If Ye then Being Evil, Part 2

Introduction: The Importance of Understanding Human Sinfulness

0:05 We have come in our studies of the Sermon on the Mount to that section in chapter 7, which in our regular study we saw was a wonderful promise of all the needed grace to be what the Lord outlines in that which precedes the particular section we dealt with in chapter 7, verses 7 through 11. But in the process of giving this wonderful promise, first of all in the way of a general promise, ask and it shall be given you, and then making it a specific word of promise for everyone that asks it, our Lord then illustrates that promise from a very common human life experience in verse 11, If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? And we noted last week that in giving this illustration, our Lord drops what would be called, if this were a dialogue being written up in play form, a little stage aside. If ye, being evil, just this little phrase, he passes over lightly, but it's of such importance that we're taking several weeks to simply consider, in the light of the other aspects of divine revelation, what our Lord meant when he said,

1:35 If ye, being evil. And so we are studying together our Lord's affirmation of the basic sinfulness of all humanity. We call him teacher and Lord, and so we must. And our minds must be subject to the Lord Jesus at every point where he speaks, no matter what subject he is dealing with.

1:59 And here our Lord gives his own evaluation of humanity and says, Ye, being evil. Last week, we merely introduced the subject by seeking to answer the question, why is it necessary for us to understand the biblical teaching on the basic sinfulness of all humanity? Why is this so vital an issue? And I trust you'll at least remember something of the substance of the message we gave.

Three Reasons Why Understanding Sin is Vital

2:30 Three reasons. First of all, there is no saving Christianity without some understanding, understanding of the scriptural teaching on the basic sinfulness of man. Bishop Ryle says, and I believe rightly so, that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. And that's not only true on the threshold coming into the possession of saving life, but it follows at every step in the progression of that life.

3:04 So, whether you're here today, as one who has never been savingly joined to Jesus Christ, or whether you're here today as a mature believer in Christ, if you hope to make any progress in the direction of saving Christianity, whether to enter the threshold or go on in maturity, you've got to face squarely the biblical teaching on the exceeding sinfulness of sin. For what is salvation from its practical standpoint, but that mightily, that mightily work of God by which he is saving a people from sin and its consequences. So, if we are ignorant of the malady, we cannot help but fail to appreciate the remedy.

3:52 And so, a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. The second reason we considered was that there will be no understanding of the system of truth taught in the Bible unless we understand, some measure, how bad we are. The Bible sets forth a marvelous system of truth which presents us a divine Savior who saves by the direct supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit. But a divine Savior is not needed if my case is not hopeless. A direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon the human spirit and mind and will, this is not needed if man has got some strains of ability left. But if we take seriously what the Bible teaches about how bad we are, then it's comparatively easy to believe that we need a supernatural Savior and that we need a supernatural salvation that does not simply come and stick out a hand and say, if you'll come halfway, I'll meet you, but comes to us in the depths of our need and makes us to be what we never could be without divine intervention. So if you and I would understand that, we would be able to do that. To understand the interrelation of the truth of God's Word, we must dig deep into the foundations

5:15 of biblical teaching on the subject of man's sinfulness. And then the last principle that we touched on at the close of our message last week, our view of sin will be the governing principle or one of the governing principles in our whole Christian experience. Your prayer life will be determined in content and in climate. When I pray with people and they rush into the presence of God and they blurt out some little pious phrases and rush out again, asking for everything under the sun but grace to be holy, power to be pure, enablement to have a pure mind in the midst of a morally filthy world, then I know that they don't know too much about the plague of their own hearts. So your prayer life, the climate of that prayer life, the content of your prayer will be determined by the extent that you understand something of your sinfulness. This is true of praise. You find it hard to praise the Lord? Not if we contemplate the terrible pit from whence we were digged, or as the prophet

6:28 says, look unto the rock from whence ye were hewn, and the spirit of praise will rest upon us only in the measure that we understand how bad we were and are, and that grace not only rescued us but still puts up with us. And this will give birth to praise. And then in our evangelism it in great measure will be determined, message and method, by how bad we are convinced men are. If we look upon men as simply some people who have done a few bad things but are basically all right and all they need is to vote for Jesus by raising a hand or walking down an aisle, well that will determine how we evangelize. But if we believe men are blind, dead, enemies in hearts, and in the spirit of God, then we will be convinced that they are not the same. If we are not in mind against the living God and can never perceive the glory of God in the face of Christ apart from a supernatural work of God, that will affect our evangelism, not only the content of our message and our method, but our behind-the-scenes concern. We will find that the greatest work in our evangelism is that which we do on our knees, is pleading with God for the mighty breakings forth of God the Holy Ghost, who alone can bring dead sinners to life.

The First Aspect of Human Evil: An Evil Goal in Life (Self-Pleasing)

7:48 Now, we come this morning having considered the importance of understanding something of the Bible teaching on man's sinfulness to the substance of the biblical teaching on the sinfulness of all humanity. Jesus said, if ye being evil. Now, if we were to try to bring into that little phrase, being evil, the main strands of divine truth which explain man's evil nature or man's sinfulness, what would be the key passages that we should consider, or what are the key thoughts that ought to be before our minds? May I suggest three this morning? When our Lord said, if ye being evil know how to give good gifts, he was stating man's evil nature, which is evil first of all in that we live governed by a goal in life. We live by a goal in life. We live by a goal in life. We live by a goal

8:48 in life. We live by a goal in life. We live by a goal in life. We live by a goal in life.

8:48 That is evil. Our goal in life, by nature and practice, is an evil goal. What is that goal? Is it to destroy God? No. There are many of you here that could honestly say that you were never conscious of an attitude that literally wanted to block God out of his universe.

9:16 You say, no, I've always thought rather kind thoughts about God. I was brought up in the church, Sunday school. Well, what is then your goal in life? May I tell you what your goal is this morning if you have never been radically transformed by a supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit?

9:34 You know what your purpose in life is? You know what governs you? The scripture states it in pictorial form in Isaiah 53 and then in theological language in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Very familiar text in Isaiah 53. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. What is the goal that governs us until we are savingly joined to Christ? The prophet says we have turned to our own way. It is that goal of self-pleasing. Paul states it in 2 Corinthians 5.15 where he says, And that Christ died for

10:23 all that they who live should no longer henceforth live. Live unto themselves. He said the governing goal of every person who is not savingly joined to Christ and the governing purpose in everyone who is joined to him, this is what it was in the past, living unto themselves. Now, what's evil about this? You say, I'm a pretty nice person, so if I live unto me, that's not too bad. The thing that's so evil and wicked is that it's a violation. It's a denial. The very purpose for which God made you. For that which distinguishes you and me from the beast of the field, above all else, is that you and I were made for God. One cannot read Genesis 1 and 2 and the first part of chapter 3 without realizing that if we take that description, that account of man's creation and how God set him in a certain environment and gave him certain regulations, we can't read that. We can't read that. We can't read that. We can't read that. We can't read that. We can't read that. We can't read that.

11:31 We can't read that and begin to understand it unless we see in all of this that the glory of man is found in that he's a creature made subject to his God. And man's fulfillment in life, the purpose for which he was made, will only be realized as his life issues in God. His motives, his desires, all that he is and does and seeks to be and to have must be in relationship to the God who made him. When Adam sinned and plunged his race into a state of sin, his sin was in practical terms a repudiation of God as his goal and a setting up of himself as his own end. That's what sin is basically. When we somehow work down through all the theological definitions and we try to stare sin at the face and say, who are you? Sin would answer and say, I am the spirit of repudiation of God. Sin would answer and say, I am the spirit of repudiation of

12:38 God in place of myself. We've all gone astray from him, his law, his rule, and him is the object of life. And we have turned unto our own way. Paul states it in that phrase, living unto ourselves. Now you don't need to thumb your nose at God to be guilty of this. You just need to live as though he doesn't exist in pursuit of your own natural desires.

13:14 That's evil. That's wicked. Because it's a denial of the very purpose for which you were made. And the scripture declares that this is true of every single one of us. We have turned to our own way. We live unto ourselves. And frankly, I'm convinced that we're never going to see any measure of deep conviction here in this assembly or anywhere else until we begin to think in these terms. Some of you who in the common grace of God have been kept for many of the gross forms of sin that have so blotted many of our friends about us. You've never staggered through the door drunk. You've never been found carrying on some kind of a lecherous affair with a neighbor's wife. Some of you kids here, because of the restraints of your godly parents, you've never been found shooting up with heroin off in somebody's home on a weekend when the parents are gone. You've never been found out to the wee hours of the morning. And in the back of your mind,

14:22 I know what some of you are thinking. You're saying, well, I know the pastor talks about sin and sinfulness, but for the life of me, I'm just not in that class. Listen, when you realize that the essence of sin is simply living for yourself and that this is a denial of the purpose for which you were made, you'll begin to sense something of the terrible horror of your sinfulness. At every moment of every day that you've lived, governed by that goal of your own self, you've been repudiating and denying the goal for which the living God made you and for which he allows breath to be breathed into your own nostrils and lungs. And so when our Lord affirmed the basic evil of man, whether this was in his mind here or not, I don't know, but I know that it was in his mind in other cases because when he made his claims of discipleship, what was the first requisite of discipleship? If any man will come after me, let him what? Deny him. Would you be attached to me, the

15:38 Lord says? Would you be identified with me, my salvation and my purpose? Then at the very threshold, you've got to recognize that the thing that's been governing you up till now cannot coexist with what will govern you from here on. For I have come to bring men to the Father.

15:57 Man comes to the Father, but by me, I have come to reconcile men to God. I have come to bring men into possession of that life which is life indeed. I've come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. But at the outset, he said, I want you to recognize a principle that that life has as its overall governing objective living unto him. And up till now, your overall objective has been living unto yourself. So if you would come after me, face it at the inception. At the inception of the Christian experience, you must repudiate yourself. You must say no to self as the governing motive of your life. Take up the cross and follow me. That

16:44 principle that faces us on the threshold faces us every single day in the outworking of Christian experience. For our Lord said in Luke 9.23 that this is not only the crisis faced on the threshold, but he said, if any man would come after me, let him what? Deny him.

The Second Aspect of Human Evil: Enmity Against God and His Law

17:00 Deny himself and take up his cross daily. Daily. Would to God that it were true that if we've passed over the threshold into a saving attachment to Christ, that we could be assured that there would no longer be any intrusion of this former motive or goal of pleasing ourselves. But it isn't true. And so that's the issue that must be faced again and again. We hurry now to the second aspect of this which the Bible says is the issue of the Bible teaches is the basis of this evil, depraved nature of ours. Not only do we live with a goal in life that is evil, self instead of God, but we live with an attitude to God and to his law which are evil. Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. Romans chapter 8 and verse

17:59 7. Because the carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the fleshly mind, the fleshly mind, the fleshly mind, the governing principle of each one who is not indwelt by the Holy Spirit is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Verse 8.

18:27 So then they that are in the flesh, be it religious flesh, be it cultured flesh, be it educated flesh, be it, quote, decisioned flesh.

18:42 We have not passed out of a state of fleshiness into a state of the Spirit by the new birth. God says we cannot please him. Why? Because there is lying deep within the recesses of our hearts this attitude of enmity to God and to his holy law. The carnal mind is enmity against God, not the God it has created. For you see, the carnal mind will create a God with God. God is enmity against God. This little buddy-buddy God whom everybody worships in our day and this God that I saw portrayed in a religious film that I was asked to preview as a pastor the other day that's going to come into the area and have wonderful reports of thousands of conversions. The God portrayed in that film was the God that a man could say after

19:38 he supposedly was converted to him, and I quote, saying to his wife who supposedly converted at the same time, Well, dear, it's going to sort of be like having God in our back pocket now. We'll have to be careful where we go. If your God is such that you can have him in your back pocket,

20:00 you can feel at home with him while you've still got a heart of enmity. But the God of the Bible, that high and that lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, the one before whom seraphim and cherubim with veiled face and veiled feet cry one to another holy, holy, holy, that God, the human heart has enmity against him. It hates his throne. It hates his holiness. It hates his rule. It hates his claims. It is not subject to him. Neither indeed can it be. And so there's not a basic purpose of the living God which unregenerate flesh does not naturally and flatly oppose. There's not a clear command of God which the human heart does not reject.

20:56 If not the letter, then the spirit. And if not the spirit, then the motive behind that.

21:05 That's what Paul had to discover, and he tells us about it in Romans 7. Philippians 3, he said, is touching the external letter of the law, I was blameless. And in keeping the letter, he said, I thought I was at one in spirit with the God who gave that law. If anyone would have come to Paul and said, do you know that your heart is enmity against God? He would have said, who are you talking to? Enmity against God? Enmity against God? Enmity against God?

21:28 Enmity against it? Why don't you see I'm of the strictest sect of the Pharisees? Don't you see my zeal? Don't you see me giving myself to the task at hand in seeking to propagate the faith of our fathers? Paul, you're an enemy against God. No, I'm not. Paul, your heart is a clenched fist to the law of God. Why? No, no, no, no. Touching his law, I'm blameless. Then he tells us what happened. In Romans chapter 7, he says, and I'm going to put it in 20th century paraphrase. He said, all was well until I got hung up on the 10th commandment. And that commandment touched something that didn't relate to my outward life. It said, thou shalt not covet.

22:14 And I saw, he says, that sin was touching not just the external action, but it was touching the areas of the motive and desire. And he said, when I discovered that, I saw in me all manner of concupiscence. Evil desire. And he said, I saw for the first time that the law which said, thou shalt not commit adultery, was not simply touching the external act, but it was touching the attitude of the mind and the heart. And not only that, not only abstaining in deed and in thought, but for the reason that we ought to abstain, because we love the living God. So when I saw that, I realized my heart was enmity against God. And my friend, listen, you've got to discover that, or you'll go down straight into the pit of everlasting burnings, deceived into thinking all is well, because you keep the letter of the law. There may be some adulterers here this morning. If so, the Bible is clear. No adulterer shall

23:21 enter the kingdom of heaven. But there are many of you who've never committed adultery in the external act. But you've got a heart that's full of impurity of thought. And Jesus said, whoso looketh to lust hath committed adultery.

23:37 Or others of you say, oh, I'm jealous to even keep my thoughts pure. Then I ask the question, why? Why? Is it because you love the God who gave that law? And in order to walk well-pleasing unto him, you seek to be pure in thought and in deed? Or is it simply because your conscience was conditioned that way and out of a slavish fear to do otherwise, you seek to be pure in thought and in deed?

The Third Aspect of Human Evil: A Bottomless Well of Wickedness Within

24:17 And that evil is seen not only in the governing goal of life, living unto self instead of God, but it's seen in the basic attitude of our hearts toward this God and his law. And the essence of that attitude is enmity, opposition, a desire to throw off the restraints of his holy law. And then the third aspect of this evil is that we possess, each one of us, a bottomless well of evil. And that evil is seen not only in the governing goal of life, but rather the bottomless well of evil within, governed by an evil motive, self instead of God, possessed of an evil attitude that is enmity to God and his law instead of that of friendship and submission and acquiescence to him. And thirdly, we possess a bottomless well of evil within. The Old Testament states it in that familiar text, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Or somebody who believes in God's will and who believes in Satan's will cannot deservedly defend his owinning faith in God.

25:17 And so go ahead, finish what you're doing. Do this little difficult joke, and I look at this forward , and I search into, and I look at Our Lord Jesus gives us the clearest description in Mark 7 where in his controversy with the Pharisees who were taking him to task for his neglect of ceremonial washings our Lord said these words Mark chapter 7 beginning with verse 21 For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness wickedness deceit lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness all these things come from within and defile the man if ye then being evil what constitutes the evil of all humanity this is a great part of it that all of the fallen sons of Adam are possessed of a bottomless well of evil within and our Lord as it were just takes the bucket and at random scoops down into that well and pulls out the bucket and spills it on the ground and he says see what you find adultery uncleanness lasciviousness pride and if our Lord had desired to do so he could have reached down in again into any one of our hearts and pulled out the bucket

26:46 and gone on until he had named every single sin that's ever been committed by all the sons of men through all the ages of human history and he could have drawn the seed of every one of those sins from your own heart and from mine from within out of the heart of man proceed and then he names God in his common grace may allow circumstances nationally locally family wise background temperament God may use in his common grace a multitude of influences and he may use to keep that well contained for it's not like a standing well it's like an artesian well with a backlog of pressure continually seeking to rise up and spill out and God may restrain that pressure and he may use whatever means he chooses but don't you let the goodness of God in his common grace restraining the outbreakings of that corruption deceive you into thinking it's not there I don't know that there's nothing out of the heart proceeding all these forms of human weakness the human heart is without any overstatement a veritable cesspool

28:16 of iniquity and uncleanness and I'm convinced in my own heart dear ones listen your reaction to a statement like that may be one of the greatest indications of whether or not you stand in a state of grace or not when you hear someone say that your heart is a veritable cesspool of all forms of uncleanness what's the point of that? what's the answer in response of your mind? is it one of who's he talking to? or is it preacher?

28:45 you don't know the half of it what's your response? don't answer verbally but you answer in your own mind as you'll have to answer in the day of judgment you answer when you're told that there lies within your breast your breast young person refined culture educated there lies within your breast a veritable cesspool of uncleanness a rule of iniquity if you've been awakened at all by the Holy Spirit and fled to Christ now can look at your heart through eyes illumined by the Spirit you know that that's a pretty mild description of that which you've got to wrestle with day after day you know that's no overstate you know in the words of the Queen of Sheba speaking of the glory of Solomon when she said the half has not been told you know concerning the awful ugliness of that heart of yours the half is not told the half is not told the half has not been told I shall never forget when I heard one dear mature saint of God say this I'm not quoting exactly verbatim but pretty close to it he said I've seen many ugly terrible sights in my life he was a man in his 60's when he said this I've seen sights that would shock and horrify anyone who had a natural sensitivity but he said

30:14 the most horrible shocking disgusting thing I've ever seen is the heart my mother and my daddy gave me got it he says that's the most shockingly horrible thing I've ever seen can you say that I don't mean parrot it because you've read a Puritan who said it or because you've read the confessions of St. Augustine but can you say it because God the Holy Ghost has let you understand a little bit of what Jesus meant when he said if ye be evil part of that evil is that well of wickedness within I believe in these three areas we have a broad scope a broad picture of that basic evilness which is true of each one of us governed by a goal that is evil self instead of God an attitude to God and his law that is evil enmity instead of submission then this well of wickedness within now what good will it do to face honestly these issues what are the practical effects of embracing the bible teaching on the sinfulness of humanity we've seen the importance of that teaching we've looked

Practical Effects for the Unsaved Sinner

31:42 briefly at the substance of that teaching and I've excluded about half of what I had here in my notes because time has gone from us but I don't want to close without asking and answering the question to our satisfaction at least in measure what are the practical effects of embracing this biblical teaching on the sinfulness of humanity it has practical effects first of all upon the sinner who's not yet joined to Christ you know why some of you aren't saved you know why you're not born of the spirit of God we're speaking from the human side now do you know why you've not fled to Christ for the simple reason you've never never faced your desperate need of it oh you've had some wishful thoughts oh I'd like to be a child of God nobody ever gets to heaven on the wisps of wishful thinking no one gets to heaven except they enter by the narrow gate that leads to the narrow road that leads to life and that gate's a narrow gate it's a straight gate and Jesus said strive to enter the narrow gate the Lord Jesus is the able savior of desperate sinners for he said I came not to call the righteous but sinners they that are whole have no need of a doctor but those that are sick and so I say to you this morning

33:11 who know in your own heart that you've not been joined to Christ you'll never get desperate about this matter until you get honest about the condition of your heart the best thing you can do is begin to pray oh God show me what I look like in your eyes not only will it make you desperate for God's remedy it'll keep you from a false remedy why are so many people willing to accept the false remedy of just making some kind of a religious decision they're satisfied with something less than the renewing grace of God that takes out the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh why are so many satisfied with such an unbiblical or sub-biblical level of Christian experience it's because they haven't really faced honestly the depths of their malady when I begin to see that the description that we've seen this morning is true of me that my whole goal in life is wrong that my attitude to God and his law is wicked and that I have a terrible fountain of iniquity within I'm not going to be content to simply go to the medicine chest of making some kind of a decision to straighten up and live right I realize that my malady is as deep as the bottom of my heart and I'll cry to God for a work

34:41 of his grace that'll go as deep as my need I realize that my need is not that I'm moving in the right direction and just omitted God and now I need to sort of incorporate God in with all the rest this is the average concept today here's the big brawny back football player concerned about nothing but lugging a pile of pig skin over a goal line and he's ignored God and someone comes along and says look you need a better quarterback and you need God for your quarterback and he says well that's right you know you do get into some pinches in life where things get kind of rough and I can't get much comfort out of my pig skin and the crowd yelling so I'll take God as my quarterback and so on he goes in the same basic course of life living to please himself going out and desecrating God's holy day and incurring millions across the country to desecrate that holy day what's he done he's incorporated God into his basic pattern of life and I realize my need is not to have God incorporated into my basic pattern but my basic pattern is radically opposed to the very purpose for which I was made I realize I need a remedy that changes and turns me about 180 degrees and sets me in another direction that's why so many are content with a remedy that's less than biblical dear one if you want to be kept from that multitudes will be dashed upon the rocks by accepting a remedy that's not of God then you better pray God let you see

36:09 the malady and how bad it is one mature saint of God has said that's the best way to know if a person has been savingly awakened by the spirit brought to conviction of sin sufficient as will make laying hold of Christ an intelligent meaningful act of the soul is to take them through Psalm 51 and see if they can pray that prayer honestly and I challenge you to do that even today get on your knees sometime between now and the time we gather together again tonight and you read Psalm 51 and see if you can do something more than thread the words through your eyes and parrot them from your lips you see if you can enter into the spirit of this cry have mercy upon me oh God wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity against thee and thee only have I sinned behold I was shaped in an iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me David is simply saying in his language in poetic form what our Lord said in categorical statements God what I did is the fruit of what I am not only is my deed foul but Lord I'm foul in sin was I conceived from the moment of my inception I've been a mass of iniquity and sin

Practical Effects for the Christian: Gratitude, Watchfulness, and Stability

37:39 purge me with hyssop wash me create in me a clean heart dear one if you can enter in and somehow at least in some small measure you can make David's prayer your prayer then you may experience David's remedy as your remedy and so the practical effect of this teaching understood by the sinner through the work of the spirit is that it will make you desperate for God's remedy it will keep you from a false remedy and it will shut you up to Christ but now what practical effect will this have upon a sinner I know there's some people who would take great exception to a preacher of the gospel and a pastor especially you might warrant that this would be alright with an evangelist but a pastor breaking in to the regular exposition of a passage of scripture and spend two whole mornings on a little phrase of what practical use is this to a Christian may I suggest three very quickly first of all it will keep you grateful it will keep you grateful God says look unto the rock from whence you were hewn and unto the pit from whence you were digged when my heart grows cold to my Lord I just think back where would I have been if God in his common grace

39:09 through Christian parents and the influence of a conscience conditioned by Christian truth had not somehow kept the cap on that well of iniquity that was continually rising up and bursting forth where would I be I tremble at the thought as I face honestly what my Lord says about my heart being a cesspool of all forms of iniquity and I see how God restrained me from following the dictates of my depraved heart then how in his grace he arrested and changed the purpose from one that was entirely opposed to him to one that wants to his will and his purpose I tell you dear ones it's pretty easy then to begin to praise the Lord to begin to say with the psalmist bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits finding it hard to be grateful you just better go back and look under the rock from whence you were hewn and onto the pit from whence you were digged not only keep you grateful but keep you watchful the Lord said watch and pray watch and pray and what will keep me watchful is this that though in his grace God has

40:39 not been entirely banished and so that recognition that those sin has been dethroned as the master whom I willingly serve sin has not been banished off to some dark corner of the universe where it's no longer a problem to me and I realize that though I now have motives for purity that I never had before though there is the indwelling of the spirit and the intercession of Christ to keep me from sin I will realize as the Bible teaches me that those potentials are still within me and that it's only through the intervention of God's grace and the keeping power of his spirit that I shall be kept this will keep me watchful this will keep me diligent in the means of grace this will keep me diligent in pursuing after my God and praying as he taught me to pray lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil you better beware Christian when the thought of the possibility of what you could do no longer drives you to your knees crying out to God that you won't do it you're in bad shape and repeat it I'll repeat it when you get to the place where the thought of what you could do doesn't drive you to your knees praying that God would keep you from it you're in bad place for pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit

42:08 before a fall and the greatest indication of pride is prayerlessness the Lord says without me he can do nothing a prayerless heart says Lord without you I can do much and I'll prove it for in prayer we simply come and spread our helplessness before our God and exchange our weakness for his strength and then the third thing this will do in the Christian is not only keep you grateful and watchful but in great measure it will be used of God an honest view of your sinfulness to keep you stable it will keep you from the throes of perfectionism people come along telling you that there's an experience to be had in this life that will

43:01 keep you stable people who claim some experience that's led them into a sinless state their basic problem is they don't know what sin is and they need to have their hearts uncovered a according to the teaching of the word of God and on the other hand it will keep you from the opposite extreme of sinless perfection and that is contentment in your sin if I realize that wherever this attitude of enmity rears its head its ugly wherever this disposition to live unto myself shows itself that that's the essence of sin having the wrong goal making myself my goal instead of him that

44:06 for grace and so it'll keep you from perfectionism it'll keep you from indifference it'll keep you from a lot of the weird teaching that floats around concerning the Christian life and the longer I study my Bible what little bit God's taught me the more I become suspicious of anybody or any movement that offers me an experience in Jesus Christ that will rob me of praying half the Psalms Psalms in which the servants of God are crying out in agony of soul for their sin crying out because of their darkness I'm afraid when anyone tells me there's something to be had that makes me so I can't use the language of Paul fighting without fears within anxiety for the churches I'm suspicious I'm suspicious and a right view of sin will keep you from running after that which only the hungry run after you see it's only people who are going somewhere that get ensnared in paths they shouldn't be you sit home in your bed and your clothes all around you you never need to worry that you're going to walk in the wrong path it's the man who gets out and explores and goes out into an area where others have not been as far as he knows he's the man that's liable to fall off a cliff or the man that's liable to get hung up in a ditch or break his leg on a precipice and it's only the child of God panting after his Lord that is even in any area of possibility of getting

45:35 ensnared but if you continually face what you are in the light of God's word it'll keep you in your

45:52 God who adorned the history of the church like bright lights in the dark sky and it's that pathway where there's that blessed mystery I know I'm clean and yet I'm unclean I know my father looks upon me and smiles because I'm in Christ and yet at the same time I know that if I turn aside as a father in faithfulness he'll deal with me and so there's that

46:22 I'm clean and yet I'm unclean I'm accepted in the beloved and yet I seek to strive and walk so as to have his fatherly smile upon me if ye then being evil I trust that these studies will cause us to take seriously the Bible teaching on the sinfulness of man if you're here today and not joined to the Savior that you've heard the voice of God and that you'll begin to seek him with an earnestness it'll make you a candidate for his promise ye shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart let us pray