Genesis in Biblical Perspective:
The Gospel of Christ from Genesis –
From Shem to Abram

Genesis 11:10-26

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

This is the word of God. Genesis 11:10-26.

10 These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters. 12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. 13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. 15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters. 16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. 17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters. 18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. 19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. 21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters. 22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. 23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters. 24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. 25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters. 26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

May God bless this His Word to the heart of His people.

I have at home with me about 14 commentaries on the book of Genesis, right at 14 I think it is. There might be a couple there that maybe don't qualify as a full commentary. One of them makes an interesting comment in Genesis chapters 10 and 11. Remember 10, the table of the nations? Remember 11, we've got these generations and genealogies. One commentary said this is very interesting material. But we recommend that you don't preach on it. Now here is my problem with that. I understand why the challenge of preaching genealogy. Here's my problem with it though. Here's what the bible says. All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable. So I feel if I skip it I'm losing the prophet from it for you and for me. The other reason of course is that the Old Testament has this glorious presentation of Christ and I'd love for us to unearth our savior in his glory and majesty in the Old Testament that's pointing to him. Chapter 11 for all of its difficulties is no different, even as a genealogy. Keep your bibles in front of you. Now remember if you would, this is book five.

We've already had the prologue to the book of Genesis, that's the creation account, Genesis 1:1 through chapter 2, verse 3. Then we had book one, that is the book of the origins of the earth and the heaven. That starts in chapter 2 verse 4, all the way through chapter 4. Then we had the second book and that's the book of the sons through the generations of Adam. That's in chapter 5 verse 1, all the way through chapter 6 verse 8. Then we had the third book, the book of the sons of Noah. I'm sorry, the book of the generations of Noah. And that's in Genesis chapter 9. Then we had book four which we just looked at last week, the table of the nations. And that is the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem and Ham and Japheth now presented before us in book five. Notice how chapter 11 verse 10 starts, that same phrase. These are the generations of. This is the fifth book in the 10 books that make up Genesis. Now one is this one here. Well, one of the things I've done to kind of clue you in is to show you how this genealogy both mirrors and adds-on to the genealogy in Genesis chapter 5. In Genesis chapter 5 you have the genealogy from Adam all the way to Noah. And from Adam all the way to Noah and his three sons, it's 10 generations.

This second genealogy table has Noah's sons Shem and Ham and Japheth. Starting with Shem we have Shem all the way down to Abraham, the next noteworthy focus in the study of the book of Genesis, one has 10 generations. The other has 10 generations. The one covers from Adam to Noah. The second covers from Shem, the son of Noah, all the way to Abraham. The second genealogy is really interesting. I'm just going to take the time. I know how we get to it when we're reading through the bible and just zip on through it and we just kind of – why is this here? Okay, the bible is historical, the bible is historically accurate, I get it, I get it, I get it. But there's more to it than that. It's interesting how the years covered in this genealogy are 365 years, one year for every day of the year. It's interesting how – it's interesting, Adam had three sons. Abel, Cain, Seth. Then the next noteworthy focus in Noah, how does that genealogy end? Three sons. Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Then you take Shem and you take the genealogy down to Abraham. How does that end? Three sons. Nahor, Haran, and Abraham, the one we're going to focus upon.

Notice also, notice also how we have now begun to intersect with recorded history. Abraham lives in Ur with his father Terah in the land of the Chaldees. And now he's starting to intersect with sacred history and the history of humanity in terms of its record begins to intersect here and we can affirm its accuracy. By the way, while these genealogies are similar they're also different. The genealogies in chapter five, there is a statement that is made after every person that's not found in the genealogy in Genesis chapter 11. It would give the person and then said "and he died", "and he died", "and he died" and then it would give the total years of his life, and he died. Total years, and he died. Now in the second genealogy while it mirrors, three sons at the end, three sons at the end, 10, 10, 365 years in total. But notice after each reading that I had it didn't give you the total years. You had to add it up yourself. And it doesn't say "and he died." Let me give you just an idea why. Here's an idea why. We have now come to the focus of Shem, the line of blessing through which is going to come the seed of life, the redeemer, Jesus Christ.

And now the emphasis is the life that is being brought by a redeemer, thus the omission of "and he died." This is the line that is looking to a future, a redeemer, an eternal life, new heavens and a new earth. This is a genealogy that's kind of giving us a focus. Back in chapter 10 we were told that after the flood God, Noah had his three sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth and God gives them command to go in to all the world and be fruitful and multiply but they don't, and instead they begin to congregate together in battle, and as they congregate together they find they don't want to be together but they're disobeying God's word and then they want to make a city for themselves and then God confuses them and thus Balal becomes Babel and because of the confusion now migrations begin to go out everywhere. We're following one of those migrations. We're following the line of Shem as it ends up in the land of the Chaldees and the place called Ur with a man by the name of Terah who will have three sons, Haran, Nahor, and Abraham, and it's Abraham that we're going to be able to see and what we're going to see is how God takes Abraham for this line of promise, Abraham to bring the seed of redemption, and he's going to bring Abraham out of that land to his own land.

Remember how did God build the nations? He built the nations back in Genesis 10. We talked a lot today about nations building. God's the builder of nations. How did God build the nations? Here's what he did. He gave them the land, the gave them a language. He built them upon family. Family, land, language, culture. Those four things were necessary. Now God is showing you how this one he has tracked down to bring to a land, Canaan, give him a language, give him a culture that's rooted in the revelation of God's word and from his family is going to come a nation, a whole nation through which a redeemer is going to come, through which all nations will be reached, from which will become an eternal royal nation from every tribe and kindred and tongue under the king, victorious warrior, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. What's really interesting also is you begin to do this adding up and I have to confess, I never saw this before in my study. Did you know that Abraham was living during the days of Noah? I didn't realize that. Noah didn't die until Abraham was 58 years old.

Just think. Now we don't have any record of it but Noah could have gone and talked to – I mean Abraham could have gone and talked to Noah. All these – it's amazing. By the way, you'll also notice that the life span is declining. Remember what God said after the flood, 70 or by reason of strength 80? He is beginning to reduce it. In fact in the days of Peleg it will be cut in half. By the time you get to Abraham we're down to almost 100 and something. God is bringing it to what he said. So you see this genealogy verifying all of these things that are taking place but what's interesting is where do we find the nation chosen to bring the redeemer? We find it through the line of Shem down to Terah, down to Abraham. And where is Terah and Abraham? In the land of the Chaldees. 1922 to 1934 a man by the name of Sir Charles Leonard Woolley for 13 years did research, archeology and historical analysis and research in this very place, right where we today see a war, the Iraq area, down in the Euphrates River, lower Mesopotamia. Right there he did the research. He found the city of Ur. It was an amazing city. It had neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods had one story houses. Some had two story houses.

Some neighborhoods had almost like mansions, three story houses. They actually made their houses of brick. They actually would put a stucco on the outside. They actually would whitewash and paint them for beauty. It was interesting. They had plumbing. They had running water brought to the houses. It was an advanced culture where Terah lived when he sired his three sons. And by the way they must have been up in society. Look at the name Abraham. What does the name Abraham mean? Exhaulted father. What – he marries Sarah, his half sister. What is her name? Her name is Sarah, it means exalted princess. Look at how that unfolds. Look back with me to chapter 11 and pick it up with me at verse 11 as we see the focus upon Terah. As you come to the sixth book, the sixth book in the book of Genesis introduced with the same phrase, these are the generations. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldees and Abraham and Nahor took wives. The name of Abraham's wife was Sarah. The name of Nahor's wife Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcha and Isca.

Now Sarah was barren, she had no child. Terah took Abraham his son and Lot, the son of Haran his grandson and Sarah his daughter-in-law, his son, Abraham's wife and they went forth together from Ur, the Chaldees to go in to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. Now just let's take just a minute if we can having looked at this. We need to kind of see something here. Where is Terah? Terah is in Chaldees, the land of Chaldees living in Ur. Terah is probably in the upper echelon of society. It is there while they are there that the call comes to Abraham, not to Terah. The call comes to Abraham to leave. Abraham leaves, but he only goes as far as Haran because his father wants to stay there. You know what's interesting? Ur, the Chaldees is a place not only of advanced culture; it was a place of highly sophisticated paganism. They had a moon Goddess cult with many other Gods. The moon Goddess that was named Nemu and the moon Goddess Nemu had a secondary place where that Goddess was worship and that was Haran.

You could almost see that Terah is there, he is in the culture. He is probably affluent. Look at the names; look at the culture that's there. He is coming. Abraham gets a call, he goes along with his son but he won't go any further than Haran and he stops and Abraham stops with him and stays there until he dies and it's only after he dies that Abraham will pick up and move the rest of the way to the land of Canaan. You get the picture? You see what's happening? But Abraham got the call, not in Haran. Abraham got the call back here in the land of Chaldees, in the city of Ur. Now the bible is very clear about this. Look with me if you would in chapter 12. Chapter 12 gives you the call. "Now the lord said to Abraham 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to a land that I will show you and I'll make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and those who dishonor you I will curse and you and all the families of the earth shall be blessed." There is the call. Where does the call come? Not in Haran where Terah stops and dies. It is actually given to him in his country, in the country of his birth, in the country where he was raised, in the country of the Chaldees, in the city of Ur. The bible again affirms that very clearly.

Go with me to Acts, chapter 7, Acts chapter 7. Here is Stephen about to be stoned, being put to death. Before he is put to death he gives a sermon, Stephen's sermon to the Sanhedrin and the priest is found in act 7. It's a long sermon. I won't read it all. But look if you would with me in verse one. And the high priest said "Are these things so?" and then in verse 2 "Stephen said "Brothers and fathers hear me. The God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham" when? When he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. And said to him "Go out from your land, from your kindred, and go in to the land that I will show you." Then he went out from the land of the Chaldees and lived in Haran. After his father died God removed him from there in to this land in which you are now living. So Abraham is called of God while he is in Ur in the land of the Chaldees married to Sarah. He rises up and he goes. Along with him comes Lot who is orphaned, his nephew. Along with him comes um, along with him comes his father Terah, and Terah clearly calls him to stop in Haran and they live there not sure how many years until he finally died and then God picked up Abraham again and moved him on to the land of Canaan, to the promise land. What are some things this genealogy would have us to think about? Let me give you three things to think about from this genealogy.

Here's the first one. Here's the first one. Don't lose the main thing. Keep the main thing, the main thing. You know as we go through these 11 chapters we've got these marvelous stories of creation, a marriage, a woman being brought from Adam's side and being brought to them and they're married, the fall and the sin in Genesis chapter 3, the Cain and Abel, Cain murdering his brother Abel. The context of worship, is it pleasing to God or displeasing to God, our worship? Then you go in to the death spiral of Cain's culture to the tyrant Lamech who begins to murder and creates a culture of violence and self-glory. And then you find the Seth replacing Abel in his line, then devolving and intermarrying with Cain's line until finally God says "I'm going to bring a judgment and remove everything." as he wipes all of humanity but Noah, a man found by the grace of God with his family. He keeps them in an arc. He secures them and seals them in that arc and God de-creates his creation and then he brings them through that arc which is a picture of Christ and he brings them in and deposits them in the refurbished creation, even as one day if you are in Jesus Christ who is the arc of redemption, God will seal you in Christ and deposit you in the new heavens and the new earth.

And there's this marvelous story about how they're in that arc through all this rain and through all of this flood and the valleys are made in to mountains and the mountains and the valleys and then God deposits them, then they worship. They worship the one truly living God, and then Shem and Ham and Japheth are told to go throughout all of the earth and yet there's a congregation as they decide to make a city in the name for themselves but God brings the judgment of mercy and he stops them and then scatters them. Then we trace one of them out all the way down Shem's great, great, great, great, great grandson, all the way down to Terah, and here he is in the midst of a pagan culture, an affluent pagan culture. And there his son Abraham is called out. And it's so easy to see all of these narratives and all of these stories and become so excited about them but folks, the thing that' you've got to see, don't keep the main thing the main thing. God is providentially with his power and his majesty, God is sovereignty fulfilling what he promised all the way back to Genesis chapter three and verse 15.

What did he tell Adam and Eve? Eve, I will give you a seed who will crush the head of the serpent. I am bringing a redeemer. I am bringing a seed. I am bringing a victorious warrior. I am bringing a redeeming king. I am bringing a lord and a savior for you and I'm going to bring that seed and Cain can't stop it. Nimrod can't stop it. Lamech can't stop it. A flood won't stop it. Nothing can stop God from doing that which he has promised, and here even when the line of redemption, the promised line of blessing Shem goes off in to apostasy with Terah, even then God reaches in. I won't be stopped.

I will bring my redeemer. God is an unstoppable God. Say "Hey, maybe Terah was a good" No. Terah had fallen not only in to the culture of paganism, the culture of affluent paganism, he participated in it. Don't you love the way the bible is honest about everybody. The bible tells us this. Keep your finger on Genesis 11 and go with me to Joshua chapter 24. Joshua tells us. Go to Joshua chapter 24. As Joshua has brought the people back to the land of promise, the land that had been promised to Abraham. And now Canaan and the sons of Canaan, the curse upon them have been taken out of the land of promise. It is there that he gathers all the tribe.

Chapter 24 verse 1, "Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Schecem and summon the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel and they presented themselves before God and Joshua said to all the people 'Thus says the lord, the God of Israel 'Long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates. Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other Gods." Now here's what I want you to see, what the bible's telling us. God has spread the people out and he has made the nations from Japheth, Shem, and Ham, and the line of blessing through Shem has gone all the way down and yet that line has apostatized and Terah has embraced paganism in an affluent pagan culture. There were very few like it. Ur and the land of the Chaldees. It is there some renown. It is there he served other Gods. He had apostatized but nothing will stop the lord our God. And he reaches over Terah and he takes hold by redeeming grace of his son Abraham, and he'll bring Abraham and his family and bring a nation to which he will bring a redeemer, the seed promised to Eve who will defeat sin, Satan and the kingdoms of this world, Jesus Christ.

You see, we look at Cain. Have the victory over Cain. Lamech, have the victory over Lamech. Nimrod, have the victory over Nimrod. But God says "Not only will those who rise up in profane blasphemy against me, not only will I overcome them. I will even overcome the faithlessness of my people. And even when a Terah apostatizes along with his fathers, I'll reach beyond him." This God is unstoppable. Folks, that's why we banish from our vocabulary things like "Well, I need to live in such a way that I can let God or allow God." We don't allow God. God allows us to function with him. If we don't function with him God will not be stopped. We just don't get the opportunity to be in on it. We don't – God will not be stopped. He is unstoppable. Not only the Cains and Lamechs, not only the Nimrods, but even the lack of faithfulness of his own people, even when Terah had apostatized in to paganism, he won't be stopped. By the way, he's bringing a line of redemption. How is he bringing the line of redemption? Through fathering and birthing and through mothers and he's bringing the line forward through which he will ultimately bring Christ and all of these people listed in Matthew 3 and – I mean in Matthew 1 and Luke 3.

This is the line that is coming all the way to Christ. And yet did you hear what we just said? Abraham through whom the lord is bringing his seed? Abraham marries who? Hello? Sarah. And it says she was what? Barren. And by the way, they will end up with a child by the name of Isaac who will marry a woman by the name of Rebecca who will be barren. And by the way they'll get a child by the name of Jacob who will marry two women. We'll go in to that when we get there. One of them through which he brings a line of redemption is Rachel who is barren. God works through means, God works beyond means. If God has to work over a father to get his son, he'll do it. If God has to work through the bareness of a woman, he will do it. God's redeeming grace, God's providential grace, this God is unstoppable. Now who is your God today? This is my God right here. I will take him. I'm going to take him and that's why I've got hope. If anybody else is your God you have no hope. It is – there is only one foundation, that's this God.

I love the story of the kid that was in the – what's that thing? Department store. And he's at the escalator and he's just standing there looking at the escalator. He wasn't looking at the escalator; he was looking at the handrail. And the handrail just going and going and going and going and he's just standing there looking at that handrail. And a guy came up to him and he said "Son, what are you doing?" He said "I'm looking at the handrail." He said "Why are you looking at the handrail?" He said I'm waiting on my gum to come back." Listen, you just look to Jesus Christ. Everything he promised he will do not because of us. Through us yes he uses us. But because his son is unstoppable. His son is unstoppable. The second thought that I'd like to give to you from the text is here we are reminded the origin of the world's religions, i.e. paganism. Now I know that's not a politically correct term, but that's what it is. Any religion apart from the monotheistic revelation of God's word as to who he is that's not rooted in God's word is paganism. Where does paganism come from? Now this is going to be – this is an earthquake. This is a paradigm shift. Most of us were taught, here's what we were taught. We went to school, we went to a class in high school and in college and we went to the class. We were told this.

Religion has evolved. Back there were these tribal deities which then led to a system pantheons of deities which then led to a final evolving to one God, monotheism. And then that evolved to this wonderful notion of the best of all possible religions. It's not too good really, but the best of all possible, Christianity. Folks that is poppycock. That is poppycock. We don't start off with pagan deities. The world started off with the one God who revealed to his people how to worship him as the one true and living God. When Noah got out of that boat and he landed, he had what? A worship service. The worship service was undiluted. It was the worship of the one true and living God. Now by the time we get 10 generations later, paganism, the devolving, the abuse of God has taken place and God's glory has been distributed to man-made deities. And so you know Christianity is not something that's evolved through religious thought.

The pagan – the religions of this world are actually the devolution of God's originally revealed truth of who he is. The creation shouts out what? There is the one true and living God. God's word reveals what? There is the one true and living God. What did humanity start with? Not paganism, it started with the one true and living God. Paganism is the result because we have hearts that are obsessed with idol factories. We want to make idols to worship them. Why? Because once we make an idol to worship, we worship ourselves, the makers of the idols. And so we have now revealed to us clearly in this text the origin of paganism itself. It is the abuse of the glory of God and the distribution of God's glory to the man-made fantasies of humanity. And it had even captured Terah. Third, final thought. Third and final thought, something to think about from these texts, is the spiritual condition of a man or a woman's heart will always ultimately be revealed with evidence. The spiritual condition of a man or a woman's heart will always ultimately be revealed. What is the evidence of the unbelieving heart? Idolatry. Idolatry.

Nations and individuals, if left alone and are not intervened by God's grace will inevitably manifest idolatry, inevitably. You're watching it in your country, my country. We're watching a neo-paganism take over because the grace of God is not intervening as salt and light through God's people. And we think the way to get more relevant is to get more like the world instead of more in love with God. The fact is nations and men and women will inevitably manifest the condition of their heart through idolatry. And the believer – see, you're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, but by grace you're saved through faith and that's not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. ___ mentioned those. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. It's his work that saves us. But if you have a heart in which faith in Christ has been nurtured, there will always be evidence. What is the evidence? Obedience. It's not the obedience that saves us. Christ saves us by faith. But where there's faith there's obedience. And providentially or unfortunately I can't point to a lot of evidences here. I can put a lot of the evidences of idolatry being revealed.

I can only point to one man who has saving faith. His name was Abraham and he what? He obeyed. ___ you take your bibles, go to one other text with me. Hebrews chapter 11. Remember prior to the flood where there was great names in this hall of fame? We had Abel, we had Enoch. Now we've got Abraham. Look down at verse 8. "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob. Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. God called Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, God called him and he left. He left and he went to the land of promise." Now I'm going to come back and deal with this in just a second, but just look at the bigger picture. He left and he went. God called him and he went. And he left and he went to this city of the fluids to go to a city that God would make for him. He left what he knew to what he didn't know what was in store for him. He left the affluence of his land of birth and he went out not knowing where he would go but dwelling in tents.

You do know Abraham was not a Bedouin, nomadic – he is living in Ur of the Chaldees. He's a man of society and he leaves all of that to go out and follow God and he ends up in a tent. He leaves all of that, he leaves his kindred to go out to a place where he doesn't have no family out there. He leaves all of this that's here to go there. Why? God called. He believed, therefore he obeyed. Obedience is the evidence faith. See, many of us think "I went forward one day and I signed a card." Or "I've been baptized." No, no. Christ saves by grace through faith and the evidence of faith is not the act of a moment. It is the acquisition of a life and the characteristic of that life was obedience. Please note what I just said. I said the characteristic is obedience. The obedience is not perfect.

Aren't you grateful for the bible to reveal that? Was Noah a believer? Did Noah falter in his obedience? How about his drunkenness? How about the result of his drunkenness in the lives of his children? Is Abraham a believer? Yes. Did he obey the lord? Was it a perfect obedience? No. he stopped off in Haran.

Folks, I believe – I'm going to get to this next week. I believe he is wrong. I think he is dead wrong to stop there. In fact, I'm not convinced his daddy should have been with him. But he stopped off in Haran and when he stopped off in Haran God moves him __. Aren't you grateful that God let's you take a mulligan? Okay. First drive out of bounds. I'm going to give you a second drive right now. He said "Now, let's leave Haran and get there. You're supposed to go there from Ur. You started but you didn't get there. You stopped off here. He was obedient but it was faltering. No believer has perfect obedience and God is gracious with us. God keeps working with us. God gives us mulligans all the time. I'm grateful for that. But the fact of the matter is the evidence of faith is not statements of resolution. The evidence of faith is obedience, a commitment to obedience in Jesus Christ. Just as the heart of unbelief will always be manifested in the idolatry of this world, the heart of obedience, a heart of faith will be manifested with obedience.

Just a couple of final takeaways in conclusion. Just some practical things. Here's the first one. Brothers and sisters, from this text I am just challenged again. I know it's a genealogy text and I really wanted to go through these genealogies because I wanted you to know how valuable, how glorious is all of God's word and if we can evangelize people who don't know Christ and if we're going to equip believers, we must preach and teach the word of God. We must. It tells you where sin comes from, it tells you where redemption is. It tells you what grace is. It tells you true history. It tells you true life. It tells you redeeming life. There is no other place. Can I just go to one example? I can tell you what's been burning in my heart for the last three weeks. It's almost overwhelming me. Our high school and college students, I'm asking God, will you give us parents that raise their children instead of need their children? Would you give us parents who love you and love their children so that they set not only a physical diet in front of their children, they set a spiritual diet in front of their children. Will you give us parents that not only lay out the regimen of physical nourishment, but they lay out the regimen of spiritual nourishment in their children? And God, would you give us ministries that prepare these students? When our students go off in to colleges and systems of education, I know this.

Listen, I love every Christian who is involved in our government school systems and secular education systems of government. I'm grateful for every one, every Christian principal. I count them as some of the greatest missionaries in the world. But you must know this, and I would be absolutely sinning before God if I didn't tell you this. Many private schools, all the public schools, all of them, secondary, higher education, the system is not set up as your ally. Remember what I just told you? What do they teach you in comparative religion? Christianity is an evolution of thought. Paganism is the devolution of biblical truth. That's two different ways to look at the isms of this world. When you learn two plus two equals four you either learn it to the glory of God to live a life to the glory of God or you learn it to idolatry and rebellion against God. It's not just __ facts that our children need. It's a world and life view and I thank God not only for that – and its not only the church's ___, it's your responsibility as a parent. Therefore our job is to come along side of you and provide every possible tool we can but we've got to get those tools in place. I'm so grateful for campus outreach and RUF, the two campus ministries that we support. I'm so grateful for them because they're out there.

They're not just taking the students and saying "C'mon Lindsay, we'll have a lot of fun. Have your quiet time, memorize a verse, and share the gospel with three people." Those two ministries are going beyond that and with that – that's wonderful but they're going beyond that. They're trying to teach these kids, these students, how to think for Christ, how to think biblically, how to think in a way so that they're not pushed in to a corner by this world of "Christianity's nice, it's a nice couple of thoughts you can have on Sunday. Keep it to yourself and your family; don't bring it in to the world." They learn how to think biblically, how to engage the world in truth and in love. That's what we desperately need to do but you can't do it if you abandon the word of God in teaching and preaching. And brothers and sisters, I've got to say this. We as a church and we as parents, and we as individuals who are responsive and have an undying passionate commitment to teach and preach the word of God, if you don't hunger for it, it is of no use. If you hunger for the world and not for the word it is of no use. Do you long for the unadulterated word of God? Do you as the bible says? Are you like the nursing infant to the mother's breast? Are you passionate for it, not just ready to receive it? You're looking for it. You are – I don't want to get too graphic here. Are you rooting for it? Are you going for it?

May God's word burn in your soul. May we be found faithful to teach and preach. Here's the second thing, the second practical thing. When the word of God is preached and taught it's to get to one place, and that is the glory and majesty of the God of the word. Don't you love this unstoppable God? Don't you love this God who is not at the whim of nations, not at the whim of paganism, can't be stopped by Nimrod, Cain, and he is the one. He is not the one who is allowed to function by Noah and Abraham, it is him that raises up Noah, it is him that raises up Abraham. Aren't you glad that this God is unstoppable? That's how we got saved. The world couldn't stop him; my own sin couldn't stop him. He's an unstoppable God. I like – I went to – when I worked at McDonalds, 85 cents an hour, I flipped hamburgers. 85 cents an hour. And one of the things we had to do was clean it because back then you could walk around and look in and watch the people preparing the McDonald's hamburger. I remember they'd give me the cleaning thing. And they would say "Now this is Clorox. I said "Fine."

I grabbed a rag and they said "No, no, put gloves on." I said "Man, I grew up. My mother washes everything at home with Clorox. I don't need gloves on." He said "No, no, you need gloves for this Clorox. This is industrial strength Clorox, not the stuff you buy for home. This is the real thing. You need gloves." I said "God, I want an industrial strength God. I don't want a watered down, self-help, therapy God that you rub on the belly three times with a prayer and you get your latest miracle. I want a God who is God of the heavens and the earth. I want the God of the word of God. I want the God who is unstoppable. I need an industrial strength God because I've got an industrial strength sin in my life. That's the God I need, the God whose grace is greater than all my sin. Third and final thought is this, isn't it amazing what God can do with a man who's committed or a woman who's committed. Is it an Abel? Praise the lord. Is it an Enoch who walked with God and was no more? Is it a Noah? Is it Shem? Is it Abraham who was ready to leave all and follow all, imperfectly? But leave all and follow all for all. Would you be such a man or a woman today? I want to leave you with something. It all rests on you.

We have the man. He left all and gave all and became poor for us that he might bring us to glory. In the name of that Christ, follow him. He I lord. Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for the time that we can spend together in your word and this passage of scripture to begin to scrape away at it. Lord, would you speak to our hearts? Is there anyone here father that doesn't know Jesus Christ? They've got to stop __. God, I ask you to be unstoppable. I ask you to overcome and bring your love that can be all over around through and under, bring that love of Christ to them. Perhaps there's a teenage boy or girl, perhaps it's a father or mother, perhaps it's an older person or younger person. Perhaps it's someone who just walked in here today looking old. God, would you now find them that they may know the lord of glory? Just pray. God, I know I'm a sinner. I know that Jesus died for my sins on the cross and he can't be stopped unredeemingly. So this day I turn from my sin and my righteousness and I put my trust in him alone. God, would you put strength in our soul? Would you give us a word that is preached, the word of God? And would you give us a heart for the word? And then would you allow us to know the God of the word in all his glory? Glory, unspeakable. And even though we behold it by faith now, one day we will see it by sight. Oh Jesus, come quickly. I pray in Jesus name, Amen. Please.