Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Father, we come to you this morning, and we just worship you and declare that you are faithful. Lord, forgive us for all of our complaining, for our murmuring, for our anxiety, for our fears, for the times that we don't trust you, or we think you don't care, or we think you have forsaken us and you don't know about our problems and our pain. Lord, we know that you are working all things together for our good. To those who love you, those who are called according to your purpose, you work all things for their good. Oh Lord, we just worship you this morning. Lord, I worship you and I thank you, Lord. God, I ask you, Lord, there's things that I've worried about. There's things that I've been worrying about and fearful about and and Lord, I've let them get in the way between you and I, and I just ask you, Lord, to forgive me, and I just pray that you'd help my brothers and sisters, Lord. Lord, help us not to worry. Help us not to falsely accuse you of not caring or not coming through for us. Lord, we just thank you. You're faithful and true. God, I ask you to bless my brothers and sisters here today. I ask you to speak to their hearts, God, and change their lives and draw them closer to you and and draw them and bring them through whatever trial or problem that they're going through, bring them through it. Maybe a sin they're struggling with, Lord, bring them through it to overcome it, to walk with you, Lord. And Father, we just worship you this morning. We praise you this morning. I just really sense that this morning that somebody needs to be encouraged that that you are going to make it through what you're going through right now. God will answer. Though it seems like the answer is late, or it seems like he's not going to do it, he's going to answer you if you stay with him. The test always comes to see if you'll walk away, see if you'll give up, see if you'll backslide and go back into sin and say, "What's the use in following God?" That's what the devil's always trying to do is get you to say, "What's the use? I follow God and things still go wrong." But God wants a people that will stick with him even when it's rough. And though it seems like he's late when he comes and he answers or he saves you or he delivers you, isn't it amazing though? It's always right on time. Amen. Praise God. Praise God. Well, you may be seated this morning. Hallelujah. Yeah. Hallelujah. Well, good morning, everyone. Good morning. Well, I feel the Lord here. You're going to need your Bibles this morning cuz we're going to study something. It's going to be more of a I guess more
of a teaching this morning. But as we get into this, I want to say this about what we're going to look at this morning. When it comes to the Christian life, when it comes to the Christian life and when it comes to basically when it comes to life in general, what we're about to discuss this morning is probably one of the most important issues um in the word of God and in the kingdom of God. And we're going to discuss this morning the issue of sin, okay? But it it's not going to be what you think fully, okay? Because we have to we have to understand how to deal with sin. And there's different kinds of sin. Now, I've spent a lot of time over the last year that we've been going here as a new church, I spend a lot of time confronting sins and dealing with sin, specific sins, and and and just, you know, trying to define what the Christian life should look like, you know? The Christian life should look different than the world. Right? We should look different. Um but we need to deal with the issue of how we deal with sins because the Bible says clearly, and we're going to look at it, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But yet, the Bible's very clear about if we practice certain sins that we will not inherit the kingdom of God and we will not go to heaven. So, this issue of dealing with sin, how God dealt with sin, and how we deal with sin in our lives, is the most important issue in the kingdom of God. And right now, throughout the church world, there are a lot of false teachings about sin and how to deal with it. Uh I shared a little bit about that last week, how I even talked to a woman recently that sent me an email that said that because Jesus dealt with sin on the cross 2,000 years ago, that she doesn't have to deal with it anymore, that that she doesn't have to confess sin or repent of sin or feel guilty about anything, and that even if she committed a sin right then, that God would say, "I don't even know what you're talking about." if she mentioned it. That is not true. That's a misrepresentation of what the Bible teaches about sin, but we're going to look at this closely this morning, okay? Because, listen, the the way you look at this subject, the way you deal with this issue in your life, will determine whether you spend eternity in heaven or you spend eternity in hell. It's that simple. And I don't care how many times you you've been baptized or been to church or say you've been born again, how you deal with the issue of sin, what you believe about it and how you deal with it in your own life is going to determine your eternal destiny. Okay, and I I I'll just say straight up and most of you already know this. I do not believe that once you're saved, you're always saved no matter how you live your life. The Bible simply does not teach that. Okay?
There's a few verses that people pull out of context and misuse to prove that, but there's a mountain of verses that prove the other. Okay? But we're going to start out this morning in 1 Thessalonians. I want you to go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And I really, really want you to keep up um with me this morning. Do you have one? Are you going to look on? Look on. Okay. I want you to see it. The reason I want is cuz I want everyone to see that I'm just not making stuff up. You should always make sure that any preacher or teacher is actually quoting the Bible correctly. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Let's get there. Let me get there. 1 Thessalonians 5. And we're going to read this so we'll read a little it in context here. Um we're going to start reading from verse 12 and read through verse 23. Verse 12, he says, "And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and that are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. Now, we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. That basically that means those who don't want any rule in their life. Comfort the feeble-minded. Support the weak. Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. And abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is something I want you to see that Paul said that man has a spirit and a soul and a body. I want you to put that up right here. Just we got a few illustrations this morning, but we have a spirit and a soul and a body. Now, that's what this 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, right? And in the Greek language, there's three different Greek words for spirit, for soul and body. Um, for a long time in the charismatic in movement, people have said we we are a spirit being that has a soul and lives in a body. But you need to see that you have three parts, and it's And this was a good illustration, but the outside circle there would
represent your body, which is your five senses and the the physical organ of the brain and and all that. And we all know we're well acquainted with our physical body. Then you have the soul. The soul makes up the mind, the will, and the emotions. The soul also makes up the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The soul is what makes you you. It's your You know, everybody has a body and everybody has a spirit body. But the soul is what makes you uniquely you. It makes me Dean. It makes you Nancy. It makes you Andrew. I mean, it makes us who we are. But anyway, the soul is the mind, the will, and the emotions. The spirit is, as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 15, the spirit is also a spiritual body. Matter of fact, if my spirit body right now could step outside of my body, it would still have the form of a body. But it is a It is spirit. It is created and made by the very life of God. And the spirit in the area of the spirit is what contains And this doesn't say it, but in the area of your spirit, it contains your conscience, which is where you know instinctively what is right and wrong. Your conscience, your intuition, that's your ability to perceive things sometimes without seeing them. And um the the area of your spirit is also the area of of true worship, cuz the Bible says we should worship God in spirit and in truth. Okay? That's in 1 John I mean, that's in John the Gospel John 4. But I want you to see that Paul said something here. He said, "I pray God" And he was talking to people who were already Christians. "I pray God sanctify you wholly." Now, that word wholly there is not h o l y, it's w h o. Right? That means completely, fully. And the goal, and let me just say this, the goal of of God in your life, the goal of Christ true Christianity is for ultimately both your spirit, your soul, and your body to be sanctified. That word sanctified means to be cleansed and to be set apart as as different, as special, as clean. And this is something that we we need to understand the process of what God does with through salvation. Well, how many of you ever heard the term being born again? You ever heard that term? Okay? Being born again, the Bible also calls it regeneration. Okay? Now, what that means is when a person comes to Jesus, they come to God, and they've never been saved before, they've never been born again, they've never experienced God, the Bible's very clear about that means that the we still have a spirit, but they are spiritually dead and separated from the life of God, okay? The soul is completely under the control of what the body wants. Okay? We all know what the body wants, right? The body wants to see it all the time.
Right? But, before we come to Jesus, the spirit man, though he's still there, but spiritually dead, the soul is completely the servant to the body. But, when a person gets born again, they come to Jesus, they confess they're a sinner, they ask God to forgive them and to wash them, and there's a spiritual encounter that happens there, when Jesus said a man must be born again, and there's a spiritual power that God imparts, and what happens is is that the spirit man, the spirit part of you, comes to life again. God cleanses the spirit man, he cleanses the soul, he cleanses the body, even he cleanses us from sin, and we're going to look at the different kinds of it, but he cleanses us, he forgives us, but he also imparts to us spiritual life in the place of spiritual death. Okay? That's the beautiful thing of salvation, what Jesus died on the cross for. He died to give us life again. Now, the issue, the reason I I I spoke about a minute ago, the issue of sin, sin brings death. How many of you know Romans 6:23? The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death." Right? Death, sin, you should always understand that sin always produces spiritual death and ultimately physical death. Okay? And then of course as the Bible talks about there's another death. You know what that is? It's called the second death which is in the lake of fire forever and ever. Okay? But sin always produces death. Obedience to God faith in God, obedience to God always produces life. Okay? This is why Jesus had to come. Now this is what Romans 5 talks about. We're going to We're going to look at a at some scriptures but I wanted you to see the goal of the Christian life is that God ultimately wants to get you sanctified, cleansed, purged, holy, washed, clean so that you can stand before him on judgement day and God can say well done, good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord. Okay? Now I want to show you let's let's just go go to the next slide here for a second and we'll go to our next one. Dealing with the sin nature here. I want you to see that there's three types or three issues that we have to deal with them when it comes to sin. Okay? And this is all in Romans. You can read Romans chapter 1 through Romans chapter 8. We may look at some of this today but I want you to see the three types of sin that we have to deal with that has to be dealt with. Number one is the sin of Adam and Eve that that we inherited. Okay? You see that first one there? The sin that we inherited from Adam and Eve. Now there was nothing that we did
us to get that sin that was imparted to us. That was just passed down from our first father and mother. Okay? And that's why the Bible says in Romans 5 through one man's disobedience sin came upon every man and death upon every man. Okay? But by one man's obedience, speaking of Jesus, by one man living a sinless life, and then giving his life for the others, that God dealt with the sin of Adam and Eve that we had no part of really. We didn't do it. They did it, right? Okay? But God still had to deal with that because we inherited it. All right? And that's why there is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ. Because unless that sin of Adam and Eve is dealt with by the second Adam, Jesus, who lived a holy and spotless life, we have no hope and are alienated from God in the world. There is no hope. We are in darkness. We are doomed to be separated from God forever. There is no hope. So God knew mankind did not commit these things, but inherited them. So I'm going to go deal with them myself. Isn't that good news? See, good news is that God saw the problem and didn't just It didn't expect us to fix it completely. He knew we couldn't fix it. So he came down, became a man, and lived a sinless life as a man, though he was God, and he lived a sinless life, and he dealt with the sin of Adam and Eve that we all inherited. Now that's in Romans 5. Okay? That's what Romans 5 talks about. Okay? And again, I don't have time to to read all these scriptures go through it. You can go and read them for yourself. But Romans 5 deals with the sins of Adam and Eve. But then there's another type of sin after that. And that's the second one. That's my own specific sins that I committed and I put BC up there, which means before Christ or before you were born again in Jesus Christ. All right? My own specific sins. Now Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God and eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but it doesn't say anything about Adam and Eve committing the sin, say of homosexuality or fornication or drunkenness or anything like that. So, later on as we grew up or as we moved on in our lives, we began to commit our own sins, right? And that is another issue that has to be dealt with. So, the the issue Jesus dealt with the sin of Adam and Eve on the cross, he died for the sins of mankind, but the sins, my own specific sins, I have to deal with when I come to Jesus. And that's why we have to confess that we are sinner, not just that Adam and Eve sinned, but that I am a sinner. I sinned. I broke God's
law. I am a spiritual criminal worthy of death. Okay? So, I have to deal with it. So, when you come to Jesus, you have to really that's what you're dealing with. You're dealing with those two. But then, we have after you're you're truly born again, there's this nasty little thing that remains with you and your in your flesh. And that is the sin nature, I put here, the sin nature that is resident in the flesh. Now, notice I said in the flesh. Okay? The spirit man is renewed. Okay? The spirit man is born again. The soul, the mind has to be renewed day by day by the word of God and spiritual discipline. But the flesh always wants to sin. Okay? This is Romans 7. Now, I want you to turn with me. Let's go to Romans chapter 7. We may look at Romans 6, but we may back up a little bit. But Romans 7. I'm going to read some of this. Now, let me tell you for the born again Christian, what you believe about this sin nature and how you deal with it is going to determine the quality of your life the quality of your Christian life and your eternal destiny. Okay? Now, I want to say this real clearly this morning. I am not what people call there are some people that teach Christian perfection or Christian perfectionism. That means that they believe that a Christian can reach a state of perfection where they never sin. I don't believe that. Okay? But I do believe that sin should not have dominion over you. Sin should be the exception in the life of the believer not the rule. It's kind of like this. You can commit the sin of fornication. You can fall into a sexual sin. Okay? But it's different between living in one and staying in one and repeating it over and over and over. Okay? Sin should not have dominion over you. So, that's that's what we're going to look at here. But I want you to see Romans Romans 7 because I want you to see that the sin nature is still resident in the flesh and and even though I have done a lot of preaching against sin in this church, I want you to I want to bring in the balance today that I know that no matter how long you serve Jesus, no how no matter how strong you get in Jesus Christ, no matter how mature you become, you're always going to wrestle with the flesh to some degree, but I you better win this wrestling match. Okay? Let's look at it. Romans 7 and uh let's see. We'll go down to verse 14. There's a whole lot that can be said about this here, but we're just going to look at a little bit. Now, some people try to use Romans 7 as an excuse to live
in in habitual sin, and of course that's not what Paul was saying here, but we're going to look at it. Cuz I know everybody has the Romans 7 struggle. I have it, you have it, everybody has it, okay? And here it is. For we know that the law is spiritual, meaning God's commandments. But I am carnal, fleshly, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, or that that I want to do, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would do, or for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now notice that Paul is saying this as a Christian who has been born again, washed, and forgiven. He's saying, "There are things that I want to do that I don't do. There are things that I don't want to do that I end up doing." And he said, "What is going on? I have been saved, I have been made a new man in Jesus Christ, I have a new spirit, I've been washed, my sins have been forgiven, the sin of Adam and Eve have been dealt with in me. And yet I find that there is still something wrong in me." Okay? And look what he says. He said, verse 21, "For then I find I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Okay? He says, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. I love the word of God. I love the commandments of God." is what he's saying. "I love them. I want them in my life. But I see another law in my members, another law in my flesh warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members." And look what he cries out. He says, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind or the soul, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." Now, let's break this down a little bit here, okay? Cuz I know that that's it gets a little bit confusing confusing here. All Paul is saying here is that in his flesh, and this is what we got to understand. As a born-again Christian, as a Christian that has had their sins washed away, as a Christian who knows God, who's had an intimate contact with God, we know the sin of Adam and Eve's been dealt with. We've dealt with the sins of
our past. We've asked God to forgive us and we've moved on. But these sins that try to remain in our life, we've got to deal with. And Paul said, "Look, I want you to understand something. That in the spirit man, I've been made new. In my mind, in my soul, I want to obey God and be holy more than anything else in the world. But I find that in my flesh dwells no good thing. And when I want to do good, evil is constantly with me." Has anybody experienced this? Okay? And he said, "I see this law in my flesh warring against what I know in my mind." Cuz doesn't the Bible say we got people out there saying, you know, "Jesus made me free." Really? Well, I know that in my mind, right? But what happens when it seems like you can't keep from that sin? You get what I'm saying? When you want to obey, and yet you can't seem to do it. Now, granted, there are some reasons that make us weaker than we should be sometimes. Sometimes we've been practicing sin for a long time, and we think we're going to overcome it overnight. Sometimes it's demonic influence because we've opened the doors to some things, and they got a stronghold in our life. But bottom line, I've been through deliverance. I've walked with Jesus many years. I've seen periods of extreme freedom and periods of intense attacks, where it seems almost impossible to resist. But here's the thing. Some people try to use Romans 7. Don't it They use Romans 7 like like say you got an elder over here at a church who's in adultery. Okay? Maybe he's in a Baptist church. Maybe he's in a Methodist church. Maybe he's a Presbyterian. Maybe he's a Pentecostal. It doesn't really matter, but in his heart, he's chosen to believe that Romans 7 excuses his behavior. He stays in adultery. He moves from one woman to the next, or he stays with, you know, in an adulterous affair with a woman for for years on end, and he goes to Romans 7. And And when he starts feeling convicted or guilty about what he's doing, when the Holy Spirit's trying to deal with him to get out of his sin, he goes to Romans 7. Well, Paul said, you know, he struggled. And Paul said, you know, he did things he didn't want to do. And, you know, that's his excuse. Very dangerous to use this Romans 7 as an excuse to keep on sinning. Okay? Now, let's back up to chapter 6.
Cuz remember, we have to take the Bible in context, right? I want you to see in Romans 6 some of the things that he talks about here. Let's Let's look at what he says here. We will start at verse 12. This is comes to the struggle with sin. He says, "Let not verse 12, Romans 6:12, let not sin therefore reign or rule in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. So, he's telling us, "Don't let sin rule you. You're going to war with it. You're going to struggle with it, but don't let it rule your life. Right? Don't let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Look, for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law, but under grace." Listen, see, this is the big misnomer about grace. Grace doesn't say that God's grace covers you and you can continue in sin. That's turning grace into a license to sin. But, it what the reason he says that sin shall not have dominion over you because you're not under the law, but under grace, meaning grace means that God will help you if you want to be holy. If you want to be obedient, God will help you. This is the beautiful thing. God wants you to obey and even says, "If you want it with all your heart, I'll help you." Obey. The problem with most people in the church world, most Christians, is that deep down they really don't want to obey. Deep down they really don't want to be holy and pure. Deep down they really don't fear God. And they don't respect the issue of what it cost him to deal with sin. Okay? The reason I talk about this issue so much is because it cost Jesus the suffering and the pain and the agony of the cross and the shedding of his blood to deal with sin. To take that lightly to me is to slap Jesus in the face and to spit upon him. But if Jesus took sin, the issue of sin so seriously that he had to go to the cross to deal with it, I think he expects us to deal with it in a very serious and sober manner. Right? Man, when you commit a sin, let me say this, when you commit a sin, especially one that's under death, and we'll talk about that in a second, too. But when you commit a sin, you should have a a humility should roll over you.
A trembling and fear of God should roll over you. A deep respect of God should fall upon you and you should say, "God, be merciful to me, sinner. God, I don't deserve you. Jesus, you died on the cross to deal with this, and yet, you know, I'm not taking this as serious as I need to take. You see what I'm getting at? It's our attitude towards sin that's going to reveal what how we deal with it. Some people have such a flippant attitude. Oh, it's no big deal. God loves me. He understands. You know, your attitude about God and how and how he feels about sin is not right if it's that way. You don't know how many times I've been witnessing on the street or counseling or you know, talking to people about Jesus and and how many times I hear, "Well, God understands." Yeah, you know what he understands? He understands his word. He understands that his son was nailed to a cross. He understands that it was a terrible thing that he had to deal with and he just wants us to be serious about it. Right? Now, let's keep reading. Romans 6. I just had to stop there. He says, "Sin shall not have dominion over you." And look what Paul says, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death." He says, "So, you can obey your sinful flesh and and live in sin and reap death or you can do unto obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that you were servants of sin." Remember, he's talking to the Roman Christians here. He says, "But But God be thanked that you were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you." Oh, boy. Obeyed. You ought to underline that in your Bible. Obeyed from the heart. Oh. What did Paul say? Romans 7, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man. I love God's commandments." What does he say right here? "But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine." And look what he's going to define it. That was delivered to you being then made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness. Well, see this is good stuff. We we could just stay in this all day, but I wanted you to see that. I wanted you to see he says don't don't stay in sin. Now, we're going to come back to Romans 8 in just a second, but I want you to go to 1 John.
You can go ahead and go to the next slide there. 1 John chapter 1. And this is what we've been talking about. Sin is why Jesus had to die on the cross. I know that's pretty graphic up there, but that's what Jesus went through to deal with sin. That's how serious God is about sin. And I just want to say as serious as he is about it, is as serious we ought to be as serious as we can possibly be about it. See, this is this is what bothers me. I'm going to I'm going to bring this up real quick. But this is what bothers me about Joel Osteen. Okay? And his recent thing of going to pray for and bless the new openly gay mayor of Houston. It's not that we should not pray for those in authority. Bible says we should pray for those in authority. I I believe that. Barack Obama, our president, is not saved, but we should pray for him. Okay? But here's here's the problem. Okay? Not only is this woman an openly gay lesbian with a partner that she's in sin with, but she calls herself a Christian. Okay? Now, when any Christian begins to speak about this, immediately the the gay community and the world begins to say you're homophobic and you are speaking hate and you hate gay people and all this stuff. And it's no, no, it doesn't have anything to do with hate or homophobic. Here's the thing. Why why do I have a problem with with Joel Osteen doing that? Because Joel Osteen is not going to tell Miss Parker that her homosexuality is a sin that will separate her from God forever. And and he's not going to tell her that Jesus loves her and wants and died for her and wants her but she's going to have to decide to come away from that. See? So, Joel Osteen's mentality about sin is not as serious as it ought to be. And if he really cared for Miss Parker he'd speak the truth in love to her. You see? And I'm not just picking on homosexuality. I mean sin unto death. Homosexuality is just one sin unto death. Pre-marital sex is another. Adultery is another. You know, we're going to look at that. But only and I want to say this, only the blood of Jesus and you can go and put up the next Only the blood of Jesus can wash away sin. But let's look at it. How does the blood of Jesus wash away sin? Somebody ought to say this. Walk in the light. Oh. Let's read it. Y'all with me? Am I being confusing today?
All right, stay with me for a second. First John we're going to start reading at verse five with the emphasis coming on verse seven. All right? This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light. Say this with me. Isn't that word What's the second word in that First John 1:7? Ooh. Small word, big meaning, right? But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. So, let's let's define what does it mean What does it mean to walk in the light? Okay? What does it mean to walk in the light? This is the I'm telling you one of the most important issues of Christianity right here. What does it mean to walk in the light? What is the light? Let's just define it for a second. The Bible declares a few things are light. First of all, Jesus is the light, right? Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the light of the world. Okay? Psalm 119 verse 105. You know what it says? It's a famous verse. You'll know it when I begin to say it. You may not know the reference. Psalm 119 verse 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. Another verse I think is in Psalm 119:130 when he says, "The entrance of thy words give light. Okay? So, let's understand something. The person of Jesus Christ is light. Okay? The doctrine or teachings of Jesus Christ, the word of God, is light. Okay? Now, here I'm going to define what walking in the light is. Walking in the light does not mean you walk sinless, that you will never sin. But, it does mean that sin will not rule you. So, let's look Let's see if the scriptures bear that out, right? Do the scriptures bear that out? So, let's let's look down at 1 John, just the next few verses, 8 and 9 and 10. He says, "If we say we He
included himself, Christians. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." So, clearly the Bible teaches that the Christian cannot say, "I have no sin." Okay? If you say you have no sin, or you say you have not sinned, you make God a liar, and the truth is not in you. And you are walking in some big pride, bubba. Right? But, he says, if we back up, but if we walk in the light, then the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from sin. Now, let's look at it going into chapter 2. All right? Verse 1, he says, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not." I'm going to break this down for you in just a second. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. For he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, "I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him." But whoso keeps his word, in him verily the love of God is perfected. This is how we know that we are in him. Is everybody with me? Okay, now let's break this down. When he says this right here, he says, "My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not." That word sin there is a verb, of course. Okay? But there are three types and you and you can write this down if you want to, but there are three types, three primary types of Greek verbs in the Bible. Okay? One is a present tense Greek verb, the other is a perfect tense Greek verb, and the other is an aorist tense Greek verb. Okay? And I'm just going to give you the definitions of two because the second one's very complicated, but present tense Greek verb is an ongoing action that's taking place, that's continuous and repeated and taking place in the present. Okay? An aorist tense Greek verb is an action that happened, that's completed, that's not repeating. Okay? And I don't have these up here. Okay? But aorist, I'll spell it for you. It's a o i s t. r i s t. I don't think so. I have to look it up again. Aorist, anyway. You can look it up. Aorist tense. But when he says here that brethren, basically let me break it down. I write these things unto you that you sin not. So he's saying, "Look, I'm say I'm telling you guys, don't even sin once, you know. Don't even Don't give in to it. Don't take it seriously, you know. Don't think I have to sin.
Okay? Don't get an attitude that I'm going to sin. But he says, "I write these things that you sin not, but if any man sin again in aorist tense, something that's not repeated and continuous and happening right now. But if a man sin, guess what we have? Thank God. If you're not going to If you If you are are choosing to walk in the light, you're choosing to not habitually walk in sin. So, the Bible says we have an advocate with the Father, meaning he's our lawyer, he goes and argues our case. And you know what Jesus argues when when we we commit a sin, but we don't keep repeating it over and over again. You know what he does? The Bible says he goes and he argues, "But Father, they're walking in the light." You see what I'm saying? They're not perfect, but they love me, they take sin seriously, they they sin, but they're not going to keep repeating it, they don't want it, they hate it. And so So, Father, they're walking in the light. Therefore, my blood cleanses them. Ooh, now see, that's good news right there. The good news is that you don't have to be perfect. You just got to take this stuff seriously. Okay? And then, just so he makes it clear that we understand that God's not toying with sin. See, a lot of people say, "Jesus Christ is my advocate. He's arguing my case before the Father. He's the propitiation, which means a sacrifice for my sins. My sins are covered." And they'll stop there at verse two. No, the Apostle John didn't stop at verse two. The Apostle John went on to make sure you understand. Cuz he said in verse three, "This is how we know that we know him. That we keep his commandments. The keep there is a present tense Greek verb which means ongoing continuous action taking place in the present. You want to know if you're following God? Let me tell you how you know that you're in Jesus Christ and you're following God. If you're obeying him more than you're disobeying him. How simple is that? Is that what John said? And then he makes it even clearer and he said, "And he that says, I know him." How many people you know say they know Jesus? "He that says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him." Does obedience Let's just put it this way. Does habitual obedience to God, his word, and the spirit of God mark your life or does habitual disobedience mark your life? That This is the question. This is the
issue of Christianity. Okay? Now, I could keep going in 1 John in 1 John 3. And really I I just ought to advise you guys study the book of 1 John in depth. It'll change your life. But I want you to see something. We're going to cuz we're talking about sin. Skip over to 1 John 5 real quick. Let's just go ahead and destroy another lie that's in the church world about sin. How many of you have ever heard this? All sin is sin. All sin is the same. Right? Y'all ever heard that? That's how people try to justify themselves. You know, I want to tell you something. Telling a white lie so that you don't hurt your mama's feelings about her bad meatloaf is not the same as committing adultery. All right? All sin is not the same. The Bible makes it very clear that there are sins under death and sins not under death. Okay? Let's read that. I want you to see it with your own eyes so that you can say that Pastor Dean's not making this stuff up. All right? First John 5 and let's see. Let's skip down to verse 16. It says here, "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not under death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not under death. There is a sin under death and I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not under death. Okay? Is that in your Bible?" Okay? He says plainly there is sin which is not under death. There are sins under death. Let's Let me give some examples. Okay? Um How many of you know that uh let's say your dog chews up your door post again, right? You can get mad at the dog and actually, you know, pop him and and and lose your temper a little bit, though I think don't think Nick would do that. But you you can lose your temper a little bit. That's sin. Right? Let's say you kicked the dog. I mean, that's sin. You You did something wrong, but that's not going to put you in hell. Right? Like I said a minute ago, let's say that you, you know, you told your your mother or your grandmother that her meatloaf or her mincemeat pie was was good and you really you didn't like it at all, right? You're not going to hell over that. You know what I'm saying? There are sin There are people about smoking. You know, and I'll just go ahead and cover this, smoking. I like what some of the old preachers used to say, it may not send you to hell, but you'll smell like you've been there. All right? But people ask me about it. I said, "Well, smoking is not good for you. Destroys the temple."
You know, maybe God might be upset about that, but I don't think anybody's going to hell over smoking. Back in the old days, the old Pentecostal movement, you know, if women wore makeup or jewelry or wore pants, my God, they were of the devil. And going to hell. There's a bunch of people say if you don't speak in tongues, you're going to hell. All right? I speak in tongues, but I don't believe that nonsense. All right? So, there's a lot of things that we might things that may be sin. How many of you know that there's times that stuff slips out of our mouth that shouldn't slip out of our mouth. All right? How many of you know there's sometimes a thought goes through your head and you don't get rid of it immediately. Sin. You get what I'm saying? But let's look at what sins are under death. This is when we were out on the campus preaching and ministering, this is what comes up all the time. People say, "Well, everybody sins." Yeah. And they go, "Well, well, you know, uh you know, I I said a cuss word the other day." You know, they'll say, "I said a cuss word." And they'll try to put that on the same frame of reference as sleeping with their boyfriend or girlfriend every weekend. Not the same. Okay? Not the same. Now, if the Bible says there are sins under death, sins not under death, then what is the definition? What are they? Let me say this, always let the Bible define the Bible. Okay? What are the sins under death? Let's look at a few of them. Go to Galatians 5. Galatians chapter 5. Are y'all still with me? So, this is more of a teaching today than it is a preaching, but this is I'm telling you this is the most important thing cuz so many Christians are confused about this. Galatians 5, let's read this starting at verse 6. He talks about walking in the spirit. You could also I mean 16. He talks about walking in the spirit. This is almost exactly a Romans 7 and 8 explanation here. And he talks about walking in the spirit, walking in the light, struggling with the flesh, then he defines the sins under death here. Let's look at it. Verse 16. This I say then, walk in the spirit or we could say walk in the light. But he says, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to another so that you cannot do the things that you would. Meaning you're going to have a
struggle in this area, right? There's a war between the spirit and the flesh. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. But here's where he's going to reveal the works of the flesh. Look at verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest or revealed, which are these. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and revelings, which are wild parties. He says, "And the such like of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Is that in your Bible? Okay? So, what's the What's Paul commanding these Christians right here? Walk in the spirit. Walk in the light, right? The flesh is going to war against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, but be led by the spirit. Now, he says, "Now, here are the works of the flesh." And he lists them: adultery, fornication. Fornication pretty much covers all sexual sin. Did you know that that that word covers all sexual immorality, from homosexuality to incest to everything? Okay? Covers everything. So, he says, "Adultery, fornication, idolatry, putting anything in front of Jesus." I mean, we can we can go on down the list. Drunkenness. Do you see that one there? Right? Wild partying. And he says, "Don't be deceived. They who do these things." Now, y'all ought to write this down cuz I don't have this one up here. The word do here is the Greek word prasso. Spelled p r a s s o. The Greek word prasso. It means to practice habitually. That's the definition of the Greek word for do here. Do is prasso, which means when Paul wrote this letter in the Greek language, he wrote the word prasso down. Those who practice habitually, on top of that, the word do here is a present tense Greek verb, which doubles up the meaning, which means ongoing, continuous, and taking place in the present, right? These are sins unto death. If you practice fornication, if you practice adultery, if you practice you will not go to heaven. You will not inherit the kingdom of God.
It doesn't matter if you've been born again, baptized in 15 baptismal pools, and have a closet full of choir robes. We can define our lives by what we practice. You know, years ago I I do an illustration in church where I was preaching on this in church in Montgomery, and I put you you know, guys you'll know what I'm talking about and some of you ladies will, but those 4 by 4, you know, 4 by 4 post. I took a few of them and I cut them, you know, just about that long and laid them in the floor, spaced them out a little bit. I said, "Here's your Christian walk. You're walking after Jesus. Jesus is down there. And you're walking toward Jesus and you want to obey his commandments and and and these blocks are sins, okay? And you see that sin of fornication sneaking up on you. Some little, you know, little things trying to woo you. So, you see that, you step over it, right? Ooh, I got by that one. Following Jesus, right? Next one, drunkenness, you know, having a hard time, going through some rough spots in life, you know, few drinks would make you feel a little better. Uh, I'm going to step over that one. I'm going to keep going after Jesus. But then boom, all of a sudden boom, you trip over the next one and whatever it may be, you trip over the next one and you fall down. It got you. Okay? The issue is not that you fell down. The issue is what do you do? The man or woman that gets up and says, "Jesus, forgive me." and walks on is the one the blood of Jesus cleanses. That's walking in the light. But the man or the woman that decides to stay down there and lay with that thing and hold that thing and and stay with that thing has ceased walking in the light. It is now walking in darkness. Does everyone see the difference? Isn't it good news that when we fall down, we mess up, we blow it even big time, that God will still have mercy on us, love us, he'll forgive us. All he wants us to do is get up and keep walking in the light. Keep walking in obedience to his word. Stay in the word. Stay in church. Stay in Just keep walking in the light. And the blood of Jesus will keep cleansing and keep cleansing. But decide to wallow in the pig pen. Decide to cling to some sin. Decide to try to make excuses for why you want to stay in that affair or why you want to stay in that drunkenness or why you want to stay in drug use or why you want to
stay in in hatred. I mean, frankly right now, I know I know some people that are in hatred and they're in such hatred as Christians that they're willing to sow division and and basically have said they're trying to sabotage this church on purpose. And I sit back and I go, "Wow, you are a Christian brother, yet such hatred is in your heart." Now, you know what? There are people who make me mad sometimes. Scott knows it. Back in the old days, I just smack somebody in the mouth. We grew up together. But, you know what? Some people can make make you mad, but you know what? You choose to forgive them. You don't let it build in you in bitterness to the point that you're so bitter and that you you start seeking revenge or you start seeking to try to hurt them with your mouth or with your actions. Once you move over to that, you've moved into the sin of hatred. You know what the Bible says about hatred? It says, "If any man hates his brother, he does he is a murderer and he does not have eternal life abiding in him." Man, people are going to wrong you. People are going to wrong you. There's going to be misunderstandings. There's going to be disagreements. But, boy, don't let it turn into hatred. Don't let it turn into revenge. Don't let it turn into to really desiring ill will. You know what the word hatred means? To have ill will towards someone. You want bad things to happen to them. And here's what some a lot of people don't know about the power of hatred. You're wishing sometimes and desiring bad things to happen to some to somebody actually can cause some bad things to happen to them. That's another sermon. But, death and life's in the power of the tongue, the Bible says. All right? Why do you think the Bible says if you hate your brother, you're a murderer? Because you're literally killing something. Well, we could talk about that one for a while. Let me tell you something right now and I'll say this. You want to know a sin under death? Unforgiveness. The Bible says if you do not forgive others who have hurt you and wronged you, that none of your sins will be forgiven. And if you read the parable in Matthew 18, not only does it say that your sins won't be forgiven, but it says the entire debt that you owed God will be put back on you. Put put back up those three sins. Up there. The three ladies holding those three beach balls in the air, we'll call them.
Reason I want you to see that. Here's what's so bad. It's one thing to deal with your sin nature, just sins that you got to deal with as a Christian. But if you don't forgive, all three of those come back on you. The weight of all of them. And if you don't believe me, just go read Matthew 18. Jesus forgave one servant his entire debt. That would be the sin of Adam and Eve, their specific sins. Everything was forgiven and washed away. But that same servant that was forgiven didn't forgive a fellow servant a small issue. Went out and tried to harm them, went and threw them in prison. And God said, Jesus said, "Because you didn't forgive, I forgave you a great debt and because you didn't forgive your fellow servant, then you owe me everything. None of your debt's paid." Boy, you don't want to hear that one. There are a lot of people who will stand before God on judgment day and they'll say, "God, I was born again in 1981 or I was born again in 1987 or I was born again in 1990 I was born again, Lord. I I met you, Jesus." I get to come in, don't I, Lord? And the Lord's going to say, "Nope. You hated your brother. You didn't forgive. You went out and tried to hurt him. You went out and tried to ruin him. You went out and did this and did that. Depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire." There's going to be Christians while Lord, I was born in 1979. I was an elder at First Baptist Church. I get to come in, right? I'm once saved, always saved. And the Lord's going to look at him and say, "No. You were an adulterer to the day of your death. You do not inherit the kingdom of God." You get what I'm saying? There will be people that step up and go, "Lord, I was born again in 1987." That would be me. Well, actually, you know what, Scott? I was born again actually at Northside when I was 11, but I walked away from God. But I actually I was born again in 19 What was that? '80? But 1987 I returned to the Lord, but I said, "Lord, I came back to you in 1987." And I say, "Lord, but I but, you know, I didn't in 23 years I said, "Lord, I I didn't do everything perfect and I did sin." You know what he's going to say? "But you got up. You got up and you confessed it and you left it.
You loved me. you kept walking in the light. Enter in. And see, doesn't that define how it's not of works? It's not how much money you give to the poor, it's not how much um witnessing you do, it's not how much how many times you go to church. It's It's not that, it's just about did you get up? And keep walking in the light. Isn't that good news? See, there are people out there that will lie to you. And they'll tell you when you got saved, it was all dealt with, and it doesn't really matter what you do, God understands. And let me tell you, there's a lot of people living in sin. They're living in lust sins of of lust, they're living in sins of hatred, they're living in sins of unforgiveness, and they think they're going to heaven, and they're not. And I want to tell you, my heart breaks. I mean, sometimes my heart gets so heavy when I realize that not only are the multitudes of people in the world lost, they don't know Jesus at all, but my God, the majority in the church don't even understand the basics of Christianity. And some of them think they're going to heaven, and they're not. That ought to burden you. You know? So, I I want to make this clear to our church. I know I have thundered at times from this pulpit against sin. I don't ever want you to get the idea, though, that I don't believe in the love and the mercy and the forgiveness and the grace of God. Because I am one standing here that's needed it many times. Amen. Let's stand this morning. You don't have to. Let's bow our heads for a minute. Father in heaven, it's my prayer today God, that your spirit your Holy Spirit will show each and every person that's here your word and the truth of what's been said today. Lord, I want to see everyone in the within the sound of my voice. Lord, I don't care whether I'm preaching to 10 or 20,000. Lord God, I want to see everyone that's in
in the sound of my voice. Lord, when I preach, I want them to to know the truth and to know where they stand and to know what they need to do to be saved and to be on their way to heaven. Father, I love you and I just thank you, God that you open our eyes. I thank you for the Bible, the word that's true. I thank you for your Holy Spirit. I sent you here today. And God, I believe today you're going to change some people's lives. God, you're going to change direction. You're going to you're going to change attitudes about sin. There's just going to be a a a longing, God, for for holiness. And that if we do stumble, no condemnation because we're going to get up and keep walking in the light. And Lord, I just praise you this morning. I praise you and I thank you. Now, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed this morning, I'm going to ask this question. Is there anybody in here this morning that you need forgiveness? You need to ask God to forgive you. You need to make things right with God. You want to get get saved or you want to repent and return to God. You want to know you're right. If that's you, I want you to raise your hand. Amen. I see that hand. Anybody else? I want to tell you this is a very important moment. Why do Why do preachers do this in church or in public? The Bible says if we will confess Jesus before men, he will confess us before the Father in heaven. But if we deny him or we're ashamed of him in front of other people, he'll he'll deny us. Anybody else? You need forgiveness. You need to ask Jesus to forgive you and you need to rededicate your life to him. I want you to just raise your hand. It's up to you. We're going to have a prayer for you in just a second.