The Flood or the Rainbow
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in our third week of our covenant series. Grab your Bibles will be in Genesis chapter six. What we're looking at is how God kind of moves history along by making promises to his people.
If you're in one of the blue and white Bibles, you'll be on page three is where Genesis chapter six is. So here here's what's what we've been looking at is basically that God he promises people that he's going to accomplish things. He makes promises and then he keeps his promises. And much of the Old Testament is framed around these promises that God makes. And so we're trying to understand more of the Old Testament and more of how God works and more of how salvation works through studying these these covenants. And so just this chapter six, I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump in and start reading.
God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that we get to gather today and celebrate you, celebrate what you've accomplished for us through your son. And so, God, we pray that you would give us wisdom, insight and clarity as we study your word today. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. We'll be in verse five.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. OK, that's that's a problem. The Lord saw this is verse five again, that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. OK, so God's looking out at humanity and he sees just wickedness, just brokenness, that every intention of the thoughts of the heart was evil continually. Now, part of I think part of us sometimes is like, I want God to just base his judgment on me, his evaluation of me off of my actions.
Some of us, that's you. Some of you are like, no, no, no, let's pick something different. Actions is a terrible one. Let's go with something like something different, something different than actions. But others of us are going to actions are good.
Like I can kind of be a moral person. I, I, for the most part, am able to keep myself behaving. I'm for the most part able to follow some rules. But here's what it says. It based it off the intentions of their heart. So what it's saying is that it wasn't even just actions.
He was looking and seeing that when they did good actions, it was still for personal gain. It was still for personal glory. They were maybe being generous, but it was just to get somebody to like them. Maybe they were being generous, but it was just to have some control over the situation. Maybe they were going out of their way to serve somebody, but it was just for personal gain that the intentions of their heart were only evil continually. And so here's the first problem that we have.
We drew this up the first week that we started this series. And we said that we started off in Eden, that God had designed it for there to be his people in his place, in his presence. That was his plan for humanity, that he started this off there and that Adam and Eve fell. They sinned, they rebelled, and death entered the world. But God made a promise to the serpent that sin would not win.
That at some point there would come someone who would reverse this, who would fix this problem. And so we get just a few chapters in. That happened in Genesis 3. We get just a few chapters in, and it says the entire earth was covered in wickedness continually. And we have a problem, which is how is God going to keep his promise? See, he said he was going to get us back.
He said he was going to accomplish this, and now it looks like sin's going to win. And so we've got to see how is God, the question that shows up immediately is how is God going to respond to this? Like what's he going to do? Well, let's keep reading and find out. 6. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
This is very interesting, because God promised he was going to accomplish this. God has already spoken the end from the beginning. He knows where history is going, but he's in the moment with humanity on earth, and his heart is broken. He's grieved to his heart. I think part of us wants God to be perfectly stoic, perfectly removed from the situation, that he could look down on earth and go, Hmm. The humans.
I find that they are misbehaving. But like not care. There's something about us that wants God to be unflappable, unscathable, like we can't hurt his feelings. But God hurts. It's not like when I look at an anthill and think, What are they doing? Don't care.
They shouldn't be in my yard. Orthomax. Walk away. Like, it's not that. God looks at humans and cares. It says it grieved him in his heart.
So God's first response to sin is personal pain and personal injury. Like that's his first response to sin. Let's read what his second is. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. His second response to sin is wrath. God looks and sees that humanity is evil, and he responds with, I'm going to blot them out.
They have just made a shipwreck of this, and I'm going to destroy them. And there's some fairness in it, because he created them. He created men out of dirt, and then they rebelled against him, and they've harmed each other, and they've broken his heart, they've grieved him, and so his response to sin is wrath. And here's the other thing, when God responds with wrath, it means that sin is actually a big deal. He can't just sit up there and act like it's okay. So he responds with, I'll blot them out.
I will destroy them. Sin is actually a problem. Evil is actually a problem. And we want God to think evil is a problem. Correct? Like we would want a God who would say, no, evil is an issue.
I'm not okay with this. That's his second response. And there's part of us that knows this. Whenever someone sins against you, steals from you, harms your name, lies about you, breaks into your home, hurts someone in your family, what's your immediate response? We need justice. They need to be captured.
They need to be arrested. They need to make restitution. They need to pay for this. There's something when we're sinned against that immediately wells up and says, no, no, no, this isn't okay. And God's the same way. We got that from him.
This heart response and anger towards injustice, and there's some things we should be very angry about. And God is very angry, and he looks at humanity, and his heart is broken over it, but he says, I'm going to blot them out. And that makes sense. I'm tracking so far. Except for maybe killing the birds and the animals and stuff, but what are you going to do? Maybe they were mean too.
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Okay, now this is interesting. God sees the earth. Everybody's evil. Hurts his feelings. Makes sense?
Okay. God says, I'm going to kill everybody. Also makes sense to me. They're all evil. You made them out of dirt. Go for it.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe some of y'all have a harder time with that. We'll talk more about it. Then it says, Noah found favor with God. Now, if we're auditioning for parts in this story, we have all lined up to audition. We're all reading for the part of Noah.
I want to be the person who you like. We're not reading for random evil person number 327. I don't know if y'all know about the story of Noah. Maybe you've seen a little boat, and there were some animals and stuff. The reason there was a boat was because there was a great flood. Nobody's like, I'm here to read for the part of Drownee, number 1002.
No, we want to read for the part of Noah. We want to understand, why did Noah find favor with God? And that's a big question for us. But before we get into that, let's just talk a little bit about Noah. So Noah comes in.
God's continuing this promise. We're going to show a map here. Noah was somewhere in, this is the Fertile Crescent. That's Egypt over there. Noah's somewhere probably in Mesopotamia. We know that at the end of the flood, his ship lands on Mount Ararat.
And trust me, I pronounced that perfectly. It's up there next to the Caspian Sea, so it's a little bit off the map. Mount Ararat. If the same Mount Ararat we have is the Mount Ararat that they had. But somewhere in here, we have a lot of cultures have flood stories.
Some even base their whole timeline, their whole history around pre-flood, post-flood. We've got China has flood stories. Sumer has flood stories. Babylonia has flood stories. The Gilgamesh epic has a flood story in it. And so I've actually heard people say, when they say, oh yeah, the Bible's, it's, you know, it's myth.
They'll say, and one of the ways we know that is everybody has a flood story. I'm just going to float this back. Maybe there was a flood. Maybe it was big. Maybe everybody came out of Noah's line and later was like, hey guys, there was a flood. Because that's how we base things.
Like you don't go to, you don't go to court and they say, we have 15 people that said you stabbed them. Obviously you made it up. Obviously it's all a big trick. You didn't stab anybody because so many people say it. No, you go into jail because you stabbed a guy. Like that's how it works.
You got that many people saying it. So there's all these cultures that talk about there was a big flood. And here's, I'm just going to float this out there. I'm not a historian. Maybe there's a big flood. So we have Noah in this area.
There's going to be a big flood. But here's our question. And we're done looking at the map. But here's our big question. Why did Noah find favor with God? That's what we want to find out.
Like that's, that's a good thing to know. And here are really our two options. Let's read the next verse. Verse nine. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.
Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Jephtheth. Okay. So it seems like our options really are Noah was good. So God liked him.
He found favor with God because he was righteous, because he walked with God. But the text says Noah found favor. And then it says he was righteous and blameless and walked with God. So really our two options are God looked out. Noah was a good guy. So God says, I'm going to save this one good guy.
Or God somehow gave favor to Noah. And because God gave favor to him, Noah then is counted as righteous and blameless. Like the favor comes first. Those are the two, really our two options. Either righteousness came first and then God says, I'm going to put my favor on him. Or God put his favor on him and then righteousness comes.
So we've got to try to figure that out. And the best way to do it is looking at other places in Scripture. So we're going to look at a few places in Scripture to help us understand, was Noah perfect? Was he the righteous guy? Was everybody else terrible, but Noah was great? Because it just said everybody was terrible.
But then is Noah okay? Is he good? So Romans 3 says this. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands.
No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. So Paul is quoting this when he writes this.
He's quoting it from the Old Testament. And he's saying, they said it then. I'm saying it now. This applies to humanity. Psalm 53 says it this way. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
They have all fallen away. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good. Not even one. So Genesis starts off by saying, humanity is evil, but Noah finds favor with God.
And we're told throughout Scripture, not even one. There's not one person who perfectly follows God. Not one person who's considered righteous. Not one person who is blameless. Not one person who does this correctly. So the question becomes like, how is Noah?
There's a verse in Isaiah 53 that says, Isaiah might be 56. It's in there. It's in Isaiah somewhere in the 50s. You're welcome. Hold on a second. I wrote it down.
I'm not even close. It's 64-6. When we put this online, we'll edit it and make it sound like I'm smart. Isaiah 64-6. This says that all of our righteous deeds are like filthy wrecks. They're like a polluted garment.
So my wife and I recently had a son. He is like 15 months old. It's almost a year and a half for people who don't want to do math. He's precious. We got a picture of him here. This is when he was like, I don't know, three or four months old.
Yes, look at him. When he was first born, you notice he's wearing a bib and he's just like laying on the ground. Here's why. He spit up all the time. To the point that we thought it was normal. This is our first kid.
We're like, sure, he spits up. People with like multiple times in Kid City, people would give them back to us and say, he might be lactose intolerant or something. Because it was like, all he did was like drink and then just go, and it was just everywhere. Like he just, he did this all the time. I have a picture of one of my shirts while I was just holding him. This is my shirt.
He's a little tiny baby. I don't even know how he had that much in him. You're welcome. I hope that image is seared in your brain. I had it on me, so don't act like, you know. That's it.
I was holding him and he's like, and there's just everywhere. And it was like, how did you even, like you should be deflated. Like I don't know how you're the same size. He did this all the time. He would just make that noise and then it was like, you had to like spin him around real fast, get a rag, whatever. Like we had, this was all, it became such a problem.
And also sleep deprivation was a problem. I was at Bilo by myself, but I had been so trained by him. I'm walking, I'm putting up my cart and very sleep, very tired, very sleep deprived. And there was like a, you know, like a throat gurgle kind of noise happened. Like, like you, you may, would be going to burp later or something. Y'all know what I'm talking about.
You're humans. You have some of these things. So it's just a weird noise in my throat. And my first thought was, I'm about to spit up. Like I panicked for half a second. Like, this is going to be so embarrassing.
Like I had like four thoughts stacked on top of each other. Uh, and it was like, and then I was like, oh no, I don't, I don't do that. That's just my son that makes that noise and then spits up everywhere. That would be amazing if I did, but I don't. Um, when, when God says that our righteousness is like filthy rags, we had, we had, I understand this so well. We had so many little towels around him.
Eventually you would go to pick one up to like clean up more spit up and it would make your hand gross. Like you would touch it and go, ah, it's too much on that one. You had to find a new one. At some point, it becomes no longer good for helping. Like it's just covered so that it's making other things dirty. And Isaiah 64, six says that all of our righteous deeds are like that.
They look good. They are useless. And that's what, what it says that every intention of their heart was evil continually. It means even when they were doing something that seemed nice, it was evil. It was, it was useless. And so God looks at humanity.
We're told repeatedly that no one is special. And then he says, Noah, you're special. Hebrews 11 helps us out here. Hebrews 11 tells us this about Noah. By faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen. So God tells him there's going to be a flood.
In reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. God, because there are no humans who are perfect, moral, good, God counts righteousness by trusting in him. He became an heir of the righteousness, meaning he received righteousness, a right standing by faith. God placed favor on Noah, calls Noah and says, I'm going to do this. Noah trusts God and God says, you're righteous and holy and blameless.
Which, at first, I want Noah to be a good guy. When I first read this, I think, ah, I hope Noah was a good guy because I want to hold on to this hope that there are good guys. That maybe we could try hard enough and be good enough, but this becomes way more beautiful, way more captivating, that God just says, I'll make you a good guy if you'll just trust me. You don't actually have to be perfect. You don't actually have to be blameless. Just trust me.
Just hope in me. And that's way better because I realize I'm not a good guy. So that's Noah. The story is set. God's going to kill everybody, but Noah found favor. Let's find out what's going to happen.
We'll start back up in 9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. But what we're understanding there is that God counts righteousness not from Noah being a good guy, but from Noah trusting God.
Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Jephthah. How awesome is the name Ham? It's great. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh have corrupted their way on the earth.
And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh. For the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms, that's just type of wood. Make rooms in the ark, cover it inside and out with pitch.
This is how you are to make it. Length of the ark is 300 cubits. A cubit's about 18 inches, because they measured from the tip of their finger to their elbow. So if you're going to go home and try to make one of these, that's how long that is. 300 cubits, it's breadth 50 cubits. It's height 30 cubits.
Make a roof for the ark. Finish it to a cubit above, and set the door in the ark from its side. Make it with a lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark.
You, your sons, your wife, your sons, wives with you. So who found favor? Noah. Who gets to go on the ark? His wife, his sons, their wives. Just bonus people, because God showed favor to Noah.
They're blessed through him. A 19. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you. They should be male and female, of birds according to their kinds, and of animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing on the ground, according to its kind. Two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, store it up, it shall serve as food for you, and for them.
Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. So that's Noah trusting God. So God looks at Noah, says the earth is filled with violence, and I'm going to destroy, I'm going to make an end of all flesh. And I think we're growing, because of technology, and our ability to see the earth, kind of the way God sees it. We're getting closer, because a couple hundred years ago, you knew about the bad stuff that happened around you, and that was it.
Maybe you heard, this is going on through some letters, or through some secondhand stories. You can go right now, get on CNN's website, Fox News website, the BBC, you can follow them on Twitter, and you're bombarded, with murders, shootings, tragedy, war, famine, rape, injustice. I mean, I think we're getting to start seeing a little bit the way God sees the earth, which is, he sees all of it. And there's this, something that rises up in us, and says, why doesn't God stop this? Why doesn't God just fix this? Why is all this evil going on, if God's not going to do anything about it?
Why, why is this still happening? And there's, we all kind of get together, and start saying, we've got to try to do something. I saw a tweet recently, that said, every time someone tells me, that God has more important things to take care of, I just always calmly remind them, yeah, he's not doing that stuff either. Point being, the world's messed up, and it doesn't seem like he's doing anything. Why, why is all this still happening? Why is God okay with wickedness and death?
Like, we have these discussions where people are saying, okay, here's what we've got to do. We're just going to go over to the Middle East, we're going to send in troops, we're just going to take over. The best thing we can do is just carpet bomb and take over. And other people are saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, we need to, we need to help them build infrastructure, we need to give them money, we need to come in and support them, we need to help them have democracy, because that'll fix it. And other people are going, that's not going to fix anything, we're just giving money so that they can buy bombs, we need to go take them out.
There are people who look and say, well, if we cut Israel in half, that'll make people give peace. And they say, no, no, no, we need to not cut Israel in half, we need to defend Israel, we need to help Israel take over the whole Middle East, they can have the whole thing. We have people say stuff like, we need to open our borders, and then we can be welcoming, we can be generous, and they would grow to love us. And other people are saying, no, no, no, no, we need to close our borders, and we need to build a fence, and there should be turrets and lasers, and like, sharks, like, I don't care, whatever we gotta do, they can't come in.
And we got people saying, we need more guns. That way, every time a crazy person pulls out a gun, everybody else pulls out two guns, and then there's like, 75 guns to one gun, and other people are going, we don't need any guns. Like, at some point, cops shouldn't even have guns, because they keep shooting people that they shouldn't be shooting. At some point, we should get like the UK, where nobody has a gun, and then when someone says something mean, cops run in and beat them with sticks. And the goal of all of that, is not, is there a problem? Nobody's standing up in Congress and going, I just wanted to say, that I think we should have a resolution to vote, that everything is great.
Just want to say, it's all working well. I vote we do nothing, take a year off, we're crushing it. Nobody's saying that. The argument is, how do we fix the problem? Because wickedness is rampant. I read recently, that the, that the, the crime scene investigators, because when there's a, when there's a murder, when there's anything that happens, they have to go in, they have to take evidence.
When there's something that happens, like it happened at the Pulse nightclub, this past week, they don't come in, and just clean everything up. They don't come in, and just take care of the people. They come in, and they have to investigate. There's 50, human, bodies laying around them, and they have to take in evidence. They have to try to, to get as much as they possibly can, from every single one of them. And I saw recently, that one of the hardest parts, from this last shooting, was the crime scene investigators, having to do their job, while every single cell phone, rang unendingly, as mothers, and fathers, and friends, and brothers, and sisters, and loved ones, frantically, called, and called, and called, and called, to try to see, are you okay?
And they knew, the answer was no. You're getting no information, and when you do, it's not going to be good. Nobody's answering that phone. And they had to work, while every single phone, in that place, rang, and rang, and rang, and rang, and rang, until its battery died. And the God of the universe, has always been, on both ends of that phone call. He's always been close, to the heart of those, who are getting redial, as fast as they can, who cannot sleep, and cannot find their loved ones.
He's always been there, and he's always been on the other end, where there is someone, who will never take another breath, because of the evil in the world. And our God, looked at the earth, and said, there's wickedness, and I'm going to do something about it. You see, the question we have often, is why doesn't God, stop this evil? And then we also turn around, and we look at the Old Testament, and we say, why is God so mean? Why does God kill people? And it's because God, does stop evil.
He hates it. But this story, gets more confusing. And I want us to keep reading, and I want us to see, why this is confusing. Because we have a bigger problem, we're about to run into, than why does God drown people? Go to chapter 7, verse 17. So God told Noah, to make a boat, Noah made a boat.
There was some time, where he did this, he goes and rounds up animals, God tells him to take more, of the clean animals. That has to do with, some sacrificial stuff. Not like, clean them up, and bring the nice ones. It's like, there are certain clean animals, and unclean animals. That's kind of where we are. Verse 17.
The flood continues. So Noah and his family get in, God closes the ark, rain starts. It says the ground opens up, and water starts coming out. The flood continued, 40 days on the earth. The waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated, on the face of the waters.
The waters prevailed, so mightily on the earth, that all the high mountains, under the whole heavens, were covered. The waters prevailed, above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep. Cubits about 18 inches, is over 20 something feet. You ever been in deep water, and you could touch your foot, and when your foot, touches the ground, you immediately think, I'll be okay. It goes, 20 something feet, above the tops of mountains. We had the flood here, in October.
Remember, some of you sat in your house, while water started coming in the door. You started grabbing as much, as you possibly could. Water rose six inches. Some of you, multiple feet. Some of you, your car was covered. Others of us sat and watched, and watched it on the news, as water kept rising.
It rained for two, three days. It rained for 40, and the water never stopped rising. Eventually, people had gathered, on the highest place they could find. The rain didn't stop. The water didn't stop. Eventually, people would have been, on top of their houses, but the rain didn't stop, and the water didn't stop.
This happened now, we'd be in, whoever could have gotten there, would be in the, the highest building in Columbia. They wouldn't have much of a view, but they'd have to keep moving levels up, as the water kept coming. And eventually, the water would go all the way up, and nobody, survived. But that's not the problem. 20. The waters prevailed, above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep, and all flesh died, that moved on the earth.
Birds, and livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures, that swam on the earth, and all mankind, everything on the dry land, and whose nostrils, was the breath of life, died. He blotted out, every living thing, that was on the face of the ground, man, and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out, from the earth. Only Noah, was left, and those, who were with him, in the ark. The waters prevailed, on the earth, for 150 days, that's about five months. Here's the problem.
The problem, isn't that God, flooded the earth, and killed everybody. The problem, is that he didn't kill Noah. That's the issue. That's actually, what bothers me, about this text. And that's what, kind of bothers, Old Testament writers, as they go through. Not that God kills people, but that God lets some go.
That's the, that's the problem. Let's keep reading. It gets worse. We're going to go, to verse 820. So it just talks about, how Noah, begins to find out, that the water's running down, he gets stuck on the Mount Ararat.
They finally see, that the water has gone away, and they come out of the boat. Which had to be a good day. You've been in a boat, for five, six months, it's been raining, for a long time. Your boat quits rocking, that day was great. Eventually, you realize, the land is dry, and you get to leave the boat, which they were sat, on a mountain, for like a month. Just waiting, for God to say, you can come out of the boat now, to come out.
Then Noah built, an altar to the Lord, took some of every clean animal, and some of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings, on the altar. Which immediately, you're like, no don't do it, there's only two of each, you can't kill them. But he had more of them, we said that earlier, so Noah didn't mess up. Actually, there were some really cool animals, we'll never know about them, Noah killed them. Unicorns, dragons, I'm just kidding. Alright.
And when the Lord smelled, the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again, curse the ground, because of man. For the intentions of man's heart, is evil, from his youth, neither will I ever, strike down, every living creature, as I have done, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Chapter 9, and God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives, shall be food for you, as I give the green plants, I give you everything.
And God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives, shall be food for you, as I give the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh, with its life, that is its blood, and for your life blood, I will require a reckoning, from every beast, I will require it, and from every man,
From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning, for the life of man, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man, shall his blood be shed, for God has made man, in his own image. Okay, God originally made his covenant, with Adam and Eve, told them be fruitful, multiply, have dominion over the earth, he gave them all the plants, Adam and Eve were vegetarians, after the flood, God says, I'm making all the animals, afraid of you, so that it will be harder, to kill them, but now you can eat them, and then he says,
Be fruitful and multiply, he's making his covenant, with Noah again, he's making this, you're going to go do this now, you're taking over, but there's something, really weird and different, he adds in this whole section, about murder, here are the rules, on killing each other, why? Because every intention, of man's heart, is evil, the problem isn't fixed, Noah isn't perfect, Shem, him, and Jephtheth, and their sweet little wives, need to be told, don't murder each other,
Some of you are married, you're like, good advice, the problem isn't fixed, it gets worse, I mean actually, it's good news, but it's really hard to take, here we go, then God said to Noah, and his sons with him, behold I establish, my covenant with you, and your offspring, after you, and with every living creature, that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth, with you, as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth, I establish my covenant with you,
That never again, shall all flesh, be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again, shall there be a flood, to destroy the earth, and God said, this is the sign of the covenant, that I make between me and you, and every living creature, that is with you, for all future generations, I have set my bow in the cloud, that's the rainbow, and it should be a sign, of the covenant between me, and the earth, when I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant, that is between me and you, every living creature of all flesh, and the water shall never again, become a flood,
To destroy all flesh, when the bow is in the clouds, I will see it, and remember the everlasting covenant, between God, and every living creature, of all flesh on the earth, God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant, that I have established, between me, and all flesh, that is on the earth, okay, first of all, side note, the rainbow, is not for us, to remember the covenant, because we have no control, over whether or not, it stops raining, the rainbow, is so that God,
Will remember the covenant, is what he said, I'll see the rainbow, and I'll remember, it's like a big post-it note, I'm not trying to be real sacrilegious, but it does say, he'll remember, I'll see the rainbow, I'll remember my covenant, so he's, it's raining, he sees the rainbow, he's like, oh yeah, I'm not going to drown, everybody anymore, here's the problem though, Noah, deserves the flood, and God, gives him a rainbow, no one is righteous, God has to tell them,
Don't murder each other, I have a very distinct problem, with that, is anybody else, am I the only one mad at Noah, like y'all are just okay, with this guy, like I, here's the thing, if God just came in, and said, everyone's evil, I'm going to drown everyone, I can get on board, with that, I actually would have, a little bit of a peace, about that, I'd be like, yeah, this seems fair, we haven't done a great job guys, there's some nice stuff going on, I mean we also get to see,
The nice things happening, I mean every time, anything cute happens, Ellen has them on their show, on her show or whatever, look at this kid, can play the violin, look at all these puppies, I mean half the internet, is just videos of cats, I get that, but it doesn't matter, because if God, was to come to earth right now, and say I'm going to get rid, of all the people, who would make earth not perfect, let's say he did that, let's say he just shows up, and says okay, everyone in prison, you're gone, I know some of you, maybe got incarcerated,
Incorrectly, wrongly, arrested, doesn't matter, you've broken the law, you're gone, all of you wiped out, maybe he says, okay now everybody, who's intentionally caused, physical harm to another person, you're gone, because you can't be trusted, so all those people are gone, then he says, everyone who's caused, intentional emotional harm, to another person, you're gone, if he kept going, he's not going to find, not even one, what Romans says, what Psalm says,
Not one, and you got to have two, to keep the population going, there's not even going to be, one really sad, nice lady, not one, yesterday, my 15 month old son, was playing with a water bottle, he wanted to take the top off, my wife would not let him, so he took the water bottle, and went, and smacked her in the face with it, he can't be trusted, he does not get to stay, that's true, 15 months old, not one, there's not one, that can be trusted, not one of us, would keep it together,
Not one of us, would be worthy, not one of us, can stand in front of God, and say I'm okay, I'm righteous, leave it to me, it'll be alright, I can handle it, I'll do well, not one, and then there's Noah, you see if God said, everyone's going to get flooded, sounds fair, if God stepped in, and said everybody gets a rainbow, if he turned Oprah, and was like you get a rainbow, and you get a rainbow, and you get a rainbow, like if he stepped in, and did that, I'd still have a problem with that,
Because I wouldn't believe, he was good, I would not be able, to believe he was good, because everybody, shouldn't get a rainbow, there's stuff that happens, people don't deserve rainbows, they don't, I wouldn't believe, you could not convince me, if everybody got a free pass, you could not convince me, God was loving, the reason, I would be willing, to harm someone the most, is to defend, what I love the most, and if God was able, to look out on earth, and see what's going on right now, and just go, everything's okay,
I don't know, what kind of God you are, but you don't love, you don't care, you're not on both sides, of that phone call, but here's the problem, God sends a flood, but no one makes it out, that's the issue, not why does God kill people, why does God save anybody, there are times, in the Old Testament, David, one of the greatest kings, everybody's like, King David's the greatest, David has one of his, goes and gets one of his, commander's wives pregnant, and then kills him, and then takes his wife, as his own,
And God killed David, this is terrible, and David feels sorry about it, and God's like, you're forgiven, you're a man after my own heart, and it's like, this is nonsense, there are times, where God basically looks, at people who are evil, and says, oh look at how sad they are, I forgive them, it's nonsense, why does Noah get out, let's go to Romans, chapter 3, we read a little bit of it earlier, it's going to page 611, so we're leaving Noah, he's off the boat, he made it out, God made his promises to him,
His covenant, I'm setting it up with you, I'm not going to do this again, and here's the question, it's like, okay, why do we get a rainbow, why is God not going to flood the earth again, how does this work, how does this fare, verse 21, it's on page 611, in blue and white Bible, I don't want to lose anybody, are we there, alright, but now the righteousness of God, that means his correctness, his rightness, his justice, has been manifested, shown up, apart from the law, okay,
The law is the rules, your ability to behave, Noah's ability to be good, in front of God, the righteousness has shown up, apart from that, although the law and the prophets, bear witness to it, the righteousness of God, through faith, in Jesus Christ, for all who believe, you see, Noah was made right by faith, and that same rightness, that same righteousness, is open to us, by faith in Jesus Christ, but the question is, how, and how is that fair, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short,
Of the glory of God, if he came through, and got rid of all the evil people, he would get rid of everybody, the flood, should drown everybody, for all have sinned, and fall short, of the glory of God, and are justified, by his grace, as a gift, through the redemption, that is in Christ Jesus, so Jesus graciously, gives justification, which means, you're made right with God, through redemption, offered through him, how are we redeemed, through Jesus, whom God put forward, as a propitiation,
By his blood, to be received, by faith, propitiation, means that he absorbed, wrath, the only way, anybody gets a rainbow, is that Jesus, takes the flood, Jesus absorbed, wrath, we have wrath, coming towards us, and Jesus absorbs it, for us, and we can place, faith in him, propitiation by his blood, when he went to the cross, Jesus was taking, the wrath of God, on our behalf, for our sin,
To be received by faith, this was to show, God's righteousness, because if you're reading, the Old Testament, he's not righteous, because sinners go free, this was to show, his righteousness, because in his divine, forbearance, he had passed over, former sins, it was to show, his righteousness, at the present time, so that he might be just, meaning sin, is paid for, evil is evil, and justifier, of the one, who has faith, in Jesus,
Sin is paid for, wrath is poured out, the flood goes to everybody, except for, God in his divine, righteousness, passed over some sins, Noah's, David's, he passed over some sins, and he poured them out, on Jesus, all sin is paid for, but God, made a promise, that sin wouldn't win, okay, go back with me, elementary school, lunchroom, we show up, you got a Spiderman, lunchbox, some of you rocking,
A brown bag, some of you got, a Ziploc bag, some of you got, like a big cooler, some people like, yeah, you got a, my little pony, lunchbox, that's cool man, you're a brony, whatever, y'all can look that up, if you don't know what that is, or don't, it's not really worth your time, but there you go, alright, so we're sitting there, we all open our lunchbox, and every single one of us, has an apple, juice,
Juice box, ham and cheese, mayonnaise sandwich, with no crust, because we know what's up, bag of Fritos, oatmeal cream pie, and some of y'all are like, I want a ho-ho, we in South Carolina, we don't, get that host of stuff out of here, there's the little Debbie's, what are you talking about, you don't get a ho-ho, you got an oatmeal cream pie, sometimes you get a moon pie, but not today, you got an oatmeal cream pie, all of us, popping up in our lunchboxes, everybody has the exact same thing, who you trading with, who you trading with,
Some of y'all thought, I guess I can't trade with anybody, others of y'all thought, I could trade my Fritos, for another oatmeal cream pie, and you're correct, maybe you're like, I don't know, maybe my mom uses miracle whip, and that other kid doesn't know it, and his mom uses dukes, and I'll get his sandwich, here's the thing though, we can shuffle it around, we've all got the same stuff, it doesn't matter, if I've got more oatmeal cream pies, and you think sandwiches are better, and I tell you, oatmeal cream pies are better, we've all got the same stuff, the only way we actually get to trade, is if someone opens their lunchbox, and they got something different,
No one is righteous, not one of us, we all popped open our lunchboxes, and we all have the same stuff, the only way, we get out, the only way, we get to trade, is if someone showed up, and did what we couldn't do, Jesus, to follow our analogy, opened his lunchbox, and had something completely different, Jesus was perfect, on our behalf, so that he could actually swap places with us, because he didn't deserve wrath, he had something different, so that he could actually, exchange what he had for us, he could take our sin, he could take the wrath of God, that was deserved for our sin,
He could give us his righteousness, and then God could be just, because all sin is paid for, evil is evil, God does not sit back, and wink at it, the flood is coming, but, God is gracious, and offers a rainbow, offers grace, and love, to those who trust in Jesus, and the reason why, is because he promised in the garden, to the serpent, that sin wouldn't win, and when sin had taken over the earth, he said, I'm going to make a way, and his way, wasn't just Noah and a boat, but it was a cross, where former sin,
Could get passed over, and Jesus could pay our debt, the only way, you don't get a flood, the only way, you are not drowned, by God's wrath, for the evil intentions, of your heart, because not even one, stands before him, and is justified, is through faith in Jesus, just as Noah climbed in an ark, and said, I trust that this will take care, of the flood, we get to climb into Jesus, we get to place our faith in Jesus, and say, I trust that this will take care, of your wrath, Matt's going to come back up here, because we believe this,
Because we know, that faith, comes through the promises of God, that Jesus, makes a way for us, to have righteousness, we can respond to sin, the same way God does, it can hurt us, we can go sit next to the, our friends in the LGBT community, right now, and put our arm around them, and say, I'm sorry, I know you're scared, I know you're confused, I'm sorry, this is sick, this shouldn't have happened, I love you, we get to hurt, with those who hurt, and we get to fight injustice,
We get to hate sin, and we get to do all of that, from a place that knows, I'm no better, I'm not righteous before God, I'm not good, I'm not holy, I'm not the standard, I trust Jesus, to make me right, we get to actually, give good news, which is, all of us deserve a flood, but Jesus is willing, to take it on your behalf, we said last week, that all of us, had lined up behind Adam, all of us had chosen sin, truth is, all of us deserve, a flood, but God promised,
That sin wouldn't win, Jesus paid for it, so that we might have, faith and life, and hope, and if you're here, and you haven't placed, your faith in Jesus, I just want you to know, that's all it takes, you don't have to be good, you don't have to be right, you get to trust, God to make you right, through Jesus, to take away your sin, take away your wrath, through Christ, that's the hope we have today, God, we thank you, thank you for your grace, God we thank you, that when it seemed,
Like you were being unfair, when it seemed, like you were being unjust, to let sinners go, that you had a plan, and you had a promise, that you were going to, make sin be paid for, but that you were going to make a way, that we could go free, and God we thank you, for the cross, we thank you, that Jesus loved us enough, to take your wrath, on our behalf, as a propitiation, to take the flood, so that we could receive, grace, and favor, and righteousness, God that we could be, counted right,
As Noah is counted right, that we could stand before you, and be called blameless, because Jesus was blameless, on our behalf, and our blame has been shifted to him, and our debt has been paid by him, and we can go free, God I pray, there wouldn't be a person, in this room, that would ever have to face, the flood of your wrath, I pray God, that no one in this room, ever stands before you, on their own merit, on their own work, on their own two feet, I pray that every single one of us, hides behind the cross, I pray God, that your wrath, for our sin,
And our wickedness, and the evil intentions, of our heart, was poured out fully, and justly, on Jesus, and that every single one of us, can stand before you, welcomed, and loved, and spoken highly of, not because we're good, but because Jesus, swapped places with us, and God I pray, that more and more people, in this city, will come to know, the grace that is offered, through you and you alone, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Jun 19