Faith in the rescuing God. Genesis chapter eight, verse one is the central verse we'll be concentrating on today. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided. The interesting thing to note there is that God's not only remembering Noah, but also all the wild animals and the domestic animals. A friend of mine who's gone home to the Lord now, Dean Carter, used to claim of himself that he was the president of the Dodo Preservation Society. And it used to be a curious comment to me, but He was indicating that he saw a future for the dodo bird, even though it's extinct at the present time, because the one who renews the whole of the creation has all of these domestic animals and the wild animals in his heart, as well as Noah. The early church believed that God was the God who rescued and one of the earliest letters that Paul wrote, 1 Thessalonians, he was really expressing his joy and gladness that the whole region had become a believers that the story and the news had spread. And he said there that God is the one, through Jesus Christ, who rescues us. He rescues us from the wrath that is coming. And that wrath is coming presently, but it is the wrath from God's love and it actually destroys all evil, so there will be no evil present in the age to come. Leon Morris, one of our leading scholars from Melbourne in Australia, once said that Roth is the active opposition of a holy God to all that is evil. So this is a great thing, a wonderful thing that nothing of evil shall remain and God's making all things new shall be without any presence of evil activity at all. I'd like to just set out a little bit of how this Genesis chapter 8 is the central verse. But God remembered Noah, chapter 8, verse 1. How do I know that's the central verse? Well, I read the commentators and the scholars and they tell me that that's the central verse. And then I listen carefully to them explain to me why. And one of the reasons why is that the structure of the story presents that as the centre verse. And if you can think of a sort of a V on its side like that, with the central verse right in the middle and you begin here and gradually work your way down, that's the central verse and then you work your way back. That's how the storytelling went. I don't know, we didn't have any success on the overhead okay, so my explanation's going to have to do it today. The way in which that works, I'll just give you a portion of Genesis 7, the last bit, and then into 8, and you'll just listen for a few key things like 40 days and things like that. They went into the ark, reading from 15, and into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh, in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female, of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. So we're meant to see in that action that this is God's saving action. He is the one in charge of all that's happening here. The flood continued 40 days on the earth, and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. The waters swelled up so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep, and all flesh died. moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all human beings. Everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air. They were blotted out from the earth, only Noah was left and those that were with him on the ark. And the waters swirled on the earth for 150 days. Central verse. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God made the wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rain from the heavens was restrained and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of 150 days, The waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mount of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month. In the tenth month of the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he'd made and sent out the raven. and it went to and fro until the waters were dried from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set its foot. And it returned to him in the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, And again, he set out the dove from the ark, and the dove came back to him in the evening. And in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So no one knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him anymore. A little further down, we read that they all landed safely. Noel built an altar to the Lord and there he worshipped and so on. One of the ways that the ancient people remembered things was to put them in a sort of a code, a memory code. And you won't be able to see this from there, but I'll kind of point to what's going on. The story's told in a way that it begins, God blesses the creation with the plan of fruitfulness. So you get that story right at the start of Genesis. God blesses the creation. and his plan is to be fruitful and multiply and so on. Later in the story, not in that little excerpt there, but we get Noah's lands and there's a fresh start for the whole of creation, out they come, and it begins once again. So God blesses creation. There's a block there from the beginning right through to the end. We read the reason for this happening was that violence had invaded the creation. So the sort of second point is, here's this faithful creation, the violence enters in. Well, down second to last point is that peace is established, re-established in the creation, and the violence is to be limited. So violence, violence. Violence is now to be limited. Anyone who puts someone to death, the death penalty seemed to be that was what was required because they were created in God's image and they wanted to prevent violence from breaking out across the whole of the earth again. the way that that was to be done. God speaks and he says this is what's going to happen and then the third to last one is God speaks again. So God speaks there, God speaks. We have the floodwaters rise and I've done a mini version of this just to give you the idea. Floodwaters rise for 40 days, the floodwaters recede for 40 days. And then we've got the waters triumph in victory. It takes 150 days for that to happen. And then the waters abate, and they abate for 150 days. So you've got a 40, then you've got a 150, the central verse, and then it goes back the other way. A 150, a 40, God speaks, the violence, the creation is begun afresh. Can you see the pattern? Oh, I'm glad of that. Sometimes it's difficult to explain what's what's taking place now many of Jesus parables are stories that are told in the New Testament you'll find have been arranged in ways that help memory and one of the you know things we learned at school was you know the the um say for example seven times table you got that into you didn't you by learning it by rote and still if you go into the shop with seven articles and they're seven dollars each you know if you don't get that dollar changed you know um that you've been ripped off where so you've had memory implanted in you you've learnt it by rote, it's a pattern, da da da da da da da. So in the same way, the ancients learnt these things, not always just in this way, but this is called a chiasm and apparently this is one of the biggest chiastic patterns in the whole of scripture is this portion of Genesis and the whole thing's written in a pattern which, you know, if you just went as a casual reader, you wouldn't probably pick that up. But certainly they did in ancient times. That's how come they could pass the story on. And I've already mentioned that a similar flood story was held in the neighbouring nations of Mesopotamia. Similar, but not the same. The details are different, but the scholars go and compare them and they say, this is interesting. Right alongside here and here, they were telling the story of a flood and so on. Okay, so my first point is this. God remembers Noah, and to remember is a very important part of our life. As Bev, when she read the reading to us, indicated that to remember a person, I love to, you know, remember a friend and think, oh, haven't got in touch with them for a while. And you remember them and maybe give them a call or, you know, send them a text or something. But it's a lovely thing to know that God remembers what his plan is. He remembers us and he remembers us. Sometimes we, you know, we forget one another and it's very sad to think, you know, that you might be, you know, get old and get sort of placed into a home to see out your last days and nobody remembers you. You know, to be a be a sad thing, wouldn't it? The old Eleanor Rigby, the song, you know, Father Mackenzie wiping his hands as he walks from the grave. No one was saved and so on. All the lonely people. So, you know, there is that aspect, but God remembers us and he remembers each one of us, but he remembers us in such a way because we've been made in his image and likeness. and we've been designed ourselves to remember the Lord. He remembers us and he calls us to remember the Lord. Colin Buchanan's favourite little song, Remember the Lord. It's been sung into the hearts of children and it's something that we try and learn to do early on and then we remember in the face of temptation, remember the Lord. When things are going well and you want to give thanks, remember the Lord. When you're in trouble, remember the Lord. One of the Proverbs 3, Proverbs 3.6 says, remember the Lord in everything you do and he will show you the right way. So this bringing to remembrance the Lord. I know when we go into Carinthia, say, and sing an old hymn, and some of the older folks whose memories are failing them, this singing action has gone deeply into them so much so that they just know the words, they join in immediately and there's a lifting of their spirit because they remember the wonderful things they've learned about the Lord. They remember that he's with them and they remember his promises. That's a beautiful thing. But for God to remember us, it carries two important ideas. Let's see if you can remember the two. Faithful love and timely intervention. So when God remembers us, he remembers his faithful love towards us, but he also remembers his timely intervention for you on your behalf. It was just as true back then in Noah's day as it is now. Noah must have been worrying a little after about 139, 149 days. Is this actually ever going to end? Is that door going to be opened? Is there going to be some land? This flood seems to be going on and on and on. But it's in that context that we find that the waters swelled on the earth for 150 days, but God—oh yeah, Noah's in that ark, isn't he? He remembered Noah and all the wild animals and so on. And then God acts, he makes a wind to blow over the earth and the waters subside. So God goes into action. He remembers his faithful love to Noah and to creation and then he goes into action. That's the same for you. God remembers his faithful love towards you and he goes into action. God is love, 1 John tells us, 1 John 4.8, and he loves the world, John 3.16, God so loves the world, he loves the world, that he sends his only son just in the fullness of time, when the time's fully come. that son kicks into action, he's born at that first Christmas. We love because he first loved us. It's his initiative that's evoked love in us. The faithful love is more than a feeling. It's the compassionate passion of God, jealously protecting his covenant partner. We are called into covenant relationship. We're covenant partners with the Lord, vice regents of the creation. We're to care for his creation. And so we're called into that joint covenant partnership. And it's his jealous love as he is the bridegroom And the church, God's people, are the bride and he yearns jealously over his people. So, you know, his faithful love is that he sticks with us through thick and thin. The timely intervention is that God's saving, rescuing love is a love which does act. This is so in the rescue of Noah and his families. If you just say, well, God loves you, sort of try and get the feeling of that, try and feel his love, it won't really come through. But if God loves you in a way that God then goes into action and you see and feel and know that way in which he does rescue you, then you'll understand it's far more than a feeling. This is the living God who acts on your behalf. God's saving, rescuing love is a love which acts. This is so in the rescue of Noah and his family amidst a chaotic world of evil. And it's supremely so in the sending of God's eternal Son to be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. to deal once and for all with our sins and to rise from the grave, that is God's timely intervention for the human race. And had that not happened, this would be a very different world you would be living in today. Every nation is affected by that love Every nation is meant to be turned from selfishness through the gospel towards one another and outwardly to the other nations of the world. That aspect is taking place within churches and communities and nations. Thank the Lord it is, or you would find this would be a far more violent world than we currently live in. The love of God has come and continues to come into this world to transform the nations of the world, to transform our hearts personally, our community, our lives, our nation and so on. Jesus remembered, so God remembers Noah, I'm just gonna parallel that. Jesus remembered the criminal's prayer. You remember the man who was crucified next to Jesus. And one on one side and one on the other, this man cursing, blaspheming, not at all thinking anything about Jesus, but the other man said, no, We actually deserve to be here, but this man, no, he's not done anything wrong. And he said then, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He confessed that this was the man. And he said, remember me. when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, faithfully, beautifully, memorably, and wonderfully. He didn't put, this is the Australian version. Old mate. No, you may have not done much very well in your life. You're here because you're a criminal, but I've heard your prayer. And today you're going to be with me in paradise. And he is, and he did. The faithful Lord has heard his faithful prayer. Two words, remember me. Down in Tasmania I had, I think it was about nine classes at one stage every week of children's religious instruction. They used to allow it in Tasmania, of all places, for half an hour a week. my congregation allowed me, said, yeah, you can have the time to do that. So I taught three classes in the Ulverston Central School and three in the West School and three in the East Primary School. And I thought, well, I don't have that many at the children's talk, but I've got, you know, 25 or 30 and a teacher, nine times. So I thought, a little congregation of nine threes, kind of 270 or 200-ish anyway, students, and they get to hear this news. Anyway, I told them week in and week out the lovely stories of Christ and God's faithfulness and love. And I said to them, if you don't remember any of the stories very well, or at all, But you can remember two words. Remember to say themself to God. Remember me. It's just if you've got those two and you have them in your heart. This is faith. And we talked about the thief or the criminal on the cross. And so to pray those two words. Remember me. Remember me. That is you calling upon Jesus to say, please, please remember me in my life. Please remember me for eternal life. And God's answer to that prayer in faith is you'll be in paradise with me. Maybe not just today, but soon enough. Jesus remembered the criminal's prayer and this is grace. This is God's grace at work. It is the grace that rescues amidst the flood. God rescues us amidst the flood and the chaos of our lives. He does remember. So then God's grace is to be remembered each time we see the rainbow. We've heard the story this morning of the rainbow. The rainbow sign is actually, and I hadn't ever picked this up, but it's actually the shape of a warrior's bow. And the scholars say that this is the bow that's been hung up because the war is over. God is the warrior, and he has dealt with evil. He's done that, and he's hung up his bow in the rack. And the weapon's been put away. The war is over. He's defeated evil through the flood. And so there's this new beginning. So the rainbow's there as a sign of peace. And so then God comes as the stronger covenant partner. And he says to the human beings who are the weaker covenant partner, he says to them, remember this rainbow because you're probably gonna get nervous next time it rains. Okay? You're thinking, uh-oh, here we go again, okay? But no, you don't need to get nervous next time it rains because God is faithful and he's promised that he's not going to flood the earth, he's not going to destroy it, he's going to fulfil his plan to renew the whole of creation and to rescue rescue his people and to rescue the creation. Paul said the whole of creation's waiting with eager longing for that ultimate rescue. They're all looking ahead. The whole of creation is poised, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, for the unveiling, for the coming age. We are anticipating that. We see the rainbow. We remember that God is victor over evil. He's established the new terms of covenant life from here onwards. And the rainbow is given as a blessed assurance of future grace. God's been gracious here. He's been gracious there. He's been gracious to us. And God will be gracious to you and to the human race through his saving power in Christ. It's the gift to secure our trust. It prevents uncertain nervousness about the creation each time it rains. And I ask this question rhetorically again. Can you trust God's plan for creation? You can. And do you trust God's faithfulness to secure you in his covenant faithfulness? Are you trusting that? is promised to you. He'll hold good. So then, Peter says, entrust yourselves to a faithful creator. If you say that in public conversation today, you are likely to cop mild or strong outrage that God is faithful to the creation. A lot of people think we're just on this spinning kind of spaceship and when it all burns out, it's all over. There's no faithful creator. You know that there is because he's raised the son, Jesus, from the grave. He has pledged him to be the one who comes and in his coming appearing, he'll make all things new. But there's a different story at work in the world. So I say it again, to proclaim God's faithfulness to the creation is a strange story in the face of a different story we are being told day by day from a faithless group. who have no hope that the Creator is even present. It's just an accident. So, you know, like Noah, he must have copped a lot of mocking and copped a lot of Flack, for being one person whose eyes were set, he'd heard the Lord's word to him. He believed that, said, no, I'm gonna keep building this thing and God's faithfulness will show this to be true. Noah's respect for God's warning voice. I'll close with this point, this is my last point. Whenever we try and interpret the Old Testament, you need to go to the New Testament to see how they interpret the stories from the Old Testament. If you go to Hebrews, Jesus and the apostles, that's the only Bible they had, so that's what they preached from. We read, by faith, Hebrews 11, Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith. He wasn't righteous of himself. He just received that gift through faith in Christ, through faith in the living God. And so, interesting part is that it's a warning, very noticeable that this story is used as a warning. Now, before we get too troubled about the warning, remember again, the gospel is covenant faithfulness news for all people. God is the saviour of all people, especially of those who believe. So there's this faithful love God has enacted in Jesus Christ. And whether you're the prodigal son in a far country partying or the angry son who's home, God's love is for you. The father's love for his sons in that illustration Jesus gave is a wonderful love that's designed to redeem us. And both, God's love goes out to the whole world. Even so, Within the gospel that good news. There's always warnings many many warnings within the gospel to heed this and Jesus himself said You know when the Son of Man comes in Matthew chapter 24 verse 37 he's going to come at an unexpected hour and And you need to be ready. You need to be already a person of faith, anticipating God's great future. That is important because he illustrated that saying in Noah's day, they were just eating and drinking and going on with nightlife without any thought. to what this was all about. And so he's saying, no, faith is important. Faith is crucial. And Jesus uses this to say, you need to be ready because he's coming at an unexpected hour. The apostle Paul, all the apostles warned, they said, look, the unrighteous, don't you know that they're not actually going to inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. And then he lists all these that we hear. They're all part of the sinfulness of the human race. Do you not know they won't inherit the kingdom of God? And he's talking to this church who's been changed to believe in Christ, but he says to them, don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, or men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revellers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Saying to the church, you people in Corinth, you're in that category. You used to be there, But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. So be those new people. There it is. Closing with the warning. I know you love a happy note. Everyone laughed their way out last week. This week it's, you know, warning note. Go carefully, but believe the gospel and keep your eyes open. in faith, upward looking to the Lord. Shall we pray? Dear Lord, we thank you for the stories that tell us that you're faithful to the creation. You're the God who rescues. You're the God who saves. You're the God who redeems and makes the human race new. And we pray, Lord, today that we won't take lightly your redeeming grace and power. We won't minimise its capacity to make a new human race. And Lord, we pray that you would continue to cleanse us and keep us true to your word. And as a Christian church, following faithfully both the joyful good news of the gospel But within that, Lord, just recognising that warning factor. Help us then, Lord, to go on with these things and share them with the world as we're able. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen. As we finish our five worship, we're going to sing a song which is new to our church. It's not a new song, but it's new to us. Our group sang it at the beginning of the service. It's quite simple, so we think you should pick it up. In your time, in your plan, in your way, in your name. Let us stand and sing. of the life and living good Christ. One little notice of a news that's happening this week. A lovely news is that Mel and Mark, Mark Sims and Mel Cook are being married this coming Friday. So what wonderful news. And I'd just like to say a little blessing from here for them and their day. Father, as their marriage approaches this day, we pray your gracious blessing upon Mel and Mark and upon their dear family. And as they gather, we pray that, Lord, you'll be present in your love and mercy and kindness to bring forth that fresh blessing. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Everybody go in peace and may the happiness of the Lord stay with you forever. Amen.