I. Review of Genesis So Far
A. 6,000 years ago, God created the entire universe – in just 6 days!
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And I believe it! No doubts!
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It LOOKS billions of years old, but God made it with built in age
“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” - Psalm 33:6
“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.” - Genesis 1:16
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See Adam and Eve!
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” - Genesis 1:26-28
- How old do you think they LOOKED? And yet how old were they?
- God didn’t make amoebas that slowly evolved into people… God made a grown MAN and a grown woman that looked around 30 years old!
B. Then sin came in (Romans 5:12)
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Satan deceived Eve into believing she could be ‘a god’ and so she disobeyed God’s ONE rule
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And then she convinced her husband Adam to wilfully choose HER over God, and he did
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And so, sin came into this world, and death came in with it
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” - Romans 5:12
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It SHOULD have been the end of the story – Adam and Eve SHOULD have died under the promised punishment of God
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” - Genesis 2:17
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This world is broken because of sin
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Death reigns now – wins every time it seems
C. The majority of the sons of Adam walk away from God like Cain did
- Born with sin and rebellion in their hearts
- So much easier to:
- Complain - Fight and argue - Hold onto bitterness and anger
- Hate and kill (James 4) - Lie and steal
- Those are the natural works of your old nature – your flesh
- And they are fuelled by the devil – HE IS ENJOYING IT, not God!
- This line (culture) dominated the world at that time – Rebellious Cain and his sons filled the world with their anti-God philosophy
D. But God made a promise in Genesis 3:15
“And I will put enmity between thee [THE DEVIL] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed [MESSIAH]; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt [ONLY] bruise his heel.” - Genesis 3:15
One day, a Messiah, a Saviour, the “seed of the woman” referring to a virgin, who without a husband, would have the Son of GOD who would come and undo all that Satan had ruined!
II. Background (Genesis 5:22)
“And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” - Genesis 5:22
A. In chapter 5 God focuses on TEN good men in history - Men who walk with God
B. In spite of the kind of world they lived in!
- Not that they are perfect, but that they are DEPENDENT upon God!
- Genesis 5 is showing us a line of Godly men and families that were OUT OF STEP with the world – with the culture of that day – who wanted to walk with God, and stay on what Jesus calls the narrow way
- Men who need God… believe God
- Stay true to God and His word
- And pass on godliness and their walk with God to the next generations
C. No man is good because of their own goodness
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All men are born broken, messed-up, sinful in their core
“None righteous.” - Romans 3:10
- ALL of these men we will read about were broken. ALL of these men had their flaws
- Not one of them was sinless
- Not one of them didn’t have a sin nature
- And yet, they are godly
- Simply because they conformed their lives and thinking and beliefs to what God said instead of what their own heart felt, or what the world around them said!
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They were good because they were believers in a substitutionary LAMB that took their place every time they worshipped God!
D. We need generations of “walkers” - generations who will just walk with God
“Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he [GOD] might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” - Malachi 2:14,15
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That’s God’s way of saying, we need to work hard on having children who know God and teach them to love God
“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” - Deuteronomy 6:5-7
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God expects us to have children who are taught and trained and nurtured into men and women who love God, and walk with God
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Some people find this very hard to do, naturally – I found it hard!
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We need church to help us have a routine, force us to think about and talk about God… But we must work at it in our homes as well!
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Every nation is built upon the strength of its homes, not churches, and certainly not governments!
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This is our pattern for passing on our walk with God to our children and children’s children
III. Conclusion
A. Walking with God is a daily choice
B. It requires being out of step with the world
C. Godly men pass their faith to the next generation
D. Are you walking with God today?
For more information, contact Bible Baptist Church of Ballincollig at www.biblebc.com