That's what we'll be talking about tonight. I've got two, is the screen? Okay, I need to grab a music stand rope quickly. I put my Bible on the communion table last week or two weeks ago and my wife rebuked me. She said it was inappropriate. I didn't fight her. She's out of town so you can someone tell her that Tommy actually listened to you. So let's do this. What do we read? We're going to look at several parts of Genesis tonight as we consider the flood. But let me just read to you the main flood story. Starting in Genesis, chapter 6, verse 9. If you have a Bible, you can follow along. If not, you can just listen or you can, I think the text on the back, your order of worship. So here's the Word of God. 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 Jepath. Now the earth was corrupting 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 the 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 go-for-wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside, now with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark is 300 qubits. It's breath 50 qubits. It's height 30 qubits. Make a roof for the ark to finish it to a qubit above and then 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 breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And 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 birds according to their kinds and of animals according to their kinds of every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind. Two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also, take with you every sort of food that is eaten and stored up, it shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. Then the Lord said to Noah, go into the ark, you and all your household, for I've seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Let me pray. Father, it's prayed that as we look at your word tonight that you would give us insight, you would teach us the gospel and you'd open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf and Christ's name would parade these things, Amen. And Amen. All right.
The first thing just by way of review is how is Israel's experience of the gospel? What was it and how is it like hours today? If you remember like whenever you're studying the Bible, you gotta try to understand the context and what the author intended and that kind of thing and what was Israel's experience of the gospel? Well, the gospel to Israel would have been God coming to them and promising them basically one thing that had two sides to it. One is I will deliver you from Egypt and the second is I will finish the job and make sure you get into the promised land. So in other words, I'm gonna move you from point A to point B. And what was Israel's biggest struggle? Is they knew that he had delivered them from Egypt but on the way to point B, Canaan, they didn't believe him and they didn't really believe that he was gonna finish the job. And all of their problems derived from the fact that they really didn't trust God when he said he was gonna finish the job. Now guess what, how is that like you and me? Right, if you're a Christian at least Jesus promises you that I will deliver you from Egypt, your sin and I promise you I'm gonna finish the job and every problem that you and I have at some level goes back to the fact that we really don't believe Jesus when he promises that he's gonna finish the job. And when you don't believe that Jesus is gonna finish the job, what do you do? You have to finish the job yourself and see if to control your family members, you have to control work, you have to be, all these things go on when in fact the big question is, is are you gonna trust Jesus? So the book of Genesis has a lot to say to us because it's really encouraging Israel to trust God not only that he's gonna deliver them but he has delivered them and the same for us. Why was God sorry that he had made man? We looked at that last week that God at the beginning of this passage, God said, I'm sorry that I have made man. And if you remember, let me read that to you. The man began to multiply in the face. In verse three of chapter six, it says, then the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide with man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. In other words, if you were here last week, the fact is God was not upset with man because of what he had done, but rather what he was or what he is. In other words, it wasn't, God wasn't upset with the fact that man had done evil things but the fact that man had been evil, that man, that his heart was corrupt, not necessarily his deeds, that deeds are just a symptom of what's in his heart. And so the question is, what was the one thing that differentiated Noah from the rest of the corrupt human race? He says, it says, the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and the every intention 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, oh, a blood out man whom I have created, but Noah, what's the difference between Noah and every other human being? If you read at most children's Bibles, the difference between Noah and every human being will, the most children's Bible will tell you that Noah was good. In the whole rest of humanity over the whole earth was evil only continually and corrupt. Does that make sense? It really doesn't, but that's not what the Bible teaches either. Verse 8 says, but Noah found favor with in the eyes of the Lord. Some of your translations might say, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. All humanity was corrupt. It doesn't say that there was a couple people that weren't corrupt. There was one guy whom God decided out of all of humanity to show grace to in this situation. And if you were here this morning, you struggle with, remember Paul says, as God's chosen ones put on holy and set apart, behaved this way, be compassionate, gentle, make, well, if you look at the story of Noah, it's the ultimate picture of God choosing one individual out of everyone else for no other reason, about his grace and the reason that he loved him. And we'll talk about more about that in a few minutes. What's the burning question? When you read, when you talk about the flood, that was pretty cool, you have to admit.
What the burning question, you know, you're talking about the flood and Noah's ark and the big question, of course, is was the flood universal. You know, maybe you're skeptic and you're sitting out there and go, okay, yeah, that's a good children's story and I don't know was the flood really over the face of the whole earth and the other kind of thing. And I think the answer I'm gonna give you is both gonna surprise you and it's gonna disappoint you, no matter who you are. That's what I live to do. Okay, for one thing we know, it was, it had happened in the Middle East, for sure, because among besides the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, and the Zoroastrians all have a version of the flood story and they all sound very similar to the one in the Bible. I mean, extremely similar. So all the stories in the Middle East, they all sound the same. In fact, I've seen Discovery Channel specials, you know, in search of Noah's ark and they talk about the epic of Gilgamesh and all of these things and the secular media makes a big point of how alike these stories are and they usually are doing it to show you that the Bible can't be true because all these other people say these different things Well, in fact, you know, so one question is which story is right? Why is ours right? And ours is right because we suppose that it is or we presuppose that it is. In other words, all these other stories are shooting for the truth but if you really believe that the God of the Bible is true, he's giving you the straight dope and that's a presupposition. I mean, you're presupposing that, okay? So was it universal? We know it was at least local but here's something that's interesting, okay? What I'm gonna show you is gonna be very confusing someone before some, you know, or giving us an eye test and the point of this is to be a little bit overwhelming because what I'm gonna put up for you is a sampling of the flood stories from around the world, okay? That's just a sample. I don't imagine you can read them from that far away there's, I don't know, there's roughly a couple hundred up there. What's interesting if you, you know, I hate these laser things, if you can't hardly see it. About half of this list, what about from there to there are all Pacific Northwest? That Native Americans, South, you know, people in South America, whatever, there are flood stories all over the world. The aborigines have flood stories and everyone says, well, they've been isolated for, you know, the rows in isolation. So the question is, how did they become flood stories from around the world? And it's not an easy answer because there's no question that every culture in the world has a flood story. So the question is, was there a universal flood and some people besides Noah didn't die and they lived to tell the story or is the Bible true? And you have Noah with his three sons and all of these people from around the world preceded from Noah, okay? You're gonna answer that question for yourself. I don't think that's the point of the story, but it's an interesting one way or the other, either everyone came from Noah which the Bible implies or the flood was completely universal or both. Now, is that the point of the story? The point of that's not the point of the story. I mean, people get wrapped around the axle about these scientific facts. It's just sort of a side note because the point of the story is something altogether different as to whether it was universal. Really, the story has to do with the two seeds we talked about in Genesis chapter three. Now, in Genesis chapter three, Eve has eaten of the apple. Adam hasn't then eaten the apple as well. God comes and says to the serpent, the seed of the woman will crush your head and the seed of the serpent will strike his heel. In other words, it's the first gospel promise that the woman is gonna have a child that is going to crush you serpent, even though you hurt him. And so throughout the whole Bible, from that point on, you see these two seeds sort of going hand in hand, fighting their way to the very end all the way up to the cross and beyond. And so what differentiated those seeds? On one hand, you had the seed of the serpent and if you remember what they were like, oh what, you had the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. What were the seed of the serpent like? They were rebellious, recalcitrant, resistant, and reproducing. That's who you see here in the flood story. That the seed of the serpent are rebellious. That every thought of their heart is only evil continuously, they're recalcitrant, they resist God and they reproduce like crazy. Okay, now what are the seed of the woman like? This is going to be interesting to you. The seed of the woman are characterized by these adjectives, rebellious, recalcitrant, resistant, and reproducing. See the difference there? What is the difference between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman? There is a big difference. Let me show you, Tee, ultimately here's the difference between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. One of them is represented by Jesus and one of them is not. That the only thing that differentiates the seed of the serpent from the seed of the woman is the seed of the woman, are receivers of God's grace through Jesus. They're both resistant, they're both rebellious, they're both recalcitrant, they're both reproduced. The question is what makes one different than the other and the difference is God's grace, which that's what I preached about this morning. Would you not be humble if you were Noah and you realized that out of all these people in the world, God came to me and he said, Noah, here's what I want you to do. I'm going to flood the earth, build the ark, get you and your family onto it. But why'd you pick me? I'm no better than everyone else. Exactly. Why me? Because Noah, I have chosen to love you. You have found grace with me. And to that extent, everyone in this room, if you're a Christian, you are Noah. You're just like him. Because the reason you have found grace through Jesus is not because you were good. And it's not because you weren't like the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent because you're exactly like them. And God has seen fit to open your eyes to the gospel. That's an important point when you look at the book of Genesis. Two books, I don't know if you can see that that way. You have the book of Adam and the book of Noah. Just the way the book of Genesis is structured, you'll say these are the generations of Adam. Then it'll say these are the generations of Noah. For example, this is the book of the generations of Adam in 5.1. And then you have the whole story. It leads all the way up to Noah. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Same thing, once you get to after 6.8, you notice 6.9 that I have with tonight said, now these are generations of Noah, biblical scholars that's called a Tolodot structure, if I remember incorrectly. Noah was righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God, Genesis 6.9. And then the story continues. And another way to look at it. This is generations of Adam. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And there's almost like a complete break and a story starts over again with Noah. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was righteous man, blameless in his time. First things first, well let me say one thing about Noah being righteous, says that, now these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. That's where most people get Noah was good when you ask them why did God save Noah. Now the question is was Noah good? Was he a righteous man? It says so right there. Why was he righteous? Was he righteous? And did God choose Noah because he was righteous or was Noah righteous because God chose him? From the text it seems to be that Noah was righteous because God chose him. His righteousness, his obedience was a response to grace. First things first though, I want you to see is that God initiates in this whole flood story. In Genesis 6.8 you see that God, but Noah found favor with God. And notice what else it says in this chapter. First you see corruption reiterated, instructions concerning the ark and then judgment reiterated. So in verses 11 through 13, now the earth was corrupting God's sight, the earth was filled with violence. And then he gives Noah, instructions concerning the ark. Verse 17, for behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, which is the breath of life, under heaven, everything that is on the earth shall die. So the whole flood is comprehensive, but I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark. Again, you see God's grace. Every he reiterates the earth is corrupt. Here's what I'm gonna do, build an ark, all these things. But you, I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark. And the Noah covenant has six elements we're gonna look at. We're gonna look at three of them tonight by the way and we'll look at the other three next week. Interconnection with the previous covenant, we'll talk about that in a minute, particularity, it's important, familial inclusion, preservation, universal dimension, and it's gracious in character, interconnection. How is this connected with another covenant into what extent? If you remember in the beginning of the book of Genesis, God gave Adam and Eve two mandates, one was a creation mandate and one was a dominion mandate. What were those two things? Basically, the creation mandate that God gave Adam was the same one he gives Noah after the flood. Be fruitful and multiply. Remember, that's what he told Adam and Eve. And then he also told Adam and Eve and even the dominion mandate that they would be the vice-regions over all the earth, that they would be stewards over everything. And what does God tell Noah? He says, the fear and terror of you will be on every beast of the earth into your hand they are given. In other words, just as Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply and just as they were told to be stewards overall creation, this covenant that God makes with Noah, he tells him the same thing. You were to be fruitful, multiply, stewards overall creation. Particularly, this is a good one. God's covenant with Noah is marked by absolute particularity. In other words, God chose Noah and nobody else from the mass of perditiona. Mass of perditiona is what Augustine called the mass of humanity, the mass of perdition. Everyone deserves hell in Augustine's mind. So you got Noah there. Everyone's getting, in verse 17, 18, you hear it. Basically, everyone's getting what they deserved, but you. I mean, depending on where you're coming from, from your theological background, a lot of people make a lot of hay about how the fact is that they are the one who is the one who chose God and the decision to follow Jesus is completely up to them. You can't make that argument with Noah. When you talk about Noah, you've got to recognize that God made the decision from the beginning to the end. Noah, you find grace with me. I'm gonna make a covenant with you. I'm gonna rescue you. Everyone deserves judgment, the flood, but you are gonna be saved. And you hear basically these five things because of Adam's sin, every human being is born both corrupt and guilty. Second, God by his spirit, for reasons only he knows opens the eyes of some while leaving others blind. And you see this when you look at the new testament as well. God will save to the utmost those whose eyes have been opened. God made sure that Noah had the instruction for the ark, and that he and his family actually got onto the ark and God closed the door to the ark. Number four, whoever God embraces, finds them impossible to resist completely if at all. Do you get the sense here that Noah could have said no? I don't, I mean, I guess you get up your own opinion, but you don't get the sense that Noah, we don't have the whole story, we don't have the whole backstory. We don't know if Noah, you know, remember it wasn't Bruce Almighty, it was Evan Almighty. You know, you don't get the sense that Noah was arguing back and forth, and eventually he got around to doing it because God kept making his beard grow quickly and things, if you've seen that movie. It's more you get the sense that Noah was compelled to do this. And then the last thing, God always finishes what he starts. God promised Noah he was gonna deliver him and his family and he did deliver him and his family, okay? Now those five things, by the way, you see those in the story of Noah very clearly. Those five things are also what theologians called the five points of Calvinism. So you've been taught, you've been exposed to them. The five points of Calvinism, you know, it's a fun, people every now and then, you know, our former church someone came to me and said, Tommy, you know, I'm leaving the church and I said, why? And he said, I found out your Calvinist, and I just don't believe any of that. And I said, why are you leaving the church, why are you here then? And he said, well, I love your preaching. I said, you love my preaching, but you're leaving the church because you heard I'm a Calvinist, but yes. And I said, well, he had a huge problem. And he said, what? I said, well, one or the other of us doesn't understand Calvinism. Because I think that's what I'm preaching every week, okay? Because even though God does all this stuff, we're still responsible to build the ark, if you will. Noah still had to exercise the means that God had given him. So the last thing familial inclusion, we tend to overlook this in the church, especially in the United States, especially in the United States and the Pacific Northwest. Because in the United States, and especially in the Pacific Northwest, we tend to be so individualistic, that when you talk about faith or salvation or things like that, it's just me, my own, Jesus is my personal savior. And that is silliness, frankly. I remember Keith Green, remember the musician Keith Green? Keith Green said calling Jesus your personal savior is tantamount, it'd be like calling your belly button, your own personal belly button. He either is or is not for one, but also salvation is more corporate in nature than we tend to look at it, especially in the United States. But what notice here what the Lord said to Noah? He told him what, what did he tell him in Genesis 7-1? He says, I want you to enter the ark. He tells him who should enter the ark with him. He says, you and all your household, okay? Why? Because you alone, I've seen to be righteous before me. The bother anybody? It should, if your whole view of the gospel is that the way God works is individually with each person and the only way you can interact with God is one-on-one, mono-omano, because what you see here and what you see in every covenant in the whole Bible is that God always deals with people in by way of family units, generally speaking. It's amazing. God says, I want you to enter the ark, you and your whole household, not because I found them righteous, but they get to participate in this covenant because of your righteousness, Noah. It's on the basis of my relationship with you that your children get to enter the ark. Now, they experience salvation from the flood. Now, did they experience salvation from their sins? I don't think so, not all of them, because we'll find out later that some of his sons, at least one of them, turned out to be quite corrupt. But they got to, they're ticket to the ark. Their ticket to God's blessing was the fact that God had a relationship with Noah and for no other reason. He says, Noah, your family gets to come in the ark because I have found you to be righteous. And it's the same blessing that our children get as well. They live, if they grow up in a family of faith, are our children saved because you are saved if you're a Christian? Absolutely not. Do they have the blessing of being exposed to the gospel, riding the flood, if you will, through society and everything else, by being part of the believing community. Absolutely. And we shouldn't overlook that. I don't know if that's the last slide I had. That is the last slide I had. Why don't I pray for us? It's getting a little bit later than I thought. And if you have any questions, you can come up and ask me after, usually there are, and let me pray. Father, I just pray that as we continue to look at Noah and the flood and what you have done, that you would help us to understand the gospel more and more, that you'd help us to see that much like Noah, we are completely dependent upon your grace. In Christ's name, we pray these things. Amen, you know, amen. This point.