Sin's Separation

Song: The Way That He Loves

Scripture: Genesis 11:1-32

Genesis 3-11 describes the consequences wrought by sin’s spread, consequences summed up in one word: separation. Sin separates man from God—“I heard the sound of Thee… so I hid myself.” Sin separates man from peace in his labor—“thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.” Sin separates man from beast—“the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth.” Sin separates man from family—“Cain rose up against Abel… and killed him.” Sin separates the soul from the body—“Adam lived 930 years, and he died.” Sin separates man unto final judgment—“Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me.’” Sin separates all men—“Noah found,” notjustice, but “grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Sin separates man repeatedly—Noah’s fresh start became a fresh start for sin.

From the tower of Babel, we learn that sin separates man from real progress. Civilization doesn’t make man better. It makes man faster, fatter, richer, busier, cozier, smarter, haughtier, and so a more stubborn sinner. So God at times mercifully blunts man’s worldly progress to remind him of what’s really important. At Babel, God separated men from men, so that men left on their own might seek God. And from the families at Babel, God separated Abram. From Abram He raised a Savior who on Pentecost preached a message to unite the divided peoples by separating them from their sins.

Jason Moore

Sunday Morning Starters

How the first Sunday started…

“Let there be light.”

Sounds like a good plan for this one.

Yes. Let there be light.

Jason Moore

The Family Tree

Song: Standing On The Promises

Scripture: Genesis 10:1-32

Genesis 10, often called the Table of Nations, is a family tree of all the nations populating the earth when God brought Israel up from Egypt.

From Japheth descended the peoples of Europe and Asia, and the great empires which followed Judah’s captivity in Babylon. Madai was the father of the Medes, whose conquest secured the power of Cyrus the Great. The sons of Javan settled in Ionia, or ancient Greece. Kittim’s seed peopled Cyprus and the name eventually became identified with the Romans who ruled in Jesus’ day.

Much space is given to the sons of Ham, whose descendants settled in Babylon, Syria, Canaan, Egypt and Africa. Mizraim is the ancient name for Egypt, Cush for Ethiopia, Put for Libya. Nimrod founded the chief cities of Babylon and Assyria. Ham’s descendants were the thorn in Israel’s side. Egypt oppressed her, Canaan’s children seduced her with idolatry, Assyria and then Babylon carried her from the promised land.

Shem was the father of the Semitic peoples. They populated the region from Syria through Mesopota-mia to Arabia. Abraham and the Jewish people descended from Shem. In fact, the name “Hebrew” may have come from the name of Shem’s son Eber. Genesis 10 is a glossary of all the tribes and peoples that play an important role in God’s plans for Israel. From Noah’s seed the nations of the earth were separated. Through the seed of Shem, in the person of Jesus, they are united once more.

Jason Moore

"Then God Remembered Noah"

Song: To God Be The Glory

Scripture: Genesis 8:1-22

God remembered Noah. It’s not that God had forgotten Noah. Remembering with God is never accidental. It is always on purpose and with purpose. God was mindful of Noah, and so dried up the flood waters with a great wind. The lesson to be learned from “God remembered Noah” is this: God never forgets His people.

The dove remembered Noah. The beasts of the earth have often found a place in God’s plan for mankind. God used a parade of animals to prepare Adam for the making of Eve. He prepared a fish to save Jonah and teach the stubborn prophet about His mercy. Because of its natural nesting instincts, the dove became God’s messenger of peace to Noah. It brought glad tidings that the earth was dry. The lesson is simple: “the heavens declare the glory of God, and earth showeth His handiwork.”

Noah remembered God. Noah’s first act upon returning to dry land was to offer sacrifices to God. Not one burnt offering. Not two. But an offering of every type of clean animal and clean bird that he had carried with him on the ark. Noah’s family made a memory that day to add to all the memories they had made during their year in the ark. Man makes no better use of his mind, than when he remembers God. Families make no better memories than those they make in God’s service.

One more thought to remember: God remembered first.

Jason Moore

Just In Time

Song: Without Him

Scripture: Genesis 6:1-22

The Bible reveals that God has done everything that an all-powerful, all-loving, all-wise God could possibly do to save sinners.

God gave man one law in a perfect paradise and man sinned. God left man alone to suffer the consequences of sin and he sinned to the extent that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God purged the earth with a flood and started over again; the puddles had barely dried, when man sinned yet again. God gave man a law that dotted every “i”
and crossed every “t,” a law that isolated him from the other nations of the earth, and man sinned still more.

God tried everything. No man can argue that God was too hard, or that God was too lenient, or that He should have given man another chance, or that He should have done more to explain the rules. He did all that to no avail. Man sinned every time. Imagine if God had left man alone just one more generation in the days of Noah. If Noah was the only man worth redeeming in his time, would anyone have “found favor” before God in the next generation? Not likely. God intervened at the right time and through Noah and by means of the flood instilled a healthy reverence, fear, and gratitude in the hearts of Noah’s sons. If God’s judgment had not come just in time, His mercy might not have come ever.

Praise God for His timing.

Jason Moore

Some Simple Truths

Song: How Firm A Foundation

Scripture: Genesis 2:18-25

"It is not good that the man should be alone.” God knows what is good and what is not good for man. He commands what is good. He forbids what is bad. It’s that simple.

“I will make him a help suitable for him.” God made woman to be a help to man. A man is happiest when he lets his woman help. A woman is happiest when she helps her man. It’s that simple.

“And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast… and every fowl.” Animal life was not the product of chance mutations over eons of time. Mature animal life was formed by God from the ground in an instant. It’s that simple.

“Whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” God put man over creation, permitting him to name each living creature. Regardless of what the scientist says, man is different from beast. It’s that simple.

“Man shall leave father and mother, and cleave unto his wife.” If man and woman are to forsake family for one another, ties to job, to friends, to comrades must be forsaken also. That’s the sense of “leave” and “cleave.” It’s that simple.

“And they shall be one flesh.” When God says that man and woman are “one flesh,” they are no longer two, but one. “What God joined together, let not man put asunder.” It’s that simple.

Jason Moore

The First Weekend

Song: In The Garden

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2:3

Saturday was God’s day of rest after the activity of creation. His weekend was a one day weekend, not two. Sunday, not Monday, had been the beginning of His work week.

Imagine the first Saturday, and the satisfaction that must have been a part of it! For the first time all of creation—the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the beasts of the earth—joined in a chorus of praise to the Creator. For the first time ever, the sun rose on a fully completed creation. Man and woman enjoyed upon this first Saturday perfect and entire access to God.

That first Saturday was indeed a day of rest for God, for man, for all creation. The curse of sin would all too soon take that rest away. The Sabbath rest of the Jews would provide some temporary and partial rest from sin’s curse by allowing man to rest from his labor and commune with God. But how imperfect was that rest compared to the first weekend when communion with God was not a mere shadow, but a reality.

God be thanked that Jesus Christ, Lord of the Sabbath, has given man rest again, not just from sin’s consequences, but from sin’s curse. And “Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight” and our rest shall again be perfect and abiding and our Sabbath without end.

Jason Moore