Join Sharon Knotts in this episode of The Sound of Faith as she delves into the teachings of Matthew 24 and the reality of iniquity’s rise in today’s world. With a focus on how lawlessness leads to a loss of love for biblical truth, Sharon provides insights into sin-proofing one’s life through understanding Greek words and their significance in scripture. This message underscores the necessity of setting boundaries and living a life free from sin’s entanglements.
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 one of the first times 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. He was cracking the door open to grace. He couldn’t just say the law of Moses is gone 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,
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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.
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And they all left. And I think it’s interesting that if I say it’s past, it means it happened to the youngest. I don’t know what that means, but one day I might figure it out. The action is in the past. But here’s the thing. Here’s how it should have been translated. But people take this and they try to imply and say, you can’t judge me. 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. 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? We can 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 as 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, 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. 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. You cannot return. 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 so much more powerful. How many agree that that makes it more intense? The Lord will forgive you. 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. 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 hupostastos. further removed from it. We bring it over to the English and we say hyper. What do we mean when we say somebody’s hyper? It means they’re to the ultimate degree. Whatever we’re talking about is ultimate. They are hyper. They are brought every day and they lay him down next to the pool of Bethesda. I don’t understand all of this so I’m not going to try to explain something I don’t understand but suffice The word stastos there means to stand. There were many, many, many sick people that were brought there all the time.
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And they just laid around that pool because at some point an angel would come down and say, trouble the waters.
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And I don’t like that too much. In other words, he would move the waters. And how many know that? 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? 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 do flesh. Oh, bad stuff. It doesn’t always have to be that. It could be a spiritual problem. Whatever it was, I don’t understand it all, but let’s just suffice to say that’s what the Bible says, so I’m going to believe it. But the first person who managed to get in the water, when the angel got it moving, that person would be healed. And this man had been trying to get in there, but because he was lame, he would never get in there first. It could just be that you… first before he could get in there. Amen? Now let’s look at verse 6. And so Jesus now comes there and when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been doing it a long time in that case, meaning he had been crippled for a long time, he said unto him, wilt thou be made whole? They wear those new kinds of material that are about this in their lane. Obviously the man wanted to be healed or he wouldn’t have been there. How many understand? Why ask him, do you want to get healed? Do you want to walk? He wouldn’t be there if he didn’t want to get healed or want to walk.
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So why did Jesus say, will you be made whole?
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Because there’s a difference between being made whole the swimmers, they were protesting, saying that the first Thessalonians 5.23 tells us that the very God of Shalom, the word is wholeness, will sanctify and preserve you wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, spirit, soul, and body. That’s the definition of being whole. You can have a sound body and be sick in your spirit. That’s what you want. You can have a sound body, but your spiritual thing is full of sin and sickness and pride and all of that kind of thing. And that you’re not weighed down by heavy things. So we’ve got the latest side. 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 we know this to be true i personally know about that but here’s the point and i think the point is christians now he said do you want to know where they are the reason that i’m talking to say that i believe that he was talking more than just as healing is because what he said that’s the first step Let’s look at verse 14. You’ve got to call it sin. Afterward, don’t tell me you’ve got a character flaw. Afterward, Jesus bindeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. 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, he met the woman at the well at noon in the middle of the day. their soul and spirit. You can’t just pray for them to get healed when they’ve got other stuff going on in the inside of them. Especially if they’re filled with doubt and fear and unbelief. And you can pray for them and they could get healed in a spot and you leave. And so let’s look at verse 14. We can do 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. How many say amen? And you’ve got to imagine a natural person with a natural spirit in their soul. They’ve got to get rid of bitterness. They’ve got to forgive people. I’ve heard countless testimonies of people dealing for a long time with a prolonged sickness. And then one day they forgave somebody that they had been not spoken to in years. Had bitterness for years. And bless your heart, they got healed. The woman says, sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. He’s saying, go your way now and sin no more. You have to call it sin. That’s the first thing you have to do. You have to recognize it. And when you get set free, you’ve got to decide that I’m going to stay free. Let’s look at Galatians 5.1. Rewind it now. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 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. And I’m going to read a couple more verses from John 8 where we were. Verse 34 says, So Jesus answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abides not in the house forever, but the son abides forever. If the son therefore shall make you free, and he said, you shall be free indeed. Get free! And stay free. Amen. 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 lot of problems because this time, Let him that lies lie no more. Let him that cheats cheat no more. Let him that fornicates fornicate no more. Amen. Let him that drinks and gets drunk drink no more. Let him that gets high and takes drugs. Let him that smokes. Let him that curses and cusses. Let him that loses his temper. So he called it what it was. He said, you are living in sin. Sooner or later. And I don’t care who it is. Don’t take that stuff in the new year. Okay, I’m talking right now. Don’t bring all that. 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. and pull themselves up, you had to go to your house and childproof it. How many know? You’ve got to get them little things 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. The prongs that fit in there. Because of course you don’t throw your little fingers 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. And today is a big thing. If you have a dishwasher… Or even you wash your clothes. So we called it what it was. They got these new little packs now. He said, you’re living in an adulterous situation. Little packs. And the one I have right now has a big bright red ball on the front of it. It looks like a toy to a kid. It looks like candy. And they’ve already had cases of children eating them because they’re thinking they’re candy. So you’ve got to get those little things that you put on your cabinet doors that they can’t open it because you have to be able to release it. Don’t pick it up again. Don’t go back to it.
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Don’t return to it or you’ll end up like we already read in Matthew, the 12th chapter.
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You’ve got to make sure that you don’t have a big heavy TV sitting on a table that might be rickety. And that little crawling toddler pulls himself up and boom. I remember when my son Scott’s children had been killed by TV’s falling on them. Bookcases falling on them. You’ve got to go through and childproof your homes. You know when you know you’re going to be busy and you can’t keep your, you know, you’ve got to cook dinner or something. And he had picked up smoking while he was back sleeping. And as a teenager, you’re setting boundaries. Boundaries for their safety. boundaries to keep them out of danger, boundaries to protect them from things they’re not wise enough to realize. And then when you finally let them go outside and play in the backyard or whatever it is, you either put up one of those play yards or like I did after I had my kids. We had to put a fence all around the backyard. Amen? You’ve got to set boundaries for them. You childproof your home and you set boundaries. And you’ve got to sin-proof your life. You’ve got to set boundaries. You’ve got to set boundaries and say, I’m not going over this boundary.
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I’m not going in that area because I’m exposing myself to temptation.
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Because I am putting myself in a vulnerable place. And when you put yourself in a vulnerable place, the enemy of your soul is there. He’s poised, waiting, and ready. 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. Where you lived, literally. But I knew he smoked. He knew I knew he smoked. The house that God gave you, you’re going to have until we check out. Amen? You’ve got to sin-proof it. Let me give you a few verses. 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 one that matches this very good is 1 Thessalonians 5.22. Amen. unto the mount of Olives, and all appearance of evil. 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 said in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now, if you don’t make provision for your flesh, like I already brought out, you’ve got to be proactive. You’ve got to remove yourself from all situations that open the door for you to fall into that temptation and thus sin. That does so easily beset you. You can’t hang around with people that pull you down into that sin. Whatever problem you had in the past, whatever it may be, you have to make sure that you set boundaries for yourself. Amen? If you had sexual partners before you were saved, and they’re still trying to get with you, They didn’t care really about whether she got stoned or didn’t get stoned. They did not care about that woman. Amen. Now, I know when some people get saved and come to Christ, they don’t know anything about the Bible. They don’t know anything. We live in a very road on the ground, sexual age where nobody has any boundaries. What is he doing? There are no sexual boundaries. He didn’t even acknowledge what they had said. There are none. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, There’s already a move for pedophilia among you. You say, well, I don’t know what that means. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they were hurt at being convicted by their own conscience. Went out one by one. Beginning at the eldest and even under the last. And lesbians can’t help themselves if that’s the way they were made. They can’t help themselves. They love children. They want to have sex with children. And that it’s normal. And it’s okay. And you can shake your head and say, that’ll never happen. Well, 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. And sometimes when people come to the Lord, they don’t know that, and you’ve got to tell them. You’ve got to let them know. I don’t think I embarrass Lonnie. He’s been saved how many years now? Many years. The Ten Commandments, which this woman was breaking Commandments 7. God shall not commit adultery. Amen. And he was writing them, and they had first, obviously, He 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. And you can’t live with her either. And you know what happens is people get financially codependent on one another. And so you think, well, I can’t leave because I can’t make it on my own. And the other one can’t leave because they can’t make it on their own. And you become financially dependent. And some people think that because of that, it’s okay for them to stay there. 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 i was saying so i thought i had a lot of people and i think that you’re seeing a lot of people i don’t know how that works but you know i got to get up here and preach and i could go and he didn’t change it but i don’t think that you see that i really don’t know if you’re that young and i’m going to have one here and that’s what you’ve got to talk to me and tell everybody about what i have not too many ways to go to the house of a christian we might as well what we can find a site 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.
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Thank God that even though they were always on the
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opposite side of jesus they still had a conscience that was working that law and number two they had a conscience that was very appearance because when they saw what he wrote and they realized that everybody believed they had not kept when you said you’re not having sex they got when you’ve been living together having sex amen all of a sudden you’re now let’s look at what happened after they left they were all gone Your friends to believe that? Your family to believe that? I don’t believe it. Do you all believe it? Who believes it? Let me see your hand. Do you know what people do today with this sort of thing? You’re breaking the word of God. They take this and they run with it. And you’re deceiving yourself. And they say, who are you to judge me? 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. But they’re failing the test of abstain from the very appearance of evil. For people that don’t understand, the world does not believe that. They believe that because of the law of Moses, the word condemned means to pass sentence upon. That’s what you’re up to.
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It means to pass the sentence upon and then to execute the sentence.
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A lot of people are sitting over there in city jail. 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 one should they say, oh, guilty as charged. What happens? Then they’re condemned. And some people get the attitude, I don’t care what people think. I know what I’m doing. I know I’m not sinning. I know I’m living right. I don’t care what people think. That’s not what the scripture says. The scripture does not allow that. There’s nobody left.
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The scripture says don’t let your good be evil spoken of.
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You must care what people think.
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The scripture says abstain from the very appearance of evil.
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I care what people think.
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Because when I get in the pulpit to preach, I want you to believe me. And when I preach it hard like this and it’s uncomfortable for you, I don’t want you to be sitting there thinking, yeah, but I know what she does.
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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 a word. That’s why I made it quite clear. What does it say in John 1 chapter? It says, and we beheld his glory full of grace and truth. When your kids turn 18, you’re very limited. If they’re still in your house, you’ve got some leeway. But when they’re full grown adults, all you can do is preach it to them. And pray for them. So don’t say, I don’t care what people think. Especially if you are in ministry. 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.
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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.
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I want to see how you measure up to the law of Moses.
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And notice James said we.
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He didn’t say you.
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He said we. He put himself in that class.
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And he was 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. I don’t care if you teach how young they are. If you’re a minister, you teach at Sunday school. Amen. You know where we stand. I think we’ve made it clear from this pulpit where we stand. 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 where we stand. And if you’re going to preach and teach in this church, you must be in agreement with where we stand or you cannot preach and teach in this church. He saved every last one of us on the cross.
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Every one of us. He saved us from the death penalty. Amen.
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But we’ve got to put our faith in. Amen? And so that’s what is going on here. If your own opinion does not match our opinion as the faith tabernacle church, then you cannot hold an office. Because we’ve got to be careful. And now we’re getting meetings. with all the preachers and ministers and teachers because we’ve got to protect ourselves because they’re coming after churches. They’re going to come after us and they’re going to pick up churches to be test churches and they’re going to come and demand that you allow same-sex marriage to take place in your church or you rent out your dining hall for a same-sex reception. And we’ve got to make it clear that we’ve already set the standard that we are against it.
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And that this church will not condone it.
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And no one that is administering this church will condone it. Because if even one does, if just one does, they can use that against us. 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. Amen. to be involved in same-sex marriage. Amen. Because let me tell you something. Habitual sins have consequences. Amen. Now, I’m not saying, I mean, you can repent at any time if you genuinely repent. Church members, the Lord will forgive you. And only church members because if we start running out the back, we open up Pandora’s box and then you’ve got to let this one do it and that one do it and then you’ll get somebody sooner or later the devil is going to try to stick somebody in there. And try to make it a legal problem. And the law is against us now. Amen. Unless you have established. I’ve been doing. I’ve been looking into this. Unless you have established it. It is understood by all your members. It’s understood by all your ministers. Where you stand on the issue. Then if it comes up. You can say. This is what we believe. We’ve made it public. And it is our history. And you cannot force it on us. How many understand? Amen? So you’ve got to sin-proof your life. Amen? Because the enemy of your soul is coming after you. I’m going to stop here. I have more notes, but I’m out of time. Amen? But I would like to just share this one little thing from you as I was going through things. This is the litmus test that Billy Graham established. For his ministry and for those who were part of the Billy Graham Association, many, many, many years ago, this was the litmus test. Whether or not you should do something, whether or not you should permit yourself a certain liberty, because, you know, some people say, well, I have liberty to myself. Here’s the litmus test that Billy Graham had, and I like it. Number one, does it violate any principle of Scripture? Number two… Does it take the keen edge off of my relationship with Christ? Number three, does it put a stumbling block before anyone? And number four, can I ask God’s blessing on it? How many know a lot of things would fail that test? If you’re about to do something and you get that uh-uh in your spirit, you need to check with the Lord. Lord, is your blessing on this? Because I tell you what, if it’s not, he’ll let you know. He will let you know. Amen? How many want to go into the new year? You want to be set free indeed and take no baggage with you. Come on, stand on your feet. Amen? Now, don’t forget, Thursday night is communion. Amen? And let’s be in prayer that this will be a powerful service that we can go into the new year energized, energized with a new anointing. 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 heal 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.
