Bible Study Genesis Part 62-Time Is Running Out

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day.

The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold.

And we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There's truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

We are making our way through the book of Genesis.

You know, sometimes, and this is not the first time during any of our Bible studies where we seem to not hit a snag, not dragging our feet through the mud, but we're taking our time going through this story, through what's going on in Genesis chapter six before we even start talking about Genesis chapter six.

Of course, we've read it through a couple of times, but we need to take our time to make sure that we can clear away all of the nonsense that too often surrounds this very, very important story.

So why don't we continue tonight?

By the way, before we go any further, I do want to announce that we're gonna start another Bible study series.

We're gonna start the book of Romans in just a few weeks.

So please look for that on our YouTube channel.

We are going to start going through Romans just like we have through the other books.

We're going to be doing both.

We're going to do Genesis and we're going to be doing Romans.

So I really, I really am going to need your prayer.

So please pray for me.

Pray for the strength and the wisdom that I will definitely need when going through all of this work.

It's going to be a lot of work, but we're going to go through it because God is to be glorified through his word.

So here we go.

We're going to start again, as I said, let's continue with what we are talking about here, which is Genesis chapter six.

For the most part, so far in our coverage of this chapter of chapter six, we've been talking about generalities.

Now let's tie all of this back to the chapter we're about to embark on.

Catherine looked through my notes and she said, we never get to chapter six tonight.

We don't get to chapter six tonight.

I know that's a misleading statement I just made about tying things back.

I can't help it.

When things need to be added, they needed to be added.

We will continue with this general discussion tonight at least.

By the way, this next little bit that is that we're going to be talking about is based on a sermon one preached once preached by one of my pulpit heroes, Dr.

Martin Lloyd, Dr.

Martin Lloyd Jones, the Welsh former medical doctor who succeeded the incomparable G.

Campbell Morgan at Westminster Chapel.

Not cathedral, Westminster Chapel in London.

If you ever get a chance to read a book written by that man, let me know when you're finished because I'll want to borrow it.

So back to Genesis 6.

There are so many things to talk about regarding this portion of scripture.

And really, this is what's so wonderful about the way God works.

The story of Noah and the flood is so famous that there's hardly a person on earth who hasn't heard of it.

Therefore, it's the perfect story to use as background when trying to evangelize someone.

The problem, however, is that the meaning has been so butchered.

You have to spend some time working through the fantasy to get to the reality.

But when you do, it can have real impact.

And that's been our goal for a few weeks now.

Now, we haven't really begun our analysis of the chapter yet.

We'll eventually get to it, but we've got some work to do first.

Listen, when you get someone to believe in something that's been relegated to nothing more than a backdrop for vacation Bible school, just like Catherine put up on the screen.

That's exactly the way people think Noah's Ark is, is this kind of fanciful, big-eyed kind of animals.

I don't even see Noah in that picture.

Is Noah even in there?

I guess he's just a bit player in this story, but that's what you have to work through.

The one on the left, that's what it should be going through your mind, because that is actually what we're about to come across.

This is the danger that God has said we're all in.

We're all in this.

But when you can get someone to see how important this story is to God, when you can get someone to step over the line into the land of the believing and trusting and leaning, it becomes one of the most incredible events of both of your lives.

So let's get back to it.

Now, this overview we've been engaged in for a little while now covers the entire flood narrative, which, by the way, spans all of the sixth, all of the seventh, all of the eighth chapter of Genesis, and arguably part of the ninth.

The discussion we're continuing tonight, by the way, is relevant to the whole scope of this remarkable story.

Now, before we get started, I want to point out that you're going to get the impression that I consider these chapters as history.

You're going to see that to me, this is just as much a part of the human story as the rise and fall of Rome, the discovery of America, the ascension of Napoleon in France, and the landing at Normandy.

Now, I will disagree with those who will try and tell you that the entire Bible is history.

It is not.

Much of it is instruction, much of it is song and worship, much of it is symbol, and of course, much of it is prophecy.

You can't very well call history what hasn't happened yet.

Maybe you can call it future history.

I guess that would be all right.

Though the Bible isn't all history, Genesis 6, 7, and 8 are.

And what's more, like all history, it's relevant to us today.

So chapter 6 begins the record of something rather remarkable.

I sure hope you're taking the time to read these three chapters because that's going to help you through, especially these first few lessons.

In fact, it's always a good idea to read the material before we go start teaching on it, no matter what it is.

I think the first sort of general feeling one gets when going over this is that it seems that this extraordinary event happened after an interval of, well, no other extraordinary events.

Now, most of what we've been studying for a while now is just a sort of rundown of who people are and mostly what those people are known for.

When we do arrive at chapter six, we get the feeling that God hasn't been doing much for a while.

Since I suppose the banishment of Cain, God seems to have sort of left man to himself, kind of just let us do our own thing.

Now I'm pointing this out because it's really the beginning of a pattern in man's relationship to God as laid out in his book.

A very important pattern, as a matter of fact.

God seems to from time to time step back, blend into the background, work from behind the scenes, a pattern that's been repeated all the way up into our own time and will continue on into the future as shown to us in God's Word.

What we see in chapter six is that after what appears to be a period of inactivity, God bursts onto the scene, or so it would seem.

And it appears that he allows that to happen.

Things eventually get out of control, and then he steps in and does something.

That is what is happening here.

But it's also preceded the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the ruin of the Egyptian army following the Exodus, the Babylonian captivity, then on into the New Testament with the birth of the Messiah and the yet future Great Tribulation.

Now, why does God do things like that?

Well, I believe there are a number of reasons.

First of all, I think because he is in charge of history.

He is manipulating the events of this world for his own purposes.

Now, when I say his own purposes, I really mean his own purpose.

He has but one purpose, and that is to redeem mankind to himself.

Every single bit of history, every outcome on this planet happens because God has allowed it to happen in the way it happens so that he can bring us closer to our Savior.

Now, you can't really believe that, John.

How can you believe something like that?

Well, because that's what he tells us in his own word.

Psalm 50, verses 10 and 11.

Psalms 50:10

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills, I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

Ephesians 1, starting at verse 10.

That in the dispense most of you remember this because we went over it quite a few times, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

All things work after the counsel of his own will.

It doesn't get any clearer than that.

Maybe it does.

Let's listen to Jesus, Matthew 28, 18.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given.

What do you mean by all power, Jesus?

All power.

He didn't stop to clarify what he meant by all power, because everybody knows all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Come on, John, cite me something valid.

I did.

God's word is valid.

Listen, I've said to you before, I'm never going to try to prove the Bible is true.

I'm not sure I can.

It's not that there isn't sufficient evidence.

There's plenty.

It's just that there's no way to get anyone to believe the Bible is true unless God has called them, evidence or not.

If you aren't right with God, it's always going to sound like nonsense.

That's what's happened to this story.

It sounds like nonsense to people because God is not leading them through it.

And the Bible says that too.

First Corinthians 1 18.

Listen to this.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.

But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.

A little later in that same First Corinthians letter, Paul gets even more specific.

Chapter 2, verse 11.

If you want to follow along, if you don't have your Bible with you, Catherine always puts the passages up on the screen.

First Corinthians 2, 11.

For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?

Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.

It's the Spirit of God that helps us to understand what God is saying.

And when people get it wrong, horribly wrong, it's because they're not being led of the Spirit.

And then just a few verses still in that first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says it again, but with even more force.

Listen to this.

But the natural man, meaning the natural sinful man, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.

He's going to say it again, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

So you may ask to me, then ask me.

So why bother?

Why are you even wasting your time?

Why broadcast this on YouTube?

Why put this podcast on your website if there's so few people that are going to be led of God?

Because God hasn't made known to me who he's chosen and who he's not chosen.

So I proceed through with ignorance of who is going to respond.

Let me quote Charles Spurgeon.

If God would have pointed a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect, I would go around lifting shirts.

But since he didn't, I must preach whosoever will and whatsoever believes, I know that he is one of the elect.

Unquote.

In other words, my job is not to try and discern who can or can't understand what I'm saying.

My job is to proclaim it.

My job is to proclaim the gospel.

It's your job too.

And then you and I just have to hope that it means something to the person we're talking to.

I told you I was gonna have to do some preaching here in the early going.

Back to our discussion.

So in this current lesson, we've established the fact that there are these intervening periods where it appears that God is inactive, that he's letting boys be boys, as it were.

The record in Scripture, and I believe in secular history, this is present as well.

The apparent gaps of serenity and prosperity, brief though they may be, are never attributed to God's lack of action.

Likewise, you won't hear your world history professor credit God when worldwide cataclysms hit.

I will say, however, that lately the educational elite are starting to sound a lot like Bible scholars when they say that man is increasingly responsible for bringing on these far-reaching global crises.

They don't admit that they agree with God.

It's just that their writing and God's writing seem to be quite similar on that point.

Nonetheless, let's stick with the scriptural record for now.

In the Bible, we notice that God steps back for a time before he intervenes directly and forcefully into the affairs of man.

Why do you keep telling us that?

Just because God doesn't appear to be active in world affairs doesn't mean he isn't.

I want you to understand that the pattern has been established.

There are going to be times when God is working, I'll say it again, from behind the scenes.

All of the mess that's going on in Israel and Palestine.

Some people are saying, Where's God?

He's there.

Believe me, he's there.

And if anything, the flood tells us he'll only be behind the scenes for so long.

And we better trust that he's there whether we can see him or not.

As I said, he's already established the pattern.

The flood is but one of these direct interventions that followed a period of more, again, behind the scenes agenda.

Now, please don't think I'm being disrespectful.

I'm only trying to make a point.

So the next question is the very natural why.

And we started out saying that sometimes God limits his direct actions because he's allowing events to take their normal course so long as it fits into his plan.

So he waits.

Well, he's in charge, he's not concerned things are going to go too far because he has his hand on the tiller, so to speak.

But there's another, even more important reason God waits.

Well, no one can say it like King David, Psalm 103, verse 8.

Psalms 103:8

Take this with you tonight.

I want you to hear it closely.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.

God is always ready and willing to give us enough time to come around.

Listen, no one knows the pitiful state of our hearts like the one who created him.

Though he made us in his image, we're still earthly.

A couple of times in this journey through Genesis, we came across the fact that God called Adam Adam as a means of reminding Adam of his humble beginnings.

The Hebrew word Adam is related to or is in some way a play on the word Adam, which, as you remember, refers to the ground or the land or the earth.

In naming the first man Adam, we who are his ancestors have all inherited the very important correction on us, assuming that we're anything more than what we are.

When we know that our first father was Adam of the earth, it's a reminder to us to make sure we remain humble.

We are of this earth.

We are nothing more than that.

Well, that too can be merciful, by the way.

It may seem like an insult, but God wants to make sure that we are aware of our limitations.

He doesn't want us to step over our own abilities.

After all, All.

He is he knows our own abilities.

He knows our limitations.

And that's why he's slow to anger.

That's why he allows us time to work things out.

But the other thing this story of Noah, as well as the rest of the Bible, tells us is that God never expects us to figure ourselves out alone.

Never ever forget that God always gives us a witness.

God will always, and we will talk about that especially as we go through the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament.

God always has a witness present.

Moses was a witness.

Abraham was a witness.

There's always somebody witnessing for God to return us to him.

Always.

He never leaves us out in that desert alone, never.

He always sends a representative in order to guide us and educate us and correct us.

Now, just as a quick note, I don't want to get into it in too much detail yet, but Noah, as well as that ridiculous boat being built on dry land, far from any water deep enough to float it, those two, Noah and the boat, were God's witnesses that something was going to happen soon and that it was time for mankind to wake up and smell the raindrops.

Those two witnesses demonstrate to us God's mercy.

Every time God sends us a witness, it shows us he's merciful.

It shows us that he's not done with us.

And that mercy, by the way, the mercy of the witnesses, the mercy of always trying to bring us along back to himself, that's founded in wisdom.

God knows we are not designed to be self-aware enough to properly assess our failure.

He didn't give us the ability to be autonomous.

By design, under the original plan, the one we ruined, there would have been no need for autonomy.

Listen to me.

God put us in a garden and told us he put us in a garden for a reason.

The reason why my son-in-law built raised vegetable beds in my backyard is because vegetables can't thrive in the wild.

They're not trained for it.

They're not built for it.

They're not designed for it.

An unprotected space, an unwalled space is fraught with danger.

The wild is filled with the enemies of thriving tomatoes.

Me just going out there and telling my squash plants to figure it out just means I'm not going to enjoy grilled zucchini this summer.

We foolish humans have caused ourselves to be banished to an environment that we are completely unsuited for spiritually.

We may be able to adapt physically to just about any surroundings, but our spirits languish in exile.

And we cannot get along without our spirits.

We are triune creatures too.

Soul, spirit, and body.

And they have to be in the right order for us to be properly oriented.

In the garden, that's what would have happened.

Out here, we're in trouble.

We're not prepared for spiritual isolation.

And God knows that better than we do.

In fact, we don't even know it.

He does.

And so he's willing to be patient and helpful to us, but his patience will run out.

It may take a while.

But the only wise thing to do, and God only acts wisely, his wisdom is in every action he performs.

And it is unwise to not put a limit on patience.

Otherwise, patience becomes a permission.

And that isn't going to happen.

God help us before we get to that place.

Now I think we're ready.

Verse 1 of Genesis 6, next time.

See you then.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

Please join us again soon.

New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often.

For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com.

And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page.

Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible.

It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.