In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the early days of the earth after the fall, describing a pristine state with 50-foot ferns and a sense of safety for children. The speaker imagines two boys growing up in this environment, free to explore the forest without fear. The sermon then shifts to the importance of blood atonement and sacrifice, which was passed down through generations, ultimately leading to Noah and the ark. The sermon concludes with a reflection on the lifespan of Adam, who lived for 930 years, and the potential advancements in civilization during that time.

Genesis chapter 4, and it says, Adam knew Eve, his wife, that is in sexual intimacy. He knew Eve, his wife. She conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. So we move into this portion of Scripture now. Adam and Eve have been driven out of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are no longer enshrouded in light. They are no longer walking in open fellowship with God. They have been driven out of the Garden. God has given them an important lesson about blood atonement, that there is an altar there where they may sacrifice, where they might draw close to Him, where a substitute, an innocent substitute may be sacrificed. And it's very important because Adam will live all the way to Lamech, we'll talk about, all the way to the father of Noah. Adam will live. So he passes this lesson of the altar on from generation to generation. Again, the Jerusalem Targum says that there at the east of Eden, there was the model of the mercy seat. The cherubim were there and there was an altar between them and that that model carried through in the tabernacle and in the temple. So Adam is familiar with this. Now they are having children, Cain and Abel. You know them well. Very interesting. These are the first two human beings born. Adam and Eve were created. They were not born. And now there is coming into the world children that are born of Adam and Eve. Now, Eve looks at her first son, Cain, calls him Cain, which means acquired or gotten, because she says, I've gotten this child now by the Lord's hand is the idea. And what Eve thinks is that Cain is the fulfillment of the prophecy in 315 that God would put enmity between the woman and the serpent and between her seed and the seed of the serpent. She now thinks that Cain is the fulfillment of that and she says, I've gotten this son for the Lord. Now, it tells us in the next verse, it just says that she named her next son Abel, his brother. There's no emphasis on her excitement. Abel means vanity, which is a kind of a confirmation she's not real excited by this time. Now, I think what happened is Cain began to grow. Cain got into the terrible twos. Cain began to raise Cain. And Eve thought, this is not the Messiah. This is not what I thought. And I think by this time they realized they're passing on their fallen image that their children are being born in their image and likeness where they had originally been created in God's image and likeness. And I think by the time Abel comes, she realizes, what have we done? What are we passing on? And we'll pass on from generation to generation of fallen humanity. And she names her second son Abel now. And Abel was a keeper of sheep. Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering. Now, we are told in the New Testament, Luke 17, I believe, or maybe it's Luke 10 or 11, around verses 50 and 51, that Abel is a prophet. When Jesus challenges Israel and says, You have shed the blood of the prophets from the blood of righteous Abel down to Zechariah slain between the altar and the gate and so forth, Jesus names Abel as a prophet. And he is a prophet in the sense that he has given his heart to this idea of substitutionary atonement. Abel has perceived and understood a lesson that his father Adam has taught him, and that is by the shedding of blood of an innocent substitute, there can be atonement made for sin. And in that, as it tells us in Revelation chapter 19, that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, in that he is looking forward to a Messiah. Cain comes to this place with the fruit of his own labor, with the fruit of the ground, and as we look at this scene, God has respect unto Abel and not to Cain. Now, I want you to realize this. I think many times we kind of think that Cain and Abel are kind of like Abel's the bad guy with the big hook nose, like Captain Hook or something, with a wart and dark eyes and crow's feet and slobber running out of the corner of his mouth. And Abel's kind of a handsome, benign, glowing guy, and that it's very obvious there's a good guy and a bad guy here. Well, I don't think that could be any further from the truth. I am convinced that Cain and Abel were more alike than any brothers that had ever been born. They were more alike than any identical twins that had ever been born. There was only one gene pool. Adam had married his rib. So, you know, Adam was formed from the dust of the ground. Eve was not. She was made from Adam's side, from his genes and chromosomes and DNA. She was the same person as him, except female, in a remarkable way that's hard for us to understand. So there was only one gene pool. It wasn't like one boy resembled the father's side of the family and the other boy resembled the mother's side of the family. They resembled the one side of the family that there was. And I'm sure they looked exactly alike. And as we look at them, I think it's important for us to understand that what God discerns about them is the attitude of their heart. And it isn't because that one of them hung around with a bad crowd and the other one did. There is no crowds. It wasn't because of peer pressure. There's no peers. It wasn't because one watched MTV and one didn't, or one went to a bad high school, one went to a Christian high school. None of those things that we think of environment came to play on these two boys. These were two individuals born of Adam and Eve, exactly the same for all intent and purposes outwardly, but inwardly as a moral agent, they made choices. And Abel had respect to God's way of worship. And you have to understand this, there's no religion in the world at this point. God moves quickly from chapter 3, where the fall of man takes place, to the flood, which is about 1,600-1,700 years later. He covers this period of approximately 2,000 years in just a few chapters. So when he slows down to give us a picture, we have to understand this is very important. And as we look at these two men, we realize they're worshiping the true and living God. There's no Islam, there's no Judaism, there's no Mohammedism, there's no religions of the world. There's no Krishnas, there's no Shirley MacLaine, there's none of that. All there is, is the true and living God, who meets with them between the cherubim and an altar, and an approach to him through offering. Now it says that at an appointed time, in the process of time indicates at an appointed time, at the end of days, it says they both brought, which means from one place to another, so there was a specific time and a specific place, and they both brought offerings, so they both understood that the worship of the true and living God took place by offering. By placing something between them and the holiness of God. And again, no doubt they had learned this from their father Adam. You know, you and I are spoiled for this world. It tells us in Ephesians that we're sealed with the spirit of promise. And because of that, Paul says, I pray you might know what is the hope of your calling, and so forth. Haven't you noticed that since you're a Christian, even if you try to turn away, there's nowhere to go. As Peter says, who else has the words of eternal life? You try to go and do the old things, and they are no longer fun. That's because your dad doesn't let you get away with anything now. And you sit there and you think, boy, I hope he doesn't come now. The old things are just not fun anymore, because you're spoiled for this world. You are now a pilgrim and a sojourner, and you are sealed with the spirit of promise, so you and I have a hope in regards to a future. Adam and Eve were the only individuals that lived that were spoiled from both ends. They had a hope, because God told them about a Deliverer, a Messiah, and demonstrated that to them, so in every sacrifice they looked forward to that. But they were also spoiled by remembering, because they had been on the other side of that gate in Eden. They had walked with God, enshrouded with light. They had walked with God in nakedness, with no awareness of physical nakedness, because they were covered with something of His righteousness, created in His image. They had walked with God, and when they walked with God, you and I appreciate our walk with God, but don't you find yourself, I do as a Christian, saying, Lord, oh, forgive me, I am so stupid, I am still so stubborn, Lord. I am still so rebellious. Oh, Lord, I'm glad the whole congregation doesn't see what goes on inside my heart sometimes. I'm just saying that for your benefit. That never really happens to me. But I appreciate my relationship with the Lord, but there is that coming to Him sometimes, and that sense of, oh, Lord, do you really still, and nobody's ever loved me like you, that you put up with me, and you put up with me, and you put up with me, and you're faithful, and you're continuing this work you've begun in me. Well, Adam and Eve didn't know any of that. They were in a state of innocency. When they walked with God, there was never a day they thought, gee, until they fell, never a day they thought, gee, I've been a bad husband today, haven't I, Eve? No, they were perfect. And when they met up with God walking in the garden, it wasn't, oh, Lord, so glad to see you. I blew it this afternoon. It was none of that. It was, hey, high-fiving each other. How are you doing? Talking, just open-faced fellowship, looking into the heart of God, God looking into their heart. Nothing to draw back from in Paradise, in a beautiful place. And that spoiled Adam. And I'm convinced again that there were days, you see, the earth was, even after the fall, in a very pristine state. We find 50-foot ferns. Imagine these two boys. Imagine two kids growing up like this without fear. If you could just let your two boys run out into the forest, and a remarkable forest, without worrying about somebody mugging them or stealing. Imagine these kids coming back with turtles and frogs. And, Dad, look at this. Look at this grape. What do you think of this? And Mom would be saying, Oh, yeah, the way Mom's doing it, that's good. Go play. Do Mom's do it, Mom thing. And Dad would go, Huh, that's really something. And the boys, I'm sure, thought, What is it with Dad anyway? Mom, what in the world is wrong with Dad? He is the most miserable person on earth. And again, they knew. There were only four of them. They knew that he was. What in the world is wrong with him? I mean, he is never happy. And he probably said, Boys, your Dad remembers the other side. I mean, all of this is beautiful. But if you could have seen your Dad and I when we were clothed in light, if you could have looked into the face of the Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer of this world, if you could have walked in open fellowship and beheld His beauty and the angels, that's why box turtles don't turn your Dad on, boys. And I'm sure there were times, again, they saw him grab a lamb from the flock in the evening and head off to that gateway in the east of Eden. Mom saying to the boys, Come on, Cain and Abel, just leave Dad alone. He needs to be alone now. And they would hear that lamb crying out and bleeding. And all of a sudden, they would hear silence. And the lamb would stop, slaughtered. A couple hours later, Adam, I'm sure, would come back with a look of peace on his face, with a look of contentment, with blood on his hands, having met with God, fellowshiped. And Abel took all of that to heart. And he understood that there is only one religion, and that's God's religion. And that religion is not a religion of God being a receiver. It's a religion of God being a giver. And whenever Abel went there and sacrificed, he realized this is only symbolic of something God will give. I'm not giving to Him. I am placing in faith, between Him and I, death. Because death is necessary because of our sin. You need to understand that this evening if you don't know Christ. That God is infinitely holy, and man is sinful. And the Bible says there is spiritual darkness within us. And that can't come into God who dwells in unapproachable light because we would be obliterated. So it's necessary then, if there's going to be death, God said we can use the death of an innocent substitute and place that death between you and I. And it isn't something that costs you something. It is something that reflects the great cost. Whatever it costs you to take a lamb, it costs the lamb his life, but it reflects the great cost of heaven one day to make reconciliation for sin. Now, Cain's religion was a different religion. His religion was, this is my work, this is what it costs me, here's this beautiful fruit of the ground, here's all this, and placing that before God and making God a receiver. That is pagan religion. That is why pagans sacrifice their children or they sacrifice a goat. They're trying to appease their God. They think they can pay their God with something that their God is a receiver. And Abel understood that the God we serve, the only one true and living God, is a giver and not a receiver. He will never be indebted. He's not going to be indebted to us. We will eternally be indebted to him because he gave. And Adam understood that. And God taught him the lesson. I will give one day one who will shed his blood, an innocent substitute, to make reconciliation. Until then, you bring a lamb. And every time you see that blood flow, you remember what I will do. You remember that I will give. You remember that he will come. So as they came then to the altar, it says, God had respect unto Abel's offering, but he didn't have respect unto Cain's offering. Now, we don't know how many kids there may have been by then. May have been hundreds. We don't know. Kathy and I, I'm 46. I've got four. Gee, if I was 800. Man. And if they were all having kids all along, I mean, there could be a great big family gathering. We don't know. Is this the very first time that Cain and Abel have offered or have they offered many times before? But the point is, as they come, and they lay their sacrifice there, God, it tells us in Hebrews 11, bears witness that he approves of Abel's sacrifice. Now, it is my own personal conviction that he does that by raining fire from heaven. In Leviticus, I believe, around chapter 19, the description of the tabernacle being completed, God sends fire, or it's chapter 9, consumes there the first sacrifice at the tabernacle. As Gideon makes his offering, God consumes it with fire. As Elijah puts the prophets of Baal to the test, he says, let the true God rain down fire from heaven and prove that He's the true God. And God rains down fire and consumes Elijah's sacrifice. As David offers on the threshing floor of Ornan, God there rains down fire and confirms this is the place for the temple to be built. As Solomon, 2 Chronicles 7-1, finishes the temple, the first sacrifice that's made, God's holy fire falls and confirms He's approving that He wants this. And of course, as Christ hung on the cross, the lights went out and there was blackness for three hours. And God consuming that sacrifice and attesting to it with the resurrection of His Son on the third day. So I believe God gives a visible sign of His approval of Abel, but it's through Abel's offering. And here's the important thing for us to understand. As God looks at Cain and Abel, He sees them both fallen. He sees them both sinners. I'm sure there were times when Abel was mad at Cain and thought he'd like to strangle him. They were sinners. They were part of a fallen race. And God did not have respect unto the offerer. God had respect unto the offering. And as you and I go to Christ, you know, the amazing thing, or as we go to God, it isn't that you and I are better than anyone else. You know, when we get saved, our friends say, oh, you're holier than thou. No, that has nothing to do with it at all. Somebody comes around here and asks for a reverend foe, which I know they don't know nothing about me. There's nothing reverend about me at all. I'm a sinner saved by grace. And God respected, because it's by His own Word that I put Christ and said, God Almighty, if there's forgiveness for me in Jesus, forgive me, wash me, cleanse me. And God has respect unto the offering, not unto the offerer. And He could not respect the offering of Cain. Now, because of that, Cain flips out. Verse 5 Now, unto Cain to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, very angry. And his countenance fell. You could tell. You know how if you're married, you say to your spouse, are you angry? No. You know, it doesn't do any good. They'd give away. Very angry, his countenance fell. The Lord said unto Cain, why are you angry? And of course, it's the philosophy of the unsaved world. You mean to tell me that there's only one way? You know, look at all the other religions in the world. Look at the guy on the island. You know, what about him? You mean there's only one way? Yeah, there's only one way through blood sacrifice. You mean that all of the other religions in the world, you're too narrow-minded. You mean if I do good and I work hard, nothing to do with you. It's the offering itself that God has respect to or doesn't have respect to. Because there's one way. And you know, it isn't a shame. People think, you mean to think there's only one way? You're narrow-minded. You're bigoted. There's only one way to be saved. You know, the truth is, it is remarkable that there's any way for us to be saved, let alone a shame there's only one way. The amazing thing is that there is a way to be saved. That's the amazing thing. And again, nobody would do that with AIDS. You know, I watch this AIDS epidemic and I see them now putting different drugs and antibiotics together and they're trying to gang up on this virus and figure out a way around it. And you know in your heart that if they came up with a cure for AIDS, nobody would say, that's too narrow-minded. You mean there's only one way to be cured of AIDS? I just bought a juicer. I want to drink carrot juice and be cured of AIDS. You mean to tell me there's only... No, they'd be standing in line for blocks to be cured. Well, we all have an immune deficiency. We're all dying. It just takes 70 years to kill us. It doesn't happen that quickly, but we are all dying. And we all have a disease called sin. And there is a cure. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. And that was taught to Adam and to his children and it was passed on from generation to generation all the way down to Lamech, the father of Noah, and carried from there onto the ark by Noah and his family. And the first thing they did when they hit land was they set up an altar. And they praised God for life and for forgiveness. Why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shalt thou not be accepted. Now, the Septuagint translates it, if you offer correctly. I kind of like that. Shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou dost not well, sin lieth at the door. Now, if you have a translation that says sin offering, that is not correct. There was no sin offering until the law was given. If even you read the book of Job, Job offered a burnt offering if perhaps any of his children had sinned. That was before the law. If it had been after the law, Job would have offered a sin offering for sin. So, there's no sin offering now. There is burn offering. That's all that man understands. Sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Now, by the way, the same words where it says that your wife's desire shall be towards you, but you shall rule over her. It's the same idea. Sin will be there longing to rule over you. But God is saying to Cain, you rule over it. Now look, verse 8. Cain talked with Abel, his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, he must have said, come on Abel, let's get away from mom and dad, we're going to talk to you about something. While they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And by the way, this is right after the church, it seems. This is the first human corpse that's ever touched the earth. The first human blood that's ever been spilled. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Now the remarkable thing is, this is not Cain going to the altar at Eden to seek God. This is God leaving the altar and coming to seek Cain, the murderer in the field, and ask him a question, not because God needs the information, but he's trying to elicit from Cain genuine repentance. I'm sure the heart of God is broken. And he says to Cain, Where is your brother? Where is he at? And of course, remarkably, Cain shows his colors by smart-mouthing God. Can you imagine this? Am I my brother's keeper? Imagine saying that to God when He's talking to you. And He said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood, first time blood is mentioned in the Bible, the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Now, by the way, very much like the blood of Christ poured out into the ground on our behalf. And it either cries out to God Almighty on your behalf or as a testimony against you. That's your decision. God is aware of all innocent blood. And now art thou cursed from the earth. The idea is from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. And here is how He describes this curse. Now, He's not telling Cain you can't be saved. He's saying this is the curse now that's on you. The ground will be cursed. When thou tillest the ground, and that's where He brought His offering to the Lord of His fruit, when thou tillest the ground, it shall not from now on henceforth yield unto thee her strength. You're going to have to labor and you're going to have slim pickings no longer is my gracious bounty going to be extended to you from the ground. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And it's simply because sin separates between us and our God. So, He will be a vagabond and a fugitive. And Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Now, I don't think it's greater than I can be forgiven, if that's your translation. Leupold and many of the Hebrew scholars agree the senses here of Cain's remorse, not Cain's repentance. Cain is not brokenhearted about the sin he committed. Cain is brokenhearted about the judgment that's being passed on him. And there's a big difference between being bummed out about the punishment and being bummed out that you've sinned against God. One's repentance and one is not. And he is brokenhearted now because God says, hey, the ground is not going to bring forth anything to you anymore. It's not going to be easy. You're not going to be able to put that show on, that religious act. It will only go so long before it's too tough to cultivate. And that goes for all of us. And you'll be wandering. You'll be a fugitive. Cain says unto the Lord, and this will be the voice of every person who has rejected Christ, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and that it won't bring forth its bounty. And from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth and it shall come to pass that everyone that finds me shall kill me. Now, it's all family, so you don't get away with it. You know what family is. They get on the phone and everybody knows everything. So he says, they're going to come to me and make me pay for this. They're going to kill me. There must have been some sense of just weights and balances born out of God's relationship with Adam. The Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain lest any finding him should kill him. Now, by the way, there is a discrepancy whether it means that God put a mark upon Cain. Did He put a big C-A-I-N on his forehand? I don't think so. I don't think that's the idea. It may be. Some scholars think that what God did when He put a mark upon Cain is the same word used for sign that God did something there supernatural to confirm to Cain that God would keep him, that he wouldn't be slaughtered by another man. Either way, the outcome would be the same, that this man would be protected, though he's a murderer. Government is not established yet. In Genesis 9, we will come to that. There is only a family now. And instead of God asking for the blood of Cain, He is merciful. But look what it says about Cain. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He did not go to the presence of the Lord. He could have grabbed a lamb from the flock and gone to that altar and cried with tears and laid his sin before God and confessed his sin. And he could have looked at that lamb and realized the one who's coming, his blood will be sufficient to pay for my sin. And he didn't. He went out from the presence of the Lord. And look what it says, And he dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Now some of you, particularly on Sunday morning, enter into the land of Nod. It's about 20 minutes into the sermon. I don't mind. I'd rather have you sleeping here than somewhere else. The land of Nod. Nod means wandering. It means wandering. It means unrest. God had said you'll be a fugitive and a vagabond instead of coming to the Lord. Cain turns away from the Lord, leaves his presence, and enters the land of Nod. The idea is he enters into a life of wandering and a life of being a vagabond, of unrest. You will never find rest for your soul away from the Lord, away from His presence, away from His forgiveness. And Cain, and this is why we're going to hear in Jude about the way of Cain. Believers should look out for the way of Cain because it symbolizes someone who's turned away from the faith. He turns away from God. He goes out on his own. And he determines now he's going to make this earth his home. Look what it says here. It's a very important verse. And Cain knew his wife. Where did Cain get his wife? That's an important question. I don't know who this woman is, and I don't know what her name is, but she has turned a lot of people away from the Christian faith. You know that? Everybody wants to know. Where did Cain get his wife? Chuck Smith always says, Hey, I'm always suspicious of somebody who's interested in another man's wife. If you would like to read on your own, Henry Morris has a great commentary on the book of Genesis called the Genesis Record Scientist. Barnhouse in his commentary on the book of Genesis makes mention of a whole book that is written on the proportions of population at this time. If we are extremely conservative in estimating those who have lived and extremely conservative in their age, only taking the 400, the average age was over 700, and if we say that they only had so many children, extremely conservative, by this time they estimate there were at least 120,000 people on the planet. So he obviously chose a niece or a sister, something, for his wife. Now, as we move on in our study and we come to the book of Exodus and the law is given, then there is a prohibition about marrying a sister or marrying a niece or marrying a cousin. Evidently, I'll give you the best explanation that I can. At this time, any of you who know, if you have bred animals, you understand what gene frequency is. At this point in time, the gene frequency was pure enough that evidently there was not the problem with dominant recessive genes. One of the problems that happens now is that many diseases are in the recessive genes. And if people marry within a family that both have the same recessive gene, then that becomes dominant and then disease manifests. So it is extremely unhealthy and God protects the human race by the time we get to Exodus as it is degenerating and putting a prohibition on intermarriage. People will joke today about people that are married to brothers and sisters and aunts and so forth. Well, the idea was that the human strain is so pure at this point that we don't have the problem. I mean, if you were going to drink from the Mississippi River, would you rather do it where it comes out of the ground in Minnesota or would you rather do it in New Orleans where there's dead fish and chemicals in it? You know, it's always purer at the source. That's the idea. So Cain takes a relative for his wife. And she conceived. She bare Enoch. Now this is not the other Enoch in chapter 5. This is another Enoch. But it isn't the other Enoch. He bare Enoch and he, Enoch, builted a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. So now Cain is building a city with his son. He's making his home in this world. God said, you're going to be a vagabond. You're going to be a wanderer. And even if he moves into a palace in his heart, he is still wandering because he's away from God. We see it all the time on television. The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. How many movie stars are football players. I mean, look what just happened this week. You know, you look at a guy like Leon Lett and you think he's got everything going for him. I mean, he's making millions of dollars and up on drug charges again. You see, we see wealthy, wealthy people in the Betty Ford Clinic. We see them because without Christ, they're still wandering. Without Christ, they're still empty. They're still a vagabond. Without Christ, they're still trying to fill that thirst of their soul, that vacuum, as the Latins call it, the vacuum of the soul, with the pleasure of this world. And it never happens. So, yes, he goes, he builds a city. And look, I am sure that he saw great success. Verse 18 says, Unto Enoch was born Arad, and Arad begot Mehulia, and Mehulia begot Methuselah, and Methuselah begot Lamech. This is not the Lamech from the next chapter. As we get to this Lamech, this is the seventh from Adam on Cain's side. This is the last generation. Now, the Bible expands on this person, Lamech, and it's the last we hear of him. Because, yes, you'll see, they are building cities. They are advanced. There are instruments. There are alloys of bronze and iron. I think it's hard for us to imagine what luxury they lived in and what an advanced society it was. But all the time, the skies were growing cloudy. The way of Cain was away from God. It was finding its pleasure in this world with its music and with its luxury and with all of those things, trying to make a home here. And all the time, just like it is today, the storm clouds were gathering. It says, Lamech took unto him, now he breaks God's original model, two wives. It says back in chapter 224, A man shall cleave to his wife. Singular. Not wives. Nobody could ever. You know, the Arabs in the desert, the Bedouins say, one wife is too much, ten is not enough. I don't know why that came to my mind. That's a saying they have. The idea is, from the beginning, it was one man and one woman and the children growing up under that umbrella, healthy, emotionally flourishing. That was God's design. The first time we see it breaking down here is in the line of Cain. And if he's doing it, I'm sure others are doing it. Lamech took unto him two wives. The name of one was Ada. And the name of the other was Zillah. Now, she doesn't have the prefix El in front of her name. That would make her Godzilla. You don't have to go there. My mind goes there when I read through these things. And Ada bare Jabal. She had a son named Jabal. He was the father of such as dwell in tents and of such that have cattle. So, they begin... Now, I don't know if he's eating meat at this point in time. Maybe he's thinking, if Dad can have two wives, I can have hamburger. I'm not sure. But he now is raising cattle. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ. Now, by the way, culture is not bad in and of itself. I mean, to me, the arts, if they are used to attest God's redemptive plan, if they lend themselves to what He's done on the behalf of mankind, I think that the arts are a wonderful thing. And it's one of the things that sets us aside from the beast of the field. You know, two cows never look at each other and say, Man, I love that cord. I just love the way that resolves at the end there. You know, the cows never say, Did you ever see the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Oh, it's just marvelous. You should see that. You know, cows in the field never say, Look at that sunset. They have no capacity, because they're not creating God's image and likeness, to appreciate creativity. God is created. We're created in His image and likeness. So, the arts are a wonderful thing. You know, I think when we get to heaven, when God redeemed me, He redeemed everything. So, I'm looking forward to being a worship leader in heaven. I put it down for now, but I'm looking forward to playing there forever. If you're an artist, whatever you are, I think that is part, somehow, of God's redemptive plan. But, just to have culture and wealth and all of that in and of itself, and man trying to fill himself with that, is emptiness and it's insanity. And music is a powerful, powerful force in the world. Karl Marx said, Give me a nation's music and their poetry, and I will have their hearts. It is a powerful force. So, now, culture. Prosperity. Cattle. Zilla. She also bear tubal cane. He is an artificer, an instructor, a wetter of every artificer in brass and in iron. And the sister of tubal cane was Nehama. I'm not sure why she's mentioned right there. But, we're getting the idea of the extremely advanced society, the antediluvians. Now, there are different places, as you read the Old Testament, that mention the ancients. Sometimes it is in regard to elderly Jews or priests that are living when it's written. There are several passages, 1 Samuel 24.13, Psalm 119.100, Isaiah 24.23, that seem to be looking back to the antediluvians. And there's evidence that there was great technology and they were very advanced. Some of those who claim to have taken metal fragments from the Ark on Mount Ararat say that the one piece, there's an alloy there that we still don't understand. Sometimes our archaeologists unearth alloy that we don't understand how it's put together still even today. So, very advanced. There is in the Cairo Museum a piece of red granite that was cut to be made into the top of a sarcophagus. And the cut was in the rock and it broke off so whoever was cutting it stopped. But they took it and put it in the museum because the cut is like glass. They said the only thing we can reproduce it with today is a laser. I have no idea how it was done. Very advanced. Incredible age, I'm sure. Lamech said unto his wives, Ada and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech. Hearken unto my speech for I have slain a man to my wound or that was trying to wound me and a young man to my hurt. Someone came up against me. I have killed him. And if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly, and he's making his own pronouncements but it has nothing to do with God, Lamech 70 and sevenfold. So what he's saying here, without God, hey, if God says anybody who messes with Cain is going to pay sevenfold, you know, I've killed this young man. Maybe he's thinking I have these weapons of iron, whatever. Anybody who messes with me is going to pay 70 times seven. He's boasting. He's taken wives. He's taken blood. It is a picture of the age. This is the last we hear of Lamech. This is the last we hear of Cain's line. This is the end of it. With all of its culture, with all of its beauty, to go in the way of Cain is to go towards, as it says in Jude, the blackness of outer darkness reserved forever for those who go in the way of Cain. Adam knew his wife again and she bare a son and called his name Seth. Now I'm sure by now they've had many, many children, but this is a particular one. They called his name Seth which means appointed for God said she hath appointed, that's why she named him Seth, he hath appointed me another seed. She uses a very interesting phrase. She's relating back to the fact that she realized at one point that Abel may have been the seed that God prophesied would bring damage to the serpent. Now she says, somewhere in her older age, God hath appointed me another seed, singular, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Now, it's important as we come to Seth because this is our family line. Are you listening? This is our family line. We are all related to Seth. Everyone in this room is a kin. Every human being in this room is a remnant of Noah and his family that came through the flood. They are the remnant of Seth from his line. Whether you like it or not, everybody in this room is family. Now we sure don't act like it on this planet, but we're following the line of Seth to Noah, to Abraham, to Christ. And to Seth and to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enosh, which is mortal or weak. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Now this is cited in the genealogy of Seth. There are those who think, and there are ancient rabbis who say, what this is saying is men began to call their idolatrous gods by the name of the Lord, but that would have been in Cain's genealogy. This is in the genealogy of Seth. So what it's saying is they began evidently to worship the Lord again. Seth may have had the same prophetic influence that Abel did before he was killed. So at this time it seems that there was at least an awakening of some sort. Maybe not a revival, but maybe a reform. I'm not sure. This is the book of the generations of Adam. Now by the way, the only other place in the Bible you'll find that phrase, very interesting, is in Matthew 1, verse 1, where it says, this is the generations of Jesus Christ. The next Adam. The last Adam. Here it says, this is the book. That's the word that's in Matthew 1. You find many places where it talks about the generations, but this is the book of the generations of Adam. Matthew 1, verse 1 says, this is the book of the generations of Jesus Christ. Very interesting. This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man. In the likeness of God made he him. We're in a contrast, this with verse 3. Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam. So Adam is used here of man or mankind, and it was also the personal name of the first man in the day they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness. There's the sad statement. He was created in the image and likeness of God. He has fallen. He now gives birth to this son who we follow in his own likeness, after his own image, and called his name Seth. A man that has fallen and carnal. A sinner. Saved by grace. And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years, and he begot sons and daughters. We don't know how many. And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years. Can you imagine that? Just imagine that. 930 years. A man of 46. I'm a kid. Wouldn't it be wonderful? You know, they say with your child at home, his learning curve for the first two years, he learns a great majority of what he will ever learn in his life. The learning curve is so high then. Will you imagine if the lifespan was 900 years, you'd have that learning curve for at least the first 80 years. Imagine how advanced civilization must have been. Imagine if you were... Don't you want to learn to play the piano? I'll do that in the next century. I'm playing pool now or something. Just imagine 900 years. Now, by the way, for those of you who think this all sounds insane, scientists feel that because of the vapor canopy, it had never rained. We know from ferns that we found in Siberia. We found woolly mammoth in Siberia with tropical vegetation in their mouth. At the South Pole, we found tropical vegetation. So we know at one point in time, the entire earth was tropical, which means that the infrared and ultraviolet light was filtered. That is a large part of wearing on mankind, of the aging process of breaking down our immune system. So scientists feel that at this point in time, the atmosphere is pure. The water is pure. The gene pool is pure in human DNA. The vapor canopy is filtering out harmful light. And man is living 800, 900 years. After the flood, it says, God shortens the life of man to 70 years. That's when the vapor canopy comes down. The rain and the fountains of the deep are broken up. It's after that that man's life is shortened. Here, in a remarkable way, there still is an expression of this longevity. Now, the wonderful thing about this is this. Adam lives to be 930 years old. Adam then has opportunity to see probably millions of relatives on the planet. And he has opportunity to talk to Enoch. Enoch lived 300 years before Adam died. Imagine that. Imagine Enoch and then Lamech lived to be 60-some years old before Adam died. And both godly men, Lamech will name his son Noah and says Noah means comfort because of the ground that God has cursed. No doubt he heard that right from Adam. Because God said to Adam, because of this, the ground is cursed. So imagine these godly men, Enoch and Lamech, sitting with the man who was created by God. It was never born. And saying to him, what was it like? What was it like in the other side to dwell in unapproachable light, to walk with God? What was it like in the beginning? What was the creation like? Tell us the story again. What does his face look like? What is the tone of his voice? What is the sense of his presence? And Adam sat with these men and told them and talked to them about blood atonement and blood sacrifice. And this was accurately passed then right to Lamech who taught Noah, who took it on to the ark with him. And we have a very then accurate record of these early chapters because of the great age of these patriarchs. But it ends with this phrase, he died. That's the sad phrase eight times in this chapter. God said the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. First spiritually, then now physically. Seth lived a hundred and five years and begot Enos. And Seth lived after he begot Enos eight hundred and seven years and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years. And he died. Enos lived ninety years, he begot Canaan. And Enos lived after he begot Canaan eight hundred and fifteen years and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years and he died. And Canaan lived seventy years and begot Mahalil. And Canaan lived after he begot Mahalil eight hundred and forty years and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Canaan were nine hundred and ten years and he died. And Mahalil lived sixty-five years and begot Jared. And Mahalil lived after he begot Jared eight hundred and thirty years and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Mahalil were eight hundred and ninety-five years and he died. And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years and he begot Enoch. And Jared lived after he begot Enoch eight hundred years and begot sons and daughters. Wow. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years. Again, we wouldn't have an over-fifties fellowship if this was going on. We'd have an over-eight-hundred-and-fifty fellowship. Now, by the way, we're not going to be able to get through Enoch. I encourage you to get Chuck Missler's tape from the last time he was here because he developed a remarkable thing and I have been able to track down at least nine of the names. One of them I'm still wrestling with. I'm not sure where he gets it from and I will question him the next time I see him. But he takes this genealogy where it's saying they died and they died and they died and they died. We know the whole generation of Cain is wiped out by the flood. But he takes these names of Adam and Seth and Enos and Canaan and Mahalil and Jared and Enoch and Lamech and Noah. He goes through them and develops the meaning of each name. Adam is man. You know that. Seth is appointed. Enos is mortal. Canaan, sorrow. Mahalil, to come down. No, I'm sorry. Mahalil, the blessed God. Jared, to come down. Enoch, teaching or instructing. Methuselah, his death shall bring. Lamech, the afflicted. Noah, comfort. And he does a great job of developing the meaning of those names. Man, appointed. Mortal, sorrow. But the blessed God will come down, teaching that his death shall bring the afflicted comfort. And it's a very remarkable statement of the gospel of Christ hidden by an old Jewish man as he wrote the law. Man, appointed. Mortal, sorrow. But the blessed God will come down, teaching that his death shall bring the afflicted comfort. You can work through it this week. It's very interesting. As some of the names are given right here. It tells you Seth is because he was appointed. That's why he's named that. Adam is named man. We know that. So you can work through. The difficult ones are Canaan and Lamech to come up. And you'll find as you search in different places that people don't agree. So Missler, I'm not sure where he dug it up. It probably says it on the tape. Anyhow, what a great way to look at this generation before a worldwide cataclysm. Before God has to judge a world in rebellion hidden right in the lineage that he is overseeing and preserving of Seth and Noah and then Abraham down to us, down to the present. This wonderful order of names.