This sermon emphasizes the importance of not just seeking forgiveness for sins but also being saved from sin, focusing on overcoming anger and lustful thoughts. It highlights the need for faith in Jesus to experience deliverance from sin through the power of the Holy Spirit, contrasting the Old Testament's external control with the New Testament's internal transformation. The message urges believers to seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit for true freedom from sin and to fulfill the commandments of Christ.

We continue our study today on all that Jesus taught and the reason why we're studying it is because Before Jesus went up to heaven. He told his disciples To go into every nation on the face of the earth in Matthew 28 verse 19 and 20 To make disciples and to teach them every single thing That he commanded So we're just trying to fulfill that great Commission to teach people every single thing that Jesus commanded and especially those things laying emphasis on those things that are not being sufficiently emphasized in Christendom today. A lot of people are just happy with having their sins forgiven and That's it They do not know Jesus as their Savior They know him as their forgiver If we were considering for example two particular sins in our last two studies anger and sexually lustful thinking These are not two sins that you hear spoken about much Because most preachers don't have any victory or both these areas And so they can't possibly have the authority to speak against it And even if they do speak against it, they will not speak about it in a practical way as to how to overcome them so We want to look a little more at these sins so that we don't just hear about it and see the seriousness of it, but to also understand how we can overcome it and The seriousness of it is seen by the fact that these are the only two sins in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus Mentioned the possibility of a man going to hell as a result of this sin I would say 99% of Christians do not feel that anger is a very serious sin They certainly do not feel that anger can take them to hell in other words They don't believe what Jesus said in Matthew 5 22. I don't know what type of Bible they have I don't know what type of Christians they are if they don't believe what Jesus Christ said Then whom do you believe you believe the psychologists? Well, they can't lead you to heaven in the same way I don't think 99% of Christians believe that lusting after a woman with your eyes is serious enough to take you to hell Most people don't take that seriously at all and that's the work of the devil that he's made sin Such a light unimportant thing Think of a disease like AIDS and people are even afraid of cancer AIDS is much worse. How many would take AIDS is a very light thing. It doesn't matter I'll tell you who the one who's completely ignorant of What AIDS can do? Some illiterate poor woman in a village if you tell her that she's got cancer She's not disturbed, but she doesn't know what cancer is. She doesn't know the seriousness of cancer because she's illiterate an Educated person would be very disturbed if the doctor tells him that cancer is spread all over inside his body Why is he disturbed because he sees the danger of cancer in the same way when you're spiritually illiterate You don't consider anger as serious When you're spiritually illiterate You don't consider lusting after women as serious. That is a mark of your spiritual illiteracy Just like that illiterate woman doesn't know what how serious cancer is in the same way one who is literate Spiritually illiterate will take these sins very seriously He doesn't need even the words of God to tell him that he knows it instinctively that these are serious sins Because one hurts other people and the other hurts himself So that's why we want to look at these more carefully and ask ourselves how can we overcome them and remember Jesus said that It's the responsibility of those who preach God's Word to make every single one of their flock if they are pastors or if they are teachers to teach every single one of the people they teach how to overcome in these two areas and I want to ask you if you're a preacher or a pastor or teacher whether you're doing that Have you overcome yourself in these two areas and are you teaching other people to whom you preach to overcome in these areas? Are you showing them how it is possible? If not, you're failing in your duty And I would say you have no right to be a minister of the gospel if you are not teaching people what Jesus taught If you had most Christians are today preaching what the psychologists teach not what Jesus taught in the Bible There are very few prophetic voices in Christendom today that hold people up to the standards that Jesus proclaimed in his word That's sadly lacking. The devil has silenced prophetic voices in the church And most people are thinking of prophecy only as predicting the future and usually predicting the future in relation to material things That's a deception Prophetic voice is that which leads God's people to repentance from the sins that are destroying them Material prosperity is not the way to heaven. It's freedom from sin. That's the way to heaven The angel when he came to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1 We read the very first promise as you turn to the pages of the New Testament The very first promise in Matthew 1 21 is Jesus will save his people from their sins You shall that is the meaning of the name Jesus a lot of people use the name Jesus. They don't even know what it means Matthew 1 21 tells us the name Jesus means one who will save his people from their sins Now, what's the difference between being saved from our sins and being forgiven of our sins? Let's take these two sins which we considered in our last study anger and sexually lustful patterns of thinking If you get angry in a sinful way and And Repent of it and ask the Lord to forgive you. He will forgive you and tomorrow you get angry again in a sinful way and Ask the Lord to forgive you. He'll forgive you and next week you do the same thing and he'll ask you to for you Ask him to forgive you. He'll forgive you in the same way with sexually lustful patterns of thinking You lust after a woman with your eyes and you realize it's a sin and ask the Lord to forgive you He'll forgive you and you do it again tomorrow And you ask him to forgive you and he'll forgive you You turn to the internet and watch pornography and you ask the Lord to forgive you and he'll forgive you But have you been saved from these sins? No, have you been forgiven? Yes Your pattern is one of sinning Asking the Lord to forgive you sinning again asking the Lord to forgive you. It's an endless circle You sin and ask the Lord to forgive you and you sin again and ask the Lord to forgive you Have you been forgiven? Yes, you may have sinned a thousand times. All your sins are forgiven But have you been saved from your sin? No Because you're keeping on doing it It's like coming out of a pit falling into the pit again. You ask somebody to pull you out He pulls you out tomorrow. You fall into the pit again, and you ask someone to pull you out you fall into the pit again When is it going to end? Jesus forgives you then you have to be honest and say I know Jesus as my forgiver But I do not know him as my Savior. I Know him as one who forgives my sins, but not as one who saves me from my sins We've got to be honest if you are dishonest with ourselves We'll never come into the fullness of what the Bible promises us God loves honest people that want to encourage you to be honest before God and Say to him honestly from your heart and say Lord Jesus. I only know you as my forgiver. I do not know you as my Savior and If you're honest with him and say Lord, I want to know you as my Savior not one who just forgives me Not one who keeps on lifting me out of the pit I fall into your promises that you'll save me from my sin Your name itself means Jesus doesn't mean forgiver. It means Savior He will save his people from their sins not he will forgive them their sins. Of course, he forgives us Thank God for that. None of us could live without it But he does more than that. He saves us and we need to experience both. I think of the story of the Blind two blind men who once came to Jesus in Matthew chapter 9 We read here in Matthew chapter 9 that two blind men verse 27 followed Jesus and said have mercy on us and Jesus asked them. What do you want me to do for you? That's in the parallel passage in another gospel that becomes clear What do you want me to do for you? And they said we want our eyes to be opened and then he asked them a question in Matthew 9 28 Do you believe? That I'm able to do this for you. That's a very important question It's an important question that the Lord asks us concerning anything he's promised See when you make your request to God, that's right Lord, I want my blind eyes to be open or I want a sickness to be healed or I want to be saved from a particular sinful habit or Lord, I want to get a job. I want to find a place to live there's so many things we can ask God for and God cares for all our needs spiritual and physical but The question that the Lord will ask us after we have made our specific request to God is this Do you believe? That I can do this for you. That is Jesus speaking He's not asking you. Do you believe that you can overcome this sin? That's a very liberating thought Thank God that Christ does not ask you or me. Do you believe that you can be you can give up this sinful habit? I would straightaway answer say no Lord. I Can't give up any sinful habit. I'm such a slave to sin being born as a child of Adam Every single sin I'm a slave to I'm a slave to anger and slave to this that and the other name it But I believe with all my heart that you can save me from it That's the question here. Do you believe the Lord says that I can do this for you? Thank God for that Jesus didn't come here with some teaching on psychology on how to Train ourselves and our mind or he didn't come to teach us yoga How to control our thoughts or things like that how to overcome anger with self-control. No He's asking you do you believe that I can do this for you for he said in John 15 verse 5 without me You can do nothing. Thank God for that verse. I say Lord you yourself said without you I can do nothing I agree 100% a branch cannot bear fruit if it's not in the tree and That every branch can say to any tree even after being 50 years in that tree without you I can produce no fruit But if I'm in you It's almost effortless to produce fruit. Do you think a branch is struggling? Look at a mango tree. Is that branch struggling to produce mangoes? No But you cut off that branch from that tree even if it's been producing mangoes for 50 years it stops producing immediately Because it withers But as long as it's in the tree the sap of the tree flows in and that's how the mangoes are produced That's the principle of overcoming sin And that's what we need to teach every single person who's a disciple in every nation Dear friends, this is what we you got to understand or if you're a preacher You've got to make other people to understand that without Christ. You cannot overcome any sin You can overcome external sin Sure There are multitudes of atheists in the world who don't murder anybody and who don't even commit adultery Physically to keep the outside of the cup clean. You don't need Jesus Christ. You just need to be a good Pharisee There are non-christians whose external life is very upright who never cheat and were honest even atheists. I know But when it comes to the inner life, I don't mean Self-control where with the powers of yoga and all you keep anger within that's not deliverance That's just closing the bottle tight so that the poison remains inside It still destroys you That's not what Christ offers. That is the power of yoga and self-control But Christ offers deliverance from the anger within I can open the bottle There's no poison there there's no anger there you look inside my heart It's not that I'm with great effort trying to keep my mouth shut that I don't lose my temper That's yoga. That's not deliverance from anger deliverance from anger is where Christ delivers us from the anger within our heart It's absent if you look inside the heart, there is no anger. You look inside the heart. There is no lusting after that woman only Jesus can do it think of these blind men who came to Jesus and After they made their request the Lord asked them Do you believe that I'm able to do this for you? And you know, all of us have got two eyes and These blind men had both eyes blind now just imagine this situation where two blind men with both eyes blind in each case stand before the Lord and One by one let's assume they come one by one to the Lord and the first man the Lord asked this question Do you believe that I'm able to open your eyes not? Do you believe that you can open your eyes with some exercise or any such thing? Do you believe that I the Lord says I'm able to open your blind eyes and one the first blind man says well Lord, I'd be happy if you could open just one eye That's more than enough for me. I can survive on this earth and I believe you can do that The Lord would reply to him like he said here verse 29 be it done to you according to your faith Not my ability the Lord says but according to your faith Do you know that the Lord does for us not according to his ability but according to your faith? If you don't have faith for something even if the Lord has ability to do more than that for you You won't experience all that the Lord wants to do for you. You'll only experience according to the level of your faith So one man says I've got faith to have only one eye open the Lord will say according to your faith Be it done to you. He will go out of that room with one eye open and the other I shut Now that's pretty good for a blind man to have one eye open itself is fantastic Now the other blind man comes in the Lord asked him the same question Do you believe I can do this for you? And he says yes Lord. I believe you can open both eyes What's impossible for you and he gets both eyes open and he comes out and he meets the other blind man Who had only one eye open that man says how in the world? Did you get both eyes open? This must be some false teaching It's not false teaching. He just had more faith than you. That's all So think of these two eyes as forgiveness of sins and being saved from sin One person gets both another but gets only one. Why is that? Is it because God was partial to that person? Is it because that person was a better person? No, he just had faith for what Christ could do for him One person had faith that Christ could only forgive his sin. He got that another person doesn't even have faith that Christ can forgive his sin He doesn't get even forgiveness. There are lots of people like that in the world But one has faith that Christ will forgive his sin He gets forgiveness another has faith like for both eyes that Christ can not only forgive me but deliver me from that sinful habit he gets both and And When a person proclaims both that Christ can not only forgive us But also deliver us people who have experienced only forgiveness will call that a false teaching Because they haven't experienced it themselves They say it's impossible is it's impossible for any human being to have deliverance from sin The question is not whether it's impossible for man. Are you saying it's impossible for God? Jesus said there's nothing impossible for God Impossible for man, I agree fully it's impossible for man even to get forgiveness of sins without God's power so With God nothing is impossible. So please remember this that if you don't experience something and somebody else does It's not because he's got some false teaching is because you don't believe as much as he does it's like I can use another illustration If rain is falling equally outside everybody's house and there's no there's shortage of water in the town and people put Containers outside to collect what the rainwater one man puts a little cup outside his house. How much rain is he going to get? Just a full cup another person puts a huge tub outside his house How much water does he get a full tub? Is that a difference between a full tub and a full cup? Certainly and the man with a full cup says how in the world did you get a full tub of water? Was God partial to you sending more rain in front of your house? No Same amount of rain brother fell outside your house, but you only had a little cup outside That was the level of your faith and that's all you got We get from God according to the proportion of our faith God's blessing is unlimited Ephesians 1 3 says he's blessed us with every single spiritual blessing in heavenly places every blessing of the Holy Spirit To deliver us from every single wretched sinful habit that we have acquired and inherited from Adam our forefather and I'll tell you something. We have all inherited the same evil nature from Adam Every evil man in the world has got the same evil flesh that you and I have Maybe our circumstances and our upbringing restrained us from doing some of the terrible evil things that terrorists do but we've got the same flesh and We can be delivered from it only by the power of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit So that's important for us to remember. It's important for us to explain to people when we teach people all that Jesus commanded His commandments can be fulfilled Only through the power of the Holy Spirit Particularly in these two areas. Let's look at Matthew 5. We were looking at anger and we were looking at sexual lust in the Old Testament, how did the Lord Tell people to overcome anger This verse that we looked at in our last study in Ephesians in chapter 4 and verse 26 Ephesians 4 26 be angry and don't sin is actually a quotation From Psalm 4 and Verse 4 if you've got a New American Standard Bible, you'll find that Old Testament quotations are shown in capital letters in The New Testament in your letter and in Psalm 4 This is how it reads Psalm 4 verse 4 tremble and the margin of my Bible says tremble with anger But do not sin So this is the quotation in Ephesians 4 26 be angry, but don't sin May tremble with anger, but don't sin. Don't let that anger become sinful and the solution for that is Go and meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still and verse 5 trust in the Lord So what the Old Testament Solution for anger was whenever you're upset with somebody withdraw from that person go and lock yourself up in your bedroom and lie down on your bed and meditate on God till you cool down and Trust in the Lord to take care of that situation. That was all that's possible So in the Old Testament, you could control the words that come out of your mouth somewhat similar to yoga But in the New Testament God's given us the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control that from within Jesus Christ delivers us from that anger It's exactly the same with lusting with the eyes It in Matthew Chapter 5 he speaks about Lusting with the eyes and he goes on to say nobody in the Old Testament, by the way could overcome it the Tenth Commandment In Exodus chapter 20 was the one commandment. Nobody could keep I don't know whether you know that There were ten commandments nine of them were external You read that in Exodus chapter 20 all the ten commandments the first nine were all external and that's all that everybody could keep But the Tenth Commandment was you shall not lust After your neighbor's house or his wife or male servant or anything? That's your neighbor's your neighbor's daughter Every woman that walks on the world walks on the street is either your neighbor's daughter or your neighbor's wife And he says you're not supposed to lust after her. It was actually written there as the Tenth Commandment and Nobody could keep it Nobody in the Old Testament could keep that commandment the Apostle Paul who one says That he according to the righteousness of the law. He says he was blameless in Philippians chapter 3 he says according to the righteousness, which is in the law verse 6. I was found blameless he testified before a high priest in Acts chapter 23 and verse 1 I Have lived with a perfectly good conscience before God until this day. What did he mean that he was keeping all the commandments? But what commandments was he keeping only the first nine? Because he's honest enough to say in Romans chapter 7 and verse 7 and 8 When I came to the Tenth Commandment, which said you shall not covet you shall not lust He said I found lusting verse 8 of every kind within me I Discovered every type of lust a lust for money a lust for other people's wives and daughters and Lust for honor and every type of lust within me and I realized this commandment. I could not keep but when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and Filled people when the Apostle Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit in his heart Then he says in Romans 8 and verse 2 the law of the Holy Spirit Which is not Ten Commandments, but the law of life in Christ Jesus a life That set me free From this law of sin that kept me falling into anger and lust and everything else and he goes on in verse 4 to say This righteous requirement of the law, which is you shall not lust is now fulfilled inside of us Because we don't walk according to the flesh We walk according to the leading of the Holy Spirit, which is impossible under the Old Covenant. So when Jesus spoke about overcoming these sins in Matthew chapter 5 He was talking about something was impossible for man to do without the power of the Holy Spirit If you read Matthew 5 6 & 7 You'll find at the end of those three chapters. The most important question has not been answered What is that? Lord, how do I live this life? That's not even mentioned in Matthew 5 6 & 7 Matthew 5 6 & 7 Just shows us the standard of life that God expects of a new covenant Christian of a born-again Christian But how to get there it's not mentioned there then how in the world will we know what to do? I believe that the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 6 & 7 was only proclaimed by Christ to create a desire in our heart for this life and If a person has a longing for this life, he will go to God and say Lord What's the solution the Lord will say you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to be strengthened in the inner man There's a lot of counterfeit experiences of the Holy Spirit today, which only emphasized speaking in tongues but this inner life of Freedom from sin is not emphasized. I thank God I speak in tongues I've spoken in tongues for 35 years, but the fullness of the Holy Spirit brought something far more important that in my life Deliverance from inner sin. That's the primary purpose of the fullness of the Holy Spirit So let's see God for that Let's pray Heavenly Father as We bow before you we acknowledge that without the power of the Spirit This will all be theory. And so we want to come to you and ask you for that power So that we can experience in our life experience it in our life and glorify you we pray in Jesus name Amen