of death. Dear Lord, we do pray that you would bless the preaching of thy word. Thank you for all that are in the house of God today. We do thank you. May we come into your presence of your body rejoicing, and we do pray that you'll keep us cool, Lord. But thank you for all that you've done for us, given us this church, this family of believers, and this holy, inspired, preserved Bible. Now teach us, God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen. I want you to notice verse one. Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor. That means it smells bad. So doth the little folly, him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. So what is an apothecary? Exodus 30 says, Thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary. Webster says it's one who prepares drugs for medicinal uses. Today he would be a pharmacist. We've departed from the natural base that God has instituted and ordained, and we are in the realm where they're trying to take genes of a mouse and mix it with genes of a human. They're messing with God's nature. They're extracting things and mixing things, and they're doing it morally, and they're doing it physically. We've got genetic manipulation is what it is, and it's perverted, and God's going to curse it. But at one time, The apothecary was someone who mixed herbs and minerals together. Sometimes he could make perfume, because back then, perfume ointment was healthy. It wasn't the chemical, endocrine-disrupting mess that it is today. The word apothecary appears to be rooted in a storage chest. So the apothecary was the keeper of the place where these mixtures were placed. So he obviously knew how to put them all together according to his art. So the Bible says dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary, that is the ointment that this apothecary mixes together to send forth a stinking savor. Now what is ointment? It's any soft substance or compound mixed with olive oil, myrrh, things like that. We can get an idea here, Job 41, he maketh the deep to boil like a pot. He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. So sometimes they melted this all down and mixed the ingredients together and made a salve or made some type of ointment and it was a healing thing. It was a blessing. It usually smelled wonderful because of the herbs and everything that are in there. Isaiah, God says, why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. When God disciplines you and brings bad things to your life, He wants you to grow more holy, more dependent upon Him. He wants you to examine your life and see what you need to change and draw closer to Him so He can draw close to you. But God says, sometimes I bring bad things to people's life, And they get further and further away from me. They revolt more. They rebel more. God says, your whole head is sick. Your whole heart faint. You've lost that confidence, that rejoicing. And God says, why should I have to do this anymore to you? It doesn't please God to do this. It doesn't please God. God looks at the results and that gives Him joy, but it doesn't please Him. Wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. That means to be softened, pacified, healed. So you see here, ointment is for sores. Ointment is for that which is sick. That's one use of ointment. Sometimes it's medicinal. There's other purposes. We see in Matthew 26, our Lord was not sick, but a woman came to anoint him for the burial. It says there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment. Ointment was usually expensive. It could be. Sometimes it was used to bring forth a wonderful smell, as we see that that had actually emotional responses, just as if you smell sourdough bread, you can have a response of rejoicing and your mood will change and be elevated. And they knew all of these things back then, and they knew that certain scents bring forth certain emotions. That doesn't mean that you need to dive into this witchcraft mess today. What people are doing is they're taking that basic truth that nature affects us, that there's herbs and things that can affect how we feel in the body and in our emotions, And they have brought that over to if you sprinkle this on somebody, it'll be a magic potion and they'll fall in love with you or something crazy like that. And these books are full of occultism, many of these oil books. And we've got so much truth in this revival into essential oils, but now it is going off into folk magic and pagan magic, too. That's no better than the pharmakia sorcery that's going on with all of this manipulation of making these poisonous drugs. And so we don't want either one. You know what I mean? We want things to be left in the domain that God has placed it and used in the right way, not abusing, but using the things that God has given us. Now, notice Proverbs 27 says, Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart. How about that? That's not talking about this chemical, endocrine-disrupting, cancer-causing stuff that you spray all over your house or all over your body. This is talking about natural ointment and perfumes made by God's oils and God's different saps and things, resins and things. So does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. Friendship, good counsel. Encouragement is a blessing, and so is the natural God-ordained use of ointments and perfume. That is a good thing, a good thing. The point of Solomon's words is this, dead flies, enough dead flies, trapped in the ointment, eventually rot, and they're going to cause the ointment, which did smell good, to now stink. In the same way, a little folly, it doesn't take much dead flies, can cause the reputation of a good man or a good woman to start stinking. The rotting smell is given to us by God as a warning. God did that to help us. When you smell something dead, that's a warning signal to tell you don't go near it, don't touch it, God forbid, don't eat it, you understand, if it's been rotting over there somewhere. Just as smoke is a sign of fire, when you smell something, that means don't touch it. It's decaying. It's got bad bacteria that will cause death to you. Okay. I want you to understand that the word folly, as used in our King James Bible here, is not something playful. When it says a little folly, it doesn't mean a little cutting up among the brethren, though you need to be careful and make sure that doesn't become sinful and that type of thing. But the point here. I mean, we were driving last night and I heard somebody on the radio and he was preaching so good, he was talking about so many good things, and then he called our Lord Jesus a wizard. You know, you need to think about the words that you use and the things that you're saying. But the word folly doesn't mean being playful. It's talking about rape. The Bible says in the days of Jacob that rape was called folly. The man who took the cursed thing, that Babylonian garment, committed folly in the camp of Israel. There's many Babylonian garments today that are being touched by God's people that are bringing folly upon the camp. Lot admonished the Sodomites not to rape the angels in their perverted sin and lust, and he called it folly. So you understand, folly in the Bible are abominations, they're sins. And the Bible says, though you have a good man, a good woman, who has a high reputation for wisdom and honor and godliness, if he falls into folly, it's going to cause his reputation to stink. Now, it doesn't take much of these dead flies in a man or woman's life to ruin their reputation. Now, what is the answer? The answer to this modern culture in Hollywood and most modern churches, I believe, the answer to removing the stink is we just perfume the sin. And we say, well, this isn't sin anymore. Let's remove the shame of it. And then it won't smell bad to us. Is that God's way? No. God's way is to avoid the sin. Don't try to justify sin by good things in your life. God is glad that those good things are in your life, but don't use your worship. Don't use your praise. Don't use your prayer. Don't use these things, your tithes, your offerings, the good thing you did for somebody the other day, the good thing you did for the church. Don't use those things as a justification to try to cover over and make that abomination smell better. It might smell better to you, but it doesn't work with God. He tells you over and over and over in the Bible, it doesn't work. It still stinks. In fact, it makes all your good things stink, because now you're using them to cover sin. And that actually makes God angry. The plowing of the wicked is sin. How much more worship that is used to cover an abomination. A little folly causes your life to stink in the eyes of God and in the eyes of godly people. Now if you took an ointment full of bad bacteria that was rotten, full of rotten flies, and you rubbed it on an open wound, You understand what's going to happen here. You're going to end up with blood poisoning, you're going to end up with an amputated arm or hand, and this is not God's way. It's not God's way to take stinking ointment and try to fix something. You can't fix the problem of shame. by just redefining sin, which is, that's what the psychological movement has done. That's what the 20th century has done. It has been the century of toleration, of empathy in regard to sin by redefining sin. You see the psychological, psychiatric communities, how first homosexuality was looked at as a disease. That's the first step. Once you make something a disease, then you're not responsible for it. That's the first step toward removing that shame. And then after that, they just say it's not a disease anymore, it's normal behavior. And so they think they have perfumed the sin, and that is not God's way. You don't redefine it. to make it smell better. What you do if you want to love sinners, you teach them how to have their sin forgiven. You draw them to Christ. They need the fear of God. Some save with compassion if they're broken and ready to receive, but others save with fear. They need to know there's consequences for their sin and there's judgment. And it's very important that you warn them and help them understand to try to drive them to the Savior. And as fellow believers, if you love them, the Bible said, don't hate your brother, make sure you rebuke him, so to speak, and not suffer sin upon him. When you cover up the stink of others and help them to think that they're walking around, you don't stink, It don't stink to me. No, no, it doesn't stink to God. Basically, you're lying to them. And when you lie to them, they're not going to fix their sin. When you receive them and say, oh, you smell fine to me, you are enabling their sin. Enabling the sin of your family members. You are keeping them from repentance. And God said my people would have repented had not they been encouraged, strengthened by other people. So, please understand. Covering up stink causes another problem. Not only does it hurt the stinker, but when you cover up somebody's sin in the wrong way, you now allow other good people and innocent people to be victimized by that person. See, if you didn't tell anybody that there was something rotten and dead, and somebody accidentally comes up next to it, and they get a disease, You know, you find out that there's certain people out here that have folly. They have committed folly. And while you don't want to be a tale bearer or a gossip and that type of thing, a slanderer, God forbid, you do need to protect innocent people from those that have committed folly and have not repented of it. And it's very important you protect children, that you protect others. That's why the house of Chloe told Paul what was going on in Corinth, so Paul could deal with it, number one, and so he could come make sure others are protected, because Paul said, a little leaven spreads and leavens the whole lump. And I tell you what, if you look back at some people that have hurt you, you would have wanted somebody to warn you about certain men and certain people. Oh, what a blessing it would have been if somebody would have said, you know what, they've committed folly, they haven't repented, beware. That's a blessing to you, is it not? Otherwise, you get hurt, you get bitten. Your loved ones get hurt by this type of thing. So, you do not help anybody by covering up sin in the wrong way. There is a time to forgive and forget. There is a time to restore when there's brokenness and repentance and fruits of repentance. But if you try to restore before there has been brokenness and repentance, then what's gonna happen is you're gonna spread stink all over the place and people are gonna get hurt. They're gonna get hurt. You're not being loving. You're not being loving by doing that. You're being hateful. You're being hateful. Let's look at some minor and major applications we can make from our verse, Church of God. Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor, so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. I want you to see first of all that you can have something good, something very good, But it can become bad when bad things are added to the mix. Oh, I wish that I could get you to understand that principle. I want you so bad to understand that something can be good, but when you add something bad to it, it is no longer good. See, that's so important for you to know. That'll change your life right there. That'll change your life. I don't care how good the movie was. When you added a bunch of fornication and blaspheming our Jesus and calling Him a wizard and all kinds of things, that's no longer good. When it teaches rebellion and glorifies rebellion, it's no longer good. When it's full of pornography and all of that, it is no longer good. Your entertainment is no... I don't care how funny the comedian is, when he just blasphemed Jesus, it's not good anymore. The music may be good, but when the lyrics and other things are added to it, it's not good anymore. The food that you eat, I don't care that your grandmother and her grandmother and her grandmother ate that food when it's been poisoned and mixed with a bunch of toxic substances. It's not good anymore. This ointment was very good, healthy ointment. The healthiest you could get in the whole world, but when dead flies are rotting in it, it's not good anymore, folks. I don't want something that's filled with gross and toxic things injected into my body. I don't want to put it into my mouth. And I certainly don't want it injected into my body or the body of my loved ones. They're trying to bring forth a vaccine for the coronavirus and its ever-changing, mutating forms. So, even though a lot of the hype is now over, and they've moved on to stirring up strife between the races and things like that. I'm gonna tell you something. They're not going away in regard to these drugs and vaccines and things, in regard to this virus. It's too useful. So you're gonna continue to see them, Bill Gates and all these others, working on these vaccines, and the new vaccines they're trying to work on are called DNA vaccines. They're even worse. These don't require refrigeration. They can spread them all over Africa and everywhere without refrigeration. And this is their dream. This is what they're working on. And these DNA vaccines, what they do is they have limited knowledge of how these are gonna affect humans. Many scientists are warning of chronic inflammation and foreign DNA inserted into your body, triggering immune responses, including cancer. So these things are probably already happening, but people are very, very, they're bringing forth these warnings about what's coming down the pike here. So understand, this is a horrible thing that they're doing. Only about 37% of people ever even get a flu shot, and that's in the most severe flu season. So imagine now, in the most severe flu season, only about 37% go and get that junk injected into them. They're very afraid that they're not going to have enough people being vaccinated. And that's why they are pushing this mandatory vaccination. And you need to fight it. You need to shout against it. You need to stand up and rebuke in the gate. You need to get in the way of it. And you need to expose and do everything you can, but now you've got big tech censoring you, so you're not able to get the word out, but you need to keep preaching. Preach on the housetops if you have to. Tell people about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and eternal damnation, and the blood of Jesus to save their sin, and for their body, warn them about these wicked vaccines, and what they're doing, and what's coming. I don't want any medicine that has poisons in it. I don't care if it was a good medicine. When you mix poison with that medicine, it's not good anymore. I don't want dead flies in my food. I don't want dead flies in my medicine. You know, a lot of common sense is gone today. When you pick up a package and the people are forced by law to even tell you what's in the thing, it's common sense to at least read what they admit's in the thing and see what you're sticking in your body. You say, well that's not Baptist. I don't care if it's not Baptist. I think it's Baptist. I think it's Bible and I think you ought to get a hold of it, amen? You ought to learn how to look and see what you're sticking in your mouth and in the mouth of your kids. Whether it's food or whether it's medicine. Dr. Alan Greenberg, a retired physician, says, as a retired physician, I can honestly say that unless you were in a serious accident, your best chance of living to a ripe old age is to avoid doctors and learn nutrition, herbal medicine, and other forms of natural medicine. Almost all drugs are toxic. Of course, he's been a dope pusher for most of his life. These doctors, many of them know what they're doing. I've had them face to face before me as guitar students. They say, you know what? yes, but they would die anyway because they're not going to eat right. They know that pharmaceutical companies are paying for their golf trips all over the world. They understand that they know hardly nothing about what they're giving to the people. They just read on the little flyer that the drug company gives them and they give it to people. I'm telling you there's toxic medicine out there and I tell you I don't want dead flies or any other type of poison in my medicine or my food. I don't think any sane person wants that. But the Bible said the nation shall be mad in the last days. Madness, insanity will spread all over the land. I think it's sanity to say, wait a second, let's see what's in this thing. Let's see if it interrupts the hormones. Let's see if it causes men to act like women and women to act like men. Let's see if it breeds cancer. Let's see if it lowers your immune system. I think that's common sense. That's sanity in this world today. It's madness to not care. Listen to me, because Solomon takes note of one sign of danger doesn't mean that's the only sign. You pick up something, you say, oh, that smells good, I'm gonna rub it all over my body. Well, the people who are making the product have discovered ways to make things that stink smell better, artificially, you understand. You put a bunch of chemicals and things on your lotions and your ointments and all of that, and all of these fake smells and scents, You can make poison smell pretty good. That doesn't mean that it's safe. You have to look for other signs. See, the devil will counterfeit, and sometimes he'll just come to you openly, and you know, well, that's the devil. At other times, he's gonna come as an angel of light. And it's the same way in the physical world. Sometimes they hide that stink, and you have to look for other signs. You have to watch. You have to look at studies of what they're doing, and see, this is a poison. I don't want that in my body. Why should you stay away from something which stinks? Because it's poisonous. Because it's poisonous. It's the same thing with other signs. We discussed toxic money last week. I find it interesting that usually it takes a few months or even a few years, but already now in the news, headlines are now reading, scientists say doorknobs, handrails, and shopping trolleys should be coated in copper because the metal kills COVID-19 in just a few hours. COVID-19 can survive and remain on steel and plastic for up to three days. Professor William Keevil from Southampton University said copper has antibacterial properties that help it kill the virus rapidly. So last week we studied our BPA that's in things and in the money and on things that people rub all over their body and it's in the ointments that they rub on their bodies. It's in the things that they touch. And companies have learned to make these things smell good, as we've said. You've got these chemical perfumes and cosmetics and all of these things changing your hormones, reversing your hormones, bringing terrible temptations to your lives. And if you handed somebody liquor, alcohol and said drink this, they would say I'm not going to drink that, that's liquor. Because they know their behavior will be clouded and their judgment will be impaired. But there's other things, there's other things out here that are impairing and bringing temptations to your life. And in the same way you look not at the wine and get far from alcohol, There's other poisons and toxins that you need to get far from because they are changing your hormones and causing, as we went through last week, they're causing great temptations upon women today and upon men. Because as your hormones get interrupted, you're going to get irritable. You're going to get hard to deal with and you're going to have problems. I'm going to tell you folks, listen to me, things are not evolving, children. Things are not evolving. Things are devolving. You know what's happening is we're going back to pagan roots. See, man was made upright. You look in the book of Job, and you've got these people discoursing together even in suffering in ways people can't even... It's so intellectual and so above modern man that people can't even read the book of Job. They say, I don't understand it. But because it's so far above. But you see a culture centuries later, and they're running around in the jungle with shrunken heads on their belt or something. And I'm going to tell you, it's happening to America. It's happening to America. You are rapidly becoming like the ancestors in Britain and things before Christianity came among them. They were barbaric, you understand that. Basically, things are retreating and falling back to that barbarian, savage, pagan root. See, that's what Hitler wanted to do. He wanted to bring it back. He thought that was wonderful. Let's go back to pre-Christianity, to these pagan roots. And you saw how barbaric Nazi Germany became. I tell you, that's where we're at right now. You want to find out who died in this coronavirus? 80% or more was the elderly all around America. They wiped out elderly like you would not believe all across America in nursing homes. See, that's barbaric. Killing people in hospice and things like that is barbaric. Killing little babies is barbaric. I'm telling you there, folks, you are in the savage land right now. You're in the jungle. There's a perversion of beauty. People are hurting their body. They think looking like a freak is a wonderful thing. Trying to be the most offensive is the wonderful thing, a wonderful thing. Speaking of smell. I've showed you that when you had a godly king, he would bring revival, and he would go back generations to his great-grandparents or something, and he would put away the sodomites and the pagan temples, and he would bring revival like Josiah and some of these other kings. But then it would fall. It would fall into the paganism of the surrounding nations, and then you would have a mixture where they would fear Jehovah, so to speak, but they would also fear Bel. Bel was the transgender God. I've documented that so, so much. They worshipped Him by cross-dressing. They said that He's both male and female at the same time, so they worshipped Bel in this androgynous manner. But let me show you why we are rushing back toward the ancient paganism. Church of God, listen to me. Speaking of smell, notice a headline recently. traces of marijuana found on ancient Israel's shrine altar. The Tell Arad Fortress is believed to be the southernmost stronghold for the kingdom of Judah. They found two altars. One had frankincense that they were burning on it. The smaller altar, which they believe was an altar to Bel, had marijuana burning on it. So they believed that they had gone off into paganism and they were mixing the worship of Jehovah with the worship of Bel. And guess what they were doing? They said these people were getting ecstatic as they smelled the incense burning of this marijuana traces. They found this decades ago, but now they have the science to actually figure out this was marijuana. They were smelling marijuana. They believed there was marijuana in ancient Israel when they fell into paganism. Folks, look where we're at today. You know how many Christians are gonna take this right here and say, see, they had marijuana back in the days of the Bible. That's because they had apostasy back in the days of the Bible. That's because they fell into bell worship back in the days of the kings. And look where we're at today. You have this androgynous, marijuana-smoking, sinful, while you say you are a believer in the Lord Jehovah, it's all being mixed together. Pot-smoking is about to increase beyond anything you've ever realized in the modern churches. You mark my word. Folks, the blessings and smell. of good ointment is a picture of your reputation before God and before good people. I've showed you there's other ways to be drunk in the Bible. The Bible speaks of being drunk with wormwood. God doesn't go through and mention all of the, every single one of the things all the little drugs and everything somebody can be drunk with. He doesn't sit down and describe in detail all of the perverted practices that these bell worshipers did. That's just unclean. You don't need to know all of that. Just know that they love to delude the mind and walk in sin. And I've been telling you for years that there's other things that are making you drunk and making your hormones perverted that are drugs in themselves, drugs in themselves. Now let me show you a song of Solomon, 1-3. Because of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth. I want to show you that ointment is a symbol, that good smell of that ointment is a symbol of having a good name as we see Solomon had this good reputation for a while and it was as ointment poured forth. Ecclesiastes 7 says a good name is better than precious ointment. Still showing you the comparison that precious ointment is a picture of having a good name. So when the ointment starts stinking, that is a picture of your reputation, your name starting to stink. Children, I want you to understand something. I want you to understand that the devil wants you to cross lines. Listen to me now, He wants you to cross lines and get so far that He can argue with you and say, you've gone this far, there's no turning back now. You've already brought shame upon your church. You've already brought shame upon your family. You can't get back. See, that's what the devil does. That's what the devil does. So he wants to come to you and say, you've done messed up your name and your reputation so bad, you might as well join my club. You might as well come with me and I will use you to do my dirty work because you've already messed up on that side. They're just gonna shame you. So you might as well just stick with me. You ever had the devil say that to you, so to speak? Let me give you an example. 2 Samuel 10. And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians. They're not even going to try to make peace with David. You know why? Because David sent his ambassadors to them. And what did they do? They shaved their beard off and humiliated them and all types of things. And so, when they saw that they stank before David, they said, you know what? We're not even going to try to work this out. See, the devil wants you to do things and go so far that he can say you could never work it out with that person. You might as well just become their enemy and do everything you can to destroy them. Slander them, lie about them, because you'll never make peace with them. Church of God, I want to show you something. Look at 2 Samuel 16. Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Go in unto thy father's concubines, which he hath left to keep the house, and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father. Then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong." I want you to read those words carefully. This wicked counselor, he said, Absalom, your dad's already mad at you. But what he said was he's not mad enough. He still has a tenderness towards you. and Ahithophel protecting himself because they had joined with Absalom. And you understand, if Absalom and David ever got back together, it would mean that Ahithophel's head's going off, see. So, there are people that will say they are your friends. And they will try to get you to do certain things. And what's really happening is they want you to go so far that you think you could never return to your church. You could never return to your father or to your family. You could never return to your husband or to your wife. You could never return to God's people or to even God Himself. And this is how the devil operates. to try to convince you, come a little further. Oh, just a little bit further. And then he's going to say, see how far you've come now? Oh, now they hate you. Now you're an abomination. Now you have shame like, oh, you can never ever be forgiven for this. Now join with me. Oh, there's some friends that want you to stink in the eyes of your church, in the eyes of your God, in the eyes of your spouse, in the eyes of your Christian family. I tell you what, you better give up those friends. You better forsake those friends. You better flee those friends. And you better go back home like the prodigal did. And you better tell your father, tell God, I have sinned in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be thy son. Go back and see if God is not in the restoration business. You go back and see that if I don't care how mean and fundamental and fire preaching you think a church is, I have seen a lot of these hell preaching, God preaching, Bible, Holy King James Bible preaching, churches, they're big on restoration, brother and sister. Now, if there's some out there or not, I'm not speaking for them, but I'm telling you that the Bible and anybody that's fundamental according to this book is big on restoration. But it's very important that you come the right way. A bruised reed, a broken reed, He's not going to break. You come and say, I'm sorry for my sin, I've made a mess. I've made a mess. I want to be restored. It's forgotten. It's forgotten. God says that we could stink in front of Him. He says vain philosophies spoil you and cause you to stink. Worldliness causes you to stink. Listen to me, Church of God, you young people, if I could get you to understand one thing, worldliness causes you to stink. Worldliness causes you to stink. When you start looking and acting and taking that culture from the world, and you are ashamed of God's Bible culture, it causes you to stink before God. It causes your prayers to stink. Look at Revelation 5. Having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors. which are the prayers of the saints. That's not stinking odor. That's sweet-smelling odor. Your prayers are odors to God. But when you have abominations in your life, when you flirt with worldliness, you're no longer a friend of God, but you become His enemy, and what happens is, you become abominable. You begin to stink. You could read the book of Isaiah about that. May we never do anything to bring folly or stink on the Lord's Word in the eyes of people. The standards that we teach and that God has given us, the doctrines of the kingdom and other things of salvation by grace through faith alone, the preservation of God's Word through our King James Bible, all of these wonderful things don't cause those things to stink. Don't bring shame upon these things. Don't call somebody to say, look and see. Look, look at this person, how he or she is living. That's the fruit of that doctrine. Oh, don't bring shame upon the Lord. Don't bring shame upon God. Now listen, there are some degrees of moral light and common sense that some people still have left, though they're not saved. Did you hear what I said? There are some degrees of moral light and common sense among some people out here, even though they're not saved. The Bible makes that clear. There were good men. Oh, I didn't say they were saved. And no, they were not good in an absolute sense. There is none good but God. But there were men in a relative sense that had some common decency and some common reason about them that though they were not saved, they had some decency about them, okay? You do not want to live in such a way that you cause some people with some degree of common sense and decency to be able to look at you as a Christian who's supposed to have so much more wisdom than they have. You don't want them to look at you and say, that is so unreasonable. I cannot believe they're living like that. Look, they call themselves a Christian and they want me to read the King James Bible. They want me to go to church. Well, why don't she, and then you fill in the blank. Why don't she learn how to, and you fill in the blank. See, you don't want anybody pointing to you and saying, well, listen lady, if you're so high and mighty and gonna teach me something, why don't you go get your act together, because even I know that what you're doing is wrong. Do you get what I'm saying? Let me show you that Paul thought this way. Look at 1 Corinthians 14. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, those can be saved, though they're unlearned. Or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? See, there's degrees of being learned. There's a degree of being unlearned where you're not even saved. You don't even know the gospel. But then there are those that got saved, but they don't know much else. And Paul is saying that if you're all speaking in all of these different languages, if he's speaking Japanese, he's Cambodian, he's speaking in whatever it is, and all of you stand up and are speaking in all these languages and nobody understands the other person's language, the common unbeliever would say, that church is insane. I went there and they're crazy. It's madness in that church. Paul said, why would you live in such a way that even an unbeliever could say you're crazy? Hey folks, there are some people that have brought shame upon the Word of God. Because they're not only standing up in church and everybody's speaking Chinese, Japanese, all of these different languages at the same time, when they don't understand the language, they're speaking gibberish, where no man in the room understands it. And they're all speaking gibberish at the same time, it's not even a language. What do people think? They think what I thought when I was an unbeliever and a friend invited me to church, and I thought UFO had landed. I thought the people went insane, because really, guess what? They had. He says, you want to leave? I said, yeah, I want to leave. I want to get out of here. I got in the car. I was spooked. He said, that scared you? I said, yeah. Yeah, it did. That's crazy. These people are crazy. You know what, I was the one that had common sense. I wasn't unlearned, I had common sense. That was crazy. Titus 2, the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior, as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, love their husbands, love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, notice this, that the word of God be not blasphemed. In other words, aged women teach the younger wives that they be good, that they be holy, that they be sober and all of these things, because you don't want unbelievers that have some decency, some standards, some sense of right and wrong, looking at you and saying, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be a Christian. How are you living like this? You know, you walk into a convenience store owned by a Muslim or run by a Muslim, and you see all of these bad pictures and all this alcohol, and you say, so Allah, you know, this false god Allah, does he like all of this, you know? And they say, no, no, we do that for Americans, for Christians, for their gods. You know, we make money off of Christians. You know, that's a sad thing. That's a sad thing. We should not be looked at in Christianity as a bunch of perverts and a bunch of people that are wicked, that don't have decency and common sense. That's a sad thing, folks. That's a sad thing. 2 Samuel 12, How be it because by this deed, David, thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. The enemies of the Lord said, Oh, look at King David. Did you hear what he did? Did you hear what he did? He committed adultery. He committed murder. And it gets spread around. Now, they lose their moral authority. You see that? You don't want to lose your moral high ground. 1 Timothy 5, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak repulsively. See folks, you might live in a way where the culture of America, most people in America begin to pat you on the back and say, go girl, that's the way to do it. But you've got to understand, you've got other religions in America. You've got Jewish women that need to come to Christ. You've got Muslim women. You've got a whole lot of other religions out here where they have some standards, and they have some morality, and you want them to come to Christ, do you understand that? And there are other people out here that don't claim to be from some other religion, but they have some decency, though they know not God. And you want to live in such a way that you don't bring shame upon the Bible way by these people that have light. Have you ever thought about that? You should. You should. You should. Because we can cause Christianity to stink in the eyes of the other religions, in the eyes of the other nations, in the eyes of the world. This happened in Ezekiel. God says, I have stretched out my hand over thee, Ezekiel 16, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. God help us. Are you telling me that believers in Jehovah God can live in such a way that the Philistine pagan women can get together and laugh and giggle and say, I tell you what, you want to see a sinful person. You want to see some lewd women. It's in some of these Christian churches. God forbid that the heathen women can get out here in their nightclubs and do all that they're doing and say, yeah, you ought to see how some of them Christians are living. They go to church, but you ought to see what they're doing after church. God forbid. God forbid. The Bible says, let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. I believe you ought to live clean. I believe you ought to dress clean. I believe you ought to dress in such a way that nobody comes up and asks you for a cigarette or a marijuana joint. I believe you ought to live in such a way that nobody comes and says, hey, do you want to go have a drink with me? I believe you ought to live in such a way that you're shining what type of woman you are, what type of man you are, and I tell you, that is a reflection where you need people to come up and say, you know what, I know you're a Christian, I could see it by the fact that you stood in line and didn't complain like others did. I can tell you're a Christian by the fact your children are not doing what other people's children are doing. I can tell by the way you're dressed. I don't have a T-shirt on that says anything about Jesus. Well, I know, but I can tell you're a Christian because it's not tight, it's not cut, it's not a cut off. There's no rock band on the front of it. There's no bad words on it. You know, you ought to live in such a way where you are telling people, I'm a Christian, and I'm glad to be a Christian. I remember back in the early days, I used to preach this way. I would tell you about going to one of these health food stores, and there would be people with orange and purple and green hair with piercings all over, and they would always talk about the children, and they would say, I'm sure many of you had the same experience, but they would say, You know, your children are such a light. It makes me want to study the Bible. Your children are well-behaved, and they're beautiful, and what is that that I'm seeing? But you know the sad thing? When I talk about the purple and orange hair and all the, that's everybody now. That's everybody. You go into Walmart and you're like, what's going on? I thought it was Easter again and all this Easter Bunny and Easter egg stuff. No, everybody has purple hair. You can't get girls to wear pastels anymore, but they'll wear pastel hair. So they won't put on a pastel dress, but they'll put on pastel hair. They won't put on a pastel ribbon, but I'll tell you what, they sure will paint their hair blue and green and purple and everything else under the sun. Please don't do that. Please don't do it. Please. Let's go back to natural beauty. Let's go back to natural beauty. You'll never be more beautiful than how God made you, okay? Just as the Egyptians, they liked Joseph, but they didn't like the fact that every shepherd was an abomination to them and they didn't like the idea that Jacob was a shepherd, see. So there are degrees of sinners, so there are sodomites and children of Belial that are further along exceedingly sinful. And so there are ways that you must live, you should live that please God and they please wise and godly Christians But it's gonna be an offense to the wicked. It's gonna be an offense to the wicked. What I'm trying to tell you is this. There's a certain way you can live. Where if you don't live holy enough, even an unbeliever's gonna be able to look at you and say, yeah, you invite me to church, why don't you get your life cleaned up? Okay, you know that. But there's also a way where you start living holy where the unbeliever, no matter what, is going to find you to be stinking. Because you're going to be an offense to that unbeliever. So I'm telling you this is a very delicate balance. To not give offense to where you're not even living up to basic decency. A lot of our founding fathers of this country were decent, moral men, but many of them were not Christian. But they knew some basic things were wrong, you understand. Jeremiah 48 says, Moab had been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his leaves, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity, therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. If you take grape juice and you pour it from vessel to vessel to vessel to vessel, you're going to leave the dregs, the things that drop down to the bottom, those are the sweetness, those are going to have the taste. So as you change from vessel to vessel to vessel, you're going to dilute the grape juice. So what happens is it's not as sweet and it doesn't smell as good. So here's what God says to Moab. God says, you know what? I haven't punished you. I haven't emptied you out. You haven't gone into captivity like a lot of these other nations. And guess what? You still smell sweet. You still smell sweet. You still taste sweet. Hey, there's a certain sweetness that God doesn't want you to have, Church of God. There's a certain sweetness to the world that God wants you to have, but there's a certain sweetness that He does not want you to have. And there are many Christians out here, if you say, what do you think is wrong with that church? I think they're too sweet. I don't think they're offensive enough to the world. Do you understand if you're living in such a way where you smell good to the world, to everybody, something's wrong with you? If everybody likes you, something's wrong with you. His sin has not changed because He has not been changed. You don't want to meddle with those that are given to change. You want to stick with the old paths. But by changes here, I mean a change in your prosperity or comfort level. Psalms 55 says, Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. Maybe you don't fear God because you haven't had any changes yet. Meaning God hasn't flipped you over upside down on your head. See, there are some people that get some changes and they begin to fear God. The prodigal didn't fear God until he had some changes. Boy, once he had some changes, he began to change. Psalms 119, before I was afflicted, I went astray. The prodigal could have said that. But now I've kept thy word. Maybe many of you are here right now. And you could give a testimony right now. I'm here because I was afflicted. Because I tell you what, I was living high and mighty. I was sweet in the eyes of the world. People liked me. I was popular. And I tell you what, then all of a sudden God turned me upside down on my head, and now I'm a God-fearing person, and that is offensive to the world. See, when you start fearing God and speaking about God and speaking about Jesus and talking about His coming, that is offensive, that is uncomfortable to the world and it doesn't smell good. It doesn't smell good to them. Hebrews 12 says, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. God's chastening in your life, those changes that are grievous to you, nevertheless, bring holiness in your life. They cause you to pray. They cause you to get to the Bible. You go through a hard time, you start reading and praying the psalm, you start going from Psalm 1, and you make it all the way through to the end, and then you go back the other way, and you go forward, you sing the psalm, you yell the psalm, you cry the psalm. I'm telling you, when you go through some hard times, That's what draws you close to God. It can. So stay close to God in your prosperous times. So God doesn't have to put you through some changes. But you know some people go through changes and they don't get any closer to God. We talked about that earlier. God changes some people. He pours them out upside down and they still don't break. He picks them up and pours them out another way and they still don't break. He throws them over there, they don't break. He throws them over here, they don't break. There's always some Christians coming up and patting them on the back saying, you're okay, you're okay. You know what? Those people will get you killed. They'll get you killed. You'll be bounced all over the place. You better watch out for people that pat you on the back. When you stay at ease, you can become careless. And if there's no magistrate in the land to make you ashamed, you're not going to grow. And you grow increasingly sinful. And guess what? You grow sweet to the world. You taste sweet. You smell sweet. They like you. They like you. There's a sweetness you should have, Church of God. There is a sweetness that you should have. Do you know some people have been emptied by God? Some things that have not been their fault. They've gone through some bad things. We don't know why. We don't know. Sometimes it's punishment upon their life. Sometimes it has nothing to do with punishment. It's God testing them and making them a better person and glorifying Himself. And we don't know the reasons. Farther along, we'll understand it. We see through a glass darkly. But I'm telling you, folks, there's a sweetness that we should have and the world should see it. Okay? I want to make that clear. But some people have gone through some hard times, and they become bitter people. Joseph went through some hard times. He was turned around, upside down on his head. He went through change after change after change, emptied from vessel to vessel to vessel, and he kept his sweetness. He kept his sweetness, so all Egypt looked at him as a father, and they knew Joseph, and what a light he was for the Lord, and for Jehovah God. He never lost. His sweetness through all that bitterness that he went through. But some people become very bitter. They become hard. They become cruel. They become suspicious of everybody around them. And they begin to treat people in a very rough, cruel way. I'm not telling you to stink like that, folks. I'm not telling you to stink like that. Don't let your trials make you a stinky person. I think some Christians do stink like that, don't you? I think some of them are just nasty. They're just bitter, mean, hateful people, and that's not good. I'm not telling you that that's how God wants you to be, that you can't even talk to somebody. You can't even talk to a sinner and lead them to Christ. God never wants you that way. God never wants you that way. Maybe some street preachers have become like that. They've been hardened in the warfare. They think that that's what they need to be and that they're over the top. And I'm not saying that's right, folks. I'm not saying that's right. It says in Proverbs 21, the soul of the wicked desires evil. His neighbor findeth no favor in his eyes. A wicked person will always see fault in his neighbor, in others around. They're always jumping to conclusions. And I'm going to tell you, don't be a Nabal. Nabal, what did he do? Well, when David sent people to him, everybody knew who David was. And he goes, who's this David fellow? He's probably a servant that escaped from his master. See, that's how Nabal was. Always overly suspicious Always never never speaking to somebody in a right way always just looking at them in such a bad way Don't be like that. I'm gonna tell you it may be you tomorrow You know you judge somebody too harshly you might be guilty of the same thing tomorrow Or we're doing some gear changing today And I'm gonna switch gears on you real quick as I close I don't want you too sweet to the world. I don't want you sweet in the wrong way to the world. And I'm afraid, as I've already said, though some people are bitter and they stink and they're not representing Christ in the right way, there are many, many people that smell really, really good to the world. and you stink to God. Okay? Because if you smell good to the world in the wrong way, you stink to God. And you stink to every godly person and every God-fearing person. And I want to show you this. Second Timothy, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall what? Suffer persecution. If they're persecuting you, they don't like you. If they persecute you, you stink in their eyes. All who will live godly will suffer persecution. If you're not receiving persecution somewhere, somehow, then you smell really good in the eyes of the world, and you might think you're a cool Christian, but you're a stinking Christian. Luke 6, Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. That was the same Lord Jesus that said, I want your light to shine before men that they may see your good works. The Lord wanted us to represent Him in a good way and to shine our light so we can be received by the world in a way that glorifies the Gospel. But I'm telling you something right here, if all men are speaking well of you, That's not what Jesus meant. I'm glad Jesus clarified himself, aren't you? He's clarifying that he's not talking this Joel Osteen stuff. He's not talking about everybody liking you, everybody, you know, I just want to win friends and influence everybody, I want everybody to like me, and many of you young people, that's how you are. And it's natural. You want to be liked by everybody. And what you say is, you say, well that's not my gift. Oh, that's real convenient, isn't it? The whole church prayed for boldness in the book of Acts. That's real convenient that that's not your gift. My gift is being liked by everybody. Oh, wow, how did you get appointed to that? Nobody else did. Jeremiah didn't get that appointment. I'm going to tell you something, folks. I think you volunteered for that job, and that is not an office for the Lord Jesus Christ that He appointed you. I'm telling you, when you don't want to be offensive to the world, you never want to be disliked. That's wrong, folks. That's wrong. And you just can't win. Because though all the world say, you smell good to us, God and the angels look down and say, you stink to us. You stink. You're worldly. Why don't you stand for something? Why don't you stand for the Lord Jesus? Why don't you stand for His Word? Why don't you stand for God and truth and a decadent, devolving, disgusting culture? And why don't you lead these people to truth? And why don't you stand in the way of sin like Enoch did, like Noah did, like Jesus did? God says, I believe I know why it is. God says, because you haven't been emptied out yet. God's basically saying, I haven't been hard enough with you. That's why you're so worldly. If I empty you out some more, maybe you'll empty some of that self out. Maybe some of that self will come out of the vessel. Paul said that he wanted to be broken, that the light of the Lord Jesus could shine. See, you've got to get out of the way. That self and that pride and that pride of life and that desire to be liked by everybody, you've got to get rid of all of that so you can be used by God. Paul was a great scholar. And look what he became for the Lord Jesus. Good people liked him. The saints liked him. God liked him. But the Jews hated him. Either you've never been through any hard times yet, and that's why you smell so sweet to the world and lack sobriety, or else you've gone through some hard times and you've never learned any lessons through those times. I believe if you go through hard times, you ought to come out soft and yielding and holy and careful. When God started judging some of those kings in the Bible, it says they walked softly. They began to walk very careful. I'm going to watch what I touch. I'm going to watch what I do because I'm going to be careful before God. But if somebody lacks sobriety and they're mocking sin and they're walking in worldliness, God needs to teach them some fear. There should be a very delicate balance with the world and with carnal believers. There should be some things they like. And there should be some things in you that give offense. You should be very peculiar to them. They should say, you know what, I like her. There's something about her. She's sweet and she's kind and she's loving. She'll tell me what I need to hear. But there ought to be some things that rub them the wrong way. See? Otherwise, you're just like them. They don't need to grow. If you're walking in agreement, then you must be united in doctrine, in truth. If you can get along with unbelievers and there's nothing offensive in you, if you can get along with carnal believers and there's nothing offensive in you to them, there's something wrong with you. There should be some things, like your sobriety, your talk about Jesus, your position on end times, your doctrinal positions, your moral positions. There should be some things that they don't understand and they actually detest. They should come to you and say, you know, I like you, but I actually hate you too. It's very strange. You make me so mad. It ought to be like that. Otherwise, there's no place for anybody to grow. I'm going to prove this to you, then I'm going to close. Amos 5, they hate him that does what? Rebukes in the gate. They abhor him that speaketh what? Uprightly. There it is. There it is. If you're not hated, you're not speaking in the gate. I wonder why. You must not be rebuking anybody. You must not be rebuking sin. That's why you're not hated. That's why everybody likes you. You're not in the gate. You're not in the gate. There was a time when homosexual magazines and headlines and newspapers said that I was one of the three most hated preachers in America. Why? Because I got in the gate. I got in the gate. I didn't want to be hated. But I tell you what, if a Sodomite hates you for the right reason, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. John 7, the world cannot hate you What he means is, because of you. What he means is, in Christ they're gonna hate you because of Jesus. But me it hateth, because I testify that the works thereof are evil. Why did Jesus become hated? Because he testified. See that? He testified. If you don't testify, everybody's gonna like you. 1 John 3. But guess what? When you testify, folks are going to hate you, but some are going to hear and receive. And that's beautiful, isn't it? That's beautiful. We would go down to some of those homosexual parades, and there'd be somebody crying and praying and saying they wanted to repent. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's wonderful. The mass majority of them are not going to do that. But it's a blessing that some do hear. Some do hear. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you, said the Lord Jesus. Revelation 10, they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, the two witnesses, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. There ought to be a sense in which you are tormenting people. And folks, it's not that you're trying to be mean and hateful, it's just that you speak the truth that torments people that don't want the truth. Just having Stephen's coat or garment laid at Saul's feet tormented him. Do you see that? How much more his witness, it tormented him. Proverbs says, an unjust man is an abomination to the just. He that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked. Is God a liar, brother? Is God a liar? Then God said that if you are an upright person, you will be an abomination to the wicked in some way, somehow. If you are not an abomination to the wicked, you are not upright. And maybe you need to repent and get upright, and then finally you will be an abomination to them because they're upside down. They're upside down, and if you get upright, you're going to be an abomination to them. 2 Corinthians 6, Be not ye unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Do you know what God's saying? God's saying there is no fellowship. You say, can I have fellowship with a wicked person? It's impossible. It's impossible. What fellowship? The only way two can walk together is if they be agreed. If you're having fellowship with a wicked person, it's because you have chosen to be quiet and not shine your light in regard to that issue. And that is why you're having fellowship. But the second you stand up, I told you about a friend, I told you over and over, invited me out, we fight every single time, and I said, I don't even wanna fight, I don't even wanna discuss anything. I know we shouldn't have said that, but David said it sometime, Jeremiah said it, he says, I'm not gonna talk about this anymore, I'm not even gonna talk about the Lord, I'm not gonna talk about truth, but I tell you what, you just can't do it. So he began to ask me, well, what about this, what about that? I said, I don't even wanna talk about that, you know what's gonna happen. So I said, all right, I'm gonna answer you. And I answered him, And all did he blow up at the table, got all mad. And either we're going to be quiet, and that's sin. Or you're going to open your mouth and do what you're supposed to do in love, and you're still going to make a man. You're still going to make a man. So there's no fellowship. There's no fellowship. But one day, maybe, They will want to understand, and they'll say, now I understand why you're the way you are. Because that's how many of you got here. People did the same thing to you. You probably disliked some people, and they were patient with you, but they never changed. They never compromised. And that's what's important. You know what smells good to worldly people? Worldliness! Psalms 34, My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, and the worldly shall hear thereof and be glad. Everybody's shaking their head and nodding. Oh, wake up, church! Come on! Who's going to hear thereof and be glad? The humble. The humble. The humble. When you worship God, it's the humble that are glad. Psalms 119, They that fear thee will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in thy word. Hey, you go around and hope in God's Word, those that don't fear God will not be glad. Do you get it? Do you get it? Those that fear Thee will be glad. The humble will be glad. My point in all this is you're not going to please everybody all the time, folks. The main person you don't want to stink in front of is God Himself. You don't want to stink in front of God or the holy angels. And you don't want to stink in front of righteous, godly people unless you have to to be right with God. So I'm telling you, you don't want to stink in front of righteous, godly people. The humble people, the holy people, they will like you. They will like you. It's all the state of the heart, isn't it? It's all the state of the heart. I could preach the same sermon and a sister write and say, you know what, I enjoyed that, that touched my life and changed my life and thank you for it. And I could look at another email and be cussed out all over the place by somebody else that heard the same sermon. How can it be so different? Because it depends on what ground the seed goes on. You understand that? It's that ground, whether that ground needs to be plowed or not. That makes the difference, doesn't it? Alright, my last verse for you, and I close, 2 Corinthians 2. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are a savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life. What's Paul saying? He's saying to some people, you're going to stink. To some people that are going to perish and go to hell, you're going to stink in front of because you're a reminder of sobriety that death is coming for them. When you talk about the Lord Jesus, you're talking about their enemy. You're talking about hell and fire and everything that they don't want to think about. To a person that is saved or that wants to be saved, whose eyes God has opened, you're a saver of life. You're a saver of life. That's why the same sermon can be life to somebody and death to somebody else. That same sermon can smell like a sweet aroma to somebody that was open to it. But to somebody else, they said, that smells like death. It should smell like death, because that's where you're going. It should smell like death, because at the judgment seat of Christ, you're going to meet with the terror of the Lord. And what I'm reminding you of is the coming of the Lord Jesus and the standards that you have broken. And oh, woe unto some believers out there. Woe to all unsaved people, and woe to some believers. So do you smell like death to those that are perishing? You better, you better, if you no longer smell like death to those that are perishing, you have denied the gospel of Jesus Christ and you have hidden your light and now you are in trouble with God. You are in trouble with God. Church, I want you to learn good manners. I think there are so many people out there, not so much in this church, that need to learn good manners. Parents, we need to teach our children some basics, and I'm working on it. Not to talk too quiet, not to talk too loud, not to have a one-way conversation unless it's a sermon or a message or a testimony. There are some that only have a one-way conversation. You don't want your children growing up like that. You want to learn manners and courtesy and how to say yes sir and no ma'am. But you don't want to be disliked because you don't have manners. Now what a lot of you young people are going to find is this. You learn all of these manners and people like you. You don't just talk about yourself like the devil does in Isaiah 14. So you are a likable person and you have worked. Some of you haven't worked on this yet. But some of you have worked to be a likable person. You have good conversation skills. You know how to be interested in others and talk to others and look them in the eye and speak clearly. Some of you have learned it. And the sad thing is this, you are destined to be really, really liked by a lot of people. And one thing that you've got to find really quick is there's a cross to carry for the Lord Jesus. And you're going to find that it's not your calling to be liked by everybody. And that's going to hurt. It's going to hurt your pride. And many young people leave fundamental churches for that reason. They jump ship for that reason. They want to be liked by the world. And they know if I continue to embrace those doctrines, I will not be liked by everybody. And you've taught them to be a likable person, but you haven't taught them to bear the cross. that the Lord wants them to bear. You're not going to be liked if you're going to be a follower of the Lord Jesus. You've got to forsake all. I don't want you to smell like you're dying, literally. Go take a bath. But there's a way we ought to smell like death to those that are headed for judgment. Dear Holy Father, I do pray in the name of the Lord Jesus that You help this church to raise up well-spoken, godly, good-mannered young people. Lord, we pray that they would be kind and courteous and salute others, and that they would not give offense unless they have to. But Lord, You've called us to be a light, to speak upon the housetops, to not be afraid of men, to live in a way that pleases You. And I pray You will bring boldness upon the whole church and upon these young people, that they'd be willing to carry that cross. Maybe, Lord, I've spoken through You to somebody today that had not been carrying that cross, Lord. They've been full of self. They want to be the cool, likable Christian. And they've shamed You, Lord. They've actually yoked up and become a friend of the world. They're ashamed of Your standards and Your godliness and Your truth. Oh God, what precious, precious truth You have given these young people. None of us, especially the young people, have come close to cherishing and understanding the value of this goodly heritage. I pray we'll stand up, open our mouths in the gate, In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.