Frank Bailey: If you take your Bible and go ahead and turn over to Numbers chapter 32. I do appreciate the privilege of beginning our day today in this conference. And it's a privilege to be able to be here under the auspices of Minutemen Ministries especially.

And I appreciate Falls Baptist Church, of course, hosting this conference. Minutemen Ministries, some of you are familiar with, some of you have been involved in Minutemen Ministries and know something about the programs that they hold and so forth. One ministry of Minute Men Ministries that often is overlooked is the impact that it has on the people that actually are involved with putting on the meetings.

There's probably college students here this morning that are actually involved in it and people that have been formerly involved in it, and there's probably just no telling how many lives have been affected, not just by people that have been preached to, but by the college students that have gone off and traveled and been involved in the ministry. And Jim Van Gelderen, of course, has a unique ministry with college-age students.

And I think back to 87 when he came to North Carolina and I was a senior in high school and the impact that that meeting had on me as a teenager. I was able to experience it as a saved teen. And really the emphasis that I went away that week is something I didn't know.

I probably knew it was in the Bible, though I didn't know a lot about the Bible at that time. But I realized that week that there's power in the gospel. And it really just impacted me to the point that when I got to college, God just burdened me if there's any way I want to travel on that team.

And in 1989, when I traveled, it was God's calling on Jim Van Gelder's life to keep me humble. So he tried to point out all my weaknesses, and he did. And I had a lot of them.

And I'll tell you, really, as I look back on my ministry, that especially first tour, and of course for 10 years I continued to preach for the Miniman team and so forth, but that first tour had such a deep impact that really I attribute really much of the disciplines and things that I was able to acquire to that tour and just a tremendous influence. I really say that just as a word of appreciation.

And then to be able to be involved in a conference that they put on is really a great privilege. But I want to look this morning to God's Word. So if you'll find Numbers chapter 32, I'm going to read just a couple of verses from that chapter.

In just a moment, before we do, allow me to have a word of prayer. Lord, we're thankful this morning that we have an opportunity to open up the Word of God. We're thankful for every person who is here, and especially this morning for the young people who have made a great effort to be out to hear the Word of God, to know that they've come to hear from you.

Now, Lord, I'm confident this morning because of this book from which I read that they will hear from God. So we would ask the Spirit of God to take His Word this morning, and we would ask You, Lord, to apply it in the definite ways that it needs to be applied. May You lift up the Lord Jesus Christ.

May You receive all the honor for what's done. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

And before I read the text in Numbers chapter 32, let me remind you of what happens in this chapter. As you come to this point in Israel's history, they have made it across the wilderness. They've been in there for 40 years.

They've come to the River Jordan. And when they get to the River Jordan, if you'll remember, they asked permission for the two kings that owned that land if they could cross without any kind of a problem, if they could cross that land and get to the River Jordan. Well, these kings didn't allow them to do it, so God gave them leave to go in and destroy those two kings.

Now, these two kings were very powerful, and they owned an immense amount of land on this side of the Jordan, but Israel goes in and utterly destroys those nations. Well, as a result, by right, they now own that land. Now, it was God's purpose for Israel to go over into the land of Canaan.

But two and a half of the tribes come to Moses because they have much cattle. And because they saw this land was a very good land for cattle, they come to Moses and they ask permission to stay on this side of the Jordan. Well, Moses interprets that to mean that they aren't going to help him fight the war.

He takes that to mean that they're going to stay and not go over. So he immediately warns them about what happened at Canaan. He says, you don't want God to bring that kind of judgment again.

But what they do is they correct and they say, now, Moses, what we have in mind is if you would allow us to leave our cattle and our women and our children, we will go over armed into the land of Canaan, help you defeat it. And when the land is completely subdued, then we'll come back over. Well, Moses from God gets leave for them to do that.

And so that is the agreement. But now Moses gives them an exhortation in this chapter. after God gives them leave to stay on the side, he gives them an exhortation and basically reminds them, he says, look, when we get over to the land of Canaan and we begin to get into the battle, if you remember your women and children and you remember your cattle and you realize that we are completely in the midst of the fighting, you could turn around and come home.

There's really no way that Moses could keep these people accountable and make them continue to fight. He knew that they would be at their mercy. He says, but I can't do it.

Israel can't keep you here, but notice if you would in Numbers 32 and look down to verse 22. It says, And the land be subdued before the Lord, then afterward you shall return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Now Moses here states a principle to these people. The principle was already true, but now Moses explicitly tells these people that if you leave and evade our accountability, that is, if we're not able to physically keep you here and do any type of retribution because you've left, he said, really, we can't. We won't be able to do it.

He said, but remember this, you can be sure your sin will find you out. Now, do you realize that that principle that Moses states here in this chapter was not only true for these people, but it always had been true and it always will be true. You see, there is a law that God has set in motion.

That law is the fact that sin, just because it is sin, has a way of finding you out. Now, the way it does it would be varied. We won't even be exhaustive this morning.

We couldn't possibly be exhaustive in how God will cause sin to find one out, but yet God says it will. You know, you think about the different laws of nature that we have. We have the law of gravity.

the fact that I am plastered on this platform this morning I didn't even think about last night when I was going to get up here to speak how am I going to stay on this platform because I take for granted that there's a law some of us of course are aided more by our weight than other people by the law but I just didn't even think about it I said I'll get up here and gravity will hold me there because I'm so used to that law

and it's it happens so much and I'm I so know it's going to take place I never think twice about it now the devil has never sought to deceive me about the law of gravity.

I've never got up in the morning and thought to myself, I can fly or I can float because the devil won't try to convince me that that's true. But there have been many times the devil has sought to convince me that the law that God has said sin will find you out will not come true. And yet it's just as true of a law.

It always takes place. You see, if God is who he is, and if this book is true, when sin takes place, it will find you out. Now, the time that it finds you out may vary.

The degree in which the consequences come may vary, but sin will always find you out. There's no exception. So I want to, if I could this morning, just give you three ways, three principles that I believe that God has established that sin will find you out.

And again, it's not an exhaustive list, but I want you to notice, first of all, sin will find you out through its consequences. Now, if you would turn over to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, of course, a very familiar chapter.

And we find in Genesis chapter 3 the very first sin that was ever committed. Now, of course, often when you find something mentioned for the first time in the Bible, it establishes the principle throughout the rest of the Bible. And God, in this very first instance in which sin takes place, establishes this very principle.

Now, if you notice in Genesis chapter 3, very familiar account in verse 1, The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, half God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. The woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God had said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it lest you die. Now you know well that this serpent that comes to Eve, of course we find out in the New Testament clearly, this is the devil. The devil comes and offers the very first question in the entire Bible.

The first time a question is brought up is a question that the devil gives to Eve, yea, hath God said. You see, this disobedience is prefaced by the fact that the word of God is being questioned. You see, all disobedience is tied into that very fact.

It is a lack of faith in what God said. You see, God Almighty had given specific instructions to this man, Adam. He had said to Adam there would be a consequence to their sin.

Now the first consequence, of course, is an eternal consequence. You'll remember what God said to Adam in chapter 2 and verse 17. The Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.

For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. So here God with the warning about sin comes its consequence the first time God mentions the possibility of disobedience. He ties a consequence to it.

And the consequence He ties to it is an eternal consequence. Now you know that principle is repeated throughout the Bible. Some familiar verses are like Ezekiel 18.4, The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

You remember Romans 6.23, For the wages of sin is death. You remember James 1.15, Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Hey, that principle began right here in Genesis 3.

and continues throughout God's Word that sin has an eternal consequence. So the devil comes to Eve and he says, Yea, hath God said. And when the devil comes and gets you the sin, that is where he aims at.

He is going to try to undermine the foundation of the Word of God. That is, he begins to cause you to question. You know, it's often you find somebody who's not right with God but claims to be, and when they hear Bible preaching and they argue, the way they argue against it is like this.

I think, or my interpretation is, or to me it seems, but see, God has said some things. And the way it seems to me, and my interpretation, and the way I feel about it is not the issue. The issue is, what did God say?

2 Peter 1.21, the Bible or the prophecy of Scripture is of no private interpretation. It's not open for me to how do I feel about it. So Eve answers his question basically with that in mind.

Well, God said something similar to this.

he said something the new international version i believe put it this way or something like that she just kind of gave a little bit of a plug there and she said it basically sounded like this and honestly it did sound a whole lot like what god said the only thing that he left out was the teeth you see she said well we're not supposed to touch the fruit when if we do we might die that's what the word lest means it's possible that we might die

but god had said you shall surely die well the devil knew at that point he had her and he was confident okay eve's not going to stay on the foundation of the word of god it's clear to me this is who i need to aim at he didn't go to adam for adam wouldn't have been deceived evidently adam maybe at that point had his bases founded in that command which god actually gave specifically to adam but now notice what the devil says to her in verse

four the serpent said unto the woman you shall not surely die a direct contradiction to what God said, for God doth note unto the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes should be open.

You should be as gods knowing good and evil. You know what the devil basically says to Eve is, look, don't worry about the judgment that sin will bring. Don't worry about its consequence.

He is completely contradicting the principle that God has laid down that sin has an eternal consequence. Hey, has that thought ever come to you? Have you ever thought to yourself when you were being involved in sin, perhaps you were tempted to do wrong.

Maybe you thought about stealing something that you knew you could probably get away with. Maybe you thought about looking at something you know that you would probably get in trouble if you were found out. Maybe you've been around some folks that wouldn't keep you accountable and you've said some things, some words that you shouldn't say and the thought came to you as you were convicted about what you were about to do.

Immediately the thought says, you know, what kind of trouble am I going to get in if I do this? And the thought comes to you, I can get away with it. That's the devil giving you the same thought that he gave Eve.

Whenever the thought comes to your mind that you can get away with sin, then the devil is saying, you shall not surely die. In fact, he said the opposite to Eve. He said, really, the problem here is not that it is a moral issue.

The problem is God knows that if you did this, you would enjoy it and get pleasure from it, and it would be advantageous, and he doesn't want that for your life. Now, if you were to stand back and think about this, you'd never believe that. If Eve had stood back and thought, you know, why'd God put all these other trees in the garden?

Why'd God put all this other good stuff for us to have? Why'd he put us in this environment? Why does he give us this great life that we're living in, this garden that's beautiful and so forth?

If God did all this, why would he want to hold back some other thing from me that would be good? But she didn't think it through. And usually when you're involved in sin, you don't stop and think it through.

The devil doesn't work that way. He gets your focus on the pleasure of sin. And you know, it might be that sin brings pleasure.

In fact, it was not the devil, but God that said it would. He said that there would be pleasure in sin for a season. But what the devil will not show you is that that consequence always comes at the end.

You know, I think about maybe some person who goes out on a weekend, on a Friday night, they end up out on the strip. And they're there with their friends, they're sitting on the hood of their car, they're watching people go around, and finally one of their friends shows up and says, man, I got the stuff. So they head off to another area where the police won't find them and they open up the cooler and they begin to partake of the alcohol.

Or maybe somebody else brings some marijuana and they begin to smoke that or perhaps even some other stuff. Well, they get finished with that. They go back out to the strip.

Now they're high. They meet some friends and they talk about what they've just done. Pretty soon some girls show up and they pair off with the girls.

They go off into a weekend of sin. They go off late into Friday night, get up the next morning, sleep in again Saturday. They're looking for another party.

They find that someone's got one over across town. They go. They're involved in the party.

As soon as they show up, not too many people are there. They gather in a circle. They tell a filthy joke.

Everybody listens and laughs at it. Finally, they crank on music that is dishonoring to everything that God stands opposed to. It stands for.

The party becomes more populous and more people come. They pair off again involved in deep sin. And before it's over, here we are, 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, the person leaves, their weekend is almost over, and if you could stop them and interview them and ask them, did you have a good time this weekend?

They say, man, are you kidding? I had a great time. Well, now, God isn't surprised at that.

God said there would be pleasure in sin. He said, look, if you get involved in sin, it's going to seem like God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, you shall be as gods. But at the end of it, Isaiah 57, 21 says, there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked.

You see, the eternal consequences of sin begin now. The eternal consequences of sin take place immediately, as we'll see in this passage. You see, the eternal consequence of sin is separation from a holy God.

Now, you notice what happens when she eats the fruit. And you'll notice that when she eats the fruit, she gives it to her husband in verse 6 and in verse 7. It says the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

Now the Bible said back in verse 25 of chapter 2 they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. They didn't become naked when they ate the fruit. They already were.

But now their conscience has been awakened. There was an element of truth in what the devil said and there usually is. He just puts enough error with it to make it wrong.

They did become as gods in a sense that they knew that they were naked, but it wasn't a good thing, it was a bad thing. So here Adam is told by his wife, I can almost see her as she's out in the garden. You think about it, nobody lived on this big earth but Adam and Eve.

There were no other human beings. They didn't know enough about God to know that he was there and could see what they were doing, so Eve listens to the devil and even he now has slithered away. So perhaps she plucks this fruit and thinks about what the devil said.

She says, you know, Adam says, I'm not supposed to do this. He said, God said it wasn't going to happen. But now what he said sounded pretty good.

In fact, nobody probably would know. I think I'll just taste it. So she sort of went out, Adam knowing about it.

The serpent can't even see. Surely God doesn't know. She takes a bite.

Well, you know something? Nothing did happen. God gave that command to Adam.

Nothing took place. So when Adam comes back, she says, look, Adam, I've ate the fruit. Here I have.

I've eaten this fruit that God, you said, said we were not supposed to eat. Nothing happened. Now, the Bible tells us in the New Testament, Adam was not deceived.

He knew what was what, but he said, okay, Eve, I'll do it. He takes the fruit and he bites it. And the moment he bites it, they knew something was wrong.

Adam looked at Eve. Eve looked at Adam. And they immediately realized something is not like it used to be.

They felt shame. And do you realize there is always shame associated with sin? The principle is established right here in the first instance in the Bible.

Shame is established and Adam and Eve immediately realize the last person they want to see is God. Because in a moment he's going to come to the garden and they don't run to him to find out what they can do about it. They go and they hide themselves.

Because now the eternal consequences of sin have set in. Now, you read this and remember the promise of God. God said in the day, not when you die, in the day you eat thereof, he said, you're going to die.

The very time that you do it, you'll die. Now, I read this story and realized that after they ate this fruit, they went on and had children. Adam lived to be over 900 years old.

You say, well, how do we find out that God said they'd die in the day if he went on to live? Well, now we know he died that day spiritually. He was separated from God.

He was cut off. Now, what if God had allowed Adam to die physically at the same time that he died spiritually? That would have been legitimate.

It would have been absolutely legitimate and God could have been righteous, just, and holy if he'd immediately let Adam and Eve die physically. They would have gone screaming into hell for all eternity. They'd be there to this day.

And when they stood as the only two human beings at the white throne judgment, they would stand there that day without excuse. We violated what God said and God kept his promise. So why did God let them live?

What was it that caused Adam and Eve to stay alive? It was the mercy of God. You see, God's mercy kept them alive physically to give them an opportunity to evade the eternal consequences of sin.

See, I am thankful today that though there are eternal consequences to sin and that God would be just and righteous to send me to hell for all eternity for the very first lie I ever uttered. Because God has demonstrated His mercy that I have an ability to evade those consequences through trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Adam and Eve did what many people do today.

When they ate the fruit and they realized that their sin was a problem, then they immediately said, you know what we need to do is we need to cover it up. So they took fig leaves and they made themselves aprons. Now, they didn't know a whole lot about God.

They didn't know as much as we know about God. They had very limited light. But they said, maybe we could fool them.

It might would fool you, Eve. So we'll just put fig leaves on and then we'll just kind of stand beside a bush and maybe look camouflaged and God will never notice. Now, they spent some time putting that thing together.

But when God showed up, if they really believed that it did the job, then why did they hide themselves? Because deep down they knew it didn't do the job. Do you realize today we have probably many people in our society, and maybe even you this morning, that you know sin is a problem?

You realize that sin is a real issue, and you realize that sin is robbing you of peace. And ultimately you know sin will send you to hell. And you know that sin is an issue.

And even as a saved person this morning, you know that sin is there and it's going to destroy you. So the first reaction humanly is to cover that sin. Hey, our world says, you know what, I've got a problem with sin, so I'll be religious, I'll get baptized.

But it's just like fig leaves in their heart, they know it does not do the job. Someone else says, well, I'll go join a church. Surely that would impress God.

They join the church, maybe faithfully attend, but in their heart they know it just does not do the job. Someone else perhaps says, you know, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. I'm going to get rid of my drugs and get rid of my alcohol and I'm going to reform my life and be a decent citizen.

And even if they're able to accomplish it, when it's all done, inside there's emptiness. They know that it just does not do the job. And when God shows up on the scene, they hide themselves.

You see, the eternal consequences that were evaded here could not be dealt with by the fig leaves. But I'll tell you what they could be dealt with by. God makes Adam a promise.

He gives him his word to condemn him. Now he gives him his word to show him how to be saved. You look down in verse 15.

He says to the devil, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. Now we know that's Jesus. It shall bruise thy head.

That is, he's going to put a devastating blow on the devil and thou shall bruise his heel. And Jesus certainly had that done to him at the cross. Now, Adam listens to what God says.

he says God told me that my sin would destroy me and he was right now he tells me that there's going to be a seed from this woman that actually could take care of my sin and he in verse 20 names his wife Adam called his wife's name Eve or life giver now why would he call her life giver Eve you just caused me to die Eve you just gave me this fruit and destroyed my life but he calls her life giver, not because Eve is

so special, but because of that seed she's going to produce.

He believed God. He didn't have a whole lot of light, but what he did have, he said, I believe that. And when he did, I want you to notice what God did in the next verse in verse 21.

Unto Adam also, and to his wife did the Lord God made coats of skins and clothed them. Now God took their fig leaves off and he said, the work of your own hands will never satisfy me. No matter how good a job you did, it will not do the job.

But God takes two animals and he slays them. And by the way, that is the first time blood is shed in the Bible. Now, when that blood is shed here in chapter three, it begins a trend.

And you are going to see that blood all the way through the Bible pointing to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. First John 1, 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses us from all sin. When that blood was shed, it was not the blood of a bull or a goat that did anything, but it foreshadowed the blood of Jesus Christ.

Adam didn't fully understand that, but what he did understand is that if righteousness is going to be had, it's going to be provided by God himself. I couldn't cover my own sin, but God could cover it well. So God Almighty covers Adam and Eve's sin with these coats and points to the way sin will be dealt with from now on is through blood.

It's got to be through the blood. So understand the blood deals with their sin, eternal consequences from sin, but it can be evaded through the blood of Christ. But you know, I can't help but notice there's something else here.

Though Adam did deal with this sin, now we place him in a position of knowing God. We place him as a person who has had his sin dealt with, but he found out something else about this principle. Not only does it produce eternal consequences, it produces natural consequences.

Now you think about it we won't read all these verses but you think about what happens here adam and eve are told because of your sin though i'm going to provide a way to deal with these eternal consequences because of your sin there must be natural consequences because see there's another aspect of this law and it's galatians 6 7 and 8 the bible says be not deceived god is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap you sow to the flesh you show

of the flesh reap corruption, you show to the spirit, you show off the spirit, life everlasting.

Now, down where I'm from in South Carolina, there's a good bit of agriculture out on the outskirts of Charleston. Some of you from Iowa, no doubt, have some agriculture. In fact, there's very few places you don't have some agriculture.

But those of you that are more metropolitan, this might go over your head. In fact, if you're not into farming, you may miss this. But with all the technology that we've had.

It's very interesting some of the things that they can, you know, they can get down to a DNA and change it and so forth. And with the different aspects of growing things, they've learned more about fertilizer. They've done a study, and I don't want to be too technical, so I'm not going to use technical terms, but they've done a study and they've found that if you take, for instance, seed corn and you plant it, you cannot get peas from that.

You just can't do it. Now, I know that's deep. And I know it may go over your head, but they just can't do it.

Now, you know, when I say that immediately, you think, well, I mean, you know, what kind of idiot you think I am? Of course, you can't plant corn and get peas. Do you know why that is just overstating the obvious?

Because the devil's never tried to convince you that's not true. You know it's true. It's been illustrated many times.

You can't plant one kind of seed and get something else. You can graft things, but you can't plant a seed and grow something different than what you planted.

but do you realize if that principle is true equally true if a man sows to his flesh he is going to reap corruption if he sows to his spirit he is going to reap life everlasting it has to take place if God is who he is have you ever thought about the fact that if just one time a person can sow to his flesh and reap absolutely no corruption then God could be mocked I could stand before God one day and say God here's an illustration

a man sowed to his flesh and he did not reap corruption your law is not true but God said don't be deceived I'm not going to be mocked I mean this law is going to take place hey Adam and Eve committed sin and they had to have though their sin was dealt with there were some natural consequences to their sin now there could have been far more things could have been a whole lot worse for Adam and Eve if Eve hadn't of if Adam hadn't named

his wife Eve and put faith in in what God provided things could have been far worse but they did have some consequences.

See, the thing you need to realize this morning is not that if you've been involved in sin and you're reaping some of those consequences that you need to be in despair. You understand that's the law of God. It's just going to happen.

A man goes down to a bar, he's lost, he gets in a fight, and he gets his eye knocked out. He can be saved by the grace of God, and in God's sight he can be perfectly pure, but he's always going to be a one-eyed man. He goes on with life, and he deals with it and says, hey, this is just a consequence, but he can still be right with God.

Had he not got right with God, he might have got them both knocked out or he might be dead. There's always more consequences that can take place. So it's not a matter of looking at that and despairing that there is some consequence to my former sin.

But what about you this morning who hadn't committed the sin? What about you who are looking at it and thinking about it? Maybe it's not that bad.

Man, I know all kinds of friends who peruse filth on the internet. I mean, what? They don't even get caught.

I know all kinds of friends involved in immoral relationships and it just seems like they're so happy in it. I know some folks that go out and they brag about their weekend of getting drunk and it just doesn't seem to ever influence them. I know some other kids that are considered to be good kids at church and man, they don't obey their parents.

They watch shows that I'd never be able to allow and it just seems like things go so right. If you're contemplating and if you're thinking about it, then remember this, when you commit it, there are going to be some natural consequences. Yes, you can get right with God.

Thank God that we can. We've all had sin that we've had to reap some consequences from, but you've got to remember that when you go into it with your eyes open, there's consequences to sin that are natural. God just says they have to take place.

Adam and Eve, the first child they ever had was a murderer. The second child they had murdered by his own brother. They couldn't live in a garden anymore.

Now Adam has to go out and plow a ground that God says, just for your sake, Adam, to keep you from being a lazy bum, I'm going to put thorns and thistles and make you work at it because your character is going to go downward. So Adam had to reap from it the rest of his life. There was natural consequences to his sin.

You think about today, a person maybe who begins as a small child. He goes into kindergarten and he cheats on one of his tests and he doesn't get caught. So he gets into the second and third grade and he continues this trend and every time he gets in a tight spot, he looks at his neighbor's paper.

He gets up into high school and he begins to find out answers and he puts them in his hand and pulls them out during the test, gets away with it. He goes into college and he gets a little bit more severe and he realizes the stakes are a little higher, so he's a little more careful.

But sure enough, he finds a way to do it and he continues to cheat and he gets by with it and even cheats on his final exam and he graduates and he still does not get detected. Then he gets into his corporate job that he's been put there on false pretenses and he begins to realize that I can make a little more money if I didn't let everybody know what's going on.

Maybe he fudges the numbers and maybe he pushes the envelope a little bit on some of his results and before you know it, you've got an Enron executive who's going to prison for 50 years. You see, it all began back in kindergarten where he did not get detected and he did not allow the consequences of those sins to become reality to him and it caught up with him.

Now, you may say to yourself, you know, every once in a while in school, yeah, I cheat on my homework a little bit.

sure I've looked on somebody's paper and copied something or I mean you know yeah there's been times where I've copied a book report and so forth and I mean I don't believe that I'm going to be in prison for 50 years then you understand you're overlooking this principle don't be deceived if you sow to your flesh it will come back to you it has to happen but now what about the consequences of sin if these consequences are natural and they happen automatically how can they be

avoided well just like the eternal consequences of sin were avoided by adam putting his faith in the blood of jesus christ let me remind you of a verse you know well proverbs 28 13 it says whoso covereth his sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall find mercy that is if i call it what god calls it if i get on god's side against my sin and I forsake it, then here I have a promise from God that this law, though it is going

to take place, though I may have to reap from what's taking place, I can put a halt on what the consequences are by confessing and forsaking my sin.

Hey, God doesn't know us that, but God allowed us to have it and then he put it down in his eternal word. If I confess it and forsake it, I can have mercy. Hey, you need mercy today.

Without the mercy of God, we're hopeless, but yet God has offered it. So first of all, sin finds you out through its consequence. Now I want you to turn just a page over in your Bible to chapter 4.

And I want you to notice the second way that sin will find you out. It's going to find you out through the omniscience of God. Now what exactly does the word omniscience mean?

I think most of us know what that means. Omni means all. Science means knowledge.

God has all knowledge. Now, I would have to say this morning that probably everybody who knows anything about the Bible, in fact, people that don't even know the Bible, if I were to go out and interview a lost person on the street and say, do you believe God knows everything? Isn't that just a basic truth about God that we know?

He knows everything. I mean, nothing is hidden from his eye. Now, though we believe that in our head, I wonder today if you really believe it in your heart.

Is it possible to believe something in your head and really not believe it in your heart?

let me give you this illustration and i was a kid i was about maybe 10 11 years old i was sitting in my bedroom one night and i was bored and as i was thinking about different things that i could do my parents were up in the front of the house i think they were watching television or something up in the front and i was back in the back of the house and just thinking about what to do and the thought came to me that i

had in my closet a bag of bottle rockets now i enjoyed fireworks i liked fire crackers and bottle rockets and these type of things.

Now, I lived in North Carolina. Those are illegal in North Carolina, but they're legal in South Carolina. So in North Carolina, you can't actually go buy them, but you go down south of the border and you can buy just short of a stick of dynamite.

I mean, they sell everything. Well, they were very readily available in North Carolina. People would go down south of the border and they'd bring them back up and they were all over the place.

But I was only 10 or 11, so every once in a while I'd get some. The only problem besides it being illegal was my parents had strictly forbidden me to have any fireworks. I had been caught with them two or three times that, you know, didn't want me to burn the house down or blow my finger off or whatever.

And plus they were illegal. So they, I wanted to have them, but I did. I had them in my closet in a bag and I was waiting for an opportunity to be able to do it.

Well, another illustration of how sin can find you out. I mean, you, you get stupid when you start getting involved in sin. So here it is, 9 o'clock at night.

I can't even go outside. And the thought comes to me, I would love to pop those bottle rockets. Man, I'm bored.

This would be a great thing to do. But how am I going to get out? How am I going to get outside?

Our house was 1,100 square feet or something like that. I mean, there's no way I'm going to get out without my parents knowing about it. So I sort of put it out of my mind.

I guess I just can't do it. I'll do it tomorrow. But the more I thought about it, I said, man, I just got to do it.

This would be just great. But then the thought came to me. If you know what a bottle rocket is, it's not like a firecracker.

Firecracker, you just throw it on A bottle rocket goes up in the air about 40 feet and it pops. So the thought came to me, look, all I got to do is open my window and send this bottle rocket selling over to my neighbor's house. It'll pop in their yard.

My parents will hear it, but they'll think, oh, the neighbors are popping firecrackers. They'll never even know. So I get this bag of bottle rockets out.

They're up in the front of the house. I'm there with the door shut. I open the window, get my bottle rockets and some matches and so forth that I had stashed.

And I look around in the room, and of all things, I didn't have a bottle. I mean, the one thing that I probably could have had legitimately, I didn't have. And you've got to have a bottle to stick them in so they can go out freely.

I could not find a bottle. So I looked around trying to be a little bit innovative, and I found something that I could use. It was a straw that you drink out of, a plastic drinking straw.

Now, it slid just fine. I said, look, it's no different. It'll just slide right out.

So I stuck it up in the window, took a match and lit the fuse, sort of held it away like that. And if you've ever sent off a bottle rocket, it goes just like that into the air and puts a plume of smoke behind it, sort of a line up in the air. So I heard the but it didn't get farther away.

And I looked and the straw had melted and it was holding it in my hand. And that plume of smoke was just filling my room. Well, the thought came to me in like a half a second, it's going to blow up.

So I just flipped it out the window, closed the window, and boom, right next to the house. So probably as far from me as the middle of this crowd, my parents are sitting. They hear a boom right to the next of the house.

And I don't know if you've ever gotten in trouble, and it just seems like time kind of slows down. I got over in the corner of my room. I'm thinking, how can I get out of this?

What can I do? I jump over in the corner, grab a book. And sure enough, in about a second, my dad comes tearing into the room.

what in the world did you do? I looked up from my book and I went, what are you talking about? Now he could barely see me for the smoke.

I mean, waving it out of the way, but I still tried to deny it. What do you mean, dad? I don't, I hadn't noticed that.

Now, do you realize that to be frank with you, no pun intended, I was a fool to try to tell my dad nothing had happened. I mean the evidence is all around me. I mean how could I possibly deny and yet my first instinct was to deny.

Now don't we know today clearly that God knows everything. I mean surely he knows everything. So how is it possible that you could get involved in sin knowing that God is right there beside you watching what takes place.

It can only be because you know it in your head, but it does not grip you in your heart that God literally is watching what I do. If you would allow this truth to permeate your soul, it would keep you accountable constantly. God literally sees.

Hey, what if a person would go and peruse the filth of the internet? He had learned how to get by the password. He had learned how to overcome the filter.

Maybe he had found another place where he could go look and you were confident. You knew that the moment you looked at it, immediately an email would be sent to your parents' account that said, this is the site that your son or daughter looked at. Hey, probably you'd be so accountable you'd stay away from it.

If it's going to email, I mean, no way out of it. It immediately sends it. You just wouldn't do it.

But do you realize that they could miss that email? They may not even read it. It's possible that you might not even get called.

And maybe you're such a whiz that you could keep it from being sent. But do you realize that God keeps you more accountable than that? He sees everything that you do.

Nothing is hidden from him. He literally is right there watching, but he knows more than the action. He knows what's inside.

Let me show you from the Bible here in chapter 4. If you'll notice down in verse 3, we know Adam and Eve, of course, gave birth to these two boys in the process of time. It came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

And he also brought, or Abel, he also brought the first thing of his flock and of the fact thereof, the Lord had respect unto Abel in his offering, but unto Cain in his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. Now how in the world did Cain and Abel get the idea that they should bring an offering to God? They didn't have a Bible.

They had very little light that God had given them, and they have actually entered into now a dispensation of conscience where all they had to respond to is a very limited amount of God's truth. But they did know one thing. Adam and Eve, their parents had tried the works of their own hands and God condemned it.

And he cursed the ground and he used blood and he sent a message to Adam, Adam, your work will never do it. I demand blood. And Adam had relayed that story to his boys.

And he said, now boys, when you offer a sacrifice to God, God has made it clear the cursed ground will not satisfy him. He demands blood. You remember those old coats of skins are a little worn now.

They're hanging up on the wall there. We've kept them, but you know where they came from? God put those things on us and he's established something for us that the blood's the way.

Well, Cain looked at that and said, that's ridiculous. What in the world I want an old nasty old animal skin when I've got this beautiful pumpkin and watermelon and cornucopia and I've got all this stuff that I've worked hard for. What's Abel done?

He's just been out there watching them eat grass. Surely God would be more impressed with my works than he would with something Abel had nothing to do with. But you see, the problem was not that he hadn't worked hard for it.

The problem wasn't that he didn't offer it in sincerity. The problem wasn't that he genuinely thought this will impress God. The problem was he violated the Word of God.

You see, again, disobedience and a lack of faith go hand in hand. Eve didn't believe the Word of God that it would have consequences. Cain just didn't believe that God's way was the way.

He said, no, I believe this will offer. This will work. And God condemned his sacrifice.

He wouldn't take it. Now, when Cain offered this, he is no different than someone saying, look, I believe that a social gospel is adequate. I believe if I'll just be kind to my neighbor and live a decent life and be, uh, maybe give some money to the church and, and, and, uh, be the type of person that's willing to help somebody and just be an outstanding person in the community.

That's got to mean more than just going down and in a humble way trusting Jesus in some kind of way of being born again. Man, these works have got to be more impressive. Well, from man's standpoint, it would seem they would be.

But God's way is you must be born again. You see, the blood again is God's way. It's the way to deal with sin every time.

So Cain doesn't like it. Cain rebels against it. And his countenance fell.

You see, you weren't the first person to pout. Cain started it. Here's a grown man pouting.

Do you think God didn't notice it? Well, look down if you would to verse 6. The Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?

You know, God does notice it when your countenance falls. God notices it when you pout, when you roll your eyes. God sees it.

But you know what I like here is verse 7. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. God gave Cain a second opportunity.

He gave him a second chance. Cain deserved the judgment of God. He deserved to say, Cain, you knew what you should have brought.

You brought it blatantly. I'm wiping you out. You're done.

But God gave him a second chance. God said, Cain, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. It was almost as if Cain should have realized this about God.

Don't you know, Cain, if you will do what Abel did and simply in obedience to the word of God respond correctly, you'll be accepted. Hey, I'm glad to know that God does offer second chances. What hope would any of us have if he didn't?

What chance would any of us have to stand if God didn't give us another chance? Well, he does. You know, I like what Brother Van Gelderen said last night.

Any person is five minutes away from getting right with God. Maybe even less than that. It's instantaneous.

You see, the issue today is not so much, and understand what I'm saying, it is not so much what you commit. It is not so much how often you've committed it. It's not really the issue of how heinous a type of a sin it might be, because really all of us are sinners before God.

God wrote Ichabod on man. He said, there is no hope in his flesh. He is evil from his youth.

The issue is when God deals in your heart about your sin, how do you respond to it? God is giving Cain one of the most tender invitations in the entire Bible. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted.

all about how little excuse cain really had after god gave him a second chance now god knew from the foundation of the world cain wasn't going to respond he knew what his character was like but God gave him a legitimate illustration. He's our invitation. He said, Cain, if you'll come, then you can do right.

And I will let you get right. How rebellious was it for Cain to still turn it down? You know, how wicked would it be this morning if God dealt in your heart and said, look, here's a sin.

And you said, well, I don't think it's that bad. I mean, I know some other folks in my youth group that got a lot worse stuff than this. Man, I know people.

What about the public school? Man, they drink and carouse and cuss and smoke and all this type of stuff. And I don't.

but I just got this one little thing. It's not that bad. And what if God deals in your heart this morning and says it is that bad?

You ought to deal with it. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? But Cain rejected the invitation.

Now, God didn't give him another one. God may give you another one. Most time he does, doesn't he?

But he didn't give Cain another one. Thou doest well? Cain said no.

Well, then in verse 8, Cain talked with Abel, his brother. Now, Cain had some secret sins, and there's two of them. One sin that he had that was secret was, of course, that he murdered his brother.

Now, I see him out in this garden talking with his brother. There was only Adam and Eve, Cain, Abel, and a handful of sisters that lived on the earth at this time. So let's just say less than ten people.

Cain and Abel are out in the field, and Abel's thinking, you know, mom and dad, they're not anywhere close by. He was probably looking for a new pastor. The sisters are nowhere around.

They're probably helping mom at home. Here's Abel out here by himself. What an opportunity.

Nobody would ever know. I'm sure they had brushes with wild animals in the past. No doubt as he was keeping the sheep, he'd had different lions and bears and so forth maybe to come.

And he said, who in the world would be the wiser? So it says he talked with Abel, his brother. They were discussing probably this sacrifice.

Maybe Abel even said, look, Cain, I'm concerned about you. Why don't you go ahead and offer that sacrifice like God told you to offer? Look, I'm no better than you are, but man, I just wish you'd do it.

I believe God's going to have to judge you for that. And the more he talked, the matter came God. Hey, you know that hasn't changed a bit.

You find somebody today who takes a stand for God, who tries to walk with the Lord, who loves the Bible, who loves Jesus and loves to help people to come to Jesus, and the one that is not right with God will despise that person. They won't be mad at themselves for being out of God's will. They'll get mad at that person.

Well, he's a brown noser. He's a holy Joe. Oh, he's just trying to impress the youth pastor.

Well, you know, that's what Cain said about Abel. Abel's just trying to impress mom and dad. I'll show him.

So he picks up a rock or a stick or something, cracks it over his brother's head or chokes him or whatever he did. He killed his brother. Well, he immediately knows as he sees that dead body laying on the ground.

As he's breathing a little heavy and wiping the sweat off his brow, he says, man, if they find him, they're going to know I did it. There's no teeth marks. They're just going to know.

So he digs a shallow grave in the sand the whole time. He's looking around, making sure nobody's watching. Finally, he pushes Abel over into it, and he covers it back up, and he looks around, and he says, I think I got away with it.

Nobody knows. Doesn't even seem to bother him. But as he's walking away thinking, well, that did it for Abel, God taps him on the shoulder.

He says, Cain, where is your brother? Now, God knew where his brother was. But see, Cain found out something very dramatically that day.

He found out something about the omniscience of God. He says, Cain, you think that sin was a secret sin? It wasn't secret.

He said, your brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. I saw it, Cain. Your brother's blood is not covered by dirt.

It's not covered by you being out by yourself. He said, I can see it. I saw the act, Cain.

But he also saw the other secret sin Cain had, what caused him to commit that murder. He hated his brother. You see, he had bitterness in his heart, and his parents, evidently, they didn't know it.

If they did, it's not intimated in the text. He had bitterness in his heart, and he was just waiting for his opportunity. Do you realize this morning, if there is somebody that you hate, you're just as bad a murderer as Cain.

Now, you probably can't get away with it as easy as he did. Too many folks around to keep you accountable. But if you hate somebody, God says specifically in 1 John, you're a murderer.

Because if you had the chance and thought you could get away with it, you'd end up doing what Cain did. Now, God knew about his bitterness. He knew it was there.

And he knew it was going to find him out because God saw what he did. Luke chapter 12, verse 2 and 3, God says, There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be made known. Therefore, whatsoever you have spoken in the darkness shall be heard in the light.

That which you have spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetop. Jeremiah 16 verse 17, God says, my eyes are before all their ways. They are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.

Hey, we know that Proverbs 15, it says the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. So see, God sees everything that you do as nothing that can be hidden because God Almighty sees it. And then God Almighty told Cain, he said, Cain, I saw what you did.

And he said, you're going to live a marked man. Now, he actually marked him as a favor. He said, I want you to be a walking illustration.

I'm going to keep people from killing you, Cain. But I want you to be a walking illustration of what the consequences of your sin are and that you cannot evade my eye. And he marked him.

And Cain said, my punishment is greater than I can bear. And there's absolutely no record that God ever lightened his punishment. Now, God saw everything that Cain did.

And I look back and think of that invitation that he turned down. Cain, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. He lived his life a marked man and died and went to hell.

And he could have got right with God. Now, sin will find you out, first of all, through its consequences. Sin will find you out through the omniscience of God.

And then I want to show you one last instance. If you turn to Matthew 27, sin will find you out through the conviction of your conscience. Matthew chapter 27, when you find that, I'll let you fill in your blanks if you want to do that.

Sin will find you out through the conviction of the conscience. Now, I'm not going to read a lot of verses here just to save some time. I'm going to tell you what really is fairly familiar to us anyway.

But you remember now, we have Judas Iscariot introduced to us. In Matthew 27, 3, we see the end of his life. But in Judas' life, we think about it, for three and a half years, he walked with Jesus Christ on this earth.

Now, we know how wicked this man Judas had to be. I mean, he didn't just sort of get out of sorts and go turn in Jesus. He would have just left.

He would have just backed off. But he actually was so wicked that he would turn Jesus over to the authorities full well knowing that he was innocent. Just for the gain of 30 pieces of silver.

Now, Judas didn't become wicked. He already was wicked. God had already said that none of them except the son of perdition.

The devil entered into Judas Iscariot. He was a lost man. So for three and a half years, he walks with Jesus.

You say, why did Jesus pick him as a disciple? I don't know. that the scripture might be fulfilled.

He just did. And he knew it. But none of the disciples knew it.

But you say, now they slept together, they ate together, they walked together, they talked together, everything they did was together. Don't you think somewhere along the line, a couple of years into it, that the disciples probably thought, you know, Judas isn't really with us. All Judas seems to talk about is the kingdom.

It seems like all Judas wants to do is just be involved in this revolution thing. He doesn't seem to care when Jesus is teaching.

don't you think they picked up on it and thought you know judas really in one of us well let's think about it for a moment when they were traveling around and they had money that would come to them and they used it to buy mill and help the poor and so forth and they looked around at the 12 and they said you know one of us needs to be the treasurer one of us needs to keep up with the money maybe we could get peter well

no no we better not get peter he he's liable to spend it uh maybe we could get james and john no they said they wanted to be number one they'll probably think they're in charge of it well maybe we could get matthew Tax collector?

No way. No, he's not going to have it. Who could we get that we could trust?

Well, you know who they picked. They picked Judas. You see, they said, if we could trust anybody, I mean, if there's any one of us that we know that we can give this money to and he'll never be tempted, it's Judas.

Now, they were dead wrong, but evidently he looked like a pretty good guy. Come down to the Last Supper. They're sitting around, and Jesus now explicitly tells them, one of you, just one, one of you shall betray me.

Every one of them knew in the own wickedness of their heart that they could have possibly do it. And they said, Lord, is it I? Lord, would I do such a thing?

Could it be me? Jesus said, it is the one of you that dippeth with me in the dish. He took a piece of bread, dipped it in the sop, and handed it to Judas.

Now we look at that and say, well, obviously Judas is the man. I mean, he said whoever he dips, he's going to give it. But they didn't.

They wonder what he meant by that. I mean, he couldn't have meant Judas. I wonder what he's talking about.

Well, now they didn't suspect Judas at all. So now you come to the very last days that Jesus is on the earth. He's in the garden.

He's in prayer. He stands and tells his disciples that now the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Well, at that moment, he sees Judas coming.

Two statements were made, and I couldn't be dogmatic, but I believe it happened something like this. Off in the distance, as he sees Judas in the hearing of his disciples, he says, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Now you think from that, he didn't know he was being betrayed.

Judas had given a sign to the Pharisees, sit over here in the bushes. When I go over to the disciples, it's kind of dark, and I know him, you don't. I'll kiss him, and the one that I kiss on the cheek, you come grab him, that's Jesus.

Well, now Jesus knew that plot, but you'd almost think that he didn't. Hey, friend, come over and join us. The disciples heard that.

Well, then I believe Jesus went out to meet him away from the disciples, and he said out of the hearing of the disciples, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss? I know what you're doing, Judas. You don't have me fooled, but I'm not going to tell the disciples.

I'm going to let sin find you out. And that's precisely what happened. The disciples didn't know.

They had no idea Judas had done this, at least at this point. But finally now they catch Jesus, and they try him, and we know the story, and we can go into detail about that, but they put Jesus now on the cross.

and notice if you would in verse 23 then Judas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned repented himself now do not take from that that Judas had enough spiritual aptitude to realize that when Jesus was put on the cross it hit him I'm going to go to hell that's not what it means that he didn't refer to Judas when he saw that he, Jesus was condemned when he saw that Jesus was going to be condemned, he knew he would be, but now

he sees it.

Something happened he didn't expect. The Bible says he repented himself. Now the Bible is very careful to word this.

It does not say he repented. He repented himself. You see, Judas had something very unexpected to happen.

Something that he did not know would ever take place. I believe with all my heart that Judas followed Jesus because he thought that he's going to lead a revolution against the Romans. And I want to be in the middle of it when he does it.

I'll put up with his boring teaching. I'll put up with this crazy stuff of going around the country and sleeping on rocks because I know if he can do those kind of miracles, he's going to take over and I want to be part of it. It came obvious to him about three years into it when he began to talk about his decease in Jerusalem.

He began to see the Pharisees weren't going to follow and the powers that be. He didn't see any revolution. He said, man, I have wasted three years.

Good night, I've stayed with him all this time, and he's nothing but a lunatic walking around. He's not going to do a thing. Man, how could I at least make a few bucks off of this?

He said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll go to the Pharisees. I'll get 30 pieces of silver.

I'll go down to a bar. I'll buy me a couple of beers, and I'll sit back and sip them while I watch them put Jesus to death. He was a wicked man.

He didn't believe that it would bother him when Jesus got put on the cross. He could have cared less that they put Jesus on the cross. But when he saw that he was condemned, something happened he didn't expect.

His conscience was provoked. You know, a conscience is not just something inside of a good person that makes us feel bad when we do wrong. Now, a sensitive conscience is a great agent that God uses.

But you don't have to have a sensitive conscience for your conscience to work. Your conscience can lay dormant for a long, long period of time. I read one time, a guy wrote the IRS a letter.

In the letter, he put like a $100 bill. And in the letter, it said something to the effect of, you know, several years ago, I didn't give all the taxes that I should have given, and my conscience has been bothering me. So I'm sending you this $100.

P.S. If this doesn't do the job, I'll send you some more. Now, you understand, a conscience is not something that's always convenient.

A conscience is not always something that is bothered just because I want it to bother me. Now, a man can be wicked. He can sear his conscience.

He can defile it. He can make it to the fact that it lays so dormant he never notices it. But do you know that the conscience can be used as a judgment from God?

That's what happened to Judas. Why did he repent himself? You know what it means to repent yourself?

It doesn't mean he repented. To repent would have said, God, I was in the wrong. And if there was never any consequences, and if it wasn't even a matter of me getting found out, just because it offended you, I want to get it right.

That's true repentance. But to repent yourself is, God, I don't like the way it's turned out. I don't like the way it makes me feel.

I didn't know that I was going to feel lower down than a snake's belly in a wagon track for doing this. I'm going to go give that money back. He had an unexpected guilt, and that conviction of his conscience found him out.

And it can do it. Your conscience is a powerful force. So he goes back in verse 4, and he says, or the end of verse 3, brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I've sinned and that I have betrayed the innocent blood.

They said, what is that to us? Seed out to that. Now he found out this important principle, and you need to remember this.

And I want you to understand where I'm going because I want you to get it clearly. Sin can definitely be forgiven, but sin cannot be reversed. Now, there's a big difference.

God can deal with sin, is anxious to deal with it, and thank God it can be forgiven, because if he couldn't, we'd all be without hope. It can be forgiven today. You could have turned God's voice down many times, and he still is anxious for you to come.

However, it cannot be reversed. Now what I mean by that is, once you've committed the sin, do what you might. You can't undo the sin.

It's done. I remember a girl coming to an invitation back. I was doing the war.

She's about 12 years old. She came forward, talked to my wife, and I noticed they were in the prayer room for like half an hour. I kind of wondered what was going on, so finally she sticks her head out and says, Can you come in?

So I come in and talk with the girl, and I knew she had obviously given, My wife had given her the gospel and grilled her and so forth. So I just got down to the meat of the problem, and the girl said, look, I know I'm saved. And she explained to me how she knew she was saved.

And she said, as you've been preaching this week, I've got under conviction. She said, I, last year, committed an awful sin. And she said, I would do anything in the world if I could go back and relive and do it different.

And she said, but I can't, and I just can't get forgiveness. I just can't get this thing out of my mind. Well, I explained to her that day that God was anxious to forgive.

I explained to her that all she needed to do was get right with God and go on from that point forward. And I explained to her the wonderful truth of the fact that in God's sight, she could be as pure as she's ever been. And I tried to encourage her in every way because her heart's desire was to get right.

And no doubt the devil can accuse us and try to keep us under and try to discourage us about forgiveness. I tried to get that victory, but the one thing that I could not tell her is that you can take it back. Now, again, if you've been involved in sin today, and there's sin that you regret, hey, join the club, because all of us have things we've done we regret.

The devil would come to you and try to convince you that the Word of God is not true. If you've biblically confessed your sin, if you've stolen, you've restored, If you've dealt with people that you've wronged and you've gotten the thing right to the best of your ability, you've prayed, God, cleanse me from hidden faults, then just believe God that it's right. And just trust his promise.

God said it's forgiven. It is. But if you've not been involved in that sin yet, if the devil is holding out that apple and saying, look, give it a try.

See what it's like. Just experiment. There's always this chance of getting it right and going on with your life and so forth.

The devil will take the Bible and twist it around just like he did with Jesus and try to convince you that somehow you can just erase it. Hey, once you've committed it, you can't reverse it. Thank God it can be forgiven, but it cannot be reversed.

I don't say that to discourage somebody who wants to get right with God. I say that to warn somebody who hadn't tried it. You see, Judas, once he tried it, they would not take his money back.

They turned it down, so he threw it on the ground. Now Judas never believed it. He'd have thought that he was sitting back in a bar watching Jesus die, sipping on a beer and blaspheming God.

But this act that he committed was so heinous in his own soul that notice how he responds in verse 5. He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and he went, and he hanged himself. Now you know this, but in our country, As suicide is committed, they have divvied out the ages of suicide and to see the highest rate.

And I'm sure you're perfectly aware that teenagers by far have the highest suicide rate of any other age group. By far. Now why is that?

My theory is that teenagers, when they get to be about 12 and 13 years old, and maybe many of them, probably the majority of their parents put really no restraint on them at all, and they go out and they experiment with the sin of the world. They think, man, it'd be so great to get drunk. It would be so great to be immoral.

It would be just wonderful to smoke some weed. Man, I would love to go out and just try to steal for a kick. I think I'm going to hang around with the big guys.

And they do all these different sins. And it's fun for a while and it feeds them a raw deal. And they get to be about 16 or 17.

Their life is just an utter wreck from reaping from their sin. And they think, man, if this is all life has to offer, the devil says there is a way out. All you got to do is take your life and you'll be a lot better off.

and they commit suicide. Judas thought the only hope, the only thing I can do is just I hate myself, I'm going to kill myself. And he responded to the conviction of his conscience the wrong way.

But there is a right way to respond to the conviction of your conscience. If you'll turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10 and we're almost done.

In Hebrews chapter 10, in verse if you look down to verse 13 let's start there or verse 12 neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us for if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to god

purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living god now i don't have to know how god does it but i can believe it because of revelation that the blood of jesus christ is directly related to my conscience being purged.

You see, it is the blood of Jesus Christ that God had to show to Adam. It was the blood of Jesus Christ that Cain rejected. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that Judas overlooked.

Because today the way that sin can be dealt with is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith in His Word that He has revealed to us, we can claim that blood. Hey, you know sin will find you out.

You know, God has set up a law in the Bible, many laws. For instance, God says that in Adam all die. Now that's a law.

There's no exceptions to that. Do you realize that in Adam all die? But even so, in Christ shall all be made alive.

Isn't that great that God has made a way that he can legally answer his own law and still end up letting people live with him forever?

well there's a law be sure your sin will find you out but god has found a way to meet that law and still give us mercy whoso confesseth and forsaketh on the basis of the blood of christ through the power of the word of god hey sin doesn't have to find us out in that sense because we can respond to the conviction from the spirit of god let's have a word of prayer lord we're thankful this morning for the opportunity to look into your word and

Lord we're so thankful for these principles and I realize that many of these teenagers have made really a great effort to come out and hear your word this week which shows some sensibility on their part Lord I realize that I'm not even dealing with a number of kids off the street that have been exposed to many of the things that a lot of teenagers have today but Lord the fact is we're probably more responsible because we know so much more of your word Lord I pray

this morning that you just do your work If there are some that have hidden sin that they've not confessed, or if it's not even hidden, it's blatant, and they just haven't confessed it, hadn't gotten it right, hadn't called it what you call it, may they do it this morning, we pray.

And may they come out victorious to the blood that you've shed for us. In Jesus' name.