In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being aware of both major and minor sins that can come between brothers in the faith. He highlights the need for quick repentance and confession to maintain a proper relationship with God and fellow believers. The speaker also criticizes a distorted gospel that focuses on material prosperity rather than repentance and the cross of Christ. He encourages believers to boldly preach the true gospel and not be distracted by worldly pursuits. The sermon references 2 Corinthians 11:1-4 to warn about false teachings and the need to stay focused on Christ.

Here we have the introduction of Eve. Now if we go on down to verse 21, it says, The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made, or literally says, he built into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Now here we see that our father had Adam. He had the man that he desired, but that was not the complete thought that he had. He wanted not only a man, but he wanted a counterpart for this man so that they could go forth being the image bearers of God and also taking dominion over the whole earth. Now I think it is important for us to note here that this Adam is a type of Christ. He is a foreshadowing of Jesus who was to come. And we see this as our father put Adam to sleep, a deep sleep, and then opened up his side, and from his side took forth his rib, and from that rib he built Eve. Now this Eve, though she was a literal woman, she was also a type, and she is a type of the church. We see that in Ephesians chapter 5. We'll turn there in a second. But here we begin to see God's plan of the ages, what he desired, what he purposed in himself to have. It was a man, but also this man would have a bride, that he would have a counterpart. Now it's important for us to see here that from Adam, Eve came forth from Adam, and that the word here says only that God took the rib out and built Eve from this rib. It doesn't say that he added anything else to the rib. In other words, Eve came forth from Adam and not from anything else. Now why is that important? It's important because when we look at the church, we have to recognize and see that what our father has desired for Jesus to have is a church that comes forth from him. So here we have Adam being put to sleep. We also see our Lord Jesus dying, and from his side, as it was pierced by that spear, blood and water coming out, that blood and water that redeemed and also that cleanses his bride, the church. So all this is a foreshadowing of what is to come, and for us to begin to see the heartbeat of God, what he is actually after for his son, what he desires his son to have. He desired Adam to have a bride, and a bride that was a perfect counterpart to him, that came forth from him, so that when Adam saw Eve, notice what he said. When Adam saw Eve, he knew that Eve had come forth from him. This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. And it is our father's desire that when Jesus sees the church, he is able to look at the church and to see himself. This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This church has come forth from me, and now is being presented to me as my bride. This is our father's heart. This is what Jesus died for. This is what his blood was shed for. If we could turn please to Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22-33. And I apologize, I know I'm going very fast, but I don't want to take up more time than I need to. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22-33. Father's wife meant to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so the wives are to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. So what do we see here? We see that Paul by the Holy Spirit has gained a revelation of what Genesis was pointing towards. It was pointing towards Christ and the church. And we know some very important things here. One, that Christ is the head of the church, just as Adam was supposed to be head of his wife. But with Eve, what we saw happen was this. Eve stepped out from underneath the headship of Adam, and Eve took things into her own hands, and she initiated action. She took fruit from the tree, she ate, and then she turned and handed it to her husband, to Adam, and he took it. So we see a reversal of the order, where Eve actually assumed the headship in the relationship. And brothers, I would submit to you that we suffer from the same problem today, and I'm not speaking of marriages. I'm speaking of the relationship between Christ and his church today, especially in the West. What we see, I believe, and I would submit to you this, what we see so often are Christians who get a good idea, quote-unquote a good idea. They get something that they think they want to do, and then they initiate it, and then we try and carry it out with our own power, all the while the Lord Jesus is looking at us and saying, When will you submit to me? When will you come to me and allow me to be the head? When will you allow me to initiate things, and then you simply obey me and let my power flow through you? I believe, brothers, that this is where we're at, and I believe that our Father is attempting to recover the proper relationship between Christ and the church, especially here in the West, in America and Canada and in Europe, because we have lost it. Now note here also that our Lord is coming back for a bride that Paul says does not have spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Now spots, I would submit, pertain to sin, things that we have accrued to ourselves that are contrary to our Lord's will. Wrinkles implies a laying down, perhaps sleeping, laying on the wedding garments, not being ready. So that when the bridegroom appears, the bride is dirty and she is wrinkled and she is not prepared. But Paul says that our Lord is coming back not for such a church as that, but he's coming back for a bride who is without spot and wrinkle, one who has been prepared, and actually, as we'll see in Revelation, one who has also been preparing herself. I think of my own wedding, and I think of when I stood at the front of the sanctuary and my father-in-law brought in my bride-to-be, and we had a traditional wedding. She had a very beautiful white dress on with white gloves in the veil, all these things that many of us have seen so many times. And I just wonder, what if my bride would have come through the doors in a mess? What if her clothes were ragged and what if she had not prepared herself properly? What would that have spoken to me? It would have spoken to me that she was not that excited about entering into a relationship with me. It would speak to me that she was concerned about other things, that she had other things on her mind. And brothers, I would submit to you that that is where we stand also, as a church in the West, that we keep our eyes on ourselves, we keep our eyes on the world, we keep our eyes especially on the things that the world offers to us, the world's prosperity, the world's power. We see many Christian leaders today who are compromising the gospel so that they might obtain this prosperity, obtain these things that the world might put upon them. But our Lord is not looking for a bride like that. Our Lord is looking for a bride that is His counterpart, for a bride that everything in her lines up with who He is. This is a bride without spot and without wrinkle, a bride who has eyes for Him. One thing very important also for the bride is this, is that when my bride came through the door, she looked at me. She was not looking at herself. She wasn't looking at the crowd. She was looking at me and I was looking at her. And what that spoke to me is this, is that she had eyes only for me, that she was excited to be with me. And brothers, I would submit to you that our Father would have us turn our eyes upon the Lord Jesus. One thing this will accomplish also is that these many divisions that we suffer from, especially in the West, will be removed as we take our eyes off our own, the names that we call ourselves, the different denominational names that we call ourselves, the different doctrines that we hold on to so tightly that separate us from our other brothers and sisters in Christ. And I speak not of essential doctrines. I speak of other secondary things that separate us so often. But as we gain a vision for our Lord Jesus and as we see what his heart is after, a bride for himself who loves him and who is set apart unto him, the more we see that, the more we will begin to see that I am not the bride of Christ and you are not the bride of Christ, that our Lord Jesus does not have 5,000 brides. He does not have a million brides. He has one bride and this bride is a corporate bride and this corporate bride must walk in oneness. And as we look upon our Lord, these different things that have divided the bride will be put away and the bride can assemble herself together as one. This is what our Lord is after. If we could turn also to Revelation chapter 19, verses 7 and 8. Just a few more minutes and I will be done. Revelation 19, verses 7 and 8. I think it's important for us to note at the end time there are two women who are presented in Revelation. There is a great harlot and there is also the bride of Christ. Our brother Paul and others in the New Testament warned that in the latter days that there would be a great apostasy, there would be a great turning away from the faith. There would be false teachers and false apostles, false prophets that rise up. He said that Satan even had servants that he would send forth that would appear as servants of righteousness. They would even take the name of Jesus but they would be presenting a false Jesus, a different Jesus and a different gospel. Brothers, I would submit to you that this is where we find ourselves. We have a gospel that is being presented that is no gospel at all. It is a gospel that presents Jesus as having died for our sins on the cross but it is a gospel that does not call the sinner to repentance. It is a gospel that does not tell the sinner that the sinner must come and die on the cross, that the sinner must come and take up his cross and die so that he might live with Christ. This is the gospel that we see so much now and that we hear so much now is one that simply says that God wants to give prosperity and He wants to give money and He wants to give riches. In other words, it is a man-centered gospel. Our Father is working now to recover the true gospel. Brothers, I have a very small sphere here, a very small fellowship here, but I know some of you brothers probably have very large spheres of influence and I would exhort you brothers to be bold in these days. Be bold to speak the gospel. Be bold to preach the cross and the blood of Christ. Be bold to call people to repentance, especially those who call themselves Christians. I think we are in dire need of this today and this warning that the Holy Spirit has given to us through the Scriptures is also an exhortation to be bold in these last days for our Lord. In Revelation 19, verses 7 and 8, it says, Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. There is an aspect to the work of our Lord in our lives where He sanctifies us and He sets us apart. He makes us holy, but there's also the other side of this and it's the side that we are to prepare ourselves, that we are to turn to our Lord and yield to Him and ask Him to be at work in our lives and we are to recognize that it's not just the larger sins or sins that we think that are larger that we need to be aware of, but it's often these little things that try to creep in, little things that will try to come in between two brothers, things that we need to be aware of and things that we need to be quick to repent of and quick to confess to one another so that we might be ready, so that we might be a proper counterpart to our Lord. The last verse I would like to share is in 2 Corinthians 11 and it's the first four verses and it's connected again to the warnings that were given so often in the New Testament of what can happen and what we should expect in these last days. Here Paul is speaking to the church in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 11 verses 1-4. He says, I have vowed that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband. I have promised you to one husband that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, then we have not preached. Or if you receive a different spirit, which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. The brothers here again we see that our brother Paul and our heart should be this, that we present those whom God has entrusted to us under our care, that we be able to present them and ourselves as a chaste virgin to Christ, meaning that we cannot be friends with the world. We cannot accept the things that the world promotes. We have to be different. We have to speak differently and act differently. And we have to be bold. We have to be bold to preach the gospel, especially where it will cost us something. We have to be bold. And in these end days, the place that it may cost us the most is not in heathen circles, but it's in the circles of those who profess Christ, who have a form of godliness, but who deny the power thereof, of those who profess Christ, who live lives of sin, and who show no true work of the cross or of being born again in their lives. This may be the place where we suffer the most persecution from, but we must be bold because the Lord has something that he will call out from that and that he will save, but only if we are faithful to preach the gospel. So again, I exhort you brothers that you be bold, and I pray that we would be bold. And I would say this, that we need to exhort our brothers and sisters to stop looking at the world and its power and its prosperity, that we need to look at our Lord Jesus, and that we need to stop asking, what do I get? And we need to exhort our brothers and sisters, stop embracing this humanistic gospel. Stop asking, what do I get? And let us begin to start asking, what does the Lord Jesus deserve? And we see here what he deserves is his counterpart, a beautiful bride who loves him, who has prepared herself. And in the end, our Father will have what he desires, a man sitting on the throne, that man being the Lord Jesus. And he has his counterpart, his bride, his corporate bride sitting with him on his throne, ruling and reigning, so that in the end what our Father will have is his image bearers on the earth, our Lord Jesus primary, but also the church, and that our Lord Jesus and the church would rule and reign, executing our Father's will on the earth.