tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50266202009-10-12T10:24:02.804-05:00Jim Roberts, Peace Church, Indiahoma, OklahomaJim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.comBlogger496125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-37004105410977564502009-10-12T10:23:00.000-05:002009-10-12T10:24:02.813-05:00This blog is dedicated for the most part to publishing Bible lessons from the <em>Bible Study Time</em> radio broadcast. This broadcast was started in Frederick, Oklahoma, way back in 1961 by my father, Pastor James Roberts. In 1996, my father started a series of lessons called <em>A Journey Through the Scripture</em>. The most recent of these lessons you will find on this page with a link to a video clip of that lesson. Previous lessons can be found in the archives to the right.<br /><br />Please feel free to check out the following links:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.jimsstudyinephesians.blogspot.com/">My Study in Ephesians</a><br /><br /><strong>Peace Church Photos and Events:</strong><br /><a href="http://community.webshots.com/user/jamesroberts">Peace Church Photo Albums (Updated 9-23-09)</a><br /><br />Men's Prayer Breakfast – November 7, 2009<br /><p style="TEXT-INDENT: 1cm">Preparation – Leon Fischer<br /><p style="TEXT-INDENT: 1cm">Devotional – Wayne Schoonover<br />Summer Camp 2010 – July 16-18 (Binger, OK) <a href="http://summerregistration.blogspot.com/">Registration</a><br />Fall Retreat 2009 – September 25-27 (Binger, OK) <a href="http://fallregistration.blogspot.com/">Registration</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-3700410541097756450?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-49979689360113653552009-08-20T06:51:00.003-05:002009-09-04T20:15:15.765-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 29)<br />Bible Study Time 1-18-09<br />(From James Roberts 3-9-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">In Genesis, Chapter 11, we saw that Abraham moved with his family from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran, and last week in Genesis, Chapter 24, we saw that Abraham instructed his servant to go back to Haran to find a wife for Isaac. This servant was not to take a bride for Isaac from among the Canaanites, and he was not to take Isaac back with him to Haran. Instead, he was to journey by himself back to Haran to find a bride for Isaac from among Abraham's kinsfolk.<br /><br />In Genesis, Chapter 24, we see the literal, historical account of how this servant went back to get Isaac's bride. We see how the Lord directed him to the very person whom God had chosen for Isaac, and as we read between the lines of scripture, we can imagine the things that this servant must have told Rebecca as he pled on Isaac's behalf.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, the servant won her over by telling her about all of the glory of Abraham, all of the riches and honor of Abraham. And then He must have told her about all of the riches and glory that Isaac would inherit because of his relationship with his father. It may have been that this servant even told Rebecca of certain events that had happened during Abraham's life and Isaac's life which would have shown the beauty of Isaac and the glory of Abraham. Whatever it was, Rebecca must have become so captivated with her thoughts and feelings for Isaac that she was willing to leave her country and her family to follow this servant back to Canaan to be Isaac's bride.<br /><br />Oh, what a wonderful picture this is. This is a historical event, but in the book of I Corinthians, Chapter 10, we read that many times God recorded historical events as examples for those of us who would afterward believe. This is in keeping with what we read in Hebrews, Chapter 10, where we are told that even though the Old Testament tabernacle and temple were historical places of worship, they were also types and shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His future redemptive work on the cross.<br /><br />So, in Genesis, Chapter 24, we find in the mission of Abraham's servant a picture of God the Father sending the Holy Spirit to secure a bride for the Lord Jesus Christ. Someday, God the Father is going to call out a bride for His Son, the Lord Jesus, and in the book of Revelation we read about the marriage of the Lamb. We also find in the book of Matthew, Chapter 25, the parable of the foolish and the wise virgins, who were waiting for that marriage to take place.<br /><br />As it turns out, many evangelical teachers, who are great Bible teachers, look back in the book of Genesis, Chapter 24, and they see there a picture of what the Holy Spirit is doing today. They say that when Abraham sent his servant back into another country to seek a bride for Isaac, this was a picture of the Holy Spirit going out among the Gentiles to seek a bride for Christ, and this would make the present day Church the Bride of Christ.<br /><br />However, there is one thing missing from this interpretation. Abraham actually sent his servant back to seek a bride for Isaac from among his own kinsmen, not from among the Gentiles. In Hebrews, Chapter 11, God sheds some light on the pictures and types of Genesis, Chapter 24. Let's read in Hebrews, 11, beginning in verse 13 where the writer is speaking of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and says:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:13-14 NKJV<br />13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.<br />14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.<br /></em><br />God had promised all of that land of Palestine, all of the land of the Canaanites, to Abraham, and Abraham had understood and embraced those promises, but he never received the fulfillment of those promises.<br /><br />Abraham looked into the future and by faith he saw the fulfillment of those promises, but while he was living in the land of Canaan, he confessed that he was a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that those who make such a confession are actually declaring their desire for a homeland.<br /><br />The writer then shows that Abraham was willing to wait for a future time when his hope for a homeland would be fulfilled. Verse 15 says:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:15 NKJV<br />15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.<br /></em><br />The very fact that they did not go back to the land of their kinsmen shows that they were willing to wait for that which God had promised them. They were willing to be a pilgrim and a stranger on the earth.<br /><br />They dwelt in tents, and they had no desire to build a city in the land of Canaan. They dwelt in the land of promise as pilgrims and strangers. Why? Verse 16 says:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:16 NKJV<br />16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.<br /></em><br />Clearly, a city has been prepared for certain descendants of Abraham, and this city is a heavenly city. When we come to the book of Revelation, Chapter 21, this heavenly city is plainly described. Let's begin reading with verse nine of Revelation, Chapter 21:<br /><br /><em>Revelation 21:9 NKJV<br />9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife."<br /></em><br />In Genesis, Chapter 24, Rebecca was a picture of the Lamb's wife. Rebecca pictures the bride while Isaac pictures the Lord Jesus Christ as the bridegroom, the Lamb of God. Now notice:<br /><br /><em>Revelation 21:10 NKJV<br />10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,<br /></em><br />This verse associates Abraham with the New Jerusalem even though certain of his descendants are associated with the earthly Jerusalem.<br /><br />As you will recall, the angel who came to Mary explained that her Son was going to sit upon the throne of His father, David, and that He would rule and reign over the earth. The Bible very plainly shows that the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, is going to come back to the earthly Jerusalem to rule and reign on the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.<br /><br />There appear to be certain descendants of Abraham who have this hope that is centered in the earthly Jerusalem. This is the earthly Jerusalem where the twelve Apostles will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel in an earthly kingdom. However, there are clearly certain descendants of Abraham who will inherit the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, and this is the Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God.<br /><br />Many people today speak of the New Jerusalem as if it is heaven itself, but the New Jerusalem is going to come down out of heaven. Therefore, it cannot be heaven. In spite of what the song writers say, the New Jerusalem cannot be heaven per se. The New Jerusalem is going to come from God, and it is going to come down out of heaven.<br /><br />Now, let's continue in verse 11 where the Apostle John continues his description of the New Jerusalem:<br /><br /><em>Revelation 21:11-12 NKJV<br />11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.<br />12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:<br /></em><br />These twelve tribes of Israel are Abraham's kinsmen. They are Abraham's seed, his descendants. They are associated with the New Jerusalem and the Bride of Christ. John said that this New Jerusalem had twelve gates, and:<br /><br /><em>Revelation 21:14 NKJV<br />14 . . . the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.<br /></em><br />Abraham was looking for this city and certain of his descendants are going to be connected with this heavenly city which will come down out of heaven from God. This group of believing Jews will be the Bride of Christ, and it will be made up of representatives from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve Apostles of the Lamb are going to be associated with this heavenly city.<br /><br />It seems very plain to me that this is what is pictured in Genesis, Chapter 24, where Abraham's servant woos Rebecca to win her over as Isaac's bride. There are certain descendants of Abraham who will submit to the Holy Spirit and become the Bride of Christ, and they will inherit the New Jerusalem.<br /><br />Those who say that Genesis 24 pictures the present day work of the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles have to deal first of all with the fact that Abraham's servant did not seek a bride for Isaac from among the Gentiles. But then they also have to reconcile their doctrine with Ephesians, Chapter 3, which declares that the truth concerning the Church of our present time was never revealed or even hinted at in the Old Testament. In Ephesians 3, Paul says:<br /><br /><em>Ephesians 3:3-5<br />3 . . . by revelation (God) made known to me the mystery . . .<br />5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:<br /></em><br />The Apostle Paul had a very distinctive ministry. He was not one of the twelve Apostles who will inherit the New Jerusalem. Rather, Paul is associated with the hope of the present day Church, and his revelation concerning the present day Church was never revealed to the men of other ages.<br /><br />Paul's message concerning the Church relates to the unsearchable, or untraceable riches of Christ, so that there was never even a trace of evidence in the Old Testament concerning the Church of our present age. This truth was hidden in God until it was revealed to the Apostle Paul.<br /><br />So I believe that the scriptures speak of three different hopes for three different groups of believers. First, there is that hope which is destined for Abraham's earthly seed, those who look for the earthly Jerusalem. When Rebecca came out to meet Isaac, she left her kinsmen back in their homeland, and I believe that her kinsmen picture those Jews who will rule and reign with Christ on the New Earth throughout eternity.<br /><br />But there is also that group of believing Jews who look for the New Jerusalem. This group is pictured in Rebecca in that she went out from among her kinsmen to be married to Isaac. These Jewish believers will be taken up out of the earth to become the Bride of Christ, and they will rule with Christ in the New Jerusalem throughout eternity.<br /><br />But then there is the third hope which belongs to believers of our present age, believers like you and me who know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior. Today, when people put their faith in Christ, they are added to the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the church which God is building in heaven today. As members of this church, believers today are citizens of heaven, and our steadfast hope is that one day the Lord will call us to be with Himself in heaven, where we will ever to be with the Lord.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone. We'll take up on our Journey Through the Scripture next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.ok-peacechurch.org/">http://www.ok-peacechurch.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-4997968936011365355?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-74356389830405334232009-07-25T19:10:00.002-05:002009-07-25T19:14:07.611-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 28)<br />Bible Study Time 1-11-09<br />(From James Roberts 3-2-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> we saw that Abraham sent his servant back to the land of the Chaldeans to secure a wife for his son, Isaac. It's very interesting that Abraham did not want Isaac to go back to Abraham's homeland. This was because God had told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would give to Abraham and his descendants as an inheritance.<br /><br />So God brought Abraham to the land of Canaan where Abraham lived among the Canaanites. When it came time for Abraham to find a bride for Isaac, He did not want Isaac to marry one of the daughters of the Canaanites, but neither did he want Isaac to go back to the land of the Chaldeans. If Isaac had married a Canaanite woman, he might have been tempted to conform to the religious practices of the Canaanites, which were very sensual. On the other hand, if Isaac had gone back to the land of the Chaldeans, he might have been tempted to remain in that land.<br /><br />So in Genesis, Chapter 24, we find that Abraham sent his servant back to Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac from among Abraham's own family members. When the servant got to the city of Nahor, he ask God for a sign to indicate the very woman that God had chosen for Isaac, and God honored his request. When Rebecca came to the well, she did precisely what had been requested in the sign.<br /><br />Last week we emphasized the fact that the Jews require a sign, as noted in the book of I Corinthians. So in this passage we see that, even before there was a nation of Israel per se, we find sign gifts being introduced.<br /><br />It's very important to realize that God was always willing to give the nation of Israel miraculous signs to help them in their lack of faith. All through the years of the Old Testament God gave the nation of Israel certain signs to help them believe His word, to authenticate His message. Then, when the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth, we find that He performed certain miracles that were signs to the nation of Israel. These signs were given to authenticate His claim that He was the King of the Jews. Jesus did all of the things that the Old Testament prophets said the promised Messiah would do.<br /><br />At the close of the Lord's ministry, the Jewish leaders came to Him and asked Him for a sign even though He had already done thousands of miracles. In response to their request, the Lord Jesus said, there shall no sign be given you but the sign of the Prophet Jonah, for just as Jonah was in the fish's belly for three days and three nights so must the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.<br /><br />This sign was fulfilled with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ because Christ died and was buried and was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. However, on the third day He arose from the grave, triumphant over death, hell and the grave.<br /><br />Now during the time period covered by the book of Acts, the nation of Israel still had every opportunity to accept Jesus as their Messiah, and God gave the apostles many sign gifts to authenticate their message. But throughout the book of Acts, we read of Israel's rejection of Jesus as the Christ. As John, Chapter 1, says<br /><br /><em>John 1:11-12 NKJV<br />11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.<br />12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:<br /></em><br />So, even though there were many Jews who did believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who did accept Jesus as the promised Messiah, the majority of the people of Israel, including those in leadership, rejected Jesus. Therefore, God's set aside His program for the Jews.<br /><br />Since the calling out of Abraham, God had promised a Messiah who would establish a great earthly kingdom through the nation of Israel, but when the Jews rejected the Messiah, God set aside all of the promises that related to Israel hope of an earthly kingdom.<br /><br />As a result, God established a new program for mankind, the program for the Church which is the Body of Christ. The truth concerning this program was revealed through the Apostle Paul who boldly declared that this truth was never revealed to men of other ages.<br /><br />In this program for the Church, the miraculous sign gifts are strangely absent even though they were so much a part of God's kingdom program for Israel. This does not mean that God is incapable of doing miracles in our present dispensation, but it simply means that God no longer gives sign gifts to men to authenticate the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Therefore, today we do not look for signs, and we do not test God in the way that Abraham's servant did in Genesis, Chapter 24. Today, we ask God for guidance and direction in our lives, and then we study His word and trust in the leading of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. He is the one who reveals to us the specific will of God for our lives.<br /><br />Now, after Abraham's servant realized that Rebecca was the one whom God has chosen to be Isaac's wife, he bowed his head and worshipped the Lord. Then he gave gifts to Rebecca, and she invited him back to her father's house. Once there, the servant began to explain exactly why he had come to Mesopotamia. His message was as follows:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 24:34-50 NKJV<br />34 So he said, "I am Abraham's servant.<br />35 The Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys.<br />36 And Sarah my master's wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him he has given all that he has.<br />37 Now my master made me swear, saying, 'You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell;<br />38 but you shall go to my father's house and to my family, and take a wife for my son.'<br />39 And I said to my master, 'Perhaps the woman will not follow me.'<br />40 But he said to me, 'The Lord, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and prosper your way; and you shall take a wife for my son from my family and from my father's house.<br />41 You will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my family; for if they will not give her to you, then you will be released from my oath.'<br />42 "And this day I came to the well and said,'O Lord God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way in which I go,<br />43 behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, "Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,"<br />44 and she says to me, "Drink, and I will draw for your camels also," — let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son.'<br />45 "But before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah, coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down to the well and drew water. And I said to her, 'Please let me drink.'<br />46 And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, 'Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also.' So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also.<br />47 Then I asked her, and said, 'Whose daughter are you?' And she said, 'The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him.' So I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.<br />48 And I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master's brother for his son.<br />49 Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left."<br />50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said,"The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you either bad or good.<br /></em><br />At his point, Abraham's servant gave the option to Rebecca as to whether she would go back with him to Canaan, and having heard all that the servant said, Rebecca said, I will go.<br /><br />I can just imagine what it must have been like for Rebecca as she travelled with Abraham's servant on the way back to Canaan. I'm sure she had many questions about Isaac and Abraham, and I'm sure that this servant faithfully answered all of her questions so that she grew to love Isaac, and she grew to love Abraham even though she had never seen them.<br /><br />In I Peter, Chapter 1, Peter indicates that the Jews of his day were in very much the same situation as Rebecca was as she travelled to Canaan. Verse seven of that chapter says:<br /><br /><em>1 Peter 1:7-8 NKJV<br />7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,<br />8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,<br /></em><br />What a wonderful illustration this was for the New Testament Jews. They actually able to see a picture of themselves as they looked back at the account of Rebecca travelling to the promised land with the servant of Abraham.<br /><br />These Jews had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who had been crucified by the Jews and then raised from the dead to enter into the glory of heaven. But now the Father in heaven had sent the Holy Spirit as the servant to God to lead them on their journey to be united with Christ. As they travelled, they had the opportunity to listen to the Holy Spirit as He spoke of the glory and majesty of the Lord Jesus. So Peter said, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and even though you have not seen the Lord Jesus, you love Him.<br /><br />Today, the Holy Spirit is still working in the world today. Like the servant of Abraham, He does not speak of His own glory and power even though He is equal with the God the Father and God the Son, but He reveals the things pertaining to the Father and the Son to those who are willing to study God's word. He reveals the glory of Christ and the riches of Christ to us so that we can even now come into an understanding of all the blessings that we have in Christ. In the book of Colossians we find that:<br /><br /><em>Colossians 2:3 NKJV<br />3 in (Jesus Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.<br /></em><br />Even now we can begin to explore and appropriate these great treasures for ourselves. Rebecca received many presents even while she was still in Mesopotamia, and yet when she able to join Isaac and Abraham in Canaan, she finally saw all of the glory and riches of Abraham and Isaac. Then she was able to actually see all of the glorious things that she had heard so much.<br /><br />I trust today that you have allowed the Holy Spirit to show you the riches of Christ, that He loved you and died for you that you might have eternal life, and that even now you can began to explore the riches of God's grace in Christ. In so doing, you will be able to love Him more and more each day even though you have not seen Him with you physical eyes.<br /><br />I see our time is gone. It's been good to be with you. I trust that Bible Study Time has been a blessing to you as we have continued on our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>. Until next week, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-7435638983040533423?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-91185960973597711572009-05-14T15:42:00.003-05:002009-05-14T15:44:51.845-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 27)<br />Bible Study Time 12-28-08<br />(From James Roberts 2-23-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> we looked at an incident of faith in the life of Abraham. This incident is found in Genesis, Chapter 22, where we read that God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and offer him up as a sacrifice to the Lord. Hebrews, Chapter 11, refers back to this incident and serves as a commentary on it.<br /><br />In Genesis 22, we find that without hesitation Abraham obeyed God when God told him to take Isaac to Mt. Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. The book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed God and by faith offered up Isaac. However, when we look back at the Genesis account, we find that Abraham actually offered up a ram in accordance with God's last minute instructions.<br /><br />Obviously, when God saw the strength of Abraham's faith, He was willing to accept that ram as if it was actually Isaac. This is because Abraham's faith was based in the promise of God. God had previously given Abraham many promises, and He had said that all of His promises to Abraham would be fulfilled through Isaac and his descendants. In fact, when God promised Abraham the birth of Isaac, He said, You shall call his name Isaac and in Isaac shall your seed be called.<br /><br />Well, Isaac had no children at the time that Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac. Therefore, Abraham knew that if God was going to be true to His word, God would have to prevent the death of Isaac or raise him up from the dead. So when God saw Abraham's faith in the promise of God, He counted the offering up of the ram as though Abraham had actually offered up Isaac and as if God had raised Isaac up from the dead.<br /><br />Last week we saw that this event pictures the Biblical doctrine of identification. You and I, who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, have been counted as though we died with Christ and were buried with Him and were also raised with Him to walk in newness of life.<br /><br />The book of Ephesians 2 tells us that in the mind of God we have also ascended with Christ to sit with Christ in the heavens, and this certainly does have tremendous implications for us. In Colossians, Chapter 3, Paul says:<br /><br /><em>Colossians 3:1-3 NKJV<br />1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.<br />2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.<br />3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.<br /></em><br />Now, before we leave Genesis 22, I want us to think for just a moment of another great truth that we find in this passage, and that is the great doctrine of substitution. When Abraham was ready to offer up Isaac in obedience to the will of God, God stopped him and said, there is a ram that's caught in the thicket; you take that ram and offer him in the place of Isaac.<br /><br />Oh, how beautiful this is. When we compare this with the New Testament and see the application of this wonderful doctrine we see that Christ is our substitute. That ram was offered up and bore the penalty of the judgment of God which was suppose to fall upon Isaac, and in the same way, Christ died on the cross, not for His own sins, not as some great tragedy, but He died the just one in the place of, or as a substitute for, those who are unjust. Romans 5 says:<br /><br /><em>Romans 5:6 NKJV<br />6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for </em>(in the stead of, in the place of, as the substitute for)<em> the ungodly.<br /></em><br />Jesus Christ died for you. You deserved eternal punishment, eternal separation from God, but when the Lord Jesus went to the cross and cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me, He was dying in your stead.<br /><br />That's what it means to accept Christ as your Savior. It means to believe with your whole heart that Christ took your place, that He bore the judgment that you deserved. He died to pay the penalty for all of your sins, and when you believe that, God counts the work of Christ on your behalf so that the penalty for your sins has already been paid. On this basis, your sins are forgiven. What a wonderful truth, this doctrine of substitution.<br /><br />I wonder today if there is one reading this lesson who has never truly received what Christ did on the cross, that He was really there in your stead, in your place, dying for your sins. I have believed that He died for my sins, that He took my place. I believe that Jesus Christ took James Roberts' place on the cross, and now that I have believed that, God considers all of my sins as having been placed upon Him.<br /><br />Now, as we go on further in the book of Genesis, I want us to see another act of faith on the part of Abraham. In Genesis, Chapter 24, we see Abraham preparing to choose a bride for Isaac. Abraham had become old and he was living in the land of the Canaanites, but God had shown him that Isaac should not take a bride for Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites. God had obviously revealed to Abraham what He would later reveal to the whole nation of Israel, that if they took wives for their sons from the children of Canaan, they would become entrapped in the religious practices of the Canaanites.<br /><br />So Abraham believed what God said, and he sent his servant back to the city of Nahor in the land of Mesopotamia to get a wife for Isaac. This servant was to get a wife from Abraham's kinsmen who were still living back in the region around Ur of the Chaldeans. Before the servant left, he asked Abraham what he should do if the woman of God's choosing should refuse to return with him to marry Isaac. In response, Abraham was very clear. He said, do not take Isaac back to Ur of the Chaldeans; if the woman refuses to return with you, you will be released from any obligation in this matter.<br /><br />Abraham had been taken out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and God didn't want Abraham's seed to go back to Ur of the Chaldeans. After all, all of the promises related to the land of Canaan, and they were to be fulfilled through the descendants of Isaac. Isaac needed to remain in the Promised Land, but he was not to marry the daughters of those who lived in Canaan at that time.<br /><br />So the servant went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor, and he waited there outside the city by the well. As he waited, he asked God to give him a sign. He said, I don’t know which woman should be Isaac's bride, but let it be that when the woman You have chosen comes to draw water, she will offer to give me a drink and to draw water for my camels. Well, the servant waited and along came Rebecca, who did exactly as the servant had asked.<br /><br />It's very interesting that Abraham's servant asked for a sign from the Lord because we read in the book of I Corinthians that the Jews require a sign, but the Greeks seek after wisdom. As God was helping Abraham's servant select a bride for Isaac, He was dealing with the nation of Israel in seed form because the whole nation of Israel was to come from Isaac. Therefore, God gave this servant a sign to help him understand the specific will of God.<br /><br />Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ came, He performed many miracles as a sign to the nation of Israel. In the Old Testament there were certain works which the Messiah was to do, and these works were to be a sign to the Jews that he was truly the Messiah. Just think of all of the miracles that Jesus did. He broke the bread and the fish and fed 5000 men plus the women and children. Then afterwards He had 12 baskets of food left over. Then He said, I am the bread of life. These things were done to show that Jesus was the promised Messiah.<br /><br />However, in spite of the miracles of Jesus, the leaders of Israel refused to accept Him as their Messiah. They refused to acknowledge His miracles, but still they came to ask Him for a sign. In response, the Lord said, only one sign will be given to you, and that is the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, even so must the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.<br /><br />Jesus mentioned this sign as a means of pointing to His death, burial and resurrection. When Jesus arose from the dead, all of the Jews should have immediately known that Jesus was the true Messiah because He had indeed been three days and three nights in the grave even as Jonah had been three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. However, after three days in the grave Jesus Christ arose from the dead, triumphant over death, hell and the grave, and this should have served as a sufficient sign for the nation of Israel that Jesus was the promised Messiah.<br /><br />In the book of Acts, we find the Holy Spirit using this great miracle of Christ's resurrection to prove to the nation of Israel that beyond any shadow of a doubt Jesus was the Christ. Time and time again the apostles showed that according to the Old Testament prophecies, the Christ would have to die and be buried and then raised again the third day. They declared that the sign of the prophet Jonah was the sign of the resurrected Christ. They said that Jesus was alive, and He was waiting in heaven, standing at the right hand of the Father, ready to come back, if only the nation of Israel would repent and receive Him as their Messiah.<br /><br />But throughout the book of Acts, the nation of Israel rejected this message. Finally, God stopped Messianic message. Jesus Christ was no longer offered to Israel as the one who would come to the earth to establish the kingdom of God. Instead, God used the Apostle Paul to reveal the Lord Jesus as the savior of the world who serves as the Head of the Church which is the Body of Christ. The truth of this new program had been hidden from all of the prophets of previous ages.<br /><br />One day, after the church is taken up to be with the Lord in heaven, God will once again preach to the nation of Israel the message of the crucified Christ who was raised from the dead and who waits in heaven to be accepted by the nation of Israel. When this message is once again the focus of God's program to the Jews, the nation of Israel will accept Jesus as their Messiah, and He will return to the earth to fulfill all of the great promises that were given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.<br /><br />Next week, we're going to continue to look at the wooing of Rebecca for Isaac. Until that time we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-9118596097359771157?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-30592883157902911732009-05-12T19:46:00.001-05:002009-05-12T19:49:52.820-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 26)<br />Bible Study Time 12-14-08<br />(From James Roberts 2-16-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we saw that there were three incidents in Abraham's life that illustrated his life of faith. Abraham is preeminently spoken of in the Old Testament as a man of faith. He was called a friend of God, and he was one who walked by faith.<br /><br />In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we see these three incidents recorded. The first incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him to leave UR of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would show him. God said that He was going to give this land to Abraham and to his descendants after him as an inheritance. Abraham, without hesitation, acted upon the word of God, believing what God had said.<br /><br />The second incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him that he was going to have a son. Now, Abraham was 99 years old, almost 100 years old, and Sarah was past 90 years of age. Both were well beyond the age of bearing children, so when God promised Abraham a son, Abraham thought immediately of Ishmael. He said, oh that Ishmael might live before You. But God said, no, it’s not going to be Ishmael. It’s going to be a son by your wife, Sarah, the free woman, and you shall call his name Isaac.<br /><br />In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we read that Abraham did not consider his own body to be dead, but he believed that what God had promised He was able also to perform. Being strong in faith, Abraham did not waver. Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God, but he believed what God said.<br /><br />The third incident we looked at briefly last week. It relates to God’s command that Abraham should take his son, Isaac, and go to a mountain that God would show him. That mountain was Mt. Moriah, where Solomon’s temple was ultimately built. So God led Abraham to Mt. Moriah, and there Abraham was ready to offer up his son as a sacrifice in obedience to what God had said.<br /><br />This was a tremendous act of faith on the part of Abraham because, as we saw last week, Abraham told the young men in his company that they should stay at the foot of the mountain with the donkeys because he and the lad would go up to worship and then come back again.<br /><br />He knew something. He knew that even though God had told him to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice, Isaac would be coming back down that mountain with him. Now, how did Abraham know that? Well, let’s look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, and we will see a commentary on Genesis, Chapter 24.<br /><br />In verse 15, we find that Abraham and his sons dwelt as sojourners in the land of Canaan. This means that they did not receive the inheritance while they were living. They received the promise of the inheritance, and they dwelt in tents looking for a city that God had built, a new city, a heavenly Jerusalem, which will be discussed at length later in the book of Hebrews. But now I want you to notice in verse 15:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:15-17 NKJV<br />15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.<br />16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.<br />17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . .<br /></em><br />Here we find the writer to the Hebrews saying that Abraham offered up Isaac, but when we look back in the book of Genesis, Chapter 24, we find that Abraham was ready to offer Isaac. According to the Genesis account, Abraham had the knife in his hand, and he was ready to slay Isaac in obedience to the command of God, but God spoke out of heaven and said, don’t kill Isaac. God said, I see that you love me even more than you love your son, and therefore, if you'll just look over in the thicket, you’ll see a ram that can be offered in Isaac’s stead.<br /><br />Accordingly, Abraham took the ram that was caught in the thicket and offered it up instead of Isaac. Notice, he offered the ram instead of Isaac even though the book of Hebrews says that Abraham offered up Isaac. Now, let’s talk about that. Just keep that thought in your mind as we continue in Hebrews, Chapter 11:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:17-18 NKJV<br />17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises <strong>offered up his only begotten son,<br />18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called,"</strong><br /></em><br />Abraham offered up his son, his only begotten son, that son through whom the promise was given which said that in Isaac Abraham's seed would be called.<br /><br />Now, why do you suppose the writer to the Hebrews mentioned this little detail concerning the seed being called through Isaac? Well, this is very important to our discussion of Abraham as the man of faith. Notice as we read in verse 19:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:19 NKJV<br />19 (Abraham concluded) that God was able to raise (Isaac) up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.<br /></em><br />God accounted Abraham’s faith as a righteous act, and in the mind of God, God saw that ram as if it had actually been Isaac. What did Abraham believe that assured him that Isaac would be raised from the dead if necessary?<br /><br />Well, God had said to Abraham, in Isaac your seed shall be called. God had said this when He announced the birth of Isaac, when Abraham was past the age of begetting children, when Sarah was past the age of begetting children. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son and they were to call his name Isaac. God said that it was going to be through Isaac that the seed would be called.<br /><br />According to the book of Genesis, Isaac wasn't married at the time of this incident. Therefore, He had no children. So if God was going to be true to His word, Abraham knew that if he offered up Isaac, God would have to raise up Isaac from the dead so that Isaac could have children. Abraham knew that the promised seed had to come through Isaac. The whole nation of Israel, the multiplied seed, had to come through Isaac.<br /><br />So Abraham said, well God, I’ll do what you tell me to do because I know that if you can give me life even when I am dead in terms of begetting children, then I know that you can give life to Isaac in order to accomplish Your word.<br /><br />This is a great example of believing what God has said, and this is what faith really is. We walk by faith when we simply reckon upon what God has said. Today, so much of what people call walking by faith is really walking by fancy. It’s walking by feeling. People so often go simply by what they feel God wants them to do. But when we feel that God wants us to do something, it may simply be a manifestation of our own desires.<br /><br />In reality, faith is a matter of going to God’s word and reading God’s word and believing God’s word. Then we yield to the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit, Himself, take the word of God and guide us through the principles that are set down in the word. This is how we should determine the specific will of God for our lives.<br /><br />God has a general will for each one of us, and that general will is that we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit who is dwelling within us. Then we must read and study God’s word so that God, Himself, will be able to use the word. In this way the word of God becomes a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.<br /><br />That’s what faith is; it is believing what God has said. We don't look for signs. We don't look for miraculous things to lead us. The Holy Spirit of God teaches us the principles of the word of God as we read and study, and then He leads us according to those principles.<br /><br />Abraham believed God explicitly, and without any hesitation he did what God told him to do. I want you to notice that as far as God was concerned, Abraham actually killed Isaac. God was able to count that which was not as though it was. Abraham did not literally slay Isaac, but when God looked at the ram, He saw the faith of Abraham, and He counted the death of the ram as the offering up of Isaac.<br /><br />We also see that God not only saw Isaac as having been killed, but He saw Isaac as having been raised up from the dead. Isaac did not literally die and come forth from the grave alive, but as far as God was concerned, Isaac died and was buried and was then raised from the dead.<br /><br />Now may I just say this to you? This is a great example of the Biblical principle of identification. God saw Abraham's faith, and God counted it to Abraham for righteousness. In like manner, when you and I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe explicitly what God has said in His word about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God counts us as though we were actually put to death with Christ, as though we were actually buried and raised up with Christ to walk in newness of life. Then the book of Ephesians tells us that when Christ ascended back to the Father in heaven, in the mind of God we too ascended with Him so that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.<br /><br />Now does that have any implication for our Christian life? Well, in Colossians, Chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says that if we have been raised with Christ, we should seek those things which are above where Christ is seated, for we are dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God. He tells us that we have died, we have been buried, and we have been raised with Christ so that we can actually say with Paul, I am crucified with Christ; I have been given new life so that I can walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord Jesus.<br /><br />I see our time is gone for this morning. Next week, the Lord willing, in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we’re going to look the selection of a bride for Isaac. Well, until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-3059288315790291173?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-70580411596947845062009-05-12T19:05:00.002-05:002009-05-12T19:08:37.401-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 25)<br />Bible Study Time 12-7-08<br />(From James Roberts 2-9-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">In our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we have been looking at Abraham as the man of faith. In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we see three instances recorded that illustrate Abraham's life of faith.<br /><br />The first was when the God of glory appeared to Abraham in UR of the Chaldeans and gave him great promises. God promised Abraham that a great nation would come from him and that in him all nations of the earth would be blessed. God said that He was going to make Abraham’s name great.<br /><br />God told Abraham to leave UR of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would show Abraham, and we find in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, that Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going. This illustrates the truth found in the book of II Corinthians which says that believers are to walk by faith, not by sight. Accordingly, Abraham went out as the Lord directed him, not knowing where he was going.<br /><br />The second incident occurred when God appeared to Abraham and gave to him and Sarah the promise of a son. Abraham looked at his own body, and he said, I'm too old to have another son, oh, that Ishmael might live before You. Ishmael, of course, was Abraham’s son by Hagar, the bondwoman.<br /><br />God said, no, it's not going to be through Ishmael, it's going to be through another son, a son by Sarah; you will call his name Isaac, and in Isaac your seed will be called.<br /><br />The book of Romans, Chapter 4, tells us that Abraham believed God. He did not consider his own body to be dead, as far as begetting children, but he was strong in faith, not wavering at the promise of God. He believed that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.<br /><br />That reminds us also of Mary when the angel came to her and explained to her that she was going to give birth to the Messiah. She was told that she was going to have a son and that His name would be called Jesus because He would save his people from their sins.<br /><br />Mary asked, how can this be since I do not even know a man? After all, she was unmarried, and she was a virgin, so how could she have a son?<br /><br />The angel explained to her that with men there are a lot of things that are impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible. Then the angel explained to her how the Holy Spirit would come upon her and create within her body, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. He told to her that he son would be the Son of God who would live among men and then go to the cross where He would die for the sins of all men. In this way, He would literally save His people from their sins.<br /><br />Mary knew that this son that was promised to her was to be the Messiah; the long awaited Messiah was going to be born of her. She immediately began to break forth in a song of praise to God. She praised God for His great grace that He had bestowed upon her, an unworthy handmaiden whom God had chosen to bring forth the promised Messiah.<br /><br />It was with this same kind of faith that Abraham believed God, and as a result, God counted it to him for righteousness.<br /><br />The third incident in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, refers back to the book of Genesis, Chapter 22, and I want us to notice this test that God gave to Abraham after Isaac was born. Isaac had been born as a child and had grown to a young lad, but in this account, God puts Abraham to the test.<br /><br />I have heard people even refer to this event as the first child abuse that is recorded. It’s a story, they say, that tells about child abuse. Oh my, they fail to see the wonderful truth of this account in Genesis, Chapter 22. What we see here is the extent of Abraham’s love for Isaac. It seems as though Abraham's life was just wrapped up in Isaac, and so God says, I’ll give you a test to see if you love me more than you love Isaac.<br /><br />We find this account in Genesis, Chapter 22, and let’s begin reading in verse one:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 22:1-2 NKJV<br />1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And (Abraham) said, "Here I am."<br />2 Then (God) said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."<br /></em><br />Notice God’s estimation of Abraham's feeling for Isaac. He said, Abraham, take your son, Isaac, whom you my love. This is not a case of child abuse. This is the case of a man who loved his child, but he also loved God and believed God. Abraham believed that the One who gave him Isaac was also able to protect Isaac.<br /><br />When God said, Abraham, you take Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering unto me, that’s when Abraham reckoned on the character of God and the promise of God. Now verse 3:<br /><br />Genesis 22:3 NKJV<br />3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.<br /><br />Here we see another description of faith. Without hesitation, Abraham moved out quickly on the promise of God. God told Abraham to take Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering, and so Abraham rose up early in the morning to do as he was told.<br /><br />I tell you, if it had been me, I probably would have put it off just as long as I could have, but without hesitation Abraham rose up early in the morning and took Isaac and two young men with him to do what God told him to do.<br /><br />This is a description of faith. Why? Why would I say that this is a description faith? Because you see, God had told Abraham that his seed would be called in Isaac. This meant that Isaac would have to have children. At this point, Isaac was not even married, so he had no children, and how could God’s promise be fulfilled if Isaac were to die?<br /><br />Well, Abraham believed God. He must have thought:<br /><br /><em>God, you told me that I was going to have a son and that I was to call his name Isaac. You told me that my seed would be called in Isaac. You said that it would be through Isaac that I would have children and that a great nation would come through Isaac, and that many people would be blessed because of that promise which was given through Isaac. So I don't know how you’re going to perform it, but I believe that you're going to perform your promise. I believe that it is going to be through Isaac that my seed will be called, and that means that in some way, Isaac is going to have to live.<br /></em><br />Now, I want to just throw something out to you. In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we get an indication that Isaac’s birth required a resurrection, as it were, in a typical form. In a sense, Abraham and Sarah had to be resurrected in order for them to have a son. They were dead as far as begetting children was concerned. So they had to be given new life from God in order for them to have Isaac.<br /><br />Now, undoubtedly, Abraham realized that this same God who gave him new life and in a sense raised him from the dead was also able to give new life to Isaac if Isaac were to die.<br /><br />Now notice, as we go on further in the book of Genesis, Chapter 22:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 22:4-5 NKJV<br />4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.<br />5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."<br /></em><br />Here again is the language of faith because Abraham was fully expecting to come back down from that mountain with Isaac. He did not anticipate leaving Isaac up there on that altar as a burnt offering. Abraham believed that God was going to do something that would enable Him to carry out His promises. So Abraham said, we are going to go yonder and worship, and then we will come again to you.<br /><br />Now notice in verse six:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 22:6-8 NKJV<br />6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.<br />7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"<br />8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.<br /></em><br />Here again we see Abraham's faith. He was anticipating that God would provide a lamb. The fact that they went on together is a picture of fellowship. They were one in faith as they went up that mountain to worship.<br /><br /><em>Genesis 22:9-14 NKJV<br />9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.<br />10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.<br />11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am."<br />12 And He said,"Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."<br />13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.<br />14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided."<br /></em><br />Now I want you to notice that Abraham believed that God would provide a lamb for the offering, and God did exactly that. Next week we’re going to look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, where we will see Abraham’s faith in this situation from God's viewpoint.<br /><br />But the thing I want you to see this morning is that Abraham believed God. He believed that what God had said, God was able also to perform. It went against all of Abraham’s natural reasoning. How Abraham loved Isaac! His life was wrapped up in Isaac. But Abraham knew that God had a higher purpose, and he was willing to put his trust in the character of God and in the word of God.<br /><br />I wonder today, as we close the broadcast, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Have you thrown your life, as it were, upon the word of God and believed that Christ died for your sins? Have you believed that Christ was buried and that He rose again, completely trusting your life, as Abraham did, to the word of God? Have you been willing to believe that what God has promised He is able also to perform?<br /><br />God will give you new life, eternal life, if you will trust His Son as your Savior. And then He will protect you, he'll watch over you, and He will direct you even through the hard places of life.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing we will take up again next week on our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> as we will consider Abraham's faith once again. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-7058041159694784506?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-90576284541611019792009-01-30T09:57:00.007-06:002009-05-12T18:13:31.296-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 24)<br />Bible Study Time 11-23-08<br />(From James Roberts 2-2-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we considered Lot, a man whom God describes as being righteous. And yet, Lot had gone into Sodom and had become great in Sodom. But when God was ready to destroy Sodom, He delivered Lot out of Sodom because Lot had been made righteous in the sight of God.<br /><br />Lot was rich when he went into Sodom, but as far as we know, when he came out, he lost everything. Just before the judgment came, God dragged Lot out of Sodom and then He rained down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plains.<br /><br />Lot stands as a picture of Christians who have been made right with God, and yet they become entangled with the affairs of life, with the affairs of this world. They become earthly minded. God will be faithful to deliver them out of the future judgment because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the day of judgment, instead of them being burned up, it will be their works that will be burned up. They will be saved, but they will be saved as Lot was, through the fire. Instead of works that would bring honor and glory to the Lord, they will have done works that will be burned up.<br /><br />Today, I want us to see the one who stands in contrast to Lot, and that is Lot’s uncle, Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith and was called the friend of God. Even though Abraham failed God many times, he always returned to the altar. He would always go back to the place of worship and fellowship with God. This is a picture of the believer who sins but is willing to return to God where he can walk in fellowship with God, and where he can be used by the Lord to accomplish God’s purposes.<br /><br />Abraham was a friend of God because he was a man of the altar, he was a man of worship, he was a man of fellowship with God. God could speak to Abraham and reveal things to Abraham. In Genesis, Chapter 17, we find that Abraham received a visit from the Lord, and during that visit the Lord established a covenant with Abraham. Now, notice as we begin reading in Genesis, Chapter 17, with verse 4:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 17:4-5 NKJV<br />4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.<br />5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.<br /></em><br />No longer “exalted father,” but “the father of a multitude,” because as God said, I have made you a father of many nations. Now, please notice the tense of this. God did not say, I will make you a father of many nation, but he said, I have made you a father of many nations. As far as God was concerned, this promise was an accomplished fact. He said, I have made you a father of many nations.<br /><br />God can call things that are not as though they are already in existence, and that’s what He did with Abraham. Even though Abraham’s only son was Ishmael, the son of a bondwoman, yet God could say, I have made you the father of many nations.<br /><br />Now, let’s look at the covenant that established God’s promise to Abraham. God said:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 17:6-8 NKJV<br />6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.<br />7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.<br />8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."<br /></em><br />Notice that there is no condition here. There was no condition set forth that Abraham had to live up to. God did not say, I will do this, if you will do this. No, God in accordance with His grace, simply made these promises to Abraham. He established this unconditional covenant with Abraham. He said, I will, I will, I will, I will. This was a covenant of grace.<br /><br />It was not until after this covenant was established that God gave to Abraham the ritual of circumcision as a token of the covenant. The Jewish people who came from Abraham are called the circumcision because circumcision was established for the people of Israel under the Law. That is why they are called “the circumcision.”<br /><br />It’s very important to keep in mind that God gave this promise to Abraham even while Abraham was still uncircumcised. This turned out to be a very important fact when, after the death of Christ, the New Covenant was offered to the nation of Israel. This was important because the New Covenant was to be based on faith even as God’s covenant with Abraham was based on faith. The New Covenant was to be unconditional, and it was to be based on faith.<br /><br />Since God’s covenant with Abraham was made before Abraham was circumcised, this opened the door for Gentiles to be saved by faith apart from circumcision and the other rituals of the Law. In the New Covenant, Abraham’s seed through Isaac, the people of Israel, will have a preeminent position. According to the book of Isaiah and all through the Old Testament, it is clear that part of God’s promise to Abraham was that the nation of Israel would someday become a nation of priests. They were to become a holy nation unto God, but they were to have authority over the Gentile nations as they ministered to them.<br /><br />So, you see, according to the New Covenant, the nations of the earth were to be brought into the New Covenant kingdom and blessed with Israel. This is pictured in the covenant that God made with Abraham in that it was given to Abraham before he was circumcised.<br /><br />This opening for the Gentiles to enter into the kingdom is not seen in the Law covenant that God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai. The Law covenant was a conditional covenant which was destined to pass away due to the weakness of those who tried to keep it.<br /><br />As an aside here, I would like to say that the New Covenant, which is often spoken of in the New Testament, is in essence the same covenant that God made with Abraham back in Genesis, Chapter 17, and it is not a covenant that you and I participate in today. The New Covenant was promised all through the Old Testament, beginning with Abraham.<br /><br />The New Covenant was confirmed in the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 31, where in verse 31. In that passage, we see that the New Covenant will not be like the covenant that God made with the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai. It will be different because it will be based in the power of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord Jesus said would come a result of His willingness to shed the blood of the New Covenant.<br /><br />The New Covenant will also be different from the Law in that it will bring in the Gentiles to be blessed with Israel in the kingdom even though, as Jeremiah 31 plainly declares, the New Covenant will be a covenant between God and the nation of Israel. It is the covenant which will someday establish Israel’s spiritual and political authority over all the earth.<br /><br />You and I today are not partakers in the blessings of the New Covenant. We are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ. According to the book of Ephesians, this program of the Church which is the Body of Christ is an unforetold dispensation because the truth concerning the church was never made known to the prophets of the Old Testament or to the gospel writers or to the apostles during the time period covered by the book of Acts.<br /><br />The truth concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ was revealed after the Acts period by the Apostle Paul, and one of the distinctive aspects of the Church which is the Body of Christ is that it’s members, whether Jew or Gentile, stand on an equal footing before God. In this church, the Jews have no special authority over the Gentiles.<br /><br />This stands in contrast to the New Covenant which is based on God’s promise to Abraham. According to the New Covenant, the nation of Israel will have a position of preeminence when the promises of the New Covenant are fulfilled. At that time Israel will be a holy nation, and they will be the ministers of God to the nations of the world.<br /><br />But please notice that all those who will someday inherit the blessings of the New Covenant will do so on the basis of God’s grace, whether Jew of Gentile. They will all have Abraham as their father because whether they are a Jew or a Gentile, they will enter into their relationship with God on the basis of God’s grace through faith in God’s word. In this regard, the New Covenant is identical to the program for the Church which is the Body of Christ.<br /><br />God had promised to Abraham a son, through whom the covenant was to be established, but Abraham laughed at the promise that his wife, Sarah, was going to have a son. And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before you. But God said, No. He said, Abraham, you are going to have a son through Sarah because I will make my covenant with the son of the free woman. You shall call his name Isaac, and I’m going to make My covenant with him.<br /><br />In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we see something that is precious to us today regarding the faith of Abraham. In Genesis, Chapters 17 and 18, we see that Abraham and Sarah laughed at the promise of God initially, because they considered their own bodies. Because of their advanced age, they concluded that they would be unable to have a son. But then, God said, it’s not going to be by natural means, not through the son of the bondwoman, but Sarah is going to have a son. Romans 4 reports that it was at this point that Abraham:<br /><br /><em>Romans 4:18-19 NKJV<br />18 . . . contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."<br />19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.<br /></em><br />In Genesis, Chapters 17 and 18, Abraham did initially consider his own body, but when God told him that his son would come through Sarah, that’s when Abraham latched on what God said. Then Abraham said in his own heart:<br /><br /><em>I believe that. If God says I’m going to have a son, even though I’m a hundred years old, I believe that. Even though naturally speaking that can’t happen. Sarah’s 90 years old and, naturally speaking, she can’t have a son, but God’s not bound by the natural. What God tells me that He is going to do, He has the power to do.<br /></em><br />In Romans 4, Paul said that Abraham was not weak in faith. He did not consider his own body as being dead. He did not waver at that promise of God through unbelief, but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and notice this, Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.<br /><br />Man by nature, generally speaking, when he first hears the gospel of the grace of God, he considers it to be something that is impossible. How could God save a person today on the basis of the death of a person who died 2000 years ago?<br /><br />Well, here’s what God says. God so loved you and me that He gave His Son to die on the cross. While we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ loved us enough to die on the cross and to taste in full the penalty for the sins of the world, from Adam to the last person who will ever live. He paid it all on that cross, and when He was put in the grave, on the third day, He arose again, triumphant over death, hell and the grave.<br /><br />I trust today that if you are like Abraham, inwardly laughing at the good news of Jesus Christ, refusing to believe the gospel, that you will listen today to what God has said, it is only by my Son and through His death that a man can be saved. Won’t you be like Abraham and become strong in your faith, not wavering at the promise of God. I trust that you will latch on to the word of God and say, what God has said, He is able also to perform.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone, and we’re going to have to leave you today. But next week, the Lord willing, we’ll take up on our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> once again.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-9057628454161101979?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-75289589483684225752009-01-30T09:52:00.006-06:002009-03-30T22:48:59.423-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 23)<br />Bible Study Time 11-16-08<br />(From James Roberts 1-26-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we considered Lot, Abraham’s nephew. And we saw that Lot had made some very bad choices. He had gone to live in the city of Sodom where he became increasingly involved in the affairs of Sodom. He had even become a leader and had possibly become one of their judges.<br /><br />God was ready to destroy Sodom because of Sodom’s wickedness, and we find in the book of II Peter that it was God’s plan to save Lot out of Sodom before the judgment came. In Peter’s account, Peter actually refers to Lot as a just, or a righteous man. Now, that is interesting.<br /><br />Even though Lot was in Sodom, he did not lose his position before God as a just, or righteous person. In this we see that Lot’s position before God was based on his faith. Because of Lot’s faith in God, he was protected from the judgment of God because he was under the grace of God.<br /><br />So Lot’s position before God was not based on Lot’s good works; it was based on God’s grace. In the Bible, the word grace simply means that you get something that you don’t deserve. When you read about Lot in Sodom, oh my, you can certainly see how he did not deserve to hold onto his position of favor with God. He did not deserve to be considered by God to be a righteous or a just person, but God by His grace made it possible because Lot had faith in the word of God.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, Abraham had shared with Lot some of the things that God had revealed to him, and Lot had believed the word of God. Lot believed and so God counted it to Lot for righteousness.<br /><br />Now, let’s consider Abraham and Lot. Abraham had a position before God that resulted in Abraham being viewed as a just man or a righteous man. And that position was His, not because he was living a life that was pleasing to God but because he had believed the revelation of God, and God had extended his grace to Abraham. Abraham was saved by God’s grace through faith.<br /><br />Abraham’s position before God was not based on Abraham’s good works, and Lot’s position before God was not based on Lot’s evil works. They both entered into a position of favor with God which was based on their faith.<br /><br />And please let me say this to you, God tells you and me today that our position before God is established in the same way. If we believe in Christ, we are positioned in Christ, and our position in Christ is not based on how good we have been or on how bad we have been. Our position is based on God’s grace. God’s grace means that you get something that you don’t deserve.<br /><br />So our position in Christ is given to us by God’s grace. God just gives it to us because of His great love for us and because He sees the faith that we have in God’s word. We are saved by grace through faith in what God has said in His word.<br /><br />Now, Abraham put His faith in God when God told him to leave Ur of the Chaldeans. We exercise saving faith when we believe that God came from heaven’s glory as a man and then went to the cross, as the sinless God of glory in human form, to bear our sins in His own body on the tree.<br /><br />While Jesus Christ was hanging there on the cross, He died and paid the penalty for all of your sins and all of mycame from heaven't Lo sins so that those sins could never be held against us. Christ paid in full the penalty for those sins. And when we believe that He died for our sins, that He was buried and that He rose again the third day, God counts that faith for righteousness.<br /><br />It is on this basis of faith that Abraham and Lot and you and I are made right before God. Our acceptance in the sight of God is not because of who we are or because of what we have done, but it’s because of God’s grace and it’s on the basis of our faith in Christ.<br /><br />We have seen the standing of Abraham and Lot before God, but now let’s look at their state. Abraham was a man who believed God and walked in fellowship with God, and God was able to use Abraham in many ways here on the earth. God gave Abraham promises, and he confirmed those promises to Abraham and to his seed after him.<br /><br />Lot, on the other hand, was a person who was out of fellowship with God. He lived in Sodom, and he was entangled in the affairs of Sodom. While his position with God was similar to Abraham’s position, his state was very different.<br /><br />Now, if you read Genesis, Chapter 19, you see a very sad situation. God was ready to destroy Sodom and so He sent two angels in the form of men and to rescue Lot, but let’s see what happened in verse 10:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 19:10-13 NKJV<br />10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.<br />11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.<br />12 Then the men said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city — take them out of this place!<br />13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."<br /></em><br />You see, the men of Sodom had no position before God as righteous people, but Lot was going to be delivered from the coming judgment because he was a righteous person, even though his soul was vexed with the evil deeds of the people of Sodom. Now notice, the angels said:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 19:13-14 NKJV<br />13 . . . the LORD has sent us to destroy it."<br />14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said,"Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!" But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.<br /></em><br />You see, Lot had lost his testimony before even his sons-in-law. Now, verse 15:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 19:15-16 NKJV<br />15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying,"Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city."<br />16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.<br /></em><br />You see, Lot was still reluctant to leave Sodom, even in the face of judgment. The angels actually just dragged him out of the city along with his wife and his two daughters. Now, notice in verse 17:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 19:17 NKJVudgment, and the angels actually just dragged them out of the city, Lot, his wife and his two daughte<br />17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that (the angel) said,"Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed."<br /></em><br />That’s where Lot could have gone in the first place when Abraham gave him a choice as to where he would go. Now Lot is told by the angel to escape to the mountains, but notice what Lot said:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 19:18-19 NKJV<br />18 . . . "Please, no, my lords!<br />19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.<br /></em><br />Abraham was living safely in the mountains, and God was using him. Lot was in living in Sodom where he was in great danger because Sodom was going to be destroyed and everything that Lot had achieved and that he had acquired was going to be destroyed. And yet, Lot was afraid to go to the mountains. He was afraid that he would be in too much danger there. And notice in verse 20:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 19:20-23 NKJV<br />20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live."<br />21 And he said to him, "See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.<br />22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.<br />23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.<br /></em><br />Lot had to be dragged out of Sodom, and he was also reluctant to leave the cities of the plains of Jordan. That had been his downfall as far as his spiritual state and his fellowship with God were concerned. Lot was reluctant to leave, and so he asked if he could go to Zoar because it was a little city.<br /><br />Many times Christians who are out of fellowship with God think that it’s alright to be just a little bit involved in the world. They see all of the really bad things that other people are doing over in Sodom, and they think, I’m not doing all those really bad things; I’ll just stay over here in Zoar where I can be just a little bit worldly.<br /><br />But please notice that when God delivered Lot, God had to destroy everything that Lot had except his two daughters. Even Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. She was delivered out of Sodom, but she lost her life as she was leaving Sodom because she disobeyed the Lord and looked back at Sodom.<br /><br />In the book of I Corinthians, we see one of the lessons that we can learn from Lot, and I want you to get this. In the book of I Corinthians, Chapter 3 and verse 9, we read:<br /><br /><em>1 Corinthians 3:9-15 NKJV<br />9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.<br />10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.<br />11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.<br />12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,<br />13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.<br />14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.<br />15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.<br /></em><br />What a beautiful picture Lot gives us of the person who builds wood, hay and stubble, things that will be burned up in the day of judgment. When we walk according to the flesh, we are building those things that will be burned up just like the things that Lot was building in the city of Sodom.<br /><br />If we want to have a reward on the day of judgment, our spiritual state before God must be such that we are walking in fellowship with God. Only then will we be building with gold, silver and precious stones. Lot was saved as through the fire. He was dragged out of the fiery judgment. He was saved, but all that he had was burned up.<br /><br />Oh, it may be that you are listening this morning, and you are living a life that is based on selfish ambition, just doing what you want to do. God tells us that when we walk according to the flesh like Lot, we will lose all that we have built, yet we will be saved as through the fire with nothing to present to the Lord on that day when we see Him face to face.<br /><br />I trust that you know the Lord as your Savior, and then that you are walking in accordance with His will so that you will be like Abraham rather than Lot.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is already gone. The Lord willing we’ll be back again with you next week as we continue our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-7528958948368422575?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-31723885737880358032009-01-30T09:48:00.006-06:002009-03-30T22:48:50.083-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 22)<br />Bible Study Time 11-9-08<br />(From James Roberts 1-19-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we considered Lot, the nephew of Abraham. We saw something of the disastrous choices that Lot made. He began to pitch his tent toward Sodom, and we last saw Lot sitting in the gates of Sodom. It would appear that Lot had risen to a place of prominence in Sodom as he had some kind of leadership position there. He undoubtedly had some strong connections with the men of Sodom because his daughters had married men from that city.<br /><br />So when the angel of the Lord came and told Lot about the destruction that was going to come upon Sodom, Lot was very reluctant to leave. However, Lot did go to his sons-in-law to warn them about the coming judgment. He was no doubt hoping to get them to leave Sodom, but they laughed at him and mocked him. They had seen Lot’s behavior, and they thought that Lot seemed just like one of them. They had no reason to believe that God would give Lot any kind of a special explanation regarding any judgment that was about to come.<br /><br />As we apply this to our own experience, we see that many times believers who live an inconsistent life are not taken seriously by unbelievers, even when they try to tell those unbelievers about the Lord Jesus Christ and about God’s great love for them.<br /><br />Now there is another aspect of Lot’s life that many people fail to understand. This is found in II Peter, Chapter 2, and I’d like for you to look at this passage with me this morning if you have the opportunity to do so. In this passage we find God speaking of the coming judgment. There is going to be future judgment that is going to come upon the earth. It will be a judgment like the judgment of the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, God destroyed the earth with a flood, but in the coming judgment, God is going to destroy the heavens and the earth with great fire.<br /><br />However, in the book of II Peter we find a third judgment mentioned, and that’s the judgment that took place in the days of Lot. According to II Peter, God delivered two men out from under His hand of judgment. Notice in verse 4 of II Peter, Chapter 2:<br /><br /><em>2 Peter 2:4-5 NKJV<br />4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;<br />5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;<br /></em><br />Before God brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly, He had this man, Noah, preaching righteousness to the people. For 120 years, Noah preached to the people about the coming judgment. Then finally, when the judgment was about to come, God put Noah in the ark and rescued him out of that judgment.<br /><br />Now, you might say, well, I understand why God would rescue Noah. After all, Noah was a man who was faithful to preach the word. We don’t find Noah taking part in all of the ungodliness of the world. Noah was a just man, he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he was active in the Lord’s work as he proclaimed righteousness to a wicked world, so therefore, we sort of understand why God would want to deliver Noah. But notice verse 5:<br /><br /><em>2 Peter 2:6 NKJV<br />6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, (God) condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;<br /></em><br />Here we find another judgment that came after the flood on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God just turned those cities into ashes with a fiery judgment as an example to those who are ungodly. Now notice in verse 7:<br /><br /><em>2 Peter 2:7-9 NKJV<br />7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked<br />8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) —<br />9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,<br /></em><br />So here we find a very interesting description of Lot. Keep in mind that this is in the New Testament which was written centuries after the events recorded in the book of Genesis. This was God’s viewpoint of Lot. And what did God see? God saw Lot as a righteous person.<br /><br />As we would look at it, we might not think that Lot was a righteous person. Lot’s sons-in-law probably did not think of Lot as a righteous person because they saw only Lot’s outward conduct. They saw Lot being tormented day by day by the filthy conversation of the ungodly people there in Sodom and Gomorrah, and yet Lot, himself, was entangled in all of the affairs of Sodom and Gomorrah.<br /><br />Lot was a wealthy man, but he was a tormented man because he could find no rest while he was there in Sodom. He was tormented by the filthiness that was all around him. But I want you to notice that God saw Lot as a righteous man. Even though we would not look at him as such, even though Lot’s sons-in-law would not have looked at him as such, God saw Lot as a righteous man.<br /><br />Now, how is it that a person is made right with God? How is it that a person can become just in the sight of God? Actually that question was asked by a man named Job centuries ago. Job asked:<br /><br /><em>How can a man be just with God? I’m not God so that I can reach up and lay hold on God. God is not a man so that He can reach down and lay hold on me so that we can come together in a court of law. There is no day’s man betwixt us; there is no mediator between us.<br /></em><br />But since the days of Job, there is one who came into this world, who was both God and man. He was <em>Emmanuel, God With Us</em>. The Lord Jesus Christ was not a hybrid. He was not half God and half man. He was totally God, and He was totally man. He was fully divine and fully human.<br /><br />When Christ died on the cross, He died for all of humanity, paying in full the penalty for all of our sins so that we might become righteous in the sight of God. He gave His life so that all of man’s sins could be dealt with and be taken out of the way, so that men could be found in the righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />So the Lord Jesus Christ died, was buried and then He rose again, and He is sitting today at God’s right hand. He is fully God and fully man, and He is the mediator between God and man. And now, man can be just before God, not because of his own righteousness but because of faith.<br /><br />I believe that there has never been a person who has been made right in the sight of God except by faith. Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham received a revelation from God. God revealed Himself to Abraham as the God of glory, and God gave Abraham a command to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a place that God would show him. Abraham believed God, and God counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness. God counted Abraham as righteous, not because of Abraham’s goodness, but because Abraham had faith in what God had said.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, Abraham had shared this good news with his family, namely his father and probably his nephew, Lot. Undoubtedly, Lot had believed the good news that Abraham had shared with him about the God of glory, and Lot had believed what God had told Abraham. And so, God saw the faith of Lot and accounted that faith to Lot for righteousness.<br /><br />Now it’s very interesting to see that God tells us in His word in many ways that a person cannot be justified before God by their own good works. In Acts, Chapter 13, the Apostle Paul went to Antioch of Presidia in the province of Galatia, and he first of all went to the synagogue of the Jews who had been under the Law of Moses. As he spoke to them about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, he told these Jews that by this man, Jesus Christ, believers are justified from all things of which they could never be justified by the Law of Moses.<br /><br />Paul later wrote to the Christians of Galatia and told them that those who are trying to be justified by keeping the Law have to continue in all things that were required by the Law. Those who want to be justified by law keeping have to walk in the Law; there is no room for any deviation from that which is required by the Law.<br /><br />Later on, James explained that if a man breaks the Law in one point, he is guilty of breaking the whole Law, and he stands condemned before God. When a man goes before God to plead his case on the basis of law keeping, God will not look to see if that man has kept the Law 51% or 75% of the time. God will look to see if that man has kept the Law 100% of the time, and that man will be required to keep not only the letter of the Law but the spirit of the Law as well, 100% of the time.<br /><br />Only one person has ever kept that Law in this manner and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible says that those who try to be justified before God by law keeping are under the curse of the Law because they are sinners and the Law itself condemns them. They have to stand before God as guilty.<br /><br />But when a person comes before God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Lord, I believe what you have told me about the Lord Jesus, that He loved me and died for me, that he bore in full the penalty for my sins and that I can now trust Him to give me eternal life as a free gift. God counts that faith for righteousness just as He counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness, and in that same way, God also counted Lot’s faith as righteousness.<br /><br />Today, I want to ask you this question as we close the broadcast. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?<br /><br />The Bible tells us that we cannot be justified by our own good works because if we could do enough good works to save ourselves, God would owe us a place in heaven. But those who go to heaven will not be there as a result of any debt that God owes them. All those who go to heaven will be those who have received eternal life as a free gift from God. It is not a matter of how much you have done that is good or bad, but it’s a matter of whether you have trusted Christ as your personal Savior.<br /><br />Lot had become a just person because he had faith in Christ. He did not lose his position of acceptance before God as a just man just because he wondered off to live in Sodom and Gomorrah.<br /><br />Next week, we are going to look at the consequences of Lot’s failure to make the right choices, but the thing that I want you to see today is that Lot was saved, like you must be saved and like I must be saved, and that’s by faith in what God has said. We are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we will be back with you again next week when we will continue our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-3172388573788035803?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-85792613874769992042009-01-30T09:45:00.004-06:002009-03-30T22:48:38.532-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 21)<br />Bible Study Time 11-2-08<br />(From James Roberts 1-12-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we saw that a quarrel developed between the herdsmen of Abraham and his nephew, Lot. Abraham felt uneasy about this quarreling and wanted to prevent a scandal in the eyes of the other tribes and families of the region, so he went to Lot and suggested that they go their separate ways. Abraham said, if you go to the left, I’ll go to the right, but if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left. Abraham left the choice with Lot. Genesis, Chapter 13, says that as Abraham presented his proposal:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 13:10 NKJV<br />10 . . . Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere . . . like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.<br /></em><br />From Lot’s viewpoint, the plains of Jordan looked like the garden of God, but they were also said to be like that Egypt.<br /><br />Now, to Lot, Egypt must have seemed very attractive, but in the Bible, Egypt is a picture of the world. When the Bible talks about people who are going to Egypt, it always presents them as going down into Egypt, not only geographically but also spiritually. It never speaks of people going up into Egypt. Why? Because there’s no spiritual growth in Egypt, there is no spiritual growth in the world. In the world, one can only expect a degeneration of one’s spiritual life and testimony.<br /><br />Lot lifted up his eyes, and he saw. He based his choice on the things that he saw with his fleshly eyes and his natural mind. He saw the beautiful, well watered plains of Jordan. He thought that if he went in that direction, his cattle would never go hungry. And, we see that Lot chose for himself. Notice this in verse 11:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 13:11 NKJV<br />11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.<br /></em><br />Abraham was willing to leave the matter in God’s hands as he gave the choice to Lot. Years before, God has told Abraham to leave the land in which he was living, and Abraham acted simply on the basis of the word of God, so that even then, he left the choice with God as to where he would go. He was willing to trust the Lord to lead him into the place where God wanted him to be.<br /><br />Lot, on the other hand, chose for himself, and it may be that today you are listening to this program this morning, and you have chosen for yourself what you are going to do with your life. You have said in your heart that your life is your own and you can do with it as you wish.<br /><br />Some time ago, my wife and I were given a plaque by a dear friend of ours and this little plaque says, the Lord always gives the best to those who leave the choice with Him. Abraham received the best because he left the choice with God, and God led Abraham into the very place that He wanted Abraham to be.<br /><br />We are going to see in this lesson today, and in the next, the destructiveness of Lot’s choice as he walked by sight and not by faith. The Bible tells us in the book of II Corinthians that we are not like those who walk by sight, but rather, we walk by faith.<br /><br />Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. When we walk by sight, we are walking like everyone else in the world. But Christians have two resources that make it possible for them to walk in a different way from all other men. We do not have to walk according to the natural perspective.<br /><br />First, Christians have the word of God so that, as we read God’s word, we grow in our faith. We see God’s viewpoint and by faith we accept His viewpoint. Second, Christians also have the Holy Spirit who is able to take the word of God and apply it to our hearts so that we can begin to understand the will and the purpose of God for our lives.<br /><br />As we look into God’s word, and study God’s word, and rightly divide God’s word, and hide God’s word in our hearts, the Holy Spirit uses the word to give us God’s divine perspective. In this way, we do not end up choosing for ourselves a life that leads to destruction.<br /><br />It is very interesting that at this point Lot chose not only to live in the well watered plains of Jordon, but Lot went to dwell in the cities of the plains of Jordan. This represents another step downward in Lot’s spiritual life. It wasn’t long before Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, itself. Step by step, Lot was spiraling downward in his spiritual life.<br /><br />You see, before we go all the way down into Sodom and start indulging in the things of Sodom, we have to pitch our tent toward Sodom. First, we set our minds on the things of this world, and then we become entrapped in the things of this world with all of its destructiveness.<br /><br />At first, we don’t see the things of Sodom as destructive. Satan cleverly disguises the things of the world so that they do not appear to be destructive. Satan wants to lure people into this destruction. Lot saw the well watered plains of Jordan as paradise restored, but in reality they were just like the destructive things of Egypt.<br /><br />Now, in the very next chapter in the book of Genesis, we find that Lot was actually living in Sodom when a federation of five kinds came up against Sodom. These five kings captured the king of Sodom and many of the citizens of Sodom, including Lot and his family. As soon as Abraham heard about this, he gathered up some of his young men and went out to rescue Lot. In the strength and power of the Lord, Abraham rescued Lot, but do you know what Lot did? Lot went right back to Sodom.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, Lot had things in Sodom that he loved so much that he could not bear to part with them. But it is not until we get to Genesis, Chapter 19, that we see the terrible destructiveness of Lot’s choice. Lot went down into the well watered plains of the Jordan. Then he went to dwell in the cities of that area. Then Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, and it wasn’t long before he was living in Sodom itself. He then got so wrapped up in the things of Sodom that he could no longer bear to leave.<br /><br />In Genesis, Chapter 18, God tells Abraham that He is going to destroy Sodom. Abraham pleads with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah, and he bargains with the Lord. It may be that Abraham bargained with the Lord so aggressively in order to save Lot and Lot’s family.<br /><br />In Genesis, Chapter 19, we read that when God did decide to destroy Sodom, He sent two messengers to warn Lot of the coming judgment. These messengers told Lot to get out of Sodom to avoid the destruction. But in spite of this divine warning from God, Lot was hesitant to leave Sodom .<br /><br />In the first verse of Chapter 19, we find Lot sitting in the gates of the city of Sodom. This indicates that Lot had a place of leadership in Sodom. Lot had not only pitched his tent toward Sodom, but he had moved into Sodom and had become a leader in Sodom. We also find that Lot’s daughters had married men from Sodom so that Lot was more and more entangled in the affairs of Sodom.<br /><br />May I say this to you. When you become a Christian, you have the option; you have the choice as to how you are going to live your life. If you decide to walk by sight and do the things that you want to do, then you will wind up like Lot in Sodom. On the other hand, if you decide to let the Lord lead you and guide you and direct you, then the Holy Spirit dwelling within you will take the word of God as you read and study and feast upon it, so that the word of God comes to live within you. Then, you will be able to see life from the divine perspective.<br /><br />Every Christian has this choice, but I want you to notice that if you decide to live for yourself, you don’t just automatically find yourself immediately occupying a place of leadership in Sodom. There will be a progression that leads downward in your life just like there were many steps in Lot’s downward path to Sodom.<br /><br />There are many Christians today who have left the place of blessing and fellowship with God because at some point they decided to pitch their tent toward Sodom. Then as they inched their way toward Sodom, they became enmeshed in the activities of Sodom, and finally the things of Sodom got such a hold on them that they would now have a hard time breaking away from the things of Sodom.<br /><br />Now it’s interesting to note that when the angels came to warn Lot of the judgment that was about to fall upon Sodom, Lot told his sons-in-law about the warning, and the Bible says that Lot’s sons-in-law laughed at him and mocked him. You see, when Christians live their lives recklessly enmeshed in the things of the world and then they try to bear a testimony for the Lord, the world simply laughs.<br /><br />Finally, the angels warned Lot to quickly leave the city because the judgment of God was near, but they told Lot that they could not destroy the city until he left. Well, why was that? In the book of II Peter, we are told that the Lord knows how to rescue the righteous when they find themselves in the midst of an ungodly world. Peter first points to Noah, and then he mentions “righteous Lot.”<br /><br />Obviously, Lot knew the Lord. He had become righteous in God’s sight even though he still had the world in his heart. So Lot was what we might call a worldly Christian, but in spite of Lot’s worldly condition, it was God’s plan to save Lot from the destruction that was about to fall upon Sodom. Even though Lot was dwelling there in Sodom, he was not considered by God to be a part of the evil of that city. God saw Lot as separate and apart from the wickedness of the city of Sodom because Lot had come to know and believe in the Lord.<br /><br />Next week, we are going to see the consequences that Lot had to face as a result of his attraction to and his association with the city of Sodom. I trust that if you know the Lord as your Savior today that you will look at Lot’s life and take note of the utter destructiveness of making the wrong choices in life.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we will take up here again next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-8579261387476999204?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-81317516512302849692008-10-28T19:26:00.010-05:002009-03-30T22:48:12.657-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 20)<br />Bible Study Time 10-26-08<br />(From James Roberts 1-5-97)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we saw that Abraham was taken from UR of the Chaldeans and was led into the land of Canaan, the land of promise. While in the land of Canaan, Abraham was tested by the Lord. During a time of great famine, Abraham chose to go down into Egypt rather than trusting the Lord to provide for him while remaining in the land that God had given him.<br /><br />While Abraham was down in Egypt, Abraham dishonored his wife, he dishonored the Lord, he was rebuked by Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he was sent out of the land of Egypt. But one of the things that is so refreshing about Abraham is that when he left Egypt, he went back to the place where he was before he went down into Egypt. Upon his return, he built an altar, and he began to call upon the name of the Lord.<br /><br />How important this lesson is for us today. In the book of I John, Chapter 1 and verse 9, the Apostle John tells us that when we sin, we are to confess our sin. And he says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.<br /><br />Everyone of us is just like Abraham. Many times we fail to trust God completely. As a result we go down into Egypt, away from the Lord, and we have to come back to the place where we were when we sinned so that we can confess that sin to the Lord.<br /><br />After we confess our sin, the Lord restores us to fellowship with Him once again. We don’t have to be saved again. We don’t have to be born again, over and over again. But when we sin, after we are saved, we are to confess our sin. In a way, this sort of washes our feet. We don’t have to be bathed all over again, but we do have to have our feet cleansed when our walk is defiled by sin.<br /><br />Abraham gives us a beautiful picture of the person who sins and then is restored to fellowship with God as he returns to God and calls upon the name of the Lord. Now notice how this restored fellowship is really used of God in Genesis, Chapter 13. We will begin reading with verse five:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 13:5-8 NKJV<br />5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.<br />6 Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.<br />7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.<br />8 So Abram said to Lot,"Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren.<br /></em><br />I don’t think we’re inappropriately reading into this when we say that Abraham was particularly concerned about this situation because of the message it was sending to the nations that lived around them. The Canaanites and the Perizzites undoubtedly were watching Abraham and Lot because they knew that Abraham and Lot believed in the true and the living God, and they were carefully observing the power of their faith. Abraham must have recognized that this situation was a problem, so he went to Lot to resolve the conflict.<br /><br />The first principle that we see here is that if there is a conflict between two brothers, the one who is walking in fellowship with the Lord and is therefore sensitive to the Lord’s leading, must take the initiative to go to the other brother and endeavor to resolve the conflict. So Abraham went to talk with Lot, but he did not go with a list of demands. Abraham did not go to Lot in a judgmental way. But notice what Abraham said:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 13:8 NKJV<br />8 So Abram said to Lot,"Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren.<br /></em><br />Clearly, Abraham took a place of humility. He besought Lot, he pleaded with Lot to resolve the conflict. Abraham said:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 13:9 NKJV<br />9 Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left."<br /></em><br />Abraham had every right to say:<br /><br /><em>Now Lot, there is a conflict between us, and this can’t happen anymore. So here’s what I want you to do. God has given me this land and because he has given me this land, I’m going to show you how we will resolve this conflict. I’m going to give you that particular portion of land over there, and I want you and your herdsmen to go over there. As for me, I will take this other portion of land.<br /></em><br />No, Abraham did not do what he had the right to do. Abraham gave the choice to Lot. He said, Lot, if you go to the left I will go to the right, but if you go to the right I will go to the left. Abraham left the choice with Lot. Abraham gave up his own rights so that there might be peace and so that the conflict might be resolved. In the book of Philippians, Chapter 2, the Apostle Paul says:<br /><br /><em>Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV<br />5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,<br />6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,<br />7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.<br />8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.<br /></em><br />This carries the idea that Jesus Christ was there in heaven as God, and yet He did not think that His position of equality with the Father was so precious that He could not given it up. He did not feel that He had to hold onto that position of privilege at all cost. No, He willingly laid aside that to which He had a right.<br /><br />He was willing to lay aside all of the glory and significance of His rightful position, and He was willing to come down to the earth and take a position as a servant. Here we have the God of glory laying aside His rightful position and taking the position of a servant.<br /><br />As a servant, He gave His life for your sins and for my sins. He was willing to be born into a cursed world, a world that was cursed by sin, and He went to the cross to take that curse upon Himself. He died for your sins and for mine.<br /><br />This was the mind of Christ, and may I say as a little aside here that there may be one of you who is listening this morning who has never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. You still have never become a child of God. Oh, I trust that you will see today that God so loved you that He was willing to give His son, and His son loved you so much that He was willing to lay aside His right to remain in heaven so that He could come down to this earth to be your Savior. I trust that if you don’t know Him today that you will come to Him and say:<br /><br />Lord Jesus, I want to thank You for dying for me, and I want to trust You as my Savior. I want you to save me right now because I’m totally believing in You as my Savior, the one who redeemed me from all of my sins.<br /><br />God says that when you have this kind of faith, He will count your faith for righteousness.<br /><br />And it may be that you are already a Christian, but you are out of fellowship with God. It may be that you have been down in Egypt, and you sense that it is time for you to come back out of Egypt. If so, it is time for you to go back to the place where you left God, so that you can confess that sin to God, so that you can tell God that you want to serve Him and fellowship with Him, and that you want to worship Him, and that you want to have His will done in your life.<br /><br />When you do that, God will begin to work in your life and reveal Himself to you though His word. Then you can be like Abraham. You can have spiritual understanding and perceive things that those who are out of fellowship with God can not perceive.<br /><br />Abraham recognized the problem that was being caused by the strife between his herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen, and he wanted to have that conflict resolved. It seems as though Lot was indifferent to the problem, almost unaware of the problem. In this, Lot is a picture of the worldly Christian in that the worldly Christian will not be sensitive to the spiritual dangers that surrounds him.<br /><br />So Abraham let Lot choose which direction he wanted to go, but I want you to notice the basis upon which Lot made his choice. Let’s read verse 10.<br /><br /><em>Genesis 13:10 NKJV<br />10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.<br /></em><br />Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the well watered plains of Jordan. The scriptures declare that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. When we look at the things around us, and if we make our decisions based on the things that we see around us, we are walking just like every other person that’s in the world.<br /><br />The Apostle Paul says that the believer who does this is a carnal Christian. This is typical of the Christian who is out of fellowship with God. On the other hand, the Christian who is in fellowship with God will be looking into God’s word and seeking direction from God’s word, because he will know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.<br /><br />If you’re in fellowship with God, you will be studying God’s word and hiding God’s word in your heart. You’ll be able to perceive spiritual truths, and you will be able to recognize spiritual dangers, so that you will be able to make decisions that are based on the spiritual truths that are taught in the word of God. The book of Psalms tells us:<br /><br /><em>Psalms 119:105 KJV<br />105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.</em><br /><br />Lot lifted up his eyes, and rather than walking by faith, He chose to walk by sight. Abraham on the other hand was walking by faith and not by sight. He was willing to let Lot make the choice.<br /><br />Now notice again what Lot saw. He saw the well watered plains of Jordan. He said, this is just like paradise, this is just like Eden, this is just like the garden of the Lord. You see, when a man is walking by sight, his natural mind will always lead him in the direction of those things that appear on the outside to be beautiful. He will think, if I can just get this or that, my life will be like paradise.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, Lot looked at those well watered plains, and he said, look at all of that grass. I’ll never again have to worry about pasture for my cattle. So he chose the well watered plains of Jordan.<br /><br />But I want you to notice that there was another description of those well watered plains. To Lot, they looked like paradise, the garden of the Lord, but they were also described as being like Egypt as one goes down to Zoar. As we said before, Egypt is a picture of the world, and so it was that Lot chose the way of the world.<br /><br />Satan never tempts us with the ugliness of the world or the destructiveness of the things of the world. He will always tempt us with the attractiveness of the things of the world. Lot saw the well watered plains of Jordan, and to him it was like paradise, it was like the garden of the Lord, but God saw that it was like Egypt.<br /><br />As we go on, we are going to see the results of Lot’s desire to go down into the well watered plains of Jordan. Lot made the wrong choice because he was walking by sight, and Lot was sure to face the consequences of that choice. Oh, how important it is for us today to be in a position where we can make choices that are pleasing to the Lord.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing we will be back with you again next week as we continue our study of Lot. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-8131751651230284969?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-30377178989357304702008-10-28T19:08:00.009-05:002009-03-30T22:48:01.022-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 19)<br />Bible Study Time 10-19-08<br />(From James Roberts 12-22-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">The past several Sundays we have been on a <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, and we’ve been looking at Genesis, Chapter 12, where we see Abraham, the great patriarch of the nation of Israel. We saw that God gave to Abraham great and precious promises while he was still in UR of the Chaldeans. It was at that time that God told Abram to get out of his country and leave his family and his father’s house. God told Abram that He would show him the land into which he should go. Then, God gave this promise to Abraham:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 12:2-3 NKJV<br />2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.<br />3 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."<br /></em><br />As we go on into the seventh verse, we see that the Lord promised to Abraham and to his descendants the land of Palestine. In Genesis, Chapter 15, we see this covenant confirmed once again, that all of the land of Palestine was to be given to Abraham.<br /><br />Now keep in mind that the promise God gave to Abraham was that God was going to bless Abraham and that through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. All through the Old Testament we find the promise that great blessings would come to the nations of the world through Abraham’s multiplied seed.<br /><br />From the time that God called the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt and made a covenant with them at Mt. Sinai, it was His plan for them to be a light to the nations of the world. It was God’s plan to make of them a holy nation and a royal priesthood and that they would be a blessing to the nations of the earth.<br /><br />Keep in mind that Abraham had two sons. Ishmael was born of a bondwoman, while Isaac was born of Sarah, the free woman. God specifically told Abraham that the promised seed would come through Isaac. God made it clear that it would be Isaac’s descendants who would inherit the land of Palestine and become a blessing to the nations of the earth.<br /><br />This covenant between God and Abraham promised to Abraham and the descendants of Isaac the whole land of Palestine, and so it is called the Palestinian Covenant. This is one of the great sticking points in all of the negotiations in the Middle East today. The big question is, who’s going to occupy the land of Palestine?<br /><br />Well, one day when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and sets up His kingdom on the earth, the nations of the earth will be blessed through the nation of Israel. At that time, the nation of Israel will occupy the land of Palestine in a greater way than ever before. The part of Abraham’s seed through Isaac that will inherit the land of Palestine, the land of promise.<br /><br />When we come to the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we find something rather strange. We find that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not possess the land that had been promised to them. In Hebrews, Chapter 11 and verse 12, we read:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:12-16 NKJV<br />12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude — innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.<br />13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.<br />14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.<br />15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.<br />16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.<br /></em><br />Notice that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were strangers and pilgrims in the land of Canaan while they were alive. They did not possess the land even though it was promised to them. But now God has prepared a heavenly city for them, and it is the country of this city that they now desire.<br /><br />When the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth, He came preaching the gospel of the kingdom. This gospel proclaimed that Jesus Christ had come to establish the kingdom of God on the earth. The angel made this announcement to Mary:<br /><br /><em>Luke 1:31-33 NKJV<br />31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.<br />32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.<br />33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."</em><br /><br />The great promise to David was that one of His descendants would sit upon His throne and rule and reign over the earth in an everlasting kingdom. That promise looked forward to the day when the Lord Jesus Christ would come and sit upon the throne of David in an earthly kingdom.<br /><br />Someday, this promise will be fulfilled. At that time, the nation of Israel will not only occupy the land of Palestine, but they will inherit all of the earth. This is when all of the promises that were given to Abraham will be fulfilled.<br /><br />However, according to the book of Hebrews, it seems that there was a part of Abraham’s seed that was not looking for an earthly inheritance. Rather, they were looking for a heavenly inheritance, a heavenly city that God had prepared for them.<br /><br />When we come to Chapter 21 in the book of the Revelation, we see a city that comes down from God out of heaven. That city is called the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife. It is referred to as the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city.<br /><br />When we read those verses in Revelation, Chapter 21, we see that God is not talking about heaven, as many people seem to think. This is a description of the city that is going to come down out of heaven, and this is the heavenly city that God has prepared for Abraham and his seed. It is the descendants of Abraham who were said to be looking for this heavenly city.<br /><br />As we read the description of that city in Revelation 21, we see its Jewish character. We see that the names of the 12 apostles will be in the 12 foundations. There will be 12 gates that lead into the city. These are all things that relate to the nation of Israel, the multiplied seed of Abraham. All of the promises that God has given to Israel will flow to them through Abraham.<br /><br />Notice then that among those who are Abraham’s seed there are two different groups with different hopes. One group has a heavenly hope while the other has an earthly hope. Those with an earthly hope will be the ministers of God on the earth during the earthly kingdom, and they will bring great blessings to the nations of the earth. This is the time when the meek shall inherit the earth and there will be peace on earth and good will toward men. This is the time when the Prince of Peace will rule from the throne of His father David.<br /><br />But the other group within Abraham’s seed will be looking for that city that is going to come down out of heaven. This group will be a part of the Bride the Lamb’s Wife.<br /><br />I believe that this distinction between the two different groups within the seed of Abraham is alluded to in Hebrews, Chapter 11, where we read that the seed of Abraham will be in number as the stars of the heaven and as the sand the seashore. This seems to me to be an interesting way for God to show the two different groups.<br /><br />The one group, which will be as numerous as the stars of the heavens, will have a heavenly hope. The other group, which will be as numerous as the sands of the seashore, will have an earthly hope. All of this will come about as God works out his plan and purpose for the nation of Israel, the multiplied seed of Abraham.<br /><br />But in the book of Galatians, Chapter 3, the Apostle Paul makes an interesting statement. He says:<br /><br /><em>Galatians 3:10-14 NKJV<br />10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them."<br />11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."<br />12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them."<br />13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),<br />14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.<br /></em><br />Here we see that the blessings of Abraham were to come upon the Gentiles, those were not descendants of Abraham. Obviously, Paul understood the ramifications of the promise that was given to Abraham, that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. This is referring to the Gentile nations of the world. Now notice in verse 16, we read:<br /><br /><em>Galatians 3:16 NKJV<br />16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.<br /></em><br />We have seen that Abraham’s seed may be divided into two different groups of people with two different hopes, one earthly and one heavenly. But now we see two completely different aspects of the seed of Abraham. One is the multiplied seed, which would include all of the descendants of Abraham who have the faith of Abraham, while the other is the singular Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />This singular Seed of Abraham was to be made under the Law so that He could redeem those who were under the Law. Through this one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, blessing was to come to the nation of Israel. He was to make it possible for them to receive the Holy Spirit of God and become a new nation. As such, they would be empowered to bring blessing to the nations of the earth.<br /><br />Today, those of us who are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ have all of our blessings in this same person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not come to the earth just to fulfill the promises that were made to Abraham, but He came to seek and to save all those who are lost.<br /><br />In the book of Ephesians, Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul tells us that all believers today are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Our hope is that one day, as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ will appear in the glory of heaven and take us up to be with Him in heaven, where we will forever be with the Lord.<br /><br />There will be a part of Abraham’s seed that will look for the kingdom of Jesus Christ here on this earth where the meek shall inherit the earth. Then there will be a part of Abraham’s seed that will look for a city that comes down out of heaven, and they will become the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife. But the Church which is the Body of Christ will be united in the heavens with Christ before either of these groups see the realization of their hope.<br /><br />Regardless of the various programs of God through the ages, it is a profound truth that all believers from all ages gain access to the Father through the shed blood of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came as the Seed of Abraham to fulfill the promises that were made to Abraham, but when He shed His blood on the cross, He provided the means of salvation for all those who believe.<br /><br />Well, I see that our time is gone. The Lord willing we will take up again next week with our Journey Through the Scripture. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-3037717898935730470?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-31795418585909551532008-10-28T18:39:00.004-05:002009-03-30T22:47:50.608-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 18)<br />Bible Study Time 10-12-08<br />(From James Roberts 12-1-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we saw Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. We saw that these three sons and their descendants were all in one place, and they all had one language and one speech. In Romans, Chapter 1, Paul said that God was restraining the evil ways of these people by the revelation that He had given of Himself through the creation.<br /><br />However, the people did not want anything to do with God’s revelation of Himself. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God and made images like unto man and four footed beasts and creeping things. They began to worship the creation rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.<br /><br />These descendants of Noah were guilty of gross idolatry and gross immorality, so God withdrew the restraining power of revelation that He had given of Himself through the creation, and He confounded their speech. It seems as though He gave each of the different families of Shem, Ham and Japheth different languages so that the different families went into different parts of the earth. This resulted in the various nations that are present on the earth today.<br /><br />Before this confusion of languages, the people all met together at a place called Babel, which has always played a very important role in God’s dealings with the nations of the earth. This is especially true for the nation of Israel.<br /><br />In Revelation, Chapter 17, we read about the great tribulation period and about God’s dealings with the nation of Israel during that time. This will be the time when the antichrist, the man of sin, will be ruling and reigning over the earth, and the system through which he operates will be “anti-Christ.” His system will be religious, political and economic, and a part of this great system is referred to in Revelation, Chapter 17, as Mystery Babylon the Great which is said to be the mother of all harlots and the mother of all of the abominations on the earth.<br /><br />Now, how is it that this Mystery Babylon will be the mother of all of the abominations on the earth? Well, when the descendants of Noah all gathered together at Babel, they followed after a common idolatrous system. When God scattered them abroad, each family took this system of idolatry with them. Therefore, all through the ages we have seen vestiges of this idolatrous system showing up in various times and places. During the tribulation period, this idolatrous system will once again be united under the antichrist. The religion of the antichrist will have its roots in the idolatrous system of Babel, and it will most certainly be anti-Christ.<br /><br />Even today we are starting to see the reemergence of this system. Today, we see a great emphasis upon inclusiveness, where people want to believe that all religions have validity. More and more, people rebel against the idea that there is only one way to gain access to God. But the Bible is very clear that Jesus Christ said:<br /><br /><em>John 14:6<br />6 . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.</em><br /><br />All of the religious systems of the world have their own approach to God, and this includes the Christian religion, if you just consider the Christian religion as a whole. But the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, revealed Himself in the word of God as the only way to the Father. If you want access to the Father, you must come the narrow way, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through faith in His death, burial and resurrection.<br /><br />What we find in the New Age movement today is really not new; it had its beginning in Babylon. But in the new age movement today we see the infusion of eastern religions and all of the various idolatrous practices that were spread out over the world after the tower of Babel. These practices are now starting to have an impact on the Christian religion here in America in regard to its view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in the Christian religion, it is hard for people to accept that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father.<br /><br />In Genesis, Chapter 10, we find Nimrod, the grandson of Ham. It was Nimrod who started the city of Babel and who undoubtedly started the idolatrous practices of that city. But then, in Genesis, Chapter 12, we find the promise of a descendant of Shem who would come through Abraham and who would bring blessing to all the families of the earth. This, of course, was a veiled promise concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Keep in mind that all of the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth were idolatrous, including Terah who was Abraham’s father. There are passages in the Bible that describe Abraham before he met the Lord. They describe him as being a Syrian who was ready to perish. He was an idolater and he lived in an idolatrous family, even though he was from the family of Shem through whom the righteous line was promised.<br /><br />In Genesis, Chapter 11, we find that Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans where he was born, but Terah took Abram and Nahor and their families from Ur of the Chaldeans to a place which they named Haran. In Genesis, Chapter 12, we find that this was not according to God’s plan. Verse one says:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 12:1 NKJV<br />1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.<br /></em><br />Along with these instructions, God also gave Abram these promises:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 12:2-3 NKJV<br />2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.<br />3 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."<br /></em><br />So Abram departed from Ur of the Chaldeans but did not do so in accordance with God’s instructions. God had instructed Abram to separate himself from his father’s family. Instead, Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans with his father and all of his father’s family, and they went to a place which they named Haran. This is the place where Terah, Abram’s father, died.<br /><br />I remember listening to Dr. De Haan as he taught on this passage many years ago. He stated that Terah was a picture of the old nature, that is, the corrupt nature with which we are born. God had revealed himself to Abram as the God of glory, and He had told Abram to leave his father, Terah, his old way life, and move on to a new life without Terah. In other words, Abram was to separate himself from his old way of life.<br /><br />Well, Abram was like many of us. When God calls us and saves us, we are often reluctant to give up our old way of life. We are willing to become a child of God, but we may also want to bring along with us the Terahs and the Lots of the old life.<br /><br />Dr. De Haan said that Terah is a picture of the old man and that Abram could not go into the land of promise until Terah died. Then he added, thank God the old man died. Dr. De Haan showed so clearly that until the old nature is reckoned to be dead indeed unto sin and until we reckon ourselves to be alive unto God, we can never enter into the full blessings of God. Until we reckon the old man to be dead indeed unto sin, we can never walk in newness of life.<br /><br />Abraham had obeyed, but it was an incomplete obedience. Arthur Pink gives the definition of the word Haran and says that it means <em>parched place</em>. Abram had to live in a parched place until the old man died. Only after the old man died was Abram able to leave the parched place and move on into His place of blessing. Oh, what a difference it made when the old man died!<br /><br />May I just say this to you? What a beautiful picture this is for you and for me. If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and have never received the revelation that God has given to us in His word, I trust that you will listen to what God is saying to you today.<br /><br />God loved you enough that He sent His son into the world. The Lord Jesus loved you enough to leave His realm of blessing and fellowship with the Father, where He lived in equality with the Father. He left that realm of blessing to come down to this earth and be born as a baby, to live as a man. He was God, manifest in the flesh, Immanuel.<br /><br />In His body of flesh, He went to the cross and there He died, the Just One for us, the unjust. He knew no sin, but He was made the sin offering for us. He did this so that we might become new creations, so that we might become new born children of God, so that we might, as it were, leave our father’s house and leave behind the old nature, putting it in the past, so that we might go on to the place of blessing.<br /><br />I wonder today if there is one listening to this broadcast who has never trusted Christ. If you have never trusted Christ, I pray that you will come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior, so that you can become a child of God.<br /><br />I wonder if there are those of you who are listening today who are like Abram was in the initial stage of his walk with the Lord. Abram wanted to carry with him much of his old life, so that he had to dwell in Haran, the parched place. Are you dwelling in Haran today? Are you dwelling in a parched place? Or are you willing to leave behind the old life and move on into your place of blessing with the Lord?<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we are going to continue in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-3179541858590955153?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-86428766015532471902008-10-28T18:32:00.006-05:002009-03-30T22:47:40.353-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 17)<br />Bible Study Time 10-5-08<br />(From James Roberts 11-24-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">If you have an opportunity to do so, we would like to encourage you to get your Bible and turn with us to the book of Genesis, Chapter 12. Last week, in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we saw something of the description of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. They and their descendants forsook the Lord and rushed head long into gross idolatry.<br /><br />God had revealed Himself to them as the creator, and the creation, itself, was enough to reveal His every attribute. Even the invisible attributes of God were revealed in and through the creation.<br /><br />However, the descendants of Noah did not want to retain any knowledge of God. Therefore, they begin to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. The book of Romans tells us that God withdrew the restraining power of His revelation of Himself so that He gave up the nations to go in their own way, to live in an unrestrained way, to fill up the lusts of their flesh. They simply tried to crowd out of their minds any knowledge of God.<br /><br />But before God gave up the nations to go in their own way, He called out one man from the family of Shem whose name was Abram. God gave Abram certain instructions along with a great promise. Notice what God said in verse one of Genesis, Chapter 12:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV<br />1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.<br />2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.<br />3 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."<br /></em><br />In verse 1 we read that God had told Abram to leave his country, his family and his father’s house, but according to Genesis, Chapter 11, Abraham actually left his country with his father, Terah, and all of his father’s family.<br /><br />As we study further, we will see that God did not reveal the full extent of His promise to Abram until after Abram finally separated himself from Lot, the last of his father’s family. It was not until that point that God promised all of the land of Palestine to Abram. At that point, God showed Abram all the land of Palestine and said, this is the land I’m going to give to you and to your seed. This promise is called by many the Palestinian Covenant.<br /><br />Now notice God’s promise in Genesis, Chapter 12, and verse 2:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 12:2-3 NKJV<br />2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.<br />3 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."<br /></em><br />As we look at this first aspect of the promise, we see that God said, I will make you a great nation. In one sense, that has already been fulfilled. Abraham’s family went down into Egypt in the days of Joseph, and they lived there for 430 years. At the end of that time, God brought them out of Egypt, not as a family, but as a nation. As Israel traveled from Egypt to the land of Canaan, God gave them the Law at Mt. Sinai, and it was at Mt. Sinai that God first started dealing with Israel as a nation.<br /><br />It was God’s plan to make of Israel a great nation. After He gave them the Law, He said, I’m going to take you into the land of Canaan where you are to be a light to the nations round about you. Indeed, this was God’s great plan and purpose for the nation of Israel.<br /><br />There was a time during the days of David and Solomon that Israel showed great promise as a nation. It was in those days that the kingdom of Israel reached its zenith in power, glory and riches. It was a wonderful kingdom at that time, but soon it began to decline. Ultimately, it was taken captive by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and it has been in decline ever since.<br /><br />However, some day this promise that God made to Abraham is going to be fulfilled completely. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns to this earth and takes the reins of government by His mighty power, His name shall be great. He shall be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.<br /><br />At that time the Lord Jesus Christ will establish the nation of Israel as the greatest nation on the face of the earth. At that time Israel will become a new nation because they will be born again. They will be given a new heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. This will be during the millennial kingdom when Jesus Christ rules and reigns over all the earth for a thousand years.<br /><br />The glorious days of David and Solomon were just a faint picture of the glory and the power that will belong to the nation of Israel during the millennium. While Israel was under the Law, her constant desire was to be like the rest of the nations. She had no desire to show forth the glory of God.<br /><br />But one day Israel will show forth the glory of God. As the head of all the nations, she will serve the Lord and minister to the nations. Yes, she will be the greatest, but she will also be the servant. As the Lord Jesus said, the one who is the greatest will be the servant of them all.<br /><br />At that time the nation of Israel will be a royal priesthood and a holy nation. As the priests of the kingdom, the Jews will go throughout the world teaching the nations how to love, serve and worship the Lord who will be ruling and reigning in Jerusalem at that time. Oh yes, this great promise to Abraham awaits its final fulfillment when God will make of Abraham a great nation.<br /><br />God told Abraham that He would bless Abraham and make Abraham’s name great. That too has already been partially fulfilled. Abraham’s name is revered among Christians and Jews and even among Islamic people. It is common among all of these different groups for children to be named Abraham because all three have ties to Abraham.<br /><br />Keep in mind that Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. It was through Ishmael that the Arab nations came into being. However, Isaac was the son of promise. It was through Isaac that the promise of the great nation and the great name would be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ came through Isaac as the promised Seed of Abraham, and His name is above every name. One day, when the descendants of Isaac put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will become the greatest nation on the fact of the earth.<br /><br />Now notice God’s promise in verse 3:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 12:3 NKJV<br />3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you . . .</em><br /><br />One day the Lord Jesus Christ is going to take the church of this present dispensation home to be with Himself in the glory of heaven. After that, God is going to bring a time of great tribulation upon this earth. During that time of tribulation, God will separate the sheep from the goats on the basis of their relationship to Israel. Those nations that protect the believing Jewish people will be the sheep and they will be blessed, but those who persecute the nation of Israel will be the goats and they will perish; they will be cursed.<br /><br />At the close of the tribulation period, before the Lord Jesus Christ establishes His kingdom upon the earth, God will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep will enter into the blessing of the kingdom while the goats will be cast off into darkness where they will be separated from God and from His blessings.<br /><br />The final words of God’s blessing upon Abram read:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 12:3 NKJV<br />3 . . . in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."<br /></em><br />This blessing of God upon the nation of Israel will not be a self serving type of glory, but it will result in great blessings for all the families of the earth. In the kingdom, Israel will be the ministers of the Lord Jesus as they serve the nations of the world.<br /><br />Today, God has suspended this promise that He made to Israel through Abraham, but why did God suspend this promise? We see in the gospel accounts that when the Lord Jesus Christ came to the nation of Israel, they rejected Him. There was a small remnant of believers among the Jews who did believe in the Lord Jesus, but for the most part the Jews rejected Him. They said, away with Him, we have no king but Caesar.<br /><br />After the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, God continued to offer the kingdom to the nation of Israel through the preaching of the Apostles. This offer was open to the nation of Israel throughout the period of time covered by the book of Acts, but throughout that time, the nation of Israel steadfastly refused to accept Jesus Christ as her promised Messiah and King.<br /><br />At the close of the time period covered by the book of Acts, God temporarily set aside His offer of the kingdom. God did not do away with the promise, and He did not change the promise so as to give the kingdom to others. God simply suspended the promise, while He started calling out the Church of our present age.<br /><br />Now may I say this to you? In one sense, our spiritual blessings today come to us through the Promised Seed of Abraham, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. It was He who went to the cross where He died for our sins that we might become the children of God. The very moment we trust Him as Savior, God makes us children of God, and Ephesians, Chapter 1, says:<br /><br /><em>Ephesians 1:3 NKJV<br />3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,<br /></em><br />Our blessings today are not the blessings of the earthly kingdom which were promised to Abraham. Our blessings are spiritual blessings which are found in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Do you know him today as the one who died for you, and who is officiating today as the Head of the Church which is the Body of Christ? I trust that you do, and that you have this immeasurable blessing because you know Him as Savior.<br /><br />Well, the Lord willing, we will take up on our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> again next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://graceBiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-8642876601553247190?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-64799745692667628162008-09-25T15:17:00.007-05:002009-03-30T22:47:26.340-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 16)<br />Bible Study Time 9-27-08<br />(From James Roberts 11-17-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">In our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> last week, we saw something about the curse that was placed upon Canaan in the days of Noah. Canaan’s father, Ham, did something that was dishonoring to Noah, and God used that incident to utter a prophetic judgment against Canaan. Seven hundred years later, Moses would use this prophetic curse to encourage the children of Israel as they prepared to enter the Land of Canaan.<br /><br />According to Genesis, Chapter 15, the children of Israel served the Egyptians as slaves for 400 years before Moses came to lead them to the land of Canaan. God promised them that He would give them the victory over the Canaanites, but the children of Israel had to remain in the land of Egypt until the iniquity of the Canaanites was full. With the iniquity of the Canaanites full and running over as the nation of Israel left the land of Egypt, it was time for the righteous wrath of God to be poured out upon the children of Canaan.<br /><br />Moses wanted the children of Israel to know that they had nothing to fear from the Canaanites because even in the days of Noah God had predicted that a great judgment would come upon the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. Even from the days of Noah, God knew that the children of Canaan would become so wicked that He would have to bring a great judgment upon them. As the children of Israel neared the land of Canaan, Moses announced that it was time for that prophetic judgment to be fulfilled.<br /><br />As we approach the book of Genesis, Chapter 10, we see how that the earth was divided up into various nations, and we also see how the various languages came about. We’ll begin reading in verse 5.<br /><br /><em>Genesis 10:5 NKJV<br />5 From these (three sons of Noah) the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.</em><br /><br />After this statement, Moses goes on to talk about the sons of Ham and Shem and then of Japheth as he gives their various generations. But it’s very interesting to note that these people were of different languages. You would think that these three sons of Noah would all speak the same language, and you would think that their families after them would all speak the same language.<br /><br />How did it happen that they all spoke different languages, and what is the origin of all of the various languages that we see in the world today. To understand this we need to go over to Genesis, Chapter 11. Notice as we begin reading in verse 1:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 11:1-9 NKJV<br />1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.<br />2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.<br />3 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.<br />4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."<br />5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.<br />6 And the Lord said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.<br />7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."<br />8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.<br />9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.<br /></em><br />We find this word Babel in our language today. People are said to be babbling if they speak in a confused manner and that expression comes from the word Babel. Another word that comes from the word Babel is the word Babylon, which was to later become the name of the capital city of the Babylonian Empire.<br /><br />The city of Babel and the city of Babylon are seen in the scriptures as two great centers of rebellion against God, and we see the beginning of these two cities in Genesis, Chapter 11. These two cities were established under the rule of a man named Nimrod. Genesis, Chapter 11, tells us that the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom was Babel.<br /><br />Now let’s just take a look at why God brought such great judgment upon the people of Babel. They built a city and they built a tower and there seems to be nothing wrong with that. But in the book of Romans, Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul is used of God to fill us in and help us to understand what was really happening there in Babel.<br /><br />The people of Babel were not just building a city, although that was in itself something that came out of their own minds and out of their own hearts in their rebellion against God. But notice what Paul says in Romans, Chapter 1.<br /><br /><em>Romans 1:16-18 NKJV<br />16 . . . I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.<br />17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."<br />18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,<br /></em><br />You see, God revealed Himself, and instead of man accepting that revelation by faith and being saved, man tried to hold it down. This carries the idea of suppression. It carries the idea of resistance. Man did not want anything to do with the revelation of God, and Paul says that the wrath of God is revealed against all those who labor to hold down the truth.<br /><br />Then Paul went back to the time of Noah’s sons in Genesis 10 and 11 to give us an example of a group of people who tried to hold down the truth. Notice verse 19:<br /><br /><em>Romans 1:19 NKJV<br />19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.<br /></em><br />God had an ancient revelation of Himself which He had given to these people, and notice what that ancient revelation was.<br /><br /><em>Romans 1:20 NKJV<br />20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,<br /></em><br />God had clearly revealed Himself in the creation. The creation, itself, was the ancient revelation which revealed that God was the creator of all things, but the creation also reveals the various attributes of God in such a way that they are clearly understood. The creation reveals God goodness and His mercy and so forth. If the sons and grandsons of Noah had only looked with an open mind at the creation, itself, they would have been able to see that God is the creator and the sustainer of all things. But notice:<br /><br /><em>Romans 1:21-23 NKJV<br />21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.<br />22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,<br />23 and changed (or exchanged) the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.<br /></em><br />They exchanged the truth of the creator for an image that they made from God’s creation. They actually started a system of worship that was filled with idolatry.<br /><br /><em>Romans 1:24-25 NKJV<br />24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,<br />25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie . . .<br /></em><br />Notice, they took the revelation that God gave of Himself, and they exchanged it for Satan’s lie. They:<br /><br /><em>Romans 1:25 NKJV<br />25 . . . worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.<br /></em><br />For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, and Paul describes the depth of the perversion of their sexual desires. God simply gave them over to these desires.<br /><br />And do you know what happened? Paul says that they did not want to retain God in their knowledge. They gave themselves over to work all manner of uncleanness. They ran greedily after their evil desires. They filled their hearts and their minds with every evil thought so that they could crowd out any knowledge that they had of God. That’s exactly what was happening in the city of Babel in Genesis, Chapters 10 and 11, so God came down and confused their language so that they would go into the various regions of the world.<br /><br />When we look at Nimrod in Genesis, Chapter 10, we see that Nimrod was a mighty hunter. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Undoubtedly, this is not just speaking of someone who goes out with a bow and arrow hunting animals, but it carries the idea that Nimrod was a hunter of men. He gathered men together in rebellion against God. He hunted the souls of man, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.<br /><br />It would appear that Nimrod was the leader of the great rebellion that took place at Babel, and when God confused their languages, Nimrod left Babel and went into the area that was to become the kingdom of Assyria. It was there that Nimrod established the city of Nineveh. As we continue in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we will see much more about Babylon and Assyria for they were both destined to become two of the greatest enemies of the children of Israel.<br /><br />As we close this lesson, I would just like to mention that there was another great line that came from Noah, and that was the line of Shem. The children of Israel came through the line of Shem, and the Lord Jesus Christ came through the nation of Israel. The whole earth was to be blessed through the line of Shem.<br /><br />Next week we are going to see how God called out Abraham from all of the confused mass of people on the earth. Abraham was the descendant of Shem through whom the nation of Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ would come.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone so our journey for today is over. We’ll take up again next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-6479974569266762816?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-73121014452500941452008-09-25T15:12:00.006-05:002009-03-30T22:47:00.073-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 15)<br />Bible Study Time 9-21-08<br />(From James Roberts 11-10-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">In our previous studies on Bible Study Time, we have been taking a <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>. We saw Noah and his family and animals of every kind as they entered into the ark where they were protected by God and brought safely through the flood judgment. During this flood judgment, God destroyed the heavens and the earth that were in existence at that time.<br /><br />As He brought Noah out of the ark, God made a covenant with Noah in which He said that He would never again destroy the earth with a judgment such as the one that Noah had just experienced. In other words, God said that He would never again destroy the heavens and the earth with a flood judgment.<br /><br />However, the book of 2 Peter tells us that there will come a time in which God will destroy the heavens and the earth with a judgment of fire. The heavens and the earth that now exist will melt with fervent heat, and out of that old heaven and old earth will come a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness.<br /><br />Every person who has been saved, from Adam right down to the last person, will be with the Lord in eternity in a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness. The old things will pass away, and all things will become new.<br /><br />Many people are very confused about this fiery judgment that is going to take place. They think that at any moment God could just end everything with a fiery judgment in which He destroys the heavens and the earth. I believe that the scriptures are very clear in telling us that there are many things that must take place before that fiery judgment takes place.<br /><br />In our present age, God is calling out the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the Church that God is building in the heavens today. In the book of Acts, God suspended His program with the nation of Israel which had to do with the calling out of the nation of Israel and those Gentiles that will be blessed with Israel in God’s earthly kingdom. In our present age, God has suspended that program because of Israel’s unbelief.<br /><br />As a result of Israel’s unbelief, God set Israel’s program aside and started calling out the Church of our present age. In God’s program for us today, God is taking Jews and Gentiles who put their trust in Christ, and He is adding them to the Church. When a person puts his faith in Christ, he automatically becomes a member of the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the means by which God is building the Church today.<br /><br />Someday, the last member will be added to the Church, and God will at that point take the Church up to be with Himself in the heavens. This is our hope today. At that time, those who have died, who are members of the Body of Christ, will be raised up with a body that will never die. Those who are alive when the Lord completes the Church will never seen death, but they will be taken up into heaven where they will be given new bodies that will never die.<br /><br />After the catching up of the Church, God is going to send a great time of judgment upon the earth. This will be the time when God resumes His dealings with the nation of Israel. In fact, the Bible calls this period of time the time of Jacob’s trouble.<br /><br />During this period of great tribulation, God is going to purify unto Himself the nation of Israel. Out of the old unbelieving nation will come a new nation of Israel, purified by the trials and afflictions of the great tribulation period. The members of this new nation will put their faith in Jesus Christ as Israel’s promised Messiah, and they will as last have the Law of God written in their hearts by the Holy Spirit of God.<br /><br />When the Lord returns to the earth at the end of this tribulation period, He is going to save the nation of Israel in a day. The nation of Israel will be born again, and they will be the ministers of God in a perfect kingdom here on this earth. In this kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ will reign over the earth for a thousand years as he sits upon the throne of David in Jerusalem. At that time, Jesus Christ will rule and reign over the earth as the Prince of Peace, and Jerusalem will be the capital city of His kingdom.<br /><br />The great judgment of fire which was predicted by the Apostle Peter will not come until after Christ’s thousand year kingdom. At the close of that kingdom. Christ will sit upon a great white throne from which He will judge all of the unsaved, wicked dead. All unsaved people from the time of Adam all the way through the ions of time, who have never trusted God and who have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, will be cast into the lake of fire. Only then will God destroy the heavens and earth with fire.<br /><br />So the thing that man needs to be concerned about today is not the fiery judgment. Today, man needs to be concerned about whether or not he has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. The book of Hebrews says that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.<br /><br />The judgment that is awaiting those who have never trusted Christ will take place after they die. We are not to be overly concerned about the fiery judgment. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, Paul says, there is no judgment, or condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus.<br /><br />If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you are safe and secure in the ark of safety, even as Noah was safe in the ark. No judgment fell upon Noah and his family because they were in the ark. The judgment fell only upon those who were outside the ark.<br /><br />Oh, I ask you today, do you know the Lord as your personal Savior? Do you know the one who died for you, who was buried and rose again? Do you know the one who became your substitute, the one who paid the penalty for your sins and then was raised again and went back into the heavens? Do you know him today? If you don’t, you’re under judgment. The only thing that’s keeping you from the judgment of God is the breath that is in your body. By simply placing your faith in Jesus Christ and calling upon His name, you can be saved today.<br /><br />Now, after Noah and his family came out of the ark, there was an incident that took place which has been a point of controversy through the years. In Genesis, Chapter 9, we read that Noah became a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then one day, as Noah was drinking the wine, he got drunk and was lying in his tent naked. Then,<br /><br /><em>Genesis 9:22-25 NKJV<br />22 . . . Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.<br />23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.<br />24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.<br />25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; . . .<br /></em><br />Notice that Noah did not say, cursed by Ham, the one who had done this thing, but Noah said, cursed by Canaan. Now, verse 25:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 9:25-28 NKJV<br />25 . . . A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."<br />26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.<br />27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant."<br />28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.<br /></em><br />So here we see a curse, a judgment, that was placed, not upon Ham, but upon Ham’s son, Canaan. Why is it that the judgment did not fall upon Ham, who did the deed? Why did the judgment fall upon Canaan?<br /><br />We need to keep in mind that the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God was using Moses at the close of Moses’ life to instruct Israel through these first five books of the Bible. God had brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt with the promise that they would inherit the land of Canaan, and God wanted them to understand that the land of Canaan was already under a curse. God wanted them to know that He would fight for them against the Canaanites.<br /><br />But some may say that it’s unfair to pronounce a curse upon people before they even exist. Well, God knew all about the wickedness that would come from the descendants of Canaan. In Genesis, Chapter 15, we read that God told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a strange land for 400 years. God said that Abraham’s would remain in that land until the iniquity of the Amorites was full.<br /><br />So God was patient and longsuffering with the children of Canaan. He endured their wickedness for 400 years while the children of Israel were being afflicted by the Egyptians. But after 400 years, God brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt, and He led them to the land of Canaan where Moses instructed them concerning the curse that had been pronounced by Noah hundreds of years earlier.<br /><br />Obviously, the curse upon the Canaanites was not just because of Noah’s words, but it was because of the wickedness of the children of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had finally reached its fullness, and so it was time for Noah’s curse to be fulfilled.<br /><br />Do you remember what happened when the children of Israel first came up to the borders of the land of Canaan? They sent in spies to spy out the land, and when the spies came back, Joshua and Caleb were confident that they could take the land.<br /><br />How did they know that they could take the land? Undoubtedly, their confidence was at least partially due to the prophesy of Noah, that God had placed a curse upon the children of Canaan. This prophesy was well known by the all those who were familiar with the writings of Moses.<br /><br />Many things have been written about this curse that was placed upon Canaan. Tragically, some have interpreted this curse as being a curse upon the black race. According to this interpretation, the black man was destined to be a servant of servants all the days of his life.<br />That interpretation is a misreading of the scriptures. God never placed a curse upon the black race. The curse upon Canaan was a curse upon the children of Canaan, and this prophetic curse was fulfilled when the children of Israel entered and conquered the land of Canaan. This curse has nothing to do with the black race.<br /><br />Now, before we close, there are a couple of other things that I would like to mention concerning the descendants of Noah. In Genesis, Chapter 10, we see two very important people. One of the descendants of the Ham was Nimrod, whose kingdom was initiated at Babel in the plain of Shinar. Then he went out from Babel to establish the city of Nineveh which became the capital city of the Assyrians. We are going to take a closer look at Babel and Nineveh next week. These two great kingdoms of Nimrod are very important.<br /><br />But then it’s also important to see that God had a great promise that was to come to pass through Shem, for it was through the line of Shem that the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, would come into the world. So, Nimrod, the picture of wickedness, came through Canaan, while Jesus Christ, the picture of righteousness, came through Shem.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone. Be sure to be with us again next week as we continue our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> . Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peaceChurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenueChurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebibleChurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-7312101445250094145?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-68157412298589606712008-09-16T04:32:00.007-05:002009-03-30T22:46:48.073-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 14)<br />Bible Study Time 9-14-08<br />(From James Roberts 11-3-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">In our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we have been looking at Noah and his family. We have seen that they went into the ark that God had told Noah to build, and there they were kept safe from the flood judgment that God brought upon the earth. God destroyed the earth and all that was in it, but those who were in the ark were safe and secure, and they were brought safely through that flood judgment.<br /><br />Now since we have started our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> there has been a great deal of talk in the national media about the <em>Genesis Project</em>. This is a series of broadcasts that Bill Moyer is planning to do on public television regarding the book of Genesis.<br /><br />Study groups around the country, especially on the East Coast, have contributed to this study in the book of Genesis, and I want to give you one word of warning about this project. I just read an article in <em>Newsweek</em> magazine which gave some background information concerning these programs.<br /><br />Generally speaking, the people who are involved in this project and these programs that will be broadcast over public broadcasting are people who do not believe in the integrity of the scriptures. They do not believe in the absolute authority and inspiration of the scriptures.<br /><br />For instance, they say that the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis are just tales that were handed down from mouth to mouth until someone in the time of David and Solomon saw fit to write them down. They say that they were written down as little moral homilies, and they were written down so that you and I could look at those myths and get some moral application from them.<br /><br />I want you to know that I believe in the integrity of the scriptures, the wholeness of the scriptures. The Bible is not just a compilation of writings from different men, but it is a compilation of writings by men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. Because God is the author of the entire Bible, the scriptures stand in their entirety as an integrated whole.<br /><br />The Bible, itself, gives us the method by which we should study the Bible. We are not to study any portion of the Bible in isolation, but we are to study each portion of the Bible in the context of the Bible as a whole. Each passage must be seen in its relationship to the rest of the Bible.<br /><br />The process of Bible interpretation that was used by the <em>Genesis Project</em> is very dangerous. Let me give you a couple of illustrations. They say that there is no mention of sin in the account that is given in the early chapters of the book of Genesis. Their doctrine not only misinterprets the scriptures, but it violates the basic principle that every passage must be seen in the light of the scriptures as a whole.<br /><br />The book of Romans, Chapter 5, very clearly states that when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they committed an act of disobedience, and that act of disobedience was sin. It also says that when they sinned, they brought the sin nature upon themselves and upon all of their descendants.<br /><br />The reason that you and I today are sinners by nature, by birth, is because Adam and Eve passed that nature to sin right on down to all men who followed after them. Romans 5:12, says:<br /><br /><em>Romans 5:12 KJV<br />12 (For) by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:<br /></em><br />It is a violation of the scriptures to say that there is no account of sin in the book of Genesis.<br /><br />Another example of their erroneous thinking is seen in the fact that they blame Noah for not telling his contemporaries about the coming flood. Well, in this they are willingly ignorant. In the book of Genesis, itself, we find that Enoch walked with God, and the book of Jude tells us that Enoch was a prophet. For 300 years Enoch prophesied concerning the coming judgment of God.<br /><br />Enoch named his son Methuselah, no doubt according to the revelation of God. Methuselah means, <em>when he is dead, it shall be sent</em>. Well, what shall be sent? This was talking about the judgment of God that was going to come.<br /><br />God allowed Methuselah to live for nearly 1000 years. He lived to be the oldest man that has ever lived on the earth, and this is a great testimony, not to the vengeance of God, but to the longsuffering and goodness of God. God is not willing that any should perish.<br /><br />Enoch warned the people of his day, but it is also clear that Noah also warned the people. Noah was a preacher of righteousness for 120 years, while the ark was being built. So there was ample warning about the judgment that was going to come.<br /><br />It would appear that the <em>Genesis Project</em> has no intention of revealing what God has actually said in His word, but rather, it’s intention is to question the character of God. It leaves the clear impression that we today have no reason to fear any future judgment from God. It is true that each person must decide this issue for himself, but we had better decide on the basis of what God has said in the entirety of His word. We should be very skeptical of philosophers and theologians who propagate ideas which are not based on the teachings of the entire word of God.<br /><br />The book of 2 Corinthians tells us that Satan is able to transform himself into an angel of light and that his ministers pose as ministers of righteousness. The book of 1 John says, prove every spirit to see if it is from God. When men start denying any portion of the word of God, you had better reject their testimony. If you do not believe in the integrity of the scriptures, that all of the Bible is the word of God, then you cannot place your confidence in any part of it.<br /><br />One of the reasons that men want to discredit the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis is to do away with the historical account of creation. They want to believe that the earth just came into being through natural evolution, but Genesis, Chapter 1, absolutely refutes the idea of evolution.<br /><br />If evolution is correct then there was no historical Adam who sinned and brought the sin nature into the human race. If there was no historical Adam then there is no reason to think that man is a sinner by nature.<br /><br />As far as I’m concerned, if I could not believe in the historical, Biblical Adam, I think I would find it very difficult to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven’s glory to live as a man on the earth. If there was no sin in the world, why would Jesus Christ leave the glory of heaven? He came first and foremost to save the world from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, this second Adam, came down and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh in order that you and I might have eternal life.<br /><br />I say this to you as a word of warning. Be careful what you hear. False doctrine can come in the garb of religion. It would appear that these philosophers and theologians are trying to get Jews and Christians and Muslims to come together in one religion, and this would do away with the most basic doctrine of the Bible which states that there is no other way to come to the Father except to the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Men may work ever so hard to bring human beings together as one, but the Bible still remains true. The Bible tells us that the Jesus Christ was the God of glory in human flesh. He was Emmanuel which means God with us. Jesus Christ came to the earth to open up a new and a living way for man to come to God. Jesus Christ was not just a prophet, He was not just a good man, but He was and is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Jesus said:<br /><br /><em>John 14:6<br />6 . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.</em><br /><br />There's only one way whereby man may approach God. It’s not through Islam; it’s not to Judaism; it’s not through Christendom. It’s through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only way.<br /><br />In the Old Testament, the tabernacle had only one door; there was only one way to enter into the tabernacle. The ark that Noah built had only one door. Likewise, there is only one door that leads to heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ said:<br /><br /><em>John 10:9 KJV<br />9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.<br /></em><br />There’s only one door to heaven, and if you don’t enter in through that one door, you’re not going to make it. The Lord Jesus Christ is that door.<br /><br /><em>1 John 5:12 KJV<br />12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.</em><br /><br />As time goes on, there will be all kinds of movements and cults that will try to seduce people away from the one door that leads to heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be today that you are depending upon church membership or some ordinance to get you into heaven. But unless you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you do not have eternal life. The Lord Jesus said:<br /><br /><em>John 3:16 KJV<br />16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.<br /></em><br />Who is it that is of the antichrist? It is the one who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you find any kind of doctrine or religious activity that does not hold to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that He bore the sins of the whole world when He died on the cross, you can count that as a false religion. That is the standard, the plumb line, by which we can judge false doctrine. This is the standard that God has given to us to judge between truth and false doctrine.<br /><br />I say these things in love but I say them as a warning. Satan can transform himself into an angel of light, and his ministers may appear as the ministers of righteousness. Be careful what you hear. Prove the spirits to see if they are of God. Test all things by the integrity, by the wholeness, of the Bible.<br /><br />I see that our time is already gone, and we didn’t get very far on our <em>Journey Through the Scripture </em>today, but we will take up again with the book of Genesis, Chapter 9, next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-6815741229858960671?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-62142425251654399652008-09-16T04:29:00.006-05:002009-03-30T22:46:23.134-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 13)<br />Bible Study Time 9-7-08<br />(From James Roberts 10-27-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we saw God bringing Noah out of the ark. God had sent Noah into the ark because it was time for the great flood which would destroy the earth and all of the inhabitants that were on the earth. When Noah and his family and all of the animals were safely inside the ark, God shut the door, and the great flood judgment came. Noah did not have to suffer the judgment of the flood because the ark bore all of the judgment of God’s wrath. The ark floated above the water and protected Noah from the judgment of God.<br /><br />The ark is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is our ark of safety. When the Lord Jesus went to the cross, He died for your sins and for my sins. All of the wrath of God for mankind’s sins was poured out upon the Lord Jesus so that He cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And now Jesus Christ is the beautiful ark of safety for those of us who have put our faith and trust in Him. When we trust Christ, we are given a position in Christ where we are safe and secure from the coming judgment of God.<br /><br />The first thing that Noah did when he came out of that ark was to build an altar, an altar whereby he could worship God and thank God for bringing him safely through the flood. Through the judgment of God, Noah was safe and secure, and so his desire was to worship God.<br /><br />How you and I who have been saved by the grace of God should offer up our sacrifices of praise unto the Lord. We are safe and secure in Christ Jesus. As the Apostle Paul said:<br /><br /><em>Romans 8:1 NKJV<br />1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . .<br /></em><br />When God brought Noah out of the ark, God gave Noah new instructions which were to govern Noah and his descendants after the flood. These instructions were different from any instructions that God had given before the flood. In other words, God changed the way He dealt with mankind after the flood. This was the beginning of the new dispensation.<br /><br />Not long ago I was talking to a man, and I told him that it is important to study the Bible rightly divided and that we need to take into account the various dispensations of the Bible. Well, this man asked, what do you mean by dispensations?<br /><br />Sometimes people are afraid of the word dispensation, but it’s a good Biblical word. In the book of Ephesians, Chapter 3, Paul speaks of the dispensation of the grace of God that was given to him for us. The word dispensation comes from a Greek word which means a house manager. In the Old Testament, Joseph was placed as a house manager over all of Potiphar’s house. That means that Potiphar gave Joseph authority over all of his house.<br /><br />In the Bible we see that every time God changes His dealings with mankind, He raised up a person to be responsible for that new dispensation. That person then serves as the house manager, or steward, of that dispensation. Adam was the first house manager of a new dispensation. Adam lived in innocence, but when he sinned, he became conscious of his sin. Then, because of the presence of sin, God gave Adam new instructions for approaching God in a world that was under the curse of sin.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, God told Adam to tell his family how they were to approach God. As you may recall, Cain rejected Adam’s instructions while Abel accepted them. Accordingly, Abel was accepted by God, but Cain was rejected. Adam was the house manager for this new dispensation.<br /><br />After the flood, we find that Noah was the house manager, or steward, of a new dispensation from God. God delegated to Noah the responsibility for teaching His descendants about God’s order for their post-diluvian life. In our lesson today, we are going to take a look at some of the changes that God made after the flood. In Genesis, Chapter 9, we read that:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 9:1 NKJV<br />1 . . . God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them:"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.<br /></em><br />Previously, when Adam and Eve were the only two people on the earth, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That commandment was not given again until it was given to Noah after the flood. After the flood, it was just Noah and his wife, and Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives. So God told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.<br /><br />In our present age of grace, where we have billions of people living on the earth, I don’t see where God tells us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. There was a need for that injunction in the time of Adam, and there was a need for it in the time of Noah because they were the only ones living on the earth when God gave this command.<br /><br />After the flood we also see a change in the animals of the earth. Before the flood, animals had no fear of man as they lived among men. But after the flood, God said to Noah:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 9:2 NKJV<br />2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.<br /></em><br />Why is it that God put the fear of man into all the animals? Why is it that when we come close to a bird today, that bird will usually fly away? When a man comes near to an animal, most of the time that animal will flee? Why are they so afraid of man? Notice in verse three:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 9:3 NKJV<br />3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.<br /></em><br />This implies that man was a vegetarian before the flood, but after the flood, God added meat to man’s diet. After the flood, man was permitted to eat the flesh of animals. They were given to him for food.<br /><br />In order to preserve and protect animals, God put the fear of man in the heart of the animals to provide for a balance in nature. Animals became afraid of man because man was now going to hunt them for food. God put the dread of man within the animals to protect them in some measure from man.<br /><br />Some people today are offended by the thought of eating meat. Some claim that eating the flesh of animals makes people more beastly and more violent. However, the people before the flood were vegetarians, and they were extremely violent. Some think that a vegetarian diet will make a person more spiritual, but there is no Biblical basis for that idea. God ordained in Genesis, Chapter 9, that man may eat meat as well as the green herbs.<br /><br />There was, however, one dietary prohibition when it came to eating meat. God told Noah that he and his descendants should eat no flesh with its blood. Before eating any animal, they were to butcher the animal and allow the blood to drain. In this we see that blood is sacred in the sight of God. In Leviticus we read that the life is in the blood, and the book of Hebrews teaches that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins. Ultimately, we see that blood is typical of the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed for our sins that we might have eternal life.<br /><br />Now, as we continue in verse 5, we read:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 9:5-16 NKJV<br />5 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.<br />6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.<br />7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it."<br />8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying:<br />9 "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you,<br />10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.<br />11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."<br />12 And God said:"This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:<br />13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.<br />14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;<br />15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.<br />16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."<br /></em><br />In this passage, God institutes human government. God said that if a man kills someone, he should be killed by other men. A man’s blood is to be required at the hands of the another men. I believe that God instituted human government right here in Genesis, Chapter 9, and when we come to Romans, Chapter 13, we find the Apostle Paul saying that the principle of human government is still in effect for us today. Romans 13:1, says:<br /><br /><em>Romans 13:1-3 NKJV<br />1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.<br />2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.<br />3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil . . .<br /></em><br />I believe that this authority for human government comes from Genesis, Chapter 9, where God made a change in His dealings with mankind and appointed man to rule over man. In Romans, Chapter 13, we find the authority for capital punishment, and we are told that we should be in submission to all authority, all human laws. This is not only to be done out of fear but also for conscience sake.<br /><br />Well, I see we have run out of time in our journey today. Next week we are going to see something about the effects of human government and why God established human government for man’s good.<br /><br />If you don’t know the Lord today and you’re not in the ark of safety, you can be saved today by simply trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Next week we will take up our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> once again. Until that time we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-6214242525165439965?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-15160431830901442682008-08-27T21:24:00.011-05:002009-03-30T22:46:34.830-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 12)<br />Bible Study Time 8-31-08<br />(From James Roberts 10-20-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> we saw that Noah and his family and all of the animals that Noah brought with him into the ark were safe and secure from the judgment that God brought upon the earth. The Bible clearly teaches that God destroyed the earth and all of its inhabitants with a cataclysmic, universal flood.<br /><br />The ark is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ because those who were in the ark were safe and secure. Jesus Christ is the only ark of safety that God has provided for mankind. When the future judgment of God comes upon this earth, only those who are found in Jesus Christ will be safe and secure.<br /><br />Men may make their little row boats as they come up with all kinds of schemes and all kinds of works to please and appease God, but these little row boats will never provide any measure of safety when the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only ark of safety when it comes to escaping the wrath of God.<br /><br />When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, He tasted the judgment of God for man’s sins, and all those who believe that Christ died for their sins, that He was buried and that He rose again the third day, God places them in the Lord Jesus Christ where they find safety and security. Those who are outside the Lord Jesus Christ will be even as the inhabitants of the earth in the days of Noah in that they will have to face the terrible, dark days of judgment that will take place when God’s wrath is poured out upon the earth.<br /><br />I trust today that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who died to take your place, as the one who bore your sins on the cross so that you would not have to face the future judgment of God. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you can rest in the assurance of Romans, Chapter 8, which says that there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment, to those who are in Christ Jesus.<br /><br />Now, as we turn to Genesis, Chapter 8, in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we see that the flood waters receded from the face of the earth. When God saw that the earth was inhabitable once again, He told Noah to go out of the ark with his family and all of the animals.<br /><br />As Noah left the ark, we see that the very first thing that Noah did was to build an altar unto the Lord. This is the first mention of an altar being built. It seems that before the flood there was a designated place where man was to bring his offerings to the Lord, but there was never any mention of an altar. At this point, however, it appears that that designated place was destroyed by the flood, so Noah had to build an altar.<br /><br />It was Noah’s desire to provide an offering to the Lord that would be acceptable in the sight of God. I do not believe that Noah’s offering at this point was a sin offering. It was not an offering that was intended to provide a covering for his sins. This must have been an offering of thanksgiving and dedication to the Lord.<br /><br />You see, Noah had already passed through the judgment so that he would have no need of a sin offering. At this point, Noah needed only to bring an offering of thanksgiving in which he could express his dedication and devotion to the Lord.<br /><br />Oh my, how you and I, when have been saved by faith in Christ from the judgment to come, how we should thank God, not only at the moment of salvation but every day of our lives for the grace of God that has delivered us from all of the judgment that is to come. This great deliverance should also motivate us to dedicate our lives unto the Lord with all sincerity and devotion.<br /><br />Yes, Noah built an altar so that he would have a place to offer his animal sacrifices, but the Apostle Paul tells us that God requires a different kind of sacrifice from us today. We do have an altar today but that altar is not for the offering up of animal sacrifices. Christ has already come to present Himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, not just to cover our sins but to take away our sins. Because of His sacrifice, we have the assurance that we will never have to face the judgment of God’s wrath. However, in Romans, Chapter 12, Paul challenges us, saying:<br /><br /><em>Romans 12:1-2 NKJV<br />1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.<br />2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.<br /></em><br />The sacrifice that pleases God today is the sacrifice of the believer who comes to God and presents himself as a living sacrifice. He is pleased with the believer who offers up his life, saying, Lord, here’s my body, take my body and use it for your honor and for your glory.<br /><br />Noah offered up dead, animal sacrifices as a burnt offering to the Lord upon an altar that he had built, and God was well pleased. But today God wants each believer to offer his body as a living sacrifice, not the body of an animal, but his own body, not as a dead sacrifice, but as a living sacrifice. God was well pleased with Noah’s animal sacrifice, but today God is well pleased when each believer is willing to present his own body to God as a living sacrifice.<br /><br />Now, after Noah offered his sacrifice to the Lord, the Lord smelled the sweet smell of the sacrifice, and He said in His heart:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 8:21 NKJV<br />21 . . . "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.</em><br /><br />Notice that God did not say that He would never again destroy the earth and its inhabitants. In Genesis 9 God tells Noah:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 9:9-11 NKJV<br />9 "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you,<br />10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.<br />11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."<br /></em><br />God states that He will never destroy the earth with water, as He did through the flood. God promises this to Noah, and Noah’s descendants and all of the living creatures upon the earth. But in the book of 2 Peter, Peter speaks of a judgment that is going to come upon this earth. All of the inhabitants of the earth are going to experience this judgment except those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />The men of the earth at that time will be ungodly men. They will be like the ungodly men of Noah’s day, and they will say:<br /><br /><em>2 Peter 3:4 NKJV<br />4 . . . "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."<br /></em><br />Before the flood, Enoch prophesied for 300 years about the fact that the Lord would someday come with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all that are ungodly. Then Noah preached for 120 years that the judgment of God was coming. But the men of that day scoffed, saying, we’ve never seen any such judgment; nothing like that has ever happened before.<br /><br />Well, there had been a judgment like that before. When Lucifer sinned, a great, cataclysmic judgment fell upon all of the creation. Peter says that in the last days people will once again be unaware of the previous judgments of God. 2 Peter 3:5 says:<br /><br /><em>2 Peter 3:5-6 NKJV<br />5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,<br />6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.<br /></em><br />This takes us right back to the time of Noah and the flood. Now, verse 7:<br /><br /><em>2 Peter 3:7-13 NKJV<br />7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.<br />8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.<br />9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.<br />The Day of the Lord 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.<br />11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,<br />12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?<br />13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.<br /></em><br />Yes, the flood judgment came because of the wrath of God upon the ungodliness of men, and that judgment is but a picture of the end time when God will completely destroy the earth, not with water, but with fire that is reserved in heaven. Indeed, this fire is reserved in heaven right now.<br /><br />In the days of Noah, water was reserved in heaven for that very moment when the flood was to come. Even so, at this very moment, there is fire in heaven that is waiting to be poured out upon the earth at the time of the final judgment. At that time, God will destroy the heavens and the earth that now exist and out of that old heaven and old earth will come a new heaven and a new earth which will be filled with righteousness.<br /><br />The great flood judgment did not rid the world of wickedness. In Genesis 8:21, God said:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 8:21 NKJV<br />21 . . . although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.<br /></em><br />God knew that even after the flood, the heart of man would continue to be evil. But after the end time judgment of fire, which will result in the new heaven and the new earth, there will be only righteousness. Those who have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and have been made new creations in Christ will fill the earth. There will be no place for the old nature in the new heaven and the new earth.<br /><br />Noah was kept safe while he was in the ark, but he came out of the ark with the old sin nature. In fact, we see in the scriptures that shortly after Noah came out of the ark, he planted a vineyard and got drunk. So Noah still had to deal with the old sin nature. But in the new heaven and the new earth there will be no one who still has that sin nature. Old things will have passed away, and everyone who is there will be righteous in the sight of God.<br /><br />I’d like to ask you this today, have you ever trusted Christ as your Savior? Do you know that you are free from the wrath to come? One day God’s judgment is going to come upon the earth in a worldwide judgment. There are multitudes of people who go out into eternity everyday without accepting by faith the good news that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. I trust today that you are like Noah in that you have by faith entered into the Lord Jesus Christ who is our ark of safety.<br /><br />Well, I see that our journey for today has come to an end. The Lord willing next week we are going to look at the instructions that God gave to Noah as he and his family settled into a world which had changed dramatically as a result of the flood. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-1516043183090144268?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-82325838576014449282008-08-27T20:37:00.011-05:002009-03-30T22:45:35.799-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 11)<br />Bible Study Time 8-24-08<br />(From James Roberts 10-13-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we saw something of the longsuffering of God in the days of Noah. God had told Noah to build an ark, and so for 120 years Noah did exactly that. But all of the time that Noah was building the ark, he was faithfully preaching to the people and warning them of the coming judgment of God.<br /><br />Prior to Noah, God had a prophet by the name of Enoch who was the seventh from Adam. Enoch had a son whose name was Methuselah. Not much is said in the scriptures about Methuselah, but Methuselah is unique in that he lived longer than any other person who has ever lived on this earth. Methuselah was almost a thousand years old when he died, and this shows something of the longsuffering of God because his name means, <em>when he is dead, it shall be sent</em>.<br /><br />Methuselah’s name stood as a prophesy to the people of his day concerning the coming of the great flood judgment. Undoubtedly, when Methuselah was born, God spoke to Enoch and said, when this baby dies, the great judgment of God will come. So, from the time that Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God and was a faithful preacher and teacher. He was a faithful prophet concerning the coming judgment of God.<br /><br />The people before the flood had the preaching of Enoch for 300 years, and they had the living object lesson of Methuselah who was living right there in their midst. Every time they saw Methuselah, his name would remind them of what God had told Enoch concerning the judgment that would come at Methuselah’s death. These people also had the preaching of Noah as he built the ark for 120 years. But in spite of all these warnings from the Lord, we find that none repented. Not one turned to the Lord.<br /><br />When Noah finished the ark, God told Noah to bring into the ark seven of each kind of clean animal and two of each kind of unclean animal. With this task accomplished, God told Noah to “come into the ark.” It is very important to see the language that God used here. God did not tell Noah to go into the ark. That would have indicated that God was going to remain outside the ark while Noah and his family went inside.<br /><br />The Bible makes it clear that God was already in the ark when He invited Noah to come into the ark. God said, come into the ark, and when Noah and his family were safely inside, God shut the door to the ark, and the day of grace was over for the people of that day.<br /><br />After the door to that ark was shut, God opened up the windows of heaven and the water that had been reserved in the heavens for that day of judgment came pouring out. Then, the waters that were being held in reserve underneath the earth came gushing forth. This tremendous flood of water rushed across the face of the earth for forty days and forty nights.<br /><br />This year we have seen the damage that the hurricanes and tropical storms have caused along the eastern seaboard. Well, the surge of water caused by these storms was but a little sprinkle in comparison with the great volume of water that was produced during the flood of Noah’s day. The flood of Noah’s day was so great that it covered the whole earth in a little over a month. This was a universal flood that covered even the highest mountains of the earth. As a result of this flood, the earth and everything in the earth perished.<br /><br />After forty days and forty nights of rain, Noah had to remain in the ark because the flood waters were still covering even the mountains. Noah waited in the ark for 150 days, and then the Bible says that God remembered Noah. Isn’t that a beautiful thought?<br /><br />God remembered Noah, and how could he forget Noah when He was right there with Noah in the ark. God had invited Noah to come into the ark, and when it was time for Noah to leave, God told Noah to “go out of the ark.” He did not say, come out of the ark. Once again, this shows that God was in the ark with Noah all of the time that Noah and his family were in the ark.<br /><br />What a place of safety! What a place of security! Right there in the ark was the very presence of God as the ark was being tossed about by the flood waters. And may I say this to you? There may be times in your life when you feel that you are being tossed about by the flood waters of life. You may have to face some trials or temptations or afflictions that seem overwhelming.<br /><br />But remember this. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can rest assured that God is with you. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The book of Philippians tells us that the Lord is at hand and anytime there is trouble, we can go to the Lord. He tells us to come boldly before His throne of grace to ask for help in the time of need. You and I can cast all of our cares upon Him for He cares for us.<br /><br />God remembered Noah because God was right there with Noah in the ark. God knew every emotion, every problem, and He was right there with them to help them. He was there to supply every need.<br /><br />Noah had built the ark according to the blueprints that God had given him. The ark was a three story ark which had a window in the top that looked up into heaven. There was only one door by which believers could enter the ark. But the ark, itself, is also a beautiful picture if the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />First of all, the ark was built with wood and then it was covered within and without with pitch. The word that is translated pitch is the word for atonement which means a covering. Throughout the Old Testament, God provided a means of atonement for the sins of the people so that their sins would be covered.<br /><br />When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, He died, not to cover our sins but to take away our sins. No longer was there a need for a covering. When Christ died on the cross, He took away our sins. So the pitch that was on the ark speaks of the atonement that was for those Old Testament saints, and it points us to the redemption that Christ has provided for us through His death on the cross.<br /><br />The three stories in the ark also represent the kind of salvation that we have in Christ today. The Lord Jesus Christ is the ark, and we enter into Christ by means of the one door which is faith in the work of Christ upon the cross. On the first floor of the ark, we find that we are saved from the guilt and the penalty of sin. We come into that ark burdened down with sin, but the very moment that we put our faith in Christ, God takes away our burden of sin. The death of Christ on the cross takes away our sin.<br /><br />As we move to the second story of the ark, we find that we have been delivered from the power of sin. This speaks of the safety and security that believers experience in Christ. We live in a world that is hostile to believers. We find ourselves on a spiritual battlefield, but the victory is ours through the power of the Holy Spirit. As we yield to the Holy Spirit, we are delivered from the power of sin. When Christ died for our sins, our old sin nature was put to death so that we would no longer have to serve sin. We can be delivered day by day and moment by moment from the very power of sin.<br /><br />The third story is beautiful because it speaks of the aspect of our salvation that will be fully realized in the future when we are delivered from the presence of sin. One day the Lord is going to take us up to be with Himself. One day the last member of the Church which is the Body of Christ will be added to the Church, and that very moment God is going to catch up the Church to be with Him in heaven.<br /><br />Those who have died in faith are going to be raised up to receive a glorified body as they ascend into heaven. As for those who are alive and remain at the time of this catching up, they will be given a new body as they ascend into heaven, but they will never see death. Whether dead in Christ or alive in the world, all believers will be taken up to be with the Lord where we are finally saved from the very presence of sin.<br /><br />I trust that you can see this threefold salvation that we have Christ. We are saved from the guilt and the penalty of sin when we put our faith in Christ. We are saved from the power of sin as we daily walk by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then one day we will be saved from the very presence of sin when the Lord Jesus takes us up to be with Himself in the glory of heaven.<br /><br />Now, there is another aspect of the flood that I would like for us to see. When the rain stopped after forty days and forty nights, Noah remained in the ark for another 150 days. Then at some point after that 150 days, Noah let two birds out of the ark. One was a raven, and the other was a dove. The raven flew off and was never seen again. The raven was a scavenger, and so it was able to live off the dead flesh that was no doubt in great abundance after the flood.<br /><br />However, when Noah sent out the dove, the dove could not find any place for the soul of her foot to land. She could not stand to be around the old dead flesh, so she returned to the ark. When Noah saw the dove, he put out his hand and took the dove back into the ark. Seven days later, Noah sent out another dove, and this time the dove returned to the ark with a freshly plucked olive branch which showed signs of new life.<br /><br />The dove is a picture of the person who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior. As believers endeavor to live for the Lord, they find no rest or peace in the dead things of the world. Believers are dead to the things of the world because the old nature is crucified with Christ. Though believers choose to stay close to Christ, they carry a wonderful message with them of the life and the peace that can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />In sharp contrast to the dove, the raven found plenty to feast upon in the death and corruption that was so prevalent in the world that had been judged by God.<br /><br />As we close the broadcast this morning, may I ask you which of these two birds would represent you? Are you like the dove in that you have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Do you feel uncomfortable when you drift away from the ark and find yourself among the dead things of this world, or are you still feasting upon the dead things of the world as the raven did? True peace and joy can only be found by those who forsake the world and choose to stay close to Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Well, I see our time is gone for today. Be sure to tune in again next week as we look at Noah and his family after the flood. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-8232583857601444928?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-28915357157001873352008-08-15T10:52:00.018-05:002009-03-30T22:44:35.383-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 10)<br />Bible Study Time 8-17-08<br />(From James Roberts 10-6-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">In our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> last week, we met a man by the name of Noah. I’m sure that you are very familiar with the account of Noah in the Bible. Noah was divinely warned of God about the judgment that was coming. God said that His Spirit was not always going to strive with man, but that He was going to give man a hundred and twenty years before the great judgment would come.<br /><br />God gave to Noah the blueprints for the ark. Then, as Noah built the ark, he warned the people of the judgment to come. In the book of 2 Peter, Chapter 3, Peter compares the rebellion of the people in Noah’s day to the rebellion of the people who will live in the last days before the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Peter says that in the end times there will be many scoffers who will laugh at those who warn them of the judgment that is sure to come. Notice in verse 4 of 2 Peter 3 that these scoffers will say:<br /><br /><em>2 Peter 3:4-9 NKJV<br />4 . . . "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."<br />5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,<br />6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.<br />7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.<br />8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.<br />9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.<br /></em><br />At the Lord’s second coming, He will bring a great judgment upon the earth that will culminate in the Battle of Armageddon. The Jesus Christ will establish a kingdom of blessing upon the earth that will last for a thousand years. However, at the end of that thousand year kingdom, there will be one final rebellion before Satan is cast into the lake of fire. At that time God will bring one final judgment upon the earth that will destroy the heavens and the earth as they now exist. Then, out of that destruction God will bring forth a new heaven and a new earth that will be filled with righteousness.<br /><br />In 2 Peter 3, Peter indicates that before both of these end time judgments, there will be many scoffers on the earth, just as there were scoffers in the days of Noah before the flood. These scoffers will say, where is the promise of His coming; we don’t see any sign or anything in our past experience that would lead us to believe that judgment is coming. They will say that everything has continued without change since the time of the creation.<br /><br />Peter says that in this thought these scoffers will be willingly ignorant of one thing, and that is the flood judgment of Noah’s day. All things have not continued without change since the beginning of the world. The flood of Noah’s day was a cataclysmic judgment which resulted in enormous changes in the creation. Many of these changes are with us to this day.<br /><br />The doctrine of evolution is based on the concept of uniformitarianism. Those who hold to this idea believe that everything in our natural world has remained the same over the billions and billions of years since the beginning of time. This concept does not allow for the occurrence of any catastrophes which could change the natural environment of the earth.<br /><br />Because of this uniformitarian presupposition, many scientist today feel that they can accurately date every archeological find with carbon dating. They believe that all of the natural laws that we observe today have always been in effect without change even through all of the processes of evolution that have occurred over billions of years.<br /><br />This presupposition is based on the very idea that Peter warned about in regard to the end times. He said that in the end times, people will say that everything has remained the same since the beginning of creation. Peter says that people who say such things are willingly ignorant of the facts concerning the flood.<br /><br />Indeed, many people today are willingly ignorant of the flood and its consequences. They call the flood a myth. They say that the account of the flood is just one of those stories that was placed in the Bible to teach a moral lesson. They refuse to accept the flood as a literal, historic event.<br /><br />We have to conclude that these scoffers are willingly ignorant of the flood because there is ample evidence that the flood did take place and that it permanently altered the natural environment of the earth. The earth, as it was before the flood, perished, and therefore we cannot assume that the natural laws that we observe today would have been valid before the flood.<br /><br />Just think of the pressure that was exerted upon the face of the earth when the whole earth was covered with water. The volume of water at that time was so great that it covered even the highest mountains. This intense pressure would most certainly have destroyed everything that was, and it would have permanently altered the natural environment of the earth.<br /><br />Peter says that the people of the end times will be willingly ignorant of the facts concerning the flood because they don’t want to face the truth of God’s future judgment. During the end times, people will ask, where is the promise of the Lord’s coming? They will say, I haven’t seen any kind of judgment in my lifetime. I haven’t seen anybody call down fire from heaven. And I haven’t seen the earth being destroyed by water or by any other means.<br /><br />Peter would remind us that just because we have not seen such judgments, that does not mean that it hasn’t happened. And it doesn’t mean that it won’t happen in the future. Peter says that God is not slack concerning His promise, and that what God has said will take place, will take place. God will perform that which He has promised.<br /><br />It was the power of God’s word that held the judgment waters of Noah’s day in place until the time for judgment came. However, when God spoke, the windows of heaven opened up and water came pouring down out of heaven for forty days and forty nights. It was a constant deluge of water that had been reserved in heaven for that time of judgment. At that same time, the fountains of the deep were broken up so that the earth, as it was before the flood, was destroyed.<br /><br />Now, in the days of Noah, the people scoffed at the idea of God judging the earth with rain. They had never seen the judgment of God, and in fact, they had never seen rain. Everything had been going along pretty well, the same as it always had. They were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, but then the flood came and took them all away.<br /><br />You see, God is not going to be mocked. God is not slack concerning His promise, but He is longsuffering, and He is not willing that any should perish. The reason that the judgment of God has not come upon us today is not because men don’t deserve it. It’s because God is longsuffering and patient. God does not want any human life to be destroyed. Indeed, He wants all of humanity to repent and return to Him in faith.<br /><br />As we apply this lesson to our own situation today, we must bear in mind that as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, we are not headed for the judgments of the end time. We are not headed for the Battle of Armageddon or the fiery judgment that will take place after the thousand year kingdom.<br /><br />The next thing on God’s agenda for us is the catching up of the Church to be with Christ in the glory of heaven. One day the Lord is going to finish building the Church which is the Body of Christ. When the last person is saved and added to the church, Jesus Christ is going to take the church home to be with Himself in the glory.<br /><br />Those who have died are going to be raised up from the grave, and they will be given glorified bodies as they ascend into heaven. Then those who are alive and remain on the earth will be taken up, and they too will be given bodies that are like the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /><br />The rapture of the Church is our hope today, and just as Noah could look up through a window in the top of the ark to see the heavens, even so you and I today are to keep looking up, because we are to look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Philippians tells us that:<br /><br /><em>Philippians 3:20-21<br />20 . . . our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:<br />21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.<br /></em><br />Beloved, the flood came. The flood destroyed the earth and every living thing that was upon the earth. All of the plant life and all of the animal life, all of that perished. But God saved Noah and His family. Before the rain began, God told them to come into the ark, and when they got into the ark, God closed the door so that Noah and his family were sealed inside. They were safe, but it was too late for anyone else to get in.<br /><br />Notice, if you will, that God did not just let Noah stand outside the ark so that he could try to hold onto the ark and save himself when the waters began to rise. I’m sure that when the floods came, many people did get up on the ark, and they probably tried the best they could to hold onto the ark, but everyone of them perished. Only those who were sealed inside the ark were safe.<br /><br />Today, when a person comes to Jesus Christ and accepts by faith that Jesus Christ died for his sins, God puts that person inside Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the ark of safety for us today. When God places us into Jesus Christ, He seals us with the Holy Spirit of promise so that the door is shut behind us. As believers, we are safely protected inside the Lord Jesus Christ from the future judgments of God.<br /><br />I’m glad to know that I am safe and secure inside the Lord Jesus and that I don’t have to just try to hold on in the midst of a world that is tempest tossed and full of turmoil. I’m glad that it’s not up to me to try to keep myself safe, but that it is God, Himself, who preserves me and keeps me as one of His children.<br /><br />Well, we have seen something of the ark and the safety that God provided for Noah during the great flood judgment. Next week, we are going to pick up again with Noah as he exits the ark to receive some new instructions from the Lord. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-2891535715700187335?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-5474874043491443922008-08-15T10:48:00.012-05:002009-03-30T22:43:09.959-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 9)<br />Bible Study Time 8-10-08<br />(From James Roberts 9-29-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">Last week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, we met a man by the name of Enoch. Enoch was the seventh from Adam, and we found in the book of Jude, verse 14, that Enoch was a prophet. He prophesied of the ungodly deeds of the people of his generation, and he warned them of the judgment to come.<br /><br />Enoch had a son by the name of Methuselah who lived longer than any person who has ever lived. Even in our day and time, people make reference to Methuselah when they talk about someone who is very old. They may say, he is as old as Methuselah. Some of these people don’t even know who Methuselah was, but nonetheless, Methuselah did live to be the oldest person on record.<br /><br />This is significant because Methuselah’s name means, <em>when he is dead, it shall be sent</em>, which is talking about the great flood of Noah’s day. God allowed Methuselah to live for such a long time because God wanted to put off this flood as long as He could so that He could warn the people through prophets such as Enoch and Noah. But Methuselah did ultimately die and then the flood came.<br /><br />That brings us in our study today to Noah, who was the great grandson of Enoch. Let’s begin reading in the book of Genesis, Chapter 6:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 6:1-8 NKJV<br />1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,<br />2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.<br />3 And the Lord said,"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."<br />4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.<br />5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.<br />6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.<br />7 So the Lord 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, for I am sorry that I have made them."<br />8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.<br /></em><br />After this, we find that God speaks of the genealogy of Noah. We see that Noah was a just man. He was perfect in his generations, and he walked with God.<br /><br />At this time there was an ungodly connection between the sons of God and the daughters of men. It appears that God had previously warned the people about the dangers of such a connection, but His warning went unheeded. As a result, a supernatural kind of race came into being on the earth. The men of this race were giants, and the Bible calls them mighty men of old.<br /><br />I believe that these men were primarily mighty in knowledge and understanding. They must have been brilliant. They were no doubt also giants in stature. They may have been like Goliath in the days of David. But most certainly, these men were giants in their wickedness as well.<br /><br />There was only one person who was different from these wicked giants and that one person was Noah, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This does not mean that Noah was sinlessly perfect. He did not come directly from the hands of God to stand before God as Adam did in the original creation. Noah was born of Adam, in Adam’s likeness. He was a sinner, but he had a heart for God.<br /><br />The Bible says that Noah was a just man. The word just is used to show that Noah was one who was justified, one who was upright before the Lord. By nature, all men are unjust. The book of Ecclesiastes says that there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. So the only way Noah could have been just is if God made Him just according to His grace. Therefore, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.<br /><br />Noah did not deserve to be justified; by nature he was a sinner. But God was able to justify Noah according to His own standard of justice. As with Enoch, it seems evident that God spoke to Noah and Noah believed what God said. It was on the basis of Noah’s faith that God justified Noah. Hebrews, Chapter 11, says:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:7 NKJV<br />7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household . . .<br /></em><br />Noah was justified because of God’s grace. Noah was not sinlessly perfect, but he had a heart for God. The other people of Noah’s day had hearts that were continually evil.<br /><br />One of the things that we find in the book of Matthew, Chapter 24, is that these evil people just went about their daily activities without any thought for God. They ate and they drank and they married and they were given in marriage. They simply paid no attention to any of the things that God was saying to them through Enoch and Noah. Enoch and Noah warned them of the judgment to come, but none of them listened.<br /><br />May I say this to you. It may be that you are going about your own way today, without any thought for the things of God. You just go about your daily activities, getting up, going to work, coming home, watching TV, going to bed. Then you just repeat this routine day after day.<br /><br />Some of you are planning to get married, some of you have been married for 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, maybe even 70 years. You’re just going your own way without one thought for God. That’s an ungodly act. That’s an ungodly act because God created man for His glory, and God wants us to give Him the place that He deserves in our lives.<br /><br />You may be just drifting along with the world like everyone else, not paying any attention to the Enoch’s and Noah’s of our day who teach us the word of God. You don’t hear the word and mix it with faith, and believe to the saving of your life by trusting the Lord Jesus as your Savior. I trust today that you are not just going along with the flow and drifting along, but that you will stop and believe what God has said in His word.<br /><br />Well, the earth was so wicked that God decided to destroy the earth, but before the great flood came, God gave the people ample warning. He provided 300 years of warning through Enoch and 120 years of preaching by Noah. The book of I Peter, Chapter 3, says that Noah was preparing the ark for 120 years, and God said in Genesis 6 that His Spirit was not always going to strive with man but that his days would be 120 years. Therefore, we can safely conclude that Noah was building the ark and preaching for 120 years.<br /><br />For the 300 years of Enoch’s ministry, the Spirit of God was striving with man. Do you know what that means? The Holy Spirit was taking the word that Enoch was giving, and He was putting it to the hearts of the people and striving with them to get them to hear what Enoch was saying.<br /><br />While Noah was preaching, God was striving with man. I can just hear them as Noah was building that ark. Hey, Noah, whacha’ doin’? I’m building this ark. What’s an ark? Well, it’s a boat that God is going to use to save people from the judgment that’s coming. What kind of judgment; I don’t know what judgment is; I’ve never seen any kind of judgment. Well, God’s going to bring a flood. What’s a flood?<br /><br />You can just hear this conversation going on with the people sneering and scoffing at the words of Noah while the Spirit of God was striving with them, convicting them of their sin and of their need to trust in the word of God and repent of their ungodliness.<br /><br />God said, I’m going to strive with these people for 120 years, and then I’m going to destroy them. So during that 120 years, Noah was preaching the word of God.<br /><br />Now, please notice that God told Noah to build the ark, and He gave specific instructions as to how Noah was to build it. In Hebrews 11, we read:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:7 NKJV<br />7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, 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.<br /></em><br />You see, as Noah was building that ark, he was preparing the ark for the saving of his house. Noah had three sons and their wives, and then there was also Noah’s wife. So Noah was preparing the ark to save eight people from the flood.<br /><br />But as Noah was building the ark, he was also judging the world, because at a certain point God brought Noah and his family into the ark and then closed the door. After that door was closed, the windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep opened up.<br /><br />I believe that there was a canopy of water in the heavens that had been there since the time of the creation. God created this canopy of water for this particular time of judgment. He created this canopy of water in the heavens, and He created the fountains of water underneath the earth so that when He put Noah into the ark and shut the door, He could simply open up the windows of heaven and open the fountains of the deep to flood the whole earth.<br /><br />This was not just a rain. It was like someone opened a door that had been holding back a wall of water, and when that door was opened, the water poured out. This flood of water came gushing out for forty days and forty nights. The water came pouring out from the heavens above and gushing from the earth beneath so that the whole earth was covered with water.<br /><br />The book of 2 Peter tells us that the earth perished along with every living thing that was on the earth. That means that after the flood, the earth and the things of the earth were completely different. The flood changed everything.<br /><br />But before God ever brought the judgment of the flood, He prepared the way of escape. God respects human life and he gave the people of that day plenty of warning. 300 years in the days of Enoch, and 120 years in the days of Noah, and then it would appear that God postponed the death of Methuselah in order to postpone the flood. Clearly, God is not willing that any should perish, and so God provided the ark for the salvation of all who would enter by faith.<br /><br />God brought Noah into the ark, shut up the door, and then brought the flood. After all that time the judgment did come. People today often resist the idea of the judgment of God, but judgment is coming. However, God has provided an ark of safety for you and for me. It is the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ who provides salvation. In a sense, He is a three story ark, who is able to deliver us from the guilt and penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and then finally from the presence of sin.<br /><br />There was only one door to the ark, and it was closed at a certain point. In like manner today, there is only one door into the presence of God and into that salvation that He has provided, and that is faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.<br /><br />There was one window in the ark and that was on the top so that Noah and his family could keep looking up. My father-in-law used to preach on the radio, and he would close each broadcast by saying, keep looking up. We today need to keep looking up as we look for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Well, I see that we have come to an end in our journey today. The Lord willing, we’ll take up again next week in this journey. Until that time we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-547487404349144392?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-9544246227668760802008-07-31T20:01:00.011-05:002009-03-30T22:42:56.026-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 8)<br />Bible Study Time 8-3-08<br />(From James Roberts 9-22-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">The past few Sundays we have been on a <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>. 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:<br /><br /><em>Psalms 8:4 KJV<br />4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?<br /></em><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 5:21-29 NKJV<br />21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.<br />22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.<br />23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.<br />24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.<br />25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech.<br />26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters.<br />27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.<br />28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son.<br />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."<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />Hebrews, Chapter 11, says that:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 11:5 NKJV<br />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.<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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:<br /><br /><em>Jude 14-15 NKJV<br />14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,<br />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."<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />We find of hint of what God said to Enoch in the name of Enoch’s son. Enoch named his son Methuselah which means, <em>when he is dead, it shall be sent</em>. 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Well, I see we have already completed this stop in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>. Next week, we’ll continue our journey. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-954424622766876080?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-6476277018806258952008-07-15T09:54:00.011-05:002009-03-30T22:42:43.674-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 7)<br />Bible Study Time 7-13-08<br />(From James Roberts 9-15-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">At our last stop in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Genesis 5:1-2 NKJV<br />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.<br />2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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:<br /><br /><em>Genesis 5:3 NKJV<br />3 . . . Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-647627701880625895?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026620.post-54717756942221292702008-07-06T18:19:00.010-05:002009-03-30T22:42:30.364-05:00<div align="center"><strong>Genesis (Part 6)<br />Bible Study Time 7-6-08<br />(From James Roberts 9-8-96)<br /></strong><br /><div align="left">In our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em> 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />When Adam and Eve sinned, they passed on to all of their descendants the nature to sin. The book of Romans says:<br /><br /><em>Romans 5:12 KJV<br />12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men . . .<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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,<br /><br /><em>Genesis 4:10-12 NKJV<br />10 . . . "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.<br />11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.<br />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."<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Every person in that list died except one person and that was Enoch. Next week in our <em>Journey Through the Scripture</em>, 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:<br /><br /><em>Hebrews 9:27<br />27 . . . it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment:<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br /><em>Romans 5:12 KJV<br />12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin . . .<br /></em><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Church links: </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/">http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/">http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/</a> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/">http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/</a> </div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5026620-5471775694222129270?l=jimsfootnote.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jim and Joan Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04378343654827195378noreply@blogger.com0