SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Joel is going to be preaching from the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: So if you'd like to open your Bibles and follow along, I would highly encourage it.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be in Genesis 8.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to read the whole chapter, and then we're going to go about halfway through chapter 9 as well.
SPEAKER_00: So this is going to be a little bit longer passage, but it's it's a really amazing testimony of God.
SPEAKER_00: Out of reverence for the word, as you're able, would you please stand with me and we'll read this together.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.
SPEAKER_00: Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained, and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.
SPEAKER_00: In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
SPEAKER_00: The water decreased steadily until the tenth month.
SPEAKER_00: In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
SPEAKER_00: Then it came about at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had which he had made, and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Then he sent out a dove from him to see if the water was abated from the face of the land.
SPEAKER_00: But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Then he put her he put out his hand and took her in, and brought her into the ark to himself.
SPEAKER_00: So he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark.
SPEAKER_00: The dove came to him towards the evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf.
SPEAKER_00: So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.
SPEAKER_00: Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, of the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.
SPEAKER_00: In the second month, on the twenty seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
SPEAKER_00: Then God spoke to Noah, saying, Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
SPEAKER_00: Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives with him.
SPEAKER_00: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark.
SPEAKER_00: Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord smelled the smooth the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.
SPEAKER_00: While the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
SPEAKER_00: CHAPTER nine.
SPEAKER_00: And God blessed Noah and his sons, and he said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth, and on every bird of the sky, with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea into your hand they are given.
SPEAKER_00: Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.
SPEAKER_00: I give it all to you, as I gave the green plant.
SPEAKER_00: Only you shall not eat the flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
SPEAKER_00: Surely I will require your life blood, and from every beast I will require it, and from every man, from every man's brother, I will require the life of man.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he created man.
SPEAKER_00: As for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.
SPEAKER_00: Then God spoke to Noah and his sons with him, saying, Now, behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you, and with your descendants after you, and every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you.
SPEAKER_00: Of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth, I establish my covenant with you, and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood.
SPEAKER_00: Neither shall there be again be a flood to destroy the earth.
SPEAKER_00: God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you, and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations.
SPEAKER_00: I will set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: It shall come about when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh, and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.
SPEAKER_00: When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature and all flesh that is on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly God, creator and sustainer of all that is.
SPEAKER_01: We just thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you've told us what happened, what is happening, and what is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Because you are sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: This is your plan.
SPEAKER_01: And you've made it known to us.
SPEAKER_01: You reveal it to us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your word, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Please guide us and direct us in our time now.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to listen, to learn, to grow, to change, to come out of this place more in love with you than we walked in.
SPEAKER_01: Only by the power of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So in uh early October, how many of you take the newspaper if it even exists anymore?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, two people.
SPEAKER_01: Right on.
SPEAKER_01: That's why they're going out of business.
SPEAKER_01: Um in early October, I got a uh a newspaper from my mom, and it was talking about this hunter uh that came across, as he was like in Baker County or something like that, that came across a couple of antelope that were stuck together.
SPEAKER_01: Their horns were locked.
SPEAKER_01: You saw that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Their horns were locked, and there was one antelope that was dragging around another one.
SPEAKER_01: It had died, it had succumbed to the fight.
SPEAKER_01: And the hunter saw and looked and was like, oh, obviously, this other one's not gonna make it either.
SPEAKER_01: It can't defend itself, it can't run, it can't get food, it's just hanging onto this thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so he went back and got help, and uh somehow they had a bone saw, and he was able to get up there when the other one was kind of resting and cut that thing loose, cut one of those horns loose, and then the that live antelope jumped up and ran off.
SPEAKER_01: That article got me thinking about that passage in the book of Romans in chapter 7, verse 24, where Paul talks about the body of death that he was attached to.
SPEAKER_01: In that passage, Paul was lamenting his flesh or his sin nature, or his body of death that was continuing to drag him down, and it was it was dogging his days, even as he lived a life of a committed, born-again Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read to you a passage starting in verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: It says, For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but the very thing I hate.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if I do not do what I want, I agree with the law that it is good, so it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
SPEAKER_01: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
SPEAKER_01: For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if I do not do what I want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin that dwells within me.
SPEAKER_01: So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
SPEAKER_01: For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
SPEAKER_01: Wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death.
SPEAKER_01: Just like the antelope, helplessly dragging around another dead antelope by the horns, Paul is locked in this grappling match with the old man, his sin nature.
SPEAKER_01: Everywhere he goes, every move he makes, his sinful flesh is right there with him.
SPEAKER_01: Constantly weighing him down and urging him to listen to temptation and to give in to it and fulfill the desires of the flesh?
SPEAKER_01: Can you relate to Paul?
SPEAKER_01: Can you relate to that antelope?
SPEAKER_01: Is your inmost desire to run free, to not be held down or burdened by temptation and sin?
SPEAKER_01: Does your born-again Christian heart say and want one thing while the body of death holds you down and keeps you from fully and completely functioning as the redeemed new creation God says you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I would say this is the struggle of every believer.
SPEAKER_01: All Christians struggle with sin in the body.
SPEAKER_01: Though we are saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we still struggle against the old man, the body of sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is the lot of the believer on this planet.
SPEAKER_01: The struggle of the blood-bought, born-again believer against his or her sin nature.
SPEAKER_01: This is called sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: The daily and nightly battle to trust God at his word and by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to turn away from temptation to sin and to submit to God's Lordship over your everlasting soul.
SPEAKER_01: The struggle is normal, it is good, it is right, it is humbling, and it is promised by Christ to the believer.
SPEAKER_01: John 16, 33, Jesus says, In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage.
SPEAKER_01: I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_01: He also said to take up our cross and follow him.
SPEAKER_01: So how did he overcome the world?
SPEAKER_01: Through his perfect, sinless life.
SPEAKER_01: His substitutionary death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and ascension to the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: In doing this, Christ conquered Satan's sin and death.
SPEAKER_01: So when Christ says that we are going to tribulate, I think we ought to tribulate.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean to say, my brothers and my sisters in Christ, is that we must fight against our propensity to sin in the flesh for all the days that we will live in this earth suit until we are taken to glory in His perfect will and timing.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're sitting there and you're listening to this, and you don't struggle against sin in your life, if it is not a burden to you, if you can happily come to church and shake hands and smile and visit with your friends on Sunday and happily live like the world and enjoy sin the rest of the week, then you seriously need to consider whether or not you are actually a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Because Christians struggle against sin and hate it and fight it and repent of it all the way to glory.
SPEAKER_01: Your sin nature, it means to hold you down and destroy you.
SPEAKER_01: As a Christ follower, you are not to give in to that sin nature.
SPEAKER_01: You are to fight against it by the power of the Holy Spirit with your focus on eternal life, not on the things of this world.
SPEAKER_01: You should never be comfortable with your sin.
SPEAKER_01: If the Holy Spirit is in you, if you are a Christ follower, a Christian, then He will never cease to make you holy.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit cannot abide sin.
SPEAKER_01: He's always cleaning house.
SPEAKER_01: He's always bringing to mind and shining a light on anything in your life that does not conform to the character of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Consider your motivations and your desires.
SPEAKER_01: Judge yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be complacent.
SPEAKER_01: Don't agree with the world to pursue the things of the world.
SPEAKER_01: This world and its desires are passing away.
SPEAKER_01: This world is reserved for fire.
SPEAKER_01: The great day of judgment is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And only those whose hearts have been made right with the king of all creation, by faith in the blood of Christ, will pass through this judgment into eternal life and heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So fight the good fight of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Agree with the Holy Spirit and seek his desires.
SPEAKER_01: The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
SPEAKER_01: Church, the right place to be as a Christ follower is with Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Romans verse 24 of chapter 7, where he says, Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
SPEAKER_01: So what's he doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's looking for a deliverer.
SPEAKER_01: He's looking for a savior.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming to God in humbleness, humility.
SPEAKER_01: He comes to God looking for help and answers, and recognize that as a Christian, you are in a battle that you cannot win apart from God's deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: It is He who redeems.
SPEAKER_01: It is He who protects.
SPEAKER_01: It is He who will bring your faith to completion.
SPEAKER_01: Recognize your need, and then recognize your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Seeking a Savior, a deliverer, is humbling.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where the Christian must live and move and have their being.
SPEAKER_01: We have to stay humble because in prideless humility, God comes to our aid.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he came to seek and save the lost, not those who don't think they need any help.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter 5, 7 says that we are to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift us up.
SPEAKER_01: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_01: Paul does not rely on his ability to fight sin alone.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that he cannot obey the perfect law of God perfectly and thereby earn his way to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He knows he's a sinner with a sin nature that he can't defeat by himself because in the flesh he's in bondage to that sin nature.
SPEAKER_01: So in humbleness, he calls out for a savior.
SPEAKER_01: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
SPEAKER_01: James 4, 6 says that God is opposed to the proud.
SPEAKER_01: Those who think they are good enough for God, but gives grace to the humble, those who know that they have a need of a Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, he will flee from you.
SPEAKER_01: Draw near to God, he will draw near to you.
SPEAKER_01: Cleanse your hands, you sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Purify your hearts, you double-minded, be miserable, mourn and weep.
SPEAKER_01: Let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to gloom.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
SPEAKER_01: Though Paul wants to follow Christ perfectly, he recognizes his sin, his inability to follow Christ perfectly while in the body.
SPEAKER_01: And in that humbleness he cries out, Who will save me from this body of death?
SPEAKER_01: So what's the answer?
SPEAKER_01: Who can save him?
SPEAKER_01: Who can save us?
SPEAKER_01: Romans 7, 25.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God through Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks can be given to God through Christ, because only in Christ can we be saved from our sin while we continue to struggle against it.
SPEAKER_01: His perfect and finished work on the cross was so sufficient that it not only paid for my sins in the past, but also my present sins and the sins I have yet to commit in the future.
SPEAKER_01: Praise be to the Lord God Almighty, who has saved me and holds me in Christ while I continue to struggle against sin.
SPEAKER_01: And praise him as we, the church, look forward to being released from this body of death when we die.
SPEAKER_01: Or he returns and we are changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and fully and perfectly become the new creation.
SPEAKER_01: We now are when we are cut loose from the old man, the body of death, and forever live in perfect freedom as the sons and daughters of the exalted King of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: This is the hope of the Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Not attaining sinless perfection in the body, but humbly and hopefully and faithfully fighting sin in the body, with the power of the Holy Spirit, day after day after day after day, all to the glory of God who can save us from this body of death.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you might be saying to yourselves, Amen, brother.
SPEAKER_01: Good stuff.
SPEAKER_01: What in the world does that have to do with Genesis?
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way that the live antelope needed someone to save it from the dead one, locked to it before it died as well.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way that Paul and us need to humbly rely on Christ to save us from the ever-present reality of our sin nature.
SPEAKER_01: So it is for Noah and his family, and the animals in the ark in our passage in Genesis 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Genesis 6, when God decided to cleanse the earth of sin with a flood, it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It does not say Noah was sinless.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Noah knew he was a sinner, and Noah desired righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: That was the difference between him and the rest of the people in the world at that time.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the condemning words that God said of mankind at that time.
SPEAKER_01: Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
SPEAKER_01: There was no struggling against sin.
SPEAKER_01: There was practicing it and enjoying it.
SPEAKER_01: So what happened is God was looking at fallen humanity who were working hard and practicing and enjoying their sin.
SPEAKER_01: God saw Noah humbly looking back at him, looking for salvation from his personal body of death.
SPEAKER_01: And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Noah, a sinner, in a world about to be judged for its rampant sin, humbled himself and recognized he needed a savior.
SPEAKER_01: And God came to Noah in his need and saved him.
SPEAKER_01: Not only him, but his family and a bunch of animals on the ark.
SPEAKER_01: This flood narrative in Genesis is a picture of our need and what God will do for those who humbly look to him and him only for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So, real quick, we're going to work our way through the text of this passage with our need and the covenant-making love of God on our minds.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 8, 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_01: But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him on the ark, and God made a wind to blow over the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The waters subsided.
SPEAKER_01: The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were shut.
SPEAKER_01: The rain from the heavens was restrained.
SPEAKER_01: The waters receded from the earth continually.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of a hundred and fifty days, the waters had abated.
SPEAKER_01: And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
SPEAKER_01: And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month, and in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
SPEAKER_01: So because of the sin of mankind, because of their self-worshipping pride, their unrepentant hearts, all of the earth was judged with a flood.
SPEAKER_01: Every man, woman, child, animal, insect, plant, and rock was drowned in the waters of the global flood.
SPEAKER_01: The only land creatures on earth that survived the flood were on the ark that Noah had built in obedience to God's command.
SPEAKER_01: And there they floated above a world of destruction for about a year.
SPEAKER_01: And we have to picture this rightly.
SPEAKER_01: This was not a cruise ship.
SPEAKER_01: This was not luxury.
SPEAKER_01: This was not comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: This was hard.
SPEAKER_01: Smelly, seasick, dirty, confined, dark, laborious.
SPEAKER_01: Safety.
SPEAKER_01: This was God's provision for them.
SPEAKER_01: Not easy, not smooth sailing.
SPEAKER_01: This was tough.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure there was conflict on that boat.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot lock a bunch of sinners onto a boat for a year and not have problems.
SPEAKER_01: But this was God's one and only plan of safety and provision for Noah and his family and the animals.
SPEAKER_01: There was no other option available to escape the flood waters of the judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So as we consider our sin nature as Christians, being attached to that body of death, while we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we should think rightly.
SPEAKER_01: We should not look down on or despise our sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: Our struggle against sin.
SPEAKER_01: We need to look at it like the occupants of that ark looked at the flood waters.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, it's difficult.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, it is not the lap of sinless luxury I would have chosen for myself.
SPEAKER_01: But it is God's perfect plan of salvation for me.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's no place else I would rather be than floating safe and secure above his wrath and trusting that he will work it all out for his glory and my good.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The apostle Peter put it this way in 1 Peter chapter 1, when he was writing to encourage Christians in the first century to fight the good fight of faith and to trust in God's provision of salvation for them.
SPEAKER_01: What he wrote is, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_01: In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.
SPEAKER_01: So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: James, in his letter, echoes Peter by saying, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
SPEAKER_01: Let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Both Peter and James are writing to embolden us in our struggle against our sinful flesh to see that fighting sin causes our faith and consequently our Christian walk, our Christ following, to grow stronger.
SPEAKER_01: They are saying that fighting the old man, humbly fighting sin, is a part of God's plan for us, and that we should accept the battle joyfully, because in the battle of faith we are drawn closer to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so the rains stopped.
SPEAKER_01: The judgment waters began to abate, and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
SPEAKER_01: Verses six through fourteen.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven.
SPEAKER_01: It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set her foot.
SPEAKER_01: And she returned to him in the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him.
SPEAKER_01: He waited another seven days, and again sent forth the dove out of the ark, and the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf.
SPEAKER_01: So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And then he waited another seven days, sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him any more.
SPEAKER_01: In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
SPEAKER_01: In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out.
SPEAKER_01: So you can picture this, can't you?
SPEAKER_01: Noah, under this low-hanging rain covering, unable to really see out, unable to confirm that the storm has passed, and is it now safe to remove the covering and venture off of the ark?
SPEAKER_01: He pokes out his hand and he sends out a raven to see if it would come back or if it would find dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: The raven, it kept coming and going, probably feeding on floating carcasses, and then coming back to the ark to rest.
SPEAKER_01: Noah needed more proof, and so he sent out a dove, not a meat-eating bird.
SPEAKER_01: The dove flew around and came back.
SPEAKER_01: No good ground or land with vegetation growing out of it to eat out there, so he waited a week.
SPEAKER_01: And then he sent her out again.
SPEAKER_01: And this time she came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf, a sure sign of plants growing, new life.
SPEAKER_01: So he waited another seven days, sent her out again, and this time she didn't come back.
SPEAKER_01: Plenty of food and water out there for her now.
SPEAKER_01: No reason to return to the dry safety of the ark.
SPEAKER_01: So Noah removed the covering and saw dry ground, and it looked like it was time to get off the ark.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 8, 15 through 20.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke to Noah, saying, Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
SPEAKER_01: Bring out every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So Noah went out, his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.
SPEAKER_01: Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird, everything that moves on the earth went out by their families from the ark.
SPEAKER_01: Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
SPEAKER_01: Noah did not lead his family or the animals off the ark until God told him to.
SPEAKER_01: Even though the coast looked clear, Noah did not make a move off that boat until God told him to.
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
SPEAKER_01: This is a good example for us to patiently stay put where God has us until God makes it clear that it is time for us to move out and move on to a new thing.
SPEAKER_01: And what is the first thing that Noah does when he gets off the ark?
SPEAKER_01: Did he go exploring?
SPEAKER_01: Did he build a house?
SPEAKER_01: Did he plant a garden?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: He offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: He reverently and humbly gives thanks to God for his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is a perfect example of how we should be living here today.
SPEAKER_01: In humble dependence and thanksgiving for what God has brought us through.
SPEAKER_01: Not rushing off to the next thing and only ever asking God for stuff, but stopping and deliberately giving sacrificial thanks and praise to Him for what He has brought you through.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 8, 20 through 9, 7.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord smelled the soothing aroma.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man.
SPEAKER_01: For the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.
SPEAKER_01: While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.
SPEAKER_01: And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth, every bird of the sky, everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Into your hand they are given.
SPEAKER_01: Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.
SPEAKER_01: I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.
SPEAKER_01: Only you shall not eat the flesh with its life, that is the blood.
SPEAKER_01: Surely I will require your lifeblood.
SPEAKER_01: From every beast I will require it, from every man, from every man's brother I'll require the life of man.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever sheds man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God he made man.
SPEAKER_01: As for you be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth, multiply in it.
SPEAKER_01: God responds to Noah's offering of thanksgiving by saying that even though mankind is evil, even though Noah brought sin with him onto the ark and off of the ark, God will continue to provide a place for them to live that can support their needs.
SPEAKER_01: This is the God we serve, a God of love and compassion, whose perfect judgment is his strange work.
SPEAKER_01: And then he told Noah and his family, go for it.
SPEAKER_01: Have a bunch of kids.
SPEAKER_01: Fill the earth with people.
SPEAKER_01: Go exploring, see what I've done with the place.
SPEAKER_01: He also changed the relationship between man and animals.
SPEAKER_01: Before the flood, mankind was a vegetarian.
SPEAKER_01: And the animals were all domesticated, not fearful of man.
SPEAKER_01: After the flood, God changed things.
SPEAKER_01: God told man he could eat animals, and that the animals would be afraid of him and dangerous to him.
SPEAKER_01: God not only changed the human population and the topography of the earth, but he changed man's diet and animals' relationship to man.
SPEAKER_01: To say that the flood was catastrophic and cataclysmic is not an understatement.
SPEAKER_01: The flood changed everything about how mankind lives on this planet.
SPEAKER_01: The way of life that no one his family knew before the flood was erased.
SPEAKER_01: And a new way of life had taken its place.
SPEAKER_01: And they had to learn from scratch how to live on this planet.
SPEAKER_01: It was alien to them.
SPEAKER_01: Their old home.
SPEAKER_01: Their garden.
SPEAKER_01: The mountains that maybe they saw out the back door.
SPEAKER_01: The familiar valleys and streams.
SPEAKER_01: The neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: Gone.
SPEAKER_01: They had to start over and learn where to find food and water.
SPEAKER_01: And also how to hunt.
SPEAKER_01: And God also laid down a law when he said that he would require a reckoning for killing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that reckoning means for the animals, but for mankind, he said that if a human killed another human, then that murderer, that murderer was to be killed.
SPEAKER_01: Because humans are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: So why do we consider life sacred?
SPEAKER_01: Because God says it is.
SPEAKER_01: Not because a human court of law says it is or it is not, but because God said it is.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 9, 8 through 17.
SPEAKER_01: Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, Now behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you, and with your descendants after you, with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, every beast of the earth with you, of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: I establish my covenant with you.
SPEAKER_01: And all flesh shall never be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.
SPEAKER_01: God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you, every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations.
SPEAKER_01: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: It shall come about when I bring the cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.
SPEAKER_01: When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So here we come to the main point of the passage and the message for today: God's covenant, God's promise to mankind, God's self-initiated, signed, sealed, delivered contract.
SPEAKER_01: God responds to Noah, and in effect, God says, I won't destroy the earth again with a flood.
SPEAKER_01: I'll keep providing food for animals and humans.
SPEAKER_01: I'll do this even though mankind is full of sin, because of my great love for humans.
SPEAKER_01: I have made in my image, I will continue to provide for them, and not destroy them with another global flood, even though they deserve it, and so much more.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll show my forever promise to you and your children and their children with a repeating sign.
SPEAKER_01: Something you've never seen before.
SPEAKER_01: I'll put a rainbow in the clouds over this purged and changed earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the sight of this rainbow is to be a reminder to you of my promise that there once was a global flood due to human sin, but there will not be another one, because I am gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: I am a God who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the rainbow and remember that I rule over all creation.
SPEAKER_01: And I am its holy and righteous judge, and yet I hold up my hands all day long to a disobedient and obstinate people and offer them salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Look and know that I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: No one is saved except by my provision.
SPEAKER_01: Come and look, let us reason together.
SPEAKER_01: Though your sins are as scarlet, I can make them white as snow.
SPEAKER_01: Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.
SPEAKER_01: Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: To the souls of the coming generations looking to me for salvation, know that you that I have saved you in the past.
SPEAKER_01: I can save you now.
SPEAKER_01: I will save future generations if you will humbly look to me and trust in what I have provided for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: My rainbow says, I promise.
SPEAKER_01: When we see a rainbow in the sky, our minds should be immediately drawn to the flood narrative and the merciful provision of God to save Noah and his family, animals in the ark, and God's promise not to destroy the earth with a global flood again.
SPEAKER_01: The important thing to note as we come to a close is that this covenant was made by God to Noah.
SPEAKER_01: This was not a covenant Noah made to God.
SPEAKER_01: God came to his sinful, needy creation and said, I promise, I will provide.
SPEAKER_01: All the liability belonged to God.
SPEAKER_01: He made a promise to man.
SPEAKER_01: All man had to do was look up and remember that promise.
SPEAKER_01: This was not an if-then covenant, of which there are many in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: In the Noahic covenant, Noah and his family had no part in making sure that the promise held.
SPEAKER_01: It was all God.
SPEAKER_01: And are you glad?
SPEAKER_01: Are you not thankful that it was not up to humanity to perfectly serve and obey the three times holy God of all creation, so that the world would not be inundated underneath another global flood of righteous judgment?
SPEAKER_01: If it were up to our righteousness to keep the promise, we would have utterly failed in a matter of moments, and the earth would have been wiped clean of us thousands of years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Church, God is so merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God for the promises He makes towards us.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God for His loving kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God for His mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Praise Him that He does not give us the eternal, just, and righteous condemnation we so rightly deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God for His grace that gives you what you do not deserve: Eternal life through faith in the blood of the eternal Son of God, Jesus, the promised one, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: In conclusion, we need a savior.
SPEAKER_01: The antelope needed the savior.
SPEAKER_01: Paul needed a savior.
SPEAKER_01: Noah needed a savior.
SPEAKER_01: And so we need a savior.
SPEAKER_01: And we must trust in God's everlasting promises to save us when we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, and we will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: We are not saved by our abilities or our righteousness, but by his word to us.
SPEAKER_01: He promises that he can and will save us and carry us on through this life to eternal life in heaven with him through the perfect and finished work of his Son, Jesus the Messiah, the sacrificial Lamb, our substitutionary atonement.
SPEAKER_01: What a merciful, covenant-making God we serve.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for not giving us what we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for your grace.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sending your Son.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for so loving a sinful world.
SPEAKER_01: That you would do what we can't do for ourselves, you would save us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the hope we have of eternal life because of Him.
SPEAKER_01: Give us what we need today to fight sin.
SPEAKER_01: To believe you at your word that we are sons and daughters of God, that you have made us new creation.
SPEAKER_01: Bless us to repent, to kill sin, to seek after you.
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to eternity with you because of what you have done and your promises, your covenant.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.