I'm gonna do something tonight, I hope I can do it well, that I've been wanting to do for 40 years. We're gonna talk about the seed of the woman and the virgin birth and how the virgin birth is possible. I've always taught people, don't worry about studying archeology, science, medicine, whatever. It's not going to go contrary to the Bible. Our anthropology, archaeology, anything like this, if we're talking about true science, it's not going to go contrary to the Bible. Don't worry about it. Study and become educated as you possibly can on every field so you can reach every avenue and every level of people. You can be a student on those and always be a student. My education didn't, I didn't get my education in seminary. I got a license to learn in seminary, that's all. I earned two doctorates, and of course, associate, bachelor, master's, and two doctorates. But that was just the beginning. That's just the starting point. I never stopped studying in all of those years, those 45 years. So I'm going to give you some highlights of that tonight. We're gonna start in Second Timothy. We're gonna start right here. It is a very good place to go into the virgin birth. BANAROTHESAN DE NIN DIA TES EPIPHANEAS TU SOTEROS HEMON CHRISTO ESU KAPTAR GE SANTOS MAN TON THONATON VOTI SANTOS DE ZOE KAI ATHAR SIAN DIA TU YUANGLIYU Having been made easily seen, but now having been easily seen, now through the appearance of the Savior of us, Christ Jesus. Having condemned indeed the death, having brought to light, moreover having brought to light life, and not decaying in uncorruptibility through the gospel. having been manifested, made easily seen, that's akousi, singular, feminine, first aorist, participle, passive, having been caused to be made easily seen, but now, through the appearance, the epiphany, see that word, we get a word epiphany from that Greek word right there, epiphanios. The savior of soteros, soteriology is the study of salvation. Of us, Christ Jesus, Christo isu, having condemned, indeed the death, having brought to light the life and not decaying, immortality through the gospel." The gospel means the good news, doesn't it? Let's go way back in time. I'm going to go back to the book of Genesis. Now, I'll be reading a pretty lengthy reading from Earth's Earliest Ages by G. H. Pember. This book was written in 1876. Does that surprise you? 1876. We're going to start on page 94. And this is a lengthy reading. I hope I don't put you to sleep. But I tell you what, if you stay awake, you're going to be amazed at every page. It's going to blow you out of the water. Every page is like a revelation. It is something that goes deeper than you've ever gone before, beyond. You remember how Star Trek used to go in places beyond where you've ever gone before? Well, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to take you to some of those places tonight. It's not me. It's G. H. Pember. He was a Greek and a Hebrew scholar and a scientist, everything. And then we're going to go to Dr. M. R. DeHaan in the chemistry of the blood, and we're going to read some different things. So you're going to have a lot of information tonight thrown at you. And so be patient. Trial and sentence. Chapter 6. The sin was irrevocably committed. The tempter had triumphed. But what of the affirmation, your eyes shall be open and you shall be God as God, knowing good and evil? Alas, it had indeed proved true, but in a fashion wildly different from Eve's expectation, for in the impetuosity of her pride, she had not tarried to reflect that the knowledge of God must needs be fraught with destructive peril to those who have neither the wisdom nor the power of God. Her eyes and those of her husband's were indeed opened, but only to see themselves to behold their own sad condition of nakedness and shame. For now they had become suddenly consciousness of the vileness of that flesh which had been the medium of their transgression. for now they had become suddenly conscious of the vileness of that flesh which had been the medium of their transgression." Think about that. They were bewildered with a painful sense of fall from the eminence on which God had placed them, of their resemblance to the brutes around them, even the unfitness to be seen. Now I wrote this little explanation of something about mankind, which fits in right here, 35 years ago. Man is the only created being that inherently tries to dive headlong into a lower state than that which he was created in. Man is the only created being that inherently tries to dive headlong into a lower state than that which he was created in. This is what we call Adamic degeneration. You're not going up, you're going down. Everything goes down, everything unwinds, everything runs to the end. And these feelings seem to have been intensified in no small degree by an instant and visible change in their outward appearance. For while they remained in obedience, the spirit which God breathed into them retained its full power and vigor. Its pervading influence defended the whole being from the inroads of corruption and death, while at the time, its brightness shining through the covering of the flesh shed a lustrous halo around them, so that the grosser element of their bodies was concealed within a veil of radiant glory." In other words, they're clothed with the glory of God, this kind of glory. And thus, as the rulers of the creation, as the rulers of the creation, the whole creation, these were the king, this is a king and a princess. or the queen, and they were strikingly distinguished from all the other creatures which were placed under them. But their sin was only made possible by a league of soul and body, which destroyed the balance of their being. The overborn spirit was reduced to the condition of powerless and almost silent prisoner. You feel like that sometimes? Being imprisoned in that body? And consequently, its light faded and disappeared. Its influence was gone. It could no longer either preserve their bodies from decay or clothe them in its glory as with a garment. The threat of God was accomplished fact. The reign of death had commenced. Nor is it difficult to prove that the recovery of a visible glory will be the instant result of restoration of spirit, soul, and body to perfect order and harmony, the sign of our manifestation as sons of God. And here is where we just came from in first or second Timothy one and 10 manifested to us. But we have to go back and find out where we fell and where we're going and how we got how we get to go to heaven. But it will shine with far more intense brilliance than it did in Adam, for as we have before seen the body of unfallen man, not a spiritual body, The spirit did not indeed exercise a mighty and vigorous influence, but the soul was the ruling power, even as it continues to be for the first man became a living soul in 1 Corinthians 15, 45. But when the resurrection or the change, a constant upon the Lord's return takes place, our bodies will become spiritual again like Adams was. Clothed with glory. Hence speaking in the time, Daniel says, and they will be wise, shall shine as a brightness of the firmament, and they shall turn to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12 and three. Yet again, both John and Paul tell us that we are summoned into the presence of the Lord Jesus, we shall be like him. Adam was like him, and he threw it all away. The man and his wife were ashamed, and that fact was one gleam of hope on the horizon. Shame is a, that is hope. When a person won't admit he's a sinner, there is no hope. When you think you can walk into the presence of God, that you're okay, that you live a righteous life, you are lost. The man and his wife were ashamed, and that fact was a gleam of hope on the horizon, for they had For had they been dead to the shame of guilt, they would have differed in nothing from evil spirits." I wrote something else about evil spirits. Let's see if I can find it in here. Wandering bandits from the spiritual world of demons, thugs of old, spiritual adulteresses, and mischievous wandering outlaw spirits. We're no different than that. if we had no shame, would we? For had they been dead to shame out of guilt, they would have differed nothing from evil spirits, those outlaw spirits, or salvation would have been impossible. But the existence of this feeling showed that God consciousness within them, though overwhelmed, was not altogether extinguished. The blaze had dimmed, the flax was still smoking, and might even yet be fanned in the flame again by the Spirit of God. Bewildered by their altered condition, they immediately tried to supply the lost covering with something artificial. Even as their descendants have been doing ever since, for every living creature, whether of air, earth, air, or sea, has its own proper clothing. You think a dog ever worries about not being clothed? A fish? A horse? But man is naked. You know why? because he has a spirit of shame in him, which is a gift. Not put on from without, but develop naturally from when. Man alone is destitute and compelled to have recourse to artificial aids, because through sin he has lost his natural power of shedding forth a most glorious raiment of light. And hence we may see why our Lord preferred the robe of a humble lily to all the magnificence of Solomon in Matthew 6 and 29. For the splendid array of the Erelish, Israelatish, King was foreign, put on from without, whereas the beauty of the lily developed from within and is a simple result of its natural growth. While we are committing sin, we may perhaps succeed in putting away all thought of God. Persuade ourselves that because we have forgotten him, therefore he neither sees nor regards us. But when he comes forth for judgment, the delusion is no longer possible. There is no escape. There may not even be delay. We must, however, unprepared, medium, face the faith. At the call of God, Adam is forced to leave his hiding place. Now he hid. Before he walked gloriously with the Lord, now he's hiding. With trembling steps, he creeps into the presence of his maker and is first constrained to acknowledge that he had fled to shame And then the shame arose from his transgression of the only commandment imposed upon him. He only had one commandment. But his confession is not a frank one. And he gives a miserable proof of his fallen condition of the loss of blame upon his wife. Nay, even to censure God himself. You gave me that woman. The woman you gave me, it's your fault. Nor when the Lord turns to her is the answer of Eve more satisfactory than that of her husband, for she does not plead guilty and throw herself upon God's mercy, but would lay all the fault upon the serpent as though she was not responsible agent at all because she was deceived. The Lord hears what the two culprits have to say and patiently gives them every opportunity of defending themselves But when he turns to the serpent, his matter totally changes. He asks the tempter no questions. Gives him no chance of defense. But treating him as an already condemned, immediately pronounces a sentence. With deep thoughts are suggested by this change of procedure, what fearful antecedents of rebellion seem to float like specters in the gloom of this instant and hopeless judgment. Because thou hast done this, there is no mistake as to the reason of the curse. It is no accident, no merely natural misfortune, but the deep burnt brand which testifies to God's abhorrence of him who brought sin into the new world." Who brought sin into the original world? Satan. Now he brings it into man's world. The first part of the sentence has immediate and literal reference to the serpent, which which cooperated with Satan, but there is in it a wondrous type of degradation of the son of the morning himself." The words, thou art cursed above all cattle, seem to imply a general curse upon all the animal kingdom, which is not elsewhere mentioned. And the animal kingdom didn't have anything to do with it, did they? Possibly it fell upon the part of the creation not through Adam's sin, but because of the serpent the head and represented all the beasts of the field. Remember I told you the lion is not the king of the beasts, it is the serpent. The field yielded itself as an instrument of evil and that curse should extend to every animal and is not more marvelous than the transmission of sin through Adam to the whole human race and all of the whole earth which he was put over. He cursed it all. He cursed us. He cursed every one of his descendants. Certainly, however, there is some strange bond connecting together the creatures of our world, so that all are mysteriously affected by, and in a measure respond for, the conduct of each. This seems to be a great law of creation, and it perhaps intended in part as at least a means of preserving unity. At any rate, Paul, when treating of its application to the church, put forth his object, let there be no division among you, in 1 Corinthians 12 and 25. It is agreed that the organism of the serpent is one of the extreme degradation. Their bodies are lengthened out by the more vegetative repetitions of the vertebrae, like the worms. They advance only by ring-like chutes in the abdomen without fore or hind limbs. Though they belong to the latest creatures of the animal kingdom, they represent a decided retrogression of the scale beings. The words, thus thou shalt eat, We are not perhaps to understand that dust shall be the serpent's only food in the dust. All of his food will be flavored with dust from now on. All of his food will be flavored. You like salt? Well, the serpent now will have the taste of dirt in his mouth, dust in his mouth always. He will be, because of his degradation, He doesn't have any hands to handle his prey. It would be compelled to eat it from the ground so as to swallow dust with it. All its food is flavored of dust, says a Jewish commentary. And since the undergoing of this visible punishment, the serpent is a type of Satan with whom it directly cooperated. Its condition is hopeless and will not be improved when the remainder of the creation is delivered from the bondage of corruption even in the millennial time. Dust will still be the serpent's flavoring for his food. And then perhaps it's only food, Isaiah 65 and 25. The site of this degradation. Just think about that for all that thousand years. So far, sentence seems to have no more than a typical reference to Satan, but in the following clauses, the serpent begins to recede from you and the great adversary who begins to recede from, begins to be confronted and was concealed within it is dragged forth to judgment. That spirit which empowered that snake, that serpent now is brought out. Satan himself is brought out on the carpet. And here's the frustration of his hopes and the brevity of his triumph And of his terrible, inevitable doom, wonderfully pregnant with meaning are the few words of this first prophecies, for they contain the germ of all that has since been revealed. The Bible is a progressive revelation. It's a progressive revelation. And a Fordham remarkable proofs of the consistency of God's purpose of his perfect knowledge of the end from the beginning. Satan had diluted Eve into an alliance with himself against the Creator, but God would break up that confederation. The covenant with death should be disannulled. The agreement with hell should not stand. I will put enmity between thee and the woman." Between you and the woman, and he's talking directly to Satan, isn't he? She was his league, that's how he got control of this world, but now he's gonna break that league. were his almighty words to be abashed to the speechless serpent, nor was it typical for Satan to divine the meaning of the separation. He was cast out to perdition, but Eve, the Lord, would save. Eve, the Lord, would save. Henceforth, therefore, deprived of her beautiful home, driven into the accursed and uncultivated earth, subject to toil and pain and gradual decay, which should at last terminate into complete dissolution, she would should know that her false friend was the cause of all her misery and so regard him as her bitterest foe. On the other hand, the mere fact that the woman would no longer be willing to subserve his purposes, would he have sufficed to give her a far sharper incentive to hatred? And he declared that the seed of the deceived woman should ultimately destroy her deceiver. The seed of the deceived woman will ultimately destroy the deceiver. Has these things that you have not thought about before? Is this bringing some new thoughts into your mind? For the enmity should not be confined to the serpent and the woman, but should extend to all her seed. Who then are the seed of the serpent? All of the lost seed of the woman and man. They are those who manifest the spirit of independent pride by which their father the devil fell. those who will not acknowledge their own hopeless condition, who will not admit they have rejected the only Savior. Nor is it long before this seed appear in the person of Cain. The real seed of the rebellion would come forth in Cain, Cain begotten. And she said, I have gotten a man, even Jehovah. and he was a devil. He was an antichrist. Who, as the apostle tells us, was the wicked one and slew his brother. 1 John 3 and 12. Very significant is the remark that John adds in this declaration, and wherefore slew he him because of his works were evil and his brothers were righteous. In other words, he predicted enmity was a sole cause of the murder. The enmity. The hatred. The hatred of those born of Satan. of those that are born again. Is it still in effect to the world today? Our Lord, when on the side, when on the earth, did not fail to recognize the seed of the serpent in those sinners whose contradiction he endured. O generation of vipers, Matthew 12 and verse 34. He cries using a phrase which had already been issued from the lips of his former owner, how can ye being evil speak good things? By these words he clearly designates the Pharisee is a brood of that old serpent. He's one of the seed of Satan. And the seed of Satan was definitely and always in opposition to God's truth. Year of your father the devil and the lust of your father ye will do in John 8 and verse 44. Thus far there is no difficulty with the significance of the term the seed of the woman. It is not so imminent eminently apparent, the whole human race cannot be met, as the previous remarks show, nor would mankind in general be called the seed of the woman, but of man, and it is. Everybody except one is the seed of the man, the seed of woman. And God here is speaking of the singular seed of the woman exclusively, for she first sinned and was the cause of sin to her husband and the ruin to the world. Therefore, she had a double punishment. But lest the blame should rest too heavily upon her, lest she should be swallowed up over much with sorrow, she was by God's mercy appointed to be the sole human agent in bringing the deliverer into this world. Bringing the deliverer, the Savior into the world, nor is it difficult to discover that Deliverer, for there is none but Christ who could in strictly literal sense be called the seed of the woman." And we know that the book of Enoch always refers to the Messiah as the seed of the woman, not the Son of Man. There's a lot of son of men out there. Here, then, we have a wonderful example of the consistency of Scripture. Since the primeval prophecy uttered 4,000 years before its accomplishment, we find it declared that the Lord Jesus should be born of a virgin. I want you to go to Isaiah 7 and 14 quickly. Isaiah 7 and 14. That is a dual prophecy. But I want you to see something there. The translators missed the ball. They missed the ball, totally, as they do so many times. Since in his primal prophecy, uttered 4,000 years before its accomplish, we find declared the Lord Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin. Had our translators perceived that this would have avoided a mistake, for in the well-known prediction of Isaiah 7 and 14, also in the quotation from it in the first chapter of Matthew, Matthew 1, 23. What's it say there, Christine? Can you holler that out real loud? It says, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. The virgin. ha'amah is what it is in Hebrew ha'amah all right now in the Septuagint is it is he Parthenos the virgin not a virgin but the virgin there was a virgin that was going to the virgin then there was going to have a child and they would call his name Emmanuel that was the first fulfillment of that the second fulfillment was in Matthew 1 23 when we have the Christ child the seed of the woman they have adopted the rendering a virgin in defiance of the original which the the virgin in both passages now that says the virgin doesn't it that's good King James says a virgin in defiance of the original which has the virgin in the both passages they did not understand the meaning of the definite article the virgin not a virgin therefore cut the knot of difficulty by admitting it from their version. But Isaiah is evidently referring to the sentence passed upon the serpent and speaks of the particular virgin who should be chosen as a human instrument for the fulfillment of God's promise. Thus Christ is the literal seed of the woman. But just as all those who willfully deny the truth and ungodliness are the seed of the serpent." You were born of God and people can be born of Satan. I've said that a lot of times, and I know it's hard to understand. Have you seen people that cannot be reached, especially in false religious systems? All false religious systems are originated by the seed of the devil, the seed of Satan. We know that in the end that he will have a seed that is called the Antichrist in the end, that he will bring forth a child in this world of himself. And there is also the seed that serves the Lord in Psalm 22 and verse 30. But as was there no hope should painful and every wavering struggle go on forever nor it should find its end at last. It should be decided that after many years of deadly conflict between the seed of the woman and the old serpent himself that Christ should bruise the head of the serpent's head and should deal a mortal blow. Not however before the serpent had bruised his heel and wounded him sore, but not fatally, not in a vital part." Here then we have the germ of all prophecy respecting the two advents of Christ. Israel did not understand the two events, did they? They tried to put them together. In the bruising of the heel we recognize his first coming to suffer what appeared to be an utter defeat. to find that his own would not receive him, to endure the contradiction and the insults of the serpent's seed, to be rejected of his generation." Who were the serpent's seed? The Pharisees, the Sanhedrin court, the high priest. The Sadducees were the seed of the, he was suffering the hate of the seed of the serpent. And finally, to lay down his life and pass a short season under the dominion of him who hath the power over death. He did three days, didn't he? He laid in that grave under their sentence of death. And the bruising of the serpent's head is after prophecies developed in the second coming of Christ with a power and great glory to drive the false king from the air and the earth and to cast him bound into the abyss. Nay, it even looks beyond this and the post-millennial rebellion to the final destruction of Satan and to his consignment forever to the lake of fire and brimstone." Here, Revelation 20 and verse 10. So far as God's word to the serpent are concerned, the two great events, which they foreshadow, might have been almost simultaneous. And indeed, throughout the Old Testament, the advents are generally treated as if they were no interval between them. The Israeli prophets beheld them in the remote future, just as we might look upon some far off mountain peak, each more distant than the other, from which our first standpoint seem indeed to be far very near together but disclosed we journey on an ever widening breadth of the valley between them. You can see the valleys between those mountaintops. Such was the curse pronounced upon the serpent and we cannot but pause in amazement and render thanks for the great God, great mercy vouchsafed to the fallen parents of our race. God could not indeed give Adam a direct promise at a time when the man was waiting as a condemned criminal to receive his sentence. Therefore his loving kindness devised a plan of first pronouncing the judgment upon the servant. And therein implying that the fallen should not seek hopelessly to condition of their deceiver, but to be set in sharp opposition to them until after a painful struggle the woman's conquering seed should bruise him under their feet and make both the death from which they shrink but must now undergo the hades, the dread, the place of unclothed spirits, to pass away forever, Revelation 20 and verse 14. And so a bright ray of hope broke in through their despair, and they strengthened to hear their own doom of woe. Having thus passed sentence upon the tempter, the Lord next turned to the woman, who was to first yield to temptation, for the general sin was judged in her husband as being one with him. But because she enticed him to the grass, she was a very special curse, super aided to that which affected the whole human race. This significance in the words, I will greatly multiply your sorrow. When a man's making babies, it's very much pleasure. When a woman's having babies, it's not pleasure. Is it? No. So is a woman's punishment greater than a man? Yes. The fourth of which to be seen, we notice that Adam also is afterwards doomed to sorrow. The same Hebrew word being used in both cases, but the woman is double cursed with a sorrow. Lastly, the Lord declares the punishment of the man. Adam has excused himself on the ground that Eve was his tempter. And God begins to, by showing that this very act increased the heinousness of his guilt. Increased the heinousness of his guilt. He, had Eve sinned through the influence of her husband, she would not have been without plea, for God had made her subject to him. But that Adam, whose duty as appointed head was to watch over, to restrain, and to guide, and to rule his wife, that he should so far forget his responsibility as to follow her sinful suggestions?" To obey her voice rather than God's voice was a serious aggravation of his offense. Therefore the reason of the curse is because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. The sentence itself is not in a main, direct one to Adam. He didn't curse Adam like he cursed the woman. As in the case of the serpent, but strikes Adam through his surroundings, the earth of his dominion is cursed because of him. The earth is cursed. The animals are cursed. Everything is cursed. The animals were his friends. The animals were his companions. The earth was his lush bed and garden of Eden. And in fact, we see a refutation of all those theories respecting the inherent evil of matter. Matter is not evil, like the Christian science say today. You know, matter is evil. which figure so prominently in the early history of the nominal church and are now being revived by the sects of so-called spiritualists. Evil proceeded not from matter to spirit, but from spirit to matter. Evil didn't come from matter to spirit, but from spirit to matter. Adam was not cursed on account of the earth, which God had declared to be in itself very good, told the earth was good. The earth, she became good. He made her good. But the earth was cursed because of the sin of Adam. The earth originally was cursed because of the sin of Lucifer, and it was destroyed, and God didn't create that destruction. The sin of Adam, which had again originated in the spirit of the evil one, as a punishment for man's regression, the soil should be henceforth comparatively barren. It should no longer yield spontaneously abundance, but should be compelled to to have it forced out of it with heavy toil and the sweat of his face, and even the bare necessities of life, nor would this be the end of the trouble. The earth should now be the parent of evil as well as good, and teeming with thorns and thistles should baffle and protect the labor of its tillers. These noxious plants probably existed, though, in a very different condition before the curse was pronounced, and then, owing to the sterility of the blighted earth, were no longer able to attain their proper development of luxuriance. So became what are now to be abortions, monstrosities of the original creation. The following remarks of Professor Balfour will illustrate this. In looking at the vegetable world in a scientific point of view, we see many evidences of great plan upon which the all-wise creator seems to have formed that portion of his works. At the same time, there are many marks that we may call, with reverence, incompleteness. Thus we see there is in all plants a tendency to a spiral arrangement of leaves and branches, but we rarely see carried out fully, in consequence, a numerous interruptions of growth and abnormalities in development, monstrosities. When branches are arrested in growth, they often appear in the form of thorns and spines like on your orange trees, like on your lemon trees, like on your wild apple trees. They're dangerous. Those are monstrosities compared to what they were. Man cursed those plants. And the sweetness of the wild orange is not good. It's bitter. tried to bring it back to its original state by genetic engineering. Thus thorns may be taken as an indication of imperfection in the branch. The curse which had been pronounced on the vegetable creation may thus be seen in the production of thorns in the place of branches. Thorns which, while they are leafless, are in the same time the cause of injury to man. The thorns are abortive branches. As well as seen in cases by cultivation, they disappear. In such cases, they are transformed into branches and the wild apple is a thorny plant. Again, thistles are troublesome and injurious in consequence of the papus and hairs appending to their fruit, which wafted about in all directions. How about the cactus plant that's got the sweet fruit on it, the thorns all over it? How many of you eaten a peach without peeling it? It's like miniature little thorns all around that fuzz on the peach, isn't it? Sometimes these thorns are changed into hairs on fruit. They're called the calyx, which makes the thistle a source of labor and trouble to man. I have thus hurriedly stated to you what occurred to my mind as the curse of the thorns and thistles, and I have endeavored to show that the spines and hairs are abortive monstrosities, so to speak, imperfect portions of the plants. The parts are not developed in full perfection like what may have been the case in Eden. And like what we take place in the curse is removed. Fit objects then are the thorn and the thistle to remind man of the curse. Every time you step on the thistle, every time you get poked with a beautiful rose bush, they should remind you. And John 3, 16 says, for God so loved the Cosmos, the whole created, that he gave his only begotten son to redeem it back. Let's see how that happens. And keeping the original in view, we can see a deep significance in the awful scene when our Lord suffered himself to be crowned with thorns. Jesus was crowned with the curse. So even his enemy set him forth as the curse bearer. when he wore on his bleeding brow that which owed his existence to, and was a sign of the sin which he had come to expatiate. Lastly, man should no longer eat of the fruits of paradise, but should henceforth find the staff of his fleeting life in the bread-producing herbs of the field, till he himself descended into the dust out of which He obtained his food, for the dust he was, and unto dust he shall return. And how did the impious vision raised by Satan vanish into blackness at the last words of terror? Words which had sunk deeply into the heart of man even rise to the surface when he finds himself in the presence of his God. And when he is brought low, his hopes perish. Behold now, says Abraham, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, and I am but dust and ashes. See that? I am but dust and ashes. Job said that, and Job sat down and threw ashes on his head, didn't he? As a sign of reverence to God. Because man has cursed the earth. But as it is to the dust, we go down to death, so it is from the dust that we shall rise into resurrection. Your body crumbles and goes to dust, doesn't it? But one of these days, God's gonna take that dust and make it shine again. resurrection. Thy dead men shall live is the wondrous proclamation by Isaiah together with my dead body shall they rise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of the herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead Isaiah 26 and verse 19 and Daniel also tells us that the first resurrection many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake and so we see that the dust will be redeemed. the dust of our bodies even. So then, even the dust is a resting place of hope for the people of God. And the sentence pronounced upon the serpent, the judgment is eternal. While the man and his wife were doomed to degradation and anguish, but not forever. The earth was reeling under the first stroke of the curse. Its flowers were fading, its fruits were blighted. The former luxuriance of its vegetation could not be supported by the now sterile soil and and veitated atmosphere, the living creatures that passed by no longer did homage to their appointed Lord, which was Adam. The creatures that passed by no longer did homage to their appointed Lord, but wore in their eyes a wild look of incipient sabbatry. Nay, the very sun as we may perhaps infer from previous passage of Isaiah 30 in verse 20, it seems to have withdrawn six-sevenths of its light, and so that although beams may still, as bright as ever before they are to us, the distraught pair must have felt that the shadow of death had fallen upon their sickening, failing world. The darkness is literal and spiritual. For 4,000 years, which had already elapsed, being much the greater part of it, that night into the breaking dawn, which the wise and faithful servants are now earnestly gazing in expectation of the appearing of the Lord as the bright and morning star before he rises in all his glory as the sun of righteousness and restores light and life to the beclouded and death-stricken earth. And so now, After all this judgment has been passed, with a hope of the seed of the woman, taking up again the function of naming which God had bestowed upon him, he called his wife Eve, that is life, because without a cavil or doubt, he frankly took God at his word that the seed of the woman would save them. Adam had professed a simple trust in God's promise, though he had but a dim apprehension of its meaning, And immediately we find the Lord returning to the mourners and rewarding their faith by further mercy and further knowledge. He took away their coverings of fig leaves and clothed them with the coats of skin, which were their friends' coverings of their bodies. Most significant was the action, for by it he testified that their shame was not groundless, that there was a need of covering, but the best sinners could make for themselves was of no avail. They were as yet unacquainted with the corruption of decay and knew not that the fig leaves would quickly wither and fall off, an apt emblem of their every device which man has ever contrived to cover his shame and fit himself for the presence of his maker. And beyond this, they must learn that only by life can life be redeemed, that the sinner that if the sinner die not, there must be a substitute, that the Most High is holiness and justice as well, and as love, and can by no means clear the guilty. Now sacrifice as an extradition must have been ordained by God Himself." Now let's, uh, the first death was necessary. Now we have the seed of the woman. Now, every other man that's ever been born from a woman had the seed of a man in him. But I want to go back to M.R. DeHaan now, Dr. M.R. DeHaan, The Chemistry of the Blood, and starting on page 30, it says, The Bible teaches plainly that Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin. It says THE virgin, doesn't it? A Jewish mother by supernatural act of the Holy Spirit, holy in part by the generation generation of a human father. Thus the Bible teaches so plainly that to the believer there is no room for doubt. The record cannot be mistaken by the careful and rigorous student of the Word. The Bible teaches in addition that Jesus was a sinless man whereas all men from Adam to this day are born with Adam's sinful nature and Adam's blood in them. The man Jesus was without sin and therefore deathless until he took the sin of others upon himself and died to their death. God has made one blood all nations of the earth, even through Jesus, therefore received his flesh and his body from a sinful race through the woman. He could still be sinless as long as the sinful blood was not in his body. God provided a way whereby Jesus could be perfectly human according to the flesh and yet not have the blood of sinful humanity. That was a problem solved by the virgin birth. I'm going to read from you a few words from a scientific journal. The blood of the fetus does not mix with the blood of the mother. Instead, it provides a system where the two separate bloodstreams flow and pass each other with a thin separation, allowing nutrients to flow between the two streams, but not the blood cells or other large components. What's more, fetuses use a different set of hemoglobin genes designed to take oxygen from the hemoglobin of the mother's bloodstream by diffusion, through the placenta. The fetus is fed by the umbilical cord, which basically connects his or her circulatory system with the mother's in order to supply oxygen and nutrients, but the blood does not pass from that child to the mother or from that mother to the child. It is now definitely known that the blood which flows in unborn babies' arteries and veins is not derived from the mother, but is produced within the body of the fetus itself only after the introduction of the male sperm. An unfertilized ovum can never develop blood since the female egg does not by itself contain the elements essential for the production of this atom's blood. It is only after the male element has entered into the ovum that the blood can be developed. As a very simple illustration of this, think of an egg of a hen. An unfertilized egg is just an ovum with a much larger scale than the human ovum. You may incubate this unfertilized hen's egg, but it will never develop. It will decay and become rotten. But no chick will resort. Let that egg be fertilized. By the introduction of the male sperm, an incubation will bring to light the presence of life in that egg. After a few hours, it is visible. It visibly develops in a little while red streaks occur in the egg denoting the presence of blood. This can never occur and does never incur until the male sperm has been united with a female ovum. and the male element has added life to the egg. Life is in the blood according to scripture Moses says. Testimony of science. It is necessarily that a single drop of blood be given to the developing embryo in the womb of the mother. Such is the case according to scientists. The mother provides the fetus, the unborn development, with the nutritive elements of the building of that little body in the secret of her womb, but all the blood which forms in it formed in the embryo itself. From the time of conception to the time of the birth to the infant, not one single drop of blood ever passes from the mother to the child. That's why Jesus could be sinless. Scientifically, Jesus could be sinless. which that mass and temporary tissue, known better as afterbirth, forming the link between the mother and the child, is so constructed that although all the soluble nutrient elements, such as proteins, fats, carbohydrates, salt, minerals, even antibodies, pass freely from the mother to the child, and the waste products of the child metabolism are passed back to the mother's circulation, no actual interchange of a single drop of blood ever occurs normally. All the blood which is in that child is produced within the child itself and the mother contributes no blood or life to that child. That's how you have a virgin birth. That's how you have a virgin birth. The Catholic idea of the Immaculate Conception that Mary had no sin is not enough. The Immaculate Conception is not enough. It took This miracle of God. The virgin birth was a miracle. It is plainly taught in scripture that Jesus partook of human flesh without partaking of the effect of Adam's blood. In Hebrews 2 and 14, we read for as much then as the children are all partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. You will notice that the children, that is the human children, are said to be partakers of flesh and blood. Then speaking to Jesus, this verse says that he himself likewise took part of the same. Did he have blood in him? But his blood was the blood that was in Adam, not the blood that we have in our veins. Our blood is infected. Our blood is diseased. Our blood kills us in the end. The word took part as applying to Christ is entirely different from the word partakers as applied to the children. In the margin of the Bible, I read the word took part implies taking part in something outside of oneself. The Greek for partakers is koinonia and means to share fully so that all of Adam's children share fully in Adam's flesh and blood. We do. Did Jesus have Adam's blood in him? No. Scientifically, we know that's a fact, don't we? We know that it could be a possibility, at least, for those that don't believe. We could say, hey, it's possible. Since the life is in the blood, this act resulted in the formation of blood in Adam's body, but the first Adam's blood was corrupted, and sin is in all mankind, since God hath made all men, all nations, of one blood. In the last Adam we have the second man, new and divine and sinless blood and was produced in a body that was the seed of the woman. The body of Jesus was the seed of the woman. Now, he had innocent blood in him. I have betrayed the innocent blood, said Judas. Jesus had innocent blood in him. His blood was incorruptible. He would have never died. His blood had no infection of sin in it, no corruption. And so we can have eternal life through his blood. And that blood is what is applied to us, and we are saved in it. Sin made human blood corruptible. Soon after death, decay sets in, and it begins in the blood. That is why meat must be drained well of its blood, see, as the Bible teaches also. That is why Embalmers placed the embalming fluid in the blood. David said that Jesus' body should not see corruption. Though he was dead three days and three nights, his blood didn't rot. It had no corruption in it. It had no corruptive influences on the flesh. Even though he had flesh like all of us, the blood in him was divine. His body did not corrupt. Because he was sinless, they could not put him to death, but instead he laid down his life voluntarily that he might take it up again, and he rolled by his own power because death had no claim on him because his claim of others' sin. Death cannot keep its prey. Jesus, my Savior, he tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord, up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his woes." We are saved by the sanctity and the purity of Jesus' blood. And Jesus is the virgin-born child. born without the effects of a man, born as God the Son. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Caihologo sarxagonato, and the Word, the Jehovah, flesh he became, and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory of the only begotten of the Father. John 1 18 says, For no one has seen God at any time but the only begotten God. the one being inseparable from the bosom of the Father, that one has let himself out. God let himself out through that virgin, through the womb of that virgin with divine blood that was sinless blood that saves us from all sin. Thank you for enduring that long reading. Do you have any questions? Did you learn something? Was there some glorious things in there? The seed of the woman and the virgin birth. All right. I want to repeat this one thing that I wrote so many, 40 years ago. Man is the only created being that inherently tries to dive headlong into the lower state than that which he was created. The animals didn't want to do that. Animals happy along? Only one of them was used. The king of all them animals was Nahash. All right. Let's have a word of prayer. Go out and do something eternal. You don't have any questions? Yeah, you have a question. Um, so the serpent from from from what we think walked around because it says part of the curse was that he would have. He had originally had legs. We infer that he had legs. We infer that he was the king of all the beast, that it was the most beautiful all the animals like lucifer was. The serpent allowed Satan to use him. Animals have a will, do they not? We see that many, many times in scriptures. The pigs there, by the Sea of Galilee, when the gathering demoniac, the spirits, evil spirits, those wandering outlaws. Spirits were driven into them, what did those pigs do? They decided not to live, didn't they? So they dove into and drowned themselves. And pigs can swim real good, people. They can swim. But they didn't. They didn't try to swim. So wouldn't that be... I mean, he's an animal, so I guess he can't sin, but wouldn't that be... There's a lot about animals we don't know. That animal kingdom, we've been degrading a lot forever. is not as degraded as we look upon them, because we like to eat them, they taste good. And so, you know what do you do when you kill your enemy? You have to make your enemy less than human to go kill him. Don't you? That's what all war is about. Make him less than human, then you can go kill him. We make them less than human. But in Bible, we find that they have souls, they have flesh, and they have spirits. They're created triunely also, but man is created in God's image. And he was put over them to caretake over them. And they trusted man. And remember what the writer says? GH member? And the animals no longer looked up to man when they walked by. But looked up at him with disappointment. With disappointment. And distress. So was it Satan speaking through the animal, or was the animal able to speak Satan was speaking through the animal. Evidently, the animal could speak before. Animals communicated with mankind. We don't know exactly how all that works, but he was speaking. Animals and mankind at one time were very close, but now we have drifted far apart. After the flood, we find out man was given animal flesh to eat, and therefore, the fear of man was put in animals. It takes a lot to get an animal to trust you, doesn't it? You have to get their trust first, because they're naturally afraid. Animals, we don't know a whole lot about. The Bible just doesn't say a lot about it. But that serpent had volition, and that volition, God is going to completely curse even through all of the millennium. We don't know what it's going to be like in the eternal future, but through the millennium, he's going to be still eating his dirt flavored with dust, or eating his food flavored with dust, whatever he eats over there. So then his act was an act of sin. His act was an act of sin, and yes, he was punished for it. Above all the other beasts of the field. He became, it says, Arum. Arum. He became evil, didn't he? He wasn't created evil, he became evil. But that, if that first, if that, that point in time was the first act of sin, in the human race and in the animal kingdom under Adam's control as he was a sovereign over all things. Adam was a sovereign over all of these animals. And these animals were going basically in obeisance to him. Have you ever had a dog that disloves you even if you kick him? Yeah, they love you. Even if you kick them, abuse them. Dogs are man's best friend, it says. But horses can be that way. I tell you, a horse can just fall in love with you if you treat it right. Yes. Yes. So if my question, I guess, is the first act of sin would be that that He used him to enter him to affect Eve and he affected Eve by her Wanting to be proud and beauty. She saw something pretty she saw something beautiful She saw something that was gonna taste good and it's gonna make her real smart That Yes, this this this administration of the kingdom of God through Adam Which God is going to finally use? The church will be a co-ruler with Christ which is a descendant of the seed of the woman Because we're all born again. We're born again into the family of God And then we're called from the family God into the church. And the church will co-rule, but there were many helpers and many servants in that time, which are all these others that are seeds of the woman. Do you see that? It's beautiful. Animals have volition. Spirits have volition. Demons had volition. Those are the outlaw spirits. Those wandering outlaws. nomads, thieves and liars, murderers. That's those spirits that rebelled against God. We have spirits that are God's emissaries of of nurturing and protection, don't we? And we have spirits and angels that followed God. But we have one third of those angels that were are now rebels and outlaws. Outlaws that are trying to thwart God's purpose as always. Angels have form, spirits do not. Spirits and demons. Spirits are spirits that follow God. Demons are those fallen spirits, the outlaw spirit. And then we have fallen angels and we have angels of light, which are the helpers, the ones following the Lord. So was Lucifer an angel or a spirit? Lucifer is an angel. So then how does Lucifer take over this serpent if he is an angel? When Judas Isacariot was about to pray Jesus, it says that Satan went into his heart. Angels are supernatural. Angels can go right into your heart. from what the Bible says and put you to do things that are evil. There are demon spirits and then there are fallen angels. The demon spirits seek to dwell in human or what? Our animal flesh. Well, if they dwelled in animal flesh, what does that tell you? Animals have volition. Some don't want it. There are people that sell themselves to Satan that have very much power. They have power. Don't ever believe that false religions have power. False prophets have power. Satan gives them that power, and they work with fallen angels and demon spirits, which give them a tremendous amount of influence. So that voice of that serpent was probably the serpent's voice. Yes. Manipulated by Satan? By Lucifer. By Satan. Lucifer was... Lucifer. Lucifer was his name originally, Hillel Lucifer, but he became Satan. So Satan worked through the serpent, the Mahash. So is that why the animals were cursed? Yes. Because what Adam did. Because Adam wasn't, because Adam wasn't watching He wasn't doing his job at all, was he? He was supposed to keep Satan's influence away from his wife and away from the animal kingdom, but he was a sovereign over all things. What was he doing? Playing football? What was he doing? if it wasn't a physical being of Satan there? Like, how would you know that that serpent was being influenced by Satan? Like, how... I mean, I know you can't... The words that came out of the serpent's mouth, he began to degrade God. So Adam should have right that minute... Right then stopped the whole situation, see, but he didn't. Okay, alright. So it's not like he could have... God had to allow it because he couldn't get glory from man being saved without man having volition to do it. He didn't create robots, even though superlapsarians say he does. Because there is no glory from an animal or a person that is programmed to say, I love you. It has to be volitational. Brother Mike, you got any questions? You missed the virgin birth and the seed of the woman.