In Adam All Die
Genesis chapter 4. Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also bought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regarded for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It's a desire is for you. and you must rule over it.' Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground, and now you are cursed from the ground. which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. and whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said to him, not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Noed, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Metuyal. And Metu Hull fathered Metushal and fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Ada and the other Zeela. Ada bore Jebal. He was the father of those who dwell in the tents and his livestock. His brother's name was Jebal. He was the father of all those who played the lyre and the pipe. Zeela also bore two bucane. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tibbule Cain was Namah. Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zilla, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 77-fold. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seath. For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him. To Seath also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At the time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. We now move to Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 to 8. When man began to multiply on the face of the land and the daughters were born to them, The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever for his flesh. His days shall be a hundred and twenty years. The Niflom were on the earth in these days and also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old. the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on earth and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I've created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them, but Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord. I just really want to say a big thank you to Bill and Tim and Vicki for really sitting in the front row for me. You know, it's like those students that sit up the front, ready to pay attention. Roo, sitting up the back with the back row bandits. Already not listening probably, don't worry. Right, so we have been going through the book of Genesis. And look, I started last week's sermon by talking about the fact that unfortunately very few sermons nowadays, seemingly in churches, at least statistically, talk about sin. You know, it's at three percent. And so I said, enjoy this one sermon because for the next, you know, I only have to do it three percent of the time apparently. The next couple of weeks we won't be talking about sin. I am sorry I didn't read Genesis 4 and 6 beforehand. We're still talking about sin today. But maybe next week It's about Noah's flood. Sorry, that's also about sin. um Look, I guess you guys will just have to get used to it. Anyway, let's first begin in prayer. Father, you have now given us this time to sit under your word. We pray that you may open our ears, our eyes and our hearts now to be transformed and changed and renewed in your word. So Father, we pray your spirit would now be at work amongst us. In Jesus' name we pray. Ah man. So, here we have Genesis 4 to 6, right? And now this is really asking the question, you know. We walked through the good old days, Genesis 1 and 2, everything was great. For the first couple verses in Genesis 3, things are going okay and then it all just goes pear-shaped, right? And now we are seeing the effect. We are really asking the question, what are the consequences now for Adam and Eve's sin? right, they've fallen. Now, what does that look like? And so, we are going to be looking at that. Genesis 4 to 6 covers about 1500 years, right? And we are just getting a bird's eye view of what happens. And so, as we look through, as we survey history, I want you to be looking for the rays of hope. Because that's what we're looking for, right? As God delivered the curse in Genesis 3, He put this ray of hope in there. The promised offspring that will crush the serpent's head. And realize, right, we've got the end of the story. We have the New Testament, we know who the promised offspring is. But for these people back then, they didn't know who it was. Adam and Eve were thinking, maybe it's Cain, maybe it's Abel, maybe it's Seth. They don't know. They're continually asking this question. That's what the Israelites were asking as Moses was writing this out. They were asking the question, who will be the promised offspring? And so look, be thinking, hmm, maybe it's this person, maybe it's that. And obviously through that, we will see why each and every single one of them falls short. So let's look, Cain and Abel. These are the first two men we are introduced to. Adam and Eve have come out of the garden, they think, well, now we've got all this time to kill, what should we do? Well, let's make some kids, right? And so here they make Cain and then their second born son Abel. Abel goes off and works some sheep, Cain goes out and works the ground. And then they both come before God offering sacrifices. They understand that there's a separation between them and God now and they must express, and let alone they want to express their gratitude to Him. So they bring these sacrifices. Abel's sacrifice was accepted, Cain was not. Bunch of speculation as to about why. It does say specifically there that Abel brought the best Offerings of his lambs whereas Kane just seemed to bring Just I don't know I guess the last scraps he kind of pulled out of the you know harvest bin But then you also see in Hebrews 2 that it talks about Abel was one who came to God in faith. He was a man of faith. Again, we're not going to get lost in that. But here you see an interesting thing because surely the firstborn should be the most prized, right? Because that has been the story throughout all of humanity that the firstborn is the best, all right? I say that not as firstborn, I say that as a lastborn, right? But it's just a fact of life. Back in the Old Testament, the firstborns received a double portion, right? It was always passed down to the firstborn. And yet here we have the secondborn getting all the attention from God. Eva's probably just been feeding it to Cain, you are the promised offspring. You're the firstborn, you'll be the one to redeem us. You'll crush the serpent's head. But God's paying all the attention to And so he walks around all moody, gobbledy fables, you know, he's grumbling. complaining. And so God turns to him with some fatherly advice. Verses 6 to 7 in Genesis 4, right? The Lord said to Cain, why are angry? Why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. So God encourages it here. Imitate your brother. You can be accepted just as he is. It's not a one-some, you know, a one-some-some-all game. I don't know how you say it. You can both be accepted by me. Just emulate what your brother is doing. Learn from him. If you do not, be ready because sin is ready. It is ready to rule over you. It wants to rule over you. Do not let it. What does Cain do? Not listen to the advice like most children do, right? You you've got to push the boundaries a bit. This goes a bit far though. He lures his brother out into the field and in anger, I don't know how he kills him. Most people seem to think it's a rock over the head. Probably was a rock over the head. Whatever it was, he kills him. And so you see Abel, our first ray of hope. He was a man accepted by God, right? Favored by him. Seemingly a man of faith. A righteous man. Maybe he would be the one to succeed where his parents failed. Dies. Man, man got any luck. We had a 50, 50, 50 % chance, you know, Abel and then Kane just went and ruined it. And you see the interesting thing that although his murder was unjust, he still stayed dead. You see, Jesus Christ was vindicated from the grave and resurrected because of the fact death could not hold him down. But Abel stayed dead. It suggests here that he still had a reason he deserved to die, though he may not have deserved a death such as that. And so you see, Abel begins to show us first the fruits of the futility of our own righteousness. You see Abel's name actually means breath or vapor. Right. It's the same word that's used in Ecclesiastes all the time where it says vanity. It's just nothing. It's pointless. And so here you have a display of our own righteousness. This is a man favored by God. He walks in faith and yet he still dies. Why? See this is the thing that we're going to begin to see as we walk through these first 1500 years. that their own righteousness is not enough why. Paul, as he looked through all the Old Testament, seeing the death of all his ancestors, asked this question and arrived at this conclusion in 1 Corinthians 15 22, in Adam all die. Because of Adam's disobedience, all of us perish because of what he did. We'll elaborate on it a bit more as we go through our passage. But here then we follow the line of Cain. He goes there. God gives him a chance to repent, but he says, am I my brother's keeper? Am I watching him all the time? Where is your brother? says, am I my brother's keeper? He gives him a chance to repent. God knew what he had done, but yet he says, no. He acts like a smarty pants to God. And so then God turns him and sends him off an exile. He goes off east to a land that would soon become the future home of Babylon and Assyria. All right, the great enemies of God. And then he follows a short genealogy of his own. He gives birth to a son named Enoch, names a city after him. And you see his descendants become very well-versed in trades. They're becoming prolific, they're learning new things, but you see in the genealogy, there is no reference to God whatsoever. None at all. And when does the line end? When is the last record we have of a man named Lamech, who... is the first recorded polygamist and also, like his father Kane, a murderer. And so you see here, God is showing us, where does sin end? What has happened because of Adam's disobedience? He has created a family of murderers and polygamists, of people who chase their own lust and desires, who are filled with sexual lust and bloodlust. That's what happens when we choose sin. Adam ate an apple and now his own relatives are killing each other. But you see, that is what sin does. It always ends in death. So now, let us look for our second ray of hope. We come to the line of Seth. So you see it at verse 25. It says, knew his wife again. bore a son called his name Seth. For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel for Cain killed him. So Seth also was born and he called his name Enosh. Now at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. So you see, right, all hope is gone. Cain's ruined it, Abel's dead, but another son is born. She said, you have appointed for me another offspring pointing back to maybe this is the promised offspring. Maybe this will be the one. and then it launches into a big long line that goes all the way to Noah. And so, I want you to, there's a reason we didn't read through the genealogy because look, there are a lot of good things in genealogies. You'll know if you read the devotions, there's some really fun things in there. But no one likes reading through them, so I didn't want you to have to suffer that. know, fair enough, I was already struggling enough with Vicky trying to pronounce them the hu-zhal-al and all kinds of things like that. There's some heavy names in there. But there is something that you can observe easily. Look at all the men that descended from Seth. Many different names, but it all goes and follows the same pattern. They lived for 800, 900 years and then died. Every single one of them. They begat a son that died and died again. The one exception being Enoch. Don't have time to get into that today. But you see, every single one of them died. And so you see, 900 years sounds so impressive. We're like, man, how did they do that? Were they all vegans back then? Or what were they doing? What's the secret to live 900 years? 900 years is not impressive when you realize we were meant to live for eternity. We were meant to live forever. Why did they die? Romans 6, 23. The wages of sin is death. These men were still sinful. every single one of them passed away because there's still no hope, seemingly. And then where? But you see, right, now at this point we get to Genesis 6, which is this passage which speculation abounds because who these Nephilim and the sons of God and oh my goodness, people have to run wild with this and I get why. Because this is pre-flood, there's so much mystery, so much shrouded that we don't understand and don't know. But you see here, the thing that Genesis 6 is showing us is here is what the ultimate end of sin is. Just see where it gets us. And see. We run into these sons of God, all right? The Nephilim can also be translated giants, most people accept they had giants back in the day. Not 100 metre tall giants, giants like Goliath, right? Very tall people. They lived for 900 years, big surprise, they had very big people. You eat enough food, you get big, right? but they also had these called sons of God. People have different interpretations of it. Some say they were fallen angels and there are good reasons to believe that interpretation, understand why. And I also said in one of my devotions that, you know, it doesn't really matter where you land and you're right, it doesn't, but I'm also gonna say what I believe because it kind of fits in very well to the narrative and I think it makes sense. The sons of God are the line of Seth. All right. And there is a reason I point this out because see how I've been talking about the whole point of Genesis 4 to 6 is to show you the spread of sin. And even as you go down later on in Genesis 6, and it says that the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Why would it end with the conclusion talking about the wickedness of fallen angels if God is seeing the wickedness of men? All right. I understand. Some people will have that view and it's okay. But you see here, we are coming to the conclusion to see the wickedness because Seth was meant to be the righteous line. Maybe through them will be someone who will be righteous, who will be this ray of hope, the one to conquer the serpents. But then we're given this story where these sons of God, the line of Seth, see the daughters of men being the line of Cain. And it says they looked at their wives, they saw they were attractive and they took them. it mirrors exactly the language of Eve and the garden with the fruit. uh They are following in the sins of their ancestors, doing the exact same thing. And so, that pure line is still sinful. It just shows you there is just no hope. Every ray of hope that seems to shine through is just getting destroyed. And so you see, we're asking the question then, there seemingly is no righteous line, so why do they fall into sin? We talked about it bit at start. God looks into the depths of the heart of men. In verse five, right? The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that the intentions of the thought of his heart were only evil continually. So, that's just to say it's like, right, God kind of went, know, He got the microscope out and it went, okay, here's you. And then he went down a bit further, here's your heart. And he just kept going further down, further down, further down to the very center of who we are as people, to our heart. That is the center of who you are, where everything else comes out, everything of this fruit of that thing, of that root. It is only evil continually. So you see the fruit of the tree come from the root and the root is ruined. Another way of putting it, think of it like this. We were made in the image of God, right? As was Adam, so he was meant to perfectly reflect God, show who he is to the world. And he had a heart that desired to be like God, in a good way, to reflect his character, not to be like him in the way they felt. But now, he has tarnished that image. No longer does he bear the image of God perfectly, but is a tarnished image now, the image of a sinner. And so you see now, he does not reflect God, but rather seems to reflect more the one who made him fall, the serpent Satan himself. And you see the problem comes Genesis 5.3. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. So now Seth reflects his father. Now, if Adam had... kept this complete whole unstained image of God. That would be a great thing because they would all reflect God as well. But instead now, He reflects His sinful, wicked Father who turned and rebelled against God. And it has gone that way ever since. All of us have descended from Adam. No one is here without exception of that. And so it means that we have this inclination and desire within each and every one of us, at the core of us. hate God. This is why David says in Psalm 51, 5, behold I was brought forth in iniquity or sin and in sin did my mother conceive me. See, because of what Adam chose to do, because of his disobedience, all of us have inherited his sinful nature. We are born to hate God. And these desires, this sinful nature now gives birth to sinful actions and the wages of sin is death. That is why all die. You see, we cannot fall for the delusion of the world that says, man, people are inherently good. I understand why because we're sinners and we look at people and like, oh, there are some bad people, they're doing, like they're doing good things. We get this idea that people just need a bit of TLC, you know? Just get the CLR on them, just get rid of the rust and there's something good underneath. There isn't. There is no good, it's just filth and wickedness. You see, people don't do good things. People do nice things all the time. You see, but the problem is our definition of good is rarely biblical. Because biblical good is not doing nice things, it is bringing glory to God. And so, even if someone goes out and adopts a hundred orphans, if someone solves world hunger... it still doesn't make that thing good. There may be good that comes from it. I'm not saying that feeding people is a bad thing. It is a great thing. But even if one starts 100 orphanages, if there is no gratitude and no prayer offered to the very person who provided the wood and all of the building supplies and the breath and the very lungs that that person has to which to build the orphanages, If they offer no gratitude to the God who gives all those things, that is not a good work. Especially because those things will never point people to the God whom they need. We all need God. We've been separated from. That's the point of Genesis. We need to get back to Him. Good works bring us back to Him. You see, we can wrap ourselves in supposed righteousness. So many layers that even the most discerning Christians cannot see through it. But God does. Every time. He sees the wickedness and contempt that lays beneath it. All of us are the spitting image of our Father Adam. Right? Without fail. And see, this is the inescapable problem. We're all His children. We all descend from Him. We are made in the image of a sinner. because of his disobedience, we are ruined. So what might be the solution to such a predicament? We can't do enough good works. We need a new Adam. We need a new father. You see, if you look back to 1 Corinthians 15, 22, it talks about us being in Adam. We have this connection to him. He's like, he's the head of the family, right? Imagine a table that's... I don't know how many people have lived, know, 10 billion, 100 billion people long. Who sits at the head? Adam. Because he is the head of the family. And that means as children, we are affected by his decisions. Because of his disobedience, we are made disobedient. Now, some will say, that's unfair. We can't be punished for the fact that he chose to do something. But I just want you to consider one thing. there is this other Adam talked about. This other person in the Bible that talks about as being in Him or united to Him and it is Christ, right? It is Jesus. And so consider Romans 5.19. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. We were made sinners by Adam's disobedience. Because of him, we fall. but it is the very same mechanic, the very same concept that makes us righteous in Christ. Because of your faith, you were placed in his family and you were made righteous because of him. We cannot just say we want, oh well, I'll take the good stuff, but I don't want to inherit the bad stuff. We are guilty because of what Adam did. So we are made righteous because of what Christ did, right? You see, we cannot have it both ways or one way. For those who believe in Jesus, Adam ceases to be the head of your family and Christ instead sits at the seat. So no longer are you being made a sinner, you are being made righteous. Putting it in the terms of what we've been talking about, in terms of image, says it in 1 Corinthians 15, 49. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. The man of dust is Adam, all right. And it talks about it in the past tense, as we have borne His image, as we have borne the image of a sinner, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Future tense, we shall bear His image. So, okay, you've got the past and you've got the future, what's happening in the present? This is all those passages that talk about the old self is being crucified, is being put to death, and the old self is being renewed day by day. Right? And so the old you, the sinful you was passing away and through faith you were being transformed from one degree of glory to the next, being conformed to the image of Christ. No longer will you look like Adam who looked sinful and then looked dead, but instead you will look like Christ who walked in obedience and then into eternal life. So you guys understand what I'm saying, right? We are sinful because of our fathers. We are given a sinful nature. Why does this matter? I've got three points for you. That you are a sinner by nature, not by nurture. Judging others will do us no good and our families do not define us. So we're really asking the question, right? Why do we sin? It's our first point here. You're a sinner by nature, not by nurture. Because you see, so many of us, I do bad things because society pressures me, because peers pressure me, because of my upbringing, because of past trauma, that's what makes me the person I am. But actually, like I've been laboring in this message, the reason we sin is because of who we are at the core of us, because we are sinners. You see, the problem with thinking that it's not is because then we get led into a place where we think, well, I just got to separate myself from the world enough. If I just get far enough away, then I'll be okay, because I won't be ruined by all these external things. Or better yet, if I can just... We just kind of find ways to just kind of clean up the mess, make ourselves feel better, because we think if I scrub hard enough, it will go away. It doesn't go away. You see, we are bad and evil people. Okay, some of you will say, I accept that. Okay, I know that, yes. It's also something that we need to believe and teach to our children and grandchildren. You see, Children don't become Christians by being restricted from the outside world. I understand that there are steps that need to be taken to protect the innocence of children. I am all for that. But we mustn't think that the only job that we have for those who are younger than us is simply to guard them from the problems of the world. That is part of it, but there is something else we are called to do, to tell them who they are. No one has come to Christ until they have seen themselves as they truly are. And so if we just tell our children all the time, you were innocent, you need to be protected, we just need to keep you away from the bad things, that's not what makes them. Christian. You see, we get led into this place then where it's like we just, especially some people just want to write on their mirrors for their children, you are worthy, you are enough. And I understand some children really struggle with self-image and things like that. I do understand that. But the solution to those things is not lying to them because the truth is they are not worthy, they are not enough. Not in the eyes of God. See, no lasting benefit comes from these things. They don't need self-esteem and pride. They do need to be loved unconditionally. And they need a savior, but those things do not include the fact that you must be worthy of receiving that. Unconditional love doesn't make, normally it's because you're unworthy of receiving. And so our children will not know God. Our grandchildren will not know it unless they realize that they are just as condemned and helpless as their parents and their grandparents are. That is what they need to know. They need to know they are sinners just as much as we are. Because until they see that, they will not come to Christ. It doesn't happen. All right. They need to know they are hopelessly lost without Him. And so going on to the second point, why we need to realise that we are born with this sinful nature, there's something inside of us, not just outside of us, Is because it started with this sin in the garden, right? What was the motivation in Adam and Eve's heart? We want to be exalted. They want to put themselves up, lift themselves above God even. They want to be made more important. What's the end result of something like that? Polygamy and murder. The only person who's a polygamist and a murderer is someone who puts themselves first. I deserve to live more than you. I have every right to claim whoever I want for my sexual lust. And you see the problem is after the fall, we've all been condemned. We all stand guilty before God, sinners deserving of death, and nothing, and I've just told you, nothing can scrub it off. And so, it's humbling and I'm filled with guilt now and how do I cope with this? Easiest way to do it? start judging others. Just create this world in your mind where you become the judge. You become the arbiter of what is right and good. Because suddenly, inevitably, your way is always right. And you can look out at others around you and say, they're just not doing it right. At least I'm going the right way. And you see, because this creates this feeling of righteousness within us, which helps get rid of that feeling of guilt that we have. makes us feel better. And I get why. It's not biblical. I understand why we do it though, because I do it. And it's hard because the Bible is not a book that will help our self-esteem. It will fill us with unspeakable joy, but not by making much of us. And so we hate this feeling of not being worthy, so we sit in this judgment seat. If only people served as much as I did at church, if only people parent their children the way I did, if only they did this or didn't do that, then the world would just be such a better place. Things would just be so much better. You make your life and your way of doing things the righteous path, the way that Christians should walk, the way that everyone should walk, and then you vent your frustrations when people don't walk that way. want everyone to be like you because then there wouldn't be any problems. But the problem is when everyone's like you, the world ends up like this. I don't want people to be like me. I don't want people to be like you. They need to be like God. All right. But you see, when we become this judge, we make our path the right way to live. The problem? We need people to walk the way of Scripture. And the problem is our way? We walk off the path of life a thousand times every day. Alright, we go the wrong way. By God's grace, we are brought back onto it. And so we need to remember that. That this judging doesn't are good for us. It simply again puts another self-supposed righteousness cover on that does nothing for you. God sees right through it. Now, you might think, well now Matt, you're sitting here judging us. You're telling us the way to go. You're saying that this is the right path. How do you have any right to sit up here, stand up here and tell me the way to go? And look, you're right, I must repent. For many times I have stood and condemned people in my mind thinking, if they just went another way, if they just went the way I wanted them to go. We've all fallen into that sin and I'm sorry that I have too. But today, I am not guilty of that. Not in this message. Why? Because in this message, I'm not standing here and telling you this to elevate myself. I'm doing it for the purpose that you might find a better way. Because I stand equally guilty of this. I'm in the same pit. The only way this benefits me is if I elevate myself, but I'm digging a pit and throwing myself in with you. We are all in it together. I am in Adam just as you are, I am worthless and wicked. And so I judge in love. having first judged myself long before I ever brought this to you. And see, because my desperate wish is that we would cease from judgment. Seize from judgment in the way to seek to elevate ourselves above one another and to find a better way. And so now I want to offer my third point, a gospel hope. These, naturally these sermons about sin can become very heavy and rebuke sometimes or exhortation, but I want to give you, and again, that's not a bad thing, it has to be done, but here is some amazing gospel encouragement for that our families do not define us. This is the great news of the new family, of the new Adam that Jesus is, that where he succeeded, where Adam failed. All of us come to God with baggage, right? All of us have walked the path of life and it's a messy one. Walked through things we'd really rather not have walked through. Family history, upbringing, traumas, addictions, there are so many things that follow us in our past. And we can be left thinking those things at the end of the story. But for Christians, these bad things that we've inherited from our family, from our past, are not the end of the story. rather those things, remember I said the image of the man of dust is passing away. It is past tense. It will be done away with. And so the things from our past that hold us down, that trouble us, will be gone one day. In some aspects, they'll be gone in an instant. Most time, it will be worked out through your life over a lifetime. But you see, now you were made part of this new family. and you were given a new start. Better yet, when this full family is brought in in its full number, the old you will be done away with, and it will just be the new you. But the important thing to remember, to be able to enjoy this new family, this new start, you cannot continue to blame everything around you for the person you are. I understand that some of us have walked through hard things, but until we accept the responsibility, the part we play in those things, that even because of the sins of our father Adam, it is because we are in this situation which we have a part guilt in, until we take responsibility, we will not be able to enjoy that family. take responsibility, I mean take them to God and ask for His forgiveness. He's like, please show me grace. I don't even understand how I may be guilty in these some things, but I know I am. Please just show me forgiveness. And you are brought into this new family to enjoy all its freedom. The new start in a new family. You see, you people are not defined by where you came from. You are defined by your faith in Christ and you will be a whole new person and you are being made a whole new person. And so, as we wrap up, And all these things, the whole point of Genesis 4-6, this ray of hope we are looking for will not be found in Genesis or Exodus or Leviticus or Joshua or Judges or Kings. It can only be found in Christ. For us, for our children, if we want this freedom from judgmentalism and self-exaltation, if we want the baggage of our past gone, it can only be found in taking refuge in Adam number two, in Christ. to take refuge in him is to put your hope in him and his righteousness every single day. To not trust in their own way and the way you've been going. To know that you're a guilty sinner every day, but that every day you trust in him, his righteousness cleanses you. When you fail, it is not about trying harder, it is about clinging on harder. Do not let go of him. So that is the message. In Adam all die. You can do all you want, you're gonna die. Forever and ever in hell. The only way out is to flee to Christ. To Him, put your hope in Him, to put your faith in Him, to trust in Him. There's no other way. Praise God, most of you have been doing that for 50 years, more. Continue to do it to the very end. Sorry, when I say most of you, I'm not saying you're old. Okay, I'm just, you know, no, I'm sure most people here are barely over 50. But anyway, take your refuge in Him, seek Him always and in everything. He will be the only way you find peace from the guilt in this life. So we'll finish up in prayer now. Father, we thank you. Lord, that though all people have failed, that all have been thrown into disobedience, that we have all walked in it, there is one who has been obedient. It has been your Son, Jesus. uh And better yet, He did not leave His obedience to Himself, but rather He took our sin upon the cross in our place. He took away the punishment and gave us His perfect life, His obedience. Father, we do not deserve such a gift. We do not deserve this new family which You have brought us into. But Father, how we pray that You may help us, Lord, to let go of the past, to accept our part and the blame for the things we have done. ask for your forgiveness and to enjoy all that this new family has to offer. And we pray that you may return soon, that you may keep our hopes steadfast in you as we wait. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.