Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13.  The opening text is not real lengthy but carries a great weight and magnitude with it as we continue to look at the fruit of the Spirit and God working those character traits of Jesus in each of our lives, biblical sanctification.  The Scripture mandates that we be holy as He is holy; amen?  The word “holiness,” again, is not strictly moral purity but an exclusivity to Jesus.  Holiness is separateness, to be separate from.  As it pertains to God, it is not only separate from, but other than.  There is no one in His class; amen?  He is unique.  He is above all.  All things were made by Him and for Him.  He is the Lord of glory, hallelujah!  And yet, as His children, He has called you and me to be separate unto Him.  To come out from among the world and touch not the unclean thing, and He said He would receive us then (2 Corinthians 6:17).  We would be treasures to Him.  He would set us off by boundaries.  He would set a hedge around us that Satan would not be able to touch us without His permission.  Aren’t you thankful for the angels of God?  And for that hedge of the presence of God that has been built around us. 

That presence that I believe that’s around us, that hedge that’s around us in the invisible world, in the spiritual world, is very tangible.  We remember when Adam was removed from the garden, the cherubim that came and the flaming sword that was raised.  I want you to know that there are surrounding each and every one of us those angels of God with flaming swords raised that will keep from you and me these principalities and these powers.  But yet you say, “Often we are subjected to these things,” but not without God’s purpose and allowance.  Because it’s in these things that “we know that the trying of our faith works patience” (James 1:3); amen?  And “God would not allow us to be tempted past that which we are able to stand, but with every temptation He makes that way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13).  Hallelujah!

If we’re in the midst of trials and temptations and adversities right now, God has you there to purify you.  Why don’t we learn quickly and get out?  Amen?  “But all of these things are working together for our good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).  Hallelujah!  God is in control.  God is ordering the steps of each and every one of us.  God has a purpose for you and me, and it is glorification.  Amen?  It is to see Him and be like Him.  Hallelujah!  That is God’s will for your life, and it will be done if you don’t mess it up.  Principalities and power can’t do it, Satan himself can’t do it—there is only one person that can keep you from seeing Jesus and being conformed into His likeness, and that’s your own self-will, your own self-righteousness, your own selfishness, and your own independence.  Other than that, we are safe in the Beloved and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, hallelujah!

So, in the midst of all of this warfare and the purpose of God to purify us because He is coming for that spotless church, which is a triumphant church.  The gates of hell will not prevail against those who have the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.  That’s some good news.  You see, that’s the church.  You can’t be in the church and not have these fruits prominent in your life.  You can be a hypocrite, you can be a church attendee, you can be a natural man who is filled with a knowledge of God but doesn’t know God, but if the Spirit of God lives in us and we walk in that presence, we will exhibit the character of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Not by anything that we do, not by any self-righteousness—there is not any of us that is any more righteous than another person.  We are all sinners.  There is not one of us that sought after God; He sought after us, praise God.  So those of us, those that are the majority—not many of whom are proud and successful in the accomplishments of this natural world—are placed by God into the body, and it is impossible to retain those attributes and be in Christ.  Because as we depend upon those and feel that those somehow are innate attributes, we’ve forgotten one important thing: “Without Him, we can do nothing” (John 15:5).