Gtcotr/ss111923
Jude 1 NLT
3 ¶ Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people.
4 I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
11 What sorrow awaits them! For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion.
14 Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of His holy ones.
Allow me to tie this all together.
All of the evil, hurt, and hatred we see around us in the world around us is nothing new. It began long ago as referenced by Jude with his mention of Cain and Enoch.
Last Sunday’s message, entitled “The Land of Nod,” was taken from the Genesis 4 account of the firstborn son of Adam and Eve who murdered his brother. Cain killed Abel and was exiled to the Land of Nod.
The Land of Nod is the world in which people live when they do not praise God; do not acknowledge His purpose for their lives; do not live according to His plan for their lives; and do not feel His presence in their lives. It is the world without God. People who live their lives without the true God.
Cain displeased God; Abel pleased God; Cain hated Abel because Cain was evil-minded; Cain murdered Abel because Abel was righteous and favored by God. It is in the spiritual DNA of the wicked to hate the righteous. (Proverbs 29:10 The bloodthirsty…)
The plan of God will not be stopped. God gave Adam and Eve another son named Seth “in the place of” Abel. And God “appointed” Seth to carry on the plan and make a way for the promise of a Messiah to be born Who would one day bruise the serpent’s head and save the world … Jesus!
Two lines of people lived in the world, both children of Adam and Eve, born under the curse of sin and subject to death. One line were descendants of Cain living in the land of Nod, the world without God, while the other were descendants of Seth, in the world with God, calling upon the name of God.
We still have these two groups of people living in the world today.
The Land of Nod The World With God
Cain Abel Seth
Enoch (trained up) Enos
Irad Cainan
Mehujael Mahalaleel
Methusael Jared
Lamech Enoch (trained up)
Both lines had Enochs, men who were trained up in the ways of their father. And in 7 generations in the Land of Nod, a world without God, Lamech followed in his father’s footsteps:
Genesis 4 NKJV
23 Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me.
24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
The killings continue … and notice – the end of Lamech’s concern is purely selfish … no concern for the dead man or his family.
Whereas 7 generations into the story of those who called on the name of God, we see a man named Enoch. Again, Enoch was “trained up” well.
Genesis 5 NKJV
23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
What is the truth of these things? God didn’t die … he just went to heaven.
Proverbs 22:6 ¶ Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
It has been critical for every generation, including the times in which we live, to lead our children by example. The greatest gift you can give your family, your friends, your neighbors, and even your enemies, is Jesus Christ. Jesus by example …
The Bible says in Numbers 14:18 that the Lord is a gracious and forgiving God, but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.
Lamentations 5:7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, But we bear their iniquities.
Somewhere the curse of sin must be broken in a family. You can be the one who does it for your family. You can be the example. It may not be easy, but it will be worth it.
1 John 3 NLT
12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.
13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
The Lord is gracious and forgiving … He will hear your prayer and rescue your family from a world without God. Let’s pray and break the curse of every family member, those born and unborn, right now!
