THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
SPREADING THE SOUL-SAVING MESSAGE OF JESUs
Genesis (Chapters 1-4)
Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Kevin Pendergrass.
Welcome to the Gospel of Christ. This is our first lesson in a study of the Book of Genesis. In today’s lesson we will be looking at the beginning of all things. When we consider the origin of certain things, we tend to ask questions like “Where did these things come from?,” or “Who did it come from?,” or “How long has it been around?” Those are the types of questions that we will be answering today in this lesson.
The first point I want us to consider is the beginning of the Universe. Where did the Universe come from? There have been so many books on this subject. Debates have been held on this subject. And a lot of money has been spent trying to figure out where the Universe came from. All we have to do is open our Bibles to Genesis 1:1 and the Bible will tell us. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There it is right there. “In the beginning” God was the Creator of the Universe. He created it all. In Nehemiah 9:6 the Bible says,
“You alone are the Lord. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.”
God is the Creator of everything in the Universe. In John 1:3 the Bible says that all things were “made through Him, and without Him was nothing made that was made.” God created all things in six literal, 24-hour days. Briefly, I want us to look at each of these days to see what God created.
The Bible teaches that on day one God created light and darkness (Gen. 1:5). On day two God created the sky (Gen. 1:6-7). On day three God created the Earth—the land, seas, water, grass, plants, and trees (Gen. 1:8-13). On day four God created the Sun, Moon, and stars (Gen. 1:14-18). On day five God created the birds and sea creatures (Gen. 1:20-22). On day six God created the wild beasts, livestock, reptiles, and mankind (Gen. 1:24-30). That explains where everything came from. When God had finished His creation, Genesis 1:31 tells us, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” What did God say? What were His feelings toward His creation? The Bible tells us that God said everything was “very good.” In fact, it was so good that Romans 1:20 speaks of the “invisible attributes of God” that can be seen in the creation. We look at the world around us and see the beautiful things that God created—the plants, the trees, insects, and overall design that runs throughout everything—and we see God’s fingerprints everywhere. We can see those invisible attributes of God. When we look at the world, the world tells us that there is a God and that there is a Creator. Because of the beautiful and intelligent design, there has to be an intelligent, divine Creator. But only the Bible tells us Who God is. The creation itself should send us looking for God so we can seek to do His will.
God’s creation was a literal, 24-hour-day creation. There are some who promote the idea that God spent years and years and years in creation, but simply called His work “days,” when, in fact, they were “prolonged days” that were not really 24-hour days. This is false. The Bible does not teach that. There is nothing in the text in Genesis 1 and 2 that promotes such an idea. These were literal, 24-hour days that God used in His creation. The Hebrew word for day, yom, is used, and means a 24-hour period. Also, each day had an evening and a morning, just as days have today. These six days were not millions of years long, but were 24-hour-long days. In them, God created this wonderful, beautiful Universe. Where did the Universe come from? It came from God. He created it “in the beginning.”
Now let’s move on to the next point, which is the beginning of marriage. Today, marriage is something that people have corrupted. People do not even care about marriage anymore, so it seems. The idea of “’til death do us part” is many times nothing more than an empty promise that people make. Where did marriage come from? What was the plan behind marriage? Why was marriage instituted? Genesis 2:20 says, “So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.” At that particular point in time, God had created only Adam. The Bible says that Adam had a job. It was his task to name all the animals. As he gave names to those animals, we are told that there was “not a helper comparable to him.” So what did God do? Genesis 2:21-24 tells us:
“The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. and Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Here we see the beginning of marriage. God instituted this wonderful, beautiful union that we know as marriage. God’s plan for marriage from the very beginning was one man, one woman, for life. That is the way it has always been in God’s plan, and that is the way it is to be today. God designed marriage to be like that. He did not say “one man and one man.” He did not say “one woman and one woman.” Nor did he say “one man for five women.” The Bible teaches one man, one woman, for life (Rom. 7:1-4). We are told to “leave and cleave.” Today, however, people are promoting the idea of homosexual marriages. People say, “I love someone of my same sex, so we’re going to go get married.” Where is the biblical authority for that? That is not God’s plan for marriage. That is not the type of marriage that God ordained or authorized. In fact, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 condemns homosexuality, as does Romans 1:26-29. It is something that we need to stay far away from. We need to choose not to do such a thing because God has set forth a specific plan for the marriage relationship. If we do not do it His way, it will never turn out to be the way He designed it to be. Nor will we receive the blessings that we are supposed to receive if we do not do things the way God has commanded us to do them. Here, then, we see the beginning of marriage and God’s plan for marriage.
Now I want to recap what we have seen thus far. We have seen two wonderful, great beginnings. The beginning of creation was wonderful and beautiful. God saw what He had created, and said that it was “very good.” We saw the beginning of marriage. What a wonderful thing it is for a woman and man to be able to live with each other in peace and harmony and help one another.
But now we see the beginning of something very bad—sin entering the Universe. In Genesis 2 God had told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any trees in the Garden of Eden that they would like, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that stood in the middle of the Garden, from which they could not eat. What happened? I want us to begin in Genesis 3:1. “The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’” Here we see Satan disguised as a serpent. He comes to Eve to tempt her. In verse 2 we read, “The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat 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 it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”’” Eve answered Satan by telling him what God had said. In verse 4 Satan said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” God had said that they would surely die, but Satan said that they would not surely die. Was much changed in Satan’s statement? Only one word was changed. It does not take much to be a false teacher. Someone might say, “A person has to do a million things before we can say that he is teaching false doctrine.” All it takes is just one small thing to make a person a false teacher. Satan added just one small word to what God had said—and it changed the entire course of human history! Satan said, “You shall not surely die.” In verse 5 Satan went on to say, “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Verse 6 then records, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” Eve gave into the temptation and sinned. Not only did she sin, but she also caused her husband to partake of the fruit of the tree so that he, too, sinned. Verses 7-8 then say,
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound 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 among the trees of the garden.”
When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they realized what they had done. They realized that they were now naked, not only physically, but also spiritually. They were ashamed of what they had done. And what did they do? They went and tried to hide from God. It does not matter how fast or how far you run, you cannot hide from God as Adam and Eve tried to do. In versed 9-11 the Bible says,
“The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’”
Now the Lord is asking is asking Adam and Eve, “Why are you like this?” He wants them to be honest with Him. And what did they say? They played what I like to call “the blame game.” When you are caught in sin, what do you try to do many times? You want to blame someone else. And even if you admit to your sin, you may still indirectly try to blame someone else. You may say, “It was my fault, but it also was their fault.” Adam and Eve did the same thing. They played “the blame game.” Notice in verses 12-13 what they said: “Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”
When God first talks to Adam, Adam blames “the woman.” His point was that it was Eve who had given him the fruit. But look who else Adam blames. He indirectly blames God because he said, “The woman whom You gave me….” In other words, if God had never given Adam “the woman,” we probably would not have had this problem.
When God asks Eve about the matter, who does she blame? She blames the serpent. So, both of them were trying to “pass the buck,” even though they were guilty of partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because of that, God punished each of them according to their sin. He judged each one just as we will be judged according to what we have done. Eventually, Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden because of their sin.
But in the midst of sin entering the Universe, there is a great promise that God makes at this point in time. In Galatians 3:19 the Bible says that the Old Law was “added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made.” This, of course, is talking about the Lord. But when was this Seed promise made? It was made in Genesis 3:15, where God already had a solution to the sin problem. God had prepared the solution before time began. It was not some kind of afterthought. When man sinned, God had a plan to send a Savior to save him. Genesis 3:15 says, “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.” Here we see the wonderful promise being made. Even though Satan would “bruise Christ’s heel,” Jesus would end up crushing the head of Satan. We see this promise being fulfilled all throughout the Bible. That is one of the reasons why we have the genealogies. As we read them, especially during our daily Bible readings, we pass them up and say, “I don’t like these because they have names I can’t pronounce, so I’m just going to go on to the next chapter.” The genealogies are important, however, because they show us the Seed promise being spoken of in Genesis 3:15 (and that Galatians 3:19 confirms for us). In Genesis 3 we see the entrance of sin into the Universe, but we also see the promised plan that Jesus would come.
Our next point in this lesson is the beginning of worship, praise, and homage to God. In Genesis 4:1-2 the Bible tells us that
“Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.”
Adam and Eve had been thrown out of the Garden as part of their punishment. They then ended up having two sons—Cain and Abel. We see in verses 3-5 that both of the boys gave worship, homage, and sacrifice to God.
“In the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”
Here we see two brothers who both paid homage to God. They both offered sacrifices to God and worshiped God. But one was acceptable to God, and the other was not. Why did God accept one, while rejecting the other? Hebrews 11:4 tells us why Abel’s sacrifice was pleasing to God: “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” Why was Abel’s worship and sacrifice pleasing to God? It was because it was offered “by faith.” Romans 10:17 says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We always have had to worship God in a way that is pleasing to Him. Under all of God’s law systems, God’s people have always had to worship Him in the manner that God has prescribed. There has never been a time in human history where humans could worship God any way they liked. We must do well in order to be accepted by God. In Genesis 4:7 God told Cain that when He said, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” God told Cain that if he did well, he would be accepted, but that if he did not do well, sin “lies at the door.” Even though Cain could have repented, changed his life, done well, and been accepted by God by doing His will, he did not do that. Instead, he grew jealous of his brother Abel. That jealousy led to Cain’s murdering Abel. Sin always leads to more sin. That is true no matter what. Sin leads to more and more and more sin. That is what happened with Cain. He started out by worshiping God falsely and in vain—not according to the way God had commanded. Then he became jealous of Abel, who did worship God properly. This led to Cain’s murdering his brother.
There are other principles here, too. In John 4:24 we read that we are to worship God “in spirit and in truth.” Just because we worship God does not mean that God is pleased with our worship. Cain did worship God. He offered a sacrifice to God, but God was not pleased with him. You might be thinking, “I’m worshiping God. I’m giving homage and praise to Him.” That may be the case. But are you doing it “by faith”? Are you doing it according to the pattern set forth in God’s Word? If not, do not be like Cain who grew jealous and angry. Instead, repent, change your ways, and make sure that you are following God in the way that you are supposed to when you worship Him.
Abel was supposed to be the son through whom the Seed promise would be fulfilled. So what happened once Cain murdered Abel? God provided another seed for Adam and Eve, as we learn in Genesis 4:25—“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.” Thus, God provided another seed so that His promise could be fulfilled. God’s plan will always go on. With our without us, God will find a way. Never think that you can stop God because you cannot. God will always win. We must worship God in the correct way.
Finally, we see the beginning of a new era. In Genesis 6:5-8 the Bible says,
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
Wickedness was all over the face of the Earth. Thus, God was going to destroy the world with a great flood. However, Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Noah was a righteous man who would be saved if he did what God commanded him to do. He was to construct an ark as a place of safety for him and anyone else who was willing to join him. But the ark had to be constructed specifically the way God told Noah to build it. When God prescribed the way that Noah was to build the ark, he could not add to or take away from what God had said. God specified the type of wood, which was to be gopher. The size of the ark was to be 450 feet by 75 feet by 45 feet. There were to be three stories—not two or five. When God specifies what He wants, that eliminates everything else. When God specified gopher wood, that meant that Noah could not use oak or cedar. What if Noah had said, “God, You didn’t say that I can’t use these types of woods”? That would not matter because God had specified the type of wood that was to be used, along with the size of the ark, and how many stories it was to contain. This eliminated everything else. When God specifies what He wants, it eliminates everything else. If Noah had not met the conditions that God set forth, he would not have been saved. We must do what God says for us to do if we want to be delivered by God.
Here we learn a little about the nature of grace. The Bible says that Noah “found favor” in God’s eyes. Did that mean that Noah did not have to do anything? Of course not! Did it mean that Noah could “earn his way to safety”? No. Noah had to meet the conditions that God had set forth as being necessary in order for God to deliver him. What did Noah do? Did he follow God’s commands? Genesis 6:22 says that he did. And in Genesis 7:5 we read, “Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him.” Noah did not do “some” or “most.” Rather, he did “all that the Lord commanded him.” As a result, Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives, were all delivered because they were in a place of safety—the ark. In Genesis 9:19 the Bible says, “These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.” Here, then, we see the beginning of a new era.
Now I would like to summarize some of the practical lessons that we can learn from this material so we can apply them to our lives. First, God is the Creator; we are not. Second, we have learned what a correct marriage is, and what it consists of—as opposed to what a wrong marriage is. We must make sure that we are following God’s plan for marriage: one man, one woman, for life. Third, Genesis 3:15 taught us about the Seed promise, and how God had a plan for Jesus Christ to come so He could be our Savior. Fourth, in Genesis 4 we learned that God will accept our worship only if we “do well.” God will accept us only if we do what He has told us to do. Fifth, we learned that we must follow all of God’s commands in the manner in which He has given them to us.
Are you doing that today? Are you heeding the advice of the Bible? Are you looking at the example of Noah, and the type of faith he had? We know that we are not under the same law system that Noah was. Romans 15:4, however, teaches us that we can look to the Old Law in order to see principles and examples that can apply to us. The principle we learn from Noah is that he had faith in God, and followed God—which allowed him to find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Have you done that? Have you heard God’s Word (Rom. 10:17)? Have you believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Jn. 3:16)? Have you repented of your sins (Acts 3:19)? Have you confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord (Rom. 10:10)? Have you been baptized in water for the forgiveness of your sins (1 Pet. 3:21; Acts 2:38)? If you have yet to obey the truth, we pray today that you will obey the Gospel of Christ.
Narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST is brought to you by loving, caring members of the church of Christ. The McLish Avenue church of Christ in Ardmore, Oklahoma, oversees this evangelistic effort. For a free CD or DVD of today’s broadcast, please write to:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
607 McLish Ave.
Ardmore, OK 73401
You may call 580-223-3289. Please visit us on the web at www.thegospelofchrist.com. We encourage you to attend the church of Christ, where “the Bible is loved and the Gospel is preached.”
1. What important information can be gleaned from Genesis 1:1?
2. What did God create on each of the six days of creation?
3. What comment did God make in Genesis 1:31 about the creation, once it was finished?
4. What kind of days were the days that God used during His creative activities?
5. According to the material contained in this lesson, in Genesis 2:21-24 we find the beginning of something. What is it?
6. What does Romans 7:1-4 teach about the marriage relationship?
7. According to passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Romans 1:26-29, are homosexual relationships acceptable to God?
8. In Genesis 3 we see the entrance of something bad into the world. What was it?
9. According to Genesis 3:5, what lie did Satan tell Eve in tempting her to sin?
10. According to Genesis 3:6, what did Eve do when Satan tempted her?
12. According to Genesis 3:12, when God spoke to Eve about what she had done, whom did she try to blame?
13. What promise did God make in Genesis 3:15?
14. What does Galatians 3:19 have to say in referring back to the promise given by God in Genesis 3:15?
15. According to Genesis 4:1-2, Adam and Eve had two sons (initially). Who were they?
16. According to Genesis 4:3-5, what happened regarding the sacrifices offered to God by those two sons?
17. According to Genesis 4:8, what happened at some point after the two sons had offered their sacrifices to God?
18. According to John 4:24, how are we to worship God?
19. What amazing event is recorded in Genesis 4:25 that relates to the seed promise made earlier in Genesis 3?
20. According to Genesis 6:5, what caused God to destroy the Earth by a global flood?
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, 607 McLish Ave., Ardmore, OK 73401; (580) 223-3289; www.thegospelofchrist.com