Passover: Only the Overcomers

Please be seated, brethren. And once again, our pastor, Mr. Jim Tuck, for the sermon.

When you look at the book of Revelation, after you look at Revelation 2 and 3, particularly, I'm not going to go there here at the introduction, but you will remember that with each church there was an Abmonition that was given to the churches. And chiefly, the Abmonition was this, He that has ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. And then it says, He that overcomes, and then it will give a reward, you know, that is stated, you know, afterwards. Ultimately, of course, the meaning is that He that overcomes is going to be in the kingdom of God. So you have those two parts of an Abmonition that is given. Interestingly, as well, in terms of the churches, when Jesus was talking about the church, He talked about how that in the end of the age, He talked about how the love of many would wax cold, and that many of those in the church would, of course, turn from God. They would lose their fear, and they would let down. It seems to be, again, a warning that is given. And, of course, you look at the examples that you see in Revelation 2 and 3 about the churches. Each one of them had foibles, they had problems that needed to be overcome, that people needed to repent of and make sure that they turned to go the right way. Now, let's go over to Exodus 13. When God was talking to ancient Israel and giving them information about what they were going to be doing in terms of the festivals, and we're very shortly going to be involved in those festivals, but in Exodus 13, and we'll go to verse 5 through 7, just a few passages here, we're going to read. But here it says, it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, all of these ites they were going to be brought to, which He swore to your fathers to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, and you shall keep this service in this month. And, you know, in other words, this is a service you ought to keep in a specific month. Now, some people, of course, think you ought to keep communion every Sunday, right? And part of this festival was, in fact, the Passover, but that's another subject. But in verse 6 it says, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. And it says going on, and it says unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leaven shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. And so no leaven was to be seen with them. And, of course, for them it had significance that they were supposed to actually begin to understand on a spiritual level that probably they never did, because it was not in them to understand. But for us, rather, we ought to understand that certainly it does have a spiritual significance. For us, that there are seven days, and God wants us to learn the lesson that, basically, putting sin out of our lives, and we have to have to come completely out of sin.

We have to have that kind of commitment as God's people. Over in 1 Corinthians 5, we see the New Testament church observing this festival. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6. Here Paul was having to chasten the Corinthian brethren because they were tolerating a sin in their own midst. There was, of course, a rather egregious error that was going on, a very terrible sin that had the quality of debauchery that was spreading. Apparently, in the Corinthian church, Paul had to really nip it in the bud. He said, Your glory is not good. Do you not know that little leaven leavens the whole lump? You put a pinch of leaven in a lump of dough and it takes over the lump. And this was apparently what was happening in the Corinthian church. It says, therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. They had gone to the trouble of cleaning out the leavening, like ancient Israel was commanded to do, to not have a leavening in all of their quarters.

They'd done it on a physical basis. You know, that's the easy part, isn't it? To do that, maybe you do have to maybe break a sweat to do it sometimes, but it's the easy part for us.

But he says going on here, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. And it was realized the greatness of the sacrifice that has been made for each of us so that we could be the leaven, spiritually speaking, and without sin. And so this is what we find that is instructed in the New Testament for the church. And of course, God in many ways in the Bible, and there are scriptures that show us that each of us are compared to vessels. It's interesting how that vessels, you use them over a period of time, they tend to begin to get caked up a little bit. If any of you have gone about the trouble of cleaning a toaster, you realize what I'm talking about here. You may be the cleanest person in the whole world. You may be able to eat off of you. You're so clean, you know. But your toaster needs cleaning at the days of 11 bread.

And I recommend, by the way, if you're going to take a hose to it, make sure you unplug it before you do. But it might be more of an exciting unleavened bread than you had anticipated.

But we are like vessels that have to be cleaned out. We've got to be cleaned out.

And oftentimes, it's the old leaven that are just stuck there. You know, sometimes, we can work and work to actually clean off food off of a pan. It is like crust, isn't it, on a pan that is kind of hard to clean off. And so, the purpose of what I'm talking about here this afternoon is that we as God's people, brethren, during this time as we are approaching you know, the Passover need to be purging and cleaning the leaven out.

And that involves searching out where the leavening is. Not just in the physical sense, but the spiritual sense and tying in to what Jesus said to the seven churches of Asia, brethren, that we have to have ears to listen and to hear and to see, you know, those sins that are there. And, you know, we have to be those who are the overcomers. So, I call this sermon Passover, only the overcomers. Because, brethren, the only the overcomers are going to be saved. You know, do we really realize that? Only the overcomers. You know, you can't just show up.

You know, some, of course, in the churches of the world talk about all you got to do is believe on Jesus. You know, that's just showing up, isn't it? We've got to be overcomers, brethren.

Remind yourself, brethren, of the zeal that you had when you were a babe in Christ. What was it like when you learned about the truth for the first time? How eager were you to begin to apply those things that you were learning? And, you know, it's amazing how fast we did learn, isn't it?

Back in those days, we learned about the Sabbath. We learned about the holy days. We learned about unclean foods. We learned about tithing. We learned about, you know, not smoking. You know, this is the only church where we found out we were supposed to stop smoking and start drinking.

And, of course, we realized we'd have to do it in balance.

But we learned so fast, brethren. Interestingly, some sins are easy to see, aren't they?

They're really easy to see. But after a period of time, you know, those easy sins, it's almost like we're picking the lower fruit first, aren't we? Getting the bad fruit off first.

But again, brethren, we need God's people to have that zeal and endure to the end with it.

Again, there are seven days of unleavened bread because God wants us to know He wants us to come completely out of sin, to come completely out of Egypt, which is symbolic of Satan and sin.

That's why the Apostle Paul admonished the Christians, you know, when it was around the Passover in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28, but let a man examine himself. You know, take a long, hard look at yourself, test yourself, and then so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.

And examine yourself whether you're in the faith. Test it. Are you really with it? Or have you let down? You know, it happens. Life is that way, isn't it? We go up and we go down, but hopefully we're going mostly up, and hopefully we're improving. That's the goal that God wants us to have. So, brethren, as we observe the Passover, the days of unleavened bread, we need to look at our progress and determine what to overcome next. What to change next? What are you wrestling with right now, brethren, as you're sitting right here in this auditorium here? What are you wrestling with in your personal life? Is there something that you are fighting to overcome? Does anything immediately come to mind? You know, we all probably have something, don't we, that needs to change in our lives. You know, in Hebrews 6 and verse 1, we're told about the basic doctrines, that once we learn the basic doctrines, we go on to perfection.

You know, once we learn about repentance, once we learn about getting rid of the dead works, you know, those things that are going to bring us into judgment, go on to perfection. Begin to understand again more about yourself and overcoming so you can come completely out of sin.

And show diligence, brethren, and make progress. You can't give up. You can never give up.

You have to keep wrestling with yourself. You know, Jesus Himself said, no man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

So we can't look back and say, I want to go back. I want to go back from which I came. I remember, and I may have mentioned this to you, I probably have, you know, through the years, that when I was first learning about the truth and, you know, coming to repentance, I had a dream. Now, I'm not saying that necessarily God gave me this dream, but maybe He did. You just don't know, you know, how God works. God works, I think, with innocent minds a little differently than He does with maybe those that have a bit more understanding.

But when I was making my decisions about what I was going to do in my life, and I, you know, I was 16 years old when these things began to really begin to hit home to me, that I dreamed, a dream, that was very startling to me. I dreamed I was, you know, on an island between, and there was a bridge that went, and I knew somehow, inherently, this one bridge went to the kingdom of God, and the other bridge went, you know, over a body of water back to the world. And I was at that pivotal time in my life, you know, and I remember at the time I, there was a temptation to say, there was a temptation to me, boy, this is turning to a lot of bother. This thing, this calling I have is a bother. It would have been so easy to go back across the bridge that went back to the world. But in my dream, I realized that was not the way.

That I had to go forward. I had to go over the bridge to the kingdom of God. And in my dream, I burned the bridge to the world. Because I knew the way I was, I'd go back over the bridge if things got rough and tough. And so, I've been on the bridge to the kingdom of God since, and the one that goes to the world for me was burnt a long time ago.

Now, as I think about this, I wonder where God gave me the matches to burn the bridge. How does that work? But anyway, that was a long time ago. And I've been going that way for over 40 years, trying to go to the kingdom of God. But we can't, you know, put our hand to the plow and look back.

You've got to go forward. And that means you've got to change.

You know, Jesus says that we've got to take up our cross and follow Him. And whatever your cross is, whatever it may be, whether it's sickness, whether it's, you know, things mental that we battle with, whether it's physical, maybe it's a job, maybe it's...who knows what it is.

You take your cross, your life, whatever it is, whatever God has dealt with you, and you go and you follow Christ. And you love God more than anything else. So take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ. Be determined to overcome. And, brother, we have to have a sense of urgency about that, and which we once had. And I think Passover is one of those times that should revive that sense of urgency in us. It really should be. You know, I look upon the Passover as I'm renewing my covenant with my great Creator God. And on Passover, when I take those emblems, it's like I'm signing on the dotted line. That I'm in this all the way. I'm going to go the gamut, God. And so this time should give us a sense of urgency as God's people. So, brother, as we look at the Passover, if we're going to be an overcomer, if we're going to be in the kingdom of God, the number one thing we've got to do as God's people is we must determine that we have to change. We have to overcome. We have to make those changes that are necessary.

Don't quibble about it. Don't whine about it. Do it. Don't let anything stand in the way of the kingdom of God for you. Determine to change. Take up your cross.

Take whatever burden God has given to you, and you bear it, because Christ did much more for all of us than we'll ever do for himself, for him.

The next thing we need to do, brethren, as we are determined to be overcomers, we have to determine specific problems that we have that need to change. What are they?

What are those problems? Let's go over to Exodus chapter 2, if you would turn with me there.

In verse 23 over here, it says, Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage.

And they cried, and they cried, the cry came up to God because of the bondage.

So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and Jacob.

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

So here, the children of Israel were in a case of a being in Egypt, and the one thing they recognized is they recognized they had problems. They were in bondage.

Now, oftentimes when you're in the world, you don't know you're in bondage.

You don't know how really miserable you are.

But here, the children of Israel, brethren, they recognized that bondage was a horrible problem.

And they began to cry out to God about this.

Well, brethren, do we see we are in bondage when we are, you know, basically in slavery to ascend in our lives.

It's holding us down. You might as well take a chain with one of those steel balls and put it on your leg.

You know, it's holding us down. It's holding us back. And we have to be freed from that.

So God wants us, brethren, to be overcomers. And we have to determine specific problems and sins that we need to change, that we need to overcome, that we need to face up to whatever it might be.

You know, maybe it is overdrinking, not being moderate in drink. Maybe it's pornography. Maybe it's any number of things that, you know, that people become addicted to in this age, gambling.

You know, that is, of course, something that seems like it's increasing more and more, even among the young people. You know, there's a problem with this online, where young people are beginning to gamble a lot more than they used to.

It's, of course, easier. Isn't it online that it ever was, you know, in years past?

People had to back, basically, in those times in the past, people have to go back in the boonies to go gambling somewhere. It's not so anymore. It's everywhere. Mark 7 over here. Satan has made sin easier. You get addicted to pornography. I mean, you got it on your cell phone, right? People can have it anywhere, anymore. But we need to, again, face up to whatever the problems are and overcome them. We need to determine those problems, whatever they are. And, of course, there are many other types of problems that people have. But in Mark 7, let's notice here, in Mark 7, Jesus talked about sins that oftentimes people don't see.

I mentioned about earlier. But Mark 7 and verse 20 here, let's notice this.

And he said, What comes out of a man that defiles a man? For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts. You can't see that, can you?

But it's there. Wrong thoughts. Adultery. Fornications. Murders. You know, of course, we don't tend to murder people, but we can sort of kill people inside of our heads. We can do it in our thoughts, within ourselves. Thefts, covetousness, wanting, desiring, things that we really should not have. Wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye.

You know, we don't hear that very often anymore. Well, he cast an evil eye on me.

I always wondered what that was. You know, this past week, by the way, I had my cat my cataract removed in my left eye. And I don't know if you've ever had that done before. But anyway, I went in and had my cataract removed. And they take these fourths of, now you ladies, of course, childbirth know about this. And of course, those that have operations, you know, you have things that are able to make it easier for a doctor to treat someone. But they took these fourths of and they stretch your eye open. At least I'm just envisioning this is what's happening. And they put this little thing over my face. And he's talking me through the cataract removal. It took about six minutes or so. And then, of course, they turn you out into the wild afterwards. And, you know, here I am, I'm like this, you know. And anyway, basically, the first day I was out of it. My wife took me back home. She was nice about that.

And anyway, I basically slept most of the time. It was kind of miserable. Your eye sort of scratches and doesn't really feel very good. And I found out one thing, if you can't use one eye, you know, it's hard to use the other one as well. They said I could watch TV with the other eye. But what they didn't tell me is that to be so miserable with this eye, I wouldn't want to watch TV with this eye. But anyway, so if anybody ever told you it was easy, they'd just been nice to you, you know. Or they wanted to make sure that you had the full experience like I did. But anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this is because I woke up the next day and I took this little thing off my eye and they had stretched my eye out. I mean, I looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator.

Remember that, you know, that part where he sticks the thing in his eye and he...

That's the way I looked. And I can only imagine that's what an evil eye looks like, you know.

You look, you got this, you got your eye all out like that and you're putting the evil eye on somebody. But I guess that's not really what an evil eye is. But I went through all that to tell you about what I thought it was. But an evil eye is basically looking at somebody and hoping that something bad happens to them. Used to be, I guess, a big thing that people thought that this would for...probode bad things in people's lives. And, you know, but anyway, talked about here an evil eye or having evil intentions. And, you know, going on here, blaspheming, pride, verse 22, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile a man.

So these are things we need to overcome. We need to change in our lives as God's people.

We should not wish any harm on anyone. We rejoice with those who rejoice, and we mourn with those that mourn. You know, bitterness is something that's hard sometimes to see that people can have. Usually it's, of course, expressed on the face at times.

Wrong attitudes, you know, harder to see again than a person might have. It may come out in the form of sarcasm all the time. It's being sarcastic. Resentment toward authority, you know, or against decisions that are not quite what we want. Lack of forgiveness of others.

You know, sometimes people can basically tie a rope around a post and resist forgiving somebody, you know, because they said, well, you know, they didn't apologize to me.

I've been in circumstances where I, you know, I've talked to two people and they came to somewhat of an understanding and one, you know, apologized. Maybe they didn't fall on their feet, you know, and kiss their boots and that kind of an apology, but they said they were sorry.

And then I've had somebody, the other person say, well, I'm sorry they didn't apologize enough.

You know, that's not our job, is it? To determine how much somebody else apologizes or how much somebody else that repents. It's our job to forgive.

And frankly, somebody else doesn't have to apologize for you to forgive them.

If that was so, then, you know, Jesus Christ forgave us a long time before we ever said, Father, I'm sorry. Sorry for the sin. He did it in advance. So, brother, we need to, again, not be people that are unforgiving ever. Sometimes, unthankfulness is not seen in a person, but unthankfulness is a sin. Sometimes we can be oblivious, not realizing that people have done a lot of things for us and we're not really thankful for it, appreciative for it.

You know, over the years, I've found sometimes the people we've done the most for in the church have been the least thankful. I hate to say that, but that's my experience.

And I pray it again is not true in any case here or anywhere else, for that matter, but I know it is.

You know, how do we, brethren, deal with these specific problems? How do we deal with them? How do we see them? How do we come to know them? The only way I know is Hebrews 4, verse 12, the Word of God. The Word of God, we're told in Hebrews 4 and verse 12, is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It's like you look into the law of God and meditate more and more on it. You see your face in there, a reflection. We see what we should be and maybe what we're not, what we need to overcome. We're told as well in 2 Timothy 3, 16, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, for righteousness. So, the Word of God, right here, this book, you want to know about yourself, you start reading this book. It'll show you about yourself. It'll show you things that you can never learn anywhere else. It will guide you to see what you have to change. It will identify specific problems you have as well. So, point number one we've covered, determine you need to change. Number two is determine specific problems you need to change. And point number three, rather than realize this, that Satan the devil will do anything to distract you from changing. He'll do anything to stop you from changing.

That's one thing he will be Johnny on the spot for. He'll be right there for you. Let's go to Exodus chapter 14 over here. In Exodus chapter 14, you know the story and the account when Israel was coming out of Egypt. They were very elated and excited and happy. Of course, that didn't last very long, did it, for them? That's what happens sometimes when we get baptized, too. Sometimes we get baptized, we think it's the panacea. Oh, you know, I can only get baptized. Then all my problems will be gone. Boy, were we really ignorant about the truth, weren't we, about that, of what was going to happen. Little did I know when I was baptized, my problems were only beginning. At least I began to recognize that more and more. Maybe they were always there, but I began to see it. I began to see it. But in Exodus 14, verse 5, let's go down here in verse 5, it says, "...now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants were turned against the people." You know, at first he was really glad that they were going to leave because of all of the of course the plagues that had taken place, but then he realized what they were losing, all this slave labor that was walking out of Egypt. And it says, why have we done this?

"...that we have let Israel go from serving us." You know, they were ready servants for us. So he made ready his chariot and took the people with him. And also he took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them.

"...and the eternal hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he pursued the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with boldness. So the Egyptians pursued them and all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, the horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea by Piah Ihryth before Baal Ziphon." And so here, Satan was right behind them.

Pharaoh was a type of Satan. Egypt was a type of sin. And when Israel was headed out, Pharaoh was right there. Satan was right there. Same happens with us, brethren.

One of the purposes that Pharaoh, of course, had was to bring them back to Egypt. Eventually, after, of course, Satan's goal of turning Israel back was thwarted because he could not overcome what God will was. He strived to discourage the Israelites. And that's what Satan does for us.

He tries to discourage us once we have departed from this world. When we've departed from sin, when we begin to overcome, we begin to change. You know, Satan really, again, will strive all he can. He's like a roaring lion seeking whom he made of ours, the Bible says.

But realize this, brethren. Realize this, that you need help. You need God's help.

And God was there for Israel. You know, God was there in a return for them.

Today, for us, brethren, Satan broadcasts all the time to the children of disobedience.

And the children of disobedience pick up on it all the time.

Are you one of those, brethren? Are you a child of disobedience?

Are you in that camp? Or are you a child of obedience? You made up your mind.

Because if we turn to God with all of our hearts, Satan flees from us. So, again, number three point, once we've determined to change and we've begun to identify specific things we need to change, Satan is going to come at us.

When he knows we're trying to build this relationship with God, this special relationship and bond with God, he knows that our power is going to increase through the Holy Spirit. And he does not want that to happen. He doesn't want to occur. He doesn't want you to get you on your own two feet and be strengthened.

And he'll do everything he can to keep you from growing.

You know, he'll use friends and family to try to sidetrack you.

But, brethren, you've got to keep on the track. We've got to keep on the track.

Point number four, though, brethren, if we're going to be overcomers, we have to look at ourselves and figure out what makes us sin. What makes you sin?

Like I say, it was easy to see that we were breaking the Sabbath.

It was easy to see that we were not keeping the Holy Days and were needed a change on the food that we ate. But some of the other things that begin from the inside, because Satan is always broadcasting, we pick up on that broadcast, what causes us to sin?

What provokes us to sin? Look at it this way, brethren. When we ingest sin, you know, it makes us spiritually sick in our lives. It's like we eat something bad for us.

It begins to make us sick. You ingest a lot of sugar, you're going to get sick.

It won't take long before you'll have physical kind of problems.

So find out, brethren, what it is, what the source of making you sin, and then resolve it.

Begin to face it.

You know, in Psalm 119, verse 176, it says, I have gone astray, you know, the Psalmist says, like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.

In other words, brethren, sometimes we get off the track, and we need to get back on the track.

We need to begin to figure out what made us go wrong, and get right back on the right track, that's heading in the right direction.

You know, King David recognized his error that he had gone astray, you know, like a lost sheep.

When he committed sin with Bathsheba, he began to recognize he was sick.

He was really sick. And he got way down physically, speaking mentally and spiritually speaking. He said, God, don't take your spirit from me. You know, that's got to be pretty low, isn't it?

When you get to the point where you say, God, you're about ready to take your spirit from me, please don't do that. Well, you know, God doesn't want to take his spirit away from us, certainly.

But brethren, if we allow ourselves to continue on a pathway, we have to recognize the fact that eventually it would happen. That the spirit would be so diminished in us, that we cannot be revived. You know, you ever notice about some people, they can get so sick, so far down, it's hard to build back up.

It really is hard to build back up.

Even if you have a solution to the problem with a sickness, I know cancer is one of those things. You know, they might have a solution to the problem, but somebody is so weakened by the cancer, they can't build back up. The strength is ebbed out.

They just don't even have the strength to recoup whatever is necessary to rebound.

I know my younger brother, that's what happened to him.

He let himself go in some things so far that there was no coming back after a period of time.

We don't want to be in that category, brethren, we just get down so long that there's no coming back.

God is merciful, there's no question about that.

But, brethren, we have to begin to figure out why we're where we are in terms of our sin and begin to pull out of it.

Sometimes people can face terrible, terrible financial problems.

I've seen this happen with people. The credit cards are just maxed out.

Pretty soon, they're about ready to come and repossess the kids after a while.

Put them on part of the debt that is old back.

But, incredibly, sometimes when you begin to talk to people who have monstrous financial problems, you begin to bring up the topic of tithing.

And you find out they hadn't been tithing for a long time.

How many of you remember the article by Mr. Armstrong many, many years ago about the man who could not afford to tithe?

Anybody remember that? I thought we had more older people than that.

But Mr. Armstrong wrote that article talking about how important tithing was.

But you know, you think about it, analyze it.

If you have financial problems, is there a problem, maybe, with tithing?

Doesn't it make sense?

Tithing has to do with money, right? If you have money problems, tithing might be a problem.

It could be budgeting, it could be other things as well. Maybe you're living above your means. You're living like the Rockefellers, and you should be living like the Beverly Hillbellies. I guess, though they lived like the Rockefellers, didn't they? But anyway, you get what I mean.

You should be on a beer budget, but you're on a champagne budget. We need to, again, see what it is that's causing our problems. Because that's a physical problem, is it? Tithing? But we need to, again, see the source of the problem and begin to rectify it. We begin to get, again, the physical in shape, and we will find the spiritual fall in shape as well as God's people. We need to do that with all the problems that we have.

We have a problem of not forgiving someone. We need to go through and read some of the prayer. We need to go through and read some of the parables about the good steward who was able to settle the debts that he was commended for what he did to do it. And, of course, realizing that a good steward realizes what's been forgiven for him and done for him in order to forgive another person, to be willing to do that, and to realize that everyone deserves our forgiveness.

They truly do for what Jesus Christ has done for us. Spiritual sickness causes sorrow in our lives, eventually. When we sin, maybe the first sin is pleasurable, but every time it's repeated, it's less pleasurable, and then it becomes hurtful. It's very hurtful to us. It really is always hurtful, even from the beginning.

But we begin to feel the hurt, and in the end it causes death. So we need to again get to the problem. And what God wants to see in us, brethren—let's go to 2 Corinthians 7—God wants to see this in us that he wanted to see in the Corinthians when he chased them for the things that they were doing at the Passover. They were improperly observing the Passover, and they were doing a lot of things wrong, by the way, that needed to be corrected. There was sexual immorality, there were other sins as well that needed to be overcome, that they needed to change.

And what they were doing, you might say, was just the tip of the iceberg for them. But in 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10, let's show this here, what Paul says to the Corinthians, he says, Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. So God wants us to be sorry in a godly way. And our godly sorrow ought to be a real repentance, a desire to change, a desire to overcome. It's not a faux kind of thing, a false kind of thing.

Like oftentimes people, if they may be sorry that they've done something, oftentimes they're sorry they got caught. And maybe they're sorry in that sense. That's not the kind of worldly sorrow God wants. God wants a godly sorrow. That means we turn our back on the sin that we committed, and we begin to move forward in our lives. And realize this, brethren, that no sin is impossible to overcome. You know, what is the memory scripture all of us have? 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, that God will make a way of us escape. Whatever the sin is, that God will make a way of escape for us.

But we need to repent of it, and God will help us to have the strength to change if we keep after it, and we strive to overcome it. But realize this, brethren, too, and I at least made a point number five, is do your part to change. Don't rely totally on God to change it. He wants to see you put some effort into it. He wants to see you apply yourself. He wants you to do your part. You know, Israel came out of Egypt. It was God who made that possible for them. And God took them by the hand, but you know what? They walked out of Egypt. They were sweating toil to get out of Egypt.

They walked out by using the physical exertion of power that they had. But God was always there present with them. He was there to help them. Day and night. He was a pillar, you know, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And just as with ancient Israel, God expects us, brethren, to make the effort in our lives. Remember this, brethren, that God can only bless your effort. He's not going to do it all for you. He's not going to make the changes for you.

You've got to decide, I'm going to change. If it's smoking, you've got to throw the cigarettes out. If it's something else, another addiction, you've got to take the steps necessary in your own life to do it. You've got to apply yourself. So do your part to change. You know, it's like when we repent. The Bible says that we are to bring forth fruits that are commiserate with repentance to change. You have to start doing some things. Many years and years ago, when we invited people to church, we expected them to do something to prove that this is what they really wanted to do.

Sometimes we would tell people not to come to church until they have overcome a certain thing. I remember there was one lady that I had that was having a problem with smoking, and I did not let her come to church. Anyway, I said, well, you have to overcome smoking. You want to do that? I had another fellow that had a problem with marijuana smoking, which was far worse. This was back, by the way, in the 70s, back in those days. Anyway, in both cases, they had to change to be a part of the church. I began to explore as to why they had the problem.

The first lady that I mentioned, her problem is I found out she was working in a lounge. What do you think happened in the 70s in a lounge? You think anybody smoked in a lounge? Everybody smoked back in the 70s, everywhere. The other fellow, by the way, I began to explore a little bit about him. He said, I'm really striving to quit smoking this marijuana.

What causes it? He owned up, he said, you know, it's my friends. I get around my friends and they say, come on. I said, well, that's it. You've got to give up your friends. You've got to change that.

And, you know, both of them were able to do that. And they were a part of the church. So do your part to change. Bring forth fruits, meet for repentance. It's not necessary, you know, to stop attending church. It's necessary to change, to overcome. You know, God won't do it all for us again. He only blesses your effort. Remember that, brethren. Your effort. You know, God only intervened for Israel when they needed it. You know, a lot of times it was a cliffhanger, wasn't it? He brought them up to the cliff and then he intervened for them. Same is true for us. God will intervene for us in the same way. Remember, the disciples went out and, you know, they were talking about, you know, a case where they were not able to cast out demons. And Jesus said, well, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Well, some of our problems, brethren, do not...we're not going to overcome it unless we do prayer and fasting. We're praying about it. We're fasting about it. And maybe much prayer. You know, have you ever gotten to the point where you prayed all night about a problem that you had that you need to overcome? To what extent are you willing to go to do your part? God will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Point number five, do your own part to change. And point number six, realize you cannot do it alone. You can't do it alone. You need God's help. Just as ancient Israel needed God's help. And God helped them, of course, to intervene at various times. God will help us.

You remember the case where Peter was challenged by Christ to walk on the water, to come to Him? And Peter got out on the water and he began to sink and he said, Lord, save me! Well, Peter couldn't walk on the water, but remember Jesus Christ saved him. He rescued him. And we need God's help. God fought battles for ancient Israel and God fights battles for us, brethren, as well. You've got to have that relationship with God, though. Be talking to God. And, brethren, make sure whatever sin it is you're wrestling with, you never allow it to prevent you from talking to God. Don't let any sin stand in your way. Never get to a point in your life where you say in your head, I don't want to talk to God, He doesn't want to hear me, because He does want to hear you. And your prayer with Him will begin to write that relationship. You just keep working on that problem, whatever it is, and realize you cannot do it alone. Brethren, David again knew he was not perfect and he was lacking in himself. And he said in Psalm 138 in verse 8, The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. God is not going to give up on you, He's not going to give up on me, as long as we keep coming. We keep striving, brethren, and pushing. The only way you can fail, brethren, is if you give up. That's the only way. God's got a pretty good deal that He's given to us, isn't it? It's just you keep after it. You keep applying yourself, because God will perfect in you what concerns you, just as He did with David. And point number seven, brethren, and this is a very important point, brethren, of being an overcomer, is maintain. Maintain. Do your regular Bible study. Get into the habit. Get into a Bible reading program. And do Bible reading every single day. Take some time to do that. It doesn't have to be long, 10, 15 minutes. You know, do it during the coffee break. You know, at work, if you have 15 minutes, take your Bible with you and read it. Maybe do it at work. Maintain. And stay on top of yourself. Keep your mind, again, geared to God. Keep it on a spiritual plane. It is possible that the old leaven begins to resurface. That was there before. If we're not on top of it, to keep it out. You know, the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5, verse 1, says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free. And be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage. So we could get entangled again. Be worse than we were before. The Bible talks about like a dog returning to his vomit. Or a swine that returns to wallowing in the mire when it's been cleaned up. Make sure that we're not fitting in that category, but we're maintaining, we're staying on top. So don't get entangled in old sins. Let's go to 2 Peter, chapter 2. 2 Peter, chapter 2.

It's hard sometimes in our lives. We battle the daily things that we have to go through. Life can sometimes get so humdrum for us because there's a rhythm to it. And it's easy in this life to get into ruts. And you know what a rut is, don't you? It is a coffin with the ends kicked out. So we don't want to be in a rut. We want to be growing. We want to be like airplanes taking off, not skimming on the surface. God wants us to again make progress in our lives. 2 Peter, chapter 2, verse 19. You know, here Peter's talking about those that were turning away from God. He says, while they promised them liberty, and boy, we've heard that, haven't we, through the years? People promising us liberty? We were all faced with that a number of years ago, weren't we, about the liberty that comes through grace? And you don't need to obey God. The law being done away with and it being nailed to the cross. But realize the only thing nailed to the cross, brethren, was Jesus Christ and your sins and my sins. The law is not nailed up there. Pigs, swine, and other things are not nailed up there as well. Some would want to tell us that when Jesus came, he came and he cleansed all meats. He made swine clean, but he didn't come for that purpose. And that, of course, was not what is intended. But in the guise of promising liberty, they themselves are slaves to corruption.

For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. Indeed, it would have been better that they had never known the way of righteousness, as verse 21 says, than having known it and turned from the Holy Commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow, having washed to her wallowing in the mire.

So, brethren, let's make sure again we're not entangling ourselves again in old sins, things we've overcome. Jesus Christ, brethren, said, behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. So keep your garments, the garments of righteousness, brethren. Satan will deceive you and that your state of spirituality, if you allow him to, is enough as well. I've grown enough. I've grown...you know, overcome enough. Well, brethren, you never overcome enough. You will be overcoming until the day you die. You and I will be in that category, brethren, I hope we are, as we're becoming more perfect in the eyes of God. That's what we have to do, brethren, if we're going to be overcomers as God's people. So don't let Satan somehow convince you, brethren, that you've overcome enough. But realize this, that you can be confident in this very thing, that what Christ has begun in us, he will finish. As Paul said in Philippians 1, verse 6, he's going to finish what he started in you. He's not done with you yet. And he won't be done until the whole process is completed. And you are born again out of this flesh into a spirit body. That you will be like Jesus Christ because you will see Him as He is. So, brethren, let's make sure during the Passover and Unleavened Red Ahead, we re-emphasize in our minds the importance of being overcomers. Jesus Christ said, He who overcomes shall inherit all things. And I will be His God, and He shall be my Son. So, brethren, our Passover attitude is important. Those who will be in the Kingdom of God in the better resurrection are going to be overcomers. So make sure, brethren, you're one of those overcomers. Make sure that we can be there with Jesus Christ when He returns, that we can be there to greet Him at the beginning of the Kingdom of God.