Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're looking in Genesis chapter 4. We're going to talk about two men who made two different choices. Important portion of scripture. Stay tuned for our broadcast. Have your Bible ready if you can. I'm reading from Genesis chapter 4. It says, And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstling of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering, but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. What an interesting portion of scripture. We have two men. We have Cain and we have Abel. Cain's offering was not acceptable unto the Lord. Abel's offering was acceptable unto the Lord. Why? What's the difference here? Well, we read in Hebrews 11 and 4, by faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Now, I think one of the most misunderstood subjects in the Bible is the subject of faith. Most of the time, all except about four or five times when you see the word faith in the New Testament, it's not it's not talking about trusting. It's talking about what we believe. And he says what you believe by what Abel believed by faith. Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain because of what he believed. Now Romans 10 and 17 says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. What we believe comes from the word of God, or at least it should come from the word of God. And so we know that Cain and Abel were both instructed as to what they should do, because by faith Abel offered by the word of God, by the doctrine we would call it today, by what we believe, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. So we have one of these men who believed what God said, and one of these men who did not believe what God said. Well, when we get into chapter 5 here, we see that they lived and they died. It's very interesting. It says in verse 3, and Adam lived. And then in verse 6, Seth lived. And Seth lived after he begat Enos 807 years. And then we read in verse 9, and Enos lived and it goes on to say how many years he lived and then we read in Canaan lived in verse 12 and how many years that he lived over and over again. I think it's 16 times in this chapter we read about the fact that they lived, but we also read about the fact that they died. It says Adam verse number 5, was 930 years and he died. And then we read in verse 8, and all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. And then we read in verse 11, concerning Enos, and he died. And then in verse 14, concerning Cain, and he died. And then we read again in verse 17, referring to Mehalil, it says that he lived 895 years and he died. Verse number 20, Jared, and he died. Verse number 27, Methuselah, and he died. And then we read about Lamech in verse 31 and it says, and he died. Now, we read back here in the early part of the book of Genesis that the devil said to Eve, thou shalt not surely die. Well, the devil lied. He does that. That's what he does. He lies a lot. So we see here that they lived and that they died, and in a short period of time, it's not very long, life is but a vapor, the Bible says. It says, no you not. what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. That's what your life is. It's just a vapor. You go into a cemetery and you look at the tombstones and what you see on those tombstones, is a short dash between two dates. And that's what life is. It's just a short dash between two dates. Well, when we get into chapter 6, we read that the Lord said in verse number 5, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also his flesh, for his days shall be a hundred. and 20 years. Now he says, my spirit shall not always strive. That word strive has been translated in Proverbs 31 and 9 to plead the cause. And so the Holy Spirit works and he works today the same way in our lives to plead the cause of Jesus Christ. But he says here, my spirit shall not always strive with man. And so we read in verse number five it says that God saw, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of his thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That phrase God saw is in the book of Genesis nine times and seven times it says God saw and what he had made, and he said it was good. But now we read God saw the wickedness and there's nothing good about this, and so he ends up bringing in the flood and destroying everything and everybody except for Noah and his family. He says in verse number 7, I will destroy man whom I have created, but we read in verse 8, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It goes on to say in the next verse that he walked with God. Now it's interesting, back in that list of all those people who died, in verse number 21 of chapter 5, we read, And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred, sixty, and five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. He didn't die. The Bible says that God took him. It's a picture of the rapture of the Christian out of this world. just prior to when the tribulation period comes in. Enoch is translated out of this world just before the flood came. And so we read here, God said in verse 7, I will destroy men, but we also read, but Noah. It's interesting that in this portion of scripture, in Genesis 4 and verse number 5, we have the phrase, but Cain. And here in Genesis 5 and 8 we have the phrase, but Noah. We have two men, both of these men made choices and both of these men faced the consequences of their choices. Now in verse number 9 concerning Noah, we read, Noah was a just man and perfect in his his generation, and Noah walked with God. He was just. That word has been translated righteous 162 times. Perfect. Nobody's perfect in the sense of the dictionary term. What the word means, he was complete. Noah wasn't just one of these half-baked believers. He was complete. And we read here that Noah walked with God. Now in Genesis chapter 4 verse number 6 we read the Lord said and he said something to Cain. He gave Cain a choice. He gave him an opportunity to repent. Cain's choice was total rejection and he went his own way. Then here in Genesis 6 and number 3 we read the Lord said and this time he is dealing with Noah and he said Noah this is what I want you to do. Very interesting that we find here in this portion of Scripture that it says in verse number 22 of chapter 6, Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him, so did he. And then down in verse 5 of chapter 7 we read, And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And then again in verse number 9, There went in two and two unto Noah, referring to the animals, into the ark. the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. Everything that Noah was told to do, the Bible says that he did it. Let me read it again. Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. So both of these men are making choices, and both of these men are facing consequences of their choices. Well, what did Cain choose? He went out and the Bible says in the previous chapter that he built a city. Noah, what did he do? He listened to God and he built a boat. Both of them had families. Noah's family got on the boat. Cain's city and Cain's family were destroyed in the flood. Well, we get into chapter 7, and we find that once again the Lord is talking to Noah, and it says here in verse 1, "...and the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me, in this generation. So he said, Noah, come thou, all your family, come on into the ark. Verse number two says here that of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by seven, and the rest by twos, and that's exactly what Noah did. Whatever God said, he said to do it. Now we've got to remember here that the warning was given in the previous chapter. God said, yet 120 years. That's it. We need to understand that men were living nearly a thousand years at this time according to chapter 5. Read the list through there. When you read about Methuselah in chapter 5 in verse number 27, Methuselah was 969 years old. The oldest man who ever recorded who ever lived that long was Methuselah. Interestingly enough, his name means, when he is gone it shall be sent. Talking about the judgment, when Methuselah dies, Then the judgment comes. Interesting that Methuselah lived longer than anybody because of the grace of God. And over and over and over again for 120 years they had an opportunity to listen to God. They did not. Now in chapter 7 in verse 1 it very plainly says here that he was to come in through the ark. Noah, come in the ark. Come in. Okay, interesting. A voice inside said, come in. Come on in. He did. Three times we have read that Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. Here in this chapter, in verse number 13, it says, In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, and the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark. He said in verse 1, come in the ark. The selfsame day they came into the ark. Well, then we read in verse 14 that every beast after his kind and all the cattle and creeping things and so on, they went, look at verse 15, they went in unto Noah into the ark. So, it seems obvious here that what has happened is God said, now there's only seven more days, come on in here and your family. While he's in there, the door is open for seven more days. The animals have more sense than the people, and the animals, we find them coming into the ark People outside, you can imagine that Noah's family, his sons and their wives, they had friends out there, they had people they were trying to convince to come into this ark. Well, the animals are coming in, we're going to get frogs coming in, you're going to get cattle coming in, you're going to get insects coming in, you're going to get birds coming in, you're going to get people out there laughing and saying this is ridiculous. I'm not getting in that boat with those religious maniacs. and they didn't. Well, then we read very plainly that when it was time, the Bible very plainly says in verse number 16, and they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut Him in. He didn't shut anybody out for 120 years they could have come in. For another seven days they watched the animals go in. God shut them in. He didn't shut anybody out. That was a choice, and that was a consequence, and we're all either going to make the choices of Cain or Abel. We're either going to make the choices of the world, or we're going to do what Noah did. Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. That's a pretty good idea. Well, we're out of time again. Tune in tomorrow. We'll continue this broadcast from here. you