Here we find Jesus teaching the multitudes about the consequences of sin in the believer’s life. As you study this scripture you have many interesting dynamics occurring in the life of Jesus. As we walk into this moment in history, and if we read just a few verses earlier, we see Jesus demonstrating that the kingdom of God had come in him.
Reading forward, we see Jesus, unleashing an attack on his accusers, explaining to them that they need to come clean, they need to "show their true colors…
These people, who while their exterior appear to be right, Jesus said that your true colors would disclose the true intentions of your heart…
In this particular scripture, Jesus pulls no punches…
He gives us a straight forward, no holds barred, warning against the one unforgivable sin.
God says that "all manner of blasphemy and sin shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men."
As a subject today the title of this sermon is " The Victory over Sin"
Now, according to author and theologian A.J. Conyers, the New Testament drives home three primary ideas of sin. Alienation, Bondage and Unbelief.
If we were the "come clean"…
If we were to place the mirror in front of us…
We could ask ourselves these primary ideas in the form of questions.
Have I alienated myself from God in sin?
Do I have sins that are keeping me in Bondage?
Are my unbelief’s (or doubts) a catalyst for sin?
We are going to deal with these aspects of sin as we see how these issues of sin can contribute toward the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life.
So let’s get to this… Just think about the word for a moment…
Sin…
The Word itself has an interesting background… It comes from the Hebrew meaning guilt or fault. In the Greek it comes from the word Par-ap-to-mah which means to have a lapse or deviation against the norm.
For the believer, sin is an inevitable consequence of our life in this world. It started with Adam and is part of our nature. The bible says that All have sinned…
But for the believer, although we will sin in the flesh, the spirit of God
Allows us to overcome the temptations of sin and the devices of the author of sin. When you think of sin, and you think of temptation, you can just as easily replace those words with the devil.
The devil wants nothing more for you to alienate yourself from God.
He wants to separate you from what is good for you. Why? Because the devil wants you to do to God, what he did.
Betray him…
When sin tempts us and we buy in, we have betrayed the Holy Spirit.
We have betrayed the Comforter…
We have betrayed the Holy Ghost…
We have betrayed the spirit that God has told us will direct us toward righteousness…
And therefore, we have betrayed God.
To betray means to: Hand Over…
When you hand something over, you are releasing it from your possession; you are giving it up…
You are no longer holding it.
Just as Judas betrayed Jesus, When we are betraying the spirit.
When we are tempted by sin and accept it, We have handed over the Spirit of God to the Temptation of the Devil…
We have to be able to identify, bind and rebuke the temptations of sin…
Because when Jesus said (John 12:31) " Now is the judgement of this world; Now the prince of this world be cast out"
He is letting us know that he has defeated the Devil…
He is letting us know that he is bearing the weight of sin for the world…
He told us that (John 12:32) "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me."
When the devil is dispatching his demons… We have to lift up the name of Jesus…
When his fallen angels have arrived… We have to lift him up…
When the Devil try’s to move you away from what God has purposed in your life… You have got to lift up the name of Jesus and rebuke that devil.
He has no power over the spirit of God…
He has no strength over the spirit of God…
He has no authority over the spirit of God…
He has no rights over the spirit of God…
When God gave you the Holy Spirit, He gave you the Power
He gave you the Strength…
He gave you the authority…
But we don’t realize the power that we have. We have what I call a Judas complex, we betray our self in Sin.
We want to stop the sin of drunkenness, but we betray the Holy Spirit
We want to stop adulteress behavior, but we betray the Holy Spirit
We want to stop the Lies, the Gossip, the false witness, but we betray the HOLY SPIRIT…
We want to be obedient to God… But we betray his will, and look for his forgiveness…
We need to go to God in prayer…
Tell somebody: I’m a prayer… Not a betrayer.
Come with me to Acts the 5th chapter and 3rd verse for a moment:
You can hide from the spirit. The spirit is your comforter but he’s also your convicter…
This was the case when Peter told An-a-nias: (Acts 5:3) "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land"
In the next verse Peter tells him that he has not lied unto men, but unto God…
And in the 5th verse, the bible says he gave up the Ghost…
Then just three hours later, (in the 7th verse) his wife came in not knowing what was done.
Long story short, she had tried to play the same game as her husband and Peter asked her the question (Acts 5:9) you have tempted the Spirit of the Lord?
And the Bible says that: Then she fell down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the Ghost.
You can’t hide from the spirit…
And you can’t hide from sin… The Bible says (Roman 3:10) that there is none righteous, no not one.
Sin is like a thief in the night… It tries to robs you of your peace of mind…
Its tries to rob of your joy…
It tries to rob you of your obedience…
It tries to wreak havoc on your spirit…
It wants to places you in Bondage…
Oh its starts out slowly, and innocently… Just one cigarette… Just one drink… Just one night at the casino… Just one lie…
Then its Just one more
And just one more, and just one more…
And before you know it, you are in bondage to your sin…
To be in bondage means to be in slavery, to be in servitude,
To be in bondage means to control something or someone… When sin has you in bondage, it controls you and your life…
You are in slavery to it…
It is your master…
We see it every day on the streets of every major city in America…
We see it in our households in with our love ones…
We see it with gambling and other addictive behaviors…
The only thing worse than being in bondage by the devil is not knowing you are in bondage…
You have is what I’ll call a "Peter complex", you are in denial…
I don’t have a drinking problem…
I don’t have a gambling problem…
I don’t need to smoke…
I don’t have a drug problem…
I don’t have an attitude…
I don’t have a problem….
I didn’t lie…
Nothings wrong…
To deny you have a problem is to deny you need help…
And if you deny you need help then you deny the helper…
You deny the comforter…
The assister…
The supporter…
If we deny the help, we can’t receive the free gift that he has promised us…
Jesus said (Matthew 10:33) that "whosoever shall deny me before men, him I also will deny before my father in heaven."
If you have an addiction, the first step toward recovery is to admit that we have a problem"
If you are seeking counsel, you seek the assistance of an expert…
Spiritually, if you are in bondage by the devil, you need to seek forgiveness for those sins and call on the doctor…
Call on the expert…
Call on the man who was able to speak the demons out of the body…
Call on the man who touched the ill and healed them…
Call on the man who fed five thousand and raised the people from the dead…
The Bible says that (Romans 8:21): the creature will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
You or someone you know is in bondage and you know it.
You have a responsibility to try to remove yourself or someone you know from that spirit of bondage.
We cannot sit idly by and watch the devil consume and devour our brothers and sisters.
You see, the scripture said (Matt 12:31)" all manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven".
We can’t sit by and watch… We have to get into the game…
When the spirit says go… You have to go…
You have to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today! You do not want to waste any time.
You see, when we die, God created just two destinations that are available to us…
You see, when you die your soul and spirit body separates from your physical body. So the body, the flesh, which is physical dies and lays still.
But the spirit, and the soul, they live eternally. And they live in one of two destinations. Heaven (paradise) or Hell…
And we all have a choice…
That’s what Jesus did for us…
We were all dead in our sins, but when he died at the cross, He opened the door for us to enter heaven.
If we believe in him…
That’s all he is asking of you…
Just believe in him… Lets go to I corinthian chapter 15 verse 50. Because we really want to understand exactly what is at stake for you are someone you know.
Lets start at 1 Corinthian 15:50
(15:50) Now this I say, brethren that flesh and blood (the physical body) cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption (sin) inherit incorruption
(15:51) Behold, I shew you a mystery (a secret); We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
(15:52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
(15:53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.
(15:54) So when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Tell somebody I have the victory…
Tell somebody I have the victory…
If you are in bondage, You have the victory…
If you’ve said to yourself, how do I receive the keys to the prison door?
You’ve got the victory…
When you need overcome a problem or situation… You’ve got the victory…
With Jesus, your slate is clean…
You are no longer in bondage…
You are no longer alienated…
You are no longer in pain…
You are no longer in agony…
You are no longer behind bars…
You are free…
Jesus has given you victory over sin…
Jesus has given you victory of the devil
Jesus has given you victory over death…
He has given you the power…
He has given you a purpose…
He has given you the potential…
He wants you to grab hold of it…
Use it…
Don’t be held back by sin…
Don’t be disobedient to the spirit.
Because man calls sin an accident… God calls it an abomination…
Man calls sin a blunder… God calls it a blasphemy…
Man calls sin a chance… God calls it a chore…
Man calls sin a defect… God calls it a disease…
Man calls sin a error … God calls it a enmity…
Man calls sin infirmity… God calls it an iniquity…
Man calls sin trifle… God calls it a tragedy…
Man calls it a mistake… God calls it Madness…
Man calls sin a weakness … God calls it Willfulness…
You see, when we sin, we break fellowship with God…
(Illustration) A small child committed a certain offense, and when her parents discovered it. They began to question the child …
Immediately as they questioned the child, the child’s smile left her face and a cloud darkened her face as she said to her parents…
I don’t know what to say… I don’t feel like talking…
The child is only doing these things to attempt to break the need for communication, discipline and obidience…
So it is with us when sin or disobedience against the Holy Spirit,
It breaks our fellowship with God…
We don’t feel like talking to him… We don’t know what to say…
When you’re at home and you don’t feel like praying, It’s probably a good time to start praying…
If you have felt like you have alienated your self from God… It’s a good time to come back to him…
If you have felt like your life up to this point has been in bondage, Now is the time to let God remove those chains holding you back in life…
I believe that God has brought you here for a purpose… And that he has ordained this moment in your life, to make a decision to defeat the devil for you or someone you know…
Its Time to take action…
Do it now!
May God bless you, Amen…
Rev. Robert W. Parker
Southern Mission Missionary Baptist Church
Tele: (314) 521-3951
E-mail bparker@courier-journal.com
Reverend John Mitchell Jr. Senior Teacher and Pastor
