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.