Now, out there on the Little Pure Rack, on your right as you leave, are some folders about a very, very wonderful Bible conference called the Believers Bible Conference held at Covenant College every summer. This coming summer will be our nineteenth conference. We've been in Covenant. This will be our eleventh year, I believe. A third week in July every summer. It's a family conference. We have a nursery. We have people working with we little boys and girls. We have Mr. and Mrs. William King from Wilmington, North Carolina, working with the eight to twelve-year-old boys and girls. We have Mr. Paul Curtis of Atlanta, Georgia, working with the teenagers. And then we have John Phillips, Tom T. Taylor, and T. Lidden Sheridan, ministering to the adults. It starts on Saturday night with dinner and closes with lunch on Friday. Now, there are several reasons why we have a six-day conference. One of them is that the covenant college won't allow you to have but a six-day conference. But we find that it works right well, because we have people who come all the way from Texas and Minnesota and New England to the conference. And even if they have to work all day Friday, when they get off work, they have their car already packed, and they'll drive two or three hundred miles, maybe, towards Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is where Covenant College is located, up on the mountain. spend the night, then on Saturday they can easily get on in to Covenant College before we open at dinner on Saturday night. And then after we close at noon on Friday, even if they go into Texas, all of Minnesota, all of New England, they strike out after lunch on Friday afternoon, drive maybe five, six hours. Spending a night in a motel or with some victims who are relatives or friends and so forth along the way, maybe up in Virginia or Maryland or Washington, D.C. or somewhere, and then get on in home on Saturday. Blessed and happy and pushed, but happy in the Lord, ready to be in their home assembly on the Lord's day. And we've had some great times. We had some great times at Lake Louise. We started out with seven families. We had a total of seven families at the first conference we held. But God met us, and it's grown, and we've had some large conferences since then. The food is outstanding. The ministry is superb. And we just thank the Lord for what he's done down through the years. Now, first of all, pray for us. And then, if at all possible, come. You'll find that the price may be a little higher than some conferences because we pay a little extra and get A-one food. We have a big steak banquet on Thursday night with dressed up people waiting on us to know. And we have a great time in the Lord and a good program. So pray for the conference, pick up one of the folders, pray for it, and then if the Lord makes it possible for you to come, you'd be sure and come this summer. Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, I'm going to give my testimony. Now that's a very difficult thing to do. Very difficult. But you know, one reason why I like to give the testimony, and I don't do it often, You know, it's a blessing to my own heart to stop and just recollect and review what God has done. I wonder how long it's been since you took an hour, two or three, and started from as long as you can remember and came up to the present and thought of how the Lord has led you step by step. I sat down by the lake after dinner for a little while tonight and made a few notes. And I thought of what the Lord did in Guelph, Ontario one time, what the Lord did in Kansas City once, what the Lord did in Bloomfield, New Jersey one night. And it was almost like, you know, You've timed something, a plane's going to meet here, and a plane's going to meet here to fuel it. Exactly the right minute. You know, isn't it wonderful to stop and review your life and realize that God, before the foundation of the world, planned that your life would be, and that this would happen here, and this person would be right here at the right time, at the right place with the right message? It is absolutely amazing when you stop and think of what God has brought. And if you've never done that, I'd like to encourage you to do that sometime this week. Just get along and stop and think of how God works to bring you to Himself. And then of all the prayers that He's answered. And all the things that He's brought into your life. Sometimes you thought they were terrible. You thought they were hard. You didn't like them at all. And then you realize afterwards that God did it for you. You see, beloved. God knows what he's doing. And my sweet wife will be here tomorrow, and I was thinking our life verse is Proverbs three, five, and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not under thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Now, one of the difficult things about giving a testimony is when you've known the Lord for over thirty-five, almost forty years, is the fact that there's so much you have to leave out. So you just pray that God will give me wisdom as to know what to leave out and what to leave in tomorrow. I can't talk too long because I've got to get up to Jackson with a picker up at the plane. But if you can come tomorrow morning, we hope that you can come. All right, let's have a word of prayer. Father, thank you for the good music. Thank you for the inspirational singing. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your plan for us. Thank you for your grace. Oh, Father God, word not for your grace. None of us could be here tonight. None of us could call you Father. Now, Father, we pray that if there's a person here tonight that doesn't know you, that even though the message is designed and aimed at those who know you, we pray that the Holy Spirit would speak to their hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, tonight, the Lord willing, we're going to finish the message that we started this morning. Now, since some of you are not here, we're going to review. what we discussed this morning. We quoted Psalm six to six eighteen. If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me. And we read Hebrews twelve once. This is a new American standard. Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sins which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The topic that we are considering is iniquity in the heart. We spoke of the importance of the heart, the inner man, the inner person. We suggested that the thing that God is interested in and that God is concerned in about us and about our lives and our testimony is not so much how we look on the outside, but what we really are on the inside. And I gave you a testimony about how just seven years ago I had a hang-up about how certain people dress. And the Lord delivered me from that hang-up when he impressed upon me after attending an intervascular missionary convention that the important thing was not how a person was dressed or how they looked on the outside, but the important thing was what about the inner relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is iniquity in the heart? I suggested that iniquity in the heart is that which is in our hearts when we know that it shouldn't be there and we do nothing about it. We cherish it and we allow it to stay in our hearts. When we do that which is wrong, we know that we have a wrong attitude and we do nothing about it, that is iniquity in the heart. And I suggested I give you a number of the numbers and numbers of verses which we don't have time to review tonight about what iniquity was. And then we started talking about what Abba said in sin was. It is a sin that really tempts us. It is a sin which on occasion has conquered us and beats us. It's an area of weakness which Satan, the prince of the power of the earth, is very much aware of in our lives. And I suggested that when an enemy is fighting an enemy, that he finds out where the weak point is, and that's where he plays upon it. I think the National Basketball Championship was won last night because Al McGuire knew where North Carolina's weakness was. And he played upon it. Their weakness was outside shooting. And a knocker on his best outside shooter had a hurt elbow. They used his own defense. They kept him away from the goal. And they won the game. And so Satan, the prince of the power of the earth, knows what our weakness is. He knows where you can be tempted the easiest. And that is where he'll make his play for you. And I did suggest this morning that a befitting sin and iniquity in the heart is not necessarily some gross, great sin like adultery or filth or murder or robbery. But it can be envy and jealousy and conceit and pride. I suggested that Satan is a master strategist and he knows the weakest place in our hearts and in our lives. I suggested that a besetting sin is many times fed by our mind, by what we read, by what we see, by what we hear. And many people who never dreamed of doing things that they shouldn't have done, have done them because they have fed this thought life. I reminded you of what Alfred Gibbs said on one occasion. You know what you think you are, but what you think you are. The thought life of a Christian is very, very important. That's why I believe that it's absolutely essential if you're going to live a victorious Christian life and the day and the age in which we live that you spend the first part of every day with the Lord Jesus in His Word and on your knees. I've had people to debate with me and question me about that because they are late risers and all they can do is get up and drink coffee on the way to the car and get to work. But for my part, I believe the best part of the day is the first part of the day, and I like to spend it with the Lord. And I would tremble to think of what might become of my spiritual life if I neglected on a consistent, regular basis my daily quiet time. I gave you an example of how Dr. George Sweden of Moody. went to counsel with a young man who was a leader. In fact, he was president of the student body in a well-known Christian college, and he promised to give this young man an hour of his time. They met in the Lawson YMCA on Chicago Avenue in Chicago. Dr. Sweden said, yes, and well, can we go up to your room to talk? It's much more private than here in the lobby. And he said, well, I think it'd be all right if we stay here. He said, no, I really think we should go up there. And the young man was very insistent that they not go. Dr. Sweden was very insistent that they go to his room. He said, well, all right, but it certainly is messed up. As soon as they got up to the room, Dr. Sweden saw right away what trouble was. He said, this picture here needs to come down, brother. This picture here needs to come down. This magazine here needs to go in the trash. This record here needs to be broken and bursted. This book here needs to go. This book needs to go. This pamphlet needs to go. He says, you cannot feed your mind with this trash and this lust and expect your spiritual life to be anything but chaos. One of the reasons why we have the moral standards that we have today is because of what many Christians, yes, Christians, feed upon hour after hour after hour instead of feeding their hearts and their lives and their minds with the things of the Word of God. And so we suggested that the main trouble is the heart and the thought life. And we suggested that people get involved in the wrong kinds of things because when they begin to be tempted, they are not made aware of them by the Spirit of God because they are not living close enough to the Spirit of God to detest. the things that are wrong and some of the things that come along. And they need to learn to lay aside anything that would hinder them in their walk and that testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, then I suggested what sin would do. First of all, sin divides us or separates us from God. I gave an example of David. And I told what sin did in David's life, and I told what sin did in Cain's life, and I told what sin did in Jacob's life, and I told what sin did in Peter's life, and in Judas' life. Sin not only divides, but it does. It makes us lacking in sensitivity to wrong. And then sin not only divides, but sin drives us. away from God. I'm just having to hit the high points here. Then not only does it drive us away from God, but when sin is unconfessed and not forsaken in the life of the believer, it causes him to waste his breath when he prays. And what do I mean by that? It dulls the air of God. You remember I read the verse this morning about over in Isaiah about what does sin do? It deafens it. It stops the ears of God when we are living out of fellowship with God when we are under the influence and the power of a sinless or sinful life. And then lastly, before I close this morning, I gave you the example of the Titanic. Now, most of you are familiar with it. I told you how the Titanic was there. It hit the iceberg, and they began to send out their SOS and SOS to any ship that was nearby that might be of help and aid to them. And I told you that there were one or two or three or four ships within distance that could have come and helped them. Many of them were at anchor. They were not even moving into the night. But the problem was they had their radios turned off. You see, when we are out of fellowship with God, When we ask God for help, the only prayer that he can hear from us when we're out of fellowship with him is God forgive me of my sin. And so God's ear, I say it respectfully, is closed and stopped when I'm out of fellowship with him. Unless my prayer and cry to him is, Father, forgive me. for my sin. Now you realize that there is a great difference in the relationship of an unconverted person and a Christian. Because you see, an unconverted person can only cry out, Oh God, have mercy upon me and save me for Jesus' sake. For as a Christian, a person who knows the Lord Jesus, can come to our heavenly Father and say, Father, I've sinned, I've done wrong, I'm away from you, I'm out of fellowship with you, and I want you to forgive me and restore me. And the Word of God says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from A.W.L. All unrighteousness. All right. Now, I suggested this morning. that we look at Romans one. And I'm not going to have time to mention that tonight again, but I hope that you look at those verses beginning about verse twenty one in Romans one. There's about seven or eight verses there that tells what happens when a person is out of the will of God and away from the Lord. Now, what does sin do in the heart of a believer? It divides, it drives, it does, it defeats, it destroys, it dams. And, of course, it... stops the ears of God from hearing our prayers. Now, what's the cure for iniquity in the heart? What's the cure? I'm glad we can give all the other and then come to this. What's the cure? Number one, the first word. The first word. I'm going to spell it out to you. R-E-C-O-G-N-I-T-I-O-N. Recognition. We must know when and where we are most often tempted are false. And suppose there's some little something and you have been the victim of this temptation again and again and again. Well, what do you do? You stop and you take inventory. Now, in the times when I've lost my temple and blew my top, what were the conditions? Where was I usually? What had just happened? Take inventory, take stock. Recognize that you have a problem. When I have been most guilty of judging others with a snap decision, when did I most often do this? When I become very, very envious of others, why was that? What was the condition? What brought it on? Stop and recognize that this is a sin, not just a fault. It's a sin. Romans Thirteen says, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust. All right. What does that mean? Now, I don't know whether there's anybody here tonight that you probably wouldn't have a problem with alcohol. But suppose you had been an alcoholic and you were a Christian, now, and you wanted to take this body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you wanted to use it for the glory of God. But you knew that as a Christian, you couldn't really take things into your body that hurt your body. And so you prayed about this problem because you still had the temptation. Well, let's just suppose a man who's an alcoholic supposedly gets saved. All right. So he says, well, now, I've got eight-fifths of whiskey back there in my closet. So I'm going to take seven-fifths of whiskey and I'm going to burst it. But I'm going to keep that eight-fifths just in case I'm tempted. That's right. That's stupid, isn't it? That certainly is. I remember Emra Hoffley, he was amateur golf champion of the state of South Carolina. He came the last night that Billy Graham preached there in nineteen hundred and fifty. He came the last night and he was saved. He went home and he had ten-fifths of whiskey in his house. How many-fifths of whiskey do you suppose he burst? All of them. Okay, here's a man and he gets saved. And he's been a victim of nicotine. For years he's been smoking three packs a day. And the Holy Spirit speaks to him about defiling his body because his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so he had three cartons of coos. Now I just use coos because that's the name of one. I believe it is. He had three cartons of coos. So he put Two and a half cartons of them into the incinerator. But he kept five or six packs. I think there's about ten or twelve packs in a carton, I think. He keeps a half a carton. You know, it's kind of stashed away just in case he's tempted. That's right. He's stupid, too, isn't he? That's right. He's stupid. Make no provision for what? The flesh. All right, here's a man who gets converted, and he's really been the boy about town. Oh, man, he's been a ladies' man. I'm thinking of a fellow right now in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Lord saved him, and the Lord delivered him. It wasn't easy. Oh, he had his problems, and he had his temptations, and he had his ups and downs. But I talked to my friend Jack Gawley. yesterday, I believe, about this brother in the Lord, and he said he's doing fine, he's getting along fine. Some of the Christians spent time with him and got him into the Word, and he's got his feet on solid rock now. He's delivered from the temptations of your head. You've been tempted by going to the wrong places. The thing to do is stay out of those wrong places. Make no provision for the flesh. Use your head. for something besides the whole of hats. If you have a point of weakness, go against it. I remember hearing Stan Ford tell about a man who was saved over in England. And he had spent most of his time in bars and pubs. But after he was saved, he said, if need be, he would walk two blocks out of the way. to keep from going by those places where he would be tempted to go in. Make no provision for the flesh. In a northeastern city, this name of the city, which I do not need to give you, because it's not important, a Christian nurse was becoming very, very attracted to her who was the doctor she was working for. And she was aware of the fact that this was not right. And she went to a very, very fine Christian friend, a real man of God and said, I'd like to counsel with you and ask you something. And she said, this is my problem. I know the Lord. I love the Lord. But I'm working for this doctor. And I'm becoming very, very attached to him and I'm sure that if something doesn't happen that before I know what's happening we could have an affair and I don't want that to happen. And the man said, all right, you came to ask me for advice, I'm going to give you advice. Get another job and get it right away. If need be, go to another city complete. He gave a very, very good advice. If you play around with fire, you'll get burned. And Christians can get burned just like people in the world. Make no provision for the flesh. One of the best examples I know of what I'm talking about is Joseph. You know the story of Joseph and how part of his wife tempted him and said, come along with me. Oh, I'm sure she got the latest perfume. Oh, man, she was perfumed up. You could smell her a block away. Oh, they know how to trick you. I'll tell you. Come, come, come on with me. And she probably had on, well, the robe that he had that had, well, that didn't stand a chance. She'd been to Sac Fifth Avenue and got the prettiest thing there. And she waited until just the right moment. And old Joseph was a smart man. He said, Even if I have to leave you without my robe, I'm leaving. And there's one translation I like the way it puts it. It says, He got himself off. That's what they did. He ran. That's what Scripture's talking about. Make no provision for the flesh. The best way to treat the flesh is to use not your heart or your head, but your heels. I reckon maybe I really ought to change that because when you're really running, you don't use your heels, you use the bottom of your feet. Your heels are in the air. So I might have to change that. I might remember to change that in my notes. In battle, a young senior officer was looking at a young officer. in the heat of a very, very tough battle, and the young man seemed to be retreating. And the senior officer said to the young officer, Stop. You're not supposed to do that. He says, Oh, I'm not retreating. I'm just advancing to the rear. Well, that's what you're supposed to do. When you're tempted, you're supposed to advance out of the way. Get out of the way. Make no provision for your flesh. All right. Next thing to do. First thing to do is recognize that you have a problem and admit that you have a problem. Be honest. Next. Recognize the hideous nature of sin. Recognize the hideous and hatefulness of sin. And recognize the end result of sin. Tragedy. Psalm ninety-seven ten says, Hate evil, you who love the Lord. Sin is the chief cause of many people being put into a place where God cannot use them as He once did. Never forget that sin condemned Jesus, Christ. He bore the scourges, he bore the nails, he bore the crown of thorns, he bore the lashes, he drank the vinegar and the gall for who? For us. Not for himself, because he had no sin. And he has already paid for our sin. And he longs to deliver us from the dominion and the power of sin. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he will and longs to do it. But we must do our part. I love that, oh, him, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh, my soul. So you recognize that you have a problem. You admit that you have a problem. All right? And the next major step after recognition is confession. Look very quickly in Matthew, twenty-six and thirty-three. Matthew, twenty-six, thirty-three. Now I'm going to show you an example here of a man that had a problem. It's very, very evident. Twenty-six, thirty-three and thirty-five. This is about Peter. But Peter answered and said to him, Even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, Truly I said to you that this very night before a cock crows, you shall deny me three times. Peter said to him, Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. All the disciples said the same thing too. All right, turn to verse seventy, that same chapter, seventy, seventy-two, seventy-three, and seventy-four. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you are talking about. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another servant girl saw him and said to those who were there, this man was with a Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. And a little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Surely you too are one of them, for the way you talk gives you away. He was probably from the south and they were from the north or something. Then he began to curse and to swear, I do not know the man. And immediately the cocked crew. Now, You know, the main reason why Peter fell, Peter was overconfident. At this time, the Holy Spirit had not been given, and Peter was not indwell by the power of the Holy Spirit. And Peter was a man who all, now get this, Peter was a man who all his life had this problem. And he had to watch it, and he had to be careful with it. And even after the day of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit indwelled his life and body, I'm sure that he still had traces of this problem in his life, and he had to keep it under. He had to guard against it. He had a tendency by nature. It was his nature. He had that type of personality. He was overconfident by nature. And it tripped him here. and there's not a person in this room, but there's some place, some weakness, some problem you have that only the power of the Holy Spirit can give you victory over. Now, I don't know what it is. Some of you may not even be aware of it. It could be, in your case, the fact that you are not necessarily overconfident, but you don't have enough confidence in what God can do with you by His grace and power. It could be jealousy. It could be envy. It could be a strong will desiring to do things your way without listening to the other side of the story sometimes. And you could have had that problem all your life and you may not be aware of it. You say, when I brought a few, how can I know what it is if I don't really know what it is? Well, I know it. a very simple way in one way, but it's a hard way in another way. That is to get on your knees and mean business with the Lord and ask the Lord to tell you. Lord, if there's anything in my life that's keeping me from being the cleansed, filled, anointed, powerful vessel that you want me to be, I want you to reveal it to me. Because, you know, sometimes, beloved, if your best friend were to come to you and tell you what your faults are as a Christian believer, you might not listen to them. Because, see, sometimes we're blind. But if you get along with the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit of God to tell you what your fault and what your weakness is, Well, then I think perhaps you might listen to what he would have to say. Peter's problem was overconfidence. Confession is saying what God says about man, about sin, and about salvation. Recognition, the next is confession. You say, well, brother, few, I can't confess until I know what it is. All right, I just told you. You recognize that you have a problem, but if you don't know what the problem is, ask God to reveal your problem to you and then say, God, I've been envious. I've been jealous. I've been deceitful. I've been proud. I have been anxious, and that's wrong. I should have been trusting in you all along. That's a sin. Forgive me. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from AWL's all unrighteousness. Somebody asked me today about GL and police today. He was my professor. He taught prison epistles to me the one year that I was at Columbia Bible College. And I remember what he said. One thing he said, I'll never forget. Instant confession. Instant what? Restoration. Instant restoration. And I don't know whether he said it to someone else, but I remember hearing someone else say about that time, let's learn how to keep short accounts with God. I don't know who said it, but I heard someone say it. Another wonderful example of true repentance and confession is Psalm fifty-one. David did a complete job of confession in this wonderful Psalm. Thirty-three times, he says, Myself, the only. He asked for cleansing. He was called a man after God's own hard while because of his willingness to face up to wrongdoing and to sin in his life. He said, Against thee, thee only, how did I do this sin? Somebody says, Wait a minute, brother, for you. Now, didn't he sin against Bathsheba? Yes. Didn't he sin against you, Rother Hittite? Yes. But the one that he was dealing with now was against thee. and thee only have I sinned. Recognition. Confession. All right, what's the third one? The third one is very important. But the third one will fail miserably apart from the power of the Holy Spirit of God in the life. And that is, I must spell it out. R-E-S-T-O-R-A-T-I-O-N. Restoration. Restoration. Now, in order to be restored, there's something you have to do, though. You recognize your sin, you confess your sin, and in the process of being restored, there's one other thing that you have to do. Here it is. R-E-S-O-L-U-T-I-O-N. You say, wait a minute, now, brother, if you... I've heard this many times. You got to resolve to do good. I've resolved a thousand times. Well, that's not what I'm talking about. I want to tell you, the problem with most resolving. When most of us resolve to do better, We resolve not fully aware of the fact that if we are going to be victorious over sin, there's only one person that can give us victory, and that is the living God. Now I know this is a part that we have. I've already mentioned that. I've already told about the man who wants to be delivered from alcohol. He stays away from saloons and where they serve in alcohol. I told about the man who wants to be delivered from nicotine and he stays away from places where tobacco is freely accessible. He keeps away from it. Man wants to be delivered from the lust of the flesh. He stays out of situations where he'd be tempted. That's part of his part, yes. But by God's grace, he resolves, fully aware that the power of the Holy Spirit that's going to give him victory. He resolves, by God's grace, to get rid of the sin which dominates him, which has believed God and asked him to give us the ability to refuse to yield to temptation, and which had read and memorized and quote to ourselves every morning. Ten, Thirteen. Romans thirteen, twelve says, The night is almost gone and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Colossians three nine says, Do not lie to one another. since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. What are we told to do? We're told to put on the new man. That's the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. Dealing with sin, I'm going to read this because I don't want to leave any of it out. Dealing with sin is a day-to-day duty. not as easy as plucking out an eye or cutting off an arm. It means that day by day, moment by moment, yielding to the Holy Spirit of God to fill us and to use us for His glory. As long as we live in the flesh, we will be tempted. A few years before Dr. Harry Ironside went to be with the Lord, A young preacher who had been admired him all his life asked him if he could come see him for just a few moments. I wasn't a young preacher. I did have the joy of knowing Dr. Ironside and I was with him on several occasions, but it was a friend of mine who went to see him. He said, Dr. Ironside, I've got a question I want to ask you. Yes, my brother. Oh, by the way, I can't talk like Brother Woodhouse could, but I can't. But, yes, my brother, where is it? By the way, the last time I saw Dr. Ironside alive, Jack Worcester and I were having lunch with him in a hotel in Chicago, and he was having lunch with us, eating his lunch, and reading the book and carrying on the conversation all the same time. He could do that. He could do it. He really could. He was a wonderful man. But this young, I was going to tell this story. This young man said, Dr. Ironside, I just want to know you've been along the way a long time. Yes, my brother. I want to ask you something, Dr. Ironside. You've been preaching the gospel for over fifty years. Yes, my brother. Dr. Ironside. Does the devil tempt you as much now? as he did when you were a young man like I am? Or is it much easier now, now that you have been along the way these many years? It doesn't get any easier, brother. The devil has asked me just as hard now as he wants fifty years ago when I started preaching the gospel. So if you want to know if it gets any easier, I've got bad news for you. As long as you're on the fine lines of Jesus Christ, just you remember the devil has his guns trained on you. Now, if you're not giving him much competition and any trouble, and you're not doing much for the Lord, he may kind of leave you alone. But if you're standing in the pulpit, and teaching his son school class and witnessing and giving out tracks and trying to bring people to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, just you expect you're going to have a battle. But praise the Lord, by God's grace and by his power and by his spirit, just as surely as he came again from the grave, victorious over death and hell. You have the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. And you don't have to live a defeated life. If you had to do it in your own strength, certainly. But just so you remember the song we sang, Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation is this. None other like it. That Christ liveth in me. in me. Victory is possible through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your and my life. Romans three thirteen says, For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are put into death the deeds of the body, you will live. So we recognize sin. We recognize a besetting sin. We recognize that we have a problem that is displeasing to God and that it is displeasing to us because the Holy Spirit lives in us. We confess that we have a problem. And by God's grace, we resolve to overcome that problem. And as we get into His Word and as we study His Word and as we fellowship with other Christians, We remember that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from A-L-L all sin. And let me tell you this in closing. I didn't intend to say this, but I believe the Lord wants me to say it. The Holy Spirit brings a problem to your attention that's in your life. And you confess it. to God. And then tomorrow the devil comes back to you and he holds this up for you and dangles it in front of your eyes and says, I remember this. Don't you believe him? Don't you listen to him? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Say hallelujah and say devil get away. Do what Paul told you to do. That thing that happened ten years ago or five years ago or twenty years ago or thirty years ago and the devil's been kind of reminding you of it. Tell the devil to get away and remind him that it's under the blood. And you say, God has forgiven it, and God has forgotten it, and by God's grace, I'm going to forget. And I'm going to rejoice in the life and in the freedom and in the fullness and in the salvation which is mine through Jesus Christ our Lord. under the blood, it's forgiven, and it's forgotten. What we were yesterday is not important, but what we are tonight is very important. And in the sight of God, we are His children purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, And we are His brothers and sisters in the Lord and His servants. Shall we pray? Father, you know all of us. You know our needs. We know there are people here tonight and they've been having problems. some of which we didn't know a thing about. We haven't mentioned it. But Father, the Holy Spirit has brought it to their attention tonight. It could be unbelief. It could be anxiety. It could be lack of love for people that have hurt them. It could be an unforgiving spirit. It could be self-will. It could be pride. It could be overconfidence. Oh, Father, you know there are numbers of things, a lot of things that could be. But Father, we thank You for the promises in Your Word concerning forgiveness. We pray that by Your Holy Spirit that You would remind us now as we go to our places of rest tonight that you have completed the work, the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed us from all sin, and you desire not only to forgive but to completely deliver from the power and the dominion of sin, but the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And Father, I thank you for reminding me tonight of the fact that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And that we have at our disposal the same power, the same might that Jesus Christ had when He came again from that tomb. We pray that you'd help us to enjoy our relationship with you tonight because we've been reminded that he who spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with himself also freely give us all things? We thank you that one of the things that you've given us is a clear conscience because we've been forgiven. So teach us, Lord, to remind us, instant confession, instant restoration, teach us to keep short accounts with God. We thank you for the victory that we have in Jesus Christ. In his name, amen. Forgive me, please, for going over time.