Hope Now Bible Church: Fresno, California

Trusting God Even Through Your Suffering: The Book of Job

Pastor Roger Feenstra 

Take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Job. If you are here for the first time, or perhaps haven't been here for a while, we are making our way through the entire Bible. It will take us just a little over a year and it is our hope that by the time we get to the very last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, you will have a better understanding and a foundation that will give you a love for God's Word.  

We've already gone through the books of the Law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.   And last week we completed the last book of the historical books from Joshua through the book of Esther.

Today,we begin a new section in the Old Testament which contains a group of books called, the books of poetry.  These books consist of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. 

The eighteenth book in the Bible, Job, is a large book, so let's start walking through it.

 But just before we do, let's ask God's blessing on His Word this morning.

The book of Job is about Trusting God even through your suffering.  Or put another way,

I. You Can Trust God When You Suffer.

Job was a real man who lived 500 to 1500 years before Jesus Christ.  Here's what the book is about; Job was afflicted with terrible tragedy in his family and on himself, physically.  Because his family members were all killed, because he lost all of his wealth, because he was covered with blistering and painful sores and was a physical mess, Job was in the pit of despair--He was so bad off that it appears he moved outside the city gates (Job 19:13-20) to the ash heap, or the public dump and it was there that he sat in his misery.  While he suffered, people came to him to give him advice.  First, his wife, then from three of his friends. Then, by a fourth young man who offered him advice.  And all the while, as advice was being offered, Job listened and then responded, each time. Finally, God spoke and when He did, He set the record straight.

So this book is about suffering.  It's about being in the pit of despair.  And God placed this book in Scripture to show His power and sovereignty, even through your suffering. 

You may in the pit of despair today.   You may be going through suffering right now.  It's probably not a stretch for me to say to you that there is some pain, or grief, or sorrow in the depths of your soul today.  Then you need to know that you can trust God through your suffering.  

As I've read and meditated over this passage for several weeks, I believe God wants you to understand four things this afternoon.

First, your suffering is allowed by God.

Second, When you suffer, it is okay to question God

Third, your suffering may cause others to judge your faith in God

Fourth, your suffering has an explanation.

A. The Man Job

But we first need to take a closer look at this man Job.  What could he have possibly done to warrant this tragedy in his life?  The book takes no time in describing what type of man Job was.  Look with me at verse 1. 

"There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil."  

We have pictured before us a man who was doing everything right in his life. The word blameless means that he didn't have any observable sins.  When people looked at him they saw a man who was godly.  He was honest in all of his dealings, he had integrity, his word meant something.  He feared or honored God and whenever he was tempted to sin, he turned away from it.  

Could this be said of you?  Is that how you would like your life to be?  That's why you're here isn't it?  You struggle with the temptations and trials of life, but you want your life to be blameless before God, you want to honor God and turn from evil. 

Job was not sinless (we know this because he repented in Chapter 42), but he honored God, and God allowed him to be blessed materially in his life.  Look with me at verses 2 and 3:

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. ³ He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

Job was a very wealthy man and was blessed by God.  He was blameless, he was wealthy, and he was fulfilled.  

God will not always bless you with material wealth.  There are many people in the Bible who served God and were blessed by God, but were poor. In fact, Jesus' disciples were men who had no material wealth.  Jesus told them, all you need to worry about is food. In Matthew 10 Jesus said to his disciples:

"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.  You received without paying; give without pay.  Aquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor staff, for the laborer deserves his food.."

Even Jesus himself had no material wealth. Jesus said in Matthew 8:20:

"...Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

So when you hear preachers on television say to you, "God wants you rich."  It is simply a lie.  In fact, Jesus warns that having wealth makes it very difficult for you to follow Him. In Mark 10:23 He told His disciples:

"How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"

But let me add this: The church of Jesus Christ needs wealthy people.  God uses Christians who are wealthy and who love Him to help financially support His work. So we are not to look down on wealthy people, rather we should thank God for them. The problem is that when you acquire wealth, the temptation is to begin to love it more that God.  And the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.  So if someday, you strike it rich you want to be sure to use your money to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Job was one of those men who did just that.  But he was more than wealthy. He was a Godly man who loved his family and cared for their spiritual well-being. Look at Job 1:4,5:

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. 

So Job prayed for his children, the passage says, "early in the morning" and he would ask God to keep his family pure and blameless.

Dads, are you praying for your children?  Do you spend time with God, asking Him to keep your child from sin?  Do you ask Him to protect your children?  To keep them from cursing God?  Job did.  And moms and dads, you need to go before the throne of God daily and ask God's blessing on your family.  Nearly everyday, as my two girls were growing up, I prayed for them and asked God to protect them and prayed that they would love Him and someday marry godly men.  Carol did the same.  And today, I still pray for their families and their husbands and for my grandchildren.  God honors those prayers.

Job was a godly man and his life was a model life. He was the kind of guy that would want to sit next to on an airplane  "Because surely God won't let anything happen to this plane with him on board!" Job's was a life that would cause you to say, God is really going to take care of him.  And while that was true, Job's life was about to take a tragic and deadly course.

The scene of the story now changes and God allowed Satan to test Job.  In fact, it is God who brings up the subject of Job. Look at Job 1:8:

"And the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on earth..."

God invited Satan to take a crack at Job's spiritual life.  Job has no idea what is going on in heaven.  He is just living his life on earth, blameless, upright, praying for his children, being a Godly man, and God is about to allow him to be smacked down hard.  Why would God allow that?  Well, will find out a little later, but the first point to understand is this, 

Your suffering is allowed by God.

1.  Your Suffering is Allowed By God

Satan, the great accuser was somehow able to go before God and accuse Job.  Look at verses 9-11:

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?

¹⁰ Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face."

With God’s permission (1 Cor. 10:13), Satan afflicted Job with a disease we cannot identify. Whatever it was, the symptoms were terrible: severe itching (Job 2:8), insomnia (7:4), running sores and scabs (7:5), nightmares (7:13–14), bad breath (19:17), weight loss (v. 20), chills and fever (21:6), diarrhea (30:27), and discolored skin (v. 30). 

In fact, he was so bad off that his friends didn't even recognize him! (2:12).  Look at Job 2:12

"And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. "

Job was a mess. The rest of chapter one tells the disturbing details of how he lost everything.  And I mean everything.  All of his wealth was stolen, all of his livestock wiped out, and all of his sons and daughters were killed.  A parent's worse nightmare.

And Job did what was the customary way to grieve in ancient times.  He tore his robe and he shaved his head and he fell on the ground.  

The pain he must have felt.  Most of us in this room don't know that kind of suffering.  Some here have felt it.  But Job didn't just grieve, look at verse 20:

"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 

²² In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong." 

Satan had been proven wrong.  Job didn't curse God to His face.  He did just the opposite. The very thing that Satan said Job would do, Job didn't do!  Instead, he worshipped.

You see, Satan doesn't know what your life is like.  He is not all knowing, but he will try everything in the book drag you down.  Most likely you will never have a direct encounter with Satan.  He is not like God. He is not Omnipresent--He can't be everywhere at once as God is.  But you will be attacked by the power of Satan and his demonic forces.  And when you are you can do what Job did, you can worship God.

I think it is important to know that not all physical affliction comes from Satan. I believe we give Satan too much credit.  Satan is not the opposite of God.  There is no cosmic struggle between God and Satan. God is never worried about Satan winning.  Any power that Satan has, is allowed by God.  It is true that Satan's demons can cause (among other things) blindness (Matthew 12:22), the ability not to speak (9:32-33), physical deformities (Luke 13:11-17), constant pain (2 Corinthians 12:7), and even insanity (Matthew 8: 28-34).  But sometimes physical affliction comes as the natural result of carelessness on your part, and you have nobody to blame but yourself.

But however your suffering comes.  It never takes God by surprise.  He is aware of your suffering and He allows it to happen.   So the first thing we can learn is that God allows suffering to come in to your life. And because God allows it, that's why you can trust Him as you go through it.

But there's a second thing we learn from the book of Job.

2.  When You Suffer, It is Okay To Question God

There is nothing wrong in asking God "Why?" as long as you don't get the idea that God owes you the answer.  Besides, when you are suffering, knowing why doesn't necessarily ease the pain.  If you are suffering from the pain of cancer and the doctor shows you a CatScan of your cancer and tells you that it was caused by too much smoking, your pain won't go away just because you know where it came from.  You are to live on the promises of God, not the explanation.  

When the Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, faced suffering, God didn't take it away from him.  God told Paul, "My Grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9.).

Even Jesus, in his humanness cried out to God and asked a "why" question, 

"At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice,

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Job was blameless, and Godly, but he was still human.  He struggled with the same questions you have when you go through suffering.  Job cursed the night of his conception and the night of his birth.  And he asked four "why" questions (Job 3:11, 12):

¹¹ “Why did I not die at birth, 

[Why did I not] come out from the womb and expire? 

¹² Why did ⁿthe knees receive me? 

Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 

Because you are human and an emotional creature, you will find yourself asking, "why?"  God understands this, He created you with emotion.  Even the emotion of anger is a God given attribute.  So that when you suffer, you may become angry, but you must always remember that there is a fine line between being angry and sinning.  Psalm 4:4 says,

"Be angry, but do not sin."  

In other words, when you suffer, like Job did, you are not to let your anger control you.  

You see, this is where you might struggle.  You begin to be hit on all fronts by sin and suffering and your emotion of anger kicks into gear.  But rather than trust God, you let your anger burn and burn and burn until you explode--and then you fall--and you even turn from God.

But while Job experienced the emotion of anger, in all of Job's questioning, he never turned against God.

So, God allows your suffering and he allows you to question your suffering. But as you trust Him during your suffering there is a third thing you need to contend with:

3.  Your Suffering May Cause Others To Judge Your Faith in God

It may be difficult enough to trust God as you go through suffering alone, but it becomes exceedingly more difficult to go through suffering when friends, maybe even family members, judge you for it.

That was Job's circumstance.  As he sat on the ash heap, the few friends he had left, and even his wife turned against him.  

Looking at Job being judged for his suffering, we can clearly see that Job is a picture of Jesus Christ.  When Christ suffered, everyone turned against him, even his closest disciples.

The judging began with Job's wife when she said, in Job 2:9:

"His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”

But Job immediately rebuked her in verse 10:

"But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong."

The comment made by Job's wife was exactly what Satan wanted Job to make.  Satan thought for sure that Job would curse God. Job's wife prodded Job to curse God--He was such a mess that her solution was, "Just end it!  Quit trying to hang on to your faith!" You see, even people who are close to you may try to bring you down.  They can be tools of Satan.  They may not be fully conscious of what they are doing, but they may try to pull you away from your faith in Christ.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.  Maybe you have people like that in your life.  They try to sabotage your faith.  Because they aren't walking close to the Lord, they want to bring you down to their level.  You're living a life of faith and they're not, and they don't like it. And in their guilt, because of the lifestyle they're living, they don't care if you lose your job, or get addicted to drugs, or quit going to church.  You need to be cautious around those people.

One of Jesus' closest disciples, Peter, tried to manipulate Jesus into doing something that would have made Satan very happy.  Jesus had just praised Peter for his belief that Jesus was the Son of God.  Then, Jesus told Peter and the other disciples what was going to happen to him.  Jesus said, in Matthew 16:21:

"From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."

And Peter turned to Jesus and said in a rebuking manner:

“Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”

Then Jesus turned to Peter and said,

“Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

I don't think Jesus was saying that Peter was demon possessed, but rather He was making a point that Satan would want the same thing. In this sense Satan wanted to stop Christ from suffering.  He wanted to prevent His death. Because had not Jesus gone to the cross to be crucified and die for your sin and mine, we would never have any hope of salvation and eternal life, and Satan would have won.

For your life, Satan would just prefer that you die in your misery.

That's what Job's wife thought would be best for Job too.

 And Job's friends turned against him also.  When they came to visit Job as he sat on the ash heap, you get the idea from reading the passage that they truly are sympathetic to his situation, because for the first seven days, they just sat there with him and didn't say a thing.  Look at Job 2: 11-13:

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Those seem like pretty good friends to me.  Sometimes when people are suffering or going through some sort of pain, the best thing you can do is just sit with them for a while and not say a thing.  I've had people ask me what they should say to someone who is suffering--Sometimes just a hand on their shoulder or a hug is the most important thing you could ever say.

When I was about 20 years old, I went with my pastor to my grandparents house to give them some bad news.  One of their other grandsons, just a few years younger than me, who lived in Alaska, had just been killed in a car accident.  I knew, as any of you would, that this was going to be devastating news for them.  As our pastor quickly, yet gently broke the news to my grandparents, they began to weep--and time seemed to stand still as we all just sat there, no one saying a word--just the weeping and the tears.

I mean, what can you say to someone who has lost a child?  What words of encouragement can you give to someone whose loved one has just died, or has been involved in a serious accident.  There are no words that will help at the moment.  

When Jesus was confronted with the death of his very good friend Lazarus, the Bible tells us in two words what Jesus did .

"Jesus wept."

And Jesus was God!  Do you think you can do anything better than that?

Job's friends appeared to be on the right track in comforting Job.  They just sat there as silent comforters. But after seven days, they started thinking a little too much and they began to get irritated with Job. They accused Job of having some sort of hidden sin that caused all of his suffering--Let me summarize briefly what these men said to Job:

a.  Eliphaz

The first friend to speak was probably the oldest.  His name was Eliphaz.  Look at what he said to Job in 4:7-8:

            “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? 

      Or where were the upright cut off? 

            8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity 

      and sow trouble reap the same. 

In other words, if you are innocent Job, you would never be going through this tragedy in your life.  Because you have sinned, you are going to reap sin.  

b.  Bildad

Bildad was the second friend who spoke.  We can summarize what he said by looking a Job 8:20:

            “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, 

      nor take the hand of evildoers. 

Bildad's point was, "Job God has rejected you because you are suffering and the reason is because you must not be blameless. There must be some evil in your life that is causing your suffering."

c.  Zophar

The third friend to speak was Zophar.  And he is ruthless in his comments to Job.  Turn to Job 11:6(b):

      "Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves."

 

Here's what Zophar means. "Job, you deserve a lot more than you got!"

 

In fact, the point that all three of Job's friends were making was this  Do what is right, and things will go well for you; do what is wrong, and God will send judgment. The problem is, this is not a completely true statement. If you believe this statement 100% then you are believing Eastern Mysticism. This is a Buddhist or Hindu belief.  It is not a Christian belief. Here is what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:43-45:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you this: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. 45 In this way you show that you are children of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on people whether they are good or evil. He lets rain fall on them whether they are just or unjust.

The truth is, oftentimes good people suffer and wicked people prosper--we've all seen it.  Sometimes,  wicked people even live a life of prosperity and die in relative peace. You've heard the phrase, "Bad people go to Hell?" The fact is, in reality, bad people go to heaven, because there is none who is righteous, no not one. The Bible says, no one can do good.  And, there will be many good people in Hell. What you do or don't do on this earth does not determine your salvation.  There is only one way to become righteous and that is by accepting the free gift of eternal life that only our Savior Jesus Christ gives.  What you do or don't do will never save you, only Christ.  So when you say that someone is suffering because of their wrong-doing, it may or may not be correct. Sometimes it's true, but just as often, it isn't true.  In Job's case, it wasn't.  And his friends were wrong.

Job made attempts, as his friends spoke, to convince them that they were wrong. That he didn't have any hidden sin and that he trusted God.  Any sin that he may have had had already been confessed and forgiven.

In Old Testament times, believers looked forward to the Cross and were saved by faith in a Savior yet to come (John 8:56; Rom. 3:25; Heb. 11). Job was a believer; therefore, his sins had been dealt with by God. Even if Job had sinned against God in some great way, God would deal with His child on the basis of grace and mercy and not justice. When you confess your sins, God forgives you because He is faithful to His promise and just toward His Son who died for your sins (1 John 1:9).

So Job's ultimate defense against his friends attacks against him is found in Job 19:25: 

 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

and he will stand upon the earth at last."

And that's how you can trust God when you suffer.  Look to our Lord Jesus Christ--that He lives and that one day he will stand upon the earth and all suffering will end.  Look at Job's next statement in vs. 26:

"And after my skin has been thus destroyed

yet in my flesh I shall see God."

Job believed in the resurrection.  That was his hope.  And that is your hope too. That this world, and this suffering that you're experiencing is not the end.  The Bible promises that one day there will be a resurrection.  Because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, He promises to do the same for you.  And for those who believe in Jesus Christ, you will be raised to everlasting life.

And Job knew that promise and believed it.

Well, we're trying to learn from the book of Job in this short time today that You Can Trust God When you Suffer. And we've seen that,

• Your suffering is allowed by God.

• Your suffering may cause you to question God.

• Your suffering may cause others to judge your faith.

But the final point is one that you really want to know. Why?  Why do you suffer?

4.  Your Suffering Has An Explanation

There is one more friend of Job who comes on the scene. His name is Elihu.  The first three friends were older men, but this friend is a young man.  And I think that God used him to give us a brief glimpse as to why we suffer.

While Elihu said some of the same things as the other speakers, his purpose was different from theirs. He was not trying to prove that Job was a sinner.  Elihu introduced two new truths into the debate: 

First, that God sends suffering, not necessarily to punish us for our sins, but to keep us from sinning (33:18, 24)  

¹⁸

he keeps back his soul from the pit,  

his life from perishing by the sword. 

²⁴

and he is merciful to him, and says,   

‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; 

The word pit means death caused by sin. It literally means "perishing by the sword." So Elihu is making a point that our suffering perhaps keeps us from sinning. Or put another way, your suffering bends you towards God's will.  One writer said this:

"Pain is a firm teacher when other gentler means of discipline fail to bring the pupil around to acceptable behavior."

Therefore your suffering may be used to keep you from becoming an even greater sinner.

One way that you can know that a truth in the Old Testament is a truth we should pay attention to and obey is to ask the question, "Is that truth found in the New Testament."  The Apostle Paul, in the book of  2 Corinthians 12:7-10, seems to agree with Elihu.  Paul wrote:

⁷So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

So the New Testament seems to confirm that our suffering is sometimes caused to keep us from further sin. But Elihu made a second point.

And his second point was that our suffering is given to us to renew us or to make us better persons (36:1–15).  The Apostle Paul seems to agree with this point also. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

      That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!18       So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 

When your spirit is renewed, you become a better person because you are putting all of your trust in Jesus Christ.

And so, it appears that suffering does two things.  It keeps us from sinning and it causes us to become renewed persons.

But there is a final speaker in the book of Job.  It is God Almighty Himself.  And God presents Himself to Job in Chapters 38 through 42.  And these chapters deserve a lot of attention, so I would encourage you to at least read those chapters when you get home today.  In them, God speaks of his great Majesty and Creation Power.  And if I could summarize them in a sentence or two it would be God saying to Job:

"Stop trying to defend me Job.  I am the Great and Powerful and Awesome God, and you have no idea how to even defend me.  I am so far beyond your defense.  Stop arguing with me and for me Job."

Upon hearing God speak, Job spoke his final words to the Lord in Job 42:1-6

Then Job answered the Lord and said: 

² “I know that you can do all things, 

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 

³ ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ 

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, 

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 

⁴ ‘Hear, and I will speak; 

I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 

⁵ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, 

but now my eye sees you; 

⁶ therefore I despise myself, 

and repent in dust and ashes.” 

Job realized that he couldn't defend God, He simply needed to trust God through his suffering.  And that is what God is calling you to do today.

Finally, in chapter 42, God did two things:

1.  He rebuked Jobs three older friends and told them that they were wrong. And he instructed Job to pray for each of them.

2.  God restored all of Job's wealth, and the final verse concludes the book,

"And Job died, an old man, full of days."

Well, we have to stop here.  I know that I haven't done this book justice and I ask God to forgive me for that, but it's my prayer that God's Spirit has touched your heart today and has encouraged you to be strengthened in your suffering.  And so I'll close today with this final question. It's a question that only you can answer:

Are you trusting God through your suffering?

 

 

A Walk Through the Bible: Genesis

There is no doubt that life is a mess on our planet and most would agree that things are getting worse, not better. How did we get into such a mess? Is there any hope for us humans? Or are we doomed for destruction? 

Today we are embarking on a journey that will help us find the answers to those and other questions that may flood our thoughts. We are beginning a one year walk through the Bible. And it is our hope that by the end of one year, you will have an understanding of God's plan for planet earth and its inhabitants and a greater grasp of God's great plan for your life, and you will end the year with hope not only for this life, but for the life to come. 

How did we get into this mess that we're in? Our problems had to have begun somewhere. It's evident that sin is all around us. Each of us experience the result of sin everyday. Drug addiction, family breakups, fits of anger, hatred, wars, rumors of wars, political upheaval, weather related issues like hurricanes, volcanos and earthquakes, even oil spills. Sin is in full bloom, and there is no escaping its effect. This sin that we encounter daily in our lives is nothing new. While it may appear to be on a grander scale in 2010, there is no escaping the fact that it has been around us from the beginning of time--since the creation of the world. 

The book of Genesis presents us with a vivid picture of the beginning of sin, the effects of sin on our lives, and then, throughout the entire Bible, we will be presented with God's remedy for sin. 

The book of Genesis was written by Moses. Moses was the author of most of the first five books of the Bible, the books we call the Pentateuch, Torah, or Books of the Law. There are fifty chapters in the book of Genesis and by just knowing that fact alone we can conclude that an in-depth study of this book would take a long time. So today, as we will do for the next year, we are going to do a "walk through" of this book and all the books of the Bible. We'll look at the mountain tops, and perhaps in some other study we will have a chance to travel down to the valleys. 

The word Genesis means, "beginnings". So this book is a book of beginnings. Chapter one of Genesis probably contains the most well known verse in the Bible. "In the beginning God created." (Genesis 1:1) The immediate straight up fact that the Bible presents is that this book is about God and his eternal existence. He was in the beginning. There are no apologies and no other proof offered. And it's because of this in your face statement that many people reject the Bible. But this statement has to be responded to in some way. You can choose to just ignore that the Bible is about the reality of God (Which I believe is impossible to do since we are confronted with God's existence almost daily); You can reject the existence of God as mere mythology or superstition; Or, you can accept it as the very word of God But you cannot remain neutral. 

I. Beginnings 

Since the word Genesis means "beginnings", there are several beginnings in the book of Genesis. 

 1. The beginning of the world (Chapters 1,2) 

 Out of Nothing

In the beginning God: God was in the beginning--which means God had no beginning, he has always existed, and he created the world out of nothing. When God made the world and the universe, He used no natural resources to create. There was no dirt or wood, no metal or water, no atmosphere or air. The theological term is from the latin, creatio ex nihilo which means, God spoke (Genesis 1:3; "Let there be light, and there was light") and the elements that make up the world came into existence. 

 Didn't Create Alone 

Therefore, in two short chapters we get a glimpse of the creation power of God; and the crown of his creation was the creation of man. But there is more to learn in the first two chapters of the Genesis: In Genesis 1:26 we get a hint that God was not alone in his creating. Look at verse 26: "Then God said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness." If we read in verse one, "In the beginning God created", then we have to ask who is the "us" and the "our" in this verse? Who is God talking to? As we walk through the Bible, we will see that the veil is lifted more and more and God's plan for his creation will be revealed and we'll see that the "us" and the "our" here is God the Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. In chapter 1:2 we read that the "Spirit of God" hovered over the face of the waters. And, in the New Testament book of John 1:1 it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." And later in John we discover that the Word is Jesus Christ. And the apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:15,17: "He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation....and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." So in the first two chapters of the Bible we are shown the beginning of the world and a picture of what we call, The Trinity; One God, Three Persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So Genesis is about the beginning of the world and the fact of God; that he created out of nothing and that he was not alone when he created. 

2. The beginning of sin and its consequences (Chapters 3-10) 

Because God is a gracious God, One who deals fairly with his creation, he gave mankind a choice--to follow him or to reject him. It's the same choice that he gives you today. You can choose to follow Jesus Christ, or reject him. God has not made you a robot. You have freedom to make a choice. The question is, what choice will you make. Adam chose to follow his own desires and lusts and therefore, sinned. Look at Chapter 3:17:

 "And to Adam he [God] said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 

And that first sin of Adam (Romans 5:12) caused a ripple effect through the human race, beginning with his own children whose rebellion resulted in the death of one son, Abel who was murdered by his brother Cain (Genesis 4). And sin took root even more to the extent that the world became so corrupt that God determined to wipe out those who continued to rebel. Of all the inhabitants of the earth, only Noah and his family chose to follow the creator God and they were saved through the flood. (Genesis 6-9) But even after the flood and with the new chance that God presented Noah and his family, sin still ruled in their sinful bodies. 

And again as people multiplied on the earth they chose their own way--away from God. We may wonder, how could these people reject God after all they had been through. But it's the same question we should ask ourselves today. Why do you continue to sin, even when you've seen the power of God at work in your life? You've tasted his goodness, but you slip back to your sinful ways, away from God. The Bible says that "all have sinned" and that "none seek God." That's why we need to continually stay in the Word of God and pray and attend church and hear the Word of God preached, so that we can encourage one another to love and good deeds. 

The heart of man is sinful. And sin has consequences, and we'll see later that there is only one remedy for this sin that rules in our lives. So Genesis presents us with the beginning of the world, the beginning of sin and its consequences, and in chapter 11 we read about the beginning of the nations. 

3. The Beginning of the Nations (Genesis 11) 

After the flood, the sin that still ruled and reigned in the lives of mankind led the people of the world in Genesis to look away from God and become self absorbed and self centered. Look with me at Genesis 11:1,4: "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words." "Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." 

One of the things that sin does in your life is that it tricks you into believing that you can solve your problems on your own. You think you are smarter than God and rather than trust in him and his plan for your life, you try to do everything in your power to make life go your way. The problem is, it doesn't work. Rather, God is calling you today to trust him, to put your faith in him and not in your own solutions. When you reject God and choose to follow your own desires, your problems don't get smaller, they get larger. 

And that is what happened in chapter 11. Because of the desire of the people to find their own solution and their desire to make a name for themselves--they made a determination that they wanted life to revolve around them--and their problems became even bigger and they were dispersed all over the world. Some of those peoples are to this day in utter despair because of their sinfulness thousands of years ago. But there is one particular nation that Moses writes about in the book of Genesis. 4. 

The Beginning of the Hebrew Nation (Genesis 12-50) 

It is the beginning of the Hebrew nation--The Jewish nation. We see this nation begin in chapter 12:1-3: 12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, 

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

And it is in these three verses that God sets forth His covenant or His promise with Abraham. God promised Abraham seven things: 

1. He would make his family into a great nation (vs. 2) 

2. He would bless this nation (vs. 2) 

3. He would make their name great (vs. 2) 

4. They would be a blessing to others (vs. 2) 

5. God would bless those who blessed them (vs. 3) 

6. God would curse those who curse them (vs. 3) 

7. All the families of the world would be blessed because of them (vs. 3) -- The reason God began this new nation, this nation of Israel as it will be called later, is so the Messiah, the Savior Jesus Christ would come from these peoples as a blessing and redeemer for all mankind. 

And these promises to Abraham and his descendants are formalized even more throughout the rest of the chapters in Genesis. 

But in Chapters 39-50 we are introduced to another nation. It is the nation of Egypt. And it is in the nation of Egypt that three primary things happen: 

1. Egypt would initially be a haven or rest for the nation of Israel. 

2. Egypt would eventually become a place of bondage and captivity for the Jews. 

3. Egypt would be the place were God would ultimately let His glory be shown But not only is the book of Genesis a book about the beginning of the world, sin, the nations and the Hebrew Nation, it is a book filled with rich characters. Let's name a few: 

 II. Key Characters in Genesis

1. God: Creator of the universe -- Savior of the human race. 

2. Adam: The first man and he was a "type" of Jesus Christ (See Romans 5:14). A "type" means that he is a person who foreshadows another who is to come. So Adam foreshadowed the coming of Jesus Christ. How was Adam a "type" of Christ? Adam was the head of the human race. (Jesus is referred to in Romans as "the last Adam.") Christ is the head of the new Creation. 

 3. Satan: The deceiver, tempter, liar and murderer. Three things about Satan that you should know: 

 a. Satan is a created being. This is an important concept. He is not all knowing, he is not all powerful and he is not all present. His demons do his work for him. And was it not for God allowing Satan freedom to operate, Satan would have no influence. 

 b. Satan, when he was created was not satisfied with being the foremost angel. The book of Isaiah (14:13,14) says this about Satan: 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." Therefore, for a time, God has given Satan access to this world. "He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." That's why we are to be sober-minded and watchful. And through Jesus Christ, we have the power to resist Satan, "firm in our faith", the Apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:9. 

 c. And while Satan has access to this world and even has access before God, someday he will be cast down, according to Revelation 12:7-9, and be thrown into the abyss (Revelation 20:3) and finally into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10). His end is sure thanks to the power of the Lord Jesus Christ who will rule and reign forever. 

 4. Noah: Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8) What a great testimony to be said about a person. Is that what you strive to hear in your life? That you found favor in the eyes of the Lord? It can be, if you a leader in your family, like Noah was before the flood. a. He prepared a way of salvation for his family by building and entering the Ark (Hebrews 11:7). And that Ark is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ whom we enter into for our salvation. 

Moms and dads, are you leading your children into the safety and eternal security of the Lord Jesus Christ? What are you teaching your children? What are they watching you do? Why not determine today to find favor in the eyes of the Lord and lead your children toward Jesus Christ? 

5. Abraham: Abraham obeyed God by accepting God's call to leave his homeland (Hebrews 11:8). 

 a. He was the father of the Hebrew people and a multitude of nations (Genesis 17:4-5). And I believe that if you can understand God's working in the life of Abraham and God's promise to him, you will understand what it means to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. 

 b. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3). This passage in Romans is probably one of the most beautiful passages in the entire Bible and while it pertains to Abraham, it is meant for our benefit. The Lord God Himself, by an act of grace moved by His sovereign love, stooped to the record and blotted out everything that was against Abraham, and then wrote down on the record that He, God, counted, this man Abraham to be perfect even at a moment when Abraham was ungodly in himself. That is justification. 

Let me try to break this down in a way that we can all grasp. When you were born, because of the sin of the first man Adam, you inherited a sin nature. There is nothing you can do about it. You were born in sin. You may have looked innocent as a baby, but deep within was your sinful nature ready to come out. You couldn't wait to sin. We don't teach young toddlers to be selfish, they just know how to be that way naturally. So, we are born with a sin nature--we always lean more toward sin.

 And if we could pretend that each person has a white board that details his or her life, we would see that each person has a list of sins on their life account: Selfishness, hatred, adultery, homosexuality, fits of anger, laziness, gossip, etc. (Only you and God know what your true sins are). It is a hopeless situation. You cannot escape the fact of sin in your life. But, something amazing happens--we call it amazing grace. At the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, that he alone can save you from your sin and that he is God, Jesus Christ takes out his blotter and he blots all of these sins out and writes the word RIGHTEOUS over every sin. 

You are Justified 

Abraham, believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, and the same thing happens to you when you believe. God immediately covers every one of your sins, past, present and future, with the blood of Jesus Christ and because of this, you are Justified--Your Life Account looks as if you don't have any sin because all that can be seen is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of Jesus Christ.  If you could only understand one thing in the Bible, then Justification is probably the most important. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you inherit a free gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23), not because of any act of righteousness that you perform--You inherit the free gift of eternal life solely on the basis of what Jesus Christ has promised to you. It is the Righteousness of Jesus Christ that secures your eternal life, not your own goodness (Titus 3:4-7). 

The Thread of Redemption

 And so, the book of Genesis records this Amazing Grace story for us and it is the thread that will run through every other book of the Bible in the Old Testament. If you don't understand this, you won't understand the rest of the Old Testament, because every other story, character and situation in the Old Testament, while historical in nature in many parts, is about Jesus Christ and his righteousness. So we will develop this even further throughout the coming year. 

6. Isaac: Through Isaac the promises of Abraham were passed down to Jacob. 

7. Jacob: The promise that God gave to Abraham is reaffirmed with Jacob (Genesis 28:10-15). a. God changed Jacob's name to Israel (Genesis 35:10) 

 8. Joseph: Joseph is a picture of total trust in God. 

 a. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers (Genesis 37:28) 

 b. He eventually became second only to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt (Genesis 41:40). 

 c. Joseph convinced Pharaoh that his family should live in the land of Goshen (in Egypt) because of a severe famine in the land of Canaan (which is now Israel). 

d. And the book of Genesis ends with Joseph's death and the last verse in Genesis reads: 

So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. [And that is where our story will pick up next week as we look at the book of Exodus.] 

 III. Application 

What can we learn from the book of Genesis? [messy world] We can learn many things, but I'm just going to leave you with three things to think about this week as you will, I'm hopeful, read through the book of Genesis.  

1. The book of Genesis is foundational for believing in Jesus Christ. Some want to discredit the book of Genesis by making a claim that it is a book full of myths and fairy tales. But those who say that are making a serious, perhaps eternally deadly mistake. In the gospel of John 5:46-47, Jesus said this, 

46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” 

Remember I told you earlier that Moses was the author of the Book of Genesis. And Jesus says that if you do not believe the writings of Moses, how will you believe the words of Jesus? You see, all throughout the book of Genesis, we see Jesus. Where? I don't see his name, you say. Well you don't have to see the name of Jesus to know that he is there. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote in the book of Colossians 1:15-17 regarding the creation of the world. 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

Jesus Christ is the Creator, "In the beginning God" is all about Jesus. Have you believed God? Do you believe in the Christ, the Son of the living God? Genesis shows us that at the moment you believe, you recieve the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

 2. Just as God used various people throughout the book of Genesis, He wants to use you to glorify him. In Genesis 4:7, just before Cain had murdered his brother Abel, God spoke to Cain and said, 

6 "The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” 

I think there is something very important in this statement by God. Do you notice what the circumstances are surrounding this conversation with God? God is speaking to Cain while Cain is angry. You see, when you get angry, while you may not be interested in taking your anger to the Lord, He is there, calling out to you, pleading with you, warning you. The Bible says in Romans 5:8: 

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Jesus Christ loves you, even in the midst of your sin; Even when you are angry, even when your face is fallen. And he is calling you to repentance so that He might be glorified. Will you repent today of your sins and lift your face to Him? 

 3. Just as the book of Genesis is about beginnings, the Bible tells us that you had a beginning too. I'm not talking about the day you were born. No, the Bible says that God chose you before the foundation of the world. Your beginning began long before earth was created in Genesis 1 and 2. 

In the book of Ephesians 1:3-4, the Apostle Paul writes: 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." 

 King David in the book of Psalms (139:16), moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote this: 

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." 

No, no matter where you were born or what the circumstances were behind your birth, you were no accident. God chose you before the foundation of the world. He chose you to be holy and blameless before him. And so the question for you this morning is, are you? Are you living your life with a desire to be holy and blameless? Genesis is a book about beginnings, its a book of fresh starts. It's a book of hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why don't you thank God for his Amazing Grace and start living your life for him. Why not make today your Independence Day from sin, your new beginning, by believing in the One True Creator of the world and then choose to follow him this week. 

Right now, in the quietness of your own heart you can look to Jesus, you can thank him for a new beginning in your life and you can determine to follow him today. Don't let your sin hold you back from looking to Jesus Christ and asking for forgiveness. "Even while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you." And when you confess your sin, the Bible promises that immediately your sins are forgiven. You can move on, you can turn to Christ and follow him and walk with him. Won't you do that today? Heavenly Father, even as you chose us in Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, help us Lord Jesus to live our lives holy and blameless before you. Lord Jesus, we are weak and it is so difficult. Help us Lord Jesus to rule over sin through the power of your Holy Spirit whom you have poured out on us generously. For it is in the name of Jesus, the name above all names! Amen.

The Power of Psalms: Psalm One

The book of Psalms has probably given more comfort and help, brought more joy and peace, and provided more relief from the stress and pains of life than any other book of the Bible.

 

The Psalms contain one of the most quoted passages in the Bible, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”  (Psalm 23).  The Psalms are actually songs.  They are not only songs of comfort, but songs of praise too.  In fact, the Hebrew title of the book of Psalms is “Praises” or “Book of Praises.”  Psalms is a songbook of praises to God.  The Psalms were written to be accompanied by the harp and as we will see, choirs sang many of these songs.

 

Chapter one of the book of Psalms is really an introduction to the whole book.  Psalm 1 is a psalm that teaches us the way to blessedness and warns us about the way of destruction.  So let’s dive into the book and see what God desires to teach us through His word.

Blessed is the man (vs. 1)

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;"

The very first word that we are confronted with in Psalms is the word “blessed.”  I think that is a positive way to begin a book or a letter, don’t you?  When you see that word it should make you feel good.

 

The word blessed, when referring to a man or woman simply means happy. When the word is used of God it carries more of the meaning of praise.  So if we say “Blessed be God”, we mean “Praise be to God.”  When we say “Blessed is the man” we should look at it more as “Happy is the man.”

 

The word blessed is actually a plural word in its original.  Plural means more than one.  So the idea here is that this man who is being described here is blessed in more than one way.  It has the idea that when you are blessed you have joy and gratitude as you live in fellowship with God.

 

And that makes sense because outside of God, man is cursed and ultimately leads a meaningless life.  The book of Ecclesiastes makes this clear in 1:2, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.”  Life outside of God is vanity or futile/meaningless. 

 

But we need to be careful that we don’t think that because the word blessed means happy that I’m talking about a feeling.  This blessedness that comes from God is not based on feelings – in other words, neither negative feelings nor unfavorable conditions can take God’s blessing away.

 

I think what is being communicated here is, the person who devotes himself to living a godly and righteous life is the one who finds true happiness, while the one who lives without regard to God is the miserable person.  Sometimes the world looks at it the other way.  The God devoted person is miserable, and those who live lives away from God’s rules and his thoughts find all of the fun!

 

Mile Markers to Happiness

 

The Psalm begins by giving us the path to blessedness or happiness.  Along the path there are three mile markers.  Let’s look at each of them.

1.  Mile Marker One: The Counsel of  the Ungodly
 
The first marker is this.  The man who is blessed is a person who doesn’t live his life on the basis of bad advice from others. 
 
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.” (vs. 1)
 
Just replace that word “counsel” with “advice.”  I’m sure you have friends who are quick to offer you advice.  If your friend is a believer in the Lord Jesus, often times that counsel is good and constructive.  But many times we listen to godless advice.  Sometimes it comes from friends, sometimes from movies or television shows we watch.  We can get bad advice from the newspaper or from magazines. “Live like this, you’ll be glad you did.”
 
Your blessedness with Christ is tied directly to the advice you listen to and obey.  Ungodly counsel or advice is not concerned with praying, or reading, or repenting.  Ungodly counsel says that there is no need for any of these things.
 
But blessed is the man who walks not in another’s ungodly counsel.

2.  Mile Marker Two: The Way of Sinners

"Nor stands in the way of sinners" (vs. 1)
 
The focus shifts now from listening to the ungodly counsel of another to standing with the ungodly.  You’ve listened to the advice, but rather than get out of the way, you stand in the way.  The godly person avoids standing in the way of the ungodly. The blessed man does not follow the same moral paths of the ungodly.
 
3.  Mile Marker Three: The Seat of Scoffers

"Nor sits in the seat of scoffers" (vs. 1)
 
When you sit down in the counsel of the wicked it means so much more than walking or standing.  To “sit” takes it a step further.  It suggests remaining or abiding with the ungodly and enjoying their company. A scoffer makes fun of God and His people.  People who scoff hold nothing sacred—they scoff at God and everything that is associated with Him. And the godly person will always feel out of place and unhappy around those who make fun of or a mockery of God.   

And remember, it is always harder to get away when you are sitting.  When you walk or stand, you can quickly run away from danger.  But when you are sitting it takes more effort and sometimes you just think, “I don’t really want to get up.”

What the Godly Person Chooses

"But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night." (vs. 2)

 

1.  Delights in the Law of the Lord

The Godly person, rather than walking, standing, and sitting with the ungodly “delights” in the law of the Lord.  The “law” means teaching, instruction or direction.  This word law here really means the whole truth of God as it is revealed in the Word of God.

 

“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!...I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119: 1, 11).

 

The Godly person does not take counsel from the wicked; rather he takes his counsel or advice from the Word of God. This Word is his delight. The Godly man finds it to be interesting and relevant.  It brings him joy and satisfaction.

2.  Meditates on the Word of God

Not only is God's Word interesting and relevant, the Godly person chooses to read it often and to meditate on it.

"...he meditates day and night." (vs. 2)

This word meditate is such an interesting word.  When this Psalm was written, it was written in Hebrew. And the Hebrew word for meditate is Haga is a word that is primarily used in poetry in the Bible.  You will find Haga mostly in Psalms and Isaiah.  The basic meaning of the word is a low sound, characteristic of certain animal sounds.

Like the moaning of a dove.

"I moan like a dove." (Isaiah 38:14) [Hezekiah, when he was thinking he was going to die].

Or, the growling of a lion over its prey.

"As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey" (Isaiah 31:4) [The Lord describing how he will fight for and defend Israel].

Or simply groaning for the Lord's help.

"Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning." (Psalm 5:1)

Therefore, a Godly person takes time to moan, or growl, or groan over God's word.  These, of course, are metaphors. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term or a phrase is applied to something but that doesn't literally apply, in order to suggest a resemblance.  So the idea here is not that you are actually moaning or growling or groaning, but that your heart attitude is such that you are intensely thinking about God's word moment by moment.

What the Godly Person is Like 

"He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers."  (vs. 3)

1.  He is like a Tree Planted.

He is not like a wild tree.  He is like a tree planted.  Again, another metaphor (figure of speech) is being used here.  Who plants the tree?

It is clear throughout Scripture that God is the one who plants.  We all know that the Bible teaches us that we cannot plant ourselves in the Lord.  Its impossible because we are too sinful.  Romans says, "None seeks God." God is the one who chooses us and plants us.

Jesus is recorded by Matthew as saying, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up." (Matthew 15:13).  Some people will try to grow on their own, but it will never work. That is called good works and you will never be close to God by your good works.  In fact, God roots up those people.  Any religious person who claims to be of God, but has not been planted by God will not last.  How do you know if you have been planted by God?

2.  He is Planted by Streams of Water

First, he is planted with access to living water.  In other words, he is planted in Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, speaking to the Samaritan woman; 

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13,14).

A Godly person is planted in Jesus Christ.

3.  Yields Fruit in its Season

A person who is planted by God, yields fruit  You will know if you are in Christ if there is fruit in your  life.  That fruit does not come out of season. For example, if an orange tree bears its fruit too early, the late frosts will kill the fruit.  The best fruit grows in season, when the weather is just right.

The fruit that a Christian bears is patience in the time of suffering, faith in the day of trial, and holy joy in the hour of prosperity.  Fruitfulness is an essential quality of a gracious man or woman, and that fruitfulness should be seasonable. (Spurgeon).

4.  Leaf Does Not Wither

Not only is the fruit preserved, but his leaf too.  A Godly person will not lose his or her beauty or fruitfulness.

5.  In All That He Does, He Prospers.

This prosperity is what I would call, prosperity of the soul.  Not financial prosperity or material prosperity. When we are planted by God and are yielding fruit in our lives and are beautiful from the outside, it shows that God is at work on the inside of our lives.  

Sometimes for the good of the soul's health we may be poor, or bereaved, and persecuted.  In other words, our worst things, for the Godly person, are often our best things. The trials that you go through as a Christian is God's cultivation of your life, by which he grows and brings forth abundant fruit (Spurgeon)

But the ungodly are not like this:

What The Ungodly Are Like

"The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away." (vs. 4)

1. They Are Like Chaff

Chaff is the loose hulls of the wheat that are separated from the edible portion. In Bible times they would throw the grain up in the air and the chaff would blow away while the edible grain would fall back down to the threshing floor.

So, the wicked person will be mixed in with the Godly, but in time, they will be separated and will not last.

2.  They Will Not Stand in The Judgment

"Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." (vs. 5)

When the ungodly go before God in the final judgment, they will not be able to stand.  While the future of the wicked person may not seem evident to us while they are living, from God's perspective they have no future.  The will not be able to withstand the judgment of God.

They will be separated from the righteous.

Conclusion

"For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." (vs. 6)

Here's the final idea.  The name of the righteous is carved in stone, but the unrighteous, or the wicked has his name written in sand. (Spurgeon). 

Here is how Charles Spurgeon concludes this chapter:

"The righteous man ploughs the furrows of earth, and sows a harvest here, which shall never be fully reaped till he enters the enjoyments of eternity; but as for the wicked, he ploughs the sea, and though there may seem to be a shining trail behind his keel, yet the waves shall pass over it, and the place that knew him shall know him no more for ever. The very “way” of the ungodly shall perish. If it exist in remembrance, it shall be in the remembrance of the bad; for the Lord will cause the name of the wicked to rot, to become a stench in the nostrils of the good, and to be only known to the wicked themselves by its putridity (Corruptness or rottenness)."

May the Lord cleanse our hearts and our ways, that we may escape the doom of the ungodly, and enjoy the blessedness of the righteous!

Hope Now Bible Church.  The Power of Psalms.  Pastor Roger Feenstra. 2010. 

Three Kings: Guys Like Us

By Pastor Roger Feenstra

The Bible is an interesting book.  You may think that all of the people the Bible talks about are holy people.  But in reality, they are people just like you and me.  Take for example the guys below:  Probably the only difference is that they were Kings, but in all other aspects of their lives, they struggled with the same things you and I might struggle with.

King David

The first guy is King David.  You remember David don’t you?  He was the guy who, when he was a young boy, went up against the giant named Goliath.  David was a tough guy. 

David said this about himself in the Old Testament book of 1^st Samuel:

But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went   after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And  if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him  and killed him.(1 Samuel 17:34-35)

 When David grew from boyhood, he was appointed King of  Israel.  He was a mighty King and nearly every battle he fought,  he won.

But there came a time in David’s life as King that he decided to stay back from the battle, he let his commanders go and fight instead – and that was the beginning of David’s downfall.  Let’s pick up the story in the book of 2 Samuel 11:

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful… (2 Samuel 11:1-2)

Look at verse 4

So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."(2 Samuel 11:4-5)

There were two problems that David was now dealing with.  One, he had sex with a woman he was not married to and second, this woman, Bathsheba, was already married and her husband was away fighting the battle.  Now David was in a jam.  So he called her husband back from the battlefield and tried to coerce him to go and have sex with his wife, then he would think that the child was his.  But the plan didn’t work, because her husband, Uriah, was such a loyal soldier, he couldn’t think of having sex while his fellow soldiers were out on the battlefield sacrificing their lives.

So, David, rather than do the honorable thing and admit what he had done, sent Uriah to the front line of the battle where he knew Uriah would be killed.

And because of David’s treachery God allowed the child that was born to him by Bathsheba to die.  And for David, it was a very difficult time.

King Solomon

David had another son named Solomon, and after David’s death, Solomon became King of Israel.  God was blessing Solomon.  The Bible tells us in 1 Kings that:

Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father (1 Kings 3:3. 

The Bible tells us the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said,

“Whatever you ask for I shall give you.”  (1 Kings 3:5)

And Solomon, rather than asking for things said to God,

“I ask for wisdom and understanding.”  (1 Kings 3:9)

And this pleased God and God granted to Solomon wisdom and understanding.  In fact the Bible tells us that Solomon was the wisest man who lived and the wisest man who would ever live!

Solomon loved wealth.  Look at 1 Kings 10: 14

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and at the back of the throne was a calf's head, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. 

The passage goes on to say that he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, 

But there was something Solomon liked more than gold and chariots.  Women – the text says “foreign women.”  It seems he couldn't keep his eyes, or his hands off of them.

Look at 1 Kings 11: 3,

He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

Verse 6 goes on to say,

So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. (1 Kings 11:6)

And because of that disobedience, it was the beginning of the end for Solomon.

King Rehoboam

When Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam came into power.  The Bible tells us that Rehoboam was a harsh leader.  He treated the people of Israel as slaves.

In the book of 2 Chronicles 11 we read that Rehoboam loved power.  And rather than putting his trust in God, he took everything into his own hands:

Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and he built cities for defense in Judah.(2 Chronicles 11:5)

And Chapter 12 tells the sad conclusion of Rehoboam:

When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him.(2 Chronicles 12:1)

What Causes People to Turn From God?

Why did these men, who seemingly had all they wanted and were blessed by God, turn their backs on God? 

More importantly, maybe you’ve turned away from God and have decided to do things your own way.  Why?

Well the answer is found in the New Testament, in the book of 1 John 2:15, 16:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

You see, these men began to love the world more than they loved God. 

• David pursued the “Desires of the flesh” when he took Bathsheba and had sex with her
• Solomon pursued the “Desires of the eyes” when he was consumed with wealth and gold and foreign women.

And

• Rehoboam pursued “Pride in possessions” which essentially means he “loved the power that he had.”

 Sex, Money, Power.

 In themselves and when done rightly, these are not bad things.  But  when your life is consumed by either of these things, God becomes  just an afterthought.

 The Bible uses a word for anything you put before God – its called sin.

Now we all sin, but John tells us in this same book in chapter 3

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:6)

In other words, John is telling you and me to not make it a practice of sinning.

David, Solomon, Rehoboam started off on the right track, but they began making it a practice of sinning. 

In the book of James we find the progression of sin:  How it takes hold in our lives:

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)

What’s this “death” that James is talking about? 

Well, its eternal death – You know, you’re not going to live forever.  What is going to happen to you when you die?

The Bible says there are only two alternatives.  Heaven (life).  Hell (death).

Romans 6:23 puts it this way:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You see the payment, or wages of unforgiven sin is eternal death.  But fortunately, there is a way of escape from this death.  That is by receiving the free gift of eternal life that is offered by Jesus.

Then, the Bible says that when we sin all we need to do is confess it.  You see, once you believe in Jesus:  That he is the Giver of Salvation – when you believe in him, you are automatically guaranteed eternal life.

• There is nothing else you need to do except believe
• There are no magic words you have to say
• There are no works you have to perform
• You don’t even have to be holy to believe in Jesus

The Bible says, “Even while you were still a sinner, Jesus Christ died for you.”

So, you can make a decision.  You can choose to go your own way like David, Solomon and Rehoboam did.  Or, you can choose to stand up and follow Jesus: To proclaim his message of Salvation to your children, your wife, your girlfriend, your mom, and your friends.

And of course that would be our prayer for you today:  That if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior, that you tell him you believe in him and make a decision to follow him.  The instant you believe in Jesus, your sins, past, present and future are forgiven!  It doesn’t matter what you have done.  God has forgiven your sins. 

Maybe you know Jesus already.  Perhaps you followed him once, maybe in jail or prison, or maybe as a young person.  But now, you’ve put him behind you.  You don’t think of him much.  You certainly aren’t living your life for him.

Do you know you can confess that sin right now?  Tell him you’re sorry and you want to follow him.

Simply say in your heart, "Lord Jesus I believe in you.  I want your free gift of eternal life.  I want to follow you."  And if you prayed that and meant it, then the Bible says that Jesus now lives within you.  You have the power of the Holy Spirit in you life.  And, you are assured of eternal life.

Maybe you already know Christ, but you haven’t been following him.  Ask him to forgive you right now.  He promises he will.  The Bible says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.  Sure there are pressures that you’ll face each day, but wouldn’t you rather face them with the power of God on your side?  Why not determine to follow God beginning right now.

Three Aspects of God’s Promise: Genesis 15:7-21

Choosing to Follow: The Life of Abraham, Genesis 12:1-13:4

The New World: Genesis 8:20 – 11:9

Escape From the Storm: Genesis 6:11 – 9:17

A Righteous Man: Genesis 6:9,10

Through One Man...Genesis 3