922 Ministries - The CORE & St. Peter Lutheran

Genesis 6 through 9. That goes beyond what maybe we learned back in Sunday school or what we see in children's books where you have this boat on a clear sunny day and a rainbow with animals overflowing a little bit more than maybe what that would suggest. So in our first message today, we're going to be taking a look at Genesis 6, some really striking passages from that whole chapter. And we'll do some under our theme, Sad God. Let's begin with prayer. Sanctify us by the truth, O Lord. Yes, win us over by your spirit, to understand your love, even in the face of judgment. Sanctify us by the truth. Your word is truth. Amen. If you've ever experienced real heartbreak, real heartache, gut wrenching loss, I'm not talking about maybe that time when you had that high school crush and you thought things would match up and align, but it all went south. Not talking about just relationships that are kind of irritating to you, annoying at times, maybe go through some rough patches when I'm talking about the highest form of betrayal, of hatred in someone that you cherish with your whole life, that kind of brokenness maybe ending in death, maybe ending even more so with just outright violence and abandonment. I don't know how many of us have experienced such loss, such heartbreak as that. But if you have, I would suggest to you that you are in a unique position to understand what it would be to be God just right before the days of the worldwide flood. In Genesis 6, 6, there's a couple thoughts that jump out at us which I'll share, which I don't know if the English really does it justice, but in Genesis 6, 6 it says that the Lord was deeply troubled. The Hebrew word there is atsav, which whenever it's found elsewhere in the scripture isn't just deeply troubled, it is literally broken with grief. A heart that is shattered, tears overflowing. You think maybe of Jesus who was riding into Jerusalem and standing and looking at this beautiful city that God had purposed to really bring salvation to all the world. And yet this city was rejecting the only Savior and within days would crucify him. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I long to gather you, like a hen gathers a chicks. But you would not let me. That kind of gut wrenching grief, that's what we're finding here in Genesis 6, as the Lord looks at the world and the crown of his creation and sees what they've done, such violence and betrayal, completely disregarding his image. And they're at a point of no return. Which is why in Genesis 6. 6. We read these words that the Lord regretted. I don't know if there's more of a sobering passage that you can read in all of Scripture. As God looks down at humanity, he says, under inspiration there of Moses, the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth. He regretted he made us. To understand what Moses is up to here, he's using a literary device called anthropomorphism. You don't need to know that unless you want to impress your friends at lunch today. Anthropomorphism is this technique of taking attributes that are human and applying it to something else. In this case, it's God. But it's for the purpose that we really understand God's emotions here. He's as broken as you can get. And as a divine being, can you imagine the sense of pain and suffering? It's like that of hell on a cross. And when it says God regrets here, here's something unique about God which is different from us. Maybe you're going to go out shopping over the summer and you've got your eyes on a new car or maybe a big widescreen tv, and it's got all the bells and whistles and you're investing a lot of money and it's going to make you so happy, you bring it home and all of a sudden it just doesn't work out. You got a lemon? Or it's not working and the warranty expires before you can actually have it covered. You have buyer's remorse, right? You grit you had best intentions, but it just doesn't turn out. You're surprised. Had you known, you wouldn't have done it. God knows everything. That aspect of regret doesn't apply to the Lord. He knew before the creation of the world that humanity would become so corrupt, so wicked, so evil beyond the point of of return. But he decided to make them anyway, knowing full well a flood would have to come. He knew he would regret making that very crown of his creation. And I think the question for us to ask then is why? If God knew He would regret this, why would he even bother? I mean, how many of you would bother? I know I wouldn't. And then we have to ask, how then can a loving God get to a point like this in history? How could a loving God send the flood waters as he did? We're going to answer those questions today. It'll be a little bit yet, so hang with me. I think this text is intense enough. I don't think I'll lose you today. But we will answer that ultimate question. But for now, before we really talk about this flood thing and dive into the scriptures, I just want you to have this perspective of God, which I don't think the world would offer when it comes to this worldwide flood. It's not some different God in the Old Testament, nothing like the God of the new same God. He's not a God who's just slamming his fist down on his creation with a furrowed brow, with flippant wrath just because, well, we annoyed him a little too much that day. We have a sad God. And the source of the flood waters, you could say metaphorically at least, were his tears over what we chose to become and how much as a race, we wanted nothing to do with God or one another. That's the wickedness of those days. And so the flood. But I suppose before we again dive deep, maybe we need to answer another question, and this is the first we'll wrestle with. I mean, did the flood even really happen? Kind of wonder about that. If you were to listen to anyone with all the letters they need behind their name in the scientific community, they would suggest not a global flood. Maybe floods here, there, regionally or so on. And some wonder, like, is there even enough water in all the earth to flood it all? Obviously it's a myth. And they'll take Genesis 1 through 11 and say all of that. None of it's history, which is problematic because that's the foundation of everything else we know and hope for in Jesus. Did it happen? I got three proofs for you, and I think the first one is really all we need. What did Jesus think about a worldwide flood? Well, we use this as part of our sin and grace practice. Earlier, Jesus in Matthew 24:37, he says, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be right before the end of the world when I come again, coming of the Son of man. No doubt Jesus knew that there was a worldwide flood. He actually uses those historic days to parallel the final historic days when last judgment will come. And so to deny the one is to call into question what Jesus has said about the other. And to call into question that is to lose out on the application he has. He wants no one to perish, just like in the days of Noah. He wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, which he is. To doubt the flood is to doubt Jesus word, which is to doubt that he is our righteousness, to doubt that he's our forgiveness, the payment for our sin. To doubt that he's actually conquered death. He lives that his tomb is empty, that you will live too. Friends, why would we want to doubt any of that, Especially since it is historically evident? And so Jesus thought so when it comes to the flood, he knew what happened. To trust Jesus gives us a safe refuge to cling to. But are there other possibilities as far as evidence that we could turn to? I would say yes. 1. I think it's pretty compelling. The universal concept of a flood. Did you know this is kind of interesting. You can look to Hawaiian lore. You could go to Asian cultures, Hindu myths, even the Chinese Alphabet. The character and the word for boat would suggest there's some history to the worldwide flood, the epic of Gilgamesh, Greek mythology. All around the globe, different tribes, different peoples, they have this concept that the world suffered a flood. These people groups that never crossed paths, as far as we could tell, unless they came from Noah and his family. And again, one of the striking things, I'll just use the Chinese character or the word for boat. It's kind of a picturesque way of communicating. Right? In the Chinese language, one picture is of a vessel. So something that holds something Right next to it is a smaller picture that denotes the number eight, and under that, the picture word for people. So a vessel that held eight people, that's the word for boat in the Chinese language. Why eight? Oh, because there were eight people on the ark, the most famous boat of all. Some speculate that universal concept, it is quite convincing. There's no other explanation than global flood happen. Which leads me to this thought, the global evidence for it. How many of you were able to go to the ark encounter a couple weeks ago? As far as our church group, I know there's about 50 or so. Good for you. If you haven't ever gone to Kentucky. There's more than just the horse race and all that kind of stuff. There's. There's actually this cool encounter that you can have with a replica of the ark on there, and you can learn about all the different pieces of evidence that we see even today. That would suggest this is true history. Undeniably so. But for our purposes, I just suggest a few things. One, the fossil record. A lot of people might say, oh, the fossil record really leans toward pointing that evolution is true. Although there's all these missing links, which would actually suggest evolution isn't true. But never mind that. The fossil record actually shows all these massive graveyards all around the world of mass extinction happening, which could only come from catastrophe. And then you find fossils of, like, marine life on the highest of mountains. How did they get there? Unless, oh, maybe there was a worldwide flood. I know you might have more questions. Come back in a couple weeks. Pastor Steve will clear it all up for you. So, but for now, we just leave it at that. And I'm going to actually just leave it at Jesus. Would it not be enough that he believed it happened? That's enough for me. All right, before we talk about how God, a loving God, could send a worldwide flood, maybe another question that we should address, and that's the elephant in the room. When I read through that entire chapter of Genesis 6, did any of you get past the concept of the Nephilim? I mean, it's almost like when you hear about the Nephilim, these giants, these superpowers, these superhumans of old, you kind of wonder, like, what? Oh, yeah, there was a flood, too. Okay. It's really captivating, though. Who are these Nephilim? Well, we could go down many rabbit holes and we won't. I'll save you the time. By the way, if you search this through Google or you go to YouTube, you can watch many hours of many videos suggesting that the Nephilim were maybe aliens and there were alien spawn and it's exciting stuff, or demonic spawn even, like fallen angels having relationships with people and so on. I'm going to simplify it. Just using scripture to interpret scripture. And again, I will admit to you that there is some question about who the Nephilim really are or were. Nephilim comes from a Hebrew word, most thinking nephal, which means fallen ones. And so that would suggest to us there's a reason why Moses is bringing up these people who were very much present in that day. They were the fallen ones, yet they were the heroes of the people, men of renown. They were known for great feats. But if they're fallen, what kind of heroes are they really? Where do they come from? Well, they came from the sons of God and the daughters of men. I'd suggest to you that they came from believers. Sons of God and daughters of men are non believers. So mixed marriages, spiritually speaking, the offspring were the Nephilim, the fallen ones. Why is that important? Well, because marriage is really important. And it got to the point in the last days of the old world that people didn't really care about whom they would marry. They just were caught up by attraction, carnal pleasures, things of this life, never mind what God had said. And so believers became more and more apathetic, indifferent. They didn't really care who they married. They Married non believers and they failed to really pass on the gospel. And so the next generation lost it all. And you wonder if there was some demonic possession going on here. So maybe this tips the hat toward those who would think fallen angels had relations with people and had children. We don't see that the rest of scriptures don't suggest that angels can have children. Jesus says they don't marry, they don't go into marriage, they won't this age or the next. But you wonder if believers who were the last hope of the world didn't care and had children who didn't know these demonic powers overtook them, made them supernatural in a sense, like maybe the avengers of the old world. But they were all really bad. They were Hulk and just his bad side. But they were so amazing that that's all people wanted to talk about. That's all they cared about in this life. And so they were attracted to them and away from God. So know this, that the nephilim, in humanity's view, man's view back then, they were the cream of the crop, the best of the best. Everyone idolized the nephilim, though they were tyrants and violent and God saw the best that we love the bottom of the barrel. Now again, do you see a parallel for our day? Who do people love the most today? Do they love their Christian day school teachers the most? Do they love their godly Christian parents the most? Or do they love athletes and music celebrities and stars in Hollywood who care nothing about God, who do amazing things on screen or in music, but lead people away from even giving thought that there might be a God who cares and that judgment is coming and we just give them all our worth and our time and our treasures. Wow, there's a lot of commonality, don't you think? So the bottom of the barrel of the Nephilim. Which kind of leads to this next question here. How then could a loving God send a flood? I mean, as bad as maybe it got, how could a loving God bring such judgment? Well, for one do know this, it got really bad. And maybe there are some times in our world and in the news where you hear about some of the violence that going on in our cities or maybe around the world in the Middle East. And you wonder how can people do such things to other people? Well, the nephilim promoted that kind of stuff and it was all around the world. It wasn't just pockets. It seemed like humanity was going to destroy itself if God did not intervene. And even if humanity did survive, they would just give generation after Generation of people who would be damned because there would be no Savior to come, no gospel to be known. And what would that suggest about you and me and our hope? This is really intense stuff. Because God loves the world so much, you could argue how could he not send a flood? And even when he did, the first thought here is he gave 120 years of a chance for the world to repent. He said, my spirit won't contend with humanity. But he didn't say so today's the day. He said, I tell you what, I'll give you 120 years. And Noah became a preacher for that age. And with every hammer strike on that boat, it proclaimed to the world, time is coming. Repent. There's plenty of room on the ark. Think about the days of Jonah when it came to Nineveh. Remember that wayward prophet was sent to that wayward people, and he preached repentance after three days. And after three days they all repented. And God relented, sinning well, that destruction that he promised would come after 40 days. When they repented, God relented. Because again, God wants no one to perish. But humanity was so corrupt in those days that no one repented. In fact, even Noah and his family, their lives were threatened. But God waited as long as he could, Even though Genesis well, 6:5 says, After God being 120 years, patient with that world, Genesis 6:5 is this damning description of humanity and our corruption, every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Murder was rampant everywhere, sexual abuse, rape everywhere. How could a loving God allow that to continue? So God sent the flood waters, and God sent those floodwaters to save. To save humanity, to save one family who would give way after generation and generation of giving the gospel, until finally, 2000 years after Jesus came also a blessing of the flood. You and I could be here today and have that gospel message. Could God care more? And the Bible really reads this way. The Bible says that God saved the world by the flood waters. And I got two passages I'll share with you just to prove it. Hebrews 11:7 talks about those days, says by faith. Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear, he built an ark to save his family. And then Peter says this, what we read earlier in our absolution, the forgiveness we enjoyed, says in the ark, only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water. And this water symbolizes the reality that is baptism that now saves you also by the saving work of Jesus, the resurrection of Christ, floodwaters that save friends. Is that our view of that global flood? I pray it is, because this is how God would rescue every generation to come. You and me. Which kind of leads us then, to our last question for today. What's the lesson here? How are we to handle this ancient account, the flood waters? What does that have to do with us today? I would say everything. Those ancient days parallel our days today. Let me just read to you Jesus words from another Gospel account. So it comes up a couple times. He must be serious about this. He says, in the days of Noah, they were eating and drinking and marrying, and then the flood came and destroyed them all. These days are just like those days. And as people go about eating and drinking and marrying, they give little to no thought about God and how he views us and how we treat one another. They're just in it for the moment. Jesus wants to wake us up to the truth, and he's already given us life and awareness and faith. And so what are we to learn? Well, guess who you are in these last days. You and I are Noah. God says, my spirit won't contend with humanity forever, but I've given a way out. And Jesus is that ark, and Jesus, precious blood, is that crimson flood that will save. And you know that. So be ambassadors in your communities and in your families. Let people know there's still room. And Jesus is the way, and God would not have anyone perish. And in fact, to make it tangible, God gave us the waters of baptism to gift us salvation, which is a great connection to the flood, which, interestingly enough, even our church proclaims. I don't know if you know this, but if you look at the baptismal font here, there are eight sides to this baptismal font. So it's an octagon. You know why? Eight, not six or four. One person per side on the Ark of Eight. And if you cut off the legs, it almost looks like a little boat that could have survived a flood. Every time we bring a child to these waters here, every time you think about what God has gifted you in baptism, we think about the end. It's a form of judgment. But we're declared not guilty, and we're rescued by Christ on the cross. So if you came here today wondering where your life is headed, what purpose you have, eating and drinking and maybe thinking about marriage, God sets our sights to something sacred and eternal. You're Noah. Be faithful in a generation that is growing more loveless. And welcome, people, to the saving name of Jesus. That's what Noah unedited and the sad God is all about. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that you've given us this time of grace where we could know how you take sin so seriously and how you also love us so much you won't let us destroy ourselves in violence and unbelief. So Lord, help us to see the parallel from that day of old to today in our present time. And then Lord, raise us up to be faithful Noahs so that we might proclaim the gospel and see the ark of Christ fulfilled, full of people loved by you all. This that we pray, we pray in Jesus.