The Fall (part 3)

The Fall (part 3)

<< Genesis 3 >> King James Version 15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Sermon

So we carry on from where we left off. Adam and Eve have both eaten from the tree of the Knowledge of good and Evil, which God had commanded then not to do.

The Lord has found out what they had done, and points to Adam for an explanation. Adam Immediately blames it all upon Eve, and Eve in turn shifts the blame onto the Serpent who is the Devil incarnate.

And now The Lord turns to Satan and starts to curse him for what he has done.

15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Satan had hoped that in tempting Adam and Eve into sinning, he would procure the allegiance of the whole human race in his battle against God. And indeed he did do to an extent, but in this passage God talks about the seed or descendants of Eve who will be fighting against Satan. This seed that is mentioned is the church and all Christians.

Also here is what has been termed “the first Gospel” because it talks of Jesus coming to this world, and though Satan will bruise Jesus’ heel, or cause Jesus great pain, which is the crucifixion on the cross, yet Jesus will have the ultimate victory over Satan when He gives Satan the fatal blow over the head, which is when He arose from the dead and claimed a portion of the human race who will go with Him to reign forever in glory!

What a blessing that even in the midst of all the curses, there is yet the promise of Salvation! Adam and Eve would not have know what this passage meant, yet they would have known that it was a promise to them that one day they would get their own back on the Devil. And doubtless through the hard years that followed them they would again and again pray that the Lord would even come now and crush the Devil’s head. But The Lord had His set time to favour Zion and that time would not come for about 4000 years.

God is never late, nor is He early, He arrives precisely when He means to!

16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

I will never know the pains that a woman goes through when she brings forth a child. I know that it is extremely painful, but it is something I can never go through myself.

In the same way we can never really understand what another human being is going through in the path of life. And because we shall never fully understand, much wisdom is needed when talking to someone else about their trials and afflictions. My advice is that you listen more than you speak. Sometimes people just want to know that there is someone who cares.

So here the Lord stops talking to the Devil, and turns to Eve, who probably thought that God bought into her little scheme of pinning all the guilt onto the Devil. And Eve has her turn to be cursed.

Do you realise that all of us as human beings are cursed? We inherit all these curses that Adam and Eve were given. Don’t believe me? Just try having a baby, then you’ll believe me.

“he shall rule over thee”

Maybe at the beginning of creation, man and woman were created equal. Perhaps there needed to be no hierarchy because everyone did that which was right in the sight of God, but when man started doing that which was right in his own eyes there needed to be some kind of hierarchy so that we had someone other than ourselves checking to see whether what we were doing is right.

17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Now here God turns to Adam.

Here God curses the ground, that it will be very hard to make money. There are no easy jobs are there? But before the creation life was great, work was great; no-one had to do anything they didn’t like. But sin’s turned all that the other way around, and work’s become a bore.

But everyone must work to live, this is Biblical teaching. And it’s in hard work that we have satisfaction.

Thank God if He allows you to have a job which you really enjoy. I have a great job! I work as a Health Care Assistant at a hospital, and I’m helping people all day long, I find great satisfaction in doing it, even though sometimes it can be quite physically demanding.

18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Thorns and thistles are very prickly, and really hurt if you touch them. This is kind of like temptations. Work is full of temptations. For me as a young man, there are continuously lovely girls around with loose morals, and you begin to find yourself thinking wicked thoughts about them. But like the thorns and thistles, it really is best not to touch them at all. “Touch not the unclean thing”.

“The herb of the field”

Even though the Lord has planted thorns and thistles, yet it is a mercy that He also gives us herbs to eat.

Herbs are a spice, it flavours food. A Christian’s food is the Word of God. When God adds spices to the word, it is like when we hear a minister preach about a certain subject, and the way in which he preaches gives you a whole new perspective on the passage so that you see it in different light. Now the passage is no more dry food, it has become seasoned because you understand it better.

19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Work’s hard and indeed our whole life will be hard. That doesn’t mean we can’t be joyful all the time though. You might remember that in Philippians 4:4 Paul exhorts us to “rejoice in The Lord always”.

“dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”

This is referring to the 6^th day when God created Adam out of dust. And one day we shall all die and our bodies will rot in a grave, and bacteria will eat at our corpses until there is nothing left of us but dust.

Will anyone remember us after we are gone? What really is the point in life? These questions are probably the questions everyone asks themselves when they first realise that life is short and they will soon die. If you are asking these questions, I advise that you read carefully through the book of Ecclesiastes. In this book Solomon looks at the meaning of life, and finally comes to a gracious conclusion, which should be more than suitable for the average person of today.

20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

The name Eve means “living”.

21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Remember that they realised that they were naked and were ashamed, and so they made themselves clothes out of fig leaves. Now God takes the skin or fur of an animal and makes it into clothes for Adam and Eve. Notice that this is the first ever recorded death in the Bible. God must have killed an animal to skin it. I wonder whether Adam and Eve looked at what this signified: the death of one to cover the sins of another!

22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life

“one of us”

Again this is talking about the Trinity, God in three persons, not about multiple gods.

“know good and evil”

The tree of knowledge really did work; it was not just a symbolic thing.

So now that Adam and Eve had knowledge, they realise that they should have taken from the tree of life instead of the tree of knowledge, and would have corrected their mistake, had God not have thrown them out of the Garden of Eden and barred them from ever getting to the tree of life again.

And God placed cherubim to guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden.

Cherubim are a form of angel, we don’t know too much about them, but it seems that they are lower rank, and they would take their orders from Michael who is the prince of the angels. And as we learn from this chapter that they are extremely powerful as they withstood any attempt of mankind to try and enter the Garden of Eden.

So this is the last we hear of the Garden of Eden.

The garden is nowhere to be seen on any of our modern day maps. It is my opinion that it was destroyed in the flood which seemed to have rearranged a bit of the geography of the land.

Well we have come to the end of the chapter. God willing in the next sermon we will carry on the narrative from Chapter 4 of Genesis.

I hope and trust that this has been of use to someone’s never dying soul. And that God will use it for His own honour and glory.

Amen!

The Fall (part 2)

The Fall (part 2)

<< Genesis 3 >> King James Version 8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast 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: 15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Sermon

So we carry on from where we left off. Adam and Eve have both eaten from the tree of the Knowledge of good and Evil, which God had commanded then not to do.

They are now aware that they are naked, and have made themselves clothes out of the fig leaves that they had sown together.

So we shall carry on from where we left off in our last session.

8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

In the cool of the day, would probably be evening when it was starting to get cooler.

Adam and Eve hid from the voice of God. This is proof that they knew what they had done was wrong, they had not done it in ignorance but wilfully. Both the ignorant sinner and the wilful sinner are both guilty, yet the wilful sinner has the greater condemnation.

9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

The Lord knew exactly where Adam was, for the Lord is all knowing and knows all things. But the Lord called to Adam because He wanted Adam to have a chance to confess his sins before the Lord. And what a mercy if the Lord doesn’t leave us in our sins, but asks us the same question that He asks Adam here, and the Question which He asked Elijah: “what doest thou here Elijah?”.

10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

And here it is; Adam’s confession. He realises that he has sins and realises that it is no use in hiding any longer from the Lord, and so he confesses his sins. What a mercy if we are brought to do likewise!

11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Again The Lord asks a soul searching question. Have you done that which I have told you not to do? Have you disobeyed my commands?

Think back to when the Lord convinced you of your sins. Where there these searching questions? Did the Lord make you feel very low and insignificant? This is really a mercy, because God cannot raise you to glory unless He sink you very low to start with.

12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Ahh, but now Adam’s starting to make excuses. He’s saying something like: God you gave me this woman, she told me to eat this fruit, so really it’s not my problem but yours. God you really should have chosen a better wife for me!

Isn’t it kind of like when we are professing Christians and we really want to do something bad, so to do that wicked thing we try and convince ourselves that we are doing it for God’s sake? For instance, we want to go out partying with our friends, and we try and reason that it must be right because God is the God of providence, so He must have given us these friends for a reason, besides I might even be able to witness to them when I’m drunk and out of my mind!

Although probably you wouldn’t go with the intention to get drunk in the first place. But it’s just so hard to try and run a separate way from the herd, and if your mates are drinking, you figure one drink can’t hurt, then you have another, and before you know it, you look worse than the Devil himself!

13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

So here God hears what Adam says, and points to the woman and asks, Is this your fault? Will you take the blame?

And Eve answers and says, No it’s not my fault, it’s the snakes fault, he tricked me into eating it, I didn’t even realise I had done anything wrong!

So if you didn’t realise you had done anything wrong, why were you hiding from me?

You see, the only way to deal with sin is by first confessing that you are a sinner. It’s like me, I used to be quite fat, but I didn’t think I was really too bad. But once I realised that it was becoming a problem, and then I could go to the gym, and confess to my personal trainer that I had a problem and I really need to deal with it. Then and only then was I able to lose any fat. You will never be able to deal with your sins until you realise that it is a problem, and then you can come to God to help you!

14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast 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:

So God turns to Satan and curses his incarnate form. And there’s Adam and Eve standing by clapping their hands that justice has been brought upon the one who “tricked” them into eating the fruit. This is great with the Devil gone, everything can go back to how there were before when they could just enjoy life in the Garden of Eden, and not be afraid of ever being tempted again.

If you read the following verses you will notice that Adam and Eve will stop clapping their hands and realise that they too will have similar curses pronounced upon them. God didn’t find the guilty one, He found the guilty ONES!

Before these occurrences, the snake would have had legs and probably look something like a very long lizard.

I’m going to have to stop there for now. If the Lord wills, we shall continue our study in our next session!

The Lord bless His word!

Amen!

The Fall

The Fall

<< Genesis 3 >> King James Version 1Now the serpent was more subtil 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? 2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6And 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. 7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast 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: 15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Sermon

Now we come to the major turning point in the history of mankind, where man is tempted for the first time and sins by disobeying God’s command and they lose paradise.

But before we start on the exposition of this passage I just want to bring you to a time before the creation even started, even before God said “let there be light”.

Sometime before the creation, God was the only being. Then He created the angels to serve Him and glorify Him.

We are told of 3 separate angels in the Bible, although it is certain that there are a lot more than three angels, yet only 3 are mentioned by name: Michael, Lucifer, and Gabriel.

If I understand correctly, there are a few different levels of authority between the different ranks of Angels. The ranks that are mentioned are The Prince, Archangels, Cherubim, and Seraphim, probably more but none spring to mind at this present time.

So when the angels were created Michael, Lucifer, and probably Gabriel, were all Archangels, and Lucifer was the prince of the Angels.

But Lucifer became very power hungry, and wanted to assassinate God Himself, and become god over all things, wanting all creation to bow down before him. But God being God all powerful, He defeated Lucifer and punished him by casting him out of Heaven and out of the presence of God. Lucifer became known as Satan or the Devil.

And ever since that day Satan has been plotting to overthrow God, and this instance which we read of in this chapter is the first part of the plot where Satan is trying to recruit mankind into His army!

1Now the serpent was more subtil 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?

Subtil here could be better spelt subtle in modern English. The word could also be translated Crafty. Meaning that the Serpent, who is really the Devil incarnated, had a form of wisdom which he used for his own selfish motives.

Don’t you think it must have been strange to Eve that a snake spoke to her? Perhaps it was at first, but that was the beginning of creation, there was a lot of new things to learn, and so I think Eve was used to surprises and this just felt like another strange yet normal occurrence.

I often think that there are probably a lot of supernatural things happening on the earth and yet we don’t even notice them, or our brain interoperates the occurrence as some kind of mundane experience. The reason why Eve would have noticed was because that she was awaiting unnatural things to happen, yet we are not.

Now the Devil speaks, and these are the first ever recorded words of his in the Word of God. “Hath God said?” His intention is to cause doubt about our understanding of the Word of God. Does this sound familiar? This is very similar to a lot of modern teachings which try to twist the wording of the Scriptures by trying to make it sound like the Bible means the exact opposite of what it really means.

2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

There were loads of trees in that Garden, Eve would have been able to just go out and pick a hundred different kinds of fruit, all different in taste yet all so sweet to the tongue.

3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Yet for all the generosity of The Lord in providing all these trees of the forest, there was one tree that was forbidden to eat. And what is forbidden is of utter importance to curiosity. If it’s forbidden there must be something special about it.

There were two trees in the middle of the Garden: The tree of life, and the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. And notice that the Tree of life was not forbidden, yet neither Adam nor Eve ever took of the fruit thereof. For if they had eaten of it they would never have died and they will have lived forever. It makes me wonder what would have happened if Eve would have taken the immortal fruit before taking of the fruit of knowledge, but in God’s providence that never happened so all is speculation.

4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

The Devil is a liar! This was 100% lie, and the Devil knew that, but he also knew that that was the only way that he could get Eve to eat the fruit.

5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Now this part was 99% true with only a little element of deceit in it. It has been well said that the worst lies are 99% true, because it makes them all so much easier to believe. But realise that one day all your lies will come to the surface however well woven they are, the truth is there and will expose you for what you really are: A liar!

The Devil knew that if Eve were to eat of the fruit that she will become like God Himself, full of knowledge. Yet here is the element of falsehood, we are nothing like God for we have sin and selfishness which clouds all the supposed wisdom which we should have received from that fruit.

But in some way the fruit has worked in that we no longer desire the fruit of the tree of Knowledge, we now desire the fruit of the tree of life, which should have been Adam and Eve’s primary concern while in the garden of Eden.

To illustrate this we can look at the young school boy who hates going to school, and wishes that school was over that he may get on with enjoying his life because he realises that it is very short and soon will be over. And the young man who goes to university to study medicine, not because he has a desire for knowledge, but he has a desire for a great income that he may use all that money for a better quality of life, for he knows how short that life will be.

Yet others realise that there life is so short they try to find some meaning in it, like taking on a very self sacrificial role as a nurse or a doctor, hoping that that will make future generations remember them after their death hoping that in so doing they may live on after death in the minds of those they leave behind.

And the cry of all is cursing Adam and Eve for taking the fruit of Knowledge over the fruit of Life.

But we as Christians have overcome Adam and Eve’s failing of not taking of the fruit of the tree of life, by being given life through Jesus Christ who died for our sins upon the cross.

All praise to the Lord!

But we much carry on...

6And 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.

Here Eve fell into temptation, and sinned against God, and then caused Adam to sin also.

You can see here the power of the group, Adam didn’t want to be the odd one out by not easting the fruit, and so because both Eve and the Serpent were saying it’s great and Adam should also eat, he gave into the crowd spirit.

You should too be careful of being taken over by a crowd spirit. You might have a load of non-Christian friends, who you often hang out with in a group, and when they all start swearing and taking the name of The Lord in vain, you just join in because you don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb. You might think that you are stronger than all that, but I don’t think that there’s any human who can really stand out from the mob. So my advice to you is make sure that the friends you hang out with are those that love the Lord, then all the group pressure will be to serve the Lord and to bless His name!

7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

You see here that the knowledge had immediate effect, they realised that they were naked and decided to do something about it. They made themselves clothes. And to this day it is a sin and against the laws of the land to walk around publically naked. Unless you happen to be a model or a film star then somehow there seems to be an exception for them, as if they were above the law. But there is no-one who is above the law of God!

To take this story as an allegory can be a very interesting picture of Sin.

We are going to look at Adam and Eve as sinners dead in trespasses and sins, but when the Holy Spirit shows them their sins, then they feel their nakedness, or their sins, and seek for some kind of forgiveness of their sins. Some people make clothing for themselves, which typifies people trying to do loads of good works to make up for the sins which they have committed. But we as Christians realise that we will have no forgiveness of sins until we accept the clothing which God has made for us which takes away our sins by the sacrifice which Christ made when He died upon the cross bearing our sins.

Well it seems as if I babble on a bit too much, we have only been able to get through the first 7 verses, but I hope to continue the subject in our next session.

I pray that the Lord will use these sermons for His own honour and His own glory!

Amen!