The Seven Ages

Today I want to talk about something that I don't think I understood fully, even two, maybe three or four years ago, that's in the Bible. This is going to be more of an instructional lesson, if you will, that I speak on today. It's something that I heard a couple years ago. Dr. Ward in one of our classes mentioned something, and it kind of piqued my curiosity. I've ruminated on it for a couple years and gone through it.

I want to talk to you about it today, because I'll tell you in advance what it did for me when I understood this concept that I didn't understand before or what God is doing. It made me understand and appreciate God even more than I did before.

We live in a world that is confused. If you ask most people in the world that aren't in the church, they don't know where the world is headed. They wouldn't even be able to answer to you why they're alive, what the purpose for mankind is, what is God doing down here below, why do we have such a mess throughout all the nations of the earth.

But when you see God's hand at work, first it makes you absolutely know that there is God and that He does absolutely have a plan. In Isaiah 46 verse 10, it says that God has a plan and He purposes that He will fulfill it. As you look back from the beginning of man, from the time of Genesis, all the way to the book of Revelation, you see God working with man in several and distinct ways, but always with the same purpose.

A couple verses to keep in mind as we go through this. Hebrews 13 verse 8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. What God said in the beginning is the same thing He would say today. He had one purpose for man. He had one instruction based for mankind. What He said back at the time of Adam and Eve and what He created man with is exactly the same thing that He would tell us today.

The other thing to remember is, as I mentioned in Isaiah 46, where it says, God's will stands. He has given man's own request or man's own choice, the world over to Satan to be the God of this world, as it says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4. But God is still in charge. He created this world for a purpose and His purpose will stand, and He still is involved in world affairs to the extent and exactly the way He planned. Let's begin today over in Ephesians 3. One of the epistles of Paul. Often we turn to Ephesians 2 and Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4 talks about the church, how it's set up, how God is working through it, how we grow and develop as part of the body. Ephesians 2, one of the hallmark verses there is that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. But Ephesians 3, we don't turn to you all that often, so let me read through a first few of the verses here beginning in verse 1, Ephesians 3.

Paul writes, For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages wasn't made known to the sons of man, as it has been now revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets.

Now, there's a few terms in those six verses that we can take note of. Where in verse 2 it talks about the dispensation of the grace of God. We can look at that word dispensation. I've seen it for years and years and years. Never really looked up what the Greek word for dispensation is, but it is the Greek word oikonomia, o-i-k-a-n-o-m-i-a.

Properly translated, more appropriately translated, I guess, would be administration refers to a period of time. And so Paul is saying, if indeed you've heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, the time that he gives the grace of God. And of course, he's referring to that time that he's alive in now that we are also in that time of the dispensation of the grace of God.

And he makes note here of the mystery, the mystery of the Bible, the mystery of the truth of God, the mystery of the plan of God, which he says in ages past wasn't known to man.

What ages was he talking about? He talks about a period of time of grace, but in ages past, this mystery of God, what he's working, how he's working, what he's doing with mankind, wasn't known to man. We live in a great time. We can talk about technology. We can talk about the wonders of the time we live in, but it's even a greater time when we realize the time we're alive in after the death of Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, a time when God has called us and His Holy Spirit, and He can make known to us what His plan was that people in ages past didn't understand. Oh, they knew back in Old Testament times there was a Messiah that was coming. They didn't really understand what God's plan was. We read through the books of the Old Testament, and we see that ancient Israel was commanded several things to do.

We talk about them at the Holy Days when we talk of the days of unleavened bread. We talk about the sacrifices in the temple and everything that God has said. But Israel, as large, didn't really know what they were doing. The mystery of what God was working out wasn't known to them. Today, it's known to you and me when God opens our minds, when God lets us see what His plan is.

When we see His plan, I don't know how we can do anything but be in awe. I don't know how we can do anything but be absolutely and totally and completely worship God. I don't know when we understand how we can ever, ever think about not following God the way He has because we see the wonder and the majesty of Him.

Today, I want to talk about these other ages that Paul is talking about. Because when you look into the Bible, you can see that there are seven distinct ages that God is talking about, or that we can see as He has progressed man from the time of Adam and Eve all the way up until the time that Jesus Christ returns. Let's turn back just a couple chapters to chapter 1 of Ephesians. We'll begin in verse 7 and in verse 10. We're going to see the same term dispensation, like anomia again. Verse 7, chapter 1, in Him, Paul writes, referring to Jesus Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to bound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

Having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. The dispensation of grace that Paul talks about that He was alive in then, but a coming dispensation of the fullness of times, a time we look forward to when God gathers all together in one in Him.

We're not there today. That's a time for the future, and we'll get to that in a little bit. Now, as we go through these, I'm going to turn back to the Bible. I'm going to show you some verses, but we're going to notice a few things, because God, as I said, always has the same principles and the same law, way of life that He prescribed to mankind that was taught from the very beginning, as we will see. We will see that at various times. Back, let's turn to Hebrews 1. Why am I? I'll read what the book of Hebrews says. We'll see how God talked to people, how He reached people, because He always maintained contact with people or a group of people down through the ages.

Hebrews 1, verse 1, says, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, in various ways and at various times spoke to the fathers by the prophets, as in these last days. These days you and I live in, spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. So we'll see how God related to man. We'll see how He worked with man. We'll even look at some of the names that God used during those ages, or that man called on him by, because while it was the same God, same purpose, same law, same yesterday, today, and forever, God did work with people and they called on Him by different names, if you will say, if you can say that.

That reflected the time they live in. So let's look at the first stage. Turn with me back to Genesis, all the way back at the beginning of the Bible. We find the first man and woman, and of course that's going to be the very first time that God worked with man. He created Adam and Eve. He created the earth. He created the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect place for them to live. Chapter 2, verse 15. The Eternal God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

It was God who put him there. This was a wonderful, great time for mankind and God. All the earth, God, mankind, all were in perfect unity with one another. Over in chapter 3, verse 8, we see how God related and interacted with man during that time at the time of the beginning of the creation, the time of the beginning of the time of what His purpose and plan for this world and mankind is, something that He formed before the foundation of the world. Verse 8, it says, They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And, of course, by this time Adam and Eve had made the wrong choice. They had chosen to reject God and follow what the serpent said. But what a beautiful picture that is, that the Lord God, the Eternal God, was walking in the garden with them.

How nice it would be if we just knew God was walking physically, and I'll use the word physically here with tongue and cheek, among us. That in our lives He was just there, and He would come and talk to us. We would have no doubt He was God. We would have no doubt what He said, that He would just interact with us that way. And that's what Adam and Eve had.

God wanted that perfect relationship with mankind. And He created Adam and Eve, and He put them in the garden there. And He wanted them. He wanted that to continue. And so we call this first age, the age of innocence. The age of innocence. Because at this point, there was no...

there was perfect unity between God, man, and creation. Perfect harmony. It wasn't until later that Satan came in that that harmony was disrupted. But at this time, the very first time that God interacted with man, it was just Him and man. Just Him and man. And God did a number of things with man while He was there. You know, sometimes we read through the Bible. We know the story of Adam and Eve very well. But we don't really think about what God did with mankind. And sometimes people who don't understand what God's purpose is and how He taught people don't understand that what God did, the way of life that He's prescribed for us, was taught to Adam and Eve right from the very beginning. What are some of the things as we look here that God would have taught Adam and Eve? Well, we know that man was created on the 6th of day, right? So the very first full day that they were alive, what day was that? It was the Sabbath day. And God, it says, created the Sabbath day. He sanctified. He set apart the Sabbath day. Certainly, when He was with Adam and Eve on that Sabbath day, He taught them what the Sabbath was. They knew exactly the period of time they were in. He used that time to teach them, to educate them. Here they were brand new human beings. They had no idea what was going on. Got some rough notes to kind of guide us here as we go through this on the board for you. But He taught them about the Sabbath. There was no doubt in their mind that there was a Sabbath day. Should be no doubt in anyone's mind that there was a Sabbath day. He created the Sabbath day as the Sabbath day. He set it apart before the very beginning of creation.

And He taught Adam and Eve to do that. He taught us, teaches us, keep the Sabbath day holy. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. I am the Lord your God. I change not. What He taught in the beginning of mankind is the same thing He teaches today because He had one purpose for mankind, one foundation for mankind. And He began it right at the beginning of creation with Adam and Eve. When He was talking with them and walking with them one-on-one, face-to-face relationship, no doubt in their mind. Oh, He taught them about the Sabbath. He taught them what it was. And He taught them it was going to be a key factor in their lives to cease what they were doing the other six days of the week and keep that day holy as a relationship between Him and them.

Another thing He taught them, obviously, was about marriage, right? I mean, Adam looked around and He looked at creation and thought when He looked at the animals there was no one like Him.

He created woman and God taught them what? Well, let's look at Genesis 3 verse, actually Genesis 2.

Taught them the same thing at the very beginning of creation, the same thing that we would, that we, a spouse today in the way of society was to be set up. Genesis 2, 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they will become one flesh, one man, one woman, the building block of society, marriage.

God left no doubt in their minds. He taught them about marriage. This isn't something man's ramped up. God taught them. He's the one who created man. He's the one who taught them how to live because what He wanted was man to be happy. He wanted man to be fruitful. He wanted man to enjoy his time on earth. He wanted a relationship with man. He wanted to give mankind eternal life.

So He was teaching them exactly what they needed to do to have all those things, even back in this age of innocence. And we get the age of innocence from verse 25 there. They were both naked, the man and his wife. They weren't ashamed. All was right in the world. At that time, they were there with God. And He taught them to be fruitful. He wanted them to have children. Let's look at verse... I didn't write that in a verse for Genesis. Genesis, but He says, Be fruitful and multiply. You know He says that many times through here. Let me see what I can find. Oh yeah, verse 28, chapter 1. God blessed them. Verse 27, He 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. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. It was God who gave man the ability to reproduce. Only God gives life. Only God can create it. And He gave man that opportunity, what He said, prescribed in marriage, to multiply. The other beings in heaven don't have that. The angels don't have the ability to reproduce. The demons don't have the ability to reproduce. He gave that to man. Only man did He give the promise of life to. And He said, Be fruitful. God wanted more than just Adam and Eve. He had a purpose in mind when He created man. And He said, Fill the earth. God had a purpose in mankind then. He still has that same purpose. Let's go over to Malachi 2. Malachi 2, the very last book in the Old Testament.

Malachi 2, verse 15. He's talking about a husband who isn't dealing well with his wife.

But in verse 15, he says, Didn't He, didn't God make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit?

Now why one? He seeks godly offspring. He seeks godly offspring, people who will learn to live the way He prescribed. The children that were born to Adam and Eve, His hope was that they would be taught His way. The children born to people who God calls, who repent, and who are baptized and have His Holy Spirit, that they would be godly offspring, that they would populate the earth, that they would live the way of life that God prescribed. He sought godly offspring then. He seeks godly offspring now. He calls us children of God. He's looking for children. He's got a purpose for mankind beyond just a hobby or a project that this earth has a very real purpose in mind. And He taught the first man, Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Populate the earth. Teach them.

Back in Genesis 2, He taught them something else back in the Garden of Eden. He taught them about good and evil. He taught them about eternal life. He taught them an introduced choice.

Right there at the beginning of mankind, it's all there. God taught them the same thing He would teach us today. He teaches us about good and evil. He teaches us about eternal life and the way that leads to eternal life. He gives all of us a choice. We either choose to follow Him or we choose to reject Him. And it's all right there in the Garden of Eden. Verse 15 of Genesis 2 says, The Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden, to tend and keep it. And He commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. 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 will surely die. Oh, He taught them good and evil. And He told them if they chose evil, if they chose to follow their own way rather than God, what would happen to them? They would die.

The same thing He teaches us. If you transgress the law, you will die. The wages of sin is death, Paul says. He taught Adam and Eve that back at day one. The same God, the same plan, the same purpose, the same law, the same thing that he prescribed from the very beginning of time, but He gave them a choice. Because God has made us free will agents, free moral agents, if you will. He doesn't force any of us into His way of life. He doesn't hold a gun to our head and say, I mean, He does say, If you don't live this way, you're going to die. That should be incentive enough, right, when He opens our minds to see the truth. But He doesn't force us into it. We have a choice. When God opens our minds and we see the truth, we have a choice to say, We don't want it. We want to go back to the world. We can doubt. We can discount it. We can mock it. We can do whatever we want with it. Or we can choose to follow it. And when we follow it, He makes, well, we'll see in a little bit, promises to us. But He taught Adam and Eve good and evil. They knew what right and wrong was.

They knew the way to the tree of life. It was sitting right there in the garden, along with the knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And what they decided to do was disregard God. Now God wanted them to choose the tree of life.

That's why He put it there. He put it right there in the middle of the garden, and He said, Take the tree of life. He wanted them to have eternal life. Today, what does God tell us?

We read about it in 2 Peter. God's not willing that any should die. He wants all men to come to repentance. He wants everyone to have eternal life. He'd created man so they would have it, but there's a way to eternal life. And that way is following God and not our own will and not our own wishes and not our own ideas. He taught Adam and Eve that and said, I want you to have eternal life. The same thing He tells you and me today. He told them back then. But Adam and Eve go back one. Adam and Eve made a poor choice, a wrong choice, a wrong choice that put mankind on the course that we still are living with today. And God knew what was going to happen. He had a plan for mankind. But as Adam and Eve made that choice to reject God and to choose their own way, that age of innocence ended. You read of the last half of that verse 8 in chapter 3.

They hid from God. They hid from Him. Before that, they were one-on-one with Him. He was face-to-face with Him. But when they sinned against Him, when they chose to take the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when they chose to make themselves God, that they would create their own laws and their own way of life, they separated themselves from Him. And that age of innocence ended. Genesis 3, verse 24. And so there came the time that that age ended, the age of innocence. And it says in verse 24, God's rolled out the man. He placed share of them at the east of the garden of Eden, an inflaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

They were taken out of that age of perfect unity and harmony with God.

They were cast out into a world that wouldn't be as friendly to them, or they would have to work hard at their own choice. They chose to reject God. They chose to follow their own way. But one more thing that God told them, or taught them in that garden of Eden that still stands today, we find that in Genesis 3.15.

They had sinned. They had sinned against God. They had believed the serpent who said, Did God really tell you you were going to die?

And even though they knew the answer was yes, he somehow convinced them to still turn against God.

Eve took the tree. She was deceived by Satan, the very clever and subtle Satan who could talk Eve, walking with God, hearing him face to face. Somehow he talked her in the taking of the forbidden fruit, or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

First Timothy 2 tells us Adam wasn't deceived, but he chose to follow his wife rather than follow God, and he sinned as well. But with it, redemption. God didn't say, experiment over, mankind not worth it. They chose the wrong way. Less than the experiment. He knew what was going to happen from the beginning of time. He promised that there would be a Redeemer come, a Savior come, that would lead the way back to God if man would follow him. So let's read in verse 14 of Genesis 3. Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman. She'll hate you. And we know, we read in Revelation, woman refers to a church, and enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. Notice the capital S there, referring to Jesus Christ. He will bruise your head.

He will overcome you. You'll hurt him. You'll bruise his heel. But there is the promise of redemption. There is a way back.

Right from the beginning of time, God taught mankind that. The very same thing he taught us, he teaches us today. And so the age of innocence ended. One more thing. During that time, what name did people use to call on God for Adam and Eve? Aloein.

Genesis 1, 27. Let us make man in our own image. Aloein is the name they used. And so mankind began a new age, out of the Garden of Eden, and now on their own, having made the decision to follow their own way instead of God's. Verse 22 of Genesis 3 introduces us to the next time or period of time with man and time how God would interact with them. It says, The Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, to no good and evil. He's going to make the decision what's good and evil. He's rejected what we said. And now lest he put out his hand and take the tree of life and eat and live forever, God sent him out of the Garden. We enter the age of conscience.

Mankind decided, We want to decide. We'll be the judge. We'll determine what's right and wrong. That was what they told God when they took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We don't want what you have to teach us. We'll decide what's right and wrong.

And so from that time forward, mankind has continued to follow that. He decides what's right and wrong. God let him do that. The things that are in one age we find follow through to another because God's purpose for mankind is that he would come to him, come to God, but also learn the errors of their way. And so the age of conscience began, and man began to populate the earth, and they all were doing their own thing. They all were thinking, What is right and what is wrong? Cain and his group had an idea of what's right and wrong. Boy, if we fast forward through the next few chapters of Genesis to the time of Noah, we see that the age of conscience didn't really produce anything good. Man became more and more corrupt. Man left to his own devices. Man, deciding what's right and wrong, goes further and further away from God. And that was what the lesson of this age teaches us. But even in this age, when mankind grew further and further away from God, further and further, to the point in Genesis 6, verse 5, God says, I'm sorry I even created man.

They are violent. They are corrupt. There's not anyone worth saving. I will flood the earth and we'll start all over with one man and his family who have chosen me. But even in that time, just a couple people the Bible records, in all of humanity, that 1,500 years of time between the time Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden until the time of the flood.

Out of all those people, just a couple would follow God. The rest of the world became more and more violent, more and more corrupt, until God finally threw up his hands and said, it's time. They're not going to turn back to me. I'll wipe mankind off of the face of the earth.

But during that time, he taught them there was a way to reach him.

And we find that teaching in Genesis 4 verse 5.

Adam and Eve came, was born to them. Eve might have thought when she said in verse 1, I have acquired a man from the Lord. This is the Redeemer. This is the Savior who will lead us back. She may have remembered what God said. We don't know. She had another son, Abel.

In the process of time, it says in verse 3, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the God, crowned to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock, and of their fat, and the Lord respected Abel in his offering.

Now, do these two young men just dream up one day? Hey, I think what we need to do is bring an offering to God. I think we'll just come before God and do this to him. Of course, that isn't how it happened. God taught them, there is a way to reach me, and that way is through sacrifice.

Now, we look at Cain's offering, and we won't take the time to look through Exodus and Leviticus, where it talks about all the sacrifices and the different types of sacrifices that are described there. But there are thank offerings, and there are sin offerings, and there are trespass offerings that are given there. Thank offerings are often when you bring God, something like Cain brought, an offering of the fruit of the ground. Thank you, God, for providing.

So Cain, Cain there, with all my thoughts, always right to be thankful, grateful, realize God gives us everything. But what he brought to God, after God instructed them, was a thank offering.

What did Abel bring? Abel brought what the Bible would describe as a sin offering.

He was reaching out to God, and through the life of an animal, said, well, it came with the right attitude of trying to approach God.

It came down through, at this time, when we read of Israel later on, when God teaches them the sacrifices, there was a reason that all those animals were sacrificed at the tabernacle in the temple. There was a reason that God put that in there. He was teaching them, there's a way to come before me. If you want to reach me, something has to be sacrificed.

What he teaches us today is that that sacrifices us. But back in those times, in ages that didn't understand the mystery of God, they knew they had to reach God, for He taught them how to reach them in a way. Let's look over at Hebrews 9.

Of course, the book of Hebrews, as we click closer to the Days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover, we'll look more at this book that kind of reconciles Old Testament to New Testament sacrifices and what they mean. In Hebrews 9, verse 22, it says, According to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood, there is no remission. What was He teaching the Israel? What was He teaching Abel? Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. If you're going to come to God, there has to be blood that has been shed. Abel seemed to understand that, and God respected His attitude, it says. He respected His attitude. I'm seeking you, just like what we would come before God, and ask for His repentance and forgiveness on sins. Cain, on the other hand, didn't have that attitude, and so God appreciated Abel looking for that. In Hebrews 11, we'll get to there in another in a little bit, he calls Abel a righteous man, a man of faith, because he was reaching out to God in that way. Over in back in verse 12 of Hebrews 9, we know that the blood of those sacrifices, those animal sacrifices, they were important in people reaching God, but all the blood of those animals didn't forgive sins. Some people say that God forgave people because of those things. Now, forgiveness doesn't come because of the sacrifice of animals. It's a way of showing our will and desire toward God. There is only one sacrifice of blood that forgives sins.

That was true back in the Old Testament. That was true back for Adam and Eve. It's true for us today, Hebrews 9 verse 12, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood. Christ entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of the heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, you've got the right attitude in what you're approaching. You're approaching God, sacrificing blood. How much more shall the blood of Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offer Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? It's His sacrifice that pays the price for sin. All the sacrifices of Israel, all the sacrifices of Abel, the sacrifices of people, even Noah, that we'll see in a minute, those were reaching God, and that's how He interacted with man at that time. That's what He taught them, but they weren't there for the forgiveness of sin. That was there to approach God. One sacrifice for mankind, only one.

And other people who teach that in that time, that's how God forgave their sins?

Absolutely wrong. When those people are resurrected at the time that God ordains for them to be, they'll understand that they'll accept Christ's sacrifice at that time. But in this age of conscience, when man was deciding what to do, what was right and what was wrong, God would still work with them, but we see that their conscience just never brought them back to God. It didn't result in a society that was wonderful and great. It resulted in violence and corruption. They became like they chose to follow. John 844 says, Satan, when Christ is talking, he says, Satan is your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. He's still a murderer. He was a liar from the beginning. He's still a liar. A mankind who rejected God and said, we will follow this other way instead, became that way. And God says in Genesis 6 and verse 5, that the world became full of that type of spirit. Let's go back to Genesis 6.

And so the age of conscience ended with the flood. But in Genesis 6 and verse 5, it says, The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And he was sorry that he made man on the earth, and he was read in his heart. And so he said, I will destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air. I'm sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of God. One man on earth at that time, that was following God.

Now, during this time, man would still call God a loin. Let's go back to the book of Jews, though.

God wasn't talking face to face with mankind during this time. He was talking to him the way we read in Hebrews 1. Let's go back to the little book of Jude right before Revelation.

And we see there's another man besides Noah. Noah would have been a prophet on the earth as he was building that ark for 100 years. People would have come to him and said, What are you building this ark in the middle of nowhere for? And he would have told them, God is going to send a flood. Unless you repent, unless you turn back to him, you're going to be destroyed from the face of the earth. He was preaching that for 100 years when people asked. They didn't pay any attention. We find there was another prophet that God spoke through here back during that time as well. Enoch, verse 14, Jude. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, he prophesied about these men, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Enoch was saying the same thing. He sent prophets. During that time, the people didn't listen.

They just kept doing the same things, and God destroyed them from the face of the earth.

And so the next age would begin when the flood waters receded. Let's go back to Genesis.

During that time of the Age of Considence, you don't read of groups of people. You don't read of nations. You don't read of governments. It was lies. Every man did what was right in his own eyes.

The next age would introduce something else. That would begin then, that God would introduce, and that would still stand today. But let's look at Genesis 8. The flood waters have receded.

Noah and his family, God judged more worthy to be through the flood. And we see in chapter 20 of chapter 8 what Noah did. Noah built an altar to the Eternal. He took of every clean animal and of every clean bird. How did he know what animals were clean? Only because God instructed.

He taught Adam any of what animals were clean back then. No one knew what they were. We never offer an unclean animal to God. But here's Noah making sacrifices to God. Noah built an altar to the Lord, took of every clean animal and every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And God looked down on Noah and the attitude that he had. He smelled a soothing aroma and said, I'll never again flood the earth and destroy all of mankind. Noah knew about sacrifices. They weren't introduced at the time of Israel. God introduced them from the very beginning of time. So over in chapter 9 we see now Noah and his sons.

In verse 1 it says, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. There were eight of them left. He's seeking godly offspring.

Be fruitful, multiply, Noah, teach them of the way. Maybe now with a new beginning, now maybe with you as the patriarch of mankind will be different, so they will turn to me.

Let's drop down to verse 5. He says, Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning.

From the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For the image of God he made man. And then he repeats, You be fruitful, you multiply, you populate the earth. Now what was God saying there? This was something new to Noah. This was something that we don't read was there upon the face of the earth, back before the flood. What he was doing was instituting human government. Human government. Never before did God give a man any authority to take the life of another man, but now he's saying, Fine. You organize. You set up the laws. Man's own conscience with everyone doing what's right in his own eyes didn't work. Set up government and then maybe those laws they will obey.

And I'll even give you the authority to take man's life. Let me read to you what the Barnes Commentary says about these group of verses here. It says, God is the administrator of the law, as he is the immediate and sovereign party in the legal compact. In the latter case, man is, by the express appointment of the Lord of all, constituted the executive agent.

By man shall his blood be shed. Here, then, is the formal institution of civil government.

Here, the civil sword is committed to the charge of man. The judgment of death by the executioner is solemnly delegated to man in vindication of human life. The emphasis, he repeats, is laid solely on man. On man is impressively laid the obligation of instituting a civil constitution suited to his present fallen condition. On the nation as a body, it is an incumbent duty to select the sovereign, form the civil compact between prince and people, settle the prerogative of the sovereign and the rights of the subjects, fix the order of succession, constitute the legislative, judicial, and administrative bodies, and surrender due submission to the constituted authorities. Government. You form the government. You set the laws how you're going to be governed. You, I will give the authority to take man's life if he violates the laws you've set up. And from this time forward, we see that happen. In Genesis 10, we read about a table of nations. We didn't read about nations before. At this time, Nimrod shows up. He wants to be king. He wants the people to follow him. And we see people forming together. We see government forming. And from that time forward, government is still here. God instituted it. He's the one who appoints the powers, tells us that in Daniel 4. We read about the statue in Daniel 2, the great statue that foretells the four coming world ruling kingdoms from the time of Nebuchadnezzar on until the time of Jesus Christ's return. Daniel 4 says all authority is appointed by God. And here in the New Testament, we read the very same thing. Let's go back to Romans. We're in the age of the age of human government. In Romans 13, Paul is saying the same thing. They were there under the authority of the Roman government. The Jews at the time of Christ were under the authority of the Roman government. God says this to us in New Testament times. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. He ordained it. He's the one who set it up. He's the one who worked with man in that way. Walking one in one with him didn't get man to choose God. Relying on his own conscience, man didn't find God. Maybe through government they would. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. There is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

Pretty clear order, isn't it? Pretty clear. God instituted it. He said man chose it.

He's the one who set it up. He gave man authority. He said you live by it. Now, not when they have you transgress against God, but as long as what they're asking isn't in transgression to God, follow what they have to say and be subject to it.

Well, human government didn't result in man turning back to God either.

Human government just kept man apart from God. We look at human government today and in our own land that had so many precepts of God built into the Constitution, we see one by one as man decides that he turns away from God and the principles that he set up at the very beginning of time that still apply today, laws and principles that he gave once for all mankind. And so, human government didn't work either. And so, God began working with a man, a man who was following him implicitly, another man on the face of the earth who loved God with all his heart, we're told in Genesis 26, verse 5 that he obeyed all of God's laws, commandments and statutes. God taught him what those were. They didn't come about at the first time when God took Israel out of Egypt. They were there from the very beginning with Adam and Eve. And the man Abraham knew well what they were.

And in Genesis 12, we find the next age that the Bible talks about. Genesis 12, verse 1, 1, Lord said to Abraham, Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you, he promises Abraham, a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And so we have the age of promise. God, promising Abraham, who had turned from his old ways of worshiping the gods of her and where he was before, who had turned to God with all his heart, who did things that even wasn't normal in that time. When God said, Get out of your land, it was not commonplace to get out of your land. You stayed in the place that God put you, but he was willing to follow God. And God made him promises, promises that still stand today.

Of course, we talk about the physical blessings that God promised Abraham. The most important one are those of the spiritual blessings that would come through this line. And that's the Messiah that he promised back in Genesis 3.15 that would be born through this man who was so faithful to God. And Abraham obeyed God. He did everything that God asked him to do, even moving from one place to another. But it wasn't just simply because of his obedience, we'll see in a minute.

Let's look at the promises that God made Abraham and see that God still talks about those promises today because they didn't disappear with the death of Abraham. They didn't disappear with the end of the fourth age, but those promises still exist today, especially the spiritual promises, Galatians 3.

Galatians 3 verse 16.

Paul, referring back here to the time of Abraham, says, in Abraham and his seed, were the promises made.

He doesn't say and to seeds, as of many, but as of one and to your seed, who is Christ.

In this I say, he says, that the law which was 430 years later can't the know the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. The promise still stands for the inheritances of the law. It is no longer a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Let's go down to verse 26.

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Here's the godly offspring that he's seeking. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Still there. God instituted it. It's still there. When God gives something, he doesn't take it back.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

I am the Lord, Malachi 3, verse 6. You are God. I change not.

Now, many people will say back in the Old Testament times, all God wanted was for them to obey him. Abraham obeyed, and that's what got him these... No, no, no. We just read, right?

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Abraham obeyed God, absolutely. Noah obeyed God, absolutely. Abel, Enoch obeyed God. But we find that it wasn't the obedience. The obedience is important. We must obey. Faith and obedience go hand in hand. Acts 5, verse 32 tells us, without obedience, we don't have the Holy Spirit. We can't have faith only and not obey and say we have the Holy Spirit without obeying God and faith. Remember the definition of saints? It keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus Christ. But back here in Hebrews 11, we read about these men we've been talking about. And God doesn't say it's because they obeyed. Yes, they obeyed. Yes, they needed to obey. Yes, we need to obey. That's not why they're called righteous. That's why he didn't. Never why he called Abraham righteous. Let's look at Hebrews 11, verse 1.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead still speaks. Faith, by faith, Enoch was taken away so that he didn't see death, and he wasn't found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to him must believe. Remember what that word, believe, means. He must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fare, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith, Abraham obeyed, when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. By faith, he obeyed, yes, God is looking for people of faith who believe him just like Abel, just like Enoch, just like Noah, just like Abraham, just like Moses, just like the other men that we read through down here. By faith, we are saved. It was never, as some people will tell you, all God wanted in the Old Testament was people to obey. Yes, he wanted them to obey.

But in the Old Testament, you see what he wanted was their laws or his laws and way of life written in their minds, written in their hearts. They would believe him. Ancient Israel never believed him.

Abraham did. Isaac and Jacob followed him during that time. They had faith.

And during this time, God was working through one family, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this age lasted for 430 years. We read that here in Hebrews 11. Well, what name was God known by Abraham?

Exodus 6.

Exodus 6 and verse 3.

Moving into the next age of the age of Israel, the age of the temple, the age of law, we read this as Moses, as God is calling Moses and telling him that he will be the one to deliver Israel from Egypt. Moses asked him, what name will I tell them you are?

Who will I tell them you are? There are hundreds of gods in Egypt. What name do I tell you? I can't just say God. People know hundreds of gods. So God gave him the name, as we'll see in a minute. But he said here in verse 3, he says, I have appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty. I appeared to them as El Shaddai. That's the name they knew me by.

Now, in the next stage, they would be known as YHWH. Some people say Jehovah, some people say Yahweh, some people say Yehova. But to Abraham, he didn't know God by that name. God, he was known as God Almighty, El Shaddai. But by my name, moving ahead, the next stage we'll talk about YHWH, I was not known by, I was not known to them. So let's move on to the next age, and bear with me here a few minutes. I'll finish up, but I wanted to get through at least the six ages here. We move into the Age of Covenant law. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they die. Israel moves into Egypt. They're there for hundreds of years as slaves. While they're there, they have lost the way of God. They are beholden to the government at that time. They learned about the Egyptian gods, they learned about the Egyptian way of life. They weren't free at all. They had no way out. They were a hopeless people. God brought them out of Egypt, and he brought them out, and he made promises to them, the same promises that were made to Abraham back then, because God doesn't forget a promise that's made. And as he brought them out, he told them that they would have to live by their law. Here's the way of life that they would live. It wasn't a brand new law. He taught it to Adam and Eve. He taught it to Abraham. It says Abraham obeyed. He taught it to Noah. The same law that was established once and for all of mankind, he taught them. They'd forgotten that they had to be re-educated on what God's way of life is, and they made a covenant with God. Let's look at Exodus 19.

Exodus 19, verse 4.

Israel, the descendants of Abraham, the twelve tribes of Israel, are assembled there at the foot of Mount Sinai. And God says through Moses, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people, for all the earth is Mine. And you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words, Moses, which you shall speak to the children of Israel. What he wanted was a group of people who would be a model nation. This is the way of life.

Show the world around you what it's like to be a light of God. Show what it's like to follow the true God and follow His principles. You can mark down 1 Peter 2.9. Peter says the same thing about us today. Israel, we know, failed. They never developed the faith in God. They never truly believed Him. And so He says to us today in the dispensation of grace or the period of time of grace, you are a special people. You are a people who weren't the people before, but you are to who I look. You are the treasure on earth. I will make you a kingdom of priests. The very same words, because this is what He has always wanted. People who would choose Him. People who would follow Him.

And through the various times, the way God reacted with man or interacted with them, they just continued to reject Him. But Israel is here gathered. They've seen what God has done. Tremendous miracles. And Moses, it says, came and called for the elders of the people. He laid before Him all the words which YHWH, as they knew Him, commanded Him. And all the people answered together and said all that YHWH has spoken, we will do. We'll make a covenant. We'll make an agreement. We will follow Him. God has made promises. And so now they've made a contact with God. He would be their God. They would be His people. They would follow what He had said. How did they approach God during that time? They approached Him through sacrifices. God gave Moses the instructions to build the tabernacle. Later, Solomon built the temple and then a second temple. In that temple, those sacrifices were made. God dwelt among them in that temple, and they reached God through the sacrifice of blood. Blood that didn't forgive their sins. Only the blood of Jesus Christ forgive their sins. There were periods of time that Israel obeyed God, but they never had faith in God. They never believed Him. How many times when push came to shove did they just say, I mean, basically, we don't believe God can do this? They never had the faith that God was looking for them to have. They never became the people He was looking for. Even though they said they would follow Him, Moses repeated the words we just read here in Exodus 19 in Deuteronomy 7. Let's go over to Exodus 24. In Exodus 20, of course, God tells them what the foundation of His way of life is. He gives them the Ten Commandments. In the next three chapters, He gives them examples of how that should be applied in their lives. Same thing that the apostles, through the epistles, tell us. How do we apply God's light way in our life? He tells them that. In chapter 24, after Moses is explaining all these things to them and he gives them the law, he explains these are the ways that you can transgress the law in your everyday life.

He says in verse 8, nope, verse 7, Moses took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that God has said we will do and we will be obedient. Confirmed it another time. They weren't. God spoke to the people of Israel through Moses. Remember in Exodus 19, the people said, We don't want to talk to God face to face. He terrifies us. You speak to us, Moses. And we know that God spoke to the people of that age that extended from the time of Israel coming out of Egypt all the way until the time of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

All that time they had temples. They offered sacrifices. They failed over and over again, but God still reached out to them. He still wanted them to understand. He would call them back and try to get their attention, but time after time they would not listen.

They eventually killed the Messiah that they said that they were waiting for.

In Matthew 23, verse 37, Christ himself tells us how God spoke to people through that age.

Jesus Christ, in a really touching moment here before he gave the Olivet prophecy and was arrested that final pass overnight, says this, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. I tried to reach out to you. I tried to send people to you. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Micah. I sent these people to you that said, Turn back!

Turn back to God! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you weren't willing. You killed the prophets and they killed him.

And so the age of covenant law ended, and the age of grace began when Jesus Christ was resurrected.

He had shed his blood and made the sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven, and we were given the hope of eternal life when God resurrected him to life. The age of covenant law proved the law cannot save. It was never the law that was going to save people. It was always Jesus Christ. God didn't fail in the law. The law didn't fail. Paul, Peter, all talk about the law, holy, just, and good. It was the foundation. It was then. It still is. It's the way that God expects people to live if they are seeking Him. But then we have the age of grace. Well, with Jesus Christ came the opportunity to have our sins forgiven. The ages past didn't understand that. We do. Now we understand that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, and Acts 4 verse 12 tells us there's only one name through which salvation comes, and that's by Jesus Christ. I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but in this age, how is God known to us? Well, Jesus Christ told us who to pray to, right? He said, after this man or pray, Father in heaven. We know Him as Jesus Christ, or whatever language it is.

That's His name for this age. Hebrews tells us He speaks to us. Now Jesus Christ, His Spirit, can live in us, can be part of us if we allow it to lead us and guide us so that we begin to think like Him, react like Him, act like Him, put away the old, put on the new, understand what He is saying. It's the age of grace, and I don't have time to go into grace. A few years ago, I gave a sermon on grace. Maybe we need to dust off the books on that again. Grace isn't just unmerited pardon, as so many people think. Grace, when Paul and Peter say, grace to you be multiplied, and we live in the age of grace, when God calls and we respond, and we truly repent, and we're baptized, and we receive His Holy Spirit, God is watching out over every part of our life. Yes, it includes forgiveness of sins that can only come through true repentance.

Yes, it includes the giving of the Holy Spirit that only can come after we truly repented and are baptized, something that all the people in times past will have an opportunity in the second resurrection that God provides because He wants every person to have eternal life. He wants every person to reach out and take that tree of life that we read of in Genesis that we read, again, about in the last chapter of Revelation.

Grace, if you recall, we said grace is God's presence, giving us the ability to become what He wants us to become. It includes forgiveness, but it gives us this power and strength and love and a sound mind that we can become what God wants us to become that transforms our thinking, that converts us from our way, our conscience, to His conscience. And without it, without that, we can never obtain eternal life. It's also called the church age because what did Jesus Christ do when He was on earth? I referenced repentance and baptism. There's Acts 2, verse 38.

When Jesus Christ was on earth in Matthew 16, what did He do? He began His church. He began His church. It wasn't founded on the Jewish religion. It was founded on the law that He gave at the beginning of time that is there for all of mankind from day one until the day that He returns. In fact, Jesus Christ Himself said, as long as there's heaven and earth, that law exists. Don't let anyone deceive you. Don't let anyone fool you. It's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It never changed because God doesn't change His mind. He knows exactly what He is doing down through every single age of man right until the coming of Jesus Christ.

And He told His church, you preach the gospel to the whole world. You teach them about what's going on. And He said to them, you are the body through which I will work. Go back and read Ephesians 4. Through you, through the church, I will develop and grow people. And, church, you teach the nations to observe all things I have commanded you. You teach them of the truth of God. Don't miss the words. Don't compromise. Don't mix it with the evil. Don't mix good and truth with evil and error. Preach the truth from the Bible and only the Bible. And that's the age we live in today. The age that will exist until, as we read in Ephesians 1, verse 10, this is sensation of the fullness of times. When the time is right and God the Father sends Jesus Christ back to this earth and He claims the kingdoms of this world as His own. And He sets up a kingdom that will never end, where all men on earth will be taught God's way. When all men will gravitate toward Him, where Satan will be put away and the Word of God will reign supreme.

God had a plan from the very beginning. God knew exactly what He was doing and He has given mankind who chose to reject Him every opportunity to turn back to Him. And every step of the way, what mankind has done, has just resulted in misery and everything not good that man has. Man will finally see that when you obey God and when you follow Him, the same thing we should be learning in our lives today, goodness and blessing result. And even when we go through trials and troubles, there's still the joy there of knowing you're walking in your unity with God.

I hope this knowledge has helped you. I can help me as I put it together to appreciate God even more. We worship an awesome God. We worship a God who has a purpose. Never forsake Him and never, ever, ever reject Him.