Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
lord you're holy and we worship you this morning god we just thank you lord we praise you we exalt you great jehovah god of abraham isaac and jacob we just praise you this morning we exalt the name of jesus the name that is above every name we praise you almighty god and we thank you lord for everything you're doing in our lives and and the things that you're going to do in jesus name we pray amen hallelujah well good morning everyone i want to welcome those that are listening by internet radio this morning the fire and grace church praise god hopefully we're going to learn something today amen um i do feel like that there's a few things i want to share with you hopefully uh i can get them across i want everybody i guess first turn to it's gonna sound odd here i guess but turn to ecclesiastes [Music] i'm sorry not ecclesiastes first we are going to turn there so you put your finger on it and come back but let's go to psalm 39. you know i felt like and i just felt the lord impressing on me today you know to bring a little balance to some things of course you know for those of you who listened last week and those of you who are here last week you know that preached a pretty strong message from the book of second peter and you know the anointing was there god was there upon that and of course everything is true no backtracking here but we do need to to grab something and and uh i think to help us to not get prideful about certain things and to understand the war that we face especially in a church that preaches repentance that preaches righteousness and holiness and that god demands those things and expects those things it doesn't mean that we don't believe in god's grace and mercy and forgiveness doesn't mean that we don't believe uh you know that you know god is is uh merciful and loves us and we are not even for one second trying to say that even christians who are striving for holiness and and to obey god and to live a godly life um you know i mean we're not even
we're not trying to say you know of course that that we're perfect or that christians who are striving for those things never sin um and i think that's we need to bring some balance because bottom line as long as you're in this body in this physical body you're going to struggle and have an internal struggle with sin it's always going to be with you the apostle paul talked about that and if he said that sin is always with me it's in my flesh and in my flesh now dwells no good thing then guess what that's that's the way it is though i think within christianity the problem is we're afraid to define what gets us in trouble and what doesn't get us in trouble we're afraid to clarify things and you know this is one of the things when i was looking at this this morning this is one of the things that just blows my mind you know the issue of sin is hardly talked about within churches today repentance is almost a dirty word holiness no we can't talk about that unless jesus makes me holy no matter how i live that's the only way we can talk about that um but um well let's just let's just read this we're just going to get into it um first scripture i want to read here this is psalm 39 and i actually posted this on facebook this morning but this is something for all of us no matter how holy we think we are no matter how righteous we think we are no matter how good uh we may be walking our christianity right now we need to remember something because we don't want to get prideful when we're doing well you know because pride will begin to take you down a road you know before a fall you know pride goes before a fall and haughtiness before destruction so um you know there's that dangerous thing where you know hey does god want us to do good yes then there's that thing of well when we get to doing good then we get prideful about it we get we get real real happy with ourselves that we're doing good right or we've got the other extreme when we start struggling with a sin or with doubt or fear or lust or anger [Music] or you know unbelief whatever we start struggling and we go to the other extreme and think oh my gosh you know i'm just the worst wretched person that's ever lived and you know a lot of people take that that i'm the worst wretched person that ever lived i can't do this and they end up what they end up just saying well i just give up and they go and just live in sin completely and both of those are just as evil and just as wrong and just as destructive because god doesn't want us getting into pride when we're doing good
and god doesn't want us when we struggle or when we fall to just give up and go indulge and live in a lifestyle of sin right now you would think that most christians would know that but they don't and we have a lot of excuses for a lot of things that go on in our lives but we need to know some things this morning but this is just to me there's no pride in this verse right here and this right here this is um psalm 39. are you with me this is what he said here in verse 4 lord make me to know my end the measure of my days what it is that i may know how frail i am behold thou has made my days as a hand breath and my age is nothing before thee now look at this last part here verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity sila or pause and think about this let's read that verse again verse five behold thou has made my days as a hand breath and my age is as nothing before thee verily or truly every man and his best state is all together vanity listen to me even when you're doing good evil is present with you that's romans 7. we may look at that in just a second so what is god saying there very clearly look even at our best state even when we're doing the very best that we can do walking with the lord walking in obedience walking in holiness walking in righteousness walking in purity trying to turn from our sins trying to not be worldly and lustful and controlled by those things the bottom line is that sin is constantly with us evil constantly lives and dwells within our flesh satan has a constant ally to work with and that's called our physical body i mean i just think about that that's why that redemption is not complete until the body is going to be redeemed at the resurrection because the spirit of a christian has been born again it's been born again the spirit of a christian has been made alive in jesus christ the soul has to be renewed right by staying in the word of god in prayer and things the soul has to be renewed but there's no hope for the body until the resurrection it will never change until this mortal puts on immortality amen so within this flesh because of adam and eve's sin because of what we inherited because of this flesh guess what we got issues
right paul talked about this now i want to go to romans 7 let's go there now i'm going to make sure that you understand something what i'm preaching this morning is not an excuse to go live a lifestyle of sin okay but the christian the christian will still struggle with sin and this is where the world they have a problem with us okay now for some christians they need to have a problem because we're going to show the differences more hopefully but they have a problem with us because the gospel to preach the gospel truly is to preach you must repent that means you must turn from your sins in evil ways in wickedness and stop doing them and ask jesus for forgiveness and make jesus lord of your life and walk a different way walk a new path a path with god obeying god walking with god knowing god intimately you know we talked about that last night you know putting away evil shunning evil fleeing from it running from it right and that's that's what a christian supposed to do and listen the world knows that's what a christian supposed to do the unsaved the ungodly they know that but when they see a christian fall or sin up they immediately go see look you can't do it what do you how you think i can do it but again they don't understand that there's a difference between a christian who may fall in a christian who gives up and lives in a sin now i know i've talked a lot about this but what i'm finding is that even though i've talked about it and preached about it the question still comes up in bible study doesn't it i mean even the people i've taught this to for about a year the question is still coming up because there's so many christians out there making excuses for lifestyles of sin and they and they they make the excuse well nobody can live sinless well i agree but that's not an excuse to indulge it amen see there's a difference and i've said this many times gonna say it again there's a difference between a christian who has no intention on committing a sin and just falling into it and then getting up and saying oh my you know i made a mistake i blew it here i shouldn't have done you know i i blew it god forgive me cleanse me i'm getting away from this verse is one who says you know what i'm covered by god's grace so i'm gonna go live the way i want to live and he understands that i can't get out of this fornication or adultery or pornography or anger or violence or whatever drugs alcohol and so because of god's grace the way they think it is they think well god understands big man upstairs knows right i've heard that one before god knows my heart
right but we've got to know the scriptures and they see and what i was thinking about and i know i i kind of jumped ahead a minute ago but what i was thinking about this morning is it looks to me like you know if you read the bible and even the new testament let's just stick with the new testament for the moment if you read the new testament it talks a lot about sin right jesus when he walked the earth he talked about sin that was in the heart that came out of the mouth he talked about the evil things that were in a man he talked about good and evil he talked about heaven and hell he talked about all these things right the apostles i could go down through first corinthians second corinthians ephesians galatians i mean paul even gives a list of sins we may even look at in a second they talked about sin and they talked about the difference between living in a habitual lifestyle of sins unto death and they talked about you know christians needing to confess their sins and to repent and if you fall away to get up and get back where you need to be i mean look at the parable and in luke 15 the parable of the prodigal son he left his father's house he went out and lived in riotous living his brother told on him said he spended all of his father's money with harlots right obviously he had probably had that problem a little bit of it before he left but he leaves his father's house and of course you know the story he ends up broke and he ends up in the pig pen and you know what the father of the story said while he was out there in the world living in that lifestyle while he was out there in the pigpen the father of the story said my son is lost and he is dead now he wasn't talking about physically dead he was talking about spiritually dead and so when the son and the story finally came to himself realized that sin was destroying him and that his life was far better when he lived with his father under his father's rules and in his father's house when he finally realized that that was better than the what the world had to offer he said he came to himself he got up out of that pig pen and said i'm gonna go to my father and i'm just going to ask to be a servant humility came in i'm going to return home and when he got toward the house his father saw him and ran to him and had compassion on him and kissed him and he said my son who was lost is found my son who is dead is alive again see so many people think that because jesus loves us and jesus died on the cross and paid for our sins they somehow think that forgiveness and restoration is automatic and kind of just covers you no matter what you do
but listen you have to get up and return home now does that mean that that son who got up out of that lifestyle of sin and went back to his father and submitted to his father's authority again and understood why his father was trying to protect him and give him rules when he went back to that house do you think that that son never sinned again no i'm sure at some point he did something his father told him not to do or he got an attitude or you know what i'm saying but that's different than leaving and living in it i don't know why this is such a hard concept for so many christians to hold up i mean we have christians now that want to debate they want saved always saved issue the eternal security issue and they want to go well how many sins will will get you in trouble or how many sins will disqualify you or how many sins means that you've fallen away and i'm like you know what if you have to ask that question then i i have to question whether your heart is in the right place or not because if you're trying to see how much you can get away with and still make it then you don't even have a heart for god you have a heart for sin [Music] amen [Music] see the difference between a christian that loves god and a christian that is lukewarm and loves the world is real simple a christian that loves god may still sin but he hates it doesn't want to do it is doing everything he can to get away from it and to stop it a christian who's lukewarm and loves the world keeps making excuses or or cling or creates doctrines or clings to doctrines that makes him feel secure in his backslidden lukewarm state grace and mercy is not a safety net to live however you want to live as a matter of fact we don't even have the correct definitions of the word in the body of christ i've shared this before but i've got to say it again grace is not unmerited favor lord can we please lose that partial definition that's not even close to the biblical definition grace if you look up the in the greek the word charis if you look it up it means the divine influence upon your heart and the reflection of that divine influence in your life somebody ought to say this grace is god helping me live the way i know i'm supposed to live it's not an excuse to live any way i want to live oh boy
mercy is usually what we refer to as unmerited favor because really the definition of mercy is god's compassion to us when we don't deserve it god's patience and love to us when we're struggling that's mercy [Music] and people know i mean there's people there's preachers out there and christians who will disagree with me fight me on the once saved always saved issue because i believe a born-again christian can fall away from god walk away and be lost and go to hell if they want to because i believe that's what the bible teaches very plainly but i don't think that one sin is going to send you to hell i don't think if a christian sins he's gone or or he has to get saved again i mean some of these arguments that they pull up are ridiculous and sometimes i think they're just trying to deflect from the issue i've said it over and over again do i think one sin if a christian falls is going to send them to hell no do i think turning away from god in rebellion and living in willful habitual sin will damn a christian if they don't repent and come out yes absolutely but between those two between those two extremes is god merciful does god love us so much that he wants to wash us clean and forgive us yes but we have to come home right we have to get up see let's are y'all okay this morning let's bear this out a little bit i told you to turn to to romans seven this is one of those mornings i'm just kind of going with it y'all don't even have notes i did type out a few little things in my phone but this is just we're just going with it so i may tell you to turn here turn there but paul spells this out in romans 7 and 8. now we're going to look at romans 7 and 8 just for a second because i know there's people out there there's christians out there they love the lord they understand the gravity and the seriousness of sin and living in indulging sin and they're struggling and there's sometimes there's reasons why they struggle more than they should you know deliverance can be an issue wounds from the past can be an issue there's a lot of contributing factors a little too much worldly living you know hanging out with too many of the wrong folks letting the wrong people lay hands on you there's a lot of things that can contribute
but let's just look at what we have to live with for a second look what paul said quoted this minute ago oh where should we start verse 14. paul writes in romans 7 he said for we know that the law is there's a lot of people to argue with that fact he said for we know that the law is spiritual but i am carnal sold under sin for that which i do i allow not for what i would that do i not but what i hate that i do sounds a little confusing but he's saying you know what there's times that i preach to somebody not to do something let's say lie and i end up lying there's some people i tell people they shouldn't cuss when they get mad and then i get mad and cuss didn't intend to do those things you know what i'm saying you hear what i'm saying well that's what paul was talking about all right let's keep reading he says if then i do that which i would not i consent unto the law that is good meaning he said you know what if i do something that i shouldn't do i consent and say the law of god or the word of god is right i'm wrong i consent to the law and guess what new testament has law too i know that just breaks people's heart but it does full of it it's full of commandments right but here here's what he says he says now look at verse 17 everybody look at it now then it is no more i that do it but sin that dwelleth in me now here's an interesting word here the word dwelleth means to live or abide but my bible has the little verb tense notes on it so i know that this is a present participle greek verb what does that mean a present tense greek verb is an ongoing action a continuous rather ongoing action that is taking place in the present let me say that again a present tense greek verb is a continuous or repeated ongoing action that is taking place in the present so what he's saying there is continuously and presently what sin is living dwelling and abiding in me it's almost not a fair fight y'all paul likened it down here in the end of the book as as as if we were i hate to be so crude this morning but back in the old roman days uh one of the ways they would torture
somebody and kill them was that they would strap and tie a dead body on to them until the decaying process process also killed the other the live person pretty gruesome the romans were terrible brutal people okay um you know they're the ones that invented crucifixion okay but hear me paul likened that that's what he was talking about when he said oh wretched man that i am who will deliver me from the body of this death what he's saying is i'm a live person dragging around this decaying rotting corpse of a flesh with me that's trying to kill me all the time it's terrible and that's why i wanted to read that verse back in psalm 39 it says a man at his best state and that stands for you ladies too but a man at his best state is altogether vanity because guess what none of us are immune none of us no matter how strong no matter how spiritual no matter how knowledgeable of the bible no matter whether we speak in tongues or don't speak in tongues no matter if we're filled with the holy ghost no matter if we've been dunked sprinkled or whatever has happened whether we sing in the choir or can't carry a tune it doesn't matter bottom line we all carry this flesh and even at our best state sin and evil is constantly dwelling in us it is constantly gnawing at us it is constantly trying to pull us down into its murky grasp and death and destruction it's always wanting to pull us into anger into unforgiveness into hatred into racism into pride whether it be religious pride right it's always trying to pull us into lust whether it's just in our heart or in our mind it's always trying to pull us into greed or jealousy or envy the flesh that we live with is always doing that and listen i'm going to tell you guys something i'm going to say something that everybody knows but nobody wants to admit the battles that go on in our minds if people knew they would think we were the most wretched individuals on the face of the earth right because the flesh itself calls up these evil thoughts and these evil desires and then the devil comes along and helps out he comes along and suggests things he comes along and aggravates it right this is why you can't be mediocre
lukewarm this is why you can't be la dee da about your christianity you either got to be serious about this thing or get out because you're going to get killed right massacre and i don't understand christians that don't want to discuss this battle and in this battle against sin and and the devil they're going to be winners and losers you say well jesus jesus won it for me on the cross listen that is true but that has to be appropriated in your life by faith not a one-time faith an ongoing faith that has to be appropriated by faith and faith and obedience and faith without works is dead that means you've got to walk this thing out and that's why paul said in philippians 1 12 work out your own salvation with fear and trembling why because my battle is not going to be exactly the same as kevin's or cherise or paul's or bills it's not going to be the same we all got a little bit different battle to face and i've got to walk that out and work that out in fear and trembling fear and trembling of what am i scared of the devil no i'm not scared of the devil i know i have power and authority over satan in the mighty name of jesus i know i can overcome satan by binding him and rebuking him and resisting him and he must flee from me because i'm a child of god do i fear god yes in this sense that i fear myself because i know where my flesh can go if i let it and therefore i know my flesh wants to take me into sin and into habitual sin and i know that god will keep his word and not let me into heaven that makes me afraid but i'm more afraid of myself than i am of god amen because it's my flesh that wants to take me away from god it's terrible we live with a judas on all the time and it's us you hear me and listen we shouldn't be surprised some of the greatest strongest godly men have crashed and burned right look at king david can we say crash and burn right i mean he didn't just he didn't just sin you know there's a difference between sins you know people think that all sins are the same oh boy another another christian cliche out there right
but you know i and i've talked about this but you know back in chronicles and samuel you see three things that david did he took the crown of the king of moab and ammon i mean and put it on his head god said no no you shouldn't have done that right right after that's when he spies bathsheba on the rooftop instead of turning away because he had already started compromising he kept looking then he called for her committed adultery with her so you say the first one the first sin was a small compromise but it opened the door for the flesh to to rise up and it opened the door for the devil and the second thing you could say was i see enough passion he didn't plan to do that he didn't plan to go out and see her on the rooftop i think she may have even went there to entice him from what some history tells us but the bottom line is that was a sin or a crime of passion but he ended up breaking one of the ten commandments committing adultery but the one that was the most horrible was the premeditated planned murder of bathsheba's husband you're right crash and burn right the man after god's own heart the man who we could talk about people say well that was old testament no i want to explain something to you david was special he was after he was a priest after the order of melchizedek this is why he could put the ark in his backyard without a veil really what the lord showed me was god allowed david to experience 33 years of new testament christianity with the presence of god the intimate worship david had a relationship why just like god let abraham experience the new covenant before it came into being god let him let king david and i don't have time to prove that i can prove that but the bottom line is this david had this intimate relationship with the lord he was called the man after god's own heart and yet by these little steps of negligence he opened the door and he let his flesh take over now what a lot of people try to do is use that and act like david lived in this type of sin right but psalm 51 shows that he was mortified over this time period of falling away and falling down he was mortified broken-hearted matter of fact let's read it hold your spot there in romans 7.
i got y'all holding spots everywhere if you can it's okay just help you turn back quicker go to psalm 51. probably one of the most famous psalms but people try to dismiss this stuff mine has a little note up top here says to the chief musician a psalm of david when nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into bathsheba look at verse 1 have mercy upon me o god according to thy lovingkindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for i acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee and the only have i sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when you judge. behold he says i was shaping in iniquity and incended my mother conceived me we can't even talk about that right now he says behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom you desire truth lord purge me with hyssop what is hyssop that's what they used to dip in the blood and sprinkle the blood on people they would dip this into the blood of the sacrifices and they would sprinkle it on things to sanctify or purify so he was talking about purify me by the blood of the covenant and i shall be clean wash me and i shall be whiter than snow make me to hear joy and gladness why because he didn't have it anymore good sign of a true christian that's born again that wants to to obey god that has a true understanding of the scriptures and has a true balanced fear of god in their lives this is what the moment they do something like this something evil or hideous what is it he says right here make me to hear joy and gladness because that's going out the window listen to me if you can enjoy indulging sin you are either not saved never been saved or you have so hardened your heart and your conscience is so calloused by continuous sin that you're a christian a lukewarm christian in grave danger but he says here make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities and of course the famous verses that the
song we sing create in me a clean heart o god and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me folks this was written can i just say this under the inspiration of the holy spirit and is part of god's holy scripture therefore the holy spirit was not only inspiring him what to write but inspiring him what to pray to get back with god now look at this he said created me a clean heart of god and renew alright spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me was david delusional or was he speaking truth that he believed that if he continued in this course of sin if he didn't get serious about about being broken and humble and repentant before god and getting mercy and getting forgiveness that god could cast him away and take his holy spirit from him good preaching look what he says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation uphold me with thy free spirit and i love verse 13 then will i teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee deliver me from blood guiltiness oh god oh boy because he had shed innocent blood deliver me from blood guiltiness o god thou god of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness and boy we can just go on but do you see the attitude seriousness brokenness trembling fear that's just almost absent today forgiveness is not automatic christian see i said this last week but that lie that your sins are forgiven past present and future like automatic done doesn't seem like david felt that way all right let's see if it's new testament go to 1st john chapter 1. y'all okay this morning first john
i almost wanted to start a message and just preach through the whole book of first john actually we couldn't do that in one sunday like we did second peter last week it'd probably take two but first john chapter one let's just start reading oh let's go down verse five 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 let's talk about spiritual darkness sin uncleanness the power the prince of darkness none of that's in god at all it says here and look at verse six if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth you with me [Music] 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 right so charles stanley and joseph prince and these others are wrong your sins are not forgiven past present and future it's if you walk in the light if you've been walking in darkness you can turn around and start walking in the light amen that's the good news the good news of the gospel there's a way to turn around there's a way to be forgiven there's a way to be cleansed there's a way to find help to live the life that god wants you to live he's not going to leave you alone to even live it he's going to help you live it if you'll just cooperate right if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin look at verse 8 if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us uh oh see there's nobody that can boast i have no sin do you know that there are people walking around in this hyper grace movement and dr michael brown just talked about this recently but there are people walking around in this movement saying because of what jesus did on the cross i am perfect as a as a matter of fact i'm so perfect and i'm so clean and i'm so righteous because of of what jesus said i am christ walking around and how do i know this because i know somebody who's doing this and saying these words who used to know the truth and walking the truth but if we say we have no sin even as christians we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us right i can never stand before you no matter how obedient and holy or or or perfect that i may be walking with the lord as i possibly can be i can never
stand before you and say i have no sin because why paul's already established it lives and dwells constantly in me right now let's keep going [Music] verse 8 says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us so there's a bunch of the deceived people out there in this hyper grace movement in verse 9 if but 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 that's the new wages right there we don't have sin it's not sin it's just a lack of understanding there's no such thing as sin you got the truth within you've got the divine spark you just need to find your divinity by meditation and chanting and finally until you can connect and astral project and travel around the universe in your spirit body see that's their pinnacle of religion right no friend we have sin now look at the next few verses here chapter two my little children these things write i unto you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world now if you just stop right there it almost sounds like some of this stuff that they teach but i want to focus in on something he said i write unto you tell children that you sin not that's an errors tense verb and an errors tense verb means something that was done in the past and completed in the past it's not continuous or repeating in nature oh listen to me see the very words in first john spell out everything i'm preaching to you the verb tenses are very important so he says here yeah you know what if somebody sins we have an advocate but he just told us some people think well that means that jesus just covers it automatically nobody just read it if you confess your sin you have to do something to get forgiveness and then you walk in the light and then the blood of jesus can cleanse you from all unrighteousness somebody say i have to confess my sins and then choose to walk in the light which is the word of god walk in obedience to the best of my ability
and the blood of jesus christ will cleanse me is that the bible okay now what i love is the next couple of verses look at this so to make sure we understand what he's saying what does he say and hereby or this is how we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments now what's interesting what is it the word keep means ongoing continuous action taking place in the present remember he just said he knows we're not going to keep it perfectly you want a good easy definition here sin and especially sins unto death should be the exception in the life of a believer and not the rule if some sin is particularly under death and i'll read those in a minute but some sin that's under death if that dominates or rules you you're in trouble does it mean you'll be totally free and never do no big difference look at verse the next verse verse 4 boy spells it out plain he that saith i know him speaking and saying i know jesus and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him oh so somebody who says i know jesus i'm a christian yet they're living in an adulterous affair or adulterous affairs and continue to live in those adulterous affairs they are a liar and the truth is not in them you know what i'm saying but can a christian commit adultery and not live in it yeah they can go commit adultery but then realize like david how horrible a sin they committed and broken god's commandments and and know that if and they take it seriously and that this could put me in jeopardy with god and they go back and they say god forgive me and and they're broken over it and they ask god's forgiveness and they repent and they hate that thing and they don't ever do that thing again you see the difference i hope you do come on now why can't we just accept that why is that so hard christian or not you want to go live in a lifestyle of sin then you put yourself in jeopardy of going to hell forever i'm not the one who said the words be hot or be cold to a church be hot or be cold but if you are lukewarm i will spew or vomit you out of
my mouth or my body i'm not the one who wrote that i'm not the one that said that that was jesus said that in revelation 3 to the church of laodicea he said it and what makes you lukewarm this attitude of i can indulge the sins of the flesh and keep indulging them and keep indulging them and i'm okay with god it's a lie it's a deception it's a destructive pattern and if you want to make up the excuses what we all sin and all sins the same and you keep making excuses then you're going to die and go to hell in your lukewarm backslidden false version of christianity [Music] but if you humble yourself and fall on your face when you sin and recognize that your flesh is trying to destroy you and the devil's trying to destroy you because they want to get you into a habitual lifestyle of it and you say no flesh you're not going to take me there no devil you're not going to take me there i'm going to go back to jesus and i'm going to get forgiveness i'm going to get the cleansing blood i'm going to hate this thing i'm going to fight this thing i'm not going to live in it i'm not going to make peace with sin then you are a christian my friend and you're headed in the right direction amen now isn't that the same thing here's what's beautiful it's the same thing that he said romans 7 paul says sin dwells in me i find that there's things i don't want to do i do there's things i want to do for god i end up not doing i have a struggle he said there's a war in me because there's evil living in my flesh but then he goes over into romans eight he doesn't stop there it's not an excuse to live and sin is it he doesn't stop there he goes and says guess what there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit now if your bible's missing that last sentence get you a king james bible it's supposed to be there but he goes through the whole chapter of romans 8 and he says it again in verse 4 who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit oh my goodness it's simple he says to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace they who mind the things of the spirit are after the spirit they who mind the things of the flesh are after the flesh which one are you chasing which one are you constantly chasing the things of the holy spirit are the things of the flesh it's simple it really is simple to understand if you're a born-again christian and you're chasing after the things of the flesh you are a backslidden lukewarm christian on your way to hell forever
unless you get up out of that and repent and ask god's forgiveness does it mean you will never fall again no but you will hate it and understand that you are going to be destroyed in that and you will never go back to a lifestyle of that amen guess what i used to be a drunkard isn't that right billy i used to be a habitual four or five day a week drunkard the bible says that a drunkard will not inherit the kingdom of god and guess what i was doing that as a born-again christian living as a drunkard and a fornicator and a violent man fight at the drop of a hat wouldn't i [Music] even in restaurants he said true story for those of you listening billy is my roommate from college so we know but guess what when i repented babe do i drink anymore no i'm not cheating i'm not running around i quit huh now i've been a christian now i've been back with the lord what working on 26 years have i been perfect that whole time no but i've never gone back and lived in it [Music] amen it's simple gosh it's so simple and it's all over the bible i mean i know we need to stop but i i'm telling you i could go to galatians i could go to ephesians i could go all over the new testament and prove it's not that a christian wants sin he said a christian won't love it and they won't continue to live in it and they won't continue to repeat it over and over and over and over again you say wait a minute preaching i've heard you say what is this sin unto death sit down to death you don't you mean all sin and i'll sin the same well let me ask you something i made up this the other night at bible study that's why i'm kind of bringing this up because i'm i'm sure not everybody was at bible study and there are people listening that weren't at bible study on tuesday night i think it was a tuesday before even i don't know it's all running together
but the the cliche that all sin is the same and i said well let's say my wife you know i like apple pie so let's say my wife makes apple pie and it's horrible [Music] but she's had a bad day i don't want to tell her her apple pie is horrible so let's say i lie and say the apple pie was good just trying to move on through the night right now technically i told a lie and that was a sin but that's not a sin under death is there a difference between lying about my wife's apple pie and molesting a child if we can't figure that one out folks we are brain dead stupid and yet people out there christians all sins the same really how about which one would you pick lie about your apple pie or shoot you in the shoulder with a 38. yeah we got folks saying i'd rather you lie about the apple pie right sin is different okay and the bible says so we're going to finish with this we're going to close with this just to i don't want to leave people hanging out there first john chapter five he says this verse 13 these things have i written unto you that believe on the name of the son of god that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the son of god and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him look at verse 16 and 17. if any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death there is a sin unto death and i do not say that he shall pray for it now let me explain this a little bit here if a man see his brother sin a sin that is not unto death he can pray for him and god will intervene in the situation let's give a perfect example that you want a biblical example all right lot the bible says that lot was a righteous man that's what it says in second peter that he was a righteous man but living in sodom it said it vexed him hearing and seeing their unrighteous deeds from day to day here's the problem lot should have never been living in sodom so was lot technically in sin dwelling among the wicked and putting up with the wicked like he did i would never have had my family if i had a job i would have lived out in the desert
before i would have lived in sodom and gomorrah okay because that sin leaving in that atmosphere even though lot was a righteous man not a perfect man but the bible says he was a righteous man he was living in that situation and it was corrupting his family was destroying his kids it was destroying his wife i mean she ended up turning into a pillar of salt because she kept looking back towards sodom when god was destroying it but notice that lot had no knowledge of what was about to happen while abraham's over praying that god would spare lot even though lot was where he shouldn't be so even though lot was in sin his brother prayed for him and god delivered him and helped him in that situation so see i can see you sin a sin that's not unto death that's why i don't say something to you about every little thing you do right people ask me all the time well well i go to hell for smoking i like what the old preachers used to say no but you smell like you've been there right now is smoking bad for you yes i mean it can give you tobacco can give you cancer it's bad for you you shouldn't do it it's a bad example right will it send you to hell no that's a sin it's a sin but it's not unto death and what he's saying here if you see a brother sinning a sin that's under death you can't pray them out of that you can pray for them but they have to come to god and repent let's let's just read it again here let's read y'all staying with me what he says verse 16 if any man see his brother seeing a sin which is not unto death he shall ask or pray and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death there is a sin unto death i do not say that he shall pray for it all unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death now i look i like how it use a sin y'all look at me there's two kinds of sins okay two main categories and then there's many but let me give you the two main categories habitual and not habitual oh simple right then their sins not unto death sins unto death what's the list of sins unto death good list galatians 5 right just so you know i'm gonna just give you scriptures if you write down notes you can just write them down galatians five ephesians five first corinthians chapter six revelation 21 that's just a few they give you an actual list
and tell you if you do these things i like the way galatians 5 puts it he lists adultery and fornication and uncleanness and lasciviousness and heresies and strife and wrath and all these things and he talks about drunkenness and partying and he talks about all those things witchcraft and sorcery and which covers drug use and he covers all these sins and he says they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god the word do is interesting it's a verb it's a present tense greek verb which means ongoing continuous action taking place in the present right but what's interesting is the word itself is the greek word presso p-r-a-s-s-o and it means to practice habitually so you get it two ways in that verse and he says if you practice these things habitually ongoing continuously right now you won't get out of them you won't stop them you won't repent if you practice you will not inherit the kingdom of god do you know that one guy tried to tell our friend john this week that that just means you couldn't walk in the economy of the kingdom of god here on earth is that what it says says you will not inherit the kingdom of god guess what our inheritance we don't get our full inheritance in the kingdom of god until jesus comes back or we go to be with him and even right now if we died and went to be with him we still got to go through the judgment seat to see what how much inheritance we get so the bottom line is we won't know about our inheritance fully until that day until judgment day but when he says no inheritance zero nada yet no nothing at all right some people say well well could that could mean he's just talking about you know god's kingdom on earth well then you've got revelation 21 it just ruins that right because revelation 21 says this six through eight he does this list he says well let's just read it we'll close with that give you a little sins unto death revelation 21 i like i want to read it because it's just worded just beautiful y'all there i want to make sure everybody's there let's just read from verse one this is too good and i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven in the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea and i john saw the holy city new jerusalem coming down from god out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband
and i heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of god is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and god himself shall be with them and be their god and god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away this is the good stuff this is what i want and he says and he that sat upon the throne said behold i make all things new and he said unto me john's saying this he said unto me right for the words are true and faithful and he said unto me it is done i am alpha and omega the beginning and the end i will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely yet he that overcomes shall inherit all things and i will be his god and he shall be my son but the fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable and the murderers and the whoremongers and the sorcerers and the idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death so if there's any question about galatians 5 talking about eternity and heaven and hell revelation 21 says you've got to overcome you want to be my son or daughter i'll give you the water of life freely you don't have to earn it but you're going to have to overcome what the flesh and the devil from taking you down into living in these sins but he says if you do these sins what makes you a liar by lying all the time what makes you an adulterer by committing adultery all the time you see what i'm saying so he says if you're going to do these things right here it's pretty plain you will have your part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which just a second dad i didn't write it i didn't write the bible and i don't pick and choose what i like and don't like amen okay so now we know god is merciful oh boy [Music] listen anybody listening to me or listening to this podcast or here this morning don't think for one second that this preacher thinks that anybody's going to make it without the grace and mercy of god but i'm not going to frustrate the grace of god either i'm not going to do what hebrews 10 says and abuse the spirit of grace either amen did that answer some questions this morning this is the gospel that we must preach
and people need this explain to them you say well pastor dean i've heard you say a lot of this before yeah but but can you say it can you teach it can you share it can you take your bible out and prove it until you can you might need to hear it again amen because listen question how many people have run into chris so-called christians or maybe lukewarm chris are backslidden christians or unsaid that say these things well you know all sin is the same oh we gotta sin every day well you know we're all sinners it's just god's grace oh i hate the little bumper sticker christians aren't perfect just forgiven makes it sound like it's automatic and just for those of you i hate christian bumper stickers and i hate church signs god answers an email really please stop and now we have facebook and they post these signs these pictures all again and again with all these stupid sayings they just get repeated over and over please stop i haven't seen an email one from you so y'all know you know i say everybody churches would do that have signs would do far better to just say jesus is the only way to heaven and leave it at that that would be more profitable than all these corny kooky little saiyans anyway share these things with people explain them to people i know some of you are but you know the purpose of the fivefold ministry me as a pastor the purpose is to equip you to do the work of the ministry meaning i'm supposed to equip you and you're supposed to take what you learn and go share it do that without fear amen let's pray hallelujah we praise you lord we thank you lord for this day we thank you for time in your word lord i pray in jesus name that this might have cleared up some questions in people's minds lord hear and those listening where i i ask you to strengthen them strengthen their resolve to to be strong to be in the word to know if they fall and mess up there is mercy and forgiveness that you want to forgive them and restore them and wash their sins away but that they have to take it seriously and hate that sin and look at it as if it's a rattlesnake and not a cuddly little baby lord i pray in the name of jesus that you would help everyone listening
all of us lord to grasp these truths so that we can truly repent and walk in the light and that the blood of jesus christ your son will cleanse us from all unrighteousness lord i thank you for what you're doing in many lives in the bible studies even all over uh the country even lord in all the way to pakistan lord i thank you ask you to bless and strengthen us in jesus name amen hallelujah