Well, I like good singing songs that minister to your heart, and everything we've heard tonight has just been a sweet ministry of the precious melody of message and song. I don't know how it makes you feel, but it does encourage my heart to hear good singing like that, and the good songs and the good messages that are in those songs. I was thinking, as Sister Sue testified tonight, that many times we need to learn to do what the Bible teaches us, and that is call those things that be not as though they were. And that's what she was doing tonight. She was testifying in faith when she heard that song that Brother Arliss sang about the two shoes. And she said in faith, I just believe one of these days that whether it's here or somewhere else, the shoes of my loved ones will walk those aisles and give their hearts to Jesus. They're not saved tonight, so she's calling that which is not tonight to be, and that's acting in faith. And I believe sometimes, friends, God wants to see that kind of faith in us. If we'll exercise that faith and speak things before they ever come, it'll happen. I've seen that happen over the years in pastoring, and I usually don't take any shots in the dark, and I'm not about to do that tonight. But there'll be some times along the way that I might tell you something that I'm believing God for for this church. so that you'll know that I'm acting as your pastor in faith on it. And when you see it happen, you'll say, He told us about that. And the reason I'll do that is because I will have been in the presence of God seeking Him and asking Him if I can stand and say this. Because if you think when Elijah went down to the king and said to the king, it's not going to rain but it's spaced three and a half years. If you think he hadn't been with God first and got word from God because God's in control of the rains. And God told him, now you can go tell the king it's not going to rain. And when he went, you know, I'm sure Ahab probably thought, who does this guy think he is? Thinks he can call a rain to an end? But he had a standing with God, didn't he? He was in the right place and he got the message from God and God honored the faith of Elijah. And so I want you to be encouraged that God wants to honor your faith likewise. Turn in your Bibles tonight to the book of 1 John chapter 1. And I'm going to read tonight, beginning at verse 8 of 1 John 1. I'll read through the remaining portion of this chapter, just a few verses, down through verse number 10. And then I'm going to read chapter 2, verse 1. 1 John 1, verse 8 through chapter 2, verse 1. And when you find your place in Scripture, would you stand, if you are able, in reverence to God's Word this evening as we read. I've been preaching the last two Sundays, last Sunday and today, on the doctrine of sin. That was the first message that I preached and then this morning I preached on the consequences of sin. And tonight in this third and final part of this series that I'm preaching, I'm going to preach to you on the commission of sin and the conquest of it. The commission of sin and the conquest of sin. In 1 John chapter 1, look at verse number 8. It says, If we say that 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. Chapter 2, verse 1 says, 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." These are words that are familiar to all of us. Many of us quote verse 9 of chapter 1 about confessing our sin and believing God is faithful and that God is just to forgive us. And then often many times we'll quote chapter 2 verse 1 that if we sin, we have an advocate. with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous. You need to understand tonight, you could look and say, well, pastor, why are you preaching to all of us that are here? We're all saved. Why are you preaching to us about sin? Well, why did John write to the Christians about sin? It is a good warning for you and I to learn what is the sins that we need to be aware of. We've learned what the doctrine of sin is and its effects upon us and what the consequences of sin will be. But there are sins that even as we're being saved, sometimes fail to realize these things happen to us. And how does God look at it and how does He deal with it? And that's what we're going to look at tonight. Father, I pray that You'll bless this Word to our hearts' understanding. And tonight I pray that You'll minister unto each one of us personally and help us, Lord, to be directed away from sin, to flee sin, and to be sensitive by the Holy Spirit that lives within our hearts to know, God, when we are anywhere near sin or its potential of being committed. We do not wish to grieve you, God. We do not wish in any way to reproach your holy name, nor the name of your good church. But our Father, we desire to please you. And we desire, Lord, to be filled with the peace of God, the light of God, the happiness of God, the joy of God. And I know that sin will take that from us, Lord, if we fail and transgress against you. Thank you for your people that's here tonight. Bless your word as we share it with this congregation. And tonight, our Heavenly Father draws H1 closer unto you. And when we leave the house tonight, we'll give you all the praise and glory. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. You can be seated now. The doctrine of sin does involve understanding its definition and its meaning according to what the Word of God says. And bear in mind that throughout all of the scripture, sin is either seen as missing the mark or as overstepping a forbidden line. That's what Adam did. He overstepped the line that God had drawn at the tree of knowledge and said that thou shall not eat of this tree. And he did that deliberately. And so missing the mark means that even though you keep trying to glorify God and magnify the glory of God, somehow you keep missing that mark. And many times it's because of the sin that has been committed in our lives. The doctrine of sin also involves defining its origin universally. It entered into the world through Lucifer, who started in heaven, was cast out of heaven into the earth, and then it entered into the human race through Adam. And sin possesses a nature that is opposite of good and brings with it terrible consequences, as we preached to you about this morning. It affects the universe as well as affecting the human race. And sin brings disgrace, destroys us, and in the end it can bring death, both physical death and even the possibility of spiritual death, being separated from God forever. Another thing that we have to be aware of as Christians is that sin will dull your hearing. and it will also darken your eyes, and it will divert your feet from walking in the paths of righteousness for the namesake of the Lord. Sin will defile your tongue, and it will deceive your heart. It will devour your intellect, and it can doom your soul. Tonight, in this final sermon on this series of The Doctrine of Sin, I want us to look at some of the sins or the kinds of sins that often can be committed on our parts as Christians. Number one tonight, I want to talk to you about the sins of ignorance. The sins of ignorance. God uses that word ignorant in the Bible, and by no means is He trying to diminish anybody's intellect. But what He's saying when He says such things, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them asleep in Christ, is He would not have you misunderstanding or unlearned about what those that are asleep in Christ, what the plight of life is going to be for them. And when He talks to us about the sins of ignorance, He wants us to realize that sometimes we lack the facts and sometimes we are just uninformed. And that's when we have the greatest danger of committing a sin of ignorance. Go with me tonight to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and I'll show you some examples of what I'm talking about. Paul was writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and he was talking about the wisdom of God, which is Jesus Christ, because in the Bible it tells us that Jesus is our redemption, He's our sanctification, and He's our wisdom. And so when Paul was writing down and around verse number 7 and 8 about the hidden wisdom, he's really talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says this in verse 8, and here's what I want you to see. None of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, if they had known who the true wisdom of God was, they would not have crucified, Paul says, the Lord of glory. In other words, they committed a sin of ignorance. They were the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests of that day. They were the religious crowd. And you would have thought that of all the people that could have identified who Jesus was, they should have been able to identify it. They should have known the prophecies. They should have seen certain things that Jesus was doing as he was working in and out of Jerusalem that would have testified to them, the prophet said that and the prophet said this. And yet their eyes was blinded and their sense of ignorance was just simply the lacking of facts and their uninformed knowledge about who the real wisdom of God is. Had they known the Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ, was who He was, they would not have crucified Him. It's what Paul is saying. In Luke's Gospel chapter 23, do you remember that when Jesus was hanging on the cross of Calvary? and those who were on the ground looking up at Him and mocking Him and saying all the things that they were saying about Him. Do you remember what Jesus said to the father on their behalf? He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And sometimes you and I can commit a sin of ignorance simply because we don't really understand. We lack understanding about some things that we're doing. And that's what was going on that day on the cross of Calvary. Prior to the cross, if you go over to the 19th chapter of the book of St. John's Gospel, you remember that Jesus was brought into the place of Pilate. the governor Pilate, and Pilate was trying to find out who Jesus was. And he said to Jesus, especially because they had said, we want him to be put to death because he says he's the son of God. And the scripture says that when Pilate heard these words, he was more afraid. Usually, if you study the life of Pilate, you see that he really wasn't afraid of anything. And he certainly wasn't afraid to shed the lifeblood of human beings. But for some reason, there was something unusual about Jesus and something unique about Jesus that he couldn't quite pinpoint. And what it was, was his lack of understanding and his lack of information that was about to cause Pilate to commit a sin of ignorance. And when he heard that, he said, he's the Son of God. He goes into where Jesus is at and he says, who are you? And Jesus says, not a word. And Pilate says to him, do you not understand that I have the power to crucify you or I have the power to release you? Then Jesus says to Pilate, you wouldn't have any power at all against me except it was given unto you of my father. And from that moment on, here's what Pilate wanted to do. He wanted to just flog Jesus, or whip Jesus, and He wanted to turn Him loose. He even tried to wash His hands and say to the people, I am innocent of this just person's blood. But Jesus said something to Pilate that day that is important. In John 19, verse 11, He said to Pilate, He that delivered Me unto you hath the greater sin. Oh yeah, Pilate was going to sin in what he was about to do to Jesus, and he was about to commit a sin of ignorance. But those who delivered Jesus to Pilate was the ones who had committed the greater sin. You see, if you join in with some party, as this group did that day, joined in and tried to crucify Him, away with Him, get rid of Him, they were becoming a part of what other people was committing, who was committing the greater sin than Pilate was. If you go over to Paul's letter to Timothy, here's what Paul said to Timothy. He said, Timothy, I give thanks unto Christ Jesus who enabled me, putting me into the ministry because He counted me faithful. Because here's what I was, Timothy. There was a time when I was a blasphemer. a time when I was a persecutor, a time when I was injurious. And he said, but I obtained the mercies of the Lord because, he said, what I did, I did in unbelief. And you'll think about it just for a minute tonight. Even some of you might have been raised in church, was taught right, your parents taught you right, but you lived in sin and you did some things ignorantly. And aren't you glad tonight that God knows when you and I lack intelligence and lacks the knowledge that we need to have, And aren't you glad tonight that God is merciful to our ignorance? I'm thankful for that tonight. And so there are the sins of ignorance that we can commit, the lack of understanding and the lack of information. Here's a second kind of sin that we can commit, the sins of infirmity. These are sins that come as a result of our own human weakness. For an example, the writer of the book of Psalms says, who can understand his errors? Do you know why you do some of the things you do? Have you ever thought about some of the things you've said? Have you ever said something that as soon as you said it, your heart smoked you, your mind troubled you for that which you said out of your mouth and you thought, I would have been better off to have left that unsaid? And have you ever had some action in your life, like lose your temper or get out of control of yourself, and all of a sudden you behave more in the flesh than you ever behaved in the spirit, and then when it's all said and done, you've settled down, all of a sudden your conscience says to you, you were a really good witness right there. That'll convict you, won't it? Well, you see, sometimes we have errors. We have the capability of sinning at any given moment because the law of nature that you and I possess as human beings, there's a law in my members that wars against the law of my mind. The law in my members is just prone to sin and natural to sin. And the only way that I can overcome this law that's in my body is there's got to be a greater power that comes in and crucifies all the affections and all the lusts of the flesh that I possess. Because as Paul said, I'm a wretched man. I'm in a body of death. The sin that I don't want to commit is the thing that I do. And the thing that I'd really like to do for the Lord, I can't seem to do it. You see, it's with your mind you serve the law of God, but with your body you serve the law of sin. And that's not at all what Paul's not saying. It's all right to sin in your body as long as your mind is serving God. No, when you're trying to serve God in the spirit of your mind but your flesh just keeps coming up and making one foolish error and one foolish mistake after another, there's a warfare going on inside of you that's tearing you apart and what is happening to you in that particular moment is that you are committing sins that are through the infirmity of your flesh. It might be that sometimes if you're not awfully careful and I've seen people that are saved that when they get mad they lose control of their temper and lose control of their tongue and every now and then they'll say words they had not to say. Can you say amen? You ever hear somebody like that? You need to be careful to judge and not judge that that person's never been saved just because they do that. But I want to tell you that a lot of Christian people aren't trained and discipled, and many times pastors are not preaching to them and teaching them that there are sins of ignorance that you can commit, and you have infirmities in your flesh, and there are weaknesses that you possess, and the only way that you can overcome them is you've got to allow God to fill you with the Holy Spirit of God. Well, preacher, I thought God filled me with the Holy Ghost when He saved me. He did, and your cup will get bigger, and your life will grow, and you'll expand. And again and again you need God to fill you over and over again. Why? Because Paul said the Spirit of life in Christ frees me from the law of sin and death that's in my body. And when I'm freed from the law of sin and death by the Spirit of Christ, there is then no condemnation in me because I'm not walking after my flesh. I'm walking after the Holy Spirit of God. And the Bible says that it's the Spirit of God that mortifies, that is, makes good the deeds of our body. The more of the Holy Ghost you have, The less of your flesh will come out of you. So tonight before you go to bed, pray this prayer. Fill me, God, with the Holy Ghost. Now you say, what do I need to expect? You just need to expect to say, man, get up and go to bed and get up in the morning a newer and more powerful creature. You don't have to dance all over the house. And you don't have to jump around and hoop and holler and let on like that something supernatural has happened to you. You just need to ask God in faith to fill you with the Holy Ghost and then go to bed believing He's going to do it. How many of you believe tonight God will answer your prayer if you'll ask Him? In the book of Psalms, chapter 103, listen to what David said on the sins of infirmity. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. What if God dealt with us after the sins of ignorance? What if God dealt with us after the sins of infirmity? Brother Mike, are you saying God won't deal with our sins of ignorance or our sins of infirmity? No, I'm not saying that, but what I am saying is what if God didn't have any mercy for us in those areas, and if God really gave us what we deserve because of those sins? And what David is simply saying is this. He doesn't reward us according to our iniquities, for He knows our frame and He remembers that we are but dust. We're not superhuman beings and we're not supernatural beings. We've got to be real. Have you ever seen somebody try to portray themselves as a superhuman Christian? Can I tell you something tonight? Sometimes those people are hiding behind a facade. Because what I've learned about people and ministering with people is some of the most spiritual people that I thought were spiritual have some of the greatest weaknesses. and are so easily beset in their ways with God. Do you remember when the writer of the book of Hebrews was writing and he said that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses? And therefore he said let us lay aside every weight and every sin that doth beset us. There are things that weigh our lives down such as sins of ignorance and sins of infirmity. And those things beset us. They have the tendency to keep... The devil wants to beat you down over them. The devil wants to beat you up over them. And I've come along to fight the devil for you tonight and tell you that God doesn't mark your iniquity or God doesn't deal with you according to what you deserve. God's going to give you what you don't deserve tonight. God has mercy and grace for your soul. Thank the Lord that God is that way. In the book of Romans chapter 8, In verse 26, have you ever prayed about something in your life that you need some help from, getting deliverance from? Paul, I'm going to use this illustration tonight. Paul had a firmity in his flesh. A thorn, he said, in his flesh. And that thing humiliated Paul so much that Paul sought the Lord three times that God would deliver him from that thorn in his flesh. Now, there's all kinds of writings on what people think it was. Some scholars believe that Paul had a disease in his eyes. In fact, he even said in one of his writings, I believe it was to the Galatian Christians, because I tell you the truth, he said, if I become your enemy, let me remind you, said Paul, your love for me at one time was such that you was ready to pluck out your own eyes for me. And so some scholars say that the reason Paul said that is that the people there had compassion for Paul because he had large protruding eyes because of a disease. They said that if you looked at Paul, he almost looked like a monster the way his eyes looked. And he suffered great pain over that, but they was ready to give Paul his eyes. And so some scholars say it must have been something wrong with Paul's eyes. I'm not sure that's correct because Paul said, I had this thorn in my flesh and I sought you three times God. And then he says, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. So tonight I'm not sure that it was a physical thing that was going on with Paul as much as it was a spiritual thing. And the spiritual I'm talking about is that the devil was that messenger who was constantly bugging Paul, constantly dogging him, constantly trying to humiliate him. Do you know tonight the closer you try to live for God and the more you try to serve God, the devil will look and see what your infirmities are, that is your weaknesses, where you're the easiest to get upset about. And He'll do everything in His power to buffet you over those things and try to humiliate you. And Paul sought God the third time and he got God's answer. He said, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. God did not take Paul's thorn in the flesh away. Part of the reason was that God had caught him up in the third heaven and let him see things that no other man has ever seen. And he heard things with his ears that no other man had ever heard. And lest, Paul said, that he should get exalted above measure, God allowed this messenger of Satan to come along and buffet Paul to keep him humble. Now, are you listening to me tonight? There may be some things God's never going to remove because God knows if He takes it away, you'll get exalted. And you cannot afford to get exalted with yourself. The Bible said, He that exalteth himself, God said, he'll become abased. So when there's a messenger that buffets you and attacks you, instead of always having to pray over it and letting Satan defeat you, here's what you've all learned to do. God, you said your grace was sufficient for me. And you went on, God, and said that in my weakness, your strength is made perfect. So God, I will glory in my infirmities. How many of you can say tonight, thank you, God, for making me sick? Thank you, God, for making me, letting the devil just pick on me every day. Thank you, God. How many of you can stand up and shout and say, Boy, I want to tell you, last week the devil was mean as a rattlesnake to me, but hallelujah, I praise God, God let him be that way. You can't do that, can you? Because the truth of the matter is, if He's dogged your steps all along the way, He's tried to tear you down. He's tried to wipe off your smile. He's tried to take the song out of your heart. And what He's tried to do is distract you so you won't get what God wanted you to come to the house of God today and get. If it hadn't separated you from God, you're still His child. You're still His servant. You can commit a sin of ignorance, and God will lead you to repentance. And you can commit a sin of infirmity, and God will lead you to repentance. But sometimes you pray until you don't know what to pray anymore. And listen to what Paul said in Romans 8.26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what to pray as we ought. But the Spirit will make intercession for us. There's sometimes when you go to bed and go to sleep at night and you've prayed until you don't know what else to pray. You just go on and go to bed. I can't tell you the times over my Christian life I've said, God, I've cried until I have no more tears. And I have worded this prayer in every way that I can for this person's soul or for this need in this individual's life. And I don't have any more words. I'm empty, God. I've dumped all that I have in my heart out. And there's no change. I see no change. you said in the Bible that your spirit will make intercession. So you're going to be up all night. I'm going on to bed. You take over and take care. And I can't tell you how many times I've seen those people's lives change. I will tell you when you get God praying about it, it'll make a difference. Amen. The spirit maketh intercession for us with utterings and groanings that we cannot. In Matthew chapter 26 and verse 41, the disciples were taken out into the garden in the hour of Jesus' time there before He was to be taken to Pilate's hall. They watched Him pray. They seen Him go a stone's cast, watched Him fall beneath the burden that He was carrying. But they went to sleep. You know what was wrong with them that night? It was probably one of the greatest spiritual moments on earth for the Son of God. Because what was happening was the devil was lining up all the enemies of hell to come after God's Son. Judas was now betraying his own master. He told them, I'll kiss him, the one that you're to take. And he'd even sold his master for 30 pieces of silver. And while Judas is off doing this business against his own master, his other disciples went with him and Jesus took Peter, James, and John. And the Bible said He took them over separate from the others. And the Scripture says that He became exceeding sorrowful unto them. This is God in the flesh we're talking about. But he was feeling the real humanity of mankind when all of a sudden the pressure and the crushing of his soul was feeling the pressure that the devil was bringing against him. He could feel the enemy of hell lining up. And so he said to his disciples, Watch and pray with me. And Jesus went out there a little ways and fell on his face. And his prayer was, Father, let this cup pass from me. Then he said, nevertheless, not my will be done, but thy will be done. Even though that He wanted that cup to pass, what He come to understand was that He didn't come to do what He wanted to do. He come to please His Heavenly Father. And tonight you and I need to understand that God didn't save us to do what we want to do. He saved us to do what God wants us to do. And that's why He prayed, let not my will but Thy will be done. And sometimes in the midst of your infirmity and all that the devil hammers you about, you need to learn how to pray and say, God, I'm trying to watch and I'm trying to pray. And Lord, here's what I am going to pray, Thy will be done. How many of you know tonight that even if the will of God is to take you where God was going to take His Son, that it will still be victory? Because God knew that from that garden Jesus would be taken and stripped and humiliated. And he would be crowned with thorns and he would be beaten till his body was bruised and hair was plucked from his face. And his visage would be so marred. And then they'd take him out and hang him shamefully naked on the cross and nail his hands to the tree. And he would bleed and suffer in agony. And listen to all the cruel mockings and all the cruel sayings that all of humanity's sins could put on him. But God allowed his son to go through such pain so that he could save my soul and yours. That's why the Bible said that He endured the cross despising the shame. But He did it because of the joy set before Him. What joy is that? So that you and I could be saved and set free from our sins. Well, when Jesus got up and came back, what did He find happened to His disciples who were supposed to watch and pray? They went to sleep. And they were physically asleep. And when He awoke them, don't you know, for a second there, there was a little bit of embarrassment on their part? And I'm satisfied that they did not know what to say to him. There was something about that hour that they couldn't do anything for him. And so their human body just shut down because this was the hour of darkness. This is when Satan is going to be allowed to do what he wants to do. Let me tell you a little bit of application about this sleeping. There comes a time and a place when in your life and you're going through a very difficult, a very trying time in your life, you become so insensitive to the reality of all that's going on around you, you're as one who is asleep in that moment. And listen to what Jesus said, watch and pray, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know why Jesus said that? He's really trying to teach His disciples something here. Here I am, God manifested to you in the flesh. And here I am facing the hour of death, facing betrayal, facing a beating like you've never seen anyone take in your life. I'm going to the cross to die for all of humanity. I'm facing a great crisis. And what He's trying to teach His disciples, you're going to face great crises in your life. And listen, before you get done living your life, you're going to face crises. And one of the things that God teaches you to do in those times is watch and pray. But in your watching and in your praying, the Spirit of God is willing to help you, but your flesh can be so weak. that instead of breaking through with the Spirit, what do you do? You become insensitive to it. And sometimes this is the dangerous area for people. This is when the devil gets the best advantage of them. So tonight, here's what I want to challenge you to remember. Learn what your weaknesses are. And learn how to pray, God, not my will be done, but Thy will be done. And God, if this weakness is not something You'll take from me, but You leave it there, then God, help me to accept that in the weakness that You're leaving in my life, Your strength is made more perfect. And instead of me always going around and being down in the mouth, help me to rejoice and praise You anyway in spite of what I'm facing. How many of you know tonight you can praise God in spite of your difficult times? Sure you can. And that's the thing that God wants you to get when you're learning about your infirmities. There's a sin of carelessness as well. This is neglecting being inattentive. In Psalm 39.1, David writes, I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. Are you paying attention to what you say when you say things? Some people engage their mouth before they engage their mind. Say amen right there. Have you ever engaged your mouth before you engage your mind? Boy, sometimes if you're not careful, you can let your mouth overload you. Amen. We need to be sensitive in our thinking processes. And especially when we're about to say something, we need to understand that we can be so negligent and so inattentive that if we're not careful by paying attention to what we're about to say, then our way is going to get us in trouble. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 9 says, Take heed, lest by any means your liberty becomes a stumbling block to them that are weak. God didn't save me and give me the liberty to be free as a Christian, to use the liberties I have to be destructive or hurtful to anyone else. Paul, you remember, said, If my meat offends my brother, I will eat no meat as long as I live. We're not to live our Christian lives for ourselves. We're to live for the glory of God. But we're also to be living epistles that people can read in our lives and they can see the glory of God in us. You may be the only Bible somebody's ever going to read. And when they read your life, they need to be able to see Christ in you, which is the hope of glory. We need to be careful that we don't commit the sins of carelessness. Hebrews chapter 2 says, We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, right here, lest at any time we let them slip. Then there's the presumptuous sins. I'm talking about sins now that Christian people can commit, the sins of ignorance, the sins of infirmity, the sins of carelessness, and then the sins of presumptuousness. In Psalm 13.9, David prayed this prayer, Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. You know what presumptuous sins are? Presupposing that what I'm about to do is all right. I think God will understand. You'd be surprised how many people call themselves Christians. There are things that they can step out here and involve themselves into a sinful area of life or a sinful activity of life and think that God understands that. You know what's wrong with the society that we live in today? We're trying to think of God and make God like ourselves. God is not anything like us. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He is so holy and so mighty tonight that if you and I were to even get anywhere near His presence, we'd fall in the floor. He's a holy, holy, holy God. I'm just amazed at some of the ignorance I hear flow out of even Christian people's mouths. And I meet in different places all over the world today and say some of the ignorant things they say as though God honors our sinful ways. Peter says in 2 Peter 2 that they who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness despise government. What he's talking about there is not despising the government of our nation, but God governs your life. God is the governor of your life. God is the king of your life. God is the president of your life. God is the sovereign of your life. And if you resent rulership or you resent authority, you resent the rulership of Christ in your life, the lordship of Jesus Christ. Do you know there's even churches and preachers today who don't preach the lordship of Jesus Christ. Can I tell you something tonight? If He's not the Lord of your life, He's not the Lord at all of your life. He is Lord and He is God. No man can call Him Lord, save by the Holy Spirit. And when Peter was writing that, he said they despise government. That is, they reject the rulership of God over their lives. And they are presumptuous and they are self-willed. People that are presumptuous, those who are always presupposing, are those who are doing what they want to do rather than what God wants them to do. Can I ask you tonight, what about you? Are you committing sins of ignorance? Are you unlearned about some areas of your own life? Are you not paying attention to what your weaknesses are and what are your careless ways and things that you carelessly speak and carelessly act in your life? And are you always thinking about yourself and what you want to do rather than what God wants you to do? You need to be careful about being presumptuous. If you'll go with me to the book of Romans chapter 1, I want you to read this for yourself. Romans chapter 1. Paul was writing in this chapter to the Roman Christians. And what he's talking about is the sins of humanity. And when he comes down to about verse number 30, or verse number actually 27, He talks about men leaving the natural use of women and burning their lust one toward another. Somebody said God never said one word in the Bible about homosexuality. I beg your pardon, what is he saying right there in verse 27? Preacher, are you a homophobe? No, I'm a Bible preacher. I'm sick and tired of all the titles and labels that somebody wants to give you because you tell the truth. Well, but you're preaching from an old archaic book. It's still the book of God. And it's not archaic. The God who could see the end from the beginning wrote this book. Oh no, preacher, that was written by authors, human authors. God used men to write, but they didn't write what they wanted to write. God told them what to write. This is God's Word. This ain't man's Word. And God said men would burn in their lust for other men, leaving the natural use of the woman. And then he goes on to talk about all the wicked sins that man will commit. And when he comes down to verse number 32, look at what he said. who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but watch out here. Here's what presumption is. You may not commit the sin, but you may have pleasure in watching people do it. Do you like to hear somebody really all off and cuss? Do you like to hear somebody use the very holy name of your God in vain? Do you like to... And you'd be surprised. I mean, I've heard preachers stand in pulpits and say something and then turn around and say, My God, man. And that's using God's name in vain. Preachers do that. And sometimes it's men that you and I esteem and they haven't never even given any thought about the things they're saying. And I've heard them use the term with God, the word by with His name, and literally come right out in their sermon and say, by God, you better believe that. And then there are preachers today, whether you understand or know this or not, there are preachers that literally stand in their pulpit and they use ugly words, perverse words, profane words from the pulpit. Now there are words in the Bible that you maybe have or have not read. I was preaching at a revival meeting one night and my old pastor mentor, he didn't know this was in the Bible. He really didn't know it. And I was preaching over in the book of Isaiah where Isaiah said they were like wild mules. The Bible calls them wild asses snuffing up the wind. And I seen him pinching his nose and snickering. And after the service he said, you're the beatenest fellow I've ever seen. You get in the pulpit and call them wild asses. I said, I didn't call them that. I said I was referring to an animal that God spoke of. And I took him to the book of Isaiah and he read that and he read that. And he said, I didn't know that was in the Bible. And he came back with me the next night, and the next night I was preaching that if you're without chastisement, then you're a bastard and not a son. Well, he snickered again, and he got in the car, and he said, you beat all I ever seen. I heard what you called them last night, and then he said, tonight you called them bastards. I said, listen, brother, I didn't call them that. That's what the Word of God said. And I took him to Hebrews chapter 12, and he read it, and he read it, and he read it, and he said, I didn't know that was in the Bible. The word means they were illegitimate children. They weren't God's children. Well, somebody said, well, you ought to clean up the language and say it different. Hey, you hear me tonight. When God said it in here, you can say it, but you can't take that word and use it like you want to just as an expletive to express yourself. No, you use it in the context that God used it in. That's the only place it's right. Outside of that, it's wrong. and it's never an excuse for you to use it. So many people like to take the Jesus, turn water into wine, that they think that's a reason for them to drink. And even among Christian circles today, people all over this country and churches and pastors are compromising. And I know pastors have stood up in their pulpits and told their people, if I come into a restaurant where you're eating and you're having a bottle of beer, you're having a glass of wine, don't try to hide it or be ashamed of it. As long as you drink in moderation, it's all right. The Bible tells you and I to abstain from the very appearance of evil. Stay away from it. You don't need it. That's one of those meats. Listen, I want you to listen to me. I've had people say to me, Brother Mike, you think you could drink a bottle of beer and if you did, you'd go to hell? The answer I tell you is no. But I'll tell you this, number one, I don't want the bottle of beer, first of all. And number two, here's why I won't drink it. Even if God said it was all right, here's why I won't. He didn't say it was all right, but I won't do it because some brother out there or some individual out there with a weak conscience see me as a preacher drink a bottle of beer, and they might be emboldened to drink, and they can't handle one. They'll get another one and then another one. And the first thing you know, they get drunk, and no drunkard can go to heaven. And I don't know how many bottles of beer it'd take to make me drunk. It wouldn't take many. But here's what I figure, probably two, maybe. And if I drink two and got drunk, I'm one half a drunk if I drank one bottle. Because one is two and one bottle would be one half, so I'm one half a drunk if I drank a bottle of beer. No drunkard shall enter the kingdom of God. You see, that's presumptuous sin. All over this country tonight, people sitting in churches, socially drinking, and thinking this is all right. God surely thinks it's all right. And there are used scriptures, God made wine to cheer the heart of God and man. Well, let me tell you something, the wines in that eastern country were not made like our drinks are today. And they don't have the same kind of fermentation processes that ours do. And I want to tell you something tonight. I just believe that if you're what you ought to be, a Christian, you had not to be presupposing anything's all right. You ought to check it here before you do anything. If you're not sure of it, leave it alone until you find it here. And if you find it here that you should not do it, then don't do it. Don't be like Balaam who tries to push the parameters. God told him not to go. That was the absolute will of God. Don't you go, Balaam. But then they sent more honorable men and more noble men and gave him more money and then he went and God let him go. Because sometimes God will let you go and have what you think you want and then when you get it and you're crying and bawling around to Him, you know what God will say? What's the matter? You don't like what you wanted? You got it. What are you going to do with it? And so we need to be careful that we don't commit presumptuous sins. And then there's the impardonable sin. The unpardonable sin, according to Jesus, is one who speaks against the Holy Ghost. Jesus said he shall not be forgiven of him. This sin is attributing the work of the Spirit of God as being of the devil. The reason Jesus said this was because he had just cast the devil out of a person. And the religious crowd, the scribes and the Pharisees said he is casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub, who is the prince of Satan. Jesus said you can speak a word against the Son of Man and that'll be forgiven. But when you attribute or speak against the Holy Ghost or you attribute the work of the Holy Ghost as being a work of the devil, you're getting on dangerous territory. Some Bible scholars believe that this sin is no longer able to be committed. They believe it's a dispensational sin. And there are those dispensationalists who believe that we're in periods of dispensation. Yeah, we're in the church age. And we're in the modern age, but we're not going through dispensational times. This book is for all time, every time, and right on time. And we need to understand tonight that the unpardonable sin can still be committed in the hour that we live tonight. Turn to 1 John 5. I want you to read a verse of Scripture. 1 John chapter 5. Find when you get there verse number 16. John in writing again to the Christian said, if any man see his brother, this is why I know it's a writing to the Christian, if any man see his brother, I'm your brother in Christ, you're my brother in Christ, fellas. I'm your brother in Christ, ladies, you're my sister in Christ, ladies. Do you know why I call you Brother Larry or Brother Arliss or Brother Brian? At all times, I want to acknowledge the wonderful thing God has done in His fatherhood of you and me. I don't just walk up to you and say, hey Brian, how's it going? I might if I were not around and I haven't really thought about it. But I usually try to pay attention to what I'm fixing to say before I say it. And if I approach you and I say, Good afternoon, Sister Katie, it's because in doing that I want to acknowledge the wonderful thing God has done in His fatherhood of allowing you and I through the grace of God and the wonderful blood of Jesus to be kin to one another by salvation relationship. I hear Christian people walk around all the time, How are you doing, Mike? How are you doing, Brian? When as Christians you ought to learn how to address each other and honor and respect God. Everybody would be going around tonight and say, hey, Brother Mike, how you doing? And sometimes people have walked up to me and they've said, well, how do you want to be addressed? Well, I don't need any more honor than anybody else. When I was called and said they, and it was right here at this church that they give me an honorary doctorate degree. And teasingly, I said to your pastor, Brother Lonnie, I said, where's my stethoscope? And he said, you don't get that kind. And I said, well, I'm a tender to people's hearts spiritually. I need to be able to listen in on their heart. He said, you will when you get on your knees for them. A man of prayer would know to say that, wouldn't he? It's a good answer. Can I tell you something? Being called a doctor doesn't make you any more special than anybody else. I prefer to be called Brother Mike. Or if you want to recognize God's calling on my life, call me Pastor Mike. Because what you're saying is, God, I recognize that this is the shepherd you've set over me. to watch for my soul. What do I do in watch for you? I watch and pray over you and I pray that God protects you and that God's grace is sufficient for you and that God heals your sickness and your affliction and that God sees what's coming ahead of you financially and that God provides and supplies those needs for you. And then I pray and say, God, you see what they need to hear from your word. I need you to visit with me. I need you when I get into this book to just set my soul on fire even though I don't understand what you're doing to me. You know Your people feed me, God, so that when I come I can feed. And I'm going to tell you something, when I get in this pulpit and I feel Him breathe on me while I'm preaching, I don't necessarily know who it is, but I know that God has answered my prayers. And I'm thankful tonight that I get to be a pastor-shepherd of the flock of God. But listen, I want you to look at 1 John 5, 16. If you see, 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. You can see your brother or sister do something that you know is incorrect. They can commit a sin of ignorance. They can commit a sin of infirmity. They can commit a sin of presumptuous. And that's not a sin unto death. And you can pray for them. Do you know God will forgive them for your prayers? But look at what John goes on to say in the rest of that verse. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he'll pray for it. What is a sin unto death? Well, certainly the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost would be a sin unto death. But I want to take your mind back to Paul's writing to the Corinthian church in chapter 5 where he said that there's fornication in your church and such fornication that is not even mentioned among the Gentiles that a man would have his father's wife. This man had taken his step-mom and was having an affair with her. I want to tell you something. Any sensual, sexual sins going on within the church is very blasphemous and very serious to God. Very serious. Because the only sin you can commit against the body, your temple, is to use your body in fornication. Sexual activity outside of marriage between your husband or your wife. And here in the Corinthian church was a man who was having fornication with his step-mom. And Paul said to them, you are, rather than mourning over this thing, you're puffed up about it. And Paul said, here's what I want you to do. If you go read 1 Corinthians chapter 5, he said, turn him over for the destruction of the flesh. Turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. What does that really mean? He said that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, there are those that interpret that passage this way. If that's a Christian who is saved, can never be lost, he commits that sin, he'll die, and the reason he dies is so God saves his spirit. Well, I challenge you to really dig into that scripture and study that. If they were puffed up in that church instead of mourning over that sin, then the sin that that fellow was committing in that church was affecting, ill-affecting that whole fellowship. And the spirit of that fellowship was being hurt. Listen to me. Gossip and bitter spirits and malice and anger and sexual misconduct within a fellowship will affect and afflict the spirit of a church. You ever gone into a church and just felt like it was a big wall put up? And they couldn't sing through it, and they couldn't pray through it, and the preacher couldn't preach through it. That's because there's some offenses that have been committed in churches that have not been repented of. And churches have swept sin under the carpet, under the rug, so to speak, so long that the church says, oh, we better not rock the boat here. Those guys of you in the church that serves on a board with me, if there's sin in the church and I call you and tell you, here, something's going on, we're going to deal with it, you better not tell me we're going to sweep it under the rug and not deal with it. And if you don't want to be dealt with, don't be fooling around doing some stupid things that God doesn't want you to get in trouble with. Because listen, friend, I believe that the Holy Spirit of God can be grieved over our conduct and behavior. And Paul said, you take that man that's in the church and you cast him out of the church and you turn him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. In other words, he's going to die. That's a sin unto death. If churches would discipline people and put them where they need to be and let them know what you've done is wrong and God is not pleased with you and we're going to stand right on the side of God. that the spirit of our church be saved. Let me tell you, if you go on and read the letter Paul wrote them back, because this man was overcome with much sorrow. They did what Paul told them. And Paul said, Now, lest he be overcome with overmuch sorrow, show him love and restore him. I'm telling you, churches should discipline, but churches should always stand ready to forgive and help people get reestablished. Amen? I don't think we got that problem to Oak Lane, but that don't mean we won't have. Because we're living in an extremely sinful world. When a Christian sins, I want you to go back now to 1 John chapter 1. Look with me at verse number 8. How does God view the sin in the life of His child? We are not free from sinning. We are not totally eradicated from our sins when we get saved. In verse number 8, look at what John says in the text. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. He is saying there we are denying the very presence of the principle of sin in us. Tonight you and I cannot deny that we are capable of committing sin. You better learn to know that you can commit sin. When you look at verse number 9, He says in that verse, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. There He is talking about our particular sins. Sins of ignorance. and sins of infirmity, and sins that are careless and presumptuous. And in verse number 10, he says, in verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not his. And here what he's talking about is our denial of personally sinning. You and I are capable of sinning. You and I must confess to God our particular sins. You don't need to air it out to me and I don't need to air it out to you and you don't need to air it out to everybody. But you do need to air it out between you and God. And you need to talk to God about it. You need to talk to Him until you know He's got forgiveness. And listen, when He gives you forgiveness, turn from it and don't keep re-practicing it over and over and over again. Lay it away and get rid of it from your life. Let me give you what happens when Christians sin and they fail to repent. According to verse 6 of 1 John chapter 1, they lose the light of God in their life. According to verse 4 of 1 John chapter 1, they lose the joy of the Lord in their life. According to chapter 3 of 1 John, verses 4 through 10, the peace of God leaves their life. I'm talking about when a Christian sins, you'll lose the light of God in your life, you'll lose the joy of God in your life, you'll lose the peace of God. According to 1 John, chapter 2, verse 5, chapter 4, verse 7 through 10, you'll even lose the love of God from your life. In verse 3 of 1 John, chapter 1, you'll lose fellowship with the Lord. In verse 19 through 22 of chapter 3, you'll lose your confidence. And according to 1 Corinthians 5, verse 5, you can possibly lose your life. And according to 1 Corinthians 11, verse 30, you can even lose your physical health. Do you know that if you're a Christian, God didn't save you to live and exercise yourself in sin. God wants you to deal with your particular sins. See, everything I've been talking to you about is sins of commission, things that you're going to commit, things that's going to work itself in your life. And it can be a variety of things. And you've got to know who you are and you've got to understand what's going on with you. And you need to have such a prayer life that you're talking to God about these things. But what is the conquest of sin? Well, that's the last thing I want to give you tonight. Look at 1 John 1 and verse number 7. John writes that if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. That's you and I with the Father and with the Son. And watch this, "...and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." The conquest of our sins tonight is that the blood of Jesus is the only thing that can cleanse you from sin. And if you read Psalm 119 and verse 11, David said, "...Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee." You see, you can't overcome these things in your lives that are weaknesses and infirmities if you're not praying about them. And as you're praying about them, then you want to know where God's going to answer you? Pick your Bible up and start reading it. Where do I start? Start anywhere. You'll be shocked that as you're praying about it and you're reading it, all of a sudden, God will answer you right in where you select to read. He's such an omnipresent God and such an omnipotent God, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, that wherever you're reading, He can show you out of the context the answer to your prayers. The overcoming power of God is not only the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses you from sin, the Word of God, but the Holy Spirit. Zechariah said it's not by might nor by my power, but it's by His Spirit that I'm able to do anything that I do. And you remember over in John chapter 7, Jesus said, Out of your belly He'll cause rivers of living waters to flow. Do you know the more that you're in the Word of God and the more you're seeking the Spirit of God, the more of the Holy Ghost is going to flow out of you? And the more of that you have, the more of the conquest of sin you will defeat. You'll conquer it, for you're more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. And last, Paul said, sin will finally be destroyed according to 1 Corinthians. One day the last enemy that God's going to destroy is sin. I'm glad that he already has dealt with it in the person of Christ at the cross to save us. And through what Christ has done for us on the cross as Christians, even those ongoing sins of ignorance, those sins of presumptuousness, those sins that we commit in our lives because of the infirmities that we possess, things that haunt us and things that sometimes cause us to feel defeated and feel like that we're not conquering or we're not overcoming. God's blood, Jesus Christ's blood is still what will wash you clean. His word is still what will sanctify you and keep you clean. The Holy Ghost is the work that will change you because the Spirit mortifies the deeds in your body. Sin is real. Sin has consequences. Sin has a commission. But praise God, sin has a conqueror. And that conqueror is the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you as Christians to be strong in your faith and strong in the grace of our Lord. And if you're praying about something that God hasn't taken away from you, then learn how to say, God, I will rejoice in my infirmity. Because in my weakness, your power is strong. Hey, would you be glad to take an infirmity if the power of Christ could rest on you? It's not easy to say, but that's where Paul came. He said, through my weakness, the power of God is able to rest on me more. I'm going to meet that old apostle someday, Brother James. And I'm going to tell him, Paul, I can't tell you the times I've read your writings. And you, being a little Jew boy, it's amazing how you must have had a Gentile body with a Jewish mind. Because he seems to know the answer we Gentiles need. Amen? I thank God that it's not Paul. When I think about it, it's not Paul. It's Jesus Christ who knows who we are. and He told Paul how to write it so we would understand it. Heavenly Father, tonight I thank You and I praise You that You are a long-suffering, patient God that desires to forgive us, desires to cleanse us, desires to sanctify us, desires to fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit, that we might be a conqueror, a conquester over our sins. Lord, we despise and hate it when we fail You and when we disappoint You. when some weakness or infirmity of our flesh or some ignorant thing comes out of us, God. But I thank You, Lord, that You're a long-suffering, merciful God and always willing, just and willing to forgive us and cleanse us. It's not something we need to be repetitive of just doing it over and over again because we know You'll forgive us over and over. No, I believe it's what You told the woman who committed adultery. You told her to go and sin no more. and You want us to do the same. And Lord, in order for us to be able to achieve that, when You forgive us and wash us clean of it, we need You to put the power in our lives to overcome it. That power is Your Holy Spirit. That power is Your Word. Teach us Thy Word, Lord, that we might not sin against Thee. Tonight, as we keep our heads bowed for just a moment, Brianna, would you just come to the piano and just play anything? We're not going to sing. I want you just to