Let's turn to Genesis and Chapter 3.
We were considering in our last study how
Satan drew Eve to this fruit that was
on the tree.
Of course, Eve made the mistake of going
near it.
But once she had gone near it, it
was easier for Satan to take advantage of
her.
We saw that in Genesis 3, verse 6,
how the devil appealed to the lust of
her flesh.
It was good for food.
The lust of her eyes, it was a
delight to the eyes.
And to the pride of life, desirable to
make one wise.
We can look at the temptation also in
another way.
We know from 1 Thessalonians 5.23 that
man is a trinity, spirit, soul and body.
And the temptation came to all three parts
of man.
To his body, this attractive food, which God
had said he was not to partake of.
To his soul, to become wise, that is
a desire that man has.
To have wisdom in an earthly sense, not
divine wisdom.
This is the wisdom from beneath.
And then to a temptation to the spirit,
to become like God.
So there was a temptation that came in
this to body, soul and spirit.
And we see also that God allowed Eve
to be tempted.
God knew what was going on.
And God is the one also who created
that tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And he was the one who had made
it so attractive.
If, as we have often said, if that
tree was ugly, smelly, full of thorns, then
Eve would not have had any temptation in
it.
We can ask this question.
If God wanted Adam and Eve not to
eat of this tree, why didn't he make
this tree ugly and smelly and covered with
thorns and thistles so that they wouldn't go
anywhere near it?
That is an important question to answer, because
it relates to our daily life also.
Because if it were like that, then there
would have been no temptation.
And then, of course, Adam and Eve could
not have been holy either.
The temptation lay in the fact that the
tree was so attractive and probably had a
very pleasant smell that all one's physical senses
were aroused by seeing that tree.
Temptation is attractive.
Otherwise it's not a temptation.
You see, when it says that a man
should not lust after a woman, it's very
unlikely that any young man is tempted to
lust after some 85-year-old, stooped old
lady with white hair, ugly-looking.
There is no temptation there.
And to say that I did not lust
after her, there is nothing so wonderful about
that.
We can ask if God did not want
man to fall in this area at all.
All he had to do was to make
all the women very unattractive and ugly and
repulsive.
Or if everybody got leprosy when they handled
money, like Gazais, might be no problem to
hate money either.
But it is because all temptations are so
attractive that we are tempted.
And we need to see that temptation has
to be attractive, otherwise there is no temptation.
And so God allows these many things to
be attractive.
But there, in that temptation, we can find
whether we love God or not.
If you turn to 2 Corinthians in chapter
11, we read what Paul says concerning this
temptation, and we see something very important and
interesting there.
2 Corinthians 11.
He is speaking here about the bride and
the harlot.
He is speaking here about Jerusalem and Babylon.
He is speaking about spiritual faithfulness as the
bride, and spiritual adultery as the harlot.
He says, I am jealous for you, verse
2.
2 Corinthians 11.
With a godly jealousy.
For I betrothed you to one husband, that
to Christ I might present you as a
pure virgin.
There we see that Paul had a desire
that this church in Corinth should one day
be presented to Christ as a pure bride.
But he says, I am afraid that you
may not be in the bride.
If, for example, Paul believed, like a lot
of believers believe today, that once you are
a believer, you are automatically in the bride.
You don't have to do anything.
You just sit down and cross your legs
and twiddle your thumbs till the rapture comes.
If Paul believed that, what should he be
afraid of?
He says, but I am afraid.
He says, I want to present you as
a pure virgin to be the bride of
Christ, but I am afraid that when Jesus
comes you may not be there as the
bride.
He believed that very few would be in
the bride.
Paul believed that.
And he was afraid for these Corinthians that
they may miss it.
He says, and the way you will miss
it, if at all you miss it, is
the same way that Eve, he says there
in verse 3, like the serpent deceived Eve.
By his cleverness, your mind can also be
led astray, and this is how we miss
being in the bride, from that simplicity and
purity of devotion to Christ.
So, when we read this verse, we understand
what happened to Eve.
What did Eve lose?
What does it say in that verse?
That simple, pure devotion to Christ, she lost
it.
And he says, the same thing can happen
to you.
So we see that the origin of this
principle of the bride and the harlot begins
right there in Genesis chapter 3.
That is where harlotry has begun already.
When we talk about the bride and the
harlot, this is not some advanced truth that
we have suddenly discovered in these last days.
If you have eyes to see it, you
compare what we have just seen in 2
Corinthians 11 with Genesis 3, it is there
in Genesis 3.
Only thing, it's a hidden thing.
It's called a secret of lawlessness.
Mystery of lawlessness.
The secret of lawlessness.
What does lawlessness mean?
That means to have no law.
That phrase is found in 2 Thessalonians 2.
The mystery of lawlessness.
That means no law.
That means I don't have to keep the
commandments.
But won't God punish you then?
No.
I have a word which says, Thou shalt
not surely die.
I have believed in Christ.
Thou shalt not surely die.
And with that word from the devil, many
believers indulge in lawlessness and cover themselves with
a false grace.
The origin of all that, that false grace,
is way back there in Genesis 3.
You will not die.
How can you die?
That originated there.
This false grace.
And then if we have eyes to see,
we can see very clearly how Paul was
afraid that this false grace which the devil
preached to Eve would be preached to the
Corinthians.
And he goes on in 2 Corinthians 11
.4 to say you will receive what?
Another gospel.
Which is not the gospel of the true
grace of God which delivers you from sin,
but another grace which comforts you in your
sin.
Not delivers you from sin, but comforts you
in your sinful life.
That is another grace.
He says I'm afraid that you fellows will
receive another gospel.
And then the devil would have succeeded with
another Jesus who doesn't seem to take sin
so seriously.
Another spirit which gives you excitement and tongues,
but not holiness.
Not the Holy Spirit.
So all those things he speaks there in
verse 4 are related to what we see
back in Genesis 3.
It is another gospel.
The gospel that God gave Adam was you
can eat anything in this garden, but don't
eat this.
But what the gospel that Satan gave was
there's no harm in eating this also.
You will not die.
That is another gospel which takes away the
law of God so that a man can
disobey God and still think that he's alright.
And that's where the devil has deceived so
many so-called believers with this false gospel
and the false grace.
And that's how the woman was deceived.
And we saw there in Genesis 3, 6
she gave it to her husband who was
with her and he also ate.
We saw in 1 Timothy 2 that Adam
was not deceived.
He knew what was going on.
And he disobeyed God not because he was
deceived like his wife.
It's important to notice this distinction.
The woman was deceived.
She thought no harm will come.
That's why Paul says I do not allow
a woman to teach because she'll lead people
astray.
It's not a woman's province to teach doctrine.
But the man, he was not deceived.
How did he fall into sin?
Because he loved his wife so much that
he was even willing to disobey God in
order to please his wife.
You think Adam was the only person like
that?
Since Adam's time thousands and millions of husbands
have disobeyed God in order to please their
wives.
So many, so many young men have got
married to unconverted girls.
Disobedience to God's word clear cut to please
their wives.
To please this girl.
Amazing what power a woman has to draw
a man.
How Eve, the first woman created must have
been fantastically beautiful and attractive.
Fantastically beautiful and attractive.
And Adam just fell.
Like that.
When she said, Darling, eat this.
He could not resist it.
I'm afraid, my brethren.
Lest like Adam fell some of you also
may fall if you are not careful here.
And there we also have a warning of
that it was the woman who enticed the
man to sin.
And even today in many other ways a
woman can entice a man to sin.
By the way she dresses.
By the way she walks and does so
many things.
There is a power in the sexual area
that a woman has to attract a man.
And that's alright for unconverted people.
They have no light.
They are in darkness.
But once you become a Christian once you
become a disciple of Jesus Christ and if
you are a sister you have to be
extremely careful in this area to change your
ways.
To change your ways of looking and talking
to men and conducting yourself and dressing yourself.
It must have no connection with the way
it was out in the world to attract
a man in one way or the other.
They teach that out in the world.
Unless you attract a man, how will you
get a husband?
That is for unbelievers.
If you are an unbeliever, go ahead and
do that.
But if you are a believer and you
say, the God who gave Eve a husband
will give me a husband too.
Then you don't have to try those worldly
methods that people out in the world try.
That is for atheists.
For atheistic women.
They can do that.
You must attract.
Otherwise how will you ever find a husband?
You'll just live as an old maid.
Yeah?
If you are an atheist, please do that.
But if you claim to be a disciple
of Jesus Christ live by faith that it
is God who will give you the husband
you need and not by your trying to
attract with gifts that God has given you
for His glory not for you to entice
men to sin.
Because I believe with all my heart that
if God judges a man for lusting after
a woman He must judge that woman also
if she dressed in such a way or
behaved in such a way that she enticed
the man.
And I believe her judgment will be more
than the judgment of the man.
So we got to be very careful here.
Very careful.
In this area.
Not to entice people to sin.
Because you know this is also something which
is very sad.
That when we have sinned ourselves like Eve
had sinned herself she wanted Adam also to
sin so that she could get some comfort.
It's an amazing thing.
That when we have fallen in some area
that we can get a comfort when we
see another person also falling in the same
area.
Let's say for example you have got a
violent temper and you have not been able
to get victory over it and one day
somewhere you hear of some great man of
God who also loses his temper and what
do you get?
You get a strange comfort.
In what?
In your sin.
That he also loses his temper.
Oh, then it's alright.
What have you got comfort in?
In a false gospel?
In sin?
There you find that you have got your
standard not from God's word which says put
away all anger but from some man.
It's an amazing thing.
And that's why you see when you find
someone writing a book describing all their...
There are lots of Christian biographies like that
describing all their faults and how they fell
and how they fell and so and so
is supposed to be a great person and
he describes how he fell and you say
oh how honest and you get a certain
comfort in it.
In your defeat.
Beware of books even written by so called
believers that give you a comfort in your
defeat.
You can think those books encourage me more
than the preaching in the church.
Why do they encourage you?
To find comfort in your defeat?
Whereas the preaching in the church keeps challenging
you to get out of that defeat.
Think of that.
Beware of that comfort that you get from
the fall of another person into sin.
And that's a very subtle area.
In fact when Eve had sinned she wanted
Adam to sin.
That is even worse.
That when we have sinned we want the
other person to sin.
For example, to think of a husband and
wife that's how it is here, Eve and
Adam are husband and wife, wife and husband
and say the wife has really lost her
head and lost her temper and flared up.
And she sees the husband sitting there patiently
not saying anything quiet meek and that irritates
her more that he's not sinning.
She'll feel a little happy if he also
flares up and yells back at her then
she gets a comfort, oh he also sinned.
It's the same thing that Eve did.
Now I have sinned, but my husband is
holy here.
And that irritates this wife that the husband
is holy.
Think of that.
And see if it's not true to real
life situations today.
It began there.
What a sinner that you sin yourself and
you want and you're longing, longing, longing, longing
to see your partner also sin.
How much the devil must have got a
hold of such a person to make that
person not only sin herself, but to want
long for another person to sin.
That is really to be gripped by the
devil.
When you sin and you see another saint
patient humble yourself, humble yourself.
Say Lord I want to learn something from
this person.
Don't long that he also should sin.
You see, there are many people in Christendom
who know that we preach victory over sin.
And they're against us because we preach victory
over sin.
Many groups.
And you know what many of them are
waiting for?
Shall I tell you?
They're waiting to see us sin.
Now tell me, who's waiting to see me
sin?
Is it God or the devil?
Who is it?
The devil.
So these other people are also waiting to
see me sin.
Whose agents are they?
No doubt in my mind.
They can't be led by the Holy Spirit
waiting to see somebody sin.
To say, ah, now we got them.
Think of that.
There's only the devil who can get such
delight when he sees somebody sin.
And there God allows that to expose that
they are the agents of the devil there.
And we can be also?
If we are irritated with the holiness of
someone?
That we want to see him sin so
that he comes a little more down to
our third rate level?
Very bad.
Don't find comfort in these books that you
find that tell you about somebody's defeated life
and you think, oh, what honesty.
No.
There is a great danger there.
I believe particularly in our day.
And that can be another gospel.
I would rather hear a word that challenges
me to be like Jesus every day of
my earthly life than to keep on hearing
these comforting messages.
Oh, it's alright.
God loves you.
Because underneath that you can hear another sound.
You will not die.
There's a comfort there.
You will not die.
But it is a false comfort.
The word of God is do not touch,
do not eat that tree.
Eat of that tree.
I'd rather hear that.
That's a hard word.
Do not eat of that tree.
And here is the comforting word.
You shall not die.
Which would you rather listen to?
God allows us to hear both voices.
Both type of messages.
Both type of books.
Both types of articles.
And the question is, which do we respond
to?
If I find myself responding to this comfort
and comfort, God may be allowing it to
expose the fact that you have really got
no interest in holiness at all.
You're only interested in comfort in your defeated
state in sin.
So let's learn something from these from this
very important verse in the Old Testament where
the principle of the bride and the harlot
is exposed.
Simple devotion to Christ means simple obedience to
what God has said.
That's all.
No questions.
And the opposite of that is to be
led astray in a false comfort.
That's what Paul was afraid of for the
Corinthians.
He said, I'm afraid that instead of having
the simple devotion to Christ to simply obey
God's word, you can be led into this
false comfort, which is another gospel.
And then we read in verse 7, their
eyes, the eyes of both of them were
opened.
Now that's what the devil told them in
verse 5.
Yeah?
The eyes of both of them were opened.
But not in the way they expected.
The devil said, your eyes will be opened
and you will be like God.
But you compare that verse 5 with verse
7.
It says the eyes of both of them
were opened and they thought they were naked.
That's quite a anticlimax to becoming like God.
And all of a sudden my eyes are
open instead of becoming like God.
I just discovered I'm naked.
The devil must have just sat back there
and had a big laugh at these two
fools in the Garden of Eden.
But what about all the other fools who
have read all this and continue to be
deceived by the devil through the years?
Think of that.
Who don't realize that this other gospel of
Satan is only meant to lead us away
from God.
So that we never become a part of
that pure virgin that is to be presented
to Christ.
Take it seriously, brothers and sisters.
Take it seriously.
And let me repeat that that when you
come to the church if you are looking
more for a message of comfort in your
sin rather than for a challenge to be
delivered from your sin I just want to
inform you that you are on the wrong
track.
You might as well face up to it.
You are on the wrong track and probably
your conversion is not thorough and proper.
Your repentance is not proper.
You need to hate sin a little more.
Ask God to help you there to be
properly converted.
Very important.
Then their eyes were opened and they saw
their shame.
That's always the result of sin.
That's where man got a conscience.
Till that point, Adam and Eve were innocent
like babies.
You know babies?
They can walk around naked and they don't
feel any shame because they are not alert
to that.
They have no sense for that.
Small babies are like that.
Adam was like that.
Adam was innocent.
And those babies can't do anything wrong because
their conscience is not developed.
Then at this point, Adam suddenly got a
conscience.
Eve got a conscience.
The knowledge of good and evil which God
did not want man to live by.
Do you know that conscience is sort of
a second best that God wants man to
live by?
We spoke about that earlier.
Some people think conscience is a great thing.
Conscience is a very good thing if I
allow it to lead me higher and higher
and higher and higher but by itself it's
not the best.
When God created Adam, He didn't want him
to live by conscience.
He wanted him to live by the voice
of the Holy Spirit.
Constant dependence on God.
But now that we have fallen and our
forefather and other ape of that tree, we
have a conscience which is good but you
know there are a lot of people who
can even tell lies with a clear conscience.
Doesn't disturb them.
So we see that conscience is not a
very faithful guy.
A man says, for example, he takes a
bribe and he says, my conscience doesn't trouble
me.
He does something so blatantly wrong and he
says, my conscience doesn't trouble me.
Is that the voice of God?
No, that is not the best guide.
The word of God and the Holy Spirit
are the guides.
This is a sort of a second best.
It's meant to lead us to the to
be faithful to the listen to the voice
of the Holy Spirit but those who don't
have any Holy Spirit and are not interested
in listening to the voice of the Holy
Spirit to protect them from gross moral evil,
this conscience is there.
So that they don't end up just like
the animals.
And that's why you find out in the
world also some so-called good people, they
have a little conscience about certain things and
those Christians who don't have discernment they say
there are some good Hindus and some good
Muslims and some good Atheists.
It's obvious when a Christian speaks like that,
they have no discernment on the Holy Spirit
at all.
They only know the level of conscience.
But conscience is there in all human beings.
But that's not Christianity.
Christianity is not just to live by your
conscience.
It's much more than that.
It's to receive the Holy Spirit.
To be those who are led by the
Holy Spirit are the sons of God.
Not those who are just led by their
conscience.
But of course, conscience is important that if
I don't even listen to my conscience I
can never be led by the Holy Spirit
which is a much higher level.
So their eyes were opened and we can
say the eyes are that conscience.
Jesus said the light of the body is
the eye.
That is the conscience.
Luke 11, 34.
And if your eye is clear, that means
your conscience is clear, your whole body can
be full of light.
You see, the purpose of that conscience is
that if I live according to my conscience
God's light can come and flood my whole
being and give me more light.
My whole body can be full of light
beyond what my conscience can tell me.
So it's important to go according to our
conscience but to allow it to lead us
to a life in the Holy Spirit of
obedience to the Word of God.
Very important.
And so we see here their eyes were
opened and they were ashamed and they had
to hide from one another it says.
That's the thing.
That's why they sewed fig leaves together.
See, what were they sewing fig leaves for?
What are they putting on clothes for?
There were no other human beings in Eden.
Only the animals.
They were not bothered about the animals.
Who were they trying to cover themselves from?
From each other.
And that's a very interesting thing.
That when sin comes, even between a husband
and wife who strictly speaking should have no
shame in being known as they are, there
can come a desire to cover up something,
to hide something.
Sin has come.
And there are fig leaves a little more
distant, a little hiding of one another from
one self from each other in husband wife
relationships.
Because of sin, sin always brings that.
A sense of shame, a sense of unwillingness
to be known and this is the beginning
of all hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy also began here.
And in our relationships in the church too.
Unwillingness to be known as we are.
Trying to cover ourselves up and make ourselves
more respectable before one another.
That's always the result of sin.
Guile.
The beginning of guile is the stitching to
each other.
It's the picture of human righteousness.
We know that when Jesus came, he came
to a fig tree and he saw it
full of leaves.
And what did he do?
Cursed it.
Why?
There was no fruit.
Leaves, leaves, leaves, leaves.
Fig leaves, fig leaves.
Those are the same fig leaves that Adam
and Eve used to cover themselves with and
Jesus cursed it.
There's a curse on this human righteousness with
which we try to make ourselves presentable to
each other and even to God.
Lord, I've lived a good life.
I've given money to the poor.
I've helped those who are in need.
I'm not like the prostitutes in the seas.
I'm a fairly good person.
Curses is all that human righteousness.
There are more people who have gone to
hell because of this so-called human goodness
than because of adultery and murder.
I believe that.
Many people who could have been saved are
not saved because they have never got rid
of their human righteousness.
They have never seen that all the multitudes
of fig leaves with which I try to
cover myself are all cursed by Jesus Christ.
He cursed that fig tree and it says
the fig tree withered up.
And that's how it is with fig leaves.
You can imagine these fig leaves if Adam
and Eve kept on walking around with them.
How long would they last?
You know these leaves have a tendency to
dry up and fall off after some time.
And you see God had something better for
them.
We read later on that God killed an
animal and gave them an animal skin.
And you know an animal skin can last
for centuries.
And that's the difference between the righteousness of
Christ with which God clothes us and our
own human efforts to try and pretend that
we are so good.
That's why so many people are not saved.
Because they have still a few fig leaves.
They think they are so good.
That's why I believe that nobody can make
spiritual progress until they see themselves as really
the most rotten sinner.
You know that story which Jesus said about
the Pharisee and the publican who went to
the temple to pray.
And this is what the publican said, Lord
be merciful to me.
And it doesn't come out very clearly in
the English but in the original Greek it
is Lord be merciful to me the sinner.
Not a sinner but the sinner.
And there's a difference between saying a sinner
and the sinner.
It means Lord there's one sinner in this
town and that's me.
You feel like that?
Then you can be justified.
But you feel there are other sinners in
this town worse than me.
Well you've got to sit with the Pharisee
then.
That's what Jesus was teaching in that parable.
Have you got that consciousness there is one
sinner in this town and that's me Lord.
You can go home justified.
And there are Christians so called believers who
never come to that place.
Year after year after year they never feel
that they are the worst sinner in town.
Never once.
I want to ask you all of you
sitting here, have you ever in your life,
even once felt that you are the worst
sinner in Bangalore.
Have you ever felt that?
I've felt it many times.
If you haven't felt it my brothers and
sisters there's something shallow about your conversion and
your salvation.
Though you're sitting here you really belong to
one of the denominations.
Your conversion is only that level.
You haven't really seen the horribleness of all
your so called figleys which Jesus has cursed.
Throw it away.
It's worth nothing.
You're saying that you are good and you've
done this and you haven't done so many
bad things.
God have mercy on you and may you
have light on it before the day of
judgment.
Otherwise it's possible you can be lost forever.
This type of righteousness is like filthy rags
in God's eyes.
All these figleys.
Ask God to open your eyes to see
that you are the sinner in Bangalore.
The sinner for whom Jesus died.
Then we can have salvation and our salvation
will be a glorious salvation.
I know when I got this light on
this, it changed my whole concept of God
and of salvation.
Yeah, we need to see that.
But we have to get rid of our
figleys.
All of them.
All our so called good deeds.
No, that's not how we get salvation.
They made themselves loin coverings and tried to
hide themselves from each other.
Verse 8.
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.
You see, that's the next thing.
We hide ourselves from each other and we
even hide from God.
I've said many times that the thing that
God requires from man, number one, is honesty.
I believe that with all my heart.
Honesty.
Be absolutely honest.
Don't pretend with him.
He knows everything.
You can't play the fool with him.
You don't feel like reading the Bible.
Tell the Lord, Lord, I don't feel like
reading the Bible.
That's the truth.
Why pretend to him?
He knows in any case that you don't
feel like it.
Lord, I don't feel like it, but I
need to do it.
Please help me.
That's honesty.
Than to pretend, oh Lord, I love this
very much.
You don't feel like reading it at all.
This type of humbug and dishonesty is what
leaves many believers in that rotten condition.
If only they were honest.
Say, Lord, I don't feel like reading it.
I said that to God and God helped
me.
I say, Lord, you love honest people.
You don't want me to play the fool
with you.
I want to be absolutely honest.
Lord, I love money.
Please deliver me from it.
And the Lord says, I'll do that.
But if I pretend, Lord, I'm alright here.
I don't have a problem.
Lord says, alright, you sit there.
I didn't come for people like you.
I'm looking for the sinners.
So many believers get sidelined by the Lord.
He leaves them alone with the Pharisees.
He says, I'm looking for the sinners.
My brothers and sisters, take it seriously.
Salvation is for the sinners.
For those who see their need and their
condition.
Don't hide.
They try to hide.
Foolishness to hide.
And it says here, the Lord God came
into the garden, which teaches us that God
took the initiative to find them.
It was not.
One would have thought that Adam and Eve,
as soon as they fell, they should have
dropped everything.
And instead of trying to stitch fig leaves
together, they should have just run in the
direction wherever they knew they could find God
and say, Lord, where are you?
Let me find you.
It says, God sought them.
That's a tremendous word for us.
That it is God when we sin.
It is God who takes that first step
to come and to ask in verse 9,
where are you?
The Lord God called the man.
Do you know that this is the first
question that God ever asked a human being?
The first question that God asked a human
being in the Bible is, where are you?
After he has sinned.
Was God asking for information?
It's like a mother calling out in the
house to her son and saying, where are
you?
She doesn't know where he is.
Was God like that, not knowing where is
Adam, I can't find him?
It wasn't like that.
God knew very well that Adam was hiding
behind that particular tree.
Then why in the world does he have
to ask him?
Because of that same principle that God wants
us to honestly acknowledge.
And he helps us.
He says, where are you Adam?
It's a tremendous encouragement that God longs for
that.
And he took that first step.
The word of God says in Romans chapter
3 and verse 11.
Romans 3 verse 11.
There is no one who seeks for God.
Have you read this verse?
Verse 11.
There is no one who seeks for God.
What about all these people who go to
Tirupati and Mecca and Velangani and so many
places.
Is it true?
Let God be true and every man a
liar.
That's what it says at the beginning of
chapter 3.
In the same chapter.
What does God say?
No one seeks after God.
So what are all these people seeking then?
They are seeking for blessing.
What about the lakhs of people who come
for a healing meeting?
You think they are seeking for God?
The healing evangelist has got to be really
crazy to think that all these lakhs of
people are seeking after God.
He's got to be really nuts to think
that these people are seeking after God.
They are not seeking after God.
They are seeking after blessing.
Just like the people who go to Tirupati
or Mecca or Velangani who come to an
evangelistic healing crusade.
Exactly the same.
I'm not deceived.
If I see a crowd going to Tirupati,
I'm not excited.
And if I see a crowd going to
a Christian healing crusade, I'm still not excited.
Basic motivation in both cases is the same.
How can I get some blessing?
How can I get something?
Are they seeking after God himself?
No.
No one seeks after God.
Everybody wants to see what they can get
for themselves.
That is the condition of the human race.
Never forget it.
There is not a single human being in
the world who seeks after God.
And my brothers and sisters, that is our
condition also when we are unconverted.
And if today I have a desire or
you have a desire after God, not His
blessings.
The Tirupati, Mecca, Velangani and healing crusade people
all have.
I don't mean that.
But a desire after God Himself, you can
be sure that's because the Holy Spirit has
done a work in you.
And if you become a Christian and you
still have no desire after God, but only,
how can God bless me?
Put yourself in the same category as the
Velangani, Mecca, Tirupati people.
No difference.
You have not been converted.
From that, you are in that category.
No one seeks after God.
God goes to some churches, looks around and
says, no one seeks after God.
God goes to some other church, yes, one
person here seeks after God.
The rest, just interested in something for themselves.
Ah, and the other church, five people here
seek after God.
The others, not interested.
Now if the Lord were to come into
our midst, how many will He find?
Who want Him?
Who can say like the psalmist, Lord, there's
nothing on earth I desire but You.
Whether You heal me of my backache or
my cancer makes not even this much difference
to me.
I am not bothered whether You heal me
of my sickness.
I am not bothered if I don't get
a promotion.
I am not bothered if I don't get
a better house to live in.
I am not bothered if anything I have
is stolen or robbed or lost or broken
or anything.
There's nothing on earth that I desire beside
You.
For that to happen in a person's heart,
the Holy Spirit's got to do a work.
Until that happens, we can say that this
chap is a believer but he is this
Mecca type of believer, this Tirupati type of
believer, this Velangani type of believer.
There are lots of these Velangani, Tirupati type
of believers today.
May God save this church from having such
people sitting in our midst and remaining like
that.
It's alright to be like that when we
come.
All Velangani type believers and Tirupati type believers
are welcome, but they must be converted to
become those who seek after God so that
we don't remain in that category of there's
no one who seeks after God.
It's God who sought after Adam and Eve.
And it's God who desires to work in
us by His Spirit so that He seeks
us so that we can be drawn towards
Him.
Wonderful.
It's a great encouragement for us to see
that.
But Adam was hiding and even today man
thinks that he can hide that he can
hide from God.
The whole world, all the unbelievers in the
world think that that they can hide from
God and even a lot of believers think
that.
And as long as we think that we
can hide something from God for example when
a believer sits in a church absolute hypocrite
in his private life doing all types of
wrong things and sitting in the church like
a wholly pious person, isn't he making the
same mistake of thinking that he can hide
from God also, that God will somehow overlook
all these things?
What a deception Satan has got such a
believer into, to think that he can hide
his private life from God to go behind
some tree or to go into some room
and lock the door.
It doesn't matter whether you're behind a tree
or inside a locked door.
When you sin inside a locked door or
behind a tree, it's the same thing, of
thinking God can't see me behind this tree.
What stupidity!
Oh, if I lock the door, God won't
be able to see me.
A man's got to be mad to think
like that and that is what sin does
to some people.
It makes them so mad that they think
that when they've locked the room, God doesn't
see them.
Or if the lights are switched off, God
doesn't see them.
This is amazing, amazing.
I've heard a story about this ostrich.
It's become a proverb in the English language,
to bury your head in the sand.
I believe the ostrich, I don't know whether
it's true or not, but the ostrich is
one of these big birds that can't fly
and the ostrich, when it sees a whole
lot of its enemies attacking it, it's scared
and knows it can't run fast enough.
So it does a very clever thing.
It buries its head in the sand.
And it says, now I can't see anybody,
so I'm sure nobody can see me.
Have you heard of that?
That's called burying your head in the sand.
And that's exactly how a lot of believers
are.
Ah, I've locked myself in this room now,
now even God can't see me.
Or it's dark now, God can't see me.
Think of that.
They wouldn't dare to do it out in
the open, because there God may be able
to see them.
It is this madness and foolishness that the
devil puts into people's heads that God can't
see you.
No, my brothers and sisters, no tree, no
room can hide anybody from God.
He is everywhere.
He sees everything.
Through and through.
Our only salvation is to be honest.
He loves us.
That's why he comes and says, where are
you?
You are trying to hide from me inside
that locked room?
Next time you are tempted to sin in
some secret place, may you hear the voice
of God saying to you, where are you?
Inside that room, is it?
Behind that tree, is it?
Switched off the lights, have you?
Where are you?
Hear that voice!
Instead of just listening to the voice of
the devil, thou shalt not surely die.
Where are you?
That's the voice of love.
The other is the voice of deception.
You shall not surely die.
Giving you comfort in your sin.
Every word of God I find is a
challenge to deliver me from sin.
That's God's intention.
As soon as man sinned, God began to
work to deliver him from sin.
That's a great encouragement.
Something that I read which really encouraged me
that this chaos which we read in Genesis
1, the earth was so full of chaos
and yet God made something very good out
of it.
And your life can also be like that.
Such a chaos, such a mess.
And God can take that mess of your
life and make something very good out of
it.
This is the gospel.
You read in Genesis 1, the beginning of
Genesis 1, the earth is in chaos.
In fact, chaos is not an English word.
It's a word from another language and it
means just that.
Chaos, the condition of the earth in Genesis
chapter 1.
And from that you see the end of
the chapter.
Excellent!
That God himself can call it excellent.
That's wonderful.
That's a great encouragement.
That's the gospel in the Bible, in the
first chapter.
Your life is in a chaos?
God can make it excellent.
But not if you hide.
Not if you hide behind trees and inside
locked doors.
No, come forth and respond to God.
Then verse 10, Adam says when he is
caught, I heard the sound of you in
the garden and I was afraid because I
was naked.
So I hid myself.
The first time in the Bible that you
read about fear.
I was afraid.
Fear follows on from sin.
Fear is the result of sin.
It is really true that if you fear
God, you need fear nothing else.
Like it says in Isaiah 8, 12 and
13, the living Bible.
If you fear God, that is you hate
sin, you need fear, nothing else.
Why was he afraid?
Let's turn to Romans chapter 13, verse
3, the middle of that verse.
Supposing someone were to ask you this question,
do you want to have no fear?
That's the question asked here.
Do you want to have no fear?
I think everybody in the world would like
to live a life like that.
Do you want to have no fear of
authority?
Whether that authority is God or some government
or police or the superior in the office
or do you want to have no fear?
Respect?
Yes.
But fear?
No.
Fear of authority.
Do what is good.
It is when there is sin that there
is fear.
A conscience that is not at rest.
Something not clear.
The Bible says concerning the overcomers in Revelation
12, they overcame him, overcame Satan by the
blood of the Lamb.
Remember this?
You do not overcome Satan by taking up
the cross first.
No.
You don't overcome Satan by using the name
of Jesus first.
No.
It says there, they overcame Satan, Revelation 12,
11, by the blood of the Lamb.
That means you believe that the blood of
Jesus has cleansed all your sins.
That's the first step.
Then the word of our testimony, second, in
the name of Jesus, I resist you, Satan.
And then the third step, Revelation 12, 11,
they loved not their lives unto death, they
took up the cross.
So there are three steps.
The blood of Jesus, the name of Jesus,
and the cross of Jesus Christ.
But the first one is the blood.
Always.
Otherwise we will always have this fear.
Something or the other in my life not
settled, not confessed, not settled.
Think of so many believers who never settled
something in their life.
And therefore they cannot overcome Satan.
No fear is from the devil.
And Jesus Christ tried to deliver His disciples
from fear as much as He tried to
deliver people from sin and sickness.
You read through the Gospels.
Jesus delivered people from sin, sickness, demons, and
He was constantly saying these words.
In the King James Version it's always written
as fear not, fear not.
In the NASB, do not be afraid, do
not be afraid.
How many times He said that?
Whenever He met people He said, do not
be afraid, He told His disciples.
He was against sin, against sickness, against demons,
and against fear.
Do you know that Jesus wants to deliver
you from fear as much as He wants
to deliver you from any other sin?
Of course.
He doesn't want a believer who's got victory
over anger and lust and full of fear
all the time.
No.
Do not be afraid.
God does not want any of His children
to live in fear.
Why did they have fear?
Because of a bad conscience.
There was condemnation.
There's where today we can be clothed with
the righteousness of Christ, be cleansed in the
blood of Christ, and live without fear.
Because I was naked so I hid myself.
What a fool.
He should have come before the Lord.
He didn't have to believe in God's love.
And now we come to verse 11, the
second question that God asked.
The first question was where are you?
And the second question is who told you
that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree of which
I commanded you not to eat?
We can put it together as one question.
Have you, basically, this question, have you eaten
from the tree of which I commanded you
not to eat?
Have you disobeyed me in some area?
That's the second question.
First question is my child, where are you?
And I come to the place where I'm
honest.
And the second question is, have you disobeyed
me in some area in your life?
And what is the answer that Adam should
have given?
He should have said yes Lord, I'm sorry.
And that's what we should be saying too.
But, we've got the fig leaves.
We've got the fig leaves.
And so it's not easy to be honest.
And so Adam says immediately, this habit of
blaming others began there.
Blaming others, have you seen children, when they
have a fight, those of you who've got
more than one child, minimum two, you'll have
this experience.
Have any of you had children who have
grown up and when they had a fight,
one came and said Daddy, that was my
fault.
And you're very blessed if you have children
like that.
That's a, must be a unique child with
some remarkable grace upon it.
There may be a few specimens like that,
but I think they are rare.
But the ordinary, normal average child is not
like that.
Of course, we can educate it to be
like that.
A father can say only if you do
this, I'll approve of you and he can
say that to get the approval of the
father, but naturally speaking, no child is like
that.
Always something in the other person.
But that began there.
With Adam and Eve.
This woman blaming the other person.
And can we blame our children when the
parents themselves are blaming each other.
Grown up people, 30, 40 years old, how
can they blame little 7, 8 year olds
when they have become 40, 45 years old
and are still blaming one another.
You should have done it like this.
What does that mean?
It's your fault.
I hope you realize it.
I'm trying to get you under conviction.
Yeah, that is blaming one another.
Something is not done, something is not ready
and immediately this woman whom you united with
me is the cause of my being late
for work or my not having done this
or not having done that.
This woman did not prepare the breakfast on
time or this woman did not do something
else.
Or this man didn't bother about all the
problems I'm facing at home.
It's the same old story.
And the next time you think that is
a bad thing that you see in your
children that they are blaming one another, just
after the children have gone to sleep, just
you think yourself whether you got victory over
it after so many years.
Think of that.
That's something we have to be delivered from.
First of all delivered from in speech and
then to go to a deeper level after
we finish school we got to go on
to college.
And that's the thought level that I don't
even blame the person inwardly.
That I don't even think that that is
that person's fault.
Don't be satisfied till you come to that
level of sanctification.
That you do not blame others.
This is the sin of Adam which we
have to find deliverance from.
One hundred percent right down to the root.
Jesus has come to lay the act to
the root.
Then you can be like the republican who
can say, Lord be merciful to me, the
sinner in the house.
Let's forget about Bangalore, let's begin with our
own house.
Lord, I am the sinner in the house.
If we don't get through that point, we'll
never reach this post graduate level of considering
ourselves the sinner in Bangalore.
It's so difficult to find ourselves as the
sinner in that small house with three or
four people.
Think of that.
There's a salvation there.
And we see here that Adam acknowledges that
he was with him when, it says, this
woman whom thou gavest to be with me,
she was with him.
Just like it says earlier in verse 6.
She was with him when all this conversation
was going on with the devil.
And she gave me from the tree and
I ate.
All he had to do was to say,
I ate.
That would have been the answer to God's
question.
But instead of saying, I ate, it's all
this modification and all that, and then I
ate.
And you see that in children.
Did you hit him?
Ah, this first four, five, six sentences, and
then I hit him.
It's the same old thing that we see
here with Adam.
The same old thing.
And they got it from us, our children.
So we see that this is something that
we see so that we can get salvation
from it in our life.
That when we have sinned, we don't put
the blame on anybody else, or our circumstances,
or any such thing.
But say, Lord, I take that myself.
I want to humble myself.
And the Lord God said to the woman,
what is this you have done?
And the woman puts the blame on the
serpent.
See, she has come out of Adam's side,
so she's got the same nature to put
the blame on someone else.
Of course, we've graduated from that.
Today's Eve would say, well, why did this
fellow eat it?
Don't blame me for that.
I ate myself and he's his own business.
But she hadn't gone that far.
She blamed the serpent.
And she ate.
And the Lord God punishes the serpent.
It's a wonderful picture of grace here.
He begins with punishing the serpent, not man
and woman.
He's come to deliver us from the serpent.
Be encouraged from that.
That before he says anything to Adam and
Eve, he pronounces judgment on the serpent.
He says, you're cursed, verse 14.
And that is the thing that encourages me,
and perhaps we can close there.
That God is on my side, even though
I've sinned.
He's on my side against the devil.
And therefore, I can be honest with God.
He's the only friend I have against the
devil.
And if I can be honest with him,
he can deliver me completely.