fingers start to drop off or toes or your nose or ears.

[4:19] It could rot away your skin. It could even take your life. Very dangerous and contagious. And sin is like that too. Brothers and sisters, sin is contagious. It's like a contagion, like a contaminant, like a spreading virus that is in our world today.

[4:37] And sin has got a consequence to it. There's consequences to sin. Someone put it, how in the life of the unsaved, sin, it can mean no relationship with God.

[4:52] We know that there's a separation. God says that your sins are separated between us. There's no peace with God. The lost, they know. It says that the wicked are like a sea that's full of muck.

[5:06] And there's no peace. Saith my God to the wicked. It's like, and it compares sin to being like a miry clay. When we're lost, we're in that quagmire of sin.

[5:19] And it's like a miry clay. But God wants to set our feet on the rock. And for the lost, there is no hope of heaven. Sin is awful. The Christless ones are in great danger because of their sin and because they don't have the answer to their sin.

[5:36] And for a Christian too, a Christian needs to be watchful and wary about sin. Sin is dangerous. You can lose your fellowship with God.

[5:47] You can lose that intimacy with God, that communion with Him. It breaks that fellowship. You can lose fruit. You can lose rewards. We know that the sun, as I've talked about, is just going to be wood, hay and stubble.

[6:01] They're going to have nothing to show for their life. There's going to be a loss of their testimony. Think of Christians who are well-known Christians when something sinful happens and people notice and hear about it.

[6:14] They lose their testimony. What a shame. What a reproach that they would make that mistake to fall into sin. And we lose our blessings. So sin is so dangerous.

[6:25] It's something that we should take careful steps to avoid. And as the Bible talks about that a little sin leads to more sin. It's like as it talks about how a little leaven in the lump, a little bit of yeast in that lump of flour makes a difference to it.

[6:43] And a little bit of sin can make a big difference. And sin invites God's discipline too. We know that that can result from sin. And when we think about sin, time spent in sin is forever wasted.

[6:56] Think of that time, those things that you've done that are wrong. That's forever wasted what you've done with that time. Sin grieves our God. It grieves his heart. It grieves the Holy Spirit.

[7:07] Sin causes heaviness of heart. And others may suffer because of your sin too. There might be people that are led astray because you've set the wrong example when you claim to be a Christian.

[7:19] Sin makes God's enemies rejoice. They laugh at the church. They laugh at Christians when they see sin in the camp. Sin deceives. It robs you of blessings.

[7:31] And repenting of sin is a painful process. When you sin, repentance is really the next step. And it's painful. My sin may keep others from knowing Christ.

[7:44] Think of that. You're his ambassador. You claim to be a Christian. Your sin could keep people from knowing Christ. Because they'll see your bad example and they'll think that there's no difference in your life.

[7:56] Sin makes light of the sufferings of Christ for you. When you think that our Lord and Saviour, he died for your sins. And when you sin, you make light of his suffering. When you sin, it's impossible to follow the Holy Spirit at the same time.

[8:10] You're going in the opposite direction. And God chooses not to hear the prayers of those who cherish sin. God's like that when you pray. If you're holding sin in your heart, if you're delighting in it, you're cherishing it, God can't hear your prayer.

[8:25] You're cut off from his ears. And sin can have a control. It can have a grip on you that is hard to shake, to break. And sin does not allow the Lord Jesus to be Lord of your life.

[8:39] And yet, as a Christian, haven't you promised him that position? So think of those things about sin. It's serious. Sometimes we don't talk about sin. We just may gloss over it or not really address it.

[8:51] But sin is real and it's very evident in the Word of God how we should address sin and respond to our Lord when he convicts us of sin. Think of sin.

[9:02] It destroys families. It destroys lives. It displeases God. And it dooms a person to help. How can I be safe from the sin virus? That's the question for everyone here today.

[9:15] How can I be safe from the sin virus? We know they had President Obama on the news. I heard him refer to lately how keeping safe from the swine virus is just a matter of keeping clean.

[9:29] It's keeping your hands washed. It's keeping, you know, safe distance from people and so on. And keeping those protections on yourself. How about the sin virus? How do you keep safe from the sin virus?

[9:41] I'd like to put it to you. There's some ways that you can think about how you can be protected. And the first one, there's three of these. Ownership, stewardship and fellowship.

[9:52] Three things to think about how you can protect yourself. And the first one is ownership. Ownership. Ownership. The first thing to think about, the first consideration is who do you belong to?

[10:03] Who do you belong to? Are you a Christian? Firstly, only the shed blood of Christ can deal with your sin. Only his blood shed on the cross in dying in your behalf, in your place.

[10:18] Only that penalty that was due to you for your sin that he took and freely paid on your behalf is the only answer to your sin. He's the only one who left heaven for that rugged place, that rugged cross to pay that you're dead of sin for you.

[10:37] He's the only one who can overcome. He can overcome the damage of sin. He can be the antidote, if you like, for that virus. He's the only answer.

[10:49] He's the only antivirus. He's the only one who can overturn the effect of that awful virus of sin on the human planet. He's the only one who can help you recover and replace that dread affliction of sin with his perfect healing.

[11:09] And we think of 1 Corinthians 6, 19, where it asks a question of us. What know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you're not your own?

[11:26] For you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

[11:40] That you're not your own. You're bought. You're purchased. You're His. He owns you. He's paid for you with His own blood. So glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are His.

[11:53] They belong to Him. So the key question is, are you His or not? That's the first thing. Have you got the ownership of Christ? Have you got His mastership over your life, His rulership?

[12:05] Have you been bought with Calvary's blood? Do you belong to the Saviour? If you belong to Him, you'll want to glorify Him in both your spirit and your body. And after the new birth, we become God's property.

[12:17] So ownership. Secondly, stewardship. Stewardship, if you belong to Him, then really your body is His for His doing, for His living, for His actions.

[12:29] And Proverbs 4, 23 tells us, Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

[12:42] Keep your heart. Keep it clean. Guard it. Protect it. Protect your purity. Protect your heart. Let it be a heart that's yearning after His way. A heart that is a heart after God's own heart.

[12:55] Because there's a battle on for your heart. There's forces at work that want to steal your heart. To drag you into conformity to the world. To drag you away from His pleasing and from His following.

[13:08] And to take you in another direction. And the Bible says, Your body, every one of you here that love the Saviour, your body is His dwelling place. It's His residence. His residence there in His temple that is your body.

[13:23] So don't defile it, the Bible says. Don't defile it. Keep it pure. Keep it clean. Let it be pure and spotless. How do we do that? The psalmist said in Psalm 119, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?

[13:37] By taking heed thereto according to thy word. How are you going to keep clean? By taking a heed of this. Getting a load of this. The word of God. Take a heed of it. Take attention to it.

[13:49] Make application of it. And so, by taking heed thereto according to thy word, you can cleanse your way. Isn't that great to know that when we have fouled up, when we have messed up, when there is sin, that His word has got the answer.

[14:04] His heart is open to our repenting, to our calling on Him as we cry out in repenting. And there's a stewardship.

[14:16] So think about, if you've got the ownership, you should have the stewardship. Let your life be lived as would please Him. And thirdly, another thing, if you belong to Him, if you're a steward of that life that He's given to you, another third thing is fellowship.

[14:30] It's fellowship. Fellowship. In Psalm 119, 63, it says, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.

[14:41] Of them that fear thee, of them that keep thy precepts. The psalmist wanted to have a fellowship with the people, not only who had a fear of the Lord, but who kept, who obeyed His word.

[14:54] And don't you want to have that? I pray that, you know, while you're here tonight, you want to have some fellowship with people who love the word, who love the Saviour, or who at least love coming to church, and that's something.

[15:06] But he wants to be hearing the gospel, he wants to be growing, wants to be learning, wants to be more fruitful as a Christian. You can't grow without the word.

[15:18] We think of, you know, there's scriptures that talk about how, I know, in Psalm 1 and in Jeremiah there's one, how our leaf will be green. We're going to be a fruitful tree, we're going to be like a tree planted by the river, and our fruit is going to show up.

[15:33] Our lives are going to be fruitful and fertile, and growing, and vibrant, and alive. That's how God wants us to be. And the context there is that, of being planted, planted, firmly planted in the word of God.

[15:46] That's where we get our nourishment from. That's where we get our growth from. And that fellowship, having that kind of fellowship, will overcome the other kind of fellowship. As the Bible says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

[16:02] Don't have any fellowship with that which is of the enemy. Instead, reprove that or speak against it. Rebuke that. And instead, have fellowship with God's people, with those who fear the Lord and who keep his precepts.

[16:17] So what about you tonight? Are you going to take some action about this virus? You could choose to do nothing. We know that when people don't do anything, they're in danger.

[16:31] There's a danger there. So I urge you tonight to think about how can you take some actions to overcome, to be an overcomer. Because the Bible says that we should be overcomers.

[16:42] We should have victory in Christ. I look at, for example, people like Daniel. In Daniel 1, verse 8. Of him it says, But Daniel took a stand.

[16:55] Daniel purposed in his heart, it says. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. And he made a choice there.

[17:07] He made a choice. He didn't want to defile himself by joining in with the world of his day, with the worldly relations of his day, and doing the worldly things of his day.

[17:18] He made a decision. He had a decision point there. He said, I'm not going to defile myself. Now for you and me, there's different choices, different challenges that each of us may face through our life, of things that come across our path.

[17:32] We need to think about, is that going to defile me? Is that going to dirty me, my mind, my thinking, my living? Is that something that I need to steer away from? Is it something that would soil my walk with God, that would compromise the purity of my heart, of my life with the Saviour?

[17:50] Are you going to maintain that life of purity and worship? Be like Daniel. Be a Daniel. Dare to be a Daniel, as the song goes, to purpose in your heart, not to defile yourself.

[18:01] And it says of Aaron, the Lord told Aaron, he said, that we should put a difference between the holy and the unholy, between the unclean and the clean. There's a sense of a separation, of a dividing line, of a decision point, of a determining of right and wrong.

[18:18] And the only way to judge that really is the word of God. That can show us what is right and true and that which is not. Dearly beloved, Peter says in 1 Peter 2, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

[18:34] Peter said, I'm urging you today. You're strangers, you're like aliens, you're like foreigners on this planet, because really you belong to heaven.

[18:47] He says, you are strangers and you're pilgrims, it means you're just passing through. It means that our time here is just a sojourn, it's just a journey, we're just travelling through.

[18:58] We're travelling through. We're not staying here, this isn't our home. We're moving on to the one to come. And so, because of that, we shouldn't have that connection, that attraction, that association with fleshly lusts.

[19:16] We should abstain from it. In other words, steer clear of it, because it's going to war against the soul. In 1 Peter 1, it says, verse 13, Peter says, wherefore gird up, or get together the loins of your mind.

[19:30] It's like the sense of girding is to do it like a belt. You know, he's saying, fasten your mind to this truth. He says, gird up the loins of your mind. Get a grip on this, he says.

[19:42] Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the form of lusts and your ignorance.

[19:54] But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. So in all your way of living, in all your conduct, he says, be ye holy.

[20:06] Because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. Think about that. Can you gird up that mind? Can you get a grip on things that what really matters, what really counts, that your mind can think on that which is appropriate, that is godly, that is truthful?

[20:23] Like Philippians 4, verse 8. I know I'm referring to a number here of scriptures, but Paul said to the Philippians, this familiar passage in 4, verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report.

[20:46] If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Paul urges the people in Philippians, he urges the people in Philippi to think about whatever is true, just, pure, lovely, of good report, honest, that which is praiseworthy, that which is virtuous.

[21:10] If what you're watching or listening to is not true, is not honest, is not just, is not pure, is not lovely, is not of good report, and so on, turn it off.

[21:27] Turn it off. Turn it off. It's as simple as that really, isn't it? What are we tuning into? It's a matter of making that decision. The sin virus can be contacted.

[21:40] It can infect us without us really realising it. You know, you hear about this swine flu that it doesn't show for a while. People could be walking around, there could be someone here tonight with swine flu.

[21:54] There could be someone here tonight who's infected. You know, it could take seven, it could take a few days, I think seven days for the effects of it to start to show, and then it's too late because you caught it off then.

[22:07] But, you know, I'm not meaning to alarm you here tonight. But, you know, how much more alarming the sin virus? The sin virus, that some is, it weasels its way in.

[22:18] It sneaks its way in through that which we might hear or watch or see or associate with the people about us, the things we do or mix, people we mix with.

[22:30] Are we fellowshipping, right, with the people that will help us to live godly, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and maybe we could help them along the pathway too, as they might have some needs and might stumble occasionally.

[22:45] Let's be Christ to them and encourage them. How's our stewardship? Are we thinking about who really owns us? About who we really belong to? About who is really the owner, the master, the one who has purchased us to be his?

[23:01] Do we care? Does that make a difference to how we think and live? We need to say no. Say no to temptation. Like Psalm 119, verse 128.

[23:12] He says, Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right. They esteem. The psalmist says, I esteem this. This is valuable.

[23:23] This is something that I honour, that I esteem, that I regard very highly and prize and count it as precious, the word of God. And I hate every false way.

[23:34] So there's a two-fold thing. I esteem the word of God and I hate every false way. There's a double-fold thing there, isn't there? And God wants us to have that kind of thinking where we know what's right, what we should esteem, God's word, his truth, the way of living that he points out to us, the salvation that is through faith, by his grace.

[23:55] And there is that false way, that which is of the enemy, that we can reject and hate. Learn to hate that. Learn to hate the world and the things of the world and that which will drive us away from God's will.

[24:09] And so God wants us to think about what is clean, what is unclean, what is holy, what is unholy. Think about what's my relationship like with Christ today?

[24:22] What's my relationship like with the Lord? It says in Psalm 4 verse 3, Are you set apart for him?

[24:39] You've been set apart as godly for himself, for his service, for his way of life. It's special. Holiness is something special. You know, as Paine said often in the worldly description of holiness, you know, they might paint it as legalism or about dowdiness or wowserism.

[25:02] But holiness is something that's precious. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. The Bible talks in Psalm 29 verse 2 about the beauty of holiness. Holiness isn't something ugly and to be disliked or mocked.

[25:16] Holiness is something that's beautiful. It's something that should be precious. It's something that we should aspire to. It's something that should motivate us, that we should want to be like him and to serve him, to be pleasing to him.

[25:28] And God has set us apart, especially set apart for his purpose, for his service, for his life. And God spells out many things in the Bible that are holy, that are sanctified.

[25:40] Think of it. The Word of God itself. It says the Holy Scriptures are holy. Romans 1, 2, 2 Timothy 3, 15. The very Word of God.

[25:51] The Holy Scriptures. The Word of God. They're set apart by God as a special purpose. We should esteem them highly. We should regard the Word of God and delve into it.

[26:03] Try to delve into it. We're missing out if we're not searching it and searching the Scriptures daily. Try to seek the Word of God. I know I need to read it more.

[26:14] And we all can think about how can I find more time? Through little Bible study guides and helps. There might be ways that can encourage you to dig deep. To get a daily habit.

[26:26] I know people were talking about having the daily bread as a special little prompt. Prompt. You know, it's not so much that these comments are especially important of themselves.

[26:41] It's the habit of getting into the Word of God. It's the habit. It's the Scriptures that are referred to. It's the Word of God that we provoke and encourage to take hold of and to put into our heart. So, the Holy Scriptures, they're holy.

[26:54] We think of Hebrews 7.26, our Saviour Himself. He is a high, holy priest. He's a great high priest, a holy high priest. The name of God itself is holy.

[27:06] Of course, we know the world we live in, God's name is just another word to curse and use as a curse word. But the name of God is holy. It says in Luke 1.49, holy is His name.

[27:20] Holy is His name. His name is holy. It's sacred. His very name is holy. Yet there are some who profane it, don't they? They bring it down to everyday, common, ordinary use.

[27:33] And if we're not careful, we can. That's something we should certainly take attention to and avoid. We don't want to talk like the world talks.

[27:44] Our God's name is holy. He is holy. And we should treat Him so. God's Spirit is holy. Think of the Holy Spirit, the very name of the Spirit of God. Holy Spirit.

[27:56] The angels of God are holy. In the epistles of Peter, we read that God's people, that means you. You are holy. It says Christians are to be holy, to be a holy nation, it says.

[28:09] A special people. God is still concerned about holiness today in His people. And we read that, Ephesians 5.27, the church of God is holy.

[28:20] The church that Christ built and for which He died is a holy and a sacred thing. And yet, sometimes people view the church as just as a social club. You know, there's some who, well-meaning though they be, they think church is just a bit of a get-together, a bit of a social time, a bit of a time of some entertainment perhaps or some refreshments.

[28:41] And they think of church as just something casual. And yet, God's Word says that it's an assembly that is precious. It's an assembly that is beautiful.

[28:52] It's important. And yet, some people, they treat it in a profaning way because they don't treat it as holy. And yet, it is holy. It should be holy. And God help us that it be holy. Our gathering together is a holy time.

[29:04] It's a blessed time. It's a special time with our Saviour, with His truth and with one another that we can spur one another on, encourage one another. So, God wants His church, His people to be a holy people, to be separated unto Himself, separated from, separated from apostasy, from compromise, from unbelief.

[29:24] That we as a church can be that kind of church. That we're a church with conviction, with standards. Not man-made standards that are imposed because of preferences of different kinds. But standards that spring from the Word of God.

[29:37] That we can see this truth here. There's the truth of modesty. There's the truth of godliness. There's the truth of true Bible salvation. That we want to declare that soundly and clearly.

[29:50] So that it's plain and simple and clear to every person. So that we're not neglecting the truths that we need to proclaim earnestly and urgently. And to contend earnestly for the faith.

[30:02] We have His divine mandate. He has called you. He says that He wants you, corporately, to be holy even as He is holy.

[30:14] That's a high calling, isn't it? That's a big task. And the worship of the church is meant to be a holy, a sacred thing. Not some kind of spectacle.

[30:25] Some would mistakenly think that emotionalism and hysteria is worship. It's not about that. It's not about our feelings. It's about whether He's honoured.

[30:36] Whether He's praised. Whether He's uplifted. By the truth of what we sing. By the spirit that is at work within His saved people. That's a sacred time. And holiness is not something really also that we necessarily do.

[30:51] Holiness is not about what we need to do. But it's something which God has already done. It's His finished work of Calvary. It says of salvation of the saved in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2.

[31:07] From the moment that we put our trust in Christ, God has set us apart unto Himself. It says there, the Corinthians, and we think of the Corinthians, what an example.

[31:19] The Corinthians had all kinds of problems and they weren't glowing examples of upstanding Christians half the time. And yet, we know that of them, the Lord wrote that through Paul, that such were some of you.

[31:33] You know, you are in the basket cases in sin and corruption, foulness and vileness. Such were some of you. But now you're washed. You're made clean.

[31:44] He's taken that virus away. Amen. He's taken it. It's totally transformed you. So that you're no longer that same person anymore. And he tells us through Paul, to them that are sanctified.

[31:57] He says, in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. He says, to them that are sanctified, the set apart, the sanctified, the separated ones. He says, to you who are in Christ Jesus, you're separated, you're sanctified, called to be saints.

[32:12] That's what he's called you to be. You know, I kind of, almost tongue in cheek say, but it's true, I say, Saint Ian.

[32:23] Hallelujah. Saint Terry, Saint Eva. Saint's here today. Saint Kelly. If you're a Christian here today, you're a saint. You're a holy one.

[32:35] You're made holy, not by virtue of your own doing, but because of his doing. Amen. Because of his done at Calvary. And every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

[32:46] You can be that one in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2. Those that are sanctified, those that are called to be saints. And another great news item here tonight is if you're a believer today, you're in the most holy place that you can be.

[33:02] I'm not talking about a place to meet or a denomination or a feeling. We're talking about Christ. Because Galatians 3.27, it says that you're placed in the Son.

[33:14] You're placed in Christ. God has placed you into Christ. That's Galatians 3.27. So there's no more holy a place that you could be. No more holy a place that could be found than being in Christ.

[33:27] And I guess it's us identifying that and realising that and following that through in our day by day to think that we are in Christ. We are in him and he is in us.

[33:38] And we stand perfect and complete in his holiness in Christ the Holy One. We are saints of the Most High God. Sometimes it's a matter of just maybe registering that, just clicking that into the brain.

[33:52] Yeah. I'm a holy one. I'm a saint today. Because of his saving grace. Because of his transforming power. And as it says in Colossians 1.13, it says that he has delivered us in Christ from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

[34:11] We're translated from darkness into his kingdom of light, into the kingdom of his dear Son. And so because of that, because of that kind of position that you have, it should also affect your walk.

[34:26] We know that sanctification, there's a sense where we're sanctified by the act of Calvary. But there's also a sanctification that's in our day by day walk. In our walk with the Saviour.

[34:39] In our living. It's lived out in our life. And we know that at times we don't live up to his high calling. And yet, shouldn't we, as Ephesians 4 verse 1 says, saints ought to be holy.

[34:52] We must walk worthy of the calling. Walk worthy of the calling, of the vocation to which we are called. Think about brothers and sisters tonight as God's people, as his saints, as holy ones here tonight.

[35:06] How can I walk worthy of that calling? How can I walk worthy of it? It's said in Job chapter 1 verse 1, drawing to a close now, that of this man Job, a man in the land of ours, whose name was Job.

[35:22] It says of him, it describes him, that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed or avoided evil. Two things about Job.

[35:34] He was perfect and upright. Two things that he did. He feared God and he avoided evil. And it's two-fold again, isn't it?

[35:45] Fear him and avoid evil. Try to sense when God convicts, when he puts things on your heart, that you know that's doubtful. You know that's something that as a Christian is going to be damaging.

[35:59] Recognise it as the sin virus. The sin virus. Touch not. Don't even touch it. Don't even touch it. Touch not the unclean thing.

[36:10] The Lord says, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And you shall be my sons and daughters, save the Almighty. And people tonight, maybe you've touched the unclean thing.

[36:22] Maybe you have touched it. Maybe there's times when you have failed and you've done wrong. There's cleansing today. There's cleansing by the blood of Christ.

[36:34] And firstly, are you saved tonight? We can mistakenly think we're saved when we're not. Because of some statement that we made, some repeating of a prayer, some claiming of a feeling of a following, and yet not the reality.

[36:56] Are you saved? That's the first thing. It's not by words spoken. It's as we believe in our heart and we confess with our mouth. It's got to be that. It's got to be faith and confession.

[37:08] It's got to be a real turning point. A real receiving of that gift. A real moment when you trust Him.

[37:19] And in obedience, you want to be His forever. And that's the moment. As we realise our condition, as we realise He's the only one who can take that virus away.

[37:30] He's the only one who's got the antidote for that dread affliction. He's the only great physician who can heal your worst affliction of sin.

[37:41] And afflicts the whole of humanity from their first day. Amen. People tonight, He's the only one, the great heart doctor, who can give you a new heart, a new life.

[37:53] As He takes that stony heart, that cold and Christless heart away, and He replaces it with His heart, with His life, with His transforming power. And He makes us new creations, new creatures, by faith in Christ.

[38:08] As we trust Him and let go of faith in ourselves and realise faith in Him and trust in Him. And it says in James 4, Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.

[38:21] James 4 verse 8, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Now they try to wash the swine virus away.

[38:33] How's your hands? How's your heart? How's your heart? More importantly, how's your heart tonight? How's your heart? Have you got a heart where Christ resides? Have you got a heart that is His heart?

[38:46] A heart that He has given? A heart of God? A heart that He has given of love to Him? A heart that He has given of love to Him. A heart that He has given of love to Him.

[38:57] A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God.

[39:08] A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God.

[39:19] A heart of God. A heart of God. A heart of God. It's really just a good picture of the contamination that is all about us. And really, it's all over planet Earth. It's all over and all around us.

[39:30] And it's pretty hard to avoid it. And yet we can try, by God's help, not to touch it. Touch not the unclean being. And ask the Lord to help us to be separate, to come out from among them and be separate.

[39:43] And he will help you. He will receive you. We can't walk around with masks on and stop the sin virus from affecting us with masks or with gloves or anything.

[39:55] But yet we can have a sensation about the ownership. You're his. He is yours. He's your father. You're his son, his daughter tonight. You've got a stewardship.

[40:07] You've got a responsibility to live right. So walk and live, to act out your life as would be a wise steward of what life he's given you, of the breath he's given you to breathe.

[40:19] That you can use each moment as would glorify him. And you've also got that wonderful fellowship of God's people, of his word to help you grow together in Christ.

[40:32]  And avoid the fellowship that is the wrong kind of fellowship. And find the fellowship that is the good kind of fellowship. And the word of God, that can help you grow stronger too.