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Genesis 3:15-24

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Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. We're here at Rob and Vicky's home sitting outside celebrating two hundred fifty years as a country here in America. We are in Genesis chapter three tonight. By way of review, we're gonna pick it back up at verse 15 since it's so important as the proto evangelium, the first mention of the gospel in the Bible. So we wanna review a few verses and then get into what follows. And so we're gonna worship, we're gonna pray, and had a meal together. Beautiful, beautiful 81 degrees. Just gorgeous today. And so let's pray. Father, we come before you. Lord, we thank you that we can meet here, that we can gather together in your name. It's such a special blessing. And we've come to worship you, Lord. We've come to study your word. We've come to build one another up and strengthen one another up as we exercise our gifts of encouragement. And Lord, we also want to lift up before you Carl Hendrix. We thank you that he's home and Sue is his caregiver and Lord baby steps, they're moving forward. And then Carl Schlemmler, his wife, Christina, Lord, she came home today. And five more weeks of in the wheelchair and letting her leg heal. And we pray that you would heal her leg and strengthen Carl to help her out and get their home equipped for wheelchair use. And be with them, be with George as he's got a flu type bug that he's battling. And Lord, Steve Wilcox with his throat and Christy with her throat with the CAT scan that she's gonna have on that. We pray that it's benign, that there's nothing wrong there with her throat, that you would help her. And Lord, else? Can't remember. We just pray Karen Jackson Waller, Lord, help her to heal and be strengthened with her ablation on her back. Just be with her and help her also. Thank you for the body of Christ that we can pray for one another. Thank you, Lord, that you're not done with us yet, and we thank you that we can serve you in these last days. Bless the Bible study in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright. Thanks, Rob. People have complained. Alright. Genesis chapter three. Let's pray. Father, thank you that we can be here tonight and that we can study your word. What a great privilege, Lord, that our lives can be built upon Jesus Christ. You are a foundation, you're the rock, Lord. And Lord, our homes can be built on Jesus Christ, a firm foundation. Our nation, if we wanted to, could be built on Jesus Christ. So Lord, we thank you for two fifty years that we've made it so far. Thank you for all the joy and the blessing of being able to pray out loud and have a bible, read the bible, go to church, raise our families in a Christian home and a Christian culture. And Lord, we pray that in these last days that we'd be about our father's business and that we'd take that open door that no man can shut and share the glorious good news of your coming kingdom, Lord. So bless now we pray in Jesus name, amen. Alright. We'll pick it up at verse 15 since it's such a pregnant verse and so chock full of everything. So we'll just kinda go over by way of review some of the verses we already covered last week. And this is called the protoevangelium, and which means it's the first mention of the gospel and prophetically within the Bible. So we're dealing with the fall of man, and with the fall of man, our first federal head, Adam, when he fell, God gave him dominion over the earth. God gave him dominion in the garden, the whole thing, be fruitful and multiply. And Satan had fallen previously with one third of the stars from heaven in Revelation chapter 12 and his rebellion against God. And in Satan's rebellion, Satan took on a serpent, and we see that later the devil's described as the serpent, as Lucifer, as the dragon, lot of different names for the devil. And he's speaking, he's able to speak unto Eve and in order for God to gauge, to test, to measure man's love for God, God gave man the power of choice. God didn't make him an Elon Musk robot with a microchip in his head, but God made man in the image of God, didn't make him an angel, but made man in the image of God with a free moral agency. And all the trees in the garden God had made in the Garden of Eden, man could freely eat. And man was given a task, privilege of serving the Lord by tilling the ground and all. The curse hadn't come yet, so that was in its perfect, finally perfect condition. So Adam and Eve had a perfect father, they had a perfect environment, perfect bodies, finitely perfect bodies, and they were made for God's pleasure. They were made for the purpose of fellowship with God. And that's important for you and I to know that why was I made? What's God's purpose of making me? And the answer is, is you are and we're made for His pleasure. And so the secret to life is to be born again, to enter into that relationship with God, and fulfill that very purpose for which you were made. So Romans eight verse 20 says, All creation was subject unto a vanity or an emptiness, and that by reason of him who subjected the same in hope. So God put a God shaped hole in your heart that all through this life you'll never have a sense of fulfillment unless you come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. So Jesus illustrated this in John four with the woman at the well and she was thirsty, a spiritual thirst that couldn't be filled with relationships on a human level. And although marriage is God's idea and depicts our spiritual relationship with Him, We cannot find fulfillment even in a very, very good marriage. But it is the greatest chance we have on the human level for a sense of completeness. But really it depicts, it symbolizes our vertical relationship with God that's crucial in order to have a decent marriage, any kind of a marriage. A lot of people are married, but they have bad marriages and it's a bad example. And so, in this oneness, this intimacy that God desires for us to have, marriage depicts that. And Adam and Eve, it wasn't good for Adam to be alone, and none of the animals that he named were a suitable helpmate, So God caused sleep to come upon Adam, as you know. He fashioned Adam from the dust of the ground, and to dust he's gonna go back because of the fall. And then Eve, he brought forth from the side of Adam, he brought forth Eve, and Adam named her Eve, which means life giver. So I don't know how many moments they had together. I don't know how long their honeymoon was, where things were just bliss and wonderful and all that, but it would appear in a very short period of time, and Adam was there, Adam was present, that the serpent seduced, the serpent beguiled, the serpent deceived Eve into thinking that God wasn't a God that would keep his word. God wasn't a God that you could trust. That God was holding things back. And so the serpent, through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, seduced Eve into partaking of the forbidden fruit, and twisted the scriptures, twisted God's word. She believed you weren't even to look on it or touch it, you know. And maybe Adam put that extra protection in there. But Adam, he transgressed. He knew what he was doing. He stepped over the line. And so our first federal head, our representative between us and God, was Adam. And he had the headship, he had the authority, the leadership role, and he fell. He fell and Eve fell. And because of that fall, God was gonna have to make provision to restore man to fellowship, because that's God's desire. And so we know that Jesus is a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, so it's no accident. It's no new thing that the Lord learned. He knows everything. He's the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. So he knew that man would fall, but to demonstrate his love for man, he wanted the angels to be able to look in and all of creation to be able to see his tremendous, tremendous love that his character, his greatest attribute is that he's a God of love, that God is love. So he made a provision for the second person of the trinity, God the Son, to take on the form of a man, to become the second Adam, or as Corinthians calls it, the last Adam. And that he would live a perfect life. He is tempted in all points like we, and yet without sin. And that His perfect life would then be offered in place of Adam, in place of Eve, in place of all of humanity. That God would be fully just and holy in punishing sin, because he told Adam and Eve, the day you eat of it you shall surely die. And we have to define death as separation from God and then ultimately the physical separation. Adam was nine thirty years old I think when he died. And so the whole process of the body aging and the body corrupting and disease and all that came in as a result of the fall. But there's also a spiritual death, separation from God, and Adam and Eve, as we finish up the chapter here, they're gonna be expelled from the garden, and so that's the spiritual death, the spiritual separation from God, which can only be restored by being born again, being born of the spirit. So, Nicodemus, when he came to Jesus in John three, Can a man that is old go into his mother's womb a second time? And Jesus said, No, you need to be born of the water and of the spirit. You have to have the natural birth where your mother's water breaks, and then you need to be born of the spirit. So man is made body, soul, and spirit. Soul, the center of the mind, the will, the emotions. First Corinthians two verse 14 says, The natural man, which is body and soul, understands not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. And so it's imperative. Jesus said, You must be born again. And when I watch Bambi with my grandkids, Bambi, you must get up. It's not a suggestion. You've got to do it. You've to get up. So you've got to be born again. And so the seed of the woman, the virgin born son of God, Isaiah seven fourteen would later be written by Isaiah the prophet. The virgin shall conceive and bring forth the son and will call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. We celebrated each Christmas with Matthew one and two and Luke chapter three. So a great time to acknowledge God's love in the babe of Bethlehem in Micah five that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the house of bread, and that Jesus would come forth and live a perfect life. From 12 years old forward, we don't know what He was doing, but he emerged on the scene, the same as Joseph at 30 years of age, entered into his public ministry and could say with all confidence, Which of you convicts me of sin? You know, Nobody could come up with a sin. Wouldn't that be fascinating to be Jude or James or one of Jesus' sisters or even Mary the mother or Joseph the father, and to be looking at that kid going, He never does anything wrong. He never sins. What would that be like? Think of the jealousy of all the other brothers and everybody. Man, he's never told a lie. He's never hurt anybody. You know what I mean? Mind blowing, isn't it? And yet they didn't believe that he is the Messiah until after the resurrection. That's a mind blower. So the seed of the woman would be bruised. We talked about that. That's the cross of Calvary. And Colossians tells us he spoiled all principalities and powers and he triumphed over them in Colossians two. And so the serpent was able to bring Jesus to the place of the cross, and yet we say that loosely because Jesus said, No man takes my life from me. I have power to lay it down and power to take it again. And so the plot, the scheming, the whole thing that the serpent did was really following according to God's plan that the Messiah would be cut off in Daniel nine twenty five through 27, that the Messiah would present himself, but he would be cut off. He'd be crucified. And Psalm 22, written a thousand years before he was born, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from my roaring? And then in Isaiah, we're told in Isaiah 50 that his beard would be plucked out. We're told in Isaiah 52 that the dosage, his face was so marred more than any man, more than the sons of man, that He'd be beaten beyond the recognition of a man. And then Isaiah 53, a description of the cross. And Psalm 69, a description of His suffering, the suffering servant. And so, the time in which he revealed himself to the nation of Israel, very, very few people understood that he would be cut off, that he would be crucified. They were looking for the Messiah in his second coming, that he would overthrow the Romans and set up his kingdom. So the devil gave Jesus a chance in Matthew four to bypass the cross, that he could be the second Adam, no problem for the devil, but you need to bow down and worship me and I'll give you all these kingdoms of the world. So Adam forfeited the headship over the planet in his fall, and so Lucifer, the devil, became the liturgy god of this world, the prince, the power of the air. And we see the correction of this in Revelation chapter five, who's worthy to open the scroll and loose the seal, the lion of the tribe of Judah, he's prevailed. So the kingly line, there Jesus coming through that kingly line, the tribe of Judah, and he's the one that has the title deed to the earth and the right of not only ownership as the creator, but of redemption in that it'd be his blood that would pay for the sins of the world. It wasn't the planet so much he was after as it was the treasure within that planet, within that field, went and sold all that he had to purchase you and I. So a love story, a picture of his love for us, the book of Ruth with Boaz, a picture of our kinsman redeemer Jesus purchasing us out of sin, out of slavery, out of death, out of hell, and having a great future for you and I, offering a great future. So the serpent, as he beguiled Eve, the seed of the woman's gonna be bruised, but he's gonna crush the serpent's head. And and then verse 16 excuse me. I'm not in the right place. There we go. There we go. Okay. Now I am. So now I'll put enmity between your seed and her seed. So enmity is animosity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel. So the enmity is the hatred. The devil hates the seed of the woman. The devil tried in many occasions to stop the growth of the seed of the woman. So in the case of Genesis chapter six, he's trying to ruin the gene pool so that the Messiah, the seed of the woman, the virgin born son of God, so there wouldn't be any purity in the gene pool for a Messiah to be born. And so, when we get to Noah, we're gonna see that Noah was perfect in this generation. The word perfect doesn't speak of moral perfection because we remember after the flood that Noah was drunk and naked. But he was perfect in this generation in that he had perfect DNA. His genes were not polluted by the Nephilim, the fallen angels that came along. There's another time where with Pharaoh, the Pharaoh was trying to kill all the Jews, throwing the baby boys into the Nile. And Shifra and Pua, two of the midwives, they just wouldn't do it. They had a conscience. They feared God and so they held onto Moses who was drawn forth and a little ark was built with a pitch the same way of the ark that Noah built. And Moses' mother, Amram and Jochebed, they took little Mo and they put him in that ark and they kinda, I watched the 10 commandments, I saw it, they kinda pushed him Pharaoh's daughter, and God prepared Pharaoh's daughter to raise Moses. And Stephen tells us that he was raised in such a way that he was powerful in speech. He was eloquent. He was strong in all the things of Egypt, and raised like Saul of Tarsus in the finest schools that the world had to offer. And he tried to, as he's coming up through that, his first forty years, he had a crisis, a moment of crisis where he realized that God had made him for a greater purpose, that he was a Jew and that he was a deliverer. And so he slew an Egyptian in the flesh and it didn't work out. So he went out into the wilderness for another forty years and tended the sheep of Jethro, a Midianite priest, and got married and had some kids and all. But forty years, so he's 80 years old and he's tending the sheep of another man. God has prepared him to lead his sheep out of Egypt and a picture of redemption, picture of this 2,000,000 people coming through the Red Sea and the symbol of the Passover, the lamb of God being slain, depicting what John the Baptist said, Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, which we'll get to with Adam and Eve leading the garden in the coats of skins and all. And so, beautiful picture, of what's happening. But the devil tried to get Jesus to take a shortcut to not go by way of the cross, but Jesus knew that he was gonna go by way of the cross and he set his face toward Jerusalem. He knew he was gonna go there. He prayed three times in the Garden Of Gethsemane, Father, if there's any other way, any other way, remove this cup from me, this wrath that would be poured out upon him. He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so, Jesus one verse 16, under the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be unto thy husband. And so part of the birth pangs, the sorrow of her mental pause each month, the sorrow of labor, laboring to have children, the birth pangs. And you remember that Rachel died in Bethlehem giving birth to Joseph and in her sorrow, in a picture of the nation of Israel, in their sorrow bringing forth the Messiah. And Jesus told us that there was joy in Matthew 16, John sixteen:two, that there'd be joy afterwards. The woman's in pain and pain and pain, but when the baby's born, then there's great joy that comes forth. And so the sorrow that you and I are facing as the tribulation period is approaching, the beast system being built, there's a sorrow, there's a groaning that's taking place. And Jesus said, When you see the beginning of sorrows, then look up knowing that your redemption draweth nigh. There's about ready to be birth the seventieth seven of Daniel, the time of Jacob's sorrow, Jacob's trouble, and out of that sorrow is going to be the joyous marriage supper of the lamb, where the wife of Jehovah, the Jews, the one third remnant preserved, and the bride of Christ, made up of Jew, Gentile, male, female, barbarian, Cynthia, Bond are free, are gonna celebrate drinking the fruit of the vine and dancing Zephaniah. And Jesus in Luke chapter 12 is gonna gird himself and he's gonna have us seated there at the marriage supper and he's gonna serve us. And what a blessing that is, our bridegroom, what we have to look forward to. But in the meantime, when it says desire here, this desire is a desire to rule over her husband. And he's the head, he's the head of the home. God's established a headship, authority, Adam blew it. Adam was to cover his wife and protect his wife. Somehow he just stood there deer in the headlights and allowed the whole thing to take place. But he allowed his wife to exercise her free will. In her free will, she basically chose to be deceived, I guess. Adam transgressed. He knew what he was doing. And so with this curse that's upon the woman and it carries over into the marriage, there's a battle, a power struggle that's gonna take place of who's going to be in charge, of who's gonna rule, of who is gonna be the head of the home. And Ephesians five is the answer. Ephesians five eighteen through 33 is the answer. We can't do it without the help of the Holy Spirit. So Ephesians five eighteen says, Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be being filled with the Holy Spirit. I always put that verse in all of my marital counseling. Without that understanding, it's going to be like this. It's going to be a power struggle of who's in charge. It's going to be a power struggle between the man and the woman in our selfishness, wanting our own will. And the woman is going to be unable to submit to her husband, and I'd like to put the word force in here. Any man that tries to force another person, an adult, I realize with children, gotta hedge him in, but any man that tries to force his wife to submit is already lost. You cannot force somebody. God didn't make her to be forced. If you look at the Koran and you look at Islam and Japan and other cultures, they in fact force. The Jews were forcing women. Jesus came to elevate the woman and to exalt her as the bride of Christ. And women were just like to the Jew, he'd pray each day that he wasn't born a woman or a Gentile. And they had no rights. And so, Jesus elevated, and the Apostle Paul elaborates on this in Ephesians five eighteen through 33. So, Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church. There's a mention of a mutual submission between each of us. We submit to God. So, that home needs to be established in such a way where Christ is the head of the home. And when Christ is the head of the home, underneath him is the man, as far as God's a God of order, he doesn't want chaos and disorder. And then the woman comes under that headship of the husband and the headship of Jesus, And as she's loved supremely, husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. And then Paul goes on to say, Love her like you love your own bodies, you selfish men, you know. No man ever yet hated his own body but nurses it and all cares for it. And so the emphasis upon love, love, love, love. And so if the man initiates, if the man loves his wife and follows through with all those promises he made when he's trying to convince her to marry him, then the woman will feel secure enough to come under that leadership, that headship. But if the husband begins to have a wandering eye, if the husband starts to be in disobedience to Jesus, then the wife can endure. A lot of women do endure a bad marriage and they may feel like they're forced to do what they have to do, but there's no longevity in it and there's no real love and there's no Christian witness in a marriage like that. And so, as I mentioned when we were teaching in Ephesians, marriage is not a prison sentence. If the guys don't understand the importance of neutralizing the curse by loving Eve, by loving her, you can neutralize it. Now she comes willingly into that place of subjection, of mutual submission as we hold hands and we're in submission to Jesus and the wonderment, the excitement of discovering God's plan and purpose for your marriage. God's plan and purpose for you as husband and wife. Why did he put you together and how can you glorify the Lord? No two marriages are the same. No two women are the same, right? No two men. So it's a death to self. It's an ongoing death to self, that of marriage, so that Christ can live through us. So that's the takeaway here as we look at the negative part of what happened to Eve and the curse in the following down. But Jesus comes along with a solution, with the solution, which is the life of the spirit. That's the solution. And so if your marriage is in trouble, if you're in a power struggle fighting over who's gonna be in charge, the problem's vertical. It's not horizontal between your husband and you. It's vertical. So both, the husband needs to initiate, hey, let's get back right with the Lord. Let's start reading the Bible again. Let's pray together again. Let's go to church again. Make church, make a Bible teaching church, make Jesus a priority. And without Jesus as your first love, without seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not all those things are going be added unto you. You might get material things, but you're not going to have a biblical, spirit filled, powerful, loving marriage. And because the flesh is gonna try and dominate both of you. And so we need to crucify the flesh. We need to reckon the old man dead. And so Paul said, In me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. So we need to live in that newness of life. I've said this a million times. The only reason I'm on the verge of forty five years of marriage is because Jesus puts a love in Kathy's heart for me. And Jesus protects us and Jesus has taught us and continues to teach us how to love. We don't know how to love. We have to learn and we follow the example that Jesus gives us. So you guys can read Ephesians five eighteen through 33 again and recognize this power struggle that's part of the curse. And again, I can't emphasize enough, husbands, do not try to force another person. You're not God. You're not God. She's not a slave. Do not force. If she doesn't want to do something, you pray and you wait. You wait till you're like minded, till God has worked in her heart that you can walk together in that way. You're asking for trouble if you try to grab her by the hair like some kind of caveman and drag her along. That's only gonna work a short period of time as soon as she finds a way out. That's why Jesus said, Because the hardness of your heart, God's given the writing of divorcement. That's a way out. That's a legal way out of that marriage for adultery. And in first Corinthians seven, Paul said also abandon it. If you abandon your wife, your responsibility of her, she's free also from that standpoint. So now look at it this way real quick, you men. How would you want your daughter treated? What kind of husband do you want for your daughter? You want some guy that tags her phone, follows her everywhere, micromanages her, makes it so she can't come over and see you guys and can't see the grandkids and just a total dominator, a total weasel. During COVID, you couldn't see your grandkids? And it can be the it can be your daughter-in-law too. Same thing can happen that way. So the key is, are they saved? Do they trust Jesus enough to be able to trust you? You know? And your marriage. Is your wife growing, guys? Is your wife have you taken knowledge of your wife and tried to facilitate and help her to blossom and grow and become the woman that you're gonna present to Jesus one day? Lord, I'm gonna present my Kathy to you, you know? Is she better off now than when you first married her? Is she more Christ like? Has she been growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? So that's the responsibility of the man. And but we do live in a fallen world. We do have husbands and wives that get sick and that die and we wind up going through being widows and all. We have children that get sick and die. We have all myriad of different problems that we all face. The only difference for you and I is that Jesus is there in the boat with us through these storms. And we suffer just like the world suffers, and Jesus suffered. He's a man of sorrow. So take it day by day. Seize the moment. Seize this day to serve the Lord and to walk in fellowship with your bride, with your husband, with your children, with your family, with your church family, because nobody's guaranteed tomorrow. Are you guaranteed tomorrow? No. You never know. So don't waste time. Time is the key issue. Time that we get to serve the Lord together. And so the woman's desire there. So be aware of that. Be aware of that tendency in you to want to usurp the authority that God's given to your husband. And husbands, be aware that the way God made the woman, her greatest need is to be loved supremely. And if you're not loving her supremely, she's not going to be able to respect you. And that's what men, men's the way God made men is they have a desire to be respected, to to allow to lead, to allow to be the head of the home. They go to work and they get, in many cases, beat down all day and ridiculed and they're in the grind and so too the wives. The wives work too and they're in the grind. And when you come home, there has to be order and the kids are watching, there has to be order. But the best way for me is I just say, Kathy, where are we going? What are we going to eat? I just ask her and what do you want to do? Want to do this? Want to do that? A lot of this stuff doesn't matter to me anymore. It just doesn't matter. I want Kathy to be happy. I want her to be content. I want her to have a good day. And if she asked me to go thrifting in Port Orchard, then I vomit, then I throw up. I'm sick. I'm sorry I can't go with you. But in many ways, try. I try real hard to deny myself. And like I said, there's it's not like when I was young where we had to establish these principles. It's so different now. There's a mutual submission. There's a mutual understanding of what she likes. And why would I force her to do something she doesn't like? It just doesn't make sense to me. So we all work it out somehow. Alright. Verse 17. And unto Adam he said, because thou has hearkened unto the voice of your wife and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shall not eat of it, Cursed is the ground for your sake. So Adam was a farmer. He was still in the garden, but the garden was prolific. There were no weeds. Isn't it funny how the weeds just grow like crazy? And you can't get rid of those weeds and you're trying to get your wildflowers to grow and there's slugs coming up and there's bunnies eating them and the deer eat your flowers. There's this whole big curse on trying to be productive, be prolific. But when Adam was in the garden there, he didn't have any of that trouble. Without very little effort, was able to produce great amounts. But now, it's going to be a grind. It's going to be by the sweat of your brow. It's going to be arduous. It's be stressful. It's I was thinking yesterday when I was teaching, you know, just our career of working. We start working. Many of you started working paper routes and stuff and your kids are babysitting and real strong work ethic. You work, you work, you work, you work. And in essence, what you're doing is you're sacrificing your life. You're sacrificing your body. You're breaking down, the body's breaking down with all of little sleep and physical, mental, emotional work that you subject yourself to. And finally, you reach the day of retirement and your body's worn out. You left it all on the field. You left it on the field. And I got this picture of Kellen Winslow and Dan Fouts walking off the field, I think they were playing Miami, and they went into overtime or something. They had nothing left. They could barely get off the field. They left it all on the field, and that's how many of you are. You're dedicated and you recognize the grind, you recognize the curse, you recognize what you got to do, and it's not fun. It's never been fun. And the other thing I want you to know is that I know life is not fair. It's never been fair. It's never been just. It's evil. It's unjust. It's a curse. So when God lets you work and he helps you to produce, it's glorious. It's wonderful to be able to endure and persevere and get through the adversity and come home productive enough to buy food and shelter and clothing and all the stuff your family needs and all, but it's interesting to me how quickly we wind up going to heaven after we retire. Now, that's not so bad. You're going to heaven, but as you're working, you're working for that day that you can retire in your golden years. All right, even if you live, your body's broken. You can't walk anymore. Now you're getting hip replacement, knee replacement, you know, shoulders. People that go to Hawaii, they go forty years too late. They're going to Hawaii for a glorious Hawaiian vacation. They can't even get out of the car, you know. And they should have went there when they're in their twenties, you know. But you can't afford that. The kids need clothes. The kids need this. The car needs fixing. That's the grind. That's reality. There's nothing wrong with it. There isn't anything you did wrong. It's the curse. It's the world we live in. And we have a higher standard of living than the rest of the world. You know, the rest of world has it even worse. Worse than us. And so it's because we live in a fallen world. And probably the most valuable commodity that we have is time. How much time do you have to spend with the people you love? How much time do you have to serve the Lord? So you're going to sacrifice time because you have to. And if you don't want to, then you can believe the false gospel of universal basic income and socialism, which cannot, will not last much, you know, last very long. They're gonna paint it that way, but this is the curse. Elon, globalists, the robotics, the chips, the tokenization of all assets and all that stuff. It's going to be very short lived as far as trying to content the masses of people who you're laying off, who don't have jobs, but hey, just get the chip and we'll give you universal basic income, you know. Communism doesn't work. Alright. It goes against what God's saying. Alright. And there's a dignity. There's a joy and a blessing in obeying the Lord in this way. And it's not just the curse upon Adam, it's the curse upon all of creation. Somebody wanna read Romans eight twenty through 23. Romans eight twenty through 23. Okay. So Adam listened to the voice of his wife and took. Abraham in Genesis sixteen two listened to the voice of Sarah to go into Hagar, and it brought a curse, didn't it? It brought forth Ishmael. So be careful, guys. Be careful, girls. Alright. Go ahead, Eddie. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. So this earth is not our home. This world is not the curse hasn't been reversed to set up the millennium just yet. And so even creation is waiting, groaning and travailing, waiting for that curse to be reversed and for the millennium to spring forth And where the trees will clap their hands and praise the Lord and the birds and the animals and you won't have the carnivorous animals, the predators, the apex predators preying upon little lambs and stuff. Isaiah 11 describes the millennium and the curse being reversed and little child leading them and all, the wolf and the lion and the lamb. And so that's not the place we're at right now. So when you see people trying to befriend a bear, trying to befriend a tiger or lion or a serpent, they have a nature within them that wants to eat you, that wants to hurt you, you know. You're you're not gonna be nice to them and get them to, you know, give you a hug and give you a kiss, you know. It's part of the curse. So but it's just so strange. People think that, ham at Yellowstone, there's a big old bear there. I'm gonna get out of the car and go you know, try and pet it, you know. They get mauled, you know. It's the nature of the bear. It's what's in the bear, you know. So make sure you got pepper spray, I guess. So the thorns, so thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all, the days of your life. It's nice when we find a job that we enjoy, that we really, really enjoy because the grind can be even worse if you have to work a job that you just despise, you have bosses that you despise, whatever it is. So part of it is to pray and ask the Lord, you know, Lord, how'd you make me? What did you make me? What skills do I have? You know, maybe you're real good with wrenches and the Lord made you a mechanic or, you know, you're really musically inclined and you really want to use that musical gift full time, but sometimes I'd tell the kids at the Roxy when they were leaving, they gave me trouble. I'd say, You're not ready yet. Don't quit your day job. And they, You can't say that. You know, they get so mad at me. But it's true. A lot of times, somebody that really dreams musically to exercise that gift has to underwrite the blessing of exercising that gift by working a job. So two pastors, I had to work jobs at first, I had a business, and I had an opportunity to teach Sunday school and to teach Bible studies. That step of going full time is a huge step of faith. Know, Lord, are you going to provide for us? And do we need to life support this church by pastor Rick and Kathy going out and getting jobs? Can I trust the Lord that he'll provide for us? So it's a most of the guys in my school that I went with wouldn't take the step of faith. They couldn't trust God. They told God when they were negotiating, you need to sell my house for x amount, you need to do this, this, and this, and then we'll go. And none of them went because God didn't do that for them. We left with a thousand dollars. That's it. A thousand bucks. We left and moved up to Oregon. So I get to do what I love to do. That's why I keep saying I don't want to retire. Because to me, this isn't a job. Although there's sorrow, I've to put up with a lot of people like you. But You like that, Betty? You like that? Yeah. That's what Ruthie does. My friend John used to always say, know, sheep have teeth, and a lot of times we suffer from sheep bites. Sheep bites, you know? You wouldn't think that, that sheep can bite you. Bite and devour, as James says. But anyway, it's just part of the calling. Part of the calling is deep sorrow of relationships that break down. You're in, you're out, you're in, you're out. But the joy of the calling, that's the grind for us, is the breakdown of relationships. Like I was trying to convey yesterday, how sincere is your love? It's so interesting how quickly people leave the church, hate me, and divide over what? Did I I pull a gun on them? Did I did I smack them around? Did I hit them with a whip? You know, you would think I'm a monster the way they act, but it's a tiny little thing. They got their feelings hurt. Didn't get their way. And that love that they're supposed to have, that we're supposed to have, all of a sudden it dissipates and it's gone and they take their toys and run. That's the life of a pastor in a pastor's life. And you feel it. Your children feel it. So that's the grind for us. That's the hard part. The good part is when somebody gets saved or somebody responds, I asked Brittany yesterday, I said, she's having trouble with somebody and I said, well, you think they're teachable? Are they teachable? And she said, yeah, think they are. And I said, that's all I care about if they're learning. I don't expect them to be mature Christian yet, but are they improving? Are they growing? That's the reward for us when we see people being transformed by the renewing of their mind. We're watching them apply the word of God to their life. We're watching them repent and make decisions and do things that are biblical, that are Christian, that are right. Then they grow, you know, and their marriage gets stronger. That's the reward for us. But as far as it being a grind, it's not a grind, the study and teaching. The study and teaching for me is the easiest part. This is easy, it's effortless. Because that's a gift from the Lord. Yeah, there's effort and there's time, and there's an investment of time to study. Study to show yourself approved. But it's a joyous study. It's not the kind of thing that if I was working at the shipyard and I had to go inside the tubes and do the painting or sandblasting or think something that's really hard on your health and your whatever. Although I've done a lot of very humbling jobs and humbling things that a whole lot of proud people would never do. But God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. So sometimes I look at it as well, if I'm willing to do this, then I get to teach. And if I'm willing to live in a trailer for ten years, then I still get to be a pastor. I still get to teach. If my wife's willing, then we still get to teach. We still get to minister to people. Who knows what God might do? Always with that wonderment. Who knows what God might do any given day? That's how we're living, and that's why it's so exciting, And I don't see a cutoff point or a stopping point that says, all right, it's over except for take me home, you know. Or, you know, I go on somebody's horse ranch and the horse kicks me in the head and I lose my ability to think and talk and I'm just drooling, you know. Then we'd need to go see if Elon can give me a chip to get me going again, you know. But as long as you have the faculties, in my case, for me, not for you necessarily, I just enjoy what I'm doing. So I guess Chuck Swindoll is 91 years old and he's still going strong. Pastor Chuck was 86 and he kept going. So now the other thing of this is you can do a job where you're greatly, greatly rewarded, making lots of money in that job, and it's a grind but you're being rewarded. You have a business and you're being rewarded. And that's part of the perk, that's part of what keeps you going. It's like, hey, we're getting ahead. But there's an emptiness in your heart. That's what happened to me is there was an emptiness. It wasn't the grind. It wasn't that I hated what I was doing. I loved being a hero and people paying me to clean things and do things and floods and all that. It was wonderful. Wonderful lifestyle. But it didn't fulfill me because God called me to do this. So you can beat me with an ugly stick and make me live in a trailer for ten years because you hate me, but if I get to do this on Sunday, Monday night, you're not getting me to quit. I'm not gonna quit, the joy and the blessing of trusting him and walking by faith. And so try to analyze and think that through and pray that through of how what God has you doing transitions from being a grind and sorrow to be in your ministry, that God sent you there to share the gospel. It makes all the difference in the world. That you're in the Navy and you're going all over the place, and it may be a grind for four years or six years or ten years, but man, you've seen the world and you've been able to share the gospel all over the world. And I know for some of you, as you're part of this church and other churches, that grind and that sorrow, when God blesses you, you're able to support that ministry. You're able to be a part of that ministry. You're able to serve in that ministry. So it may not be exactly the job you have where that joy is coming from, but as you see the investment that you're able to make in collectively, corporately, fulfilling the great commission, there can be that peace that I was talking about, that sense of satisfaction. I used to think when I was, before I became a pastor, that God was going to call me to be a Christian businessman and then I could support missions and support things. And unfortunately for me, I enjoyed teaching Sunday school more than I did trying to build the bank account. So But that was just that was just my weird calling. You've hearkened unto the voice like Abraham with Hagar, the wife, and thou hast eat of the tree which I commanded thee, saying thou shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns. Jesus wore a crown of thorns. Remember? Satan offered him a kingdom and the soldiers mocked him and fashioned Judean thorns to put upon his head, you know. You and I, we get an incorruptible crown that fades not away because Jesus wore a crown of thorns. He took the curse. He took the curse to the cross, and he spoiled all principalities and powers and triumphed over them. He snuffed the Satan. He snuffed them. He broke his head. And I have to say this too. I've said it a million times. The Passion of the Christ, that movie, I watched it one time. I wanna watch it again, it's so sad. I hate seeing Jesus being whipped like that. But there is a scene where he crushes the serpent's head, And I think Mel Gibson, he captured it right there. That's what it is. He's walking along, the serpent's like this. And the other thing I think they captured in some ways, I don't know, is the demonic possession of those little boys, the demonic possession of Judas, oh, it's just spooky. It's oh. But anyway, when Jesus is walking along and crushes the serpent's head, I think that's you don't see that in those lily white British movies, you know, of Jesus, depicting of Jesus. The movie The Robe with Victor Mature, before Nero and all. Some of those movies are so good, such classics, you know. You haven't seen that. There's some old, old Christian movies that I like Chariots of Fire. Any of you ever seen Elephant Man? Elephant Man when he quotes Psalm 23, that's pretty amazing. I know there's some more recent ones that you guys have seen, but sometimes they capture and the passion of the Christ captured this, the crushing the serpent's head. And so thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. So I always talk about being a carnivore, Adam's gonna be a vegan, vegetarian, the herb of the field. He's going be a salad dude and he's going to experience toil and stress. Stress is the silent killer. Our society, the enormous amount of stress that we endure in our cities, in our driving, in our jobs, the whole thing. The whole thing is a stress is the silent killer. It's eaten us away on the inside. The opposite of stress, peace I give unto you, Not does the world give, give I unto you. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. My little brother, Larry, he is a really good kid, but he has trouble with anxiety and stress. And he's a Christian, he believes, but they don't attend church or read their Bible or, you know, spend time sitting at the Lord's feet. So he's not availing himself of the peace that you and I may take for granted. I don't have anxiety issues. I don't have to pull over the side of the road like some guys described to me because I can't breathe anymore, worried about how I'm going pay the bills. It's faith. Your faith grows and you trust the Lord. Have to train your mind to reject those arrows, to reject those worries, and to fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith. You have to be humbled. I know a lot of cases you have to do without, but you're humble, but you don't lose your peace. You'll keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on me. And so if we look at stress, the silent killer, stress, the anger, the pressure, pressure is normal. Jesus said you're going have pressure, but what do you do with that pressure? How do you cope? What do you turn to? Are you going to wear a, you know, take that thing the baby suck on and pacifier? Some of the adults are doing stuff like that. Crazy. Alcohol, drugs, whatever. So many different ways that we as Christians try to cope with the stress, the cortisol hormone that's being created and building up in us that causes so much destruction to our bodies and our minds. And so, Peter says, Casting all your cares upon him for he cares for you. That weight will roll back on you, and you gotta keep casting it like a fly pole. Keep casting it. Cast it out there. God hasn't designed you to carry that load, to carry that. Just come on to me all you that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest, you know? So you gotta give him that burden. Give him that stuff. And as we study with Matthew six, seek first the kingdom of God and his writings, all these other things be added unto you. The unbeliever's always consumed with, what am I gonna eat? What am I gonna drink? What am I gonna wear? We're not to be like that. We're to have the example of the birds. You toil, you work, and God will provide for you, right? And worried about what clothes you're gonna have? Look at the lilies of the field, how they toil and they spin, you know. They don't get judy to make them new clothes, but just God clothes, it's just so beautiful, you know. And then we're going to be getting there in Philippians four. In Philippians four, Paul's given us a recipe, a way for you and I to not be sucked in to the anxiety and the times in which we're living. In the tribulation period, it's going to be so stressful, so intense that men's hearts are going to fail them watching the things that are coming upon the earth. A time of perplexity where there's no way out. But that doesn't describe you and I as believers. We're looking up with a totally different perspective. We're told to look up knowing our redemption draws nigh. We expect the world to fail. We expect the world, the second law of thermodynamics, where disorder and death are multiplying. Greater and greater disorder. Our God's not the author of confusion, the devil is, and the devil's bringing about a rebellion against God, and life is the rule of law, and life is gonna become disorderly, crazy, just crazy. And I think the movies and stuff are trying to prepare you for zombies and all of this sorts of stuff, but you and I are supposed to be different. We're supposed to be able to turn to the Lord and be anxious for nothing. But in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. It doesn't make sense that Kathy and Rick have some peace right now. It doesn't make sense that you have peace. You're going through cancer. You're going through heartache with your kids and your grandkids. How can you possibly have peace? Your neighbors and your friends and family, even some Christian friends are saying, Hey, I've got a doctor that'll give you a tranquilizer, that'll give you a My mom used to do the tranquilizers, the cigarette and beer. What a combination. And she would be like this. Didn't keep her finger from shaking. Just shaking. Just stressed out like crazy, you know. And a beautiful, beautiful woman. But as time went on, the stress and being a fighter and trying to fight through everything, you know. It just catches up with them and she finally got sober, the alcohol and all, probably the tranquilizer. I remember when she was raising four kids and I was a little guy and She chain smoked till the day she died. This one's done like that one, like that one. And that was a way of calming her nerves. When she was dying of a brain tumor in Arizona, in Phoenix, I went into the room and she was just tormented and I said to the nurse, I said, My mom's a chain smoker. I said, I think she's having withdrawals from nicotine. Maybe you need to give her a nicotine patch. They put it on her and she calmed right down. It's part of the way she coped. But we as Christians, we have something far far greater than the world, most people in the world. We have chocolate. Chocolate is really, really good. Chocolate at night. It's good for the heart. It's good for the heart, right? And for some people, they drink a glass of wine. A glass of wine calms them down a bit. A glass of wine is supposed to be good for the heart. I know Christian people in their ninety's, every night they have a glass of wine. That's not the way I roll, but I'm not saying you should. Other of you are trying to micro dose or smoke the weed, I don't know. But spiritually speaking, we can go directly to the Lord and He can just change our heart. He can produce chemicals in our brain that remove chemicals that are trying to make us bitter and discouraged and depressed. What kind of chemicals are produced when you get your eyes off of yourself and you start to worship God? What happens? What's the dynamic of you physiologically, emotionally, when spiritually you jump in spiritually and you want to know the Lord and spend time with the Lord? For me, my experience is I might walk into church kind of bummed out and it's been a rough week or a rough day and they start worshiping and man, all of a sudden it's like, Woah, where did all that go? And then the message was just for me and then I get in the car and we're driving home and it's like, wow, that's better than any party I've ever been to. I never did the bars or whatever, but I mean, that's the way the Lord ministers to us because we live in a fallen world. That's the reality of the world we live in. There will be tribulation, pressure. There will be injustices. There will be thorns, thistles, and death, and sorrow, and sickness. How do we as Christians live the life that Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. It's the abundant life of the spirit. A quality of life that the world cannot purchase nor manufacture in a pill. It's only available to you and I as Christians. And that's why I get so frustrated when Christians rely upon psychology and psychobabble counselors where they're dealing with people on a human level rather than a spiritual level. People miss out. They miss out on what the life of being a Christian is really like. So thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field and smoke it too for some. No, I'm just saying it. So in the sweat of your face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. So our lifestyle is so great. We have air conditioned tractors, right? We don't have to sweat to bring forth food, got music playing, bouncing seed, but Ray still had a lot of stress. There's a lot of stress involved a lot of everything, but we can make our farming, our producing food, you know, far more productive today than in a lot of cultures and all. And so, but the sweat of the brow. Sweating's good. I like to sweat. So sweat of your face, shalt thou eat bread till thou return under the ground? Can you imagine in California where it's 80 degrees out, 75, 80 degrees out, and I'm driving house to house, no air conditioner, just roll the windows down. And and then you go into the house and the windows are all closed up. You gotta open up all the windows in the lady's house, and then you take this wand and what comes out of it is steam. Steam, hot water, steam. I would start sweating like you can't believe my shirt, everything by the time I left there, it's soaking wet. Just soaking wet. I do this. So my arms right here would have, you know, the dirt from sweating and all that. And I felt good. It was great. I didn't try to do my job like, How can I do this without sweating? Sweating was part of that job. That was the job, you know? But it felt good. Maybe you don't like to sweat, but it's part of the curse. So in the sweat of your face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. So, god, there's no retirement here. Where'd the idea of retirement come? Where'd the idea of a three day weekend come from? Four day weekend. Thank God, right? Thank God. I heard of a church, a big mega church in Tennessee that shut down for the fourth of July weekend in celebration of two hundred fifty years as a country. He told his people, no church on Sunday. Just enjoy your family. Enjoy the gathering as we celebrate two hundred fifty years. I think he's got COVID on the brain. Closing the church during Easter because of COVID and all? How these churches get into a a groove, into a habit of shutting down. Who said you can shut down, you know? It's crazy to me. It's mind blowing. But they do. And so as far as retirement goes, or six days you're gonna work, right? You got a Sabbath day, the Shabbat, that God made for you to rest, and to rest with him and your family. But we live in a great country, a great time where we can work four tens and get three days off. Isn't that amazing? It's amazing. And then you reach a certain age, 62, 64, 66, 67, and all this money that you set aside being a good steward and working so hard. One of the, I think it's Speaker of the House Johnson said, if the Republicans do well in these midterms, that they're gonna take Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and greatly reduce it. And one of the women that posted, she said, I worked forty years for that. That's my money. It's not and take this word away, remove this word it is not a benefit. It's to accrue interest and be my, you know, since the New Deal, FDR brought forth after World War II, socialism, you know? And now the baby boomers are such and the economy is such that how are we going to fulfill this obligation? State of Washington, they invade the firemen and the police officers, their retirement funds. These funds can be millions, even billions of dollars, but these wackadoodle governments that want to keep giving freebies to everybody in Seattle, they run out of money. That's what Margaret Thatcher said. The only thing wrong with socialism is you eventually run out of other people's money to support it for the people that don't produce. And so you're gonna go back to the ground, God's saying, from dust to dust. Now does that bring up cremation? Is it okay to speed the process up through cremation? I I would say, yeah. Is that for me? Oh, no. Okay. Producing prolific berries. Awesome. So pastor Chuck used to say that he saw nothing wrong with cremation. Billy Graham apparently had problems with cremation. It's a personal thing. If I had the money, I would choose for Kathy and I to have a plot side by side that my kids and stuff could visit, although I'm not there anymore. But the headstone would be cool. And then I would like to do like tradition where when you sit up in the grave, you're facing east because Jesus is coming from the east. That'd be so cool to have the picture of the resurrection that the dead in Christ rise first. I'm not facing that way. I'm facing he's coming from the east. Right? That'd be cool. So but you're going back to the dust. We're going back to the dust. And now if I go back to the dust and my DNA and everything goes and gets into the ground, then somehow gets mixed in with the dirt, with the minerals and all that because I'm just minerals and stuff going back to minerals. And then part of me is what helps grass to start growing. And then a cow comes along and eats that grass. How's there gonna be enough of me to resurrect if I'm cremated and all the way back to the dust? Maybe we're afraid. That's kinda silly, right? Because God has our DNA, he knows our DNA. He can just make the new rick with a little speck. He don't need anything, right? He made everything, bara, out of nothing. So some people think in terms of cremation is bad because where does all those minerals, everything go? How's God gonna have something to work with to resurrect me? Right? And but that's even if you bury you in the ground, you're still going back to the dust eventually. Right? Everything goes back. So from dust to dust. Alright. We got time. Let's look at some dust verses. Who wants Job three fifteen? Okay. Job four nineteen and Job ten nine since you're in Job. Anybody got that? What you said? I'll give you three in Job. Job315 Okay. Job419 Okay. And Job ten nine. K. And Psalm one zero four twenty nine. Okay. Rochelle. Psalm one zero three fourteen. Okay. Berry eater. Ecclesiastes. Two two of them in Ecclesiastes. Who wants Ecclesiastes? Ecclesiastes three twenty? I'll do it. If you're able to find that book, you might as well do it while you're there. Ecclesiastes twelve seven? Three twenty and twelve seven, Bernie? 320And127. Amen. Yes, sir. Job 315. Job 315. I'll go over here. Or the princes the princes that had gold who filled their houses with silver. Oh well, sounds good. Yeah. Okay. Job four nineteen. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which are crushed before the moth? So basically, these homes are built from dust to dust. It goes back to dust no matter what kinda the second law of thermodynamics. Everything is in disorder and headed toward death. Job ten nine. Okay. I don't know. Okay. Remember, I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay, and thou wilt bring me to the dust again. Alright. Dust to dust. And then, Psalm one zero four twenty nine. You hide your face. They are troubled. You take away their breath. They die and return to their dust. Turn to the dust. Psalm a hundred and three fourteen. He knows our frame. Yeah. For he knows how we are formed. He remembered that we are dust. We're dust. A lot of times, we have a much larger vision or picture or expectation of who we are. And God's not surprised when we fail. After all, he made us from the dust. Now, he takes the dust, dirt, and he mixes it with a little water, he can make clay and he can take that clay and he can fashion it as a master potter and make a beautiful vessel out of you. So we are jars of clay and the Holy Spirit tabernacles in us. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. We're his poema, we're his work of art created in Christ Jesus unto good works. God can do a lot with dust, right? He can do a lot with What's He have to work with? Like Rob said, No, no, no, that dirt's mine. You start with something else. Yeah. Alright. Who's next? Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes three twenty. Are we? Yeah. We're all good. I'll do that one. Both go to the same place they came from dust and they return to dust. Alright. From dust to dust, that's a verse that we use at funerals. Ecclesiastes, twelve seven. Twelve seven is where's it at? For then the best will return to the earth and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Return to the earth. So when I die, I told Kathy, you know, go ahead and cremate me and then take a road trip down to California with Brittany and the kids and go to the beach. She knows where. And just kinda don't let anybody see it, not on the pier. Just just nobody see it. Just walk the beach, get the down by the water and just kinda throw a little bit of that dust in the water. Just throw it down on the ground there. That's what I would want her to do. And kind of a memory of, you know, how we met, where we met, where we grew up, that sort of thing. And remember, our names are in the Lamb's Book of Life. This life is but a vapor. It's a vapor. It's over so quick. So the best is yet to come. So if you do get a funeral with a casket, you remember the lady that said she wanted to be buried with a fork in her hand? Remember that? Because the best is yet to come. She heard that at all the potlucks that save your fork because a dessert's next and the best is yet to come. Alright. That's a good picture. Alright. So we got Ecclesiastes done. We did it? Alright. Now, let's keep going. So, and Adam called his wife's name Eve, which means life giver. And life giver, so here Adam believes in verse 15. Verse 15, the seed of the woman, the virgin born, you know, son of God. Adam believes that the woman is gonna continue to be the source of replenishing the earth and that eventually the Messiah's gonna come forth through Eve. She's the life giver. You see that? And in chapter four, she's gonna have Cain and Abel, and they're gonna be the first one with belly buttons, right? So Adam's faith is there. He has faith. He's looking to the future, naming her Eve, and she's the life giver because she was the mother of all living. So his faith is in the seed of the woman. His faith, Adam's faith right there, he's a believer. He's looking future that the Messiah's gonna come through the woman. And that faith that he has is imputed to him for righteousness. And when he leaves the garden, he's gonna be leaving in coats of skins, and God's gonna definitely explain to him, you know, the gospel was before preached unto Abraham, right? Jesus said, Abraham rejoice to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. So even like Abraham, in Genesis 22, when he's told to offer Isaac his son, thine only son upon Mount Moriah, it's a picture of the cross. It's a picture of God the father offering his son upon the cross of Calvary. Moriah's at Calvary. And when Isaiah said, the submission of Isaiah unto his father willingly going on that that altar, the submission of Christ unto his father, I do always those things that please him. Father, have the knife. Father, we have the wood. Father, we have the fire. But where's the lamb? Jehovah Jireh. God will provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice. So Adam and Eve, when they're leaving here, we're gonna see them, not in fig leaves, but in coats of skins. So it's the progen how do you say that word? Protoevangelium. It's the first instance of the gospel in verse 15, but it's growing. His faith is growing and he's starting to see that Messiah would be cut off. That Messiah would be crucified. That Jesus would die, you know, for their sins. So the faith of Adam and Eve is imputed unto them for righteousness. And unfortunately, Cain, when we look at it next week, he brought the work of his hands. He didn't bring a blood sacrifice like Abel's gonna bring. Abel understood. It pictures the Messiah, it pictures Jesus being crucified. His death, his burial, his resurrection. For Adam also and for his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. So your religious efforts, fashioning fig leaves and all isn't gonna do it. Your righteousness is filthy rags. So he brings forth coats of skins and he's teaching them the principle of without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. Luke seven, or excuse me, Leviticus seventeen eleven, Hebrews 10 verse four, Hebrews nine twenty two, Numbers 20 one:eight and nine, John three fourteen, Second Corinthians five twenty one. We don't have time to go those, but I'll try and explain those as best I can. So what happens here is without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. So God's bringing a provision, a way of atonement, at onement. And the at onement is making a way for Adam and Eve who are separated physically, they're gonna die physically. Spiritually, they're separated from God. So Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the son of man be lifted up. And so we remember the brass that speaks of judgment that Moses later is gonna erect when the serpent's there on the ground and the people that are bitten by the serpent, bitten by sin, they just look to Jesus. They look to the pole, the brass pole, and they'll be healed. And so the principle of blood, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And then when we get into Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, probably the Apostle Paul, he points out that it's impossible that the blood of bulls and the bullocks could take away sin. It's a keyword, take away sin. So this system is put in place as a means of pointing future, symbolically pointing future, so people have their faith in Jesus that one day he will be crucified. We look back to the cross that he was in fact crucified and that belief and that faith that we have is imputed to us for righteousness, where they were all looking future. So, on the day of atonement later on, when the law is brought forth in Leviticus 17, the great day of Yom Kippur, of atonement, they're going to take the blood of sprinkling the great high priest and bring it in and sprinkle it over mercy seat. But they're also going to confess the sins of the whole nation and they're going to send one of the goats away, which is a scapegoat out into the wilderness. A picture of Psalm 103, where our sins are separated from the east to the west, remembered no more. So that's a picture of forgiveness, the sending out. And the atonement, the atonement of Yom Kippur is the covering of sin for the year. And the whole nation confesses their sins and those sins are through the high priest are placed upon the goat that they're gonna slay. And so there's a recognition that Jesus is one day gonna be the lamb. So in Passover, we see a lamb actually. But the other offerings on the day of Yom Kippur, the burnt offering, picture Christ, but they bring in the blood of the goat, the blood of sprinkling, and so again, it's just covering, covering, covering, covering. So what did John the Baptist say to Jesus when he saw Jesus? Said it twice. Who doesn't cover sin but takes away sin, right? Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John the Baptist got it. His cousin got it. Now he got it for that moment. Later on, he's like, are you the one or should we look for another? You know, when his faith was tested when he was in the prison cell. Second Corinthians five twenty one, He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So something had to die. These coats of skins, I believe it was a lamb that God used here. The picture there. And so, and the Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us. Notice the plural there. The man has become as one of us. The plurality of the Godhead, three in one. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Not three gods, one God in three persons. The Father, the Son, the holy spirit, the trinity. Trinity is not in the bible. Bible's not in the bible. And rapture is in the bible in the latin vulgate. So next time you hear somebody say, hey, rapture's not in the bible. Yes, it is. It's in the Latin Vulgate. Doesn't matter though. It's a Greek word, catching away. And here we have the trinity. Trinity's not in the bible. But God identifies himself as God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit. We saw Elohim, the plural. In the beginning God created, Bara, out of nothing. And so, behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. And so before this, Adam didn't know good and evil. Not only does he know good and evil now, now he's experiencing good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. So he would live in his physical condition, his physical fallen condition forever if he went to that tree of life. Isn't that fascinating? But spiritually speaking, he's dead spiritually. He's separated from God. How tragic that would be. How tragic it would be for Elon Musk and Jared Kushner and all these guys to have Satan become their God, a fallen angel, and for them to figure out a way to live forever in their wickedness and their evil. Because you remember back in Genesis six, well, forward now, but Genesis six, didn't it say that God grieved? God was grieving in his heart because he saw within man the thought and intents of man's heart were only evil continually. And this was when men were living six, seven, eight, nine hundred years, right? They were getting better at evil. You get better at evil. So the psychiatrist says, Well, know, we're gonna rehab this person. We're gonna reprogram and change them, shock them, give them a lobotomy and make their hair grow back with pills and micro dosing and all that. All that happens as we get older, apart from Christ, is we become better liars. We conceal it better. We become more prolific at evil in our fallen nature. It's only as a Christian that we improve. Only as a Christian we're changed. There's a transformation and a change from glory to glory in the image of Christ. If he left us without the work of the Holy Spirit to transform and change, to conform us in the image of his son, we'd have no power over power of sin in Romans six. Sin would dominate us and that's part of salvation in the three tenses. It speaks of deliverance and healing from the past penalty of sin. All right, good. But what about in the present tense, right now in this body? What deliverance and healing do I have over the power of sin? Because my first federal head introduced this fallen nature, this fallen world. The world is getting worse and worse and worse, right? And Jesus said, except those days be short and no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake, for Israel, God's gonna intervene because the inventions of man, the mind of man, coupled with demons and demons teaching man how to be even more and more prolific in their evil, it's like a dog that has rabies. At a certain point, God's gotta put it down. Sodom and Gomorrah, God in his grace and mercy, put it down, right? And God in his grace and mercy caused the flood to put it down because the demons were creating or bringing forth the Nephilim and bringing forth a race of aliens, so to speak, and trying to quench out and to force out the seed of the woman to even be able to take place because there'd be no pure DNA. But the idea here is the proliferation of evil, the mystery of lawlessness, the mystery of what man's capable of. So there's another important doctrine that needs to come out here and it's the doctrine of the fall of man. Very important to understand that Adam, our first federal head, that his fallen nature is passed on to Cain, to Abel, and to everybody else all throughout history. Okay? So if we look at Jeremiah 79, a heart is deceitfully, desperately wicked, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and who can know it? Your heart, the heart of man is a fallen heart. Paul said in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. So there's a false doctrine called Pelagianism and the Pelagianism doesn't recognize man in a fallen nature. It says that man is neutral when he's born and that he has a choice to live good or evil. Do you believe that? No. Because you were, David described it in Psalm 51 verse five, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. We have a fallen nature that's passed on through Adam and Eve. Adam, our first federal head, he's flawed. He's a sinner. That's why we're gonna turn to Romans chapter five right now. Five twelve through 21. And the other thing is, if there is such a thing as Pelagianism and somebody were to be born that was innocent, somebody that was born that was good, would they die? They'd never die. When we get to Genesis chapter five, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, everybody dies. Why? The wages of sin is death. The day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Death is passed on. So if ever there was anybody, I mean, even little tiny babies die, you know? They didn't even have a chance to live yet. So Romans five deals with Pelagianism. I mean, the Apostle Paul. It's really so simple. I don't know why somebody wanted to go that route. It was kind of a slam that Pelagian had against Augustine with his doctrine of the depravity of man. We're all depraved. Which is true. That part of the tulip total depravity, I believe that part's true. We're totally depraved. In me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. Nothing good there. Alright. So wherefore by one man, Adam, right? Paul's teaching about the imputation of righteousness. Sin entered into the world. How'd that happen? Through Adam and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for all sin. Now some people get real angry about this. Well, I didn't sin. Why is God judging me? I'm a good person. I go to church twice a week and I tithe and I help old ladies across the street. I do everything so nice. Why is God causing these terrible things to happen to me? I'm a good person. Well, it's all a part of, number one, you're deceiving yourself. Number two, the real reason is you live in a fallen world, and you have a fallen nature. There's a curse upon the world. And like I said earlier, life is not fair. If you really got fairness, if you really got justice, if you say, God, I want justice, what would you get? Hell. You want what you deserve? So God I'm gonna jump ahead a bit. God is making everybody guilty so that he can what? So that he can make salvation a free gift, but nobody can earn it. But he's gotta stop every mouth. He's gotta get everybody to admit I've sinned. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, right? So the ones that are tough is in, you know, Luke 18, you know, where the Pharisee and the publican, Jesus illustrated justification. The publican wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast, said, God, be merciful for me, a sinner. Jesus said, that man walked away justified. The Pharisee, he was praying just with himself, prided himself how good he was. So sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for all sin. So we all sinned in Adam. Adam sinned and his nature transferred to all of us. For until the law, sin was in the world. So later when Moses comes along, you know, there's gonna be the Mosaic Law. They don't have the Mosaic Law at this point. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned. So we know that they were still all sinners because death reigned. Sinners die the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. And so, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the smilitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of he that was to come, of Jesus. So the imputation, it's an accounting term. Adam's sin was imputed to everybody else, transferred to everybody else. Even though there's certain people that were good before the law came along and didn't transgress like Adam did, they still had a fallen sin nature, which was proven by they all died. Everybody died. Except Enoch, why? Enoch walked with God and was not. Similitated with Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him who was to come. So who was to come is Jesus, the last Adam. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. There we go, Betty, the free gift. Or if through the offense of one man, Adam, are dead, much more. The grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sin, so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. Just as if I've never sinned. Jesus died for all of our sins. For if by one man's offense death reigned, by one much more, they who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even now isn't that clear? There's no Pelagianism. There's nobody squeaking through. There's nobody good enough. There's none righteous, no not one. All we like sheep have gone astray. Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So what about little babies that die, if they're all sinners? Little babies that die, now I gotta go over to David. David said, I can't be with him now, but will be joined up later. So there's the period of time of innocence, of God not imposing upon the child because the child didn't have the point of rejecting Christ or not. So I believe all the aborted babies, all the little children that died before the age of accountability of rejecting Christ, I believe they got a free pass right into heaven because the blood of Jesus Christ covers them. And not that they, you know, had any point in time where they could receive Christ, but there's a lesson there with David when he lost his son. I can't be with him. Now is David as a believer, can he sanctify his child? Is that what he's saying? No, I don't think so. I think it's more of it's the mind of God, the heart of God, the attributes of God, the love of God, that he's a God of love and that he's not going to send babies to hell that didn't have a chance at righteousness, at being saved. Alright. For if the one man's offense death reigned by one, let's see here. Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Justification is just as if I've never sinned. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by obedience of one saith many be righteous. So moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. So tons of offenses. The law came in to identify. Look at who God is. The law gives you a picture of the righteousness and the holiness of God. He doesn't lie, cheat, steal, and all that, you know? Now, look at you in relationship to the law. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Jesus said in Matthew five twenty, except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you'll no wise enter the kingdom of God. They were masters at keeping the external aspects of the law. That's why Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount went to their heart and said, If you look upon a woman with less in your heart, you've already committed adultery. If you're angry with your brother, you've already committed murder. So he's stopping every mouth. Everyone's guilty. And you Pharisees, you religious people, you're like white walled sepulchers. You clean the outside of the cup. Outside, you look good, but inside, you're full of dead men's bones. You're corrupt. I can see your heart. You got it? Okay. So you don't want to be religious, do you? That's a lot of work being religious. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might bound, but there were sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. Grace is God's unmerited favor. Grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So you don't wanna partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil back in Genesis in your sinful condition. God in his grace and mercy, going back there, lest thou put forth thy hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. So Elon Musk and and Peter Thiel and all these guys are trying to find the fountain of youth. They're trying to figure out a way that they don't age so they can live forever. Some of them are doing a lot of different strange things to Larry Ellison of Oracle. I think he's close to 90 years old and he doesn't look like a 90 year old guy. Plastics and one of the things they use is the blood of babies, and they call it adrenochrome. So they get the babies hyper and where their adrenaline is pumping, and then they basically vampire the baby. They get a blood transfusion with fresh blood from a baby to replace their old platelets, their old blood. And apparently, this has some sort of bump or a boost of I don't know. I don't anyway, that's what they're doing. So this is part of the the lie in second Thessalonians two ten eleven, the same lie that Satan said to Eve, Genesis three verse four, Well, you shall not surely die if you partake of it. So when they reject the truth in second Thessalonians two verse 10, when they don't love the truth, reject the truth, God gives them over to a strong delusion that they would believe the lie, and the lie is that, hey, we've got the tree of life. You're gonna live forever. You're never gonna die. Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden Of Eden to till the ground from where he was taken. So that word sent means expelled. They were driven out. They have no access back. They have no access back to the tree of life, back to where they were before the fall. So he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden, this is where the east side, east of the garden of Eden, cherubim, Him is plural. So he has two exalted cherub. Now, Satan was an exalted cherub. You have cherubim, seraphim, and then you have angels. So two cherubim here, at least two, and a flaming sword. The flaming sword is the kind of glory of God. So you've got angels called of God to guard, and then you've got a flaming sword, God himself guarding, keeping man from getting past that gate, which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life. And so Psalm 80 verse one speaks of tree of life, Psalm ninety one one of cherubim eighteen ten, and then Revelation twenty one two. Remember, we saw the tree of life in the eternal state also, and you and I will have access to that tree of life and all the nice berries that Vicki ate while I was teaching, and you'll have all that fruit and all that stuff. It's so good. She had that. Alright. You got blood sugar issues, you can snack and eat whatever you want. You're hungry, you want chocolate, bring chocolate fine. Okay. Alright. Well, let's let's pray. James getting ready to leave. Father, we come before you and we thank you for the sweet time that we can spend here. No mosquitoes bugging us and beautiful, beautiful place and setting that Rob and Vicky worked so hard to provide for all of us. Lord, we thank you for how they serve you in this way. We thank you for many in the body of Christ here at Calvary Bremerton, how they serve one another. And we're just so thankful to be Christians, to not be isolated, not be alone, but to be a part of your body, Lord, to be a part of the church, those that are called out from the world. Lord, we pray evermore that we would learn to love one another. Love one another as you've called us to love, that we'd get that right, Lord. We may be off in our eschatology, we may be off in some things, but Lord, we gotta get the love right. Without love, we're nothing. So God, we pray that you'd empower us, you'd help us in our marriages, you'd help us in our singleness, you'd help us with our kids, our grandkids and all, that we would be known by love, Lord. By this shall all men know we're your disciples, that we love one another. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your plan of salvation. Lord, thank you for your son Jesus who is our last Adam. He's he's our hero. He's the one that did it right. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

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About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

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