Sin Lies at the Door — Genesis 1-5

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. Genesis chapter four Well, you know, you always try and start off with something a little bit funny but those two guys are hard act to follow. Abe, if if you can't make it in Nashville, I think that maybe you and Scott could go on the road with a comedy tour. So, yeah, my my funny story was going to be that I think I think someday I'm going to write a book.

0:29 I don't know which book it is but I had a new title come to me today. I think I get a book deal for this one. It might be a slow or a small group of people that want to read it but it's called The Day Before I Preached. And and those of you that had had the opportunity to do that or or those of you who are married to somebody who's had the opportunity to do that, you you can help me to decide whether that should be a tragedy or a comedy. So, So so I I I want to start off by telling you about the worst day of my life.

1:05 The worst day professionally I think I've ever had. I think it kind of sets the tone for where we're headed today. So, bear with me if you will. The day was 01/15/1999. The place was Memphis, Tennessee.

1:19 It was a Friday afternoon about 05:00. And many of you probably remember this. It's still a little bit difficult for me to talk about, but I was still at work talking to my foreman and just getting ready to go home, make sure things are settled down for the night. And we hear a frantic call over the radio. An accident has happened down at the dock.

1:41 Come to find out after we rushed down there, an employee, a good friend of mine, a woman named Linda Caldwell, had fallen into the water between the dock and the barge. I don't know if you know how big a barge is, but it's hundreds of feet long, and it had come back against the dock and crushed her between it in the water. She was dead at the scene. We didn't really learn for sure that that was the case until after she had taken the helicopter ride to the hospital. I had followed close by and and was unfortunate enough to be there when the doctor came out and told her family that their mother was dead.

2:24 I I held her daughter along with her boyfriend as she got sick in the gutter at the hospital, and it may have been the worst day of my life. It's certainly the worst day of my life professionally. I hope you never have to go through that, but it's made an impact on my life going forward. It certainly left me with lessons that I could never have known had I not experienced it. So so that's sort of the way we we leave off from where Art left off last week.

2:56 I want to read the last verse of chapter three of Genesis. Chapter three verse 24 says, so he drove out the man, meaning god, drove out the man and he placed the cherubim at the east gate of the Garden Of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. This may have been the worst day of Adam and Eve's life, at least to that point. And, you know, as we go on, you might you might dispute with me that there's another worst day that we're going to talk about today. Right?

3:30 But granted, he drove them out for a reason, for their protection is art so artfully reminded us last week. But driven, consider that word driven. They were driven out, not in a chariot, not in a car or not on a cloud, but almost at the end of a whip. You can imagine they didn't want to leave. They had they had reason to feel remorseful.

3:54 They were upset. I can only imagine the weeping, the wailing and the crying and the pleading. Oh, Lord, do we have to go? But he said, Get out. Get out.

4:06 You must leave. Go. So it's a sharp contrast to the connotation that we hear earlier in Chapter three, where where the Lord was walking through the garden. It's I've heard our commentators commentators say that it was as if it was a gentle breeze. It was as if he had been there before, as if they knew what it sounded like, like a calming influence that that was there.

4:31 Clear relationship change is underfoot here as he drives them out of the Garden Of Eden. Can only imagine the horribleness of that awful day. But now we segue into chapter four. Now Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.

5:23 This is when the baby came. This is sort of a a culmination of the promises in Genesis two twenty four says the two shall become one flesh. And then Genesis one twenty eight, where it says that be fruitful and multiply. It's an intimate relationship between Adam and Eve, the closest of human experiences. It's a special time.

5:48 God made provision for comfort for the man and the woman. And that's why I think it's an interesting segue. They were driven out, and yet they came together, comforted one another, and and had this intimacy that was far cry from the intimacy they probably had with the Lord in the garden, but yet it was something that the Lord provided for them. And and I want you to understand too that this theme goes throughout scripture. It goes throughout this this chapter, and it goes throughout the book.

6:21 But the point is that the Lord is merciful and yet grace... Gracious at the same time. There's mercy that he didn't give them what they deserved, yet he drove them out for their own good, and yet he provided such grace to them that he provided a mate with which they could they could be with and a comfort to them. And the result is two beautiful, healthy children. So we're grateful for the opportunity as we see young families that that are now getting ready to have new life.

6:58 It encourages us tremendously and and just the stories and and and to see those those bellies that are trying to starting to grow. It's it's a great reminder of how life starts again. But don't miss that theme, one of mercy and then of grace. You know, as we go through the book of Genesis, there's a huge foreshadowing of much to come. Okay?

7:26 It shouldn't be any surprise that the God of the universe is not different from the beginning to the end. Okay? Through 66 books, countless authors, across centuries in time, it all comes together and it starts right here. So while we we have to be careful not to read too much into the text as we as we as we read it, we have to see those themes as they're starting to develop. So let's continue on.

7:53 It says, now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. So we we see that clearly both Cain and Abel had a vocation. Right?

8:15 Abel was the keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the soil. So we might call them farmers and ranchers today. Ancient professions still provides flu... Food to this day and clothing as well, both living off the land, but in different ways, and yet still utterly and completely dependent on what the earth, what the the the creation provides for them to be able to survive. We are still utterly and completely dependent upon what this Earth supplies for us and what the sun supplies for us and what the creation of the lord supplies for us today.

8:55 Even though we have the luxury of living in cities or not having to do our own farming or our own ranching or our own raising of food, we have some other profession that's maybe recycling or something silly like that. Right? But we have the opportunity to do many things because of the the the inventions and the technology of today, yet still we're utterly and completely dependent upon this this Earth and the creation. In the process of time, it says, this new American standard says, it it so it came about. The NIV says, in the course of time, you know, we have to take the lord at his word and and the the idea that we have that has been presented to us earlier in in Genesis chapter one.

9:45 Then, six days, the lord created the world. Well, now, time seems to slow down in in in a sense, we see that Adam lived for nine hundred and thirty years and in Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty five, the longest ever. Right? And we can rationalize these numbers and and and really try and put them into our minds. But I don't know if we can really understand what it would be like to live for nine hundred and sixty five years.

10:12 But still, there's only a few little markers that we have here in the scripture that says, this is what happened and then this happened, but there was some more time. This is not days that we have between things, but years that we're considering as we walk through this this talk today. So it does say in the process of time, it doesn't say a specific marker. She appears to have been little or no direction to Cain and Abel, and at least not that we're we're shown here as to what to do. But it appears to me that in the process of time, they came to the realization.

10:52 They came to the realization that they were thankful, that they were they had some grateful thought that they were maybe even remorseful and and they knew that they owed what they were doing and who they were and all that they had to the lord and so you get the idea that in the process of time, this dawned on them. This came to them. This this was the opportunity for them to say, thank you, Lord. And I want to show my gratefulness. I want to show you how thankful I am.

11:29 I want to show you maybe how remorseful I am, but that's the impression that I get here. So how old were Cain and Abel when this all happened? I don't think we know for sure. But we know that when Seth was born, after Abel and after this whole experience, it says that Adam was 130 years old. And if you read through the genealogies in chapter five, you see that the first sons born at 90 to 100, somewhere in there, okay?

12:01 This is this is not gospel. This is not scripture. This is my imagination coming up with maybe they're in the 30 or 40 years old, right? They're they're they're tillers of the soil. That doesn't mean that he put one shovel in and said, look, something grew afterwards or or or a keeper of sheep.

12:19 It wasn't that he saw one sheep or one little lamb being born. You get the impression that they're accomplished. They've come through some things that they've learned to be a tiller of the soil. They've learned they're successful at keeping the sheep. So I'd like to think that they're...

12:56 He prepared, you know, he tilled the soil and got a crop, and and he took part of that and he gave back to the lord. That makes sense. That's what he had. That's what he had available to him. It's what he did for a living and the same you could say of Abel.

13:12 He was a a keeper of the sheep and he took one of those sheep and gave it to the lord, okay? And and so so at first look, that's that makes sense. In the second look, we might look with biblical hindsight, right? We might look back knowing what we know today, right? And we might say that, you know, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

13:36 So, no wonder that Cain was wrong, right? Well, we have to be careful to to know where Cain was at the time. Cain didn't know this at the time. I mean, he may have learned and and and understood this idea that blood had to be shed for skins to be able to cover Adam and Eve and he'd probably heard that story 100 times but but we don't get the the sense that he's been instructed. If you want to please me, this is how you do it.

14:03 It's it seems to be a a boiling to me, a boiling up of the the the the feelings in their hearts that they make this offering. The third look might say that, you know, attitude of Cain and Abel was important. And if you look at the nuance of the language, look at some different interpretations, the NIV says it a little bit differently. It says, Cain brought some of the fruit of the land. Abril brought the fat portions of the firstborn.

14:36 Okay? It's a concept between the very best and some extra. The the sense here is that that Cain brought in a... Let me exaggerate for a little bit what he had laying around. A little bit extra.

14:52 There, lord. You know, I appreciate it. Right? And and and Abel though brought that firstborn, the best, the very best. So, where's the faith in these acts, right?

15:03 Because we we learn later that Abel was commended for his faith and and where's the faith in these acts? Well, think about it this way. If you're a farmer and you raise some fruit, maybe wheat for example. You you get the wheat and and you have a choice with that wheat. I have to explain these things because not, you know, we are not living in agrarian society today, so let me break it down.

15:26 Don't insult you in any way, but you take that wheat. Now you have a choice. What are you going to do with that? You can grind it up, make something out of it, and eat it. We have to eat to live.

15:40 But if you don't take some of it and put it back in the ground for next year's crop, then you don't have any to grind up and eat the next year. Okay? So so now, that's your choice you have to make. How much do I hold back? How much is going to grow?

15:58 How much can I grind? How much can I sell? You you you got this balancing act that's always going on. And Cain took some of that. He wasn't going to grind it.

16:09 He wasn't going to plant it. He he gave it away with nothing intended in return. So, he sacrificed it. There's some faith that, you know what? If if I give this away, there'll still be enough for me to live.

16:23 Alright? Let's look at the the idea of the keeper of the sheep. Now you got the opportunity to say, look, I have this this new baby lamb, and I'm gonna take and do one of two things with it. I can either slaughter it, eat it, gain clothing from it, or I can keep it, and I can breed it again next year and have another lamb. Okay?

16:53 So the idea is that I I have to choose correctly. And when you're choosing, you have to choose the best and eat the rest. Because if you don't choose the best, your your curd goes the wrong way. And when you're choosing, you choose male and female. I mean, I don't need to explain that to you.

17:16 It takes a male and a female to make the process work going forward. Right? But it doesn't take one female and one male. It can take one male for 10, 20, even 50 females. So when you're driving down the interstate and you see that lovely herd of cows, sheep, even deer, mostly what you're seeing are females there.

17:42 Okay? Because they're the carriers of the new babies going forward. Right? And the males are able to provide for enough or many females. Okay?

17:55 So in a sense, you got one male and a bunch of females. That one male is half the herd. He provides the genes going forward for half that herd. So the idea is here that that Abel took the firstborn. Now, we say we think of firstborn.

18:16 It's not just chronologically. Boy, that's a mouthful. Chronologically, the firstborn. It means the best, the very best. So I imagine as if he had taken this strong, healthy, fat, aggressive ram and said, you know, this is the best I got, Lord.

18:38 I'm going to give it to you. So the idea is he gave the very best. He bet the ranch. This is... This could be the future of his whole herd.

18:50 But he bet the ranch on this one and said, Lord, I have faith that if I give this to you, everything I know will continue to provide for me. So I'd like you to consider that as you as you consider what is going on here between Cain and Abel, what their attitude was in the way that they gave. So then the next thing is we find out that says, and the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. Here's a clear demonstration.

20:01 There's clear direction from the Lord. He was clear. And and, you know, you get this sense that there's still this face to face or this this very close conversational relationship between the Lord and Cain and Abel at this point. Unfortunately, it it fades away from that, but still, they were they were in constant communication. So Cain's anger was seen as well as felt.

20:31 He was upset. It says that not only could the Lord say to him, Lord, I... Or or Cain, I can I can read your mind? I can see your heart. I'm the creator of the universe.

20:42 But but in a sense, he's saying, anybody could see this. Your countenance has fallen. Doesn't doesn't our countenance fall? Doesn't it change when we're angry? Can't you tell?

20:52 I've heard it said, you know, your actions are speaking so loud, I can't hear what you're saying. So we we we can see in the person how they feel, and much... Many times, it's not what you say, it's how you said it. So Cain's anger was clearly visible. Clearly, he was upset.

21:13 But what is anger? What is anger? Anger is a God given emotion. Ephesians four twenty six, it's a quote from Psalm four four says, be angry and do not sin. Have you considered that for a moment?

21:31 Consider it now. How do you be angry and still don't sin? There's a fine line there. It's a strong feeling of displeasure, which is anger. In a sense, it's like putting a hot hand on a stove.

21:45 When you put your hand on a not a hot hand, a hand on a hot stove, but if you put your hand on a stove, it doesn't take long for you to realize, need to get it off. Okay? I like to think about anger in that way too. When all of a sudden I'm feeling anger, it's the time to make a decision. It's time to make something different fast.

22:07 Better figure out why I'm angry because it's a hot stove in a relationship that's saying, you better figure something out now. Verse six. So the lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?

22:30 And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. I get the idea that this is a teachable moment. One where the Lord is saying, what's the matter? Let's think this through. Let's figure out why are you really angry.

22:54 Cain, in a sense, at that point, has a chance to redeem himself. You have a choice right now. Here it is. Here and now, you have a choice to figure out which way you're gonna go. Is your attitude in the right place, and are you willing to change it, or are you willing to accept where your attitude is?

23:11 Are you willing to confront this? And I think you had better do this. It's a warning. If you choose correctly, won't you be accepted? If you choose incorrectly, then you're going to suffer the consequences.

23:26 It's a warning. It says, sin is waiting at the door. Some translations say, it's crouching at the door, ready to pounce. Right? You think of a tiger, a lion, a cheetah, something ready to pounce and gain control over us.

23:44 Sin is at the door and is desiring, has the great desire, one that really wants to overcome you, you have an opportunity now. We should rule over it. We should rule over that. We should master our emotions, understand them, and have the opportunity to say, You know what? No, I'm not going there.

24:05 I'm gonna check my attitude. I'm gonna check where my heart is and not let this anger take me in the wrong direction. So today, do we have a teachable moment too? Is there some... You find anger some time?

24:24 Anybody ever been angry? You don't even have to raise your hands. Okay? I have been angry. It's the opportunity, though, that in a sense, you've touched that hot stove.

24:34 Let's tie... Take time to figure out quickly. How do I get my ang... My my hand off of that so that I don't move forward in sin. I have to choose wisely.

25:21 It senses that he said, Abel, how about me and you go out and meet in the field? You know, what do you say we get out away from here? Let's us go out. I want to want to talk to you. I want to have a conversation with you.

25:36 In a sense, he lured him out there. That means he planned it. There's no question about that. He planned to do what he did. That in in the vernacular of law today in The United States is called first degree murder.

25:50 He meditated on it, premeditated it, and figured it out. It wasn't an accident. He didn't go out there and and have you know, an argument and it got out of control. He didn't lose control of him's passion. He planned ahead of time and said, this man is in competition with my favor for god and the way that I can gain favor with god is for me to take him out.

26:20 So, off they did. Off they went and Cain kills Abel. We know he didn't use a gun. So even back then, guns don't kill people. People kill people.

26:33 Right? And Cain killed his brother, the first two brothers. It's a tragic day, though maybe Adam and Eve might say that this was the worst day of their lives to watch this play out before them. Verse nine, then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know.

27:01 Am I brethren brother's keeper? It's a rhetorical question. We know from the next verses and we know the lord again in biblical hindsight, we know the lord is omnipresent. He's omniscient. He knows everything.

27:14 He sees everything. He's everywhere. He's available to us always. So, he knew what had happened But we sort of hear an echo back to chapter three where the Lord said, Adam, where are you? Or in a sense, Adam, where's your heart?

27:30 So here we hear it again. Cain, where's your heart? What have you done? So what does Cain decide to do? Well, he decides to compound the problem.

27:42 Right? He starts lying. First thing he says, I don't know. And the next thing he says is, am I my brother's keeper? And I take that as sort of a mock towards God.

27:57 He's saying, I thought you said you could keep him safe. I thought you said that we all could be safe with you. Well, who's powerful now? I just killed him. You gave life, but I took it away.

28:13 Verse 10. And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed of the earth, cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you.

28:32 A fugitive and a vagabond, you should be on earth. So now there's two conversations here, right, between the Lord and Cain. The first one is, why are you angry? And then there's some time that's passes. He left Cain to ponder that before he comes back and says, now, what have you done?

28:54 So, there's two conversations, some time in between. Cain has the opportunity to make a choice in between there. Can you understand that? Do you do you hear what I just said? Cain had the opportunity.

29:09 It's like that's where free will comes in. The Lord allows things to happen that if we were God, we might not allow to happen. But he has it for his reasons. But now Cain's punishment is announced. Even though we have the chance to make our own decisions, we also get the opportunity to live with those consequences.

29:59 So now you might ask, is this remorse or repentance or both? It's a good question, and I would say certainly remorse. He's sorry to have to suffer these consequences. He's sorry that this is what the result of everything is going to be. In my mind, it's difficult to find repentance, though.

30:21 There's no omission of guilt, no no no idea where he's going to put himself under God's care or control to fix his attitude. He complains, you've driven me out. And in some senses, he's placing the blame on on God. He's concerned over his future. He's concerned more about what's going to happen to him than it is about what caused this to happen in the future or in the past or what he's done to create this.

30:50 He's going to struggle to till the soil. He's going to be hidden from god's face outside of god's presence. He's never been there before. Be a fugitive an event and a vagabond. He has to wander around in a sense to get the to gather food that way maybe.

31:07 On top of that, he admits that you know what? If it was me, I'd wanna kill that guy. So maybe I'm gonna die too. Hey, I think it's important for us to note that we can't say that Cain made... Cain's actions made up for his sin.

31:25 Again, we use biblical hindsight. We know only the Lord Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. And in combination with our acceptance of saying... Of the same can cover that up. Yet, only the Lord's mercy saves Cain from destruction.

31:43 Even Cain said himself that he would have killed himself for he thought that he deserved death. Verse 15. The Lord said to him, therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. You know, the Lord made a choice of what he was gonna do.

32:08 He had mercy on Cain. He didn't give him what he deserved. He allowed him to live. Lord said, I'll take revenge if I choose to take revenge. It's my choice, not anybody else's choice.

32:24 And I think it shows a couple things. Number one, how long suffering our God really is, that he would willingly not only not give Cain what he deserved but that he would willingly protect him and and put some mark. I don't know what that mark was that would say, this is Cain. I'm protecting him. If you kill him, you're in big trouble.

32:51 But I also think that it shows that the Lord is willing to give Cain every opportunity to repent, just as he gave Judas every opportunity to repent. It makes our god a big god and not a weak god when you think of it that way. So then, verse 16 says, Cain went out from the presence of the lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the East Of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

33:32 To Enoch was born, I read, and I read begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech. I'm sure I butchered every one of those, but you get the idea. What a powerfully awful statement. Says that Cain walked away, knowingly walked away from the presence of the Lord. Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden, but Cain made a choice to walk away from the presence of the Lord.

34:04 Certainly, this is a change in their relationship. And the way that Cain interacted with God, he left him. And yet, still, the Lord blessed Cain with children. Again, God showed mercy on him, but then grace in the way that life moves forward. Verse 19.

34:30 Then Lamech took for himself two wives. The name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was Jubal.

34:46 He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and an eye... And iron. And the sister of Tubal Cain was Nema or... Yeah, Nema.

35:02 Then Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice. Wives of Lamech, to my speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech, 70 sevenfold. Lamech is an interesting contrast. This is the end of the path that Cain started on.

35:28 In the sense that Cain had started to walk away from God, and as the generations follow, they get so far away that we have here Lamech. Notice that Lamech took for himself two wives. God gave Adam one. A man heard him. There's some scuffle, and maybe in self defense, he kills the man.

35:54 And then he creates this poem for his wives to say, look what I've done. And look, not only if Cain and he clearly knew the story of Cain. Right? If Cain was avenged sevenfold, well, because I was injured in the whole thing, you know, we know Cain did it just on his own accord, but now I was injured. You don't understand.

36:18 This guy was hurting me, so therefore, I have reason to kill them. And therefore, I'll be avenged 77 fold, which is something he's determined on his own. That's not what the Lord provided. It's not what the Lord said as an example. The Lord set the example that said, I have mercy.

36:40 Lamech didn't. Lamech had three sons, Jabal, a nomadic shepherd, accomplished one. Jubal, an entertainer. Tubal Kane, industrious sort. They worked with bronze and iron.

36:57 So these were accomplished men. But let's look at just a contrast, and I don't want to steal the the the Noah story, but Noah had three sons as well. We're we're told that Noah and his sons were saved because of their faith, not because of their accomplishments. Seeing God's economy, it's not about what you can do, it's about who you know. It's not about the skills that you have, but the faith that you have which saves you.

37:30 It's the same same way in the salvation of Christ. We're saved through faith and not of our works. It appears that all of Cain's ancestors or those children and grandchildren and seven generations of them were killed in the flood. We don't know there may be some intermarrying. I don't know how they're all connected there, but they they don't appear to have continued on.

38:21 We've returned to where we started. An awful day and then a blessing that comes out of it. Or a blessing that comes going forward, I guess is a better way of putting it. A renewal of hope, a new son, the seed that that that was promised and the one that that Eve anticipated now is coming and it's coming through Seth. You have to realize that when we step back to the birth of Seth, we're stepping back a few generations.

38:52 Right? The the generations of Abel went seven, but now here we are back with Adam and Eve having a baby. A 130 years old, they said, and Seth was to be born. Now just as Moses was prevented from entering the promised land, so was the firstborn to Adam and Eve. He did not have faith, so he wasn't moving forward.

39:20 His line wasn't moving forward. Joshua came and took them into the promised land. He showed faith. Faith is what the Lord really desires. It's not an uncommon practice that the chronological...

39:35 Did it again. Firstborn is not the one to lead the line. Think of David, many others. Verse 26 also says, then men began to call on the name of the Lord. We echo back to verse 16 when it says that Cain left the presence of the Lord.

39:55 Well, now the line of Seth, the the the descendants of Seth, they're starting to call on the name of the Lord. Maybe it's due to the the teaching they had, the example they've seen, the the the the the experienced knowledge and and whatever that Adam and Eve were able to impart based on what they knew that we don't know exactly how we do know that they had faith in the lord. So I'm going to jump to chapter five for just two seconds and and give you a quick summary. There's there's one real important thing to carry us from chapter four to chapter six where I believe John Woodhams is going to pick up. And we get through chapter five, we need to know one very important thing, that the line of Seth, the descendants of Seth, is what leads to Noah, which was leads through the book of Ruth and the genealogy there to the book of Matthew.

40:51 If you follow the genealogy, that's where that the line comes. Noah is coming out of the line of Seth there. And then there's also one interesting story to make sure we don't skip over in chapter five. Let's read quickly chapter five verse 24. It says, and Enoch, descendant of Seth, walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

41:20 God took him. He didn't die. The Lord chose to say, Enoch, I've seen your faith. Hebrews chapter 11 verse five, we've studied this not long ago, says, by faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was found... It was not found because God had taken him.

41:40 For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. What a remarkable story. And he ends up many centuries later in the hall of faith, so to speak, Hebrews chapter 11. His faith was shown by his actions as we learn in James' also talked about this. The continuation of the line of Seth, where men were calling on the name of the Lord, Enoch had showed this faith in God, and the Lord rewarded him for his faith.

42:43 But the end of the story is that to quote a verse in a in a in a song, Jesus paid it all. All to him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, and he washed it white as snow. Are you willing to put your faith in the God of the universe and his provision for you? The story doesn't change from the beginning to the end.

43:13 What a gospel message we can see, even here in this difficult time. Let's give thanks to the Lord. Father, we're so thankful that, you've given us your word. You've challenged us in it, Lord. You haven't hold...

43:29 Held out many difficult things for us to consider. And so we pray, Lord, that as we've talked about this story, the first two brothers, Cain and Abel, the tragedy that came out, that we might take the purpose for which you you left it in your word, that we might learn from it, that we might have faith in you, we may demonstrate that faith so that even as Enoch was, we could be found faithful in the reward that he saw. Lord, we pray these things in your son's precious name. Amen.