Sunday Night, Nov 12, 2017

Last week any questions may have popped up in some conversations that you've been having with folks.

Something worth talking about. Yes, sir. Oh, yeah.

Ghosts, Spirits, and the Witch of Endor

There's no disembodied spirits of humans. That's that's kind of redundant isn't it disembodied. Angels and demons are not never had bodies so they can't be disembodied. The. The question about Ghosts.

Yeah, so what happens that you know, it's one man wants to die and after this comes the judgment It to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord not staggering about the earth.

Those who.

Die without Christ From everything we find in Scriptures. They they before the resurrected for the general resurrection. They are in Hades a Place of judgment in tournament for the lost Souls and so there's nothing we find in Scripture that you know that Hades is leaking or the heaven is, you know portals Upon upon the planet.

We do know that we live in a supernatural universe. This is a place created by God that it's not only matter right that we look about us. The the claim of Evolutionists and claim of naturalists that There's nothing but matter is.

It's obviously false. There is their material world and spiritual world. So, what do people see when they think they've seen ghosts. Yeah, I'm like you. I'm not sure what they saw but it's it's not disembodied Spirits could very well be as often is the.

The spectacular.

Manifestation of the spiritual realm. Usually tends towards the powers of evil.

Usually.

It was an angels causing Causing the the people during Jesus's day to convulse and fall over the place and do crazy things or sending swine into the sea. And usually the the spectacular displays are usually demonic And chaotic.

And it certainly isn't. It certainly isn't of God to to pray upon the Superstitions and the fears of darkness and so on and so forth. So I would say if you know if they saw anything it wasn't going to be.

You know, it's not disembodied spirits of humans and most likely it's something that Satan would love nothing more than to To strike fear into the hearts of people and hold them in bondage to fear. Which of course is clearly in the scriptures what he wants to do for the script for the Christian.

That has been He's been disarmed. Right fear of those who've been slaved to fear of death all their lives that that that weapons been taken away from Satan for those Who are in Christ?

He isn't he can't hold that against us now. Ah, the Witch of Endor.

I have no idea what that was about. But we always interpret unclear passages by clear passages so. As far as Saul visiting the Witch of Endor she was as shocked as he was that something came out. So I don't think she'd ever seen that before.

And so I think it was a special Courtesy of God to To pronounce judgment upon, you know, and again, you know when. When Peter James and John see the figures of Elijah and Moses how in the world do they know who they were?

They didn't know what they look like, you know, maybe a little bit about Elijah, but not a whole lot of description about Moses. How do they know who they were in? These physical manifestations of of the spirits not yet risen from the dead.

Reunited with their physical bodies. God is clearly communicating the information. You know directly to tell them what this is going on here. So, I think that's probably what it was obviously the Witch at Endor.

Did not she was doing something but she didn't really believe she had the power to do this. Because she was as shocked as Saul was that something happened. So this is God at work to you know. Giving giving Saul exactly what he asked for as a form of judgment.

How often does God do that in the Bible? People in rebellion and idolatry. Asked demanding something and then God giving it to them as their judgment. Yeah, and you know, you want to hear a word from Samuel?

Here's the word from Samuel and guess what? It's the same word Samuel said to you before he died. Right, so I think that there's something about that going on, but I would really you know, I wouldn't base.

People's obsession with the paranormal. That you know that that's evidence that that happens in in that particular way to their thinking so I Have a question for you. Do you have any new books in the library?

I Was supposed to let them announce this earlier.

Church Library Recommendations and Reading Suggestions

He.

Struggles when I should say struggle, but he stood up against for about his entire ministry. It said that Charles Virgin in one hand held tightly to the doctrines of grace while on the other hand always preaching the free Offer of the gospel to all men and that's where the hyper Calvinism Criticized it very quite.

Like.

Badly at times. Very good book on both sides of the argument. And of course Ian Murray comes out on the free offer of the gospel. It's really interesting to see how Spurgeon how he handled all that.

Debate. Actually.

History of the church from the Ascension to modern time. It's from Ligonier. It's done by dr. Robert Godfrey. There are six parts. Joel has part three. Now there's anywhere from six to twelve Lessons.

And it's.

It's very very interesting Laurie and I have started to listen to this. But what I like about this is you don't have to start from lesson one and all the way Left that it helps to go from beginning to end Right from the All the way to modern time Throughout the entire world and then moves to the church.

And it's a really interesting Here and you'll kind of come across some things like you know, but wow, that's why I believe.

So.

So that's highly recommended. You can go through here. You can look out different lessons on the back. If you want to learn about the Crusades by the way, there's one there great scholars but you can look and see and Take them home and you can burn them to a computer if you want.

That's perfectly legal to do. The next three are even though we're a church library 98 of what we have in there is Christian. These are if you want to call them non-christian, but this is uh, I think there's some great literature.

Classic stories that have real value. But some of the great authors of all that whether they were Christian or not great literature. I have three CDs or one man to three. From a company called the colonial radio theater who does some excellent drums and patient dramas.

I.

Don't.

It's very It's very good.

So.

Check them out. Take them home. Again, it's perfectly legal to burn your computer if you want to. You want to have one. It's fine. So. Do that and take note that the librarian reminded me that she hasn't stamped her.

So they won't be available in the library till Wednesday or next Sunday. I didn't know that so. Stand with mr. Spurgeon as he fights against the hyper Calvinism. Enroll in dr. Godfrey's lessons and learn about church history.

Book your package on.

Yes.

If you do listen to this or read this book. Stop and chat with me. What you think it happened. He must be the hero or a villain or a little bit of both and of course. So you might want to note that there's some subtle changes along the way.

I.

Always appreciate commercials for the library. I want to amen the recommendation for Spurgeon versus hyper Calvinism very very good book. Spurgeon was always embroiled it seems in controversy. But I think he ended up on the right sides of things the the one that did him in was the downgrade controversy as the Baptist Union was beginning to talk about the Bible full of errors and how you're just gonna have to accept it and Spurgeon would not and he Fought them to the bitter end and died basically of exhaustion fighting for the authority and the inerrancy of the scriptures.

And Godfrey is the best lecturer on church history that I've heard. So Definitely definitely take advantage of that and revival and revivalism. It's in the library. It's in my top five of all the books I've ever read so Definitely grab hold of that.

The Scope and Significance of the Noahic Covenant

Let's go to Genesis 9 and In Genesis 9 verses 8 and we'll see if we get through 17. But we are finishing with the story of the flood and Noah and his sons have come out of the ark and God has received the offering from them.

He has given them special instructions. He has In a way Reinforced what he had told to Adam and Eve he blessed them said be fruitful multiply fill the earth Subdue it to Adam and Eve. He says fairly much the same thing to Noah and his Sons, and then he speaks of a covenant in verse 8 in verse 8 through 11 we see the scope of the covenant then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying Now behold I myself do establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that is with you the birds the cattle and every beast of the earth with you of All that comes out of the ark even every beast of the earth.

I established my covenant with you and all flesh Shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood neither Shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. What is the scope of this covenant? Who and what all is involved what it sound like?

God's covenant is with who that was good answer. I don't know which Couldn't quite distinguish. I sort of all creation. Okay. Okay, so all creation and what else? Who else? Specifically God could have said all y 'all but he was he kind of distinguished a little bit didn't he?

So who all? Noah, okay. So now when we say Noah and His sons and.

The descendants.

Afterwards.

Right if we put if we had another way of saying who that is. We're saying all of humanity, aren't we? That's what the Bible is saying. Bible saying that's all of humanity. Noah and his sons and their descendants after them.

Okay, so this is all humanity now distinct from humanity as part of creation though is. What else? God made covenant with Noah and his sons and his descendants after him as part of all creation, but then there's some.

Some of the components aren't there? Right we have what the beasts.

Birds.

Living things. Distinct from humanity when the Bible continues to do that from the beginning to the end. Humanity. The descendants of Adam and Eve and Noah and his sons are all distinct From the rest of the living creatures.

We are never described as animals. We are not animals. We are not beasts. You're not we are not on that level of creation. But we are set apart as distinct and special all humanity and all the beasts and the birds.

Involving the state of the earth and its viability for life. God makes a covenant In with a great great grand scope. And what's the time frame? That we find Always right. He's never ever again going to flood the earth in this way.

So it's for all eternity. So the scope of the covenant. With all humanity with all the creatures for all eternity. That is a grand covenant as a grand promise. All humanity all the creatures for all of eternity.

God makes this promise. To emphasize it in verse 12 He said that this covenant is for all successive generations there at the end of verse 12 literally everlasting generations. What's the importance of this?

I.

Think the importance of this first of all is we need to be clear on the consistency of Scripture as we read in previous Chapters in Genesis that time and again it was said that all living things died.

Everything that had the breath of life perished upon the earth all of it. And again, that's very controversial today. People will say that there people who claim that the six-day creation is some sort of myth or Symbol will also claim that there was no global flood.

No worldwide flood. It was a it was a regional flood and the people who live there certainly did die. But it wasn't all over the earth and that's the modern claims today that they try to. Those trying to merge The the scripture with the neo-darwinian worldview and and obviously Do great injustice not just a Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 but also Genesis 4 through 11 and it just keeps on going when the Bible says everything died everything died and this was the only thing left.

How do we know that God says it over and over and over again and The nature of his covenant was with those that survived Out of all the creatures all the humankind. So I think Chris scripture is consistent in that and those and you know again Time and time again modern science modern archaeology or whatever has come out and said the Bible is wrong because dot dot dot and Time and time again, whatever that claim is in every generation.

Progressively going through past the Enlightenment those claims time and time again are proven false and they fall. Isaiah could not have been written by such a time because you know This prophecy is they wrote that after Cyrus became king.

Oh, then they find the Dead Sea Scrolls. Oops, we're wrong. David was a fictional character because we can't find a monarchy. Oh, we found him. We're wrong Over and over again every single claim that science in the name of you know Naturalism godless science and archaeology so on and so forth.

They make they're always proven wrong every single time. And other unanswered questions still sure. They're gonna be answered though. It just happens again and again. The Bible is consistent. Let God be true in every man a liar.

Second importance about this is I Think that in the distinction that we see between The creatures the beasts and mankind. There's also a very important connection between them that the way that mankind conducts their lives has a direct impact on Everything else in this world.

That's how he made us. He made us in his own image. We're in Special relationship with God and one another and all the created order. And if if we live in sin, everything is negatively impacted. We cannot sin.

We cannot rebel against God in isolation. When we sin and rebel against God that impacts all of our relationships with other people. With human beings and it impacts everything in our in our world today in our environment today I've said this before but little miss tree hugger who says we're responsible for the environment and it's dilapidated condition.

She's more right than she knows.

And.

Sin and meant people sin does have negative impacts on the environment it does. Because I very often we're just we're just selfish and we don't care what happens to other people and we're just gonna do what we're gonna Do and it does have a negative impact and we are responsible.

Now where tree huggers go wrong is they worship the creature rather than the Creator who's blessed forever. Amen, the best the best caretakers of the environment are those who love God the most. Because they put things in the proper order.

Okay, we should be the best environmentalist there are when we love God supremely. We'll love others rightly and steward this creation responsibly.

And.

Noah and his descendants Are caught up in that work. And we're caught up in that work. The third I think point that we really need to stress is the unity of the human race. The unity of the human race.

All humanity comes from Adam and Eve and Therefore also through Noah and his sons. There is no humanity alive today. That don't that that proceed from others some other source than Adam.

That is.

Incredibly important and vehemently denied by those who deny a six-day creation and Hold to the neo-derwinian hypothesis that that the the human beast the ape leaped out of some primitive form of Being a humanoid hundred thousand years ago at the most recent.

More like five hundred thousand years ago. And that in mass there was some sort of evolutionary leap and that we all came in and and there's different species of humanity. Well, that's what Margaret Sanger said.

That's why we have Planned Parenthood and we're gonna get rid of the lower. This is where eugenics comes from. That's why you know, that's exactly what Adolf Hitler said. We're gonna get rid of these lower worse species of humanoids.

We're gonna get rid of the lower species through Genocide or through abortion and then we're gonna cleanse the human race. And it's anti-biblical. There is a unity to the human race. We're all from Adam we're all for Noah and therefore.

The worldwide Offer of the gospel is to all who are born in Adam that they need to knew Adam and his name is Jesus Christ. Okay. And that the humanity that Christ bore was our humanity. It was the sinless flesh of humanity and That he bore our humanity and and it was and that all humans today because we're born in Adam.

We're fallen in Adam though because Christ has been given to us. We we are all called to repent and believe in Christ. Who is the second Adam who truly bore our real humanity that we would find a Savior in him?

Any questions about that? Any thoughts? Yeah, well, perhaps I think there is a lot of distinction in our Genealogies, we'll see that in chapter 10 and 11 here in Genesis. But ultimately that's redeemed at the glory of God.

When we get to the end and we have a number of multitude from every tribe tongue people in nation. That's the glory of God that there's such diversity. There that he he can save and so broadly and so grandly in the wideness of his mercy.

I.

Think the whole genealogy thing is an interesting. Why would. Why would? If if you didn't if you didn't believe in a God in and in a redemptive meaning of history, why would you care? If there's nothing but matter then nothing matters.

Atheism is as CS Lewis said it proves too simple. If the universe has no meaning we should have never figured it out. Yeah people even God deniers. Interested. What's my genealogy and. And they don't they don't live as if they're accidental primates.

That's not how they live. They look for meaning and significance in the history and how things came to be. That's because we're created in God's image and it's inescapable that that's the way we operate.

This is the way that we that we live.

And.

The genealogies play a really important role in Genesis. As we go through we're gonna say just genealogies are just pivotal Pieces to the story. And of course in a sinful way we could use it to divide.

But ultimately the genealogies if they if they research them. Really really really really. Well, we all end up going back to Noah.

Any other questions or thoughts? Okay.

Next time we're together. We're gonna go at the sign of the covenant and that's Genesis 9 verses 12 through 17.

And.

It'd be well worth reading that. Read about the sign of the covenant and then begin to think about why it is. That God gave this particular sign. What is the meaning of the sign that you find in the text?

And how might it point our attention to Jesus Christ? Okay. Let's go ahead and close by singing the doxology.