Menu Close

A Grounding In The Scriptures

Wednesday Night 01/04/2023 – Pastor Eric Davis

Over the next few, at least few Wednesday nights, I want to take a kind of a survey study of a particular book of the Bible and one that kind of correlates goes along with what you might be reading as you read through your Bible this year. So we’ll look what better place to start than the book of Genesis tonight. Kevin said on Sunday. It is the book of Beginnings. Before you go to Genesis, if you’re there, you can hold your place there. Turn with me to second Timothy two. Timothy, chapter three in Romans 15, Timothy three. And the purpose of these studies, if we continue this after tonight, is to as one of the writers I read after, said to give a good grounding in the Scriptures, we do well he said this, I like this quote. We do well to realize that those sermons or books which most stir us at the time of hearing or reading often or sometimes leave us little that is of permanent value. While on the other hand, those that teach us most may not be so immediately stirring. So it’s really encouraging, isn’t it? I hope tonight’s message is both stirring and permanent. But there’ll be some studies here I think we can park away a little bit and help us as we go through. Read through the Bible, read through the book of Genesis and we can see some things that God points out and there’s some practical things we’ll look at as well. Second Timothy, chapter three, verse 16 says, all Scripture is given by what inspiration of God and is profitable. Right, profitable for doctrine, for approved, for correction, for instruction and righteous that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished, and all good works, all Scripture is given. Now, Romans, chapter number 15, verse number four. For whatsoever things were written of four time were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Some will say, well, that’s Old Testament. We don’t live in the Old Testament anymore, and I would agree with that. We live in the New Testament, the new covenant under the blood of Christ, but it is still there for our learning, a lot of good practical application for things that we need. And the book of Genesis is just chalk full of good stuff. Anyway, eight minutes. So we’re going to get into it, but let’s pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this time together, and we don’t want to take it for granted. And Lord, I know it may not seem as, I don’t know, exciting and stirring on the outside, but Lord, I pray as we get into it that you would stir our souls and stir our hearts. Help us to see some Bible principles in action and be reminded of your goodness, your grace, just who you are, and the lead us and direct us and help us this year as we study through your word. Help us to be people of the book. In Jesus name, amen. You know how many books of the Bible are there? 66. Very good. How many is in the Old Testament? 39. 39 a lot. 39. So in the New Testament, quick math. 27. Very good, brother Kevin. Thank you. There are people divide them up in different ways. I’m gonna give you the the way that J. Sidlow Baxter in his book explore the Book. He divided up this way. In the Old Testament, there’s the first 17 books, then there is the middle five books, and then there’s the last 17 books in the Old Testament. And if you want to take notes, just real quick overview. This is like 30,000 foot level. When I went out to Arizona, I thought, man, this is going to be so cool. And we’ll see all the different states. And I had no idea what I was looking at because I was so high up. I thought, I’m going to look for the Mississippi River. I’ve always wanted to see that. I don’t call me weird anybody else ever wanted to see that. All right, good. I’m not the only one. And I’m sure we’ve had to have flown over it. I saw a river that looked all curvy and things, but I don’t know if that was it or not. There were no labels at the 30,000 foot level, so you didn’t get to see a whole lot of detail. Little tractor trailers looked about that big. And so we are kind of taking a 30,000 foot overview of the Bible right now. Then we’ll kind of come down a little closer to Holmet Genesis. Okay, but the first 17 books of the Bible are historical, which includes two divisions. First five is the books of Moses. The human penman was Moses. It’s historical genesis through deuteronomy. The next twelve are from Joshua to Esther are also historical. There are nine which were written pre exile from the land. That’s interesting. There were three that were written post exile, ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. After they were exiled, they start coming back into the land. Then there’s the middle five, which are poetical jobs psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. And I like what Baxter said here on these. These are individual and experiential. Don’t ask me to define it, but it sounds good. You can relate to these on a very personal level, especially the Psalms. Then there’s remaining 17 which are prophetic books developed in the major prophets and minor prophets. There are also nine pre exile prophets and three post exile prophets. I don’t know if that means anything in all of eternity, but it’s interesting. That shows you God is a God of order. There were over 30 human penmen spaced over 1200 years in different places, writing to different people for different purposes. And yet there’s one theme, there’s harmony in the Bible that’s just in the Old Testament. Then you got the New Testament and it’s one unfolding revelation from Genesis to Revelation. The theme is the Lord Jesus Christ through it all. But the unity alone points to one author being God. Amen. Only God could do that. New Testament. We have the four Gospels and Acts lump it together. It’s five historical books. Then you have the he labels it as this Christian Church Epistles. There’s nine of them Romans. The second thessalonians the pastoral Epistles. First and sacred. Timothy titus philemon hebrew Christian epistles. I know there’s some people have other categories, but that’s Hebrews of Revelation. Okay, that’s the top level. Look, let’s get down a little bit closer. Dependent first five books of the Bible. You realize it covers about 2500 years of history of the earth. And let’s skip over some of this. Genesis is the the book of beginnings. How many remember that from Brother Kevin’s message? Okay, there was about 75% paying attention. So it’s the seed plot of the Bible. What begins in seed form in Genesis is unfolded and revealed through Revelation. This is interesting. There’s 50 chapters in Genesis. Genesis covers a period of roughly 2300 years. No other book in the Bible, unless you count Revelation and through all of eternity covers such a large extent of time, only Genesis. So as you’re reading through as many of you have experienced and known and seen, firsthand you’re going to hit some fast pace coverage of time and then you’re going to slow way down. Because the purpose of the Bible is not to reveal the history of the world, is to reveal what God wants us to see, the history of mankind. That he’s highlighting certain events, to summarize it all. I know you know that, but that’s just to lay a foundation. There’s two main divisions of Genesis. Chapters one through eleven cover about 2000 year period from the Creation to Abram leaving Hayran. And then there’s the second divisions from chapter twelve to 50. Abrams obedience to the death of Joseph the human penman is Moses. Let’s look at a couple key verses in Genesis. Okay? Genesis one, have you found it? All right, genesis one. One says, in the beginning, God created the what? The heaven and the earth. Before we get to that, I thought this was interesting. This is what I was trying to get to a minute ago. There are some similarities between the first book of the Bible and the last book of the Bible. In both there’s a new beginning and a new order. There is the Tree of Life, there’s a river, there’s a bride, the bride of Christ in Revelation, the bride of of Adam in Genesis. There’s the walk of God with man. There’s a paradise. There’s also many contrast. Now think about this. The first paradise was closed in Genesis, right? The new paradise is opened in Revelation, chapter 21. The curse is imposed in Genesis. The curse is removed in Revelation. Access to the tree of life is forbidden in Genesis. But then it’s granted in Revelation. Beginning of sorrow and death in Genesis. And then sorrow and death is done away with in Revelation, things are defiled because of sin in Genesis. In Revelation, there’s a city in which nothing shall be defiled. The tricks satan has his tricks. He’s deceitful. You can see his power in Genesis. In Revelation. He’s finally defeated. Amen. Man’s walk with God is interrupted in Genesis. Still possible. As we heard from Brother Kevin Sunday. But it was interrupted. That perfect walk with God’s interrupted, but it’s restored and resumed in Revelation. A lot of things find their fulfillment in Revelation. A couple of quick rules for a Bible interpretation. We take the Bible literally unless it’s made clear by the context of the Scripture that it’s not to be taken as such. And we know by the context when that is, but we take it literally. I believe that God created the world in six literal days, literal 24 hours days, because the way the Bible reads and teaches, there’s a law first mentioned. Dad’s mentioned that before, and he finds a word when it’s first mentioned in Scripture. It generally conveys the meaning all throughout Scripture. There’s also a law of recurrence. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will give an outline of a subject and then recur or return to the thought to add details. For instance, as you’re reading Genesis one, you see the creation of the world. Genesis two, God steps back and look at from verse four to the end of the chapter and in detail shows you the creation of the world from man’s perspective and kind of shows you some things that related to Adam. So here’s the point. Not everything in the Bible is chronological. Sometimes you have to stop and take the context and look at things. And when you get into prophets, that comes more into play. All right, so some key verses. Genesis one. One. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. This does away with many false teachings of man. It does away with atheism. We know there is a God. Amen. In the beginning, God there’s. There’s no argument for it. It’s just a matter you believe it or you don’t believe it. You accept it or you don’t accept it. It is what it is. It does away with polytheism and say there’s many Gods because there is only one God manifest in three persons. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. That does away with fatalism, not by chance, but by God’s decree. You know, we’re not here by accident. Not a single one of us are here by accident, but by divine purpose. God’s established everything the world creation. You are here living because God wanted you here living. Now. It’s not to say that God chooses everything in our life. He allows us to make decisions. But things don’t happen only by chance. This world was not brought in to existence by chance. It does away with evolution. Amen. Because God created, there’s no way you can reconcile the two. It does away with pantheism, which means, it says that God and the universe are the same. God is in the tree and the tree is in god. God created the trees, right? So materialism matters is eternal. Matter is not eternal. There was a time when there was nothing, and God reached into nothing and he made everything. And it would have been wonderful to see that. So the creation of God in chapter one, or god’s creation in chapter one and two, creation of all things. And then the fall in chapter three begins with Satan questioning the authority of God’s word, denying the authority of god’s word, and then substituting his own word for God’s word. And those notes came from brother McBride that outlined right there. He questioned the authority of God’s word. He said, yea hath god said. And he’s still doing the same thing today. See, it’s amazing. What the devil starts with he’s found has worked, and he’s still sticking with it today. He’s bringing doubt upon God’s word. Did God really say that? Do you really have a perfect, inspired bible? And we do. God promised to preserve his word. If god’s powerful enough to create everything out of nothing, he can preserve his word without any problem. So he questioned the authority of God’s word. He denied the authority of God’s word. He said, you shall not surely die. God doesn’t mean that he’s still doing that today. Said god doesn’t mean that he’s not going to judge you for that. He’s still doing that. And then he substituted his own word for God’s word. And people will add to the bible to add their own philosophy and ideas. And then you come to the flood. And we’ve studied many times on the flood. Chapter number six, brother Kevin priest. Chapter number five, sunday, six, seven, eight, and nine is the flood. You realize that Noah was 600 years old when he entered into the ark. That means he was working on the ark somewhere between 506 hundred years old. Brother Jim, I know you’re not that old, so I mean, you know, you got to, got to buck up a little bit, right? I’m just kidding, brother. I’m just kidding. But God, god blessed him and, and had a purpose and plan for him. And I don’t expect to be here at 500 years old. I expect to be with the lord. Amen. We might be rolling and raining with him by then in the thousand year millennial. Rain. Anyway, it’s just amazing. Some of the things you learn as you go through the bible, this beginnings of human history, and we see it unfold and how God created a perfect environment. Mankind rebelled against God, and we’re still rebelled against God. You put mankind in a perfect environment. Man is not a victim of his circumstances because in the perfect environment, adam and Eve sinned against God and rebelled against God. And you and I still do the same thing today. Given the best circumstances, we still rebel against God until he makes a change in our heart in our life. God judged the world in the flood. Then you come to the Tower of Babel. I think Ken Ham says Babel, so however you want to say it, a Tower of Babel, chapter number eleven, where the people groups of the world are dispersed, where we get our different languages from. You have the beginnings of Hebrew history. And I want us to look at Genesis, chapter number twelve. Genesis, chapter number twelve, verse number one. This is God’s call to Abraham. Now, the Lord has said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, and to a land that I will show thee. And I’ll make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee in curse him that curseThe, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. And at this point in time, we’re almost 2000 years since the creation of the world. It’s been almost 2000 years ago when God made this promise to Abraham. And I’m sorry, 4000 years ago, but that promise is still in effect today. God is still blessing those that bless Abraham and his descendants and still cursing those that don’t. That’s why I am a firm believer that we ought to stand with the nation of Israel. And I know as a whole they have rejected Jesus as their savior. But God still got a design and plan for the Jewish people and we ought to stand with them and support them. That’s biblical. And so I believe this is a key verse here. Look at verse number four. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. Turn also with me to Genesis 15, verse one. After these things, the word of Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Verse number five. And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed being. I want to look at verse number six. I think this sums up a large part of Genesis. And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Abram is kind of a central figure in Genesis, but it was Abram’s faith in God that God counted to him for righteousness. Paul uses that in Romans. And he said, he’s explaining the way of salvation is our faith in God. God counts it to us for righteousness. But as you go through Genesis and you see Enoch walked with god. Why? He had faith in God. Noah walked with God because of his faith in God. In a wicked world. Abraham left his father’s household, walked with God because of his faith in God. So what’s the key here? Realize as Abraham. Abraham wasn’t perfect. He made some decisions that weren’t right, that cost him dearly. Noah did the same. This whole Bible is full of imperfect people because there was only one perfect, and that was Jesus Christ. But God uses imperfect people when we put our faith and trust in Him. But it’s kind of like our life. When we are trusting God. Our life may not go smoothly, but we’re in his will. We’re doing what he wants us to do. But when we have peace in our soul, but when we get away from that, we start doubting what God said. We bring trouble in our life. Same thing happened with Abraham. There were times that he just in chapter twelve, I think it was. We’re not going to go back there. But twice he built an altar and he called upon the name of the Lord and later he would return back to that. He believed God during this instant. Later, when he went down to soldier in Egypt, he told his wife, he said, you tell them that you are my sister. He had a period of unbelief, period of doubt. Then God brought him back, gave him a promise, that promise again. And he believed God, and he went forward with the Lord. And then later he had another setback. That’s just like our life, isn’t it? It would be great to have 24, 7365 days a year, 400% faith in God, nothing’s standing our way. But often it’s not like that. It’s up and down. And this we’re kind of getting I’m kind of getting ahead of myself now. But one of the lessons we learned through the Book of Genesis is the faithfulness of God, the mercy of God. We’re not faithful, but God is always faithful. There’s always a way back to follow Him and to serve Him. Another lesson as we go through Genesis is God is sovereign. He arranges and oversees the affairs of mankind. Even now, call me strange, I’m kind of enjoying this deadlock at the House in Congress, if you know what’s going on up there. To me, this is nice. They’re not passing anything that’ll hurt us. They can’t get started until they get a speaker in the House. And I’m kind of enjoying seeing the debate anyway. God still no matter what happens, gridlocker or no gridlock, god is still overseen. He knows exactly what’s going on. He knows what exactly is going on behind closed doors. He knows what’s going on in Russia, in China, in South America. He’s overseeing, he’s sovereign. You you look at 2400 years of human history, of the Devil trying to drag mankind down, and and God at the end of Genesis, is still in control. And still on the throne. That’s encouraging to me. In 20 what year are we in? 2023. Now that God is still on the throne, even 4000 years later, God is still on the throne, still in control. And he will always be. His power was demonstrated at Creation. His order is observed. He says that he establishes marriage between one man and one woman. And that’s never changed and it won’t change. He establishes the sanctity of life. Life has value. We’re created in the image of God. Every person is a living soul. There is value to life. That life, I believe, begins at conception. All of this is found in the beginning book of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, in the Fall, god is sovereign. His moral authority is recognized. There is a price to pay for sin. His holiness is revealed. That sin separates us from God. But his salvation is also revealed. Remember the promise he gave to Eve? Verse 15, chapter three said I’ll put Emma t between thee and the woman talked to the serpent between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head. Now shall bruce his heel. That’s the promise of Jesus coming one day. And that was given to Eve way back, 6000 years ago in the Garden of Eden, in the Flood, his judgment of sin is portrayed. But his grace is also seen in salvation. No. And his family found grace in the dispersion from Babel. His will is maintained. You realize they gathered together in the one place to circumvent God’s plan. God said, replenish the earth, fill the earth. They gathered together to form themselves a people. And I think for their protection, God dispersed them. And also so his will would be done. God dispersed them. He would never once one time was worried that they would find a way to reach heaven. That was impossible. But he said, I want there’s a purpose and plan and I’m going to accomplish my will. And so he dispersed them. He confused their languages. His will is maintained. His government is supreme. Amen. So God is sovereign, god is faithful. There’s four outstanding events in the Book of Genesis we’re wrapping up here soon. We talked about at the beginning in the first division Creation, the Fall, the Flood and then the Tower of Babel. And then there’s four outstanding persons. After that you got Abraham, you got Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. And I know there’s types and there’s things all throughout there and there’s lessons to learn. But I think central to that is this portion of Scripture where Abraham had faith in God. Abraham believed God. God’s faithful. Three times in Genesis, the phrase God remembered is used what God has promised he will perform. Chapter eight, verse one. God remembered Noah. God didn’t leave Noah on the ark to just do the best he could with what he was given. Chapter 19, verse 29, God remembered Abraham. That chapter 30, verse 22. God remembered Rachel, and she wasn’t one of the best role models in the Bible, but God still remembered that young lady as well. God is merciful. Over 33 times the word died is mentioned in Genesis. Not mentioned one time in Genesis, chapter one or chapter two. I didn’t look when the first instance is made, but I think it’d probably be chapter four. When Cain killed Abel, his brother. And that was after sin came. But God’s merciful seven times. The phrase Fear not is mentioned in Genesis. God tells abram, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. He even tells Hagar Sarah’s handmaid, fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Godth heard the voice of Ishmael. He tells Jacob, Fear not, for I am with thee and will bless thee. Multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. He says unto Jacob, I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down to Egypt, fry with there. Make of thee a great nation. And Joseph says unto his brethren, Fear not, for am I in the place of God. There’s forgiveness there. So God’s merciful, and he passes that down to his people. Walking with God. Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. God commanded Abraham to walk before him and be perfect. You know what? Here’s something. Here’s something. Turn to chapter 24, verse number 40. We’re trying to hit highlights. What I’m trying to do is set a foundation for you when you read the Bible, to have a basic outline to plug different passages in, get you interested in studying it and seeing discovering for yourself what God has for you in this precious book. This is Abraham telling his servant what to do. Go find a brine for Isaac. And he said unto me, I’m sorry. The servant is relaying this back to Laban. He said unto me, The Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with thee and prosper thy way. Now take a wife for my son of my kindred of my father’s house a lot there, but just look at that first little phrase. And he said unto me abraham said unto the servant, the Lord before whom I walk, god commanded him, walk before me and be perfect in all your ways. And Abraham said later in life, the Lord before whom I walk, I’m walking with the Lord. You know what God called Abraham? He called him his friend, didn’t he? He said, Shall I hide that which I’m planning to do from my friend? And Abraham interceded on Lot’s behalf. You remember when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah that’s that’s in Genesis, Abraham interceded, he had a walk with God. And every one of these examples walked with God in the midst of a wicked society. So it’s possible you don’t have to be the most popular thing to do to walk with God to be able to do that. Like brother Kevin preached. I’m repeating his message tonight. Chapter 48, verse 15. Just real quick. Jacob in blessing, Joseph said god, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long under this day. They didn’t always start out exactly the right way. They didn’t always have the right attitude or have the right pathway. But at the end of their lives, they all recognized who it was that brought them through life. And it was God. The earlier we learn that in life, the better. I say that to our young people. The early year you learn that God will walk with you. You can walk with God, the better it is for your life. Start now walking with him. There are a few other items of note. Mankind’s failure. But God’s faithfulness. God’s merciful. I think we we covered that. Revelation, chapter 21, verse number five. I know what what does that have to do with Genesis? Well, we’ll just turn over there real fast. Revelation 21, verse five.
Before we get there, let me give you one more key verse. Genesis. Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20. But as for you, Joseph talking to his brethren, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it under good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Can you not see the sovereignty of God? You see the ungodly line of cane rebel against God, all those wicked sons and grandsons and that generation rebelled against God and God wiped them off the face of the earth. He said, I’m not putting up with it. People gather themselves under baby. He said, I’m not putting up with it. I’m confusing your language. Time and time again, people try to rebel and revolt against God. And God is sovereign. God’s in control. We can trust him. Revelation 21. What’s the Revelation 21, verse five says in he that sat upon the throne amen I like that, don’t you? He that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. Let me ask you a question. Who is saying this? Jesus is the one that made everything new in the beginning, right? If he made it new one time, he can make it new all over again. And he said unto me, right, for these words are true and faithful. You know what is encouraging to me? The same God that created everything in the beginning, mankind messed up. And he’s will receive and reconcile those that come to him by faith will make everything new in the end. He that was faithful in the beginning and over history is faithful in the end. There’s no unfaithfulness in the Lord. We can trust God. Amen. So I hope you’re reading through some portion of Scripture, whatever it may be. And if you’re going through Genesis, I hope you’ll pick out some things as you go through how God is faithful. Look at. Their personal examples, I’m sure. As I have gone through reading, I’ve seen myself in some of the decisions that were made by these men and women that lived and not. To my praise, might I say that I could see myself making the same decisions they made. We can learn from scripture. These are the better lessons to learn rather than through experience, right? Learn it as we go. So all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. If you take one thought, take two thoughts away this evening. Spend time with God in his word. He’ll show you something. He’ll teach you something. He’ll instruct you the number two. God is sovereign. God is faithful. We can trust him. Amen. All right, that’s all we got tonight. Let’s stand. We’ll just have a quick invitation by Andy. I don’t know exactly how to have this invitation, but if the Lord spoke to your heart, you’re more than welcome to come. If you don’t know that you’re saved, tonight would be a good night to make sure, get that settled. And we could take the Bible. And many of you, probably all of you, know the way to be saved is simply trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we’d be glad to show you from the Bible what the Bible says. We don’t take man’s word at it, just like we don’t take man’s word at creation. We take God’s word. Mankind will mess it up. The devil will mess it up. But God’s word is faithful. We’ll show you what God’s Word says for something you need prayer about tonight’s. Altars open. I hope, number one, that you’re reading something in the Bible this year. You’re spending time with God. And number two, that you see that God is in control even in the details of your life. You and I make decisions, we make choices, and sometimes those choices will bring consequences in our life. But God, nothing is too big for God to handle. You take your problem, take your matter to an almighty God, and I promise you, I promise you he’ll be able to help you. If there’s anyone that’s walking far off from the Lord tonight, and be a good night to walk with God again. He’s faithful. We can trust him. I’m going to pray. Heavenly Father lord, thank you for your Word. Lord, we’re living in a blessed time where we have your complete Word to read, to study, to learn from. Father, I hate to say it, but I think many times we neglect it. What others would have gladly suffered to obtain to paid a great price for what they would envy us for. We just set aside saying we’ll get to it one day. We don’t get to it, lord, how much we miss. How much we miss. Lord, I’ve enjoyed the time that I’ve been able to spend in Your Word, lord, I wish personally that it would have been more than it has been already this year. Lord, I thank you for your word. Help me to study it, to read it, to apply it. Help me to trust you. There’s been others that have gone through things that I’m going through in life, and I can see that from Your word. Lord, help us to trust you. In Jesus name we pray. Be with all the needs here. In Jesus name, amen.

Leave a Reply