Genesis Seven Men

Most of us realize that the book of Genesis brings before us the sea flood of all the Bible. So all the truth that's in the other books of the Bible is found in seed in the book of Genesis. That's the Bible.

One of the great, I don't want to say proof, but we believe it's the word of God. It's because in the book of Genesis, all the seed is seen for all the rest of the Bible. I just mention a few of the things before we look at our subject.

If we take for instance that we have the creation, then we have the fall of man, we have the great plan of salvation, we have the Lord's coming, and we have the tribulation of everything is found in Christ in the first book of the word of God. So I'd like to say before we start this subject tonight, that the Bible opens with these four words, in the beginning God. Those are great words, in the beginning God.

I've often said it would be nice if somebody was to publish as a text those four first words of the Bible, in the beginning God. And so therefore we can expect in this book many wonderful things in the book of Genesis. And I'd like to bring before you tonight, with the Lord's help, seven men, seven men in Genesis that bring before us the Christian life from beginning to end.

Who but God could do such a wonderful thing in the first book of the Bible. So now in the fourth chapter of Genesis, we have the first man we're going to speak about tonight, his name is Abel. And he brings before us the beginning of our Christian life, that is salvation.

We're not going to read the whole thing, but the fourth verse of Genesis 4. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. I'll just read you the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, I think it's the fourth verse, where we have Abel mentioned again. Hebrews 11 verse 4, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Now we easily learn in those two verses, beloved friends, that Abel was not accepted by God because he was a good man. He wasn't accepted by God because he was a better man than Cain in that sense. Both of them were born outside the Garden of Eden.

Both of them had the same kind of parents. Adam and Eve were fallen creatures, and Cain and Abel were born into this world the same as you and I were as fallen creatures. We learn in these verses that it was the sacrifice that Abel brought, and by which he was accepted.

He was accepted because of his offering. Now the difference between the offering of Cain and Abel was this. That Cain brought the fruit of a cursed earth.

There was absolutely no death. There was no bloodshedding. And I believe that Cain as much as said, I don't believe that I'm a fallen creature.

I don't believe I'm a sinner. I believe if I bring the fruit of a cursed earth that God will accept me. But I believe that Abel said, I am a sinner.

I suppose that Adam and Eve, the parents of these two boys, told these two young men what had happened in the third chapter recorded, in the third chapter of Genesis, how they had fallen. How they were put outside the Garden of Eden, and how God clothed them with coats of skins before he put them out of the Garden of Eden. We know, beloved friends, that those coats of skins are a picture of Christ.

Where we believe that God himself, Jehovah, killed some animals, no doubt. And from their skins he provided coats that covered up our first parents. And they went out of the Garden, and they could say, God has dressed us.

And so though you and I are fallen creatures, we who know the Lord Jesus, and have been born again by faith in him, we can say we're outside the Garden of Eden. We're fallen creatures, but God has clothed us in his own righteousness. What a wonderful thing.

And so tonight we have a better place than Adam. If Adam had never sinned, he was an innocent creature. And you and I tonight were innocent creatures.

We have never, never sinned. I say we have a better place than that. Where we stand accepted in the beloved before God.

We stand in God's presence, accepted in Christ. We stand before God, dressed in God's own righteousness. Isn't that better than all man's efforts to clothe himself? And so we have this first man I want to speak about tonight of the seven.

His name is Abel. And he was accepted in his offering, through the offering, because when God looked at Abel's offering, he looked down through the ages, we believe, and he saw Calvary's cross. He saw the Lamb of God on Calvary's cross, his own beloved Son, of which Abel's sacrifice was a type or a figure.

And so God accepted Abel through his sacrifice. And it tells us in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, he'd been dead, yet speaketh. And I'm sure if there's any in this room tonight who have never yet met the Lord, who are not yet saved, have never found out the value of Christ's death and resurrection, why Abel is speaking to you tonight.

Abel would say, don't bring your offering, bring God's offering. God's offering, God's Savior. The Savior that God has provided is Christ.

And friends, Christ alone can save you. Christ alone can save you. A lady was telling us the other night in Los Angeles, she said, I believe in the Lord Jesus, and I believe I'm saved.

But she said, I think I really have to do something. And I said to her, you mean you have to do something to add to Christ's work? And she more or less said yes, she did. Well, my friends, we're not surprised.

We're not surprised. A leader of Montreal religion told me that years when I was first saved, he said, you can't be saved only by Christ. It's Christ and you.

It's Christ's work and your work that bring you into eternity saved. Well, I don't believe that. I reject that because it's not the word of God.

Christ did it all. And the old Negro said at a testimony meeting many years ago, when they were giving their testimonies, the preacher looked down and saw this old Negro. He knew he was a Christian.

And he said, Sam, what did you do? Aren't you going to give your testimony? And he said, sure, Parson. I'll give my testimony. He stood up and he said, look, I did all the running, and I did all the sinning, and God did all the chasing, and God caught me, and God saved me.

And he said, to God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Well, isn't that the truth? And so our first man is able, and I hope that everybody in this room has come to God through the Lord Jesus and knows on the authority of the living God and his precious word that we're accepted in the beloved.

There's no other place. There's no other standing beloved. Now, there may be somebody in this room that doesn't understand the Bible, and you'll pardon me if I try to help you, but there is such a thing as our standing and our state.

You know, if we confuse these two things, the standing and the state, we'll never get peace in our hearts. Now, listen. Our standing depends on what Christ has done at the cross.

It never changes. It can't change. Peace with God remains the same.

No change, Jehovah knows. But our state depends on what we do. And so if we seek to walk with God and we have in our next man, his name is Enoch, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, in communion with God and the enjoyment of Christ in our hearts, then we shall be in that state of the enjoyment of the Lord.

But our standing never changes. Oh, dear Christian friends, let us remember that tonight. Our standing depends on what Christ has done.

Our state depends upon how we act and how we live. Now, in the fifth chapter, we have this remarkable man, Enoch. Let us notice the twenty-first verse of Genesis chapter five.

And Enoch lived sixty and five years in Magat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after Magat Methuselah three hundred years and Magat's sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred, sixty, and five years.

And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Remarkable man. We know in the sixth chapter, he repented the Lord that he made man in the earth.

The earth was filled with violence and corruption. And there was a young man born into this world and he was called Enoch. His name means dedicated.

Here in this awful scene of corruption and vileness, these parents had a boy and they had faith, I believe, and they called him Enoch. Now, you who are young parents, you're living in a similar day to this, when violence and corruption fills the land. And your children have been brought up in the fear of God in spite of all the difficulties around about your little girls and little boys can be brought up in the fear of God.

And the result was that Enoch walked with God. Now, there's something to notice here. Enoch didn't begin to walk with God until his children were born.

For he walked with God three hundred years and he lived three hundred and sixty-five years. Now, that three hundred and sixty-five years is exactly the same as our calendar. Three hundred and sixty-five days in the year.

Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years. Each year of Enoch's life might represent one day of our calendar year. How many days do I spend on myself? Is it sixty-five a year? We spend sixty-five days away from the Lord, sixty-five days at a communion with God.

But I believe when Enoch's children were born it drew him to his knees and he realized in the vileness and corruption of the day in which he lived he had to walk with God in order that his children would see something of the living God in his life. Well, it tells us that Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. And so in the second man we learn the secret of communion.

He walked with God. Isn't that wonderful? He walked with God. And somebody has said as he walked with God one day probably God said Enoch, we've walked together for a long time.

Let us walk right now into my house above. And Enoch was translated. He was taken out of this world without dying.

It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? What a picture of the church this is. Now we haven't got time to turn to it but in 1 Thessalonians 4 which is the Enoch chapter where we read of the coming of the Lord and the translation of all God's people of the church and all the Old Testament saints who have died in faith to glory. We have two words in that first verse of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Verse one is the word pleased and the word walked.

And Hebrews 11 verse 5 it says that Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God. Here in our chapter he walked with God. The very thing that characterized the Thessalonians in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians characterized Enoch.

He pleased God. He walked with God. And in that fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians the true Enoch which is the Lord's redeemed people are going to be taken to heaven.

At the end of the chapter it says the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangels and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. Just as Enoch was. We'll be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be be with the Lord.

Well friends we read today about man going into space, don't we? Everything is ready for the Lord's return. We believe we're living in the last seconds of this day of grace. Pretty soon there won't be any gospel.

Pretty soon nobody will bother people with tracts there'll be no more people coming up and saying here's a little gospel tract you know the Lord and none of that left. The whole mass of professing Christianity and all those who have a religion but not Christ will be left behind for judgment. So we have communion here.

Enoch walked with God. Now I want to read in the 7th chapter. Here we have the story of the flood in chapter 6, 7, 8 but there's one verse I want to read to you about Noah.

Chapter 7 of Genesis and verse 16. And they that went in went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded him and the Lord shut them in. I like to think of Enoch as our eternal security.

The Bible brings our salvation before us and Enoch brings communion before us. I like to think of Noah here bringing security before us. You know there are Christians who believe we can be saved on Sunday and lost on Monday.

Well that's not God's salvation. When God saves a man he saves him. Now there are many people tonight who get to meet on the street and they'll say well I certainly am a Christian.

I wasn't born in Africa. I wasn't born way off in China. I was born in a Christian country and when I was born as a little baby I was born a Christian.

That's not what God says. The Lord Jesus said we have to be born again to receive a new life from God. That's why there's so many people who profess to be Christians who are not happy.

You can't think of anything more unhappy than trying to live a Christian life without being a Christian. It's impossible, isn't it? He's like a dead man physically dead on the floor and you're trying to feed him. Well he doesn't enjoy the food.

He's dead. But when we're born again we have a new life and the Spirit of God lives in our bodies. Christ lives in us.

How wonderful. Now about this question of eternal security. In the tenth chapter of John's Gospel it's very beautiful to see what the Lord says.

I'll read it to you so you can get it right. John chapter 10 and verse 27. John 10, 27.

Each word is so important. My sheep. My sheep.

He doesn't say all people in North America. He doesn't say all baptized Christians. He doesn't say everybody that says I'm a Christian.

He says my sheep. My sheep. Hear my voice.

And I know them. And they follow me. Now notice.

I know them. Now each one of us who are Christians here we can stand at the door and shake hands and say I know the Lord. And I know the Lord.

But isn't it nice to know that the Lord knows us. He says I know them. And they follow me.

And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all.

And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Now the next verse is very important.

Notice. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone. That means they did it once before.

And they did it in the 8th chapter below and it was very, very noticeable for us to meditate on. They did it when the Lord Jesus spoke about Abraham. And the Jews said thou art not yet 50 years old.

Hast thou seen Abraham? And the Lord Jesus said these wonderful words. Before Abraham was I am. And when he made that statement the Jews didn't misunderstand him.

There's a certain sect of their cult that doesn't understand that verse. But the Jews understood exactly what Jesus meant. When he said before Abraham was I am he meant he was the eternal God as a man on earth.

And the Jews understood. And they picked up stones to stone him. Isn't that remarkable? We learn from this scripture in John 10 and John 8 we learn two things that Satan really hates.

He really hates. First, he hates the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the great I am. The God who ever lived.

The God from eternity. The ever God who came into this world manifest in flesh. The devil hates that.

And the devil also hates this truth that the sheep of Christ are eternally saved. And he's fought this for years. And he's brought the whole of Christendom into confusion because so many of God's people say well if I sin surely I'm lost again.

And I think it's nice to explain this. There's little children here tonight. And we know children make mistakes and they do things that are wrong.

I don't suppose a father would say now you've done something wrong. You're not my child anymore. I'm going to throw you right out of the house.

And even if he did they'd still be his child because they have his life in them. The father and mother's life is in those children. You can't get rid of them.

They're yours. They're yours. And so the child who has received the Lord Jesus Christ the child of God by faith in Christ he has the very life of God in him.

Isn't that wonderful and in 1 John I think it's chapter 3 it says that those that are born of God cannot sin. Now there's a certain group who's saying that means that the person who's saved can never sin anymore but the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says they that are born of God cannot sin.

That means to say that that new life we receive can never sin. But we have the old life with us and how well we know it. Doesn't take very long for us to discover if we try to deceive ourselves the Bible says that we deceive ourselves.

If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. We have an old bad nature that only can disobey God. But we have a new life.

We have two lives. The Christian has got two birthdays. When he was born into this world of his parents when he was born again through faith in Christ.

And so you see we have Noah here. He was in the ark. Now couldn't Noah shut the door? Couldn't God say to Noah Noah you're in the ark you shut the door.

But the Lord wouldn't trust Noah to shut the door. The Lord shut him in. Now could the devil open the door? Could the devil take Noah out of the ark when the Lord shut the door? Could any demons could any man could anybody take Noah out of the ark when the Lord shut him in? No.

There was nobody that could open that ark door once the Lord shut the door. And beloved you and I are in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? There's no ark today to escape.

But Christ is the ark. And you and I as Christians were in Christ when the Lord shut us in. And we're saved for eternity on the authority of the word of God.

Oh beloved if you're deceived tonight if you're a Christian who feels you're going to be lost again let me say this it's not God's salvation. There's a little illustration of an old preacher maybe you've heard this. He was walking down the street and along came a man who was drunk and he addressed him and said don't you know who I am? And the preacher said no, I've never as far as I know I've never seen you in my life.

He said I'm one of your converts. The preacher looked at him and said I think so. If you're one of God's converts you wouldn't be like that.

But if you're one of my converts you could do anything. Well my friends that's a simple illustration but there's many people who were converted to the preacher who have never been saved by the grace of God. How nice it is to have Christ and to be able to say I'm safe in the ark and the Lord has shut me in.

Now we turn to our fourth man who brings before us Abraham or faith. Genesis chapter 12 when his name was Abram who was later called Abraham. Genesis 12 verse 1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee.

Notice it was each one was getting harder. Leave his country leave his kindred and leave his father's house. Verse 4 So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him.

Then in the we find many many instances of Abraham's faith. We had it last night in our Bible reading. When he was an old man and he was told by God that his wife who was then 90 years of age would have a son, Abraham believed God.

When he was told to take Isaac up into the mountain and offer him upon one of the mountains as a burnt offering to the Lord, he went. It tells us in the 22nd chapter he rose up early in the morning. He didn't sleep in.

He rose up early in the morning. He went unto the place that God had told him. Just notice his faith in that 22nd chapter of Genesis.

In the 5th verse, And Abraham said unto his young man, Abide ye here at the abbey, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. While he was going to slay his son, what faith this man had. I wonder what he thought.

For you know, at this very moment when Isaac lay on the altar and the hand of Abraham was raised with the knife, a picture of Christ at Calvary, the Lord said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, Do the lad no harm, for now I know thou fearest God. Isaac's life was saved at the last moment.

And you notice what it says down further in the 22nd of Genesis, verse 19. So Abraham returned unto his young men. It doesn't say Isaac returned.

Abraham returned. By God's song we believe Isaac offered up. How wonderful that was.

The faith of this man. This man who went, as Hebrews 11 tells, he didn't know where he was going. He received a call from God.

He heard the call. He answered the call. He came out of darkness and of hedonism and he heard the voice of the God of heaven.

What a life of faith it is. You know, you and I, we walk by faith, not by sight. Everything we receive, we receive by faith.

Faith believes God. Isn't that wonderful? Faith takes God at his word. But every one of us, whether we're saved or not, in our daily life, we exercise faith, don't we? We get onto a train and we believe it's going to take us to Chicago.

Or we get onto a plane, we believe it's going to take us back to Canada, to Toronto or Montreal. We don't always look out of the window and see if we're really on the right plane. We just buy our ticket and we sit down and everything is left in the hands of the people in the front, in the cockpit.

We have faith. We get into an automobile and after seeing what we did tonight, it takes faith to get into an automobile. We just get into the car as Christians.

We are Christians. We commit ourselves to the Lord. He'll take care of us.

Abraham was a man of faith. The Christian life is a life of faith. We believe in a man we've never seen.

How wonderful that is. We believe in a man we've never seen. Our whole eternity is based on a man we've never seen.

We've come to love a person we've never seen yet. That's faith, isn't it? Faith in the living God. And so now we have salvation.

We have communion. We have our security saved for eternity. And now we have the walk of faith.

But the next man brings before us Isaac. Further over, Isaac brings before us sonship. He was the child of Abraham.

He was the son name is Isaac. Well, we look at the twenty-sixth chapter. And Isaac brought before us all through this, the twenty-sixth chapter.

Notice this seventeenth verse. And Isaac departed then and pitched his tent. And then in the twenty-fifth verse, and he built an altar.

Well, the tent would remind us that Isaac was a pilgrim. The altar would remind us that he was a worshiper. And Isaac was the son of that man of faith.

He was the son of Abraham. This would bring before us sonship. You and I are the children of God.

In Galatians three, in verse twenty-six it says, I'll read it to you, For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And it tells us that we're sons and heirs. What a wonderful thing it is to be a child of God, to be a son.

That place that God has brought us into as a son. There's only one we know, the son of God, the Lord Jesus. But we're brought into that relationship as his sons, as his children.

And God is our father. So as a human father disciplines his child, so God is our father, often disciplines us. And so if Isaac brings sonship before us, then we have Jacob who brings before us discipline.

And Jacob's life, I suppose, is one of the most interesting lives in the Old Testament. Everybody loves Jacob and we all love Peter. These two failing men, Jacob with all his crookedness, having deceived his father in the 27th chapter of the book of Genesis, we find Jacob as a young man led by his mother to deceive his father.

He pretends he's Esau, and it tells us in the 27th chapter of Genesis in verse 18, and he came unto his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I. Who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou batest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit, and eat of thy venison that thy soul may bless me.

And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son, Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

Well, he deceived his father. And there are many, many people who are deceived in this world because they go by their feelings. This old man, Isaac, he was just about blind, and he heard the voice of Jacob.

He confesses here, it's the voice of Jacob. But he said, It's the hands of Esau. He went by his feelings.

My friend, each one of us tonight, if we trust our feelings, we'll never get peace with God. He should have listened to the voice of Jacob and gone by the voice. So you and I should listen to the voice of God, not go by our feelings, not say, Well, I feel saved.

We should say, I know I'm saved because I heard the voice of God in the blessed Bible, which is his precious word. Isaac's life was a life of scheming. He was a schemer all through his life, and indisciplined.

At the end of his life, he said, All these things are against me. Why, his own sons, his own ten sons later deceived him in connection with Joseph. What a sad life he had.

If you just turn to the eleventh of Hebrews, we see how this dear old servant of God, incidentally, before I mention this, when he went into the presence of Pharaoh, stood before that great monarch, the head of Egypt. You know what he did? He blessed. He blessed Pharaoh.

Just imagine, if we were to go into the presence of the President of the United States, poor people working our way through life, into the presence of a millionaire like he is, or in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, and said to either of them, We've come to bless you. Why, they think this is a strange thing. But this old patriarch, Isaac, he knew he was in a better place than Pharaoh.

He realized that even though he was just an old pilgrim and a worshiper of the true God, he had the best place. Now, dear Christian friends, are we like that? Do we realize as Christians that by the grace of God we're the salt of the earth? Do we realize that the judgment of God has not fallen on this world because his people are still here? And before he judges this world, he's going to call his people home to glory? You know, we're ambassadors for Christ. And when war is declared, the country always calls its ambassador home.

And before God judges this world, he's going to call his ambassadors out of this world to glory. Well, here in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, verse 21, we read about Jacob. Five faiths.

This is a great chapter of faith. And all of a sudden, God said about this man. By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

Isn't that a wonderful commendation from God? What does it mean that the end of his life as a poor, old, worn-out pilgrim, under the discipline of the school of God, this old man finds something to lean on outside of himself. He leans on his staff all through his life. He leaned on himself.

He leaned on his plans. He leaned on all kinds of things. You read his life, you'll see the schemes he had, and the plans he made.

Then he tried to bring God into them after he had laid his plans. But now, at the end of his life, by faith, he leans on his own staff. Isn't it nice, as we get older, to find when we're losing our strength and old age is coming upon us, to know there's somebody we can lean on outside of ourselves, we can lean on the Eternal God.

What a place to lean, what a great person to lean on, the rock of ages, the one upon whom everybody can lean, and he never tires, he never worries. He stands there and is the blessed Lord of glory. We can lean on him, all our troubles, our problems, instead of scheming and then asking God to bless our schemes.

It's best to ask God to bless us first and then make our schemes after him. And so Jacob learned in the school of God the subject of discipline. And each one of us, beloved, have our trials and tribulations.

Isn't it nice in the fourth chapter of Mark's gospel, when that great storm blew up and the ship was tossed in the waves and the disciples were so afraid, isn't it nice to know that before the storm came, Jesus was in the ship with them. He was with them long before the storm came. And when the storm came, he was able to say, peace be still, and it was a great calm.

And so this school of discipline would teach us that our Father passes us through these trials and tribulations, but he's always with us. He's always with us, and he's able to bring us to that place that Jacob was brought to where he leaned on something else than Jacob. Oh, dear Christians, how guilty we are of trying to lean on our own understanding.

And all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. And so we have in Jacob discipline, and finally we have in this man Joseph, we have glory. Well, this is the forty-fifth chapter of Genesis.

This young man who was a picture, one of the most beautiful pictures of Christ in the Bible. Here he is where he's the head of all Egypt. In verse thirteen of Genesis forty-five, and ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt.

Well, it tells us of glory. Joseph, the man of sorrow, the tribulation, the man who was sold for thirty pieces, twenty pieces of silver, now is brought by God into this place, a type of Christ we know, but we're using him tonight as a type of a Christian. After all his troubles and trials, his brethren turned against him.

Isn't it true that the devil tried to tell you and me sometimes that our brethren have turned against him? It's sad to say we listen to the enemy sometimes, but you know Joseph knew that God was with him. And it tells us in that beautiful chapter where he overcame the temptation that the Lord was with Joseph. Many times, I think it's three or four times, that the Lord was with Joseph, and the Lord gave Joseph favor and part of his eyes and so on.

And here at the end of this wonderful story we have Joseph reveal himself to his brethren, but he's telling his brethren to go to his Father and to tell of his glory, all the wonderful glories of Christ. And this is the place that God is going to bring you and I who are Christians, he's going to bring us to glory. We shall be in glory.

Did you ever know that you and I by the grace of God are in a will? You know, if we were told tonight we were left in the will of some great man, we might be able to tell our friends that when this man dies, we're going to get ten million dollars, but that man may change his will. He may say, I'm going to change it. I'm going to take your name out and put somebody else's in.

But in the 17th chapter of John's Gospel, verse 24, the Lord Jesus said this, Father, I will. I will. That they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.

Now, there's a will that never can be taken out of. That was the Lord's will. You know, in the 22nd Luke, he prayed and he said, the connection was going to the cross and going through those awful hours of darkness in particular, he said, oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. But in the 17th chapter of John's Gospel, where he sees the work all finished, he says, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Why, he says, Father, I will.

Blessed Lord went to the cross and he gave himself for us in the 19th chapter of John, but there he expresses his will. And that will is going to be, we're going to behold his glory. And how blessed that is.

And the seven men of Genesis define these lovely things which you can meditate upon. First, salvation. Are we saved tonight? Do we know the Lord Jesus? Isn't there somebody in this room that's not saved? Tonight you can be saved.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came over here to save sinners. And you know, the apostle Paul was the sinner's chief, and the sinner's chief is in heaven.

So we have an able salvation. We have an enough thought of communion. He walked with God.

We have a know of the fact that we're eternally saved. Oh, beloved, I pray that nobody in this room will believe that doctrine of being saved and lost again. God's salvation makes us secure for eternity.

We're in Christ. We're brought into that place of eternal blessing through the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, and his precious blood has cleansed our sins away. And then we have in Abraham the life of faith.

Oh, how nice it is to honor God. Abraham believed God and was counted unto him for righteousness. The life of faith.

We walk by faith, not by sight. And then we have in Isaac the fact that we're the children of God, sons, his children, brought into his family. God is our Father.

The Lord Jesus said in John 20, I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God. Did you ever hear a Christian pray like this in an assembly prayer meeting, our Heavenly Father? Well, we know we respect that, we know what they mean. But actually we address them as our Father.

I remember our Brother Clifford Brown brought up that when we address them as our Heavenly Father, we put them at a distance in the heavens. So we address them as our Father because God is our Father. We're born into this family, we're his sons, we're his children.

Sons in that place of adoption and children by birth. Oh, how blessed it is to be a child of God. And then Jacob brings before his discipline, to which each one of us have to pass as we find in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, in the school of God.

God bringing us through the school of discipline, through his school. He brings us into that place of blessing, always to bless us. Our Father always brings us into that place of blessing.

Earthly fathers, you know, sometimes discipline their children because they're in a bad temper. But the Lord always in his love to us, in his grace and in his goodness, brings us through his school. And finally, Joseph brings before us glory.

How beautiful this is. Let us trust that the Lord will bless these thoughts. I personally enjoy them.

You can enlarge on them. You can read the scriptures and find in these the lives of these seven men. Many, many points that we haven't mentioned tonight will be a real help and a real encouragement to each one of us.

May the Lord bless this precious word.