Pathway to Life

Jesus, The Way Out

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Series Code: PTL

00:49 Hello there, television audience.
00:52 Those of you that are watching Three Angels
00:54 Broadcasting Network by way of the television or the internet,
00:59 we bid you welcome to Phoenix, Arizona,
01:02 lovely Phoenix, Arizona where the sun shines.
01:05 We bid you to come to Pathways To Life.
01:10 The Three Angels Broadcasting Network has come here.
01:13 Pastor John Lomacang is here with several of his
01:17 good friends here in Phoenix to share the gospel of Jesus Christ
01:22 to talk about pathways to life.
01:27 And those of us here in Phoenix, Arizona,
01:29 my name is Jim Hakes.
01:31 I pastor the Paradise Valley Seventh-Day Adventist Church
01:34 that has the privilege of being the host for this special event.
01:38 So again, those of you in television land
01:40 or in computer land, I bid you welcome
01:44 from the Arizona Conference and its leadership,
01:47 and from the Paradise Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church.
01:50 And we hope that you will be here every day or evening
01:56 at this particular time as Pastor Lomacang and his friends
02:01 share the message of Jesus Christ.
02:04 Tonight we begin with Pastor Lomacang's friend,
02:07 our friend.
02:09 Tim Parton will be playing and singing.
02:11 And the song he will be singing is, Jesus Is The Answer.
02:15 And when he is completed that beautiful rendition
02:19 of that song, then Pastor Lomacang will be out here
02:25 to speak to us about, Jesus, The Way Out.
02:31 And whether you're here in the studio, or in the church
02:33 which is the studio, or whether you are on the television
02:38 or at the computer, I hope and pray that
02:42 each one receives a special blessing.
02:45 And thank you for being here and joining us.
03:04 Jesus is the answer for the world today,
03:11 above Him there's no other;
03:15 Jesus is the way.
03:19 Jesus is the answer for the world today,
03:26 above Him there's no other;
03:30 Jesus is the way.
03:33 I know you have some mountains that you think you cannot climb,
03:40 I know your days have been so dark
03:44 it seems the sun will never shine.
03:48 But, friend, I'm here to tell you
03:51 that the Word of God is true;
03:55 and everything He's promised I know that He can do for you.
04:02 So I say, Jesus is the answer for the world today,
04:09 above Him there's no other;
04:13 Jesus is the way.
04:17 Jesus is the answer for the world today,
04:24 above Him there's no other;
04:28 Jesus is the way.
04:36 The only hope for the world is Jesus,
04:43 the only help for the earth is a touch from God.
04:50 Oh how we need Him.
04:53 We must seek Him with all of our heart
04:59 and all our soul.
05:01 There is no other help we know than Jesus Christ,
05:06 the only hope for the world.
05:13 Jesus is the answer for the world today,
05:20 above Him there's no other;
05:23 Jesus is the way.
05:27 Jesus is the answer for the world today,
05:35 above Him there's no other;
05:38 I know that Jesus is the way.
05:48 The only hope.
05:52 Our only help.
05:55 Yes, I know Jesus is the answer.
06:00 I know that Jesus is the way.
06:14 Can we say amen again?
06:15 ~ Amen.
06:17 Thank you so much, Tim.
06:18 I'm always blessed to hear Tim minister.
06:23 Tonight our message is all about Jesus.
06:25 He is the only answer.
06:29 Tonight I'm really going to get into your head
06:32 before I get into your heart.
06:35 But I'd like to begin with a word of prayer.
06:37 So if you'd bow your heads with me,
06:41 we will ask for the Lord's presence to be with us tonight.
06:46 Let's pray together.
06:49 Our loving Father in heaven, we thank You, Lord, for the
06:51 opportunity and privilege to open Your Word.
06:55 But open our hearts, we ask, that Your Holy Spirit
06:59 may come and speak to each one of our needs.
07:05 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
07:10 Tonight's message is, Jesus, The Way Out.
07:13 Say that with me.
07:14 Jesus, The Way Out.
07:18 Our first scripture comes from Matthew 1:21.
07:21 And I want to talk about two very important things tonight.
07:25 Now you'll never know how great a Savior Jesus is
07:30 until you understand how great sin really is.
07:35 I'm going to say that again.
07:37 You'll never know how much trouble you have been saved from
07:41 until you realize how much trouble you've been in.
07:45 Let me say it another way.
07:46 Until you almost got bitten by a lion,
07:50 you'll never know how blessed you are to be alive.
07:54 Said one more way.
07:58 If you were the last one to get on the last plane out
08:01 before a major earthquake, you'll never know how
08:05 blessed it is to be the last one.
08:08 Jesus is the only way out.
08:10 And tonight, for us to understand how great
08:13 a Savior He is, in 2000 and whatever year it is,
08:18 18, 19, 20, whenever this meeting is seen
08:22 or whenever it will be seen again, we've got to understand
08:25 how great a Savior He is, but how deep sin really is.
08:32 And I think that one of the things that has happened
08:34 in our world today is, sin has been so redefined
08:38 that they say sin is really a gray area.
08:41 But when I read the Bible, sin is really black and white.
08:44 So let's begin tonight with one of the most blessed
08:47 scriptures in the Bible.
08:48 Matthew 1:21
08:50 And the Bible, what a proclamation!
08:52 This proclamation is the reason why we are still alive today.
08:57 Matthew 1:21, let's read this together.
09:00 And the Bible says, "And she will bring forth a Son.
09:03 And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will
09:10 save His people from their sins."
09:15 Come with me to the laboratory of the most dangerous compound.
09:19 One drop could wipe out an entire city
09:23 of more than a million people.
09:26 Just one drop.
09:28 When inhaled it irreversibly alters the brain functions
09:33 in every living human and animal.
09:39 The most advanced scientists have not been able to
09:41 create an antidote.
09:43 And psychologists have failed in their attempts
09:45 to reverse its behavioral effects on humans.
09:51 I'm not referring to VX, the agent created by the
09:56 Germans in the 1940's.
09:58 VX, simply defined, Venomous Agent X,
10:02 which is defined today as the most toxic agent ever created.
10:06 Used during World War II.
10:11 I'm not talking about the most recent Sarin gas
10:15 that was released in the subways in Asia
10:17 that had taken many lives,
10:19 and released in the tunnels of England not too long ago.
10:23 Not mustard gas, the most popular,
10:25 or Phosgene, the deadliest, or chlorine, the most available.
10:31 Come to the laboratory where the most dangerous
10:33 compound is produced.
10:35 And this most dangerous compound only has three letters.
10:40 S - i - n
10:47 Now you might say, "Well, he's going to talk about sin."
10:52 Let me say something.
10:57 If it were not for sin, we would not be in the hopeless
11:01 state that our world is in.
11:06 If it were not for sin, billions of people would not have died
11:10 as of today.
11:15 If it were not for sin, there would be no wars
11:17 and rumors of wars, nation would not be rising against nation,
11:21 and kingdom against kingdom.
11:22 There would not be hate and violence of indescribable
11:27 magnitude and proportion if sin did not exist.
11:30 So sin is far deadlier than VX, and Sarin gas, and mustard gas,
11:35 and all the other gases that have been produced
11:37 to be used during a time of war.
11:38 Sin is the antagonist, the arch enemy, the adversary.
11:42 And sin has been around a long time.
11:45 Sin lives in every community and in every human heart.
11:52 Sin holds the exclusive patent for every evil ever perpetrated
11:57 and every evil ever created.
12:01 As a matter of fact, among sin's inventory are
12:05 sorrow, crying, death, pain, lying, stealing,
12:08 greed, covetousness, fornication, adultery,
12:10 sexual immorality, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry.
12:14 Shall I go on?
12:15 I will. Thank you for permission.
12:18 Sorcery, witchcraft, hatred, contentions, deceptions,
12:21 jealousies, outbursts of wrath.
12:24 How could one drop of something...
12:28 How could one drop of sin cause so much?
12:32 But I'm not done yet.
12:35 Wrath, selfishness, self-worship, self-love,
12:39 dissension, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry.
12:46 Sin is tasteless.
12:48 Sin is odorless.
12:50 And sin is colorless.
12:52 But sin will terminate your life in small doses.
12:57 Sin created racism, but sin is not prejudiced.
13:01 It's an equal opportunity employer.
13:08 Sin is an equal opportunity killer.
13:11 It excludes no one from the grave.
13:13 From the riches to the poorest.
13:15 From the most famous to the most unknown.
13:17 Sin has claimed the lives of the man with the most money
13:20 and the man with no money at all.
13:23 When sin comes knocking, no one can cancel that appointment.
13:29 Sin does not love us, like us, and could care less about us.
13:32 Sin wants us to hurt, cry, and die.
13:35 Sin wants us to live divided, derided, and undecided.
13:39 And because of sin, human actions are often
13:42 misinterpreted, human thoughts are corrupted,
13:46 and human nature is infected.
13:48 Because the Bible says, and here's the reason,
13:51 Romans 3:23, the Bible says...
14:00 Something that seems to be so innocuous can
14:04 keep us all falling short in every attempt we make
14:07 to be like God.
14:09 In our own personalities and in our own efforts
14:13 sin always causes us to miss the mark.
14:17 Matter of fact, on our best day, because of sin
14:21 our righteousness is as filthy rags.
14:25 I like to dress nicely, but I cannot outdress sin.
14:32 It doesn't care how you look, how you dress, how you sing,
14:34 where you live, what you have.
14:36 Sin is evasive, it is everywhere.
14:39 Sin is responsible for every war and every human casualty.
14:43 Sin rejoices over division and laments when there is unity.
14:50 One would think that something so hideous would be easy
14:52 to spot, but sin knows how to hide itself.
14:56 Sin knows how to camouflage and conceal itself.
14:59 It knows how to disguise itself.
15:01 Because sin has been reinterpreted, exalted,
15:05 and embraced.
15:07 And the moral deficit that exists today is because
15:10 the standard that defines sin has been disregarded,
15:15 ignored, and criticized.
15:17 As a matter of fact, statistically speaking
15:19 according to UNICEF, sin is so pervasive
15:21 that every four seconds, this really troubled my heart,
15:26 every four seconds sin claims another child's life.
15:33 When I say, child, I mean 18 years old and under.
15:35 According to UNICEF about 29,000 children
15:39 under the age of 5, sorry, not even 18.
15:43 Under the age of five.
15:46 29,000 children under the age of 5.
15:54 Wow!
16:00 That's twenty-one children every minute.
16:08 More than 70% of almost eleven million children that
16:12 die every year...
16:16 ...is attributed to sin.
16:22 That's why I intended to title this message tonight,
16:25 not to cause you to feel despair,
16:29 but to let you know that without Jesus
16:31 there's nothing but despair.
16:35 Matter of fact, keep going on, I want to really make
16:38 this clear tonight.
16:40 When inhaled, sin radically alters every human emotion
16:44 with unpredictable mood swings.
16:46 That's why when your children misbehave,
16:49 you say to yourself, "Where did that come from?"
16:52 Sin.
16:53 Sin is not necessarily genetically communicated.
16:57 You can have two children, a Cain and an Abel,
17:00 and both from the same mother and father,
17:02 but completely different in their character.
17:04 Why? It's not necessarily what you've done,
17:06 but what sin has done.
17:08 Sin finds itself in our genes, in our DNA.
17:11 When the fumes of sin reaches the impulse center
17:13 of the brain, any number of unpredictable
17:16 and uncontrollable behaviors follow.
17:19 For example, sin causes people to make offensive remarks
17:22 that they later regret.
17:24 Others demonstrate unnatural affection
17:26 that is even unpracticed among animals today.
17:30 Sin.
17:31 Sin makes people falsely accuse one another.
17:34 Others become fierce.
17:36 Some people even become despisers
17:39 of those that are good.
17:41 Why? Just because of sin.
17:46 Sin is linked to the ever increasing murder rate.
17:48 Sin produces distrust in the community,
17:51 instability in the marriage, and disrespect among siblings.
17:55 Parents complain about their children being disobedient,
17:58 unthankful, unholy.
18:00 Spouses report their experience.
18:03 Unloving attitudes, unforgiving spirits,
18:05 and headstrong dispositions.
18:07 Why?
18:09 Simply because of sin.
18:11 The impact of sin on business relationships have been noted.
18:15 People become covetous, heady, high-minded,
18:18 lovers of money, lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure,
18:22 boasters, proud, traitors.
18:26 Heady, high-minded.
18:29 Sin has also impacted the place of worship.
18:32 Listen carefully.
18:34 Some are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
18:37 Having a form of godliness, but denying its power.
18:46 When inquiries have been made as to who's responsible
18:49 for sin, we have consulted the most ancient records,
18:53 and here is what we have found.
18:55 Ezekiel walks us into the introduction of this
18:59 insidious chemical called sin.
19:01 Ezekiel 28, speaking about a creation that rolled off
19:05 the hands of a perfect God.
19:07 God looking at this archenemy, this nemesis of law and order.
19:12 And these words were penned for our admonition.
19:37 The mystery of iniquity.
19:39 I don't really believe we'll understand
19:41 everything about sin until God explains to us
19:43 in eternity how this thing happened.
19:48 But how it happened is not as real as it did happen.
19:52 And to deny its existence is to remove yourself
19:57 from the only antidote we have over sin.
20:00 And that is the blood and the power of Jesus.
20:06 Revelation also contributes to the understanding
20:09 of how sin came to this world.
20:11 When Lucifer became disaffected, he began a rebellion
20:15 to carry on his vicious attitude about his determination
20:18 to spread sin everywhere.
20:21 And the Bible records this scuffle that became
20:26 a magnanimous war in heaven.
20:28 Read the scriptures.
20:29 The Bible says in Isaiah, first...
20:41 You know, when you look at leaders today...
20:43 Praise God for political leaders.
20:45 But they're all weak.
20:48 And we get numbed over the idea that the person we voted for
20:52 or didn't vote for did or didn't do what they promised
20:55 or did not promise.
20:57 You know, it's time that we stop putting stock in men or women
21:00 in office and start putting stock in Jesus.
21:05 Because we think that, okay, well this next political leader,
21:07 or this next king, or this next ruler, or this next leader
21:12 I like their agenda.
21:13 And they will be the answer for our nation.
21:15 The only answer for any nation, His name is Jesus.
21:21 This war, let's go to it. Revelation 12:7-9.
21:26 The Bible says, "And there was war..." Where?
21:39 They didn't win.
21:41 So no matter how bad the devil appears to be,
21:43 he cannot defeat Jesus.
21:47 "Neither was there a place found any more in heaven."
21:53 But it continues.
22:14 You see, the condition in the world today...
22:19 Now I want to make it very clear tonight.
22:20 It's not because God created an angel to fall.
22:25 But God created a being just like you and me;
22:28 with free moral agency.
22:30 Some people say, "Well, if God knew that Satan was
22:32 going to sin, why did God create him?"
22:34 Well that's the same thing that you could ask Hitler's mother.
22:40 I could imagine, when Hitler was born
22:41 he was probably a cute little baby.
22:44 Not picking on Hitler.
22:46 But maybe Mussolini was a cute baby.
22:48 Or Idi Amin Dada was a cute baby.
22:54 Maybe Charles Manson was a cute little bundle of joy.
23:00 And the list can go on and on.
23:03 But God gave them something that every one of you have tonight.
23:05 The intellectual ability to decide your own fate.
23:09 The intellectual ability to reason out whether or not
23:11 you want to live or die.
23:13 And to me, it doesn't even make any sense.
23:15 When you consider the world and the condition that it is in,
23:18 it doesn't really make any sense.
23:20 When somebody is saying, "I want to give you life,
23:24 not only abundantly, but everlasting,"
23:27 and you say, "No, I would rather party."
23:33 Or, "I would rather another drink or another smoke."
23:36 Or, "I'd rather live immorally."
23:38 "I would rather that."
23:41 But the reason why we feel that way is because
23:44 Satan deceives the world into thinking that
23:48 what he offers is far greater than what God offers.
23:56 And there are some people that try religion,
23:59 and they walk away.
24:00 Religion can't change your life.
24:02 Only Jesus can.
24:04 You can be intellectually astute about all the doctrines,
24:07 you can know the twenty-eight fundamentals
24:09 backward and forward, you can be a person who even
24:11 teaches it, but if you don't have a connection to Christ,
24:15 you are just as intellectually lost as the most educated
24:20 madman that walked the planet.
24:22 It is not intellect that saves us.
24:24 It is the transforming grace of Jesus Christ
24:27 that can save anyone of us.
24:29 But don't fool yourself.
24:31 We are living in a world where Satan works every day
24:33 on coming up with something new to deceive the world.
24:37 The world is in the condition that it is in, not because
24:39 God made a fallen angel.
24:42 But God gave Lucifer the ability to choose his own destiny.
24:47 And the people today that say to me, "Why didn't God
24:51 wipe him out the moment he decided to defect?
24:57 Why didn't God just kill him and start all over?"
24:59 You know, there were angels that had heard
25:03 of Satan's accusations against God.
25:06 And the accusation was, "If God was not so exacting,
25:11 we could do what He asks us to do.
25:14 But God demands obedience.
25:17 And God is just waiting to zap you out
25:19 if you step out of line."
25:21 I'm going to tell you something tonight.
25:22 I am so glad that is not true about God.
25:24 What about you?
25:25 Because the church would have been, like, three members.
25:29 It wouldn't be growing, it would be shrinking.
25:32 Amen for the grace of God,
25:34 and His mercies that are new every morning,
25:37 and His faithfulness that is great.
25:39 So God is not looking for perfect individuals.
25:41 God is looking for men and women that are willing to say,
25:44 "Lord, I cannot resolve this issue without you.
25:48 I understand the condition of the world,
25:50 and it's only getting worse."
25:51 It's getting worse.
25:52 Evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse.
25:55 The world is getting worse and worse.
25:57 And like an old vehicle that cannot be rebuilt,
26:01 God is going to discard this planet one day and make it anew.
26:06 But don't fool yourself.
26:08 Tonight, Satan is come down having great wrath
26:11 because he knows he has a short time.
26:14 When Satan was cast to the earth, he looked for
26:16 somebody else to deceive.
26:18 He looked for somebody else to deceive.
26:20 And because he was defeated in the midst of creation...
26:24 God created two individuals: Adam and Eve.
26:31 And God did not create Adam and Eve with immortality.
26:35 God created Adam and Eve with the same thing that
26:38 you and I have.
26:39 The ability to choose their own destiny.
26:44 And the only way that Adam and Eve could live eternally
26:47 is having access to the tree of life.
26:49 It sustained their lives.
26:51 That's why when they sinned, the tree was barred.
26:54 And they would only receive eternal life based on
26:57 whether or not they would pass the test.
26:59 Now the Bible reveals the test.
27:00 Although the test scripture is in the New Testament,
27:03 this scripture I'm about to reveal to you
27:05 was true from the very beginning.
27:06 Notice, Romans 6:23.
27:09 Read it with me. The Bible says...
27:17 Adam had to face the test.
27:24 God neither forces our obedience nor insists on our obedience.
27:30 He simply says, "I've given you two choices."
27:33 And when you look at the story, which we're going to
27:34 walk through, when you look at the story,
27:36 if Adam had only passed the test.
27:40 If Adam had only passed the test.
27:43 Now we look back and we lament at Adam.
27:46 We get mad with Adam. You ever got mad with Adam?
27:48 Come one. You ever got mad with Adam?
27:50 When you hear the things on the news, you say,
27:52 "Adam, I mean, what's the problem?"
27:54 Can you imagine how Adam felt when he laid his wife to rest?
28:00 Can you imagine how Adam felt when he lived 930 years,
28:05 and every morning he woke seeing the result of his decision?
28:11 He probably said, "If I had only..."
28:13 And today, many thousands of years removed from
28:17 that bad decision, we are at the same place.
28:23 And we fail to make the other decision that Adam did not make.
28:28 But God had to test Adam.
28:29 Let's go ahead and look at the test.
28:31 God warned Adam that this nerve agent called sin
28:35 was in the garden and was waiting for another victim.
28:38 Let's look together at the story as it unfolds.
28:41 Genesis 2:16-17, the Bible says...
28:51 Now think about that.
28:52 Sometimes as Christians the world tries to make you feel
28:54 that you can't do anything.
28:56 But the Bible says, "...of every tree..."
28:58 How many people do you know that invite you to their house
29:01 and say, "You can eat everything."
29:04 Think about it.
29:06 They say, "There's only one thing you can't eat,
29:07 but everything else you can have."
29:10 "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat."
29:27 And I want to make a point here.
29:29 When Adam was at the point of test between choosing obedience
29:32 and disobedience, Adam did not make that choice
29:35 ignorant of its consequences.
29:39 I've grown up to learn that we are not ignorant of the choices
29:44 we make or the consequences, we just ignore it thinking that
29:47 we are an exception to the rule.
29:52 "I'm not going to get cancer.
29:54 I'm just going to try this drug out.
29:56 It's not going to affect me.
29:57 I know people get brain cancer from it, but not me."
30:02 Adam was completely aware of the consequences.
30:05 And so look at the test.
30:06 Look at the test.
30:18 This is amazing.
30:20 The woman went to the tree
30:21 because the tree couldn't come to her.
30:24 We often find ourselves in the predicament we're in
30:26 because we go looking for what God prohibits us from.
30:31 It doesn't come to find us.
30:33 The club doesn't come to you; you go to the club.
30:37 We go looking for what our human nature desires.
30:40 And when you study sin, the word, "desire,"
30:43 is a powerful thing.
30:45 The word, "desire," is a powerful thing.
30:47 Desire is like the seed, the seed that determines
30:50 what the next action is going to be.
30:52 Desire activates the will.
30:54 And the will makes the decision.
30:56 And the decision that the will makes now causes your body
30:59 to move in the direction of your desire.
31:03 So she desired to find out what God prohibited her from.
31:07 And so now she's having a conversation with the agent
31:10 of sin, and he's camouflaging himself.
31:15 And he begins with the question, "Has God indeed said..."
31:18 And tomorrow night we're going to talk about the message,
31:20 or tomorrow, the next meeting is going to be,
31:22 The Book That Breathes.
31:24 You'll discover he attacked her on what the
31:26 word of God had said.
31:28 "Has God indeed said...
31:31 ...you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
31:33 And the woman responded.
31:34 "And the woman said to the serpent..."
31:47 I use to think that the woman had departed from
31:50 what God had said, because He didn't really say, "touch it."
31:53 But as I studied that further in the Hebrew,
31:55 just recently I studied this further, what the Hebrew
31:59 writers say is that Eve was so certain that she must avoid
32:04 any connection with sin at all that she said,
32:08 "I don't even want to touch it."
32:11 She was fully convinced in her mind that even touching it
32:16 would result in the same thing as eating it.
32:20 So she said, "God said don't even touch it."
32:25 She was emphasizing what she knew God had meant.
32:29 But the devil came back with the lie that has sunk the world.
32:43 I want you to think about that for a moment.
32:44 "You will not surely die."
32:46 In the Hebrew, it's more like this:
32:48 The devil didn't say to her,
32:50 "I am not sure that you will die,"
32:52 or, "I'm not really sure that it will affect you."
32:55 He says, "You surely will not die."
32:57 In other words, "I'm sure you're not going to die."
32:59 And so many people have found themselves in predicaments
33:03 because they did not believe that the next action would
33:06 result in their death.
33:08 I can tell you stories about friends
33:12 that would be alive today.
33:13 One friend of mine when I was in junior high school,
33:16 he played hooky from school.
33:18 It was during the early part of winter in New York City.
33:21 And he went to one of those very famous parks.
33:22 You may have heard of Prospect Park.
33:24 You have to be from New York to know what I'm talking about.
33:27 I can't doubt that people leave New York and come to Arizona,
33:30 but just in case you are a New Yorker
33:33 you may have heard about Prospect Park.
33:34 In Prospect Park when the winter months come around
33:37 often times the lakes freeze.
33:41 But it depends on the temperature drop.
33:43 My good friend by the name of Albert, I never forgot that.
33:47 Because it was during the time when Simon and Garfunkel
33:49 had just released the song, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
33:54 I went to visit Albert's house.
33:56 And his mom said he wasn't home.
33:58 And we heard not too long after that
34:00 that Albert had played hooky from school,
34:03 he and two other friends, and they were walking across
34:05 the lake in Prospect Park and the ice broke,
34:08 and Albert drowned that day.
34:11 Now do you think Albert went to drown himself that day?
34:14 Don't you think Albert said, "I surely will not drown.
34:18 Not me, I'm Albert."
34:22 People often expose themselves to dangers
34:25 completely conscious of what the end result could be,
34:28 but they always think, "It's not going to be me."
34:32 Another good friend of mine...
34:34 I could tell you so many stories but time doesn't permit.
34:36 The point of the matter is, he said to Eve, "You will not die."
34:39 "You will not die."
34:40 And look at what he further said to her in verse 5.
34:42 "For God knows..."
34:43 In other words, God knows something that
34:44 He doesn't want to tell you.
34:46 Brothers and sisters, if God hasn't told it to us,
34:49 we don't need to know it.
34:51 The secret things belong to the Lord, but those things that
34:54 are revealed belong to us and to our children.
34:56 That's why whenever I do Revelation seminars,
34:58 when people ask me, "What race was Adam?
35:01 What was his skin color?"
35:03 I say, "Every color."
35:07 From one blood came all nations.
35:09 Amen, you multi-cultural crowd.
35:12 We only have one Father.
35:14 Different mothers, but one Father.
35:17 What relevance is the color of Adam to salvation's decisions?
35:24 And then they ask the other question,
35:25 "Well, if there was only one man and one woman,
35:28 well who did Adam's children have children with?"
35:31 What does that have to do with you today?
35:35 What does that have to do with your salvation?
35:37 What does that have to do with you deciding to follow Jesus?
35:40 Nothing.
35:42 He said to the woman, "God knows that in the day
35:45 you eat of it your eyes will be opened..."
35:46 Sin does open your eyes, but I can tell you this:
35:49 When sin opens your eye, you really don't like what you see.
35:56 "...you'll be like God, knowing good and evil."
36:00 Lord, I wish we did not know evil.
36:02 What about you?
36:03 So the woman fell for it. She got a little bit of it.
36:05 She said, "Well that sounds good.
36:07 God didn't show me His menu,
36:09 but at least you told me about your menu.
36:10 So what's on the menu?"
36:12 So the woman looked at the menu, and she said...
36:31 And I can hear God saying, "Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam."
36:43 One writer said...
36:47 Well I won't quote that writer because
36:48 it's irrelevant to the point, and it will take you away.
36:52 Eve was deceived.
36:54 Hear me carefully.
36:56 But Adam, being given stewardship of the earth,
37:01 opened the door to sin consciously.
37:06 Romans 5:12 says it this way.
37:22 From a baby.
37:24 Now a baby is not a sinner, but a baby has a sin nature.
37:29 Let me make this very clear.
37:31 When I go back to Hitler, when Hitler was born
37:34 he didn't say, "Mom, I have a plan to kill six million Jews."
37:37 He couldn't even talk.
37:40 But he had a sin nature that was unregenerated.
37:42 He had a sin nature that wasn't working.
37:44 He had a sin nature that if untrained and unguided,
37:50 it will lead him in the wrong direction.
37:52 And so she decided to take of this tree.
37:55 And she gave to her husband.
37:56 And then they both fell into sin.
37:59 And what happened? Genesis 3:7-8
38:07 That's exactly what sin does to us.
38:09 It exposes you.
38:11 "...and they sewed fig leaves together and
38:13 made themselves covering."
38:14 You know what that means when it says, "They sewed fig leaves
38:16 together and made themselves covering."?
38:18 They sewed fig leaves together.
38:20 Fig leaves is a representation of righteousness that
38:24 we believe is a substitute for God's righteousness.
38:28 And it always is less of an...
38:31 Let me say it this way.
38:33 Sin... The clothing...
38:35 Let me say it right.
38:37 We could never provide righteousness better than
38:41 the righteousness of God.
38:43 The Bible said fig leaves.
38:45 Little...
38:48 Eve, according to the figures that I have discovered,
38:53 Eve had to be about 14 to 16 feet tall
38:56 and a petite 1200 pounds.
39:00 Imagine Eve in fig leaves.
39:07 And Adam...
39:09 As one pastor said, Eve worked hard to keep her
39:12 weight down to 1200 pounds.
39:17 And Adam about 19 to 21 feet tall.
39:19 This big super human walking around the garden
39:22 with fig leaves on.
39:23 And God said, "This is ridiculous."
39:26 But that's what sin does; it makes coverings.
39:28 It makes coverings that are always insufficient for the
39:31 righteousness of Jesus.
39:32 If you ever decide on your own righteousness,
39:35 read this verse.
39:37 And you'll discover that all you will come up with is fig leaves.
39:41 But the Bible continues. Verse 8.
39:53 That's what sin does.
40:01 "...from the presence of the Lord God
40:03 among the trees of the garden."
40:05 Ask yourself, is there any place that we can hide from God?
40:09 There's absolutely nowhere that we can hide from God.
40:12 The symptoms of sin makes us hide.
40:15 But God doesn't need a GPS to find His children.
40:21 David the psalmist says, even darkness is light to God.
40:31 And he also says, "If I go to the uttermost parts
40:33 of heaven, You're there.
40:34 If I make my bed in the grave, You're there.
40:36 If I go to the depths of the sea, You're there."
40:38 There's no place that God cannot find us.
40:43 And the Bible says they sewed fig leaves together.
40:45 And the pronouncement of judgment on them for this sin
40:48 was a terrible thing, because women today would not
40:51 be going through what they go through
40:53 if Eve had not been disobedient.
40:57 Because of her disobedience, the Lord said to the woman,
41:00 "To the woman He said, 'I will greatly multiply your sorrow
41:02 and your conception...'"
41:06 And get this. This is powerful.
41:08 I'll spend some time one day to really unwrap this.
41:10 But it says...
41:14 Let me take a minute and try to communicate this.
41:16 "Your desire shall be for your husband,
41:19 and he shall rule..."
41:21 In other words, who's the one in control,
41:22 the woman or the husband?
41:24 When you read Romans 7, the Bible talks about the
41:27 woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.
41:30 Here's the point.
41:31 It's far deeper than just a physical man named Adam.
41:34 The husband that is talked about there is the sin nature.
41:37 If our desire is for the sin nature,
41:41 the sin nature is in control of us.
41:43 Not the other way around.
41:46 Romans 6:16, "Do you not know that to whom you
41:48 yield yourselves as servants to obey, you are that one's slave
41:52 whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death
41:55 or of obedience leading to righteousness?"
41:58 Once we decide who to yield to, that power
42:02 takes us over immediately.
42:04 And we have no say in what we do.
42:08 That's why the only thing we have the power to do is choose.
42:10 To do what?
42:11 Choose. That's it.
42:13 All we've been given is the power to choose.
42:14 When you choose, Romans 7:17, the Bible says Paul, looking at
42:18 his condition, he said, "It is no longer I who do it,
42:21 but sin that dwells in me."
42:24 And sin will make you do what you thought you would never do.
42:29 But when you yield to Christ, it is no longer I who lives,
42:32 but Christ who lives in me.
42:34 Amen, somebody.
42:35 Sin will make you do what you never thought you would ever do.
42:38 But Jesus causes you to live how you thought
42:41 you could never live.
42:44 What's the difference?
42:45 It depends on which power you choose.
42:47 It depends on which power you choose.
42:49 From the sin of Eve, every woman that is given a child
42:53 has born a child in some kind of pain or the other.
43:00 And men have been, ever since that day men have been
43:02 trying to find a job that don't make them sweat.
43:05 But here's what the Bible says.
43:07 Genesis 3:19
43:19 To dust you shall return.
43:21 Not to heaven.
43:22 And I'll talk about that in a few nights.
43:24 But to dust.
43:25 Adam not only affected his standing with God,
43:28 he impacted every child that would ever be born on the earth.
43:32 In other words, his DNA of sin was passed on to
43:35 everybody in here tonight.
43:37 Every one of us has the DNA of Adam.
43:40 That's sin DNA.
43:43 That in the midst of a song in church, a terrible thought
43:46 comes to our mind and messes up our worship experience.
43:49 The DNA of Adam.
43:52 The DNA of Adam makes us pray, and the moment the prayer
43:56 is done and we see somebody on the other side of the aisle
43:59 that we don't like, it just messes up the way we feel.
44:02 The DNA of Adam.
44:03 The DNA of sin.
44:05 Aren't you looking forward when the DNA of sin
44:08 will be forever replaced with the DNA of righteousness?
44:16 What was the impact on Adam's life?
44:26 Why? 1 Corinthians 15:22
44:29 "For as in Adam, all die; even so, in Christ..."
44:38 All shall be made alive.
44:42 If I were to split this audience down the middle,
44:45 which I won't do tonight, but in reality when you think about
44:49 the right, on the right hand of God there are
44:51 pleasures forever more.
44:53 On the left side are the goats.
44:54 On the right side are the sheep.
44:56 You know, you can always tell a goat,
44:57 because goats "but" all the time.
45:02 "I would keep the Sabbath, but..."
45:06 "I would give my life to Jesus, but..."
45:12 "I want to do what's right, but..."
45:15 And the sheep just hears the Shepherd's voice,
45:20 knows the Shepherd's voice,
45:23 and follows the voice of the Shepherd.
45:27 Adam lived 930 years, and he died.
45:30 He lived 930; Seth, 912; Enosh, 905; Cainan, 910;
45:34 Mahalalel, 895; Jared, 962; Methuselah, 969; Lamech, 777;
45:41 Noah, 950.
45:43 Adam's family line.
45:44 Shem, 500; Nahor, 119; Serug, 200.
45:50 Sin has robbed us of life.
45:53 Today if we live to be 100 years, we get excited about it.
45:58 And we ought to.
46:02 But can you imagine what kind of sin could be produced
46:07 if somebody today, if a drug dealer today
46:09 lived to be 950 years old?
46:13 Now you see why God allowed sin to depreciate our age?
46:17 Can you imagine if Hitler was 745 before he died
46:20 and he was perpetrating evil for that length of time?
46:24 It's the sovereignty and the love of God that causes
46:26 sin to be shortened, and shortened, and shortened.
46:29 And I believe one of the reasons why God does that
46:31 is because He loves His creation so much
46:34 He will not give sin total dominance over creation.
46:39 Amen?
46:40 He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do it.
46:42 David the psalmist writes these words about our lives.
46:44 And this is a sobering text,
46:46 because it uses the word, "seventy."
46:48 Well, let's not mess with that tonight.
46:55 To understand that, read the beginning of 1 Kings.
47:00 When David was advanced in years, the Bible said
47:02 he was 70 years old.
47:04 When he called his son Solomon to reign
47:06 in his stead, he was only 70.
47:07 Now 70 is not a bad age.
47:15 The young people are not saying anything.
47:30 That's what a vapor does. Flies away.
47:32 Look at the kettle tonight when you make something hot
47:34 before you go to bed.
47:35 Just stand there and look at the vapor.
47:37 Where does it go? It just flies away.
47:39 That's life.
47:41 It's so fleeting in this life.
47:42 That's why tonight, Jesus is the only way out.
47:45 I can get an amen somewhere?
47:47 The only way out.
47:49 When crime and violence is at its height,
47:52 Jesus is the only way out.
47:54 When the grave...
47:55 My sister has seen so many of her friends die
47:58 because of 9/11 at the World Trade Center.
48:01 She said to me, she said, "John, I could retire
48:03 just out of shear agony from all the funerals I attended."
48:08 But she's still alive to this day because my wife and I
48:11 pray for her every day.
48:13 She left the church at 16 years old.
48:15 And I'm praying every day, "Father, give her more time
48:19 that she can come back before the sin problem
48:22 is forever resolved."
48:24 Praying for her to come back.
48:26 And God, in His sovereignty, allowed her to stay home
48:29 on September 10th and go to work late on September 11th.
48:34 She was going to go to work at 6 am in the morning,
48:36 but because I prayed for her, the Lord,
48:38 in the middle of the evening, late in the night
48:40 as a matter of fact, she went to a club with
48:42 other firefighters and police officers, and people that
48:45 work in the force, and about 4 o'clock in the morning
48:47 she said, "I'm not going to work at six.
48:49 I'm going to go to work at ten."
48:50 And that one decision saved her life.
48:55 And I called my sister as soon as my wife and I
48:57 landed in Canada.
48:59 We were one of the first planes that were redirected to
49:01 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
49:05 And as soon as we landed I called my sister, and she said,
49:07 "God has been good to me."
49:08 And I rejoiced that she even mentioned the word, "God."
49:12 And just last week I talked to her when I came back
49:14 from New York a few weeks ago.
49:15 And I told her in the midst of a church service
49:17 in New York City, she was sitting in the audience,
49:19 and I looked at my sister and I said,
49:22 "Sister, when Jesus comes and mama Haynes comes forth
49:29 from her grave, and we meet in heaven,
49:31 and she says to me, 'What happened to your sister?'"
49:34 I looked at my sister and I said,
49:35 "What am I going to say?"
49:39 You cannot afford to miss heaven.
49:40 And I called my sister when I got home, and she said,
49:42 "Brother, I'm listening to you.
49:44 I'm going to surprise you one day."
49:48 That's why I believe today the most successful
49:50 evangelist was Noah.
49:53 When the ark's doors were closed,
49:56 all family members accounted for.
50:02 You see, tonight I'm talking about Jesus, the only way out.
50:05 There's no other way out other than the way
50:07 that comes through Jesus.
50:09 You see, God knew, God knew the results of sin.
50:13 Now there's one more verse, I have a few more before
50:16 I end tonight, but there's one more verse in the story
50:18 of the fall of Adam and Eve that gives me the most hope.
50:22 Look at it together.
50:24 Genesis 3:9
50:34 God was not asking for a location,
50:38 God was asking for confession.
50:41 God knew where he was.
50:43 Well sometimes you say, "Where are you on that project?"
50:46 "Where are you in your relationships?"
50:47 "Where are you in your education?"
50:49 "Where are you in your assignments?"
50:50 "Where are you?"
50:52 Not asking where you are,
50:53 but what is your stand, what is your position?
50:55 God was saying to Adam, "Come on Adam,
50:56 this is the moment to confess."
50:58 And what did Adam do? "The woman You gave me..."
51:03 What did the woman do? "The serpent You created..."
51:06 Trying to pass off blame.
51:08 That's why today human nature would rather blame
51:11 than confess and be transformed.
51:16 But the good news is, the good news is,
51:18 just in case you missed it,
51:19 Adam didn't go looking for Jesus.
51:21 Jesus came looking for Adam.
51:24 You see, tonight we can be saved, not because
51:26 we found God, but God found us.
51:28 He came to Phoenix to find you.
51:31 He didn't say, "Find out where I am."
51:32 Because the Bible says, "Can we by searching find out God?"
51:35 No.
51:36 But He can find us.
51:37 He came here to find us.
51:39 He came here to find those of you that are watching
51:41 the program, wherever you may be looking at this,
51:43 God is hunting you down.
51:45 The love of God is insatiable and He will not stop until
51:49 He's done everything He can to let us know that He loves us.
51:53 That's why I end with this passage tonight that you love
51:56 and we all love, and let's say it together.
52:23 We don't serve a God who condemns us.
52:25 He condemns sin. Amen.
52:28 If you feel condemned, it's not because God did it.
52:31 The Bible says, "If our heart condemns us..."
52:34 And God is greater than our hearts.
52:36 Why would our heart condemn us?
52:37 Because He put His law in our minds and in our hearts.
52:39 And when God's law is there, it will pull our coattail
52:42 until we either turn off our receptors to righteousness
52:46 or simply give into the love of God.
52:48 And I thank God for that.
52:50 Because when Adam sinned, the Bible says in Genesis 3:14,
52:54 God said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman."
52:56 That's the comfort of discomfort.
52:59 God put in us enmity so that sin makes us uncomfortable.
53:03 So when you do something wrong, that comfort is not an emotion
53:06 you have, but God put that safety system there
53:09 so that you know that that discomfort should lead you
53:14 to run to the Savior who will bring that discomfort
53:18 to redemption.
53:20 That's why tonight, my last scripture,
53:22 I love it so much.
53:24 This message was not only in the Garden of Eden,
53:26 not only when Adam sinned, not only when Jesus came,
53:30 but look at what the Bible talks about.
53:31 And tomorrow night we're going to amplify this.
53:33 I love this passage.
53:44 The s-i-n.
53:46 The deadliest compound ever created.
53:49 Not what you do, but what causes you to do what you do.
53:56 The deadliest compound.
53:57 Tonight, as Tim plays, I want you to know that
54:00 Jesus has an answer for us.
54:04 Jesus came down so that we can one day go up.
54:07 Jesus walked our road so that one day we can walk His road.
54:11 Amen, somebody.
54:12 He was arrested so that we could be set free.
54:14 He was declared guilty so that we could be declared innocent.
54:18 He was condemned so that we could be pardoned.
54:20 He was treated as a criminal so that we can be
54:23 treated as royalty.
54:25 He was stripped so that we could be covered.
54:27 He wore our thorns so that one day we could wear His crown.
54:32 Jesus suffered the shame of death so that one day
54:36 we can share the glory of life.
54:39 Tim, bless us tonight.
54:43 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
54:50 just to take Him at His word,
54:58 just to rest upon His promise,
55:05 just to know, "Thus saith the Lord."
55:15 Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
55:23 how I've proved Him o'er and o'er.
55:31 Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
55:39 oh for grace to trust Him more.
55:46 As Tim continues to play, let me tell you why
55:48 Jesus is the only way out.
55:51 You see, friends, this story is going to end on a high note.
55:56 One day sin will be eradicated, and death will be terminated.
56:00 One day pain will be eliminated, and sorrow will be terminated.
56:05 One day war will be assassinated,
56:07 hate will be obliterated.
56:09 Sinners will be extricated, life will be celebrated.
56:13 Satan will be annihilated, and Jesus will be vindicated.
56:17 And this experience can be yours if you simply trust in Jesus.
56:21 Anybody tonight want to trust in Jesus?
56:24 You want to trust Jesus with your life?
56:28 As we sing the second stanza, if you want to just say tonight,
56:31 "Lord Jesus, I want to turn my life over to You."
56:33 We may end with our television audience, but we're going to
56:36 sing here, and after that we're going to pray.
56:38 Because there's someone watching the program tonight
56:40 that wants to give his or her life to Christ.
56:43 If that's your decision, you can go to 3ABN.org
56:48 and contact us, or go to the 3ABNPhoenix.com website
56:53 and notify us about your decision.
56:56 Notify your pastor about your decision.
56:59 Let us know so that we can pray for you.
57:01 Because there's no greater decision than to follow Jesus,
57:04 who is the only way out.
57:06 Tonight I want to pray with you before
57:08 we sing that chorus again.
57:10 Father in heaven, tonight we pray that we can
57:14 respond to the call of God.
57:15 He's saying to us, "Where are you?
57:17 I've come to save you. Where are you?
57:19 I've come to transform you, and to forgive you,
57:21 and to change you.
57:22 Where are you? I've come to give you life.
57:24 And to give it to you more abundantly.
57:26 Where are you?"
57:27 May we come out from behind the tree of our excuses
57:31 and put our lives squarely in the hand of our Savior.
57:34 It's my prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

Home

Revised 2018-06-25