On April 1st of 2001, Pastor John preached a sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church on Romans

Chapter 7.

The message was titled, The Importance of Knowing Our Sin.

If Paul argues that we need to know the power of sin, logically we ask the follow-up question.

Does that mean that we need to experience sinning in order to become familiar with the power

of sin?

And that sermon in 2001, Pastor John answered the question in the negative, and he did

so with a parable of resisting temptation.

Here's what he said.

Do not experiment with sin to get to know sin.

There's a better way.

We use a parable to say it.

What I'm doing here is answering the question, well don't you have to be a sinner?

I mean do some sins and get to know sin like you ought to know it?

Well that's not a problem.

Once there were three men standing before a pit, the pit is the pit of lust.

I'm going to talk about men.

Tied around their waist is a cord, 100 pound test cord.

The cord goes into the pit.

The pit looks very attractive, and it's deadly, it snakes at the bottom of the pit.

It's the pit of lust, pit of pornography, the pit of internet nudity, it's a click away.

The first man begins to feel the rope, the cord pulling him toward the pit, and he

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