Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
This is what I want you to do.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
This is what I want you to do.
Walk into the blood.
Take a deep breath.
Oh, what a dinner, fashion is grand,
in the need of my heart.
The shower is where I put my hand down,
and he gave all the fun in the world.
Heaven came down, he crossed me, he crossed home.
There, across the center, he came home.
I see him just washed away, and my eye just turns to red.
Heaven came down, he called me, he moved my soul.
Oh, what a city, what a world,
a place where we can go on and on.
He crossed home, he moved out, he's gone.
Oh, what a stand, and he's gone.
Heaven came back, he's giving to me.
Heaven came down, he crossed me, he moved my soul.
There, across the center, he came home.
I see him just washed away, and my eye just turns to red.
Heaven came down, he called me, he moved my soul.
There, across the center, he came home.
Heaven came back, he moved my soul.
Heaven came to me, he crossed home.
There, across the center, he came home.
Heaven came down, he crossed home.
Heaven came down, he called me, he moved my soul.
There, across the center, he came home.
Heaven came down, he called me, he moved my soul.
There, across the center, he came home.
I see him just washed away, and my eye just turns to red.
Heaven came down, he called me, he moved my soul.
All right.
Amen.
This time we'll go to the announcements.
If you're following, we'll be doing this on the internet.
All right.
Well, it's good to see everybody out this evening.
If you'd like your bulletin, just go ahead
and slip up your hand there.
I need to go bring you one of the absolutes and service signs
are in the upper left-hand side there.
We've got Mondays at 10.30.
We're going to apply at 3 p.m.
And then Thursdays at 7, we are going to go to Genesis.
We'll be in chapter 4 tonight.
Churchwide soloing below that.
And also, happy birthday.
You have to go.
This is last Sunday.
Everybody's celebrating in the month of January.
And then don't forget, if you want a hearing debbie statement
from the previous year, you can email the church
and request that.
If you want a printed and signed copy of church letterhead,
I also need to know that.
So get that to me, and I'll be sure to get that to you
as soon as I have it.
And that's going to do it for announcements.
We'll just quickly go ahead and comment solely
over the last few days.
Going back to Monday.
I think it's been Monday.
Tuesday.
We're looking back.
It went out.
Wednesday.
Fourth day.
I don't know.
All right.
With that, we'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we begin.
One song.
Yeah.
43.
Three.
Ah.
So that one's great.
Yeah.
Me?
Yeah.
Oh, 43.
43.
Three.
Ah.
So that one's great.
["O Come All Ye Faithful"]
Thank you.
Thank you for your precious word.
Thank you to the Deacon Lord, I pray that you would fill in the Holy Spirit Lord and help us to preach this tonight.
Help us hear and listen, Lord, and by his coming to our lives to give his holy name and our praise.
Thank you.
See how that
how sin entering the world is going to
beginning to affect man.
So the very first murder takes place here because of the fact that sin is entering the world.
And, you know, things have only gotten worse, really.
But this goes to show you how quickly sin can act in a person's life.
When we have sin, we all know our lives, the consequences
become very quickly. Not always, sometimes those consequences
delay, sometimes things don't happen immediately, but there's always
consequences, there's always repercussions for sin. However, in the story
you can see it happens for just one generation and the next sin enters in the world
and then you have this really horrific story of a brother, an older brother
killing his younger brother. You have these siblings
and it's just murdering them. It's a terrible story.
It's one that we might not really let sink in sometimes simply because we've heard it so
often, we've read it so often, but really it's a terrible thing that takes place.
In the story, Abel is a good man and he's slain simply because
of the fact that he was righteous. We'll see that here in a minute. Put there in verse 1
it says, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived to bear Cain, and said
I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel,
and Abel was the keeper of the sheep, but Cain was the tour of the ground. In the process
of time it came to pass that Cain brought up the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord.
And Abel, he also brought the first thing of the flock and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering
he had not respect, and Cain was very wrong, and his
countenance fell. Now, why is it that the Lord had respect unto Abel
but not Cain? Notice there in the wording it says that he had respect unto
Abel and to his offering, but he had not respect unto Cain and to
his offering. So if God is not a respecter of persons, what made
the difference here is the offering that was brought. It wasn't that God just preferred
one above the other.
So it's not a matter of, you know, whether or not
one's better than the other. It's simply a matter of what was brought
in the form of an offering. And we see here a great picture
of salvation again. Early on in the book of Genesis
you have the picture in Genesis chapter 3 of the animal
being slain, the coats of skin being given to sinful man by
God. He's the one doing the work. And here again you have the
first links of the flock and the fat thereof being killed and being
brought as an offering. And if you would, go over to Hebrews chapter 9.
This is a great picture of salvation because it's a foreshadowing of the sacrifice,
the blood that would be shed on our part. That's what God had
respect unto. It's not that God, you know, is on the
carnivore diet or something. It's not that God despises fruits and vegetables.
God, when He created all these things, said, you know, these are going to be
meat for you. These are the things that you're going to eat. You're going to eat the fruits. You're going to eat
the vegetables. So God made those things. It wasn't that He has disdain
necessarily for what was brought, but because of what was brought
that's where the disrespect comes from or the lack of honor.
God still, it's not that God just despises
these vegetables. It's because of the fact that these things
are representative. These things are supposed to be a picture
of what's to come in Christ. The shedding of the blood.
That's what God had respect unto. And you say, well, how did Abel know?
How did Abel know to bring the right sacrifice?
What we need to be more concerned with is what we do know. So often
people look into the Bible and they look into these passages
and they start to try to speculate about what they did or didn't know back then.
You can't know everything they didn't know back then. It's impossible.
The Bible would be a very long book if they
sit there and detailed everything that was spoken, every little
matter that was put into the word of God so that we could know everything that they knew.
Okay? Abel knew because of the fact that
somebody preached it unto him. You have to remember the Lord God has been walking
with Adam in the cool of the garden up to the fall. What do you think they talked about?
What are the things that were discussed? There's
much that we don't know that was taking place back then. We can't just
take our own opinions and force that in the scripture. We can't just
by means of conjecture just come up with something about what they did or didn't know.
What we ought to be concerned with is what we do know about the word of God.
What it's crystal clear about.
The offering is what mattered. And that's a pretty important
topic. That's a pretty important doctrine. Salvation.
The offering. The blood. That's something you can't preach enough
about. That's something that we can't fully comprehend. That's something that we ought to
dwell on. Is the blood that was shed on our behalf. That's what's
being pictured here. The blood of Christ. That's why God had respect
unto Abel's offering and not unto Cain's. Because of the
fact that there was the blood there. And somehow Abel knew.
Whether somebody else told them. Whether the Lord spoke unto him. Whatever.
He knew this is what God has respect unto. Is the blood.
Because of the picture of salvation.
Look there in Hebrews 9 verse 19. For when Moses had spoken every precept
to all the people according to the law he took the blood of calves and of
goats and water and scarlet and wool and hyssop and sprinkled both
the book and the people saying this is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto
So Moses also is giving us the symbology
of the blood with the sprinkling. He's saying this is the blood of the testament.
Moreover he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry
and almost all things are by the law purged with blood
and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Meaning there's no salvation without the shedding
of blood. Isn't that what it says? Right there in your King James Bible?
That without the shedding of blood there is no remission.
Meaning there was no other means of salvation without blood.
And this is something that Abel understood all the way back in Genesis.
Go to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4.
And the irony is that he's killed for it.
He's the one that brings an offering unto the Lord. The right offering.
He brings a righteous offering
and he's despised for it. If you look at Hebrews 11
verse number 4. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. So this witness
he gathered a witness that he was righteous. How did he get a righteous witness?
That offering offering a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
What was more excellent about that sacrifice? The blood.
God testifying of his gifts and by it
he being dead yet speaketh. So that's what made the difference here.
The offering is what mattered to the Lord. It wasn't a matter of well I just prefer
Abel. God's not a respecter of persons. This is an important element in the story.
Because Cain is without an excuse here.
And really what you see here in Genesis
is something that we still see today.
Is that people today are still trying to bring their own sacrifice to God aren't they?
We go, we preach to them the blood of Christ and they say
oh yeah that's all fine and good but I'm a pretty good person.
They're like Cain. They're trying to serve up some self-righteous
salad unto God. That's what they're trying to do.
They're trying to just bring their own works of self-righteousness unto God
and say well this is good enough. This is what you get.
This is the work of my hands. Because remember
Cain was a tiller of the ground. So he just says well I'm just going to take the work of my hands
and offer it unto him. They'll say well wait a minute wasn't Abel a keeper
of the sheep? Isn't he taking the work of his own hands as well? No.
He's taking the blood sacrifice. It just happens to be.
It's just kind of coincidence. Someone's got to raise these sheep. Someone's got to raise these cattle.
And the point is this is that Cain if he wanted to
could have gone to his brother Abel and said hey can I have one too?
And Abel probably would have given him one. But instead of bringing the right sacrifice
that God would have had respect unto he brings his own sacrifice
of the fruit of the earth with no blood
and God has no respect unto it.
If you're there in Hebrews just go back to Titus.
Titus, Philemon, Hebrews. So we just go back a couple books.
In Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6 the Bible says
but we are all as an unclean thing and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
That's what just blows my mind when people think that they're going to stand
before a holy God. A wrathful and vengeful
and holy righteous God and say well you should
let me in because X, Y, and Z.
Christ won't even
come across their lips. The blood of Jesus isn't even
in their mind. The sacrifice that God gave
of his own son. That's what really blows me away
sometimes is the merciful long suffering of God and the fact
that he sent his own son to die for the sins of the world
and yet he lets people reject him and reject him and reject him
and reject him and still he says come and still he says I forgive
and still he says salvation is for you. You can reject and reject
and reject and reject but you know what that offering is still there. Obviously we know
it can get too far for people but I'm not going to sit here and draw a line in the sand
of when that is for people. You know if it were my son if it were me
if I had done that if people didn't upon the first instance
hear about my son for their salvation
if they didn't come running and fall down at my feet I'd cast them
into hell right away. I'd be pretty upset.
I'd be angry. Right?
It's my son. And if people weren't grateful
for that they didn't show any they didn't care for that it didn't even enter their mind
I'd be furious. And yet that's the long suffering of God isn't it?
Because that's exactly what people do. They're like Cain.
They bring their own works and say that's good enough.
I don't care about the blood that needs to be shed.
I don't care about this lamb. I don't care about Christ. You know that doesn't even enter their
mind and they're going to stand before a holy God and say that.
It's mind blowing. All our righteousness
is as filthy rags. Look at Titus chapter 3
verse 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done
but according to his mercy he saved us
by the washing of regeneration the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior
that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.
It's not by works of righteousness which we have done. Cain.
That's what people are today. There are a bunch of Cain's out there that just want to
do things their way. They're going to get to Heaven on their own.
And they're self-righteous. It's a self-righteousness.
Why are you going to Heaven? Because of how righteous I am.
Because of what I've done. And look people get really into this.
People get real into their own self-righteousness. A lot of false religions
out there that people just
love to just brag about this religion, this aspect of their religion.
One in particular would be the Catholic
Church. I mean you walk into a Catholic Church
there's a lot of pomp in there. Stained glass
windows and you know ornate this
and ornate that. They got some guy up there dressed up like a woman.
I'm sorry. I know it's a gown. It's a robe. Excuse me.
Looks like a dress to me. But I mean you look at all the things
the big to do that they make. Why is that?
Because they're self-righteous. They're self-righteous.
And it's amazing that people are going to stand before Holy God
and say well you know I prayed this rosary enough times.
Why should I let you have it? Because look how many times I prayed the rosary.
Look at all the good works I did. That's self-righteousness.
That's not trusting in Christ. And it's amazing because
the Bible is just crystal clear.
Verses like Titus chapter 3 verse 5 there's so many more we could turn to.
What's truly frustrating
about this story is that Cain could have gotten right if he wanted to.
And look these Catholics can forsake their false religion anytime they want.
And stop trusting in their own self-righteousness, in their own works
and trust on Christ anytime they want.
People hear the gospel, they could choose to believe it.
Cain could have gotten right if he wanted to.
Go ahead and go back to
I've got to move along. I'm trying to get through the whole chapter tonight but go back to our story there in Genesis 4.
So Cain makes
his offering. God doesn't have respect on it. And it says,
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
So he's just walking around and he's got a storm cloud over his head.
It's just showing on his face.
How upset he is. He's angry. He's mad about the fact that God didn't have
respect under his offering. Does that sound like a very humble attitude?
Does that sound like somebody who wants to get it right?
It's not. A tender heart would have said,
What did I do wrong? They would
want to know how God got it right. But he just gets mad and says,
Well, isn't that good enough? Instead of trying to do what's right, he just gets angry about it.
He's a very proud man. It says in verse 6,
And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen?
Saying, There's no reason for this. This isn't right, Cain.
And notice the beginning of verse 7,
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be
accepted. If you do the right thing,
I'll have honor under your offering too. If you want to respect
the offering that I expect, you'll do well.
Everything will be fine. I'll have respect. Because it's not about
people. It's not about, I like your brother better. It's that he brought
the right offering, and you didn't. But if you do well, if you get right,
everything will be fine. Cain could have gotten right
if he wanted to. Now look, these couple of verses here, in particular verse 7,
sometimes people can read that and get a little confused about exactly what's being said.
But all he's saying here is, If thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted. If thou do the right thing, you'll be
accepted. And if thou doest not well,
sin lieth at the door. What's that mean?
No good is going to come of it. It's just an expression, I believe,
that they used. Sin lieth at the door. That's not leading to anything
good. That's how we would use it today. And it's something similar that we might say.
You know, if you go down that path, nothing's good is going to come as a result.
If you don't do well, if thou doest not
well, meaning if you don't get it right, sin lies at the door.
Nothing's good is going to come of it.
And then he says, there's a period there, and unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him. And he's talking about the relationship
between him and his brother. Because apparently that's probably what's
making Cain a little upset here, is the fact that his younger brother
is being accepted and he's not. It's kind of a sibling
rivalry that's taking place here. Because God's saying, look,
you shall rule over him. You're the older brother. And we
see in the law, when God doled out the law, gave the law, he said
that the firstborn gets a double portion of the inheritance. There's something
to being the firstborn among males.
And he said, unto thee shall be his desire, and
thou shalt rule over him. He's talking, and I'm going to make a point here of this, because
people get this wrong, especially in these newer translations. They twist this.
They get it completely wrong. Unto thee
shall be his desire. Now, is that talking about a person
or a thing? His. I know in the day and age that
we're living in, where personal pronouns are subjective
all of a sudden, he's talking about a person. Well, who's the other
person in the story? What's the context? It's Abel.
And unto thee shall be his desire. Meaning, he's going to
want to please thee. He's going to want to make you happy. And thou shalt
rule over him. Now, before I
get into that, what I want to point out here also is that what we see is that man has a free will
to choose or reject salvation. Man can choose
salvation if he wants to. He's saying, if thou doest well, thou shalt be
accepted. It's not like God says, well, you had one chance, buddy. You
blew it. That's it. You're done. Right? No, God says, hey,
just do it right. Just get it right. You can apply that to salvation.
You can apply that to the Christian life. You know, people can get right
anytime they want. People can stop sinning
and get the sin out of their life and do what's right anytime they want.
You know, sometimes you scratch your head and you go, why do people do the things
that they do? It's a simple answer, because that's what they want to do.
That's it. People do what they want.
And, you know, Cain could have gotten it right. We, as God's children, get it right.
If any man sin, he have an adequate with the Father. Right? Jesus Christ the
righteous. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Whosoever confesses, then
forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy. Those are the promises in the
Word of God. If thou doest well, thou shalt thou not be accepted.
That's a hypothetical question. The answer is yes. You would be accepted.
Now, in the new versions, they
pervert Genesis chapter 4 verse 7. And you have to kind of really wonder
why. And the excuse of, well, they're just, you know,
they understand the underlying Hebrew text more. I don't believe
that. If that's the only reason
because they misinterpreted Hebrews chapter 4, they misinterpreted the Hebrew, then they
got it wrong, because the King James has it right. Okay?
And you say, well, no, the King James had it wrong. Look,
modern scholarship today, so-called, can't hold a candle to the men
that translated the King James Bible. They don't even come close.
I mean, you know, the King James translators
weren't just, you know, spent a few years in college somewhere
and loosely learned a language or two.
There's men that spoke multiple languages. We're talking about men that
were brought up under, you know, under the tutelage of masters
from their childhood. You think some of you
homeschoolers got it rough. I mean, there's men that were brought up
just, you know, some guy's going to be cracking them with a whip. I mean, they're learning
heavy subjects from childhood.
I mean, back, you know, we're talking about people back then that put a huge emphasis
on education and learning. That's the type of men that translated
the King James Bible. Modern scholarship doesn't even come close.
You know, and oh, we haven't had it right
in the English, you know, for 400 plus years now until a lot of these
so-called scholars came along and corrected the King James.
God's word was just kind of up in the air for a long time. It's ridiculous. Do you believe the
promise of God or not? Do you believe that God will preserve his word from this generation
forever or not? Do you believe that the words of God are a silver tried
and a furnace of earth or not? And again, I'll go back to what
I said at the very beginning of this series in Genesis. In the beginning
God. It's a statement that has to be accepted by faith.
And then you have people who claim to believe the Bible, claim to believe
even a creation, and then they'll want to cast shade and cause people to
doubt the very words of God itself. It's crazy.
Now, in these other chapters, in these other versions rather, they get Genesis
4-7 wrong. They change him into, you know, a thing.
Right? And if thou doest well, shall it not be
lifted up? This is the American substandard version. I mean, standard version.
And if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door. Like, they're making sin
like, it's like crouching. It's going to get you. Right? Which is how it
is used in the English substandard version. Again. Crouching
at the door. Right? And unto thee shall be its desire.
Now, King James says his, not its.
But do thou rule over it. Right?
So they're saying, you know, sin will be, you know, you'll
rule over sin, not your brother. That's what they're saying.
You're going to rule over sin. But do thou rule
over it. What's the it in the passage? Sin. Sin lieth at the door.
Okay? Genesis 4-7, if you do well,
this is the English standard version, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary
to you. But you must rule over it.
Look, that's completely removed from what the King James says. It's not even close to what the King James is saying at all.
It turns it on its head. If you do what is
right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not what is right,
sin is crouching at the door. Its desire. It desires to have you. But
you must rule over it. The New King James version.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not well,
sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you.
But you should rule over it.
Now, maybe it's just, they don't know, they're just getting the
interpretation wrong. Or maybe there's a more, because again, Satan is the most subtle
beast of all the field. Maybe there's a more subtle
corruption going on here. Maybe this leads to something else.
Maybe it suggests that sin
can be overcome in our lives.
That somehow we can have victory over sin. We can reach some kind of
sinless perfection in our lives. Look, I'm not saying we should just
roll over for sin. We're flesh and blood.
What can we do? We're a sinful man.
But we do strive against sin.
But this seems to kind of suggest
that sin can be overcome. You must rule over it.
You must rule over it. That's two different versions.
But do thou rule over it, but you should rule over it. That's what they're saying
in these other versions. Rule over it. Not thou shalt rule over him.
So they're completely changing it. And they're suggesting, I believe,
whether they know they're doing it or not, perhaps it's Satan,
that they can overcome sin somehow.
And you say, well how? By doing well, right? If thou doest well,
you should overcome it. By keeping the law?
I mean, how would you define somebody's doing well according to the
word of God? Well, how many animals did you adopt
from the shelter? No.
What arbitrary standard are you going to say, well, this is how we know
if somebody's doing well or not? What do you
see in somebody's life? What are we going to look at to determine whether or not they're doing well?
Well, we use the word of God.
But what do you use out of the word of God? The law. The Ten Commandments
and the many other commandments that are there, right? But here's the
irony about that. When you start to compare people to the law, that's how we find
out what we come up short. I should have had
you go over to, well, go to Galatians. And look, on this
one point, there's just a myriad of scripture.
It'll just fill up pages, okay?
Look, you can't do well according to the law. You can't say, well,
I'm going to keep the Ten Commandments and earn my way into heaven.
I'm going to do well. I'm going to keep the commandments and somehow rule over sin in my life.
The Bible says, Whatsoever things the law saith,
it saith unto the law that every mouth may be stopped and that all the
world may become guilty before God. That's the purpose of the law.
Or at least that's what the law does. You know, the law is
given that we might live, you know, and if a man should keep the whole law, you know,
we will live therein. You can live if you keep
the whole law. Look, you could go to heaven if you never broke the commandments.
But good luck with that.
We're under the law that every mouth may be stopped
and that all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh
be justified in this sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Look, we know a lot of these verses.
Look, go to Galatians chapter 3 verse 24. Wherefore the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
So how am I supposed to rule over sin? How am I supposed to be able to
do well? You know, rule over it. Thou must
rule over it. That's what these other verses are telling us. But do
thou rule over it. Okay, well what does that look like
according to the Bible? Well, it must mean I have to keep the
law, right? But you can't. That's the complete
opposite of what the law does. The law condemns us.
Look at Galatians 2 verse 16.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.
But isn't that exactly how so many people like Cain
are expecting to be justified today? Well, I never killed
anybody. I never committed adultery.
I didn't even fornicate. I never got drunk. Oh, well just
come on in. Come right into the holiest of holies.
Look, there's people who don't even believe the Bible and want nothing to do with the Bible
that managed to pull that off.
But that's what a lot of people out there like. They're just cutting up
the lettuce. They're picking the tomatoes of their own self-righteousness.
They're going through the garden.
Well, I never sinned. I've never committed fornication.
I've never murdered anybody. Let me get a little of that. Let me till this up.
You know, I'm not a drunk. I went to church.
I went to every Mass once a week. I went once a week I was in Mass.
My whole life. You know, they go over to the vine
of the Hail Marys and the Our Fathers.
They go into the garden. They're pulling up all the good works
that they did. Lord, Lord, have we not in thy name done many wonderful
works? And I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me
that work iniquity.
What were the works that they did? Cast out devils, prophesied
in thy name and done many wonderful works. The same things
that Jesus did while he was on this earth. And he'll say, you're workers
of iniquity because all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before
a holy God. And yet people today, they're going to the law
like it's some kind of garden, some kind of vegetable garden
that they can get their little, you know, their little salad
of self-righteousness together and go present it before God and say,
there. And God goes down, where's the blood? Oh, what about the blood?
Oh, what about it? I don't need that righteous offering.
I don't need the blood of that lamb. I've got my own, look at that, I've got my
own works right here. Isn't that good enough?
It's ridiculous. But that's what so many people think today.
Maybe it's because they're reading stupid versions like this.
Rule thou over sin. Do well and you'll rule over it.
By keeping the law. Your schoolmaster.
Look at Galatians 3 verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all the things which are written in this book in the law to
do them. So if there's someone out there, it's trusting in
them. Keeping some commandment in the word of God to get into heaven,
well, guess what, buddy? You've got to do them all now.
You've got to do them all. Cursed is him that doeth not all
the works therein. And I'm not saying,
hey, let's just throw out the law and not even bother.
We should strive to keep the law, but guess what? None of us are going to be able to do it.
Let's not use it as some kind of checklist to earn our way into heaven, because it's not going to
work. What the law does is it drives us to our knees.
You know, someone told me recently,
you know, hell sounds like a scary place. Yeah, that's the point.
God made hell scary on purpose.
So that people would, you know,
be turned. You know, the Bible says, I can't remember which psalm, but he said
thou turnest man, I believe it's Psalm 90, thou turnest man into destruction and say,
thou turnest man to destruction. He says, look at hell
and return unto me, you sons of men.
Right? Hell and destruction before the eyes of the Lord, how much more so
the hearts of the sons of men.
Well, hell sounds scary. It is, and it ought to
send us running in the other direction and just crying out,
God, save me.
But people are going to try and earn their own way and they're going to find themselves
smack dab in hell.
Look at verse 11, but that no man is justified by law in the sight of God, it is
evident for the just shall live by faith.
You know, Cain could have gotten right anytime he wanted.
He could have given up his own self-righteousness and trusted
in the offering that Abel offered
and gotten over his pride. But, you know, you can't
work your way in. You can't just do well and somehow rule
over sin in our lives.
Now I will say this, that we know we can have
victory over sins in our life. I'm not saying that it's just some hopeless case, right?
But to sit there and suggest that it's like we're going to rule
over sin. Like, I'm going to go put Satan in a headlock.
You know, make Satan submit.
No, that's not going to work, right? It's kind of like that old preacher back in the day,
Billy Sunday, that used to make a big show up on the stage like he was
shadow-boxed with the devil. It's blasphemous.
You know, Christ is the one who conquers over sin and hell and death. He does
that. You know, we find our strength in him.
I'm not going to try and take the devil on. I'm not going to mock Satan and
try to take him on. It's ridiculous. It's blasphemous.
Look, we can have victory over sin in our lives, though.
How? By walking in the Spirit daily.
You're still on Galatians? Go to Galatians 5.
The Bible says in 1 John 5, 4,
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world.
Doing well. Ruling over sin.
That's how you overcome it. You just rule over it. You do well. You keep the commandments
and you just rule over sin. You know, you give the devil
a nuggy. Gotcha, Satan.
No, it's our faith, right? This is the victory that overcometh the world.
Even our faith. Our faith that says
all my righteousness are as filthy rags.
It's not by works of righteousness that I have done that we just
cry out to a holy God and say, save me. Be merciful unto me,
dear God, a sinner.
Look at Galatians 5, verse 16.
This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill the lust. That's a promise. That if you walk in the Spirit, you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Right? But is that you ruling over sin?
Is that you somehow like, you know, getting sin under your thumb?
Being the boss over sin, ruling over it by doing well?
No, the only way you're going to not obey the lust
of the flesh is if you walk in the Spirit.
Look at verse 24. And they that are Christ
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
So what's he saying here in Galatians 5? He says in verse 16,
this I say, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Verse 24, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh.
They're not crucifying the flesh. They have crucified it.
With the affections and lusts.
It's done. It's done. Look, we rule, we already rule
over sin in Christ. We already have victory in Christ.
You know, the sting of death
is gone. The grave has no victory. We already rule over it
in Christ. But not by doing well.
Not by keeping the law.
In Christ we do. It's already done. That's why he says in
verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, which we do,
right, we live in the Spirit, you're born again.
You're going to live. You have eternal life if you believe in Christ. If we live in the Spirit,
which we do, let us also walk in the Spirit.
He's saying if you're saved, you might as well act like it.
If you're born again, you might as well behave like it. If you're a Christian,
if you're God's child, you might as well go ahead and act like one.
That's what he's saying. Because they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. It's done.
And if that's the case, let's walk in the Spirit.
And if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So let's just close our Bibles and go home. And that's your
assignment this week. To not, to just walk in the Spirit.
When we'll all come back Sunday and we'll all talk about how good a job we did.
We'll pass the mic. And we'll all talk about how every day
I just got up and just instantly walked in the Spirit.
It was just, you know, just floated through life. It was a breeze.
It can be hard.
It can be hard. The flesh,
you know, wants to sin.
You know what, and I want to
kind of close on this thought is that, you know,
you say, what's the point of all this anyway?
You know, there's a lot of people out there that want to preach this scared straight salvation.
Like, oh, you better get the sin out of your life.
You better walk in the Spirit or you're going to go straight to hell. You better rule
over sin or you're going to go to hell. You better get the sin out of your life or you're going to go to hell.
Look, I'm not going to hell. Actually, I'm not going to heaven because I don't sin.
I'm going to heaven because Christ
never sinned and he imputed his righteousness unto me.
That's why I'm going to heaven. Not because
I gave up some bad habit. Not because I, you know, kicked some
nasty sin to the curb once and for all my life.
That's stupid. That's Cain. That's a salad
in the sight of God. I'm going to heaven because of the
blood. That's it.
But there's people out there that want to preach. Oh, they'll say, oh,
yeah, it's salvation by grace and faith. But if you keep
smoking meth, you're going to go to hell.
And it's funny to hear that, but that's what they preach.
Because why would they preach that? Because that's how they, that's what, you know,
that's the people that get involved in these, you know, victory outreach down the road here.
This is one of them. Victory outreach. I can't even name the name.
Victory outreach preaches damnable heresy.
Because they don't believe in once saved, always saved. And they're just
a glorified AA group down there, folks. They're just a glorified narcotics
anonymous down there. And they're just trying to use the gospel, they're trying to use the Bible
to scare people straight. That's what they're doing.
Oh, yeah, believe in Jesus. He'll save you. But if you go
back to a life of living on the street and doing drugs, you're going to hell.
You know, that's one
hell of a thing to tell an addict.
And they keep preaching because it works. And you know what? It works.
It cleans people up.
I mean, if you really believe that if you went back to a life of drugs, you're going to go to hell,
you're probably, there's a good chance some people would not go back to that life.
Because they're scared of going to hell.
You know what the great irony is? They can stay sober all the rest of their days
and they're going to go straight to hell.
Because they never trusted in Christ. Because they're counting on going
to heaven because they don't do drugs anymore.
You know, that's a lot, you hear these testimonies
of these preachers, these type of people that are down there. These different churches
These scared straight ministries.
Oh, I was such a drug addict. I was on crack.
And they'll just get up and tell everybody all these wicked sins they were into.
Well bless God I got saved and I've never touched it again and I know I'm on my way to heaven.
And what they believe is that if they ever did do that again
that they'd go to hell. They're trusting in their own works.
Look, it's a wonderful work to get off drugs.
It's like, that's not what I'm saying. By all means
put the pipe down. Put the needle down. You're destroying
yourself. You're killing yourself.
It's ravaging this town.
I feel bad for these people that are out there. They're not getting the help that they need.
And we preached about that Sunday night.
But I'm also not going to go and tell them and say, you know, if you quit doing drugs
you could go to heaven. Here, take this lettuce
and go hold that in front of God. Let me just give you a bunch of vegetables
to go and stand before holy God with.
Oh, let me into heaven God. I quit shooting up under the overpass.
Oh, man.
Sainthood. I mean, just
You know, the Catholic church is going to, you're going to be a saint in the Catholic church.
You know, this is the saint of not shooting up under an overpass.
That's what they preach down there.
That's what they're saying. Oh, go to heaven by quitting doing drugs.
Hey, if you live in the Spirit, walk in it. I get it. Let's do that.
They that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh with the afflictions and lusts. That's already happened in Christ.
They deny
eternal security. They deny, you know, what Jesus said, he that believeth me
shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life.
He that believeth on me is not condemned. He that believeth
right? Past tense. He that hath believed
he that believeth on me is not condemned but he that believeth not is
condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
It's just faith. The just shall live by faith.
And here's the thing. If you cleaning up your life is what's gonna merit
your way into heaven, what about all the non addicts? What are they
supposed to do? What about all the people who have never touched
alcohol or anything else?
Well, sorry. You know, go get an addiction and then quit it
for Jesus and you can go to heaven.
You know, maybe we need to all go down to the corner and score.
You know, we'll all come back here
and we'll smoke some meth together or fentanyl or whatever it is they're smoking anymore.
You know, we'll go pop the pills that they're popping
and we'll all just get into just a stupor of drunkenness
and we'll just all get drug addicted and then we'll all quit for Jesus
and then we can go to heaven as long as we never touch the stuff again.
Okay? But oh, oh, oh, if you ever go back to it
boop. Right to hell.
You know, only proud people want to work their way to heaven.
That's Cain's problem. What's Cain's problem here?
He's proud. Oh, oh Abel's
so righteous.
I don't want to have to be righteous. I want to just work
my own way into heaven.
Let's wrap up the story here.
Where did we leave off? Genesis 4
verse 8.
We've got a long ways to go.
What's he killing him over? Didn't God just tell him
that if you do well, his desire
shall be unto thee and you shall rule over him.
Look, if you just bring the right sacrifice, I'll have
respect unto it and your brother will have respect unto you.
You'll be back in good standing. But instead of doing that, instead of doing what God
said, he just goes and kills his brother.
And that's pride. You know, people can't
withstand righteous people.
And it's the same thing today. You know, people
would hear a message like this and they'd get mad at it.
You're saying people can do whatever they want and go to heaven. Yep.
Because the Bible says that salvation is by grace through faith.
Not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man
should what? Boast.
You know, I hear their message and I get mad because all I hear is boasting.
All I hear is them talking about
all the sin that they gave up for Jesus and how that's good enough to
keep them into heaven. How they've been sober for so long and because of that
they're on their way to heaven. And my question is, what about the blood?
The blood's not good enough?
The blood wasn't good enough to cleanse me from all my sins? Past, present, future?
Oh no, the blood's important, but if you ain't
living right, you know, that makes me mad.
I'm not going to go slay anybody over it.
But if I did, I'd still go to heaven.
It's true.
Oh, so you're suggesting that people could just go around and kill people
and still go to heaven? Yeah, but I'm not advocating that we
all go out there and do that stuff. Well, since I can commit adultery
and go to heaven,
because everyone knows, you know, that nothing bad happens when you commit adultery.
Since I'm saved, I'm just immune from all the consequences.
That's not what we're saying. You can do all those things
and suffer all the consequences. The saved Christian, the
saved young person in this room can scoff and mock at the preaching of the word of God.
They can blow off their mom and their dad. They can blow off the preacher. They can quit the church
and I'm talking about the saved young person and can
go out there and do all the sinning they want to do and they can go straight to
heaven when they die and they can suffer every step of the way.
That's what I'm saying. You can go out there and you can
live for the world and you can have all the same problems that they have.
You can go out there and be the drug addict. You can go out there and be a drunk.
That's why when we're picking up donuts on Sunday
and I'm waving off the homeless, these
vagrants like flies trying to get through the drive-thru,
when they got their little alley down there that they're all camping out in,
the TARP central down there, when I'm pulling out with my kids I didn't go,
you better not do that kids, we're going to go to hell.
That's not what I said to my kids. I said, don't do drugs.
I said, you want to do drugs? That's where it leads. I didn't say you better not
end up like that, otherwise God's not going to let you in.
Because my kids, they're saved. And if they want to
go out there and live that life, they can and they'll still be saved. They can go to heaven.
You know what? And they can be another drug-addled, toothless,
homeless derelict who looks 20 years older than they actually are.
I don't think you should talk to those people like that. Look, I feel bad
for those people. But I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
Because that's the truth. That's where that kind of a life
leads. You end up like that. And all I'm saying
tonight is that the Christian can do that. They can live that life.
And the only people that are going to hate this type of preaching, the only people that are going to disagree
are proud people who just love their own
works so much. Proud people who are just
so self-righteous that got their self-righteous salad for God.
You know, it's not going to work. Where's the blood? Praise God for the blood tonight.
I don't have time to finish the chapter. Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again,
thank you for the blood of Christ. Thank you for its cleansing. Thank you for
the sealing power of the blood, Lord, the sealing
of the Holy Spirit until the day of our redemption. Lord, thank you that salvation
is not of works, Lord. We would all fall terribly short. We wouldn't even come
close, Lord, to the righteousness that is needed to approach
the throne of heaven, Lord. And thank you that God, you sent your
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, Lord, to make that way.
And Lord, to pay that price so that we could go not on our own merit, but
on His, the only one that counts. We ask you to bless us as we go. In Jesus' name, Amen.
All right, go ahead and sing one more song before we go.
Amen. Let's turn our handles
to song number 290.
Singing