tonight we turn in our bibles to genesis uh we're taking up our study on genesis tonight if you're visiting this is our morning study uh tonight we're we moved it to the evening worship so i'm concluding tonight chapter 11 which is really the end of the early history in the book of genesis and then it zeroes in on father abraham so tonight we will work our way there and look at his genealogy so beginning at verse 10 of genesis chapter 11 first book of the bible this is the word of the lord these are the generations of shim when shim was 100 years old he fathered arpashad two years after the flood and shim lived after he fathered arpashad 500 years and had others and had other sons and daughters when our Peshad had had lived 35 years he fathered Shela and our Peshad lived after he fathered Shela 403 years and had other sons and daughters when Shela lived 30 years he fathered Eber and Shela lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters when Eber had lived 34 years he fathered Pele and Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters. When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters. When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Seru. And Reu lived after he fathered Seru 207 years and had other sons and daughters. When Seru had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. And Seru had lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. And Nahor had lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters. When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father, Terah, in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren, she had no child. Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law and Abram's and his son Abram's wife and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan but when they came to Haran they settled there the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran may the Lord bless the hearing of his word I want you tonight to think of so far in our study of Genesis the big picture as we have worked now through the first 11 chapters. What has Genesis been showing to us in the big picture? Well, we really have been kind of on the edge of our seats at this point, waiting to see what God is going to do. History has repeated itself in the worst sort of way, hasn't it? I mean, it's been stunning to look at it this way. Think about it. God made all things good. This was said to us in Genesis early on in chapter one then we studied so soon after the terrible fall the terrible fall in which now we live in this misery and then soon after that what happened well we studied the curses that that fell and then through that the curses that would fall and the two seeds that would develop on the face of the earth god made a gospel promise didn't he that he would send a savior well from there we went out and the two seeds began the warfare and Cain killing his brother Abel then went out and what did he do he built a city in his name it was a defiant app and quickly it spins and descends into lawlessness but then in the midst of that God gave us a bright light, didn't he? It was really exciting in this study to come to the godly line of Seth, which was highlighted in chapter 5, that he was preserving a remnant in the earth and what mighty men those were to study. God wanted to encourage us in the midst of hard times and difficult times that he is faithful. We saw the beginning taste of that in chapter 5. It ended, of course, with Noah having three sons, or Noah, who had these three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But then something happened. Chapter 6, dark. We looked at the lines becoming crossed, and we studied that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took wives of themselves of all they chose. The whole thing had been corrupted, and we really did. We saw the comparisons we looked at this from the way that the new testament told us to look at it to study this to understand this when we saw that when jesus said when the son of man comes we really find faith on the earth those unless those days had been shortened no flesh would have been saved but those days were and god saved eight souls pulling them out but the world that then was was judged. The world that then was, was judged, and God had delivered His people. Well, then, right after that, now we repeated everything. We studied everything all over again. A terrible fall in the vineyard of Eden. Noah is drunk, and his shame is uncovered. And Ham, similar to the serpent, comes in and mocks his nakedness and exposes it out to the world. And what happened? After that glorious recreation event after the flood, a terrible fall, the seeds are separated again. And then we come last time to Nimrod going out and building another city. And it's a complete city of lawlessness. Well, in the middle of that, after God had come down and scattered because they wanted to make a name for themselves, what do we have? Like chapter 5, now we have chapter 11. And God puts another spotlight here, doesn't He? God puts another spotlight on the line of Shem to encourage us, to encourage us, and that's going to really shine tonight, to encourage us about how faithful He is to preserve His seed in the earth. We have here these 10 names beginning with Shem as if to tell us, remember this is the name, this is where God's name is, this is where he has placed his name, this is where the seed will come from this line and when we study it out it takes us right to Abraham, to Israel, to the Christ. And so notice how this ends though. You begin with Shem and by the end of this you have Terah who has three sons, just like the end of chapter 5. But now the problem has shown up again. What is it? The line has completely corrupted itself. Deja vu. It happened again. In the second history, Genesis 6 is now being repeated. All flesh has corrupted itself on the earth. And at this stage in the drama, in this stage in the story, if it were repeating itself again, what would now come? Flood. But God said He wouldn't do that. God made a promise and He put up a bow in the sky. God does something else tonight. And so by the time this genealogy ends, we come to a man by the name of Abram who would be the father of all who believe and through whom God would not destroy but save a world of sinners. And so this is a remarkable moment in the study of Genesis tonight where Genesis 11 is very transitional now to what the Lord is showing us because I've said all along the Lord is ready to start the program. The Lord is ready to start the program. And the program begins next week at Genesis 12. But we should tonight come to Genesis 11 and read through these genealogies as in a minute I'm going to show you, and we should all walk out of here saying, my, my, look at how faithful God has been. All men are liars, all depart, all run from God, all have turned aside. But the Lord, the Lord is merciful, the Lord is gracious, the Lord is long-suffering. He is abundant in loving kindness, and he did not quit pursuing what he promised even when things got this bad. And I want you then to think about the remarkable encouragement that is for the church today. Our eyes are now on eager expectation set upon the one who is the real one working in the book of Genesis. So I want us to look at that tonight with those things in mind. Look at verse 10. This is the genealogy of Shem. Remember, Shem means name. And what we should immediately see here is that this was God's response to the Babel episode. Remember what they said, come, let us make a Shem for ourselves. We don't need that Shem of that line. We'll make our own Shem. Remember, it's the same word. We'll make our own Shem, and we will build a tower that rises up to God. And God will come and meet with us in the one whom we have decided is the name. And so the tower goes up and God comes down. And God says, we're going to look at that tower. And then he scattered it. That's how he came down upon them, didn't he? Well, immediately after that, what do we have here? He raises the name. He raises his shim. And so what a beautiful section here. As the Lord is telling us, you may try to build a name for yourself. You may try to raise up a deliverer for yourselves, but I want to show you who is the one who I'm going to raise up who has the name that is given above every name. I'm going to show you where the power lies. I'm going to show you where He comes from. I'm going to show you my building project. I love Genesis 11 because right before God raises up and demonstrates the one through whom the name would come, He does something, doesn't He? In our study of Genesis, we have studied so far failure after failure after failure after failure. And it's been discouraging at many points, but powerful at others to see the Lord's preservation. But now we conclude the study of the old world, the primitive world, and our attention is turned to the Lord. And immediately we're confronted with the reality that God has not forgotten His promise. I want you to hold on to that for a minute. God has not forgotten His promise. How has that affected God's people throughout history? That thought. Take Martin Luther, who's always interesting to read. And if you read him on Genesis, he said this about chapter 11. This shows, notice, here's what Luther said. Notice God is shining a light on the godly line of Shem. This shows that the article of our creed is true when we believe one holy Catholic church in all ages. From the beginning of the world to the end of the world, God always preserved for himself a people that would cling to the word. He says this list of the fathers teaches us the basic doctrine that God has never altogether abandoned his church, even though on some occasions it was larger and on others smaller. Just as also on some occasions its teaching was pure and in others it was less clear. Now isn't that a remarkable statement in light of Genesis chapter 11? And you're about to see why. He says, let us sustain ourselves with this hope against the great wickedness of the world and the opponents of the word. Sustain yourself here. Look at what God's doing here. Look at what God put a light on here for you. I love that because you know and I know that as we look at the state of things today and we look around and we continue to see things just spiraling out of control and I tend to get real mumbly about the state of things and I tend to be difficult to live with at times because of it and I mumble about the church and I mumble about the state of the world and i mumble about every because i don't know what's happening what's going on and i mumble how things have gotten and you know i'll say i mean i'm doing what my parents did it wasn't like this 10 years ago i'm doing that now finding myself doing that and here was a man who when the whole gospel light had been almost extinguished in the light of the church turned back to Genesis 11 and opened it and said, you know, there were times when everything was almost put out. There were times when I saw a little light. There were times when the teachings of the church were a complete mess. And God was still faithful. God was still faithful. And that's what I want you to see tonight. How radically faithful God is. This is why genealogies are special. This is why we don't read over them too quickly. I told you before, my grandmother would always say, you're not going to bring children into this sad world. She said that to my parents. Here I am with four years later. What are they going to turn out like? I worry. Mothers right now are incessant worry about the decisions of their children. That's what mothers do. As a church, one of our greatest concerns, right? I mean, it's what John said, that our little ones would love the Lord, that they would walk in truth. I've been encouraged to see response here in the recent months of young people. But I've also seen young people depart. I've also seen periods of everything else under the sun. And I would venture to say that if you surveyed the history of the church and you went through the questions of what was the common experience of the church throughout the ages and what did God's people experience and was it really big upswings or was it really big downswings? What did they experience in the life of the church? I think more often than not, they would have said, it seemed like God was not working. I think history would prove that. If you were to go through any period of church history, the overwhelming struggle of the church was, where is God? Where are His workings and why does it seem like this is going nowhere? I mean, the whole motto that came out of the Reformation, the whole phrase that many people would walk around saying was, after the darkness, light. And it wasn't too long that we were saying, after the light, darkness. And are we entering another kind of dark ages? I mean, doesn't it feel like that? Has it all gone dark again? And we go through this struggle and we see this struggle in the church and you see children going through things and you feel a little bit like the psalmist. Well, where is God? What is God doing? I don't see Him. I don't understand this. And I think genealogies were put here for this reason. Genealogies are studies of generation. But ultimately, they're teaching us to ask the question, how is God working through the generation? It's telling us that in the darkest moments of history, when we see no light, when we are massive failures, and we've said, I've messed up in every single possible way, when we think that everything has gone backwards and everything has gone wrong, it's then that the Scriptures are telling us, study and look, God's ready to work. God's ready. He's going to show you His working. I mean, this is why the scriptures tell us that sorrow may come in the night, but joy is coming in the morning. What do I mean tonight? Well, let me show you. What a godly line here. What pillars here, right? Luther was right for the first half. Book five of Genesis, and then you come to book six, and it's offset for you to tell you something. verse 27 this is the genealogy of terah terah begot abram nahor and haran and you say okay what is the lord showing us why is the lord doing this well you look at how scripture represents this family and i'm going to tell you this is one of the most messed up dysfunctional families we come across by the end of the genealogy by the end of the list of names the whole thing's a disaster the same thing has just happened but i would say it's way worse tara was no noah noah had three sons tara has three sons but we have a major problem the whole line that god has decided to set his name upon has corrupted itself at the end of the covenant line in genesis 11 you meet a man by the name of terah now terah in jewish history was said to have been a general of wicked king nimrod what they thought and worst of all his family worshiped and lived in order of the chaldeans which was a an important city the mighty on the mighty Euphrates River, one of the most well-known centers of wickedness of the period. This is like living in Vegas. Guess what was there? Well, it didn't take long to erect another ziggurat, a massive structure. They've unearthed this thing and the very top had a silver room shrine built to the moon god, na-na. In recent years, they uncovered a royal cemetery there showing the horrors of ritualistic human sacrifice and offering. So let me introduce you for a minute to your spiritual father's lineage. Tara was a moon god worshiper. He was an idolater. You should be kind of on the edge of your seats at this point because we kind of get to the question that I've raised already. Where's God in all of this? And how, or maybe, how do you know that? Where do we come to that? The situation gets even darker. I'll come back to that. Look at verse 27. This is the genealogy of Terah. And this will extend all the way to chapter 25. So now we've really slowed down and focused this is the genealogy of the pagan moon god worshiper terah joshua when he was instructing israel before they were entering the land you know what he said in giving instructions to israel this is joshua 24 thus says the lord god of israel your fathers including terah the father of abraham the father of nahor dwelt on the other side of the river and in old times they served other gods now therefore fear the lord serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in egypt serve the lord interesting it says in Egypt. Abraham in Egypt? Serve the Lord. The picture keeps getting darker. Terah has three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is in reverse order. Haran is the oldest. And Haran is most likely the name for a devotion to a mountainous region in the worship of his father. But look at the picture. Haran begot Lot. Haran died before his father Terah in the native land in Ur of the chaldean so the oldest son's gone two left verse 29 then abram and nahor took wives the name of abram's wife was sarai probably her name was taken which means queen which is the name of the wife of the moon god the name of nahor's wife was the title of the goddess ishtar the daughter of the moon God. And then we come to verse 30. But Sarai was barren. She had no child. Now, if you followed this and you begin to think of this as we should, here's what you end up with. Terah, his grandson Lot, and Abram. Haran is out of the picture. And notice what happens. He's with a barren wife in the land of haran out of a pagan moon god worshipers who are completely absent completely bereft of any knowledge of the true god everyone at this point should be ready to say how is god going to work what is god going to do you have a physically impossible situation she's barren and you have a spiritually impossible situation they're idolaters they're worshiping other gods dysfunctional and and you ask where's god where's the deliverance and now it's prepared now we're ready now we're ready for what genesis is showing us god has painted the picture very clear for us tonight in genesis humanity who has seemingly created an impossible situation for it to bring any deliverance for itself and you're going to watch abraham single-handedly in the next chapters throw away land and his wife land and seed he throws it away god has to go get it the whole scene is focused on one character the whole scene now is focused on the one who's ready to act, and it's the Lord. What will he do? What will his grace look like? What can we expect? Things had gotten so bad on the earth, the question could have legitimately been asked, help, have all the godly men ceased? Where's the church? Where's the church? Has God forgotten to be merciful? You know, the Lord loves to work in circumstances like this. this is where He's ready. The text shows us absolutely no way of human deliverance. Do you realize that we live our lives doing everything we can to fight our circumstances, circumstances of helplessness? Everything we do in life, we're trying to fight falling into the circumstance of helplessness. We're always fighting against it. We're always going around it. We're always trying to create that which makes us feel secure. We're looking for security. We're trying to build the security. And all of that translates into a motivation that's given by fear. We are incessantly worried people. In fact, think about this. The Lord will often put us through the test. And oftentimes, everything around us that's happening, often it seems to be telling the opposite story of what we think or how we think God should show himself to be faithful. And then we transfer that to feeling alone. Is God really with us? We're in this constant fight to prevent being in a state of helplessness. And then we fall into the trap of I'm the last one left. It's kind of provocative to think for a moment that across the way in the land of Uz was a man by the name of who? Job. Probably living about this time. A righteous man in his generations going through what most of us have never had to face. And by the end of it, what is he saying? He can't see. He doesn't know. I know after losing his children, is money, is health. I know that one day my Redeemer will stand upon the earth. Job had to go to God's promise, didn't he? The moment here hinges on whether God will be faithful. And if we look at the circumstances before us, there's no way to see it. There's just no, how will God act? What will God do? And now we're ready and we're getting the major message of the book of Genesis that when God looks down from heaven upon us, He sees that all of us have turned aside. That all of us have run from Him. None seek after God. All are idolaters. All are running. Genesis shows us nothing but a continued progression away from the Lord. There's no one who seeks after God. All over the place. This is what we see. And all of these genealogies are given to us and here we come to it tonight that God is ready. God is going to demonstrate before us faithfulness to His promise of Genesis 3.15. He's going to send the Christ. And so after this, looking down on this mess, what do we have here tonight? Notice what the Lord says in 12.1. Now Yahweh said to Abram, Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. And we're going to unpack this in the coming weeks. God came down and said to him, it's time. I'm pulling this man out. And this is a glorious ending tonight to Abram, who was an idolater. The Lord comes and he finds him and he finds this one man in Ur of the Chaldeans and he decides that he's going to bless him and this man of all the peoples on the earth the lord chose and what does he do i'm going to give you the land and i'm going to give you the seed and now you understand these blessings these seven blessings that we're going to study next time that god would do when we come to matthew chapter one and we open up the bible in the new testament and we come to the first record of genealogies that in the first thing that said the book of the genealogy of jesus christ the son of david the son of abraham you should be saying he fulfilled it he did what he said in the darkest moment of history and when it seemed like the whole light had been put out when the darkness had come over the peoples great darkness we've seen the light it came those who dwelled in the land of deep darkness on them the light has shined so from one pagan moon god worshiper whose wife was barren god said one day i want you to look up abram and i want you to count those stars if you're able or the sand of the seashore and what was god telling abram to look at you you realize that do you realize when God came from one man and told him to look up and count that what Abraham saw was you in 2013. People. A multitude no man can number. All the families in the earth being blessed. And the Lord wants you to look at this genealogy tonight and to realize this is not just for Father Abraham. That's what Romans 4 said. This is not just for Father Abraham to believe these things he's called you by name and he has said i will be your god and you will be my people in the darkest moment of history when it seemed that there were none left the lord wants you to look and say i raised up one man and i want you to see his multitude is as the sand on the seashore i did it at that time and his offspring is right before us and so i close this first section of genesis tonight having us think about because we're going to see christ all through this and the lord being faithful to send him when what troubles our hearts when things are dark and we think he's not working when it seems that there's no power when it seems that the light is out and we have no answers it's then that we should open up the bible look at these genealogies and see But God was ready to act. And God delivered. God can surely do all that we ask or imagine according to His most holy will as He turns our darkest moments into shining light because He did fulfill His promise. And today, His Son is seated on the throne. Let's thank Him tonight. Oh Lord, our God, we thank You that You have been faithful and that You have not wavered and that You fulfilled Your promise. And when we study these genealogies and we see corruption of lines and then we see You raising up one pagan idolater and from Him blessing all the nations in the earth through Your Almighty Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We give You praise. And we thank You tonight that You are faithful. We ask, Lord, that we would always respond as you have called us to respond, believing and trusting you even when we can't see outside of the darkness in front of us that you have been strong, that you have been our strong one, that you have been our shield and our exceeding great reward, and that having you, we have everything. Thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.