I'm bound for the promised land,
I'm bound for the promised land. Who will come and go with me? I'm bound for the promised land. I love that hymn. I think of
somebody like Caleb standing on the other side. There's the
River Jordan. They haven't crossed over yet.
The Lord's going to part it like the Red Sea. He's standing there
wishing, with wishful eye, wanting to go over that promised land.
And he did. Okay, go back to Genesis 4 with
me. Genesis 4, this very last verse
especially caught my eye. Genesis 4, look at verses 25
and 26. Adam knew his wife again, and
she bare a son. called his name Seth, or appointed. For God, says she, hath appointed
me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth,
to him also was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then
began men to call upon the name of the Lord." I almost passed
over this in a hurry to get to chapter 5, the story of Enoch,
which is one of my favorites. And then chapter 6, Noah, and
on and on. But there's so much to be seen
here. And I always think of what Paul
said in Romans 15. He said, What things were written
aforetime? Meaning the Old Testament, everything
that's written Those things were written for our learning. We
can learn from them. We don't know anything, as we
ought to know. And he said that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. We're going
to see in this story how Adam and Eve waited a long time for
some hope, for some comfort. They finally got it. But it said,
then, after so long a period of time, then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord. At this time, the world was filling
up with inhabitants. It was becoming populated. Cities were being built, as we
read. Chapter 5, the whole chapter
practically is dealing with how men had sons and daughters, lived
so long and had sons and daughters, began to populate the earth.
In chapter 6, verse 1, look at that. It says men began to multiply
on the face of the earth. There have been some men who
have done the math down through the years and have concluded
that Adam and Eve, just that one couple, could have had as
many as one million descendants. If she bore children for seven
or eight hundred years, and it could have had twins, triplets,
quadruplets, quintuplets, they were fruitful. And then her children
had, and those children, and it just began to fill up And
that's when the Lord, in chapter 6, said that the whole earth
is corrupt. As man began to populate the
earth, the wickedness, it says in chapter 6, verse 5, God saw
the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Man is widespread. And I read all this, and the
relevance of all this is Well, you know what the relevance is.
Now, this earth is becoming overpopulated now, too, isn't it? And never
has wickedness been so widespread. And I said one time a few weeks
back, the reason I believe we're in the very last of the last
day is for this reason. As in the days of Noah, because
God said He looked down and the whole earth The whole earth,
not just one part of it, but the whole earth was corrupt and
full of violence. That's why I believe that we're
in the very last of the last days. The Lord said that, as
in the days of Noah. So wickedness began to spread
quickly in the beginning. It began to spread quickly. And it was full. The world began
to be full of wickedness. perversion. This is proof of
how depraved man is, how quickly wickedness spread everywhere. But God, in the midst of this
crooked and perverse generation, God had a people. He always has. a remnant according to the election
of grace. They were descendants of Seth. It started with him, and that's
what caught my eye. It says, then men began to call
on the Lord. Now, let's look at Cain's world,
because it looks much like our own. Cain's world looks like
the world we live in. Verse 16, it said that Cain went
out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of
Nod on the east of Eden. He went out from the presence
of the Lord. Now, how can you go out from
the presence of the Lord? God's everywhere. Didn't David
say in Psalm 139, Whither shall I flee from thy presence? I send
in the hell you're there, and the heaven thou art there, the
uttermost parts of it. How can you go out of God's presence?
You can't. In Him, we live and move and
have our meal. The God in whose hands our breath
is and all our ways, Scripture said. Cain, though, what this
means is Cain went from the place where God was worshipped at the
time. Cain left the people of God.
Who was that? Well, we know for a fact that
Adam and Eve were. And Abel was until Cain flew
him, because he hated the truth. Our Lord said where two or three
are gathered. This is a fact. Where two or
three are gathered, there am I in the midst. That's where
I dwell. I thought of scriptures over in Deuteronomy. Well, let me read it to you.
It says there's a place the Lord your God shall choose out of
all your tribes to put his name there. That's his habitation. He said, that's where you need
to seek, and that's where you need to come. He said, bring
your tithes, your burnt offering, your sacrifices, your eve offering. There you shall eat before the
Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all you put your hand
to. You and your household. There's a place, he said. And
he said that from Deuteronomy 12, over 17 and following. places where people gather in
His name that He calls His habitation. Remember last Wednesday? Have
them make me a sanctuary. I'm going to dwell there. There's
a place that God has here and there. And one of the
prophets, I think it was Isaiah, said, like the scattering of
corn on a mountaintop. where God has put His name, put
His honor, put His glory, where God has said, I'll be there.
And as I said, Adam and Eve were. Adam and Eve didn't go far from
Eden. They didn't go far. Where are
they going to go? They were driven out of the garden,
but they didn't want to get too far from the Lord, did they? No, no. So Adam and Eve were
there. Later, I thought about Lot. Later,
remember Lot? He was with Abraham, wasn't he?
Abraham's the father of the faithful. Abraham came to Canaan. That's
fair Canaan. We just sang about it. Canaan. And that's where the people of
God were going to live from then on. Abraham was the father. When
God said, lift up your eyes, Abraham. I'm going to give you
all this. Canaan. Fair Canaan. That's your land and your people.
And he came to this place called Bethel. Bethel. House of God. You see, he built
an altar there, and he worshipped God and said God was with him.
And that's where he was. And Lot was with him too. But not. They had too much stuff,
remember? They had so much stuff. And more
people leave the gospel over stuff than they do anything else. They had to strive because all
their possessions. And Lot looked up. Oh, look at
Sodom. I want to live there. But Lot,
there's no gospel down there. There's no righteous people down
there, Lot. There's no gospel down there. People aren't meeting
down there, Lot. Oh, but that will be alright.
I'll find a church somewhere. Oh no, you won't. And he left. Did he leave the presence of
the Lord? The Lord never left him, thankfully.
But he did, didn't he? He left where God's people were.
So this is what Cain did. Thank God, though. Lot is an
example of God's fetching grace, isn't it? He even lingered in
the end, didn't he? But the Lord being merciful.
That's my salvation in it. Like Lot. And if the Lord hadn't pulled
him back, he'd have perished with Sodom. Well, he let Cain
go. As one of the writers said, from
then on, Cain could call on the Lord. The Lord's not going to
hear him. Not going to hear him. He's going to seek him. He's
not going to find him. He wouldn't, though. He wouldn't. Cain's of
the wicked one. Well, our Lord said he'd be a fugitive and a
vagabond. He dwelt in the land of Nod.
The land of Nod, that means That means a vagrancy. The word nod
means wandering, just like a vagabond. He dwelt in a land of nod, and
all of this is a picture of the world we live in and every man
and woman and young person in this world, wandering around,
looking for something, trying to find something in this world,
and they'll never find it. Our Lord said they'll never have
peace. Never. You go out from the presence
of the Lord. And you're not going to find anything, anything to
satisfy. Look at verse 17. Cain knew his
wife. And let me just address this.
Yes, it was his sister or his niece or something, somebody
related to, had to. All right. So he knew his wife.
And by the way, Did you notice verse 14, where it says, Cain
said, Everyone that finds me shall slay me. Who's he talking
about? Who's Cain talking about? There
were lots of people on earth at that time already. It doesn't
say that Cain and Abel were the very first born children. It
does not say that. And it does not say they were the only ones.
Cain said, Everyone that finds me will slay me. Well, there's
nobody but Adam and Eve. No, not so. That answers that question. The Lord said, don't ask foolish
questions. He told us all we need to know,
didn't He? He told us all we need to know.
Cain knew his wife. She conceived and bare Enoch,
and he built a city and called the name of the city after the
name of his son. Go with me to Psalm 49. Psalm
49. Cain built a city and called
it after the name of his son Enoch. Now, the world was all
that Cain had, and it's all that the world has in it. The world
is all that people have, and so everything they have is wrapped
up in this world. Their posterity, their happiness,
their future. Cain's, we're going to see, his
world was his family, his son, his grandchildren. They were
his life. That's who and what he lived
for. But Scripture says, Preacher says, vanity of vanities, all
flesh is vanity. When the Lord told Isaiah in
chapter 40, he said, cry. Isaiah said, what shall I cry?
He said, all flesh is grass. This is the first thing that
God will teach us. That all of this, the grass withereth
and the flower fadeth. Everything is perishing. Perishing
things of clay, born but for one brief day. Pass from my heart
away. And then he said, cry this, behold
your God. Behold your God. That's the twofold
message of evangelism right there. I'll never forget when he gave
me that outline. Two things. What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and behold your God. Everything perishes,
but he doesn't perish. If you're in him, you won't perish.
But if you're in this world, you'll perish with him. Vanity
of vanities. All flesh is vanity. For the
people of this world, the natural man lives for the world and its
vain glory. I wanted to read this whole psalm.
You read it for yourself in private. Verse 1 says, Hear this, all
ye people, give ear, all inhabitants of the world, low and high, rich
and poor, my mouth shall speak of wisdom, the meditation of
my heart of understanding. Down in verse 6, they that trust
in wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any man's means redeem his brother. You
can't save your soul or your brother's soul with these things.
Verse 8, the redemption of their soul is precious. That eternal
soul, what does redeem the soul? What is the precious thing that
does redeem the soul? You know that you are not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, don't you?
From your vain conversation received by tradition from the elders.
But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot
and without blood. You know that, don't you? How
many people know that? Read on. He said, verse 9, that
he should live forever. And not see corruption, verse
10, he saith that the wise men die, likewise the fool and the
brutish person perish, leave their wealth to others. Their
inward thought is their houses shall continue forever. The average
person actually, if you would ask them, they don't ever plan
on dying. They're hoping somebody's going to find that fountain of
youth, aren't they? Read on. "...and their dwelling places
to all generations. They call their lands after their
own name. Nevertheless, man, being in honor,
abideth not. He is like the beasts that perish."
That's what Job asked in one of the oldest books. He said,
if a man dies, will he live again? Only one way. Only one way. Job said, I know. that my Redeemer lived. See,
Job lost everything when he said that. Job didn't have a thing
when he said that. But he had everything. He knew
his Redeemer lived. He'd lost everything in this
world. But go back to Cain in chapter
4. So this is a chief lesson the Lord teaches all His children,
all fleshes, grass, vanity of vanities. Now look at this. This is interesting. Verse 18.
Enoch was born, and Enoch was born Irid, and Irid begat Methujel,
and Methujel begat Methuselah. No, not Methuselah, Methusel. And Methusel begat Lamech. Now
this, I about passed over this too, but here's a lesson here,
a lesson in names. What's in a name? What's in a family heritage? Anything about blood? Are we
born into the kingdom of God because we're the son of Seth? No. No. Someone asked me, is
this the same Enoch that walked with? No, it's not. Same name.
What about Methuselah? Not the same one. They're very
similar, though, aren't they? Do you notice that? Over in chapter
5, He talks about Enoch. Methuselah begat Lamech, who
was the father of Noah. He tells us here that Methuselah
begat Lamech, and Lamech killed two fellows, and he had two wives. It's not the same man. These
are the sons of Cain. Those over there are the sons
of Seth. But here's the point I want you
to see. Cain's sons had names like that, Enoch and Lamech.
Seth's son had names like Enoch and Lamech. They're all sons
of Adam. And the names we give our children
or are given to us won't save us or damn us, won't bless us
or curse us. We're all born under the curse.
We're all born in sin. We're not born of blood. We must
be born again. We must be born again. We can't
give them names and hope that those names will somehow be good
to them. You can name a fellow John Paul
all you want to. He might be a devil. Right? There
was a Judas Iscariot. Right? Son of perdition. Now the Scriptures talks in another
place, talks about Judas, and it says, not Ascarius. Don't
you know that they gave Judas, Jude, what's the Lord brother,
later on thought, I wish that wasn't my name. I wish it wasn't
my name. Judas. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Why? Because
all of God's children, they do bear a name. That last verse
of our chapter says, Then began men to call upon the name of
the Lord. What does your margin say? They began to call themselves
by the name of the Lord. Let me see if I can make good
on that. I used to always say that. Let's
see if I can make good on that. They began to call themselves
by the name of the Lord. Ecclesiastes 7 says, A good name
is better than precious ointment. Now, the name mayhem, you may
love it, you may not. But some people do, some people
don't. What does it matter? It doesn't. It doesn't matter a bit. There
were some sorry fellas in the Mayhem family, weren't there,
Dad? There were some sorry fellas.
Dad was named from his grandfather. And he told me about him. Henry
Edward. I was named by Edward. He was
a sorry man. He was a drunk and a worthless
husband, wasn't he? That pops Dad. He was a town
drunk. A sheriff and a drunk. He was
worthless. And my grandfather, his dad,
had to take care of all of his eight brothers and sisters because
his father was a worthless drunk. Henry Mayhem was his name. Now, what's in a name? Nothing. Nothing. George Whitfield one time said
this. And our Lord said, Let a man come in his own name, and
him you will receive. George Whitefield one time said,
Let the name of George Whitefield perish from the earth. Let the
name of Jesus Christ be praised. We're all going to bear His name.
We're all the bride of Christ. And that's what these people
began to love to be referred to. Who are you? They came to
John the Baptist and said, Who are you? He said, I'm nothing.
The Lord said he was the greatest man born a woman. He didn't think
so. He loved his dad, didn't he? He loved his mother, Elizabeth.
He loved them. Thankful for being born in that
family. Who are you? Who's your family? That doesn't
matter. They're not born of bloods. They'll be born of God. Hopefully. I believe I'm a son of God. Just
call me. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called sons
of God. As thankful as I am to be born of godly parents, I'm
more thankful that I've been born of God. There's a lesson
in names. A lesson in name. Let me tell you this one last
antidote. Spurgeon one time said, I'm glad
my name is not in the Bible. I'm glad the name Charles Haddon
Spurgeon is not in the Bible, because if it was, I would believe
it was some other Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Have to be. Have you
ever looked up your name on the Internet or something to see
how many people there are with your name? There's a fellow in
prison in Boston who has my name. And Spurgeon said this. He said, I'm glad my name is
not in the Bible because I would have to believe. If it says,
this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
he'd think, he said, I know it's somebody else. It's not me. But since it says sinners, I
know that's me. So our name is in that. This
man received a sinner. Christ came into the world to
save sin. That's me. My name's in the Bible. So much
for names. But God gives these names, there's
a reason for them. We've got to learn something
from them. All things are written for our learning. And we need
to know that. Something about it anyway. It's
not an endless genealogy, but it's a lesson in names. Verse 19, Lamech took two wives,
and the name of one was Adam and Jill at Zillah. Ada, Bear
Jabal, he was the father of them that dwell in tents and cattlemen,
or cattlemen, drovers, dwell in tents because of, you know, pastures moving here and there,
moving their cattle. Verse 21, his brother's name
was Jubal. He was the father of such as
handled the harp and the organ, musicians, cattlemen. musicians,
and it says that Zillah, verse 22, he, Beartubal Cain, instructor
in every artificer in brass and iron. So in other words, the
world was filling up with talented, smart, gifted. Notice everything. Well, everything. What does a
man have he didn't receive? All of them. were gifted by God. The world was being filled with
talented, smart, gifted, ingenious. I think people back then were
much more ingenious and much more intelligent than they are
now. I know they were. I know they were. To do what
they did with the limited tools that they had. In fact, they
were much better engineers and architects and all that than
they are now. Much better. And I admire a great deal of
these things. They were prosperous. They were
intelligent men and women. And as I said, there are times
that I admire some of the ingenuity and the talents and so forth
of men. But here's the point. There's
no mention in here of any man who was wise in the Word of God. There's no mention here of any
man who understood the truth of God and was an instructor
of others in the Word of God. No mention of anybody having
any thought of God whatsoever. But they were smart about everything
else. And here's the point. No matter
how talented or gifted or smart or ingenious the people are in
the things of this world, God said the fool has said there's
no God. And those without God, without
Christ, are fools. Lamech, down in verse 23, bragged
about his prowess over others. He was a fierce man, a warrior
type fellow. Does all this sound familiar?
The world was full. The world was full of talented,
smart, brilliant, you could call them geniuses. Musicians and
artificers and cattlemen and so on and so forth. And fierce
warriors like that. Full of it. Full of it. Now,
we're getting to the meat of it. Hang on a minute. Now it says, verse 25, Adam knew
his wife again. And I don't know the timeline
exactly. Down in chapter 5, verse 3, it
says he was 130 years when he begat Seth, 130 years old. So you see, there were lots of
children born. The Lord only mentions Seth for
this reason. There's no mention of any of
Cain's posterity, his sons or daughters or any of them seeking
the Lord. There's no mention of any of
those other children of Adam and Eve seeking the Lord. Not
one. And again, I thought about no
one. The Lord looked down. None. So few. So few. Well, it says, But Adam knew
his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth. You know, the Lord gave Eve some kind of understanding,
like Noah, Noah's parents. Remember, it says that they saw
that he was a proper child. Remember? Well, John's parents
knew that this son was I believe they were crying unto the Lord.
I believe they were calling on the Lord. Adam and Eve were calling
on the Lord like Zachariah and Elizabeth were calling on the
Lord. Like Noah's parents were calling on the Lord, Lord, please
send us a Savior. Send us some help. And lo and
behold, Adam knew his wife Eve. And I think Eve saw something
special in his child. And she called him appointed.
God has appointed a seed. Oh, what a picture all this is.
What a picture all this is. Now, I want you to think with
me about Adam and Eve at this time. They're both 130 years old, at
least, and they had many children. They had many children. And as
I said, there's no mention that any of those children knew the
Lord. In fact, Cain. and all of his
descendants. Wicked people. They didn't give
God a thought. Adam and Eve did. They loved
the Lord. They knew the Lord. They had
many children. And with many children, you have
many responsibilities and you have many troubles, don't you?
And if they're wayward children, one's hard enough, isn't it?
What about 1,000? What if you don't have any? And you lost in one day. Adam
and Eve came out one day to find their beloved son, who was a
believer, the only one, perhaps, with his brains bashed up, dead. And their son, the other son,
was the one that killed him. And God cast him out. So they've
lost their beloved son, Abel. And God has kicked out Cain with
no hope of mercy. So he's a reprobate. They've
lost their beloved son, and their other son's a reprobate. Now,
how hard would that be? How hard would that be? Our parents lost two children,
but they have hope for the other two. But there was no hope for Cain.
And they lost Abel. And I know they felt alone at
this time. Just Adam and Eve. And Adam knew his wife Eve, and
she had this child named Seth. Now, they watched this world,
Adam and Eve. They watched this world get worse
and worse. How bad has the world gotten
in the last hundred years? Some of you older folks, in your
lifetime, how much has the world changed for the worse in just
70 or 80 years? It's unbelievable, isn't it? Unbelievable. And Adam and Eve
watched this world They went from the Garden of Eden to... And I know what Adam and Eve
were thinking. Their sons and daughters were...
I know what they're thinking. They're blaming themselves, aren't
they? They're blaming themselves. They're
blaming themselves for Cain. Now, to be sure, by one man,
sin had entered into the world, and death by sin. Cain died because
Adam sinned. I mean, Abel died because Adam
sinned. Adam was to blame for sin. But here's the point. Here's
a good point. Get hold of this. Adam was a
covenant head. Adam was the first man. He was
the representative of the human race. He is to blame. He is to
blame. He could shoulder all the blame,
because he's the one that brought it in. That's a heavy burden
to bear, isn't it? The weight of the sin of the
world. The first Adam. Covenant head. God's only dealt
with two men in this world. The first Adam and the second
Adam. Adam and Christ. In Adam all die. By one man's
sin entered into the world, and death passed upon all men. And death by sin. Adam is to
blame. But God. God told him, Adam, I forgive
you. I forgive you. It's the blood. See this lamb? Adam. This is going to be my
Christ that's coming. He's going to take your blame.
Yes, you're to blame, but He's going to take your blame. Now,
get a hold of this, folks. This makes what Christ did all
the more amazing. God blamed Christ for everything. He didn't have a thing to do
with it. The sin. He blamed Him. God laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. Have you ever been blamed for
something you didn't do? It's the hardest thing you'll
ever have to go through. But Christ did that willingly. He took all the blame. Blame
me. When He went before all His accusers
and they were hurling all these accusations that thoroughly repulsed
His holy nature, all these accusations of blasphemy and all that, He
said He didn't speak. It's the hardest thing for us to do, not
to defend ourselves. Paul says, suffer yourselves
to be abused. Just allow it. Go ahead. Because
Christ did. It is hard. But the Lord did
it. He took it. And then, what's
harder than that? Impossible. It's to give everybody
the credit for something you did. That you worked hard all
your life and earned something, and make it appear that somebody
else did it. Who can do that? Huh? Christ did that. He did that. For He, God, hath made Him to
be sin for us. Who knew no sin? that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Give them the credit
for my good. Give me the blame for their evil.
My, my, my. So we haven't shouldered any
blame. And here, you know, God didn't blame Adam for Cain's
sin, though. He didn't. Cain was to blame
for his own sin. God doesn't blame us for our
children's sin. No, sir. We take the blame. We
blame ourselves, but God doesn't charge us with their sins. No, he doesn't. You can forget
that. You can forget that. God deals
with every single person, individual, according to their sin. He said
that. I didn't write it down. Ask me later and I'll show it
to you. But here's the fact of the matter. God didn't blame Adam for Cain's
sin any more than he gave them credit for Abel's righteousness.
Do they get credit for Abel's righteousness? No. God does. God does. And here's the point.
You and I can do all we can do from God's Word in teaching and
raising our children. And we could have a boatload
of them, a hundred children, and we could do everything that
we know to do from God's Word, train them up in the way that
they should go. But unless God has mercy on them,
unless God makes them to differ, unless God makes them like Abel
and doesn't leave them alone like Cain, it's not up to us. It's not up to us. Do what you will. Do what you
can. Train your children like Abraham, the Lord said of Abraham.
But Ishmael turned out bad, didn't he? Alright, a hundred years
have passed after the Garden. Adam and Eve are watching this
world become more and more corrupt. And I'm going to quit. And their
own children. And they have this boy named
Seth, and they have a grandson. And in the midst of great sorrow,
the Lord gave them great joy, didn't it? God said that. He said, I won't give you more
than you're able to bear, but will, with the temptation of
the trial, make a way that you might escape. They had this son. I couldn't
help but think of Isaiah 53, where it says, He shall see his
seed. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his name. Seed. Christ. Seth. Christ came from
Seth. He is the appointed one. He is. God has a remnant. But Adam and
Eve had this boy named Seth, and they watched this world grow
progressively worse, and they started worrying about this boy. Like you did. You know, when Hannah was just
a baby, and we started thinking about sending her out into the
world, and send her to public schools. And we thought, man,
oh man, it looked like to protect her. We'll send her to a private
school. Did that ever enter your mind? Some of you did. If you try to protect them, you
want to do that. We found out that wasn't the
way to go. But you do think that, oh, I don't want to send them
out there. And as this world gets worse and worse and worse
and worse, what are you thinking? Oh my, I'm going to keep them
at home as long as I can. And they began to worry about
this son, or maybe the grandson, and they grieved and they worried
and they freighted over the future for Seth, didn't they? Like we
do. Real people with real children
they worry about. And they met together for worship.
That's all they could do in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation. There were two, maybe three that
met together for worship. Adam preached. His congregation
was two. Faithfully preached. I told the
folks that Sunday, I said, I mean this. I told them that story
about that fellow that called you that time and said, You have
to have come preach for us. You remember that? A fellow called Dad on the phone
and said, How many do you have to have to come to preach for
us? That little country church in West Virginia. Thinking that
Dad was some celebrated preacher and needed a house full. Dad
said, Need two. You to listen, need to preach.
So Adam prepared a message. It's his house. Is it important?
Is his wife important? Is Seth important? So he prepared, and they met
together, and one day Adam's out in the field. Adam's out
in the field working, plowing or something. Seth's, I don't
know how old he would be, but he comes walking out. He said, Man, I believe the Lord has revealed
Himself to me. I've been listening to what you've
been saying. And I believe the Lord has revealed Himself to
me. This happened, Margaret. There was a day when that boy
came and said, I believe the Lord has revealed Himself to
me. I've called on Him. I've sought Him. I believe He's
revealed Himself to me. Then began men to call upon faith
in the name of the Lord. What do you reckon Adam did? Eve! What do you think Eve thought? Oh no, what's happened to Seth? She came running out. Is Seth
ok? Is he ok? Ask him. Ask him. Never been better. You see, it
doesn't say anything about what Seth was. He didn't know a thing
about tooting a horn. He didn't know a thing about
cattle. He couldn't make a piece of brass if he had to. He didn't
say anything about that. But he called on the name of
the Lord. He was a son of God. I love what John said. John said
to the elect lady, he said this, he said, oh I love you. Second, John said, Elder, unto
the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, not
I only, but also all they that have known the truth, for the
truth's sake. He said, I rejoice greatly, I found of thy children
walking in the truth. I heard that the children began
to call on the name of the Lord. I heard that the children confessed
Christ. See, God has a remnant according
to the election of grace. in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation. He always had. The world back
then of Adam and Eve was full of corruption. And in the midst of that corrupt
world, there was a remnant who called on the name of the Lord.
How do you know they're God's people? Steve and I rejoiced
when you read 2 Peter for many reasons. But when you read that
scripture that says, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure, I had that written down to quote that. Because how you
know you're one of God's elect is by your call. Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. We know, brethren, beloved Lord,
you're the elect because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, belief of the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel. We know you're elect
because our gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power.
Called you by the gospel. Now, how do you know you've been
called by the gospel? How do you know somebody's really been
called? They start calling. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. And call and call and keep calling,
never quit calling. That's how you know. And Christ
never quits calling. Come! And they never quit coming.
And they never quit calling. Well, they call. Lord, save us. Call on the name
of the Lord. Lord, save us so we're buried.
Lord, have mercy upon us, us sinners. Lord, save us all. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord, that's who the Lord's called. That's His elect. That's the remnant. That's how
you know. And the gospel ever quits calling
you, you'll quit calling. It happens the same time. But
then began men to call on the name of the Lord. Look at this. It's not a very
big crowd, is it? I think it's pretty big compared
to Adam's. It's more than Noah had. How
important was the crowd that Noah had? Noah thought, God sure has been
merciful All of us. They were all his family. Everyone
of his family. My, my, my. So this call and
this calling is what a blessing. That was more than a little side
note, wasn't it? Okay, stand with me.