Genesis 033 – Man’s Problem & God’s Solution, Pt. 1
Genesis 8:15-20 • Dr. Andy Woods • April 25, 2021 • GenesisGenesis 033
Man’s Problem God’s Solution
Part 1
Dr. Andrew Woods
Let’s take our Bibles and open them to the book of Genesis 8:15. We recommend that the nursery be used for children from birth to age three. The nursery is open from 9:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The services are being streamed in the nursery, and if you have some separation anxiety, go down to the left to the fellowship hall, and you can go in with your very young children and watch the service there. We recommend that because we believe that Bible teaching is something that requires focus. And it’s hard to teach in an environment with very young children. So, we recommend you take advantage of this. We also have an outstanding youth program, and I know about what’s being taught in this youth program because my wife is one of the teachers, and she’s preparing lessons on worldview and what’s wrong with abortion and homosexuality. We’re not in the entertaining the kids business, so if you take advantage of our youth program, you will be blessed to the max!
Well, let’s take our Bibles and open them to the book of Genesis 8:15. The title of our message this morning is: Man’s Problem and God’s Solution. As you know, we are in the midst of a series on the book of Genesis 1-11, and we’re going through this verse by verse—it is about four events:
- Creation. What was the world like before sin entered the world? Genesis 1-2.
- The Fall. What went wrong? Genesis 3-5. It’s interesting, even as man falls, there’s a prediction of a coming Messiah into the world to fix what was marred. And that prediction, as we have studied it, is in Genesis 3:15, and the rest of the Bible is an unpacking of that prophecy, because that prophecy points to Jesus Christ.
So, we have Creation, and we have the Fall.
Then the next major event that we are currently studying is:
- The Flood. Genesis 6-9. We have events before the Flood, the Flood itself, and then in Genesis 8, the abating of the waters—the section where we find ourselves this morning.
The waters abate—Genesis 8:1-5,
Noah tests for dry land—Genesis 8:6-14. Last time, we studied how a raven was sent out and did not return per 8:7. Now these are either three different doves or the exact same dove. We’re not sure, but after the first round, the dove returned in 8:8-9. After the second round, the dove returned with an olive leaf in its mouth in 8:10-11, and after the third time the dove did not return in 8:12, indicating that the waters had abated. And it’s now time to exit the ark.
The disembarking of the ark in Genesis 8:15-19 says, 15Then God spoke to Noah, saying, [now this is interesting to me because God hasn’t spoken since Genesis 7:1 where it says, ‘Then the Lord said to Noah,’ and as far as I can tell, God doesn’t speak again. For about 378 days as Noah was in the ark, and finally, when it’s time to disembark, God now speaks again in 8:15. There is a tremendous balancing act going on here, because Noah, without the audible voice of God, had to determine when it was time to leave the ark. That’s why he utilized and employed these animals. The dove and the three dove returns. Actually, after the last one, there was no return. I gave you this quote last time from Arnold Fruchtenbaum where he writes concerning all of this.
“Until now, Noah received direct revelation from God, but now he must use natural means to find out the condition of the earth, since God is not speaking to him at that moment. This shows the balance between learning things by divine revelation and learning things by natural means. Both are seen as valid options everywhere in the Scriptures. Therefore, he first used the raven, and now he uses the dove to find out the actual conditions of the earth.“
I find this interesting because so many times as Christians, we’re afraid to make decisions, unless we have a sign. ‘I want a sign from above. I want to hear an audible voice. I want to see a vision. I want to see a dream. I want to see something in the Bible that relates specifically to the issue I’m facing, whether it be an employment issue, a relational issue, a family issue.’ The fact of the matter is, there are many times where God is not going to give you that direct revelation. In fact, look into the Bible, and it may not cover the specific issue you’re facing, and you think, ‘Oh no, God has forsaken me during this time.’ Noah probably thought that as well, as God did not speak to him for 378 days, but Noah was given something by God called a mind, an intellect. The intellect is a very powerful thing, and God expects us to use that intellect to glorify Him.
So, whether you should take a job, not take a job, move to this city, to that city, go ahead and ask God for a vision or a dream or a sign. Maybe He’ll give it to you. I can’t guarantee that, but He has given you a mind, and He has said, ‘I died for your sins and not your mind.’ Use the God-given intellect that you have as you make decisions in life. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing unspiritual about that. That’s what Noah is exhibiting here.
Noah is an amazing person in the Bible. That’s why he’s in the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11 being a record of those who walked with God in spite of the odds stacked against them. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it’s impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.“ That is a tremendous statement about faith.
Then the next verse (Hebrews 11:7) says, “By faith, Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.“
It’s hard to overstate Noah’s walk with God, as well as the trust that he exhibited through this whole process. After all, he was warning about a coming rain. As we’ve mentioned before, it’s likely that his generation didn’t even know what rain was. Genesis 2:5-6 says, “But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.“
Think about that: warning of a coming deluge while building this massive contraption called an ark, having it in your driveway, I suppose; going against the current and tide of the world. The reason Noah became what he became is because he had total faith in what God told him to do; total faith in what God had disclosed, and this was not a fast-lived process. We know from Genesis 6:3 that Noah was building the ark as the Spirit of God was striving with man in the pre-Flood world, for at least one hundred and twenty years. That’s a long time. As we’ve studied through our Flood chronology, Noah, by the time he disembarked the ark, without God speaking during that time period, had been in the ark for 378 days: that’s over a year. So, it’s no wonder that Noah is held up to us as such an example of the walk of faith.
What does God expect of us as His children while we go through life’s issues, many of which we don’t understand? God just says, ‘I want you to trust Me.’ Because at the end of the day, I’m trustworthy. And My character is perfect.’ And if you have some discouragement as you’re walking through your valley, whatever it may be, in the Scripture, Noah is held out as an example for us.
Go to Genesis 8:16-17, and after God speaks, we see the disembarking process. Notice what God says in 8:16: “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
There was a reason Noah was told to take specific kinds of animals with him into the ark two by two. Male and female. Because it’s only through the male female relationship that God has established that there can be breeding; a repopulation of the earth following the Flood. And when you start to see basic things like this, then you start to understand why homosexuality is a lifestyle which is so averse to what God has disclosed. It’s impossible in a homosexual lifestyle to reproduce or to breed. What then becomes the biblical position on homosexuality? I bring this up because the culture is constantly screaming to us about the normalcy of the same sex relationship. It says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
Notice that as Paul is describing all of these sins, he mentions homosexuals, and he uses this Greek word arsenokoitēs, where we get the word arson, or arsonist. What is arson? What does an arsonist do? Arson is a fire out of control; a fire that’s damaging, and that becomes the biblical position on homosexuality. Homosexuality is passion misdirected, and much like fire which can be used for good, it can turn bad very quickly through either a forest fire or the work of an arsonist.
It’s interesting that the apostle Paul places homosexuality in 1 Corinthians 6:11 in the same category as any other sin. It’s akin to being a fornicator, an idolater, an adulterer, and the effeminate, the thieves, the covetous, the drunkards, the swindlers. The Bible doesn’t hold up homosexuality as if it is somehow the unpardonable sin, but it puts it into the same category as all of those other sins. Paul the Apostle says something very interesting there concerning all of these sins, including homosexuality. In 1 Corinthians 6:11, as he’s speaking to the believing Corinthian audience, he says, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.“ In other words, ‘You once were a thief, but the Holy Spirit has changed your lifestyle. You once were covetous, or a drunkard or a swindler. But the Holy Spirit has changed your lifestyle.’ And in that same discussion he mentions ‘You once were homosexuals, some of you, but the Holy Spirit has changed your lifestyle.’
This actually becomes a big deal in our day because what we are told is that homosexuality is no different than being of a racial minority status—Black, Hispanic, Asian, Caucasian, whatever the case may be, and what is happening in our culture is one’s skin is being confused with one’s sin. This actually becomes a big deal in the advancing of the same sex civil rights agenda. The fact of the matter is that sin and skin are completely different categories according to the Bible. The Bible never says that if you have a particular skin color, then that’s sinful, because that’s immutable, which can’t be changed. There are people that were homosexuals that are no longer homosexuals. It’s hard to find people that were Hispanic and are no longer Hispanic, Asian, no longer Asian.
The Bible is very clear on this subject of homosexuality. It’s a behavior which emanates from the sin nature that can actually be altered under the Spirit’s empowerment and direction. I find that this message is not being communicated well today because the culture is very confused on this subject. You say, ‘Well, Pastor, don’t you have any compassion for people that struggle with same sex attraction?‘ You bet I have compassion for them. Just like I have compassion for people that struggle with being a thief. Or being a drunkard, or being a swindler or being a reviler, I struggle with my own sinful impulses. My particular sins may not relate to homosexuality, but I have the exact same sin nature anybody else has. And I have found that the walk of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to curb my sinful nature of cravings. If that can be done with me in the areas of other sin, it can be done in the area of homosexuality as well.
The fact of the matter is the same sex movement hates the Bible. They don’t want it taught, they don’t want it preached, they don’t want it proclaimed because page after page, as you move into it, even in basic things like the disembarking of the ark and the instructions of humans to breed, and for the animals to breed—all of it contradicts the same sex agenda and holds up what is normal—at least in the realm of humanity, heterosexual monogamy. The Bible is not silent on this issue. Homosexuals have no ability to breed. This is why the agenda of the same sex movement is to recruit. They have to recruit because they can’t populate, they can’t breed.
When I was coming of age, the big movement in the California school system was something called Project Ten; I’m not sure if they have that today; it’s probably the same stuff under a different title, but they came up with this idea of Project Ten under the idea that ten percent of the population is homosexual, particularly the children—they just don’t know it yet. So, they have to have someone to go into the schools to convince them that they’re really homosexual. They call this civil rights advancement and things of that nature Project Ten.
Regarding Project Ten, now where did this ten percent figure come from? It came from the work, when you track it down, of a man named Alfred Kinsey. If you repeat a lie frequently enough, people will eventually believe it. He came up with this figure way back that ten percent of the population is homosexual, and he claimed his own studies gave him that conclusion. Well, start to look into the work of Alfred Kinsey, and he was studying prison inmates. He was going to homosexual bars and things of that nature. In other words, that was his sample set. His sample set was distorted. He concluded, based on his flawed data, that ten percent of the population is homosexual. That starts getting repeated long enough where people start to believe it, which leads to Project Ten, where they go into the school system and they have to convince people that they’re homosexual, that they just don’t know it yet. It then becomes the agenda of the same sex movement to recruit. Why is it that they have to recruit? Because what they’re doing is contrary to nature. They cannot breed, they cannot produce on their own, so they have to recruit.
This is why the Bible, as I said before, is hated by the same sex movement because it contradicts their whole agenda. God is very clear when it comes to this issue of sexuality. Male and female; even in this account of Noah’s Ark, makes this point. By God’s design, it’s male and female that reproduce.
Move down to Genesis 8:18-19 after the instructions are given and start to see the obedience of Noah and his three sons, their wives, and all of the animals that Noah had on the ark. Notice, if you will, 8:18-19: So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark. Now, here’s something very interesting. God is keeping the animals and the human beings on the ark, eight total, separate. He instructs humans in 8:16, then He instructs the animals in 8:17. Notice in terms of leaving the ark, there are humans leaving the ark in 8:18 and the animals leaving the ark in 8:19. Humans and animals, in God, are always separate and distinct. This, of course, goes right back to God’s original design for Creation, where he established man and woman to rule over the animal kingdom. This is the design of God. Genesis 1:26 says, ‘Then God said, “…let them [humanity] rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 8:28, “…subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.“ This is an office that we have talked about called the Office of Theocratic Administrator where man and woman, made in the image of God, rule over the animal kingdom. You see that same hierarchy supported here as humans and animals leave the ark at separate times. There are separate categories.
Psalm 8:6 says of man, “You have made him ruler over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,…” This is the whole significance of God allowing Adam to name the animals. When God allowed Adam to name the animals, He was giving Adam authority over the animals because in the Bible, you have authority over whatever you name. There are countless verses here that support that idea. Genesis 2:19-20 says, “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found for a helper suitable for him.”
What do all of these verses establish? They established that humanity, man and woman, as image bearers of God, are in a completely and totally separate category than the animal kingdom. In fact, they are there to rule over the animal kingdom. Now think how different God’s hierarchy is compared to evolution that we are being taught around the clock—that we went from the goo to you by way of the zoo over billions of years. It blurs the distinction between humanity and animals. In fact, you could go to the Houston Zoo and maybe see some of your relatives in the cage there as you look at the orangutans. After all, human beings are just evolved animals; a naked ape, so to speak.
And as that happens, we wonder why all these kids are acting like animals, and why all these riots are breaking out all over the country where people actually act like animals, and we wonder why? Well, that’s what we taught them. We’re not teaching them the Bible. We’re not teaching them the Word of God. We’re not teaching them the dignity that every human being has as an image bearer. We’re just an evolved animal.
You know, Jesus, in the New Testament, spoke constantly about the distinction between humans and animals. He said in Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” He’s arguing here from the lesser to the greater. You’re worried about money? Are you worried about finances? Look at the birds. Doesn’t God take care of them? And they don’t bear God’s image like you do. So, if God is going to take care of them, wouldn’t He also take care of you? Oh ye of little faith.
So, Jesus is going back to the original design of God. In Matthew 12:11-12, it says, And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?” Here, Jesus is being criticized for healing a man on the Sabbath, and He turns around and says, ‘Well, you guys, [the Pharisees, in other words] …You lift your own sheep out of a ditch on the Sabbath, and here I’ve healed a person, a man,’ and then He makes this statement in Matthew 12:12, “How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Jesus asks, ‘Why would you criticize Me, for healing a man who bears the image of God on the Sabbath, when you take care of your animals on the Sabbath?
So over and over again you see this clear distinction between humanity and the animal world. The fact of the matter is, what is being taught today in many places is that humans are the problem. Humans are the scourge. Humans are the curse, and we need to get back to nature, as it exists in its peaceful state. And what they’re saying is animal life and environmental life supersedes that of humanity. We’re living in an age where you can take an entire industry of workers and lay them off because of the spotted owl protection or something of that nature.
As we’ve moved away from God, we have developed such a distorted understanding of creation. Yet the God of the Bible is very clear that humanity is in a completely different classification than the animals are. God always, always keeps them distinct. As these things were being mixed together, I believe that’s one of the reasons that God brought judgment to the pre-Flood world. There were all kinds of distinctions that God had made that were being obliterated. One of those is the distinction between angels and people because Jude 1:6-7, speaks of how angels in the pre-Flood world were leaving their natural abode and cohabitating with human women.
And so, what you have is things that God says are separate. God says they’re distinct. God says they’re unique. You start seeing them obliterated, and God brought judgment. I frequently wonder as I look at the direction of our world and of society and how animal life or rights tragically, are elevated over human life and rights, how close we are to seeing the judgment of God since God wants certain things separate and distinct.
As we get out of Genesis 8:19, we come to an end of probably one of the greatest events that you could ever study in the Bible. The global Flood. As we’ve gone through this material, I’ve tried to give you different arguments as to why the Flood was not [merely] local or regional. It wasn’t even just universal, it was global. It covered the entire face of the Earth. The Bible, over and over again, speaks to this issue. There are many arguments that can be used to support the idea that the Flood was, in fact, global. One of the arguments that we haven’t mentioned yet is the fact that the Flood is analogized over and over again to the second advent of Jesus. You see this in Matthew 24:37-39; it becomes very clear in 2 Peter 3:5-7, and I’m here to tell you something about the Second Coming of Jesus. I’m not speaking of the rapture. I’m speaking of the Second Coming at the end of the seven-year tribulation period, when He comes back and will establish His kingdom upon the earth with violent judgment. When that event happens, Revelation 1:7 says that every eye will see it. It is not going to be some sort of secret event. It’s not going to be a local event. In fact, it’s going to be a global event.
Years ago, as I was trying to study the kingdom of the cults, one of them teaches that Jesus already came back, and He’s hiding in an apartment in New York City. When Jesus comes back, He’s not hiding from anybody. This is the error of Islam. Islam teaches that Jesus is sort of an underling of Allah when He comes back. So, you can ask a Muslim, ‘Do you believe in Jesus? Oh yeah, we believe in Jesus.’ But it’s not the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus is not coming back as an underling of anybody. He’s coming back with violent global judgment such that every eye will see it. And if that event is global and it is analogized to the Flood, then by definition, the Flood was global as well.
Do you believe in global warming? I do. True global warming is coming to planet Earth because 2 Peter 3:10 (NASB) says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” ‘Well, gee, Pastor, where are we going to put the Big Bang theory?’ I put it not at the beginning. I put it at the end. You’re going to get your big bang, all right. The poor evolutionists got the whole thing backwards. He’s got his big bang at the beginning, and everything is sort of cooling off. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches the ‘Big Bang’ is coming at the end, and it’s going to be, per 2 Peter 3, global.
And the Flood itself is analogized to this. Just as this event is going to be global, so was the Flood. I want you to understand that this idea that the Flood is something that was local—nobody, as far as I can tell in church history, ever taught that until post-Darwin. When Darwin published his Origin of the Species in 1857-1859 (right in that time period), the Christian church went into fear because Darwin and Darwinism started to explain the fossil record in terms of things that went on for billions and billions of years. They no longer interpreted the fossil record as animals being caught in a violent judgment when the flood waters hit. So, they said that what happened was, ‘Well, we need to shrink the flood because we need to keep up with science and their interpretation of gradualism. But we still believe the Bible.‘ They were seeking to sort of syncretize the Bible and its understanding of the Flood with what Darwin and gradualism was teaching. Prior to that, nobody in church history believed that the Flood was local. Everyone believed it was global.
Here’s a chart I found of one of my favorite writers, Jonathan Sarfati, (see slide on Believer or Unbeliever) Refuting Compromise. He just shows all of the early church fathers, whether it’s Philo, Josephus, Justin Martyr, Theophilus, Tertullian, Gregory, John Chrysostom, Augustine, the allegorizer. Even Augustine taught that the Flood was not local, but global.
And even John Calvin in the 16th century got this one right. He writes in one of his commentaries on Genesis, [Calvin is an interesting guy; he comments on almost every verse of the Bible except for the book of Revelation. He didn’t want to touch that one. But in his Genesis commentary, it says, “And the flood was forty days,” etc. Moses conspicuously insists on this fact, in order to show that the whole world was immersed in the waters.” If you buy into a local flood understanding, then you have to rewrite the Bible, and you’re doing it because you’re being put under pressure to make the Bible somehow fit with gradualism of Darwinism.
I don’t know if you’ve ever stopped and thought about this, but the fact of the matter is, the world that we are living in right now has been altered—not once, not twice, but three times. By the time we get to Genesis 8 and the Flood waters have subsided and Noah disembarks from the ark, the world has already been dramatically changed by two events. (See slide on Uniformitarianism Is Not Biblicism) The first is the Fall and the second is the Flood. And so, the world that is coming now is twice removed from the original design of God. Two things of a catastrophic nature have happened that impacted everything, the Bible says, to change the world that Noah and his family are now entering. Those past events are the Fall of man, which didn’t just damage man’s relationship to God. It cursed the ground itself with thorns and thistles; making a living became difficult per Genesis 3:17-19.
And then that world, as dramatically changed as it was, was altered a second time through the Flood. And guess what, folks? As Noah and his family now enter the post-Flood world, the very world that he is living in is about to be changed again. It’s called the dispersion at the Tower of Babel because at one time the Bible says there was only one language, and then the language itself was confounded, creating multiple languages. In Genesis 11, as we’ll study, they had their first United Nations meeting. It’s called the Tower of Babel. They thought world government was swell. That’s why God confounded the language so the people couldn’t cooperate with each other.
The truth of the matter is, if you want to make any sense of the world that we’re living in today because we’re living in the post-Fall, post-Flood, post-Tower of Babel world, to make any sense of that world, you have to factor in the biblical record, which says that this world has been altered three times already, which ruins a lot of Christian songs, by the way, like this song I like—it pains me to even bring it up, but the song This is My Father’s World. Are you sure about that? I mean, this world with its short life spans and death and destruction. Are you going to call that the Father’s world? I mean, I know what they’re trying to say in the song—it’s God’s creation, but it’s not the Father’s world. And when you evangelize the lost, you need to tell them that because the lost people don’t understand this; they think this is the Father’s world. Consequently, they are angry at God because they don’t understand how a God of love can exist when there are so many problems in our world and in their own lives. Death and drive-by shootings and the breakup of the family, and all of the things that go wrong—they want to blame on God. But the fact of the matter is, you have to look at the totality of the Bible.
The world that we’re living in is not what God designed it to be. It’s man’s rebellion against God that caused these catastrophic changes. Fortunately, as you progress through this chart, there’s coming a time in history where God is going to take our earth and recreate it, for all of the problems in the world will be taken out of it. And Jesus entered into history and paid a horrific consequence to set in motion that chain of events that will lead to a corrected world.
That’s what you tell people when they are mad at God because of circumstances in their own lives. Just tell them, ‘Look, as much as I sympathize with your problems, God didn’t create your problems. You’re living in a world that’s been completely and totally, radically altered three times, and Jesus suffered in our place to get everything moving back in the right direction.’ That’s what you tell them. You don’t need to be caught flat-footed when they bring up this issue of the problem of evil.
So, we have all of these so-called scientists who are trying to tell us how old the Earth is because they’re assuming that the processes that are happening today have always existed. That’s a belief called uniformitarianism. That’s how they come up with the old age of the Earth. And that’s where they’re saying rocks and fossils and things of this nature are so old—when they when they weren’t there, these scientists. Carl Sagan wasn’t there. (See slide on Uniformitarianism Is Not Biblicism) The only Person who was there was God, and God tells you that the world that you’re living in has been dramatically altered three times. If you don’t look at fossils and rocks through that grid, which the scientists don’t because they think that’s religion, then in reality, they’ve made uniformitarianism their religion since they’re pretending that a process that they can see in front of them has always been. That turns them into gods themselves because they’re moving into the realm of omniscience—they weren’t even there, they weren’t eyewitnesses. They’re making all of these assumptions, and they’re assuming that they can tell you with great certainty, and they come out with their white lab coats on and PhDs after their names, and we’re all very impressed by that. If they’re in a white lab coat, they must be objective, right? They must be really smart when the fact of the matter is they don’t have the foggiest idea about things because they don’t approach it from the perspective of God’s Word first, which teaches that this world that we’re living in has been fundamentally transformed three times already. In fact, if you went up to your average scientist who comes from secularism and you told them that, they would have no idea what you’re talking about, and they would tell you to keep your religion private while they teach their religion around the clock.
And so, we end here—one of the most significant events that has ever happened in biblical history: the global deluge.
And now we move into Genesis 8:20-9:29, post-Flood events. There’s an easy way to remember Genesis chapters 6,7,8, and 9. Genesis 6 is events before the Flood. Genesis 7 is the Flood itself. Genesis 8 is the abating of the waters, and Genesis 9 is the events following the Flood. Now I fib there a little bit because Genesis 8:20-22 is actually events following the Flood. So, they don’t start exactly in Genesis 9; they start 3 or 4 verses before. But if I told you that, it would mess up my nice chart.
There are two major things that happened in the post-Flood world before the Tower of Babel incident took place. Number one, you have something coming into existence called the Noahic covenant, God’s covenant with Noah, which is a big, big, big deal. In fact, most of the disputes, I would say in the realm of politics and political philosophy, relate to the fact that some people believe in the Noahic covenant, and some people don’t. What you see developing in the Noahic Covenant is government itself. ‘Oh, I wish you Christians would get out of government and quit commenting on government.‘ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Are you kidding? God made government. We’re the only people that have any understanding of how government is supposed to work properly.’ That comes into existence through the Noahic covenant, and that will take us from Genesis 8:20-9:17.
Then what will happen in the rest of Genesis 9 is post-Flood sin, which has to be handled with tremendous delicacy and care because racists, sadly, have used that Bible passage to promote racism. The truth of the matter is the Bible knows nothing of racism. It teaches that all people, regardless of skin color, bear God’s image.
In fact, if you want to get into racism, rather than going after the Bible and distorted readings of it, you ought to go after Charles Darwin because the full title of Darwin’s book, Origin of the Species, and most people don’t know this, because when the book is put up today, the subtitle is cut out. The subtitle of the book, Origin of the Species is The Preservation of the Favored Races. Favored Races is the subtitle of the book. Does that not sound mildly racist? Darwin used evolution to say that one race is more evolved than another. In fact, Adolf Hitler used that very argument that the Aryan race is higher evolved than the Hebrew race, and that furnished a philosophical justification for racism against the Jews in World War II.
The same argument that is being waged against countless races, and the whole thing disappears and dissolves if one race cannot be more evolved than another because there’s no such thing as evolution. See, they’re canceling everybody on the subject of racism, and I am sitting with bated breath waiting for someone to cancel Charles Darwin, one of the greatest racists that ever lived. ‘Well, we can’t do that because that’s our underpinning for secularism.‘ So the truth about Charles Darwin is hidden in this current cancel culture in which we are living.
So now we move into the first major event, which is the Noahic Covenant. The Noahic Covenant involves:
- Promises, Genesis 8:20-22.
- Provision, Genesis 9:1-7 [where government comes into existence]
- The Covenant Sign Genesis 9:8-17, the rainbow. Every time God gives a covenant, He gives a sign associated with it — with every single covenant, and you see the rainbow coming into existence in Genesis 9:8-17.
Let’s see if we can get into some of these promises as time permits. Notice what Noah does immediately after the Flood. It says, Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Noah’s first reaction upon disembarking the ark, after all God had done is to worship the Lord. Why does he do that? He does that because that’s what worship is. What is worship? Is worship a feeling? Is worship a liver quiver? So many people today, so many churches, they’re fighting amongst themselves over worship. We call these the worship wars. Hardly any of them can tell you what worship is, but the Bible tells you what worship is. Worship is simply this: a response to truth. That’s what worship is. Truth has impacted your mind, and you can’t help but get into the presence of God, and you want to praise Him for the truth that you’ve just received.
Well, what music style should he have used? That’s not the issue. Should it be acapella? Should it be contemporary? Should we kind of raise our hands and sway back and forth? See, that is now the issue in Christianity, and the Bible says that’s never the issue. The issue is the heart. The heart of a worshiper is one that responds to truth. Noah has [think about what he’s gone through and all of the things that have happened and how God made good on every single promise]. The impact of truth on Noah would be staggering, and his very first order of business upon leaving the ark is not to set up his business, not to decide where he’s going to live, what neighborhood he is going to live in, not to check the weather. His first order of business is to worship the Lord. I would just say, and only you can answer for yourself— is that your priority in life? Or is the worship of the Lord kind of down the list in terms of priority? The first thing Noah wanted to do was to worship the Lord.
In Romans 12:1, Paul says, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, [truth, in other words], to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
What should a New Testament Christian do when they understand what they have in Jesus Christ? What should they do when they’ve been impacted by the truth of God’s Word? They should just say, ’Lord, just do what you want with my life as an act of worship,’ because that’s logical; that’s reasonable. Worship then becomes a response to truth.
Noah here sets up an altar, and then he gets into these sacrifices. Notice again Genesis 8:20, Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings unto the Lord. Now why would he do that? He did that because it had already been demonstrated all the way back in the Garden of Eden how God would forgive sin. God would not forgive sin through religion, through the loin coverings of Adam and Eve. The only way God would forgive sin is if He killed an innocent animal in the place of the guilty, and you can see that in Genesis 3:21. Religion in Genesis 3:7. Sacrifice in Genesis 3:21, where Adam and Eve received from the Lord garments of skin. Where did these garments of skin come from? Obviously, an innocent animal was killed right there on the spot, and God took the garments of skin and clothed Adam and Eve. ‘Well, the poor animal. What did the animal do that was wrong?’ Nothing. That’s the point. The animal was completely and totally innocent. God, right there at the very beginning is establishing that ‘The way you will come into My presence will not be through your own loin coverings and your own works of religiosity, but I will clothe you. And I will do it through the shed blood of an innocent animal.’ This is why when you get to Genesis 4:3-5, that Abel’s sacrifice is accepted, and Cain’s is rejected. In Genesis 4:3-5, it says, So, it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground. ‘Well, there’s the problem. You didn’t come to Me through blood sacrifice.’ In Genesis 4:4, Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. [In other words, he came through blood sacrifice; his brother didn’t. I would think that Cain worked really hard on his offering. But it wasn’t accepted] And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. [Why does the Bible say that? Because back in Genesis 3:21, in Eden, God already established for Adam and Eve how as sinners they would now relate to Him. Abel respected what God said via blood sacrifice. Cain did not]. So, Cain became angry, and his countenance fell.
Sounds like a religious person, doesn’t it? Abel came God’s way. Cain was apparently spending too much time listening to Frank Sinatra music, ‘I did it my way.‘ Do you understand how Frank Sinatra-ish our world is when it comes to spirituality? How people are spiritual, but they want to do it their own way. When the Bible, at the very beginning, says you can’t do it your own way, you have to do it God’s way. Blood sacrifice in your place or you do not come. That’s why Noah is offering these sacrifices in Genesis 3:20.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this information about blood sacrifice was passed from Adam right on down the line through oral tradition or written tradition for that matter. Noah had a full understanding and a full knowledge of this.
Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.“ Next week is Communion Sunday. We will celebrate communion together, and we will read that Scripture as I do every communion Sunday because the cup is the sign of our covenant. Noah’s covenant was the rainbow; ours is the bread and the cup—the New Covenant that we participate in that symbolizes the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It’s a reminder that we are coming to God, by God’s way and not by our own way. We are not inventing our own spirituality here at Sugar Land Bible Church. We are following in the pattern of Abel. We are following in the pattern of Noah. We’re actually even following in the pattern of a repentant Adam and Eve.
You’ll notice that the animals that he used in these sacrifices were clean animals. I would assume that the animal skins that were created for Adam and Eve after their fall in Genesis 3 were clean as well because that animal was an innocent scapegoat. God punishes the guilt of the sinner on an innocent scapegoat, and then He uses that transaction to clothe Adam and Eve, and that’s how they were made right before God. These are clean animals. The sacrifice must be clean. The sacrifice must be unblemished. That’s the whole imagery of the Passover Lamb; Exodus 12:5, Passover. God specifically said to the children of Israel, “Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.“
God’s instructions were very clear. Don’t bring to me a blemished animal. Don’t bring to me a sick animal, a crippled animal, a diseased animal, a spotted animal. Make sure it’s unblemished. And that becomes the outrage in the book of Malachi, the very last book of the Old Testament, where they were bringing into the house of God all of these animals that were blemished or crippled, or lame or blind, and God says, ‘Why don’t you just take all that stuff and give it to your governor? You wouldn’t even treat your governor,’ God says, in the book of Malachi, ‘the way you’re treating Me right now.’
And it’s interesting who all of this points to, right? Jesus Christ. In John 1:29, John the Baptist said, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, ’Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.“ Jesus had to have been unblemished; without sin, or He couldn’t have qualified to be the Savior because the only sacrifice God accepts is the perfect sacrifice.
We’re living in an age today where people like Brian McLaren of the Emergent Church saying things like, ’Well, the virgin birth is whatever you believe on that, it doesn’t really matter if you scientifically believe in the virgin birth of Christ. What you really have to unearth is the meaning behind the virgin birth of Christ. Because don’t you know that the meaning of it is how women have been exploited by men. That’s the meaning.‘ That’s quite a creative reading. F in theology; A+ for creativity.
Listen to me very carefully. Start tampering with the virgin birth as many are doing, and suddenly, Jesus and His birth was natural, not supernatural. If Jesus had had a natural birth, if Joseph had been not just his legal father, but his biological father, then what would have been transferred to Christ at the point of conception? The sin nature: Romans 5:12 — (“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”). Well, is that really that big a deal? If that is not a big deal, I don’t know what is because Jesus wouldn’t be perfect.
I remember the very blasphemous movie that came out a few decades ago called The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ or the Temptation of Jesus Christ, or something like that. William Dafoe was in it playing Jesus, and it shows him having lustful thoughts towards Mary and Mary Magdalene and things like this. And they’re putting this on the movie screen, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is just unbelievable what they’re doing with Jesus.’ Jesus did not have lustful thoughts towards anyone because He said, ’If you commit lust, it’s the same as committing adultery.‘ Jesus had no lustful thoughts. He was not adulterous because He was not tainted by the sin nature that we have. And you ought to thank God for that, because if He had had lustful thoughts because of a sin nature, He couldn’t qualify as the perfect sacrifice. It would have violated all of the imagery going back to the Garden of Eden. That’s why there’s an emphasis here on the the clean animals being sacrificed. Not just any animal will do: the clean ones. Worship is something that has to happen, and it has to proceed according to the order and the hierarchy of God because all of this points to Jesus Christ.
If you damage this typology and the person of Jesus Christ, then you don’t have a Savior anymore, and we’re still dead in our trespasses and sins!
Speaking of dead, I’m dead out of time, which really bums me out again, because the title of my sermon comes from Genesis 8:21, which we’re not even going to get to. So, we’ll just do the same sermon title next week and make it Part Two. Is that okay with you guys?
Preludes into the gospel with this kind of material are pretty easy, aren’t they? Jesus died a horrific death, and His final words on the cross were, ”It is finished.” And He rose from the dead to prove who He was. He asks us, in fact, He commands us to repent, meaning to change our mind about that reality. Don’t trust in your own loin coverings for salvation. Trust exclusively in the transaction of Jesus Christ. The moment you do that, you’re made as clean and as perfect as Jesus Himself because He just took His righteousness and transferred it to you at the point of faith. He only asks you to do one thing: to receive this, which is to believe, a synonym for trust, rely upon, depend upon. It’s not enough to simply know facts about Jesus. Those facts have to move into actual reliance and trust, and the moment that happens, [this is not a process; it’s a moment of time]—then you’re justified before a holy God.
That’s the gospel. It’s good news because He did all of it, and we contribute nothing except that we receive it as a gift. So, anyone within the sound of my voice, if you’ve never done that, I just ask as the Spirit is convicting you, do it now. Even people listening online or long after the fact, maybe even after the Rapture. Maybe these recordings will be made available, I don’t know. They can receive Christ in the tribulation because the gospel is true yesterday, today and forever as it’s something that God has given to the human race as a gift.
If it’s something that you’re struggling with and you need more information, I’m available after the service to talk. Shall we pray?
Father, we are grateful for Your truth. We’re grateful for Your word. We’re grateful for the life of Noah and how you used Noah, and how he is an encouragement to us living in our time period. Help us to walk these things out this week. We’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. AMEN!
