Sanctification

Anybody here is still amazed and in awe that another week has gone by and we are still yet saved. Isn't it a wonder? The Lord is too good to us. How great is His faithfulness to us. It did not depend upon us because if we looked back upon our thoughts and our actions and our behavior, we would certainly be lost.

We cannot save ourselves. We certainly cannot keep ourselves. Salvation truly is of the Lord and how wonderful it is to be able to gather together and to study the Scriptures, to study the truths of God, to be helped, to be encouraged, and to encourage one another as we come to worship in this place this morning.

Let's pray and ask God's blessing upon us. Our Father, we do thank You and we do come before Your throne of grace and we do, as the psalmist said, lift up our souls unto Thee. Lord, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, with much thanksgiving, with much gratitude, much thankfulness, something that is missing today in life, in our culture, in the day when we look around and we see people who are unhappy, they are ungrateful.

They're not thankful to You for giving them life, even if they're not saved, Lord. They're not thankful for the things around them that You've given to them and the goodness of God ought to lead them to repentance.

Lord, we're thankful that You have granted us repentance, we who in this room name the name of Christ, that we have been called to become Your children. Lord, You have set Your love upon us. You have been gracious to us.

Apostle John wrote those stirring words, Oh, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God, the children of God. To be the children of God is an amazing thing.

Lord, we come in the house of the Lord this morning to worship and to lift up our hearts, to praise You, to sing unto You, Lord, to do that which we were created for, to worship and to adore and to be in great admiration of You and to just look to You this morning and thank You and praise You for Your kindness to us.

Thank You for the Word of God. I pray the Spirit of God would teach us this morning as we consider these great truths. And Lord, bless us as only You can in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're going to take a look over the next few weeks and hopefully you got a sheet.

There is a sheet on the chair over to the right. They were passed out. But we're going to take a look at the doctrine, the subject, the biblical subject of sanctification for a little bit. And I'll tell you in a little while why I had chosen this to look at it.

The Need to Study Sanctification

But let me give you a practical example of why this would be so important to study. I was reading this, and what we're going to be looking at, the sheet that you have handed out, and you'll notice on that sheet that's chapter 38.

This is out of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. At different places on that handout that I have, in parentheses, you'll see a number, and that's the page number from his book. I do not know, but if anybody can do it, there is a I think I left a copy in my inbox in the office, and if anybody would like to run, I'm sure somebody else is going to want one.

If anybody could do that. Probably if we make about another if you could make another 30 copies, because I'll be teaching for a couple of weeks, a couple, three weeks. Here's the reason why. And I was reading I got this from his Systematic Theology, this little quote, when it comes to when it's in reference to this doctrine.

He says there that a Christian will never be able to say or ought not say something along should never say something along this line. This sin has defeated me. I just give up. I've had a bad temper, or fill in the blank.

I've had a bad temper. Or I've always lived this way. I've always struck out at people. I mean, I'm of this temperament. It's just the way that I'm wired. I've, in this case here, used the example of a bad temper.

But you take whatever sin it is that's plaguing you, or maybe that you're giving an excuse for, and plug it in the blank. I've always had such and such for these many years. And he said, I've always had a bad temper for 37 years.

And I will have one until the day I die. And people are just going to have to put up with me because that's the way that I am. And he goes on to say, to say this is to say that sin has gained dominion.

It is to say that they have allowed sin to reign in their body. It is to admit defeat. It is to deny the truth of Scripture. And that's what we're going to look at. The truth of the Scripture where it comes to this doctrine of sanctification.

What is it when we say the word sanctification, what does it mean? Daniel? This is Grudem. Yeah, this is right out of the systematic theology. This was just an example that he gave. And he was kind of setting the stage for why it is so important to look at this doctrine.

There is truth in the Scriptures that come to us as we read its pages that would say to the contrary of that. Oh, well, I've always just been that way. I mean, when I was lost, I mean, I was short-fused.

I just blew up quickly. Or I always thought of myself. Or I was always angry. I always had this temper. I was always indulging myself in this area. And I guess that's just the way that it's going to be.

And if you think about that, when it comes to salvation, if the person stays the same, what have they been saved from? I mean, think about it. We are to be saved. Jesus came not only to save us from the penalty of sin.

As we've heard, the peas, the alliteration there, the penalty of sin, but he also came to deliver us from the power of sin, from the pleasure of sin, and ultimately from the presence of sin, right? That's what we know what salvation is in its entirety.

Is it important? Yes. And I'll tell you why I believe it's important, for many reasons. And when I was praying, and I was praying that we would, as we gather together today, that we would worship God.

And that's really what it's all about. We didn't come today strictly for fellowship. We didn't come strictly today just to check each other's wardrobe out, see what the latest is, right, or the latest do.

You know, we didn't come for those things. Ultimately, the main focus of us gathering together is to worship God. And this idea of a people worshiping God and a people being holy is not something new to the New Testament, just something new that springs forth in the New Testament.

This has always been God's desire, that God would have a people that he would call for his very own, a distinct people, a unique people, a people who would be different from all the other people in the world.

God’s Holy People in Exodus and Leviticus

If you would turn with me, look back in Exodus. Let's start there. Who can tell me, and it really is in the title of this book, the second book of the Bible, what is Exodus all about? Exodus, I think it's chapter 19 is where I want to head.

Exodus chapter 19. What is the book of Exodus all about? All right, it is leaving Egypt. It's the exodus out of Egypt. And you remember when Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh by the direction of God?

Let my people go. Why was Pharaoh to let God's people go? And what was the reason given? So that they could what? So they could worship God, right? And so that they could be God's people. They could be that unique and special people.

And here, take a look at this kind of synopsis of what I'm trying to say here. In Exodus 19, I'm reading from the King James verse 1. And in the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

For they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians.

And that's the ten plagues. This is the great deliverance of God. You have seen what I've done, verse 4, to the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. God did not bring them out so that they could just kind of live for themselves.

God brought them out for His own purposes, so that they could be His. And continue on, verse 5. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and deed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure, basically my own special treasure, my crown jewels, you will be my special people.

Verse 5. Unto me, above all people, for all the earth is mine. And notice verse 6. And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and get this next phrase, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

God told Moses to tell the people that He brought them out for a purpose, and that was not to bring them out so that they could live unto themselves. They could live like the world. They could be just like everybody else.

They were going to be a special people, a peculiar people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now if you hold your place there, that's Old Testament. If you hold your place there, and you look into the New Testament in 1 Peter, and hold your place back in Exodus, because we're going to go to another book close by.

But I just want you to see how this is not something new. This is something God had always intended, always intended to have a people for His own, always to have a chosen people, a finite number of people that would be His and that they would be holy.

In 1 Peter 2 and verse 5, you also as lively or living stones, 1 Peter 2, 5, are built up a spiritual house, a what? A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Wherefore also, verse 6, it is contained in the scriptures, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. It has the idea tied to Jesus Christ, us believing upon Him, the same idea though that God has desired to call unto Himself not unholy people, not people who will live like they used to before, but a holy people.

God has always desired that. Hold your place in Peter now, and then when you go back to the Old Testament, Exodus, go to the book of Leviticus. It's the next book, and I believe it's chapter 11. I remember when studying these two books, I picked up someplace.

I can't remember where it was. But in Exodus, God is getting His people out of Egypt. And in Leviticus, when it comes to the teaching of the priesthood, when it comes to teaching of the tabernacle and the laws as far as for eating and for dress and for behavior, why is God doing all of that?

Well, where have they been for hundreds of years? In Egypt. And what have they picked up? The ways of Egypt. Do you remember when it got tough in the wilderness? What did they say? Oh, why should we die in this wilderness?

We should go back to Egypt where there's the leeks and the garlics and the onions. We liked it there. It's terrible here. God's going to kill us in this wilderness. And what they didn't realize that with all of that was bondage.

They weren't separated under God. They weren't free. They were in bondage. They were slaves for hundreds of years. And with that came the taskmaster's whip. And all of the burden of that position, they were as slaves.

But God freed them in Exodus. God gets His people out of Egypt. And in Leviticus, what God is doing is getting Egypt out of His people. If you understand what I'm saying, He's getting Egypt out of His people.

He desires for His people to be holy, to be set apart for God. That's the meaning of sanctification when we come to this word, to be separated unto God, to be sanctified, holy. Look in Leviticus 11. Some of this will be a little bit repetitive from what we read in Exodus as far as the idea.

But look in verse 44. In this chapter here, we have all these laws being set down about proper food. And right at the end of this chapter, verse 44, 11 -44 in Leviticus, it says, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

God would call us to be like unto Himself, to desire, to purpose, to pursue, to live this type of life, to be holy. And if you think of Peter again, hopefully you held your place in Peter. Look in 1 Peter and in chapter 1.

As Peter is instructing New Testament saints on how to live a life that is pleasing unto the Lord and how it is that we ought to conduct ourselves, in 1 Peter 1, verse 14, we ought to be as obedient children, not fashioning or not conforming ourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.

He's saying in the past, before Christ, when you were ignorant of the things of God, when you were foreigners and strangers from God, when you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, when you lacked understanding, you did not have insight spiritually to be able to see the kingdom of God, you did not understand who Christ was, you had no conviction of sin, we had none of that, and we lived in such a way as described in Ephesians chapter 2, we lived after the course of this world.

The world is like a river, a torrent going forward in sin, and we were just swimming along happily, living in our ignorance, living that way in the former lusts. But, verse 15, as He which has called you, Peter is saying there's something different that has happened to you.

God in heaven has called you. God in heaven, who is the savior of sinners, has desired to put His hand upon you, to grace you, to set His love upon you, to change you. And when God calls, something follows that call.

He talks about it here, He says, verse 15, but He which hath called you is holy. A holy God has called you, and a holy God has called you to a life of holiness. That's what sanctification is all about.

Now, there are struggles when it comes to it, when it comes to sanctification, it's not instantaneous as far as in the life that we live. There are struggles, there are battles that we go through in heart and mind, and with the body, and the desires, and the passions, and the lusts, and the temptations, and the enticements that come our way.

But thanks be to God, we have victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't do it ourselves. We are strengthened by God to do this, and to live out a life that is holy unto the Lord. But as He, verse 15, which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all your manner of conversation, or in your behavior, because it is written, quote from the Old Testament, Be ye holy, for I am holy.

So the whole idea of sanctification is something that comes to us from the Old Testament. God has always desired to have a people to call for His very own namesake. And if you think of it as a believer here in this room this morning, it is not happenstance.

It is not just chance. It is not just the luck of the draw that somehow you entered into the kingdom of God and became a child of God. God before time ever was intended, purposed to choose out a people, a finite number of people to call His very own.

And when God did that, God put everything in place. God did the work of salvation. God made everything plain. And we are going to take a look at that on one of the sheets that you have there. God works out this wonderful plan in all of His purposes and in His intents to glorify Himself and to please Himself to call a people to Himself.

But the people that He calls to Himself will be unique. They will have a mark upon them. They will be different just like Israel was different when people went into Israel in the Old Testament. When they went into that camp versus the Hittites and the Amorites, the other people outside of Israel in the Old Testament, there was a stark difference in the way that they looked.

There was a stark difference in the way that they spoke, the things that they ate, the practices that they had when it comes to spiritual practices. I mean, you think of the heathen pagan worship. Instead of babies being sacrificed up to God's, what we have is the whole picture in the Old Testament of foretelling of Christ with the lamb being killed and all that being taken place.

And God records it and puts it down in the book of Leviticus because His desire is there. He's got His people out of Egypt, but He wants to get Egypt out of His people and to make them to be a holy people, Daniel.

Certainly, the question is, then would you take that list and translate it to us today as far as should we look different, should we act different, should we speak different? I wouldn't take it verbatim as far as because there's things in the Old Testament, that law that we're not under as far as the things that God had the people to do then.

But we read the New Testament, and there is a whole lot that it has to say about our conversation being seasoned with salt and with grace, our clothing that we have as men and as women to be the clothing of godliness and of a meek and quiet spirit.

And I believe that when it comes to our behavior, when it comes to our worship, we're certainly called to be different, and we are different. Yes, I would equate it, but I would read what was concealed in the Old, revealed in the New, and it is fulfilled in the New as far as all the truth for the Christian.

We can read there and we can say, yes, we are a marked people and we are to be holy. One of the books that I read when I was studying this, I can't remember who it was, it said that one of the needs for children today are for parents to walk before God and be holy.

And one of the needs in the world that he went on to say was for churches of God, New Testament churches of God, to walk with God and to be holy, to show a difference. What is happening today though when it comes to churches and when it comes to the holiness issue?

What is happening today in supposed Christendom or evangelicalism? You can't tell the difference between those who are saved and those who are lost. There is a blurring of the lines. I just went to a website this past week to check out a church.

Do you remember last Sunday I taught on New Year's resolutions and I brought out that example from the internet and it was the first example. If you want to be able to keep your New Year's resolution, what are you supposed to do?

Aim low. Well, I went to this website, I went to this church website and it was apparent that they were aiming low. And what they were doing was taking away the distinctives of what it means to be a Christian so that anybody will enter in.

And isn't that what the secret sensitive movement is doing? It's like let's not tell them up front that they need to take up their cross and to follow Jesus. Let's just say, you know, I've never watched the cartoon or anything, but, you know, whenever you have the cartoons and you have like a Barney character or whatever and it's a happy world or whatever, Spongebob, I don't know what they are, but everything is just cool and happy and let's just let everybody in.

We're not going to tell them, though, that in the back rooms of the church is where the discipleship is going on and they're really going to preach the gospel back there. Let's just get them in and let everybody kind of feel comfortable and we're not going to put any conditions upon anybody.

We're not going to talk about the claims of the gospel and how you must strive to enter into the kingdom of God, none of that. And that is what's taking place today and I think that's why it's so important to study this subject of sanctification.

It's so important in that not only that it shows us how it is that we as a church ought to behave and how we ought to conduct ministry and how we ought to be different in the world so that we can be effective.

I mean, if we have nothing to offer people as far as a different lifestyle, if we are saying to people, you know, come to church and you can learn six easy steps on how to clean out your garage and bring organization to your life, the type of how-to type, feel good, you know, bring them in and then later we'll preach the gospel to them.

If that's what we have to people, then why don't they just go down to the Kiwanis Club or the Knights of Columbus or some other secular organization or go to the library and pick up a book on that. There's no difference there.

But if we're saying that the Bible says that when God calls a person, he calls them to holiness, when God calls you, he calls you to be a people who examine yourselves to see whether you be in the faith.

The first Peter 1 verse, as God who has called you is holy, so be you holy in all your conversation and all of your behavior and that it's not appropriate to live like you used to. And as a matter of fact, it is a stark contradiction to the gospel, to the power of the gospel.

When God saves, he gives us a new heart, a new heart that beats for God. And the old heart, I mean, what was the desire in the past when God had not saved us and we were not in Christ? What was the desire and tendencies of our hearts?

What were the things that we set our affection upon? Well, self, money, pleasure, prestige. Those are the things that we loved. And it was a life missing the mark when it came to the holiness of God. It was a life that was stained by sin.

It was a life that was given up to these passions. And God has called us to something different. Look in 1 Thessalonians 4, if you would, and then we're going to take a look at one of the sheets. 1 Thessalonians.

I just want to cover this first because I want to answer the question. If the question is asked, is holiness optional in the Christian life? I mean, is this a take it or leave it situation? Is this something that, you know, when it comes to being sanctified or this idea of being set apart for God?

Just so I lay the foundation here, the Greek word or the group of words in the Greek have the meaning for sanctification. And sometimes you'll see the word sanctification. It's translated into the English as sanctification, sanctify or sanctified.

Or you will see the word holiness sometimes in your translation. The same Greek word. And it has the meaning of being holy, of being separated, of being set apart for God. And the idea, the set apart idea is along these lines.

In our home every year at around Christmas time, a few days before Christmas, we have in this cupboard these plates and bowls and cups that have these Christmas decorations on them. And the ones that we have in the cupboard are not good enough for Christmas.

They must go away. And these ones that have these Christmas decorations must come out. Those cups and bowls and plates are set apart for a particular reason, to be able to function during that holiday and to do their job.

Now let's take this and look at it biblically. Give me an example where something exactly like that happened in the Bible. Charlie. Oh, I even like that one better than the thing one I was thinking of.

But the descendants of Levi, the priesthoods, they were a tribe that was particularly set apart by God. They were dealt with by God in a different way. Do you realize that they did not have an inheritance?

They didn't have land carved out for them. The other tribes, their inheritance was their land. That's what God gave them. But the inheritance for Levi was who? It was God. God was their portion. And they were to serve him and be consecrated to God all the days of their lives.

And there's something, I think, Pamela, were you thinking about it, that they touched? Certainly. The breastplate, the priestly garbs. And even when you think of all of the service in the tabernacle and then later in the temple.

You have the table of showbread. You have the altar of incense. You have the candlestick. You had all these instruments. And then in the temple, if you just read the Old Testament and you get the description of bowls and cups and silver and gold and all of these things, they were set apart strictly.

I mean, the priests did not go into the cupboard in there and grab one of those bowls that were to be used for the sacrificing unto the Lord to have their checks or their manna cereal or whatever it was that they ate.

They didn't use it for themselves. Those utensils were devoted unto the Lord. And just like that, just like Charlie gave us a good segue into where it comes, we are to be like those vessels set apart for God for a particular reason, to be consecrated unto the Lord.

And that's one aspect when it comes to sanctification. We are set apart for God's will and for God's purposes. We're different people. Aren't you glad? I mean, think about that. Of all the people in all of the world, God purposed to save you and to put his name upon you, to take out your stony heart and to give you a heart of flesh, to grant you faith and to grant you repentance, to forgive your sins and to call you to a life that was different than what you were living before and then what all of your acquaintances and your family, the ones that we're praying for to be saved, were living differently because of a great, powerful work of God and a piece or a part of our salvation that is, I'm going to show you here, not optional.

Sanctification Is the Will of God

1 Thessalonians 4, look in verse 1. Not take it or leave it, 1 Thessalonians 4. One, furthermore then, we beseech you or we beg you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.

For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. I mean this sounds like verse 1, they've been taught of the apostle and in verse 2, what the apostle had taught them, the apostle had heard these commandments from the Lord Jesus and verse 3, for this is the maybe so optional, if you take it or leave it type thing of God, right?

No. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification and your translation might say there, holiness. The will of God is that we ought to be sanctified, that we ought to be holy, that we ought to be set apart for God, we ought to be and notice in this context, the whole idea here is dealing with fleshly passions and that we're to be holy in those, but the idea in a broad sense as we read here and elsewhere is that we are to be a holy people, a sanctified people, that we should abstain from fornication, verse 4, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel or to possess our body in sanctification or in holiness.

Every one of us should learn temperance, should learn self-control, should exercise discipline, should fight sin, should mortify sin by the power of the Holy Spirit, should be looking daily to die to self and to sin and to live unto God and to live unto righteousness and to holiness, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, it says in 2 Corinthians 7 and in verse 1, that we're to put away sin and we are to perfect.

We are to perfect our responsibility. We are to perfect or to work out our salvation, as Paul said in Philippians chapter 2, and we're going to get there, but we're to perfect holiness in the fear of God.

And notice what he goes on to say here in this chapter, in chapter 4, 5, not in the lust of inordinate passions or in the King James, it's got a great word, concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God, that no man go beyond and defraud or rob his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the avenger of all such and we have forewarned you and testified.

Notice verse 7, for God has not called us unto uncleanness, and he's talking there sexually. God has not called us, but it could, I mean, you read any other place in the scriptures, there's other places where we can read about how we're to abstain from all kinds of sin, fleeing lusts and passions and unrighteousness, ungodliness.

But here he says, God has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. I mean, isn't that wonderful? And that's clear. That's a holy God calls the people to be what? To be holy. Wouldn't it be just a contradiction for a holy God to call the people and leave them to themselves and live the way that they used to before?

Okay, now somebody's sitting there thinking, all right, I came to church again, and I really wanted to be helped this morning in Sunday school and Pastor Dave is pounding me. I'm just getting it. I am not holy.

I am not perfect. And remember, it's not perfection, it's direction. It is not that we are, God had never intended for, once we called upon the name of the Lord, boom. It is like we're walking and we will never sin again.

It's not sinless perfection, who have some have incorrectly stated. But it is the desire. It is part of our lives where we're striving. And we're going to get into some passages next week where it talks about, like in Romans 6, if you read that, and maybe if you could read that for, we'll take a look at that next weekend.

But if you look in there, it talks about, because of the union that we have with Jesus Christ, because of the union we have with him and the identification that we have with his death and his resurrection, because of the indwelling of the Spirit of God, we have been set free from sin.

We sing a song that the power of sin has been broken. He cancels that power of sin in our lives. Is it completely? No. Did the Apostle Paul ever claim sinless perfection? Somebody tell me, yes or no. He never did, right?

Do you remember what he said in Philippians 3? He said, I have not attained it. I am not perfect. And that's after many, many years of being saved and ministering. He said, I've not attained this perfection.

But that doesn't mean that we don't press on for it. We don't desire it. We don't long to be more holy. He pressed on for that goal of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And it will do us a whole heap of good if we can understand what sanctification is all about, because if you go and swing the pendulum that way and say, you are going to be a Christian and when God saves you, they will misinterpret 1 John 3, which says that he that is born of God does not commit sin.

Uh-oh, Brother Dave, you really messed me up now, because I sin. I don't want to sin, Romans chapter 7, but I sin. If you look at that verse, and you look at the verb tense of that verse in 1 John chapter 3, it's that the person that is born of God does not continually practice sin.

That is not the direction of their life. But the direction of their life is, oh, Lord, I've failed you. I confess my sin. And I so desire that you strengthen me so that I can have victory over that sin and I can be set free from that sin and that I can grow in holiness in that area.

And, Lord, by your Word, by the preaching of the Word of God, by the study of the Word of God, by the memorization of the Word of God, would you please help me to overcome this sin so that I can go on.

And you're not going to be like that person that I read that said, I've just been this way for 37 years. I mean, you know, the wife to the husband, you're just going to have to put up with me, because that's the way that I am.

I got it from my mother and father. It's inherited, and it's just going to happen to me. Or the husband says the same thing, you know. My father was an ogre, and I guess I'm ogre too. You know, Shrek, Shrek 2 and 3.

That's me. That's me. I'm a bully. I steal. I stole before in the past, and that's just, you know, what's going to happen. I don't steal. I don't steal as much, or it's not big amounts, but, you know, I do steal.

I used to swear like a sailor in the past, but, you know, I still, every once in a while, I slip up, and it's no big deal. It's just the way that I am. No. No. As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.

And if we don't understand this, we're going to swing the pendulum this way and say, well, the Bible talks about that we're to be perfect. We're to be completely holy. God has sanctified us. I mean, it's done, right?

I'm never going to sin again. No. We have to take all Scripture, right? We have to look at all the Scripture in its context, and we're going to see that in this subject of sanctification, we are being made holy by God.

The Holy Spirit is working upon us. As we hear the Word of God, He's bringing the Word of God to bear upon us. And we'll begin to see that. I'll give you a practical example. When Deb and I were first saved, it was San Antonio, Texas.

It was 1976. We had come out of, myself, I had come out of the Catholic church. Deb had come out of, in her family, Protestant churches. We were reading the Bible before we were married. This was like 1975-ish, 74.

Reading the Bible, not fully understanding what it meant. In 1976, God, in His wonderful mercy, opened up our eyes, and we trusted in Jesus Christ. God granted us repentance. We had new life in Christ.

I'm in the military in San Antonio. We're living in an apartment a couple miles from the military post where I worked. And we had neighbors on our side. One of them was a young couple that we got to know.

And we're saved. I mean, all intents and purposes, we know that God has saved us. But when you're saved, you understand that when you're saved, you have a lot of baggage that you brought with you. There's a lot of things that we've held on to.

And we're not instantaneously. Some are. I mean, immediately, God will take something away. But we remember that there were things that we did with this couple. Places that we went. Things that we stuck in a glass and drank with this couple, talking to them about Jesus Christ, and not seeing it until we began reading the Scripture.