Hey, Tanya, do I have anything in my beard? I just get nervous with the beard after lunch. Ezekiel 28. Did I? Nah, it's Ezekiel 28. Verse 11. I guarantee I would have. have no doubt about that at all. Ezekiel 28 verse 28, no just kidding, verse 11. Actually, we're in the same passage of the scripture, and because we're just flowing on, it's not that long ago, we won't read 11 to 19, we'll just go straight to Ezekiel 28 verse 16. And so we were in, that's what we'll do, we'll take verse 15 and 16, 15 is where we were, and so if we take the two, it'll sort of just give some continuity as to how we're flowing through here. So, We'll read these verses and then we'll pray. Ezekiel 28 verse 15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. I will pray. My Lord, I do thank You for this day. I thank You for the blessing of the teaching that we've been able to sit under. I thank You, Lord, for the gift of Your Word. My Lord, I thank You for the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit and that You are here to lead us and guide us. My Lord, we look to Your Word as a lamp under our feet and a light under our path. We desire it, Lord, more than our necessary meets, and we aim to increase our desire for it. Help us, Lord, as we look to your word, that we would understand it. And my Lord, I ask you to help us specifically to understand this matter of sin, the seriousness of it, and the correct biblical understanding of the nature of it. I ask you to help me, Lord, I greatly need your help. So we commit ourselves over into your hands, in Jesus' name, amen. So, as I've said a number of times, and I want to differentiate for the purpose of teaching between iniquity and sin, and it's these two verses that really, I'm justifying that. And there isn't a lot of difference, we don't want to get too, we don't want to get too carried away on our differentiating things. That the Bible doesn't clearly, clearly delineate. We want to just take it for what the Bible says in its simplicity, but I do want to show you this. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, and we've been considering this till iniquity was found in thee. Iniquity found in thee. Just that wording in comparison to verse 16, Ezekiel 28 verse 16. Is that where yous are after ladies? Yeah, I thought there was a bit of... Verse 16 says, By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence. and thou hast sinned. Iniquity was found in him, but violence, the multitude of violence, and thou hast sinned. One, a description of what was found, another a description of what was done. The presence of sin, in comparison to the action of sinning. The presence of a sinfulness in me, in my thoughts, in my actions, in my nature. A sinfulness in my heart. A heart that is desperately wicked. opposed to, or is in contrast, not opposed, but working in conjunction with an action that is sinful. Here it's not just iniquity found, it's not just something missing that was supposed to be there. It's not just the unrighteousness, but it's here the action. Thou hast sinned. The active action of sinning. We've been looking at, I guess, the passive presence of sin as opposed to now the active action of sin. Thou hast sinned. They have filled the midst of thee with violence. I want you to see the presence of that. It doesn't separate it from him. We don't want to put sin as something that is at our fingertips and not in our heart. Hence the need to start looking at iniquity and seeing the very presence of sin in us and our iniquity. It's not just something at our fingertips or on our tongues. The violence was in the midst of thee. And so we see this, We see this in Lucifer. But we also considered it in the angels. 2 Peter 2.4, you can turn there if you want, but I'll simply read it for you. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, the angels that acted sinfully, that did something. It's a verb, it's a doing word, it's an action word. The angels that sinned, they didn't just have iniquity, there wasn't just a sinfulness, there was a sin committed. So the angels that sinned. We see it in Adam in Genesis 3 and the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. I did something. It was what he did that is the sin. It was the action. This is not contradicting what we've been looking at, but rather the recognition that the two go together. The iniquity that is in us, the iniquity in which we decide and think and conduct ourselves, our ways, our intentions, in conjunction with our actions, the things done, the sinfulness of what is done. Romans 5, we spend a bit of time there in verse 18, therefore as by the offense of one. The offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. For as by one man's disobedience, it's not just an iniquity found in man, there is the action of the offense against God, there is the active disobedience in our conduct. In mankind, further on in Romans 5, verse 18 to the end of the verse here, by one man's disobedience, many were made, sinners. Not many were made sinful, we see that truth taught, but many were made sinners in themselves, the active action of conducting sin. And so, we see this sinfulness that we walk in. But we also saw in Romans 5 Actually, let's go there for this portion. This will be beneficial for you to see again. To remind you, Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. Verse 13, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. And so we pick up here in this explanation of sin that is not after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come, that there is a sin, an action of sin, that is recognized in man that is not after the direct disobedience to a clear command. It's still an action of sin. The Lord still recognizes it as sin. We will look at sin being the transgression of the law, but before we get to the transgression of the law, it's not that long to walk through, point by point, where you see sin and the action of sin spoken about in the Scriptures from Adam through to Moses. We're going to look, not quite exhaustively, but fairly thoroughly at the references where sin, sinfulness, sinned, sinning, wicked, evil, where these words are used in relation to a transgression against God. There's a number of other places where the word is used that we're not going to look at. Jacob asked Laban, what is my sin? He was talking about what is my sin against you? Other places someone asks, what was my trespass? But it's not against my trespass against you, it's like, where did I trespass on your land? Where did I do you wrong? And so this idea of a transgression between mankind. We're going to go through the references where we see the wickedness of man, the action of sin, in mankind's lives and conduct, but in that Old Testament interval between Adam and Moses. Because when we look at it there, we get a good understanding of how God sees the action of sin before He specifies the individual occurrences of sin where the sin is multiplied under the law. So we're just going to step into that bracket that's spoken of here that's not my bracket. It sort of comes down to a little of what Caleb was speaking about, and in these principles of biblical interpretation, we don't want to just put a, we don't want to just go, well, we're just going to look at this section because, well, we like this section, or this section supports what I want to, why are we looking between Adam and Moses? Because Romans says there is a period of time between Adam and Moses where the sin was a little different. It wasn't after the same similitude as Adam. So that's what's bringing us to that section, to that passage, all right? So, first, while we're there, 1 Timothy, well, not while we're there, as we're launching there, oh, we looked at this, so we won't turn back there again, but 1 Timothy 2.14, I'll give you the reference. Adam was not deceived. In speaking about Adam's sin, 1 Timothy 2.14 says, Adam was not deceived. He knew what God expected, he knew what God had told him, and he defied God. What sort of a Christian is he? Go look in the mirror. If you haven't seen that active rebellion against God, it's because you haven't looked for it hard enough. It will be there. There'll be things where you will find where God says, very clearly, and you choose to walk in disobedience. You ought not, I ought not, I'm not justifying it, I'm not saying it's okay, I'm not excusing it away, it needs to be repented of and turned from. It needs to be taken before God, confess your sin, His faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. But it is that deliberate disobedience to God that Adam walked in. Genesis 2.16, here's the commandment. The Lord commanded the man, I don't know what accent that is. The Lord commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. You see the very clear, the Lord was like, I've had this conversation with you. I don't have a very good memory. And I think I have a son, I won't tell you which one, but I think I have a son that plays on that memory occasionally. He gets sick of that line. It's a good line though, isn't it, Sam? That's right. It's like, did you tell me that? I'm sure I told you that. I don't remember that conversation. And he's inherited my memory, so him not remembering it, that's not necessarily a lie. I could have said it and he's not gonna remember. He could remember and I don't. I could have said it and I don't recall. But God said it and God remembers. There's no playing games back and forth with God here. God didn't say a lot. It's not like Adam had the whole book of Leviticus to remember. God had said, do this, Adam. And so we see the very clear disobedience that Adam walked in. But it didn't stop at Adam. So let's take a look from Adam onwards. Genesis chapter four. I haven't double-checked my references but I'm pretty sure we're going to be just working in chapter order. It's not all chronological, some things are mentioned after that happened earlier but we're working through as they appear in the chapters. So Genesis chapter 4 And I'm just taking you to the specific verse, and we're just going to lean, I'm gonna give you credit for prior learning, that's what we're gonna, we're gonna give you credit for prior learning, that these accounts will be somewhat familiar to you, and I trust and I hope you have a bit of knowledge and understanding about each circumstance. But we're just stepping into the story of Cain and Abel, and in that account, we're picking it up in verse seven, And we have here the Lord speaking to Cain and he simply says this to him in the midst of, we're not even taking the whole of what the Lord said, but here he said, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him. "'If thou doest well.'" Cain and Abel brought their two offerings. How did they know to bring offerings? How did they know what offerings to bring? How'd this go about? They're vegetarians. How did Abel know how to kill a sheep? He figured it out. Here they come, they bring their offering unto God. And the Lord has respect under Abel's offering, but under Cain's offering He hath not respect. And His answer to Cain is, If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. There's no command. There's no law. There isn't even, we can go to the scriptures and you can find, if you can't find a precept, that's where your first thing you want to do is go find a precept. Thus saith the Lord, thou shalt. Go find a precept, follow your precepts. Do the simple things that the Bible says to do. If you can't find a precept, find a godly precedent. You want to be careful with precedents. Just because it's done in the Bible doesn't mean it's a good thing. You want to be careful about following Samson and a few others. But find a precedent, find a principle, an overarching principle that you see supported by the weight of Scripture. But Cain and Abel, they had none of that. They simply had, if thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. I'm not suggesting that there was no other knowledge. I'm not suggesting that there was no other place of teaching. The Lord was in the habit of walking in the garden in the cool of the evening with Adam and Eve. On what day did they sin? How long had they been in the garden? Was it day one? Was it nine months? I don't know. I say nine months because they hadn't had any kids then, right? But, you know what happened with the fall? Greatly multiplied by conception. Who knows how often a lady would have naturally fallen pregnant and the garden? The Lord multiplied that. So, I don't know. We're given his age, was he 100 when Cain was born? We're given ages when Seth was born, I think we're given ages when Cain or Abel was born. We can look at some ages there, but we don't know. But we do know there's conversations that we're getting told what got discussed. Eve spoke to Adam about the fruit, but we don't know what was said. God was walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening, and He was calling them, so it seems a conversation was the habit that they were in. But nonetheless, all Cain and Abel had was, if thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Actions that were either pleasing or not pleasing to the Lord. You can do well, or you can do not well. And there was no law. There's no commandment given, but yet there was an expectation, and there was a standard that God said, Abel did well, and I accepted him. Cain, you didn't do well, and so I didn't have respect to your offering. And theologians have been arguing ever since about why. But without getting into the argument of why, I just want you to see action. Action that was accepted and action that wasn't accepted. And it's interesting, if thou do us not well, sin lieth at the door. What was the sin that was laying right at the door? And he continued to not do well. God rejected his, he did not accept, did not have respect, and so Cain did not have respect. Oh, that's a prideful thing. You know, for an authority to not respect you because you do something wrong, and then you turn around and go, well then I'm not gonna have respect towards my authority. As if you're equals. You're parents, you're not equals with your kids, you're above them, you're an authority. Make sure they know that. Raise them to equality, but they're not born in equality. Equality of importance, equality of value, but not equality of authority, not equality of what's right and wrong. You gotta raise them to that equality of knowledge and understanding and right and wrong. And one day, they'll carry you where you would not go, so, you know. Watch that one. And Cain walked in rejection, he did not do well even in God's correction, he didn't humble himself. Instead, his poor offering to God bore fruit of murder. And he hated his brother without a cause. And he was angry at his brother without a cause. Cain and Abel had done right, Cain had done wrong, and so Cain was angry at Abel. And we see that doing rolled into that wickedness of murder and anger and that first, what does someone say? That first, oh, I've forgotten the word. It's a tricky little word. What is it when a warlord goes in and wipes out half a population? Genocide. Killed a quarter of the world's population in one hit. And why? Just because he was angry. Because he was wrong with God. I want you to see the action of sin. Go to Noah, Genesis 6. Genesis 6 verse 5. was rolled on from Cain and there's other areas that we see wickedness done in these chapters, but I'm just landing on these places where we see sin dealt with and see evil and wickedness dealt with, transgression dealt with. In Noah's day, in Genesis 6, 5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. With Cain we see the offering, the work of his hands. Here it's the work of the mind. Now we know that the work of the mind transitioned into action in Noah's day. We know there was great wickedness there. It wasn't just they thought bad thoughts and didn't live it out. But we see it highlighted that the wickedness of man was great. And his imaginations of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The things that he imagined. God looked down from heaven without command, without law. There was no thou shalt not covet. But he looked down at man and he said, your thoughts are in the wrong place. That's an evil thought. That's a evil intent. You're imagining things that you ought never imagine. You're conspiring in your head things that ought never be conspired. Yet, He'd never structured and stated, bring every thought into obedience. We have that command. If your thought wanders the wrong way, the Lord says, bring your thoughts into obedience. Here, there was not the command, there was not the instruction, yet there was the expectation and judgment fell because they did not meet the expectation. Go to chapter eight, verse 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. Judgment has fallen, Noah has settled in the ark and he's out making an offering unto the Lord. And as he makes an offering unto the Lord, a sweet smell, a sweet savor, The Lord smelled a sweet savor and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. Why not? For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. He just judged the world for the imagination of their heart was evil continually. And now he's saying, I won't do it again with flood. I will never flood the earth again because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth upward, from his youth. Guard the young people in your church because nine times out of 10, I'm convinced it's not the sin in the world that's gonna get them out of church. because we've equipped them for the sin that's out in the world. They know that. They know that's there. It's often not gonna be the sin that's in the church that's gonna get them away from God. What's gonna happen is they're gonna go from 10 in their innocence to 15 when the imagination of their heart becomes evil, or that evil is matured. I'm not saying there's no sin in a child, they were born in iniquity. But you know what catches people off guard? It's not the sin they see in the world on the news every day of the week, but the sin they see in the mirror one day that they've never seen before. That sin that wracks them with guilt and with shame and they look around their church at you good polished Christians And they go, man, if they ever knew, oh, if only they knew what we saw in the mirror. It's the evil that's in us. And the Lord said, I'll not judge the earth again because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. God said, He said that there's a thought that wasn't just wrong in Noah's day but it was wrong after Noah's day and it's there in mankind. It's, even while we were yet sinners, He's describing our sinfulness. This is the sinners that He died for, even while we were yet this. So neither will I again smite any more thing living as I have done. We see the wickedness in Cain's day, we see it in Noah's day in Genesis 13 verse 13. Chapter 13 verse 13. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And the Lord said unto Abraham after that lot was separated from him, lift up thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward. The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. We see here wickedness attached to sinfulness, We saw the wickedness of man's hearts and the imaginations, the wickedness of man's thoughts in Noah's day. Here the wickedness is identified in Sodom as sinners, wicked and sinners before the Lord, not before anyone else. In fact, the men of Sodom thought they were all pretty good. They liked to run with each other. They didn't see themselves as sinners. They saw themselves as mates. They didn't look at themselves and go, what a deplorable city we have. They looked at themselves and said, what a loving and accepting city we have. And you know, in my youth, in my youth, going from my 20s to my, well, probably from my teens, from my 15s to my 30s, that 15 years there, the homosexual agenda, showed itself from being a we love everybody and accept everybody to now, now when you stand against it, you see the venom that is within that society. That venom that is here in these pages. I remember Shane said to me earlier in my Christian walk when I hadn't long been saved, he said they might look friendly to start with, he said but you mark the Bible. Because what you see is a violence there that is nowhere else to be seen. That the end of it is violence. And there is a violence there. There's a violence in the very nature of it. So many of these things that present themselves as love and acceptance are only love and acceptance if you love and accept it. If you don't love and accept it, then there's no love and acceptance. And the Lord looked down and He said, they're wicked and they're sinners before the Lord exceedingly. They had some good witness there prior, we see We see that in around this time, Melchizedek is in around that neighborhood, the king of Salem, the king of peace. We see that Abraham's there in that neck of the woods. There is a witness to the God of all creation. There is a witness there about accountability to God. These things hadn't fully departed, they hadn't entirely lost their heritage back to Noah and Adam, but there still was no command. Yet God looked down and He saw a city, and He saw the wickedness of the city, and He saw the actions, the sinfulness of the city, and He said, I'm gonna judge that. With no command, with no law given, but yet expectation and accountability. Go over to Genesis 18, verse 20. And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now," and catch what he says, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is, come unto me, and if not, I will know. Here we're stepping in, when you step into the whole Bible account here, you have the three men that come past Abraham's tent, and one of them is a, it is the Lord, it's the Son of God, it's not Jesus of Nazareth, because it's not the Son of God born of Mary in that form, but it is the Son of God. And so we have the Lord there with two angels, and the Lord stops and talks to Abraham, and two angels, we're not told this, but piecing together, go on down to Sodom and deal with Lot. And here in the midst of this conversation, in the midst of the Lord explaining what's going on here, he said, I'll go down. He said, I'm gonna go down and seek. He said, I've heard. I've heard the sound. I've heard the cry. I'm gonna go and see, I'm gonna go and stand and look and watch. going to send an embassy so I can see what is done in that city. I'm not just going to judge it from what I hear, I'm going to go and see. I want you to... it's beyond the heart. It's not just that their heart was wicked, the Lord was looking at their actions and going the action is sinful and it's exceeding sinful and I'm going to judge it. Just over and over again we see this emphasized. But Whilst you're there, go back a chapter or two, hold your place, but go back a chapter or two to Genesis 15. We're looking at Sodom and Gomorrah, right? We're looking at their exceeding sinfulness that the Lord described. In Genesis 15 verse 16, We get a snippet at another people. The Lord is speaking to Abram, and he's giving his promise to Abram, and he talks about how he'll go down for 400 years, speaking of Israel's captivity in Egypt, and then come up out of there, and the Lord will deliver him out of Egypt into a promised land, flowing with milk and honey. And in verse 16, He says, but in the fourth generation, they shall come up hither again. You're coming back here in the fourth generation, you're coming back up into this area again, up into this place. And he explains why it's not happening now. And his explanation for why it's not happening now is because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. There's a group of people called the Amorites and they'd got so far away from God that God was looking at them And he was giving them room for repentance would be our understanding in a New Testament context, even in an Old Testament context, giving them room for repentance. But they wouldn't repent, but in giving them room for repentance, what they were doing was continuing exceeding sinful. And their iniquity was not yet full. and he was gonna bring Israel back to purge them of the land once their iniquity was full, once their iniquity had come to a full turn. You see God doing this throughout the Old Testament. The timing and the reasoning is not singular. The Lord's playing a multifaceted game here and it is no game. And he's using Babylon to bring Israel into captivity to deal with Israel, but that also gives him reason against Babylon's wickedness for their wickedness to come to full. And then he can deal with Babylon for their sin because of how they dealt with Israel. And these things go back and forth and he's dealings with the nations and he's turning the hearts of the kings with us, whoever he would. And as he's stepping in to deal with, Sodom, because of the sin they are walking in. He looks at the Amorites and he said, their day's coming, but it's not yet. Their sin is gonna get worse and worse and worse. You know what, sometimes we get, oh, we've gotta stop sin. Sometimes the Lord lets sin get to a point, where it can be dealt with. You know what happens if you stop sin at its inception? If every time there's a seed of sin, God just stops it, no one ever sees how wicked it is. Every now and then the Lord will let that seed of sin come to fruition, to its absolute, its greatest atrocity. so that we can see how exceedingly sinful sin is. That's what he's doing here with the Amorites. But Sodom had already hit that exceeding sinfulness. And so God dealt with them. Genesis 19 in verse 15. Genesis 19 verse 15, And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. The iniquity of the city was the overall explanation of the sins that they were walking in. And we're seeing the two words in conjunction here. I don't want to separate them too much, but I want to see the differentiation. And you know then what Lot did? He said, don't send me to the mountains, lest some, I think he uses the word, he definitely used the word evil, lest some evil, I think he says overtakes me. He's just come out of Sodom and Gomorrah, He's just had to defend two visitors in his house from being gang raped by the men of the city and he's worried about a bear in the mountains. He's worried about some wild beast in the mountains, some evil in the wilderness. How he had misjudged where the real danger lies. how he had misjudged where the real evil lies. He didn't see the evil there in Sodom, but he saw some perceived evil in the wilderness. And judgment fell. Why? Because they sinned. Genesis 20. Genesis 20, verse six. Try and get some traction. I keep on getting sidetracked, but we'll try and get some traction going here. Genesis 20, verse six. And God said unto him in a dream, yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Where are we? What's going on? What's the man's name? Abimelech. Did you read it or did you know it? I had to read it too. Hey, we were looking at Abimelech. We're looking at Abimelech and Abimelech has noticed Sarah and he thinks she's a bit of all right and is taking her to wife because Abraham was a fool. But God said, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, therefore I also withheld thee from sinning against me. I want you to see something here. I've just given you a list, after example, after passage, after person, where without command, without law, God measured them a sinner, said you haven't done well, said you're exceedingly sinful and I'm going to judge you and judgment's fallen. And now we come across Abimelech and Abimelech decides he'd take to himself another wife, a woman that just landed in the city, chivalry's not dead, you're mine, that was his approach. But in the midst of it all, the Bible says that God kept him from sinning. Why? What is it that God intervened and said, I'm going to keep this man from sinning, from the action of sin? His intent was not sinful. His intent was integrity, to make her his wife. And he didn't understand the fullness of the situation, but God said, because of the integrity of thine heart. Let's just reverse engineer that. Why didn't he keep Cain from sinning? Why didn't he keep Solomon Gomorrah from sinning? Why didn't he keep all of mankind in Noah's day from sinning? Because of the heart. Because their heart was not in integrity. Because man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart. He understands the thoughts and intents of the heart. Here he sees Abimelech, and he says, therefore, not suffered I thee not to bed her, not to marry her. He said, I suffered it that you didn't even touch her. You didn't treat her in any way other than that which was becoming for her to be treated. And I kept you from that. I kept you from any step that would have been an action of sin. an action of my hands have done the wrong thing. And so, a couple of things here. I want you to see the active interference that God has in the outcome of a man's life or a woman's life, depending on the integrity of their heart, but I also want you to see that God differentiated the difference between the action of sin with his hands and the intent of sin with his heart. With all these others, the Lord allowed the hands to work sin. Why? Because the heart was already there. But he prevented Abimelech from working sin with his hands. Why? Because his heart was in integrity. And so the Lord intervened based on where the heart of man was at, not just where the hands of man was at. I want you to see the action of sin, that sin is very much attached to our actions, not just our heart. We looked at iniquity and the heart of iniquity and that mindset of iniquity, but here I want you to see the Lord worries about the action, and you need to see it this way. If he had have in the integrity of his heart touched her, what does the Lord say it would have been? It would have been sin. Even though his heart was in its integrity, he said, I have kept you from sinning. Just because your heart was in a good spot doesn't mean your hands wouldn't have been sinning. The sin is there regardless of where the heart is, even in this pre-law stage. And the Lord kept him from that. The mentality today is, oh, as long as your heart's in the right spot. If your hands are in the wrong spot, they're in the wrong spot regardless of where your hands are. If your hand's in the till pinching money so that you can send it to missionaries, your hand's in the wrong spot. It doesn't matter. Here the Lord makes that plain. In Genesis 20, verse nine. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him, what hast thou done unto us? And what have I offended thee that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham that sawest him that thou hast done this thing. What sawest thou that thou hast done this thing? And they have this discussion about it. But I just want you to see Abimelech's accusation towards Abraham. And as he rebukes Abraham, he said, What have I offended thee that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Abimelech's heart was in its integrity. His hands were kept from sin. When he saw it, Abimelech correctly identified what it was. Without the law, without command, Abimelech looked at it and he knew what was right. What dispensation are we in? Those of you that have looked at, we're either here for the study of dispensations back three, four years ago. What dispensation is this in? Sorry? No, sorry, here, not ours. Sorry, in this, in here. Abram's day. Of law? Kind of came in with Moses. Well, that's the Abrahamic covenant. I'm doing two things, one, seeing if it's time to redo some old subjects. Dispensation of innocence in the garden, dispensation of conscience through to Noah, dispensation of human government through here, then dispensation of the law. And so they, and remember it was, Pastor Chris Crockett, he gave that illustration and he showed quite plainly, and it's a good illustration, each dispensation he opened up a book. And when the next dispensation came in, it laid on top of that open book. Conscience is still there. The dispensation of conscience, God didn't remove your conscience. Human government is still there, God didn't close that. Innocence, you ought to walk in some innocence still. As you get saved and God restores some innocence, you ought to walk in that. There's some things you ought to stay innocent about, if you can. All these things, and so here, they have conscience, they have human government, they have some abimelech. He went, that was sin. It wasn't just God in heaven. that identified what sin was. Even mankind had the ability of knowing that's sin and that's not. And Abraham, you brought great sin on me and my kingdom. And he agreed with God on it. Have a look in Genesis 38. I'm gonna walk carefully here, we're gonna skip a bit. Go home and read it for your family devotions if you want. We're gonna skip over it. Genesis 38 verse seven. And Ur, Judah's firstborn, Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord. Do you see that there? Genesis 38.7, Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. No other justification, we don't, I don't know what he did. Maybe it's there, maybe with some study you'll find it. Some of these things aren't there, we just go, the Lord says, old Er? Yeah, I counted him wicked, so I killed him. Oh. Well, Lord, I really wanna measure you and see if you made the right decision there. I really don't wanna be in a vacuum of knowledge where I can't tell if you did the right thing or not. See, I'm not the judge of all the earth do right. The Lord said he was wicked, so I slew him. You get into all these problematic arguments about the atrocities of the God of the Old Testament. Tell you what the atrocities of the God of the Old Testament are. Er was wicked, so I killed him. And would to God we would go back a few years and bring back the death penalty into our country where evil was dealt with properly. God said he was wicked, so I slew him. Genesis 38, 10. Here, there is a bit more information. The thing which he, it's speaking of Onan, did displeased the Lord. Wherefore he slew him also. The Lord is very matter of fact, isn't he? Judah had a son, his name was Ur. He was wicked, so I killed him. Onan did this and this and this, and it displeased me, so I slew him too. Next verse. But what's the Lord establishing here? He's establishing His sovereignty, He's establishing His righteous judgment, but He's also establishing that the Lord held mankind to a certain standard, and when they didn't meet it, He dealt with it. And Abimelech shows us that He dealt with them according to where their heart was at, not just where their actions were at. so here in Ur and in Onan we see that their actions were sinful and God's judgment, God's displeasure was evident of that. Genesis 39 verse 9, Genesis 39 verse 9, There is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Who's speaking? Who's he speaking to? What's he speaking about? Speaking to Potiphar's wife about what? Yeah. So, and where's his conscience? It's not against, it's not his sin against Potiphar. He's looking without law, without commandment. You know what God, see modern day Christianity, show me in the Bible where I can't. What did God do as He's getting us to see sin before He gave the law? Do you know what He did in this dispensation where they sinned not after the similitude of Adam? He said, I'll hold you accountable to my standard whether you've got a verse for it or not. Whether you've got a commandment for it or not. I'll hold you to my standard. This is the standard that I expect. And what do we see? We see mankind in a relationship with God where they knew it. They knew what sin was. Joseph saw it and he said, I'm not committing adultery. I'm not committing a fornication. I'm not going to do this great sin against my God. I have a relationship between me and God and how I treat my fellow man is going to affect my relationship between me and my God. And so here you see mankind having the understanding of what God expects. And you know what they don't have? They don't have the indwelling spirit of the Holy Ghost. They don't have the completed word of God. They don't even have the law of God. but sin is identified and recognized and judged and godly men and women keep themselves from it and keep themselves from sin. Genesis 50, now we're covering some ground. Genesis 50, that's a bigger step. Verse 15. And when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly require us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, fear not, for I am in the place of God. Oh, they came and they said, forgive us our evil, our trespass, our sin. Granted, their language was probably here speaking mostly about their sin against Him. Perhaps there was some acknowledgement of their sin against God. There's a pleading for forgiveness. Joseph said, I am in the place of God. Sorry, for am I in the, he asked, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it under good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Onan meant it for evil. Oh, whatever he was doing meant it for evil. Cain meant it for evil. Sodom and Gomorrah meant it for evil. The Ammonites meant it for evil. Joseph's brothers meant it for evil. But God worked it for good. And God used it to bring about his purpose. See, one thing sin doesn't do is sin doesn't foil the plans of God. Sin is not God's kryptonite. God is not fearful of sin. Sin in your life is no threat to God. Sin in your life, sin in mankind's life does not risk destabilizing God. Because sin, in all of its wickedness, when it's exceedingly sinful, is not some great new invention that God has to combat. But rather, it's the thing that is evidence of God not being in His place in our life. us not being what we're supposed to be in God, of us having iniquity found in us and it's fleshed out in disobedience and we enact the disobedience in our lives and through all of this we see it summarized in Joseph's day as Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it under good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. And isn't that what happened with Christ? They meant it for evil, but he worked it for good to save this day, much people alive. Let's stop for a 10 minute break. Heavenly Father, I pray you'd help us, give us rest and refresh us, and help us as we engage again this last hour. In Jesus' name, amen.