No matter which version of the Bible you open, you will see very similar wording, in GENESIS 1:1. ‘In the beginning, God created ....’
If you believe these first five words, you have the basics of a belief that will enable you to believe in the entire Bible as the true Word of God.
Let’s start this teaching by finding out why God created us in the first place. What is our purpose? Your purpose to living is to do the will of God. That includes many things, such as telling others about Jesus so they can come to know Him, but chief among the reasons we are here is to believe and have faith in Jesus so that we can be reconciled back to God.
As we begin our mid-week services, I thought it would be appropriate to use them primarily as a teaching tool. I will go through the Bible, taking books and giving you overviews of the book and specifics about some of the more exciting things within each book.
And I will begin tonight by doing that through the Book of Beginnings; the book of GENESIS. Now keep in mind that this will not be a verse-by-verse study of the entire Bible. It is a casual walk-through to get you familiar with God’s word, including the history of civilization.
Most people have never read the Bible at all, and those that have read it have not read much of it. And there are very few who have ever studied it.
By the time we are done, you will soon be able to tell the difference between a Hittite and a parasite, and you will be able to recognize the characters and events that took place, including the establishing of the Israelite nation.
You might want to take notes as we go along, so you can refer back to them later. I think we’re ready now, so turn with me to GENESIS 1.1.
In GENESIS 1:1 we find; The Creation
These are the five most-important words known to man: “In the beginning, God created …”
This first sentence is important for several reasons. First of all, it is a definitive statement that God exists. It does not try to debate the fact or argue the point. It flatly states that God does exist, even though many people have tried their best to deny it.
’In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’
I do not have time tonight to read every Scripture or passage I refer to, so I would suggest that you write down the reference numbers, along with any specific questions you might have, and then study them when you get home.
GENESIS 1:3, through 1:25, tells how God separated the light from the dark, and made everything from the seas to the plants and animals.
What else do these verses tell us? They tell us that God created these things by His spoken word. He didn’t send a team of builders down here to get things ready. He called everything into existence with His spoken word. Throughout the Bible, we will see just how powerful God’s Word is.
In verse 26, we start reading about the creation of man. In verse 27, it says God created them both male and female. The first thing He said to them was to multiply. Then, God rested and called that seventh day holy.
JOHN 1:3, it tells us,
‘Through Him all things were made; without Him – nothing was made .’
So, God does exist and He is the Creator of all. To deny that would make as much sense as to deny that one plus one equals two. We could do it, but it would make no sense.
Now, let’s see what else GENESIS tells us.
CHAPTER 2 - The Creation of Man in Detail
In Chapter 1, we read where God spoke things into existence. That is the power of His mighty word. He spoke and it happened. He did this with everything except for man.
In verse 7, it tells how God formed man from the dust of the ground and then, instead of speaking life into us; he gently breathed life into us.
I heard a preacher once say that God thought so much of man, that He got down in the mud Himself and fashioned us by getting his hands dirty, and then He breathed life into us by kissing His loved creation.
God then planted a beautiful garden, called Eden, and He put Adam into this garden. He then saw that Adam needed a companion so God created Eve to be Adam’s mate in all that he did.
CHAPTER 3 - The Sin and The Fall of Man
Satan eventually appeared to Eve and deceived her into taking the forbidden fruit. When she had done so, she handed it to Adam, and like all normal husbands, Adam did what his wife told him to do, right? But Adam didn’t just blindly follow an innocent Eve into sin. Both knew full well that they should not be eating from that tree, but they did anyway. Why? Because Satan appealed to their vanity. He told them that if they ate from that tree, they would become as great as God. And we still carry that sinful pride and vanity today.
Later, when God came down to visit with them, they hid because they were ashamed at their nakedness. When God asked Adam what happened, tried to blame Eve. Then, Eve tried blaming the serpent. God knew better. He had to punish them, and that punishment was kicking them out of the perfect Garden of Eden. But, even though He had to punish them, what did God do?
In GENESIS 3:21, we see where God made animal skins to cover them and dress them. He still loved them enough to take care of them. Aren’t we glad that God doesn’t treat us as badly as we treat our fellow humans?
By reading through the rest of Chapters 3 through 11, we see where Adam and Eve, and their family, had faith in God. They had faith that God would take care of them and provide for them.
In GENESIS 3:21, the Bible says that God made animal skins for Adam and Eve. Where did He get the skins? He had to kill an animal for them, didn’t He? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the first blood sacrifice, and it was not made just to cover their skin – it was also made to cover their sin.
CHAPTER 4 - We read about the First Murder
Cain killed Abel. God wanted a certain kind of sacrifice given to Him. Abel complied and gave a sacrifice of some of the first born of the flocks he tended. That pleased the Lord.
Cain was a farmer, so he brought some things he grew as his sacrifice. We are not told exactly why this displeased God, though. There are several theories that abound. One is that Cain’s sacrifice was not from among the first fruits of his crops.
(We are to give God the first fruits of what we have.)
No matter the exact reason, we do know that God was displeased with Cain. But in verse 7, we see where God still told Cain that if he did what was right, God would accept him.
Cain was angry. He was probably jealous, hurt and everything else negative that we feel today when things don’t go our way.
So, Cain took Abel out in the fields and killed him. That was the first murder in history. When God asked Cain where Abel was, Cain lied to God and said he didn’t know! But God is smarter than we are. He knew better. He told Cain that Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground on which he was slain.
God first cursed Adam and Eve when they disobeyed Him. And now God cursed Cain. He sent him out to never again return to his family and land. But, now it is very important to see this, God still loved them enough to protect them. All He wanted was for them to come back to Him.
CHAPTER 5 - From Adam to Noah
Starting in Chapter 5, we have a list of who-begat-who, starting with the creation of Adam and continuing until the time of Noah. Many people wonder why the Bible would include a boring list of genealogy. Here is a true story that might explain it better than I can.
There was a man by the name of Gideon Miller. He was about 5’6” and had size 16 shoes. He was married to a German woman who had been a member of the Hitler Youth. Now, that was odd, because Gideon was a Jew.
After WWII, Gideon and his wife made their way to America and ended up in Las Vegas where he began gambling. He soon realized that he was also an alcoholic. He was considered a dangerous type of man who could not be trusted in business or personal dealings.
He eventually started going to Alcoholics Anonymous, which was being held in a back room of a church on the Las Vegas strip. One evening, he got to the meeting much earlier than anyone else, so he began looking around for something to read while he waited on the others to get there. He found a Bible and began to thumb through it. He took the Bible home with him after the meeting and kept reading it.
Gideon said he wasn’t getting too much out of it at all, until he came to the genealogy of Jesus. He said he suddenly realized that Jesus wasn’t a Christian; He was a Jew – just like Gideon was! He said that was the thing that turned the Bible into a personal testimony for him.
That long line of “who-begot-who” made Jesus real to one man and brought him to accept Jesus as Savior. So, we must be very careful when deciding to skip any part of Scripture, because all of it has the unbelievable power to change our hearts.
Let’s now talk about more consequences of our sin.
CHAPTER 6 - The Account of the Flood
In GENESIS 6:1, we read where man had begun to increase in numbers on the earth. We also learn about two lines of people; the Godly line and those who were evil. The Godly line married into the line that was not godly, causing them to become ungodly, too.
In fact, in VERSE 5, it says,
‘The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain. So, the Lord said,
’I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them.’
In Chapter 6, we see where a man named Noah found favor in the eyes of God because he was a righteous man. God told Noah to build an ark. Now you have to understand that in those days, a big boat like that was unheard of. Some scholars say it hadn’t even rained upon the earth yet, and here Noah is, taking over 100 years to build an ocean going vessel where there was no water. This shows that Noah really did lean on God. Wouldn’t it be nice if we did, too?
Sometimes, we repeat stories so often we forget the insight in them. For example, Noah probably had help with the building of the ark. And if that is the case, there is no doubt that some of those who helped may have known more than Noah about carpentry. But just knowing about a subject does not always work to your benefit. When the floods came, even those carpenters who knew more than Noah – perished like everyone else.
In Chapter 8, we are shown that the first thing Noah did when he came out of the ark and let the animals go was to build an altar to honor God. And because of that altar, and the sacrifices upon that altar, Noah found favor in God’s eyes.
CHAPTER 9 - We read about the Blessing from God
GENESIS 9:1, says God blessed Noah and his sons. He told them to go and multiply and fill the earth, and then in Verse 2, God handed control of all living things over to mankind.
In Verses 8-16, we find the Rainbow Covenant. God promised to never again destroy the earth by flood. He said the sign of his promise would be the everlasting rainbow. That whenever a rainbow appeared in the clouds, we would be reminded of His promise, and He would also remember.
Our whole belief is based on faith; faith in God through Jesus Christ. But too many times I think humans have intelligent faith but fail to have heart faith. Let me explain.
Noah obeyed the Lord in building the ark. That was intelligent faith. But when Noah and his family stepped into the ark to have the door sealed shut behind them, it became heart faith. He put his life and the lives of his children at stake, depending totally on God for their survival. In other words, he had to trust God with all his heart.
Today, we might go to church and say all the right things, but when do we fully trust in God? Usually, we only give God our complete attention and total faith when we are at the literal end of our rope with nowhere else to go, isn’t it?
A man was climbing a mountain and it became very late and very dark. In this darkness, he slipped and began falling. He cried out to God to save him from certain disaster. After crying out, he felt his rope snap tight and he stopped falling.
By now, he had lost all of his tools, including his flashlight. In the total darkness of night, he could not see anything. All of a sudden, he heard God tell him to let go of the rope. In panic, he did what we do when God tells us to do something. He started coming up with reasons why he couldn’t do it. This went on for hours, and he finally told God that he couldn’t to let go of the rope.
He died in the sub-zero temperatures that night. The next morning, the search team found him hanging from the rope, two feet above the ground. Had the man trusted God fully, he would have lived, but he gave up his life rather than trust the God who could have, and would have, saved him. How many times have we refused blessings in our lives because we just didn’t want to trust fully in what God wanted us to do?
Noah stepped into the ark and the door was sealed. He had put himself and his family in the very hands of God. They would live or they would die, depending on what God would do. And nowhere in the Bible does it say that Noah had any doubts. That is total trust. That is total faith.
Let me summarize tonight’s message. After Adam and Eve sinned and left the Garden, civilization flourished. But as it flourished, it became wicked. Finally, God was so grieved that He was going to kill everything, but then He saw one man who found favor. That man was Noah. So, God had Noah build an ark, which would save him, his family, and two of every living creature. Then God let the world flood and destroyed all that was evil.
After the flood, civilization again prospered, but as it did, it again became evil. Eventually, man had turned their backs on God to the extent that they wanted to be the center of all attention, so they started building the Tower of Babel.
I think the main lesson today is for us to realize what God wanted us to be like, and how far away we have walked from that plan. We need to realize just how sinful we are. And if we realize how sinful our nature is, we will then realize how there will come a day when we shall pay the price for our selfish desires.
God has given us thousands of years to repent and come back to Him, but we have ignored those chances. What about you? Can you look back in your life and see places where God has tried to get your attention? Can you look back in your life and see where you have chosen to ignore His calling? Most of us can.
But the question of the day is – what are we planning on doing about it?
I told you how God had cursed Adam and Eve for their disobedience. And I told you how God then cursed Cain for his act of hatred and disobedience. As mankind spread throughout the world, and with each act of disobedience, we has gotten further and further separated from God.
But God continues to love us just like He continued to love Adam and Eve and Cain. He wants to provide for us and give us all the spiritual blessings we can hold. But there is something we must do first. We must come back to God by making a choice to repent from our sin and turn towards Jesus.
God has pursued us for over 6,000 years because He loves us and wants us to turn back to Him. As we go through this Bible, we will see how God’s plan of salvation is visible from the beginning all the way to the ending. How Jesus Christ is the bridge that allows us to be reconciled to God. And we will have a better understanding of just how God’s Word fits into our lives today.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
