Most of us are familiar with the story of Noah and his ark, the gigantic boat with the animals arriving two by two, the torrential rainfall, the global demise of everyone outside the ark, and then the rainbow as a reminder of God's promise. But we don't usually connect this story with the Advent season.
Today on Truth for Life Weekend, Alistair Begg helps us find Christmas in the flood. Well, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 5, and initially in verse 28. When Lamech had lived a hundred and eighty-two years, he fathered his son and called his name Noah, saying, Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.
And then in chapter 6 and verse 7, the LORD said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And then, in chapter 7 and verse 6, now Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood of clean animals and of animals that are not clean and of birds and of everything that creeps on the ground.
Two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. And then, in chapter 9, verse 8, 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 make between me and you 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.
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." Amen. May God bless to us the reading of his Word. Now, Father, we pray that a sense of your presence among us will bring home the clarity and truth of your Word in a way that makes it obvious to us that the real need of our lives is to have a divine encounter with you by the Holy Spirit through your Word. For this we pray, and in Christ's name.
Amen. We have set ourselves the task of considering Christmas in Genesis in the sense that Christmas is all about Jesus, and the whole Bible points to Jesus, and therefore something would have gone sadly wrong if we were able to go to the book of Genesis and find that he was missing from there. It is important, I think, and worth considering the fact that the apostles in their day would never have understood the kind of question that we are addressing to one another—at least, I hear people saying to one another, Are you ready for Christmas? The apostles would not have understood the question.
They would not have understood what was being asked. Because for the first hundred, two hundred, even three hundred years of the developing church, there was no such thing as the celebration of Christmas. Now, Scottish people kept this going for a lot longer than that, while other sensible people around the fourth century decided that it would be good for us to consider the advent, which is of course an English word coming from the Latin word which simply means coming.
Coming. And when they began to consider the coming of Christ, they did so with a dual focus, so that they were not simply looking back to what we refer to as the incarnation, but they were looking forward to the fact that this same Jesus, who had come as a baby in Bethlehem in, if you like, relative obscurity, was going to come again in power and in glory. And so, as we progress in the New Testament, we find that by the time we get to the letters, this is made perfectly plain. For example, just quoting briefly from Hebrews 9 of Jesus, he will appear a second time not to bear sin.
The writer to the Hebrews is pointing out that that has been dealt with in the cross of Christ. He will not appear to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Which of course raises the question, Are we waiting for him? Which is not necessarily the same question as, Are you ready for Christmas?
It made it possible to be ready for Christmas and yet at the same time not to be waiting for him. In fact, I've discovered, actually, that a number of people who can be quite sentimental regarding the first coming of Jesus regard the idea of the second coming of Jesus as simply just a bit of a joke. And they scoff at the idea that there is ever going to be a day when Christ will return as promised. Now, last time we were in the fifteenth verse of chapter 3, considering what has been regarded by theologians throughout the years, the protoevangelium—in other words, the first hint, or, if you like, the first announcement of the gospel itself—that there was coming one who would crush the serpent, and that serpent would in turn bruise his heel. And from that point on, all the way through the Bible, right up until the coming of Jesus, there is this expectation, there is this look on the part of those who are in touch with God, while I wonder, Who will it be when he comes, and how will we discover it?
So, for example, every person that comes forward is at least a possibility. And in chapter 5, we have the birth and the naming of Noah. Later on, of course, we're going to have the birth and the naming of Jesus. And it was very significant, and significant in relationship to Noah himself. And let me just quote the twenty-eighth verse.
I'm sure you've turned to it. When Lamech had lived a hundred and eighty-two years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed—that's back in chapter 3—"this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands." His name Noah sounded like another Hebrew word, the word for rest. And of course, the restlessness that was now part of life since the events in the garden, since the entry of sin into the world, is such that men and women would love, somehow or another, to find rest from their labors and their toils. And so, with the arrival of Noah, the question is at least raised, Will this be the man who will deliver the cosmos from the curse?
And of course, what we're going to discover is that he was not that man, but that he did have a crucial part in the unfolding story. Now, from chapter 3 and into chapter 4, we immediately learn how sin impacts life—impacts it on an individual basis, impacts it within the framework of the family, and certainly within society. I was taught as a boy to think of sin in three S's—that sin, my teachers told me, will spoil things, that sin will spread, and that sin will separate.
And I've managed to remember that, and that is exactly what we discover, isn't it? That sin spoils what God has made good—the perfection and his plan for us fiddled with and rejected by us. And we discover that the things that God has made, in order that we might benefit by them, actually are spoiled as a result of our sins. And that is not something that is limited in some locality, but that it is like a virulent disease, it is like a contagion that spreads throughout humanity, separating not only man from God, thereby putting man in need of someone who will come to intercede, someone who will be that one to crush the serpent, but not only separating at that level but separating at the horizontal level. And as we've said before, the great conflict that is now to ensue lies behind every conflict—every argument in the kitchen between a husband and a wife, every dispute between children and their parents, every cantankerous rebellion within a sports team, and so on.
What is the base of all of this? Well, it is the fact that sin has entered into the world, and its impact is undeniable. In chapter 4 you have a series of firsts, and I'll just point it out to you.
You may be able to find more. Sin has entered into the world, and in verse 8 we have the first murder. And in verse 9 we have the first outright lie. Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know. He goes on to say, Am I my brother's keeper? And while people often quote, Am I my brother's keeper? when they don't want to take the garbage out or something like that, they have often forgotten that it begins with a lie.
I do not know. That was a flat-out lie. He then provides us with a first expression of self-pity in verses 13 and 14. Instead of him confessing his sin, he feels sorry for himself that things are going to turn out so badly. In verse 19 you have the first polygamy, where you will see there that Lamech took two wives. He wasn't supposed to take two wives. He was supposed to have one wife, and he was supposed to be happy with the wife that he had. But he's decided to go differently.
And here we are all these years later, and polygamy that was once regarded as absolutely abhorrent is suggested from magazine to news broadcast across the Western world. Nothing is new under the sun when it comes to man's rebellion against God. And in verse 24 you have the first act of vengeance. The first act of vengeance.
It's revenge there. Lamech says, I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me, and I decided I'd just kill him myself. And on that basis, sin continues to make itself known. And what is quite fascinating is that you will notice here in chapter 4 there is no sign of the serpent. There is no wiggling serpent that is moving now among them, seducing them, and tempting them to do what they do.
No. Mankind no longer needs a talking serpent, because the prompting to sin now is all inward. Now you discover that within the culture, people are saying, Well, it's only natural that. Well, it only makes sense that. Well, you couldn't explain that apart from that.
All of that language is represented there. You fast-forward to the book of James, and what do you discover? That James says the very same thing—that it is out of our insides that these things come.
We'll come back to that. Actually, Alec Matea has a wonderful little phrase in his book Look to the Rock, where he says, What you discover, then, in the balance of the text is that men and women were drawn on by the inner reality of a destructive magnetism. That's one of those phrases I wish I could come up with.
Drawn on by the inner reality of a destructive magnetism. You may want to keep that and to use with someone at work or something this week. And I don't mean that facetiously. Actually, I mean it.
If someone said to your work this week, says, You know what? And I did it again, and I don't know why I keep doing that. I don't want to do that. I went off the handle. I got abusive. I was unkind.
I don't know why I did it. Tell them you know. Tell them that they are drawn on by the inner reality of a destructive magnetism.
And they'll say, What in the world does that mean? And you say, That's just a fancy phrase to describe our propensity to go our own way. It is a description of sin.
Chapter 5 contains ten generations and brings us, fast-forward, to chapter 6. By way of summary, really, of a vast body of material, let's gather our thoughts under three simple headings. First of all, it is clear that the earth was corrupt. Secondly, that God's judgment was and is just. And thirdly, to borrow from the line of one of the songs we like to sing, his mercy is more.
All right? So you have, if you like, the corruption of humanity, you have their destruction as an expression of God's judgment, and then you have the provision of an ark as representative of the broadness of his mercy. Now, you will notice, when you read this for yourself—and for yourselves, you must do some of the hard lifting. I can't do it here this morning—man's rebellion was expressed, chapter 6 and verse 5, was expressed, if you like, in three dimensions. First of all, outwardly, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
In other words, the evidences of man's rebellion were not hidden away. It was obvious in the ebb and flow of life, even as it is obvious in the ebb and flow of life for us today. Wickedness—which is the predicament now as a result of the entry of sin—wickedness cannot ultimately be concealed.
It expresses itself. And the prophets write of it in this way, The wicked are like the tossing sea. For it cannot be quiet, and its waters turn up mire and dirt. Now, we understand this, don't we?
When even in your backyard you've seen the impact of a torrential rainstorm, and perhaps there was something that you had been planning to take care of and put away, and as a result of what's happened, that which you thought was now going to be hidden when the snow fell has actually reappeared, and now you're definitely gonna have to deal with it. And the picture here is of the deluge coming, and it just throws up all that is on the inside, all that has been concealed, all this mire and all this dirt. It's not hard, is it, to see the way in which sin has so quickly expressed itself in the society of that time, nor today. So, outwardly, and then secondly, inwardly, that God saw not only that the wickedness of man was great in the earth—visibly, if you like, outwardly—but also the thoughts of his heart were… the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Again, I refer you to James when he says, Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Although in Tom Sawyer, he tells the old widow there, he tells her, But the devil made me do it. The devil made me do it. Well, actually, no, the devil didn't make you do it. The devil may entice you to things, but he can't make you do it. Every sin is an inside job. Every sin is an inside job. Wickedness—outwardly, inwardly, and at the same time, continually. The thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, think about this. How can this possibly be? Does this mean that the only thing that can be expressed is evil?
No. But it speaks to the fact that there is no dimension of life that is untouched by sin, and there is no part of my life—body, mind, and spirit—that is not impacted by sin. Because sin skews the way we think. Romans chapter 8, Paul makes that perfectly clear. He says that the mind that is set on the flesh is at enmity with God and cannot please God, doesn't know God, is at war with God, and can't please him.
So the idea that somehow or another I'll be able just now to go rationally to these sections of the Bible, and I'll be able to think myself through to the right conclusion—no, actually, no! Because we need the enabling of the Spirit of God to so work within us as to change even the thought processes of our minds. It is the fool, says the psalmist, who has said in his heart, There is no God. He knows there is a God. But he says there's no God. He's talking to himself.
What is he saying? There's no God. There's no accountability. There's nobody to whom I have to refer. I can make my own decisions. No one's gonna tell me what to do with my body. I am the captain of my fate.
I am the master of my destiny. Does it sound contemporary? Of course it is contemporary! Because that's the reality of it. And it would be one thing if it had all come to a stop at the end of Genesis chapter 10. But, says the text here, it goes on continually. The whole earth was filled with violence, verse 11.
There's no need for me to trot out the statistics on violent crime in our society, or, frankly, in any society. It is so commonplace—so commonplace—that we've now come up with mechanisms not to try and fix it but to accommodate it. I can remember the day in which I was standing as a boy of six or something, when I listened into a conversation that some of the adults in the shop who were also waiting for things—I was getting milk from my mother. And as I stood there waiting in line, I heard this very animated conversation. So I tuned in to listen.
And what is it that these people are so concerned about? What is he speaking about? Do you know what it was? There had been a murder in Glasgow. Now, that is 1958. The fact of one solitary murder in the second city of the British Empire in 1958 literally, if you like, stopped people in their way. One murder?
And God looked, and the earth was filled with violence. And what is the answer of contemporary society? Well, that's not for me to tell you. We know it.
How's it working? Where's the conflict? So, we said, by way of summary, number one, the earth was corrupt. Number two, God's judgment was just. The just judgment of God is what comes across here.
It is difficult to read, and we have to bow down underneath it, but it comes again and again. Verse 7 of chapter 6, I will blot out man. Verse 13, I have determined to make an end of all flesh. Verse 17, I will bring a flood of waters. This is not a mythology. This is a divine tsunami. God controls the winds and the waves. But remember that in this God takes no delight, no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God takes no pleasure in that, any more than a father takes pleasure in having to discipline his son. So we ought not to think of God somehow or another looking, as it were, from heaven and saying, Oh, this is fantastic.
Now I get a chance to do this. He takes no pleasure in it, but neither is he indifferent to our rebellion. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend.
That's Alistair Big. Considering God's judgment in light of humanity's widespread corruption, we'll hear the conclusion to this message next weekend. You know, today's message makes it clear why all of us need to be telling others about Jesus.
And at the same time, we need to keep the lines of communication open between us and God. So let me tell you about a book we're recommending that will invite you to share a unique connection with many of the fathers of our faith. The book is called Cloud of Witnesses. It's a prayer book that unites you with dozens of faithful saints from the past in a personal way through prayer. Cloud of Witnesses contains a hundred prayers written by dozens of authors, going all the way back to the first centuries. When you make these prayers your own, you'll pray words written by devout believers from throughout the ages. The authors include John Calvin, Jeremy Taylor, Martin Luther, Thomas Aquinas, and others. For more information about the book Cloud of Witnesses, visit our website at truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. Next weekend, Alistair Begg explains why there is no understanding of the mercy of God without first understanding the judgment of God. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
