We just studied the subject of faith in recent weeks and pondered how it is that we can understand this most crucial, necessary grace in the life of a Christian. We've attempted to define faith in our last six sermons, from our previous series entitled Living by Grace Through Faith. We looked at the gift of faith, we looked at the cross quality of faith, we looked at the resurrection dynamic of faith, and the components of faith, the experience of faith, and the obedience of faith. I trust that those studies have helped us and have encouraged and excited interest in the subject of faith. And if you found yourself, as I have, as a result of those studies, asking, well, I want to see and experience more of the things that I've been studying. And I hungered for a living example of the things that we're looking at. to see faith fleshed out in human experience, to see how faith moves through the course of a man's life, and how it is to be evidenced in the life of a believer. And so, I determined that this would be a good time to embark on a biographical study of the man in our Bible who was presented to us particularly as a man of faith. to see this doctrine that we've studied, the doctrine of faith, fleshed out in the life experience of the forefather of our faith, the Old Testament man, Abraham. You say, well, why Abraham? There are a number of biographical studies that we could do from Old or New Testament that exemplify faith. You think of Hebrews 11, and faith is something that characterized numerous, in fact, all of God's people. Well, what is it that attracts us to Abraham? Well, it's a very sobering thing to realize, my friends, that our lives eventually will be summed up in a very short compass of words. All of the things that we do, all the places that we go, all the relationships that we have, all of the activities we give ourselves to, and all of the various levels of the things that we're engaged in here and there, and all of these things will all be able to come into one little short compass of the summary of what we really stand for. and what we really are. There will be but few words that can distill the essence of our identity. The core summarizing description of what our lives signify and mean. What's the one thing so marks us to be the defining issue that gives meaning to these few fleeting years that we have in this life. When we ask that question of the man Abraham, we look at such passages as Galatians chapter 3 and verse 9. And in Galatians chapter 3 verse 9, we're given one such summarizing description. A man, mind you, who lived some 170 years, And all of those years, and all of those travels, and all of the experiences can be summed up in Abraham's case into two words. In Galatians 3 and verse 9, we read that Abraham is called the believer. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. What would it be said of you, my friend? Your name, the what? The activity that summarizes and gives the distilling essence of what your soul and what your life is. Jimmy, the worrier. Right? Abraham, the believer. The new, or rather the King James describes it, Faithful Abraham. The AFV, the Faithful Abraham. The new King James, Believing Abraham. But this is, what an old friend of ours once said, would be the Chewy Nugget Center. Of what Abraham is all about. Faith. He is the believer. And that, I believe, is the supreme lesson that the Holy Spirit would have us learn from a study of Abraham's life. And that is, what does it mean to believe? We've studied the doctrine. We've considered it in an analysis, conceptually, doctrinally, topically. But if you ask the question, well, what does it mean for a man to live as a believer? And the Holy Spirit points to Abraham. There's the believer. There's the believer. Indeed, when Paul wants to instruct us concerning the issues of justification by faith, to whom does he point? Romans chapter 4 and verse 1. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he is something to boast about, but not before God. So what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. When Paul wants to instruct us, concerning the faith that he teaches in the book of Romans, justifying faith. He points out Abraham. In verse 11 of this chapter, he calls him the father of all who believe. In verse 16, he is the father of us all. Abraham's faith is paradigmatic for us who are Christians. Verse 23, now, not for his sake only was it written that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, he who was delivered up because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification. Paul says that Abraham's experience of faith is recorded for our sake. As he later says in chapter 15 verse 4, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. Why was the biography of Abraham recorded in the pages of our book, of our Bible? For our sake, says Paul, so that we might be instructed to have faith, to have perseverance, and to have hope. Now, each of us, I'm sure, have experienced a natural interest in our fathers. When you discover something about your father, my kids will often say to me, Dad, tell us a story about something that happened to you when you were our age. What were you like when you were a little boy? Once upon a time, long, long time ago. And the story begins. And of course, the interest is there. And the interest is there when you begin, well, let me tell you about what my father did. And how my father immigrated from a foreign country. And let me tell you about my great-grandfather on my mother's side, who was a preacher from Scotland. And let me tell you about my great-grandfather on my father's side, who was a captain of a ship in the Navy. And oh, the riveted, you see. I'm going all the way back to people they'll never meet and have never known, to places they've never been to, and yet the interest is automatically there when Paul says, I want to talk to you about your father. The father of all those who believe. And our interest is automatically attracted to that because we say, well, there's something about our father that's relevant to me. There's something about him that's influenced me. And when I learn and discover the things that my father did, Well, I expect to see those very kind of things in myself. And there's an immediate connection of identity. To know what my father was doing, to know what I'm doing. Those who trust in Jesus Christ, we're told, are the spiritual sons of Abraham. For we bear Abraham's distinctive family trait, not by genes, not by geographical location, but by spiritual distinction. We bear the family trait of faith. And the study of Abraham will bring us to a greater appreciation of that very distinction. When James wants to talk about what it means to bear the fruit of faith. Paul says, I want to tell you about trusting the promises of God in justifying faith. James says, well, I want to tell you about practical faith. I want to tell you the way faith demonstrates itself. I want to tell you the way faith manifests its fruit. And who does James point us to? Well, you ought not to be surprised. He points us to Abraham in James chapter 2. Reading from verse 21, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected, and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. The Holy Spirit uses Paul to point us to the epitome experience of faith in the first period of Abraham's life. There in chapter 15 of Genesis, when the promises of God are communicated to Abraham, and without works, without any merit of his own, he simply trusts in the promise of God, and Paul says he was a justified man. James comes along and says, I want to show you the epitome expression of Abraham's faith in the second period of his life. And he takes us to chapter 22 of Genesis and leads us up Mount Moriah and says, there you see that old man with his knife over the chest of his son about to sacrifice. That's three. And so from the first period of Abraham's life, Romans 4 pointing to Genesis 15, the second period of Abraham's life, James 2 pointing to Genesis 22, and the common testimony of these two apostolic witnesses is Abraham is the man of faith, Abraham the believer. We need to learn, you see, not only what God promises, that's what Abraham learned in the first part of his life, but we need to trust God for how He's going to bring those promises to fulfillment. And that's what Abraham was tested through the course of his second part of his life. Like Abraham, we need to learn to trust God's words and God's ways. And God's going to test us if we're sons of Abraham. If you're sons of Abraham, God's going to test you. And He's going to prove you. He's going to take you up Mount Moriah. He's going to take you out into the wilderness. He's going to prove you. And we need to see what he's done with Abraham and learn from Abraham to persevere in hope. But in point of fact, my friends, our study of Abraham's biography is actually not the study of a man so much as it is the study of our God. The study of God's gracious dealings with undeserved sinners. The study of the life of Abraham is an opportunity to learn more about the activity of God. And to see the grace of God in Abraham's life is to give us opportunity to learn that that grace is ours. All the more so now revealed in Christ. And that we are to learn to trust God. And to live our lives in reliance upon and in cooperation with the activity of God. Because God is the primary actor in the life of Abraham. But not only Paul, and not only James, but Jesus as well. When he seeks to teach concerning the issues of faith, in John chapter 8, he points to Abraham. When it is asserted to him that the Pharisees claim to be the sons of Abraham, in verse 39, Jesus says, if you are Abraham's children, then do the deeds of Abraham. Here's how Abraham's children are evidenced. by their activities of faith. What is it that Abraham did? What was the essential deed of Abraham? Verse 56, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Your father Abraham believed. He believed. He saw the promise of Christ And he believed, he rejoiced, he was glad. You do those works. You prove yourselves sons of Abraham. Well, at the conclusion of our series on living by grace through faith, I believe it's certainly to our benefit to listen to the counsel of Paul and James and Jesus himself and seek to be taught by the Holy Spirit from the life and experience of our spiritual father, Abraham. The biography of Abraham has a tremendously prominent place in the pages of the book of Genesis. An entire age of global history is recorded and documented in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. At the end of chapter 11, we're introduced to the family of Abraham, and then the next 14 chapters are given to the life experience of one man. Isn't that amazing? An entire world comes, teeming with human beings. Events of global impact. The flood, the Tower of Babel, all these amazing global events, rise and leave and go. And then one man comes into the pages of Genesis, and it's his biography that we trace out then for the next 14 chapters. More space given to him than what was given to an entire world. that preceded him. But we can't just jump into the life of Abraham and ignore that world that preceded him, because that's the historical context and setting into which Abraham was born. So we want to come to some understanding this morning, and it's a prodigious task in front of me to try over the next 40 minutes or so to cover an entire world and its history in the life of the world, the times before Abraham, and in particular to inquire concerning those events that transpired in the world before Abraham. that were revealing of the character and activity of God. We want to understand by our study this morning how it is that God revealed himself to men in the time prior to Abraham so that those revelations of God we can understand as having influence upon Abraham's understanding of God. We want to first of all see in our study this morning that God and the world before Abraham knew the revelation of God the Creator. In Genesis 14, we lower ourselves down into an event in the life of Abraham. The battle against the five kings has just been concluded Abraham is the victor. He has despoiled these five kings. He has obtained, rescued his nephew Lot and all the possessions of their family and many of the other peoples of the city of Sodom. He's come back. The king of Sodom and the king of Salem, Melchizedek, have both come out to meet him in triumph of his military conquest. And it is in the words of Melchizedek that we see something of the knowledge of God as Creator, when in verse 19 of Genesis 14, he blessed him and said, Bless the Abram of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hands. Now, here's a foundational theological truth that was known in the day of Abraham, and obviously known by Abraham as he received the blessing of Melchizedek, that God is El Elyon. You see the footnote, if you have a Bible that has that, the God Most High, the Hebrew words El Elyon. Now, El is the most ancient of names given by God to mankind. This is one of the oldest names for God known to mankind. El is a word that describes the transcendent being, the one who exists above all that is created. It is a word that in particularly identifies God as the creator. El-Yan, you notice El again repeated. El-Yan emphasizes this concept of transcendency, but now instead of above the created realm, it is the transcendency of this God above all other gods. that this is the true God, who is transcendent above all that is created, and above all of the idols, and false gods that are fashioned by those who do not know God, whose imaginations have been fueled by the devil's lies. El-Yan-El, El-El-Yan, the Most High God, the God who is the true Creator God, who transcends all that is created and stands exalted above all concepts of God, all idols of man's making. This is the God, you notice, who is possessor of Heaven and Earth. We look at the word Heaven and Earth, and it is what the linguist would call a merism. That means it is a way of describing the totality of something by going from one opposite end to the other opposite end. If you wanted to describe yourself with a merism, you would describe what you are from head to toe. That's one extreme to the other extreme. It's looking at the polarities of things. When God describes himself, he sometimes uses the merism, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Both extremes, one encompasses the thing. Its description is in its totality. And heaven and earth is a merism. The Hebrew language doesn't have a single word that would be translated universe. like we would have. Instead of saying universe, the Hebrew would say heaven and earth. And that recalls the language of Genesis 1.1. In the beginning God created, we would say the universe. The Hebrew says the heaven and the earth. It is a totality that is described with these words heaven and earth. And who is this Most High God in relation to all that is the heaven and the earth that was created on the first day? He is none other than Most High, the Possessor. Or again, if you see your footnote, a word that could be translated creator. The Hebrew word here is a word that is used to describe the birthing process or the activity of producing something. It is also, and here's how it's translated in the text of the NASV, it is also legitimately translated to emphasize ownership of something. ownership obtained by rights of possession, by rights of purchase. And so what we're told here is that the God who blesses Abraham with this military conquest is none other than the creator God, the supreme transcendent God, the God who is sole and supreme owner of the universe. It is this God that has given Abraham military conquest. Abraham knew this God as creator or possessor of heaven and of earth. The knowledge of God the Creator was extant at the time of Abraham. And of course, that makes perfect sense to you, doesn't it? Because in the history of God's dealings with men, creation was the first thing that God did to reveal himself, and to make himself known. And you would do well, my friends, to sit and spend some time thinking, what is it that is revealed about God in creation? that would regulate Abraham's faith. Abraham does amazing things. He does astounding things by faith. And faith doesn't just hang out there on a skyhook attached to nothing. It's connected to an object. And he believes in the God who is possessor, creator of heaven and earth. What did he know by virtue of that act of creation about this God that he could trust in? Well, you think of God. He's the living God. If he's the creator, he's not dead. He's the living God. And friends, that is a tremendously potent truth for Abraham. Because Abraham comes to the conviction. by faith in the God who created all things, the God whose word brought all things into existence out of nothing, that this God can certainly raise the dead. And that this God can give me my inheritance after I'm dead. And that's no small part of what drives Abraham the believer. Where did he know that? How did he know that? Well, there are some events that have already transpired in the history of God's people that would indicate and confirm the truth that is revealed in creation. The God who makes all things out of nothing is a God who can bring life from the dead. He's the living God. Isn't that what Jesus told the Sadducees? He is the God of the living, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He's not the God of the dead. Because He Himself is the Living God. And whoever He is the God of, is living. He is the God of transcendence. He is the God of omnipotence, all power. He is the God of great goodness for he created this world and gave it bountiful blessings and goodness. He is a communicating God. He is not the silent, austere being who sits up and doesn't talk and doesn't communicate. He is a communicating God. He speaks and he made man his image bearer to be verbal and communicative. He's the omniscient all-knowing God, who sees light and darkness are alike to him. He knows the inner thoughts and movements of the heart. And he is a working God, a planning God. And when he brings us into relation to him, he brings us into something that he's working through and working out. He sees that in the way in which God created the world in six days. And Abraham would understand that as God now begins to deal with him. And brings him from the land of his fathers into the land of the Canaanites and into the promised land. Abraham would understand, well this is a God who works things out in process. A God who works things out in sequence. A God I am to wait for. Because his purposes will be accomplished. And he also knows from creation something of the moral character of this God. and how this God is to be imaged in those who bear his image as men, because the essential morality of the Ten Commandments, although not yet given at Mount Sinai at Abraham's time, yet the morality of the creation which is inscribed in the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai was something that was embedded in the men's consciences. And Abraham knows that. And men know that. And when he comes down and compromises his wife in the arms of King Abimelech, Abimelech knows that if he takes this woman, he's committing adultery. And God visits, plagues upon him and validates the fact that the Seventh Commandment was something that men knew about. Where? How? They're created in the image of God. There's a full range of profound theological and ethical truths that can be mined from simply thinking about the fact that God was revealed as creator, the possessor of heaven and earth. Secondly, there is also the revelation of God as judge. Here is a theological truth that formed Abraham's faith and perspective of God. In chapter 1 of Genesis, this Creator God is seen as the God who judges. Genesis 1.31, And God saw that all he had made, saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Now what is that statement? It was very good. It's a judgment. In fact, this is the seventh time in the first chapter of Genesis that God is seen executing judgment upon his creation. And each time the judgment is consistent. He saw that it was good. It was good. It was good. And it concludes by saying it's very good. Emphatically so. The God who judges doesn't do so because of sin, he does so because he is a creator. The God who creates is the judge and you can't separate the creation from judgment. Sin is not the thing that makes God a judge. God is judged by virtue of who he is. Revealing himself as such in the act of creation and assessing it, judging it, deeming it to be good. Now, in the process of the fall, God also judges sin. And his judgment of sin is not that it is good, but that it is very bad. And Abraham and his generation already had a history in which God demonstrated his judgments against sin. Abraham knew that God is displeased with sin. The Creator who judges is a God who is displeased with sin. He would already have known about the events of the fall of Adam and Eve. How death was visited upon Adam and all of his seed. And how labor was then visited with futility and disappointment and frustration and fruitlessness. and how Eve was visited with pain in childbirth, and how the ground was cursed, and how the couple were expelled from the Garden of Eden, recorded in chapter 3. He would have known about the expulsion of Cain, the murderer, the first son of Adam and Eve, and how Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and how then in chapter 4, Cain was expelled from the presence of God, and spawned a race of rebellious people. who built godless cities and godless cultures intent upon extolling man over God. He would have known all about that. He would have known about the flood recorded in Genesis chapter 6 through chapter 9. And how at the time prior to the flood the world was filled with violence. Such violence and such extensive wickedness that it nearly silenced the witness of truth found in Noah. But God was gracious to Noah. And God built an ark for Noah. Had Noah built an ark and he survived global destruction. And how from him Noah's three sons of Japheth and Shem and Ham spawned a population and populated the world that Abraham then lived. He would know that the world in which he lived was a world that was visited globally by God's judgment. He would know the history of the Tower of Babel. In fact, that part of history occurred in an area not too far from where Abraham was born and raised. And he would have known that was from that place when man gathered together and attempted to build a name to revolt against the name of God. And this tower to exalt man's technology and man's self-sufficiency. How God came with judgment and confused their languages and set them out, essentially into three people groups, three foundational Semitic roots to human language, originated right there in the Tower of Babel. and how Japheth was sent more to the northern region, populating what we would think to be eastern Europe, and how Shem populated the central area, more along what we think to be the Middle East, and how Ham went further to the south, and Ham's grandson, Canaan, mentioned in the curse that Noah gives to Ham, And how Canaan seems to be this nomadic sort of entity that just seems to be a thorn in the lives of God's people so that when Abraham comes to the land in Palestine, in that part of Canaan, Canaanites are there. But they were actually part of the Hamites who were supposed to be further south. We'll make reference of that in a moment. But you see there was theology that Abraham knew about the acts of God's judgment against sin. And he would reflect and he would think, well what kind of God is this? Who takes sin so seriously that he's going to wipe out an entire global system with a flood. And virtually start all over again. in chapter 9 of Genesis, reiterating to Noah the very same things that Moses records him saying to Adam and Eve in the garden. What kind of God is this? He would understand this as a God of justice. This is a God of justice. This is a God who you can't pull anything over on. You can't get away with your sin with this God. He's a God of holiness. He's a God of righteousness. And He responds to disobedience and sin with wrath. That's the kind of God he is. And in his life, in chapter 18, lo and behold, he meets up with the angel of the Lord. We have reason to believe none other than a theophany, a manifestation of the second person of the Godhead, the Word of God, in the person of this angel of the Lord, a distinctly Old Testament figure that has characteristics of deity to this figure. We'll study this further, but in chapter 18, lo and behold, he's dealing with none other than who he's convinced is to be God himself, in this person of the angel of the Lord. These two angels and the angel of the Lord, and what they're doing is they're on their way to Sodom, and they're on their way to Sodom to execute judgment upon this wicked city. I hope the account of how Abraham began to plead and began to intercede for the population, for the citizens of Sodom, And what is it that he is banking on? What is it that he is hoping on? What is it that he is relying upon in regard to the God with whom he is dealing? Verse 25, Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous and the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from thee, and what does he call this God? Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly? Abraham knew God as creator and he knew God as judge. And he knew that this God cannot be unjust and punish righteous people and reward wicked people. He can't do that. That's not the way he conducts himself. He's never conducted himself like that. He's a God who is righteous in his judgments. He differentiates between the righteous and the wicked. and the righteous are rewarded, and the wicked are punished." Now, that's the basis, that's the footing. He argues with God on the basis of theology, on the basis of his conviction with who God is, as he is about to go to Sodom and visit it with judgment. He says, you're the judge of all the earth, not just the judge of Sodom, not just the judge of Canaan, not just the judge of this little geographical area. You are the judge of all the earth, for you are the creator of heaven and earth. And he recognizes the righteous judgment of God and the impeccable consistency of the execution of that judgment as it has been demonstrated in the fall dealings with Cain, as well in the flood, in the Tower of Babel, in all of the history of the world preceding the time of Abraham. And as he sees the angel of the Lord going on now to catch up with the two other angels that have gone ahead, maybe by then Lot has already met them in the city of the gate, But now the angel of the Lord comes and he's catching up to him, and Abraham has no answer. He doesn't know what's going to happen, but he's settled in one thing. The judge of all the earth is going to do what's right. And he's never told. The angel doesn't say, OK, I'm going to spare the city. He's not told. He just said, I know that you're going to do what's right. And he settles himself in that theological conviction of faith. The third aspect of the revelation of God given at the time of Abraham Not only the revelation of God as Creator and the revelation of God as Judge, but the revelation of God the Redeemer. The revelation of God the Redeemer. And this lies at the very core of the faith that Abraham knew. It is this dynamic of judgment that ties into his hope of redemption. For the God who is Judge is also the God in whom we must hope. for our salvation. And it's at the first revelation of God's displeasure, his judgment against sin, in Genesis 3 verse 15, that the ray of hope, the ray of redemption, the ray of salvation begins to shine upon then a darkened and death-conditioned world. When God pronounces punishment upon the first fallen couple, he had also proclaimed hope of the gospel. In the words of Genesis 3.15, speaking to the serpent, mind you, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. The couple learns we're involved in things that are beyond us here. God is having dealings with this serpent, We're listening to what's happening and we're being brought into this large conflict that God is constituting between Him and this fallen angel. And we are being brought into hope because we're told that from the woman will come one who will conquer and conquest over the serpent. And this is the one who becomes the dominant theme of biblical faith, the promised The promised seed lies at the very essence of man's hope for salvation. We can't save ourselves, but there's one like unto us who's coming who'll save us. That's been the theme and hope of the people of God throughout the Old Covenant. And we now, knowing that it is Jesus who is that promised seed, say we can't save ourselves, but there's one who has saved us. and we point back to Christ. And so pointing toward Christ or pointing back to Christ, the focus of the faith and hope is the same. The promised seed, who is Jesus Christ. God could have damned all men in Adam, but as he curses the devil, he announces a gracious saving intent for creation. That he is going from the seed of the woman to send a conqueror who will triumph over the devil. And that gives us the basic grid for understanding all of human history. There are two kinds of people on this planet. And no doubt there are two kinds of people in this room this morning, identified in terms of your spiritual relationship to the living God, whether you be spiritually dead, or spiritually alive, whether you be of the seed of the woman or of the seed of the serpent, whether you be a believer or an unbeliever. And these two people groups are mixed in and mingled together through the history of our planet. but they can only be distinguished not by skin pigmentation, not by traditions inherited from previous generations, but they are distinguished by their spiritual traits. They are distinguished by their faith. And their faith is evidenced in the way they worship, in who they worship, in the way they obey God's commands, motivated by trust in his promises, all of those promises which focus upon this promised seed. The meaning of history concerns the revelation of the sons of God. That's what this cosmos, that's what this world is waiting for according to Romans chapter 8 and verse 19. The world is not waiting for an equitable system of distribution of goods and services as the Marxist utopians would have us think. That's not what the world has been made for and waiting for. What the world is waiting for is for the revelation of the sons of God to get the question answered. Who is the seed of the woman? History then is driven by events that manifest and make distinction of these two people groups. And there are times in the course of history when the people of the seed of the woman are so afflicted and persecuted and so minimized that they come down in number sometimes to a bare handful. But they're never eradicated, never totally removed. And God continues to keep buoyant the promise of that seed. And that's what Abraham receives from those who preceded him in the world prior to his birth. The distinction of seeds is at the issue of our understanding the relationship between Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter 4 verse 1. Now the man had relations with his wife and she conceived and gave birth to Cain and she said, I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord. I have gotten what she's saying in paraphrase is the promised child that God has helped us to have is here. Her hope was immediately directed. I believe Eve was a believer. And her hope was directed toward the promise that there would come from her one who was going to overcome the serpent. She gives birth to a child and immediately all of her hopes are fastened upon that seed. All of her hopes are fastened. He's the one. Well, he proves not to be the one, doesn't he? In fact, he proves himself to be, and that's a lesson, isn't it? That's a lesson for all who think that they can automatically inject their faith into their kids and automatically make by virtue of being my kid, my kid's obviously a Christian. Not necessarily. If anybody would have thought that, Adam and Eve would have thought that. And the first one they had was the seed of the serpent. until the two seeds, right in the same family group, brother and brother, are manifest, Cain and Abel. And Cain rises up and kills Abel. Why? Because his deeds were righteous, we're told in Hebrews 11. Why? Because Cain's worship and Abel's worship and himself were accepted. Cain and his worship were rejected. And that's the dividing line right there, the point of faith, the point of worship. Cain goes off and produces an entire race that populates large portions of the planet prior to the flood. A race that in fact comes to dominate the world. Cainites who go forth and build cities. Interesting. When Abraham goes forth, he builds an altar. These people go forth, they build cities, they build towers, they build these big monuments to their technology and their self-sufficiency and their own industry. And they take God's law and they twist it like Lamech did. God pronounced a protection upon Cain when he murdered Abel. Well, I just got done killing a child. He sings to his two wives, the first polygamous on the planet, twisting God's law. I'll take God's law, sure. Well, if Cain was protected, I'm going to be protected sevenfold. Nobody's going to put a finger on me, is basically what he sings. He takes God's law, he takes God's grace, he takes God's provisions and twists it. And that's what the Cainites do. That's what the Cainites do. But from Seth comes a line of faithful believers. Chapter 4 verse 25 of Genesis, and Adam had relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. For she said, God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him. And to Seth, to him also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord." Now evidently, during the time of Enosh, there was a revival that came to the world. There was a great awakening that happened. In conjunction with the lifetime of Enosh and in some way associated with Seth and Enosh, men began to call upon the name of the Lord. And there was a resurgence of biblical worship on the planet at that time. God revived his own people and marked them out by their worship. And the world in Enosh's day was given a witness of salt and light that there were a people on the planet who called upon the name of the Lord. Concern for the perpetuity of the seed and the ongoing hope for the promised one is the rationale behind Genesis 5 and genealogies in the book of Genesis. Why this intense interest upon who begat who and who begat who and who begat who and who begat who? What is it that we're following here? We're following the coming of a seed. We're following a birthing process. That's the stream, the current, in which hope runs. Because it's through the birthing of the women that the promised one is going to come. Genesis 5 documents the lineage of the godly line, the line of Seth. It's the line in which true worship is housed. There was a second time in the world before Abraham when God visited the world with a great revival. Word to God, we saw it in our own day, beginning right here. But there was a second time when God sent a revival. And it was during the time of a man named Enosh. In chapter 5, verse 21, And Enosh lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Evidently, during the time of Enoch, there was a time again of revival. Here is a man who bears a blinding light in his testimony to God. He walks with God. This is the first time this language is used. It's going to be used again in relation to Noah and it's going to be used again when God comes to Abraham and says to him in Genesis 17, walk before me and be perfect. What does that mean? He would have Enoch as an example of what that meant. He walked with God. It's the language of communion with God. It's the language of covenant integrity. The language of the maintenance of the worship of God's name. more important than making my money, more important than having my friends, more important than getting my exercise, more important than getting my physical rest. Job says, more important than my physical food. You're going to be honored in my life. I'm going to be present, and I'm going to be participating, and I'm going to be giving you my worship, because you're my God. That's the way that Enoch lived. He walked with God. And, verse 24, he was not, for God took him. What does that mean? I don't know. But one thing it says about God is that he's stronger than death. That Enoch experienced something that was typical of resurrection realities of the God who conquests death, that he was not, for God took him. I don't know what that means. But it means he left this world in a way that differed from everybody else. Everybody else died, their bodies fell to the ground, and they began to rot. That didn't happen to Enoch. He was knocked. How do you explain that? God took him. What does that tell you? I don't know about the event itself, but it tells me that God is able to overcome death. See? That informs Abraham's understanding of the Redeemer God. This Enoch was also a preacher. You don't get that in Genesis 5. You have to turn over to Jude, verse 14 and 15, to understand something of the message that this man preached. I venture to say that were Enoch with us today, he wouldn't be all that popular, for he was the preacher. And his message in Jude 14 and 15 And about these also Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which the ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Enoch's ministry evidently was a prophetical ministry that was directed to the seed of the serpent. And when Enoch got a platform to speak, he talked to the ungodly lion and he said, what you're doing in your persecution and you're speaking against these who are calling out upon the name of God, and you're speaking against the God who created you, the God who calls you to judgment, what you're doing is wrong and I urge you to repent because God is coming and He's coming with the thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon you. And that was part of Enoch walking with God. And God took him, the preacher of God's justice and the coming judgment of God. Well, there appears to have been a third revival of gospel witness in the world prior to the time of Abraham. The revelation of God the Redeemer, this third revival of gospel witness in the pre-flood world came as we go back to Genesis. to a man named Noah. In Genesis chapter 5 we're introduced to Noah and we're told something of why he was named Noah in verse 29 of Genesis 5. Now he called at his lamech his father called his name Noah saying this one shall give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed. Now what is he hoping for as he names this child? Here's the seed. See it? Here's the one who is going to overturn the curse. Here's the one who is going to turn back the things that happened in our first parent's life in the curse. This is the promise of the seed. This is a believing line. And Noah is named such with the expectation that he, in his life, would prove God's ability to remove the curse and to bring Sabbath rest. You see that? And to bring us rest. to bring us into Sabbath blessing, that which Adam and Eve knew on the seventh day when God rested from his labors in creation. Noah was given grace in chapter 6, and he, in the language of Enoch, walked with God. 8 and 9 of chapter 6, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. Noah was a man blameless, a man of integrity. Noah walked with God in worship and communion. Noah was a righteous man, obeying the law of God. Now, Noah was given grace and walked with God in his time, and it was a terrible time. A terrible time. It was a time when there was great apostasy transpiring, because now the godly seed was beginning to apostatize. And the evidence of that in verses 1 through 4 of Genesis chapter 6 is that the godly line begins to intermarry with the unconverted. And these godly lines are driven by pure lust. They think that they're beautiful, so they take them. How many Christian men get married to somebody because they think they're pretty? and don't get any due consideration as to whether or not they're godly. It's a step of apostasy. It's evidenced too right here. And what was happening when professing believers marry unbelievers? What's produced in a marriage like that? A very tenuous continuation of the seed. And what's jeopardized is the promise of the seed. But Noah walked with God. And Noah was a godly man. And Noah, in the midst of apostasy, and in the midst of a world that was increasing in violence and debauchery, in a world that was being driven toward judgment by the flood, Noah walked with God. And what was Noah doing? Well, again, we have to look into 2 Peter 2.5, but he, like Enoch before him, in 2 Peter 2.5, was a preacher. Dear young men, if you want to aspire to an ancient and noble vocation, preaching is a noble vocation. Noah was a preacher. In 2 Peter 2, verse 5, speaking of God who did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness. with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Here Noah is given by Peter as an example in verse 9 of the fact that God is able to rescue the godly and to punish the unrighteous. Here is the God who is the judge and the God who is yet the Redeemer and Savior. When we go back to our survey in Genesis, after the flood the concern continues to be through the issues of the promised seed. And so after the flood, in Genesis chapter 6, 7, 8, and 9, the focus then comes upon the sons of Abraham, for now here the lineage continues. And we are introduced to Japheth and Shem and Ham and his son Canaan. And we learn that the blessings of the promised seed is continued and given to the line of Shem, which is also inclusive of Japheth's line, while the curse is continued in the line of Ham and visited in particular upon his son Canaan. And these things are not mere arbitrary events, for Japheth and Shem are found honoring their father, while Ham degraded him. God is righteous. And the man who's cursed, Ham, is cursed justly. Sovereignly, yes, but justly as well. and his wicked rebellion and disregard for his father proves to be the doorway by which curse visits him. Then in chapter 10 of Genesis again another genealogy of the line of Noah and his sons and we find an account of how the earth after the flood was resettled having then read in chapter 9 of the renewed and somewhat revised repetition of the creation ordinances. In chapter 10 of Genesis, we find that the earth was resettled after the flood in four stages. Moving fast, aren't we? There are four stages. First stage transpires under the leadership of a very great and notorious man. You've even heard his name, Nimrod. A man whose reputation is still with us today. And what was Nimrod? Well, Nimrod was a hunter. And Nimrod, what he did was he began to pave the way for expansion. He began to pave the way for the world to do what God intended man to do in the world, which is what? Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, fill the world, you see. So Nimrod begins by exercising the dominion mandate and conquesting animals who now have the fear of man in him. You see, prior to the flood, a man could have walked up to a lion and gave him a pet on the mane. After the flood, a man walks up and puts his arm out and comes back with no hand because the lion now has turned and the man has turned and there's this... But Nimrod was a great and mighty hunter. And so he begins to push back the curse, if you will, and starts to establish territory out of the land that was once filled with animals threatening of man. Now there is land cleared. The second aspect of this filling of the earth is the dispersion of the earth, recorded in Genesis 10.25. And two sons were born to Eber, and the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. Now Eber was mentioned earlier in verse 21. We're told that also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber. That's a very, very high profile to be given in a genealogy. Proleptically, in advance, Eber was taken out of his sequence and put right next to Shem. It seems that this genealogy wants a particular portrait of Eber to loom large in the events of history at this time. And Eber, many scholars believe, is the root word from which we get the word Hebrew from Eber. And he appears to have played a very prominent role in this whole matter of the division of the earth. A division of the peoples of the earth, whereby the three clans, Japheth and Shem and Ham, were then to be distributed across the known world. As I say, Japheth moving north, Shem in the middle and Ham more towards the south. And this was an arrangement evidently by divine design. And Eber seemed to have some prominence in this event. His profile is associated with the division of the earth and was very likely a contemporary of Nimrod. Well, as the newly formed mass of mankind begins filling the post-flood world, Eber, during the time of Peleg his son, like Seth during the time of Enosh his son, performs the work of God, and that is having some prominent role in seeing that the division is properly accomplished, that he has a role in seeing that the emerging people groups disperse according to God's original purpose to fill the earth and to subdue it. God's purpose is redemptive because he is doing these things in dispersing the peoples so that he might call out from them his seed, that he might establish his people. We don't have time because I'm pressing against the clock, but in Deuteronomy 32, Verses 7-9, you've got notes, I urge you to look it up. Moses reminds Israel of this ancient event, when the world was divided, and tells them that the reason that God was doing that was so that eventually he would identify them and establish them as his people, the people of Eber, if you will, the Hebrews. Paul also, in essence, when he preaches to the nations, to all of these people, he says that this is the God who created the heavens and the earth, and that he's looking beyond the sins that were previously committed. This is the God who from one blood has created all families and dispersed them and set up their boundaries. And he more than likely is referring to this very event. that God established the nations and God established their boundaries. That's what God's intent and purpose was. Evidently, Eber had some role in seeing that purpose accomplished after the time of the flood. But the third thing that transpires is man's rebellion to God's purposes. Nothing new under the sun, is it? God wants the earth to be populated. He wants the earth to have mankind spread and dispersed upon it. So what does mankind do? Well, following Nimrod, who evidently not only was a great hunter, but was a city builder. For his name is associated with the great cities of Babylon and of Nineveh and of several other prominent cities of that day. So the people, instead of dispersing, what did they do? They all gathered on the plain of Shinar in a place called Babel. They identify not with God and his promised seed, but with the seed of the serpent and the great, popular, strong hero of the day, Nimrod. They decide that on the plain of Shinar, they are going to build a tower. The motivation behind it is so that they would establish a name for themselves because they are rejecting the name of God. It is an act of idolatrous blasphemy. There on the plains, Somewhere, what we would call Iran today, they built a tower to their own praise, to their own technology, to their own name. But God's purposes can't be thwarted. He comes and visits judgment upon them and against their unified rebellion by dispersing them as he originally intended to do, but now confusing their tongues. I believe I read not too long ago that the study of linguistics aided by computers has traced modern human language across the globe to three foundational semantic roots. I'm not surprised by that because that's exactly what happened as the sons of Japheth, the sons of Shem, and the sons of Ham are dispersed and their language is confused between them. Then there is this dispersion of men. That's the fourth aspect. In Genesis 10, 31, 32, here's a summary of what is then given in detail in chapter 11 of Genesis. These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, according to their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations. And out of these, the nations were separated on the earth after the flood. So there's a separation of the land, finally accomplished through judgment. But accomplish, why? For redemptive purposes. Why? So that God would identify for himself the promised seed. Now that, my friends, is the most important theme that carries us into the life and faith of Abraham, and that is the promise of the seed. That is the thing that is entrusted to Abraham, and that is the thing that Abraham then conveys to us. is the promise of the seed. More light comes to Abraham in regard to this seed, because not only is he now informed about the seed, but he's also informed about the nature of the land that this seed will possess. And those two things, the seed and the land, become the crux of what Abraham fastens his hope upon as he believes that God, who has revealed himself as a creator, and as a judge, and as the Redeemer. When we come to the end of chapter 11 of Genesis, we come to the place where we always begin a biography. Where are you to begin a biography about somebody? You never begin with the person himself. You always begin with their family. And that's where we're brought to at the end of Genesis 11, and that's where we will resume our study next week, by way of application. Let us consider, just as these ancient men of old, that we are accountable to God as our creator and judge. That's what Paul says when he makes these cosmic global assessments of mankind in Romans chapter 1 and verse 20. For since the creation of the world, its invisible attributes, its eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." We have no excuse, my friends. You have no excuse. You are not going to come to judgment and say, Never knew you were a creator, God. Never knew you were a judge. No excuse. No excuse. You are accountable to this God. You are accountable to Him as your Creator and your Judge, and we have more light than these people prior to the flood. We know more events that have transpired in history that can be explained only by virtue of the God who visits judgment upon the wicked. Redemptive events that God has come and blessed His Word and blessed His people in ways that have transformed human history, because God has been pleased to be gracious. We have to take seriously this period of human history of our planet. We have to learn something in the way God deals with us in our essential humanity. He says, you know that I've created you and that I call you to judgment. Let's take seriously our accountability to the truths that certainly even the men in Abraham's time were aware of. Secondly, let us understand that God comes to us today as our Redeemer. In Galatians, we're told in chapter 3 that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The gospel of Christ's cross is preached to you so that you might receive promises that were given to Abraham centuries ago. Doesn't that enthrall you? Archaeologists spend all of this time and effort to dig up things that they find from centuries and centuries ago. I'm telling you, I have something here for you from centuries and centuries ago. Promises given to Abraham. They're yours if you put trust in the work of Christ on the cross. and receive in his name the blessings that Abraham hoped for, the things Abraham wanted to have. I say they're yours today in the person of the Spirit who mediates the blessings of Christ. That's why Paul is able to say in verse 29, if you belong to Christ, then you're Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise. Would you be an heir of Abraham? Would you stand and come to this study and the study of Abraham and say, I'm going to study this because this is my spiritual father, and the things that were promised to my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaddy in the family of God are mine. If that's what you would derive from our study of Abraham, then I bid you look to Christ by faith. Trust in Him. Believe in Him. Trust in His life of obedience and in his atoning work on the cross. Believe that he died for you and for your sins and rose again for your justification. Live for him, motivated by the promises of the land in the new heavens and the new earth, the promises of union with the blessings of the seed, who is none other than Christ himself. And like Abraham, believe in the God who raises the dead. May God be pleased to give sons to Abraham even from among us here today. Amen.