This sermon emphasizes the importance of repentance by highlighting Adam's wrong choices that led to sin and how most humans, including Christians, make similar mistakes. It stresses the need to repent by turning away from valuing created things over God, believing lies over God's truth, and seeking to please people more than God. The message encourages steadfastness in faith and the continuous act of repentance to avoid backsliding. It also delves into the significance of Jesus overcoming all temptations and sin, offering believers the opportunity to receive grace upon grace to walk as Jesus did on earth.

We have been trying to understand the wonderful good news that Jesus Christ has brought for us. On the first evening, we considered what the bad news was, which is the result of Adam's sin and why he sinned. So, let me mention what I said then. Adam made three wrong choices, and most human beings, including most Christians, are making the same wrong choices. The first wrong choice was that he chose what was created more than his Creator. And most human beings and most Christians value created things more than God. And the second thing we saw was that Adam and Eve believed what the devil said more than what God said. They believed what the devil said more than what God said. This is the second wrong choice they made. I repeat, most human beings, including most Christians, believe what the devil said more than what God said. Because the devil keeps telling them, it won't work in your life. And the third wrong choice was Adam tried to please his wife, pleasing human beings more than pleasing God. And there also we find most human beings and Christians do things to please men, even if it displeases God. So, if you want to experience the Gospel, you have to repent. Repent means make the opposite of these three choices that Adam made. We can repent in a moment. Let's say Adam was facing this direction, he made those three wrong choices. And we are all born facing that way. Repent means I turn around and face the opposite direction. Now, it's possible to repent and then after some time turn back again. That's why you read in the book of Revelation, when the Lord spoke to five of the seven churches, they were born again people who had become children of God, but after some time they had turned back into a sinful way. And the Lord had to tell them, repent again. It's not because they hadn't repented before, they had repented and then turned back to the old way. That's what's called backsliding. Backsliding means once upon a time you give up all those wrong ways. And then after some time you turn back to it. And then you come to some meeting like this and you get all stirred up and turn again. And then after a while you turn back again. This is the way, unfortunately, that many Christians live. There is not a steadfastness in their life. It's like a student who goes to school. With great zeal he joins the kindergarten. And after second standard he says, no, I'm not interested in school. Then after one or two years of playing the fool, he says, okay, I think I'll go back to school again. Then he studies for two more years and again he drops out. And then again he plays the fool for three, four years and then says, okay, I think I'm going to go back to school again. He can go on like that when he's 20 years old, he isn't studying in the sixth standard. Now how many of you would like to have a child like that? None of you would be happy. This is what God faces with most of his children. They suddenly become zealous for the Lord and then they go back. They suddenly become zealous for the Lord and then they go back. They go back as soon as they hear the message. What I want to encourage all of you is to develop the same steadfastness that you see your own children have in school when they go from one standard to the next. You must not even be happy staying in the same class. That means every year like your children go to a higher and higher class, you must seek to have more and more victory over sin in your life every year. There was no such thing as overcoming sin in the old testament. I told you only forgiveness of sin. I said yesterday, the glorious gospel is that when you come under grace, sin cannot rule over you. Let me turn you to Hebrews in chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16. Now to understand verse 16 properly, because in verse 16 it begins with, therefore let us do this. When it says, therefore let us do this, that means you must go to the previous verse. When it says, therefore let us do this, that means you must go to the previous verse. In the previous verse, we read that our forefather Jesus was tested like us in every way and did not sin. This is the greatest part of the gospel. We read that at the end of his life, he hung on the cross and died for our sin. And he cried out, it is finished. What was finished? Many things were finished. First of all, the punishment for our sin was taken, that was finished. Something else was also finished. For thirty three and a half years before he hung on the cross, he had gone through every single temptation that you and I can ever face in our whole life. He did not face the same circumstances. For example, he did not drive a scooter on the road and face the anger of other people on the road. But the same temptation to anger came to him in other circumstances. He did not have children to irritate him like you and I have. But he was tempted to be irritated in other circumstances. This verse says, he was tempted in every single point that any human being is tempted in. That is why he had to live for thirty three and a half years. So that he could cover the whole range of temptations, the full circle of temptations that every human being faces. There is nobody in the world, in the history of the world since Adam till today, who can say that he has faced a temptation which Jesus did not face. Every temptation you have faced in your life, and that you are going to face, temptations to fear, anxiety, hatred, lust, covetousness, love of money, selfishness, pride, temptation to be a hypocrite and act, and to fight with people and strife and everything. Everything he faced. But he never sinned even once. Temptation is like a pressure. You know like I said yesterday, your heart is like a house into which temptation tries to get in and make you commit sin. And there are various temptations, they are like pressures, pressures, pressures. When we yield to them, we sin. And the sin is born in the heart. That is what the Bible says. Pressure, pressure, pressure. But you cannot sin until you yield to that pressure in your heart. Now what this verse is saying is that Jesus also faced that pressure. But he never allowed it to get into his heart. That's why he says, I overcame. He says in John 16.33, He says be of good courage, I have overcome the world. What does it mean by saying he overcame the world? Did he overcome the Roman Empire? Did he overcome the nation of Israel? That is not the world he was talking about. What did he overcome? Because this is the good news that we can also overcome. What is this world that Jesus overcame? See 1 John 2.16 Everything that is in the world, And he describes it with three things. The lust of the flesh, The lust of the eyes, And the pride of life. All of this belongs to the world, is not from God. What is it? The lust of the flesh, Jesus faced it, Overcame it. The lust of the eyes, Jesus faced it, Overcame it. The temptation to be proud, the pride of life, Jesus faced it and overcame it. For 33 and a half years. Completely. And so when he hung on the cross and said it is finished, And so when he hung on the cross and said it is finished, I have overcome all the temptations that man can face. It is finished. Are you learning something new today? The thing of the word finished. This can also have an effect on your life. When you know that Jesus died on the cross, And the judgment and punishment for your sin is finished, When you believe that, It has an application for you. The guilt and burden of your sin is gone, Because he took it. In that story, pilgrim's progress. Pilgrim comes to the cross, And his burden falls away. That's the first thing that's finished. The burden and guilt of sin can go immediately, Because Jesus died and said it is finished. Now see the second part. He was tempted like us in every single point, And he said it is finished. That means I have overcome all of them. There is not a single temptation I did not overcome. What is the practical application? Now let's go to Hebrews 4. Verse 15. He was tempted like us in all points, And did not sin. He said it is finished. Therefore, Let us also now go to that throne of grace. And when we come to the throne of grace, We get two things there. First of all we get mercy. It says here, If we first get mercy, And then we find grace. Do you know the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy is an old testament word. You read in the Psalms, Mercy endures forever. They prayed Lord be merciful to me. Grace is something different. The devil does not want you to know the difference, Because he does not want you to know the truth, That will set you free. There was no grace in the old testament, Only mercy. Mercy is for the forgiveness of our sins. Grace is the help and power to overcome sin. So we can say, Mercy refers to our past life. To blot out our sins. Grace refers to the future, To give us power to overcome sin. You shall know the truth, And the truth shall set you free. When you know the truth about God's mercy, The guilt of your sin goes away. When you know the truth of God's grace, Those sinful habits that you are enslaved to, Will also go away. Then you will overcome your lust, And your anger, And your bad thoughts, And your uncontrolled tongue, And your pride and your selfishness, And every unchristlike thing in your life. That's not with mercy, That's with grace. So when we come to the throne of grace, We first of all get mercy. Now Jesus did not need any mercy, Because he never sinned. But he needed grace. Because without grace, He could not overcome. See Luke chapter 2, Luke's gospel chapter 2, You will learn some surprising things this evening, Which are all in your bible, But you may not have noticed it, Because you don't read the bible, Slowly and carefully. Here it says about the beginning, Of Jesus earthly life. It's talking about verse 39, Of Luke chapter 2. He came back to the city of Nazareth, And he, the child, Continued to grow and become strong. And he increased in wisdom. And it says the grace of God, Was upon him. Do you remember what we read yesterday? When grace is over you, Sin shall not be your master. Romans 6.14 Sin shall not be your master, When you are under grace. Do you know who was the first human being, That walked on this earth, Under grace? Jesus Christ. From childhood. See this, The grace of God was upon him. Like an umbrella. He was under grace. You know when you are under an umbrella, The rain cannot fall on you. You don't get wet. And when you are under grace, Sin cannot overcome you. You don't get wet with sin. You keep yourself dry. When you are under this big umbrella of grace, This is the shadow of the almighty, We read in Psalm 91. It is grace. Jesus was under grace. So he never sinned. And if you live under grace, You don't sin either. It's because you move away from that umbrella, That you get wet. But Jesus remained under that. How to remain under this umbrella of grace? 1 Peter 5 It says here in the last part of verse 5, God is opposed to the proud, But he gives grace to the humble. Everybody cannot get grace. Grace is a gift God gives. It says he gives grace, But he doesn't give it to everybody. He looks around and sees those who are humble, He gives them grace. If you are humble, you will get grace. You don't even have to ask for it. It will come. So how did Jesus remain under grace the whole time? He humbled himself all the time. See it says in verse 6, Because God gives grace to the humble, Therefore, You humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. And he will exalt you over sin. The sin that is pulling you down, God will exalt you over sin. When you read exaltation, Don't think he is going to make you Some king or president or something. He is not interested in making you that. He is not interested in making you An elder or a bishop or something like that. The main thing he wants to exalt you Is over the sin that is destroying you. He will do that if you humble yourself. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 11,29 He said learn humility from me. He never told us to learn how to preach from him. He didn't say come to me and learn how to make money. Come to me and learn how to sing. How to play guitar. Did he say learn how to play guitar? Come to me and learn how to be humble. Learn from me for I am humble in my heart. This is a school. Learn means a word of education. In the school of Christ, I am learning one lesson. Humility. One subject. Second standard. Humility. Third standard. More humility. Tenth standard. More humility. PhD. Tremendous humility. And as I learn more and more humility I get more and more grace. Grace is God's power. Grace is God's help. He gives it to humble people. That is why I tell believers Please don't compare yourself with other people. Because we tend to become proud when we compare ourselves with others. See what I have done. See he cannot do like that. Or see how clever my children are. And you compare yourself with that poor fellow's children. If you want to lose the grace of God do that. If you want to get the grace of God don't do it. Believers are constantly comparing themselves with others and becoming proud. That is the reason why you don't get grace. And when you don't get grace you are defeated by sin. The full gospel is that I can keep on getting grace and keep on overcoming all sin in my life. And not only overcome all sin I can overcome everything the devil seeks to do in my life. Jesus not only overcame the world he overcame the devil. He overcame sin. He overcame Satan. He overcame everything that would hinder him from fulfilling the will of God. And you can do that also. So let's turn to Hebrews 4 15 and 16. What does it say here? Let us come to the throne of grace because Jesus has overcome all sin and get mercy for our past life. And now the next thing it says is that we can find grace to help us in our time of need. Do you know what our time of need is? When the pressure of temptation becomes so great that it's going to penetrate my heart now. You know like somebody irritates you irritates you irritates you and now you are just about to explode in anger. You tried to control it for some time but now is your time of need. You cannot control your anger anymore. That's the time you must come to the throne of grace. God please help me. I'm going to fall now. Help me. Grace to help me in the time of my need. Or maybe you are being tempted with sexual lust you are all alone in your room and doing nothing thoughts are coming or maybe you are all alone with the computer and you are tempted to go to something that will provoke your lust and you know it's wrong so you are resisting it but like the waves on the beach it comes again and again and again temptation and it's coming it's coming and you are about to fall do what Peter did when he was sinking in the sea Lord save me Lord will make you stand so that you don't sink if you don't believe me you try it out do some homework and try it out Grace what is the meaning of grace Hebrews 4.16 God's help in the time of my need but you got to come there and ask for it the bible says you don't have because you don't ask God doesn't force anything on us if we don't ask him for it it's a law in the kingdom of God that you have to ask in order to get Jesus said ask and you will receive he didn't say even if you don't ask you will receive no he never said that he said ask and you will receive seek and you will find if you don't seek you won't find now how did Jesus end his life we saw how he began his life with grace upon him when he died on the cross it was a terrific agony to be forsaken by God and to face for three hours the punishment of hell hanging on the cross do you know what Jesus suffered during the last three of the six hours on the cross in one word hell hell being forsaken by God why because death is not the punishment for your sin hell is the punishment for your sin death everybody gets physical death if Jesus only physically died he did not take the punishment of my sin because physical punishment is not the punishment for sin physical death hell is the punishment for sin and if Jesus did not suffer hell then he did not take the punishment for my sin and do you know what hell is hell is to be completely forsaken by God all the people who go to hell are completely forsaken by God and when Jesus cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me he was standing before the God who was the judge of the universe he never called his father God even once never never in all eternity all his days on earth he would always say father father once he said God why was that because when he was hanging on the cross he was hanging before the judge of the universe and there you see how much he loved you he was facing God the judge of the universe as a man and he was cut off I don't know all that he suffered there when I see him face to face one day I will understand but today God has given me a little glimpse of what he went on the cross and as I have seen it it has deepened my love for him I love him because he first loved me not only that as I have seen it I have developed a tremendous hatred for sin because I see what sin did to my savior on the cross why do so many of you take sin so lightly why do so many of you never bother about overcoming your anger or your dirty thoughts or your internet pornography or this terrible sin of gossiping gossiping backbiting against other people behind their back in your house I am not talking about non-Christians I am talking about people who say we are born again Christians we are spirit filled we speak in tongues but they also speak with the tongues of gossip and backbiting at home and they never seem to want to give it up because they have not seen what Jesus suffered on the cross I have seen a little bit of it and it has made me love Jesus with all my heart and hate sin with all my heart but it was not easy for him to go through that he struggled in Gethsemane to avoid it oh father take it away from me take this away but he knew that if he avoided it we would all go to hell and because he loved you he said ok I will go to the cross how did he have the strength to face this tremendous suffering shall I tell you by grace being upon him see that in Hebrews chapter 2 everything I say I will show you in scripture you may not have noticed it but it is there in your bible Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9 the last part it says it was by the grace of God that he tasted death for everyone how did he taste this terrible death spiritual death of hell on the cross that is not easy but with grace he could do it we saw in Luke 2.40 he started his life with grace see Hebrews 2.9 he ended his earthly life with grace and now the bible says in John chapter 1 John chapter 1 verse 16 from his fullness we can receive grace upon grace upon grace upon grace what a wonderful verse I can get grace in the kindergarten more grace in the first standard more grace in the second standard little by little I can overcome getting offended I can overcome the love of money I can overcome anger I can overcome jealousy I can overcome the lust of the eyes I can overcome gossiping I am just getting promoted from his fullness I can get grace all the way to glory grace upon grace grace upon grace all the way to glory this is the fullness of the gospel I can become victorious you can become Revelation chapter 3 Jesus says in verse 21 everybody knows verse 20 behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice I will open the door I will come in and supper with him and he with me ok that's the beginning of your life Jesus is knocking and you say Lord come right in and we have fellowship what do we do after that verse 21 that's the verse the devil doesn't remind people of that's the next step he who overcomes what do we have to overcome what did he overcome what did he say be of good cheer I have overcome the world I have overcome the lust of the flesh I have overcome the lust of the eyes I have overcome the pride of life be bold be bold he who overcomes this I will grant him to sit with me on my throne exactly like I also overcame and I sat down with my father on his throne so what is he saying overcome exactly as I overcame that's the message in verse 21 overcome as I also overcame that is the message of God to the Christian church you can overcome as Jesus overcame if you receive the same grace and you can receive the same grace if you humble yourself do you remember the story Jesus said about the Pharisee who went to pray he was going to pray such a holy activity we pray to get grace but he didn't get any grace why because his prayer was like this Lord I thank you that I am such a good man I pray I fast I give money I am not like that fellow over there he is a sinner I am a holy man I am a board member in my church my pastor thinks so highly of me I even go around preaching and all these thoughts in your mind no wonder you don't get any grace in your life and no wonder that you are defeated by every possible sin no wonder you cannot control your dirty thoughts or your dirty tongue because your thoughts are thoughts of pride and the bible says God resists the proud even if you are a believer if you are proud God will be your enemy we read that in 1 Peter 5 verse 5 God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble so the picture I have in my mind is this if I am proud God will get in front of me and keep pushing me back but if I humble myself God will get behind me and push me forward now there are already many things pushing me back first of all I inherited a filthy sinful nature from Adam which is always pushing me back into sin the same filthy sinful nature you got always pushing us back into sin even when we try to go forward to a holy life how many times you have made a decision in a meeting now I am going to live for the Lord in one week your nature has pushed you right back on the first of January you make a resolution I am going to live a new life from now on it lasts till about the 7th of January that's all then you are going back that's it your experience my experience and the devil he is also pushing me back and all my worldly friends they are also pushing me back and if you have a gossiping gossiping wife or husband they are also pushing you back criticizing this person criticizing that person and all the people who are fighting and quarreling around you they are all pushing you back and even the believers and lot of the preaching that condemns you and discourages you that's also pushing you back how to go forward only if God gets behind you and pushes you forward then none of these people can push you back if God pushes me forward even if all the 7 billion people in the world try to push me back I will overcome all of them even if every filthy lust in the world tries to push me back I will still go forward even if all the millions of demons in hell try to push me back I will go forward if God is pushing me forward and that's very simple God will push forward everybody who humbles himself there is no partiality he doesn't care whether you are rich or poor you don't even have to know the bible maybe you were converted only yesterday maybe you never read the bible in your life you humble yourself God will give his grace and push you forward and you keep on humbling yourself that means don't despise other people don't compare yourself with other people don't criticize other people say Lord I don't want to judge anybody I am not a judge you are the judge I just want to humble myself when somebody insults you humble yourself you know they call Jesus Beelzebul prince of devils what did Jesus do? humbled himself he said if you have spoken a word against me it's forgiven he said learn humility from me you remember that last supper when they were having dinner together you know in those days people didn't wear shoes they wore chappals like we wear sandals and the roads were all dusty when they came into a house the feet were covered with dust so all the rich people had a slave a servant who would wash the people's feet when they came to the house so when people came for dinner their feet would be washed first but here was a dinner that Jesus arranged the man who kept the house ready with the food table and also kept the water in the bucket there in the towel but there was no servant because the room had to be empty but now who was going to wash the feet Matthew says I'm chartered accountant how can I go and wash the feet of these people Peter says I'm the leader of the apostles I'm not going to wash anybody's feet John says I'm a leader I'm a relative of the high priest how can I go and wash people's feet everybody has got some excuse all are big people Jesus says I'm the only small person here I will wash your feet and he one by one by one he washed the feet it really touches my heart that he washed even Judas Iscariot's feet he knew this chap has already collected money to betray me he is going to betray me in a few hours let me do some good to him before he does that that is humility where you can wash the feet of your enemy and have no bitterness against him when he comes to betray you to say friend have you come to betray me if you were willing to humble yourself like that grace would just come upon you like anything you would be an overcomer there will be no depression or discouragement in your life you can walk like Jesus on this earth the good news is this let me read it to you in one sentence 1 John chapter 2 verse 6 here is the good news of the gospel which was impossible in the old testament which was impossible before the Holy Spirit was poured on the day of Pentecost which is impossible without the grace of God but which is easily possible for the weakest believer by the grace of God what is that 1 John 2 verse 6 we can walk on this earth as Jesus walked did you hear it we can walk on this earth like Jesus walked forgiving people overcoming sin never being discouraged never being in a bad mood that word is confirmed again in 1 John 4 verse 17 1 John 4 verse 17 the last part here is the good news as Jesus is so are we in this world I am not following Elijah if I followed Elijah sometimes I would get depressed like Elijah and say oh God please take away my life but I am following Jesus who never said that I am following Jesus who could control his anger when they spat on his face he could forgive them I will tell you when Jesus got angry when he saw people making money from the poor people in the name of religion in the temple selling those sheep and doves when he saw people making money in the name of God getting it from poor people he got angry to be Christ like is to be angry when you see people making money in the name of God when you hear one of these television preachers rich man telling poor people to give him their tights so that he can buy a new car or a new aeroplane if you are Christ like you will get angry if you don't get angry say oh brother what to do you are not Christ like you are like the devil himself Jesus would be angry Jesus would take a whip and chase those fellows out he chase out every preacher who is trying to become rich by collecting people's tights Jesus never went around collecting tights Jesus healed thousands of people but he never put an offering bag in front of them that's the difference between today's fake healers and Jesus Christ so to be Christ like means that never angry when people hurt you call you the devil spit on you do anything curse or steal your money but angry when God's name is dishonored dear brothers and sisters here is the good news you can walk like Jesus let's pray while our heads are bowed in prayer there are many things that you have heard in these three days I want you to think about the cause of sin the reason the wrong choices that lead Adam to sin and that lead you to sin say Lord I don't want to make those choices I don't want to make the sinful choices that I made I want to choose you always I want grace Lord first of all I want your mercy and I want your grace help me to be an overcomer that my life might glorify you pray in Jesus name Amen Amen