After they are kicked out, they have children. Adam and Eve see how bad sin can become. Cain kills Abel. Why? Because his heart was wrong. God spoke lovingly to him, as a father, yet he still continued to sin and it got worse. He then murdered his brother! God was merciful to him and did not require his life. But He banished him from the others. He told him he would wander.
Cain was the first to build a city.
He built one when his first son was born.
Why do you think he did this?
I think it was because he did not feel protected enough by God’s promise.
God had promised Cain that no one would touch Cain and if they did, God would punish them seven times more than Cain.
Also, Cain wanted to stay in one spot.
God told him that he would be a wanderer on the earth.
Not me said Cain.
I’ll build a city with walls and stay in one place.
No one will be able to get to me here.
He did not depend on God.
Cain did not learn any lessons from his punishment.
Finally, it got so bad that the descendants of Cain corrupted the descendants of Seth. God looked around and saw that man’s imagination was continually on evil, almost every one of them. They were violent, taking daughters away from their parents and forcing them to marry and they did this many times, multiplying wives. This is from Genesis 6.
Sin is corrupting. It has a corrupting influence. That is why it is so crucial to be aware of it, its danger. It literally kills all of us. We should be aware of that, on guard against it and try to avoid it. But it does deceive us also. However, before Adam and Eve sinned, they did not trust God. When are we most likely to sin? When we are not listening to God. The reasons for that are many but one common reason is when we do not trust God. We are influenced by the worldly ideas that lead to sin. So the sin spreads. Our sin, if it is not stopped, makes it more likely another person will sin.
On the other hand, the light of Christ can be spread too. If nothing else, through us to our children. In the days of Enosh, the grandson of Adam, men began to call upon the Lord God. Why did they do that? Because they needed God. This is exactly the situation that causes us to be dependent on God, forces us to trust Him and to reach out to Him. When we are like that, then we are more able to avoid sin.
When we need God we seek God.
When we are dependent on God, we seek God. We are thankful for his care.
When we fear death, we seek to avoid it and to avoid death ultimately, we seek eternal life. Who holds the key to eternal life? – God does. So, we should be motivated to seek God.
When we see sin for what it is, we want to avoid its corruption. When we sin, we hate it. But we seem stuck. Again, we need God’s help. So we seek God.
Back to the miracle of turning water into wine.
That water the servants at the wedding found was not ordinary water.
It was water for purification.
In other words, it was used to clean people’s hands.
It was dirty.
Yet, Jesus took that dirty water and made wine out of it.
Not just ordinary wine, but the best wine of the banquet.
The one in charge of the wedding thought it was the best.
12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
THE END
(ndw: End of Part 1... Should I translate Part 1 into Cantonese first? than post Part 2 and translate Part 2 in Cantonese second?)
Let me begin by a summary of last week’s sermon which was part one of a topic.
The topic is the question “why me?”
Why do bad things happen to me?
Sometimes the reason we suffer is because of sin.
Could be our sin or someone else’s sin.
Sin is very damaging.
It causes more than one bad reaction.
It causes a chain of events, a chain of bad reactions.
If it is not stopped it will corrupt us.
It corrupts me when I get used to my sinning.
It corrupts others around me who are influenced by my sins – my wife, my children, my co-workers, my friends.
So the corruption must be stopped soon.
God knows this.
That is His purpose to allowing bad things to happen to us.
So, we can learn from our sin and grow from it, because God is in control.
And we need reminding, we need the practice too.
The reason God does not take us out of the world is because we need practice.
There are things we all need to learn.
The reason we suffer from sin’s effects is not because we are being punished.
The only just punishment for sin is eternal death.
God is trying to save us, not condemn us.
So, He seeks to correct us, not punish us.
If we accept sin without much guilt, then it becomes easier for us to sin next time.
As our guilt is less and less, the corruption of sin becomes more and more.
However, if we feel so guilty we cannot forgive our self, cannot accept God’s forgiveness, then we lose heart.
Plus this is not trusting in God’s promise to forgive.
It is not accepting the extreme sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Who are we to say that God cannot forgive?
He gave His Son to die on the cross so that we could be forgiven, and feel forgiven.
We should be able to forgive our self then.
Trust is so important in our relationship with God.
There was one part I didn’t get to last week which is important.
It’s a brief look at Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden in Genesis 3.
Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God’s law.
They ate from the fruit of the one tree they did not have permission to eat from.
That was their sin right?
That was not the only problem however.
The greater problem they had was a lack of trust in God.
Why did Eve listen to the devil when she knew he was saying that God was telling a lie?
Because she did not trust God to tell the truth.
She believed Satan because she wanted the thing she was told she could not have.
Her desire agreed with Satan and she gave birth to sin.
No longer did they feel good.
They felt naked.
Before they had no clothes on and did not feel naked.
But now they made aprons from leaves and still felt ashamed.
They hid when they heard God.
‘Why did they hide’, God asked? ‘Why didn’t you come when I called?’
They said because they “were naked”.
So the leaves did not take away their naked shame.
I can always tell when my children have done something wrong.
They disappear.
I call them and they don’t come right away.
They come slowly.
發表於 
I bring it down to size 3.
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