Today (Part 1)
Scriptures: Genesis 3:17-19; 5:3-32 6:3; Jude 14-15;
Introduction:
The title of my message this morning is “Today” and this will; be part one as I will not be able to complete this message this morning. As I worked on this message, it was a struggle. I struggled through this message because it made me take a close look at myself, especially in relationship to my first responses which I spoke about a couple of weeks ago. God gave me this message for a specific reason: He wants us to know that “today” matters and is very important to His plan for our lives. Please keep this in mind as I share part one of this series this morning. By definition, if you were to look this word up in the dictionary, you’d find a definition similar to this: “on or during the present day; the present time.” Today means right now in the present, versus yesterday (our past) or tomorrow (our future.)
Today I can look back on yesterday and see things clearly whereas when I was “in the moment” of yesterday I might not have been able to do so because I was actively involved in that “today.” Today I can plan for tomorrow, even though I might not see tomorrow. When I stop and think about it, all I have right now is today. Today represents opportunities, opportunities to not repeat past mistakes and opportunities to fulfill what God has called me to do moving forward. "Today" gives me a chance to have an impact on the lives of others; even those that I might have missed yesterday. Benjamin Franklin said “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” I personally have been guilty of the modern thinking pattern of “Why should I do something today when I can easily do it tomorrow?” The problem with this thinking is that there were times when I did not do it “tomorrow” and I seldom thought about the fact that tomorrow is not promised to me. I cannot undo my past and I can plan for tomorrow, but what is within my grasp of understanding and control in some measurable way right now is “today.”
The last couple of weeks have forced me to see how quickly I have lost sight of my "todays" versus my remembering/reflecting on my past and planning/dreading my the future (all of the “what ifs” that we can easily stress and worry about.) I have experienced some things on my job, in my personal life and as the pastor of this Church that caused me to ponder “what if?” Do you know that we can spend so much time living in the past or planning for our future that we fail to enjoy today? That we can spend so much time reflecting on our past that we are not able to live today or worst, think positive thoughts about our tomorrows. This morning I want to introduce this series by sharing some historical information with you and in part two I will get more personal. Let me first share with you why our days were shortened and why it is important to understand why it changed so that we can use the time we have left to make a difference in the lives of others. Let me start with the days before the flood.
A. Before The Flood
After Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden they began having children. Adam and Eve knew God personally and after sinning understood Him even more. This understanding of God was also taught to their first born sons, Cain and Abel, as evident from their interactions with God (Genesis 4:3-7). Adam and Eve had other children whom they also taught about God. As the population on the earth grew, man grew farther and farther away from God which caused God to make a change. When you read Genesis chapter five, you will find the genealogy of Adam. There are a few points I want to point out this morning from this chapter. Let’s start with verse three.
“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. Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died.” (Vss. 3-5) Adam was 130 when he had his third son Seth and lived for 800 more years after Seth was born. He died at the age of 930 and had other sons and daughters during this time. Seth was 105 years old when he fathered Enosh and lived for 912 years. Enosh was 90 years old when he fathered Kenan and lived for 905 years. These three men represent 3 generations of Adam descendants. Now let’s jump down to verse twenty-one.
“Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and became the father of Lamech. Then Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years after he became the father of Lamech, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son. Now he called his name Noah, saying, ‘This one shall give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord cursed. Then Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years and he died. Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Jam, and Japheth.” (Vss. 21-32)
When you read the genealogy of Adam, it sounds rather boring. But when you understand what took place, it adds a new significance for our lives today. Let me explain what really happened in this chapter and why it is so important to us. As I said previously, Adam lived to be 930 years old before he died and during this time he continued to have sons and daughters. Adam’s great, great, great, great grandson Enoch was born when Adam was 622 years old. Enoch was 308 years old when Adam died. Enoch new Adam and knew the story of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Enoch was a preacher of righteousness and everyone that he preached to were members of his family since the only people on the earth were from the seeds of Adam and Eve. Enoch warned his family (the wicked men of his day) of God’s coming judgment. Jude 14-15 records the following: “It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” These verses speak to the knowledge that Enoch had of coming events as this reference was to the Second Coming of Christ. He walked so closely with God that God chose to tell him about what was coming thousands of years before it happened. But this is what is important; Enoch walked so closely with God and was so faithful to Him that God chose to take him – he did not die a natural death (verse 24). Why is this important? Adam had been dead for 57 years when God took Enoch and everyone else in Adam’s genealogy was still alive (as far as we know from the Bible.) God did not take Adam’s son, grandson, great-grandson, etc.; He took the one from the seventh generation who had been faithful to Him. But let me continue.
Verse twenty-two tells us that when Enoch sixty-five years old, he had a son and named him Methuselah. All of us know who he was as he lived longer than anyone else who walked the face of the earth. We often use him as an example when we say someone is as old as Methuselah. Methuselah’s name means “When he dies, it shall be sent.” Enoch in giving his son this specific name was prophesying. Methuselah had a son and named him Lamech; and Lamech was the father of Noah. When Lamech named his son “Noah” verse twenty-nine tells us that he prophesied that “This one shall give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord cursed.” Lamech was referring to what happened when Adam sinned and God pronounced judgment. Genesis 3:17-19 records “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dusk, and to dusk you shall return.” What Lamech was prophesying about was that by God preserving a remnant in the ark, Christ would eventually come and give ultimate victory over this curse. Noah was the tenth generation of Adam and was born 126 years after Adam’s death.
I know that I have given you a lot of dates, but it will become clear in just a moment. When you examine the genealogy of Adam up to Noah, the average life span (besides Enoch who was taken) was 600+ years. (Compare that to the average life span of a U.S. citizen in 1900 which was 46 years.) All of the people of that time were descendants of Adam and Eve who knew God personally and had taught their children about God. However, with each generation, they became more and more wicked even though there were members of their family who knew God personally. Enoch, of Adam’s seventh generation, preached about righteousness to his wicked family members. Adam probably heard his messages or at least knew that he was preaching on behalf of God as he was still alive at this time. When Enoch had a son he named him Methuselah because he knew that God was going to do something very specific to the world. He knew that God was going to start over with his grandson Noah. Now let me close with what actually happened in the flood versus what we might see portrayed on television or at the movies.
B. The Flood
In Genesis chapter six God made the following statement prior to the flood: "Then the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3) God set a limitation on how old man would live moving forward. When you think about how long the average man lived prior to Genesis chapter six, man's life span was reduced by 75% (if the average man lived to be 600 or more.) This decision was based on what man was doing with his time here on earth. He was not using it to glorify God or to worship Him, but to fulfill the desires of his flesh. Verse five and six tell us that when God saw the wickedness of man, He was sorry that He had made him. God decided to start over with a remnant – Noah, because He was pleased with Noah (Vss. 8-9).
Here are a few points about the flood and you can refer to the handout that I gave you earlier. When Enoch named Methuselah he gave him that name as a prophesy about what was going to happen - in this case the flood. The flood would come after Methuselah died. Methuselah died in 1656 B.C., the same year of the flood. The flood waters came after Methuselah’s death just as Enoch had predicted. Although we do not have the exact timing, it appears that it took Noah a little over 100 years to build the ark. This means that his father (Lamech) and grandfather (Methuselah) were alive when the ark was being built. His father died five years prior to the flood and as I said previously, his grandfather died the year of the flood, but not in the flood. When you read the story or see it dramatized in movies, you think the people who were alive at the time might have been distant family and friends of Noah or maybe some strangers from some foreign land. However, according to the Bible, all of the people who died in the flood were family members of Noah. But let me be more specific as to who actually died in the flood. (This is based on us not having specific information about the deaths of his family members not listed in the Bible prior to the flood waters coming.) Here is a short list:
• Noah’s brothers and sisters. In Genesis 6:30 it records that Noah had other brothers and sisters.
• Noah’s Nieces and Nephews: If his brothers and sisters had children, all of them perished in the flood.
• In-Laws: All of Noah’s in-laws and the in-laws of his children’s spouses died in the flood. (Genesis 7:1, 7)
• Uncles, aunts, and cousins: Genesis 6:26 state that Methuselah had other sons and daughters besides Lamech. If they were alive, and some were, they all died in the flood.
• Distant relatives: As I shared before, everyone alive when Moses entered the ark were descendants of Adam and Eve and therefore his family members. They all died in the flood.
In the span of 1500 years from creation, man had become so wicked that God decided to destroy them all with the exception of Noah and start over. What led to this destruction, and it was a total destruction as the flood waters covered the entire earth, was man’s wickedness. Man’s wickedness led to God shortening man’s life span and ultimately destroying them and starting over with Noah but putting in place a limitation on how long their bodies would last.
What I want you to consider this morning as I close this part of the message is the state of the world in which we live in. Do you understand that we are in a worst state than those who lived prior to the flood; that the only saving grace for us is Jesus Christ; that many do not even know Him as their personal savior; and that those of us who do are not willing to tell someone who does not know Him? This is what our “todays” are for – doing His will. Rev. Fulks sent me an article last week that talked about how atheists know more about world religions than religious folks. They polled 3,500 Americans and found that after atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons scored highest in their knowledge of religion. (It’s a well-known fact that Christians know the least about their own religion and the other religions of the world.) The article also mentioned a congressman who co-sponsored a bill to put the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives for all to see and remember. The congressman was asked to name those same commandments and he couldn’t. The article further stated that 60% of Americans could not name the Ten Commandments. The article ended by stating that sociologists have long known that religious people are no more honest or trustworthy than the non-religious and the poll suggested that atheists and other non-believers are actually better informed about the religious world than the faithful themselves. This is a problem, especially if we are professing to walk in faith. Keep this in mind because it will lead us to the heart of the message in two weeks.
For those of you who may be wondering, the Ten Commandments were given to Moses after the flood and set a framework for man’s conduct moving forward. If you read them today you will find that not only do we violate them willfully, we are surprised when someone tries to keep them. For Christians it is not enough that we do not know what God’s word says, but we do not care to know. This is one case where what you don’t know will hurt you. As I close, let me remind you of what God said:
• “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
• “You shall not make for yourself an idol.”
• “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
• “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
• “Honor your father and your mother.
• “You shall not murder.”
• “You shall not commit adultery.”
• “You shall not steal.”
• “You shall not bear false witness.”
• “You shall not covet.”
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
