Walking as Jesus Walked — Zac Poonen

It's good to see so many of you here. Probably the first time that some of you are coming here. Welcome. Our theme for this weekend is the higher Christian life. I want to say a word about, thank you, about the hymns that we sing.

From my own experience, since when I was converted 63 years ago, I used to go to church and I really enjoyed singing the songs. After a little while, I would know these, memorize these songs and know them by heart.

And what happened then was, gradually I began to sing them without meaning the words that I was singing. I had some experiences like that. We used to use a songbook in those days. I'm talking about more than 50, 60 years ago.

The song leader would say, let's sing another song and everybody turns to the other song in the songbook. And I suddenly realized, I don't even remember what I told the Lord in the last song. So what I would do is, while the others were singing that song, I turned back to the song we just finished singing and I go through it slowly and I say, Lord, I'm sorry.

I just sang this without thinking that you're here and I'm talking to you. And I go through that line by line and it took me a while to gradually come to the place where, when I sing, I'm aware that Jesus is right here.

Singing With Meaning Before the Lord

Where two or three are gathered in my name, in the midst and that I'm singing to him. And that made such a difference in my life that singing was not just a time of entertainment or having a good sing song time, as they say.

It was a meaningful communication to the Lord. And when we sang about the cross or time, even years later, 50, 60 years later, there'd be tears in my eyes as I sing about, I think about Jesus dying for me.

And the Lord showed me in Revelation chapter five, I wanna show you this. You know, there's gonna be a lot of singing in heaven. And if you can't keep a tune on earth, don't worry, when you get there, God will make you so perfect, you'll be singing along with everybody else perfectly.

But more important than singing in tune, we'll be meaning. So this is the word that the Lord spoke to me from Revelation chapter five. Revelation gives us a few glimpses of heaven. And one of the glimpses of heaven is this.

In Revelation chapter five, we read about some elders in verse six. There was the elders, a lamb was standing in the midst of the elders. And he came and took the book and the elders and the others sang a new song.

It says in verse nine, worthy art thou, the word new, when it says a new song, the meaning is something ever fresh. So that's how it came to me. When they sing in heaven, they may be singing it for the thousandth time, but it's fresh.

And we believe that the Holy Spirit has come to bring heaven into our hearts, a foretaste of it, even before we get there. And so Lord, I said, Lord, I want to have a foretaste of this, where when I'm singing a song for the hundredth time, it's gonna be fresh as if I've never sung it before.

And particularly something like this. Verse nine, they sang this ever fresh song, saying in the middle of that verse, you were slain, you died on the cross. Hey, we said, that's an old story. That's been, we've known that for 2000 years, but they're singing it as if they're hearing for the first time that Jesus died for me on the cross.

And that was one of my prayers and it still is. Lord, when I sing about the cross, about what you suffered, when you suffered hell for me on those three hours, when you were forsaken on the cross, for my sin, to save me from the wretched person I was, and to take me into your eternal kingdom.

When I sing about it, let it not be something like some reading the newspaper or some old story. Let me realize the seriousness of it. And I'll tell you many, many times, when you sing about the cross, even today, there are tears in my eyes that my savior died for me.

I want to encourage you. It won't happen overnight. But if you make a decision today that when you sing, you're going to try and mean the words that you sing, especially about the cross of Calvary. I'll tell you, maybe in a year or two, it will become real in your life, where every time you sing, you'll be singing directly to Jesus.

It will no longer be a routine sing-song session anymore. And that'll make a world of difference. It's the best way to prepare your heart to listen to the message. It's made a great difference in my life.

Walking as Jesus Walked

And the Holy Spirit has come here to help us. So the higher Christian life, let me turn to 1 John chapter two, verse six. If there is one verse, perhaps more than any other verse, there are other verses too, that explains what the higher Christian life is.

It's this. 1 John chapter two, first episode of John chapter two, and verse six. The one who says he abides in Christ, most of us, if not all, we say we are in Christ. We received Christ as our savior and Lord, and Christ came into us, and we are in Christ as members of his body.

Well, if we say that, or we sing that, then we have a responsibility. It's an amazing verse. To walk in the same manner as he walked. That is the higher Christian life. The way Jesus walked on earth, that was the most blessed, the happiest, most victorious, every adjective you can use, a wonderful life that anybody can ever live.

He wasn't the richest man on earth. He didn't live to the age of 60 or 70, lived only up to 33. And he started his ministry only when he was 30, for three and a half years. And yet at the end of his life, he looked up to the Father in John chapter 17.

He was praying to the Father. This is the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in scripture, John 17, it's a prayer. Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he said, verse four, one of the things he said was, "'I have glorified you on earth.'".

How did Jesus glorify the Father on earth? By finishing the work which you gave me to do. All through his life, he was conscious that the Father had sent him to earth with a particular task to be accomplished.

It wasn't just dying on the cross. It was ministering to so many people, preaching God's word, preaching the Sermon on the Mount, healing blind people, and so many things. And of course, working up to the age of 30 as a carpenter, that was also part of God's will for him to show that Christianity is not just preaching and singing, it is practical work, and earning one's living.

And he grew up in a poor home with his, Joseph had died, and it was his responsibility to take care of his mother, widowed mother, and he had four younger brothers and two younger sisters, Mary's children, and he was the eldest.

And it was his responsibility to earn. He finished the work God gave him to do, and preaching was only 10 of that. Three and a half years out of 33 and a half. So that secular job that he did, for maybe from the age of 18 to 30, was part of the work the Father gave him to do.

You say, why in the world does Jesus have to come here and work as a carpenter? Because 99 .99 of Christians are not preachers or full-time workers. Almost all of you sitting here, you're not preachers or full-time workers, you're in a secular job.

So if Jesus could only be an example to preachers, how would he be an example to you? In a secular job to be faithful, not to love money, and meditate on how Jesus was in the carpenter shop. That is the higher Christian life.

Walking as Jesus walked in our secular job. And I've meditated on that. In a world where there's so much of stealing and telling lies and cheating people in jobs, I mean, I've seen a lot of carpenters in their work in Bangalore, India, where I live, and most of them would cheat.

They will not use the wood that they say they are using, and when cracks come up, they'll patch it up so that the buyer doesn't see it. I'm sure Jesus was tempted like that too. When he bought a piece of wood to make a table for someone, and a crack came in, the temptation to cover it up, and no, he says, I would, well, if he saw, if it did crack and he covered it up, he'd tell the buyer, this is cracked, and I've covered it up.

Would you like to buy it like this? Otherwise, I'll make another one for you. You can't make money when you're gonna be upright like that, and honest, but you'll be able to say at the end of your life, Father, I finished the work you gave me to do.

It's all a question of what your goal in life is. If Jesus' goal in life was to make money, then he'd be like everybody else, cover up all these things, and pretend that everything he sold was perfect when it was not.

Remember, he was tempted just like us. The Bible says Jesus was tempted just like us, and the higher Christian life is to manifest on this sin-cursed earth where people cheat and tell lies and only think in terms of profit and money-making and how to take advantage of others to live in such a way that I would take advantage of no one, and if there is a loss, I will bear that loss.

That's how Jesus lived, and I can imagine how if a little child came into his carpentry shop and broke something, he wouldn't get upset with that child. He'd pick up the child and kiss it and say, it's all right, don't worry.

I can make another one. Imagine living like that. You're not gonna be the richest carpenter in Nazareth that way, but you'll finish the work God gave you to do, and you may not be a carpenter, but whatever work you do, there are many temptations.

I found when I was working in the Navy, any place, temptations are the same, to tell lies, to get some advantage for ourselves. I remember one of the situations I was in where I was in charge of all the boats in the naval base in India.

They appoint different officers to be in charge of that, and we have a commander and a commanding officer, a captain on top of that, and the boats, the officers were permitted to use the boats, but they had to pay for the diesel.

So if an officer used a boat, he got a bill for the diesel, and he could use it. But when the captain used the boat, you know, the previous board officers would not send him a bill. When he went for a picnic with his family, he was permitted to do it, provided he paid for the diesel.

They would show it as, captain has gone for harbor inspection, official duty, no charge. So when I became boat officer, for the first time, the captain got a bill. I sent him a bill. And the second in command, the commander came to me and said, Lieutenant Poonen, hasn't the previous boat officer told you what to do when the captain takes the boat?

I said, yes, sir, but my conscience doesn't permit me to tell a lie. In half an hour, they transferred me from that job. My, praise the Lord. I'm thankful for such situations where I said, Lord, I'm not interested in his writing a good report at me, about me at the end of the year.

I knew I wouldn't get the promotions that I would, that I wanted, if I was going to walk as Jesus walked. And I said, Lord, I want to please you. I want to say at the end of my life, that I finished the work the father gave me to do, that I was a witness, and I'll tell you something, they may not, they may disagree with you and all, but they'll never forget you.

And I remember from that naval base, I resigned when I was 26 and I came out to serve the Lord. But 40 years later, a colleague of mine who was in that naval base, and who met me in Bangalore, in a retired naval officer's meeting, he was an admiral, and he said to me, Zach, I can never forget you, what you were.

They remembered years later that once in their life, they met a true Christian who was different. And I believe that is your calling in mind, brothers and sisters, wherever you work, people you deal with, shopkeepers, family members, neighbors, they may be upset with you for being so upright and all that, but they will never forget you.

Remember this, may people who come across your path and know you well, all their life remember that at least once in their life, they met a true Christian, a disciple of Jesus, who would never cheat them, who would never get upset with them, who wouldn't get angry or upset, even if they were supposed to do something for you and they didn't.

Mercy, Integrity, and Trusting God’s Provision

You know, we live in a fallen world, and we all make mistakes right from childhood. I'm 83 years old, but I make mistakes now. We'll never do anything perfect till Jesus comes again. And therefore, we have to be merciful to others.

It's beginning with our own home. We must be merciful to the members in our own home when they make a mistake. Say, it's okay, did something get broken? It's fine. We can always buy another one, or we can do without it if we can't afford to buy another one.

Nothing is so important that we have to lose our temper and get upset and be bothered by it for the whole day. No, there isn't. Think of it like this, 2 ,000 years from now, when you look back over your life and you look at that incident that happened in your home or in your place of work that you got so upset about, what are you going to think about it 2 ,000 years from now?

Is it going to be so important, so valuable? Not at all. That is the higher Christian life. And I'll tell you this, you will not become bankrupt by going this way, no. God is a loving father. And if you're upright, you may not make as much money as other people, good, but he'll provide for every need of yours.

That's absolutely certain. I've experienced that ever since I left the Navy, 56 years ago. All these years, God's taken care of me and my family without my sending prayer letters or ever asking anyone for money.

God's taken care of us. He'll take care of you. I'll tell you, he'll take care of you. You don't have to be afraid of whatever. There may be famine in the land, but God will take care of you. I'll tell you why.

Because of one promise of scripture, Matthew 6, 33. Seek first, it's a well-known verse. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these earthly things, food, clothing, shelter, the necessities of life will be added to you.

That's how Jesus lived. Jesus did not live in intention at any time. For three and a half years, he was a full-time worker for the father. He would never, he never sent prayer letters asking for money like a lot of missionaries do today.

He never did that. He never advertised his work. He never asked for money, but he knew the father would provide for him. Somebody would give him a gift and he would take care of that. And he learned to live simply.

He did not go and live in the most expensive restaurants, expensive hotels when he traveled from Galilee to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was probably a hundred miles away from Galilee and it would take him three days to walk up there and walk back whenever he went there.

You read in the Bible that he went from Galilee to Jerusalem but you forget that it took him three days to go there. He's walking with his disciples and having fellowship along the way. And when he went to Jerusalem, sometimes people would invite him to a home to live in.

Sometimes he slept under the trees in the Mount of Olives without a complaint. It's wonderful to see how Jesus lived on this earth and say, Lord, this is the higher life. This is the way I want to live on this earth.

The Holy Spirit and a Life of Reality

And I believe that the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to enable every one of us to live this higher life. So it says in John chapter 16, I want to show you this verse. When the Holy Spirit has come, verse 13.

You know, there's a lot of confusion concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I love my brothers and sisters in the Pentecostal and charismatic churches, but I have to honestly say, I don't agree with their emphasis on what they call supernatural things.

Their public manifestation of speaking in tongues, all the speaking in tongues, let me tell you, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. But it's a gift, the Bible says, which God gives us. Let me explain to you briefly.

It's a gift God gives to some people, not to everyone, to when they have to express what is in their heart to God. It's a gift, not for public prayer, never. It's for private prayer. When one cannot express to God what's sufficiently in one's own language, that God gives him another language.

God's given me that gift 47 years ago, and I've used it. Never in public, only in private, my communication with my heavenly bridegroom. You know how husbands and wives speak things to each other that they never want anybody else to listen to?

That's how we are supposed to speak to our heavenly bridegroom. And for that, he gives us the gift if we want it, if we need it, and it's a useful gift, but the way it is used so often in other places, I don't agree with.

That's not the primary purpose of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come, let me show you, John 16, 13. The Holy Spirit, when he has come, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth.

And the word truth, by the way, is reality. That's the meaning of truth in the New Testament. The opposite of truth is falsehood. The opposite of reality is hypocrisy, pretending what is not true. So the Holy Spirit will lead me and you to live a true life.

That means what you see me is what I am. I don't have another life behind the scenes. I'm not another person inside than I am visible on the outside. Now, I'll tell you, that was not true of my life in the early days of my Christian life.

I never knew what it was to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I was born again, and I lived the way most Christians live. I was really born again. I knew if I died, I'd go to heaven. But I did not live on earth the way God wanted me to live.

It says here, everyone who says he abides in Christ must walk as he walked. Well, I wasn't living like that. I would get angry, upset. My thoughts were not always pure, and I'd fall and get up. And of course, I would always confess my sin to the Lord, say, Lord, forgive me, and I'd be cleansed.

But I was absolutely certain that I'd fall again and fall again, but always the blood of Christ was there to cleanse me. I treated the blood of Christ like tap water. We are never afraid of getting our hands dirty because tap water is cheap.

You can always go and wash your hands. That's why a lot of people are casual about their sin, because they say, the blood of Christ is there to cleanse me. It's treating the blood of Christ like tap water.

It's an insult. Peter says, the blood of Christ is more precious than all the gold and silver in the world. In Hebrews 10, in verse 29, it says, warns us, don't treat the blood of Christ like a common thing, like tap water.

Take it seriously. So I asked myself this question. I said, if tap water cost $1 ,000 for a cup, boy, I'd be very careful not to dirty my hands. It's gonna be pretty expensive to wash my hands every time.

And if I recognize the blood of Christ is so precious, I'll be very careful not to sin. I won't say, well, I can always go to Christ and get it to be cleansed. So as I said, I never, unfortunately, I was not taught these truths in the church I went to when I was converted.

And most churches, they don't teach you to value the blood of Christ and to stay away from sin or that the Holy Spirit can help you. But all this made me very desperate. And I began to seek God and said, Lord, I want a better life than this.

I want a higher life. I'm living at a very low level. And that's the level most of the others were living at. I once asked a missionary who was 15 years older than me. I thought he would know the answer.

And I asked him, I said, brother, how do we get victory over dirty thoughts? He changed the subject and talked about something else. I got the answer. He hadn't got victory himself. And that's the truth with many, many men, particularly born-again men.

They've never taken seriously the matter of having a pure thought life. Was Jesus tempted like us? Yes. Did he have dirty thoughts? No. Is it possible for us to come to that life, not overnight, but get there?

Yes. The Holy Spirit, when he's come, he'll guide you into reality, into a life of truthfulness, reality. That means what you see is what I am. What you see is what I am in my home life, in my office, in my thoughts, inwardly.

That is the life the Holy Spirit wants to come to. That's the meaning of truth. That's why he's called the spirit of truth, the spirit of reality. And it says here further, verse 14, in the middle, he will take the things of Christ and reveal it to me.

So one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to show me how Jesus lived on this earth. That's the meaning of that verse. He will disclose, disclose is a, it's like reveal, disclose is a word which means telling us something which is a secret.

He disclosed that secret. It's not something openly known. It's something which is hidden, which he discloses. So there are things about Jesus' life that the Holy Spirit can show us from the scriptures.

What you read in this, otherwise in the scriptures is that Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, the sermons he preached. But about Jesus, the inner principles by which Jesus lived, that's what the Holy Spirit shows as we read the scriptures.

I can give you one or two examples. The higher Christian life. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. In Matthew chapter 12, we read of a time when there was a demon possessed person, verse 22, was brought to Christ.

He was blind and dumb and Jesus healed him. He immediately began to speak and he could see. And all the crowds, Matthew 12, 23 were amazed. I said, this must be the Messiah that we've been waiting for all these years, the son of David.

But the Pharisees who were jealous of this, who could never do a miracle themselves, who would just keep preaching the Bible, they were jealous and said, no, this is the work of demons. This man is doing it by the power of Beelzebul, which is another name for Satan, the ruler of demons.

This man's possessed and ruled by Satan. You know, it's a terrible thing to call any human being Satan or ruled by Satan. Imagine how much worse to call the son of God as one being ruled by Satan. Can that sin be forgiven?

We read of a time when Miriam, Moses' sister, criticized Moses for marrying a non-Israeli woman. And you know, God struck her with leprosy. Yeah, you read that in the book of Numbers. Just because she criticized God's servant, saying, Miriam, that's none of your business.

And Moses had to pray for her to be healed. There was another time when the Elisha, the prophet had just taken over the ministry from Elijah and he was coming back. 42 young men, you read that in second Kings, made fun of him.

You know, Elijah had gone up in a chariot of fire and they made fun of Elisha saying, you bald, Elisha was bald. You bald man, you also go up, go up. Made fun of him. And bears came out of the forest and killed all those 42 young men.

It's a serious thing to speak against a servant of God. So what is the punishment for someone who calls Jesus the devil? Miriam got healing. No, Miriam got leprosy. These 42 young men were killed. They got death.

You know what the Pharisees got? From Jesus? Forgiveness. Jesus looked at them and said in verse 32, if you've spoken a word against the son of man, it's forgiven. That is the higher Christian life. We don't expect judgment to come on a person who harms us.

That's the low level. The higher Christian life is, it's all right, you're forgiven. Even if you hurt me, even if you harm me or my family, this is what Jesus has taught us and the Holy Spirit helps us.

Forgiving Others as We Have Been Forgiven

I've heard people tell me this. Oh, brother Zach, the way that fellow treated me, I can never forgive him. I say, well, brother, then you'll never get to heaven. I'll tell you that right now. If you don't forgive him, you're not gonna go to heaven.

I'm not saying you should forgive him because you wanna go to heaven. You must forgive him because Jesus has taught you that he has forgiven you. What has he done compared to what you have done against Christ?

The well-known Lord's Prayer. It's actually a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. You know what it is in Matthew six and verse nine, our father who art in heaven. And one line of it says, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us, verse 12, our sins, our debts.

Exactly like we have forgiven others. Do you know that when you ask the Lord, ask God your father to forgive you, this is the way we have to pray for forgiveness. Not just, oh God, forgive me. Jesus said, pray like this.

Forgive me my sins exactly like I have forgiven other people who have hurt me, who sinned against me. It's connected. There were a number of requests that Jesus made in this prayer, about six of them.

But out of all those six requests he mentioned in this prayer, he picks out one. He taught us to pray. God's name should be hallowed, his kingdom must come, his will must be done. We must pray for our daily food.

We must pray for forgiveness and we must pray for victory over sin and Satan. Then out of all these six requests, he picks out one and emphasizes it. You know which one it is? Forgiveness. You see that in verse 14.

He doesn't emphasize the other five, but out of the six, he emphasizes this particular one. And he emphasizes if, oh, that I-F must be in capital letters. If you forgive others their sins, only then, only then your heavenly father will forgive you.

Okay, Lord, understood. No, I must repeat it. Verse 15, if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive you your sins. A double emphasis on that one out of those six requests in the prayer.

When you read the Bible carefully, you see certain things Jesus emphasized, like, you know, if your dad writes a letter to you and he underlines something, all of it is important, but the underlying part is very important.

He's underlining this. Remember, out of these six requests, remember this one thing. You ask for forgiveness in exactly the same way as you have forgiven others. Forgive me, Father, as I have forgiven others.

Now, if I have forgiven somebody with saying, well, I'll never, I'll always remember, I'll keep a grudge against you. You're asking God to always keep a grudge against you because you're saying, forgive me exactly like I've forgiven that guy.

No, I don't want God to keep a grudge against me. It's very, very important. If you do not forgive others, your father will not forgive you. Now, if God doesn't forgive a man and he dies in that condition, where is he gonna go?

His sin is not forgiven. And he dies. Is there some place after death, some sort of purgatory where he can get cleansed and have his sin forgiven? No. Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed unto men once to die.

After that, the judgment. So, if you missed doing something that you should have done on earth, there's no chance for it in eternity. You're gone, it's over. And it's very, very important to be very clear.

If you don't forgive others, your father will not forgive you. I don't wish that any of you would die like that. Life is very uncertain. Who can say how long you live? How can we say, the Bible says, don't even boast about tomorrow.

James chapter four says, your life is like a vapor. You know, it's like a little smoke. It's there, next moment, it's gone. It says, your life is like that. And so, don't boast even about tomorrow, he says in James four.

You just say, if the Lord wills, we will live tomorrow, and we'll come for the morning meeting here. If the Lord wills. That's exactly what it says in James chapter four. And so, it's very important, therefore, to have short accounts with God.

Don't take anything on credit. Say, I'll pay later. No, pay immediately. Pay means ask for forgiveness immediately. It's already been paid on the cross. But avail of it now. And in order to avail of forgiveness, you must forgive others.

So, I wanna pause a little here. This is the higher Christian life. I'll tell you why it's higher. Because most Christians that I have met, I'm not talking about non-Christians. Most Christians that I've met, and I've been in the ministry, as I said, 56 years, I've had the opportunity to counsel with hundreds and hundreds of people in many, many countries.

And I'll tell you that most Christians that I've met have a grudge against someone. Somebody did something to them years ago when they were young, or did something to their family, to their son or daughter or something, and they just haven't forgiven that person.

They don't take him to court or anything, but they've got this little grudge against that person. They're not forgiven. And they're all the time asking God to forgive him. Now, I don't know how many preachers have told you this, very in plain words, as I'm saying right now, and emphasizing it like I am emphasizing it now.

There are many things in Scripture, but some things that need to be emphasized. You know, Jesus sometimes used to say, verily, verily, I say unto you. Truly, truly, I say unto you. That's the meaning of that.

Verily means truly. Why does he have to emphasize that? Isn't everything Jesus says the truth? Would he ever tell a lie? Every word was true. Then why did he have to say truly, truly? He was underlining certain things.

Why did he have to repeat after saying that we must pray for forgiveness like we forgive others? Why did he have to repeat it in two further sentences saying if you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven.

If you want forgiveness, forgive others. Why? Because Jesus knew human weakness. We take some of these things lightly. I'm sure all of you, and if you're born in a Christian family, you probably heard this prayer from childhood.

My father was a born-again Christian, and from the earliest childhood, he taught me to memorize this prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Even before I was born again, he taught us to kneel down on our bed as soon as we woke up.

And I would kneel down on my bed and pray that prayer before I got out of bed every day. I was repeating it like a parrot. I didn't mean it. But anyway, you've all heard that prayer. I'm sure you've all repeated it.

I want to ask you how seriously have you taken this one part of that prayer which you probably prayed for years? Forgive me exactly like I have forgiven everybody else. The lower Christian life is the type of life most Christians are living.

Keeping grudges, unforgiveness. I'm not the judge of humanity. God is the judge. But I'm a servant of God who has to proclaim the truth. And the truth is this, according to Jesus' own words, that the people who die without forgiving others, they will not be forgiven for all eternity.

And where do they go? Well, you know. Now again, let me repeat. It's not because I want to go to heaven that I want to forgive people. Let me read a verse in Ephesians, in chapter, Ephesians chapter four, and the last verse.

Ephesians four, verse 32. Be kind to one another. Tenderhearted. And listen to this. Forgiving each other exactly like God in Christ has forgiven you. It's the same thing. Because God has forgiven us so much, a million times more than the few things that a few human beings have done against us.

We should forgive them. You know, I don't believe that any of us, me included, realize how many sins we have committed in our life. We think of a few things. Our understanding of sin is so limited that we are aware of a few things, which are serious.