Why Do We Sin?

What's wrong with it? Well, hopefully that one's pretty easy to answer. Probably because of what does it lead to. Well, of course, sin is breaking God's law. It's wrong because it violates His nature. What it does, it brings death. It corrupts us. It ruins us. Once we agree that we understand these things, and yet also we understand it's not so easy to stop sinning. Once you get into sin, boy, that's tough. It's tough to avoid it in the future. It led me to think, boy, wouldn't it be easier if I just never sinned in the first place? Or if I could just stop and never sin? Yeah, boy, that'd be much easier. You know, as they say, it's easier to avoid a bad habit than to break one. So if that's the case, then, why don't we sin? Why? You know, there's different answers to that. You know, because they were tempted. We didn't know better. We're under Satan's influence. Those are all valid reasons. Those and many more. I still, as I was leading into this, I thought, is there something even more basic, a simpler answer that lies underneath all of those? Because I'll bet most of us that sometime in your life you've done something, you know, and then afterwards you regret it and you think, usually silently to yourself, why did I do that? What was I thinking? And I tell myself, well, Frank, that's pretty silly. You were there. You know what you were thinking, Frank, of all people. But it's still a human trait to ask the question, and it's hard to have a good answer. This is where, once again, I thought, I was reminded of how little children are so good at exemplifying human traits. And so I thought of, you know, Connor, and I'm guessing, I want to describe a generic experience I'm sure most of you have had, since about everyone here has raised children well ahead of me. But if you're ever in another room and you hear a crash, you come into the next room and there's something on the floor often broken. Obviously, he was playing with something that he should know. Maybe something I specifically said, don't touch that. Connor, why did you do that? I don't know. That could be so frustrating. Most of us have heard that, and I'll bet just about all of us have said it. Sometimes Connor gives a different answer, though. Sometimes we'll say, Connor, why did you do that? And we'll say, well, I just wanted to. To me, that's almost frustrating, perhaps more so than saying, I don't know. Why in the world would you want to do that? On the surface, that's just as useless as saying, I don't know. But then again, maybe not. Maybe I shouldn't dismiss that, because it occurs to me saying, I wanted to, could rank up there along with a lot of academic theories for wrongdoing. That led me to... One of the things I want to do first is look at some of the big prevailing ideas that scholars have come up with why people do wrong. Now, educators and philosophers don't like to use the word sin, so I looked up things like criminality and wrongdoing.

And I wanted it to be a quick overview. I figure I should say up front that, you know, I will admit I didn't spend weeks or months digging into all these books. I've read quite a bit. You touch on that in studying theology and history. So I did a Google search and visited several websites to get an overview to solidify some of the things I'd learned before, and mostly confirmed what I did expect to find.

And also, some of them came up with, at the end, something that I didn't expect. I'll come back to that in a bit. But it seems that the oldest reason that's given for humans doing wrong is actually, they use the term, demonism, meaning evil spirits affect a person and cause them to do wrong. This is very widely believed in ancient times and the medieval times.

I couldn't help, as soon as I read that, I thought, yeah, the evil spirits, or the devil, and for some reason it popped into my mind, Flip Wilson. I was thinking, I know in this room there's enough people old enough that probably he was a popular comedian, I believe, in the 1970s. I don't know if he goes back to the 60s, but he had a common line that I think it was, the devil made me do it. And here's where my memory's fuzzy, because I'm younger than most of you, but I believe he did these situation sketches, and one of them he dressed up portraying a female character, I believe, was it Geraldine? And he said, see that, that devil made me buy this dress! I don't remember the rest of it, but that stuck in my head. Well, with humor aside, as I said in ancient times, they believed that really was happening. Demons or evil spirits would get a hold of someone and make them do worse than buying a dress.

And, of course, the only cure was exorcism. And exorcism would be practiced by some unpleasant means, near drowning, burning at the stake, torture. Now, most modern criminologists don't even believe that a devil or Satan or demons exist. But we do.

So, does the devil make us sin? I think he wants us to sin. He knows the wages of sin is death. I imagine he knows the Bible better than we do. He'd love for us all to be dead. But I believe the Scriptures show that he's not able to make us sin. Matter of fact, I want to turn to the first, early in the book of Job, the first chapter of Job gives us some insight into, I believe, what Satan can and can't do.

I don't want to read all of this account, but you'll remember that it says the sons of God, which we believe means angels, came before the throne. And apparently were reporting, and Satan was allowed to come with them. Apparently God asked, what have you been doing? Well, walking up and down on the earth. And Mr. Armstrong used to say, that's where you stuck me. That's where you know where I'm at. But, so God challenged him. Hey, have you noticed my servant Job? He's good and righteous and goes on.

Satan makes the case that, well, if you weren't blessing him so much, he'd turn against you. So God gave Satan a little freedom to act against Job. And as I said, I want to summarize, because I want to get to the proof and what he says here. In verse 12 of Job chapter 1, it says, The Eternal said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your power. Only do not lay a hand on his person. So Satan went out from the presence of the Eternal. And if you would continue reading the story, you'd see he destroyed everything that Job had. Took away his riches, even killed his children, but didn't touch Job. And it turns out, Satan was wrong. Job didn't turn against God, even when he lost everything. He basically said, naked I came into this world and naked I'll go out. God prays the Eternal. Or, actually, maybe I should read that, because I know I'm not summarizing it very well.

Yeah, it said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I'll return. The Eternal gave and the Eternal was taken away. Blessed be the name of the Eternal. Well, that didn't satisfy Satan. He said, well, let me touch his skin. Skin for skin, you let me hurt him. He'll curse you to your face. So God, again, gives him freedom. In chapter 2, in verse 5, it says, Stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and flesh. He'll surely curse you to your face. But, Satan, speaking, and then will the Eternal say to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life. What I wanted to get at this, and of course the rest of the book of Job is a fascinating study of what people think and how God works, and far more than I want to get into today, but the important point here is, Satan is absolutely under God's control. I mean, he sets the limits that Satan cannot go past.

You know, and I think that's good, because the devil would probably just kill us all outright if he had the chance. He doesn't want us around, but he can't kill us. He's not allowed. What Satan can do is tempt. Let's turn to Matthew 4, and I believe we'll see that. Matthew 4, we see the great example. Of course, not tempting just any man, but the Son of God come in the flesh. Matthew 4, beginning in verse 2, Satan tempted Jesus, but Jesus responded by quoting Scripture and drawing on the Father, I believe, spiritually. And then Satan would tempt him again. He took him up to the pinnacle of the temple and said, Throw yourself off. He attempted him with personal protection. Later, he took him to a mountainside, and said, Let him see the riches of all the world by miraculous power. Obviously, he said, I'll give this to all of you, for it is mine to give. And Jesus didn't contradict that he could have done that, but instead, he said, Get behind me, Satan. You shall worship the Lord your God alone. So that's Satan tempted him, and tempting was all that he could do. He could not make Jesus sin. He couldn't do... For some reason, I was thinking of this. I've seen a lot of older brothers and sometimes cousins. I didn't have a younger brother, but I had a younger cousin. Have you ever seen when they're young enough that they're goofing around, and you grab the kid's wrists, and you make him slap himself in the face? You think, what are you hitting yourself for? Stop hitting yourself! No, he's not hitting himself. Somebody's taking control and making him. My point is, Satan can't do that to us. We can make the case that he did literally take control of us, and we wouldn't be sinning. He'd just be controlling us. But Satan does make sin look desirable. He makes it very tempting. I don't think Jesus Christ asked it for 40 days and 40 nights to show off that he could do it. He did it to become as humble as possible and as close to the Father as possible, because he knew how great the temptation would be. And Satan can tempt us pretty greatly. And at bottom line, when someone's tempted, he either does or does not take the bait. But Satan can't make him take that bait.

Having said that, let's go to James chapter 1. It's worth noting that temptation can come from other sources, too. But no matter where it comes from, the individual makes the decision. James chapter 1 and verse 13. Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God. Well, God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. Each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. And when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's full-grown, brings death. Don't be deceived, my brethren. And this was a moon. Temptation is out there, whether it's presented by Satan or some other source. And this says when we're drawn away by our own desires, that leads to sin. And it occurred to me, that's getting very close to what Connor said. I just wanted to. Why did you do that? Well, I saw it looked good, and I just wanted to. Okay, as I said, it's surprising these theories can come back to that. Let's consider another one of those theories for why people do wrong. This one's a little briefer, I think easy to understand. What came to mind is, you've heard of legal cases where they argue innocent by reason of insanity. I heard that quite a bit for a while. I was hearing news reports on the American sniper. His name slipped my mind. A man that was over in, you know, Iraq and was basically a war hero, and then he was killed when he came back here trying to help someone. The defense lawyers are arguing that he's innocent by reason of insanity. And to do that, they have to show that the accused did not know the difference, didn't understand right from wrong. I think there might be a case there. Now, if you don't really know what's right or wrong, maybe you're not guilty of sin. And we could make a case that most people in the world don't know right from wrong. Let me just make a reference to a couple of scriptures. In Revelation 12 and verse 9, it refers to Satan, causing that dragon that deceives the whole world. Satan has this world deceived. Now, I think we're not far... well, I could have gone in a little close. And 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4 were reminded that... I am... I'm sorry. I turned to 1 Corinthians, and that's not what I wanted. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4, speaking... Matter of fact, taking up the end of verse 3, you know, our Gospel is veiled. It's veiled to those who are perishing, meaning most people in the world whose minds the God of this age has blinded. They're blinded. Who do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel, the glory of Christ, whose image of God should shine on them. So people just don't understand. But we know that's a temporary condition. It's not going to be an excuse that will hold up forever. Isaiah 11, verse 9, I'm not going to turn there, but that's where the prophecy says that... ...the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's an exciting time that's coming when everyone is going to understand God's way. This will partly be because Satan will be put away. He won't be able to influence the nations, and there will be teachers to help all the humans who are living. And we hope and expect that we will be among those teachers.

And that's important to realize that, of course, we're looking ahead to the theme of the fall Holy Days. Right now, in the spring Holy Days, we turn our focus on those who are in the church now, and we are not deceived. We're not blinded. We know God's way. Let's turn to Matthew 13.

Matthew 13, and we begin in verse 15. Jesus Christ clearly said that. He referred back to some Scriptures in Isaiah, some prophecies of Isaiah, that said the people would see and not see because God wouldn't open their eyes and their minds. In Isaiah... sorry, not Isaiah. Matthew 13 and verse 15. Now, His disciples had asked why He was teaching in parables, and He's quoting... Actually, let me start with verse 13.

And He said, I'm going to stop there. Bless it. And then, we could say that to all of us. God is looking directly at us, saying, Your eyes see. Your ears hear. You understand. You can't take an innocent by reason of insanity plea and say, I didn't understand the difference between right and wrong. We do understand.

I should have read this law in James, but James chapter 4 and verse 17 takes it a little... a step further. It's a very short Scripture, but I want to make the point that, of course, this is only just about not doing what the law tells us not to do. James 4, 17 says, So, we know to do good, and we don't do it.

And we know to do good. We're not blinded. Our eyes see. And yet, sometimes what we do is not... I just put myself in a double negative. Sometimes we don't do what we know we should do, and we say, Why? Why do we still sin? Why do I want to?

Now, I want to move on. I want to address one more of the academic theories. I came across this one, and it's so prevalent, I thought I had to mention it. It's sometimes called conflict theory. It basically says that much of criminal behavior in the world arises out of conflict between different classes in society. This says that laws and the whole criminal justice system operate on behalf of the rich and the well-to-do, the powerful in society.

And so, those that they call the have-nots, the poorer, lesser educated, they steal. They assault people. They do drugs, because society has put them in such an untenable situation. They have to do it. Now, some people just stay in that line of thinking, and I'm one of them. At least to some degree, I understand sometimes people in a rough situation, even when Scripture says that a man is not despised if he steals so that he can eat, but the punishment does still come.

But, for the most part, this theory is just blaming society for people doing wrong. Now, when it comes to civil laws, even some criminal laws, we might agree some of them aren't the best, some of them are wrong-headed. I can think of one right off the top of my head. As I'm driving north on Route 23, some of us see that sign that has two fives on it. I say, what a dumb law! That sign should have a seven and a zero on it. Well, we might be able to say that about some human law, but not God's law.

I did want to turn to Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33 and verse 22. To remind us some important things about God's law, and I like the way this addresses government and where law comes from. Isaiah 33 and verse 22, where it says, The Lord, or the Eternal, is our Judge. The Eternal is our Lawgiver. The Eternal is our King. He will save us. This stuck in my memory because, actually, when I was studying and preparing for teaching class on the prophets, I realized and was pointing out that this addresses the three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial.

And I thought, God can cover all of those, righteously and in a holy way. He does not need checks or balances, because He doesn't make mistakes in any of these rules. He can give laws, He can execute them, and He can award punishment or reward. I'll note also, actually, you can just note this down, but Romans 7 and verse 12, Paul said, The law is holy. The commandment is holy. It's just and it's good. So, as I said, that whole conflict theory would never work with God's law.

The laws aren't on behalf of rich and powerful and impossible to live by. You know, they're good, they're holy and just. And God doesn't favor one group above another. I do want to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy 10, beginning in verse 12, is another clear reminder of what God has in mind. This one quickly comes to mind. I've learned this is one of Frank McCready's favorite scriptures. He dwelled on this because it summarizes why God tells us to do certain things so well.

Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12 says, And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, and to walk in all His ways and love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Eternal, and His statutes, which I command you today, for your good. Why do you have to fear God? Why do you have to obey the commandments? For your good. God says, I'm doing this for you. I'm showing you the way of life that's for your good. If you break the law, you suffer. If you live by it, it's for your good.

And I think, if it's for my good, why would I ever do otherwise? Why would I want to sin? Well, actually, in my notes, I put, why do I sin? And I keep coming back to that basic answer. And I found that most of these academic studies by the criminologists do come down to this at some point or another. Most of them agree that, at least at the time I'm committing the sin, I want to do it. Which is so frustrating. You know, sometimes I look at, yeah, even if I knew better, I sort of wanted to do it.

And a person will tend to strive very hard to find a way to do something that he wants to do. I think most of you have had that experience in yourself or seen it in others. And on the other hand, it's very hard to make someone do something that he does not want to do. And I wanted to, I thought it would be good to study that by example. But we could do a comparison between a man who found a way to commit a sin that he really wanted to, despite many obstacles in the way, but also a man who could not be convinced to do something that he didn't want to.

And I'm going to go from modern times to the Bible to draw those. So first I want to look at, well, I should mention, we've already looked at the ultimate example of someone who could not be influenced to do wrong.

Jesus Christ came in the flesh. He suffered every temptation we did. And of course, Satan personally tempted him when he was at his physical weakest. Physically at his weakest. I think that's what I wanted to say.

So he's the perfect example we always strive to reach. But sometimes you look at, yeah, but he was God in the flesh. It's hard for me to look at that and say, well, okay, how do I act in the same? So I wanted to find another story that we could look at.

And actually, it came to mind a story that's been rather well told recently. I came across it, and you will have at least heard of this one, even if you don't know the story, because it was made famous in a movie that came out this last winter. The title of the movie is Unbroken.

And I haven't seen the movie, but I've read the book that it was based on. The movie focuses on an American man named Louis Zampherini. I mentioned that he's American because with a name like Zampherini, you might think that he's Italian, which I think his ancestry was. But he was an Olympic runner who ended up fighting in World War II. As I said, the movie, I've seen commercials that look good, actually. I think I saw recently that it's out on DVD, so I'm going to make a point to see it.

Last year at the Feast of Tabernacles, Sue and I like to visit bookstores during the feast. It's always more fun to go to a bookstore when you have money in your pocket. But she happened to notice that one and picked it up, and after she read it, said, Frank, you ought to read it. She convinced me that it was a good book. So let me summarize the story. Louis came from a lower middle-class family, and actually got into a lot of trouble as a kid, and had a lot of experience running away from getting caught.

And maybe that's where he had the first inkling that he was kind of good at running. And when he got into track and field in the 1930s, discovered he had a real talent. I mean, he was good. He had a natural gift. And track and field was a more popular sport in those days. Baseball was king of sports, and boxing, probably not long after that, professional basketball and football were barely on the map. Track and field was popular. So Louis Vampirini actually competed in the 1936 Olympics in Munich, and did relatively well considering he hadn't trained long enough, and he wasn't in his best event.

But for 1940, he had a sight set. He was closing in on record time for the mile. It was almost certain he was going to be the first man to break the four-minute mile. But something happened that got in the way. That something was World War II. The 1940 Olympics ended up being canceled, and Louis did what most young American men did. He joined the military.

He became part of the crew of a B-24 bomber serving in the Pacific theater. His crew did some successful missions. He was good at what he did, well-liked in the unit. But in 1943, his plane went down over open water. He and two other crew members alone survived. I'm trying to remember, there's about a dozen men on the plane.

I don't remember the exact number. Two of the life rafts deployed, and they climbed in, and they were out, just out there. A search was mounted, but as we've seen from news reports about airliners going down, it's really hard to find anything out there in a large ocean. These men ended up surviving on this rubber life raft for 47 days.

They ended up catching rainwater when they could. If birds would land, they'd kill them and eat them, try to catch fish. They lost a great amount of weight. They were in very bad shape. They were going so long, eventually the Army and Navy gave up searching for them. They would declare all the crew lost at sea, and presumably did.

By the time, though, that the government had made that announcement, Zampherini had been found and rescued, but by the other side. They drifted in the ceilings to where a Japanese ship found them and picked them up. They became prisoners of war, and what followed was years of bad treatment. I've got to condense the story considerably, but I'm sure you understand the Japanese believed that to surrender and be captured was the greatest humiliation. That's one of the reasons so many Japanese ended their lives in suicide attacks. They thought that any Americans that surrendered were subhuman, and they treated them as such. They lived on a starvation diet, put through exhausting labor, psychologically mistreated all to break the will of their prisoners.

Interestingly, Zampherini was kept alive in some situations where they did execute others. They also deliberately did not report his capture to the international Red Cross. The Red Cross was active and was allowed to help prisoners to some degree, and it turned out there was a reason for this. They recognized that he was an elite international athlete.

He had value in name recognition. When the Japanese finally learned that the United States government had finally changed Mr. Zampherini's status from missing to killed in action, they brought him to a radio station. They actually had him come in and get cleaned up, put on some clothes, and they offered him a chance to make a statement on the air on what would be an international broadcast for propaganda purposes.

But he could make a statement telling his family he survived. He was alive.

He was a little perplexed. Should I do this? Well, they told him he could write his own statement. He even, you know, they gave him a day to think about it. He went back and checked with his commanding officer in the prison, and they consulted him and said, as long as they let you say your words, this doesn't seem to be bad. And so he did it. And, of course, our side was monitoring their broadcast, and eventually word would get to his family that he did survive.

But the story doesn't end there. A few days later, they brought him back to the radio station. They wanted to give him the chance to make a longer statement, the same word with family. However, this time, the Japanese wrote the message themselves, and they handed it to him. And it was very critical of the United States of America, very critical of the Army. Basically, it made the case that the whole, you know, it was intended to convince Americans that their government didn't care about them.

Was happy to use them up and just toss them aside. Little read it in seconds. He realized he didn't want to say this on the air. And he said, no, I'm not going to do it. Now, his jailers gave him considerable, you know, they gave him time to reconsider. They actually took him and showed him a nice, clean dormitory. They said, if you do this and work with us, you can live here.

You can have sheets on your bed. You can take a shower. You can have food to eat, plenty of food to eat. Quite a different from the filth and the starvation where you had been. Boy, I'm sure there was probably thoughts in his head saying, what would it hurt to say a few words into a microphone? Wouldn't the folks back home understand that I've been starving?

Don't they understand how they've been beating me and subjecting me to subhuman treatment? I'm not sure if he thought that, but I know he refused. He believed speaking against his country to be gravely wrong. He didn't want to do it. And all he've amazed at me, as I said, when I was writing my notes for this, I was even more amazed than when I was reading the book. Because, wow, it's something, the choice that he made. A man who might have had relief from suffering in prison, he valued wanting to do right, what he believed was right, more than physical comfort or even survival.

Now, in the end, of course, we have this full story because Louis Vampirini did survive. And he went through some difficult times. You know, the post-traumatic stress disorder, I don't think that term had been invented yet, but he had a difficult time, but then he did make the adjustment. He had a long and pretty happy life. Now, I want to make the point, I'm not holding him up as an example of moral perfection. He didn't understand God's law and ways as we did. Although it's interesting he did adopt religion and get fairly serious about it.

You know, religion as he knew it. But in that one thing, he does provide us a good example. You know, that he was someone who refused to do something that he felt was wrong because he really, really didn't want to do it. He wanted to do what was right. Now, I'm going to pause there and let's look at a different example.

This one is going to be from the Bible and it goes back thousands of years to a story of the opposite. I find this one in Numbers, chapter 22, starting there. Numbers 22, and it's the story of a man called Balaam. I think we're all pretty familiar. If you think of Balaam, you automatically think of one other word that's the name of an animal and it depends on whether you want to say it. You know, the old King James of the New. But this falls within the story of the Israelites, you know, traveling towards the Promised Land. And at this point, they've been wandering for nearly 40 years and they were approaching the Promised Land and it turns out the people that were already living in that area were a bit afraid of this large group coming towards them.

So I'm going to pick up reading in Numbers 22 and verse 4. It says, Moab, basically the king of the world, says to the elders of Midian, This company will lick up everything around us like an ox looks up the grass of the field, and they let the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.

Then he sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the river, probably the Euphrates River, we believe, and the land of the sons of his people to call him, saying, Look, the people has come up from Egypt and we'll see they cover the face of the earth and they're settling next to me. Therefore, please come at once, curse this people for me, for they're too mighty for me.

Perhaps I'll be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. Now, I don't want to read the entire story in several chapters, but from what we read in other passages, it is evident that Balaam had some knowledge of and contact with the true God.

But I would say perhaps others in the spirit world as well. We don't know how much God did or did not work with Balaam before this story. We know that, as we're going to see, God would work through him in a certain way, but not the way that Balaam really wanted him to. And what Balaam wanted is my focus here. So I'm not going to go through all the words that he said as much as look at his motivation. So let's continue in verse 7.

Balaam said to God, From the out of Egypt, and they cover the face of the earth, come now and curse them for me. Perhaps I'll be able to overpower them and drive them out. God said to Balaam, no, you shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people for they're blessed. Now, that should have been enough for Balaam. Balaam rose the next morning and said to the princes of Balak, Go back to your land, for the Eternal has refused to give me permission to go with you. That's interesting. That shows the attitude that he had. He didn't say, well, these are great people. They shouldn't be cursed. He said, no, God won't let me do this, which implies that he kind of wanted to. It's kind of a shame if he was told that God was blessing Israel, it wouldn't have been better to say, boy, I want to be in on that. If I'm going to go over there, I should want to go become part of their nation. No? But as I said, he viewed it instead of being refused to be allowed to do something that he wanted to do. Unfortunately, in the long run for Balaam, Balaam was persistent. And he sent again and offered great riches. As we drop down to verse 19, he said, yeah, he'd sent messengers, and so Balaam answers me from messengers, Please, you stay also here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. And God came to Balaam at night and said, if the men come to call you, rise and go with them. But only the word that I speak to you that you shall do. Now, it's interesting, what follows is a famous story, and what happens at its end, you know, we focus on more than how it starts. But it's interesting here, we just said that there's nothing recorded about the messengers coming to get Balaam in the morning. Instead, it says in verse 21, Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with them. I wonder if he was up and out on the road even before they got there. Because we do see that then the God's anger was aroused because he went. And the angel of the eternal took his stand in the way as an adversary against him, as he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. Now, to summarize, you know, of course, most of you, I'm sure, know the story. The donkey could see the angel when Balaam couldn't. So the donkey turns aside and Balaam gets angry and he beats the donkey. It happens two or three times and ends up with God finally opening the donkey's mouth so he can speak. And that's what we tend to focus on. And that is very interesting. But that can distract us from the fact that the whole reason God sent that angel was he was angry because Balaam had disregarded what God wanted and Balaam pursued what Balaam wanted. Balaam wanted to curse Israel so he could get that treasure. And he was trying hard to get it. We know the story goes on to where he went and met with Balaam. And they hiked up to one mountaintop after another and sacrificed animals. And Balaam kept hoping God would let him say the curse that he wanted.

And of course, God didn't. But each time Balaam still had a choice. He could have chosen to align his will with God's will. And that's what he should have done. He should have chosen to pronounce blessings on Israel instead of having God require him to do it against his will. But Balaam kept trying unsuccessfully to convince God to change his mind so that God's mind would match Balaam's. I think we know it doesn't work that way. Eventually, Balak sent Balaam packing. As a matter of fact, let's read Numbers 24 in verse 11. It shows Balak was pretty well set up.

Numbers 24 verse 11, Balak said to Balaam, Now therefore flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you. But in fact, the eternal has kept you back from honor.

Now it's good that we knew that was Balak saying that because that was an absolute lie. God did not keep Balaam from honor, but Balaam was trying to find his own way to get what he wanted.

But it seems that Balaam felt the same as Balaam did. He felt that God was keeping him from the honor and from the riches. And I wonder how often we might have felt that way. It's been a long time, but I can think, and one I think I shared with kids at camp, or some time, when I was saying, you know, I remember thinking, I could have been a high school football star. Which if you look at my build, it's kind of silly, but it did cross my mind. God and his Sabbath kept me from having sports glory. Or a person might say, I could have had a great career with high pay and good benefits. But God and his Holy Days kept me from getting that job that I wanted. You know, a number of people might say, I could be popular. I could have had a lot of boyfriends or girlfriends. I'm trying to cover both sides. I didn't want any boyfriends. But then you'd say, God and his prudish moral laws prevented me from having fun. If we ever let feelings like that stick in our minds, even if we do do what God wants, there's that underlying, you know, bad attitude of wanting to do something different. And if we want to do something bad enough, eventually we're likely to find a way to do it. Which, we'll see, is exactly what Balaam ended up doing. Balaam found a way to do what he wanted. If we move ahead to Numbers 31, he comes up again in Scripture. It would make sense that after Balak sent him home, that'd be the last we'd hear. But Numbers 31, starting in verse 7, says, They warred against the Midianites, just as the eternal had commanded Moses, and they killed all the males. They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of those who were killed. Evi, Rhekam, Zer, Her, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. Balaam, the son of Beor, they also killed with the sword. That's interesting. Balaam was there. Whatever his status with God before, it wasn't good now. God didn't protect him. If we drop down to verse 15, we'll see part of why. Now, well, let me just read. Moses said, Have you kept the women alive? Look, these women caused the children of Israel through the Council of Balaam to trespass against the eternal in the incident at Pior. And there was a plague among the congregation of the eternal. That's the story I skipped over, those chapters. But soon after the description of Balaam working with Balak and God making pronounce the blessings, it mentions the story of Moabite women in Midianites coming into the camp of Israel and enticing the men into fornication and into adultery. And through that also into idolatry. And it says here that that was all of the Council of Balaam. And we could see Balaam basically saying, Well, God won't let me pronounce a curse, but listen. Give me some money. I'll tell you how you could get him to curse themselves. You know, sin ends in good-looking women, and you'll live straight, and God will punish him himself. Balaam found a way to get what he wanted, but what he wanted to do was sin and led to his death.

It's really sad. God had put obstacle after obstacle in front of Balaam, but because in his heart Balaam wanted to sin, he finally found a way to do it.

And that's the lesson for us, because as I said, there are times when, in some ways, we want to sin. All of it seems that some time or another comes down to we want to sin, at least at the time.

Does that leave us hopeless? Well, what are we going to do? We're going to be dead forever. And the answer is no, we're not hopeless, because there is a way to change what it is that we really want, and that's the most important thing of all. I'm going to cite a memory scripture. Jeremiah 17.9 is where it tells us, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That's the human carnal heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That's what wants to sin. And of course, he says the heart, he means our lines, not the muscle that pumps the blood.

But there's a way to change that. Not on our own, but by God working in us, we change our very nature. I mean, I cited Jeremiah 17, but I want to turn and read Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36, beginning in verse 25.

Jeremiah pointed out that the human heart is deceitful and wicked, and we can make the case that we can't just change that heart. So instead, we've got to do something better. Verse 25, God is speaking here, says, And I'll sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I'll cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols, and I will give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit within you. I'll take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you'll keep my judgments and do them. What a powerful thing! We don't live by His commandments and statutes because we're so good, but because He gives us a new nature. Then you'll dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You'll be my people, and I'll be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I'll call for the grain and multiply it, and no family will come upon you. That's the most fabulous thing, and that's the hope that we have. And I should point out, I realize this is very fundamental. This is very basic. This is one of the first things we learn when we come into God's Church. But it's appropriate on the Holy Days to review these important but basic things, and review it regularly. Keep it clear in our minds so that we understand exactly how it works, both so we can live by it, but also as we prepare to be teachers. Perhaps in this world, but certainly in the world tomorrow, we'll be teachers of others, and we need to explain to them how they can turn from wanting to sin. God wants... it says He'll cause us to walk in the statutes and judgments. He could do that by force. I mentioned like a brother grabbing his little brother's hand and slapping him in the face. God could do that, but that's not the point. I remember that reminded me again of my grandmother. She cited a scripture that says... I didn't look it up... It says that the name of Christ, every knee will bow. And I've got this distinct memory of her saying, Yeah, and if people refuse to bow, He'll break their legs, so they have to bow. And later on, I said, Boy, that made Grandma sound a little bloodthirsty. And that's not what she was like. I think, matter of fact, I'm pretty sure she'd heard a minister from the old days who got enthusiastic and making the point that God's will is not denied. You know, and perhaps God would make that happen. You know, I can see some particular incidents to show who's in charge. Now God is merciful. He could break some of His legs and heal them in an instant. And I'd say, most temporary, because God wants us to worship and obey Him because we want to. He doesn't want to force us. He could just make robots to do that.

He wants us to obey and love Him because we want to. As mere humans, though, we don't want to. But that changes over time as our heart changes. And again, the heart changing is symbolic of our mind. As I said, I just read, we can have a new mind from God's Spirit in us. God's Holy Spirit, when it enters us, creates a new mind and a new heart.

I want to look at some New Testament scriptures that say it well, but while we're back here, I wanted to read 1 Samuel 10, verse 6.

1 Samuel 10, verse 6. I've always loved the way this is phrased. Now, this is the story of King Saul. Remember, before King Saul let jealousy and envy eat him up over David, he was seeking God and serving him at first.

So, 1 Samuel 10, verse 6. When Samuel is explaining to Saul that God chose him to be king, and he'll also explain that God is going to give him his Holy Spirit so that he can do it.

So, that's where Samuel is speaking to Saul, and he says, Then the Spirit of the Eternal will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and be turned into another man.

Saul, you're going to become another man. He didn't just say, you'll change, but he said, you'll become a new man.

That's important. And that's... it's a figure... I want to say it's less a figure of speech than we think.

Now, I'm not going to turn to 1 Corinthians 2, but 1 Corinthians 2, 11 is where it tells us that humans have a spirit in them. That Holy... that human spirit, the spirit that's in man, we often say, is what gives us intellect and reason. It makes us different from the animals. But it doesn't let us understand spiritual things. To understand the spiritual things, we need God's spirit. I do want to turn to 2 Corinthians 5. I should have told you that early on.

I don't need to rush. I'm actually on time and then some, but once I get talking fast, sometimes it's hard to stop.

2 Corinthians 5, I want to make the point that when God's spirit joins with that spirit in man, it doesn't just change our mind.

But it makes us into something new altogether. And that's what it says here. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 17, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all have become new.

If any is in Christ, and we know from Romans that we're only Christ if we have a spirit. But if we're in Christ, we are a new creation.

Paul elaborates a little further in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 and verse 21.

The beginning of verse 21 says, That's a phrase we use when we talk about baptism.

And that you put on a new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

So we put on a new man that's created at the time.

And of course, we've used this analogy that I think God created what happens in physical beings to reflect what He wanted to happen spiritually.

That spirit that's in us is like the female egg, waiting to be fertilized by the male sperm. When God's spirit joins, it's something new. It's a new life, not just changing the old one.

And we know in physical, whether it be cows, dogs, pigs, or humans, the chromosomes come together, some from the female and some from the male.

And what's created is a new creation.

And that's what we believe happens when God's spirit comes in us, we have a new mind.

Now, it's infantile, and it needs to grow and develop.

And that's an important thing, too.

Now, at baptism, we symbolically bury the old self, that self that wants to sin, and in view of God's spirit, we come up with new creation.

Of course, we were thrilled to be able to do this just a couple of days ago.

And I like to tell people that when I'm baptizing them, coming out of the water is as much a part of the symbolism as going under, because it's the new man that comes out.

But if you're like me, you stop here and say, well, wait a minute.

I've been baptized, but I don't remember suddenly never wanting to sin from that point.

I'm pretty sure I slipped and sinned. Did it not take? Do I need to be baptized again?

In most cases, if people think that the answer is almost always no.

Paul's writing of Ephesians, most of whom, I believe, were baptized.

He had his spirit, but he was telling them, still, you have to put on the new man.

In that symbolic analogy, the old man, which he tries to crawl out of the grave, he doesn't want to go willingly.

Now, that's an analogy. And putting leaven out of our homes for seven days is an analogy.

For the seven days today, and the following six days, leaven pictures sin.

But I'll bet most of you have perhaps found some leaven in past years. I'm wondering what soon I'll finally come home. I work so hard, but when you find it, you put it out. You don't say, well, too late. I've got to give up. I didn't get it all out. No, you put it out.

I personally, this is my own belief. I've never heard this. It's not quite in Scripture.

But I think that might be one of the reasons God made it a seven-day festival.

That it represents a process, a period of growing and becoming like God. That we can't overcome sin just like that. But He works in us and we grow up a new man.

And if it turns out later, it's not wrong on that. It's okay. I'm sure there are other reasons for it to be a seven-day festival.

While we're in this process, we're still fresh and blood, and we're developing a spiritual mind. And sometimes we feel the effects of both.

We want to sin, and we don't want to sin. And that's what Paul describes in Romans chapter 7. This is a pretty famous section of Scripture. It's famous because it's so telling. Romans 7 will begin in verse 14.

Verse 14 says, We know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. So it understands. That is the old mean.

For what I'm doing, I don't understand. For what I want to do, we could say, what I want to do, that I don't practice. And what I hate, that's what I do. If then I do what I don't want to do, I agree that the law is good. But now it's no longer I who do it, but sin dwells in me. Because I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me.

So to want to do good is in me, but how to perform what's good, I don't find. The good thing that I want to do, I don't do. The evil that I don't want to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So I find a law. Evil is present with me. The one who wants to do good. And still in verse 16, there is a change there of wanting to do good. I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. And that's the part of us that wants to do good. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin? And the answer is thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So with the mind, I myself serve the law of God. With the mind, the new mind, I want to do what's good. The body, there's part of the flesh that still wants to sin, but that's becoming less and less over time. Now, we've all studied this before. I've noticed that many times this passage comes near the end of a sermon, perhaps because it sums up things so well. And that's the case here today. But Paul is, in essence, answering that big question that I had it early on, why do we sin?

We can fairly easily answer why most people sin. They're deceived. They're influenced by Satan. They don't really understand God's way. As human beings are born into this earth, they can't fully grasp spiritual things, not without God's Spirit. People can't always truly want to do what's right. Now, fortunately, some people know and want to do some of what's right. That's one reason I wanted to tell that story about Louis Zampherini. He didn't know all of God's way, but he knew some of what was right. But we can have God's Spirit in us, giving us a new heart and a new mind, one that really wants to do good, that wants to put sin out of our lives. And once that new creation is started, it can grow. It does take time and effort. And as I said, this festival was a good one for reminding us of that, that we grow in process of conversion. It takes time and effort to get leaven out of our homes and our cars and our offices. But we can do it with God's help. And with God's Spirit dwelling in us by... Let me back up and tell you. With God dwelling in us by His Spirit, we eventually can do something that's impossible on our own. With God dwelling and working in us, we can overcome sin. And it's important to remind ourselves of that. We can't on our own do it. But with God in us, all things are possible, even overcoming sin. We will do it because deep down, we really want to do it.