Faithfulness and Righteousness: Lessons from Noah's Ark

"Man was created in the image of God what I want to clarify God wasn't making other gods does this make sense he's not making a duplication of like another God he's making in something like him he was a foundation of it but it's something like him that had the personality that had the heart that had all of these aspects even the physicality of a human see it's all of the likeness of him and so what I want us to remember is that aspect in the likeness of God can we pin that yes cool we're gonna talk about a guy named Usher and no not the dancing Usher okay not the performer um we this guy named James Usher and he wrote a book and I have to be careful on how to pronounce his name the anals of the earth okay aals of the earth okay and he went through biblically this is a real book um he went through um by the way this is in 1650 is when he wrote this book and he went through the Bible and he followed the dates of scripture all the way back to when things had taken place so this is straight out of scripture this is not from the science of it this is not out of any other dating technology it is strictly what scripture says okay so this is where I'm going to base off where we're going so he actually calculat ated through all the genealogies and how old people were that the beginning in the beginning was actually in around 4,000 BC he actually says it's 404 BC there's a lot of things that point to it being 4,000 like it's just a few years off but this changes the concept of time because so many things that we have been taught is the Earth has been around for millions and billions and billions of years but according to scripture mind you remember I'm not a scientist I'm not trying to destroy education I'm just pointing out what scripture has said and so dating back 4,000 now a few a few years later uh we get to 2348 BC this is before Christ um 2348 this is when the flood actually takes place going from Adam all the way through Adam and Eve's kids and their kids and their kids all the way to Noah when Noah is 600 years old I want clarify that's not talking about that's different kind of years they viewed it differently no he was 600 years old like straight solar calendar 12mon year 600 years old when it happened and so this was fairly close and if we think about it we're actually as far as the flood was to Jesus we're almost that close and that boggles my mind and can I can I like just so a random like Rabbit Trail real quick Abraham was born in 1996 BC that means we're further from Jesus than Abraham was anybody else think that's kind of crazy to think about yeah okay um that's just something I found in this research but going off of this um this is where I want to jump into this is about the time and the era of when God then goes up to Noah and talks about this whole flood thing um one more thing I want to mention before we go there is the flood is not a myth it is not something that like a parable it's not something that oh it could have happened no it happened in every major religion there is actually the story of the flood and different perspectives but there was Generations passed down the story of a great flood that covered all of the earth and so we see so much evidence that points back to Noah and so this is where we're going to go this true um experience that took place so Genesis 6 veres 1-13 it says this when human beings began to increase in number on the earth and the daughters were born to them the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful and they married any of them they chose then the Lord said my spirit will not contend with humans forever ever for they are mortal their days will be 100 120 years so I want to point out something if you think what are the sons of God like the followers of god like people who love God no those are angels that that's talking about angels and that's not talking about um the angel of the Lord that's different but this Angel these angels literally were like you know what they're pretty cute you know what let's marry them literally they started to marry the humans and the process um leads into verse four the Nephilim the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them they were the heroes of old men of renown see what we know from scripture these Nephilim these children they were like giants 12 15t tall and when it talks about heroes of old there is this concept that this is where you could get like Hercules and Thor and uh different um mythologies that have these these people with great power they were there's this idea that they were half angel half human and so what it's talking about they were on the earth in those days and after it's talking about and after the flood and so we actually see the nephlim they were not only The Offspring of angels and human women they were the heroes of old but in numbers 13:33 they're mentioned once more and this is when um the Israelites were sent out to find go into the promised land as spies and came back and they recorded there was these giant Guys these Nephilim the sons of a KN they were huge we were like grasshoppers to them that's when they're mentioned and then nothing else like they're just not talked about and as I was researching about the nephlim I was trying to really understand because there's not a lot lot of information about it I started to ask this question what who are they really and one of the studies that I researched um that I read through uh it was from Bible reference.com and I love it because it is we'll get there in a sec it says this despite the considerable controversy over the Nephilim it's important to remember how little the Bible actually says about them God's word is written for a purpose and clearly that purpose does not include relaying details about the meim whoever or whatever they were scripture clearly considers other topics much more worthy of our concern what a burn on the Nephilim you are not that important Bible doesn't really care about you so there's other things we got to talk about there's talking donkeys y'all like talking donkeys is more important than these like half angel humans but I just found that such a fun like burn on them um like oh okay uh I thought that was funny so um it says in verse 5 um the Lord saw how great the wickedness say wickedness wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only Evil all the time the Lord regretted that he made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled I don't know about you but for God to say that that he regretted somebody messed up and it wasn't him it wasn't God that makes the mistake it was the people that literally were living out complete and utter wickedness and I looked up the word regret and what it really means is Regret there's this complete and other like sorrow that God had because his creation was not being what he created them to be they were doing the opposite and it says uh verse 7 so the Lord said I will wipe from the face of the Earth the human race I have created and with them the animals the birds and the creatures that move along the ground for I regret that I have made them God is not happy he's not this is not a good moment in time and we love to think about God loves he forgives he's amazing yes but he also has a righteous anger and a passion against wickedness and it says oh I love this word I love this word verse eight but and the reason why I love this word is because well if you're ever in a conversation with somebody and they're like man your outfit looks great but the problem with this word is it negates everything that took place before that means whatever is about to be said is more important than the original statement and if you're catching on he just said he's gonna wipe the human race from the face of the Earth but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord that just negated the destruction but Noah and I just think it's so cool that God uses a little bit of language just that little tiny bit shifts where the human race is going to go verse n this is the account of Noah and his family Noah was a righteous man say righteous man right blameless among the people of his time he walked Faithfully with God Noah had three sons Shem ham and jath now the Earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence God saw how corrupt the Earth had become for all the people on Earth had corrupted their ways he just said corrupt three times have we understood that there is evil in the world sorry that the world is evil yes can we agree on that at this point God has made it abundantly clear of the violence the wickedness the corruption the just how horrible the world is but Noah was righteous and found favor in the Lord so God said to Noah I am going to put an end to all people here he goes again I'm going to destroy everything and the Earth is filled with violence uh for the Earth is filled with violence because of them I am surely going to destroy both them and the Earth we understand God's not happy God is upset by how people are living their lives and after this moment he then gives Noah the instructions about the ark and we're not going to get into all the details because there's a lot of like thoughts about what it could be or how and whatever but that's not the purpose of today but he goes into this and he tells them all the details and he says you need to build this boat this Arc and um with all the specific measurements and cubits um and if you're curious about what a cubit is you're like that's not a foot or a yard so a cubit is literally from the elbow to the tip of your fingers and it averaged about 18 inches but it could have been a lot more than that because he could have been a lot taller who who knows he could have been like a N9 foot dude I don't I don't know so but so there's this idea he he then got all the instructions God gave him the command you need to build this and then God we don't we don't read anything else between that moment of God talking and so I then asked the question how long did it take take cuz that's a big boat it's a lot of animals and that's one dude actually if he includes his three sons that's four and nowhere does it say that he did or didn't get outside help he might have hired other people he might have had animals helping him he could have had dinosaurs helping him I have no idea nowhere does it say in scripture how he built it just that he did it make sense so like I said we're going off of the scripture and so I read multiple things I were like you know what 20 years that God talked about yeah 120 years other people oh it was 100 years or 50 to 70 years and all of it there's so many numbers and nobody had proof or like evidence of how they even got there until I came up across a Jewish writing okay there's this book called The Book of jasher it is historical writings in um the Hebrew people and um it says this in chapter 6:34 in his 595th year 59 95 years old Noah commenced to make the ark and he made the Ark in 5 years as the Lord had commanded now this is not in our Bible this is not in our scripture so take that for what you will this is a historical writing that is known to have um to be accurate on how historical things are and so going off of this he was 595 it took him five years to build the ark okay and then in Genesis 7: six it says Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters came on the earth so basically what happened if you want to get the summary he built the ark took him five years and then God literally in in chapter seven he goes hey Noah get in now in seven days everything's going to flood mind you you probably had never experienced what that flood even looked like who knows that they even had Seasons their earth the earth was in a whole different form than it was now and so there's this moment God says get in to get in with the animals flood water comes so we're getting this right there is five years between the command to build and the command to get in five years God doesn't talk to him or at least we don't see a record of God talking to Moses at all within those 5 years so God showed up to him hey by the way you have favor and you need to build this thing I'm out and then he just went okay I'll do it and so imagine he's got a hammer he's got a nail this is a screw but don't worry about it um he's got a hammer and a nail and he's building this giant boat he doesn't know what a boat is who knows if they were actually traveling the world in the oceans who knows if they even had the separations like they could have not it could have been a whole one land mass it could have there's so many other theological thoughts of what it could be but who knows if they had built a boat that size but he's there God said so he started to act in his faith just banging one after another grab another board put it on another nail grab another board put it on another nail grab another are you getting that he's doing this over and over and moving along as he's building constantly over and over again see the reality is faithfulness is not always exciting it's not can it be in moments yes is it worth it absolutely not saying do not have faithfulness I'm saying God spoke to him didn't show up for five more years he just acted in his faith over and over again I'm GNA hammer in each and every single nail because each and every single nail has a purpose for what God has commanded me to do and in our lives there is the mundane talk to God read our Bible sit with him be in his presence talk to a friend share Jesus with somebody go and just cry like there's all these moments in our faithfulness that they don't always feel like the moment we like complete and utter healing in the moment that you needed it but maybe it's just I need to talk to God for a minute he stayed faithful even when God wasn't present and we actually gain access to God through the holy spirit all the time so he had it worse than we did and so I then asked the question he's acting in his faithfulness he's doing all these things but the question I asked was why was God so angry that he would destroy his creation now it said over and over the wickedness yes the evil the violence After the flood there was wickedness there was evil there was violence so why didn't God do other sorts of destu C he promised that he would never flood the Earth again doesn't mean he wouldn't shake the ground doesn't mean he wouldn't open up a hole which he did in numbers and like swallowed a whole bunch of people like which is insane to think about by the way but um why why it's his creation and what when I was praying through this what I really got down to with his heart is they were created in His image but represented the opposite of who he is consistently over and over again God's goodness is his reflection but they weren't reflecting his goodness it was to the point that all the Earth and he was like you can't live anymore you can't you're going to continue to destroy over and over again my heart is broken by the fact of your evil because you're not being who I have created to I have created you to be in my image and this is where we talk about God's heart God hates God hates so many things and I'm not saying God hates you but there are so many things throughout scripture that we see God's passion against not for not just his love and grace and mercy but Proverbs 6 16-19 it says there are six things that the Lord hates seven that are detestable to him and it says this hotti eyes a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood a heart that devises Wicked schemes Feats that are quick to rush into evil a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community and that's not the only one where God hates Psalms 5: 4-5 for you are not a God who is pleased in wickedness with you evil people are not welcome The Arrogant cannot stand in your presence you hate all who do wrong and if you're thinking that's Old Testament Jesus came there's a different story Revelation 2: 6 but you have this in your favor you hate the practices of the nicians which I also hate this was a group of people that basically celebrated and doing evil heinous acts child sacrifices and murder and constant killings and violence God hates the wickedness and we've all done it we're all we are all guilty of wickedness we have all made a mistake we have all gone against what God has created to do we all have done wrong against his eyes so God why would you flood then I started going to it details and I know it sounds might sound ridiculous but God what is your heart why flood the Earth and destroy all the people couldn't there have been another way He sent Jesus eventually why couldn't he have done something else just wiped them out but this is where it came to me God removed all the evil with the flood wiped it off and who was left anyone have a guess no it's a guy named Noah he wiped all of creation everything gone and all that was left was Noah and why did God have favor on Noah because he was righteous see God wiped the earth clean to have a clean slate so that the only thing that remained was righteousness he had to clean out all of the dirt all of the all the the wickedness all of the evil all of the horrible acts so that all that would remain in his creation is wickedness sorry is righteousness that's what he got rid of righteousness sorry was righteousness so God removed everything that he did he removed everything that did not represent him so that the only thing that did remain is the righteousness that did res represent him and here is where I started to think Lord how does this apply to our lives you wiped the clean clean slate and he took me to Colossians chapter 2 I know we're Jumping All Around scripture today but I feel like this is really important Colossians chapter 2 ver 13-15 it says when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh God Made You Alive with Christ say with Christ Christ he forgave us all our sins having canel the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us he has taken it away nailing it to the cross and having disarmed the powers and authorities he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross see if you haven't paid attention he nailed it to the cross your wickedness your issues your sin the struggles you have fallen into temptation he has nailed it to the Cross when he was up there it wasn't just a body it wasn't just a dude it was the representation and the legitimate aspect of your sin and your wickedness nailed to the cross and this is where Luke 9 comes in 23 through 24 then he said to them all whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me for whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me will save it look you've probably heard this a thousand times this is a very a verse that we talked about a lot but we have to take up our cross we have to every day nail it nail our flesh to the Cross itself we have to because it is time for a clean slate it is time to move on it is time for God to bring something new into your life so that the only thing that will remain is the righteousness of God it is time to Let It Go it is time to let him in and I know many of us you're like hey I go to church I have a relationship with God I know who God is yes amen but is he in every little crevice of your heart have you allowed him fully in or do you still have a closet that you hide things in do you still have an attic that you have stuff in that you're like God you're not allowed up there you can be in my house but you can't go in this room what things do we need to allow God into so that he can get rid of it's a moment for God to move in our hearts come on pastor and so with that um worship team you can come on up and I want to wrap up with the encouragement all of us have wickedness or have had wickedness our flesh itself has problems but you have an opportunity this morning to let God allow only righteousness to remain so I want to pray for you all as we jump into this moment that you have an opportunity with God himself so father I thank you God I thank you that you wiped out all of the evil God so that righteousness would remain and even though Wicked this did take place even though there's still sin in the world even with Noah later on God even though people are still flawed God you seek the righteousness God and it's not our righteousness that you see but it's through your spirit that you make us righteous for we are not perfect in the image of God but you God make us perfect it is through your spirit and so father this is where I boldly ask ask would you flood this room would you flood this space would you get rid of the evil in our hearts and God would righteousness remain God would there be nothing else holding us back from the goodness that you have to live in and through us let us not hold back let us not hide because God even though you do hate the wickedness you do hate the sin but it's not the sinner that you despise so Lord let us as Sinners come before you and be freed Holy Spirit bring a clean slate into this room open the floodgates of heaven so that we may experience what it looks like to be with you fully God I thank you I thank you for this time for these years and God I thank you for this moment let us not forget the moment we're in right now Lord thank you God I declare all these things and ask these things Lord in your name amen" [00:33:18]