Robert Wurtz II emphasizes the critical nature of genuine repentance as the foundation for a victorious Christian life. He draws parallels between the construction of a strong building and the necessity of a solid foundation of repentance and faith in God, warning against the dangers of a weak spiritual foundation. Wurtz II illustrates that true repentance involves a radical change of heart and a deep hatred for sin, which leads to a transformed life and a desire to distance oneself from past sins. He stresses that without genuine repentance, one cannot build a lasting relationship with God, and that the act of repentance must be ongoing and sincere. Ultimately, he calls for believers to take aggressive steps to fortify themselves against sin and to ensure that their lives reflect true obedience to Christ.

Praise God. I'm going to continue our study this morning on the subject of genuine repentance. And I received an email last week from a dear brother who kind of gave me a little bit of encouragement talking about Jeremiah. In the 25th chapter he starts talking about how for 23 years he preached the subject of repentance to the people. And I think about what that would be like every week going to the Lord, Lord what's the word for the hour, repent. Goes back next week, what's the word, repent. He goes back and he does this for 23 solid years. How many different ways did he tell them to turn? How many different things did he say to them? And we get to the end of his life and what we essentially see happening is everything he prophesied starts to happen. You know what, if the word is to repent, we need to repent. We live in a society today that is growing more wicked by the moment. It used to be by the day, but I think it's by the minute. We're starting to see things that are just unbelievable. And if I could title this particular message this morning in the subject of genuine repentance, it would be Victory 101. Victory 101. You want to have victory over sin? See, that's what I feel God, if there's any undercurrent of teaching God has ever had on my heart from square one, it's to try to lead people to be able to live a victorious life over sin, to mine the scriptures for victory so that it can be taught. We need to repent. The foundation of repentance, the foundation of repentance, the foundation of any structure is the base on which that structure is built. It is the support for the walls and the other components of the building. No building is any stronger than its foundation. No building is any stronger than its foundation. If the foundation is not properly placed, the entire structure will be in question. So you don't matter how beautiful the building is, it doesn't make any difference how strong the structure is from the ground up. If the foundation is weak, the whole structure is in question. If it is not placed deep in the earth, that being the foundation, it will be carried away by the elements. If it is not laid strong, it will not support the weight of the structure. See, what is God wanting to do in your life? What is God wanting to lead you into in terms of ministry? The foundation of repentance in your life will only support what it's capable of supporting and no more. So the strength of that repentance will dictate what can be built on top of it. Repentance from dead works, faith towards God, and the accompanying elements of these two serve as the foundation of our relationship with God, Hebrews 6, 1 and 2. The Bible tells us, do not keep laying again the foundation from dead works and repentance and faith towards God and all that. Don't keep relaying that foundation. In other words, lay it, lay it right, and then begin to build on it. See, but until that foundation is properly laid, we can't move on with the building program. If I look up and I see this wall is about to buckle, we can't start putting in the floor joists until that's fixed. So you can't go on. See, we'd like to just say, well, you know, we're running behind schedule. We need to get this thing going. But if the foundation is weak, the building will collapse. It is the foundation that we are told not to be laying over and over again. It is a foundation that is to be laid and then built upon. Unfortunately, many never really take the time to ensure that the foundation of repentance and faith towards God is properly laid. And then in turn, they end up in the situation Jesus talks about in Luke chapter 6. Let's read about it. And why call you me, he says, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say. Whosoever cometh to me and hears my sayings and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man who built a house. He digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it. See that? Flood could not shake the house. Why? Because the foundation of repentance and obedience was laid so well, the flood could not shake the foundation for it was founded upon a rock. But he that hears and does not do is like a man without a foundation. They build a house upon the earth against which when the stream beat vehemently, immediately it fell. Do you think of the difference? The difference between the two. On the one hand, it could not be shaken. On the other one, it immediately fell. And the ruin of that house was very great. See, there is a lot of things that we can try to build in our life and we think, man, this is a beautiful structure. But all of a sudden, the earth gives way and the foundation was weak and everything that you had built just comes tumbling down. So you see why it is important to make sure the foundation of repentance is properly laid in your life. Digging deep, digging deep. Genuine repentance is a radical change of life that results in God gloriously transforming a person from death to life, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan and to the power of God. See, that's genuine repentance. That's deep repentance when it takes place. I was talking to some construction workers who was building some real tall skyscrapers downtown Kansas City and I just couldn't resist asking them, how is it that you keep that building from toppling over in high wind? How do you do that? I mean, the foundation of that thing would have to be just immense. You know what they said they do? They go down into the earth and they dig down and down until they hit bedrock. Then they will blast or they will somehow make ports into that bedrock, pour concrete pillars and fasten that building in the bedrock. And then they begin to build a foundation on that. And from that, it makes it impossible, nearly impossible to topple over. So not just is the foundation sitting in the earth deep, but it's in the bedrock as well. And that's the kind of repentance, that's the foundation we need to lay in our Christian lives. It is a deep process. It requires a tremendous amount of convincing and conviction. See, oftentimes as ministers, we get up to try to convince people to repent. I mean, God will lay a message on our heart to convince people to repent. Then the Holy Spirit will bring the conviction. The minister brings a message to convince and the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. The two are in most cases totally dependent one on the other. The Holy Spirit has been known, however, to bring great conviction apart from a person hearing a sermon. But certainly no minister can bring conviction without the Holy Spirit. See, I can get up and preach a message or teach a lesson or whatever. And if God does not bring conviction, it will profit me nothing. The fact is, we need the Holy Spirit. Deep conviction that brings godly sorrow leads a person to repentance. Deep repentance is not sorrow for the consequences of sin that occurred because of your disobedience. That's not repentance. See, a lot of people are sorry about a lot of things. I'm sorry about what I did to you. I'm sorry about what happened to me. I'm sorry. But sorrow does not equate with repentance unless it's a godly sorrow that leads you into life. But it is sorrow that is brought about by God himself and makes God the center of repentance. See, I've sinned against the Lord. That's what you would say. It's between me and him. I've got to turn back to him. God is the one who we sinned against. God is always the primary offended party in all sin. God is the one to whom we must turn to for relief from our sins. There are but a few aspects of genuine godly sorrow that leads to life. Now, on the contrary, there are many that believe that they have repented when all they have really done has been sorrowful and sorry for the sin or what it caused, or they were sorry that they got caught. And that's different. See, I could spend an entire lesson just talking. I really felt like I was going to do that this morning, but God had other plans. I was going to talk about the seven myths of repentance. See, there's a lot of people that would say with their mouth they repented, but the reality is they didn't. They were just sorry for they got caught and they didn't ever really turn. Genuine and deep repentance is the condition in which a person sees their sin as God sees it, changes their mind about it, repulsively forsakes it, is sorely vexed because of it, and turns from it to God for relief from it. There's the progression. Right there. See, we've got to turn to God for relief from our sin. Once we see our sin as it really is and it really brings you to a place, you're like, I can't believe that I did that. I can't believe that's me. The only hope that you have is to turn to God for relief. Repentance is turning from trusting in yourself, which results in sinfulness, to trusting in God and His righteousness. Salvation that does not include true and genuine repentance is no salvation at all because it has no foundation. You see, a person who don't genuinely repent is a very high-maintenance Christian. You've got to call them every time you turn around. You've got to constantly wonder, where are they? Where are they at? But listen, when you truly get radically saved, you will certainly need to be treated as a babe in Christ, don't get me wrong, but that hunger and thirst and desire will be there. You will want to serve God. You don't have to be called every time you turn around to be in the house of God because you know what? You have a heart and a desire to want to be there. Salvation that does not include true and genuine repentance is no salvation at all because it is the foundation. Genuine repentance leaves a person feeling such about their past sin that they will also seek to make restitution and reconciliation whenever possible for the things they've done. It's what you do. You know the story of Zacchaeus. He come out of the tree and said, a half of my goods I give to the poor. Immediately said, the half of my goods I'll give to the poor. If I've stolen anything or taken anything wrong, I'll restore fourfold. They also realized how vile their former behavior was and immediately they will seek to impress on others that they have forsaken the old life. You think about it. You see yourself the way you really are in the way you start to think, man, I need to put some distance between me and the old man. I need to let some people know I ain't that anymore. See, that's what happens when you genuinely repent. This is quite different than the person who is embarrassed to say they repented. A person who genuinely repents is embarrassed for her who they used to be, not for who they are now. See that they're embarrassed for who they used to be, not for who they are now. See, because when you see your sin for what it really is, you'll be ashamed of what you used to be and you want to distance yourself from that. So I'm not that anymore. I don't do that. That's the old man. He's dead. He's buried. That's what it will be. A foundation on the rock. Jesus Christ must be the chief cornerstone of any foundation that we lay down. In genuine repentance, we turn from sin to righteousness, from the power of Satan to the power of God. It's that simple. So you can't hang on to both at the same time. You have to turn from the one to the other. The life that we now live is in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ. That's it. Question is, do we live Christ like? Do we obey his commandments? Do we keep his word? We do not simply call him Lord, Lord, but he truly is the Lord of our life. Think about this for a minute. We confirm this by doing the things that he says. That's it. You know, we can say all day, you know, he's the Lord. But is he the Lord? Is he really the Lord? If he's in authority, you'll be obedient to that authority. We exalt him to his rightful place of king. And in that submission, we are made citizens of the kingdom of God. See, the king in our land is king because or say the president, because he's been appointed. But the kingdom of God is not something that is tangible. The way that the king becomes the kingdom in our midst is because we are obedient to him. He's the Lord of us. We've made him king. Therefore, we are in the kingdom. You see that our submission to Christ is what allows the kingdom of Christ to come near to those to whom we minister to. See, if I'm not submitted to Christ, how can the kingdom of God be in the midst of someone I'm trying to minister to? Because if he ain't king in my life, the kingdom ain't near. You see that? You see that? If we don't submit to God and his authority, how could we ever be ambassadors with his authority? It's kind of like Paul, I know Jesus, I know. But who are you? In other words, he's in submission to the king. Therefore, he is a genuine ambassador. But who are you? Who are you? Foundationless faith, second section. In Luke 6, 48, we read, but he that heareth and doeth not is like a man without a foundation, without a foundation. I was looking at a house the other day and it was weird because they built the foundation. They didn't have a foundation. Actually, they built the front porch in the dirt. You know what happens when you do that? Termites get right up in there and just eat that thing up and it ain't long before it fell out. You can't do that. You can't do it. And he that heareth and doeth not is like a man without a foundation. Repentance that does not result in obedience to God is not genuine repentance. Disobedience is regarded with disdain in a truly born again person's life. See, being disobedient to God is not your nature when you're genuinely born again. If you do not hate sin, you have no real foundation for which to talk about obedience. You know that? You should hate sin as a Christian. I didn't get a lot of amens, but you should hate sin. If you don't hate sin, there's something wrong with you as a Christian because we should be repulsed by sin. We should see the effects of sin and think, man, turn from sin. If we live in denial that you need to repent and you have not hated your sin as you should, you think about it. That's what it is. It's denial. When David saw his sin for what it was, he did not react in denial. He made no excuses. He gave no explanations. He knew that sin, as it were, watch this, comes in many flavors. You know that? Sin comes in many flavors, Church, but it's only one substance, and that's rebellion. It's rebellion. See, ice cream can come in rocky road, chocolate chip, strawberry, but it's all ice cream. Rebellion is sin, and it can come in a lot of different flavors, fornication, covetousness, hatred, bitterness, but it's all still rebellion. See, the devil can flavor the sin to make it attractive to you. But you must understand it's still rebellion. But the core substance is rebellion against God. That is the substance of sin itself. The flavor is immaterial. It is all the result of the rebellious law of sin that is in our members that desires to rebel against God's law simply because he decreed it. Many times I've used this illustration, say if God said to the children of Israel, I don't want you to work on Saturday. I don't want you to do a single thing. See, only a people that are full of rebellion would kick against such a ruling when we're lazy by nature. Think about it. People who are lazy by nature are going to suddenly say, no, I'm not going to keep that law. Something wrong with that. That's when you're just wanting to rebel for the sake of rebellion. Because any other time people want to get some rest. The sinful nature is gratified by rebellion. It is the flesh's meat. What gratifies the flesh? The flesh is gratified by rebelling against God. And when you go to commit some certain sin, you're thinking, I'm doing this. You're thinking the chocolate chip, the rocky road, the strawberry. No, what you're doing, you're being fulfilled by the rebellion. This is one of the things I was trying to talk and explain to some guys last week. You got to understand when the kid slips around the back of the school and gets himself a cigarette, it's not the smoke and the cigarette that's fulfilling him. It's the rebellion. Hmm. When he slips out and grabs a can of beer, it's not the beer that's going in his mouth, making him want to gag, that's fulfilling him. It's the rebellion making him want to disregard the taste and fulfill himself in that rebellion. Sin is rebellion. It is the flesh's meat. The meat of the born again believer is to do the will of God. It's a difference. Your meat will be to do God's will. That's what fulfills you. Understanding this point is a main key to gaining the victory over sin and hating sin as we should see when you stop seeing the picture of the devil paints and start seeing what's really behind the picture. You'll start hating the sin. You'll start hating it when we stop focusing on the flavor, as it were, of sin, the covetousness or the fornication or the hatred or whatever. And he on in on the very substance of sin, we realize the sin we've committed is only gratified the flesh because it rebelled against God. That's what gratifies the flesh. It doesn't matter. The flesh don't care how it gets some sins, as long as it gets some. It don't matter if it gets it in Rocky Road, chocolate chip or strawberry, just as long as it can rebel. That's why you'll notice if you get a certain vice in your life, right? The devil then try to slip in and get you with something else. Why? Because he wants you to partake of the substance, doesn't care what flavor it is. See, the flesh is always jonesing for sin. You understand that that's the term for people who are drug addicts. They're constantly needing a fix. The flesh is constantly needing a sin fix, church, and they don't care how it gets it. They don't care. They don't care how it gets it. The sinful nature is gratified by rebellion. David understood this clearly and he answered the prophet when he came to him. He said, I have sinned against the Lord. Notice he didn't say I've sinned against a bunch of people. They were the innocent bystanders of what was going on. We could sit here and say, well, he sinned against Bathsheba or he sinned against Uriah. He sinned against the nation. He sinned against his parents. And we could go through that whole list. But the reality of it was what was gratifying him was the rebellion against God that comes when we get in the flesh. And he recognized that. He said, I've sinned against the Lord. He'd find no pleasure in flesh within dissenting against an individual. This thing is between us and God against God alone. Psalm 51, for have I done this evil in his sight. The foundation of repentance is only as strong as our hatred of sin and our desire to walk in obedience to Christ. Only as strong as it is. How bad do you hate your sin? You know what? When you see your sin as it really is, when you allow God to just strip back the lies and the blinders and you see the sin for what it really is, you will hate that sin. But the unfortunate thing is, so oftentimes we're looking ahead and the devil's like, you know what? Sin's going to be like this. And it's like an oasis. And when the time when you get there, you realize there ain't really nothing to it. But in hindsight, you utterly hate it. But do you remember that? Do you remember how bad every time you sin, the devil disappointed you? It's amazing how quick people forget that you go off in your sin and you think it's going to be something and then later you go back and you think, man, that was horrendous. I'll never do that again. How many people say that stuff? I mean, we've all said I'll never do that again. That'll never happen again. Why? Because the thought of how disappointed you were is fresh in your mind. But in time you forget that. And in that forgetting, you go back to it again like a dog to his vomit. So you got to see sin for what it is. Take that sin. And in doing so, it'll go a long way in helping you remain in repentance, loving righteousness and hating iniquity. When you have genuinely seen sin as God sees it and your mind is properly changed about it, that change should result in utter disdain for sin. It'll be a hatred based in the knowledge that your sin was against the God that is wholly good. Think about it. When you really start to think about how good, when we watch the Passion movie and we see how much God loves us and then to go out and sin and then to realize what the truth, core substance of sin is, just to rebel against God and to somehow get at him, you will view your sin, you will view it as malice projected at the God that has bestowed upon us every good and perfect gift. See, the goodness of God leads you to repentance. When you finally survey the wondrous love of God and the extent to which his anger has been restrained from consuming you, you know, the Bible said because of God's mercy that we're not consumed. And his divine providence in sustaining you at the same time, we ought to pour contempt, church, on all of our pride. What we ought to do, as Paris Reid once said, our preaching is not to convince good men that they're in trouble with the mean, bad God, but it's to convince bad men that they deserve the wrath and anger of a good God. That's the difference. See, God's a good God. And when we realize what we've done against him, we'll see our sin as it is. And in that moment of understanding the true meaning of sin as a whole, you should hate your sin no matter what flavor it is. The realization of the enormity of your sin against God and his holiness, the revelation that not only was God a God you were sinning against in his infinite holiness, but he was willing to take upon himself the very penalty of your sin. And it ought to convince any sinner that they utterly deserve hell. You think about it. I think about something Brother Tony mentioned and I have to wholly concur about when we got saved. You know, when I got saved, I was sitting about two rows in front of TJ right there. And I was watching the passion play play out. And I remember sitting there thinking how horrific of a sinner that I was. And I was sitting there thinking, God, will you ever take me back? Will you ever take me back, God? I think I've done stuff bad. I don't know if the Lord will take me back. I remember not thinking, follow what I'm saying. I remember not thinking I need to accept the Lord as much as I was thinking, I hope he will accept me. I hope he'll accept me. And in hearing that he would accept me, I just ran at the opportunity. It's a whole lot different. When you truly see who you are in the light of his wondrous love and grace, you'll sit there and say, I hope the Lord will take me back. I hope he will. And as soon as the opportunity is given, you'll run to the altar. Why not to marvel at how a God as holy as he is would be mindful of sinners that are bent on profaning everything that is holy. That's what sin's about. See, the devil just wants to profane things. He wants to defile all that is sacred and holy. That's that's what he wants to do. He's like a graffiti expert that goes up to a brand new bridge with a can of spray paint. He just wanted to defile everything of God. See, that's what sin does, that wants to profane the holy. A sinner seeks to sin simply before the fulfillment of desecrating that which is not yet tainted with sin, so that in that defilement, the flesh can be gratified. See, that's why the devil wants you to destroy yourself. That's why he wants you to defile yourself when you're holy. You think about it, the more clean you are after you've just freshly got up from the altar, it's some of the greatest times of temptation in your life. Why? Because God has washed you white and clean. And the devil wants this can of spray paint to use on you again. Think about it. He's wanting to profane you again because you are now holy and clean. When you realize this one fact, you will hate sin as it is. The enemy's whole strategy is to camouflage the true nature of sin and to present it as something that it is not. But sin is rebellion against God. That's what it is. It's rebellion. It's rebellion against his word. And that's what it is. When you're gratified because of sin, the flesh is meat is to sin and be gratified in that way. Last little paragraph. Genuine repentance has a cultivating effect upon the heart. You want to stir up the fallow ground is your hard heart. Can you not cry anymore? You come to the altar and you can't cry, you can't weep, you can't even weep over your sin anymore. Your heart needs to be stirred up. The fallow ground needs to be broken up. It's important because when some Brother Birch or someone gets up to preach or you're in Sunday school or whatever, the seed just goes on that hard ground. And then the enemy comes and steals it away. Why? Because the ground's not chilled up. It's not chilled up. But genuine repentance has a cultivating effect upon the heart, going through our lives at times and earnestly seeking God to reveal areas of our life where we have refused to repent will point us to areas of hardness that have come about by sin. How many times has Brother Birch said it? Holy Spirit, turn the searchlight on from heaven. Why is that? Because there's areas of hardness in your life and God wants you to turn that over and repent so that he can plant a seed there, allowing God to show us places where we quench the spirit and harden ourselves, will stir the fallow ground when we repent of those things. So we've got to stay in a continuous state of repentance, turn back to God. That's what we have to do. Now, we're going to get down to the main thrust of this message. You start talking about Victory 101, we need to talk about radical repentance, Birch. When you radically repent, your zeal for God combined with your hatred of sin will cause you to take aggressive steps in fortifying yourself against sin. Just take some aggressive steps. Josiah was a radical individual when it comes to repentance. He destroyed the groves and the high places in Israel. See, a lot of the kings in the past never would do that. Oh, well, we'll try to get the people back a little repentant. No, he's like, that's not good enough. We've got to get rid of the very core of this sin. We've got to make sure there are no stepping stones back to the sin so that we can be fully delivered. I think about my dad, and I hope he doesn't mind me telling a little bit of his testimony. When God delivered him of some 25 years of alcoholism, first thing he did was rolled out into the garage and opened up the fridge, got out the trash can and dumped out all the beer into the can, toted it out to the curb. He didn't put the bottle in his back pocket, talking about, I'm going to show the devil how strong I am. Not only that, he took a different route home. Didn't go by the liquor store anymore. You don't drive that way anymore. So you've got to take steps like that. When you truly hate your sin, you're like, I ain't going back to that forever. I guarantee you. If I got to take two miles out of my way to get home, I ain't going by that liquor store. It's tempted me for the last time. Amen. You don't go by it. And then in time, it's a weird thing because it's almost like, I want you to think about it like this. The devil had that refrigerator like a gun of temptation. And then the liquor store was like a knife. But then when the devil didn't have that anymore, he would try to take out my dad with a knife pick. So how'd he do that? Try to tempt him with that wine collection he had since the 70s. He don't like wine. He hates wine. So what'd he do? Well, things becoming a problem. Have to part company with it, too. After the curb, it went. After the curb. See, listen, the devil will kill you with a hangnail if he can. Anything he can get to remind you of your sin. So then you thought, well, that's pretty much it. No. Come over one day, he done rolled out a whole big, huge crate or cart full of albums in 45. Where you going with that? Remind me of the days when I used to drink. Can't be thinking about that. Abstain from the very appearance of evil. You say, man, brother, that's right. No, that's somebody that don't want to go back to their sin. That's somebody who hates their sin. They don't want to be caught up in it. But you know what? We got so many people talking about, well, I can handle it. I can handle it. No big deal. Yeah, you can handle it. No, you're going to be handling it and then it's going to be handling you. That's right. That's true. Not only did he hate the sin, but he hated, as it were, the very garment spotted by sin. That's Jude 23. What does that mean? He distances himself from sin as much as is in him. The facilities of sin, the vehicles of sin are utterly forsaken. The stepping stones to sin are removed. I'll tell you something. I can tell if you really wanted to repent or not. If I can ask you, did you get rid of the stepping stones back to your sin? Oh, I know. Well, then, you know what? In the back of your mind, you're still thinking, well, if anything goes wrong between me and God, I'll just go on back. Listen, you need to burn the bridges. You need to burn the plow and the oxen in your life. Failure to remove the facilities, vehicles and stepping stones is ultimately an indicator that you are not really interested in victory, but in word only, not in deed and in truth. See, many talk repentance, but few are willing to go through their life and eliminate the provisions and the stumbling blocks for their sin. The Bible said not to make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. They convince themselves they can handle certain weights that allow sin to close the gap in the race they are running, and then it knocks them off track. Hebrews 12, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us. Did you know the Greeks understood this? They understood this. I want you to think about this for a minute. It started out in their life, well, you know, well, we really can't run in combat boots. So pretty soon they're running barefoot. And then that wasn't enough. So then somebody gained an advantage. So they pretty soon they're in very little clothing. Did you know that the Greeks finally got to the place to where they would have to close off the Colosseum and only let men to come in because the men were running completely nude? Because they knew that winning or losing a race could be the difference between having a pair of shorts on or not. And what do you think if he's running with something over his shoulder? You know what the devil just does to people like that? He just walks up to you and just kicks your feet out from under you. You're running, you're stumbling, you know, and then there's your weight. They fell in front of you. You're grabbing them up. And while you're grabbing them up, he's right behind you and just kicks your legs out again. And then you go picking them up. Oh, I can handle these things in my life. I can handle it. There went your feet again. But what would happen, Church, if you just dropped it all to the floor? Boom, took off running. Empty handed, made a beeline away from your sin. What would happen? But see, we're so busy picking up the things that we think we can carry that got us caught in the first place. Knocks us off track. What happens? What happens? We can handle it. Famous last words of a Christian. I can handle this. You can't handle it. You can't handle it. They convinced themselves they can handle them. Josiah knew that if the groves in the high places remain, that Israel would keep stumbling over and over the same old sin. You know that? He knew to get rid of it. If you want to stop plowing iniquity, you've got to get rid of the equipment. You want to quit plowing iniquity? Get rid of the equipment. It's that simple. Exercising your senses. In Hebrews 6, we learn that we are not to be laying the foundation of repentance over and over again. We're to go on to perfection. In the closing verses of chapter 5, we read that growth towards perfection requires that we move from the milk to the meat of God's word. This can only happen, the passage says, if we exercise our senses. You have to take control of your five senses. You've got to control your eyes. You've got to control your ears, so on and so forth. You have to train your senses to discern good and evil. This is how a person moves toward Christian perfection. That's how you do it. Say, what are you talking about? I'll tell you what. You know what? I can take off and start heading down the highway and immediately, I'm going to start having to turn from sin. There's sin up on the billboard, I've got to turn from it. There's sin up, I've got to turn from it. You're forever having to be turned from sin. Somebody turns on the radio, I've got to turn my ear from that. Turn from sin. Turn from sin. You're constantly having to turn. You've got to exercise, you've got to control your senses to keep turning yourself away. Because when you sit there, you'll let the devil just keep seeding your eyes. He's just seeding your eyes. He's seeding your ears. He's got a funnel in your ear. You're listening to all this mess. He's got a funnel in your ear, a big bag of seed, just dumping it down in your ear. Just seeding your heart up, and you're wondering why you can't control yourself. Listen, you've got to keep turning. You're driving. There's sin in your face. Turn. Keep turning from sin. Keep turning. Be self-controlled, and keep turning from your sin. You've got to exercise your senses. When a person controls their senses as they should, it will make it easier, watch this, to control your tongue as you should. The one who controls the tongue, Scripture says, is a perfect man, James 3.2. But the tongue can no man tame, for it is unruly evil, full of deadly poison, James 3.8. When you begin talking about, when you begin talking, rather, listen, your heart is exposed. It's like a printout. You start talking, it's like somebody could read your heart condition. The Bible said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Say, well, you do real good in public. What are you saying in private? What are you saying in secret? That's why I was saying a few weeks ago, don't ever talk nasty. You want to open up the door, and the devil come into your life in a way you've never seen, you can just start using your tongue to talk some mess. He'll come in your life with both feet. Before it's over with, you won't know what hit you. The tongue can no man tame. When your heart is exposed, what comes forth is the good treasure of it, and that is what has been carried in through your senses. He carries the mess into your heart through your senses, because we don't guard our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. The tongue coats out what the senses take in. You hear that? The tongue coats out what the senses take in. Last section, in the middle. When you radically repent, you will hate your sin to the place, as much as it's in you, rather. You will fortify yourself against the onslaught of temptation. You'll recognize that if Timothy needed to flee youthful lust, so do you. If Paul needed to bring his body into subjection, lest when he preached to others, he himself would become a castaway, so do you. So do I. We all do. We won't reach the level when we don't need to do these things. You'll never think you stand, but you will take heed, lest you fall. You'll be on guard. If you're not on guard, you're just, you know, the devil's already really got you. If you're not on guard, he's already got you. So you need to be vigilant. You need to be sober, because your enemy's like a roaring lion's already roaming about trying to devour you. Are you on guard this morning? Are you on guard? Are you the watchman of your own soul? The context of this passage is temptation. Matthew Henry comments saying, He that thinks he stands should not be confident and secure, but upon his guard. You think you stand? You think you're good to go? Others have fallen, and so may you. Others have fallen. Greater men of God than I may ever be have fallen in the face. You know that? I can fall just like them. I can fall in a minute. We are most likely to fall when we are most confident of our own strength, and thereupon we are most asked to be secure and off our guard. You're not on guard. I'm good to go. I mean, God's just like that. No, you better get on guard. You better get on your post. You better make sure somebody's watching you and vigilant and awake or sober. Distrust, watch this, distrust of himself. Do you trust yourself? I don't trust myself. I don't trust myself as far as I can throw myself. Not in my flesh. Not in my flesh, church. If you trust yourself, you're already deceived. Because the fact of the matter is, you'll lead yourself down the wrong path. So many people, the Bible said, deceiving your own self. You can deceive yourself in a minute. If it was true then, it's more true today. Distrust of himself. Putting him at once upon vigilance and dependence upon God is the Christian's best security against all sin. Be vigilant. Be sober. Realize what the devil's doing. The Bible said we're not ignorant of the devil's devices. Finally, victory 101. I got one minute. Victory 101. The attitude of genuine repentance is found in the psalm of David who wrote this. I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave unto me. That word cleave, there is a unique Hebrew word. It means to catch me and knock me off track. Catch, overtake me and knock me off. Think about that. To set your sin in front of you is to keep laying the foundation of repentance over and over. Because you know what? You can't handle your sin. You can't handle your sin. You can't handle it. No one is strong enough to keep access to gross sin in their midst and continue to keep resisting temptation. No one's that strong. Nobody is. You know, there's certain limitations to what I can allow in my own life because I'm particularly vulnerable to certain things at certain times. But if I take that stepping stone out and then by the time I get my pants on to get to some sin, the distance between them and their sin, they want it real close to them in case. Well, you know what? I just say, well, I fell again. No, you didn't. Put the thing out there. Make it a long shot for you have to get to it. Make it so you've got to swim across the ocean to get to your sin. And by the time you get there, you'll be like, man, I need to get back to the other shore. But when you've got your sin so close to you to step right there, it is. How could you have time to come to yourself in three feet? Get the sin out of your face. Get it out of your face. Unfortunately, many have already subconsciously planned to return to their sin. They would reject the notion if asked and defensively would react about it if they ever were mentioned. But the truth is, when you have allowed the stepping stones to your sin, you'll be setting sin to remain in the place. When you could remove them, it is evidence that backsliding remains an option. It's not an option for me or not an option. It's not an option. Everyone needs a certain distance between them and their besetting sin. The distance between you and your besetting sin is proportional to the length of your desire to repent. How far did you cast your sin from you? That's how bad you want to repent. You got it still in your face. You don't really want to repent. It's evidenced by the closeness of your sin to you. David said, I'll set no evil thing before my eyes. See, he was like, you know what? I'm not even tempted to sin. David said, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. Why? Because he knew that he was weak at times. He was vulnerable to sin. He guarded himself. He said wickedness would not cleave to him. That Hebrew word means to catch by pursuit. If I set something wicked before my eyes, the enemy will catch me by pursuit. But if I don't do that, I can be like the Greeks and run uninhibited and keep some distance between me and sin. I can press toward the mark of the prize of high calling. I can cross. I can finish my course, keep the faith and run a good race. But I can't do it if I keep telling myself I can handle this because you know what? You can't handle it. You can't handle it. Let me ask you guys a question. Let me go back to my analogy. I'm going to show you how true this is. What would happen if my dad would have left that beer out in that refrigerator? Where would he be today? Where would he be today? What if what if when the spirit of God said you need to get rid of that wine collection at the point of contact, the devil is trying to get you and he has left it there? Or what about the record? Where would he be today?