CAIN AND ABEL Stephen Lewis

Transcription

1 CAIN AND ABEL Stephen Lewis A Temcat transcript (very minor editing for readability) The Bible says in the book of Genesis chapter 4, and we just want to take a brief look at lives that represent us today. And Adam knew Eve, his wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord and she again bare his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought of the firstling of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering but unto Cain and his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well shalt not thou be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain where is Abel they brother? And he said I know not. Am I my brother s keeper? And He said what has thou done? The voice of they brother s blood cryeth unto me from the ground and now art thou cursed from the earth which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother s blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said to the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear. My punishment is greater than I can bear. It wasn t all Cain s fault. He inherited certain things genetically. If we remember, his mother had a problem following the rules that God laid out. Even before she ever got to the tree and stretched forth her hand and it s interesting that Eve did not pick the fruit from the tree. Just as the Spirit of Prophecy says that Jesus will pick from the tree of life and hand it to Adam, and say, eat; and live forever. Satan picked from the forbidden tree, the tree of good and evil and handed it to Eve. But it wasn t when she got to the tree that the problem began. The problem began after the angels had given her specific warning. And I just imagine as I read the word of God and I read the Spirit of Prophecy, and I m thankful for the Spirit of Prophecy and I don t apologize at all for its role that it must play in the final generation of earth s history. But when I read in the Spirit of Prophecy and it clearly says that angels instructed Eve of the danger in leaving her husband s side. If you re-read that and take a look at that you will notice that it s almost in the context as though while they were working at one point, Eve accidentally started to stray away and an angel came at that point and said, Eve, be careful as you get caught up in your work, be careful that you don t stray away from your husband, for away from him is danger, Eve! Please, be careful Eve took the counsel, began to work again, and now as they re working together, again Eve drifts away. Now remember, brothers and sisters, there is only so much that God could do. There was only so many instructions that He would give before He would tell His child, OK, Now walk to school and on the way home don t let any strangers pick you up. We all get similar or some type of instruction when we are give greater responsibilities and now Eve finds herself- the Holy Spirit impresses upon her, because she s looking at the beauty of the garden,

2 On perceiving that she was alone, she felt an apprehension of danger. If at the First suggestion that when Satan makes it, if we would dismiss that suggestion rather than the counsel of God, we would find strength and victory but she dismissed the fear and then The [Spirit of Prophecy] says, she could not see or remember the counsel of the angels. When she decided that she was strong on her own, you can read it, it s right there in Patriarchs and Prophets, and if you don t have it. It s on the Internet now. What excuse do we have? But she said she (Eve) took confidence in her own wisdom and in her own strength and she started heading out, looking at the garden and before she realized it, she found herself gazing at the tree with mingled curiosity and admiration. And now the devil knows, I got her! He knows, there s no turning back. There s a point in our minds where Satan beguiles; to beguile is to work magic, to hypnotize. Eve was gone the minute she looked upon that tree and became an admirer! She had gone beyond the point of return. Her confidence level was so high and now the devil plays on the three senses that God warns us against. Let s look at it a moment Turn with me to 1 John chapter 2- Satan plays on the senses that Eve had naturally within herself. Notice what the word of God says, now remember, Eve was daydreaming and now it s too late, Satan says I ve got her now! and with confidence he s speaking to her and she looks up and it s a serpent speaking and brothers and sisters, let me tell you something, when you study the anatomy of a snake, you will look on the snake s body and see where there s a place for wings. History even shows that when you look at the snake there are little particles as though there were some type of feet at one point on the snake where it once had landing gear. And so here it is in this tree and Satan is speaking through it and evidently the snake had to give permission. That s why it was cursed. But the danger, and something I want you to understand before we move forward is, that when Satan spoke through that serpent, he spoke in a musical voice. Music was a part of the first fall; and it s going to be a part of the final fall. And so now Satan has her, she s looking, she admires it, her curiosity is up, she s already out of the hands of God because whether it was miles or a hundred yards, it was moments ago that the angel did all it could do for Eve. Lord, have mercy! When we get to a point where the angel has to back up. Where the angel has to wait at the door and only mercy prevents destruction. And now he plays on three natural elements that are the root of all sin. Notice what they are- Oh God of heaven, pour out your spirit! In Christ s name Amen. It says in verse 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. So these three elements were the only thing that could be found in this tree. And Satan used these three elements the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life to bring Eve down. Notice what it says in Genesis, go back with me there and look at how the Bible simply speaks over and over warnings, that are not new warnings but warnings that are significant because others that have gone before us have fallen as a result of not following them. Notice what it says in chapter 3 of Genesis beginning with verse 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day that you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof Did you see it? When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes- the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and then she said it would make me wise- the pride of life! These three elements 2

3 and now Eve was gone! She was down and now she now she is put out of the garden and a promised redeemer is about to come. Look at the backdrop of this thing, Adam And Eve, a savior is going to come; it could come through your womb Eve. One day, a savior s coming, He s going to take on the body of a man and He s going to be bitterly sacrificed so that your place can be restored. And they were taught this lesson with eloquence. I mean they understood it clearly so Eve has her first child. And what does she do? She says, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And the original language says, I have gotten a man, the Lord. Eve believed that Cain was the Savior. And she put all her stocks and attention into feeding his selfishness. I have gotten a man, the Lord. And then she gave birth to another child and she named it Abel, which meant worthless. What good can you really be because I already have the savior? And so Cain, it wasn t all of his fault. Cain like some of us are in the conditions we re in today because of parental irresponsibility. Parents who should have taught us and directed us one way and directed us another. Parents who lowered the standard because they themselves weren t living it. Or even leaders, brothers and sisters. And Now it s time for Cain to bring forth an offering. No wonder he felt he could do what he wanted to do after all, I m God. I m the chosen one. Let s read a little of the details that our prophet gives. She says that Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam, were unlike in character Cain cherished feelings of rebellion, and murmured against God because of the curse pronounced upon the ground and upon the human race for Adam's sin while Abel had a spirit of meekness and submission to the authority of God; Cain was mad at God. Why on earth do I have to work? Why on earth? And it wasn t about his job being worse than Abel s job. He felt that God was wrong in what He had done. Why? Because these were sentiments of his mother! sentiments of his mother. God didn t have to be that hard on me. Do you ever have those sentiments? These brothers were tested as Adam had been tested before them to see if they would be obedient to God s requirements. They had both been instructed in regards to the provision made for the salvation of man, through the system of sacrificial offerings. God designed to impress upon the minds of men the constant reminder that it was only through the promised Redeemer that man could come into the presence of God. Cain and Abel understood the system of offerings, which they were required to carry out. They knew that in presenting these offerings they showed humble and reverential obedience to the will of God, and acknowledge faith in, and dependence upon, the Savior whom these offerings typified. Now here s the problem. Here s where the problem begins. Cain finds out that he s not God. I have to make a sacrifice to a Redeemer that is to come after I ve been pumped up all my life that I m the man! PRIDE, EGO, so caught up in self that you d rather burn in hell than say, I m WRONG! You know how we become when we find out that we re wrong, brothers and sisters? You know how we are when something we really believe- You see, it s one thing to be told I m wrong and then you look at it and know you are wrong; it s another thing to be told I m wrong when you really in you re heart believe that it was right. It s a difference. You see, rebuke when you really didn t know, you say, Oh, Thank you! But rebuke when you KNEW, festers pride. And now I m having to bring an offering to God when my mother said I was God. When my mother said, I was going to be the Redeemer. And Eve believed this. You study it; Eve believed it. That s how arrogant she had become. It goes on to say- Cain and Abel erected their altars alike, - they all looked alike- the all had Seventh-day Adventist out there- and each brought an offering. Cain thought it unnecessary to be particular- and here s the lesson 3

4 that we should gain, Why is it that we need to look at this in detail? And we won t go through it all. But why is it so important? Because the prophet says that this is a representation of the last generation that is to live on the face of the earth! There will be two sides the Cains, who want to worship how they want to worship and the Abels who will render unto God that which is appropriate and which is what He calls for. And let me tell you something, brothers and sisters, God is very particular! Our carelessness has nothing to do with God not being particular. Cain thought it unnecessary to be particular about fulfilling all the requirements of God; - ALL the requirements, this little detail really won t matter. If the prophet says that card playing is dangerous and of the devil, rook really couldn t be bad. You see you have to understand, brothers and sisters, in the context of warnings from God. It is just as though we must walk by faith and just as though we must live by faith, until faith becomes sight, just as though that must take place. Sometimes you cannot see danger that God warns you of. As a matter of fact, when Ellen White talks about checkers and cards and things like that, she uses this word, she says, in these there are unseen dangers. So when someone says, I can t see anything wrong That s what she said, they are unseen dangers! But we don t have to be that particular, do we? When Ellen White makes a statement in Review and Herald that Satan invented sports- who invented them, brothers and sisters? Satan, she says! She says Satan invented sports to occupy the mind of man and take his mind off of God. When she says that statement we say, Well, yah, but she meant that our kids shouldn t go into the NBA and become professionals at it. It s OK if our kids have innocent games against each other. It s OK if churches play because that s just exercise. NO- it s Wreck-Creation the prophet says, you are wrecking your body through that type of activity! Recreation is RE-Creation! It s doing something that you are creating something with the hands. Creating something, brothers and sisters. Cain s brothers and sisters are like him; We don t believe that God is particular. We believe that He gives instruction just because He likes to talk! God is impressed with His own voice and therefore He just says to Ellen, write these things because I like to read things that I say but the people don t really have to pay attention to the particulars. The Spirit of Prophecy goes on to say he didn t think that he had to be extremely particular. He didn t have to be particular to all the requirements of God -he therefore brought an offering without the shedding of blood. He brought of the fruits of the ground, and presented his offering before the Lord; but there was no token from Heaven to show that it was accepted. Can you imagine? Getting to the point where you are sincere in believing that God is going to alter the whole sacrificial system for you! Because you just want to do it this way. I want to wear what I want to wear and God will accept it and everybody who says something- you re not loving, you re not of God, you re a fanatic, you re into a work religion. God will accept this thing, so Cain had the nerve to build his alter exactly like Abel s! He had the nerve to place it right where God said place it. But then when it came to the final act, Cain brought fruit from the ground and the fruit offering was a symbol of thanks and praise! Hallelujah! I wonder if he rocked back and forth and clapped when he brought it? God said, I m not interested in no thanks and praise, I m interested in OBEDIENCE! Abel brought the lamb to God, Abel did what God said do and now they both back away from their altar and I ll bet Cain s looked prettier than Abel s. After all, you tell me, let s be honest today brothers and sisters, Let s just be honest- Have you ever seen a big roast on a plate? Then have you ever seen a beautiful arranged fruit basket? Which on looks the prettiest? All those different colors the strawberries tucked in the right place with one or two bananas just curling up and a pineapple sticking in the middle with its little 4

5 feathers coming and now you have peaches and pomegranates and you know the fruit was beautiful then, because the life that was in it was far more superior than the fruit we look at today. That wax that we put on our apples and try to polish it was a natural tone back then. It almost looked like if you dropped an apple back then that it would break, it looked like glass it was so rich. This was a beautiful fruit basket and Cain had to take his time in arranging it and putting it together but God didn t ask for fruit! And so therefore after his church looked so pretty and after his church was so eloquently put together, now fire comes down from heaven; and I can imagine two altars set up side by side, because it s interesting that whenever you notice Dagon and the Altar, the two god s are side by side and eventually a showdown comes. And now the altars are set up side by side and all of a sudden both boys back up in humble submission and they re waiting for their sacrifice to be accepted and fire comes down from the center of the heaven and turns and laps up Abel s and leaves Cain s standing. And Cain becomes angry at God. The only kind of spirit that I can give you and understanding that even comes close to the anger of [Cain] is the spirit that I see come out of people when I teach them the truth about this Gospel music. I mean, you know, it s interesting, I ve sat down with people and I have shown them how this new music that is in our church, came straight out of Haiti. Voodoo worship! I even read a quote once from Michael Ventura, who is a voodoo priest, where he said that it was arrogance for Christians to take the music from the voodoo religion and call it theirs! And I ve seen bitter rage; like Cain they had no defense except I FELT like this would be OK. I THOUGHT. I have shown them how that thing has? down, I have shown them medical, how it s against the pulse of your body, how it breaks down your heart beat, how it causes irregular heart beat. I have shown them how scientists have done tests on this exact thing and how it has caused brain damage and anxiety, and after all this proof I have pulled out the Spirit of Prophecy and read clearly where angels leave this type of worship and where demons in the form of men come in the dwelling and darkness comes in, and the only thing I see is CAIN rising up! No explanation except this is what I want to do, or sometimes it s correctly termed as a black thing because the dark demons of hell are black! Cain mentality! I m going to bring God what I feel like bringing Him! I m not going to study to see what He wants! And yet it s NOT accepted! And Abel goes one way and Cain goes the other way and now there is a bitter war inside Cain and he is MAD! And in his rebellion and in his anger God did not leave him, somebody ought to say Amen! God did not say, Hey Cain, it s too late for you. You rejected the blood of Jesus. You want to do it your way, you insist on being God. Do you know whenever you want to set your own criteria, you re saying, I m God! Whoever writes the laws is the one in charge! Cain was mad. God sent an angel, Cain, why are you angry? What are you mad about? Because you can t justify what you are doing? Because the best thing you can get is a bunch of people s ideas saying, I think, and I feel and I like? Not the Bible says? and the Spirit of Prophecy says? And one of the beautiful things about the bible and the Spirit of Prophecy is normally science and history at one point comes around and concurs. You know, it s interesting how science eventually comes around and authenticates everything God already says? Do you know that 90% of what the Spirit of Prophecy has written about health can now be confirmed by science? 90%! There s a couple of things they are still asleep on like masturbation. They re asleep on that. Fiftysomething things God has shown her and eventually they re going to lock Alzheimer s and all these other diseases into what she says self abuse would bring about. But we refuse the instructions of God. 5

6 Because we believe that life can really be happier without God. This is what we think. This is what Cain thought. Oh brothers and sisters, this is a tragedy, it s a tragedy when we see atheists, who ve had no Christian education; it s a tragedy when we see Buddhists, who have been raised to believe in this wooden god, it s a tragedy when you see them turn their lives around and accept everything that Adventists teach! Cain was mad. God said, Why are you mad, Cain? If you do what s right, I will accept you. The standard has not changed, brothers and sisters, God said, the standard will not change. If you do right- whosoever shall keep the law and yet offend in one point - Particulars, Cain, you re guilty of all, particulars. And whosoever abideth in Me sinneth not. Particulars. It s all or none, Cain. Do what I say. And what was God really telling Cain? If you read throughout the pages of the inspired writer, what God was saying was, Cain, you can still get a lamb and come make things right, and you ll have the peace that your brother Abel has over there. Do you know what Cain did? You can read it all later, We need to read more of the Spirit of Prophecy brothers and sisters, and the Bible- amen? And some people say, Well, we just need the Bible. No-No- No! Our prophet says If we had studied the Bible like we should of, we would not have needed her writings; she does not say that if we study it now like we should we wouldn t need her writings, she says if we would have- we would not have needed but now that God has given them, they are a necessity. This is what took place- about a week elapsed. The angel had talked with Cain. Cain went out in his orchards, angry and rather than surrendering to the angel, the evil started festering, his heart became harder and harder, and then, Satan whispered a suggestion. Isn t it interesting how we equate loudness with a message? Satan thinks he s God, and he knows that God speaks in a still, small voice, so he comes in a still, small voice and he whispers to Cain, he insinuates, Cain, since you cannot prove your message, destroy the messenger. Elijah Mahomet was in trouble wasn t he? Because Malcolm flew out of here and found out that it wasn t Black people that were Muslims. That whites and blacks and all people who were Muslims worshiped together. What is this stuff about blackness that you re teaching over here in America? And he came back over here with a concept, with an idea. And all of a sudden he started thinking everybody was needed and started looking into Christianity. Why did he get tricked into being a Muslim in the first place? Because his mother was a Seventh-day Adventists. And his mother went into an insane asylum, they put her in an insane asylum because she refused to feed her children pork- why? Because some white Seventh-day Adventist he says in his autobiography the nicest white people he ever met were Seventh-day Adventists- and some white people taught them about health. So she wouldn t feed her children which were hungry, pork and when the government would give her pork, she would throw it in the trash. And his father who followed the teachings of Marcus Garby that we should go back to Africa and we should have our own- you see as a child he was getting these mixed messages, so when he is in prison, and all of a sudden this dark religion of the Muslim faith comes along, they say don t eat pork, have your own- he said, Wow my Mom said that, hey Dad said this - and maybe this is what God was saying. So when he started talking, they couldn t defend themselves now- so they killed the messenger. Adventism is not like the Muslim faith. To kill the messenger is to kill God. Which means the message will go forward. And Cain goes in to their home land, Abel, Adam, Eve sitting around, Cain is smiling like everything s alright. Abel, come here man, I want to show you something. She says and they took a long walk out 6

7 into the field and Abel walked out there with him, way away! Cain thought he took him far enough where God wasn t looking. Do you ever get so secretive in your stuff that you forget that God is still right there? Nobody else sees, and you know you re safe now? And God is right there! And the Lord was right there and Cain said, Abel, you surely looked a little proud the other day. and started rebuking him because he was conservative. Because he did what God said do, he started rebuking him. And now Abel looks at him pleasantly, the prophet says, and he says, Cain, Oh, no my big brother! Oh, no. You see first of all, it did not deteriorate Cain s position as the inheritor of the birthright. It did not take anything from him for Abel to do what was right. Abel was still subject to his brother. Nobody s doing right is going to affect your life, brothers and sisters. We still have what we have coming no matter how good somebody does something, God still has a blessing for you that only you can have. But Cain was confused and Abel started saying, Cain, look now, you know God said this, and the reason why we re in this position is because Mommy and Daddy didn t listen to Him. And Cain became so bitterly enraged that he took a stone and crushed the head of Abel. You have to understand, Adam had 25% more vital forces than us. What does that break down to mean? In other words, you ve seen a life after 6,000 years get smitten in the head with a bullet and live in the hospital for month after month and just wouldn t die, until the family starts saying, look, you know we need to unplug it. For Cain to kill Abel he had to repeatedly crush over and over, even when Abel s head was crushed, he was still able to cry out. So he had to keep doing it with vehemence. It was a brutal death, the most brutal that had ever occurred. I thought I gave birth to God, and yet, I delivered Satan! And Abel lays there and Cain tries to hide the body. Ellen White says a couple of weeks went by- what kind of God do we serve?- God didn t just go and deal with him God established the first probationary period for man that we get to witness as close; He let time elapse hoping that Cain would realize what he had done. And after a certain amount of time elapsed, God Himself came to Cain. It was Jesus; it was Jesus, Cain? Where is your brother? Cain, with an attitude, the very thought of Abel made him hate even worse. Where is your brother, Cain? Am I my brother s keeper? Am I responsible for him? I m not Adam, he s his father, not me. What are you asking me for? Cain had become incorrigible, incapable of reform. Everything God had done for Cain, Cain rejected. Everything God tried to teach him, Cain refused. And now Cain had gotten to the point where if he could have, he would have snatched God out of heaven and, with the same stone killed Him! And so God had to withdraw His presence from Cain, forever. It didn t happen overnight brothers and sisters, it didn t happen overnight. I want you to hear something very clearly. It did not transpire overnight. We don t know exactly how long God dealt with Cain. He built up such a resistance to the Spirit of God by acquainting himself with the gift of overlooking the little things. The little things- God is not particular! Getting overwhelmed with the love of God and forgetting that that love lived a precise dictated life without any deviation. Some of us right here, right now would say, I wound never talk to God like that! Cain never thought he would have. Cain never thought he could kill his baby brother. It was a time where Cain like you, and like me, it s like Cain picked that little boy up, can you imagine? And would kiss him. Can you think of the games they played as they ran wild? Can you think of how they looked at each other amazed at what an angel looked like standing there with the sword of fire? They would come to open the Sabbath on Friday evening and they would come to the gate of the garden, and Adam would give instruction, and the angel may have said, Happy Sabbath! Can you imagine how the two little boys looked at that angel and say, Man look at the angel! Wow, isn t he excellent in his splendor? 7

8 He never thought! And this is deception, brothers and sisters, we get to the point where we never believe that we ll go to the end of the road. We always are tricked into thinking that we ll stop right here! But Satan can not be controlled and we need to brainwash ourselves into understanding that the devil can not be controlled! You can not keep talking to the serpent, you are going to eventually eat and enjoy the fruit. And many of us in here right now have not only been talking to the enemy, we have been eating from the fruit of the tree, we have made fruit salads with it, we love it- it s in our ice boxes chilling, we re preserving the evil things the devil has, and in the back of our mind, he s saying to us, You ll quit one day While the Spirit is speaking in whispered tones, not speaking like Satan where his voice has to come from the outside in, but starting at the center of your heart, pushing all the evil voices out, saying, I am the God of heaven, will you please surrender your heart to Me? But NO, we KEEP our videos and KEEP our cable and we KEEP our unnecessary artifacts. We continue to hang on to relationships saying, Oh, maybe I ll bring them to Christ. And so Eve gets to the point where she goes too far and now her son is worse! And he gets to the point! What is your point? A lot of people after you finish talking they look and say, What is your point? You ve said all that, what is your point? What is your point where Satan gets you to say forget God and keep walking believing you can make it on your own? What is your point? At what point do you drop Him off every day? You see brothers and sisters, it s easy to find the point, the drop off site. Follow me now! We re not talking about Cain any more, we re not talking about Abel any more, it s easy to find the drop off point but it s not as easy to find the pick-up! Because God does not stop moving because you walk the other way. Salvation continues to march forward and everything that you should have grasped had you not deviated from the truth, when you get back to pick up point you have to pick all of that up and keep going, so it becomes much, much more difficult. And it becomes easier, because your eyes have seen the glories of Satan and you have become curious and admirers of what the devil has offered, Because there s been some enjoyment in it. Come on, you know there s some enjoyment in sin. There s some false excitement and now that you ve tasted it more frequently it s easier to become satisfied from the things of this earth. Brothers and sisters, it s time that Cain surrenders before it s too late! You don t want to become incorrigible. Cain s problem was, he couldn t even hear what God was saying; he couldn t even hear it! You see, He asked Cain a question opposite of what He asked Adam. What did He say to Adam? Adam, where art thou? He knew if He said to Cain, Where are you? That Cain would come up with all types of reasons. So he tried to place a sympathetic passion in his heart by saying, Where s your brother? Hopefully Cain would say, Oh, God! I m sorry! I m Sorry! That s all he had to do, I m Sorry! I can t help myself. I m out of control, Lord. I love the things that You hate, I m SORRY LORD! I m sorry. And an angel from heaven would have strengthened him and he would have sent him right to his brother s pasture where his brother s flocks were still feeding, and he would have gotten one of his brothers animals and went to the same altar where he once put the fruit and he would have accepted by faith the slain lamb. And rather than saying to God, My punishment is greater than I can bear He would have experienced the joy of forgiveness. And he would have led Seth into a Holier life. We need to return to the altar this morning; we need to grab that lamb, and we need to remove all our baskets of fruit; or whatever you have in your basket, because God will only accept the blood of His Son and no deviation from strict integrity will meet God s approval. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is about to come and when he comes to rein victorious. When He comes, He s not coming for Trash. He s coming for the Goods! 8

9 Our heavenly Father, I must trust your Holy Spirit Lord, Please speak to our conscience. Break every idol down right now. What do you see when you bow before God, brothers and sisters? If you don t see His Son it s because your fruit basket is in the way. Go through and give Him permission to move each item that you have so diligently erected against the favor of God. Right now, tell Him, Holy Spirit, go through my mind and show me all the things that I m trying to get You to accept. Because when we hang on to these things brothers and sisters, we re saying that God will accept it. If you believe you re going to be saved, and ask Him to just move everything until you can see the Savior! And when you see the Savior, the sacrifice is accepted! When you see the Savior, it s complete. When you see the Savior, it s all right. It s all right! You ll resurrect and embrace Abel, and there ll be no hard feelings. Don t get to the point where you say, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Oh, brothers and sisters, do you want to be saved? Do you want to enjoy eternal life? I want to be saved, brothers and sisters, I want to be at peace with God, only those, who when they look through their mind, see Jesus. Ellen White says that if you want to see what your record looks like in heaven, all you have to do is visit your thoughts; that s what she says in Medical Ministry, Your thoughts are an exact replica of what s written in the book. Do you see Jesus when you look through your mind? Or do you see a whole lot of items, that you knew before you heard this sermon didn t belong to Him but unconsciously now you were placing them on the altar like Cain believing that somehow God would have mercy and accept your offering. I bring Jesus as my offering today, how about you? 9