The Leaven of Hidden Sins

Well, that was very nicely done. I certainly appreciate the choir, Mr. Whitlark, and all the hard work and the practice that went into making that a very special, special music. In fact, the entire day has been wonderful in regard to our special music and certainly have enjoyed it. You know, before services, I asked one of our pre-teen girls how it was going, and she said, I'm bored. And I said, well, I'm not even up speaking yet.

I'm not even up here on your board. Just kidding. I'm sure she's awake now. I won't tell you who it was. I won't even give you her initials. Anyway, it really is a wonderful blessing to be here on the last day of 11 Bread. It's good to be here in Texas. Never thought I'd be a Texan, but I guess I'm becoming more and more a Texan each day. I actually like it here pretty well. Well, brethren, have you asked yourself just how well can God see? How good is God's vision?

Have you ever asked yourself, how well can God hear? Is God really omniscient? Is He all-knowing? Does He really know everything? Is there anything ever hidden or secret from God? Are your sins ever hidden from God? As the days of 11 Bread 2017 wind down, it's appropriate that we ask ourselves these questions. These days are symbolic of our deliverance from sin through the one and only true Passover lamb, Jesus Christ. We put the 11 out of our homes prior to these days, and then it was our job to avoid loving for the past seven days.

I hope you were successful. I think I was. I don't know that I had any 11. I don't think my wife did either. We stayed home the whole time. That's why. No, we did go out some, but the less you go out, the less likely you are to eat 11 during these days. Hopefully you were able to avoid the physical 11 in the world.

But much more importantly, I hope you were able to avoid the spiritual 11, the sin that so does easily beset us. And hopefully you took it seriously and had unleavened bread throughout the feast. I got up every morning and had my coffee and not toast. I remember what Mr. Whitlark said about toast. I didn't have toast during the days of unleavened bread.

I had unleavened bread with my coffee, and then my wife made some cinnamon unleavened bread, which I really like. And I ate too much of that. But it was good, too, to think of Christ as I was eating the unleavened bread. Think of putting Christ in. I wonder if there was any physical 11 left in any of our homes. I wonder if somebody missed something.

I wonder if you missed something. I wonder if I missed something. I wonder if maybe we did eat something this week and we didn't even realize it. We might have gotten some leaven and don't even know it to this moment. So I wonder if some of us slipped up unthinkingly and we began to eat some leavening, only to stop ourselves short while stopping not eating the whole flour tortilla. I couldn't very well say the whole enchilada, because I think that's unleavened.

So it couldn't be the enchilada, but maybe a flour tortilla. I don't know if you had an 11 this week or not. There have been times when I have had some leaven. I think I told you about the time I had an ice cream sandwich. At least I had one bite, and then I threw it out the window, because I realized it was leavened. So what about our hidden sins? That's what I want to talk about today. What about your hidden sins?

What about our hidden sins? Our secret sins? What do we all need to know about our hidden sins? What are they? How prevalent are they? How dangerous are they? And can we get rid of, can we become unleavened of our hidden secret sins? So the title of this sermon is The Leaven of Hidden Sins. Again, what are these hidden secret sins? Well, I've broken them down into four different categories today. And the first one, the first hidden type of sin is that which is hidden from the person who is sinning.

A person is not aware of his sin, but many other people are very aware of his sin. Let's go to Matthew 7, where we will see this clearly demonstrated. Matthew 7, verse 1, this is about a hidden sin that other people see quite readily, but the person who is guilty of the sin does not see it. Notice verse 1 of chapter 7 of the book of Matthew.

Judge not. Actually, another translation would be condemn not. It's actually a better translation in this case because we are told to judge righteous judgment. There is a time to judge righteously, of course. We should be able to discern between good and evil and make good judgments. But in this case, it's talking about not condemning someone. Condemn not that you be not condemned, for with what condemnation you condemn, you will be condemned, and with what measure you use it will be measured back to you.

And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Verse 4, How can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye. Hypocrite. First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

So when you have a plank in your eye, it's difficult to see your sin, isn't it? Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you into pieces. So be careful to remove the plank or the beam from your eye first when you start considering someone else and their sins.

If you have a beam stuck in your eye, again, you can't see clearly to help anyone else. Your vision, your spiritual vision, is impeded. In fact, you're cut off altogether to a large degree. Your vision is cut off. It's blurred badly. I remember when I was about a freshman in high school. Maybe I was 8th grade. I was on a basketball team, and there was a fellow that was my age. He was also on the basketball team, and he considered himself to be a very, very good basketball player. In fact, he talked about how good he was on a very regular basis, and it kind of bothered the rest of us on the team.

In fact, we started calling him Darryl Bragg. And actually, there was a basketball star whose name was Darryl Bragg back at that time, and he thought that was a reference to how good he was, when in reality it was a reference to the last name. In our opinion, he had a big problem with braggadocio. He bragged a lot about how good he was. I'm sure it was because he had a lot of insecurities. So, as young boys can be, we weren't really very nice about that.

So we decided to hide from him after practice one day. We all took off in different directions, and we were going to meet somewhere, and we were very unkind to this person. But I just use that as an illustration. He was not able to see how that affected us. He was constantly bragging about how good he was, and that was a turn-off to the rest of us. We really got tired of hearing it. So I guess we decided we would teach him a lesson and ditch him after practice. That was not a good thing to do.

It was not a very nice thing to do. He shouldn't have done that. So even though he may have been doing something wrong, we were also doing something wrong in the way we reacted to it. And I don't think we saw that, at least not at the time. I mean, I see it very clearly today, but back then it seemed like the right thing to do. So oftentimes we don't see the bad things that we do.

We don't comprehend it at the time. Turn with me to Psalm 19, Psalm 19 verse 12, where David is speaking to God. David poured his heart out to God oftentimes. He really sets a good example for us that we should also be able to talk to God and open up to God, go to God with whatever is on our mind. In Psalm 19 verse 12, David says, Who can understand his errors, his mistakes, his sins? Who can understand these things?

He says, Clean me or cleanse me from secret faults. Cleanse me from these things that I don't see. 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. David understood that it was easy to not see oneself. In fact, David was guilty of that himself. Remember when Nathan the prophet had to go to him and say to him, You are that man.

Remember he had been sinning with Bathsheba and he had her husband killed, sending him to the front lines. Then the story about Nathan the prophet and the little lamb that was taken and slaughtered. David was upset about it. He was infuriated about it. He wanted to have that person disciplined, even killed. Nathan said, You are that man. David blinded himself. It wasn't that he didn't know what adultery was. It wasn't that he didn't know what murder was. But he wanted to do what he wanted to do.

So he blinded himself from what he was doing. He did not take responsibility for his sin. So we should pray to God that God would cleanse us from our secret faults, from the things that we don't see, that we're unaware of. There are many secret sins that we might have. Anger could be one of them. We might not think we're an angry person, but we might be a pretty angry person. We might not think we're a prideful person, but maybe we do have some issues with being proud or selfish.

That's another one. Oftentimes we can't see our selfishness. We think we're justified in whatever it is we're wanting to do. Sometimes we can't see that we're a gossip. That we're a gossip, we can see it in other people, but we have a difficult time seeing it in ourselves. Envy is the same way. Sometimes we can see how other people are envious, but we have a hard time seeing our own problems with envy or jealousy. Sometimes we have a difficult time seeing that we're a controlling person. And sometimes we do try to control others, and yet we don't see it.

Or maybe we're impatient. Or maybe we're unkind. Or maybe we're full of lust. And we don't want to admit it. We don't want to see it. We don't want to own up to it. We don't want to take responsibility for it. Maybe we're full of hatred at times or resentment. Maybe we're being deceitful. Maybe we're being dishonest. These can all be hidden sins. Things that we can't clearly see and that we don't want to take responsibility for. Examining oneself isn't something that should just take place only a few weeks prior to the Passover.

We should stop and examine ourselves on a very regular basis. We should ask God to search us and reveal to us the things that He wants us to change. And of course, that's everything that's wrong. Everything that's not like Him.

He wants us to work on and change. So we should pray that God would help us to see ourselves more fully this next year. We should open up to God, let Him into our lives, talk to Him more this year, be honest with ourselves, be honest with our conduct in light of God's holy Word. Are you living by all of the Ten Commandments, not only in the letter, but also in the Spirit?

Or are you like everyone else? You have a little trouble from time to time with at least one of those commandments. Maybe all of those commandments. We all know that a flashlight is very important because it reveals what needs to be seen in order to be safe and to maneuver properly around any obstacles in the dark. God can be our flashlight if we allow Him to be. God can show us the obstacles, the sins in our lives that could easily keep us out of His kingdom. If we're not willing to admit those sins, if we can't see them, if we're totally blinded, we need God to reveal these things to us. So when was the last time you really asked God to expose your sins?

Did you really do that before the Passover? Really, really sincerely get down on your knees and cry out to God and really mean it with all your heart and soul and might? God will show us what we need to change, but we do have to seek His guidance and His direction.

Oh, if we only had eyes like God's, if we could only see as clearly as God sees, I'm sure we would think differently of our human selves. Mr. Hooser mentioned that human nature tends toward evil. Do you realize that? Do you admit that? Do you see that? Do you see that? The sins that we see and confess are a little bit like the salesman's small samples.

You know, a lot of salespeople, they have samples of whatever it is they sell, but they have a big warehouse somewhere else. So we're a little bit like the salesman who can see the little samples but forgets there's a big warehouse. We see some of our sins, but we don't see all of our sins. So the first category is sins that we just simply can't see. Others can see them oftentimes. They realize we're not perfect, especially those who are close to us, our mates, our family. They can see some of our weaknesses more easily than we can. God does give us some people who are supposed to help us in these ways. If we go to Hebrews 13, in fact, all of us are supposed to help each other, right? Because are we not our brother's keeper? Aren't we supposed to go to our brother? It's certainly true.

We are to go to our brother. I gave a few sermons on that in the last year or so about going to your brother if you see something that isn't right. Once you've gotten the plank out of your own eye, then you can help another person. It is important that we get the planks out of our own eyes first. In verse 7 of chapter 13 of the book of Hebrews, it says, remember those who actually rule over is not a very good translation. Remember those who lead you, those who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace. We should allow God's grace to show us His truth. God is very merciful and gracious. He will reveal His truth to us. Notice verse 17, it says, obey those who lead you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. The responsibility of the ministry is to be a helper of your joy, is to help you grow in grace and in knowledge and understanding and wisdom, is to help you change, is to help you grow, and to help you overcome. So, whenever I get up here and I'm talking to you, hopefully I understand I'm talking to myself, because I certainly need to practice what I preach. I only took about three-fourths of a plate when I went through that first time. Potluck? I think you did, too. It seemed like we had plenty of food. It was really good. Excellent food, by the way. Appreciate everyone who brought the food. But we should try to practice what we preach, if we get up here and speak to all of you, of course, especially. It says we're held to a greater standard in a way. God expects us to live more godly lives, and that's scary, very scary, because I fall short of that. I'll be the first to admit that.

But the point I'm making is, if there's anything that I can help you with, I hope you'll be willing to discuss it with me. If it's to that level, if it's to that degree, I would be glad to help out in any way. Otherwise, I'll just help you by preaching at you. I'll just tell you what you need to do, how you need to change, how you need to grow. I actually prefer that more than the other, so I hope this is good enough. But if not, just let me know. So the first point again is, things that we don't see...if we don't see them, then we're still guilty, right? If you don't see it, you're still guilty. So it's important that you learn to see it. So you can deal with the guilt, and you can change. So a second category of a hidden sin would be a sin hidden from others. Other people don't see it, but it's not hidden from you. It's not hidden from the sinner. A person is very aware of his sin, but he continues in it and hides it from others. That's a hidden sin that we should all think about. Several years ago, at least people like me remember a very, very recent person named Scott Peterson, Lacey Peterson. Do you remember Scott and Lacey Peterson? Much of the world was caught up in what happened to Lacey Peterson. Did Scott Peterson kill his wife? Did he also kill their unborn son, Connor? They already had a name picked out for the child. Because of a mountain of evidence pointing to the fact that he most likely did kill Lacey, he was convicted. I believe he's in prison. He did commit murder.

So he was well aware of that fact. This is a blatant example here. Here's somebody that actually murdered his own wife and an unborn child, and then he acted to the world as though he knew nothing about this. He had nothing to do with it. He fabricated a story about him going fishing one day, only to return and find his wife gone, missing from the home.

It was believed that he did actually kill her and take her out and drop her in the lake, weigh her down, or throw her into the ocean is what it was. And if he did, he certainly was well aware of it, right? I mean, you don't do things like that unless you know that you're doing them, unless you're psychotic or some other strange things going on. He didn't confess it. He didn't admit it. He lied about it. While many thousands were staging a tremendous search for Lacey, he had to know it was all in vain. He knew that she would not be found alive because he knew exactly what happened to her. He was evidently ready to run to Mexico when he was arrested. You might remember when he got arrested. He had altered his appearance.

He was trying to hide even further from his sin. It was pretty obvious what the family of Lacey Peterson thought, her parents. They thought that he did it all along. In fact, they praised the Modesto Police Department after Scott's parents had spoken of how badly they had bungled the investigation. Sure, I'm sure the parents didn't want to believe that they could possibly be capable of doing such a heinous thing. It's hard to contemplate.

It's hard to even fathom. But if indeed he did kill her and he was convicted and he is in prison, I don't think he was ever... I don't think capital punishment. I don't know what happened to him, but I think he's still in prison. Anyway, there was a sermon given back in 1857, a guy named Charles Spurgeon. He was a popular minister back in those days. In the sermon he said, above all, beware of committing acts which it will be necessary to conceal. There is a singular poem by Thomas Hood called, The Dream of Eugene Arum. It was a most remarkable piece, indeed, illustrating the point on which I am now dwelling. Arum has murdered a man and cast his body into the river. A little bit like Scott Peterson.

A sluggish water, black as ink, the depth was so extreme. That's part of the poem.

The next morning he visited the scene of his guilt. This is a long poem, so it's like eight pages long. I'm just referring to what Charles Spurgeon said about this poem.

Quoting the poem, And sought the black a cursed pool, With a wild, misgiving eye, And he saw the dead in the riverbed, For the faithless stream was dry. Next, he covered the course with heaps of leaves, But a mighty wind swept through the wood, And left the secret bare before the sun. And down I cast me on my face, And first began to weep, For I knew my secret then was one the earth refused to keep. On land or sea, though it should be ten thousand fathoms deep. In plaintive notes, he prophesied his own discovery. This is, again, the poem, the dream of Eugene Arum. He prophesied his own discovery. He buried his victim in a cave, And trod him down with stones. But years later, fourteen years later, Had run their weary round, The foul deed was discovered, And finally he was put to death. Guilt is a grim chamberlain, Even when his fingers are not bloody red. Secret sins bring fevered eyes And sleepless nights, Until men burn out their consciences, And become in very deed ripe for the pit. I'm still quoting from this sermon. Hypocrisy is a hard game to play at, For it is one deceiver against many observers. And for certain it is a miserable trade, Which will earn at last, As its certain climax a tremendous bankruptcy. Ah, ye who have sinned without discovery, Be sure your sin will find you out. That's the whole thrust of the poem. The earth itself would not allow the sin to go unnoticed. Be sure your sins will find you out. That's Numbers 32, verse 23. Behold you have sinned against the Eternal, And be sure your sin will find you out. Eventually your sin will find you out. So there is no way to hide our sins from God. God sees all. He is omniscient. He has perfect vision. He has perfect hearing. He hears everything. He sees everything. He knows everything. And be sure your sins will find you out. It's been said that no man is more miserable than he who sins secretly. In Luke 12, verse 2, Luke 12, verse 2, let's see what Jesus has to say about this topic. In Luke 12, verse 2, let's read verse 1, In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another, he began to say to his disciples, first of all, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.

Therefore, whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and whatever you have spoken in the ear, in inner rooms, will be proclaimed on the housetops.

Again, be sure your sins will find you out. Be sure your actions will find you out.

To all of us who sin secretly, to all of us who break God's covenants in the dark and wear a mask of goodness in the light, to us all who shut the doors and commit wickedness in secret, I say to all of us, turn to God and seek repentance with all of your heart and soul, with all of your mind and strength, because we are all guilty to some degree of this thing of which I am speaking of today. All pretenders should give up.

They should renounce. They should detest. They should hate. They should abhor. All their sins that they commit in secret. Your sin is known by God and shall one day be revealed, perhaps very soon, unless, of course, you are truly repentant, and you change, and you turn from that sin. And God is merciful. All of our hidden sins aren't always revealed in the sense that not everyone knows. God always knows. And be sure your sins will find you out, in that there's always a consequence for our sin, no matter what it is. Even if we repent of it, there is still a consequence, because a true Christian hates sin and hates the fact that he has sinned. And so he has to deal with the guilt. And hopefully that's as far as it goes.

And if that's as far as it goes, then that's wonderful. Really. If we can see our sins and repent quickly of our sin, then the matter is forgiven and forgotten. But too often, we continue in our sins. We continue in our sins, and we don't quickly change.

If you knew your sin was to be revealed tomorrow, would you somehow find the strength to stop that sin today? Whatever that sin is. And hopefully you don't have any sins that you're all that concerned about. But perhaps sometime in your life, you were doing something, and you had a difficult time stopping. And now you're grateful that it wasn't exposed.

So if there is anything that any of us are struggling with, and we all struggle with something to some degree in some way, so I guess we should all take this seriously for what it's worth. Secret sins bring misery and destruction not only to the sinner, but also to other people as well. You might remember a song by Toby Keith. Some of you are into country western. You know who Toby Keith is. He's from Oklahoma, so I lived there 19 years.

He wrote a popular song, Wish I Didn't Know Now. In it he sings, I never asked you where you were going. I never asked you where you've been. I didn't want to know the truth. I would rather go on loving blind girl than go on loving without you. You still got my heart in the palm of your hands.

I still look like a fool in front of your friends. I wish somehow I didn't know now what I didn't know then. I found out too much to stay. Please don't say you're sorry. I might wait another day. I wish somehow I didn't know now what I didn't know then. So, in other words, she was cheating on him. She was not faithful. He didn't realize it. He was happy. He thought things were going great until things started crashing down around him because of her sins. We betray our God when we sin against him. It's a betrayal. At baptism, we entered into a marriage covenant. We all did. Those of us who are baptized, we entered into a marriage covenant.

When we sin, we are committing spiritual adultery.

And to quote Charles Spurgeon again, the minister that I mentioned from the 1800s, he once said, Your sin is not secret. The eye of God has seen it. You have sinned before his face. You have shut the door and drawn the curtains and kept out the eye of the sun. But God's eye pierces through the darkness. The brick walls which surround you were as transparent as glass to the eye of the Almighty. The darkness which did gird you was as bright as the summer's noon to the eye of him who beholds all things. So we cannot hide anything from God.

You might be familiar with Proverbs chapter 26. As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.

As a dog returns to his vomit, you've probably seen that. It's sickening. It's disgusting. But that's what dogs do.

So a fool returns to his folly. Too often, we don't learn the lesson that we should learn quickly. Repent of that sin and never commit it again.

Instead, we continue on until it's too late.

So again, whatever it is, whatever difficulty, whatever sin you're struggling with, now's the time to make progress. Now's the time to put the sin out. Now's the time to stop making excuses. Now's the time to produce the fruit of God's Holy Spirit in abundance.

Let's go to 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 22.

2 Peter chapter 22. It goes along with the true Proverbs that I just read from Proverbs 26, 11. 2 Peter chapter 2, 22.

But it has happened unto them, according to the true Proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to wallowing in her mire. Sows will always do that. You know, pigs will go back and wallow in the mud, and they love it. They can't wait to get back in there and wallow in the mire and in the mud.

We don't really hate sin when we keep going back to it. That's the lesson that we should understand. If you have a sin that you can't get rid of, it's because you're enjoying that sin.

There's something about it that you like, because you keep wallowing in it. You keep going back to it.

So whatever it is, whatever sin easily besets you, consider that you don't hate it enough. We were all very spiritually sick prior to our baptism. We were spiritually filthy, but we have been cleaned up and we have been forgiven our sins through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior. As our personal Savior, we need to remain faithful and clean.

That is the lesson of the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Put the sin out and keep it out. Allow Christ to live in us, to guide us, to direct us, to change us, to live in us.

There is great folly, great foolishness, and great misery in continuing to hide our sins from others. It gives us a false sense of security. Somehow we think, since these sins are hidden from others, they must not be too bad. Of course, that's faulty reasoning because we can't hide from God any of our sins, even if we can hide it from other people. Just because other people don't know how dastardly we are, just because other people don't know the extreme nature of our sinfulness, that doesn't mean that God doesn't know that.

We think, since God hasn't punished us for our sins, then it must not be too bad.

We think, I'm weak. God will understand. And so we don't strive against sin as much as we should. We don't strive as hard as we ought to to put sin out. We don't take it as seriously as we should.

It is utter foolishness to think that way. God hates all sin. He does. He abhors it. It's what killed his son. Just because other people don't know about your sin doesn't make it any less dangerous or any less destructive to you or others. And again, there are many types of hidden sins. We mentioned a bunch already. Adultery, fornication, sexual sins of all types, pornography, thievery, lying, drugs, drunkenness. These are all sins that we tend to hide.

But we're fully aware of those sins. And we're not really changing. We're not trying as hard as we need to to put that sin out of our lives. We're not trying as hard to become unleavened in those areas of our lives. So the second category, again, of these hidden sins is a sin that may be hidden from others. They don't see it, but we're very aware of our sin and we continue to hide it from others. And then there's a third type of sin, a sin that's hidden from others but not from the sinner. But in this case, the person is very aware of his sin and he's striving to overcome it with all his heart, soul, and mind. That's the category we all need to be in. It may be hidden from others. We don't necessarily need to show all of our sins to everyone. In fact, if we're really growing and overcoming, hopefully we don't have that many to show. And if we're striving to overcome it, God is very merciful. God is gracious. We can all think better of each other.

Right? I mean, you wouldn't want everyone to know your sins and I wouldn't want you to know my sins.

There are things that I've done and thought that I definitely would not want you to know about.

And I would imagine the same thing is true. That you have done things and you've said things and you've thought things and you really wouldn't want me to know about it. You wouldn't want anyone else to know about it. So hopefully this is the type of sin that is most present in your life.

Sin that you're aware of and sin that you're striving your utmost to overcome.

You know your weaknesses. You know your sinful thoughts. You know your sinful actions.

You're not blinded to it. God has already revealed it to you. You've sought Him. You've sought His direction in your life. You've opened up to Him. You know who you are. You know your sins.

And you are trying your dead level best. At least you're trying to do your best.

I've said before that I don't know that any of us do our best, but we should try to do our best.

We should all try to do our very best.

Often it is helpful to have a close friend that you could confide in, especially something that has gone on for years and years and years. Something that is very difficult to overcome. It's where you're the weakest, perhaps, in your whole life.

Of course, Jesus Christ is our elder brother, and He is our friend, and we can go to Him.

We can go to the Father through Him. We can confess our sins. We're told to do that. Go to God and confess your sins. Admit your sins. God is gracious, and He will forgive your sins.

That's something that we should always do whenever we've sinned.

And of course, we have to be able to see our sins. They can't be hidden from us. How can we repent if they're hidden? If we don't see them, then we're certainly not repenting of them. So, if you have such a close friend that you can talk to on a very intimate level, that's always helpful. My wife and I have done that a lot.

She knows me quite well. I know her quite well. We understand each other's weaknesses, and we try to help each other. And I think we have helped each other a great deal over the years.

Sometimes it's good to have a close friend who has skin on.

Not just God. God is our close friend, and we should go to God first and foremost. But it's also nice to have a person we're close to. Let's go to James chapter 5. James chapter 5.

James chapter 5.

James chapter 5 verse 16.

Oh, by the way, I meant to just mention a little bit, Lisa Shrewsberry, as far as I know, is still in a coma. She had an MRI yesterday, and they hadn't gotten the results back from that MRI, but hopefully that will show them something. They're giving her chemo because she has that aggressive tumor, so it needs to be attacked aggressively, so they have to do it now.

So hopefully they're not giving her too much, and it's going to work for her, and she'll come out of that coma. So please continue to pray for her. And also, Allie Baker went into the hospital last night, and Allie's been having... she had some fever, and so she had to go into the hospital.

Her low blood cell... I think I mentioned it on the Sabbath. She did have to go into the hospital, though, so I wanted you to be aware of that. So you'll be praying for her and praying that things go well and that she'll start feeling better and that her white blood count will go up, and they'll be able to administer the chemo when they need to for her. So please keep her in your prayers.

But in James 5, and this is in the context of the prayer of faith, we'll save the sick.

It also says in verse 16, Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

So we should be willing to talk to some people about some of our trespasses. I don't think it means that we just indiscriminately talk to everyone about all of our sins, but there could be someone that you could find to talk to, and certainly I'm willing, if you want to talk to me, then by all means be willing to do that. I will keep everything very confidential.

We should be praying for one another. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

This third category, again, is something that we're very aware of, but we're doing our best to overcome it, and that's the kind of sin that Paul talks about in Romans chapter 7.

And I'm really grateful that God inspired this as part of the Scripture, because it seems like it was written for me. Perhaps you have felt that way as well. Romans chapter 7 verse 14, if we know that the law is spiritual, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. This is what Paul is saying, the Apostle Paul.

So lest you think you haven't sinned, or I'm way out of line giving such a sermon, this is what Paul said, an Apostle. For I am carnal, I am sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do.

If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law, that it is good. The law is good.

But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Breaking the law is sin. Sin is the transgression of God's law. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. We've all struggled with this. You've struggled with it. I've struggled with it. For the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil I will not to do, that I practice. I find myself doing. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. It's that sinful nature that we've allowed Satan to influence.

We're not walking in the Spirit. We've begun walking in this flesh. Now, it is possible to walk in the Spirit, but it's also very possible to walk in the flesh. And when we're sinning, we are walking in the flesh. I find that a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. I would imagine that you will to do good, right? You want to do good. I want to do good. It's my desire. It's my will. I will to do good, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. I'm here because this is what I believe in. I believe in the Word of God. I believe in the Bible. I believe in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I believe in His plan of salvation, but I also believe in these words that Paul wrote down for us.

I see another law in my members. It's worrying against the law of my mind, and it's bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am.

O wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Who is going to deliver me from this carnal fleshly body? Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. I felt that way too many times. I'm sure you've felt that way, but I'm so encouraged by verse 25, because he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, Christ is indeed the answer. Christ is our Savior.

If you've truly accepted Christ as your Savior, then His sacrifice is enough. His sacrifice is plenty. A person who had never sinned, who was perfect, who did not yield to any kind of fleshly nature when it comes to sin, he never sinned, tempted as we are, yet without sin. None of us can say that. I thank God through Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. So we're not going to be perfect in this life. That's what I'm understanding from these verses. We can struggle, we can fight, and we must fight, and we must struggle, and we must continue to fight the good fight, and we must never give up.

Never give up. Keep fighting the good fight and know that the sacrifice of Christ is enough. That's enough. So I can come before you, I can admit my sin, I can tell you that I'm a sinner, I can tell you that I understand the words of Paul, that I agree with these words, that I felt these words. But I can also tell you I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Because it is through Christ's sacrifice that my sins are forgiven.

And it is my desire, it is my will, to become blameless, to put sin out of my life, and to sin no more. So I'm longing for God's kingdom. And I believe that is what God wants us to learn to do. He wants us to learn to long for His kingdom. He allows great sickness even on our children. That's reality. He wants us to long for His kingdom because the answers are not here in the flesh. The answers are in His kingdom. We will be totally unleavened when Christ returns. But not until then. We will not be totally unleavened until Christ returns.

We need to fight the good fight. We need to continue to strive against sin, putting sin out of our lives. But we have to admit that we're sinners. We have to admit that we hide some things from ourselves, from God, and from others. We try to hide them. Now, the fourth category is sins hidden from the sinner, also from others around Him, but not hidden from God. I mean, I guess I've been talking about that all along.

Sins... well, these are sins hidden from the sinner. I don't see them. Nobody else sees them.

I mean, it seems like somebody would see them. But maybe there's some sin that none of us see, but God knows. In Job 34, verse 21, it says, For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he sees all of his goings. God sees all of our goings, are going in or coming out. He sees it all. Psalm 69, verse 5 says, Oh God, you know my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from you. David said that. You know my foolishness, God. I'm a foolish person.

My sins are not hidden from you. Proverbs 15, verse 3 says, The eyes of the Eternal are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. God sees everything, the evil and the good.

They're in every place. In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 13, Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him whom we have to do. God, again, sees it all.

Someone once said, and I don't know who it was, We have but a very few sins which we can observe and detect, compared with those which are hidden to ourselves and unseen or unnoticed by others. Now, I don't know who said it. You can believe it or not believe it.

But let me say it again. We have but a very few sins which we can observe and detect, compared with those which are hidden to ourselves and unseen or unnoticed by others.

We should certainly ask God to save us from our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I did want to go back to Psalm 51 and consider David's Prayer of Repentance.

David is a man not that unlike us. David was a king. David had a lot of power.

David was able to get away with some things that maybe the normal average person could not have gotten away with. Perhaps he used his power in ways, and not perhaps. He did. When he sent Uriah the Hittite to the front lines, he was using his power, his authority, his influence to cover up his evil deeds. But if we had that kind of power, would we be blameless? Would we be perfect? I don't know. Psalm 51, verse 1, David said, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving-kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blud out my transgressions and washed me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleansed me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, my sin is always before me, and against you only, and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. Now, this was after Nathan the prophet had to come to him and tell him, You are the man. You're the man. But he did own up to it. And you see, that's the reason David will be king in Israel at Christ's return. David will be given great authority in God's kingdom.

It's because of how he reacted when Nathan came to him and said, You are the man.

He said, You're right. I am the man. We all have to come to that understanding that you are the man. You're guilty of something.

I'm guilty of something. So wash me thoroughly against you, and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. Then if we drop down to verse 7, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face for my sins and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart. That's what we all need, isn't it? A clean heart. So we won't sin in the first place. A clean heart. Create in me a clean heart, O God. David's admitting that he does not have a clean heart. The heart is deceitful above all things. Jeremiah says, The human heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked, and who can know it?

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Only then would he be able to teach transgressors. Only if God would forgive him. Only if God would cleanse him. Only if he would help him and restore him. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. Because that's what David wanted.

David wanted to help others. David wanted to be a good example. He wanted to be a light.

Yet he was weak. He was frail. He was sinful. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

He was guilty of the blood of Uriah. He had him killed. He was considered a bloody man. He wasn't allowed to build the temple because of some of his actions.

My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall forth your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it.

You do not delight and burn offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

That's what God wants to see. He wants to see a contrite spirit, a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. God will not despise a repentant heart, a repentant mind. God grants us repentance. David was blinded to his sin even though he knew better.

He knew better, but he allowed himself to be blinded because he did what he wanted to do because of his sinful nature.

In Luke, Luke 18, and we'll conclude with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18 verse 9. Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I thank you, God, that I'm not like this tax collector over here. I fast twice a week. That's right. I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven.

Instead, he beat his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Christ says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.

The tax collector 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. These are the days of unleavened bread. These are the days to get rid of the puffed up nature. These are the days to continue to reflect upon throughout the year that Christ must live in us.

Christ must live in us. If we're going to become unleavened spiritually, then Christ must live in us, because there's nothing good that dwells in this flesh. The only thing good would be Jesus Christ. If you allow Christ in, then Christ will change you. Christ will help you grow.

You won't be so sinful next year when we get together at this time and talk about these days, which are wonderful because they remind us year by year of our calling and what we need to do.

From holy day to holy day to holy day, from Sabbath to Sabbath to Sabbath, God's plan is revealed to us. I believe it's important for people to assemble together and to hear this kind of instruction. I think it's imperative, and I hate it when I know people are not assembling themselves together, and they're missing out on opportunities when God might inspire something they need to hear. It's not that God can't work with them in other places. It's not that this is the only place. That's not what I'm saying, but we do need to assemble together. We do need to have the fellowship. We do need to be taught, and God needs to be the one teaching us.

So now we start the countdown to Pentecost. It's already started. We're counting down to Pentecost.

Less than 50 days now. We're counting down. Now is the time to learn to walk in the Spirit because the Holy Spirit is given on the day of Pentecost. Those of us who are baptized and have received the Holy Spirit, we can walk in the Spirit because God's Spirit dwells in us. But God doesn't force us to walk in the Spirit.

He will allow you to walk in the flesh. He will allow you to keep hiding your sins from yourself and from others. Of course, you'll never hide them from God. So now is the time to do a little more soul-searching as we close these days of 11 Bread.

If you do pray prayers of humility like the ones at the conclusion of our sermon today, the one by David, the one by the Pharisee—I'm sorry, the tax collector, not the Pharisee—we don't want to be like the Pharisee. But if we pray these prayers of humility and repentance, then God will surely search us and reveal to us those things that need to be changed. He will show us the hidden sins that we don't yet see. He will help us realize how important it is that we get rid of the leaven of those hidden sins. He will grant us repentance. He will save us from ourselves, from our sins.

He'll help us change. Your hidden sins will not be so hidden. In the future, He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You will become unleavened, and He will grant you salvation and eternal life in His kingdom. Then you will truly become unleavened.