Do Not Be SIN CONSCIOUS

[ An Advanced Study ]

THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. -- Romans 8: 1

I want you to quickly take a look at verse four and you will see what was a mistake at the end of verse one. The scribes made a mistake when they were translating verse one and put in words from verse four. In conclusion, chapter 8 verse 1 ends with the word ‘Jesus.’ I want to delve into the subject of this teaching and not spend our time on extraneous ideas and subjects that we have covered in previous teachings.

Believe it or not, every time we condemn ourselves, we break fellowship and sin. God wants us to believe in ourselves and when we make a mistake, it is not necessarily sin. God understands that we will make mistakes, but if we make the same mistake over and over again, then it becomes sin. This should be understandable.

Once again, I am sharing with you a subject that is rarely taught by any biblical scholars. I want you to know that this teaching was taught to me by an ordained reverend when I first began studying God’s Word. This woman was adamant and very clear because she saw that I was not a person who was going to condemn myself for every little thing that I did. I never forgot her words: “Do not get sin conscious.” I was really moving with the Word when I first heard it and witnessed to almost everyone I met. I became very valuable to God and to the believers that came to visit my area. This woman of God stands above every other woman of God that I ever met. She took the time to tell me about the dangers of getting sin conscious. There is a Scripture in the book of Proverbs that I found to be most interesting. In the 45 years I have studied and taught God’s Word, I cannot remember reading this one Scripture. Yet it applies, in serious manner, to our subject of sin consciousness. This is an advanced study and I will ask you to read it in complete silence where there are no distractions.

He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but he that despiseth his ways shall die. -- Proverbs 19: 16

This is a rather deep Scripture. It addresses the subject of this teaching perfectly. Let’s look at the first part. A believer that keeps God’s commandments keeps his own soul. Soul is that which makes us alive. A person who soul’s life is prospering is a person who is happy and blessed and who is living the more than abundant life. Take a close look at the first part of this verse. There is nothing that says that this believer is condemning himself for some sin. I will get into some detailed examples in a minute. Now take a look at the second part of the verse. That believer is condemning himself – he is sin conscious and he is worried and full of fear and anxiety. He despises his own ways and eventually this will lead to death. Quite serious, isn’t it? Well, I’m going to tell you some actual experiences that is going to make this teaching simple for you to understand if you have spiritual insight and spiritual perception. Here is an example that I am using from my own life which I believe you will be able to relate to.

Before I got involved in the Word of God, I always had a tendency to drive fast. The speed limits on many roads were surely archaic and should be changed. You know what I mean when you hit a busy road that has a 25 mph speed limit. It’s ridiculous and that is how the god of this world operates. I prefer to call it organized confusion. And isn’t this the type of road that most of our courteous police officers sit? It is easy for a police officer to pick up a person where there is a speed limit of 25 mph. Almost all cars are going at least 40 miles per hour. I have been picked up once allegedly going through a red light. This light had such a short yellow light that by the time I was underneath the yellow light, it had turned red. Did I become sin conscious? In no way. I took the cop to court and he knew I was going to nail him because I was about as prepared as you could possibly get with charts and stopwatches and pictures. I saw the judge kind of laugh to himself when he saw me walking in the courtroom. Sure enough, time went by and the policeman never showed up. Why? Because I told that police officer that he was dead wrong and I was going to fight him to the end. For some reason when he was walking away from me I told him that he wasn’t going to be able to sleep that night. That’s the boldness that God in Christ gives to you. You must use it or you will lose it. Am I telling you this because I want you to think I’m a big deal? I was 100% in the right and the cop was dead wrong and he had an attitude about it to begin with.

To all my brothers and sisters out there, you have got to be able to discern the difference between vengeance and self-defense.

Before I go any farther, I want to give you a simple explanation of sin consciousness. After you know the Word of God, do not think that you have to be so religious and so kind and so loving to everyone in this world. Some people are evil as hell. These are the people who you should keep away from. You also should know Scriptures about fellowship with darkness. You should own a large concordance such as Young’s so you can look up these topics on your own. Let’s go back to the difference between vengeance and self-defense. You must be able to discern one from the other. When you are looking only to get even with someone, that is vengeance. When you are trying to protect yourself from evil that is trying to get into your life, that is self-defense. Let’s see what God has to say.

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. -- Romans 12: 18

Notice that God says ‘If it be possible”. So then, in certain situations, it is not possible to live at peace with all men. If you run across this situation, you are not to get sin conscious in your mind because you have a problem with a neighbor from hell. So what do you do about it? The next verse tells you what to do.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. -- Romans 12: 19

If you cannot handle a situation with self-defense, you let God take vengeance upon your enemy. This is a difficult thing to do when you’ve got somebody tailgating you on a highway for no reason at all. It happened to me a few days ago. Whether I did the right thing or not, I am not sure. But I’ll tell you one thing I did not do and that was to get sin conscious. I was watching this tailgater in my mirror and I had my Corvette. I stuck on my brakes and the guy almost jumped off the road. Of course he became enraged and tried to pass me on the inside lane and I would not allow him. There is a very thin line between vengeance and self-defense. God will teach you in time. There are times when you need to go straight up to the adversary’s face and tell him you’re going to wipe his face in the ground, but if he is not right in your face, you are to ignore him and not to react to him. This is why I decided this would be an advanced teaching. Some new people are not going to understand this and may think badly of me. But when you are believer for God Almighty, you don’t take anything from anybody. Again, most of the time, either teach him the Word or you avoid him like the plague. People who are obviously evil, you should avoid, giving them no reaction whatsoever. And do not get sin conscious about it. That’s most important.

Let me go to a far-fetched example. Yes, when I was younger I was always after the girls. It seemed like a lot of my friends were jealous of me. It made me feel bad, but in time I got over it and I lived my life the way I wanted to. I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong. As a believer, I still had my desire to admire and respect a beautiful woman of God. But if it seemed to bother other believers, it started to bother me. THAT’S SIN CONSCIOUSNESS.

This website is not religious in any way shape or form. When you have a teacher like myself who sometimes goes down the highway looking for drag races, you know I’m not religious. But you do have to be careful in this life and you have to be what I refer to as sharp. That word was put in my heart by that reverend who taught me almost everything that I know to this day - all the basics. This woman of God would always say to be sharp. And again, I can never forget the day or the exact place we were when she taught me this dynamic lesson about not being sin conscious. You cannot properly witness the Word and get people born again and studying and standing for God when you are sin conscious.

Let’s go over another idea of how to NOT be sin conscious from God’s Word. There are countless examples.

Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure. -- I Timothy 5: 22

Let’s face it, when you’re hanging out with friends who are smoking dope or worse, snorting cocaine, and you’re trying to be a good Christian according to God’s Word, you are going to have a very hard time. You’re going to get sin conscious and you’re going to condemn yourself and you’re going to get out of fellowship. The Word above says that you are not to partake in other men’s sins. Keep yourself pure.

Quick story. I had a best friend throughout high school. We did everything together and we even dated girls who were also best friends. One of us always had a car and my buddy happened to have a 1969 396 Chevelle SS and a 427 Corvette. I had a 1968 Camaro SS -- we seemed to have everything. But something came between us at one time. This is in the era when everyone was smoking marijuana. We had come to a conclusion that this was the wrong thing to do and detrimental to our mental health. We had made a pact together that if any one of us were ever to take part in this bad habit again, that our friendship would be dissolved permanently. It was my friend who broke our agreement and I found out and I told him that it was the end of our friendship. Take a look at what the Word says in I Timothy 5: 22 about not partaking in other men’s sins. What I did was a very difficult thing to do, but I stuck to it. His life went down the drain. He lost his wife and his trucking business and about everything else. I got in touch with him once because I know God makes exceptions and made arrangements to meet with him. He never called me back.

I did what I Timothy 5: 22 directed me to do. This person also attended a Bible Fellowship that changed my life completely. He came only once.

Did I get sin conscious as a result of what happened? Not at all. Not even in the least bit.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. -- Philippians 3: 13

That’s what you’ve got to do when you walk with the true God. You must renew your mind and shift gears when revelation or circumstances change in your life. We are always to forget the past and we reach forth unto those things that are before us. Some of the circumstances of this teaching have changed to my surprise. I feel now that it is important for you to see what the Word of God says about the subjects that I am commenting on. Therefore I feel it is necessary to go over the very next Scripture.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. -- Ephesians 5: 11

This is how we are able to avoid being sin conscious. I have been around many people, many times, that are doing things or acting in a way that is against what the Word of God says. How do you get out of that situation? You politely excuse yourself and you walk away. You do not fellowship with people who do things and live their lives against the principles in the Word of God or you will pay a dear price for doing so. If you have an opportunity, you should reprove those people and tell them that they are doing something that is wrong. Show them with your example or better yet, show them from the Word of God.

In conclusion of this teaching, I would just like to give you advice that’s straight from my heart to yours. I have been there – I have done that. It is very easy to get sin conscious. A lot of things that you do that you think are sin are not sin at all. The world will make you think that you are sinning as the old enemy whispers in your ear. Don’t pay any attention to him. You know in your heart when you have committed a sin. And all that you have to do is to tell God that you’re sorry and get back in fellowship. Sometimes when I see the present condition of the world, I get angry. I say to God, God when are you going to send Jesus Christ back? Now if I really get angry about this subject, it does not sit right with God and I will probably sin. When you sin and get out of fellowship, your spiritual perception should tell you that you are out of fellowship. You honestly feel a little bit down and out and possibly even physically ill. These are all signs that you are out of fellowship and that you need to get back in fellowship with God as quickly as possible.

I thank you all for your attention and adherence to these teachings. Overall, there are a ton of teachings for you to study and enjoy. I want to say only one more thing about this subject matter. It is one of the most important subjects that you can ever learn concerning the Word of God. God bless.

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