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Well, hello, everyone, and welcome
back. This is our Daily Devotional
for Monday, September the 16th, 2024, and I am delighted to have
this time with you, and I welcome you. Maybe it's morning, maybe
it's afternoon, maybe it's late, late at night, or early, early,
early morning, and maybe it's not even September 16th. Maybe
it's not even 2024, who knows? Maybe it's just me, but I don't
even feel like, I'm not used to saying 2024 yet, and here
we are in September. Fall is just around the corner,
and well, time moves funny. But anyway, I'm delighted to
have this time with you and grateful, most of all, that we have God's
Word, that we are going through this fundamental, and if you
had to choose a book of the Bible that's fundamental to life, existence,
everything, it would be Genesis. It's the beginning, the beginning
of all things. And we've been making our way through Genesis
last week. We really took a whole week to make it through the first
little section of Genesis chapter 6 to set up where we are going
today. And we're going to start covering
some more ground. Don't worry. As it is with a lot of the book
of Genesis, there are so many fundamental concepts that are
introduced for the first time here in God's Word. As I've said,
there's a reason why so many people want to turn Genesis into
folklore, fairy tale, a fable. They want to get rid of the historicity
big word for you early in the morning if you're watching early
in the morning historicity they want to get rid of the historical
aspect of genesis because if it's just some thing to be interpreted
it's not really true then well you can do whatever you want
to with it You can do away with all the principles that are contained
therein. Principles like we saw the last
time of the importance of walking with God. We saw that previously
with Adam and Eve walking with God in the cool of the evening
in the garden. We saw it with Enoch who lived
and then was no more. What does that mean? I don't
know, but he walked with God. And the next person we see this
with is Noah. Noah, who out of the whole world,
God looked at the whole world and he saw Noah as one righteous
among the men of his time. Doesn't mean he was perfect.
We're going to find out after the ark lands that he's definitely
not perfect. But what it does mean is that
Noah's concern was right standing with God, that Noah pursued right
relationship with God. And as a result, well, we find
what we're gonna find today. Starting in Genesis chapter six,
we'll start reading in verse 10 there. But, well, what am
I saying? Let's start reading in verse nine just to set it
up. But let's pray first. Our God and our Father, please
be with us now. Guide us in this time that it would be pleasing
to you that what we find in your word would not be simply a retelling
of something that we might have heard from the time we were children,
but instead that we would hear this anew, picking up on those
things with a mature diet, as it were, feeding on those things
from your word that we might have previously missed. We can't
do this without you, so please guide us by your Holy Spirit,
and we pray it in Christ's name, amen. All right, as I just prayed,
we face a challenge here. I'm gonna say that up front.
Noah's Ark, as I've talked about, is one of the most well-known
stories in all of God's Word. In fact, it arguably is the most
well-known story. I think you got Noah's Ark and
David and Goliath right up there, but I think there was a time
when David and Goliath edged, I really think that Noah's Ark
is edging everything out just because of the references. I mean, there's so much stuff
about Noah's Ark, so much art dedicated to Noah's Ark. And
the challenge that we face with Noah's Ark is no different than
the challenge we face with David and Goliath. And that is, we
can read it, we can come to it, and we can say, oh, yeah, yeah,
two by two, that kind of thing. But I'm going to go ahead and
challenge that. Two by two, what are you talking about? there
were seven of each kind of the clean animals. Remember that? You remember that? Yeah, and
I say that to people, and they're like, what are you talking about?
It's two by two. I'm like, yeah, okay, read Genesis chapter six,
or excuse me, read Genesis chapter seven, and you're gonna find
something out there. Take Genesis 7-2, God said to
Noah, take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a
male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal.
Interesting there, see there? And you might, maybe you knew
that, if so, indulge me. But maybe you forgot that about
this story of Noah's Ark, and it's just supposed to be two
by two. Not at all. So you see, we should be careful
when we come to those familiar, familiar stories and passages,
because there's much to learn. Like, for instance, the dynamic.
Noah's Ark. We've been going over everything
leading up to it, but where we pick up today is in Genesis chapter
6. We're gonna start reading in
verse 9, though we've already covered verse 9, but verse 9 says, this
is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless
among the people of his time. Okay, not perfect, but comparatively
blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with
God. Noah had three sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth. Now, the earth was corrupt in
God's sight and was full of violence. Now, time out for just a second.
Previously, we didn't get the chief cause of all the wickedness,
right? Rewinding to verse five, it says
that the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become
and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart were
only evil all the time. Now that's all we got previously,
okay? And we know that God hates this. He hated what the earth had become
when I believe the daughters of Seth, right, the sons of God,
the daughters of Seth, co-married with the daughters of man, and
you find this holy covenant, this agreement between God and
man, cast aside, and you have this debauchery and all these
different things. But this is the first time that
we see the precise problem that God has. It's not just wickedness. It's not just people worshiping
other gods than Him. It's the violence aspect. And
I wanna challenge you, go throughout the scriptures and see how God
deals with violence, human on human violence. Y'all, remember
the created order of things. that God created all things,
pronounced them very good. All of that is true. But it's
humanity. It's humanity that was created
in God's image. And so, interestingly enough,
the doctrine as of old for executing someone that kills somebody else,
the basis for capital punishment of the highest variety, is not
just that it's wrong to kill people, it's that when you murder
someone, when you commit an act of violence against another human
being, yes, it's against that individual, but deeper than that,
when one human being murders another, what's really going
on in its heart is that the murderer is striking at the image of God
himself. I don't know if you've ever thought
about that before, but definitely it's wrong to murder, but the
poignancy of murder, the bitterness of murder is it's not just about
the murderer and the victim. It's about this grand declaration
of disrupting the created ordinances, of disrupting the created order
of things, that mankind is at the absolute pinnacle of creation. And we are, you know. I'm not
gonna read it, but the eighth Psalm talks about how man was
made just a little lower than the angels, but is still the
crowning achievement of all of God's creation. We're created
in His image. Now, I know that that doesn't
jive with a lot of the modern world's philosophy out there.
If you've ever seen any of the social media posts about the
sad things that happens, every once in a while, they'll show
a hunter in Africa that gets killed by an elephant. And the
glee with which people rejoice over a human being that gets
killed in Africa by an elephant, just for having the audacity
to go and hunt one of them. And not to mention, y'all realize
this, the fact that anybody knows that the hunter got killed, especially
if he's a white dude like me, that means thousands upon thousands
of dollars, and I'm not trying to Look, if you don't like elephants
being hunted, fine, whatever, that's your deal. But don't pretend
like this dude's a villain when the amount of economic gain for
the tribe's people, I mean, there's a reason why you could do this
legally in Africa, okay? They really like men coming over
there, and women too, doing this sort of thing because they make
thousands upon thousands of dollars. It generates a huge amount of
wealth for these local tribes who otherwise would have nothing.
Okay, but all of that being said, when you look at the glee with
which people talk about hunters being killed in Africa, they
are so happy that these men have died. And the reason being is
this elevation of the animal kingdom to at least equal and
oftentimes past humanity. Now, y'all know me. I mean, I
love dogs. I love my dog, Bo, but he's a
dog. He's not a human being. This
whole thing, oh, we don't deserve dogs and all this kind of stuff.
I get it. It's a very, very emotional thing,
but humanity is at the peak of creation. We're the ones created
in God's image. And what we see here in Genesis
6, verse 11, is a real straightening out of things, where God looks
on the earth and he sees the violence on it, he sees murder,
and it's that reason that he is pained as he is. It continues,
verse 12, it says, God saw how corrupt the earth had become,
for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So you
see violence and you see corruption. And this doesn't just mean paying
off people and shady backroom deals. What this is talking about
is motivation. Y'all remember of all the things
that God reveals about himself and his word, God looks at the
heart. It's not just what we do, it's
why we do what we do. One of the things that we've
really tried to drive home with our daughter is, It is this,
y'all. You can do the right thing, but
if you do it for the wrong reason, it's still the wrong thing. The
Lord judges the heart, the mothers. Remember when Saul had finally,
last straw broke the camel's back there, and God sent Samuel
to declare that Saul was, the kingdom was gonna be torn away
from Saul, right? That God had chosen another one.
And then God sends Samuel to go and anoint the next king. And he sends him all the way
to Jesse. They go to the tribe of Judah,
find Jesse, You know, it's narrowing down and narrowing down. And
then Jesse brings out all of his sons and Samuel's looking
around and he says to himself, aha, I have assuredly, I am looking
at the next king of Israel. Do you remember what God said
to Samuel? God said, no, no, no, no, no. And of course, I'm
paraphrasing. God said, no, no, no, this is not the one. For
I, the Lord, look at the heart. He wasn't looking on just outward
appearance. He said, I don't see like men
see. I look at the heart. And it was David that God had
chosen. As it is here, God sees the corruption,
the state of the heart, the motivation, not just what's done, but why
it's done, the wickedness that prevails. Verse 15, so, or excuse
me, verse 13. So God said to Noah, I am going
to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with
violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy
both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress
wood. I gotta say something, just pausing
for a second there in verse 14. I gotta say something. It wasn't
until a few years ago when I was in Louisiana. I knew that there
were some benefits to cypress wood. I didn't know about the
exploitation of Louisiana. Now, when people figured out
the benefits of cypress wood, rich men from the North predominantly.
Sorry, just gotta throw that out there. I'm a son of the South
at heart, what can I say? Anyway, rich men from the North
swept in and they stripped the Cyprus of Louisiana. absolutely
stripped it, okay? Slash and burn and they took
the cypress wood back north. There are still cypress trees
there, but they're always looking for the sunken ones, right? The
old growth cypress trees, which are almost non-existent. Those
that are resistant to things like termites won't even touch
them. right? The buoyancy of them, the hardness
of them, the way that when you use them for construction, they
don't warp over time. I mean, it's, it is primo, primo
wood, okay? I never knew about that until
I visited Cyprus and I heard a native What do you call them,
Louisianan, Louisiana, and Louisianaite? I don't know, if you're from
Louisiana, educate me on that. I don't know what you call yourself,
Cajun, but no, it's not just Cajun, it's Creoles, and anyway,
anyway. I didn't know about this, but it makes sense that God told
Noah, hey, get yourself some wood out of Cyprus. Cyprus was
the primo, and still remains, that old-growth Cyprus. It would
be the best material possible. He said, so make yourself an
ark, verse 14, out of cypress wood. Make rooms in it and coat
it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build
it. The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet
high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches
of the top. Pausing there for a second, and
by the way, I know that there are some translations that talk
about gopher wood, okay, but by our best knowledge, that would
have been cypress wood. Nevertheless, nevertheless, think
about those dimensions. Is the Ark a boat? Yes. Does it look like the Titanic?
No. I mean, you've got a boat that
doesn't have big windows in it or anything like that. The idea
that you get is you got this thing made out of cypress wood
that's coated in pitch on the inside and on the outside. So obviously, holding it together
and buoyancy and no leaks is what's of primary importance.
Also, the sides go all the way to the top. And did you catch
that reference there? He said, verse 16, make a roof
for it and finish the arc to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the
arc and make lower, middle, and upper decks. Within 18 inches,
y'all, you're talking about a structure with not a lot of natural light. 18 inches of space between the
top of the roof and the sides of the ark. So is it a vessel? Yes. Does it look like some boat
that you and I might draw? Does it look like most of the
boats that appear in the artwork and all that stuff? No, it doesn't. Nevertheless, nevertheless. And
if you want to know what it really looks like, the Ark Encounter
up in Kentucky, that's what it looks like. And yes, it's shaped
like a boat, kind of, sort of. But you'll see what I'm saying.
Look it up. And by the way, the church is
going pretty soon here. I can't remember when they're
going. But I will tell you this. I think it's been a week or so
here. Don't quote me on that. Check
and see. I'm not a numbers guy. But that's one of those things
in life that you can see pictures of it. Doesn't do it justice.
It is spectacular. They've done a spectacular job.
And answers in Genesis. Ken Ham followed the dimensions
given in Genesis for the ark. Okay, so look up that picture
if you want to visualize this. God continues, verse 17, I am
going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life
under the heavens. Every creature that has breath
of life in it, everything on earth will perish. Pausing before we even get to
verse 18. And I think this is, yeah, this
is where we'll finish up today. Y'all, we gotta be careful here,
because this is where people say, eh, you know, well, if there
was a flood, it was probably localized, or really, this is
just a metaphor, it didn't really happen like that. Y'all, listen,
God doesn't exaggerate. When God says everything, he
means everything. When he talks about this flood
being comprehensive in nature, destructive in nature, there's
no exaggeration there. It destroys all the living creatures
on earth except for those that are in the ark. Obviously, not
water animals, okay, not that, but mammals, that's where they,
reptiles, all those sorts of things. As we're gonna read,
two by two of the unclean, seven of the clean. All right. And
y'all, this is a hard passage. It's kind of like we talked about
a couple of days ago together. We've got to keep in mind who
this is that we're dealing with, that this is the God of the universe. He is the creator, which means
by default, He has dominion and ownership of the created. What God did was within his rights. Now, a question that I am often
asked, why didn't God just send a plague on humanity? Why didn't
he just kill humans? And I'll give you the answer
that I give them. I don't know. And guess what? You don't either. None of us do. This is one of
those mysteries. I think that there's a certain
cleanness to it, if I can be so bold as to use that word,
given all the death and destruction that came about. But what you
find here is a fresh start to a new covenant with Noah, which
is really just a continuation of the old covenant. But nevertheless,
we're going to talk about covenants when we come back together again
on Tuesday. But, or I should say tomorrow,
But as it is, why did God see to it that it wasn't just humanity
that was wiped out? Again, I really don't know. I
don't know if humanity's corruption had affected animals. I do not
know. If you fast forward to Leviticus,
you find out that there are times when it's not good enough to
just deal with people, their animals have to be dealt with.
What you find when the Israelites go into the Promised Land, it
kill everything when you go in. Again, this is God's business. But what instead we ought to
be pointed to is the state of the world and how serious God
is taking these things. And to that end, not only should
we see how seriously God takes wickedness and violence, we should
also see how seriously God takes walking with Him, how much value
He places on that relationship He's saying to Noah here and
as we're gonna read when we come back together tomorrow He's gonna
take out every living thing on earth Verse 18, but I will establish
my covenant with you Y'all when it comes down to it in this world
around us that we're tempted to say is going to Hades in a
handbasket, that it's the worst that it's ever been. But you
shouldn't do that because remember, we saw last week that this is
the worst that the earth has ever been. But what we're tempted
to do is to write things off, to cast dispersion on the world
and that sort of thing. But instead, our focus really
ought to be on ourselves and our relationship with the Lord.
So, to that end, on this Monday's Daily Devotional, how concerned
are you with your relationship with the Lord? What's your focus? I'm asking you, but I'm asking
myself, too. It's a poignant question, I know,
but it's a necessary question. Because ultimately, while there
are all sorts of things we use to divide ourselves as human
beings, Ford, Chevy, tech, UVA, Democrat, Republican, men, women,
carnivore, vegan, I mean, if your tractor's red, if it's yellow,
if it's green, if it's blue, all these things, we use them
to divide ourselves. But there's really only one divider
in humanity, and that is Jesus Christ. It's because of Jesus
that there's no male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. And that's because either you're
washed in the blood of the Lamb or you aren't. And if you are,
then, well, that leads to right relationship with God. It's the
substance of right relationship with God. It doesn't mean that
we don't have further privilege in growing in our walk with the
Lord, but it's our walk with the Lord that matters. So let
me encourage you on this Monday, consider your walk with the Lord.
Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we thank
you for this time that you have given to us, and for the example
you have given to us, and Noah, let us strive to walk with you,
not running ahead of you, not falling behind, but Father, instead,
knowing your word, following your word, again, trusting and
yielding to your spirit, all out of gratitude for your Son
and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please guide us in these things,
and we pray it in Christ's name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank
you all for being a part of this time. Lord willing, we'll be
back tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Again, I can't tell you how excited
I am to be back with you all. Thank you so much for your kind
words this past week. Such a blessing. Y'all are really
such an encouragement. I will look forward to seeing
you again very soon. Oh, oh, oh! If you didn't come
to special services, you got another chance tonight, Tuesday,
Wednesday night. Need to be there. It's a fabulous
day. Thank you.
Genesis 6: Walking with God
Series Daily Devotionals
Greetings and welcome! This is our daily devotional for September 16, 2024. Today we continue our series in the Book of Genesis in chapter 6 as we hear the details of Noah and the Ark, as well as the importance of walking with God. Thanks for joining us!
| Sermon ID | 914241210377778 |
| Duration | 23:57 |
| Date | |
| Category | Devotional |
| Bible Text | Genesis 6:9-17 |
| Language | English |
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