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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Sunday morning service at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. And it's great to see everybody gathered here this morning. If we could just all begin to make our ways to our seats, please. And when you get there, grab a hymn book, the red book underneath the chair directly in front of you. Soul-stirring songs and hymns. Grab that song book and turn to your song number two, Glory to His Name, and we'll sing it out loud as unto the Lord. Song number two, Glory to His Name. ["Glory to His Name"] On the first. Down at the cross where my Savior died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my heart was the blood of Christ. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood of Christ. Glory to His name. I am so wondrously saved from sin, Jesus so sweetly abides with him, There at the cross where He took me in. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood of Christ. Glory to His name. O precious mountain that saves from sin, I am so glad I have entered Him, There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood of Christ. Glory to His name. On the last. Come to this mountain so rich and sweet, Cast your poor soul at the Savior's feet, Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood of Christ. Glory to His name. Amen. Brother Moses, will you open us with a word of prayer, please? Amen. All right, let's turn over to song number 164, Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer, songbook 164, Praise Him, Praise Him. Sing it out loud. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer, Sing, O Earth, His wonderful love proclaim, Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels sing glory, Strength and honor give to His holy name, Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children in His arms, He carries them all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness, Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song, Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer, For our sins He suffered and bled and died, He our rock, our hope of eternal salvation, Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the crucified, Sound His praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows, Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong, Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness, Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song, Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer, Heavenly portals loud with Hosanna's ring, Jesus, Savior reigneth forever and ever, Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet and Priest and King, Christ is coming over the world victorious, Power and glory out to the Lord belong, Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness, Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Amen. Good singing. All right, well, good morning. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin or a pen to write with or something, just raise your hand and keep it up and we'll have somebody drop that off to you. All right, well, let's go through these announcements here. Front page of the bulletin, Sunday morning service is at 1030. Sunday evenings at 6 and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Underneath that, you can see a list of our soul winning times. We've got Saturday mornings at 1030 meeting right here. Sunday afternoon at 2 with brother David. Mondays at 630 with brother Mauser and Wednesday mornings at 11 with brother Briley and Thursdays around 630. If you have any questions or if you do want to go soul winning on Thursday, don't forget to call 208-391-5323. Praise report for August. We're at two salvations for the month. Praise God for that 68 year today. Six baptisms. Last Sunday morning we had 30 in attendance. Last Sunday evening was 20 and last Wednesday we had 33 with 17 soul winners out in the community. So praise God for all of that. Back page. So tonight we'll be in 2 Samuel chapter number 9. And birthdays and anniversaries for August. So next up will be Miss Jasmine. So she's going to sing for us I think. Special. That's right. That is the new rule. You've been here too long girl. It's going down. There's no way around it. All right. This week's memory verse is Job chapter 5 verse 2 which says, For wrath killeth the foolish man and envy slayeth the silly one. We are a family integrated church. And what that means is children and infants are always welcome in the service. We don't separate children from their parents for any reason. However, if you need privacy or anything of that nature, there's a daddy baby room right over here to your left. The mother baby room is out the front door there. Just follow the lavender scent and take your right to the room there. Tithes and offerings for August will be updated next week. Don't forget to turn your phones off or place them on silent so they are not a distraction. And in the very back there, the blessing rack. Don't forget about that. There's a lot of good stuff over there. I think this week we're going to purge some of it because some of it's been there for about three months. And so we don't sell stuff at church so if it fits, take it. If you have stuff you want to get rid of, don't forget you can bring it in and we will put it back there and find a home for it. And the very bottom line of your bulletin says, Your fear of rejection will cause organizational infection. And that was from my sermon in Vancouver last Sunday. So we're going to have one more song before we receive the offering. All right, let's grab our handbooks one more time please and turn to song number 116, He Leadeth Me. Song number 116, He Leadeth Me. On the first. He leadeth me, O blessed are the words with heavenly comfort front. Whatever I do, wherever I'll be, still tis God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me. For by His hand He leadeth me. Sometimes made scenes of deepest bloom, sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom. By waters calm or troubled sea, still tis His hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be. For by His hand He leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, nor ever burn or repine. Content whatever lot I see, since tis my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me. Faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. On the last. And when my task on earth is done, when by Thy grace the victory's won, In death's cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be. By His hand He leadeth me. Amen. All right, well, let's go ahead and pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to be able to meet here this morning. I just pray you bless the service, Lord, bless the tithes and offerings and the fellowship and soul winning today, everything we have going on. Thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. All right, if you would please turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter number four. Genesis chapter number four, right? In the beginning of your Bibles. Genesis chapter number four. And when you get there as our custom, we'll be reading the full chapter. Genesis chapter four, starting in verse number one, the Bible reads, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tilleth the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. And it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bare Enoch. And he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. And unto Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begat Mehugeo, and Mehugeo begat Methuseo, and Methuseo begat Lamech. And Lamech took unto him two wives, the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Zilla. And Ada bare Jabal, and he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal, he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zilla, she also bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. And the sister of Tubal Cain was Nahima. And Lamech said unto his wives Ada and Zilla, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare his son, and called his name Seth. For God said she hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Brother Bradley would you pray for us? All right, amen. Genesis chapter number four, look down at verse number eight. It says this, And Cain talked with Abel his brother. And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. So we're going to be talking about this story this morning regarding Cain and Abel and the first murder of the Bible. But more so than murder, that's not what I'm talking about this morning. What I'm talking about is the actual emotion that drove Cain to commit that murder, which is envy. The title of my sermon is Get Off Me With That Envy. Now before we start, you can't give Abel too much of a hard time because think about it. They were the first people born from their parents Adam and Eve. They don't have a lot of social experience, so it's not like they could open up the Bible and learn to sermon. It's not like they had a lot of people to draw experience from. But keep in mind these things are preserved for us for a very good reason. And we're going to break this down pretty good this morning. Keep your place there in Genesis chapter four and go to Matthew chapter number 23. And so the topic is dealing with envious people. I've done sermons in the past where we've talked about the problem and some of the effects with envy. I'll review some of that as well. But really what we've been doing the last few weeks has been talking about relationships and how to deal with people, how to properly align people in our lives. And this is one that I've seen a lot in my life, envy, just because of different positions I've had at work and stuff. And so I think I've got some very good tips that are going to help you out. We're going to learn the danger associated with envious people and how to deal with them this morning. Now, in our language we often will interchange the word envy and jealous. A lot of people will say, oh, don't be jealous and stuff like that. But the Bible actually says that being jealous is a righteous thing. You know, the Bible says that God is a jealous God. You know, it's a righteous thing for a husband to be jealous of his wife. It's a righteous thing for a wife to be jealous of her husband. You know, it's a righteous thing for us to be jealous of the truth and, you know, of our children and all these different things. But envy, on the other hand, is a sense of resentment towards someone else. That's what that is. Every time you look up that word envy in the Bible, it is 100 percent negative across the board. And it's a big problem. It's a bigger problem than you realize. One of my friends, Peter James, some of you might have him on Facebook. He sent me some information about envy, and we were kind of talking about it back and forth. And that's what kind of motivated me to preach this sermon, because he's right. You know, this is a big problem. And I'm going to show you this morning how big of a problem this is and why it's going to increase and what that means for you and how you're going to have to, we are going to have to actually deal with this. Now, this sermon is going to be a little bit different than normal. We've got a little bit of a Bible study. So we've got to get through this Bible study before we can actually get to the meat of it. And so what we're going to do is we're going to kind of break down Cain and Abel. Abel is going to be pretty simple, okay? Abel was a saved person. You might be thinking, like, well, what in the world are you talking about there? Well, if you're there in Matthew chapter 23, look at verse 35. This is what Jesus says. He says, that upon you, and remember, he's talking to the Pharisees, the Jews that are despising his teachings. And he says this, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom he slew between the temple and the altar. Now, what this verse means, and we often use this verse to tell people, hey, this is why we don't use the Apocrypha. This is why we're King James only. Because Jesus endorsed, you know, basically Genesis all the way to Zacharias son of Barachias, the last book of the Old Testament. That's basically what he's saying here. But in this verse here, what he's talking about, he gives us some insight into Abel. And he says that Abel was righteous. Well, the Bible says there's none righteous, no, not one. So how do you get righteous? Well, we know it's by being born again. It's by being converted. It's by being saved. And keep in mind here, we're going to get into this. Abel wasn't saved because he did a sacrifice, okay? He wasn't saved because of that. He was saved because he put his faith and trust on God in the Old Testament. I know you might be thinking, well, what about the dispensations? Look, I can destroy that six ways from Sunday. We've done that before. But what we're going to do now is we're going to spend some time talking about Cain because it's important that we understand some things before we go on with envy here. So turn to 1 John chapter number 3. 1 John chapter number 3. And we'll talk about Cain. So I guess the question is who in here thinks Cain was saved? Who thinks Cain was possibly saved? Yeah, don't raise your hand. 1 John chapter 3, look at verse number 11. It says this. 1 John chapter 3, look at verse 11, it says, For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Now, keep in mind before we proceed. The book of 1 John is a book of fellowship. It's not a book telling you necessarily how to be saved. It's how to be in proper fellowship with God, okay? So he says, For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Verse 12, not as Cain. Now, notice this next part of the verse. Who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. So what does that say there about Cain? It says that he was of that wicked one. Well, who's the wicked one? Well, that's the devil, that's Satan, that's right. It doesn't say that he was of God. It doesn't say that he was born again. Now, go to Jude, and we're going to look at verse number 11. So go over to Jude. Go to Jude chapter number 30. I'm just kidding. If you believe me, we've got to have a conversation after this. Jude, we're going to look at verse number 11. So right off the bat, what do we see about Cain? That he was of that wicked one, and that his own works were evil, right? It's above just not being profitable. His works were evil because he was of that wicked one. Now, look at Jude, verse number 11. It says this. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Corey. Interesting there. What does this mean here, the way of Cain? Well, we've done studies, and we've already gone over the book of Jude. What is Jude talking about? It's talking about false prophets. It's talking about reprobates. It's talking about people that are hell-bent on corrupting God's people, okay? And it even mentions Sodom and Gomorrah in there, right? This is where we get the example. And people say, well, why don't you let these alphabet people in your church? Well, because Jude says that we ought to look at Genesis 19 as an example and not allow them into our church service, okay? That's what is going on here. But look at the beginning of that verse there in Jude 11. It says, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. So these people here who are rejected, these false teachers, the Bible is saying they have gone in the way of Cain. So not is Cain only of the wicked one, but his way is a way in which you can't turn back from. Look at verse number 10. It says, but these speak evil of those things, which they know not, but what they know naturally, don't miss this, as brute beasts in those things, they corrupt themselves. Okay, look, we are not Calvinists here, right? We don't go around saying, hey, well, God just made these people this way just to test the church and stuff like that. No, that's bad doctrine. In fact, that's horrible doctrine. That's false doctrine. These people knew the truth just like Cain did. Think about how close Cain was to God. We just read the chapter, right? He's actually having a conversation with God, right? And how's his attitude towards God? Not very pleasant, right? So you're not going to get away with this, oh, well, Cain didn't know, you know, because they were super Old Testament. No, he knew very well what he was doing. He knew very well the rejection that he put forth. But about these people, right, these people that have gone on the way of Cain, verse 10, what does it say? That they are brute beasts, right? In those things, they corrupt themselves. So don't blame God because these people are alive. Don't blame God for this error. They have corrupted themselves. Now, back up even further, if you would, to verse number four, and look what it says. So this will set the context here. It says, for there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old. Now, don't miss this. Ordained to this condemnation. Ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Look, Cain's way was work salvation. That's what it was. And that is reprobate. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7 that that is iniquity, right? These people, right, these people that prophesied in his name. And we bring this up a lot. Who cast out devils, supposedly. Who did all these works in his name. What does he tell them? Depart from me. I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity. Well, guess who's the father of that? Cain. Right. So do you think that Cain's saved? Do you think he's a born-again, Bible-believing Christian? Absolutely not. Now, turn to Titus chapter number one. Titus chapter number one. So Jude's very clear in verse four that there were certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation. Well, what does an ordination mean? That's an appointment, right? For example, I was ordained to start a church here. This is an independent, fundamental, King James-only, soul-winning Baptist church. That's what this is. You know, I was appointed by Pastor Roger Jimenez to start this church, right? That's my ordination. That's my mission. That's my job. That's why I was sent to this location here. And Jude's letting us know, hey, there are people in the world that are ordained to condemnation, to rejection, to basically destruction. And what these people do, and you all know this very well, is they come into churches. They come into the flock. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. They come in, and you know what the first thing they do is they start to sow envy. That's what they do. Think about everybody who we've had to kick out of this church over the last two and a half years. And when you look back and you get to the heart of what their issues were, every single time it was envy. False Nimrod, it was envy, right? Chris, it was envy. Josh, it was envy. The Melphys, it was envy. All of those people, it was envy. They were envious of what we had. They were envious of those of you who loved the Bible, who loved the truth, who wanted to raise your families right, who wanted to do right by the Lord. They were envious of that because they didn't want to put in the hard work, right? Think about what God's telling Cain here, right? He says, hey, if you do well, aren't you going to be accepted? What does he do? I'm going to get some more vegetables and throw them up on this altar. I'm going to do things my way. What did that lead to? What did that lead to? Destruction, death, the first murder in the Bible. And so the way of Cain is reprobate concerning the faith. I'm not saying that he's a Sodomite, okay? I'm saying that Cain was definitely a rejected person by God because he rejected God, and we talk about this all the time. This is Bible doctrine. You're there in Titus chapter 1. I'm just going to review for you 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 8 where it says, Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. People want to fight us so hard on this all the time and say that's false doctrine. Well, that's the Bible. The word reprobate means rejected, and there are people that God has rejected and will not allow to be saved. We talked about this on Wednesday, and it's because they don't want anything to do with God. They are men of corrupt minds. They are reprobate concerning the faith. You're there in Titus chapter 1. Look at verse 16. They profess that they knew God, but don't miss this, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate. Let me just tell you something here. Everybody who does good works, right, but they believe they've got to repent of their sins to be saved or they have some other way of salvation than what's described in the Bible, something other than believing, guess what? Their works are reprobate. They are rejected, right? A lot of times we'll read this passage here in Genesis chapter 4, and we'll be like, you know, we'll just talk about the offering, right? Well, it's because He brought the vegetables or He brought the grass, whatever you want to say, right? He brought the crops of the ground, and that was His main problem. No, His main problem is He wasn't saved. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, and I'll prove it to you, right? Because we know that God... Now, let me ask you this. Does God accept people's works that are not saved? Does He accept the Hindu that goes out and feeds a bunch of people, malto meal? Does He accept the work of the commie that goes out for publicity and wants to give malto meal to all the poor children and make drugs free over in California, you know, and all this horrible garbage that goes on? Absolutely not. That is ridiculous. The Bible says otherwise. You're there in Hebrews chapter 11. This is the great faith chapter. Look at verse number 6. What does it say? Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse number 6. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Does that describe Cain? No. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. You could have said, all right, Cain, I'm going to force you to go and buy a sheep from your brother and then offer that up. Guess what? God still wouldn't have accepted it because He didn't believe. He didn't have faith, right? Go to Romans chapter number 1. Romans chapter 1. I know we've been here in the last couple weeks, but it's important before we get started with the message to understand the way of Cain. It's important to understand what he represents, what the Bible is trying to teach us, and how valuable and how important this really is. So again, Cain does not fit that bill. His works were rejected because he did not trust on God during his day. Romans chapter 1, look at verse number 18. It says this, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, does Cain not fit that bill? I mean, he's there having a conversation with God, right? What does he do? I'm tossing these vegetables up here. This is my way or the highway. And God's like, OK, you want to play like that? No problem. Now, look at verse 19. It says this, because that which be made known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Does that apply to Cain? Absolutely. That applies to the entire planet, but we'll talk about that another day. Look at verse 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. And a lot of times, we'll point to examples to these atheists and say, look, this building over here, obviously it had a designer. Obviously it had a builder. There's no way around it. That's not up for debate. Well, it's the same thing when you look at a tree. It's the same thing when you study the human body. You just take how complex one human eyeball is. There's no way there's not a creator. That's impossible. That is what this verse means here. Verse 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. This is the process here. This is what happens to people. This is what happened to Cain. Look, he knows who God is. He knows who the God of heaven is. He understands what his parents went through, how they rejected God and how they had to get cast out of the Garden of Eden and that whole thing. But look, this guy knows that he's supposed to do right. He knows he's supposed to bring a proper offering. But what does he do? He's not thankful. He's not thankful. He knows who God is intellectually, but he doesn't glorify him as God. He's not thankful. And what happened? He became vain in his imagination. He rejected what God told him to his face. I'm not saying that he's like God's standing down there and like look at my face, talk to me, right? However that communication worked though, Cain said, I'm out. I don't need this. I don't want to put in the work. I don't want to just admit that I have a problem with envy. I just want to do things my way. In fact, you know what? I'm just going to go ahead and institute the first cancel culture here. And we'll just cancel Abel out. How's that? Right? Isn't that what the world does? You starting to see this a little bit more clear now? Genesis 4, 9. Don't go there yet. I'm just going to read for you. With verse 21 of Romans, in mind, listen to this. Genesis 4, 9. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Who in here would talk to God Almighty like that? You wouldn't even talk to your boss like that. Well, hopefully not. I mean, unless you're on your way out, then maybe. But think about this. God asks him a question. He's like, I don't know where this dude's at. It's not my problem. I'm not in charge of him. Look, I can't even fathom this. I can't even fathom how a human being would talk to God like that. But you know what? Out soul winning, every single week, we see that, don't we? We knock on people's doors. And they've got the American flag wreath on their door. And God bless America. And what do they do? They cuss us out. They shut the door. They slam the door. Get out of here. Get lost. They sit in their little rooms. And they cry. And they wonder why America's going to hell in a handbasket. And it's because of your apathy and your rejection of God. Because the Bible says where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And you know what? They're envious of that. They're envious of that truth. They're doing the same thing that Cain did. They're going in the way of Cain. And that is what is destroying this country here. Look at verse number 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Look, does that not describe Cain? You would have to be a fool to mock God in the way that he did. That is insane to me. Look at verse 23. And changed the glory of God. I'm sorry. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. Into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Now, you see, that might not directly apply to Cain. Okay? But here's the thing. He didn't want to go and do the animal sacrifice. Either way, he sliced it. Right? So he was the first animal. Or the first PETA guy, maybe. Right? He's like, you know, he instituted PETA. And he's like, you know, I think this is wrong. I don't want to hurt that little animal. Poor little sheepie. You know? I want to get these vegetables, you know, because at least they don't scream and holler and it's not a lot of work. And we're good to go. No, that's wrong. Jump down to verse 28. Because we have to get moving here. It says this. And even as they did not like to retain God and their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Verse 29, being filled. We talked about this on Wednesday, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. But it says being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness. Now, don't miss this. Full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. Now, this chapter in this passage of scripture, you guys know this very well. This is talking about homosexuals. It's talking about sodomites. Okay? I'm not implying that Cain was a sodomite. But he was reprobate concerning the faith. There's no other way you could look at God and say the things that Cain said to God and not be reprobate concerning the faith. He rejected God's provision, and that is very clear here. And people will always point to these. Well, have you ever whispered? Have you ever been malicious? Have you ever done this? Have you ever been deceitful? Yeah. We've all done some things maybe on this list, maybe some of them, right? But we're not filled with all unrighteousness like we talked about Wednesday. We're not full of envy because when you're full of this stuff, there's no room for righteousness. There's no room for anything else. There's no room for the Holy Spirit. There's no room for God's word. Then that is evident based off of the way that Cain talked to God. So go back to Genesis chapter number four with that in mind. Genesis chapter number four. All right. Look at verse number five. We're going to get this thing going here. So long introduction, a little bit of a Bible study. I know it's not Wednesday, but it's still good. Genesis chapter four. Look at verse number five. It says this, but unto Cain and unto his offering, he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. So what is this first saying here? Is it just about the offering? No. It's saying, this is the narrator talking here to us, but unto Cain, to the person of Cain. So please understand this. Cain, it says unto Cain and his offering, he had not respect. So the Bible is letting us know that God doesn't respect Cain nor his offering. Verse number six. And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? Verse number seven. Again, this smashes Calvinism here. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule over him. Now, this is very interesting here because God's saying, hey, what is your problem, Cain? If you do well, meaning if you put your faith and trust on me to be your God and you don't reject that, then won't you be accepted? Won't you, Cain, be accepted? What did Cain do? No. I don't need that. He rejected God's provision for acceptance with him. Just like Pharaoh did in Exodus. Right? He said, I don't know the Lord. And people say, no, that just means he didn't know who the God of the Hebrews was. Get out of here. His land's filled with Hebrew people and you want to tell me he doesn't know who the God of the Hebrews are? No. He's saying, he's not my God. Ra is my God or whatever stupid Egyptian made up idol. He's saying, that's my God. And what did God say? Now I'm going to harden your heart. What drove Pharaoh to do that? The same thing that drove Cain to do murder. It's envy. It's resentment. Think about this. Pharaoh began to resent the Hebrew people because God was taking care of them. He was multiplying them. And instead of just saying, hey, let me just bless you and send you off and start your own nation, what does he do? No, I need to keep them down. I need to keep them in bondage. I need to control them. I need to enslave them. Okay? But going back to this verse here, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? You see, Cain wanted to be accepted on his terms. And that's what happens with people. There are people out there that want to be accepted on their terms, not your terms. This is what starts the envious process is when people want to be accepted, but they don't want to put in the work. What Cain should have done, what Cain was supposed to do is say, okay, you know what? I'm ate up. I don't understand the word of God. I don't understand that I should bring of the first fruits, right? And then I shouldn't just be tossing these vegetables up there because I can just get my sickle out, cut them, and, you know, throw them up there. I don't think that's very biblical. Okay? But what does he do? No. I want to be accepted on my terms. I want to be accepted on my terms. And this is very clear. God gave him the way. God told him what to do. He didn't say turn from your sins, kneel on a bed of rice, go feed the poor, go do all these works, and then maybe at the end of your life you'll be saved. No. He said, if you do well, that means if you make me your God, just like your brother, just like your younger brother Abel did, shalt thou not be accepted? He's like, you have the same opportunity. You have the same chance that your younger brother had. But what does he do? No. I'm going to reject your provision to be accepted with you. And what did we learn later on? You see, we need the New Testament today. We need the Old Testament. The New Testament is a commentary on the Old Testament, right? Because if you were to just read this chapter, it kind of seems like, well, God's still taking care of Cain because he puts a mark on him and he kind of puts some boundaries on his punishment, right? And some people say, well, you know, I think Cain was saved. Well, no. When you read the New Testament, you learn that he was of that wicked one. Jesus didn't say that he was righteous, right? And it says that the way of Cain is the way of reprobates, people who are rejected by God. He rejected God. God rejected him. And he is now known as the father of works. So the guy who commits the first murder in the Bible, what does he do? What was the driving emotion behind that? I'm telling you, it was envy. You can keep your place there. But if you would go to Job chapter number five, Job chapter number five. And so all of that to basically say this, in this story here, I'm going to start broad and then we'll narrow it down to the conversation or to the relationship aspect. But Abel is a picture of the Christian who is unaware of his surroundings. And again, you can't fault Abel. He didn't have a lot to go with. He didn't have a lot of experience. You know, humanity was just starting out here. But again, what can we glean from this? Well, look, Abel's got no idea what's about to happen to him, right? But the Holy Ghost, who preserved the Bible for us, we can read all the surrounding statements and words and we can learn attributes of people who are filled with envy and what to do with them in our lives. And I'm telling you right now, and you probably already figured this out. You have to get rid of them. You have to cancel them out. You have to keep that. You want to talk about social distancing? You need a social distance people that are filled with envy because that is 10 times worse than the coronavirus. 10, a million times worse than the coronavirus. OK. And so Cain, he is a picture of the reprobate, the person who rejects God, that is full of envy, that is hell-bent on destroying Christianity here. Think about this. 150 years ago, you know, there was still envy, obviously. People envied. But it was pretty much limited, wasn't it? It was limited to your community. So if a person had problems with someone else, maybe they were envious and that guy moved to another community, it would probably be like, eh, probably be over, right? But today, we've got social media, and I'm not saying get off social media, but we've got Facebook, we've got Twitter, we've got news at our fingertips, we've got all this communication out there. And so now the danger with that is, you know, there's a tendency in the human body to want to, you know, envy things and to envy people. And what do these people do? What do these corporate CEOs do? What do these drivers of social media do? What do our politicians do? They basically pour fuel on that fire. Right? And they do this in several different ways, and I've talked about this before. They do that by promoting sports. I mean, could you imagine going back 200 years and saying, hey, in the future, people are going to get paid millions and millions and millions and some, I mean, just millions of dollars for playing a game called basketball or football, taking a stick and hitting a ball with it. Where athletic achievement would be just paid millions. You know what that does a lot of times? I'm not saying it does that to people in here, but what that does to society is it sows envy. Because not everybody, and I've talked about this several times before, not everybody can do that. Not everybody can be an NFL player. Not everybody, look, if you were born in Japan, your chances of being a basketball player for the NBA are, like, slim to none. Like, you just got to admit that. Right? And so what do they do? Well, they provide another avenue. Well, now we need these social justice warriors, right? And they're going to go ahead and go out and preach a little social justice. And, you know, when you hear social justice, you're like, of course we want justice. Who would argue against that? But that's not what they mean. Right? What they do is they take people who don't want to work, right, who don't want to put in the right work, who don't want to do right, and they say, well, you know, this guy over here who spent his whole life building a business, we need to take from him and give to this person. That's communism is what that is. That is communism. So you say, what's the big deal? Well, the Bible says that, you know, evil men and seducers are going to wax worse and worse, that the love of many should wax cold in the last days. Right? People would become lovers of their own selves, selfish. Well, what's the byproduct of that when people are selfish? Envy. Why does the love of many wax cold? Envy. Envy. Because no one's left running around telling people, hey, you know what, it's wrong to envy. And people don't want to be honest. It's a natural human emotion. Every person inside of this building has envied someone. And if you say you haven't, you're a liar is what you are. You're a liar and you need to get right with God because everybody in here has envied. I don't care what you say. You could say, oh, not me. Oh, yes, you have. Yes, you have. Because someday your conscience, according to Romans chapter 2, is going to testify against you. It's the little black box recorder that God built inside every human being. And it's going to put you on blast someday. So you might as well just embrace it. And realize, you know what, this is something that we need to suppress ourselves because it is a natural. Look, we all have the old man. Just because you're saved, just because you're born again doesn't mean you're automatically without sin and you're just going to do right automatically. No, we've got the Bible for a reason, to teach and to preach the truth. And so what we need to understand here is that the grip of envy has basically become the moral standard of our politicians and our leaders today. This is their goal. What they do is they sow envy. This is why, you know, the news has just filled with, you know, oh, it's the people that want one of their masks, fault. It's the people that are un-vaxxed. It's your fault, right? And so the people that bought in the lie and went out there and got their two little jabs, you know, are now like, uh-oh. Now they're telling us to put the mask back on. You know what, they're envious of those who had the guts to say, you know what, you're not going to stick me with that. My body, my choice. Isn't that right, you commie liberal? Isn't that right, you devil? Oh, how dare you say that? You know what's kind of funny? I was on the Facebook marketplace and this person's selling stickers and it's like one's like a syringe and it's got like a little circle and slash through it and it says my body, my choice. And all these commies got on there and they're just flipping out. How dare you say that? And then they switched it like an hour later and put the anti-abortion sticker on there, right? Not your body, not your choice or something like that. And people flipped out and then some other people finally got on there and they're like, you know what, this is actually a good conversation here, you know, because that's true. It's extreme hypocrisy. It is what it is. But look, this is the main tool that I see that our political leaders, our corporate CEOs are doing, is they are sowing envy. They're dividing and conquering and it's working like a charm to the masses today. You know, this is a huge problem. And here's the thing. No society filled with envy where the majority of the people are filled with envy can stand. It's impossible. Show me one in the Bible. Show me one in history. Show me. Show me. Not going to happen. That's how I know we're going down. And you say, well, what's the goal? The goal is control. You're there in Job chapter number five. So here's a statement in Job that I want to draw your attention to here because I think it does a very good job at giving it some great truth about what I'm talking about here. Look at verse number two. So it says this. For wrath killeth the foolish man. So this is one of Job's friends talking to him and obviously he's, you know, gets rebuked later on. But it says for wrath killeth the foolish man. Now look at the last part of this verse. And envy slayeth the silly one. Now obviously in our modern vernacular, you know, we'll go up to the kids and be like, ah, you're silly. You know, you silly little munchkin, whatever. But the word here silly in the Bible is actually pretty serious. It means having or showing a lack of common sense or judgment. It also says absurd or foolish. Well, isn't that our society today? No judgment. Right? Planet Fitness America. Right? No judgment. Let's just make everything purple and soft. Right? Let's just get Barney and make him your president. Let's just Barney this place up. Right? Well, guess what? The Bible would say, hey, you're silly. And what does it say? Envy slayeth the silly one. So all the government's got to do, all these people of wickedness have to do is to get people to become silly. How do they do that? They do that through the public school system. They do that through the colleges. They do that through the music. They do that through the media. They do that through all of the avenues that they have available to them. And once they've got the people bought off on this idea of no judgment, common sense goes right out the window because obviously you know what you need to judge. The Bible says the spiritual judges all things. But keep in mind, the people who've gone the way of Cain, they don't want to accept that. They don't want to believe that. They don't want to subscribe to that. Right? But envy will slay the silly one. And this is how we know. The more people reject common sense, the more that people reject judgment. The more foolish people that pop up and are not rebuked in this nation, the more envy is going to cling and get to those people. And look, these rich leaders that the Bible says oppress all of us, by the way, in James. I think it's James isn't James or is it? Okay. Think about this. That's one of the ways that they oppress us. By sowing envy. Getting us to envy things that they know we can't have. And the Bible says that's a sin. It's kind of similar to covetousness. But, you know, the Bible talks about covetousness as a good thing. Like sometimes it's a good thing. Right? You can covet the gift to preach, for example. Right? To give the gospel. You know, covet the best gifts the Bible says. Now if you would, go back real quickly one more verse. Proverbs chapter number 14. Go to Proverbs chapter number 14. And so all that to say this. Envy slays the silly one. Envy will slay the people who have rejected judgment, who have rejected common sense. And is that not what Cain did? That's exactly what he did. He rejected common sense. God's telling you how to be accepted. And he doesn't want to do it. He rejects that truth. Now Proverbs chapter 14. Look at verse number 30. Proverbs 4. Look at verse 30. It says this. A sound heart is the life of the flesh. Which is why we preach, hey, take care of your heart. You know, let go of that anger quickly. Because it could kill you physically. But look at this. But envy, the rottenness of the bones. The Bible says that envy is the rottenness of the bones. Envy, and science is just now starting to figure this out. The envy, people who are filled with envy that spend a lifetime of envy. They actually have bone marrow problems. They have cancers. They have all sorts of weird things. In fact, I was doing a lot of reading on this. And the Greeks, the ancient Greeks used to, you know, study people that would start to turn yellow or green. And they figured out later on it was because of a bile problem. You know, gallstones and things like that. But they said that they believed it was because of envy. You know, that's what they believed. And I believe that too. Now today it's harder to spot because when you get sick you just go to the doctor. You get your antibiotics. You get surgery. They just remove organs or whatever they've got to do. And so it's kind of harder to do that. But I'm telling you what. A lot of these wicked people in our society that die and have all these health problems, you know what it stems from? Envy. Don't think just because someone's a billionaire like Jeff Bezos or Elon or Elon Musk that they're not filled with envy. Because if you ever study their lives you're going to see they are filled with envy. Which is why they want to destroy the masses. Which is why they want to enslave us and constantly push, you know, you have to take this vaccine. Look, I thought we had the Constitution here. I thought this was the United States of America. But yet you've got people around here that are just basically, yes, let's get this mouse-a-tongue attitude here and just go make people do whatever we want them to do. It's absurd. The bottom line for my sermon is this. Envy is a directed emotion that rots the envier and kills the envied. Let me say that again. Envy is a directed emotion. What that means is that if you have envy it's coming out. It may not come out verbally but it will come out non-verbally. It will come out of you. It's like it basically builds up pressure inside of your body. And it's either going to come out in the form of cancer, some sort of sickness, some sort of rottenness in the bones, it's going to come out towards other people. There's no way that you can hide it. And this is actually a gift from God when you think about it. He's given us wisdom in his word on how to spot this. So envy is a directed emotion that rots the envier and kills the envied. Is that not what happened to Cain? Envy is what killed him spiritually. And envy is what slayed his brother. Now I'm not saying if you have people in your life that envy you they're going to hit you over the head with a rock or, you know, word on the street is that Cain killed Abel with an AK-47. I don't know, you know. I'm just kidding, of course. I'm just teasing. But either way you look at it, it's going to kill your relationships. It's going to kill your progress. It's going to kill your goals. It's going to kill your dreams. It's going to kill your feelings. It's going to kill your happiness. It's going to kill your joy. You need to be careful surrounding yourself with people that are subject envy. All right, I'm going to have you guys go back to Genesis, Genesis chapter number four. So just another little quick story here. I can remember in my hometown there was three junior high schools. Jessica went to one. It was kind of like their main theme was like they're mainly skateboarders, people, you know, doing drugs, stuff like that, kind of rockerish type people. You know, we're close to Seattle. And then there was my junior high or middle school, which was people that wanted to be gang bangers. Like that was the theme back then, right. And then there was this other one that was called Sedgwick Junior High and that was where all the rich people lived basically. That's kind of how we classified it as kids. But in my junior high, seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, right, if you weren't brown or black, nobody wanted anything to do with you. Like you were like an outcast. Like even back then. And, you know, looking back, I can tell what, you know, what drove that was envy from the music and from the TV. You know, because gang culture was becoming very popular back then, right. Here, and I'll prove it to you. One day we had some kind of activity at school. It was like my seventh grade year. It was like halfway through the year. And, you know, I'm a half-breed. My mom was Mexican. My dad's white. My mom came to school to pick me up. And people were like, that's your mom? Like, yeah. That's your real mom? Yes. Last time I checked. Wow, you've got brown in you? Look, people treated me different the rest of my time in junior high. Seriously, I'm like looking at myself like, I'm a white guy though. I'm American. You know, I was so naive back then. I just didn't know what was going on with people. I would often be the kid eating lunch by myself and no one at the table. But after that, man, people, oh, Joe, how you doing, man? This is great. You know, and then you had people running around. You know, oh, I'm an east side. I'm a rolling 60s Crip. What? You were born in a town with 15,000 people in the woods. You're not a rolling 60s Crip. You're not a rolling 90s Crip. You're not a Piru or a Blood or whatever these things are. You're none of that, right? But people envied that so much. And you know what happened? Fighting, strivings, all sorts of problems in junior high. Now, thank God when I got to high school, there were so many people crammed in there, it just kind of went away. But you kind of see that today, don't you? You know, Hollywood, for example, is excellent. They are masters at sowing envy, right? I mean, they've got their magazines at the store with the people that look perfect. They have no blemish. They've got the thick hair. They've got the clear skin. They've got all that. And what does that do? It slays the silly ones is what it does. And you say, well, okay, that's great, but I'm saved. I believe the Bible. I'm a disciple. How does this affect me? It can affect you. But the fear of the symptoms of people filled with envy, they will get you, just like Cain got Abel. Okay? So you were there in Genesis chapter four. Let's back up to verse number three. Verse number three, it says this. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. Again, keep in mind, God respects Abel and his offering. Now, we know that God doesn't respect any man. It is impossible to please him, except what? You have faith, unless you're converted, right? So obviously we can see here that he's saved and he understands the value of this offering. He understands the significance of it. And he says, I better bring the first fruits. I better bring the first of my flock, right? But Cain's like, let's toss the vegetables out, man. It's good to go. Look at verse five. It says this. But unto Cain and to his offering, he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. Here's the first clue that I want to give you this morning. A person given to envy eventually will show signs, okay? Now, obviously in the story here, God knows everything. He knows the heart. He knows the whole, you know, story about humanity. He can see his countenance fall, but Abel couldn't, right? But us reading the story, we can say, okay, wait a minute here. So his countenance fell. What does that mean? His very attitude, his personality, everything about Cain changed. Once he was wroth, once he was angry, once that envy started to settle in and start to sprout up, his countenance fell. And I'll bet you anything, if you were able to go back to that time frame, you would see it all over his face. Who in here? Look, I'll bet everybody in here has met somebody who's been envious of something you've done, something you went out and bought, something maybe you won. I can remember several years ago, I just entered a drawing at this like baseball card shop to win, you know, this prize. It was like $500 worth of baseball, football cards and all this stuff. And the fee was like five bucks. I just put five bucks in there. The guy wrote my name in there. And there were people down there like serious collectors, you know. And they were like dropping 30, 40, 50, you know, $75 in there. Guess who won? I did. And people were like, oh, you're just lucky. It's like, can't you just be happy? You know, you're probably just going to go and tear those up, you know. It would be better if an actual collector got those and was able to actually go forth and sell them and actually be a benefit. You know, I was like, man, what the heck with you guys? And, of course, back then I was saved, but I wasn't a disciple. So I said some unsavory things. But, okay, that's another story for another day. A person given to envy will eventually show signs, okay. And this is what we're going to start to talk about here. They will show signs. An example of this that's perfect is Saul and David, right. Once the women started singing that song, Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands, right. What happened? What does the Bible tell us about Saul? His countenance fell. His personality fell. And then all of a sudden every interaction that he has with David is to destroy him. And David's like, what are you doing? You know, then what happens? Cast a javelin at him, tries to kill him. And David's like, yeah, something's wrong. Something's definitely wrong here, right. But obviously he's a man after God's own heart. He's got enough wisdom. Humanity's gone off, you know, a long enough time now to where he's like, yeah, you know, I better keep my eye on this guy. I better do something about this. And so Saul was not successful. But that is perfect. And think about this here. Here's another tip for you. When someone is filled with envy, think about the type of people that cling to them. Like who clung to Saul? Obviously he forced his servants, but who really went out of their way to stick to Saul and to do the dirty deeds for Saul? Doeg the Edomite, that's right. When Saul said, hey, I want to kill all these priests here because you helped David, they were like, we're not doing that. And Doeg's like, I'm your guy. I'll do it. I'll do it. Right? So what does that mean for us? That means you need to pay attention to people that feel, or where their countenance, you know, has fallen in your life. And maybe, you know, they're saying things to you and it's just not lying. You just get that feeling, right? You just get that gut feeling. Do an evaluation on them. Do they, or are they even capable of having good, deep relationships with other people? Because if not, you could be dealing with somebody that is just basically, maybe even half full and just envious. And they're going to do some damage to you because people that are filled with envy are incapable of having real relationships. Think about this. Saul's only good relationship, and it wasn't even good, was with Doeg the Edomite because he wanted to shine his shoes and, you know, just please him. Look at verse number six. Look at verse number six. It says this, and the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen? Obviously, God knows the answer to this. He wants Cain to see for himself what's really going on here, but of course, he doesn't care. He doesn't want to see it. Look at verse number seven. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Interesting how God describes sin here as a he. Why does he do that? Because sin is active. It's an active thing. It's a living, breathing thing that will have a relationship with you. And the sin of envy is alive and well. And when you harbor that, when you welcome that, when a person harbors that, when a person welcomes that, guess what the byproduct is? Destruction. It will rule over you. That's what God's telling Cain. He's like, if you don't get control of this, he's like, look at it. Sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire. So you're going to do what he wants. You'll do what envy wants. You'll do what that sin wants. There's no way out. There's no escape. It will happen. And this is a great clue for us. This is a great motivational piece of scripture that we can use and understand. If a person in our lives that we suspect is full of envy, you can bet your last dollar it's going to come out. It will come out. It's a promise from God. It will come out. It says, unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. So the only thing you're going to be a leader of is envy. That will be the center of your being. You're like, well, I'm a leader. King was a leader. Yeah, he was a leader of envy. He was a leader of murder. He was a leader of work. Salvation is what he was. And people that are given over to this that have fallen for this trap, you can't lose your salvation. I'm not saying that at all. Right? But you know what? We're just human. We're believers. We've got the old man. We've got the new man. And it's possible for us to sometimes get envious of other people because we don't have our priorities aligned with God's word or whatever. And you know what? That relationship will self-destruct because envy's only goal is destruction. Think about it. Where did it lead? Where did it lead, King? What did envy do to Abel? It slew him. So why wouldn't it kill your relationships? Why wouldn't it kill your family? Why wouldn't it kill a church? Think about that. Look at verse 7 one more time. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. I just can't get over that. God's like, you know this, King. He's asking him this. He's just telling him, like, hey, if you do well, aren't you going to be accepted? Don't you know this? He's just like, I like these vegetables. I don't care about that. Here's another one. Any time you're maybe mentioning some accomplishment that you've had in the past. Right? I'm not saying you're doing this boastfully. There's always the one-upper, right? And one-uppers are funny because they just can't help themselves. And it's like, OK, yeah, you're the best. You're the greatest. OK, whatever. Right? Sometimes people just have their manners corrupted because they've been hanging out with people that are wicked, or with worldly people. OK? But if you notice yourself, any time maybe somebody comes up to you and you're like, hey, man, remember that time you did this out soul hunting and someone comes up like, I don't think they really got saved. You know, there's just always something there to cut you down. Right? Well, I think you could have used more scripture. I think you could have used more verses. Watch out. You're dealing with somebody who's envious. I experienced this right after the Red Hot Preaching Conference. You're not going to preach before 450 people and not have somebody say something negative to you. This guy came up to me and was like, that was great, but, you know, what do you think about this verse? Why didn't you use that? Why didn't you use this? Then he gets on a YouTube channel. You know, I don't think you're using enough scripture in your sermons, but that was great. It helped me out. That's a person who's filled with envy because he goes to a church in his mind that only great truths can come from our church. No way this little potato church in Idaho could send a guy here to give us a good shot of truth. And it's like, I like to tell these guys, hey, I didn't come here to compete. I came here to contribute. There's a huge difference there. I thought that's what this was about, contributing to each other's success as Bible-believing Christians. Isn't that what this is about? This is why when you, we don't have this here right now, but it'll come back, you know, where people want to start competing with sowing numbers. Oh, I got 10 saved. I'd be surprised if you could get 10 people to even take an invite from you sometimes, especially when you go to a rich neighborhood, which ain't rich neighborhoods. They're just nice houses. We've never gone to a rich neighborhood, this church. We have yet to go to Bogus Basin, you know, and someday we will, and that'll be interesting. But going back to this, anytime, you know, somebody maybe comes up and compliments you or says something about your achievements and they want to cut that off, and you just notice this about that person, just be careful you need to start distancing yourself from them until they've at least acknowledged it and they're willing to change because you are going to get destroyed. Look at verse number eight. So after this conversation that Cain has with God, look at this. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against his brother Abel, his brother, and slew him. Look at the first part of that verse right there. What does it say? And Cain talked with Abel his brother. And I've heard it preached before. People say, well, see, they were arguing back and forth here, you know, about the offering, you know, and Cain was, you know, mad about his carrots, whatever. Look, no, they were talking here. Cain's trying, Cain knows what he wants to do. He's already made up his mind, right? So what is he doing? He's trying to distract his brother. So we say, nothing wrong here, right? And this is what envious people will do because they can admit to you, they can't come up to you. Now sometimes people will do that. They'll just say this, like, dude, I'm envious of you, you've got your life in order. They're not really envy like the Bible's talking about. They're just basically giving you a compliment, okay? But what is he doing? And Cain talked with Abel his brother. Here's another tip for you. They show fake appreciation. They show fake appreciation. Be careful, be careful, be careful with this. Be careful when you do something well and people come up to you and they're like, oh, I should worship you. You're like the best person on the planet. You're so cool, you're so tall, you know, whatever, you know. You're just genetically gifted and they just go over the top with the flatteries. Be careful. You're dealing with somebody who's filled with envy and guess what's coming? If you don't do something about these people, I'm not saying you need to rebuke them right away. I'm not saying any of that, but you need to take a mental note and put a red flag on that person and keep them at a distance. Don't let them in. Jesus didn't do it. Why would you do that? Think about that for a second. These people that show fake appreciation, so when you have this gut feeling on somebody, you know, I think this person might be envious. Be careful. Distance them right away. Don't let them in. Don't tell them your secrets. Don't tell them your plans. Don't tell them your goals Don't tell them your goals because they will shoot them down every single time. They will kill your dreams. I've seen it a million times. I've seen it a million times in my life. So they'll show fake appreciation. You know, these people often, they'll get good. They'll get good at hiding their emotions, you know, and they might act excited and stuff, but, you know, what I've often noticed is that their expressions and, you know, like what they're saying doesn't match their body language. Like people that are filled with envy, they'll give off this arrogant pride just aura, and it's really hard to describe with words, but God's given you an intuition, and you just know, like, man, something's not right. I just can't put my finger on it. Think about envy for a second. Kind of go back in your mind over the story here in Genesis chapter 4. Do an audit and say, man, am I dealing with somebody that might be envious of me? People, look, people, once they get succumbed to this, they'll be envious of you all sorts of stuff. You went to the car wash, and they show you, they see you roll up to work with your car wash. Oh, you got money to wash your car, huh? Just kidding. I'm just teasing, man. Really? From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, the Bible says. There's a little bit of truth to a lot of what people will say, so just be careful of that when their words don't match their body language. And, of course, you've got the toxic comments, the passive-aggressive type stuff, and, look, there's a lot of Baptist preachers that, you know, get filled with this type of stuff. You know, Pastor Anderson's got this video series where it's called, like, Pastor Anderson, what's it called? Pastor Anderson Exposed Area, something like that, and he plays clips of people preaching against him, and I was listening to one last night, and this guy's, like, he supports Hinduism, and his net worth is $5 million. Look, I can tell you that's not true at all. The guy's got, like, what, 11 kids, one vehicle, a small, modest house. He don't have $5 million. And he definitely, I mean, this guy put out a documentary exposing Hinduism, but this guy's preaching to his congregation. Oh, you know, he supports Hinduism. Where does that come from? It comes from envy. Michael Johnson, Temple of the Dog Baptist Church in North Carolina, and, look, I'll call anybody out, man. I don't care, because I've got the guts to do it. That guy, the reason why he's in the position he's in is because of envy, because when he was so supposedly part of our little crew here, you know, what he would do, he'd constantly go around asking people, how do you get your YouTube up so big? How do you get more clicks? How do you get more of this? That's from envy. And when he wasn't getting the desired results, what did he do? He started making fake YouTube channels, and then he got caught saying horrible things about us, about our friends, and now guess what? Now he's reduced to hanging out with people like Adam Fannin, who want things his way. And that was his problem. He didn't want to submit to the authority. That is a huge red flag, by the way, and a big problem, because that just shows, hey, he wants it his way, he wants to build the way he wants to build. He ain't gonna listen to nobody else. God doesn't like to use people like that if you haven't noticed reading the Bible. So just be aware of that, okay? This is why Manley Perry turned on Pastor Anderson. This is why Joe Major did, because when that going back to the Greek documentary came out, they were like, oh, he took Calvinist over to Greece? Yeah, because he's trying to teach him the truth. They said they wanted to go solo. Look, I don't care who you are. You come to the church. Well, besides the dogs, right? You come to the church, you want to go soloing? We're gonna take you. We're gonna take you. See, I don't have my life right. I'm all mess. I don't care. Show up on the soloing times, and you're going. And we're just gonna throw you right in. And we're gonna train you, and we're gonna pour everything we've got into you to make you a disciple, right? We don't tell people to get right first, but you know what happened after that documentary? These people, oh, again, my channel's not growing like his. I'm not following. I'm not getting the same results again. I'm not getting the same results that he did. Envy set in, and then decided to turn on him. And now guess what? Now their heart's being exposed and laid out, and they believe all sorts of weird things. Now they're turning on all sorts of Bible doctrine. And birds of a feather flock together. Those people are shallow. I want nothing to do with them. I'm after people that are loyal. I'm after people that just want to be after God's own heart. Right? And we'll train anybody who wants to serve the Lord at this church. Look at verse number nine. I gotta get going here. Verse number nine. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Right? So he's totally, you know what he's doing here? He's undermining God at every corner. Again, we've already talked about, how could you talk to God like that? You're crazy. You have to be a rapper. You have to be a fool. Right? So here's the last one I want to go over. Watch out for people who undermine your success and demotivate you. We've already been kind of talking about it, but here's some quick examples. When people say, oh, that's just temporary. Oh, hey, that getting saved stuff that you do out there in town, that's only temporary. That's not going to go too far. Or you're too young. You're too old. That's not what the Bible says. If you can read and speak, you can get somebody saved. If you're saved, you can get somebody saved. Here's the one the government likes. Privileged. This is David Platt's favorite word right now. White privilege. You know someone at his church said that they should that he felt like white people should be torched? You want to talk about being silly? You want to talk about not having common sense? Well, there you go. David Platt is a devil because the Bible says that God hath made the nations of the earth of one blood. So different. You can't choose your skin color. That's ridiculous. But what do the dark forces of our world do? Let's get them to fight. Let's get them to desire to be each other's color. Right? So you've got one group of people here. You know, they're white and they're running around. They call the church from time to time. You know, yeah, white privilege. Oh, you won't let these people in, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, and they show up at these BLM rallies, at these Antifa rallies, and they want to scream and curse white people. Think about how stupid that is. What fuels that? It's envy. If you talk to those people, they envy to be darker, just like those kids at my junior high did. It's true. It's envy. And then you have the other group of people that take it to the other extreme. Right? And they're like, well, we should just get rid of all of them, send them back to Africa. That's not right either. That's wrong, too. Look, you know, in this town, you'll see this bumper sticker, Refugees Welcome, right? And it's nine times out of ten, it's a commie liberal that has that. But we like that statement because we get refugees saved all the time. You know, we get a hold of these refugees and we get them saved, and guess what? Now they're not going to become Catholic. Now they're not going to become a Muslim. Now they're not going to become a Jehovah Witness. Bring all the refugees you want to here. I'm fine with that, commie queen McLean. How about this? Oh, how hard is it to do that? Oh, how hard is it to do that? I'm just kidding. That's another tip for you when they're like, say something like that. I'm just kidding. I, too, had that opportunity, but I chose not to do it. That's just wishful thinking. But, you know, real practical life is different. You'll see this in martial arts schools a lot of times. Like, jujitsu, wrestling, kick boxers, stuff like that. You'll have new people come in and be like, well, if you did that to me, I would just do this. It's like, you're day one, dude. You know nothing. I had this guy one time, he's like, hey, can you just, you know, take me to the gym and just train me real quick? I'm going to fight somebody. It's a bad deal. I was like, sure. And right away, he's like, well, if you do that, I'm going to do this. Dude, if you say that one more time, I'm out of here. I'm done, because you're not trainable. Because you're not going to do that. Somebody who knows those skills, you're not going to stop them if you don't know them. They're going to get you. It is what it is, okay? But I've heard this one in martial arts circles a lot in my life. That's just wishful thinking. You know, practical life is different. That wouldn't really work. Right? Didn't we have somebody come in here that was doing that, trying to promote kung fu? And we love the guy. I mean, but come on, that's silly, okay? You're not going to take this Hollywood, flashy martial arts stuff and promote that as actually working the street. But here's the thing. People realize, wait, I'm 30-something years old. This guy, they look at you, and they say, you've spent the last five, 10, 15 years developing this skill. And they realize, I don't have that time, so it's easier for me just to debunk that and just to speak against that. And people do that with all sorts of things, right? They'll say, oh, you've been soul hunting for two, three years? Oh, well, I learned it real quick. You know, five minutes. And then you put them on the spot, and they're like, Jesus loves you. Would you like to pray? It's like, wait, no, no, stop. You didn't even give them the gospel. You didn't give them any Bible verses. I know how this, no, you don't. That's envy, okay? Be careful with that. That has to be rebuked out of people. That has to be drawn out of people, because that's destructive, right? We've had people come in here, and they'll show up to soul hunting. And it's like, where's your Bible? Dude, where's your Bible, Josh? I don't, I'm just going to give them this card. You know, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Okay? Take the time and do it right. That's the other point with this. That's another thing that fuels envy, is people see hard, they just envision, oh, that's so hard, I can't do that. In Cain's mind, he's like, man, I just have to trust you and make you my God. Then that means, you know, I can't make up these idols or, you know, and worship these other gods. I don't like that. Because it was easy for them to be saved, just like it's easy for us. Genesis chapter 6, then did men begin to call upon the name of the Lord. They got saved the same way in the Old Testament, only they didn't call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.