TEXT: HEBREWS 4:15-16
15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses since he had the same temptations we do, though he never once gave way to them and sinned.
16 So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need.
We have an advocate who understands our weakness, and is able to carry our burden of temptation and sin.
1) Father knows best:
PROVERBS 14:12
12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Illustrations:
Would you give your keys to a 5 year old?
“Walking across the paddock is free but the bull charges” There is a cost.
We often think our way is best, but consider Jonah
JONAH 1:3
3 But Jonah was afraid to go and ran away from the Lord. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket, went on board, and climbed down into the dark hold of the ship to hide there from the Lord.
Jonah ran from his call & hid from God, because he didn’t agree with Gods plan for Ninevah.
The story of Jonah could be our story today!
How often do we think we know best?
2) Freedom through the fear of God:
PROVERBS 8:13
13 If anyone respects and fears God, he will hate evil. For wisdom hates pride, arrogance, corruption, and deceit of every kind.
KEY TO OVERCOMING TEMPTATION :
Weigh up your calling--your vision--------verses sin committed and the loss of your vision---calling.
Thats why Satan wants to steal your vision. Thats why he wants to discourage you in your call.
EXPLAIN:
PRIDE, ARROGANCE, CORRUPTION, AND DECEIT.
SOME LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF DAVID
1 SAM 25:29 -31
Even when you are chased by those who seek your life, you are safe in the care of the Lord your God, just as though you were safe inside his purse! But the lives of your enemies shall disappear like stones from a sling!
30 When the Lord has done all the good things he promised you and has made you king of Israel,
31 you won’t want the conscience of a murderer who took the law into his own hands! And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me!"
I SAM 24:1-24
24:1 After Saul’s return from his battle with the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of Engedi;
2 so he took three thousand special troops and went to search for him among the rocks and wild goats of the desert.
3 At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to go to the bathroom, but as it happened, David and his men were hiding in the cave!
4 "Now’s your time!" David’s men whispered to him. "Today is the day the Lord was talking about when he said, ’I will certainly put Saul into your power, to do with as you wish’!" Then David crept forward and
quietly slit off the bottom of Saul’s robe!
5 But then his conscience began bothering him.
6 "I shouldn’t have done it," he said to his men. "It is a serious sin to attack God’s chosen king in any way."
7 These words of David persuaded his men not to kill Saul. After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way,
8 David came out and shouted after him, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.
9 Then he shouted to Saul, "Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you?
10 This very day you have seen it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave, and some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ’I will never harm him--he is the Lord’s chosen king.’
11 See what I have in my hand? It is the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you! Doesn’t this convince you that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for my life?
OUR CONSCIENCE IS OUR GUIDE. IT IS ALWAYS THERE. CHOOSE TO LISTEN!
ILLUSTRATIONS:
Black power:
Cannibals---- They know its wrong to eat people, because they know they would not like to be eaten!
Eternity in their hearts.
3) Sin always floats to the surface:
NUMBERS 32:23
But if you don’t do as you have said, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will catch up with you.
PROVERBS 28:13
13 A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.
Illustration: Refiners fire, dross.
BEST TO CONFESS OUR SINS TODAY BEFORE GOD, THAN FACE TOMORROW IN DARKNESS:
There are two ways to deal with Sin.
1) Confess moment by moment ( We will fall) and avoid hurt pain rejection and suffering.
2) God will humble us in our sin--WHY?-- because he loves us, and wants to save us from hurt pain rejection and suffering.
THATS WHY HE SHARES HIS WORD WITH US. NOT TO CONDEMN US, BUT TO MAKE US WELL.
The bad news is this No one (including me) is exempt from sin & sin nature. The good news is GOD will forgive you in Jesus today!
4) Our sins affect others
Our sins may only be affecting us and our relationship with the Lord today, But check out NUMBERS 12:1-15
12:1 One day Miriam and Aaron were criticizing Moses because his wife was a Cushite woman,
2 and they said, "Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us, too?" But the Lord heard them.
3 Immediately he summoned Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to the Tabernacle: "Come here, you three," he commanded. So they stood before the Lord. (Now Moses was the humblest man on earth.)
4
5 Then the Lord descended in the Cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle. "Aaron and Miriam, step forward," he commanded; and they did.
6 And the Lord said to them, "Even with a prophet, I would communicate by visions and dreams;
7 but that is not how I communicate with my servant Moses. He is completely at home in my house!
8 With him I speak face to face! And he shall see the very form of God! Why then were you not afraid to criticize him?"
9 Then the anger of the Lord grew hot against them, and he departed.
10 As the Cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, Miriam suddenly became white with leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened,
11 he cried out to Moses, "Oh, sir, do not punish us for this sin; we were fools to do such a thing.
12 Don’t let her be as one dead, whose body is half rotted away at birth."
13 And Moses cried out to the Lord, "Heal her, O God, I beg you!"
14 And the Lord said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face she would be defiled seven days. Let her be banished from the camp for seven days, and after that she can come back again."
15 So Miriam was excluded from the camp for seven days, and the people waited until she was brought back in before they traveled again.
This tells us our sins have consequences on the body as well. (They could not move on until Miriam was clean)
There have been many men of God who have fallen
MANY HURT--- BUT GOD WOULD HAVE US RESTORE THESE ONES IN A SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS.
HE ALLOWED THEIR SINS TO BE REVEALED BECAUSE HE LOVES THEM AND THE BODY TOO MUCH TO ALLOW IT TO CONTINUE.
5)We will be restored
ROMANS 7:15-8:3
15 I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to--what I hate.
16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking.
17 But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things.
18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t.
19 When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.
20 Now if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.
21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
22 I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned;
23 but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.
24 So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature?
25 Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.
8:1 So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus.
2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit--and this power is mine through Christ Jesus--has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death.
3 We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours--except that ours are sinful--and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins.
Talk of Sin always makes us realize how deceitful our own heart is: But there is hope.
If we confess our sins He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteouness.
Gospel presentation ----------------close:
