Gen 4:26, And to Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. 
	Last Sunday, we looked at this verse in terms of the fact that it showed a couple of truths about man’s interaction with God. First, was that it has been described as the beginning of the separation of those who were after the kingdom of God from those who were after the kingdom of this world. Cain and his lineage went after the treasures of this world while Seth and his lineage have been considered as those who sought and valued the things of God above all else. 
The second aspect of this phraseology is that it is also considered the beginning of the formal worship of God by groups of people gathered together for that precise reason. Up to this statement in scripture, man was individual in terms of prayers and worship and sacrifices and conversations with God. It was apparently not done as a public display of adoration and dedication to God until this point in scripture. This is where we will pick up in our conclusion of this passage this morning. 
	As the redeemed of the Lord, the reality of calling on the name of the Lord is something that should be set in our hearts as registered by the Psalmist in Ps 116:16-19, O Lord, surely I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant, the son of Thy handmaid, Thou hast loosed my bonds. To Thee I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people, In the courts of the Lord's house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! 
	We, as His church on this earth, should recognize Who God is and esteem Him with our sacrifices of thanksgiving in the presence of all His People. There should be immense value in our coming into the presence of God, united as His people in our calling upon His name. It should not be done in a frivolous or casual manner with no understanding of to Whom we come with our vows and our praise. It must not be a matter of habit and social obligation or ritual that brings us to church. It is to be with understanding and awe and reverence, in the reality of the very relationship that He has given us in Jesus Christ. We are to know Him and to honor Him with utmost and sincere praise, united in one heart unto Him.
	Too often, we gather together as a mere token of happenstance, singing songs that we think sound good or move us with emotional responses. We endure the hour plus of our gathering together because we feel duty-bound to make an appearance of righteousness before the eyes of the church in which we have grown up. There is no true joy of gathering together in our heart. There is no anticipation of bringing honor to God in the assembly of His Chosen Ones. There is no real understanding of how God can be moved by humble spirits and contrite hearts joined together to bless Him. It is just a matter of doing what we know we ought to do, and bearing away the time, often because we think that we will suffer some retribution by God if we don’t come to church.
	The Prophet Isaiah had to warn against this type of attitude with regard to the chosen people of God. Isa 48:1, "Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by the name of the Lord And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in righteousness. 
They were called the people of God and they were known by His name. They even swore by His name. The sad thing is that they did not truly know God in truth and righteousness. They had the name, but they did not have the reality! God had to remind them and call to their attention all that He had done and had declared unto them. Sadly, even though God had already fully revealed Himself and His Love and His promise to them, they did not remember or know Him. 
	God loved this people who called upon His name. He loved them with an everlasting love that is begun and completed in Jesus Christ. He did not withhold this truth from them, as we read throughout the works of the prophets. Jer 33:14-18, 'Behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord,' when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 'In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. 'In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord is our righteousness.' "For thus says the Lord, 'David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to prepare sacrifices continually.'" This was the promise of His only begotten Son, in Whom all righteousness dwells. That is why His people would be called by His name.
	And the Prophet Joel reveals the opening of God’s righteousness in His Son to all the people who would choose to call upon His name. Joel 2:28-32, "And it will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. "And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. "And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire, and columns of smoke. "The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the Lord  has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls. 
	God’s heart of love and His complete plan and purpose to rescue all those who would choose to find their refuge in His name is as well voiced by the Prophet in Zeph 3:8-12, "Therefore, wait for Me," declares the Lord, "For the day when I rise up to the prey. Indeed, My decision is to gather nations, To assemble kingdoms, To pour out on them My indignation, All My burning anger; For all the earth will be devoured By the fire of My zeal. "For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of the Lord, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder. "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My dispersed ones, Will bring My offerings. "In that day you will feel no shame Because of all your deeds By which you have rebelled against Me; For then I will remove from your midst Your proud, exulting ones, And you will never again be haughty On My holy mountain. "But I will leave among you A humble and lowly people, And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. 
	As is abundantly evident, God places a tremendous value on those who will call upon His Name. His Name means life everlasting. His Name is the only sanctuary against all the storms and gales of this life that we are given. His Name is awesome in power and strength and wisdom and peace. His Name is mighty to save and to be cherished and reverenced above everything else in our humbleness of being. This absolutely precludes coming into God’s presence with anything other than utmost wonder and admiration and desire to glorify Him with every aspect of our corporate worship. We cannot embrace His Name without full acceptance of Who He is and what He has done and is doing and continues to do! 
	We have the witness of this in the early church at Antioch, when they took upon themselves the very name of the One Whom they so absolutely and fully loved. Acts 11:22-26, And the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. Then when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church, and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. 
	To be called by the name of Christ, belonging fully and entirely to Him is an honor that we are truly not worthy to bear. When we live our lives so wholly unto Him that others see Who He is and what He has done in the expression of His faithfulness and honor and truth and love in our lives, we must become a people as previously described, A humble and lowly people, And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. His name upon us, being called a Christian is no small or insignificant thing! It is the greatest and most intense and momentous honor which can be ours on this earth! It means that we are identified in a living relationship with the very Lord God Almighty. It is through His provision of Christ by Whom we are brought into the very family of God as His adopted sons and daughters. It means eternity in the very presence of God, when Christ truly is our Savior, because we have called upon His name in sincerity and in reality.
	As the Apostle Paul reinforces for us in Rom 10:8-13, But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." 
	The reality of calling upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ establishes, not just salvation and eternal security, but sanctification from all those elements of this age which so fully devastated our lives in sin. His name, as our covering, brings grace and peace with God, lavishing us in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, Himself, as our guiding strength and wisdom. It is in Him by Whom we can live our lives in the manner that completely honors and pleases our beloved Heavenly Father. In Christ, we are blameless in the very holy presence of God for all of eternity. 
	Again, we are encouraged and admonished by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor 1:1-8, Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
	Lord willing, we will all recognize, in our hearts and in our minds that it is no small thing to call upon the name of the Lord and thereby to be called by His name. We are a gathering of the very Saints of God. When we know God, through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, our lives will never be the same. We will be transformed from those who know of God, into those who know God, Spirit to spirit, and heart to heart. We are partakers in the living relationship that God has always intended for us as His plan and purpose, Creator in intimate union with His beloved creation. Our every sense of understanding of life will become changed from that which services our needs to that which honors God, Alone, in the lives that we live forth on this earth. 
	As we read in Eph 3:14-19, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. 
	Therefore, let us, corporately and individually, beseech the Holy Spirit to bring forth from our hearts and souls a worship that is worthy of the name into which we gather. Let us humble ourselves before God to be prepared in every way to worship Him, to make every necessary adjustment and provision to join our hearts as one before Him. We do not gather just to fulfill some human sense of obligation unto some deity of our imaginations. We serve the Living Lord God, Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, by Whom all life is produced. In coming before Him, we honor and worship Him and call upon His name as our everything. Let our corporate praises therefore reflect our complete and perfect adulation, love, reverence, respect, honor, and devotion for God. So be it!
And to Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Ps 128:1-5a. How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, You will be happy and it will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine, Within your house, Your children like olive plants Around your table. Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion... Amen.