A Big Story

 It's very apparent that evil is alive and well in our society. And it's no surprise that it's growing as our culture moves further away from a Biblical foundation. So many issues of violence and the rejection of traditional values find their origin in rejecting the truth of God's Word.

If you don't believe that the Bible is true and that mankind was specifically and deliberately created by God - why would you believe that any human life is sacred? If you reject the Bible as simply fiction - why would you believe there are designed differences between male and female...? Why would you believe there are any moral constraints on human sexuality or gender identity?

Of course you could look to science - which gives us information about the incredible complexity of the human body and the world - but you still have to interpret that information. - Which is why there has become this modern divide between science and religion. Science - the discovery of God's creation - traditionally has gone hand in hand with faith.

Yes, there have been conflicts such as Galileo and the Roman Church or Darwin's theory of evolution... But to quote a professor of mine from college - Dr. Rich Knopp, "Most of the prominent pioneers of science were either strong Christians, or they believed in a personal God who created our universe. These include Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday, Johannes Kepler and James Clerk Maxwell. And you may be shocked to hear that between 1900 and 2000 over 60% of Nobel Laureates were self confessed believers in God."

The popular picture that Christianity and science are in opposition to one another is historically false. But you wouldn't believe that if you relied on modern 'fact checkers' who claim the Bible is nothing but myth and fairy tales. But many still choose to reject much of scripture based on 'modern understanding'. When we start to pick and choose what parts of the Bible we believe and which ones we reject - the foundation crumbles and we lose our basis for truth. And everyone does as they see fit...

If the only book you had ever read was the Bible - what would you believe about the origin of mankind? What would you believe about the story of Noah's Ark? What would you believe about the birth of Jesus? 'But what the Bible says about those things is impossible!' Do we trust more in the opinions of man than in God's Word...?

I spoke about Noah and the rainbow in the first section of my message last Sunday. But I wanted to look deeper about what the Bible says about the story of Noah and the evil of that time. The entire story can be found in Genesis, chapters 6 through 9. We don't really have the time to read the whole thing together - but I would strongly encourage you to take the time in your own devotional reading to do just that. Read those four chapters - you may find there's a bit more there than you may remember from Sunday School as a kid. So let's look at the account of...

I. The Biblical flood

What you essentially find in the beginning of the story is a dramatically different world than we know now. You had actual giants roaming the earth - maybe 9 to 13 feet tall - and people living hundreds of years, almost to 1000! - So, pretty different. Now Noah's story occurs only 10 generations removed from the Garden of Eden.

And when you actually do the math, based on the details in Genesis chapter 5 - you see each person starting with Adam and how old they were when they had the next generation... And when you add up all of those years for the ten generations - you have 1,056 years pass until the birth of Noah. Then it records that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came for a total of 1,656 for the age of the earth at the time of the flood according to scripture. So the original creation story wasn't that far removed from Noah's time - the earth was still 'brand new' in a sense.

And we're going to pick up the story in Genesis 6:5-8 (NIV)...

The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (6) The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

(7) So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth - men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air - for I am grieved that I have made them." (8) But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

We see frequent news stories of people doing evil now - but back then, according to God - everyone, except Noah, followed the path of evil. And now, only for time's sake, we're going to jump ahead to Genesis 6:17-20 (NIV)...

I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. (18) But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark - you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.

(19) You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. (20) Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.

So the basic story so far - because of the evil of men at that time, God planned to wipe out all mankind but would save a remnant - Noah and his family. And let's skip ahead to Genesis 7:11-13 (NIV)...

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month - on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. (12) And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. (13) On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

Now there are some who propose that this account is not really history, but merely an allegory simply meant to explain a larger truth. I'm not one who believes that. There are many reasons - but I do find it interesting that there's so much detail included here, Noah's age, the 17th day of the 2nd month - all of which wouldn't really matter if this was just some metaphor to teach a larger truth. But let's continue in Genesis 7:18-22 (NIV)...

The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. (19) They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. (20) The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. (21) Every living thing that moved on the earth perished - birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. (22) Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

And again, there is so much more to the story - but for now, let's look at...

A. God's judgment

God created mankind. He gave them 'free will' - and He allowed them to choose right and wrong, good and evil. And according to this account, the vast majority of people, in that short time since the first sin in the Garden - everyone, except Noah, chose to do evil. And because of God's character, His perfect righteousness, His perfect sense of justice and holiness - this filled God's 'heart' with pain. So He decided to do something about it.

And as we read the passage, we saw the phrases, "all the springs of the great deep burst forth", and "the floodgates of the heavens were opened" - and we see this massive deluge, water sweeping everything away. And I couldn't help but make a connection. If we jump back to the first chapter of Genesis we see this from the creation account in Genesis 1:6-10 (NIV)...

And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." (7) So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. (8) God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning - the second day. (9) And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. (10) God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

In the beginning, it appears that everything was originally covered by water and then God intentionally separated the water from the land and dry ground appeared. Basically, this flood was God reversing, doing the exact opposite act in which He created things in the first place. God was washing away all of the corruption from His perfect Creation.

And we know the story, Noah and his family survived in the ark with the animals, and the floodwaters eventually receded and they started over. And then we see...

B. God's promise

We see God's character revealed in His judgment, but we also see His character in His promise to Noah. And this is what I mentioned last week with the rainbow. And since we'll now see a month of rainbows on TV, and in stores, and on social media - remember the original significance...

We tend to think of God as just a God of wrath in the Old Testament - but we also see God's compassion in this story. Throughout the Old Testament, we see God punishing His people because of their disobedience, their 'walking away' from Him - but God doesn't completely reject them. - We also see God saving a remnant, a small group whom God will then bless for their faithfulness. And we find this in Genesis 9:11-13 (NIV)...

"I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." (12) And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: (13) I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

God punished the people back then in a very dramatic fashion with the flood. But then He promised never to do it again in that way. Did mankind change? After the flood, did everyone completely give up their evil ways? Did they all of a sudden not deserve God's divine judgment anymore? No - mankind still continued to sin, and today people still seem to try to think up new ways of sinning, of rejecting God. But God made a covenant, a promise that He would not flood the earth again.

So, what can we take away from this story...?

II. What can we learn?

There are many Christians who see the story of Noah's Ark as just that - a story. They don't really believe in a 'worldwide flood' - 'it couldn't possibly, scientifically have happened the way the Bible describes it - so it must just be a parable to teach a greater truth'. If the facts in the Bible aren't really the facts - who's to say what's true?

I'm one who is just naïve enough to take God at His word. And it's not a blind faith in spite of 'the facts'. If you do some honest digging - if you look at what science actually tells us through geology and earth sciences and other various disciplines - if you interpret the data in light of a Creator and the impact of a worldwide flood - you would see that God's claims in scripture make a bit more sense than some might want us to believe. Scientific 'consensus' will change as the values and opinions of man change. Science and faith haven't always been at odds.

God gave us an accurate account of Creation and of the flood. And we're not supposed to rely on opinions for our Biblical theology and views. We are called...

A. To know the truth

Please don't take this too harshly, but I'm amazed by how many 'Christians' there are who rarely read the Bible. It's God's divine message for mankind! It's the account of God and His people throughout history. It's the story of God bringing His creation back to Himself and the flawed people He used to carry His message. The Bible is what the Creator of the universe wants you to know about Him and your relationship to Him. Why wouldn't you be immensely interested in reading that?

And I'm also amazed at how some people seek to remove the truth of miracles in the Bible or to rationalize them away solely as myth. Some say that if we'd remove those silly stories about a giant floating ark, Moses parting the Red Sea and even the virgin birth - if we left those things behind as we've grown in our understanding of science, then maybe more people would want to become Christians.

But those things happened. God included those accounts for a reason. If you remove the 'supernatural' from the Bible to make it more believable, you remove its power. God performed miraculous things in order to definitively show that He is bigger than the Laws of Physics which He Himself created. God did huge, impossible things to show His power. In the Book of Deuteronomy, we find Moses recounting the miraculous signs God performed before the Nation of Israel, and he says this in Deuteronomy 4:35 (NIV)...

You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.

God did miraculous things to show us that He is who He says He is. He did this so that we would know the truth, but it's also our job...

B. To share the truth

God is a God who makes covenants. God made a covenant with Noah, promising to never again flood the earth and destroy all humanity - whether they completely rejected Him or not. God made a covenant with Abraham to bless him and to make him a 'father of many nations'. And God made another covenant, an offer for us - which we also talked about last week - which is represented through communion.

God is consistent in His promises. And this New Covenant, this new promise was reminiscent of the promise God made to Noah. In Noah's story, God removed evil through a flood - literally washed it all away. In the New Covenant, God promises to wash away our sin through the blood of Jesus. Jesus paid the price for this covenant and we get the free gift of God's grace. And that is a truth that must be shared.

John 14:6 (NIV)

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Noah was allowed to save his family in the face of the reality of the flood. We have the opportunity, the responsibility to help save those we know with the truth of Jesus Christ. And just as sure as the floodwaters came, Jesus is coming back!

So What?

People are looking for answers to evil. They're looking to government and laws for hope and solutions. There's a place for those things - but government will never solve the problem of evil. God is our one true hope. We have a responsibility to lovingly and graciously point people to the truth.

And in order to do that, we have to know the truth. I again want to challenge you to read the story for yourself. Read Genesis chapters 6 through 9. Make sure you understand, as best you can, how this story fits into God's story for bringing His children back to Him. And remember that people need to hear the truth about Jesus.

I would love it if God would just get rid of all the evil we deal with today. But He does have a plan for that - and His ways are higher than my ways, and I won't always understand everything about His ways. But I know His ways are best and my job is to have faith. And we know the story ends with Heaven and no more evil or pain. But in order to get there - we need Jesus!

Make a point this week to have a spiritual conversation with someone who needs to hear the truth.