Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Equipped 2026: Leadership: "Genesis Characters in the Epistles" by Allen Webster

Transcript

Equipped 2026: Leadership: "Genesis Characters in the Epistles" by Allen Webster · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

0:00
Genesis is the second longest book in the Old Testament. Only Psalms is longer.
0:08
There are 1,533 verses in Genesis.
0:13
And there doesn't seem to be one number that's agreed upon by how many characters are in the book,
0:20
but I think there are 139 characters in the book of Genesis.
0:25
And that probably is more than any other book in the Old Testament,
0:29
outside of perhaps 1 Samuel or Joshua, of all the names.
0:33
Now, when you look at this assignment, we are asked to talk about the Genesis characters
0:39
that are talked about in the epistles of the New Testament.
0:42
So, if you wanted to look at the Old Testament and the New Testament, just a brief outline,
0:49
5.12, 5.5.12 would be the Old Testament, 5 books of law, 12 books of history, 5 books of poetry, 5 major, 12 minor prophets.
1:00
Then the New Testament, 4.1.21.1, this is where we are.
1:05
4 biographies of Jesus, 1 book of history, 21 letters or epistles, and 1 book of prophecy.
1:13
So, we are going to focus on the first of the 5 books of law in the Old Testament and the 21 letters.
1:22
So, the combination between those two in this class.
1:25
Now, as far as I can tell, there are 15 of the 139 characters of Genesis that are included in the epistles.
1:33
So, this is one of those classes where you debate how to handle it as a teacher or a speaker.
1:40
We teach our students, you know, don't ever have more than 7 points in a sermon.
1:46
3 is ideal, 5 is okay, but don't go past 7. This is double plus 1.
1:52
So, what we are going to do is put it on the screen and you will be able to follow along.
1:59
And whenever somebody says they are going to do 15 lessons, don't try to remember all 15
2:06
because the average person can remember 4 things at a time.
2:09
So, pick out 3 or 4 of these lessons or characters that are especially meaningful to you
2:17
and then you can build a lesson on those or you can personalize those with your own thoughts or your own needs.
2:25
But we are going to go through it briefly. All 15 at a time allows to be able to get 10,
2:29
but I am going to try to pace myself to get as many as we can.
2:33
So, we are going to start in Genesis chapter 2 with Adam and Eve, the first two.
2:39
We are going to jump around. I am going to give you, this is a leadership preacher slash leadership track.
2:48
So, I am going to give you sermon ideas and sermon points if you want them.
2:54
Now, you won't have time to write all this, but if you have your phone with you, you can snap pictures.
3:00
I won't give them to you after the lesson is over, but you can come up and take a picture of this or I can email it to you.
3:07
But, what we are going to do is just go through a lot of material in the next 40 minutes.
3:11
We are going to go as fast as we can.
3:13
So, Adam's lesson, as you notice, Adam's lesson is human failure, divine redemption.
3:21
Because that is how he is used in the New Testament.
3:24
We find that Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 deal with, he plunged the human race into iniquity or sin and Jesus brought us back.
3:36
So, there is a contrast between the first Adam and the second Adam.
3:40
In fact, before we notice Genesis 2, I will jump ahead and notice this in Romans 5.
3:50
This section begins in verse 12 and goes to the end of the chapter.
3:53
I am not going to take time to read all of that, but this is a chart of what happens in these verses.
3:59
So, it says that sin came by man. That man was Adam. He plunged us into sin.
4:05
So, you see the arrow going down into sin.
4:09
Then Romans Paul says in this section that sin led to condemnation.
4:14
All human beings have been guilty of sin and therefore we are all on the same sinking ship.
4:20
And sin brings death. So, condemnation and death.
4:25
And death reigned until Moses. That is what verse 14 says.
4:30
Now, all men were under the reign of death according to verse 12.
4:37
But, the good news is, beginning in this section that has grace six times in the chapter,
4:44
you see grace in verse 2, verse 15, verse 17, and two times in the last two verses, 20 and 21.
4:55
Now, speaking of grace, notice the last part of verse 20 says,
4:59
but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
5:04
So, man created a huge problem. Adam started us down our own path.
5:09
But, Jesus is able to overcome all the sins of humanity.
5:13
He is the answer to the sin problem that began with Adam in Genesis chapter 2.
5:19
Now, back to the chart, you see all men were condemned, but by Christ and grace were justified.
5:26
And now we have eternal life, which is in contrast to death.
5:31
So, that's the main lesson to learn from Adam in Genesis chapter 2 through chapter 3 primarily.
5:38
That he cleansed us into sin, brought death, but Jesus fixed that problem and gives us eternal life.
5:44
That's the main lesson to learn.
5:45
Now, let's go back over to Genesis and notice a little more about Adam and Eve,
5:50
some practical ways to preach this study or to preach this material.
5:56
I like the lesson of Adam and Eve as a type of the church.
6:01
A lot of types and antitypes in the Old Testament.
6:04
We have a picture and then they didn't even understand it.
6:09
But in the New Testament, the way God does types and antitypes,
6:14
so you have God shining the light from eternity back over the church,
6:24
casting a shadow into the Old Testament.
6:27
Only God can do this.
6:28
So, he's shining the light from eternity on the church or on Christ, whatever the figure is,
6:35
and it casts a shadow on the Old Testament and that shadow is what we're reading.
6:40
They didn't understand it.
6:42
They lived and died practicing these things without really knowing
6:46
that they were being represented as a representation of what would happen later.
6:51
So, that's what you have here.
6:52
I won't be able to read all these, but you just notice the parallels.
6:55
Adam came by miracle.
6:57
Jesus was born in the virgin.
6:59
Adam is the head of the physical family.
7:01
Christ is the head of the spiritual family.
7:03
Adam's wife came from his side being opened and the rib being removed.
7:11
Well, Jesus' side was pierced when he died on the cross for her.
7:14
So, you see how many parallels there are.
7:17
We are to cleave to each other in the church just as they were.
7:20
There was only one process of procreation for the human family.
7:24
There's only one process of procreation in the spiritual family,
7:27
which is teaching the gospel and being born again.
7:30
Now, the next lesson that you see here is about the sin.
7:35
There are three levels of law.
7:38
Genesis 2.15 is the tie-in to our text.
7:42
So, you see in verse 15,
7:44
the Lord took the man and put him in the garden to dress it and to keep it.
7:48
And he commanded him that he had permission to eat of every tree
7:52
except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, verse 17.
7:55
So, there's a law.
7:57
Don't eat of this tree.
7:59
But the law has an additional clause modifying it.
8:03
For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
8:07
So, there's a threat with it.
8:09
There are three levels of law.
8:11
You have level one is an expression of God's will written on man's heart.
8:19
That's Romans 2.15.
8:21
Then you have level two, a written ordinance without a promise, reward, or threat.
8:27
Just thou shalt do this, thou shalt not do this.
8:30
But now I'm saying you need punishment or reward for it.
8:33
The third level, the highest level,
8:35
is a written ordinance with an attached reward or punishment.
8:40
That's what you have here.
8:42
You will surely die.
8:44
That's a threat that goes with it.
8:46
Now, Adam, of course, told Eve.
8:49
And then Eve had a conversation with the devil.
8:53
And then she did exactly what God said not to do.
8:57
And Adam did the same thing when she gave him the fruit and he ate it also.
9:02
Now, let's move...
9:05
I want to go back and notice Eve's lesson.
9:08
And then we will go back to that context.
9:11
So Eve teaches two lessons.
9:13
One is marriage design.
9:16
And the second is spiritual vigilance.
9:19
So God created Eve from Adam's rib because of Eve's leap to come upon Adam.
9:25
Took from him a rib, made from the rib.
9:27
Eve brought her to the man and performed the first wedding ceremony.
9:31
And they were the first couple.
9:33
They were the first family.
9:34
They soon had children.
9:36
We do have an example of why God intended marriage to be one man, one woman for one lifetime.
9:43
Because there were no choices.
9:45
Adam couldn't say, I'm going to get rid of you and take that woman over there.
9:49
There were no other women.
9:50
She couldn't divorce Adam and say, I like my old boyfriend better.
9:54
There were no other boyfriends.
9:56
There was only the two of them.
9:58
And everybody else that eventually was in the world were their direct descendants, their children.
10:02
So God intended for, we don't know how long Eve lived, but Adam lived 930 years.
10:08
So women outlive men in every culture.
10:12
So we might assume that she outlived Adam.
10:15
So she was standing at that grave when she buried her husband.
10:19
Nine centuries later.
10:21
Now you women think it's hard to be married to a man.
10:25
20 years? 50 years?
10:28
Try nine centuries.
10:32
But as far as we know, she was faithful to him until death parted them.
10:36
In Genesis chapter 5.
10:38
So that's the marriage design.
10:40
But what about the spiritual vigilance?
10:43
Eve was the first sinner and Adam was the second sinner.
10:47
So she teaches us a lesson about how to deal with the devil.
10:50
Or in this case, what not to do when tempted by the devil.
10:53
And you go back over to where we were in Genesis 3.
10:56
And we observe that Satan used three tactics against her.
11:01
And they're the same three tactics he uses against me and you.
11:04
One is he questioned God.
11:06
Hath God said?
11:08
In other words, are you sure about what you're living by?
11:12
Could that be interpreted a different way?
11:14
Or is that a fair statement?
11:18
A fair requirement?
11:20
He wanted to create doubt in God's word.
11:23
Number two, a flat denial.
11:26
Thou shalt not surely die.
11:29
God said thou shalt surely die.
11:31
He added the not.
11:32
He changed the meaning of what God said.
11:36
So what does he want today?
11:38
He wants us to doubt God's love for us.
11:41
Number two, he wants us to reject the teachings of the Bible.
11:46
I know the Bible says that, but.
11:48
How do you finish that statement?
11:51
I know the Bible says that, but.
11:53
There's no good way to finish that.
11:55
If the Bible says that, it must be accepted or obeyed.
11:57
I can't sit in judgment on the Bible.
11:59
The Bible sits in judgment on me.
12:01
And number three, to substitute something else.
12:04
If you will take this fruit and eat it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be better.
12:08
This is better than the way God designed your life.
12:11
Do this and, well, today people say,
12:14
my life would be better, be easier, be more fun if I rejected the Bible,
12:18
if I did what the world does.
12:20
Well, it's the same process today.
12:23
The only, well, I think I will, instead of going to get tested on this one,
12:30
I'll just go on to our next, because I'm talking a lot.
12:34
Let's go to Abel, let's go to Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.
12:39
Someone read for me verse 4, Hebrews 11, 4, and then I will read with you from Genesis.
12:46
Hebrews 11, 4 has both brothers in one verse.
12:51
Someone read for us 11, 4.
12:53
Thanks, Hall of Fame.
12:55
Hebrews 11, 4?
12:56
Yes.
12:59
By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
13:04
to which he obtained witness that he was righteous,
13:07
God testifying of his gifts, and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
13:14
So, Abel teaches two lessons.
13:17
One is faithful worship.
13:20
Two is lasting influence.
13:23
The last part of what Richard read, he being dead yet speaks.
13:28
So he's been dead a long time, and yet people are still talking about Abel
13:33
and learning from his example.
13:35
So you and I can outlive ourselves by living a good life,
13:38
by influencing other people, and using the resources God gives us
13:43
to bless the world that we won't live in after a certain amount of time.
13:47
We're going to leave and go on, but our influence can continue.
13:50
And Abel is the one that inspires us to do that.
13:53
He was dead, but he was still speaking.
13:55
We want to extend our lives beyond our graves.
13:58
But let's focus on Cain and Abel in Genesis' account.
14:04
There are three studies that I'll give you four, actually.
14:07
So Cain, on the other hand, is false religion.
14:12
He substituted his will for the will of God.
14:15
He did not offer by faith.
14:18
And Cain also teaches the lesson of anger violence.
14:22
Anger violence.
14:24
Because he became so angry, he became violent and murdered his own brother.
14:28
So, one of the ways of Cain, he was careless.
14:33
He did not listen carefully to what God said, or he chose to ignore it.
14:36
He was angry.
14:38
Then he was impenitent, because after God confronted him,
14:43
am I my brother's keeper?
14:45
In other words, I don't need to keep up.
14:47
Well, I'm not being asked about my brother.
14:49
When God knew what he had done to his brother, he was trying to avoid it.
14:54
So he's impenitent.
14:55
And then he is used in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 2, as the natural man.
15:00
Or he's an example of the natural man that's talked about in 1 Timothy 2.
15:04
I want to read you the seven ways of Cain.
15:06
But if you're a preacher, you might want to take this down,
15:09
or you want to do it for your own Bible study.
15:12
These are the example, the applications of the example of Cain.
15:17
There's seven of them.
15:18
And every one of them is negative, not positive.
15:22
Now, there's a contrast between brothers in this context.
15:27
Cain is of the seed of the serpent.
15:29
That is, he's following the will of the devil.
15:32
Abel is of the seed of righteousness because he's following the will of God.
15:36
At birth, they start out equal.
15:39
Cain is not born into sin.
15:41
Abel is not born into righteousness.
15:43
They start out equally innocent at birth.
15:46
At work, we find a contrast because Cain is a farmer, a tiller of the ground,
15:53
which has been cursed, you remember, because of the sin of Adam.
15:57
And then Abel is a shepherd.
16:00
Shepherds, this is the first mention of shepherds,
16:03
but they're going to be looked on favorably throughout the Bible.
16:07
You know, David was a shepherd before he was king.
16:10
Jesus is the good shepherd. He gives his life for the sheep.
16:13
So shepherds, well, after this point, these painted in a positive light.
16:18
And nothing wrong with farming.
16:20
That's the basis of being able to live and support oneself in this life.
16:24
But it was wrong when it came to religion.
16:27
So we learned, we just saw up here, the way of Cain.
16:30
Then at worship, there's also a contrast.
16:33
Abel offered by faith, in the verse that Richard read,
16:37
by faith Abel offered an excellent sacrifice to Cain.
16:41
The only way you can offer by faith is to offer according to the will of God, Romans 10, 17.
16:46
So God had instructed them what he wanted.
16:49
Abel listened to God, and he went and founded the sheep and gave God what he asked for.
16:54
And for whatever reason like this, he said, well, what I've got is vegetables.
16:59
Well, I want God to accept that.
17:01
I mean, I'm going to have to go get a lamb from Abel,
17:04
and I can just give him what I made with my own hands.
17:06
That's got to be better if you give Cain God what God didn't ask for.
17:10
And his was rejected. Abel's was acceptable to God.
17:14
So you had bloody versus bloodless.
17:19
You remember that type and anatype we're talking about?
17:22
They had no way to understand what was going to happen at the cross.
17:25
Of course, God had already hinted at it in 315 with the bruising of the heel.
17:34
We understand that now looking back on it.
17:36
That's a picture of Calvary when the devil got his blow in against Jesus,
17:41
thought he had won, Jesus put him to grave.
17:43
Well, that was the equivalent of a heel wound.
17:46
He said, well, that was horrible what they did to him.
17:48
They beat him, they nailed him, they put a crown of thorns.
17:50
That's not like a bruised heel.
17:52
It's not about the intensity of it.
17:54
It's about the duration of it.
17:57
If you bruised your heel today, a year from now would you still be limping?
18:02
A heel wound is over in a couple of days.
18:05
But a fatal wound you don't recover from.
18:10
So when you have this crushing of the head,
18:13
the devil never recovered from the blow of the resurrection.
18:17
Jesus recovered from the blow of the crucifixion in three days.
18:22
But the devil never recovered.
18:24
So that's the idea of Genesis 315.
18:27
But Cain and Abel didn't understand that.
18:29
I don't think that Moses understood it when he wrote about it 1,500 years later.
18:35
I don't even think that Jewish scholars who studied it all through those centuries
18:39
really understood Genesis 315.
18:41
We can understand it because Galatians 4.4 and Galatians 3 explains
18:48
that the seed is Christ.
18:51
The seed of woman is Christ.
18:52
He's the only one ever born of the seed of woman without the participation of the male.
18:57
So we can identify Jesus because he's in a class of one.
19:01
So it's easy for us to understand that.
19:03
But they did not.
19:04
So here you have them participating in the type of blood sacrifice
19:09
versus a bloodless sacrifice.
19:12
But they didn't understand it.
19:13
But God knew what he wanted and that's what he asked for.
19:15
So you have Abel respecting God, Cain rejecting God.
19:19
He's rejected.
19:20
Therefore, Abel is acceptable.
19:23
And then the rejected one murders the one that God accepted.
19:28
So in the field after that, you have the victim versus the perpetrator.
19:33
And in the judgment seat, you have one accepted and one cursed.
19:37
All right.
19:38
For sake of time, we're going to move on and talk about number four on our list,
19:42
which is Enoch.
19:52
Genesis 5.22.
19:54
And Enoch is talked about in Hebrews 11, place of all things.
19:58
It's talked about again in Jude 1, 14 and 15.
20:02
And the lesson of Enoch is if you walk with God, you get to go home with God.
20:08
There's a story about a little girl telling the story of Enoch to her little brother.
20:12
And she said, Enoch liked to take walks with God.
20:17
And one day they walked farther than they had ever walked before.
20:20
And God said, it's late.
20:22
It's getting dark.
20:23
Why don't you come and go home with me?
20:26
Well, that's not exactly what Genesis 5.22 says, but it's pretty close.
20:31
It's pretty close.
20:33
Walk with God and you get to go home to stay with God.
20:37
Now, there are good lessons about Enoch, and I'll just give you maybe only one.
20:43
Let's get over to chapter five.
20:45
So there are three or four listed here.
20:48
Enoch is mentioned in nine verses of the Bible.
20:53
His name means dedicated, and he lived up to that name.
20:56
And you notice this note to the side beginning in verse 21.
21:00
An amazing life covered in four verses.
21:04
That's all we know about Enoch.
21:06
But what an amazing person Enoch must have been.
21:09
He lived 365 years, and that was a short lifetime in this context.
21:15
He didn't die because God took him about a third of the way through a normal life span at that time.
21:21
Others were living about 900 years, so a half to a third as long as the others, even in this context.
21:28
In fact, when you read your Bible, do you mark it in your Bible?
21:32
I know some people don't like to mark it in their Bible.
21:34
I like to, I think it helps to understand it.
21:37
If you do that, then the next time you read Genesis 5, you might mark Adam, Seth, Enos, Cain, Nahalil, Jared, Enoch, all the way down,
21:46
so you can quickly identify where they're being talked about.
21:50
Let me just give you this one.
21:53
A man who took walks with God.
21:55
It's just a textual study of verse 22.
21:59
Enoch is a good name.
22:01
You and I want to have a good name with God, a good reputation.
22:04
His name means dedicated, and we want to demonstrate by our character our name will be associated with dedicated living.
22:13
Walked, that indicates progress.
22:16
You're not sitting.
22:18
Now standing around, you're making progress.
22:20
You walked with God.
22:21
With God as the best companion.
22:25
The God-sons of dollars, he furthered God's image on the earth,
22:29
because his children, as all children, were made in the image of God.
22:33
When he was not where God took him, he accomplished life's primary goal.
22:39
Even if he had lived to be a thousand years old, he couldn't have done any better than to go home with God.
22:46
So he accomplished life's primary goal.
22:49
Now, if you wanted to apply this, the average lifespan is 29,000 days, 4,000 months.
22:57
Don't do this right now, because it might be depressing,
23:00
but you can multiply the number of birthdays that you've had times 365,
23:06
and subtract that for 29,000, and that's the amount of life you still have left
23:11
if Jesus delays his coming and you live a full lifetime.
23:14
Probably for most of us, that's a smaller number than the number that we subtracted from 29,000.
23:20
In other words, we're more than halfway through.
23:22
That's okay, because we're more than halfway through our journey toward heaven, so that's a good thing.
23:27
But, it's also the case that we've only got 29,000 days to prepare to meet God in judgment.
23:35
And you don't need to waste any of those.
23:38
Nobody has too many days to prepare to meet God.
23:41
We need to make use of every one of them.
23:44
So, and also it means that whatever it is I ever want to accomplish for God,
23:48
and I haven't done it, I better get busy.
23:51
Joshua 13, God was keeping notes when Joshua wasn't.
23:55
He said, there's much work yet to be done.
23:57
Joshua was an old man.
23:58
God said, you haven't finished the work I gave you yet.
24:01
So, what about me?
24:02
If I finish the work that God wants me to do, that I want to do, well, I better get busy.
24:06
Because one day I won't be able to think.
24:08
I won't be able to walk.
24:09
I won't be able to do the things without the strength of my body to do the things I can do now.
24:12
So, get busy doing those.
24:14
Alright, that's all I'm going to say about Enoch.
24:16
Now, let's go back over and pick up on our list of Bible characters.
24:20
Noah, one of the most famous of the characters of the patriarchal age.
24:26
Noah teaches us about obedient faith and separation from the world.
24:32
Thus did Noah according to all that the Lord commanded him, Genesis 6.22.
24:37
So, he is an example of obedience.
24:40
God said, build a boat, he built a boat.
24:42
God said, I want it to be this big, he built it according to those dimensions.
24:45
God said, I want it to be made of this kind of wood, he made it of that kind of wood.
24:48
God says, get on the boat, Noah got on the boat.
24:51
2 Peter 3 says that Noah was the 8th person saved.
25:01
That tells me, and you fathers and husbands, you'll relate to this.
25:06
If everybody had to get on the boat, would you get on first and say everybody come in here?
25:11
No, you would say, okay everybody, walk up the plane and get on the boat.
25:15
After everybody was safe on board, you would be the 8th one saved.
25:19
That's what happened with Noah.
25:21
And then God closed the door, started raining a week later.
25:25
God locked out the entire world.
25:27
Everybody they'd ever known before, they didn't know again because they were all drowned.
25:31
And then they stepped out of that ark a year later into a pristine world.
25:37
So, you have the lesson of obedient faith and the lesson of spiritual separation.
25:45
God separated that family from the wickedness of the world around them.
25:50
So, those two lessons.
25:52
Now, there are a lot of lessons about Noah, so let's see what we have.
25:58
I'll just put this on the screen really quickly if you want this.
26:02
Six Reasons Noah Found Grace.
26:06
And that's the description the Bible gives.
26:09
And that's the first time grace was found in the Bible.
26:11
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
26:14
Why did he find grace?
26:15
Out of all the people, and there were probably a billion people in the world by this point,
26:19
why was Noah the one that found grace and nobody else did?
26:22
Well, there's the reason right there.
26:24
Now, this person is the same one that finds grace today.
26:27
You and me. It's the same principles.
26:30
Now, here are six people in the Bible.
26:33
The Bible specifically says, found grace.
26:37
And so, that's an interesting lesson from different contexts.
26:41
Now, let's go over to 1 Peter 3.
26:44
And notice a lesson relating to baptism.
26:52
1 Peter 3.20.
26:55
I think I will only be able to give you this one.
26:59
Let me give you this one.
27:00
There's more there, but let's look at this one.
27:02
Noah was saved by these things.
27:06
And guess what?
27:07
Sinners are saved by these things.
27:10
Same things.
27:11
So, what saved Noah?
27:12
Grace did.
27:13
We already saw that faith did.
27:15
Obedience, we saw that.
27:16
Water saved Noah.
27:18
That's interesting that Peter doesn't talk about the ark saving Noah, but the water saving Noah.
27:24
Two different concepts.
27:26
The ark saved him from the water, but the water saved him from wickedness.
27:30
Because the water separated the wicked world from the new world.
27:34
It wiped it clean.
27:35
So, he was saved by water, not by the boat.
27:38
He was saved by the boat, too.
27:39
But from God's perspective, he was being saved from wickedness, not from the flood.
27:44
Very interesting.
27:46
Then he was saved by the ark.
27:47
As Noah had the ark, so sinners must enter the church.
27:52
Would Noah have survived if he had stayed outside the ark?
27:56
He would have drowned.
27:58
So, what about a sinner today that says,
28:00
I'm just spiritual, I don't want to be a Christian.
28:04
I'm going to stay out of the church.
28:08
I'll just be religious.
28:09
No, you've got to get in the ark to be saved.
28:11
And the ark is the church today.
28:13
That's the top and any top.
28:15
Now, 2 Peter 2 also talks about Noah, so...
28:22
Let me stop out here just a minute.
28:26
It's going to be about...
28:29
What?
28:31
So, here's one about Noah.
28:33
This is for those who preach in here.
28:35
An example to preachers.
28:38
Noah attempted to turn sinners to God.
28:41
That's what we do.
28:42
Noah faithfully preached, even when no one listened.
28:46
That's what we must do if nobody will listen.
28:48
We still preach.
28:49
Number 3, Noah preached righteousness in a wicked world.
28:53
Is our world wicked?
28:54
Well, we still preach righteousness.
28:56
We don't compromise the standard just because the world is far below the standard.
29:01
Number 4, Noah continued in spite of a lack of response.
29:07
Have you ever preached a whole year and had no responses?
29:10
What about a whole century?
29:12
He preached 120 years.
29:14
And the only people...
29:15
Now, don't discount what he actually did accomplish.
29:18
But nobody got no vote except his family.
29:22
Now, if everybody said it's his family, that would be an improvement over what we have currently.
29:29
Sometimes that's not the fault of the parents, but the influences of the children later.
29:33
But either way, he at least accomplished that.
29:36
He lived consistently with his message.
29:39
His work was not just messages.
29:42
He also was building the ark.
29:44
And he did not complain.
29:46
You don't read any complaints.
29:48
It would be easy to complain about living in that world and preaching to that group of people.
29:53
But you don't read whatever he did.
29:55
So, now we move back and talk about Lot in Genesis.
30:01
This is really beginning in 13.
30:03
So, we're down as...
30:10
I want to go to jump ahead.
30:11
I'll go back and get Abraham and Sarah.
30:13
But I just saw a lot in the passage that were worse.
30:16
So, I want to go back to that passage.
30:18
Lot's lesson is worldliness and maintaining faith.
30:26
One's negative, one's positive.
30:28
Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom.
30:31
And then he lost his family.
30:33
He lost everything that he had hoped to gain in this world.
30:36
Only escape from the clothes on his back.
30:39
That's the negative lesson.
30:40
We'll look at some lessons about that.
30:42
But there is a positive about Lot.
30:45
In that as long as he lived in Sodom, Sodom never lived in him.
30:50
He was always vexed, troubled by the world around him.
30:57
That is saying something.
30:59
That's a strong character to be able to do that.
31:01
Now, he put himself in that harm's way.
31:03
But at least he never compromised his mind about what was right and about God.
31:08
So, let's see both of those lessons.
31:11
Maybe not.
31:14
Lot, is that right?
31:15
Yeah.
31:16
Alright.
31:18
Alright, change of pace.
31:21
Change of plan.
31:23
We're going to do the rest of the 15 lessons.
31:25
So, I'll just go down.
31:26
Because I want you at least to have these.
31:28
And if you want any of those sermons from those other places, just see me after.
31:31
I'll be glad to give them to you.
31:33
Alright, Abraham and Sarah.
31:35
Abraham's lesson is justification by faith and works.
31:40
Not one or the other.
31:41
Romans 4, justification by faith.
31:44
And guess who Paul's example is?
31:46
Abraham.
31:47
James, justification by works.
31:49
James 2, guess who his example is?
31:52
Abraham.
31:53
Same God, same Holy Spirit.
31:55
Abraham's example above.
31:57
Alright, then you've got Sarah.
31:59
Her example is be patient.
32:02
Can you imagine a woman telling her husband,
32:06
why don't you have a baby with this other woman?
32:10
Genesis 21.
32:12
Is it any wonder she was jealous afterward?
32:14
That was a foolish mistake.
32:18
But she wanted a baby so bad.
32:20
And God had promised one.
32:22
They'd been waiting for like, what, 20 years at that point?
32:25
No baby.
32:26
So, she's trying to get ahead of God.
32:28
Help God out.
32:29
God doesn't need any help.
32:31
And eventually she did have her baby.
32:33
But that caused problems.
32:34
But 20 years later, there was another baby that persecuted him.
32:37
And she's also using 1 Peter 3 as an example of being in subjection to your husband.
32:42
Submitting to your husband.
32:44
She's called a whore.
32:46
In that passage, she's an example of holy women.
32:49
That is the daughter of Sarah I want to look up to.
32:52
Alright, the next one is Isaac.
32:55
We've talked about Isaac in the auditorium.
32:58
His lesson has to do with substitution sacrifice.
33:02
Because Abraham took him up on the mountain.
33:05
And then he asked a question.
33:07
This boy had been to worship before.
33:09
And the boy said, he's probably a grown man.
33:12
Upper teens, maybe at this point.
33:14
So he's physically strong.
33:16
He's mentally an adult.
33:18
And so he says, you brought the fire.
33:22
And you got the wood.
33:25
But dad, where's the lamb?
33:27
You know, that question echoes the rest of the Old Testament.
33:31
Where is the lamb?
33:33
Until John says, behold the lamb of God.
33:37
Just take what is in the world.
33:39
Well, anyway.
33:41
Abraham raised him up.
33:43
He was going to plunge him into the beating heart of his own son.
33:46
The son of promise.
33:47
And before he could bear down with it.
33:49
Abraham! Abraham!
33:51
Can you imagine?
33:54
This is a gentleman flowing through me.
33:56
Just talking about it.
33:57
Can you imagine what was going through his mind?
33:59
Through his body?
34:01
Substitution sacrifice.
34:02
It was a ram caught.
34:03
The ram died that day and not Isaac.
34:05
Jesus died and not us.
34:06
That's the point.
34:08
Alright.
34:09
The next lesson.
34:10
He also loved peace.
34:11
We saw that in an earlier lesson in the auditorium.
34:13
Ishmael.
34:14
The lesson is bondage under the law of Moses.
34:17
Galatians chapter 4.
34:19
Versus the freedom in Christ.
34:23
Isaac represented the freedom.
34:25
Ishmael the bondage.
34:27
There's an allegory there.
34:29
Allegory is an unusual figure of speech in scripture.
34:32
But there's one using the license for it.
34:35
Jacob.
34:36
Jacob is talked about in Genesis 27-36.
34:40
We studied the initial installment on the record of Jacob in the earlier class.
34:49
There are two lessons from Jacob.
34:53
One is election.
34:55
And Paul talks about this in Romans 9-13.
34:59
Before they were even born, God chose Jacob and not Esau.
35:05
The elder shall serve the younger.
35:07
Now, the election in the New Testament goes like this.
35:13
God has elected to save those who are righteous.
35:18
To reject those who are unrighteous.
35:23
God voted for everybody to be saved.
35:25
1 Timothy 2-4.
35:27
And none to be lost.
35:28
2 Peter 3-9.
35:30
The devil voted for everybody to be lost and none to be saved.
35:35
We cast a deciding vote.
35:37
Am I going to be with the righteous?
35:39
Am I going to be in the family of God?
35:42
Or am I going to reject God and His way?
35:45
Go my own way, which is the equivalent of going the devil's way.
35:48
So I cast a deciding vote.
35:50
I've already won God's election.
35:52
Everybody did.
35:54
But I can choose not to accept it and reject it.
35:57
That's the lesson that we learned from Jacob.
36:00
The second lesson is growth.
36:02
We touched on this earlier.
36:04
He started out so horribly.
36:07
And he lied to his own father.
36:09
But then he had that vision of the ladder.
36:12
And the blessings that God wanted to give him.
36:15
And he had a change of heart.
36:16
And he grew.
36:17
Now, there were still weaknesses in his character.
36:19
But over the years that were to come, he became a spiritual giant.
36:24
And the father of the tribes of Israel.
36:28
So, if you're a little frustrated with where you are right now spiritually,
36:34
that would probably be most of us, some of us.
36:38
I'm not where I want to be yet.
36:40
Are you?
36:41
No.
36:43
And you may not have had as long to work on it as some of the rest of us.
36:46
You may be a new Christian.
36:48
Well, you can grow.
36:50
And God will help you grow.
36:52
And the Bible is there to give you the food to produce the growth.
36:57
So, be diligent.
36:58
Don't let the spark go out.
37:00
Keep praying.
37:01
Keep reading.
37:02
Keep meditating.
37:03
Keep talking.
37:04
Keep worshiping.
37:05
And your growth will continue.
37:07
Do you have a young person in your extended family that you don't see too often?
37:12
Like a grandchild or a niece or a nephew.
37:14
And maybe you only see them on big holidays when people come in.
37:18
Have you ever said,
37:20
My, how have you grown?
37:24
I can't believe how big you are.
37:27
That's what happens with us.
37:30
You and I are daily growing a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit.
37:34
And then if we compare ourselves with a year ago or two years ago,
37:38
My, how have you grown?
37:41
I'm much more mature than I realize.
37:43
But it was just incremental.
37:45
So, I didn't realize it as it was happening.
37:47
So, don't be frustrated with yourself.
37:48
Just keep on growing.
37:51
The next one is inverse, number 13 on the list, Esau.
37:57
We started about him earlier, so I won't spend more time here,
38:00
except just to mention that his lesson is profane living and misplaced priorities.
38:07
He lived in this world.
38:10
Most of the people out there, wherever out there is for you,
38:18
they don't give a second thought.
38:20
They're not atheists if you ask them,
38:22
but they're practical atheists because they live like there is no God.
38:26
They would never say it, but they live like,
38:29
I don't need to worship God.
38:30
I don't need to read the Bible.
38:31
I'll live the way I want to live.
38:33
I'm doing the best I can.
38:34
That's the mindset of an average person.
38:36
That's Esau's mindset.
38:39
He lived for this world.
38:40
Hunting, food, marrying wives, getting advantage over his brother.
38:48
That sounds like our world, doesn't it?
38:51
And then the last two, Joseph, which I love to preach Joseph,
38:55
but his lesson, there are two here.
38:57
Providence and forgiveness.
38:59
There's a lot more with Joseph about morality.
39:03
For instance, Genesis 37.
39:04
But the two that we'll talk about and that are emphasized in the New Testament,
39:09
are providence and forgiveness.
39:14
He's talked about it in Stephen's sermon in Acts 7.
39:16
He's talked about it in Hebrews 11.
39:20
The providence aspect, the next time you get an opportunity,
39:26
go through Genesis 37 and read all the little things that fell in place
39:33
for Joseph to be attacked and sold by his brothers.
39:38
It's like ten of them.
39:40
He could have gone home and they weren't where they were supposed to be.
39:43
He just happened to run into somebody and said,
39:46
I heard them say they were going over to Dothan.
39:48
Where would that person have been then?
39:50
All those things.
39:52
They could have killed him, but they put him in the pit.
39:54
So forth.
39:55
So, providence.
39:56
Later, he says, Genesis 50, 20.
39:58
Even if you're evil, God made forgiveness.
40:02
God had a plan.
40:04
And then forgiveness, he said, I'm not going to do anything to you, my brothers.
40:09
Then the last one, Melchizedek, is an example of a priesthood of Christ.
40:13
Melchizedek is found in Genesis 14, a mysterious person on purpose.
40:18
We don't know much about him.
40:20
He comes on the stage, we don't know where he came from.
40:22
He exits the stage, we don't know where he went.
40:24
All we know is what we got in Genesis chapter 14.
40:27
And there's a reason, because God intended us not to know that.
40:30
Because he's an example of one who didn't have a beginning.
40:34
Jesus, who came from eternity, went to eternity, just on the stage for those 33 years.
40:39
So he's an example.
40:41
But also because he was a priest.
40:43
And Jesus couldn't be a priest after the order of Aaron, because he was not the right tribe.
40:48
Levi.
40:49
But he could be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, because he did not have a tribe.
40:52
It predated the tribes of Israel.
40:56
All right.
40:57
That's all.
40:58
Thank you for your time.
40:59
I appreciate you coming in this class.