Genesis chapter 11, the portion by which we seek now to worship God and the hearing of his word preached is verses 10 through 32. Since we must do all things only by his help, and this especially, let us pray for that help. Our God in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for that great ministry of your spirit who hovered over the waters and executed all of the commands of creation in those six days, who you send forth and is actively involved in the coming into being of every single one of your living creatures, who came upon our Lord Jesus at his baptism for his ministry who had took of the substance of Mary to form for him a body and a human soul who carried him along. and whom now our Lord Jesus has poured out upon us, grant that his ministry among us this morning would be powerful, that your word would be to us living and active and sharp, discerning the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Grant that it would be that implanted Word which is able to save our souls, the Scriptures which are able to make us wise for salvation, your truth, your Word which is truth, by which you sanctify us and fit us for glory. Lord, in particular, we pray for any who have come not yet alive, not yet joined to Jesus Christ in that substantial spiritual way through faith, that faith which comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. And so we pray not only for your spirit to help us in the hearing, but that it might indeed be the word of Christ that you would keep that servant who preaches faithful to the words that are on the pages of your holy scripture, and that you would attend to him with power and put away the fear of man, and that you would sharpen and improve all that has been good in the preparation, and that you would cause to blow away his chaff, all that has fallen short. Glorify yourself in this part of the worship that you have granted to us by which you are magnified among us. And do us good as you love to glorify yourself by doing. All these things we ask for your glory. And in the name that is above every name, even the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, whose people in this place say, amen. Genesis 11 verses 10 through 32, these are God's words. This is the genealogy of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and begot sons and daughters. Arphaxad lived 35 years and begot Salah. After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and begot sons and daughters. Salah lived 30 years and begot Eber. After he begot Eber, Salah lived 403 years and begot sons and daughters. Eber lived 34 years and begot Peleg. After he begot Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and begot sons and daughters. Peleg lived 30 years and begot Reu. After he begot Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and begot sons and daughters. Riu lived 32 years and begot Sarug. After he begot Sarug, Riu lived 207 years and begot sons and daughters. Sarug lived 30 years and begot Nehor. After he begot Nehor, Sarug lived 200 years and begot sons and daughters. Nehor lived 29 years and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nehor lived 119 years and begot sons and daughters. Now Terah lived 70 years and begot Abram, Nehor, and Haran. This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot, and Haran died before his father Terah in his native land in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren. She had no child. And Terah took his son Abram, and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran. thus far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. It is graduation season. Graduation season, you younger children who have not yet had an older sibling graduate is that season in which when your older sibling is graduating, mom and dad take you to a usually very hot place with a hopefully not too long speech and a very large crowd. And then after the speech, they read a list of names. Now, for children who have not yet learned or been grown in grace by the Lord Jesus to love very much and have affection for their older sibling, it is a very long, boring list of names. And yet, if you were to look up from that very bored-looking child, who is thinking only about himself, to the face of the mom, and hopefully an interested enough, God help our culture, that we would have more of them, father. and the face probably teary-eyed and weeping mother with her camera ready, maybe videotaping the entire thing in order to get the few seconds, they are eagerly anticipating the reading of a particular name because they are there with a focus on one in whom they are very much invested and whom they love very dearly. And for the sake of those few seconds of that reading of that one name, It passes much more quickly and interestingly and entertainingly to that mother and father than it does to those poor little children. In fact, due to our fallenness and our not appreciating what the Lord has done for us, this is often more interesting to the mother and father than it is to the graduate who is waiting for that afternoon to get over with. Well, the reading of Bible genealogies is often like that reading of the list of names, because very many of us are that little child who, if you have your munchkin bulletin, you've got one on the left who is bored and one on the right who is enjoying it ever so much. Well, look at the thought levels if you've got your munchkin bulletin. The bored one is bored because he's only thinking about himself. He's not particularly invested in where this list of names is going, in the one towards whom this list of names is going. If we are reading this and we are still eager from chapter 3 to find out who is the seed of the woman who is going to crush the serpent's head, is he ever going to come? Things seem to be going very badly over and over again. Where is the one about whom my life exists, for whom I exist, the one who has loved me and him whom I love? If you're not reading it that way, it's not very interesting. Some of us know somebody who does genealogy, and in particular, their own genealogy. And we know that they love to tell us when they found this new relative of theirs that connects them to Genghis Khan or some other very famous mass murderer. And they're telling us all about it. It is mildly interesting to us. It's pretty interesting. But you can see the difference in the level of interest because of the level of personal investment. So when I come to preach on Genesis 11, 10 through 32, and I am wondering as I start the preliminary prep, even the week before, what in the world am I gonna preach from something as boring as this? The problem isn't in the text. The problem is in the heart of the preacher. Whenever we have difficulty with the scripture, isn't that something we have found now several times over and over and over again? The problem isn't in the Bible. It's in us. We don't see God as holy enough. We don't appreciate his justice enough. We don't hate sin enough. We don't love Christ enough. All these different things create for us different problems in many different passages. Judges 3 passage this week, for what I suspect is the same reason that is one of the favorite passages of a young boy, David Rentschler. It's one of the favorite whipping boy passages for all of the academics. This is beneath. Christians to read and to preach or teach a passage about a double-edged 18-inch dagger strapped to the right leg of a left-handed man so that it would be unsuspecting. And then the entrails come out. and the fat of the man closes over the hilt of the 18-inch blade, and then the servants are embarrassed because of how long they think he's been on the potty. You see, the problem is in us. First of all, we don't see the holiness of God that raises itself up against murderous, oppressive Moabite kings, and we don't see the great mercy and patience of God that for a wicked people like Israel loves to save, and we don't see the all overruling sovereignty of God that works in every little detail including the left-handedness of a man and the cool upper room where the King Edward does his business and just happens to choose for the secret conversation about this message from God. But if you love the holiness of God and the justice of God, and if you love the great mercy of God that he keeps raising deliverers for these stubbornly rebellious people, and if you love that God works even in the gross details, Many a mom with baby in diapers is glad to know the God whose sovereign plan of redemption for his people includes moments that have poop all over them. If you're excited about that God, you don't get offended. And if you're excited for the line of Jesus to arrive at Jesus, then you don't read Genesis 11 verses 10 through 32 with boredom. you read it with humility that says, you know what, Lord, I am not as Christ-centered as I should be, I am not. as excited about how merciful you are to sinners from every family on earth as I should be. I don't appreciate as much as I ought the fact that I'm going to die and I need a Redeemer who's stronger than death. And you know what, Lord, I'm so obsessed with trying to feel and appear to others as strong that I don't even see in a passage like this how pleased you are to use weakness. But that is what's here, and that's what we'll aim to see together this morning. First, the Christ-centeredness, or even better, that's a very common phrase today, and I think a healthy phrase overcoming the largely gospel, less moral lesson only approach to many Bible passages. But not just Christ-centeredness, Christ-drivenness. that this genealogy is Christ-driven. In the second place, we'll see that the narrowing of the focus on the family of Shem and then the family of Terah and then to Abram himself has, in light of the context of other narrowings that we've seen so far in the book of Genesis, an evangelistic focus, that there's something even evangelistic about the families that are not chosen here or toward the families who are not chosen here. In the third place, we'll see how this passage reminds us of the need for a redeemer who is going to destroy the works of the devil. not just destroy the devil himself, but who will destroy the works of the devil and will defeat death, sin coming by Adam and death through that sin, this great apparent triumph of Satan. And the Lord Jesus comes and destroys his triumph. And finally, God's pleasure to use our weakness. First then, this is Christ-driven genealogy. This is an idea that has been in the background of our culture for a very long time, and as we grow in our rebellion against Jesus collectively as a culture, not just in the Western world, but in many other parts of the world, many evidences of the Christ-drivenness of history have been tried to be erased. one of my children recently came across a date in something that they were reading. And instead of Anno Domini, the year of our Lord, the rejoicing that this is by probably a four year off mistake, the 20th, the 2019th year in which the earth has had upon it, or since which the earth first had upon it that descendant of Shem and Terah and Abram that is the seed of the woman who crushes the serpent's head. Instead of saying Anno Domini, the year of our Lord, it said, many of you will know what it said, BCE, before Christian era. Almost as if they're hoping to come up with a new acronym for when we're finally done with this annoying Christian era. Christ drivenness, that notation of the year that they can't get away from that 2019 shows that there is at least the remnant of in our collective consciousness, the fact that history is Christ driven. We saw when we were beginning Genesis chapter one, that one of the main points of the creation account, the New Testament opens up for us and applies for us, is that it is Jesus himself who is the creator, so that when he becomes flesh, it is the word through whom all things were made, who created all things, who has now become a man in order to die and the death of the cross for us. All of history is Christ driven. It is driving towards Christ. And now it is driving towards the return of Christ, the completion of the application of his salvation to all for whom he died. That the question of the martyrs under the altar, how long, oh Lord, is answered by until the number of your brothers is completed. And the The groaning of the creation from Romans chapter eight under the bondage to corruption and decay will be answered by the revealing of the sons of God, the redemption of their bodies. And in that day, the creation itself will enjoy the glorious freedom of the children of God. It is Christ driven, Jesus appearing in the sky, all whom he has redeemed. conformed to his image. He, the firstborn glorious one amongst many brethren. This is what predestination was for. Not just to do the math on who gets saved and who doesn't, but aiming predestined to be conformed to his image so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. All of history is Christ driven. It's all about bringing Jesus into the world. And then when Jesus comes into the world, it's all about spreading the glory of the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the gospel throughout the world. Ever since Genesis 3.15, we've been aiming at the seed. And one of the differences between this genealogy in chapter 11 and the one that we had in chapter 10 is a difference in focus. Chapter 10 is a genealogy focused on who needs to be saved. It's the table of nations. It's all the families of the earth. It's the ones that when we come to next week's passage and God makes the promise to Abram, He's going to say, you know all those families that are named in chapter 10, only one of whom is your family, from only one of which the Messiah will come. I'm actually going to bless every single one of them through that Messiah. I'm actually going to bless every single one of those families from your family. I'm gonna bless them all through you, Abram. So chapter 10 is a genealogy that's focused on who needs to be saved. Chapter 11 gives us a genealogy that focuses on through whom they will be saved. It is Christ-driven. In fact, we don't even necessarily know that this is the oldest child in every one of these generations that we have here. What we know for sure is it's the one through whom the Christ will come. But these men live hundreds of years and beget sons and daughters. And it's not necessarily the age at which they have their first son. I mean, we know that probably for Shem, you know, there's only two years and well, we don't know, he might've had one before our facet. But what we know is that the most important child that they have, at least in the focus of the Genesis chapter 11 and where it fits in the whole of the Bible is the one through whom Messiah would come. This is the Lord's focus in history. So I wonder, is it the Lord's focus when you think about history? It's much more interesting to read about powerful rulers and wealthy and influential men and the great battles they win. To our flesh, that is much more interesting. But you know what the sanctified mind is really looking for? How did the gospel go there? When did the gospel go there? What did God do through that insignificant appearing man? Isn't it marvelous? Even during what is so-called the Dark Ages, here's this pocket of those whom the Lord kept faithful to his word over here, and here's this other one over there, and there's one of his descendants that was an ancestor of John Hus, and John Hus was an inspiration to Martin Luther, and the Lord used Martin Luther to call the church back to himself, a unity that would be through his word and not imposed from the top by men who tell everybody else what they want them to do. And you follow these threads and you rejoice because it's Christ-driven history. A little more close to home. If it's true that the Lord's focus in history is how it connects to the coming of Christ and the fulfilling and giving to Christ what he has earned in his earthly life and ministry, is it not just as true that that's his focus in your life? You and I go through many details that get inflated because of either the cares of this life or the pleasures of the world. Okay, little details that cause us anxiety and we rejoice in God's providence because we know that he is in and working at all of those details. One of the irritating common phrases, God showed up and showed out. He was already there working in every little thing. And the little things that are moments of anxiety to us, praise God, he is pleased often to bless them in a great way. But many other times he takes care of them in his great providence and the lesson is quickly lost upon us. And we miss the opportunity to grow in Christ through it. Or maybe it's the cares, sorry, the pleasures of this world. Something that we get obsessed about and our hearts set on and we aim at it and our focus in God's providential work in our life is how he might fulfill our desire. And yet the providence of God is really aiming not so much at those things, but on what His Word will do in us as He presses us into the shape of Jesus. That's what conformed to His image means, a Word that means person, a Word that means shape, as He presses us into the shape of Jesus. And I wonder if we are Christ-focused as we think about our week and the Lord's day and the purpose of, not just the pleasure of that day, of course, the pleasure of Him, but the purpose of that day. And when we come to hear preaching, are we working hard? I didn't get this idea for this particular application of this point from myself. I got it from Jesus in the parable of the soils. when he is describing this Christ-driven focus of the fruit that his word would produce when preached and what gets in the way of that word? Well, many things. Those who can't hardly bear to hear a thing and it falls on hard path and the devil comes up and he eats it, nom, nom, nom, nom. You went to church, good job. You heard preaching, good job. Didn't make a dent in your heart. Mmm, devil's food. The birds that come and eat the seed off of the hard path. Or the ones who enjoy it and they never, they don't take it in at all. It doesn't really put any root down. All we need is just the first thing to come up and apply a little heat or pressure and withers. But there's even those who hear it and understand it and there's interaction, there's a little bit of fruit, but you know what has a deeper root? The cares of this world and the pleasures of this world. Because they do have some knowledge of Christ, but they're not Christ-driven about their lives. their lives are either one or the other, or some combination of both, putting out the brush fires of the anxieties that keep flaring up, or aiming at whatever the next big thing is that they want, and if God enables them to get it, then there's another next big thing that they want. And they come to church on Sunday, come to church on the Lord's Day, and they hear some preaching, and they learn some theology, or they learn some practical Christian counsel, they hear some gospel, and it takes a little bit of root, but that's not what's in the driver's seat of their lives. Is that you? Is the gospel easily choked because you're focused on other things? The Lord's focus in history, the Lord's focus in our life is his son and his son's glory. And we learn even from genealogy. to reassess our focus. We come and we cry out to the Holy Spirit, and if it is you, you should be crying out to the Holy Spirit. Grant that I would be Christ-driven. Grant that He would be the most important thing about my life, that the anxieties and the cares now would come under the umbrella of how Christ is being glorified and how Christ is in control and what Christ might do, whether I recognize it or not. that every blessing you have isn't yours, but Christ's and for his glory, and that it even changes whatever the next big thing is for you, because it's something in which you aim to enjoy him and serve him and be used of him to spread the glory of his name. Well, we see in the first place that this is a Christ driven genealogy. We see in the second place that there is an evangelistic narrowing of focus here. There was a great narrowing at the flood, wasn't there? You had lots of families. And yet, the Lord narrowed, but he narrowed in a very different way, right? When we had a narrowing in the flood, there was some emphasis on salvation, because Noah had to be spared in order for the Redeemer to come. There was the same Christ-driven aspect in that narrowing. Noah was the one through whom Jesus would come. But that narrowing also included a great emphasis upon judgment, didn't it? because the generations of the other families in the age of Noah all stopped. Ever thought about that? God doesn't owe all of the families of the earth anything. There are a whole bunch of families that never got blessed in Jesus because God cut off their line in the generation of Noah. in this narrowing of focus where the Bible is ignoring all those great quote unquote civilizations and we'll get to that idea in the fourth point. When the Bible is ignoring the great civilizations of the Assyrians, the Sumerians and the Egyptians, for now the Egyptians and Assyrians and who knows what's going on in China or what we call today China. You know, great and wonderful things. You go to the natural history museums in the big cities and you see all the pottery and the tablets with the ancient script and all these things that men are so impressed with. God doesn't put that in His Word. Is He providentially working? Of course He is! And you know what? Their descendants will be blessed! That's why they still exist! The other families from Genesis chapter 10, who are no longer the primary focus by the time we get to Genesis chapter 11, still exist so that they may be blessed through Christ, so that their descendants may come to faith in Jesus Christ. The great long suffering of God, the patience of God is shown that he is enduring generation after generation that does not know Christ, that are without hope and without God in the world, so that he may bring to faith some of their descendants and bless that family through the descendants of Abraham, through the descendant, Jesus Christ of Abraham. I dare say there are very few of us whose ancestors are in Genesis 11 verses 10 through 32. But every one of us belong to a family, a nation, a tribe, a tongue among whom there are those who are blessed through this family in Genesis 11, 10 through 32. And we see here God's focus, not just on bringing Christ into the world, but on bringing the world eventually to Christ. You marvel at how patient God has been with your ancestors, what he was willing to bear with in order that he might save you. Or are you perhaps here this morning, and this is not really how you are accustomed to thinking of history. And you certainly, you know, not just, not really Christ-driven and need to be called back to a Christ-drivenness, but that's never been a thing for you. He has never been everything to you, the one whom you love, the one in whom you are most personally invested. marvel at the patience of God with those whom he knows will end up condemned in their sins because his focus is so much upon those for whom he sent Christ, whom he is bringing to Christ, and who will be pressed into the shape of Christ forever and ever. If we are evangelistically minded in the way that the difference between these genealogies, or rather this narrowing and the other narrowings that we see in the focus of Scripture, if we are similarly evangelistically minded, then we'll see that in how we answer the questions. Do we love to witness, to tell people about Jesus, to bring people to church, why? Because we want more people to be in the church? Yes, but because the especially appointed means for bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ is the preaching of his word by specific ones that the Lord has sent for that. It's one of the reasons God helping us will not hear a sermon, whatever text we are on that doesn't have in it the glory of Jesus crucified and risen, the only hope for sinners. There are lots of passages that teach about a lot more than that. And we attempt to understand the scripture in the way that it presents itself and make all of those applications. But there is no passage that isn't at least about that. Because there is this evangelistic narrowing, this evangelistic focus in all of scripture. Jesus just said about the same thing, didn't he? About the Christ-drivenness and evangelistic character of all of scripture. When he said, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but it is they which speak of me. Well, in this genealogy, we see the Christ drivenness and the difference between it and the genealogy in chapter 10. We see the evangelistic aspect of it by the difference in the narrowing, for instance, between here and in chapter six. We see in the third place the need for a redeemer who is stronger than death. It doesn't have that same refrain as we had in the genealogy in chapter five, and he died and he died. And he died, and he died. But it's implied by the final number, isn't it? And perhaps one of the reasons that the refrain is missing is because we are just left with the number and the begetting. The number reminding us that we need a redeemer stronger than death. The begetting preparing us to identify or see how God is presenting his pleasure in using weakness. First then of these two things, the need for a redeemer that is stronger than death. I told Mr. Charlie who produces Munchkin Bulletin that I would need to use my Munchkin Bulletin because I had forgotten to put the numbers into the the notes that I was carrying into the pulpit this morning. If you've got it, children, you can see on your munchkin bulletin the little gravestones and how old each of these men were. Well, one of the things that's happening as we go through Genesis 11 verses 10 through 32 is the numbers are going down. In fact, they are plummeting. Shem gets 600 years by the time we got to Eber, we're at 468 years. Peleg 239, Nehor 148. By the time Moses is writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Psalm 90 verse 10, he says 70, maybe 80 if you're pretty strong. Every one of us here is going to die. And we are dying much sooner rather than later. We read on the Christian Daily Reporter or whatever it is that you use as a news feed every once in a while, a headline comes up, oldest person ever dies at the age of 123. People who lived on earth up until the point of Genesis chapter 11 are laughing. It's not just that they're dying. One of the things that Genesis 11, 10 through 32 is communicating to us is that they are dying much, much younger, younger and younger. And so it's increasing the intensity of our need for our desire for a redeemer who is stronger than death. Scripture does this for us in many different ways. One of the places where this is particularly highlighted is in the book that we are currently in, in our Old Testament readings, isn't it? In Judges, what happens? The people cry out, the Lord raises up a deliverer. It's really what the word judge, how the word judge is being used in the book of Judges. The deliverer delivers them and they have some rest until he Dies. What happens when he dies? The children of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh. And he delivered them over to the hand of, or he raised up, Eglon the very fat king of the Moabites who summons to himself the Amorites, the Amalekites. We needed a redeemer who's stronger than death. How about the kings? After God makes that promise to David, David says, I want to build you a house. And God says, well, I'll let your son put together some earth junk and I'll make my presence known there. And they may worship me through it as a picture of who my son is and what he will make his church into. But you're not going to build me a house, David. What I'm going to do is I'm going to build you a house. And from that house will come the one who is the true temple. You're going to have a descendant, David, whose kingdom is forever. And we're looking for that forever king. from 2 Samuel chapter 7 to 1 Kings to 2 Kings. And they died, and they died, and they died, and they died. And then along comes Amaziah, also known as Uzziah. And he's got this great big, more than half a century reign. And then he dies. And Isaiah says in chapter six, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw, who did he see? He saw the real king seated on the throne and his robe fills the temple. And then John comes along and tells us that Isaiah said that when he saw Jesus and his glory. Even Ecclesiastes sends us clamoring for a redeemer who's stronger than death. Death is the great equalizer. You work hard all your life and then you die. If Jesus is not the king who is stronger than death, if he is not raised and sitting at the right hand of majesty, if all who are in him are not going to be raised, then the Greeks are right. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. In fact, if our Redeemer is not stronger than death, and if we are not raised, if we ourselves are not going to be raised, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 19 says that we of all men are most to be pitied. You are going to die. You don't know when. It's a great mercy to see this morning, not one, but two, actually three, if we're gonna go back a couple of months, who are marvelously delivered from life-threatening wrecks. In recent days, we don't know when we're going to die, but we all know that we are going to die. And so when we come to Genesis 11 verses 10 through 32, and we have not just these men dying, but dying younger and younger and younger, it urges us to look to Christ. who has authority not just to lay his life down, but authority to take it up again. Death cannot hold him. Why? A, because he is perfectly righteous. And B, because even after he takes our sin onto him, he completes wiping out our guilt. And so Romans tells us that he is raised on account of our justification. People will think you morbid. for talking to little children about death. It's only morbid if the point isn't to talk to little children about Christ and the resurrection. It's been a habit and I haven't done it with the youngers very much here. We had a great big cemetery at the Church of Mississippi. another great big cemetery at the church in Orange City. And we'd walk through and you know what we would look for? The smallest numbers, numbers that matched their age to talk about how important it was for that child to be serious about Jesus at that age. This is very unlikely that they knew for very long that that would be how far they got in this world. Every one of us is going to die. Genesis 11 says you need a redeemer who is stronger than death. Is he yours? Is he yours by faith? Is he your hope? Is he your master? Is he your love? Is he your purpose? Really the question is, because those are all side effects, are you his? Do you belong to Jesus? Has he brought you to himself, turned your heart to him, to rest in him? In the second place, one of the things that leaving off the, and he died, and he died, and he died, it leaves us not just with a stronger impression of the number of the years, but also the last phrase in each of these, and begot sons and daughters, and begot sons and daughters, and begot sons and daughters. And we're thinking, OK, we get it. The earth is being populated. Well, that's true. The earth is being populated. But that was really the focus of the genealogy in chapter 10, wasn't it? One of the reasons that it keeps telling us, and begot sons and daughters, is because when we get to Abram, what happens, kids? Has Abram begotten any sons and daughters? The one that God chooses from this chapter to bring Christ through is the one about whom the special detail we get is, and he didn't beget nobody. Sarai was barren. The Lord has been doing this kind of comparison for us really throughout the book of Genesis, hasn't he? It wasn't the line of Seth through whom Jesus would come that were the ones who invented the use of musical instruments and perfected metalworking and developed the science of agronomy and livestock. No, all those impressive ones were from the line of Cain. Then in the generation of the flood, it wasn't from those mixed marriages of the sons of the godly who took from among the daughters of the ungodly, whomever they chose just because they were beautiful, and what resulted, men who were mighty, men of renown, even giants. What did God see when he looked at them? He wasn't impressed by them. He saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart were only evil, and that continually. Not the impressive line of Cain, but the chosen line of Seth. Not the impressive mixed line of the flood generation, but unimpressive Noah, who found grace in the eyes of Yahweh. Grace, blessing for those who deserve only curse, strength for those who have in themselves only weakness. And now not the impressive line of Ham and Nimrod, one who is a mighty hunter before Yahweh's face. Oh yeah, Nimrod, the Lord is so impressed with your hunting. You know, unimpressive, nondescript, sham, and our faxed and Sala and Eber and Peleg, on down even to Abram. What special qualification does Abram have to be for being the one through whom the seed of the woman, the promised Messiah, would be begotten? The fact that he and his wife were unable to beget. It was weakness. And there's been weakness throughout the scripture that God was pleased to use. And in case you think it's different, in Cullioca, Murray County, Tennessee in 2019, God puts in 1 Corinthians, for our instruction, a command to look around at the church and be unimpressed by everybody. I can do that. I don't have trouble saying y'all are unimpressive. You've got skills and experiences that I don't have, and admire those things, and thank God for what He puts in each particular individual. But as far as the world is concerned, as far as the flesh is concerned, God actually prefers to use the unimpressive. It's like with Gideon. Gideon comes with a group, and it's not really a very big group, and God says, oh, man, Gideon, I know you did your best choosing, but you got a problem. Too many. Too impressive. I prefer to use that which is weak and unimpressive. in a congregation in which some of the biblical view of God's value upon an ordinance of the family as the basic unit of the society and even the basic unit of the congregation, the seminary in which the sons and elders and pastors of tomorrow are raised and in which fathers and mothers of others for tomorrow are raised. Those who have never been married, or are no longer married, or were married and have no kids, they may think, well, I'm glad Sarah's there, because God loves to use that which is considered weak. Some of us are young singles wanting to be married, and then we're not as young as we used to be singles, still wanting to be married. Is that not a place of weakness, a season of life that God is pleased to use? Is there not occasion there for him to do marvelous things in different ways or marvelous things that overcome whatever the presenting problem is? You have a season in which you have all of this opportunity to strengthen the hands of others, to minister within the congregation, to give yourself to evangelism. We have this horrible practice among many young people of taking that season to go out and experience the world before we get tied down. No, remember the creator in the days of your youth and don't go out and experience or waste yourself on leisure. Take advantage of the extra time that you have. You look around and you see all the mothers with babes in arms pulling out their hair. Isn't there an opportunity there as well? And there are many such opportunities. I won't do the brainstorming with you all now in the pulpit. God is pleased to use weakness, even terror, even spiritual weakness. Now don't get me wrong, I am not. encouraging you to consider unrepentance. But it ends up being one of the badges of honor of God and his mercy in Joshua 24 verse 2, that an idolater like Terah could be the one from whom God brings his chosen people. And if you have been stumbling and falling, you look around and everyone seems to be doing well. Although I'll tell you a secret, those who mature in Christ know themselves more to be sinners than they ever have before. And anybody who doesn't isn't maturing. But you look around and you think, I'm enslaved to this sin or that sin. say, but God has grace to overcome sin, and when He does, it redounds to His glory. Turn from serving that sin to serving Christ all over again. Turn from resting in yourself and hoping that all of your measures are going to defeat that sin. and give yourself to those measures that Christ has given, not because how well you do them will overcome, but because Christ who gave them is the one who overcomes. And as you do so, and as he blesses it, you will be able to say, this is how I was, and this is how only by Christ's grace, through his blessing, on his means, this is what he has done, and he can do it and will do it for anyone. who rests on him. Are you unimpressive in finding yourself often in difficulty, earthly or spiritual? Congratulations, you are ripe for resting in Christ, for turning from self to him and being conformed to his own suffering life on earth, becoming one in whom all of the glory that is displayed only goes to him. You see, Christ is God's ultimate priority in history. Christ is God's ultimate priority for us. Christ alone is presented to us to rest upon and to live for. For not only not to be self-centered, we are not only to be Christ-centered, we are to be Christ-driven. Let's pray. O Lord, we praise you for the greatness of your word. For in our flesh we come to a passage like this, and not having considered carefully or Christ-drivenly, we do not at first see what riches there are from you and your Spirit for us in Jesus. And we pray that by the mercy and power of your Holy Spirit, we might come away now having seen more of those riches than before, and that you would actually do that self-overcoming work. that we have heard about as we consider this scripture. Glorify Jesus and in him glorify yourself so that we who are born anew from among the dead might be to the praise of your glorious grace in Jesus Christ. In his name we ask it and your children here say amen.