with me in God's holy word to the book of 1 Chronicles. I was looking at my notes about our series on the book of Ephesians. And we're in the last chapter on Ephesians. I've chuckled a number of times since my dear brother, who's visiting with us tonight, reminded me that I was but a child when I started the book of Ephesians. I don't know if I take the book of 1 Chronicles at the same rate we have gone through Ephesians. I don't think I'll live long enough to get through 1 and 2 Chronicles. So, just right from the start, I want to give a disclaimer. Tonight, we're going to look at one word. in the first Chronicles, but don't let that discourage you, because two weeks from now, we will, Lord willing, cover nine chapters. So we're not going to take nine chapters every Lord's Day evening, but it is my desire for us to move rather rapidly through 1 and 2 Chronicles. I have just been greatly encouraged and blessed. Myself, I've prayed, begging the Lord to lead us in his providence to a portion of scripture that would be most beneficial and encouraging and timely in our day. You might think it's strange to pick 1 and 2 Chronicles, but I think as we go through this rich portion of Scripture, I trust that you will be greatly encouraged as well. God is at work. And he is full of mercy to save helpless, hopeless sinners for his own glory. Our text this evening is 1 Chronicles chapter 1. And I'm just going to read the first verse. Adam, Seth, Enish, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Elamek, Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth. Thus ends the reading of God's big word. Let's pray. Oh Lord, as you have recorded in Holy Scripture, this genealogy reminding your people in a dark day that you are the light of the world, that you are the Lord who rules over history, history past. bringing judgment and chastening for sin and yet saving helpless, hopeless sinners in your Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that as you gave this portion of scripture to your people, when you brought them back from the exile, to encourage them, that Lord, you would use this study of this portion of scripture in our own hearts and lives to encourage us to cling to you, Lord Jesus, and to have joy and excitement to think of you being at work in our day. You are still the Lord of glory. the one who has planned history and is bringing it to pass for the glory of your name and the ultimate good of your people. And so Lord, come by your spirit this night and encourage us as we consider the history of your people, the history of redemption, the history of sin, Lord, that we would see the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, 1 and 2 Chronicles is really, originally was given as one book. It's a package deal, if you will. And 2 Chronicles ends with the sad events of the southern kingdom, Judah, being carried off in the exile. and then jumps ahead 70 years to end with these stirring words. And if you'll turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. Here we have this reference to the exile in verse 20. He took into exile into Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, talking about Nebuchadnezzar, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah. Here we see this reference to God predicting through His prophet Jeremiah at the beginning of this exile how long this chastening would last. Seventy years. Until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths all the days that it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath to fulfill seventy years. God rules over history, in history, through history, for the glory of his name. Verse 22, God is the redeemer of his people, moving in a pagan king's hearts to accomplish his purposes for his glory and the ultimate good of his people. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the word of the Lord by the mouth of jeremiah that the word of the lord by the mouth of jeremiah might be fulfilled the lord stirred up the spirit of cyrus king of persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing thus says cyrus king of persia the lord The God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up. And who would have thought that God would move in the heart of a pagan king to fulfill his good purposes? Not only to judge, to chasten, but then to bring his people back. Well, at the beginning of this book, you'll turn back to 1 Chronicles now. That event, that edict that Cyrus proclaimed was 537 B.C. It had been 70 years since Nebuchadnezzar had besieged Jerusalem. He had carried off Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We know them by their Babylonian names, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. But long before that, God was at work accomplishing his good purposes in history. And it is striking that the book of Chronicles begins at the beginning. And so we're just going to go back and look at just a few of the important events that we see recorded for us in this first verse of the book of First Chronicles. It sets the stage for all of these amazing things that God brings to pass, showing that indeed sin is real and it deserves death and hell, but that in the face of the reality of sin, there is a Redeemer, a promised Savior that God is yet at work in this fallen world. And so what we see here in 1 Chronicles, we see the very first word, Adam. Now, I exaggerated a little bit. I said that we were only going to look at one word in 1 Chronicles, but I didn't exaggerate much because what happened with Adam, as we saw last Lord's Day evening, indeed is unique. in the history of mankind. He is the head of the human race. He is a federal head, and he was a shadow, a type of the one who is to come, as we read in Romans chapter 5. History can be only understood if you understand these two heads. And here, the Chronicler, now by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is setting the stage for God's people to understand their own history, so that they might look to the Christ, so that they might turn their back on the world and sin and cling to Jesus Christ, the only Savior. So it is the message for us in our day. We need to look to God. Well, if you'll turn with me in the book of Genesis, we're going to look at some of the things that happen with this first person in the list of Chronicles, Adam. Genesis chapters 1, 2, and 3 set the stage for us to understand what we are going to see in detail throughout the book of Chronicles. God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, and we see that in verses 1 and following in Genesis chapter 1. The crown of God's creation is He makes Adam. He declares it all good. And at the end of His creation, in verse 31, at the end of the sixth day, and God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Well, what was the last thing that God created? Well, in verse 26 of Genesis 1, then 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 birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breadth of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Now Genesis chapter 2 goes and takes us back to that sixth day, giving us more detailed information about what happened on that sixth day when God made the crown of His creation. Men and women, Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman, in His image. we see in Genesis chapter 2 that God caused Adam to go to sleep. The Lord placed the man in it to take care of this garden that he had formed and fashioned especially for Adam and Eve. The whole world had been created for man to occupy and exercise dominion in, but the Garden of Eden was the special place where God made a home. where Adam and Eve could live and have fellowship with the living God. God put Adam to sleep, we see in verse 18, Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called every living creature. That was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman, and brought her to the man. And then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. And therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. And the Lord had instructed Adam and Eve that they were to keep this garden for the glory of God. In verse 15 of Genesis 2, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Death was something that Adam and Eve had never seen or experienced. Death was something that was not present. And yet the Lord instructs Adam and Eve, do not eat of this tree. All the rest of the trees you may eat freely, but of this tree you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. Well, the Lord had given instructions, and we refer to these instructions as the creation orders. the creation orders. And really, in a sense, the rest of Scripture shows us how Satan loves to take these basic duties that God has given to mankind and perverts them and turns them on their head. These orders that are referred to as creation orders we see in this passage. God gives his creation orders to mankind made in the image of God. that God has required Adam and Eve now to serve God as His representatives, as those who bear His image, having fellowship with Him and deriving their life and joy from Him, to do these orders now for the praise of God. We see in Genesis chapter 1, God created man in his image. Verse 26, then 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 birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Dominion. Dominion. What is dominion? It is to rule. It is to develop the potential of the resources that God has entrusted. It is to work. It is to pursue a calling. Adam was called to be the keeper of the garden. That was his job. As we see history unfold, there were other people that were uniquely gifted to do different things. some to be shepherds, some to be developers of iron tools, others to be inventors of musical instruments, developing all kinds of different aspects of blessings for mankind, but all to be done for the glory of God. This is the first creation order, dominion, that God reveals to us in this passage at the beginning. It is striking that after the fall, we see that this creation order of dominion is reinforced. It's declared by Almighty God to still be in effect, even though now Adam is going to have a hard time. Thorns and thistles are going to get in the way of him pursuing his calling. It is going to be now by the sweat of his brow that he exercises dominion. After the flood, we're going to see in Genesis chapter 9 that this creation order is repeated again. God reminding people that this is what He created us to do. Not just the first man, but this is an order for all of creation for all time. Through history, we have the duty, the privilege to pursue exercising dominion over the creation that God made and entrusts to us. Psalm 8. reminds us that we have been made a little lower than the angels. And why? Because God has crowned us with glory and honor to serve him. Dominion. Well, Adam and Eve needed helpers. It's a big world. And so we read in verse 27, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. And so the second creation order is the establishment of the family. God defines the family. God says that a family is a man, a male, a husband joined to a woman, a wife, a female in covenant. That's what the Lord reveals in Genesis chapter 2 in greater detail. He put Adam to sleep. He said it's not good for him to be alone. I will make him a helper to do this job of subduing the earth that corresponds to him. I'm going to create an equal who perfectly fits with him. She is also made in the image of God, and together they, husband and wife, will serve the living God. Now this is not a put-down to those that in the Lord's providence are gifted to be single, but that's the exception. The norm that we see throughout history, beginning at the beginning, is that God created us to have families and to be a part of the family as God defines the family and that if the Lord is gracious to us, we had the joy of having children and grandchildren. Of course, sin affected that as well. In pain, the woman now bears children. The consequences of the fall, as we're going to see, are profound indeed, and yet, even in the midst of it all, God is at work. That's where the chronicler begins in the book of Chronicles. Adam, I want to remind you where we came from. I want to remind you that God is the sovereign over history, that he made us to exercise dominion. If we think we can do that on our own apart from the Redeemer, we are doomed. That's the message. Oh, how we need Jesus. If we think that we can have families where there is love and joy and peace and comfort, apart from the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, we are doomed to destruction. We see a third creation order. And that is worship on the Sabbath day. We see that the culmination of God's work of creation, he could have just stopped because he had created everything by the end of the sixth day. And yet we see God rested on the seventh day. Now, he didn't rest because he was tired and worn out. He rested to give us a pattern, and He rested in that He delighted in what He had done and rejoiced in all that He had accomplished. There's a fascinating passage, if you'll turn with me over to the book of Exodus. And we're not going to spend a lot of time looking at this. First of all, the fourth commandment. And Exodus chapter 20 begins with what? Remember the Sabbath day. It was not in the days of Moses that the Sabbath was invented. Remember the Sabbath day. When was it invented? At the beginning, at creation. That first week, those six days, God made everything, and on the seventh day, he rested. And God says, this is the pattern for mankind. Of course, as we will see, sin turned everything on its head, and now man seeks to find his rest other places and other sources than the living God. But those who, by the grace of God, know the Lord Jesus Christ, we delight and are refreshed and have forgiveness and life by resting in the Redeemer. who rose from the dead on the first day of the week, all through the Old Testament economy, God's people were looking forward to entering into rest. And finally, in the fullness of time, the one who alone can bring things back he comes and he bursts the bonds of death on the first day of the week. And the apostles under the direction of the Lord Jesus from his throne in heaven led God's people in the New Testament era. to worship beginning on the first day of the week, celebrating that we have a risen Savior. But this pattern continues of working six days and resting one. We now begin with the day of rest, but look what we read in Exodus 20, verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. In Exodus chapter 31, we have a fascinating little reference to this matter of God resting on the Sabbath day. Here, it was a controversy about a man who was breaking the Sabbath day. Moses didn't know what to do with him and sought the face of the Lord. And in those instructions, we read this. in verse 16 of Exodus 31. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. And so those are these three creation orders that God established. And even though sin would turn them on their head, yet they still are the obligation of every man, woman, boy, and girl to pursue being what God created us to be for the praise of God. Praise God that even though we read of the rebellion in Genesis chapter 3, God promised a Redeemer. In Genesis chapter 3, we read about the rebellion that took place. It was an attack on God and His order. We see everything turned on its head. We see Satan coming in the form of an animal, a serpent. to man, and not to Adam directly, but to the one that was under Adam. You can see how even in the way Satan comes and attacks, he is seeking to overthrow God's rule. He's seeking to undermine, seeking to defy Almighty God. In Genesis 3 verse 1, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." And so, very familiar passage of scripture for us, but that's where the chronicler begins, Adam. It sets the stage for all that is going to unfold now in the book of Chronicles. All of these descendants that are listed throughout these nine chapters of 1 Chronicles come from and live in light of what happened by the first man, Adam. Adam stood there. He allows an animal to sow seeds of rebellion. He listens to the serpent enticing his wife to stand in judgment on God Almighty's Word. Is God really good? Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? Well, of course, God hadn't said anything like that. But he's sowing the seeds of doubt. Is God really good? You know, I heard God said you couldn't eat of any of these trees. How wicked. Well, Eve answers, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And then Satan comes with an outright lie. You will not surely die. God knows that the day that you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and good and evil, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. You can determine for yourself good and evil. You don't have to go by what God says. You can be your own God. You can determine for yourself good and evil. And so Eve enters into this lie. She gives herself to judge the Word of God, to stand in judgment of God, her Creator and Lawgiver. And it, of course, was a disaster. Adam, he says nothing. He objects not once. He doesn't step forward and say, Be gone. That's not true. He stands by. Eve takes the lead. You can see how everything's being turned on its head. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She gave also some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. And then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." Here now, they become, instead of being God-conscious, they become self-conscious. They are aware of their own sin. They're aware that they no longer have delight in the presence of God. And so in verse 8, And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? Now, it's not that God doesn't know what's going on. It's like a parent walking into a room, there's little Henry, hand pulled back from the cookie jar, cookies all down my chin, chocolate chips still in my teeth, and the mama says, what are you doing? I mean, it's obvious what I'm doing. Why such a question? Well, it's an opportunity for confession, an opportunity to fess up. And so where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, and you can just see how everything comes unglued now. Adam doesn't step forward and say, Lord, I have sinned grievously, I failed to rebuke the serpent, I failed to love and protect and care for my wife, I failed to guard the garden as you had commanded me to do. What does he do? He throws Eve under the bus. The man said, the woman. God, you know, why did I do this? Well, it's her fault. The woman. And notice that he not only says the woman, but he even impugns God himself. The woman you gave to me. Remember, Lord, I didn't invent this woman. You're the one who made her and gave her to me. It's all her fault. And you're the one that gave her to me. What madness sin causes and creates. Indeed, death had begun. Spiritual death. Adam and Eve are no longer close with God. They're running and hiding and Adam and Eve are no longer one with each other. There is death in the garden. It smells awful, but of course the stench and the rot grows as the decay of death takes hold. But the Lord God called to the man and said, where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. And then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. And then the Lord preaches the gospel. The Lord declares in his grace and mercy, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Here we have the gospel name, that in the fullness of time a seed of the woman is going to come to crush the serpent's head. Adam and Eve are clothed, they're redeemed, but yet sin is now a reality in this fallen world. It's a fallen world. Thorns and thistles Adam will have to deal with. In pain, she will bear children. She will desire to rule over her husband, and yet he is the one that God still requires to be the head. Tragically, in Genesis chapter 4, one of their sons murders his brother, another son of Adam and Eve. Cain murders Abel. God gives them another son, Seth, who calls upon the name of the Lord. Here we have the line, the seed of the woman begins to develop, and what a contrast with the seed of the serpent. It culminates in the seventh generation where we have this fellow by the name of Enoch who walks with God and is translated up into heaven. God took him. Death, he did not taste. But the seventh generation, through the line of Cain, Oh, what a horrifying thing. A fellow by the name of Lamech, a fellow who is brutal, who defies Almighty God, who says, I'm not just going to have one wife, I'm going to have two. A man who is a terrorist, who is a mighty man in a perverted way, who says, I will kill a man just for insulting me. But all along, God's people are yearning and hoping for this seed of the woman to come who will crush the serpent's head. In the days of Noah, they think, surely he's the one. Well, he's a shadow, a type, and God, through Noah, spares mankind. All the rest of the human race is destroyed. But God spares. He saves Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives. And the whole of the Chronicle now is going to flow from that. And God singles out a descendant of Noah through the line of his son. who now is going to be the one who comes from Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. And then the exodus takes place, God rescuing his people from bondage in Egypt. That's what the Chronicler is reminding God's people of all this astounding history, the mighty works of God, judging sin, graciously saving a people for His praise. And that continues. It's recorded for us in the book of Chronicles. 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, we're going to see that God is still ruling over history. What a comfort that is for us as God's people to think that God Almighty, He has a plan for our lives. Life is not just a meaningless bunch of events that just happen, but there is a good God who is working out His plan, and we are part of that plan. To be sure, there are many times we can't see, as we were reminded this morning looking at the life of Joseph. and the life of Job. There are many times that in the moment we don't understand where is God, what is God doing? But God has revealed these things to us to teach us to trust in Jesus, to trust and obey, to keep clinging to Him. We see the conquest of the land. We see the period of the Book of Judges, and then we see the beginning of the kings of Israel. And so that's where we'll stop tonight, but that's the backdrop of all of these genealogies that are recorded. And we're going to look at a few of the highlights in the first 10 chapters. Next time we look at this, next Lord's Day, Lord willing, cover 10 chapters. So we didn't get very far tonight, just one verse, and really just kind of focused mainly on one person. But take heart. Next week, we're going to get a running go, and Lord willing, cover 10 chapters. Praise God. God is at work. He has given his son to be the Redeemer. He has given us life and hope in Jesus. Amen. Well, let's pray. Father, we ask that you would give us great comfort in our hearts to belong to you in the Lord Jesus, that, Lord, we would lift our voices tonight praising you. Lord, that's why you made Adam and Eve. Lord, we see in the book of Revelation chapter four that there is worship going on in heaven just because you are the creator. And Lord, we join our hearts and we lay our lives at your feet. You are worthy to be praised because you are our creator and sustainer. But as we have been reminded tonight, Lord, how we thank you that you are the Redeemer and that you have recreated us in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, we are doubly obligated to love and serve and worship you. Lord, we pray that you would not allow us to be dismayed as we look at history today. But Lord, that you would remind us that you are a faithful God, that you are our good God, that you are our Redeemer God. And so Lord, we look to you. We pray that you would comfort us and strengthen us, that you would give us joy, that Lord, these creation orders, they're still our marching orders, to exercise dominion for your praise, to have families that are full of your saving presence, to work and worship following the pattern that you gave us in that first week of creation. And so, Lord, we love you, praise you. We ask that you would encourage us how we thank you that your word gives to us hope and joy as we understand it rightly and take it to heart in you, Lord Jesus Christ. Bless now as we sing your praise and encourage us together. In Jesus' name, amen.