The sain't no on to Mary was this sain't no every the count a serf
is queen, he ought, So I'm gonna give him mother hell be diable,
come on herms here He sain't no. The sain't no hard to hear
no no, the countless queen. So I'm gonna give him out a hand.
I'm gonna get it on an. Let me tell the story. Ud.
A woman went and this shoe and it's well blown years. It didn't
go to do She heard a kind of man coming through her side. She
fell to a knees and crawled on the crowd. This is what she said,
y'all. She said, get fucking on the given. I'm gonna give
it on my hand. Come on, help me see ya. This ain't
no know where, I ain't nowhere, I ain't no way. Yeah,
I say this brain, So I'm giving on the hell and giving it on
BLA. Tell u star about a man for calling me. He healed.
The lame caused the plan to see the span. You want the tree because
it comes for you and me. The Span only wanted to make us three
only Yes he did listen, y'all, but it three dies and heroes sweet
Yeah, three does he roll? Sweet? Three days he roll? Swell
yeah, I'm giving a life. I'm give this. Come on, Ela,
come on, clack, come on, quack, Come on quack,
come on play. Somebody said play Alsa lay m one, but some the
same. No one to hear the same, No one to the song the
Donna sis where. So I'm gonna get them on. I'm gonna ge and
we rejoice, and we are glad in it. We are we are excited
about what the Lord is doing in our lives, and we are just excited
at the opportunity to share the gospel one more time. The season is changing
and things are going well in our lives, and I just want us to
go to the Lord and prayer. And we're going to pray that the Lord
would not just bless our church and our ministry, but that the Lord would
continue to put his hand a favor upon you and your family. Lord,
I thank you, thank you for your righteousness. I thank you for your
love. I thank you for your mercy. I thank you for your grace.
Thank you for the foundation that you've placed inside of us that we might
be able to share your word of liberation. The investage hope it's next few
moments. We pray that you would have your way, that you would get
the glory out of all that we say, and that your word will not
come back to you void. We trust in you. We honor you soundly,
alarmed that the righteousness of God is true. And even in this time
when it seems as if the devil is winning, we know that the victory
belongs to your Church and Jesus name, our prayer and God and a man.
We're gonna look at Genesis, going back to Genesis chapter six. Genesis
chapter six, beginning at the fifth verse. This is going to give us
some foundational stuff as we go into our New Testament and we start to work
on our testimonies, our personal testimonies. So Genesis chapter six, beginning at
the fifth verse. And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I
will destroy a man whom I created from the face of the earth, both
man and beasts and creeping things and foules of the air, for it repented
me that I made them, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. Why Noah. If I was to take up text, it would
be why I mean title, it would be why and why Noah. The
Bible is interesting in the fact that we are always looking for those who are
opponents against the obscriptures of the Bible. We're always looking for a reason to
say that the content of Bible or the Bible message is contradictory and or false.
False because of when we remove the narrative that the Bible is an errant
or infallible, then we can mirror it with any other self help book.
But to the Christian, the Bible is in eric. The Bible is is
not just a self help book. It actually shows us how God relates to
humanity through his sovereignty. We can't remove his sovereignty and how He relates to
humanity through his sovereignty, and how he redeems us from the fall through Adam,
one man Adam felt. So we look at Adam and the whole narrative
of creation. Some would argue that that narrative of creation is not biblical.
One I mean, it's not how the world was made. But the Christian
narrative of creation is that this is how it was made, so we believe
this. So these arguments are in silos because of what we believe, because
of what we feel, because of our faith. And when when it comes
to faith, you cannot tell a person what or what not to believe,
or how to believe, or when to believe. They just believe. Some
people believe blindly. We look at in our politics today, people just really
believe in one party over the other, regardless if that that party because of
their faith, regardless if that party has their best interests at heart, regardless
of how they what the news might bring. They just believe. So we
can't get to try to get people to not believe once they believe. And
that's the problem. We want people to either believe or not believe. There's
no middle ground, there's no there's no shades as either black or his whiteness,
our way or ways not our way, and we kill you. We
have seen many people do stuff in the name of Christianity. We've seen many
people do stuff in the name of religion because others did not believe, they
didn't believe cut them off. And so we give what we believe a bad
name because we're trying to make people believe what we believe. When they don't
believe, we get angry and we get upset and we start to get volatile.
That's not what God had intended for a man. So he uses in
He uses in the Bible language that seems to contradict some of the things that
we know and or believe about him. He uses language like in our text,
and it repented God. We have been telling you that God is all
knowing. We have been telling you that God sees all, he knows the
end before the beginning. But when you open up the scripture, the scripture
uses language that contradicts what we have been telling you. So you feel as
if you can't understand scripture on your own. Because the man behind the death
said one thing, and the scriptures reveal something different. Verse six. And
it repented the Lord that he made man on earth, and it grieved him
at his heart. So we look at this language, and we look at
these terms, and we start to identify or we start to measure God to
how we feel, to how we grieve, to what it means for us
to repent. We level him with humanity. So instead of him being creator
and sovereign over his creation, we bring him down to us. The slang,
which is what theologians call anthropomorphic, it's words that we can wrap our
mind around to help us understand how God was feeling within the moment. It
doesn't necessarily reflect who God is. We can't understand why he would make such
actions without first identifying the fact that he's upset and grieved. Because if it
was just to say that God's saw wickedness in man's heart was great, and
then imagination that their thoughts was even continually and then he says I'm just gonna
kill everybody, he would look out of control, roll and angry. But
because the Bible now gives us language that we can wrap our mind around that
this being, this entity, was grieved out his heart. This entity repented
the day that he created this human. Now we can understand his next move.
But why was he angry? What is it that he sees in man
that causes him to repent so to say, or causes him to grieve so
to say? And can he grieve? And can he repent if he's all
knowing? When does the repenting start? If he's all knowing? When does
the grief start because he's not caught by surprises. Either he's caught by surprise
at the wickedness of man, or he's caught by surprise at the imagination of
man, or he's out of control over his creation. If he's out of
control of his creation, then he can't be all powerful. If he's caught
by surprise, then he can't be all knowing. So there's a real theological
quagmire here because I'm supposed to serve a God that knows all, but the
scripture says that he doesn't know. I'm supposed to serve a guide that has
all power in his hands. But here yet his creation is running rampant to
the place where he now grieves. The solution is not simple, it's complex.
The scriptures sometimes places us in these complex situations that we have to now
reconcile so that the believer can have an answer. The Bible says, give
every man an answer. Yes, it's complex. It's a complex situation.
It's complex because either he's not all known and he's just like us, or
he is all none. But the Bible is trying to wrap our minds,
give us a reason, a way to wrap our minds around how he feels
when Adam and E falls. When Adam and E falls in the garden,
he says, let us remove them, or they'll be like us, to
know all good and evil, they'll be like us. So he removes them
out of eating and he ushers them into another place in his creation, where
they now begin to reproduce. They now begin to live out their new lives
as falling creation when they felt the thing that is disconnected was their spirituality.
They still are able to reproduce. They're still able to enjoy the pleasures of
the world, to enjoy the food and enjoy everything that God had created around
them. But they do so with ego. They do so with an ability
to be evil. They do so with selfishness and selfish intent, which God
created them to be selfless and to be partakers of all of his creation as
one as as a one who would be helpers. That's how come when we
are reconciled, when we get saved. He says, don't don't don't care
about yourself, but look upon your neighbor, help your neighbor. Be altruistic,
be helpful, be guiders of people, be beacons of life. The
salt of the earth, be useful in creation because you're being restored back to
where it is that you were supposed to be in the first play as useful
in creation. So he sees the end. Heart of man, in the
imagination of man is evil, continues me. This is what the Elogians would
now call um. Man's nature is totally deprayed, and man's nature is totally
deprayed. So God cannot get into full fellowship with someone who has a depraved
nature. This is what leads. This is the leading to sacrifice. This
is the leading too. Why um, we need it? A Christ who
would be perfect in creation and obedience, perfect in his knowledge, perfect in
fellowship with God. So because of his perfection, he does not need two
things. One he does not need grace, and two he does not need
or he does not or he should not excuse me, he should not face
death. One he does not need grace in order to find favor with God.
Two he does not or he should not face death because the wages of
sin is death. Christ is sin less, so he should not face death,
and he does not need grace. The story of Noah brings on other
theological problems because God says in verse seven, I will destroy a man whom
I have created from the face of the earth, both man, the beast,
the creeping thing, the foul of the air. For it repented me
that I have made them. So here's the rude. Not only did adam
sin affect Adam, but it affects the beast of the field, the creeping
thing, the flying thing. And he now repent not that he just made
Adam, but he repent that he made all of the things that we now
coexist with it. The thing that he gives us gives us dominion over false
and Adam. Also, we are all made from the same thing. That's
how come we need the trees in order to breathe, But the trees breathe
back into us. The system is flawed, and it repented him that he
made And here is the line. But Noah finds grace in the eyes of
the Lord. The dispensationalists would teach that it was something inside of Noah that
causes God to repent. There was something inside him Noah that causes God to
find grace. It's something inside him Noah that causes God to halt that Noah
now finds favor with God because of who Noah is, not because of who
God is, but because of who Noah is. Noah finds grace with God.
And Noah puts up the halt sign like a guy who's running from first
to third and he's looking at the coach, and the coach is first waving
him in, and then a coach has stop. Stop stop stay right there
on third base. Because at home, you can probably get out that it
was something in Noah causes God to find grace. The Reform teachers that God
extends grace and Noah is also wicked, his imagination and his heart is just
like the rest of the people. That is described in the text, that
grace now is granted to Noah not because of who Noah is, but because
who God is. That the complex nature of this all knowing, this,
this all mightiness, all powerful being is so far that at one point the
scriptures can say that He's grieved, and not another point he can still extend
grace. Grace does not just happen through Christ in the New Testament, but
we would not even get to Christ except that God gives grace. You can
go back and listen to our podcast. We talked about when Adam, and
he falls in the garden that God now closed them, and he gives them.
He covers their nekedness after they cover their own nekedness. That is an
extension of grace. It's a typology of him covering our nakedness in sight in
Christ. He covers them with coats of skin from an animal, which would
indicate the blood that would be sacrificed. That is grace. Gives them punishment,
but he promises the woman that her seed will take vengeance and the seed
it's promised that will come some generations later through the person of Christ. That
it's for knowledge that is grace. He knows that they've fallen, he knows
how far they've fallen, but yet he cannot tolerate it to the extent where
he takes action. He finds grace with Noah, He finds grace with you,
He finds grace with me, and he understands the heart of humanity.
But he still finds grace in us, and through us, he allows us
to pray. He allows us to come to his bosom, He allows us
to come into full fellowship with him, knowing that our imagination in our hearts
are far from him. There's nothing that we can do in our religious days,
no praise too great, no no offering that we can bring that will
change who we are as people. The only way that we can be transformed
by the renewing of our mind is when He extends the olive branch. We
love him back because He loves us first. Don't let no one else trip
you up to believe that God cannot love you. He can look past your
faults, look past your disease, look past your your your your your unjust
ways, look past whatever you have done in your life, and extend to
you love and grace. Because love now covers a multitude of faults. The
same God who's grieved, the same God who's repented, the same God extends
to Noah grace. Grace now calls us to do what we could not do
without it. Grace now calls Noah to do something that he could not do
except God called him to the task. This all knowing, almighty, all
powerful God calls us into stuff that we would not otherwise do without him.
He causes us to triumph, causes us to be healed in situations where sickness
seems to be winning, causes us to be light in situations where it seems
that darkness looms. The land calls us to be able to speak birds,
those things that are not as though they are. He causes us go out
into a dying world. Tell somebody about a man who sees our faults but
respond by meeting our needs. He's not like us, and the fact that
he repents and he's grieving and now he goes about his business without being forgiven.
He doesn't hold to the account of his enemies, because the Bible refers
to our relationship as hostile and we become his enemies. He doesn't hold to
our account as creator. He doesn't at etch it out. He doesn't see
the best in Noah. He sees Noah for who he is. But he
extends grace to Noah if you come back next week, and we start to
get into what happens after this particular event where he calls Noah and he tells
Noah to build the boat and he and then Noah builds and he brings on
all these animals into the boat, all of these imperfect beasts, all of
these imperfect creatures, all of these imperfect beings on this one ship. Because
he extends grace he doesn't wipe out humanity in Noah's day and save Noah and
his family, thinking that it was going to be a reset and when they
got off the boat that Noah would would because of Noah's perfection, he would
now produce perfect, perfect beings. Noah is still a part of Adam's family,
and Adam lived a hundred and somebody years and Adam created beings after his
likeness. Noah is still after the likeness of Adam. Noah's not in the
likeness of the creation. Noah is flawed, but Noah has God's grace.
You're flawed, but you have God's grace. You have to forgive yourself because
when you don't forgive yourself, what you say to God is I know you
gave me grace, but it's not enough because I can't let go of what
I did, even though you have forgiven me. I can't let it go.
It's not good enough for me to pray. It's not good enough for
me to give you the worship and honor and respect that you are doing.
It's not good enough for me to love my enemies because I can't let go
of my real enemy, which is in me. So I'll hold onto it.
I'll hold onto my anger, I'll hold onto my issues. I won't
let it go because I really don't believe that you can redeem a person such
as myself. When we testify, we never really talk about what we what
we overcome, or how grateful we are. We always talked about the bad
stuff that we did. You know, I used to do this, and
I used to hang out all night, and I used to run women.
I used to do it. And I'm glorifying what I used to be,
not in terms of thanking him for graciously saving me, but in terms of
some people used the phrase. Then I decided to allow him to come into
my life. That's not grace. I tried everything else, so one day
I decided to try him. That's not the Bible narrative of salvation. He
look beyond my faults. He invites me to come, and my cares upon
him by grace, and I saved through faith. It is not of myself,
less any manship, boast. It's a gift from him. If any
man preaches any other gospel other than that salvation is unmerited, unearned, let
him be a curse, let him go to hell. Noah did not find
grace because Noah was good. Noah find grace because God is good. Same
God who's angered at the conditions of man is the same God that reconciles and
relates to that man that he's angry with. We are in communion with him.
He communicates him himself through us. He doesn't give us him in part,
he gives us all of him. Dwelling in you, if you are
a believer, is everything that God has. We become joint heirs with him.
I may not be living where he will eventually have me to live.
I may not be acting out in all of his characteristics, but in me,
that is in my reconciled mind, in my reconciled heart, is all
of him. He doesn't have to show up. He's already there. That's
why he said, low, I'm with you always, even until the end
of time. He doesn't have to show up. He's already there. But
he shows up and reveals himself as being there. Because there's a part of
me that feel as if he's not there. How can he be there and
not there at the same time. How can he be all knowing and repentant
at the same time. How can he dwell in my heart, and in
my neighbor's heart, all of him. At the same time, we lay
hands to stir up the gift that is already inside of us. We speak
words to stir up the gift that's already inside of us. We affirmed to
stirt up the thing that's already inside of us. We meditate to conjure up
the thing that's already inside of us. Nothing that none of those acts,
in actions and activities is going to produce something that is not already in there.
Is like the sauce when the mother and the commercial said, what about
the garlic? What about this? It's in there. If you can understand
that everything that you need to live a successful spiritual life is already inside of
you, which can also lead you to be successful in your natural life.
The mind of the pauper and the mind of the millionaire rest in you.
You have to activate which mind you're gonna live towards. That's why we say
stuff and now, let the weak say I am strong. By saying it,
they begin to activate strength. Let the poor say I am rich.
They began to activate within them the ability to be what they are not.
Right now, if I continue to say I'm poor, then guess what.
I will always be poor because what I say is what's gonna reveal itself out
of me. I got to say it, I got to affirm it,
I got to believe it. His grace now gives me the ability that I
didn't have before. I am forgiven for all of my past sins. I
am in an eternal relationship with the Almighty. He provides for me my daily
bread, so I'm grateful. He leaves me besides the still water, so
I'm grateful. He walks with me. He talks with me so high.
I am grateful. So if I lead with a grateful heart when somebody steps
so on my toe, I'm not gonna curse them out. Because if he
can walk with me who has trust passed against him, then how can I
not be forgiven with someone who trust passes against me. Now I don't always
do it, but he's still yet loves me. There's some people that I
don't like, but he still loves me. There's some people that I would
probably see and walk right ba like I never knew. I'm being real with
me. This is me. I don't know about you. Body else want
to act like this so holy and altruistic. There's some things about me that
I don't like that, some things about me that I'm still working on.
I don't have grace because I'm perfect. I have grace because He gave it
to me. Noah finds chrace. Wait, God, I don't know,
I don't know who I'm talking to. I don't know who needs to hear
this. But you don't have grace because he thought that you was all of
that. You have grace not because he saw something in you, not because
he saw what you become. Everyone who he calls becomes the same thing one
in Christ. There's no let me get let me let you in on this.
I've heard the sad in funerals. I've preached many funerals, and I've
heard this say, I know my grandmother's getting a big crown. There's no
big crowns. There's no bigger mansions in the sky. There's the streets.
There's no vip section for those that come to God and decide to be whatever
we think that they're supposed to be, just because they made chicken and they
washed it past his feed and they did all of these other things that we
think gains them extra favor with God. It's not true. There was a
man that was out in the field, and he hires another man in the
middle of the day. And he hires this man, and he gives him
a wage, and he tells him what he was going to pay him.
This man works all day long, but the owner of the land continues to
hire. This is a powerable that Jesus is to use an I'm powerphrasing.
He continues to hire throughout the day, all the way up until the end
of the workday. At the end of the workday, he gives he starts
to make his payoffs. He starts to pay by paying the person that came
last, and he pays the person the same wage as he paid the person
that worked all day. The person that worked all day gets the scrunted.
That person came in at the end of the work day made the same amount
of money I made, and you pay them first. I feel as if
I am I have been dealt with unjustly the keeper of the field. The
owner of the field said, I paid you what I told you I was
gonna pay you. It didn't matter what I did. I own the field,
I own the job. I can pay how I want to pay.
What are you saying Jesus in that well, what are you saying, preacher?
Grace gives the same wage to everybody eternal life. It doesn't matter if
you will save fifty years and this person gets saved five minutes. You have
no more access to God than they do. Grace extends to each and every
one of us the same access. And if we start to preach this,
and if we start to teach people this, and we start to get people
to understand this, then we won't have people living beneath their means looking to
you to be their spiritual guru and hero. We want to keep people under
our thumb through our religious hierarchies. We want people without our feet. I
see people throwing rose paddles at preacher's feet when they walk in the room,
as if the preacher it's some kind of big wig or some kind of No,
we're all sinners saved by grace. He just called some of us to
carry the gospel. And the weight of carrying the gospel it's heavy. Should
honor the men and women of God, but we should not lift them up
as if they are God. If someone is helping you in your spiritual walk
and you have riches or access to some things that can help them in their
personal walk. If they're helping you, you should be generous to your preacher,
to your community, to your church. If you have to share with
the poor, you should be generous. Because He has given us the wage
of everlasting life. The problem is, here's the problem, and I'm done
that everlasting life is not good enough for us. So we want to be
greedy and rob the pool. We want to be greedy and use people's faith
against them to take from them so that we can have a jet, so
that we can have the biggest house, so that we can because we're still
operating from the place of evil, imagination, of ill in tech. And
then we see how God feels about about that. It repents him that he
created people like us who would take advantage of our fellow human but he still
gives grace. There's nothing that we have done one that would catch him by
surprise two that he cannot forget. Lord, I thank you that, in
your infinite wisdom and your power and your knowledge and your might and your will,
that you created grace, grace so that we can have access to you,
grace, so that we can pray grace so that we can show the
world our faith that even in our business, even in our commerce, even
in the things that we do, that we are ought to be gracious to
others because you have been gracious towards us before we go wrong with our day.
Thank you for our daily break. Thank you for being a friend that
sticks closer than a brother. Thank you for bringing us out of difficult times
and tough situations. Thank you for changing our language. And now let the
week say I am strong, Thank you for your grace, and Jesus has
name, I pray, Thank God and Amen.