God and Noah and the Flood

Father, some of us here this morning need a miracle.

Some of us, Father, need several miracles.

And Father, we ask that you help us to believe that you hear our prayers,

that often you say no, sometimes you say not yet, but sometimes you say yes,

and that you can hear and answer our prayers.

For Father, we know that every one of us, whether we need a miracle today or not,

there will be times in our life where we do need you to act.

So, Father, we ask that you grant us a humble dependence upon you in prayer

and a humble dependence to trust your word, both your warnings and your promises.

Father, may your Holy Spirit do a mighty work within us this morning,

and we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

Amen.

So, this is sort of, I felt really bad after my sermon last week,

and I'm not saying that so you can all give me comfortable words afterwards.

I'm not saying that at all.

You know, guys like myself who get up and have to open the word,

and then, you know, there's different things you have to deal with afterwards.

And as I was preaching last week and as I finished, I didn't think I'd done a very good job.

And, you know, I think the points were good, but I think I had too many,

and I didn't quite make it clear why some of the points that I had to make

were actually really important points.

So, one of the things you can do for me every week is just pray.

There's an old saying that mist in the pulpit creates fog in the pews.

Mist in the pulpit creates fog in the pews.

So, if you could just pray not only for me, but for every one of your small groups for the Sunday school,

that we will be mist-free zones, and that God would do a mighty work beyond what we humanly are capable of.

That would be a great benefit for me and for others.

So, we're going to look, I'm going to go back and look at a few of those other things connected to the flood.

It's a very, very complicated, it's not a complicated story.

It's complicated for a lot of us nowadays, just to be honest.

It's complicated for a lot of people, and even as I'm going to speak about the flood again,

and we're going to talk about it again next week, because that's where we are, going through Genesis 1 to 11,

some of you are sitting back thinking to themselves,

is George going to show himself to be one of those kooky fundamentalists?

And others of you are going,

is George going to show himself to want to be one of those liberals who dances around the scriptures?

Well, before we get to that, you know, the flood story raises all sorts of other problems.

I'm going to get to that, as to whether the flood happened and how we're to hear this part of the Bible.

But, you know, there's another big part of this whole thing about the story.

In the story of the flood, God destroys all the animals, everything that has the breath of life.

So, is God crazy and bloodthirsty?

Is he crazy and bloodthirsty?

So, let's look.

We're going to go back to chapter 6, verse 1.

We're going to go through some of these things fairly quickly.

Just to try to bring into a context what the Bible is saying about the flood and why it's there in the Bible.

So, if you have your Bibles, go to chapter 6, verse 1.

And so, what's happened in the Bible?

God has created all things out of nothing.

Then there's sort of a, he teaches us different things through the first creation story.

The second creation story, we have the fall of Adam and Eve wanting to be like God.

We have Adam and we have Cain and Abel and murder.

We have the entrance of polygamy.

We have the genealogy.

And now we get to this.

And here's how it goes.

When man, meaning here the human race, began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,

the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive and they took as their wives any they chose.

Now, just pause here.

Somebody shared this with me that when he first read this, he just thought this is crazy.

Why on earth would God get mad at people for men for finding women attractive?

One of the things which is going on in the Bible here is that because there's some complexities in the Hebrew,

the translators here have chosen just to translate this part quite literally.

And in the rest of the Bible, generally speaking, when sons of God are mentioned,

it's referring to angels as a general rule in the Old Testament.

But what on earth is going on here?

Like, is God just saying, all you Christian men don't find women attractive?

And if you don't find women attractive, then you're going to please me because we're going to get right into everything being destroyed.

So what's going on here?

Well, what we have to do, the Bible actually usually interprets itself.

It's just really a matter of trying to read very carefully and also using your imagination and your curiosity, but to read carefully.

And so this whole little story here of the end of the world that was before the flood, the key verse is verse 5.

So you go down to verse 5, and it's a very, very striking verse.

It's a very important verse to meditate upon.

And here's what it says.

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.

So whatever we're going to think about when trying to understand the sons of God text, the Nephilim, all of the other things,

even the whole story of the flood, and even the story of the judgment,

this verse is what helps us to understand, oh, okay, we should interpret this earlier thing this way,

and these other things this way.

And just before we go anything further, there's a big problem we often have with the word the heart.

Because, well, actually, Andrew, could you show me the Care Bears picture, please?

I like to make sure I get the best of Latin scholarship and Greek scholarship to try to illustrate things.

So some of you of a certain generation and parents of kids of a certain generation, this is the Care Bears.

And, you know, one of the things when they have to deal with no heart is all their positive emotions flow out of their chest.

And because it's just all about emotions and positive emotions.

And so for a lot of Christians today, when we hear the word heart, we think of feelings.

So here's the thing.

If you could put up the next image.

Okay, that's a bit of a clue.

How many people recognize what this is a picture of?

Okay, this is a picture of the captain's seat in the Starship Enterprise.

This is the command center of everything that goes on.

So when you hear the word, or when you see the word heart in the Bible,

don't think of Care Bears.

Think of where Captain Kirk sits.

Because every human being has a command center.

Every human being has a command center.

And from the command center, the things that we believe to be true,

how the way our mind works, the emotions that we feel, our plans, our desires,

everything emerges from a command center.

They all go back to one command center.

And so generally speaking, in fact, I would say 99.9% of the time,

there's going to be little nuances, but it's always, whenever you see the word heart in the Bible,

think where does Captain Kirk sit?

And think of the fact that underneath who you are, at the very center of who you are,

you have a command center.

And then you can ask yourself, and see, one of the things about the Bible is the Bible is regularly asking us

to figure out who we are at that command center of our lives.

And what, at the command center of our lives, we're thinking, believing, planning, feeling, emoting.

So that's the thing.

So look at verse 5 again.

In light of this, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth

and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart,

everything that went on in the command center of his heart,

was only evil continually.

So that is how the world before the flood is described.

If you could put up the first point, Andrew,

some of you, if you've never read The Lord of the Rings,

you've never seen the movies, you won't understand this.

But what the Bible is describing in a very, very few deft strokes,

you know, have you seen some artists who can just use five lines that they just do like this?

And you can see a horse running or a bird flying or the face of a person that you recognize.

And that's what the Bible is doing in the Hebrew in these first things here.

They're just drawing a few lines.

But what it's trying to describe is something akin to Mordor.

The earth has become Mordor.

Mordor has won.

So mindful of that, let's look up again at verse 1 and 2, okay?

Look up again at verse 1 and 2.

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,

these demons saw that the daughters of men were attractive and they took them as their wives,

any that they chose.

And then just sort of skip down to verse 4.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days,

and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of man

and they bore children to them.

They were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,

that some great evil of demonic presence on the earth,

which is more, just think of Mordor.

Some great rupture had happened that human beings also desired.

And as you go back, and we're going to look at it in a moment when we read it,

it's a description, as it goes on,

of not only all of the thoughts are evil,

but that ruination is upon the earth,

and violence is upon the earth,

and that the only way that you can understand human beings

and what's going on in the creation order,

and even we're thrilling to animals,

is destruction and ruination and violence and evil and fell forces.

Mordor.

So, you see, right off the bat,

if you're wondering,

is God being really mean to destroy the earth?

If you understand that it's painting something like Mordor,

all of a sudden you realize,

maybe God isn't going to be mean.

But you know what?

This whole text is going to show time and time and time again God's mercy.

Look at verse 3 of chapter 6.

Then the Lord said,

My spirit shall not abide in man forever,

for he is flesh.

His day shall be 120 years.

Now, two things.

This isn't saying that God's Holy Spirit lives in every person.

In the creed, we said we believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord and giver of life.

In other words, the Bible is saying,

and this is one of the passages that would use to,

why that's in the creed,

human life has a Lord and a giver.

Life comes from God,

and God, not man, is Lord of life.

And this text here,

when it's saying,

then the Lord said,

My spirit shall not abide in man forever,

for he is flesh.

In other words,

my time for dealing with this generation is coming to an end.

And then it says,

His day shall be 120 years.

Spirit, it's a little bit unclear in the English,

but in the Hebrew,

in 120 years,

I will bring an end to Mordor.

Now that's actually pretty patient.

God is going to give that generation,

that time,

120 years to repent.

120 years to repent.

And as we're going to see in a moment,

what is it that God does

to help that generation know

that they need to repent?

He's going to have a guy

build a huge wooden structure

for 120 years.

And when they ask Noah,

Why are you building it?

As we're going to see in a moment,

he says,

Because God,

the true God,

is going to bring an end to this created order.

And this is the means of rescue.

For 120 years,

there's a task given to Noah,

and 120 years,

he speaks.

And as we'll see in that,

part of the speaking of Noah,

part of what God says to Noah,

is that a new covenant will be offered

to you and to your family,

to you and those in a sense

who follow you,

who heed you.

120 years.

So what we can see here

is that it's not the case

that God is mean.

In fact,

if you could put up the next point,

here's the thing,

which is how the Bible reveals

how we read,

how we really are working

at the level of our heart.

The next point.

You see,

it's very easy.

Every time we read about judgment

in the Bible,

our hearts,

which are in rebellion against God,

instantly jump

to a particular worry.

Why?

Because the gods

of our imagination

kill ordinary people.

But what does the Bible reveal

from beginning to end?

And especially in the cross,

the real God died

for ordinary people.

You see,

for us as Christians,

there's going to be things

of mercy here in the text.

That's always the thing.

Every time we read a text

of judgment

and instantly we think

that God is mean.

Instantly we think

that God is unjust.

Instantly we think

that God is capricious.

Instantly we think

that God is just going

to kill ordinary people

because that shows

where our heart still is.

But the Bible tells us

that the true God,

the real God,

died for ordinary people.

That even in justice,

there is always mercy.

So,

did this all happen?

Well, let's keep reading.

Verse 6.

And the Lord regretted

that he had made man

on the earth

and it grieved him

to his heart.

Just pause there.

What it's saying here,

the Bible doesn't say

that God doesn't feel emotions.

God does feel emotions

or whatever that would mean

in God.

The main thing is

that emotions never drive God

like they do you and me.

That's the big thing.

And what we see here

is God says,

I want to go

a different direction.

That's what regret

and I'm going to go

a different direction.

See, one of the things

the Bible is telling us

about the flood

is that in the flood,

God reverses creation

and then recreates

or resets creation.

And so right here,

we see that God says,

I want to go

a different direction.

This whole thing

has gone terribly wrong.

So the Lord said,

I will blot,

verse seven,

I will blot out man,

blot out man

whom I have created

from the face of the land,

man and animals

and creeping things

and birds of the heavens

for I am sorry

that I have made them.

But Noah found favor

in the eyes of the Lord.

In other words,

in Mordor,

only Noah

is not of Mordor.

only Noah.

So,

did the flood happen?

Is this a recounting

of what happens

in nature?

Or is it,

in fact,

something different?

Let's keep on reading.

These are the generations

of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man,

blameless in his generation.

By the way,

blameless here doesn't,

righteous means that God

has made him right

with himself.

God made Noah right

with himself.

And blameless doesn't mean

you don't do any sin.

Blameless means that Noah

had a tender conscience,

unlike Mordor,

and tried to keep

his relationship

fresh and real with God.

In other words,

he'd repent.

But first,

God makes him right,

and then Noah,

as being made right

with God,

keeps his relationship

fresh

and penitent

and going towards God.

Noah walked with God

and Noah had three sons,

Shem,

Ham,

and Japheth.

Now,

the earth was corrupt

in God's sight.

Remember I said

that there's more about

how the earth is like

Mordor after this.

Here it is.

The earth was corrupt

in God's sight

and the earth was filled

with violence.

And God saw the earth

and behold,

it was corrupt

for all flesh

had corrupted

their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah,

I have determined

to make an end

of all flesh

for the earth

is filled with violence

through them.

Behold,

I will destroy them

with the earth.

Notice that again.

I will destroy them

with the earth.

And there's something

really important here.

If you could put up

the next point,

Andrew,

that would be great.

One of the important things

here that God says

to Noah is,

and this is really important

because, you know,

we all know

when we live in a culture

and everybody in the culture

is saying that certain things

are right,

certain things are fine,

and we just know

that they're not right

and fine,

it's so important

to hear God's word

to remind us

that it's not right

to take innocent human life

or that there's a certain way

that God has designed sexuality

where there's a certain way

that human beings

should be treated.

How important was it

for Wilberforce

in the time

when he was fighting

for many, many decades

to abolish slavery,

to constantly be refreshed

by God's word,

that even though

the culture

and the economy

and the politics

said it was fine,

that God's word

kept reminding him

what normal

is deeply

and tragically evil.

See,

that can go on

in a society

that,

and that's what's saying here,

before the flood,

the normal

has become deeply

and tragically evil,

and so for God

to reveal to Noah

that it's all evil,

it's all wrong,

is very important

for Noah

to continue

to press on to God.

It's one of the reasons

why we need God's word

to press on to him,

because there will always

be things in a culture

that the normal,

and it just seems normal,

and it just is a casual

commonplace,

whether it's the citizen

or the Globe and Mail,

or whether it's the blogs

that we like to read

or the Disney movies

that we like to watch

that are normal,

and God's word

has to keep coming

into the normal

to remind us

it might be normal,

but it's evil.

That's not a contradiction.

It might be normal,

but it's evil.

It's wrong.

And that's one of the things

that goes on here

in this text,

which is very,

very important.

And it's another thing,

you know,

look at this again

in verse 13,

and God said to Noah,

I have determined

to make an end

of all flesh

for the earth

is filled with violence

through them.

Behold,

I will destroy them

with the earth.

And the language

of them having

made things corrupt

and making things destroyed

and of ruined,

and the same word

is here

of what God

is going to do.

In a sense,

if you could put up

the next point,

here's what God says.

God says,

you have wanted ruin,

ruin you shall have.

This is so important

to understand

about most

of God's judgment.

You know,

most of God's judgment

is human beings' desire.

What is it that's,

in a sense,

what is hell?

A lot of human beings say,

God,

it's my way

or the highway

to God.

God,

it's my way

or the highway.

God,

it's my way

or the highway.

And at the end of the day,

God says,

you have consistently

told me to leave,

I will be gone.

You will get

what you want,

but it's hell.

And that's how

God's judgment

is going to work.

Mordor is eating itself.

It's destroying itself.

It's ruining itself.

It is choosing

demonic powers

over God.

It is choosing

its own way

over God.

And God says,

at the end of the day,

I will give you

what you desire.

Ruin you will have.

God is still sovereign.

He does this.

And in an unbelievably

tragic way,

he does what they desire,

which brings,

is also God's judgment.

I mean,

what a profound thing.

To meditate upon.

What if God's judgment

of me was to let me

have what I want?

You have wanted ruin.

Ruin you shall have.

But notice here,

notice here,

that,

he goes on to say

something else.

Verse 14,

he says to Noah,

make yourself

an ark

of gopher wood.

Now just pause here.

Do you want to know

the one other place

in the Old Testament

where the word ark appears?

It's not the ark

of the covenant.

The one other place

in the Old Testament

where that word appears,

other than the flood story,

is when Moses' mother,

because she doesn't

want him to die,

she puts him

in a basket,

and the word for basket

is actually,

she puts him

in an ark.

Only other place

in the Old Testament

that occurs.

And then it says,

so make yourself

an ark of gopher wood,

make rooms

in the ark.

Do you know what the word

in Hebrew literally is

for rooms?

Nests.

In the midst of death,

you are to build nests.

And then it says,

make room in the ark

and cover it inside

and out with pitch.

In classical Hebrew,

not modern Hebrew,

but in classical Hebrew,

and remember,

in classical Hebrew

is what the Old Testament

is written in,

or the Tanakh,

and for most people,

they're hearing

the Bible read,

they're not reading it.

So the word for pitch

is the word for pitch,

but when they hear it

in classical Hebrew,

the word pitch

sounds identical

to another Hebrew word,

and the other Hebrew word

is atonement.

So for a Jewish person

listening to this

at the day

in classical Hebrew,

it says,

make yourself

an ark of gopher wood,

and a Jewish person

would say,

ark.

Moses was saved

from murder

by the Egyptians

in an ark.

Make nests

in the ark

and cover it

inside and out

with atonement.

Cover it inside

and out

with atonement.

So there's an option

between desiring ruin,

ruin you shall have.

For 120 years,

an ark is to be built,

and the ark

that is to be built

is to have nests

to deliver from death

and to be covered

inside and out

with atonement.

Did it happen?

So,

one of the things,

if you go back

and listen to my

first and third sermon,

it's always good

to listen to my sermons

if you're having trouble

falling asleep.

You just put them on

nice and low

and soothing voice,

you know,

just help you fall asleep.

But if you go back

and listen to the first

and third,

in particular,

I talk a little bit

about the doctrine

of creation

and how that is important

to understand

why the naturalistic

understanding of evolution

is wrong

and how it helps us

to think.

And here,

what I want to say

is that the same thing,

if we want to try

to understand

whether this happened

or not,

what we need to do

is think about

New Testament teaching

about what happens

in miracles.

And I'm going to use

one miracle in particular

to help us

to understand this.

And Andrew,

if you could put up

the next point.

Here's the big point.

The flood.

The big God

does a big miracle

which is believably

historical.

Oh no,

George jumped the,

ah,

he's a crazy

brain-dead fundamentalist.

Not at all.

The flood.

The big God

does a big miracle

which is believably

historical.

So,

why do I say this?

Okay,

well,

here's the thing.

In John 9,

let's think about

a miracle

in the New Testament.

In John 9,

there's a famous story

in John 9

where God,

where Jesus,

heals a man

who is born blind.

Very,

very,

very,

very wonderful story

to read later on.

Read it and meditate upon.

I'm not going to read it.

Just,

that's what happens.

He's born blind.

Jesus says,

I'm going to heal you.

Jesus heals him.

Just like that.

Now,

imagine for a second

that what Jesus does,

he doesn't do healing,

but he does something

like surgery.

Maybe he's just like

a very advanced surgeon.

And if Jesus was like

a very advanced surgeon,

then,

I don't know,

he knocks,

you know,

he puts the man

in a,

you know,

knocks him out.

And with his,

all of a sudden,

I don't know,

lasers that come out

of his fingers,

he makes an incision

and he's able to go back

and he sees the stuff

that's getting in the way

of the eye scene

and he uses his laser fingers

to remove the parts

that have to be taken away.

And then he sees

that maybe the optic nerve

hasn't been attached

to the cornea,

I think.

I hope I have

the medical stuff right.

And so,

you know,

he uses his ability

to move things

and he's able

because he's a brilliant surgeon,

he has laser fingers

and he's doing surgery

and he's able to go

and he's zap,

zap,

zap and the cornea's,

you know,

fixed back up to the eyeball

and then he sews everything up

with,

you know,

whatever stitches

or whatever

and then the man has a,

you know,

a scar maybe somewhere or other,

maybe he doesn't

because I don't know

enough about it,

but,

you know,

he's done surgery

and the guy can see.

And then,

you know,

later on,

we send,

Jesus allows a time machine

to go back in time

and after the man

who's been,

you know,

born blind

that Jesus had done

the surgery on

where the scientists

and physicians

are allowed to do

an autopsy on the man

and they go back

and they do the autopsy

on the man

and when they do

the autopsy on the man

they say,

oh yeah,

you know,

this guy obviously

has had surgery

because when you do

the autopsy

you can see

some of the stuff

that wasn't good

still there,

you can see

surgical scars

and you say,

yeah,

somebody went

and actually did surgery

on this guy.

Here's the big thing

about understanding

the flood.

Miracles are not surgery.

Miracles are not surgery.

Here's,

if you could put this up

the next point,

this is something

for you to try

to meditate upon

and try to understand

miracles in general

but this is this,

in most miracles

as the laws of nature

flow on,

cause and effect,

cause and effect,

cause and effect,

cause and effect,

cause and effect,

cause and effect

because that's the way

that God designed

the universe,

in most miracles

God creates

something new

in his creation

and or

he removes something

out of his creation.

Right?

Because God creates,

it's his creation,

he made it,

he sustains it

and he made it

all out of nothing.

He didn't have

to use materials.

He makes it all

out of nothing.

So in most miracles,

so here's what happens

then in the miracle,

here's what I would say

if we understand,

and this comes from

some philosophers

and theologians

who study all of the miracles

and try to understand

how they work

and how it fits in

with knowledge.

So if you go back

and you think about

the miracle of Jesus

healing the man

who's born blind,

Jesus,

because he is God,

the son of God,

the second person

of the Trinity,

as he reaches,

I can't remember

if he reaches his hand

out or not,

but however he does,

even if it's just

a matter of speaking

the word,

as he speaks the word,

things within

that man's eye

which are stopping

seeing,

gone.

Gone.

God removes them

from the creation.

The parts of the body

that need to be there

for sight to happen,

they're there.

You see,

the more we know

about medicine

and the more we know

about science,

no medicine

and no science

disproves miracles.

Medicine and science

increase the wow.

Medicine and science

increase the wow

when God does miracles.

Now here's the thing,

if in a miracle,

Jesus doesn't do surgery,

he does a miracle.

The things which stop

the sight,

gone.

the things that need

to be there

for the man to see,

there.

Scientists go back now

after the man has died,

they do an autopsy

and what do they find?

The scientists would say

that this man

was not born blind.

Because unless God

chose to leave

some sign inside,

like a little message,

Jesus healed

the man born blind.

I'm just joking.

Unless he does that

inside,

the autopsy will show

that the man

had never been blind.

Do you see the difference?

So here's the thing,

I think the big,

and I'm an apologist,

as you can gather,

I love apologetics

and I am not trying

to diss all of these

very faithful Christians

who study Genesis 6,

7, 8, and 9

and try to look

for geological proof

and proof and myth.

I'm not dissing them at all,

but I think that most people

have made a mistake

because they think

that God has to work

with stuff,

that it's a little bit

like God using

Ikea stuff.

Like when I make

a bookcase,

I buy something from Ikea

and I have to put it

back together.

And Christians keep

slipping back

into thinking

that when God

does things,

it's like me

working with Ikea.

God doesn't need stuff.

Speaks,

it's gone.

Speaks,

it's there.

So if we see

that when Jesus heals

the man born blind,

there's no sign afterwards

that a miracle

has been done physically,

I would suggest

that what goes on

in this miracle,

this text says

that God is going

to do this.

And in fact,

when you go through,

we're going to skip

through a bit of

Genesis 7 and 8

because it's already

31 minutes into the sermon.

We're going to skip

through it.

You can read it later on.

You'll see constantly,

I will do this,

I will do this,

I will do this,

I sent this,

this comes from heaven,

I did this,

I did this,

I did this.

The text,

about 12 times,

says God's doing

a really big miracle.

Now,

why is it that we believe

that Jesus healed

the man born blind?

It wouldn't be

because you could

go back in time,

maybe find the body

and do a test

historically

to see whether or not

Jesus healed

man born blind

because a miracle

means that there's

no physical evidence

afterwards.

How do we know?

Testimony.

Human testimony.

Now,

not always

in the resurrection

of Jesus,

which is the big miracle,

it's the big

battleground miracle

and the big

battleground miracle,

there is other types

of things apart

because of the nature

of the miracle,

apart merely from testimony,

but the testimony

is spectacularly important

that can also

help us to understand

why it's reasonable

to believe

that Jesus predicted

that he would die

upon the cross,

that he would rise

upon the,

from the dead

and that on the third

day,

the grave was empty.

He was risen from the dead.

He had defeated death.

Death no longer

has any power over him

and his death

upon the cross

and his resurrection

was not for himself,

but for you and me

that on the cross,

my doom was laid on him

and his destiny

is offered to me

if I receive it by faith

and if you receive it

by faith.

But for most miracles,

the evidence we have

is human testimony,

which is what we have here.

And if you even think about it,

we're going to just look

at something very,

very, very briefly.

I'm mindful of my time

and I might not get

through all of my points

or just really have to

gallop at the end,

but this is a really,

really big thing

because you see,

so many of us,

rather than trying to just

try to listen to the text

and even just dwell upon

the fact as I just did

with verse 14.

The ark is what Moses was in.

The ark nests

covered inside and out

with atonement

and the world like Mordor

and rather than just trying

to get our minds around that

and be fed by it

and to understand that,

you know,

you and I,

we need miracles in our lives.

That's why we pray.

We'll pray that we will be

a prayerful church

that calls out to God

for direction

and doesn't try

to figure out

whether we should do things

because we have the resources,

although we have to be wise,

but sometimes you only,

Peter only was able

to walk on the water

when he got out of the boat

and sometimes every church,

you got to be willing

just to trust God's word

and get out of the boat

if you want to walk on the water.

And this text says

time and time again,

there's a miracle.

Even if you think about it,

God destroys everything.

He says you're going

to blot out everything.

I'm going to show you

in a moment

how it's a reversal

and a recreation.

And if you even think about it,

God's,

Noah shut up in the ark,

even if he's looking out,

when he's looking out,

everything that God is doing

to recreate the earth

is done underneath the water.

And the text even says

the water doesn't come

from the earth,

it comes from God.

That's what the text

actually literally says.

So in other words,

if scientists go back

and calculate

that there's not enough water

to do this,

that's not a disproving of it

because you say,

one moment,

we didn't say there was enough,

we didn't say this was

a natural thing.

The Bible doesn't say

this just happened.

The Bible says

that God does

a really big miracle.

That God does it.

So taking the feeling

that we have to know

enough geology

and biology

and all that,

you can let that aside.

It's on the big strong shoulders

of the God

who's created

all things out of nothing,

who preserves

and sustains all things,

will bring all things

to their end.

The God who does miracles

in his creation.

And if there's geology

and myth

and other stuff

that helps

and there are stuff

in that

that all helps

to give little hints,

but you can say this side,

God is a God

who does miracles.

Brothers and sisters,

if we are here today

and we need a miracle,

I don't know if God

is going to do

that miracle for you

or if the miracle

is going to be

how you endure.

You know,

a friend of mine

who died,

what he would tell people

is that as he prayed

for healing,

he believed one of three things.

He believed God

was going to heal him.

That God would heal him

slowly through medicine.

God would heal him

quickly through a miracle.

Or God would heal him

finally and perfectly,

eternally,

when he died.

And in Christ's arms,

he appears before God

for all eternity

with a resurrection body.

to live in the new creation,

healed eternally.

But we need miracles.

So let's go back

to the text.

Let's go back

to the text.

Sorry,

let's go back

to verse 15.

I'll look at my time.

You know what

we're going to do?

We're just going to,

you know,

so I'm going to say one thing.

You could put up

the next point here,

Andrew.

I'm going to try

to run through

a few of these things.

Oh, no,

yeah,

the next point.

Here's the thing

which I think

the text shows.

The flood,

in the flood,

God first reverses,

then recreates

his creation.

So,

if you go back

and you look at,

later on in your spare time,

read chapter 7.

And what you see

at the end of chapter 7

is that,

you know,

God says,

Noah,

I'm going to do this.

Noah actually builds

the ark.

It describes how

after 120 years,

God says,

Noah,

it's going to come

in seven days.

You have time

to get it in.

God sends the animals.

God shuts Noah

into the ark.

It's funny,

if you go back,

actually,

let's look at verse 11.

Yeah,

verse 11 of chapter 7.

In the 600th year

of Noah's life

in the second month

and the 17th day

of the month.

Doesn't that sound

like history?

On that day,

all the fountains

of the great deep

burst forth

and the windows

of the heavens

were open

and the rain

fell on the earth

40 days and 40 nights

and often commentators,

and I'm,

you know,

people can handle

those different ways.

If you actually

take it very literally,

what it just says

is that Noah looks out

and all of a sudden

he can see this,

the waters just rising

but more importantly,

he looks out

and it's even,

even in the rest

of the text,

it talks about celestial waters

and God looks out.

Maybe it's actually

being literal

rather than being

something to be

embarrassed about.

Maybe when Noah

looked out,

he saw a hole

and out of the hole

water comes down.

And in the rest

of the text,

when it says

that the waters

subside,

really it's actually

literally saying

the waters go

because God

creates things

out of nothing

and he takes

things that exist

and just makes

them go away.

And look at the,

just to jump ahead,

look at chapter 8,

verse 1.

This is the key verse

in the whole story

of the flood.

God remembered Noah.

Sorry,

look at the verse

just before that.

And the waters

prevailed on the earth

150 days.

We now have a picture.

There's only water

and this one boat

bobbing along

on the surface.

But God remembered

Noah and all the beasts

and all the livestock

that were with him

in the ark

and God made a wind

blow over the earth

and the waters go,

begin to go.

And in the Bible,

the word remembered,

in the Old Testament,

the word remembered

is a very important word.

It's not like

we usually use it.

You know,

Louise will say to me,

George,

did you remember

to get that

at Loblaws

or at Costco?

And I'll say,

dang,

I forgot.

Or I remember

because I'd forgotten

and I remembered.

That's not what it means

in the Bible.

In the Bible,

when it talks

of God remembering,

it's always used

that God,

who has made a promise

to somebody,

is now about

to complete the promise.

That's what it means.

And here we have

a little boat

relative to a planet

on the water

and the wind is blowing.

Now,

what does that

remind you of?

Those of you

who know your Bibles,

Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1:2

verse 2,

waters cover the earth.

And the word

for wind

and the word

for Holy Spirit

in Hebrew

is the same word.

And in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, 2,

before the first

creation story

and before the second

creation story,

there's only water

in the Holy Spirit.

God has reversed

creation.

And now he's

going to recreate it.

And if you go back

later on

and just take

the first creation

and the second creation

story,

and the first

and fourth days

which refer to lights

aren't present,

but all of the other

things in the second,

the third,

the fifth,

the sixth,

the seventh day

in the second creation

story reappear

in the next 19 verses.

They all reappear.

The rest of the text

is going to describe

how the world

is both similar

and different

than before,

but God has

recreated the earth.

And there's going to be

a new covenant.

So it's 41 minutes.

Let's just,

could you put up

the next point?

Let's just wrap this up.

One of the things

about the text,

if you go back

and look,

one of the things

in our heart,

I was just sharing

the gospel

with somebody

just about

a week and a half ago.

And one of the things

I was trying to share

with her

is that religion

and spirituality

tells you

that if you do

enough rules,

God will love you.

And the gospel message

is that you never

do enough rules

for God to love you,

but what happens

is that grace

comes first.

And if you go back

and look at this story,

when it says

that Noah is made

righteous,

God makes him

right with himself.

And God makes

the promise

of deliverance.

And after God

makes the promise

of deliverance,

then Noah obeys.

You see,

God's grace

nurtures our obedience.

Human obedience

does not produce grace.

And it's all the way

through the story.

Our fallen command centers

want to keep trying

to not see

how the,

in fact,

this young woman

that I was witnessing to,

she brought up

the Ten Commandments

and I said,

I'm so glad

you brought up

the Ten Commandments.

Go back and read them.

I am the God

who has redeemed you.

So,

you shall have

no other gods

before me.

You shall not

make an idol.

I am the God

who redeemed you.

grace

grace

nurtures

obedience.

Obedience

does not

create grace.

And as we all know,

rule-based systems

of spirituality

and religion

are always

ultimately

self-justifying,

self-righteousness,

and ultimately

rooted in anxiety.

But when we realize

that,

well,

in fact,

can you put up

the next point?

God keeps

his warnings

and his promises.

That's just a freebie.

I'm running out of time.

Next one.

You can look it up

on the web

if you want to write

these down.

It says,

at best,

we human beings

want an ark,

but God loves us truly.

He provided

Jesus Christ crucified.

You see,

a lot of us

at the best,

most of us,

what we want to just say

to God is,

it's my way

or the highway,

God.

It's my way

or the highway.

You can't tell me

how to live.

You can't tell me

how I should identify myself.

You can't tell me.

You can't tell me.

It's my way

or the highway.

The best we have

is when things go bad

is we want to get

into an ark.

At the end of the ark,

as we're going to see

next week,

we come out of it

delivered from judgment

but unchanged.

God does something

so much better.

He sends his son

to be the Lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world.

He comes to be

the one

who will bear

our doom

and give us

his destiny.

He is the one

who will pay

for everything

that we have done wrong.

He is the one

who will clothe us

with his righteousness

and his perfect obedience.

He is the one

who does that

for us

in a new covenant.

God does something

better

than an ark,

a true

and greater

Noah.

Next point.

Oh yeah,

please stand.

Please stand.

One of the things

that I've been thinking about

as I looked at this text

is

I'm not going to live

120 years.

And who knows,

maybe Jesus

will return tomorrow

and

and then I don't

have to worry about

in the next

120 years.

But maybe

he won't come

for a long time

and God

sometimes asks us

to do things

which will take

120 years

to complete.

To pass the baton.

and God

is calling us

not out of

a fear of him

because if we

obey perfectly

he'll finally

love us

but as we're

gripped by the

gospel

as we're

gripped by the

gospel

as the gospel

is what is

sitting

the person

work of Jesus

is what is

sitting at the

command center

of our lives

so that how

we look at

things,

how we feel,

how we think,

how we plan,

how we

do everything,

it's the command

center,

at the very

command center

is Jesus

and what he

does for us

on the cross

and God's

power that

makes us his

when we believe

it and trust it.

That one of the

things as grace

nurtures obedience

is we

undertake things

that might take

120 years

to complete.

A long obedience

in the same

direction.

So I invite you

to pray this

with me.

If you have

never given

your life to

Jesus,

this is a

conversion prayer.

But a

conversion prayer

is the same

prayer that we

need to spend

all of our

lives praying.

Not that we

have to be

saved over

and over

and over

and over

again.

But every

human being

needs to be

gripped by the

gospel.

So I invite you

to pray this

out loud with

me.

Heavenly

Father,

please pour

out the

Holy Spirit

upon us

and make us

disciples of

Jesus gripped

by the

gospel,

living a

long obedience

in the same

direction as

we live for

your glory.

In Jesus'

name,

Amen.

Father,

pour out your

Holy Spirit

upon us.

Make us

gripped by

the gospel

and use us

to make

disciples of

Jesus gripped

by the gospel,

living for

your glory.

And we

ask this in

Jesus'

name,

Amen.