Napoleon, Typhus, and Sin

is[Music]take vitamin C and every time they comearound with water drink water every timetake water and vitamin C we left here uhwe got the tip we left Christ Churchwhatever time it was we got into London41 hours later we got off the plane itwas 8:00 in the morning which for ourbody clock was 8:00 at night we werestraight into their own time we actuallyhelped them with some equipment wentstraight into a camp meeting no jet lagand we did the same coming home vitaminC and water and it will help you it willhelp you for what it's worth toyou oh we just took a tablet whenever wethought of it yeah just keep it up justkeep it going it worked for us and itworked really well and we had been jetlagged before but we didn't get it sothere's a tip for you your healthtip okay we're going to sing one of ourpast theme songs here because he livesthis is our version of it uh it's alittle different to the HM book it's gotthree verses so let's stand and singcome on sing[Music][Applause]GodhistheyJesus he cameto he andfordie to die my power[Music]andLiv because heLiv I can raisetomorrow because heis all isbecause Iknow he holds thefuture and life is worth the living justbecause he[Music]Livthe overGod[Music]to the[Music]great and cl on him his life is[Music]Icanor because heis all Fe isGod because Iknow he thefuture and life is wor the living justbecause heLivwhen[Music]Lord his[Music]for ourSalvation come with power as king ofKing and Lordof becausehe I can[Music]tohe all isbecause Iknow he holds thefuture and life is worth theLiv becausehe and his word The Living Just BecauseHe Lives myJesus[Music]Liv keep standing no don't sit down wehave a theme song and look I'm not goingto go up at the end cuz I'mhorseso okay but you can please you'regetting to know it well it's a beautifulsong it's got great words so let'ssing seeof times the day seemslong our trials hard toBear we're temped tocomplain to Mur anddespair but Christ will soonappear to catch his rightaway all te foreverare in God Eternalday it will be worth itall when we seeJesus LIF stes will sing usall when we see Christone glimpse of his defface all sorrow willRace So bravely run therace till we see[Music]Christ sometimes the sky looksdark with not a ray oflight with tossed and drivenon no human helpinside but there is one inheav who knows how deepestnear Let Jesus solve yourproblem just go to him inprayer it will be worth Earth andall when we see[Music]Jesus seemsmall when we seeChrist one Glimpse on his dearface all sorrow willheas so bra run therace to we seeChrist life St should beall all storms foreverpass will cross the greatdiv good glory safe atlast will share the joys ofhim I have a hopethe tempure will beB may burdendown it will bewor when we see[Music]Jesus life STS will seem sosmall when weChrist one glimpse ofhis All Shall un willlyR shall greatly R theracetill we see chist[Music]sitdown well done what an effort I'll tellour choir at home they should beembarrassed by your presentation ismarvelous so tonight we have theprivilege of Dr Conrad Vine whatdoctorate in theology it is and you're apastor you're a pretty intelligentperson[Laughter]you've got a good head on you and wereally appreciate the messages you'veshared with us Conrad just the abilityyou have to put practical things hereespecially aboutmother-in-laws is it good that she's inRussia we invited Luda to come but shewas not able to make it we would haveloved to have had her here with us butplease pass your love on to her and ifyou come back back again she'd be verywelcome yeah shall we kneel togetherwhere we can and open up with a word ofprayer our dearest Heavenly FatherHallowed be thy dear name and father wejust come before thee to realize theweakness of our humanity and our greatneed of yourDivinity father the messages that we'veheard have been stirringall three presenters have presentedamazingmessages and it's my fervent prayer as Iknow it is for many here in this premiseis here that you would come close to usplease may your presence be felt hereand again please expel those forces ofDarkness May Hearts be touched and maywe willingly get rid of the weaknessesthat we have and chooseJesus I pray now as our dear brotherConrad comes to us a well-learned manhe's done a lot of study and I pray thatwe could feed off his knowledge to helpus in our Christianexperience father I pray that you wouldendear him with your hot calls fromHeaven touch his lips and I pray thatevery heart in this room would bereceptive of the message that he sharesI thank you God bless this Camp becausepeople have made an effort to come hereand it's not our works but I want themto go home with a blessing like they'venever hadbefore thank you for this time fatherCome Close be one of us I pray in jesus'name amen amen[Applause]everybody let me get my voice back againfor asecond all right can you hear me betterwith that uh it's a pleasure to be withyou here this evening and uh I'm justenjoying New Zealand so far you have abeautiful countryhere and all I've seen is the road fromOakland to here and the road down to thelake went down there this morning for awalk and it's a beautiful place and whatI like about New Zealand are thefriendly people here and it's been ablessing meeting you all and having youwarm welcome and just fellowshippingwith dear brothers and sisters from theother side of the world so uh thank youso much for your warm welcome and that'smuch better I can hear myself now thankyou and for those watching online wegive you a warm welcome today as well souh this this evening I want to uh sharea talk called Napoleon typhus and sinand um I'm going to be talking about umtyphus and sin and how they're kind ofinterrelated I'm going to start out withsome aspect of the emperor Napoleon'slife um but before we begin I invite youto Bow your heads with me and we ask thepresence of the Holy Spirit heavenlyfather as We Gather in this house ofPraise a house of worship a house ofprayer for people of allNations we humbly ask tonight that yourspirit will fill us your spirit willspeak conv ition to our hearts and ourminds I pray tonight Lord that we willindeed meet Jesus our lord and saviorand that your holy spirit will be eithera comforter or a convictor or a teacherofrighteousness so Lord we give this nextmoment these next moments into yourhands asking that your voice be the onlyvoice that is heard tonight in jesus'name we pray amen amen now I think Ihope you'd agree with me that um sin hasbecome a very oldfashioned word in the2st Century nobody likes to talk aboutSin anymore um this morning we learnedabout an an in aptronym an Archbishop ofManila called Archbishop sin um and wekind of smile at that but as a generalrule we don't like to talk about Sinanymore it's a Valu Laden word it hasnegative connotations it allegedlycauses people to have psychological harmor unwarranted guilt when you starttalking about Sin and the consequencesof sin being Eternal death we rarelyhear sermons on sin and the dangers ofsin anymore we have feel-good sermonslike five ways to optimize yourpotential or five ways to achieve amillion dollars or three ways to achieveEternal happiness stuff like this thiskind of feel-good stuff a mental man uhmental um uh um floss for the mind butwe rarely do hear about Sin rather weprefer to talk about more neutral termslike this man has issueshe hasproblems he's navigating a difficultseason oflife and we soften the word sin we usethese other phrases because we don'tlike to talk about the reality of sinand the fact that sin is a deadlydisease and it has only one outcome ifleft untreated and that is eternaldeath and so tonight I want to talkabout Sin but I'm going to start startout by talking about the EmperorNapoleon bonapart um this is our journeyhere tonight up on the screen let's seeif this thing works y there it is goingto talk about the Unstoppable rise ofNapoleon we going talk about theUnstoppable spread oftyphus and then sin and Tyas how theyare related and how they reflect eachother then different kinds of of sin howit has lordship in our lives then we'regoing to go back to the being beginningof creation where we were this morningin the Garden of Eden where the LordGods took man and he formed him from thedust of the ground and breathed into hisnostrils the breath of life so that'sour journey tonight we're going to startout with the Unstoppable rise ofNapoleon bonapart and uh most people inour world say have heard of Napoleonwould that be a fair assumption yes uhhe was one of the uh the greatestgenerals of human history and it's kindof an ironic thing that um did you everread um doss's book Crime andPunishment yes no okay if you haven'tread it I recommend you do read it it'sa fascinating um it's a kind of a moralphilosophy story and the story isthere's a young man called Rodan Romanovromanovich Romanov and he's living in StPetersburg and he's impoverished and hesees an old money lender squeezing thelast few Pennies from a single motherwith a starvingchild and so he then wanders the streetsof of St Petersburg asking himself thequestion if I kill that old money lenderand give the money back to the old tothe young lady with her starving childam I a moral moner ornot an interesting question yes and thisand the the the ideas go on they said sowho are the great men ofhistory generally speaking the great menof history are those with the most bloodon theirhands so we think of Joseph Stalin AdolfHitler Alexander the Great CharlamagneNapoleon bonapart they're all the greatmen of history because they have causedmore suffering than any other men inhistory that's what they all have incommon but most of us have heard ofNapoleon bonapart um he burst into theworld platform as young artilleryofficer and he demonstrated his geniuswith artillery in some early campaignsin Italy in 1796 against the austriansduring the early years of the FrenchRevolution and the French Revolution wasgoing on at the time and there you haveMadame gutin that they used to choppeople's heads off they said she waswonderful cure for a headache and theywould U behead first of all thearistocrats but but then therevolutionaries turned on one anotherand there was the camp there was theCommittee for Public Safety and theystarted to denounce one another and asoften happens in revolutionaries inrevolutions the revolutionaries ended upkilling oneanother often happens when you studyrevolutions and um if you ever readCharles Dickens book um A Tale of TwoCities it starts off it was the best oftimes it was the worst of times and yousee in that story there the impact ofthe guillotine and the terror that itbrought to people well finally one ofthe leaders of the Committee for PublicSafety a guy called Rose Pierre um whohad been beheading many other people therather revolutionaries turned on him andhe was himself was beheaded and whatbecame known as the terror came to anend Napoleon Rose in the Army ranks andin1799 he took power in Francerevolutionary France in audet and overthe next 11 years he engaged in a seriesof aggressive military campaigns and hetook over much of modern Europe they seea map on the screen there there you haveuh France itself and the Lans then thesewere all client kingdoms around him umso uh one of his brothers was imposed asthe king of Spain and uh he he heestablished the Warsaw Dutchy of Warsawultimately that became Poland one day hered up into the Balkans here and thesewere all client kingdoms down here andso he established himself as really theUndisputed ruler of Europe and he foughtagainst the British the Russians theaustrians the prussians the swedes theItalians and the Portuguese and time andagain Napoleon LED his armies toincredible military victories and if youwant good bedtime reading read thestories of those battles becauseNapoleon he understood how artilleryworked with Cavalry he hunted out workedwith infantry and he had this uncannyability to he divided his army up intothese core Modern Day divisions and theywere semi-autonomous and they wouldappear on the battlefield almost atrandom and the enemy would be completelysurprised the enemy never knew fromwhich angle Napoleon was going to hitthem from and so he was by all accountsa military genius and what he was mostfamous for was his ability to inspireordinary men to accomplish incrediblemilitary Feats he said this you mustspeak to the Soldier's soul in order toElectrify him end of quote and hissoldiers were promoted on the spot fortheir acts of Bravery as a result hissoldiers adored him and just the beliefthat they were Invincible kind of madethem Invincible across Europe he wasopen to new ideas was Napoleon he had aphotographic memory and he invested inlatest Technologies and so he didn'tjust conquer Europe militarily but he hebrought in the modernera when Napoleon was in charge there heremade Western Society he overthrew theFrench monarchy and in and the FrenchRevolution itself he streamlinedFrance's Administration he rationalizedits civil laws and he instituted wideranging economic reforms and even todaythe Napoleonic Code is the basis for lawin France and of WestAfrica it's an incredible the Napoleoniclegal code as a result of this from allacross Europe people who wanted toengage in free thinking flocked toNapoleon's France it became the meccafor people who were tired of the oldways of the past the monarchies of thepast the aristocratic oppression of thepast and people who wanted a new way ofthinking where reason and rationalityand technology and the enlightenmentwere at the Forefront of society peopleflocked to Napoleon's France from fromall across Europe reason and rationalitytechnological innovation were promotedand he was the first to introduce theidea of a national Army and Nationalconscription so Napoleon harnessed themilitary might of France and he turnedit into a militaryMachine by 1811 he ruled an Empire fromthe Atlantic to the Baltic and the onlynation standing against him was actuallyBritain and there you have a picture ofthe battle of Trafalga 1805 where Nelsonbeat the Army the the the um navies ofSpain and France off the coast ofSouthwest Spain that destroyed theFrench and Spanish navies and ever afterthat the British ruled the Seas butNapoleon ruled the continent of Europeand Napoleon was he wasn't quite happywith this because as long as Britaincontrolled the Seas Britain controlledglobal trade and Britain could impose umsanctions on revolutionary France sowhat did Napoleon seek to do about thiswell if you look at the map there um hedecided Ed to impose a continentalblockade on Britain and so all the portswere officially closed to the Britishand all that happened was that theBritish goods went up in price becauseeverybody wanted them and so as theBritish controlled the tea trade theBritish was smuggling tea into Paris sothe French Aristocrats could drink theirafternoon tea in the talons of Paris andso even though Napoleon imposed ablockade on Britain in effect it was theBritish Navy was blockading the whole ofEurope and making sure that Napoleoncouldn't get the resources that heneeded so Napoleon um called this it wascalled the continental system and eventhough he was Banning British goods fromEurope in reality all across Europe theywere looking for British manufacturedgoods so Britain continued to tradefreely with nations of Europe so whatwas Napoleon going to do about this CUhe was frustrated that he couldn't sailacross the channel and Conquer Britainand there was one nation that wasflouting the Continental blockade morethan anybody else and it was the RussianEmpireand over there in Moscow um the Zar wasa young man and he wanted Britishmanufactured products and so he actuallyum because he controlled the portsaround here in the Baltic and in in thethe uh the Baltic states there andNorthern Russia so he opened those portsto British ships and he imposed tariffson French products even thoughtheoretically he and the French wereallies so he was undermining Napoleon'sattempts to put Britain under economicblockade so how wasp going to fix thisproblem he decided that if he couldn'tbeat the British he was going to invadeMoscow and take over the RussianEmpire and the Russian Empire stretchedall the way to Vlad vosto 12 time zonesaway it washuge you know America covers four timezones from east coast to West Coast Idon't know how many time zones isAustralia what three time zones two timezones I don't know but the RussianFederation or the Empire covered 12 timezones it still does is vast goes halfwayaround the world and Napoleon decidedthat if he could just knock on the doorsof Moscow that the whole Russian Empirewould collapse just as Adolf Hitlerdecided in 1941 and so Napoleon startedlaying plans and he called up troopsfrom all across Europe and part of thegenius of Napoleon was even though hewas the French Emperor men willinglyfought for him from all across Europebecause of the values he stood for suchas reason and Enlightenment andtechnological progress so men flocked tojoin what he call the Grand Army andthey massed in in the southern balticsright around here ready to invade Moscowand so they they gathered the Army in1812 and he assembled the largest armyever seen in Europe on that time almost700,000 fightingmen plus there were over five50,000 Cooks wives children Merchantsdoctors lawyers and Associated hangerson it was a portable City he it had itsown criminals its own prisons its owncourts its own hospitals and its owncourts of Justice he had over 400,000horses just to pull the caval the cannonand to mount the Cavalry and so allthrough 1811 1812 the armies of Francemassed on the border of of um of Russiaright over here in southern Lithuaniaready to invade a March the 600 miles toMoscow fromhere and there you see some of the majorthere's Battle of Trafalga where theBritish Navy beat the French there's WSLwhere Napoleon Was Defeated these aresome of the M most famous battles ofNapoleon's life but this was the majorcampaign that really destroyed him inthe end it was the march on Moscow andhe wanted to take out Moscow and if hetook Moscow and destroyed the RussianEmpire he would stretch from theAtlantic in the west to the Pacific inthe East it would have been the largestEmpire in world history and he couldhave done it he assembled the largestarmy they had the latest muskets thelatest Cannon he had a massivelogistical system he was led by skilledgenerals and Marshals who would wontheir jobs by by by Merit not by theirancestry um facing them was the ILequipped underfed poorly poorly um LEDarmies of zaris Russia where manysoldiers didn't have any weapons theywere simply cannon fodder on the 24th ofJune 1812 Napoleon gave the order andthe French Grand Army which is actuallymade up of all men from all acrossEurope they marched across the river itwas the river um Neiman uh the southernLithuania here and they marched towardsMoscow and the world expected Napoleonto win within a fewweeks but Napoleon had a problem and hecouldn't see the problem it was a stopit was a problem that was going todefeat his army this was the problemtyphus and so as Napoleon marched Easthe won every battle every time he cameacross the Russians he beat them and heforced them back force them back theproblem for Napoleon was that inside thethe folds of his soldiers uniforms werelice and they couldn't see the lice withtheir eyes Napoleon knew that thedangers of lice existed when he invadedSpain early in his Reign um when he wasbesieging the city of Saragosa um thecity had over 100,000 inhabitants andover 60,000 of them died of typhus inThe Siege there were 20,000 Spanishsoldiers defending that City and over 18,000 of them died of typhus not of anybattle battle disease so Napoleon wasaware that typhus was a killer doctorswere divided on the understanding of thedisease of typhus some argue thatdisease came from an imbalance of thethe the the humors in the body that goesall the way to HP hypocrates hypocrateshow do you say it hypocrates that whoargu that there was black and yellowbile blood and Flem and if you were sickthen you had to leech the body of one ofthose fluids to bring the body back intobalance that goes all the way back to2500 BC that idea many people in thetime of Napoleon many doctors taughtwhat they call mi asmis which is theidea that noxious Vapors emerge from theEarth's core and they they they gatherin swamps and the noxious air infectsthe air of towns and Villages leading toepidemics and so one British sanitaryactivist wrote this he said all smell isdisease now you may think that is trueof teenage boys in their rooms but um hewrote that all smell is disease uh thensome other doctors had the idea in thetime they called it specificity the ideathat people died of diseases that wereuniquely caused because of their uniquephysical status and standing in lifethat everybody has a unique body aunique physiology a unique a uniqueupbringing unique nutritional um um youmight say profile and therefore peopledie of unique diseases that are almosttailored to them and therefore there'snothing you can do aboutdisease other people still taught theidea of contagion the idea that diseasespreads by direct or indirect contactand that the idea of contagion was thefather of modern germ Theory now as ithappened typhus had already been curedbut it was been cured by the BritishNavy in the 1740s an English Navalsurgeon was studying why the Britishwere losing more men to scurvy andtyphus than to battle and he did aseries of scientific experiments and hecame to the conclusion that that theBritish Navy could eliminate scurvy andtyphus from the Navy how do youeliminate scurvy you provide L to thesoldiers lemon juice and that would takecare of scurvy when it came to typhusthey did a series of experiments withnew recruits into the British Navy andthey discovered that if all new recruitswere quarantined for 3 weeks they werebathed and their clothes were destroyedthen if no infection presented itselfonly then were they allowed onto a navalship so the British practiced quarantinebefore they took men into their shipsand they paid serious attention to thesailor's cleanliness to the regularcleaning of their bedding and clothingand this all but eliminated typhus fromthe British Navy now this doctor hisname was Dr Lind he wrote about this buthis insights were not accepted by theFrench military Physicians because hisideas were new and were outside of thedominant medicalnarrative these things history does tendto repeat itself those who say thingsoutside the dominant medical narrativetend to face cancel culture eventoday so what exactly does typhus dowell typhus as a disease it found itsVector in the six-legged common body Lathere's a picture of one there they'renot that big they they're so small youcan barely see it most people can't seethese things the parasite is practicallyinvisible and it actually appears in theBible in the third plague the F thethird plague of Egypt was when Mosesthrew dust in the ground um it it endsup being lice spread across the peopleof Egypt which meant that many of themwould have died a very painful death thedeath of typhus when di when the lightthey feed on an infected human they theysuck up your blood they die after 5 daysbut the disease is transmitted becausewhen the soldiers huddled together forwarmth the lice that were infected thatwas in their clothing their blanketspass from blanket to blanket to feed onanother host human being and so as thesoldiers huddled together in their tentsat night um the the ti the lice passedfrom bedding to bedding to bedding andthen they fed on the next human beingthey could find so the soldiers neversaw this happening but they knew thatsomething terrible was happening now thesymptoms of typhus are simply terrifyingthe patient endures an intense swellingof the brain so this leads tohallucinations it feels like theeyeballs are popping out it leads tostuba andcoma tyus also destroys the vascularsystem of of the body what this means isthat you end up having gang greensspreading all across your body becausethe blood supply can no longer get toyour extremities so you have coma youhave hallucinations you have stuper youhave incredible headaches and you startgetting gang greens spreading acrossyour body um eventually you end uphaving these little red spots all overyour body you see on the screen thereand those spots turn black when theyturn to ganging as the body is literallyrotting around you because you have thisdisease death comes in a multitude ofways it comes to pneumonia it comesbecause the lungs are are literallydrowning in their own blood because thecapillary system has been destroyed itcomes through blood loss internalbleeding comes through dehydr ationheart failure or stroke and it takesanywhere from 5 to 20days so this was as Napoleon wasmarching East to Moscow he didn'trealize but his army was infected bylice and as his army Advanced East hismen were catching and dying of typhuswithin the first week alone he lost over50,000 men totyus and that when they say lost theydidn't just die the man would go downwith fever or collapse into a coma theyjust left him at the side of the road soas they were marching East they werelosing thousands of men almost 10,000men a day just dropping at the side ofthe road as Napoleon marched East helost about 400,000 of his soldiers diedof typhus and other disease and lessthan 100,000 died because they werekilled in battle so typhus was thekiller as Napoleon was marching East ashe came closer to Moscow he fought acouple of battles he was racing againstagainst the Russian winter to get toMoscow he was also racing against typhusbecause every single day he was losingsometimes tens of thousands of men tothis disease and nobody knew how to stopit so as he closed in on Moscow therewas a famous battle in borino just westof Moscow it's the same place that theNazis came to in 1941 the winter wherethey were turned back by the Soviet ArmySoviet armies of Stalin and in Thecrucial moments in the battle umNapoleon didn't have the men to finishoff the Russians his arm had literallydied of typhus on the on the roads to toMoscow so he finally entered Moscow buthis Grand Army was a shadow of herformer strength the Russians left and sohe ordered Moscow to be burnt to theground and he ordered the retreat backtoGermany there was a three-monthnightmare March that followed throughthe Russian winter they were attacked bycacs and vengeful peasants they wereattacked by Cold bitter cold starvationand typhusby the time he got home he was down toabout 20,000men it was so bad that Napoleonabandoned his army and took off in a ina horse and sleigh they took him all theway back to Paris and he left his men todie on the road back from Moscow and thelargest army then assembled in Europewas completely destroyed not by theRussians not by the Russian winter butby an invisible disease called typhuscaused by an invisible parasite thatnobody could seethe greatest General maybe the world haseverseen had been defeated by an invisiblething called typhus more complete thanany Earthly Nation or general could everdo so how does that relate to ustoday sin and typhus are remarkably Simsimilar salvation is the overarchingtheme of the scripture involves eternitypast involves present and it stretchesinto the future and what is God actuallysaving usfrom he's not saving us from typhus he'ssaving us from another deadly diseasecalled sin and there are many parallelsbetween typhus and sin both typhus andsin are invisible to the human eye bothtyphus and sin seek a human toinfect both typhus and sin lead tohorrendous symptoms up to and includingdeath both typhus and sin Journey withus on the march of life and both canseverely impede if not destroy theforward progress of Our Livesboth sin and typhus hold sway over thepoorest beggar to the most powerfulGeneral in human history no matter howproud a man is or how powerful his armymay be no man can rebuke the power ofsin or rebuke the power oftyphus typhus is might you might say isa metaphor for sin and sin has impactedevery human being that ever lived justas Napoleon's great Army was destroyedby the scourge of typhus because thewages of sin is death we all live withthe impact of sin in our lives we alllive with the impact of sin in ourmarriages we live with the impact of sinin our bodies our homes our Societies inour world we may pretend in our youththat we are Immortal and Invincible butin the end father time and mother natureassert their power over us and we cannotescape the reality of sin in this worldso to understand the nature of Salvationwe need to talk about what sin really isand sin you can understand it there's apassage here on the screen a very famousverse 1 John 3:4 it says whosoevercommitteth sin transgresseth also thelaw for sin is the transgression of thelaw so which law is John talking abouthere the law of God you might say themoral law the decalogue the tencommandments so sin is the breaking ofthe law and uh in it's not just thebreaking of the law in terms of yourphysical acts in The Sermon on the Mountwhen Jesus said you've heard it saidthat you shall not look upon a womanwith lust but you should not you shouldnot commit adultery but I say if youlook upon a woman with lust in yourheart you've already committed adulterywith her so Jesus extends the law notjust from what you do to the thoughts ofyour heart mind that if you're alreadythinking that way you've already brokenthe law of God so you can be outwardlycompliant with the law of God butinwardly you're a rottenSinner and so sin is a transgression ofthe law another definition of sin in thescripture is in Romans14:23 and it says he that douth isdamned if he eat because he eateth notof Faith then there's an importantprinciple here for whatsoever is not offaith is what is sin so whatsoever isnot of faith is sin so it's not justthat sin is the breaking of the law ofGod sin is also when you engage inactivities that you are not convincedthat God really wants you to bedoing so the Bible doesn't say anythingabout buying aFerrariokay so you could argue that buying aFerrari is not a sin I've got noproblems with Ferraris just so youknow but you need to be convinced it'sGod's will for you to spend half amillion dollar on a car when you havehomeless in your ownCity it's hard to convince yourself thatit is God's will you spend all thatmoney on that vehicle when the homelessare sleeping outside yourdoors and so what's what whatever doesnot proceed from faith that is faith inChrist and faith in what he would haveyou do as a living Christian embodyinghis character in a world of Sorrowanything that does not proceed fromfaith is sin in that case so mandates inthe last fouryears that in many case it wasn't justyou were you were forced to take theshots you were forced intosin because it did not proceed fromFaith you did not positively believe itwas God's will for you to do this somandates were actually leading peopleinto sin then you have anotherdefinition here this is the teachings ofJesus in Matthew 7:21-23 and Jesus saysthis he said many will say to me thatday Lord Lord have we not prophesied inthy name and in thy name cast out devilsand in thy name done many wonderfulworks and then I will profess unto themI never knew you depart from me ye thatworkiniquity and so Jesus says that you mayhave lived a visible Christian Life youmay even be engaged in a powerfulMinistry for me looks like it but Jesuswill say I never knew you and he saysdepart from me ye that work iniquity andput the word iniquity in red therebecause it's an interesting word thatJesus used he uses the word anomia thereand nomos means law a means without soanomia literally means you that arewithout thelaw so this means that if you if youlive without the law of God in your lifeyou do not know JesusChrist that the that obedience to thelaw of God lead you to A Closer WalkWith Jesus Christ and turning your backon the law of God takes you away fromJesus Christ Christ so we tend to thinkof Jesus as being full of grace andtruth that is true in in in John'sgospel but in this passage here Jesusmakes a link between knowing him andkeeping his law and so that wordiniquity is not the word sin that youfind there in the Greek it's the wordlawlessness those who reject the law ofGod so if you are living a life that isturning us back on the law of God youactually turning you back on JesusChrist and so when we uphold the law ofGod in our lives we're upholding thesovereignty of Jesus Christ and as we aswe as we obey the law of God so we cometo know the character of God more andmore fully and more and more Faithfullyso you have these various understandingsof sin in thescripture and so sin is the breaking ofthe law of God it is failure to act infaith that what you're doing or notdoing is God's Will and it is alsodenying or living without the law of Godin your life it's essentially saying umwe will not have this man to rule overus which we find in in Luke's gospelthereso we can understand sin in threedifferent ways one is sin is adeed what do I mean by this at a surfacelevel the most immediate way in whichsin manifests itself is through Deeds orthroughmisdeeds like you hit somebody you lieto somebody you commit adultery youbreak the speed limit you tell a whitelie about someone you're half truth youum you steal from them or you slanderthem the these are all obvious sins thatwe're very aware of and uh we try ourbest to avoid these things now accordingto Isaiah 64 and: 6 even our righteousDeeds are like filthyracks and the the phrase that is usedthere in the Hebrew um it suggests Umaybe that a better English translationwould be like like like usedtampons like if you think of a usedtampon how disgusting that is that's howdisgusting to God our righteous Deedsare in his eyes that our best Deeds fallfar short of what God is asking of usRomans 3 9-18 emphasizes the univers theuniversality of our sin problem and itconcludes with these words for all havesinned and come short of the glory ofGod so this is a universal problem andwe all at times in our lives engage insin as a deed or a misdeed and we allknow that'strue now I have a delightful brothertwin brother and you know we used to wewere best of friends but we'd fight likecats and dogsand um there was a time we went to acamp meeting and we were raisedrationing had just finished England whenwe were being raised and so um we'd goto camp meeting and they'd have allthese stands with this like samplesthere and we just we go from desk tableto table taking all the samples cuz wenever got s such stuff as this at homeyou know we would um whenever we had aSabbath meal then would have one Pat ofbutter for the week the rest of the weekwe were on mangerine but on Sabbath wehad butter and sowe go to these samples and I rememberonce um I I saw this bar of of carabchocolate and I was tempted by this barof carab chocolate so um I decided toliberate it from this cruel man who wasselling it and um anyway he suspectedthat it was me so he came after myfather and my father tracked me downwith my twin brother and um and he saysdo you have it I saidno and he said to my twin brother hesays do you have it he says no butConrad does have it and uh my fathersays where is it and so my my twinbrother in a in in a wonderful act hewent and showed where I'd hidden thisTreasure of carob chocolate and uh formy pain I was given six smacks acrossthe hand with a wooden spoon and mybrother received the carab bar free ofcharge and I was so so upset with him umbut the fact of the matter is from ayoung age we all sin we engage in sin asmisdeeds and sometimes it's deliberatesometimes it just happens it justhappens sometimes words come out thatyou never intended for them to say thewords sometimes words come out think whydid I just say that sometimes youinstinctively do something or you lookto something or you you find yourselfgoing somewhere and think why am I doingthis so each one of us struggles withthe reality that sin is a deed or amisdeed and what is the cure for sinwhen he is viewed as a deed or amisdeed well the answer to that is whensin is considered as an act ofwrongdoing we are called upon to confessour sins that is to honestly recognizebefore God I have sinned here I'vemessed up we're called to repent of oursins which means I'm walking in OneDirection I turn around and I'm going towalk in the opposite direction so weconfess our sins we repent of our sinswe are baptized where God washes awaythe guilt of all the sins of our pastand we receive the righteousness ofChrist by faithand this is known as some people call itjustification it's being declaredrighteous by God not because of who weare because of who Jesus is and what hedid for us on Calvary and so thisunderstanding of sin is very much at asurface level so for sin as a deed andmaybe you're struggling with sin as adeed in your life today we're called torecognize a fresh pray Heavenly Fathereven tonight by our beds that we aresinners in need of Salvation that todayeach one of us has committed a physicalsin and in confessing our sins beforeGod we receive the promise offorgiveness that is only possiblethrough the spilled blood of blood ofJesus Christ so I want to encourage youtonight um and you say your eveningprayers confess your sins toGod be honest with God confession reallyis good for the soul when you givethings over to God it's amazing thepeace that he puts into your heartknowing that you're going to bed as aforgiven sinner is a whole lot easierthan going to bed as a guilty sinneryou're no longer going to be kept awakeby guilt and what ifs and could have andshould ofes and maybe I should have donethat differently no I've discovered inlife that going to bed and uhPhilippians 4 actually have your Biblesthere Philippians 4: 6 there a beautifulpromise and it's one that I claim on anightly Bas nightly basis before I go tobed Philippians 46-7 this is a letter from prison writtenby Paul sitting in a Roman prison inRome and in Romans chapter 4 6-7 Paulsays this he says be careful for nothingbut in everything by prayer andsupplication with Thanksgiving let yourrequests be made known unto God and thepeace of God which passeth allunderstanding shall keep your hearts andMinds through ChristJesus so if you want the peace of God inyour life tonight when you go to yourbed bow down and confess your sinsbefore God and he who is he who isfaithful and just will forgive us andcleanse us of our unrighteousness thatis his promise to us tonight andtherefore you can sleep you may tomorrowlive with the consequences of your sinsbut at least you're morally clear of theguilt of thosesins and for many people the biggestburden they carry in life is not thetaxation burden it's the burden of guiltand shame in their from their past soclear your accounts with the Lordtonight confess those sins before Godrecog ize that we are sinners in need ofSalvation and forgiveness and thatpromise of Philippians 4 6-7 that thepeace of God that pass with all humanunderstanding will fill your hearts andyour minds in Christ Jesus that promisewill come true for you so that's when welook at sin at the surface level as deedbut if you go a bit deeper than that sinis actually an inner depravity it's notjust something that you do like breakingthe speed limit or taking a bar of carobchocolate as I did in my youth and umsin is much deeper than that sin is apollution of the human heart and we callthat a depravity it sin may end or bemanifest in physical actions or misdeedsbut it actually begins in theinclinations of a fallen heart andthat's where all sin begins scripturetestifies that sin is a perversion ofthe person's heart a perversion of ourmoral nature and of our innermost beingwe are basically fatally polluted lookat it this way if you if a if an oiltanker runs a Shore off the coast of newZealand can the shore clean itself up noso a polluted Shoreline needs anexternal person to come in to clean upthe mess and our hearts are like apolluted Coastline somebody must comeand clean up the mess or that pollutedCoastline will slowly but surely die ofthe pollution that's come its way so ourhearts are essentially like a pollutedCoastline in desperate need of someoneto come and clean the mess up it goesback to Genesis 6 and verse 5this talks about the pollution of thehuman heart says God saw that thewickedness of man was great in the earththose his sins as Deeds or his misdeedsthen it says him that every imaginationof the thoughts of his heart was onlywhat continually evil so in this versehere you have the wickedness of man wasgreat those are the Deeds men arecommitting acts of violence and murderand adultery and all the rest of it butbeneath that God sees that everyimagination of the thought of his heartwas only evil continually this this isthe inner depravity of the Fallencondition that even if I don't engage ininner Deeds if if I sit in my bedroomall day and try and keep my mindempty I'm still guilty of of innerdepravity I'm my heart is still pollutedand that given half a chance that innerpollution will Express itself in outerDeeds ofsin and so we we not only have outer sinDeeds but we have sin as an innerdepravity this is something that affectseach one one of ustoday and if you don't believe me if allyour thoughts were broadcast to thenation on theinternet would you have many friends forverylong if your thoughts were broadcast inTime Square on the ticket tape there andsay like this is um Peter hickey fromNew Zealand these are his thoughtscontinually people would be scandalizedlike who is this monster from NewZealand you know maybe maybe not Peteryes I don't know but the the fact of thematter is every inclination of theirhearts was only evil continually andwhen we understand sin as an innerdepravity the solution is notnecessarily confession of sin andturning away from sin what is needed issomething much more deeper much deeperyet what we need is a change ofheart what we need in the scripture is anew heart and a new spirit the psalmistput it this way Psalm 51:10 he saidcreate in me a clean heart oh God Godand renew a right Spirit within me and Ilike this passage here this is fromDavid's Psalm he wrote after the prophetNathan confronts him over his adulterywith bath Shebaand uh In this passage here David talksabout the the fact that um he cannotknowhimself and he asking Gods to do whatonly God can do and what only God can dois to create a clean heart and the rightSpirit within you you can't get throughto this state through cognitivebehavioral therapy or Psychotherapy ormusical art therapy no that just enablesyou to cover up the inner depravity muchmoreeffectively what God pro what God offersus today is this promise of a cleanheart and a right spirit so the innerdepravity is actually washed away andthat polluted Shoreline covered in crudeoil all the crude oil is is removed umby God himself and we back to ourpristine condition and this is thepromise that comes in the New Covenantwith Jesus Christ Jesus promises tosupply this this new heart for us in theNew Covenant experience we read aboutthat in Ezekiel 36:26 it's God promisedto each one of us here tonight says anew heart also I will give you and a newspirit will I put within you and I'lltake away the Stony heart out of yourflesh and I'll give you a heart of Fleshso God will take away this Heart ofStone a heart that's implacableand is is happy to inflict pain on otherpeople and God is going to give us aheart of Flesh that is we're sensitiveto the pain that we cause other peopleand we shy away fromit God has the ability to Pro to performDivine heart surgery and remove thisinner depravity and this is not theprocess of justification that's theprocess of dealing with sin as a deedthe process we're talking about now issanctification where God changes youfrom the inside out this is the work ofa lifetime we read in the writings ofsister white it's a progressive processand day by day as we draw closer toJesus so there is less of us and more ofChrist in our character and some peoplehave a dramatic conversion experiencethat leads to justification but the workof sanctification takes you the rest ofyourlife and it's something to be soughtafter because for as long as I have thatinner depravity I am a source of pain tothose around me and a source of pain tomyself and so I'm escaping theconsequences and the results the impactof sin as I draw closer to Jesus Christeven in this life that is the process ofheart regeneration of heart conversionor Progressivesanctification it means coming closer toknow the love of God and every dayseeking to perform the will of God it isseeking more and more that God's will bedone in my life as it is in heaven ra asas it is in heaven so when we pray theLord's Prayer and we say thy will bedone in heaven as it is on Earth whatparts of Earth do you have any controlover it's your ownlife so I can't I can't influence whathappens to the prime minister of NewZealand or the president of America Ihave no influence over those individualsbut when I pray thy will be done onEarth as it is in heaven I'm asking thatthe only place where I have any controlor any influence is my own life I'masking that God's will be Supreme in mylife today not my will that notselfishness selfishness is no longer onthe throne of my heart butselflessness that self that I myself notsitting on the throne of my heart butChrist is sitting on the throne of myheart and that rather than umselfishness there is a gape love flowingout of my heart and so this is theprocess of heart regeneration andProgressive sanctification it's theprocess of becoming ever more holy asGod himself is Holy but sin is deeperyet than this so sin is a deed and thesolution for sin is a deed is confessionand repentance and we receive umjustification we're declared righteousand innocent by God at a deeper levelsin is an inner depravity which is apollution of the human heart where everyinclination of your heart is only evilcontinually and if you look at our worldtoday todaytoday today sorry I have jet lag I Iremember I said the word today fourtimes now if you look at our world todayunder cover of Darkness do men naturallygravitate towards Holiness or do theynaturally gravitate towards evil evilevil when you fly over the cities of ourworld today if you fly into sayNairobi where there's millions of peopleliving in these Shantytowns and the average age for girls tobecome sexually active is about 10 or 11you look down and in the the glossymagazine in the plane says you know allabout the Kenyan culture and all therest of it and you look at look down yousee the lights down there and you wonderhow much suffering is going on downthere that the thoughts of men are onlyevil continually unless they have aSanctified heart and so we have sin'sdeed the solution is is justificationand forgiveness sin is depravity thesolution is the creation of a new heartand the process of inner sanctificationbut at a deeper level yet sin is notjust deed is not just depravity sin is adespotic power that rules overus and this is why you hear peoplesaying things like I don't know what Iwas thinking of or I find myself doingthese things or I don't seem to have anycontrol over itand the things I want to do I don't doand things I don't want to do I keepfinding myself doing and how am I goingto escape from this life of sin sinseems to have this this grip over us andpsychologists make all these compulsiveeating compulsive gambling compulsivedrinking disorders in reality they'retrying to provide a non-spiritualterminology to a reality that is trulyspiritual which is that sin is a forcethat has dominion over our lives andthat is sin as a death spot so sin is adeed sin is a depra gra ity sin is aninner despot that rules over us and ifyou want to read this more fully tonightread through Romans chapters 5-8 andyou'll see there that sinful actions arethe product of living under the rule ofan evil and enslaving power known as Sinin Romans chapter 5 12-15 sin isportrayed as a king or Lord thatexercises dominion over us unto deathand with the purpose of seeing us deadin Romans 66 and 16-18 sin is portrayedas a harsh Taskmaster that holds Us inslavery and then pays us the wages ofdeath for the wages of sin is death inRomans chapter 7 sin is a despot it'slike it lies in Ambush for us it liesdormant and then it Springs into lifethe most unexpected moments in our livesstirring sinful passions into action andsin as a despot stands opposed to Godand in Romans 8:3 stands condemned byGod so sin is not just a deed and it'snot just inner depravity it's like thisforce that rules in the world that seeksto destroy us every opportunity it canget and you find this with people withaddictive behaviors you find this peoplewith with compulsive disorders you findthis with people who find themselvesdoing things they don't want to do doyou know how many people maybe every daya man writes to me and says I'm watchingporn I hate it it doesn't bring me anyJoy how do I find Freedom from pornalmost every day I get that that letterfrom some guy around the world it's likea Scourge in modern Christianityit's an absolute Scourge and men they Fthey do these things and women as wellincreasingly and men they do thesethings and they get no pleasure from itit has to get worse and worse and worseto get the same you know um dopamineresults and eventually you end up insome really dark places like pedo sadismthe rape and murder ofinfants and this happens because sin isa death spot and it has a grip over usand some men I mean I deal mostly withmen men that they feel they're in thegrip of this power that has this toalcontrol of them whether it's alcoholwhether it's porn whether it's drugswhether it's gambling they're in thegrip of this force that will not letthemgo and they need to know that there isthe love of God that will never let themgo as well that there's a there'snothing can separate us at the end ofthis passage you find in Romans 8 thatthere's nothing will separate us fromthe love of God and so whereas we westruggle with this sin as a despoticforce that rules us and destroys ourlives and we engage in destructivebehaviors knowing that they destructivebut we don't seem to have the willowerto get out ofthem this is the reality of sin as adespot to speak of sin as apower expresses the Paradox that sin issomething we do that sin is a deed yetit actually predes our doing in sinningyes it is we who sin and we are guiltyof sin but we're also acting under thedespotic power of sin that actuallycontrols us so if the cure for sin is asa as deed is confession and repentancethat's justification and if the cure forsin as depravity is sanctification andthe promise of a new heart what is thecure for sin as a despotic force thatrules in our livestoday there's justification there issanctification all this is the work ofthe Holy Spirit but there's somethingelse that God offers us in the scriptureand it is this what is needed to get ridof the sin as a death spot in our livesis to exchange the lordship of our lifefrom that of sin to the lordship ofJesus Christ it is only under thelordship of Jesus Christ there isfreedom from our slavery to sin andwhereas as we've said before the wagesof sin is death because sin is a desspot and it's seeking to destroy you butthe gift of God is eternal life throughJesus Christ Our Lord the wages of sinis death it doesn't say the wages ofGod so as you sin you are earning yourEternaldeath but God says you can't fixyourself but through the gift of GraceI'm offering you eternal life throughJesus Christ Our Lord It's a free giftto Sinners who are struggling under thedespotic rule of this force that we callSin so for sin as an inner depravitywe're asking God to be the Lord Of OurLives we like to we like to think ofJesus as Savior Jesus saved me from theconsequences of my sin Jesus saves mefrom the guilt of my sin Jesus died onCalvary to pay the physical penalty formy sin Jesus is coming again to save mefrom this world of sin we love talkingabout Jesus as Savior but how often dowe talk about Jesus as Lord of my lifehe is both Savior and Lord if we are toescape the rule of sin in our lives asdespotic power we need to embrace thelordship of Jesus Christ in our livestonight that means asking ourselves whatis the will of Jesus for me in thismoment what is his teaching in thismatter how how often do we read thegospels and how how how often do wethink about the actual teachings ofJesus um we we we know the stories inthe gospels but the reality is Jesuscommanded those 11 disciples in thegospel commission to teach all men toobey all things that I've commanded youso it's important for Jesus that we knowMatthew Mark Luke and John and histeachings it's important for Jesus thatwe put these into practice in our livesso if we're not sure what to do we lookfor the teachings of Christ and we putthem into practice in our lives and ifwe do that on a daily basis Our Livescome into harmony with his will and ourlives start to express the lordship ofJesusChrist are you following onthis it's not just asking Jesus to be mysavior we're asking Jesus to be and oursavior often as Adventists we push itoff when he comes again but to be Lordof my life meaning I'm asking him to beLord of my life right now and thedecisions I am making while I'm at campmeeting and the decisions that I've putoff until I get home when I get home I'mgoing to face a business decision afamily decision I financial decision ahealth decision I'm going to surrenderthose decisions to the lordship of JesusChrist and I'm going to wait on him toreveal his will to me in those decisionsI'm not just going to push ahead with mydecisions I'm going to wait on the Lorduntil God Reveals His will for me andthen I know that I'm following hislordship in mylife and so if you're struggling tonightwith sin as a deathspot maybe you are addicted topornography orgambling maybe you're addicted to gossipor romantic novels I don't know and youfind it hard to escape from that thegood news of the Gospel as we go back tothe early verse we covered a few minutesago God promises to he says a new heartwill I give you a new spirit will I putwithin you I'll take away the Stonyheart out of your flesh and I'll giveyou a heart of Flesh that God promisesto give us a new heart God promises totake away the lordship of sin thedespotic power of sin if we accept thelordship of Jesus Christ in our livestoday so if we're dealing with sin asdeath spot tonight we're asking God torule in our lives from now on ratherthan sin we're affirming our heartfeltdesire to live under the lordship ofJesus Christ to be slaves ofrighteousness rather than slaves to sinwe're asking that we will no longer liveunder the death dealing despotism of sinand as slaves to righteousness we lookforward to eternal life rather thanEternal death that comes to the slavesof sin when Jesus if you turn yourBibles I don't think I have this texthere oh maybe I do yes there itis when Jesus comes to doubting Thomasafter he's resurrected from the dead andThomas says and I won't believe unless Itouch his side and put my finger intohis my finger into the scars on his bodyand on the side of his and his hands itsays Jesus comes to Thomas and thensaith he to Thomas reach hither thyfinger and behold my hands and reachhither thy hand and thrust it into myside and be not faithless but believingand Thomas answered and said unto him myLord and myGod and in that moment Thomas doubtingThomas was accepting not just faith inJesus as his savior he was acceptingfaith in Jesus as hisLord he was accepting the lordship ofJesus Christ I want you to ask just tojust think for yourself this eveningwhat really governs your lifetoday is it are you governed by a desireto be well thought of in the church isthat what drives youractions are you governed by a desire forpublicApplause are you governed by a desire tomake moremoney some people are are you governedby the pursuit of pleasure andentertainment or are you governed byJesus Christ is his will Supreme in yourlife and if you want to know whether hiswill is supreme in your life askyourself this simple question are youconsciously seeking to know the will ofJesus on a dailybasis you know we've we have all mannerof books as Adventists we haveincredible daily devotionals and allkinds of things yes but how often do weactually read the teachings of Jesus inthe morning and say Lord give me thegrace and the wisdom to put this intopracticetoday that's what it means to accept thelordship of Jesus into your life we are7th the Adventist yes but we are sthAdventist Disciples of Jesus that meanswe follow himthe rabbis had a saying they said maymay I F may my following of my Rabbi beso close that I'm covered from with thedust from hisshoes and some of us have a distantrelationship with Jesus we know abouthim we've heard about him but we reallydon't know what he said or taught I'mencouraging you tonight to start readingthe gospels every day one smallpassage blessed are those who mourn forthey shall be comforted blessed arethose who hunger and thirst afterrighteousness for they shall be filledblessed are the peacemakers for theyshall be called children of God blessedare the pure in heart for they shall seeGod and so forth and so forth read justone sentence of Jesus on a daily basisand ask God for the wisdom to put itintopractice and you will find that as yougo through the day you'll face decisionsand moments where that teaching of Jesusdirectly impacts what you're about to doand then you have to make a choice am Igoing to following the teachings and thecommandments of Jesus or am I going tofollow my Fallen sinful desires am Igoing to be under his lordship or am Igoing to remain under the the thedespotic power of sin so there are threekinds of sin you might decide you mightsay the sin is deed sin is depravity andsin as a despotic power and the cure foreach one is different confession andrepentance um the process ofsanctification asking for a new heartand finally asking Jesus to be the Lordof your life and not just savior of yourlife tomorrow so we come back to thebeginning and this is actually where wewere this morning in our morning talkwhen we spoke about I forget what did wespeak about this morning it was a longtime ago and we spoke I know we spokeabout this thismorning thank you thank you yes yeah wespoke about death yes and what happenswhen you die and we spoke about thispassage here and the Lord God formed manof the Dust of the ground and breathedinto his nostrils the breath of life andMan became a livingSoul this is uh a famous Passageif we look at Colossians 1:16 by him allthings were created Bas look at John1:3 this is this we read from Colossians1:16 and John 1:3 that the Lord God hereis talking about Jesus Christ himself asour creator that it was Jesus wasinvolved in the garden he was making usmolding us from the clay and the dust ofthe Garden of Eden and it is true it isa true thing that we are fearfully andwonderfully madeyes may the human body is one of themost complex organisms is known tohumanity there's nothing beats thecomplexity of the human body when theytalk about the simple cell there aremore moving Parts in a simple cell thanthere are New York City billions andbillions of moving Parts the complexityof the human being is incredible and thefact of the matter is we never have toworry about whether our digestion systemis working or our endocrine system isworking we just assume it's going toit's going to work it just runs on itsown we think about a we think about apercentage a fraction of a fraction of afraction of a percentage is what we'reactually thinking about up here but thebody is like a factory that'scontinually regulating and managingitself and we give no conscious thoughtto that other than what we're going tofuel itwith so we are fearfully and wonderfullymade and In this passage here the LordGod formed man of the Dust of theground and then before we go to the nextphrase Jesus looks down at that lifelessbody ofAdam wonder what he thought in thatmomentthose hands that he was about to breathethe breath of life into would be capableof Deeds of greatkindness those feet will be designed towalk long distances to serve others orto carry the burdens of others thattongue was designed to sing the PraisesofGod those eyes were designed to shinewith the love of God the heart wasdesigned to Delight in the law and willofGod but on the other handbefore he breathed in the breath of lifeand Adam became a living being Jesusalso knew that those feet would not justcarry the burdens of others but theywould kick others when they were down heknew that those hands would one day liftStones axes and they would murder othershe knew that those eyes would one day nolonger shine with the love of God but befilled with the hatred ofdemons and they would be consumed bylust he knew the tongue that he wasabout to create would no longer sing thePraises of God but he engage in forfalsehood and lies he knew that thoseears would close out the voice ofconscience one day he knew that thisbrain he was about to create would bewould Delight to dwell on then becomeaddicted to things of evil and things ofSatan he knew that his heart of Flesh hewas about to create Would One Day becomea Heart of Stone he knew that he says heformed man of the Dust of the ground butbefore he breathed into his nostrils theBreath of Life Christ knew this andbeyond that he knew that one day thosefeet would kick him he knew that one daythose hands would use a hammer to beat anail through his own hands he knew thatone day that tongue that designed tosing praises to God would cry crucifycrucify he knew that one day those eyeswould look upon him in merciless hatredlooking daggers at him he knew thatthose ears would one day be closed tohis offer of Mercy he knew that thosehearts would one day be as hard as Stoneto the pleadings of his holyspirit all this he knew and he knew ashe looked at the body of Adam lying inthe Garden of Eden before he breathedinto him the breath of life he knew thatone day he would also inhabit a humanbody as lifeless as the one before himhe knew that he was the lamb slain fromthe foundation of theworld and if that were so if he was tobreathe the breath of life into thatbody of Adam in front of him one day hewould also be lifeless in a stone coldtomb so should he breathe in the Breathof Life or not knowing the consequencesof what he was about todo it's a big choice and what would youhavedone knowing what was about to happenwould you breathe into Adam the BreathofLife well Jesus he bends down hebreathed into Adam's nostrils the Breathof Life Man became a living being or aliving soul and in so doing Jesus gavehimself the kiss of death he knew whathe was doing the Bible describes it thisway greater love hath no man than thisthat a man lay down his life for hisfriends or we know love by this that helaid down his life for us 1 John3:16 so when Jesus bent down andbreathed into Adam the breath oflife he was also taking responsibilityfor fixing the problems that would ensuefrom thatcreation he breathed into Adam thebreath of life knowing that he was goingto have to pay a terrible price forbreathing into that body the the breathof life he was willing to pay that priceand he did pay that price he didn't justcreate us and walk away from us in ourmess he took responsibility for creatingus and he takes responsibility forrecreating us and he makes that possibleby by exchanging places with that deadbody of Adam I'll give Adam the breathof life and in exchange the children ofAdam will killme and so Jesus Takes responsibility notjust for our creation we celebrate himas as the Creator on in the Sabbath daybut he also takes responsibility for ourRecreation those are the things we'vebeen talking abouttonight and so I don't believe Jesus hadany second thoughts when he breathedinto Adam the breath of life he knewwhat he was doing he was acting out oflove I want to challenge you tonightthat you should have no second thoughtsin affirming Jesus as Lord of your lifeas the resurrection and the life as thetruth and the life as the way as theking of kings and Lord of lords as wesang in our hymn as we started ourprogram tonight not just of Lord ofHistory not just as the Lord ofChristian history but as the Lord of mylife tonight and the Lord of yourlife you can either be a slave to sinand the wages of sin is death or you'rea slave to righteousness therighteousness of Christ and you receivethe gift of eternal life it's a choicewe all have to make on the daily basisso if sin if you're struggling tonightwith sin as a deed when you go to yourroom tonight bow beside your bed andconfess that sin before God and claimthe the promise of full forgiveness ifyou're struggling tonight with sin as aninnerdepravity and every thought of yourheart is only evil continually andyou're consumed with lust or fear orbitterness or rage or anger whatever thecase may be ask Jesus tonight to giveyou a new heart and take away that Heartof Stone and if you're strugglingtonight with sin as a despotic force inyour life as a dictator that dictatesall you do and you find yourself thingdoing things you don't want to do andyou hate yourself forit then tonight you can ask Jesus notjust to be your savior but to be theLord of your life and say Lord May everydecision I make May every move I makeevery breath I take as a single oncesang be an expression of your will andin order to know your will from tonighton I'm going to read part of the gospelsevery single day and I'm going to knowthe teachings of Jesus Christ and whenpeople see me they're going to see aliving breathing expression of theteachings of the savior ofhumanity do people see Jesus in you ifyou're not following his teachingsthey're not going to see him inyou so put his teachings into practiceand as you put them into practice yourlife will change day by day it willchange in incredible ways and he has anincredible power to heal us I justconclude with a part of my personaltestimony when I went to America in 202007 I was very angry about somethingand anger if you don't deal with it in ain a positive way it leads to it leadsto physiological problems like cancerand heart disease but it also leads topsychological problems like like chronicdepression and anger when it'sinternalized and it's not dealt with youcan end up with depression and wonderwhy am I so depressed and the problem isnot to take anti-depressants it's theproblem is to deal with the underlyingcause which is unresolved anger and Ihad this problem with unresolved angerand I was I went into a deep depressionfor 2 years and I was I was preaching Ihad a lot of baptisms and I wasempty and I was physically present athome but I was emotionally absent justdistant and some of you battledepression know what that feels like andit's like a wet blanket that just hangsover you night and day and after a whilethat depression becomes part of youridentity and then you start to justifyyour poor Behavior towards othersbecause you've got this depression itbecomes an excuse for your poor Behaviornot just something you want to get ridof and after a while you using it toexcuse your PO Behavior so much that youhave to ask yourself do I really want toget rid of this ornot so what did I do about this well Ihad turned to the Lord for help I said Idon't want to take medications I meanmaybe they help I'm not against thatkind of stuff but I didn't want to takeit and so I started reading the Psalmsevery day one verse every morning I'dasked myself three simple questions whatdoes this verse tell me about God whatdoes this verse tell me about myselfwhat does God ask me of me in this verseand every day I I wanted to find a versethat said I will strike down yourenemies with genital herpes and leprosyand I never found thatverse I never found that verse whathappened was every day if felt I waslooking in the mirror and it was reallyclose up and God was revealing to me theblemishes of my own heart and my angerat others God drained that anger so Irealized that I really am a faultyimperfect human being and I contributedto that situation as much as anybodyelse and uh In Minnesota where I used tolive at the time you the snow pack isreally deep you can you know when youshovel the snow from October to Aprilbeside the beside your house it can belike 6 ft High a wall of ice when youdrive your car in the morning you kindof slide out of the driveway and youslide into the wall of ice and you canright off your car in that moment it'sawful there's these walls of ice aroundyou and um what happens is uh the Sunappears in Minnesota in about April umSpringtime and you got the you got thisthis ice pack everywhere and sometimesit's like 2 feet 3et 4T deep and and theice the snow starts to melt but snowmelts from the ground doesn't melt fromthe top so when when the Sun starts toshine in Minnesota spring there in thenorthern part of America um the the thetop part of the snow doesn't appear anydifferent just it's just sitting thereit doesn't see appear to change at allfrom day to day what's happening is ifyou to do a cross-section the the snowis melting at thebottom and so bit by bit the snow packis slowly sinking slowly sinking slowlysinking all imperceptibly on a databasis but every other week you notice ohthe snow's gone down a bit it's slowlygoing it's slowly going and it's slowlygoing and it's a mercy that God meltsthe snow so slowly because if all thatsnow were to melt overnight then all therivers down the Mississippi all thosetowns will be flooded the next day withthe surge of water so the fact that Godmelts the ice slowly and the snow slowlythrough the April um the spring Sunshineis an act of Mercy to all the peopledown the Mississippi otherwise theirtowns get just washed away by thefloods and so slowly slowly slowly Godmelts away the snow and one day you getup in about miday and you see grass andthe temperature feels really warm it'slike risen to freezing you know it'slike like when when the temperature is-40 C and it rises to Plus 32 which isfreezing in Fahrenheit um it feels likea heat wave you at home right now it's -16 CS my wife she wrote to me today andshe had a picture of all the snow andsaid when are you going to come back andshovel it and so I'm kind of feelingguilty about that but um the snow meltsand one day the snow disappears and yousee the green grass underneath it a newlifeappears and the fact that the snow ismelting slowly is an act of Mercy fromGod and when God melted away thedepression I was experiencing throughfeeding on his word it was atransformational experience and bit bybit bit by bit bit by bit he melted awayone day I got up and the Depression wasgone and I felt wait wait wait thatsomething's wrong where's my depressionGone So and I've lived with it for twoyears so I tried re replay my mind whatcaused the depression what led todepression now why why aren't thefeelings of depression come back nowwait they've gone where have they goneI've been asking God to heal me and yeshe's healed me and God healed me in a ina pace that I could actually cope withand in the process of of the slowprocess of healing he was bringing to memy need of confession and repentance andReconciliation when I just wanted him togive them a terrible disease and so inthe process of healing me he actuallychanged my heart and he healed me withthat the scourge of depression so when Icame out of it I was a changed man avery very much a changed man and I Ilook back on that process I'm not happythat I went through it but I'm gratefulto God that I did I'm grateful to Godthat he did this the son ofrighteousness Rises with healing in hiswings and when the sun bathes the snowin Minnesota every day you don't see thechange every day but as long as the sunbathes the snow every day slowly butsurely the ice pack is meltingaway and when the sun of righteousnessRises with healing in your life and youfeed on the teachings of Jesus on adaily basis you find he starts to bringhealing into your life as well and hestarts to heal you of the the sins thebesetting sins sin is a deed sin is adeath spots in his depravity he startsto heal your relationships with otherpeople he starts to heal yourrelationship with yourself and he healsyour relationship with your heavenlyfather so if there's one takeaway fortonight that we all face a deadlydisease that will destroy us if we don'tdeal with it Napoleon faced typhus andit destroyed the greatest Army Europehad ever yet seen and he was driven backfrom Moscow through the disease oftyphus and lice and he was never thesame again he was deposed soonthereafter from his position as the theFrench Emperor we also battle aninvisible disease and that's not typhusit's coursesin but the son ofrighteousness when he shines in yourlife with healing in his wings he canmelt away the impact of sin he can meltaway the power of sin he can melt awaythe guilt of sin and enable you to livethe kind of life with the abundance oflife that only he can give so fromtonight onwards I want to challenge youread the teachings of Jesus and put theminto practice every single day no matterwhat else you read read a teaching ofJesus and ask God for the wisdom andGrace to apply it tomorrow day after dayafter day and eventually people will seeJesus in you and your character the sonof righteousness will melt away the theice on your hearts and melt away theproblems and the pains and the guilt ofthe past and one day you'll see FreshLife coming up underneath it and only hecan do it and he will heal you in histime in his way in his Pace in a waythat you will understand and some peoplewill be healed overnight and some peopletake 20 years but that's his problemit's not myproblem our job is to place ourselves athis feet to learn of him to take hisyoke upon us and to uh to walk throughlife life side by side with our Lord andsavior so tonight I want to encourageyou make Jesus Lord of your life notjust the Savior and see what he can dofor you let's bow our heads for a wordof prayer dear heavenly father I thankyou for your mercy and your goodness tous I thank you Father that you don'tgive up on us and tonight father eventhough we don't have any snowoutside uh the chances are we've gotscars on ourhearts we've got weed s and Barnacles onthe undersides of OurLives sometimes Lord our hearts are asFrozen as the Snows ofMinnesota we're asking tonightfather that you will send the son ofrighteousness to rise with healing inhis wings in each of our hearts into ourmarriages into our homes upon ourchildren and those nearest and dearestto us and we're asking you Jesus as theson of righteousness to bring us healingin all the ways that we needwe ask forgiveness for oursins we ask for a change in our heartswe ask for a new heartexperience we ask that you rather thanourselves be Lord Of Our Lives we askthat when the world sees us they willtake note that those men and women fromNorth Island Camp they have spent timewith Jesus of Nazareth and they nowreflect hischaracter so father tonight we ask youto be both Savior and Lord we thank youin advance for the Miracles you willwork in each of Our Lives From ThisMoment onwards in jesus' holy name wepray amen am[Music]for