So good to be in the house of the Lord. There are many folks that could not be here. Some are suffering sickness or sickness in the family. We pray for you. Those are watching online. We miss you, but we're thinking about you and we're praying for you, too. I'm so glad you're here today. God is doing great things in your life, and this just the beginning.
God is transforming you. And that is what it is all about. It is a daily process. It is not a one-day trip. It is not a hundred yard dash. It is a long marathon. It is a life long journey.
And we are to be changed into His image from glory to glory, step by step.
I've said before, you can experience everything that the devil has to offer in one day. You can smoke it up. You can shoot it up. You can drink it. You can eat it. You can do it. You can commit every immorality under the sun. You can kill, cheat, lie. Everything you could do in one day, but you can't experience everything that God has to offer in one day. That's right.
And the difference between the two is that the devil is in a business of destroying and destruction. God is in a business of building up.
You can tear down a building in one day, but you can't build it up in one day. Well, nowadays, technically, you probably could, but they usually don't. By the time you get through with the approvals and get the materials and supplies together and get the work done and in the right order and get the inspectors out and get you to put it up.
Listen, you cannot build a building in one day. And God is busy working on us. He makes sure the foundation is right and he builds us up, step by step. He wants to make sure that what he's building in you will stand when the storms come.
It's a day-by-day process. The devil, he's in a destruction business. The thief cometh not but to steal, kill, and to destroy.
But l am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.
And you've got to learn the principles of the life step by step by step and allow God to make changes in your life, mone day at a time, one one glorious experience at a time. And that's what church is all about. And we're still here. One of my favorite verses in Mark where it says, "And again, Jesus entered capital." And again, Jesus went, he kept going back.
He kept going to church. Just like you and I are doing. Man, there's more to that. That's not my message today.
Well, I've got a burden to really preach something that is very unpopular and it's not a popular thing, you know, but it is necessary.
It's central to the gospel and the reason that we preach the gospel, it is sin.
Who in the world likes to hear about sin? Oh, preach it. Preach to me about faith and the love of God and the grace of God and and the goodness of God. Yes. God is all that.
But we can't have that if we don't deal with sin.
And God knows that because he's holy and he just can't allow sin to come to heaven. And in order for us to enjoy all the benefits of heaven and all the goodness of God, he's got to deal with our sin. Right.
And you and I have got to have eyes and an awareness of sin, to guard against it less we treat it less than what it is. Because God takes it very seriously. He cannot violate His own nature. He cannot allow sin in.
And he has a method that he deals with us and he had a plan and that's what Easter was all about to deal with our sin. So that we can go where he is.
A little bit more about that later. But I want to take your attention to Psalms chapter 106 verse 43. Psalms 106. Thank you Jesus. And I'm going to read this one verse, but I I'm going to come back and read some verses from it later on too. As the psalmist here focuses on a variety of sins as the history of Israel is recounted to us.
And it's one verse, verse 43, Psalms 106:43. And it says this, "Many times did he deliver them." , speaking of God delivering Israel. But they Israel provoked HIM with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity.
They were brought low. Everybody say, "brought low." Brought low. The Holman Christian Standard Bible says this. He rescued them many times, but they continued to rebel deliberately and were beaten down by their sins.
They're beat, you know, sin beats you up. Sin beats you down. Sin devastates you. Sin hurts you.
God knows it. And too often we refuse to accept the fact that it does.
But they were brought low for their iniquity. I want to talk to you about this verse of scripture with my title.
Sin brings you down low. Sin brings you down low.
Let's pray one more time.
🙏🏽: " Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your Word. We thank you for your Presence. We thank you for all the folks that are here in this auditorium today. And we are thankful above all for your presence. For you said, "Where two or three are gathered in your name, you're in the midst of them." And we do not take your Presence for granted. For by your promise, which we stand upon it, Lord, we know you're here, oh God. This is your church. You purchased it with your own blood. This is your Word. Help me to reach it accordingly. Oh Lord, touch the people's hearts and their minds. And Lord, let your Word sink deep down in our hearts and our spirit to help us to be changed and be transformed in our hearts and our minds and our lives. In Jesus mighty Name we pray, and let the church say amen. (Amen).
God bless you. You may be seated. Thank you for standing so long.
Why talk about sin again? We have to talk about sin because it's what thrusts the world into chaos. It's the most destructive force in the universe. Sin destroys lives. It destroys lives more than anything else in the world. Sin is what separates you and I from God. I think we know that. And God declares that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.
See, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. When you come here and we talk about sin. We're not here to point fingers at you. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm a sinner saved by grace. I have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. You have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. It is God who's pointing the finger. Amen. We're not pointing fingers at each other. We're talking about getting close to God. But there's a problem.
We have a sin problem inside of us. And God declares that we are all sinners. You, me, and everyone. No exceptions. We all live with it. We have to deal with it. And we can't live in denial about it.
It's like getting cancer or some kind of disease, some sickness that we have to face. We have to accept, I'm not saying accept it, but we have to be aware of it. We have to take note of it and do something about it. If we want to fix the problem, we've got to try. Amen. And with sin, there is an answer. And you can have a victory over sin. Right. Psalm 51:5 the psalmist David who also wrote this, he said, behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
I got it from my mom. It was passed on.
Yes. It came all the way down from Adam and Eve. They had children. They were sinners. Why? Because apple trees reproduced apple trees. Orange trees reproduce orange trees. And sinful people reproduce sinful people. We get it from our forebears. We get it from our relatives, our parents, our grandparents on down. That's why David said, "Behold, I was shaped iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive me." My mother was a sinner.
What is sin? First John 5:17 says, ""All unrighteousness is sin." What do you mean unrighteous? It is anything that violates the righteousness of God as it is recorded in His Word.
That's why knowledge of the Bible, the Word of God is so important because it's the Word that declares God's holiness.
It's His word that declares what he cannot tolerate and he cannot embrace because His nature won't allow it. And if we embrace that sin that His nature does not allow, we can't get close to HIM. Right.
And so the Jewish people and others too who had this problem about this righteousness, this self-righteousness that we tend to have a better picture of ourselves than God does. You know, we tend to gloss over our sin. We tend to cover up and protect ourselves somehow, you know, make us think that God doesn't see our sin and we try to excuse ourselves or we try to make excuses by referring to our own goodness. We call that self-righteousness.
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