From Ruin to Renewal
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
If you have not been here or if you have not been following the past few weeks, we have been in Genesis 4, talking about two brothers, Cain and Abel.
Cain was born first and he was a farmer!
Abel was born second and he tended to the sheep.
Cain came to sacrifice and Abel came to sacrifice. Cain offered vegetables and fruit! Abel offered a lamb. Abel spilled the blood of that lamb and poured it out to God.
Why does this matter?
In the beginning, Adam and Eve sinned. And when they sinned, in order to cover their sin, God slew an animal and used that animal to cover their sin.
Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Where did He get the skin? He got it from an animal that was slain.
The point is that God requires a blood sacrifice.
The reason that God requires a blood sacrifice is because sin costs a life.
When Cain came to offer a sacrifice not of blood, he wasn’t being obedient to God. He knew better. His parents, Adam and Eve showed him…but that didn’t matter to him…he wanted to do things his way and not God’s way. That’s called sin.
And when Cain didn’t do it right, and Abel did it right by offering blood for the forgiveness of sin, Cain got angry.
Time and time again, God contacted Cain and wanted Cain to get it right. In God’s mercy He gave Cain chance after chance after chance…but Cain rejected God…he lured his brother Abel out into a field, and in cold-blood, he murdered his own brother.
Now, here we are today in Genesis 4:25-26, and there are three things that I want to show you.
The purpose of today’s message is to show you how God can take the worst moments of ruin in your life and restore those moments according to His Amazing Grace.
I. God’s Amazing Grace
I. God’s Amazing Grace
Grace means unmerited favor.
That means that there is nothing you can do to earn it, it is something that God gives freely of His own accord.
Too many believe that they can work their way into the good graces of God.
This is because we tend to think like men do. We think, “If I can be impressive enough, if I can say the right things, if I can be in the right place at the right time, then God will give me favor.”
That’s not how the grace of God works! God doesn’t give His grace based on our performance, and I’m glad. If God gave us what we earned, nobody would go to Heaven. We’d all wind up in that place we call Hell, and we’d deserve it.
But, because of the grace of God, something that is freely given, we don’t have to die and go to Hell. We can know Him, we can talk with Him, and we can live with Him.
Right here in this verse, we see three powerful things about the grace of God.
A. The Seed of Salvation
A. The Seed of Salvation
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”
Look at the word seed. Why seed?
Whenever Cain was born, she said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”
But this time, she says, “I have another seed”.
At the fall of mankind, God spoke to that serpent of old, the devil, and God said, “By the seed of the woman, you will be crushed!”
What exactly does that mean?
Satan was cast down from heaven. With rage in his heart, he decided that he was going to capture God’s greatest creation and bring them down to Hell with him. God’s greatest creation was man and woman.
He was successful.
Whenever Adam and Eve listened to that devil, whenever they ate that fruit, they traded all of the beauty of heaven for all of the ugliness and filth of sin.
But God, even though Adam and Eve had to suffer the consequences of their actions, God forgave them and showed them how to be forgiven. By sacrificing an animal and shedding its blood as the payment for sin.
But for satan, God said that he would be destroyed by the seed of the woman.
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
This seed is none other than Jesus! He is the seed of salvation that would crush the head of satan and defeat him once and for all.
Eve says, “God has appointed another seed”
Abel was the seed that would lead us to the savior. It was by the offspring of Abel that the savior would come.
But just as satan put in the heart of Judas to betray the Lord Jesus, he put it in the heart of Cain to murder that tree of life we knew as Abel!
God cannot be defeated.
Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
Cain murdered Abel in sin, but because of the wonderful grace of Almighty God, a new seed of salvation was given, and his name was Seth.
B. The Promise Upheld
B. The Promise Upheld
How does God communicate His unchanging grace to humanity?
He does so by promises.
In the Bible, we see the promises of God called covenants.
A Covenant is a formal promise, contract, or agreement made by God to humanity.
Notice the way that it is defined. It is a contract made by God to humanity.
We Can’t Blab it and Grab it!
Too many believe that they can just make agreements with God.
We have it worked out!
I was witnessing to a man, and I asked him, “Are you sure that you’re going to heaven when you die?”
He said, “Yes, I’m sure!”
I said, “Why are you so sure?”
He said, “Me and God have it worked out!”
We cannot work it out with God because it has already been worked out!
I’ve told you that grace is not something that we can work towards, it is something freely given.
In the same way, God has already determined the path to salvation, there is no working around it, there is not working on it, and there is working to it, it is already done!
What is the covenant God made in Genesis?
1. The Covenant made in Eden
1. The Covenant made in Eden
This was a conditional covenant.
Conditional means that it came with rules and regulations.
The conditions were, “Adam, if you do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will always be free.”
Obviously, Adam broke his end of the deal, and plunged the world into darkness.
2. The Covenant of Redemption
2. The Covenant of Redemption
This was an unconditional covenant.
Unconditional means that it was going to happen no matter what! This one wasn’t placed on the shoulders of man, but what placed in the mighty hand of God.
What was the covenant of redemption?
That God was sending a savior! That He was going to send His Son that would restore everything that sin ruined.
This is God’s grace, that when we broke the conditional covenant that God made, He made an unconditional covenant to save us.
How do we know He’ll keep it? How do we know that all of Hell can’t stop it?
“God has appointed another seed”
The promise that God made could not be thwarted by sin and death because it is being upheld by His grace!
II. Eve’s Enduring Faith
II. Eve’s Enduring Faith
When we think of faith, we typically think of blind belief. Maybe we think of bad decisions.
A Leap of Faith
Sometimes you’ll hear people doing what they ought not do with God. They’ll tell God what they want to get done and then expect Him to get it done (blab it and grab it).
Sometimes you’ll hear them use the expression, “I’m taking a leap of faith.”
Usually, almost always, that means, “I don’t have any answers or any assurance, but I am going to jump off in the deep end and expect God to rescue me!”
People do this with businesses, finances, relationships, etc.
What happens is they see the inconsistencies, they see the red flags, they see the data pointing them in the other direction, and instead of acting wisely, they say, “I am taking a leap of faith!”
What they are really saying is, “I am special, and the rules don’t apply to me!”
In the Bible, faith is not blind belief. Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith in the Bible is rock-solid assurance.
Faith by itself is nothing. But when the Christian says that they have faith, what they ought to mean is that they have faith in God. Not faith in their ability to have faith. Not faith in their ability to overcome. Not faith that it will all work out. But faith that God will keep His promises.
I can hear Eve’s cry
“Oh God! My baby boy has been killed by my own son, and I’ve lost them both!”
Sometimes we like to remove ourselves from the Bible.
We think these people operated as robots of some kind. But here is a mother that has lost both of her sons. One son is dead and his blood soaked into the ground.
The other son: condemned, commanded by God to wander the earth restless and wanting.
Do you think Adam and Eve were experiencing a crisis of faith?
The questions coming, “Is God still good? Does God still remember His promise? God, will you help us! Where are you God? Why have You left us like this?”
It’s really heartbreaking to make this story come alive and to put ourselves in their shoes, wondering how we would respond…
I’ll tell you how Eve responded…in faith.
A. Faith in what was Appointed
A. Faith in what was Appointed
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth.
Do you know why she named him Seth?
Because the name Seth means “granted” or “appointed”.
It literally means that God has appointed this son of promise to be born.
She named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me.”
Just like God’s promises come from Him, so do the appointments.
Seth was God’s appointed to renew the promise of a savior.
Eve was God’s appointed vessel to deliver this child.
Eve had no faith in herself nor in her son, but in God who appointed them both!
B. Faith in what was Anointed
B. Faith in what was Anointed
To be anointed means to be set apart for a special purpose.
On the day that Seth was born, Eve knew that God anointed him, set him apart, to continue the promise that Cain tried to destroy.
“For God has appointed another seed for me.”
Because of her faith in God, she knew that God was keeping His promise by giving her another son.
She knew that Seth was anointed as the image bearer of God’s promise.
C. Faith is what is Accounted
C. Faith is what is Accounted
Hold you place and turn to Genesis 15.
There is a man named Abraham in the Bible.
God said to Abraham, “Get out your country and go to a land that I will show you. In that land I will make to a mighty nation, and you will have many descendants. By your Seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”
Except for there was a problem.
The problem for Abraham is that he was old, really old, and he didn’t have any children.
So, he did what I am sure that Eve did, he cried out to God.
God says to Abraham Genesis 15:5
“Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Underline the word “believed”.
That word “believed” is synonymous with the word faith.
And that word, the Hebrew word which is too long and complicated to pronounce, is a word that literally means “stood firm”.
The Bible says that when God spoke to Abraham, that he “stood firm” in the Lord!
That’s what faith is!
Faith is standing firm in the Lord. Standing firm in the promises of God!
When you are standing firm in the Lord, come Hell or high water you won’t turn back!
Some days you may question, some days you might worry, but there is something in you that says, “keep on going! Don’t quit trusting God! Don’t stop obeying His word!”
Friend, that is faith.
And the Bible says that when we stand firm on the promises of God, it is accounted to us for righteousness.
All that means is that God applies His perfection to our account and we are free from sin and judgement.
D. Faith is what is Accepted
D. Faith is what is Accepted
How can we be accepted by God?
(1) Some say we can pray our way.
(2) Some think that they can pay their way.
(3) Others think they can work their way. (They think they are good enough or can be good enough)
None of these things will do it.
The way that we are accepted by God is by faith.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Remember what faith is not:
(1) Faith is not wishful thinking.
(2) Faith is not a justification of bad decisions.
(3) Faith is not a leap in the dark.
Faith is standing firm on the promises of God.
What is the promise of God?
The promise of God is this:
That He appointed and anointed His son to die on a cross, to be buried in the grave, to raise from the dead…
and anyone who will say, “I will stand firm on the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus”, the Bible makes you a promise…
The Bible says that you will inherit eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Faith in Jesus is what is accepted by God.
When we trust Him, when we love Him, when we stand firm on Him, then we are accepted by God.
Accepted as what, exactly?
We are accepted as righteous. We are accepted and pure. We are accepted as forgiven. Not because of anything we have done, but because of everything that Jesus did.
By faith in Jesus, standing firm on the promise of our savior, we are accepted as perfect and worthy of heaven.
III. Seth’s Reverent Worship
III. Seth’s Reverent Worship
What does it mean to worship?
I mean, we can worship all kinds of things.
(1) We worship pets and animals.
(2) We worship superstars and athletes.
(3) We worship ourselves and our own vices
-Sex or Pornography
-Drugs or Alcohol
-Unearned Luxury or Greed
How do you know what you truly worship?
The Bible says that whatever you are a slave to, that’s what you worship.
If you can’t help but drink. If you can’t help but view pornography. If you cannot help but spend, spend, spend…then those are the things that you worship.
What does the Bible say about worship?
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Well, you asked, “What do you worship, not what do you love!”
Let me try another verse!
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What is truth?
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
The Bible says, “if you love me keep my commandments” It says, we must “worship in spirit and in truth.” And it says that His “word (His commandments) are truth!”
To worship God and to love God, means to obey God.
Is obedience to God just rules and religion?
A. More than Rules
A. More than Rules
The Bible is not a rule book.
I heard another preacher say that if the Bible was a rule book you’d need a freight train to carry it!
The Bible is a book of principle. The Bible is a book that teaches us the way to life.
There was a time when everything was just a bunch of rules.
Do you know what the Bible says will happen to us if we try to live by a bunch of rules?
The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
What is the letter? It is the letter of the law. It is the set of rules that we must follow if we are going to be considered worthy of heaven.
But there is just one problem isn’t there? We aren’t any good at following rules.
The Bible says that we have to follow the rules perfectly if we want to be perfect enough to go to heaven.
The Bible also says that everyone has broken those rules!
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The glory of God is perfection. Breaking just one simple rule knocks us out of the race for perfection. For the letter kills.
Well, if the Bible teaches us how to have life, if Jesus came to show us how to go to heaven, it has to be more than just rules! If it were all about rules and regulations we’d never make it.
What about religion? Is worship and obedience just religion?
B. More than Religion
B. More than Religion
The only thing religion can do is take all of your time, money, and talent. It can never give you life.
The Bible says that Jesus came to give us life. He didn’t come to take anything from us, He came to give everything to us.
The person that says that they are religious (I think that many people today have substituted that and have started saying that they are spiritual)…If anyone says that they are religious or that they are spiritual, what they mean to say is that they are trying to work their way into heaven.
They think that they are accepted because of their practice.
But the Bible says that we are not accepted because of what we practice or what we preach, but it says that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ…standing firm in the promise of God.
What was that promise of God?
“I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
It’s not about rules…It’s not about religion…
C. All About Relationship
C. All About Relationship
And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
When the Bible says, “They began to call on the name of the Lord”, it means that they began to “proclaim the name of the Lord.”
It means that began to shout! the name of Jesus.
What was happening here in this verse is that the people of God were having a revival!
What were they doing that made it a revival?
1. They were Having Church!
1. They were Having Church!
(1) They were publicly and consistently gathering together to worship God.
-You think that church is just a new thing? Something that man made up? Church has been around since the beginning of the world.
-Gathering together for worship is more than just a rule, it is more than just a religious thing, it is an act of worship that says, “We love God, and we love His people!”
2. They were evangelizing
2. They were evangelizing
(2) They were passionately and urgently sharing with others the name of Jehova their God!
-You want revival? If you think revival is having a preacher come to tell you a bunch of jokes and use a lot of religious language is revival then you’re wrong.
-If you want revival, then we need to do what the people of God have always done and get busy proclaiming the name of our God.
3. They were praying
3. They were praying
(3) Prayer is our source of communication with God. Prayer is our source of power here on earth.
-Prayer is so important, that Jesus, the King of all the universe is in Heaven right now praying for you.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
-Of all the things that Jesus could be doing in heaven, what’s He doing? He is praying!
-He is praying that we will be in a deeper relationship with The Father.
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
-Jesus is praying that we will be one in God and that we will proclaim His name in all the earth.
He is praying that we will call on the name of the Lord.
No Greater Relationship
Without question, my relationship with God is the greatest relationship in my life.
But to illustrate what I am trying to say, I am going to say that my relationship with my wife is the greatest relationship that I have.
I love my wife.
It’s not hard for me to talk to her…it’s not hard for me to spend time with her…it’s not hard for me to think about her…in fact, I enjoy it.
Do you want to know what my favorite thing to do is? Talk to my wife about the Lord.
That’s why you might not find her in a service because then she’d have to hear all my sermons twice!
Who are the great preachers?
I heard of a preacher reading the news about the greatest preachers to ever live.
He asked his wife, “Hey babe, I am reading this article and I think it’s fascinating! How many truly great preachers do you think there are preaching today?”
She said, “I don’t know…but there’s one less than you’re thinking of!”
I love my wife.
She’s not a burden to be around, she’s not a burden to serve, she is someone that I want to share every moment with.
That’s exactly what God desires for you and Him.
Not from obligation like someone following the rules…not from a desire to gain like someone following a religion…but from genuine love that comes from a genuine relationship.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Where do you stand in your relationship with Jesus today?
Sin has ruined your life.
That one lie, that one thought, that one word, has ruined you.
But the Bible says, that just as God appointed Seth to be born, He appointed Jesus to die.
Because Jesus died, you can live.
You can’t live by following the rules!
You can’t live by having the right relgion!
You can only live by having the right relationship.
(1) Because of God’s amazing grace, He sent us salvation, He has upheld His promises.
(2) Through faith in Him and His promises, you will be accepted.
-You cannot earn it, it must be appointed.
-You cannot buy it, you must be anointed
-By faith, by standing firm in Jesus you will counted righteous and you will be accepted by God.
(3) Worshipping God is more than just rules, it’s more than just religion, it’s a relationship with God that is sweeter than honey and worth more than any amount of money.
1. There are those who need to be saved.
1. There are those who need to be saved.
Saved from what?
Saved from sin!
2. There are those who need to call on the name of the Lord.
2. There are those who need to call on the name of the Lord.
(1) Love the church (the people).
(2) Love to evangelize (share His word)
(3) Love to pray (talk with God).
