In this series, given in the early days of Waverley Christian Fellowship, Kevin Conner teaches through the New Testament letter of 1 John.
Be sure to get a copy of Kevin’s book on this topic. Visit www.kevinconner.org/1John for details.
Kevin Conner Teaches
Jewels from 1 John (Part 7)
In this podcast series, given in the early days of Waverly Christian Fellowship, Kevin Conner teaches through the New Testament Letter of One John. Be sure to get a copy of Kevin's new book on this topic. Visit kevinconner.org/onejon for details. First John, I'm actually in chapter three, Brother Virgin. As you know, you're pastor always tells everybody in America, he's a better preacher than me, 'cause he can do in five minutes what takes me fifty-five hours to do. People enjoy that, but they ask me to come back again. (Laughter) I think we've been again. All right, now let's turn to first John chapter three, and we're going to take from, oh, let's see, verses one through to ten. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called. Let's all read it, I'd like us all to read it, okay, all together. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Peace of River committed sin transgressive also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Peace of River abideth in him sineth not. Peace of River sineth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children let no man deceive you, he that doeth righteous is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committed sin is of the devil, for the devil sineth from the beginning. For this purpose the son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Peace of River is born of God, that not commits sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Peace of River doeth not righteousness, he is not of God, neither he that loatheth not his brother. Amen, now that's it. Okay, now what it is always says, you should leave your little diagram up a bit longer, but we have already had this, all I want to do is give you the title of what we are going to be sharing tonight. Okay, we have covered the proton, the eschaton, history, prophecy, between a half years, between a half years, post half of the 70 week prophecy, the second half of the 70 week prophecy. Christ signs the wonders, Antichrist signs the wonders, post half in mercy, last half in judgment, seed of the woman, seed of the serpent, believers, deceivers. And we saw that in this period of time, Christians, the body of Christ, at word Christ ahead, and the spirit of Christ working to form that body, the body of Jesus Christ. And here we have the antichrist, the spirit of Antichrist that works at two spirits, mystery of God and this mystery of iniquity, both spirits that work in the world today, forming a body, the body of Antichrist and the body of Christ. I want to be a member of the body of Christ, don't you? And last week we sort of took up where John said about the appearing of Christ, and we looked at the past appearing, where he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, appeared to destroy the works of the devil and so forth, he's present appearing, he appears in the presence of God for us now, in the holy place, in heaven's holiest of all, and we have the future appearing. Now, the thing that we're going to look at tonight is the purifying hope. So I want you to pick up this verse, the word purifying, we're going to be sort of dwelling on that in a moment here. But let's sort of use it as our text here. Verse three, "And every man that hath this hope." Now, what is the hope? It's a sort of a double hope here. Let's go back to verse 28 of the previous chapter. Now, we're looking at the hope, defining what the hope is at the moment. And it's sort of twofold, in verse 28 of the previous chapter, "And now little children abide in him that when he shall appear, so his future appearing, his actual second coming." We're not talking about the rapture, in fact, for those of you who are going to be a camp, we're going to have a good time dealing with some of those areas in the morning on 2 Thessalonians. So, "When he shall appear," we shall be like, oh, who am I, verse 1 yet, "When he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming." Some Christians are going to not have that confidence. They're going to be ashamed before him at his coming. And then, down to verse 2 of the next chapter, "We'll have an hour with the sons of God and not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, it's all said together, we shall be like him." Do you want to be like Jesus? I want to be like him. That's my ideal. Like him. And everything that's involved in being like him. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope, what hope? The hope of his appearing and the hope that when he shall appear, we will be like him. Every man that has this hope in himself, in him and some translations bring out every man that has this hope in him, that's this hope in Christ, to be like him, purify himself even as he is pure. So, tonight we're going to be sort of sharing about the purifying hope. And particularly picking up this word in a moment, there's two words we're going to pick up tonight. Purifying hope. Okay, I just switched that off, thanks. Has everybody finished with that? We've had it up several weeks. You should be finished with it. Now, I want you to go through this. There's two thoughts I want to get across tonight. What is the key word? Now, you notice in each of these sections, we've been picking up a key word, because the key word sort of gives us the key to unlock the door and to the truth of that. What is the key word that's used in verses 1 through 2, 10? And tell me how many times it's used. That's the first word we want to look at. And how many times has it used? How many has the right answer? Colleen. Nine. Just check again. Who said 10? Who said 10? Yes, I'm in your right. Everybody should have 10. Is that right? 10. Now, where else did we see in this epistle where that word sin was used 9 or 10 or 11 times? Chapter 1 and 2 leading in their right eye, Jack. Right eye, 100%. Yes, I think it was 9 times, if I remember. Now, here, so in chapter 1 and 2, he deals with sin there and some pretty heavy things about sin. If we confess our sins, he's paper and just to forgive. If we say we have not sin, we're a liar. And certain false claims that were dealt with that. Now, when we do this section here, and I want you to, so we want to look at this first before we look at the purifying hope because everyone that has this hope of being like him is going to purify himself, purify himself from what? Sin. Now, I want to give you about six very important theological fact about sin that we've got here. In fact, another thing I want to do. Oh, well, we'll do it sort of as we, will I know? We'll do it here. Let me read it from the Amplified and then I'll put it on the overhead for you. All right, Amplified, and you know, I like the Amplified when it agrees with my doctrine, and it does again here. See what an incredible quality of love the Father had given showed bestowed on us. That we should be needed to be named and called and counted the children of God, and so we are. The reason that the world does not know, recognize, acknowledge us, is that it does not know, recognize, acknowledge him. Beloved, we are even here in God's children. It is not yet disclosed or made clear what we shall be here after, but we know that when he comes and is manifested, we shall as God's children resemble and be like him, for we shall see him just as he really is. And everyone that has this hope, resting on him, cleanses, purifies himself just as he is pure, chaste, undefiled, guiltless. Everyone commits or practices sin, is guilty of lawlessness, for that is what sin is. Lawlessness, the king violating of God's law by transgression or neglect, being unrestrained and unregulated by his command is will. You know that he appeared in visible form and became man to take away upon himself sin in him, and there is no sin, essentially and forever. No one who abides in him, who lives and remains in union with, and in obedience to him deliberately and knowingly, habitually sins, practices sins. No one who habitually sins has either seen or known him, recognized, perceived, or understood him, or has had an experimental acquaintance with him. Boys, like that, boys, lads, let no one deceive you and lead you astray. He will practice righteousness, who is upright conforming to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action, living a consistently conscientious life, is righteous even as he is righteous. But he who commits sin, who practices evil doing, is of the devil, takes his character from the evil one, for the devil has sinned, is violated the divine law from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest or visible was to undo, destroy, loosen, and dissolve the works the devil has done. No one begotten, no one born, or begotten of God deliberately and knowingly habitually practices sin. Listen to this, for God's nature abides in him, his principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently with him within him. Remember we dealt with that seed sperm on the negative side. Here's the positive, his principle of life, the divine sperm, the seed, that word seed is sperm, remains permanently within him. And he cannot practice sinning because he's begotten or born of God. By this it is made clear who take their nature from God and are his children, and who take their nature from the devil and are his children. No one who does not practice righteousness, who does not conform to God's will and purpose thought and action is of God. Neither is anyone who does not love his brother, his fellow believer in Christ. Isn't that good? Good translation. Okay, I want to give you six theological facts about sin that we've got here and then move on into the purifying hope. And all these facts are in relation to this subject of sin. All right, we've got up there the top purifying hope. All right, now we've got this word sin used in relation to the devil and the unrighteous who are of the devil. We've got sin in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ and we've got sin in relation to the righteous. All right, now, number one, and we're not going to spend too much on time on this area. Number one verse eight tells us that the devil was the original sinner. Listen to it. For the devil sinner from the beginning, so I'm just picking up these clauses here, the devil sinner from the beginning. We've said this before, whenever it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the beginning God, in the beginning was the word. Never in the beginning with the devil from the beginning, but with Jesus Christ in the beginning, in the beginning God, in the beginning of the word was the word. When it comes to the devil from the beginning, not in the beginning, he was a created being. So he's the original sinner, the devil sinner from the beginning. Fact number one. Number two, we have one of the clearest definitions of sin in the New Testament. There's all to get a five, but we'll just take the one tonight. Definition of sin is verse four. Whosoever committed sin transgressive also the law for sin is transgression of the law. Many translations bring it out this way, which is very good. Sin is lawlessness. Very important thing because this little scripture that we've mentioned before and we want to spend time on it and do time. I'm not under law, I'm under grace, and so grace becomes synonymous with lawlessness. And so we get greasy grace and the abuse of the grace of God. Once in grace always in grace, no matter if I live in disgrace. And that's an abuse of the grace of God. Just what Paul said and Jude said in the last days, there would be those who would turn the grace of God into a seriousness. And so there's a grace doctrine abroad, doesn't matter how I live, I'm so by grace and I'm not under law, I'm under grace. So grace is synonymous with lawlessness. I'm going to show you later on, not tonight, later later on, that grace is a stricter law than ever the law was. We don't understand fully what the grace of God is. All right, so definition of sin. Sin is lawlessness. All right, number three, now you'll notice the first two have to do with the devil. So the devil in relation to sin, he's the original sinner and he is the first one that transgressed God's law. Sin is lawlessness. He threw up all restraint and refused to submit himself to the law of God who is the law maker and the law giver. All right, the next two are in relation to Christ, sin in relation to Christ. Tremendous theological fact here, number three, the sinlessness of Christ that the mike was sharing with Sunday morning in the dog class. And that's in verse five. I'll take the letter part first. In him is no sin. The New Testament writers are absolutely strong on the sinlessness of Christ and as the mike was bringing up Sunday morning. Upon the sinlessness of Christ hangs the hall of the sacrificial work of Christ because if Christ is not sinless, he needs to be redeemed. And if he needs to be redeemed, he cannot redeem us. So upon the fact of the virgin birth hangs his sinlessness and upon the fact of his sinlessness hangs number four, the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. And that's in verse five. And ye know that he was manifested, unveiled, revealed, appeared to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. So the sinless one became sin for us, manifested to take away our sins. Behold the Lamb of God which taken away the sins of the world. So the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. So we've got two things in relation to the devil. He's the original sinner. He's the lawless one. Mystery of iniquity, mystery of lawlessness. Two clauses in relation to Christ. The sinlessness of Christ in him is no sin. And his substitutionary sacrifice he was manifested to take away our sins. Now we have one in relation to, or a couple of verses, two verses actually in relation to the unrighteous. And then two clauses in relation to the righteous, the sinner and the righteous. Verse six and verse eight, two clauses I want you to pick up here. Whosoever abideth in him, sineth not, whosoever, sineth, that's the part I want, whosoever, sineth, and as the amplified brings it out. Whosoever, as I say here, habitually sins. Habitually lives a sinful lifestyle. So anyone, we're not saying that believers do not sin because we'll doubt with that if we sin. If any man sin, we have an advocate. See, but we do not live a sinful lifestyle. We do not habitually sin. That's what the Greek thought there is. So anyone who lives a habitual lifestyle of sin has not seen him nor known him. And then verse eight, under five here, he that committed sin is of the devil. So they link up here, the unrighteous, devil's original sinner. He's the lawless one. Anybody who lives a lawless lifestyle and habitually practices sin and lawlessness, they are of the devil. So they link up with him through sin. So sin unites the devil and the unrighteous, sinful lifestyle. But the righteous, and listen to verse nine, and I think the clauses are very heavy. Verse nine, two major clauses there. Whosoever is born of God. How many of us are born of God tonight? Whosoever is born of God, not commit sin. Now it's no contradiction to what we had in chapter one. But as the amplified brings it out very clear, whosoever is born of God does not live habitually. A sinful practice lifestyle, not a sinful lifestyle. It does not habitually practice sin. No one who is born of meeting the amplified, no one born of begotten of God deliberately and knowingly habitually practices sin for God's nature abides in him. I think that's fantastic. And you know, by hanging on to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are going to be like him. He's sinless. Wouldn't that be fantastic when we're absolutely sinlessly perfect? We would be able to put up with each other. Your perfection frightens me. Oh, isn't that going to be fantastic? That's where we're headed for, sinless perfection. Amen? Let's go on unto perfection. That's sinless perfection. No water the word dance that only means mature, be perfect as your father is in heaven, be mature as your father. No, that's our goal. When I'm going on unto perfection, this is my hope. Everybody that has this hope in him purifies himself that when we see him we will be like him because of what happens here. There's enough power in the blood of Jesus Christ to bring us all to sinless perfection. Do you believe it? And then the next part is tremendous. Whosoever is born of God that not commits it, he does not habitually practice sin for God's nature abides in him, for he seed the divine sperm. It remains in him. Now just as we delve a couple of nights on that evil sperm, that evil seed thought that comes from Satan and it unites with the egg, the ovum, and then conceives and brings forth, that's on the negative. You think of the powerful thing that's in this positive. It's a very frightening, and I'll put it in a frightening way, that within this imperfection I have perfection. Within this sinful, I have some listeners. Within this mortal, I have immortality. Is that right? Within this human frame, I have a divine nature. And if I feed that divine nature and feed the things that belong to that life, just as Christ. This is the Christ child was formed in Mary. The Christ child is being formed in us. Christ in you to take over. That's fantastic. And just as on the negative side, they have the seed of the serpent in them. When Jesus comes the second time, all those who live with the devil are going to be like him. They're going to be like the one you serve. Is that right? I mean, and that is that is hellish. That everybody who goes to hell, they're going to be like the one they've served. They've served the devil all their life. They're going to be like him in nature and character. Doesn't that frighten you? But to be like Jesus. Wow, that's heavy. Okay, so much for that. All right, so every man that has this hope of being like him is going to purify himself. He's going to purify himself from sin. Now, I want you to go to, so much on sin. We'll turn that off. Thanks. I want you to go to some very interesting scriptures with me on purification now. And we're going to pick up two words I want to pick up here because this is really an exciting area. Well, I think it's all exciting. Let's go over to, we're looking at this word purify, and another word we're going to link up. Let's go over to James chapter 4 and verse 8. Now, think of the scripture we're using. Everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself. The practical purification now from any sinful lifestyle. James chapter 4 verse 8. Draw an eye to God, and what will he do? He'll draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Now, I want you to pick up two words here. Cleanse and purify. All right, let's go over to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth. How do you purify your soul? By obedience, by obeying the truth. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto one plain love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. All right, so 1 Peter 1, 22. All right, now I want you to go over to something that John is alluding to. Let's turn to John's gospel chapter 11. There's a couple and then I want you to go back to something. While you turn to John chapter 11, I want to draw your attention that John uses both these words, and we'll see the significance of it in a moment here. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to. Okay, 1 John chapter 1 verse 9, I think it's cleanse. Now, very significant this in this section he deals with sin, but the word that's in that section, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just forgive us unto cleanse. But when he comes to this section in 1 John chapter 3 on sins, he doesn't use the word cleanse, though it's sort of implicit that he uses the word purify. So 1 John 3, and what was it verse? Anyway, purification. 3 was it, thank you. Okay, so these two words, so you know, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us for more than righteousness. But he says purify himself as he is pure. And James, in the scripture I gave him from James 4 verse 8, he says, cleanse your hands, he sinners, and purify your hearts. Cleanse and purify, cleanse and purify. James and John, cleanse and purify. Okay, John chapter 11, we'll start to pick up a custom because these fellows, remember they were Hebrew mind, they weren't western, western, and western-minded, they were Hebrews and saturated with Old Testament customs and ordinances, John chapter 11 and verse 55, John 11 verse 55. And the Jews pass over was not at hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. So before they could partake of the feast of Passover and the feast of unleavened bread and everything that's involved, there was a purifying process. They went up to purify themselves. Let's go over to the book of Acts chapter 21. I'm glad this is in the Bible and I'm glad Paul did it and the other fellows, but rather Richard and I don't feel led to do this lot. Acts chapter 21, and we'll take verse 23 just to lead into it. Acts 21, I like to hear the rustling of the leaves here. Acts 21, I hear the rustling of the mulberry trees, and I know the move is on. Acts 21, verse 23, "Do therefore this that we say unto thee, we have four men which have a veil on them, then take and purify thyself with them, and be a charges with them that they may shave their heads." Now, rather Richard and I don't want to do that. We are having a bit of a hair right now, it's falling out. So we're not going to shave anything there. And all may know that those things were of, they were informed, concerned, they are nothing. Go down to verse 26. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until it an offering should be offered for every one of them. Purify thyself, purifying himself, days of purification, days of purification. All right, let's go back to Old Testament now, I want to pick up something here, and then we'll go back to what John is sort of wrapping up in a word here. Let's go to Esther. Esther chapter 2. Esther chapter 2. How are you doing, brother Holland? Everything all right down there? Everything good. I've got to look after him. Okay, Esther chapter 2. This is where Esther is chosen to be the bride. Beautiful picture of the churches, the bride of Christ. Now in verse 12, there are different ones that were chosen to be the bride, but only one was chosen to be the bride. And then there was a lot of preparation. I want you to note this word, purification. Esther 2, verse 12. Now when every maid's turn was to go into King Ahasheverus, after that she had been 12 months, according to the man of the women, for so were the days of their purifications accomplished. With 6 months with oil of beer, 6 months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the women. 12 months is being prepared as the bride of Christ, and there's a purifying process going on. Now let's go back to the very heart chapter from which all this is taken. I'd like you to turn back to Numbers chapter 19. And we'll have to keep this again for another time. This tremendous chapter, the most peculiar sacrifice of the offerings of Israel, the sacrifice of the Red Heifer. Very peculiar. And all I want to pick out is this word purification, purification. Okay, Numbers chapter 19, and I'm going to read just a couple of verses here and there. Let's go to verse 2. This is the ordinance of the law which the law have commanded saying, speak under the chisraah that they bring the Red Heifer without spot where there is no blemish and upon which never came yoke. Verse 4, the death of the Red Heifer. All the years of the priests shall take out her blood with his finger spookle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times, etc. Verse 9. And a man that is clean, certainly loved to go into the details of this because they're very exciting really, but we'll take up just enough for now. And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the Heifer, the ashes, the evidence of a finished work, a finished sacrifice, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of salvation, it is a purification for sin. Every man that has to open himself purifies himself. Alright, verse 12. He shall purify himself with it on the third day and on the seventh day he shall be clean, but if he purify not himself the third or seventh day, he shall not be clean. He shall have a touch of the dead body of any man that is dead, and purify not himself. See, every man that has this hope that himself purifies himself. This is thought coming from, as I said, John Hebrew mind. Verse 17. And for an unclean person shall take out the ashes of the burnt half of purification for sin, and running water shall be put there into a vessel. The end of verse 19, middle part. He shall purify himself, wash his clothes, pay himself in ward, and she shall be clean at evening, even. But the man that shall be clean and shall not purify himself, and there are some Christians that are unclean who refuse to purify himself, so forth and so forth. Okay, our time is just about up. All the time to do is this. In the Old Testament, there were only two agents of cleansing for sin. The first agent of cleansing was blood on the second agent. Yes, waters of purification. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from sin that he might sanctify the church and cleanse a purify by the washing of water by the water. See this? Now, let me put down some scriptures here. We've just got a few moments and we'll finish you on time. John chapter 19, verse 33 and 34, magnificent scripture. When Jesus died upon the cross, those soldiers wanted to hasten the death of the crucified, so they break the legs of the two thieves. The Lamb of God did not have his legs broken because not a bone of the lamb was to be broken. But the soldiers took the spear and pierced his side and forth with blood and water. And John is something miraculous about it because he said, "He that saw it both witness and his record is true." And then he takes it up in his epistle, which we're going to be spending a whole session on. First John chapter 5, verses 6 to 8. This is here that came by water and blood. Not by water only, but by water and blood, and it's the Holy Spirit that bears witness. Cleansing of blood, washing of water. Hebrews chapter 9, 19, two scriptures, and then we're through. Hebrews 9, 19. If we had time to go into the details of the ashes of the red heifer, it's one of the most fantastic studies of all the offerings. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews 9 and the rather to Hebrews is taking up numbers 19, the sacrifice of the red heifer. Verse 13, "For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, the external man, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself with that spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Verse 19, "For when Moses has spoken every precept to all the people according to the law he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool and hissip, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying this is the blood of the Testament which God has enjoyed unto you, blood and water, blood and water." Okay, our last scripture Ephesians chapter 5, I've already quoted it, Ephesians 5. Okay, verse 26 and 27, Ephesians 5 verse 26 and 27, Christ loved the church and gave himself thought that he might sanctify it, purify it, cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. How many are enjoying a good bath each Wednesday night? The word does something, it washes it, cleanses it, okay? Don't let anybody belittle the word because there's a cleansing power in the word. Washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself, glorious church not having spot, wrinkle or any such thing, but it should be just like the red heifer, no spot, no wrinkle without blemish, holy. Let me finish on this. When you go back to the purification laws, we'll only just touch it briefly, the red heifer was slain and the blood had to be sprinkled. But every time they needed purification from ceremonial defilement, touching dead bodies, dead bones, any contact with death or any natural uncleanness of men or women and so forth, there was always the ashes of the red heifer and water. And as I said, it's such a beautiful thing and we can't interpret it here. For instance, if Brother Richard came to me, say I was a clean person, and Brother Richard had been overtaken in a fault and become unclean, then he would come to the clean person and the clean person was to wash the unclean with the water of purification. But in doing that, I, the clean person, would become unclean because of his uncleanness and cleansing him. I can only say this much because it's too heavy and I'm not sure how much you can handle at the moment. I've found over the years in college and so forth, I try to be a clean person and be cleansed in the blood of Jesus and keep my own life clean. Sometimes kids bomb out morally. They're involved in sex and who knows what. They come and confess it to me, a clean person. And in having to go through some of the things that have to be cleansed because of an unclean person, I became the fire by having to hear the filthy stuff. Then I have to turn around, cleanse them, get them to repent and get the blood of Jesus into their life. Get them back to obedience in the Word, seeing you purified your souls by obeying the truth and wash them. And then I have to say, "Well, it just cleans my mind of all those filthy things I've had to listen to for most students who have been in a moral breakdown. And the sex and drugs and pornography and all that cleans my mind." Wash me in the water of the Word. Water's a purification. And you know, we have to do this continually because those of you at college and school and work and the filth and the pornography and the junk that's out there, you're just even hearing it and seeing it. Don't you come home and say, "Climbs me in the blood of Jesus. Wash me." But the water's a purification. Hey man, you hear what I'm saying? Everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself. Washing of water by the Word. Now, at times up, I've gone a minute too long. When my son was a bit younger, "Oh, my daughter, we used to send them to the bathroom or the washroom." What do you say here? A bathroom. That is right, isn't it? Right. To have a wash. Fill the basin up. And they could stand there all day long and say, "That's wonderful water." H2O, isn't it? It's clean. It's glistening. But that water would never cleanse them. It would never purify them. They could know all about it. All the H2Os and everything else. And go away absolutely dirty. What would be the thing that would purify them? I want a word that starts with A. The application. It's the application of the water that makes you clean. Not the knowledge of it. What am I saying? It's the application of the word to your life, practically, that makes you clean, not just the knowledge of it. Apply the word, washroom, washroom, purify me or cleanse me. Can you say amen tonight? Be sure to visit kevinconner.org for more information about Kevin, his books and his ministry. www.kevinconner.org (guitar music)