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🎵Music🎵 Good morning everyone, let's start our second service, please take your seats. So let's start our second service, and open your hymnal to hymn number 43, we're marching to Zion. Hymn number 43, we're marching to Zion on the first, on the first ready, sing. Come with us, love the Lord, and let our joys be known, join in a song with sweet accord, join in a song with sweet accord. And us around that road, and us around that road, we're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion, we're marching apart to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Let those refused to sing, who never knew our God, but children of the heavenly King, but children of the heavenly King, may speak their joys abroad, may speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, we're marching apart to Zion, the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion is a thousand single streets, before we reach the heavenly fields, before we reach the heavenly fields, or walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, we're marching apart to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Then let our songs about, and every tear be dried, we're marching to Emmanuel's ground, we're marching to Emmanuel's ground. To better words on high, to better words on high, we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, we're marching apart to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Let's pray. All right, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church and take out your bullets and we'll go through a few announcements real quickly. And first, let's count up any unreported salvation to report. So in this section to start off, any salvations to report? Four, three, anybody else? How about this section here? Salvations, anybody? One. And how about over in this section? Five. Anybody else that I missed? All right, 13 salvation to add. Great work everybody. And of course today is kind of a big day because we do have our married couple sweetheart banquet. It is for married couples. If you are a married couple and you want to participate, we'd love to have you here for it. If you're going to participate, we're going to have the soul winning nearby for those that are married couples. Of course, you're welcome to stay at the building or if you're going soul winning though and you're a married couple, going to be a part of it. We're going to send you kind of nearby so we can get started early on everything. The order of events is, you know, obviously after service, we have our normal lunch. Then there's soul winning. For the married couples, we'll do pictures. So basically a picture of husband and wife and the next couple. It doesn't matter the order. Everyone's going to get a picture. So nobody just like wait and then nobody wants to go. Just one right after the next. Then we'll have a group picture of all the married couples. Then we'll have the catered food. Then we'll have the not so newlywed game. And if it's your first time here, we just kind of play a fun game. We're basically, as husbands we find out how well you know your wives and wives we find out how well you know your husbands. And then we'll have one champion. Yesterday we had the first time ever we had a tie. So we had to have the sudden death round. So that was a fun time. First time we've had it in either church. But anyways, so that's the order of all the events. As I mentioned in the first set of announcements, on this Thursday we do have a school preaching event. I'll mention in the group chat the exact details. It starts at 10 a.m. I believe it ends at 1.30. And so there's 44 sections I think to preach at. So there's going to be basically four sets. So it's like four times 11. But we could obviously use more than 11 preachers. We can have just people taking turns. So if you want to be a part of that on Thursday that would be great. And also we do have the prizes over there on the round table. If you read the entire New Testament in the month of January, you can pick out your prize. There's a lot of different options. So anyways, I believe that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Franklin lead us in another song. For our second song, please open your hymn out to hymn number 44. Hymn number 44 will work the Jesus camps. For the first ready sing. O land of rest for thee I sigh When will the moment come When I shall lay my arm o'er by And will in peace at home We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes And we'll be gathered up To Jesus Christ I pledge for as He begs This is to roll And lean forth, suffer on His breast Till He can guide me home We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes And we'll be gathered up I saw that was my Savior's side No more my steps I'll roll With Him I'll break that stealing time And reach my heavenly home We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes And we'll be gathered up We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes Please get your Bibles and open it to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. As our customers, we're going to read the entire chapter. Please follow along silently with me as I read Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, the Bible reads, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, had God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God had said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know in that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed big leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the call of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, among the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The servant beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the servant, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every piece of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 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, first is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken, and for thus thou art, and thou unto thou shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife, wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living, until Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothe them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live forever, 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 at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Let us pray, Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to hear your word. Blessed be the preacher, Lord God, as he preaches your word, blessed be the Holy Spirit, to preach with power and boldest are you, Lord God. And we ask this in Christ's most precious name, we pray, Amen. Alright, we're here in Genesis chapter 3, and of course the first sermon was lessons on marriage from Adam, so we're going to look on lessons of marriage from Eve. And you know, it takes two to tango, as they say, and you have both Adam and Eve messing up, they're both responsible, and we saw the mistakes of Adam, now we're going to see the mistakes of Eve. And I would say, whether you're a husband or a wife in this room, if you're wise, you would look at the example God gives us, and say, Hey, let me just honestly look at myself and see if I need to make changes, right? So, point number one with Eve is that she was deceived. It says here in verse 1, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And so the way that the devil words this is kind of interesting, because he doesn't outright say, God did not say that, right? He says it in a way where it wouldn't just be very obvious to Eve that this guy is trying to cause problems. It's like, did God really say that? Is that really the instructions that God gave? And let me say this, that when it comes to the devil, the devil uses the same techniques from Genesis 3 to 2025. Nothing has changed about the devil's techniques. The Bible says, you know, that we should not be ignorant of the devices of the devil. You say, well, how is it that I know what the devil is going to do? Because the devil doesn't really change. He does the same thing, the same pattern, and he does it because it works. And so the same thing that he's doing to Eve here in the garden is the same sort of thing that he does in 2025 as well. The Bible says in verse 2, And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And, you know, once again, you know, God did not say neither shall you touch it. That was not the instructions in Genesis 2. And I do believe that there was a fault upon Adam. I also believe there's a fault upon Eve because I think he did give the instructions and she probably just wasn't paying that close of attention, right? Now, of course, people argue about what the fruit is. Okay, in pictures, you're generally going to see an apple. And I can say the reason why an app was chosen is probably because if you live in the United States and you think of the fruit, I would think of an apple. Certainly where I lived in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, it was the fruit that I ate the most by far, but apples actually grow much better in that part of the world than actually here. So here, you know, you might not do it as an apple. I don't know. We don't really know what fruit it is. My best guess is a durian. And my theory is that it tasted very good before the fall, and afterwards not so much, okay? Just kidding. I'm not a fan of durian, okay? I have tried it. I tried almost everything once, okay? I tried it once, and anyways. But we see here in verse number four, and, you know, as an example, as I talked about in the first sermon as well, like if we are teaching our kids, we don't want to just say what, we want to say why. We teach our kids, or we should teach our kids, never drink alcohol, never smoke cigarettes. Those are things you should be teaching your kids. But you should also explain to them why. Because, you know, you tell that to your kids, and they understand what you're saying, but if you don't really make it obvious to them why that is, they might not take it that seriously. And we should tell our kids what, we should also explain why. It's something that Baptist churches in the past would be kind of guilty of. Where basically people would follow the rules, but they had no idea why they were doing it, because it wasn't really explained to them. And so they would have the hair at the proper length, they would dress properly and all those things, but they did not understand why. And as leaders, we should teach not just what, but also why. It says here in verse four, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And, you know, I used to think it was very odd that the Bible, that what Satan says is you can be as gods, because it seems like such a bizarre thing coming from a Christian background. It's like pretty much only the Mormons teach something weird like that. But actually every Eastern religion pretty much teaches this, whether it's the Hindus or the Buddhists or the Taoists, I mean, Jainists, they all teach this. And they teach that you can basically become as a god. So it is a very common teaching worldwide. Verse six, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Now go to 1 Timothy 2, we're going to see this talked about in 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. And the Bible kind of highlights what the woman is thinking right before she eats the fruit. She saw the tree was good for food. She knew that she wasn't supposed to do it, but she saw it was good for food. She knew she wasn't supposed to do it, but she saw it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. And so she made the decision, I know I was told not to do this, but I'm looking at the pros, and they look better than the cons, and she chooses to do it. Now with Adam, it's different. He knows don't do it. He's not looking at, you know, it making him wise, or that it's going to be tastier, whatever. It's just like he just follows the instructions of his wife. The wife, on the other hand, she gets tricked into thinking that even though she was told no, that you know what, I actually think this is the right decision to do. 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. Now the Bible says this in 1 Timothy 2. Now the Bible says this in verse 11, and then it's going to give you a couple reasons why. It says, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Say, pastor, why are you against women preachers? Well, I can give you a hundred Bible verses, or a hundred reasons, but here's a good one right there. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Why is that, though? Well, two reasons. Number one, verse 13, for Adam was first formed, then Eve. The first reason given, Adam was formed first, and the woman was created to be what? The help meet to the husband, to the man. That's one reason. Reason two, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. And, you know, what it's showing you is that if the woman was teaching and in the authority, she would make a lot of mistakes because she would be deceived. That's what the Bible's teaching. Now, yes, I get it. There are a lot of men that get up and preach sermons, or that lead and say wrong things, and make bad decisions, but the Bible's specifically saying the woman was deceived, and if she was in leadership, then she would make a lot of wrong choices, probably because she would be mixing her emotion with actual logic in the decision she's making. Now, look, God created women with emotion and logic in situations, and it's good in a lot of situations. When it comes to raising kids, there's a reason why God chose women. I mean, they are better with kids, right? I mean, it's kind of like, as guys, you kind of tend to be emotional or logic. I know, for example, you know, because my wife used to be a nurse, and when one of the kids gets hurt, which happens every week, right, you know, oftentimes my reaction is just kind of like, I'm just standing there, right, like an idiot, and not actually helping the situation. My wife's just immediately going into action, and God created women in a certain way where they would be the best at actually raising the kids. Now, of course, men should be involved in their kids' lives and spend time with them, but God created men and women differently, and this is not an insult to women. It's just a difference that if women were the ones doing the instructing and teaching, they would make a lot of mistakes because they would get deceived. They would mix their emotion in with these decisions. You say, but my husband makes a lot of mistakes as the leader. Everybody who makes decisions makes mistakes. Do you realize that? Isn't it absurd to think that I'm going to make a hundred decisions, and everyone is going to be correct? I mean, am I Jesus Christ? Of course not. Is any man going to make every decision correctly? No, but here's the thing. There's no woman that would make every decision correctly either. It's not about whether or not your husband made a bad decision. It's just the fact that God gave the husband the role to actually be the leader, and the Bible says that women, if you want to be in God's will, what do you do? You submit to your husband. The husband is the leader. Verse 15. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Verse 15 by itself is a bit of a confusing verse. It's not saying that women, if they are godly, are not going to have any problems with childbearing because this room is filled full of ladies that have had problems, my wife included, during childbearing. Obviously, tragedies can take place during childbearing. What it's referring to, if you look at the entire book, is the fact that by having kids, wives will be busy, and they'll be saved from problems in their life because they're busy. Look, that's not really something unique to women because if men have a bunch of free time, they get into trouble too. Think of David, who's being lazy, and then he commits adultery. It's not good for anyone to have too much free time, but the Bible is saying that for women, having kids, you were created to be to help me and to have children and raise them for the glory of God. And here's the thing. If you are doing your proper role of raising your kids, you will be busy. There will always be things to do. See, the husband has the job of being the head of the home and the head teacher, so to speak, but here's the thing. Who's going to be doing most of the teaching to the kids? The wife. You say, why? Because the wife is around the kids more in most cases than the husband. And so as the wife, it's like, well, you know, I don't get to teach or lead. You do get to lead. You get to lead the kids. And there's a lot of teaching done to actually teach and train the kids, but in terms of being the head leader for the home, well, the Bible says, well, no. Why? Because Adam was formed first. Well, it's not fair. Well, it is what it is. I mean, if God created you as a woman, you ought to say, hey, you know what? I'm happy with the way that God created me. Not to have an attitude. Well, you know, it's not fair. I want to be the leader. That is a weird attitude to have. Do you realize that nobody in this world is a leader in every situation in life? All of us are followers in situations. Yeah, at this church, I am the pastor of this church. But you know what? I've worked a lot of secular jobs. And guess what? I follow the instructions of my boss. You say, Pastor, did you always agree with the instructions of your boss? Of course not. But they're the boss. So you just do what they say. Because they're given the rules. And yet, you know, sometimes my boss would give me instructions. I'd do what they say. And I was thinking, I don't think this is the correct thing to do. I would think in my head without saying it. But I would just do what they said. And then it turned out I was correct. But it doesn't change the fact they were the boss. But yeah, there are plenty of times where I did not think the instructions were the correct ones. And then all of a sudden I found out later on, okay, I guess my boss knew more than me because he was actually correct in this situation. You don't necessarily know why the decision would be made by your husband. But as the wife, the Bible says, hey, you know what? You were not created first. And because of the fact, you know what? Adam was not deceived. Now, that doesn't really speak well of Adam, though. You say, I'm insulted as a woman. This doesn't speak well of Adam. He wasn't deceived. He's like, you know what? I am willing to just sin. I know it's wrong. And I'm not deceived at all. And that shows a weakness in men of giving in to temptation where guys can just willingly give in. Right? But with women, how they could end up really messing up is being deceived, the Bible says. Turn to your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Look, the bottom line is that as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve, all of us have a sin nature. And as men in this room or as young boys in this room, you have a sin nature and you have a lot of areas of your life where you could end up screwing up. And there are some areas as men where you are more likely to have problems than women. You know, there's some areas that are reversed where women are more likely to have problems as a result of having a sin nature where they're not perfect. And it just is what it is. Instead of just denying reality, we should just look at the Bible and say, well, this is what the Bible says. I'm going to try my best knowing what my weaknesses potentially are as a woman or as a man. And I'm going to make sure that I do not do these things. And even if I don't fully understand, I'm just going to do what God says. 2 Timothy 3 verse 1. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Peril means grave danger. And it is often in the Bible in the context of physical death. So, for example, if you were living in, you know, Israel, you'd probably be in peril every day if you're living in that area of the world where they have war all the time. But here it's not about being physically killed. It's about the fact that false teachers are trying to deceive you. And when we come closer to the end, there's going to be more and more false teachers that are out there trying to deceive us. And we live in a world today where that information is everywhere. The radio has false teachers. The TV has false teachers. It is perilous times in today's world. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection. Without natural affection is giving you the indication that these are bad people that are trying to deceive. Wouldn't you agree that there's a higher percentage of children of the devil in today's world than there were a hundred years ago? Is there any question about that? You say, what does that mean, pastor? It means we live in perilous times. We truly live in perilous times in 2025. Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. So the first thing we need to just realize is there are a lot of false teachers that are out there. Say, well, pastor, I just turn on my TV and I will just go to the religious stations. It doesn't even matter what the religion is. I just like to get some spiritual information. You better make sure that your source of information is a good source of information. Say, I just tune in and just listen to Brother Ellie. Look, the guy's been dead for years. Give it up. He's gone. And look, he might sound like he's smart, and I get he had a high IQ, but he says a lot of foolish and stupid things. It's like, well, you know, God's not really omnipresent. It's just the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, but God's not everywhere. It's like, what? It's like, are you an idiot? Not to mention, if I make my bed in hell, thou art there. I mean, the Bible has plenty of verses that teach that, but I've never heard anybody except Ellie Soriano be confused about, well, the eyes of the Lord are everywhere. Therefore, God's not everywhere. It's like, what? I mean, I was shocked when I heard that, because I had read online that he taught that. I was thinking, no. That was taken out of context. It had to be taken out of context. Then I listened. It's like, nope. He teaches that God is not, or he taught that God is not omnipresent. It's like, what? I've never even heard somebody teach that. You say, what's your point? My point is there's a lot of false teachers that are out there. The thing is, if you are not very educated on something and somebody is lying to you, it will sound convincing if you don't know the subject, especially if they're a professional con artist, a professional liar. Look, most religious leaders are bad people, but they're pros. They're good at what they do. They know how to deceive people. You say, what do you do? You better make sure that the information you have is a good source of information. You say, well, pastor, I just got saved. What should I do? I would just recommend reading the Bible, because that's the perfect source of information. Get some strong knowledge. I mean, you're coming to church. You have the balance of everything. You're going soul winning. Read the Bible. Read the Bible. Then once you have a lot of knowledge years down the road, then maybe you can dive in to listen to preaching where you already know the source of information is good. But the big emphasis in our lives should be on personal reading of the scripture. You say, why? Because the Holy Spirit is the best teacher that there is. The Bible says this in verse 6. For of this sort are they which creep into houses. So these are these false prophets which creep into houses. It's interesting because if you look up the word creep in the Bible, the Bible at the very beginning talks about creeping things, and it's referring to insects. It's referring to EPs. It's referring to insects that will creep in your houses. And, you know, I just kind of casually looked up the word creep. I didn't look up every reference, but it's like almost every time it's clearly referring to insects. But here it's like giving you inside your mind what these false prophets are like. They're like an EPs. And there's many applications you can make of that. It's a future sermon idea that I have. But it's like they're like, I mean, just remember this. When you hear Brother Ellie speak, hopefully you don't. But if you do, it's like he's just like a giant EPs. That's what he is. These false prophets are just like a bunch of cockroaches. That's what they're like. Is that who you should be listening to? I'm pretty sure that most of us, I mean, you just kill it and get away from it. Right? Or if you see a bunch of insects out in public, you just get away. Right? But then there's people that just say, well, let me just kind of tune in to listen to what they have to say. Why? For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and notice this, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts. Now, look, I didn't write the Bible. So, ladies, before you get mad at me, God's the one that said, silly women laden with sins. And here's the thing. If you get led away with false prophets, then, yeah, you're being foolish. You're being silly for even listening to them. Right? And the Bible's showing you, though, it's highlighting the woman. You say, why? Because this is something the woman is more likely to fall into than men. There are plenty of things that guys are more likely to fall into, but in terms of being deceived by a false teacher, where is the emphasis in the Bible? It's upon the woman, not upon the man. And you can get mad at me all you want, but I would love to hear somebody's interpretation of that verse. Lead captive silly women laden with sins. Is it possible for men to be led away and men to be silly? Yeah, of course, but why does the Bible put the emphasis on the woman? Go to Proverbs 14. Now, I think a large part of that, not the only part, but a large part is simply the fact, remember the Bible spoke about women being saved and childbearing? Because the thing is, you're not really just sitting around just listening to YouTube and watching the TV unless you have free time. Now, the thing is, if a guy's out working all day long, he doesn't really have time to just listen to, like, false teachers all day long. And when he does have free time, he's not going to waste it listening to a false teacher. And of course, if you're raising kids, you're going to be busy, so you're not going to be doing that either. Now, when you see men that just have all the free time in the world, I mean, they end up getting into a lot of problems as well. David is an example in the Bible of actually doing that, right? But the Bible does put the emphasis upon the woman. Proverbs 14, verse 15, The simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going. When the Bible says the simple, it's referring to the stupid. It's referring to the Bobo. It's referring to the person without knowledge. And the Bible says the simple believeth every word. Now, I don't think that you should just willingly listen to everything that's out there. In fact, most things that are out there, it's probably good just not listening to them. Now, I don't think that we should be uneducated. We ought to be educated and learn, but you should always have the idea, well, wait a minute, the Bible's perfect. Nothing else that I hear is perfect, so I don't necessarily know for sure these things are correct. I better make sure it lines up with what the Bible says. But don't be the sort of person that when you hear something, you automatically believe it, no matter what is said. Because the Bible says the person that does that is actually simple. They are actually stupid. They are actually ignorant because they're just willingly believing. We would use the word naive if you just believe every single thing that you hear. Go to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis 2. I mean, the woman was tricked into thinking that eating the fruit was a good idea. She was deceived into thinking this is a good choice, this is a good idea. The pros outweigh the cons. The man is not tricked into thinking it's a good decision. He's just, I guess, afraid of his wife. I'm just going to follow and do what my wife says. But the woman, why does she do this? Because she's deceived into actually thinking it's a good choice. And what the Bible's trying to show you is you might know what the Word of God says, but if you listen to the wrong source of knowledge, you might more easily get convinced that even though it says this, even though I know this, I think this would actually be a good decision. Case in point. Let's just think of the Bible. Sarah and Abraham. Same thing as Adam and Eve. Sarah tells Abraham, Mary Hagar. Was that Abraham's decision? No. Was it his idea? No. I mean, it's just Sarah saying, just marry him. Now, what's taking place? She's allowing emotion to guide her, isn't she? She's being deceived into thinking that it's a good idea, even though from an outsider's perspective, you'd be like, what are you doing? Abraham, he's not deceived into thinking it's a good idea. It's just like, well, my wife said it, I'm going to do it. And you could think the same thing with Jacob. I mean, Rachel's not able to have kids, and then all of a sudden she's just like, go into Billa. It's like, well, okay. She lets emotion guide her, and he just kind of does what his wife says. Doesn't the Bible kind of give us the same situation over and over that the woman messes up because she is deceived? She lets emotions guide her, whereas the husband just willingly follows his wife even though he knows it's the wrong thing? Point number one, we see the woman is deceived. Point number two, the woman disobeyed her husband. Now, I don't believe that God directly told Eve do not do this. I believe God told Adam, and Adam translated that or gave that information down to his wife, okay? And so I'm not going to say that she disobeyed God in the sense that God directly talked to her, but of course, even before the fall, husbands were the head of their home. And by disobeying her husband, she's actually disobeying God, but most specifically what she's doing is disobeying what her husband said. Genesis 2, verse 18, we looked at this earlier. Let's look at it again. And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make it help me for him. As the wife, you are the help meat. That means that if your husband makes a decision, that's the decision. Unless he's asking you to sell drugs, unless he's asking you to sin, you do what he says. You say, well, you know, but my husband's a jerk. My husband's, you know, a bad guy. It's like, well, you make your decision before you're married in terms of who you marry. And once you get married, you're married to who you're married to. It is what it is. And so I would say that if you're single in this room, as a woman or as a girl in this room, marry someone that you respect and want to follow and say, you know what, this is a godly person. I can follow this person, and I trust he's going to lead our home in a good way. But once you get married, it's like, you're meant to actually obey your husband, the Bible says. And once again, if you're a wise husband, you're not just going to always try to get your way because you're going to cause your followers to hate you. It's like, I always want it this way no matter what. It's like, no, if you have wisdom, you're not always going to lead for yourself because you ought to lead for the benefit of your followers. But there are times, as a guy, you have to say, no, this is what we're going to do. And as a wife, you say, well, I don't agree with that. Well, tough cookie. Obey. I can't believe you'd say that in 2025. I don't care what year. I'm going to say the same thing. Because that's what the Bible says. I'm pretty sure I didn't come across something in my Bible that said this advice is only good for this culture for 47 years. And I'm pretty sure that this advice is good for all times in all places. And the Bible says the woman is the help meet for her husband. Verse 24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. You get married, you are one flesh. But who is the one that's making the ultimate final decision? It is the husband. It is the Genesis chapter three. Now, look, when it comes to decisions in our home, it's like most things as a guy, it doesn't really matter to me. It's like what color would you like this? It's usually just as long as it's not pink, I'm okay with whatever color that's selected. I think pink is a beautiful color. It's just not what I want to have on a chair or in a house or whatever. A lot of stuff like that, it's like I don't care as a guy. As a guy, you just don't really care about things such as that. And so as a guy, it's just like when it comes to food that's being cooked, it's like just let your wife cook the food and then eat it and be thankful. I don't want to have to make decisions on everything. So I'm not saying that you're walking around and just everything, I want this, I want this. I mean, most things you ought to be like, you don't care. Right? But here's the thing. If your husband is being a jerk and he has a bad attitude and that's the way that he is, it's like you're meant to obey according to the Word of God. There is not an exception to that. Even if he's the biggest jerk in the world, you ought to do what he says according to the Word of God unless he's asking you to do wrong. That is what the Bible teaches with all authority and all leadership throughout the Word of God. Genesis chapter 3, and notice the curse upon the woman after eating of the fruit. Genesis 3 verse 16, unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shall bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband. Now, what I believe in this verse is God saying that there's going to be a multiplied amount of conception of having children and there's going to be a multiplied amount of sorrow or I believe pain in actually giving birth. And so as ladies, if you are really mad and say, wow, you know, it's not fair, it's like, you know, pregnancy is so hard, you don't understand what I'm going with. Well, don't blame your husband, blame Eve. I'm joking, but I'm not joking. It's Eve's fault. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. It's like, well, that's the curse upon the woman as a result. And instead of getting mad about the curse upon the woman, realize there's a curse upon the man as well. It's like, hey, Adam, it's not going to be so easy providing for your family anymore in a sweat of thy face. I mean, I wish that I could be in the days of Adam where you just kind of walk outside. I've got all this fruit, I've got all these vegetables. You don't have to work that hard. That's not the day we live in. There's a curse upon man. There's also a curse upon woman. So I'm going to multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. And it says, and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. Now, I don't believe this is a new commandment that God is instituting now, because earlier he said, for Adam was first formed, then Eve, but he's reiterating the fact that, hey, here's the thing, your husband's the boss. And maybe, Eve, that's why you made that mistake, because you weren't properly looking at your husband as the leader of the home. And it says, thy desire shall be to thy husband. You know what that means? It means that women have a desire inside of them to have a man actually lead them. Wow, that's not true, because I don't like it. No, no, no, here's what takes place. Women have a desire inside, and the world is lying to them. And so people basically are being pulled back and forth. And then what do they do? They blame the Bible. Well, it's like, if I got to be my own leader, I would be happy. It's like, nope, you've been deceived. And that's not a shock, because the woman was deceived. You are allowing the world to brainwash you, which that was one of the things God said to watch for, is being deceived. And you're letting the world brainwash you into thinking that you're going to be happier being the CEO of a company. That is not what the Bible teaches, though. And the Bible says he's going to rule over thee. And so instead of just spending your whole life fighting against what God says, why didn't you just realize, I will be happier if I just let my husband leave? Turn your Bible to Ephesians 5. Now, look, I understand what the Bible says, and we see men following their wives. And so I understand right now there are men that are afraid to say amen during the preaching. This is the truth of what I'm saying, though, here today. I mean, and here's what I would encourage you to do, because if you're like me, when February started, I started reading Genesis. I read the entire Bible. I mean, when you're reading these sections, don't just read the Bible passively. Let me just find what I like. Let me just find what's interesting. Well, how about actually just reading the story and saying, hey, I want to learn. What does God actually say? Ephesians, chapter five, verse 21. Bible says in Ephesians 5, verse 21, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Now, Ephesians 5, 21 is one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible. And I believe the confusion of this verse is the fact that a lot of times we have the idea if a chapter ends, it's the end of the thought. But that is not always true. There's a lot of chapters that start with a word such as therefore at the first verse, the first word of a new chapter, meaning it is connecting the previous chapter. When the Bible's saying submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God, it is not saying, hey, husbands submit to wives and wives submit to husbands. That's not what it's saying. What it's referring to is the fact that if you are in a position of submission, you submit. And all of us are in those positions at certain times. It is going to give you three examples. The rest of the chapter, husbands to wives. How does chapter six start off? Children obey your parents, right? And then when you get to verse five, what does it say in Ephesians 6, verse five? Servants be subject unto your masters, right? And so wives submit to husbands, children to parents, servants to masters. So when it says submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God, what it's saying is if you're in a position of submission, you submit. And here's the thing. If you walk into a restaurant, that restaurant has rules. You say, well, what do you do? You submit to whatever the rules of that restaurant are. Whatever position in life where there is an authority, you just do what the authority says unless they're asking you to do wrong. But in the context of wives with husbands, let's see what the Bible says here. And look, I'm not applying this to the husbands because we already preached a sermon to the husbands. Let's just see what this says toward the wives here in Ephesians 5. Verse 22, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. You say, Pastor, I'm a very submissive wife and the proof of that is I'm at church today. Well, here's my question. Did you want to be at church today? You say, well, yes, that's not submission. Submission can only be proven when you want something, your husband says something else, and then you say, you know what? Even though I want this, I will submit and go underneath rather than trying to do this 50-50 battle to get my way. Submission is proven in a situation where you do not want to do what the authority says and you say, you know what? I'm going to submit. I'm going to do what they say even though that's not my opinion. And I hope if you're a woman in this room, you have a goal. If you're married, I hope you have a goal to be a submissive wife. I hope you have a goal to be a submissive woman. Certainly that's what God tells you to do. And how do you prove that? In situations where your husband says something and you don't agree and you say, you know what? I'm going to do what he says. And look, guys might not say this audibly, but what guys are looking for is a woman that will submit. Not a woman that's fighting him all the time, but a woman who says, you know what? I'll let my husband make the decisions. Verse 23, For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands if they agree with their husbands. Is that what it says? Sometimes my eyesight gives me problems. You know, it's like, oh man, I misread that. Right? Now I'm pretty sure it says, So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. The only exception is if your husbands are asking you to do wrong. That is the only exception to disobeying authority. And look, it works for the authority of a country as well. There are plenty of laws we do not necessarily agree with, but it's like, it's the law. I'm going to do what the authority says. Verse 25, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not even spot a wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So love men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. And that also kind of goes back to the idea of happy wife, happy life. Right? For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourished it and cherished it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. You say, well, you know, I'm a lady, and my husband's not properly loving me, so I'm not going to submit. I will submit when he properly loves me. It might be the case that your husband is not properly loving you, and I'm sure no husband is 100% properly loving his wife, but that does not change God's command for you. I've had bosses that were jerks. Quite honestly, I praise God for bosses that were horrible bosses and really rude. You know why? It toughened me up. Now, I'm not saying that you should do that as a guy. You ought to be a loving husband to your wife, and here's what I would say. Your wife is more likely to submit if you actually are loving her. Let me also say, though, wives, your husband's more likely to love you if you're submitting to him. These things work hand in hand. Verse 31, For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined on his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery about his peak concern in Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband, have the proper respect for the authority that God has given in your life, and if you don't, then why did you marry them to begin with? Marry someone that you respect, and if you don't respect the guy that you might marry, then don't marry them. Marry somebody that you actually respect and that you trust to be the leader in the home. It doesn't mean he's always going to make the right decisions. It doesn't mean he's always going to make the right decisions. All of us men make a lot of bad decisions, but it does not change the fact that husbands are the leaders of their homes. Go to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis 3. Now, I'm doing all the men in this room a favor right now because I'm causing all the wives to hate me so much. They're going to love you so much. I'm so glad I'm not married to that guy. But in all seriousness, if both husbands and wives would actually just take the advice of the Bible, you would have a much better marriage. And obviously, this advice is easier said than done because I don't stand up here and say that I have a perfect marriage or I perfectly follow what God says, but the advice is the same for all of us as husbands and wives. Eve was deceived by the devil. Eve disobeyed her husband. And then the point that works for both of them, she basically does the same thing. She deflects blame. Instead of taking responsibility, the woman also deflects blame. Genesis 3 verse 13, And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Now, that's not as bad as Adam because Adam blames God, the woman and God. She's only blaming one, and she's blaming the devil. This is the age-old excuse, The devil made me do it, right? The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Now, look, what he said, what Adam said about his wife was true. The woman that you gave me gave me the fruit, and I ate it. That's true. But it doesn't need to be said. What about what you did? It's true what Eve says. She was tricked or beguiled. I mean, she even says this. I was tricked by the devil. And she's right. She was deceived or tricked or beguiled by the devil. But that's not an excuse for disobeying because you knew this was the rule. You do it because that's what your authority said. Go to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs 1. Now, if you're a wife in this room, if you're a mom in this room, I should say, if you're a mom in this room, you are certainly a leader because of the fact you're leading your kids. Let me just give you some very sound and basic logic that I think everybody should understand and should make sense. Here's the thing about this. As a wife, all of us in this room know this. Even before this sermon, even if you're mad at things I said, all of us know this, that the Bible teaches the husbands are the head of their home. Now, people try to explain that away, but we all know that's what the Bible says. The Bible's also very clear that not just the fathers, but the mothers are above their kids. When they're in their home, they are the authority over them. The Bible's very clear on that. As a mom, you are leading your kids. You are asking your kids to obey you and do what you say. But actions speak louder than words. And if you, as a mom, are disobedient to your authority and your kids see that, you know what you're teaching your kids? Why can't you just disobey this authority because that's what you do to our father, right? If you want to get your kids to actually listen, you should set a good example. Hey, you know what? Here's my authority. Here's the husband. And guess what? I do what he says. I follow what he says. He's my leader, and I don't always agree, but I do it. But if you are disobedient and rebellious to your own husband, you're basically teaching your kids, you know what? It's okay to disobey authority. Well, don't blame anybody else if your kids are rebellious then because if you actually want to teach them obedience, actions speak louder than words. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 5. A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. Yeah, you know, husbands, they instruct their kids. Kids ought to listen to the instruction of a father. There ought to be a law coming from the mom as well. As a mom, you should be teaching and telling your kids, Do this. Don't do this. This is what the Bible teaches. You ought to be teaching your kids doctrine. You ought to be showing your kids that Jesus is God, showing your kids that husbands are the head of the home, showing your kids the doctrines and things the Bible teaches, teaching them Bible stories, educating them, getting them to be intelligent and actually learn to read and be smart. You, as the mom, should have a law you're teaching your kids, not just letting a TV teach them, but you are actually giving a law to your kids. Because kids can't forsake the law of their mother if there is no law. There ought to be instruction from a father. There ought to be instruction and a law coming from the mother as well. Go to Proverbs 31, we'll close up. Proverbs 31. Now look, I get why Adam deflected blame and I get why Eve deflected blame because all of us, that's something that is universal to both men and women. None of us like to accept responsibility, do we? I mean, I'm amazed how even if I don't say anything out loud, like if I accidentally knock over a glass of milk and it spills on the floor, it's like my first thought is, somebody should not have put that there. My first thought is not like, what have I done? My first thought is, why did somebody put that there? You say, why is it that that's what comes to our mind? Because we don't like to accept responsibility. And even if what you're saying is true, it doesn't change what you did and your responsibility. I have one older sister and I remember when I was a kid, she's two years older than me and sometimes we would get in fights like all siblings do. And I would think to myself, you know what? I'm willing to apologize to my sister, but I'm only 45% to blame in this situation. And since I'm 45% to blame, it means she apologizes first, I accept and apologize back. That's the way it works because I'm less to blame. And here's the thing about this, if you think you're 45% to blame, I think the formula is multiply by 10% and add 25% or something like that. If you think you're 45% to blame, you're probably like 80% to blame, to be honest. But even if you are technically 45% wrong, that doesn't mean that you apologize second. If you're wrong, you apologize. It's what you do. Soft dancer turneth away wrath. He's like, well, I'm only 1% to blame. So you're saying you are to blame, right? So apologize. Yeah, but I'm always the one that apologizes. Well, if you're to blame, you need to apologize. That's the way it works. If they're not doing what they should do, well, that's their problem. But you should still do what you're supposed to do. And as husbands and wives, of course, you know what, there's disagreements, there's arguments, and that's the mentality we take. This is not just something you do as kids. When you become grown adults, you act just as foolish and just as immature where it's like, I'm willing to apologize, but only when they apologize first. The worst thing is when you get into an argument and then you're thinking, I'm willing to apologize, but I'm not going to do it first. And then as you have time to think about it, you realize you're mostly to blame, and you should actually be the one apologizing. But it doesn't matter whether you're mostly to blame or not. You'll apologize if you've done wrong. Or you can just go through life always fighting, always miserable, and just always be in a bad mood. Proverbs 31, let's close up. Proverbs 31, and let's see in terms of the wives, you say, well, why do I want to do this? Why do I want to be obedient to my husband and follow this advice? Well, notice the end result of a godly woman, according to Proverbs chapter 31. Verse 26, she openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children will rise up and call her blessed. Isn't that what you want as a mom more than anything else, that your children would just say, man, we have the greatest mom in the world? That's what you want. I know as a father I want that for my kids, but I would say even more so with the wives, that inborn desire as a mom, you want your children to rise up and say, man, we've got the greatest mom in the world. Now, when kids are first born and they're very young, they automatically think their mom and their dad are the greatest in the world. It's like young boys, they think their dad is the strongest person in the world. They think they're the smartest in the world. I've been asked before by my kids if I know everything, like everything. And I'm like, no. I say most things I don't know. But that's the way kids think of their parents. You can see some guy could be lifting 500 pounds. Dad, I bet you could lift more. It's like, no. I don't think so, son. But that's the way they naturally think of their mom and dad at a young age. And it's a great feeling that your kids love you that much, but you have to realize your kids are going to start to get older and they're going to start to see your flaws. Now, I hope and I pray that my kids will, when they get older, still say, man, we had the greatest mom and the greatest dad in the world. And I know it's possible. You say, well, how do you know it's possible? Because that's the way I feel about my parents. When you hear me speak about my mom and my dad, you don't hear me criticize my parents. And it's funny because when I talk to my mom now, she'll talk about mistakes that she made. I'm like, I don't remember any of that, mom. It's like, of course, I realized that they weren't perfect, but it's like they were really good parents, a really good mom and a really good dad. And I would still praise my parents today and say, I would not be here today if it were not for them and their influence in my life. And look, you as moms, you can have this. The Bible says that your children, if you are a virtuous and godly woman, they will call you blessed. They're going to say, man, I had the greatest mom in the world. But it also says her husband also, and he praises her. I mean, don't you want your husband to praise you and say, man, I've got the greatest wife in the world? The Bible says that's possible, but you have to do the work. And so instead of fighting against what God says, instead of getting mad at me, I get it. I preach sermons, and I'm sure a lot of people, I said something the way I said it, you're like, oh, I can't believe he said that. But as much as I'm trying to say this in a nice way, this is the truth. There's plenty of Bible use in this sermon. This is what the Bible teaches. And if you don't agree, here's what I would encourage you to do. Go back and read Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis chapter 3. Look over that story, and then show me where I'm wrong about what the Bible says, because I let the Bible be my guide in my life. And you know what? The Bible shows me about Adam that me as a guy, there's a lot of areas where it's like, I better watch out in areas that I've failed at many times, and it's like, yep, as a guy, I can say that I'm guilty of that sometimes. And the same is true for wives as well. Whether you're a man in this room or a woman in this room, just do what the Bible says. You say why? It's going to give you a happy marriage. Isn't that what you want rather than going through life, always mad at your spouse? And you can have that if you both do your proper role according to the word of God. Let's close in the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and I ask you to help all of us in this room apply these sermons to our lives, both husbands and wives, and also those that are not yet married, the wisdom that they can learn from this as well, God. I ask you to help all of us that aren't married in this room. Help us to have strong and healthy marriages. Help us to be heirs together of the grace of life. Help us to positively influence each other rather than just causing problems and making it harder to serve God. Help us just to serve God together, God, and do great things, and ask you to bless the marriages and the couples in this room In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.