(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, the title of the sermon tonight is sins built in punishment. Sins built in punishment. Now obviously God is a God that punishes sin. This is one of his key attributes, even in the Ten Commandments he says that he will in no wise clear the guilty. He is the God of vengeance, the God of punishment. That's why the only way that we can be saved is by the grace of God, is by believing in Jesus Christ and having our sins washed away in the blood of Jesus, because God is a God that punishes. And then not only does God punish the unsaved, and not only did God create hell and have all this wrath and vengeance for the unsaved, but even once you're saved, God chastises you or disciplines you as a loving father disciplines his son, right, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So God definitely punishes sin, but that's not what I'm talking about tonight. What I want to talk about tonight is the built in punishment of sin. Many times you sin and bad things happen, it's not even God punishing you. It's just the built in punishment of sin. Like sin has its own punishment. Sometimes God doesn't even have to punish you. You're already just being punished by doing that sin. The sin itself is the punishment. Let me give you an example. Look down at your Bible there in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, it says, flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth is without the body, that means outside of his body, but he that commiteth fornication, sinneth against his own body. So this isn't even God punishing you, although God will punish fornication, don't get me wrong. This is just the built in punishment that you're doing to yourself when you go out and commit fornication, you are punishing yourself, you are sinning against your own body. These sins have a built in punishment. I just sat down and thought of a list of a whole bunch of sins, and I'm going to go through a bunch of these tonight. If you would flip back to Proverbs 5, I just made a huge list of sins, and I realized that all of them have a punishment built in. So this is just like a bonus in addition to whatever punishment God's going to give you, against incurring the wrath of God or making God angry, getting chastised or disciplined by God. Besides all that, how about just the natural effect of your sin, how about just nature taking its course and you sinning and receiving the built in punishment of that sin. I went through, I came up with a list of sins associated with fornication, like adultery, prostitution, pornography, and you know what, they all have built in punishment. And then I started thinking about other sins like drunkenness, gambling, cheating in school, gluttony, laziness, lying, greed, stealing, you know it doesn't matter what sins we bring up, they have a built in punishment. Look at Proverbs 5 verse 8, this is talking about the strange woman, this is still on the subject of fornication, remove thy way far from her, the strange woman, the whorish woman, the Bible also calls her, and come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel, lest strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger and thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed and say how have I hated instruction and my heart despised for proof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. So you see this person whose flesh and body is consumed, it's because they went into some dirty, whorish woman and picked up whatever the disease, that's a built in punishment. God doesn't even have to do any kind of a miracle. He doesn't even have to step in and do the supernatural. Those diseases are already floating around, just built in punishment, right? You go out and commit fornication, especially with this type of woman who's been all over the place, then guess what? There's a built in punishment right there, it's called disease. It's called hurting your future marriage. It's called fathering children out of wedlock and then having to fight custody battles and having all kinds of problems and struggles for the next 20 years of your life or even further, there's a built in punishment of sin. What about adultery? Flip the page to Proverbs 6, just right over the page, Proverbs chapter 6. The Bible says in verse 32, but whoso commiteth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it is going to be destroyed by God, is that what it says? No, he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. And of course, yeah, God does punish adultery. God will cloud up and rain on you if you commit adultery, but also you are destroying yourself, you're destroying your own soul. It says, a wounded dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away, for jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. And look, this isn't talking about God, this is talking about the woman's husband. He's not going to spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou giveth many gifts. So you go out and commit adultery with another man's wife, look, yeah, God is going to judge that. God's going to punish that. There's a built-in punishment of that. What about the husband that you are enraging, that is very likely to beat you senseless or even to kill you? It happens all the time where an angry husband will kill the one who commits adultery with his wife, okay? So it's very common. He's not going to regard any ransom. He's not going to rest content. He's not going to spare. And the Bible also says that if you commit adultery, a wound and dishonor shall you get. And a reproach that's not going to be wiped away. You're not going to live that down. You're going to commit adultery, it's going to be pretty hard to live that one down. And so the Bible's warning you about the consequences of sin outside of divine judgment, which is a major thing to worry about, but just the built-in punishment alone is serious. What about prostitution? Go if you would to Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17. Let me show you what happens to prostitutes, okay? And you're not going to see this on Pretty Woman with Richard Gere, you know, wining and dining a prostitute. And you know, what a wicked film to promote that and make that look good and dress that up. Folks, let me tell you the truth about what happens to prostitutes, okay? Now in Revelation chapter 17 we have this prophecy about Babylon, the great whore, okay? Now whore is another word for a prostitute, right? So this is the great prostitute or the great whore of Revelation 17. Let's see how she ends up. Obviously this prophetic language, but look at verse 15. And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest where the horse sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, and the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, he shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and to give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled, and the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. So I wonder, I realize that these are some heavy scriptures here in verses 15-18. So let me just kind of break down to you what's being said here, is that the Antichrist is going to use the whore. That's what whores are. They get used, okay? So this is obviously metaphorical or figurative. He's going to use the whore, okay, but then he's going to, when he's done with the whore, he's going to discard the whore, right? So she's eventually going to be discarded. That's what the Bible says here. She's going to be made desolate. She's going to be burned with fire. She's going to be destroyed. And of course in chapter 18, we see that destruction of Babylon take place. So what we see painted as a picture here, I know it's a heavy chapter, but in chapter 17 and 18 is that the great whore is one that is used, serves its purpose, and then is discarded and destroyed. And let me tell you something, that is what happens in real life to prostitutes or whores. Stop and think about this for a minute. What kind of people go to prostitutes? Are they nice, normal, salt-of-the-earth kind of God-fearing people? What type of dudes are going to a prostitute? They're probably some pretty scummy individuals, right? You say, well, they're not all scummy. Okay, what percentage of them are scummy individuals that would go and use a prostitute, okay? 100%. Well, look, the problem, obviously it's wicked. But what I'm saying is, what do you think you're going to get if you have 100 customers like that, 200 customers like that, 300 customers? Let's just say 1% of them is a violent psycho. Let's say 99% are not violent. And let's face it, we're dealing with a kind of scummy group of people here that would use those services. Isn't it fair to say that maybe 1% or 3% or 5% is a total psycho, a total weirdo, a total violent freak? I mean, who knows what the percentage is, but when you got hundreds of customers, pretty soon your number is going to come up. And that's why every prostitute is going to be beaten, is going to be attacked, is going to be assaulted, and in many cases will be murdered. But if they continue in that lifestyle, they're eventually going to be beaten and murdered. Now I don't think that's what Hollywood showed you. That's not what Julia Roberts showed you. But that is reality, friend. Hollywood is out there to lie to you and glamorize something that is wicked and that ends in beatings, assaults, and death. That's the end that we see in Revelation 17. That's the end in real life. Just look up the statistics. Oh, and by the way, let me just throw into the bargain that prostitutes have a similar level of STDs as sodomites. And let me tell you, that's a level that's through the roof, okay? Because of the fact that there are all kinds of weird people that are using their services and it's just disgusting. And so there's a built-in punishment there. See that's why Jesus is so compassionate to the prostitutes, right? When Jesus was on this earth, he showed compassion on them, right? Why? He felt bad for them. Why? Because he knows that they're going to be beaten and abused and eventually killed. It's a horrible, disgusting life. And look, part of the reason why he had compassion too is because most people that are in that lifestyle didn't go there by choice. A lot of them are kidnapped as kids, human trafficking. They get sold into slavery and so forth and they get put into that lifestyle. And then the other reason why women end up becoming prostitutes is drugs. They develop a drug habit and that's how they pay for their drug habit. And you know what? That shows you what a dark path you can go down. You start out with a sin that is not as major, you know, you start out with just drinking and you start out just smoking a little pot and then next thing you know, somebody's passing around some pills at a party and if you're cool, you're going to take the pills. Hey, let's take this pill and then we'll drink this alcohol and then hey, let's just snort a line of cocaine. It's cool. And next thing you know, you're addicted to heroin, you're addicted to methamphetamine and you're a prostitute to pay for that habit and then you sell your body to some violent freak that's going to beat and kill you. You say, Pastor Anderson, this is not a pleasant sermon. Look, this is reality. It's the truth. And you know what? Don't tell me it's far-fetched to preach about heroin addiction. We've had people in our church that were addicted to heroin, in this church, people that you never would have guessed and they got on heroin. West Virginia today, you know, I went and preached in West Virginia, boy, it just seems like it's just country roads take me home, you know, when you're there. I mean, it's just all nice, small town America and everything like that except for the fact then I started talking to the locals. They said, hey, there's a major heroin problem here. In West Virginia? You think that's like San Francisco or something, everybody's shooting up in the streets of Portland, Oregon or something. No, in West Virginia today. And look, I've read about heroin problems in Mesa, Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, it's here, it's right here, people do these things. Oh, never happened to me. Well, look, you know what, as the old commercial said back in the 80s, you know, no kid ever says I want to be a junkie when I grow up, okay? Somebody's ending up doing it, millions of people get there somehow, how'd they get there? They start out by playing around with alcohol, playing around with soft drugs, quote, unquote, and then they build up to it, it's like the frog in the hot water. And let me tell you something, God punishes sin, but a lot of these sins, you are punishing yourself. You're punishing yourself when you drink. You're punishing yourself when you do drugs. You're punishing yourself when you fornicate and when you commit adultery. That stuff's not going to make you happy, it's going to punish you, it's a built-in punishment to sin, okay? These things are all going to hurt you. You know, you drink alcohol, you're destroying your liver, you're destroying your brain, you're destroying your hormones, you know, you drink beer, it's made out of hops, it has phytoestrogen mimickers that are going to cause you to become more feminine, that's where you get the men with the man boobs, that's where you get the beer belly, that's where you get all these attributes of your body. And then they show the beer commercial and what do you see on the beer commercial? Some guy who's just shredded, right? He's got the six-pack abs and he's shredded and he's playing volleyball and he's drinking a beer. But you say, well, I'm going to drink light, I'm going to drink Coors Light. Well, let me tell you, it still has the phytoestrogen mimickers in it. It's still messing with your hormones, it's still going straight to the liver, it's still bad for you, it's unhealthy, it's not making you more manly, okay? It's actually literally making your body more feminine by consuming that. It's harming your liver, your brain, and then tell me, is God going to have to punish you or is the policeman just going to pull you over and give you the DUI? And look, don't get me wrong, God's going to punish. There's a whole other sermon out there that I've preached many times about the wrath of God, the vengeance of God, the punishment of God. Folks, we're just setting that aside tonight. We're setting aside God's punishment, we're setting aside God's chastening, and we're talking about the built-in consequence of sin. Turn if you would to Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23. And while we're at it, let me just mention pornography. This is another sin that has a built-in punishment. And you say, Pastor Anderson, what in the world possible built-in punishment could there be to looking at pornography? You know, that's not hurting anybody just to look at that stuff. Let me tell you something, that stuff damages your brain. It does literal damage to your brain physically, similar to taking drugs. Because when you take drugs, it releases dopamine, it releases chemicals to the reward center of your brain, and it develops bad things in your brain, bad habits, and also desensitizing you so that you crave something further. You're chasing the dragon of the next high. Well, guess what? Pornography is the same way. And not only that, pornography will destroy your normal relationship with your wife, okay? I can't even count how many times I've heard men talk about how they can't even be aroused by their wife, because they looked at pornography so much, and now they're just fried. Their brains fry, their circuits are fried in that area, to where they can't even have a normal relationship with their wife. And then, you know, the Bible says, where did I have you turn? Okay, keep your finger in Proverbs 23, go to Proverbs 5. We'll go to Proverbs 23 in a minute, but while we're on the subject of pornography, go to Proverbs chapter 5, and look what the Bible says in verse 18 of Proverbs 5, let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe. Let her breast satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? You say, why do you want to do that? You know, just be happy with your wife, but you know what? If you're being ravished with strangers, if you're looking at all this junk, and just like overloading your brain with all these images, and video, and all this garbage, then you know what? It will cause you to not be able to be satisfied or be ravished with your own wife. And many men are literally, you know, pardon my frankness here, they're impotent from pornography. It has destroyed their brain and their reproductive system, because they're staring at this garbage and filling their mind with this junk, and then they can't have a normal relationship, because they're missing out on the normal relationship. Folks, that's a built-in punishment of looking at that stuff, of just frying your brain on that stuff. It's causing psychological damage. Look at Proverbs 23, if you would. This is, of course, the famous scripture on drunkenness. Proverbs 23, and obviously these things are morally wrong, and there's a punishment associated with that, but I'm just talking about the built-in punishment. It says in Proverbs 23, verse 29, who hath woe? And by the way, can we send this to the beer companies, because this should be their new advertising campaign. Hey, who has woe? You know, you have like some shredded guy on a surfboard, like, who has sorrow? Or how about this? How about a guy getting stabbed in a barf egg? Who has contentions? Who has babblings? How about showing somebody saying something stupid when they're drunk? Who has babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? Now look, do you think that every time somebody drinks, God just sends a lightning bolt and punishes them? Or do you think a lot of this punishment is just built-in? People do this to themselves, literally, am I right? The woe, the sorrow, the contentions, the babbling, the wounds without cause, the redness of eyes, it's all built-in, okay? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright, at the last, God's going to bite you. Is that what it says? No. It biteth as a serpent. It stingeth like an adder. Now look, obviously, God's going to punish you. I'm not downplaying the punishment of God, but I'm telling you, the alcohol itself is going to punish you. There's a built-in punishment for sin. The alcohol is going to bite you. The alcohol is going to sting you. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Think about all the trouble you're going to get into with the perverse things you're going to utter. Think about the problems you're going to get into when you start beholding all these strange women and then, okay, now let's back up to the other points in the sermon and talk about the disease, the angry husband. Let's talk about the punishment that is built into those sins. Thy heart shall utter perverse things, yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They've stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They've beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I wake? I will seek it yet again. So we see that these punishments are built into the sin themselves. Go to Romans chapter 1, Romans chapter 1. Let me give everybody a break for a minute of sins that Christians could be tempted to commit or could be guilty of, and let's talk about a sin that no Christian will ever commit because it's a sin that only the reprobate mind would even desire, this sin, because it's so perverted, and that is of course the sin of the Sodomites. It's so perverted that you have to be a reprobate to even want to do that, okay? Look what it says in verse 27. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, watch this, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was made. The built-in punishment is right there when they commit that sin of being literally 50. The Sodomites are 50 times more likely to get HIV, and that is based on the numbers from the government's own website, AIDS.gov and CDC.gov. That's where that number comes from. I've demonstrated that math many times. They are 50 times more likely. They are 2% of the population and make up however many percent of the new infections, some huge astronomical number, and it's clear that they are 50 times more likely to develop these things. There's a built-in punishment there. Oh, by the way, this has nothing to do with the sermon. Here's a little fun fact about the Sodomites that I learned this week. This was in an article this week. The Church of Satan came out this week. Who saw this article? The Church of Satan came out this week and said more than 50% of our members identify as LGBT. They came out and they said that it's a conservative estimate to say that more than 50% of our members are LGBT, and they said we don't just tolerate LGBT. We embrace it. We affirm it, and they even said that they participate at every possible parade, and they promote it every way they can. There's your reprobate doctrine right before your eyes, friend, haters of God. Nothing to see here, folks. Sin has its own built-in punishment. What about gambling? You know, it's pretty easy to see what the punishment is there when you see the lives of people who are destroyed by gambling. They're in debt. They're going bankrupt. They get angry, and I've talked to people who worked at the casinos, and they said they watch people come in, and they're having fun, and they're enjoying it, and they watch over the course of the months, and this lady who dealt blackjack at the Wild Horse Pass Casino right here, what, 20 minutes from here, she was the first person that I ever baptized at Faith for Baptist Church. Back in 2006, when our church first started out, it was like the fourth Sunday of our existence, and I baptized my first convert, one of the Native American blackjack dealers from the casino at Wild Horse Pass, and she told me, she said, they all end up the same way. She said, I see people come in, and I watch the pattern, and she said they all end up being dragged out by security eventually. She said eventually, after they've mortgaged everything, borrowed everything, burned all their friends and family, and run out of money, the last thing that they do, they lose their last bit of money, and then they accuse the dealer of cheating, and start screaming, and swearing, and say that they're being cheated, and they get dragged out, and thrown out there. No lightning bolt required. If you go out and get into gambling, you will do that to yourself. And look, there's a great book that I read a long time ago, it's called The Power of Habit. I think the author's name was James Duhigg, or something like that, but it's like a yellow book, I think it has like, I don't know what it has on the front, maybe a bicycle or something. But anyway, it's called The Power of Habit, it's a really good book, and in this book, he talks about how habits are formed, and how to get rid of bad habits, how to get the right habits, and he tells a story about this lady who gambled every Friday as just kind of her one way to blow off a little steam. And this woman had very strict rules, and I did a sermon a while back called Gambling, and I tell a really long, extended version of this story, if you want to go back and listen to that gambling sermon. But she had these really strict rules about she's only going to use X amount of money, no matter what happens, she's just going to use that small amount of money, and she's only going to be there for two hours, no matter what, so she had all these really strict rules and whatever, but guess what ended up inevitably happening? She ended up breaking the rule, she ended up literally losing, I kid you not, a million dollars to the casinos. She ended up blowing her whole house, mortgaged the house, her whole inheritance, and she just kept doing it. Then she moved to another state, and didn't provide any forwarding address, she went to a state where gambling's illegal, the casinos literally did private investigative work to find her, and get a hold of her, find her new address, and say, we will fly you to Las Vegas for free to go watch your favorite rock band. And you have a free hotel room, you don't have to do any gambling. They flew her out there, of course she just blew more and ruined her life again and everything like that, because they don't care about you, they hate you. And by the way, you drive up north on the 101 freeway, who knows what I'm talking about, that talking stick, because that's a pretty fancy building. The whole side of the building's like some kind of a video screen, or LED, or something, right? It's pretty amazing. You know where they got the money to do that? From ripping you off, okay? From ripping people off, from destroying lives, and you know what, it's wicked as hell. You know what, anybody who makes money off that, that's a wicked person. Anybody who just makes money off the suffering of other people, Donald Trump. Everybody loves Donald Trump, but isn't that how Donald Trump made a lot of his money? I mean, I know he was also screwing people in the real estate business and everything else, but you know what, what about all the people he screwed with his Trump casino, which is all about ripping people off, destroying lives, destroying marriages. I wonder how many people have committed suicide after getting ripped off at some Trump casino because the house always wins. I wonder how many marriages have been dissolved because somebody went to one of those casinos. I wonder how many children went to bed crying at night, listening to their screaming, psychotic, gambling-addicted parents freaking out about money downstairs, but oh, you know, I pretty much know more about making money than anybody. Was it you that posted that video? He posted, this is kind of off on a tangent. He posted the video today that was the funniest video. It was a compilation of Trump saying he knows more about everything than anyone else on the planet ever. It was like, I know more about finances than anybody. I know more about nuclear weapons than anybody. I know more about, it was like, what was it, like 50 things in a row. It was just mind blowing. Well, you know what, you're going to split hell wide open, wicked person. Gambling's wicked. It makes me sick. We've known people whose lives have been destroyed, amen. And you know what, it's a built-in punishment in addition to God's punishment. But what about cheating? You know, you cheat on a test, you cheat in school. You know what, it has a built-in punishment. You're not learning. You know, anytime you cheat at anything, you're cheating yourself. You know, you see people in their workouts with the cheating, the half reps. You're cheating yourself. If you don't go all the way down on those push-ups, you don't go to a dead hang on those pull-ups, you're the one who's getting weaker. You're the one who's going to get injured lifting too much because you're cheating. All right? So, you know what, and what about the cheaters in athletics with all the doping and the steroids? You know they're cheating themselves when their body parts shrivel up and fall off. You know what I mean? When they get all kinds of sicknesses and cancer and disease. You know that EPO that they were taking? Who knows what I'm talking about? EPO? The blood doping? You know what? That stuff was called, quote, miracle grow for cancer. Miracle grow for... I read a whole book about it. It was a great book. You know, it's like a book club tonight. I read it. It was called Blood Feud by Kathleen Sharp. And it was all about that particular drug and how that drug was pushed through without proper testing and it was being given to cancer patients and those cancer patients were getting that drug and it turned out it was making cancer worse. It was, quote, miracle grow for cancer after they did the real studies. That's what they determined. It was giving people more cancer and they were giving it to cancer patients for the love of money. It's super wicked. If you ever want to know how wicked the medical industry is, Kathleen Sharp, Blood Feud. All right? Great book. But anyway, so Pastor Anderson's book club, this is bigger than the Oprah book club. So basically, you know, these people, these athletes that are using that, then they end up getting cancer. Then they end up with health problems. And you know what? What good is that trophy that they have? What good is that gold medal when they know they didn't earn it, they know that they cheated. They cheated themselves. It's all going to be dust one day anyway. You cheat in school, you cheat on any test, you cheat in your workouts, you cheat in athletics, you cheat in a board game, for crying out loud, you are cheating yourself and there's a built-in punishment associated with that. What about covetousness? Surely covetousness doesn't have a built-in punishment, does it? I mean, coveting, what does it mean to covet? You know what's sad? A lot of people today don't even know what covet even means. It's one of the Ten Commandments. One of the Ten Commandments is thou shalt not covet. And today, this word's not even in our vocabulary in America. I think only people who go to church even know what covet means. I think if we were to go out and just talk to people who never go to church, I don't think they're going to know what that means. When was the last time you heard someone use the word covet and they weren't a churchperson or they weren't talking about religion? You never hear it, do you? Think about it, right? But do you know what covet means? Covet means when you want something that doesn't belong to you. You want something that's not rightfully yours. It's just you thinking in your heart, man, I wish I had that house. I wish I had that car. Now, when I explain this to people, you know what like half of people say that I explain this to in a one-on-one conversation? There's nothing wrong with that. That's not a sin. What could be wrong about that? But you know what that is? It's one of the Ten Commandments. Hello, is anybody's home? Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor's, right? So if you just look at his car, and I've heard a lot of people try to sugarcoat this and say like, well, it just means you want to take it away from them, like you don't want them to have it. No. It's just if you desire what belongs to them, that's coveting. If you just say, man, I wish I had, what's the opposite of covetousness? Being content, right? Contentment. Now, listen, covetousness has its own built-in punishment. You want to know what that is? Always being miserable because you never have what you want. Sitting around and thinking about all the stuff you don't have, and you say, well, I'm not hurting you. You're hurting yourself. Because what kind of a life is it to sit around wishing you had a different car, sitting around wishing you had a different spouse, sitting around wishing that you had a different house, a different job, different clothes, different looks. Folks, that's a miserable way to live your life. Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am. Therewith to be content. Paul could be sitting in a jail cell with fresh wounds on his back from having received a beating and be happier than some poor little rich girl crying in some mansion somewhere because she wants some dress that she can't have or something stupid, right? It's true. Happiness isn't based on what you have. Happiness is based upon contentment, right? You want to be contento, right, in Spanish, right? If you want to be contento, then you've got to be content, all right? You have to be happy. Nobody speaks Spanish apparently, but anyway, if you want to be happy, you've got to be content with what you have. Then you know what? Then you can be happy with nothing. You can be happy, dirt poor, be happy with nothing. Why? Because he that is of a merry heart, the Bible says, has a continual feast. I mean, when you're happy, when you're in a good mood, when you're joyful, life's a party. Every meal's a feast. It doesn't matter if it's bread and water, it's a party to you. Other people sit with all their filet mignon with like a gold dust sprinkled on it and their foie gras and truffles and chateau day, whatever, and it's just like, nah, I'm not hungry, nah. It's all their first world problems, right? Somebody else is just happy to eat a cheeseburger while somebody else is crying all over their steak somewhere because it has nothing to do with how happy you are. You've got to learn in whatsoever state you're in to be content. Covetousness has its own built-in punishment of being miserable. Gluttony obviously has a built-in punishment and the time would fail me to tell of all the problems that you have of just eating junk, it's just going to destroy your health and everything else. Covetousness has a built-in punishment of you're not going to have any money, your house is going to fall apart, you're not going to get anything done, you're going to feel... And you know what? By the way, if you're lazy, you feel like a loser because you are. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, you feel like a loser when you're lazy because men aren't happy unless they're doing stuff. Men aren't happy unless they're accomplishing something. You think it makes you happy to sit on the couch all day and play a video game and put on your headset and talk to your buddy in Korea that you're playing whatever the role playing game with. You know what? It's stupid and vain and pointless. That's not going to bring happiness, laziness, greed, being greedy and alienating everyone around you and destroying your own soul to where you can't even enjoy life anymore. What do rich people want? Just more? The love of money is the root of all evil. Okay? Stealing has a built-in punishment. You know, you steal and you get in trouble with the law, you get a criminal record, you know, you end up getting lazy or, you know, getting your butt kicked or whatever. I mean, something bad is going to happen, amen? So let me just conclude with this, okay? Go to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 verse 12. And while you're turning there, I'll read you another scripture from Proverbs. Proverbs 8 35 says, for whoso findeth me findeth life, talking about wisdom, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me, watch this, he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. You know what he's saying is you must love death because if you hate wisdom, that's what you're embracing, not a lifestyle, a death style. And if you sin against God or sin against wisdom itself, you are destroying your own soul. What is the person doing when they commit fornication? They are sinning against their own body. What about the one that commits adultery? He destroyeth his own soul, who has woe, who has sorrow, who has contentions, who hath babblings, who hath redness of eyes, who hath wounds without cause, this buds for you. Those who drink, those who tarry long at the wine, those who go to seek mixed wine because they have a built in punishment. But here's the good news, I'll close on this thought, following God's laws has a built in blessing. Now look, God is going to bless you if you do the right thing, amen? You do the right thing, you obey God, he will bless you. He'll supernaturally bless you. I mean there's no question about that. Just like there's no question that he's going to supernaturally punish the wicked. But just as sin has a built in punishment, obeying God's laws has a built in reward. It's built in. God doesn't even have to lift a finger to give you these blessings. Many times they're just going to happen of their own and then God will bless you into the bargain. But the law of God has its own built in blessing. Look what the Bible says in Galatians chapter 3 verse 12. It says, and the law is not of faith, but on the other hand, the man that doeth them shall live in them. So what the Bible is saying is that you don't even have to believe for the law of God to give you a better life. He's basically saying that the man that does them shall live in them. It's not of faith. It's not like, oh, everyone who does the law of God must believe in God. Wrong. There are people who follow God's laws without even believing in God. And on the flip side, there are people who believe in God who don't follow his laws. The law is not of faith. The law and faith are two different things, aren't they? These things must be separated. So what you have to understand is that if you do the commandments of God, there's an inherent built in blessing. Even if you're not even saved, you'll get an inherent built in blessing. Like let me prove it to you. You say, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, let me prove it to you. Just look at the statistics. People who get married and stay married to one wife, they have more money. Now, are they all saved? They all believe in Jesus? Are they all going to heaven? No. There's a built in blessing when you do things God's way, just like when you do things the devil's way. You're getting ripped off. You're ruining your health. You're ruining your life. When you do things God's way, there's a built in blessing. Well, does somebody remember the statistics on people that are married? They make like 20,000 more dollars a year than the people who didn't? You know, if you get divorced, it's like it's setting you back like 20 years financially, they say. There are all kinds of problems associated with that. So look, even the unbeliever, if he abstains from alcohol, he's going to be better off. Am I right? Even the unbeliever, if he doesn't steal, doesn't bear false witness, doesn't covet, okay, obviously no one is totally sinless, but if he abstains from stealing and lying and cheating, isn't he going to be better off? Now look, obviously that's not going to do him any good when he gets to hell. But the point is, the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. This is mentioned in Leviticus chapter 18. This is mentioned in Galatians chapter 3. It's mentioned again in Romans chapter 10. You don't have to turn there. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. So if you do these statutes, if you do these commandments, if you do these judgments, you're going to live in them. You get to live this good life, okay? Now obviously I'm preaching tonight to those that are saved. We're in the church here, the called out assembly of born again baptized believers, and in this assembly here I'm talking to predominantly saved people, look friend, I want God to bless you and if you keep his commandments, you're going to be blessed because the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience. But not only do I want you to receive the blessings from God, I want you to get the built-in blessing. Guess what? You're just going to be happier when you just get married and you're a virgin when you get married and you just stay married to one person and you just work hard, an honest living. You don't smoke, you don't do drugs, you don't drink, you don't party, you don't commit adultery, you don't covet, you don't steal, you don't lie. Look, you're going to be so much more blessed and you're going to end up living a happier life. I mean, does sin really bring the happiness that it promises or does it just bring misery and heartache? And you know, the Bible talked about how Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and I think a lot of people when they read that verse, sin for a season, they think like, oh, that's talking about this life. You know, they enjoy all the pleasures of sin for this life and then they got, no, no, no, it's not, he didn't say enjoy the pleasures of sin for a lifetime. Is that what it said? Enjoy rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a lifetime. Is that what it said? Enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now, how long is a season? You know, if we were to take it literally, which obviously it's not literal, but if we were to take it literally, it's three months. Oh, yeah, it was a great three months, now I can suffer for the rest of my life. Folks, do you think that there are people who've had three months of fun and suffered for the rest of their life? Oh, yeah. Three months, woo, bam, the car accident. Three months, woo, the batch of bad drugs, bam, non-violent offender walking up and down the streets, crazy homeless person for the rest of their life, right? Hey, the pleasures of sin for a season, and look, obviously that season's figurative, maybe that season's not gonna be three months, maybe your season will be a year, maybe your season will be five years, but let me tell you, it's not gonna be long enough, because you're gonna live on this earth most likely for about 75 or 80 years. Most likely, that's how long you're gonna be on this earth. So your little pleasures of sin for a season, man, you're gonna reap the whirlwind way sooner than your life's over. And look, obviously there's heaven and hell, obviously there are rewards in heaven and punishments in hell, obviously there are all kinds of supernatural things that God will step in and do, but folks, even just the built-in blessings of doing right and the built-in blessings of doing wrong ought to cause us to take notice. And you know, you young people, you children, teenagers, young adults, you better take this sermon seriously, because some of the older people, they already know that what I'm saying is true. Listen to this whole sermon like, uh-huh, yup, that's right, but you know, the young and the dumb are sitting there and thinking to themselves, oh, I don't, you know, I can dodge all these bullets. That's what they think. Oh, you know, yeah, somebody else will get that disease. Folks, if you're a child of God, if you're actually saved, you're the most likely to get that disease. If you're saved, you're the most likely to get arrested. If you're saved, you're the most likely where the judge is going to throw the book at you. Why? Because to whom much is given of him shall much be required, because you not only have the built-in punishment to worry about, you have the supernatural punishments to worry about as well, and God punishes his children and he holds them more accountable than he does Joe Blow unsaved. So folks, don't you think I'm going to be the exception to the rule? Don't you think you're going to sow all your wild oats and then you're just going to get off scot-free? No, my friend. You're going to reap the whirlwind. So we need to understand that sin has a built-in punishment, but here's the good news, that obedience to God has many built-in blessings. You'll be a lot happier doing things the right way. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for all these warnings. And Lord, I just pray that everyone who's here will be wise enough to understand that these built-in punishments, they exist. Everyone has to deal with these things, the same punishments, even the unsaved are going through pain and misery tonight because of drinking, gambling, adultery, et cetera. And Lord, help us to be smart enough to follow your word, obey your commandments, and trust you that your way is best, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.