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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Lecture on Genesis Ver.2(91) - Lecture on Genesis Ver.2 (91) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Genesis 4:24-26 |
Date |
2012-09-21 |
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Passage
Genesis 4:24-26
[24] If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold." [25] Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, "God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him." [26] To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.
This is the 91st Lecture on Genesis.
The time setting of today's scripture is roughly 600 years after Adam had settled down on the earth.
As the population increased greatly, people lived by tribes, then formed villages and ever larger settlements.
However, as the size of these units grew bigger and bigger, conflicts arouse between them.
They wanted to secure their territories and sought their own benefits. As a result disputes began to break out.
It was at this period in time that a dispute broke out between the tribe Lamech belonged to and another tribe, and Lamech was wounded.
Lamech then killed the youth who wounded him.
Apparently, it appeared that Lamech did it in self-defense, but it was an over-reaction.
His over-reaction shows what an evil man Lamech was.
Even after Lamech killed the boy, he made an excuse to justify what he had done.
Not only justifying what he did, in Genesis 4:24 Lamech also said, "If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
This verse is one of those 'hard-to-understand' bible verses.
There are various commentaries on this verse.
I urge you, however, that you should correctly understand it as God the Father explains.
To begin with, it was God who said, "Whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold."
God took the step so that nobody would harm Cain when Cain was wandering on the earth after killing his brother Abel.
This fact was passed down to Cain's descendants, and so Lamech also knew it.
After Lamech killed a man, he remembered what happened to Cain.
Although Lamech justified what he had done, he was still afraid of people knowing about what he had done.
Especially, he thought the tribe the boy had belonged to would seek vengeance.
Furthermore, for his own advantage, Lamech changed what God had said would be done concerning Cain.
"If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
He uttered empty threats saying that anyone who might harm him would be punished by God seventy-sevenfold.
Lamech was not in any kind of position to be able to say such a thing.
Not only did God not say such a thing concerning Lamech, but 'seventy-sevenfold' was also an over exaggeration.
It was for his own advantage, however, he had spoken as if it were the will of God.
You should never change the word of God as you please, and you should never tell a lie by the name of God.
Chances are that, even today, there are those who quote the word of God to benefit themselves or to secure their positions.
Say, there are servants of God or church leaders who are prone to say, "If you don't obey, you will suffer a trial."
Furthermore, they even list detailed cases of those who didn't obey and suffered trials.
Of course, when the children of God don't obey the word of God, trials will follow.
However, those of you who are in teaching positions should exercise caution and not force others to obey you by speaking as if what is said is the will of God.
You should always honestly check yourself whether you talk to them because you truly love them or because you want to establish your authority.
Jesus said in Luke 11:46, "Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers."
The word of God is spiritual bread.
You who are teachers should prepare it and feed it to souls according to their measure of faith so that they can digest it well.
But if you change the word of God to use it as a threat against the souls, woe may be upon you.
You should never weigh men down with burdens that are hard to bear using the word of God.
You should never speak a word as a curse by quoting the word of God.
Proverbs 26:2 says, "Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, So a curse without cause does not alight."
When a sparrow or a swallow flies, they are spotted in the sky, but soon they disappear.
Likewise, a curse without cause has no effect at all.
You can now understand that what Lamech said was in the same vein saying - "... Lamech seventy-sevenfold" -
Besides, let me tell you more about exercising great care with the word of God.
You should not make a joke with verses from the Bible which is the word of God, and you should not alter it and make it trivial or understate its importance.
The same applies to hymns and praise songs.
You should not handle the Bible carelessly.
If you truly revere God from the depth of your heart, you will naturally treasure everything that has something to do with God.
1 Samuel 2:30 says, "... for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed."
I pray in the name of the Lord that you may honor God the Father and be honored by God.
Dear brothers and sisters.
Let's proceed to Genesis 4:25.
It says, "Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, "God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.""
From verse 16 to 24, it is the record about Cain and his descendants.
After Cain killed Abel, he was punished and became a wanderer on the earth.
He left his home town, wandered, and settled in the land of Nod.
Just as God promised Cain- He saved his life and He allowed for his descendants to prosper.
He had great mercy on Cain even though he committed the grave sin of murder.
Although Cain's descendants didn't belong to Adam's legitimate family line, they took a part in the history of human cultivation.
They played a supporting role around the leading role.
However, God recorded Cain's family line before Adam's legitimate (orthodox) family line.
He even made records in detail about Lamech, Cain's 6th Generation, and showed the processes of human civilization.
From Genesis 4:25, the time setting goes back before the time period of Lamech.
There comes to record the birth of Seth who continued Adam's legitimate family line.
It says that Seth was 'another offspring, appointed by God, in place of Abel, for Cain killed Abel.'
After Adam and Eve settled down on the earth, they gave birth to many children.
Among their children, they loved Cain and Abel so much more that they handed over the family livelihoods to them.
It was because these 2 sons were born when the times were the most difficult and hard and these sons gave them great comfort and joy.
Adam especially loved Abel, and Eve loved Cain more.
As other children grew up, they gave them a portion and allowed for them to leave their parents.
The others distanced themselves from each other, settled down, made their families, had children, and prospered.
When Adam and Eve were driven out to this earth, there were tough and difficult moments. As they gradually adapted, however, their lives became stabilized.
They didn't worry about clothing, food, and shelter, and as their sons grew up they remained with them. They felt peace.
But one day, this peace was broken by an unexpected incident.
That is, Cain murdered Abel.
As its result, Adam and Eve lost Abel, and they had to let Cain depart from them as well.
They lost their both beloved sons.
Can you feel the pain that Adam and Eve suffered in their hearts?
The sorrow and pain of losing 2 sons at once who they especially loved and depended on was too much to describe in words.
It was Seth that God appointed to Adam and Eve when they were in this kind of pain.
After Adam gave birth to Abel, they gave birth to many children before Seth and also after Seth.
The reason Seth was particularly mentioned here is because Seth was the son who continued Adam's legitimate family line.
What is the reason that Seth took the important role among many sons?
The answer is found in Genesis 5:3.
It says, "When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth."
Seth was the son who most resembled his father, Adam.
Regarding this, I will explain it again in the next lecture.
Now, Genesis 4:26 says, "To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD."
What does it mean by 'Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD'?
If you think inversely, you can infer from it that people didn't call upon the name of the LORD before then.
Then, what is it exactly to say 'calling upon the name of the LORD'?
It is believing in the existence of the LORD God, and His Almightiness, and worshiping and praying to Him.
For instance, there is a scene in Genesis Chapter 26 where Isaac called upon the name of the LORD.
Genesis 26:24-25 says, "The LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham." So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well."
At this time, Isaac believed in the existence of God who appeared before him.
He also believed His word that 'He would be with him and bless him.'
In his appreciation for this, he built an altar and gave sacrifice.
Likewise, believing in the existence of God, believing His power, worshiping God and praying to God- these acts are 'calling upon the name of the LORD.'
Joel 2:32 also says, "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered."
Quoting this verse of the Old Testament, Romans 10:13 says, "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
FYI (A point to note), Jewish people dare not call the name of God, "Jehovah."
When they read the word 'Jehovah' in the Bible, they change it to 'Adonai' which means 'the LORD.'
Therefore, "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED" doesn't mean that you can be saved only by saying "Lord, Lord."
To be saved you must believe in the existence of God and His power; believe that His Son, Jesus Christ is the Savior; and revere God from the depth of your heart and worship Him.
2 Timothy 2:19 says, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness."
Jesus also said in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter."
Only those who abstain from wickedness and do the will of God the Father are truly those who 'call upon the name of the LORD' and they are the only ones who can be saved.
Of course, judgment standards will be applied differently according to their measures of faith.
Through the lecture series, "God Measures Faith," I am explaining in detail about 'sins depriving of salvation' and 'sins leading to death.'
You must take this opportunity to correctly understand them.
Soon, countless souls will come to this church.
You should be able to correctly and precisely tell them the standard of salvation.
You should clearly teach them that just saying 'Lord, Lord' cannot save them according to the Bible.
Isaiah 59:1-2 says, "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear."
No matter how desperately people say to God, "Help me. Save me," chances are that God may not listen to them.
It is not because His ear is so dull that it cannot hear, but cause their iniquities made a separation between God and them.
If you are inside a sealed room, no matter how much you cry for help, you cannot be heard outside.
It is more so if the wall is thick and hard.
Likewise, you commit sin, a wall is built between you and God so that no matter how much you cry in your prayer, the prayer cannot be conveyed to God.
It is no wonder why you cannot receive answer then.
Therefore, if you don't have a wall of sin between you and God, how clearly can you communicate with God?
Zechariah 13:9 says, "They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are My people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is my God."
God the Father wants to communicate with us like this.
When we call upon the name of God the Father, He listens to us and wants to answer us.
That's why God didn't close down the spiritual passageway after He drove Adam and Even out to this earth.
Since Adam and Eve knew God well, they taught their children that they gave birth to on this earth.
"God is the Creator and He is the Almighty. You must serve Him and worship Him from the depths of your hearts."
They taught their children so that they would be able to seek God.
They wanted their children to call upon the name of God and to communicate with God.
However, even Cain, their first generation, didn't revere God from the depth of his heart.
That's why he gave his sacrifice to God as he pleased.
Then, what about those children who had distanced themselves from Adam and Eve?
They soon forgot about God and His existence that they heard from Adam.
Generation by generation, it became worse.
The evil spirits who are the ruler of the air took great responsibility for this.
Satan incited Adam's descendants not to have faith in God.
Satan put untruth in their hearts, and worked so that they could be stained by evil more and more.
Adam's descendants heard about the spiritual space, Garden of Eden, but they didn't experience it themselves.
By the same token, even though they heard about God who is spirit, they neither saw God nor heard Him.
And so, they neither believed in God nor revered God from the depth of their hearts.
Since their way of thinking was locked inside the limit of flesh, they could believe what they could see and touch, but they couldn't believe what they couldn't see or touch.
As a result, Adam's descendants on this earth didn't know God as Adam knew and believed in Him.
Of course, the good children among them believed in God as they heard from Adam, and they themselves thought about God.
Abel did it, and so did Seth- that God appointed in place of Abel.
That's why Adam made Seth the one to continue his family line.
In fact, Adam's sons, except Seth and his descendants, changed to have nothing to do with God.
Eventually, sin was so rampant on this earth that they couldn't escape the judgment of Great Flood during Noah's time.
The judgment of great flood took place approximately 1,600 years later after the human cultivation began on this earth.
If we calculate the years in the Bible, it was precisely after 1,656 years.
God knew in advance that it would be like that.
Since the human cultivation should continue, however, God let Noah, who was a righteous man in his time, was born.
This Noah was of Seth's 8th generation.
In addition, among Seth's descendants, there is another great man, Enoch.
This legitimate family line of Adam's is well recorded in Genesis Chapter 5, and so I will explain it in the next lecture.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Today, you studied Cain's descendants and Seth who continued Adam's legitimate family line.
You learned that Cain's descendants and the descendants of Seth, who was born in place of Abel, went opposite ways.
Just as Cain changed the way of sacrifice as he pleased, his descendant Lamech also changed the word of God as he pleased.
Unlike them, Seth and his descendants revered and served God from the depths of their hearts.
Is this difference only from their blood line?
Not at all.
God had unlimited mercy and compassion on Cain who committed a grave sin.
If Cain had not forgotten this grace of God, he must have taught and disciplined his children to revere God.
God shows His love fairly and equally, but depending on what kind of heart each one seeks God with, the result is different.
You can see the flow of spirit distinct from the flow of flesh as it is close to the end time.
God the Trinity desires all men to be saved and to go to good Heaven.
And so He gives much grace and love to all people.
Each one chooses either the flow of spirit or the flow of flesh by his own will.
I hope that you will love God from the depth of your heart and enjoy the riding on the flow of spirit.
May you become the true children who can please God the Father as you do so, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray! |
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