In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having a clear conscience before God and men. He shares a story about a man who sent telegrams to influential people, causing eight of them to leave town out of fear. The preacher highlights the insanity of sin and urges listeners to come to their right mind and sin no more. He explains that sin is a choice and that we cannot blame others for our own sins. The sermon is filled with references to scripture, emphasizing the authority of the Word of God in teaching about sin.

The message that God has laid upon my heart to speak about tonight is entitled, The Insanity of Sin. Come to your right mind and sin no more, says the word of God. That is the scripture where the title is taken from. Come to your right mind and sin no more, for some have no knowledge of God. We need to understand the Bible definition of sin for us to have an understanding of the subject. And by the way, I would urge all of you to take notes. As you take notes and as you write down, two things happen. You get as much again by eye-gate as by ear-gate, by writing. There's an imprint made upon your mind as you see the scriptures and the headings. And then you are able to get as much, if not more, again from the message if you will do the homework afterwards at some time at your convenience by looking up the references in your Bibles and underlining them in your Bibles, every one that I will give you. Now that's going to be a lot of references because our authority in Bible teaching comes from the word of God. So I never make any apology for the fact that the messages are just jam-packed to the absolute jammability of their jamminess with scriptures. And if you will underline the verses in your Bibles afterwards, there certainly won't be time as we're taking the message. All you'll have time to do is to listen to the heading, the point, jot down the reference, and then listen as I read the word of God. And then afterwards, when you underline them, then meditate on the verses. And I can assure you, if you will do this after a message, you will get as much, if not more, the second round. If you're really a diligent seeker and not a casual inquirer of truth, you will get a tape, and you will stop and start the message and ponder it, and this way the word of God is imparted right into your very soul, into your mind, into your spirit. And then when you act upon it, and only when you do, it has become part of your spiritual bloodstream and part of you. You are then living the word of the Lord that you heard in the meeting tonight. Few mean that kind of business with God. They have the greatest rewards. James 4, verse 17. Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Very clear definition of what sin is from the Scriptures. I looked up Cruden's Concordance, and there was an excellent definition of sin. I thought it was very penetrating for a concordance. Any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the law of God. Very thorough definition, isn't it? Any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the law of God. Then I have added a simple sentence. Sin is not acting according to revealed truth. It is not sin if it is in ignorance, but the moment we are aware of what the right thing is and we don't do it, it is sin. Friends, we choose the sanity of doing right or the insanity of doing wrong. I am believing tonight that God the Holy Spirit is going to burn these words across our minds. The insanity of choosing to do wrong. It's going to be a great deterrent from keeping us from sinning, as we just see that every time we sin, which is every time we choose to sin, don't go around with one of those bumper stickers on your car, the devil made me do it. He didn't. He can tempt you. You chose to sin. And every time we sin, if we would stop and say, I am choosing the insanity of doing what I know to be wrong. If we would speak it out, we would see how stupid, illogical and just plain nuts we are to sin. We can never blame any other person for our choice to sin. Please ponder that statement. That's why resentment to God and man is insane. Another person can become a cause only of our being tempted to sin. We chose to sin. Deuteronomy 24, verse 16. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. Exodus 20, verse 5. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. There isn't even a comma there. This is one of the most unquoted, misquoted verses in the Bible. There's not even a comma. It goes straight on. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commands. In other words, there's no such thing as automatic transference of guilt. I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those children who have chosen to have the same sins as their fathers. Now, can we see how insane it is to say, I'm like I am because my father was like he was, or my mother. You happen to choose the same sins. Now, we're going to look in depth and in detail in the subject tonight, and we're going to see the tremendous responsibility we have when we are the cause of another being tempted to sin, but we can never blame another for our sin. It is our choice. And we're going to see the insanity of resentment and the insanity of not forgiving and the insanity of blaming anybody else when it is our choice. But he shows steadfast love to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments, those who have chosen not to commit the sins of their fathers or their mothers. It's very significant and very interesting as we study closely in the Old Testament how many, many times amongst the kings of Israel and Judah there were very godly kings who had very ungodly sons, showing the insanity of blaming anybody or saying, I am like I am because my father was like he is. They chose to rebel against the example of their fathers who had chose righteousness. And then we see equally, just as many times in the Old Testament, we see dreadful fathers who were kings, like Manasseh, who did more evil than any other king in the Old Testament and led the people of God into more sin even than the heathen. And he had a very wonderful son who chose to do the right thing, King Josiah. So you see, it's not what your mother and father were or are. You are what you are because you've chosen to act according to revealed truth or not to act according to revealed truth. Insanity, therefore, of resenting them. We are going to look now at what sin does to God. This is by far the most important point as we are going to look at what sin does to others, what sin does to ourselves, what sin does to the devil. Most length of time will be spent upon this point here because we so little understand what sin does to God and therefore our repentance is often so shallow. Now God reacts according to his character. So does the devil, so do you and I. Everybody does. And because the main purpose that God had in his mind when he created us was for intimate close friendship with himself, therefore there must be an initial reaction of loneliness in the heart of God every time we sin because sin separates from him to a degree in friendship. There is no way we can come in intimacy and in closeness of friendship to God when we have sinned. We immediately cause God to go back a pace or two as far as degrees of intimacy of friendship based, of course, upon his holiness. Oh, I desperately wanted them to be close to me but I'm holy and they come close on my conditions of holiness. They have severed that condition. I have to withdraw to a degree until, of course, there is repentance. So God wants to open our eyes tonight to see what we're doing to God. Friends, nothing will break your heart more and produce depth of repentance like you've never ever known in your life when the Holy Ghost gives you revelation on this point, many facets to this point of what sin does to God. Let's bow our heads as individuals and ask the Holy Spirit to give us the necessary revelation It's not listening to a woman have a discourse on a subject. We need the Holy Ghost to give us revelation. Ask for it and receive it by faith. Say, Dear God, I want to see every time I choose to sin how my sin affects you and believe that he will. He's heard and answered that prayer. Psalm 25 and verse 14 says the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. That does not mean those who are afraid of him. What does it mean to fear the Lord? Proverbs 8, 13 tells us the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. It is to have God's attitude towards sin, which is to hate it. So the friendship of God is with those who hate sin. Friends, when we hate sin, we seldom do. Did you ever do anything that you hated unless you were forced to do it? You didn't, did you? No way did you if you were normal. You didn't choose to go and do something you hate to do unless it was an obedience to God, if something that you dislike to do, but you should be delighting to do his will. And when you delight to do his will, then you don't hate it. Because that verse in Psalm 25, 14 says the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him or hate sin. And then it goes on and it says he makes known to them his covenant. His covenant is his word. This means that he shares the secrets that are in his word. You can read the word of God and never see the hidden and secret things, the revelations of truth below the surface. But God wants you to come into intimate friendship with him through holiness, and then he longs to share the secrets of his word to you, the unobvious things, the deeper things below the surface. And when we sin, therefore he is lonely because he has to withdraw from us to a degree. And then we disappoint him that he's not able to share his secrets with us. Don't you love sharing secrets with somebody very close to you? I do. And doesn't it disappoint you if you find they are not able to share your secrets or they become distant from you in friendship? And there's a loneliness in your heart. You used to love just sharing secrets with them. It's lovely to be able to say, I'm telling you something that I've never told anybody else in the world, and I'm just trusting you with it. There's great pleasure in that. And we deny God the pleasure of sharing his secrets from his word with us. It makes him sad and it makes him lonely. Isaiah 59, verses 1 and 2, Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you. It hurts God to hide his face from us when the purpose he created it is for intimate friendship, when he wants to look at us face to face and look into our eyes and find intimacy of friendship there. I believe with all my heart that God has few intimate friends on earth. It was so in Bible days because there are few who will pay the price of the holiness of life to walk with God in intimacy of friendship. That hurts God. He yearns for millions of close friends and has the capacity to have that kind of friendship with millions. We haven't. He has. And then it grieves him. The next point. It grieves him and repulses him because sin is so distasteful to his holiness. It makes him lonely. He is not able to share his secrets with us. It grieves him and is so distasteful to him. Then it hurts him again because of the depth and tenderness of his love. I shall never forget the moment when the Holy Spirit spoke this next sentence into my mind. Do you often associate something that was revealed to you with a time and a place? We do, don't we? You can remember when God revealed the truth to you where you were? I had my head under a tap shampooing it. When the Holy Spirit sovereignly spoke to me and said this sentence. I wasn't asking him for truth at that point at all. I just find that's exciting. That's God just breaking in with your heads under a tap shampooing your hair. He's obviously no respecter of persons, places or time just to reveal truth. And with the water running over my head and around my ears I heard the Holy Spirit say you can only be hurt to the extent that you love. So who can be hurt the most? Who's the greatest lover? God. Ladies of you and men who are here have you stopped to think about that? That nobody can be hurt as deeply as God. Because nobody loves like God. And the deepest hurts that you and I have ever had in our life are those that we have loved the most. It's because we loved them so desperately, dearly that we were hurt as deeply as we were. Another reason why we are hurt in depth of degree is to the degree in which there was injustice in the hurt. You think about that. You have someone who you love the deepest be unjust to you and that will come out with the deepest hurt. Now how insane it is to hurt the one who loves us most, God by choosing to do wrong. That's insane. And how unjust it is to hurt the one who is all justice. Everything that he has allowed to happen in our lives everything that he has planned to happen in our lives has come from a totally just God. How insane to resent him. How unjust to hurt him with our reaction of resentment to him. Psalm 145 and verse 17 in the Revised Standard Version you will only get this particular quote in that particular version says God is just in all his ways and kind in all his doings. When you believe that verse it is insane to ever resent God. Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 4 The Rock, meaning God, capital R his work is perfect for all his ways are justice a God of faithfulness and without iniquity just and right is he. This verse tells us that therefore under no circumstances whatever at any moment are we ever to blame God for anything that has happened or be allowed. We can never put blame on God if you are going to believe those scriptures. Or we may not understand the why we are suffering because of other people's sins or other people's choices and we are suffering. It's our reaction to them. It's our choice of how we react to them that God judges us on. And remember it is a God of justice and righteousness who has allowed the circumstances. Thousands of times we don't understand how he is just but friends he requires us to believe that he is just because he says he is just. He's King God. He says he's just. We say, yes sir, you're just. And we will never understand the how he is just until we accept that he is just and worship him in the circumstances. And then 99% of the time in his way and in his time he then reveals to us how he is just to those who accept that he is and worship him. And then we look back and we see how it was for our good. Insane, therefore, to resent him. It hurts him when his children will not trust him. When he is so loving so powerful and able to meet their needs so full of knowledge of how to do it so full of power to be able to do it so full of wisdom to know how and when so longs to meet their deepest needs not necessarily to change the circumstances but to give the mental energy the physical strength the emotional strength the spiritual power in the difficult circumstance he longs that we trust him and it hurts him terribly when we won't trust him because he is so loving so powerful. Have you ever wept as the Holy Spirit has come upon you? You can't weep in this way that I'm going to describe unless the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You cannot work up an emotion to feel how God feels over sin. But the nearer you get to God and the closer in intimacy of friendship with you part of the intimacy of his friendship is to share his sorrows with you. I find that it's those who are close to me in friendship more often than not that I would weep with. God is the same. Have you come into an intimacy of friendship with God yet where he has been able by his Spirit to come upon you and you weep with what he weeps about? Many years ago a friend and myself were spending a night in prayer and waiting on God doing just the next thing he told us to do. For some hours we interceded. Other times we just sat and listened to him. Other times we worshipped. Other times he just turned us in his word through the night to what he wanted to say to us. And at about three in the morning there was just a lapse of any talking to the Lord or communicating with one another and we were just waiting on God. And then the Holy Spirit sovereignly came upon me and I found myself in deep weeping as God himself was saying I'm sharing just a little with your little heart of how my heart feels when the millions of my children will not trust me. Weeping over the unbelief in the body of Christ that desperately breaks the heart of God. Breaks his heart. He's a God with deep emotion. Does he weep over your unbelief? Does he weep when you worry and will not trust him? Does he weep because you can't believe him for an airfare or a... the next... I always say airfares cause that's my life. Travel. I need to relate more. I'm always believing him for airfares and he's never failed me yet. Simply because while I fulfill the conditions he cannot fail me ever. Can you believe him for that financial need provided you seek his kingdom and his righteousness and then believe that all those things will be added unto you? Can you not believe him to make a way to meet that person who's breaking your heart that's nearest to you? Can you see that your continuous sin of worry which is unbelief hurts God when he has the ability to meet that need whatever that need is? If he called you to a life of faith where you never had the faintest idea where your next dollar is coming from would you spend all night freaking out tossing and turning and hurting God desperately and saying you mean to say no known means of support? Or would you go to sleep with your head on the pillow saying Hallelujah! As long as I put you first and seek righteousness as a way of life it's your responsibility to provide everything for me. I'm going to sleep. Good night God and you go to sleep. Then he's not hurt but oh how he hurts when his children will not trust him when he's so trustworthy not only has the ability to meet our needs but longs to meet our needs. Then it hurts him another way when we choose to grieve him by disobedience to reveal truth it hurts him to have to hold back the blessings that he planned to give us if we had been obedient and that he longed to give us had we chosen to obey we therefore deny him the joy of giving us some reward or surprise, blessing or some bonus. God because of who he is in the abundance of his love and his wealth and his justice rewards us right down here now I believe that every single act of obedience that we have every time we choose obedience is choosing to do the right thing that's holiness that's how you get holy just do the right thing it's choosing to act according to reveal truth and I believe that every single time we do without exception God because he's so generous and so just notes it and says alright I will reward you we may not see the reward immediately but it'll come it's cashed from heaven at the right time for us to receive it I can remember my godly parents and aunts and ancestors and godly people surrounding my life many times patting people on the back and say well dear I can't promise you much down here but your rewards will be great in glory and I used to think well rewards in glory as a little girl who wants to wait that long glory seemed eons away and it wasn't too much incentive for me to be obedient ah he's much more wonderful than that he's so much more wonderful than that he absolutely longs and loves to continuously not only reward us but to give us bonuses and little surprise things that we don't deserve do you hurt him by being amazed when God comes along and gives you some surprise gift that you know you didn't deserve and you weren't expecting I've seen the look of absolute astonishment on many of God's children's faces when either through me or through somebody else the spirit of God prompted us to give them a gift give them some extra thing not because it was their birthday God's place is upon the heart give this to them and I've seen their absolute amazement and I've seen them even question that it ever came from God oh this can't be right why should God want to give this to me and up in heaven God is hurt because we don't understand his love but what do we do to God when we choose not to obey revealed truth and we're disobedient because he's a very very wise parent and a loving heavenly father he has to withhold the reward that he longs to give us he has to hold it back because he knows that to give us a reward for sin is not going to do us any good it's not going to encourage us not to sin and so like we as wise parents hold back what perhaps we were longing to give our kids now who gets hurt the most when out of your loving heart you go to a store like I did today and saw something that my 20 year old daughter was longing to have I knew that and I saw the very thing in a store today that she longed to have I get the far greatest joy out of buying that for her than she'll ever have of receiving it now she's not a kid any longer she's married and so there's no punishments for mom any longer praise the Lord because every time I punished my precious only daughter because of my deep tender love for her it always hurt me ten times more than her so punishment days are over but what if she were younger and I bought that present and I got home and she was naughty if I have any wisdom at all I will not come and give the present at that point I will bring it out and give it at a time when she has been good and I want to reward her but who is hurt the most when we've had the thrill because of the love in our hearts to buy the present and we can't give it to them because they're naughty we are disappointed we have to go and hide the thing and put it away and wait till they've been obedient and how many times do we hurt God He in His great heart of love and the vastness of His knowledge is all the time thinking up rewards for us ways to bless us surprises to give us and then we go and blow it and sin and He's hurt oh I long to bless them I can't give it to them I can't I have to deny them the blessing because they were disobedient and it hurts Him see we haven't been thinking too much of what sin has done to God have we let's be very honest we seldom ever ponder we think of the effects of what it does to us in our selfishness but oh what it does to Him how that great big loving heart is hurt and grieved because He isn't able to reward us and bless us because Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 to 14 makes it very very clear that every single time in every way blessings follow obedience worse than that friends when we sin against God it hurts Him to have to think up some punishment for our sin that's a horrible job isn't it I remember driving along in my car in LA couple of years ago it was and seeing a mother spanking her child on the sidewalk and I didn't have any reaction as to whether she should or shouldn't I didn't know anything about it but my reaction was this similar to what I gave you just a minute ago I said out loud as I drove along in the car Hallelujah all the spanking days are over for me but oh how you see but it hurts us to have to punish it's a most unpleasant job thinking up some way in which we've got to punish our children how does it grieve and hurt the heart of God when He has to not only deny us the lovely blessing He wanted to give us that hurts enough then He's got to think up some punishment to give us and the insane people absolutely insane resent the God who judges us when we've sinned instead of worshipping Him and grieving in our hearts that we hurt Him so much for Him to have to think up that kind of a punishment Deuteronomy 28 the last verses from verse 15 to 67 Deuteronomy 28 1 to 14 remember was the promises of blessing when we obey now the last verses 15 to 67 tell us equally that He brings the judgment or the curse upon us when we disobey Galatians 6 verse 7 be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap even when we repent of sin there is the inevitable law of reaping the sowing of our sin see how insane it is to sin we not only suffer but then there's a reaping period we not only suffer when we sin but there's a reaping period after what you sow you reap even when you're forgiven it doesn't take away the law of reaping but I believe this to the extent of two things three things the depth of our repentance which we manifest itself in the humbling that we have in relation to that sin which will include restitution of humbling ourselves to others when our sin has been against others and then to the extent that we cry out to God for mercy what mercy is having from God what we do not deserve and say God I don't deserve anything other than judgment but I thank you that you've forgiven me I thank you that your blood cleanses me and now Father please will you lift the reaping period I plead your mercy and mercy is giving us what we don't deserve depth of repentance and depth of calling upon Him for mercy and God shortens the sentence of the reaping that's good news girls isn't it but let's not be all taken up with what the sin is doing to us it's how it's hurting Him have we ever stopped to think that God breaks His heart over our sins weeps in love for us the next thing that it does to God it holds back and thwarts His plans to advance His kingdom through us I believe with all my heart we the body of Christ the church of God holds back the coming of the King it's when the gospel is preached to every tongue and kindred and tribe and nation the King will come back that's what the word says we hold back the coming of the King through lack of commitment through lack of obedience through lack of availability to give to go and to pray for the unreached nations of the earth and then it causes God to have to plan a way to go into action to expose our sin now that hurts Him He loves us He doesn't want to expose our sin but Numbers 33 verse 23 30 I'm sorry Numbers 32 verse 23 surely your sin will find you out who causes it to be found out God now that hurts Him He doesn't want to expose us 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5 therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart then every man will receive his commendation from God do you believe the word of God did you get the weight of that verse do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart the purpose of your heart and the purposes of mine don't think we can get away with anything we may fool ourselves right now we're being deceived have you got anything to hide Paul says he made pains to have a clear conscience in Acts 24 before God and men there is a story and I do not know the validity of it but it's it's an excellent illustration at this point that there was a man who sent eight telegrams to eight leading men in a city put the same words on a telegram to each man and it was simply this all is now known and eight men left town what would your reaction be to somebody saying to you with authority all is now known to the degree that you have confessed and repented all known sin as the spirit of God has come upon you and shown you what you needed to repent and make restitution of to the degree that you have there are no secrets and nothing between your husband and yourself does your husband know everything mine does you couldn't tell my husband a thing he knows it all that's why I'm so free so secure you couldn't frighten me with anything there's nothing he doesn't know right through my childhood through my teen years everything I've told him all we have nothing no nothing to hide it's all come out it's one of the reasons why we have such a fabulously secure wonderful marriage after 28 years all is known please turn to side 2 for the continuation of this message