In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of listening to the entire series of tapes in numerical order to fully understand the teaching. The speaker references Psalm 25:8, highlighting that the Lord instructs sinners and leads the humble in justice. The paths of the Lord are described as being filled with loving kindness and truth. The speaker then discusses the consequences of not repenting and how it can lead to a broken love relationship with God, resulting in attempts to cover up sin and justify it. The sermon concludes with an invitation to repeat certain phrases and a reminder to proceed to the next tape.

...to listen to all the tapes in the series in numerical order, so that the whole teaching can be received and understood. Listening to a part of this series, or to the tapes out of sequence, can lead to a misunderstanding of the nature, the intent, and the importance of the series. Psalm 25, verse 8. Turn with me. Verse 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore He instructs sinners in the way, He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way. All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth for everyone. Is that what your Bible says? I want you to talk with me. Is that what it says? Now we talk about the loving kindness of the Lord and the truth of the Lord, and it says, all the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth. But that's not all that verse says. What does it say? To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. Now that's the ones that God has poured out His loving kindness and truth. I didn't say He didn't love the others. I didn't say that He didn't because God, He is a God of love. And there's not anybody on the face of the earth that God does not love. That God pours out His loving kindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. Are you with me? And I'd like you to talk with me. And so I want you to talk back to me. My friends, all talk to me. I want you to talk with me. That way I know where you are. What about you falling asleep? But your neighbor might. What I'm saying here, then you'll wake him or her up. And they won't miss what we're talking about. Amen? So I want you to repeat with me. And I say this because there's things I want you to see. And it helps if you say it. It helps you see it. Are you with me? All right. Now, He says, All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? We don't understand what the fear of the Lord is this week. I want you to understand. It will change your life if you understand the fear of the Lord and understand what it means and what it is and how you enter into it. Because God says that He does want the fear of Him before your eyes. But when you fear God, there's absolutely no reason to fear anything else. And we need to know what the fear of the Lord is. We need to know what God means when He says it. So He says, Who is the man who fears the Lord? The man who fears the Lord, he's got a beautiful promise. He will instruct him. That is, the man who fears the Lord, he will instruct him in the way he should choose. Would you like for the Lord to do that? Then He says He'll do it for the person who fears the Lord. Now notice what He says. His soul will abide in prosperity, and His descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the Lord is for those who what? Who fear Him, and look what He says He'll do. And He will make them know His covenant. Now is that a good promise? Now that's what we're going to be seeing this week. We're going to be understanding. We'll have an understanding of that whenever we get through the week. Now turn with me to Daniel. Excuse me, make that Daniel 9. Turn to Daniel 9. Daniel chapter 9. If you found Daniel 7, you ought to be able to find Daniel 9 real easy. Daniel chapter 9, verse 4. Daniel is praying a prayer. Now I want you to notice what he says. And I prayed to the Lord, and I prayed to the Lord my God, and confessed and said, Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God. Is He a great and awesome God? The great and awesome God who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness. Now notice this. Again, He qualifies it. He keeps His covenant, and He keeps His lovingkindness for those who love Him. And what do they do? They keep His commandments. So we've seen two things. We've seen that God shows His lovingkindness and truth, and He shows the paths and directions that people should choose, and He shows His covenant to those who fear Him and keep His commandments. Keep His covenant. And God keeps His lovingkindness for us. Now, if all of that's important, do you think we ought to know what the covenant is? Alright? Now, I want you to realize this. When we talk of covenant, covenant is something that you enter into, but it's also a walk. There is an entering into covenant that's necessary, but there's also a walk that comes with covenant. It's not something you do one time. Covenant is a way of life. Are you hearing what I'm saying? It's a shame we've not understood that salvation is a covenant. It's a shame that we've tried to make salvation that experience over there. I don't care how good it was. Salvation is a walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Covenant is a walk with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so covenant and salvation really are synonymous. Now, here's what I want to do. Because you'll be blessed, and it will transform your life if you know your covenant-keeping God, the God of covenant, if you know Him as He really is. Because one of the things that we're going to see later on this week is that whenever Abraham, for example, was given a tremendous promise, Abraham could not even have a child, and God told him that not only would he have a child, but he'd be the father of many. He'd have many descendants. And if that wasn't staggering enough to hear, God took him outside, told him to look at the sky, and said, count the stars. And He said, if you can count the stars, so shall your descendants be. Now, that was a staggering promise. And Abraham, he just sat back and he said, God, how may I know that I shall possess it? Guess what answer God gave him? Covenant. Covenant. Have you ever asked God how you're going to possess something? Have you ever read something in the Word of God and you wondered, Lord, how am I going to live that? How am I going to live that, God? How am I going to possess that? Lord, how am I going to have that kind of a relationship? Have you ever read the Psalms and see the relationship that David had with God and say, God, how am I ever going to have that relationship with You? How am I ever going to enter into that fullness with You? And God's going to give you the same answer He gave Abraham. Covenant. By covenant. So, we need to know what covenant is. I want you to start with me, though, in Genesis chapter 1. It's a good place to start, isn't it? Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis chapter 1. Now, I'm going to read some familiar Scriptures to you, but I'm doing it for a purpose because I want you to focus in on these verses in relationship to covenant, and we're going to see something together as we go through the Word. Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1, verse 27 and 28. And God created man in whose image? In His own image. God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. Now, what God did... Now, I want you to understand something. God created man in His own image and His own likeness for this reason, that man might share in the life of God as much as was possible for a created being to share in that life and live in it. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now, I want to say that again because I don't want you to miss it. When God says that He created man in His own image and likeness, I want you to know why He did that. God's heart's desire from the very beginning was to create man so that he might participate and have the life of God, like under God's own life, as much as was humanly possible or possible for a human being to live in. Are you with me? That was God's heart desire that you're reading there. That's not just words off of a page. God is literally declaring to you that the life I want you to live is like my life. But something happened. Because what He was saying is, right here to Adam and Eve, that He was creating them that they might be totally yielded to God. Their life might be submerged into His life. Are you with me? And so that they might be in total trust, a loving dependence, and their whole being wrapped up in God's love. Now that was His desire, and that statement says all of that. That's His desire. That's what He wants. But now we've got a problem. When sin entered, it destroyed that relationship. It destroyed it. It didn't destroy it on God's part, because we read in Romans 5 that God declares that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. As a matter of fact, it says, and God demonstrated His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so it didn't break love on God's part, but here's what happened. It totally destroyed love on man's part. Sin does that. Sin destroys love, covenant love, true covenant love, and it replaces it with a false kind of love, and that false love is called selfishness. Are you with me? I say, are you with me? Alright, let's look at Genesis 2. Genesis 2 verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die. Now, we're going to come back to that verse in a moment, but I want you to go on to chapter 3 with me. That was God's command, and we're going to see, we're going to cover a little ground, and then we're going to come back and show how this was covenant that He's talking about, okay? We're going to show how God was speaking about covenant, even though the word covenant is not used there. We're going to see how He was speaking about covenant in the very beginning. But notice with me in Genesis 3. Verse 1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Who does the serpent represent? Satan. And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? Now notice. But from the fruit of the tree... Excuse me. Verse 2. And the woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the tree of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die. Now I know she added something there, but that's not my point in this, so I'm not even going to cover some of that. We're not going to try to cover everything in detail. We've got one subject we're looking at and that's covenant and what happened and why covenant had to be made. Amen? Alright? So we're going to miss some of those things, but you notice she added something to it. She didn't say what God literally said, but we go on and we read in verse 4. And the serpent said to the woman, You surely shall not die. In other words, he was saying, I don't care what God said. Whatever God said, you won't experience death. Is that what he was saying? That's not really what's going to happen. He says, as a matter of fact, here's what's going to happen. Verse 5. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be what? They'll be opened. Now notice. And you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food. Now I want you to notice something. Both trees, two trees in the middle of this garden. Both of them pleasing to the eyes. Are you with me? Two trees. Both of them pleasing. But she looked at this tree and she saw that it was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took from its fruit and ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate. Now I want you to know what happened. When that happened, the love relationship they had with God was destroyed. Not on God's part, but on their part to God. But let me show you how it was destroyed. Look at the next verse. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves... What did they make themselves? They made themselves aprons or loin coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Does that sound like a love relationship to you? They hid themselves. Do you hide yourself from those you love? No. Now don't just think, well, they were just afraid. No, what had happened? It's deeper than that. Their love relationship with God was destroyed. That's what sin does. Sin destroys covenant love. Are you with me? Now, here's what I want you to think about. You see, I don't care how generous love looks on the outside. It's been this way ever since. Love, we can make things look like love. I don't care if you're feeding the hungry. I don't care if you've... I don't care if you're teaching Sunday school. I don't care if you're preaching from the pulpit. I don't care if you're serving religiously in church. I don't care what you're doing. If Jesus Christ does not have your whole heart, then you've got part of it and the devil's got part of it and you're not walking in love. And now what this means is that no matter what you do, all that you do in worship to God is vain. You know what vain means? It means it is of no value. Now, I had to come to a place in my own personal life where I saw that much of what I did in the name of Jesus was nothing but vain worship. You see, in Matthew 15, the Lord said that the Pharisees fulfilled what was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And he said their whole life of worship is vain. Now, I want you to know, they fasted twice a week. They were... The Pharisees weren't what we think they might have been. Do you realize it was the Pharisees in between the Testaments? In between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the period there when nothing was written. There was a man who rose to power by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes. And he went into the temple of God. He took all of the silver and the gold and he desecrated it. He brought in brass. He brought in temple prostitutes. He brought in all those things. And he made people swear that he was God. Or he killed them. And there was a group of people who rose up against him and defeated him. They were called Pharisees. Are you hearing what I'm saying? They didn't start out bad. But by the time we get to Jesus, they were honoring with their lips, but not their heart. And their worship was in vain. Now I'm going to ask you, is that serious? I want you to notice something about this relationship that destroyed love. Look what she saw. Verse 6. We're speaking of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3 verse 6. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food. You know what happened? With her eyes, she saw something and it excited her flesh. Are you with me? Now we're talking about how her love relationship got destroyed. Are you with me? I say, are you with me? Alright. We're talking about how her love relationship, Adam and Eve's love relationship got destroyed with God. Her eyes focused on something and those eyes excited her flesh. She saw it was good. Is that right? Alright, now I want you to notice what else happened. Not only that, but it says that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one what? Rise. Now I want you to know what happened. First of all, her eyes excited the flesh and then the fact that it had the ability to make her rise appealed to the pride of her flesh. It became something that the flesh began to desire. The eyes desired it first and then the pride of life began to desire it for the flesh. Are you with me? And then the next thing we see, what did she do? She ate of it, didn't she? Now when she ate of it, what happened was what her eyes saw and what her flesh craved, she satisfied. And so she satisfied her flesh. And when she did, it destroyed the love relationship she had with God. It destroyed the love. Are you with me? But let me show you that that's true. Turn with me to 1 John. I want to show you that that's true. 1 John 2. Again, you may have seen these Scriptures here, but I want you to particularly focus in on what I'm saying because we're going somewhere. And I want you to see them in light of what we're teaching. 1 John 2. 1 John 2. We're going to read these Scriptures in a particular order because it will help you see what happened to Adam and Eve and what sin does in your life. Now notice this. I want to tell you something. You'll get this when we come to understanding the fear of the Lord. You'll understand the fear of the Lord greater than you've understood it before. But I want to tell you something. It's a good thing, not a bad thing. Are you with me? Alright. Now let's see what happened. Notice. I said that when Adam and Eve began to look at this tree, they saw it was desirable for the eyes. And so what it did was it excited the flesh by what they saw. It excited the flesh. And then the next thing they did is they started to make one wife so they brought in the boastful pride of life began to take over. Now a boastful pride of life is not somebody who just walks around arrogant. Are you hearing me? Anybody can have pride that begins to look to themselves. But now, not only that, but she satisfied the desire of her flesh by eating. Now notice what I said. And I said that destroyed her love relationship with God. Not God's on God's part but her part. Is that where we are? Alright. Now notice what we read. 1 John 2, verse 16. For all that is in the world... Now he's going to describe the world. This is what's in the world. For all that is in the world the... the what? The lust of the flesh. Did we read about the lust of the flesh with her? The lust of the eyes. Did she see it was a delight to the eyes? And the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but it's from what? It's from the world. Now I want you to read verse 15 with me. Do not love the world. In other words, don't let your heart be drawn away by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. Do not love the world. Now notice this. Nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, there it is, the love of the Father is not, would you say is not? Is not in him. Are you with me? What happened? When she did that, it did more than just the fall of sin. It destroyed her love relationship with God. How many of you see that? Because it says that the love of God is no longer in you when that's what you go after with your hearts. Now notice what it says in verse 17. And the world is passing away and also it's lost. But the one who does the will of God, what happens to them? They abide forever. Alright? Now I want you to turn with me to James chapter 1. It's not far away. James chapter 1. And I'm covering, I'm laying up ground work now. We're covering some basic Scriptures that I'm sure you've covered before and you've seen before. But I want you to see them in light of where we're going. James 1. Now notice what he says. We see the same picture that we saw in the garden. We're talking about covenant. James 1 verse 12. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. Let me ask you a question. Did Adam and Eve, were they faced with a trial? Did they persevere? No they didn't. Did they get blessed? No they did not. Therefore, he says, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, who approves him? God. He will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised, and who did He promise them to? To those who what? To those who love Him. The crown of life is promised to those who keep the love of God in them. The covenant is revealed to those who love Him. God keeps His covenant with those who what? Love Him and keep His commandments. Is that what we read? Alright. But the sin comes in, and sin is designed... Now listen to me. You'll look at sin differently if you'll understand this. It won't change if you just get it in your head, but if you ever get this in your heart, it will literally change the way you look at sin. Sin is from the devil. It comes through a temptation. You yield to it. It's your sin. We're going to see that in a minute. But sin, temptation, is designed to get you to sin. When you sin, you destroy your love relationship with the Lord. Unless you repent of that sin and turn from it with your whole heart. Now God has given us repentance as a means of restoring us. Now let me show you something. I want you to hear this. There's two things God's given us in covenant. Mercy and grace. Grace is not just that thing we call unmerited favor. That's not what grace is. It doesn't even come close to touching grace. Of course it's unmerited. Everything we have from God is unmerited. Grace and everything else. There's nothing we deserve. Grace is not just an unmerited favor. People are walking around with a doctrine in their heads and they don't know what grace is. Let me tell you what grace is. Grace is the power of God unto you to enable you to walk in His Word. That's what grace is. Grace is not some unmerited favor. It's a power from God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Grace is the power that comes to you to enable you to do all that God calls you and asks you to do. That's grace. Now He not only gave us grace, He gave us mercy. Mercy is not some theological term. Mercy also is power from God. Now here's what mercy is. Grace gets us into covenant with God. Grace is the power that allows us to walk in covenant with God. When we sin, it breaks the love relationship not from God to us, but in our heart toward God. But now we've got something called mercy. Mercy. Mercy is the power of God that changes my heart to get me back under grace. Are you with me? That's what mercy is. Mercy is not something that happens just to say, Oh God, I sinned again. Please forgive me. And then keep on walking where you were. If genuine mercy is extended to you, and it's always extended when you come to God with your whole heart, when you come in repentance with your whole heart, you always get mercy. He does it with all His mercy from those who keep His commandments and keep His covenant. And covenant says, I'm going to walk back over here with God. I've sinned. What's in my life now doesn't line up with my love object, God. And so a power comes into your life. You don't feel it. Sometimes you may. But you don't necessarily feel it. But it's there. It's a power that comes from God. And it gets you right back under grace. And what's grace? Grace is the ability and the power from God to walk in what He calls you, to walk in His Word. Are you with me? Alright. So now that we understand those, I want you to see something. The devil comes against you with a temptation. What's he after? He's after your love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to destroy it. He'll never be able to destroy it on God's part because he can't tempt God. That's what it says right here. Look at this. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil. How many of you see that? You see, the devil cannot destroy covenant on God's part. He cannot destroy the covenant of love on God's part because God absolutely cannot be tempted. And God Himself tempts no man. Is that what it says? Alright. So who's the temptation coming from? Satan and the powers of darkness. But now look at this. Can you be tempted? Absolutely. So who's the devil going to come to? He's going to try to destroy the love relationship on your side because he can't destroy it on God's side. Alright. Now notice this. Verse 14. But each one is tempted. Now notice this. He's tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Now I want you to say something. He hasn't talked about sin yet. He's talking about temptation. He's saying that there's a time when you are carried away and enticed by your own lust. But you still haven't yielded. Right now you're yielding to temptation. But it hasn't become sin yet. You're just being enticed. You're being drawn away. Your heart's being drawn away. Are you with me? Alright. But now something happens. You must now make a choice just like Adam and Eve. They had to make a choice to obey God and do the will of God or to rebel against God. Now notice what happens. Verse 15. Then when lust has conceived... What do you mean conceived? You see, the temptation is going to come. And it's going to fill you. You're going to feel... You are going to feel temptation but it cannot conceive until you join your heart with it. Are you with me? When you join your hearts to that temptation through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life, then here's what happens. Look what takes place. It gives birth. Isn't that what conception usually does? It gives birth. And what does it give birth to? It gives birth to sin. Why? Because your heart joins with the temptation. You let it carry you. And I want to tell you something. The minute it starts to carry you, see, it draws your heart away. The minute it starts to draw you, if you don't put it to death, it will put your love relationship with God to death. Are you with me? Now notice. Apparently, it must be serious because it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished, what does it bring forth? Death. Now wait a minute. Was Satan right? Did Eve or Adam literally die? No, they didn't literally die. What died? Their love relationship to God died right then and they went and hid themselves. What happens when you allow sin and your heart to join up with sin? Your love relationship with God dies. That's why you feel so empty. And then the devil tells you that God's left you and departed. No, he hasn't. You have. The devil cannot tempt him with evil and cannot destroy his love relationship. Oh, if we could get that in our mind. That's why you don't have to beg God. You don't have to come and plead with God to forgive you. You simply have to turn your heart away from what destroyed your love relationship and back to loving Him with a whole heart. Are you hearing what I'm saying? That emptiness, that feeling of separation isn't God having separated from you. It's you having separated from Him because you were carried away and enticed and it brought forth death and the death was the death of your love relationship with God and that's why you no longer feel comfortable with God. Now, how many of you are hearing me? Alright. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. Chapter 11. 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11. Verse 2. 2 Corinthians 11. Verse 2. For I am boldly speaking, and he says, for I am jealous for you with what kind of a jealousy? A godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to how many husbands? One husband. And who was that husband? That to Christ, to Jesus Christ, I might present you as a pure virgin. Now, I realize the King James reads a little bit differently here, but listen to what I'm saying and read it in your Bible. Verse 3. But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his lot, craftiness, that your minds should be... Now, what does it say? Led astray. Is that that enticing that we talked about? Is that what happened to her? She's led astray. Your mind is led astray. Now look at this. Your mind is led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Now, do you think that might be why He told us in 2 Corinthians 10? Turn over there with me and look what it says. Verse 3. 2 Corinthians 10. Wait a minute. I want to ask you again. What did I say? Your minds were led astray? Is that what we're saying? Now see, here's what. Now I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to me. When temptation comes, it comes to the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, the lust of the flesh. You know what they affect? Your mind. And your mind is led astray from purity of devotion to Jesus. But, if you continue to let your mind be led astray, the sin's not there. But if you let your mind be led astray, it's going to go from your mind to your heart. And your heart is going to listen to your mind. And when it joins with the temptation, it conceives sin and your love relationship with God on your part. So what do we do about it? 2 Corinthians 10. Verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. Now do you see that? You don't war according to the flesh. We're going to see later on this week how we really do war in the Spirit. We war by the Spirit and in the Spirit. But I want you to see that we don't war according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. But what are they? They're mighty through God or divinely powerful for the pulling down of strongholds or the destruction of fortresses. Is that what your Bible says? Does it say who does the pulling down? God does. Listen. God is the one that does battle with your enemies. You cannot walk and live the Christian life. Can I say that to you again? It's impossible. You cannot walk and live the Christian life. You might as well quit trying. It's an impossibility. You absolutely cannot do it. If it were possible, Jesus would not have needed to die on your behalf. It's an impossibility. God must live the Christian life through you. But now listen to me. He can't live His life through you if you're still living for yourself. When you cease living for yourself, He does His part and lives His life through you. You don't have to muster it up. He does it because it's covenant. And He is a covenant-keeping God. Are you with me? Alright. Now notice. We're going to clearly see this week what your part is and what God's part. You can't do God's part. Are you getting what I'm saying? God won't do your part. Let me say that again. You cannot do God's part. God will not do your part. Let me tell you what your part is. Your part is to take every thought captive. To deny ungodliness and worldly desires. To resist the devil. To be willing to suffer through the temptation. And then the God of covenant comes to do battle on your behalf against every enemy you face. And I want to tell you something. It's not a fair fight. It's already been won in Christ Jesus. Now are you with me? But now listen. If you don't do your part God can't meet you in covenant to do His part. Are you with me? Alright. Now notice. Here's what He says. The weapons of our warfare verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 10 The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. Verse 5 We are destroying What are we doing with them? Destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we're taking every thought captive to what? To who are we going to be obedient to? To Christ. We're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Was Eve's mind and Adam's mind led away from simplicity and devotion to Jesus? Alright. Did they resist Him? No they didn't. Did they deny it? Did they... As the temptation comes you're going to have a choice to make. That's where your warfare is. Would you understand it? See the devil has got your mind on fighting how you're going to overcome the flesh and your weaknesses. And he makes you forget that your warfare is right there when the temptation comes. Are you with me? That's where your war is. And it says that you are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. Let me just give you an example. If the devil, if this brother offends me and the devil speaks to me in my mind about hey, he didn't have any right to say that. He's got no right to reject you. He's got no right to talk to you like that. Am I in a war? Because 2 Corinthians 2 verse 11 tells me that one of the schemes of the devil is unforgiveness. And so what he's doing is he's talking to my mind. Now I want to tell you something. You know all those neat little arguments that you always win, wish you thought you'd have said when you're right there before him you could have just ripped him to shreds? You know what the design is? You're living for yourself. You're living for yourself. You see, because the mind of Jesus doesn't think about all those things that I could have said to rip this brother to shreds. Are you hearing me? The mind of Jesus doesn't think that way. And so I'm not destroying speculation. You know what I'm doing? I'm letting him talk to me. I'm letting him talk to me and then pulling my heart away. And guess what happens? A seed gets deposited in my heart and it conceives and it brings forth sin. Even if I forget about him it's going to affect me whenever this sister now says something that offends me I'm going to be offended easier. And when I let that seed be planted and then somebody over here does it the next thing you know I have a root and stronghold of unforgiveness in my life. You know why? Because I was living for myself and God, the covenant-keeping God couldn't come and make covenant with me and break the bondage over my life. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I say, are you hearing what I'm saying? Alright. Now, I want you to go with me. Well, look at verse 6 though. Here's the key. Not only do you take the thought captive and not only do you destroy the speculation but verse 6 says you're ready to do what? To punish all disobedience. See, you've got to be ready to not just take the thought captive but you've got to be ready to punish the disobedience. How do you do that? You start thinking about it. You start talking in it. And you put to death the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the boastful pride of life that's come against your mind. Are you with me? Alright, now turn with me to Genesis. Back to Genesis. Chapter 2. Or 3, excuse me. I want you to see three things that they did. They destroyed their love relationship with God. Now when your love relationship with God gets destroyed and you don't repent now you see, if they had repented or if you and I repent then mercy is the power of God that gets us back under His grace. Are you with me? Alright, but now notice what happens if you don't repent. If you don't take the thought captive if you don't enter the Lord if you don't punish the disobedience then here's what happens. Verse 7. Chapter 3 of Genesis. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons or loin coverings. That's the first thing you begin to do. You start making yourself something. You know what he's doing? You start trying to cover your sin through justification and hiding it. And that's what they did. You start trying to make yourself something that will make up for the lost love you have in your heart for God. Are you with me? You know what most people use? Religion. The church. Works. Good deeds. And you know what it does? It pacifies the heart. But their heart is far from God because the love relationship is destroyed because of sin. So what do they do? They give God lips. What are they trying to do? They're trying to pacify the emptiness from the sin and the separation from God on the inside. And so they make something for themselves. They make something to try to cover up the lost love relationship. Are you with me? Well, when you do that I want you to notice what they do. Verse 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. You see what this person does? When this person covers themselves up with something, anytime they hear the sound and voice of God guess what they do? What did they do? They hid themselves. And that's what you do. If you're living religiously but you're justifying sin and you're covering up on the inside you hide yourself when you hear the voice of God. You know how you hide yourself? Well, I see it's in the Bible. I see that verse, but we just don't believe that way. So I hide myself from God. Well, I don't know. There's a lot of people that interpret that verse a lot of different ways. I just don't interpret it that way. Or, you know how? You really want to hide yourself? What you do is you go find you a bunch of people that believe exactly like you do so you can ignore what God said. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Alright, now notice. Then it says, look what happens. This always happens. Verse 10. And he said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself. Now, you see the fear? Fear always enters in. That's why when a preacher begins to preach something in the Word of God that's contrary to popular doctrine fear enters in but it comes out in the form of anger and intimidation. Are you hearing what I'm saying? That's why when you go share something with somebody and they get angry because you're sharing the Word with them their fear is controlling them. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now, there's something that will cover that fear. I mean, if the fear gets bad enough you can cover that up too. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 29. Because, you see, the devil is there in order to fill your heart with doctrines and the traditions of men and give you a false peace. Are you with me? I say, are you with me? Now, here's how he does that. Notice how he does that. This is the way a false peace always comes. Now, it starts out that as you lose that love relationship with God. Now, folks, listen to me. Some people are so far from that love relationship with God that they've lost and they've come so far in the direction that I'm going to describe they can't even remember when they lost it. But I want you to think back. In a time if you genuinely got saved if you really were saved if you really did have an experience with God there was something placed on the inside of your heart it's called the fear of God. You absolutely did not want to displease Him. I can show you in the Word of God and I will this week that the fear of God is put in the heart of every person that gets born again. And an adulteress comes to try to steal the fear of God out of your heart. You know why? Because Proverbs 16.6 says the fear of the Lord keeps you from... And if the fear of the Lord's gone guess what? You can justify sin. Now, listen. Here's what he does. Deuteronomy 29. Deuteronomy 29, verse 17. Moreover, you have seen their abominations and their what? Everybody say that word. Idols of wood, stone, silver and gold which they had with them. Let me ask you a question. Do we have idols? We got any idols of wood today? And stone? And gold? Yeah, we do. We've got idols of denominations. We've got idols of church buildings. We've got idols of doctrines. We've got idols of people. We've got idols of material things. Are you hearing what I'm saying? You see, what happens is... Now listen to me carefully. What happens is when you allow your heart to get carried away with the temptation God lets you have your lust. And your lust destroys your love relationship with Him because it conceives and gives birth to sin. Sin brings forth what? Death. Death of what? Your love for God. Now, what takes place? With the love for God gone, then you start justifying. You start covering yourself with something. You start hiding yourself from God. And the fear there protects you. You've got to set something up to protect yourself. So you put an idol. You let an idol come in your heart. Satan puts an idol in your heart. We're going to see this. Ezekiel 44 says, God lets the idol stand before you and even minister to you. Now that's serious. Because why? Because you chose it. Are you with me? Now, here's what happens. When you set an idol up in your heart, I want you to see what it does. Look what takes place. He warned them not to put an idol in verse 17. Verse 18, lest there shall be among you a man or a woman or a family or tribe whose what? What's God after? He's after the heart. Did He say the first commandment was that you love the Lord your God with how much of your heart? All your heart. It says the same thing in Deuteronomy. Guess what? It was the same in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. God wanted your heart. You know what the law was for? We'll see this week what the law was for. The law was simply to get your heart. That's what God wanted. He's always wanted the heart. Now notice, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations, lest there shall be among you a root bearing what kind of fruit? Poisonous fruit and wormwood. That's what we're talking about. A root. When your heart goes away from an idol to an idol, guess what happens? You might be the idol. Your selfish ambition might be the idol. I want to tell you something. Selfish ambition is destroying more men of God than anything I know of. It becomes a poisonous root on the inside. So it just speaks out poison. You think that might have been what James meant when he said no man contain the tongue, but out of the fountain there should not come both bitter water and sweet water? You know how bitter water comes out? Because there's been a poisonous root of wormwood deposited. Are you listening? It's so amazing because you can have an idol. And your idol can let you even openly profess that you have bitterness towards somebody else in the church. You can walk out the separate doors. You can even say things like I'll forgive them, but I'll never forget them. You can say things like you can do all kinds of things. Brother Mike and I were just talking earlier that if you give enough to the church, you can do almost anything you want to. I mean, if you just serve, you can get away with just about everything. But look, when you get that poisonous bitterness and root inside, you think, will they wake up then? No, they don't wake up because it's that poisonous root that deceives your heart and blinds your eyes and something comes over you that I call the false peace. Look what they say next. Because the idol has their hearts and allows them to feel right with God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And so the idol lets them feel right with God. And so they say in verse 19, And it shall be when he hears the words of his curse. In other words, when God brings a message to repent, here's what happens. That he will boast, saying, I have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of what? Of my heart, in order to destroy the water and land with the dry. When God, the Spirit of God, brings the message of repentance, he rejects the curse and says, but it's not talking about me. Look at me, I've got peace. Even though he's walking in the rebellion and stubbornness of his own heart. Is that serious? Look how serious it is. Look what God says he does. God says, verse 20, The Lord shall never, never, never be willing to forgive him. But rather, the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him. And the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. Do you think idolatry is serious? See, this man no longer knew, loved, or trusted God. Can I tell you why God uses words like believe and trust in the Bible? Or they've been so perverted? You see, I believe the Lord. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? See, when God uses the word believe, he uses it for a reason. Because what you believe in, what you really believe in, will rule your whole being. Are you hearing me? Somebody says, well, I believe in the Bible. Do you? Does it rule you? If it doesn't rule you, you don't believe in it. We are people of the book. Are you? Does it rule you? If it doesn't rule you, you're not a people of the book. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I don't know of any church, very few, except the most liberal ones, I don't know of any conservative church, of any denomination, that doesn't proclaim, we're the people of the book. I don't know of any. See, I believe in the Lord Jesus. Not if he doesn't rule your whole being. Your attitudes, your actions, your deeds, your mouth, your heart, your eyes, your ears, everything. If you can listen to gossip, he does not rule you. Are you hearing what I'm saying? He doesn't have your ears. In so many places, you listen. How far do you think gossip would go on the body of Christ if people stopped listening to it? Folks, I'm telling you, I'm hitting on some things I want you to hear, I want you to listen to me. Listen to me. Does Jesus have your whole heart? Don't look down the street. Many of you have come out of places, many of you have come out of churches, but I want to tell you something, there's a war and scheme against you to get you to blind yourself to your own sin and look down the street where you came out of. God is not interested in where you were. He's interested in where your heart is right now. We're going to see that this way. I'm going to tell you, it'll shock you when you see some Scripture that just indicates that in a strong way. See, we tell people, no matter what pit, no matter how deep the pit, no matter what gutter you are lying in, come to the Lord Jesus and He'll receive you. Praise God for that. I believe that. It's true. Because He's not interested in where you used to be. He's interested in where your heart is right now. But now let me tell you what we don't tell them. We don't tell them. I say we don't tell them. We don't even mention to them. Your experience back there is not what God's interested in. It's where your heart is right now. Are you hearing what I'm saying? How many of you heard what I said? How many of you believe that? Well, we're going to see that real clear. I'm tempted to go there now, but I'm not going to do it. I want you to turn with me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. We're talking about covenant with God. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, verse 1. And you were dead. Does that say were dead? Does that mean you used to be? You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Now what was that word dead? Dead to what? How many of you, before you came to Jesus, God says you were dead. Dead to what? Dead to the love relationship with God. In other words, your heart loved yourself. It loved rebellion. Now listen to me. Even if it had a religious idol to cover it, it still loved itself. Are you with me? The way you know that is because the minute something touched your religious idol, you no longer looked loving. Are you with me? You were dead in your love relationship with the Lord and in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. I want you to notice carefully. Now I know you've read these verses, but I want you to listen to them carefully. I want you to see them again. In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. What is the course of this world? Did we read that it's the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life? Now when you don't have that kind of a love relationship with God, that's what you walk according to. Are you hearing me? Your heart is self-centered, unbroken, and living for itself. Alright? Now listen to this. If you're living according to the course of this world, you're also living according to the prince of the power of the air. How many of you see that? See, you don't just live according to the world. You don't just live in selfishness and live unto yourself. But you live for the very nature and character of Satan himself. Because everything the flesh is in rebellion, Satan is in his nature. That's why Jesus was able to say to a group of religious people, he said to them, you are of your father the devil because you want to do his desires. John 8.44 He says you want to do them. You want to do them. That's why you do them. And he is your father because that's what your heart desires. Are you hearing what I'm saying? This concludes tape number one. Please fast forward this tape to return it to the beginning. Please proceed to tape number two.