The Flood

The Flood << Genesis 6 >> King James Version 1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.3And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 5And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 16A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. 17And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. 18But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 19And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 20Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 21And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 22Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

Sermon

1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

According to my own calculations, the population of the world at that time could have been more that the population of the world now, in 2011!

2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

The ‘sons of God’ here probably refer to angels. The women in those days were exceedingly beautiful that even the angel’s desired the fruit of their bodies!

3And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

God here sees that man is living to be almost a millennium old, and God decides that man should not be permitted to stay on this earth for such a long time, so He decides that man shall live to an average of 120 years!

4There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

This is kind of freaky actually, an angel has intercourse with a human woman, and the children turn out to be some kind of super human.

I guess the girls of today just aren’t that attractive any more.

But what I find quite interesting is that Jesus said that the angels of God do not marry, when debating with the Sadducees about the resurrection. So maybe this was quite an unnatural occurrence which happened here!

5And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Does that ring a bell for any of you here?

If you are truly a Christian you will feel that you have a terrible heart that only ever wants to sin. Paul even went so far as to say that he was the “chief” of sinners, the very worst!

6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

God really hates your sins! See what it did to our Lord Jesus Christ, God the father forsook Him while He suffered for our sins on the cross. Sin really is no small matter!

7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

You know there are a lot of similarities between that time and now. The population of that time and now are very similar. People are completely wicked now and then, doing unnatural things both now and then. Back then God destroyed the world by a flood, but God has promised that the world will never be destroyed by a flood again, so what’s going to happen to the world now if The Lord decides to punish us?

I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. The world is going to end!

8But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Will you find grace in the eyes of The Lord when it comes time for the world to end?

Family Tree (part 3)

Family Tree (part 3)

<< Genesis 5 >> King James Version 21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. 25And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: 26And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: 27And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. 28And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: 29And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. 30And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: 31And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. 32And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Sermon

We are just going to do a short session today, as we will attempt to complete this 5^th chapter in Genesis.

So let’s begin:

21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

Enoch was a very special person. It is said that he walked with God. This may well have been a literal walking together, as we read that in Genesis 3 that God walked in the cool of the day.

But what we really should be getting here is that Enoch’s whole life was taking over by the service of God. Everything Enoch did was as unto the Lord, even if he breathed it was only always for the glory of God. Although I do believe that Enoch did sin at times at Paul states that “all” have sinned “and fall short of the Glory of God”.

24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Now, all through the chapter up until now, we have read about those that have lived to be very old, but each and every one of them eventually died.

But Enoch here, it never states that he died. And it is generally interpreted here that Enoch never died a natural death, but was taken up into Heaven by-passing death.

But let me first ask you a question:

What is death?

You may wonder what I mean by that question; surely everyone knows what death is?

Do they really?

Has anyone ever come back from the dead to tell us what exactly happened to them?

If you want to hear my definition of death, here it is:

Death is merely the transition from this world into that which is to come, death is a transition that takes no time at all, and thus there is no point at which we can say “this is death”. One moment we are in this world, the next we are in eternity. And thus because death takes no time at all it is safe to say that death does not exist. So thus there should be no need to worry about the state of death, but rather, we should prepare for the world to come: Eternity!

So in reality, I believe that Enoch had to go through the exact same things as we will one day have to! So perhaps, in a way Enoch did die, but death is not what is important, but what is to come after death!

25And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: 26And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: 27And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

Our next character is Methuselah, who is famous as having the longest ever recorded life span! Methuselah lived a total of 969 year, almost a whole millennium!

It has been mentioned that Methuselah dies the same year as the flood, maybe he was a wicked man and died in the flood, or maybe he died just before, I don’t know!

28And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: 29And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.

Now finally we come to the days of Noah, which starts of the second major part of the book of Genesis.

Lamech knew that Noah was going to be used of God in a special way, but I don’t think he knew exactly how special!

30And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: 31And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and if my maths are correct, he died only 5 years before his father Methuselah and only 5 years before the flood!

32And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

And we are going to hear a lot about Noah in the following chapters.

But that’s all for now.

I pray that the Lord will add His blessing on His holy Word, and help us to meditate therein.

Amen!

Family Tree (part 2)

Family Tree (part 2)

<< Genesis 5 >> King James Version 1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. 3And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: 4And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: 5And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. 6And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: 7And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: 8And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. 9And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: 10And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: 11And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. 12And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: 13And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: 14And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. 15And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: 16And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: 17And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. 18And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: 19And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 20And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. 21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. 25And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: 26And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: 27And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. 28And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: 29And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. 30And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: 31And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. 32And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Sermon

A lot of people will just skip over long genealogies like we have in this chapter today, but what they don’t realise is that there is a lot to learn from these genealogies, as we will find out in our study today!

It really does make a difference who our parents are. You should be extremely thankful if you are brought up by spiritual parents.

Our genealogy in our last session was that of Cain’s and most of the names mentioned were of wicked people who knew not our Lord. But today we learn about the good guys, those who followed the Lord and had done so for many generations.

What I really love is when I hear about 4^th 5^th or 6^th generation Christians, they have been taught about the Bible from their youth and thus are very knowledgeable. I myself am a second generation Christian and am exceedingly grateful that The Lord has placed me in such a privileged position.

So let’s start!

1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

This is the family tree of Adam.

Adam was created in the image of God, and as we have previously discussed, because we are made in the image of God we should try and look after our bodies, or that would be like spoiling a painting of God.

2Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Male and Female! God gave us the ability to reproduce, and so we have the following Family tree.

3And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Seth was Adam and Eve’s 3^rd son after Cain and Abel (who Cain murdered).

Adam had his son Seth when he was 130 years old. And Seth was born 130 years after the creation.

4And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

So Adam lived a total of 930 years, which is a very very long time! To give you a little idea of how long Adam lived: 930 years ago would be the year 1081, not long after the Batttle of Hastings in 1066 if you know anything about English history, and long before the Europeans discovered America!

So as you can imagine, Adam saw a lot of things happen during his lifetime.

But you may ask why we don’t live that long anymore? Well it seems that after the flood God reduced the age of everyone’s death.

But as a Christian there comes a time in your life where you begin to rather die than live, as you become aware that after death you will go to Heaven where you will be forever with Jesus. Then you wish that God will take your life away that you may spend eternity with Jesus. So you see we really shouldn’t envy Adam and his long life!

5And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

This is the first recorded natural death. There are two other recorded deaths: The death of the animal from which God used the skins to cloth Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and then there was the unnatural murder of Abel.

So Adam must have wondered whether if he looked after himself well that maybe he could live forever. But that’s not possible; death is the curse that Adam inherited the day that he sinned in the Garden of Eden.

6And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:

Enos was the Grandson of Adam, and during his life, the population of the world would be getting near 1000 people. This must have been quite strange for Adam as he would likely often see someone who he didn’t know and yet they must have been one of his decendants.

7And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:

So he too lived a very long time, a total of 912 years.

8And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

Seth too died! I think we are starting to see a bit of a trend here. As we go down through this chapter we will continually hear the words “and he died”. My hope is that it will cause you to realise that you too will die one day, and I really hope that you are ready!

9And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:

Now the populations starting to increase again... at this time the population of the world is about the size of a small city or a bit town.

10And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:

Enos was 905 when he died. I wonder what they decided to do with all that time they had? Do you reckon they twiddled their thumbs all day long? I reckon that they spent their time just like we do now, and felt guilty when they wasted time and felt that they got too old too fast as we do today.

My advice to you is that you don’t know how long you have to live, certainly not as long as these people did, so treasure every moment you have. Every second is precious!

11And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.

Enos might have thought that he could live forever, but even he had to die sometime. Death is certain, so there should be no reason to not be prepared for it!

12And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:

Now the population’s of the world is probably nearing about 500,000 people.

I kind of wonder, Cainan had a son at the age of 70, so he must have married not too long before that, so he must have been quite old, don’t you think?

13And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:

910 years old! You will only live a fraction of that time! Use your time wisely!

14And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

He died too! Are you getting scared?

You should be, you only ever get one shot at life, make it count!

15And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: 16And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: 17And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.

The population of the world has gone up to about 15 million now, and everyone is dying, including Mahalaleel.

You know someone might say of me someday, Michael Buckingham lived 25 years and had a son: and after he had his son Michael lived another 40 years and had other sons and daughters: and all the days of Michael were 65 years: and.... HE DIED!

The same could be said of you!

Death is now upon the road!

Be ready!

18And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: 19And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 20And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

Now the population’s about 300 Million, the population of The United States; and you know what? Everyone eventually dies!

You could imagine, everyone by this time are starting to become afraid of death and are trying all kinds of experiments to see if they can discover the key to immortality. But obviously no-one found it or they would be alive this very day.

Death is the one event no-one can stop!

I will have to finish there, but in our next session we will read about someone who didn’t die, but he still had to pass from this world to the next, so don’t start thinking there’s hope that you could live forever!

It is important that you realise your doom, accept it, and prepare yourself to one day stand before the judgement seat of God!

I pray that it will be well for you on that day!

May the Lord add His blessing and pardon anything I have said amiss!

Amen