Who Do You Say I AM?

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus. Kind of a blessing to be here tonight. Thank you for those songs. That's a powerful song. Go tell John what you see and hear. Do you catch the full message of that?

We don't operate on feelings, do we? We operate on the facts, and that's what we want. I had it in my notes somewhere. I'm not sure if it'll come out tonight or not, but I'd like to read for a sermon. I'd like to look at Matthew 16 verses 13 to 20.

Matthew 16 verse 13.

When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" And they said, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets." And he saith unto them, "But whom say ye that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, thou art Peter. Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Excuse me. The title of my message is in verse 15, "But whom say ye that I am?" That's my question for you tonight. Supposing someone asks you, "What do you think of Jesus? What do you think of his doctrine? What does Jesus say about non-resistance?" And you say, "Well, my dad doesn't believe we should go to war. My dad doesn't believe that we should sign petitions.

My dad doesn't believe that we should vote." No, that's not the question. What do you think? Do you think about that? Somebody asked you, "What do you think of Jesus and what do you think that Jesus teaches about non-conformity?" And you say, "Well, my church, we have this list of things that we follow." No, not what I'm asking you. What do you say? What is your response to these questions? Do you know? Do you care? Does it matter to you?

Years ago when I was newly married and there were five couples together, and we were probably five different couples. Our connection was our wives were all cousins, but we came from about four or five different churches, I think maybe four different churches.

Somehow we got on a discussion of whether a wedding ring was right or wrong. And I forget all the discussions. There were some that were just absolutely, no, that's wrong. I think there were some that were a little bit soft about the whole thing.

But one fellow piped up and he said, "Look, I asked my pastor if it'd be okay to wear a wedding ring, and he said, 'That's okay.'" Is that a good answer? Will that do? Will that work? Are you satisfied with that?

That's what I want to call you to. Sometimes some of these issues, let someone else decide them. Let someone else think about it. I want to call you to think what you think about it. What is your answer to these situations?

And Peter, he declares, "Whom do men say that I am?" I guess I don't need that thing anyhow, do I? "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Every one of us needs to come to that place where we personally make that declaration and believe it that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter was simply saying, "You are my Savior. You're my Master. You're my Lord. I believe your words." Jesus had told them, "The words I say unto you, they are Spirit and they are life."

You yourself must make that decision yourself.

What do you believe? This is your key into the kingdom. There's a lot of different explanations about the keys here, but this is your key into the kingdom. This is the only way you'll get into that, a personal decision on your own that you believe that Jesus is the Christ.

What we want to see in our churches, every member making that personal decision to follow Christ, every member having personal convictions for the truth.

We don't always agree how to get to that place, but that's what we want. That's what we're aiming for.

What do you think of Christ? Maybe you don't know. Maybe you don't care. Maybe you're along for the ride.

What are you in your church? Are you a drag on it, a liability? Are you a parasite? Or are you a lively stone that's part of that building that's promoting spiritual truth, that's giving it strength and giving it stability? That's what we're looking for, a church full of people who want the truth. Does it really matter? I guess that's probably one of my questions. Does it matter to you? Do you care?

Question for you. Why do you do what you do?

Is it because of external pressure put on you to do it, or is this coming from a heart that loves the Lord Jesus, an internal delight to do the will of God?

Youth are in a transition from under their parents' authority to begin to think about their own ideas and their own thinking.

Wise parents push them to think on their own, push them out of the nest, not out of the home, but out of the nest, out of your comfort zone, to begin to think for yourself. Wise churches want every member to think for themselves.

Sometimes this is dangerous. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it seems easier if you just be quiet, do what I tell you to. Sometimes parents, have you ever, you young people don't have little children, but a grandchild that says, "What are you doing?" Well, look, this is what I'm doing. What are you doing? I mean, every other minute, what are you doing? Quit asking so many questions. When parents squash questions too much, sometimes they squash them because they don't know how to answer.

They'll quit asking questions. If church leaders squash members too much, they won't ask either. Can somebody give me a drink of water? I'm drying up. Is there any water around here?

What I want to call you to is for everyone here to think on your own. Think for yourself.

Parents, not so many parents here. You have your window of opportunity to convince them of the truth and to teach them someday they will do their own thinking. A parent's delight is in when you let them go and they embrace the truth and what you taught them.

Learn to walk in the Spirit. Learn to think like Christ would have you to think.

Thank you.

Some youth want to jump out of the nest too soon. I guess there's different personalities and different adventurous young people. And for parents, again, don't let them do that too soon. Some want to go to Bible school before they're old enough and mature enough and can handle the emotional and the peer pressure and all that that goes with that.

Be careful not to let them take off too soon. And then there are others who feel very safe and secure in a home, and they really, and your parents sometimes have to say, "Come on. Get out. Do your own thinking."

For some of you, I'm not sure how it was when you came to Bible school. Maybe it was a difficult experience for you in knowing how to relate to other people from other churches and other different things that happen. Probably that's the burden of my message when I think of myself as a young man, the difficulty of trying to put the pieces together of what's Christian and what isn't. And that's what I'd like for you to look at yourself and know what you think yourself.

Then you can stand against peer pressure in a better way.

Sometimes that transition to your own thinking is very scary. Sometimes as we open ourselves up to listen to the truth, I think the real blessing in life is whenever you, as you begin to understand truth and you listen to the Spirit of Christ and it's what you have been taught and agrees with Mom and Dad. Not everybody has that privilege and that opportunity.

What I want you to know is that truth will never hurt you, but we need to continually examine it. Is it really truth?

What happens sometimes, and I think this is what happened to me, is I began to examine truth, and sometimes it's kind of scary for me to tell you. I wanted to say that, and maybe that's later on in my notes, but to be under your parents' authority, under their design, is a wonderful thing and a powerful thing. Be careful about that transition to your own thinking. To me, I once, as I transitioned to my own thinking, I always became wiser than my parents. I became wiser than the church. I became wiser than everybody. No, that wasn't the case at all. So be very careful that you don't spin off. But I do want you to begin to do your own thinking.

And I think too many people will say, "Well, I just do what I'm told and what I feel like is right, but I haven't really come to grips with it as to what I know and what I believe."

And again, as you face that difference of Christianity and understand what you believe, it was only 13 years ago that I started fixing appliances and I got out into the world, and I was still shocked at what people call Christian.

And you're going to face that in our world. And if you cannot establish your own thinking, you won't be able to survive in a world of broad Christianity and broad understanding. And again, that song about don't go by feelings.

Go by the facts and the truth.

Why do you do what you do? It's a question you need to ask. External or internal? That's a hard question to answer.

External, what I want us to understand is that if it's all external pressure that you make your decision, it's going to be a disaster in your life. And what happens is there are sometimes when people somehow feel like they get this spiritual arrogancy that they don't need any external pressure, that's a disaster also.

What I want you to see, I guess my main point is that if all that your decisions are made strictly from external pressure and there's not that internal design of Christ working in you, then you won't survive in life.

Probably it's difficult for you to understand that whole thing of internal versus external pressure, and maybe I won't be able to explain it properly, but it's a big issue in the world, in the church, in the home. It's a very important issue.

It's a difficult one to give an absolute design or an absolute answer to. In your home that you grew up in, some of you grew up in a home where there was a lot of external force, external design. Don't react to that. There's some of you who grew up in a home where there wasn't much external pressure or external force, and you'll have to learn it on your own.

I'm going to throw this out for you to think about. I'd like for you to see our society and where it's at as far as the ability to make anything happen. When I pondered this, and I didn't do my research very well, but when there was an amendment to the Bill of Rights, it was a pretty serious issue to make an amendment like that.

The 18th Amendment, this is from my memory, prohibition. Is that prohibition?

The restriction or they made it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages. Why did they do that? Why would they make that illegal? Because they saw the damage that it did to society. When you go to prison, they say the number one drug is still alcohol. It's disastrous to society. But then along came the 21st Amendment, and they repealed the 18th Amendment. Why?

The external force was not capable of getting it accomplished.

And then I think of all the other things today, and it's almost humorous that society is becoming alarmed about cell phones, social media, TikTok, and they're declaring it to be causing mental illness in young people. That's what society's saying.

Why would they think that they're ever going to try to restrict that is what I'd like to know.

What I want you to know is that there is no way to reform in an external way without some internal design and understanding on that whole thing. Thank you. Might set a little more level.

In the church, that's where there's a lot of differences in views on how this should come about. What I want us to understand is we must have Christ within us working through us for an understanding and direction in life as to how we need to live. But I also need my brothers and sisters to help me in this race to go along.

I'd like to look at the danger of simple external force. Constantine was a man that got excited about Christianity. He baptized everybody that came along. He baptized his soldiers. He baptized everyone. Do you see what's happening there with that whole situation where they called themselves Christian, but there was no personal commitment to follow after Christ?

You had it in the Catholic Church. They baptized infants. And then later, and I don't understand all the Catholic Church, but later they made their decision to, I suppose, study the catechism. But too often, it was just a system where you were expected at a certain time to start this catechism.

What troubles me, have you been a part of a system where when you got to a certain age, you were expected to make a decision for Christ?

And so you did what needed to be done.

I still remember a fellow from the prison. He said, "I can't get all" I guess it's catechism. He said, "I believe in one true eternal God and Father." That's about all I know of it. And this is what he told me. He said, "I said those words. I memorized those words." But when he met the Lord, all at once those words became real words to him.

Are those words real to you? Thou art to Christ. Made a commitment at baptism that you wanted to follow Christ. Was it a personal commitment, or was it because the bishop said it and you said, "I do," or, "I will"?

That's what I want you to examine tonight. Is it real in your heart and life? Thou art to Christ. I believe you. I believe your words. I believe your teaching.

In the Reformation, people were put to death for joining the Anabaptist. Now, that's a real external force to stay in your church. I'd like to read something. I want to read some things from this, The Anabaptist Vision. This was a little book that I'd gotten years ago, and it had a real impact on my life.

And this is what they write. "One cannot and should not use force to compel anyone to accept the faith, for faith is a free gift of God. It is wrong to compel anyone by force or coercion to embrace the faith or to put to death anyone for the sake of his erring faith. It is an error that in the church any sword other than that of the divine words should be used. The secular kingdom should be separated from the church, and no secular rulers should exercise authority in the church. The Lord has commanded simply to preach the gospel, not to compel anyone by force to accept it. The true church of Christ has the characteristic that it suffers and endures persecution but does not inflict persecution upon anyone."

What I want you to what I'm asking you, the question tonight is, were you pushed into being a Christian? Did your parents pressure you into being a Christian? Did your brothers and sisters pressure you into being a Christian? Is what you are simply because you went through the process, is it a personal thing with you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, or was it and it simply creates a church full of people who are not serious about following Christ, who are not serious about what Jesus has to say?

Is it the life that you live coming from within or without?

There have been stories in churches where if you leave the church, you will be cut out of the inheritance. Now, what kind of pressure is that? If you leave the church, you won't have the business benefits. Have you ever heard stories like that?

Listen, you need to be free. You need to be able to say and believe that thou art to Christ, not from force.

There was a young man that was having trouble getting it put together, and I went to talk to him about some of his issues. Well, he said, "I don't have anywhere else to go. I guess I'll stay in Dad's church." And while I was happy he was staying, but I wasn't sure that the commitment was, "I want to serve the Lord. I want to be a faithful part of the church, and that's what I'm asking you tonight. The only reason you're Christian in your church is because of the benefits you get. That's not what we're looking for.

You will die, and you will life will be a disaster if you have not made a personal choice and a personal commitment to follow Christ." I'd like to read some more from the Reformation. And this what they were the result in their church was from a people who were not sincere about their personal commitment to Christ.

This has to do with the reformers who left the Catholic Church, and some were let me read it to you. A similar statement was made in 1538 after 14 years of persecution by an Anabaptist leader who spoke on behalf of on his group in the Great Colloquy at Bern with the leaders of the Reformed Church. "While yet in the National Church, we obtained much instructions from the writings of Luther, Zwingli, and others concerning the Mass and other papal ceremonies that they are vain.

Yet we recognized a great lack as regards repentance, conversion, and the true Christian life. Upon these things, my mind was bent." And so then as they left the Catholic Church and they're with the reformers, he said, "I waited and hoped for a year or two since the minister had much to say of amendment of life, of giving to the poor, loving one another, and abstaining from evil. But I could not close my eyes to the fact that the doctrine which was preached and which was based on the Word of God was not carried out. No beginning was made toward true Christian living, and there was no unison in the teaching concerning the things that were necessary.

And although the Mass and the images were finally abolished, true repentance and Christian love were not in evidence. Changes were made only as concerned external things. This gave me occasion to inquire further into these matters. Then God sent his messengers, Conrad Grebbel, and others with whom I conferred about the fundamental teaching of the apostles and the Christian life and practice. And I found them men who had surrendered themselves to the doctrine of Christ by" I was going to write it on the board. That's right. "Busford Tigrette." I can't say it right, but that's how it is. And this is, "Repentance evidenced by fruits.

And with their assistance, we established a congregation in which repentance was an evidence by a newness of life in Christ." And that's what we're looking for. "It is evident from these statements that the Anabaptists were concerned most of all about a true Christian life that is a life pattern after the teaching and example of Christ." And that's what we're aiming for.

Okay, some more. "Between 1522 and 1527, Luther repeatedly mentioned his concern to establish a true Christian church and his desire to provide for earnest Christians who would confess the gospel with their lives as well as with their tongues. He thought of entering the names of those earnest Christians in a special book and had them meet separately from the mass of nominal Christians, but concluded that he would not have sufficient of such people. He dropped the plan. There weren't enough earnest Christians in his church, and he didn't think he could do it. Zwingli faced the same problem. He was, in fact, specifically challenged by the Swiss Brethren to set up such a church, but he refused and followed Luther's course.

Both reformers decided that it was better to include the masses within the fold of the church than to form a fellowship of true Christians only, but certainly expected the preaching of the Word, the ministration of the sacraments to bear fruit in an earnest Christian life, at least among some, but they reckon with a permanently large and indifferent mass."

In taking this course, the Anabaptists, the reformers in taking this course, said the Anabaptists, "The reformers surrendered their original purpose and abandoned the divine intention. Others may say that they were wise and statesmanlike leaders. The Anabaptists, however, retained the original vision of Luther and Zwingli, enlarged it, gave it body and form, and set out to achieve it in actual experience. They proceeded to organize a church composed solely of earnest Christians and actually found the people for it. They did not believe in any case that the size of the response should determine whether or not the truth of God should be applied, and they refused to compromise." That's my vision tonight. That's my goal.

To have a church of earnest Christians. You got to be with me. What kind of church do you want? Where the masses are there of people who have their names on the rolls, people who say they're Christian? I want to see earnest Christians that live it out, believe it. Can we do it? Zwingli and them said, "Can't be done."

And then they were considered statesmen because they were able to be nice to everybody. It's awful nice to be nice to everybody. So in your church, this is the key that a faithful church has. They will decide if you are an earnest Christian or if you're just playing games.

How are you going to line up here?

You're going to be one of those earnest Christians? We must, if we're going to build Christ's church, we must be earnest Christians, and we must be able to know who is serious about following Christ. That's what I want to see. That's what I want each of you.

Years later, you will either be in a church that's serious about following Christ or you will be with the masses in a church that maybe has large numbers. Be very careful about that.

Do you ever hear of fool's gold?

Fool's gold looks like real gold, but it's not. It's pyrite. And they say if the light shines on it in a certain way, it'll glisten. Real gold glows regardless of how the light shines on it. If you take fool's gold and rub it on white porcelain, it'll add a black and a greenish black powder residue. If you use real gold on white porcelain, it'll be a yellow residue.

What are you? Are you real gold?

We're not talking about perfection. We're talking about pure motives to know Christ, to understand what He has for me personally, for people to press towards Christ in humility and honesty. We're all learning to know what Christ wants for our lives, but we're serious about following after Him with all our heart.

Look at Peter here. "Thou art to Christ," and then verses 21 to 23. And Peter, "Then from that time forth, Jesus from that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'Be it far from the Lord. This shall not be unto thee.' But He turned and said unto Peter, 'Get thee behind Me, saint. And thou art an offense unto Me, for thou saverest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.'" Now there he was with that great statement, "Thou art to Christ," and here He says He rebukes Him.

Listen, we need each other's rebukes at times, but we need to examine our motivation, our goal of knowing Christ. Is it real, or am I just playing games in the church? Am I just a part of the thing? Am I a drag, or am I a participant that is giving life to the church? I'd much like to look at a few basic we could talk about many things. What does an earnest Christian look like? Someone who is serious. Let's read 24 to 28. "Then said Jesus unto His disciples, 'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.

For what is a man profit if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works. Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

Again, we don't know entirely all of what it means to be a Christian. We are pressing on, but Jesus makes it very plain that it is a cross. It is a and again, we need to learn what He means by that cross. All of us are in the flesh.

All of us are attracted by sensual things, by the things the flesh desires. A cross is saying no to self and yes to Christ. Somebody offers you a gospel. This is one of what I want you to get a hold of some basic guiding principles in your life to begin to sort through where you need to be and where the broader Christianity is and understand you want nothing to do with the new cross, the easy cross. The cross is the denial of the flesh and saying no to it.

It's a surrender of your honor, of your pride. When I think of external forces, who's going to deal with your pride? You are. I can't. I can see it sometimes, but you must deal with it. A surrender of your rights.

Sometimes we can try to take them from you. You need to surrender them. You need to give them up to be an asset.

Surrender wrong pleasures. Surrender wrong ambitions. Begin to hear the voice of Christ. Know what it means to follow the to take up your cross and follow Christ. He says, "If you gain the whole world and lose your own soul." And I think a lot of us figure we can have both. You can't. You can't have both. You have to decide what you want. Make that clear in your mind in a real way.

What does an earnest Christian look like? How do you decide if someone is an earnest Christian? I'm going to get to that a little bit later, but three verses from the Sermon on the Mount. The one is a hunger and thirst after righteousness. An earnest Christian is someone who wants to know. Paul said that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering. We have so many distractions in our time and so many things that are easier to do than the wonderful Word that we sang about. It's powerful, and it's good. Search it out. I thought about the Sermon on the Mount. There's a very basic place to start.

If you don't have much scripture knowledge, start with that and learn it. Pour in spirit. And I told you about my listen, search with all humility to know. Search in the sense that what Christ wants for you. Search in the context of what your brother and sister, what your church, what your parents have to say. Search in humility to put it together. Don't be a wise person that thinks you know everything.

None of us do. Blessed are they that mourn. Humility is able to see our failures, and we mourn our failures, and we sorrow over our failures. We want to grow more and more in the likeness of Christ.

Tonight, I'd like to ask you, I told you I want a church where they're all earnest Christians. What does it look like? Okay? If I'd asked, I'll start here. No, I'm sorry. I'm just kidding you. I won't start anywhere. What kind of church do you want? Okay? And you say, "I'm not responsible." We'll let your sisters off the hook, but you think in your mind of what kind of church you want.

Here's where we're at in life. A person that says he's a Christian, we need to be very careful of our judgment, but you will in your mind divide this thing up. I'm sorry. That's just how it is.

One of the well, I was going to get that later. Okay. So what does your church look like? And you say you're not responsible, but you are responsible. And we value the earnest Christians' input into how we make decisions in our church. We want that. So

oh, I forgot this one section. Let me start with this first. What kind of a church do you want? And it seems like you can take your pick around here. There's all kinds of churches.

Some areas there aren't so many churches, and then you're stuck with that one, whether you like it or not. Around here, it seemed like and this is not necessarily in Anabaptist churches, but there was one church where they had a whole they had a large membership, like 1,500, and the pastor left that church and went to another church, and they lost about 500 members, just like that. So I guess they liked the pastor. So do you like your church because you like the pastor? He has interesting sermons. I asked one fellow, he was going this was not an Anabaptist. He was leaving his church to go to another church, and I was just curious, how did you pick that church out of the many churches?

What was his reason? He said they sing hymns, and I thought, well, that was interesting because listen, you have it all here. We sing hymns and okay. Don't even count it a blessing. Why do you go? Do you like your church because they don't hold you accountable? Is that the kind of church you want? That would be better than somebody always asking you about your life, right?

Do you like your church because you can do what you want to? Do you like your church because they allow certain things on the internet that you need? You see? That has been a big issue, and a lot of people will move churches because they want certain things on the internet, and they'll go to a church that allows it. What do you believe, and where are you at?

Is that a good reason for going to another church? Do you like your church because you can dress the way you want?

What is Christ telling you? What kind of church would you like to see? And where will this church come out 30 years from now? It's a serious question that you're not probably thinking about, and you really I shouldn't say you don't care. I want you to care.

Some of us old men are going to die off soon. Somebody has to say, "This is what we want." They're not going to tell you what they want after they're gone. Well, they might be. Yet speak it, you know. I hope you can hear it. Listen, it's serious.

Decide what kind of a church you want. Okay.

So what kind of church are what kind of people earnest Christians? What kind of people are you going to let into your church? This fellow said, "Well, I believe in going to war to fight." You're going to let him in your church?

No, probably not. Hope not. You're going to let in somebody that just votes. They don't go to war. They just vote. All I'm doing is trying to get you to think these are things you need to think about. These are things you need to know what you believe and why you believe it and where you're at.

I think maybe I'm talking about myself. There was a time when, well, so what? Who cares? This is what the church does. No. What do you think of Christ? What do you think of His teaching? What if they're divorced and remarried?

What about if a sister doesn't wear a veil?

Is there a size it should be? Will a little patch do? Think. Go on. That's all I want you to do. Think. Seems like there's some sisters that keep shrinking, not a little patch, but what should it look like?

How about modesty? What would your definition of modesty be? Where would you draw the line on that?

Do you know? Do you care? Do you think about it? What's a good definition of that?

What about fashion? Fashion wear. I haven't seen I don't look around too much here. Supposing your pastor wears blue jeans and a T-shirt. That'd be all right? And cowboy boots. You like a church like that?

What kind of church do you want? What kind of vision do you have for your church? It's not going to get there without some effort and without some work and without some diligence and making it happen and some external force.

No. What I'd like to see in a church is where we don't need so much external force. We have people who are zealous for the Lord, and they want these kind of things. That's what makes church life easy for the leaders who are trying to and for all of us together to pull together for these kind of things. I'm asking you as young people, what do you want?

And we want to hear from you, and we want to hear your questions. I don't want to hear questions that are just scorning and questions of contention. Don't ask me questions like, "Can God make a rock that He can't pick up?" Those kind of questions. Foolish and unlearned questions.

And sometimes, you know, they're coming with questions. They're just being difficult, but an honest question deserves an honest answer. And some of the problem might be that some of us older men don't know what we believe about some of this stuff. And parents, we need to know where we are at. Why?

What about hairstyles? Would you give out a design or just, you know, just have a nice hairstyle? What you need to understand, we're humans, and we need some decisions on these kind of things. We need different input, and we want you to have some solid understanding as to what Christ is calling you to with hairstyles. Do you care? Do you understand?

Sisters, hairstyles, size of the veil, what is Christ calling you to?

What do you think? Do you care? Are you willing to wrestle through what is necessary here?

I was going to look at some of these other ones. Just there are if you don't know what your eschatology is, that's fine. You don't have to worry about it. It's pretty important, though, but no, you don't have to know that. Don't worry about that. But what you believe about non-resistance, the first and greatest commandment is to love God. The second is like one, to love your neighbor. Know what you believe about non-resistance.

It's a solid rock, non-conformity to the world. Love not the world. What communion has light with darkness? Come out from among them and be ye separate. This is a Bible teaching straight through, separating light from darkness, the world from Christians. We are separated. How does that work out in life? How does that understanding do you know what you believe? Do you know how that works out in your life and understanding what Christ is teaching you?

Moral purity is a big one.

And again, it takes more than an external design. If you're going to win on that, you need some inner commitment to Christ. I will be pure. And you have to see it as extremely valuable. Don't wreck your life, and it takes more than anything external to bring it to pass.

Okay. In conclusion, again, see the seriousness of life with these issues. Don't think it's for older people to decide. You must decide. You're not ready for marriage until you know what you believe about some of these things yourself.

Get it solid. Get a clear understanding of what you believe, and you're going to stand here regardless if all Christianity is saying, "Nah, it doesn't matter. That's not important. It's your life, and it's the life of your church." Be an asset to the church, but I'm especially concerned about your own life. If you have not made that personal commitment that I believe Jesus' words are life to me, Jesus' teachings are life to me, and I want to live it, I want to follow after Him, I want to know what He's telling me. Others may, I can't. That's when you have made a personal commitment to Christ, and you're willing to stand for what you believe is right.

Life is serious. Lord bless you as you pursue on. And I know that some of the topics are the beauty of God's law, the beauty of learning. You're learning. Take it in and put it into practice. Can't stay here. Put it into practice and believe it. Lord bless you.