Thank you, brother. You live on a battlefield. I think most of you are aware of that. It is a war that has been waging since the day of creation. It is a war regarding the word of God. I'd like you to turn to Ezekiel 37. That's not our primary text. We're going to look at Genesis 2, one of the hot spots of the war. Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel is granted a vision of the deadness of Israel. In the vision, they are represented as dead, dry, bleached bones. And the Holy Spirit takes them to this valley where He can see the valley of bones. And God asks Him a question. Questions in verse, well let me read the description, verse 2. and caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. These bones had no sinew, no cartilage left. I mean, it's completely desiccated. Been laying out in the wilderness for a while. And God asks Ezekiel a question. Son of man, Ezekiel's nickname, Can these bones live? Ezekiel's a pretty smart character. He gives the only reasonable answer when God asks you a rhetorical question. You know. And that's what he responds back to him. And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. And again, he said to me, so God speaks to Ezekiel and says, prophesy upon these bones. And many of you recognize that the word prophecy is used in the scripture, particularly the Old Testament, is the equivalent of preach to these bones. And say to them, oh ye dry bones, Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God into these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and ye shall know that I am the Lord. The key witness to the Lordship of Christ is that He alone is able to resurrect dead men, to take dead bones and bring life again into them. Only God can save dead sinners. So Ezekiel's response, so I preached as I was commanded. And as I preached, there was a noise. And behold, a shaking. And the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above. But there was no breath in them. They're still dead bones, but now they're together. You can recognize, well, this is a man here, Well, maybe you can recognize that much from Bones. I can't. This is a woman here and this is a little child, but they're all together in their proper place, but still not alive. Ezekiel's wondering, okay, what's next? Then he said unto me, God says to Ezekiel, preach to the wind. Preach, son of man, and say to the wind, And you all know that spirit is pneuma. And when you get your second bicycle, your first one was solid rubber tires, and you hit a bump, it jarred you. But your second bicycle, as you grew up, bigger tires, and now you've got pneumatic tires. Air-filled tires. So kind of like rubber balloons around the wheels. Much softer to ride. So he preaches to the pneuma, he preaches to the spirit, to the breath. Preach, son of man, and say to the spirit, thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I preached as he commanded me, and the Spirit came unto them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Ezekiel, the son of man, his nickname, was to preach the word of God. And as he preached the word of God, the bones came together, and then secondly, the bones became alive. It is God's Word alone that has the power to save dead sinners. Well, you have an enemy that wants to damn you, and he's been busy trying to damn you since creation. Satan, who has been a liar from the beginning, Jesus tells you, is the one who came to Eve in the garden and asks a seemingly innocuous question, but he has an agenda to it. Has God said? He wants Eve to begin to question the truthfulness of God's Word. Because if you doubt the truthfulness of God's Word, He's got you. Adam and Eve doubted God's Word. tempted by Satan, and that got them death. And that hasn't changed today. So now I'd like you to turn to our primary text, Genesis chapter two. This is a text, verse particularly, that I have referred to a number of times as we've been studying through the book of Genesis. but I haven't given it a full exposition as I want to do this evening, this afternoon. Genesis 2 verse 4. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. God blessed the seventh day, sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. In verse four, this is the one I want to consider. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. One might look in bookstores and become thrilled at first impression that there are so many different versions or translations, alleged translations of the Bible. Well, doesn't that mean people are more and more interested in the Bible? No. Because many of the translations, so-called, have an axe to grind, they have an agenda. They are translated the way they are translated to introduce you to doubting God's word. They're not translated accurately. The whole point of the committee Not all of them know it consciously, but the whole point of the committee under the influence of Satan is to lie to you and to teach you you cannot really trust God's word. Because if you can't trust God's word, and that's the primary tool by which God saves sinners, you're damned. There's no option. And this fourth verse of the second chapter is a primary text for those who want to teach you you cannot trust God's Word. Noah Webster in 1857 in his dictionary defines an infidel as, quote, one who disbelieves the inspiration of the scriptures and the divine origin of Christianity, end quote. He illustrates that in his dictionary by a quote from John Knox, quote, the infidel writer is a great enemy to society. There is no doubt that vanity is one principal cause of infidelity." End quote. How do the mistranslators of the Bible deal with verse four to teach you you can't trust the Bible? It's full of errors. So they say, These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. How are you to understand the clause, these are the generations of, Does that clause refer to what's going to happen in time? So the clause is here, it looks ahead to what will be happening. Or does that clause refer backwards to what has already happened in time? The modern translations want to turn the clause backwards and say it's looking backwards. These are the things that happened that bring us to the period here of verse four. And by doing that, they create, they manufacture a contradiction. Because if it's looking backwards, if chapter two is again, what led up, what went before Adam, then Chapter 2 is repeating Chapter 1. If that's the case and you read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 side by side, you'll recognize Chapter 2 disagrees with Chapter 1. It has a different order of events. Huh! It takes two chapters to realize God can't be trusted. We don't have his word. There's an error right here. That's the ax they want to grind. There is no basis for the mistranslation. They're not dealing with a variant text in Hebrew. The text is unquestionably known. And this clause, these are the generations of, occurs 11 times in Genesis. And I want to make sure we look at all 11 of these to be sure what it means and what the Holy Spirit is doing in his outline of Genesis by this 11 times repeated clause. These are the generations of. Turn over to chapter 5 and verse 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. Well, these are the generations of Adam, literally. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God, made he him. Male and female, created he them, blessed them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. Adam lived 130 years and began a son in his own likeness after his image called his name Seth. Now which way is these the generations of looking? Here we've got Adam. These are the generations in which he was of Adam. And it talks about a son he has born to him some 130 years later. So it's looking ahead of Adam. It's not looking behind Adam. Clause doesn't have Genesis chapter 2 looking backwards and repeating Genesis chapter 1. Chapter 6 and verse 9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now just because the theologians at Duke University don't understand this, you do. Who comes first, father or son? So this clause again, these are generations of Noah, is not going to tell me what happened before Noah comes on the scene, it's going to tell me what happens as a result of Noah being on the scene. Going to talk about his kids, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Chapter 10, verse 1. Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and under them were sons born after the flood. Sorry, repeated the same thing. 11 verse 10, these are the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. How'd you like that name? Arphaxad. But again, the clause looks forward in history. What's going to be the result, historically, of the existence of Shem? What does he produce in the line of history? Chapter 11 and 27. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, whom you know as Abraham. God changes his name. Abram means father of many, Abraham means father of multitudes, father of many, many. Nahor and Haran and Haran begat Lot. Then the next time it's used is 2512. Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bear unto Abraham. 2519. And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac. Again, the clause is looking ahead in history. What's the result of Abram being alive? What did God do in development of his kingdom because of the life or through the life of Abram? Next time we find it is 36.1. Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. Esau took his wives, the daughters of Canaan, Ada, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite, and Aholabamah, the daughter of Anna, the daughter of Zibion, the Hivite. Again, there's no question, you read it, you understand it, that it starts with Esau and it goes ahead in history, not backwards. 36.9, we have again that clause used with Esau and these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir. And then the last time, 37-2. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. And you know what happens as a result of that? His brothers want to kill him. They decide not to kill him, they can make more money selling him into slavery, so they do that. Eleven times in the Hebrew this clause, teledot, is used in the book of Genesis. These are the generations of, and every time it's used it looks ahead in history. But some modern translations, when they mistranslate in chapter two and verse four, deliberately so, make it look back. So that they, by design, make Genesis two a second recounting of creation. So now you have two accounts of the creation week, and they're in disagreement. You can't trust God's Word, don't you see? That's the point of these liberal translations. And that's a deadly point. An eternally deadly point. And many people start off right as soon as they're reading the Bible with the doubt, can I really believe what I'm reading here? Can I trust what I'm reading? It's self-contradictory. No, it isn't. It's the mistranslations that deliberately intend to deceive you, that deliberately intend to ask you Satan's question to Eve. Has God said This can't be God's Word. There's errors in it. This clause in the Hebrew is found in three places outside of Genesis. Numbers 3-1, these are the generations of Aaron and Moses. Judges 3-2, these are the generation of sons of Israel. Ruth 4.18. Now these are the generations of Perez, one of Ruth's sons. What does the Hebrew clause mean? It clearly points not to the past, not to the present, but to the future. Here's what came about in history as a result of Adam and Eve's having been created. I'm not telling you how they were created or when. I hope you don't have any of the infidel Bibles, but the New English Bible It is a scholarly version. It is much higher than the New International Version which is 4th grade reading level. The New English Bible would be about 13th grade or college graduate reading level. The New English Bible translates verse 4 this way. This is the story of the making of heaven and earth when they were created. The New English Bible is really clear. We want you to read chapter 2 as a retelling of the incidents of chapter 1. Chapter 2 is a new creation story different than the chapter 1. The New International Version translates verse 4 of chapter 2 this way. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. Not the next 100, 200 years of Adam's life. The NIV wants you to question the truth of God's word. The New English Bible wants you to question the truthfulness of God's word. But then the editors of the New English Bible had a very poor understanding of God's word themselves. What time reference do the infidels want to give to this clause, teledote? They want, these are the generations of, to look backwards when it's very clear that it looks forward. What are the consequences of the infidels' forced misinterpretation? Consequence is to make you not believe God's word. They're asking, has God said? Can this really be God's word? When he contradicts himself from chapter one to chapter two? It is important What version of the English Bible you own and read? Because the translators are not always individuals who believe in God. So you need to be careful. Ask your pastor. I'm sure he can tell you some good ones and some bad ones. If God's Word can't be trusted, we're lost. It is Paul who says in Romans 10, that faith comes through hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So the truthfulness of this word and the acknowledgement this is God's word and hearing it with that reverence and confidence is essential to your faith, your believing in God. As Jesus in his prayer in John 17, which we usually refer to as his high priestly prayer, It is Jesus who says, Thy word is truth. Sanctify them in thy truth. Your growth in holiness, your growth in Christian maturity is dependent upon your belief that this is God's word. It is not the words of men about God It is not a collection of men's religious diaries and journals and experiences with God. It is God's Word. You may know that one of the nicknames for a prophet in the Old Testament by God is My Mouth. Prophets are the mouths of God speaking to you. Don't let anyone come up to you as Satan and say, hath God said? No, God said it. But you need a translation that's accurate by translators that believe God. Let's pray. Father, our life, both here and in eternity, is dependent upon your word. Grant to us a confidence, a confidence that is not rooted in our rationality, but a confidence that is rooted to your self-testimony. to the Holy Spirit who works the conviction in us that this is Your Word, not the Word of man about You. Father, give us discernment. Give us the real recognition that Satan's been lying from the beginning. Satan hates you and he hates your kingdom. And he desires to damn as many of your creatures as he is able to do so. May we read with alertness Be awake. Convict us that Thy Word is truth, and that the grass fades, the flowers wither, but Your Word changes not. To the glory of Christ, to our happiness and joy in this and in the life to come. In Christ's name we do pray, Amen.