WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:01.600 Hello, friends. 00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:02.799 This is Pastor Creighton. 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:06.080 Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:13.359 At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:18.800 You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.199 The first lesson taken from Genesis 6 and 7. 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:35.520 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. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:42.240 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:54.880 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 heaven, for I am sorry that I have made them. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:58.240 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:06.959 And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:10.319 Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:17.359 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, cover it inside and out with pitch. 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:26.319 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which the breath of life under heaven. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:29.599 Everything that is on the earth shall die. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:40.319 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. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:49.359 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.519 They shall be male and female. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:53.359 Noah did this. 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:55.760 He did all that God commanded him. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:13.759 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened, and rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:25.840 On the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham, Jepheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:41.759 They and every beast according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every winged creature. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:48.960 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh, in which there was a breath of life. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:57.520 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:00.560 The flood continued forty days on the earth. 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:05.439 The waters increased and bore up the ark, it rose high above the earth. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:10.719 Everything on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of life, died. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:15.280 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:19.439 Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:21.599 They were blotted out from the earth. 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:26.000 Only Noah was left with those who were with him in the ark. 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:29.840 And the waters prevailed on the earth a hundred and fifty days. 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:31.759 The word of the Lord. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:44.879 Behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, and which is the breath of life under heaven. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:46.719 We better pray. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:08.479 Whatever, Lord, the flood waters look like in our own lives, in this week, in this month, in this season, we come to you because you are Lord. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.159 And you are gracious and merciful. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:16.160 And we come to you for refuge. 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:20.639 So, Lord Jesus, would we be prepared? 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:23.199 Would we be watchful? 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:30.000 Would you illumine your word to us by your Holy Spirit and conform us to the image of Christ our Savior? 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:31.759 It's in his name we pray. 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:32.720 Amen. 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:34.399 Please receive it. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:50.480 While we continue our journey through the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we can recognize the first 11 chapters are something distinct. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:56.079 There's something like the blueprint for God's design for our flourishing. 00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:06.720 We certainly see that in the first two chapters of Genesis, where we see that God has created human beings, men and women, in his image, and he's designed them for flourishing. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:08.079 He intends them for good. 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:12.319 In fact, he creates them and concludes this is very good. 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:17.279 We've seen in Genesis chapter 3 that things have gone off the rails. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:29.839 That through self-interested, self-styled rebellion, our first parents decided to substitute their own self-determination for God's design for their flourishing. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:35.759 And we've seen creation and humanity start to spiral into disintegration ever since. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:46.720 In the last two weeks, we've been looking at Cain and Abel, and we saw between these two brothers an alienated and hostile and resentful relationship, certainly in Cain's own heart. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:56.879 And then last week we looked at Lamek and we saw that what was true between these two brothers is starting to expand and consume all of humanity, as it were. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:16.319 And all of this being the case, we arrive in Genesis chapter 6 to, like I said earlier, the subject of so many children's Bible covers and children's ministry murals. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:19.040 If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:22.879 Noah and the flood is a complicated story. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:25.199 It hits heavy, doesn't it? 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:30.240 Certainly it does when we read it as adults and in the eyes of faith. 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:36.879 Well, not even in the eyes of faith, because whether we're a believer or whether we're an unbeliever, this is a hard story, isn't it? 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:46.720 What do you do with a flood that takes out all of humanity except for this one chosen family? 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:52.800 There's a lot of different avenues, I suppose, we could explore, but here's what I want to suggest. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:59.839 From Genesis 6 to 9, which is the story of Noah and the flood, I think we want to see two things in particular. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:03.600 I think this is what the author of Genesis has in mind for us to see. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:14.639 I think the author wants us to see and take seriously the fact that sin disintegrates humanity and creation. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:23.120 Sin disintegrates our humanity and the creation that we're intended to exercise dominion over. 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:29.199 Things are coming apart as they oppose God's good purposes. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:40.240 But we should also catch that the fact that God is at work in creation and through creation to bring renewal and restoration. 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:46.160 This is a serious story that asks to be read seriously. 00:07:46.399 --> 00:08:02.000 And what I want to do for this next week, these next two weeks, is to take apart Noah and the flood, divide it in half, as it were, so that we can take the time to see how it is that sin disintegrates and how it is that God's at work with renewal. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:07.680 So if this one lands heavy, come back next week, and I trust we'll see good news. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:12.560 Sin disintegrates humanity and creation. 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:17.759 And I think what this story wants us to see, but the nature of sin is that it moves God. 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:28.959 Sin moves God to grief, and sin moves God to judgment, but sin moves God to deliver us. 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:33.759 God grieves, but God judges, but God delivers. 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:39.519 And this is the story of Noah, and I think it's the story of us as well. 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:48.080 One Bible scholar named Walter Brugemann says that the flood narrative faces a basic incongruity of human life. 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:55.840 On the one hand, God has called the world into being to be his faithful covenant partner. 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:04.720 Maybe we would use the word flourish. 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:10.720 But on the other hand, creation, pardon me, it has not happened that way. 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:24.879 God willed a creation ordered by Sabbath rest according to his word, but it is a recalcitrant creation, resistant to the purposes of the very one by whom and for whom the world exists. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:30.480 The creation, he concludes, has refused to be God's creation. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:42.480 So if we're going to understand God's design for our flourishing, we have to take seriously that which disintegrates God's design for our flourishing. 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:46.240 And I think this is what we begin to glimpse in the story of Noah. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:51.360 If we can catch what the bad news is, maybe we'll catch the good news as well. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:55.120 So sin disintegrates humanity and creation. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:57.600 Pull out your Bibles, pull out your order of services. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:02.000 Let's have a look at a few key verses in these two chapters. 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:10.879 First off, we see that sin, which disintegrates us, moves God first and foremost to grief. 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:13.840 Verses 5 and 6 in chapter 6. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:24.960 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man, humankind, was great in the earth, and that every intention and thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:29.039 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.399 And it grieved him into his heart. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:52.320 So there's this kind of infamous episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, where the kind of child prodigy on board is named Wesley Crusher, and he's a bit of a polarizing character himself, but they beam down to some alien planet, and he's included in this team that goes. 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:57.600 And he starts playing with these alien children that are his age, they're playing with a ball or something. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:06.399 And at one point the ball rolls onto a patch of grass or something innocuous like that. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:15.120 And without thinking, Wesley goes and grabs the ball, steps on the grass, grabs the ball, and kind of turns to go back to his friends, and they all sort of gasped. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.039 They can't believe what just happened. 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:33.840 Well, as the episode sort of progresses, you learn that this alien culture has this strange system of laws where certain parts of the town or wherever it is they live are just arbitrarily selected day for day as being out of bounds. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:35.279 And it's unannounced. 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:40.480 And so only by stepping on it do you kind of know where the out of bounds is. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:46.240 But this was completely unannounced, completely unbenounced to uh Wesley or this away team. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:53.360 And so the rest of the episode is this ongoing legal battle that I think is supposed to deal with what is justice. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:58.000 Can we truly be is this true justice if it's capricious and arbitrary? 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:04.080 Like I say, it's not exactly an A-plus Star Trek episode, but it does raise some of those questions. 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:22.720 I guess I share, you know, this moment where Wesley steps on the grass and turns back because sometimes I think when we read about how God deals with sin, we get this impression that God deals with relatively innocent people in a pretty capricious and arbitrary way. 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:26.559 This can seem like God's really lost it. 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:28.799 He's gone off the rails. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:33.679 But if we trust that God's word is good, then we need to trust its diagnosis. 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:48.159 What God's word tells us about the human condition, apart from grace, is that every, that the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intention and the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:54.879 We've seen in Genesis chapter 3 that evil is what occurs when we turn away from the good that God desires. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:58.559 And so here is humanity completely curved in on itself. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:02.399 God is not dealing with an innocent humanity. 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:11.360 He's dealing with a wicked humanity, living in a Lamak kind of world of sort of get your own, push down whoever you have to, sort of world. 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:19.360 God's made this world very good, but it's rebelled against the good intention that God has for it. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:26.320 In this way, sin is a lot less like dealing with arbitrary and constantly changing boundaries and transgressions. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.879 It's a lot more like a spiritual cancer. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:32.720 It's kind of the impression I get from these early chapters of Genesis. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:37.360 It's not something like, I mean, it is transgression, that's true. 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:47.759 There are laws that we do break, but drill down deep enough, and you don't just get this sort of arbitrary, capricious God sort of randomly selecting things to be unbalanced. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:57.440 Instead, these are boundary lines, saying if we go past this, we are going to start seeing our humanity deteriorate and disintegrate. 00:13:57.519 --> 00:13:58.720 And that's the nature of sin. 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:16.879 It's a spiritual cancer that is disintegrating our humanity and our personhood from the inside out to the point where we are so curved in on ourselves that there seems to be no thoughts in our heart or intentions that are truly benevolent, that truly love one's neighbor. 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:25.840 So, what we see in verse 6 is something that's so key about God's character. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:35.519 Because the God who deals with a community that's completely curved in on himself is a God that is deeply moved by its plight. 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:40.960 The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to its heart. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:42.399 The Lord is grieved. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:49.600 The word that is translated here can also be repent, or it feels sorrowful or painful. 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:57.039 It's the same word that shows up when the Lord says to the woman that hurts that it will increase the pain of children. 00:14:57.440 --> 00:14:58.480 That's the idea here. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:03.440 The Lord is pain to see humanity in such a condition as this. 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:06.960 This is not arbitrary, this is not capricious. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:16.080 And it's really hot when we zoom the lens of, when we look at other flood narratives, because Israel's neighbors all had their own stories of the flood. 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:17.600 Thank you. 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:22.639 I'm not one in my kid. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:24.159 There you go, you're the man. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.840 Okay, well, tell me if this doesn't work for you. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.559 We'll let involve this in the podcast after that. 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:33.279 So, uh, where was that? 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:39.360 God is moved to grief. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:51.600 When we look at other flood stories that surround Israel, we see capricious gods who are irritated with humanity who decide to deal with the noise that they're making by sending this flood to wipe them out. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:53.519 Not so this god. 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:57.360 This flood is grieved by the condition of humanity. 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:03.759 This god's heart is for them, and it grieves that their heart is so curved away from humanity. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:14.399 And so again, we'll deal the mind and say that what we find in these verses is not an angry tyrant to the God, but a troubles parent who grieves over the alienation. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.960 God is aware that something is deeply amiss in creation. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:25.360 God's world has begun to conjure its own future, apart from the future, willed by God. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.559 So sin moves God to grieve. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:34.639 God is not capricious, he's not arbitrary, he's not moving the boundary lines of announcing. 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:42.960 He's dealing with a spiritual cancer that eats the good that God has intended for his image bearers. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:49.120 Sin grieves God, and eventually God declares no more. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:53.279 So sin moves God to judge. 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:57.519 Let's look at verses 7 and 17. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:05.680 The Lord said, I will block man whom I have created from the face of the land men and animals and created things and birds of the heavens. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:17.599 For behold, verse 17, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, which is the breath of life under heaven. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:21.359 Everything that is on the earth shall die. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:25.119 Here we see two things being put on display. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:34.160 We see God's heart and we see the result of the needs and God's heart is one that is truly stored. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:42.160 I am story that I suffer in this ongoing condition of sin and disintegration. 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:44.559 God is not surprised here. 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:52.480 God is not changing his mind as if at any given moment his feelings or disposition toward us can just change on his mind. 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:54.480 That's not the impression we should get. 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:59.680 But rapture, the language being used here, is that the language of analogy. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:09.039 It's understanding that God's wrath is not something that's inherent to them, as if you drill down deep enough into the being of God, and all they're going to find is anger. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.559 No, anger and wrath are something that are provoked by God. 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:17.920 The change hasn't happened in the life of God, the change has happened to humanity in the sort of basin. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:25.519 And now God responds with wrath and judgments is being provoked by the evil of humanity. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:32.640 And the result of this is that chaos envelops humanity once again develops creation. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:41.759 I will bring the flood of waters from the earth to destroy all flesh, and which is the breath of life under heaven. 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:48.799 This image of a flood of waters we need to bear in mind how the Genesis chapter 1 begins. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:54.240 What we see is we see the Spirit of God hovering over these primordial waters of creation, don't we? 00:18:54.720 --> 00:19:04.160 And God in the first three days of creation begins to make meaningful separations to give creation its form, so that God can fill these things for their flourishing. 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:15.119 It's almost as though God is removing his providential and sustaining hand from creation in rebellion and watching the primordial waters of chaos rush back in. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:17.279 That's what's happening here in the life. 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:23.200 Creation is being given that over as it were to the chaos from which God is public. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:27.680 This is a reverse of God's coming breaks in creation work. 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:34.640 And so often this is how God's particular judgment works, both in scripture and in real life. 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:48.480 I can think of one example of a God whose marriage absolutely fell apart and spent years absolutely embittered by the fact of taking his visit to heaven and saying, God, how dare you let this happen? 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:57.519 And the fact of the matter is, this man is desperately, desperately addicted to pornography and serial, serially unfaithful. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:13.119 The fact is that the consequence of his sin has resulted in this marriage disintegrating in its integrity, and we can start to see it, and it took him a while to get around to this point where he recognized, you know, there's a connection. 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:24.559 Sometimes in God's particular judgment, he hands us over to the consequences of chaos, which the disintegration of sin inclines us to. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:36.000 That's not to say that every hardship we face in life is a direct result of a simple choice that you made, is that you should just be able to connect A to B at any given moment. 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:38.640 Life is more complicated than that. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:49.759 But there are times where God's particular judgment is to hand us over, as it were, to the chaos that we are inclining ourselves towards. 00:20:50.079 --> 00:21:00.400 This is what makes repentance such a crucial part of the Christian life, such an essential part of the Christian life, because repentance is far more than just any words on a story. 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:02.880 I mean, it's not less than that. 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:14.400 But repentance is a way of life that reorients an otherwise disintegrated humanity back towards the grace of its creator. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:30.880 So that we hurt ourselves, or we are hurt by grace of ourselves and back to the God who gives us life and sustains us and desires our nourishing repentance is turning around, turning away from ourselves and towards the God. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:38.480 His desire is that we reach repentance. 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:46.960 So if it seems like God is delaying and fulfilling his promises, it's only because God desires for his elect to turn to him. 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:49.839 This is essential for us. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:55.680 This is why we confess our sins as a church body each and every Sunday, every time we gather. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.839 We need to acknowledge that our lives need to be reordered and reordered. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:07.680 Oriented to the God of grace because otherwise we incline towards disintegration and chaos. 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:14.240 This is why we as Christians need to be practicing self-examination and repentance each and every day. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:23.119 Not as though we're flogging ourselves, but because we recognize that we need God's grace to sustain us each and every day. 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:27.839 Sin disintegrates our humanity, disintegrates creation. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:33.759 God's judgment hands creation back over, as it were, to the chaos from which it came. 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:46.240 But if sin only moved God to judgment, if that was the only outcome here, then the Bible would be exactly six chapters long, and there would be no one around to read it. 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:50.160 Sin moves God to grief and judgment. 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:50.960 That's true. 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:52.559 He says no more. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:58.960 But this same God who judges is the same God who is moved to deliver us. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:01.920 Let's look at a few verses here. 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:03.359 Let's look at verse 8. 00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:11.680 Chapter 6, verse 8, we read, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:20.319 The Lord is dealing with this one righteous man, Noah, in an otherwise corrupt and disintegrating generation. 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:23.599 And we might want to ask the question, well, why did Noah find favor? 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:28.160 And we get an answer in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:40.799 The author of Hebrews writes of Noah that by faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an earth for the saving of his household. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:47.200 By this he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith. 00:23:48.160 --> 00:24:00.799 Noah trusts God, and he trusts God's intervention, and he trusts God's promises, and it's by trusting in God that Noah is rightly related to him in the context of grace. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:11.119 In fact, one Bible scholar suggests that we might do well to, one, translate this word favor as grace, but two, to reverse the order here. 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:18.000 Noah found favor, found grace in the eyes of the Lord, more like the grace of the Lord found Noah. 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:24.880 That's how God relates to us in the context of grace, being for us and not against us. 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:32.160 And so Noah is related to God in the context of grace, and God calls Noah to build an ark, verse 14. 00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:37.200 Make for yourself an ark of gopherwood, whatever that is, if you know what it is, you know. 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:45.359 Make rooms in this ark, cover it inside and out with pitch, and the rest of the chapter goes on for further instructions with this ark. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:48.480 The ark in this case is a big old boat. 00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:52.400 This word ark comes from the word to enclose. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:58.319 It's a sacred enclosure, a sacred space that's sealed and protected. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:02.559 This is how Noah's Ark relates to the Ark of the Covenant. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:05.119 These are both sacred and sealed spaces. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:13.359 But this Ark, Noah's Ark, is a big boat that is meant to house Noah, his family, and two of every kind of animal in the world. 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:20.880 And we might sort of naturally ask, Noah really got two by two of every single animal in the world? 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:22.720 And that is a fair question. 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:26.559 And we start to wonder things like, what was feeding time like every single world? 00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:30.240 How could they deal with waste disposal of all of these things? 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:33.680 All of those are fair questions, and I'd love to explore those. 00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:43.039 But just like I said at the beginning of our Genesis series, the point of the series is not to enter the text on our terms, but to enter the text on its terms. 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:46.400 And the text doesn't seem too concerned about these questions. 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:56.880 What the text wants us to see, what God's word wants us to see, is that this arc is something like a microcosm of creation. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:59.759 All the waters of the floods are. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:04.880 The flood is an undoing of creation. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:18.880 It's like the primordial oceans have been released and chaos is enveloping creation, except for this one sacred enclosed space in which two by two of every living creature that God has made is housed. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:22.480 The same God who judges is the God who delivers. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:27.039 And he's using an ark as the means of deliverance. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:31.519 And God makes a covenant with Noah, verse 18. 00:26:32.079 --> 00:26:34.480 I will establish my covenant with you. 00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:41.279 You shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you, together with all the animals. 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:47.759 We don't know anything about this covenant more than that at this point, but we do know that a covenant is a binding promise. 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:54.880 So this God who is grieved over sin, this God who judges sin, is the same God who binds himself to his word. 00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:58.000 And he says, Noah, I'm not abandoning you. 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:02.559 I am not abandoning my plan for humanity, I'm not abandoning my creation. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:07.119 I am going to work my salvation through your family. 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:11.920 God binds himself to his saving word. 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:20.319 And so sin, though it moves God to grief and judgment, we can see moves God to deliver us. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:25.680 This same God who is against sin is for the sinner. 00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:34.079 He is judged, but he graciously supplies undeserving sinners with the means of deliverance. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:43.440 In Noah's day, sin is disintegrating humanity and the creation that humanity exercises dominion over. 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:47.279 But I suspect we'd say the same is true for our day today, isn't it? 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:51.599 We can recognize evidence of that disintegration, perhaps in our own lives. 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:59.359 We can look around the world and scroll through the headlines, and we can recognize the deteriorating effect that sin seems to have. 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:06.240 The world we desire, the flourishing we desire, always seems just beyond our reach. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:10.240 The floods always seem to gather. 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:18.559 So God, in his judgment, sends a deluge of the flood in Noah's day. 00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:27.759 To say no more, to deal with sin, that points us towards God's final judgment, where sin will truly be made no more. 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:37.839 But this judgment points us towards God's greater judgment, where his judgment is fully poured out, and that's on the cross. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:45.839 As Jesus is preparing to go to the cross, he says to his disciples, he asks them, Are you prepared to be baptized with a baptism that I'm baptized with? 00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:49.920 And he's not talking about his baptism with John and River Jordan. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:52.640 He's using the word baptism in its literal sense. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:53.920 It's an immersion. 00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:59.039 Jesus is saying, I'm about to be immersed in God's judgment. 00:28:59.359 --> 00:29:02.319 Are you prepared to walk with me through that? 00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:15.440 When we view the cross, we see ground zero for where God has fully poured out his deluge against the sin which disintegrates our humanity and creation. 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:26.720 Christ has taken on the condition of our sin on the cross so that we can partake of his righteousness and new life. 00:29:27.039 --> 00:29:32.160 The cross is where God pours out his fullest, final judgment. 00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:48.480 But just as with Noah, who was delivered by means of the ark, and we read 7.16, was shut into the ark by God, we see that God supplies us with the means of deliverance as well. 00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:57.599 Just as Noah was shut into the ark, so too are we shut in, as it were, by the Lord, into the Lord Jesus Himself. 00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:01.759 The means of deliverance is our deliverer. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:11.920 Jesus says in John chapter 5, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. 00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:17.759 He does not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life. 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:23.279 Friends, if you are in Christ today, you do not have to fear God's judgment. 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:28.240 The Lord Jesus has taken that deluge upon himself on the cross. 00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:35.200 And now we can rest assured that we will not come into judgment on that final day. 00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:44.160 But we have passed, past, past tense, from death to new life through Christ. 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:48.319 We are shut in by grace. 00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:53.039 So in Christ, sin moves God to deliver us. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:31:01.039 One scholar writes that the rescue of Noah demonstrates God's grace and judgment, which is a recurring theme in Genesis and throughout the Bible. 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:06.319 Our sin deeply grieves God, and it also has consequences. 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:12.960 But he has extended grace to us by placing the judgment on his son. 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:20.559 Our flood is his cross, and his new life is our blood. 00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:35.839 So friends, the God who breathes, the God who judges, is the God who delivers. 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:41.359 He is the God who shuts you in and we in by grace. 00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:46.079 He is the God who calls us to repentance. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:32:03.519 God is brotheling worms, but as those who so desperately need his grace to see our lives restored and renewed and brought back into alignment with his desire for our furish. 00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:08.720 And he is only so eager to supply us with that grace. 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:10.400 That's the promise of the grace. 00:32:12.559 --> 00:32:18.400 So while sin disintegrates us, God restores us by grace. 00:32:19.359 --> 00:32:24.000 Behold, the Lord says, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth. 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:29.680 But I will establish my covenant with you. 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:39.440 And as new covenant believers, we can look to Christ and we can rest assured we do not come into judgment. 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:42.000 But we have passed from them. 00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:46.880 Thank you for listening today. 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:52.480 We worship a generous God who calls us to follow Him and giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially. 00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:59.200 Newsong Church's mission and ministry is one hundred percent funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us. 00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:06.960 If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit newsong period.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that. 00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:10.000 May God bless you and keep you today and every day.