The Book of Beginnings

We read in the book of Genesis that Cain rose up against Abel and killed him.

This is radical corruption. At the very beginning, the very first offspring to come from Adam and Eve, Cain here exemplifying one who tries to come to God in his own efforts and with his own self-righteousness. We don't have to go very far in the Bible, do we, to learn of man's total depravity about the sin that permeates every aspect of our being. But if I were to ask you how far we need to read before we learn about God's grace, what would you say? Some might say that we don't discover grace until the New Testament. But today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. Stephen Lawson is going to take us all the way back to Genesis. Genesis, which is the book of beginnings, is also the book of beginnings for the doctrines of grace, because we find in these pages, in this opening book in the Old Testament, many of the doctrines of grace that are clearly taught here.

So I want us to hop in and begin to investigate these very carefully. And I want to begin just with the principle of divine sovereignty, which is the foundation upon which the five pillars of the doctrines of grace rest. The sovereignty of God is seen throughout the entire book of Genesis. We clearly see from creation on through chapter 50 the sovereignty of God.

God defines how He is to be worshiped. God sent a cataclysmic flood. God scattered the human race at the Tower of Babel. God called Abraham out of Ur. God initiated the Abrahamic covenant. And even with Joseph, what they meant for evil, God meant for good. We see the sovereign hand of God on virtually every page of the book of Genesis.

But as we look now more carefully, I want us to note first radical corruption or total depravity. This comes through loud and clear in the book of Genesis. And in Genesis 5 and verse 3, we read a very interesting verse that is often overlooked. It reads, When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. Please note, not in God's image, but in Adam's image. Yes, he was made in the image of God, but that image was flawed and corrupted by sin. And so for Seth to be made in the image of Adam is a clear indication that the sin of Adam has been passed down to his posterity, has been passed down to his own children. And his own children now are created differently than Adam was created. Adam was created innocent in the image of God, but now Seth and every child born in the human race would be born in the image of Adam. And to be born in the image of Adam means with a sin nature, with the total depravity of the human nature.

The mind, the affections, and the will are all now dominated by sin. And being born in this state, Seth and all who would be born in the human race would be born dead in transgressions and sin. To back up just one chapter as we consider Cain and Abel, in Genesis 4 we see this in verse 3. Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.

Cain was of an independent spirit. He would come to God his own way. He would invent his own religion.

He would not come the way that God had prescribed. And so we see the sin nature of Cain emerging. He is self-righteous.

He has a self-styled religion. And in verse 5 we read, God had no regard for his offering. God flatly rejected. It didn't matter how sincere Cain was, for he was sincerely wrong. And then we read that Cain was very angry. He wasn't humbled.

He wasn't convicted. He wasn't repentant. He was angry. And with whom was he angry? He was angry at God. It shows the pride, the stinking pride within his own heart. His ego was offended because God rejected his sacrifice.

And who does God think he is to reject my offering? That's exactly where Cain was. And we see total depravity on steroids. We see total depravity glaring in the fourth chapter of Genesis. And in verse 4, God says, if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Well, this sin is pictured here like a lion, crouching at the door, ready to leap and to devour Cain. And of course, this sin is the power of sin, and it is within Cain as sin is ready to consume him. And then God says, and its desire is for you. There is this now principle and power of sin within Cain that desires to dominate Cain, and to master Cain, and to destroy Cain. The problem is within. And the result of that, we read, Cain rose up against Abel and killed him.

This is radical corruption. At the very beginning, the very first offspring to come from Adam and Eve, Cain here exemplifying one who is outside a saving relationship with God, who tries to come to God in his own efforts and with his own self-righteousness. When we come to Genesis 6, we read of the generation before the flood. And we read that the world is not becoming better and better.

We read that man is not evolving upward. That man is devolving downward as he is in a free fall, spiritually speaking, falling deeper and deeper into sin. In Genesis 6, verse 5, this verse just stands out like a bright star in a dark night as it speaks to the total depravity of the entire human race.

And it's been well said, the Bible has to be inspired by God because if man wrote it, man would never be so self-condemning of what is being put into the Scripture. This has to be God's diagnosis of the human race. And so we read, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great, not small, great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every word of this verse is just pregnant with truth regarding total depravity.

And this is a snapshot of the entire human race that includes the comprehensive diagnosis of the human race, every family save one family that would be put onto the ark who had believed in God. So let's just look at these words in Genesis 6, 5. Wickedness, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man. The word wickedness here speaks of moral pollution and inward corruption and filthy depravity. The wickedness of man, the word man is a comprehensive word that speaks of the whole human race. Everyone alive on the planet was great, not small, great, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart.

Did you hear that? Every intent from within the thoughts of the heart. The problem is not his environment on the outside.

The problem is his heart on the inside. And every single thought is polluted by sin. It's like taking one drop of cyanide and putting it in a glass of water and it just permeates the whole and there's death inside the entire glass. From the top of man's head to the bottom of his feet, every inch and every ounce of him is now polluted and permeated by sin. That's what we mean by total depravity, that every capacity of man, his mind, his heart, his will, the totality of the inner person is affected by sin and his thoughts are only evil, not sometimes good, sometimes evil. Even what would appear from a human perspective to be a good intention is in reality, as God diagnoses it, still stained with selfishness.

It was only evil, listen to this last word, an adverb, continually, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every inch, every ounce of him, every person on the planet, only evil continually. That was before the flood. Now, do you think it will be any better after the flood? Because those were sinners that got onto the ark, right? Redeemed sinners, justified sinners, but nevertheless sinners and as they come off the ark, they bring the contamination of sin with them and as they now begin to populate the earth, there is the continuation of exactly the same as before the flood. And so, in Genesis 8 and verse 21, after the flood, second verse, same as the first, it's just more of the same, and we read the intent of man's heart. Now please note what he's describing here, not the outward action, but the inner intent of the heart that will be the rudder of the ship that will guide all of the outer actions. But it's not just something that total depravity that just lays on the surface of a person's life their outward façade.

If we could just change their outward behavior, then man would be okay. No, the problem is he's been injected with the poisonous venom of sin and it's on the inside of him. So it says in Genesis 8, 21, for the intent of man's heart is evil.

That's it, one word, description, bottom line, his every intent is evil. For how long has it been this way? The last three words, from his youth. This didn't start when he went to college. This didn't start when he started dating the wrong girl. This didn't start once he got his first job.

No, this was from his youth. This was injected into him, really, when he was conceived in his mother's womb and when he came forth from his mother's womb and delivered into this world from his youth, his every intent was on evil. Now, this is God's diagnosis and I want to remind us of what Romans 3 says, let God be found true, let every man be found a liar. This is God's diagnosis of the entire human race from the very beginning. So you say, then how in the world would anyone ever be saved?

If every man is running away from God, if every man is hiding from God, if every man has a dread of God, if every man's thoughts and intentions of the heart are on evil continually, then how is anyone to ever enter into the kingdom of God? And the answer is, it must originate with God. It must begin with God. And it began with God, really, in eternity past when God chose his elect. When God chose those whom he would save.

And this brings us now to the doctrine of sovereign election. This is the most glorious truth perhaps in all the Bible because if man cannot choose God, how glorious it is that God chooses sinners to be saved. What man cannot do and what man will not do, God has done from before the foundation of the world. Also when we read in Genesis 12 and verse 1, the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land, which I will show you what God did is God made a distinguishing choice. That in a pagan culture and in a pagan cosmopolitan city, Ur of the Chaldees, God chose Abram for his own possession. God looked past other sinners and passed over other sinners and God chose this sinner to save. And we know that God chose Abram because Nehemiah 9 and verse 7 says, quote, the Lord God chose Abram, close quote.

Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. And so God made this distinguishing choice. And then as we trace this down through the book of Genesis, we see that with every offspring God is making distinguishing choices. And so we read in Genesis 17 that with the birth of Isaac and with the birth of Ishmael, though Ishmael was born first, God chose Isaac and passed over Ishmael and chose Isaac to be the one upon whom he would set his saving sovereign grace. And then as we continue to look in Genesis, we come to Genesis 18 and verse 19.

This is a wonderful verse. And as we come to this verse, it reads, for I have chosen him. God says, I have chosen Abram to save and to use and to be my instrument.

And this word for chosen is a Hebrew word that is sometimes translated to know, to know with love, to know in an intimate, personal way. And what this verb, yada, is saying is that God chose with great love to set his heart of affection and tender mercy upon this undeserving sinner, Abram. He didn't choose Abram because of Abram. He chose Abram in spite of Abram.

He chose Abram simply because he chose to save Abram. And then in Genesis 25 and verse 23, as it comes time for the birth of Jacob and Esau, two twins, two sons in the womb, God chose to set his heart upon Jacob and not upon Esau. And according to human perspective, we would have chosen Esau by birthright and by birth order, but God's ways are higher than our ways and God's thoughts are beyond our thoughts and God's ways are so counter-intuitive to us so many times.

And according to the inscrutable purposes of God, for reasons known only to God alone, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated. Sovereign election clearly taught in the book of Genesis and when we come to the book of Romans and Paul wants to make his case for sovereign election in Romans chapter 9, where does Paul go? Paul goes to the Old Testament. He's already gone to the Old Testament when he taught justification by faith. He went back to Abraham and he went back to David and now to teach sovereign election, where does he go?

He goes back to Genesis to show us it's always been this way. This is not a new truth for New Testament times. The truth of sovereign election was taught in the Old Testament, it was demonstrated in the Old Testament, it was exercised by God in the Old Testament.

Sovereign election. Of course, we see some foreshadowings of definite atonement, but only in what we might call vague ways, types, and pictures God accepted Abel's blood sacrifice, do you remember? And we just learned some elementary truths that we as sinners can only approach a holy God and be received by a holy God as we bring a sacrifice, as we bring on the basis of a blood sacrifice. And then in Genesis 22, in verse 2, God said to Abram, take now your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering.

Again, just a foreshadowing of God taking his son, his only son, his son whom he deeply loves to sacrifice him upon the altar of Calvary's cross one day for sinners like you and me. Well, finally, I want you to see a factual call here in Genesis 11 and verse 31, Abram and Sarai, they went out together from the Ur of Chaldees. And later in Genesis 15, 7, we are given a stronger description of their going out. It tells us they were brought out. Now, who brought them out?

Well, it's the one who was calling them. It was none other than God himself, and the call was so powerful that that call laid hold of them and began to draw them to himself and to guide them to the place where they will enter into a personal relationship with God. And in Genesis 15, verse 7, we read God's own testimony of their testimony. God says, I am the Lord who brought you out of the Ur of Chaldees. Listen, they didn't go out by their own initiative, and God didn't come to them and just nudge them or give them a little bump in the right direction.

God brought them out. And that picture is God apprehending them and laying hold of them and bringing them out of darkness and out of paganism and out of worldliness into a land where God will reveal himself to them. And there, Abram believed God. In fact, the very previous verse, Genesis 15, verse 6, Abram believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. There's the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and it's the very next verse that speaks to how it is that he believed in God. He believed in God because he had been brought out of darkness and brought to a land and to a place where God made himself known to Abram and made known to him his saving mercy and grace.

And he believed in God because he had been brought to believe in God by God himself. And that leads finally to preserving grace. Once entering into a relationship with God, he would never fall out of that relationship because God said in Genesis 17, verse 19, I will establish My covenant with him for – and listen to this – for an everlasting covenant. If Abram had entered into this covenant and then fallen away, it would have been a ten-year covenant, a five-year covenant. But it was an everlasting covenant, right? Therefore, his eternal destiny with God was settled and sealed while he was here upon this earth, and he could never fall out of the covenant because it was God who initiated this covenant and God who grafted him into this covenant and God who has sealed him in this covenant, and he could never fall out of this covenant. This is the preserving grace of God, and this will be opened up and elaborated on in so many ways as we work our way through Scripture with so many truths and metaphors and analogies and images of the eternal security that we have. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a part of this eternal everlasting covenant, and what is settled for eternity cannot be undone in time. Such comforting news for the believer, isn't it?

We can never fall out of the covenant. That's Ligonier teaching fellow, Dr. Stephen Lawson, with a message from his teaching series, Foundations of Grace, Old Testament. The doctrines of grace is a shorthand way of describing God's sovereign will in saving His people.

You may know them better as Calvinism or by the acrostic Tulip. Dr. Lawson's series traces these doctrines of grace through the entire Bible. When you give a donation of any amount today to Ligonier Ministries, we'd like to send you both the Old and New Testament portions of this series, a special edition set that we're offering only here on Renewing Your Mind. You can request all 38 messages when you go online to renewingyourmind.org or when you call us.

Our phone number is 800-435-4343. We were reminded today that these doctrines of grace are not a 16th century invention. They are in fact God's doctrines, revealed in His Word all the way back to Genesis. You'll be encouraged by this series. So again, request Foundations of Grace when you give a donation of any amount.

Our number is 800-435-4343, and our web address is renewingyourmind.org. And in advance, and on behalf of all of my colleagues here at Ligonier Ministries, thank you for your generosity. Tomorrow we'll take a look at the doctrines of grace in the New Testament. We'll see that man's sin is presented the same way in the Gospels as we saw it presented today in Genesis. That's one of the beautiful things about God's Word. It is consistent. I hope you'll join us Thursday for Renewing Your Mind. We'll see you next time.