Today, I want to read out the names of the entire population of the world. And also tell you a little about each one of them. You may think that is impossible. But on my computer at home, I have all that information. I promise you I won't go overtime this morning, either.
So what's the trick?
Well, I didn't tell you WHEN these people lived. It wasn't last year or even last century. It was the first year of human existence. So it won't take long to tell you about TWO people - the entire population of the whole world at that time.
The first one is Adam. He is the only man who was NEVER born. He was CREATED by God form the soil of the earth. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He then became a living being. He was NOT created in Garden of EDEN, he was put there by God after He had formed him. Even in perfect surroundings there was something missing. He was ALONE. He was created an intelligent being with the ability to speak a language. He must have noticed he was alone when God brought the animals to him to name them. It is important to remember too, that God told him not to eat the forbidden fruit BEFORE He created Eve from Adam's side. It wasn't just a RIB. Adam said that Eve was "bone of my bone and FLESH of my flesh." So it was bone AND sinew.
In fact, you could say that all we know about Adam and Eve is the barebones. The Book of Genesis has been strenuously attacked not just because, humanly speaking, there are so many gaps. But because if Adam can be proved conclusively never to have lived, the gospel of Jesus Christ is destroyed.
If the FIRST ADAM didn't exist then there is no basis to believe that Christ, the LAST ADAM, died for the whole world. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:22, "For as in Adam ALL die, so in Christ ALL will be made alive." Verse 45: "The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam a life giving spirit." Verse 47: "The first man was the dust of the earth, the second man form heaven."
If God created a whole NATION at once rather than ONE man, there is no FIRST Adam, and he was not alone. Then Roman 5:12 is not true either. "Therefore, even as through ONE man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed to all men, inasmuch as ALL sinned."
God provided the only solution - CHRIST.
The second person was EVE. Eve was deceived by Satan, but NOT Adam (1 Timothy 2:14).
So why did Adam eat the fruit? Could it be that he believed God? God told him in the day he ate the fruit, dying he would die. So Eve would start dying and eventually he would be alone again.
The only children we know about are Cain, the eldest, Abel and Seth. Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old. After that Adam lived another 800 years and had other sons and daughters (Genesis 5:4). Adam and Eve were blessed and told by God to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:25). And they were fruitful and multiplied.
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the tradition was that Adam and Eve had 33 sons and 23 daughters. It is possible. Adam lived to be 930 years old without any inherited diseases or weaknesses. So it is quite possible that Cain could have had a wife at the time he killed Abel, and that there were relatives of Abel around who would avenge his death. Years later he built a city named after his son Enoch (Genesis 4:17). No one builds a city without any people in it.
So however distant the relationship, everyone is related to Adam. "And He has made ALL nations of men of ONE blood to dwell on all the face of the earth." (Acts 17:26).
It was a simple matter to name the entire population of the world when it was only Adam and Eve.
Even with modern technology it would be impossible to list everyone living today. When China and India take over 9 months to complete a census it is out of date before it is finished.
But the amazing thing is that GOD knows every individual on the face of the earth. Not just their name. Not just the number of hairs on their head. He knows everything about them. And He loves the whole world. How much?
God so LOVES the world, that He gives His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
Thank God, there was the FIRST MAN Adam and also the LAST MAN Adam.
