The Bible reading for today comes from Genesis chapter 8 verse 20 through chapter 9 verse 29. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens. Upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning. From every beast, I will require it, and from man. From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. and you be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you. As many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I will make between me and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. And God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, the people of the whole earth were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine, became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we do give you thanks for your word, and we pray as we come to it here this morning that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts and our minds and our lives, that we would understand it rightly, that we would apply it humbly, and that we would bring you glory in our lives. So Lord, would you help us to see you more clearly today, that we would love you and trust you and put all of our hope in you. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, friends, let me invite you to please do keep your bulletins or your Bibles open to that reading there from Genesis chapters 8 and 9. For those of you who enjoy Shakespeare, you'll probably have remembered that yesterday was the day on which Shakespeare gave us the famous warning to beware the Ides of March. Julius Caesar famously did not heed the warning and thus was caught unawares when Brutus and the Senate stabbed him to death. Which in the course of history is simply one more example that we live in a very fallen world. A world that is quite rough and tumble. A world in which human beings sadly do take the lives of other human beings, a world in which murder is actually glorified in so many different ways, from movies to video games to what seems like an insatiable lust for war, which sort of makes my sermon title this morning, I think, seem a bit Ridiculous and clearly obvious. Paradise restored, question mark? The answer, of course, being a decisive no. Most definitely not. We do not live in a world that resembles a paradise. And yet as we continue with our study in the book of Genesis this morning, as we come to this particular section of Genesis, chapters 8 and 9, I think if we're going to be able to really feel and understand what's going on here in the moment, then we need to come at it with the question immediately following the flood, is paradise now restored? That's a legitimate question to ask at this stage in Genesis. Is paradise now restored? Because really this is the trajectory that we're on in Genesis. Chapters 1 and 2, God created the world as a paradise for human beings. Chapter 3, human beings sinned against God and thus paradise was lost. And yet right away in Genesis 3.15, God promised a new paradise to come in the form of a savior who would crush the head of the serpent Satan. And thus, when the world had grown overwhelmingly corrupt, as we saw last week, God then flooded the world, but he mercifully saved Noah and his family. And in fact, we even talked last week about how the flood was an act of God uncreating the world in order to recreate the world. And so when you get to this section here in Genesis where we are today, it's an appropriate and pressing question to ask, is paradise now restored? Is the world really and truly transformed? Is this the fulfillment of God's Genesis 3.15 promise? And thus, is Noah the man? Is Noah the great hope and savior of humanity? Is he the one who will finally lead humanity into a time of peace and righteousness and joy? Because that's what we want, isn't it? Don't we want a world of peace and righteousness and joy? Just remember how bad it was back in Genesis 6. It was a world that was so corrupt, it was filled with violence and perversity and abuse of every sort. And so, how will it ever get better? Is Noah the answer? And of course, what we quickly learn on the other side of the flood is that the corruption of the world, it still remains. Just notice the very different way this passage ends from how it begins. It begins with an act of celebratory worship. Noah builds an altar to the Lord, he worships him, and the Lord is pleased. But by the end of chapter 9, Noah is shamefully naked and drunk, passed out on the floor, and declaring curses upon his youngest son. With the final note of the chapter being that of death. And Noah died. He died. Okay, so if you were looking to Noah as the one who might provide something better, as the one who might be humanity's great hope for a world of peace and righteousness and joy and rest. Remember, Noah's name means rest. We want rest. Noah's name means rest. But if you thought Noah was the one who could save the world and give us the eternal rest that we all long for, well, it's clear then that your hopes have been dashed. which is actually, I think, probably the main point that we're supposed to take from this section. It's don't put your hope in any Noahs. There are no Noahs who can transform the corruption of this world into something beautiful and paradise-like. There are no Noahs who can give us the true rest that we all long for. And in fact, we're told the reason why right here in this passage. The reason is because of the human heart. The wickedness of the human heart is the reason that this passage, even though it begins with joyful worship, it ends with shame and death. Remember back in chapter 6, before the flood, the main problem with human beings was the fact that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's Genesis 6-5. So in other words, what led to all the violence and all the evil in the world was a problem with the human heart. And sadly, the same is true after the flood as well. Here in our passage today, at the end of chapter 8, God once again declares, and notice a very similar language to that of chapter 6, that the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. That's the problem. That's where sin comes from. As it's been famously said, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. And so you see, Noah, he can't possibly be the Savior we need. A mere human being with a sinful, evil heart cannot bring the transformation that's needed to this world. He cannot give us a paradise of rest. And friends, again, I think that's why this passage is here. What it's doing, you see, is it's very mercifully showing us that if we put any of our hopes for a new and better world in a human being, or in a human plan of action or in a human solution, then we need to reposition those hopes and instead place them squarely on God. Because what these chapters show us is that God himself is our only hope for paradise. We need God to do this. Our only hope is for God to carry out His plans and His purposes to once and for all create a totally new heavens and a totally new earth. In other words, our only hope for a new Eden-like paradise is the committed, faithful, patient work of God accomplishing His plan of salvation in the God-man, Jesus Christ. Okay, so listen, if you're trusting in some form of Noah this morning, If you're trusting in a human leader or a human plan to transform this world, then this passage is calling on you today to repent and to put your hope and your trust in God alone. And church, that's my prayer for us this morning. Look to God, trust God, because God has made promises and commitments to us that he will not break. In fact, as I look at this passage here today, what I see are four commitments from God that give us hope and which ultimately, as we'll see, lead us to Jesus. And again, that's the point. Our hope isn't in Noah. Noah can't save us. Our hope is only in God and in his faithfulness to keep his commitments. Okay, so let's dig in here. Four commitments from God that give us hope and which ultimately lead us to Jesus. So you and I, we can have hope for a better future, for a world no longer defined by corruption, but instead defined by an everlasting, beautiful paradise because God is committed to having His image-bearers worship Him. God is committed to having His image-bearers worship Him. Again, this section, it opens with worship, which is a wonderful and perfectly appropriate way for Noah to respond to the salvation that God had given him through the flood. And so Noah starts well here when he gets off the ark, verse 20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and he took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird. So there's lots of sacrifice here for worship, and he offered burnt offerings on the altar. Now you've got to remember that God is the one who specifically instructed Noah to bring the additional clean animals onto the ark. He gave those instructions back in chapter 7. So not only was Noah to bring two of every animal, but he was also to bring seven pairs of every clean animal. And it seems that the very reason God instructed Noah to do that was so that Noah could then worship God in this way through an appropriate sacrifice. So even before the flood, God was providing the offering that would be needed for his own worship. And that's a critical theme as you work through the Bible. God provides the own offering that's needed for his worship. And thus again, notice how the Lord received the sacrifice. Verse 21 tells us that it was a pleasing aroma to the Lord. In other words, it was an acceptable sacrifice, and so God was pleased to receive it. Okay, so you have to remember the full picture here now. So God has gone from being grieved in chapter 6, right? Remember he was grieved by the sin of the world, to now being pleased here in chapter 8. And notice that it's specifically because of this worship that's offered him that he makes the determination to never again destroy a corrupt humanity for as long as the earth remains. That's the logic of these verses here. Verse 21. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. So even though the sinful human heart still remains after the flood, nevertheless God has now gone from grieved to pleased because of worship. And the result, therefore, is that God won't bring another flood to destroy all humanity. Why? Because God is committed to His image-bearers worshipping Him. I mean, after all, friends, that's why we were created as human beings to begin with. that God created us in His image to bring Him glory in this world. Do you remember day seven of God's original creating work? That's really what day seven was all about. It was about resting in God and glorying in God and the good God who made the whole world. And so it's very interesting that here now in chapter eight, after God has sort of recreated the world after the flood, we observed some of those recreation details last week. That here now it ends with what is effectively a recreating of day seven. You see that? Where the focus is once again on worshiping God and glorifying God. And doing so here now even despite the fact that the sinful human heart remains. Friends, this is why God created us. This is why He's not done with us yet. It's because he's committed to his creation purpose of having his image bearers worship him. And therefore he persists with a sinful humanity, saving and sanctifying them for his own glory. At John chapter 5, Jesus said that God the Father is seeking worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And so God is after worshipers. He's on the hunt for worshipers. He's seeking worshipers. Not because He needs our worship, but because we need it. We were made to find our joy in worshiping God, and so for our good, God is seeking worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth meaning we no longer need to offer sacrifices like Noah here. Because Jesus in the one sacrifice of himself has brought all of that to an end. And so the only sacrifice we now need to offer is what Romans 12 refers to as the living sacrifice of our very lives being offered to God for His glory. Meaning we live the whole of our lives for the glory of God. The Apostle Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 2. He says, God has saved us and made us his people so that we might declare the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Friends, that's what God is after. And it's why you and I, we have hope for an eternal future paradise. It's because God is committed to accomplishing His plan of bringing about what Revelation 4 and 5 describe, people from all over the world gathered around the throne of God and of the Lamb Jesus, worshipping Him forever. So listen, we know it did when he got off the ark, to begin worshipping God. That was exactly the right thing that he should have done. And so friends, how much more should we worship God with joy and with all that we are for the salvation that he's given us in the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord is seeking worshipers. Second, you and I can have hope for a better future that is for a world no longer defined by corruption, but instead defined by an everlasting, beautiful paradise, not because any human Noah will save us, but because God is committed to the flourishing of human beings. This is what we see in chapter 9, verses 1 to 7, where both verse 1 and verse 7 reiterate God's intention for Noah and for all humanity. Verse 1, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Verse seven, and you, that's a plural you, you all be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. Okay, so we see once again here that God is committed to his creation purposes in the fact that the original creation mandate given to Adam and Eve is reiterated now here to Noah to be fruitful and multiply. Again, that was God's original intent for human beings to flourish in that way. And it's still, despite our sin and rebellion, it's still God's gracious intention for us. And notice as well that God is said to have blessed Noah here. And so the language of blessing has now returned. And just like God blessed Adam and Eve, so now He blesses Noah and his family. Which is a very welcome reprieve after all the language of curse that we've encountered over the last several weeks. And what it shows us is that God is still committed to our flourishing. Don't you find that amazing? That God would still, despite all the sin and corruption, that He would still persist with human beings to bless them and see them flourish. That's our hope. Our hope is that God is so gracious and persistent and patient with us that He's absolutely committed to what He started in Genesis 1 and 2. Now, there are though changes in qualifications to this original mandate that take place now in light of the entrance of sin into the world. And that's reflected in what we see here in verses 2 to 6. One change has to do with how the animals will now respond to human beings. You remember how there was peace between Adam and the animals when he gave them all their names? We were given that sort of picture of all the animals parading in front of Adam and he named all of them. There was a sense of peace and harmony. Well, in a sinful world that's now gone. Verse 2. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything." Okay, so there will be fear from animals toward human beings. Now, you may be thinking of how friendly your dog is when you go home today, and he's going to welcome you and lick your face and make you feel really at home. And you're going to think, well, this is really great. So there are exceptions to this with domesticated animals that we have as pets, which maybe reflects God's original intention and purpose at creation. But part of the reason for the fear and dread, it seems, is that God has now given us animals for food. Though with one noted stipulation here, verse 4, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. So we have here established now the principle that blood represents life, which is why blood will become so important in the rest of the Bible. Particularly as we think of the blood of Jesus and what it means and what it accomplishes as he gives his life for us. But here the principle is one of respecting life. And so even as God gives animals for food to human beings so that we can have physical sustenance and still flourish in a fallen world, nevertheless we're not to tear apart and devour an animal in its blood in the way that one animal would do to another. And in fact, it's this respect for life that defines what God goes on to stipulate in verses 5 and 6. And for your lifeblood, he says, I will require a reckoning. From every beast, I will require it, and from man. From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image." So valuable is human life. that if either an animal or another human being takes the life of someone, their own life is to be taken. And friends, again, what we're supposed to see with that is just how valuable human life truly is in the eyes of God. Every human being has been made in the image of God, and therefore every human being has eternal value. That's why the glorification of violence and murder is just so ungodly, because it lessens the immense value of a human life. It deadens us to the seriousness of murder. You know, it should strike us as a matter of great importance that every person we meet, every person that we walk by on the street, every child in the womb, Every man who's passed out in the subway station, every elderly person languishing in a nursing home, each and every human life is of ultimate value. And so it's been commonly understood by Christian theologians from Genesis 9, that we have introduced here in the Bible, really the foundation for government and the government's responsibility to bear the sword of justice. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. And certainly the New Testament picks this up in Romans 13 as it describes the sword of justice being given to the governing authorities. And so while there can and should be plenty of debate and plenty of intricate discussions about how something like capital punishment gets applied in modern societies, we should, at a basic level though, give thanks for and support civil structures when those structures faithfully defend and preserve and promote the flourishing of human life. Because friends, that's still God's gracious intention for us, even in a fallen world. It's precisely so that human beings might have the ability to fill the earth and multiply, and to do so even in a rough and tumble sinful world that God has now given animals for food, and it's now even more importantly established the very clear principle that if you take another human life, that life is so valuable that you forfeit your own life. I think Ken Hughes summarizes this well. He says, to ignore this is to despise life. This was and is God's word to a violent world. This was meant and is meant to protect human life. To ignore God's teaching is to descend evermore into a society of violence. And friends, again, isn't it amazing that God actually wants us to flourish? That He doesn't just let us descend into utter chaos and violence. In fact, just like we've noted previously with some of the alternative creation and flood myths coming out of the ancient world, here too we have a notable difference with the true God. One example that commentators note is a Mesopotamian pagan myth in which the gods, plural, actually tried to stifle human life. This one commentator notes this about one of these myths, saying that after the flood has wiped out most life, the gods further afflict women with sterility because human beings are such a bother. In fact, that's what the mythological gods are so often like. They despise human beings. Human beings are a nuisance to them. They're bothered by human beings. They don't want them to flourish. And yet here, the one true living God, as He's revealed Himself in His trustworthy, inerrant Word, desires for human beings to actually flourish. You know, He desires for babies to be born, and for children to grow up filled with joy, and for men and women to create and build and fill the earth with their ingenuity and creativity. And again, do you see that's why we have hope? Our hope isn't in sinful humanity because in our sin, frankly, we fail more than we flourish. And so our hope isn't in Noah or in sinful humanity in general. Our hope is in God because God isn't done with human beings. He hasn't given up on human beings. He's committed to what he started in creation and you'll see that all the way through to paradise where one day we'll flourish in a radically new heavens and a radically new earth where there'll be no more sin and there'll be no more bloodshed or murder. Third, you and I can have hope for a better future as for a world no longer defined by corruption, but instead defined by an everlasting, beautiful paradise because God is committed to being patient with the whole of his creation. This is what we see in these wonderful verses, verses 8 to 16, where God makes a covenant with not just Noah, but with all of creation. You can see the number of times that God uses the word covenant in that section. A covenant in the Bible is a binding agreement that has life or death consequences if it's broken. And so what's noteworthy here is that God takes all of the responsibility for this covenant onto himself. And so it's what we would call a unilateral covenant, meaning God just takes all of it upon himself. It's his promise to all of creation. And so it's an unconditional covenant as well, meaning he's going to keep this covenant no matter what we do. It's not conditioned on our behavior. Not only that, but it's a universal covenant. Because again, it's a covenant with all of creation. And the specific promise here is that God will never again flood the earth to destroy it. Which of course is what he said back at the end of chapter 8, but here now is formalizing that commitment. And the sign that God gives that he'll keep this commitment is the bow. Meaning the rainbow in the sky. And so verse 14, God says, when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. Friends, I love that. I love it because it's a sign of just how committed God really is to his creation. This is what we call sort of God's common grace at work. It's for everybody. It's for everyone. It's for the whole world. It's not just for one people. It's for every people all over the world. And so even though sin still remains and the wickedness of the human heart still remains, and God therefore would have every right and he would be justified in doing so to bring another flood, but he's not going to because he's promised that he will never again flood the earth. And that's our only hope. As he said in chapter 8, verse 22, while the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. So friend, listen, even if you're not a Christian here this morning, God has made a covenant with you. Did you know that? Did you know that you exist in a covenant relationship with God? Did you realize that God has been that kind and that merciful to you? Listen, the very fact that we'll be once again celebrating and enjoying, I trust, another spring beginning this week, that that is a sign of God's covenant commitment expressed here in Genesis 9 and Genesis 8. Every season that comes and goes and repeats the following year should be a testimony to us that God is keeping His promise, that He is kind and that He is merciful and that He's patient. And indeed, with each new day that He gives, it's another opportunity, you see, to put our hope in Him. And friend, if you're not a Christian, you desperately need to understand that. Okay, please don't misunderstand this covenant. It's not saying that God will never bring judgment again. No, the curse of judgment upon this earth for human sin, it still remains. And so Jesus will return one day as the judge of this world. But what God is graciously doing here with this covenant is He's committing Himself to all of creation to be patient with us. to give us opportunity after opportunity, season after season, to put our hope in Him and to live for His glory. Friends, we should not presume upon God's kindness here. God is very kind to give us this promise and to give us such a beautiful sign of it as that of the rainbow. But we shouldn't presume upon that kindness. We should rather let His kindness lead us to repentance. Because the fact that God hasn't broken this covenant now for thousands of years, that should tell us that we can trust him. He's a God who makes covenants, and he's a God who faithfully keeps the covenant commitments that he makes. And so, friend, put your hope in him, put your trust in him. Don't put it in anything else. Everything else will let you down. He never will. He is our only hope. And so then fourth, you and I can have hope for a better future, This for a world no longer defined by corruption, but instead defined by an everlasting, beautiful paradise. Because God is committed to fulfilling His promise to send a Savior who will crush the head of the serpent and bring salvation to His people. I think that's the main takeaway from chapter 9, verses 18 to 28. Noah has this ugly, sinful incident. in which he gets drunk, he ends up naked on the floor. His youngest son Ham comes in, and the way the story is told, it seems that Ham dishonors his father in the way that he deals with his father's nakedness. So it's not just that he sees it, but it's that in the way he handles the situation of seeing his father like this, it's disrespectful and dishonoring. Such that instead of just discreetly caring for and covering up his father, he makes the situation known to his brothers, and thus he brings even greater shame upon his father. And so when Noah awakes and he discovers what happened, the result is that the line of Ham through Canaan, which obviously becomes very significant as you work your way through the Bible. The Israelites are constantly in conflict with the Canaanites. The line of Ham through Canaan is now cursed, while the line of Shem, with the folding in of Japheth, is now blessed. Which, once again, takes us right back where? It takes us right back to Genesis 3.15. It takes us right back to the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent. Those two lines are once again formed after the flood now and in opposition. And ultimately, it's the line of Shem, which is the offspring of the woman, who will lead us all the way to Jesus, the true Savior who crushed the head of Satan in his death and resurrection. That's why when Noah blesses Shem in verse 26, notice who he actually blesses. He actually blesses God. Why? Because he's still trusting in that promise of God. Despite his sin, he knows that God will accomplish his saving purposes through the line of Shem. And that's our hope, and friends, that's our only hope. Okay, our only hope is that all of this ultimately takes us to Jesus. Because again, Noah very clearly can't save us. And Noah very clearly can't offer us true rest. Noah very clearly can't usher in a world of peace and joy and righteousness. I mean, consider the fact that Noah was offered a completely blank slate. You know? I mean, it was a totally fresh start. In a new world where sin had been washed away, and yet what happened? He completely blew it. It was a disaster. This was a man who had walked with God for 600 years, and he still ended up in a drunken mess. And so this passage, it's almost yelling at us, whatever you do, don't put your hope in Noah. Because even though Noah, we thought he might have been sort of the, kind of the new and better Adam. You know, we got this new world. Starts off by worshipping God, sort of day seven like. He's given a mandate, like Adam, to be fruitful and multiply. And so maybe we're thinking, yes, this is the one. This is the new start that's going to change everything. And yet Noah, the one who's sort of Adam 2.0, new and improved, actually isn't anything like that. Instead, he actually goes exactly the same way that the old Adam went. You know, Adam was a man of the earth. He was a gardener. He was in the garden. He was a man of the earth. And just as it was the eating of the forbidden fruit of the earth that brought Adam's fall, well, so too here Noah is a man of the earth, the soil. And it's the fruit of the soil turned into wine that brings his fall. The result of Adam's sin was a new shame revealed in nakedness. Remember that with Adam? Well, so to hear Noah's nakedness is a matter for shame. And just like Adam's sin impacted his descendants leading to deadly confrontation between his sons, the brothers Cain and Abel, well, so to hear Noah's sin impacts his sons and creates conflict between the brothers, this time not Cain and Abel, but Canaan and Shem. And the result of all of that in Adam's case was that refrain in Genesis 5 of Adam's descendants, noting how each one of them died. Do you remember that? We saw that refrain, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. Well, so too here at the end of chapter 9, we're right back to the same old story. And he died. We're right back to where we started before the flood even began. He had a blank slate. And we're in the same place. And so the whole massive point here is that there's no hope for sinful humanity within sinful humanity. We need a Savior from the outside. We need God to do this. We need God to drive this plan of salvation. We need God to push it forward and to remain faithful and committed to His plans and His purposes and His promises despite our sin because we will fail. And we cannot save ourselves or rescue this world from the tragedy of the fall. I wonder if we understand that. Do we understand that we cannot bring paradise to this world? Do we understand that we're not going to find an Eden-like paradise anywhere in this world? That's what this whole passage is showing us. Friends, Noah shows us that we cannot put our hope in sinful men and women. He shows us that no human-engineered paradise is to be had here on this earth. Whether it's some politician or some business leader, Or some business leader turned politician? Or some particular party or system? There's no hope there. Or whether it's a certain job that you think will give your life joy and purpose and thus provide you with some kind of Eden paradise that you're longing for. If I just get that right career, I get that dream gig, I close that big deal finally. Or whether it's your family. Or your desire for a family that you think will be the answer to all your troubles? Am I preaching just to myself here? Or whether you think that you yourself can be your rescuer. You can create your own Eden-like paradise right here and right now. Again, the lesson from Noah is that to put our hope in any human person or plan or system is a fool's errand. It will not provide what you most need. There is no hope there. Don't do it. Nothing in this world will give you hope. Nothing in this world will give you what you need. The only hope is God. It's God's faithful, persevering commitment to having His image bearers worship Him, to seeing human beings truly flourish, to being patient with His creation so that people might be saved, and ultimately to His promise to send a Savior of the offspring of the woman to crush the head of the serpent and bring true, lasting, real salvation to His people. In other words, brothers and sisters, all of our hope is in Jesus. Only Jesus can accomplish this. Only Jesus can lead us all the way home to true paradise, to a truly new heavens and a new earth where all of these commitments that God has made to us will finally be realized. Jesus is our hope. And so we should see that the language of burnt offerings here, it points us to Jesus's atoning work on the cross, which was itself a pleasing aroma to God. The language of covenant here points us to Jesus and the new covenant He establishes in which He forgives us of our sins and He gives us new hearts. But He actually begins to change our hearts. He begins to transform us from the inside out so that we're no longer the same people we once were. And only He can do that. Only He can remake us. Only He can remake this world. And so the language of covenant points us to that new covenant. And then the failure of Noah here. It points us in contrast to the righteousness of Jesus. Because whereas Noah sinfully drank the cup of wine as an act of self-indulgence, Jesus, however, drinks to the very bottom the cup of God's wrath as an act of self-sacrifice, dying in our place for our sin. And whereas Noah brought unintended shame upon himself from his nakedness, Jesus, however, intentionally took our shame upon himself so that we could be covered with his righteousness. Friend, you see in this passage that more than anything else, Noah here is a picture not of our Savior, Not as the one who can bring us rest, but rather He's a picture of you and me in our sin. Drunk and naked and full of shame. That's us in our sin. And so you will not find any hope. You will not find any salvation. You will not find any paradise. You will not find any lasting rest in human beings. Only Jesus can save you. So Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are all that we are not, that you are righteous and good. And would you forgive us for turning to so many false things? Would you help us instead to Hear your gracious words of invitation. As you so lovingly and gently say to us, come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Lord Jesus, draw us to you, that all of our hope would be in you, that all of our joy would be in you. Please do a marvelous work in each of our hearts we ask here now. In your name we pray. Amen.