Noah C (Post-Flood)

Good morning.

Commissioning week. Again, it's always an exciting time. Before we get to do

that commissioning of our track volunteers,

we are going to just jump right in and continue with part nine from the book

of Genesis in this ongoing series of how it started. This is part nine, Noah C.

Part A was Noah pre-Worldwide Flood.

Part B was Noah on the ark in the Worldwide Flood, and now part C is Noah post-worldwide flood.

After being a year on the ark, I'm sure that Noah, his family,

and all the creatures, all the animals on board were more than ready to get

off the ark that God had used to save their lives.

Last week, we noted how the ark is a symbol representing Jesus as the one who

saves from God's judgment.

And now we have come to the point in Genesis where the flood is over and the

mud is dry and everyone and everything on the ark,

comes out of the ark to resume living in this new created earth.

This morning, there are a lot of verses that we're going to try to cover.

And I'm gonna try to do it in three sections. So hold on and here we go.

First, let's pray again.

Ask God's blessing on this as we do it.

Father, you are our creator. Be gracious to us this morning.

Allow the Holy Spirit to teach us today. Let him be our teacher.

Make us good listeners in a way that creates a desire for us to love you more

and to worship you more. to obey you more.

With full sincerity, I say, thank you for the Bible.

Your very words given to us.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So here are the three sections.

Section one is going to be chapter eight, verses 15 to 22.

Section two is going to be chapter nine, verses one to 17.

And section three is going to be chapter nine, verses 18 to 29.

That's a lot of verses to cover. I believe each section could be its own sermon, but not today.

It's all three in one, all right? So let's start with the first section.

It's chapter eight, verses 15 to 22.

Noah worships God. Open your Bibles there or follow along on the screen as I

read to the end of this chapter.

Then God spoke to Noah, come out of the ark, you, your wife,

your sons, and your sons' wives with you.

Bring out all the living creatures that are with you, birds,

livestock, those that crawl on the ground, and they will spread over the earth

and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his son's wives, came out.

All wildlife, all livestock, every bird and every creature that crawls on the

earth came out of the ark by their groups.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal

and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

When the Lord smelled the He said to himself.

As long as the earth endures, sea time and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.

So one of the first things to notice from this section of verses is that after

riding out this year-long flood storm that resulted in everything not on the ark being destroyed,

chapter 8 verse 15 says, God speaks to Noah.

And this is significant to notice because before the flood, we know that God

did speak with Noah on two separate occasions. We know that God spoke to Noah.

Once he told him, go make an ark.

And another time he told him, go get on the ark.

However, during the storm, there is no mention of God talking to Noah.

So now, potentially a year later

of not hearing from God, God breaks the silence and he speaks to Noah.

Perhaps God speaking to Noah like this causes someone to wonder,

well, does God still speak to people today?

Well, that's a great question. And I hope to address it here shortly.

For Noah, God spoke to him for at least the third time.

And this time he tells Noah, verses 16 and 17, and his family to come off the

ark and bring all the animals with you.

And as we learned last week, Noah has this reputation for doing what God tells

him to do, which is a great way for Christians to live, obeying God, doing what he says.

And in verses 18 and 19, true to form, that's exactly what Noah does.

It's in what sounds like this very organized dismount from the ark,

all the wildlife, all the livestock, all the birds, all the crawling creatures

on the earth, They come out of the ark by their groups.

And it gives us this picture of God restarting the world.

And we are not told of any descriptions of what Noah saw when they came off

the ark, only that the ground was dry.

But we are told the first course of action that Noah takes.

And that action is worship.

Look at verse 20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord.

He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and

offered burnt offerings on the altar.

So we have Noah full of gratitude, full of thankfulness, fully understanding

that God's judgment was right and correct and deserved.

And now here we have him taking, no doubt, excited to hear from God again.

And he takes some of these clean animals, the ones that came seven by seven,

and not to make any of these animals extinct, he builds an altar and worshiped God.

Likely with his family right there at his side. So what does it mean to worship God?

It means to encounter God and praise him.

And worshiping God always begins with an inward humility of heart,

recognizing God's worthiness, honoring him, revering him as a supreme authority.

And that's what Noah is doing here, building this altar and making this sacrifice.

And God's response to this worship that Noah does, starting in verse 21,

when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself,

I will never again curse the ground

because of man, even though man's inclination is evil from his youth.

And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.

As long as the earth endures, sea time and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.

Now, God does not literally smell, and the importance is not the smelling,

but what the smelling represents.

The smelling represents God being pleased with the sacrifice that's offered.

This is a common way, common usage throughout the Bible to show how God accepts

or doesn't accept sacrifices.

Both the Old and the New Testament present God this way.

In the New Testament, the passages especially connect this smelling image to

Christ and the fragrant smelling made on behalf of those who trust him.

But here with Noah, God is pleased with the aroma of his sacrifice.

And being pleased, God promises to himself that he'll never destroy the earth

again by a worldwide flood.

Even though evil still exists, even though man is inclined to act evilly,

he will not destroy the flood.

He will not destroy the earth by a worldwide flood. And instead,

the earth is going to endure and it's gonna have seasons, it's gonna have days

and nights, and this will go on and on and on.

And we get to live in these seasons and these days and nights and not have to

worry that a flood is going to come again to the earth and destroy everything. He won't do that.

He promised it and he keeps his promises.

So from these section of verses, I think there's a couple of things that we can apply to our lives.

One, it's always good to acknowledge God is in sovereign control of our lives.

Just like we see here over Noah's life. And that includes when he takes us in

and out of storms. Have you ever noticed that happened in your life?

Like there are storms of life, physical storms, spiritual storms,

mental storms, all of these things happen.

But all the storms in our life are totally governed by God.

So whether you are in a storm or like Noah here coming out of a storm,

God is worthy to be worshiped.

And when God is worshiped properly, he receives it as a pleasing aroma.

And this should motivate us. This should be a goal of our worship,

to worship God in a manner that he is pleased.

And two, I think we can take from this section of verses here,

it is good for us to talk with God,

and better for God to talk to us, which gets us back to the question, does God talk to people?

And I think the answer has multiple levels.

One, yes, the Bible records God speaking audibly to people many times throughout the Bible.

He also uses dreams, interpretations. You can find several times when this happens in the Bible.

And two, like there is no biblical reason that I can find why God could not

speak to a person audibly today.

And yet, however, keep in mind, though the Bible does record this happening several times,

that's still not very many times when you consider that the Bible covers some 4,000 years of history.

So I tend to believe that God speaking audibly is the exception, not the rule.

Personally, I doubt it happens as much as others may say it happens.

Far too often, God told me is in reality, I think and I think God would agree with me.

Therefore, I'm going to tell you God told me.

But three, God 100% speaks today through his word.

And it contains everything that we need to know that truly matters.

Especially telling us how to be saved and how to properly live a Christian life.

It is through his word that he does most of his talking.

He has said everything that he needs to say in his word. So if you are serious

about wanting to hear from God, be in his word.

And four, if God were to speak audibly to me, or if someone says God spoke to

me, it would need to absolutely match what he has already said in the Bible.

If it conflicts or contradicts or is different than the Bible,

it wasn't God who was speaking.

So we need to be listening for God primarily through his word and then obey

and do what he says to do and don't do what he says not to do.

Section two, God makes a covenant with Noah.

Now, before we read this covenant and the details of it, I wanna make sure we're all on the same page.

Covenant's not a overly common word probably today like it used to be.

So perhaps the best way to describe a covenant is to use a word that we are

more familiar with, like the word contract.

A covenant is an agreement between two parties. If you are married,

you are living under a marriage covenant.

If you are on a cell phone plan agreement, you are in a contract.

It's like you are in a covenant agreement with another party.

The same thing goes for a house, a boat, a car, all these. When two or more

parties are involved, it's a contract, it's a covenant.

And when it comes to the Bible, covenants work the same way as a contract.

Sometimes a covenant is a one-way obligation. Sometimes it is a two-way obligation.

Sometimes covenants include or don't include very specific conditions and guidelines.

And almost always covenants come with a promise of blessing or a promise of cursing.

So that's a covenant. Now, let's read about it here, the covenant that God makes

with Noah, chapter 9, starting at verse 1.

Now, does that sound exactly the same as when things first started at creation?

Answer? Yes. Thank you. Hang in there. Yes, it does.

Like there has never been a time when God has said, stop being fruitful and multiplying.

Now we are not told if Noah has more children after the flood or not,

but certainly his three boys, their families, they did, which means that every

person born after the flood can be traced right back to Noah's family, including us.

So like literally I could say, hello, brother, hello, sister, and that would be right.

Verse two, though, is very different from the start of creation.

The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth.

Every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground,

and all the fish of the sea, they are placed under your authority.

So you can see, do you see the difference here?

All the animals are still under the rule of Noah, just like it was for Adam.

But now the difference is the animals will be afraid.

Like Adam could go play with the lions and tigers and bears and not say,

oh my, but not so for Noah. In this new creation, animals will be afraid of people. Well, why?

Verse three, every living creature will be food for you. That's why.

Originally, Adam could whistle. I'll try it. Not bad.

Whistle, he could whistle, and the deer and the antelope would just come run out and let's play.

It's not like that anymore. Now animals, they live in terror of being someone's next dinner.

Now they live on anxiety's edge and with just the slightest sound,

they perk up. Have you noticed that? What was that?

And they think it's the end.

Because now in this new recreated earth, there is this uneasy peace between humans and animals.

So in this new start, Not only do the people now get the trees and the fruits

and the veggies and all that together and the plants, but now add animals to the menu.

I get not everyone cares for eating meat and that is fine.

I suppose if it didn't taste so good, we wouldn't do it.

But there is something savory good about a perfectly grilled steak.

Ah, you're speaking your language. Or this slowly cooked roast that it just hits the spot.

So I guess all I could say is, if you're a person who doesn't like this meat-eating

thing, take it up with God.

Because it is a new rule that he says it's okay to eat meat.

However, verse four, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.

Now, this verse is not about how you like your steak cooked.

Though I would say you people who like your steaks like rare and all bloody,

you might be close to crossing that line.

But this is not about eating well done meat. This verse is saying that people

are not to eat meat the way wild animals eat meat.

That's the distinction here. People don't just tear into it,

rip it open, make our own animal kingdom show.

First, we cook it before we eat it. Humans are different than animals.

And that's the main thought here.

And that thought continues right into verses five and six.

I, God, will require the life of every animal and every man for your life in your blood.

I will require the life of each man's brother for a man's life.

Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his image.

Because man, and by man, I mean all humans, all males, all females,

because man was made in the image of God,

God requires, that's the word God uses two times here in verse five,

God requires a life for a life when one person kills another person.

And we know that today we call that capital punishment.

And that can be a hot topic in our culture in general, but also within our Christian circles.

People have many concerns with this topic.

Christians can agree and disagree. You know that, right?

They do that. They do, especially about this topic.

They agree and disagree about how the death penalty ought to be given or whether

it could be given safely or justly administered.

But here, Genesis 9, 5, and 6, God gives some guidelines to protect human life

on the grounds of being made in his image, the image of God.

And this works at least two ways. First, the punishment must fit the crime.

Like the death of a person can't be the penalty for someone who says maybe they steal something.

Like that's not an eye for eye comparison.

But for a person to take the life of a person by way of premeditating murder,

that will cost a person their life.

It's an eye for an eye comparison. And here at the start of this newly created

earth 2.0, God confirms his protection of human beings.

Now, we come to the covenant in Genesis nine, verses eight through 17.

Use your fingers if needed and count the number of times the word covenant is used as I read.

Then God said to Noah and his sons with him,

understand that I am confirming my covenant with you and your descendants after

you and with every living creature that is with you,

birds, livestock, and all the wildlife of the earth that are with you,

all the animals on the earth that came out of the ark.

I confirm my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped

out by the waters of the flood.

There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you

and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations.

I have placed my bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Whenever I form the clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,

I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures.

Water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature.

The bow will be in the clouds and I will look at it and remember the everlasting

covenant between God and all the living creatures on the earth.

And God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant that I have confirmed

between me and every creature on the earth.

I want us to look at primarily two things out of these verses.

One, we're going to look at the details of this contract.

And two, you can't help but smile at God's timing, specifically for us here

at Good News, to be in this rainbow passage of scripture in the month of June, not by accident. Okay?

So let's start with the covenant. How many times was it used?

Two claps for you. And what are the details of the covenant?

First, it's a way different covenant than what he made with Adam.

Adam's covenant was a conditional covenant, meaning if Adam did this, God would do that.

And as we know, Adam did not keep his side of the contract.

So sin has entered into the world through Adam. and because of that,

death is a very real thing.

Death would not be part of humanity if there was no sin.

Noah's covenant is an unconditional covenant, meaning regardless of what Noah

does or does not do, God is still going to do his something regardless.

And in this case, God makes a contract with Noah to never destroy the world

again with a worldwide flood.

Now there are a couple of considerations for here with this promise from God.

One, when we look at these verses closely, this covenant with Noah, it's not just for Noah.

It's for all of mankind and all the animals. It's for all of everything on earth.

You see it in verse 12, God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I'm

making between me and you and every living creature with you,

a covenant for future generations.

And then he blows up this idea. He wants us to get it. Look at this, verse 15.

This covenant is between me and you and all living creatures.

Verse 16, between God and the living creatures.

Verse 17, between me and every creature on earth.

Don't miss this point. This covenant is an unconditional promise by God to everyone

and everything on the earth.

God will not flood the entire world again. That's the promise to everyone.

And yet, there are some still who argue that the Genesis flood,

it was just a local flood and not a worldwide flood.

If that's the case, God didn't keep his word because there have been a whole

lot of local floods over the centuries.

And because God always keeps his promises, that means Genesis flood was not

a local flood, but a worldwide flood.

Not to mention, it seems very strange to have the rainbow as a universal symbol,

as a reminder of God's promise, popping up all over the world if it was only a local flood.

Why wouldn't the rainbow just show up on the local area? I mean,

if you wanna go with the local flood was a local everything, then yeah.

Speaking of rainbows, let's move on to the topic of the rainbow.

First, the month of June.

And I would say over the last 25 years or so, there has been a push to make

this month and this rainbow to mean something completely different than its original meaning.

Today, the symbol of the rainbow is being hijacked to represent a sign for sexual revolution.

But, this is a big but, but as Christians, we ought to recognize the rainbow

as a beautiful sign that God has given to us.

And we should recognize the rainbow exactly as God intends it to be seen.

Now, I'm not sure how you hang a rainbow flag from your house and do that.

I'm just saying it should be happening from our words at least.

Defend God's rainbow.

Second, both times the bow or rainbow, it's mentioned, every time it's mentioned

those two times, it has to do with remembering.

But here's the thing, and it's a big thing. The rainbow isn't primarily put

in the sky for us to remember the promise as much as it is for God to remember his promise.

Did you catch that? Look at verses 14 through 16.

Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,

I will remember my covenant between me and you and the living creatures.

Waters will never again become a flood to destroy every creature.

Verse 16, the bow will be in the clouds and I will look at it and remember the

everlasting covenant between God and all the living creatures on the earth.

So this is an example of how the Bible uses language that helps us understand.

It isn't that God forgets things or has this foggy mental lapse that a cup of coffee might fix.

That's not what's going on. For God to remember is for God to be drawn toward

the object of his affection.

And last week we saw this. We saw God remembering Noah when it was used,

when he was on the ark. God didn't forget Noah.

He was drawing himself to Noah. And in the same way, when God sees the rainbow

in the sky, It draws him to those he has promised never to flood the entire earth again.

And we should know that means he is drawing himself to us. We're included in that.

So yes, the rainbow, by implication, it does say something to us,

but explicitly it first says something to God.

So wrap this up on the covenant. This is a covenant God gives to ensure longevity

of the earth. and it is a good covenant.

There's a couple of points of application for us to consider.

One, God is gracious to allow everyone to live under his common grace principles.

Think about this. Everyone gets the seasons, can't wait for the fall.

Everyone gets days and nights. Everyone gets crops and animals.

Everyone gets the promise, won't be flooded again.

And our response to this should be to give him thanks, big thanks for these things.

But a second consideration, perhaps this might come as a surprise to you. I don't know.

Don't be content with this covenant. By that I mean, this is a good covenant,

but it is not good enough.

It might offer longevity and seasons of life, but it does not get us back to the garden of Eden.

Think about this. To live a long life full of longevity,

to live with some good times and nice vacations, good food, definitely steaks, good friends,

good laughs, a good full life, and then to have it come to an end when your

longevity finally expires?

That's a wasted life. The covenant God made with Noah helps with longevity of life,

but it does nothing to address getting rid of our sin and living with sin.

So absolutely, we thank God for his common blessings, but there is another judgment coming.

Not, not a flood, but a fire.

And the truth is, common grace will not help with that.

That means we need a covenant, not of common grace, but a covenant of special

grace, special grace that comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ.

That's the type of covenant that we ultimately need.

And get this, that's exactly what we have in Jesus. Amen?

Amen.

So when we come to this third section, I'm going to say right now,

we are only going to dip our toe into it this week.

And God willing, next week, we are jumping all in.

And I hope it creates a little curiosity for you this week.

But God willing, we're all in next week. Section three comes from verses 18

through 29 of chapter nine.

It starts out normal. it ends somewhat bizarre, unusual story,

almost seeming randomly like, ah, let's just throw that in there.

And I know that's not true. Let me read to you.

Noah's sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were Noah's sons and from them the

whole earth was populated. So far, so good. 20.

Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.

He became drunk. He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.

Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders,

and walking backward, they covered their father's nakedness.

Their faces were turned away and they did not see their father naked.

When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done

to him, he said, Canaan will be cursed.

He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers. He also said,

praise the Lord, the God of Shem.

Canaan will be his slave. God will extend And Japheth, he will dwell in the tents of Shem.

Canaan will be his slave. Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood.

So Noah's life lasted 950 years and then he died.

Well, it starts normal. The boys are going to repopulate and the generations

are about ready to be told.

It seems like chapter 10, which is all the genealogies should happen.

And then we get told this weird, unusual story.

That gets told of Noah and his boys before he dies at the age of 950.

So if Moses was here, I would say, Moses, what is this?

What do you want us to capture from here? It seems like a rather random, weird story to end with.

But when we know the Bible, we know that there is no God, there is nothing random about God.

He has a point. What is it? Well, that's what I was wrestling with this last

week If you're wondering what I was doing, that's what I was doing.

What is this? So today we just tip our toe in and say, I think Moses is emphasizing

two things, at least two, two.

First, Moses seems to be emphasizing an important event in the history of Israel.

Remember, one of the main purposes of Genesis is to trace the blessed,

favored seed of the woman genealogy and to trace the cursed seed of the serpent genealogy.

And these genealogy lines are revealed in this somewhat unusual story told by Moses.

There is so much to unpack in these verses and in chapter 10 and 11,

God willing, that's next week.

Check it out this week on your own.

But before I leave this one, there is one important clarification I do wanna

share now, and it's this.

There is an unbiblical idea that from these verses that has come over the last

several, many, many, many years, and it is a sad shame.

Some have taken these verses to justify slavery and racism and prejudice and discrimination.

That is 100% false. False.

The curse that came because of Ham, which is interesting that Ham is not the

one cursed, but his son is, Noah's grandson, Canaan.

The curse that comes has nothing to do with skin color.

It has everything to do with the consequence of Ham's sin.

These verses are about the ongoing the ongoing fight of the seed of the serpent

and the seed of the woman and in conflict and how it impacts history how it

impacts the history of israel we are literally still seeing that done today.

More on that God willing next week the other thing I think Moses would want

us to see from these unusual verses,

has to do again with humanity's sin even though it's a new start it's the same old sin problem,

sin has not gone away We see it in these verses with Ham's sin,

whatever it's going to be with him looking at his naked father and whatever he did.

And we see it in Noah's sin. Yeah, Noah, remember him?

The righteous guy, the one who always walked with the Lord, the one who did all that he commanded.

Noah plants a vineyard, gets totally smashed, cold stone drunk,

drunk beyond drunk, sprawled out all naked in a stent.

That's the sin problem.

And Moses seems to be making the point that no one is exempt from not sinning.

Not even the most righteous Noah.

Or if you're just figuring out what this Christian walk is all about, none of us.

Noah was safe from the flood, but he was not safe from his own sin.

And that's the same truth for us.

And I think it's one of the reasons why these verses are here.

So like I said, if God wills, God allows much more on this next week.

Today, we have three sections of verses with lots of things for us to mentally

chew on and to think about and to act upon.

May God help us do that. Let's pray.

Father, I started by thanking you for your word and I wanna just double down on that now.

I thank you so much for your word. I thank you that you give us the blessing

of the Holy Spirit and he enlightens, he gives us spiritual eyes and gives us understanding.

And sometimes that's a slow grinding process. But oh, Father,

I ask that you would make us be a people who loves to hear you talk from your word.

And we would gobble it up. And in gobbling up, do what it says to do and share it with other people.

Help us to realize that our entire life that we live, there is not a second,

that doesn't fall underneath the category of worship to you.

So let our 24-7 life of worship be pleasing to you.

May you smell that aroma as good.

Certainly thank you for your common grace,

you let the rain fall on the just and the unjust you give your rainbow as a

reminder to everyone and everything,

and you do this despite evil still being our inclination,

but Father help that be the point that we truly grasp,

that we can quickly and without any defense admit and confess we have a gigantic sin problem,

thank you God for Jesus.

Who takes care of our sin problem,

who fixed it by dying on the cross for our sins,

and who is making us new,

to do the good work that you would have us to do.

Including going to camps and sharing the good news of the gospel with kids.

We look forward to this commissioning time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.