1 John 5:13-21 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning.

[0:16] Good morning. Back in the fifth chapter of 1 John this morning, Lord's help should be reckoned up first John.

[0:30] Last week, actually the last couple of weeks, we've been in the fifth chapter and leading up to this grand finale, we talk to Colet that.

[0:44] John throughout this epistle has been concentrating on some things. We're going to see those reiterated here in the last few verses of this letter that he wrote.

[1:02] We ended last week with verse 13 and we're actually going to pick back up in verse 13. I ended with it because he begins it with these things that I have written under you that you believe on the name of the Son of God.

[1:20] And specifically and immediately he was speaking of the previous 12 verses that we read the last couple of weeks.

[1:32] But generally speaking he's speaking of the whole epistle. We ended with that last week but we're going to pick back up with this week because he says some things here that applies to the remaining verses in the chapter.

[1:48] So we'll pick up in verse 13 of the fifth chapter of 1 John. He says, these things have I written under you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

[2:04] Verse 14, and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us. Verse 15, and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

[2:22] So again back to verse 13, he says, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. That believe in the Son of God.

[2:36] And this isn't the only time throughout 1 John that we've read something along the lines of these things have I written or these things do I write or where the case is.

[2:49] If you remember in the first chapter, those of you that were here in the first chapter of 1 John, verse 4, he says, I write these things unto you that your joy might be full. And later on, chapter 2, he says, my little children are writing unto you that you sin not.

[3:06] So we have several instances throughout 1 John that he's saying, this is why I'm writing to you. And this is the last time that we see it in the book of 1 John.

[3:19] He says these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. And so he's saying I'm specifically writing these things.

[3:32] I said from verse 12 on back to verse 1 in the fifth chapter, but it's all inclusive to the entire layer. These things I write unto you that believe he's specifically writing to the church to fellow believers in Christ.

[3:47] And I talked about that a little bit last week about how we went through the book of James and the adult Sunday school class here. And James was writing to believers, although he wrote about nonbelievers or unbelievers, unsaved people.

[4:03] And Jude did the same. Jude wrote to believers, but he wrote about unbelievers. And we find the same thing throughout these five chapters of 1 John. But he's specifically writing to believers.

[4:16] He says, unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Not that we can hope that we have eternal life.

[4:28] Not that we can maybe have eternal life. That we know that we have eternal life presently with us. When I got born again, I received eternal life at that time, at that very moment that Jesus Christ saved my soul.

[4:46] That's when I received eternal life. And if you're here and born again, that's when you receive eternal life. And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And I spoke last week that this is the only name that we need to believe on.

[5:02] It's not that you can look at me and say, well, you're Spencer Baumgartner. You're standing here before me. You're flesh and blood. You're a tangible person.

[5:14] And I believe that you exist. You know, we're not talking about physical things here. And John's not talking about physical things. He's talking about spiritual things. Now, Jesus Christ is a physical person.

[5:27] Yes, and he was a physical person while he was here. And when he ascended there after he arose, after the resurrection, when Jesus Christ ascended, he ascended in a physical body.

[5:39] So, yes, he is a physical being, just as I am. And he's a physical being presently in the presence of God and in heaven, sitting at the right hand of glory.

[5:51] But we need to believe in the name of Jesus Christ. Why does John specify believe in the name of Jesus Christ and not believe in the works of Jesus Christ?

[6:04] The teachings of Jesus Christ, the salvation even of Jesus Christ. Because the works and the teaching and the salvation are all tied to the name. They're all tied to the promised Messiah that came and dwelt among men.

[6:20] And he gave his life to ransom for many and he resurrected on the third day. And he's ascended to the Father and he is coming back. All of those things are tied to the name of Jesus Christ.

[6:32] That's why I've taught in here before. You can talk about God out here all day long. You can go to your place of work and talk about God. You can go to school and talk about God.

[6:44] And that's all great and fine and well. But when you mention the name of Jesus Christ, that's where the line is drawn in the sand. That's where people get upset.

[6:56] That's when people get mad. That's when Jesus Christ has brought into the conversation. You talk about God because people will make a God out of anything.

[7:07] And God is really not so offensive. But the name Jesus Christ, that's what's offensive. That's why people don't want the name of Jesus Christ mentioned.

[7:19] They don't want people praying in the name of Jesus Christ. Because that's where the line is drawn. And that's what offends people is the name of Jesus Christ. But this is the very name that John encourages us and exhorts us as Christians to believe in.

[7:35] Is the name of Jesus Christ. Because if we believe in that name, and y'all have heard me say it before, we've got to believe in the virgin birth, the works, the teachings, the death, the burial, the resurrection, and the coming again of that name.

[7:51] If we leave any of those things out of the Jesus Christ that we believe in, we're believing in the wrong Jesus Christ. We're believing in a false messiah. And John addresses that in the very last verse of this chapter.

[8:06] Verse 14, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. We covered this in chapter 3 when John says whatsoever things we ask, we receive of him.

[8:20] He's saying basically the same thing here. And I explained in chapter 3, that doesn't mean that if I, before I go to bed tonight, and I pray God, I want a Rolls Royce sitting in my driveway when I wake up in the morning, that God's going to provide me that Rolls Royce, or a Lamborghini, or a Ferrari, or any other dream car that any of us might have.

[8:39] That's not what this verse is getting at. He says it goes on in the next verse, and if we know they heareth whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

[8:52] What petitions are we specifically talking about? You have to go back to the previous verse. This confidence we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, if we ask anything according to the will of God, that's what we'll receive of God.

[9:09] How do we do that though? What is the will of God? My goodness, that's an age old question in the church. What is the will of God? It's all over the pages of this book that you hold your hand.

[9:22] It's all over the pages of this book. It's in every book. It's in every chapter. It's about in every verse, the will of God. It's all throughout the Bible.

[9:33] We know that it's not his will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So therefore, his will must be his desire is that people come to repentance.

[9:47] People want or God wants people to repent. God wants people to accept Jesus Christ. God wants people in the first verse that we read in verse 13, he wants people to believe on the name of Jesus Christ.

[10:01] That's the will of God amongst many, many other things. If you want to know the will of God for your life, read your Bible. Read your Bible and you'll find it. There's been thousands of times that I have seen God's will for my life in hindsight.

[10:19] I can see it perfectly in hindsight. Very few times in foresight do I see the will of God. That doesn't mean that we can't pray for it though.

[10:30] I mean, Jesus Christ himself modeled that for us while he was in the garden. Did he not? When he said, not my will, but I will be done. That's a simple prayer to say. And what we commonly refer to as the Lord's Prayer.

[10:43] What does Jesus say to pray? He says, thou will be done, and earth as it is in heaven. God's will be done. Whatever that is, that's the most difficult part of that prayer to pray.

[10:57] Is thou will be done. Because we're not positive, once again, very few times if I see it in foresight. We're not positive what God's will might be for our lives. If you keep your nose in the Bible and you read the Scripture, you'll have better wisdom of the Scripture, you'll have better discernment of the Scripture, and better discernment therefore of what God's will is for your life.

[11:20] God's will for your life and for everybody that's out here right now, whether they're born again or whether they're lost. God's will is that he be glorified.

[11:31] Is that glory be given unto him. That is God's will. And these pages teach us how to glorify God. They instruct us how to glorify God.

[11:42] And they encourage us to do so. John throughout this letter has encouraged the readers of this letter to glorify God and to magnify the name of the name of Jesus Christ, the name in which he encouraged him to believe.

[11:59] So this is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Folks, we can be confident of that. I promise you, if it's God's will, and you ask it of him, why wouldn't he give it?

[12:14] If that is his will for your life, why would he not give that? And if we know that he heareth, hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire, that we desire of him.

[12:32] If we know that he heareth us, we do know that he hears us. If we're praying in his will, if we're praying in the Spirit, if we're praying the way that Scripture has instructed us to pray.

[12:47] A lot of people will say the Lord's prayer and they'll leave it at that. That was a model prayer that Jesus Christ prayed, saying you should pray in a manner such as this, not just those words and leave it at that, otherwise it just becomes a repetition with no meaning, with no heart behind it.

[13:05] He says you should pray along those lines. It's the one we recite the Lord's prayer that he gives in Matthew chapter 6. That's all great and final will. Nothing wrong with reciting those words.

[13:17] But you remember it's a model prayer. It's not a prayer to pray and just leave it at that. It's to focus us on His power, on the fact that He holds all dominion and all power over this world, this earth that we live on, the entire universe.

[13:38] He's the creator of the universe. It's to focus us on that and it's to focus us on His goodness. It's to focus us on Him when it says, give us this day our daily bread.

[13:50] My goodness, you are recognizing God Almighty as the one who has the bread and you are recognizing your dependence upon Him to give you that bread.

[14:03] That's what the purpose of that prayer is. But I'm not teaching the Lord's prayer as we're not on the baptim. In verse 16, If any man sees his brother send a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask.

[14:20] And he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. This is one of the most difficult, not really difficult to understand verses.

[14:37] You're difficult to interpret verses in the Bible. It's one of the most difficult to accept in the Bible for what it says. Really again, if any man sees his brother send a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.

[14:54] This part is pretty simple. He that see a brother, he's specifying a brother. He that seeeth a fellow believer in the name of Jesus Christ. He that has been born again.

[15:05] He that, if you see a brother send, if you see a born again Christian sin, a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask. Who shall ask? The one that saw this sin, the one that witnessed it, the one that knows about it.

[15:20] He shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. I can assure you, I don't have power to give anybody life. I don't have power to rescue anybody spiritually.

[15:33] So we've got a couple of he's here that we need to distinguish. The first he is the one that knows about this sin that a brother has committed.

[15:44] The second he could only be God because only God can give that life. It says he shall ask, he shall pray for this person. What verses did we just come out of before this?

[15:57] That if we pray something in the will of God, God will grant that. And now he's saying that if a man sees a brother send a sin that is not unto death, that he shall ask and he God shall grant life unto this person.

[16:14] That's the will of God in this particular instance. The will of God is to grant life to this person, to restore life to this person, to restore this person back into a right relationship with himself, with God the Father, with God Almighty, that relationship that we have with God the Father, through God the Son, Jesus Christ.

[16:38] This is, I said this part's not so difficult. The next part is what's difficult. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it.

[16:51] There is a sin that is unto death. What is that sin? My goodness, this is one of the most debated topics of Scripture for the past 2,000 years.

[17:02] What is the sin that is a sin unto death? I'll tell you what I believe it is, because Jesus tells us himself in the Gospel, the only sin, now remember, we've got to keep this on a spiritual plane, we could say, we could use Ananias and Sapphires and Book of Acts as an example to say, they sinned against the Holy Ghost, they sold their stuff and they only give part of it to the church, and God's broken both dead.

[17:34] So that must be the sin that's a sin unto death. What is a sin that's a sin unto death? Jesus Christ said that blasphemy against the Father and blasphemy against the Son could be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost could not be forgiven.

[17:49] The only sin in Scripture that I can find that cannot be forgiven is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. And I explained in here before that that is not calling the Holy Ghost to the Holy Spirit of God a bad name, and it's not speaking down about him.

[18:06] That is the complete utter rejection of what the Spirit of God witnesses to, and what does the Spirit of God witness to? Jesus said, I will pray to the Father, they send the Comforter, and when the Comforter comes, he will testify of me.

[18:23] The Spirit of God testifies of Jesus Christ. So when we reject what the Spirit of God is testifying on, we're rejecting Jesus Christ.

[18:34] If we reject Jesus Christ, we have no reconciliation with the Father. There's no chance for reconciliation with the Father unless it's through Jesus Christ.

[18:45] This is the sin that is a sin unto death, unto spiritual death. There's all kinds of sins that we can commit, folks, that could lead to physical death. That can't be what John is getting at here.

[18:58] I'd go out here and commit a hundred different sins that could lead to my death, and you could do the exact same thing. He can't be talking about physical death.

[19:09] He's got to be talking on a spiritual plane here. And the only sin in the entire Bible that I can read about that is unforgivable is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which is, like I said, the utter rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[19:28] That cannot be forgiven. It cannot be. Now, when can it not be forgiven? Once that person's grown their last breath, once that person's gone on out into eternity.

[19:41] That's where physical death comes into this picture. It can be forgiven. I rejected the gospel for years and years and years. You rejected the gospel up until the point you got saved.

[19:53] All those did. All those were rebels against God. We all risked rebellious lives against our Maker. All those rejected the gospel until we got saved.

[20:04] But once that person, once that individual has stepped out into eternity, it is too late for them to be redeemed. There is no redemption at that point.

[20:17] Now, the end of that verse, verse 16, I do not say that he shall pray for it. This is the part that's hard to accept. A lot of people will read that. They're saying, well, John's telling us not to pray for these people.

[20:30] No, he's not. John never once said, don't pray for him. Not in these words that we just read. But he does encourage us not to. Why is that?

[20:42] Well, if we're taking physical death, this person has done stepped out into eternity. This particular individual's already in hell, we would say.

[20:53] It's going to do no good to pray for him. But if this person hasn't stepped out into eternity, if they haven't died the physical death, they are dead spiritually.

[21:04] John doesn't say, don't pray for him. He's going to read it again. He says, I do not say that he shall pray for him. He doesn't just outright say, don't pray for them.

[21:15] But he encourages us not to do so. Why would he do that? God's well aware of this person. God's well aware of their rejection of the gospel, their rejection of Jesus Christ, their rejection of salvation.

[21:33] God will deal with this person. And he'll do it in his own time and in his own manner. What were we just reading about at the beginning of this verse? If any man sees a brother sin the sins that is under death, this is what John wants us to concentrate on.

[21:49] Praying for one another. Praying for each other. What does Paul write in the book of Galatians? If a brother is overtaken in a fault, he which is spiritual will restore him.

[22:03] That's me. That's you. If you're born again, where to restore that brother or sister in Christ? Where to aid them?

[22:14] Where to pray for them? Where to make intercessory prayer for these people? He says, don't spend so much time praying for the loss that you forget to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

[22:28] That's what John is getting at here. He's not saying don't pray for them. They don't deserve to be saved. Folks, I don't deserve to be saved. You don't deserve to be saved. None of us do.

[22:39] None of us deserve salvation. Every one of us deserve the flames of hell. Everybody's sitting in this room right now. It's all we deserve. Because of our sinful nature, because of our, as Lori said, our rebellious ways against God.

[22:54] Because of all of that, we deserve hell. So John is saying, you concentrate on praying for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't get so called up and praying for these folks that reject the gospel.

[23:08] Remember, all throughout this book, John has brought up false teachings that have crept in to the different churches at this point. And he's saying, these teachers don't have God.

[23:20] They don't have Christ. He made that very plain in the second chapter of 1 John. That they were not children of God, these false teachers, that had come in. And John is saying, don't concentrate so hard on praying for them that God saves them.

[23:37] That you don't pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ. That are hearing some of this false teaching, that are being dragged away because of this false teaching. Folks, we need each other's prayers.

[23:49] I need your prayers. You need my prayers. We need each other. Not that our prayers have any power. The only thing that's got power is Almighty God.

[24:00] God is the one that hears those prayers though. Once again, back to the previous verses that we read. He that hears us will grant whatever it is that we're asking so long as it be in His will.

[24:13] And I can promise you, it is in the will of God that we pray for one another. It is in the will of God that we help one another. And it is in the will of God that He helped us along this way as individuals and as the body of Christ.

[24:29] I can promise you, those things are in the will of God. We're running out of time quicker than what I thought I was going to. Verse 17, all unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death.

[24:43] So here we have something just very cut and dry, very plain and to the point. All unrighteousness is sin.

[24:54] Y'all have heard me say it before. If you've got to ask a preacher or a deacon or a Sunday school teacher, whatever the case is, if it's sin, chances are it's sin if you've got to ask about it. Chances are you need to steer away from whatever it is.

[25:08] Because when we get that kind of mindset, we're trying to justify our sin. We're trying to justify what we're doing even though we know that it's unrighteous, even though we know that it's filthy and it shouldn't be done.

[25:21] When I say unrighteous and filthy, it doesn't include or just gross sins like murder and adultery and things along those lines. I hope it's all unrighteousness and the eyes of God.

[25:33] Sin is sin is sin and the eyes of a God that has never committed sin and cannot commit sin. There is a sin, there is a sin not unto death. We covered that just a couple of verses or two ago.

[25:47] Verse 18, we know that whosoever is born of God, sineth not. We covered this in chapter 3 as well. This is not saying that if I'm a born-again child of God, it's impossible for me to commit sin.

[26:02] It's contrary to everything else that we read in Scripture. It's contrary to what Paul wrote to the Roman church when he was speaking on such things.

[26:14] It's contrary to what Paul said or what Paul wrote when he said, Oh, Richard, man that I am, who shall save me from this body of death, calling himself wretched at that time presently, as he was writing that letter.

[26:30] So if a man like Paul could call himself wretched, then you bear to believe I can call myself wretched and you can call yourself wretched. None of us are good enough to get into heaven.

[26:43] But Jesus Christ, He is good enough to give us there. He is good enough in His power and His blood is powerful enough to get us to heaven. Nothing in or of ourselves is all of Jesus Christ.

[26:58] I am going to heaven because of Jesus Christ. I could keep the commandments till I was blue in my face and still have enough sin in me to take myself and the rest of the world to hell.

[27:10] You all are in the exact same position as that. All of us are sinful. By nature we're children of wrath according to the scripture. So praise God when we get born again, there's a new nature put inside of us.

[27:23] It doesn't wipe away the old nature. That's the war between the flesh and the spirit that goes on in our bodies, goes on in our minds and in our hearts every day. There's a war between the old man and the new man, the old nature and the new nature.

[27:37] So when John says, we know that whosoever is born of God senteth not. He's not saying that we never commit another sin. We covered that in chapter 3, a little bit more in depth.

[27:50] But he that has begun of God keepeth himself. Folks, this ain't talking about me. It can't be talking about me. I can't keep myself. I'm dependent on Jesus Christ to keep me.

[28:03] I can't save myself. I couldn't save myself. And if I couldn't save myself, I can promise you I'm incapable of keeping myself. I'm dependent on Jesus Christ because he saved me.

[28:16] I'm dependent on Jesus Christ to keep me and I'm dependent on Jesus Christ to get me home. It is not in me to do it. If it were in me, folks, I would have no hope of ever entering into heaven.

[28:30] I'd have no hope of eternal life. Jesus Christ is who keeps me. He says, but he that has begun of God keepeth himself and that wicked one touches him not.

[28:41] Now all this being said, once again, Jesus Christ is who keeps me. If you're born again, Jesus Christ is who keeps you. And that wicked one touches him not. The wicked one cannot touch Jesus Christ.

[28:57] But it's also a return to us there. When it says the wicked one cannot touch us. Can he tempt us? Yes. Can he put us through all kinds of various trials, of course.

[29:09] I mean, we read that in the first chapter of the book of James. My brethren counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this is the triumph of your faith, work with patience.

[29:20] But let patience have her perfect work that he may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Yes, we're going to fall into diverse trials and temptations, as James said.

[29:31] And we'll be tempted some day stronger than other days. We'll be tempted with all manner of sin. We'll be tempted with all manner of trial. And trials don't necessarily have to be sin.

[29:45] It can be sickness. It can be a decrease in your health. It can be financially. It can be all kinds of different ways that we can be trial by the tempter, by the accuser of the brethren, by slainting himself or by his little demons that are running around here on earth.

[30:03] There's all kinds of different ways we can be tempted. But he cannot touch Jesus Christ. And from what we've written in John, from what I can read in the Scriptures and the Gospels, I am in Christ.

[30:18] And if he can't touch Christ, he can't touch me. He can tempt me, yes. But if I am in Christ, he cannot get to me. He can tempt me, yes.

[30:30] He can try and lure me, yes. He can do all kinds of wicked things along those lines, yes. And God allows those things to happen.

[30:41] God allows the trials to come into my life. God allows the temptations to come into my life. Don't believe me? You read the first couple of chapters in the Job.

[30:52] God allowed those things to happen to Job. God gave Satan permission to tempt Job. It tells me, Satan or his demons have got to get permission to tempt me and to tempt anyone of us and to try us.

[31:09] So if it's already, if God's already aware of it, God will not allow anything to come your way that he, from Satan himself, or from the demon, from the evil.

[31:24] Nothing can come our way that God has not already granted permission for. That should bring us great comfort. Because God already knows what's on the other side of the corner. We don't know, but God does.

[31:36] And we know that we are of God in the whole world, life and wickedness. That's another cut and dry statement of John. We know that we are of God. He's writing these things to us so that we do know that we are of God.

[31:51] So that we do know that we are of the brethren, that we are born of God, that we are sons and daughters of the most high God. He says, we, and we know that we are of God in the whole world, life and wickedness.

[32:05] He's just reiterating this to them. The entire world, as the saying goes, is going to hell in a handbasket. And I'm not being derogatory and saying that that's the truth.

[32:16] The entire unsaved world, that's the path that they are on. We are of God. We are of God. We're not of the world. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

[32:28] We read that in 1 John, a couple of chapters back. The world lies in wickedness. The weir of God. What does this mean, though?

[32:39] We're out here in the world, are we not? We have jobs. We have friends and acquaintances. We go places. We go to Walmart, go to McDonald's, and you go wherever you want to.

[32:51] And you're going to run into worldly people. Those people lie in wickedness. You might say, well, that was the nicest cashier I've ever had. If she or he is not born again, they lie in wickedness.

[33:05] They're a child of wrath. What does that mean to us who are born again? And I ain't saying take up your arms and go to the local police and defend yourself.

[33:19] What does that mean for us? It means we're in a battle with those particular people. We're at war with us and we're at war with them. But folks, don't take that too personally.

[33:31] Let God deal with them. Yes, we can witness to them. Yes, we can talk about Christ. Yes, we can present the gospel of these people. But you remember, it don't matter how nice a person is.

[33:44] If they are not born again, they are a child of wrath. If they're a child of wrath and they're on the enemy side, we are of God.

[33:56] And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding that we may know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life.

[34:11] We know that the Son of God has come. Once again, John's writing these things to us that we know these things, that we know that Christ is Messiah, that we know that He was the promised seed to bruise the head of the serpent, that we know that He was the one to come and take away and wash away the sins of His people.

[34:31] We know these things. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding. Who has given us understanding? Jesus has given us understanding. How so?

[34:43] Once again, read your Bibles if you want understanding of these things. Don't depend on me. Don't depend on Brother Vernon. Read the Bible for yourself if you want greater understanding of these things.

[34:55] We may know Him that is true and we are in Him, we are in Him that is true. Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. Jesus Christ is the true God. I don't argue with anybody when they say Jesus is God.

[35:08] But I also believe that God is a triune God made up of God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the one true God and I'm in Him. And according to the Scriptures, He is also in me by way of the Holy Ghost.

[35:24] Praise God for these things. But He says this is the true God and eternal life. Verse 21, Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

[35:35] Once again, very cut and dry, very plain. And to the point, keep yourselves from idols. Why would He have said this? What did He just say? What did we just emphasize on? Jesus Christ is the true God.

[35:47] And He is eternal life. And He says keep yourselves from idols. What is a idol? That's anything that you put before God. Anything that you lust after.

[35:58] Anything that you consume or anything that you chase after. Anything that has a pedestal above God in your life is an idol. It can be your job, it can be your family, it can be a spouse, it can be children, anything you put before God can be an idol in folks.

[36:15] And idolatry has been a problem since the beginning. When the serpent begot Eve in the garden, what did he begot her with? Yes, it was a half lie or half truth, however you'd rather look at that, but he was begotting her with idolatry.

[36:32] He was tempting her to put herself before what God said. And if she's put herself before God, she has made herself an idol. And self is the worst idol that any of us can have in our lives.

[36:44] And self is the main idol that any of us have in our lives. We put ourselves before God. We put our own well-being before the things of God. Be careful with your families, be careful with your children, be careful what you put before God because God can take those things out of your life.

[37:01] God can remove those things and say, now you have no excuse, now I can be number one in your life. Be careful what you put before God.

[37:13] There was that way in the garden, there was that way at the Tower of Babel. Those people created that tower, they were worshiping a man as God, they put him as an idol before the God that had just flooded the world.

[37:27] Just a few chapters before that. And then when Nimrod died, Nimrod, you don't find it in Scripture, he had a wife named Samarimus that put herself up as a goddess and convinced all those that were around after Nimrod died that she was a goddess and that she had a baby that was conceived by a sun being which is a picture of immaculate conception.

[37:49] It was all our daughter's daughter's daughter and it was all idolatry that these people were were being tempted with. Idolatry is a very useful tool to the devil and a very useful tool of the demon.

[38:04] Once again, the biggest idol, the most well-known idol in yourself, I'll put yourself before God. And then wrap us first down.