WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.140 Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church Sermon Podcast. 00:04.880 --> 00:08.260 We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you, 00:08.480 --> 00:12.020 builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God. 00:12.560 --> 00:15.160 Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible 00:15.160 --> 00:17.840 and learn how you can apply it straight to your life. 00:18.240 --> 00:20.380 So welcome and enjoy the message. 00:21.240 --> 00:26.660 If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 3 in a message I'm 00:26.660 --> 00:32.280 calling Understanding the Enemy. Now, I think it'll be helpful for you to keep your Bible open 00:32.280 --> 00:38.720 because we're going to be looking verse by verse through the first half of this chapter. Genesis 00:38.720 --> 00:46.940 3 is one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible. It records for us the darkest day in history, 00:47.340 --> 00:53.840 when mankind would fall. In fact, that's what theologians call this chapter, the fall, 00:54.180 --> 01:01.300 when mankind and creation itself fell from the good state that God had created it in. 01:01.760 --> 01:06.220 As we've seen over the last few weeks, God actually created a very good 01:06.220 --> 01:12.380 and a very beautiful world full of life and joy and peace. There was no depression, no anxiety, 01:12.560 --> 01:20.180 no pain, no suffering. There was no death. And God created this perfect world, and yet that's 01:20.180 --> 01:27.340 not the world we find ourselves in, is it? So what happened? We find out what happened in Genesis chapter 3. 01:27.860 --> 01:30.860 Now, Lord willing, I'll preach three messages from this chapter. 01:30.960 --> 01:34.280 Next week, we're going to look at the devastating judgment of God 01:34.280 --> 01:36.420 that came upon us because of the fall. 01:37.000 --> 01:41.780 And the following week, we're going to look at God's promise of a coming deliverer. 01:41.780 --> 01:48.080 But this week, I want us to focus in on how it all went down, because the 01:48.080 --> 01:55.280 same enemy that is found in the Garden of Eden still roams about, tempting us and trying to 01:55.280 --> 02:06.840 destroy us. 1 Peter 5, verse 8 says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, that's your enemy. The devil walks about like a roaring lion 02:06.840 --> 02:13.200 seeking whom he may devour. You see, we have a great enemy and we first meet this enemy 02:13.200 --> 02:20.300 in Genesis chapter three, verse number one. It says, now the serpent was more cunning than any 02:20.300 --> 02:23.980 of the beasts of the field, which the Lord God had made. I want to stop right there because 02:23.980 --> 02:26.940 we're now introduced to the enemy, the serpent. 02:27.320 --> 02:30.020 Now, we've got to go to the New Testament, to the book of Revelation, 02:30.060 --> 02:33.720 to find out who the serpent is, and it is none other than the devil. 02:34.320 --> 02:35.680 It is Satan himself. 02:35.880 --> 02:38.200 Now, the question is, where did he come from? 02:38.200 --> 02:42.380 Well, we've got to piece together various passages of Scripture 02:42.380 --> 02:47.720 to find that he originally was created as this beautiful 02:47.720 --> 02:56.880 angel of God. But in pride, he rebelled and tried to overthrow God. And so God cast him out of heaven 02:56.880 --> 03:05.440 and he came to the earth, taking his evil with him. Now, I think it's very important to understand that evil isn't an actual thing. 03:06.000 --> 03:13.020 It's the absence of good. Just like darkness isn't really a thing, it's the absence of light. 03:13.020 --> 03:20.040 As Christians, we're not dualists believing that in eternity past there was these great two great 03:20.040 --> 03:26.280 forces of battling each other of good and evil, God and the devil. No, we're not. This isn't Star 03:26.280 --> 03:35.880 Wars. This is reality. The serpent was created by God, and as a created being, he rebelled against 03:35.880 --> 03:43.360 God. Just like you and I, as created beings, we also have rebelled against God. Now, before we 03:43.360 --> 03:45.600 continue in Genesis chapter 3, I want us to look 03:45.600 --> 03:53.200 at Jesus's description of the devil found in John chapter 8 verse 44. He says, you are of your 03:53.200 --> 03:59.000 father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the 03:59.000 --> 04:04.180 beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, 04:04.180 --> 04:05.220 he speaks from his own 04:05.220 --> 04:11.600 resources for he's a liar and the father of it. So Jesus says the devil is the father of all lies 04:11.600 --> 04:18.900 and he's a murderer. Now to be clear, the devil's good at lying. He's really, really good at it. 04:19.320 --> 04:26.040 And guess what? That means he never comes to us saying, hey, I'm the devil. He never comes saying, look, I'm a liar. 04:26.140 --> 04:30.860 Instead, the Bible says that he disguises himself as an angel of light, 04:31.380 --> 04:34.760 or in this case, as an animal in the garden. 04:34.880 --> 04:36.539 Verse number one again. 04:36.540 --> 04:42.360 It says, now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. 04:42.600 --> 04:46.060 And he said to the woman, has God indeed said you 04:46.060 --> 04:51.920 shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Here's our principle. The enemy tempts us to doubt the 04:51.920 --> 04:58.920 love of God. The serpent says, has God indeed said, has God really said, has God actually said 04:58.920 --> 05:05.520 you shall not eat from every tree of the garden? Now notice what Satan's doing. It's subtle, it's crafty, it's cunning. 05:05.740 --> 05:12.300 He's taking a partial truth and he's twisting it to make it sound like God is being stingy 05:12.300 --> 05:19.200 and unloving, that he's holding back. You see, the most dangerous lies always sound the most 05:19.200 --> 05:25.880 like the truth. If you were to poison someone, which I hope you never do, but if you were to do that, you wouldn't, you know, 05:25.940 --> 05:30.140 label a cup and give someone a cup that's labeled cyanide poisoning. 05:30.660 --> 05:31.139 No, no, no. 05:31.140 --> 05:33.240 You would be more subtle than that, right? 05:33.360 --> 05:37.000 You might put it into a cake that you've baked or something like that. 05:37.000 --> 05:40.080 Just a little bit of it, poisoning it. 05:40.140 --> 05:41.860 That's what Satan does with us. 05:42.180 --> 05:44.100 He didn't give us the full picture. 05:44.200 --> 05:45.880 He doesn't label it. He makes 05:45.880 --> 05:53.400 his lies sound believable. But let's look again at what God had actually said in Genesis chapter 2, 05:53.980 --> 06:00.020 verse 16. It says, in the Lord God commanded the man, saying of every tree of the garden, 06:00.080 --> 06:05.200 you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, 06:05.320 --> 06:10.860 for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. So God says, I want you to look at this 06:10.860 --> 06:17.100 beautiful garden. You can eat all of these wonderful trees except one. There's one tree 06:17.100 --> 06:22.660 that's poison, and if you eat that tree, it's going to kill you. Now, if someone invited me over to 06:22.660 --> 06:29.500 their house and to see their garden, and they showed me all their trees, and they say, hey, you can eat as much fruit as you want. Eat it anytime 06:29.500 --> 06:36.840 you want, but that tree right over there, don't eat the fruit there because that tree is poison. 06:37.520 --> 06:45.940 Now, I think that would be a loving thing to tell me, don't you? A very good thing, a needed thing for me to know. But Satan twists 06:45.940 --> 06:52.140 God's loving commandment, suggesting that God's being stingy and holding out on her. Has God 06:52.140 --> 06:59.020 actually said that you can't eat from every tree? What he's doing is he's planting this idea 06:59.020 --> 07:05.740 in Eve's mind subtly that God is withholding his blessing from her. But God had given her everything she 07:05.740 --> 07:10.960 could possibly want except for one tree. It'd be like me saying to someone who's coming into a 07:10.960 --> 07:16.960 worship center and said, hey, you could sit in any seat. You sit in any seat in the building that you 07:16.960 --> 07:21.960 want except for one. That seat right over there, that's a dangerous seat. In fact, it's going to 07:21.960 --> 07:27.740 kill you. I don't know how it's going to kill you, but that seed's going to kill you. Now, someone could say, well, pastor, you're being 07:27.740 --> 07:33.780 so restricting. No, I'm being really generous. You can have your pick of all the seeds, but that one 07:33.780 --> 07:42.800 is going to do you harm. Verse number two, and the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of 07:42.800 --> 07:50.380 the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, 07:50.840 --> 07:58.720 lest you die. Now notice Eve adds here to God's command. God hadn't told them that they couldn't 07:58.720 --> 08:03.620 touch the fruit. He had only told them they couldn't eat the fruit. Now maybe Adam was the 08:03.620 --> 08:05.920 first legalist adding rules to God's 08:05.920 --> 08:11.160 rule, or maybe Eve was beginning to question God's goodness as she sort of says to Satan, 08:11.160 --> 08:20.100 you know, he won't even let us touch it. How often the enemy lies to us in that kind of way 08:20.100 --> 08:25.940 by taking God's commands and twisting them to sound like God's actually against us instead of 08:25.940 --> 08:31.340 for us. He does that all the time. And people bite hook, line, and sinker. Verse number four. 08:32.560 --> 08:38.680 Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Here's our principle. The enemy 08:38.680 --> 08:47.120 tempts us to doubt the word of God. He starts out, has God actually said, questioning God's word. Now he says, you know, 08:47.220 --> 08:52.220 you're not going to die. That's contradicting God's word. He's tempting Eve to doubt the 08:52.220 --> 08:58.880 truthfulness of what God has actually said. You see, if the devil can get you questioning God's 08:58.880 --> 09:05.360 love and God's word, he's got you. He's got you exactly where he wants you. That's why it's so very important that 09:05.360 --> 09:12.660 as Christians, we must learn how to root our lives in to the word of God, to be firmly planted in the 09:12.660 --> 09:18.360 truth so that we're not easily deceived. Now, in John chapter 8, verse 31, it says, 09:18.360 --> 09:25.840 then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide or remain in my word, you're my disciples indeed. And you shall know 09:25.840 --> 09:32.600 the truth and the truth shall what? Set you free. It shall make you free. So many people are living 09:32.600 --> 09:38.040 their lives according to the devil's lies. You're nothing but a cosmic accident of evolution. 09:38.360 --> 09:43.980 You're worthless. You're not really of any eternal value. God doesn't actually love you because look 09:43.980 --> 09:45.420 at your sin. He doesn't love you. 09:45.920 --> 09:51.480 Listen, those lies are enslaving. They're going to make you curl up in a fetal position, but the 09:51.480 --> 09:58.280 truth of Jesus, it will set you free so you can soar through life. Now the serpent says, you will 09:58.280 --> 10:05.500 not surely die. And he goes on in verse number five to say, for God knows that in the day that you eat of it, 10:05.540 --> 10:11.120 your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God, knowing good from evil. Here's our principle. 10:12.080 --> 10:18.000 The enemy tempts us to believe that God's holding out on us. Now, we already touched on this a 10:18.000 --> 10:26.240 moment ago, but Satan, he keeps at it. He keeps using the same tactic. He says, God knows that if you eat this fruit, 10:26.320 --> 10:31.800 your eyes are going to be open. You're going to be like him. Now, this was another partial truth, 10:31.800 --> 10:35.840 because we know that after they ate the fruit and after they rebelled against God, verse number 10:35.840 --> 10:42.700 seven says their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. Now, Satan left that part 10:42.700 --> 10:45.300 out, didn't he? That their eyes would be open to what? 10:45.580 --> 10:47.740 Open to their shame and their nakedness. 10:47.780 --> 10:48.919 He left that part out. 10:48.920 --> 10:53.260 Instead, he twisted the truth so Eve would believe that God was holding out on her. 10:53.740 --> 10:58.100 He's saying, God wants you to remain blind and ignorant just as he made you. 10:58.240 --> 10:59.920 He doesn't want what's best for you. 11:00.900 --> 11:04.520 Now, the devil is still using those same tactics today, isn't he? 11:04.960 --> 11:08.640 He's trying to make you think that God doesn't want you to have any fun. 11:09.320 --> 11:11.380 But that couldn't be further from the truth. 11:11.820 --> 11:16.320 You see, every time God says in his word, thou shall not, what he's really saying is don't hurt yourself. 11:17.020 --> 11:17.959 Don't hurt yourself. 11:17.960 --> 11:20.300 I'm giving you these commands and they're out of love. 11:20.520 --> 11:23.760 They're out of protection for you and society and your family. 11:24.020 --> 11:25.820 Don't go outside of this because 11:25.820 --> 11:31.980 you're going to hurt yourself. You see, Satan wants us to believe that his ways are more enjoyable 11:31.980 --> 11:38.060 than God's ways. I'm telling you right now, he's a liar. He's trying to trick you. Why? So he can 11:38.060 --> 11:47.080 destroy you. So he can destroy the relationships of your life. Verse number five again. So for God knows that in the day that you 11:47.080 --> 11:52.960 eat of it, your eyes are going to be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 11:53.600 --> 11:59.800 Now, the irony here is that God had already made Adam and Eve like him. We talked about this a 11:59.800 --> 12:06.100 couple of weeks ago, that we have been made in the image of Almighty God in his likeness. But Satan appeals 12:06.100 --> 12:12.600 here to Eve's pride, which prior to this was non-existent. And he's saying, God's holding out 12:12.600 --> 12:20.020 on you. He doesn't want you to be like him. He's selfish. He wants all the privileges of being God 12:20.020 --> 12:25.060 to be his alone. But you can change all that, Eve, by just taking of the fruit. 12:26.380 --> 12:27.879 You can become like him. 12:27.880 --> 12:30.479 Here's our principle. 12:30.480 --> 12:32.940 The enemy tempts us to believe that we can become our own God. 12:34.480 --> 12:36.200 That is where our culture is. 12:36.980 --> 12:38.240 Be your own truth. 12:39.040 --> 12:40.240 What's right for me, 12:41.040 --> 12:43.360 how dare you tell me that's wrong for me 12:43.360 --> 12:44.760 if I say it's right for me? 12:44.880 --> 12:45.899 I'm being my own truth. 12:45.900 --> 12:51.080 That's our culture. Now, listen very carefully. One of the most important things human beings 12:51.080 --> 12:59.260 must come to grips with is that there is only one God, and you're not Him. That is critical. 12:59.860 --> 13:06.500 That's foundational. There's only one God, and you're not Him. Now, you may want to be Him. You 13:06.500 --> 13:10.600 may act like you're Him. You may say that, you know, I'm being my own truth, but you're not Him. 13:11.500 --> 13:17.940 Now, really, if you think about it, at the heart of sin, if you peel back the layers of the onion 13:17.940 --> 13:29.180 of sin, at the heart of it, in many ways, is pride. To put our will above the will of God, to put, you know, attempt, I guess you could 13:29.180 --> 13:35.420 say, to kick God off his throne and to sit on that throne instead to be our own God. Verse number six 13:35.420 --> 13:41.380 says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, 13:41.380 --> 13:45.880 and a tree desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate. 13:46.440 --> 13:53.440 She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. We see here there's three aspects of temptation 13:53.440 --> 13:59.380 that the New Testament also describes that still affect us today. The lust of the flesh, the lust 13:59.380 --> 14:05.940 of the eyes, and the pride of life. Eve sees the fruit, and it looks like it's going to taste very good. 14:06.060 --> 14:07.480 That's the lust of the flesh. 14:07.840 --> 14:09.920 She sees that it's pleasant to the eyes. 14:10.000 --> 14:11.260 That's the lust of the eyes. 14:11.320 --> 14:15.440 And then she sees that it's a tree desirable to make one's wise. 14:15.680 --> 14:18.420 That's the lust for knowledge or the pride of life. 14:19.380 --> 14:21.120 Now, here's what she wasn't thinking about. 14:22.200 --> 14:27.500 She wasn't thinking about the death that it would bring to her 14:27.500 --> 14:35.120 and billions of others after her. She wasn't thinking about the untold pain and suffering. 14:35.520 --> 14:39.980 She wasn't thinking about the heart attacks and the strokes and the cancer of just taking that 14:39.980 --> 14:45.820 one little piece of fruit that was rebellion against God. That was not in her mind. Now, 14:46.060 --> 14:51.740 it's very important to understand that the tree was placed in the garden by God, and it was placed 14:51.740 --> 14:59.600 there not to tempt Adam and Eve to sin, but to be a test of their love and their obedience to God. 15:00.120 --> 15:05.340 You see, the Bible says that God does not tempt anyone towards evil. 15:05.860 --> 15:09.020 And yet, we know that he does test us. 15:09.060 --> 15:09.799 So what's the difference? 15:09.800 --> 15:17.280 Well, the difference is the purpose of God's testing is success, and the purpose of Satan's temptation is failure. 15:18.140 --> 15:24.280 So God wanted Adam and Eve to be successful in demonstrating their love and their obedience to him in a real relationship, 15:24.460 --> 15:29.940 but Satan used that against Adam and Eve to cause them or tempt them to fail. 15:30.940 --> 15:37.840 Now, I think it's also important to realize that temptation is not sin. Sometimes people have a 15:37.840 --> 15:44.480 very sensitive conscience, and they start thinking that temptation is sin. Maybe you're tempted to 15:44.480 --> 15:45.840 get drunk, or you're tempted to cheat to get drunk, or you're tempted to 15:45.840 --> 15:50.540 cheat on your taxes, or you're tempted to lust after a woman, and you think, well, I've sinned. 15:50.760 --> 15:57.600 Well, not necessarily. You have been tempted. What you do with that temptation determines whether 15:57.600 --> 16:07.180 you sin or not. You see, an evil thought is not always sin. Now, thoughts of evil, that is sin. In other words, what do you do with 16:07.180 --> 16:13.760 the sinful thought? Do you dwell on it? Do you act on it? Adam and Eve, they acted on their sinful 16:13.760 --> 16:20.400 thoughts of disobedience. Now, as a kid, I used to go around and around in my mind thinking, well, 16:20.460 --> 16:32.540 did Adam and Eve first sin when they ate the forbidden fruit, or did they sin when they decided to eat the forbidden fruit? I tend to think that their sin was likely their 16:32.540 --> 16:39.180 decision to eat the forbidden fruit. Here's the principle. We sin when we do not love and obey God 16:39.180 --> 16:46.880 by faith. Now, the greatest command in Scripture, according to our Lord Jesus Christ, is that we 16:46.880 --> 16:51.700 are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So how do we know whether 16:51.700 --> 16:57.560 we're loving God? Well, are we obeying him? You see, Jesus connected our love for him to our obedience 16:57.560 --> 17:06.740 to him. He said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So whenever we decide to disobey God, the decision, it's actually rooted 17:06.740 --> 17:12.300 in a lack of love for God in that moment. Anytime we disobey one of God's commands, we're actually 17:12.300 --> 17:18.880 disobeying the greatest command, not loving him properly. Now, for Adam and Eve, along with the 17:18.880 --> 17:29.220 pride that we already touched on, they were not believing and trusting in God, were they? I think had they believed God 17:29.220 --> 17:33.160 that they would surely die if they ate of the fruit, I don't think they would have eaten it. 17:33.960 --> 17:40.060 Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 6 says, but without faith it's impossible to please him. 17:40.520 --> 17:46.280 For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently 17:46.280 --> 17:55.840 seek him. So temptation becomes sin when we don't love God and obey him by believing and trusting 17:55.840 --> 18:01.980 in him. Now, James, in James chapter 1, he kind of unpacks for us the nature of temptation 18:01.980 --> 18:05.440 and the nature of sin. In verse number 14, he says, 18:05.440 --> 18:10.260 but each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 18:10.660 --> 18:17.060 Then when desire has conceived, he gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's full grown, 18:17.460 --> 18:28.380 brings forth death. So temptation is an appeal to self, to be drawn away by our own desires and enticed. 18:28.520 --> 18:31.720 And then when it conceives, it gives birth to sin. 18:31.720 --> 18:35.780 And when sin grows up, it brings forth death. 18:36.060 --> 18:44.520 Now, the word enticed that James uses here is a word that is used for bait or a lure. 18:44.700 --> 18:47.460 It's a fishing terminology. When you go fishing, 18:47.880 --> 18:51.680 you put a hook, a tie hook onto the end of your line, you throw it in the water. 18:51.840 --> 18:59.240 But because fish are not enticed or tempted by a hook, you cover the hook up with bait, right? 18:59.360 --> 19:05.260 Maybe a worm. And so that fish sees that big juicy worm. It doesn't see hook. It sees worm 19:05.260 --> 19:11.680 and they're tempted to eat it. That's what Satan does with us. He baits something that's enticing 19:11.680 --> 19:17.340 to us, enticing to the eyes, enticing to the flesh, enticing to our pride, something that's 19:17.340 --> 19:24.120 tempting. So here's what we got to do as believers. We must learn that there's always a hook 19:24.120 --> 19:25.140 in temptation. There's always a hook in temptation. 19:25.620 --> 19:28.940 There's always a hook that's eventually going to bring destruction. 19:30.060 --> 19:32.840 Now, Satan never warns us about the hook. 19:32.960 --> 19:34.259 He hides the hook. 19:34.260 --> 19:36.640 But God, he warns us about it. 19:37.060 --> 19:41.280 In fact, God told Adam and Eve, in the day that you shall eat it, you shall surely die. 19:41.280 --> 19:46.260 But Eve, in spite of her warning, allowed Satan to deceive her, 19:46.820 --> 19:52.380 and she ate. And then she gave some to her husband, Adam, and he ate. In fact, we're going 19:52.380 --> 19:58.800 to find out that Scripture teaches next week that Adam actually had the greater sin. Eve was 19:58.800 --> 20:07.420 deceived. Adam chose willfully. She gave some to her husband to eat, and in that moment, they wrecked everything. 20:09.260 --> 20:14.680 Everything. Next week, we're going to look, Lord willing, at the wreckage more closely, 20:14.680 --> 20:21.760 but their act of disobedience was the turning point for the entire world in the worst way 20:21.760 --> 20:28.240 imaginable. Verse number seven, then the eyes of both of them were opened, 20:28.240 --> 20:33.780 and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves 20:33.780 --> 20:48.880 coverings. Here's our principle. Sin always brings shame. Always. The end of chapter two that we looked at last week, Adam and Eve, they were 20:48.880 --> 20:57.540 both naked and it says they were unashamed. Why? No guilt, no insecurity before God, no sin. 20:57.960 --> 21:07.180 But something terrible happened in the white space between verse six and verse 7. Their spirits died, and by that I mean that their spirit 21:07.180 --> 21:12.000 was separated from the Spirit of God, so that now they felt all this shame to be in God's presence, 21:12.240 --> 21:17.760 because God is holy, and He is just, and He is right, and they're wrong. And it's the same for 21:17.760 --> 21:27.880 us when we sin. Sin brings about incredible shame, a weight of our own guilt before God, an insecurity to be in his presence. 21:28.480 --> 21:33.960 So that, what do we do? Like Adam and Eve, we try to cover up our sin and our shame ourselves, 21:34.980 --> 21:42.100 try to cover it up. And we also tend to follow their example of trying to hide. Look what they 21:42.100 --> 21:45.500 did in verse number eight. It says, and they heard the sound 21:45.500 --> 21:51.740 of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves 21:51.740 --> 21:58.440 from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So as soon as they get themselves 21:58.440 --> 22:03.180 covered up with leaves, which probably didn't work out all that well, by the way, later God gave them 22:03.180 --> 22:07.500 a better covering. But as soon as they get covered up, they hear the Lord approaching. 22:08.340 --> 22:08.959 So what do they do? 22:08.960 --> 22:10.299 They run. 22:10.300 --> 22:11.660 They try to hide. 22:12.260 --> 22:13.579 Here's our principle. 22:13.580 --> 22:16.080 You can't hide from God. 22:17.360 --> 22:19.299 Did you know that? 22:19.300 --> 22:22.400 Now, we read about this and we think, what fools. 22:22.900 --> 22:24.340 They think they're going to hide from God? 22:24.740 --> 22:26.380 I mean, that just seems so ridiculous. 22:26.640 --> 22:28.220 And yet that's what we do when we sin. 22:30.020 --> 22:32.900 We have a tendency to try to hide from God. 22:33.320 --> 22:35.220 Now, people do that all kinds of different ways. 22:35.340 --> 22:37.940 Maybe they stop attending church. 22:38.040 --> 22:41.340 You know, if I go to church, I'm going to feel really bad about all my sin in my life. 22:41.340 --> 22:42.560 So they stop going to church. 22:42.580 --> 22:43.639 Or maybe they stop reading their Bible. 22:43.640 --> 22:50.060 They stop praying. And as they start, stop thinking as much about God, 22:50.980 --> 23:00.240 maybe they stop feeling as guilty about their sin. But just because you stop seeing God 23:00.240 --> 23:07.200 doesn't mean that God stops seeing you. Did you know that? He sees you exactly where you're at. 23:08.280 --> 23:13.260 One of the funniest moments for Kelsey and I as parents was when our daughter Ellie was about 23:13.260 --> 23:19.620 18 months old or so. We had just gotten all the kids in bed, and they knew that if they got out 23:19.620 --> 23:23.340 of bed, they were going to be in a lot of trouble. So Kelsey and I were finally done. We plopped down 23:23.340 --> 23:28.780 on the couch. We're exhausted after the marathon experience of tucking the kids in bed. It's like that every 23:28.780 --> 23:33.540 night if you have got little ones. So I think we flip on the TV. We're watching a show, 23:34.100 --> 23:41.300 and around the corner comes little Ellie. Very quiet, walking kind of in a sneaky way. She just 23:41.300 --> 23:45.300 barely peeks around at first, and then she steps out a little further. 23:52.680 --> 24:01.780 Now, all we could actually see of her was her little feet and her ankles because she had draped her blankie over her head and her body so that she could not possibly see us. And so in her mind, 24:01.860 --> 24:07.600 that meant that we also couldn't see her. And so it tells it we're cracking 24:07.600 --> 24:11.200 up, but we're trying to cover, stop laughing because we want to see what she does. We want 24:11.200 --> 24:18.420 to see this play out. And so what's she going to do next? So slowly she walks in the living room. 24:19.580 --> 24:24.820 She stands for a moment. She walks a little bit further. And then she turns around. She walks 24:24.820 --> 24:25.379 down the hall 24:25.380 --> 24:33.700 and goes back to her bedroom. The whole time, she thought she was hiding from us. Listen, that's what 24:33.700 --> 24:41.060 it's like when we try to hide from God. It's a foolish and childish exercise in futility that 24:41.060 --> 24:46.260 we try to hide our sin from God. He sees it. He sees us exactly where we're at. 24:46.460 --> 24:52.200 Instead of hiding it, we need to expose it. Lord, look what I've done. I am sorry. I confess it to 24:52.200 --> 24:57.920 you. I give it to you. Why? Because in that is forgiveness, and he takes the weight of our sin 24:57.920 --> 25:04.000 off of our shoulders. Amen? Psalm chapter 139, verse number 7 says, where can I go from your 25:04.000 --> 25:06.460 spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? 25:06.580 --> 25:08.020 If I ascend into heaven, you're there. 25:08.220 --> 25:10.340 If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. 25:10.500 --> 25:12.580 Some of you have been making your bed in hell 25:12.580 --> 25:15.440 and I'm telling you, God sees you exactly where you're at. 25:15.840 --> 25:17.280 If I take the wings of the morning 25:17.280 --> 25:18.960 and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 25:19.180 --> 25:20.920 even there your hand shall hold me 25:20.920 --> 25:23.680 and your right hand shall hold me. 25:24.100 --> 25:26.600 No matter where you go, no matter how you 25:26.600 --> 25:32.820 try to hide, no matter how fast you run, God sees you. And guess what? He still loves you. 25:33.680 --> 25:39.500 While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He sees you in your sin. He sees you in your broken 25:39.500 --> 25:45.300 state. He sees you in the mess that you've created and sin has created within your life. And he still loves you. 25:45.880 --> 25:49.160 He sees you and he wants a relationship with you. 25:49.820 --> 25:52.379 Verse number nine. 25:52.380 --> 25:56.140 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? 25:57.060 --> 26:01.120 So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I 26:01.120 --> 26:01.779 hid myself. 26:01.780 --> 26:03.540 And he said, who told you were naked? 26:03.540 --> 26:10.600 Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Then the man said, the woman whom 26:10.600 --> 26:16.900 you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate. The Lord God said to the woman, 26:17.160 --> 26:30.000 what is this you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. We see here that God confronts Adam in his sin, and he does so with 26:30.000 --> 26:36.620 a series of rhetorical questions. Now, God already knew exactly where Adam was. He knew exactly what 26:36.620 --> 26:43.100 Adam had done. It's like if I were to call my son on his cell phone and say, hey, bud, where are you? 26:44.040 --> 26:45.860 Now, I already know where he's at because 26:45.860 --> 26:53.840 this handy little app called Find My iPhone, I know where he's at at all times. I'm calling and 26:53.840 --> 26:58.860 asking, checking to see, hey, are you going to be honest with me? Which to this point, he always has 26:58.860 --> 27:05.420 been, thankfully. God knows where Adam's at. He's asked, he's calling him out. What he's doing is he's pursuing him. 27:06.800 --> 27:11.260 He's pursuing him. Now, notice Adam and Eve, they don't pursue the Lord. They run the other 27:11.260 --> 27:16.880 direction. They want nothing to be, nothing to do with God. God, in his infinite love, 27:17.140 --> 27:27.440 he pursues Adam and Eve, knowing he's not done with mankind. He pursues them in their sin, and then he confronts them in their sin. And what's their 27:27.440 --> 27:34.360 response? They start playing the blame game, right? Adam immediately throws Eve under the bus. That 27:34.360 --> 27:41.720 woman that you gave me, Lord, she made me do it. He blames Eve, and then he blames God. The woman 27:41.720 --> 27:50.500 that you gave me, Lord, then Eve, what does she do? She blames the servant. They're pointing fingers every which way except for towards themselves 27:50.500 --> 27:57.380 where the fingers belonged. They clearly were not taking responsibility for their sin, which is 27:57.380 --> 28:06.380 exactly what God's looking for in our lives. Here's our last principle. When God confronts us in our sin, he's looking for confession and repentance. 28:07.860 --> 28:14.160 Whenever you have a guilty conscience, that tug on your heart that you've done wrong, 28:14.820 --> 28:20.000 that's a very good thing. Let me tell you, that's a very good thing because that means God's not 28:20.000 --> 28:26.200 done with you, that he wants you. He's calling you out of your pain. He's calling you out of your 28:26.200 --> 28:31.900 misery and your darkness and your sin. That's the Holy Spirit. If you have an awareness of your sin, 28:32.300 --> 28:38.640 he's not done with you. So any moment you hear his still small voice, that tug on your heart, 28:38.680 --> 28:43.620 that you've done something wrong, that's God confronting you in your sin so he can help you. 28:44.400 --> 28:45.860 And there's multiple ways you can respond. 28:46.020 --> 28:47.360 You can try to run and hide. 28:47.760 --> 28:48.879 A lot of people do that. 28:48.880 --> 28:50.380 You can try to ignore God. 28:50.440 --> 28:51.999 A lot of people do that. 28:52.000 --> 28:56.140 Or you can confess it to God. 28:57.200 --> 29:01.100 Here's what God wants because he loves you and he wants a relationship with you. 29:01.100 --> 29:10.720 He doesn't want to be distant from you forever, separated in spiritual death. He loves you, and so here's what he wants. He wants you to own it. He wants you to 29:10.720 --> 29:22.480 say, I'm guilty. I did it. I need you to own it, confess it, and turn from it. The word of repentance 29:22.480 --> 29:26.160 means to turn. It's a change of mind towards one's 29:26.160 --> 29:33.580 life and behavior. It's the flip side of the coin of faith. We turn from our current life of headed 29:33.580 --> 29:39.320 towards sin and self, and we repent from it. We turn from it, and at the same time, we turn in 29:39.320 --> 29:45.880 faith positively towards Jesus. Did you know that's what God requires of us? 29:47.020 --> 29:52.020 No one will ever go to heaven when they die who didn't own and confess their sin. 29:52.820 --> 29:54.199 No one. 29:54.200 --> 30:00.660 No one will ever go to heaven who didn't turn from their sin and turn to Jesus in faith. 30:01.240 --> 30:06.500 That's what God requires of us. So if God's tugging on your heart today, 30:08.420 --> 30:13.560 you're not tugging on your heart wondering about your sin. He knows all about it. 30:16.260 --> 30:27.940 He knows the filth of our own minds and our own motives. He's tugging on our heart, wanting us to admit it, 30:28.720 --> 30:29.740 to come clean. 30:31.060 --> 30:32.300 Say, here I am, Lord. 30:33.780 --> 30:35.760 God, I'm sorry for my sin. 30:37.820 --> 30:39.439 I'm guilty. 30:39.440 --> 30:43.300 And I've tried, but I can't do anything to fix it. 30:45.740 --> 30:49.360 And so, God, I'm asking you to forgive me, 30:49.420 --> 30:50.840 not because I've earned your forgiveness. 30:51.000 --> 30:53.400 I know I haven't, but I'm asking you to forgive me 30:53.400 --> 30:55.080 because that's what I need. 30:55.680 --> 30:56.960 And that's what you're good at. 30:58.180 --> 31:00.000 And I believe in your son, Jesus, 31:00.080 --> 31:04.880 that you sent to this earth to die on the cross for my sins. 31:04.960 --> 31:08.600 I believe that he paid for my sins and he rose the third day. 31:09.480 --> 31:13.840 And I'm asking if you'd come into my life, 31:14.480 --> 31:18.960 just pray and ask God to help you receive him. 31:19.960 --> 31:23.540 I'm telling you, if you'll be honest with God in that kind of a way, 31:24.160 --> 31:30.800 God will radically, dramatically, and eternally change your life. 31:32.160 --> 31:34.380 Now let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will. 31:37.600 --> 31:39.820 Every head bowed, every eye closed. 31:43.880 --> 31:46.420 This is a holy moment in the life of our church 31:46.420 --> 31:52.740 and both campuses it's not necessarily a formal moment though 31:52.740 --> 31:58.020 we've been praying that as god moves there'll be movement in our worship centers 31:58.020 --> 32:03.960 just a moment after i pray we're going to stand to our feet we're going to sing at both 32:03.960 --> 32:08.640 campuses and we're going to ask you to move as God moves in your heart. 32:09.680 --> 32:12.380 There's going to be pastors and other leaders and prayer partners 32:12.380 --> 32:17.540 scattered across the front of our services, 32:18.180 --> 32:20.700 and they're here to help you. 32:20.800 --> 32:22.200 Maybe God's tugging on your heart. 32:23.160 --> 32:28.040 You want to step out and say, I want to give my life to Jesus. They'll know exactly how to help you. Maybe God's tugging on your heart. You want to step out and say, I want to give my life to Jesus. They'll know exactly how to help you. 32:31.360 --> 32:47.520 At the 930 service, I baptized a friend of mine that I got to know better this week. It was a 16-year-old boy by the name of Ben. 32:50.100 --> 32:55.160 And Ben was diagnosed with cancer about a year and a half ago or so. 32:56.140 --> 33:00.020 He and his family have faithfully watched our services online. 33:00.340 --> 33:08.680 Since then, he's unable to leave his house. 33:11.660 --> 33:15.600 On Thursday, we received some devastating news that the cancer is all throughout his body, 33:15.760 --> 33:17.600 and on Friday, they placed him on hospice. 33:20.860 --> 33:23.760 I went and spent some time with him on Friday 33:23.760 --> 33:31.960 and found a young man with such strong faith, an eternal brother. 33:36.500 --> 33:42.240 The last thing he wanted to do with his life was to be a testimony of God's saving grace. 33:43.840 --> 33:46.320 Listen, life is short. 33:47.700 --> 33:48.820 It's so short. 33:50.140 --> 33:52.120 The Bible says it's like a vapor. 33:52.260 --> 33:53.580 It's here for a moment, then it's gone. 33:57.140 --> 34:02.080 Whether you live to be 16 or 60, it's short. 34:04.520 --> 34:06.240 What are you going to do with Jesus? 34:06.820 --> 34:09.100 That's the most important question of life. 34:09.780 --> 34:11.180 What are you going to do with Jesus? 34:12.240 --> 34:13.680 I want to invite you. 34:14.580 --> 34:17.860 You give your heart and life to Jesus today because he loves you. 34:18.760 --> 34:23.340 And you want to know Jesus, not by his justice, but by his grace. 34:24.640 --> 34:27.180 I want to invite you. and as soon as I pray, 34:27.180 --> 34:36.100 you don't wait. Please, you step out and you come and say, it's time. It's time that I get right 34:36.100 --> 34:42.500 today. It's time. Don't run from God. You run to him. You come down one of these aisles. You come 34:42.500 --> 34:45.880 down one of these staircases and say, I want to give my life to Christ, this team. 34:46.180 --> 34:47.600 We're going to know exactly how to help you. 34:47.680 --> 34:48.399 We'll pray with you. 34:48.400 --> 34:49.780 We'll help you take the next steps. 34:50.100 --> 34:52.580 Maybe say, I want to be baptized and go public with my faith. 34:52.660 --> 34:56.560 Maybe you want to join our church and become a family member today, 34:56.640 --> 34:57.720 officially, formally. 34:58.240 --> 34:59.139 We'd love to have you. 34:59.140 --> 35:00.620 We'd love to visit with you about that. 35:00.680 --> 35:02.380 Maybe you don't need a pastor. 35:02.500 --> 35:03.500 You just need the master. 35:04.040 --> 35:10.600 You just need to come to these steps as an individual or couple, a family. Just pour out your heart to the Lord. 35:11.740 --> 35:17.880 Give Him your burdens. Jesus says, the Bible says, cast your cares on Him, for He cares for you. 35:17.940 --> 35:26.700 All right? Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 35:28.940 --> 35:41.140 I'm sorry that our great, great, great, great, how many great grandparents, Lord, 35:41.680 --> 35:47.100 rebelled against you and that we all were in Adam. We're all guilty because of it. 35:49.160 --> 35:54.540 The choice that he made, we would have chosen. The choice that he made, we choose. 35:57.820 --> 36:07.840 And we're sorry, Lord, for all that we have done. Lord, yes, we recognize that much of our pain 36:07.840 --> 36:10.580 and the circumstances of our life that are hard 36:10.580 --> 36:13.360 are a result of other people's sin as well 36:13.360 --> 36:14.359 and not just our own, 36:14.360 --> 36:16.460 but Lord, we own that which is ours to own. 36:17.600 --> 36:19.680 And I pray if someone's not doing that, Lord, 36:20.080 --> 36:24.260 would you please be heavy upon them until they yield. 36:26.140 --> 36:29.400 Would you please, Lord, by your spirit, 36:29.560 --> 36:33.220 touch them in a deep place of their being 36:33.220 --> 36:36.540 that I cannot go to, that only your spirit can go to? 36:37.420 --> 36:39.560 And would you make them aware of their sin 36:39.560 --> 36:43.060 in such a way that they are willing to confess it, 36:43.780 --> 36:49.260 that you open their eyes to your beauty and your son, Jesus. 36:52.260 --> 36:55.520 Lord, may we gain some eternal brothers and sisters today. 36:56.780 --> 36:57.860 We love you. 36:57.980 --> 36:59.160 We need you. 36:59.900 --> 37:02.340 And we ask, Lord, that you would work in power. 37:02.460 --> 37:04.020 In Jesus' name, amen. 37:04.820 --> 37:06.120 Thanks for listening today. 37:06.460 --> 37:07.940 We hope you enjoyed this message. 37:08.120 --> 37:11.300 And if you did, we would be so grateful if you left us a review. 37:11.960 --> 37:14.080 Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast 37:14.080 --> 37:16.940 if you would like to be notified when a new sermon is released. 37:17.320 --> 37:20.680 If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith 37:20.680 --> 37:24.560 through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait. 37:26.600 --> 37:33.860 Reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988. That's podcast to 88988 or connect with us on one of our social media platforms. 37:34.520 --> 37:41.080 You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org to find even more great resources. No matter where 37:41.080 --> 37:45.060 you are in your journey, know that we love you, we're praying for you, 37:47.960 --> 37:57.960 and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.