The Woman Who Became a Thief

Most people today who are writing about such subjects as women's liberation and so forth ignore the Bible. And unfortunately, many people who write on this subject misinterpret the Bible.

I hope that during this series, we'll be finding out what God really has to say about all of us as we meet the various women of the Bible. Now, Eve, of course, is the first one, you can't go beyond that. She is the mother of the whole thing. And she presents to us God's ideal for womanhood. Not in her sin. No one in sin is an ideal.

But when God put Eve on this planet, he was saying to us, now here is the ideal. Here is the great example in three areas. If we were to interview Eve this evening and say to her, now what is the message that you're trying to convey to us, Eve, she'd say something like this, God has a standard, and I am the example of that standard.

In three areas, first, Eve is telling us what a woman ought to be. Secondly, Eve is telling us what marriage ought to be. Now, some of you are not married, some of you have no intention of getting married.

Some of you may wish you weren't married, I don't know. But we need to know about these things. First of all, she tells us what a woman ought to be.

And then what marriage ought to be. And finally, what the church ought to be. You say, well, Pastor, how in the world does the church get into this? Well, you're going to find a number of references over in the New Testament to Eve that relate to the local church.

When Paul wanted to warn the church, he went back to Eve. When Paul wanted to instruct the church, he went back to Eve. Let's take the first area.

Eve says to us, I am the example of what a woman ought to be. Now when you read this story in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, you can't help but take womanhood and just lift womanhood up and honor and dignify womanhood. Someone was discussing women's liberation with me recently.

There are some areas of women's liberation that I think can be very helpful. Quite frankly, I see no reason why a woman working at the same job that a man does shouldn't get the same salary and the same benefits. There are some areas that I think are tragic, not because they aren't asking enough, not because they're asking too much, but because they aren't asking enough.

The women's lib movement in many areas is not dignifying women the way God does it. They've left God out of the picture. Now the dignity of woman comes from three sources.

Number one, she was created by God. When Adam finished having the zoo paraded by him, they discovered two things. Number one, many of these animals were in pairs.

And secondly, none of them really suited him. We've taken that word helpmeet and we've manufactured a new word, helpmeet, but God really said I'm going to make a helpmeet for him. I'm going to make a helper suitable to him.

I'm going to make someone face-to-face with him. And in spite of the fact that men love dogs and cats and guppies and salmon and all sorts of things, nothing was found that was suitable for man. God created woman.

And this is her first mark of dignity. Her first source of dignity is she was created by God. Matthew Henry puts it so beautifully.

You ought to read Matthew Henry sometime. He's a quaint old commentator, but he has some great things to say. Matthew Henry says, if man is the head of creation, and he is, woman is the crown that God put on the head.

I like that. Because God's crowning act of creation was not making man, it was making woman. God looked around and said there's one thing that's not good.

Behold, this is good. Behold, it's good. Behold, it's very good.

One thing is not good. This man's alone. Now, the fact that God created woman means this.

Number one, she reflects God's image. You notice in chapter one, in the image of God created he them. It wasn't just Adam who was made in the image of God.

Eve was made in the image of God. And this means that she had a mind to think with, just like Adam. And she had emotions to feel with, just like Adam.

She had a will to decide with, just like Adam. She had a spiritual nature that matched that nature of God, so she could have fellowship with God, just like Adam. Man and woman were made in the image of God.

Would you think me unkind if I said to you that I noticed that woman was created out of better material? Man was made from the dust of the ground, but the woman was made from the living flesh of man. How close could God get to Adam's heart? Again, Matthew Henry speaks up and says she was not made from his head to rule over him or from his feet to be trampled by him, but from his side to be protected by his arm and to be close to his heart. Fanciful? No, I think he's got something.

Created in the image of God. So that woman stands before God just as man, created in the image of God. She reflects God's image.

Secondly, she shares God's rule. God said, let them have dominion. Now, you people are good Bible students, so I don't have to go into this in detail.

When you read the book of Romans, Paul does not say, by one woman's sin, he says by one man's sin. When you read 1 Corinthians, he does not say, in Eve all men die, he says in Adam. Adam was the head of the race.

But Adam and Eve together, being made in the image of God, ruled for God. God gave to them dominion. These two little words in verse 28 of chapter 1 of Genesis, subdue the earth, have dominion.

Subdue. That little word subdue opens all the way for science, for industry, for merchandising. Subdue the earth.

Find all the treasures I've put into it. Dig out all the secrets that I've put into this universe. And having subdued the earth, have dominion over it.

Be a ruler. It's not the purpose of our message, but it's worth dropping in for you to think about. The thing that messed all of that up was sin.

Man ceased to be a sovereign and he became a slave. And the world over which he should have ruled began to rule him. But woman was created in God's image.

She shares God's rule. And thirdly, she enjoys God's blessing. God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply.

And here's the whole earth and here's the garden. She is to share God's blessing and she is to do God's will. When God laid down the regulations for managing the garden, Eve was involved in that.

Now her dignity comes from the fact that she was created by God. But it doesn't stop there. The second source of her dignity is this.

She was created for man. Now you look at me and say, wait just a minute. That to me would be a source of indignity.

Created for man. Just stop and think. Man needed someone.

The fact that God created this very special person to be his help, meat for him, indicates that Adam truly was not as complete as he could have been. Perfect, yes. But not as complete as he could have been.

There was no opportunity for growth. No opportunity for development. He needed someone matching him who could draw out the very best in him.

What our Lord is saying to us here, and ladies whether we like it or not, it's scriptural. 1 Corinthians 11, 9. The woman was made for the man. You know what this means? This means you are God's gift to man.

Now if that isn't dignity, I don't know what is. Not to be a slave. Oh no, Eve before sin came in ruled with Adam.

Eve before sin came in enjoyed the blessings with Adam. Eve before sin came on the scene was sharing in the image of God. And she was God's gift to Adam.

Now here at Moody Church we minister to a number of single young adults. And the purpose of our single young adult ministry is not weddings. We're glad whenever single young adults become husband and wife, if that's the will of God.

Our purpose in this ministry is to let them know they are people and nobody is traveling third class because he's single or she's single. We have never felt here at the Moody Church that everybody is supposed to be married. Even Jesus taught that.

But we do believe that people need people. And for the most part a man needs a wife. But there are some people to whom God has said no, you're going to be single.

Some people said Jesus are born without the prospect of marriage. Some do this themselves because of situations. Men do it to them.

Some for the kingdom of God's sake. But the point I'm making is that she was created for man. She was God's gift to men.

He needed her. It does not say it's not good for the woman to be alone. I have watched this in over 25 years of ministry.

Let a woman die. Let the wife die and the husband has a rough, rough time. But let the husband die and invariably the woman just keeps right on going.

There is something about man that requires woman. Not just the physical part. The emotional part.

The spiritual part. Whether you're married or not. I mean by that.

Even singles need singles to help grow. Emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. So she was created for man.

God's gift to man. May I make a further statement? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 7. The glory of man. That's what Paul says.

That the man is the glory of God. And the woman is the glory of the man. He said I don't like that.

I think what he means by that is the woman was made from the man. And the place of the woman, watch me now, in the church. Not in a standard oil building.

Not at O'Hare Field. Not at Woolworth's. In the church.

Is to bring glory to God by submission to the man. Not slavery. Not subjugation.

Not dictatorship. But gracious, loving, godly submission. We'll go into that in a little while.

Her first source of dignity created by God. Her second source of dignity created for man. The presence of women is an indication that back at the beginning, God said it's not good for the man to be alone.

He needs something. Now as I mentioned before, sin came along and made a mess of all this. They were made in God's image and sin marred God's image.

We can't think the way we're supposed to think. Sin has darkened our minds. We can't feel the way we're supposed to feel.

Sin has infected our emotions. We can't decide like we'd like to decide because sin gets a hold of our will. Sin has marred the image of God.

And sin has robbed us of our rule. Man is not ruling over creation today. Man is a victim of his own sin today.

Sin robbed us of God's blessing. We aren't enjoying the kind of blessings they used to enjoy back in paradise. And sin has brought an awful confusion to the order of the sexes.

We are seeing some strange things happen in the confusion of the order of the sexes. Which leads us to our third source of dignity. Because I know some of the men are saying, well just a minute now preacher.

Wasn't it Eve that created all this problem? Wasn't it Eve that brought sin into the human race? I remind you once again of Romans chapter 5. By one man's disobedience. You see Eve's sin did not infect the whole human race because she was deceived. God did not bring judgment upon her.

And that is through her to the whole human race because she was deceived. Adam was not deceived. When Eve offered sin to her husband he could see the consequences of it.

Adam deliberately with his eyes wide open sinned against God. It's in Adam that all men die. But here's the interesting thing.

Eve was created by God. Eve was created for Adam. Woman was chosen to make possible salvation.

After Eve had sinned and after judgment had been pronounced. Then God says it's through the seed of the woman. And so if any man is tempted to look down upon the woman and say, you brought sin into this world.

The woman might be tempted to look down upon the man and say, but we also brought the Savior into the world. It's through the seed of the woman. In fact that's the entire Old Testament history.

The entire Old Testament history is the working out of Genesis 3.15. Satan fighting against God. The seed of the woman, the godly line. Fighting against the seed of the serpent, the ungodly line.

And you have clash after clash and battle after battle. And there are some points in history where it looks as though God's losing. But then there comes a little baby to Bethlehem through the channel of a godly Jewish girl named Mary.

And God wins the battle. It's through the woman that salvation has come into the world. Because our Lord Jesus Christ was not the seed of a man.

When you read the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, begat, begat, begat. Now the birth of Jesus was on this wife. Oh, something different, something special.

Adam was made without a man or a woman. Eve was made with the man alone. Cain and Abel came from the man and the woman.

Jesus came from the woman without the man. He who lived for all eternity having a heavenly father and no mother came into this world having an earthly mother and no earthly father. And it was through the seed of the woman.

The dignity of woman. And Eve is saying this is what a woman ought to be. She must remember she's created in the image of God.

She must remember she's created to fulfill God's purpose. She has tasks to do that the men cannot do. And she's not there as a slave of man.

She's there as the servant of God. Now Eve comes along and says there is a second area. I won't spend as much time on this one because it's rather warm tonight.

Eve is not only an illustration of what a woman ought to be from God's hand, in God's hand, to God's glory. And sin wrecked all of that, sad to say. She's also a reminder to us of what a marriage ought to be.

Let's talk about this first wedding. Strange wedding. Nobody asked what did the bride wear.

There were no guests there. Nobody signed the guest book. Nobody sang.

There were no delays waiting for the mother-in-law to show up. This first marriage was planned and performed by God. And I would remind you friends that every marriage ought to be planned and performed by God.

I'm thankful for the healing that the Holy Spirit can give to broken hearts. Every time I preach from this pulpit here at Moody Church, I know there are people out there who have gone through the heartache and the headache and the back break of divorce. And there are many people who would say, Pastor, I wish I could do this all over again.

I'm glad the gospel heals. I'm glad that anyone can come to Jesus Christ and say, All right, Lord, I've made a mess of my home. Oh, there's some things I couldn't even control.

But here I am. And he steps in and says, I know who you are. I know where you are.

And I'm going to help you. And life doesn't come to an end. And I'm grateful for a church family that doesn't force people who have had these heartaches to travel second class.

I'm grateful for a church family where you people reach out your arms of love and you say, Look, we love you. God bless you. Come on, be a part of our family.

We want to help you all we can. That's why we're here. This city is filled with broken-hearted people from broken homes.

And our job is not to be prosecuting attorneys. Our job is to be loving brothers and sisters. And I'm glad for that fellowship we have here.

But the place to solve the problem is not after, it's before. And we begin with this statement. This marriage was planned by God.

God said, He could have said, You know, Adam, maybe you ought to marry this kangaroo. Never have to buy her any purses. No.

No, God said, Adam, I want you to marry someone who's fit for you. I believe from the very beginning, God is saying, Don't be mismatched. Find in the will of God, if you're to be married, that girl, that fella who matches you.

Who will take your weaknesses and add strength. And who will find from your strengths that weaknesses are helped. From the very beginning, God matched people.

Opposites attract if you're magnets. But not people. When I counsel couples who are going to get married, I often ask the question, always ask the question, What do you have in common? You'd better have Jesus Christ in common.

That's where it starts. But the fact that you're both saved does not mean you're supposed to get married. Salvation is no guarantee of a happy home.

It's a good beginning. No guarantee. Has to be more involved than that.

This marriage was planned and performed by God. And though the secular world laughs at us when we say marriages are made in heaven, we still believe it. I really believe that if God wants a person to get married, he has that person picked out for him.

And therefore you'd better wait and be in the will of God. Now I notice here that when God performed this wedding, it was a man and a woman, not two men. Nor was it a man and two women.

It was one man and one woman. I find no authorization anywhere in the Bible for homosexual marriages or for bigamy, polygamy. Or as the man said, that's better than monotony.

No, it isn't. God said a man, a woman. And he said there's going to be a union.

They too shall become one. One what? One flesh. Marriage is a physical union.

One flesh. Now they ought to be one mind. They ought to be one heart.

They ought to be one spirit. But they're one flesh. It is a physical union, ordained of God.

And this physical union is for the purpose of enrichment and enlargement. It's for the purpose of the carrying on of the race. But sin has come along and taken this beautiful thing called sex and made such a mess out of it.

So God performed the marriage. God said it's going to be a union. It's going to be a physical union.

It's going to be a permanent union. You leave your father and your mother. You cleave.

That word cleave is a very strong Hebrew word. Stronger than Elmer's glue. Leaving and cleaving.

That's marriage. It's to be an exclusive union. He didn't say, now Adam, there's some other possibilities.

There were no other possibilities. It was to be a permanent union, not an experiment. I was shocked in reading New Yorker magazine recently.

There was a special display for people who are in the marriage business. Bridal gowns and tuxes and all the other accoutrements of conubial bliss. At a special convention for them in New York City.

Do you know what they are now? They now have announcements that read something like this. If I mention your name, I'm sorry. The names I use are wholly fictitious.

Any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental. John Jones and Mary Smith, who had been living together for X number of months, now announce they're going to be married. That's not scriptural.

A pastor friend of mine in California, and as a friend of mine says, California has become the cage of every unclean bird. A friend of mine in California had a man come into his study and say, Pastor, I'd like to get married. And my pastor friend said, fine, bring your girlfriend in and we'll talk it over.

He said, I can't. We can't get a babysitter. They'd been living together for a number of years, had several children.

Joe said, come on in, I'll marry you. Well, now when God performed the first marriage, it was not an experiment. He didn't say, look, try this out for a few months.

Doesn't work. We'll do something else. But people are doing this in Chicago, in San Francisco, and just about every place else.

And it doesn't work. Dear friends, we cannot play fast and loose with God's plans for the home. Hebrews still tells us, chapter 13, marriage is honorable.

That's good to know. And the bed undefiled, but adulterers and whoremongers God will judge. You say, but I've been saved and God's cleansed.

That's right, that's right. God in his grace forgives our sins, but God in his government says, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. God forgave David's adultery, but the sword did not depart from his family.

And Eve comes to us and says, look, don't be wrong on marriage. Our home was so happy until I ate us out of house and home. Our home was so happy.

We had a paradise home because God was in it. Someone says, Pastor, we thought God was in our home. Sometimes we Christians have to make the best of the situation.

Sometimes a person gets married and discovers that the wife or the husband was not the person that he was supposed to be, she was supposed to be. Jacob had that problem. Jacob woke up and discovered he had the wrong wife.

And more than one Christian man is awakened to discover he's got the wrong wife. His wife just is not spiritual. There's something wrong.

More than one Christian wife is discovered after years that the husband is just not what he's supposed to be. And the thing breaks up. It's unfortunate.

Eve says to us, let God plan it. Let God perform it. And let God keep it like it ought to be.

Eve would have to confess, until I sinned, everything was going great in our home. The great wrecker of marriages is still sin. Which quickly leads us to our third area.

Eve tells us not only what a woman ought to be and what a marriage ought to be, but she tells us what a church ought to be. There are a number of references to Eve over in, well, I never preached to bring down the house, but it's about to start, I think. Anybody hurt? Anybody hurt? Okay, just be seated, folks, and it won't happen again.

At least not with the same one. Just be seated. You can sit somewhere else if you want to.

Thank you very much. Sorry it happened. Was anybody hurt? Was anybody hurt? All right, just be seated then.

Thank you. We've had a very moving meeting tonight. All right, we'll check into this after it's all over.

Now don't all of you sit looking up like this because you'll end up with stiff necks, and the Bible warns us about stiff-necked people. Eve tells us what a church ought to be. Let's just go through this very quickly now.

Number one, Eve shows us the origin of the church. When God wants to tell us where the church came from, he goes back to Eve. In Ephesians chapter 5, he says now a man ought to love his wife and a woman ought to submit herself to her husband because this is the way it was back in the beginning.

Back in the beginning, Moses said a man leaves his father and his mother, pleads to his wife, they too become one flesh. We are bone of his bone. We are flesh of his flesh.

I don't have to explain this to you because you know it already. When you watch God performing the first surgery, you see Calvary. Eve was made for Adam.

The church was made for Christ. Eve was God's love gift to Adam. The church is God's love gift to Christ.

Adam had to pay a price to get his wife. Blood was shed. Jesus Christ on the cross had to pay a price to get his bride.

Blood was shed. D.L. Moody has a very moving paragraph in one of his sermons. Mr. Moody could reach heights of real oratory.

And he was talking about telling the disciples, Jesus telling the disciples to go to Jerusalem and witness. And someone says, but in Jerusalem they rejected you and they crucified you. He said, yes, go find that soldier who pierced my side and tell him there's a nearer way to my heart than that.

I like that. One of my Lord was on the cross. His side was open just as Adam's side was open.

And from that side came blood and water. And from his side came the church. And so Eve says to us, the church is of divine origin.

Men, I'm sorry to have to say this to you. Eve was created in paradise. Adam was created outside and put in.

Eve was created in paradise. Eve was created before sin came on the scene. Eve was in the mind of God.

And God's church was in the mind and heart of God long before anything was ever created. Eve was not an afterthought. The church is not an afterthought.

Oh, let's rejoice in the divine origin of the church. Jesus had to die on the cross for the church to come into existence. Now, Eve is also a warning to the church.

We'll turn now in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3. Eve is a warning to the church. 2 Corinthians 11 3. This is one of the few times in the New Testament when Eve is mentioned. But I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his craftiness, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Back in verse 2, Paul says, I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. You know what he's saying here? Just as Eve was unfaithful to Adam by listening to the serpent and not listening to her husband, so churches must be very careful.

Paul is picturing himself here as a father. Just as a father protects his daughters so that they are not defiled and seduced that he might be able to present them clean and pure on their marriage day. So, Paul said, I'm watching over this church at Corinth because there are all sorts of people who want to seduce you spiritually and I want to protect you so that when your bridegroom comes, you'll be clean.

That's a big job. Some people wonder, why does the preacher get all worked up in the pulpit about things like worldliness? Well, because worldliness is spiritual adultery. James said so.

You adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? And sometimes the pastor has to be stern and say, no, we're not going to do that. That will defile us. No, we aren't going to be a part of that.

And sometimes we're looked upon as being fanatics or narrow-minded. Well, I would rather be a fanatical narrow-minded father who protected his daughter so that she might enter into the joys of the honeymoon than to be so weak and so unconcerned that the church is defiled. So Eve is a warning to the church.

Eve is also an instruction to the church. Quickly, we're going to look at 1 Timothy 2. She's an instruction to the church. If you want to know how a local church should be run, read 1 and 2 Timothy.

It's all there. In verses 1 through 8 of 1 Timothy 2, he talks to the men. He said, I want the men in the church to be prayer warriors.

I want them to be praying men. Then in 9 through 15, he talks to the women. Now, the women are supposed to pray as well.

No question about that. But he's talking to the women about something else. Modesty.

In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with godly fear and sobriety, not with braided hair, which means don't go to a big fuss about your hairdo. Some of us don't have to worry too much about that. Or gold or pearls or costly array.

He's not denying the beauty of sane, sensible adornment. When you read about the bride back in Psalm 45, there's a beautiful adornment. When you read about the love that goes on in Song of Solomon, there's some of this beautiful adornment.

So he's not denying the beauty of adornment. He's saying don't make that your big issue. Don't make that the big thing.

But which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Let the women learn in silence. Now, the word silence means quietness.

Same word back here in verse 2, peaceable. Doesn't mean women can't talk. Doesn't mean women can't pray or teach.

I don't believe the word of God is teaching that women should be ordained in the preaching of the word. I believe women can bear witness to the word. Two of the greatest preachers I've ever heard were women.

One was Amy Lee Stockton. The other was Ruth Stahl. Some of you heard Ruth Stahl.

They could preach, but they were not pastors of churches. They were witnessing to the word. What he's saying here is that the women should learn in quietness.

You see, when freedom came to the Christian women back in the New Testament church, they didn't know what to do with it, and they went to extremes. They said, oh, we're equal to the man. In Jesus Christ, there's no Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female.

And they'd come to church and make a big fuss. And Paul is saying, no, don't be like that. Why is it when God gives us liberty, we go to the extreme of license? He said, don't do that with all subjection.

There are two places where women are supposed to show subjection. One is the local church. The other is the home.

He's not saying here that the women aren't supposed to be promoted at their jobs. He isn't saying that the women are supposed to bow down and scrape when they go to work. He's saying in the church, in the home, there's a divine order.

The lordship of Christ, the headship of the man, the subjection of the woman. Why? That she might fulfill her place to help man fulfill his place. I thank God for the women of Moody Church.

I thank God for their prayers and their counsel and their encouragement. I thank God for the work they do on our church committees. I thank God for the work that they do for us and for the Lord.

Praise God for them. But we have to obey what the Lord says here. What does he say? I permit not a woman to teach.

Now don't stop there. Nor to usurp authority. Don't stop there.

Over the man. But to be in quietness. Now what's the argument? For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

Argument number one, the priority of creation. Not superiority of creation. Priority of creation.

Just like parents. God has ordained that parents are older than their children. And therefore the children obey the parents.

And his argument here is not that Eve is less than the man. That Eve is a slave. He's simply saying that in the church, God has given the leadership to the men.

And the women are to work with the men and not take their place. I'm taking too much time. I'm glad for your patience on a hot night.

But I've got to bear witness to something. I have preached in hundreds of churches in this country and up in Canada. Wherever you find a church where the men will not be godly men, God lets the women take over.

And I thank God they at least keep the thing going. But it's not the way it's supposed to be. Men ought to be godly men.

Men of prayer. Men who will sacrifice. Men who will do the job.

I thank God for the men of Moody Church. I don't know of a church anywhere that has men who can take in places of leadership like our men can. And one reason God is blessing is because of this.

Whenever the men don't, don't you blame the women. God has to have somebody keep things going. I recall in my first church, a pulpit committee came to hear me preach.

I was very impressed with this. Six women. And I said to myself, I would never go to pastor a church where six women were the pulpit committee.

Where are the men? And Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived was in the transgression. And he goes on to talk about saving the woman's life in the birth of children if she and her husband walk with the Lord.

So the Eve is a reminder to us there has to be order in the church. That God has ordained the lordship of Christ and the headship of the man. Not because we're better than anybody else.

Somebody has to be in leadership. Not dictatorship. Not lordship.

But loving, living, sacrificing leadership. And whenever we do it the way God wants it done, God blesses. The problem back in Genesis chapter 3 was that Eve decided to have a different arrangement.

She wasn't content to be a woman, she wanted to be God. Problems came. Well, I'm glad Eve visited us tonight.

Eve shows us what a woman ought to be and what marriage ought to be and what a church ought to be. May all of us take it to heart. You know, it's interesting to compare, in contrast, the first book of the Bible and the last book of the Bible.

In the first book of the Bible, you've got a bride who failed. Tried to cover up her sins. In the last book of the Bible, God says, Come here, come here, John.

I want to show you the bride. Oh, the bride has made herself ready. She's dressed in the garments of righteousness.

We're going to a wedding one of these days. The great marriage supper of the Lamb. God took Eve and He said, Eve, you've made a mess out of this.

But you know what? I'm going to save you. And He clothed her. God said, Adam, you deliberately, willingly, stubbornly, rebelliously disobeyed me.

You weren't deceived. You did it with your eyes wide open. But by my grace, I'm going to forgive you.

And He clothed him. And though they suffered the consequences of sin, they entered into their marriage relationship. And you and I would not be saved tonight had they not believed God.

Eve said, I've got to have a name. Adam said, I believe God's promise that you're going to bring life into this world. I'm going to call you Eve, the life giver.

He was saved by faith in God's word. Maybe somebody here tonight, something I have said has touched your heart and maybe you've never been saved. Or maybe you've made a mess out of life and you'd like to come and get things going again the way they ought to be.

We'd be happy to help you. Every woman should walk out of this auditorium tonight, every saved woman, and say, thank God. He has called me and saved me and given me dignity and nobility.

And I'm going to do my work the way God wants me to do it. And every man ought to say, thank God. He has called me and saved me and given me nobility and dignity.

And I'm going to do His will. And together we're going to work. Not fighting, cooperating.

Not competing, building to the glory of God. Heavenly Father, help us to get back to first principles. We hear so many wild ideas these days.

And I pray, Father, you'll help us just to believe your word and to act upon your word and to be what you've called us to be. I pray for any here tonight who need to make spiritual decisions. Lord, you know the heart.

Help them to do your will for Jesus' sake. Amen.