Okay, go back with me to Genesis
11. I wish I could have told you
to read this beforehand, but I didn't know. If you were thinking after reading
this, what are we going to get out of this? Sometimes we read over these
names. I do. I read these names and
I just kind of skip through them. We can't pass over this. I think
we did the last time we studied in the book of Genesis. The fact
of the matter is there are no idle words in God's
Word. Everything has eternal significance. And Scripture says this, that
all Scripture is profitable. Profitable for doctrine. That's
teaching. It's going to teach us something. I hope what we
learn tonight is something of God's amazing providence, His
power, His wisdom, and His purpose for His people in Christ Jesus.
We're going to see after it's all over that everything points
to Christ. Everybody in here, everything
in here, leads to bringing the Lord Jesus Christ into this world. And, you know, we look before
at genealogies and back in chapter 10, And the scripture says that
we're to avoid endless questions and genealogies, but not these. This is the Lord gave these,
and they have an end. You'll notice this genealogy
ended with Abraham. Abraham. That's who it was leading
to. Well, if you'll go over, and
I'll not have you turn there, but in Genesis 1, it says, This
is the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of
Abraham. So Christ came from Abraham. The seed was made of the seed
of not angels, but Abraham. Remember that? And we're going
to look more into Abraham later Sunday. As a matter of fact,
we're going to start looking at Abraham in chapter 12. Tonight
I want us, I hope, I want us to see something of God's amazing
wisdom and providence and purpose in the lives of these people,
not only in their lives, but in our lives. As Scripture says, we spend our
lives as a tale that's been told. Every child of God has their
name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. book like these people,
but our names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, and everything
about us has been recorded. There's not enough room to write
our names in here, but every child of God has his or her name
written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and everything about them,
everything has been ordered and is sure according to the sure
mercies of the Son of David, to the praise of the glory of
God's grace, and for our good." Every single thing. We're going
to look at some of the things in the lives of these people.
And everything in our lives, every person, every place, every
event, everything in our lives has been ordered by God, just
like these people. Everything good, we know. God's people know. that all things
work together, intricately joined together according to the all-wise
purpose, predestined purpose of our God, and it could not
have been any other way. This will give us peace. I hope what we'll learn to do
is trust the Lord, wait on the Lord. We'll just wait and see
how it turns out. But everything works together,
good and bad, good and evil, successes, failures, joys, sorrows,
health, sickness, life, and death. Every death ordered by God for
a purpose. If the names were changed, we
read these names, and you don't know any, well, you know some
of them, we know some of them. But if the names were changed,
we would read this with much more interest, wouldn't we? Now,
if the names were changed, there was a man named Horace
who had a son. He was 22 years old and had a
son named Gerald. And Gerald was 25 and had a son
named Marvin. And Marvin was 22 or something
and had a son named Gabriel. Now is it interesting to you? There was a man named John Henry Edward who had a son named
John, let me get this straight, Henry Edward had a son named
John Carey who had a son named Henry Thomas who had a son named
Paul Edward. and everything in their lives
was ordered by God. It had to be. Exactly the way
God ordered it. Exactly. See, if we read these
names differently, if we put our own names, our names are
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Every life, every death serves
God's purpose. These people As we saw, as I
said, all of these people's lives, everything in their lives was
ordered by God for the purpose of bringing Abraham into the
world and eventually to bring the Christ. Everything had to
happen just like it did for Christ to come to us. And everything
in our lives had to happen as it did for us to come to Christ,
to bring us to Christ. Everything. Everything. Everyone and everything serves that purpose. Everyone here died. Everyone
has to die. Appointed wants to die. Some
died young. Some died old. Some died sooner. Some died later. Everybody died.
Every death was ordered by God. according to his purpose. God
said, I kill. I make the light. There was great
sorrow. Whenever there's a death of a loved one, we're going to
see in a minute, there was death here throughout. Whenever a loved
one dies, there's great sorrow. We read over these things, he
died and he died, and we kind of read it like it's just, you
know, well, reading the obituary, but if it's one of us, we'd stop. Great sorrow, but that sorrow
was always mingled with joy. It was always joy. That's the
way the Lord does it. He said, against this, to the
end, you find nothing after you, so there won't be overmuch sorrow.
Great sadness mingled with great gladness. Every death was necessary. Look down at verse 27. It's a
little way ahead of us. Let's go ahead and read the end
from the beginning. These are the generations of
Terah, verse 27. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and
Haran. Haran begat Lot. Haran died before
his father. How old was he? I don't know. But a wife lost her husband. Some of you in here know what
that's like. This was great sorrow. Great sorrow. A wife lost her
husband. A father lost his son. A father lost his son. We believe,
we think that fathers are not supposed to outlive their children.
Are they? Sometimes they do. A father lost
his son. A son lost his father. Lots. We read about Lot. And, you know,
he lost his father. He was raised by his uncle. Thank
God he had a good uncle, Abram, Uncle Abram. My, my, what a blessing
that was. Scott Richardson was raised by
his uncle or somebody, wasn't he? But two brothers lost their
younger brother. Two brothers lost their youngest
brother. Sad. Real sad. My dad lost his oldest son when
he was 21 years old. I lost my oldest brother. Have
you ever stopped to think about how things would be if certain
events hadn't happened? Sure you did. I did. I often
think about things like that. What would I have been like? Where would I be right now had
not my brother died? I might not have played the prodigal.
I might have stayed where I was. I might have married someone
else. Do you realize all the ramifications of that? There'd
be no Mindy. There'd be no Hannah. There'd
be no game. Might not be in the town of Park
City. We wouldn't be here. Half the
people in this room might not be here. It had to happen. It had to happen. Didn't it?
Known unto God, all His work coming in. All things worked
together. That's great sadness. Great sadness. Grandparents lost their grandson.
I'll never forget my grandmother's I know now, I'm a grandparent,
I'll never forget her and hearing my brothers and the news of my
brother. What we're going to have to do
is we're going to have to wait on the Lord. How many times does it tell us
in the Scriptures to wait? David said this, I would have
fainted if I hadn't believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. So he says, wait on the Lord.
Be of good courage. Wait on the Lord. He'll strengthen
your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. It's going to turn out
good. I thought about this. Our Lord
Jesus Christ made himself subject to time. He who did not dwell in time
made himself a creature of time. Have you ever thought about that? Time was of no essence to God,
but he had to grow slowly up in a body. Think about that. He had to wait
on the Lord. He was limited. He limited himself
in that sense. Why did he do that? Because of
us. Number one, he was made under
the law to redeem us from under the law, to fulfill the law.
But he also did that so that he could be touched with the
feeling of our infirmity. And so he could sucker us. He
knows our frame. He knows that we're creatures
of time. He knew what he was going to
do. Every move he was going to make,
that they didn't. And he knew that. We don't. And
he knows that. So he has great compassion upon
us. We don't know the next moment
from there. He did. But he limited himself
to know how we feel. That's mercy. Great, great. Knows our frame. And he had to
wait. That gave me a great blessing
thinking about that yesterday and today. Look at verse 29,
Haran died before his father in the land of his nativity,
Ur of the Chaldea. Abram and Nahor took them wives. Abram and Nahor married. Abram,
his wife, was named Sarai. The Lord changed her name later
to Sarah. The name of Nahor's wife, Milcah. Now they are happily married,
are they? Yeah, they are. But, verse 30, Sarah is barren. She can't have any children. Does that say it? Some of you know what that's
like. I counted 10 to 12 adults in
this congregation. The Lord did not let them bear
children. It's a tough trial, especially
for a woman. A woman is born at this motherly
instant. And for the Lord not to give
a woman, it's not a curse, it's not a punishment, it's just His
will. It's just His will. But it's
a trial. It's a tough trial. You haven't
gone through it, don't know. We briefly felt that, didn't we? We wanted
to have children and thought for several years, four or five
years, that we couldn't. In fact, the doctor told us we
couldn't have any children. But no, it had to be. We had to have
a girl named Hannah because there's a man in Louisiana who had a
son. And he's got to have this girl
for his wife. You see? It's all according to
God's purpose. But to go childless is tough. It really is. But the Lord in
His wisdom and His purpose gives children to whom He will according
to His will and His purpose. The Lord gives. We get no credit. The Lord gave children. A woman
is fruitful. John Warburton, his wife had
14 kids, and he said, she sure was a fruitful woman. Well, that's
true, but the Lord gave everyone, didn't He? But the Lord takes
away. To go childless is great sorrow. To lose a child is greater sorrow
than that. And I don't know. Some of you
do. I can't imagine. I can only try
to imagine. I thought at times that things
were serious with some of ours, and it gave me great, great worry. And now I think about it in the
terms of a grandchild, a grandfather. We looked at this. grandfather lost his grandson. David Pledger in Houston, Texas,
the pastor of Lincolnwood Church in Houston, Texas, and Pat, you
know them, Winna's parents. They have a son. They have two
sons and two daughters. And their son, Jonathan, wonderful
young man. He was not so young, now he's
50. He and Mary, his wife, had a baby boy named Brian. He had never seen a more beautiful
boy. Oh, he was beautiful. I'm telling you, he was beautiful.
Four years old, came home from church, said he
had a headache. And it was dead in a few days. And it destroyed them. I mean, devastating. Devastating. Like Lily, losing Lily. Tough, tough, tough, tough. Who did that? God did that. Why? We don't know. We'll have to
wait on it. We'll have to wait and see. But
we're going to know. We're going to know someday.
He's going to tell us. And we're going to rejoice in
high heaven. Look at Shem. This all started
with Shem. And as I said, the purpose of
this is to hope for us to trust the Lord. Just trust the Lord.
He's got everything in our lives ordered. It started with Shem
in verse 10. Look at verse 10. Shem was a
hundred years old and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. Now,
this wasn't his first child. Look at chapter 10, verse 22. The children of Shem were Elam,
Asher, and Arphaxad. He had two sons before Arphaxad.
What happened to them? They perished in the flood. He had two lost sons, we think. We don't know. They could have
been infants. But they could have been lost.
They could have had no interest in that ark. In God, Christ,
the point is, believers can have unbelieving children and they'd
be lost forever. How great a trial would that
be? Some of you know. But, well, hold on. It's not over. It ain't over
till it's over. Here's the point. You want to
hope in the Lord. The door of the ark is still
open. But nevertheless, Shem lost two
sons. Now he's 100 years old. And he
doesn't have any children. He's hopeless now, isn't he? In the midst of great sorrow,
two years later, Shem, you're not going to believe this, I'm
pregnant. My, what a boy. That boy, Lord's
good, isn't he? But the point I wanted to make
is the sad fact that many believers lose children, their children
are lost. We hope not, we pray not. The
flood, it says after the flood, and you know, we look at the
flood And the flood was the righteous
judgment of the holy God against the sinful world. The world got
what it deserved. People got what they deserved.
God was righteous in doing that. He looked down to see if there
were any. The Lord looked and said, the whole earth is corrupted
in my way. He said, they're full of violence. Their mouths are
full of poison and sweat shed. You know, as we said in Romans
1. And the Lord is going to do it again. Forever. But the fact
of the matter is there was great sorrow at the flood. There were lives lost. I don't
think I've ever looked at the flood in this way, but Noah and
his wife and Shem and Ham and Japheth and their wives, they
lost children, they lost houses, they lost cousins and uncles
and aunts and neighbors, and they lost people that they knew.
There are people we know and love, and people we care about.
And they're lost. We need a greater burden. The
people are going to perish. I thought about that. But Lord,
give me a greater burden for this sickness. But in spite of all that, God
is good. always for his people. Good always comes out of evil.
Joy comes out of sorrow. Every single life has a story
to tell, and the Lord doesn't give them all. But He does give
us these, beginning with verse 27. Tera lived 70 years. He had three sons and a grandson
named Lot. And Abram, Nahorn, Haran. Verse 28, when Haran died. That's a sad time for everybody,
as we saw. A sad time for everybody. Sons lost, husbands lost. Okay? In God's providence, he had Abram
and Nahor, they had wives, and Terah took, verse 31, took Abram,
his son, and Lot, the son of Aaron, his son's son, and Sarah,
his son, Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur
of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. All right? What
happened to Nahor? He stayed behind. He stayed there. All right, now they've lost a
brother. Now they're leaving another one
behind. That's a great trial. Have you
ever moved away from loved one or had loved ones move away?
It's a great trial, isn't it? Now, they didn't have what we
have today. We can't, you know, we can't
complain about anything. We can get in the car in three
hours and see our children. Some five, some six. Think about
the Groovers. It used to be, when Walter and
Betty's children left Mexico, how long it would take to get
to see their children. But back in these days, they
might not see them again for years. So they left. They left Nahor behind. And Tera took Abram and Lot and
Sarah, and they left. And there's more sadness on the
way. It's not over yet. Tyra died. When's it going to end? When's
it going to end? The man that was born of woman
was a few days and full of trouble. Full of trouble. Abram and Sarah and Lot. Now, they're childless. They've got a lot. But they're
leaving. Now they're leaving their home.
That's your hometown. Abram's 75 years old. Leave it on. That's tough, isn't it? Tough. How's it going to turn out? You reckon it's going to be okay?
You reckon Abram and Sarah were sad? You reckon they were depressed? You reckon they were afraid?
You reckon they doubted God's purpose? You reckon they asked
why? You reckon? Anything we've ever
asked or thought or felt, they did, and more at this point. How is it going to turn out?
You know, we can look at these things. We've got the end of
this book. We know the end from the beginning in their lives,
but what about ours? What did Abraham have to do?
What did Abram have to do? What did Sarah have to do? Trust
the Lord. So did we. The Lord promised,
and in the next chapter the Lord is going to call Abram. He's
going to promise, Abram, I'm going to make your seed as the
stars in the sky. I'm going to give you a promised
land. It's going to be good. It's going to be real good, Abram.
You're not going to believe how good it is. As a matter of fact,
you're not going to believe me at all. It's going to take a
while. Going to wait 25 or 30 years,
and you're going to think, well, may the Lord renege. The Lord
is slack concerning His promise. No, not like us. You're just
going to have to wait. If you wait, you'll see. I thought
of another story, and I've always wanted to do that in light of
everything working together and showing every intricate detail
in the life of God's people. And that's what I'm trying to
do tonight. But there was another. couple, a mother-in-law and her
daughter-in-law, Naomi and Ruth. Do you remember that? Do you
know how much sorrow they went through? They were married. Ruth had a sister, Orpah. They were all happy. Naomi had
sons and two loving daughters-in-law. Prosperous in the land of plenty,
Moab. The tragedy struck. Both daughters
lost, Naomi lost her husband and both daughters lost their
husbands. Man, man, sorrow on the top of my head. And then
there was a drought and a famine and they lost every possession
that they had. But they heard news. There's
bread in Bethlehem. You're going to have to go back
there. You're going to have to go on foot. Well, three of them
are leaving, and then one decides to stay. Now, she's lost her
sister and a mother-in-law who's lost her daughter-in-law whom
she loved. You don't want to lose one of
your daughter-in-laws, but she did. Alright, now these two widows
with barely a penny to their name are walking hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of miles where they don't know. Where
are they going to stay? Where are they going to sleep?
What are they going to do? They're going to wait on the Lord. And
they're going to see the hand of the Lord with the Lord's grace.
What? Is it going to end up okay? What's
that all about? Christ. It's all about Christ. Everything in their life had
to happen exactly that way. Had to. Brother Scott Richardson
said this, and I'll close. He said, if we knew what God
knows. And Brother Scott has been through,
he lost his first child, a daughter. The only daughter they ever had,
he lost her. How old was she, Mom? Three years old? Six months. Well, that's a cute
age in a six month. First born, a daughter. I've been stricken with many
things. My upbringing was very sad. I lived in an attic of a boarding
house as a boy. He said, if you knew what God knew, you
would order your life just exactly the way He ordered it. And here's what the Scripture
says to us in closing. that he's going to do in the
ages to come. He's going to show us the exceeding
riches of his glory, of his grace, and his kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Mm-hmm.