Verse number three. Verse number three. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and began a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth. So in verse three we find an incredible revelation concerning the number one issue facing mankind. The number one issue is not that he needs food. and that the people are starving over in this country and that country, and that it's cold today and they need blankets. That's an issue, for sure. That's not the number one issue. The number one issue is not their quality of life. The number one issue is not that they don't have enough money. The number one issue is that they don't have opportunity. It's not that women aren't equal to men. That's not the number one issue. The number one issue is not equality and any other things that everything you find on television, everything that the world is pushing on you as the number one issue. They have never told you that the number one issue is that you have fallen from the image of God. That's your number one issue. Your number one issue is that you're on your way to a devil's hell if you don't get born again. And so read on. The number one issue facing mankind is that he is no longer born in the image of God, but in the image of Adam. and that's what you get in Genesis 5. He begat a son in his own likeness after his image, and called his name Seth. So man is still a Trinity. He's still a body, a soul, and a spirit, but the spirit is dead. Go over to 1 Corinthians 2. We're gonna look at some of these verses. I hope they're very familiar to you. If they're not, that's why they're on your paper, and that's why we're gonna look at them. But 1 Corinthians 2, In verse 11, we can go back for context to verse 10, 1 Corinthians 2.10, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. How does God reveal things to us as born-again believers? Through His Spirit, right? Even as I'm teaching this morning, it's not through me and my ability to be a good teacher. It's hopefully, and I pray every Sunday, that it's God using me, that the Spirit of God is here, taking what I say and using it to get inside of you. That's how we learn. So, the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, verse 11, For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him, which every man has that, even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. So before you're saved, you don't know the things of God. And the reason you don't know the things of God is because you're dead, spiritually dead. You died in Adam. and you were born with that crippling part of you, that your spirit is dead and you must be born again. And so, that's 1 Corinthians. And Paul said, not only that is your spirit dead, but your flesh, and we covered that. We covered that kind of extensively several weeks ago when we were in the early part of Genesis. Your body changed. I believe Adam had a body like Jesus Christ. I believe if there were walls, he could have walked through them. I believe he could have ate endlessly, it wouldn't have filled him up, he just enjoyed it, ate it for pleasure. I believe that, I don't know what his traveling abilities were, but I just believe he had a different body than we do today. How do I know that? Why would I believe that? Because look at me. I mean, this skin is not the same skin I was born with. Right? How about you? It's got wrinkles, it's got spots, it's got bad, you know, areas. It's falling apart. The bones are not the same. Everything is not the same. Right. And so we don't if we were made to live eternally, if we were made to live forever, then the body must have been different. And so and Paul even tells us in Romans 7, 18, we're not going to turn to it because the point I want to make is right there in my flesh, he said, dwelleth no good thing. So, you've got a problem. Man has a problem. He's got a bad flesh and he's got a dead spirit and he's dying. So, when has science ever solved the death problem? Right? I mean, they can't even cure my headache. If I have a headache, I try, you know, ibuprofen, I try, you know, whatever, aspirin, whatever you can give me and it doesn't... they can't even cure a headache. They don't even... there's so many things science doesn't know. Right? And one of the things that's glaringly obvious that they don't know is how to save a person from dying. They can't do it. Oh, look how much longer we're living. Yeah, but you still died. Look down at your paper. Look down here. Let's get ahead of ourselves. Look down where it says chapter 5, verse 27. And all the days of Methuselah were 969 years. He's the oldest man in the Bible. And then what it says right after that. and he died. So the oldest man is still dead. Right? It doesn't matter if we're extending our lives 10 more years. Oh, look what we've done with science and hospitals and all. It doesn't matter. You're still going to die. Right? And so that's the issue with man. We've got in our flesh dwells no good thing. We have a dead spirit. And thus, now this is a bigger revelation to some people, thus man is not born a child of God but rather a child of the devil." Now that came out of Jesus' own mouth in John 8, John 8, verse 44. He said, "...ye are of your father the devil, and of the lust of your father ye will do." You think he was just trying to make an extreme statement to make a point? No, he was telling them a truth. He was saying, look, without me, without being born again, your father is the devil. You are not a child of God, you are a child of the devil. You say, well, that's not what I've always heard, you know, at church and everywhere I go, you know, we're all children of God. Turn over to Acts chapter 17, look at something. Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, look at verse, when you get there, get to verse 28. Paul's talking to a group of people here that are agnostic. They believe in everything. Everything is God. You know people like that? I've known people like that. They're very hard to witness to. You've got to get them to realize that there's one... So Paul's playing a game with them, a little bit of a game, but Acts chapter 17, verse 27, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they may feel after Him and find Him, though he be not far from every one of us, for in him we live." And that would be a great revelation to some people. How is it that your body takes in oxygen and uses that to fuel your body to live? How is that? How is that science? I mean, I really want to know. First, cure my headache so I can listen, and then tell me how it is that oxygen and water keep me alive. And what is oxygen? Where did it come from? And how did it just form to be the exact thing that I need to breathe? So it says here, Paul is saying, for in Him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. Verse 29, for as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art or man's device. And I won't go on from there. But Paul is saying we're all his offspring. But did you catch what? So Paul is agreeing with the fact that we're all children of God. Is that what he's saying? Notice that he said your own poets said this. OK, even your poets that they're not scripture. They're just poets of their day saying, hey, we're God's offspring. That's what the world is telling you today. All their poetry, all their liberal thinking. Hey, we're all got children of God. And one day we'll stand before him and he'll be OK with us. If our good works out, we are bad. And if he likes us or if he doesn't like us, that's the world's philosophy. Paul was not agreeing with that, but Paul was taking that and he was taking what their poet said. And he's saying, well, then, as much as you think we're the offspring of God, that then you must know that God is not silver, God is not gold, God is not wood, God is not stone. God is just like you. He made man, he's making the point that he made man in the image of God, in his likeness. He looks like us. He has a body, he has a soul and a spirit. And Paul went on to preach them. So the teaching that we're all children of God is not biblical. It's not there. You can't get that from Paul. He's just saying that their own poets say that same thing. And you can do this too. If you're witnessing to people or talking to people, take something that they believe and just turn it on them. Alright, just take an illustration that they'll understand. That's the best one that you can give anyway. Something they'll understand and turn it on them. And then that'll be able to be an effective witnessing tool. You get that from Paul. You get that from the Bible. So they're children of the devil and the Bible says they're blind and they're guided. We're guided before salvation. We're guided and blinded by His Spirit. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2 and verse 2. Well, look at the start of verse 1. Ephesians 2, 1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. That's what the Bible calls the God of this world in 2 Corinthians 4, 4. And so the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. See that what it says? "...and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." So you have a problem before you're saved. Your problem is that your spirit died in Adam. And you were born with a dead spirit. You must be born again. But if you don't get born again, guess what spirit is controlling you? The spirit of the devil. So he guides you, he teaches you. You say, where did I get that thought from? You got it from the devil. You got it from his minions, as pastor likes to call them. You got it from his devils. You got it from the spirit world, but it's not God that's communicating with you. You say, what does it mean that my spirit is dead? What it means is that your spirit does not communicate with God. You see, before Adam fell, he walked with God in the cool of the day, the Bible talks about. And he fellowshiped with God, and he had communion with God. And after that, the communion was broken. Right? In order now to get a hold of God, we have to pray. Right? And the only access we have to pray is because that veil was rent entwined and Jesus sits now at the right hand of the Father ready to make intercession for His children. Not just for anyone. And it's interesting because people have come to me, many people have come to me over time and have said, well, I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray. And I pray, and I pray, and so God has to hear my prayer. Well, the Bible talks about, be careful, about vain repetitions. Thinking that God hears you because of the multitude of words. See, that's a thought from the spirit of this world. That's your own intellect talking to you. But when those people come to me, here's what I say, and this is what I'm giving you advice to do. When they come to you and say, well, I pray all the time. Are you born again? Are you saved? Are you going to heaven? Well, I pray all the time. What do you do with that? I ask Jesus that every day. What do you do with that? Say, well, praise the Lord, I guess you're saved. Well, we know that's not how you're saved, is pray to the Lord every day. Right? So what are they trusting in? They're not trusting in Jesus Christ and what He did in the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. They're not trusting that I was sealed at that moment with the Holy Spirit of promise and I can't lose that salvation. It's a gift of God that was given to me once and never taken back. That's not what they're claiming when they pray every day. So I pray and I pray and I pray, John, and I must be saved. What do I say to that? what you say is what i would this what lord gave me is that well then lord answered your prayers any brought me to talk to you what you need is what romans ten talks about and you show them romans ten you see now have you prayed that way and you prayed once and for all to realize that god is responsible for that gift that god is the one who gives you that and keeps that in you it's not you through your works of prayer And that's why you're gonna get some Christians that'll get on you and they'll say, well, don't pray to get saved, only believe. You know, Paul, what should I do to be saved? Well, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And they'll give you that and they're Baptists that'll do this to you. And they'll say, so don't pray because if you pray it's a work. No, vain repetitions are a work. Trusting in your multitude of words and your multitude of prayers to get your God's attention is a work. Because you're saying, the more times I do this, You see that Catholic thing? The more times I do this and the number of beads that I pray, the priest told me, this many Hail Marys and such and such, that God will hear me. And that's not how it works. That's devilish. That's a doctrine of devils. But one prayer in sincerity and truth in believing the promise of God that God can do it, one prayer, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, will do it for you. You see, that's what you have to trust. And so, we're not all children of God, we're guided and blinded by the spirit of this world, and that is the devil. And he is our father until we're saved. Go over to the book of John. Turn to the book of John chapter 3. This is the job of a Christian now. Brother Ricky brought up a great prayer request. He didn't know this was in the lesson. But your job as a Christian is not to go around telling everybody, hey, Jesus loves you, can I talk to you? Hey, Jesus loves you, can I talk to you? Put the bumper sticker on your car, Jesus loves you. If it's out there, I'll come and take it off. That's not what you need to tell people. You know what you need to tell people? What Jesus told people. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Except you're born again. Go over to John chapter three and look at the last verse of the chapter. You know this. John chapter three and verse 36. John 3.16, you all can quote it by heart, right? I hope you can. If you weren't raised in church, maybe you can't. Maybe you don't even, I've asked people, you know it's funny, because I've asked people, you know John 3.16, don't you? And they're like, no. That's sad to hear. I mean, you can watch a football game, and I've had people say, what is that, and what are they holding that sign up, John 3.16, what is that? That's sad. I hope you know what John 3.16 is, one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible. But in that same chapter, at the end of that chapter, you read this. He that believeth on the Son, that's Jesus, hath everlasting life. Amen. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. But what does it say next? But the wrath of God abideth on him. Well, we're all children of God. Smile, God loves you. Not according to John 3.36. According to John 3.36, the wrath of God abides on you. And according to Jesus' own mouth, ye are of your father the devil, and lust of your father ye will do. And you're guided by the Spirit of this world, and the God of this world hath blinded your mind, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto you. You see, the devil knows man's number one problem. Man's number one problem is not starvation and being cold and not having opportunity. He knows that I just got to blind their mind to the glorious light of the gospel. You see that light over there? That light at the end of the tunnel. People say, I died and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I doubt that. I doubt your death experience. If you'd had one, I don't want to hear about it. I mean, you can tell me, I guess, but I'm just... I'm not interested. I don't believe it. Okay? Oh, it's real! It's real! Okay, it's real to you. A lot of people see a lot of things. Alright? Don't take that stuff and run with that. The devil knows what the real light is. And it's the light of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, there's only one thing I gotta do to man. I gotta blind him to that. If I can blind him to that, the rest is good. I don't care what he does. He can live and eat and drink and be merry, because tomorrow he dies and he's going to go with me in hell. Yeah, that's man's number one need. So it's the job of every believer to preach, as it says on your paper there, I'm in Genesis 5-3, the note there. It's the job of every believer to preach repentance toward God. That's Paul, Acts 20-21. People will try to tell you that repentance is not for today. People will try to minimize what repentance is, that it's just a change of mind. Don't believe that garbage. You need to repent, recognize who you are as a wicked, vile, dirty, rotten, good-for-nothing sinner in the eyes of God. There's nothing, nothing you can do. There's no redeeming value in you or me at all. And if it wasn't for the grace of Jesus Christ, we would all go to hell. And that's repentance, when you recognize who you are. And so Paul says, the job of every believer is to preach repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That's Acts 20, 21. And warn this lost world to get out from under his wrath. And we read that in Genesis 3, or John 3, 36. All right, moving forward, verse 4 and 5.