Well, good morning. You'll open your Bibles up to 2 Peter, chapter 2. We'll start there this morning. While you're opening, I just want to thank everybody for your prayers. Last week I went in for my skin cancer, and surgery went great. The recovery went great, minimal pain. The hardest part, you're not allowed to do anything, can't lean over, can't exercise, and I have to sleep upright. And I'm not one, I can never fall asleep. while riding in the car or the airplane. So meetings at work, I tend to, but that's another thing. But outside from a little sleep deprivation, things have been going very well, so thank you very much. I shared this with Bill and Larry before the message, before this morning, and I want to share it. In our shepherding group, we're doing Behold Your God, and it's a study on God. And one of the things we were going over was our church. And we were going around the room sharing things about our church. And it was Karina Francis, don't mean to embarrass her, but she brought up that we have a praying church. She said that if you asked for prayers, this church is going to pray for you. It's not something we just say, it is something that we do. So, I just echo what Bill said, fill out those prayer requests, people will pray for you. It is a blessing to be in a church that prays. So, my topic this morning, when I'm asked to fill the pulpit while Pastor Dale is out, I've been going through the book of Jude, and I had every intention of doing that. But as you study the book of Jude, you have to look at 2 Peter 2. They're parallel passages. They both are talking about false teachers, false believers, false converts, apostates, people who appear to be Christian, but are not. And in Jude 11, he talks about Balaam. Now, most of us are familiar with Balaam and Balaam's donkey, and that's who he's talking about. And Peter also talks about Balaam. And it's here that I got caught on this verse, and I called up Pastor Dale and wanted to speak with him and said, I want to change it to a more topical. message and pastor Dale is a Wonderful mentor and we spoke about it and and here I am today. So let's read in Peter chapter 2 2nd Peter, I'm sorry, chapter 2, verses 15 and 16. In 2nd Peter, he says, forsaken the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with the voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet." And it's that term there, the madness of the prophet, that I looked into. And so I titled this sermon, The Madness of Sin. The Madness of Sin. Let us go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to bless our time. Gracious Heavenly Father, what a privilege it is to be here, Lord, to be here freely where we can worship you, where we can learn about you, Father. Father, I pray that you will bless this time. Open our eyes, our ears, our hearts to your word, Father, and that you may be glorified, that your son may be glorified through this time, Lord. And it's in his name that we pray, amen. So when you think about madness, what comes to mind? Is it someone in a straight jacket in a padded room? Maybe somebody with a big top hat dancing around a tea party? Perhaps it's that university professor of biology who can't define a woman. Well, these are all examples of madness. Let's look at this word, madness, here. It's a Greek word, and for those who are studying Greek and can pronounce things correctly, forgive me, I may not. But the Greek word here is paraphrenia, paraphrenia. And it's simply two words put together. Para, which is contrary to, and friend the mind. So it's contrary to the mind. It's contrary to logic, rational thought. It's insanity. It's madness. It's check your mind at the door. And we see here that Peter says it's the madness of the prophet. So let's look at Balaam. Now Balaam, his historical narrative can be found in Numbers 22, and you can turn there if you'd like. I'm not going to spend a lot of time in Numbers because there's a lot there and we have limited time, but I'm going to point out a few things here. and just give a overview of Balaam so we can see why he talks about the madness of the prophet. What's going on? Because if you look at the narrative of Balaam, he doesn't appear to do anything wrong. Balaam, what's happening here in Numbers 22, the Israelites, they've left Egypt, and they're coming into the Promised Land, and they're camped outside on the plains of Moab. And Balak, the king of the Moabites, he's a little nervous, because he's got, theologians estimate approximately two million people in his back door, so he's nervous. So he goes to this prophet, this seer named Balaam, and he offers silver and gold, and he asks Balaam to come and curse, please come and curse the Israelites. And if you look at 22 verse 18, I'm gonna read that, if you're not there, that's okay. So Balaam, he replies to the servants who came. He says, Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could do nothing, either small or great, contrary to the command of the Lord my God. What a great answer. He's not gonna do anything against the Lord my God. But if we were to read on, 19, verse 19, now please, you also stay here tonight that I may find out what the Lord will speak to me. And then verse 20, here it is. God came to Balaam at night and said, if the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them. But only the word which I speak to you, you shall do. In verse 21, Balaam packs up his donkey, sets off, and verse 22, but God was angry because he was going. What happened? We see in verses just 21, he packs up and God had told him to go. What's going on? Why is God angry at Balaam? So, as many things, what's on the surface is not what's going on on the inside. And as we read through here, he has a confrontation with the donkey, warning Balaam to speak only what God had said. And then Balaam does meet Balak, and most of us know the story, right? Balak says, come over here and curse Israel. And Balaam comes over and he blesses Israel. And then Balak says, okay, come over here and curse Israel. And he blesses Israel. And Balak says, come over here. And again, he blesses Israel. And at the end of chapter 24, we see Balaam leave. So what happened? Why is Balaam considered a false teacher? in by Jude and Peter. Well, we learn a lot more about Balaam later on in the Bible. In Deuteronomy, we learn that God actually changed the words of Balaam. See, God was angry with Balaam, because Balaam had every intention. He wanted that gold. He said, gold over God. He wanted that gold. He was going to go curse. And he was probably thinking, how can I go about getting this money? And God was angry, because God can read our hearts. He can see our hearts. And in Deuteronomy 23, verse 5, this is where Moses is reiterating the law. He says, nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam. but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you. You see, God changed Balaam's words. God was not going to allow Balaam to succeed in getting gold. And Balaam, we know, was frustrated with that. Because if you turn over to chapter 25 of Numbers, all of a sudden we have a new narrative in Peor, where Moabite women have come into the Israelite camp, they have seduced the Israelite men, and the Israelite men are sinning against God, and God sends a plague and kills over 20,000 of them. Well, what we don't know here is that was from Balaam. We look at Numbers 31, again, you don't need to turn there, but Numbers 31, 16. So it was Balaam who suggested that. And if you read Josephus, the Jewish historian, which I recommend reading, it's history, a lot of it complements what's in the Bible, it's not divine by any stretch, but Josephus has more of what goes on after Balaam leaves. So in 24, right before Balaam leaves, Josephus records a conversation where Balaam says to Balak, he says basically, hey look, If you wanna defeat Israel for a short time, and he does say it's for a short time, even Balaam knows you can't go against God. Here's what you do. You get your women, get them scantily clad, send them into the camp, seduce the men, and that will get God angry. So even Balaam, knowing that they could not defeat Israel, made the suggestion to go against God to get his gold. This is a man who had conversation with God and chose to go against Him. The creative versus the creator. Just madness to go against God. And a little side note here, I have in our notes here, the tell dear Jordan. in 1967. A tell is an archaeological dig. And what's so interesting about this site in 1967, it's in the southern Jordan River area, they were excavating this tell and in the temple they found a wall there and in the wall it says, the sayings of Balaam son of Beor, the man who was a seer. Many people like to say the Bible is myth and so forth. Here's archaeological evidence. And one thing about the Bible, it's never been disproven. There's lots of archaeological evidence. It's just people a lot of times don't want to face that fact. But I found that interesting and we shouldn't be surprised because Balaam was a very popular individual. Kings were seeking his knowledge and his attention. But yet Balaam chose to go toe-to-toe to God, and it didn't end well with him. We read later on in Numbers, talking about the Israelites. They killed the kings of Midian, along with the rest of their slain, Evi, and Recham, and Zer, and Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam, son of Baor, with the sword. So in the end, Balaam was killed, and going against God, just utter madness. So we talked about madness, we talked about Balaam, I've called this The Madness of Sin. I want to spend some time going over sin. I'll call this Hamartiology 01. If you want Hamartiology 101, online seminary course maybe, but we're going to briefly touch on Hamartiology. And what that is is the study of sin. The Greek word hamartia, I might not be pronouncing that right, is sin. So we can think of this as sinology. Like theology, the study of God, this is the study of sin. And hamartia, in its literal meaning, just means to miss the mark. It's missing the mark, right? The Bible uses it as an act against God. You can find definitions of sin. I chose one from a systematic theology. It says, sin is any personal lack of conformity to moral character of God or the law of God. You see, God is the creator. We are the created. As the quote said this morning, God has the right to tell us what to do. By us defying God, we take away that right. We oppose God. So where did sin occur? Where did it originate from? Well, the Bible is very clear as far as man is concerned, right? It was Adam and Eve, Romans 5, 12. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. But we know sin had to happen before then because why? Who was in the garden with Adam and Eve? Satan. Now the Bible doesn't tell us when Satan sinned. We know obviously he had to sin before Adam. But in Ezekiel, the Bible does tell us a lot about Satan, that he was the number one of creation as far as angels are concerned. He was the most powerful, the most beautiful. Even the other angels like Gabriel and Michael, who is the general of the army, are below him. And we know that Satan built up that pride, seeing everyone was below him except God, and his pride led him to sin. In Ezekiel 28, 15, talking about Satan, Satan was blameless in his ways from the day he was created by God until unrighteousness was found in him. So, God created him perfectly. I know people like to say, well, God created him, God created sin. That's not the case. God created him perfect, God created Adam perfect. It wasn't until unrighteousness was found in him. The unrighteousness came from Satan. Satan. It came from Adam. That is where sin comes from. It does not come from God. He creates everything perfect. So what are the results of sin? Well, for Satan, we know from Jesus in Matthew 2 and 35 that God created the lake of fire. So eventually Satan and all his fallen angels, a third of the angels, which we call demons, they will be in the lake of fire. Man, man came into a perfect paradise that God had created. And when man sinned, earth was cursed, man was cursed, woman was cursed. And then most importantly, we had a relational problem with God. We were no longer allowed to walk and talk with God as Adam did in the cool of the evening. And even more important than that, we had a judicial problem with God. Right? God is perfect. His law is holy. We know his law. He requires perfection. He requires us to be holy, holy, holy, just as he is. And we can't be holy, holy, holy, right? We're sinners, but that is a requirement of God. James 2.10 tells us whenever you break one part of the law, you break the law. You're guilty. So what does that mean for us, our judicial problem? That means our destiny would be in the Lake of Fire, along with Satan. And we see that in Revelation, that many, many people will end up in the Lake of Fire. And today, that's very harsh, right? Churches don't like to talk about hell in the Lake of Fire, and that's offensive, because that's a little harsh for God to get so upset when Adam just ate a piece of fruit. And I think R.C. Sproul had the best response to that. And as you know, he said, what's wrong with you people? And he's right, because we don't see, people don't see God is infinite. God is holy. He is perfect. And sinning against an infinite God requires an infinite punishment. And as harsh as that is, that's the truth. Yet we still sin. Christians, non-Christians. Why? Why do we still sin? So what I've done, I've categorized. I tried to categorize levels of madness, levels of accountability in our notes. And I have three groups that I want to go over here. Three types of sinners, if you will. One I call the post-Adam group. Now what did Adam and Eve have, and those who were after them, to guide them to tell them that was right from wrong? It's their conscience, right? They had their conscience to tell them that was right from wrong. So turn with me to Romans chapter two, Romans chapter two, We're gonna look at this, what Adam and Eve and everyone born after them had. Romans chapter two, verses 14 and 15. I'm waiting for the Baptist air conditioning to calm down there. I wanna make sure everyone's there. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do extinctly the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves. in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternatively accusing or else defending them. See, every man and woman, every male and female born, we have the law of God written in our hearts. We have a conscience that tells us what's right and wrong. And if you flip back a page to chapter one, We also see in verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. So even creation tells us about the invisible God. So they had their conscience, and they have creation. Even people today, there's that tribe in Amazon that's never been touched by man, and there's the island in India where a missionary was killed that's never been touched by man. They have their conscience, they have the law of God on their hearts, and they have creation to tell them that. Now the problem with the conscience is we can ignore it, right? And we know everyone has a conscience. Those of you who have little children and those of us who had little children, we see that even with a small child. How many times have you caught your child in a lie and then you almost play along and see them fumble through and their logic is making no sense and it's kind of cute, but They're sinning, and they're trying to deceive you. That was their intent, is, I'm going to deceive mom and dad. You know, it's, what is it, Votie Bauckham says that the babies are vipers and diapers, right? I remember a time, and my daughter's not here, so I can talk about her, but... I like jalapenos. I'm the only one in my family who likes jalapenos. I always have a jar of jalapenos in the fridge so I can place it on various food. When our girls would talk back or lie, get a little spoon and jalapeno. That was very effective. Or so we thought. For our oldest, yes. Our youngest, well, she inherited, my wife and I, both our stubbornness, so she was our child. Well, one day, caught her in a lie, give her the spoon, and she turns around and walks away, and I go, hey! She looks at me, oh, oh, oh, oh, how so hot? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. She had been deceiving us this whole time that it really wasn't impacting her. So it just shows that even as a young child, they have a conscience that they can twist. And no, we didn't move up to habaneros or ghost peppers, no. We found out privileges, taking away your privileges really worked. But the problem with the conscience is you can ignore it, right? When we first, you do commit that first, that sin, whatever it may be, your conscience is there, don't do it. you shouldn't do this, and then you do it again and again, and your conscience says, hey, I shouldn't do this, and again, to the conscience is like, whatever. And that's a problem, right? Martin Luther, when he was on trial for defying the Catholic Church, he said, to act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Paul in 1 Timothy 4 warns us about searing your conscience. So we must listen to our conscience because they just lead into very, very dark places. I remember as a child growing up listening to the interview with James Dobson and Ted Bundy, the infamous serial killer. And he just started off with pornography and it led eventually to him being a serial killer. Ignoring your conscience is going to lead you into a dark spot. So those people around Adam and post-Adam have the conscience, and even today we all have our conscience in creation. The second group I have is the post-Moses group, and those are people who have been notified of the law. They know the law of God. They've been told the law of God. I think everybody in this nation knows the Ten Commandments because it's one of the things that is mocked over and over. It's almost as if our elected officials look and say, which Ten Commandment can we break today? We see that all across the country. But the law, what does the law do? Well, it's right there in front of us, a physical, piece that we can read, and it really sets the standard. It shows us the standard of God, this perfection. It shows us what God demands, but it only condemns, right? It doesn't offer a way out, it just condemns us. It shows us there are varying degrees of sins. He has abominations. You don't want to commit those. He has sins that demand the death penalty. Lots of different sins, varying degrees. So having this law introduced, knowing the Ten Commandments, it provides greater accountability. You now not only have your conscience and creation, you have been given the law. In the end, those who die knowing the law are going to suffer greater than those who just have a conscience. It's not that those who just have a conscience won't suffer. They're going to be in tremendous suffering as well for defying God. But those who have the law, a greater condemnation. And then the third group I call the post-Christ group. Those like us here who have heard the teachings of Christ. And I put here the heart of the matter. Yes, Christ expounds upon the law, but he gets to the heart of the matter, not just the external, but the internal. So if you turn with me to Matthew 5, and I'm sure many of you know where he's going, and yes, you're right, about Matthew 5, this greatest sermon ever talked about, ever spoken by our Lord. And in those days, the Pharisees and the religious leaders, they externally, they looked very pious and righteous, but internally, they were full of sin. And Christ was calling that out. And he was warning the people here. And it starts in verse 21. This is Jesus speaking. You have heard the ancients were told you shall not commit murder. And whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into a fiery hell. And then you go down to verse 27, you have heard, it was said you should not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You know, many of us don't commit these heinous sins, murder and adultery, outside, externally, but internally, that is the dangerous part of the Word. Did we lose? Okay, sorry. That's the dangerous thing, right? It's the mind. The mind, we can go to a very dark place. We've never wanted to have what our thoughts published there. And that's what Christ was warning about. It doesn't just count what you do externally. It counts what you do internally. And Christ was spreading his message. Repent, right? The kingdom of God is at hand. And those who hear the message, those sitting here today in churches across the land who hear about Christ, are under greater condemnation for not repenting than those with just the conscience and those who just know the law of Moses. Let's just turn a few pages over to chapter 10. Matthew 10, 14. Jesus is getting ready to send his disciples out to preach the word. And he tells them, whoever does not receive you nor heed your words as you go out of the house or the city, shake the dust of your feet there. See right there, Christ is letting them know that it is a terrible, terrible thing for them to sin and reject his message. And he goes on, truly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. We all know Sodom and Gomorrah and their gross immorality. And Christ is saying those cities that reject him are going to suffer much greater than that of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's look at Hebrews 10. Because Hebrews 10 actually delineates the law of Moses with Christ. So it's a perfect example for this. in Hebrews chapter 10. If you look at Hebrews chapter 10, 28 through 31. The author of Hebrews tells us, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think they will deserve who have trampled underfoot the son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace? For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So if disobeying Moses warranted death, how much more for rejecting Christ? As the Bible says, for trampling underfoot. That is a sign of utter contempt in the Middle East during Desert Storm back in the 90s. Saddam Hussein had a hotel, and the entrance of the hotel, some of you may remember, was then President Bush's face. So, you would trample over his face as you came in and out of the hotel. It's utter contempt. for rejecting Christ. And what does that do? That puts the full fury of God, the full wrath of God, and we see here, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of an angry God, as Jonathan Edwards would say here, terrifying thing to fall in the hands of the living God. And we see this today. We see people today openly mock Christ. They know Christ. Some do it a little more covertly, maybe even here in church. but on the outside. And we see these people, and we have the Bible warning them. I mean, Jude and Peter give horrific warnings about rejecting Christ. And it's just, we see them do this, this gross immorality, these heinous crimes, this pseudoscience, defying God, defying nature. And you cry out and say, repent, this is madness that you're doing that. But yet their madness is nothing compared to the madness when we sin. They have their truths, plural, we have the truth. They're under the wrath of God, we're wrapped up in God's love. They're full of hatred and envy. And as pastor has been teaching us, we're to be the most envied of all people. We're the most blessed. After all, they're enemies of God. But we're sons and daughters of God. So why is it that we sin? We've been reconciled. We're no longer enemies. Yet we oppose him at his time, right to his face. Do you know if we take one person from each of these groups? So we have one person who is a sinner and the post-Adam group just has their conscience, and one that has only the law, and one that has known about Christ, rejected Christ, and the Christian. Which one of these is going to receive the greater condemnation? Well, it's those who have rejected Christ. Right? There's no condemnation for us, Romans 8, 1. Therefore, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But, but, where does the greatest condemnation fall? Falls on the one with the most knowledge, the most revelation. And that sin falls on Christ, fell on Christ on the cross. And as Christians, our sin requires greater condemnation because of our revelation, which got poured back on Christ on the cross. So how dare we sin as Christians? Now there are people that say, well, you know, that's in the past. He's paid for my sin. It's done. You know, he already knows all my sin I'm going to commit. And if that's your opinion, I would be very afraid if I were you. Because number one, you have no inkling of what Christ went through on the cross. And number two, it shows you have no love for your supposed Lord. I would do a real heart check if that was you. And then there's others, well, if I sin, grace abounds more. Pastor Dale, he's on the last verses of Romans 5 and Romans 6-1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. That is the strongest negative that Paul could have put down there, that we sin that grace may abound. May it never be. The King James, not a literal translation in this verse, uses it, says, God forbid that we sin as a Christian, because what it has done to our Lord. So I thought about this. Why is it that we can sin so easily at times? I mean, yes, we are sinners. There's many things, but we have the good news. We have the gospel, right? We all know the gospel, man. We're sinners. We're on our way to hell. We're on our way to the lake of fire. Christ came. He lived the perfect life. He died for us. He took that wrath for us. He rose again, and we put our faith in Christ. And we do not have to go into that eternal punishment. We know this. But how often do we think of the gospel? Do we come indifferent to it at times, cold? I remember a road trip Michael Butcher and I took to the Shepherds Conference. And we were talking with an individual there. We were talking about our favorite podcast. You know, we like Grace to You, Renewing Your Mind. And this individual said to us, oh, I don't listen to that anymore. why is that oh well they just they repeat they repeat over and over and Michael and I were well this it's you know we didn't say it to this because we didn't know the person very well maybe should have but we were wondering what the gospel is is beautiful it's it reminds us what Christ has done for us how could you just push it away that you don't want to listen to that anymore They've lost that view of what Christ, Ephesians, the church in Ephesus in Revelation, they've lost the first love for Christ. Christ warns about that. You know, we tell our kids to appreciate their toys. I remember telling the girls that. And it seems the ones they appreciated more was the ones that they earned their allowance and earned and protected more. Maybe it's because the gospel, we didn't earn anything. Right, there's nothing we have to do, praise the Lord, but there's nothing we have to do for that. So I wanna revisit the gospel in our remaining time here. And in my search of the gospel, if we go back to Peter, actually 1 Peter, chapter one, and I've talked about this before in one of my messages, Peter is talking about the gospel here. And it says in verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you. And these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. The angels. The ones who are in the presence of God long to look, long to understand the gospel. The Greek here is the straining of the neck, the contorting of the neck. You're trying to look over someone or under. You really want to understand the gospel. And if it's the angels who want to look at the gospel and understand it, Why not us? Why we can become so indifferent to that? Pastor Dale, in his last sermon he preached before he went to Michigan, had a quote on the bottom of the second page. It was from John Newton. And John Newton says here, it is impossible that either men or angels can fully sound the depth of this one sentence. here's that sentence, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. We can look at that, study that throughout all eternity, and never grasp what has happened. And that's not to discourage us, we are to look at that. So I want to try to look at things from an angelic point of view. Right? We don't know that the angels were told about the gospel, that God had laid out his plan. We weren't told that. We know throughout history, God tells angels things here and there, and just like he tells prophets, but he doesn't reveal everything. So angels can learn as it goes. I mean, we do know they were involved, right? Gabriel told Mary, and Joseph was told, and the angels saying at the birth, But let's look at it from an angelic point of view. Now, angels are creatures just like us. They're spiritual, of course. What I mean by creatures is they were created. God created them. We don't know when. We know it was either during or before creation because Job tells us that they sang during creation. We know they're in the presence of the Lord. They see God in his full glory on the throne, right? Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, they say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. They sing that constantly. For those who don't wanna hear the gospel over and over again, I can't see why they'd be looking forward to heaven, if you think about that, with the praising of God constantly. We know Satan was one of the angels, we know that he sinned, so these angels, they saw a fellow angel and a third of their fellow angels sin against God. They witnessed that rebellion, but Satan was not condemned, thrown out of heaven, because the book of Job, again, tells us that Satan can go to heaven, he has conversations with God. But God did create the lake of fire, and Satan's ultimate destination is there. Then along comes creation. So the angels see creation, they're singing, and they see God create this beautiful paradise, just perfect. And they see the variety of life, the fish, the birds, dinosaurs, all there in this perfect paradise. And they see God create man, This other living being that he has a particular relationship with and creates woman. And then they see this man and this woman team up with Satan and turn against God. They choose to rather follow Satan than to follow God. Not only that, they see this man blame God for their sin. And then they see God curse this beautiful creation, curse Adam, curse Eve, curse the serpent, that man is condemned to die. But then there's this little inkling, this little hint in Genesis 3, Genesis 3.15, that God says that Satan one day is going to be destroyed from the seed of the woman. Now think about this, angels don't know what procreation is. The Bible's very clear. So they've gotta be listening and looking what is going on. And then later on they do understand what procreation is as they see man multiply and just fill the earth. And then they see sin after sin after sin abound. Psalms tells us that God is angry every day, so these angels, they witness what's going here on earth and this sin, and then God decides to flood the earth and kill every one but eight people. Estimates from the flood, it could be as many as 12 billion people that died during the flood. We don't know for sure, eight to 12, some say as low as five, four. But even if it's a million, God wiped out every person but eight people. And the angels are witnessing this. They know God is holy, holy, holy. They know that he demands holiness. We are to be holy like he is holy, the Bible tells us. They know that. And so they see a start over here, right? Noah begins to populate the earth, and sin abounds, and sin abounds. But God picks Abraham, and they see this relationship happen, and God chooses Israel, and throughout the history of Israel that God sends prophets, and he gives hints, if you will, foresight that there is a Savior that's going to come. There's a Savior that's going to come and change everything. There's also a hint that this Savior, this Messiah, has to die. So we can, I would imagine, wonder what they're thinking as this goes on. Then one day, the Son of God leaves His glorious throne on heaven and comes down to the sinners as a baby. And they watch as Jesus grows up. He never sins, He lives a perfect life. 100% obedience, 100% obedience. And around age 30, they see Him baptized and they see the Father's love, which they know of already, where the Father declares His love to His Son, And then right after the baptism, what do they see? The Holy Spirit drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Now just 4,000 years ago, before then, they saw Adam in a perfect paradise go up against Satan toe to toe and fail. Here's Christ, hungry, thirsty in the desert, going up against Satan, but he wins. And then some angels are privileged to go and minister to Christ, to take care of him there. What a privilege that must have been for them to do that. And then that sees the three years of Jesus, beginning of Jesus' ministry. And at the end of the three years, they see Jesus in the garden the night before he's dying. He's praying to the Father. Not my will, but yours. He wants what's going to happen. He would like it to change. Doesn't want to face that. He's sweating blood. Something is coming that he does not want to face. He asked three times. And then they see a mob come. And this mob could have been a few hundred people. They come and they grab Jesus, manhandle Jesus, and they see Peter get the sword and whack off the ear of the high priest's servant. And Jesus says, put the sword away. Don't you think I could call down legions of angels? And I wonder if there are angels up there saying, oh, let us down there. We took out an Assyrian army back in the Old Testament. This is 200 people. We can do this. I'm just wondering. I mean, they're seeing the Lord be abused by his own creation. And then it gets worse. He goes to trial. He's mocked. He's punched. His beard is ripped out. He's spat upon by these people. These people that he created. I wonder what's going through the angel's mind. Then he's whipped where his back is nothing but flesh and bone. And then forced to carry his cross and hung up on a tree. And they know from Old Testament, those who are hung up on a tree are cursed. So here's the son of God on a tree, cursed with two other criminals around him. And it doesn't stop, the people we know mock him, come down off the cross, we'll believe you, he saved others, why can't he save himself? And and they're watching this or watching the Lord the Son of God on the cross. I wonder what's going through their mind Then Darkness begins to settle right? We know this we know darkness as Christ was on the cross Well, maybe God is ready to finally strike these people down. Yes, we know Christ has got to die. He said he's going to die. Christ said that himself, he's got to die. They expect that because what? There were sacrifices in the Old Testament. So we know Christ has got to be the sacrifice. But maybe God's ready to strike these people down. So what happens? It gets dark. And then they see the full fury, unmitigated, unmerciful. There was no mercy whatsoever. not on the people, but on the Son of God. They see the Father crush the Son. Father, Son, Holy Spirit who lived in harmony through eternity, the angels have witnessed this whole time. And now they see God just crushing His Son under the wrath, under His wrath. And it's hour after hour after hour they see this. And they hear the Son of God cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And it keeps coming down until finally it's finished. And Jesus says, it's finished. And the Son returns the glory. We know because Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. So he returns the glory. And I imagine there was a celebration, and can you even begin to wonder why angels don't celebrate, as Luke tells us in Luke 15, when they hear of somebody repenting of their sin? It's not because of that sinner, it's because what Christ has done. It's because what Christ has done. They saw what Christ had gone through, and may all glory goes to Him, they just celebrate Jesus. When one of us repents, It's the greatest act of love that we could ever witness what Christ has done. And I look at this from the angelic point of view and it just brings to light seeing what they've been through and what they have seen, which we have not, but we know it because it's in the word. We just tend to, do we forget? Do we not care at times? All the above, probably. So I'd be amiss if I didn't offer up suggestions and things to help us when presented with sin. One thing we need to remember right off the bat is Christ didn't have to do that. Christ didn't have to come and die for our sins, right? He could have just left us on our lives and down to hell we go. He didn't have to do that. He didn't give Satan and the angels another chance. Hebrews tells us that. No other chance for them. Well, you know, Satan's a bad guy. We're not so bad. Oh, really? Romans 3, right? We studied that. Romans 3, verses 10 through 18. Where does it say in there that Satan makes us sin? I think we give Satan too much credit. We are quite bad on ourselves. So one thing I do is stop looking at the negative. And what I mean by that, stop looking at the, well, I shouldn't lie, I shouldn't cheat, I shouldn't steal. You're going to fail. You're absolutely going to fail. What we need to do is focus on the positive. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, right? Love your neighbor. We hear people say, well, I have a hard time with lust. I have a hard time with lying. When do you hear, I have a hard time with loving the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, soul, and strength? We don't hear that, right? Matthew 22, Jesus tells us the entire law and the prophets hang on the greatest commandment. So that's an important law that we should be focused on, that we should be looking at to love the Lord our God. We know what he did for us. We know what he did for us. We need to pray. Psalm 19, 13, it's one of my favorite verses, I have to remember, it's David, and David is praying to have God prevent him from presumptuous sins. Right, it's one thing to stub your toe and yell out some Babylonian, yes, that is a sin, but it's something else to sit there, I shouldn't do that, but I'm going to go ahead and do that. Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and do that. That's a presumptuous sin. We are presuming on the grace of God. And that is shameful because that reaps so much condemnation, so much wrath upon our Lord for those presumptuous sins. So there's many things in the Bible. I mean, the Bible tells us how to live our lives. And I picked a Galatians 6.1. I have it there in our notes. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. We walk by the Spirit. The walk is to live in, to keep God in your focus. This is listening to the services. This is reading. I mean, really reading the Bible. It's not, okay, I gotta read chapter one today and chapter two tomorrow. No, it is looking at it. I mean, we all have access to study Bibles, and there are great study Bibles out there that have the notes to get you more in depth. And the other verses I have listed there use that same word, walk. And I encourage you to take a time and look at these verses. And I'll talk about each one of them quickly. 13, Romans 13, walk properly. The next one, walk not adulterating the word of God. Walk by faith. Walk not according to the flesh. Walk not according to the world. Walk in good works. Walk in love. Walk in humility. Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Walk pleasing to God. Walk in the light. Walk in the truth. We need to spend time with God. If we're focused on God, we're focused on the positive, We're not going to carry out those desires. And yes, that requires discipline, but our God is worth it. Look what he's done for us. And we don't want to focus on the negative, right? We focus on the things that are going down here. You want to be depressed, read the news, right? But this is not our world, you know? We're visitors here. We have a much greater, glorious world awaiting us for what our Savior has done for us. Now for those here who are online who don't know Christ, I like to say this, today is a day of grace. Today is a day of grace. You have the opportunity to repent. By God's grace, you have breath in your lungs, your heart is beating. And what Christ has done on the cross You just need to choose to accept that. Put your faith in that. Trust what Christ has done for you. Repent of your sins. Live for Him. Live for Him. He gives purpose in this life. Without Him, what purpose do we have? Oh, I'm gonna go to school, I'm gonna get a great career, make lots of money, then I'm gonna die. Purpose is that. what's awaiting those who have rejected Christ. John 5 22 tells us Jesus is the one that's going to judge. So those who reject Jesus, they're rejecting the one who is going to judge them that day on that great white throne. That's a sobering thought. So repent. Repent. Let's pray. Oh, gracious, gracious, loving Heavenly Father, we thank you, Father, for your great love for us. There's nothing we have done to deserve it. There's nothing we could do ever to earn it, Lord, but that you chose us, Father. Father, you sent Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ came willingly, and he suffered at the hands of creation, those you created, but he suffered under the wrath that was meant for me, that was meant for us. Oh, Father, we praise you. You are such a merciful God. Lord, may we remind ourselves, may you bring to memory as we read your word, as we pray, as we meditate on you throughout our day, of what you have done for us. And may we just celebrate that. May we enjoy you. As a Westminster Confession, to you all glory, but to enjoy you forever. Oh, what a wonderful future we have to look forward to because of your son. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.