You know why? Because there's so much, there's so much in there. But what there is, it's all the beginning of everything. And if you get, if you can get Genesis down, you can get the beginnings of every single doctrine in the Bible, I believe. Amen? Someone needs a donut. And we looked at Genesis. We looked at Genesis briefly last week. And I'm not going to go over the whole thing, but I want to just read it real quick, if you could with me. Just get it out of the way. It says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Right there is the statement. We talked about that last week. And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, let there be firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made a firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good. God said, let the earth bring forth grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, and to give the light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and the fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of the heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth upon the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after his kind, cattle and every creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. You see that? See the thing there, after his kind, after his kind. I mean, you just read the first chapter in Genesis, and it throws evolution and all them stupid theories right down the toilet. It's so foolish. There's no such thing as evolution, no such thing as that. and schools that teach that, and people believe that, and there's Christians that believe that. They think this... God right there told you, after his kind, no thing changes a kind. A bird doesn't become a dog, and a dog doesn't become a whale, and monkeys didn't become us. It's just ridiculous. Because God made it so. And the things that God made back then, the universe, and the gravity, and the firmaments, and the waters, and all that, remain to this day. They're the same. And the same creatures that he made on the earth, and human beings, and everything he made, it's the same kind. Nothing's changing in that form. Look what it says in verse 26. And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, created he him. Male and female, created he them. And God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you herb-yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of the tree-yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat, and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every living thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein is life. I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, praise Jesus. And behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. It's a lot of reading. I just wanted to finish that. But I want to talk to you what we were talking about last week. It's about these different dispensations in life. And this one here is, of course, the very first dispensation. And we know that there's seven, and there's actually going to be eight. But you have the age of innocence, where God made everything good. Amen? it's good, we've made man after his image, everything's innocent, there is no sin. Isn't that great to think of a time where there's just no sin? Isn't that great to think of a time that there's just innocence where, you know, I'll be honest with you, when you have a baby that's born into this world and it's your baby, that baby's innocent. Yes, it has sin in it, but that baby's innocent. It's innocent in the eyes of God, didn't sin against God. It will when it grows up, and it has sin in it, and it needs to be redeemed just like you do. But when you look in the face of a child, it doesn't know what right and wrong is yet. And the thing is, it's a beautiful thing to think of this wonderful place that God made. He made a beautiful garden called Paradise, but he made a Garden of Eden. He made man, made animals, and God saw. Now listen, I'm not talking about us. God saw everything and it was good. God saw it and said it's good. You know, we look at stuff and we say, that's good, and God says, you don't know the half of it. You don't know the deep down, but God saw it and it was very good. So I like to think of this because this is the beginning, but I also like to think how he is the alpha and the omega. He is the beginning and the end, and I know that he knows the beginning and he knows the end. And He knows what the beginning needed to be to get to the end. Amen? And one day it's going to be like this again on earth. I believe that. I believe that when Jesus returns to this earth, it's going to be like it was in the beginning. Because that's what He wanted. He wanted to look at that it's good. But we also know that man was created in his image and his likeness. And what does that mean? That means it gives us free will. And because of that free will, a lot of things happen. But I just want to talk to you about an age of innocence. And that started in Genesis 1.28 and it ends in Genesis 3.22. We're going to look at that in a minute. And then after that we have the age of conscience. So let's look at that first in Genesis 1.28. We just read it. And it says right here, it says, and God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the face. So God said and he blessed them. So here God is creating a covenant with man. He is speaking life into the world. He's literally saying, This is what's going to happen. You're blessed, be fruitful, and multiply. And in all reality, this is still taking place, but it's not taking place the way God wanted it to. And I want you to look at that, what we're going to get at. And I don't want to go too far, but look in Genesis chapter 3. In Genesis chapter 3, in verse 22, we have this taking place. And it says, and the Lord God said, now you remember the first time he said, behold, you're blessed, and be fruitful. And now he's saying unto them, God said, behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence. So here God made a garden of Eden, put him in it. Everything was great, a great age of innocence. But now we know because of sin and Satan and temptation and because of all these things, we know that now it's not very good. It's not very good the way God intended it. So now God changed. And that's when that dispensation of the age of innocence ended right there. And then we start into another age or dispensation, whatever you want to call it. We'll look into that more from Genesis 3.23. And it says, therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden to till the ground. And that is a different age. It's an age of conscience, where people now, there's no laws. There's no... written rules. So now people are going to do what their conscience says to do. They're going to do what they think is right. And that's a scary thing because a lot of times we, as human beings, we want to remove ourselves out of God's dispensation for man and we want to put ourselves in our own dispensation for man where we want to be able to do what we want to do. And the truth of the matter is, is at this time they were able to do what they wanted to do because God allowed it. And look with me if you would, please, in Genesis, I'm sorry, yeah, Genesis 8 verse 22. So it started when they got kicked out of the garden, and then it ended. In Genesis chapter 8 verse 22, It says, while the earth remaineth seeded, time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Now we have after the flood of Noah, we have God wiping out everything. He's starting all over. So that ended. So the time where men would just do whatever they wanted to do on their conscience started then. Adam and Eve and their children Cain and Abel and all those things that happened. We'll go back and read that later. But then it ended. And that's the thing with a dispensation. It has a beginning and it has an end. I want you to realize we're talking about beginnings and endings right now, but every time the way God deals with people, it has a beginning and it has an end. And in the big picture of things, we see the different dispensations, and we see the age of innocence, and the age of conscience, and we see human government, which is happening right now, when God said about the, and I love this verse, I wrote it down so you'd see it, verse 22, while the earth remains, Seed time, harvest, cold, heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. What's that tell you? There's no such thing as global warming. There's no such thing as global catastrophes. It's a lie made up, absolute fallacy. You know why? Because God made the heaven and the earth, and God said it's going to last forever until I change it. Amen? And man couldn't change it if they tried to. Can they pollute the air? Yep. Can they pollute the sea? Yep. But the seasons aren't going to stop. And I'm just here to tell you that anytime somebody thinks and believes in that junk and stupid garbage like evolution, take them back to what we just read. Or they believe in global warming, take them to that verse right there. And show them that God said it. And when God says it, what can man do about it? Amen? And in Genesis chapter 8, when I turned there I just showed you, but in Genesis chapter 8 is the end. And it starts in chapter 9, and if you look in chapter 9 verse 1 it says, And God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, here we go again, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Here He's starting again. And what God does, God has a start and He has a beginning. I'm sorry, He has a start and He has an end. Amen? And I just want to stop for a moment and just think about you. When did you start? Like, when was your existence in this earth? When did you start? Did you start when you were born from your mom and dad? Maybe. But I know when you really started. Because what happened was, as the Bible says, I told you that age of innocence, when you were a little baby, that ended real quick. And then you got a certain age, and you had an age of accountability. Now you're accountable now for your sin. What are you going to do? Adam and Eve had son and daughter, right? Cain and Abel. I love this verse. It says, and it came to pass in the process of time. So there came a process of time where Adam and Eve were now accountable. They were accountable for their own sin, and they had to offer a sacrifice to God. And that's why I like the book of Genesis, because it gives us the beginning of everything that we're even doing right now. And what God did is, so you had a beginning, and I'll just say it was the day that you came into the world, through the matrix of blood and water, and you were born, and you're a human being, amen? But then there had to come a time in your life where that ended. That physical life of yours ended in such a way that it's kind of a mystery because didn't God say to Adam and Eve, the day you eat thereof you shall surely die? But they didn't die. They did, spiritually. They didn't die physically until a little bit later. But that's the same as us. We were born sinners and we had a time of innocence and then God, that time ended. And now we have a new time where you are now accountable for you. You're accountable for all your actions. You're accountable for every sin you commit. And so therefore, we know that Cain and Abel came to their time, right? And God told them, their father and their mother told them what they had to do to pay for their sin. This is a new covenant with God. And this happens in Genesis chapter 3. And I'm just going to switch over there. Let's look in Genesis chapter 3. We see what's going on here. And man now, sin, they're kicked out of the garden. They start to have children. And in Genesis chapter 3, God shows up after they sinned, before they got kicked out of the garden, and God lays down a law to them, gives them what they do for their actions, and God calls them together, gets Adam and Eve, and they're naked in front of God, and they have the serpent, the devil there, and God pronounces judgment on each and every one. And then He does something absolutely wonderful, absolutely incredible, absolutely beautiful. And what He does there is found in Genesis chapter 3 and in verse 21. And what God does here is He They were doing what they wanted to do in the age of conscience. They were doing what they just wanted to do. But then now I knew what that led to. It led to them sinning, right? And now they're accountable for their sin. And so God made atonement. God made a way for their sin to be covered. because God is gracious, and he's kind, and he's merciful. And that's the theme through the whole Bible, Old Testament, New Testament. God is gracious. God is kind. God is merciful. God is gracious. He's kind. He's merciful. He's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, even all the way back when you go all through it all. And we're going to look at this when we get in the morning service about Noah. I'm sorry, about Jonah. And we look at Nineveh. And we look at Jonah, how Jonah was sent to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was such a wicked city. So wicked. And it's a picture so we don't realize how wicked it was because it is one verse. God says to Noah that their sin and wickedness has come up before me in heaven. You know when the last time he said that was? Sodom and Gomorrah. So he wasn't just going to smack them around. He was going to literally destroy the entire city of 750,000 people. He was going to destroy them all. And God in His mercy and His grace was sending them a prophet. And that's, we'll talk about that at 11 o'clock. But the truth of the matter is, is that's how good God is. We look at the Old Testament, we think God's always a hard God and he's just, no, he's always merciful, he's always kind, he's always generous, amen? So here it says in verse 21, and unto Adam and unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. Now to you, that might mean nothing, but you have to look at the whole picture. I preached at the chapel in their school, the Conqueror Christian School, this Thursday for the young kids and the older kids. And the young kids, I gave a short little version of this. But the older kids, I went into detail a little more. And Kira O'Reilly came home and said, you made this girl cry. And I'm like, good. She should cry. And one girl, I was explaining things, and she was laughing. I said, you think this is funny? And she shut up real quick. and I saw their faces and some were like this and scared. You know what happened when God loved Adam and Eve, but yet they sinned. So we knew that they deserved to die. How you doing, you said? Better than I deserve. They deserve to die. But in God's mercy and grace, something else was going to die for them. Something was going to take their place. And I want you to think about this, and this isn't the message, but you've got to. I can't go by it without talking about it, is that Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with God, with animals, with plant life, with everything on the earth, and with angels. They could see the angels, they could talk to, I don't know about talking to them doesn't say, but they could see them, and they talk to animals. That is so cool to me that they could communicate with animals. I have a dog, I communicate with my dog the best I can, but I know what that dog's thinking. I think it's so cool when she comes up and she looks at me with these eyes, I know exactly what she's saying. How do I know that? But it's really neat. Wouldn't it be cool if you could literally communicate with the animals? Well, Adam and Eve could. And that's why it was no big deal when a serpent came up, which is not a snake, by the way. The Bible says it's the most subtle of all the beasts of the field. It was some amazing-looking animal. It was the most coolest animal out of all animals, and the devil went into that, and it was talking to Eve, and Eve didn't go, what are you doing talking? They always communicated. But the devil's now communicating to her. But anyway, and then it became cursed and became a snake. But the thing I wanted to say is, so Adam and Eve, Adam named every one of those animals. He knew them all by name. And I want you to think of your pet. I have a dog. You still got your dog? Yeah, me too. And my dog, we had community day up at Aston. and had my dog with me the whole time. And I never trained her to do this. I never had to train her. She just walked by my side, looked like she was perfectly trained. She's just, and I hate to say this, she's a perfect dog. I can't find anything wrong with her. There's nothing I could say I would change. She amazes me. I don't tell her to heal and she stays right with me, wherever I go. And all I have to do is look at her and she comes. I was like, I don't know where this dog came from, but I don't want her to leave, amen? She's amazing. Had her with me the whole time. Everyone was like, can I pet your dog? And she's so friendly, so smart. She knows, you know, and it's funny, the one time the person had a hot dog and said, hey, do you want some? She looked at me like, can I have it? And I went, go ahead. She went over and ate it. I'm like, I know. She just stopped. She looked at me like, guys, little girl says, you want my hot dog? And the dog goes like this, like for approval. I was like, OK. She went over and ate it. She's just so smart. I love that dog. I couldn't imagine me, God saying, Michael, you love that dog more than me? I'm like, no, Lord. Then sacrifice that dog to me. Kill that dog and offer it to me. That would be terrible. Or you get a little puppy. You know what I mean? And you have a little, cutest little puppy, and God says, now you have to sacrifice it to me to pay for your sin. Or a little kitten or something. You know, people identify with animals and identify with little cute kittens and puppies more than they do people because babies are being ripped apart in the womb all over the place. And it's disgusting. We need to be serious about it. So I mentioned to the kids how God took two lambs. Innocent little, you know, cute lambs and they're adorable. Remember now, in this time, there's no sin. There's no death. Adam and Eve never, ever, ever experienced anything to die. They never experienced pain. There's no mosquito bites. You know what I mean? They had it perfect. It was great. Everything was awesome. And all of a sudden, now God says, OK, now because you guys sinned, something has to pay. And he brings up two little lambs. And just say Mary was the one. Mary had a little lamb. We'll call her Mary. And the other one was Pete. Why not? Peter and Mary. Who knows? I'm just saying. So they knew them. And I can imagine what's going through Adam and Eve's eyes. And they see these lambs next to God. And God lifts them up in front of them and skins them alive in front of Adam and Eve. Do you ever hear the bleeding of sheep? The screams that sheep make? I hope you can hear, because I don't want to try to imitate it. It's horrifying. I mean, it's horrifying. I know. I didn't want to do it. I did it anyway. It's horrifying. And Adam and Eve had to watch those little lambs be skinned alive in their presence. The bledding of the blood, the killing of the sheep, and then God took their covering and covered them with it. Wow. When I was talking about this in school, some kids started crying. And that's what God did. And that's why the next scene in chapter four, I love the book of Genesis tells you everything. Adam and Eve told their sons about this and it came process of time. It was their time, time for them to be responsible for their own sin. And we know that Cain was a farmer. And so he offered God his best vegetables, so to speak. But this is the important part. But Abel was a keeper of the sheep. So that means Abel was out there keeping the sheep, tending the sheep. And if you ever hear about shepherds, they're always out there with sheep. And you got to remember now, this is beginning. So I think that the flock was small. I think that he loved the flock. I think that the flock loved them. I think that he slept out there with them, and they were just really close. And then finally, it says, it came the time, process of time, that one of the sheep was pregnant and had that first little lamb. And he was right there to help deliver that lamb. And I've learned things about Bethlehem and why God called the shepherds to go see, because the shepherds were keeping the sheep. And what they meant by that is they were keeping the sheep that were going to be used in salt in Jerusalem for the sacrifice. And it says that the shepherds would be there helping those lambs be delivered. And it was a whole lot more. So those shepherds understood when he said, behold, the sign shall be for you that this baby shall be lying in a manger. Because that's where they would put, they would lift the baby up, the brand new lamb off the ground so it wouldn't get all this. Anyway, so Adam and Eve tells their sons, Cain offers vegetables, and God says, no. Abel has to see this little baby lamb, and this little baby is born. And he cleans it off, and he wipes it off, and that little baby looks at him, and I guarantee, I just imagine a little lick on his nose, and it's gone. It is so cute and so adorable, and he loves it. And then he realized, I have to offer this. I have to kill this lamb. and offered to God. I mean, it's hard, and it should be hard. God wants to know what your sin cost. God wants to see the sacrifice that it takes, the payment that it takes for your sin. And this didn't even pay for their sin, it just covered their sin. But anyway, so he had to take that little lamb, he had to kill that little lamb, he had to slice it up, because it says that he had to offer the inward parts. And so he had to cut up, and he offered to God. Imagine what's feeling in him. Imagine the grief, and the sadness, and the sorrow, and the sorrow that he's offering. Here, God, this is what my sin caused. It caused death on this little lamb. And God said he had respect to that. And I just want you to think about that. God, that was the beginning. That was the very first one. And here we are today. And there was a beginning of a man named Jesus. He was born in Bethlehem, not the beginning of God, beginning of Jesus, and he had an end on the day of the cross, didn't he? He had an end, but then he was like, not that he needed to be born again, but he was rose from the dead and resurrection. And he had a whole new, now he has a whole new life. And what he does for us is the same thing that he did for himself is that we had a beginning when we were born, but now through him as our sacrifice, as our lamb, as we have to see him as God, as Adam or, or saw those lambs or as Abel saw that little lamb. And we have to look and say, that's the lamb of God, the little, little lamb of God that that John said will take away the sin of the world. And we have to see that God loved him, and this is God's son, his only son, in whom he's well pleased, and he loves him, and he had to watch him be skinned alive. He had to watch him be tortured for our sin. And God says, here, I'm giving this to you. Just like Abel offered to God, God is offering to the world his own son. offering to himself, really. But I said all that because I'm out of time, is to say that sin causes death. But Jesus Christ is the beginning of life. He's the beginning of love and new life. And the day that I received Jesus Christ as my Savior, see, I was a good Catholic. I believed in God, and I believed in Jesus, and I believed in the resurrection, and I believed in all this. But I didn't know Jesus. I didn't know him because I thought he was just God. But when I realized the truth of the word of God, that I just like Adam and Eve, I sinned. I sinned way more than that. They just ate of a tree. I did all kinds of bad stuff. And I knew for the first time in my life, Tony, that I, I've sinned and I deserve to die and I'm going to die. And when I die, I'm going to hell. I knew it. And that fear and that truth made me on my knees with tears in my eyes, running down my face and crying out, Jesus, Jesus saved me, and Jesus saved me, and that was the beginning of my new life. That was my old life had an end. There was a beginning when I was born and that life, there was an end. And now there's a beginning of a new life. And I am just walking with the Lord and there is no end to my life. I'm going to live forever. Jesus said, as long as God lives, I'm going to live. Think about that dispensation. God deals with me this way. And he's, he's, he's only thing that's going to happen different to us is that he's dealing with us in this sinful body. And there's going to be one day this simple body is destroyed and we're going to be given a glorified body and we're going to be just like Jesus Christ forever and ever and ever. Then no, no more sin. I'm here to tell you. And then what he's doing is he's coming back with all of us to set up his kingdom on this earth and to be just like it was in the beginning of the Garden of Eden. And he said, be fruitful, multiply, replenish. It's going to be absolutely amazing because God has a beginning and he has an end. And you know what he always does when he has an end? He starts again. He starts something new. I spent too much time on that because I wanted to. But I want you to realize the cost of your sin. It should hurt. It should make you feel bad. You should never think of your sin as, oh well, I'll just tell God I'm sorry. You should always think, that's why Jesus, when we have communion, as often as you do this, you do show forth the Lord's death. What's that mean? He had to suffer for you. He had to pay the penalty for your sin. Yeah, but I'm not that bad. Or yeah, but I'm not like that guy. And that's what we have to realize as Christians, what it is that God did for us. And that should humble us and keep us straight with God and just walk in a new life. Amen. Realizing that, man, what he did for me, I can't believe it. That's the newness of my life, that every morning I wake up and I can't believe I'm saved. Every morning I wake up, I can't believe I'm forgiven. Every morning I wake up and I realize how closer I get to Him, how filthy I look, and how disgusting my sin looks, and that what He did to pay for my sin and to take it away was destroy, rip apart, torture His own Son. And that paid for my sin. And that is what I want you to think about in the very beginning when Adam and Eve saw those lambs being torn apart. When Abel had to offer that little baby lamb, that was all the beginning. And at the end was on the cross, when the Lamb of God was slain for the world. We don't have to offer sacrifices like that anymore. All we have to have is Jesus, God's sacrifice. And then when you have Jesus, nobody said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. So when you have Jesus, what do you offer to God? Jesus. I'm out of time. But Genesis is the most amazing book because it starts everything. And if you can't get Genesis, you're not going to get the rest of the book. So next week, we'll have different ages, the age of promise, the age of law, the age of grace that we're in now. But all these things have an end. And I want you to realize that what it cost God for Adam and Eve and what it cost for Cain and Abel and what it costs for you to be saved. Let's bow our heads. Gracious, wonderful, loving Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you, we thank you. You said, Jesus, learn of me. And the more I learn of you, the more I love you. You are amazing. You are awesome. Thank you, Jesus Christ, for coming into this world, born of a virgin, living a sinless, perfect life, and then offering yourself the way you did on that cross, the way you did when you took the whipping and the torture and your flesh was ripped off. The way you paid for my sin, Lord, I can't believe it. I don't know what to say. All I know is that I'm sorry and I thank you for your love and your grace and your mercy. Would you pour out your spirit upon each and every person here today? Would you pour out the living God upon each and every mind, heart, and soul? Would you save that soul that is not certain, that soul that is searching, that soul that maybe wants to know how to be saved and never go to hell, but always be with you? That is such a gift that you give. May they believe on you today. May they receive you today. And may the Holy Spirit of God wash their sins away and give them eternal life. Father, thank you for this church, thank you for the word of God. Be with us in the service ahead, in Jesus' name, amen.