Overcoming Sin

You know, it hasn't been quite a month since the Day of Pentecost. It's gone by quickly.

We all counted 50 days from the Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

We all met together in one accord. That's a huge Honda, isn't it? One accord. That's right. That's a bad joke. But we did meet together all around the United States and around the world on the Day of Pentecost. After the Days of Unleavened Bread, we went back to eating leaven. I would imagine that all of you have eaten some leaven since the Days of Unleavened Bread concluded. Am I correct on that? Do we have any holdouts? No one? Okay, everyone's gone back to eating leaven. But what about staying unleavened spiritually? How about, have you, are you still perfect? Seventy days later, you haven't sinned at all. You know, leaven represents sin. We're to become unleavened. We're to put the leaven out of our homes. We're to put the sin out of our lives.

So we might want to ask ourselves, how well have we done in the last 70 days?

We did allow physical leaven back into our homes. In fact, I had some leaven at the Leadbetters. Jennifer made some leaven. I had some leaven. I think it was leavened. Most likely, yes, she's nodding her head. And we're back to eating the physical leaven. But how effective have we been in keeping the spiritual leaven, the sin, out of our homes and lives? You know, God's Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, as we know, back in Acts 2 in the New Testament, Church of God began. We know that God's Spirit is a spirit not of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Today, I'd like to give you some help in focusing your life spiritually for the rest of your lives. You know, you hope a sermon has some impact.

Now, I've been around 40 years. I've listened to lots of sermons. They kind of all meld together in one sense. But you hope every sermon helps a little bit. So I'm hoping this one will be of some help. And this is a how-to sermon. It seems like a lot of our people, our brethren, do like how-to sermons. You know, don't just tell me some esoteric principles or philosophies, but tell me how to actually do something. So today, this is a how-to sermon on overcoming sin. So this should pretty much answer all your questions.

I'm joking to some degree, but I think it will be of some value, of some help to you.

So we want to overcome sin by utilizing God's Spirit of power to give us the strength to overcome sin. Now, make no mistake, I know that we are all saved by grace. Now, we all believe that. We know that we're saved by grace. We know that we're not saved by keeping the law. We know that just because we meet here on the Sabbath day, that is, you know, we have no illusions that observing the Sabbath is what's going to save us. Now, we all understand that the Bible is clear that the wages of sin, the wages of sin is death, and we're all sinners. So what do we all deserve? Well, we deserve death. Wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve. But thankfully, through the sacrifice of our Savior, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, we are saved by grace, and no amount of lawkeeping is ever going to save any of us. But at the same time, the Bible is very clear that God expects us to grow and to overcome spiritually. He wants us to learn to put sin out of our lives. He wants us to do better. He wants us to be moving in the right direction as we go through life.

So let's go to Revelation chapter 2 and 3 for a moment. Let's consider what the Bible does tell us about overcoming. In the book of Revelation, and we know Revelation is a prophetic book in many in many respects, but it also gives some very practical direction and guidance in our lives as well. And notice what Jesus Christ says to the seven churches in Revelation chapter 2 and 3.

In chapter 2 verse 7, to the church at Ephesus, he says in verse 7, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life. So if we eat from the tree of life, that is symbolic of God giving us eternal life. We will eat from the tree of life if we are overcomers. To him who overcomes, will I give to eat from the tree of life?

If we go on in verse 11 to the church at Smyrna, it says, He who has an ear, let him hear. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. In other words, that person is not going to be thrown into the lake of fire.

The second death is representative of being thrown into the lake of fire. You know, God resurrects a person and casts them into the lake of fire. That would be the second death because we all die once. So the second death, obviously we don't want any part of that. He who overcomes will I grant and they will not be hurt by the second death. Going on in verse 17, He who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. I will give some of the hidden manna. Jesus Christ is the hidden manna. Christ is the one that is the unleavened bread that came down from heaven that now lives in us.

And I will give him a new name, it says in verse 17. We go on in verse 26 of chapter 2, and He who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to Him will I give power over the nations. So they will rule and they will reign with Christ for a thousand years. But all of this hinges on being overcomers to Him who overcomes. You know, if we give up, if we give in, if we stop trying, we stop growing, we stop developing as Christians, we could easily be cast into the lake of fire.

So we can't take for granted that God saves us by His grace. We also have a part ourselves. Now, we mustn't become lethargic or lackadaisical. We still must strive to put sin out of our lives. Going on in chapter 3, verse 5, He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, symbolic of righteousness. They will be clothed in white garments. We know that we will be clothed in righteousness as we become born into the family of God, as we are changed from flesh into spirit and will live eternally with God and with Christ.

He goes on to say that I will not blot out His name from the book of life, again, granted eternal life. And then notice verse 12, He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and He shall go out no more. I will write on Him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on Him my new name.

And then in verse 21, chapter 3, To Him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne. So there are many rewards for overcoming, for growing, for moving in the right direction as we go through life. So that's what we're going to talk about today.

Are you great at overcoming sin? You know, have you put all sin out of your life or are you still working at it? I would imagine you're still working at it. That's why you're here today. You realize you haven't quite arrived yet. So we all need help. I'd like to give you seven steps to overcoming sin, seven steps today to help us understand the process of overcoming sin. And some of these are very basic, but don't think that the basics aren't important, right? Basics are very important. If you know the basics and don't do them, what good is that?

So yes, we're going to rehearse some of the basics today. We're also going to probably put some other points in here that you may not have thought that much about, but they will help you overcome sin in your life. And the first one, the first step, and a very basic one, is to pray daily for spiritual strength to overcome.

Now, hopefully we're all praying daily, but are we praying for spiritual strength? Are we asking God to give us the strength we need to put sin out of our lives? Are we specifically asking? The scripture says, ask and you shall receive. If you don't ask, then you're not going to receive to the same degree as if you're asking. So if you haven't been asking, that's something you can do. Remember, this is a how-to sermon. This is what you can do to make a difference. So if you haven't been praying every day about spiritual strength to overcome, God wants you to be an overcomer. It's a good thing to pray about. Ask God to give you the strength to stir up his spirit within you and help you overcome. The scripture warns us that we ought not become weary in well-doing.

Now, if you've been praying for 40 or 50 years, you might be a little weary of all that prayer.

I mean, we're human, right? And it's somewhat easy to let down in certain fundamental areas like prayer. I've done it before. I would imagine you may have done it before. You know, you get a little bit lazy, maybe a little too weary in doing well for so long. Christ hasn't come back yet. When's he coming? We don't know when he's coming, but we know he's it's closer than it ever has ever been. So we know Christ is going to return, but we need to be ready when he gets here. So praying every day for God to give you that spiritual strength to overcome is important because do you think Satan takes it easy? No, he's a roaring lion. He is seeking whom he may devour. He's hungry. Roaring lions are hungry. You know, they're seeking whom they may devour. Satan is the same way. He's not going to take it easy on you, so you have to be prepared for him. So let's go to Matthew 6, and let's notice what Christ says in the sample prayer that's given. Matthew 6, verse 9, In this manner, therefore pray, our Father in heaven hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yeah, we should pray for God's kingdom to come because this world's a big mess. You know, we need things to be done as it's done up in heaven where people, where everything's done decently and in order, and people understand who God is, and they worship and praise him, and his will is being done. Give us this day our daily bread. Some people in this world, obviously, don't even have daily bread. You know, thankfully, God has provided for us here in the United States, some more than others, but we should pray for our daily bread. Pray that God will forgive us as we forgive our debtors, those who sin against us.

And notice verse 13, And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Now, we know the evil one is the tempter. We know the Scripture also tells us that Jesus that God tempts no one. Now, God doesn't want to tempt us to sin. He wants us to be righteous.

He's on our side, so he's not going to tempt us to sin. He does, however, allow Satan to tempt us.

We are thereby tested. You know, God does test us from time to time. He allows Satan to tempt us, but he's on our side, and he wants us to have victory over Satan the devil. And that's much of what we're talking about today. We should pray. Deliver us from the evil one every day. Deliver us. Give us the strength to overcome Satan. That's one thing that we overcome. We overcome the self.

We overcome sin in our lives. You know, there are many ways to overcome.

Deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. So these are things, basic things that we should be praying about.

God's Spirit will lead us to pray faithfully and fervently, but we have to get down on our knees.

And if you're older and can't get on your knees so easily, God understands that as well.

In fact, God understands, you know, we can pray in a number of positions. That's not the important thing. The important thing is that we pray and that we talk to God daily. Because when we pray, we're communicating with God what's going on in our minds, our hearts. You know, we reach out to God for His help. It's very important that God hears from us every day. So make sure that you pray daily for spiritual strength to overcome. Don't neglect that.

It will pay good dividends for you. So be good to yourself. Pray daily if you haven't been doing that, if you've become lax, if you've slacked off, now's the time to start that again. Get into that habit of praying every day. And the Scripture is clear that Daniel and David and other men of God and women of God prayed three times a day, not just once. And the Scripture also talks about praying without ceasing. To me, that means we go through our entire day in a prayerful attitude. You know, we bring God into everything that we do, every choice that we make.

We want God to be involved. So we pray about it as we go through our day and ask God to guide us, help us make good, sound decisions that we're not going to regret. Also, a lot of people wonder, well, what's God's will? God reveals His will in the Bible. You know, He tells us what His will is.

He doesn't tell us every decision that we make. But if we make our decisions based on the Word of God, we are in God's will. You know, there are a lot of ways to do things. But if we're doing in God's way, that's the important thing. So the first principle, the first step to overcoming sin is to be sure that you're praying daily for spiritual strength to overcome. Secondly, a second step is to read and study God's Word daily. We can pray daily. We can study the Word of God daily.

And how often do we neglect doing that? You know, we get busy, perhaps. Things crowd their way in. And the next thing you know it, we haven't studied the Word of God that day. And we're tired. And so we go to bed hoping that we'll study the Bible tomorrow.

But maybe we get up late. We have to rush off to work. You know, things happen. And we don't always faithfully study the Bible every day. We should open up the Bible every day. You know, blow the dust off your Bible. And if you have an electronic Bible, that's okay, too. You can use electronic Bibles. The main thing is that you are studying God's Word, putting your nose in the Bible one way or another.

But read and study God's Word daily for spiritual strength to overcome. Look for guidance in the Bible. The Bible will guide you on how to overcome. You know, there are many biblical principles. There are nuggets of truth that we're expected to mine. You know, as kings and priests in the making, we are to surge out of matter. We're to study into these things. So let's notice Hebrews 4, verse 12. Hebrews 4 and verse 12, because it says something about those who study God's Word. Notice how important it is to the author of the book of Hebrews, likely the Apostle Paul.

Hebrews 4, he says, For the Word of God is living and powerful. God's Word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Now, a two-edged sword is a weapon of warfare, physical warfare. You don't want to get involved with somebody who's swinging a two-edged sword. You know, that's dangerous. You know, two-edged swords, no matter how they hit you, sharp on both sides, it's going to cut some flesh, it's going to be painful, it's going to hurt. The analogy here, obviously, is that God's Word is sharper than any two-edged sword, spiritually sharper.

It's a spiritual tool. God's Word is a spiritual power tool that will help you grow and overcome, but you have to study it. You have to look into it because notice what it says, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow. So, it's talking about getting right inside a person.

Like, a two-edged sword would cut deep into a person's internal organs. It could cut into the arteries, the veins, the heart, the liver. You know, the Bible will do the same thing. It will show you why you think the way you do, why you do the things that you do.

Study God's Word. The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That's what the Scripture tells us. The Scripture tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things, and it's desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now, we can know it if we study the Word of God and let God's Word teach us about our own nature. You know, the Bible reveals many things about why we think the way we think, why we do the things that we do, our strengths, our weaknesses. These are important issues that we need to study out in the Bible.

So, it is important to study the Bible. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It is a discerner of the thoughts and an intense of the heart. So, it will help you understand yourself if you study it. So, make sure you do that. And remember, in verse 13, it says, And there is no creature hidden from his sight. None of us can hide from God, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him, to whom we must give account.

Okay, we're all going to have to give account. There is a judgment day that's coming but notice it follows this up by showing us that we have a high priest who has been tempted in every point as we are yet without sin. And it says, Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may find help in time of need. So, Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father will give us strength, will help us, but we also need to study the Bible. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God.

This is the written Word of God. So, when we study the Bible, we understand more and more about Jesus Christ, who he is, how he went throughout his life perfectly without sin, tempted at every point as you are, yet he was without sin. We're going to talk more about that as we go along. In Hebrews 5, I'm not going to take the time to go there, but it talks about how we ought to be teachers, but too often God's people need to be taught some of the milk of the Word rather than going on to the weightier matters of the law, justice, faith.

We need to be moving beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of God's law.

We need to understand the spirit of God's law. Every one of the commandments, we can look at from a letter aspect, but we need to go beyond that. Christ said, if you harbor hatred or resentment toward someone, you've murdered them in your heart.

If you're unable to forgive someone and you have this hatred that you can't get rid of, then you're murdering somebody in your heart, and that's not acceptable. That's something you have to go to God with and ask Him to help you forgive that person. We'll talk some more about that as we go along, too. So we're to be teachers. We're to teach others about the spirit of the law, going beyond just the letter. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 15, it talks about how we are to be diligent in studying the Word of God. Let's go to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15.

2 Timothy 2, verse 15 says, Be diligent to present yourselves, approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed. So the reverse of that is a person who isn't diligently studying the Word of God, they do need to be ashamed. Isn't that what the Scripture is saying? It's saying, Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God. God will approve of you if He sees you doing certain things that reveal to Him your heart. What is your heart like?

What are your priorities? Is God a priority in your life? If He is, you'll be studying His Word.

Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. We do need to study the Bible and understand it with God's help.

Focus on Scriptures that also address your specific spiritual weaknesses.

I'm guessing that, like me, you probably have an idea of where some of your weaknesses are, where they lie. You know, I know certain areas where I'm weak. I'm more vulnerable.

I'm more easily tempted in some areas than in others. And so it would be wise to study these things out. Go to the Bible. If someone has a problem with gossiping, then read the Bible and see what it says about the tongue. What does it say about gossip? Why is it hurtful?

How are we supposed to treat one another?

You know, we're to be able to keep a confidence. We're to be faithful people, trustworthy, loyal.

If we're spreading rumors about others and it's hurtful, it's ungodly, it's something that needs to stop, focus on the Scriptures that will help you overcome whatever weakness it is that you may have. Scripture talks a lot about various weaknesses. You know, you can do studies specifically on those areas. So analyze and examine yourself. Identify your major temptations. And God's Spirit will lead you to understand how you can overcome those things. So read and study God's Word for spiritual strength to overcome. Pray about it. Study it. If you pray about what you're about to read in the Bible, say you're going through a book of the Bible and you ask God to help you understand it. You know, God, help me see how this can help me overcome.

The words that I'm reading today can help me. So that's the second step. Read and study God's Word daily. A third, also fairly basic, is to practice meditation daily. Meditation is not complicated. Meditation is simply thinking. It's thinking on whatever it is we're supposed to think about. And the Bible tells us. And we'll go to Philippians 4 verse 8. Let's go to Philippians chapter 4 because God tells us what to meditate upon. He's telling us what to think about.

And if we're filling our minds with things other than these things, then we're not following His instructions because He tells us what He wants us to think about. Philippians 4 verse 8. And whenever Paul says finally, that means he's wrapping things up and he's got some really good stuff to share.

And that's what he's doing here. He says, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure. Do you notice these are all virtuous things? What He wants us to think about. He says whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, then meditate on those things.

So He doesn't want us to think on the other things. No, negative thinking is harmful.

Now, dwelling on a lot of negative things, it'll bring you down quicker than anything else.

So if you have a habit of thinking negatively, then that's damaging you. It's hurting you spiritually. And you really need to start doing this. Meditate on the things that are right and good and pure and lovely. If you find yourself thinking on other things, get your mind off of those things and put them on the things that you want to see happen in your life.

Positive things that you want to see your future as being. God wants a great future for you. God loves you. He wants a future for you. He's on your side. He will never leave you. He'll never forsake you. So trust Him. Have faith. It's a lack of faith when we start dwelling on negative things. Now, that's not what God wants for you. He wants good things for you. So think on those things and stop dwelling on the things that'll bring you down. It says, the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. And the God of peace will be with you. That's a promise. The God of peace is going to be with you if you'll do these things.

So meditate on the things that are right and good and pure and lovely.

I would also like to share one other thing when it comes to meditation.

Okay, thinking on the things that are right and good, that's super important. We should do that. But let's face it, all of us are sometimes tempted to do something.

So that's when I want you to practice consequential reasoning. Write that down.

Consequential reasoning. Have you ever heard that word? It's not difficult.

It just simply means think about the consequences.

Think about the consequences of what it is you're about to do.

Consequential reasoning. I'd like to give you a very graphic illustration.

I'd like to share a story that made a big impact in my life.

It happened over 50 years ago.

I'm about 11 or 12 years old. I don't remember exactly.

My cousin Rick is a year older than I am, and he was out to our house, and we were playing in the front yard. Boys do. We might have been playing ball or who knows what we were doing. I can't remember exactly, but I do remember this. There was a squirrel that was on the back of a tree.

Big cottonwood tree. This tree is like this big. It's huge. This squirrel is down low.

My cousin Rick sees this squirrel on the backside of that tree, and he wonders, can I catch that squirrel? He fashions himself as a bit of a Daniel Boone.

Daniel Boone grew up around here, right? Or somewhere in Kentucky, Tennessee. Anyway, he fashions himself as somewhat of a Daniel Boone. I think his pride was beginning to get the best of him. He thought he could manage this squirrel. Catch it? Not a smart thing to do.

He was able to grab that squirrel. We'll give him that. He reached around, he grabbed the squirrel, had it behind the neck. Surely he thought he would be okay, but the squirrel had a different idea. The squirrel quickly buried its teeth in his thumb. When I say bury, I mean bury. He wouldn't let go. He could not get the squirrel off his thumb. The squirrel would not let go. He's shaking his hand. He's screaming bloody murder. He's screaming at the top of his lungs. I've never heard a kid scream this loud before. I can imagine why. You've got a squirrel hanging on your thumb. Finally, he takes his other hand and starts choking the squirrel with both hands. He had to choke the squirrel to death to get it off of his hand, to get it off of his thumb.

Not a good scenario. When he finally got it off, his thumb was a good four or five times as big as normally. I mean, it was huge. I couldn't believe how quickly it swelled up. So he's got this huge thumb. The squirrel's dead. We go get his dad, who's driving a tractor out in the country.

So they cut the head off and send it into Ohio State University because they have to find out whether it has rabies or not. So my cousin has to start getting shots now in his stomach.

Painful shots for rabies. These are the consequences of what he did. He thought he could get away with grabbing a squirrel. Now, I'd like you to show that graphic. This is a picture of what David Teague, I'll talk, there it is, don't grab any spiritual squirrels. Because there are spiritual squirrels out there. This squirrel looks pretty riled up because the guy's taking, he's going for it. Usually squirrels won't attack. Squirrels will typically be gentle and fluffy. They look pretty harmless, but you don't want to corner them. You don't want to grab them.

Don't grab any spiritual squirrels because you'll pay a price for it. I've seen people do that, and they paid a huge price for something they were tempted to do that was against God's law. They should not have done it. They should have thought through the consequences.

There are oftentimes many consequences for the things that we do. So I would encourage you to meditate on the things that are right and good and pure and lovely. And if you ever find yourself meditating on doing something really stupid and evil and wrong, just don't do it. Be good to yourself. Withdraw your hand. Don't grab that squirrel. All right, so that's number three, the third step. Practice meditation daily for spiritual strength to overcome and make sure you think about the consequences so you don't go down that path. Don't go down that. Get your mind on something good and pure and lovely, not just the opposite. All right, let's go on to a fourth step.

Okay, the first three things are things we can do every day. We can pray every day. We can study the Bible every day. We can meditate every day. The fourth one we don't really expect you to do every single day, but it goes in conjunction with the first three. It's called fasting.

Fast regularly for spiritual strength to overcome. It is a super strong, powerful spiritual tool. Fasting really does work. The Bible says that some things don't happen except through prayer and fasting. So what do we normally do when we fast? We pray, we study the Bible, and we meditate.

I mean, those are three of the main things that we're supposed to do when we fast. So those first four things are easy to remember. Prayer, Bible study, meditation, fasting. Put all four of those things together, and it will certainly help you overcome. God will help you. It will give you spiritual strength to overcome. You'll be stirring up the power of God's Spirit in you as you fast on a regular basis. Now, what's the hardest thing about fasting?

What's the most difficult thing about fasting? I don't think it's not eating.

I think it's thinking about it. The hardest part is thinking about it and then not doing it.

Because we psych ourselves out, you know, oftentimes because we think of, oh, it's going to be, I don't know, it's not a good day. I can't fast then because I've got to do this or that or the other thing. And we talk ourselves out of fasting. Instead of just putting it on the calendar, just do it. Just decide how often you want to fast, whether it's once every two months or once a month. Surely not just on the day of atonement. Because everybody was fasting on the day of atonement back then when Christ was alive and the Jews, the Israelites, they were fasting on the day of atonement. Remember, the Pharisees came and they talked about how they fast twice a week.

I don't know if those were full 24-hour fasts or not, but it wasn't enough for them. They needed to fast more often because it wasn't working. But the point is, it's not so much how often we fast either. It's our spiritual thinking, our mind, our hearts. But fasting will help us. So put it on the calendar, whether it's once a month or once every two months or once every two weeks. You get to decide. You get to decide what regularly is. But I guarantee the more you fast, the easier it becomes. It's easier to fast if you just start getting in a habit of doing it. And I haven't... Look, I'm not going to say I'm always in the habit of fasting because I'm clearly not, my wife will tell you. I don't like to fast either. I psych myself out way too often. I don't put it on the calendar and I don't do it. So I'm definitely preaching to myself here. Fasting would be good for all of us. You know, we need to fast more often. Fast regularly for spiritual strength to overcome.

And God will help you through that. And I want to share what I consider really important. Remember when Satan brought this great temptation to Jesus Christ? For one thing, Christ had fasted for 40 days. Now, Satan probably thought he would be weakest after fasting for 40 days.

Now, he'll be easier to tempt. But that wasn't the case at all. Christ was spiritually stronger having fasted 40 days and 40 nights. You know, he was able to quote Scripture. You know, he really didn't have any problem turning away Satan the devil. It was not that difficult for Jesus Christ.

But Satan had it in his mind that since he didn't succeed the first time in this big temptation, in Luke 4, it says he was looking for an opportune time. He was going to come back. He's looking for an opportune time. Well, he never found it with Jesus Christ. There was no opportune time for Christ. You know, he was tempted at every point, yet he never sinned because he was always close to God and he was always strong and he was spiritually powerful. So he never gave in to temptation. He never gave in to sin. He always did the right thing. But the fact is, Satan will look for an opportune time with you.

You know, if you are weaker, if you haven't been praying, haven't been studying, haven't been fasting, haven't been doing some of the basics, then Satan's going to look for an opportune time. He's going to come back when you are weaker and he will throw certain temptations your way and it's going to be very difficult to resist temptation under those circumstances. So it behooves all of us to practice these first four steps regularly so that Satan doesn't find opportune times. All right. Now, the fifth step is to flee temptation.

Flee temptation and make no provision for the flesh. Flee it. It's not that difficult. Run away. Flee. That's basically what it's talking about is don't dabble in these temptations that can easily get the best of us if we continue to dwell on them. Flee those things. James 4, verse 7, says, resist Satan and he will flee from you. So you have to put up resistance.

You know, Satan has to know that God is on your side and he can't defeat God. He hasn't been able to in the past. He never will. So with God on your side, he can't get the best of you. So resist Satan and he will flee from you. That's a promise. The promise is that if you resist Satan, he will flee. So how do you resist Satan? Well, you don't continue to dwell on the things that Satan wants to tempt you to do, for one thing. You flee that. You resist him by fleeing, by getting it off your mind, by getting on your knees, by praying about it, by asking God for strength, by asking him for help. That's how you resist Satan and have confidence that he will flee from you when you do that. It says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you and he will give you strength to overcome. So there are actually a lot of scriptures on fleeing temptation. You might want to do a word study about fleeing temptation. Jeremiah 51 says, flee from the midst of Babylon and everyone save his life. You know, that's prophetic. That's talking about a time yet to come. These are dual prophecies. You know, the Babylonians, they brought the Israelites into captivity, into Babylon. They brought them into Babylon. They put them in prison and they ruled them. But there's a dual prophecy. There's another time when Babylon will rise up, the beast power in the last days, the false prophet. They're all a part of Babylon. It says, flee from the midst of Babylon. The Bible says, come out of the world. Be separate from the world. You know, don't get caught up in the world's ways and everyone save his life. You know, it does talk about difficult times before Christ returns. And so we need to be on guard and prepared for that. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, it talks about fleeing sexual immorality. You know, the city of Corinth was renowned for its sexual immorality. My wife and I visited the city of Corinth in Greece.

We were there, I don't remember what year it was, sometime after the year 2000.

Anyway, we were in the city of Corinth. We went to a museum there. And it was very graphic.

The sexual immorality was displayed in pictures and in sculptures. And it was just very obvious that this was a very obscene culture. The red light districts and other things that we saw on that trip to Ephesus and to Corinth. It was a huge part of life. In fact, that was one of the things that the Gentiles were to come out of sexual immorality. One of the four things that were noted.

So 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, it says here that, "...flee sexual immorality, every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality, sins against his own body." Again, there are consequences for sinning. He says, or, "...do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" You know, God's Holy Spirit lives in us.

And our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So we're supposed to come out of those sinful practices. For you are bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And the Bible is clear about what God expects of us along those lines. And even though the world has gone so far astray from God and what God expects in terms of sexual morality, you know, what God would morally want us to, how he would want us to live our lives, I mean, this world has gone, it's gone rampant. Pornography is such a huge scourge on the earth today. Billions and billions of dollars are spent every year on pornography.

Do you know what the number one selling Sports Illustrated magazine is?

Probably a lot of you know it's the Swimsuit Edition. Every year that's the number one selling.

It's the swimsuit. It's not... What does that have to do with basketball and football and baseball? This is a sports magazine. Well, I guess guys are more interested in other things.

So, you know, that's what they do. They sell that and it's a huge temptation.

So flee temptation and make no provision for the flesh. You know, when you look at pornography, when you cuddle up to that stuff, it's going to hurt you. It's going to have an impact in your life. So be good to yourself and just say no. You know, Nancy Reagan, don't say yes to drugs. Don't say yes to pornography. Don't say yes to anything that's going to harm you. Use some good consequential reasoning. Make some good choices. Draw near to God. He will draw near to you. If you're being tempted, get on your knees. Ask God to give you the strength not to go down that path. You know, you have to do your part. You know, God's not going to do it for you. You have to do your part. You have to make those choices yourself. God will honor you when you do that. And it'll get easier. And perhaps God will take away some of those evil desires. If you show yourself faithful. I know of a man. Oh, this was back when I was in my 30s. And I was up in Michigan.

And there was a guy that was a good 20 years older than I am. And I'm a young minister there. And he's confiding in me that he has a problem with pornography. And he said he's had it all his life since he was just a teenager. And he's still struggling to put it out of his life, to stop it.

You know, with some success, but going back to it and just struggling with it. When I left there, I was gone probably 20 years and I got a phone call from him. And he said, God's finally taken this away. You know, he had to battle that thing for a long time, but he never gave up. So don't ever give up if you have a problem. Face it, admit it, but don't give up on it. Keep working on it. Keep being honest with God and with yourself.

And learn to say no. You don't have to wait 20 years or 30 years. You know, I'm sure that you can get victory long before that if you're diligent. So let's go to Romans 13, because it talks about making no provision for the flesh. So if there's a temptation, if there's something in your flesh that is tempted, if you're tempted to do something, whether it's whatever it might be, maybe it's anger. You know, you just can't control yourself.

You know, you get angry, you fly off the handle, you say things you shouldn't say, you cuss at people, you just say nasty things to people. These scriptures will help you with that. Romans 13, verse 11, notice what it says. Romans 13, the guidance from God's Word, is this in verse 11, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness, not in lust. This is talking about sexual immorality, not in strife, not in envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Make no provision. In other words, don't cuddle up to those things that are tempting to you.

Learn to flee those things quickly, because you're not strong enough to overcome. You know, if you take one step in the wrong direction, Satan has you. That's all it takes.

One step in the wrong direction, and you're going to keep following those steps.

So you have to immediately ask God for help. Trust that He'll give you that help, and turn the other way. Flee that temptation. So put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. And then notice 2 Corinthians chapter 10, because this verse goes along very well with Romans chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and this goes well with Philippians chapter 4 verse 8 that we talked about earlier, about what should we meditate upon. Notice 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3.

Here it says, "...for though we walk in the flesh..." Okay, we're all in the flesh, right? You're made of flesh. I'm made of flesh. Yes, we all have that in common. We walk in the flesh, but we do not war according to the flesh. You know, it's not talking about physical warfare. It's talking about spiritual warfare. And it says in verse 4, "...for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not fleshly, but they're mighty in God for pulling down strongholds." Okay, what is a stronghold? A stronghold is anything that's got a hold of you that you can't overcome and it's got you where it wants you and you are headed down the wrong path. That is a stronghold. An addiction is a stronghold. Pornography can be a stronghold. No, it can be addictive.

Drugs can be a stronghold. They can be an addiction. Smoking can be an addiction.

The nicotine is powerful. You know, there are many types of addictions. And any addiction is a stronghold. Anything that has you in its grip is a stronghold. If it's not something that should be done and it's got you and you can't seem to overcome it, that's a stronghold. So it says, "...for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty in God for pulling down strongholds." In other words, for overcoming addictions and powerful strongholds in our lives.

Casting down arguments at every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So bringing every thought into captivity. So what that tells me is I have to put a governor in my head about what I think about.

You know, I have to bring that bring these thoughts into captivity. So if Satan pops in a evil thought, you know, the Bible talks about Satan as the prince of the power of the air. Now he broadcasts and thoughts and attitudes and moods. He wants to get the best of us. So we have to be on guard for this. So if we have an evil thought, we're supposed to bring it into captivity, imprison it, lock it away, and don't go there. Think on whatsoever things are good. Don't think about what you have locked up over here. You know, think about the things that are right and good and pure and lovely and leave that stuff locked up where it can harm you. Now that's what you we all need to learn to do is to bring those things into captivity unto the obedience of Christ. The reason Christ was so successful is that he was always close to God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit.

So yes, he had a head start, you might say. He had help from birth. His Heavenly Father was his father. And so he yielded to God's Spirit in him. And he had pure thoughts, and he thought on those things. He didn't... he brought those things into captivity of any evil thoughts that Satan might cast that way. Just didn't, you know, immediately they were imprisoned. He had no time for that. You know, he meditated on the things that are right and good and pure and lovely. Things that were noble. Things that were virtuous. So he was tempted in every point as we are, yet he was without sin. He did not allow those thoughts to get a stronghold or any kind of a hold in his life. So bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Remember, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you by the power of his Spirit.

So walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit.

Now, God wants us to walk in the Spirit. Again, we need to go beyond the letter of the law, and we need to keep the Spirit of the law. When Christ says, if you look at a woman to lust for her, you've committed adultery with her.

Now, that's far more binding than just don't commit adultery. Physically, the letter of the law is don't commit adultery. The Spirit of the law, don't even look at a woman to think of her in those ways because it's damaging to your health. The consequences aren't good when you allow your mind to go down that path and think about those things that are wrong, that are evil, and that are destructive. So, use good, consequential reasoning. Don't grab those squirrels. Those are tempting squirrels out there. They'll harm you, they'll hurt you, and you'll pay a price for them. So, yield to God's Spirit, and you will find the strength to flee temptation. That was point number five. Flee temptation and make no provision for the flesh.

Number six. Admit your sin to God first and foremost. Admit your sin. If you blow it, if you don't walk perfectly, and the Bible talks about Jesus Christ as being the perfect example, the perfect sacrifice. Did you know the Bible does talk about one other perfect person? Did you know that? Jesus Christ was perfect. But in Psalm 37, verse 37, it says, Mark the perfect man.

Mark the perfect man. It does say that in the King James, but it's not talking about me for sure. It's definitely not talking about me. That was a joke, too. All right, we'll move on.

All right, let's see. Number six. Admit your sin to God first and foremost.

First John chapter one, verse nine. What does it say? First John chapter one, verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we don't confess our sins, then he's not going to forgive us. We have to admit that we sinned. You know, if we justify our sins, then we're not going to be forgiven. You know, if we make excuses for our sins, if we hide from our sins and we act like we didn't do anything wrong, God's not going to forgive you for that. He's not going to grant you repentance. Repentance, the first, the starting point of repentance is admitting that you sinned. Now, it's far better that you don't sin. Right? It means better. You know, the Bible talks about coming boldly before the throne of grace.

I think that can mean two things. It can mean before you've sinned, come boldly before the throne of grace. Ask for help. Get on your knees. Ask God to deliver you from temptation.

You know, that's the best time to get on your knees and to pray.

But if you don't do that, unfortunately, you still need to seek repentance and ask God to forgive you.

You know, if you go, if you follow through on that temptation, then go boldly before the throne of grace. Ask God to forgive you and try to do your very best. You know, I've often said that I know I haven't done my best. I haven't done my best. I still hope to do my best. I haven't done it yet. You know, I still can do better. So I try to do my very best. I try to do my best.

I think that's all any of us really do. We try to do our best, but we have to believe that we can do better with God's help. Now, that's not to discourage us. You know, this is not a discouraging sermon. I know I've talked a lot about sin, but it's to encourage us because we're all in this together. We're all sinners. We all need help. And with God, we can get the help that we need.

You know, God has a way of escape. He has a plan of salvation. We're all saved by grace. But we also have to follow these steps so that we can be overcomers, and so we will be granted to sit with Christ on His throne. So admit your sin to God first and foremost. James 5 verse 16 also talks about confessing your faults or trespasses one to another. Now, I don't think that means indiscriminately telling everyone all of your sins. You know, I don't think that's what we want to do after church today. We all just share every foul sin we've ever committed in our lives.

You know, that isn't what God wants. But if there's a special friend, maybe our mate, you know, our husband or our wife, or we have a close friend like Jonathan and David, you know, they had a close friendship. They could share things with each other. They could talk about spiritual things. Iron sharpens iron. You know, if you can confess your faults to another person and they can help strengthen you, you know, that isn't that why the 12-step programs work?

Oftentimes, you know, these alcoholism and these steps overcoming addictions, they largely work because the person first admits who they are. Look, I'm an alcoholic. My name's Joe, whatever it is. I'm Joe. I'm an alcoholic, you know, and all of them are saying the same thing. And they're working together. They're holding each other accountable. And they're trying to overcome. And that's without God's Spirit, you know, and they make progress and they overcome. My dad was an alcoholic.

It ended up in divorce. You know, my mother finally divorced him after many years. I was at college when it happened. He finally hit rock bottom and he went started going to AA Alcoholics Anonymous and it helped him. And for about 30 or 40 years, he was dry. And then he started drinking in his 80s again. That was not good. Cause some problems. But that's my father. I forgave him a long time ago and that leads me to the next point. Number seven, the final step is forgive others and rely on the goodness of God to lead you to repentance. So we have to forgive others. Thankfully, I forgave my father when I was 18. That's when God called me. I was hating my father to some degree because I saw what he did to our family. Saw what he did to my mother. You know, being an alcoholic is an ugly thing. It affects the family. It was affecting our family. I didn't appreciate it. So there was a wedge between my father and I. When I came in the church, I did learn to forgive him. I still didn't condone what he was doing, but I was able to forgive him.

The scripture says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I don't think my dad, my dad wasn't called of God. You know, he didn't understand the full impact of what he was doing.

He was blinded to some degree. Satan has blinded the whole world. When Stephen was being stoned to death, he said, don't lay this sin to their charge. They don't, they don't understand what they're doing. When Christ was being crucified, he said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They're killing the Son of God, the only perfect righteous person who didn't deserve to die. Remember, the wages of sin is death. He's the only one that didn't deserve to die. And they're about to kill him. And he's saying, Father, forgive them. So it is possible to forgive anyone with God's help. And notice what it says in Matthew 6. We'll go back to where we started. And this is an important seventh step. And it's one that we really need to consider if we're one who harbors grudges and can't forgive somebody. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean they have to be your best friend. You know, right? It doesn't mean that you need to put yourself in jeopardy with someone who's still a stinker. You know, you can, you can distance yourself, but you do need to learn to forgive them. In chapter 6, verse 14, for if you forgive men, their trespasses. It's talking about their sins. If you forgive men who have sinned against you, their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So that's a very direct statement. If we are not willing to forgive others, then God is not going to forgive us.

So we have to seek forgiveness. You know, we have to ask God to give us whatever it is we need to forgive somebody so we can move on so our life can improve. I'm really grateful that I forgave my father back when I was 18, because had I not done that and I harbored hatred and resentment toward him for 40 more years. You know, that would have been a big waste. That would have been very detrimental. I had a decent relationship with my father because I forgave him and spent time with him. I didn't, again, I didn't condone bad behavior, but he came out of a lot of that bad behavior and we actually had a decent relationship for many years. So we need to forgive others and we also need to rely on the goodness of God to lead us to repentance.

Romans 2 verse 4 says, the goodness of God will lead you to repentance. So it isn't us.

We're not so great ourselves, but God's goodness will lead us to repentance. And 2 Timothy 2 verse 25 says, God grants repentance. God's the one that looks on our heart and he's the one that grants repentance. It isn't something that we can work up. It's something that God actually grants to us when he looks at us, he sees our heart. It's like in Psalm 51 where David, that was a psalm of repentance. His heart was turned toward God, he admitted his sin, he asked God to cleanse him.

Now that was a heartfelt prayer that God heard and answered and granted him repentance.

Even though he was in his sins, remember God had to send a prophet who said, you are the man. You know, you're the one that's causing all this problem. I won't go into that. Hopefully you remember the story. But we're all the man, we're all the woman, we're all sinners like David. We all need to repent. We all need to admit our sins. We need to forgive each other. Follow these seven steps. It is by the awesome and almighty power of God through his Spirit living in us that we can have the power to overcome sin, to put it out of our lives, let all of us put into practice these seven steps to overcoming sin. Again, having God's Spirit and stirring it up daily is vital to overcoming sin. Now, you can still overcome even before God's Spirit dwells in you. You know, we make a lot of changes before we're actually baptized. That's because God's Spirit works with our teenagers. Now, God's Spirit will lead you and guide you. It will help you overcome. Just because it isn't yet living in you doesn't mean it can't work with you to overcome, to stop doing things you ought not do. So remember, God does grant repentance. If you see Him, He's going to listen. Ask and you shall receive. So again, remember with God all things are possible. And remember, you can do all things through Christ who will strengthen you by the power of His Holy Spirit. So with God's help, let's all be overcomers.