The Fiery Furnace
Transcript
My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors with Mill City Church and I'm really excited to share with you our message for today. I got the privilege to open up the Bible Story series and actually get to close it for us this morning. And I think it's been a fun and enjoyable series for us as a church. And the question we've been seeking to answer along the way is, who is the Bible actually about? Is it about us or is it about Jesus?
And along the way we've had to ask other questions like, okay, how do I read the Bible? Am I supposed to learn a moral or am I supposed to learn some facts? Do I insert myself into the story or do I kind of sit off as a third person just viewing what's going on? And as we've walked through this series, what we've been able to see is that the purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to us. It's to tell us about God, specifically through the Revelation of his son, the person and work of Jesus. And that's what we've been looking at.
As we've been walking through this series, we've been trying to answer that question, who is the Bible actually about? And as we've walked through it, another thing that we've been able to see is that because we know the end of the story, it impacts how we read the beginning of it. So since we know what God's ultimately going to do through Jesus, it impacts, changes how we walk through the Old Testament, how we read the Old Testament. It's very similar to the way that you'd watch the movie Titanic. Okay? We know the history of Titanic before the movie in the 90s came out.
We already knew what had happened. And so the whole time you're watching this movie, as you're watching Jack play cards for the tickets to get on the ship, and he's hoofing it. He's hoofing it to try to get on the ship, and he gets on, and you're just like, no, that's not going to end well for you. And he and Rose fall in love. The whole time, you know what's going to happen. You know that the ship is eventually going to strike an iceberg.
It's going to go down. Jack and Rose are going to end up in the water. Well, Jack's going to end up in the water. Rose was on the door that both of them could have fit on. Rose was super selfish. She looks at Jack.
She goes, I'll never let go. I'll never let go. And then she, like, wakes up from her cold stupor and pries his dead hand from hers and lets him sink to the bottom of the ocean. Rose was a liar, guys. But because we know the end of the story, it impacts how we watch the whole movie.
The same thing is true of the Bible. We know the end of the story, so it impacts how we read through the Old Testament. And as we walk through stories like Adam and Eve in the garden, as we looked at Noah's ark, the journey of Joseph, last week David versus Goliath, we've gotten to see how they each give us glimpses into different aspects of the gospel, what God is ultimately going to do through Jesus. We've seen righteousness. We've seen how sin can be taken care of. We've seen grace.
And we've seen victory. And today, as we bring our series to a close, we're going to be looking at one of my favorite stories in the Bible. We're going to be looking at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace. And I'm really excited to share it with you this morning. But before we hop in, I just want to pray that God would use this Old Testament story to reveal himself to us.
So you guys join me. Let's pray together. God, we are asking that you would speak to us this morning. In our own ability, we do not have the capability to look at your word and understand on our own. And so, God, we are asking that by your Holy Spirit, you would speak to us this morning. God, that we would hear from you, that we would understand in a greater way who you are and how we are to live in relationship with you.
In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, our story from today comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 3. So if you've got your Bible, go ahead and grab it. If you don't have one, we've got the blue and white Bibles on the seats. It's going to be page 480. And you're going to want to have it today because we're going to read all of chapter 3.
Scripture is not going to be on the screen. If you're with us this morning and you don't have a Bible, we would love for you to take one of these with you. We have plenty of them. We want everyone to be able to have a Bible. So go ahead and grab one of those and take it with you.
Now, in our series, three out of the five stories that we covered came from the book of Genesis. So we could have called it Genesis plus two more stories, but we went with Bible stories. And last week, we made a pretty big jump from Genesis all the way to 1 Samuel. And I want to take a little bit of time because we're moving even further down the timeline to get from the story of David versus Goliath to the story that we're looking at today. So if you've got those Bible stories handout cards that Raz was talking about at the very beginning, go ahead and grab those.
They're in the seats behind you or directly in front of you. Grab one of those. Take that with you. That's a helpful study resource. Raz is one of our community group leaders. He's a seminary student at CIU.
Just did a wonderful job putting that together so that you could actually see the chronological timeline of the Old Testament because it helps you as you're reading through to know where to actually place the story in the history. So go ahead and grab that. All right. Let's see if I can do this for us. Last week, we looked at David. We looked at David and Goliath.
And David defeats Goliath. And eventually, he's going to become the king of Israel in place of a guy named Saul. And David was a good king. He's known as the quintessential king of Israel. And he had his own flaws. He had his own shortcomings.
But David was a good king that led the people in following the Lord. After David comes his son Solomon. Solomon's known for his wisdom. He wrote several books that we have in the Bible. Solomon also got the opportunity to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem where God's presence was said to dwell. So he was very wise.
And he had lots of riches. And he had a lot of wives. And I don't know how wisdom and wives work together. I guess that's where riches came in. I guess he was able to take care of them that way. But after Solomon, that's when things start to go south.
The kingdom splits in two. Splits between one of Solomon's sons and one of the commanders of his army. So we have a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. And as generation after generation passes, the people begin to abandon God. The kings lead them in worshiping foreign idols and making sacrifices to foreign gods. And God in his grace sends prophets like Isaiah, like Micah to come and to warn the people.
To tell them to repent and turn back to God. Or they're going to be conquered by another nation and sent out of their homeland as exiles. That's what the prophets were saying. And while there were some kings along the way that heeded that wisdom, heeded that prophecy, over time they become more and more depraved and move away from the Lord until eventually the northern kingdom is going to be conquered by Assyria. And then after that, all of the known world in that time is going to be conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. And that's where we find ourselves in the story today is with these exiled Jews in the land of Babylon that survived the destruction and are now living in captivity.
Now, I want to take just a second to paint that picture up for you. Because when it comes to reading the Old Testament, it doesn't seem real to us. It seems tall tale-ish or like it's a fable. This was real. It's not just the Bible that supports this. Historical documents from the time tell us that this actually took place.
This actually happened. So just go there with me for a second. Imagine that you're an Israelite. You're one of God's chosen people in the promised land. And a bigger, badder empire from the east comes in. And they go into your holy city and they destroy the temple where God's presence was said to dwell.
Most of your family and friends, they're killed. And those of you who are left are carried off to a country with a culture you don't understand. A language you cannot speak. And God's that you do not serve. Welcome to Babylon. I swear these exiles are.
They're living in captivity. And the other side of the prophecy did say this. That there would come a time that after these Jews had been exiled from their homeland, there would come a time where they would repent and God would rescue them out. And they would get to return to their homeland. So that kind of gives us a little bit of the background.
And now we can jump into our story a little bit. So now in Daniel, we're going to look at chapter 3. In chapters 1 and 2, what we see is that this, as the exiles are coming into Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar wants to take all the best of the young people, all the elite people, and he wants to bring them into the palace. And here's what it says. This is like his gauge on what he wants coming in. He says, Youths that were without blemish, good-looking, skillful in wisdom, and endowed with knowledge.
So didn't you feel kind of bad that you didn't get to go to the palace? Like, oh no, not only am I not smart, I'm not good-looking either. But the reason that King Nebuchadnezzar wanted these youths was to train them, to teach them culture and language. This was an expansive empire, and he wanted people who knew different areas to be able to rule over them. And eventually what we see is that some of the Jewish exiles actually find favor in King Nebuchadnezzar's eyes. Daniel, who wrote this book, and three of his friends whose story that we're going to look at today, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they rise to power, and they're put over top of different provinces, those three specifically over the province of Babylon.
And while they're in the worst possible scenario for them, while they're in the worst possible situation, we see that God's still with them. God is still with them in this scenario. So Daniel, Daniel chapter 3, verse 1. A lot of setup for us this morning. Go ahead and turn there. Verse 1.
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Okay, we don't know a whole lot about Nebuchadnezzar at this point. This is kind of our introduction to him. But what we see is that Nebuchadnezzar has an image set up that's 60 cubits high, 6 cubits wide, and is made of gold.
The most powerful man in the known world at this time is flexing his muscles just a little bit. And we talked last week about what that measurement of a cubit was. It was a rudimentary measurement of fingertip to elbow, and it was about 18 inches. Or if you're me and have T-Rex arms, it's more like 14 inches. But the standard man was about 18 inches, which means that this statue is 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide.
It was made of gold. And this thing was real. There are Babylonian documents from the time that actually talk about this statue. This wasn't just a made-up thing. It was actually real. And those documents nor scripture actually tell us what the image was.
Some people think that it was an image from a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had back in chapter 2. Daniel actually interprets that dream from him. You can read that story. Others think it was an animal, which would have matched up with other religions in that area of the world at the time. But regardless, this image had an intended purpose.
And we get to see a little bit of it in the next verse. Verse 2. Verse 3. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors. Okay, at some point, do you feel like Nebuchadnezzar's just giving out titles to all of his friends? I'm pretty sure he made satrap up.
That's not a thing, right? Like he's going around the room. He's like, okay, Frankie and Steve, you guys are going to be counselors. Johnny, you'll be a governor. And Rufus, you'll be a magistrate. What about Carl?
Carl? I didn't forget Carl. See, Carl is going to be a satrap. A what? A satrap. What's that?
Shut it, Carl. You're a satrap. I don't know. There's all these different titles within the provinces. But it continues on.
Continuing on in verse 3. The justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So the most powerful man in the known world summons everybody from every part of his empire. And it was huge. This empire would have stretched from the bottom of Egypt to the Persian Gulf.
It was huge. He summoned everybody, even the people with made-up titles. Everybody's coming. And I want you to imagine no expense spared Woodstock style. Because it says he set it up on the plain of Dura. He set this thing up on a level piece of ground so that as many people as possible could get to it, could see this image.
And now they're all standing. They're all standing in the shadow of this image. And it continues on. Verse 4. All right.
Time out. You guys know that I'm a musician. So that any time scripture expressly points out something about singing or about music or about instruments, I'm automatically drawn to it. And so you go back through this list and you're clipping along. Horn. Yep.
Pipe. Yep. Liar. That would have been like a stringed instrument, very similar to a guitar. Trigon. Don't know what that is, but it sounds cool.
Harp. That's an interesting choice. Bagpipe. Bagpipe. In the middle of all these Eastern instruments, who snuck the Scottish guy in? Wes William Wallace.
I'm really sorry. That's a terrible Scottish accent. That was terrible. I apologize. And speaking of terrible, this would have sounded terrible. I'm serious.
If you look, it was a horn and a pipe and a stringed instrument and a harp and a... I guess they were trying to scare them into submission to make them bow down. I don't know what the intended purpose was here. But all these different instruments, and in verse 6, And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe... Let's just call them the band, the really terrible band.
The band and every kind of music. All the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So they assemble all these people, and at the sound of the band, everyone's to bow down, or they're going to get thrown into a fiery furnace. Bow down or die. So all the people, including the Jews who had been exiled from their homeland for doing this same mess, have to bow down at the sound of the music to this inanimate object that's made by human hands.
The herald just said that King Nebuchadnezzar had it set up, which means that the elements would have been melted down and poured out by human hands, cast by human hands, shaped by human hands, lifted into place by human hands, could not move on its own without human hands. Bow down and worship. That's what's facing all the people that are standing beside this image. And it continues on. Verse 8. Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews.
Okay, Chaldeans would be similar to southerners. It was a regional designation, so these were people from Babylon. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. You, O king, have made a decree. You, O king, have made a decree. Lost my place.
That every man who hears the sound of the terrible band and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Okay, so there is likely some type of jealousy going on here.
Scripture does not tell us that. But these are hometown boys. And they are talking about the Jewish exiles. And this is a slap in the face to the king. Not only are they disobeying him, but these aren't even his people. These are conquered exiles.
These are people that he treated graciously and had them trained and gave them food and shelter and clothing. And now they're not bowing down to the image that he set up. And they're doing it in front of the entire empire. Nuh-uh. Not happening. And Nebuchadnezzar is hot.
Jump back with me. Verse 13. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now, if you are ready when you hear the sound of the band and every kind of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good.
But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? So Nebuchadnezzar brings them in and he's going to give them another chance. But it's an ultimatum. Either you bow down or you're going to die. Bow down or I'm going to throw you into a fiery furnace.
And verse 15, the tail end of verse 15 really gives us a picture of what's going on here. Basically says, if you won't worship my gods, which God do you think is going to save you from the fiery furnace that I'm going to throw you in? And we get to see how they respond. Verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace.
And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. And I love that. Don't you love that? That's why it's one of my favorite stories in the Bible. The king says, I'm going to kill you.
And those guys aren't fazed by it. They simply answer the question to which God could save them. And they say, our God, our God can save us. But even if he doesn't, we'd rather die than serve your idol. Don't even bother striking up the band again. You're going to have to kill us.
We won't bow down. You see what these guys are saying here? Don't miss the beauty of what's going on. Here's what they're saying. They're saying, our God can deliver us. He will deliver us.
But if he chooses not to do so, we still trust him. Even if we are to die, he is still in control and has a greater purpose. That in the midst of the worst possible scenario, they have placed their full trust in God. And let me just say this. It's not because these guys had super faith. Nobody's arguing that these guys had incredible faith and courage and trust.
But it's not even that they had faith that everything was going to turn out all right. They have faith in God no matter what the outcome is. They trust him. Him. Period. And that goes so far beyond our understanding of trust and faith.
So often with us, our trust and faith is very circumstantial and can be very conditional. So a lot of times it goes like this. God, I place my faith in you if... Fill in the blank. God, I trust you as long as... Fill in the blank.
We have fill in the blank faith. It's circumstantial. It's conditional. That when things in our lives are going well, when we're up on top, God, I trust you. I have faith in you. And as things take a turn for the worse, as we're like these guys and we're facing death and we're facing suffering, our faith and our trust begin to diminish because we're thinking about our trust.
We're thinking about how much faith we have rather than the trustworthiness and the faithfulness of our God. And that's what we're seeing in the story. These guys look at Nebuchadnezzar and they say, he's completely capable. He's infinitely good and wise. And whatever happens to us, it's inside of his plan and control. We trust him.
Verse 19. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace.
Now, it looks like Daniel is super fond of lists. Okay? But the Bible doesn't just throw out random facts for no reason. There's a purpose in that. We're going to come back to it. We're going to see it.
Verse 22. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. Well, that didn't go well. These guys stood up for their God and they still get tossed into the fire. King Nebuchadnezzar was so enraged that he had the furnace heated seven times more than it could be.
I don't even know how they were supposed to measure that. That they had them bound in their clothing with ropes. And the mighty men of their army went to take these guys and throw them into the fire. And it was so hot that it killed the guys who were throwing them into the fire. And they're tossed in. And it seems like that should be the end of the story, but it's not.
Pick it up. Verse 24. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. He answered and said, But I see four men unbound walking in the midst of the fire.
And they are not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar's mind is blown because he looks into the burning fiery furnace. And instead of hearing screams of agony, of pain, seeing men riling around in pain on the ground, he sees men walking around. Unbound. Unharmed.
And he goes to count. One, two, three. How many men did we throw in there? And I'm looking at this man. He can't even describe what he's saying because he says, The fourth looks like a son of the gods. He looks like a divine being.
Verse 26. Pick it up. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace. He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out. Come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.
What else was he supposed to do? Nebuchadnezzar runs as close to the fire as he absolutely can. And he yells for him to come out. They're walking around inside. What else is he going to do? Come out.
Come out. And this is like a movie. It's like one of those movies where the hardcore guys go into the abandoned warehouse and they wreck shop and they're, you know, killing people. And they're coming out. And the warehouse is like blowing up behind them. And there's fire.
And there's smoke. And they're walking out with the gangster truck. And everything's blowing up. Don't act like that's not the music that's going on in your mind. When you imagine yourself in that story. And they come walking out of the fire.
Verse 27. And the satraps. Good. Carl's back. The satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not sensed.
Their cloaks were not harmed. And no smell of fire had come upon them. All the fire was able to do was burn the ropes off that they had used to bind them. When they walk out of the fire, they don't even smell like smoke. I think that's why Daniel included those details. Hats weren't messed up.
Garments weren't messed up. They didn't even smell like smoke. God had delivered them. And Nebuchadnezzar's reaction is priceless. Priceless. Verse 28.
Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and gilded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God. Therefore, I make a decree. Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. Nebuchadnezzar says, Bump that. I'm switching teams. I'm on that God's team.
And anyone who speaks a word against the God of Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego will be ripped to shreds. Whoa, take it easy, king. Their houses will be leveled. Goodness. Moses. Holes cutting their favorite t-shirts and their favorite goldfish drowned.
How are you going to drown a goldfish? Shut it, Carl. You're a satrap. Figure it out. He loses his mind. He does a complete 180.
The most powerful king in the known world says, Nobody will speak a word against these guys. And verse 30. Then the king promoted Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. And we get to the end of the story and we're pumped. What a story. These three guys in the face of imminent death placed their full trust in either God's deliverance or his providence.
And they're thrown into a fiery furnace. But that's not the end of the story. Nebuchadnezzar looks inside and he can't even explain what he's seeing. He goes to count. He says, one, two, three, four. One of them looks like a divine being.
One of them looks like a son of the gods. And we're getting a glimpse into what God is ultimately going to do in the gospel through his son as Jesus steps into the fire on our behalf. We get a picture of it. Right there. In the middle of this story. What God is ultimately going to do through Jesus.
And Nebuchadnezzar is puzzled and he's looking inside. He doesn't even know what's going on. He says an angel. The translation of that is a messenger. So whether it was an angel or a messenger that Nebuchadnezzar saw or something else completely, entirely different, one thing remains constant.
God is with them. And once again, we get a perfect picture of the gospel in this story. We're once again reminded that the Bible isn't about us. What we see, what we see in the story is that the God of the Bible, the one true God, the God of Israel, the God that these men refuse to dishonor and to disobey, he doesn't just deliver them out of the furnace. He joins them in it. We get a glimpse of his character here.
Why he's so trustworthy. He doesn't just keep them from harm. He walks with them in it. And as we continue to read, as the story of the Bible unfolds, this isn't a God that just calls for faith, that just calls for obedience, that sits far off and expects greatness from his people. No. He would join his people.
That Jesus would step out of heaven and step into the furnace. That Jesus would become a human. That Jesus would face temptation. That he would live and love perfectly. And he would go to a cross. And he wouldn't leave unscathed.
He was brutally murdered. See, what we see in this story is that three men step into an execution, and they're joined there by their God. And they're delivered. What we see in Jesus is that Jesus goes to a cross, and he switches places with us, and he dies. And we're the ones that walk out of the furnace free. We get a glimpse into the gospel in this story.
But the cool thing about it is that Jesus doesn't stay dead. Jesus walks out of the grave three days later to defy the furnace, to defy death and punishment and offer life. What we see is that these men have faith, and they're joined in the furnace, and they're granted life. And we're offered the same thing. We're offered the same thing. That we're offered to join a God who isn't unfamiliar with pain and suffering, a God who died in our place on our behalf, who took our execution.
The character of God is fully revealed to us in Jesus to show us that he is trustworthy, that he is faithful. And the cross ultimately proves that. Jesus stepped in, and through his death and resurrection, he proves that. And just like with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the purpose of their suffering was to bring glory to God. These three guys were in the face of death and suffering. And when they're thrown into the fire, they don't know what's going to happen.
But as they're brought out, Nebuchadnezzar makes a decree that no one can speak a word against the God of these guys. God's name is made known throughout the entire empire. And in the same way, in the suffering and the death of Jesus, God had a greater purpose. That through the sacrificial death of his son, the debt of our sin would be paid for. And that as Jesus dies on the cross, we who are sinful get to walk away. And so, how much more do we, on this side of the cross, understand God's faithfulness and his trustworthiness in the midst of our trials and sufferings?
How much more can we claim, just like these guys, that our God can deliver, he will deliver, and even if he chooses not to, in my present circumstances, we ultimately know that he delivers us from sin, death, and hell through the cross. That as we go through hard times, as we go through suffering, he doesn't sit far off. He joins us in it. And so, since we know that God is ultimately going to deliver, we get to face trials and sufferings, realizing that he might not change our present situation. You see, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire, it wasn't the strength of their faith that could save them.
It was the object of their faith. It was that God was faithful. God was trustworthy. And they knew that it might not mean that God would change their situation. And the same thing is true for us. He might not change the present situation that we're going through.
The oncology report might come back and you still have cancer. You may go through the third month and not be able to pay your bills. Work may continue to be a living nightmare because you have a boss that constantly demeans you. And what we see in this story is that God is faithful and he's trustworthy. That no matter what happens, our hope is not in our circumstances, but it's ultimately in the fact that God will deliver us. That he joins us in the furnace to walk with us through it and that in the end it brings glory to his name.
How much more do we on this side of the cross get to say, I know that my God's going to deliver me. It doesn't matter what I'm walking through right now. That I can endure suffering. I can endure trials because I know that he's faithful and I know that he's with me in it. He joins me in the suffering and ultimately it brings glory to his name. Raz, Bianca, and Josh are going to come back up.
The response this morning is to place your faith in Jesus and not in your present circumstances. Some of us in this room are walking through really difficult life situations right now. And you're asking the question, God, where are you? Where are you? I don't feel you. I don't see you.
Everything that's going on in my life is a mess. Where are you? Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were joined in the fire. We know perfectly how willing Jesus is to step into the furnace on our behalf. That ultimately Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego show us what it looks like to walk in relationship with Jesus because we have a God that endured suffering for us. And that we don't look at the flames.
We don't look at the furnace. We're not looking at our present circumstances. We're looking to the God who's faithful and who's trustworthy. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego look to the guy on their left. We look to the cross. The cross proves that God loves us.
It settles that so that no matter what we're walking through, we can trust God. And listen, I don't know why suffering and trials happen the way they do. I don't. I don't know why that situation may not change. I don't know why that relationship hasn't gotten any better. I don't know.
But what I do know is that God is good. And He's for our good. And He loves us. And He's got a plan. He's got a purpose in the midst of our suffering and our trials. And we look to Jesus as we walk through it.
Because He's with us. And ultimately, He delivers us. Place your faith in Him because He's faithful. Trust Him because He's trustworthy. We're going to stand and we're going to sing praises to Jesus. And I'm inviting you, if for the first time, to let go.
To stop looking at the flames and to look to the cross. Let's pray. God, we praise You that You are not a God who sits far off, that leaves us in this mess by ourselves, but You join us in the suffering. And in doing so, You swap places with us. That we can place our faith in You for the forgiveness of our sins and for salvation. God, I'm praying that all across this room, Lord, that You would awaken that within us.
Instead of looking at our present circumstances and our trials, God, give us a picture of the cross that proves Your love for us. God, awaken faith and trust within us because You are faithful and trustworthy. In Jesus' name, amen.
Noah
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet Phillips. I'm one of the pastors here. It's good to see everybody. We are in the second week of our Bible stories series. And so what we're doing during this series is we're looking at Old Testament Bible stories.
And we're looking at them in light of the totality of Scripture. We're looking at them in light of what the Bible says overall. And the reason we do this and the reason we get to do this is that in the Old Testament, God says that he's the God who declares the end from the beginning. And so if we were actually just looking at history, so when you're studying history and you want to see why something happened, you only look at what happened before that. So you look at what precipitated that, what led up to it.
But in Christianity, we actually get to look because God is the God who declares the end from the beginning, who's actually leading history. We actually get to look at what is he doing. So when we look at the Old Testament, we get to look at the New Testament to help us understand where God was moving history, where he's taking it, where he's guiding it, because he's in control of what happened. So when we look at the Old Testament, we know God ultimately has a plan. He's ultimately working to accomplish something. And so we get to see the New Testament to help us understand what God was doing in the Old Testament.
And so one of the ways that Matt talked about this last week was if you watch like the movie Titanic, you know the ending before you even start watching the movie. And so Jack gets a ticket onto the Titanic and you're like, that's not going to go well for you. And then you're watching and like the rich people are being super jerks and you're like, yuck it up, you're going to drown. Hope you know how to dog paddle. This isn't going to go well. And another example of that is The Sixth Sense.
So if you've seen the movie The Sixth Sense, and Matt totally ruined it for us last week. He just told us how it ends, that Bruce Willis had been dead the whole time. Really, I don't think it's fair because it only came out in 1999 and we really need some time to be able to see these movies before Matt just gives us spoilers. But if you've seen the movie The Sixth Sense, when you watch it the second time, you can't watch it the same way. You know the whole time the twist at the end. And so you're going, oh, okay, so that only makes sense because of how this was going to work out.
And the Bible is the same way. Once we've read about the fact that God's going to become a human, that he's going to die on our behalf on a cross, we can't see the Old Testament the same way anymore. We can't view it the same way anymore because we know ultimately what he was coming to do and going to fulfill and accomplish in Jesus. And so what we're doing is we're just going to take a few weeks to look at some Old Testament Bible stories, one that we're familiar with, one that maybe you grew up in Sunday school hearing. Maybe you had a flannel graph Noah that got stuck up on. If you know what flannel graph is, like our kids get to, in Kid City, they get to watch videos.
They get to do some stuff. They don't know anything about flannel graph. Flannel graph is just sticky things, I guess. It's like Velcro Noah. And so if you never got to enjoy flannel graph, you really missed out on not a whole lot of anything. But even if you didn't grow up in Sunday school or grow up around these stories, our culture is familiar with them.
And so today we're actually going to be looking at Noah's Ark. And so we'll be in Genesis chapter 6. There's a bunch of Bibles out on the rows. If you don't own a Bible, that's our gift to you. Take that with you. And it'll be on page 4, I think.
Page 3 and 4, but we'll start on page 3. And so we'll be looking at Noah's Ark. And here's the funny thing about Noah's Ark. Children's ministry has kind of hijacked Noah's Ark and made it like a fun, lovable, cute children's story. And it is not cute or lovable, really. It's terrifying.
The story of Noah's Ark is that God looks at Earth and sees that humans are evil, and we'll talk more about that, and then has a flood that drowns everyone and all the animals except for Noah and the animals that made it onto the Ark. But because there's animals, we make it a children's story. So it's like, hey, boys and girls, we're going to talk about Noah's Ark. And there's rabbits, and there's squirrels and chipmunks. And the reason that there was a giant flood is because humans were evil. Can you say, I'm evil, Timmy?
Yes, that's good. That's called total depravity. Yes. And so on the Ark, there were elephants and giraffes, and there were all these floating dead bodies. Like, it's not a cute story. Even though we've made it cute, it's not cute.
And so we're going to spend some time today looking at Noah's Ark, and really what happens in the story of Noah's Ark. We talked last week about Adam and Eve, and here's what we see in the Old Testament. Here's kind of the tension throughout the Old Testament. God creates everything, and He says that it's good. He says that it's right. It's the way it ought to be, and that Adam and Eve are living in relationship with Him, and then they rebel.
They sin. They want to be like God. They'd rather have themselves be God rather than worship God as God. And what happens after that is it gets progressively worse. So that they sin and rebel, and then their sons, one of their sons, kills the other one over jealousy.
Like, immediately. Our first parents sin, fall short, and then it just keeps going. And so that by the time we get to Noah in Genesis 6, it says that everyone is corrupt. And the tension and the story that we see throughout the Old Testament is, what is a holy, just, and righteous God going to do about sin? That's the big question throughout the Old Testament, is what is He going to do about sin? How is He going to remain holy?
How is He going to remain just? How is He going to remain righteous and allow sin, allow pain, allow death, allow rape, allow murder, allow genocide? How is He going to be okay with that and remain holy and good? How is He okay with His creation completely rebelling from Him and destroying each other? That's the question throughout the Old Testament. So we as Westerners read the Old Testament, and God throughout the Old Testament doesn't immediately crush people.
So there are people who do evil and wrong things, and they may deal with consequences, but He doesn't immediately just eradicate them. And so what we're seeing throughout the Old Testament is grace and grace and grace and grace. And then we'll see in the Old Testament some spots where God speeds up the death of everyone, where God does enact into history. He opens up the ground and swallows people, which has got to be super intense. He has a flood and drowns people, and we see the moments where there's justice, and we have a problem with that. But the bigger question, that's not the problem that the Hebrews would have had as they walked through this.
The problem is, what is God going to do about sin? And why hasn't He destroyed everyone yet? That's the bigger issue in the text. Not that God sometimes steps in and Acts justly and righteously and defends His holiness. The question is not that. It's how on earth are all these evil people still here?
What is He going to do about this without just destroying us? And so we get a picture of that in Noah's Ark. How God responds to sin. What God does when creation rebels against Him. So I'm going to pray, and we're going to hop in.
God, we thank You that we get to open Your Word. That we get to study it together as church family. God, I thank You that we stand where we stand in history, so that we know the end of the story. We know ultimately that You're going to join us in the suffering. That You're going to go to the cross on our behalf. And so that we get to look at the Old Testament in light of what we know about Your nature and Your character.
Your love and Your sacrifice. We ask that Your Holy Spirit would speak to us today as we study Your Word. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, Genesis chapter 6, verse 5 is where we'll start. It says, The Lord, so that's God, the Creator God of the world. 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.
Okay, theologically, that is called total depravity. And what that means is that humans are fundamentally off. That we're broken when it comes to how we ought to relate to God and creation and how we actually do. It does not mean we are as evil as we could get. It just means that we're all fundamentally broken. That the thoughts of our hearts are wrong.
I'll give you an example of this. My wife is pregnant. She's halfway there. So she's 100% pregnant, but also half pregnant. And I don't really know how that works. But she's halfway there.
And here's what we don't really know the sex of the baby yet. We know they said that they thought it was a boy, so we think it might be a boy. But they were like, don't paint anything blue yet. This isn't your official response. So it's like, okay.
So we think it's a boy. But there's really only two things we know about our unborn child. It will be a human. And it will be a sinner. That's what we know. That humans are born sinful.
No one is going to have to teach our child how to sin. He's going to do that all on his own. That will be ingrained in him. I won't have to sit him down and be like, let me explain to you how selfishness works. I won't have to tell him that his favorite word is going to soon become mine. He's going to do that on his own.
I'm going to have to explain to him what sharing is and why that's good and why that's helpful and why he shouldn't hit other children and take things from them. That's the way that's going to work. I'm not going to have to explain to him how to lie. I'm going to have to try to instill in him the value of honesty. Kids are automatically, fundamentally going to be born sinful. For any parents in here, parents of young children, I hate to break it to you.
Your child is sinful. I know you think they're an angel and that one time that they bit that person, that was a fluke. No, your child is sinful. There's something fundamentally off in them. That's what that means. That's what since Adam and Eve fell, that's been ingrained in us.
We have been born sinful. We'll actually have to take our son and train him in how to love what is right and good and holy and just. We are a little bit afraid that we'll have a son that takes after my wife and a daughter that takes after my side of the family, which will be really terrible and terrifying. That's what that means. And so here's what happens. Even as we continue to grow and we continue to learn what is right and good, there's still something wrong with us.
There's still something that's off in us. I'll give you an example. I, the other day, decided to, this is really weird, I had a little extra money, odd, and decided to do something nice with it. I know, it's crazy. And so I just went to Krispy Kreme and I bought donuts and I was just going to ride around and give some people donuts in the area that I just was trying to just bless with carbohydrates. Because I feel like that's how you bless people.
It's like, here you go. Eat this. Fall asleep at your desk. Like, that's, that's, that's, I was doing that. And so I'm just genuinely was like, I want to do something nice. And I think this will be fun, a fun way to do something nice.
And then I'm riding and I realized that I just had the thought, I wonder what they'll think about me after I give them donuts. And I was like, that's really messed up. Like, I genuinely was thinking I was doing something nice and have immediately turned it into, I'm the guy who gives out donuts. That's best friend material right there. Like, like immediately I had turned it into something selfish. I had turned it into something that was going to make me, and realized, I was like, Lord, help me.
Like, that's, that's wrong. And so that's, that's, that's what God looks down. And it says that he sees, 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. And it says, and the Lord was sorry, this is verse 6, the Lord was sorry that he made, had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Okay, that's a very interesting thing that the text says there. It says that the Lord was sorry that he made man, and it grieved him to his heart.
The Hebrew word there is used later in the Old Testament as the way a woman feels when her husband leaves her. It says that God looked at earth and was heartbroken. He was shattered over the way that humans were treating creation and treating each other, and how quickly everyone had gotten evil and selfish, and had no desire to honor him, to worship him, but wanted to be chief among all things. And it grieved him to his heart. Now, here's what's interesting about that. God doesn't need us.
He is completely and perfectly self-sufficient. He has existed since eternity in a Trinitarian relationship with himself, which is really weird, but it's hard to understand. But God has existed as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit since eternity. That's why one of the reasons the Bible says that God is love is because in his very nature he is loving because of how he relates to himself inside of the Trinitarian Godhead. He doesn't need us. He didn't make humans because he was bored or lonely.
He made it because of that's what his nature is like, that he is loving, that he is good, that he is a creator, he is creative. And so he creates humans. He doesn't need us, but he chooses to intertwine his life with ours in such a way that when we're hurting, when we're causing problems, when we're wreaking havoc, it hurts him and grieves him. An example of this, a small example of this, would be like the relationship between a husband and wife. I was in high school. I was coaching powder puff football, which is when the football players coach girls on how to play football-ish.
You get the gist of it. And I was doing that, and there was a girl on our powder puff football team who was going to be playing wide receiver, and I was helping coach the wide receivers. And when I met her, I thought, she's cute. I bet she'd be fun to date. I was really deep back then, guys. So she's cute.
I bet she'd be fun to date. And I had a girlfriend at the time, and so that didn't bode well for that relationship. And so that was my first thought. I later found out that this girl that I thought was cute and would be fun to date, that her first thought about me and her first words that she said about me out loud to a friend was, I don't like him. And those of us who have met both of us would agree that that was a good assessment of character off the bat on both of our parts. And so I started trying to talk to her and follow her around and eventually got her to go on a date with me.
And we kept dating through college and got married five years ago. And I really, as one of my high school coaches told me, outkicked my coverage on that. Like I really won that deal. So, and here's how this works now. We did not have a relationship prior to us choosing to have one. We were not, it wasn't like we were having to be around each other, that we were forced into this relationship.
We chose to intertwine our lives. We chose to give love to one another. And so the way that works now is that if something happens to Anna, it's like it happens to me. If somebody says something insulting to Anna or if someone says something mean to me, Anna feels hurt and offended if someone says something mean to me in the same way I would feel for her. Like you want to pick a fight with Anna, you just pick the fight with me as well. That's just how that works.
So that like someone could ask me, and this had happened recently, this is a perfectly normal way to respond to a question. Hey man, how you doing? Doing okay. Anna's been sick, you know, with being pregnant, but she's feeling better. And so I'm doing pretty good. And all I did was respond as to how Anna was doing, but because of our relationship, it's the same for me.
If she's doing well, I'm doing well. If she's doing poorly, I'm doing poorly. And that's what the text just said about God. That he looks at his creation and he feels what we feel. That he chooses to care about us. And so sometimes we feel like God is distant and God's far off.
He is not. He has chosen to love us and to intertwine his life with us. So here's what it says. We'll start back in verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intentions of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth.
And it grieved him to his heart. 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. So God's response to sin is justice.
His response to rebellion is justice. So we're getting a picture here because the question in the Old Testament is how is God going to respond to sin? What is he going to do about this problem? And his response is justice. Now here's the thing.
We love justice. We do. We love it. There's a commercial on TV. I don't even know what it's about. But this woman's like cooking and she goes, honey, what do you want for dinner?
And he pops up behind her wearing a Batman outfit and goes, justice. Like we love justice. And you know this by like the shows that we watch. So you got Bones and NCIS and CSI for every place in the United States. And you've got criminal intent and criminal minds. And I mean all of these shows.
You got Law and Order. And there's like different Law and Orderers. And you got all of these shows. And what they are is basically a bad person does something wrong. Good people hunt them down and bring them to justice. And we love it.
It happens inside of 40 minutes and we're like, get them. Get them. We love it. There's just something in us that craves for wrong to be punished. And for righteousness and for goodness to happen. And for justice to take place.
That's one of the reasons that we love superhero movies. We love the idea that some supernatural being would show up and bring people to justice. My wife and I have recently been watching the show Arrow. Which if you get the chance to watch it, it's hilarious and terrible. But we thoroughly enjoy it.
Because it's like getting to watch people learn how to act and read lines and stuff. And so we like it. But the whole point of that show is this guy shows up in the city and he's super rich. But he's mad at all the other rich people because they're doing bad stuff. And so he runs around. And when I'm watching this show, he's got a bow and arrow.
He shoots henchmen all the time. He'll just pop into a place and shoot like four guys into the chest and they just all die. And I don't care because they were henchmen and they deserve to die. There's nothing in me that was like, maybe they were living under the poverty level and they really needed to have that job. I don't feel that. Maybe he's got kids.
I'm like, get him. Justice. How you like that arrow, son? That's the way we feel. There's something about us in the Avengers when Hulk picks up Loki and just smacks him on the ground like seven times. You're just like, that's beautiful.
That's how the world should work. Bad guys should get smacked on the ground. And so we feel that. We feel the need for justice. If you were watching one of these shows like Law and Order and they had open and shut case, caught the guy, red handed, had all the evidence, took him to court, presented their stuff. You know, it's like Law and Order.
Dun, dun. And they present everything to the judge. And the judge said, yeah, obviously you're guilty. Everything here. I mean, there's no way that this wasn't you. Cool.
Case dismissed. You guys go home. Have a nice day, man. And then the credits roll. We would lose our minds. Like what on earth just happened?
We were right there at justice and we missed it. Like people would be calling. They would cancel the show. Like it would, the internet would shut down. Like there's something in us that craves it. And here's what happens though that gets really weird.
We read the Bible and God gives justice. It's the Bible says that God loves justice. That he loves what is right and what is holy and what is true and what is good. And he brings justice to those who have rebelled and broken his creation. And as soon as that happens, we go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I like Batman.
I don't like God doing that. I want God to only be loving, only be good, and only in the way that I define that. I want him to fit into my grace box. The way I define love. I don't want him stepping into the realm of justice. I love justice, but I don't want God there.
And here's part of why I think that's the way that works. We like Batman because we feel like we're on his team. The only person who doesn't like Batman is like the Joker. Doesn't like Batman. He's not a big Batman fan. We like Batman because we're on his team.
But when we start reading the Bible, we realize that God is set apart. That he's holy and right and good and just. And we're not on his team. That we're fundamentally flawed and broken. And so when he steps in and says, I'm bringing people to justice, immediately we go, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Because I don't feel like I'm on your team by the nature of how I act, feel, think, worship, follow, serve, love.
This isn't good. But here's what happens a little bit. I just want to point out some of how we, when we push back on the idea of God being just. So we read the story of Noah's Ark and we go, is God allowed to do that? I think you'll hear people say, how on earth can you worship and follow a God who just kills people? So I just want to, I want to help us see a little bit of where that's inconsistent in our thought processes.
First of all, what we're saying is, I can love justice, but God can't. I can care about what's true and right and good and holy. I can have moral indignation. I can be outraged, but the God of the universe cannot. And that does not make any sense. To assume that my idea of justice is greater than his falls really short.
Let me show you this. The reason we hate things is because it comes against what we love. So the reason I will get furious over things, and sometimes it's good things that I love, and sometimes it's bad things that I love, but my ability to love is what helps me hate. So that when I was in, doing some training stuff with Midtown Fellowship, which is in downtown, and was in the recovery program, and sat in a room, and we went around a circle where guys were there talking about what it kind of brought them there and why they were seeking to walk with Jesus. And multiple times, guys in the room said that they had been sexually assaulted by a family member.
And as we came around the circle, I was growing more and more furious. And I wanted punishment. And I wanted justice. And I didn't want that to have happened. I didn't want someone to have taken advantage of a small child, an eight-year-old boy. I didn't want that to happen.
And I was angry. And I felt perfectly right and justified in that. And then when we say that God looked out on earth and saw all of the murder, and all of the rape, and all of the hatred, and all of the human hearts, that every inclination of their heart was towards evil all the time, and he brought justice, and we say, no, no, no, no, no, that's not okay. What we're declaring is that it's okay for me to love justice, but it's not okay for him. Or that my sense of justice is greater than his. And that is not true.
He perfectly loves all of his creation, which makes him most capable of hatred, wrath, and anger of the things that seek to destroy it. The second thing that we're a little bit confused on, I think, a little bit inconsistent, is that to assume that we have a sense of justice without God isn't logically coherent. It doesn't make any sense. To think that the way we believe justice works comes without a foundational, actual justice, a true justice. So when we talk about math, and I say two plus two is four, and you say, no, it's seven, I get to say, no, it's four.
Because that's how math works. Math is real. It's a true thing. There's actual math that works that way. We get to have that discussion. When it comes to justice, if we remove God from the equation, if we all just exploded out of chaos, then there is no set and true justice.
There is no set and true right and wrong. It's just us arguing over opinions. So in this room, we would say, you're supposed to protect children. You're supposed to care for animals that are under your care. You're supposed to take care of the elderly and show them respect and love them. And we all know that's true.
That's why we throw a fit when Ray Rice's and Adrian Peterson's have this stuff going on. Because we know that's true. You shouldn't do that to women or children. We know that, right? They don't, in other parts of the world, know that. In China, male boys are worth more than female boys.
And they know that. They know that's true. In the Middle East, women are property. They know that's true. And so all we can say about our sense of justice, if we remove God from the equation, if we don't believe that our sense of justice and moral indignation comes from the actual true one, that it's derived from God, then all we're arguing about is our opinion. And we at least have to admit that.
You at least have to admit that your argument over what's right and true and good, if it doesn't come from God, comes from you, and it's valid as your opinion, but don't bother trying to change the world and say sex trafficking is a bad idea. Because they think it's a good one. So you can be angry all you want, and you can raise some money if you want to, but you can't say that you're right. You can argue that you agree with yourself. Cool. The third thing I just want to point out is God has the prerogative over his creation.
He has creator rights. So I like drawing periodically or painting. I'm very artsy, for those of you who don't know me. That's not actually true, but I do like drawing and painting periodically, and sometimes I'll be working on something, I have a picture in my head of what I want it to look like, and it just doesn't happen. So it's like, I'm going to paint something, and it's going to be beautiful, and it's going to change the world, and people are going to see it and cry.
And I'll start, and I'll be like, this is terrible. I get halfway through, I'm bored, and I'm just like, this is a bad idea. And so I have the ability to just throw it away. If I don't like it, if it doesn't live up to what I wanted it to be, I just get to throw it away. I can do that. I've been drawing things before, and I'll be like, this is stupid, and throw it away, and have people be like, you can't do that.
I say, yeah, I can. I drew it. I didn't like it. I'm throwing it in the trash can. That's what I get to do. Now, if I was working on something, and you walked in, and said, that's terrible, and ripped it up and threw it away, you would be a jerk, and you're not allowed to do that, because I have creator rights, and you do not.
That's just how it works. It's the same rule of like, you can't spank other people's children. They're their kids. You don't agree with how they behave. Okay. But you can't just be like, I'm sorry, ma'am.
Time out. I know we're in the line at the grocery store. This is terrible. I'm just going to take your kid out for just a second. I'll be right back. I'm going to fix this.
Well, you can't do that. They have like parental rights over their children. God has creator rights over his creation. So when we look at the Bible, and we ask the question, is God allowed to speed up the death of everyone on earth? Yes, he is. He is allowed to speed up death if he decides to.
Because God has the ability, he has creator rights, the prerogative over that. So here's what we see. God looks out on earth, and he sees brokenness that's wreaking havoc on his good creation. And he decides to bring a great flood. His response to sin is wrath and justice. But that's not the end of the story, thankfully.
Also, just spoiler alert, we're all here so he doesn't kill everybody. Okay. So, yeah. I know, right? Verse 8. We'll do verse 7 again, sorry.
So the Lord said, The word favor there is the Hebrew word chen. We don't make that noise in English, so it's kind of hard. It's like hen, but you got something stuck in the back of your throat. Like chen. It is the first time in the text that the word for grace shows up. The word there means that a greater party gives unmerited, unearned favor to a lesser party.
So what it says is God decides he's going to destroy everything, and then he gives grace, unearned favor to Noah. And Noah is a human inside of the greater group of humans who are all evil. So Noah is one of the all evil humans that God decides to give grace to. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So he was given grace by God, unmerited favor in the eyes of the Lord.
And 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 Jepheth. So it says that he was blameless, he was righteous, and he walked with God.
The way the Old Testament uses that, it does not mean he never sinned. We see later that that's not true because when he gets off the ark, so like they go on the ark, flood comes, he gets off the ark when the flood subsides, and he plants a vineyard. And then in Genesis chapter 9 goes like full redneck. Like gets really drunk and naked. He's in his tent, but he's drunk and naked. And that's a sinful thing to do.
I don't know what it is about alcohol that's like, this tastes good. This is wonderful. Oh my goodness, this is so good. Pants are terrible. They're getting on my nerves. They're really slowing me down.
Like I don't know how alcohol does that. But it happens to Noah so that he gets drunk and naked and then leads to sin in his family. Even when the flood subsides in Genesis chapter 8, 21, God says, I'll never again flood the earth even though man is evil even from their youth. So it did not fix the problem. We'll talk about that in a second. Noah was still sinful.
His family was still sinful, but they were given grace by God. What it means when it says he was righteous, blameless, and he walked with God, it means that he agreed with God about his sin. So God comes to him and says, I'm going to flood the earth. You need to do this. And Noah agrees. Okay, I will follow you.
I understand I'm sinful. And God grants him through his grace, righteousness, blamelessness, as Noah walks with him. So verse 11 is, 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 had 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 in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it. Its length of the ark is 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. A cubit is about 18 inches. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side.
Make it with 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 breadth 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 and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. 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 shall be male and female, of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind.
Two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. And so his righteousness, again, comes from God talking to Noah and Noah agreeing and obeying.
Hebrews chapter 11 says it was his faith that saved him, that God spoke to him, said this is what we're going to do, this is how I'm going to bring salvation to you and your family. And Noah said, I agree with my sinfulness, I agree with my need for your grace, and I will obey and follow you as you bring salvation. So God loves goodness, righteousness, peace, and he hates everything that comes against it. As he goes through and it says, the whole world is corrupt, what God says is, it's a play on words in the Hebrew, God basically says, they're destroying my good creation, I'm going to destroy them.
He uses the same word. He says, basically, I'm going to destroy the destroyers. Those who are tearing this apart, I'm going to do the same thing to them, but you and your family, I'm going to save. And here's how I'm going to save you. And he gives specific details on how that's going to play out. So we say a lot, you'll hear the phrasing, love the sinner, hate the sin.
That's true. It's incomplete. It's true. It's not a Bible verse. Although people say it is. Gandhi said it.
And it's a good thing to say. And the Bible does say that God loves sinners and he hates sin. But the Bible also says that he hates sinners. God is capable of loving and hating someone at the same time. He hates sinners that bring about sin and destruction and pain on earth. I'll give you one example of this.
Psalm 5, verses 4 and 5. And we're going to show it on the screen. It says this. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.
You hate all evildoers. We say, no, no, no. God's supposed to love everyone. He does. But he also hates evil and he hates sinners who destroy his good earth.
And he looks at Noah and he says, the earth is corrupt. It's broken and they're destroying it. And I'm going to destroy them but I'm going to make a way for you. Okay. So here's what happens.
God makes a way and Noah follows. And here's how we usually tell this story. What we usually say is Noah was good so God saves Noah from a flood. God saved Noah but the text says that everyone was corrupt and that when Noah gets off the ark he and his family are still corrupt and that Noah sins and leads his family into sin. And so what actually the story is is that Noah was evil but God gave him grace. And God didn't save Noah from a flood.
God saved Noah from God. God saved Noah from himself and his righteousness and his justice towards sin. So here's what happens. We see this story and what we're completely is outlined for us in the Old Testament is how is God going to respond to sin? When they get off the ark sin is not finished. It continues.
Noah multiplies and there's still sin. There's still brokenness. There's still pain in the world. But we know how God's going to respond to sin. We see in the New Testament Jesus shows up and God is actually responding to sin in the same way. In Matthew 24, 37-39 Jesus says this For as were the days of Noah so will be the coming of the Son of Man for as in those days Son of Man is Jesus for as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
So Jesus says when he returns it's going to be like when Noah was on earth. There's going to be a return of Jesus and there's going to be justice just like what happened with Noah. But here's what's beautiful as we get to see this picture and as we get to see it play out in the New Testament God's response to sin is the same justice wrath and grace God provides a way for people to be saved. It's a greater wrath as it is an eternal wrath not just the speeding up of death and it's a greater Savior and a greater salvation. That God does His response to sin is the same in the New Testament and what we get to do is be like Noah.
We get to agree with God about our sinfulness and the salvation that He has provided is not an ark that will save us from a flood of water it's a cross that saves us from the flood of God's wrath. That Jesus came and went to a cross on our behalf to pay for our sin and corruption to pay for our rebellion and where we fall short so that we can have salvation given to us freely forever. It's a greater condemnation it's a greater justice it's a greater wrath because it is final and eternal and it's a greater Savior and a greater salvation. Jesus took on the flood of God's wrath on our behalf so that we can have life and salvation and hope in Him.
And that's what's freely offered to us. And so the truth is for us today it's the same as if God when He went to Noah and said I'm giving you an opportunity I'm going to spell out how salvation will work for you. Build an ark. I'm telling you what to do and this is how salvation will work and how I'm bringing by grace salvation to you. It's the same thing that's offered to us. That we like Noah get to hear what God does to bring salvation through the cross as Jesus pays for our sin through His death and when He rises again He takes our sin with Him so that we can have His righteousness applied to our account.
We get to respond like Noah does. We get to receive grace because it's not about our ability to earn it or our ability to be good or our ability to accomplish something and we get to step into what God has provided for salvation that Jesus took on the flood of God's wrath on our behalf and that we like Noah get to agree about our sin and follow Him into the salvation that's freely given to us. That's where we sit. That's what we get to do. And it's beautiful that God is a just God. If God does not punish sin we have to.
If God does not bring wrath we have to. See, most of the people who have a big issue with God being just have not faced a whole lot of injustice in life. Have not faced a whole lot of people wreaking havoc and oppression and genocide. There are other places in the country where other places in the world where people wake up and go, oh, they're cutting everybody's heads off today. And it's beautiful that God is a just God who stops that. It's beautiful that He takes up the sword so that we don't have to.
And we have a just and good and righteous God who both punishes sin and makes a way for sinners through the cross. So that we can place our faith in Him just like Noah places faith in God and followed. We get to do the same thing. So we're going to continue to sing. We're going to make much of Jesus who offers us free salvation through the cross. And I would invite you to respond as Noah did.
Agree with God about your sin and follow Him in faith. Father, we thank You for how good You are. We thank You for the grace that's freely offered to us through the cross. God, I pray that You would help us to appropriately see our sin so that we can agree with You. That we can know that we have fallen short and that we have been active participants in the rebellion and the destruction of Your good creation. That we haven't loved as we ought to.
We haven't been generous as we ought to. We haven't been good and right as we ought to. We haven't loved justice as beautifully as You have. And God, I pray that through Your Holy Spirit You would help us to see the salvation freely offered to us through Jesus. We love You. We praise You.
In Jesus' name. Amen.