Episode Transcript
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If you're able, please remain standing
and let's give our attention to genesis chapter
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six, verses nine through twenty two. Genesis six, chapter of Genesis,
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chapter six, verse nine. These
are the generations of Noah. Noah was
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a righteous man and blameless. In
his generation. Noah walked with God and
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Noah had three sons, Shem Ham
and Jafeth. Now the earth was corrupt
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in God's sight and the Earth was
filled with violence. And God saw the
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earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way
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on the earth. And God said
to Noah, I have determined to make
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an end of all flesh, for
the earth is filled with violence through them.
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Behold, I will destroy them with
the Earth. Make yourself an ark
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of gopher wood. Make rooms in
the Ark and cover it inside and out
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with pitch. This is how you
are to make it. The length of
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the ARC three hundred cubits, its
breath fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits.
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Make a roof for the Ark and
finish it to a cubit above and
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set the door of the Ark in
its side. Make it with lower,
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second and third decks, for behold, I will bring a flood of waters
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upon the Earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life
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under heaven. Everything that is on
the Earth shall die. But I will
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establish my covenant with you and you
shall come into the Ark. You your
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son's your wife and your son's wives
with you, and of every living thing,
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of all flesh, you shall bring
two of every sort into the ark
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to keep them alive with you.
They shall be male and female, of
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the birds, according to their kinds, of the animals, according to their
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kinds, of every creeping thing,
of the ground, according to its kind.
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Two of every shore, every sort, shall come into you to keep
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them alive. Also, take them
with you every sort of food that is
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eaten and store it up. It
shall serve as food for you and for
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them. Noah did this. He
did all that God commanded him. May
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God bless his word to us.
Please be seated among the Patriarchs, among
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the great heroes of the faith.
Noah is certainly a giant. We are
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told right at the very beginning of
this section that Noah was a righteous man,
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blameless in his generation, that he
walked with God. That's the third
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time now we've heard about walking with
God. The last one being Enoch,
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who was taken up by God and
was not, and before that of Adam,
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who was not walking with God in
the garden, but instead hiding from
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him because of his sin and his
shame. Not so with Noah, as
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with Enoch, he walks with God. You remember what that means? Means
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to walk in God's ways. It
means to keep his statutes and his rules,
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to love, as he loved,
both God and neighbor. Noah walks
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with God. In addition to describing
the general course of his life, it
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also says in particular that he was
a righteous man, blameless in his generation.
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These are this is high praise.
I'm from the God of the Bible,
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the god of Noah. I'm to
declare that a man is righteous and
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blameless. Noah, of course,
was a cinner, just like Adam and
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Eve, just like kine and seth
and able and like Enoch and all the
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rest. But Noah walked in a
way that it was righteous. Noah walked
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in accordance with God's word, and
Noah was blameless. The the actions of
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Noah are then sandwiched, so to
speak, on the end as well.
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You get this description here of no
at the beginning and then at the end
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Noah's given various commands and promises and
then we read that Noah did this,
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he did all that God commanded,
so that we don't see here a change
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in Noah. We don't see noah
sort of starting out as good and then
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going through a progression of things and
becoming bad or the opposite. Instead,
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we see that Noah is good and
we see God's actions and commands and then
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the proof of it that Noah did
this, he did all that command God
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commanded him. And what did Noah
do? Noah built an ARC. In
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response to God's promised judgment of the
world. He built an arc and the
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hope that God would establish crew,
would establish the world again through him and
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through the animals that he was bringing
on the arc. As we think about
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these things, it's good to remember
why God gives us these stories in the
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Bible. God tells us stories from
the past as a way to teach us
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about the future, as a way
to change us in the present. These
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are the reasons God tells us these
things. Why God tells us what has
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happened. It's not merely to entertain
us or give us interesting stories or fun
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things to remember or helpful narratives on
which we can build playroom toys and things
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like that. It's much more than
that, right. It is given to
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a specifically by God to tell us
something, to teach us about the future
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and to change us in the present. The story of Noah is no different.
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Here God is telling us about the
first judgment of the world in order
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to teach us about the last judgment, so that we might escape it before
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it comes. As we think about
the judgment of God, I want us
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to consider three things this morning.
God's Justice and judgment, God's commitment to
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judgment and God's salvation from judgment.
So God's justice and judgment, his commitment
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to judgment and his salvation from judgment. People like to think of God as
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cruel and unfair. When they hear
of God flooding the world and drowning men
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and women and children and animals,
they imagine a beautiful world filled with beautiful
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people drowning in the waters of an
angry and capricious God. This is the
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way that many of the other flood
stories in the ancient Near East that were
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no doubt perversions of the original one. I'm speak of God in these ways
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or the gods in these ways and
these kind of vengeful and and silly ways.
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People judge those under the sentence of
death in this story as good and
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they judge the judge as bad.
The ones who are under the sentence of
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death they say, well, those
are the good ones, and the one
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giving the sentence, they say he
is the bad one. But nothing could
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be further from the truth. God
did not determine to make an end to
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all flesh, to destroy the world, because he was annoyed or board.
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He did not flood the world because
of some petty disagreement or a bet that
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he lost. God did not regret
and destroy the very people that he made
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in his image because he had a
bad temper or roke up on the wrong
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side of the bed. We all
know the truth. He destroyed the world
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because it was corrupt. He destroyed
the world because it was filled with violence.
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When people think about the flood,
they like to forget this part and
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impute to God things which should never
even leave our lips. He destroyed the
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world because it was corrupt. Three
times it's stated. Listen to it in
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verses eleven and twelve. The Earth
was corrupt in God's sight. The Earth
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was filled with violence, and God
saw the earth and behold, it was
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corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted, had corrupted their way on the earth.
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God goes on to say to Noah, I have determined to make an
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end to the an end of all
flesh, for the earth is filled with
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violence. He couldn't be clear,
as he pronounces his judgment in this way,
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that a judge looks down and sees
the case before him. He looks
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down and he sees that it is
corrupt. This is not an accident,
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this is not unfair. Something is
corrupt when it is ruined, when it
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is spoiled, when it is putred, when you find something corrupt in your
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fridge and throw it out, do
you blame yourself? Does anyone blame you
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and say, will be a little
more gentle, let the mold go,
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grow a little more, let the
decay continue on. No, you don't
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question it. You don't even think
twice about it. Sometimes you don't even
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look at it. You simply know
what it is and you get rid of
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it as fast as you can,
out of your fridge, out of your
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garbage can, out of your house, for out of the place in which
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you dwell. God had made mankind
in his image, but his image had
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become corrupt, not by some accident
or him forgetting it and leaving in the
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back of the fridge, but because
of the thing itself, because of sin.
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People sinned and corrupted themselves, ruined
themselves and became rotten and putred.
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They were in a state of decay, the curse of death on them.
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Adam, you remembered, was tad
was told from dust you are made into
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dust, you shall return. Instead
of filling the world with righteousness and blamelessness
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and love and joy and good society, the things that were found in Noah,
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men filled the world with violence.
It's amazing that God mentions this particular
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thing. God doesn't name idolatry or
false worship as the things which the world
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was filled with, though certainly that
was true as well, but in particularly,
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in particular, he focuses on violence, crimes against humanity, human against
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human it's not merely a relationship that
that's between the between man and God that's
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the problem, but even between man
and man. You remember, of course,
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the effects of sin as they spread
out from Adam and Eve through their
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children into the world. What is
the first story we have recorded. After
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the fall, violence, murder,
deception, corruption, the world was corrupt,
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corrupt, corrupt. The world was
filled with violence, filled with violence.
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So God was not unfair in flooding
the world and judgment. He was
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perfectly fair. Mankind owed him love
and obedience, for the world was his
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and he made them, and as
fellow creations, they owed each other love.
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Instead, the world was in complete
rebellion against God. It is astonishing
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how arrogant we can be on this
point of justice, how much we desire
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to downplay our own sins. When
someone wrongs us in the slightest and the
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smallest ways, we are so quick
to think that we are fair and wishing
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upon them or giving to them what
they deserve. A waitress is sloppy and
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inattentive and she feels your wrath.
A driver fails to signal and literal curses
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are brought upon his head. But
the when the world is filled with corruption
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and violence because of our sins,
we shift the immorality to God, as
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though he's somehow wrong to separate unholiness
from His Holiness, from purity, for
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a corruption from purity, death and
decay from life. So you see,
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God is not wrong. God is
perfectly just, and he always is.
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That brings us to our second point, God's commitment to judgment. The second
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thing about judgment that we see here
in Genesis six is that God is committed
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to it, and it is certain. We see that this is partly true
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because of his nature, as I've
just been mentioning, God is just.
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It is his nature. He would
be evil if he were to look on
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sin and decay and corruption and look
the other way. That's injustice, isn't
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it? When a governor or a
King or a police force or someone in
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control, someone who has authority in
the law, sees corruption and looks the
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other way? Not so with God. He is righteous. If we can't
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whisk away the thought of judgment from
our minds by thinking of God as immoral
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or incapable of doing justice, then
sometimes we try to whisk it by a
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way by thinking it won't happen or
that it won't happen to us. But
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God tells us that his judgment is
sure, partly because of his nature.
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Psalm one and thirty three says if
you owe Jehovah, should mark iniquities.
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Oh Lord, who could stand a
back one hundred and thirteen, says you,
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who are of pure eyes than to
see evil and cannot look at wrong
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or psalm five, verse four and
and four through six. For you are
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not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you.
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The boastful shall not stand before you. You hate all evil doers. You
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destroy those who speak lies. Jehovah
abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. So
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just as water repels oil by its
nature, so God repels sin. If
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you sin, you will be judged. It's as simple as that. Well,
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we also know the judgment is certain
because of the Declaration of God.
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God never lies. And he says
I have determined to make an end to
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all flesh. He says I will
destroy, I will destroy and that which
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is on the earth. I will
destroy all flesh and which is the breath
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of life of Heaven, everything that
is on the Earth shall die. One
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of the biggest problems is I was
mentioning earlier, that exists between God and
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man, is that man is always
trying to impute to God the corruption of
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his own flesh. So, for
example, because we judge unfairly, we
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say that God will the same is
also true for delay and judgment. Because
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We delay and forget judgment when we
ought to, we think that God is
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also delaying or forgetting or giving up
on his intentions or purposes. We change
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our minds because we're not entirely always
certain about them. Even in some of
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the most certain cases, we change
our minds and move another direction. This
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is not the case with God,
however. He sees the beginning from the
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end. He never executes judgment in
a way that is unfair or or not
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taking in all the facts. And
God keeps his word in a way we
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do not. When he says he
determines to make an all, an end
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to all flesh, those who ignore
him do so at their own peril.
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The certainty of God's promise judgment is
proved, of course, by the history
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of God's judgment. As those who
are born in that sinful flesh that you
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inherit it from Adam, you must
wake up to this. You must wake
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up to the certainty of God's judgment. Here, for example, the words
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of God's Apostle, Apostle Peter,
when he tells us that just as God
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did not spare the world, here, at the time of Noah. So
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No, he will not spare it
again when the sun comes. In fact,
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the judgment to come will be even
greater, for it will be final.
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It will be a judgment that's not
simply temporary and on the earth,
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but a judgment that is eternal.
I want you to hear God's own words
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of these last days of the judgment, to come and see for yourself if
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it is not more frightening than a
flood into the world. One example from
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revelation six. When he opened the
sixth seal, I looked and behold,
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there was a great earthquake and the
Sun became black as sackcloth, the full
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moon became like blood and the stars
of the sky fell from the earth as
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a fig tree sheds its winter fruit
when shaken by a gale. The Sky
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vanished like a scroll that is being
rolled up, and every mountain and island
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was removed from its place. Then
the kings of the earth and the great
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ones and the generals and the rich
and the powerful and everyone slave and free,
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hid themselves in caves and among the
rocks of the mountains, calling to
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the mountains and rocks fall on US
and hide us from the face of him
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who is seated on the throne and
from the wrath of the lamb, for
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the great day of their wrath has
come and who can stand? When we
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think about the judgment to come as
it is described in scripture, and surely
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our imaginations don't quite reach the point
at which they ought to go. But
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these descriptions that were being given here, of the sky being rolled back like
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a scroll, of the heavenly bodies
being darkened and turning to blood, of
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the stars falling from the sky as
figs being shaken from a fig tree,
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and this is just the judgment at
that moment. Scripture describes eternal judgment going
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on from there is terrifying, the
fires and torments of Hell. The point
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is this. If you ignore the
coming a judgment, as the people did
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in Noah's Day, you're even a
greater fool than they were. For Noah's
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Day they had the promise of judgment. You have the promise of the judgment,
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plus the terrifying confirmation that God makes
good on his promises, plus a
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history of God working these kinds of
judgments again and again, plus these terrifying
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pictures of the end God's judgment.
Is sure he is committed to it and
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he must be committed to it by
his very nature. So we cannot simply
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think about other things. We can't
simply push those things out of our minds
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and say, well, I don't
know, judgment comes, justice comes.
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The Apostle Paul says to us you
judge all the time and if you know
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how to judge, certainly do you
think you will escape the judge who judges
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in Heaven? We, like those
in Noah's Day, are also sinners.
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We can't exempt ourselves from the judgment
of God and think that somehow we will
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get a pass simply because we're in
a different century or because we have nice
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clothes, or because we've got good
plans or a nice job, or whatever
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excuse you want to make. God
is holy and righteous and he will not
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fail to execute his judgment on sin. The last thing to consider from this
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passage is God's salvation from judgment.
In addition to the promise of Judgment for
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Sin and judgment on the Earth,
God also promised in Genesis six and throughout
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the pages of scripture and in particular
in the Cross of Jesus Christ, he
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promises salvation from that judgment to those
who seek him. In faith and in
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repentance. This is an amazing thing, isn't it? It's an amazing thing
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in itself. God would be perfectly
fair, as we have seen, perfectly
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holy in leaving us to the consequences
of our own sin and misery, to
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be thrown out into the garbage,
to be thrown out out of his dwelling
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place and his house, to leave
us to the consequences of our own sin
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and misery. But he doesn't do
that. Instead, he opens up the
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hope, a hope for us of
salvation in the ancient world. He did
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that with Noah. God didn't owe
this to Noah, but, as we
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read last week in verse eight,
Noah Found Favor in the eyes of Jehovah.
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Jehovah is Israel's Covenant God, Israel's
Saving God, redeem or. God
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looks at Noah and gives him his
favor, His grace. It's undeserved.
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Noah's born into sin, has the
corruption of the flesh. But God wants,
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out of his great love and inestimable
grace, to keep the promise that
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he made to Adam and Eve that
a seed would be born who would save
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the world. And so he elects
Noah and his family in him to be
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saved, that the promised seed might
endure, that that his promise of grace
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might continue on. Noah finds favor
in the eyes of the Lord, and
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this favor is what makes him a
righteous man and a blameless man. It's
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Noah's faith and trust in the grace
of God that makes him and walk in
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the path that he walks, that
makes him act like he acts, that
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makes him withstand the persecutions and idolatry
and violence in the world to do the
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thing that God called him to do. We see God's supremacy not only in
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judgment in Genesis chapter six, but
his supremacy and sovereignty and salvation as well.
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God makes a covenant with Noah.
God takes the first steps, he
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initiates the action, he initiates the
salvation. He goes to Noah and he
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says, I'm making a covenant with
you. I am going to destroy all
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the world, but I'm saving you
and with you your wife, your children,
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their wives and their children. We
see here one of the first instances
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in the Bible where God is pleased
to make covenant with people and to bring
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in with them their families I'm into
the visible church. Noah and his family
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are saved from this wrath and judgment
of God here on the Earth. God
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makes him this great promise, he
establishes this covenant of Grace and he continues
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on the Covenant of Grace. I'm
through Noah. And so what we see
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in this is that in the same
way that the judgment of the world points
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to the greater judgment of the world, the salvation of the world will also
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point us to a greater salvation.
God continues to offer that hope of salvation
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to us. He offers that hope
by sending to us his son, one
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who was righteous and blameless, not
only before the eyes of man and in
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a general sense, in the world, but perfect in every way, a
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son who would carry not just a
handful of people in an arc, but
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a multitude of people and would usher
into existence the new heavens and the new
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earth themselves. This greater noah,
this son of God, this promised seed,
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our Savior, Jesus Christ, would
come and has come and has brought
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this hope of salvation. But I
want to point out, as we conclude,
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that this, this hope of salvation, is not a hope that comes
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apart from justice. I said earlier, and I meant what I said,
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that judgment comes to us all.
Every single one of us must be judged
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for our sins. Our Hope,
however, is that judgment for us has
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already passed. As Christians, we
don't hope that we won't be judged,
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that will somehow escape the judgment,
but the judgment has already occurred, and
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it's occurred for us in Jesus Christ, that we don't need to fear the
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judgment at the end of the world, because the judgment and that the end
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of the world has already happened for
us in Jesus. How do we know
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that? Because the wrath and flood
waters of God were poured down on Jesus
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Christ. We are told that he
was baptized, that he endured these kinds
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of things in his life, that
he underwent the judgment of God for all
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the sins of those whom he was
saving. And when we are baptized,
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we are baptized into him. We
go through those floodwaters and come out on
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the other side having passed through judgment, having received new life and regeneration in
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such a way that those judgment waters
don't merely kill us, but they cleanse
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us, they bring us to life
in Jesus. This is the salvation we
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have. But if you're listening to
me, you must hear me right.
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There is a particular time, in
a particular day that the Lord will come,
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just as there was a particular time, a particular hour, when God
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came and brought judgment on the earth. This hope of salvation is not one
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that will last forever. We do
not know the hour of the judgment of
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God. Scripture tells us it will
come like a thief in the night,
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in that sense in which you're not
prepared, you're not expecting him, you
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don't know when it will happen.
Judgment comes and we must be ready.
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Being ready means turning to Jesus,
looking to him as the great arc of
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our salvation, to carry us through
that and to get on board now and
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not wait until it's too late.
I said at the beginning that Genesis six,
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as is true of all of the
history in the Bible, the God
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tells us these stories from the past
as a way to teach us about the
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future and change our actiontions in the
present. God tells us the story about
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coming about the judgments and salvation and
Noah's day to tell us about the coming
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judgment and salvation that we have now, so that our present actions might changed,
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so that we might not ignore God's
judgments, think of our sins in
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a light way, think of God
and wrong ways, but instead recognized us,
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recognize ourselves for who we are and
turn to God and say, I
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deserve this, but I'm going to
lean on your salvation and lean on your
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righteousness and lean on Jesus Christ,
that great arc that will bring us through
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the waters. This is how we
should be changed in the here and now.
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May God grant this to us.
Let us pray
