This sermon delves into the stories of Enoch and Noah from Genesis, highlighting the importance of walking with God amidst a world of sin and judgment. It emphasizes the significance of choosing the Creator over creation in every temptation, the seriousness of living for eternity, and the need to respect authority and cover the sins of others in fellowship.

We are going to begin by looking at a verse in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 because we want to understand why God has given us his work. You know it is possible to study the Bible for the wrong reasons and I think a lot of Christians do. Now we need to study the scriptures and approach the scriptures for the same reason with which God gave it and that's described in 2nd Timothy 3 verse 16 and 17. It says all scripture is inspired by God. God is the one who breathed his breath into this book just like he breathed into Adam. If God had not breathed into Adam he would have been just a pile of dust and any book into which God is not breathed is just a pile of dust. God breathed into this and it's been given to us for teaching to show us the right path for reproof. God given us God's given us his word to rebuke us strongly reproof is a strong word to correct us when we've gone astray to lead us back to the right path to train us in righteousness that means our character should change to straighten us because we are all crooked and ultimately so that we can become men and women of God that the man of God verse 17 may be adequate or complete you know like a glass of water when it's filled is complete that our character is rounded off balanced complete and that we are equipped anointed for ministry to serve him for every good work that God has prepared for us so that's the purpose of scripture and if you study the Bible you must study it for these reasons that your character might be full-rounded and become the way God wants it to be that you can be anointed and equipped to serve other people the way God wants you to serve the Bible was not given for us to increase in knowledge or just to teach other people no a lot of people use it for the wrong reasons now you must keep that in mind my dear brothers and sisters when we go through these studies and all through your life I started studying the Bible 41 years ago and this is the goal that I have had before me all these 41 years I did not study the Bible to teach other people I studied the Bible because I wanted to know what God had to say to me I studied it at the feet of Jesus and asked the Holy Spirit to teach me I've never been to a Bible school but God who taught the Apostles in the day of in the first century I believe he could teach me in the 20th century and he can teach you too you know it says that when the disciples were walking to Emmaus after the resurrection Jesus opened the scriptures to them and that is the thing which we want him to do to us as well we want Jesus to walk with us that's how I want to study the scriptures Jesus walking with me opening the scriptures and those disciples said our hearts burned within us when Jesus opened the scriptures and that's how it should be in our life when the Holy Spirit shows a scripture our heart should burn within us the scripture is not boring do you think those two disciples to me has found Jesus boring Jesus is never boring an anointed ministry is never boring at no time if we walk with Jesus and allow him to open the scriptures to us our hearts will always burn because the scriptures reveal Christ the other thing I want to say to you is God has not written the scriptures for lazy people we got to meditate on scripture blessed is the man it says in Psalm 1 who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night that doesn't mean he's reading the Bible day and night he meditates on it maybe he read it just a few minutes in the morning but he meditates on it right through the day and in the middle of the night if he wakes up he thinks about scripture and as he meditates he understands God's laws now in the Old Testament they meditated on God's laws in the New Testament we are told in 2nd Corinthians 3 verse 18 that we meditate on Jesus the Word made flesh and we see Jesus in the scriptures we meditate on him as he is revealed to us in the pages of scripture and such a man it says in Psalm 1 will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water he will always be green he will always be fruitful all the time another Psalm it says even in old age he will bring forth fruit that is God's will for every one of us it is not God's will that any of you sitting here should be a barren tree even when others around you are barren in a time of drought you can be green and fruitful the secret is to meditate on scriptures on God's Word there's another verse that's in Proverbs 25 in verse 2 which says it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and it's the glory of Kings to search it out God has in the world concealed deep down under the surface of the earth all the valuable metals you don't find gold on the surface you don't find diamonds on the surface they're all deep down what you find on the surface is grass and mud and dirt cheap stuff if you read the scripture superficially you won't get the real riches of it it's the glory of God to conceal a matter and if you're going to be a king a king one who's reigning in Christ it's your glory to search it out to dig out and find it as God sees that wholeheartedness and eagerness in you the Holy Spirit will reveal to you the meaning of scripture Jesus said I thank you father that you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and you have revealed them to babes you don't need to be clever but you're going to have a clean heart a babe's got a clean heart it's your heart condition that determines whether you understand scripture not your head intelligence it's hidden from the clever and the intelligent you can't understand scripture by getting a doctorate in theology you can understand scripture if you got a humble heart and a good conscience that's how we understand scripture scripture gives us promises and commands that we have to believe and obey words to rebuke us and words to comfort us so having said those words as an introduction let me move straight away we're going to go right through the scripture starting with Genesis chapter 1 and God willing completed in 70 sessions in Revelation 22 Genesis chapter 1 there are three things I want to say here we're not going to finish Genesis in this session but because Genesis is a very important book Genesis you know what that means is an English word speaks about beginnings and here we read about the beginning of creation the beginning of man the beginning of sin in the human race the beginning of the message of redemption the beginning of two streams of religiosity and spirituality the beginning of Babylon the beginning of Jerusalem the beginning of that which is counterfeit religion and true religion it's all here it's in beginnings it's a book of beginnings and it's wonderful that the scripture begins with the words in the beginning God that's how it must be in our life every day in the beginning God not man not my cup of coffee God in the beginning God it must be like that in every area of my life my goal in life ambitions everything it must be in the beginning God and when God finds a man or a woman like that who will put him first in every area in his business in his daily life and his finances and everything I tell you there's no limit to what God can do through such a man or a woman so there's a lot in those first four verses of the Bible and here it says that in the beginning God you know we have a description of creation here and there are two words that occur in this chapter one is the word created and the other is the word made now there's a difference in created and made it says God created the heavens and the earth and then it says in verse 7 God made the firmament or the expanse and many times thereafter you find God made he created man but he made the beasts of the earth verse 25 and you notice that difference verse 25 God made the beasts but verse 27 God created man there is a difference see made is from something that already exists created is from something that doesn't exist so it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and that could have been millions and millions and millions of years ago and then something happened which is not described in Genesis chapter 1 and that was the fall of the angel Lucifer who became the devil now the reason it is not mentioned here is because this book was not written for the devil it was written for man so therefore man is prominent and so the creation of man comes first and in later chapters it's described about how the devil fell but something did happen before man was created and that's how we find the devil suddenly entering in Genesis chapter 3 and that happened between verses 1 & 2 when God created the heavens and the earth God always makes everything perfect there's nothing that God does which is imperfect when God created the world with a spoken word Bible says that what we see is being created by the Word of God God spoke and it was created it was perfect how is it then in verse 2 that it says the earth was without shape it was empty it was dark God never creates anything empty dark and shapeless it became like that because something happened between verse 1 & 2 which is not mentioned here because this book is written for man it's about man's history about man's relationship with God and what happened there was the fall of Satan and that's why when sin came into the world this beautiful earth and heaven that God had created in verse 1 became the earth became shapeless it became empty it became dark and what we read in Genesis chapter 1 is the remaking of that corrupted spoilt dark empty earth and by the time you come to the end of the chapter you'll find it has become a beautiful heaven and earth again that God Almighty himself could look at it and say it is very good now this chapter has got a message for us because we also Satan has come into the human race and made us exactly like verse 2 human beings are like verse 2 empty dark shapeless lost the image of God and God didn't create us like that God didn't create Adam like that the creation of Adam is like God created the heavens and the earth perfect but the devil came in what happened there between verse 1 and 2 came into Adam spoilt him and God began to remake that's the first that's the message that comes in the first chapter of the Bible that God is in the business of remaking ruined situations ruined humanity a ruined earth and it doesn't matter how shapeless you are or how dark you are or how empty are you are the first chapter of the Bible says God can remake and make you so perfect that at the end of it what does it say he made man in his image that's what happens at the end and he can make you in his image too that's the message of the first chapter of the Bible but how did it happen and that's important and if you understand how it happens and you submit to it the same thing can happen to you too every day God spoke God said something the first day he said something the second day he said something the third day he went on saying he's a God who speaks that's the thing you see in the very first chapter of the Bible and the most important thing for you to that you need is to hear God speaking if you want to be transformed you can't be transformed if you don't hear God speaking man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God that's how man is supposed to live and if we don't listen we are not going to be transformed we have to develop the habit of listening God is speaking like he spoke every day he's speaking every day most people in the world don't listen most believers don't listen even people who read the Bible every day don't listen to God speaking to their heart every day don't think listening to God is just reading the Bible you can read the Bible to ease your conscience and not listen to what God is trying to say to your heart the other thing we see is not only God spoke it says the Spirit of God verse 2 moved upon the face of the waters even if you hear God speak you will not be transformed unless you allow the Holy Spirit to move upon you the Holy Spirit comes right there in the beginning the Holy Spirit is the one who changes man the Holy Spirit is the one who cooperated in this work of remaking man along with the father God spoke and the Holy Spirit moved and it's the combined working of the Word of God which God spoke and the Holy Spirit that brought transformation and so the other thing we learned right in the beginning of Scripture is we must always be balanced the great need in Christendom today is balance there are people today who emphasize the study of the Word of God I'm all for it but if you have to study of the Word of God without the Holy Spirit you're gonna be dead dry as a bone and then there are other people who emphasize the Holy Spirit Oh the Holy Spirit and very often they they're like train that's gone off the rails just blowing the whistle and making a lot of noise a lot of steam there but no rails no Word of God they've gone completely astray and ultimately what they have is not Holy Spirit but some other spirit because they did not allow the Word of God to guide them see all these things are there in the first page of Scripture blessed is the man who meditates on the first page of Scripture you can get correction training instruction and righteousness so that you can be perfect thoroughly equipped for good work every good work that's how we must study the Scriptures and you realize that we can't study the Scriptures in 70 hours I find that even after 40 years I'm discovering new things today I'll tell you something I discovered just today even though I've read this for 40 years I noticed only today that in Genesis chapter 1 twice I knew it said it once but I discovered today it said it twice that God separated the light from the darkness now how many of you knew that that was written twice there you know that teaches me something that when God created light he didn't want the darkness mixed up with it the first day you know God created light and he didn't want the darkness mixed up with it he brought a division some people think all division is from the devil no the first person who divided something was God in the very first paragraph of the Bible what fellowship has light with darkness when light comes into your heart the very next thing that God wants to do in your life is to separate you from all darkness you read that in Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 and 4 God said let there be light in 2nd Corinthians 4 it says that is a picture of the light of the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ coming into our hearts that's a commentary on that in 2nd Corinthians 4 and what's the next thing God did as soon as light comes into our heart it must be separated from everything that is darkness the world is in darkness there must be nothing of that in my heart and when Christians don't do what God wants to do to separate the light from there is confusion there is confusion and it says the second time in verse 18 about God placing the Sun and the moon in the skies in the middle of that verse to separate the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good he separated the light from the darkness in verse 4 and he saw that it was good and he separated the light from the darkness in verse 18 and he saw it was good when he sees the light separated from the darkness in your life he'll also say that's good otherwise we won't say it's good a lot of people have got light but they haven't separated from the darkness that's their problem and we read here further that I want to ask I don't have time to go through the whole thing I'm just trying to whet your appetite so that you will go and dig into the scripture and find out some things I want to ask you something man was created on the sixth day we all know that on which day were the beasts of the field created the lion and the dog and the monkey when were they created most people don't know beasts of the field the animals in the field were also created on the sixth day isn't that interesting on the same day that man was created the animals were created the fish and the birds were created on the fifth day and on the sixth day it says in verse 24 the living creatures were brought forth the first part of the sixth day and the second part of the sixth day God created man and breathed into him and that's why you see in animals the same internal organs that you find in a human being they're made from the same dust that human beings are made from but there was one thing that distinguished man God breathed and it's only the breath of God the Spirit of God that distinguishes us from animals and what the Lord was saying through that was when you stop listening to the Spirit of God and stop living by the breath of God in your life it's very easy to sink to the level of the animals for they were created on the same day please keep that in mind and on the seventh day we read that God kept it as a day of rest it was the seventh day for God but it was the first day for man man was created towards the end of the sixth day and his very first day was a holiday isn't that good God was trying to teach man you don't have to work first you got to have fellowship with me first you fellowship with me for one day and then go and work in the garden for six days that is the order God wants you to fellowship with him and then go out and serve him always come back and fellowship with him go out and serve him come back and fellowship with him that's why he ordained a day of rest for Adam it was a day when he was to walk with God forget about the garden forget about all the work that has to be done and walk with God in the beginning God those are the lessons we learn and that's why God taught the importance of the Sabbath to Israel he tried it was a picture like many other things in the law were a picture and it applies to us the spiritual reality of the Sabbath is walking with God and being in rest think about that and I believe that God will have much more to say to you I want you to see here that when God blessed man it says here in verse 28 he says be fruitful and multiply how did he expect God to the man to multiply by having a sexual relationship with his wife God created that sexual relationship and said that they were to exercise that function in their marriage and produce children and he looked at it and he said it was very good verse 31 you know that sex in marriage God himself has said it is very good and it's very bad and evil outside of marriage I just mentioned that because some people have got a wrong idea about this they think you can be holier if you don't get married it's not true and the other thing I want you to notice here is that when God created man he blessed in verse 28 and said not only be fruitful he said subdue everything under you rule over everything God created man to be a ruler not a slave God created man to have everything under his feet to be an overcomer here it speaks about ruling you come to the end of the Bible revelation it speaks about overcoming overcoming overcoming that's God's will and he finally accomplishes it in Revelation with a few who will become overcomers but that was God's purpose for Adam it's his purpose for you to rule over everything rule over sin in your life to rule over your anger to rule over your lusts to rule over your passions to keep them under your feet God has not created you to be a slave he created you to be a conqueror a ruler but that can only come like it says when God blesses you God blessed him and that's how he became the other thing I want to say about Genesis 1 before I move on is you know God it says here he examined each day's work and he said it is good and it's good for you also to examine each day's work in your life many people don't have that habit if God did it can't you do it look at the work you did during a day and judge yourself and examine yourself is it good so many lessons from that first chapter when you go to chapter 2 you find here that God was the one who does create a detail given here about the creation of man but the wonderful thing we see here is that God is the one who gave man a work to do the job in the garden God's the one who gave him a home in the garden and God's the one who gave him a marriage partner now these are three very important things that people look for today they want a house to live in a home to live in they want a job and they want a marriage partner and you have all three in Genesis chapter 2 God provided it for Adam he gave him a home he gave him a job and he gave him a marriage partner and Adam didn't even ask for it that teaches us right in the beginning of Scripture that those needs of yours of a house a job a marriage partner God is interested if you walk in fellowship with him he'll provide all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus God made man from the dust to teach him that he's worthless apart from God's breath there's just one interesting thing I want you to notice here in Genesis 2 it says here that about the rivers that float out of Eden in verse 10 and it says in one of those places in Havilah last part of verse 11 there is gold and the gold of that land is good in paradise gold is good on this incursed earth it's a snare you gotta be careful that's just impossible the other thing I want you to notice in verse 19 out of the ground I want you to notice that read this very carefully out of the ground God brought all the animals formed every beast and brought them to the man and man named all these animals verse 20 give names to all the birds but for Adam verse 20 there was no not found a helper suitable for him and I get the picture when you read when it says there but for Adam in the same sentence that he was looking at the animals and say which of these will be my partner the lions got a lioness and the elephant has got its partner and the cat has got its and which is the one for me and he looks by all of them and he says no that one won't do that doesn't fit with me that's not that doesn't agree with my nature and when he said no to all of them God said okay verse 18 he said I'll make a helper suitable and he caused a deep sleep verse 21 and he made him a wife now the spiritual application of this is when you're a child of God and you're looking for a partner God will allow a lot of pretty handsome people to go by you who don't have your nature and he will see whether you're going to pick one of them and if you pick one of them you miss the one God had planned for you Adam passed the test he looked at the pig and he said no I don't want that one and he looked at the lion not even lioness I don't even want a lioness none of these got my nature then God gave him the best honor God and he'll give you the best say no to that don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers it's all there in Scripture the other thing I want you to notice in marriages it says verse 24 something that all Indian Christians particularly need to listen to that when a man gets married he must leave his father and mother and clean to his wife in other words it doesn't not talking about physical leaving primarily as much as that from now on his wife must be more important than his father and mother that's the essential message I wish I could go up and down this country proclaiming that message that when you get married your wife must be more important to you and all than your father and mother and all your relatives I believe there'd be a lot more happy marriages if they just follow that simple rule which is written before sin came into the world do you know that's the first commandment in the Bible for us this is the first commandment of the Bible for man today leave your father and mother and leave your wife why did God put that as the first one because he knew there'd be so many people who wouldn't obey and whose lives and married lives would be miserable it's amazing what there is in just two chapters of Scripture okay I want you to see here further in Genesis chapter 3 and 4 I want you to see here about two men who listened to the devil one was Adam in Genesis 3 and the other was King in Genesis 4 two men who listened to the devil now notice God had allowed Adam to go into this garden and he did not send an angel with him to check up whether he is sinning or not why because it's only in an atmosphere of freedom that God can test us he tests you when you're alone when other believers are not there when nobody knows what you're doing when you're all alone Adam and Eve were all alone they would sin as much as they liked and they went alone and they saw this forbidden tree there were ten thousand trees there beautiful fruit and all that they ignored all that they went after knowledge there was another tree of life now if you were you had a choice between knowledge and life which would you go for I'm sure you don't give the answer life but wait a minute you people are studying the Bible tell me honestly are you studying the Bible for knowledge or for life and you have the answer there are you studying the Bible to get a degree or to get life you're going for the tree of knowledge too the Bible was not given for knowledge it knowledge of good and evil life God wants us to know good and evil through a connection with him not by study you know you can get a knowledge of good and evil without reference to God and that's how you go astray that's the sin here getting a knowledge of good and evil without God a lot of people in the world like that I don't want it I want a knowledge of good and evil that comes from the Holy Spirit telling me in each situation that's wrong through my living contact with God that's how you must know good and evil and if you don't know good and evil like that it brings death into your life so that's what the devil was trying to tempt him the devil tempted Eve to say and told him told her you can be like God that was the temptation if you eat it you will verse 5 you will be like God now it's interesting that Jesus also came with a message saying you can be like God isn't that interesting the devil comes and says you can be like God Jesus comes and says you can be like God but completely opposite the devil says you can be like God in knowledge authority power position and a lot of people go for that even a lot of Christians they want to be like God in knowledge authority leadership in the church position and Jesus says you can be like God in character in humility in love in goodness how many people want that this is the difference between the voice of the devil and the voice of God it sounds so similar temptation is so subtle the devil is a deceiver like somebody giving you a 500 rupee note it looks like the real thing you shall be like God in what way that's the question so you see his temptation is very very subtle and when the devil was tempting Eve what he insinuated what he put into her mind was that God doesn't really love you if God loved you he'd have given you this beautiful tree to eat of it and that's very often the way the devil gets into our hearts by making us doubt God's love when Jesus said to Peter where's Peter Satanist decided to sift you and has asked for permission it's been given permission just like God gave permission to Satan to sit Adam and Eve here he gave permission to eat Peter also to be sifted but Jesus said I'm praying for you not that you won't fall I'm praying that your faith will not fail I'm praying that in that moment of temptation even if you do fall I'm praying that you will not doubt the love of God that's the thing brothers and sisters in the time of deepest trial and temptation whatever may happen don't doubt the love of God even if your prayer is not answered even if you find something that you want is not being given to you some deep trial perhaps like jokes your children dead your property gone don't doubt the love of God that's the message that comes from Genesis chapter 3 that's what the devil see faith what does it mean to live by faith to live by faith means I I know one thing God loves me that's what the brought the prodigal son back to his father's home I know I've done a lot of made a mess of my life but I know my dad loves me so that's faith and this tree which looks so attractive God made it attractive because God wanted to test Adam and Eve to see will they get more attracted by my creation or by me the creator in every temptation essentially the temptation is this the creator or creation are you tempted by a pretty woman what is the temptation your creator or what he created are you tempted by gold and silver what is the temptation your creator or what is created that is the essence of every temptation and essentially to overcome temptation means just this that I choose my creator I don't choose what is created when people when you are interested in the honor of men the approval of men the other choice is the approval of God which do you want all temptation figures is basically between these two things the creation versus the creator you either worship the creation and see all this beautiful face all this gold all this man's approval I want it or you say this is all garbage the face of Jesus and his approval and spiritual virtues my creator is more important to me than ever been created you just make that choice in every decision in life and I tell you you will be a man of God you'll be a woman of God and you will have understanding of Scripture more than anybody can ever teach you with any amount of classes that you attend you've got to make a choice to say Lord in every situation I choose you my creator above all created things that's the essence of overcoming temptation I want you to notice I don't have time to go into everything here I want you to notice further down and what was Adam's sin was it just that he ate of the fruit of the tree that was forbidden no it was more than that it says here that the Lord told Adam in verse 17 because you not because you ate of the fruit that was second because you listen to the voice of your wife you've had a sin to listen to the voice of your wife God says it is why because he says I made you the head of your house and you did not exercise authority as the head of your house you saw your wife talking to the devil and you just kept your mouth open and stood there watching the whole thing instead of stopping her you should have put your foot down and say come away Eve don't listen to her you know there are a lot of white husbands like Adam today they're not the head of their homes and exactly the same thing God has to tell them so you see Adam's sin was he did not assert his headship and God is a good God he did not curse Adam it says here he cursed the serpent and the ground but he did not curse Adam and you see the tremendous love of God that he kills an animal this is the first death that you read after Genesis 1 an animal is killed so that's the way God made these garments of skin for verse 21 an innocent animal is killed for Adam's sin and that animals skin is taken off to cover Adam and Eve a picture of what God was going to do one day on Calvary's cross it's there in Genesis 3 21 and then we read that God put a flaming sword verse 24 in front of the tree of life in those days in Eden there was no flaming sword Adam could have gone straight and eaten from the tree of life but today there's a tree there's a sword in front of the tree of life if you want to partake of the tree of life you have to let the sword fall upon your flesh it fell upon Jesus and the Bible says I am crucified with Christ then I live when that sword when I unite myself with Jesus on the cross and that sword falls upon my flesh I can partake of the tree of life again there is no other way that sword guards it even today and I just want you to notice one more thing in this Genesis chapter 3 there are a number of words that come in this chapter as part of the punishment God is inflicted on man curse sorrow thorns sweat dust death all words associated with Calvary everything Jesus took upon himself so that we can be free from that curse that came upon Adam and Adam's fellowship with God was gone you find immediately his fellowship with his wife is also gone he accuses her whenever you accuse other people it proves your fellowship with God is gone when you are in fellowship with God you judge yourself please learn that lesson from Genesis 3 who here's another man who listened to the devil King it says here that Eve gave birth to Cain and she said I have given birth to a man with the help of the Lord I have created a man the first human being ever born into the world and Eve said boy this is wonderful God made Adam and I made a man too that's what she's saying I made one out of my own body and it's that spirit that came God I mean I created something I can do something yeah God helps me a little bit but I can do it and it was a wrong spirit with which that man grew up that child grew up and we read here that God now many people read like this they don't read scripture properly as though God said that he accepted Abel's offering and therefore accepted Abel but please read scripture carefully it says in verse 4 Genesis 4 for the last part the Lord had regard for Abel first and then for his offering it's not the other way around and the Lord did not have regard for Cain and therefore for his offering Proverbs 21 27 says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord no matter how good the sacrifices the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord that's why he didn't accept Cain's offering Cain was a wicked man and you could see that in his face the first question God asks Cain is why is your face falling see God is the one seeking after man when Adam sinned the first question God asked was Adam where are you think of that that's how Jesus came to the world where are you fallen man Cain why is your face falling God is the one who is always seeking us when we have gone astray from him that's a great encouragement for us but he does not respond he warned God warns Cain but he doesn't respond and he goes in goes still further allows that sin that was crouching at his door to come inside and kill him destroy him and it's interesting that jealousy jealousy is the first sin mentioned in Scripture outside Eden jealousy of a younger brother who is more blessed than I am do you see somebody younger than more blessed more anointed than you and be careful if you don't go the way of Cain and when Cain is punished I want you to notice here the attitude of a sinner notice when God says to Cain that you are cursed verse 11 why did God curse Cain and not curse Adam Genesis 4 11 he says you are cursed God never told Adam you're cursed he said the ground is cursed the first time God cursed a man was not Adam it was Cain and I believe the reason is this when Adam sinned it was a sin but he hurt only himself when Cain sinned he hurt somebody else when you commit a sin like smoking or drinking when you destroy your body you hurt only yourself when you gossip you hurt another person how many of you believe that gossiping is worse than smoking I don't know how many Christians believe that there are sins that hurt other people which are worse than sins which hurt only yourself that's why Cain was cursed take it seriously and when you hurt another person this is what happens the Bible says verse 10 the voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me that person whose reputation you spoiled with your gossiping is crying out to God and it will never stop crying till you go and settle it till you ask God for forgiveness ask that person for forgiveness apologize otherwise it will keep on crying till the day of judgment when you'll have to answer be careful about sins with which you hurt other people that's what we read in Genesis chapter 4 and when this punishment is given to Cain, Cain says verse 13 my punishment is too great to bear this is the language of people who go to hell they don't say oh God my sin is so terrible not my sin my punishment are you more worried about sin or punishment that's the difference between a godly man and an ungodly man an ungodly man is worried about punishment a godly man is worried about sin yeah keep that in mind and Cain goes away from the presence of the Lord and his children become like him one of his descendants becomes a murderer they go into multiple marriages you read in Genesis chapter 4 they go into music and there you have the beginning of rock music there in the end of Genesis chapter 4 they invent all these different musical instruments and they go into all types of things that's what happens when you go away from God what you see in Genesis chapter 4 is the beginning of two streams Cain and Abel Cain was not an atheist remember he was a very deeply religious man he was the forerunner of the Pharisees he was the forerunner of this Babylonian system false religion and Abel Jesus spoke about righteous Abel he's the forerunner of the godly both religious false religion and truth and now I want to speak for the rest of the time on two men who walked with God we saw two men who listen to the devil that's Adam and Cain I want to speak about two men who walked with God in Genesis chapters 5 to 9 one is Enoch and the other is Noah now in Genesis chapter 5 we read this expression eight times and he died verse 5 and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and in the middle of that one man who didn't die that was Enoch who walked with God it was like a resurrection in the midst of all this death there was a man who lived in resurrection power who walked with God and overcame death and got raptured a picture of the church that lives in the midst of spiritual death and lives by resurrection power waiting for the rapture when we will be taken up just like Enoch was taken up and Enoch it says for 65 years he didn't walk with God he didn't walk with God for 65 years but then he got a son Methuselah and in the margin of my King James version it says Methuselah means at his death the waters will come forth that means God gave a revelation to Enoch when Methuselah was born when his baby was born said name him Methuselah because when this baby dies I'm going to judge this world with a flood that revelation came first to Enoch not to Noah and he named his son Methuselah now when you get a baby how long do you think that baby is going to live I think every time that baby got sick Enoch got a bit scared the judgment now gonna come and can you imagine a baby being called at his death the flood will come you say hey at his death the flood will come come here every time you call him you're reminded of this fact at his death the flood will come the judgment will come and that fear made Enoch walk with God and realize that the things of eternity are more important than the things of time the Bible says the world and its passions will pass away if you believe it like Enoch believed what God said about Methuselah at his death the judgment will come it will give us also a seriousness to live for the things of eternity that is the crisis that made Enoch walk with God Enoch walked with God Methuselah and the interesting thing is you see God's tremendous long suffering here in the fact that Methuselah God allowed Methuselah to live longest of all 969 years showing God's tremendous long suffering wherever he went people heard Methuselah Methuselah at his death judgment will come for 969 years people heard that message and they rejected it it's not just Noah who preached it Methuselah's name preached the message much longer than Noah that a flood will come they didn't know the details but they knew some type of judgment the waters are going to come when he died and that's how we find that it says in the book of Jude that Enoch prophesied against all the ungodly people about the way they were living he was a prophet we read in the book of Jude he walked with God and one day God took him. See Enoch and Adam lived together for 308 years if you count those ages you can find out that and he must have talked to Adam a lot how is it in Eden Adam how is it you walk with God there tell me about it and Adam would have told him and Enoch would have had a great longing to walk with God and he became the first man to demonstrate that you could walk with God outside of Eden also not only in Eden even after sin came you could walk with God I've sometimes met godly men very rarely in my life I met a lot of preachers but very few whom I met who walk with God and such men have produced in my heart a tremendous longing from my younger days to walk with God the greatest longing of my life and that's how I believe Enoch and then we read that Enoch was taken up and Methuselah and finally his great-grandson Methuselah's great-grandson was Noah and he talked to Methuselah for 600 years because Methuselah if you calculate those years you know that year Methuselah died Noah was 600 and the flood came so 600 years he must have walked with Methuselah and he must have asked Methuselah about Enoch he says tell me how your dad walked with God tell me more about it and in Noah's heart came a longing and we read in Genesis chapter 6 that Noah verse 9 walked with God he walked with God too and as he walked with God God could find one man on the face of the earth to whom he could reveal his purposes and he could tell him I'm gonna do something no I'm gonna judge this world just like he told Enoch you know it's interesting that the first two people who walked with God God what God told them was he was going to judge the world for its sin and every true prophet of God that's what they have always preached God's gonna judge believers for their sins gonna judge the world for sin Enoch preached it Noah understood it as they walked with God and that brought a seriousness in their life and they told others and hardly anybody believed them but God told Noah to build this ark and Noah's job was only to do what God told him to do he used his own money to do God's work he didn't ask God who's gonna pay for it if he had asked God God said you of course who else have you ever heard God say that you've got to pay for God's work that you're doing we live in a country where everybody thinks that if I do God's work somebody else must pay me for it no I didn't think that whoever's no I'm gonna get who's gonna support Noah he had to support himself work extra hard to earn more money to build the ark to do God's will he built that ark people ask how do these animals come into the ark that was God's job God brought the animals in Noah's job was to build the ark you got to do only what God's told you to do he'll take care of all the other things that look impossible and he brought the animals in and he did all that God was commanded and we read finally when the time came God shut the door now Genesis 7 16 it was God who closed that door not Noah and it's God is gonna one day close the door and say the time is over for all those who want to come into God's Kingdom well they got inside the ark I'm sure it was inconvenient inside the ark but it was safe and that's sometimes how it is in the church we mingle together in the church with people who are of different types and they rub us and sometimes it's not very convenient but it's safe and I'm happy to be in the church I hope you are and that's where we invite people to come in and we read finally the flood was about to subside and Noah sent out a crow and a dove a picture of the flesh and the spirit and the crow the raven never came back the raven found all the dead bodies of animals and said boy this is a feast for me and that's how it is when men of the flesh go out into the world and then he sent out a dove a picture of a man of the spirit he goes out into the world sees all the dead stuff and he says I want to come back to God's people comes right back he doesn't find a home in the world that's how you know you're a man of God a woman of God a man of the spirit you go out into the world you don't feel at home I want to say to you if you feel at home like the raven that's the clearest proof that you belong to the world you're a man living according to the flesh finally they come out and the first thing Noah does we read in Numbers sorry Genesis in chapter 8 verse 20 he built an altar to the Lord and offered the clean animals that's why God had told him earlier the clean animals and the clean birds you must take seven pairs the others two pairs because he was going to offer sacrifice at the end these clean animals the first thing he did was kneel down and say thank you Lord we see a wonderful example here one last thing I want to tell you is even Noah was a weak man he got drunk and he lay naked in the tent one day and his son saw him and reported it to others dishonored his father and a curse came two of his other sons went backward and covered him and they were blessed as a very important message there for us that's the first place where we find God punishing a son and even a son's son for dishonoring their father God takes it very seriously when we don't respect authority when you see a weakness in your father or in someone who is your spiritual leader don't talk about it unless you want to curse be like Shem and Japheth and have that love that covers a multitude of sins and Noah blessed Shem and Japheth and said virtually at the end of Genesis chapter 9 he said let them have fellowship and that's a lovely word there at the end of Genesis 9 that may God enlarge Japheth 927 let them dwell in the tents of Shem fellowship of those who have learned to cover the sins of others those are the people who really learn fellowship and those are the people who live together in the same tent and learn to cover the sins of others that's great