[0:00] Open them up to the very first book, the very first chapter, Genesis chapter 1. I'm going to run you through a few passages here by way of introduction and just set something up for you to see.
[0:16] Also, I forgot to mention during the announcements that Wednesday night, I'm going to take a week off of our study of the King James Bible and have a missions prayer service this coming Wednesday.
[0:28] I got a lot more, even some I got this morning from the Drakes, but I got a lot more updates via their missionary letters this week from missionaries all across the world.
[0:38] So I would like to have that service this Wednesday night at 6.30, just giving you some updates, some testimonies from those missionaries, and then some of their prayer requests. And they're reaching out, asking us to pray for them and help them and hold them up.
[0:51] They have needs, and they need our help. So I want to present them to you Wednesday night. Come if you're able, and I'll just have some songs if you've ever been, and I'll read some of the letters, some highlights of those letters, give out those requests.
[1:04] You'll have a piece of paper. You can write them down, and we'll spend some time individually or with somebody just praying. You don't have to pray out loud. You're not going to be in front of a microphone. It's not going to be awkward or any pressure on you, but you just go before the throne of grace and take the needs of these missionaries and these brothers and sisters before the Lord.
[1:21] All right, so we're in Genesis chapter 1 this morning, and I want you to notice verse number 28, the first four words says, And God blessed them.
[1:31] Who's them? It's the man, the male and female that he just created. Earlier in verse 27, God created man in his own image, and the image of God created him. Male and female created he them, and God blessed them.
[1:45] Now, there's another blessing earlier. The first time it shows up is with, what day is that? Day 5, I think it is. Yeah, verse 22, God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply.
[1:57] And I noticed oftentimes in this book, this isn't really part of the message, but the blessing that God gives is, the context of it is in being fruitful and multiplying. He does it here.
[2:08] He does it, we'll see it in a minute here with Noah. And it goes into Abraham, and it goes elsewhere into the nation of Israel. And God's blessing is, many times, it's associated with your seed and with the family that comes from you.
[2:22] But that's just a side note. But we want to just draw this point out that God blessed them. Now go to chapter 3. And in verse 14 through 19, After man and the woman sin, and partake of that fruit where they were commanded not to eat of it, God starts cursing some things.
[2:45] In verse number 14, The Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle. And above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed.
[2:59] It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
[3:12] And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
[3:22] Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken, and unto dust thou shalt thou return.
[3:36] Now he doesn't curse specifically the man or the woman. It doesn't say that he curses them. He blessed them in chapter 1. But here he curses the serpent. He also curses the ground.
[3:47] But we can easily see that their lives got so much harder after this event here in sin. All right, turn to chapter 4. They have children. They have Cain in verse 1, and Abel in verse 2.
[4:01] And as you know the story, Cain talks with Abel his brother in verse 8, and it came to pass when they were in a field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord shows up, and he tells him some things.
[4:12] What hast thou done? And in verse 11, God curses Cain, and now thou art cursed from the earth. So we're seeing some blessings from God, some people being blessed, and then we're also seeing God putting out some curses, and this time it's on a person.
[4:30] All right, go to chapter 9. The tale in Genesis, the giving of this account here of the beginning, kind of fast-forwards through a multitude of generations, really, and then it parks and lands on Noah, because Noah walked with God, and God sends a flood, and he saves Noah and his family alive.
[4:49] And when they come off of this ark, Noah builds an altar, and in verse number 1 of chapter 9, and God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply.
[5:00] Now this is God blessing a man. Noah here is king. He has dominion of the entire world. Theologically speaking, he is king over the kingdom of heaven. God has given him this earth.
[5:12] It's his. And God blesses him. But a little later in that chapter, and just pick it up in verse number 25, I won't get through the details of it, but in verse 25, Noah is speaking to his younger son, and he says, Cursed be Canaan.
[5:29] A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. And God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.
[5:41] And so, God blessed Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, but now Noah won't curse Ham, it seems, but he curses Canaan, the seed of Ham, his son.
[5:53] He's going to be a servant of servants. There's a curse pronounced on the man. Come to chapter 12 now. Genesis chapter 12. God issues out blessings, and God also issues out curses.
[6:07] Verse number 2 and 3. Now, again, we've gotten Noah, and we fast forwarded to him, and now the Bible just passes through generations and certain significance of events with the Tower of Babel, and just lands on Abraham.
[6:24] And he's going to carry on this narrative in Scripture with God's dealing with Abraham. Verse number 2 of chapter 12. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
[6:38] And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee, Abraham, in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So now Abraham, Abraham gets a blessing from God, and even so much so that he is parking on this man and saying that I'm going to bless through you the rest of the world, but it's going to be contingent upon their behavior toward you.
[7:05] Not toward me. Toward you. How they handled you and their relationship with you, Abraham, is going to determine if I bless them or not. That's a wild thing. Now God is landing a blessing on this man.
[7:17] That blessing carries on to his son. I could turn you to the pages. God meets with Isaac and blesses that son. And from Isaac, the blessing goes to Jacob, and on it goes to Joseph even after that.
[7:28] And God keeps that within the nation and that, as he changed Jacob's name to Israel and his 12 sons into 12 tribes, and he makes that nation a blessing just like he promised.
[7:39] Now come to Deuteronomy. We're moving through this because now he's speaking to that nation. Deuteronomy 27. And we'll notice again the blessing and the curse.
[8:02] It seems God wants to bless. He begins with a blessing, but he'll turn it into a curse if he needs to. And he's not afraid to do either one. And in Deuteronomy 27, here he's sending, the people are kind of getting set up, staged to go into the land of Canaan that God promised to them.
[8:21] And Moses gives these instructions in verse 9. I'll start actually in verse 11. Moses charges the people the same day saying, These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when ye are come over Jordan, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
[8:37] And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal to curse, Reuben, Gad, Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice.
[8:48] And look at that. Verse 15. Cursed be the man. And 16 and 17 and 18. And to the end of the chapter, every verse is about cursing. The man that does this, that does that, that does this, that does that.
[9:02] This side's going to offer the blessing and there's no even talk about the blessing. Blessed is the man that does this. They don't even, you just forget about that. But the curse, they put every one of them out there.
[9:15] Now moving, just watch how it seems to be, the curses outnumber any mention of blessing. Okay, just notice that. Now the same thing's going to happen in chapter 28. And I'm not going to read through this whole thing, but just the very beginning.
[9:27] It shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments which I command thee this day that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth.
[9:39] And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. And there go the blessings down to verse 14. Just one after the other.
[9:50] You're going to be great. It's going to be taken care of. You're going to be healthy. You're going to be strong. You're going to be defensed from me. You're going to be healthy. Nobody's going to mess with you. It's just going to be health and wealth. What a wonderful life that God's offering them if they'll hearken unto him the blessing.
[10:05] Who wouldn't want the blessing? On the other hand, and there's always another hand, verse 15, but it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and the statutes of thy commanding this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee and here come the curses.
[10:23] And you can see in skim down there they go one after another. So much so that the rest of the chapter from 15 all the way to 68 is the Lord telling them what he's going to do to them.
[10:37] You want to see a scary verse? Look at verse 63. And it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to naught and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
[11:02] The Lord shall scatter thee and he did. Now what's interesting here is there's the blessings, there's the curses, the details, doesn't it seem a little out of balance? I'm not charging God with anything, believe me.
[11:15] But doesn't it seem like it's an awful lot of focus on the curses? An awful lot of mention of this curse, that curse, and the other. What we see is that behind every blessing and associated with every blessing is a curse, the other side of the coin maybe.
[11:30] I think the two are related and in some way connected. Now I'm not sure that I'd call this a law but maybe a rule is too strong of a word as well but it's a principle at least that God within the blessing exists the curse.
[11:49] This is so true that the lost world recognizes it but not knowing where its source is and how to say it, they say it's karma. It came back around and got you. They'll say it's the yin and the yang, the good and the evil working together or opposing each other or coming to one.
[12:07] They'll call it positive and negative energy but in the Bible God's the source of the blessing, God's the source of the curse and what comes to you in your life comes from the hand of God.
[12:19] Now everybody wants to be blessed. Everybody wants to receive the blessing. Everybody wants their home, their family, their work, their health, their bodies, their futures to be blessed, blessed, blessed.
[12:32] They like to say God bless you. I don't know why. Well I guess I've heard a fable of why when somebody sneezes they say God bless you.
[12:43] If I heard it right or remember it right it has to do with superstition of some devils or sneezing out something or a spirit or something like that. I don't even know if that's true.
[12:53] I don't really care. You can look it up yourself. But people say God bless you. I always feel that's weird. I don't say it. Maybe I'm weird like that or not polite. My mom says it or my dad says it or I grew up around it but it's hard for me to say God bless you when somebody sneezes.
[13:11] That's just weird to me. Some people just say bless you but why all the talk about blessing? Say the blessing when you sit down to eat asking God to bless the food.
[13:24] It's kind of a common thing. People put their t-shirts I've seen them blessed. I've seen the crafts that people make and hang in their homes blessed. Things like that. Nobody puts cursed.
[13:37] This home is cursed. We don't want to advertise. Now there's some trendy thing maybe with some young people that want to be on the dark side. They might put that out there. But that's not common.
[13:49] No one wants the curse. Everybody wants the blessings but blessings come at a cost. And I'll talk about that maybe a little bit later. But everybody wants the blessings and I want you to understand that you don't just stumble on a blessing or they don't fall into your lap but on the contrary the curses and perhaps why it's so seemingly out of balance is because the curses are so prevalent.
[14:13] Is it not easier to fall into sin than it is to depart from evil and do good? Is it not easier to do wrong than it is to do right? Maybe there's why the balance is so out of whack toward the curse and the admonition and the warning and the threats against watching out for the curse.
[14:35] We're prone to fall not necessarily prone to rise and I think we lean toward the curse and as sinners our tendency is to sin.
[14:46] the Bible the Bible though describes how a man can be blessed. It describes it in a few ways a multitude of ways I want to give you a few and point them out and address them this morning and charge you with them this morning how a man can be blessed of God how he can avoid or what I'll call counter the curse and so come with me to Psalm 1 the very first Psalm and let's look at a few ways that man can be blessed that he can counter the curse.
[15:26] Psalm 1 these verses I'm sure you've read you may be very familiar with have memorized let's study them. In verse number 1 the Bible says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delights in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night and then he talks about what the blessing will be like this is a blessed man I'll just say this by way of the title of the point the blessed man is described here by certain decisions that he has made certain decisions he's made to govern his life and the point that he ends with is he's blessed of God why is that?
[16:18] let's analyze these decisions he's made verse 1 says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly what is it that this man's doing walking not in the counsel of the ungodly he is refusing to pattern his life after the world's instructions or admonitions he's refusing or rejecting worldly counsel what does the world counsel you to do with your life?
[16:46] well in one hand or maybe in predominantly it says you just do you you live for you you be whatever you want to be the world says it's all about you do it your way you only live once party on eat drink and be merry your happiness is the most important thing does not the world teach that?
[17:09] do they not preach that to children? whatever makes you happy whatever you feel inside of your heart whatever your truth is that's the most important thing and you follow it and you chase it and you don't let go of it and it's all about you you you but blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly what does he then pattern his life after?
[17:38] if it's not after those voices it's in verse 2 his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night this man chooses to seek to know the mind of God what does God have for me in this life what does God seek that I should be after this man seeks to please God look at Psalm 112 we're going to come back here but Psalm 112 112 this man doesn't want to hear those voices pushing him to love himself and to chase pleasures for himself and to make himself a name but he he says I want to know what God wants for me what does God what does my creator tell me to do Psalm 112 look at verse number 1 praise ye the Lord blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his commandments this man dismisses the voices of men so that he can walk after the word of
[18:47] God he delighteth greatly I love that phrase he delighteth greatly in his commandments his delight is in the law of the Lord and in that law in the word of God he meditates day and night this man is blessed because he wants to know what God wants for him in this life and he meditates in the words of God and it delights his heart and his soul to know what God has told him to do and to obey the Lord God meditate day and night Christian how important it is I could probably say this every Sunday how important it is that you spend time in this book every day every day maybe not day and night you understand meditating putting your heart toward that you get enough of the jaws of the world running in your ears you hear enough of it just living in this world you need to put some time and some effort into what does God have for me
[19:49] I need to know that I need to seek that you might think it's too big of a book I can't understand it all it's so old you're just making foolish excuses your maker put his spirit in you if you're saved and he calls you to get in his book and if you want it he will feed you he will grow you he will establish you in his truth if you want it the man that's blessed is the man that wants it the man that delights after the word of God he's refusing the world's admonition and instruction he rejects it he will not walk after the counsel of the ungodly he knows it's wrong and he got that from a book there's something else in Psalm 1 look at verse number 1 again blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor standeth in the way of sinners to stand in the way of sinners sinners have a way all through this the Psalms really strongly in the
[20:54] Proverbs you'll see that the wicked the way of the wicked is as darkness it describes the wicked man's path it describes the way he's living his life and this man is already blessed he's blessed because he refuses to walk and pattern his life after the way they teach and preach he goes after God's word but he also refuses to stand in their way or to go to their lifestyle to their way of living and stand in it and be a participant with them sinners are living in sin but the blessed man is going to avoid that life he's going to avoid them he's going to avoid ungodly relationships and consider my testimony is precious my testimony is worth protecting I don't want to be seen in the way with them and assume that I'm with them and I agree with them because I don't walk in their counsel I've already decided I don't agree with them and I'm not going to be seen standing in the way with them either
[21:59] I'm not going to look like them I'm not going to participate in what they participate in I'm going to sanctify myself and separate myself from their way and he's a blessed man for doing so it also says nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful the scornful look in your Bible and run that word and run what that is associated with the scorner is a mocking fool he's part of a rebellious crew that hates judgment he's noted for contention he rejects reproof and the Bible calls the scorner an abomination to men he's an outcast and he doesn't care now a scorner to me I don't want to just pin this on the young people but to me it sounds like a young teenager it's easy to associate at least go that direction when they get to a certain age they get a little wise in their mind wiser than they are their mouth gets to open a whole lot quicker than it ever did and ever should and they start to scorn and what comes out of their flesh is a scorner that's inside of them that was there the whole time it just hadn't gotten the guts yet it hadn't developed yet to be able to mouth off to mom and dad or to mock to the word of
[23:14] God or to the preacher or to fall in love with the sinners and their counsel of the ungodly and start standing in the way of a sinner and then it starts coming out of their mouth the scornful the scornful it reminds me of a group of young people just because I've known them and I've been one if you're alone you're kind of miserable but when you get together with the others you start feeding off each other and you delight the Bible says a scornful delights in their scorning and it's funny and it's entertaining and sadly though there's a curse coming but the blessed man doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful he's not parking there he's got something better to live for and it's the word of God that's directing his way and he's a blessed man because of it so understand off of this first passage here this man is blessed he can counter that curse that will be coming otherwise because he is making certain decisions in his life and these decisions have to do with who he's going to listen to who he's going to fellowship with and how he's going to portray himself and he's seeking after the word of God that's a big big big big deal come now or Psalms to your right
[24:30] Psalm 34 countering the curse we don't want the curse well there's a way to avoid it there's a way to resist it and the one is by making those decisions based on the words of God in your life and not after your carnal tendencies or the world's wisdom Psalm 34 and look at the blessed man in verse number 8 oh taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him the blessed man trusts in the Lord now we know that for salvation we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ but I don't believe I don't want to make that application here because the context has to do with the Lord taking care of somebody verse number 9 oh fear the Lord ye his saints for there is no want to them that fear him there's no want you're taken care of verse 10 the young lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing the Bible is teaching us to trust in the
[25:36] Lord the man that's blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord look at Psalm 40 Psalm 40 verses 4 and 5 Psalm 40 verse 4 says blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud nor such turn aside to lies verse 5 many oh Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us word they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbered this speaks of trusting the Lord trusting the Lord for your daily needs because his wonderful works are already been declared to you and reckoned up you couldn't even count if you tried to count what God has done for you that's the truth even the things you don't even know and understand how God has influenced and helped and comforted and taken care of you in this life it's innumerable so saith the psalmist and that man that's blessed is the man that realizes
[26:44] I can trust that God the God that cares more for me than I care for him I can trust him the God that's done more for me than I'll ever do for him I can trust him I can place my trust in him in this life that's a God you can trust and the man that's blessed is the man that exercises faith trusting God his decisions in this life are made with a belief that God will honor his word he is bound to his word he will fulfill his word so I'm going to walk according to his word believing that what he said he will do that's exercising faith we've been studying it a few weeks with Abraham and his wife Sarah that man and woman exercised faith and the man that's blessed is the man that relies on his father to fulfill his word to show himself good and capable and exercise God's mercy and God's grace and God's pity on those who put their trust in him remember that
[27:48] God operates in faith you need to get that in your mind and keep it in your mind God deals with men through their faith it's like that's that's the portal if you won't exercise faith if you won't obey his word in faith you're not going to get him you're not going to connect you get saved by faith you're children of God by faith in Christ Jesus we're justified by faith we walk by faith we're to live by faith God operates in faith when a man refuses to walk in faith he's I don't want to say he's limiting God but he's he's closing the door he's cutting himself off from the blessing because he won't walk in faith because he walks by sight because he says I've got to think this through figure this thing out God can be trusted don't cut off the help don't cut off the comfort don't cut off the care and don't cut off the blessing because you're afraid to walk by faith you fathers or perhaps even mothers you recall with your children trying to teach them to swim or trying to just be around a swimming pool or something where there's a shallow end there's a deep end
[29:01] I recall this with my kids I recall being taking down to the deep end and having them on the edge and saying alright now jump now I don't grab their hand and pull them in I want them to get over that fear and to exercise faith in their father and just come on I don't stay way back there where they know they're going under and who knows how long it'll take for dad to get to me and find me under this water I stay right where they can reach me just out of reach but just close enough where they have to commit and I call them to jump and I'm sure you can picture this in your mind if you haven't experienced this yourself you're only doing this because you want them to enjoy the water you want them to come in you want them to trust you and know that you're going to care for them and protect them you know you want in the end game here you want them to know there's more than the shallow end of the swimming pool there's so much more you can do the slide the tube the diving board there's so much more on the deep end than down there waiting in the kiddie pool and you want them to grow you want them to gain sometimes you get the kid they jump and they're holding on
[30:17] I mean they're just holding on to your arms and just digging their nails in because they're scared but they're happy they did it and then you say okay I want you to swim to the wall and it's just a short way and you're going to kind of push them to the wall and they're just going to reach and reach and grab it and if they don't make it you're right there to pick them up and put them on the wall and you try to get them to the wall and then you say alright now turn face me now I want you to kick with your feet and push yourself to me and you reach your hand out sometimes I keep my hands back because I don't want to see my hands but I know I can reach a good three feet with a lean I'm almost on them but I want them to see this big distance because I want them to trust me I want them to push off with all they have to come toward me that's how we teach our kids to swim or work with them in the swimming pool because a child has to learn to trust and when they exercise faith and they step out they're the ones that grow they're the ones that get the experience it helps them and you know that this thing with walking by faith and being a blessed man that puts his trust in the Lord in this life and walks with God by faith walking by faith can seem scary
[31:27] I know it I've been there it can seem very scary but Christian there's a blessing in it there's a blessing in walking by faith on the other hand there's always another hand the Bible says he that trusteth his own heart is a fool the Bible says there's a way that seemeth right to a man but the end thereof there's the curse the ways of death if you don't exercise faith in this life if you don't make your choices by faith you realize it's easy to make a choice that's not of faith it's easy to do that but it's not going to work or God will never bless that effort you want to be blessed of God you want the blessing do you I know you want it then it's time to start taking God at his word and if he's speaking to your heart and dealing with your heart you trust him you obey him you say yes Lord speak Lord thy servant heareth here am I send me whatever God's dealing with your heart on you can trust him exercise faith there's a blessing in it you don't want to have a cursed life you don't want to be living under a curse because you can't exercise faith and walk with God thanks to
[32:44] Adam sin has entered into the world come to to Psalm 32 thanks to our father Adam in the beginning the Bible says that sin entered into the world and death by sin and so that death passed upon all men for that all have sinned and you might say that the human race has tasted the curse of sin we've experienced its presence we've experienced its control almost daily and even its destruction the Bible says that the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the just there's definitely a curse associated with sin in Malachi 3 when God's people weren't exercising their faith and obedience to his law they were robbing God in tithes an offering in Malachi 3 he said ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation and that's going back to that
[33:48] Deuteronomy business where they wouldn't follow his law so they're cursed in John 7 the Bible says this people who knoweth not the law are cursed in Galatians chapter 3 Paul says for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them do you understand that sinners are under a curse he that believeth not is condemned already and a sinner that doesn't have Jesus Christ who's trying to keep the works of the law or trying to fulfill his own lifestyle through his own will and way and his own heart he's a fool and he's trusting his own heart he's a cursed man he's heading for hell but look at Psalm 32 verse 1 blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered now it doesn't say that the man's blessed if he doesn't sin it doesn't say that at all does it it says the blessing is to the sinner is the man who has committed the transgression the man who has committed the sin but has it forgiven but has it covered well there's a blessing in that this verse is talking to a sinner and it's not identifying the sin it doesn't describe for us the degree of the sin it doesn't describe for us what kind it was or what amount it was but that a man can be blessed if his sin is forgiven or covered on the other hand man is cursed if his transgression is not forgiven if his sin is not covered you say why is that because all sin must be paid for and the holiness of God is what demands it his wrath against sin must be satisfied it must be satisfied when I was a teenager
[35:46] I told you I worked at a fast food restaurant Hardee's like this one out here Carl's Jr and I worked there for a couple years and most of the time I was in the back the back line they called it where we made the sandwiches and prepped the food and the chicken and the roast beef and whatever else and rarely would I be up on the front line which is the cash registers and the drive through sometimes I'd run that I was trained in it but usually they used the girls to do that and left us guys back there to get burnt on all the hot stuff and stink like grease and just nasty and so rarely would I be up on the front line but there was times where I ran the register and punched in all the stuff and did that and retrieved the orders and hated that job by the way so anyway up there at the end of the night sometimes if you ran the register you'd check out or you'd close or whatever the case was you'd have to pull that register and you'd have to go get the print out of what the computer says that register should have for sales it started with a hundred dollars you did two hundred dollars in sales there better be three hundred dollars in there sometimes though through the course of exchanging coins and bills and sometimes the register would come up short
[37:01] I don't know if it's ever been over I don't think it's ever been over shorted somebody their money but I don't remember really having a problem with this but I feel like there was a time when it was like 26 cents short or something and that would bother me I'm like how no I'm not stupid I know how to count change I can do it in my head why but sure enough there's times where that money would just not be there and the manager would say don't worry about it it's 26 cents big deal but I've seen a manager take 26 cents and put it in because they couldn't just say don't worry about it we waived it we don't care about the money it's like the manager said you don't worry about it I'm going to take care of it for you it's not a big deal but let's imagine that every night I keep coming up short sometimes just a little bit don't worry about it sometimes an awful lot and every night I bring my register back and every time it's short and it's not accounted for and the boss is not going to accept that eventually the boss is going to have to do something some disciplinary action is going to have to take place or like
[38:12] I've seen with some of the bosses they dug in I saw one of our managers dig into her pocketbook and count out whatever it was and put it in because some young girl was crying because she was going to get fired because her register wasn't even and I saw a manager take the money out and satisfy the mistake of that foolish teenager you realize that a man's blessed if his sin is covered if it's paid for if it's been atoned for as the old testament teaching the animal would have to die something would have to satisfy the wrath of a holy god against the sin just like in my restaurant days I couldn't just turn it in short and the bible says that all have sinned and come short every single day of your life you come short of the glory of god something's going to have to happen somebody's going to pay that has to be satisfied because god is not going to wave a wand at it and allow it he can't he's a god of judgment he's a god of righteousness he will always do right not right by you right by him right by his nature he's holy so sin has to be paid for sin his anger and wrath toward that sin as a holy god has got to be satisfied something has to happen so look at the next verse psalm 32 verse 2 blessed is the man unto whom the lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile that man's a blessed man if he doesn't have his iniquity imputed to him that means to charge it or to attribute it to him it's like god not finding him guilty of violating his word but understanding the nature of god then what happens where does it go if you're not attributing or imputing the sin to the man then where does it go how do you satisfy that well we'll go one more place and we'll be done Romans chapter 4 because the apostle Paul weighs in with some doctrine to help us understand this and how it's possible how god can not impute the sins of a man to that man
[40:48] Romans chapter 4 and here Paul he uses David's words that we just read and then he even uses Abraham as an illustration of this look at verse we'll start in verse 5 what did Paul tell us that what David is saying that there's a blessedness when God imputes righteousness without works without earning it but it's reckoned of grace according to verse number 4 now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt now skip over toward the end of the chapter verse number 20 speaking of
[41:54] Abraham as our illustration he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness now pause there that's back in Genesis 15 verse number 6 if you need to look it up where the Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and that's all God was looking for with that man was that he believed what he told him and that he would do what he said Abraham believed God counted to him for righteousness so the Bible says therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness and Paul's making a case as an illustration to show you it was Abraham believing it was his faith that righteousness was imputed to him now verse 23 now it was not written in Genesis 15 verse 6 for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also you realize
[42:54] God had you and today in his mind as he penned what Abraham did according to the apostle Paul he penned that and wrote that truth about him believing before the law but him exercising faith and having righteousness imputed to him for us to learn from to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification we call this the doctrine of imputation in theological terms the doctrine of imputation and his righteousness being imputed to a man because he exercised faith in what God said now similar to this thing with Abraham is the sinner today he's working not according to that passage earlier and he's believing on him that justifieth the ungodly that was in verse number five who are those ungodly well in verse next chapter five verse six when we were yet without strength in due time
[43:55] Christ died for the ungodly we read it at the end of chapter four that he was delivered for our offenses when a sinner that's committed those offenses that transgression that sin or iniquities when he stops trying to please God or make up for his sins and he stops trying to work and trying to well if I just would do a few good things if I stop doing those sins that I did when I was young now I'm going to turn over a leaf and be a good person when he just gives up on that and puts his faith in what Jesus Christ did for him the gospel of Jesus Christ verse one of chapter five therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ when a man places his faith in the gospel of Christ the sinner believes on Christ for salvation God imputes righteousness to that sinner's account heart I want to illustrate this for you in a way that I think you'll never forget
[44:58] I got two books here these are identical books bought in a set and they're going to represent two different lives and I want to show you my life take a look at my life this is this is the things that God recorded about me he recorded my sins and that'd be great if this page was blank but it's not it'd be great if it was just a little bit on it but there's a lot and when I turn the page I see that day after day oh I must have got right with God that day or tried to do right or had a good day but the next day the next day and if I think that I'm just a good person but then I get up and see what God has called sin and how many times I have committed those sins I would like Job repent in dust and ashes if I would see myself before
[46:02] God and what happens in that life it gets ugly and it just goes and day after day after day oh dear that was a bad weekend there probably a Friday Saturday of just hell what a wicked sinner what a wicked account and they're all written down and I could take an eraser and try but I can't get rid of it I didn't pen this God did my account is filthy but you know what then there's another person's account you want to see this person wait a minute wait a minute nope surely over nope what about this nope what about when he was tempted of the devil nope what about when they accused him nope there's a man the Lord Jesus Christ who's without sin according to this Bible he's got an account account of righteousness the Bible says he's holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners he's somebody way different than me what is imputation well let me show you this here's one thing
[47:25] I like to say is people think this they think this and they're dead wrong they think that if I live a good life you know like if my my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds then I'm a good person because I did more good than I did bad and God will accept me good person and they don't realize that God puts your life on this side and he puts the life of the Lord Jesus Christ on this side and if your life doesn't match his you're gonna pay for it you're going to hell his wrath will be exercised upon your soul but the Bible says that he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him what the Bible teaches about imputation is that when you trust Jesus
[48:28] Christ God takes your filthy sinful life and he imputes the righteousness of Jesus Christ to your account and as far as God's concerned you're justified he justified the ungodly he died for the ungodly and offers me his righteousness to him that worketh not but believeth on him it's by faith in Jesus Christ but what happens to the sin what happens to the sin it had to be covered right not hidden covered but it had to be atoned for paid for if you forget your wallet somebody says I got you covered don't worry about it means I'm paying for you that manager pulled out of their own purse to cover to satisfy the debt where someone fell short these sins have got to might bring bring to
[49:41] God according to that Bible he is the propitiation for our sins that means he's the payment he made the payment what God did was took your sins and put them on his son and so while he hung there on the cross as an innocent man God imputed your sins to him and he paid for he paid for every stinking single one of them that's what imputation is you get to walk away you you filthy wicked fool you're a dirt bag you get to walk away with this don't think for a minute you've earned this don't think for a minute you deserve this this is the Lord Jesus Christ it's him in Christ we have forgiveness of sins in Christ it's all in Christ that's imputation blessed is the man to whom the
[50:45] Lord will not impute his sins on the other hand there's a curse somebody think they're still good enough think you can still get by by trusting your good life your good works you're a fool you know what Jesus Christ says in Matthew 25 he says depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire you know who's going to hell the cursed but there's a blessing for the man that's imputed righteousness I said earlier blessings come at a cost that cost for your sins was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ if you think you can get forgiveness from a priest you're deceived if you think you can get forgiveness by giving some bucks to the church you're wrong you can't find that idea in the scriptures so don't live by it but the Bible says that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us praise the Lord now you want to counter that curse are you saved this morning you want to counter that curse you want the blessing of being forgiven and of having that righteousness imputed to your account you can have it you can have it by faith let's bow our heads together let's bow our heads in a moment we'll be dismissed
[52:05] I want to know this morning does everybody in here know that they have the righteousness of Jesus Christ do you know that your sins have been forgiven that they've been paid for and that you've been cleansed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ eternity is way too long to gamble hell is way too hot to just see if it works out or not you better exercise faith in what the word of God says in the gospel of Jesus Christ you don't want to hear those words depart from me ye cursed not when salvation is a free gift if anybody needs to be saved today today's the day Christian are you walking by faith or are you afraid to the blessing is if you'll trust in God in this life and follow where he leads that's where the blessing is the blessing is also refusing to walk in the counsel of the ungodly and associate yourself with those sinners maybe somebody in here senses in their life and in their heart they're getting sucked into the ways of the world they're getting pulled into by sinners by backslidden
[53:24] Christians they're getting pulled away from their walk with God you're getting pulled away from the blessing you can counter the curse if not the curse is coming you'll regret it you'll reap what you sow if the Lord's dealing with your heart about anything like to give you an opportunity to do business with God or just to talk it over nobody's going to come to you nobody's going to tap you on the shoulder just want to give you some time to pray if you're not sure that you're saved I want to talk to you about that please don't leave here not being sure let's make sure let's make sure today it's eternity it's your soul Christ did everything he's going to do for you all you have to do is receive it father as we come to the close of this service I want to say thank you for saving my soul for taking my sins from me and giving me the righteousness of the dearly beloved
[54:25] Lord Jesus Christ God thank you for satisfying that debt yourself when I came so far short Lord I thank you for this Bible that teaches us how we can trust in you believe on you for our soul security but Lord also in this life walking by faith God I pray that each one here would take serious this admonition these scriptures and pattern their life after the words of God we pray these things in the Lord Jesus Christ name amen please stand with me we're going to sing a hymn if you want to come and pray please come and pray we'll be done in a minute there's no rush though 166 in the hymnal come if you need to to
[55:39] I am free.
[55:59] I am free.