0:07 So, I wanted to share this morning um a verb from a verse in Deuteronomy. Turn with me. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 30:19. It says in Deuteronomy 30:19, "I call 0:32 heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So, choose in order that you may live. Choose life. So, God's acknowledging that there is 0:53 death and life. But, he wants us to choose life. God's intention is for our good. He always wants the best for us. The enemy comes, it says in John 10:10. 1:10 Turn with me to John 10:10. The thief or the enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So, the devil went everywhere. 1:30 And wherever he could steal, kill, and destroy, that's what he did. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. And so, you see everybody in this world, he's wanted to come and destroy men's lives. It reads in um just as much as he came to destroy men's 1:49 lives, Jesus came to undo the works of Satan. Turn with me to 1 John 3:8. The Son of God appeared for this purpose. Why Jesus came? He came for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. 2:08 So, the devil will go try to destroy people's lives. He'll come Jesus will come to restore their lives. And today all around the world, it continues to happen where the devil continues to create havoc in personal lives, in family lives, in 2:25 marriages, everywhere, in the workplace. And God's coming around and he's trying to restore. There's a beautiful verse in Acts 10. Turn with me to Acts 10. Again, a testimony of Jesus. Acts 10. 2:50 Verse 38. Peter's preaching to the house of Cornelius. And he says, "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing 3:07 all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." And so, just as much as the devil is going around oppressing all people's lives and destroying them, stealing, Jesus is going around undoing the works of Satan, 3:27 releasing those who are oppressed by the devil. And for us as a church, that's also our calling is to be filled with God's Holy Spirit, that the Lord will be with us, so that we also may proclaim this message of releasing those who are 3:41 captive to sin, those who are oppressed by the devil. We also want to go. Jesus says in Matthew 16, turn with me to Matthew 16. Why What did he give to the church? Verse 18. I say to you that you are 4:01 Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. So, the devil and Hades is there, and they're trying to they're trying to hit against their gates. We are going and it says that 4:18 the devil will not be able to overpower it. The church will will be the one who's victorious. And what's this promise in verse 19? "I will give you, the church, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and 4:33 whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." And so, just as Jesus came and loosed people from the bondage of sin and the oppression of the devil, God has now given the church those keys, and he's wants us also to loose those 4:46 who are bound by the devil. And I wanted to take some time this morning uh first of all, to just talk about God's care for us in the midst of all this wickedness and oppression of the devil. It's very easy to say, "Does God care 5:05 for me? I'm bound in sin. I'm oppressed. I have a difficult relationship with my family members. I'm I I see this. Does God care for me in the midst of this?" Peter says, "Give him all your cares because of this 5:25 one reason." I tell you why to give you all all your cares to him. And you know that reason. What's that reason? 1 Peter 5:7. Casting all your anxiety upon him. Why? Because he cares for you. God cares for us intensely. 5:43 And when we see the enemy doing so much of havoc, that question can come, "Why? Why does God still love me? Does he care for me?" Turn with me to Matthew 8. Matthew 8. This is a constant question that people 6:05 had who came to Jesus. A leper came to him and said he bowed down to him and he said, "Lord, if you're willing Lord, if you care, you can make me clean. I'm here full of leprosy, but you can help me. But, I don't know if you're willing. Do 6:25 you really care about me? Nobody else has cared about me all these years. I'm I'm I've lived with this disease. Do you care?" Jesus stretched out his hand and what did he say? He touched him. He touched this leprous man and said, "I am 6:43 willing. I do care. Be cleansed." Turn with me to Mark 4. God does care and he wants to emphasize that over and over again. In Mark 4, it says, 7:01 "When the boat was shaking, Mark 4:37. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus himself was in the stern, asleep on the 7:21 cushion. And they woke up woke him up and said, 'Teacher, what was their question? Do you not care that we are perishing? Lord, do you not care?" What was Jesus' response? He didn't even give give a response to 7:39 them. He says, "You should know that I do care. Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? Do you have no faith that I care about you? When you see the waves and everything crashing down, do you not know in the midst of it I do 7:56 care about you? And that's the faith you must have in the midst of these struggles that I care. If we go down, Jesus first calmed the storm on the outside, and then he went all the way to the other side. And it he met It says, you can read with 8:15 me Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. Then they came to the other side after the storm and after he calmed the storm, he came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he got out of the boat, immediately a 8:28 man from the tombs with unclean spirit met him. And he said to his And he had his dwelling among the tombs. He ran among the tombs. A person who did thought that nobody would ever care for him. Nobody did care for him. All the people 8:45 of his towns, nobody cared for him. He was in the tombs. Nobody would even give him a place in the city. He had to stay in a graveyard running around. And no one was able to bind him. They wanted to actually tie him up and bind 9:00 him so that he won't cause havoc. But, the demons inside him would break through those bounds, those shackles. And the chains and the chains had been torn by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to 9:16 subdue him. Constantly, night and day he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, gnashing himself with stones. He was kind of hurting himself because of the demons inside him. He was hurting himself. He's like, 9:32 this man would have never guessed that anybody cared for him. Nobody knew his name. Nobody cared for him. He probably thought in his life, "My life is always going to be like this, in the tombs." And for each one of us, we might have 9:49 that thing. Lord, I'm in this difficult situation. I'm tormented by my emotional depression, Lord, all these things, sickness and cares of this life. All of these are tormenting me. I feel like this man. I may not be scratch scratching me on 10:06 the outside, but in the inside I'm torn apart. Emotionally, I'm paralyzed. I'm running around. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed before him. Jesus cared for this man. The man that no one else cared for. 10:25 The man that everyone else gave hope up gave up hope for. And he's shouting with a loud voice. He said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus?" And Jesus could say, "Yes, I don't have any business with you, devil 10:38 and demons. You came to destroy people's lives. I came to save it. You came to steal, kill, and destroy. I come to rescue people's lives like him and give them abundant life." And he implored the demons know that the day is coming 10:55 when they're going to be judged. They know it. What man doesn't see a lot of men don't know that there is a day when we'll all have to stand before God and give account. They don't know that, but the demons do. And he they know that 11:10 that they will have to give account and they will be But now it's the time hasn't come in come out of that man, you unclean spirit, Jesus says. What is your name? My name is Legion, for we are many. And he began to implore and he began 11:26 that's Legion implored Jesus earnestly, "Send them out of the country." Now, there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain and the demons implored him or begged him saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter 11:40 him." Jesus gave them permission. And coming out the unclean spirits entered the swine. The herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and 2,000 of them went into the sea. Think of the torment that this man had. Those demons were so powerful that it 11:59 took 2,000 pigs and took them into this into the sea off the cliff. Those demons which could throw 2,000 pigs off the cliff was inside that man tormenting him day and night. And nobody cared 12:19 but one. Jesus cared about him. He who thought there was no hope. One day hope came to him. For each one of us, that's the message Jesus is giving. There is hope. There is life. 12:36 I do care. This man then also implores him that the people there say The herdsmen ran away and reported verse 14. Those who had seen described to them how 12:56 it happened verse 16 and how the to the Steven possessed man. And verse 17, and they began to implore him, "Leave this region." And he said, "Okay, if you don't want me here, I'll just touch this one man's life and I'll go." 13:17 So, the people played with him and he listens. The demons played with him to go into the swine, he listens. And one more man pleads with him. He says in verse Mark 5 verse uh uh verse 17 verse 18, and he was getting into the 13:36 boat, the man who had been demon possessed was begging him or imploring him that he may accompany him. And he did not let him. Jesus who told the demons, "Yes, you want to go into swine, sure." The people who said, "Go away." 13:53 He said, "Okay, I'll go away." But this man who said, "Can I come with you?" He says, "No. I want you to stay back. Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you. How he has had mercy on you." 14:10 And so he went. It says later on in verse 20, it says Mark 5:20, and he went alone and went away and began proclaiming in Decapolis Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him and everyone who was amazed. So, the 14:26 people rejected him, but this man went and he told every people in those 10 cities, Decapolis, of what Jesus had done them. How he had mercy on him. How he had no hope. How he had no the devil had taken advantage of him 14:42 and destroyed his life and how God saved him. And he was telling everybody, if you turn with me to Mark 7, the fruit of his labor. You read here in Mark 7. Mark 7 verse 31, and he went out from the region of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus came 14:59 to Sidon and to the sea of Galilee within the region of Decapolis and they brought to him who was one who was deaf and spoke with great difficulty. Again, another person that nobody probably cared about. And lay his They implored him to lay his 15:15 hand on him. Begged him, "Please lay." Jesus took him aside from the crowd by himself. Put his fingers into his ears and after spitting, he touched his tongue and with his saliva and looked up into heaven with a deep sigh, he said, 15:29 "Ephphatha, be opened." And his ears were opened and the impediment of his tongue was removed. And he began speaking plainly and he gave them orders not to tell anyone, but the more that he ordered them, the more widely they 15:42 continued to proclaim it. Listen to this verse 37. They were utterly astonished saying, "He has done all things well." He makes the deaf How would this testimony have happened? It's probably that man who went who God had mercy on 16:02 went and told him, "Hey, there is one who had mercy on me. Nobody else cared for me. Everybody discounted me, but God had mercy on me. And now I went and proclaimed to these people. And this person probably owes his healing to that man. 16:21 We read in Matthew chapter 2. If you turn with me to Matthew chapter 2. We know that Jesus did most of his ministry in in Galilee and sometimes in Judea. But here in Matthew 2 verse I'm sorry, Matthew 4. Sorry, 16:43 Matthew 4 verse 20 25, large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from beyond the Jordan. It might have been because of this one man going and telling everybody. Many came. I wanted you to see turn with me also to 17:05 another person here in Matthew 15. Again, why do I share this? Because what God what the devil meant for harm, God goes around and healing people. Again, people who nobody cared about, God goes. Matthew 15 verse 21, Jesus went away 17:25 from there and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon and a Canaanite woman. You might remember the Canaanites who are living in the land. The Israelites were to go and the Canaanites were warring against the people of Israel. 17:41 And these people the Jews would have looked at them and said, "You know what? You were the ones who were attacking us and hurting us." That woman would have had no hope. No hope. From that region verse 22 Matthew 15:22 17:59 and began crying out saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon possessed." But he did not answer a word. And his disciples came and implored her saying implored say him saying, "Send her away. 18:15 She doesn't need our help. She doesn't need us to care you you to care for her." But he answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Not to the Canaanites. I was sent to the Israel." But she came and began to bow down or 18:31 worship him and saying, "Lord, help me." And he answered, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she said, "Lord, I don't have anything, Lord. I'm just happy that you even came by Tyre and Sidon. Nobody comes through 18:48 these place. No, definitely not a Jew. You came here. Have mercy on me. There must been a reason you came for me." Verse 27, but she said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table." 19:05 Verse 28. Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great." What's your faith great faith? That I care about you. That I took the time to come for you. You who are humbled yourself. I came for you. 19:25 It shall be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at once. God came to set free those who are oppressed by the devil. Clearing out the cobwebs. Springtime, 19:43 our garages and everything, there's bunch of cobwebs there that we need to clear out. And I've I've been looking at my heart and I said, "Lord, there's a lot of cobwebs here. I need to clear out. want to get discouraged when I see the cobwebs. 19:56 Every every uh spring, whether I like it or not, there's going to be cobwebs, and I need to clear those out. And these are three cobwebs. There's many others, but three cobwebs I want us to think about. In the church, the Lord wants us to wants to knit our 20:15 hearts together in love. He wants love to be what's knitting our hearts together, but the devil has something else. He has cobwebs trying to knit our hearts together with cobwebs instead of love. And so, I wanted to talk about a couple 20:32 of cobwebs here. Suspicions. You might remember in 1 Samuel 18, it talks about David after he killed Goliath, the women were proclaiming a message to 20:51 everybody. Do you remember that message? Samuel chapter 18 verse 7. The women sang as they played and said, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his 10,000s." 21:10 Then, verse 8, Saul became very angry. For this For this saying displeased him. What saying? And he said, "They have ascribed David to 10,000s, but to me, they ascribed only thousands. What more 21:27 can he have but the kingdom?" Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on. And this suspicion, he didn't deal with it. This cobweb of suspicion suspicion, he just didn't deal with it. And it festered and festered all through his 21:44 life. David must be trying to get me get the throne from me. I'm going to try to hunt him down cave to cave. I'm going to chase him until I get him. Why? Because it started off with the suspicion with his brother. And for us in the church, 22:04 we have to deal with this cobweb of suspicion. Oh, is I didn't get a chat response from this this brother back, or this sister didn't like my post. What's What is it? I don't know. I'm suspicious now. Could they be Maybe they don't like me, or maybe they 22:21 have something against me. A suspicion that came out. And unless I deal with these suspicions, guess what? These cobwebs are going to come between me and another brother, between one family and another family. All these cobwebs of suspicion. 22:37 The devil will be very happy to come and put these cobwebs. Hey, yeah, you remember 10,000, you only thousand. 10,000, thousand. Slowly that cobweb gets built up. Pretty soon, he's hunting him, hunting him. 22:56 And every time he'll have a sort of repentance saying, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I won't kill you anymore. Come, my son David." He didn't deal with the cobwebs. In 1 Timothy, talks about the cobwebs as well. 1 Timothy chapter 6, turn with me, 23:15 please. Verse 4. 1 Timothy 6:4, "He is conceited and understands nothing." It's talking about people who uh does not not agree. Verse 3, it says, "Does not agree 23:34 with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ." Verse 4, "He is conceited and understands nothing, but is morbidly interested in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive 23:50 language, evil suspicions." These are the things that will come into the church, and Paul is telling Timothy, "If you're not careful, this is going to come into the church." Along with strife and everything else, this is going to come in. Be careful. 24:07 Deal with these suspicions. If you have something that's staring unsettled, judge yourself. See if it's just a thing, "Lord, I want to judge myself and see, Lord, is this a useless thought that's coming in to bring suspicion between me and 24:19 another brother in the church, or a sister with another sister in the church, or a family with another family? Let me deal with it. Lord, let me not have these suspicions." Another word similar to suspicions is speculations. 24:35 I don't know. I'm speculating. That means I don't know the truth. I'm just coming up with I think that might be the case. In 2 Timothy 2:23, you see that Paul is talking about suspicions and speculations, all of these things to the 24:49 church to Timothy. He's saying, "Be careful of this." Careless words. All of these careless words will result in division in the church. It says in verse 23, 2 Timothy 2:23, 25:07 "But refuse foolish and igno- ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels." The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome. Yeah. Let's not have suspicions. And how should we deal with suspicions? 2 Corinthians chapter 10, turn with me to 25:27 2 Corinthians. So, when I get a thought, a suspicion, it's not based on the facts, just a suspicion. I sus- 2 Corinthians 10. Verse 4. 25:46 "For our weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destroying of fortresses." And what kind of fortresses are these in our mind? We are destroying what? Speculations and every lofty thought. 26:04 So, that's one of the things that the Lord says you need to destroy them. When they come into your thought as a speculation, a temptation to be speculat- speculating on something. Why did this person do that? Why did that 26:14 person do this? Don't give in to it. Say, "No. I don't want to anything to be brought in between me and my brother." Why? Because this is my foundation that the Lord, as it says in Jeremiah, he brought two from a family and one 26:32 from a city into Zion. It wasn't me who decided to become one with these brothers and sisters. It wasn't me me trying to knit my heart together with these brothers and sisters. No, the Lord gathered this brother and this sister, and if you 26:50 gathered them, he wants me to knit my heart together in love with them. And so, if I see anything that comes against that, I want to deal with it radically. And the last one in this There's much more, but partiality. 27:07 This is subtle, partiality. Turn with me to James 2. And as you're turning, I'm going to ask you a question. Let's say in this church, there's three people who came come to the church. One person 27:26 just murdered somebody, came in, sat here. Another person was unfaithful to their spouse, they came and sat here. And one who was partial to a to one of the people in the church. Who among these people would be the worst among them? Or which would have 27:45 done the worst sin? Which one do you think? The one who murdered somebody, unfaithful to their spouse, or the one who was partial? Turn with me to James 2. James 2. It talks about 28:05 chapter 2, it says verse 2. Or Or verse 1, we can start. James 2:1, "My brethren, do not hold your faith in glorious in our glorious Lord with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring." It could be a gold 28:23 ring, it could be some personality, it could be their hobbies, it could be something. Dressed in fine clothes, and there comes a poor man in dirty clothes. Not maybe doesn't have a more, you know, their personality is different. They're 28:41 not popular. And you pay special attention where? In your heart? Who is wearing the fine clothes and says, "Hey, you sit here in this good place, and you who are poor, you sit by my footstool." "Have you not made a distinction 29:00 among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?" And then it goes on in verse 8. Why is this serious? However, if you are If however you're fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," 29:18 you are doing well. But if you show partiality, verse 9, you are committing what? Sin. And are convicted of the law. For whoever keeps the whole law, yet stumbles in one point, in the area of partiality, for example, he becomes guilty of 29:36 all. Verse 11, "For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not commit murder.' Now, if you commit adultery, but do not commit murder, you still become a transgressor of the law. And similarly, if you shown partiality 29:56 and didn't murder anybody or was not unfaithful to your spouse, you're still guilty of the law. James must have been a fiery preacher. In chapter 4, he goes and says, "You You adulteresses must have been interesting sitting in 30:16 them and listening to his messages and sermons. But he had a seriousness for the church of God. He said, "Don't have any partiality." Partiality of the sin of partiality is as evil as going and committing adultery or murdering. 30:34 And he he he When he preached, I'm I'm sure everybody took note of that and said, "You know what? I don't want to be partial." Suspicions, speculations, and partiality should not find home. These cobwebs should not find home 30:48 in our hearts and we should deal with them radically so that we'll have a pure heart between one another. God will knit our hearts in love. A tale of two sorrows. I often used to think that when I failed, you know, the devil 31:07 tempting people, people falling into sin. I felt that if I was beating myself up, I felt remorse, I'd beat myself up, I self-humiliated myself, like it says in Colossians. Actually, turn with me to Colossians 31:24 3. Colossians 3 talks about this act of self-humiliation or saying I'm no good, de you know, uh putting myself down. It calls itself abasement, putting myself down. 31:43 Read with me. Verse uh I'm sorry, Colossians 2. Colossians 2, verse 23. These are matters which to be sure, the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement. So, self-abasement is putting down myself, beating me myself up, and saying I'm no 32:02 good, and severe treatment of the body, but these are in no value against fleshly indulgence. Just because I beat myself up about falling into lust or anger, that's not going to help me overcome the lust of the flesh. It's not. 32:20 And the clearest proof is this verse. This verse says, "No matter how much you beat yourself up and say you're no good, it's not going to help you against fleshly indulgence, the lust of your flesh. It's not going to help you." 32:34 And many people, I feel that they go after they've sinned and beat themselves up and they think that they've repented. But no, they haven't repented. They just beat them up themselves up. And the devil might as might also give 32:49 them thoughts saying, "Yeah, you're no good." What does it say about him? He accuses the brethren day and night. Yeah, you're no good. Yes, you fell again. And then you take it and say, "Yeah, I'm no good." And beat yourself up a little bit more 33:06 and think that you're repenting. That's not repentance. Read with me. I I call it a tale of two sorrows. Sorrows means sadness, remorse, sad. When someone takes your toy away, it's 33:24 sadness or sorrow. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation. So, there's a sorrow that leads to salvation through repentance. 33:42 So, I fall into sin and there's a sorrow, a natu- a really genuine weeping for what I've done is wrong. That leads to repentance and leads to salvation. But there's a sorrow of the world that produces 34:01 death. So, not all sorrow produces life and salvation. Some of it produces death. And we need to see the difference, or else we might be feeling very sorrowful for things, but not really a sorrow according to 34:19 salvation that leads to salvation. Paul was writing to this to a man to the church in which a man was living in gross sin and he had repented of it and they they accepted him back because his repentance was genuine. And he said, 34:36 "You know what? That sorrow that you felt was genuine." And now, how do I know it? Because there was a repentance that went with that sorrow that leads to salvation. But if you took my rebuke, Corinthian church, and you were just sorrowful sorrowful it 34:52 because you got corrected, and you didn't do anything about it, you beat yourself up with That would have not been a sorrow that I was looking for. That would have just led to death. The tale of two sorrows. I wanted to start with Adam. 35:13 Adam was there in the garden. In Genesis, we we know that he he was in the garden walking with God and talking to God, enjoyed his presence. 35:30 And we know that the devil came. It says in chapter Genesis chapter 2, verse 16. Genesis 2:16. The Lord God commanded the man saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, 35:48 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you will eat it you eat from it, you will surely surely die." You can eat everything else. There's the tree of life and all these other trees, 36:07 but the day you eat of this tree, you will surely die. And you know that the devil came, just like every other thing that he came to what God said was very good, came to destroy it. He came and tempted Eve and Eve fell into sin and gave it to her husband. 36:24 Husband took it and ate it. And God came and asked them, "What did you do?" And you know what Adam said? The man said, verse 12. 36:43 Genesis 3:12. The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave it to me from the tree and I ate." And so, in synopsis, he was saying she was wrong. I was less wrong. 37:01 She was wrong. I was less wrong. Remember what it said? On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Did Adam die physically on that day? He didn't die physically on that day, but something happened. When he left 37:20 that garden, something happened. His connection with God was broken. We are all born into this life physically. Adam was born physically and God breathed the spirit in him. He was spiritually also. He could commune with God, he could fellowship with God, 37:39 he could walk with God. But that day when he ate of that fruit, he surely did die. His relationship with God, to be able to walk in fellowship with God was gone. He died physically 930 years later. 37:58 Physically, he died 930 years later. But spiritually, he died that day. And God's asking each one of us, "Yes, we're born physically, but do we have this communion with God? Do we have a life? Do we have true life?" 38:17 Jesus says, "Man shall not eat bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." You shall not live I'm sorry. You shall not live by bread alone. How do I get my life? It's not by bread alone. Physical life, yes, I get it from 38:36 bread alone. But my spiritual life, I get it from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Adam stopped hearing the words of God that proceeded from the words of God that day. That privilege of hearing the life-giving words from God stopped that 38:50 day and he was kicked out of the garden with his wife. It's interesting. He was generation number one. He lived to see nine generations. His son was Cain and then I mean Seth and then from Seth it went to Enosh and it kept going on 39:10 uh Methuselah. Before Methuselah actually was Jared. I mean, Enoch and then Methuselah, Lamech, and then Unfortunately, Noah did not get to see Adam. Adam died before Noah was born. But Lamech, the ninth generation. I was thinking about if I think of my 39:28 generation, I think the maximum I can go is, you know, four generations usually. Four or maybe in rare circumstances, maybe a fifth generation, but four generations. Adam saw nine generations of people and I'm sure all of those nine 39:46 generations, what's was it like in the garden? What was it to hear the words of life from God? What was it mean to truly live? Among those generations, one generation, the seventh generation, it was Enoch that it says that at the age of 65, it 40:03 says that he had Methuselah and then it says that he walked with God. Again, a man who after Adam sinned and was out of the out of out of Eden. Seven generations later, there's a man who would again walk with God outside of 40:21 the garden, would walk with God. And I was thinking, Adam, why? You saw another man walking with God. Something that you had tasted in the Garden of Eden. Why did you not go back? I know you were sorrowful. I know you were sorrowful that you had 40:39 to be kicked out of the garden, but why didn't you go back? Why didn't you walk with God just like Enoch did? You saw Enoch walk with God. I think this was it. There's 930 years, God gave him opportunity. This was his answer. She was wrong. 40:58 I was less wrong. And so he lived 930 years. A very long time physically but missed out in what was truly life. Another person, Cain 41:20 Adam's son Turn with me to Genesis 4. Verse 5, but for Cain and for his offering he had no regard. So, what happened? So, Cain became very angry and 41:39 his countenance fell. And the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well if you do well sin is crouching will your will not your countenance be lifted up? 41:58 I have life and death before you like it says in Deuteronomy 30:19, life and death. Your countenance has fallen. Do you want to you want to have a a fallen countenance or do you want to repent? Sin is crouching. If you do not do well, 42:18 sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you. But you must master it. I have there's life and death before you, Cain. I say choose life. God's heart is always there's both ways, the tree of life the tree of the knowledge of good and 42:36 evil. Sin crouching at the door, you can overcome it. Life and death. God says choose life. And we know he killed his brother. Verse 9, the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he says, "I don't know." What a liar. 42:56 He's lying saying that he doesn't know. The voice of your brother is crying out to me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground. And it says here, verse 12, this was the punishment. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its 43:12 strength to you. You will be a vagrant vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. And look at to look at Cain's response in verse 13. Genesis 4:13, Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is too great to bear." It's too great to bear. 43:35 He murdered his brother. He covered it up with a lie. God's punishment was his crops will not yield. And he'll be a wanderer. What's the magnitude of his sin? Murder. 43:53 Killing his brother. The punishment was his crops would not yield a strong yield. You'll be a wanderer. And he says the punishment is too much. Cain did not see the gravity of his sin. He saw the punishment for his sin and 44:12 that was what he saw. And for me as well, if I see when I am corrected the Lord's convicting me and I'm so upset with the punishment I got for my sin more than I'm concerned about the actual sin itself I'm going the way of Cain 44:30 where the punishment is what I see and not the sin. He murdered his brother, that wasn't anything. The crops are not going to yield. That was a big thing for him. Peter and Judas 44:49 You can turn with me to Matthew 26. Both of these men failed the Lord that night. One denied him, the other betrayed him. Both had remorse. Both had tears probably. But listen with me read with me Matthew 45:12 26:74. Matthew 26:74, then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter, verse 275 remembered that the word which Jesus had 45:30 said, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly. There was a sorrow. There was a sorrow because he had denied the Lord. Chapter 27, the story continues. Now 45:50 when the morning came, all the chief priests and the elders conferred together against Jesus and put it to put him to death. And they bound him and led him away, delivered him to Pilate the governor. Then when Judas who had betrayed him saw 46:03 that he had been condemned, he felt remorse. He returned the 30 pieces of silver silver to the priests and said, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." He was also upset. He was also sad for what he had done. He had remorse. 46:20 They said to him, "What is it to us? See that for yourself." And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple and departed. And he went away and hung himself. There are two types of sorrows. Externally they will look alike. 46:35 But inside one would have had genuine repentance where they're sorry for their sin. Judas was a a man who we know that says in Mat Matthew um Matthew 26. 47:03 It says in verse 20 Judas that but Jesus aware of this Matthew 26:10, but Jesus aware of this said, "Why do you bother the woman?" Small correction. Small correction, Judas. Why are you bothering her? Small correction. He got offended and it says the one of 47:26 the 12 named Judas went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray him to you?" And I see this offense. We are offended when some correction comes. Brother, why did you do this? Brother, can you do this? 47:45 Why did that brother say that to me? Why did they correct me? Why did they say that? I take offense. I'm a prime candidate for false repentance. False sorrow. I'll be sad. Oh, I'm sorrowful because they they found out my 48:00 sin. Instead of being concerned about that sin Peter was grieving for his sin that he betrayed the Lord. Judas he was sad. But I see that his sorrow was the one that led to 48:18 death. It's very care we we need to see the difference between these two because we're going to be tempted each one of us when we fail to beat ourselves up and self-humiliate us and all of those things or say, "Lord, you were right. I was wrong. 48:36 Brother, you were right. I was wrong. I'm not going to justify myself. I'm not going to explain myself. You're right. I'm wrong, brother. I'm going to repent of this. Thank you, Lord. I want to be one who the sorrow brings repentance that 48:51 leads to salvation. In all of this, what's God's intentions? God shows to choose it says there's life and death. There's blessing and cursing. But my heart in all of this that it may be well with you 49:09 that you will choose life. I don't want you to choose death. Cain, I don't want you to choose sin to master you. I don't want your countenance to be fallen. Adam, I don't want you to choose to take of the tree of the knowledge of 49:23 good and evil. I want you to choose life. The devil is the one who wants us to choose evil and shows the glamour of evil. But God's saying choose life. Choose life. There's a uh 49:41 Turn with me to Deuteronomy and we'll close with with these verses. Deuteronomy 4 Deuteronomy 4 verse 40 it says So this So you shall keep Deuteronomy 50:00 4:40. So you shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I am giving you today. Why? That it may go well with you and your children after you. That's why That's my heart in giving you life and death is so that you will choose life that it will 50:15 go well with you. And verse uh Go turn with me Deuteronomy 8 just a few pages Why did God give the manna? In verse 16, Deuteronomy 8:16, in the wilderness he fed you with manna which your fathers 50:33 did not know that he may humble you. Why did he give you these circumstances to humble you? Humble you so that you will that you might and test you to do good for you in the end. The end result of this correction, the end result of this sorrow will produce 50:52 life. The end result of this sorrow will produce salvation. So may the Lord help us today no matter what the devil has done and tried to discourage you or the Lord has come to set free those who are oppressed by 51:11 the devil. He's come He's given you life and death, blessing and cursing. He asks you invites you to choose life. May the Lord help us. Amen.
