All right, if you wish to follow
along, we're back in Genesis again, Genesis chapter five.
Genesis chapter five. Most of you probably know this,
maybe not all of you, but several years ago, we were given a cassette tape
of a Jewish gentleman, and he preached on this subject. And I thought about it for years,
I've actually preached on this subject, I think, maybe in North
Carolina and also up at Millsite. And several of you have already
heard my subject, but I've never preached it here, so I want to
preach it here, especially since we've been in Genesis for several
weeks now. Genesis chapter five, and I'll
just read a few verses. I'm not gonna read the whole
chapter. Genesis chapter five. This is the book of the generations
of Adam. In the day that God created man,
in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created
he them, and blessed them, and called their name, you see it? And called their name Adam. The
male and the female both were called Adam. In the day when
they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and
begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his
name Seth. So you have Adam, you have Seth.
Verse six, and Seth lived 105 years. That's a long time. Far longer than God later promised. I shouldn't say promised, God
declared that a man at 70, what is it, three score and 10. And Seth lived 105 years and
beget Enos. So you have Adam, Seth, Enos. Verse nine, and Enos lived 90
years and beget Cainan. Verse 12, and Cainan lived 70
years and beget Mahalaleel. Verse 15, and Mahalaleel lived
65 years and beget Jared. Verse 18, and Jared lived a hundred,
sixty, and two years, and begat Enoch. Verse 21, and Enoch lived
sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah. Verse 25, and Methuselah
lived a hundred, eighty, and seven years, and begat Lamech. Verse 28, and Lamech lived a
hundred, eight, and two years, and begat a son. and he called
his name Noah, saying, this same shall comfort us concerning our
work and toll of our hands because of the ground which the Lord
hath cursed. You all are certainly aware of
this. If anyone happens to, by God's sovereign providence, to
hear this message in another venue, in another way, I say
this mainly for you, but it's needful for all of us to be reminded
of it. Scripture is full of important names and meanings. Now I'm not saying that what
I'm going to do here this morning is true of every genealogical
record in the scripture. It's not. But there's a sentence
here in the meanings of these names. We know the importance of names.
something like high father or lofty father. And then God changed
his name to Abraham, which means lofty or high father of a multitude. And for us Gentiles, we ought
to rejoice in God for that. We know the word Isaac, it means
laughter. Laughter. Jacob means surplanter. You know of the word, the word,
is used sometimes in Scripture for God. Jehovah-Jireh, these
have specific meanings. They're not different gods. But
they are different aspects or characteristics or attributes
of God. And that's why these different
names are given. Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Nisi, Jehovah-Shalom,
which means God is our peace. And I will say this, most importantly
is the name Jesus Christ. or we might say Christ Jesus. That is Messiah, the anointed
one, our savior. Not he wants to be anyone's savior. He is the savior. We read that
in Matthew chapter one, thou shalt call his name Jesus, because
his name has meaning. for he shall save his people
from their sins. Belief is believing he either
did that or he did not. He didn't come to make it possible
that anyone be saved, he come to save his people from their
sins. The meanings of these pre-flood
names have a vital message. And the message that the meanings
of these names give is the message of this whole book. From Genesis chapter one, all
the way through the Old Testament, all the way through the New Testament
to the last verses of Revelation chapter 22. There is one message
in this book. And we see this message in these
anti-Diluvian names, not anti-Diluvian, anti-Diluvian names. That's the title, those anti-Diluvian
names. So let's look at them. They form
a sentence. And God called their name, and remember that. I know
there are those who, our society is so individualistic. And The equality of the races
and the equality of males and females is a big thing in our
society. And I'm not here to preach for
or against that. I'm just making a statement. When God Almighty
originally created man, he created man, male and female. And he
called their name man. Anyone who doesn't like that
doesn't know God. because I want to be called by
my head's name. I, as a part of the bride of
Christ, I want his name on me. And called their name, God says,
Adam. The word Adam means, of course
it could be several different things, but it means to show
blood in the face. to blush, we might say. And you
think about that. There is no other creature on
the face of God's green earth, and no scientist nor anyone else
will be able to ever prove it different. Blushing, that is
to show blood in the face, is a uniquely human trait. Right? It's a uniquely human
trait. The word can be translated, that
is, the word Adam can be translated man. Man, that's the first word
of the sentence, man. And remember, man was the crowning glory of God's sixth
day creation, male and female, not just male, but male and female,
and he made them to be one flesh. He called their name Adam. Adam said, she's woman, for she's
taken out of me. God called their name man. There are those in our day that
get upset when preachers preach and we always talk about man,
if a man, if a man. And they say we ought to be more
considerate of people. Well let me tell you something,
man fail. Man fail, male and female. Man fell, male and female,
together when the man sinned. When the man sinned. And now man, in and of himself,
male and female, has no crowning glory. None. When the scripture says, honor
the king, it's talking simply about giving respect, not to
men, but to God's ordained order. That's what it's about. You honor
the king, why does God put that king there? Not because that
king's some great crown thing. You see, all of this book is
about the truth of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
And the crowning glory, as far as Jesus Christ is concerned,
when it comes to the Father, was he submitted himself to the
Father's will. So the first word is man. Second,
it says, and called his name, that is, Adam called his son's
name Seth. Seth. Seth, this is what your
name means. It means the root word of it,
and if you go to your concordance, you'll find it, but you gotta
go look at the root words too, not just the word itself, not
just Seth or Adam or whatever. The root word means to place
or to appoint or to substitute. And it's actually, the definition
of the name is actually given, it's given by Eve, if you look
at it, in chapter four, she said these words. And Adam knew his
wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth. For
God, said she, hath appointed me, you see, there it is, another
seed, There's the substitute. Someone in the place of another.
Another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. This is amazing. Because this
gives us absolute, absolute revelation from God's word. that Eve was
looking for that promised seed. Because she didn't, she called
his name Seth, which means to place or appoint or substitute. But she said, she didn't say
God gave me another man, though that was true. And her words
was, God hath given me another seed. That seed, what is that
seed? It's the seed of the Messiah,
the promised one that God had just told them about would come
and crush the serpent's head. I have reason to think even this,
she may have thought Seth, or not Seth, I'm sorry, Abel was
him. But turned out she knew better.
But when she got this other man, because remember the seed is
called a he, Correct? When he is come, he will crush
the serpent's head. And she said, God hasn't forsaken
his promise. Huh? Had another male never been
born, we would have all went to hell. Do you hear what I'm
saying? That's what I'm saying. So far
then our sentence is this, man appointed substitute. Thirdly,
and Seth lived and beget Enos. Enos. Now, oftentimes in scripture
we know this. Oftentimes parents would name
a child because of some experience the woman may have had in pregnancy.
Oftentimes they may name a child because of some experience after
the birth. Sometimes they may name a child
in hope or expectation of the truth and promise of God. But
think about this. Seth lived in begat enos, which
means feeble or frail. If you look at some of the word,
looking at all of its roots, you can see it can be translated
this way, mortal. Mortal. Mortal means this simply,
subject to death. We live in mortal bodies. And
these bodies, apart from the return of the Lord Jesus Christ
first, every one of our bodies will go back to where it came.
And you and I cannot, I said we cannot escape that. People say, well, we found mummified
mummies, thousands of years old. Yeah, but even they didn't have
their inward parts. They had to jerk those out and put them in
canisters because they knew you can't preserve even if they were
only preserving bone and meat. And it's nothing but a dried
up husk Mason. It still went back to the dust,
still went back to the dust. Now, as with Seth Enos has a
extra gleaning. There's three of them, actually.
Seth, Enos, and Enoch. One of three. Look at chapter
four, verse 26. And to Seth, to him also there
was born a son. Now, these two, verse 25 and
26, are given us even before the genealogy is spelled out. And to Seth, to him also there
was born a son. And he called his name Enos.
And this is an astounding statement. Then began men to call upon the
name of the Lord. We can say it this way, then
and then only, because that's the inference of the word. Think
about this. Then began men to what? Call
upon the name of the Lord. Let us not fall into the trap
of thinking these Old Testament men and women who believed God,
all they did was offer a few animal sacrifices, said a few
prayers, and then went out about their everyday life not really
knowing who God is. These people were passing the truth of God
on, who God is, what he's done, he's the creator, he's the sovereign,
he's the one who promised us redemption through the seed that
was to come, and he, they're passing this on, and all of a
sudden they begin to, what? Call on the name of the Lord. And you remember what Paul said,
and this is a truth that is true from the first man that ever
lived, Adam? to the last man that will ever live. You cannot
call on one. You cannot call on one that you
don't know. You can't. You can't believe in someone
you've never been informed about. The gospel must be preached. And it was preached even before
there was the written word of God. And there were faithful
men and women passing this on to their offspring. Why? Because this is their only hope. I mean, I can just imagine some
of these people, they lived a long time, they were around one another.
And I can just about, I can only imagine, Joe, Adam and Eve recalling
the garden. But here's another one. begin
men to call on the name of the Lord. I've got to, not so much qualify,
but listen to everything I've got to say here. It's only when
men and women are revealed their mortality before God that they
will ever call upon the name of the Lord. Only then Only then,
because our physical mortality is proof of our spiritual death. The reason we physically die
is because we spiritually died in Adam in the garden. And no man or woman ever truly,
you can repeat his name, but we're not talking about repeat
this prayer after me. We're not talking about quoting
God's name. We're not talking about speaking
his name and thinking it's gonna do something for you like you'd
rub a lucky rabbit's foot. We're talking about calling on
one that you know. Calling upon one that revealed
himself to you. There are a lot of people in
this world who have never seen they're sick.
Therefore they don't need a cure. And that's why they don't call
on the name of the Lord. There are a lot of people in this world,
even though they are sinners in God's sight, they're not a
sinner in their own sight. God knew I was a sinner before
I was even born, Joe, because by one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. The problem is, by nature, we
reject that. We reject that. And we say things
like, I'm not that bad. or we pick out another individual
that is maybe overtly, a little more outwardly evil than we are,
and we seek to justify ourselves in that. A man will never, ever
be healed by God. He will never, ever call upon
the name of God unless God first wounds him, wounds her, and makes
them to see their mortality before God. A lot of people been saved,
has never been lost. And I say that with a little
tongue in cheek, you understand what I'm saying? Let me say it more
precisely. A lot of people think they're
saved, but they've never been lost. And God's never saved one
saved man. You don't have to save a saved
man. God saves lost men and women. There was a lady that told Henry
Mahan, They were talking, I don't even know what all it was about.
But she told Henry these words, this is what she said, I've been
saved all my life. And Henry, answer to her was,
ma'am, that's too long. Now people's like, oh, that's
just great, been saved. No, you ain't! If you was saved
all your life, you'd never been lost. And Christ said, I come
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Enos,
mortal, frail, feeble, no strength. Then, then and then only will
men begin to call on the name of the Lord. A lot of people
are being coaxed down aisles and to some man-made so-called
altar to pray some prayer and say Jesus save me and it's no
more than praying to my pet dog at home. God Almighty's gonna
wound you before he ever kills you. He gonna put your face in
the dust, bowing before him before he ever exalts you. God's gonna
make you to see your loss before he ever saves you. If you've
never been lost, you ain't never been saved. I'm not talking about,
well I know we're all sin, I'm not talking about God brings
me down. a personal, a personal pushing
of my face in the dirt before God. There's a lot of people
believe in total depravity, but never have experienced total
depravity by the grace of God. Now I know some people may not
like that statement, and that's not blaming God, no sir. Their
old songwriter put it this way. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost hath made him so. Because we're so sinful by nature,
we don't realize how sinful we are. And even if we get a little inkling
of it, if God gives even just a little bit of physical, mental
light, we reject it. We start making excuses. Remember
about the three sins that we're all guilty of? So, here's what we have. Man, appointed substitute, mortal. But then it says, and Enos lived
and beget Cainan. Cainan means fixed. Fixed. Let me put it to you this way. In our appointed substitute,
our state, our, let me find it here, our chamber, our dwelling
place, our nest, our habitation is fixed. Fixed. You and I cannot change what
we are before God. There is not one good thing we
can do to change what we are. The problem with us, we're so
bad that the more good we try to do, the more evil we end up
committing. To where God says this in the
person of the Son, that which is highly esteemed among men,
and you know the context? Man's own personal righteousness.
Personal good. philanthropy, helping others,
quoting Bible to folks and going to their bed when they're sick.
And he said, that which is highly esteemed among men is what? An abomination in God's sight. That's scary. So much so that
even years before our Lord came along, the prophet Isaiah was
moved to say this, that even our righteousnesses, that's not
overblowing the case, he's telling the truth like it is, that even
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight. Man in the
appointed substitute has a mortal habitation. And I say we cannot
change that. We cannot change that. Go back
and read Romans 5 again. Look at it. Here's a note. And
Cain and Leob did beget Mahalaleel. His name means the praise of
God. Isn't that amazing that these
Old Testament saints didn't even have a Bible, yet they were naming
their children things like the praise of God. Now not that he
is the praise of God, But I figure it was in hopes of he will praise
God. You understand what I'm saying?
Now, I don't know that absolutely, I don't. But his name means the
praise of God. Mahalaleel, man in the appointed
substitute has mortal habitation, but the praise of God. Now see,
usually, if you say that in most places, what do men begin to
think about? How do they begin already in
their mind to imagine the rest of the sentence? They think about
what we do. Our praising God. Am I right
or wrong? Am I being mean about them? Am I building a strong man? Now
when they talk about praise, the praise of God, they talk
about our praise to God. Now we ought to praise God. Do not get me wrong. But even
my praise of God as a regenerated person is still filled with sin
and wickedness. Everything I do is tainted by
me. I don't even have to do anything
else, Mason, just whatever I do, even if it's praising God, it
is tainted by me because of what I am. Man in the appointed substitute
has mortal habitation but the praise of God. And then it says,
though, and Mahalaleel lived and beget Jared. Jared means
a descent, to come down. I like this word. It can be translated
this way, to condescend. Ah, now does the sentence make
a little more sense? Man in his appointed substitute,
that is Adam, man in his appointed substitute has a mortal habitation,
but the praise of God shall condescend. This lets me know this ain't
about something I do, this is about someone else. Jesus Christ
is the praise of God. I do not mean this in any kind
of irreverent way. He is the Mahalaleel. He is the Mahalaleel. Why? Why is it Christ? And Jared lived
and began Enoch. Why did the praise of God come
down? Why did the praise of God condescend? As many church buildings as you
pass on your way to home, on your way home, if you was to
go in there, you'll probably get that many different answers as
to why Jesus Christ condescended. He condescended to show us how
you ought to live. There is no doubt. He showed
us how we ought to live. but that wasn't the reason why
he condescended. God, if you look through even
this book of the Genesis, look through the book, before Moses
even penned the first word of inspired writing, God was teaching
men how to live. He was correcting them when they
fouled up, was he not? Huh? No, that's not it. Well,
here's why. And Jared lived and begat Enoch.
You know what Enoch means? When you first read it, you just
look up Enoch, it means to narrow. Okay, well, that doesn't make
much sense until God turns the light on. It's to narrow in this way. It's
in the sense of, and if you look at the other ways in which it
can be translated, it's to narrow down as to initiate or to discipline
or to teach. Yes, he came to teach. Yes, sir. Yes, he came to teach, but his
teaching was narrow teaching. That's right. Do you hear what
I'm saying? Yes, sir. I'll just give you
this one verse. There are some people, Paul says to Timothy,
2 Timothy 3, 7, if you want to look it up sometime, that are
ever learning, so they're being taught. Yeah. Right? Ever learning. Well, that sounds
like a good thing. Right? Somebody's teaching them,
they're learning. Ever learning, but here's the
problem, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. You can know all kinds of facts
and moralities and righteousnesses from this Bible, but if you miss
the true teaching of Jesus Christ in his condescension, you've
missed it all. We talked a little bit about
this yesterday. When Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount, you
know what he's preaching? Human depravity. Now he's setting
the standard. He's not talking about our depravity.
He sets the standard. Be perfect, even as your Father
in heaven is perfect. You know what that does to a
true, bonafide, open-eyed sinner? Spiritually open-eyed sinner?
That puts them in the dirt. Because I can't be. So what do
we do, though, by nature? We try to lessen the standard
to fit us, rather than realizing, I don't fit God. You see, Christ's
teaching was always, I don't care if Christ was taught, I
don't care, when John the Baptist told those certain men, he said,
you do no harm to anybody, and you don't complain about your
wages. What's he talking about? Submission to God Almighty. That's
what he's talking about. And we hate submission. Submission's
up there at the top of our list of things we don't like. It's
to submit to God Almighty. That's why people love free will
so much. They want to worship themselves,
their will. And even the Lord of glory pray,
this boggles my mind. Not my will, but thine be done. Mason, if he wasn't looking to
his own will, why in God's name would I look to mine? Why would
I look to mine? Mahalaleel begat Jared. Jared begat Enoch. Now here's the third thing. Look
at it. Look at just a little one here. Verse 24, and Enoch
walked with God and was not, for God took him. God just snatched
him out. This is meaning, the meaning
in the Hebrew is he didn't die. Everybody else died. It says
they died. Read it. It's there. I didn't
read all that. It's there, they died. Enoch didn't die. Now I
have no idea if these people understood what this means, but
we know what this means now, don't you? The greatest majority
of people, God's people, will die. But not all. Not all. There will be some living
when Jesus Christ comes again. And this time when he comes,
he will not come condescending. He will come and will show who
is King of kings and Lord of lords, the potentate. He gonna
show it, but they gonna be a few people. Now, it may be a large
number if you got them all together right now, but Mason, there gonna
be some that will be snatched up. Snatched up. I don't care what you believe
about some of the details about the return of Christ. If you
don't believe that one, you're rejecting what the book says,
because Paul said, we shall not all sleep. We shall all be changed. and the dead in Christ shall
rise first, and everyone who's alive that's in Christ will be
what? Changed, like that, that quick. Twinkle in the eye. Changed,
caught up. Caught up. Isn't that glorious? I know that we preachers and
believers, sometimes we debate on would you rather die or rather
go up? Well, I'm the one who'd rather
go up. I'm just that much of a chicken, I have to admit to
you. I'm not saying that's right. I would just assume Christ come
today, and as I told some of you earlier, get this thing over
with. It'll be done with it. But either way, to die or to
be changed and called up like that, if you're in Christ, it
don't matter. Because that's in God's hands.
You know that? That's in God's hands. But here
it is. Here's a question. that the praise
of God condescended to teach. And Enoch lived, it says, and
beget Methuselah. Now, sadly, most of us, especially
those of us who were in false Christianity, most of us know
the name of Methuselah. We went to Sunday school and
we were taught about Methuselah. And what do we know about Methuselah?
They don't care nothing about teaching me what Methuselah's
name meant, just that he was the oldest man ever recorded
in the Bible. Now didn't you, most of you probably heard that
too. Now that's a fact. But that ain't gonna help you
out squat. Other than to realize this, you go back and do the
math. I did it all. I did the math. But I'm gonna
show it to you because it doesn't matter. I don't remember it and
you wouldn't remember it either. But you take when Methuselah
was born and you look at the time frame, the very year that
Methuselah died, water begin to rain down from heaven. It's amazing. It's amazing. Because
here's the thing, Enoch lived and beget Methuselah. Methuselah
means, if you just translated it just out simply, to be a missile.
Well, we know it's not a missile as we think of missiles. You
know, rocket-powered ordnance. What it means is an arrow or
a spear, a missile. Go missile, spear. If you look at the way some of
the old Hebrews translated it, it'd be a man who attacks, or
a man who was attacked. Either way, either way. Methuselah. Literally, it's a man of the
dart. A man of the dart. But see that
it could mean either way, it's one who pierces through, or one
who is pierced through. And our Methuselah, Jesus Christ,
is both. Because when Methuselah died,
when Methuselah died, God saved eight people that he purposed
to save before the world began. And when Methuselah died, God
judged the rest of the world, all at the same time. The rain
fell on no one then, they just happened to be in the ark. Huh? The judgment was coming down
all around Noah and his sons and his wife and his daughter-in-law,
was it not? And all the animals in the ark.
But bless God, they were in the ark. And the day that Arimathuselah
died, the day that Jesus Christ died, all judgment of both kinds
was settled right then and there. Yes, sir? Those that would be
saved and those who would not be saved. And none of us, let
me preface, not preface, let me, and none of us deserve to
be saved. None of us deserve to be saved.
This is the message of scripture. This is the message of every
prophet. This is the message of Jesus Christ. This is the
message of the Holy Spirit. This is the message of all God
sent preachers. That Jesus Christ came into this
world to be pierced through. Jesus Christ came into this world
to suffer, and it says he was obedient unto death, but not
death in a bed. Not like Jacob, just turning
over his head. That's what it said Jacob, he turned over his
head to the wall and just left. Even the death of the cross,
and he was pierced through literally. Was he not? pierced through literally. But what did he teach? This is
what he taught. That's what he taught. Think
about it. Remember, here's the sentence so far. Man in the appointed
substitute has mortal habitation, but the praise of God shall condescend
teaching. And we know what he taught. I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man, that means no man. No woman, no young, old, doesn't
matter. No man cometh unto the Father,
but, and then the word is, not just through me, through him
still is true, but it's by me. He had to bring us there. Paul
read the scripture. He brought us to God, how? Being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And
Joel, he went up and sat down. If I was in him, I'm sitting
there too. Hmm. But here's the question, who
does he teach? Now anybody who thinks that God's teaching everybody,
is you got your, you're the proverbial ostrich and you are sticking
your head in the sand. Yeah, and Methuselah lived and
begat Lamech. I heard this fella, that Jewish
fella years ago, and he had a couple pretty good explanations, but
I think that Lamech's name has no meaning that we're aware of.
And that's almost like that just throws a whole kink in the whole
sentence, don't it? We got a name here that we don't even know
what the meaning is. But doesn't that say something? Lamex's name
is basically he's a nobody. His name don't mean anything.
He's a nothing. He's a nobody. He's corrupt. He's vile. He's mortal. He's
sinful. He's everything that we are and
his name don't even give him any credit for that. And what did Paul say in 1 Corinthians
1? Oh, you know it. 1 Corinthians
1, listen to what Paul said. And I want to read this, but
I don't want to get this one wrong. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, for
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many, now it doesn't
say not any, but not many. And the book says not many. You
can guarantee it's not many. And somebody says, well, that
ain't fair. We ain't talking about fair, we're talking about God. Not
many wise men, you see it? After the flesh. Not many mighty,
and we can say what? Men, that's the meaning. He uses
it one time, but he lets us know, I'm talking about people, not
things. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
God don't even call them. He didn't, how many did he call
into that ark? Eight. and eight only. But God hath chosen the what?
The foolish. The foolish things of the world
to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and
base. That's what I am. Can you take
your place there? Then there's hope for you. There's
hope for you. and the base things of the world
are the things which are despised, hath God chosen yea, and the
things which, so it says, are not. Nothings. Nobody's. I usually, when I preach
this message before, I usually start it off with I don't know
what my name means. Some people say it means noble
king. Others say it means chicken thief. I don't know. I'm tongue in cheek
again, folks. Don't take it too literally. I'm a nobody. No matter what
my name physically means, I'm a Lamech. Oh God, continually remind me
that I'm a Lamech. Because if you ever get over
being a Lamech, you'll start to get over needing Jesus Christ.
Now you hear what I'm saying? And you will not be one that
endures into the end. And those who die, they must
die in faith. And those who will be changed
when Christ comes back, they must be in Christ when he comes
back. Now, I'm not saying you can get
out of Christ. I'm just saying if you never get to where you
don't need Jesus Christ, absolutely, then you've never been in him
to start with. You never really needed him to start with. Because
when God Almighty shows you what you are, and God Almighty shows
you who Jesus Christ is, you can never get over it if God
did that work. And Methuselah begat Lamech. Well, it says, and Lamech-Magnet
began a son and called his name Noah. And here's one or the other,
chapter five, verse 29, it talks about 29, rest, comfort, right? And then what it says, rest or
comfort. Now, let's look at the sentence then. Here is the gospel,
folks. And here's the gospel in sentence
form, right here in this fifth chapter. of the book of Genesis
from these old folk way back yonder. Here it is, this is the
gospel. Man in the appointed substitute
has mortal habitation, but the praise of God shall condescend,
teaching that his piercing through shall bring the nothings comfort. You see, if that message don't
bring you comfort, if it don't bring you rest, God's never done
anything for you yet. I pray he does. I pray he does. Why this message? Why all of
these Genesis messages? Think about it. Even more, maybe
even some more Genesis messages. Here's why. The message, and
I mean this, the message of all this book is this. And you've
seen that, I've tried to preach it, every one of these messages,
why? Because it's there. If God's given you eyes to this
past series of Genesis, it's there in every message, everything
I talked about, in these first five chapters so far. Here's
what's in this book. Here's the whole message of this
book. Man is ruined by the fall. He didn't just get a bump or
a bruise. He is full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores
from the crown of my head all the way up here, all the way
down to the soles of my feet. I'm nothing but rot before God. Ruined by the fall, redemption
by Christ's blood. That was the main difference
between Abel's sacrifice and Cain's sacrifice. It wasn't one
that was just an animal, one was a vegetable. It was blood. It was blood. God had showed
Adam and Eve from the get-go, when he clothed them with coats
of skins, blood must be shed. Blood must be shed. Blood! And without the shedding of blood,
Paul said, there is no remission. ruined by the fall, redemption
by Christ's blood, regeneration by God's Spirit. Even the first
message we've seen, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face
of the deep, where it was nothing but dark. Dark. Regeneration by God's Spirit,
but it don't end with that. Regeneration is not an end in
itself. We are born of God to see, but
we're also born of God to what? Enter. The kingdom of God. Regeneration is a one-time act,
but it has a glorious ongoing, and that's conversion by the
gospel. Everyone who's ever been regenerated going to be converted
by the gospel. Even these folks here who believe
God were converted by that gospel. And God is saying to us, Joe,
he's saying to us, this is my message. He's telling it to us
over and over and over and over and over, isn't he? Over and
over and over again. Folks, that and that alone is
the message of this book. I don't care what subject it
goes into, that's the message of this book. I don't care if
it's talking about husbands and wives, that's still the message
of this book. I don't care if it's talking about servants obey
your masters, that's the message of this book. I don't care if
it's talking about honor the king, that's the message of this
book. Because you can see it, if you see all of those things
and you don't see Jesus Christ and who he is and what he done,
you've missed it all. Missed it all. All right, let's
stand and sing number 67.