Episode Transcript
Good morning, we're in 2 Kings chapter 21, verse 14.
2 Kings chapter 21, verse 14.
Before I begin with the text,
I want to share something with you about what a Bible teacher does.
And you may not have thought of it this way.
I didn't until I was studying yesterday.
And I'll use the analogy of making a meal.
When I cook a meal or when my wife cooks a meal,
by the way, my mother taught me how to cook because I don't think she was sure I'd ever find a good woman to do it for me.
So, but I did, I found one.
But when I cook a meal or she does, there's a certain amount of food to go around the table,
no matter how much you make.
And if we have our family over for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Mother's Day, Father's Day,
we'll have one of those special meals.
And there are a lot of plates and bellies that have to be filled, just like your house.
And we try to make sure we have enough food for everyone.
In fact, there is always the chance that when you prepare a meal, it may not be enough to fill everyone's belly.
And if that happens in Texas, that is a violation of the law, I believe.
But we don't want that to happen.
Now, using that example, I want you to think about what a Bible teacher does.
Jesus told Simon Peter, "Feed my sheep."
And he is meaning the believers there.
He did not mean that Simon Peter had to go to Walmart and find the meat on sale and feed all the believers in the area.
He was talking about a different kind of food.
Paul told Timothy to feed the flock of God.
Now, from week to week, Brother Fulton and I have no idea who will come to church.
Some we can be more sure about than others, but we really don't know.
We don't know how many people are going to tune in online from week to week.
And so if we were uncertain about the number of people coming to eat with us to that extent, we'd be stressed out.
We wouldn't know whether to cook more food or less food.
You just never would get it right.
Can you imagine cooking four hamburgers for four people and 20 people show up for dinner?
Somebody is going to go hungry.
But that's not how it is with Bible teaching because the food we feed the flock is spiritual.
And whether we have 10 people or 110 people in our class, we bring the same amount of food every time.
And no matter how few or how many people are in attendance or watching, everyone who's hungry can eat until they're full.
There's always enough.
And because of the difference between earthly food and spiritual food, I have a kingdom truth for you.
You ready?
Earthly food is divided.
Spiritual truth is multiplied.
That's it.
Earthly food is divided.
Spiritual food is multiplied.
And that's what Jesus was teaching when he multiplied the loaves and the fishes among the people.
The food he gives will never run out and everyone who hungers for it will be filled.
All right, let's get to our lesson.
We left off with something God said about his people whom he called his inheritance.
We're studying about King Manasseh's reign over Judah and Jerusalem being the capital city there.
They're both mentioned in the warnings given through the prophets to those people.
And he said in verse 14, we're in 2 Kings 21 if you've just joined us on the Internet, verse 14.
He started off with saying, "And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance."
Now that was God speaking.
And that could have troubled some people who heard the lesson to hear God say that.
He would forsake the remnant of his inheritance.
So I began to explain how there is a physical forsaking and a spiritual one as well.
And we ran out of time so we'll continue learning about that truth today.
Now let's look at some proof that even though God forsook Judah to her enemies,
he did not completely abandon them.
It was for a season.
Judges chapter 2, verses 14 through 16, if you'd like to write that in your notes.
Judges 2, 14 through 16 says, "And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel,
and he delivered them into the hands of the spoilers that spoiled them.
And he sold them into the hands of their enemies roundabout so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
Whether so ever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil.
As the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them, and they were greatly distressed."
All right, if you stop right there, I'm not done with that passage, but if you stop right there, you'd think, well, that's it.
God sold Israel to the enemies and that's where they're going to die and that's where they're going to perish.
Here's the rest of that passage.
"Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them."
So this forsaking, even though it was physical, it still wasn't permanent.
It was, and we're going to learn just a little more about that.
The lesson here to learn is this, as long as you have breath,
God is always willing to deliver you from the hand of your enemies.
Don't ever say, well, God has completely written me off. No, he hasn't. You have no scripture for that.
He's forsaken me and I cannot go to him. You have no scripture for that.
"Hoe everyone that is thirsty, let him come and drink."
That thief who was dying on the cross was given that gracious opportunity to trust in the one who died next to him,
who died with him and who died for him, which was the most important thing.
Now, physically, none of us died with Jesus. Spiritually, we did. We died with him.
We were buried with him. We rose again with him. That is a spiritual truth.
But did you know there was a time when God forsook Jesus?
Because we're learning about why God would forsake the remnant of his inheritance.
But then he received Jesus again. Matthew 27 verse 46.
Matthew 27 verse 46. Jesus said this while he was on the cross.
"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.'
That is to say, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'"
That is an Aramaic word, that word sabachthani.
The Bible is written mostly in the Hebrew and the Greek language, and there are some places where Aramaic is used.
It's very close to the Hebrew language.
Lama sabachthani, the word sabachthani in Aramaic.
It means the same as the Hebrew word that we're talking about here.
Because it means forsaken. So what would cause God to forsake his son?
We know why he forsook the remnant of his inheritance, because of their sin.
But what would cause God to forsake his son who's never sinned?
What could cause him to leave Jesus on the cross? That's what forsaking is, is leaving him there.
What could cause him to leave him on the cross in the shape that he was in?
It was our sin.
When he was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, Jesus said, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me."
And he prayed that knowing that he was about to take the burden of our sin upon himself.
Before then, he had known no sin. He was not acquainted with it in the manner we are,
where we were born sinners and we're sinners by choice and practice and preference.
None of that applied to Jesus. He was not born in sin. He was not born a sinner.
He was the Son of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21, we're speaking about why God would forsake his son on the cross.
It said, "For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
What a great transaction that was that took place at the cross.
The Holy Son of God became sin for us.
But you know God could have simply forsaken us. He could have.
Because we were sinners. There was nothing worthy on, as far as we're concerned,
we were not worthy for God to do anything but forsake us.
But rather than forsaking us, God chose to forsake his son that he might receive us.
Now if you don't understand what love is, I hope that helps you a little bit.
That is the unconditional love of God to do that.
So whenever you read about God forsaking his people in the Bible,
don't interpret that wrongly and think that God would forsake the ones whom he has saved eternally.
In the case of the people of Jerusalem and Judah,
which is what we're looking at right here,
they were forsaken temporarily.
God said he would forsake the remnant of his inheritance and look back in our text, we're in 2 Kings 21 verse 14.
He said, "And deliver them into the hand of their enemies."
Now what I love about this is this phrase actually helps us understand
what it means when God said he would forsake the remnant of his inheritance.
If it weren't explained to us here, we might say, "Well now, was that a physical forsaking?
Was it spiritual? How long would it last?"
God tells us what kind of forsaking it was.
He said he would deliver them into the hand of their enemies.
And that is an earthly, physical forsaking.
And what else do we know about that?
That it wouldn't be permanent because God would deliver them once again.
And that is a pattern from the beginning to the end of the Bible
that God delivers people who didn't want to be delivered originally.
We have a perfect God and a perfect law and we said no to that as sinners.
No, we're going to do our own thing.
And yet God would still deliver us when we turn to him in repentance.
And those enemies into whose hands the Jews would be delivered,
in this case, were the Babylonians.
But before that it was the Assyrians and the Syrians and then the Egyptians
and then later it would be the Romans.
There would always be someone who was the enemy of God's people.
But these were always earthly enemies.
And we know that any earthly enemy of God's people has their own spiritual father,
and that's the devil.
Now what that does not mean is that if somebody disagrees with you
about your interpretation of a scripture, they must be of the devil.
That's not what that means because you might be wrong too.
I have thought in my ministry over the decades about things that I was--
I thought, "Well, I'm right about this."
And I saw the scriptures and it corrected me, and I said, "I was wrong about that."
And I'm glad that I got corrected by the scriptures.
I'm always willing to be corrected by the scriptures.
Not a misinterpretation of them.
People will try that.
But exegesis, the proper study of the scripture.
Now let's look at this word "deliver" because God said he would deliver them
into the hand of their enemies.
And "deliver" is a word we've studied before.
The first use of the Hebrew word translated as "deliver"
is found in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 17.
Genesis 1, 17.
And I'm actually going to read verses 16 and 17 for context.
"And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day
and the lesser light to rule the night.
He made the stars also, and God," here's your word,
"set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth."
That word "set" is the same Hebrew word that we get the word "deliver" from.
So you could write that, "and God delivered them,"
that is the greater light, the lesser light, and the stars.
God delivered them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.
Now notice this vital truth.
God created two lights, greater light and the lesser light, and the stars,
according to that passage we just read in Genesis.
And then God took what he created and he set them or delivered them
to the firmament of the heaven for a purpose.
And that purpose was to give light upon the earth.
That's just straight out of the scripture.
And applying that to our text, the children of Judah were also God's creation,
just like the firmament, just like the lights that were set in the firmament,
and in fact everything that has ever been was God's creation.
God delivered Judah into the hands of their enemies.
Now based on what we've learned about the word "deliver,"
we could also say God set Judah in the hands of their enemies.
And if he set the greater and lesser light and the stars in the firmament for a purpose,
then he also set the people of Judah in the hands of their enemies for a purpose.
It just goes right together.
And that purpose was, as we learned earlier in our study last week,
to bring evil--bring such evil upon them that the ears of all who hear will tingle or quiver.
And even in Babylon, even in Babylon, Judah would still be under God's sovereign control.
So don't make the mistake of thinking that when God forsakes the remnant of his inheritance
that he's just lost his grip on them, that he's lost control of them.
He certainly hasn't.
And in fact, they will not escape Babylon until God delivers them
and brings them back into the land of promise.
And if you study the book of Jeremiah, you'll see where God said,
"Hey, you guys may as well go ahead and plant your vineyards and raise your kids in Babylon
and serve the king well because you're going to be there for 70 years.
You're not coming back.
You're not going anywhere for that time."
That's because God set them there for a purpose.
Now watch this.
The greater light, the lesser light, and the stars God set in the firmament
cannot escape the firmament of heaven until God delivers them to another place,
until he sets them in another place.
And that's something I hadn't thought of before, but again, when you study the scriptures,
God just shines all kinds of light on things.
Every time I read the first chapter of Genesis, I think I never saw that before.
Now imagine that.
That's the first chapter of Genesis, which if you've ever started reading your Bible,
you've probably read through the first chapter of Genesis,
and yet there's so much there that I have missed,
and I look forward to continuing to learn from it.
But those stars in the greater light and lesser light had a purpose.
They had been set there for a purpose.
And we read about that purpose there in Genesis 1, 16 through 17,
which I read to you just a few moments ago.
But besides being celestial bodies, physical celestial bodies,
those stars also represent powers.
They represent powers, so there's a double application of this lesson,
just like there is with just about everything in the Bible.
Listen to Matthew 24, verse 29.
Where Jesus is explaining to the disciples what will happen during what I believe is the opening of the sixth seal.
If you read that part of Matthew 24 and then you read Revelation 6,
you'll say, "Oh, that's what he's talking about, the sixth seal."
And we won't get too far into the sixth seal at all.
But here is what Jesus said in Matthew 24, 29.
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken."
Now did you see that?
Do you remember what God set in the firmament of the heavens?
In Genesis, he set the greater light, which is the sun,
the lesser light, which is the moon, as far as we know.
And the lesser light, which is the moon, as far as we can tell,
there to give light to the earth and the stars.
And he tells, Jesus tells the disciples that there will come a day when the purpose of the sun
that had originally been set in the firmament,
when the purpose of the sun and the moon will no longer be to give light to the earth.
Because he said the sun shall be darkened.
And the moon shall not give her light.
And the stars also, which were once in the firmament of the heaven,
he said they'll fall to the earth.
Because that's where he's going to set them.
God hadn't lost his grip on any of this.
It didn't slip out of his hand.
And again, I know that there is a spiritual application here to the stars falling,
stars representing powers and so forth.
And when the pastor taught on the book of Revelation, it's actually been about seven years ago,
yeah, isn't that something?
He went over that.
Amazing how that time flies.
Because Matthew 24 says in that verse that the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
So perhaps now we may have a little better understanding of the word "deliver" as it is in our text.
And after God delivers Judah to their enemies, look back in the text in verse 14, it says,
"They shall become a prey and a spoil to their enemies."
Now something becomes a prey, P-R-E-Y, when it's carried away.
That's the idea behind this word.
And a spoil here is very close to the word "prey,"
but it has the idea of something that's been plundered or stolen.
And going back in time, let's look at what Israel had when God delivered their enemies into their hands.
See, that's the opposite of what's going to happen here,
where God will deliver Judah into the hands of their enemies.
Let's look back at what Israel had, what they enjoyed, when God delivered their enemies into their hands
and led them into the promised land.
When the lots of land, the parcels, the districts, however you want to look at that,
and Tanya's here, so parishes, we'll say parishes, because they don't have counties in Louisiana,
they have parishes, just like our counties, same concept.
When those lots of land were being given to the tribes of the children of Israel,
in Joshua's day, the Reubenites, that's the tribe of Reuben, the Gadites, the tribe of Gab,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh, remember Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim,
and those were called half-tribes.
They were also in one place called the tribe of Joseph.
Those three groups of people would receive land on the east side of the Jordan River.
So before the children of Israel crossed back over the Jordan,
remember they had already crossed the Red Sea before, but when they crossed back over the Jordan,
before then, the tribe of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had made this agreement with Moses,
"Hey, can we have land over here?"
And Moses gave them the conditions for doing that.
And the rest of the tribes of the children of Israel would receive land on the west side of the Jordan,
which is where we currently think of the nation of Israel,
though it's quite a bit smaller in land mass than it was back then.
However, the agreement to allow the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh
to have land on the other side of the Jordan was this.
You can leave your wife and children and your things here,
and the men of fighting age will go across the Jordan,
and they will help their brethren until there's peace.
And they won't just say, "Well, we're not going to go to war with you all.
We would rather have our land over here."
And once their brethren had rest on the west side of the Jordan,
those two and a half tribes would be allowed to return back to the east side of the Jordan
where their wives and children were and to hopefully live in peace.
And this would occur once God delivered their enemies into their hands.
Now listen to what Joshua told the half-tribe of Manasseh
before he sent them back to the land God gave them.
The enemies have been conquered. Now it's time for everyone to return to his home
and to live in peace with his family and to serve God.
And here's what God told that half-tribe of Manasseh.
It's found in Joshua chapter 22, verse 8.
Joshua 22, verse 8.
"And he spake unto them, saying, 'Return with much riches unto your tents,
and with very much cattle, with silver and with gold and with brass and with iron,
and with very much raiment," that's clothing,
"divide the spoil," there's our word,
"divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren."
Now isn't that something?
When God's people obeyed him, he gave them victory over their enemies
and he blessed them with the spoil of their enemies
or the plunder of their enemies. They came back with a lot of stuff.
And you might think, in fact, there are people who believe
that the children of Israel were stealing from these other countries.
Trying to steal land now, trying to steal this and that.
Let me tell you, all of that belongs to God.
And God doesn't steal from anyone.
It's all his in the first place.
So wherever he allocates it is totally within his authority, within his control.
But what has happened to Jerusalem and Judah in our text?
They went from, in Joshua's day, having their enemies delivered into their hands
and dividing the spoil of their enemies and going back to their lands that God gave them to be in peace.
But now, in our text, rather than dividing the spoil of their enemies with their brethren,
they and their brethren have become the spoil of their enemies.
Now, what brought these kinds of consequences upon Judah? How did this happen?
Look in verse 15. "Because they have done that which was evil in my sight."
You know, we come back to this truth, in fact, this very phrase,
fairly often in the study of the kings of Judah and Israel.
But that truth is not limited to the study of the books of the kings and in the chronicles.
This is a truth that is common from Genesis to Revelation.
Now, a few weeks ago we learned in our study that what seems good to man doesn't seem good to God.
We learned that Eve and Adam did what seemed good to them in the garden.
Now I want to show you that not only was this sinful tendency present in Genesis,
but you'll see it all the way to the book of Revelation.
This same sinful tendency for man to do that which seems good to him, but doesn't seem good to God.
Revelation chapter 20, verses 12 through 13, is to me a lot like the book of Genesis,
where every time I read it I think, "Huh, I didn't think of that."
It's just two verses.
And when we read it we think, "Well, I know everything about that.
That's the white throne judgment." And it is.
And here's what it said, Revelation 20, 12 through 13,
"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works."
Now there, I underlined in my notes that phrase, "according to their works," both times.
It's written in the passage.
The phrase, "their works," tells us all we need to know about their spiritual condition.
What did God say about our works?
Because that's the "their works" being referred to in Revelation 20, verses 12 and 13.
Well, God had much to say about our works.
But I'll just read one verse.
I could spend several weeks reading the verses about our works, and it's pretty gloomy.
But I'm going to read one verse, Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 16.
Nelda, if you're at home listening, Jeremiah 1, 16.
That's an inside joke.
Nelda thought I would never be through teaching the book of Jeremiah.
And now we have sweet fellowship about all 51 chapters of it.
Jeremiah 1, 16, where God said, "And I will utter my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness,
who have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands."
Now I underline that.
They worship the works of their own hands.
So the works of their own hands, or what Revelation calls "their works,"
the works of their own hands not only seemed good to the unbelievers,
but they actually worshipped their works.
They found righteousness in their works, or so they thought.
They gave them worship that was reserved for God and his work.
Our work doesn't deserve worship.
Even when we tell our little children and our grandchildren, "That's a good job.
You did a good job."
We're not worshipping their works.
That's a whole different level.
Yet the phrase "their works" is in view here.
And the problem with the unbeliever is they did not see their works as evil in God's sight
because they're not looking at their works the way God looks at their works.
There was a disagreement between them and God about their works.
And therefore there was a disagreement between them and God about their spiritual condition.
In the White Throne Judgment passage from Revelation that we just read,
the works the unbelievers worship will be the ones by which they will be judged.
The works that the unbelievers worship will be the works by which the unbeliever is judged.
Now if you're a Christian, you have seen your own works, your own righteousnesses,
the way God sees them, as filthy rags and as evil in God's sight.
Like the filthy rags to which Isaiah compared them when he said,
"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of God."
That's all we need to know about our righteousnesses.
And because God saw our works as filthy, he put them on Jesus
so we could receive the righteousness from Jesus' work.
We saw our works as evil in God's sight.
By his Spirit we were able to do that.
We were able to agree with what he said.
And we also saw Jesus' work as righteous in God's sight.
Now you think about the disconnect most people have, even religious people,
with those two truths right there, that our works are evil in God's sight
and God's works are the only ones that should be righteous in our sight.
And most people have a problem with that.
What's the first thing they do?
Well, I don't think I've--let's start off with I, I, I.
I don't think I've ever done anything bad enough to send me to hell.
I've heard somebody say that before who claimed he was a Christian.
No, you're not a Christian if that's what you actually believe.
Because everything that I've done was good enough to send me to hell.
In fact, any one thing that I've done was good enough to send me to hell.
That's just a very basic truth.
But when we saw our works--I'm talking to Christians now--
when we saw our works and Jesus' works the same way God saw them,
then that means we agreed with God.
We repented, which means we had another mind.
That's that Greek word, "metanoia," means a change of mind or change of knowledge.
We changed our mind, meaning we no longer agreed with what we thought was evil,
and what we thought was good.
We agreed with what God said was evil and what God said was good.
Now, the majority of Jerusalem and Judah in these days,
under the wicked reign of King Manasseh, did not agree with God.
They did not see that what they had done was evil in God's sight.
So God brought these consequences upon them.
"Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
That's in Galatians chapter 6.
And they not only did evil in God's sight, but look back in the text.
He said, "And have provoked me to anger."
I want to show you what God told the children of Israel about what would happen if they did this,
if they provoked him to anger.
And we find it all the way back in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 25 through 28.
Deuteronomy 4, verses 25 through 28, where he said this through Moses to the children of Israel.
"When thou shalt beget children, and children's children,
and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves,
and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything,
and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God," there it is,
"to provoke him to anger," there it is.
It's the same thing we see in our text.
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,
that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land."
Now where are they fixing to go? They're going to go into captivity in Babylon.
"Off the land, whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it.
Ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall be utterly be destroyed.
And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations,
and ye shall be left with few in number among the heathen,
whither the Lord shall lead you.
And there ye shall serve God's, the work of men's hands,
wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell."
Notice the seemingly harmless events that led up to Israel provoking God
as we see it in Deuteronomy.
First he said, "When thou shalt beget children."
Now having children is a good thing.
It's a blessing of the Lord.
The Bible says, "Blessed is the man who hath his quiver full of them."
And by the way, our quiver holds three.
It's all the arrows it holds, so don't say, "Well, you should have had more kids."
We had a small quiver, we got three, we're good.
If you have 10, 15, or 1, or 0, that's your quiver.
I'm not going to take that up with you at this time.
But for the children of Israel to have children should have caused them
to celebrate God's goodness to them.
And that should mean there would be more and more of the children of Israel, literally.
And therefore more worshippers of the one true God.
How can that be a bad thing? That's a wonderful thing.
And secondly, God said, "After begetting children, God said,
'And ye shall have remained long in the land.'"
Now that land was the promised land.
And that was another blessing from God.
He brought them out of bondage for over 400 years, 40 years through the wilderness,
and into this wonderful land flowing with milk and honey.
Had everything they need.
Their enemies were scattered, they had peace in the land,
and they remained long in the land, not because of their own efforts and their own righteousness,
but because of the peace they enjoyed, the peace that God gave them.
Now we have to agree, I would say, that both children and living for a long time in the land God gave you
are wonderful things to enjoy.
But what happens when things are going well?
Man gets lazy, he gets self-indulgent, and he takes God's blessings for granted.
He begins to assume that his success is from his own doing, rather than the gracious hand of God.
Let me tell you, every time you get your check in the mail, whether it's a paycheck or you're retired,
or you make a profit off of a stock sale or whatever it is,
you ought to thank God for that.
Don't say, "Boy, I'm getting pretty good at this."
Maybe you are skillful, maybe you're well-studied, and those are all good things.
Maybe you did work hard and all the money you've earned you're now enjoying, and that's a wonderful thing.
But don't ever forget where it came from.
And so man begins to take God's blessings for granted.
And as God said in the Deuteronomy passage, they began to corrupt themselves.
Because that's what happened. They had children, they lived long in the land,
then they began to corrupt themselves.
And that's where it goes south for them.
The word "corrupt" means to destroy or to mar, M-A-R, to mar.
And the road to destruction begins often with the smallest thing.
And it turns into the most unimaginable thing.
After all, when the first generation of the children of Israel were born in the Promised Land,
do you think they grew up thinking, "One of these days, we are going to be the prey and the spoil of our enemies"?
Certainly not.
When they carved their first idol, now they've corrupted themselves in that land.
When they carved out their first idol, they were still fat and happy in the land that God gave them.
And rather than destroying them, God said, "I'm going to send prophets to warn them. They better stop."
Because if they don't, the very same thing that I said would happen in Deuteronomy is going to happen to them here.
And when the prophets warn them as they're carving those idols and hammering them out,
they say, "Get out of here. We're busy."
They blew them off and they continued in their fat and happy condition.
But what they did not see is that they had marred themselves.
They had already begun the path to destruction,
just the same as Adam and Eve did when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God said, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."
And they ate of it and they probably thought, "Ha! We're not dead yet."
Boy, sin entered into the world and man's perspective about sin was altered right then.
He began to excuse himself.
Did you notice if you think back in the interrogation scene there in the garden after Adam and Eve had sinned
and God had, I picture him having Adam and Eve and the serpent just lined up in a row, just taking them to task.
And how they didn't say, "Oh, oh no, we've sinned."
What did Adam do?
Her.
And what did she do?
Snake.
I mean everybody started pointing fingers.
And has that stopped?
No.
And what did your mama teach you when you were a little boy when you pointed a finger?
How many are pointing back at you?
If you have five on your hand, you've got three coming back this way, don't you?
Yeah.
And there's a spiritual truth to that.
Adam would have done well to look at those three fingers and go, "You know what? That one's on me.
I should have listened to God, not my wife.
Eve should have said, 'Lord, I should have listened to you, not the serpent.'"
And the serpent was just without excuse.
He should have said, "I shouldn't have tried to rise up against you in heaven,"
which was Satan embodied there in that serpent.
But people who start going down the wrong road, they don't see that they've already marred themselves
the first step they take off of that right road.
And I'm thinking of one--and this could be somebody in the church, somebody in your family,
somebody you work with that is a Christian or that says they're a Christian.
I'm thinking of one man right now who was--he was raised in church.
He professes to be a Christian, and he's a very successful businessman, has a nice family.
You know, all those All-American things you might think are wonderful,
and God's been very good to him in his business.
But this man's children have never seen the inside of a church.
And now suppose you were to ask that man,
"Is it okay with you if your children never go to church the rest of their lives?"
He'd probably say, "Oh, no, no, no. They need to be in church.
But I'm just--we're just too busy right now. We have a lot going on right now.
One day we'll start going. We're going to find a church and start going."
But what he doesn't realize, and he would probably never intentionally do this,
is he's already marred his family and his children.
He's already begun that path, going down that road.
And perhaps as we close this morning, you, my friend,
perhaps you've been dabbling in something you know is not pleasing to God,
but you've excused it, thinking, "Well, it's not that big of a deal.
This won't come between God and me."
Remember, the road to destruction begins with a first step.
A step off of the good way that the Lord has laid out for you.
And Judah stepped off that road long ago,
and now they're going to pay a heavy price for it.
And we'll pick up with that next week, Lord willing. Let's pray.
Father, you've been so good to us.
As you reveal your truth to us through the Word, and as your Spirit teaches us,
and as we meditate upon these wonderful truths,
Father, we're just grateful for that.
And I thank you for everyone who came and everyone who tuned in this morning,
all who may watch at a later time.
And we ask that you would give our pastor that same liberty,
that same grace that you've given me as I studied and taught.
And Father, we pray that the next hour will glorify you in our singing, our preaching, our praying,
our Christian fellowship with one another.
In Jesus' name, amen.
