So a couple of weeks ago we left off with Peter beginning his sermon in Solomon's portico. There was a large gathering of people there in the temple that day. And all these witnesses that were there were in awe. Sorry, what's going on? They were in awe of this formerly lame beggar that had just been healed. They are amazed that this has happened to him. They are witnessing this man walking and leaping and praising God for the first time. For the first time in his life. For the first time he's going into the temple because he's no longer unworthy, if you will. So Peter takes this opportunity to preach the gospel across to this crowd. And to this point, the sermon has been a very heavy indotment of the fact that they've killed their Messiah. His blood is on your hands, is the message. But it's at this point, his sermon starts to take a turn. It begins to show compassion for them. Simon Kistemacher stated that Peter has uncovered the miserable plot of his listeners, who now see their guilt before God. Although they may register excuses and plead extenuating circumstances, they remain guilty of killing Christ, the author of life. Peter addresses them with gentle words, spoken with pastoral interest and concern, He places himself on their level with these words of comfort, and that's an end quote. So it's at this point that Peter begins to plead with the people to repent and believe, which has been a consistent message from Peter so far through Acts, and to receive forgiveness of their sins, even the sin of killing the Messiah. So tonight, I'm gonna teach from Acts chapter three, one verse, verse 17. If you're able, please stand in honor of God's perfect revelation. Verse 17 reads, and now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. Father, this is your revelation to us. Help us, Lord, to absorb all that you will teach us this evening. Help us to apply these words to our life, to be able to do your will. Guide us, Lord. Do all that you said before us to do. Help us, Lord. Grant us opportunities, Lord, to share your truth of Christ with others. Give us the right words. Let us be a tool that there might be someone led to be saved. We love you, and we pray this in Jesus' name. And all God's children said, amen. So somehow I came up with 17 pages of notes out of one verse. Was it 10 words, something like that? And now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also. Acted in ignorance here is Peter telling them, yeah, you've sinned. Yeah, you've killed your Messiah. But you did this, this was acts of ignorance that you did and your rulers did also. So what's important about that? What's important about it? sin of ignorance, if you will. If you, and I'll read this to you, you can turn there if you want to, but Numbers 15 verses 27 to 31 talks about intentional and unintentional sin. And there's apparently a big difference here. And tonight, I'm gonna spend my time up here talking about sin. What is sin? What does it look like? What do these verses mean? How many different types of sin are they? How's it classified? How do we bounce these around? How do we understand? A verse or two in here are gonna be verses that are a little bit difficult. But we're gonna find our way through there. Numbers 15. We're jumping in at verse 27. Also, if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring near a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement before Yahweh for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, making atonement for him that he may be pardoned. you shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or sojourner, that one is blaspheming Yahweh. And that person shall be cut off from among his people because he has despised the word of Yahweh and has broken his commandment. and that person shall be completely cut off. His guilt will be upon him. So per the scripture we just read, unintentional sins, acts of ignorance, sins of ignorance are forgivable, even in the Old Testament under the law. Today, fortunately, we have no need for goats. We don't have to find a priest. The sacrifice for atonement for our sins has been made, and it was made by the Lamb. The amazing thing to me is that he died for our sins 2,000 years ago. 2,000 years later, I started committing the sins that he had already died for. So the unintentional sins, they are forgivable. These are acts of ignorance. These are not malicious toward God. But these intentional sins, and there's a phrase used here that says, with a high hand. And that's not familiar to most of us. So I'd ask myself, what does with a high hand even mean? And here I go digging through this and that. Because it's really important that we understand what this means. We can easily read over this and say the words and keep on going and not truly grasp what is meant by with a high hand. A high hand references an intentional action. We're doing it intentionally. There is no remorse. It's usually up from a self-centered stance. And the person knows that it's sin, but they do it anyway. This is what performing this sin with a high hand means. Intentional, no remorse, self-centered, and do not care that it's a sin. So what happens then? We can read back through these verses and it talks about him being outcast and set apart, no longer a part of the community. But if you read on into verse 32 through 35, there's an explanation given here of what happens with intentional sin. A man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath and the Lord told Moses, have the community stone him to death. And I've studied long and hard about, man, that's pretty harsh, isn't it? I mean, I raked leaves on a Sunday not too long ago. I did this not too long ago on a Sunday, and did I violate the law at that point? And in full clarity, I haven't come to a full grasp personally of how much, how far does that go today? The law is still intact. So, I ended up telling myself, through reading the scriptures, and I come to peace with, at a minimum, at a minimum, this verse shows us how much God hates sin. He is holy, just, and we can go through all those list of attributes. And this one man is an example for us to realize That sin in the eyes of God is something that one sin will send you to hell, right? If you're not forgiven, one sin is that bad. One small sin. So we have an example here of this person being stoned. It's also interesting to note that this law of unintentional and intentional sins applies not only to the Jewish people, but there were apparently people who traveled with them that weren't Jewish. And the way it reads, it could even be people that are traveling through the land where they were, and at this point in time, they really didn't have a land. They were sojourning themselves. But if you're not a Jew, you're still expected to follow this law. That's what the scripture says. That doesn't say they applied it to all the nations around them, but as they started to gather land, all of these laws applied to their land. I'm going to move on here, we've got a lot to get through. When we think about the rulers not knowing, and these are the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, if you will, I really question, did they really not know? Is it possible that they really did act in ignorance? I mean, they knew the scriptures better than anyone else at that time, and they couldn't see Jesus in the Old Testament? Paul in 1 Corinthians 2.8 supports Peter's words here, and he says, but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery. The wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has understood, for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Paul too says that they acted in ignorance. So Peter is here offering the Jewish people that have gathered in the temple and listening to him, he's offering them a second chance. Peter's simply asking the listeners, what shall be done concerning your sin? So exactly what is sin? The voluntary departure, and I'm gonna read a few of these. The voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule or duty prescribed by God. The voluntary departure of you and I from a known rule or duty prescribed by God. Any voluntary transgression of the divine law or violation of a divine command, a wicked act, iniquity, sin is either an action which is a divine law is violated, or it's a voluntary neglect to obey what you know you should be doing. Sin comprehends not actions only, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts, purposes, words or desires, not becoming of the commandments, whatever is contrary to God's commandments and laws, this is what sin is. When you read the theologians, and you can about pick anyone you want to, They divide sin into two categories. You have original sin, which we all, it has been imputed to us from the fall of Adam in the garden. It's almost like we inherited it, but imputed is the proper word there. And then we have actual, and a few people called it active sin. That is sin that we commit as we live our life, when we break the commandments, when we don't do the things we know to do. It's active sin. And I see what their breakdown looks like. When I go to the Bible, and I look in 1 John 2, the Bible breaks sin out into three classifications. And these are verses that are pretty familiar to all of us. But they read, do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. So before we dive into these three classifications of sin, I want to make sure we understand what John is saying here. He says, do not love the world nor the things of the world. He is not talking about creation. He is not talking about the world that God looked at after he created it and said, this is very good. That is not what John is referring to here. It's not the physical world. It's not the created order. There's no way that he would have instructed us to hate the world that God said that about. Even in its fallen state, nature's physical beauties reflect God's glory and demand his praise to him. Psalm 19, one, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and the expanses declaring the works of his hands. Here John is not telling us to hate the world of humanity either. Because one of the most familiar verses that we all learned as children, John 3, 16, says that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son for people. for those that the Father gave him, for those that he loves. The world and its things that John is speaking of are the invisible, the spiritual system of evil, the tainted hearts of the unregenerated people, the sinful nature that we inherited from Adam. This is the world that John is talking about. Ephesians chapter two, verses one and two, And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, just like everybody else. John goes on and says it a little more simply in 1 John chapter 5 verse 19. We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. This is the world that he's talking about not loving. MacArthur stated clearly there is an unmistakable line of demarcation between the things of God and the things of the world. The ongoing moral and ethical deterioration of contemporary culture makes this obvious. Even brief consideration provides a lengthy list of cultural agendas that are aggressively hostile to biblical Christianity. An attack on the traditional family by feminism, an active promotion of sexual promiscuity and homosexuality, an increasing acceptance of violence, an emphasis on materialism and hedonism by the secular media, a steady decline in standards of personal integrity and business ethics, an undermining of right and wrong by postmodern relativism, and he says, and so on, then goes on to state, in order to support his admonition, John does not offer a long list of specifics or detailed illustrations. Instead, he presents three general reasons believers must not love the world. Number one, because of who they are. They're believers in the true God. Number two, because of what the world does, the sin and the iniquity contained within it, and because of where the world is going. So sin, according to John, has three classifications, and they're the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Lust in and of itself is defined as a, to desire eagerly. Too long after, to have carnal desire for, to desire eagerly the gratification of carnal appetite. Pride is defined as inordinate self-esteem, an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank or elevation of office, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distant reserve, and often in contempt of others. And this particular sin is likely one that is commonly committed, and many people don't even realize they're committing a sin when they do it. Look what I did. Look at what I accomplished all on my own. Well, you think that's good, you should see this. We've all met that guy, right? I think if we were talking about a wart that was on the end of my nose, they would have one that's bigger sometimes. It's always worse or better. But these are sins. The sin of boastful pride can easily become a habit, and we as people do not recognize it when we do it most often. So the first classification John had, the lust of the flesh, is a debased, ignoble craving of evil hearts. The word flesh is a reference to humanness. It's a reference to a sinful essence. The word lust is used to describe cravings. The word lust can be used in a positive sense. Typically it's not. But if I'm lusting for more righteousness, That wouldn't be a terrible use of that word. Similar to covet. Meanings are similar. The use is similar. Covet is more materialism. Lust is a little more emotional, sensual. But most often it is used in the negative sense. Sensual impulses from the world, excuse me, that draw people toward transgressions. Lust of the flesh. The word covet is similar, but we must understand that lust does apply to sexual sins, but it does apply to others as well. Lusting precedes most sin, just as coveting may. First you lust, first you covet, and then you commit the sin physically, the act of sin. So every time you sin, you actually commit to, right? First you decide to break the law, and then you go break the law. And what causes lust? Well, in the unregenerate heart, the desire of the heart is not only tarnished, but it's completely defiled. There's no good in it. The defilement causes mankind to eagerly pursue evil desires and totally neglects what is good and righteous. Galatians 5, 19 to 21 states, now the deeds of the flesh, this is the lust of the flesh, the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and all things like these of which I forewarn you, Just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those are heavy words. What does those who practice such things mean? Those who practice such things are those people who are committing sins. Maybe they came down the aisle and prayed that prayer at one of the local churches and now I'm saved. But the sin that they were practicing has never slowed down. Nothing has changed in the way they live their life. And I'm not saying that they're saved by works, because that's not the case. But if you're saved by the God of the Bible through the blood of Jesus Christ, and you really appreciate what you've got, works will happen. Works will happen. You cannot avoid wanting to keep the commandments. If you're truly saved, you will have that inner desire that you will want to do these things. And once again, I'm not saying you have to have, you have to do works to get saved. I'm not saying that, but you do them out of love after you're saved. That book, The Law and the Gospel that we picked up at G3 and we handed out at the Deeply Rooted Conference, it talks about the law as a covenant of works versus the law in the hand of Christ as a rule of life, is the way he puts it. And I thought that was just an excellent way to explain that. When you're unregenerated, when you're unsaved, when you're lost, you're under the covenant of works. Your only path to heaven is through works. Your only path to heaven is to be perfect. unless you're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And it's only after that happens that you're really capable of keeping any of the commandments. It's at that point that you really want to do them. So I encourage you. Where it says those who practice such things. I'm not talking about, I've been struggling with this sin for a long time. I don't do it like I used to. It seems like it's more and more separated every time I do this or I think that or whatever that is. And I'm slowly killing this thing. And your desire is to not do it anymore. That's what salvation looks like. That's what salvation does. There are some sins that will be taken away from you when you're saved. I've seen it. There are some sins that you have to fight for. So don't give up. have assurance that Christ saved you, put those sins of the past behind you. Okay, lust of the eye. God made the eyes of mankind so that they could behold God's glory and creation. Psalm 83 through four states, when I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, what is man that you remember him and the son of man that you care for him. We are his treasured creation. People are. And what this verse is saying is when I look around and I see billions of stars, whatever that number is, why would you love me when you've got all that? When you're able to do that, why would you pay one minute's attention to me? Why would you care anything about me? When I look at the ocean and the vastness of all you've done there, why would you want to save me? That's what this verse is saying. Yet sin defiles the eyes of mankind, and sin can defile our eyes to the point that we fall into a sea of sin. A very familiar story to most of us, in 2 Samuel chapter 11, David got up from his bed, went out on his rooftop, and observed Bathsheba bathing. I don't know how far away she was, but she was close enough that he could tell she was very beautiful. And David desired her. He made a decision to try and commit adultery with her, even though she was married. He followed through with that, and the adulterous act happened. Isn't it interesting that she was bathing and her name's Bathsheba? Anybody else in here pick up on little things like that? Get back on track here, I'm sorry. But he committed adultery with Bathsheba. She becomes pregnant and the child dies, creates lots of grief, mourning for David, pause. He decides to have her husband, Uriah, killed. Puts him on the front line by himself at the next battle. He's got no chance of surviving it. Kills him. Murdered. He's got the blood of two deaths on his hands. He's got the guilt of having a doltrous affair on his hands. He's got the guilt of lust on his hands. He's got the guilt of coveting on his hands. Lust of the eye. Matthew 5, 27 to 29 says, you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. But if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. For it's better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. I don't think the intention here It's for every time we commit a sin, the lust of the eye is to tear your eye out and throw it away. What God is saying through his word is that if this sin is bogging you down enough, you've got to stop it somehow. Find a way. I don't think tearing your eye out is really going to solve your lust. It'll sure make you think twice about it before you have to lose the other one. Lust of the eye. Simply put, if you have anything in the world that causes you to have that little twinkle in your eye, pause, take a close look within yourself. Make sure your intentions are pure. It's one thing for me to see a lovely lady and admire the fact that she's beautiful. It's another thing to do what David did. Make sure your intentions are pure. If you can't do that, look away. Wait on maturity to allow you to be there. Preserve yourself. Boastful pride of life. This is the last of the three that John has pointed out. Pride causes self-centered thinking. Pride typically leads to lying, exaggeration. It leads to other sins as well. The largest violation of the law that pride can lead to is likely a lack of love for God or for your neighbor. Growing pride in mankind taints logical thinking. Your decision making is altered. It ultimately causes one to value themselves higher than others, and if allowed to grow, even higher than God. Pride is totally opposed to what Christ has taught us. In Mark 8, 34, Christ states, and he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, and this is Christ speaking, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Denying himself is the opposite of being prideful. To deny yourself is the opposite of being overloaded with pride. Christ is saying here, lay your pride down and pick up your cross. Follow me. When we think about these three classifications of sin, Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, and we can read about that in Luke 4, and I'm not gonna go through all 13 verses there, but Satan tempted Christ with all three of these. In the first temptation, he looks at Christ and says, make this stone to become bread. You see, Satan luckily knew that Christ had fasted for 40 days before this happened. He knew that Christ had a human nature. And he knew that that human nature was gonna be hungry. So he's tempting him. If you are who you say you are, turn that stone into some bread, let's have a piece. That's layman's terms, but this is the lust of the flesh. The second temptation, and it's pretty interesting when you read through this because there's obviously some time travel going on here. Because it says Satan showed Christ all the kingdoms of the world in a moment. In a moment, he showed him all the kingdoms of the world. And he offers to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, the lust of the eye. And what he's basically saying is that all this struggle that exists between you and I, you can have all these people. Just worship me. Bow down to me. And Jesus said, you shall serve the Lord your God in him alone. He did not fall for the lust of the eye either. The last temptation, Satan and Jesus somehow go up to the top of the temple. And this has all happened momentarily the way it reads. And Satan says basically in layman's terms, if you are who you say you are, throw yourself from the top of this temple and command the angels to catch you before you hit the ground. Satan's intent is for telling Jesus, go ahead, show off a little bit. Jesus says, do not test me. There are a couple of other unique sins that are discussed in the Bible. One is considered to be a pretty difficult verse to understand, and in some translations of the Bible, it is a little harder to understand than others. The LSB that I use offers some clarity there. Matthew 12, verses 31 and 32 is talking about the unpardonable sin, the unforgivable sin. And it reads, therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people. But the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, and those letters are capitalized, it shall be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or the age to come. Similar verbiage to this can be found in Mark chapter 3 and Luke chapter 12. The unpardonable or unforgivable sin. So I'm going to take a minute here, and I'm probably going to lose some of you. And I'll come back and get you, so hold on. But when I do word studies on this, I have to understand, what do these things mean? What does the word blaspheme mean? That seems to be a key word here. If you blaspheme, this will happen. The word blaspheme is a two-part word. Two meanings within it. The first part is a derivative of the word blame. The second part means to speak to. To speak blame to. If you look up blaspheme in the dictionary, it states to speak of the supreme being, God, in terms of impious reverence. Impious irreverence. Impious means irreverent toward the supreme being. Irreverence means not entertaining or manifesting due regard. Well, what does manifesting mean? Well, it means displaying or showing. Due regard means owed respect. And there's a lot in here. But when you clean all that up, it says to speak of the supreme being in terms that do not display due respect and that cause affliction to the supreme being, to God. That's what blaspheme is. We go back up here, blaspheme of the Holy Spirit that shall not be forgiven you. Another definition of blaspheme uses the word reproachfully, to speak reproachfully of God. What does that mean? Shameful, disgraceful, contemptuous. Another definition uses the word calumny. I'm no English professor, folks, I'm sorry. C-A-L-U-M-N-Y. And I sat there and read that word and I thought, what in the world does this mean? It means slander, false accusation of a crime or an offense. Louis Burkoff, when he opened up talking about this verse, these verses with the unforgivable sin, stated, this sin is evidently committed even today, which makes conversion and pardon impossible. The sin consists in the conscious malicious and willful rejection and slandering against evidence and conviction of the testimony of the Holy Spirit respecting the grace of God in Christ attributed out of hatred and enmity to the Prince of Darkness." And I said, what'd he say? There's so many adjectives in here that have importance. So many descriptive words in here that mean a lot that you almost have to leave them out to get the bearing of it and then add them back after you understand the principle of the sentence. So with all these adjectives, leaving them out, it simply states that rejection and slander against the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning God's grace out of hatred from Satan. is the unforgivable sin. Bear in mind, the adjectives conscious, conscious decision, malicious, willful, intentional, all these words are applied to this verse. The person who commits this sin does it intentionally, willfully. He does it knowingly, consciously. He does it maliciously, intentionally wanting to harm God in and of himself. So what does it look like? If we can understand that, what does it even look like? So I'm gonna go out on a limb here, attempt to describe a few of these. As I do, bear in mind, impious, irreverent, malicious, intentional, Intentional attributing what is clearly the work of God to the influence and operation of Satan. Matthew 12, 24 states, but when the Pharisees heard this, they said, this man does not cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. So this doesn't say anything about the Holy Spirit, does it? How did Jesus work all of his miracles? Through the Holy Spirit, every one. What happened here? A possessed man who was blind was healed and the demons were cast out. And the Pharisees witnessed this and they say that's the work of Satan. It's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit's work when they did that. Any declaration against God's holiness, justice, sovereignty, love, mercy, grace, you insert the attribute and crediting the associated work to Satan. Because Christ's work was through the Holy Spirit, right? That is the unforgivable sin. The sin is not in simply doubting, it's not in simply denying the truth, but it's a contradiction of the truth. It's to know what is true and claim otherwise. An intentional slandering of the Holy Spirit, the sin of speaking against the Holy Spirit's official work in revealing the grace and glory that is in Jesus Christ. That's the unforgivable sin. When explaining Matthew 12, 31, Spurgeon stated, here's a solemn warning for those slanderous Pharisees. The sin of reviling the spirit of God and imputing his work to Beelzebub is a very great one. And in fact, so hardens the heart that men who are guilty of it never repent and consequently are never forgiven. Our Lord let his opponents see whether they were drifting. They were on the verge of a sin for which no pardon would be possible. we must be very tender in our conduct toward the Holy Ghost, for his honor has a special guard set about it by such solemn text as this." Further, we have to avoid confusing this unpardonable sin with 1 Thessalonians 5.19 and Ephesians 4.30. 1 Thessalonians 5.19 states, do not quench the spirit. Ephesians 4.30 states, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Quenching the spirit refers to extinguishing, suffocating. And man, here's another one of those points. Isn't it really interesting that we just saw the Holy Spirit like a flame on top of everybody's head and now we're talking about extinguishing the fire? Is there anybody else? Sorry. Holy irony. Bequenching the spirit, this is applicable to sins where one knows what to do and what is right and does something else. This is implied by some commentators that this sin can only be committed by a saved person, as only the saved person has the Holy Spirit indwelling in them. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is required to commit such a sin, is what they would say. Grieving the Holy Spirit is simply when a saved person sins. Any number of sins do this. Anytime you speak untruth instead of truth, you grieve the Holy Spirit. Anytime you steal instead of sharing, you grieve the Holy Spirit. Anytime that you might speak in a corrupt manner instead of speaking with graciousness and love, You grieve in the Holy Spirit. Boy, that's one I could use some work on sometimes. Sometimes it's hard to be compassionate in a world that things are just upside down sometimes. If there's a positive side to these two sins of quenching or grieving, it would be that there's no indication that either are unforgivable, unlike our previous discussion with blaspheming the Holy Spirit. However, we should recognize when and if we should commit these sins, and repent and return, to use Peter's word, as God is faithful. His mercies are new every day. One last sin that I was gonna bring to your attention is called the sin of omission, and we find it discussed in James chapter four, verse 17. Therefore, to one who knows to do the right thing and does not do it, it is sin to him. Therefore, to one who knows to do the right thing and does not do it to him, it is sin. I think obviously that this verse applies to believers for the most part. Where if they were not believers, they wouldn't have any detailed knowledge of God. They would have a hard time recognizing whether what they were doing was truly sin or not. And if they did, they wouldn't care. At the same time, God's law is written on the heart of man. There is no excuse. Ignorance will not be an acceptable excuse on the day of judgment. We are without excuse. Those who have the knowledge of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit are expected to obey God's law. If they fail to do it, this is sin. The sin of omission can be but are frequently associated with sins of commission. A few examples. I stood here a couple of weeks ago and made some remarks about our new Speaker of the House. Sounds like he's Christian, might even be reformed. It was something like that. It's recently been revealed that our new Speaker of the House stopped the anti-abortion law in the state of Louisiana. The pre-count of votes showed that this law was going to pass. It wouldn't by a huge majority, but it was enough that they were comfortable that it was going to pass. Suddenly, people's phones started ringing. Suddenly, our new Speaker of the House was on the phone with people supporting it at the state level saying, do not support the bill. If we pass this bill, we're going to lose too many votes and we'll lose seats in the House. Do not support the bill. over and over and over again to the point that the bill did not pass. Sin of omission, I think there's a sin of commission in there, making that phone call, stopping that is a sin of commission. But the sin of omission to not stand up for the right of those children. At this point, and this may be a little bit my opinion, but I think it's biblical, every child that is aborted in the state of Louisiana from the point that they killed that bill going forward, those children's blood are on his hands. I hate to say that, but that's just the way it is. In the state of Missouri, They were getting ready to pass an anti-abortion law, and they were allowed two people to speak for the law and two people to speak against it. Do you know who spoke against it? Two of the pro-life leaders spoke against the bill and stopped the passing of the bill. Pro-life organizations stopped it. Why? They didn't want the mothers to be able to be held accountable for murdering the child. Sin of omission. I'm really burdened by that. That's heavy. We choose pragmatism over principle. We choose legalism over the law of God. We want to be politically correct and not scripturally correct. Another example of the sin of omission you could look at would be the story of Jonah, who refused to go to Nineveh. Well, he ended up going anyway. He got transported in a fish. It took three days to get him there, and then the fish puked him up on the beach. He decided, I better go to Nineveh. I think it'd be a good idea for me to go to Nineveh after all. But he didn't want to go. He tried to resist God. He tried to resist that command. Sin of omission. To know what is right and not do it. Luke 12. It reads in verse 47, and that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will will receive many beatings. But the one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy of a beating will receive but a few. that supports this acts of ignorance that Peter's talking about. For from everyone who has been giving much, much will be required. And to whom they entrusted much of him, they will ask all the more. There's a little bit of that I heard in the Spider-Man movie once. To he who's given much, much is expected. I'm sure it's in there. One of the sermons that I recently listened to that John MacArthur was doing, he made a comment that was absolutely hilarious and so true it was scary. Humanity is like a man who jumps off of a 40-story building and halfway down he tries to change the inevitable consequence of hitting the pavement. Sin does have consequences. And it's only after we've committed the sin that we start worrying about them quite often is what he's trying to say here. Whether you're saved or unsaved, there are consequences for sin. Personal consequences, physical, consequences with friendships, consequences with your marriage, business relationships, national consequences, global, eternal. The consequence of accumulated and continual sin within a society leads to being under God's judgment. What does this look like? Romans 1.28 tells us. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind to do those things which are not proper. You really want to live this way? You're not considering the consequences of your actions? You have rejected me and my son? Go right ahead and he turns his back. And that's when chaos begins for chaos's sake. It's when good becomes evil and evil becomes good, and I've used that several times, but it so fits. Racial division grows. The family unit comes under attack. Tolerance becomes intolerance. And somehow hate is preferred over love. And the truth becomes a lie. Are we under God's judgment today? When we reach this point, this point of God turning people over to the reprobate mind to do the things that are improper, the only thing that stands in the way of total anarchy is the church, the bride of Christ. the world will adopt and endorse whatever comes down the pipe. Church is the only defense there is. And we're left with the daunting task of sharing the gospel one person at a time and praying for the eyes of the nation to be opened. Second Chronicles 7, 13 and 14 states, if I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, And my people who are called by my name humble themselves. That's anti-pride, right? Humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. So as we get ready to leave here this evening, I've spent all evening talking about sin, different types of sin, what sin means, some current events. Let's reflect on the original statement that Peter made. Even the murderers of Jesus can find forgiveness of that sin. Killing the Messiah was not an unpardonable sin. No doubt sinful, no doubt heinous, but forgivable. And we would do well to go back to 1 John 2, verse 1. Here it reads, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And if you really think about it that way, Jesus knows that we cannot and will not live a sinless life. That's why he hung on that tree. Our sins will be forgiven. I'm not declaring that it's OK to sin, as we should strive to be sin free. However, when we do sin, forgiveness of these sins is there. And if you truly believe, in essence, weren't they really forgiven before you committed them? Weren't they really? The key is to recognize when you sin, realize that when you sin, you have offended a holy and just God. Repent of the sins and keep moving forward. Trust in the one who made you, who saved you, and who will keep you forever. Amen. Let's pray. Once again, Lord, we thank you for all that you have done or doing and will do going forward, Lord. We pray for the leaders of our nation, that they might rule in what your word calls the way. I pray for each family represented here tonight that you might bless them mightily. I'm very thankful for their commitment to attend these worship services, to pay honor to you. Please deliver them home safely this evening, Lord. Bring us back safely at the next appointing time. Once again, Lord, we love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. All God's children said, amen. and you are dismissed.