The Legacy of Seth

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles, this morning to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4. we are doing a verse by verse study through the Book of Genesis, and as we continue our study this morning, we come to the last two verses of Genesis chapter 4, and my goal today will be to cover verses 25 and 26. And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be The Legacy of Seth, and here's the legacy, calling upon Jehovah's name.

Calling upon Jehovah's name. Let me start with a little biographical information about myself. When I was born, my parents named me Milton. and that's why you call me that.

they had a good reason for naming me Milton. They named me after a friend of theirs who had been very good to them when my mom and my dad had first got married. When my mom and dad were married in Hawaii, my dad was a brand new Christian and both my dad and my mom were far away from, family. And Milton, this friend of theirs, and his wife, Betty, took my dad and my mom under their wing and helped them in the early days of their marriage.

Essentially, Milton discipled my dad in his earliest days as a Christian. So when I was born, my parents named me Milton in honor of this man. That's a great story that I can appreciate now, but in my early years of growing up, I greatly disliked my name. primarily because people teased me a lot because of my name.

over the years of growing up, people called me Milton the Monster, Milton the Toaster, Milton Bradley, and Milton Berle. It bothered me so much that my parents actually considered changing my name. As they discussed it, they decided that if they were to change my name, they would change my name from Milton Edward to Darryl Darren. My name was almost Darryl Darren.

I could have been your pastor, Darryl, but my parents ended up deciding against a name change because of the cost, and they left me with the name Milton. For some reason, I don't know if it was just growing up a little bit and understanding people didn't mean any harm by it. After about the 5th grade, my name never really bothered me. Anymore, even though people still tease me for my name and there were times when my name created awkward moments for everybody.

I remember one occasion my freshman year of high school, we had a substitute teacher fill in for our English teacher one day and the substitute did not know any of us. She also did not have an attendance book with her, so she pulled out a sheet of paper and she sat down in front of the class. And she said, I'm gonna go down the rows here and when I point to you, just give me your name and I'll write your name down so that your teacher will know that you were here. But when she got to me, she pointed to me and I said, Milton.

She looked up from her piece of paper and said, no, seriously, what's your name? And I said, it's Milton, and she said, I need your real name, young man, and if you're lying to me, I'm gonna report you to your teacher. It was then that the guy seated behind me spoke up and said, he's telling you the truth. His name really is Milton.

And then she was like, oh, and immediately put her head down and wrote my name, and it was obvious she felt very stupid. But such is the story of the name that my parents chose to call me by. And I start with this story because in the two verses that we're going to look at, And be studying today, we will see the word call 3 times and the word name 3 times. We will see a mom calling her son a name, and then that son will call his son a name, and then in response to the name that he calls his son, people will start to call upon.

The name of Jehovah. The concept of calling and naming figures very prominently in these two verses that we'll be looking at today. We're actually going to see in our text today, an example of a dad who gives his son a very unflattering name that is actually quite humbling of a name. But it was a name loaded with theological significance and it led to a wonderful outcome.

That we will look at this morning. First of all, to really appreciate what's happening in these two verses, we need some background information. Just to review, Adam and Eve had two sons. The first born was Cain, and the second born was Abel.

Abel worshiped God and gave the very best of what he had. Cain refused to worship God in the way that God wanted. And so long story short, Cain killed Abel and in killing Abel, Cain killed off anyone who would have potentially descended from Abel. Because of Cain's sin, God curses Cain in connection with the ground, and he banishes him to a life of being a vagrant and a wanderer.

But God does promise to be Cain's personal protector, protecting him from anyone who might ever want to kill him. Last week, we studied the legacy of Cain in Genesis chapter 4. Cain eventually finds a wife and has a son, and then a grandson. And so forth.

We studied the descendants of Cain. Last week, we saw how Cain's descendants showed great ingenuity and prowess in music, in agriculture, and in industry. We also saw how the 7th generation descendant of Adam through Cain was a savage man named Lamec. Whatever technological advancements That had occurred over the generations, it culminated in a savage man singing a savage song about killing and about retaliating against anyone who would ever dare to cross him.

We saw that Lamech is a man who does what he wants. God's plan from the beginning was for marriage to be between a man and a woman, yet Lamech wants two women. So he does things his own way and takes two wives. We also see that Lamech is a man who does not need Or want God's protection, Lamech would not be leaving vengeance to God.

Lamech would handle things himself. He has his weapons of iron and bronze, and he will happily use them to carry out his own vengeance. In Lameck, we see pride, we see threats, we see boasting in one's own strength. Lamech is the picture of self-sufficiency.

And violence against his fellow men. Anyone, just pretend that you've never read the Book of Genesis before. And you're, you reached this point of the narrative all the way to verse 24, and you just finished reading these words of Lamec that we studied last week. Anyone reading the narrative of Genesis up to this point through verse 24 would still have the hopeful promise of Genesis 3:15 in his mind.

In fact, I believe I have that, yeah. God has promised that there would be a descendant in Genesis 3:15 of the woman. who would arise and who would crush the head of the serpent. But coming to this point of the narrative, the reader would know.

That the line of Cain. will not be producing such a person who will crush the serpent's head on behalf of mankind. Lameck represents the apex of Cainite. Lineage, and he is certainly not the promised one.

Lamec will not be crushing the head of the serpent on behalf of mankind. All Lamec is interested in doing is crushing the heads of humans who would dare to hurt him in any way. Lamec is a small-minded man who is too self-absorbed to be anyone's savior. Anyone reading the narrative up to this point, up to verse 24 would be left troubled and hoping that the narrative doesn't stop there.

They would be asking, is this it? Is this it? God promised in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would be at enmity with those who are the seed of the serpent, and that a single seed of the woman would arise one day and crush the head of the serpent on behalf of mankind. It seems evident now that the seed of the serpent is Cain.

And his line And the only candidate for someone who might have qualified to be the seed of the woman through whom this future champion would come was able. But Abel is dead. So far there are two offspring that Eve has produced, who might potentially be the ones through whom this coming champion over the serpent would come, Cain and Abel. That's it.

Yet as one writer says, Abel is dead and Cain is disqualified. So far, up to verse 24 of Genesis 4, the serpent seems to have succeeded in guaranteeing that no champion will arise who will crush his head. But fortunately, The story does not end in Genesis 4:24. The focus of the narrative comes back to Adam and Eve, and we will see that another birth happens, a birth that sets in motion a chain of events that causes chapter 4 to end with what R.

Kent Hughes calls a shout of grace. Look at the final statement. Of the last verse of what is otherwise been a very dark chapter. Here's how chapter 4 ends.

Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. How does this revival occur? How does the narrative get to this point and merely two verses from Lamec, verse 24 in the line of Cain to just two verses later, then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. What we'll do this morning is observe 4 developments in verses 25 and 26 that turn the narrative so decisively.

And culminate in people calling upon the name of the Lord. Let me read the passage to you, Genesis 4. 25 and 26, it says, and Adam had relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son, and she called his name Seth, for she said, God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him. To Seth, to him also, a son was born.

And he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand his words this morning. Four developments that we'll observe in just these two verses which advance the narrative of redemption and culminate in people calling upon the name of the Lord.

Development number one, Adam has relations with his wife who gives birth to a son. Adam has relations with his wife who gives birth to a son. It says in verse 25, and Adam had relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. This act of intimacy conveys hope on Adam and Eve's part.

Think about it. They've lost 2 children. They lost Abel to murder, and they lost Cain, who is under the curse of God and who has gone out from the presence of the Lord to live the life of a vagrant and a wanderer. Adam and Eve could have been so discouraged by this, that they swore off children, but they did not do that.

God had made a promise to them and it is this promise to them in Genesis 3:15 that keeps them going. From the next chapter, and we'll be studying this in the coming weeks, we learned that Adam and Eve are around 129, 130 years old when they come together in physical intimacy on this occasion, full well knowing that a child might be conceived as a product of their union. And to unpack a little bit of Eve's thinking, Eve might have been right or wrong about this. But what follows in this verse that we're looking at today gives us a clear indication that at this point of Eve's life, Eve is thinking that Abel was the one through whom the champion was supposed to come.

But Cain killed Abel. In her mind, Eve believes that there needs to be a replacement for Abel, who has not yet arrived. If Eve has already had other children after Abel, which may very well have been the case, we know that she doesn't view any of them. As being Abel's replacement.

Yet here she and Adam are having physical relations in a wonderful act of hope and faith that God's promise still might be fulfilled. And wonderfully Eve conceives in her womb. She carries that child to full term and she gives birth to a son. This is a major development in the storyline of the Book of Genesis.

There is Cain who is banished, there is Abel, who was killed. And there is now a 3rd son. whom every one of us in this room share as an ancestor. Observe what Eve does once this 3rd son.

is born Development #2, Eve gives her son a name, a vision. And hope. She gives her son a name of vision and hope. It says she called his name Seth, for she said, God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.

By the way, this is the only verse in scripture where you see Seth, Abel, and Cain, all three of their names mentioned in one verse. You see the pain of a mother. Decades and decades have gone by, no doubt since Cain killed Abel, and yet here she's giving birth to Seth and she still has Cain's killing of Abel on her heart. But she's excited about what has happened.

Notice that Eve uses the word offspring. In verse 25, which is the Hebrew word for seed. Which is the same word that is used twice in Genesis 3:15. She says, God has given to me another seed.

When Cain was born at the beginning of Genesis 4, she says, I have gotten a man-child, but here she is using the Hebrew word that is translated seed in Genesis 3:15, indicating that she has this promise. of Genesis 3:15 on her brain. The first thing that the text tells us here is that Eve names her son, Seth. Literally, in the Hebrew, the text tells us that she named him Shai.

Shai, for she said, God has shot me. Another offspring in the place of Abel. We lose the, in our English translations, we lose the connection of the name Shai or Seth to the verb that is translated appointed. The verbhai means or shath means appointed to be set or to be placed.

And given the fact that the word set is actually one of the words that define the name Seth, let's go with that word. A good paraphrase of this passage would be, she named him Set. For she said, God has set another offspring in the place of Abel. And that clearly conveys the idea.

That Eve is communicating here. When you combine the word set that Eve uses with the words in place of the clear idea of what Eve is communicating. Is that in her mind, Seth is the substitute for Abel. She named her son Seth because she saw him as the one that God is establishing and setting in place as a substitute for Abel, who was killed by Cain.

She views Seth as Abel's replacement, who can now serve as the line through which the promise of Genesis 3:15 can be fulfilled. The promise of the coming champion, who would crush the head of the serpent. Eve seems to understand that the serpent inspired the killing of Abel for the purpose of thwarting God's purpose to bring about a champion who would crush the head of the serpent. Yet now Eve realizes that God's purposes have not been thwarted at all.

In fact, God is giving the gift of Seth, who is set by God. To be Abel's replacement. God's purposes have not been hindered. God's purposes will indeed prevail.

His promise of Genesis 3:15 will come true after all. And Eve realizes that though the serpent succeeded in having Abel killed off, God is now providing a counter move in response. In the chess match between God and Satan, God has just made a move. He provides Seth.

As one writer says, the first round is won by the serpent in the murder of righteous Abel. But the gift of Seth ensures that the promise will stay alive through Eve. Another writer says it this way, what Cain or human wickedness took from her that has Elohim. Which is divine omnipotence restored.

She has a real feeling of something being restored to her. God has given her Seth, who replaces Abel. God's promise will be fulfilled. And he gives her Seth, but here's the rub.

Abel was born too. But then he was killed after he was born. Abel never had a chance to produce any offspring. Will Seth, having now been born, be killed also?

Will he be hindered from being able to produce any offspring? As Abel was. That question leads us to the next development in the story. It seems that Seth grew to adulthood.

He got married to a woman who was a descendant of Eve and then observed what happens next, and that is development number 3. Seth has a son, and he gives him a name of humility. Seth has a son and he gives him a name of humility and to Seth, to him also, a son was born, the text tells us, and he called his name Enoch, Enosh. What a wonderful occasion this must have been.

We learned in Genesis 5:6 that Seth was 105 years old. When Enosh is born, Seth probably had other children prior to Enosh being born, but Enosh is singled out here and again in chapter 5 because he is the one through whom The champion of Genesis 3:15 would come. This had to have been an exciting development for everybody. Seth has now done what Abel never had a chance to do.

Seth has produced an offspring. The promise continues. After his son was born. Though the text tells us that Seth gave his son a name.

And he called his name Enosh. Technically, the word Enosh is another word for man. It is a synonym for man or for mankind. So far in Genesis, we have seen the word Adam.

used to refer to man. We've seen the word ish used to refer to man, and we've seen the word Zakhar used to refer to man as male. So those three words for man have been used up to this point, but here, Seth is introducing a word for man that has not yet been used up to this point of the Book of Genesis. And this begs the question, why does Seth choose this word to name his son with?

Why does he call him Enosh? Many commentators will tell you that the word Enosh is from the Hebrew root nash, Annash that means to be weak, to be frail, or to be sick. In fact, Jeremiah 17:9, just write down that reference, the heart is desperately sick. It's this root word, Enosh is the word in Jeremiah 17:9.

It means to be sick, it means to be weak, it means to be frail. Hence the word Enosh is in fact, it is one of the words for mankind, but it generally speaks of men. In his weakness, and in his frailty as opposed to God, who is great, and who is strong and who is immortal. In the theological dictionary of the Old Testament, it says this about the word Enosh, says a major theological concept underlying the use of this word is the fundamental distinction between God and man.

The word Enosh reminds man of his transience and of his lowly position before the Almighty. And naming his son Enosh, Seth is introducing a new word for man, a word that speaks of men. In his weakness, in his frailty, in his mortality, in his smallness. Throughout the Old Testament, when a writer wants to speak of man in his smallness compared to the Almighty, Enosh is the word that he will most likely use.

In Psalm 8:4. The psalmist says, when I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is, he doesn't say, Adam. But he says, what is Enosh that you are mindful of him. He's feeling very small, very puny, and so Enosh is the word that he uses.

In Psalm 103:15, the psalmist wants to speak of man as mortal, whose life is like grass. And not surprisingly, he uses the word Eos. He says, as for man, In other words, as for Enosh. His days are like grass.

Kyle and Delich, two commentators who wrote an excellent commentary set on the Old Testament, say that in the name Enosh in our passage today, in that name, the feeling and knowledge of human weakness and frailty were expressed, which is the opposite of pride. And arrogance So Seth is actually calling his son weak man or frail man, frail one. Seth seems to understand the weakness and the brokenness of the human condition. He also seems to understand that man is not God and should never presume to put himself in the place of God.

What got Adam and Eve into trouble was the lie that if they partook of the forbidden fruit, they would be as gods. Man gets into trouble when he doesn't respect his place and tries instead to become God, but there would be none of that thinking with Seth and with Enosh. Embodied in the name Enos is the admission. It's a confession.

It's an admission that man is the frail one. The mortal one, and that God is the strong one who is immortal. For Seth to name his son Enosh indicates his awareness of man's deep spiritual need. Man is created in the image of God, and he bears the imprint of the image of God in a variety of ways.

But in naming his son Enosh, Seth is humbly enshrining in that name a recognition of all the ways that man is categorically not like God. Seth was not merely naming his son Enosh here and bestowing this name on his son, he's recognizing that he himself and everybody is Enosh and his naming of his son is memorializing that recognition. He wants his son's name to bear witness to this admission on his part. He wants people to hear Enos's name and be reminded that they too are Enosh.

He wants all the descendants of Enosh to know their place. Before God. God is immortal and man is not. God is strong and man is not.

God is great, but man is small compared to the greatness of God. All of us are inosh. And so is it any surprise what happens next? That leads to the 4th development in this passage, and that is that men began to call on the name of Jehovah.

Men began to call on the name of Jehovah. It says then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. We are told now about the effect. that the birth and the naming of Enos had on people.

Everyone would know from what Eve has said that Seth replaces Abel and that he is the seed through which the champion of Genesis 3:15 is going to come. Everyone would also be excited to see the progress taking place when Seth gives birth or Produces a son in Osh, and they would be encouraged to know that God is on the move toward redemption. And then on top of that, everyone would be struck with wonder at this name that Seth gives to his son. They apparently agree with him and embrace what Seth is admitting about the human condition and naming his son Enosh, because the text tells us that it was at this time that men, not all men, and not people probably in the line of Cain, But men began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Whoever these people are, they don't criticize Seth for giving his son such a name. Instead, they joined Seth and turning to God and calling upon the name of the Lord. The fact that men At this time are now looking up and looking away from themselves and calling upon God. is a wonderful development.

The contrast with Lemec is stark. Lamec boasted in his own name. In fact, in verses 23 and 24, he calls out his own name twice. Imagine talking to someone and they just keep referring to themselves, using their own name.

He refers to his wives as you wives of Lamech. He states that if Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech is avenged seventy-sevenfold. Lamech was so full of himself that he would only proclaim his own name. He did not need to call upon the name of the Lord.

Instead he boasted in his own powers of vengeance. He would do better than God, even in protecting himself. And the only names that Lameck calls out to in his poem. Or a song are the names of his bride Ada and his bridezilla.

And even then he only calls upon their names to get them to listen to him brag about himself. But over in the line of Seth, just two verses later, people are not calling upon their own names. They're not boasting in their own achievements. They're calling upon the name of the great Jehovah God.

This is a huge difference. Seth names his son Weak Man. And then people began to call upon the name of the Lord. This is the natural thing that people do when they see their weakness and their brokenness, and they see God's greatness.

They see that they are not God, they see that they are mortal. They see that they are in a condition from which they need rescue from God. And they see that God is great, that God is immortal, and that God has the desire and the ability to provide the rescue. That is needed by anyone that calls out to him.

Honestly, if you really embrace the label Enosh for yourself, then you will inevitably call on the name. Of the Lord who is not in Osh. Notice that they are calling upon the name of the Lord, which translates the Hebrew word for Jehovah. They're calling upon the name of Jehovah, Jehovah.

This is the relational name of God. We have seen that appears for the first time in Genesis chapter 2. It does not show up in chapter 1. This is not the distant creator of the universe.

This is the God who created Adam and shaped him from the dust of the ground, and then in a very personal gesture. drew close to Adam and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is the God who revealed Himself to Adam and Eve and who walked with them in the garden, who formed and fashioned Eve and then brought Eve to The man And it is this God whose name men are calling upon after Enosh is born and named. They're realizing what has been lost in the fall and they wanna have a relationship with Jehovah God.

So they call upon Jehovah. They want him. In particular, the text tells us that they call upon his name, which speaks of the sum total of his person and his character. They are embracing all that Jehovah has revealed about Himself up to this point in human history, his character and his person, and the whole revelation that they have received about Him.

They want to relate to him in particular. They don't want to relate to a god of their own making, whoever he or she or it is. People talk that way nowadays, just believe in God, whoever he or she or it is, as long as you believe in God, that's what's important. All gods are the same, but no, no, that's not what these people are doing.

They're calling upon Jehovah. They know the name of the God. That they are calling upon. They want to relate to the true God, the one who has revealed Himself, Jehovah God.

Calling upon the name of the Lord, we know from the rest of Scripture is the essence of salvation. We're told in Joel that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be what? Saved. This call is delivered again by Peter on the day of Pentecost, on the birthday of the church.

This call is repeated by Paul in Romans chapter 10. And guys, it's not simply that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will, in response to having already done that, be saved by God. You call on the name of the Lord, and then God's like, well, what, because you've done that, I think that I will save you. It's more than that.

The mere act of somebody calling upon the name of the Lord is in itself evidence that they're already being saved. From their self-reliance. They've been saved from looking within themselves or to anything else and now they are looking outside of themselves and away from anything else, to God, to Jehovah. That's huge Moses has an important motive for telling the children of Israel as they stand on the threshold of the promised land.

About how people called on the name of Jehovah back in this day, the days of Seth and Enosh, near the very beginning of human history. He's wanting the children of Israel to know That the worship of Jehovah that is prescribed in the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament that is prescribed in the law was not a new religion. It's not a new religion, but that it was merely a return to the worship of the only true God that occurred way back in history, close to the very beginning. Think about Seth's mindset and naming his son Enosh.

Most of us in this room, we know that As humans, we are weak and we are immortal. But would you ever Give your child a name. That memorializes that awareness. Would you name your son Fril One?

Weakling. Mortal one. Probably not. But Seth does.

And I'm sure if there were ever family reunions with Kane and his lineage, and I'm sure Kane's kids had descendants had all of these vibrant names that just exuded power. arrogance. He's introducing all of their family members and then says, says, well, this is, here's my son. His name's Enosh.

Enosh He's saying I'm not even going to compete. We're broken, and we are weak and we are frail. That's who we are and that's why we call on the name of Jehovah God, who is not weak and who is not frail, and who is immortal. It's a radically different way of life.

Seth names his son Enosh, and it's not morbid for him to do so. Listen to what one writer says about this and how, how balanced this all is. He says Seth was so impressed with the weakness of mortals that he gave his son a name indicative of this truth. Such a name, however, does not reflect pessimism or discouragement.

It is expressive of truth, deep. Unvarnished truth. But the very next statement now goes on to show what this family did when their own frailty became clearly apparent to them. They turned all the more eagerly to their God, and they sought him, making a regular and public practice of it in worship.

Same is true with Christianity. Christianity is not a pessimistic religion. It's the most positive and optimistic of all religions, but first it tells us, it confronts us and tells us that we must admit. The unvarnished truth about ourselves.

That is, I am mortal, I am frail, I am weak. I am sick On the other side of that admission and calling upon the name of the Lord, there's phenomenally good news. And we see the seeds of all of that back here in Genesis chapter 4. Seth and his son, and those now calling on the name of the Lord recognize their weakness and smallness before God, and they actually made their weakness, their boast, and they call upon the name of the Lord, and it's on this wonderful note that Genesis 4 ends.

So we end the chapter with a touch of wonderful irony. In the description of the line of Cain, as we studied last week, we learned about human accomplishments and boasting in one's own strength. But here in the line of Seth, we learn about admitting weakness and about calling upon God and worship, as Henry Morris wonderfully says, no more do we read of human accomplishments and boasting, but rather of men calling upon the name of the Lord. Another writer says it this way, Cain's first born and successors pioneer cities and civilized arts, but first born and successors pioneer worship.

And you might hear that and go, yeah, and OSH's line was probably so heavenly minded that they were of no earthly good. Well, think about it. In the end, whose lineage accomplished more for the human race? Kane's lineage ended up being wiped out and ceased to exist in the great flood.

It stopped there. None of you in this room are of the line of King. His civilization ceased to exist in the flood, was destroyed. Enoshe's lineage survived the great flood and gave us what we have in our Bibles.

It gave us the nation of Israel with all of its advancements in law and worship and ethics. Enoshe's lineage gave us the savior. Who has marked Western civilization in profound ways over the past 2000 years. In fact, all over the globe.

Enosha's lineage gave us the Messiah who will one day return to Earth and reign upon the earth for 1000 years in the greatest civilization that the world has ever Known, and in the meantime, Jesus Christ, the descendant of Anosh, marks our lives in profound ways as our Lord and Savior and ultimate example. I think Anosh. And his lineage did much to benefit mankind. We see in this passage a picture of the church, we see in Seth and we see in Enosh and in all those referred to here a foreshadowing of the church.

Here we are thousands of years later. Doing the very thing that was done very close to the beginning of the human race. We confess with Eve that God has made his move and provided a champion through Enos. We also look at our own brokenness and we confess our weaknesses.

In fact, we boast about our weaknesses and our smallness before God and we call upon the name of the Lord. In the process of doing all that, we're connecting ourselves to something deeply ancient. In human history. This is a practice, what we're doing in this service.

And admitting our brokenness and calling on the name of the Lord is a practice that is at least 6000 years old. Admitting our weakness and calling upon the name of the Lord is just what God's people do, it's what Christians do. From the day of their conversion throughout the entirety of their lives. That's why Ananias in speaking to Jesus in Acts 9, Refers to Christians as those who call on your name.

That was just the way they referred to Christians. They're people who call on your name. This is why Paul refers to Christians in 1 Corinthians 1:2, as those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's one of the names.

For Christians, it's those who call on the name of the Lord. We are a people who are united in the fact that we've seen ourselves in our weakness and in our dire need, and we've called upon the Lord and we do so every day. We don't wanna just call on the Lord by ourselves, but we want others to join us in that. That's another thing that should characterize believers in Jesus.

Paul makes a wonderful statement in Romans 10:12. Let me just close with this. He tells us that God is the Lord of all, abounding and riches for all who call upon Him. Just think about that.

We have God, Jehovah God with all of these riches, and he abounds in the giving of those riches to everyone who will call upon Him. And the very next verse, Paul tells us that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's a promise that we can give to people, that I can give to you today, that if you call upon the name of the Lord, you will be saved from your sin. Paul then poses this question to us as Christians.

How then shall people call upon him and whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without A preacher. And he goes on to say, how shall they preach unless they're sent and how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. So this is what we want to be. We want to be a community.

Of people who are not afraid to confess our weakness, our smallness, our sin. We want to be a community of people that provides a safe place for others to admit their brokenness and their sin. We also want to be a community of people who call upon the name of the Lord as the characteristic pattern of our lives from day to day, and we want to bring the truth of the good news of the gospel to other people, so that they might hear this same good news and join us in calling upon the name.

Of the Lord.

We are a people who call on his name. And who give the good news to others so that they can join us. And also call on his name. Our message to the world is the champion has come.

The champion of Genesis 3:15 has come, and he died on the cross and was raised from the dead and he has crushed the head of the serpent, and his name is Jesus, He is Jehovah. And whoever calls on his name will be saved. By him As the psalmist says of him in Psalm 865, let me just read this, he is good. And ready to forgive and abundant and loving kindness to all who call upon him.

If you have never called on the name of Jesus. I plead with you to call on his name today. Whoever calls on his name. We'll be saved.

Let's pray together. Lord, there's such a radical difference between Christianity and any other religion. Other ways of salvation. Look inward, Christianity.

Say our solution is outside of ourselves. Other religions involve boasting and one's own achievements. And earning one's way to a better life, a better afterlife, a better eternity, earning their way into heaven. Christianity says no, salvation comes to those who admit their brokenness, who admit that they are merely in no.

Weak and frail and mortal and sick with sin, and who, seeing that turn to Jehovah God and call upon his name for salvation. If there's any in this room, Lord, that have never called upon you, I just pray, Lord, that You would do a work of regeneration in their hearts and bring them to a place where they see their sin like they've never seen it before and, and that they see your grace and your love like they've never seen it before, and that they would look at you and all of your grace and power and love, you, the savior that died for them.

And that they would look at you and say, I can, I can admit my sins to him. I'll go to him and confess my sins to him, and I will look to him to be my Lord and Savior, and I will call upon him, or do that work in the hearts and lives of people today.

Help us who are your people. To call upon your name. Every day and make that the pattern of our lives. We don't just call on you on the day of our conversion, but that what we do on the day of our conversion establishes the pattern of admitting and confessing our brokenness and calling upon you in all things.

You're a good God, and we thank you for this grace and salvation that you've given to us. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you. This morning, receive these funds that we give and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus Christ, the glory of this Lord and Savior whom we call upon. In whose name we pray, and all God's people said,