All right, we're here in Genesis chapter 3.
Genesis chapter 3.
And the name of the sermon is
The Result of Sin, The Result of Sin.
So last week we looked at the origin of sin,
the first sin that actually came into this world.
And we divided it up into two different sections
because really this goes very nicely
with the result of sin.
We have four different points here today.
And so the first point is with the serpent,
what was the result?
What happened to the serpent as a result of this sin?
Notice what it says in verse number 14.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent,
because thou has done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle
and above every beast of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and dost shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
So we see here in verse 14,
that when it comes to the curse of the serpent,
and of course we understand that the serpent here
is referring to the devil,
but also the serpent is a literal animal.
And we don't have the word snake in the Bible,
but serpent is like a makalumong word for ahas or snake.
So it's referring to basically a snake.
And it says upon thy belly shalt thou go.
See the indication from this verse is that before this,
snakes actually walked
because the curse is that snakes
are gonna be on their belly
and they're no longer gonna actually be walking.
Now, of course, this is hard for us to imagine
a snake that's walking.
And that's a pretty scary thing
because snakes are pretty scary just in general.
But the curse upon the snake itself is
upon thy belly shalt thou go.
Now, when it comes to animals,
I'm not an expert at animals or the study of animals,
but I did wanna read you something
where they talk about supposedly the evolution of snakes.
Of course, we believe the earth is around
six to 7,000 years old.
But of course, the scientists of this world
say the earth is billions of years.
They say with snakes,
snakes are thought to have evolved
from either burrowing or aquatic lizards,
perhaps during the Jurassic period.
About 150 million years ago,
snakes roamed about on well-developed legs.
Now, researchers say a trio of mutations
in a genetic switch
are why those legs eventually disappeared.
During the past 20 years,
other scientists have described snake fossils
with functional hind legs outside their rib cages.
The fossils are estimated to be
at least 90 million years old.
And while at least one of those species
likely retains the legs of its limbed ancestors,
some scientists believe that legs
re-evolved in other snakes.
And so according to scientists and people that study this,
and of course, I don't necessarily trust
what paleontologists are gonna say,
certainly not about the age of supposedly these animals,
but they say it appears like there's actually legs
on these fossils from these snakes.
And of course, their interpretation is,
well, that's because they evolved from another species
and they used to have legs.
But it is very possible that, you know what,
since they used to be able to walk
and the curse upon them
was that they'd be sliding on their bellies,
that maybe God actually left that
as a sign that the Bible's actually true.
Maybe that's why they seem to have
these little legs in the back,
but then they don't seem to use them.
And what they say in evolution is,
they'll call something a vestigial organ.
And what a vestigial organ is,
is something that supposedly was in another animal
or species and we still retain it today, but it's useless.
Now, of course, I don't believe
any part of our body is useless.
I believe every part, we are directly created by God
and there's a purpose for every part.
But perhaps with the snake,
maybe God left that remnant just as a sign
that yeah, you know what,
at one time this animal did actually walk.
And of course, now it doesn't
because upon thy belly shalt thou go.
Now, when it comes to snakes,
snakes are actually a very heavily worshiped animal.
Now, when it comes to various religions,
you have, of course, the religion of Hinduism
and in Hinduism, you have Shiva,
which is the main God that's worshiped in Hinduism
and he's got a snake that's wrapped around his neck
whenever you see pictures.
You can go to Google and type in Shiva.
And sometimes when you see something
and you know it's there, it's obvious,
but before you see it, you can't see it at all.
Once you see it, you can never miss it.
You ever seen one of those pictures
where they say, well, try to find something
and you can't find it, you can't find it.
Once you find it, you never miss it,
but it's hard to find it the first time.
You know, I used to see pictures of Shiva.
I thought he just had a necklace around his neck,
but if you look carefully, it's a snake.
It's actually a snake that's wrapped around his neck
and it's like they don't really hide the fact
that they're worshiping the devil.
It's like you're literally worshiping an idol
with a big snake wrapped around his neck
and the serpent is the devil in Genesis chapter three.
But see, it's not just Hinduism.
You also have religions like voodoo.
Now, people will argue whether or not voodoo is a religion
because people that practice voodoo are usually Catholics
and basically they say Catholic by morning, voodoo by night.
So voodoo is kind of the religion
to act like you're spiritual,
where you're really partying and getting drunk.
I mean, it's bizarre, very satanic sort of stuff.
But in voodoo, the number one animal they worship
is a snake and there's 50 million plus people
that practice voodoo worldwide.
A lot of people.
Here in the Philippines, you have witch doctors,
you don't have a lot of voodoo practitioners.
Although I've watched things on the witch doctors here
and what they say is they battle with the voodoo people
to uncast the spell of voodoo.
They're all practicing black magic.
But the number one animal they worship in voodoo
is the snake.
There's a religion in Vietnam called Cao Dai,
which is one of the 20 biggest religions in the world
based on the statistics they have now.
And it's a religion that's merged about 100 years ago
to try to bring all these religions together.
And in Cao Dai, the number one animal they worship
is the snake.
And inside their churches,
there are snakes all over the place that they're worshiping.
But you know, even in Christianity,
there is a denomination of Christianity
that actually worships snakes to some degree.
Now, I know this from growing up
because this happened commonly in West Virginia
and Kentucky.
And have you ever heard of the snake handling Pentecostals?
And they have church services
where basically at the end of the church service,
instead of trying to speak in tongues,
they just grab a bunch of snakes
and they have them up here.
And then you've got these pastors that are like,
you know, have the snake in their hand.
And it's always a poisonous snake
that is capable of killing them.
And literally every single year,
there's somebody who gets killed
by being bit by that snake.
Now, turn to Mark 16.
You say, where in the world would they get that from?
Well, Mark 16 is where they actually get it from.
One thing they'll mention
is that Paul the Apostle got bit by a snake
and he cast it into the fire.
But see, here's the thing.
Number one, you're not Paul the Apostle.
And number two, he didn't intentionally,
it's not like he was playing with snakes
and then he got bit.
No, he accidentally got bit.
And that speaks more to the fact that God can protect us
when we're trying to serve him.
If something were to happen.
And it's just like,
but you don't tempt God though, right?
Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.
But they go to Mark 16.
And in verse 17, it says this.
And these signs shall follow them that believe.
In my name shall they cast out devils.
They shall speak with new tongues.
They shall take up serpents.
And if they drink any deadly thing,
it shall not hurt them.
They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
Now, in Mark 16, verses 17 and 18,
I believe that these were signs given
only for a time period.
And these things are done away.
We have a completed Bible now.
I don't believe you're seeing these things anymore.
I don't believe people speak in a language
that they've never actually practiced and learned.
You have to actually study it for yourself.
I don't believe that you have these Pentecostals
that are laying hands on the sick supposedly,
helping them recover.
And yet, you know what?
It's funny, they don't go to hospitals
and just lay their hands on everybody
and get them to recover.
They just pay me $10,000 and then I'll heal you.
Give me 500,000 pesos, your life earning,
and then I'll heal you.
And then they don't even heal everybody that's there.
But see, these things were something that were done
for a time as a sign of Christianity.
And God used this, such as in Acts 2,
to promote the gospel to the end of the world.
Now, here's the thing though.
I don't believe though, during this time period,
they were intentionally just playing with serpents though.
You know, when you think of Paul the Apostle,
the only example we really have,
he was accidentally bent by a snake
and then he just shook it off.
At first they said he must have been some terrible person.
He didn't die, they're like, oh, he must be a god, right?
Which shows how fickle people are.
Like for example, it mentions right after that,
if they drink any deadly thing,
I don't believe they're intentionally drinking poison.
I don't believe that they're just like,
man, I got rat poison, let me just drink it
because I'm sure God will protect me.
I don't think that's what the Bible's trying to say here.
I believe the Bible's saying that, you know what?
During this time period,
God made sure that He would protect them
through dangerous situations and things like that.
But these were signs for a time.
Now, here's the thing.
In these churches in West Virginia and Kentucky especially,
they will have snakes that they're holding up
at the end of service,
and then they're like dancing to this Christian rock music,
and then every once in a while,
the pastor gets bit and then he dies.
It always is in Kentucky or my home state of West Virginia.
Now, I grew up in the north part of West Virginia.
This is the south part.
It's like a completely different world, okay?
It's completely different.
But turn to Genesis 3.
But you see this weird obsession with snakes,
and I don't really get it
because snakes are one of the most disgusting animals
that I don't wanna even be around the snake, right?
I mean, I'm not ashamed to say I don't like snakes.
You say, Brother Stuckey, would you be afraid of a snake?
Yeah, I would be afraid if I was holding a snake up here
that was poisonous to my face.
Yes, I would.
I don't really understand why.
You know, I remember hearing this story from years ago.
There was this woman that had a pet snake,
a giant constrictor, one that will wrap around your neck
and like choke you out.
And this woman, she didn't have a dog.
She didn't have a cat.
She just had a pet snake.
And she was like saying,
oh, the snake's been really friendly to me recently.
It wants to cuddle up with me and everything.
And when snakes do that,
what they're actually doing is sizing you up
to figure out whether or not
they're gonna be able to eat you.
So she was actually sleeping in a bed with a snake.
This is a true story.
Then she got eaten by the snake the next day.
And it's just like, you know what?
The stupidity, but it's just like snake is an animal.
I'm not saying a snake specifically is satanic,
but it's obviously used as a symbol of Satan.
You also see not just with the snake itself,
but a similar sort of animal is the dragon, right?
Because serpent and dragon,
there's definitely a similarity there.
And of course in China,
what's the animal they tend to worship?
They tend to worship the dragon, right?
And of course, you know, the dragon was a real animal.
There's nothing wrong specifically
with the animal of a dragon,
but it's just like, you know,
they're worshiping an animal that represents the devil
because the Bible speaks about in Revelation,
that great dragon that's gonna be fighting
the Lord Jesus Christ, referring to the devil.
And then what do they do in China?
Well, the big animal they worship, the dragon.
And look, those festivals are very beautiful.
I mean, colorful and that they look, you know,
amazing and everything like that.
But it's like, you're literally taking the symbol
of the devil and then just like worshiping it.
It's bizarre.
So we see the punishment on the snake.
The snake itself used to be a walking animal
and it was cursed and it had to go on its belly.
But what about with Satan himself?
What is the curse upon Satan when it comes
to underneath this realm of the serpent?
Well, notice what it says in Genesis three verse 15.
And I will put enmity between the,
the referring to the serpent or the devil
and the woman, which would be representative of Eve, okay?
And between thy seed, which is the seed of the devil
and her seed, okay?
Now, people that are dispensationalists,
they will take this verse and they'll say
that the seed of the devil is literally referring
to a physical seed.
What they teach is that the devil actually slept with Eve.
This is what dispensationalists teach.
Because they believe he's like basically a fallen angel.
And he was basically like the first fallen angel they say.
So they literally believe there's a physical seed
and they believe that's eventually why God had
to flood the world because of this seed of the devil.
And so God had to put a stop to it.
So they believe that the seed is actually a physical seed
that the devil actually made it with Eve, right?
Very bizarre.
Now, when it's saying the seed of the devil,
what it's referring to are children of the devil.
This is a spiritual seed, okay?
Because someone, when they become a child of the devil,
they are God's child forever.
This is the seed of the devil.
And what we're seeing is there's a seed of the devil
and Hersey's really referring to just humankind in general,
but you can also oftentimes in the Bible
apply it directly to save people.
And there is this battle between children of the devil
who want to destroy us and then children of God
that takes place throughout the entire Bible.
Notice what it says then at the end of this verse.
It's, which is the seed of the woman,
which would ultimately be the Lord Jesus Christ,
it shall bruise thy head and now shall bruise his heel.
So the seed of the woman
is going to bruise the head of the serpent,
but the serpent is going to bruise the heel,
which is the seed of the woman of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay?
So how did the devil bruise the heel
of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, when he was crucified, right?
That would be when his heel, symbolically speaking,
was bruised.
And then when is the head of Satan gonna be bruised?
Well, when he's cast into the lake of fire
for all eternity.
Now here's the thing.
Why does the Bible say head and heel?
Because there's nothing that's accidental in the Bible.
Why is it saying head and heel?
Well, if you think about like Greek mythology,
think of Achilles, which was,
there's a movie called Troy that came out like 10 years ago,
Brad Pitt.
And Achilles is like this Greek God
that was very famous and everything.
Well, Achilles is like your heel, the Achilles heel.
And in the story of Greek mythology,
he died because he got shot with an arrow in his heel.
And that's why he actually died.
But I believe the reason why they probably picked the heel
is the heel is a very painful place to get injured.
If you look at sports athletes,
you can get injured in about just about any way,
but if you tear your Achilles, you might never play again.
Right?
I mean, I tore my ACL.
I tore my meniscus playing soccer,
but you know, after surgery six months later,
basically 100%.
With the Achilles, you might never fully recover, right?
It's actually considered the worst injury.
And then people that are basketball players
that tear their Achilles,
they're out for over a year because of that one injury.
Even though it's such a small part of your body,
if you mess up your Achilles, it's very painful.
So I think when the Bible's saying
that Satan is gonna bruise the heel of Jesus,
it's saying it's gonna be very painful.
But here's the thing.
You do eventually recover if you mess up your Achilles.
Now in sports, you might not have as much speed
or quickness or ability to jump,
but it's not like if you mess up your Achilles,
you're never gonna be able to walk again.
It's just gonna take a long time to recover.
It's very painful.
Here's the thing though.
If you get a good bruise to the head, it can kill you.
Right?
I mean, people get into a boxing fight
and the back of their head slams on concrete.
People literally die in colleges
because they get drunk and then they get punched.
They hit the back of their head
and then they actually die from it,
from brain trauma or this major concussion.
The heel is very painful.
It takes a while to recover, but you do eventually recover.
But if you get a good injury to the head,
you might never recover.
Many people die because of a big bruise
that they actually have to the head.
And what the Bible's trying to say symbolically is
you're gonna very painfully hurt the Lord Jesus Christ,
but he's gonna rise again from the dead.
However, he's basically going to stomp on your head.
Right?
Now, you could take this to say,
well, maybe it's saying that he bruises his heel
when he stomps on the serpent.
I don't really take it to be that way
because I think the wording would be
that the Satan harms Jesus by actually trying
and he does that by him dying on the cross.
But basically when you're trying to picture
this in your head, think of a snake
and basically the snake's coming to attack you
and it's like, boom, and then you stomp its head
into the ground.
And if you connect, then you know what?
It's liable to kill that serpent.
So that's what the Bible's saying here.
Well, this is the punishment.
This is the result of sin to the literal snake
where it no longer walked
and it actually slithers around on its belly.
And then actually to the devil where basically
you are gonna be destroyed as a result of this.
Number two in Genesis 3, what about the woman?
What is the result of sin when it comes to the woman?
What happens to Eve and womankind in general
as a result of this sin?
Well, it says, unto the woman he said,
I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
So when it's saying I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow and thy conception,
it's saying I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and I will greatly multiply thy conception.
So it's also saying multiply thy conception.
So multiply thy sorrow
and greatly multiply thy conception as well.
So there's two things mentioned here.
And you know what?
One of them is greatly multiply thy sorrow,
which is sadness, being very soberunglung quotes, right?
And the Bible's saying that with the woman
as a result of her sin,
she is gonna be in more sadness and sorrow
and this is being linked with conception
or bringing forth children.
Basically when a woman has children,
it's actually gonna be very painful and very difficult.
Now I do want you to understand one thing.
It says multiply thy sorrow and multiply thy conception.
Now, obviously I'm a math-oriented person,
so I'm kind of looking at it from this lens,
but if you take math and you have the number zero
and you multiply it by one million, you still get zero.
So I take this to say when he's saying multiply thy sorrow
that before this time period,
even though it doesn't mention them having any children
and I don't believe they did have any children at this time,
I do believe that they were capable
of having children before the fall.
Sometimes you might wonder that question,
you know, there's no kids.
And so here's the thing though,
if it was zero, like no kids are ever gonna be born,
well, you can multiply that.
There's gonna be no sorrow or conception
because they're not gonna be able
to have any children before, so it's something brand new.
When he's saying multiply thy sorrow and thy conception,
he's basically saying I'm gonna take
the amount of sorrow and conception
that there was before or there would be
having a child and multiply that.
So I do believe that if a woman had a child before the fall,
that it would be something that would be painful,
but I think it's something that's multiplied.
Now, that's the way I take that.
I don't necessarily think I've heard someone explain that
because it's hard to be dogmatic
on something the Bible's not very clear on.
And the Bible doesn't mention stuff before the fall.
So, you know, I'm not super dogmatic.
I don't wanna be like, I'm right, everybody else is wrong
because, you know, that's my interpretation from verse 16
because obviously we don't see any kids before this point,
but I do believe that they were capable of having children.
But he says he's gonna multiply thy sorrow,
and when they actually do conceive,
there's gonna be a lot of sadness.
There's gonna be a lot of pain.
Well, it says then, in sorrow,
thou shalt bring forth children.
So there's the link to having children.
I'll greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children.
So when a woman has a child, there's a lot of sadness.
There's a lot of difficulties.
It's not an easy thing is what the Bible's saying.
Well, go to John 16, John 16, John 16.
Now, I've heard of some ladies
saying how I just love childbirth
and just I love being pregnant and everything.
Yeah, maybe there's some exceptions to the general rule.
You know, I don't know.
But most ladies don't necessarily enjoy those 40 weeks.
It's very difficult, right?
Obviously, as a guy, I don't really know what this is like.
But I'm just saying, especially the first trimester,
very difficult, right?
Oftentimes, women are very sick.
It's very, very difficult for them, the first trimester.
And in the last trimester, tends to be very hard,
especially as you get closer to the day.
Oftentimes, the woman might have to really rest
or be bedridden or something like that.
I know with my wife, when Christabel was born,
my wife for the last four weeks or so
really had to take it easy
because you don't want it to come too soon
and stuff like that.
It's a difficult thing, right?
Obviously, it's not the easiest thing.
Obviously, it's very hard.
And you know what?
The Bible says there's this curse
because of what Eve did in Genesis chapter three, right?
So if ladies wanna get mad, it's like, blame Eve, right?
She's the one why it's so painful.
But it talks about this in John 16, verse 21.
A woman, when she is in travail,
hath sorrow because her hour is come.
This is referring to the moment
when basically she's really going through the labor, right?
The 40 weeks are not fun,
but when she's travailing in birth, right?
There's that word in travailing or working hard.
She has sorrow.
Basically, it's not fun.
She doesn't enjoy it, right?
It's not fun to be in pain
and just really working.
Obviously, there's a lot of emotions
that are involved there and everything.
It's very difficult.
And it's like, oh man, the hour's come.
And it's like, man, it's very painful.
But as soon as she is delivered of the child,
she remembereth no more the anguish
for joy that a man is born into the world.
And so with ladies, when they have a child, it's not fun.
It's not enjoyable.
Once the child is born, they're just in a good mood.
They're very happy.
And I was there for the birth of both of our children.
And both of our children were born on a Sunday.
And so I had to miss church, right?
But actually, my wife and I
were both born on a Sunday as well.
I was born to be a preacher, I don't know.
All four of us were born on a Sunday,
me, my wife, and our two kids.
It's not fun, the actual labor part.
That's very difficult.
But it's true if you've been there
for your child being born.
Once that child is born, then the woman is very happy.
She's overcome with joy at the child
that she has been blessed with.
Now go to verse 33, verse 33, verse 33.
These things have I spoken unto you
that in me ye might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Now, this is not directly an end times passage.
However, the end times talks about a woman being in labor
as an example, which we're gonna talk about in a second.
So when it's saying tribulation here in verse 33,
this is not directly about the end times,
but I don't believe it's completely isolated from it either
because the Bible is saying
you're gonna have tribulation in this world.
You're gonna have difficulties in this world.
And it's in the same passage
where it talks about a woman travailing in birth.
And it's interesting because that's the same wording
as in 1 Thessalonians chapter five.
Go to 1 Thessalonians five.
1 Thessalonians five.
1 Thessalonians chapter five.
Verse number one, 1 Thessalonians five verse one.
Now look, this is of course,
right after the end of 1 Thessalonians four,
which is a classic rapture passage,
which never gives you any sort of timing
in 1 Thessalonians four.
It just tells you the Lord's gonna return,
but there's no indication in any direction
of when the timing is in chapter four.
It's just very clearly about the rapture, right?
So sometimes people want to point to that or they're like,
well, there's a rapture in 1 Thessalonians four.
Well, it doesn't give you any sort of timing though.
It just tells you that there's gonna be a rapture.
Well, chapter five, verse one, the context is still there.
But of the times and the seasons,
and this is referring to the times and the seasons
where basically the rapture is going to come,
brethren, you have no need that I write on you.
He's saying, you don't need me to write to you
about the times and the seasons.
Why would they not need to be written to about that?
For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night.
So he's saying, you don't need me to write about this
because you are already aware
that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.
Now notice what it says here in verse three,
for when they shall say peace and safety,
then sudden destruction comes upon them
as travail upon a woman with child
and they shall not escape.
So here's what you need to understand.
When it comes to us that are saved,
the example I've given before
is like a thief coming in the middle of the night,
you're not going to expect that.
But the Bible says that we are not in darkness
that that day should overtake us as a thief, right?
So basically it would be like us with the lights out
just sitting here by the door with a gun,
just ready to kill the intruder that's coming in the house.
We're aware of it.
When it comes to the end times,
when the abomination of desolation takes place,
you better believe we know we're in the great tribulation.
Right?
And so we're going to be aware of it
because we know what the Bible says.
Okay?
But it also talks about,
but see the unbelieving world,
they're not going to be aware of this,
not going to be ready for it.
But it also talks about a woman travailing with child.
Okay?
So what is the Bible saying?
Well, think about a woman who is pregnant.
Let's say a woman gets pregnant, she's with child,
and let's say she doesn't take a pregnancy test.
Okay?
Well, she's going to eventually figure out
that she's with child, right?
There's obvious signs for a woman that she's with child.
There's obvious biological and medical things
that prove to you, even if you don't take a test,
even if you don't gain a lot of weight,
even if you're not getting sick,
which is often the case during the first trimester,
there's very obvious things that are going to take place
where a woman knows, hey, I must be pregnant,
and then they take the test.
Oh, it turns out I am pregnant.
That's the whole reason why most women take a pregnancy test
because these certain signs point to the fact,
well, it looks like I'm probably pregnant, right?
And here's the thing, when somebody's pregnant,
there's generally going to be about 40 weeks.
Now, sometimes it's early.
Of course, I understand that,
but it's not like a birth can be like 200 weeks.
It's not like just two weeks naturally.
No, I mean, it's like around 40 weeks,
and obviously, if there's anything that goes wrong,
it might be really early.
Obviously, there's a lot of things that can happen,
but what I'm saying is this.
You get closer to that point,
and the second trimester's not bad,
but then the third trimester is getting kind of difficult,
and as you get closer to the time,
obviously, the baby's getting heavier.
A woman's back might start hurting.
It's harder to do things around the house.
You don't want to have the labor kind of come too early
because the woman's too active and things like that,
but here's what I'm saying.
It's obvious we're getting closer to the actual labor, right?
And see, what the Bible's saying is
when it comes to the end times,
it's gonna be obvious we're getting close
to that travailing, right?
Now, we're not gonna be here during that time period.
We're gonna be raptured basically
right at the end of the 40 weeks,
right before it gets really bad.
We're gone is what the Bible's saying,
but it's just like it's very obvious
that if a woman's pregnant,
you can tell she's getting closer and closer,
and then you start having some signs
where you're wondering, hey, is it about time?
And there's ways now with all these things
where you can test how long the contractions are
and stuff like that.
You can really nail it down in the time
when the labor's about to take place, right?
Especially ladies who have had several children
can be like really sharp in those things
because they have experience.
And see, it's obvious to all of us
if a woman's with child, she's getting close to that point.
And here's the thing, to us that are saved,
it's very obvious when we're getting very close
to the wrath of God.
It's very obvious because there's things
that can't be denied.
The abomination of desolation, right?
But even before the abomination of desolation,
there are probably gonna be things
that make you look at yourself and think,
huh, I wonder if this could be, right?
A lot of turmoil is gonna be happening,
and it's not just randomly mentioned
in the book of Revelation.
The Bible's very specific about the things
that are gonna take place.
The abomination of desolation is certainly specific
where you cannot buy or sell unless you get the mark
and you have to worship the dragon or the antichrist,
which is basically worshiping the devil though, right?
But the Bible's saying with the example of a woman,
it's like obviously you can tell you're getting
to the point where the labor's gonna take place.
It's the same thing with the end times.
It's not just, wow, I had no idea,
and then all of a sudden your wife wakes you up
in the middle of the night,
oh, honey, I didn't tell you, but I'm pregnant,
and now I'm in labor.
It doesn't work that way, right?
It's not like all of a sudden it's like,
oh, man, I didn't even know I was pregnant,
and all of a sudden a baby's born.
It doesn't work that way, and see, that's how foolish
saying the imminent return of Jesus Christ
that it can happen at any moment, no signs necessary.
No, that's complete foolishness,
and one of the examples given is a woman with child.
It doesn't just happen, boom, out of nowhere.
I had no idea that I was pregnant.
No, women are obviously aware that they're pregnant, okay?
Now, go back to Genesis chapter one, Genesis one.
So one of the things with a woman is, you know,
that basically there's gonna be sorrow's gonna be multiplied
when she's actually giving birth,
but it also says multiply thy conception,
and this goes back to the fact that, you know,
if you multiply by zero, it's still zero,
so I believe that means that she could have children
before Genesis three,
but it's gonna be multiplied after Genesis three.
Now, this is a bit of a necessity
because before Genesis three, man was not gonna die,
but since man's gonna die, God's like,
I need to multiply thy conception
because you're not gonna live for 900 years forever
to be able to have children, right?
Your age span is gonna end up dropping and everything.
People are gonna die off, so it's like,
you're gonna have to, you know, be able to have,
more likely to have children during a time period
than before this moment, so before this moment,
I don't think necessarily you're gonna be having kids
every two years, but which can be common, you know,
for women that are giving birth.
I think it would be more like spread out
because there wasn't really a need
for the earth to be quickly populated
because people aren't dying off, okay?
But now, because of this, it's like, well,
it's gonna be more painful giving birth,
but it's also gonna be multiply the amount of children
that you are actually having.
Now, notice what it says in Genesis one.
Go to Genesis one, Genesis one.
Genesis one.
And he says in verse 28,
and God blessed them, and God said unto them,
be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth.
So all the way back to Genesis one verse 28,
God told man, I want you to be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth.
I want you to have children, and here's the thing,
you can't subdue or have dominion over the animals
if you don't have children, or if there aren't people here.
In locations where there are very few people,
animals take over the community.
In areas where there's a lot of people, the animals flee.
That's the way it always works.
The Bible even talks about that in,
I think it's in Exodus, but in one of the books
as they're trying to go into the promised land,
where basically, he said, I made it slow
because he's like, you wouldn't be ready,
and then the animals would basically just take over.
That's basically a rough paraphrase
of what's being said.
But it says, I want you to be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth,
and so the Bible's saying, have children.
Okay, now go back to Genesis three.
Genesis three.
Genesis three verse 16.
Because in our modern day,
women don't have like 500 years to be able to have kids.
There's obviously a window,
and it can be different depending on the woman
because obviously, women can get pregnant.
I don't know the exact age.
Sometimes you'll hear of girls that are 13 years old.
Obviously, they're not married.
That's a bad thing, obviously,
but it's possible around that age.
It's about as early as far as I know that it gets,
something like that.
Sometimes in the mid 40s, but it gets very hard
once you get up to that age of having children
who are much more likely to miscarry and stuff like that.
It's a lot more difficult, and so there's a window.
It's like, if you live to be 900 years old, though,
that window could be from like 20 years old
to like 600 years old, you know?
But that's not the world that we live in,
so obviously, God's gonna multiply thy conception
because it's like, well, you don't have 500 years, right?
And the rest of Genesis three verse 16 says,
and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee.
Now, I believe that the men were the head
of their households before this
because Eve was created from Adam,
but I think the thing that's changed
or that he's really specific on
is thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and what it says is that women are gonna have a desire
for their husband and basically a desire
to be ruled over by their husband,
and I do believe that women, inside of their hearts,
they want a guy to actually lead them.
That's what the Bible's saying here,
and this is one of the things,
as a result of Genesis chapter three,
because of this event, Eve is told,
your desire's gonna be to your husband,
and he is gonna rule over you.
He is going to be the authority.
Now, look, this does not mean that men
are smarter than women.
It just means men are different than women,
and you always have to have an authority structure
for something to work.
If you had an office, and you had 20 employees,
and they were all just equal with one another
in terms of authority, it would be a madhouse, right?
I mean, are you just gonna take a vote
every single time for everything?
It's like, no, I mean, you have authority structures set up,
and it's the same thing in anything in life.
We have authority structures set up here in this country
with politics and things like that.
I'm not saying it always works perfectly,
but I'm just saying everything's gonna fail
if it's just a free-for-all
where nobody has any sort of authority,
so that's what the Bible says there.
But there's also a curse upon the man.
So women don't have to be upset
because men are cursed as well from Genesis three.
Notice what it says in Genesis three, verse 17.
And unto Adam he said,
because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,
and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it,
cursed is the ground for thy sake,
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
And so the sorrow upon the woman
is the fact that labor is gonna be very difficult.
The sorrow upon the man
is that making money's gonna be very difficult.
You're gonna work very hard.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
Now, obviously during these time periods,
you know, jobs like being a farmer
and outdoor work would have been more common.
You know, obviously we don't have computers,
you know, and stuff like that.
At least as far as we're aware of,
they didn't have anything before the flood.
You know, I guess we don't necessarily know
before the flood.
What I'm saying is jobs are like outdoor jobs
where you're basically sweating.
You're not in front of a computer.
Most of us in 2021,
most of us have computer jobs, right?
Most of us in this room, you know, we have computer jobs.
I got a math degree, right?
You know, my job, you know, most of the time,
I just, you know, when I was a high school teacher,
I just taught the students.
When I was like a pension analyst,
it was just Microsoft Excel for eight hours every day.
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel.
So, you know, you're not really, you know, sweating a lot,
but at the same time, you know, it's still,
it's not like you can just show up to work
and work for 30 minutes and just make lots of money.
It's difficult to make it in life.
You got to work hard.
And if you want to pay the bills, you have to work, right?
It's going to be difficult.
And, you know, this is actually part of the curse
of Genesis 3, where basically the Bible is saying,
it's going to be difficult to make it in life.
Now, here's the thing.
This comes as a result of Adam choosing to sin
and take the fruit, okay?
But, you know, honestly, it's a good thing for us
because if life was too easy, we would sin a lot.
It's the truth.
If we only had to work for one hour a day,
you know what, we would waste the rest of our days.
That's the truth.
We'd sit around and eat junk food,
be out of shape and be lazy and be on YouTube
for hours and hours every day
because too much free time is not actually a good thing.
And you know what, we can actually see this.
This is not what I'm really preaching about,
but this is something we can learn from Genesis 3
because before this event,
Adam didn't really have to work hard.
He just kind of steps outside and it's just like,
oh wow, you know, I got fruits, I got vegetables,
let's just take them, right?
And I'm sure they tasted great, right?
After this event, God said the ground is now cursed
and by the sweat of thy face,
meaning you're going to work and work and work
and you know what, you're still going to eat the fruit,
you're still going to eat the vegetables,
but you've got to produce it yourself.
You got to work hard for it.
Before this though, it was really easy.
I mean, can you imagine just, you know,
living where basically you had every day,
you just walked outside and the fruits and the vegetables
just created themselves and you just had everything
and fresh strawberries, fresh grain,
it's wrong to have some free time.
You know what, find something valuable to do with it.
I'm not saying you have to go soloing it for 20 hours a day,
but you know, maybe just make a plan.
Hey, I'm going to spend time with my family at this time.
I'm going to read the Bible at this time
or I'm going to do this hobby at this time
because for all of us, if we have too much free time,
we're not going to be productive.
That's just the way it works.
We got to plan it out.
We see Adam and Eve is a great example of this
because they have free time.
What happens?
I'm just curious.
Let's just try this fruit.
But see, here's the thing.
If you're staying very busy in life,
you're too busy to get into trouble.
And see, the Bible says this throughout the word of God,
it talks about this.
It talks about women.
They have too much free time can be busy bodies.
And it talks about men.
And I think it's 2 Thessalonians 3, not working
and talking about how many problems they're causing
in the local church because they refuse to work
because too much free time is bad for all of us.
Verse 18,
thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee
and now shall it eat the herb of the field.
So basically, Adam, you're going to work hard,
but you're also going to have thorns and thistles
that are going to make it more difficult.
Anyway, isn't it true with whatever jobs are,
you work and work and work,
but then problems end up taking up a lot of the time.
If there were no problems and everything works smoothly,
it'd be very easy.
I remember when I worked in Maryland,
I'd be on Microsoft Excel and things were going well.
And then all of a sudden there'd be something
that was like misspelled
because we're working with other companies
and they send us the names
and you got to get these things right.
There's a misspelling.
So it's like, oh, great.
I've got to go down to the basement
and try to find this file where there's thousands of files
that are not organized very well
just to find this one piece of paper
to see what his name was listed at
when he was signed up for the pension.
Isn't this true though with whatever your jobs are,
a problem ends up taking up lots of time
where it's like, man,
it's like things were going great,
I was getting so much work done
and then this one problem, right?
That's the way it works in life.
And that's the thorns and the thistles symbolically speaking
and we have that at our jobs.
Things don't go smoothly, right?
I mean, you're raising your kids,
things don't always go smoothly, right?
They make a mess.
It's like, things are going so well.
You turn your head for a second
and it's just like your kids
just decided to throw rice everywhere.
Not that that's ever happened to me before,
but I know from personal experience, right?
Things like this take place.
Verse 19, in the sweat of my face
shalt thou be bred till thou return unto the ground
for out of it wast thou taken,
for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.
So the Bible says this,
you're going to work hard until the day you die, right?
Now look, I'm not saying it's wrong to go on retirement
when you're at a certain age or whatever.
I'm not saying that's wrong
because obviously as we get older,
our ability to work is going to go down
no matter what our field is.
You know, you're just not going to be able
to do the things you used to.
Even if you don't work a laboring job,
your mind does not work as well
at the age of 80 versus the age of 30, right?
You know, you kind of have the ability
and you have the energy to work at it.
And as you get older though,
some of those things are going to start to fade away.
It's just part of life.
In fact, turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
Let me show this to you, Ecclesiastes 12.
So I'm not saying that you can never retire.
I'm not saying retirement's bad, but I am saying this.
I know that most people when they retire
end up getting very bored
because they don't have anything to do.
And you know what, if I retire one day
because I feel like, you know,
man, I don't have the energy as much anymore,
you know, I'm not saying I'm going to be
as busy as I was before
because maybe I don't have the energy to be that busy,
but I don't think it's a good idea
to just say, okay, I have nothing to do.
You got to fill it with something.
You got to have a plan of action
because if you just have too much free time
and nothing to do, you're just going to get into trouble
no matter what age you are.
You're not going to be productive.
You got to, you know, really just come up with a schedule
and say, this is what I'm going to do, right?
It's like this with all areas of life.
There's a lot of young guys that will be looking for a job
and they're struggling to find a job.
And it's like, well, what's the secret?
Here's the secret.
Make a list the day before and say,
I'm going to apply to this job and this job and this job.
I'm going to go in person here and in here and in here.
And then you just check off the list as you're going
rather than just waking up and say,
oh, okay, what am I going to do now?
Well, you're not productive if you do that.
You got to just have a plan of action.
That is how you're successful.
You know, at our church, we have set soul winning times.
You say, why?
Because if we didn't have any time,
if we just said, hey, we're a soul winning church.
Sometime this week, we would never go soul winning.
We have soul winning, you know, before our midweek service.
We have soul winning on Saturdays in the afternoon.
And when you have a time, what happens?
What caused you to actually go out and preach the gospel?
Imagine if we had a church
and we didn't have a set time to meet.
We're just going to meet sometime on Saturday.
It'd be a free for all, right?
You got to actually have a plan of action.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, notice what it says in verse one.
Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not,
nor the years drawn nigh,
when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
So the Bible says, you know what, as you get older,
you can reach the point where you're saying,
I don't really have pleasure in the days
that I'm living through.
Now, I believe that you can find joy in your life.
But what I'm saying is,
there's just things that you can't do that you used to do.
I loved playing sports growing up
and I still like to work out, but you know what?
I can't work out like I could 10 years ago.
When I was in my mid twenties, you know,
I'd work out, not stretch, feel great the next day.
If I do the same thing and I don't stretch,
you know, the next day I'm just like,
ah, my back is sore and everything.
It's just part of life, right?
Verse two, it says,
well, the sun or the light or the moon or the stars
be not darkened nor the clouds return after the rain.
Verse three, in the day when the keepers of the house
shall tremble.
Well, when it says the keepers of the house
is referring to your hands.
As you get older, your hands tremble or shake.
They keep the house, they open the doors.
And the strong men shall bow themselves.
So the strong parts of your body, you know,
your back muscles, your leg muscles,
they start to, you know,
people start to slouch as they get older.
You know, they can't stand up straight quite as much.
And the grinders cease because there are a few
referring to your teeth grinding.
People often lose their teeth when they get older.
And those that look out of the windows be darkened.
And so people's eyesight oftentimes goes as they get older.
It's just part of life, right?
This is why the Bible says it's good for a man
to bear the yoke in his youth.
It's good to work hard when you're young.
You know, what I try to tell people,
because I can't say that I took life as seriously
as I should have when I was 20 years old.
But what I try to tell people is,
hey, you know what?
Work very hard before you're married
and before you have kids.
Because once you do have,
once you are married and have kids, you know what?
You'd rather you put in the time while you were single
rather than just sitting around and wasting it
to work hard and be successful
and work your way up in the company or whatever.
Then, you know, once you're married
and have kids doing the same thing.
It's better to just work hard as young as possible
and provide a future for yourself
because it's not an easy world out there.
Go to Genesis 3, Genesis 3, Genesis 3.
And look, either men or women could just sit around
and complain about this saying, well, it's not fair.
But this is just the way it is.
It's what it says in Genesis 3.
Because of Adam's sin, it is gonna be hard to make money.
It's not gonna be easy.
You're gonna have to work hard.
You're only gonna be successful if you work hard.
And because of Eve's sin, what takes place?
Well, women are gonna be in a lot of pain
when they give birth.
Right, and the Bible says that the husbands
will rule over them and their desire
will be toward their husbands.
And see, what the Bible's saying is
a woman would enjoy their life better
if they would, you know, basically, you know,
get married, have kids, and have a husband
that they love and respect and follow.
They would enjoy their lives more.
You say, but Brother Stuckey,
if I could just be the president,
I would be so happy, right?
Look, you know, as a woman,
that's not what God has called you to do.
Look, realize this.
As a guy, there are certain jobs
that God would not want me to do, right?
I mean, obviously, working at a bar
if I'm serving alcohol would be something I shouldn't do
as a Bible-believing Christian.
And you know what, it's just like as a woman,
they say, well, you can be anything you wanna be.
You can just be this famous CEO and everything like that.
But you know what, if you go down that road,
you're not gonna be as happy
because in the plan of God for women
is to get married and have a family.
So the Bible says, and that is where
they're actually gonna have happiness.
And what makes this difficult
is that the world will constantly lie to women.
They'll lie to them.
And they'll tell them, well, you'd be happy.
And I'll give you an example with my sister
because I have one sibling, I have one sister,
and she's two years older than me.
My sister's a very, very intelligent person.
She graduated high school when she was 13 years old.
She's very intelligent.
I graduated when I was 18 like a normal person.
My sister graduated when she was 13.
When she was in first and second grade,
she's reading college-level books.
Her reading level was off the charts.
I played sports growing up, she read books.
Imagine that, she became smarter than me.
But she was very intelligent.
She graduated college, and a month after she turned 18,
she graduated college and everything.
And people from our community were just like,
oh, she's gonna be a doctor,
she's gonna be a lawyer because she's so smart.
And then my sister got married when she was 17 years old.
She's about to graduate college.
And she got married, and her husband
is a mechanical engineer, or he was.
He retired, he runs a family business.
But basically, she decided to be a stay-at-home mom
and basically just take care of the kids.
They got married, they started having kids and everything.
Anyway, people were very rude to my parents
and they'd say things like,
oh, she's throwing her life away.
What an insult.
I mean, first off, that's just a rude thing to say
whether you think that or not,
but it's just like, what an insult to what God says,
the role of a woman, where she's gonna be happy
raising her children.
And it's like, that sort of,
and here's the thing about this.
Raising children takes work.
And if you're gonna teach your kids,
obviously you're gonna be the teacher educating them.
Well, here's the thing.
If you invest your heart and your soul
and your energy into that,
and you do a good job, you know what's gonna take place?
They're gonna become intelligent.
They're gonna love God.
They're gonna serve God.
It's not throwing away your life,
but see, this is what the world wants to tell you.
And it's like, well, we should just look at Genesis 3
and say, what does the Bible say?
Trust in what God says.
Don't trust in what the world is gonna tell you.
Genesis 3, verse 20.
And Adam called his wife's name Eve
because she was the mother of all living.
Onto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them.
So we saw the result of sin with the serpent and the devil.
We saw it with the woman.
We saw it with the man.
Lastly, we see with salvation what takes place
because it talks about the coats of skins.
And notice what it says in verse 22.
And the Lord God said,
behold, the man has become as one of us.
Now, does that mean that man is becoming God
like the Mormons say?
Well, it says this, to know good and evil.
Now man understands good and evil
because obviously Adam and Eve before this,
they were just walking around without clothes,
is what the Bible says.
They didn't see anything wrong with it.
Then once they sinned,
they tried to cover up with their fig leaf religion,
so to speak, of works,
trying to cover up the sin and the problems
because they were embarrassed, right?
You say, what is that supposed to mean?
Well, let's keep reading.
And now lest he put forth his hand
and take also of the tree of life
and eat and live forever.
Because of this sin, Adam and Eve needed to get saved.
Because if they don't eat of the tree of life,
they're not gonna live forever.
So here's the thing,
if they had never sinned,
then they weren't gonna die.
But since they sinned,
now they're gonna die,
but also spiritually speaking,
they need to get saved.
Now here's the thing,
the same thing takes place to all of us here today,
but the way we can tell when somebody reaches this point
is the same with Adam and Eve.
Because once they sinned,
all of a sudden they realize they're naked, right?
So how are we gonna tell if our kids are old enough
where they need to get saved?
Well, once they start getting embarrassed
by being naked, right?
My kids are not.
Obviously as a parent,
you're embarrassed if your kids are like,
oh, put on some clothes, right?
Because they don't see anything wrong with it.
My son and my daughter,
my son's three and a half years old.
He is not at the point
where he has any shame with being naked.
He's not at that point.
My daughter is not at that point.
They have no problem with running out of the shower
and not wearing any clothes,
and that's normal for a baby, right?
But eventually everybody reaches that age
where they start getting embarrassed.
Now, I don't know exactly what that age is,
but that's really your age of accountability
that you're actually looking at.
If my son died right now,
he'd go straight to heaven
because he is not at the point
to comprehend good and evil,
according to the Bible and right and wrong
to the level where they'd be accountable.
And I believe with all the children here,
I think they're probably all too young, right?
Now, I've heard of people getting saved at a young age,
but I would say that when a child,
certainly if they're less than four,
I think they've not reached that age.
I've heard of kids praying
and getting saved when they're four,
and I'm not saying that doesn't take place.
I'm just saying there's no way when I was four,
I would have been old enough to comprehend
all of this stuff.
I don't know what the exact age is,
but what I do know is kids will reach a point
where they're embarrassed about being naked,
and that's the point
where they need to start hearing the gospel.
Let me show this to you in the Bible real quickly.
Go to Romans 7, Romans 7.
We'll close up here in a little bit.
Romans 7, Romans 7.
The Bible's just so amazing
because honestly it has all the answers.
It answers questions you would have never thought about,
but then when you hear the question,
you're like, that's a good question.
What's the answer?
It's like, well, here's the answer, right?
The Bible tells us.
And Paul speaks about this in Romans 7, verse 8.
He says, but sin taking occasion by the commandment,
rod me all manner of concupiscence,
for without the law, sin was dead.
But notice this in verse 9,
for I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
So when Paul says I was alive without the law,
what he's saying is when he was a baby,
when he was a very young child, he was alive spiritually.
He was safe, not saved, but he was safe.
He wasn't accountable for his sin.
And if he had died, he would have gone to heaven.
But you reach a point where I died, is what he says,
spiritually speaking, because he reached the point
where he's old enough and he, like all of us, do wrong.
We've sinned and we need to save her.
But here's the thing, before you reach that point,
you go to heaven if you die.
A young child that dies goes straight to heaven.
An aborted baby goes to heaven.
A baby that dies in the womb goes to heaven.
No question about it from a biblical perspective, right?
But eventually our children are gonna reach the point
where they need to get saved.
Now here's the thing, though.
Even though my son is too young to get saved,
I should still be preparing him for that time period, right?
Don't just wait until they're six years old
and now I gotta start, I mean, obviously, you know,
my son's young, but I try to talk to him about God.
I say God created everything.
And you know what, kids might not get everything,
but kids get more than we realize, right?
Kids will start picking up on things.
So you wanna try to start as early as possible
with just explaining some of these things,
and some of these things start to stick.
And you know what, eventually it's gonna help them
as they reach that age where they need to get saved
to really understand that, okay?
Now go back to Genesis 3 and we'll close up.
Genesis 3, Genesis 3.
So look, you see the plan of salvation here, right,
in Genesis chapter 3.
I mean, it's not super specific,
but they needed a blood sacrifice.
And the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ,
died for the sins of the whole world,
not just for us in the 21st century,
not just for people after the death of Jesus Christ,
but before as well He died for all of those sins,
every single sin that would ever come into the world.
Genesis 3, verse 23.
Therefore, the Lord God sent Him forth
from the Garden of Eden
to till the ground from whence He was taken.
So He drove out the man,
and He placed it east of the Garden of Eden cherubims,
and a flaming sword was turned every way
to keep the way of the tree of life.
So that's Genesis 3.
Now let me say this in conclusion,
because the name of the sermon was the result of sin,
and obviously this event will never happen again.
When we sin, nothing like this takes place.
But one thing we can take away from this
and need to realize is that sin is always destructive.
It's never gonna be this destructive
like it was in Genesis 3.
This will never be recreated,
but at the same time, whenever we sin,
it's gonna cause problems.
It is gonna cause destruction in our lives,
and it's not gonna be to this level,
but it's certainly gonna cause problems.
And you know what, here's the thing.
If you commit a big sin,
you're gonna have a big punishment.
Now if you're saved, you have eternal life.
You're gonna go to heaven.
You don't have to question your salvation,
but you do have to be afraid
of what God's gonna do to you in this life.
And it's like we as God's people,
God said, you know, be ye holy, for I am holy.
And just because we're saved
doesn't mean we're getting away with our sin
because we'll be judged in this life, right?
Sin is always destructive,
and maybe this will not take place anymore,
but you know what, if we were to look at sins in our life,
there are repercussions for the actions
and the choices we make.
We need to make sure as God's people in 2021,
we are living a godly and holy and separated life.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,