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So we've been going through the book of Genesis, and we're in chapter number three. And chapter number three has a lot of great pieces here where we can really expand on. And I'm hoping to just kind of focus on some aspects that are not necessarily always focused on. But look at verse number one. The Bible says this, 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. So we start out chapter number three introducing a new character, the serpent. And you know, it's interesting that God uses animals in the way that he does throughout the Bible. Now, some people have a lot of different ideas about, you know, what this, you know, is this really a serpent or what does that look like? I personally believe, and I think when you study the scripture, it's very clear that this is a literal serpent. This is a literal animal, and God uses literal animals to do a lot of different things in the Bible. And I think there's a purpose why he's using a literal serpent, but God uses carnal truths to expound spiritual truths. And oftentimes God uses animals, beasts themselves, because they really help us understand spiritual truths. Because when you can really wrap your mind around the carnal animal and some of the attributes of that animal, it will help you realize the spiritual parallels that animal portrays in who's really behind what's happening. Because a serpent, you know, isn't going to just open its mouth and start talking to you on every single day, right? We don't have animals talking to us. Maybe your kids have a pet snake or something. But what's really going on here is a lot of things, right? Now, what do we know about serpents? If we were just going to say, like, ask a kid, you know, what do you think about a serpent? Well, they're kind of creepy, right? You know, they're kind of dangerous seeming. Just a natural inclination. I mean, if you just saw a snake, you'd kind of like, you know, that's weird, right? Or you'd be afraid of it, or you'd notice, like, danger. And some of the characteristics of snakes is that they hide. You know, they're really good at hiding because their skin has camouflage usually built in. You know, they can kind of look like part of a tree, or they can look like leaves, or they can hide in grass. You know, you've heard of the proverbial snake in the grass, right? So they kind of have this sneaky, cunning way about them. And so when God says that the serpent was more subtle than any beast in the field, that is a literal carnal truth. The serpent is an animal that can be there, and you don't even notice it. You know, I've played a lot of golf, and when playing golf, you know, I'm really good at hitting it in the weeds, okay? You know, I can hit it far, but usually it's not in the fairway. It's somewhere off in the weeds, and I've played a lot of golf. And sometimes when you're walking in the weeds, you step on stuff. And I remember sometimes I would step on a snake, literally, not realizing it was even there. And you know, it's really eerie because I would like step on it, I was like, you know, I'd jump or whatever, and that thing would slither away. And then my dad thought it was really cool. He would sneak up behind me and like smack my leg with his club and act like a snake bit me or something sometimes to freak me out. But the thing is, you don't know where the snakes are. There is like a type of snake, like ones that rattle, called a rattlesnake. Those ones you can kind of figure out where they're at because you can hear them. But not every snake has that type of a mechanism. You know, a lot of times you wouldn't know the snakes there, they can be very dangerous. And so God's using a serpent here in Genesis chapter 3 verse 1, and obviously there's another person using this serpent to help us understand spiritual truths here. Now keep your finger here in Genesis and go if you went to Ezekiel 28, Ezekiel 28. Now this is not just a serpent just on its own will deciding to start talking to Eve. We understand that it's actually the devil that is talking to Eve here. But how do we know that and, you know, what is the devil like according to the Bible? And why is he using a serpent here? Couldn't the devil have just shown up just as his form? Couldn't he have just shown up as, you know, whatever he looks like right to Adam and Eve? Why do you use a serpent, okay? Well look at Ezekiel 28 and look at verse number 12. The Bible says, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect and beauty. Now it's interesting in Ezekiel 28, you're getting a prophecy or you're getting this rebuke towards the prince of Tyrus, which is an actual person, but it kind of makes this shift here in verse 12 where the text isn't really talking about the prince of Tyrus. It's kind of metaphorically talking about him, but then it's like specifically to the devil himself. And it's interesting how every time we learn about the devil, it's never just about the devil. It's always like some other person that's involved. And that's a key point because you have to understand this about the devil. The devil is a deceiver. The devil is not one who wants to come and present himself as he is. He's always using other people or tricking other people or influencing other people or disguising himself or hiding himself. And so whenever the Bible is rebuking the king of Tyrus, it's kind of a double dip where he's not just rebuking the king. He's also rebuking the devil because the devil's using the king of Tyrus here. But notice he says, Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect beauty. The king of Tyrus, this would only be metaphorically speaking about him, but the devil himself, this is really a description of the devil. The devil is perfect in beauty according to the Bible. And obviously, when you look at the world today and what the devil is trying to promote is what? Beauty. Because the devil is a very beautiful creation and he loves that about himself. Look what it says in verse 13, Thou has been in Eden the garden of God. Now, King of Tyrus hasn't been there. It was guarded. You know, we'll learn at the end of this chapter in chapter number three that, you know, no one was allowed to go back to the garden. It's been protected by special cherry bims. And so someone being in the garden, who is this is the devil. The devil was in the garden. The devil is perfect in beauty, as the Bible says, it says, as we keep reading, every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx and the Jasper, the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle and gold. The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so. That was upon the holy mountain of God that was walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. That was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence and now have sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. So this passage is talking about the king of Tyrus some, but it's mostly about the devil himself. And this is what's interesting, is the devil is perfect in beauty, okay? He was in the garden. So could he have not showed himself to Adam and Eve, and why would he even be ashamed since he's perfect in beauty? You know, there's nothing shameful about his appearance. His appearance according to God was perfect. His appearance according to God was very beautiful. So what does he decide? He decides to show up as a serpent. So obviously this would indicate that the devil at this point is no longer, you know, right with God. He's obviously crossed the threshold of sinning, you know, and we don't know exactly when he sinned or exactly what happened. I believe it would have been after the first seven days of creation because everything God made was very good and there was no problem. So sometime after the first seven days of creation and before Adam and Eve sinned, the devil must have sinned. The devil must have had the iniquity found in him. And instead of showing himself, because look, we have plenty of angels showing themselves unto mankind and they're not ashamed of their appearance, they're not ashamed of what they look like. There'd be nothing to be ashamed of. And we see the devil being a perfect looking creation and he loves himself. He loves his beauty. Notice what it said. It said in verse 17, thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. So he definitely likes himself, okay? Why then would he show himself as a serpent unto Eve? Because he has an ulterior motive. Because there's something deceitful that he's doing. He's doing something subtly. He's not trying to present himself in the manner of which he was created. Go if you would to Matthew chapter 8, Matthew chapter 8. Another thing that's interesting is that the devil has the ability to, you know, use creations of God for his own purposes. He's using the king of Tyrus here. We see him using a snake and some people say, can the demons or the devils, you know, use literal animals? Yeah. Let me show you another example of how demons can literally influence animals and make them do stuff. Matthew chapter number 8, look at verse number 30, Matthew chapter 8. Now this is a story where Jesus meets a man that's possessed with a legion of demons and he's going to cast them out and they don't want to go to hell. And in the midst of their conversation, they ask if they can go into a herd of swine. And look what it says in verse 30, and there was a good way off from them and herd of many swine feeding. So the devil's beside him saying, if thou cast us out, suffer us to go way into the herd of swine. And he said to them, go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine and behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished in the waters. So again, we have another story here where there's literal animals, swine is pigs. So it's a herd of pigs, a herd of swine, and the devils want to go into the swine and then what do they do? They cause all the swine to run off a cliff and to die. Now why would God do that again? Well, you know, what does swine often represent in the Bible? Gentiles, the unsaved, heathen. And notice that the devils can just enter into the heathen, into the unsaved at will and just destroy their lives. And you know what, that's what's happening in our world today is that demons are just going into the unsaved and they're just destroying them and killing them and masses are just being led off the cliff today because of demon influence. So why is God using swine? To picture what the unsaved are like. They're just dirty swine, they don't know any better and the demons are just taking advantage of them and killing them. So let's go back to our story then. Before you go there, I want to go to one more place, go to Matthew 23, we're right here in Matthew. So why is the devil using a serpent? Okay, well obviously God's allowing him to use a serpent too because that's how the devil operates. The devil operates in a very subtle, cunning, crafty, deceitful manner. Just like the beast is a cunning, deceitful, crafty beast, that's what the devil really is like. And the devil is not going to present himself to you the way he is, his true intentions. He's going to come to you in another form and another way and he's going to try and trick you and deceive you into thinking whatever communications you have with him are right. Now the Bible talks about other people being serpents, you know it's not just the devil, he uses animal pictures or metaphors to picture other people. Look at Matthew 23 and look at verse number 16. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctify the gold, and whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever swereth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctify the gift. Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swereth by it, and by all things thereon, and whosoever shall swear by the temple, swereth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, swereth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. Now in this passage Jesus Christ is rebuking the Pharisees and what are the Pharisees doing? They're misinterpreting scripture. They're using scripture and what do we know about the Pharisees? Well they appear outwardly righteous. They appear to be something that they're not though because inwardly they're not righteous. Inwardly they don't love God. Inwardly they don't love people but they go around pretending that they love people. They pretend that they love God and they use the Bible out of context, twist the scripture to do what? To deceive and to hurt and to harm people and then what does Jesus Christ say to them? Well look what he says in verse 33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Notice that Jesus Christ uses the same word found in Genesis chapter number three to describe the Pharisees. What does he call them? Serpents. Why? Because they have the same attributes of a serpent and they have the same attributes of the devil who comes to you. He transforms himself into a minister of light, into an angel of light, presenting himself as something that is really not wise so he can hurt you, so that he can harm you and what do we have in Genesis chapter three one? When the devil comes unto Eve through the use of a serpent, he says ye have God said and then he says what? He quotes the Bible. He's quoting or you know paraphrasing at least. He's saying what God said. He's using the Bible to try and twist it to trick Eve. Now let's just slow down and stop for a moment because I like this point and I want to make this clear to you. What is the number one, what is the first tack? What's the first way that mankind is attacked by twisting the Bible? I mean let's go back to Genesis chapter three and let's look at verse one again. 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. What is the first attack on mankind? Does the serpent bite her hand or does the serpent come and attack her leg or does the serpent try to tell her about a new religion or does the serpent come and try to teach her about Mormonism or what are the attacks here? Now he's taking the word of God and he's putting doubt on the word of God and twisting the word of God. So let me tell you something, the primary attack from the devil will be fake Christianity. It will be fake Christianity and you know what it will be? It will be an attack on the Bible itself and let me tell you what, that is the major threat that we have today is people attacking the word of God, putting doubt on the word of God and you know what, they're showing themselves to be ministers of light, they're showing themselves to be so righteous but who did Jesus really contend with? Oh the religious leaders, doing what? Twisting the scriptures and let me tell you what, the biggest fight that we have today as Christians is from the religious leaders who are twisting the text of the Bible, who are twisting the word of God, who are putting doubt on the word of God, saying oh did God really say this? Now what's interesting is this statement, did God essentially say more or less to mankind that they should eat of every tree of the garden? Well let's check, look at chapter 2 and look at verse number 16. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. So here's the question, did God say of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat? Yeah, he did say that. Was that all he said? Wait a minute, let's read the next verse, but, oh there's a key word, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. Now here's the thing, did the devil bring that up? No. So what is the devil doing? He's taking a part of scripture that's true, leaving out a very important aspect of it to try and put confusion in the mind of Eve. And look, this happens all the time. People, what they love to do is they cherry pick one verse, they won't even read the very next one, okay, to try and teach you a doctrine, to try to lead you astray, to try and confuse you today. What would be an example of this? Faith without works is dead. But we won't go to that passage and actually explain the context. We don't actually put that verse in its proper role, we just want to say, well faith without works is dead. I've heard that out so many, I heard that out so many today. I hear that out so many almost every single time. Someone says it, someone alludes to that verse. How about another verse, repent and be baptized, you know, Acts 2.38, well we're Acts 2.38. It's like, did you realize the Bible has a lot more verses than one? You know, I mean, you know there's churches, they're listening Acts 2.38, well what if your church was Genesis 2.16, right? I mean, couldn't it be that? Couldn't it be the devil's church is Genesis 2.16? Well I think you need verse 17 too. And think about it, let's say you're God, okay, for hypothetical, you're just, or you're God's messenger, you're God's messenger and God wants you to communicate to Adam. You get to talk to Adam, Adam's here. We have a thousand trees in the garden and one of them he can't eat. How would you tell him that in the most efficient way possible? Wouldn't you say, hey, you can eat of every single tree but that one? Or would you be like, you can eat that one and that one and this one and that one and that one, not this one and that one, that would take a while. Wouldn't you just say, hey, you can eat of every tree here but that one? I mean, that's the most efficient way you could even possibly communicate that type of a message. But notice that the devil is going to look and he's going to try and see how he can twist what's true and try to put doubt and confusion into the mind of God's people. And I'm telling you what, that is what the modern Bibles do today. The modern Bibles will twist and just try to confuse you and try to place doubt on the word of God and most modern Bibles, they have footnotes, well this isn't really in the originals. Well they didn't really have a copy of this one. It sounds like the devil, yea, hath God said, I mean it's basically every footnote is just yea, hath God said, yea, hath God said here and yea, hath God said on that one and you get to Mark chapter number 16 in the NIV and it's just like, did God say these last like nine verses or whatever or 11 of verses? Basically after verse 9 to verse 20, they say in the NIV, he's just gone. But you know what happens to be in verse 10 or verse 9 of Mark? The resurrection. So if you take that out, you don't even have the resurrection and the gospel of Mark. Well it's no longer a gospel anymore. And look, I'm telling you what, the devil is not walking around like a red guy in a cape and a pitchfork and saying, come with me into hell. You know what he looks like? He looks like someone that looks righteous on the outward appearance. And he's saying, come with me and I'll show you what the Bible says. Let me teach you the Bible. And he'll just slowly mark out certain verses. He won't even mark them out, he just won't preach them. What are the popular preachers today? The Joel Osteens and the Kenneth Copelands and the T.D. Jakes and who else is popular today? John McArthur, yea. What do these guys, what do they all have in common? They're just certain verses in the Bible they won't preach. Just like the devil. Isn't that interesting that the devil won't preach certain parts of the Bible. And every time that Jesus Christ interacts with the Pharisees, he's always, have you not read? And then he's bringing up certain verses to them. Why? Because you need all of God's word, you can't just have part of it and go running. You need all of it, you need all the instructions, you need to understand everything about the word of God, and you need to read the whole Bible. Because you can just have one verse that you're missing and completely miss the boat. You need all of it. We need all of God's commandment, we can't just have, you know, cherry pick the verses that we like today, we need all of the verses. You know, I heard this verse cherry picked a lot, except you repent, you should all likewise perish. Missing context, okay? And again, there's a lot of problems with, you know, just picking out any verse for any reason. We always want to make sure that the verses we use are in the actual context of the chapters using them, and that we're not taking things out and misusing the word of God. You know, we're not deceitful, we're not trying to trick people, we're not deceitfully misusing the word of God here. Okay, the apostle Paul talks about people that would do this. Now, let's keep reading, because I kind of got a good basis, you know, for us to think about. But look what it says in verse two. It says, and the woman said on 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 has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. So even though the devil is trying to, you know, put confusion and try to trick her, she still realizes, no, there is a tree that we're not supposed to eat of. Okay, so she does end up talking about what verse 17 said, that there's a certain tree that they're not supposed to eat of, that they're not supposed to, you know, have anything to do with. What does it say in verse number four? It says, all right, let's read verse three again, the latter part, it says, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. Verse four, and the serpent said to the woman, ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. So first off, the devil starts out, hey, you can eat any single tree. And then she comes back with him with scripture, and then what does he do? He just go ahead and just denies what she just said. He just rejects what she said and says the exact opposite of what she said and specifically what God said, because it's great that God used this word, and I really like the fact that he used this word, because the devil then tries to reuse it. But he says, ye shall not surely die, but what did God say in verse 17, the latter phrase, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So God's like, you're going to surely die. And then the devil's like, ye shall not surely die, well, which one are we going to believe now? Now, here's the problem with Eve. She is confused. She becomes confused at this point, because now she's hearing two people say two completely different things. She has what God, you know, and I don't know that it's necessarily God that told her directly. It's obviously probably through Adam. But she's at least heard this. She's aware of the fact that if you eat it, you're going to die. And then the devil's telling her, no, you're not going to die. This is the first fact checker in the Bible, independent fact checkers, you know, mostly false, you know. And obviously, here's the thing. Is what the devil's going to say here going to be partially true? From a physical perspective, yeah, right? Because are they going to physically die the moment that they eat this? No, they're not. But here's the thing. Is what God said true? Yes, they are going to die. The problem is that the devil's going to twist it and turn it into something that God didn't say so as to confuse her and to make her believe in some kind of a lie. Will they physically die? No, but they'll spiritually die. And this is a spiritual book. And God gives spiritual commandments unto us. And so what the devil sometimes like to do is he'll take a spiritual commandment and then you'll turn it, the devil will turn it into a physical commandment to confuse you. Like, I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, well, have you ever heard of Catholics? I never heard a thing called communion where Jesus Christ is saying that you have to eat my flesh. Was that a physical commandment or was that a spiritual commandment? That was a spiritual commandment. But then what do the Catholics do? They turn it into a physical commandment, don't they? And so when God is telling Adam and Eve that they're going to surely die, what was he saying? It was a spiritual thing. Obviously they were going to spiritually die the moment that they ate that fruit, the day that they ate it, right? But then what does the devil do? He turns it into a physical commandment to try and confuse them because are they going to physically die? No. Are they going to get this knowledge, that knowledge of the good and evil? Yes, they will be. But is there also lies in here? He says you'll be as gods. What is he, he's promising them some kind of deity. He's promising them some kind of extra hidden wisdom or some extra esoteric knowledge and really true Satanism is this philosophy that God is trying to hold you back from certain knowledge and certain wisdom and they're trying to dumb you down with his commandments and that when you become enlightened, he's the light bearer, the light bringer, you'll get all this special knowledge and God's trying to trick you or something. It's really the devil that's tricking you though. It's really the devil that's trying to hurt you. Is the devil really concerned with Eve? Does the devil really love Eve and he's a concerned citizen? He's one of these concerned fact checkers. These fact checkers always really care about you so much. It's really like the fact checkers because it's anonymous sources, right? It's a serpent. You don't even know that it's the devil necessarily, right? It's just the serpent fact checking machine is coming around and telling you, hey, you know what God said, that's not, he's lying to you, you know, he didn't, you're not going to die. You're going to be like him. You're going to be like God. You're going to know good and evil. I mean, you're going to just be this great person. You're going to have all this special knowledge. But it's obviously a lie. And as we keep reading, let's read in verse number 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, obviously we're trying to read a lot, you know, in this passage and try to really understand it. But we don't know exactly what Eve's thinking per se, but as we read the text, we get a little bit of an idea here. She just heard something contradictory to what God said, but it is not really clear that she's already decided to sin yet. But what does she do in verse number six? And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food. Now, who decided that it was good for food in verse six? She did. So now she's leaning on who's understanding, her own understanding, isn't she? And really the devil, sometimes he may not convince you, but what he did was successful. He got her to just look at it. Why don't you just think about it a little bit though? You know, and the devil loves to do this, you know, especially with modern Bibles or false doctrine or anything. He'll just get you to open the door to it. He'll just open the door to you and you're just like, well, I'll look into it for myself. And then when you start looking into yourself, then you start, oh yeah. I mean, there's lots of people that believe the Bible is the Word of God and then they go to Bible college and they're like, let me show you a lexicon. Let me show you some, you know, manuscripts and all this other stuff. And you just look at it yourself and you come to your own conclusions. And really the goal is just to try and get you to go down a dark road and destroy your faith in the Bible. Destroy your faith in the Word of God. Destroy your faith in good doctrine today. And the things that you feast your eyes on that God's already telling you is off limits. You know what? There's no good that can come from it. She should have realized, you know what? I don't even want to look at this tree. But when she looked at it, it looked good. It was pleasant to the eyes. And let me tell you what, sin is going to be pleasant to your eyes. It's going to look good. It's going to sound good. The devil's going to talk it up. It's going to have its own billboard because they won't put the Word of God on a billboard. That's really hard to put on. It says it's a tree to be desired. So then she had a desire for it. And you know, the things that you look at, you end up having a desire for oftentimes. Advertisers realize this. They just want to get your eyes on it. Because the more you look at it, the more you look at that Coke or that burger or those fries or that cookie, you start thinking about it, then you're like, I want it. If you never see it, you don't really have a desire for it. I mean, things that you've never seen before, you don't want because you don't know about it. So what's the goal? When you have a new product, when someone has a brand new product, what is their biggest goal is to get as many people to find out about it as possible, to know about it, to look at it. And if you call in five minutes from now, we'll give you two for the price of one. And really, the infomercial and the advertisement and the billboard, it'll give away free products. They give away all kinds of stuff because they want you to get their product. They got to get eyes on it and no new things under the sun. Look, every good idea and everything that works is somewhere found in the Bible. Advertising is right here in the Bible, okay? They want you to look at it and it'll get your eyes on it and you'll start thinking about it and start designing it. Now, this can be good and bad. Hey, you get your eyes on the Bible in the morning, you know where your desires might end up at the end of the day? On the Bible. Hey, get your eyes on the world. You get your eyes on the news. You get your eyes on the things of the flesh, you know what? That's where your desires are going to often end up going as well. You know, that's why they want you to watch as much TV and internet and everything is possible because what? It's going to affect your desires today. It's going to affect the things that you want. It's going to affect the things that you buy. Advertisers are not losing money. It works all the time. Now, here's another thing we have to understand. Who did the devil talk to first? Eve. Why not Adam? Because the devil, he likes to pray on the weak today and he likes to pray on those that are more easily taken advantage of. And go if you would to 1 Timothy, chapter number two, go to 1 Timothy, chapter number two. And you know, the Bible plainly states that the woman is the weaker vessel, you know, and that's physically and also in other ways. You know, and it's not to say that they're of lesser value. You know, my children are obviously less physically strong as I am, but that doesn't mean that their value is less than mine. And so just in the same way, my wife, even if she's physically not as strong as I am in some way, that doesn't make her of less value than me. But it is a reality. And predators prey on the weak. Why do you think predators like children? Why do you think predators like to prey on women when they're alone or it's dark or they're helpless or they're distracted or, you know, if you're weak, you need to realize that you're weak, realize that you're vulnerable, or realize that there's a potential danger so you can protect yourself from predators. And look, this can even be men. You know, you find yourself in a weak position where maybe you're defenseless or you're outnumbered or you're in a precarious situation. You know, that's when danger occurs, when you're weak. And the devil knows this, and the devil likes to prey on the weak in every and all situations. And you know what? He likes to prey on the weak when they're in their weakest moment, okay? And so if the devil's attacking you, you know, you should think about, is there ways that I can strengthen myself? But look what it says in 1 Timothy 2, verse 13. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. What does that tell me? That tells me that when Adam ate of the fruit, he knew it was wrong. But Eve was confused. Eve was truly deceived. Eve really didn't understand that it was a sin. She was confused. There was something that she had been beguiled about. She didn't even know necessarily what she was doing was wrong. She's just not sure. She's just been deceived in some way. Maybe she just genuinely believed it. She just thought, yeah, it looks good. I don't know why I'm not eating this. I should eat this. You know, I want this wisdom. And Adam's probably sitting here thinking like, I'm going to let you try a bite first and see what happens to you, which is pretty foolish. And the fact that she didn't physically die, he's like, well, I'll try it. And obviously she gave to him. And the Bible says later that he hearkened to her voice. But notice that the devil did not go after Adam. He went after Eve. But notice by attacking Eve, he got both to fall. He actually got Adam to sin by attacking his wife. And so the devil oftentimes, hey, they'll just try to find any kind of chink in your armor and get in there to destroy everything. You know, at the Alamo, all they need is just one break in the wall to get in and destroy everybody. Just need one little break, one little chink in the armor, you know, the Achilles heel. All they need is the one little spot to get you and to destroy you. That's why you have to be careful with the devil. Now go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, 2 Corinthians chapter 11. What is the devil going to do? He's going to look for any tiny little chink, any little weakness, and he's going to attack. He's going to try his best to creep in and to attack you. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11, look at verse number 3. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So what is the Bible saying? And he's talking to a New Testament church here. He's saying in the same way that the devil just got a slight edge with the woman, he's going to try and get a slight edge with us on what doctrine, specifically even, the gospel, on Christ. And you know what? You see this happen to a lot of churches today. What would be just slipping in, you know, maybe just a little bit of repenting your sins there with that gospel? Just a little bit of, well, maybe you could lose your salvation, or you don't even have to, you know, believe to be saved. That's kind of, that's probably even worse, but, you know. Or you can just read the Bible and get saved, or just anything that he can do to just try and corrupt or pervert the gospel, to try and get in there. Look what it says in verse number four. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might bear well with him. What is the impossible warning? Hey, there's people that come in and they just twist who Jesus is. Well, Jesus is the Son of God, but he's not really God. Or hey, Jesus is not just the Son of God, he's literally the Father. Or you know, anything that they could get in there, well, the Trinity sounds kind of polytheistic. No, you're just an idiot, okay? No, you're a false teacher. And what is he going to do? He'll come in another gospel. Well, you don't have to have works to be saved, but if you don't have works, you're not saved. Like, what? And you say, well, that's subtle. Yeah, that's how the devil works. The devil's not going to come around and say, hey, guys, here's a false gospel. If you believe it, you don't believe the Bible, just come with me into hell. You know, he's not going to walk around with a bullhorn saying that. He's going to say, I got the real gospel. This is what God, you know, God's not really, you know, that's not really what he meant there. You know, faith really just means works, if you go back to the Greek. No, it really means faith. And here's the thing. People get so mad at a church like ours because they're like, you guys are so nitpicky. You know, you're always calling people out when they teach a little bit of works and a little bit of, you know, lose your salvation and use a little bit different version and use a little bit. Yeah, because the devil works subtly. And if you don't understand this, just basic doctrine, I mean, this is the beginning of the Bible, my friend. It just starts out, it's subtle. And the devil's subtle. And then we get the New Testament. He says, you know what? The devil didn't change. He's subtle. He's just going to try and get in there and creep and just teach something a little bit off. Look at Galatians chapter number one, Galatians chapter number one. So you should expect, if we're going to actually contend for the faith like the Bible tells us, that we're going to have to fight subtle battles today. And you're like, you guys are so trivial and you just nitpick over the littlest things and why can't we just all kumbaya and, you know, go to the Billy Graham Crusade and, you know, hang out with him? Because he teaches a different gospel. Because he says it's not by faith alone. He says you have to turn. You have to make a commitment to Christ. You have to, you know, follow in works to be saved. What does the Bible say in verse number seven, Galatians one, verse seven? Well, let's read verse six. I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ and to another gospel. Now, I like this verse because it tells us there are churches that are saved that can get mixed up on the gospel, can't they? He says that these people, and quickly. He's like, I can't even believe how quickly he went into a false gospel already. He says in verse seven, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. So he's saying, hey, they're not going around saying, oh, it's not the death and resurrection of Jesus. It's, they are. It's that they're perverting it. It's that they're twisting it. It's that they're adding something or taking something away from it in a sly manner. He says in verse eight, though, though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed, as we said before. So say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then that ye have received, let him be accursed. So you know what that tells me? That if someone believes anything differently than me on the gospel, I should have no fellowship with him. You want to know a test of fellowship for me and my church? The gospel. And it has to be dialed in exactly. And people will be like, people don't have to believe the Baptist gospel to get saved. Okay, well, they have to believe the gospel and there's only one gospel and I don't care what denomination believes it or doesn't, if they don't believe the right gospel, they're not saved. And you say, well, I don't know if I can believe that. Well, it sounds like you're, you're talking like Eve. Sounds like you're deceived a little bit by the subtlety of the devil. Go to Acts chapter 13. Go to Acts chapter number 13. Let's see a minion of the devil doing exactly that when we're talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 13, look at verse number 10. Now this is talking about Elias the sorcerer or Bar-Jesus and he's trying to pull the deputy away from the faith as the Bible says. I guess look at verse eight so we have a little context, but Elias the sorcerer or so as his name by interpretation withstood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, oh, fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. So notice when there's a real encounter with someone trying to take someone away from the faith, how does Paul classify him? Full of all subtlety. He doesn't say, oh, this guy's walking around just making it obvious. No, he was using subtle tactics and the apostle Paul blows up on this guy and he curses him and he becomes blind. People get all mad because they get tricked by the subtlety. They think that the subtleties don't matter. They think that the minor things that we talk about, in their mind they're minor, but they're really major. God saved every tree. Just one. You were just off by one. Not by one error. That's a minor detail. It wasn't a minor detail. It was a real important detail and you know what? You can't have anything off on the gospel and still be saved. You have to have the whole gospel correct, just every aspect of Christology. Now, you can be off on a lot of other doctrines. You can have a lot of other false doctrines and be saved, but when it comes to the gospel, it has to be locked in and you know what? Our church is going to continually contend for the gospel. Any little subtlety or any little creeping in or a little bit off here, you know what? It's going to be sharply rebuked because we're not going to give place to the devil in this church and we should never give place to the devil and he'll try to attack you when you're weak. If you go to Revelation chapter number 12, go to Revelation chapter number 12, now here's the thing. What we have to understand about the devil too is this, the devil has never and never will have a positive agenda. It's always a negative agenda. It's always to hurt. It's always to steal, kill, and destroy. It's always something evil. There's nothing good about his agenda and he's only going to be full of subtlety. He doesn't care about anyone. He's only a lover of himself and he wants to hurt and harm as many people as he can. Look what it says in Revelation chapter 12 verse 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth. So you have to understand this. The devil not only got man to sin, he's dragging all of the other angels down with him too. The devil is not content with anybody serving God, with anybody doing anything right. He wants to destroy and hurt and harm as many people as possible. And how is he going to do that? He's going to come subtly unto you and try to get you to break God's commandments. Now look at Revelation chapter 12 verse 9. And the great dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Not only did the devil deceive a third of the angels, he deceived the whole world. He's the deceiver. And notice we get the connection finally. The Bible finally tells us that old serpent. What is he referring to? Genesis chapter 3 verse 1. That old serpent wasn't just a snake, my friend, it was the devil. It was Satan that was there and he deceived the whole world. The devil's goal is to deceive. He deceived Eve and his goal is to deceive the whole world today and that's what he's done. The God of this world is blind to the minds of them which believe not. He doesn't want anyone to get saved. He hates mankind. He hates every single person. He is our adversary. He is our enemy. He is our foe. Now I'm going to come back to this chapter. Go to Revelation 20 for a second and I want to show you a couple more verses. Revelation chapter 20 and look at verse number 13. Revelation 20 and look at verse number 7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. So again, the devil, he deceived Eve. The devil drags a third of the angels down with him. The devil deceives the whole world. The devil then, after doing all of that and being cast into hell for a thousand years, then when he's loosed, what does he do? He deceives the whole world again. The devil has one agenda, deceive, to beguile, to trick, and the goal is to drag as many people down with him. Look at verse 10. The devil that deceived them was cast in the lake of fire and brimstone. So notice the devil did what? He deceived them. He's a deceiver. He's trying to trick you. What is he trying to trick you? He wants you to sin. The devil has one goal and one agenda. He wants you to sin, sin, sin. Now what is sin? Transgression of the law. So why would the first attack then bring up the Bible? Oh yeah, because he's trying to get you to break God's commandments. You want to know the biggest battle of the day? Truth versus lies. God's word and the devil trying to twist God's word and trying to get you to break God's commandments, that is the main battle. That is the main attack today, and there's no difference. And all these symbols that we have in Genesis are a picture of what's going to happen in the future. Go back to Revelation chapter 12. Go back to Revelation chapter number 12, and this is very interesting. We've learned about what the devil started with. And look, the devil doesn't change his tactic. It's the same tactic. He's just the same old devil, the same old serpent, okay? Look what it says in Revelation chapter 12, verse number 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. What did he do in Genesis? He came unto Eve and tried to hurt and harm her, and then what is he doing again in Revelation? Oh yeah, he's persecuting the woman again. Why? Because it's the same tactic. It's the same goal. And in the same way, he's trying to destroy the woman, which is all of us, which is mankind when we understand what's happening here. It says in verse number 13, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. That's talking about Jesus Christ, verse 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the face of, notice this, the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So notice, the devil wants to hurt the woman, which is mankind, which is pictured in Genesis chapter 3, the very beginning. He comes under the woman, he tries to hurt and attack her, right? In the end times, the devil will try to kill all mankind. He wants to murder us all. The Bible says he'll try to kill us with a flood, somehow the earth is going to save us from that flood. And then, because he can't kill all mankind, he's just going to target it into the seed, okay, which is what? Obviously, the remnant, which would be us, Christians, the saved, people that are the children of God. And you know what? He's going to have power to overcome them, he's not going to kill all of us though, okay. Now what's interesting about this, we're thinking about this whole chapter, and there's so much symbolism in this chapter, but the devil is going to try and kill the woman, and he deceived the woman, and destroyed the woman, and if we go back to Genesis, what does he do? He causes the woman to become deceived and to sin, and this is what the devil does to us. What does the devil do to every man? He deceives every man, and doing what? Sinning and dying, okay. Now, what's cool though, is what happens right after she eats, she gives to her husband, and he eats. Now, she was deceived, he was not deceived. Now what's the same picture? Well, Jesus Christ, in order to remedy the situation, what does he have to do? He has to become sin for us, to remedy that same situation. So just like Adam is going to take the apple with Eve, so is Jesus Christ going to take that same punishment and bear it upon himself, because it's going to be a similar picture to overcome the devil. Now go if you would back to Genesis. Now think about this, what does Christ do? Christ became a curse for us. How does Adam become cursed for eating of the fruit that he should not have eaten? Because everything's tied about the gospel. And Jesus Christ, you know, you would say, why did Adam take of the fruit? You know, I can't go through his mind and think everything, but here's the thing, it's a picture of what Christ would do for us. How Christ would literally take the sin that we were deceived with upon himself, knowing what that was. Knowing. Adam wasn't deceived, but he ended up partaking. And I'm not trying to justify what Adam did, but what I am saying is this, it was obviously wrong, it was obviously a sin, but it's a picture of what Jesus Christ would do for us, becoming a curse for us. And we have all the elements from the very beginning, replayed in the very end. Why? Because it's the same story, all the way told through. It's a fight over the truth. I did, actually, I did want you to go to one more place, go to Romans chapter number five, go to Romans chapter number five, and I want to look at a few verses here that talk about Adam and Jesus Christ and the parallel that we have here in this story, because it's pretty interesting. Romans chapter number five, and look at verse number 12, the Bible says, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for the law of sin, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is, notice this, the figure of him that was to come. So notice the Bible, let me just plainly say, even if you don't believe me, the Bible tells us that Adam was the figure of who? Jesus Christ, who was going to come. What did Adam do? Adam took on sin, Adam became a curse, just like Jesus Christ would become sin for us and take on that curse for us as that remedy to be reconciled to God. It says in verse 15 though, but not as the offense so also is the free gift, for if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many, and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift, for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Now I love this verse, because the last phrase says that the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Now that's a mouthful, but that's like the whole gospel, because it's a gift, what do we get? We get righteousness, and notice it doesn't mention your life, it mentions one person's life, because the only life that matters when it comes to salvation is Jesus Christ's life. Look what it says in verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now I also love this phrase, you know a lot of people like to emphasize certain things about the gospel, like this is the one thing that was needed for salvation, the problem with that is all of it was needed for salvation, and not just the death, bread, and resurrection. Notice his obedience too, his perfect sinless life was also necessary for what? For our justification. Look what it says, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. It was by Jesus Christ coming, because what could Adam not do? Be righteous. What could we not do? Be righteous, but Christ could come and be perfect, and be obedient, and then his righteousness is imputed unto us. Let me ask you this question, if Jesus Christ wasn't righteous, how are you getting into heaven? Even if he died, it doesn't matter, because we have to have his righteousness imputed unto us, therefore his righteousness is necessary for me to get into heaven, because we swap places, and in order for me to get into heaven I have to be perfect, because the Bible makes it clear, even one sin will get you out of heaven. That's why I need Jesus Christ's righteousness in order for me to have that fellowship with God the Father. Go back to Genesis chapter number three, go back to Genesis chapter number three. I wanted to focus a lot on that, I'll go quickly through the rest of this chapter and give you a few thoughts, but I'm not going to go through a lot of verses. Look at verse number seven, the Bible says, in the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now this is a picture of work salvation, they want to try and cover their sin with their own works, cover their sin with an apron, but it's always inadequate, you cannot cover your sins, and keep your finger, go to Proverbs, and I'll show you one verse on this, Proverbs chapter number 28, covering your sin is never the right way to solve a problem. Any time you have a problem, any time you do anything wrong, the best thing to do is to simply confess it. Look at what it says in Proverbs 28, and look at verse number 13, Proverbs 28 verse number 13, he that cover the sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Now, praise the Lord, we're not a Catholic church, and you don't have to come tell me all your sins, because I don't want to know anyways, but you should confess them to Jesus Christ. You need to confess your sins to Jesus Christ, and then forsake them, and you know what, you can have mercy, but if you cover your sins, you won't have mercy, and you know what, the same works in life today. You screw up at the job, you screw up in some area of life, just confess it to that person, and get on with it. When you try and cover it up, hey children, when you do something wrong, and your parents are like, did you lie, just say yes, did you do something wrong, just say yes, don't lie about it, don't try to cover it up, it was him, it was my brother or whatever, you just tell mom and dad what happened, exactly what happened, don't cover it up, it's always going to be the best course of action. Go back to Genesis chapter number 3, and look at verse number 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Now this is cool that God was literally in the garden walking with them, say who's that, that's Jesus Christ. And they heard Jesus Christ walking and talking and saying to them, where art thou? He says in verse 9, and the Lord God called him to Adam and said to them, where art thou? So Jesus walking around, we're out there, we're out there, and they hear him, and they run away, they're scared. And you know what, sin will cause you to be afraid of God, it will cause you to have a distant relationship with God. When you confess your sin, you forsake your sin, you can have a restored relationship with God. Verse number 10, 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? Has thou eaten of the tree? Where have I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? Now what's interesting about this phrase is the fact that we cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard. You know, when someone says something, it came from somewhere, as you gotta pay attention. If your kids start saying something, you know, sometimes they give away the things that the parents say, you know, you have to be careful, but there's always a source to the words that come out of your mouth, the things that people say. And so if you pay attention to what people say, you can start identifying some of the sources that they're tuning into, some of the things that they're listening to and some of the things that they're looking at, and you know what, you cannot help but be a product of the things that you see and the things that you hear. That's why you should fill yourself with as much of this as possible so that's coming out. When you start filling yourself with that, that's gonna start coming out. And notice they didn't even have this problem until someone told them that they had this problem, right? Until the devil comes around and screws everything up and they get the knowledge of good and evil, God says this, and he said, who told you that I was naked? Has thou eaten of the tree? Where have I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? So he's like, it must come from that source, right? Verse 12, and the man said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. The blame came. You know, he can't just say, yeah, I ate, you know, it's like she did it, you know, she gave it to me. And then verse 13, the Lord God said on the woman, what is this that thou has done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. You know, everybody just blames someone else. You know, we need to take responsibility for our actions today. And you know, you can't just always play the blame game. Unfortunately, the serpent for him, he doesn't have anyone to blame. So he's just screwed. Okay. He can't even, the devil made me do it. You know, he's just like, he's just in trouble. And the Lord God said to 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 dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I'll put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head. And that's how bruises heal. I go through to Romans 14 for a moment and I just have a few verses I want to look at still Romans chapter 14. But when it comes to the blame game, you know, it's only going to work for so long. And I think a lot of people just, they haven't been hit with reality on this one yet, but there will come a day. There will come a time when you will stand before God by yourself to give an account for yourself. Look what it says in Romans 14, verse 11, what is written as I live, say the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. You can only blame others for so long. Eventually, it's just going to be you and God. And he's going to ask you about the things that you did. And you have to give an account. Every single decision that you make, you and God are going to get to talk about it. How are you feeling about your decisions this week? How are you feeling about your decisions in the last several years of your life? And you know what, that should motivate you to say, I want to start making some better decisions now. Because hey, you and God get to talk about your decisions at some point in your life. And you know what, your husband's not going to be there, your wife's not going to be there to blame, your kids, the serpent, you're going to be there and it's going to be you and God. And you know what, that's an important thing to think about. You need to start taking responsibility for your decisions. You don't have other people to blame and it's not going to work with God because even though God is going to dole out punishment to the serpent, go back, he's going to dole out punishment to all of them. And there's going to be loss. Now it also talks about the seed here and obviously that seed is talking about Jesus Christ and it's also talking about his children and it's talking about the devil's children. Now some people again, they take a spiritual thing and they turn it into what, a carnal thing like I already showed you and already told you about, right? So they take the serpent seed and they take something that's spiritual and turn it into physical. There are people that literally teach this thing called the serpent seed doctrine, okay? Usually it's around crowds of like Kent Hovind and those type of people, okay? They come up with these weird doctrines. They say like Nephilim and there's like all these hybrids and this nonsense, okay? Let me tell you who are children of the devil, people that are reprobate. It's not a hybrid race, okay? David Icke was lying to you, okay? He wasn't even subtle about it. I don't know how you believed it but here's the thing. The people that believe on Jesus Christ are his seed and the people who reject the truth and turn the truth of God into a lie, they're the devil seed and they're often usually ministers unfortunately, okay? Now let's keep reading verse 16, under the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception and sorrow, thou shall bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. So notice that God multiplied sorrow at conception. So that's why it hurts so bad, you know? I don't, sorry. You can all be in a line to talk to Eve when you get to heaven, all right? But he obviously multiplied it and he caused it to be a very painful experience but you know, the good thing is as soon as it's over, you forget about it. So that's great. Another thing is that the husband's supposed to rule over you though. You know, that's part of the equation here that you're gonna have a desire to your husband, you love your husband, you wanna be with your husband but he's gonna end up ruling over you. You know, part of this is just the fact that you're the weaker vessel and that you're more easily deceived and that's just reality. That's just what the Bible teaches. If you don't like that, then you just don't like the Bible. Verse 17, an anatomy said because thou is hearken unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. You know what this tells me? It tells me if you're henpecked, your life's gonna be harder. Because when you hearken to the voice of your wife, you know what? Life gets harder for you. You know, if you just manned up and said, no, we're not gonna eat of this or, you know, he chopped it down and made a fire or, you know, maybe built a fence around it or something, you know, he could have prevented his wife from taking of the tree, he's stronger than her. Okay. He has a lot of wisdom here but he let his wife, you know, eat of this tree and he just ate it with her, he was complicit with her and you know what? He's gonna suffer. And one of the things that men have to do? We have to work really hard. You know what? Today's no exception. Hey, you wanna provide for your family and America in 2021, you gotta work really hard. You gotta actually start sweating a little bit, you know, you actually gotta, you know, put in some effort today and you know, I find like a lot of men, they don't really wanna work very hard but guess what? That's part of our life. That's part of being a man and that's part of being a man in the fallen state. You know, you should just take your lumps. Verse 18, thorns also and thistles shall bring forth to thee and thou shall eat the herb of the field. You know what? Sin brings forth, it brings forth thorns and sin in your life will bring forth thorns. You know, the Bible talks about the deceitfulness of riches coming in, entering into your heart and choking the word, lest it become what, unfruitful? And sin here, what's the result of sin? Thorns and briars and this type of stuff and the more sinful you are, the harder your life is gonna be. The more thorns and the more briars that are gonna happen in your life today and the more things you're gonna have to clean up and you're gonna have to take care of today. That's why it's important to try and live as clean a life as you possibly can. You know, I don't wanna have lots of thorns. I don't wanna have lots of thistles in my life. Verse 19, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground for thou for out of it was thou taken for dost thou art and unto dost shalt thou return and Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Yes, Adam and Eve is where every person came from. You say, well, how did their children get wives? Well, they married their sisters, okay? I think the Garden of Eden was near Kentucky, so you can blame that. But he says in verse 21, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. Now this is great because they tried to get things right by covering themselves as a picture of work's righteousness, work's salvation, but then God clothes them and he does it with an animal skin, which you know where he got an animal skin? From an animal, which is gonna picture what? The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that we're gonna be covered by his righteousness, not our own. Our leaf fig aprons aren't good enough. God's gonna have to clothe us in his righteousness and his garment. And that's the only way that you get into the heaven. So we've already seen like five different gospel pictures just in this one chapter alone. I mean, the Bible's so deep and rich. It says in verse 22, and the Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us, no good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat 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 cherry bims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Now a few, a few last thoughts. Verse 22, he became as one of us. That's a plural word because Trinity, all right, and you know, if you don't like the Trinity, you're not gonna like the Bible. But this is an interesting thought. God says that he's become like us and he knows good and evil. And if he ends up eating of this tree of life, he's gonna live forever. Now I believe that's literal. I believe if Adam and Eve had stayed in the garden and kept eating of the tree of life, they would have never even physically died, okay? But here's the thing, God did not want man to have a relationship with him in a fallen state because there's gonna be that separation. So before we can have access to the tree of life again, something has to happen. Sin has to be eradicated. And the knowledge of evil has to be eradicated. And so when you pay attention to what's happening in the future, when we get all the way to the end and everything's been eradicated, death has been eradicated, sin has been eradicated, all the former things have been eradicated, you can't even remember all of those things anymore, then we get access again to what? The tree of life and the new heaven and the new earth and we're gonna literally live with God forever. But God wants relationship with us, God wants us to be able to look at him in the face, God wants that closeness and that intimacy, so he has to clean up the mess that we made before he's gonna allow us to live with him forever and have access back to that tree of life. And so Genesis 3 is a really deep chapter, it's really great. The thought I have for this is just kind of in conclusion is this, the devil wants to give you any reason to not obey God, but look at the mess that Adam created for us, look at the mess that sin caused, look at the world that we live in today, look at the result of sin today, look at the fruit of sin today, and really it's just basic. But whenever you're tempted to sin, think about these things, did it ever go well? No. Is the devil trying to help you in any way? No, he's trying to deceive you. Sin is always going to hurt you, sin is always gonna harm you, sin is a deceit today. It's never gonna be beneficial. When you're tempted to sin, realize it's the lesser decision, it's the worst decision. You know, just like a child is supposed to hearken unto its parents, honor thy father and thy mother, you know, children don't always understand every rule that a parent gives them. Eat your broccoli, you know, brush your teeth, go to bed at this time, they don't understand all that necessarily, but don't you want them to do it? Isn't it wise for them to do it? And here's the thing, even if you don't understand all of God's commandments perfectly, even if you don't say, well, why am I not supposed to eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil? There's a real good reason. God's not gonna give you a commandment that's bad. His commandments are not grievous. And when we look at Genesis chapter number three, we have to realize God's commandments are always right, he has the best kind of knowledge. Hey, if you really want to be wise, learn God's commandments. God wasn't gonna hold back wisdom from them, he just didn't want them to go down the dark road of evil and the dark road of sin. And you know what, God is not gonna keep you away from something that is gonna be beneficial to you. He's only gonna keep you away from things that are gonna harm you. Oh, you fundamentalists, you're against everything. No, I'm against sin. Oh, you're against all this fun stuff. No, it's destruction. No, it's evil, it's gonna hurt you, it's gonna harm you. Oh, but it's so fun to drink and to drive and to do drugs and fornication and all this other stuff, it's cool to divorce. No, it's not. Sin always hurts. Sin is always doing damage to you. And I literally had a call from someone recently and they're like, you know, they're disappointed in God's commandment. The commandment's clear, they understand it, and they think their life is gonna be worse by following God's commandment. And I'm just thinking like, no, there is no commandment that God has given unto us that is gonna ruin your life. What will ruin your life is the devil whispering in your ear subtly and saying, yea, hath God said. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for giving us something that we can trust and rely upon. And thank you for being such a good God that only wants to bless us and do good to us and that you're willing to sacrifice your own son for us and you're willing to protect us from the evil serpent, the devil, Satan. I pray that we would realize the importance of thy commandments and that we wouldn't shy away from them. That we wouldn't hurt all of them. That we'd embrace them. We'd get them into our hearts. And we realize that sin's always destructive and that the devil just wants to deceive and hurt and to harm us and that we'd have more trust in all of your commandments whether we understand them or not. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.