(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right. Amen. So, read out of Genesis chapter one because we're starting a new series this evening and it's called Getting to Know Your Old Testament. Getting to Know Your Old Testament. So, this is just meant to be a brief overview of some of the stories that are in Genesis. Obviously, it's impossible to cover every single thing in here. There's a lot of things I like to spend a lot of time on, but nonetheless, we'd be here all night and beyond that. So, we're not gonna do that. This is just basically, like I said, it's designed to give you an overview because the better you can see the bigger picture in these books throughout the Bible, when you read it for yourselves, the more your mind is gonna be able to pick up on the things that you've missed before. So, if you're reading this and maybe you haven't read it before or only a couple times, you know, your mind's still gonna process some of the bigger stories and you're gonna really think about it and, you know, you're gonna miss some of the underlying details. And so, this is just meant to encourage you, to help you, so that the next time you read through this, like I said, you'll be able to pick up a lot more details and things that maybe you haven't thought of. And so, we're there in Genesis chapter 1. Now, look at verse number 1. It says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Now, that verse right there is probably the most hated verse in this entire world. Every single day people wake up in universities across this country, if not across this world, and they just loathe the fact that the Bible says that. You know, especially the God haters. When you say, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, that takes away human achievement, right? That takes away man's creativity. That takes away the focus of humanity in man and puts it on God. And people don't like that. They hate it with a passion. So, this verse here is responsible for a majority of the controversy that you're gonna see out there in the world. It's why people hate us. It's why people don't like what we stand for. It's why people, you know, go into all sorts of heresy regarding God's Word and, you know, just want to, you know, just dig up documents and say, well, you know, this is just the best that we have. It's not exactly accurate. I mean, this doctrine against Genesis 1-1 shows no bounds, really. I mean, you can find it on some level in even Christian churches or so-called Christian churches. And that's a fact. And so, we're just gonna start off here looking at the first four verses, and then we're gonna turn to Proverbs chapter 8. Actually, why don't you go ahead and turn there right now. Turn to Proverbs chapter 8. And while you're doing that, I'm just gonna read for you the first four verses again. We're gonna just take a look at how deep God's Word is. And again, I say that tongue-in-cheek, right? It's impossible to see how deep God's Word is. There's no end to it. Like I said, we could have every man stand up here for the next several days and preach the same overview, and it would be different every single time. But nonetheless, turn to Proverbs 8, and just listen to the first four verses. It says, Now, there's a lot packed in that verse, right? God speaks, He gets results. And those results are always good. You see, when man speaks, it's not always good. It's not always right. And that is what bothers so many people. And the people that it bothers, and they let it get to them, they really lack wisdom. And you're gonna see that here. So, Proverbs chapter 8, just to get the context, look at verse number 1. It says, And my voice is to the sons of man. Then in verse 5, it says, Now, jump down to verse 20, regarding righteousness, okay? It says, So, Proverbs chapter 8 is written as if wisdom was speaking to you face to face. You need to understand that. So, look at verse 21. It says, Verse 22 says, Verse 24, So, you can lose your place there and go to John chapter 1. And so, what you see there is that the Bible's teaching that wisdom was there with God in the beginning. You see, when people lack the creation story, when they don't believe that the earth had a beginning according to God's way, the Bible's saying that they are fools. These people are foolish because the Bible says that if you would be wise, if you would be smart, you would be able to look at a tree and understand, okay, somehow somebody made that, right? It's the same thing when you look at a house or a building. You understand that that has a maker. You would have to be a serious fool, a loser, to say otherwise. Oh, it just appeared out of thin air. It just appeared from nothing at all. I mean, that's ridiculous. So, why would you look at this creation and come to the same conclusion unless you had an agenda and unless you hate God so much that it just placates you temporarily to say that you don't believe in God. Now, another thing that you're going to see here out of Genesis chapter 1 right in the beginning is the Trinity, is the Trinity. So, you're there in John chapter 1. You're going to see similar wording here. So, if you read John chapter 1, the first few verses, and you read Genesis 1, you're going to see a lot of the same things. So, look at John 1, 1. It says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word God, or I'm sorry, and the Word was God. So, what did we just read out of Genesis 1, right? In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. What you need to understand is that Jesus Christ was there. He was part of that. Verse 2, it says, the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And it was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light that shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Isn't that exactly what you read in the first four verses of Genesis? Now, look at verse 6. It says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. Verse 8, he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Even to them they believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And then verse 14, it says, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. He would be held as glory, and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And I just wanted, you can go back to Genesis chapter 1, I just wanted to point that out to you that in the beginning of John, you're going to see that he references, hey, this is the one who was there at the beginning of the creation of the world, right? He's the one that's there at the beginning of the new man that comes inside of you when you get saved as well. And so I just wanted to make that connection there. Now, if you're back in Genesis 1, look at verse number 26. This will make a lot more sense. It says, and God said, let us make man in our image, after our own likeness. You might be reading the first 26 verses and be like, well, what do you mean? It says in the beginning, God created the heaven and earth. And then in verse 26, it says, 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 the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So you can see without even leaving the first chapter of the Bible, that the Bible teaches the Trinity. Don't let anybody tell you that verse 26 is talking about God saying this to the angels, because that's not what's taught. You know, are we created in the likeness of an angel? If you read, I mean, sure we're messengers, but if you read about the cherubims and seraphims and like Michael, the archangel, and the countenance that they had, how people would see them and fall down in the Bible, right? We aren't made like that. We're flesh and blood. And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. So what God's saying there is, Hey, you know, he's a triune being, and we are made in his likeness. We weren't made to be in the state that we are. We got that way from the fall, which we'll see in a moment. But the second part of that verse, it says, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Now, what you see today is the exact opposite of that, right? We have people passing laws to give dominion over us by the animals, right? I mean, you know, this world, it seems to be like every day there's just an increasing number of people that are, you know, vocalizing their support for animal rights. Now I'm against, you know, I'm not, I'm not saying that we should be cruel to animals and all that junk, you know, I mean, that's just, that's just a thing that they used to attack us, right? But, you know, should somebody really go to prison for 10 years for, you know, stabbing a dog that was going to bite him, you know, or something like that? It's really ridiculous. So everything that you see that's wrong in society, in some way, shape, or form, you can see the opposite in the beginning of the Bible here. Now, beginning of verse 26, you start to see God's order, right? You see that man was supposed to have dominion over the animals, not the animals having dominion over the man. And you'll see, obviously, as we read through this, that today we have a lot of people and it seems to be getting worse. They worship the creature more than the creator. Now I forgot to read this verse for you going back to the Trinity, but in first John five, seven, you know, this verse that says for there are three, the bear record in heaven, the father, the word and the Holy ghost. And these three are one. And that's what we believe. We believe in the Trinity and you can find that teaching right off the bat, first chapter in the Bible. So let's move on from there and go over to Genesis chapter three, and we'll take a look at the fall of man. See, because in Genesis one, we see God's standards. He's brings orders, order to everything. He sets things up the way that he wants them. Now this is where we fall. And this is what people also have the biggest problem accepting. So Genesis chapter three, look at verse number one. It says, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath, God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden verse two. And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it. Neither shall you touch it lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die for God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as God's knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her. And he did eat. And then verse seven, it says, and the eyes of them were both open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And then verse eight, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And so, you know, right off the bat, Genesis chapter three, verse one is the famous question. Yea hath God said, and that's how the devil operates. And he operates that today in many different ways, just a different, you know, just a different question. Yea hath God said, thou shall not live in fornication. Yea hath God said, thou shall not touch alcohol. Yea hath God said that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You know, and then the next thing that follows is a twisting or a perversion of God's word. This is the formula of how the devil attacks people in their personal lives, how he attacks churches, how he attacks this entire world. Because of this question, we are in the state that we are at today in a fallen world. That's why it's so hard. That's why we preach so hard about following the word of God, because we're trying to get things back in line with what God says with his standards, with his expectations, and not with the devil, not with the world. And so I just wanted to highlight that there for you that anytime we take our focus off of the word of God, right, when someone comes into our lives in some way, shape, or form and says, hey, yea, hath God said, and then we say, and we think about it, I don't know, I'm not really sure. Or, well, I don't think he quite meant it that way. And then we start looking at the thing that they're pointing us to. The result is death. The result is sin. The result is always going to be a disaster. Anytime you take your eyes off of the navigational tool that God gave us, which is his word, it always leads in disaster. So after that, we go over to Genesis chapter four. And what do we see? We see the first murder in the Bible. You see, people want to teach this evolution, right? We're always evolving. Things are getting better. But the fact of the matter is it's not, right? You'll see humanity throughout the Bible get a little bit better and then just get a whole lot worse. So instead of evolution, you don't see that, right? You see regression or a returning to its previous state. Take a look at the nation of Israel, for example, right? God sets them up. They stay strong and then they fall. They stay strong and then they fall. You know, they turn back to God and it just keeps on going until you get to the end of the Old Testament and they're nothing but a province of the Roman government. So there is no evolution. There's only regression we keep. That's what man just fails every single time he tries to set out to do something apart from God. And the reason is because we're all sinners. That's what the Bible teaches there. Now go over to Genesis chapter five and we'll take a look at something here. Look at verse number four. So, you know, you're going to get this question. People say, okay, well, in the Bible it says, okay, you know, God created Adam and Eve. Well, you know, that was only two people. So how did Cain get his wife and how did all these people, you know, get married? That means at some point they would have had to marry their cousins. Well, the stupid thing about that is, okay, if you believe that we evolved from a rock, right? I mean, how many people evolved from rocks? Was it millions at one time? Was it one? And then another person evolved from a rock and then they got married. I mean, you know, you're not going to really get around it. You know, it's really ridiculous. But if you look at Genesis chapter five and verse four, it says, and the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years and he begat sons and daughters. If you can remember Genesis chapter five, verse four, that is the answer to the question. Anytime somebody wants to challenge you on whether or not people married their cousins, married their sister, married, you know, their second cousin or what have you, or where did Cain get his wife? Well, you got to remember that Adam and Eve had multiple sons and daughters. You know, I mean, what do you want a book like from here all the way up to 30,000 feet of, you know, all the different names and stuff. They were on the planet that back then. I mean, that's just, just absurd. Now people did obviously marry their cousins or marry within the family back then because the gene pool was perfect, you know? And if you think about it, where did Eve come from? I mean, think about it. She came from Adam. She came from man. I mean, you can't get any closer related than that. So, you know, it's just, just stupid. You know, the Bible says, it says, uh, speak not thou in the ears of a fool for you will despise the wisdom of thy words. So when somebody is coming at you with that, with the intention just to dig at you as best, just not to even answer, not to even mock them. But if somebody has a genuine, honest, you know, concern or a question, or they just don't know, just remember here that this here has solved a lot of problems. I've met people that honestly don't know. They're like, you know, one thing that I've always struggled with is where did Cain get his wife or did people marry each other back then that were in the family? Why was it okay for them to do that back then, but not now? And the answer starts here. And then obviously you need to be able to explain to them that after the fall of man, what happened? Death was brought into the world, right? And so what happens is the more people that show up on the planet, you know, the genes got corrupted. And so the closer related you were to somebody, the more chance you had of those bad genes basically being passed on to the children. So when you marry somebody that's far away from your gene pool, you have a less of a chance of passing on those bad genes. And I'm not a scientist or, you know, anything like that. That's just kind of how I understand it off the top of my head. But nonetheless, yes, they did marry very close relatives back then. And it was okay because remember they live like eight, 900 years anyways, they had different bodies. I mean, the nutrients in the ground and in the food was a lot different. The oxygen was better. And so, you know, it just, there's a big difference between a human being today in 2019 versus somebody back in this time. So let's move on from there. And like I said, that's how this sermon is going to go. It's really more of an honest, genuine Bible study. We're just going to go through the book and just hit different things. Now look at Genesis chapter six, because this is a big one here. You can't do an overview of Genesis without talking about the Nephilim. Who's ever heard of the Nephilim? Right? Now you're not going to get the word Nephilim if you read through the King James Bible, because that word's not in there. Now I believe you need, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure it's in the NIV. Does anybody know if that's a fact? It is in the NIV, isn't it? Yeah. I'm pretty sure if you were to open up the NIV and look at Genesis six, you would actually find the word Nephilim. And basically what people mean when they say that is that, that, uh, that these angels, these beings from heaven came down here and man made it with them and made these super hybrid beings. And if you listen to a dispensationalist teacher, they're going to tell you that. And they're also going to tell you that the Kings in the end times here, uh, in the book of revelation are half man and half alien. And it's really just a rabbit hole. I don't want to go down, but let's look at Genesis chapter six and verse one, and let's just see if that's true. It says, and it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them. So the first thing you need to understand is who began to multiply on the face of the earth. What does it say? And it came to pass when men began to multiply, right? So remember that because it's very important for what I'm about to say. Now go back, keep your place there and just go back to Genesis chapter one real quick and go look at verse number 25. I should have had you keep your place there, but it's good to get your fingers, you know, flipping through the Bible. So Genesis chapter one, verse 25, it says, and God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and everything that creep upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good. So you have to remember that things breed forth after their own kind, a dog and a cat don't read forth another animal, right? You can't grow watermelons off of an apple tree. So when you read this verse here in back in Genesis six, one, it says, and it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, it says, and daughters were born unto them, right? Men, mankind breeds forth mankind. You need to understand that it's a very, I mean, you can look up that word kind and you're going to find it all throughout Genesis kind kind after this kind, after that kind, after this kind, right? I know this is silly. I know this is simple to us in here, and at least I hope it is, but you would be surprised at the amount of people that are mixed up on this Nephilim doctrine that think that you can grab, you know, uh, some kind of an alien angel being over here and made them with a woman and create some sort of a hybrid person. It's just ridiculous. It goes against everything that's taught in the Bible. I mean, how can you say that you're King James only and ignore Genesis six, one where it says, and it came to pass when men began to multiply. So look at verse number two, it says that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose. So the sons of God here, they will tell you are the Nephilim that they were these giant hybrid creatures. Now just listen to Hebrews chapter one, verse five, which puts an end to that. It says for unto which of the angels said he at any time thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. So there's this question in Hebrews and, and just, just remember Hebrews chapter one, verse five for unto which of the angel said he had any time thou art my son. So are the angels in heaven, God's sons know what verse two saying here in Genesis six is that man kind just began to breed in multiply on the face of the earth. That's all it's talking about. Look at verse three. It says, and the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he is also, or he also is flesh. Yet his days shall be in 120 years. Now look at verse four, it says there were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bear children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old men of renown. And they'll say, see, this is our proof text here that, that the sons of God are angels, right? And then they made it with, with, with women. And then they brought forth these people here in Genesis chapter six, verse four. And that's not truth. I mean, the giants are mankind. They're just larger people. They're just obviously a lot larger people, but nonetheless, they're not some kind of a hybrid, alien, human angel type being. It just doesn't make sense. And like I said, it goes against the whole face of the entire Bible. Now look at the verse again, look at the last part. It says the same became mighty men, which were of old men of renown. Now the word renown just means fame or like a, like, like a celebrity or wide recognition. That's what the word renown means. These people just became mighty and the earth, they became very strong. And, and, you know, there's, there's not a whole lot more said about it, but nonetheless, remember that word renown. And just listen to this. This is Isaiah chapter 14, verse 20, uh, brother Justin in Vancouver. He brought this to my attention a long time ago and I thought it was really good. He's the guy that made this plaque for us. Now, Isaiah 14, 20 says thou shall not be joined with them in burial because thou has destroyed thy land and slain thy people. And then it says the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. That's what it says. It says the seed of the evildoers shall never be renowned. And if you're still there in Genesis six, what does that say at the end of the verse there? Uh, verse four, it says the same became mighty men, which are of old men of renown. Right? So what the dispensationalists want to teach is that these people were these hybrid creatures and they did a lot of evil and that, uh, that, uh, that caused God to also bring in the flood because they had to flush them out. And that's why we don't see these people today because they all drown or the, these half hybrids. I just wanted to bring that up real quick, just to give you some, hopefully you can write that down. Isaiah 14, 20, anytime somebody says, well, no, no, it says that they brought forth these, these, these giants, these sons of God, and they were men of renown. Just remember that the Bible says that the seed of the evildoers shall never be renowned. So again, that's just further proof that that doctrine is false here. And so we're going to leave Genesis six now, just move on to Genesis seven real quick. And I actually, why don't you guys go to Genesis 11, because you're going to read about the flood in Genesis chapter seven and see the end of it in chapter eight. Obviously, you know, the story we're all familiar with it about Noah, you know, God repented. The Bible says that he made man on the earth because violence and, um, wickedness were just abounding in the earth. And then God looked down and saw that Noah was a righteous man. And God said, you know what, I'm going to spare you and anybody that will listen. And so, you know, the story that Noah was saved on the ark, he built the ark, God flooded the world. And then the Bible says that God set his bow in the sky as a promise not to ever do that again. And again, what do we have today? We have the perverts. We have the sodomites taking that rainbow that God gave to the entire world as a sign not to flood the world again. And what do they do? They pervert it. They twist it. They use it for their own filth and their own garbage. So you're there in Genesis 11, look at verse number one, because we're going to see how the earth was. And this is really where things begin to change. So in Genesis 11, look at verse one, it says, and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plane in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. So this is obviously after the flood, right? God had said, okay, you know what, I'm going to destroy everything in the earth and we're just going to start over. Noah, it's going to be you and your family. And so we're picking up here. Look at verse three, it says, and they said one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men had built. And the Lord said, behold, the people is one and they have all one language and this they began to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. And so we'll stop right here for a second. And so again, you'll see, we just saw the destruction of mankind. We just saw a flood wipe out the entire earth. And then you see mankind again, bring trying to bring in that doctrine of human achievement, you know, saying, okay, you know what? We're going to work our way to heaven. We're going to build a tower. We're all of one accord. We're just going to do these great, marvelous things. We don't need God. Look at verse seven says, go to let us go down. And they're confound their language that they may not understand one another speech. So God's not going to let this happen. Verse eight. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth. And they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did their confound the language of all the earth. And from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Now, this is where we pick up today. This is where we get nations from. This is where we get nationalities from. Still one thing you need to remember. There's still only one human race, right? There's no point in being racist because we're all of one blood. In fact, the Bible says in Acts chapter 17, verse 26, and it says about God, it says, and hath made of one blood, all nations of men for to dwell on the face of all the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. So Genesis chapter one, all the way through chapter 11, just basically gives us some insight onto the ancient world. It gives us an insight on how God created the standard. He created the expectation, man failed to live up to it. And now we need a savior. He destroyed the world. You know, man did the same thing. He just always right back into trying to scoot God out of the world, scoot God out of the way. They said, you know what, we're going to reach our way to heaven. We're going to work our way up there. And God said, no, you aren't. And you know, this, this, this doctrine that you read about here in Genesis 11 is, has just been passed on through generation, through generation, even down to today. Um, one, one thing that, that, uh, I preached about a couple of years ago in Vancouver was this thing called CERN over in Switzerland. It's this big machine, this, they call it an atom smasher. And I mean, depending on what website you go to and read about, they're basically trying to see into another dimension, if that makes sense. They're trying to see what's in the spirit world. They're trying to, whatever it is, it's evil. But one thing that I thought was interesting. If you look on Wikipedia about who finances it, it's every single country in the world. I mean, you're talking from America. I mean, Israel, even Palestine supports it. I mean, these small nations in Africa that are like broke, they support this thing. It really is a world global effort to try to reach into another dimension, to try to reach into heaven. And I talked about this in a video. Maybe we'll have Kayden uploaded to the YouTube channel that, you know, when, when it's funny, when you read Genesis 11, God says, okay, I'm going to come down there and I'm going to see this thing. I want to take a look at this tower that you guys are building, you know, but God didn't come down to look at CERN, at least not yet. Instead he sent a squirrel and a few years ago, or was it a squirrel? What was it, Kayden? It was, well, that's right. It was a weasel. I don't like you thinking squirrel. It's a weasel and a weasel bit through this huge cable and basically shut weasel or shut. Yeah, the weasels at CERN down for a certain amount of time, cost him millions of dollars, you know, so God's like, look, I've already seen this human achievement garbage. I don't need to come down there and look at it again. I just need to send a weasel. And that's embarrassing. That's humiliating. But you know what? That's, that's what, that's what mankind does. He gets prideful. He gets boastful. He says, I don't need God. We can do it on our own. We can reach into other dimensions. We can go to heaven. We can do all these things without God. And eventually God gets fed up with it and he brings the hammer down. So Jenna, just remember Genesis chapter one through 11, just gives us some insight to how the world was. And then it shifts gears very rapidly in chapter 12. And it starts at the end of chapter 11. Actually, you start to read about a man named Abram or Abraham. And so before we start actually turn to Genesis 12 and look at, look at, look at verse one, because the focus from here on out is really about Abraham and about his family and about what God's going to do with that family. Now look at verse one, it says, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee and make thy name great. And thou shall be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that cursed thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So God makes a promise to Abram here. And he says, Hey, because of you, through you, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed. So we see God's formation of his plan to bring a people unto himself. And we'll talk more about that. Now, when you read about Abraham, he went through a lot. There's a lot of things that Abraham obviously did while he was alive. But one of the, one of the big things here, one of the challenges that he faced was that his, his, actually just turn over to Genesis chapter 18 real quick. So while you're turning there, I'm going to read for you out of Genesis 17, because God reassures him of his covenant that he's going to make. And in Genesis 17, one, I'm sorry, four verse four, it says, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee and thou shall be a father of many nations. Right? So he's just reaffirming this covenant to him. And then in verse five, it says, neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham for a father of many nations have I made thee and I will make thee exceeding fruitful. And I will make nations of thee and Kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee. So God's continuously, you know, reassuring Abraham of his covenant of his plans. Now you guys know the story about lot, lots, you know, lot, lots herdsmen. So a lot was Abraham's nephew. I'm sorry, my mouth is extremely dry right now, but anyways, the Abraham's herdsmen and lots herdsmen had a fight. They had this beef right over cattle and space. And so, you know, they, Abraham, like a, like a good guy that he was a good righteous man that he was, he said, Hey, let's not fight. Let's not have our people fight. You know, he said, why don't you choose out this land? You know, the story lot looked over towards the Jordan. He looked over towards Sodom and Gomorrah and he said, that looks great. I'm going to go there. He said his eyes towards Sodom and then look over here. You're in Genesis 18, look at verse number 17. It says, and the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing, which I do seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. So God's saying, Hey, you know, I'm going to tell Abraham about what am I going to do to where his nephew lot lives. I'm going to, I'm going to expose my plans to him possibly because maybe Abraham would have saw the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and said, you know what? Wow. You know, you probably, are you going to take me out too? You're going to take us out too. So just to comfort him, he says, I'm going to tell you what I'm about to do. And Abraham being a meek, humble, righteous person. Look down here. Let's see. Look, look at verse 24. I'm sorry. 23. Look at verse 23. It says, and Abraham drew near and said, wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? And in verse 24, he says prayer adventure. There'd be 50 righteous within the city. Will that also destroy and not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are there in, and then verse 25, it says that be far from the, to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from the shall not the judge of all the earth do right. And look at what the Lord's responses to him. He says, and the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And then you can see Abraham go back and forth with God. He was like, well, what if there's 40? What if there's 30? What if there's 25, 20? And he goes all the way down and God says, look, I will spare it even for five. And so Abraham's mentality at this point, he's like, Hey, are you, you know, there's gotta be somebody saved in Sodom. There's gotta be somebody saved in Gomorrah. There's gotta be somebody there with righteousness. And you remember what righteousness means, right? You know that the Bible says in Romans three, 10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous. And you know that in Romans four, that righteousness gets imputed unto us, right? Abraham understands that Abraham's like, Hey, you know, are you going to destroy the wicked and the people that are saved? And God says, you know what, if you can find somebody that's saved there, then I won't do it. But you know, the story in Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah because there are no righteousness people there. I'm sorry. There were no righteous people there. So we see God's disdain and God's hatred for sodomy. And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because I'm scheduled to preach against the sodomites in June here. I had already had that, you know, lined up because what is June in America now it's sodomite pride month, right? And so I want to save it for that point, but I just wanted you to understand that this is a major event in Abraham's life and a major event in the Bible. I mean, God sets the standard right off the bat in the very first book of the Bible, how he feels about those people. The Bible says they are haters of God. They are not righteous. They cannot be saved because they have hated God. God has given them over to a reprobate mind and keep your place there. Go to Jude right before revelation. Keep your place there, but go to Jude chapter or yeah, Jude one. There's only one chapter in Jude. Go to Jude. And you're going to see that God doesn't change on his position here. God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. So while you're turning into Jude, I'll just read for you. Genesis 19, 23 says the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. So this is after the angels come, they grab him, they take him out. And then it says, then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plane and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. And then in verse 27, it says, and Abraham got up early in the morning to play to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plane and behold, or and be held and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And it says, and it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plane that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the over overthrow. When he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. So there we can see that Abraham is watching this take place. He watches entire cities be destroyed from God. Now, is that a loving act? Because what people are going to say is, well, God loves them now, right? God loves these people and invite them into your churches and invite them into your church programs. And look, the answer is obviously no, you cannot read the first book in the Bible and come to that conclusion. I had you turn to Jude just because that's almost the end of the Bible, right? And you're going to see that God doesn't change his standard or his stance. So look at verse number seven, it says, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So see, even in the last book of the Bible, God says that what you read in Genesis chapter 19 is how he feels about it to this very day, that that was an example that we need to understand. And we need to, he too says that they are suffering right now, the vengeance of eternal fire. These people went straight to hell. Look at verse eight, likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Verse nine, yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring railing, I'm sorry, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuked thee. And then verse 10, but these talking about these people that got destroyed, right? These sodomites, these filthy dreamers, it says, but these speak evil of those things, which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts and those things they corrupt themselves. And you know, you know the story, that's what they do. They speak evil against God's word. They speak evil against everything. The Bible says they are implacable. That means they are impossible to placate. You cannot satisfy these people. That's why they're driving all these wicked laws. And they're trying to come into every city, every town in America and just bring havoc. Again, mankind gets to a certain state and then wickedness abounds and takes over. And God has to put man back in check. Now just listen to this here because in verse 10, I want you to notice it says as brute beasts and those things they corrupt themselves. Now in Deuteronomy 23 verse 17, it says, when God's giving Moses the law, it says, there shall be no whore, the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shall not bring the hire of a whore nor the price of a dog into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow. For even both these are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. And I'm not saying that a whore can't be saved, but what I'm trying to point out here is that the Bible does call them dogs. And you can see that same language in Jude verse 10. It says as brute beasts. So just like a dog doesn't have a conscience and the dog will just do whatever, or these beasts that are out, you know, in our planet, they just do whatever they want, right? There's no, they'd have no conscience. They have no standard. They have no morality. It's the same thing with a sodomite. They have that same animalistic beast mentality, and they carry that through them in the workplace. They carry that in schools. They carry that when you knock on their doors, it doesn't matter. They are brute beasts and it's, you know, and the whole point of this is to just show you that God set that standard in the very first book of the Bible. Look at verse 11. It says, woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Corey. Thank you, brother. These are spots in your feast of charity. When they feast with you feeding themselves without fear clouds, they are without water carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withers without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots. And it just goes on and on and on talking about these people and how they are an example to those who should live ungodly afterwards. So you can lose your place there. Go back to actually go back to Genesis chapter 15. We're going to take a look at another thing that Abraham went through. So Genesis 15. Look at verse three. It says, and Abraham said, behold, to me, that has given no seed and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. So here we can see that God makes a promise to Abraham to give him a son, to give him a child in his old age. And what you need to understand as you're reading through Genesis here is that God asks him, God, uh, he doesn't, he tries Abraham and says, Hey, I want you to sacrifice Isaac, your son. So Abraham, he gets this promise and you know, the story we've talked about it before, you know, him and Sarah, or who was Sarah, I became Sarah rather, you know, they say, okay, well, God said he's promised as a child, right? So it's not happening. We're old. I wonder what's, you know, maybe it meant that I should, Sarah says, maybe it meant that I should give you Hagar, my maid, and you should be with her and have a child. And of course that was Ishmael. And that wasn't God's will. That wasn't God's plan. And, uh, then after that, God, you know, fulfills his promise, Abraham and Sarah, they have a child as Isaac. And then God says later on in his life, Hey, Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your only son, your one and only son. And you know what Abraham does? He, he, he, uh, he attempts to go through it. He actually, you know, goes to offer him. And then, you know, the story that the angel stops him and he doesn't do it. It doesn't go through with it, but that was a picture of how God would sacrifice his son for us. And so that's a major, major event in Abraham's life. Now, let's see, you can, uh, you can lose your place over there and we'll move over. You know, the story, Abraham, we got Isaac, Isaac, we got Jacob, right? When one of the funny things that you'll read about when you're studying the life of Abraham and Isaac is that Abraham lied a few times to different Kings about his wife, right? You know, the story that Sarah was Abraham's half sister. And we already talked about that in the beginning of the sermon. Well, guess what? Isaac does the same thing later on in his life. And so you you'll read about that. Now we're going to move on here to, uh, talk about, cause after, after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jacob begets the 12 patriarchs. He has the, the, the, the beginning of the, the nation of Israel, where we get all the different tribes from. Let's see here, go over to, let's skip ahead here. We're almost out of time. Go to, go to Genesis chapter 49, Genesis 49, because from Genesis 12, all the way through Genesis 50, you're basically just seeing the nation of Israel being formed and then basically get larger and larger and start to, to, to grow in number. And then, you know, the story that once that Jacob has the 12 sons, you know, the story about Joseph, right? Joseph was thrown into a pit. He was, he was sold into slavery. And then the Bible says that when he was in slavery, that God basically had mercy on him and that he went to prison, but God rose, you know, God brought him out of that bondage and made him a great ruler in Egypt and made him second in command and then restores him with his father. Now look at, let's see verse, so go to actually go to Genesis, yeah, 49 and look at verse number 28. It says, all these are the 12 tribes of Israel. So he goes through the list of all the different tribes and says, all these are the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is it that their father spake unto them and bless them. Everyone according to his blessing, he blessed them and he charged them and said unto them, I am to be gathered into my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron, the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with a field of Ephron, the Hittite for a possession of a burying place. So you'll see that phrase also throughout the Bible where these Abraham understood it, Isaac understood it, Jacob understood it, that when they died, they would be gathered unto their people. They understood that they had everlasting life. They understood that it wasn't a combination of faith plus works, right? Because that's bondage. They understood that when they were going to die, even though they had a lot of sins, they had shortcomings. They understood that God would gather them and take them onto their people. Now look at verse 31. It says there, there they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife, and there they buried Isaac and Rebecca, his wife. And there I buried Leah. And then verse 32 says, the perches of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost and was gathered onto his people. So we can see the passing on there of Jacob. And then we left off here in chapter 50, Joseph's still in charge of Egypt. He's getting ready to die. Now look at verse 23. It says, and Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation, the children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. So remember, Joseph had a rough life. He was sold into slavery. He went through a lot of trials. He's, you know, the Bible says that he was his father's favorite child. And obviously that's wrong. That's not right. It's not the best thing to do. We understand that, but Joseph missed out a lot, you know, in regards to his father and his upbringing because he was sold into slavery, but God gives him all of that back towards the end of his life. And he gets to see all of his grandkids. Look at verse 24. It says, and Joseph said unto his brethren, I die and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land until the land, which he swear to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died being 110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. And so you can see how in Genesis chapter 12, we start off with Abraham, right? We start off with that. That's the beginning of God choosing a people for himself. And then at the end of the book of Genesis, you're about to see that they go right into bondage and that's where we're left off. And Joseph gives this prophecy. Hey, you're going to carry my bones out of Egypt. Now I just want to close the sermon answering a few questions. So who, what, where, when, and why? So the who for Genesis is just remember this verse chapters one through 11 describes the ancient world. It describes the ancients who describes our forefathers. And then chapters 12 all the way through 50 describes the formation of God's nation. God's saying, Hey, look, mankind has fallen. You've sinned. I'm going to gather a people unto myself and bring them back into my original plan. And the what is that God knows the end from the beginning, right? How did we get here? That's what the book of Genesis does. It shows us how we got to the state that we're in today. And it shows you that from how God formed the earth, how he formed the heavens, how he formed the beast, how he formed us, how we fell and where we are going and the where this just remember that the where is from the garden of Eden, all the way to the bondage in Egypt. So if anybody asks you, you know, like just a brief overview of Genesis really starts in Eden and it ends in Egypt. Just remember your two E's. And so when remember the book of Genesis talks about pre and post flood worlds and why is to show us our failure in need of God is to show us how God is merciful and is to show us God's promise to bring back a people for himself to eternity. God's goal is to get everybody who wants to be saved back into its original state, following his plans in his word. And then finally, we're left off here with Abraham is the father of all them that believe. That's why it's so much of Genesis talks about Abraham and what he did, because the Bible says that he would be called the father of them that believe. So hopefully that kind of just gives you a little bit of something to think about, you know, just just the bigger picture, like I said, I know it's a lot of reading, my mouth is just about done from reading. And, you know, just remember these things, think about them. And when you read the Bible next time, when you read Genesis, you know, you should be able to maybe, you know, just just think about these, make some connections, pull from some of the underlying verses and the things that we didn't talk about, because you're probably thinking, well, why didn't you talk about this? Or why didn't you talk about that story? You know, and it did that on purpose so that you would desire to read more on your own. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for this, this church. Thank you for this opportunity to preach. Thank you for your word and your safety. We just pray you bless this church, Lord, and help us to keep growing in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen.