Good evening. Welcome to prayer services this evening here in Bethel Baptist. Good to see everyone. A warmer day today, that's nice, plenty of sunshine. Before we start the services, let's go to the Lord in prayer and continue to pray for Sister Mary. As she recovers, she is home, has a wound back on her knee, and just continue to pray for her. I do know David and Tina would have been here this evening, but they're sick. David said, Tina's worse than him, he'll have to cook. He said to tell you all hello, and I miss his being here, and I don't know how he cooks. It's got to be better than me, because I don't cook at all. But remember folks who aren't here. Of course, remember Sister Voiceless, Sister Iris, Brother Hugh. And continue praying for each one on the prayer list. Good to have Adam and Rachel and Tyler and Ethan back. And we'll go to the Lord in prayer at this time. But also remember Amy. She's sick. Brother Ray said she's sick tonight. And Thomas. Well, we'll go to the Lord in prayer, and may I ask Brother Joe to lead us in prayer. Lord, it is a privilege to be here tonight. We so often take for granted. We're able to travel about without being molested or persecuted. We thank you for your watch care over us. We pray, Lord, that we might take more seriously the responsibilities we have, to be witnesses, to tell others about what Christ has done, what he's doing for us. We know that he is the only hope this world has. We ask you Lord to be with the message tonight. May we see Jesus Christ high and lifted up. And Lord, we do remember those on our prayer list. Bless them. Forgive us when we sin. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's turn to hymn number 124. 124. Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you watching the blood of the Lamb? Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? And the bridegroom cometh with her rosy heart, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Will your soul be ready for the benches bright, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb. there's Brother Adam and Rachel mentioned to me to remember Natalie Grooms, a friend of theirs, her husband Steve passed away from a bout of cancer, I think, I believe. Some member of Natadimchin. Yes. Remember Natalie and the children, the family, the groom's family. Remember Brother Jerry Dodson. Continue to pray for him. Of course, remember Larry. Remember Tony's brother Scotty. Continue to pray for him, for Brother Mark and his wife Mary. Continue to pray for the Hilley family. I haven't talked to him and texted him in a few days. He said, keep the prayers coming. They really need them to get over this illness. Then Thomas and Amy, you remember them. And Amy's nephew, Robbie. And Joan's son-in-law, Sister Adella Kemper, remember her. And Brother Ellis, of course, as he continues to heal. Of course, our missionaries. Remember them, and go to the Lord again at this time, and ask Brother Tony if he would join us. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you, dear Heavenly Father, that we can assemble here tonight, dear Lord, and give good praise to you, Heavenly Father, and your Son, dear Lord. Thank you for the blessing you've given us, dear Heavenly Father. Dear Brother John, as he brings the message, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Brother Jim, Adam, dear Lord, and the leadership of this church, dear Lord. And dear Lord, just be with Sister Mary, dear Lord, at this time, dear Lord, and nurse your body to good health, dear Lord. And dear Heavenly Father, we are thrilled for you, dear Lord. So many of our prayers have been answered, dear Heavenly Father. I thank you, dear Lord, that we get to say thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for willing to heal a lot of us, dear Heavenly Father. Dear Brother John, dear Lord, he's the one who brings the message tonight, dear Lord. I just thank you that we can assemble here tonight, dear Lord, in your church, dear Lord, the freedom that we have, dear Lord, to be able to lift you up and praise you, and love you. I pray for the law sector, dear Heavenly Father. I pray for all the churches, dear Lord, that needs leadership of the pastors, dear Lord, that want to serve you in a more spiritual way, dear Lord. Be with the nation at this time, dear Lord. I've heard a lot of debates and things going on, dear Lord, And there's a lot of them putting jobs in the area, dear Heavenly Father. That's what we need. We need a nation. Your Heavenly Father does put time in this nation, dear Heavenly Father. And only You know, dear Lord, can turn it around. Be with the military men and women, dear Lord, to keep them out of harm's way. Be with them at all times, dear Lord. Be with the first responders, dear Heavenly Father, and the police department, fire department, dear Lord. And you know, speak with all the paramedics, dear Lord. He was all the ones that lost their loved ones. They never caught me getting away with losing someone you loved getting away with. Thank you for the blessings. Be with the service tonight. Amen. Let's turn to hymn number three now. ♪ Come to sing my great Redeemer's praise ♪ ♪ The glories of my God and King ♪ ♪ The triumphs of His grace ♪ ♪ My gracious Master and my God ♪ ♪ Assist me to proclaim ♪ ♪ To spread through all the earth abroad ♪ ♪ The honors of thy name ♪ ♪ Jesus, who named and charged our fears ♪ ♪ And lift our sorrows sweet ♪ ♪ Take music in the sinner's ears ♪ ♪ His life and health and peace ♪ Well, we do want to remember our military, those serving, those there. Brother Albury, those in the strange land, so to speak, away from their families. And we want to remember Brother Van Doonan, who has the John Nealon College. We want to remember him. The other churches of white faith and their pastors. So remember to lift up Brother Jim and Katie, John and Donna, remember John and Donna. She had a pretty good day yesterday. I think today was just kind of all right. Remember her. We're trying to get her meds taken now. And then all those who aren't here, those that are sick and can't be here, continue to pray. But we'll go to the Lord in prayer again at this time. And remember Tammy Stratton as well. The way I understand she had surgery to remove the tumor and the aneurysm and is still got some recovery time. May not get vision back in one eye, but there's hope. So remember her, Wendy's friend, and those who've lost loved ones, and that's further out in the field. We can make some practice of that. Happy Father, we are so thankful to be able to be here tonight, given us the ability and opportunity to come to assemble together. Pray for those that weren't able to be here, those that are dealing with physical illnesses, Pray for Amy, she's not feeling well tonight. Pray for Mary and just others who just aren't feeling well. Pray for those who are here and are not feeling well. We lift them up to you. We're thankful for those that made the effort to be here. We pray that you'll bless the song service as we sing songs. And we will sing with our hearts, not just with our mouths. And we will lift your name up in praise. and that we will make you preeminent in this service. Pray for the prayer service and the prayers that are offered up. Pray for the message as it's brought forth. Pray for Brother John as he brings it. Give us listening ears and attentive hearts to be receptive to your word tonight. That we'll soak it in and take it to our hearts and apply it to our lives and that we will give you honor and glory and praise. Pray for other churches assembling together tonight. I pray for those without pastors. I pray for pastors who are sick and not feeling well or recovering from surgeries. There are so many different bugs going around and illnesses and so many folks are affected by them. We just ask for relief and for healing to those that need it. I pray for this country. We pray for our leaders that we put into office. We know you raise up kings and put them down. You raise up empires and put them down. We pray that you'll guide them in every decision they make, that they receive your will in all things, that this country will return to being a God-fearing country again. We pray for the military folks that are defending this country and thankful for the sacrifice they make. We pray for police officers and first responders, those that put their lives on the line to keep us safe. We're thankful for them as well. We pray again that You'll focus our minds and our hearts to Your Word tonight, and that we will receive a blessing from Your Word, and we ask You to forgive us of our sins, and look in us and see if there be any wicked way in us, and we ask You to help us to repent and turn away from our sins. and live lives that bring honor and glory to you. Of course, in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. If you're able, let's stand as we turn to hymn number 333. Search me, O God, and know my heart to Thee. Guide me, O Savior, though my thoughts I pray, see and bear me. Some vacant pain in me Cleansed me from every sin They set me free I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin. Fulfill thy word, and make me firm within. ♪ Filled me with fire ♪ ♪ Where once I burned with shame ♪ ♪ Grant my desire to end if I die ♪ Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine. Help my poor heart, then, guide me, love me, guide. Take all I am, my precious self, and run. ♪ Shall surrender o'er ♪ ♪ In deep and high ♪ ♪ Oh, holy ghost ♪ ♪ Revival comes from thee ♪ me. Thou wilt supply our need. Lord, I seek Thee, O Lord, I humbly plead. Amen. We'll go to the Lord in prayer again. Brother Ray, would you lead us in prayer? Father, we thank you for this beautiful building that you've given us here at home. Raise up your name, Father, and preach the Word. We thank you through the years, Father, that you've given us the opportunity to tell people about your son, Father, that we might see the word go out to foreign places and the state here in the country that we live in, Father, that you would bless us as we go and proclaim your word. And we ask you to be with those who are sick, and got afflictions in their body, Father, that you would touch them, that they might come and enjoy the service again. We thank the Mary, Father, that you would just work with her. Brother Mark and his wife, but you watch over them, Father. And there's so many here, Father, from the parish, and Father, I don't know their names, but you know their every need, and you know exactly what they want, Father, and what you will do for them. And we just ask that your will be done in their lives, Father. And we thank you for the country that we live in, that you will be with them, Father. There seem to be problems arising, Father, that you would take care of them. Go with us through this service, Father. We thank you for our pastor and for the job. As they teach and study, that you would bless them and their families. Give them the word that you would have them to preach here, Father. Watch over us now as we go through this service. Thank you again for your blessings on us, Father, through the years. And forgive us of our sins. In Jesus' name, we pray. we're going to be talking about the three main ways that the Bible talks about us being tempted to sin, which is one from the leading of Satan. And the second one would be we ourselves, obviously, our own desires and lust and before you're saved, your organic nature. After you're saved, we still carry around the flesh. And then thirdly, trying to live pure lives. And of course, by ourselves we can't do it, because all three of those forms of being tempted are very strong. You know, peer pressure is very strong. Satan is very strong. We ourselves, our natures, our wants, our desires, desires, feelings are very strong sometimes. So we can't do this on our own. We've got to ask for help. We have to have the Lord's help in all these. But we're going to look at these, and we're going to take them one at a time. But the first one we're going to do is Satan. But we're not going to actually get into places in the Bible that talks about Satan tempting people, or people doing sin by the prompting of Satan. turn to Genesis and show how the Bible itself is an example So, you can see how this is going to take, you know, many weeks to cover all these. I actually got to looking at different ways that Satan, different times that Satan is mentioned as tempting somebody or, you know, leading somebody down the wrong path. And it's quite a few, many times in the Bible where Satan is given the credit for tempting I want to just look at examples. And we'll start here in Genesis chapter one with Adam and Eve and the serpent, or Satan, or the devil, or however you want to say it. Obviously it is the serpent mentioned. But to sort of get started, in verse 26 of Genesis one, verse 26. And God said, well, these verses, we're gonna read 26, gives Adam and Eve. Look at all the things that he has bestowed upon them. And then we're going to see, he asks one thing that you not do. Just one thing, one thing. All these things I give you, all these blessings I'm going to heap upon you, all these responsibilities that I'm going to give you. So God said, let us make man in our image. Right there, that's a blessing that we can't describe, being made in the image of God. After our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So, we are supposed to have dominion. We're supposed to rule over all these different types of creatures, and over all the earth. Going on, and God created man in his own image, in the image of him. created them and God bless them. That also is a blessing having the blessings of God put upon you. God bless them and said be fruitful And of course, since he commanded it, he also gave them the physical ability to do that, to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moved upon the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth. the things that come off the trees. So, if you look in chapter 2, verse 15, here comes the one prohibition. The one prohibition. Verse 15. And God, the Lord God, took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. So mankind just didn't lay down and do nothing. He actually had a job. He had an occupation. He was supposed to tend to the gardens. He was supposed to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. The word die underlined and then underlines the word not fall. He didn't fall in the garden. There's no fall. There's a death. OK. We talk about the fall of man. Well, yeah, he fell from a lot of things, but he died. If you want to be biblical, he died in the garden. So that's the one prohibition. Don't eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So going into chapter 3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, so you're talking with the devil. know about doubt about Satan about spiritual things. She's talking to this beast of the field. It says beast of the field. So God and he said into the woman. Yeah, half God said. You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, we may as eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And then the serpent said, now you see there's a conversation going on. Right away we get a lesson from this, knowing that if you're going to start conversing with the devil, you're going to have problems. Jesus showed us in the beginning of Matthew that yes, he was tempted by Satan three times, and Jesus used verses of scripture to throw back at Satan. And of course, Jesus Christ is different than us. He's God in flesh. You start quoting the scriptures to the devil, you better know your Bible pretty good, because he knows the Bible also. Most of what Satan said to Jesus was also Bible. So Satan is good at quoting Bible. So you start getting in an argument, into a debate with Satan, you better be on top of your stuff. You know, you ought to know the Bible pretty good. to ignore it, you know, get behind and say, like Jesus said, get behind. I think it's James that says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Yeah, it doesn't say start a debate with the devil. No, you know, so That's maybe Eve's first problem, is that she got into a debate. Did God say this? Yeah, God said this. Did he really say this? What did he mean? Did he really mean this? Well, let's dissect this. Let's look at the scriptures. Let's have a Bible study with Satan, right? No, no, no. We don't want to have a Bible study with Satan. What's he got to teach us? He can't teach us about the Bible. So anyway, chapter, verse 3 there. You'll notice if you compare it over with chapter 2, verse 15 and 16, didn't quote God exactly. When it says in verse two, chapter three, verse two, we may eat. Well, she left out the word freely. God said over in chapter two, you may freely eat. Well, she left that out. And she added something in. At the very end of verse three, she says, neither shall you touch it. Well, look over in chapter two again. God didn't say that. Either Adam told Eve differently. It happens in chapter two. So Eve is not created until eight verses later. So did Eve hear God say this, or did Eve just hear Adam say this? The Bible doesn't quite say it. If you look at the chronology of it, you'd say, well, maybe Eve didn't get it straight from God's mouth. It's going through Adam's mouth, and maybe Adam left out words, or added words, and who knows? But anyway, it's not the exact quote of what God said. Exactly. You can twist things around, leave something out, add something in, and make it mean anything that you want it to mean. Now, she's not really changing the meaning of it, okay? Let's give her credit. She's not changing the meaning of it, but she's not quoting it exactly the way it's written. So that's another problem that we have. You're debating with the devil, and you're misquoting the scripture on top of it. So she said, yeah, we can eat a berry tree, except for this one. If we even touch it, you know, let's be done. The way I figure it is that God told Adam this before he was created. And then Adam told me and Adam. Knowing that the woman is the weaker vessel, that's scripture. Don't hit me for it. The woman is the weaker vessel. Adam says, well, God says don't eat of it, don't look at it. Let's take it a step further. And just to be safe, don't touch it. And, you know, that's not bad advice. Now, the Pharisees went to seed on that, and they said, well, God said do this, do this, do this, but let's take it a couple steps farther and say, well, you shouldn't do this and this and this and this either. And they took it too far the other way. You know, you could say, well, don't touch that. Don't even talk about it. Don't even read about it. Let's cut this out of the Bible. Let's get rid of this part. That's how much far away we want to keep this tree of the knowledge of good and evil from us. So you can carry things too far. Let's go as far as God goes. And if you do that, you're in a good situation. Amen. Just do what God says. You don't have to add to it and make it harder, make it more. So anyway, she says, neither shall you touch me. And the serpent, verse 4, chapter 3, the serpent said to the woman, ye shall not surely die. So of course, this is, again, the debate. He said you're going to die, but no, you shall not surely die. The serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. Verse 5, for God doth know that. Now, we've got to be careful trying to put into words what we think God thinks. Preachers do this all the time. When a verse is not clear, we say, well, I think this verse means this. I think God did this because of this. I think God's idea was this. We always put words into God's mouth. We always think we know what God is thinking. You gotta be careful about that. Well, that's what Satan's doing right here. Now, God didn't really mean that. This is what God really meant. He really said that because of this. You know, trying to downplay what God says. Yeah, that's a problem, too. For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. I didn't say any of that. Like I said, the devil is just making this up and saying, well, this is what God really is doing. This is his purpose in saying what he said. So we're trying to understand God here, is what he's saying. And then verse seven, no, verse six, and when the woman saw, and that's a problem, that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and yeah, that's a whole subject there of what you see, of the eyes looking at things, and that was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired. Now, has she never looked at this tree before? Is this the first time she ever looked at this tree? All of a sudden, she's looking at it as if she'd never looked at it before. She's looking at it differently now. She's looking at it, oh yeah, it does look good. That fruit does look tasty. Yeah, I do desire it now. What happened to before? Even though she had seen it before, all these thoughts didn't pop into her mind. The devil was right there on her shoulder, giving her all these ideas, and forcing her, yeah, look at that tree, look how delicious, look at that fruit, that looks a lot more delicious than what you're eating. So, the tree of need desired to make one wise, she took up the fruit thereof and did eat. And gave also unto her husband with her, standing there, and he did eat. So, this is the sin that is of the devil, of the devil. If you jump down to verse 13, it says, And the Lord said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Now, we saw in verse 1 of chapter 3 that the beast was subtle, more subtle than any of the other beasts. The serpent was subtle. That word subtle means elusive. So, I'm going to give you a little bit of background on what I'm talking about. So Satan was subtle, and in verse 13, you'll see at the end, it said, the serpent beguiled her. Beguiled is another one of those words that has to do with deception, trying to pull one over on somebody else, leading them down the wrong path. That's beguiling. If you turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2, 1 Timothy chapter 2, where this incident is referred that I mentioned just recently that Paul, the Holy Spirit, that Paul could use physical examples to show spiritual ideas. Well, here's another spot. where he uses physical ideas. 1st Timothy chapter 2, verse 11, says, let the women learn silence with false objection, period. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Why? Do we have a reason for that? Yes, for, or because, Adam was first formed then. So he's using the way that creation happened. as one proof for what he is saying. And another proof is that Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression. Now, we talk about Adam being our federal head, and that's true. He is our federal head as far as the Adamic nature that passes on to us. But here, the scriptures clearly say that Eve transgressed. She sinned. Now, that might not be because she's not our federal head. That might not be inherited by her children that goes through the man as the federal head. But still, some people say, well, she did this in ignorance. So it wasn't even a sin for her. Well, 1 Timothy says, yes, it was. She was in transgression. She said it also. But she was deceived. We see here that the beast was subtle, that he beguiled her. And Timothy says that she was deceived. Satan does all that to us. He loves to do this. He is the father of lies. He'll tell you lies. If Satan is talking to you, if his mouth is moving, it's probably a lie. That's what's happening here in Genesis. talking to the woman. Well, yeah, he said that, but did God really mean that? Really, he meant this. This is what's going on. You shall not surely die. Total contradiction of what God said. God said, you shall not share with her. No, you shall not share with her, Satan says. So who are you going to believe? Who are you going to believe? And then, down back in Genesis 3, verse 16, unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. Sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. Thy desire shall be with thy husband. He shall rule over thee. Now, you notice, here's the punishments. Here's the penalties. for what they did. Adam said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, hast eaten the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Curse it as the ground for thy sake. In sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, this is so shall it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat the herb of the field. Verse 19, in the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, till thou return it to the ground. For out of it that was taken, for thus thou art, and thus thou shalt return. Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Now, that's some harsh punishments. We didn't read the punishment given to the serpent. You're going to crawl in your belly. You're going to eat dust all the days of your life. But within the penalty, we're going to notice this in all three of these spots that we get to them tonight, of three different types of temptations. There's a penalty attached, but there's also mercy attached. The mercy starts in verse 21. Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. That's a mercy, by God, that He clothed them and put them out of their misery of having to wear the leaves, big leaves. But there's even more. And the Lord God said, behold, the man becomes one of us, to no good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden. Most people look at that as a punishment, being exiled from the Garden of Eden. So he sent him forth from the Garden of Eden till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. If Adam and his fallen condition had eaten of the tree of life, we would have lived forever that way. That's a bad way to live, in your sins. In a fleshly body, we talk about 1 Corinthians 15, what kind of body we're going to have, a glorified body. Well, Adam would have lived on this earth forever in this fleshly body, that he had eaten of the tree of life. But God, in his mercy, says, no, you're not going to do that. I'm going to put an angel, angels, cherubims, in your way so that you can't eat of the way of the tree of life. Because I've got a better plan. You're going to have true life, as it does with my son, through the regeneration by the Holy Spirit. You're going to have true life, living water. So, again, within the sin, within the penalty for sin, there's mercy that's given. Both the clothing, which is a type of Jesus Christ, the innocent animal dying and shedding its blood, but also God making a way for us not to live eternally in our sins. God making a way that we should not live eternally in these fleshly bodies. That's mercy. That's the mercy that God gives us. So, Genesis chapter 4. If you look in verse one, we have another story, and we've seen how the devil can cause us to fall in sin. Here is a story, and I call them stories, but they're actual facts. People actually lived, and they actually did these things. These are facts. These are history. But this is another story of somebody that lets their own selves get in the way, lets their own selves caused them to fall. So starting in Genesis chapter four, verse one, and Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bared his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, Cain passed, and Cain brought up the fruit of the ground, and offering them to the Lord. Now we've got to stop here and say, This is probably contrary to precept, and it's contrary to practice. Again, the Bible doesn't fill in all the blanks. Did Adam get around and say, hey, I know and I understand what it meant when God killed an innocent animal and shed blood and clothed me with the skin of that blood. I know what that means. There's going to be a man, Jesus, that comes in, and he's going to be the Christ, the Messiah, and he's going to die, and he's going to be perfect. Did he know all that? I doubt it. I doubt it. God might have told him some of that. God might have said, hey, I'm doing this, and this is the reason. Were there animal sacrifices before this point? The Bible doesn't say, other than the one God did, to clothe Adam and Eve. There were no record of any more sacrifices taking place. But you can just understand by why God was upset with this offering in other places in the Bible that by precept and by practice, they usually probably offered animal sacrifices. So here's Cain saying, well, I'm a farmer. And, you know, I'm going to pay my tithe. I'm going to do an offering with what I do. No, I'm not going to go to Abel, my brother, my younger brother, my younger brother, and say, hey, can I buy one of your lambs to do an offering for the Lord? I'll trade you all this grain, all this fruit, all this whatever. And I want to buy a lamb so I can sacrifice to the Lord. He didn't do that. He says, I produced all this food. What's wrong with it? God will accept it. God will be happy with it. Of course, there's a whole lesson here that, no, even if you give something to the Lord, if it's done in the wrong way, with the wrong attitude, not exactly the way God has it set down to be done, then it's wrong. Even if you think it's right, it's wrong. You would say, well, good for Cain. He's given an offering to the Lord. Wrong offering, wrong offering, with the wrong attitude, we'll find out in a minute. So, he gave of the fruit of the ground of the offering unto the Lord. Verse 3, And Abel also brought of the first ones of the flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very raw. And his countenance fell. Now, how did God show that he was pleased with this offering and not pleased with this offering? We don't know. Did he make the animal burn with fire? That's a good smell coming from this offering over here. And all of a sudden maybe God said, OK, this offering over here, and there's nothing but black smoke coming out. And I'm going to make it stink also. It's going to be horrible. The smoke's going to get in your eyes. You're going to run around trying to get away from it, just like a campfire sometimes. You sit over here. The smoke's in your eyes. You come over here. All of a sudden, something happens. The smoke changes direction. It gets in your eyes. You can't get away from it. We don't have to. But again, the Bible doesn't tell us. But the fact is, God was pleased with one, and he was unpleased with the other. And did Cain say, I need to fix what I'm doing. I need to get with the program. God said, animal sacrifices, and I disobeyed. So from now on, I'm going to... No, he got angry. That comes from within. Jesus told us that. Anger, it comes from within. So here's Cain. He's fighting his own self. His own self is getting in the way. His own self, his own haughtiness, his own attitude is causing him to sin. That's what we see here. He goes on to say, and the Lord said to Cain, why art thou wrong? Can you imagine the Lord said to Cain, the Lord is speaking to you. I'm sort of jealous of Cain. I know he didn't have a good life afterwards, but yeah, the Lord spoke to him. The Lord's never spoken to me that way, except through his word, which is all I need, I guess, because that's all the Lord's given me. So if that's what the Lord's given me, then that's enough. I'll take it. But yeah, the Lord spoke to Cain. There's some of that mercy. The Lord just didn't instantly strike him dead right there. No, the Lord spoke to Cain and said, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? Explain this to me. Why are you so angry? You know, you knew the protocol, you knew what an acceptable sacrifice was, but yet you went off and did your own thing anyway. So why are you upset? You know, this is not supposed to be this way. He goes on, verse 7, Thou doest well, if thou doest well, shall not be accepted. And if thou doest not well, send life at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Cain talked with Abel, his brother. I would have loved to have heard that conversation. Again, was Cain asking Abel for advice, the younger brother? Probably not. So can you talk with Abel? Now, you can see that, again, this is not out of just fly off the handle and out of rage. They used to have an exception for that in our penal system in the United States, that if it was a fit of rage, that you couldn't be held accountable for your actions because you were just out of control. Well, they sort of changed that a little bit now. So you can see that this is going to be premeditated murder. He had enough time to talk with the Lord, had enough time to talk with Abel for a while, and it came to pass, meaning a day, a week, two months, we don't know again, but it came to pass, after some time passed, when they were in the field, the king rose up against Abel's brother and slew him. Killed him. Killed his brother. Killed his brother. Now, you've heard people say, well, they didn't know what death was right there. Well, really? They knew what death was. The animal was alive and slit its throat. It's not alive anymore. So he slew his brother. Again, this is, of course, murder. And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I not brother's brother? Again, the arrogance that Cain has. This is an insight. This is an attitude problem. Why are you asking me this? Leave me alone. I do my own thing, I'm the master of my own fate. You know, I'm a farmer, I produce things, I'm good for the family, I've got kids, and our kids got kids, and my sisters have kids, and there's a whole bunch of us now, and we need a lot of food, and I do my job, and why am I supposed to keep track of my brother? The haughtiness, and he's talking to the Lord! Talking to God this way, with this kind of arrogance. You can see that Cain's just got an attitude problem, right? It's within. It's his own self that's causing him to sin. And this is the second time. Satan can lead you into sin, like Adam and Eve. Your own self can lead you into sin. Verse 10, and this is the punishment, the harsh penalty, and he said, what hast thou done by voice of the brother's blood? Cry it out to me from the ground. Now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tellest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. Now it still yields some stuff, but not in her strength. a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. It's a harsh punishment. It definitely is a harsh punishment. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, from the face thy face shall I be hid. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and I shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me. Verse 14 says, and from thy face shall I be hid. From thy face. I heard a preacher a long, long time ago, I don't even know who it was, but I'll give him credit that I heard this from somebody else. They say that probably what this was was the cherubim that was at the entrance of Eden. That probably, if I was Adam and Eve, and I was thrust out of Eden, I probably wouldn't go too far. Especially if there's an angel that's right there with a flaming sword that is barring my way. That's a representation of the power of God, the authority of God. If God is a spirit, God placed this angel there. God did it on a certain purpose. I probably make my encampment somewhere close to that angel. And by Cain being thrust out and being thrown away farther from society, he says, well, I won't be close to the angel anymore. I won't be near your face. a physical, I mean, if the people could see it, it's physical, right? Angels are spirits, I know. But if the people could see it, Adam and Eve could see it, then it was physical, right? Some kind of physical manifestation of an angel. But I would stay right there and look at it, and Cain is saying, I won't even have the pleasure of being reminded that you're there, that you are in control. The stories I've heard from my mom and dad about Eden are true. But no, not going to be cast out as a vagabond wandering the earth. So that's just my idea of what that means when he says that I shall be hid from your face, from thy face shall I be hid. I think that's what he's talking about in there. So, verse 15 says, and the Lord said unto him, therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And Cain set a mark upon Cain. The Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Here's the mercy. Here's the mercy. The punishment is rough. The punishment is rough. The ground's not going to produce like it used to. You're going to be a vagabond. You're going to be thought lowly of. And Cain complains, so God has mercy. OK. I'm going to put a mark on you so that anybody that finds you will not kill you. It's a mark that will remind them that I, God, have dictated this. I'm the one that sends you out from society, but I have told everybody, no, you are not going to kill Cain. So, yes, you are a vagabond, but you're still going to live a life. In fact, the next genealogies here, verse 17 and 18, are from Cain's lineage. And he has children, has children's children. And he has people that go on down. So that's the mercy that God gives. Yeah, we'll stop here since we're close on time. But in this same chapter, we have a person named Lennon. And he is also a person that sins because of his own that he has. He's the person that has polygamy. He has two wives. And then he kills somebody just because they just sort of hurt him a little bit. And then he says, hey, if Cain was going to be retributed seven times, well, then seven times seven, whatever the number is, 70, yes, and seven fold, verse 24. You know, I'm going to be revenged. Avenged of what I'm doing. So again, we'll get to that next week in depth, but it's another person that Their own person is their problem causing them to sin causing them to sin and then just to give you the heads up We're going to go to chapter 6 when if you'll read the first like 5 6 7 verses of chapter 6 of Genesis you'll see that it's a group thing and The only person that's mentioned by name is Noah, and he's the righteous person. But the story talks about men, daughters of men, sons of God, them, they, and we're talking about groups, all the men of the earth. So it's a group thing. It's a worldly thing. They all march to the step of the same drummer that they're all in step with, sinning, and they're all doing the same thing. And if you don't do what they do, then all of a sudden, you're the odd one out. And Noah was the odd one out. And of course, by grace of God, he was the odd one out. But that would be the third way, the third way that we are tripped up by Satan, by ourselves, and by the world. So we'll get to that next week if the Lord willing. And then we'll look at each one of these individually. And we'll run through the Bible in certain spots Thank you, Brother. Without that, without the fall of man, the death, the cause of sin, we would have never known the grace of God. Everything God does, He does for our good. I would have said society. I don't have three S's there, but same thing. I may use that somewhere else someday. That's good. So what number, brother? 344. 344. Let's stand and sing a couple of verses. 344. ♪ Lord unto Thee, O Christ, Lord unto Thee ♪ ♪ Hear Thou the prayer I make, unbending me ♪ ♪ This is my earnest prayer to Thee, Lord unto Thee ♪ ♪ More love, O Christ, to Thee ♪ ♪ More love to Thee ♪ ♪ More love to Thee ♪ ♪ God's earthling joy and praise ♪ ♪ Salt, peace, and rest ♪ Help me, O Lord, I seek, give what is best. Amen. Thank you all for being here. God bless you. We'll be dismissed in a word of prayer. Brother Cameron, would you dismiss us tonight? Lord, most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to assemble in your house this evening. Lord, we're just thankful for Brother John's message, and of course, we're looking forward to the continued messages. And Lord, we may just continue to find ourselves just immersed in your word. Lord, we're just thankful for the assembly here tonight. We seek you in the tribes that you've given us. And Lord, we do ask for travelers' mercy to leave this place. the representation of just a Christ-like follower. And Lord, just help us just to pray for your people. Help us to pray for this nation. Help us just to pray for those that are on our prayer list. For Sister Mary, she continues to cover and heal. And Lord, thank you for just a blessing in that. And Lord, just thank you for the blessings and the procedures of being here. And Lord, just continue to lead, guide, and direct us in our daily lives. And with us as we leave this place, forgive me my sins. Christ, in whom we pray, amen. Amen.