Preeminence — Leonard Ravenhill

I heard some good news this week, and there's a church in Tyler called, what's it called, Metro? What's it called? Just Metro. And for I don't know how long, they've been having a prayer meeting every morning of the week from six o 'clock till eight.

So if you live down that way, or if you don't live down that way, go that way.

Yes. At Outreach?

From six to seven. Wonderful. What do you do six to seven at night? Well, change it as well and have it six to seven at night. You know, there's all kinds of folk praying about Tyler. Isn't that great?

There's a great undercurrent there, you know what? And before long, the top's going to blow off the volcano. And the devil's going to suffer for a while. He's going to suffer for a long while before a long while.

But I'm glad to know people are praying collectively eight to six, another seven. Was it to eight? Oh, one six to seven and one six to eight. Great. So I hope none of you can sleep this week between those hours.

Wouldn't that be great? One voice. So we're not all with one accord in one place. Okay. Colossians tonight. The epistle of Paul to the Colossians. Chapter one, sorry. Chapter one, verse nine. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will.

Being Filled With the Knowledge of God's Will

You know, a lot of people think, oh, I got filled with the Spirit. That's the end of the journey. Sure it is. Beginning end. Paul prayed that they might be filled with the Spirit, but he prayed that they might be filled with all the fullness of God.

He prayed that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will. Sometimes I take a glass full of water. Well, I've got one here. Not quite full. And if it was a good English glass, it would be pure glass.

You could see through it. But this is an American. And as you would expect, it's plastic or something. But you know, I could fill up with water until it's concave like that. And I say, that's full. I'm going to fill it without emptying it.

Well, how can you fill a glass that's full without emptying it? Well, if it were, as I say, if you see through it. And I have a fountain pen at home. If I drop one spot of ink into it, it would change its color.

It would fill it with color as well as with water. Oh, to change a figure now. You have a room. You come into a room and it's totally dark. You walk in it and you say, I walked in that room and it was empty.

If it was, you'd have fallen down. It was full of air. You reach for the switch and you change the darkness to light. You turn the thermostat up and fill it with heat. Then you fill it with people. Then you fill it with song.

And then some lady comes in. The Aden lady comes in and she smells. I mean, she doesn't smell really, but there's perfume. And the room that was black was changed. It was filled with light. Then it was filled with heat.

Then it was filled with people. Then it's filled with singing. Then it's filled with perfume. You keep adding, adding, adding, adding. You know, most of us are satisfied we've got out of Egypt. We've not got into Canaan yet.

Or to use the other figure of scripture, we're satisfied that we've water to the ankles instead of water to swim in. And if you go to some churches, you never get drowned. There isn't enough power and depth of water to drown you anyhow.

Is that your church you mean? Okay. Okay. Look at this prayer that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and at the same time filled with all wisdom and filled with all spiritual understanding and that you might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Now, come on. Are you wiser in God than you were last year at this time? Are you still as dumb? That's rough, but I'm asking a question. Are we increasingly... Peter says we're to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some people grow in grace, they don't grow in knowledge. Some people grow in knowledge, they don't grow in grace. There has to be a balance there. You might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Now, this is still his prayer. May we be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Well, if that's possible, why in God's name is the church so weak? Filled with His glorious power, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering and joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us to meet, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath... he's talking about the power... who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into a kingdom of His dear Son.

From Darkness to Light Through Christ

You ask some people, are you saved? I don't know. Well, they're not saved. If you don't know you're saved, you're not saved. If you're in a dark room and somebody put you in a light room, would somebody have to say, you know what, this room's full of light?

He has translated us from darkness into light, from the power of Satan unto God. Paul said that to a pagan king in a heathen court in the 26th chapter of Acts. And if you're going to be a preacher, you should read that every day of your life.

He says, God has made me a minister, and the minister is this, whether you're a missionary here in a country or a mission field like America. You know, every street is a mission field today. And he says, God has called me to turn people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me.

He's translated, pardon me, verse 13, He's delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

Christ's Preeminence in Creation and the Church

Now look at this. Verse 16. I'm going to stress it as though it were written in capital letters. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities and powers, all things were created by him and for him.

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, which is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.

For it pleased the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell. What fullness? The fullness of God. Remember when those people came to Jesus and said, you keep talking about your Father, show us the Father.

He says, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. The Father has the same mercy that I have. The Father has the same compassion I have. The Father has the same love I have. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

Go back to verse 15, please. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Notice that. He's the firstborn of every creature. Look at the middle of verse 18. Who is the beginning?

The firstborn from the dead. Luke 2 .7 says that Mary, the blessed virgin Mary, she took there her firstborn son. You see, all history ended, all the Old Testament history ended at the cradle of Jesus Christ, which happened to be a stable, you remember.

But then everything proceeds from him. If you have a good map of America with the sea around, you'll see that all the roads lead from California, they come down to the middle of the country, and then they all go up and join together going into New York.

Then if you see what they call the sea lanes, black dots going from New York, you'll see they go up north, they go south around the South American coast, they go over the Atlantic. So just as everything ends in New York, so at the birth of Jesus, all the Old Testament prophecies terminated, or most of them.

You know, we read this so easily, don't we? I nearly had you sing tonight, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. It's a wonderful hymn, written in England, but anyhow. It was a wonderful hymn because it was written by Charles Wesley.

It's full of theology. Mild he laid his glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. What could you have better than that? Wesley puts it in another hymn, he laid his glory by.

The Incarnation and the New Birth

Have you ever wondered what the angels felt like going back to heaven without Jesus? They escorted him to earth, and we say they sang. It doesn't say they sang. I don't know a scripture that says angels sing.

I don't know a scripture that says any women angels either. But all the angels said that. Now, Sister Farrar, don't look at me like that. I want to talk to you for a week. No, come on now. I'm looking for the glass, and here it is.

Well, the angels have masculine names. Michael, the archangel, Gabriel. Somebody says it's easy to prove there's no women in heaven because it says there was silence for the space of half an hour. Oh, I think Mrs. Wesley will make it in one or two folk round here.

Oh, I thought you were going. Patty got over. I thought she was going to walk out. Well, there you are. That's a little wisdom and nonsense, isn't it? Mary took her firstborn son. The supreme act in human history.

Again, Wesley says mild. He laid his glory by. The heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and yet you press him into the womb of a woman. How do you do it? Only God could do that. Mild he laid his glory by, born that man no more may die.

Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second. He's the firstborn. And because he's the firstborn by the Holy Ghost, we can be in the line of those who are born by the Holy Spirit of God. I believe the supreme need of America, the world tonight, is for somebody to start preaching about salvation.

We're trying to get people filled with the Holy Ghost and they're still living a dirty life. They've never tarried at the cross, and we're trying to get them to bow at the upper room. Raise your hands, we'll pray for you.

Forget it. The supreme miracle of this side of eternity is a man can be born again of the Spirit of God. And that's the beginning and end, obviously. Mild he laid his glory by. Isn't it awesome when you think that angels bow down before him continually because Hebrews 1 says the occupation of angels is to worship him.

And he came to earth and men spit on him. Do you think the angels got angry about that? He laid aside all his prerogatives. He laid his glory by and wrapped him in our clothes. In another hymn, Wesley says, God was contracted to a span incomprehensibly made man.

Deity took on the form of humanity. He laid everything on one side. Okay, so Paul says what? Right into the Hebrews it says, You, come on, lay aside every weight. Oh, isn't it so hard to lay aside your social life, lay aside your friends, lay aside other things?

Why? In God's name, why? He could lay aside his glory. He never knew anything about tiredness. He never knew anything about hunger. And one day he sits by the side of a well and a prostitute comes and he talks with her.

And here the Lord of Lord, the King of kings is there, sitting there asking for a drink of water and he put all the water that's in the world there and he begs for a drink of water. And then he says, I gave all I have for you and you can't be a disciple with anything less than that.

Salvation From Sin and Holiness

You think you become a disciple because you lay your dirty sins on one side. What do you think God does with them? Ask most people, are you saved? If they say yes, you say, what are you saved from? Oh, from hell.

Oh, well that's wonderful. But it's still a fringe benefit. Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from anger? Are you saved from carnality? Are you saved from jealousy? Are you saved from pride?

Are you saved from unholy anger? What are you saved from? It pleased the, pardon me, verse 19, it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. What's all the fullness? Well, look at chapter 2 and verse 3.

It says, in him are hid all the treasures and the wisdom and knowledge. In him, Jesus Christ, everything is packed into him. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

In him dwells all the treasures. But they don't leap off the page. I had a preacher in my office the other day and he said, well you talk about the Puritans and you talk about Thomas Shepard who eventually founded Harvard University.

You talk about the man that preached that awesome message, sinners in the hands of an angry God, Jonathan Edwards, who later became the principal of Yale. He went there when he was 13. He graduated as a valedictorian when he was 17.

About a couple of years afterwards he went there and eventually became the, what do you call it now, the president. These men, what I say, they've got colossal intellects. And yet they come humbly to the feet of Jesus Christ because he had the essence of all wisdom.

But again, these things don't come to the surface. Why were the Puritans so majestic? John Owen has about six huge volumes on Hebrews alone. Hawke was one of the greatest men of his day. Jonathan Edwards is a super intellect.

There's a whole string of those men. I call them mighty in the scriptures. They were mighty men of God, not because they had an extra IQ. You see, the trouble with the church today, the theologians are choked up with human wisdom, but there's a wisdom from above which supersedes all earthly wisdom.

Studying Scripture and Seeking Spiritual Depth

But you see, the Word of God says you ought to study. All people say, I read my Bible every day. Tell me when was the last time you did study it? Verse 16 again. For by him were all things created that are in the heavens and in the earth.

You see, what he's arguing about, there was a heresy about in those days that Jesus Christ was only equal with the angels. But he summarizes the whole of creation here. By him were all things created in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones.

They were saying there are other thrones, there are other systems. But this man is shattering all that by saying, under inspiration, these things in the earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created by him. That little baby feeding on his mother's breast, he created it. Do you think that Jesus didn't get hungry to go home to see his father? We were talking this week about sacrifice people make.

No, I never, never, ever saw Reese Howells. I saw his son, talked with him, prayed with him. But when Reese Howells went to break new ground in Africa, he left his son at home and he didn't see him for 15 years.

Come on now. I'd like to go to a prayer meeting. My wife doesn't like to stay at home two or three hours. Young couples, oh, well, we've only just got married. We want a honeymoon for four or five years.

And suddenly there's a war and the government says, get out there, go. And you leave business, you leave your career, you leave your family, you leave your love, the one you love, and off you go to dirty, stinking trenches.

In the first world war, men walked for weeks and weeks up to their knees in water. It was trench warfare. They left their businesses, they left their careers, they left their homes. But I ask you, can we do less?

He is before all things, verse 17, and by him all things consist. He is the head of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Isn't that amazing? No, surely it isn't, because we've known it since we were at the height of a duck.

He's the firstborn from the dead. He comes in and he breaks. This was not something just a bit different than God did when he created his son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost did something he hadn't done in creative power since the beginning.

And he comes and God is contracted to a span incomprehensibly made man. The ancient of days becomes a child of... The heir of eternity gets shut up in the womb of that woman and he's separated from the Father for all those years, the 30 years he's on earth.

Well, what's it all about? Verse 19 again, It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto him, by him I say whether they be things in earth or in heaven.

You see, he keeps arguing about that. These other people say there are systems up there, there are dominions, there are principalities, there are thrones and they're equal with Jesus. But the scripture here says they're not, that he has all authority and he has all power.

Reconciliation Through the Blood of the Cross

Isn't it amazing that God gives breath to a man who's going to blaspheme him all day? Isn't it amazing that 10 million times this very day in America, in an enlightened society, we've broken the laws of God.

People have gone out tonight to vitiate their bodies, waste their bodies, waste their time, waste their money and God relaxes in eternity and he doesn't interfere with their program. Because he's appointed a day in which that babe is going to come back in glory and in power.

He's going to show the whole world. This man's got it all summed up here. As I write to you, he says that he, what's he done here? Having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.

And to you who were sometime alienated and animated in your mind by wicked works, he hath now reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable. Come on now. Do you think Jesus just died so you could give up your stinking habits of smoking and spitting on the rug and gambling and a few things?

He died not for that. He died to regenerate us, to give us a new heart, a new mind. He died to make us holy. Not five minutes after we die, but now. People say, well, I've determined, I'm going to get a sanctified heart before I die.

Why, do you think Gabriel's going to come and say try this halo on because you're going to die five minutes after this? Nothing of the kind. The purpose of Jesus Christ in dying was not just to redeem us from all our sins or reconcile us to God, but to save us, he says, from all iniquity.

In verse 25 he says, I made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. That's our obligation. Verse 26, even the mystery which has been hid from the ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom.

And not just every man, it's not every apostle just. It's not every person who stands high in theology. Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we might present every man perfect in Jesus Christ.

Moral and Spiritual Perfection

Now that's God's goal in your life. Here on earth, you may be made perfect. Isn't he saying this sermon on the mount? He says, blessed are the meek. Then he goes on to say, blessed are what? The merciful, they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. We stumble over that. He's not talking about physical perfection. He's not talking about mental perfection.

He's not talking about intellectual perfection. He's talking about moral perfection. He's talking about spiritual perfection. He's talking about perfect obedience. He's talking about perfect love. Paul says, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

But John says, perfect love casteth out all fear. We don't teach that anymore. Somebody who's been here said, well, Rayner discourages me when he speaks on Friday nights. Why? Oh, he talks so high up there I can't attain it.

It reminded me of a very, very famous Scotsman who preached one Sunday morning to his church which was always crowded. And as he went out to what we call, you call the office, that sounds too businesslike in England.

They call it the vestry. There were some of his deacons there. One of them said, Ach, he says, Dr. McIntosh, you were great this morning, but you were way over the heads, the heads of the people. So he came in at night and had the preliminaries and said, now I'm going to preach.

Lift up your heads. So he caught them out. It amazes me that youngsters can study algebra and study this, that and the other. But if you happen to talk about sanctification or something, they're lost.

It's laziness. Again, I remind you, no man that ever lived, you can talk about Finney, talk about Wesley, talk about Spurgeon, talk about anybody. Not one of them ever had a bigger Bible than I have. He used it better, that's all.

There's a field near us and until a couple of years ago, cows grazed in it. And anything that was running around, they just had their time of their life. Then one day, a guy came along and he began to test and he dug a hole and they tell me, I don't know what it is, it's a place near Agape there, on the other side.

And they struck oil and it's a real gusher. Now that oil had been there for past generations, nobody touched it. You see, it's the same with this Word of God. Paul says to Timothy, Study to show thyself approved unto God.

We don't study. The art of meditation is lost. Oh, you know you can be filled with the Holy Ghost. Yes, I heard that when I was three years old. The Bible says be filled with the Spirit. It also says be still and know that I am God.

We don't have time to be still. We'd rather live in the shallows than be still and meditate and contemplate God's holiness, God's mandacy, God's purity, God's love, God's awesomeness, God's wrath. We don't talk about wrath anymore.

This is a sloppy age. You go to church, nobody's ever seen you before. They'll hug you and kiss you and say I love you. That's bunkum, that's slop. Be careful, they may have germs. One of the strongest elements in love is sacrifice.

God so loved the world he gave. What did he give it? He partied with his son for thirty-three years. He watched men brutalize him, spit on him, slap his face, pull the whiskers. You fellows with beards wouldn't like somebody to snatch your beard and try and pull and take the flesh.

And Jesus never retaliated. And if you think that's not wonderful, I'll tell you what is. It says as he was, so we in this world. Do you know what I believe? If you're filled with the Holy Ghost, nobody will ever offend you.

I said it, when people ask me where I live, I say Psalm 119, verse 156 to 65. Great peace have they which love thy Lord, and nothing shall offend them. I'm not persuaded because you speak in tongues. I'm not persuaded because you do miracles.

I'm not persuaded because you're a fireball preacher. That doesn't impress me at all. When you get under pressure, do you retaliate like the camel people outside? Jesus said the prince of this world cometh and he findeth nothing in me.

Well if God the Holy Ghost can put to death self in your life, the old devil can come and find nothing in you. If I give these fellows one a glass of milk, one a glass of oil, one a glass of water, and I say let me see you run down there.

They run. This fellow stumbles. He's got milk. What will come out of the glass of milk? Well not oil, not wine. What's in will come out. What's in you will come out. You can time protect it. You can put on a nice disposition.

You can be kind and gentle in some situation. But that's not it. It's when suddenly you get jammed into something that's disagreeable, that's unjust, that's unkind. Come on, let me ask you a simple question.

Why do you expect to be treated better in this rotten world than Jesus was treated? Was he less holy than you are? There's a very famous book written centuries ago. Who wrote it? Brother Lawrence on the imitation of Christ.

It's good, but it's bunkum. It's not an imitation of Christ that I need. It's the impartation of Christ. It's Christ in you, as he says, Christ in you, the hope of glory, that all things he might have their preeminence.

The Mind and Humility of Christ

Look at Philippians. It's one, couple of pages back, couple of pages. And chapter 2, verse 5. Let this mind be in you. That's not intellectualism. That's disposition. Let this disposition be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and then being found fastened as a man.

Come on, you haven't got a computer. You haven't got a scientific thing that can tell you the distance between Christ in eternity and him being found and fastened as a man. That's the greatest distance ever.

It's not as far as the east is from the west. If you push the east so far and the west so far, they're going to meet somewhere anyhow. In spite of what Kipling said, east is east and west is west, and never the train shall meet.

They do meet somewhere. They have to. But tell me the distance between the wholeness of God and the sinfulness of man. You can't do it. Gabriel can't do it. Being found fastened as a man. He's laid his glory by, he's laid his deity on one side, as that were, and he's intentionally shrunk his own life to be like a man.

And then it said, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. Do you know any other prince that's gone round the world and slept on the floor? Do you know any other team of men that have gone round the world without a purse?

Here's the prince of glory. He goes all through life. What does he give? He has nothing. Do you ever know a king that died bankrupt? Do you know a king that died without a horse or without a house? What did he give to his disciples?

The greatest king that ever lived says, I'll give you something. It's invisible. It's intangible. But my peace, not peace, my peace, the same peace that characterized my life when they tried to push me over the precipice, I'll give you that same peace which passeth all understanding.

And somebody smartly said it not only passes all understanding, it passes all misunderstanding too. Well, are you living there? Or are you touchy and edgy? Oh, they said this about me. Poor you. You know, most pastors have a diaper service.

All they do is run around to little baby Christians all messing things up. Jesus gave them what? Peace I give you. My peace I give unto you. What's the world after tonight? It's Friday night. They don't have to go to work tomorrow.

So they get drunk, stinking drunk tonight doing foolish, devilish things. And all they get for it is a hangover and empty pockets. What are they after? A thing that can't be found in this world. I'll tell you how to spell it.

J-O-Y. As I've said to you so often, the devil's substitute for joy is entertainment. And it passes like that. But Jesus didn't say I give you joy. He says my joy I give you. My joy I give you. And he says your joy no man taketh it from you.

Oh, I lost my joy. No you didn't. You gave it up. The devil can't steal your joy. Circumstances can't steal your joy. Misrepresentation can't steal your joy. It's yours. You let it go. Just as a good book says hold fast to that which thou hast that no man take thy crown.

Not no devil. No man. Do you know what's going to happen? Remember the time when you had a conflict with God? He was putting some pressure on you saying do this, do that. You sang with bliss and joy and tears running down your face as you took the communion cup.

Oh, the whole realm of nature, man. He didn't ask you for that. He asked you for what you've got not what you don't have. We can all give God what we don't have. If I had a million dollars I'd do this.

I think of an old Quaker story. I think it's a Quaker story. It's good enough anyhow. And a Quaker preacher said to this man, John, if thou hadst a million what wouldst thou do? Oh, pastor, he said I would give half of that million to the church and missions.

Well, if thou hadst 250 ,000 what would thou do? I would give half of it to missions and the church. And he came down and he says finally, John, if thou hadst a thousand dollars what wouldst thou do? He said, you knew I had a thousand.

You know, we're all like that, aren't we? Very brave. We're like the man that returned to his village and he'd bought them a new school and new other things and they had a celebration. And at night they said this is our son that went away from our village, poor, and he's made it rags to riches.

He's worth millions now. I wonder how it started. He said, well, when I was 21 years of age I was sitting here in a missionary meeting and I had 10 cents in one pocket and I had 10 dollars in the other.

And I was going to give the 10 cents when the basket came, I thought, no, that won't do, the Lord's watching. I'll give the 10 dollars. Yes, he said, it was that night I decided to give the Lord a tenth.

It's right, I'm worth now over 50 million dollars. But it all began on that seat where that young man's sitting. I gave him all I have. An old lady on the front row said, I challenge you to do it again.

Oh, you didn't get that, you were sleeping, okay. He gave what he had. When he'd only 10 cents in a 10 dollar bill but now he's worth 50 million. She said, I challenge you to do it again. Give him the whole lot.

God isn't going to ask you for what you don't have. We have those conflicts. You see, I say again, you should not make decisions. I don't like to ask people to sing to make decisions. They're stirred emotionally.

The best time is to go out and get cold feet and some cold water and get in a place where it's not comfortable. And make your vows in loneliness there, not on the surge of emotion. People get meetings worked up.

How much will he give before next year? I don't believe for a moment in promises for next year. Jesus gave everything that he had. Step back in Philippines here a minute. Chapter 2. On to verse 8 again.

Being fast as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at that name every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth.

Notice verse 10 says every knee. Verse 11 says every tongue. The end of the psalmist. Psalm 150, what is it, 150? Where the psalmist says, Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. And then in Revelation chapter 5 it says everything in the air above, under the earth, in the sea, everything at one time at God's command is going to praise Jesus Christ.

Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall exalt him. God has highly exalted him. Can we do less? Let me go back a minute here to the thing I was at in Colossians 1 and verse 18. He's the firstborn from the dead.

Romans 8, 29 says he's the firstborn. I think it's 29. Romans 8, verse 29. For whom he did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. That's what God's after. Not you giving up a few dirty sins.

He's after getting full control of your personality and conforming it to the image of his son. Romans 12 says be not conformed to this world. Philip says it very well when he says don't let this world push you into its mold.