WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.320 If you turn back with me for a short time this morning to Genesis chapter 9, now, the 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:14.359 story of Noah's Ark is well known, I maybe shouldn't presume but I am presuming, it's 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:19.719 well known to most of us. If it's not, then I would encourage you to read chapter 6 to 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:24.240 9 because it's really all of these chapters, we didn't read them this morning. And usually 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:28.400 on a Wednesday in the email, if you get the email from the church, it will tell you what 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:32.679 the theme is on Sunday and the passages and it might be an idea because with a lot of 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:37.439 these stories, we're not going to read the whole story, we're only going to focus, we're 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:41.960 going to deal with the whole story I hope but only read a section of the story and today 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:48.519 we read chapter 9. And again, if you have family and kids and you do family worship, 00:00:48.519 --> 00:00:53.840 then I would encourage you during the week that we have looked at this story from the 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:58.359 Bible to maybe focus on that with the children and read it with them, that would be tremendous. 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:08.439 But I had a great battle preparing this sermon, it was a bad week, I've got this sermon this 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:16.280 morning and I'm preaching on women tonight, it's just been horrendous, just wrestling 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:24.319 with and battling with both of these subjects, both of which I feel very unprepared and unqualified 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:31.000 to speak about in many ways, particularly the latter. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:38.959 But this passage is, this story is an amazing story but it's also a very difficult story, 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:47.199 I find it very difficult in many different ways. But I'm asking you to pray that the 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:54.560 Spirit will take what He wants us to learn from this account for our lives. We recognise 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:59.159 from last week that God is light, He brings light into the world and He brings light into 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:04.120 our lives, He's a just and a good God and we can't really pick and choose. We often 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:11.680 think of like Noah's Ark is a pretty story of animals going into an ark and rainbows 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:17.879 and nice things, which it is, but it's also a hugely challenging story for us because 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:27.640 also it is very stark in its realism. So I'm going to say four things about this story, 00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:34.600 the wider story and this chapter and put it in the context of the beginning of the Bible. 00:02:34.600 --> 00:02:37.680 The first thing I'm going to say is there's mystery, okay, I think that's very important 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:43.520 for us to recognise and see that there is mystery in God's word. If you're reading Genesis 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:49.599 chapter 1 to 11, creation what happens in between and then the story of Noah's Ark 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:57.120 and you don't have any questions about that, then I posit that you are not thinking. I 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:04.000 can't believe that the first 11 chapters will not raise in your minds all kinds of questions 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:09.159 and sometimes difficulties because there's so much in these early chapters that isn't 00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:15.080 said. There's so much that God doesn't reveal and there's much even in what is revealed 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:20.800 that I don't understand better people than I am sure will do, but in reading the theologians 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:25.960 and the commentators I would argue that they don't necessarily understand either and the 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:31.879 very difficult bits they ignore. That's what they always do. They always ignore the difficult 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:36.439 bits, the bits that you go to look for. I wonder what the theologians think. I wonder 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:43.159 what those who have really trained in this area, linguists think and they pass it by. 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:48.599 That's what happens, but we recognise and know that the Holy Spirit can take and learn, 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:53.519 teach us and we can learn from Him and learn about the character and nature of God. So 00:03:53.519 --> 00:04:00.439 within this mystery, I think there's two connected things that I want to say. One is that Genesis 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:05.240 1-11, including the story of Noah's Ark, is the story of the beginning. It's the beginning 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:12.120 that God gives us. This is pre-Patriarchal, before Abraham, it's the early days of the 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:18.079 world of the universe. And God, we saw last week, wants us to know about beginnings. He 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:24.680 wants us to know about the beginning. And what we see in these early chapters is catastrophe 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:32.439 happening, a catastrophic rejection of God in these early chapters from Genesis 3 onwards. 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:40.480 And it's introduced in chapter 3 with that devastating betrayal of God by Adam and Eve, 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:48.639 and indeed betrayal of one another in the same context. And leading up to the flood in Genesis 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:58.719 chapter 6, we have an increase in violence and brutality. Genesis 6 and verse 3 reminds 00:04:58.719 --> 00:05:04.120 us of that. The Lord, when pre-flood, He says, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was 00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:08.719 great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 00:05:08.719 --> 00:05:17.680 continually. That is a multiplication of descriptions that the writer gives there, tumbling words 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:24.840 to describe that there really was no redeeming feature in the world at the time. And that 00:05:24.840 --> 00:05:32.439 is followed after the flood by the Tower of Babel and by the organized overthrow and the 00:05:32.439 --> 00:05:40.280 challenge to God in that account in Genesis chapter 11. And it seems that the reality 00:05:40.280 --> 00:05:46.920 of the human condition before the flood and of that after the flood isn't really terribly 00:05:46.920 --> 00:05:54.879 different. Chapter 8 verse 21, I think we have almost the same words as the words we 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:59.600 read in chapter 6. When the Lord smelled the pleasing, this is the sacrifice that Noah 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:03.960 offered after the flood. He said, I will never again curse the ground because of man. For 00:06:03.960 --> 00:06:08.680 the intention of man's heart is evil from you, neither will I again strike every evil 00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:15.319 living creature as I've done. So this inclination of man's heart is described the same way. 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:21.519 And it's interesting that God saw in the beginning the creation and it was good. And then God 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:27.759 sees the hearts of men here and it's evil. And God sees what they are intending at the 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:35.920 Tower of Babel and he recognizes the rebellion. So it's the story of beginning, and I do 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:45.279 contend that the world pre-flood was a different world. I'm not sure entirely in what was 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:49.559 the thought. There's hints that it was a different world in terms of longevity of life, 00:06:49.559 --> 00:06:57.319 in terms of the type of things that were happening. And there was a very peculiar and particular 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:03.199 descent into chaos and darkness in that world, in these beginning. That's what we have in 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:09.359 the story of the beginning. But within that mystery, I think in the wider picture of the 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:16.040 Bible, which we always need to take into account, there's also hints that what happened at 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:25.639 Noah's Ark was part of the story of beginnings, okay? Cataclysmic beginnings. There's creation, 00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:34.040 then there's recreation after the flood, and then there's new creation at the end of time, 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:42.480 or new creation in Jesus Christ. And these are all cataclysmic events, huge events. They 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:52.400 flood a massive event of tectonic proportions and something great was happening. And we 00:07:52.400 --> 00:07:58.439 see in chapter 9, the chapter we read, that it's worded recreationally. In other words, 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:06.319 the same kind of language that God uses with Noah, as he did with Adam. He speaks to Noah, 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:11.759 he asks him to be fruitful and to have stewardship over the animal world, although there's differences 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:20.159 in that relationship. Water is significant in both of these accounts, bringing order 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:28.080 in the beginning, and there's order again from the chaos of the flood, being controlled 00:08:28.080 --> 00:08:34.920 and tamed in Genesis, unleashed in the flood, then receding. And in both cases, words of 00:08:34.920 --> 00:08:43.879 promise that point forward to the great recreation, or as the New Testament calls it, the new 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:53.039 creation, or the new birth, which is all linked to what Jesus has done and will do on his 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:57.960 return. And there's various verses, both in the Old and New Testament, that speak about 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:06.159 that. Isaiah 65 and verse 17 says, for behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, the 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:11.960 former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. There's that link, therefore, 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:18.960 in another cataclysmic, massive recreation that's happening through Jesus Christ. And 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:25.519 2 Peter 3, 13, and then Revelation 21. But according to his promise, Peter says to the 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:31.000 people he's writing to, we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:39.080 dwells, this recreation that we wait for, knowing a creation in our own lives in Christ, 00:09:39.080 --> 00:09:45.000 waiting for what he will do with the world, Revelation 21. Then I saw a new heaven and 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:53.600 a new earth. It's very similar to the language of Noah. The first heaven and the first earth 00:09:53.600 --> 00:10:00.200 has passed away. And interestingly, again, there's water referenced, and the sea was 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:06.080 no more. And there's that link, and there's that continuum throughout the Bible as it 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:13.520 speaks, both of the beginning, Genesis 1 to 11, and beginnings that link it into the 00:10:13.520 --> 00:10:20.680 ongoing work of God in the universe and in our lives. And a response to that mystery, 00:10:20.680 --> 00:10:32.080 which we really only, is only pointed towards in this sermon, is always trust and awe. It's 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:37.440 always that, worship and adoration to me. We've lost, I know we've lost, it's just a 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:44.080 world we live in. Our first world has lost the sense of awe and worship of God. I know 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:50.520 that. And yet we look for that response when we see the unity and also the mystery of what 00:10:50.520 --> 00:10:56.000 is revealed for us. And within that, seeing that same great God that we'll go on to speak 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:05.360 about who comes into our broken world of inexplicable darkness, evil and death in Christ, that 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:12.879 we know. And although there's much unspoken and there's a huge amount we don't know about 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:21.320 beginnings, we do know about His redemptive story within which it falls. And we do know 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:29.160 enough to know that there's nobody in this world that loves you more than Jesus Christ 00:11:29.160 --> 00:11:38.040 as you put your trust in Him and enables us to worship because we were made for Him. 00:11:38.040 --> 00:11:45.360 So that's the first thing that is missing. The second thing is, there is judgment, okay? 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:51.759 You can't get away from it. This child story that is in all the children's story books, 00:11:51.759 --> 00:12:00.399 but there is judgment at the very heart of this story. Because at the beginning, story 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:06.759 Genesis 1-11 introduces the clear and challenging truth that death is both a just sentence for 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:12.920 rejecting God as the source of life and light as we saw. But it also becomes, therefore, 00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:20.399 our human tendency. And I use this word, guardedly, there's a naturalizing of death 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:26.039 because it becomes our tendency, it becomes the direction which we're living because of 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:30.879 what has happened. And we see that right from the beginning. There's division, there's 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:37.599 jealousy, there's fratricide, there's violence, there's war, there's attrition, there's murder, 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:43.759 right from the beginning as God is rejected and as death enters into the world. And the 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:54.120 flood, of course, is the culmination of that in these beginning chapters where God is sorry 00:12:54.120 --> 00:13:04.800 for what He's done in that remarkable language, and He vows to begin to judge and to begin 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:16.919 again. Now, that is a huge challenge, that truth. It's a huge challenge. It personalizes 00:13:16.919 --> 00:13:28.279 our accountability to God because we're mortal and we face death. It communizes our guilt 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:36.279 before God, which people rage at today, don't they? And internally, we often rage at it, 00:13:36.279 --> 00:13:41.799 if we're honest with ourselves when we look in the mirror. We rage at our accountability 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:53.799 to God. We rage at what we feel is His injustice at so many levels. But the account of the 00:13:53.799 --> 00:14:01.079 flood draws all of this truth right into our line of vision. It's not an old fable, it's 00:14:01.079 --> 00:14:09.879 not an old strange story. It is reality for us to consider. And it puts death onto a completely 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:16.759 different level for us as we think about our lives. Death was God's just and is God's 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:26.960 just judgment on humanity that chose to turn to darkness and unbelief. It's not simply 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:35.319 a natural act to which we passively submit. But within that, there's this great opportunity 00:14:35.319 --> 00:14:39.960 of rescue, which is of course the heart of the gospel. 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:50.560 Now, I think as we need to be in 21st century Edinburgh culture, we need to be thinking 00:14:50.560 --> 00:14:59.320 Christians. We need to think about difficult truth and wrestle with it and understand it 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:08.639 by God's grace and by God's spirit and recognize that it is just and good but difficult to 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:16.720 share. But we must be thinking Christians. I think naturally we all recoil from this 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:24.559 whole concept of judgment. And if you went out in the street and spoke about Noah's Ark 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:32.679 and what God did that he wiped out humanity, you would find a recoiling happening from 00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:38.679 people who heard that. We recoil naturally from judgment. But the interesting thing 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:46.120 is we are all relentless legalists actually. Although we recoil from the concept of judgment, 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:51.639 we're all relentless legalists. We all judge all the time. You are sitting today judging 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:57.799 this sermon and I'm judging you're listening. We're all judging one another. We do it all 00:15:57.799 --> 00:16:03.000 the time. It's natural to us. We're always making decisions about what is right and wrong. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:08.439 We are always weighing things. It happens in politics, in the staff room, in the canteen. 00:16:08.439 --> 00:16:14.879 We are people who are relentlessly condemning or acquitting ourselves or other people. We 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:22.159 judge other people. We have standards and we all believe in justice. Nobody doubts that. 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:27.319 But we need to recognize the question is not judgment. The question isn't whether we think 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:32.840 judgment is right. Of course the question is who judges? And the question is what is 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:39.080 the standard of judgment? That is, and these are different things. And that is what we 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:46.000 need to be challenged by and challenge others with. Because part of the wrestling spiritually 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:51.480 is that we want to be the judge. We want to be the arbiters of right and wrong. And we 00:16:51.480 --> 00:16:56.360 know at a human level there is lots of human judgment that's significant. But at an ultimate 00:16:56.360 --> 00:17:03.279 level we also want that position, which takes us right back to Genesis where in the beginning 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:11.039 the rebellion was that man wanted to be in God's place. And today one of the reasons 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:16.759 why there is such a rage in secular atheism and evolutionary anthropology against God 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:22.400 is because you can't have God in that closed system. It's simply not possible to have 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:31.000 God in that system because it brings in the reality of something outside of ourselves 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:39.280 that we may be accountable to. And that system we must never forget has far more problems 00:17:39.280 --> 00:17:47.160 and mystery and has no accounting for the genesis of morality or justice or personhood 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:56.800 or love beyond its plain existence. No cause, no explanation. We have an explanation, we 00:17:56.800 --> 00:18:02.519 still have problems. But we are not the only ones. There is always going to be problems 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:09.480 and we recognize that. But if there is no objective standard for judgment, then there 00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:17.120 can be no judgment and it is irrational to leave God out of the picture. 00:18:17.120 --> 00:18:31.120 Truth, Genesis 6-9 is speaking of universal beginnings, okay? It's speaking of universal 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:40.799 truth. That means truth can't just be for me. Localize truth, little truth, minor truth, 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:47.799 truth at a subjective level. This is the story of beginning, of humanity beginning 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:56.119 and of truth beginning. And we reflect our lives in the shadow of this truth that's 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:02.279 revealed. There is judgment. Isaiah 28 verse 21 is a very interesting, I'm jumping about 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:07.879 one or two verses that really bring, I hope draw things in. But that speaks about the 00:19:07.879 --> 00:19:12.399 Lord judging at Mount Peresim and it says, as the valley of Gideon he will be roused 00:19:12.399 --> 00:19:20.159 to do his deed, his strange is his deed and to work his work, alien is his work. And that 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:26.480 pivotal verse in the middle of the Bible is reminding us that judgment is real but it's 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:42.160 his strange work. It's kind of, it's a necessary reality of God but it's not objectively his 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:48.960 being as it were. It's his strange work. His light will inevitably dispel darkness. His 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:56.600 love inevitably will deal with hate. It's a consequence of his nature. It's a responsive 00:19:56.600 --> 00:20:04.840 necessary characteristic. But throughout even this account he's long suffering and patient 00:20:04.840 --> 00:20:10.160 and he gives people opportunity to turn to him, knows a preacher of righteousness and 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:18.000 they see what he's doing and they hear his message but they will not turn. And it's interesting. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:25.960 I think this is an important point and you may disagree with me here. But it may be a 00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:34.039 good argument if you do. Okay. Judgment cannot change us. That's why judgment is God's 00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:41.480 strange work. It's called here the Isaiah 28. It can't change us. It's judicial but 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:48.960 it's not radically saving. It doesn't change our hearts. In other words, can I broaden 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:55.440 that a little bit and say the fear of hell is not the gospel. Hell is a reality, an awful 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:03.440 reality but it is, and fearing hell is not the gospel. It is a consequence of rejecting 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:09.880 the love of God but it is not the gospel. And fear of hell will not change you to turn 00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:18.960 to God. Fear, as in abject fear of that, is the wrong motive for knowing and coming 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:23.960 to trust in Jesus Christ. It is the truth and judgment is the truth but it's not the 00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:33.320 answer. It's not the answer. And I think Noah's, the flood is clear representation of that 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:41.439 because there's this catastrophic judgment. God clearly acts justly, terrifyingly and 00:21:41.439 --> 00:21:49.359 dreadfully. Noah and his family are saved and redeemed in the ark. And the very next 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:55.319 chapter, there's incest, there's drunkenness, and then shortly after there's a tower of 00:21:55.319 --> 00:22:03.599 Babel. He would think, wouldn't he? If anything was going to change him, that would. But it 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:08.879 doesn't because it's his strange work and it's not the gospel and it's not his mercy. 00:22:08.879 --> 00:22:13.240 And that brings us onto the third thing which is that there is mercy. Chapter 6, we didn't 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:21.119 read chapter 6, verse 8, says, but Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord. These are 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:27.239 the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked 00:22:27.239 --> 00:22:39.759 with God, 8 and 9. Noah walked with God. And there's mercy in this traumatic story, real 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:49.319 and promised. There's gentle pointers right through Genesis 1 to 11 of God's mercy. There's 00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:55.919 the promise of Jesus Christ in the very beginning, Genesis chapter 3. There's the clothing he 00:22:55.919 --> 00:23:01.439 provides for Adam and Eve. There's the protection from death. There's freedom for their descendants 00:23:01.439 --> 00:23:06.559 to live and to have families and to enjoy the world and to seek God out and to follow 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:13.639 him, to call in his name for forgiveness in life. And many did for a while until it all 00:23:13.640 --> 00:23:21.880 receded and Noah was the only believer, the only one. And then in the chapter following 00:23:21.880 --> 00:23:27.520 there, his redemption and his family's redemption, there's this covenant in chapter 9, this covenant 00:23:27.520 --> 00:23:34.440 of preservation where a new stewardship and a new responsibility is given to Noah and to 00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:41.800 his offspring to re-inhabit the world, a new beginning, a new laws of protection against 00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:48.799 violence and evil. And his mercy is shown to all creation, not just to humanity but 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:56.359 to the animals also. A promise that never again would there be such a destruction, never 00:23:56.359 --> 00:24:03.039 again would the magnitude of his judgment come as it did then with the sign of the rainbow 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:10.960 being the sign of his promise. And within that covenant of preservation focused around 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:18.079 the person of Noah and his family is the preservation of the line of Jesus, from the seed of the 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:27.840 woman in Genesis 3, right through to the birth of Jesus from the womb of Mary. And there's 00:24:27.840 --> 00:24:33.600 an Old Testament, there's also a theme throughout the Old Testament of that line being preserved 00:24:33.600 --> 00:24:40.799 at different points when it was all but to be annihilated. God was preserving this promise, 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:50.399 this line from the beginning that Jesus would come to be your Savior and my Savior as Christians. 00:24:50.399 --> 00:24:58.319 So there is mercy in this. And lastly and very briefly there is also faith spoken of 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:07.480 here and faith I think that points forward to our own life of faith as Christians. Noah 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:14.720 walked with the Lord, a euphemism for being a person of faith who trusted. He was a preacher 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:20.559 of righteousness. He was someone who loved the Lord and feared the Lord and who trusted 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:34.120 the Lord. Even in the desert as it were, building this ridiculous big boat, he trusted God with 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:40.839 the ridicule that he would have received for what he was doing and the craziness of what 00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:48.319 it seemed like in the sunbaked environment in which they were living. But he understood 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:55.559 and knew the Lord, the Redeemer that's spoken of here. He understood the sacrifice for sin, 00:25:55.559 --> 00:26:01.399 God's justice and God's mercy. I know it's different because he had so little light at 00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:09.560 one level yet he is spoken of as someone who walked with God and who shared that truth 00:26:09.560 --> 00:26:15.280 and who preached that truth and I'm sure who begged for people to turn to the living God. 00:26:15.280 --> 00:26:20.120 And that of course points forward to the walk of faith that's spoken of in the passage that 00:26:20.120 --> 00:26:26.240 Corey read in Hebrews chapter 11, the ongoing challenge of faith. And that's our challenge 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:31.680 as we take God's reveal word into our own lives. So Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, remind 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:36.680 of faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. That's 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:43.839 exactly the same, almost that's spoken of Noah in the way that he believed. And we have 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:50.039 that future aspect to our faith, but it's always the, it's also that recognition. If 00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:56.120 you go on in Hebrews, it speaks about believing that it's God who is at the beginning and 00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:01.199 who was the creator and who is the source of all things. It brings things back faith 00:27:01.199 --> 00:27:07.759 to the beginning again and it speaks about having a reasonable recognition of what God 00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:14.319 has done in creation and in redemption. It's thoughtful. That chapter in Hebrews 11 is 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:22.039 speaking about a reasonable faith using our brains, thinking through examining God and 00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:27.839 the world that we see around us, examining the realities, challenging the presuppositions 00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:35.159 that are natural to us and others, reasoning and wrestling with things, by asking the hard 00:27:35.159 --> 00:27:42.599 questions, but not just of God, not just asking God the hard questions that we're often keen 00:27:42.599 --> 00:27:48.960 to ask Him and often keep us from Him, but ask those who don't believe and ask yourself 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:54.720 the hard questions that need to be asked about life and about humanity and about love and 00:27:54.720 --> 00:28:01.600 about justice and about hope and about a future and about why we're here and what is the reason. 00:28:01.600 --> 00:28:08.519 It's not enough to have, it's not enough at one level to have blind faith. I rail against 00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:14.559 blind faith, faith that isn't reasoned and thought out and growing and developing and 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:24.839 intellectual as well as heart. Blind faith won't cut it in the world in which we live, 00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:32.799 but neither will blind unbelief. Don't have that stupid position of just living without 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:43.919 thinking and living without wrestling and living in a shallow reality that doesn't challenge 00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:50.800 us about who we are and about our life and our death and our future. The ongoing challenge 00:28:50.800 --> 00:28:55.400 of faith is that it's thoughtful and that it reflects the faith that Noah had which 00:28:55.400 --> 00:29:05.880 was a walk with God, and that is to be characteristic of our life of faith, is to be in that, you 00:29:05.880 --> 00:29:10.400 know, speaking about a relationship with God, isn't it, listening and learning from God 00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:19.800 in Christ. Noah was an heir of the righteousness that is by faith and he points us to God's 00:29:19.800 --> 00:29:29.000 ultimate answer to death which is not judgment but redemption. Now interestingly, isn't it, 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:38.759 as we finish with this twist, there is judgment in redemption. It is part of the answer, but 00:29:38.759 --> 00:29:47.440 it's not judgment on us. It's judgment on himself. Isn't that ironic? And isn't that 00:29:47.440 --> 00:30:02.200 awesome that the judge leaves his judgment seat and enters the dock? He dies. He takes 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:10.360 the flood as it were. He takes the judgment because he knows we can't meet the perfect 00:30:10.360 --> 00:30:16.360 and righteous standard of God. And that's the glory of grace. He is driven to do that 00:30:16.360 --> 00:30:23.600 by His love for you, by His outstanding love that provides, and we mustn't think that this 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:34.119 is theoretical or disengaged from our lives. It's the very core of what makes us living 00:30:34.119 --> 00:30:44.039 beings if we are Christians, that we see someone who has done this. I'm speechless. I have 00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:52.879 no words who has done this for us, and He has offered to us as the one who has done this, 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:59.600 who has provided the answer. There's a rationale and a reason, and it's driven by outstanding 00:30:59.600 --> 00:31:07.280 love from his heart and soul as the living God to provide the answer that we can't provide 00:31:07.280 --> 00:31:15.720 for ourselves. And it's a free and a full gift as we reach out to Him by grace and recognize 00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:23.480 for Him, recognize Him for who He is. And that walk with God and the challenge to me 00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:29.480 and the challenge to you today is if you are the last person in this universe that is walking 00:31:29.480 --> 00:31:38.200 with God, will you do it? Is your faith cultural? Is it because people around you have faith? 00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:46.680 Is it because you were brought up to have faith? Or like Noah, if you are the last person, 00:31:46.680 --> 00:31:51.680 let's not say in the universe, let's just say in your world to make it a bit more reasonable. 00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:58.680 The only person that you know who is a believer, will you ditch it because it's an inconvenient 00:31:58.680 --> 00:32:06.200 truth? Or will you recognize the promise of what is yet to come in your creation, new 00:32:06.200 --> 00:32:13.519 creation in Christ, and what He promises to do on that last great day when the world will 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:20.799 not be destroyed but will be renovated and renewed because He promised that that would 00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:26.920 be the case. And each time you see a rainbow, that is what you're to remember. He will recreate 00:32:26.920 --> 00:32:35.920 His world because it's good, and it will be good because that is His end design. Amen. 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:43.880 Let us pray. Father, we pray that you would help us to understand more of your grace and 00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:54.360 of your mercy, that we would be in awe of your justice, that we would humbly submit to your 00:32:54.360 --> 00:33:03.680 creating glory as our maker, that we would not put you on a par with ourselves, and certainly 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:13.000 that we wouldn't put you below us. And may we recognize the perspective of everything 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:23.799 biblically must be through the cross, which is the center of God's redemptive and glorious, 00:33:23.799 --> 00:33:36.720 grace-filled rescue plan for us. Help this truth to be not deemed irrelevant to us today 00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:45.599 as people here listen with burdens, with battles, with tiredness, with practical issues. May 00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:53.480 these truths not be something that they lay aside in the week into which they will work 00:33:53.480 --> 00:33:59.960 and week into which they will enter, but may it be inspiring and challenging, and may it 00:33:59.960 --> 00:34:07.599 point us all to the one before whom we need to fall on our knees and worship and seek 00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:16.880 His love and forgiveness and grace to sustain us when it seems all is pointless and hopeless. 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:23.880 Help us then, we pray, dear God, in Jesus' name. Amen.