Little Sins

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There are things in our lives that if we are not careful we will allow in our lives and ultimately they can be extremely spiritually dangerous because in reality, there is no such thing as "little sins". Lets look at five major ways that we perform presumptuous sins and three basic ways to learn to deal with these sins.

Have you ever said to your child, “I want you to clean up your room.”  And you go back about fifteen or twenty minutes later and the child is sitting in the middle of the room playing.  And you notice that two or three big toys were picked up from the center of the room, the closet's opened and they were set in the center of the closet.  Nothing else has been done.  A few pieces of garbage that were laying around are in the garbage bag, but basically the room is the same except that a few of the big things are moved around.  And you ask the child, you know, you walk over and you pick up the dirty clothes that are laying there or the piece of pizza that's under the bed, and you say, “What is this?”  And the child says, “I don't know.  I don't know what it is.” 

You know, when God calls us, He tells us to clean up our room.  He calls us and says, “Your room is dirty, it's messy, it's got to be totally cleaned up.”  And we find out that we need to take care of these big, major sins in our lives.  We learn the Ten Commandments.  And so, we start to keep the Sabbath because, you know, that's one of the big Ten Commandments.  We start to learn not to lie.  We start to learn to be honest, to be honest in our business dealings, not to steal.  If you come from a certain background, you learn to give up the statues of Mary or whatever, the idolatry, the literal idolatry.  We begin to clean up the room.  But I wonder how many times in our lives, how many times God walks back into the room and He says, “What is this?”  And our answer is, “I don't know.”  We moved the big things, we made some major changes, but conversion isn't an event.  It's a lifetime process and how many of the little things are we not doing? 

Today I'm going to talk about little sins – what we will call little sins, not the big sins in our minds.  And yet, there are things in our lives that if we are not careful we will allow in our lives and ultimately they can be extremely spiritually dangerous because in reality, there is no such thing as 'little sins'.  But we tend to look on things as big sins and little sins.  And there's a reason for that.  Certain sins have more meaty and terrible consequences.  When someone murders somebody, the consequence on the person they killed is horrendous.  And the consequence on the people who knew that person is horrendous.  So what is the consequence on the person who killed that person?  Well, there's first degree murder, they can be put to death for that.  So that sin has horrible and immediate consequences and, therefore, has horrible punishment.  But what if you don't murder the person, you just spend the whole rest of your life hating the person?  Will we be able to stand before God someday and say, “Look, I did well.  I did not murder the person I hated.”  You can say the hatred didn't commit an immediate act, it didn't hurt all the other people, but what did it do to us? 

Let's start with a very important premise today.  Let's go to James, chapter 1 because it is so easy for those who are commandment keepers to understand the commandments and then get to the point we believe that's the central part of everything we have to do, not realizing that is the beginning of what we do.  Conversion is more – it is more than just keeping the Ten Commandments. 

Now, can you just arbitrarily break the Ten Commandments and be following God?  Well, of course not.  But you start there.  The Ten Commandments are really kindergarten.  It's the starting point of how we have to grow as Christians.  We have to keep them, but we have to do more.  We have to remember the real basic problem here.  We're going to deal with the basic core issue of human nature.  I read something in the Chattanooga paper this morning – I'm going to buy the book.  Some researchers have been doing research on what they call human nature.  And they said that they found out just through the way the brain works that there are certain commonalities, common traits in all human beings.  But those traits develop differently because of environment and other issues that come into play in the human being.  But that we tend to create our own reality.  I've thought a lot about that lately, how we all create a story that we're in and anything that doesn't fit that story – we act a certain way toward it and we don't realize that our 'reality' isn't reality.  God determines reality, not you and I. 

But there are certain traits that are common to all human beings.  In James 1:13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
See All... is a trait that is common to everyone of us no matter who we are. 

James 1:13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
See All... - Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

V. 14 - But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

V. 15 - Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

All sin in our lives starts as an act in our own minds.  We look at the actions.  You know, when someone commits adultery, the action is obvious, but the real problem lies in the emotional and mental processes – and they are two different things, by the way.  They've even found out that the brain is wired - I'll not go into that, but it is fascinating – the brain is wired so that the emotional and the cognitive processes are actually stored in two separate places and there are reasons for that.  We are designed very brilliantly, but it creates all kinds of problems which means our emotions and our thoughts aren't always connected, which leads us to do some very bizarre behaviors as human beings.  It's another thing that is common to all human beings.  But what happens is, we look through and see this is a common trait of human nature.  We look at the acts of sin and we forget that there is a process that created that act.  Now, the more you do a certain thing in life, the more it becomes natural for you to do.  I mean, we've all met people who are habitual adulterers.  It's the way they live.  It's now become absolutely normal for them. 

Before you came into the church, it was normal to do things that you now would consider sin.  It was normal to keep Christmas.  It felt normal.  You were programmed to do so.  It's who you were because it fit that reality.  It fit this.  You and I have to realize that Christianity isn't just about dealing with “Okay, I'm going to not lie.  I'm going to keep the Sabbath.  I'm not going to have idols in my worship.”  It is about learning this process, the process of understanding how and why we sin so that we're not just always dealing with actions.  You know, if you always try to deal with the action, you're always trying not to sin.  If we deal with the process, it reaches the place where we're stopping the sin process long before we're in that struggle trying not to sin. 

And here's where we get into the little sins.  We're in this process, we're on this process all the time.  All the time we're confronted with “How are you going to handle this situation?”  “How are you going to handle that situation?”  “Are you going to do this in accordance to God's will?”  “Are you going to do this in accordance to God's law?”  We're always in these situations every day where we're making dozens, maybe hundreds of choices at times that really have to do with 'are we doing what God wants'.  That's the premise.  Now we have to get into the proclivity to categorize sin in which we allow ourselves to have the little sins.  We allow ourselves to pick up the big things, you know, or shove them in the closet and close the closet doors.  See, my room's cleaned up.  But you can't get in the closet.  Well, yes, those are little things.  As we go on, I'll show you what I mean. 

The danger of little sins.  Psalm chapter 19.  Here's the second premise we'll work off of and then I'll show you what I mean.  David understood the process of sin at an amazing level.  We tend to look at David's sins as in how huge they were.  We forget that he also lived in many, many ways a very righteous life.  He always repented of his sins.  He always changed.  He always grew.  I know people who actually have said that they couldn't have ever respected David, they could have never followed him as king because he was so evil.  But we see a man here that God says, “This is a man after My own heart.  I wish everybody was like David.”  Now, when David sinned, he received terrible penalties.  I always say the worst penalty you can get – I can't think of anything worse than this – every human being that ever is converted will have read about your sins.  That's his penalty and it didn't bother David.  He wrote his own sins down.  He said, “I've got to let people know what God's really like.”

But in Psalm 19:12Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
See All... -  Who can understand his errors? ...    He said we can't even understand the depth of our sins before God.   Who can do it?  How can we figure this out?  Then he tells God,   ... Cleanse me from secret faults.

He said, I understand – remember, David knew God's law, but he recognized that in this process, there was sin going on inside of him that wasn't coming out in his actions.  It was going on inside his mind.  And he said,  cleanse me from these secret faults, things that I don't even know about. 

V. 13 - Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

Now these are very, very important two verses in understanding the idea of secret faults and presumptuous sins.  David said he would commit great transgressions and presumptuous sin and he says it will have dominion over me.  You and I are spiritually addicted to sin.  Well, you say, we have God's Spirit.  That's true, but we still have our corrupt human nature we are fighting and inside of us we are still addicted to sin.  You say, “Oh no, no, no, no.  I keep the Sabbath, I don't work on the Sabbath, I don't commit adultery, I don't lie, I don't steal, I tithe, I fast all the time, I pray every day.  I don't have any presumptuous sins.”  When we say that, we show we don't understand the process.  We don't understand the depth of what sin does to us and that it's in us.  Presumptuous sin simply means that you're willing to cross a line because you take it for granted.  It really has to do with arrogance, a sense of pride.  You feel so secure in your own righteousness that you do not recognize that before Almighty God you're being presumptuous. 

You know, you have had someone take a liberty with you, you know, you're at a nice meal, everybody's paying their own check and the person looks at you and says, “You leave the tip” and gets up and walks away.  And you say, “Wow, I hope I have enough money for the tip.”  And you say that was presumptuous.  They crossed the line and took my generosity for granted.  Right?  Took my generosity for granted.  I don't even have enough money to leave the tip.  Wow, that's presumptuous.

David said please keep me from being presumptuous towards God.  In other words, he was actually allowing God's grace – taking God's grace for granted so much that we allow ourselves to cross certain lines.  We allow ourselves to do certain things, but they don't seem like big things.  But he said they will have dominion over us.  Our lives will be destroyed by the little sins.  We've also seen lives destroyed by the big ones.  Right?  A marriage destroyed by adultery.  But the little ones destroy too.  It just takes longer.  So we tend to think it's not happening. 

So lets look at some presumptuous sins you and I do.  Presumptuous sins tend to appear in five different ways.  I want to show you the five major ways that we perform presumptuous sins and don't think about it. 

1. Sins of Omission

The first one is the easiest one to start to fall into if you've been in the church for a long time.  And that is what is generally called the sins of omission.  In other words, you're not doing something wrong, but you're not doing right.  James 1 chapter 27.  Most of you probably have this verse memorized.  James 1:27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
See All... – what is pure religion?  We all want to have a pure religion.

James 1:27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
See All... -  Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

And so we spend an enormous amount of time and effort trying to not be spotted by the world.  We try to come out of the world; we try to not be like the people around us where we work, where we go to school; we try not to be like our neighbors and we try to stay unspotted from the world.  But how much time do we spend visiting the orphans and visiting the widows in their need?  See, we're not doing something.  “Oh good, I'm not worshiping idols, I'm not using God's name in vain.”  Now, we shouldn't.  I used to work in construction.  You want to get in a habit of using God's name in vain easily, go work construction because every other word out of everybody's mouth is God's name in vain.  You just hear it all the time.  So when you work in that environment you have to struggle not to use God's name in vain.  So you struggle to stay unspotted from the world, but what about the things you're supposed to do, not just the things we're not supposed to do.  Pure religion according to the apostle James is taking care of the older elderly people and the younger people who don't have parents or only have one parent.  How much time do we spend in that?  This is what I mean by sins of omission.  These are the presumptuous sins – we cross a line and don't even think about it. 

James 2:14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
See All....  Here James really drives his point home. 

James 2:14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
See All... -  What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

V. 15 - If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food ...   and here's the example he's going to use about sin.  He says,

V. 16 - and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?

V. 17 - Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Now if you were going to show an example of faith, you go and be anointed and trust in God to heal you.  You think of all the examples of faith that you would give.  James is very practical.  Paul is interesting because Paul was both a theologian – a Jewish theologian – and he also approaches things because he understood Greek philosophy and he gets to argue Greek philosophy.  James doesn't argue Greek philosophy.  James is pure and simply a Jewish teacher and he brings everything down into it's practical sense.  And what's the example he uses?  Paul would use a different example and it would have gone on for two pages.  And James just says, “Look, when you talk about faith, when someone needs your help and you don't give it, you don't have faith.”  It's a sin. 

James talks about all kinds of sins here we don't think about.  He spends a whole section of one part of this letter telling people if you honor the rich people in your congregation as if because they're rich they're spiritually better, you've broken the law of God.  Wow!  That's not a sin.  Yeah it is.  But it's a little sin.  I mean, come on, we're not talking about homosexuality here.  Why would he say and take all this trouble to point out that it's a sin?  Because all sin separates us from God.  All sin keeps us from being what we're supposed to be.  When we start saying these are little sins, we end up in trouble.  It's very interesting that we think of Sodom being destroyed, right?  Why?  Well we think because of the homosexuality and obviously it is one of the reasons it was destroyed.  It's not the only reason God destroyed it.  Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 16.  Here, Ezekiel was telling – God is telling Judah through Ezekiel – that they are going to be destroyed because they are actually worse than Israel.  He said, “I destroyed Israel and you are actually worse than they were!  You don't have the exact same kind of sins they have, but you have actually become worse than them.”  That's the middle of the context.  Let's pick it up here in verse 46. 

Ezekiel 16:46And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
See All... - "Your elder sister is Samaria ...   so he is talking to the Jews and Samaria was the capitol in Israel.  ... Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters.

So to the south is Judah.  He is saying to Judah, “You know, you are Sodom.”

V. 47 - You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.

V. 48 - "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.

V. 49 - Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

V. 50 - And they were haughty ...   they were proud  ... committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.

V. 51 - "Samaria did not commit half of your sins ...   He tells them, “One of your big problems is that you don't even see it.” 

Now we can think of all the sins they committed.  And you would say, now let me tell you about the sins of ancient Judah.  They worshiped idols.  They did, and God said, “I will destroy your for that.”  They profaned the Sabbath.  They did, and God said, “I will destroy your for that.”  They committed adultery and fornication – they were sexually immoral.  They were, and God said, “I will destroy your for that.”  And then He said, “You have a lot, you have pride and you have food and you have abundance and you didn't take care of the poor and needy in your own congregation among your own people.” 

“Well, yeah, that's not the same as idolatry.”  He doesn't mention idolatry.  Now that's one of the reasons – you can look that up and see it – but notice, to God this was real important.  It's the sin of omission.  “You didn't do what you were supposed to do.”  A lot of times what we can do – and young people will see it this way sometimes – Christianity is nothing more than a list of what you don't do.  Don't do this.  Don't do this.  Don't do this.  Don't do this.  Don't do this.  Don't....  Man, what can I do?  Presumptuous sins are about not doing what we are supposed to do.  It's about only seeing Christianity as “Don't do these things.”  “Oh, then what am I supposed to do?  Just sit around and be miserable for the rest of my life?”  No, there's a lot that we are supposed to be doing.  There's more that we're supposed to do than what we're not supposed to do.  It becomes a very negative religion for a lot of people.  We become a very negative people always talking about what we're not supposed to do. 

So one of the five ways we commit presumptuous sin is through sins of omission. 

2. We actually measure our righteousness by somebody else's sins.

The second one is – once again, it's so easy for us to do and it's such a core part of almost all people.  It's just a core part of corrupt, human nature.  And that is we measure the cleanliness of our room by the dirtiness of somebody else's.  Dad says, “Clean up your room.”  “Have you seen my sister's room?  You want me to clean up my room, go look at her room!”  We actually measure our righteousness by somebody else's sins.  And, if we only see Christianity in terms of “do not, do not, do not” I guarantee you, you can always find somebody who sins more than you do.  Right?  You can always find somebody who sins more than you do.  And so you can always feel good about yourself because you're measuring your sins, your righteousness, your cleanliness by somebody else's dirt.  See, what we're supposed to do is measure ourselves by Jesus Christ.  Now, when you do that, you end up in trouble every time.  That's what we're supposed to do.  We're supposed to measure ourselves by Christ, not everybody else. 

Luke, chapter 18.  I wasn't going to read this section today, but I thought I'll just throw it in here because it fits so perfectly what we are talking about.  Luke makes a very, very important little commentary here before he records Jesus' parable.

Luke 18:9And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
See All... - And He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

They trusted in themselves, in their own righteousness.  And how did they obtain that trust in their own righteousness?  They looked at other people.  Now you and I do this all the time.  We have to be real careful about this.  We find a great sense of personal worth because, “Oh, boy, I'm more righteous than that person.”  So, what's the parable He gives? 

V. 10 - "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

V. 11 - The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

V. 12 - I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'

Now do you know what?  He was probably telling the truth.  He did fast twice a week.  He tithed.  This man, he had kept the Sabbath – he was a Jew, he was a Pharisee.  He had kept the Sabbath since he was a child.  He had never worshiped idols.  He had never committed adultery.  This man had never stolen anything from anybody.  This man, his earliest memories would have been keeping the Passover services with his family where his family would have said, “It's your turn now to ask questions,” because the children asked questions at the Passover and he would have asked questions.  This man's earliest memories as a child would have been seeing that magnificent temple and smelling the smell of all those animals being slain and hearing them as they cut their throats and hearing the bleating of the sheep and the bellowing of the bulls as they were brought in there.  His earliest memories were watching the high priest walk into the Holy of Holies.  This man is telling the truth, but he didn't understand the process, the process that James wrote about and the process that David wrote about.  He didn't understand it.  He didn't get that there was still something wrong with him that God had to fix.  So how did he come to the conclusion that he could trust in his righteousness?  He said, “Thank you, God, that I'm not like this other Jew who happens to be here in the temple worshiping with me.” 

V. 13 - And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'

V. 14 is a remarkable statement.  Jesus Christ says,  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

It came down to the fact that the Pharisee was measuring his righteousness, he was measuring the cleanliness of his room by the dirtiness of somebody else's room.  We do that just like we commit sins of omission. 

3. The sins that don't have immediate consequence we say aren't as bad. 

A third way that we do this is, once again we start to categorize sins into big sins and little sins.  Now I know why we do that.  In a way you have to a little bit because certain sins have greater penalties.  And when you're doing child rearing you don't spank your child for everything.  After a while the child would just give up or become angry.  You would just have an angry child.  You don't teach a child by just spanking them for everything.  God doesn't have the death penalty for every sin or everybody would have been killed off in ancient Israel.  Certain sins, as I said before, have horrible consequences.  All sin has horrible consequences, but some are just more immediate.  So what we do is the sins that don't have immediate consequence we say aren't as bad. 

So let's look at a couple of sin lists, okay?  A couple of things in the Bible which talk about these are terrible things that God doesn't like.  2 Timothy 3.  Now I get a little uncomfortable with some of 2 Timothy, chapter 3 because I have some sins in this list – but they're my little sins.  You understand?  They're my little sins.  They're not as important as the other things on the list.  Paul tells Timothy in verse 1:

2 Timothy 3:1This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
See All... - But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

And this is how we will know we are in the last days.  I have read this passage I don't know how many times in sermons.  I've read it on radio programs.  I've read it on television programs and I felt good about it because I got to punch somebody right in the nose with these verses.  Well, you know, the more I look at it, they make me a little nervous because everybody likes this one:

V. 2 - For men will be lovers of themselves ...   see, all you selfish people out there.  Punch them right in the nose.   ... lovers of money ...  well, I like money – I don't love money, but I do like it.   ... boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents ...  well, that's not as bad as some of these other things.  Notice the next one.  ... unthankful ... 

How much of your life is spent in misery and my life is spent in misery?  We are upset because of what we don't have instead of being thankful for what God has given to us.  “Oh, that's not like … like lying!  That's not like stealing!”  Paul tells Timothy this is what you will know people will be like in the last days.  This is how you will know they are evil.  “Unthankfulness?  Ah, that's a little thing.”   Okay, I'm unthankful sometimes and I know that, but that's a little sin, right?  God doesn't count that as a big sin.  Surely.  It's not like committing abortion or something!  So, I'm unthankful.  It's a little sin.  It's a part of my room that can stay dirty.  It's a closet that I can shove everything into and I can be unthankful. 

Some of you might remember – I remember an old man, a white haired old man giving a sermon.  He said, “I'm going to tell you the most common sin in the world today.”  He said, “unthankfullness.”  Just shocked me.  Anybody remember Herbert Armstrong giving that sermon?  Unthankfulness.  That?  Man, I was hoping you'd go after the Catholics or something, you know.  Unthankfulness.  ... unholy,

V. 3 – unloving ...   do we love each other the way we should?  ... unforgiving ...  this Greek word can actually be translated irreconcilable.   People who just can't – all conflict has to end with them winning.   ... slanderers ...  Oh, well, slander.  It's – you know – in the South we have a way of getting away with that.  We just say, “Bless his heart.”  “That boy is so ugly, bless his heart.”  And it's okay.  Right?  You just get away with it that way. 

V. 4 – traitors ... people that just – you can't trust them – they betray.  ... headstrong ...  well, I've never had that problem.  Just don't talk to my wife, please.  ... stubbornness ...   These are all the traits of the bad people in the end time, you know, the people that Christ comes back to destroy.  This is what they're like.  Boy, I'm glad I don't have any of these problems.  These are little sins.  You know, I know He's coming back – He's coming back to destroy the Beast Power, people who worship idols and Hindus and Buddhists – that's what He's coming back for.  And I can't help it if I am stubborn.  I'm just born that way.  ... headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

V. 5 - having a form of godliness but denying its power ...   very religious people.  See, you and I can become very religious people and can confuse that with conversion.  And then he says,  ... from such people turn away!   Oh, my.  I have to tell you, if you are going to obey that scripture, nobody should talk to me after services because I have some of these and they're sins.  We'd better face them.  We'd better face them.  If we're going to become like Christ, we can't just throw the big things out of the room and think it's clean. 

There's another passage I've used.  I've used it on radio programs, I love this passage – I don't so much as I used to.  Romans chapter 1 because I can really punch people in the nose with this.  We are to get up and tell sin is a sin.  But you have to understand, really the only right we have to talk about sin is when we admit we are sinners .  I'm going to go back to David.  Let me tell how God forgave me and I changed, then I can tell you how God will forgive you and you can change.  The Pharisee never looked at the tax collector and said, “There's a man who needs to come to God.  Let me help you.”  He couldn't see that man that way.  That man was inferior because his room was dirtier – not in the eyes of God, in the eyes of God the tax collector was allowed to come to Him and the Pharisee couldn't.  Wasn't it because of his attitude? 

I really like this section of Romans, verse 18, he talks about:

Romans 1:18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
See All... - the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

The next few verses really hit hard the concept of evolution.  They really hit hard idolatry and paganism.  And they really hit hard homosexuality.  That's why I've read these verses on the air before.  If I ever hit hard evolution, you know, from a Biblical viewpoint, and from idolatry and homosexuality, this is where you go because Paul just puts it so eloquently, so powerfully, and he just says these things are sin. 

But I usually end about V.28 - And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;   they have a debased mind. 

V. 29 - filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness ...   uh, well, that covet stuff – maybe once in a while, every time I see a commercial.  I have a problem with that one.  Yeah, but that's a little one.  We hit the homosexuals, we hit them hard and we hit those idolaters hard - because he does.  Uh, covetousness – but we forget, covetousness is one of the Big Ten, folks.  It's not a little sin, it's one of the Big Ten and you and I live in a society that is motivated – it's the core problem with unbridled capitalism.  The economic system of the Bible, it has some capitalistic ideas, but unbridled capitalism produces greed.  There have to be restraints on it because it's driven by covetousness – bigger / better / bigger / better / bigger / better.  I used to write commercials.  I know.  I got to the place I felt like I was being dishonest.  You can only call something 'new and improved' so many times before you say, “I'm lying to these people.”  You motivate people to buy things they don't need and you have to figure out ways to do it.  Why?  So more money can be made.  Why?  So we can sell more things.  Now, once again, the Biblical system has a certain system of free enterprise to it.  I'm not saying that's all wrong.  I am saying in our society, what motivates our society is not righteousness.  And you and I – at least, I – struggle with covetousness.  He says,  ... maliciousness; full of envy ...   he must be putting them in order here.  The really big sins were first, these are smaller sins.  I mean, I've been envious of what somebody has and I don't have.  How come my neighbor – I mean, I had a real problem with envy the whole Feast because I love Mustangs.  My daughter rented a Mustang for the Feast using my insurance and then didn't sign me up as a driver.  So I had to look at it every day.  I could touch it.  I could sit in it.  I couldn't drive it.  ... envy, murder ...   Well obviously these aren't in somewhat of a descending order or murder would be at the top of the list, right?  He's just saying these things all are a part of corrupted human nature and we all still have it.  ... murder, strife ...   Strife all the time.  We are just people in competition all the time.  We're the type of people who love to be in an argument all the time.  ... strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers ...   that is translated 'gossip', 'gossipers' in many places.  I wouldn't put gossip in the same category, the same list as murderers!  Would you?  But then I didn't make the list up.  I've never murdered anybody, but I've gossiped before.  That's a little sin. 

V. 30 – backbiters ...  slanderers  ... haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents...   that keeps coming up all over the place  ... disobedient to parents,

V. 31 – undiscerning ...   not able to really know the difference between right and wrong  ... untrustworthy ...   we're back to that – people that just don't keep their word  ... unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;

Now, I don't know about you, but I have a few things on that list that are my little sins in my closet.  I'm not an idolater so that is a big sin to me.  I have no problem – I've been to a Hindu temple just to see what it was like and, believe me, I had no compulsion to fall down in front of those idols like everybody else.  I'm not an idolater so that's a big sin.  I've got that one conquered.  Some of these others are little sins to me.  Surely God doesn't make them as important as that!  But He does.  So we see a willingness to condemn what we consider big sins while allowing little sins in our own lives.

4. We can not do the sin, but we can vicariously approve of it.

A fourth way that we commit presumptuous sins is here in verse 32.  I have a real problem with this one. 

V. 32 - knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

See, sometimes we can not do the sin, but we can vicariously approve of it.  How do we do that?  We can do that very easily in entertainment.  We can vicariously live out sin in what we watch on television or the movies we see.  I mean, I still get – I have to watch it because when Dirty Harry says, “Go ahead, punk, make my day.”  Make his day!  Make his day!  We have to be more careful about, you know, you are watching something, you're involved with something and you find yourself wanting the evil.  I always find it interesting, there is a remake of an old movie, it had Frank Sinatra – Oceans 12 or Oceans 13 or whatever it was.  I think there were two or three of them.  I always find that interesting because in the movie, everybody's a bad guy.  It's just that George Clooney's so cool.  You're cheering for the bad guy.  But wait a minute, he's a thief.  But he's taking on worse thieves.  I've seen that movie twice over the years and I keep thinking I feel more uncomfortable with the fact that I'm cheering for the bad guy because they're all bad guys.  But he's such a cool bad guy.  So we have to think about these things.  We're bombarded with so much entertainment.  We're bombarded with so much stuff that we don't realize that sometimes we are approving of evil.  We just sort of approve of it and don't even think about what we are doing.  I'm not recommending that movie, I'm just saying I've seen it. 

5. Harboring negative emotions.

And then a fifth is that we sin – and this is a whole subject in itself – by harboring negative emotions.  The amount of despising, remember the Pharisee?  He despised others.  The amount of despising that we have towards other people, the amount of envy that we have, the amount that we – just selfish emotions – they, in themselves, are sin.  We just don't recognize it.  And that's one of the hardest things we have to do in life is learn not to sin through emotions.  Most of our actions that are sin are not cognitive.  You know, I've sat down with a few people in prison and said, “What were you thinking?”  And they'll say, “I don't know.  It's just so stupid.  I just did it.”  Most things we do that are the act of sin are not very rational things.  It's pretty bizarre behavior when you think about it.  You know, “Why did you shoot your neighbor's dog and burn his house down?”  “The dog wouldn't stop barking.”  I understand.  I understand how bad you felt.  It would be on my nerves, too.  You feel like you're going crazy, but you don't shoot the dog and you don't burn the house down.  Right?  But people do that kind of stuff all the time and its because we have this irrational behavior.  We aren't near as rational as we think we are.  We're just not.  We're driven by our feelings all the time.  And usually when we're driven by our feelings, it's bad.  Not always, because our emotions have to be educated, but it's not easy. 

So those are the five ways we commit presumptuous sins.  What I want to do now is just sort of quickly wrap up three basic ways to learn to deal with presumptuous sins.  We have to start recognizing them.  Do you and I have the little sins that we don't – we just live with our own little sins?  You don't live with those sins with other people, right?  And if your husband is unthankful all the time, unthankful to God,  unthankful to you, you wouldn't live with that, you'd complain about it all the time.  But your unthankfulness you live with.  See, we do that with each other all the time because that's a big sin.  Mine's a little sin. 

First of all, you must and I must be acutely aware of our hopelessness without God.  We can never, ever, ever forget that.  Every time in my life that I forget that, I'm in trouble immediately.  I'm just telling you from experience, don't go there.  We have to be acutely aware of our hopelessness without God.  And one of your ways to deal with that is every day go to God and before you ask for what you want and what you need – we love to ask for things we want and what we need – first ask, “God, would you please fulfill today in my life Your goals and Your desires.”  Ask Him.  “Would you fulfill today in my life Your goals and Your desires.  Let me do today what you want me to do.  Let me be today what you want me to be.”  That's the very first thing you have to do.  Now, when we do that it changes our mindset.  If we do that and really mean it, it changes our mindset.  We are now approaching the day with a little – it's like, “God help me to fulfill Your desires, except when it's not what I want.”  We have to literally go and open ourselves up at that level and say, “Today.”   Break it down a day at a time, you know.  “Today, fulfill in my life Your desires and Your goals - whatever they may be - and let me be what You want me to be today.”  Now you are going to have some challenges.  They are actually going to be the same challenges you would have had if you wouldn't have prayed that, but you will approach them differently.  You will approach them differently. 

The second thing is if you are actually going to pray that, “So, God, help me not to commit presumptuous sins” because that's what you are doing.  You are saying, “God, help me to do what I should do today.  Help me to be what I should be today so that I am not committing presumptuous sins.”  So don't be surprised if the first thing He does is present you a widow in need.  You see, He's going to have you go and do something.  Don't be surprised if you really begin to understand – wait a minute, I am not a very merciful person.  And so what happens is, something is going to happen to you that day that you have to show mercy.  That's what He's going to do.  So I thought His desires for me were to hit the water.  Nah.  His desires, His goal is for you to be His child.  And so when you ask Him that, the second step is you had better be ready for what's going to happen.  You'd better look for it because I guarantee, you pray that, sometime during that day there is an opportunity – God is going to give you an opportunity to deal with some little sin.  He is going to give us an opportunity to do something good instead of always being afraid about doing something bad.  You are going to start living Christianity as an aggressive religion, not a protective religion.  It's not a spectator sport here.  We get out, we play in the game.  We play in the game.  It is outward that we go.  And every person we deal with, every person we talk with, we take the time as much as possible to deal with every person that we can – in the church, outside the church.  Why?  Because we are open and active.  There's a problem in the church when we start thinking about preaching the gospel as only a corporate activity.  But it's a whole lot more than a corporate activity.  If you are going to ask God to help you fulfill His will and His desire today, sometime as the day goes on, you are going to have a chance to talk to somebody about God.  He's going to put you there.  He's going to do it.  And you're going to have to talk to them about it.  Which means you may be persecuted.  Now, we've got to be wise when we say things and how we say things, but understand where He's going to take you. 

And then, the third point , is that we have to daily repent of our presumptuous sins.  Just like David said, don't let them control my life.  When we have presumptuous sins, we're controlled by fear, we're controlled by anger, we're controlled by very negative emotions.  We have to go ask God to help us see our secret faults.  And in doing so, we'll fulfill what Paul says here in 2 Corinthians 10:4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
See All....

2 Corinthians 10:4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
See All... - For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

V. 5 - casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

V. 6 - and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Bringing every thought into captivity.  That's the goal where every thought is righteous.  Now you can't do that without God's Spirit and with God's Spirit that's a lifetime challenge, isn't it?  It's a lifetime challenge, but it is what we are headed towards.  Every thought is what God wants.  Now, if you're not in this Word all the time, you won't know what God wants because the way we know what God wants is because we check it here.  This tells us.  We check it here.  This is what we are supposed to do – we do it.  And so, if we're in this book, God's going to talk to us through this book.  He's going to come into our minds.  He's going to be there.  And we're going to say, “Oh, that's what I'm supposed to do.  That's not what I feel like doing, I really don't feel like doing that, but it is what I'm going to do because it's the right thing to do.  My mind wants to take me someplace else, tell me to do something else, but no, I will do this because it is the right thing to do.”  Nobody except Jesus Christ has ever perfected that.  Nobody in the Bible ever perfected it.  They tried.  Why is it always quoted that they failed so many times?  Paul, Peter – you look through the whole New Testament – half of what's in the New Testament aren't just the successes of the apostles and the early Christians, it's the failures of them.  Why?  This is hard, folks.  You've got to know the people who do well fail a lot, but they keep letting God work with them.  And we can't stop with the big sins.  It's true that some sins have immediate penalties – greater penalties, but the little sins breed spiritual sickness.  We just don't know why we're sick.  God wants you to clean up your room and that means He wants you to clean up everything.  You know why?  Because He says “I will abide in you.”  Your room, my room is inside this head of ours and you know who comes and lives inside our heads?  God.  Our dirty room is where God lives – the special presence of God, the Holy Spirit, right?  It comes here.  And we let God come – and Christ because Christ said, the Father and I will abide in you – we let them come and live in a dirty room.  Now, if God was going to come to your house today, how much work would you spend cleaning up?  If God says, I'm coming Monday to your house.  What do you think you would do from sundown tonight until the day he showed up?  Maybe cut your grass, clean your house, wash the dishes, right?  What would you do to make your house right for God to come visit your house?  God lives in our room.  In here.  So that little sin of unforgiveness, unloving, unkindness – that little thing that we think is not that bad that we have cluttered around - how much are we willing to clean it up so God can come and live with us? 

Let's finish with Hebrews 12:1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
See All....  He uses a different analogy but it makes the same point.  Paul says,

Hebrews 12:1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
See All... - Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses ...   the examples in the scriptures  ... let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us ...   you know, he is using the example of weights, a runner trying to run a race with a hundred pound sack in his pack.  He says, take the rocks out, throw the sack away.   I use the analogy of a clean house, your clean room.  Let Him come into a clean room.  Understand that these little sins are holding us back from having a complete, right communion with God and with Jesus Christ.  He says,  ... let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.