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Eden Valley SDA Church

Frank Fournier

There Is A Promise In It

I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 8.

I guess I don't have to start a sermon by saying that sin is bad, But sin is bad.

And I don't suppose I'll find anyone here to say that it isn't.

Somebody might say, well, it depends on the sin.

I think at the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned.

It was not a gross thing like we would think of today, but it sent the whole world into chaos and we could see through it that there is destruction by it.

Everyone probably in this room would admit that God is wise, all wise, all powerful, all loving, all true.

He knows what's best for us, and yet sometimes we would choose contrary to what God would say, and we know that there are consequences.

Everyone knows there will be no sin in heaven.

In Revelation 21, verse 27, it says, There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles heaven, or the new earth for that matter.

And yet it's amazing to me that there are people who, including myself, have little respect for the power inherent in the sin to destroy or to enslave.

We were standing on the porch last night, just a few of us, talking about malaria.

And there's some people who are in Africa because I was there and I've lost 2 friends, or at least 2 American people that were with me there in Africa at the time.

And it's apparent that it's possible not to respect the power that is inherent in the disease called malaria.

And people die because they don't take it as seriously as they should.

We're looking at verse 11 and we see there Solomon, he catches that idea that we don't always respect the power that's inherent, especially in sin.

We're looking at verse 11, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

You can smoke 1 cigarette and for sure it's not going to kill you.

And so we might deduce that because 1 cigarette won't kill us that maybe 2 won't either, or 3 or 4.

And some people can end up smoking a whole lifetime And then they wonder at the end of a lifetime why it is that they've got lung cancer.

Because a sentence is delayed, being human, being blinded, being sinful, can reason out, Well, you know, it's not so bad after all.

But there are consequences, and we can see that in verses 12 and 13.

Though a sinner do evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged, Yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him.

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he fears not before God." Our lives are short regardless, but we can shorten them still.

Jesus knew all of that and that's the reason why he came to this world.

He would take the sins of the whole world upon himself in an effort to mitigate the consequences of sin on our behalf.

He suffered what we would have to suffer, or what we would not have to suffer, if we had availed ourselves of the justifying righteousness of Jesus Christ, that great gift that He bought for us at the cross of Calvary, and the grace of God so that we can have power to resist the temptations that would come unto us.

It would behoove us, I believe, if we would take time every day to look at the agonies that Jesus suffered in Gethsemane, to look at the mockery that He suffered at the hands of men, to look at the abuse that was heaped upon the Son of God, to look at the horrors of the cross, which revealed to us not only the love of God, but revealed to us what justice demands from an individual who insists on keeping his sin and enjoying it for a season.

What's interesting to me is that some people are terrified of mice.

Are there people who are terrified of mice in here besides Mavis, I mean?

There are people who are terrified of flying.

There are people who are terrified of having cancer.

There are people who are terrified of dogs.

And some people are afraid of going on the water.

Some people are afraid of their own shadow.

But you know, if you look at all these things, none of these things is going to kill you eternally.

You can safely be afraid of dogs if you want to be afraid of dogs.

Well, I suppose theologically you could go there, but we won't go there this morning.

But these very same people who are afraid...

No, I'm not talking about you in this seat.

But the very same people who may be afraid of all kinds of things in this world that won't destroy you eternally are not afraid of gossiping, and they're not afraid of watching sex and violence on the big screen, and they're not afraid of cheating under taxes or cheating on each other and all of these things.

You've got to wonder at the type of reasoning we go through.

Our brains just don't work like they should.

Few people realize the power of sin to control their lives until, of course, they become Christians.

Now, when an individual becomes a Christian, and if he ever comes to the place as a Christian, where he wants to challenge the habits of sin in his own life, he's going to find out that it's not that easy.

They may plant their feet on the ground and say, I'm through with that.

I promise I'm not going to do that again.

Have you ever made a promise that you're going to break a habit?

Are they like they have been for me?" And steps to Christ says, ropes of sand, your promises.

Several years ago, quite a few years ago, 12 or so, I don't know exactly.

I flew into Lelongwe, Malawi, and I was alone.

And today, to this day, I don't remember why I flew into Lelongwe.

It was on my way to Zambia no doubt and I was alone and I had to overnight there and there's an Adventist place and so they gave me a room.

I had watched a movie on that flight, and while I was alone, and you know, being alone gives you time to think, and I had time to pray, and I had time to think, and that movie had such an effect on my mind that I understood that it wasn't right that I had watched this movie, you understand.

And so right there in my little room, I decided, I made a pledge to the Lord that I would never watch another movie again.

And do you know that lasted for several years?

1 time, we were on furlough in Canada, and we were visiting my wife's sister, not a Christian, really, and they invited us to watch a movie, and they said this was very innocent.

We watched a movie and it was very innocent.

And do you know what happens in your brain, how you start thinking?

Obviously, I watched a movie that was not very good, not good at all.

I watched a movie that was fairly innocent, and then it came to my mind, well, there are good movies and there are bad movies.

But do you know, you start choosing, or you try to determine a book by its cover, and it's not always what's in the book, and it's not always what's in the movie either.

And so little by little, you go back towards that, which you have pledged not to do anymore.

And you end up looking back and say, I made a pledge and my promise was like a rope of sand.

Have you ever made promises and have not kept them?

Have you ever kept any promises you've made?

That's probably a better question, I guess.

The Apostle Paul describes what that's like in Romans chapter 7.

So I'm going to invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 7.

We're going to look at verse 18 in Romans chapter 7.

Most of you will know what Romans chapter 7 is all about.

There's some controversy as to what exactly it means, but I think we don't need to go there.

Verse 18, For I know that in me, that Paul is speaking now, speaking about himself, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.

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There Is A Promise In It

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