I go back with me to Genesis
5. At first glance, this appears
to be merely a genealogy or a family tree, certainly to the world. People, unbelieving people, read
this and would not see anything there. But I think you'll be
amazed with me what all is here. I quote Romans 15 quite often
which says, everything that is written before time was written
for our learning. And then all Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. It's profitable. All Scripture.
God didn't write mere mere anything, mere genealogies, just for information's
sake. No, there's much hidden to the
naked eye. And I hope the Lord will give
us attentive ears and receptive hearts. There's a blessing to
be had in all this. It begins this way. This is the
book of the generations of Adam. Now, this whole book that you
have in your lap is called the book, the Bible, isn't it? The Bible. This is the book. This is the book. In fact, we
really need no other books. We were in San Francisco and
we visited Chinatown, went in this bookstore, and Mindy wanted
to look at some cookbooks or something. And I looked around,
and I'd never seen so many books. It was three times as large as
Barnes & Noble. But I thought to myself, I looked
around at all the books, And I thought you could burn this
place down and probably be better off. Because most of it is garbage. The wisdom of man. Hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of man? But now this is the book. This is God's book. God wrote
this. This is no private interpretation. Holy men spake as they were moved
by the Spirit of God. It's ironic, isn't it, that men,
when they want to give authority to something that's written,
they want you to know that this is the authority on the subject.
They call it the Bible, the gardener's Bible. I've got a book, The Woodworker's
Bible, meaning this is it. You don't need to look any further.
When they do not believe, that this is the Bible. We do, don't we? That's what
you told me, Blair. You said, I believe everything
God wrote. Well, I do too. I do too. This is the book. It says, The Book of the Generations
of Adam. This is our family tree. You
remember Matthew 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. This is our family tree, the
generations of Adam, our father. This is our father and our mother.
This is our father, Adam. They were all sons of Adam. Read
on. It says, In the day that God
created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and
female created he them and blessed them, called their name Adam
in the day when they were created. It says created three times,
doesn't it? Well, the Lord has already told us that, hasn't
He? In the first two chapters of Genesis. In the beginning,
God created. And it goes into detail about
what God created. And especially man spends more
time concerning man than He created in His image. Well, why would
He tell this again? Why does it need to be repeated?
Oh my! Now, more than ever, doesn't
it? Now, more than ever, this needs
to be sounded out loudly, dogmatically, emphatically, repetitively. Keep saying it in a day when
nobody believes that God is our Creator, except God's people. This needs to be sounded out
loud and clear. This is where it began. All things
begin. An understanding of who God is
begins with knowing and understanding that it is He that hath made
us and not we ourselves. An understanding of His character,
His person, everything, His purpose, everything begins with the fact
that God made everything that God in whose hands our breath
is. Our breath, something so minute,
but yet so vital. We can't live without it. Scriptures
goes on, and I've got to go on, but the Scriptures goes on often
to say He takes away their breath and they die. It doesn't matter
what it is. Young lions and so on and so
forth. How blessed we are if we understand
this, and we know this by faith we understand that the world
was framed by the Word of God, created. This is the beginning
of faith. Faith begins right there, Hebrews
11. All right, it's the day that
God created male and female. Man. He called them, they are
called Adam, man, mankind. But He calls them male and female,
doesn't He? That distinction again, doesn't
it? Is that important? Huh. Now more than ever. Right? Men are even trying to take away
the gender throughout the scriptures, and they're not calling God Him.
They're not calling the Son of God the Son. This is a bad day,
I'm telling you. This is, since the last day,
nearly blasphemous. There's never been a more blasphemous
day. Male and female, is that important?
Oh, is it? This is the way God ordered everything. Everything has its order and
it's good, it's right. It's good for us. And when we
lose that, you've got chaos. Male and female. And He blessed
them. Look at verse 2. It says, God
blessed them. He blessed them. Bless the Lord.
Joseph read, Praise the Lord. Praise you, the Lord. How many
Psalms begin that way? How many times does it say that
throughout the Scripture? Praise you, the Lord. Hallelujah.
By the way, now more than ever, You need to understand what it
really means to praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And
all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Forget not all His benefits. He has blessed us with everything. What do we have? We have not
received. Now, if we received it, how could
anybody glory as if they had not received it. That's what
it means to bless the Lord, because God has blessed us. Everything
we have is a blessing from the Lord. Oh, how the Lord has blessed
us, male and female, all of us, all the sons of Adam. His tender
mercy over all His works. I was feeling particularly
down A day or so ago, downcast, depressed, and all that, and
my wife, my Noah's wife, reminded me. She said, oh, we're so blessed. We're so blessed. In spite of
this or that, we're so blessed. And I started thinking about
that, and I thought, that's so true. I don't have anything to
be depressed about. Barnard used to say, anything
this side of hell is mercy. We ought to be glad. Bless the
Lord. Read on. It says, In the likeness
of God made he him, male and female, created he then. How
beautiful, how glorious, how upright was Adam and Eve. Were Adam and Eve. Beautiful. Brilliant. Glorious, upright,
kind, loving, smart. What a terrible, terrible fall
he took. Now look at us. Go into a nursing home. I don't
know when the last time you've been in a nursing home, but go
there and see how far man has fallen. Created upright, brilliant,
meant to live forever. But now, what a fallen creature,
what a terrible fall. His image, God's image was marred
terribly. And I could not help but think,
in light of this, in Isaiah 52, I think it's verse 14, says,
His image, His visage was marred more than the sons of men. And
His form more than the sons of men. More than any man. His form
more than the sons of men. I couldn't help but think of
that in light of these verses. That Christ came down here, made
sin for us. There was no sin. So He had to
be marred. His image had to be marred. The Holy Son of God had to be
marred more than any man. More than the sons of men. But
the second Adam, Christ, He took away this marred image and is
giving us a new image. He bore our griefs and carried
our sorrows, wounded for our transgression, bruised for our
iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him with His stripes. We are healed. Go with me to
1 Corinthians 15. We're going to look at this at
the end of the message. We might not have time, so we're going
to make time. 1 Corinthians 15. We sing that song, and I almost
sang it tonight, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Who says we can't
sing it in September? We should. It says, from above. Reinstate us in thy love. Adam's image now efface, that
is, take away. Stamp thine image in its place. He will. He is. You know, we're
being predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look here at 1 Corinthians 15,
it says in verse 45, ìThe first man, Adam, was made a living
soul. The second, the last, Adam, a quickening spirit.î Verse 47,
ìThe first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the
Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. As is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.î Now
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment. And the twinkling of an eye at
the last trump, the trump shall sound. And the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. This corruptible must put on
incorruption. This mortal put on immortality,
and when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the same that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but
thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ." I had to get to that and read that. Had to quickly,
quickly. Adam, it says, begat a son in
his likeness, in his image. Go back to the text. Seth was
his name. Our sons and our daughters clearly
looked like us physically. Most of them anyway. Firstborn
son usually really looks like the father or the mother. And that's fine, but sadly, Sadly,
they act like us. Sadly, they have inherited our
nature. That's what's bad. That's the
image that we've inherited from Adam and Eve. The Adamic nature. By one man's sin entered into
the world. And sin makes you ugly. Sin has
made man ugly. Death by sin. And so death passed
upon all men, for all that all have sinned. Sin and death have
left their ugly scars and marked upon us. And as we sung that song, I quoted
it. Oh, second Adam from above. Remove
that ugly image and stamp your image. May I be conformed to
the image of Christ. Seth, his name means appointed. Doesn't it? Appointed. Eve is
the one, unknowingly, that gave him this name. She said that
up in verse 25. Adam knew his wife Eve. She bare
a son and called his name. Or Adam did. No, Eve did. Seth. For she said, God hath appointed
me another seed instead of Abel. Well, unwittingly, unknowingly,
she made a prophecy there. Appointed. Rightly named. All
of Adam's sons are appointed. Look at Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Everything about us is appointed
by God. Predestined. Predetermined. Now, man, in order to deny God,
calls it a fancy term. DNA. That's what man has finally
come up with. This is what makes us what we
are, DNA. They don't know why it's there
or how it could be so precise and so perfect and so meticulous
and so just marvelously put together, this DNA. But we do, like David. Remember David said, I have more
understanding than my teachers. Now, I do too. I'm a science
teacher. Don't you? Because, he said, I've meditated,
by precepts, I've meditated. That's how we have more understanding.
God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world. DNA, I'll tell
you what it is, why we are where we are. Geodate. Look at Psalm
139, verse 16. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, And in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of
them." Very hairs of your head, the
number. In thy book. Did you notice that? Thy book. God has a book. We're going to
look at that in a minute. Job 14. Go over there. Back there. Job 14. The oldest book. Recorded is Job, we think. But
in Job 14, he tells us something that is appointed. An appointment. Job 14, 5. Seeing
his days are determined, the number of his months are with
whom? God. Thou, God, hast appointed. His bounds, it cannot pass. Is that fatalism? No. It's Bible. It's truth. It's God's Word. Appointed. It's
appointed. And the man wants to die. And after that, the judgment.
Sons of Adam, everything about them, like Seth, are appointed. And I'm glad. Aren't you? I'm glad. Go back to our text
now. The year, as we read there, the year, the month, the day,
the hour, the means of our death has been appointed by God. That
ought to give us peace. That ought to give us comfort.
You know, some of us, when you fill out a medical questionnaire,
what do they ask you? About your family. Has anybody
in your family had cancer? Well, I tell them, yeah, about
everybody, my campaign. It's getting that way anymore,
isn't it? So I need to worry about cancer, don't I? No, I
don't. No, I don't. No, I don't. I mean, if that's the means,
then God ordained it, didn't He? You know, this is what gives... don't fear their fear. Didn't
he say that? Don't fear their fear. Do you
remember that? Let's start doing this, start doing that, because
we could get cancer. Let's do this. There are many preventatives
for cancer out there. If we trust in any of those things,
we probably will get cancer. Trust in the Lord. And if we
get it, he said it, he said, I wound. My sister didn't die
from cancer. God killed her. Your mother didn't. God killed her. Right? That's
our comfort. That's our peace. The world doesn't
like that. We do. It's appointed. The means are appointed. Sister
Bonnie, got it? You didn't die from it yet. Yes.
My parents got it. They didn't die from it. Right?
It wasn't God's purpose at that time anyway. Did you beat it? Don't you detest that? Don't
you hate hearing people say that? Doesn't it make you mad, Hannah,
when you hear people say that? So-and-so beat cancer. Rather than give God the glory. And that makes the ones who didn't
look weak, doesn't it? I detest that. Imagine how God
despises that. Well, look at our text here.
It says in verse 5, Adam lived 930 years and he died. Verse
8, Seth lived 912 and he died. Verse 14, Canaan lived 910 years
and he died. And for the sake of time, I won't
read the rest. But every one of them except Enoch. And we'll
see in a minute about him. Die. Right? See, in Adam, all die. No. All die. No matter how many years it is,
God appointed them. Didn't He? Everyone in Adam died. Alright, now look at Revelation
20. The book of Revelation. We're looking at the first book.
Let's look at the last. And He who is the first and last
wrote them. It's one book. Revelation 20.
Go over here. Now that's the book of Adam.
In Adam all die. The last book in God's book speaks
of a book. Revelation 20, look at verse
12. Books and a book. Revelation 12. I'm sorry, 20. Revelation 20, verse 12. John
said, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and
the books were open. The books. Read on down, it says,
the dead were judged out of those things written in the books according
to their works. Verse 13, the sea gave up the
dead that were in it. Death and hell delivered up the
dead. Everybody that had died, everybody that ever lived or
died, were judged, every man, according to their works. All
those works. Everything was written in the
books. The books. And I believe this is symbolic. Because God doesn't need things
written down, recorded to remember or whatever. But the point being
that the omniscient God, everything is known. Every thought, every
word, every deed. Right? If there were books, if
this is literal, you know how many books there must be. of
every person that's ever lived. And it says they will be judged
according to their works. Their works. Their works are
written in those books. Alright? All stood before God
to be judged. Every single man according to
their work. Do you see how dangerous it is
to be under the law of God? Do you see how deadly it is to
try to be saved by our works? In verse 15, it says, Whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire. There's another book. Look at verse 12. It says, The
dead, small and great, the books were opened, and another book
was opened. One book, which is the book of
life. And it's called throughout the
Revelation, The Lamb's Book of Life. In Christ. Everybody in Christ's family
tree. And we looked at that in Matthew
1. But in Adam, all die. And everyone who is found in
Adam and who wants to be judged by their works will be. God at the point of the day,
Peter preached. Paul preached, in which he will
judge every man in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
according to his works. Do your works measure up to the
Son of God? They must. Perfectly. Psalm 24. Who shall ascend unto the holy
hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands, pure heart, never
lift up his soul unto vanity, or swore deceitfully. Who can
say that? One man walked this planet and
said, I can. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book that is written of me. Second Adam, here I am. To do
thy will, O God. And he did. And God said, I am
well pleased for his righteousness sake. Now God in mercy says,
now who wants to be found in him? Who wants to be judged by your
works? Stand over here, on the left
hand. who wants to be hidden, be found in him. This is why
Paul said that, oh, that I might win Christ to be found in him,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law. I don't
want to be, because I'm going to be cast into the fire. But
if I'm found in him, I won't be cast into the fire. Why? Because
he already was. Like Sadrach, Hananiah, Mashiach,
and Azariah. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
they came out with no smoke on them because the fourth man stayed
in. The Lamb's Book of Life. I want
to be found in the Lamb's Book of Life, don't you? Not in Adam,
not in myself, in the Lamb's Book of Life. And, oh my, I've
got to go back to the text now. There's some wonderful, wonderful
truths here I want you to see with me. I saw them for the first
time. Adam is mentioned, and then Seth. And it says up there in chapter
4, verse 26. Remember this? Seth was born
to him and another son, Enos. And then began men to call upon
the name of the Lord. Adam and then Seth. Well, Adam
had many sons and daughters, didn't he? says something. It only mentions one, Seth. Seth was the appointed one. And all the seed came out of
Seth. These are not Cain's seed now,
this is Seth's seed. These are the ones who began
to call on the name of the Lord. Not like Cain. Remember I told
you about Cain's seed? Cain's posterity? I told you all about them. Oh,
they were brilliant, weren't they? They were mighty men. They
were artisans. They were craftsmen and all that, but they didn't say
any of that stuff at all. But here now is Seth. His seed. They're calling on the Lord. Enoch. Greg, Greg,
Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg,
Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg,
Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg,
Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg,
Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg,
Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, And it doesn't say anything about their
occupations. It doesn't mention one earthly
thing about one of Seth's sons, about who they are, what they
obtained, what they knew, and what they could do, and what
they owned, and all that. Nothing. It doesn't matter, does
it? What matters? That they're in
the chosen seed. That they're in the right book.
God hath a remnant, according to the election of grace, chosen
where? In Christ. Right? Seth is a good
picture of Christ, John. He's the appointed one, the anointed
one. And he hath predestinated us
to be conformed to his image. He hath chosen us in Christ for
the foundation of the world. No other name may be mentioned. No other name need be mentioned
but Christ. Are you in Christ? Adam had many
sons, but nobody mentioned but Seth. He had thousands. God knows them all. God knows
them all. The Lord knoweth them that are
here. But only one son need be mentioned by God. And so it is. In Adam, in Christ. The Beloved
Son. This is my Son. I want to be
found in Him. All right? More wonder and glory
here. There were six successive sons. Seth, Enos, Cainan, Ahaliel,
Jared, Methuselah all died. Six sons all died. The seventh didn't die. Seven a lucky number? No, it's not. It's God's number. God's the one that came up with
the number seven. In fact, He came up, He numbered everything.
Numbers. It's all, nothing without significance. The number seven throughout the
scripture has always meant perfection. All right, what's the seventh
day? Sabbath. God hallowed the seventh day.
Rest. All right. Who's our Sabbath? Christ. So He is, as it were, the seventh
son. Six successive sons. Six generations
of Adam. Six thousand years go by on the
seventh jubilee. We're all going in. That's what Paul wrote there
in 1 Corinthians 50. We shall not all sleep. Christ
said, I'm going to be here when Christ comes. And it's real soon.
Real soon. The perfect one is coming to
receive his children unto himself. That's glorious, isn't it? And
you know, this whole book ends, look how the whole book ends.
In verse 29, the last son mentioned in this book is a fellow named
Noah. Now, what's the name Noah mean?
His father thought Noah was a good name. And he said, we'll call
his name Noah, honey. That's a good name. Why? What
does it mean? Rest. Comfort. And of all things, Stan, have
you ever seen this? I hadn't either. I hadn't even
noticed it. But he said, because he's going to comfort us concerning
the work, the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the
Lord cursed. Lamech, what are you talking
about? I know what he's talking about. He's talking about Christ. The cursed earth. The cursed
ground. As in the days of Noah. So shall
the coming of the Son of Man be. Rest. He's coming to give
us eternal rest because of this curse that we're under. Let's call His name Sabbath.
Call His name Rest. Noah. That's why. My, my. Nothing is all ordered in this. And sure, God's Word. This is
God's Word, without a doubt. In closing, here are a few lessons
that we need to glean from this whole chapter. You know, we're
not purposely trying to make this short and to the point,
point you to Christ. But there's so much more here. And we're going to look, Lord
willing, Sunday at Enoch. It's going to save that by itself. But some things to consider here
in light of all living. No matter how long we live, we're
going to die. What if you thought you would live 969 years? Can you imagine? Men today would love to live
that long. We don't, do we? We don't want
to live that long. But if you'd have asked Methuselah,
when he was 968, he would have said, will the time come? Yes, he would have. He'd like
a vapor. He'd say, I feel like I ought to be 118. Where'd the time go? It's still
a vapor. A day is as a thousand years. Significantly. Adam lived 930.
How many do we get? Seventy. Do the math. Number
your days. That's a thousand years if you
didn't do the math. One day. Number your days. Number your
days. And it's a good thing we don't
know how long we have, isn't it? It's a good thing. We're supposed to be as men waiting
on our Lord. Be you ready at a time you think
not. If we knew the day or the hour like we do everything else,
we'd procrastinate with it. We'd put it off at a more convenient
time. I have all this time. Now, it's
not for us to know our time or the time of our Lord's coming.
Here's another thing to consider. Like Seth and the others, and
I've already said this, but what we accumulate, what we attain
in this life is irrelevant. It really is. Who I am doesn't
matter, but whose I am, that's what matters. What I own doesn't
matter, but who owns me? Am I bought with a price? What
I do is of no eternal significance really. But what has been done
for me? By the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
that determines my eternal state in the pulpit. And here's another
thing. Time is short. Seventy years.
If you'd have told Methuselah, you only got seventy more years.
Oh, no. That would have been to him,
John, like two weeks. Seventy years. You know, we're
all creatures of time, don't we? We think, you know, I'm 56.
I've got 14 more years, maybe. Well, in a few weeks, I'll be
57. 13. Countdown. 13 years. Get a lot done in 13. 13 years. That's nothing. Isn't it? But we think that way, don't
we? I just have 10 more years. So what should we do? We read
that in Psalm 90, didn't we? Oh, we ought to apply our hearts
to wisdom. Consider the latter end. We ought to redeem the time. What's the best use of our time?
Right here. Just right here. You could not
spend time more wisely. Right here. rehearsal as it were. Not a play
time, but the people did rehearse the things that God had done
for them. They met together and they rehearsed and they went
back over and remembered. And that's what we do. We're
getting together to remember all the way that our Lord has
led us, what all He's done for us, where we're going, and it's
right soon. To remember and not forget. This is time well spent. We're
away from this, we forget these things. Wise, oh that they were wise
to consider our latter end, wise to consider the brevity of time,
wise to consider eternity. Man goes to his long home from
which there is no return. And wise to ask this question,
is my name written? in the Lamb's book of life. Can you know? How can you know? Can you know? Yes, you can know. John said, these things are written
that you might know that you have eternal life. How do you
know? This is the record God wrote
in His book. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. There you go. So give diligence
to make that call in election year. Is my name written there? Alright, stand with me.