Does Your Heart Condemn You?

It's hard to believe we've come through Passover season 2013 again. And, of course, we are commanded to examine ourselves, and we are to put sin out of our lives, not just for the seven days of Unleavened Bread, but all year round. That's the lesson that we should gain from keeping the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. And I think most of the time, all of us do take a serious look at ourselves, and unfortunately we're quite humbled. If you ever go look at yourself in a mirror naked, and you're not humbled, you're too young. But if you look at yourself in a spiritual mirror and you see the sins, it is very humbling, isn't it, to realize that we human beings fall far short, as the Bible says, of the glory of God. We really do. And I'm of the opinion, the longer I live, that God is a very benevolent, loving God, because I don't think human beings are fit to exist. You know, I know that probably a lot of people in the world would throw rocks at me for saying that, but I believe that is so. Apart from God, we would not be fit to exist upon this planet, because we fall far short, even with God's help, by the way, we fall far short of the glory of God. You know, people in the world claiming to be Christians today operate, basically, on two modes of thinking. I'm sure that there's a third one that these are general modes that people think on, if they believe in God at all. Number one, they believe that God is so loving, he does not care about your sin at all. And once you're saved, of course, many people believe that you're always saved. You can't lose out once you get baptized, sprinkled, spritzed, or whatever, and you committed your life. It doesn't matter what you do, because we're all under grace. Once saved, always saved. Number two kind of thinking that people have is God is a very harsh God. And of course, oftentimes people believe who believe that. They believe that the Father is the God of the Old Testament, and the very benevolent, loving, you know, full of grace God of the New is Jesus Christ. Oftentimes they think that way. But, you know, this second mode of thinking is God is harsh, and every sin is recorded in a book, and every sin must be paid for. You know, that, you know, imagine God has a book up there. Some people have the idea. He's writing down every sin you ever committed. You know, did you commit a sin just then? It goes in the book. And God has a book up there, has your name on it, you know, and I guess, and of course I'm being facetious about that, but that's the way people look at it. That God has this vast book up there in heaven, and He's keeping track. However, what concept do you have in your mind about God? How do you think about God? I think all of us come from various backgrounds and probably we are impacted by our social environment when we're growing up, and we have these kind of concepts that might be embedded in our thinking.

You may have somewhat the same ideas. Recall when you were baptized, you had a deep sense of relief when your sins were washed away in the waters of baptism, and the blood of Christ cleansed you of all sin and your guilt was gone. I love baptizing people, by the way, because, you know, when they walk out of that baptismal pool, we did a baptism not long ago, and it was that kind of situation where they were walking up out of the pool. I love to say to someone, by the authority of Jesus Christ, all of your sins are forgiven. The sparkle in people's eyes is...

you can't replace that. And to realize, brethren, for you and for me, when we were baptized, we were pure then... when we were baptized, when we got out of that baptismal pool, we were pure and whiter than the whitest snow that day, pure than the day we were born. And most of all, all of us, of course, are so excited at that important juncture of our lives. But the way of human beings, the way that we humanly are, we can be sort of like the... down south, I call it the Baptist fish. I don't know if you've ever heard of the Baptist fish. Well, they get baptized on Sunday, and by Tuesday, they're spoiled. The baptism didn't work, and they go back to what they were doing before. But sometimes, I'm not saying we're like that, but we begin to falter, don't we, in our lives. I mean, raise your hand if you never sinned after you were baptized. I don't think anybody's going to raise their hand here. No, we begin to falter, don't we? We make mistakes, we fall down, and possibly even old sins begin to rear their ugly head in our lives again. And I remember and have gone through this myself. Guilt begins to be laid in your mind again. Whereas when you came out of the watery baptism and you knew your sins were completely washed away, that God had forgiven you, you get to that point where you'd feel guilty. And that guilt sort of gets laid there, and it gets layered in your way of thinking. And it begins to set into our minds. And over a period of time of falling, falling down, getting up, falling down and getting up, we see that the weaknesses remain. Sometimes you go through a period where you begin to wonder, did I ever receive the Spirit of God? Was I ever, truly, ever converted?

Now, I'm not going to ask for you to show your hands if you've ever felt that way, but I'll be open with you. I have felt that way about my own self through the years.

A number of times I've felt that way. Where is the Spirit of God in you? How could you do that? How could you think that way? And of course, what we do, we go through a period of repentance. We promise ourselves we're going to do better. Life being what it is, we fall down again. And more guilt is laid in our minds. And the process can continue if we don't gain a certain understanding. So many live and operate under the cloud of guilt. You know, kind of a gloomy gust. Got this black cloud that wherever you go is over you. You know, that's hanging over your head. And sins prior to baptism and sins after baptism, they thwart us. They cause us to again have conscience problems. I've counseled with some who, by the way, are so eaten up with guilt that they don't think God will ever forgive them. I remember talking to a World War II vet—this is many years ago—in a galaxy far, far away, so you don't know these people. But this person is not even alive, as far as I know, now. But during the war, he went off the war as many men do, and he'd gotten married before he went to war. And when he was at war, he committed adultery with impunity.

But he never—he came back, and of course, God called him, and he was elated to be forgiven of his sin, but this guilt just kept coming back to him. And you know what? He never forgave himself.

I was a long line of pastors that talked to him about this very same subject. Every time a new pastor would come into the area, this individual had to sit with him and confess his sin that he committed. Ultimately, by the way, he confessed it to his wife, what had happened in World War II.

She forgave him, but she never ceased to hear about it from him.

And eventually, it destroyed his marriage, and they ended up divorcing—she was not in the church—he was, by the way. But he never forgave himself. I'm convinced he died still guilt-ridden in his life. So I know what I'm talking about here in counseling with people, and he's not the only one, by the way I've talked to about this.

This is why I want to give this sermon today. Does your heart, brethren, condemn you?

Now, conscience is a wonderful thing. This is what we're talking about. Conscience, right?

But conscience is supposed to lead you to repent of sin and leave it behind, and to realize you've been forgiven of those sins. But is your heart condemning you, and are you living under a dark cloud of guilt? Guilt is when, brethren, our heart condemns us. And the concept of your heart condemning is a biblical concept. The word guilt, not necessarily one you find very often, but it is in the Bible. But heart condemning is a very biblical concept.

You know what? All of us have had guilt that is, again, like that dark cloud that is over our head.

And you know the Bible, brethren, was written just for us. That's why we have the Scriptures, because the Apostle Paul wrote a great deal about this subject I'm talking about here with you this afternoon. He covered the topic concerning the battle for the mind, the human mind. Let's go to Romans 5. Romans 5. Romans 5 and down in verse 8, let's be aware again in a greater way, brethren, as we journey to Pentecost, not very far off from Pentecost, a couple of weeks down the line from the Passover. But as we journey to Pentecost, brethren, let's think about again this concept that we find in the Scriptures. In Romans 5 and down in verse 1, the Apostle Paul tells us this, but God demonstrates his own love toward us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Imagine that, brethren, while you and I were still sinners. We were going our own way in this world. Christ died for us. Long before you and I were glimmers in the eye of our parents and their parents and their parents, our great, great, great grandparents, Christ came and he died for us. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus Christ was the lamb slain from the very foundation of the world. When Adam said, Christ knew he was going to have to come and die, the Word which was going to become flesh and would come and die for us because of sin. And so, while we were, in fact, sinners, Christ came and he died for us. And it says, much more than having now been justified, justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. And that wrath, of course, we know is eternal death. You know, he's talking about here. Or punishment that is going to come upon mankind, not punishing, eternal punishing, but punishment that is going to come upon mankind because of sin. Do we know what it means to be justified, by the way, of God? You know, when you kneel down, what we do is we come to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.

You know, my wife and I recently renewed our Costco card. And I like going to Costco, by the way, because sometimes it's a free meal. You know, you go around and eat all the food.

But I like seeing the new products that come out and stuff like that as well.

But you know, you can't get into Costco unless you have a what?

A Costco card! You know, they won't let you in. Now, you could get a guest Costco card, but you still have to have a Costco card, don't you? Well, I love to be able to, you know, I just come in with my wallet and I don't even show the Costco card. I just show the tip of it. And they say, okay, come on in. We realize this, that Jesus Christ, brethren, is our Costco card.

He allows us to get in to talk to the Father. Otherwise, we couldn't do it. We could not talk to the Father without Jesus Christ. We'd have no right to do it whatsoever, to go and talk to the Father in heaven. This is why David said, God, why are you even mindful of us? He realized human beings were not fit to exist. It is through Jesus Christ, brethren, that you and I are even justified to continue to exist, to live. It's only through that that mankind today doesn't, you know, God could snap his fingers and he'd say, well, this experiment has gone awry. It's over. But he didn't do it that way. He sent his son to die for mankind to save us, not to condemn us, but to save us. And in this time, in this day and age, brethren, many are called, but few are chosen, the Bible indicates. So we're justified by the blood of Christ. We have that pass that God gives us. We want to make sure, though, we use that pass in the right way. Going on here in Romans 5 and down in verse 10, it says, for if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

So through the death of Christ, we have been justified, you know, and through his life, we can be saved if we follow in his footsteps. We follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

Down in verse 18, and it says, in having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. You know, God is wanting us to be enslaved to a new way of thinking.

You know, and that is the way of righteousness. And just as we were slaves to sin, God wants us to be slaves to righteousness. The only thing about us, when we were slaves to sin, most of us had no clue that we were. God wants to tell us the truth, and he's saying, okay, to the degree that you you dedicated your life to sin, I want you to dedicate your life to righteousness and righteous living. Going on, verse 19, I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.

For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. You were going that way. He's saying, what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of these things is death. So in the end, it amounts to nothing in our lives. You know, Christ said, many are called, but few are chosen.

And God has called us, brethren, and he wants us to walk in that way. And we're chosen because we're walking in that way. We're not like the fish, like you say, the Baptist fish that gets baptized on Sunday, but we change the way we live. We're living differently, and we're striving to learn God's way of life and go God's way of life. Now, there are a lot of people who profess that they want to live God's way of life, but very few, in fact, who do. Of the millions the church has been in touch with, rather than through our history. What are we pushing about in 70 years now?

In this particular part of the work of God, millions of people have been touched by the work of God. Only a few are responding. You know, why don't we have standing room only in this auditorium? Why don't we have people standing out in the foyer that can't get in the building or outside? It's because many are called, but few are chosen. Few, frankly, truly want to live God's way of life. Oh, they like the benefit of the forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ, and to have that chance to be forgiven, but they don't want to live God's way of life.

And many are called again, but few are chosen. But if God called you now, brethren, He never called you or me to condemn us, He called us to save us.

His purpose was not, brethren, to condemn us but to save us. And God's grace is imparted to us to that end, to save us, to give us a chance, to give us an opportunity. Otherwise, frankly, none of us deserve, none of us deserve this forgiveness, brethren. And so God gives us what the Bible refers to as grace or unmerited pardon. Again, it's like the man that's on death row, doesn't deserve to be delivered from death row. All of us were on death row, by the way. And God commuted the sentence and said, okay, I'm going to commute this sentence and show my grace to you. I'm going to forgive you if you'll promise me one thing, that you'll live my way of life. If I go my way of life, then I will give you this gift. And that's what God did for us, brethren. And the problem is, what has happened? From time of memorial in the world is the world took the pure and chaste sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and they turned it into license to sin.

Going back to the Gnosticism that you study in the first century of the church.

You know, man has always turned the good that God shows mankind into license to sin.

And unfortunately, we are living in that world, in that society, where we can do the same thing as God's people. We can turn God's grace into license. And brethren, das is foreboden among God's people to turn God's grace into license. Let's go to chapter 6 of Romans. You know, you could spend hours just going through and talking about each of these chapters here alone. Not going to do that, but in Romans 6 and verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Some people, you know, they take the grace that is shown and they say, well, if God forgives us of all of our sins, if I sin, he will forgive me.

See, that's the problem. We can get into the idea when we are, if we sin, and we don't really make a conservative effort to change, that we turn the grace of God into license.

We can take the attitude, well, I'll just go ahead and do this now. I don't want to do it. I shouldn't do it, but I'll repent later. And that's where the guilt begins to lay in, when people start thinking in that way and in that manner. And again, we cannot turn that grace into license. We should not think in terms of what here Paul is saying here in verse 1.

You know, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not, he said. What does it say in the King James, by the way? I like it better. God forbid doesn't. God forbid. No, we don't want to turn the grace of God into license. How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it? So when we were baptized, we were supposed to die to that way of life. I remember when I was baptized, you can reflect back on yours, but I remember saying to God, well, you know, because I was baptized at 17, and I don't know how you do it, but I felt like I'd ruined my life by in 16 years. How do you do that? How do you mess your life up in 16 years? I don't think I was all that much different than any other kid, by the way. Going through life, I don't know what hormones do to people, but you know, I'm convinced that when the hormones kick in, we get crazy. We don't think very sanely. I would not like to go through teens again. Sorry, kids. I hope that you don't experience what oftentimes teenagers do, but whenever you feel a little bit crazy inside, just realize it's the hormones, you know, and if you can, you can control it. You really can. I'm convinced you can.

But by the time I was 17, I felt like I messed my life up, and God woe is me. But, you know, God, certainly, when I said that to God back then, I said, God, I messed my life up, and you could have the rest.

That's the way I put it to God. You can have the rest of my life. And that's what I've tried to live by, you know, in my life, that I gave my life to God. And I gave, I gave, you know, it's like the song I gave my heart completely back in those days. And it still has been committed to God.

I'm not saying I've lived the perfect life. Please don't think that in the very least. But I gave my life to God. And I promise God something. And to me, a promise means something. If I made a promise, does it mean something to you, brethren? When you are baptized and you commit, it is a promise you made to God. It's a vow. The biggest vow you ever make in your life is baptism, that you promise what you're going to do.

And so, anyway, it says in verse 3, And do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? That just as Christ died, we died. And you know what Paul says, that we're no longer alive, but Christ lives in us. He said, nevertheless, you know, even though I died with Christ, nevertheless, you know, I live, but Christ lives in me. In other words, we continue on. God would not, of course, benefit much at all for us and in our lives if we simply, when we're baptized, we, you know, the minister helped you under.

Of course, there'd be nobody to baptize. The only people that could baptize you would be sinners, basically. You know, but thankfully, God does let us up, doesn't he? And we can breathe the air again, but he wants us to walk in the newness of life.

And so this is what the Scriptures tell us here. So we are buried, verse 4, with him through baptism and into death, that just as Christ was raised the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also shall walk in newness of life.

And so when the minister looked at you and said, by the authority of Christ, all your sins are forgiven, that was symbolic of the resurrection, too, when you're going to be changed from physical to immortal. Do you not yearn for that, brethren? That change is going to come. And it will. It's going to come to us, but if we endure to the end. But, you know, you can go on down through here. It says that we should walk in newness of life. For if we've been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. And I'm not going to go through the rest of this, but here Paul tells us, basically, therefore, you know, we ought to be making ourselves the servants of righteousness, and we ought to be mortifying sin in our lives.

That's the message that Paul is stating here in the book of Romans. Don't let sin have dominion or rulership over your life. You know, why would we want to have, again, sin do that in our lives? But in verse 13, let's do read that, it says, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, but you are not under the law, you're not under the penalty of the law. Christ came and delivered us from that. Let's make sure, again, we don't come back under the law, because the law is exacting. What happens if you sin? What does the Bible say? What is the wages of sin? It's exacting, isn't? But the grace of God gives us the opportunity to have forgiveness in eternal life. It doesn't lead to death, it leads to life, in other words, for God's people. And, you know, Paul goes on down through here to say, I'm sort of perusing here, you know, I don't want to have to go through all of this, but you can read it yourself a little bit later on.

Let's go to chapter 7 now. Chapter 7.

Now, we have a Bible study today as well, so we will try to keep this within certain parameters. But Romans 7, now, and down in verse 5, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. Those passions were there. Hard to believe, you know, all the things that we were pursuing were going the wrong way. We're like the wrong way, corrugated, you know. We're like the guy running down the football field the wrong direction, about ready to score a touchdown, you know, for his other team. And we were going the wrong way. And going on here, down in verse 6, and it says, but now we have been delivered from the law that is the penalty of the law. Don't think somehow the law is no longer in effect. But we've been delivered from the penalty of the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and in the oldness of the letter.

And it says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not.

It says, on the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known righteousness or covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. But sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire. For part for the law, it says sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived, I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found brought death. It brings death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore, the law is holy. It says, and the commandment holy and just and good. We wouldn't know what sin was without the law of God. So, you know, grace would have no meaning, would it? Would it not have any meaning if we didn't know that we were wrong? That's why when we first start hearing the truth, we hear basically the law of God. We hear we're breaking the Sabbath. We hear we're, you know, breaking other laws of God within the Scriptures. And it leads us to come to a repentance, to change in our lives. The very first commandment that most can begin to keep is the Sabbath, because that's where we're, most of us, when we were in the world, were one of the main things we're off track in. And, of course, next would have been the Holy Days, those things that would come, and other things that we learned as time went on. But, you know, God wants us, brethren, to come into this newness of life. And the law says when we sin, but, brethren, we need to utilize God's Word to show us the way to holiness. The law can also show us the way to holiness, and righteousness in our lives. And then we need to live God's way of life, rather than the way we live prior to our conversion. You know, in Matthew 5.48, I'm not going to go over there, but what does it say over there? You should have that basically memorized. What did Jesus Christ say in Matthew 5.48? He said, Be you perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.

I'm going to ask you, brethren, do you live a perfect life? That's what Christ said here.

Now, become you perfect like your Father in heaven is perfect. Do you live a flawless life without error? Is that what Christ meant? Did Christ mean live an absolutely perfect life?

Well, the answer is no, because the Greek word here has to do with becoming mature-minded, like your Father in heaven. See the broader overview. Jesus was telling his disciples.

The word, in fact, here also means complete. Become complete. And to understand this in a better way, when Adam was created, he was not created complete. He needed something else. In fact, Adam needed what you and I are getting right now, as God's people, to be complete, to be mature-minded. You know, Jesus never, you know, intended to convey to his disciples that they were going to ever be perfect in this life, at least. Even though he was calling upon them to walk in the righteous way of God, he knew Christians would never be so perfect as to never sin.

He knew that. But he's saying become mature like your Father in heaven. Be complete. Pleat. Grow up. You know, I see our young people as they get older, you know, they begin to get taller, they begin to fill out. In a way, you know, it's like little kids. I mean, I get a kick out of our grandchildren, you know, they get the big heads and the little legs, you know. And we took them to a video place down near where they live. And, of course, Grandpa and Grandma had to give them some money to spend at the video place.

But here is little Phineas and Seth and Isaac. You know, Isaac's five, by the way. But Phineas, what is he? Three? Three years old. And Seth, they're about this tall. You know, maybe that's too tall. But mostly body, torso, and head. You know, little bitty legs. You know, toothpick-type legs. But here he was carrying, both of them were carrying their cards around.

And, you know, they don't give you money anymore. They give you a card that you, you know, they're teaching them already to be consumers. You know, in any way, you pull this card through and you can play a game in the video place.

And the first one that one of the, I think it was Phineas that did it, had to be shown how to do this. You know, and it was one of these machines where the little arms go down, you know, to pick up stuffed animals. You know, it costs you a dollar to do it, and the stuffed animal is about 10 cents, you know, something like that.

But little Phineas, he did his money thing, and the little arm came right down, grabbed a toy. First time, by the way. Sometimes I've spent five, ten dollars to try to get a, you know, a two-cent, you know, stuffed toy. He got it the first time. To see the exam. Oh, you know, he was so excited by that. Of course, then after that, he wanted to play it again, and found it was not so easy the next time.

And so he tired of that, and then they'd go to something else. What's amazing, too, is they, I don't know how this has anything to do with a sermon, but is, you know, it just, it's just, it's just, it's cute.

Maybe I should leave it at that, but there's other things I could tell you about that happened. We took them bowling as well, but, you know, I think what I was trying to explain is that, is that, you know, I know we're talking about God doesn't expect us to be perfect, does he? And not, and never sin.

I'll figure it out, by the way, after the sermon. What was the tie-in here? I guess I'm becoming a grandpa, you know, and you forget what your train of thought. My chuchu upstairs jumped its tracks, and... But, but brethren, Jesus Christ never expected you and I to never make a mistake. Never. And brethren, forget it if you somehow think that you're ever going to be perfect in that way. You simply will not ever be perfect in that way in this physical life.

Now, I'm not saying you're not going to improve your life. You're not going to get better at it. I think we do get better at living God's way of life. But brethren, you're always going to fall down, and you're going to make mistakes. You're going to feel guilty about it.

And if you let it, you can have this cloud of guilt hanging on over you all the time.

And, you know, it's... That's your heart condemning you. But somehow you have to get out of that way of thinking. I don't mean, brethren, we turn, you know, God's grace into license. I'm just saying, when God forgives you, let that happen. Let Him forgive you.

You know, if we think that somehow we're going to be perfect, and I think a lot of members in the church have this idea that, you know, you got to be perfect, not sin. What's going to happen is you're going to be eaten up with guilt, and your heart is going to be condemning you all through your converted life. There was no one in His time more converted than the Apostle Paul. I'm sure if you had met him, you might even think he was close to being perfect.

I don't think Paul was the kind of man who was sinning with impunity. But he was like you and me. Most of his battle was where most of our battle is, and that is up in our... between our ears. That's where the greatest battle is. You know, anybody can cease killing people, right? Had anybody go out and kill anybody recently? Here. Not had a problem with that, right? Anybody can stop stealing. I don't think we have anybody here who is a, you know, a thief going out by night wearing those black leotards and the mask and all that stuff.

Anybody can stop committing physical adultery. Anybody can. But it's up here in your mind that, brethren, we have a problem. We do. Houston, we have a problem up here in our minds.

Let's go down to verse 18. Verse 18. You know, here Paul says in verse 18, he says, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. Nothing is good in me.

Do you have that idea right now, brethren, in your own way of thinking? I'm telling you, I do about myself. Nothing good is in this pile of human debris that's standing before you here today. Nothing except what God has put there. God's Spirit and what God has put within me. And that's the only thing that is good in us, brethren. But Paul felt that way. For the will is present with me, you know, to do the right thing, but how to perform what is good I do not find. This sounds like to me the mind of a man in his in his later years was going through what we go through. And I'm just thankful Paul wrote it down.

Imagine if we didn't have anything like this to tell us that Paul went through these things. And he realized there's nothing good in him. And even though he wants to do good, it's like he said, I don't find anything in him. When the wrong ways may come up in my mind, or I don't know if he did anything physically, that was contrary to God's law. But I don't, you know, he said, I can't find in me how to stop it, how to overcome it. You know, humanly, it's just a it is a mystery to me about this human mind. There's a terrible, terrible mystery to try to figure out.

He says, now if I do what I will not do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

That carnality that's within me. You know, you we've all heard the sermons, haven't we, about the two minds of man. There's the mind of Christ, and then there's the man of sin that's inside of us.

Those two minds that are there. I find in a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man, but I see another law of my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is my members. And it says, oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. You can come to that, brethren. Who's going to deliver me out of this whole thing? Well, it's not going to be you. It's not going to be me. Because we can't. We can't.

And Paul's answer to that, brethren, is I thank God through Jesus Christ the Lord, so that with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

And by that, again, I don't think that Paul is saying, I'm going to just go ahead and sin with impunity in the flesh. But he realized, again, apart from God, the other worthlessness of human beings.

And the only thing, brethren, that is redeeming is what God is doing in us.

And what we ought to be doing, brethren, is God's people is realizing this struggle and realizing that if we make a mistake, repent of it and move on. Repent of it and move on.

This time of the year, brethren, we understand this paradox that Paul was talking about. I want to do right, but I don't find in me what to do to do that right. I mean, why is that? That is a horrible paradox, isn't it? Why do we do those things that are bad for us?

I mean, even though we know something is bad for us, you know, we do it anyway.

You know, the Surgeon General puts on, I haven't seen it in a long time, but, you know, on cigarettes, doesn't it? Don't they put, this may cause cancer?

And yet, does that keep people from, you know, smoking? No. Doesn't keep young people from smoking? No, it doesn't.

You know, of course, we're talking about physical things here, aren't we?

But in the same way, brethren, when we have problems in our minds, do you always find the answer to how to overcome it? You don't, do you? How do you stop this? How do you overcome it?

I've, you know, sometimes I've asked little old ladies, you know, if they're being called, you know, that God wants to forgive you or sin. Have you ever committed sin? Ah, yeah. Let me think. Yeah, when I was five, you know, I stole something. And I felt so bad about it. You know, how old are you now? Ninety-five, you know. But, you know, that's not really understanding what I'm talking about, if people are thinking in those terms. I'm talking about, brethren, the nature of man here, and the way we are as human beings. Even with God's Spirit, if we know to do good, you know, and we don't do it, that's a paradox to me. You know, for instance, you know that if you go and you eat that chocolate cake in the refrigerator, that's not going to be according your diet, right?

But you do it anyway. Why? Why do you do it? You know, we're not all Spock, are we?

You know, Spock didn't have any emotion, you know, it's all logic, you know. But what do you do? How do you get to the point where you're on a diet to maybe lose weight, stop eating sugar, whatever? Chocolate cake is just sitting in the refrigerator, that little triangle-shaped towering bastion of chocolateness, maybe with a little white curlicue on top, you know, of whipped cream. You're on a diet, you know, and you know it would be bad for you to eat that chocolate cake. You know what you do in order to eat the chocolate cake? You know, you start thinking in your mind.

Well, you know, chocolate cake does have healthful things, doesn't it? It's got milk, yeah, that's good for you. And it's got, you know, flour. What's wrong with that?

Nothing wrong with a little flour here or there. And you know, they just came out saying that chocolate's healthy for you. You know, by the way, you're on the way to the refrigerator by this time. And then you're thinking, well, God would not want me to deprive myself of this. I mean, what's it going to hurt? In fact, it's the Sabbath today.

And we're supposed to feast on the Sabbath. What am I doing not eating chocolate cake anyway?

You know, pretty soon you've talked yourself right into it, haven't you? Now, I mean this in a facetious way, but this is what we do with real troubling thoughts.

We talk ourselves into it. It's a paradox. So, brethren, when you commit a sin—and there are far worse sins than eating chocolate cake—but when you commit a sin, analyze why you do. Why do you do it? How did you talk yourself into that? How did you get there from point A to point B so that you broke the law of God? How did you get there? You know, I'm convinced that Jesus Christ wants us to become, you know, mature, to figure it out, to try to figure it out. So we understand, brethren, why we sin. So, brethren, what can we do otherwise, brethren? And once we've looked at something from every angle and we're making a concerted effort to overcome something, and yet we fall down, what can we do, brethren, if our heart condemns us?

We have a conscience problem. Well, number one, brethren, examine if you're guilty or not.

And, you know, if sin is there, then what do you do? Repent of it. Ask God's forgiveness. Don't take that for granted, though, and correct your problem. Strive to correct the problem.

And, brethren, if sin you have repeated all the more, it's important for you to look at this sin that you committed from every angle. What caused you to begin to think the way you did that led you to do something that inside of you you knew was wrong to do? What caused you to do that? How did your thinking evolve? You know what it says in the book of James, doesn't it?

It talks about how that, you know, basically sin begins with a thought, you know, that's implanted in our minds. And that gives birth to that thought, wrong thought, gives birth to sin.

And if sin has its full and complete fruition, it becomes death. So that's how it progresses. It's not just one thought, by the way, oftentimes that leads us to commit a sin.

It's a number of thoughts, a number of situations that arise. And, brethren, if we again examine sin and our lives in that way, then we can think about, well, how can I combat this way of thinking so that I think differently? I can nip it in the bud. You know, we, of course, it's important for us to walk among those who believe and know the truth as well. Because iron sharpens iron. God helps us when we're surrounded by those who are living God's way of life. And, you know, when if we commit sin, again, confess it, and God is faithful, the Bible says, to forgive us of our sins. And if we don't think we sin, then frankly, we're a liar and the truth is not in us. You know, if we're not living realizing that we commit sin and we make mistakes. Now, how should we confront past sins, though, which continue to dog us? Let's go to Psalm 130. Psalm 130.

Again, I think people have this idea that God is this cruel God. He's got this big book up there. He's writing down everything that we do wrong.

You know, for the unrepentant, you know, God, of course, is well aware. He doesn't have to have a book. He's well aware of the sins we all commit. It's like, remember, when the woman was caught in adultery and, you know, here all these elders were surrounding this woman and they were about to stone her. And Christ knelt down and he began to write into the sand. Well, very probably he was writing the sins of those elders that were there who were so ready to stone this woman. And it talks about how that one by one they departed. Maybe when Christ wrote down a sin, you know, they just began to depart, leave. Pretty soon there was nobody but the woman.

You know, Christ didn't say, you haven't committed a sin. He told her, go and sin no more.

And that's what God tells us, don't sin anymore. But God wants to save us, brother. But in Psalm 130, Psalm 130, in verse 1, Psalm 130 verse 1, it says, out of the depths I've cried to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, if this was the way you were, God, O Lord, who could stand? Who could stand? If you mark iniquities. You know, sometimes people, by the way, commit the terrible sin of being judgmental of other people. The last thing you want to do, brethren, is set yourself up as a judge of other people. Because what happens when we do that? Because God says, okay, you want to do that? You want to do my job? God's the judge, remember? Then I'll start keeping a tabulation on your sins. We'll run a tab on you. And the same way you judge, this person you may be judging, you're going to be judged again. And God really means that, by the way. He really means that. And, unfortunately, I'm afraid we're going to come up with the short end of the stick and lose out. Because the way sometimes people judge other people to condemn them, especially, you know, if they're judging to condemn someone else, the only judgment that God can give is they themselves will be condemned. But it says, if you should mark iniquities, verse 3 here, oh Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. And so David understood that God was not in the business of keeping a tabulation of our sins, a book of sins. But again, if we get in the business of judging somebody else, God might start a list for us. Or recall the list he could come up with. I'm sure he didn't have to have a book, by the way. He's got a memory that is much better than a book. Remember this, too, brethren. When you commit a sin, if you have a pass-in that's causing you to feel guilt, and if you really did repent, of that sin, the Bible says that God forgives sin. He puts it as far from us as east is from west.

In other words, when you kneel down and you say, God, forgive me of this sin I committed a long time ago, it's like the man who was the World War II vet that committed adultery. When he came to the church, he repented. He couldn't forgive himself, but God did forgive him. God forgave him. And brethren, let's just believe that God forgives us and leave it alone. Because God, you know, I'm convinced that if we repent of a sin, then we go to God and say, well, God, about this sin.

And the father looks over at the son, what's he talking about? Don't know what he's talking about.

You know, is he talking about something we forgave him of already? You know, God doesn't think the way we do. You know, humans are like elephants we never get, you know, but God can choose to forget and leave it behind. So let's do the same if we have past sins and leave it before the throne of God within his, you know, responsibility to forgive. Let's go to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 in verse 16. Hebrews 10 in verse 16 over here.

Here Paul says in verse 16, he says, This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds I will write them. So God is dealing with your heart, brethren, putting his law in your heart. And that is a miracle in itself, in your mind, imprinting it in your mind. So that's where the battlefield is, brethren. And what God is doing is happening in your mind. You know, when you and I stopped breaking the Sabbath, that was an outward thing. Hopefully, long ago God started working with the inward things with you and me in our lives. And then he adds, God forgives us. Now, whether is remission of these, there is no longer an offering. It says for sin. Christ gave that offering once and for all, brethren, for you and me. Therefore, brethren, having boldness entered the holiest by the blood of Christ, the blood of Jesus. This is why with the, you know, Christ we're justified. Again, it allows us to get on in and talk to the Father. By a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Now, get rid of the evil conscience, the guilt that is hanging over your head, in other words, because of what God has done for us and our bodies washed with pure water. So God has forgiven us, brethren. Verse 23, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You know, we need to again encourage each other. Forsaking, it says not forsaking, the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another in so much the more as you see the day approaching. And, brethren, if you don't see the day approaching now, in this time and day and age, indeed, we would be blind if we don't see it. The things are coming at us so rapidly, so quickly.

And it says, for if we sin willfully, after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. And I trust, brethren, none of us do that. We don't sin willfully.

When we think the wrong thought, we're not doing it purposely. It is a paradox, again, why it keeps going on and why we don't nip it in the bud. And it can produce sin in our lives.

But I think sometimes we even condemn ourselves for our very thought's sake.

You know, I feel terrible because this thought entered my mind. Well, you have to understand, brethren, Satan shoots his fiery darts at us, too. It's not your thought, necessarily. It may come from the devil. He may put that thought in you, and then, of course, germinates if we allow it to, and it can produce sin that way. So let's not allow that to happen.

You know, clear your conscience. Get rid, again, of the cloud that can be over us. And, brethren, you know, one thing Paul says is what he did is he forgot the past, and he pressed to the prize of the high calling of God. And that's what we need to do as God's people. Realize, brethren, that God is not out to get you. He's not out to get you. But he's busy in making a child of his right now. He's busy about that, and he's going to bring many sons, the Bible says, into glory. You and I are going to have that opportunity someday if we can hold fast to the end.

Don't let your heart condemn you. Don't operate under a cloud of guilt, brethren.

And realize this, that God is much more anxious to forgive us than, in fact, we are willing to be forgiven. Much more anxious to forgive us so we can move on in our lives. So keep pressing, brethren. Don't let your heart condemn you. Let God's Spirit lead you so that you and I can be a part of God's family as the children of God.