Dealing with a Great Sin

[0:00] And let's find where we left off. Last week, Moses was acting as an advocate,! And he was standing between an angry God! and the sinful people.

[0:12] And Moses made three distinct arguments to the Lord! to attempt to turn his wrath away from his people. And his actions in this passage much portray and they reveal or match those actions or arguments that the Lord Jesus Christ might make before the Father because the Bible says we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

[0:36] And I'm not going to rehearse that, but that was a thing that will kind of spill into this week as well. But we've already discussed it, so I'm going to just pass over what we covered this week.

[0:48] Moses returns. He leaves the mount and in verse 15, he turned and went down from the mount. And now he gets to see with his own eyes what God has already seen in the people below.

[1:03] And things at the camp are not the way Moses left them 40 days and 40 nights ago. And now he sees and understands why God was ready to consume them in his wrath.

[1:14] So how would Moses respond? We saw how God was ready to respond and Moses talked him down. But how would Moses respond when he comes back to a people that have corrupted themselves and have sinned a great sin?

[1:29] I want to pick it up in verse 15 and I'm going to read to the end of the passage, to the end of the chapter in verse 35. So stick with me and follow along. Exodus 32, 15.

[1:42] How would Moses respond? Moses turned and went down from the mount and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. The tables were written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other were they written.

[1:54] And the tables were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp.

[2:06] And he said, it's not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome. But the noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass as soon as he had came, came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses' anger waxed hot.

[2:27] And he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and strawed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it.

[2:39] And Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people unto thee that thou has brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief.

[2:52] For they said unto me, make us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we what not has become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.

[3:05] So they gave it me and then I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked under their shame among their enemies.

[3:16] Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor.

[3:37] And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

[3:53] And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up unto the Lord, peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

[4:03] And Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. And yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not blot me, I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written.

[4:19] And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angels shall go before thee.

[4:31] Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron made. Now, there's the scene that Moses steps into.

[4:46] I find it interesting in reading this passage that the events of the passage do not appear to be given in the exact order in which they occurred. Now I could be wrong about this, but I believe that it's put in there a little bit differently.

[5:01] And all the facts are there. And so everything that's recorded is true, but it feels to me like the events hop around a little bit in what we just read. And that's fine. It's not at all abnormal for the Bible to just give facts and not declare perfectly a scene or a layout of events.

[5:20] It's just the way it is. But I'll give you for instance, do you suppose that he made them drink the water that was strewn with gold before seeing that they were naked and the subsequent slaughter of 3,000 men?

[5:35] What I think from piecing it together is that when he came down and in verse number 19, he saw the calf and the dancing. And at the same time, in verse 25, he saw that the people were naked, that he stood in the gate of the camp.

[5:51] I don't even think he went in to their camp. I think he stood there and called who was on the Lord's side and there went some wiping out some guilty people of this sort and then he went in there and took care of that calf and he made the remaining, the living, drink of that thing.

[6:08] And I believe that would match the way it took place. But that's neither really here nor there. What I do find in this passage, the order in which it is given, has significance.

[6:19] And the reason I say that is because it serves to teach us something about how to respond to a great sin. In verse 21, Moses said, you've made this people so great a sin upon them.

[6:33] In verses 30 and 31, two more times, Moses calls it a great sin. Ye have sinned a great sin. In front of God, he said, this people have sinned a great sin.

[6:45] It's called a great sin because that's what it is. And yes, all unrighteousness is sin. But there are, not all sins are of the same magnitude.

[6:55] Not all sins are of the same consequence. Some sins are inside of your heart and they're subtle. Some sins are outwardly displayed and they affect other people and they're bold and brash.

[7:08] Some sins are hidden and they're secret. Some sins are one that leads to another one which is greater and another one that is greater and it binds you.

[7:21] But today I want to address with you all the sin that you deal with more than anybody else in this building even knows about. A sin that has plagued you personally.

[7:33] A sin that before God may have corrupted your mind and even your life and not necessarily the day-by-day stuff of living in this wicked world or in this flesh but some sin that resides in you that you fight against it sometimes and sometimes you don't.

[7:52] It may not be a golden calf but for you it's a great sin and you know what it is. And so this morning I want to preach to you dealing with a great sin. And what we'll do is follow Moses' actions in the order that they are recorded because I feel it gives some insight into dealing with great sin.

[8:11] And so let's take a look at the first thought here from verse 20. The first thing Moses does in the passage is he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and strawed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it.

[8:26] The first thing that ought to be done when dealing with sin is to destroy the offense. Is there something in your life that's corrupting you?

[8:36] That's causing you over and over to fall? Then the first things are first and it's destroy the offense. Eliminate it from your life.

[8:47] Grind it to powder and make it so that it can't influence you tomorrow. It can't tempt you anymore. It can't distract you from doing it. The idea is get it out of reach.

[9:00] Get it out of sight. Get the offense far from you and you far from it. Destroy it as Moses did. Burn it. You say, well, what does that mean and what does that look like?

[9:11] Well, if you're having trouble with a substance, get it out of your house. You're having trouble with a can or a bottle, flush it down the toilet and eliminate it from within hand's reach.

[9:23] You don't leave it in the cabinet or in the refrigerator. If it's something that you can't beat, if you've got it in your possession, first things first, destroy it.

[9:34] But it'll keep you from getting it. I don't know if that's a foreign concept to you. Back in the day when I'd go to Christian camp and the teenagers would come back from camp and one of the first things we'd all do is the next service, either we'd come back on a Saturday night, Sunday night there'd be testimonies in the church of what the Lord did and our response and then afterwards there'd be a burning.

[9:59] People would be bringing their music, they'd be bringing their books or magazines, they'd be bringing their t-shirts, just whatever is in their bedrooms that doesn't belong in their life, it was time to clear it out.

[10:11] It's time, number one, destroy the offense. I don't want to see it. I don't want it influencing me. I don't want it in my life. I don't want my hands to be able to touch it. Get rid of it.

[10:21] You know why Christians don't get victory over certain sins? Because they don't take the necessary steps to remove it from hand's reach.

[10:33] Look at Acts chapter 19 with me. I'll give you a Bible example here. Acts chapter 19. Look at the response of these people when they heard the word of God and believed.

[10:50] They realized some things got to go and they got to get rid of them. Acts chapter 19 and notice in verse number 18 through 20.

[11:04] Beginning in verse 18. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds.

[11:16] Many of them also which used curious hearts brought their books together and burned them before all men and counted the price of them and counted it 50,000 pieces of silver.

[11:28] That hurt. That hurt some people. You know why you don't want to get rid of it? Because of the money you spent on it. Because of the value it has. Oh, I could sell it. And you just hang on to it.

[11:39] But you're not going to sell it. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Why? Because they burnt some things. Because they destroyed some things that were in their hearts and lives and homes that did not belong there, that never belonged there.

[11:55] But through the course of this life, the deceitfulness of sin, just lay down for a little bit and sin creeps in and takes a hold, gets a foothold. You fought it for a while but kind of gave up fighting it and just there it is, part of your life once again.

[12:12] Flush it. Burn it. Trouble some of you have is you don't want to part with the offense. You don't want to take those steps to get it right with God.

[12:25] Could you imagine if Moses did not burn the calf? If he just left it standing right where it was and said, all right people, I'm going back up to God to make an atonement for you.

[12:39] Could you imagine if he spent another 40 days and 40 nights up there? How long would it be before they were right back to the dancing and the nakedness and the celebrating and worshiping of a complete idol golden calf?

[12:53] No. The thing has to go. You've got to get it out. You're not strong enough. That's why. You're not strong enough to, you've allowed it in. You're not strong enough to resist it.

[13:04] Get it out. So destroy the offense. First, there's another thing. If you're back in Exodus, find chapter 32 again in verse 21 because the second thing is determine the cause.

[13:20] Determine the cause. And I want you to note that this order is important the way God gives it in the Bible. First is get the thing out. Get it out of sight. And then we'll talk about it.

[13:32] Then we'll figure out how this thing happens. But there's no discussions until the offense is gone and eliminated. In verse 21, And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people under the...

[13:43] And he starts to ask him, How did this happen, Aaron? How did you get to this point? And Aaron's version, we read it earlier, verse 24, Aaron tells them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.

[13:55] So they gave it me. Then I cast it in the fire and there came out this calf. What in the world? Wow! Aaron's version is a little bit different than the Holy Spirit's version of the event.

[14:08] And flip back to the beginning of the chapter, Moses isn't buying anything that Aaron's trying to sell him. How do I know that? Because when Moses records this, he tells us the details that actually happened, not what Aaron said happened.

[14:22] In verses 3 and 4, the truth, All the people break off their golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molded calf.

[14:37] Forgot about that part, didn't you, Aaron? How your very hands molded and graved this calf and said, These be thy gods, the people said.

[14:50] My, how Aaron forgot to bring that part into it. And may I make the note now when we're talking about first destroying the offense, then secondly determining the cause.

[15:00] There's a very, very crucial element to determining the cause. When you're dealing with sin, the only way to get it right or to get victory is if you stop lying about why it's happening and how it's happening and what's happening and it just happened to me.

[15:16] And that's not the truth. What is the truth though? Let's find out what the truth is from the Bible. Look at Romans chapter 7.

[15:27] We're going to be back in Exodus as you can tell. So let's put some Bible out there to determine the cause. Because I know you, because I'm like you, and we can relate with Aaron really, really well when it comes to a great sin.

[15:47] It's easy and it's just natural to lie about it. It's natural to try to get out of it and just to eliminate some of the details.

[15:58] We're so good at it or so bad at it. And there's a reason. Let's determine the cause. Let's let the Bible, because the Bible will tell us the truth every time.

[16:09] Romans chapter 7. Here's the Apostle Paul verse 14. He said, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin, like a servant, like a servant to sin.

[16:27] I am a carnal man. You know what the cause is for the sin in your life that you allow? It's because you're carnal. It's because you're a servant to sin.

[16:40] You're sold to it. You've given yourself to it and that's what you are. Now we're going to read the next couple verses. If you're not familiar with this, just, we'll go slow because it's, the wording is tricky, but understand what we're reading is Paul saying, I want to do what's right, but I don't.

[16:56] And I don't want to do what's wrong, but I keep doing it. That's basically what he's saying. Watch as he says this in verse 15. For that which I do, I allow not.

[17:09] For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. He's talking about being sold under sin.

[17:20] If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it's good. He's agreeing with the law and the word of God that it's right and he's wrong when he's guilty.

[17:32] Now then it is no more I that do it. This is not an excuse, but pay attention. It's a doctrine that we need to learn. Verse 17. But sin that dwelleth in me, for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me.

[17:53] Well, that's a good thing. So it's not in his flesh. Because there dwells no good thing in his flesh, but sin and evil. But the will to do right is present with him in the inward man, in the new man.

[18:08] But how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do.

[18:23] Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find that a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.

[18:33] Amen. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Just like he said earlier, the will is present with me. But, I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

[18:52] O wretched man that I am. I am carnal, verse 14, sold under sin. There is a sinner living inside of you.

[19:05] And when you sin, you are giving him liberty. You gave him liberty to do what he wants to do. And come back to chapter 6, Romans chapter 6, and verse number 16.

[19:26] Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.

[19:43] And the teaching is, the choice is yours. You make the choice. But when you're determining the cause, after you've destroyed the offense, you determine the cause, what you're always going to find out, is that sin resides in your flesh.

[20:00] And you need to understand this as a Christian. You need to know there's a fight going on in the inside. A new man that God put in you, that's created in righteousness, and true holiness.

[20:11] The son of God, that's sanctified and justified, and saved. But that old man never left. And he's in there, and he's just dying to live.

[20:22] Dying to do what he wants. And when you fall, and you sin a great sin, and you continue to, and you let it have victory over you, you need to determine the cause. It's not hereditary.

[20:33] It's not a disease. The devil didn't make you do anything. It's that old flesh inside of you. It's that old nature. And it's the old man doing what he does, and he will keep doing it until he is stopped.

[20:48] Paul prayed. He said, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? So now that you've determined why you're sinning, and what's going on, then there's another step to take.

[21:01] And let's go back to our passage. This is put in an order for us to follow. And when we catch this, we're going to come back to Paul and put some more Bible on it.

[21:12] But let's get Exodus first. This is the next place where in verses 25 through 28, and 29, I guess, Moses calls for the sword to be brought out.

[21:27] He calls them to gather unto himself, and he says, Put your sword by your side. Go in and out and slay every man his brother. And there was 3,000 of them that fell that day in Israel.

[21:42] 3,000 of them. And so the third point here in this order is to defeat the offender. You know who the offender is now. It's that old man. It's sin that dwells in your flesh.

[21:55] So now it's time to get the sword out. No, seriously, it's like time for us to get the sword out and see what the Lord says about defeating our old man. So would you turn with me to Galatians chapter 5.

[22:10] I want to bring you through a few passages and see what the Bible says. I'll tell you right now, the Bible does not say, Stop sinning.

[22:20] Quit. Just make an end of it today and you'll be fine. You might think that way, but that's what happens when you just try to quit, try to quit, try to quit, try to quit, try to quit, try to quit, try to quit.

[22:32] You can't quit. So the Bible is going to instruct us. It gives us what I call the rule of replacement. It's going to tell us to defeat our old man by replacing, replacing his deeds with somebody else's.

[22:50] Galatians chapter 5. And let's start in, well, let's see verse 24. It says, But they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

[23:07] But notice the next verse, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. You don't just kill the flesh, but you're going to have to do something. And that is, walk in the Spirit.

[23:19] Let's back it up a little bit in the passage. Verse 16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit. And if you'll do that, then ye shall not fulfill the lusts, the lust of the flesh.

[23:34] He gives you a list of the works of the flesh, and he gives you a list of the fruit of the Spirit. And then it comes to verse 24, saying, crucify the flesh, but walk in the Spirit instead.

[23:49] It's get rid of the one and take on the other. Let's see it again in a different way. Look at the next book, Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4 verse 22.

[24:04] That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

[24:25] When you put off the one, you put on the other. Now here's an example of it. Verse 25. Wherefore, putting away lying. That's the old man.

[24:36] When you're tempted to lie, you put that away, but you don't just, I gotta stop doing it, stop doing it. No, you replace it with the new man, and that says, speak every man truth with his neighbor.

[24:49] And we could give more examples going to the rest of this chapter, one to the other. Replace this with that. Look at Colossians chapter 3. We're talking about defeating the offender.

[25:02] Defeating the flesh and the works of the flesh. You don't do it by just saying, I wanna stop. God help me stop. We've all prayed that prayer, haven't we?

[25:16] And we're right back to it. Colossians 3, verse 5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.

[25:27] And he gives us the list of these sins, fornication, uncleanness, etc. In verse 8, he says, but now ye also put off all these.

[25:38] Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing ye put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

[25:54] You cannot put off the old without putting on the new or you're never gonna get anywhere. And so look at verse 17 just to conclude this.

[26:05] In verse 17, and whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

[26:19] Don't torment yourself and frustrate yourself by trying and trying and trying and trying not to sin. See it then as a situation or an opportunity to choose to do the right thing, to put on the new man.

[26:38] They love to say this phrase, what would Jesus do? And for some reason they kind of scoff at it because of what it tends to or the kind of crowd that uses it, but if it helps you, let it help you.

[26:50] What would the Lord Jesus Christ do? The Bible says, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lust thereof. You don't just stop sinning.

[27:03] You gotta put on Christ. You've got to embrace the new man and walk in the spirit. That's the only way that you can in any way defeat the old nature, the offender.

[27:16] you replace the sinful act with the action of the new man. God can absolutely lead you into what that would look like on a day-to-day basis, on a temptation by temptation basis, on whatever that great sin that has been plaguing or corrupting you is.

[27:38] When you say, God, I don't want to do this, show me, help me, give me something, He absolutely will put something in you or give you direction of how you can make a way to escape, as the Bible says.

[27:57] Replace the old man with the new. Find back in Exodus again, we need to one by one follow these steps to destroy the offense, determine the cause, defeat the offender, and then, oh, how precious this one is.

[28:20] We've already discussed how Moses was our advocate in that picture there, so we're not going to look into that, we're just considering the order of his actions in this passage.

[28:32] And so, after executing judgment upon the offenders, or in our case, the flesh, notice the next thing he does is draw nigh to God. in verse 30, Moses said, consecrate yourself to the Lord, even every man of his son upon his brother.

[28:46] I'm sorry, verse 30, it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said to the people, you sinned a great sin, now I will go up unto the Lord. In verse 31, Moses returned unto the Lord.

[28:58] The next step in this is to draw nigh to God. Moses gets back into the presence of God. Man, it hasn't been that long that he was up there in that sweet, sweet place of fellowship with the Lord where there was nobody but him and God.

[29:18] Just Moses and God and nothing else, no golden calves, no dancing, no nakedness, no shame, just the presence of God again.

[29:30] Oh, how relieving that must have been after being there for so long and then going back and dealing with the people and this great sin and then to be back up on the mount. To be back where it's quiet and it's still and there's peace and the Lord speaks to him.

[29:50] Oh, how much better it is to be near God than to be surrounded by the worldliness and plagued by the sin to be back in the mount with the Lord. You can't stay there forever but it sure is good.

[30:04] Draw nigh to God. There's something that you and I need to know. You need to know this in your heart for the rest of your Christian life. You need to know that when you fall into your great sin, you need to know that God is very willing and ready to receive you back into his fellowship.

[30:25] He's not holding his hands on you saying, no, you wanted that so bad you just stay there. That is not the hand of God. The Lord's hand is, his arms are always open.

[30:37] He's always calling for us to turn to him and to repent. When he sees you destroy the offense, when he sees and hears you getting honest about your sin and your guilt instead of all the excuses, instead of the lies, when he sees that coming from his child, they repent and turn to him, God, my God, is always ready to receive his child.

[31:07] Look at Luke 15. Here's this example. You know this young man, this prodigal, we call him. Look at this passage in Luke. I want to point out something that's just absolutely beautiful.

[31:20] And you need to know this and believe this and hold on to this when you sin this great sin. In Luke chapter 15, you know the story.

[31:32] I trust that this younger son wants his inheritance and he takes off and he just wastes the whole thing with riotous living and he's in a bad, bad way and he comes to himself and decides in verse 18, I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father I have sinned against heaven and before thee.

[31:58] And you see the repentance of this sinful young man. But look at verse 20. He arose and came to his father but watch this when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

[32:21] That's the father. He's easy like that. The son wasn't even home yet. He hadn't gotten back to where he was supposed to be the whole time.

[32:34] He wasn't even close. He was a great way off still. But when you draw nigh to God, you know what the Bible says? He'll draw nigh to you.

[32:46] And you know that's a long way back. And when you get out and sin and that sin beats on you, that son, I can picture him not looking like a son anymore.

[32:58] Got the marks of the world all over him, beaten up, crippled, coming back to the father. But the father says, I'm not just going to meet you, I'm going to help you get back.

[33:09] And the father's there to guide you back home and to help you back home when you turn to him. And so draw nigh to God. He's full of mercy.

[33:20] He's filled with compassion. He will forgive, he will restore, he will even help you get back to where you belong. I can't tell you, and I don't even want to tell you about the times, but I've been there and I've called on the Lord and there's been filth and problems in my life that should never have been there, but I incurred this.

[33:42] And then I call out to God and there he is to just help me navigate my way back. And by his grace, not just get me back, but look back in Exodus, there's one last thing in the order of these events.

[33:59] There's one last thing, very important thing. When you defeat the offender and you draw nigh to God, then what God says to Moses in verse 34, he says, therefore, now go.

[34:17] Lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angel shall go before thee. The last thing of the steps is to depart the situation, that is to move forward.

[34:33] For Moses, he's telling him, resume command and lead the people away from this place. this horrible place, it only needs to be a memory to them.

[34:44] It doesn't have to be where they stay. It's time to move forward. Depart the situation. God has something better for you and he doesn't even want or intend to bring you back.

[34:58] Depart the situation. Make it part of your past. Those words sound a little odd to you until you get into something until you try to get out and you want to walk with God and you find it keeps plaguing you.

[35:11] But if you can ever, by the grace of God, get victory and defeat it and make it part of your past, you get it under the blood and it's not who you are anymore.

[35:23] It's what I used to be. It's the things I used to do but now by the grace of God that's not me anymore. That's the will of God for his children. You draw nigh to him.

[35:34] You restore the relationship and then you move forward walking with the Lord. And when you go forward in the spirit, sin shall not have dominion over you.

[35:47] If God forgives you, you have no business holding on to the guilt. You have no business staying put in the wilderness under the mount where you sin this great sin.

[35:59] When God calls you to move forward, you take him by the hand and let him lead. And we just sang where he leads me. I will follow. Follow every day. You have no business holding back from him when he's getting to draw you away from that sin.

[36:18] You have no business saying, yeah, I could never because of what I did. No, God said, I forgave that. I put it behind me, so let's go. That's not you. You're my child.

[36:30] That's your flesh. And I'll show you how to get victory over that filthy animal. So let's walk in the spirit. This order of events in this passage, it may not be the way it unfolded, but it sure is a divine recipe for dealing with sin in your life.

[36:50] And the last time I checked, we've got sin in our lives. So we need this. We need to take this to heart and receive the word of God and let it help us.

[37:04] God doesn't want to leave you in your sin. He doesn't make excuses for you to be in your sin. He's always drawing you out of that. But sin for the Christian, it never goes away.

[37:18] It dwells in you, much like we read of the apostle Paul. When he said to walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, that's teaching us, that the lusts of the flesh are still there to be fulfilled every day of your life.

[37:36] The counter is that you walk in the spirit. When we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous that is keeping the wrath of God away.

[37:52] He's staying it. We studied it last week. He points to the work of redemption, the blood that he shed to cleanse us from all sin. He tells him, God, they're mine.

[38:04] And so we have the advocate when we sin. But God forbid that we should continue in sin. May we destroy the offense, determine the cause by getting honest and stop making excuses and allowances, defeat the offender by the sword of the spirit as God gave us his word of how to walk in the spirit and replace the deeds of the flesh with the works and the fruits of the spirit.

[38:38] Draw nigh to God. Get back to that place of fellowship and he's going to move you forward. He will not leave you there.

[38:48] He will not. He doesn't want you there. So depart the situation. This is pretty cool to see the order of these events that God gave them to us.

[39:00] How to deal with a great sin. So whatever the Lord when he puts that on your heart or even when I began this morning if you knew right away I know what I deal with in this life.

[39:11] It doesn't have to be broadcast to anybody in the room. It just has to be dealt with before God. And somewhere in those five steps you probably found yourself.

[39:22] maybe you're all the way back at the beginning and you need to go home and get some stinking stuff out of your house that doesn't belong in your home. Maybe that's step one for you today.

[39:34] If you're struggling along the lines you heard the order, take the notes if you haven't already get them and figure it out and start to put it to practice because God gave us the recipe.

[39:44] He doesn't want to leave us in our sins so it's up to us to submit to him. Let's bow our heads and before we get out of here, I don't want to just run out the door quite yet unless you've got to go deal with something in your house, you go deal with it.

[39:59] But if there's something you need to talk to God about, maybe you need to make a commitment to him today while this message and these thoughts are fresh. Maybe it's time for you to respond and make a commitment and say, Lord, I will take care of that today.

[40:13] I will deal with that sin in my heart and life today. I'm going to deal with it because you talked to me about it. if you say, I'm going to walk out the door and I'll give it another shot, I'll try, I'll try, I'll try to stop, you're not going anywhere.

[40:32] You're going to have to commit to God over the sins in your heart. He'll be there. He'll hear your cry. He'll see you when you're a far off.

[40:43] He'll see the repentance in your heart and he'll come. He'll run to you. He will draw nigh. He'll give you the strength. Some are praying here and invite you others.

[41:05] If you need to, come and pray. I'm just going to give you a quick little testimony. That's something that just popped into my mind. When I was, I would say, just kind of at my personal lowest trust in sin and worldliness and just, just drowning in it.

[41:23] And the Lord, by his grace and mercy, moved and got me out. And I can remember, I want to say the next six months of my life, it felt like the Father just picked me up and carried me.

[41:38] And I don't know if you're familiar with that old poem, The Footprints in the Sand, and it describes two sets of footprints, and then somewhere along the line there's only one set when things are the hardest, and the poem's saying, well, that's when I was carrying you through those hard times.

[41:51] And I feel like, man, that was me. When I was coming back to the Father, there was so much in my heart and life, I didn't, I didn't even believe I could get all the way back. I felt like I ruined it, I ruined my life because of things I was allowing and did.

[42:08] And I look back and think, man, those six months were sweet, and they were kind of easy, way easier than I thought they'd be. And I look back and say, God carried me through those six months to get me back into fellowship with Him, and then He put me back down.

[42:26] Because then, after six months, give or take, some of those desires started coming back strong. But I was removed far enough that I was able to not, I built up the new man.

[42:39] I was doing things for Jesus Christ now, and I couldn't let my testimony be tarnished. And it's just my testimony of how God got me when I felt like it was too much, too much to get out of.

[42:55] He met me, He ran to meet me, and carried me back home, and then in time put me back down and said, there, now you walk. You walk with me. And that's just, that's personal, that's how it worked with me.

[43:08] I believe if you feel like you're drowning, or you feel like there's things you can't undo or get rid of, if you'll repent and turn to God, I'm telling you, He'll run to meet you where you are.

[43:20] He'll draw nigh to you, and He'll give you the strength and the help to carry you through, till you can get established, till the new man can be strengthened with might, until you can walk in the Spirit.

[43:33] Father, thank You for the Word of God, and how helpful it is in these areas, especially where we sin. Thank You more than any of this for the Lord Jesus Christ that took the punishment that we deserve for these sins, and then thank You for the instruction, and for the help that we can get to walk in the Spirit.

[43:53] Lord, I pray for these that have communicated with You over whatever's in their hearts and lives, that You'll help them, that they'll get victory and strength, and that You'll meet them where they are.

[44:04] I pray for others that are too ashamed, or too afraid, or just nervous to deal with things. God, give them the courage to deal with it today, and Lord, don't let them off the hook.

[44:16] Even, Lord, we're carnal. We're so sinful, we're so deceived in our own hearts and minds, and the heart is going to try to hold on to these sins and make excuses. So, Lord, don't allow that to happen.

[44:27] Beat on us, and wear us out until we get it right. and have Your way in our lives. Help us to surrender to You. And then, Lord, may You get some fruit, something that's pleasing to You, because we chose to obey.

[44:43] We thank You again for this day. Thank You for this church. Thank You for this Bible lesson and message. May it bear fruit in the lives of Your people. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.