In The Beginning, God

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.919 So this morning I'm going to be preaching on Genesis One through eleven and I'm 2 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:10.150 not going to read it. All of that anyway. I hope that you 3 00:00:10.269 --> 00:00:15.910 will do that this afternoon or sometime this week. But I will be reading 4 00:00:15.949 --> 00:00:24.539 selections from these various chapters and to remind us of various things that we've thought 5 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:31.859 about and considered, the various ways in which God has revealed himself to us, 6 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:38.130 proclaimed his nature on himself, his saving ways, his just ways. 7 00:00:40.210 --> 00:00:45.049 So these you might think of them as a little coat hooks on which to 8 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:52.479 hang various ideas and things. These are not the most important parts of Genesis 9 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:58.000 one through eleven, though some of them certainly summarize and bring together much of 10 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:03.799 it. But will consider these and and then we'll consider what we've learned from 11 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:08.549 this prehistory genesis one through eleven that we've been considering for some time now. 12 00:01:10.870 --> 00:01:15.629 So I'm going to begin reading in Genesis one, just the first two verses 13 00:01:15.709 --> 00:01:23.739 to begin with, Genesis one, versus one and two. In the beginning, 14 00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:29.299 God created the heavens and the earth. The Earth was with out form 15 00:01:29.459 --> 00:01:34.530 and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of 16 00:01:34.689 --> 00:01:41.049 God was hovering over the face of the waters. Now moving to the sixth 17 00:01:41.090 --> 00:01:46.090 day of creation, where God brings it creates man in verse Twenty Six. 18 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.359 Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, 19 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:53.640 and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the 20 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:59.239 birds of the heavens and over the livestock, over all the earth and over 21 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:02.750 every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his 22 00:02:02.829 --> 00:02:07.110 own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female. 23 00:02:07.270 --> 00:02:12.669 He created them and God bless them. And God said to them be 24 00:02:12.830 --> 00:02:16.780 fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the 25 00:02:16.860 --> 00:02:21.620 fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living 26 00:02:21.659 --> 00:02:25.300 thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have 27 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:30.370 given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth 28 00:02:30.849 --> 00:02:34.849 and every tree with seed and its fruit. You shall have them for food 29 00:02:35.449 --> 00:02:38.770 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and 30 00:02:38.930 --> 00:02:42.370 everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life, I 31 00:02:42.930 --> 00:02:49.240 have given every green plant for food. And it was so. Then we 32 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:54.199 read of Day seven and Chapter Two thus the heavens and the Earth were finished, 33 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:58.789 and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day God finished 34 00:02:58.830 --> 00:03:01.590 his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all 35 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:06.710 his work that he had done. So God blessed them. The or blessed 36 00:03:06.789 --> 00:03:10.590 the seventh day, made it holy because on it God rested from all his 37 00:03:10.789 --> 00:03:20.819 work that he had done. Now two, chapter three, the fall. 38 00:03:22.180 --> 00:03:25.340 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that Jehovah, 39 00:03:25.379 --> 00:03:30.969 God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say 40 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:35.210 you shall not eat of any tree in the garden. And the woman said 41 00:03:35.210 --> 00:03:38.650 to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the 42 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:42.159 garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the 43 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:46.080 tree and that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch 44 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.280 it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will 45 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:53.919 not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your 46 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:57.430 eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 47 00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:00.909 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that 48 00:04:01.069 --> 00:04:04.949 it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be 49 00:04:05.110 --> 00:04:11.860 desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and 50 00:04:12.060 --> 00:04:15.939 she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 51 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:20.259 Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked, 52 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:29.129 and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. US, then, 53 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:34.889 skipping down to the curses, will read just the Gospel promise that we 54 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:41.519 find amongst the various curses. In Genesis Three Fifteen, God says to the 55 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:46.040 serpent, this seat Great Evil One, Satan himself, I will put enmity 56 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:50.240 between you and the woman, in between your offspring and her offspring. He 57 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:59.550 shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Then, in the 58 00:04:59.589 --> 00:05:03.589 end of that chapter, Verse Twenty Two, then Jehovah God said, behold, 59 00:05:03.629 --> 00:05:06.500 the man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil. 60 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:12.100 Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life 61 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:15.699 and eat and live forever. Therefore, Jehovah God sent him out from the 62 00:05:15.740 --> 00:05:20.220 Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove 63 00:05:20.259 --> 00:05:25.370 out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the 64 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:30.329 Cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to that 65 00:05:30.569 --> 00:05:35.319 tree of life. Then in Genesis, chapter four, we read of Adam 66 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:41.639 and eves two sons, Cain and Abel, and in Verse Eight we read 67 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:48.519 of the great murder of King of Abel by his brother Kane. Kane spoke 68 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:51.430 to his eight toable his brother, and when they were in the field, 69 00:05:51.589 --> 00:05:56.829 cane rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then Jehovah said to 70 00:05:56.990 --> 00:06:00.629 Cane, where is Abel, your brother? He said by do not know, 71 00:06:00.389 --> 00:06:04.420 am I my brother's keeper. And Jehovah said, What have you done? 72 00:06:05.259 --> 00:06:09.540 The Voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground, 73 00:06:09.579 --> 00:06:13.379 and now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to 74 00:06:13.459 --> 00:06:16.819 receive your blood, brother's blood, from your hand. When you work the 75 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:21.850 ground, it shall no longer yield to you at strength. You shall be 76 00:06:21.889 --> 00:06:30.569 a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Then in Verse Twenty Five of 77 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:33.519 that Chapter, the end of chapter four, we read this. And Adam 78 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:38.279 knew his wife again and she bore a son and call his name Seth, 79 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:43.279 for she said God has appointed for me another offspring instead of able, for 80 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.670 Kan killed him. To Seth also was born a son and he was called 81 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:51.790 Enosh, and at that time people became began to call upon the name of 82 00:06:53.029 --> 00:06:59.470 Jehovah. Next, in Genesis five, stands out one particular man in Verse 83 00:07:00.389 --> 00:07:03.660 Verses Twenty One through Twenty Four. In this genealogy of those who walked with 84 00:07:03.819 --> 00:07:10.939 God, we have this example on this great man, Enoch. When Enoch 85 00:07:11.019 --> 00:07:15.850 had lived sixty five years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after 86 00:07:15.889 --> 00:07:19.850 he fathered Methuselah three hundred years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, 87 00:07:19.889 --> 00:07:25.449 all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty five ers. Enoch walked 88 00:07:25.529 --> 00:07:31.319 with God and he was not for God took him. Although we see God's 89 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:36.199 preserve preserving of his people, a continuing of the line so that a seed 90 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:41.240 may be born that will crush the head of the serpent, we also see 91 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:46.790 that the earth is now swarming with corruption and violence. In Genesis Chapter Six, 92 00:07:47.110 --> 00:07:50.790 God says in Verse Eleven, Chapter Six, verse eleven. Now the 93 00:07:50.910 --> 00:07:55.269 earth was corrupt in God's sight and the Earth was filled with violence. And 94 00:07:55.870 --> 00:08:00.220 God saw the earth and behold it was corrupt and all flesh had corrupted their 95 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:05.019 way on the earth and God said to Noah, I have determined to make 96 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:07.660 an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. 97 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:13.329 Behold, I will destroy them with an with the earth. Make yourself 98 00:08:13.370 --> 00:08:20.089 an ark of gopher wood. Then in Genesis Chapter Seven, God shuts them 99 00:08:20.129 --> 00:08:24.290 into that arc and we have the flood. The conclusion of that flood is 100 00:08:24.410 --> 00:08:31.720 found in Genesis Chapter Seven, Verse Twenty Two. Everything on the dry ground 101 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:35.679 in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He, that is God, 102 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:39.360 blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, 103 00:08:39.559 --> 00:08:45.549 manned and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted 104 00:08:45.590 --> 00:08:48.990 out from the earth. Only Noah was left and those who were with him 105 00:08:50.590 --> 00:08:54.350 in the Ark. But God odd remembered Noah and all the beasts and all 106 00:08:54.429 --> 00:08:58.100 the livestock that were with him in the Ark, and God made a wind 107 00:08:58.139 --> 00:09:05.779 and blow over the earth and the waters subsided. Then at the end of 108 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:11.529 Chapter Eight, we read of God's Great Covenant that he establishes with the entire 109 00:09:11.690 --> 00:09:18.649 world. Genesis Chapter Eight, Verse Twenty One. And when Jehovah smelled the 110 00:09:18.730 --> 00:09:22.450 Pleasing Aroma, Jehovah said in his heart I will never again curse the ground 111 00:09:22.450 --> 00:09:26.759 because of man, for the intention of Man's heart is evil from his youth. 112 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:31.720 Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done, 113 00:09:33.559 --> 00:09:37.279 while the earth remains seed. Time and harvest, cold and heat, 114 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:43.029 summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. This is God's 115 00:09:43.149 --> 00:09:48.470 great and unilateral promise. And then he gives a command to Noah and US 116 00:09:48.629 --> 00:09:52.059 after him, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of 117 00:09:52.259 --> 00:09:56.659 you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and 118 00:09:56.779 --> 00:10:00.580 upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and 119 00:10:00.700 --> 00:10:05.340 all the fish of the sea, he goes on to say in Verse Four. 120 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:09.730 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. 121 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:13.730 And for your life blood I will require a reckoning from every beast, 122 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:18.129 I will require it. And from man and from his fellow man, I 123 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:22.519 will require a reckoning for the life of Man. Whoever sheds the blood of 124 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:28.360 Man by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his 125 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:35.149 own image. Despite these great graces, in this great covenant, this command 126 00:10:35.350 --> 00:10:41.830 to execute justice in the earth, again immediately we see man plunge himself into 127 00:10:41.909 --> 00:10:48.830 sin, as even Noah's Children's children. One in particular, his son Ham, 128 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:54.980 commits a great sin against his father. God responds in Chapter Nine, 129 00:10:56.019 --> 00:11:01.620 Verse Twenty Five, and says to Canaan, the son of Ham, cursed, 130 00:11:01.700 --> 00:11:05.850 be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be to his brothers. 131 00:11:05.649 --> 00:11:11.250 But then he also blesses the other two brothers and says, blessed be 132 00:11:11.570 --> 00:11:15.090 the Jehovah, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. 133 00:11:15.570 --> 00:11:18.399 May God enlarge jff and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let 134 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:24.519 Canaan be his servant. Then we read of the nation's descending down from Noah 135 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:31.519 on the many generations. I'm God filling, fulfilling his promise and keeping man 136 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:35.830 on the earth, even though again we see the great sin of Man, 137 00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:43.070 now repeated. In Genesis Eleven, and this is our last chapter, and 138 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:46.379 verse four, we read that all of these descendants of Noah said to themselves, 139 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:50.460 come, let us build ourselves a city and the tower with its top 140 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:54.700 in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we 141 00:11:54.779 --> 00:11:58.820 be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And then we read in 142 00:11:58.899 --> 00:12:01.850 Verse Six that Jehovah says in response, behold, they are one people and 143 00:12:01.889 --> 00:12:05.490 they all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they 144 00:12:05.490 --> 00:12:11.009 will do, and nothing they've been proposed to do will be impossible for them. 145 00:12:11.769 --> 00:12:16.799 Come let us go down and they're confuse their language, and let that 146 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:22.440 so that they may not understand one speech. So Jehovah dispersed them from there 147 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:26.960 over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city 148 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:33.389 again. We have another genealogy at the end of chapter eleven, and I'll 149 00:12:33.429 --> 00:12:37.990 read the last few verses of this inclosing verses twenty seven through the end. 150 00:12:39.830 --> 00:12:43.740 Now these are the generations of Tara. Tara fathered Abram, Nahor and Harun, 151 00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:48.059 and Harn fathered lat. Haraun died in the presence of his father, 152 00:12:48.220 --> 00:12:52.659 Tara, and the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldees, and 153 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:58.889 Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarah. The 154 00:12:58.929 --> 00:13:03.330 name of Nahor's wife Milka, the daughter of Harun, the father of Milka 155 00:13:03.570 --> 00:13:11.090 and Eska. Now Sarahi was barren. She had no child. May God 156 00:13:11.129 --> 00:13:18.879 bless his word to us as we consider these chapters a genesis one. Through 157 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:22.919 eleven, so many a prominent themes come out, so many different ideas, 158 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:28.389 story lines, which we could trace from this point all the way to the 159 00:13:28.470 --> 00:13:37.269 end of the book. And if you would like book recommendations on books that 160 00:13:37.429 --> 00:13:41.309 do that kind of thing, pick up on these various motifs trace them to 161 00:13:41.429 --> 00:13:46.539 the end, I'd be happy to give that to you. But what I 162 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:52.019 would like to present before you is one of the most important things we see 163 00:13:52.139 --> 00:14:00.570 in these first several chapters, and that is that God so clearly establishes himself 164 00:14:00.649 --> 00:14:05.370 as sovereign over all the world. Now that's not sovereign just in some kind 165 00:14:05.409 --> 00:14:11.840 of abstract sense, but the sovereignty of God, of a very particular God 166 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:18.879 who has a particular will, has chosen to act in particular ways. And 167 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:22.480 this is very important because as we live our lives in the world, we 168 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:28.669 often think of ourselves apart from this God, the God who has been speaking 169 00:14:28.789 --> 00:14:37.429 to us even now, the God who reveals himself in these words. We're 170 00:14:37.509 --> 00:14:43.220 so pleased with ourselves apart from God, we're so content and happy to think 171 00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:50.820 of our lives separate from him. We set our hands to various tasks, 172 00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:58.450 be it in the field or in the market place, and bank accounts grow, 173 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:03.570 plants grow, harvests are made, we make families, we marry, 174 00:15:03.570 --> 00:15:09.000 we have children generations. Some of US have even taken the time to look 175 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:15.320 at ancestry and see these great family trees. Or we can look around the 176 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:20.279 world and we see these great towers that we've built, cities, nations, 177 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:28.629 landmarks, monuments. We can consider the great amounts of wealth that we've amassed, 178 00:15:28.669 --> 00:15:35.149 the the security that we have. These things are particularly easy for us 179 00:15:35.190 --> 00:15:41.220 to do in America, where we have great freedoms, where this socalled experiment 180 00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:46.659 and democracy has gone so amazingly well and so many ways, where we have 181 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:54.370 so much wealth, so much freedom, so much security. These things are 182 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:58.570 said so often we almost forget about them, even we have been blessed in 183 00:15:58.690 --> 00:16:03.840 so many ways and we often think about it and pat ourselves on the back. 184 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:10.600 We not only grow in ways of a socially and in ways that in 185 00:16:10.679 --> 00:16:15.120 terms of our family or our businesses, but we also have grow in our 186 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:21.309 lives and in the course of history in terms of the mind. We see 187 00:16:21.389 --> 00:16:26.269 even in these chapters of Genesis, the way man sets himself to various aspects 188 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:33.620 of society, of civilization, and he becomes expert and metallurgy and music, 189 00:16:34.980 --> 00:16:44.220 agriculture, shepherdy, all kinds of things, various disciplines that he sets himself 190 00:16:44.340 --> 00:16:48.649 to and really grows in. And when we think about this, when we 191 00:16:48.769 --> 00:16:52.169 think about our lives, and when I say we I mean you and me 192 00:16:52.889 --> 00:16:56.889 on a daytoday basis, it's very easy for us to sit in that and 193 00:16:56.289 --> 00:17:00.570 say, wow, this is amazing. Look at all these things I'm doing. 194 00:17:00.690 --> 00:17:03.839 Look how full my schedule is, look how much profits are up from 195 00:17:03.839 --> 00:17:07.759 last year, or on and on and on. There's all kinds of examples. 196 00:17:08.519 --> 00:17:12.359 Well, this kind of flourishing of man is not only prevalent in our 197 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:17.710 own lives, that's very true, but it's there in the chapters of genesis 198 00:17:17.990 --> 00:17:25.309 as well, after the fall. After the fall, we see Kane and 199 00:17:25.470 --> 00:17:30.380 his children after him, establishing these great cities. They of the Tower of 200 00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:37.819 Babel, which we considered many other examples recorded here in Genesis. That man, 201 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:44.289 I'm indeed, is in many ways very great. At the same time, 202 00:17:44.410 --> 00:17:48.250 though, we are very pleased with ourselves in a sinful way, as 203 00:17:48.289 --> 00:17:53.009 I was saying earlier. We see all this greatness which indeed it is great, 204 00:17:53.410 --> 00:17:59.720 impressive in some way, I'm but we think of it entirely separated from 205 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:03.119 God. We're like Nebuchadnezzar, who goes out on his balcony. This is 206 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:07.480 right before God turns him into a animal. It goes out on his balcony 207 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.319 and says, look at this kingdom, look at everything I've done, this 208 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:18.630 is really, really impressive. It's true. It's impressive in a certain sense 209 00:18:18.670 --> 00:18:22.910 when you consider how far we've fallen into sin, how prone we are to 210 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:26.789 killing one another and all the rest. The fact that we can do every 211 00:18:26.029 --> 00:18:30.940 anything at all, the fact that we can learn and grow in some ways 212 00:18:30.019 --> 00:18:36.779 and is impressive. But it's more like it's less like a great king. 213 00:18:37.980 --> 00:18:42.450 I'm accomplishing all these things, creating an empire, but we are more like 214 00:18:42.930 --> 00:18:48.170 even our kings are more like toddlers who have dumped their blocks out on the 215 00:18:48.289 --> 00:18:52.809 floor and arrange them in particular ways and spent it, you know, maybe 216 00:18:52.849 --> 00:18:56.319 a good twenty minutes doing this and they go to their mom and dad and 217 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.960 say, look at this kingdom I've built, and mom and dad say well, 218 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.200 yes, that's very nice. God comes down at the Tower of Babel 219 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:07.200 and he looks at this little tower that they've built. This is okay, 220 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.230 you've sought to build it up to the heavens, but let me come down 221 00:19:11.390 --> 00:19:18.990 and and look at it. The ways in which we build these things. 222 00:19:18.190 --> 00:19:22.269 There is a certain context that we must understand them in, and that's what 223 00:19:22.430 --> 00:19:29.339 genesis a one through eleven does. It establishes with all this clarity the kind 224 00:19:29.460 --> 00:19:36.299 of context that we are living our lives in, not just the sovereignty of 225 00:19:36.380 --> 00:19:40.890 God, but particular aspects of that, the noaic covenant, for example, 226 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:45.450 the Covenant were, the Covenant of Works With Adam all kinds of other things. 227 00:19:47.609 --> 00:19:52.529 If we move up the growth and development timeline to the teenage years, 228 00:19:52.650 --> 00:19:57.279 and imagine not a toddler who's proud of herself, but a young man he 229 00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:02.160 has fifteen, sixteen, saying to mom and dad, Hey, look, 230 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:07.309 I got it together, I can make some decisions here now. I I'm 231 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:10.430 self sufficient, I can go out, I can do things on my own, 232 00:20:10.430 --> 00:20:14.549 and mom and dad just sit there and go hey, you have no 233 00:20:14.710 --> 00:20:18.470 idea what you're talking about. I'm sorry fifteen and sixteen year olds, but 234 00:20:18.630 --> 00:20:23.180 there is some humbling that needs to happen during this time of life. There 235 00:20:23.220 --> 00:20:27.900 are so many ways in which you are dependent still on your parents, so 236 00:20:29.099 --> 00:20:33.779 many ways that you don't even realize how much they're providing for you, how 237 00:20:33.819 --> 00:20:37.609 much they're taking care of you, guarding you, protecting you ways that you're 238 00:20:37.650 --> 00:20:41.769 not even aware of. And this is very much like the same with all 239 00:20:42.049 --> 00:20:45.009 of us and God. We go out into the world and we say, 240 00:20:45.009 --> 00:20:48.009 Hey, I've got this, I'm good, I'm okay, look at all 241 00:20:48.049 --> 00:20:52.680 these ways I'm succeeding, look at all these ways in which I'm successful. 242 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:56.599 And Genesis one through eleven is God, as our heavenly father came coming and 243 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:03.509 saying, son, you don't have it all together, you're full of sin, 244 00:21:03.670 --> 00:21:08.269 you're prone to disobedience, you have a lot to learn and in fact, 245 00:21:11.029 --> 00:21:15.430 you cannot go out on the in the world on your own. And 246 00:21:15.589 --> 00:21:18.339 as it is with with us, there's never a way and never a sense 247 00:21:18.460 --> 00:21:22.700 in which we grow up and are able to go out on our own. 248 00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:27.700 God teaches us that we always will remain in this state of dependence on him, 249 00:21:30.619 --> 00:21:33.410 but he also teaches us that, because of who he is, that's 250 00:21:33.609 --> 00:21:40.529 okay. It's okay to be dependent on him, it's okay to be leaning 251 00:21:40.690 --> 00:21:47.009 on him for everything, dependent on him for everything. How does God teach 252 00:21:47.049 --> 00:21:51.200 us these things in Genesis one through eleven? We might think about it in 253 00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:56.480 terms of our life. Think about the ways in which we are dependent on 254 00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:00.119 him in the beginning of our lives. Where do we come from? How 255 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:06.349 are we made? Genesis One and two tells us we don't come from the 256 00:22:06.950 --> 00:22:11.190 power of our being. We come because God made us, and out of 257 00:22:11.230 --> 00:22:17.779 dust no less. We think about other ways in which the beginning of life 258 00:22:17.779 --> 00:22:22.500 happens. It's not just there at the very beginning of God's creation of mankind, 259 00:22:22.660 --> 00:22:26.700 but that continues on forward. The genealogies prove that. The fact that 260 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:33.410 man continues on living even after the fall is proof of that. At the 261 00:22:33.450 --> 00:22:37.769 very end of Genesis, when it says that Sarah I was barren and, 262 00:22:37.930 --> 00:22:41.369 as you know, we considered a little bit before, what happens she has 263 00:22:41.410 --> 00:22:47.400 a child. How does a bear and woman have a child? Because God 264 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:53.480 is the author of life. The beginning of our lives are entirely dependent on 265 00:22:53.640 --> 00:23:00.069 God, even though he might use secondary causes and materials, whether it's dust 266 00:23:00.109 --> 00:23:04.670 or or the genetic material from our parents, are all kinds of these sorts 267 00:23:04.710 --> 00:23:10.869 of things we might consider God is sovereign over every moment of it. Genesis 268 00:23:10.950 --> 00:23:15.259 one through love and tells us that the beginning of our lives is entirely in 269 00:23:15.380 --> 00:23:19.940 our God's hands. Well, seems true of the middle of our lives. 270 00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:25.779 The fact that we continue on, the fact that we are able to go 271 00:23:26.099 --> 00:23:33.410 on living, is only allowable because God did not slay Adam and Eve after 272 00:23:33.450 --> 00:23:40.210 the fall, but he extended to them grace and mercy and a promise, 273 00:23:40.769 --> 00:23:44.920 a promise even of a birth, a promise of the birth of a son 274 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:51.720 that would come to set things right. We have the dependency of the middle 275 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:56.470 of our lives made clear not only in genesis three, but also in the 276 00:23:56.589 --> 00:24:02.029 genealogies and the way that life goes on, that the births and and and 277 00:24:02.589 --> 00:24:07.390 the marriages and all of these things are dependent on God, that of course, 278 00:24:07.470 --> 00:24:11.180 there's Noah, who was only able to live and continue on in this 279 00:24:11.339 --> 00:24:18.740 world because a god saved him. All kinds of things. We also learned 280 00:24:18.819 --> 00:24:22.380 that our lives, as history plays out, as very dependent on God. 281 00:24:22.859 --> 00:24:26.890 As we think about the curses and blessings given to know as children, for 282 00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:34.690 example, when God curses Canaan and blesses sham and chaff. We read here 283 00:24:34.769 --> 00:24:41.519 of the establishment of certain trajectories of history. It reminds us that history is 284 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:45.920 not just falling out as it happens to fall out, but according to God's 285 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:51.920 perfect plan. You could consider those curses and blessings, or you consider God's 286 00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:57.670 promise to Noah. While the Earth remains seed time and harvest, summer and 287 00:24:57.789 --> 00:25:03.190 winter, all of these things will continue on. It's not just the beginning 288 00:25:03.230 --> 00:25:07.819 of life. God doesn't just create the world and boom, goes into existence 289 00:25:07.859 --> 00:25:11.299 and then just begins operating on its own apart from him. No, he's 290 00:25:11.339 --> 00:25:15.420 involved at every moment, with every harvest, with every rising of the sun, 291 00:25:15.619 --> 00:25:19.059 with every setting of the sun, with every birth, with every death, 292 00:25:21.769 --> 00:25:23.650 and that reminds us that it's not only the beginning in the middle, 293 00:25:23.690 --> 00:25:30.250 but also the end of our lives that are entirely dependent on God. We 294 00:25:30.410 --> 00:25:36.960 think again of the genealogies, or we think of God's judgment and the days 295 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:41.519 of Noah. This is perhaps the strongest example of this. Man's life had 296 00:25:41.640 --> 00:25:47.400 increased, sin in the world had increased to a certain point when God said 297 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:52.069 no more. That is it. Same thing with the Tower of battle. 298 00:25:52.390 --> 00:25:56.750 God allows sin to go on, but only to the point of his perfect 299 00:25:56.869 --> 00:26:02.349 will. Or you think about the end of our lives in terms of Adam 300 00:26:02.390 --> 00:26:06.339 and eve continuing on and living. Or you can think about the end of 301 00:26:06.420 --> 00:26:11.539 our lives in terms of these specific numbers given in the genealogies, the exact 302 00:26:11.660 --> 00:26:18.650 number of years in which they lived. Or One more enoch being raised up, 303 00:26:18.210 --> 00:26:25.529 and he was not a man who didn't die, because God is sovereign 304 00:26:25.970 --> 00:26:30.009 over not only the beginning and the middle but also the end of our lives. 305 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:37.119 You see, in all of these ways, in all throughout genesis, 306 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:40.519 one through a level, and God tells us these things over and over and 307 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:47.549 over again to humble the pride of his rebellious children. You're not all that, 308 00:26:48.430 --> 00:26:53.269 you are not self sufficient, you are not capable of living and and 309 00:26:53.430 --> 00:27:02.180 particularly living in obedience to the things I have called you to obey. Now. 310 00:27:02.339 --> 00:27:07.059 God says all of these things not to make us feel bad, although 311 00:27:07.099 --> 00:27:11.259 that may of course happen and wouldn't be such a bad thing, but he 312 00:27:11.339 --> 00:27:17.329 says it because he wants to bring conviction on our hearts. He says it 313 00:27:17.490 --> 00:27:25.009 as a loving parent to help put our pride into perspective. God says what 314 00:27:25.130 --> 00:27:29.930 he says in Genesis one through eleven, not because he needs your recognition, 315 00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:33.920 not because he needs some kind of affirmation for you, from you that, 316 00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:37.720 yes, he's still in authority. He will go on being in authority whether 317 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:45.670 you recognize it or not. See the flood, see Kane, see Laimek 318 00:27:48.029 --> 00:27:52.549 no, he says these things not because he needs some kind of recognition from 319 00:27:52.589 --> 00:27:59.099 you, but because he loves you. He wants to humble your pride so 320 00:27:59.299 --> 00:28:03.740 that you might turn to him, who loves you and desires to take care 321 00:28:03.779 --> 00:28:11.740 of you and protect you. God humbles you so that you might receive his 322 00:28:11.940 --> 00:28:17.970 mercy, and that's the other thing we find in these pages, in Genesis 323 00:28:18.130 --> 00:28:21.690 one, two, three, four, all the way up to eleven. 324 00:28:22.450 --> 00:28:27.839 As the greatness of God's mercy, it comes in the way that it changes 325 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:36.839 people's hearts. How could a man like able lay down his life, be 326 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.829 the first martyr, be willing to go to his death for the cause of 327 00:28:41.990 --> 00:28:48.710 God, despite all of his sinfulness, the same sin that he had his 328 00:28:48.829 --> 00:28:55.190 cane because God had done something in him. The same with Enoch, the 329 00:28:55.230 --> 00:28:59.099 same with Noah, the same with all of these great fathers of the faith. 330 00:29:00.099 --> 00:29:06.660 We see God's mercy displayed in these particular lives. These people didn't die, 331 00:29:07.619 --> 00:29:15.009 they didn't descend into unrighteousness and debauchery. They live their lives in a 332 00:29:15.089 --> 00:29:18.690 way that was holy and pleasing to God. How did that happen? How 333 00:29:18.809 --> 00:29:25.799 did that happen with people that were completely fallen and sinful? Because God is 334 00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:30.359 Merciful. We have it not only in the these examples, but we have 335 00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:34.119 it in the covenants that God makes, the promises that he makes to Adam 336 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:38.109 and Eve. Of they didn't need those promises, or that what they needed 337 00:29:38.190 --> 00:29:42.789 them, but they didn't. They didn't. God wasn't required to give them, 338 00:29:44.789 --> 00:29:48.789 and yet he does. He makes it so that these people who've been 339 00:29:48.829 --> 00:29:52.380 condemned to death may that Eve, for example, may be rightly called the 340 00:29:52.539 --> 00:29:59.099 mother of the living. Why? Because of God's mercy. Many other ways 341 00:29:59.140 --> 00:30:02.859 we see a God's mercy, you might think of them in God's mercy displayed 342 00:30:02.900 --> 00:30:07.650 in these chapters in two ways. There's his common grace, or his common 343 00:30:07.849 --> 00:30:12.569 mercy, and then there's his special grace. There's this common grace that God 344 00:30:14.410 --> 00:30:18.690 gives. Particularly we see it in his covenant that he makes with the Earth 345 00:30:21.250 --> 00:30:26.200 in Genesis Chapter Eight, and nine. They're where he promises that the world 346 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:32.839 will continue on, even though there will be more canes and Lamex and Babbels. 347 00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:40.190 God will continue on the world until the day that his son comes to 348 00:30:40.309 --> 00:30:45.589 bring all things into consummation. This is this common grace and it's something that 349 00:30:45.670 --> 00:30:52.619 all of us, unbelievers, believers, Christians, non Christians, all of 350 00:30:52.779 --> 00:30:56.900 us have this, these great benefits of God. And Jesus says that God 351 00:30:56.980 --> 00:31:03.609 sends his reign on both the just and the unjust. But this common grace 352 00:31:03.730 --> 00:31:08.369 in many ways serves as a platform on which God will then exercise and give 353 00:31:08.730 --> 00:31:15.130 special grace to his people, and we see that again, particularly in this 354 00:31:15.289 --> 00:31:22.039 promise to give a seed that will come to save sinners. This seed, 355 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:27.920 of course, is Jesus Christ. This Baron Woman, Sarah I, will 356 00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:33.230 be renamed by God Sarah, Abraham will be called Abraham, and God will 357 00:31:33.269 --> 00:31:41.230 make a promise and say through you, through you Abraham and Sarah, will 358 00:31:41.309 --> 00:31:45.990 come a multitude of nations and through them all the nations of the world would 359 00:31:45.990 --> 00:31:52.740 be blessed. Paul tells us very clearly that this promised seed is Jesus Christ 360 00:31:52.779 --> 00:31:56.339 himself, and there's many ways in which the scriptures take us to that point. 361 00:31:56.700 --> 00:32:00.450 I won't overview them for you now, but that's the rest of the 362 00:32:00.529 --> 00:32:07.890 Old Testament is moving forward and forward and forward to this promised seed. Many 363 00:32:07.930 --> 00:32:12.250 ways that the serpent will come in and try to stamp it out, many 364 00:32:12.289 --> 00:32:15.960 ways in which the city of Man will rise up against the city of God 365 00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:21.960 and seek to destroy the Lord and his anointed one. But over and over 366 00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:28.440 and over again throughout the pages of the Bible, God preserves your savior and 367 00:32:28.599 --> 00:32:32.829 he comes and he does the thing that he came to do, to go 368 00:32:32.990 --> 00:32:38.029 to a cross and to save us from our sin, to save us from 369 00:32:38.029 --> 00:32:45.660 all this mess, to bring justice to the martyrs, to establish not the 370 00:32:45.819 --> 00:32:49.819 city of man and all its greatness, but the city of God in which 371 00:32:49.940 --> 00:32:53.859 man will dwell and live forever, not hiding from God, as Adam and 372 00:32:53.980 --> 00:33:00.289 Eve did in their sin, not seeking to rule over men and unjust ways, 373 00:33:00.769 --> 00:33:06.769 like the sons of God did in Genesis Chapter Six, not seeking to 374 00:33:07.210 --> 00:33:14.680 Lord it over people and lie and steal and mock God, but to live 375 00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:22.279 in perfect harmony with one another and with God. And so genesis one through 376 00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:28.750 eleven, at the end of it all brings us to a savior and to 377 00:33:28.869 --> 00:33:34.069 a choice. We can read all of this, we can hear God's word 378 00:33:34.869 --> 00:33:38.349 as it comes to us and tells us these things, and we can choose 379 00:33:38.430 --> 00:33:45.259 to continue on in our blindness. We can be blind to these realities and 380 00:33:45.460 --> 00:33:49.420 live on in this world as though the rain were of our own making and 381 00:33:50.099 --> 00:33:53.660 our birth and our life and our death. Why, that's all in our 382 00:33:53.779 --> 00:33:59.730 hands and we can control it and we can master it and we can rule 383 00:33:59.890 --> 00:34:06.369 over it. But Genesis one through eleven teaches us that whenever man does that, 384 00:34:06.410 --> 00:34:14.400 all he does is fall further into sin and further into misery and further 385 00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:21.639 into judgment. All the mercy that God displays in these chapters is also right 386 00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:27.429 there, along with his judgment. That great flood of Noah that comes in 387 00:34:27.510 --> 00:34:34.230 the days of Noah is a constant and continual reminder that God is capable to 388 00:34:34.309 --> 00:34:38.980 judge. He has and one day he will again, but not in the 389 00:34:39.019 --> 00:34:44.099 way that he did in the days of Noah, in a much more grand 390 00:34:44.300 --> 00:34:49.539 way, in a much more permanent way. People will not only go to 391 00:34:49.820 --> 00:34:57.690 their graves because of their sin, but also to hell. But Genesis went 392 00:34:57.769 --> 00:35:01.849 through eleven in the is it proclaims the mercy and the grace of God gives 393 00:35:01.849 --> 00:35:09.239 us another choice. We can choose to live blind to these realities, refusing 394 00:35:09.400 --> 00:35:16.519 these promises of grace, or we can hear what God has said. We 395 00:35:16.599 --> 00:35:22.949 can listen to the father who has spoken. We can hear the message of 396 00:35:23.110 --> 00:35:30.309 mercy and receive it and say thank you and rely on him for everything, 397 00:35:30.949 --> 00:35:38.260 beginning, middle and end, all the details, every moment, every day. 398 00:35:39.260 --> 00:35:45.059 We can lean on this God who is powerful, who isn't an abstract 399 00:35:45.300 --> 00:35:54.889 hope and US an optimistic dream, some kind of metaphysical formula, but God, 400 00:35:57.289 --> 00:36:02.570 Jehovah, the God of Abel, the God of Noah and Enoch, 401 00:36:04.360 --> 00:36:15.039 the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Jesus and you. We go 402 00:36:15.320 --> 00:36:22.230 to Jesus as our God and as our Savior, not so that we can 403 00:36:22.389 --> 00:36:28.070 leave him and go build Sylvia cities on our own, but so that we 404 00:36:28.190 --> 00:36:34.739 can grow up in him, live in him, know him and no God. 405 00:36:37.019 --> 00:36:42.019 That's what God invites us to in Genesis one through eleven, to come 406 00:36:42.179 --> 00:36:45.940 to him in all of his sovereignty, in all of his power, in 407 00:36:46.139 --> 00:36:51.610 all of his grace. It is my prayer that each of you will do 408 00:36:51.809 --> 00:36:57.849 that and know him who made you, and him who saved you. Let 409 00:36:57.889 --> 00:36:58.289 us pray