Salvation Through Judgment

If you have your Bibles, open them up to the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible. And uh, hopefully we have some folks who are here this morning who are new to the Christian faith and didn't know where the book of Genesis is. That's always my hope. But as you turn, let me remind you this is our 12th week in the book of Genesis. And the book of Genesis when you stand back from it, it's really an epic drama. Uh it's a true story of course. Um but it has all the characteristics of an epic drama. Uh you think of any of whatever film that comes to your mind when you think of an epic. Um if you're of a certain generation, it might be Ben Her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It may be Gone with the Wind, which was my mom's favorite, and we watched that like on loop. It felt like um it may be one of my favorites is 12 Years as a Slave. Just a fabulous movie. If you've never seen it, I don't recommend movies, by the way, because then I get emails. Um, but if you haven't seen it, there is gospel themes traced all the way through 12 years as a slave or maybe uh Godfather also an an epic story. They all have several characteristics. Um there's vast sweeping settings and the book of Genesis certainly has that. It starts in Mesopotamia, goes to Canaan and then in the end in chapter 50, Joseph and his brothers are in Egypt. so vast setting is there's a a a host of characters and again you certainly see that in Genesis of course it starts with God but then it's Abraham or then it's Adam and Eve and then Cain and Abel and then their offspring huge cast of characters Noah and the patriarchs and it just keeps going and another characteristics is it covers uh long time spans huge amount of time And again, you certainly have that in Genesis. First 11 chapters are thousands of years. And then the author slows down in Genesis chapter 12 through 15 and it's roughly about 360 years. So a large time frame. And then lastly, in all epics, there's a real conflict, some type of cons conflict that needs resolution. And of course in Genesis the conflict is first and foremost between God and humanity. Ever since the fall um the rebellion of Adam and Eve, humanity humanity becomes increasingly wicked. And so first it's between God and humanity. But then it goes horizontal and it's humanity against humanity. And it just keeps spreading. The sin virus keeps spreading. So much so in in Genesis chapter 6, which we looked at a couple of weekends ago, we read this. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And so what the Lord decides to do is he's he brings wholesale judgment against the sin of humanity. And that's what we looked at last week in chapter seven and in chapter eight. It's the story of Noah and the flood. And again, in every epic story, there are many dramas throughout. And the story of Noah and the flood is its own epic story. It's the story of the rescue of humanity through judgment. It's the story of the judgment of God on human wickedness, on moral depravity. But at the same time, it's a story of God's salvation, his rescue of the human race in the midst of his judgment. And that story actually is a microcosm of the story of the whole Bible. That story right there is actually a microcosm of the story of the whole Bible. The whole the whole Bible is a story of how creation has been tragically ruined by sin. And it's under the judgment of God and how God is coming to rescue and save his people through judgment. And so what happens is after the flood in chapter nine, which is where we're going to be this morning, you can go ahead and turn there. Did I tell you that already? I did not. Or did I? Did I? Okay, good. Look at Look at me. Did something right? Of course, my wife's not here to see it. What happens in chapter nine after the judgment? God reboots his creation. He's rebooting his creation through Noah and his family. And what we'll what we'll see today is the Lord enters into a covenant with Noah. And essentially, it's a promise to Noah and through Noah, God's promise to us, to humanity, of what he's going to do now that the flood is over. So, what we're going to do this morning is we're going to be in Genesis chapter 9:es 1-1 17. And again, remember this is right after the flood. It's right after Noah and his family come off the ark. And if you remember from last week week when they came out of the ark, the first thing Noah did did was he he made an offering to the Lord in chapter 8 verse 21 and 22. Go ahead and look at it real quick. We read these words. When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he's Noah's offering a sacrifice. 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. Meaning the sin problem still persists. However, the Lord says, "Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done." And now we're going to pick it up in chapter 9, verse one. 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, and from every 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 team on the earth and multiply in it. And then God said to Noah and to his sons, "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 make between me." Do I got a little feedback? Okay. And God said, verse 12, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all generations, 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 the 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." 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." This is God's word. Okay. Uh, I want to focus our attention. You read that and you think to yourself, "Oh my, what in the world is this about? How is he going to talk about this?" Um, there's three things I want to focus our attentions on this p uh this morning. There's three things this text is telling us about. It's telling us about the image of God, and that has huge ramifications for all of humanity. The image of God, it tells us about the promise of God. And then it tells us about the bow of God. So, let's take each one in turn. First, it tells us about the image of God. And the image of God, we've talked about it a little bit in Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2. But what we see here is the image of God. It's really the basis for all human ethics. This idea of being created in God's image. So when you think about morality, when you think about issues about life and death, it all stems from the idea that you and I and all of humanity is made in the image of God. And you see it all the way through uh in verses 1-7, but particularly in verses 1 6 and 7 where we hear this a similar refrain that we heard in the original creation account when God tells Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." So just as God gave Adam and Eve the creation mandate as his image bearsers, they were to be fruitful, they were to multiply, they were to fill the earth. So he's now telling Noah and his family to do the same. He blesses God blesses Noah and his sons and gives them a similar mandate. So we see that first. But then also notice that God provides food for them in verse three. Just as you had God providing food for human beings in the beginning in chapter 1, he gives them food again. But in this case, God gives him permission for the explicitly for the very first time for human beings to actually eat animals. This is a good day. So for you steak lovers or fish taco lovers, there's like, is there anything better than a fish taco on a beach? Um, this is a really good day. This is a big day. Remember Genesis chapter 1, God's provided, he provided them plants and fruit yielding seeds. He's provided that for human beings, but now he explicitly provides them that pro tells them that they can eat animals. But what it also means is that creation is marked by a kind of conflict now rather than harmony. So you see in verse two, go ahead and look at it, that the fear and the dread of you, that's of human beings, the fear and the dread of humans shall be upon every beast of the earth. So that's not the kind of harmony that you had back in Genesis chapter 2 in paradise. Instead, you now you have some fear and dread. So that's all in the background. But the real emphasis here is on the sanctity of the blood or more succinctly it's on the respect of human life which is the blood the lifeblood. Look again at verse four. We're told, "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." There's just so much right here. So you see the basis for uh the most basic of all human rights, the most basic of all human rights of course is the right to life. It's the sanctity of human life. And God says human blood is not to be shed. And the basis of that is that you and I, humanity is made in the image, in God's own image. Kent Hughes in his uh commentary, I was reading it this week on this passage, he says this. He says, "Since man is created in the image of God and as such is of immense value, and since the blood or the life of man is God's alone, to take human life is to usurp God's sovereignty over life and death, and thus merits death itself." Precisely because life is so precarious, the one who willfully takes another's life must suffer death at the hands of man. Exacting retribution is not a personal matter but a societal obligation.

Whoa. And I'll tell you internally I struggle with that. Um, I I I just I just drew I struggle with the whole idea of capital punishment because we live in a day where there's judicial abuses and the death penalty is sometimes politically and even racially motivated. And here's the deal. Any such case, any such case of injustice is a gross evil in the sight of God. And Christians of all people should be morally outraged by it when that occurs. But to argue against the death penalty, to argue against capital punishment on humane grounds is actually to argue against God's word. And so you can do both things at the same time. You can affirm the idea of capital punishment and you can also affirm when there's injustice being done in judicially. You can be morally outraged by that as well because God's instituted the state. He's instituted the government in order to protect human life. It's the reason that the state is there. The the state the government is pres is called to enforce law. And the most basic function of that law is to limit limit violence and to protect human life. Which is why Paul says in Romans chapter 13, for rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from the fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended? For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid. For rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servant. They're God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. And you got to remember when Paul was writing that he was not in a great government situation. He was under Roman uh Nero in fact who was crazy. And Paul still says this. So human ethics is based on the idea that humanity is made in the image of God and there's to be respect for human life. There's to be protection of that human life. And of course, it has way more to do than just with capital punishment because it also carries over to other issues of life and death such as abortion, the intentional murder of the most vulnerable people in our society, but also euthanasia, um what some deem as mercy killing because the quality of life isn't high enough, even though the Bible never says anything about that. John Frame in his um his huge tome the doctrine of the Christian life he says this he says all children of Adam made in God's image have a right to life and have an obligation to live as long as God allows. So of course, human ethics, it's based on the image of God. And it also in it involves other areas as well. Human trafficking, sex trafficking, racial conflict, all of this. It involves all of these areas and more. And that's why Christians through the centuries, even though some Christians are loons, and we all know that, there's some that you look at and you're like, "Wait a second, they're not a part of the family. H it's a little crazy out there. There are some that are a little bit loons but throughout centuries for the most part it's why Christians have worked hard for centuries holding up respecting and protecting life. You think of uh William Wilburforce who worked for decades to abolish slavery in the British Empire. It's the basis for human ethics flows out of the reality that humanity is made in the image of God. And again it carries over into other things as well. um being created in the image of God, it means inherently that every single human being is worthy of dignity and respect. Even if they worship a different god than the one whom you worship, even if they vote differently than how you vote, even if their sexual orientation is different than yours, uh even if they have a different ethnicity, we're to recognize the image of God and other human beings and treat them with respect. So the basis of human ethics, they're laid out right here. Because humanity is made in the image of God. We're to respect human life. We're to protect human life. And when human life is taken, because we're called to respect it and protect it, we have to punish the one who takes it. So that's that's the first thing that comes right out of this passage. Here's the second thing that we see. It's the promise of God. We see this gigantic promise of God. We're told in verse 11 through uh I'm sorry, verse 8 through 11 these words. 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 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. So this is this is a huge promise and what it is it's a promise of the Lord's divine protection and it comes by the way of a covenant and in fact this is the very first detailed covenant in scripture. Now, in case you don't know what a covenant is, a covenant is essentially a promise that's sealed by an oath. And in the Bible, there's several covenants. There's this one here with Noah. There's the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12 that gets reaffirmed in Genesis 15, Genesis 17, and Genesis 22. You have the covenant with the nation of Israel, what's called the Mosaic covenant as God made a covenant uh with Moses who was leading the nation at that point. You have the covenant that God made with David in 2 Samuel chapter 7 where God tells David that one of his offspring would sit on the throne forever. And then you have the prophecy in Jeremiah of a new covenant which was inaugurated with Jesus's death and resurrection. who when you come to him, the new covenant realities are given to you. A new heart and a new mind, the complete forgiveness of sins, and that God will be your God forever, and you will be his people. So, there's lots of covenants in the Bible, and they're all pretty darn significant. And this is the first detailed covenant in scripture. And note these features of this covenant that the Lord makes with Noah and through Noah to every living creature. First, it's universal. It's universal, meaning it covers not only every human being, whether they're good or whether they're evil, but also every living creature on the planet. The Lord says, "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." So, it's universal. It's also unilateral, meaning God initiates it. He's the sole initiator. And twice he calls it my covenant, which means it doesn't require acknowledgement. It doesn't require ascent or action or even ratification from mankind. God is committing himself to humanity. So it's universal. It's unilateral. And then lastly, it's unconditional. He says, "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." So, it's unconditional because no matter what stupid and sinful thing humanity does, and we've done a lot of stupid and sinful things since the time of Noah, have we not? And we continue to do stupid and sinful things. Um, no matter what stupid and sinful thing humanity does, there will never be another cosmic destruction by water. That's the promise that God gives to Noah, his descendants, and extending to us. It's this self-otivated promise of unconditional mercy throughout human history. And out of this out of this promise, the promise of God flows two more things we need to think about. First, it reminds us of God's commitment to humanity or what's called the doctrine of common grace. The idea of common grace. Now, you need to distinguish. Are you guys still with me? All right. Good. I know I I started talking about meat for food and I some of you are thinking about a barbecue. Um the idea of common grace, you need to distinguish common grace from God's saving grace. Saving grace is given to believers only. But common grace is given um to humanity. Wayne Grudum in his short little book called um Bible doctrine he says this. He says common grace is the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not a part of salvation. The word common here means something that is common to all people and is not restricted to believers or to the elect only. So you think of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus says God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and he sends out rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. That's the idea of common grace. And God exercises patience and kindness even to those who ultimately reject him. That's the idea of common grace. And you see it here in this passage. God makes a promise. He's going to preserve life. He's not going to wipe out humanity again as he's done in the flood. That's part of the the God's promise to human beings and really it's to the whole created order. Now the second consideration that flows out of this uh is the is the idea of God's commitment to creation. He has a gigantic commitment to his creation. We said, if you remember back in Genesis chapter 1, that the Lord gives Adam and Eve, they're called to be stewards of the creation. And as such, they're called to enjoy the creation. Remember I told you it is not sinful to miss a Sunday to enjoy God's creation. And some of you thought I was crazy. It's really not a sin. Um, you can, if you're doing it for good purposes, like enjoying the creation. Now, if you're just slothful, that that's we got to talk. Um, but we're called to enjoy the creation. We're called to engage the creation to make it productive and profitable. But you're to do those two things without exploiting the creation. And that's the tension that humanity has been in ever since the fall. because creation which was to be fruitful and fulfilling ever since the fall uh our work has turned into thorns and thistles. So we are called to enjoy it. We are called to engage it. We're to make it profitable. We're to make it productive. But you're to do it in a way that doesn't exploit the creation. We're called to care for the creation as stewards of God. You think of Psalm 24 where it says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It's the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and we're called to be stewards of it. John Sto uh the very last book he wrote was a tiny little book called radical disciple some neglected aspects of our calling. And he spends a whole chapter in that book laying out the case for the care of creation. And he warns us he he's writing this to Christians and he warns us of two extremes that people fall into. One one extreme is the deification of nature. It's the deification of nature not distinguishing the creation from the creator. And so you end up worshiping the creation as God. And you see that in some particularly new age material. We're called to respect creation because God made it. But we don't want to reverence the nature as if it were God. Now the second extreme that Scott warns us against is the exploitation of nature. And that's the attitude uh that's the attitude to behave arrogantly towards creation as if we were God. And I will tell you um I think that's the one that most Christians are prone to fall into. And the reason is because many Christians think that salvation is essentially God's plan to deliver us from this planet and from our bodies. That in the next age, a lot of Christians believe that in the next age, we'll be freed from our bodies and freed from this planet. That we'll have nothing to do with this earth and our physical bodies. So why should we care about it now? And you know what that is? That idea, that's a form of escapism that we leave behind the material and we inhabit an immaterial universe. But but that idea that's actually born out of Greek thinking and that's not grounded in biblical teaching because the Bible teaches that God's not going to destroy the creation. He's going to renew it. He's going to restore it when when heaven and earth are merged as the new Jerusalem descends from heaven and God will make his dwelling once and for all with man. That's actually the ultimate promise of God. And he's doing it all through his resurrected son Jesus Christ. The great hope of humanity is that we will inhabit a new heavens and a new earth and that we will dwell with God permanently upon it. That's the ultimate promise of God. So what have we seen? Well, we've seen the image of God which forms the basis for human ethics. We've seen the promise of God, the Lord's divine protection of the entire created order, which shapes our understanding of common grace and also for the care of creation. Lastly, we're told about the bow of God. The bow of God. And I want you to read this passage again with me. Verses 12-1 17. We're told these these things. And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth." So the bow of God, it's a sign of the covenant. Um, and the word sign, it's used in in a lot of time, a lot of places throughout scripture to refer to the covenant that God has made with somebody. You think of Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant. God makes a covenant with Abraham and the Lord gives him the sign of circumcision. So, so they can identify their people. When he establishes the covenant with Israel, the sign is the Sabbath that Israel as his people would follow his pattern and rest one day per week trusting the Lord is their provider which Israel failed to do over and over and over again. When Jesus institutes the new covenant, he gives the disciples and us by extension the Lord's supper. Says this is the sign of the new covenant. And here the Lord gives the very first occurrence of a sign that's attached to a covenant and it's the bow of God. Uh the Hebrew there some of your translations if you're I think if you're in the NIV it says the rainbow. If you're in the ESV or the NAS it simply reads bow. And the reason is because the Hebrew reads simply bow. And the word that's translated bo there is used 80 times in the Old Testament here in here in uh Genesis chapter 9 and in Ezekiel chapter 1. It it refers to what we would call a rainbow. In other places, it's the title of a song. But do you know what it refers to over 75 times in the Old Testament? It refers to an archer's bow. Like a bow and an arrow. So, it's a weapon. The bow is a weapon. It's a weapon of war. You think of Psalm chapter 7. We read in John chap John uh Psalms chap chapter 7 that God's a righteous judge and a judge who feels in indignation every day. And it says, "If a man does not repent, God will wet his sword. He has bent and readied his bow. He has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts." So God in Psalm 7 is pictured as a mighty warrior who has his weapons that are poised for judgment against the wicked. But here in Genesis chapter 9, you have a bow in the clouds and it pictures a warrior's bow that's hung up. The bow's there in the clouds, but it's pointed up. It's not pointed down. It's not pointed at the earth. It's pointed up into the heavens. And it's the assurance after the storm of God's reconciliation. Through judgment, God provides reconciliation. Through judgment, God provides salvation. And the bow is hung up and it points up, not down at humanity. through judgment, God provides reconciliation.

And that's how this story points forward to the ultimate story. That's exactly how this story points forward to the ultimate story. You see, the story of Noah, like every other great story in the Bible, it points forward to a greater story. It points forward to the story of redemption. It points us to Jesus Christ. Well, how does it do that? Well, because there was a day when Jesus Christ hung on a cross. And when he did, God pointed his bow at him. God unleashed the arrows of judgment at him to pay for our sin. And he took those arrows. He took that judgment. He took the judgment so that you and I would be spared the judgment. He took the wrath so that you and I could get peace so that you and I could be reconciled to God. He took the judgment so that you and I could have salvation. He took the flood and the storm and the anger and the wrath of God so that you can you and I could be reconciled to God now and forever more. Jesus Christ, you see what he does? Jesus Christ, he goes to the cross in our place for our sin and he bears the judgment of God so that we can be forgiven of all of our sins. so that you and I who were once God's enemies could be reconciled to God. And more than that, through Jesus's resurrection, we can be given new life in Jesus's name. This is exactly what Paul says in Romans chapter 5. Paul writes these words. He says, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we've now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? See, all of this points forward to Jesus Christ. Now, ask yourself, in all honesty, what's not to like about this story? If this is the ultimate true story, and it is. It's telling you the true story. The Bible, the whole thing, book of Genesis onward, it's telling you the true story of God, how of how God created us in love and humanity rebelled and rejected him. And sin came into humanity and it spread throughout all of the universe. And then God in love says, "The only way to solve it is if I come in the form of one of them and I bear the judgment for them. I live in obedience to the father. I bear the judgment in their place for their sins completely absorbing it and I die and then I raise again to new life and I offer to each and every one of them my grace as a gift. But they got to respond. If that's the true story, ask yourself what's not to like about this story that God in Christ took the errors of judgment so that you can be forgiven of your sins and granted new and eternal life in his name. What's not to like about that story? Nothing at all. Which means you can enter into that story and you should enter into that story right now by admitting that just like the rest of humanity, you've committed sin. You're coming to God in humility saying, "Lord, just like the rest of humanity, I'm spiritually bankrupt. I'm acknowledging that before you and then I'm believing that Jesus came, he lived, he died in my place, he rose again to grant me new life when I believe on his name. And you ask him to make you one of his people now and forever more. And he will like that. That's the message of the gospel. It's glorious news. It's why Christians for centuries have called it good news because it's not based on your merit. It's not based on your works. It's not based on your ethnicity. It's not based on your family of origin. It's based simply and wholly on who Jesus is and what he's done. That's good news.