Bible Overview - Genesis

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The book of Genesis that you're going to be opening up with It's one of those dynamic books, you know
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Before I even begin There are two purposes that I'm standing up here this evening one when you walk away from here
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I hope that you'll have in your minds fixed a clear picture of what the book of Genesis is about What are the key themes?
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What are the key elements? how can you lay out the book because Genesis is filled with so many different events and I'd like you to walk away with a clear understanding of here's what the book of Genesis is all about but in addition to the outline and the segments in the book,
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I'd like you to be able to see a thread that runs through and We're starting here at the very first book the book of Genesis and this is a thread that runs through the entire
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Bible and that's the Scarlet thread of redemption. We're going to see the work of Christ even though Christ is not mentioned in this book the purposes of God in Providing Christ for us as a sacrifice and so we're going to start this thread today
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And as we go through the various weeks through the various books, we're going to see how this book the
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Bible is Little Bible means books. So this book is really a letter of God's love for his people
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And it is a precious book because it reveals to us truths that we cannot otherwise know so with that introduction
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Let's open up to the book of Genesis Now Genesis What where do you get the name
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Genesis Genesis is actually the Greek name that was given in the Septuagint So the the book the first book of the
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Bible was called better sheath which is in the beginning which is the first word in the book of Genesis and Translated into Greek we call it
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Genesis and it really means beginnings Beginning in the beginning or the beginnings or the births or what started so right at the very beginning of our
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Bible We have God Revealing to us. What are all the various beginnings that we can get to find out about?
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So, let me just outline a few things right right in chapter 1 verse 1 we have In the beginning
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God Created the heavens and the earth. I have misplaced my Bible.
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So I have to use a few Bible today And someone can pray for it. So I'll find it but So we have right in verse 1 the universe in verse 27 we have man beginning of man
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Chapter 2 verses 2 and 3 we have the Sabbath and then as you go on in chapter 3
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We get to see the beginning of sin chapter 3 verse 15 We get to see sacrifice and the means for salvation within and then a chapter 2 verse 22 to 24
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We get to see marriage the beginning of marriage and then we get to see The family in chapter 4 beginning of family beginning of government in the
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Noahic Covenant in chapter 9 and then we get to see Nations and languages in chapter 11 all of these begin at this point and then in chapter 12
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We get to see God's the beginning of the nation of Israel through Abraham So there's all these beginnings that happen here and then you know as for someone
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Maybe if you're a new believer or someone who's not familiar the Bible you're like, you know How does this all relate to the grand plan of redemption?
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And that's what I'm hoping I can unpack for you this evening So as you look at the book of Genesis, I'd like you to think of let's let me actually do that for you
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So you can get a visual picture. I'm turning to chapter 11 Genesis breaks into two broad groups
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Genesis chapter 1 to chapter 11 is one section and then chapter 12 to chapter 50 is the second section
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Now if you look at my Bible, you can see how thin the first 11 chapters of Genesis are if you think about it chronologically the first 11 chapters of your
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Bible are Probably equal in time to the rest of your Bible if not more
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Okay So in the first 11 chapters, there is a lot of things happening and so what
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I'm going to do is I'm going to take the first 11 chapters and there are Four key events in the first 11 chapters, so we're going to walk through them very quickly
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As you know here at BBC we go we do expository preaching of a given verse a given text But today it's going to be a broad overview
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We're going to step back and say having understood the meaning of these texts. Let's just apply them Let's get the theme of the whole book
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So we're going to look at four key events in Genesis 1 1 to 11 and then you're going to see four key people in Genesis 12 through 50 and as we look at this
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I hope you will start to see the themes and the trends that come out of the text as we study it more closely
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So let's begin with a very first event the grand event as it were right in Genesis chapter 1
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So the first event we are going to be looking at is an event of creation Now creation you see in both
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Genesis chapter 1 and in Genesis chapter 2 if you look at your
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Bibles chapter 1 and chapter 2 Chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 2 verse 2
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Verse 3 is one continuous section talking about the creation and Then in chapter 2 verse 4 all the way to the end of chapter 2 you get to see an additional description of creation
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What are these two? passages all about in Chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 2 verse 3 you get this grand narrative of creation the first seven days as it were
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What is it that God made and then in chapter 2 verse? 4 to the end of chapter 2 you get to see
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Zooming in on one specific aspect of creation so God gives you the big picture and then he gives you the zoomed in focus on the creation of man and certain things that happen as God Commissions Adam and Eve Into this new brand new world that he has made for them
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But before we get into that, let's look at the very first verse in the beginning God In the beginning
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God, I hope you just kind of let that sink in your mind, you know when we think of all the
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All the things that we think of as we go further and further back in time We come at one point where time itself does not exist anymore we come to a point where there is things that start to exist and Once we stand on that verge of that precipice and look beyond there is nothing that exists that we can comprehend
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But there is only one person and that is the person who is our creator
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God the Bible doesn't try to describe all the you know, this is the reasons for the existence of God It just says
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God in the beginning Created the heavens and the earth How can we know?
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This beginning of all things. I have a question for this first section I the question is what is the origin of everything when you talk to your friends who are not
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Christians, you know They may say well, I maybe I don't know how these things came to pass. I mean,
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I think there is a Big Bang, but Why did the Big Bang come how did everything come out of nothing?
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I can't actually explain those things. In fact, no one can unless God Reveals to us.
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There's only one person who was there at the very precipice of time and that is God and God reveals that truth to us through the pages of Scripture and then here in In chapter 1 we have this beautiful picture of not a picture
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It's a description of how God makes things and even in this chapter 1 you get to see this order
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There is heaven and earth and the word used here for create this bar I took sir
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It occurs three times here in this passage and the and the idea of Bara Create is to bring things out of nothing.
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You know, we use the word create Create OX Nahilo that means creating out of nothing Here is this
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God who creates time creates matter creates space creates energy everything out of nothing
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And it is described here that it is through his word He speaks the power of God is so immense that his word
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Creates all of this beautiful creation that we see around us when you look at the Sun the moon and the stars and all that In them is but let's look at a little bit on the order with which these things are made
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Actually before I go there, let's look at a few things right here, right right in verse 1 you have
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God In the end of verse 2 you have the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters and then you kind of had to go to the
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New Testament to look at Genesis John 1 1 in the big beginning was the
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Word and the word was with God and the word was God all things were created through him without him was not anything made that was made and This is the word we read in John 1 14.
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This is Jesus So we have the Father the Son and the Spirit all involved in this creation at the very beginning of time and space
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We have a triune God who is there right at the beginning making this all and then from verse 3 onward
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There are six days of creation and one of the ways for us to look at this this creation is
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What are the things that come to pass first day? Let there be light we see this in verses 3 to 5 and The second day he creates the firmament the sky and the
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Just give me a moment. I don't have enough space The second day you have the sky and the seas in verses 6 through 7 and the third day
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You have dry land and vegetation. So you have the waters separated vertically the waters separated horizontally as the dry land appears and this is like the
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Environment that God creates in which he's not going to fill things in and then you have days 4 5 & 6 where?
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They correspond to days 1 2 & 3 and day 1 he created light and many of us think oh, that's the that's the
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Sun No, it's on day 4 that you get the Sun and the moon and the incidental stars, you know
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Trillions and trillions of stars. So all of those are made on day 4 and they populate this Day and night this darkness each day that God made day 5 he makes inhabitants he brings in the birds and the fish to to fill and populate and Flourish in this world that he has made for them.
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And then in day 6 you have the land animals and you have Humans Adam and Eve and I just want to point to you in verse 26
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God says let us make man in our image after our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and then he says in verse 28 be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have
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Dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that Moves on the earth now if you
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Move a little further you get to see Actually, I'm sorry if you move back to verse 27
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God created man in his own image there is something that in the order of creation where you get to see the light the
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Waters the land the birds the fishes the animals and then right there at the very end
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You have this man and woman created in the image of God in chapter 2 You get this description of how that actually happens as God takes the dust of the earth
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He fashions it and then breathes into man the breath of life That's not something that is given to all of any of the other creation here is man who is made in a very special way who has a relationship with the
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Creator God and has a Responsibility toward the rest of creation because he is made in The image of God you and I are made in the image of God.
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We have the ability to reflect God as sovereign over this world
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By being stewards in his place we are given this awesome
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Responsibility of taking care of this world. Now when we look at Adam, I want you to remember this
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Romans 5 14 talks about how Christ is our the last
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Adam just as Adam is made here in Genesis 1 to given Responsibility for this creation
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So we have a parallelism that we will study later in the New Testament Just as Adam has this responsibility for all of creation
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There is Christ who is the new Adam or the last Adam that has a federal headship over all of creation
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But I let that just stay there while we go into the next section So the first event is creation The second event is the fall and before that we go to Genesis chapter 3 and many of you know this story
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Here is this beautiful garden that God has pre created placed Adam and Eve there and he says you can have everything except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and There are things seem to be going along fine
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In fact in Genesis in Genesis 1 was first to sixth day you also have the angelic beings who are created because they did not exist before Genesis 1 1 and If you look at the end of chapter 1 verse 31
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God saw everything he had made and behold it was very good and it was a sixth day and then in chapter 2 verses 1 to 3 you get to see the
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Sabbath when God rests and Sets a pattern for us as his image bearers how we are to live but here in between chapter 2 and chapter 3 you have the fall of Satan and Satan here coming as a serpent temps the woman and says
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Did God really say that if you eat of this you would die and here comes the question and Eve has this choice to make
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In fact, you know in talk about free will Adam and Eve are the only ones who had true free will because they had not yet fallen they
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Neutral if you will but yet when they look at this question the question becomes can I can gain knowledge?
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I can gain wisdom. I can be like God so claims the serpent and maybe
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I will not die maybe God didn't tell me the truth and when I weigh the
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Look at the fruit. It looks good for the eye. It seems to be providing me wisdom. I Choose to be autonomous of God in defining what is good for me,
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I Reject God's authority over me. I do not trust him and I will make my own
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Destiny because I am sovereign over this little life. Now, if you just look back in chapter 2 here was
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Adam and Eve made in the image of God able to reflect
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God in Goodness and they instead chose to reject
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God by distrusting him and defining their own Meaning of goodness so here in chapter 3 you have what we call the fall the entry of sin into this universe and so the question that People ask but the question that we ask is why is there pain and suffering in this world if God made this world?
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Why should there be pain and suffering and here is the source of pain and suffering God is not a God who?
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created a Misshapen world. He is a God who created everything good and he gives free creatures the responsibility
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To trust him and willingly follow him and instead our federal head Adam chose to go his own way and we have the fault and then you see the curse that comes upon the
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Snake the curse that comes upon the woman and the curse that comes upon man But I just want you to point you to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 the curse upon the snake the serpent the devil
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I Will put enmity between you and the woman between your offspring and her offspring He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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It's a very cryptic passage there You and the woman your offspring and her offspring that's not a language that is used in the
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Old Testament typically It's like his offspring. Here is the seed of a woman who is now going to have enmity against the seed of the devil and this
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Promise in its nascent form will ultimately get fulfilled on the cross where Jesus Christ Who is born of a virgin will crush the work of the devil by providing redemption for all of the
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Descendants of Adam who are called by God and saved by him So you have the first event the creation the second event, which is the fall now
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The third event that I want to take you to is the flood But before we go to the flood,
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I want to just make a brief comment on the Consequences of the fall. So here in Genesis chapter 3 we get to see the event of the fall and right after that Mankind spirals out of control if you want to look at the entire book of the
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Bible Genesis 1 and 2 you have goodness God making everything good Genesis 3 you have the fall and Genesis 3 to the
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Revelation 20 all you have is the consequences of this fall practically the entire book is filled with the pain and suffering that we inhabit on this planet
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Earth and What you get to see in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 the beginning of the promise of redemption
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Is what gets worked out to the pages of Scripture so that when you come to Genesis chapter 21
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You can actually say new heaven new earth There is what you saw in Genesis 1 and 2 will one day you get to see something even more
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Glorious even more wonderful as the presence of sin is taken away and you and I will get to be inhabit heaven
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In the presence of God without the presence of sin, but right here in Genesis Genesis 3
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We see the rebellion of Adam and Eve you see the curse, but right there God does not leave them out
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There is grace with the promise of the Redeemer You have in Genesis 4 you have murder of Abel by Cain and then you have
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Destruction and death in the descendants of Cain but even among those descendants you get to see
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Enoch and Noah God is gracious to and rescues them Genesis 6 to 8. You see the corruption of the land as the people fill the land with violence and Right there.
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You get the flood as a judgment of God, but with the judgment also you get a Covenant as God says,
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I'm gonna he provides a rainbow and Promises he restores the covenant just as it was in Genesis 2 and then in Genesis 9 through 11
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You have the Tower of Babel where mankind says I'm going to reject and rebel against God and God's cat is in judgment
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But right there he pricks Abraham and says one of one person through whom all the nations will be blessed and he provides the grace
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So what you get to see is mankind after the fall Generates sin God doesn't ignore since there are consequences of sin
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But with those consequences God is a gracious God and rescues his people out of the mess that we create
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So with that, let's go to the flood So here in the flood Genesis chapter 6 you get to see
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Violence and oppression and And actually I'd like you to very briefly turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 where you get a little account of Noah so in Genesis 11 7 we see by faith.
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Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen in Reverend fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household by this he condemned the world and became an air of righteousness that comes by Faith so here we have sin and destruction
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Sin and the consequences of sin happening Jesus would say, you know just as in the time of Noah So it is now, you know people so it'll be at the coming of the
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Son of Man People are marrying giving in marriage. They're going about their own lives. They're living in a life of sin and Saying, you know, when is when is
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God going to come? That's really what people will say at the very end and just as God judged in Genesis chapter 7
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So also there will be a second coming when Jesus Christ will return and there will be a judgment of the sin that is happening
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Here on earth. So when we look at the historic event of the flood People hadn't seen rain people hadn't seen flood.
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They're like, you know, these things don't happen hundred years. Noah's preaching Got to think about that the kind of faith that God granted
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Noah in the midst of all of this Calamity that he would receive the grace of God that God would pick him out and then say you are my chosen one
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But you need to act upon this. It's not like, you know, okay Lord, I believe and I you know Things will kind of go on He had to build this immense structure that he really has no conception of what this is going to do
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Except that God gives him this blueprint, you know build this ark. There's no water here I'm building it on the land and God said there will be a flood and there is a cataclysmic event
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This is not like any other flood. This is a universal flood the waters from the fountains of the deep you have land structure changing
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Tectonics wise and in fact, you know the question that I want you to ask you is, you know, when you look at Non -christian theories of this earth
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The theory that people ask is, you know, the earth must be uniform Uniformitarianism, so if things in the last hundred years in the last thousand years behaved this way then that's what they must have been since the very beginning and the
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Bible tells us no in Genesis 7 God did something just Drastic though.
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It's so much so that everyone died God had to provide for two of each of his creatures to come into the ark so that he would save them and then
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Repopulate the earth through Adam through Noah and his descendants. In fact in in Genesis In in Genesis 9 you have the covenant that is reestablished with Noah just as it was create
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Covenant was made with Adam in the garden. Here is what you need to be doing So also that those same words are repeated to Noah go and fill the earth and populate it.
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And so here you have an event that shows the judgment and the destruction of sin and Along with that you have the mercy and the rescue of Noah and the redemption that he provides in fact
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Peter would talk about this how God redeems these people through the ark through the waters and We have
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Christ as our ark as it were it is only through Christ. We get to escape the destruction that is to come
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We've seen creation. We've seen the fall. We've seen the flood and we come to the last one the
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Tower of Babel You would think okay Noah's descendants Shem, Ham and Japheth.
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All right, we've seen the past Daddy's told us about what was going on We've seen for their own eyes that now the descendants the grandchildren great -grandchildren.
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All right the flood and its Evidence of you know, all this water seeping down we kind of get the point
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You know Adam made a big blunder all of us face the consequence for it. It's an art. We now have a depraved
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Soul as it were we are Inclined to do those things that are not good and we need the grace of God to turn back to him
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God judged in the time of our great -grandfather Noah and we need to obey his voice and what was that?
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we need to still populate the earth just like the command that was given to Adam go out and fill and Be good stewards of it.
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But instead what is it that you get to see in? The Tower of Babel What you get to see is completely different.
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Here is the discovery of Bricks and with the discovery of bricks they decide.
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Oh, you know what? I can build a tower that reaches up to the heavens. I can make myself a name.
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That is great. I am God I Don't need to do what
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God tells me to go out I'm just going to stay here and prevent from being scattered God says
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I have a purpose and that will not be thwarted and card comes down Confuses their language.
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That's why it's called Babel like confusion and each you have the origin of languages here and the people are forced to scatter into the ends of the earth and so you have people moving out and Populating and you have the various nations that are formed so here you have in Genesis 11 once again the purposes of a
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God carried through and And as I mentioned earlier you have the Tower of Babel as a rejection of God's command
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You have God coming and providing a scattering as a judgment, but actually accomplishing his purposes but even as the nation scatter
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God is going to bless them through one specific nation and that is this nation of Israel that comes from this one man
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Abraham. So we've seen the first half Genesis 1 through 11 covering over 2 ,000 years of history
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In these four events of creation fall flood and tower
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Now we are coming to a hinge verse and I want to read that for you if you look at Genesis chapter 12, I'm going to read the first few verses and This is a hinge because if you look at the great panorama of history you get to see
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God creating the entire universe, right and then From chapter 2 all you are looking at well actually most of chapter 1 and 2 you're looking at this one planet planet
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Earth and then through this Planet and this one person
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Adam you get to see the things that are happening as God's grand plan of a goodness is marred as it where it seems like an almost
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God's plan is thwarted by man's fall and And Those of you listening to me know that's not true because we have
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Christ who was Prepared as the lamb who was going to die before the foundation of the earth.
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So when God actually provides a curse on the serpent and says the seed of the woman will crush your head and you will
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Bite his heel This is not something God came up as a plan B we have
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Jesus Christ was ordained to be the sin -bearer even before Adam and Eve conceived this rebellion against God.
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We had don't have a God who is working on contingent plans He is a God who ordains and brings to pass what he?
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Chooses but when we look from Adam up until all these nations the people are populating the sin seems to be multiplying we have
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God who is not a God who is far off who judges and watches over his creation and he is a
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God who Is gracious because he rescues his people you have Enoch We have Noah and now we come to this one person
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Abraham in the midst of all these nations that he is going to use as his means of Redemption.
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So while we see these threads or strands of God's hand in the lives of his people Abraham is going to be that linchpin through whom the rest of the
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Bible is going to make a lot of sense so the question that we normally get is What's so cool about Israel or Abraham, you know, it's like I'm a
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Christian do I need to really worry about the Old Testament and Israel and all those things
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What what the Old Testament and especially the book of Genesis does is it gives you an insight about the plan of God the workings of God the
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Redemptive Thread that works itself through this one man. So let me read for you
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Genesis 12 1 to 3 now the Lord said to Abram. This is before his name became
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Abraham Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you
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So that's a command you need to leave look at verse 2 and I will make of you a great
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Nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you
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I will curse and in you all The families of the earth will be blessed
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Abraham wasn't chosen because you know God said oh, this is the best guy I can live it Let me try to do what
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I can with him in fact We're gonna what we're gonna see in the rest of these four people is They mess up just as badly as everybody else before they are not any more special than anyone else
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But God grants faith and they will God will use this one man to be a blessing to everyone else
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I just want to point out something. I will make your name great. That's what the Tower of Babel said
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You know, let's make a great name for ourselves No, you can't When you reject the purposes of God and try to make one on your own
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So this week whatever plans you have ahead of you Check and see if you are aligned with the purposes of God because if not
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Whatever name we try to make will only cause our own destruction and here is this man
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Abraham God says I'm gonna choose you and I'm gonna make your name great
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Unlike these people who wanted to have their own way and this man, you know later God will say, you know
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Israel because you're the greatest guys in the world. No, you know Abraham is just this one man
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He doesn't even have a kingdom or anything like that He doesn't even have children at this point in time and he doesn't even have a land at this point in time
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He has nothing and God picks this one man grants him righteousness of a kind that is unthinkable in the land where they are and we're going to look at that in a moment and then through this one man he is
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Provide a land he's going to provide a nation That is the people that will come out of him when he has no children and he's going to make he's going to bless them
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Not so that they'll be this greatest nation and you know get all the glory and honor for themselves but rather they would be the city on a hill that will point to the
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God who has made them great because they were nothing when God called them and through them Everyone else will get the blessing that God intends for all and what does that mean through them?
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You know Abraham sees the day of Christ and rejoices because one of the descendants of Abraham will come to bear the sins of all
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Christ is the heir of promise that is given to Abraham the one seed of Abraham that will rescue all his people so here in the life of Abraham so we've looked at the four events and there are four people the first person we look at is
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Abraham and And let me just make that very clear I'm gonna just give you a few things on Abraham Isaac Jacob and Joseph so you can see all of them as who they actually are
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In Genesis 12, we have a promise, right? So God is saying leave and I will make your name great and in Genesis 15
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If you just turn up you get to see the covenant and and God says fear not
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Abraham I'm your I'm your shield and Your reward will be very great.
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And then And Then in verse 5 he brought
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God brought Abraham outside and said look toward heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them
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So will your offspring be and then in verse 6 you have this very curious verse it says and he that is
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Abraham believed God and He that is God counted it to him as righteousness here you get to see something very very strange and None of the other cultures have this understanding of what it is that it takes to please
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God. It is not a Life of you know, let me just get my act together try to do everything together
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But rather it is going back to what Adam and Eve were called to do What was Adam and Eve called to do do not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil
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You can trust me that I give you everything you need. You do not need this fruit They said no,
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I will not trust you. I will do what I want and Abraham here. He has no children.
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He's old and God says I will make your children like the stars of the heaven 5 ,000 to 9 ,000 stars that you can see and see and then there's trillions of stars outside and Here is
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Abraham looking at these stars humanly impossible, but he says I believe and faith is
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What grants us righteousness we get to see this in Romans 4? We get to see how
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God is Still in the business of making people righteous by faith in him
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You and I are not justified by any other means as Paul would explain to us in the
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New Testament Except by faith in Jesus Christ, and it is very simple. God says something we say.
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Yes, I believe I Can make sense of it? I don't know how but if God says it it is true
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And how does God say things to you today? So when you look at this Bible when you read this
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Bible when you say, you know, this is who God is This is what he has called me to be.
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This is who Jesus Christ is and I trust him the Bible says You are
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Credited accounted with the righteousness that God provides and those of us who are believers we've get gotten to experience this on the other side of the cross because everything in the
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Old Testament the first several 39 books that we're going to look are all going to be pointing to the work of Christ that is yet to come but you and I on the other side can look back and say aha the sacrifice the animal skins that Adam and Eve had the
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Sacrifice that Abel did in which is not fully described there the animal sacrifice
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These were pointing to the covering of the sin There is a there is a symbolic effect here in terms of what?
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final sacrifice must happen because someone has to pay for the penalty of sin and The one who will ultimately pay it is
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Jesus Christ himself But let's come back to our narrative here with Abraham So here in Abraham's life if you want to say, what is it that makes him unique?
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He's a man who trusted God In fact, if you go to Hebrews 11 once more There's just three things that are that I want to point out in Hebrews 11 verse 8
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Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not
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Knowing where he was going, you know, sometimes we say believe means Oh, you know, I just acknowledge mentally in my mind and that's good enough
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No, if you truly trust God, you will do what God calls you to do and as a believer
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Because I have believed in Jesus Christ Because I have the Spirit of God indwelling me and empowering me to make those choices that are
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God honoring Because I had now have the power to reject sin. I'm no longer a slave of sin as Romans would say
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I now have The ability to live out in sanctification
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I'm justified by faith by my belief and my walk now Demonstrates that this belief is real and that's really what happens in Abraham's life
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Abram Says I believe God calls go where Lord just go and he goes and he doesn't know where he's going.
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He's going or heron Promised land keep going
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Egypt come back wander around In fact, if you keep reading in Hebrews Abram Isaac Jacob Joseph None of them had settled in the land that was their promise
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In fact when Abram comes back, he knows that this is the land but he doesn't own one piece of Property in the land that God had promised him.
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He could have said no Lord. You said this is mine Should I go fight these people and take the land?
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You know, I could actually My the strength of my arm do it. He had actually destroyed those
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Kings that had taken lot away He had 300 and plus strong men by the time and the
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Lord has grown his people place But his eyes was fixed firmly upon the Lord. He was trusting in God throughout his sojourning
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He was living in tents because he was looking for a city with foundations as Hebrews would say so what we get to see in the life of Abraham is not perfection
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In fact, what are the things that Abram did that was messed up? God promises. I'm going to give you children like the stars of the heaven and Abram goes to Egypt My wife is too pretty.
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She's my sister. She's not my wife, you know, you you get to see This is not a man who's perfect.
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He's flawed. He doesn't do it. Just once he does it twice Sarah While Hebrews 11 does commend her for believing this is not
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You know perfection. What does she do? She waits and waits and waits and it's like Abram you were 75 now you're 86.
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How much longer do we wait? like, you know have say a Hagar my maid and have a child through her and tries to come up with her own plan of Fulfilling God's promises
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Isaac does the same thing. He gives away his wife Rebecca dad I seen dad protect his life by saying his mom was not his wife.
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Maybe I'll do the same thing and and then the other Two people you have Jacob who's a thief and a liar and the blessing that he that God promised
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He tries to inherit by stealing from his dad and Joseph's brothers the descendants the
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Patriarchs They try to kill Joseph the one who is actually going to be the Redeemer In fact, Joseph is going to just give us this mind -blowing illustration of how
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Jesus Christ The innocent one will be killed But what is it that I want us to learn from the failure of all of these men though the message that we want to get from all of this is
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It's not because Abraham was great or Isaac was great or Jacob was great or Joseph and his brothers were great They were men like you and I but they were men who trusted in God Abram as he sojourns as he travels through he's building altars everywhere because his eyes are fixed upon the
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Lord He's not perfect. He fails But God is the one just as we saw sin judgment and grace here in the life of his people his chosen ones
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There is sin But there is God protecting both the times when
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Sarah was just said, you know, she's my sister God watched over them and God fulfilled his promise and Abraham was a hundred years old 25 years later
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God's timing is not our timing but God's purposes are just Immensely wonderful.
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So the Abram that journeys through when we come to Genesis 22 you get to see the pinnacle of faith as it were, you know
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How has Abraham grown through all his journeys and his mishaps and his sins and his frustrations?
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when you come to Genesis 22 God gives him this son Isaac and Says take him up to this mountain and sacrifice him
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For all his failures Abraham has seen the character of God and knows the trustworthiness of God so much so that he would say
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In his old age the beloved son his only son. He is willing to tie up and kill because Why you have to go back to Hebrews 11 to understand this because he knows that this son
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Which is his it's not it's not really his he was it was Impossible for him to have a son in his old age when his wife was past the age of childbearing you just need to understand what that means when you are a hundred years old this child was the child of promise that was given by God and He believed that God is able to raise him from the dead figuratively speaking
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He actually did because in his heart his he was committed to doing what God had called him to do and God Gave him his son by stopping his hand and while you just think about the life of Abraham.
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You just want to say Not too far away from Mount Moriah where this happened
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There was another father two thousand years later Who will not restrain his hand from his son?
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We have Jesus Christ outside of Jerusalem Who will face the wrath of God on behalf of us all so what
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Abraham Demonstrated in faith with the son Isaac you get to actually see the actual event where the father
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Sends his only beloved son and will not spare him Judgment in order that the descendants of Abraham, you know
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You have all of the people of Israel and then you have now in the church We have inherited the blessing through Christ.
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All of us get to enjoy the benefits because of the father
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Willingly providing his son on behalf of us all so we get to see Abraham and then we know
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Isaac You don't really the second person you don't get to see a lot you get to see You know the joy that he brings to his parents in his old age and you know
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We don't know the age of Isaac as much, you know, maybe a young child some commentators thinks it was actually an old enough guy
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That he could have punched daddy and gotten out of the altar. I don't know how old he was Let's just say, you know majority.
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He's a young kid, but he gets to see the hand of God as Abraham his father's hand is raised over him to the point where God rescues and then you see the ram as an
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Substitute and again you have this whole idea of atonement and the substitute for our lives We have another and the character of our
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God who provides and that's what the mountain is called in the mountain of the Lord It will be provided Jehovah Jireh And so here we get to see this
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Isaac not much is given but you get to see him as a man of meditation you know going out and praying and he and the provision of his wife with Rebecca is again a just a marvelous story that the hand of God is with his people and Directs them.
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I want to move on to the third person Jacob and really when it comes to grace
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You can't get any further than this You can think of the most Jacob means heel, he was grabbing his brother's heel twins
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Esau and You get to see how? this deceiver You know pulling your leg.
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That's really what it means he pulls everybody's leg and this puller of legs gets changed into Israel God gives him a new name because By his character.
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He just does deals if you just read through Genesis and look at the life of Jacob everywhere It's like how do
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I get the best deal for me my best life now? I want to just find ways to get whatever it is
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That would give me the most and God works in this man's life. He goes to Laban 20 years lost you know, he wanted this one woman and he ends up marrying four instead and Everything that he wants
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God works and shapes and fashion this is not a judgment for condemnation, but a work of God in the life of Jacob as he is transformed as he gets to Encounter the character of God.
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And so when he comes back into the land, he is a man who's been blessed and He has these twelve sons that will continue the
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Lineage of Abraham and of promise and we get to see Abraham building the altars.
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We have Isaac Worshiping we get to see Jacob even for all his deceptions Recognizing there is a
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God that he must contend with he looks at the place and calls it Bethel He he recognizes the angels of God.
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He actually wrestles with his God all night and we believe that these
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Appearances of God in human form are theophanies Point to the second person of the
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Trinity We are talking about theophanies of Christ and then we get Jacob come back and then you have the twelve
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Children and of the twelve children, you know, Judah is is prominent because in Genesis 49 the
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Jacob would prom would prophesy that the scepter wouldn't depart from Judah and it is through dude
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Judah's Descendant lineage that Christ would be born as King but we have Joseph in Genesis chapter 37 to 50 where we get to see a
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Remarkable story and I want to just point a few verses for you If you just look at Genesis chapter 50 verse 20, that's the end of the book of Genesis But it's a good summary of the entire book as it were if you look at Genesis 5 20
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Here's Joseph after everything is over. Let me just recount that in in 10 seconds
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Joseph loved by his father. I Want you to just think Jesus beloved son the only begotten
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Son Jesus Joseph having all these visions and dreams Either naive or arrogant doesn't know how to deal with his family hated by his brothers
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Jesus innocent and perfect hated and rejected by his brothers Joseph Schemed against and sold into slavery for pieces of silver you have
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Jesus Christ who is conspired against and sold for 30 pieces of silver by Judas and you have
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Joseph who is Innocent but thrown in prison because he rejects the advance of Potiphar's wife.
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Then he goes into jail. He helps these two men one of them interpret their dreams one of them goes and two years forgets about Joseph and then
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God sends another dream to the king of Egypt and Then God raises him from humiliation and all the suffering to this place of extreme glory and then through Joseph He will bless he will bless
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Jacob and his other brothers so you get to see this marvelous story every time I read this It just brings tears to my eyes.
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This is not a fiction this is the hand of God in the life of Joseph as he takes someone who just really literally has no hope and then makes them the hope for the entire nation not just for the nation of Israel that is
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Jacob and Abraham's descendants, but really for all of Egypt Egypt would have would have perished in the famine that followed the years of plenty if not for the wisdom of Joseph that God had given now while I was talking about Joseph Let me just read
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Genesis now Chapter 50 verse 20 and there we see as for you. This is Joseph talking to the brothers.
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You meant evil against me But God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today and This is how we get to see the beautiful providence of God in Genesis 3
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We have the fall God would have been justified and not doing anything but here we get to see how
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God works in the lives of people that evil that we generate and the evil that is generated against us by fashioning good out of all the evil that comes about and the ultimate evil that you can think of is
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The rejection and the murder of Jesus Christ when I was comparing
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Jesus and Joseph I want you to remember this Joseph was no Redeemer in the ultimate sense He is just a picture of how we get the redemption to come and the term that we use
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There is Joseph was a type of Christ. What does that mean? Joseph and his life is a historical fact everything that I described is what happened that is recounted for us but as we look at the life of Joseph we get to see the spiritual truth of what has actually happened in the life of Jesus Christ as we look from the lens of the
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New Testament and we get to see How Jesus is our ultimate Redeemer and in the person of Jesus Christ, we get to see the fulfillment of the blessing
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We get to see the fulfillment of redemption that God has ordained So the book of Genesis begins for us in these grand narrative the first four events in Genesis 1 through 11 creation fall flood and the tower and these four persons
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Abraham Isaac Jacob and Joseph and through this all we get to see how God created something good
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Man chose to destroy it and yet God does not leave it he is watching over his creation and he brings good out of it and one day as This book ends the
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Bible ends we will see a land and a time when we are outside of the presence of evil and Basking in the presence and the glory of God Let us pray a loving and gracious father.
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I pray that as we study your word you would just fill us with a passion for who you are and the
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Immense blessings that we have received through Jesus Christ. I pray for these dear people that you would help us
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To walk even today by faith help us to trust you Help us to Enjoy your presence
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Help us not to get discouraged when evil comes about for you fashion
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Goodness, even in the midst of our trials and suffering in Christ name we pray.