All right, well, we've run a little bit long here, and I want to move right into this because time's running away from us. And while brevity is not one of my virtues, I will try to move through this as diligently as I can. Get everybody to turn to the fifth chapter of Romans, please. And this evening, I'd like to share a message with you concerning, I think, something that as as Christians that I know that all of us face at one level or another, and that is sin in our lives. I'd like to look at what God's word says about us as sinners by our birth, but then also what God has to say about the sin in our life as saved Christians and how we ought to act. And really, the goal of a Christian, though there are many, one of the goals that we desire and the main goal that we desire is to allow Christ Jesus to live his life through us and to live his life through us for us. And in doing that, There there needs to be Christian maturity. We've been studying James in my in my Bible study, my Sunday school class. We've been studying for a while. James is a book about Christian maturity, about spiritual maturity. So we're going to look at a few things this evening. And I'm going to couple I'm going to couple together here. Romans five, beginning with verse 19. Couple that together with a reading from James and see what Uh, see what we look at with sin in our lives. So beginning with Romans, uh, chapter five, verse 19 says, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made centers. So by the obedience of one shall many may be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might have bound, but when the sin abounded, grace did much more about. That, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And then, continuing in chapter six with verse one, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer there in? You see, these passages of Romans address two things. It addresses original sin, the original sin that we were born with, that we were inherited from Adam. So it addresses the original sin in our life, but it also addresses the original sin in our flesh. But it also addresses the sin in our life and the righteousness that we have in Christ. The sin that we have in our lives that Paul's Paul now Paul is not in this implying that we should because grace abounded due to sin. Paul's not implying that we asking the question or implying that we should continue to sin and he says God forbid for. As our righteousness in Christ Jesus, because of that grace that God has imparted to us, God forbid that we should continue in sin. The so we're addressing this addresses two things, the sin of our that we inherited from Adam, but also the sin in our lives as the righteousness and our righteousness through Christ. And I have I have no doubt that that we encounter sin in our life, and I think I. Sometimes I think we minimize the sin in our life, maybe, maybe perhaps, and I know that I will do this from time to time, have an attitude of as as was said here, you know, the law was was made to point out our sin so that grace could abound. And sometimes that we may have the attitude that, well, I'm saying my sins were forgiven my original sin. The sin of Adam was forgiven on the cross, was taken away. The sin, all of my sins prior to my birth were taken away by the cross and the sin that I will commit in the future is taken away. So sometimes I think maybe that we might have the attitude that of indifference to sin in our lives. And the thing is, the last portion of this states that that in verse two, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin by our righteousness in Christ Jesus? Live any longer therein, so Paul is telling us here that we should no longer live in that sin, that sin is removed from us and and we no longer live in that sin. But as Christians, our goal should be and part of allowing Christ to live his life through us. to catch that sin in our life before it occurs. Now, James addresses if you'll turn, please, to the first chapter of James, because this is what I want to couple together with the verses in Romans. You know, sometimes it's we realize often when we sin and it's kind of like, whoops, I did it again as a song. What's that girl's name? Oh, yeah. Britney Spears. That was it. So, you know, and we have an indifference to that. But if we look at James chapter one verse thirteen James says. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. You see, James lays out here that there are stages to sin in our life. And so the first thing that James addresses here, the things that he looks at that address the stages of sin in our life. The first word that James uses here is lust. In verse 14, he says lust. And this deals with the desires, the desires of our heart, the desires of our flesh, but also the desires of our our mind and our spirit. The next word that James uses to indicate a a stage in sin is also in verse 14. And it's the word enticed. This, this word really deals with deception, temptation. The fourth, the fourth stage of sin that that James uses here is in verse 15 and he uses the word conceived. Of course, when we are enticed and that sin is conceived, that sin is born within us. We have now reached the point of sin. And then the last thing that James addresses in verse 15 is death. So the four stages of sin are really desire, which speaks to the lust that we have within us. It is deception where we are enticed and we are enticed of Satan. It is disobedience where the actual sin takes place in our life, and then the death that can occur as a result of that now to say Christians, we are we are saved by the righteousness of Christ and the sin that was born upon the cross for us by Christ. and we escape that death. But the thing that we need to pay attention to here is. If we are aware that there are stages to this sin in our life and learn and can learn to watch for the signs. And of course, I my flesh has no defense against the sin that I encounter or the temptations that I have. And my only protection for the sin in my life is Christ and allowing Christ to live his life in me, for me to have the goal to be more Christ like. So the first thing that I need to do is is is I need to recognize where my weaknesses are in regards to my desires, you know, lust means any kind of desire. And we have healthy desires in our life as well. We have. Hunger, thirst, these are desires in our life, we have fatigue, there are also other desires in our life, you know, some some sins that we seem to remember to God, a sin is a sin. Murder, selfishness, covetousness, a sin is a sin to God and and and so therefore. In his eyes, they they they are, you know, the penalty of death, the penalty of sin is the same regardless of what the sin is. So there are also desires that we have that are. Not God given desires, desires for power. for for position, desires for respect. We want other people to respect us. And you see, Satan will use all of our natural desires, our God given desires against us. And he will tempt us with things. You know, Satan knows where we live. He knows what it is that he can tempt me with that best has the opportunity to cause me to bite on that bait. Take that bait and to sin now it's different. The thing that really the thing that really. We are tempted by the most that Satan places before us is not necessarily the same thing for us. Some people are power hungry, and as a result of that, they try to elevate themselves to two positions of power rather than allowing God to place them in those positions. And of course, Satan is telling us the different things that we can do, the different people we can step on, the different places we can squash in order to climb up that wall of people to get to the top and in the process. We sin, we hurt other people, and those things are not to the glory of God. So, you know, eating is normal, but gluttony, the Bible tells us, is sin. So that's an example of a natural desire that we have, a God-given desire that we have, that can be turned to sin. Sleep is normal. Laziness is sin. Hebrews 13, 4 says marriage is honorable and all and the bed and defiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. So even our sexual desires, which those things are God given as well in marriage, they are natural, they are God given and they are correct. But those can be abused as well. Satan knows each of those desires of our heart as well as God does, and he knows right where to get us. As we mature as Christians, our desire and what we need to do and what I'd really like to get across this evening is, is that we learn to pay attention to these things. Satan is very subtle in our lives and his temptations, his bait, if you will, never appears as bait. The fishermen puts bait on his hook to disguise the hook. There's no fish that's going to bite on a bare hook. I've done a lot of fishing. I've never I've snagged a few fish in the side by that, but I've never gotten one to bite on a hook. By the way, back where I come from, snagging is illegal. But but no, no fish is going to bite on a bare hook. And. If we see if we can see sin, for what it is prior to where we act upon it and go to God, go to Christ Jesus for our refuge. We have a much better chance of withstanding that temptation from Satan, withstanding his wiles and withstanding that sin. Because really, the sin occurs in the third stage that James describes. We have desire, which are our lusts and our desires in our life. There's the deception, which is Satan's deceptions and temptations. And then there is disobedience. We need to try to catch what's going on before we reach the third stage of disobedience. We need to recognize this sin, and we need to recognize Satan for what he is. He knows our innermost fleshly desires and of the natural man that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, where Paul talks about the natural man. This is the man that lives in the flesh. We are, as pastor often says, a spirit with a soul that lives in a body. This body of flesh Where the natural man resides, Satan speaks to they work, our flesh works as he will hand in hand with Satan. And we all know the spiritual battles that we can go through. I have been today. It's just been one. I'll tell you, it's been a doozy of a day. And I got to the end of the day and I'm going, really? You know what's going on here? Really? Is that really? I just I couldn't believe it. But Satan will do everything that he can to get into your mind, into your life and to take your focus off of the cross. We need to maintain our focus upon the cross of Christ. The thing is, we are a we we are a threat to Satan's realm when we are in the word and when we are allowing Christ to live his life through us and we are living as the righteousness of Christ, then we are a threat to Satan's realm. And he is going to do everything he can to come after you and he's going to do everything he can come after me. You know, I don't feel some of the I don't feel anything nearly like what I on on Sundays or the day before to teaching my Sunday school class that I have encountered today. You know, I. I will often say to people when they tell me that they're that they have just been constantly in a day or in a period of time under attack by Satan. You know, I don't know that they take much comfort in this, but I will tell them, take comfort in the knowledge that Satan feels that you and your work for the Lord is a threat to his realm and you're under attack because that he feels that what you are doing for the Lord and the work that you do to the glory of God You are a threat to him, the people who he has in his grasp, the people who he has in his clutches, he pays. He has to pay little attention to he owns them for the time being, and he really doesn't have to focus his his work on those people. It is the people of God and the people who desire to do the work of God in their lives who are that threat and who he will focus on. I think too often we minimize Satan. We readily. And. Faithfully accept God at his word, God, for who he is, Jesus, for what he's done in our life, that we are saved, that we are forgiven for all of our sins, all of that done on the cross. But when someone starts talking about Satan, when someone starts talking about Satan's temptations, I think we also have a tendency to minimize that and kind of say, I don't know, it just sounds like witchcraft. You know, that just sounds like, you know, it sounds like nonsense. And I know that sometimes I have those feelings, but Satan. Is has a part in this. God tells us that he does. God tells us what his part in his revelation tells us that he is the accuser of the brethren. He stands before God in heaven and he says bad things about you and I. Fortunately, God sees him for what he is, whereas we don't often. And that is really part of the key to us stopping to the point before the point of disobedience. Satan being also the father of all lies, as the Bible, as the Bible tells us to. So he exists. And I think sometimes we have a tendency to to minimize that or or have a tendency to push it off and say, you know what? That just sounds far fetched. And it's not just as much as God can fill my heart full of joy, just as much as God can fill my heart full of hope, just as much as as I can rejoice that a brother has gone into heaven. Satan is trying to discourage me. He's trying to keep me in sin. He's trying to take my eyes off of the cross. He wants me to be guilty. He wants me to be ashamed. All of these things to distract me from what God would have me to do. Sometimes we fall. Some of us for a time fall away from God and though though we have accepted Christ as our Savior once saved always say we studied that in the men's Bible study last night. Pastor went through several passages to to show us where the Bible tells us that. And that's that's a subject for another time. But but Sometimes, Christians will fall away from God. Do you know we need to stay in church? We need to fellowship with our... Our salvation doesn't come through being in church, and our salvation doesn't come through baptism, and our salvation doesn't come through fellowship. Our salvation comes through the cross and our acceptance of Jesus Christ for the atonement of our sins. When I don't stay close to my brothers and sisters in fellowship, when I am not in every service that I can possibly be in and hearing God God's word preached, I need to have my heart and soul filled with it. I need to have my mind filled with it so that things of this world can be pushed away when I'm not in those Bible studies as I gradually. And, you know, falling away is a slow, barely perceptible thing that takes place in our lives, and while it may be very perceptible to our brothers and sisters, if you're the person who is backsliding, it is not so easily perceptible to you. And before you know it, you're not walking in the doors of the church anymore, and Satan has got you right where he wants you. Praise God that I can't lose my salvation. For those things, but Satan will draw us away by the world out there, by his temptations. He will lead us into sin. He put us in those guilty and shameful positions where he has us convinced that to walk back in the doors of this church and to begin the fellowship with our brothers and sisters again, we're too ashamed. We're too guilty. He convinces us that the cross, though in our hearts, And in our minds, we know it. Satan works hard to convince us that the cross has no meaning. It's his aim. If he can and he wants to draw us away, I. You know, this is something that that is. Is so is so strong in my heart from time to time, because I am accosted often and, you know, we We must get to the point where we understand what God, what God's word says about our flesh. You know, Romans 5, 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. That is original sin. That is the sin that was passed on to us by the sin in with Adam. Romans seven, verse 17, says now, then it is no more I. that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. And that means in my flesh is no longer I, because I am a saved, purchased person, righteous in God's eyes because of Christ. But it is no longer I. That do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, and that is in my flesh. So when I understand what God says about my flesh, I have inherited original sin, that sin exists, exists in my flesh and Satan. working to tempt those things we have to see Satan's bait for what it truly is. We've reached the point of no return, as James states in verse 15, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. When we've bitten on the bait, when Satan has grabbed a hold of us, when he has put in front of you The thing that is you are the least able to resist in your life. And I don't know what it is. I know what those things are in my life. And I suspect that you know what those things are in your life, too. I don't know if anybody can relate to this or not. I have been amazed in my life how. I've seen the same bait before. And I've been on it more than once, and I have suffered the same pain The same suffering, the same downfall each time as a result of biting on that same bait that yet guess what? I'll bite on it. So even when we know that Satan knows where our weak spots are, we are still susceptible. We are susceptible. God is not. We have no strength against Satan and his wiles. Our strength is in Christ. We need but to recognize the bait. We need to recognize it is speaking to the desires, even can speak to my natural good, God-given desires and cause those to turn into bad things. We need to recognize that bait. and go to God with those things, hit our knees and pray for God to take the bait away. Sometimes I'm too stubborn. You know, I have proven time again, but I can't do it. I just keep trying anyway, and I have as a result of that, you know, I've I've. I've. Fallen sin many times, you know, We can't blame Satan for our sin. His part's the temptation. I'm going to date myself a little bit here. Used to be a show on TV back in the late 60s and early 70s. It might only have been late 60s. Laugh in, some of you remember it. And there was a comedian on there named Flip Wilson. He was always going, the devil made me do it. Well, you know, once you sin, you own the sin. Satan provides the temptation for you, but he didn't commit the sin. And we have to recognize that as well. And again, praise God, I'm forgiven for my sins, but that. It belongs to me. Christ has taken that sin away from me. But as we read in Romans, as we read in the in the first part of Romans versus chapter six, verses one and two. God said, Paul said, God forbid that we continue in sin. So God's desire for us is to not continue in sin. All my sins are forgiven, I might as well. What difference does it make? God says it makes a difference. We need to put on the armor of God, as it's stated in the Bible, and resist that sin, go to God in prayer, recognize that sin for what it is or that temptation for what it is. You know, we we work against our desires and the desires that we have are our emotions. Satan puts these things in front of us and our emotions being the emotional beings that we are. We think emotionally we have two things in our flesh that work. in concert with each other in order to look at temptation and Satan uses those things in our flesh to bite that bait of that temptation and one of them are our emotions. The other one is our intellect. Our intellect is is man's knowledge, not God's revelation. I think often that we get too big for our britches and think that we can handle these things. And as a result of our age and as a result of our experiences, we've gained more wisdom. And about the time that I start thinking that I've gotten older and wiser, I'll get put in my place by thinking these things. So our intellect causes us problems. The emotions see something that we want. Those are the areas where we live, where Satan knows he can hit us. Our emotions are working and we're feeling those things physically in our body and our intellect will justify in our mind, which is where our intellect resides, will justify the reasons for why this taking this temptation is a good idea. Again, I said, even though we know and recognize it often for what it is, we can convince ourselves that this time it's different. This time it'll be different this time, it's not really what it appears to be. You see, so we are our own worst enemy in this respect. And so our once we have reached the stage of sin that's referred to as disobedience in the four stages, we're acting on our will. We've made the choice. Satan didn't make us sin, the devil made me do it. I made the choice. When I get to that point prior to disobedience, we may not sit with. In retrospect, looking back often when we contemplate the things that we have done, we will say. Boy, you know, I made the choice to do that, but it's usually in retrospect. And again, we need to realize that we have a choice. We can either choose to follow Satan's temptation or we can choose to hit our knees and go to God in prayer and ask that that temptation be removed from us. I found that that works, you know, I found it. Satan messes with me the most often on a Sunday morning, sitting out there about where Jeff is and all kinds of things will run through my mind. And I have found that I can say something like Satan be gone from me. And those feelings, those temptations, those emotions that I'm feeling and that intellect that's working on me, those things go away. It works for me and it's just a matter of me recognizing who it is. So, you know, even. Now, Christian, Christian, Christian living is then a matter of the will, and just as we determined to accept Christ as our savior, we also must allow Christ to live his life in and through us. And, you know, children act on how they feel. They act upon their emotions. They're immature. They kick and scream and whine and stomp up and down when they don't get their ways. They act very emotionally and mature Christians should act on the basis of God's will for them. You know, God's will is not. God's will is not a mystery. Too often people say, oh, boy, I sure wish I knew what God's will for me is. Well, in some things it is whether I should take this job, whether I should go here, whether I should move there. But in regards to the way I live my life, in regards to my relationship as a Christian to the world, God's will is not a mystery. It's all right here in black and white and red. God states plainly and clearly what his intentions are for me and where my place as a Christian is in this world. And so, therefore, in regards to these things, I can align my life with God's will. You know, the more you exercise your will by saying no to temptation. The more God, the more you're allowing God to take control of your life, I've discovered that I have when I'm in charge, when I am seated on the throne of my life, things go haywire when I put Christ on the throne of my life and recognize that he is the king and he is the ruler in my life. Life goes well, though life problems still come along when those things come along. I'm more. I know better where to go. I find more comfort more quickly when those when the sin comes along in my life or the temptation to sin. I am better equipped when Christ sits on the throne of my life to allow him to handle those things. Those are things of a mature Christian. And, you know, just like we're born and grow up, some of us, just like we're born and we get older, we are also reborn in Christ. And we also begin to mature. Miss Bobby Keats is in my Sunday school class and and I've asked her a few times. She's been saved since she was a very young lady. I say, Miss Bobby, do you ever quit growing in the Lord? Do you ever quit maturing? Do you ever do you continue to grow? And she says, absolutely, absolutely. That's a comfort to me. It's a comfort to know that I'm not ever going to know it all. So. It should be our goal to to to grow in the Lord during the brought up trust tonight. Any of the rest of you have problems with with trust, trusting God. I've had some difficulties there, but you know, when we when we trust God, he proves himself and will prove himself faithful. And this has a tendency to make us more trustworthy. In regards to trusting God, he proves himself trustworthy. I mean, and this has a tendency to make us more trusting. But first, we have to begin to trust. Yeah, this thing is going to give me problems. So first, we have to begin to trust God, though. You know, God's not going to force his will upon us. He wants us to choose him. No father would want to force be able to have the ability to force his children to love him. And our father in heaven doesn't either. He wants us to choose to love him. He also wants to choose what wants for us to have the choice of whether we'll put him on the throne of our lives or not. He wants us to have the choice of whether we seek him when Satan's wiles and temptations come along or whether. We make the decision to follow the temptation, we have a choice. And we have to go to God to make the right choice. So, you know, in. You have to let him flip into verse 13, says, for it is God which worketh in you both to will. And to do it is good pleasure. I don't have the strength in all of these things to will away anything. But this verse indicates to me that it is God that worketh in me to will. So praise God for those things. We can close in prayer, please, and I'll let you all get out of here this evening. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for these tolerant people here this evening. We thank you for giving us the ability to study your word freely in this country, Lord, where so many places this is not had. We thank you for the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. Lord, be with with the Sanchez family this week and be with our church family as we work hard, as we do things to serve you. As we go out into this evening, give us travel mercies as we go home. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.