The Life That Pleases God — Robert Wurtz II

Praise the Lord. As I was preparing for this particular study this morning, I was thinking about and reflecting in my life about what really was the difference in my spiritual life over the years. What was the one thing that I could look back and say in times where God was really moving in my life and I was walking close to Him, and other times when I seemed to be struggling, what was the difference?

And I think the difference, unquestionably, was my willingness to be submitted to the Holy Spirit and to ask the Holy Spirit to come and reside and have control over my life. I always noticed a pattern that when I would essentially resist the Lord keeping me filled, I would resist the times that I knew I needed to be in prayer, when I would resist even when I would hear preaching the Lord saying, I need to fill you completely.

When I would resist those times, what I was really saying was, Lord, I want to be in control. I want to do my own thing. Because I always knew in my conscience that if the Holy Spirit took up residence completely in me and I had been filled with the Spirit, as He had said many times, be you filled with the Spirit, then I would be powerless to do my own will and could not help but do mine.

I have always noticed that when I am full of the Holy Spirit, that I desire the things of God. I desire to be obedient to God. I desire to do all the things that I'm supposed to be doing as a Christian.

And the less and less I stay full, the less and less I want the things of God. And these things are proportional. And there are things that affect how much I want to be filled with the Spirit. Because sometimes we want to reserve a part of ourselves to ourselves.

And we want to say, you know, Lord, I want this much of me. You can't have this part of me. Because I want to do things on my own. I want some space, as it were. And when we start thinking like this, we have opened the door to the enemy.

And we really know it. Because we know that when the enemy has opportunity to come in, he will come in. But for some reason we think, well, it will be okay because if I don't stay filled with the Spirit and things come along, after all, there will be another service where I can turn and I can get close to God again and then work all this out.

But you know, that is very dangerous thinking. We need to stay filled with the Spirit. We need to remain full of the Holy Ghost. I remember Brother Birch talking about so much over the years how important it was to stay full of the Holy Spirit.

Because when we stay full of the Holy Spirit, we automatically, by nature, just go and do His will. And not only do we desire it, we have the power to do it. And it's important for us to realize this.

The Life That Pleases God in Romans 8

Our lesson this morning I titled, The Life That Pleases God. The Life That Pleases God. Our text is Romans 8, verses 5 through 8. For they that are after the flesh do mind, do think about, do ponder. They have upon their minds.

They allow to be the focal point of their thinking. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death.

But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

The final sentence of Romans 8, verse 8 is very sobering. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now when we describe the flesh, we're talking about humanness, our humanity apart from the direction and power of the Holy Spirit.

Man left to himself without the influence of the Holy Ghost becomes carnal. If the Spirit of God is not resident in an individual, they are carnal. Will alone or willpower alone is not enough to cease from sin.

It's not enough just to say I'm going to quit doing these things or it's not enough to just try with all your might. Dunamis on the other hand is a dynamic power of the Holy Spirit to meet any need in the life of the born again believer that is submitted to God.

A person that is walking and living full of the Holy Spirit that has said, Holy Spirit, I want you to come. I want you to take authority in my life. See that is that is the fulcrum of whether we're going to have victory or be in defeat.

That is the very center point. That is the decision that we make when we decide whether we're going to have victory over sin or not. The decision when you reduce it down to its lowest common denominator is this simple thing.

Lord, I want you to come in and take up residence and authority in my life. I'm surrendering completely to you. And I mean, you mean that from the very depth of your being. But when we say I want the whole back part, I want to be in charge.

I'll let you come in and you know, after all, you can give me advice. You can do this, but you can't have control. That's when we get in trouble. Before spiritual gifts, before manifestations of any kind, God is concerned about a Christian walking in full obedience to him.

See, God wants us to walk in full obedience to him. Disobedience is sin. Now, the born again believer has been freed from the dynamic power of sin. Now, that's sin with a capital S. We're talking about sin, that dynamic sin, that infestation, as it were, that come in and totally polluted and corrupted human nature.

Not sins, as in the things we do because we're under the influence and power of sin, but sin, the very power, that very thing that the scripture said entered. Sin entered. Sin is older than Adam. OK, there was a time when sin had not yet entered this world.

Sin is a dynamic force that came off, as it were, from the serpent and it entered into Adam and into humanity and it's passed on from generation to generation in what's known technically as original sin.

The born again believer has been freed from this dynamic power of sin and has come under the power of the Holy Spirit. We discussed this in last week's lesson. If you didn't get that, that would be very helpful.

Where once the person was governed by the law of sin and death, now they are ruled by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. See, that is the difference. When the Holy Spirit comes in, he will give us the power to will and do his good pleasure.

You see that? But when the Holy Spirit is not resident in us or we're not submitted to him at the level that we should be, in other words, we're not full of the Holy Spirit, we begin to struggle. But when you're full of the Holy Ghost, life is totally different.

You see life differently. All of your appetites are different. All of your appetites foster the continuance of being full. You see that? When the Holy Spirit is in charge, the reason why he's saying, I don't want you doing this, I don't want you doing this, or I do want you doing this, or he's directing you this way and that way is because the major focus at first is to keep you full of the Holy Spirit.

He wants you full. And the enemy is always at work to try to bring you to a place to where you're getting farther and farther away from God. Hardened and more hardened to the Spirit. In other words, you're not as full, you're emptying out as at work.

We can think of it in a metaphor. He wants to empty you out of the Holy Spirit. I tell the young people, I told them a few years ago at camp, I said, don't let the devil put a hole in your Dixie cup. Because as soon as things are being poured in, the Holy Spirit's being poured out in your life, it's running out.

What is that? The enemy has a stronghold or something that you're doing in your life that you run right back to it, and as soon as you do, it just quenches off the influence of the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Spirit, as it were, rolls out.

Sin, the Law, and the Power of the Spirit

The law of sin and death is the mosaic law, hopelessly attempted to be lived out in the strength of the arm of the flesh, which cannot be made subject to the law of God because of the law of sin, which is in our members.

You say, what is the law of sin? The law of sin is that inward dynamic that wants to rebel against everything God has said just because he says that. But when the Holy Spirit is in place, that is dead in us.

Understand, the law of Moses could only expose the presence of sin in a unregenerate person or a person who was not born again. In regeneration, we are dead to sin through Christ and made alive spiritually by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

See, understand that when the Holy Spirit comes, he brings life. He brings our ability to communicate with God. But not only that, he gives us the power to will and to do his good pleasure without the Holy Spirit in us.

We will fall after carnal things more and more. They will get a foothold in our life. This brings us again to the end of our text. They that are in this flesh cannot please God. It is impossible to please God without the influence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christians who try to keep rules or laws are not to be understood as walking in the Spirit. See, just simply getting rid of some bad habits and now I come to church and things like this, that is not the same as walking in the Spirit.

Now understand that when the Holy Ghost comes, you will probably give up a lot of bad habits, all of them, and you will start coming to church. But just coming in our own strength and power is something completely different than walking in the Spirit.

Giving up bad habits, conforming to a code of ethics is not the same as walking in the Spirit. The Pharisees lived out many such laws and traditions, but they were not walking in the Spirit. See, they were doing these things under their own strength and power.

They were walking according to their own code. And this is where I think so many Christians totally misunderstand the true essence of Christianity. The true essence of Christianity is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and through that the Holy Spirit causes us to walk in His ways as we know them to be.

It's not a wrestle or a struggle. When you're full of the Holy Ghost, it's not a struggle. When you start dwindling down, it becomes a struggle. And then you have to really just put the willpower in and say, I'm going to do it.

But what you really should do, as soon as you start feeling yourself, you know, I don't really want to come to church. I really don't want to worship God. I would really just go rather do this thing or that.

What you need to do, seriously, is find an altar and pray through until God just fills you with the Holy Ghost. And when you get up on your feet again, you'll say, wow, I can't wait till service. I can't wait till God is moving again.

You see, there's a difference. You're never in your own self ever going to want to do anything to serve the Lord. They were doing in their own power their best to please God, and they continually fell short and refused to admit it.

There's another aspect of being in the flesh that the Pharisees taught us. They wouldn't admit it. So Jesus continually had to show them that what you're doing is fleshly. It's not the life of the Spirit.

They're trying to keep the letter of the law in the strength of the flesh when they needed. Watch this to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law by walking in the Spirit, because the Spirit and the word agree.

Listen, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth as we're in the word of God. He will lead us and put in us that desire to will and to do his good pleasure. Because of this, the Pharisees could never please God.

You remember Jesus said, except your righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no wise enter into the kingdom. Why is that? Because what they were doing was all fleshly things, things in their own carnal power.

It was not the life of the Spirit being worked out through them. Section C, the genuine Christian life cannot be lived out in our own power. Paul writes to the Galatians. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?

These are strong words. Amen. It is foolish to think that a person can simply conform to some rules and think in themselves that they are perfect. Only the Holy Spirit can bring us to the place of perfection in obedience to Christ.

Now, watch what this word, this particular Greek word for perfect means. The word perfect is the Greek word epitolio, and it means to fulfill farther, to fulfill farther. It was as if Paul was saying, having begun in the Spirit, are you now going to fulfill farther the righteousness of the law by the flesh?

Listen, that is impossible. Listen, the flesh, I use this little illustration, I said that would be the flesh is an enmity with God. It would almost be like you've heard the old saying, the fox guarding the chicken house.

See, that's the flesh trying to live out the law of God. The flesh doesn't see it as a work to watch the chickens. The flesh sees opportunity to break the laws of God when it sees the law. The flesh, it cannot be made subject to the law.

So apart from the Holy Spirit filling us, we in our own power only want to rebel against God. And the laws of God only create all kinds of concupiscence and all kinds of desires. Why? Simply because God said not to do it.

The law brings sin to life in a person who is unregenerate. Thus, the commandment, watch this, the commandment in the life of a person that is not filled with the Spirit becomes a weapon in the hand of the flesh with which it wars against the soul.

Think about that. The commandment actually becomes a weapon in the hand of the flesh to war against your own soul. Why? Because the flesh seizes that opportunity to rebel against God. You say, well, how do we do that?

When we're filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes in and takes authority, and then the flesh is essentially dead. Why? Because of Christ that dwells in us. And we're going to get into that in the next section.

Although an unregenerate sinner has the general propensity to do what's sinful, in other words, they continue to just want to do naturally what's sinful, he seems to feel the most delight in transgressing the known laws of God.

Paul said, I had not known lust, except it had been said, Thou shall not covet. And as soon as God said, Thou shall not covet, the flesh rises up and sees an opportunity to rebel against God. This is the evidence of sin, capital S, capital S, sin dwelling in us.

That is what entered Adam. And when it came in, it corrupted man's nature to where man wanted to rebel against God just like Satan. If God says north, the devil says south. You understand that? He wants to do the opposite and rebel.

The Indwelling Spirit and Freedom from Sin

And that corruption came into humanity in the form of sin, sin with a capital S. So what defines being in the flesh or being in the spirit? Scripture says, But ye are not in the flesh, but are in the spirit.

If so, be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the life spirit rather is life because of righteousness.

This is a most important truth. Why? Because of the fact that Christ dwells in you by the Holy Spirit. The body is dead. The sinfulness of you is dead, is cut off. Think about that. It is cut off. The body that was ruled by sin is now dead to sin because Christ condemned sin in the flesh.

You hear Brother Birch say it all the time, and I couldn't give a better illustration. When Jesus comes, sin, capital S, moves out and he moves in. You see that? They can't both dwell in the same place.

See, when he's here, he, by virtue of the fact that he is almighty, takes authority over the devil, authority over the flesh, authority over the things of this world, and you walk in harmony with his will.

Literally, Christ took sin down into death at the cross. This is the finished work of the cross. This is the thing that I mentioned in passing last week that Jimmy Swaggart discovered. He discovered that oftentimes what we try to do is just resist sin and resist this temptation and resist lust and all that when the key to everything is just fully submitting to God.

Fully submit until you're full of the Holy Ghost. You cannot resist the things of this world unless the Holy Spirit has come in. It's the same with the devil, and we will touch on that again later. Literally, Christ took sin down into death at the cross.

Once Christ was dead, sin had lost all opportunity to defile and corrupt him. See, sin only had a limited opportunity. The devil only had a limited opportunity while he lived in the days of his flesh, and once he died, that was it.

Sin was cut off in its power forever in him. So when we are in him, sin is dead because of what he did at the cross, and he that is dead to sin dies no more. Death has no dominion over him as it is written, for in that he, Christ, died.

He died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Not in your own strength, not in your own willpower, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

How does that happen? By remaining continuously full of the Holy Spirit. That's the only way. It's not enough just to say, well, I'm yielding to the Lord and I'm trusting the Lord. No, we need to find a place, we need to find an altar in our life on a continuous basis so that we stay filled with the power of the Holy Spirit so we can walk in victory over sin.

This is the finished work of the cross, working its power in us to destroy the power of sin. See, we can't do it in ourselves. Christ has already done it. All we need is to be filled with the Spirit so that being filled with the Spirit, we're filled with him and the finished work of the cross is in effect in our lives.

In Christ, if Christ rather is in us through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, the flesh is dead. Period. If you're full of the Holy Ghost, the flesh is dead to influence your life. So we see then, section E, that the indwelling propensity to sin caused by the flesh is broken through the finished work of the cross of Calvary.

We have both been crucified to the world and the world unto us, and we are dead to the flesh. Think of how awesome that is. Think about the total completion of us being redeemed from sin by just having the Holy Spirit filling us continually.

We're crucified to the world. We're crucified to the flesh. And thirdly, by being in submission to God, we resist the devil and he flees from us. That's total victory. That's total victory over sin. But again, the battle is in your will.

Your will is always going to want to answer this one question. Will I or will I not be filled with the Spirit? When you start saying, I don't want to be full of the Holy Ghost, what you're telling God is, I want to control this part of my life.

That has always been the struggle in my life. When I look back over my life and I wonder, why did I struggle in this area? Why did I struggle? It always happened because there was a point when God would say, you need to be filled.

And I said, you know, not today because, you know what, I want to be in control. And when the Holy Spirit is there, your life is totally different when you're walking in the Spirit. You see everything differently.

God leads you in a path that will keep you full. The means by which all of this happens is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that comes through the born-again experience when we are baptized into Jesus Christ.

That's that salvation. We haven't even begun to talk about the baptism in the Holy Ghost. Think about how awesome this is. This is just the general born-again experience. In verse 4 we read, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in our life brings to pass all of these things as a matter of reality and not theory. Somebody would say, you know, well, that's real good on paper, brother, but it's not a reality in my life.

If it's not, it's simply because you need to be filled. You need to be full of the Holy Ghost. That is the honest reality. Section F. To summarize these passages, we see then that the flesh, or some call it that sinful principle, dwelt in us before, before we were filled, and its motions were the proofs of its indwelling.

In effect, sin reigned in the temple of our body. Now the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and the witness of the Spirit is there, and the fruit of the Spirit is yielded in our lives to evidence that he being present, he is ruling and reigning in the temple.

That's the issue. That's the bottom line. Adam Clarke comments on Romans 9. He said, God made man a union with himself, and his heart was his temple. Sin being committed, the temple was defiled, and God abandoned it.

You see why it's so important to walk in obedience. When we grieve the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, as it were, begins to distance from us, we only become weaker and weaker and weaker. And the less of the presence of God that exists in our life, the less we desire the things of God, the less that we think that we can walk in holiness, the less we even believe we can live a sinless life.

But when you're filled and full of the Holy Ghost, you know differently. But when the Spirit of God pulls off, you say, this is impossible. And guess what? You're right. It is impossible without the fullness of the Spirit.

It is totally impossible. The sin, having entered the temple, was defiled. God abandoned it. Jesus Christ has come by His sacrifice and Spirit to cleanse the temple and make man again, listen, the habitation of God through the Spirit.

There's no other religion on earth where the man's God comes and lives in him. That is the essence of Christianity. Not that we keep rules, but that Christ is in us, living out His life through us. And when the Almighty Spirit of the Holy Ghost again makes the heart His residence, then the soul is delivered, watch this, from the moral effects of the fall.

When you're full of the Holy Ghost, sin has absolutely no power over you. The world has absolutely no power over you, and neither does the devil. And that this is absolutely necessary to our present peace and final salvation is proved from this, that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, that man that was in him produced there by the power of the Holy Spirit, he is none of his.

He does not belong, Adam Clark says, to the kingdom, the flock, or the family of God. This is an awful conclusion, he summarizes, reader, lay it to heart. That was written, think about this, in the early 1800s.

He's talking about the necessity of the Holy Spirit dwelling and living in our life. The whole reason why the book of Galatians was written. It was written to tell us that you cannot live this life in the flesh, because what identifies you as a Christian is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, not anything else.

Not conforming to codes, not because you're circumcised, not because you're a child of Abraham, none of those things. It is only the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit manifested in the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

Walking in the Spirit and Persevering in Holiness

Section G. So with this so great salvation having been purchased on the cross of Calvary, why are so many struggling with sin? Is it possible to have the Spirit of God and not walk in the Spirit? Let me tell you what I believe happens, okay?

When we start allowing the things of this world to grab our affection, we no longer desire to be full of the Holy Ghost. And that right there is a statement you could go home with today, because that is the bottom line.

When you allow the things of this world to steal your affection for being full of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus Christ, and you start going after other things, saying, no God, I'm not going to be full, because you know what, today I'm going to have a break from you, I'm going to have a break this morning from you, I'm going to have a break from you for about a week, I need a vacation from you, God.

Then the world, the flesh, and the devil begin taking over. And you have less and less desire to be full, and you begin to despair, you begin to get angry, you begin to say things like, there's no way a person can live right.

Everyone's a sinner. You start thinking, I guarantee you that guy's in sin, I guarantee you that guy's in sin. You know why you think that? Because you're in despair. You're in despair, and you're rightly in despair, because without the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, there is no way you can live right.

We have a clue in Galatians 5, 24 and 25, and then that our Christ has crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And again, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die.

But if you, through the Spirit, listen, how? Through the Spirit. Not in your own power, not because you gritted your teeth and you were just so disciplined. But if you, through the Spirit, do mortify, destroy, make dead the deeds of the body, you shall live.

That's the only way. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. This seems to indicate quite clearly that we are required to walk in the Spirit in order to claim child of God status.

Or more excellently, we might say, if you are truly born again, you will be led of the Spirit. And the question that ultimately comes down to is this, well, at what point am I lost? I have no clue. Only Christ could answer that.

But that's really the wrong question to ask. The question to ask is, how full can I be and remain? But as human beings, we always tend to think, well, Lord, what's the minimum requirement that I might walk as close to it as possible?

But that's a horrible way of thinking. And that's why I believe you can travel the Bible from cover to cover and you will never find that line where it seems to indicate, well, this is the point that I'm really right and I'm not.

Because God never left us with that. That big fat question mark should cause us to pursue the Lord with all of our heart. Matthew Henry, the great commentator, offers some insight into this passage. He writes, Consider the consequences.

What will be at the end of the way, at the end of life? Here are life and death, blessing and cursing set before us. If you live after the flesh, you will die. That is, die eternally, he says. It is the pleasing and serving and gratifying of the flesh that are the ruin of the soul.

That is the second death. Dying indeed is the soul dying. The death of the saint is but a sleep. But on the other hand, you shall live, live and live happily in eternity. That is the true life. If you, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body that it subdues and keep under all fleshly lusts and affections, deny yourselves in the pleasing and humoring of the body, and this through the Spirit, we cannot do it without the Spirit working it in us, and the Spirit will not do it without our doing our endeavor.

What an awesome statement. I couldn't summarize it any better if I had to. What's our endeavor? Our endeavor is this. Lord, fill me with your Spirit. Take control of my life. I mean, from the depth of your soul.

And sometimes, you know what? Life might have to deal you some kind of tragic circumstance just so you will release that willingness. Because so long as you can get by, so long as you can just make it, well, I'm not in killed nobody yet.

I'm still coming to church. We're just making it. We'll keep doing it. But listen to what Matthew Henry is saying here. Ultimately, the finality of that, because it's progressive, will eventually kill us.

And we must do our endeavor. What is that? Submit to the Holy Ghost. Say, God, fill me. Every day of your life, Spirit of God, fill me. Walk and live in that fullness. So that in a word, he continues, we are put upon this dilemma either to displease the body or destroy the soul.

Think about that. That's the bottom line. We either displease the body or we destroy the soul. Because you can't please the flesh and still live at the same time eternally. From this, we gather that the true faith of God will persevere and continuing to serve Christ as evidence by the ongoing production of the fruit of the spirit in their life.

That is the reality. So we return again to our text. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But who are in the flesh? We get a clue from Romans eight and nine. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

Listen, if you're full of the Holy Ghost, you cannot be in the flesh. That is the clear teaching of Scripture. That is a contradiction. That is schizophrenic Christianity. It's not possible. If a person is acting out in their carnality, what is happening is they're not as full of the Spirit as they need to be.

And the flesh is trying to seize control in their life. And they're struggling. They're halting between two opinions. And the only help for this is to be refilled with the Spirit. That is a huge if. Those who are in the flesh are those who have not the Spirit of God.

When the Holy Spirit is present, the person will produce fruit. When you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?

For the end of those things, Paul says, is death. But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God, you have your fruit unto holiness. There's that word. Holiness in the end everlasting life.

For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Notice in this passage that imputed and imparted righteousness are both in view. We talked about it last week.

It's not just that God transfers righteousness to your account so that you're justified before God and you're actually saved, declared righteous. But He at the same time imparts His genuine righteousness to you so that you will live righteously.

These things happen together. Both transfers take place together, okay? Often we want just the imputed but not the imparted. That's impossible. That's impossible. This agrees with Ephesians 2. What's Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 say?

For by grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. Most people stop there. But that's just imputed righteousness. That's just the gift of eternal life.

The second part of that which comes along with it is for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works for which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Those scriptures have to be said together or only a half truth is being told.

You are the servants of sin. You were when you were in sin bearing fruit that you are now ashamed of that was leading you to eternal death. But the free gift of righteousness made you a servant of God and His righteousness bearing fruit unto holiness which ends in eternal life.

Holiness, Pentecostal Heritage, and Generational Drift

Now we're going to change gears for just a second. We're going to change gears because I think that until we understand as Christians that holiness is something that God absolutely requires, we are never going to know the fullness of the spirit like we need to.

I believe that we are seeing and it devastates me. It keeps me awake at night, many nights when other people are doing other things, thinking about other things. This one thought is in my mind. There is a generation that is passing away and going on to their reward and the generation that is behind them do not believe in holiness.

Do you know that the entire Pentecostal movement was birthed from the Wesleyan holiness revival? That was the very foundation that made it possible for people to begin to even think right. People weren't thinking right.

The whole thinking of a generation of church goers had to be changed. And this took place over the period of about 100 years. From about the 1730s to about the early 1900s, maybe 1901. People come to expect that holiness was normal.

You see that? It was normal. Generation after generation after generation. The generation that believed in living like they wanted to had passed away and the only people that lived and existed were people that were raised up from the time they were a child.