Pastor Joel Laswell

The subject of this particular study is one that nearly all Christians and non-Christians alike think they understand, but many really don’t when you see what the Bible teaches. There are many people today who have false ideas about the nature of true repentance, and I’d like to take some time to talk about it with you.

I want to share something with you that is very practical when it comes to our battle with sin. Not some speculation or abstract theory, but something we can actually use to help us become more like Jesus and thus be ready to meet Him in peace when He comes, and isn’t that what we want?

Our God is loving and merciful but He will not wait on us forever! There has to be a reason that involves this issue of sin that prolongs the finishing of The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. What about secret sins? Have you ever heard about secret sins?

We have been studying how Jesus walked when confronted with the temptations of the great deceiver so we may learn to do likewise when tempted. What was the third temptation and how did Jesus overcome it?

We studied the first wilderness temptation of Jesus the last time we were together. And as we look into this second temptation experience of Jesus we will see that within every human heart the great conflict through which Christ passed in the wilderness of temptation is repeated.

How is Jesus our example, especially when it comes to battling temptation? Jesus went through the same attacks that we go through beloved yet He overcame these temptations by constantly drawing on that same power that is available to us. I want to concentrate on this example of Jesus on how to deal with temptations for that is the way Satan tries to convince us into choosing to sin--to be lawless.

A question arises very often when I speak about the sin issue and in particular, these truths about the will and conscience and educating the conscience and that question has to do with temptation--namely: what is temptation and is it a sin? Let us get an answer from the Bible to this question.

There are no material things that we can take with us out of this world, but there are some things that we can take with us out of this world. I want to talk to you about one of those things, and probably the most important of all. It is something that we use commonly in our every day speech and yet there are many people, if you ask them, they could not define exactly what it is. It has a great deal to do with the plan of salvation and it is the conscience.

So I finally looked at this flower bed the other day and it is a real mess. This pervasive plant has really taken root and is choking out the beautiful flowers. It is going to be a lot of work for me to uproot this plant from the flower bed without destroying the flowers. I have to be sure that I remove it at the root or it will continue to be a terrible problem. Sin is the same way in our life. Once it takes off it will keep growing and it will pervade your life and by your influence, that of others too. And if it is not uprooted, it will keep coming back. If we want to be ready when Jesus returns, we must have the root of sin removed from us. I wish to talk about being ready for Jesus by uprooting sin in our life.

Adam and Eve were created with a perfect mind that was in complete control of the passions of the heart—the higher brain was in control. Because the higher brain was in control, and they were wearing a robe of righteousness provided by God Himself, they would hit the mark every time in every choice they made. But something changed.