The Noahic Covenant

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 8:22-9:17

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Well, we continue on in Genesis chapter 9 this morning We're gonna take with us that the last verse that we didn't quite include last week
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And so I'll just begin reading for us just from Genesis 8 20, which we did cover and we're gonna bridge that into our time this morning
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Genesis 8 beginning in verse 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt
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Offerings on the altar and the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart
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I will never again curse the ground for man's sake Although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth
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Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done while the earth remains See time in harvest cold and heat winter and summer and day and night shall not cease
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So this morning we want to explore the covenant that God makes with Noah And with humanity through Noah We're going to explore this connection between the burnt offerings on the altar, which are pleasing to the
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Lord to such an extent that Genesis 6 is answered if you missed that in Genesis 6
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God looked at the Imaginations of the heart of man. It was only evil continually and he was grieved in his heart
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Here God God acknowledges that the imaginations of man's heart remains evil and he says what in his heart
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Not that he's grieved but that he'll never again destroy the world with a flood the only reason given
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For this change of God's heart is the sacrifice which satisfied God.
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So put your thumb there We're gonna circle back to that by the end as we saw last week
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God was looking upon Noah's altar seeing it go up with smoke watching these Sacrificial animals be bled and dismembered their pieces arranged on the altar
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Beneath the burning firewood and God took a deep breath of that scene of that Promissory sacrifice and he was satisfied
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And as we said what God was responding to ultimately was not the smell of burning animals, but rather The aroma that was being foretold of his own son the sacrifice of the
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Lamb of God Ephesians 5 to Christ loved us gave himself for us an offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma
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It is not Noah's sacrifice that was accepted. Ultimately. It was Christ's Sacrifice that was accepted
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Noah's offering was a placeholder a bookmark for what is only exclusively
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Acceptable to God and so God promises that he will spare the world From a judgment of the flood from a judgment of water until the very end of time until the last day why?
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Because Noah sacrificed and his sacrifice was a greater Prophecy a greater portent of the sacrifice to come the sacrifice of the
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Lamb of God the Lord Jesus Christ Now we're gonna look at that.
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But first let's just begin with what we see in chapter 9 verse 1 God's blessing on Noah We read so God blessed
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Noah So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
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God blesses Noah We've already seen that God's grace rested upon Noah prior to his calling before we began the book of Noah as it were
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We ended with this grace of God that had found Noah out and God's grace is just like this blessing
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They're both completely unmerited. This isn't a blessing that Noah earns. He receives it
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It's unmerited God desires to show mercy to Noah and his family and through Noah.
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He desires to show mercy to humanity He desires to show this grace of not bringing a global flood again as a grace to the whole earth
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God's mercy herein is not obligated. It's not negotiated It's not warranted by anything within Noah or anything within Noah's family
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It was as the hymn puts it mercy all immense and free
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This blessing was simply received by the grace of God First Corinthians 4 7 what makes you different from another?
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What do you have that you did not receive? No, it didn't have anything. He didn't receive. He received the blessing of God.
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Noah had faith in God He walked with God What could be said of Abram as we'll come to see that?
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Paul says in Romans 4 is the father of all those who have faith Well, that could be also said of Noah he believed the
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Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness Noah was a righteous man in the eyes of the
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Lord and yet even that faith was a gift Do you not know that your faith is a gift?
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God's blessing does not fall upon us by chance as believers. God's blessing is not something we work out
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There's not some divine mechanism by which we can earn it or retrieve it at our will
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It's not the carrot at the end of some labyrinth God chooses to bless his people according to his will for their good for his glory
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Even when it's difficult for his people to see how the blessings that he's giving to us are in fact blessings
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And how they could ever actually be for our good and how they could ever actually be for his glory sometimes those things aren't revealed until the the final day until the consummation
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Now what we're going to see is that God's blessing To fallen humanity to humanity after the fall always flows through the blood of sacrifice
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Which is to say all of God's blessings after the fall in light of the fall are issued ultimately through the blood of Christ Jesus Okay, I can't wait to unpack that but there's some more things we have to get to first.
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So hold that thought God blesses Noah and the specific blessing leads to a return to Adam's Commission Genesis 128 be fruitful and multiply fill the earth there's this gracious restoration of God's desire for his image bearers to be fruitful and Accordingly God promises to sustain the conditions needed for human beings to be fruitful
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While the earth remains sea time and harvest cold and heat winter and summer day and night shall not cease this blessing this
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Providence is an answer to the curse of the ground Remember the curse on the ground was symbolic of the dominion of man crumbling underneath sin
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No longer could man Subdue and bring dominion upon the earth as he was meant to as the image of God Now sin put all of that into chaos all of that into disorder
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Remember that lament prophesied of Noah this one will give us rest from the curse of the ground
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And here indeed Noah is being given as the answer he is indeed bringing rest from the curse
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But notice Noah's not doing any of that Womack needs to adjust to prophecy perhaps a little bit.
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This one will bring us rest from the curse What is Noah done? Please tell me what has
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Noah done to bring rest from the curse? What is Noah done to make the ground fruitful again and to give humanity the means and the conditions and the calling to be able to?
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Be fruitful Noah hasn't done any of that He simply received it He has simply received it.
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It is entirely God's action that answers the curse It is entirely
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God's action that brings redemption to the curse. Noah does not undertake any great project
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Noah is not under some probationary period and after he completes it God says oh now you can do this now as a result of this
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He leaves the ark he puts a sacrifice on the altar and God pours out a blessing upon him
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All that God requires to pour out this tremendous blessing of fruitfulness a restoration of God's calling upon man is for Noah to stand at the altar and receive
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Stand at the altar and receive that is all stand at the altar And as I look through the blood and the smoke of the sacrifice receive this blessing for I am well pleased.
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I am well pleased God blesses Noah Though Noah is fallen
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Though the world has fallen though. The earth is still corrupted. God gives the conditions For fruitfulness and he commissions fruitfulness be fruitful and multiply fill the earth
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We continue verse 2 and 3 and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on Every bird of the air on all that move on the earth and on all flesh fish of the sea.
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They are given into your hand Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I've given you all things even as the green herbs
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God restores man's dominion over animal life Although now it's been adjusted to a fallen reality.
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The world is not as it was What Peter says the then world vanished in the deluge the then world.
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This is a different world now Now because of sin God gives a commission that's adjusted to fallen reality
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Before Genesis 3 we can infer man had a very different relationship to animal life
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There was a harmony in man's relationship to animals that was torn apart by the fall
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Here the Lord in light of that puts the fear of man into the animals. This is something new
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This is not something Adam or Eve had to experience. This is something that flows out of the fall
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Adam exercised dominion and subdued the animals in a very direct way in a very harmonious way now after the fall
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Noah and his offspring all humanity will subdue and exercise dominion over the animal in some ways because of the fear that God puts in the animal life
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So the fear of man dictates our dominion over them. It's a little bit different We can infer from here animals would have never attached human beings prior to the fall
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It's not what they were created to do. I Remember taking a class with Jeffrey Neha said
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Gordon Conwell and he was asking us as a class just an open discussion to talk about some of the differences between Genesis 2 and Genesis 9.
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What are some of the differences? And a classmate said well now we can eat them That's a big difference a great difference.
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Yeah, I must have been close to lunchtime now we can eat them And he said now they can eat you. That's the problem.
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That's the problem So it's very gracious of God to put the fear of man into animals As a side note
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Noah is not restored to To what Adam had in his relationship to the world to nature to animal life
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But Christ does bring about that restoration very interesting very very interesting I was listening to a
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Richard Bachum lecture in the in the wilderness trial You remember if you remember back when we were in Genesis 3 we talked about how?
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Christ as the second Adam is tried by the serpent not in the lush paradise, but in the wilderness, right?
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That's the significance of the wilderness trial It's Christ as the second Adam being tested by the serpent
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Instead of having every tree full of good fruit and I can fill my stomach on all this beautiful Bounty that God has given me now
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He's deprived and he's starving and he's has to trust the word and not listen to the serpent, right? It's very interesting that mark.
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He doesn't record what? Luke and Matthew record but mark mark 113 reads.
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He was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts That's a very significant thing for mark to add.
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Why would you add that? He seems to be reflecting and understanding that Christ as the second
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Adam returns to this he was there in the wilderness Tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered to him
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Christians as those who are inaugurating redemption stand against animal cruelty, of course
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We've already talked about that in some ways we stand on Proverbs 12 10 We know that a righteous man cares for the needs of his animals
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But at the same time we do not make the mistake of the Pharisees or at least we ought not make the mistake of the
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Pharisees Which is very common today perhaps even among some of us What I mean by the mistake of the
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Pharisees is we we make all sorts of exceptions and we can be very Sympathetic to the needs of a donkey that has fallen in the ditch
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But we have very little sympathy for the man who comes into the synagogue and his hand is with her In other words, we we care a little too much for the needs of our animals even at the expense of our neighbor
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And so that is why I would say We do not hold a blessing of the animals here on the
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Lord's Day. I Would never want you to bring your bowl of goldfish and your poodles and line them up in front of the pulpit here for us to pray over Animals are a great blessing to humanity.
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They're a glory to God's creativity But animals are not created in the image of God only human beings are his image bearers
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Now, why is this important in light of God's covenant with Noah? By understanding the difference between human life
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Image bearing life and animal life. No Christian falls into the mistakes of extreme
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Animal devotion which always always always corresponds to dehumanization dehumanization
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Graham Harrison wrote wrote a book covering some of this just give you some several examples
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I don't want to spend too much time on this Ingrid Newkirk from PETA people for the ethical treatment of animals
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We Have grown like a cancer speaking of human beings. This is Ingrid Newkirk. We have grown like a cancer
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We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth The smallest form of life even an ant or a clam is equal to a human being she says
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When it comes to feelings a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy They're all mammals.
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They all feel pain. There's no rational basis for saying that a human being is somehow special Six million
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Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses
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Do you see how easy it is? Once you lose the idea of the dignity and the unique nature of man as God's image bearer to dehumanize human life
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The very people that hold funeral services for chickens in the supermarket aisle rotisserie chickens.
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I wish I was joking actually do this Simultaneously advocate and rally and fund the whole wholesale slaughter of unborn children
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And they claim to be ethical and they believe they have the moral high ground They devalue human life.
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They overvalue animal life Peter Singer the notorious Princeton ethicist declares
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Christianity is our foe if animal rights ever succeed. We must destroy the Christian religious tradition
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Why why would you have to destroy Christianity in order to bring about this view? because Christianity understands that human beings are made in the image of God and therefore a
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Rat is a pig is a clam is a boy does not hold true. The boy is made in the image of God When we trace the same rebellion back to God's blessing on Noah Though fallen
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God gives these conditions. He gives this Commission to Adam be fruitful Multiply fill the earth.
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Do you consider how detestable that very idea is to our culture to our society? You've already heard
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Ingrid Newkirk, right? You've already heard Ingrid Newkirk Human beings are cancer.
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They're a blight on the earth. What is God saying here fill the earth multiply? As for you 9 verse 5 be fruitful multiply bring forth abundantly in the earth multiply in it
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We look at the hustlers of panic. We look at our modern -day Malthusians We look at the ever politicized climatologists and they all consider human fruitfulness from Genesis 9 to be the curse rather than the blessing
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God says this is the blessing. He blessed Noah be fruitful multiply fill the earth and we live in a culture that says
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That's the curse. We're the curse on the face of the earth. Do you see? Every generation has its prophets of doom
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Not prophets of doom in the sense of divine judgment certainly never giving a divine answer But prophets of the doom of overpopulation or resource scarcity
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Always being on this harrowing brink of human extinction, which is either feared or even praised by some of these ideologues worldviews matter
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Whether humanity is made in the image of God matters what God considers a blessing for humanity matters
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If your worldview begins with the idea that humanity much like everything else that exists is some giant cosmic accident
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Human beings are a blight to nature because we were never meant to be where this cosmic Cosmic accident and now we're dominating and affecting the environment around us and wouldn't it be great if we could just be rid of that When you begin there eventually the most celebrated
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Ivy League ethicists like Peter Singer Become more ghastly more dehumanizing than any
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Holocaust camp doctor ever could dream They don't flinch.
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They don't blink They have no shame to advocate postnatal infanticide
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The parents don't want it kill it There's no sense of shame about euthanasia
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They've outlived their usefulness to society kill them in some humane way humane
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If a child is born with difficulties mentally incapacitated Someone is an accident.
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They go into a vegetative stages. Just kill them release the burden upon the earth upon human society worldviews matter ideas have consequences human beings have dignity
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Where you begin determines where you go Unsurprising is the plea from these extremists as always more power to Caesar More intrusion more extreme measures and this is not the first time
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Christians have faced off against this kind of inhumanity There's kind of inhumane cruelty, which always pretends to be humane
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They call themselves ethicists and they're unethical they call themselves humane and they're barbarous Just like today the ceaseless tirades against racism racism are the most racist
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The aggressive maneuvers for tolerance are the most intolerant The things that are paraded in our culture at large as the most humane are in fact anti -human
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And we find an example of this just in the next verse Surely for your life blood I demand a reckoning from the hand of every beast
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I required from the hand of man from the hand of every man's brother I require the life of man whoever sheds man's blood by man is blood shall be shed for in the image of God So we have here the establishment of capital punishment in Genesis 9 the lex talionis principle blood for blood an eye for an eye
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God acknowledges the continued violence and tragedy of sinfulness corrupting his intention to humanity
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Notice that in restoring this Adamic Commission. He does not pretend that somehow the fall has been dealt with No, the fall is still alive and well, there's going to be violence.
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It's going to be murder There's going to be death. There's going to be a need for justice But God has said
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I will not bring a global catastrophe like the flood once again Nevertheless, there must be a reckoning.
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There must be an accounting for the blood of man And so we have God's covenant with humanity through Noah and the demand for justice here is the death penalty for murder
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And it's established here notice. It's established here in God's covenant with humanity It's not established with Israel later on in Leviticus 24 for the first time
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It's already here given to humanity at large Not just something that Israelites did and now didn't
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Hebrews a say something about that passing away. No, no No, the state is given authority not just given the state is demanded
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They're accountable to God to uphold the sanctity of human life. How do you uphold the sanctity of human life?
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How do you defend the dignity of being human? The dignity and sanctity of human life is upheld when babies are recognized as unborn humans with all the fullness of their individuality
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All the potential and divine artistry knit together in their mother's wombs by the hand of God's souls made immortal
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Even if their limbs are being pulled apart at the abortion mill The dignity and sanctity of human life is upheld when murderers
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Are seen to have forfeited their lives because they took the life of another and so they've polluted the land and they've defiled
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God's world By massacring the image of God and another human being and so they must be put to death blood for blood
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That's how you uphold the dignity of human life. Do you see? And what do we do in our society today?
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We do the exact opposite on both of these don't we and we say it's a good thing We say it's a good thing
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With endless bloodlust our society parades around the death of harmless children and Then like Christ with Barabbas this murderer we clamor.
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Just let him go. Just let him go Aren't we so merciful? But it's always mercy at the cost of justice, which is no mercy at all
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Capital punishment blood for blood it upholds the dignity and value of human life.
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That's a central concern here the death penalty is not a matter of personal revenge both the murderer and the victim are made in God's image and so the
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Murderer is not treated like some animal to be caged. There can be no vigilante justice or roving death squad
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There's legitimate government agency involved and that's what God says a godly government looks like Romans 13
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Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil Notice rulers are supposed to be a terror to evil
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But If you do evil be afraid he does not bear the sword in vain He's God's miniature and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil
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This is what Christians demand of their rulers because this is what God demands of the rulers.
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He puts in place We're not living in that society, aren't we? I Will demand that's that's the refrain three times we have it
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I will demand I will demand I will surely demand Do you notice how God is there's going to be a reckoning from how men treat other men there's going to be a reckoning
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For how we behold and relate to other images of God notice Individuals are accountable to God for their actions
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Nations are accountable to God for their actions or for their inaction At the very least we can see this emphasis how we relate to image bearers as image bearers matters to God And so by God's grace,
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I may never hold a knife I may never be in the position of a murderer and yet James 3 9 says with my tongue
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I can bless my God and father and with it. I can curse man who's made in his likeness
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And you've heard it said don't murder Because anyone who murders is subject to judgment
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But I tell you anyone who's angry with his brother is subject to judgment anyone who says fool is liable to hell
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God holds us accountable. I mean just relating to this We pause and think of people that we've hurt
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Image bearers that we've negatively affected people would take an advantage of they're made in God's image.
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We're held accountable to that. Do you see? This should cause us to humbly reconsider the ways we think of and speak of and speak about and speak to other
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Human beings this is all contained within the Noahic Covenant God cares about human beings relating to human beings
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But he makes this covenant beginning in verse 8 notice God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying and as for me behold
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I established my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that is with you the birds the cattle
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Every beast of the earth with you of all that go out of the ark every beast of the earth thus I established my covenant with you never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood
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Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth Big picture here 10 ,000 foot view nothing new to us
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God Works by covenant. He brings about salvation by way of covenant
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God interacts with what he makes with what's outside of him by way of covenant And this covenant with Noah as we've already seen is echoing God's creation in Genesis 1 and 2 it's a creation covenant
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And that perhaps is the most striking thing about it. It's not just a covenant with Noah It's a covenant with the whole earth it's a covenant with our planet
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It's a covenant with creation Which means this morning we're standing literally standing on a covenant promise that God made here in Genesis 9 if you're breathing
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You're breathing this covenant promise you you build this covenant promise you plant and eat and shop and play in the midst of this
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Covenant promise God made this covenant promise to the earth And all that is upon the earth everything that has the breath of life
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As Jeff Thomas said our world is in a covenant with the Creator Ourselves the whole human race millions in China and India millions of Africans inhabitants in Europe in the
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Americas We're all in a covenant with God every living creature The birds the livestock all of the wild animals they too are in covenant with God, can you believe that?
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The flocks of starlings as they circle in the air around the pier noisy seagulls trout In a
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Vermont River sheep on the hills ants worms beetles flies bumblebees you see God makes a covenant with the earth
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We look around we look closely we live under a secular ceiling Whether we realize it or not we live in a secular world
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It means that we no longer view the world as enchanted by God as constantly framing and beholding the supernatural
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We rather live in a disenchanted world to use the language of Charles Taylor a disenchanted world a secular world
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And so Christians end up living in this secular atmosphere by Reducing by narrowing
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Who God is and what he's done and what Christ is brought about in his claims upon the earth We go through this sort of neutral life this neutral arrangement on the earth
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It's the same as anyone else, but we have this little compartment of salvation and heaven over here
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And we're trying to get people over to this little narrow compartment in this shared secular neutrality this domain of really just yeah
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It's all kind of the same, but there is this little train toward glory. We hope we can convince you to get on You're not reading
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Genesis 9 if you're thinking of that Living in that way looking at the world around you in that way
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You've never stood on a square yard of the earth that stands outside of this promise. Do you see? You've never held in your hands a single raindrop or a snowflake a blade of grass or a kernel that existed apart from this covenant
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You see Please notice that I'm not wearing a bandana and a tie -dye shirt
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And I don't drive a Prius with Greenpeace stickers pasted on the trunk but I Wonder if sometimes unregenerate people have more wonder and admiration for this world than we do and if they do that's a travesty
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That's a travesty If we become more utilitarian in the way, we look at the world around it in our lives within it
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Then we're fools. We're naive. We're not seeing things as they are Look at Genesis 9 more closely
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God makes a covenant with his creation with his earth with the planet and all that dwell upon it
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And notice the sign of the covenant beginning in verse 12 God said this is the sign of the covenant which
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I make Between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations
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I set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth
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It shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant
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Which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh
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We know what a rainbow is as natural phenomena. There's debate over whether this is the first instance of a rainbow
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In human history or whether it's it's God taking over the phenomena of rainbows and making it covenantal
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That's what John Calvin's position that latter view either way We know that rainbows are natural phenomena.
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And yet here we also know that a rainbow is now a covenantal sign We know what it is as a naturally occurring phenomenon
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It's caused by water droplets reflecting the the rays of the Sun breaking up that white light into all of its components
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And yet as a covenantal sign, we're less familiar with it. Perhaps what is what is this sign?
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And why this sign? Why a bow in the clouds? One of the things that we easily miss is that Yahweh comes in a cloud in terms of the judge narrative
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When I bring a cloud over the earth and we have to be thinking in terms of God's presence God's Theophanic presence
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God's manifestation of himself in judgment Remember that when God was moving through the garden after the fall we talked about in the cool of the day
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Not a very good translation in the wind in the wind And the idea is it's a storm theophany in the wind of that day in the storm of that day
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It's a judgmental presence of God and we see the same thing in Psalm 29 10 the
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Lord sits enthroned above the flood And the word flood there is very unique It's undoubtedly a reference here to Genesis 6
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Psalm 29 10 the Lord sits enthroned on the flood He sits enthroned on the flood and the idea is he's now triumphing over the judgment that he's bringing
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There's this cloud that he sits upon when he comes in judgment Just like we have the same exact thing
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When Jesus speaks of his return, he says you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the clouds
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Coming in glory. Do you see this is judgment theophany? I'm coming sitting on the clouds and try in the triumph of my assured victory.
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I'm coming. Do you see? And so a bow then in the best sense the bow the rainbow is meant to symbolically be the bow of a warrior and God is saying
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I I have I have been victorious in bringing this judgment upon the earth and I hang my bow
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I set my bow like a warrior who's just defeated the enemy and he hangs the bow He no longer needs it because of this triumph
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Yahweh is this victorious warrior setting his bow in the sky It's no longer needed. I've exercised judgment upon the earth
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There's an exact parallel to this in a Syrian mythology interestingly where their chief God Asher hangs a bow after he you know
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Engages in conflict on the earth and that's probably mimicking this account Syrians are getting it from this account
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Now just think of this in terms of lived reality And think of the grace of God If Noah and his family had gotten off the ark and there was
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There was no blessing there was no revelation of God's intentions for Noah no direction and they get off and you know
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Probably as they're getting off if you've ever had to unload, you know from a vacation. It's hard to do that without sin is
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Packing or unpacking. It's hard to do that without sin You can imagine they they're still fallen and so they go out in their fallen condition
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And they just make do they start to live in this world. That's just been wiped clean from the flood And can you think of the terror that would set upon their heart when the clouds turned to dark and the raindrops began to fall
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What would they assume what would they think? God is going to do this all over.
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He's going to wipe us off the face of the earth now And so God sets this sign.
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He sets this sign in the sky so that when that Summer downpour became sick their knees wouldn't go weak and they wouldn't faint thinking
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God's judgment is upon us They they could look and they could see the sign The skies would open up but there would be no flood because there was this sign and with that sign this promise
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I will not again flood the earth and destroy the flesh Importantly importantly the sign will not come without the rain
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The promise of deliverance will not come out with the dread of judgment very important Without the threat of judgment, there'll be no sign of deliverance
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And so it's this beautiful display that only comes in the midst of fear in the midst of crisis and of great need
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God, please cause the rain to stop don't judge And so when judgment starts dropping all around them with all of its threatening power
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They look for a sign of God's promised mercy and there it is. It's a bow in the clouds. I will not destroy flesh
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Not like this again But that's that's not the sign of God saying
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I won't judge sin is it it's just saying I won't destroy the earth in this manner There's only one sign given to his people
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That says I will not judge your sin And when judgment starts dropping all around you in the earth are quaking you look up and there's the sign of the cross
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And he's saying I will not judge your sin. I will not judge your sin God Makes a covenant with the earth and all upon the earth and the
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Lord declares never again Shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood never again.
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Will there be a flood to destroy the earth? This is a covenant with creation. This is a covenant of preservation
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This is a covenant of God's goodness In a term in a phrase, this is a covenant of common grace
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Common grace Common grace for those Uninitiated perhaps ever hearing that it's a technical term
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In reformed theology common grace is a technical term And as with everything in reformed theology, it's a debated term
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It's a debated term when we say common grace we're making a distinction between common grace and special grace or salvific grace grace related to salvation
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Common grace would apply to earthly temporal things in a general universal way
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Grace common to all grace common to the earthly physical temporal arrangement of life
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Whereas salvific grace not only but chiefly is about salvation and its means and its benefits
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Which are again chiefly spiritual and eternal and yet they have all sorts of tendrils in the physical and in the temporal don't they?
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But this Importantly, it's not common to all it's given only to his people only to the elect
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Noah's Covenant is given to all it's a covenant with Noah and All human offspring and all flesh that lives on the face of the earth
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And so it's common because it's common to all it's a covenant for all it's grace
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Because it's undeserved. It's unearned In fact, it's the very opposite of what is deserved and that's why it's common and grace common grace
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The great systematic theologian of the last century Dutchman Wrote what used to be the standard systematic theology at Westminster Seminary and probably many others
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And it was called the big blue sleeping pill Probably not the best phrase for this man's lifelong labor, but that was what you had to go through and it usually put you down He writes
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The covenant with Noah was not only universal But was destined to remain all -inclusive
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This isn't just initial. This is ongoing We are living in the midst of the Noahic covenant and will be until the day that God comes to consummate his redemption
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In this covenant God bestows on man not only unmerited favors, but blessings
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Blessings that were forfeited by sin. Do you see that? These things these these gifts these blessings that God is establishing with humanity are not deserved.
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They were forfeited Judgment is the only thing that's merited here. And so it has to be grace
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It's it's the opposite of what God should do by nature By nature man has no claim whatsoever on the natural blessings promised in this covenant.
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No claim. Do you see it's grace common grace Lorraine Bettner He was a very important theologian the last century
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God makes his son to shine on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust These are the blessings of common grace
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Though designed primarily for the elect They're shared by all mankind and since this world is not the place of final reward or punishment
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But the place of discipline and testing and development of the Lord's people These blessings are oftentimes enjoyed in greater abundance by the non elect than the elect
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The worldly is filled with God's treasure. Is that but I think some 24 says But in themselves these blessings are not sufficient to bring a single soul to salvation
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In fact, oftentimes it hardens people to judgment doesn't it earthly blessing? But listen in a secondary way the blessings of common grace are designed to serve
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God's purpose in revealing his glory Manifesting his character.
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He's kind. He's good He's patient Filling the world with beauty and happiness and in general playing their necessary part in the development of his kingdom
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Abraham Kuyper getting more narrow here the great Dutch theologian prime minister of the
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Netherlands writes common grace is that act of God by which negatively he curbs the operations of Satan death and sin and positively he creates an intermediate state for the world
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As well as for our human race which is and continues to be radically sinful but sin cannot work out its end
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You see there's a restrainment. There's there's a paralysis of what sin would do
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If God did not give common grace did not create a way for the world to continue
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John Calvin perhaps this is the best short definition Common grace is every favor every favor of whatever kind Falling short of salvation
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Which this undeserving and sin -cursed world enjoys from the hand of God It's common grace
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What do you see here in these verses? God keeps his covenant with mankind
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He perseveres in his covenantal faithfulness to a corrupted world What he promised
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Noah? Sea time heat cold harvest summer winter rains that will always stop short of a global flood every blessing comes to us
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Because God was pleased by the sacrifice on the altar That's the connection.
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We have to have in place This is the main point of the time we have here this morning.
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Look at this connection. Look at these important words Noah built an altar to the
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Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar
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And the Lord smelled a smoothing aroma then the Lord said in his heart I will never again curse the ground for man's sake
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Although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done
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Do you see the connection between the sacrifice the Lord being satisfied and him offering this grace to a fallen world?
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What does that mean brothers and sisters but the agonies of the Lamb of God who is slain from the foundation of the world
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Have bought all fallen men women and children anything they will ever enjoy in this world
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It's from the blood of the Lamb. That's the point Nothing is neutral Nothing is received unless it's been given
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Every good gift comes from above but how does it come to us from above it comes from the bleeding of the sacrificial lamb?
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It comes from the blood that pleases the father. Do you see? Now we need to be more narrow more specific because Christ has a
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Mediatorial role as our great high priest and in that sense his blood is only efficient for the elect
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His blood is only intended for the effect. He does not atone for the world So we have to narrow our definition be more careful here and again burkhoff
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While Christ died for the purpose of saving only the elect nevertheless the whole human race including the unrepentant and the unregenerate derive great benefits from his death the blessings of common grace may be regarded as indirect fruits of the atoning work of Christ So vast so rich was his atonement that all humanity shares in some blessing and benefit from it
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Though the design was always and only to save the elect see that's the point Christ's atoning death bore fruit
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It bore fruit Covenantal fruit the very nature of his death as an atonement was of special grace to his bride to his church
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To his sheep that were of his fault. Do you see and yet the overflow of that death?
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the overflow of that atonement Provides this indirect fruit that benefits every human being every day and every molecule in the cosmos
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And here the very indirect fruits Filtered down in a foretaste in Genesis 9 here is the blood of the sacrifice
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Compelling God to show mercy and restraint to a fallen world and not bring flood after flood after flood
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And that's what we mean by common grace It flows as a consequent of God's salvation to his people through Christ Some people call it collateral grace, which
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I think is a great. This is a great way to talk about it collateral grace You know like collateral damage when a car gets hit and it goes off and maybe bust the fire hydrant and that was collateral damage
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It wasn't the initial intent or the initial impact and yet it went and happened and this is collateral grace
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RL Dabney had there been no mediation of Christ We have not a particle of reason to suppose that the doom of our sinning race would have been delayed one hour longer than that of the fallen angels
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Hence it follows it is Christ who procures for non -elect sinners all that they temporarily enjoy
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Blaise Pascal even more even more pungently Without Jesus Christ the world would not exist because it would either be destroyed or be a hell
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Do you see what's being said here? When we connect the sacrifice of Genesis 8 to the covenant of Genesis 9, we ask the question does
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God show grace to a corrupted world? Does he show grace to every sinner
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To those that spurn him and defile themselves before him and defile others in his sight
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To those that corrupt the earth and pollute the land and increase sin that rises up like an abomination.
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Does he show grace? Yes, he does He makes a covenant to show that grace.
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He makes a covenant to restrain his wrath. He makes a covenant He undertakes to give sinful humanity the grace of restraining another flood
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He undertakes to give sinful humanity the grace of seasons and food and family
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He undertakes to give sinful humanity the grace of animals that are filled with fear in a world that will not only sustain their basic Needs but fill them with wonder and comfort and happiness
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And that's all of grace and the whole point this morning is all grace is blood -bought grace
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All grace is blood -bought grace There is no grace that comes to sinful man unless it flows to man through the grace of Jesus Christ Through his cross through his life and his death the blood of Christ stands behind the beauty of spring every year
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The blood of Christ stands behind the circle of friends that gives a blaspheming atheist joy on a
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Friday night The blood of Christ stands behind the the lunch that a suicide bomber has the day before he does his evil
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Sinners are under the wrath of God's judgment and yet there's this divine long -suffering divine compassion divine goodness
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Flowing down the Mount of Calvary Do you see? My point is simply that whatever
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God's purpose is whether that common grace is intended to be the long -suffering of God That's intended for man to be brought to repentance or whether it's to exhibit his goodness and leave no man with excuse
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Whether it's to display his justice in due time as sinners are hardened Unto the judgment and we look and we say my foot almost slipped as ASAP said whatever
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God's purpose may be all grace even common grace All grace is blood -bought grace
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All of it flows out of the cross of Christ what I'm saying brothers and sisters is be weary of living in this neutral dominion
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This life that's shared by all in the same way in our secular world a life devoid of God and God's purposes nature that just is
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We've been so tainted by evolutionary naturalism that we don't even realize
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How disenchanted the world has become for us and we look at good things in our neighbors lives
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And we think all we can say to them is hop onto this little train read this little tract come into this little compartment of life
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That's outside of this natural neutral realm. What I'm saying is no no Every breath every gift every laugh every smile every blessing that anyone enjoys in this world was purchased by the blood of Christ That's what
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I'm saying All of it flows from the cross. We don't reduce the centrality of the cross ask yourself this question
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Revelation talks about the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And you look at that and you ask
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Was the cross for this world Was the cross for this world and I'm taking a step further and I'm saying no
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The world was for the cross The world was for the cross
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It was always God's intention to put forth His Son in the fullness of time
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To display his wisdom his glory and his power and his goodness
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Being made in sinful flesh in the likeness of man atoning for his bride
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And there's such fruit that cascades down to his people that the whole world consumes it and delights in it
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Even as they spurn and blaspheme the one who grants it he's on the cross and he's praying father forgive them
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God gave his son for the world Christ is a
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Savior to all men in this sense especially those who believe
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Do not reduce God's grace do not reduce the cross of the gospel
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As though everything in this life is as it would be with or without the cross Yeah, God got angry back in Genesis 6 and the fall continues, but eventually the cross is going to come
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The only reason Noah was spared is because of the cross the only reason that things could continue after Noah is because of the cross
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The only reason that we can come in and out move live have our being in this fallen world is because of Christ All that has the breath of life is upheld by the grace of God in the cross of Christ He is a much much much more glorious Savior than you and I could ever realize
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All that has breath is indebted to the Savior every good gifts comes from above Anyone who has mind and health and life and marriage home parent children
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Anniversaries steak dinners Lego sets the beauty of creation you enjoy when you're at the
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Cape All of this has been brought on the cross All these things have come to you if you're a believer one way or another because of this pleading sacrifice
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And that's why Paul can say in 2nd Corinthians 4 all things are for your sakes Church All things are for your sakes
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And yet there's so much more than just Christians in this world because so rich was the atonement that that it blesses and sustains all
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And yet all was for your sakes So your salvation from Christ is sustaining all that is because there's this great harvest going on and as long as there's this harvest
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Will allow humans to be fruitful and multiply the regularity of seasons and harvests and provision
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Apart from his cross it would only be a wrath of endless flood There would be an earth wiped clean and yet as we look around all that we see is upheld
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By the cross of Christ the whole world is God's stage the cosmos is the theater of God's salvation
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All of it composed every molecule through the cross Because every molecule of that world was made by the
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Sun and every molecule of this world is made For the Sun and so his blood his atoning blood affects every molecule of creation
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Every rebellious soul will be brought to account and with it the full acknowledgement that every day of their lives they received thousands thousands thousands of blood bought blessings
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And they were ignorant and indifferent They were cold They didn't just burn it they actively sinned against it they sinned in light of it
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They received blood -bought blessings and joys and good things in their life from a Savior They rejected and fated and persecuted and mocked and scorned and happily willfully defied
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And on that day brothers and sisters no wonder they dropped to their knees and confessed Jesus as Lord when they're brought to the realization
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That anything and everything came from his hand And No wonder there's these atheists that can tout in this life.
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Oh, well if I get to heaven If I get to heaven, I'll say you didn't give me enough proof
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You should have just spoken to me. You should have revealed yourself to me and This is all opened up before them and their hearts are cut and they melt before the presence of God There's no injustice in heaven.
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There's no claims of a mistrial And You brothers and sisters you when you consider that Not just earthly blessings
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Not just physical temporal blessings in this life Not just natural phenomena that happened to occur upon you, but they're they're blood -bought.
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They're blood -bought. They're from Christ When you consider that even that itself would be enough to preface an eternity of worship that itself
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Recognizing that itself you've given me a good life good things and a good hope How much more so when you realize the everlasting?
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Eternal blessings that are beyond our wildest and most hopeful dreams have all been purchased to us
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By the cross when we come to Revelation we gather around the throne We behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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We see his person. We see his work We see his scars and what do we what do we sing we sing?
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Worthy is the lamb who was slain Not Thank you for my little salvation of my heavenly calling
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Thank you that and we all kind of had this neutral world and life to go through but You gave me this little invitation to step outside of that and have this nice little eternal relation to know
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Worthy is the lamb who was slain from the foundation All that is is blood -stained
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All that is it's blood -stained He purchased he purchased the very commons he he purchased hundreds tin by his blood you see what
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I'm saying Oh grace is blood -bought. What does that mean for our lives brothers and sisters?
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What would our response be if all things were our are for our sakes and Christ has purchased all What should we live like what should we look like?
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How should we relate to others when we recognize the grace of Christ is upholding them and sustaining them and nourishing them and giving them?
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Good things at every moment Shouldn't that factor in somehow to the way we seek to win the lost to the heart we have for them
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We don't know if God's gonna save them in that specific way We don't know if if his atonement was for their salvation, but we know that his atonement has brought them breath and hope and life
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Jesus says In the story of the rich man and Lazarus he received his good things in his life good things
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Good things bought from the cross All things are for your sakes what will your life show in light of this what mercy to you brothers and sisters what mercy
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What mercy to you? Close with these words from Isaiah 54 the great promise of the gospel
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With everlasting kindness, I will have mercy on you says the Lord your Redeemer So this is like the waters of Noah to me
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As I have sworn the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth So have
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I sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed
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But my kindness will never depart from you nor will my covenant of peace be removed says the
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Lord who has mercy on you Let's pray father we thank you for Just the awe of the realization of how great a
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Savior Christ is Lord we do not think of your grace rightly
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You don't understand what your cross has affected rightly forgive us
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Lord. We make it such a narrow thing We make the grace of the gospel a
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Little compartment and we pretend this world is somehow neutral we Forget that it was made by you and for you and you sustain and uphold it
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We forget that the only reason wrath is not Poured out and human beings were extinct back in Genesis 6 is because of this great covenant.
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It's great promise this great appropriation of Christ in his cross
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And here we are like Noah Lord. We just come to the altar We come to Calvary put our hands up and all we do is receive we just receive it
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We haven't asked for this we haven't sought it often we've done things to not seek it
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We haven't negotiated it. We haven't merited it We simply receive it
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You come into this valley of dry bones and you breathe your spirit into our lives you
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Give us life you give us new hearts of flesh not hearts of stone You give us eyes to behold you ears to hear you hearts to love you wills to follow you you
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Lord what do we have that we haven't received? How great a salvation is ours? What mercy we received what mercy this whole earth has received from the cross of Christ forgive us
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Lord that we've We've given short praise short wonder short admiration short thankfulness in light of these things
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Help us discern Lord How we ought to look at the world around us how we ought to look at the lives
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Of our friends and our co -workers and our neighbors when we consider This indirect fruit this rich vast bounty that flows from the bloody cross
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And help our lives to be aligned in light of that Lord Let us understand just how massive the claim is that you are