The Nature of Sin

In this physical universe, there are certain laws which govern it. Have you ever noticed that about the way that things tend to work? If you ever play the game of pool, you understand this principle of how the universe can work. Or if you're really old and you go back to the croquet, remember when you had the croquet, and you'd take the mallet and you'd hit one ball and you could knock it into the wicket through the wickets, as they were called? But again, in this physical universe, certain laws do govern it. The law of gravity is an example of that. It's like the old saying, what goes up comes down. And it's interesting, Galileo proved that it didn't matter what the weight of a body was, he dropped it, remember, off the tower of Pisa in Italy, and the feather falls as fast as the steel ball. And so their laws, again, govern the physical universe. Sir Isaac Newton was probably one of the most brilliant scientists that we've had, maybe even more brilliant than Albert Einstein, by the way. In the last two weeks, I've been actually using, like Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton, because it makes me sound intelligent. Of course, I'm being facetious about that. But Isaac Newton was a very brilliant man. And what is interesting as well is he believed in God. And he had an interesting belief system. He tried to figure out the Bible mathematically, but that's another topic. But Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion is this. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. That's why, again, when you hit the cue ball into another ball, it responds with the same force by which you hit the ball to go into the pocket or bounce off the little bumpers, which is most of the time what happened when I played a pool. But for every action, there is an opposite reaction. You know, we have the days of Unleavened Bread that are now behind us, and they've been very profitable for us to remind us that we need to put sin out of our lives. And we need to, of course, do more than just put sin out of our lives. We need to bring Christ in. We don't want to take all the air out of the bottle, I should say. They take the bottle without putting something into it. And the only way to get the air out of the bottle is, again, to put some liquid within it. And by extrapolation, we don't want to put sin out and don't bring anything in.

We want to bring Christ into our lives, to fill that void that is there, that absence that is there, with, again, something that is good, and that, of course, is the way of Christ. Now, there is a little word in the English language. It is just three small letters, and that word is sin. Sin. Now, why is sin...you know, this three-letter word...why is it so bad? Why is sin so bad? After all, sin actually can be fun initially. It's like, I think, it's like to me to eat a piece of chocolate. It's fun! And unfortunately, I could probably eat it all day. But it wouldn't like me if I did that. My body would not like me if I did that. But a lot of things are that way that are considered to be sin. Sin seems fun initially, but eventually it is a path to misery, to pain, and to suffering. And that's the subtlety of sin. Sin is something that is very pleasant to us and very pleasing to us. But the end result is misery, pain, and suffering. And if you talk about, for instance, sin, sin has a certain nature about it. It has a certain nature that it consists of. In fact, the title of this sermon is The Nature of Sin. And you know, the sooner that we can learn, brethren, the nature of sin, of how sin works, and what it will do to us and not for us, the better off we are. And I mean by that, the sooner we can, and the younger you are, the less impact sin has on your life in causing the misery, the pain, and the suffering that so many people go through in their lives. So this message is to show you the nature of sin. Now, again, what's wrong with so many of the things that human beings do? You know, what is wrong with telling a little white lie? I mean, after all, it might even protect somebody to tell a little white lie. How about stealing or lusting? I mean, that's you, isn't it? If you're lusting, that's impacting you. You know, sometimes sin doesn't seem so terribly bad. So what's wrong with sin? What's wrong with keeping up with the Joneses? You know, getting that competitive spirit and trying to outdo your next-door neighbor or your friend. Well, you know, it is only human nature to try to justify why people do things, and what's wrong with it. You know, oftentimes, I know when our kids were growing up, we would try to tell them what was wrong, and the question would come back, why? Why is it wrong? It's because the Carl Mine wants to justify whatever it is that we want to do, whatever our desires are, we want to justify even when it's wrong. And sometimes we will defend it to the death. And I don't mean that quite literally, but sometimes I think people are willing to defend it to the death in their lives, the right to sin, to do what they want to do. You know, God's Word, in fact, tells us that these things are wrong. You know, we have a book called the Bible that is man's instruction book from God to show us the difference between right and wrong. I'm so glad I don't have to discover that myself. You know, we don't have to evaluate that and to find out whether something is right or whether it's wrong, although I think we all do a little experimentation in our lives. You see, whether or not God really is telling us the truth. And if anybody's being really honest with themselves, they come to the conclusion that God knows what he's talking about. But, you know, man, again, with his carnal mind, wants to justify. You know, when we compare sin to God's law, we find that there is this overall principle that reveals the nature of sin. And that is this, brethren. Cause and effect. Cause and effect. It is always there.

It is as inevitable as when you hit that cue ball and you hit another ball, that there's going to be an equal reaction to it. There's going to be an impact on the physical level. It's going to happen to us on a physical level and on a spiritual level in our lives. There's a cause and effect, brethren. And that is, in fact, a description of the nature of sin. For every cause there is an effect, an equal effect, like in the laws of science. The law of gravity, by the way, is very unforgiving. You know, it doesn't abrogate occasionally. Like, for instance, oh, hey, somebody jumped off the Empire State Building. But, you know, this time they didn't fall. Instead of falling, they went up. Every time they hit the pavement, and of course there's not much left, I guess, if you could even hit the pavement from the Empire State Building, which I don't think you could, unless you jump way out from it. But, like you say, gravity is unforgiving. And you know what? Sin is unforgiving as well. There is a cause and effect of sin. And, you know, the sooner we can learn that in our lives, the better off we are. You know, the law of God, again, shows us what we can avoid. And if we do the opposite of that, we can expect the reaction that's going to be taking place in our own lives. You know, if we work to do something in the right way, by the way, it produces what? Right results. If we work to produce something in the wrong way, it's going to produce wrong results. And you know what? It'll happen that way every time. If it doesn't matter what your best intentions are, if you do it the wrong way, no matter what you do, it's going to produce a wrong result. It's like, for instance, I've been trying to do a little electrical work at the house. And I'm hooking up a switch for our fountain outside, and I'm putting new switches in it. And you know what? If you don't hook that thing up right, it won't work right. And it won't work right every time, no matter what I do. I mean, I even hold my tongue different. I put it over here, and I said, okay, honey, turn the power on! It doesn't work. But if I hook it up right, it works every time as well. And of course, the problem is not the screwdriver. It's the nut at the end of the screwdriver. That's the problem. Let's go to Romans 6. Romans 6.

Romans 6, verse 23, it says, For the wages of sin is death. You can bank on it. It's going to be that way. According to Paul here, for the wages of sin is death. Or something in between, by the way, in the intermittent time. You know, death doesn't always happen just like that. You know, if you ever told a little white line, you just kaplopped, fell over, and you died, how many people would be telling little white lies, do you think?

I don't think you'd have very many people. You probably wouldn't have very many people on this planet. But sin has that effect. It just leads to death. Sometimes, though, you can break certain laws and it'll kill you right away. Electricity is that way. And as for electricity, you can do something wrong, you know, you'll die immediately. I know many, many people, in fact, have been just walking along with a metal pipe or something that could conduct electricity, run into a power cable. And over the years, I probably have heard of four or five people that have been electrocuted.

We have, I think, even a couple that happened at a master college back in the 70s. You know, some young person, not paying attention, walking through the campus with a pipe sticking up to high and running right into a power. But again, electricity, not very forgiving.

You know, sometimes, in fact, lightning can be more forgiving than something like that. So anyway, you know, there is a cause and effect, isn't there? And it is always there.

But, you know, the wages of something, in fact, are what we earn. And if a person does a task, that's what they're paid for.

And in this case, sin earns the payday of death.

But going on, let's do this here, but the gift of God is eternal life.

You want to go the way that produces life. You know, if we obey God once, we don't receive eternal life right away, do we?

But we do receive the benefits on the way to eternal life.

So it says, is the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's go over to Galatians, chapter 6.

You know, it's kind of hard when you're growing up to get this message, really, you know, to put it all together, to see it. How many parents have tried to explain to their children this principle? If you do something right, things will turn out right. If you do something wrong, you'll get the wrong results.

In Galatians 6 and verse 7, you know, here Paul says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

I think sometimes we think He is, that sometimes we can thumb our nose at God and say, Well, so you say this, but I don't believe it. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he also reaps. He's going to reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.

But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Same thing, really, Paul said.

But again, the principle, the nature of sin, brethren, is the cause and effect.

That sin nets suffering in the flesh and at least to death.

And realize, again, God is not mocked, not in the very least. We somehow think He is.

But the next verse, I think, really tells us something, brethren, and showing, again, that the penalties don't come right away when we sin, nor do the benefits come right away when we do good.

But here Paul admonishes the Galatians, he says, And let us not grow weary while doing good, For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Can't give up. You have to keep pushing forward.

I know when I first started obeying God back, I think I really began in earnest to do things when I was about 16. I was baptized when I was 17, which was a bit too young, quite frankly. But for me at that time, it was the only choice I had.

When you repent, what are you supposed to do? You have to turn, and you have to... The only thing, like Phillips said to the Ethiopian eunuch, after he asked, what shall I do? He said, be baptized, and so I got baptized. I was baptized. But from that early age, brethren, in my life, though I did not grow up in the church, I began to see the benefits of going God's way of life.

I began to see, hey, yeah, this is wonderful. I see what God wants me to do. And along the way, though, brethren, there were many young people that I had friendships with, friends, in fact, that I think back fondly about, that started on the same path I did, but somehow they got diverted, and they didn't believe God.

And of course, not only did that happen when I was young, as a teenager, but it happened as well, all through my growing up years, through the 20s, when I was in the 20s, through the 30s. And we see this kind of thing happen, where people throw in the towel and then walk away. But, brethren, the message that Paul gives is, don't be weary and well-doing. Hang in there. Keep doing what you're doing, and good results will come. That's a promise from God. And, brethren, if we can't bank on what God tells us, then we're really in a heap of trouble, aren't we?

But, you know here, Paul in verse 8 says, He who sows to the flesh is going to reap what? Corruption. Corruption. The word in the Greek for corruption is phothora. Phothora. And it's spelled P-H-T-H-O-R-A. And it means this. It means being brought into an inferior or worse condition. You start sowing to the flesh, it just leads to inferiority in terms of the condition that we as human beings are in. And this whole world is in that condition, in the state of corruption, and it grows worse day and day, day by day.

Also, it means in the Greek a disruption or corruption. Hence the word corruption is used. You know, the carnal mind leads always in this direction, brethren. And you know, you look at the way the world is today, and it does grow worse and worse. You know, it seems like our bar is getting lower and lower. Now, pretty soon we're going to be doing the tango under the bar. It's so low. I guess we'll find out how low people can go. You know, like in the game that people play. And it is a big game, again, that people play, and games that people play.

But you know, what is so amazing is that many people go along doing it, and they don't know any better. They live the way they do. And they do, as you know, the old saying, what comes natural. What comes naturally to them. This is what the world does, brethren, and most don't even have a concept of how their own minds work.

They don't understand about how the human mind works and what the carnal mind is. They don't see that. They don't grasp it. It's kind of amazing, in fact, to see people. Occasionally I listen to Savage Nation. I don't know if any of you do. But even, I don't know what his name is, but even Savage, very carnal individual. He doesn't see it. On some levels he's got some good understanding, but on other levels he's just like everybody else. You know, it's like everybody.

Some people have their strong points. And for the most part, though, people are like everybody else. Let's go over to James, Chapter 1. We begin to get into the nitty-gritty of this cause and effect, brethren, of sin and the nature of sin over here. In James, Chapter 1, over here, James 1, and we'll begin down here in verse 14, because God basically threw here James, Apostle James.

But in verse 12 it says, "...and blessed is the man who endures temptation." You know, happy is the man who does that, that endures temptation. You know, temptation can be quite alluring to us, can't they? It almost can be...it's like a drug, in fact. Lust has a drug impact upon the minds of people. You ever wanted something really bad? There's something that comes over people. And there's a...when temptation is there, strong temptation.

"...but blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved of God," of course we know, "...he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him." But it says, "...let no one say, when he is tempted, I am tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone." There is a being, though, by the way, that is very good in that department. And that is none other than the devil. He will tempt us. He will do all he can do to dissuade us from going God's way of life. God doesn't tempt us. But it says, "...but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and entice." You know, when we get into the Millennium, brethren, even when Satan the devil is no longer in the picture, when Satan is bound for a thousand years, you know what we're going to have to cope with?

What mankind will have to cope with? His own innate desires, his appetites that are within him. He's still going to have to battle that. I'll tell you, that's quite enough to battle against. As though Satan needs to sometimes add to what we've already got to deal with. But he does that as well. Our battle, by the way, is double. You know, we're fighting ourselves.

In the world of honor, people are going to have to just fight themselves. We fight Satan and ourselves and the world, of course, that is out there in this society. But we see, again, that Satan is always acting on us. But we have our own appetites that, in fact, affect us. So it says, Satan is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. And it says, then, when desire is conceived, you know, we tolerate it. Let me give you a silly example. You see that chocolate cake sitting on the counter.

Right after the days of Unleavened Bread, you were silly and you went out and bought a chocolate cake. And you put it on the counter. And you promised yourself, when you were down at Safeway, you bought that cake, it's going to take you, oh, maybe a month to eat that thing, because you're watching your weight.

But every time you go into the kitchen, you see that chocolate cake. Now, you like chocolate cake. That's why you bought it to begin with, right? And you keep looking over at that. That first time you say, I'm not going to eat that chocolate cake. Then, after a couple of trips to the kitchen, you say, what's going to hurt is to have a little bitty piece of it.

Yeah, just a little piece of chocolate. It won't put too much weight on me. In fact, I'll tell you what, I'll promise myself, I will walk two miles first, before I'm going to gain any weight from any chocolate cake. So you go over, get your knife, and you decide you're going to cut yourself a piece of that chocolate cake. Just a small piece. After all, you're going to walk. You're going to walk it off. And you start looking at how much you're going to cut of that cake. First of all, you start with a little slither. But then you say, after all, what's going to hurt if I walk three miles instead of...

So I can take twice as much. See, this is the way the human appetites work. The human mind works this way, brethren. We deceive ourselves. But going on here in verse 15, then when desire is conceived... You've got that desire. It gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Do not be deceived. The human mind can deceive you. How many times have you done something wrong and you've evaluated... How did you do that? How did it start? It started again with a wrong thought in your mind. Cause and effect. You allowed it. You tolerated it. And it produced sin. Cause and effect. That's the nature of sin. It produces the bad end result. And consequently you eat enough chocolate cakes, then your obituary says...

He died of eating chocolate cake. And I'm just joking, but it really amounts to that, doesn't it? Mature sin results in death. Sin is the cause and effect. And we know that that is what the killer part of it is. And James goes ahead and says, don't deceive yourself about sin's effect. Don't make yourself doubt about that.

It will happen. It will occur. Now the question is, why is death the result of sin? Well, let's go over to 1 John 3 verse 4. 1 John 3 verse 4. In 1 John 3 verse 4, it says, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. And of course, in the King James Version, it defines it very clearly.

Sin is the transgression or the breaking of the law. Or sin is lawlessness. You know, here, as we see. And again, it does define it that way, but... But sin is lawlessness. It's not obeying the law of God. Of course, it would not be sin, would it? If it was not defined by the law as being sin. So we know from the Bible that we've already seen that sin, the effect of sin, is death the results. But why, brethren? Again, the way we see God design this entire universe is that man... And of course, man has discovered these laws that there are certain laws that govern the physical universe that are in force.

And if you violate some of them, that law will mandate that you die. Again, you jump off of a high tower, you're going to die. Unless they've got pillows down at the bottom. You know, maybe there are other laws that abrogate that, but you think about even man's law. Man has his laws as well. I don't think it's that way in the state of California anymore, but if a man commits murder in many states, what is the penalty?

For murder is being put to death. Even in man's law, we see this to be the case. It mandates the death penalty. And so we see that man sees this cause and effect. So the idea of the death penalty is a part, even a man's system, of justice. Now, what laws of God do you and I sometimes transgress and trespass? Well, you know, the Ten Commandments, which clearly define those.

I'm not going to go over to Exodus 20 over there, but clearly define for us what is sin. Sin is a transgression or the breaking of the law. Just go over there and look at, again, those Ten Commandments. You know, we had a sermon about coveting that Mr. Rowan gave.

And, you know, we don't think about coveting as being, you know, one of those sins, but it is a sin. Of course, it involves the lust of the flesh. But in this world, particularly, people don't think about coveting as being a sin. The world, it seems, revolves around coveting.

You know, buy this car, you know, buy this house, buy this or that. You know, whatever they're peddling, you know, on Fifth Avenue, basically, Wall Street. You know, the world, it seems, goes around by company. But when we break the law of God, then, brethren, there is, you know, there's a cause and effect to it. Over in Romans, Chapter 7, it was only natural that mankind eventually would try to do away with the law of God.

It was natural to his being to do away with the law of God. That's why, by the way, that you go into many churches of this land, that the minister will talk about how that old law was nailed to the cross. You know, it's amazing how many things they've nailed to the cross. You know, they've nailed swine and pigs up there on that cross that have been nailed. There's hardly room for Christ on the cross.

The laws of God are nailed up there. You'd wonder what they had to talk about then. In the churches, since there are no laws that are around, but, again, it was only natural that man would try to do away with the law of God. But let's do this over here in verse 7. It says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin?

In other words, we have people that actually try to tell us that the law is sin. But Paul says, is the law sin? He says, certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness, unless the law had said, you shall not covet. I wouldn't know it. So the law of God is not sin. It defines for us what sin is. It's necessary for us to know what sin is. Now consider, brethren, the commandment, commandment number 7, you shall not commit adultery. And, of course, fornication would fall into this category.

And that is sex by single people outside of marriage, falls into fornication, and would be the breaking of the 7th commandment. But you know, multiple millions, brethren, get involved in wife-swapping affairs, premarital sex, pornography. And look, brethren, at the atrocious problems in the world, the STDs that are out of control, and about every nation upon this earth, children born out of wedlock, abortions, and the breakdown of the family, that it seems like in fact marriage is something that is just almost going to be in the trash heap of history.

Our nation is become more and more corrupt with this every year. We're the greatest exporters of pornography to the world.

But that's the result. Cause and effect. You break the law of adultery, cause and effect.

Break down the family, people dying of AIDS, people dying of STDs and other problems, and so many other problems that result families being broken up, and children growing up without fathers, some cases without father, mother. It's amazing what has happened in our world today.

The average classroom anymore, I imagine, a teacher stands up and says, How many of you are from a family where your father and your mother have not been remarried, that the two of them, married in their youth, are still together?

Well, it would be the majority that would raise their hands that that is not the case.

Majority would have to say that they come from either one-parent families or families where people have been married sometimes two, three, and four times.

But it's the world we live in, brethren, but cause and effect. And it's going to get worse. It's going to get worse, brethren.

Let's go over to Deuteronomy 30, Deuteronomy 30, here in verse 15. Deuteronomy 30, in verse 15.

You know, the younger we can learn these principles, brethren, the better off we are.

And I know we as parents try to teach our children these principles, but they don't always take, do they?

You wish, in fact, the lessons we've learned could be passed on to children, but it always doesn't happen that way.

But verse 15, let's notice here, Deuteronomy 30, God gave ancient Israel His law so that they would not have the troubles that we see around us in the world today.

He did not want them to have the troubles that they had in Egypt with families.

You didn't want them to have the problems with disease and other problems that they faced.

But we know that ancient Israel would not have it.

But it says in verse 15, God said to them, through Moses, See, I set before you today life and good, death and evil.

Just as simple as that, brethren. Even Bob Dylan has a song out that talks about two ways.

It's an old song that he wrote. I haven't heard it in a long time. But in verse 16, You know, is that such a bad thing? God says, I want you to live. I want you to live.

You know, sometimes I find it very interesting.

I remember when I first was reading the Scriptures and some of the things that Jesus Christ did, and the perceptions that he had. And I thought, wow! What perceptions Christ had. And we know indeed he did. Have a remarkable... He could read minds, of course.

But you know, more than anything, I think what we find revealed in the writings about Jesus Christ is He knew human nature.

And you know what? If you know human nature, brethren, you can become a prophet.

You can be a prophet. You can foretell what's going to happen to people. If they don't begin to obey God.

You know, it's just as simple as that. And by that I mean a prophet, not in the strictest sense of the word, but a predictor of what's going to happen, what's going to occur.

And you don't have to have a lot of perception.

If you can just learn the lesson, if you go against God's law, cause and effect, you can predict it every time.

And you know, it is a good indicator where things are going to lead.

Maybe it takes longer for some to get there. But you know, the end result is that the same gate, you know, that, you know, it's like above it, it says those that enter here no longer can depart.

And that is through the gate of death. And I mean that in a symbolic way.

But God's ways, brethren, result in life. And they make life worthwhile for us.

Again, it's his cause and effect. God doesn't deny us the wrong, only to keep us from the harm that the evil would cause to us.

So we could not have the good life. God's laws reveal the pitfalls that most people just stumble into.

I don't know if any of you ever saw the movie The Jerk, by, was it Steve Martin? A number of years ago.

Remember the story he was talking to his father? And, you know, he was trying to, you know, talk to him about the pitfalls of going out into the world.

And he talked about, you know, it seemed like in the movie he talked about the manure people get into in their lives.

And he was talking intently to Steve Martin. And there was a cow pile right in front of Steve Martin. Forgive me for the crassness of this.

But after his father explained to him about, you know, the manure people get into, Steve Martin stepped right into the cow pile.

But, you know, people oftentimes in their lives do the same thing. God does not want us to fall into the pits, brethren.

And that's why he tells us those things he tells us. Why he gives us his laws and his commandments and his statutes.

He wants us to live enjoyable lives and productive lives. Of course, the example of Steve Martin is comedy.

But the unfortunate thing is reality sometimes is almost comical, isn't it?

Because people step into pits. They step into their cow piles, as it were, of their lives. And it seems like that, you know, they get worse and worse through time.

Ambassador College's motto when I was in Ambassador College was, recapture true values. And going back, Mr. Armstrong established that as the motto of Ambassador College.

And you know what? When students did that, campus was just so much fun and was such an enjoyable place.

And though we, of course, did not have perfect years when I was in Ambassador College, I remember that Ambassador College was a great experience. A fulfilling experience.

Well, brethren, is that your motto? To recapture true values? You know, get back to God's laws and applying those laws in your life so you can have that abundant life, that good life.

Now, God wants us, brethren, to again, to have that wonderful and that good life. And if we choose the path of obedience to God's laws, brethren, cause and effect.

You can't help but lead to abundance in your life and happiness in your life.

Now, don't think somehow, though, you're going to become a millionaire overnight. Abundance doesn't mean that. I think we should understand that as God's people. God is not called as to become millionaires and billionaires in the church. Although, if you do become a millionaire, a billionaire, remember us.

If you come into your kingdom, as the thief on the cross said to Christ, but remember us. Proverbs 2, I don't know why I was turning back in Deuteronomy. But Proverbs 2 over here, it's amazing how you get up here and time just slips away, doesn't it?

Now, you don't probably think that, but I do. I hope it's not getting too long for you, though. Proverbs 2, here Solomon says, verse 10, down here, it says, When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, in other words, we start becoming pleased with the good things, the right things, the laws of God. Discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things.

For those who lead the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness. There is a way of darkness, so there's a way of light and there's a way of darkness. Way of darkness produces misery, pain, and suffering. The way of light produces enjoyment and abundance in life and appreciation. Down to verse 16, it says, For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead.

None who go in to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life. So you may walk in the way of goodness and keep to the paths of righteousness. For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.

So, brethren, we have to remember these principles that Solomon saw himself. He did not live it, at least part of his life, from what we understand. But he saw there were two ways. There was a physical way that most people go, and then there's a spiritual way that leads to life. And again, we're talking about experience that can destroy a man, or experiences that can build a man or a woman into the kind of person God wants us to be.

But if we can learn, brethren, this important principle of cause and effect of sin, then we will strive to stay, hopefully, on the path that leads to life. Chapter 9, over here. Chapter 9, in verse 17. Solomon continues over here. But it says, And he that has wisdom can see that. It heads that wrong way. No, if we live like the world, brethren, we're going to suffer the fate of the world, just the way it is.

It won't change for us just because we're in the church. Again, it's the law of cause and effect. In Unleavened Bread, brethren, is to teach us what our calling is all about. It is, of course, to learn to have dominion over this flesh and to build the Holy Righteous Character so that we can resist it. And hopefully, brethren, as God's Spirit works in us, that character gets stronger and stronger and stronger, so that when sin comes along, it's not a temptation.

It is not what it was before. Instead of buying the chocolate cake, you know, you don't buy it because you know you can't handle it. And so you make the right choice to begin with, in other words. You know, brethren, when we begin to obey God, God will raise us up on heights that we have never seen before in our lives. He really will. But, you know, those that end up, you know, going the way of sin, brethren, what happens is the minds get seared with a hot iron.

It's like it doesn't bother them anymore. And so that with each subsequent sin, the sin gets worse and the penalty increases as well. And so we want to make sure we don't go in that pathway to begin with, so our minds don't get seared by, you know, the repeating of such sin. You know, if we live to the flesh, the Bible says we're going to die. If we satiate the flesh, we're going to die.

Just as simple as that. You know, in fact, not only are we going to die, but we're already dead. If we're satiating the flesh. You know, the Bible talks about that someone who, who again is inclined that way is already dead as far as God is concerned. You know, you could have a name that you're alive, but you could be dead. You know, Joe Schmo lives at whatever the address is. 111, you know, Smith Avenue. You know, you can live there.

You can have a name, but you can be dead. And on this planet, brethren, of the seven and a half billion people on this planet right now, today, there are very few that are even alive as far as God is concerned.

He looks down from his throne and he sees a bunch of dead people. And he sees pockets of light. Hopefully, brethren, that's you and me. Maybe this little pinpoint up here in Antioch, or this pinpoint in San Francisco, or down in Pacifica, or, you know, like the salt of the earth over here in Oakland, and, you know, Hayward, or wherever it might be.

There were these little points of light. There's an advertisement I've seen a number of times, you know, when watching the news about this, the candle that is over, you know, I think it was like 10 miles away.

That in the dark you can see, when it's cold darkness, of course, you can see a candle. You know, I wonder if it's that way with us, brethren. We're like that candle that's flickering down here. It keeps burning.

Well, brethren, don't let Satan in this world and the breezes of sin in this world blow your candle out. Make sure that does not happen.

Let's go over to Ephesians 2. Like I said, God looks down and He looks at this world as being dead.

You know, prior to your being called into God's church, you were dead. I was dead. I had barely started living and I was already dead.

Maybe you were too. When you were first called, you were young and vibrant and alive, so you thought. But as far as God is concerned, you were dead.

Ephesians 2 and verse 1. Notice Paul says, and you, He made alive. He gave life.

Who was dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved.

So that, brethren, whenever you and I are baptized and we come up out of that watery grave, brethren, we are alive the first time in our entire existence.

The minister says to you, your sins have been blotted out.

You know, brethren, it is a type of your resurrection. It's a type of your resurrection.

Remember, you were dead, and God raised you up, lifted you the heights that you have never seen before.

And He's not done yet. He's not done with what He's going to do with us, brethren, for the future.

You know, one of the things that Jesus Christ wanted more than anything, brethren, He said, I've come that you would have life and that you would have it more abundantly. That's what He wants for each one of us, brethren.

But let's be aware. I'm not going to go to Romans 8 and verses 6 through 9 there.

But you know what it says in verse 7, the carnal mind is empty against God.

It is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.

And it says also there, brethren, to be spiritually minded is life.

It's the abundant life, brethren. It's a good life. To be carnally minded, though, is death.

And then in verse 9, it says that if we do not have the Spirit of God, we are none of Christ.

So, brethren, right now, either that Spirit must be in you or it must be working with your heart and with your mind, for God even consider us to be alive. If God's Spirit is working with us, brethren, at least you might say the spiritual heart still be there. God can salvage that. Our young people, by the way, have the Spirit of God with them, working with them.

And the more submissive they are to God, the more it's going to benefit them in their lives.

So, you know, and with God's Holy Spirit, brethren, that is in us, with Christ we can combat anything, this carnal flesh and this world and Satan throws at us.

I'm not going to go to 1 John 4, verse 4, but you might want to write it down.

Because John says that which is in us, and that, of course, is the Holy Spirit, and that is Christ in us as well, is greater than what is in the world.

So you and I can face, we can, you know, defeat with God's help anything, brethren, that the world throws at us or Satan, or that we have personally as a problem as well.

The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ in us is greater, brethren, than sin and Satan.

Any sin that we have, I've had people tell me, you know, I can't quit smoking.

And the obvious answer is, yes, you can.

But, you know, if a person can't quit smoking, and they give up on something like that, what will they do when they get to the really tough stuff?

But again, be aware, brethren, there are two ways of life. There's a way of life, and there's a way of death.

And there's a cause and effect that produces death, and a cause and effect that produces life.

You know, God gave two ways in the Garden of Eden, in fact.

When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they began to die.

Now, Satan convinced them otherwise. He did the carnal thing, didn't he?

And he injected carnality, and Adam and Eve, he told them, no, no, you're not going to die. You're going to become like God.

Usually the way sin is, isn't it? Promises you to the moon. And they ate it, and they had miserable lives. They had the first juvenile delinquent.

They had the first murder in their family.

And every kind of evil began to come along, and everybody inherited their attitudes.

And since that time, for the last 6,000 years, humankind has been suffering.

And they were driven from the Garden of Eden, and the way to the key to eternal life they can no longer have.

That is the Tree of Life, which was revealed knowledge from God through the Holy Spirit.

You know, Mr. Armstrong oftentimes said that the problems in life are basically spiritual.

And that's true. No matter what you talk about in this physical life, brethren, it basically goes back to the physical breaking of the law.

Man's life paths in ends and death, and it just does.

And, you know, from the time of Adam to our time, because man did not want to retain God in his knowledge, and he worshipped the Creator, or the Creation more than the Creator, as it says in Romans 1, God just turned man over to his own carnal mind.

Man said, God, get out of my business. You know, and God said, okay, I will.

I'll get out of your business, but you're going to have all kinds of problems.

And I reserve the right to send a prophet to tell you where your ways are going to end.

And things have been going down year by year for the last 6,000 years.

You know, so it's a matter of choice, brethren, which way you're going to choose.

Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but chose suffering with the people of God than pleasure of sin for a short season.

He chose the righteous way and did not let the lusts of the flesh have dominion over him.

So, brethren, don't let the world's ways rub off on you.

Don't be the one who caves into that.

The world is filled with the dead walking around, heading toward eternal death.

And now God has no desire to see anyone perish.

But he wants all to choose life.

He wants us to choose life, brethren, and go the right way.

So, brethren, don't let Satan's world snare you.

Live Christ's abundant life and press forward to the kingdom of God in eternal life.

And learn, brethren, the nature of sin is cause and effect.

If we do the wrong things, it will produce death.

If we do the right things, it's as simple as that. It will produce life, and eventually, eternal life, forevermore in God's grand and great kingdom, which is ahead of us.