Alright, I think they participated well. That's good. We'll get to our Bible study tonight. As I finish a message that I was preaching this morning, and a topical message as well, so there's not a text to have you turn to, to follow along, unless you want to have it open to 2 Samuel chapter 5, which is the text that we took off of this morning. So what let's do, let's pray. and ask God's blessing on our service tonight. And then I'll recap the introduction a little bit, just to remind us of what we're looking at. And then we'll go from there as we look at righteousness tonight, the battle of righteousness. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we get to spend time in the Word of God this evening. And Lord, we do ask that the Spirit of God will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would help us to have the wisdom of God and the guidance of God tonight. Lord, I can't preach without your help. I said that this morning, but I say that all the time because that's a fact. And Father, just like we need to pray the Spirit of God, give wisdom and evangelism, Father as preacher, I get the privilege of praying and asking you please to guide my lips as I speak. God says we listen. Lord, I'm glad that we didn't get through the message this morning so that we could spend time tonight considering this topic of righteousness. Thank you for those that were able to make it back tonight. And Lord, we pray for the power of God in this service. Again, as we prayed already, Lord, our biggest need is revival. And Father, revival doesn't need a big crowd. Lord, we sometimes think, well, if we had 500 people, we'd experience revival. Lord, revival could start in a prayer meeting with very few people. I think we begin with that a little bit tonight as we come into this text. And so I pray, may the Spirit of God guide. Father, would you have your way? I pray that each person that's here would have the blessing of coming out to the Lord's house on a Sunday night and getting something from God. And Father, we also want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ as we memorialize Him and His death for us. And we want to honor you with that. And I pray that you bless that part of our service as well. So God, help the kids tonight. They're in the service. They get to listen to the word of God. I thank you, Lord. I got saved as a five-year-old sitting in a church service. And Father, I know that you can speak to the hearts of kids tonight. And if any of our children here are not yet saved, Lord, may the spirit of God open their minds to the truth of the gospel. And may they be soon saved. And Father, I pray as adults, challenge our hearts and encourage our hearts in you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Alright, so just help me out tonight as we get back into this. There are five things that David did as he went into battle. Most of those things were seen in both the battles that he faced as he went out against the Philistines. So the first thing he did, he entreated the Lord, is what the Bible says. And so that is what? Prayer. He prayed about it. The second thing was, God gave him a He's promised. And so he got the promise that he's going to be victorious from God. The third thing was he got the battle plan. This is what needs to be done as you go into battle. The first time it was just go up. The second time it was come around behind the myrtle trees, the going in the tops of the myrtle trees, and then go out to battle. The fourth thing was when the Spirit of God goes out before you into battle, what? Bestir yourself. So the guy gives you a battle plan, and the spirit of God stirs you up and then do something about it. And the fifth thing is, after you're in the battle, or in the act of battle, or after the battle, destroy what? Everything that pertains to the enemy. And really, it is a great plan. You've got to write those five points down, and when you struggle with something in your life, say, God, help me to win the battle, and so I'm going to pray about it, and I'm going to get a promise from the Word of God, and I'm going to get to know your plan about this. God, how do I go about this? What do I do about this? And I'm going to stir myself up to do something about it, and then I'm going to destroy anything that the enemy could use to defeat me in that battle. And you know what? We will find that by God's grace, that's a good plan, a good formula for victory. Now this morning, I got through the first idea that we put before ourselves with regard to a battle. We talked about evangelism. We stepped into righteousness, but we ended the service because basically I didn't want to rush through this idea which is critical to what we desire to see God do with evangelism. It's actually critical to what we desire to see God do in every battle that we'll face. This is a premier battle that we need to win so that we can have victory in other areas, and the battle is the battle for righteousness. And so, follow Him, Jesus, into the battle for righteousness. Psalm 23 verse 3 says, He restoreth my soul He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Psalm 23 is the what song? The Lord is my shepherd. And our shepherd tonight, and our shepherd this morning, and our shepherd all the time, wants to be leading us in the paths of righteousness. This is the great thing about Proverbs. You study Proverbs, and it's about being in the way. And there's these false ways that go off from the way. And we talked before about how often the Word of God, the Bible speaks about that straight and narrow way, or that path, or that walk that God desires us to be on with Him. He's in the path of righteousness. And I mentioned this morning that the morality of our world is in decline. I didn't elaborate on it, I just kind of threw it out there kind of quickly this morning. But let me just pause and let's think about it. I mentioned that creation and evolution used to be both taught. Now they just teach evolution. That's a big thing. We've got kids growing up in our schools and their idea is science is against God. I talked to a girl at the door yesterday, as I knocked on doors, and she opened it, not young, but a teenager, actually an older teenager, and she said, well, really, I believe science. And I said, good, I don't have a problem with somebody believing science, but science is on the side of who? I said, who wrote the laws? Who gave us the laws? God did, but she's not told that in school, not anymore. So our world is different. It used to be, go back, rewind, 50 years, you would have had some teachers in school saying, God gave us the laws. They would have taught that. But now, evolution is a fact. Nobody in the past, I mentioned this morning, and I didn't spend time on it, again I just kind of threw it out there, nobody would have thought that mankind would seek to redefine marriage and the family. Nobody would have thought this. I live long enough that I remember back when I was a child and it was called, even I was in California, and it was called Coming Out of the Closet. I mean, it's a very shameful thing to talk about the fact that I am perverted in my sexual orientation. Now, with regard to marriage, we've got questions about what sex am I? What is it called? Binary? I'm either a man or a woman. I'm just something. The Bible says God created them male and female. So God created man that way. We've got leadership questions I mentioned this morning. If I suggested to a lot of people, and I don't suggest it, I preach it, the word of God says that the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, that he is to be the leader in the home. That's what God says. They say that's misogynistic. That word didn't even exist a few years ago. But it means that you have a diminished view of womankind, which isn't at all true. We hold women in high esteem. But you understand what I'm saying. We've got conception questions regarding surrogates and killing babies in the womb and things that, I mean, a hundred years ago, people would have been shocked. What do you mean? Somebody's going to carry your baby? How's that? Or that you're going to kill a baby in the womb. We've got cohabitation partner questions instead of husband and wife. So the world has changed greatly. And I mentioned this morning that the church is tracking a little bit. It's kind of like this. We stay this far away from the world. If the world is going worldly, worldly, worldly, if the church isn't staying, it's going to be going like this. And you're saying, well, I'm better than the world because I'm over here and the world's over there. Yeah, but you're here and the church used to be here. You know what I'm saying? I mean, there's a big change taking place in the church. And so we have churches where they're asking questions about social drinking. I read in Isaiah in my Bible this afternoon that the priests erred through strong drink. It's very clear the Word of God has a lot to say condemning alcohol. Again, we have Christians that desire that liberty to be able to indulge their flesh in a drink that has destroyed men's lives. I mean all the time when I'm doing evangelism. They have gone down deeply because of alcohol. And it destroys. And people say, well, I just have a little bit. Well, that's fine, you just have a little bit. But what happens when problems come, and that numbs you, and you know it numbs you, and you take more than you should, then you've had a lot of it, and that lot of it is going to corrupt your life. And so, social drinking questions in the church. Entertainment questions. I mentioned before, our world has the standards about, and I forget what they are, as far as what you see on the movies, and they say parental guidance, or you've got to be older than 13, or you've got to be older than 18. It's kind of like, well, wait a second, is that the standards for a believer, or is that standards for the world? The standards for the world. But Christians are mentioning movies, they think, wait a second, if I understand it correctly, that's a very wicked movie. But you've seen that, you've watched that. Entertainment questions. Liberties. Language questions. A lot of believers, they'll say, Oh my God, Jesus Christ, and they don't think anything of it. It doesn't bother them. In fact, they don't think about it. And is that not what the Word of God means when it says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, which means I'm not thinking about it. For he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. And where godly men in the past would have just been grieved by that, a lot of believers could just... I mean, it's all over our churches where they are taking God's name in vain. You've got church attendance declining. You know, the Sabbath was Saturday. That's correct. But the New Testament Sabbath is what day? Sunday. It's the Lord's Day. Why would God say, Old Testament people, you know, because, what, are you a primitive man or something? You've got to honor me on one day a week. Which, by the way, a great proof of creation is the fact that there's still a seven-day week. But God said, one of those seven days is to honor me. And all of a sudden we get to the New Testament, hey, we're under liberty and that's not important. But if you read the guys in the 1800s that loved God, and I've said before, William Burns got burdened about it when they tried to put in a train line on Sundays to run from Edinburgh to Glasgow. So these preachers went down there and they preached against it because they were so burdened about honoring God the Lord's name. We've said before in church, if our shops and things were closed on Sunday, would we be in a better position with regard to the church today? And the answer is yes. And if Christians would honor God on the Lord's Day and say, no, that is a special day, it's not a normal day, we're going to honor God on that day. And by the way, read the Old Testament and see how often God rebukes his people because they have desecrated the Sabbath. But again, we could take it and say, well, it's not a big deal. Or is it? Modesty questions. I said recently, Thursday night, I was talking about Oh, the sons of Hamer, Shechem, had defiled Dinah, Jacob's daughter. And the brothers of Dinah made an agreement to say to Shechem and Hamer that if you'll do this, be circumcised, then we'll give you Dinah to be married. And what was interesting is they're deceiving them into having them circumcised so they can come and kill them. If you know the story, it's a very sordid story. The sons of Hamor and the people of Shechem, they kept their part of the bargain, and God's people didn't. And we talked about how Jehovah's Witnesses are more modest than a lot of our ladies that attend churches. Right? Christian churches. And they know to dress modestly. And modesty issues. Not just women, but men dressing modestly or appropriately. Church worship music. You know, most churches, sadly, today, Christian churches, you go into them, you wouldn't know if you walked into a pub or walked into a church if you couldn't hear the word Jesus or God every so often. And you can hardly make it out. Because they're not concerned that music matters. There's people that say music is amoral. In other words, it is neither good nor bad. It's just a medium. And as long as the words are good. The problem is, if you really examine the words, they're not good. But that's being set aside. Let me ask you the question. Is music moral or amoral? Is paint moral or amoral? Is this paint right here, is this moral or amoral? It's actually moral. You could use this paint to paint something perverse. You go to the art galleries and there could be something that is absolutely immoral that's painted with paint. That's just a medium. You can use that medium corruptly. And so there is a morality to music, and there is a need to understand that the devil's music in the house of God ought not to be, nor should it be in my house. And that I ought to have convictions about the music that I listen to, that if somebody hears me listening to, they don't know, Pastor Boyd, what pop star are you listening to? No, no, I'm listening to God's music. Now wait a second. You know, I need to have something that clearly identifies me with Christ. Ecumenism questions. You've got churches that are doing joint services with churches that are clearly against God. I've heard of evangelical churches in our area doing joint services with Catholics. Billy Graham did. Billy Graham had joint services with Catholics. Billy Graham had joint services with Jehovah's Witnesses. Ecumenism. And then you confront them about it, and it seems that the church has more questions than answers about holiness. You bring that up to them, and they'll say, well, I don't really know what God's word says about that. I witnessed a girl in Princess Street Gardens, she's a young lady, she's out of an evangelical church in Ireland, and God gave me a divine appointment with her, and she said, I just don't believe it. She's grown up, and now she's studying philosophy, and fourth year. And I said to her, and she said why. She said, I've got some homosexual friends and all this, and I just have a problem with it. And I said to her, if you went into a prison, I used to do prison ministry, and she goes, my dad's a prison guard. And the Lord led me in what I said. And I said, well, you know this then, I said, those prisoners in there, if you said, look, you're guilty, what are they going to say? No, I'm not. I don't understand. I don't know why they put me behind bars. I don't know why they've done this. Why can't they understand? Because it's not that they don't have the information, it's that they don't accept the information. They reject it. Correct? And so the point is this, I spoke to another man at my house this past week as he picked up something that we were selling on Gumtree. And he comes to our house to collect it and I helped him out to the car with it. Found out he was a Baptist for the last six years or so. Got saved about six years ago. But he's never been baptized. And I said to him, I said, well look, the Bible is very clear, it's by immersion. in that it's believer's baptism. After somebody gets saved, they're to be baptized. You have the example of Jesus, you have the example of John the Baptist. You've got all the examples in Acts. And he acted like this. I just can't understand it. I said, wait a second. I gave him this illustration about the young lady that I met in Princess Street Gardens. I said, so often it's not that we don't understand it, it's that we reject it. Here's my point. When it comes to righteousness, and what we're talking about tonight is about righteousness, there would be a lot of people that would say, wait a second, I've got a problem with that. That kind of preaching that says, you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do that. I've got a problem with that. Well, let's stop and examine that. Is it that I can't understand that from the Bible, or is it that I reject it? Does that make sense? So we need to make sure tonight, that our heart is ready to say to God, when it comes to this area of righteousness, you're going to step on my toes. It's bound to happen when we study what righteousness is. You're going to step on my toes. I'm either going to say, I can't understand why it's painful, I can't understand why there's this battle, and I just don't know what to do, or I can say, God, I'll agree with you, if you show me clearly in the Word of God that this is something that is contrary to Christ, then I will change. And that brings us to David's battle plan. When we look at righteousness, we're going to apply that in this. But I want to say a few more things about what God says in his word about righteousness first. He says in Leviticus 20 verse 7, Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Leviticus, Old and New Testament. Old. I mean, real old, right? This is Moses, this is a Pentateuch pastor. You could say a preacher. You're going back to the Old Testament. You're saying, God said in his word back then, Be holy for I am the Lord your God. Sanctify yourself. Cleanse yourself. But Peter said, in 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16, Old Testament or New? New Testament. Peter said that verse. As he said, as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. That's lifestyle. How holy is God? God is perfectly without sin. And so tonight, if God was here, God would be the example and God would say to us, be ye holy as I am holy. By the way, can I have that holiness? I can. I want to point that out because you say, well, that's unattainable. It's not unattainable. It's attainable through whom? Jesus. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. See, I will fail, I will sin, but by the grace of God I can live in victory. There are times where I can say, as best I know my heart, and it ought to be tonight before we come to the Lord's table, you ought to be able to say this, Pastor, as best I know my heart, my heart is right with the Holy God. That means I have examined this and I've dealt with it. And that's what God wants us to do. James 1.27 It says pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. So, James, tell us about religion. What is real religion? And he says this is what it is. Visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, care about those that are less fortunate, and keep himself unspotted from the world. So if I was to say in our church today, you know we had the congregation that we had this morning, or say we had a hundred people here, a thousand people here, and I was to walk down the aisles, and I'm just examining, are you really worshipping God? Are you really worshipping God? Are you really worshipping God? Are you really worshipping God? I can't see the heart, but God can, and God knows this. If somebody is here with defilement that they won't deal with, then what's the problem? They can't worship God as God intends them to worship Him. They can't have what the Bible calls, is what? Pure religion. It's not possible. We want to think the best of people. We can't see hearts. And God hasn't called us to judge. I'm so glad tonight I don't have to stand up here and say, well, you can't have this. As we share the Lord's table, that's between a man and God. But I've got to make sure in my heart that my heart is right with God, because that's what God intends. And you know what? If I don't have righteousness in my heart, and I'm content to live that way, then I am defeated. I remember talking about a battle tonight, the battle for righteousness. The fact is, if I don't have that, and I am content to stay unrighteous, then it's already over. I can't even enter into the battle, because I've already been defeated in the battle. Why? Because the Bible says in Ephesians 6, verse 14, Stand therefore having your loins girded about with truth. That's good doctrine. It's the belt of truth. And having on the breastplate of righteousness. See, that's what protects me. So, if I don't have that, what happens? Satan just goes, you can't serve God. And he's right. You can't worship God. And he's right. His darts are just going right in there because I don't have what I need to defend myself. So this is a very important point. And that's why I say this. Every battle that we'll face, this is the premier battle that a Christian will face. The battle for righteousness. It affects every other battle that we'll ever face. And so, Robert Murray McShane, a preacher at Dundee, Scotland, St. Peter's Church, back in the early 1800s, he said, The greatest need of my people is my personal holiness. Now, he's not God, and that's not Bible, but that's a great statement. The greatest need of my people is my personal holiness. Why? Because as a man of God, he's the best one to honor, sanctify, and meet for the Master's use. And God can use him, right? Because he's right with God. To take his logic, which is good logic, you could say this, your family's greatest need is your personal holiness. You could say this, your personal greatest need is your personal holiness. The best thing that you could do is win this battle for righteousness. So how are you doing in the battle for righteousness? Are you behind God? We're talking about getting behind God and going out into battle. Psalm 24, 3 and 4 says this, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Again, we need the power of God. We've got to do effective evangelism. We've got to guide our families. We've got to be a godly individual that impacts people for God. We can't if we're not winning this battle. So it has to be won. So what is David's method of getting behind God? First thing we need to do is what? Pray about the battle. So how are we going to pray about this battle for righteousness? Well, here's an example. That verse I just said, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, that hath not lifted up his soul into vanity. A man, a young deacon in the church on the Isle of Lewis, stood up and quoted that scripture as they met in a barn to pray and ask God to bring revival to the Isle of Lewis. And as he read that, Duncan Campbell records that a minister said to him about this story that took place, said after he got done reading that scripture, he said, It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God. Then he lifted up his two hands and he says, Duncan Campbell says, I'm telling you just as the minister told me it happened. He lifted his two hands and he prayed. You know what he said? God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? What did he do? He did what we're talking about. The desire to be right with God. The desire to have the power of God. So he prayed about it. He just said, God, are they clean? Is my heart clean? We've got parents here tonight. We've got kids. And you tell your kids, go wash your hands. What do you do as a parent? Go wash your hands. And then you say what? And come and show me. I want to see the evidence that they're clean. Because mom and dad tend to see things that kids don't see. Correct? Do you know that God tends to see things that we don't see when it comes to personal holiness? See, what I'm talking about is if we're tracking off the world, and the world is going further, further, further, further, if that's our mindset, I'm just better than the world, then we're going to be off in our personal holiness. We've got to look at God's Word, and we've got to look to God and say, God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? Isn't that what David did? King David said to God, Search me, O God, and know me, try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. Have you said that? Because we're talking about, God, I seriously want to get into this battle for righteousness. So I'm asking you, God, is there anything, anything? God, I don't want to speck. You know, Jesus, when he washed his disciples' feet, did he do a good job? And he said to Peter, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. And listen, that's it tonight. If God doesn't wash you, he has no part with you. So if you're content to say, well, I've done my best, and I don't want him to look, I mean, you can't really walk with God, can you? Because God hasn't cleansed you as you need to be cleansed. And so pray about it. And then secondly, okay, he prays about it. What's the second thing that he does? He gets a promise from God. Okay, do we have promises, obviously, in the Word of God about God's ability to cleanse us? Isaiah 1.18. Come now, And let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And somebody can say, I don't really want to go to God, because to be honest, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the fact that I've got a lot of sin. But what does God say? He says, come unto me. Even if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as white as snow. It has to be, on our part, a willingness to say to God, God, I want the light. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. If somebody loves their sin, they're not going to want this. But if somebody is willing to say to God, God, I want victory over sin, I want sin out of my life, then I just pray, God, examine me and I pray, purify me. Why? Because the Word of God has promised that even if my sin is like scarlet, it shall be as white as snow. Proverbs 28, 13, He that cometh to sin shall not prosper. That's a warning, but there's a promise. But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. If we'll be honest with God and say, God, that displeases you. God, that is something that needs to change. Then God says, mercy. 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise. It's a promise tonight that, I mean, praise God, the water's on, the soap's ready, and God's ready to cleanse us through the blood of the Lamb, right? He's willing. When I got saved, I mentioned I got saved as a little boy, alright? Any five-year-olds here tonight? Anyone five? I don't think so. We've got four-year-olds. Alright. I was five. But I sat in a service and my dad preached a message on hell. As a little boy, I thought, man, I don't want to go to hell. And I went down to my dad's study, and the fact is, dad sat down with me, and he showed me I was a sinner, punishment for my sin is hell, but Jesus died for me and that God would forgive me. And as a little boy, I just bowed my head and I prayed with my daddy. And I said, Jesus, I'm a sinner, will you please forgive me of my sin and save me? You know what God did? God saved me, and when he saved me, the old man died like we talked about in Sunday School this morning, and that body of sin was destroyed. And you know what my heart did, even as a little kid? It laughed. I remember this. I walked out and there was a man, George, that was coming into my dad's office. I just remember kind of jumping. I just felt light. And I went to my mom. I was all excited. Mom, I got saved. And I kind of felt like she wasn't that interested. But even as a little boy, God had just taken the load off. Why? Because that's what he promised us to do. And so we look at the promise in the Word of God and say, you know what? God is willing. God desires to forgive me. And so what do I need to do? First thing, pray about the battle. Get a promise from God about the battle. And then get God's plan. about the battle. How do I go about this? Well, let's consider again what the Word of God says from those promises. It says, God says, let's reason together. Okay, let's come talk about it. Come talk about it. Confess and forsake. It says, if we confess. So what's that? Deal with sin. Deal with sin. Alright, here's a deep question for a Sunday night. What is sin? What is sin? Your Sunday school class got this today? Alright, what is sin? Sin is breaking God's law. We break God's law. That's what the Word of God says. It says in 1 John 3, verse 4, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. There's two ways we can break God's law. Here it is, there's sins of commission and sins of Omission. Okay? Sins of omission first. God said to do it and you refuse to obey. Right? Do you know if we have somebody in our church and they're not saved, that if they walk out unsaved, they're in disobedience to God because they've chosen to reject God? The Bible says that salvation is command. God commands all men everywhere to repent. They've refused to obey the gospel. Do you get that? They're in disobedience. Not just they're a sinner and they're on their way to hell. They're in disobedience because they have transgressed doing what God said to do. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Make sense? Okay, that's salvation. What about baptism? Is that commanded? Yeah, it is. It's a little hard for the church to baptize somebody against their will. We might try it sometime, I kind of like to sometimes, but I can't do that. They have to submit to that, but not submitting to waters of baptism after salvation is what? It's disobedience to God. It's a sin of omission. God said to do it, you didn't do it. Evangelism. We talked about evangelism this morning. Go into all the world and what? Preach the gospel. See, that's not just a command. I'm a minister. Listen, by the way, a minister is flesh and blood. And I know you understand this. I don't have to emphasize this overly. But the fact is, The whole holy water and priest thing and all that stuff, it's just a person that God has called to preach, gifted to preach, according to the word of God, and called to be a leader of the church. But your pastor has to make himself evangelize as much as you have to make yourself evangelize. Does that make sense? And so, evangelism, again, is that something God commands? It is. So I have to do that. I have to be ready to do that. Prayer and devotions, is that optional? Does God say, if you want to honor me, if you want to worship me, if you want to spend time in the word of God, that's optional? Or is it disobedience to not to? To not to? Is it disobedience not to? Sam has said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you. That's prayer. And so it's things that we should do. Tithing, is tithing optional? Well, it's in the Old Testament, it's commanded. In the New Testament, it's grace giving. But if you study it, it's meaning liberty to give more. And we really, as New Testament believers, ought to give more than a tithe. If you study 1 Corinthians 8 and 9, we certainly should be giving. Right? Every man according to his purpose in his heart, so let him give. Given it shall be given unto you. God commands it. And so, not doing that is sinning. It's transgressing God's law. Church attendance. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. And so, sins of omission. Work ethic. Disciplining children. Loving wife. Honoring husband. Honoring parents. Okay, we can come up with a long list tonight and say the Word of God says to do this. And if I'm not doing this, then I've transgressed God's law. Sins of God said not to do it, and you refuse to repent and forsake. This would be lust, covetousness, lying, taking God's name in vain, anger, blasphemy, murder, fornication, adultery, disobeying parents, slander, gossip, laziness. And as I read that list tonight, and I talk about things that God said to do that we don't do, and things that God said not to do and we do, are you encouraged tonight? Does that just build you up and say, hey, that's great, the pastor is talking about how we disobey God and how we fail God? It's discouraging because we want to please God. We want to obey God, we want to honor God, but to get to that point of righteousness, what do we have to do? We have to look at it squarely, like in a mirror, like the Bible speaks about in James, and go, you know what? That needs to change. That needs to change. The pastor's not just preaching what he wants to preach because he wants it. He's preaching what the Word of God says. I hope tonight you agree that that's in the Bible. So you look at it and go, God says to do that, I need to do that. God says don't do that. I need to not do that, and I need to deal with that. That's God's plan. And I want to point this out. His plan is hinged on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, this tonight is the reason why we can do that. Isaiah 53 verse 5, But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. That abuse that Jesus took at Calvary was God's plan. Why? So he could be righteous. Now, get this. How sad is it when we have a church service, say we had 20 unsaved here. How sad would it be if they walked out the doors unsaved when Christ did this for them? Sad? How sad is it today if in our church we had 20 people harboring sin, refusing to deal with sin, and they walked out the door with their sin, even though the blood of Jesus Christ was shed so that they could be forgiven. Same problem, isn't it? And see, we can see it clearly, unsaved need to get saved, but we need to see it as clearly that sin needs to be dealt with because that's God's plan. And so what do I need to do when the Spirit of God stirs me up? Act on it. That's the fourth thing. Stir yourself up as God's spirit moves. Isaiah 64.6 says, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. And here it is. Israel was in great sin against God. They had transgressed. And you know what? They didn't care. And sadly, that can be the heart of a lot of the church. They get it, they see it, they go, you know what, it is sin, we're not doing it, we should do it. It is sin, we're doing it, we shouldn't do it. But rather get on our face before God, as was it King Josiah did, and begging God, saying, God, we have transgressed your law. We're content to continue in that. We need to stir ourselves up and say, you know what? I want to do something. I want to grab hold of God with regard to this thing. I want to go back to that man that refuses to be baptized. He needs to be baptized. It's been six years. Just speak about it very quickly. He's refusing to be baptized. He's disobedient to the clear example in God's word of believer's baptism. He's refusing to identify with the Lord Jesus. He's refusing to do what's commanded in the name of the Trinity. Now, listen, it takes time sometimes for somebody to come to a conviction and understand, yes, I need to do that. Make sense? But it's been six years. And so he's disobeying God. But what if he would go ahead and get baptized? And I said this to him. What would happen if he got baptized He would change in other areas of his life. Why? Because to this point he's been refusing God. But if you obey God, all of a sudden life opens up and he can progress in his growth. If he got baptized, he'd give a clear example to family and friends and neighbors. A clear witness that I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. They might get saved. The church would be encouraged. It would be a blessing to their church to have that baptismal service take place and the fellowship would be strengthened. Why? Because one man dealt with one sin in his life. You see it? So tonight, just stop and think, if God has spoken to your heart about anything, or my heart about anything, if I will deal with that one thing, what will happen? it could have potentially incredible blessing to everything. Because I would be winning the battle instead of being defeated. And so what do I need to do? I need to destroy all that pertains to the enemy. I'll make this brief tonight. We'll go straight to the Lord's Table after this. I've got another challenge with regard to the Lord's Table I'll share another time. But I'm going to destroy all that pertains to the enemy. And so the early church, when they dealt with this, Acts 19, 19, when they dealt with sin, many of them also, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them, and they founded 50,000 pieces of silver. That's expensive. And you might think today, Pastor, if I deal with that sin, that's going to cost me some money. I've got a lot of money invested in those CDs. I've got a lot of money invested in those DVDs. I've got a lot of money invested in that whatever it is. But if I just cut it off, it could be an association, it could be a club membership, it could be so many things. But God says, deal with it no matter what the cost. No matter what the cost, deal with it. And so, cast down What has cast you down? 1 Corinthians 10.5 or 2 Corinthians 10.5. Casting down imaginations and every high thought that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. You know, there's a lot of people that would probably say, it doesn't matter what you think as long as you don't what? Act on it. God says, I so want you to deal with sin in your life that I want you to even what? Think right. If God wants us to think right, then think about this. What about the things that we do? See, God wants it right here, and he wants it right here. I mean, the things that we do, those are greater things, it seems, but they're not. And so, God, help me to cast down those things, even thoughts. It might be internet, telly, friendships, gambling, music, movies, mobiles. I mean, just deal with those things. A lady that I know, she's a Christian, but she buys lottery tickets. I talked to her about it, and she's like, but it's for charity. Well, if it's for charity, just give them the money. Why are you getting the ticket? And if you win, whose money are you getting? The money stolen from a lot of kids' mouths? The money that's wrecked a lot of families? The money that's destroyed homes? You know, we like to, again, just kind of hold on to those things that are like the world. By the way, 20 pounds a week is 1,040 pounds a year. And she thinks, well, it's not that much. Well, yes it is a lot of money. Cast down. Come out from them and be separate. Be separate. The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 6 verse 17, Wherefore come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And so we come back to it tonight and say this, I cannot please God, it doesn't please God to sit in church, or to sing hymns, if what? If this heart is not right with God. And so what do I have to do? I have to deal with it. And let me just point this out. We can deal with it. My dog, Duchess, our dog, Duchess, but mine in the mornings at 6am. And she's been sneaking upstairs. She's not allowed upstairs. But during the night she's been sneaking upstairs. And you know what she is? She's a toy thief. She likes to steal toys and then chew them up. Kids, that's bad, isn't it? A monster that chews up toys. She comes up, chews up the toys, and it's getting kind of old, they come out, like, what did she destroy last night? And we started shutting the doors and things, trying to keep that from happening. But I remembered I had a manual before I got a dog that told me how to raise a dog. And I should have studied it more. But I remember it said that if you will give them something to chew on, like your way or something, you only get it out when you're gone, you give it to them, it's going to protect your walls, it's going to protect your furniture. You know what I did? I got that out. And you know what it's done? It's helped. It's not perfect, but it's helped. Why? Because I dealt with it. Now, I could get up every morning and be like, oh, I'm so frustrated by the dog doing this. Or I could deal with it. It's the same with sin. You could be frustrated, defeated, and look at it and go, oh, it's bullshit. In this way, everything is in life. You've got all these weeds in your garden. Weed your garden. Deal with it. Stop being burdened about it. Do something about it. So tonight, the pastor is preaching on sin. You look at your life and say, you know what? There is sin in my life. It needs to change. I confess it, but I don't forsake it. I haven't dealt with it. I've not gotten rid of it. I haven't prayed and asked God, God, how do I have victory over this? So what? Do something about it. What's it called? Win the battle. How? Go out behind God. Right? And that's the whole point of what we're considering. That I'll look at my life and say, God, I'm going to pray about this. I'm not just going to be content to be an unrighteous Christian. But I'm going to pray about it. And I'm going to ask you, God, look at my heart. And I'm going to get a what? Secondly, I'm going to pray about it. I'm going to get a promise. Then I'm going to get God's plan. And then I'm going to stir myself up and do something. And I'm going to destroy everything that pertains to the enemy. And what will I have? Victory. So why do we have Christians that are living in defeat when they could be living in victory? Because they haven't done that. They haven't followed God out into the battle. And the point of the message is not discourage us, Pastor. No, we just feel so defeated. That's great. I went to church and I feel defeated. The point is, we ought to have victory. We would have revival in a church that people just dealt with sin like that. Like, hey, that movie is bad, bin it. That music is bad, bin it. That relationship is bad, break it off. That place is bad, don't go there. And if you start dealing with your life like that, guess what you have? You have a B-E-H-O-L-Y people that are separated unto God and God says, hey, you're my children. And we've won. And now we can effectively evangelize, we can effectively parent, we can effectively do the other things that we desire to do, because God has brought us to victory. Let's pray, commit that to the Lord, and then we'll observe the Lord's table. Father, I pray in the quietness of our hearts just now, this is what we want to come to in this observance of the Lord's table. Savior, thank you for the shed blood, thank you for the broken body. But Father, to partake of this tonight with known sin in our heart, or harbored sin, is in direct violation of the Word of God. Father, I just pray, in the quietness of our heart, as we'll take a minute here, may the Spirit of God speak. Lord, you might be speaking to somebody about music, you might be speaking about alcohol, you might be speaking about associations, relationships, friendships, internet, telly, all the things that defile us. Father, things that we're not doing, evangelizing, church attendance, and tithing, and following the Lord and believers' baptism are getting saved. And Father, I just pray in our heart right now, we just say, God, I see it, it's not right. Will you please forgive me? Whoso confesseth and forsaketh. And I'm going to get rid of that. I'm going to change that. I'm going to get that out of my house. I'm going to get that out of my life. And Father, that is victory. That's winning the battle for righteousness. And Father, we want to win the battle. And we want you to go out before us. And so Father, we're just going to take a minute or two here in silent prayer, let you examine our hearts, and then observe the Lord's table.