Sin Proof Your Life: A Guide to Spiritual Endurance

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message is good old-fashioned preaching we all need but don’t often hear. Sin proof your life. Have you noticed sin is not what it used to be? And this is a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy from Matthew 24. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. The Greek text actually means because lawlessness or a disregard for God’s laws shall abound, many shall gradually lose their love for biblical truth, making sin a minor issue. It’s time for all who represent Christ to sin-proof your life. Now, I want you to put your thinking caps on for just a moment here because we’re going to have a little Greek lesson. I’m going to try to simplify it. But the reason why I’m going to give it to you is because if you can see this the way it is in the Greek, you will never forget it. Because when the first time that I’ve read this many, many, many years ago, it has stuck with me ever since. Now, I know some of you are groaning and you’re saying, Sister Sharon, I don’t even like English, much less Greek. But how many know, whether you like them or not, there are laws that govern grammar? Amen? You know, we know certain laws. Certain things, they’re easy for us. And other things, after a while, we don’t care about them. I care about them, but I realize everybody doesn’t care about them because I do. But here is, this is going to help you so much. Lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. In the Greek grammar, it is what they call a past participle. A participle always ends in ING. ING. And how many know that if I say it’s past, it means it happened in the past? The action is in the past. So… Here’s how it should have been translated. Not lay aside every weight, but having laid aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us, let us run the race with endurance. Because having laid aside refers to an action that was completed in the past. And not only was that action completed in the past, it had to be completed before the action of the main verb in this sentence. Having laid aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, let us run this race with patience. Who thinks they know what the main verb in that sentence is? The main verb is run. All that other stuff, we could take that away. The main thing is let us run the race. Right? The main verb of that sentence is run. Now let me back up to what I said a minute ago. If the past participle having laid aside is an action in the past that must be completed before the action of the main verb, which is run, what does that tell us? What does all that mean? It means that before you can run… you have to lay aside. How many see how important that is? Even if you forget all the grammar I just told you, do you understand? You can even put in the margin of your Bible, having laid aside. Because having laid aside the sin, having laid aside the thing that besets me, now I can run the race. Amen. With endurance. I won’t faint. I won’t quit. I won’t fall by the wayside. I won’t get weak. I won’t get weary. I won’t fall into that sin again because I’ve laid it aside. Action completed in the past. There’s a whole lot of them. Oh, there’s a lot of those past participles in Paul’s writings. And you can’t see it in the English. And every time I come across one, I’m like, oh, wow. Because it’s much more powerful. How many agree that that makes it more intense? And you really can see it. Amen? Because if you don’t complete the action of laying aside, you’re not going to be able to run and endure. Because you’re always going to have that thing besetting you. Amen. It’s always going to be in your way. You’re always going to be tripping over it. It’s always going to be pulling you down. The word beset, we don’t use it very much. It means to be surrounded by something. Everywhere you turn, there it is. It’s surrounding you on every side. In fact, the Greek word is huperstastos. And the word huper, we bring it over to the English and we say hyper. What do we mean when we say somebody’s hyper? Hyper. It means they’re to the ultimate degree. Whatever we’re talking about, it’s ultimate. They are hyper. They are, we even sometimes bring it over and say super. We bring hooper, we call it hyper, we bring hooper, we call it super. We get the idea. It means it’s intense. And so the word stastos there means to stand. Stastos, to stand. So what are you talking about? They’re standing around me. Yes, they’re standing around you and they’re hyper, they’re hooper, they’re super. That means these things that are surrounding you are very strong. and trying to get you out of the race. Amen? These things that you’re not taking care of in your life, if you don’t deal with them, if you don’t lay them aside, if you don’t get rid of them, they will continually always be surrounding you and preventing you from running your race. Amen? How many see that just this verse alone is so powerful? Amen. So we have got to come to a place in our mind, and if you’re thinking in your heart, there’s this one thing I keep dealing with. And you know, it’s different for everyone. It could be a spiritual problem you’re dealing with. It doesn’t always have to be the flesh. We always think flesh, oh, bad stuff. It doesn’t always have to be that. It can be a spiritual problem. It could be a problem with pride. And that will beset you because God resists the proud. And the Bible says proud feet stumble. That’s a good one, isn’t it? Proud feet stumble. You can’t run if you’re stumbling. Amen? So it could be a spiritual sin in your life. It could just be that you got an unsanctified mouth. Amen? Whatever it is, you’ve got to lay it aside once and for all. It’s a completed action. You do it, it’s completed. And now you’re free. Now you’re free. Now you can run unencumbered. We watch the people in the races at the Olympics and things. They wear those new kinds of material that are about this, you know, they’re thinner than your fingernail almost. And man, they can fly. They got shoes now. Every year, every Olympics, they come out with different shoes, trying to give people an edge because the shoe’s made of a lighter component. And now they can run quicker. They can fly. Amen? I remember, I don’t know if it was like the last Olympics or one before, the swimmers, they were protesting, saying that the swimsuits were made in such a way to give them an advantage. When they got in the water, they could go faster. How many remember that? Okay, I see some of you remember it. I think it was the United States and we had to switch our suits because the other nations were saying, ah, foul ball, foul. That’s not right. Amen. But you know, if you bring that into the spirit, that’s what you want. You want peace. Whatever spiritual thing you can get that’s going to keep you going. Amen? It’s that you can endure so that you’re not weighed down by heavy things. So we’ve got to lay it aside. We’ve got to put it off once and for all. So you say, okay, I’ve got that much. Now how are we going to do this? Okay? First of all, the first way to get rid of something that’s besetting you, the sin that’s besetting you, And I think I’m speaking to Christians now. I think sinners kind of know where they are. But I’m talking to Christians. You got to call it sin. That’s the first step. You got to call it sin. Don’t tell me you got a character flaw. Don’t tell me it’s a chink in your armor. Call it what it is. If you want to get rid of it, you’ve got to see it as a sin because when you think it’s sin, boy, you will be more motivated to deal with it. Turn with me in John, the fourth chapter. I’ll paraphrase a lot of this because you know the story well. This is the story of Jesus coming to the well at Samaria. And he met the woman at the well at noon in the middle of the day who came to get water. Amen. And they began to have a discourse back and forth about water. And he was telling her, if you knew who I am and the gift that I have, you would ask me for water and I would give you living water. Amen. And so they were going back and forth. And so let’s look at verse 14. We get to this point in the story after he is enticing her with this living water. And verse 14, he says, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Now, you’ve got to imagine a natural person with a natural brain trying to process this. I’m going to have water in me flowing up in everlasting life. I’ll never have to get water again. I’m tired of coming here every day in the hot sun dragging water. Well, I want this water. So she’s thinking that way. And verse 15, the woman says, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw it. And now Jesus, he has been so gentlemanly. He has been so just bringing her in a little at a time. He didn’t jump on her the first few words. Now he says, go call your husband and come hither. Do you see the diplomacy and the tactfulness he had? And the woman said, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, thou hast well said I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that thou saidest truly. How powerful. So Jesus brought her to that place and said, now go get your husband because we want to get him in on this miracle of the living water. Amen? And because true holy conviction was now taking root in her heart, and she said, I don’t have a husband. And he said, you have spoken the truth because you are living in sin. you’ve already had five husbands. Now, I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if that means she’s been widowed five times, and if so, I wouldn’t blame the next guy for not wanting to marry her. But chances are it wasn’t she was widowed five times in a row. Chances are she just went from one bad marriage to the next. Amen? That’s what I think, don’t you? And we know she has a lust problem because this time, number six, they don’t even bother to get married. They’re just going to shack up. And you’ve got to realize that in that day, that was really scandalous. That’s why she was coming at noon when nobody else would be there, when the other women, the other women of the town who were properly married would be sitting inside getting cool, waiting for either early morning or late evening to get their water. Amen? So he called it what it was. He said, you are living in sin. And I don’t care who it is. Okay, I’m talking right now. I want you to look at me. I don’t care who it is. If they’re living together and they’re not married, they’re in sin. I’m going to say it because it’s the truth. Amen. I’m not going to show favoritism. I don’t have a double standard. It’s God’s word. It’s what it is. I’m not going to apologize for it because it’s the truth. So if you had people in your family that are in that situation, we need to pray that the Holy Ghost convicts them that they get right and do the right thing. Amen? Because of course you don’t throw your loved ones out the door and say, I don’t ever want to see your face again. Amen. We love them and we show them the true love of God. Amen. And we do the right thing, but at the same time, we don’t compromise the word of God for anybody, for anything. Amen. So we called it what it was. He said, you’re living in an adulterous situation. So the first way, the first thing you must do, if you want to lay aside the sin and every weight that besets you, the first thing you’ve got to do is call it what it is. Tell the truth. Amen? The second thing is when the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the blood of Christ sets you free from that thing, don’t pick it up again. Don’t go back to it. Don’t return to it or you’ll end up like we already read in Matthew, the 12th chapter, every time you’re going to get more bound than the time before. Do you understand that? Amen. I remember when my son Scott had come back to the Lord after, you know, kind of being wishy-washy in his teenage years and whatever, and then he really got serious with God when he was, I guess, I don’t know, maybe it was the early 30s. I’m not real sure on the time, but he came back. And he had picked up smoking while he was backslidden. And as a teenager and all that, they really had a big campaign when they were in school at that time against smoking and everything. But he foolishly picked it up and went back to it. And I tell you, he had the hardest, hardest, hardest time of getting free from those cigarettes. He had a terrible time. And he’s got a very strong will. Scott is very strong-willed. If he wants to do something, he can do it. But he battled and battled. And I mean, it was hard for him. And I told him, I said, Scott, when you get free of these, when you finally get free of these, you better never, ever go pick them up again because you won’t probably get free the next time. Don’t be so dumb and so foolish to ever fall back into that. Amen? Because you will be, if you do that again willingly and willfully, you may not get free the next time. He’d be over our house and he’d have to go leave the house. I mean, he would leave and go like a block away. He wouldn’t even go outside. He didn’t want me to see him. He did not want me to see him. I never saw him. I never saw him smoke. But I knew he smoked. He knew I knew he smoked. He would leave and go across the street and around where you couldn’t see him. That’s what he would do. And he battled. It was hard. It was tough. And it’s not that God can’t set you free. But when you are so nonchalant and you’re so cavalier and you think, oh, I’ll pick it up for now and I’ll put it down later and I’ll pick it up and put it down. It doesn’t work that way. Amen? You’ve got to lay it aside once and for all, whatever it is. And once he sets you free… You’ve got to stay free. Let’s go to John the eighth chapter and let’s, we’ll read this one because it’s not real long. John eight and verse one. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning he came again to the temple, and all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? This they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him because they figured that Jesus, they already got an idea that Jesus was going to not stone her. They already figured that. And so they figured if he didn’t stone her, then they got him because he would have gone against the law of Moses. And that was the whole purpose. That woman was just a pawn. They didn’t care really about whether she got stoned or didn’t get stoned. They did not care about that woman. They were trying to trap him. But let’s read on. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. They must have been thinking, what is he doing? He didn’t even acknowledge what they had said. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one, beginning at the eldest and even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. And when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. But Jesus brilliantly stooped down and began to write in the ground. Now, there’s all kinds of speculation about what it is he wrote. And different ones say different things. I’m of the persuasion that he wrote the Ten Commandments. Because you’re going to be either accused by the law or excused by the law, is what Paul said in Romans, the second chapter. And so I believe he wrote the Ten Commandments, which this woman was breaking Commandments 7. Thou shall not commit adultery. Amen? And so he was writing them, and they at first obviously did not know what he was doing, but when he stood up, amen, when he first stood up, he lifted himself up and he said, Now he that is without sin first cast a stone. Now I know it might be a little semantic, but it’s important to me. A lot of times people will say that he said, He that is without sin cast the first stone. How many of you know that you hear that? Cast the first stone. That is not what he said. He said, first cast a stone. Because if he had said, cast the first stone, that would imply that more than one person now could cast a stone at her. Because he said first cast a stone, he was saying if there’s any sinless person among you, any sinless person who has not broken one of these commandments, then he can be the first. Let him first cast a stone. Not cast the first stone as though there will be other stones to follow. but be the first one to do it. Amen? That’s what he was saying. And, of course, when they begin to see the Word of God, because it’s always God’s Word that convicts you. You know, I could stand up here and preach, and I could go off on a tangent, and I could just tell you, you sinner, you, you’re this, you’re that, the other, you’re going to hell, you’re condemned. And that’s what people do. They get on social media and tell everybody they’re going to hell. They don’t give them the Word. Amen? It’s the word that convicts. And you have to give people the word. And if you give people the word, a lot of times you don’t even have to say you’re going to hell because the word of God convicts their heart. Amen. It convicts their heart. And this is what happened here. Thank God that even though they were always on the opposite side of Jesus, they still had a conscience that was working. Amen. They had a conscience that was working because when they saw what he wrote and they realized they had not kept all those commandments, they got up and left. Amen? Now, let’s look at what happened after they left. They were all gone. And Jesus said to her, where are thine accusers? Does no man condemn thee? Does no man condemn thee? Do you know what people do today with this sort of thing? And when he says, neither do I condemn thee, they take this and they run with it. And they say, who are you to judge me? Amen? They are in obvious, open, incontrovertible sin. We all know, everybody knows they’re in sin. But if you call them out on their sin, who are you to judge me? If you don’t have sin, you can’t judge me. And they don’t even know what the meaning of condemn is. Who is he that condemns thee? What did they want to do to the woman? They wanted to stone her to death. Amen. Because of the law of Moses. The word condemned means to pass sentence upon. It means to pass the sentence upon and then to execute the sentence. A lot of people are sitting over there in city jail, but not all of them are going to be condemned because a lot of them are going to go to trial and they’re going to say, let them go. You didn’t prove their guilt. But the ones should they say, oh, guilty as charged, what happens? Then they’re condemned. Then the judge passes the sentence or the jury or whomever it may be will pass the sentence on them. And what Jesus was saying to the woman is, is there nobody here that’s passing sentence on you? Is there nobody left here that’s going to stone you? No. She said, no one, Lord. He said, then neither will I pass sentence of death on you. Neither will I execute the law of Moses and condemn you to die by stoning. But, and they never ever tell you this part, go your way and sin no more. You see, he was wanting to show her mercy and grace. You’ve got to realize that when Jesus came, he’s standing here, as it were, here is law of Moses, condemnation. What does it say in John, the first chapter? It says, and we beheld his glory full of grace and truth. And of his grace have we all received. Grace for grace. For the law came by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He was cracking the door open to grace. He couldn’t just say the law of Moses is done and over with. They weren’t there yet. He had to go to the cross. But he was cracking the door open. He wanted to show her grace. He wanted to show her mercy. He did not want her to die. Amen? And yet he could not speak against the law of Moses. So he was basically saying, okay, if you want to pull out the law of Moses that says she’s to be stoned to death, I’m going to pull out the law of Moses. I want to see how you measure up to the law of Moses. And they all left. And I think it’s interesting. They started the eldest right on down the age to the youngest. I don’t know what that means, but one day I might figure it out. If I do, I’ll tell you. But here’s the thing. He wanted to show her grace and mercy. But people take this and they try to imply and say, you can’t judge me when that’s not what’s going on here. He said, you sinned. You sinned, lady. You’re a sinner, but I’m forgiving you. You sin, but I’m forgiving you. And I am going to save you from the death penalty. I’ve just saved you from the death penalty. Amen? And on the cross, he saved us all from the death penalty. He saved every last one of us on the cross. Every one of us. He saved us from the death penalty. But we’ve got to put our faith in it. Amen? And so that’s what is going on here. And it does not mean that you cannot call sin, sin. That’s a big problem we have today. We live in political correctness in our country. And now we’re getting into this biblical correctness. Don’t judge me. You can’t judge me. And the Word of God is clearly saying that Jesus called her a sinner and gave her a warning. Now I set you free. I set you free and they did not stone you. You are now free. But don’t use your freedom to go back and do it again. Don’t go back in that bed. Don’t go back and get in that bed of adultery. Don’t go back into that sin. Don’t go back into that party place and scene where you are tempted to drink and take drugs if that’s what he set you free from. Don’t go back and hang around those people that still do that. And say, but they’re my buddies. But they’re my friends. If they’re going to tempt you and pull you into that sin, you’ve got to cut ties with them. Amen. Don’t go back to it. So first of all, you’ve got to call sin, sin. And second of all, when he sets you free, you cannot return to that place. Amen. Because let me tell you something. Habitual sins have consequences. Amen. Now, I’m not saying, I mean, you can repent, and every time that you genuinely repent, genuinely repent, the Lord will forgive you. There’s only like one thing that’s unpardonable. Amen? So he will forgive you every time that you genuinely repent, but you’ve got to know that sin has consequences. Amen. This is a powerful, perhaps not popular, but necessary word of the Lord. Sin proof your life. The Christian world is bombarded with sermonettes of grace and favor to the point that if you preach against sin, you’re labeled as a Pharisee and legalist. It has opened the floodgates for sin to run rampant in the church, including the ministry. And habitual sin has consequences. Sin is not static. It increases. Paul said that when you yield the members of your body to sin, you become servants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity. Iniquity is the disregard of Scripture, and it increases sin. Today, the Bible is mocked and desecrated by the world and deluded and ignored by many in the church. It’s time to call sin what it is. It’s the only way to get free and stay free. Paul said, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. If you’re a parent or grandparent of a toddler, you know you have to childproof your home to protect them from harm. And in like manner, we must sinproof our lives proactively by removing ourselves from all situations that open the door for us to fall into temptation and sin. Paul said, lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets you, that causes you to stumble and knocks you off course in the Christian race. Sin Proof Your Life can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request offer SK199 and mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. or shop online at our e-store at soundoffaith.org. where you can also order on MP3s. But to order by mail, request offer SK-199, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. And Saints, even if you do not wish to order the CDs, we’d love to hear from you. Let us know that you are listening and what station you’re listening to. Encourage us, and if the Lord speaks to your heart, tuck in a special love gift to help us with the cost of airtime. You may mail your request for prayer to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.