Genesis (Part 8) (BST 8-3-08)

Genesis (Part 8)
Bible Study Time 8-3-08
(From James Roberts 9-22-96)

The past few Sundays we have been on a Journey Through the Scripture. At our last stop, we looked at the book of Genesis, Chapter 5, and there we saw the genealogy of Adam. In the first two verses of this chapter, we saw God’s original plan and purpose for mankind. God created man in His own image, in His own likeness. Male and female He created them, and He called them mankind. In the book of Psalms, Chapter 8, the psalmist says:

Psalms 8:4 KJV
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

When the psalmist looked at all of God’s creation and the magnitude of God’s creation, man just seemed so insignificant. So the psalmist asked the question, what is man that thou art mindful of him?

Then the Psalmist goes on to describe God’s plan and purpose for man. He says that God crowned man with glory and honor and gave him dominion over the earth and over all of the things that were in the earth. In this we see that God had a uniquely glorious plan for mankind. Man stands separate and apart from the rest of the creation. God created man, male and female, and only mankind is said to have been created in the image of God.

Now something happened between the time that God created man in His own image and today. We read in the book of Genesis, Chapter 3, that man disobeyed God so that man became a sinner. Indeed, man became a sinner the very instant that he disobeyed God. As a result, man’s fellowship with God was broken, and man lost some of the glory and honor with which he was crowned when he was first created.

I do believe, however, that even though man has fallen and has become a sinner, he still retains certain aspects of the glory with which he was endowed at the time of his creation. By God’s decree, man still has dominion over the earth, and man is still the only created being who was created in the image of God.

We see throughout the scriptures that God has a unique and special regard for human life. With this in mind, we too should value human life. No one has the right to take the life of a human being. God created man, He gave man his life, and God is the only one who has the right to take a life.

Now in Genesis, Chapter 5 and verse 3, we see that Adam begot a son who was born in Adam’s likeness, after Adam’s image. The book of I Corinthians, Chapter 15, tells us that all of us were born in Adam’s image. It says that Adam was of the earth; he was created from the dust of the ground. That means that all of us were born with a fallen nature. When Adam sinned, he became a sinner, and you and I, as members of the human race, inherited that sin nature from Adam.

Ephesians, Chapter 2, tells us categorically that we were dead in trespasses and sins before we were saved through faith in Jesus Christ. David said that he was conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. This statement does not imply that David’s parents did anything wrong when David was conceived. In this statement, David simply acknowledges that he was born with the sin nature that Adam passed down to all of his descendants.

Now in the book of Genesis, Chapter 5, we see a common characteristic of all of the descendants of Adam except one. In every case but one we read that they were born, they begat sons and daughters, and then they died. Again and again it says, and he died, and he died. But there was one notable exception to this and that is found in a man by the name of Enoch. Notice as we begin reading in Genesis, Chapter 5 and verse 21:

Genesis 5:21-29 NKJV
21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.
22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech.
26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters.
27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son.
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed."

Here we see that Enoch did not die. After Enoch begot Methuselah, Enoch lived for three hundred years, and then it says that Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him.

Hebrews, Chapter 11, says that:

Hebrews 11:5 NKJV
5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Enoch walked with God by faith and was not found because God took him out of this world to be with Himself. All the people looked for Enoch, but they could not find him because God took him. The reason that God took Enoch is that Enoch had pleased God.

If we look in the book of Jude, we find that Enoch was a prophet. Something happened in Enoch’s life that caused him to be different from the other people of his generation. Rather than living according to the ungodliness of his generation, Enoch went out preaching and prophesying.

It is interesting to see in the book of Jude that Enoch not only prophesied to the people of his own generation, but he prophesied to a generation that is, even for us, still in the future. This future generation will be very much like the evil generation of Enoch’s day. Jude, verse 14, says:

Jude 14-15 NKJV
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,
15 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 recognized the ungodliness of the people of his generation. He heard the harsh things that they spoke against God. So God called Enoch to prophesy to these people for 300 years. Enoch told his contemporaries that someday the Lord would come with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all those who live in such an ungodly way.

Well, what was it that caused Enoch to become a prophet of God instead of being conformed to the ungodly ways of his own generation. Undoubtedly, God spoke to Enoch, because we find that it was by faith that Enoch walked with God, and we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

So what do you suppose it was that God told Enoch that caused him to turn his back on the ungodliness of his generation? What did God say that caused him to speak out with such authority about the coming judgment of God?

We find of hint of what God said to Enoch in the name of Enoch’s son. Enoch named his son Methuselah which means, when he is dead, it shall be sent. Now, we know from the next chapter what this name was referring to because the next chapter tells us about the great flood of Noah’s day. As Enoch predicted, the great flood of Noah’s day came when Methuselah died.

Now, whether Enoch knew that God was going to judge the world with a flood, we don’t know, but we do know that he knew that a great judgment from God was going to come when Methuselah died.

God must have instructed Enoch to go out and preach to the people about their ungodly ways and about the harsh words that they were speaking against God, and no doubt, God told Enoch to warn the people of the judgment that was just ahead. Methuselah’s name stood as a constant reminder to the people of Enoch’s message.

We can see so vividly in this passage the respect that God has for human life. In spite of all of their ungodliness and all of their harsh words against God, God instructed Enoch to warn these people for 300 years about the coming judgment. That’s a long time, in fact, it’s longer than our country has had its independence. For 300 years, Enoch walked among these people and prophesied of the judgment that was going to come when Methuselah died.

Actually, Noah labored under much the same situation as he was building the ark. During the 120 years that he was building the ark, he warned the people about the coming judgment of God. For 300 years Enoch warned the people, and for 120 years Noah warned the people.

As for Methuselah, he lived longer than any person on record. God postponed the great flood as long as He could to demonstrate His longsuffering and His patience with sinful man. God warned the people, and He postponed the flood for so many years because He is not willing that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance and be saved.

God was the one who created these people. He loved them and sent prophets to warn them of the judgment to come. He begged them and pleaded with them to turn from their ungodliness, all because God is not willing that any should perish. But eventually the judgment did come.

And may I say this to you, God is not willing that any should perish today. He has sent His Son to bear the judgment for your sins and for my sins, and when we come to Him and trust Him as Savior, He will give us eternal life and deliver us from the judgment to come.

Well, I see we have already completed this stop in our Journey Through the Scripture. Next week, we’ll continue our journey. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

Genesis (Part 7) (BST 7-13-08)

Genesis (Part 7)
Bible Study Time 7-13-08
(From James Roberts 9-15-96)

At our last stop in our Journey Through the Scripture, we saw that Adam and Eve had two sons named Cain and Abel. In the process of time, as Cain and Abel became responsible for their own sacrifices to the Lord, they each brought a different kind of sacrifice.

In Genesis, Chapter 4, we find that Abel offered the first born of his flock. The language here indicates that Abel offered the fattest of his flock. Cain, on the other hand, brought the fruit of his own labor, the fruit of the ground. When Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord, the Lord accepted Abel’s offering, but Cain’s offering was rejected. As a result, Cain became very angry with God.

When God confronted Cain, God said, if you do well, you will be accepted, but if you do not do well, a sin offering is lying right at the door of your tent for you to rule over. Undoubtedly, God was saying, Cain, you have the opportunity to bring the very same kind of sacrifice that Abel brought. It’s right at the door of your tent. All you have to do is slay it and bring it to me; I will accept it.

But I’m sure that you remember what Cain did. Cain not only got angry at God, but he also got angry with his brother, Abel, and killed him. The book of I John tells us that the reason Cain killed Abel is that Cain’s deeds were evil while Abel’s deeds were righteous.

Ultimately, God called Cain into account and said, where is your brother? Cain said, I don’t know where Abel is; am I my brother’s keeper? Then God declared that Abel’s blood was crying out from the ground.

Here we see the first indication of God’s viewpoint toward human life. God sees life as sacred; it is given by God. Human life in particular is a special creation of God in that man was made in the likeness of God. God regards human life as sacred, and so He punished Cain for killing his brother.

At this point, let’s try to understand why God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s offering. The book of Hebrews tells us that it was by faith that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. According to Romans 10:17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So how did Abel hear God’s word?

Undoubtedly, while Cain and Abel were growing up as young men, Adam offered sacrifices for his family and as he offered those sacrifices he probably taught his sons the exact procedure that God required. Adam must have told his sons everything that was relevant to what God required from those who would offer a sacrifice to God. Abel believed God, but Cain rejected God’s word. Cain thought he had a better way.

The book of Jude says, woe to those who walk in the way of Cain. The way of Cain is the way of self-righteousness; Cain represents the way of religion. There are all kinds of religions with all kinds of ideas about how to approach God, but the Bible tells us that there is only one way for a man to approach God.

God had only one way by which Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel could come to Him and be accepted, and that was through the blood sacrifice of an animal. Their acceptance by God was based on their faith; it was based on their willingness to believe what God had said and then act accordingly.

May I say this to you? There is only one way by which we today can be accepted by God, and it’s not by offering up animal sacrifices the way Adam and Eve did. Those animal sacrifices were but types or pictures of the one sacrifice that God accepts today as the payment for man’s sins: the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, on the cross of Calvary.

Today, you are merely walking in the way of Cain if you have never come to Jesus Christ and accepted His work on the cross for your sins, believing that Christ died for your sins and was buried and then was raised from the dead. Those who walk in the way of Cain are saying, the cross of Jesus Christ is not enough for me; I have no choice but to trust in the works of my own hands; I have to believe that there is something that I can do to make myself acceptable in the sight of God.

But God says, everything that is necessary has already been done. My Son has already finished the work of redemption for you. If you want to walk in the way of Abel, you must walk by faith and believe the gospel of God’s grace. You must believe that it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but it is according to God’s mercy that He saves us, by the washing of regeneration. It’s by grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

So Abel believed God. That’s the way of Abel. In fact, the only way that God has ever accepted anyone is on the basis of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith is not something mystical. Faith is simply believing and trusting what God has said in His word. Faith is simply a matter of hearing God’s word from the scriptures and then believing it. Faith is a matter of resting in the word of God.

Now, we see in Genesis, Chapter 4, that God gave Eve another son by the name of Seth to take the place of Abel, and in Genesis, Chapter 5, we see the genealogy of Adam as far as the line of Seth is concerned. There are some very interesting things for us to see in this genealogy so let’s begin reading with verse one of Genesis 5.

Genesis 5:1-2 NKJV
1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.

Notice this very carefully. Here is a special creation called Mankind. It is a special designation that God gives to humanity, those who were created in the image of God. Man is a separate creation altogether from the animal life. We should be kind to animals and we should be very careful in the way we treat animals, but animals are here for man’s good. Humanity is a higher order of creation, the highest of God’s creation. We’re not just a part of the animal life. God has designated us as mankind, and both male and female constitute what is known as mankind.

Now, please notice. Mankind was made in the likeness of God, or in the image of God. Animals are never said to have been created in the image of God. Only man was created in the image of God. Don’t believe the evolutionists who say that we just started from a little speck of protoplasm in the ocean that grew and then finally came out of the ocean onto the land to evolve from a lower class of animal life to a higher class of animal life. This is not so. Mankind was created in the image of God.

In Psalms, Chapter 8, we see that God created man to have dominion over the earth and all things that are in the earth. In the beginning man was crowned with glory and honor, but something happened in the garden that weakened man’s dominion. Mankind disobeyed God and became a sinner; then he passed that sin nature on to all of his descendants. That’s why we read in verse 3 of Genesis 5 that:

Genesis 5:3 NKJV
3 . . . Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

The book of I Corinthians tells us that we have born the image of Adam, and we are told that those who are in Adam die. That’s why we read in this genealogy of Adam that in every case but one, the same statement follows each person’s history which simply says, and they died.

How refreshing it is to see in verse 23 of this chapter that Enoch walked with God, and He was not, for God took him. When it says that Enoch was not, it carries the idea that Enoch was not found. The book of Jude tells us that Enoch was a prophet. He prophesied against the ungodly deeds of the people who lived at that time, so God took him.

Undoubtedly, they searched for Enoch, trying to find out where this troublemaker was, but they couldn’t find him because God had taken him. Hebrews, Chapter 11, tells us that Enoch was translated into heaven so that he would not see death.

The primary application that we take from this today is that believers today have been translated out of Adam into God’s family and because of that we will not see death. We will escape death because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust today that you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and that you are resting in the assurance that you will escape the judgment to come.

Well, I see that we have already come to another stop sign. We’re going to have to stop on our journey for today, but we’ll take up again next week with our Journey Through the Scripture. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

Genesis (Part 6)(BST 7-6-08)

Genesis (Part 6)
Bible Study Time 7-6-08
(From James Roberts 9-8-96)

In our Journey Through the Scripture last week, we saw Adam and Eve having children named Cain and Abel. In these two children we see a very good picture of mankind today in that some choose to walk with God by faith, while others rebel against God and choose to walk according to their own human wisdom and logic.

Last week we also saw in a dramatic way, the fact that God does change the way He deals with mankind when circumstances arise which warrant such a change. Before Adam and Eve sinned, God walked with them in the garden in the cool of the day. This indicated the type of close, intimate fellowship that they experienced with God there in the garden. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God drove them out of the garden because they were sinners and because they were conscious of their sin.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they passed on to all of their descendants the nature to sin. The book of Romans says:

Romans 5:12 KJV
12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men . . .

That’s why David said in Psalms, Chapter 51, that he was conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. It wasn’t because his mother and father had sinned when he was conceived. No, it was because David knew that even when he was born, he was born with a nature to sin. David was simply acknowledging that he was born with the old sin nature.

Mankind today does not like to accept the fact of the old sin nature. Men today baulk at the idea that they are fallen creatures and that their actions are displeasing to God because their actions come from that old fallen nature. The Bible teaches that God requires a sacrifice for sin before man can be brought back into fellowship with God.

In Genesis, Chapter 4, we find that in the process of time, Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord. Undoubtedly, when Cain and Abel were children, their sins were covered by the sacrifices that Adam offered on their behalf. When Cain and Abel became adults, however, each had to assume individual responsibility for his own relationship with God.

And so it is with you and me. Each one of us is responsible for our own relationship with God. By nature we are dead in sin, but God has provided a way for us to be brought back into a place of acceptance and fellowship with God through the death of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When it came time for Cain and Abel to offer their sacrifices to God, it seems that they had to bring them to the gate of the Garden of Eden where the Cherubim were. These Cherubim had flaming swords that turned in every direction. I do believe that the very presence of God was in this place.

When Cain and Abel brought their offerings, God had respect to Abel’s offering and probably showed His good pleasure by consuming Abel’s offering with fire. However, God did not accept Cain’s offering; Cain’s offering just sat there on the altar.

This made Cain furious. I can just see Cain ranting and railing against God, saying, I brought You the very best that I have to offer; I worked hard to raise this beautiful fruit, but You won’t even acknowledge it; You accepted Abel’s offering even though he had to do nothing but go out and kill a lamb.

The book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, presents God’s perspective which is totally different. It says that it was by faith that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. That means that God must have given Cain and Abel specific instructions about what to bring and when and where to bring it. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, so Abel came to God in faith, offering his sacrifice in accordance with the word of God.

As Cain and Abel were growing up, they probably watched Adam as he offered sacrifices to God, and they would listen as Adam explained to them exactly what he was doing and why. Adam must have taught them the word of God concerning the kind of offerings that God would accept and when and where they were to offer their sacrifices.

Well, as Cain grew up and became responsible for his own sacrifices, he decided that God probably wouldn’t be all that strict about the kind of sacrifice that He would accept, so he decided to bring some of the beautiful fruit that he had grown from the ground. After all, why wouldn’t God be pleased with such a beautiful offering?

When God refused to accept his offering, Cain rebelled and refused to acknowledge his sin. Instead, he accused God of being unjust. But notice the gentle nature of God’s response to Cain. God said, Cain, if you do well, I’ll accept you, but if you do not do well, sin is at your door, and you shall rule over it.

When God said, sin lies at your door, He may have been saying that a sin offering was lying at the door. This would mean that God had provided an offering for Cain and that this offering was lying right at the door of Cain’s tent. God indicated that it was a gentle lamb in that Cain would be able to rule over it.

Oh my, what a gracious offer. God was willing to provide an offering for Cain, and this offering would require no work on Cain’s part. All Cain had to do was pick up the offering and bring it to God by faith. But Cain refused to accept God’s offer. Instead, Cain asked Abel to meet him in the field, and there in the field, Cain killed his brother, Abel.

The book of Hebrews says that Cain killed Abel first of all because Cain’s deeds were evil and secondly because Abel’s deeds were righteous. You see, Cain hated Abel simply because Abel believed God and was accepted by God. In fact, in his state of rebellion against God, Cain hated both Abel and God.

After Cain killed Abel, God came looking for Cain, asking, “Where is Abel your brother?” Instead of acknowledging his sin, Cain said, “I don’t know where Abel is. Am I my brother’s keeper? Then God confronted Cain and said,

Genesis 4:10-12 NKJV
10 . . . "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.
11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth."

Until that time Cain had been a tiller of the ground, and undoubtedly, the ground had produced beautiful fruit for Cain. But God said that from this point on, the ground would no longer produce fruit for Cain. God said that Cain would be a vagabond and a fugitive, and then God placed a mark on Cain so that no one would kill him. In fact, God said that He would personally take vengeance on anyone who killed Cain.

At this point I would like to just say that in spite of man’s fallen nature and in spite of man’s rebellion against God, God still sees great value in human life. I believe that there is a strong application in this lesson for us today. Some people today take abortion very lightly, and we are told that 95% of abortions are done simply as a means of birth control. They are not done because the mother’s life is in danger or because of rape or incest. They are done simply because people don’t want the child.

We see clearly in the scriptures that God has always held people responsible for murder, and even in the case of a guilty person such as Cain, God still values human life. That being the case, how much greater is God’s condemnation of those take the life of an innocent, unborn child.

As we look further in Genesis, Chapter 4, we are faced with somewhat of a dilemma. God had promised that a Redeemer would come from one of Eve’s children, but now Abel was dead and Cain had gone out from the presence of God. So from what line was the Redeemer going to come? As it turned out Eve had another son by the name of Seth, and God determined that the Redeemer would come through the righteous linage of Seth.

But what about Cain? Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, but how does a person go out from the presence of an omnipresent God? David said, if I go up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the grave, You are there; if I go to the uttermost parts of the earth, You are there. How could Cain go out from the presence of the Lord?

Well, this stands as evidence that God had established His presence at a certain place, probably at the gate of the Garden of Eden. This is the place where people would come to offer their sacrifices to the Lord. When the Bible says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, it simply means that Cain went far away from this place where God’s presence was. Having left this place, Cain was no longer in a position to fellowship with God.

As we move on into Genesis, Chapter 5, we see the genealogy of the descendants of Adam. As we look at this genealogy, there is one thing that stands out and that is that after each person’s mini-history there is one final epitaph which reads, “and he died.” All the way down the list we read, and he died, and he died, and he died.

Every person in that list died except one person and that was Enoch. Next week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we’re going to talk about Enoch, and we’re going to see that Enoch was a man who walked with God in the midst of an ungodly generation. Enoch did not die, but everyone else did. According to Hebrews 9:

Hebrews 9:27
27 . . . it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment:

Unless the Lord comes to take all believers up to heaven before we die, we will all certainly face death. Every day we are getting closer to the time that we will die. We have no claim on life. The genealogy says, and he died, and he died.

Romans 5:12 KJV
12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin . . .

You and I have no claim on life, and I trust today that you are like Abel and Enoch in that you are walking by faith and walking with God even though you live in the midst of an ungodly generation. If you walk with God by faith and believe what He has revealed in His word, you are a child of God, and you can rest assured that when you die, your spirit will go to be with the Lord in heaven. The Bible says that we should comfort ourselves with this thought.

Well, we’ve come to a stop sign which means we’re going to have to stop in our journey for today. But next week, the Lord willing, we’ll take up our journey once again. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/