The Heart of Romans Introduction Part 5

Two hunters stopped at an old farmhouse to ask permission to hunt on the property. The place seemed deserted. There were junk cars and car parts lying around, a few chickens pecking away and a goat eating weeds. As they approached the house they saw an old well in the yard. One asked, "Wonder how deep it is." "Well drop something down and listen for the splash." They found a big chunk of concrete and dropped it in. They counted and waited a long time for the splash. It was deep. They turned to leave and the goat was charging at them. They jumped aside and the goat went straight into the well. While they were standing there the farmer came up. They chatted a while and got permission to hunt on his land. The farmer asked, "Have you seen my goat?" They said, "Your goat came charging after us but then jumped into the well. You should have had that goat tied up." The farmer said, "I thought I tied him to a big chunk of concrete." LESSON: You follow what you're tied to.

When a person calls out to God for salvation, their entire life becomes His possession—the invisible parts: their soul and spirit, as well as the visible part: their body. The body, soul and spirit make one whole person but each has a separate function.

The body is our flesh and blood. It’s the external part of us, our earth suit that identifies us with the world. It’s the part of us that goes to the grave when we die. But while it lives, it exerts pressure to have physical and emotional power over us. The body of flesh tries to influence our will to respond to its needs.

The spirit is the place God designed for Himself. Like the missing piece of a puzzle, it exists as a hole in our lives until God fills it. It is here we first desire God. From here comes the influence for what God wants and the desire to obey Him. Our spirit urges us to choose a godly response to life.

The soul is who we are. It is the internal, eternal part of us that lives on after we die. The primary function of the soul is to decide how we will respond to life. The soul is the control center of our life. It is our will. It makes choices as influenced by our body of flesh or our spirit.

We have the body of flesh pulling us earthward—toward worldly desires, and the spirit pulling us heavenward—toward godly desires. The Soul makes the choice to which we will respond.

In the first century there was a group of renegade teachers who taught God was not interested in the body, only the soul. What you did with the body was of no consequence. You could sin with your body and still be right with God in your soul.

Part of the reason people accepted that heresy was they needed an answer for how to contend against the powerful urges of their body crying out for satisfaction. It was as though the body had its own strength to control a person’s life. Lust, desire, compulsion all had driving force to take over and run the life. And against these urges, the spirit seemed to have had little influence. To solve the problem, these teachers gave permission to give in, and no hope to withstand.

Like the world saying teenagers cannot resist the urge to have sex, so give them protection and look the other way.

Like the parent giving in to the tantrum of a two- year- old.

But there was hope. There is hope. These two sides—body and spirit—are only influences suggesting an outcome. Our soul decides which it will give in to: the urges of the body or the desires of the spirit. Whichever the will attaches itself to, that’s what we will follow.

Having two sides within battling for control creates a tremendous war. But the winner is easy to predict: it’s the side we are tied to.

God’s redeeming work, restoring man back to the fellowship he had with Him in the garden, reconciled the whole person. 

Ivan the Great, Tsar of Russia in the 15^th century was to marry the daughter of the King of Greece. Being Greek Orthodox, she insisted that if they were to marry, Ivan must be baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. He agreed. When the day came to be baptized, 500 of his soldiers wanted to join him and be baptized. The church forbid professional soldiers from being baptized. They compromised. The men entered the water, took out their swords and held them above their heads. All was immersed except the arm which remained out of the water. They gave everything to God except their fighting arm which they would keep control of.

God didn’t just save our souls, He saved our entire life: body, soul and spirit.

Gen 12:1-4 – Call to Abram to go. TEST ONE – Will you go where I want you to go?

Gen 15:1-7 – God’s second call. TEST TWO – Will you be who I want you to be?

15:6 – the reckoning – declared righteous in response to Abram’s faith, within Abram’s heart God saw the willingness to be who He wanted Abram to be. Abram said yes to what God was offering him to believe.

Question: Does the inner change suddenly produce matching outward actions? Isn’t that what you would expect from a now righteous man? Righteous men should act righteously, right? But even a righteous man can make worldly decisions. 

Cat with bad habits being fixed—still being influenced by his old nature. It will take time for his body to realize it’s been changed.

Which brings about TEST THREE – Will you do what I want you to do, the way I want it done?

Gen 16:1-4a

TEST FOUR – Will you now do what I want you to, the way I want it done?

Gen 17:1-8 – Promise of life – walk with me and be blameless—carry no rebellion [speaks of division] division between who you are on the inside and who you are on the outside.

Vs. 10 – Circumcision – But why that procedure? It refers to a defining body part of the man. Why the removal of foreskin? Foreskin is excess flesh.

In Scripture the word Flesh can describe the body but often represents man doing things through his own power, independent from God. So the procedure is to remove excess flesh as a symbol of a greater reality—the triumph of the spirit over the flesh in influencing the will.

This was illustrated with Sarah giving Hagar to Abram: it was a physical act attempting to create a spiritual result. God had promised a child. We don’t believe that’s possible so we’ll help God or we’ll do God’s will our way. It is a challenge to God’s plan.

We do that in prayer, in a crisis, pain or distress. We tell God this is unacceptable and then tell God how He must fix it. This is what we want, God, not, God, we want what You know is best.

By going with the desires of the flesh, Abram actually rejected God’s authority over the plan.

So if the flesh is both the physical person and a symbol of rejecting God’s authority in our lives, then circumcision has both a physical reality and a spiritual counterpart.

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly [who was simply born into a culture or has adopted Jewish practices], nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh [as a surgical procedure]. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [of what the Law says]; and his praise is not from men [who only celebrate the outward results of the surgery], but from God.  (Rom 2:28-29)

In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh [the part of us that wants to do things through our own power, independent from God] by the circumcision of Christ; (Col 2:11)

Paul made 87 references to the flesh, some physical, but most symbolic of living by our own desires rather than God’s. He described living by the impulse of our self-centered, bodily desires as living by the flesh or living in the flesh.

For those who are living according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are living according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are living in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8:5-8)

Why can’t we please Him? We are not honoring Him as God.

This is the battlefield of our life. As believers we fight these same wars daily within our soul. Will we give in to the body of flesh and its desires to reject God’s plan or yield to the spirit and agree God’s way is best? Your will will attach to one or the other. Your life will follow the one you are tied to.

TAKEAWAYS

1.       What we believe, we do. All else is religious talk.

2.      Faith is seen in our obedience.

3.      Our choices reflect what we believe.

4.      Even righteous people can make wrong decisions.

5.      By yielding to our spirit and not our flesh, we can make good and godly choices.

Heart of Romans Introduction Part 4

Adam was created in fellowship with God. After he sinned, breaking that fellowship, God revealed the pattern by which people could be restored back in to what Adam lost. He would awaken a desire within them and then from that desire they would call out to Him. Once a person called out to Him and the relationship was begun, they could walk in fellowship with Him.

But there was more to the plan. In each example we’ve studied, when people called out to God and began walking in fellowship with Him, they adjusted their lives to conform to His plans and intentions.

Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. (Gen 6:22)

Believing in God, calling out to Him, led to a life-transforming commitment.

In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the problem is in the misconception "that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. [Sin is that desire and practice of rejecting God’s intentions for our own.] That it is a change in belief without a change in behavior."

Jesus is not an add-on feature, like some app we’ve downloaded. He is Master of the life and we are His servants.

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? (Rom 6:16)  

Our obedience is not measured by what we say but whether we obey.

Jesus told a story: But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.' And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, "The first." (Matt 21:28-31)

Obedience is the evidence of what we decided. We come to a crossroads. We decide to turn right. Turning right, then, is the evidence of our decision.

But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." (James 2:18)

For each tree is known by its own fruit. (Luke 6:44)

The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are opposite sides of the same coin. A.W. Tozer.

The Christian life is a never ending series of decisions. How am I going to live today, in this moment, in light of what Jesus has done?

How to Make Good Decisions

1.       Perform a situational analysis – decisions usually involve change

a.      Understand what the situation is now

b.      Project how this decision will affect that situation

2.      Conduct a cost/benefit analysis [Pros/Cons]

a.      What do you gain vs. what you lose.

b.      What’s it going to cost me to move forward?

c.       What’s it going to cost if I do nothing?

3.      Assess the risk/reward ratio

a.      How will it affect me: financially, socially, positionally, physically?

b.      What if the reward is obscure? Spiritually, not all rewards are on this side

4.      Determine what is the right thing to do

a.      Davy Crockett: Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.

b.      Remember that at some point, indecision becomes a decision to do nothing, which might be the worst decision of all.

Process of taking the decision down from multiple options to a single choice: yes or no, go or no go.

Casting lots, drawing straws, rolling the dice, flipping a coin

As believers, faith calls us to surrender the decision to God.

1.       Have I asked God to help me know what to do?

2.      Is it commanded in Scripture?

3.      Is it forbidden in Scripture?

4.      Would it glorify God?

5.      Can I ask God to bless it?

6.      Have I any check within my spirit?

7.      When in doubt, don’t.

Little boy looking at a famous painting from a couple of inches away saw only blurred colors. Only when he was taken back several steps could he see the whole painting, seeing where these colors made sense in the over-all.

Since God has perfect perspective to see how each decision fits into the greater whole, trusting God with the over-all not only makes sense, it is a step of obedience.

The Heart of Romans Introduction Part 2

We were introduced to Grace last week when God had to do for Adam and Eve what they could not do for themselves. When they recognized their guilt for sinning—evidenced by their sudden awareness of being naked—they tried to cover themselves by sewing leaves together. Their feeble and inadequate effort was replaced by God’s adequate work of sacrificing an animal and using its skin to make a covering for them.

That act of covering sin gave us the picture of Atonement – God covering over sins with the ultimate intention of forgiving those sins when Jesus would die on the cross.

Grace covered their sins. But Grace also kicked them out of the Garden. Wouldn’t that be justice? Punishing them for sinning? No.

There was a second tree, a permitted tree prior to eating from the forbidden tree. It was the Tree of Life. A tree representing the promise of eternal life in relationship with God prepared for the Righteous. Since they were no longer righteous but had chosen unrighteousness, it now became a forbidden tree.

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die. (Gen 2:16-17)

The Tree of Life wasn’t forbidden until they chose unrighteousness over righteousness.

Gen 3:22-24

Adam was created as God’s prototype—His master copy—the key man from whom all other keys would be made. He first represented mankind in righteousness and then in unrighteousness. Before he sinned he lived as the original design—man walking in fellowship with God. After he sinned he represented the state of fallen man who now needed to be redeemed in order for God to restore him back to that original design.

Until that restoration process was complete, and to keep Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of life and remaining unrighteous forever, God had to kick them out of the garden and place guards to keep them and anyone else from coming back in.

God wanted fellowship with them forever…but not like that.

Unrighteousness isn’t compatible with righteousness.

            Light has no fellowship with darkness.

            Impurity cannot walk with Holiness.

So God covered their sin, kicked them out and kicked in His plan of reconciliation. All acts of grace.

Then comes justice: God cursed the ground. Gen 3:17-19

Adam, since you have chosen unrighteousness, your life will be ground focused, earth-centered, not heaven focused or God-centered. And since the ground is now cursed, life that issues from the ground is going to be hard, empty, burdensome, prickly. Instead of living within My blessings, you will live unfulfilled—seeking fulfillment from your own achievements.

Your concentration, your loyalty, even your devotion and desire for Me is now divided, distorted and detached.

Sounds hopeless, but there was a plan in the works—the plan of reconciliation that we can see looking back and connecting the dots. The first dot was when God cursed the snake. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." (Gen 3:15)

Connect the dots.

Another dot was God sacrificing animals to make coverings for Adam and Eve.

A third was God pointing out the Tree of Life, evidence His intention for eternal life with man remained fixed.

But now, catch a glimpse of a dot God hid within Cain and Able’s story.

Gen 4:1-5

After the garden, why would fallen man want to connect with God anymore? He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart... (Eccl. 3:11)

In an attempt to seek fellowship with God, to honor God with an offering, Cain presented something from the cursed ground. Able sacrificed an animal. Why did God reject Cain? His offering reflected the unrighteous act of his father and came through the cursed ground. Why did God accept Able? It mirrored His grace for Adam and Eve and ultimate plan of reconciling man to Himself.

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. (Heb 11:4)

Wait, later doesn’t God accept offerings from the ground?

After Cain killed Able, Eve had Seth: the appointed one. Appointed to what? To re-introduce God’s intentions of righteousness. Seth is the pathway to how we get back on track.

God’s not going to throw away the plan because of man’s failure: If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. (2 Tim 2:13)

To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD. (Gen 4:26)

Memory can be a curse or a blessing. The memory of stories of Adam walking with God created desire to restore that privilege.

Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called on His name; They called upon the LORD and He answered them. (Ps 99:6)

Not just calling out His name but calling on His name, believing in all that name represents, as a child calls to his parent expecting something to happen.

And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered. (Joel 2:32)

WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED. (Rom 10:13)

The Heart of Romans Introduction Part 1

Attitude is crucial to living the Christian life. It controls our response to all aspects of life. Whenever we input new concepts into our mind, our attitude determines how those concepts will affect us. The mind receives the information but our attitude filters our response. If left unchecked, our attitude will become the standard of our thoughts and actions.

Aircraft have an attitude indicator that tells the pilot how he is positioned with reference to the horizon. The horizon is the standard by which the plane flies straight and level. It’s easy to lose your bearings in the sky. Pilots are trained to trust their instruments. If the attitude indicator shows you are in a slow, downward spiral, you need to reposition the plane with what your gauge tells you.

John Kennedy, it was determined, had trusted his personal attitude about his plane’s flight path rather than rely on the attitude indicator. Whenever our own attitude contradicts the gauge, mark it down, we’re the one who is wrong.

Now if the attitude indicator represents to the plane the standard of straight and level, what indicates we are living according to God’s standard?

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt 7:13-14)

With two ways, which is God’s intention?

Intentions: to have in mind something to be done or brought about. A plan designed for a particular purpose or end.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

1:4  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. [Righteous—that’s the indicator]

1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons [taken out of the family of unrighteousness and placed into the family of righteousness] through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Chosen: to choose them out from where they were with the outcome in mind to place them somewhere else.

To describe these differences, the Bible uses two words: Righteous and unrighteous—that refer to being right or wrong with God—These become the defining categories of whether we are within God’s intentions or not.

If it is His desire to take us out of unrighteousness and place us into righteousness:

Then the righteous are those who accept and conform to God’s intentions.

The unrighteous are those who do not.

To clarify the picture of that what that righteousness looks like, we need to go back to the original design.

My fingerprints were taken digitally. It showed how scarred and chopped up they had gotten throughout my life. The picture accurately recorded what they look like, but it does not reflect the original design. It has been damaged and distorted.

Gen 2:16-25

David wrote: Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? [that drawing to be right with God] And who may stand in His holy place? [desire for relationship and fellowship] He who has clean hands and a pure heart…He shall receive a blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Ps 24:3-5)

Adam and Eve: they were created with hearts so pure before God they could literally walk with Him in the Garden. They had a relationship with Him that was reflected by fellowship with Him. Symbol of that purity: they were naked and not ashamed.

Their hands were clean and their hearts were pure. The original design was a perfect picture of His intentions. They walked with God. To walk with Him you have to be right with Him.

Gen 3:1-11

After the fall, their hearts were so distorted they no longer reflected the original design. They no longer conformed to God’s intentions for a relationship through righteousness. Instead, they conformed to the image of unrighteousness. They were now wrong with God.

The result: guilt. The evidence of their guilt: ashamed of their nakedness and wished it concealed from God.

Adam represented all mankind so their sin represented all sin—the desire to live by their own intentions rather than God’s. The choice to be wrong with God instead of right with Him. That’s what sin is. Choosing the broad way instead of the narrow.

But their sin stained not only their lives, it stained us as well.

Then the penalty for their sin represented the price for all sin—separation from God.

When it came to the choice to remain faithful to the standard of God’s intentions, they chose unrighteousness over righteousness. And forever distorted the image of the original design. From then on, everyone born bears that distorted image.

Paul said: For by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one...Then through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men…For through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. (Rom 5:17-19)

But just so you know, God was prepared. Remember, He knew the plan even from the foundation of the world. So how was He prepared for Adam and Eve?

When Adam realized He had broken God’s heart, He felt the shame of his guilt. Adam’s frail attempt at covering his sin was to sew leaves together, but he couldn’t keep his sin covered. God, then, made a covering for the symbol of their guilt—their nakedness.

God had to do for him what he couldn’t do for himself. God covered his guilt. This is Grace coming into the story.

God sacrificed animals whereby coverings could be made to conceal Adam and Eve’s nakedness. Which set into motion the ultimate plan by which God would reconcile people back into relationship with Him and restore them to His original intentions.

There would be a sacrifice. There would be shedding of blood.

What started as covering—Atonement—would remain in effect until the day God would present the ultimate sacrifice of His Son. On the cross Jesus would pay the price for all sin and make full restoration possible. From that day on, God would, in Jesus, reconcile the world unto Himself, and return people back to the original design where they could walk with Him in relationship and fellowship forever.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Rom 10:9-10)

TAKEAWAYS:         

1.       Because of Adam, we all are born with a nature bent on sinning and coming short of God’s intentions.

2.      That nature will control our lives if left to itself.

3.      Because of what Jesus did, the power of that old nature is able to be broken and replaced with a new nature that desires to walk with God.

4.      It is God’s intention that we accept what Jesus did and walk in relationship and fellowship with Him forever. 

The Heart of Romans Introduction Part 3

Have you ever been lost? Physically lost? You made a wrong turn, then another, and another until finally, you had no idea where you were. There’s a panic that overwhelms you. You can see all around but nothing is familiar. You begin to wander about with no clear sense of direction. What do you do? If you’re a guy you stop and ask for directions. Or just keep going and hoping.

Unless you have a GPS on your phone, finding someone who knows where you are is the surest way to solve your problem.

When God created man in His own likeness, according to His image, it wasn’t just a random expression of “well I got one that looks like me.’ But one whose heart beats like mine does. A child after your likeness is one, when others see them, they say, “That child reminds me so much of you.” There was something about Adam that showed something about God.

Adam was 130 when Seth was born. He and Eve had had other children after Cain and Able, but Seth was in Adam’s own likeness, according to his image (Gen 5:3). The likeness of God in Adam is now in Seth.

Quite possibly, Adam spent time with Seth, reliving the stories about creation and the garden, the fall and the expulsion. When Adam told of the joy of walking with God in the cool of the day, Seth’s heart began to beat faster, wanting that same fellowship. In the midst of a fallen world emerges one who desires to walk with God.

Passion, desire, is hard to pass on. It often fades. It can be seasonal or go dark for years. But to establish that passion as a legacy, it has to be cultivated; it has to be nurtured; it has to be responded to; it has to be demonstrated. Passion for God becomes a defining characteristic of who we are as believers. Seth represented such a man.

So it is no surprise that the Bible says: To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD. (Gen 4:26)

Not just calling out His name but calling on His name, believing in all that name represents, expecting when he calls out, something happens.

And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered. (Joel 2:32)

WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED. (Rom 10:13)

They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, 'They are My people,' And they will say, 'The LORD is my God.’ (Zech 13:9)

Calling out to God releases His grace which opens for us the door of Heaven drawing us in and granting us the privilege of standing before the very throne of Heaven confident we are children of God.

In the Garden God called out to Adam and Eve. Out of the Garden, men and women must call out to God.

Five generations later: Enoch – Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Gen 5:24)

From calling we move back into walking. Remember the original design, God’s intentions: Man would walk with Him in relationship and fellowship. The memory of that privilege was being passed down from one generation to another.

Jacob blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day…bless the boys. (Gen 48:15)

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; (1 Jn 1:6)

As Adam represented God’s intention for man in the Garden, Enoch represented God’s intention for man outside of the Garden. Like stepping into a narrow stream, Enoch stepped back into the flow of God’s intentions.

There has always been a remnant that follows a narrow path throughout history. The vast majority choose the broad road that leads to destruction. Out of that vast majority, a remnant chooses to walk with God. Enoch chose the narrow path. Enoch walked with God.

We have calling and waking—then comes Noah and the flood. Remember how God cursed the ground in response to Adam and Eve’s sin?

Now Lamech had a son and called his name Noah, saying, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed." (Gen 5:29)

Why would Lamech think that? Perhaps those who called out to God, who walked with God, who fellowshipped with God, also gained insight from God. Something was up and God was about to step back into the plight of the earth. God was giving them a heads up. Somehow Lamech knew Noah would be the one through whom God would cleanse the earth and remove the curse. It is unlikely he understood the means by which God would accomplish that.

Gen 6:1-2

Sons of God – angels?

But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Matt 22:29-30)

            Angels are not reproducible beings.

            Adam came from God. Son of God

            Eve came from Adam. Daughter of man

For a man is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man…though neither is independent from the other. (1 Cor 11:7-8)

And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26-27)

Vs. 3 – Strive: shield man from My wrath

Judgment will happen in 120 years

Vs. 4 Nephilim – not a race but a category of men who were known for their might, strength, and size. Reference to them as giants later.

There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." (Num 13:33)

Nephilim were mighty men, victorious warriors, men of renown – of reputation. Perhaps they were like guardians or served as peace-keepers—some structure of law and order. And maybe the reference is…things were so bad even they couldn’t stop the disintegration of society.

           

But they were not the bi-product of the sons of God and daughters of man.

Vs. 5: Instead of righteousness begetting righteousness, unrighteousness was begetting unrighteousness.

Cf: 11-12

Without righteous, left to themselves, men will choose evil over good. Without the attitude indicator, the plane is going to crash.

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. (Prov 4:23)

Without pure hearts, the impurity within the heart rules. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. (Matt 15:19)

Transgression speaks [calls out] to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. (Ps 36:1)

Where there is no vision the people are unrestrained [perish]. Prov 29:18

Vision of what? Holiness of God, Almightiness of God, Sovereignty of God, Goodness of God.

When there is no fear of God there is no fear of rebelling against God.

Vs. 6: sorry – to comfort oneself

Was God sorry for the decision to create?

Did He regret He ever made man?

Did He not expect this to happen?

He was pained by man’s response and what He would have to do to reconcile it.

Grieved: King David has a son named Absalom who wanted to take away the kingdom from his father. He was killed in battle.  The king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And thus he said as he walked, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you!" (2 Sam 18:33)

Absalom had turned against his father. David’s son had become his enemy. But David loved Absalom. His death hurt David so much he wished he had died instead of his son.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, [ones in opposition to God’s intentions] Christ died for us. For while we were enemies [those who have turned against God] we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son... (Rom 5:10)

Never think God was a detached observer in Heaven. He was a grieving Father, whose Son would eventually die in order to reconcile people back to Himself.

Vs. 7 – sorry – consoled

Vs. 8 – but Noah found favor—to bend or stoop – coming down to the level of our need. Word for Grace in OT.

Gen 6:9 – Noah walked with God

In a world of crooked lines, Noah walks as a straight line.

In a world where everyone went the broad way, Noah took the narrow path.

Why did God choose Noah? Good boat builder? Great with animals? Young and vibrant? Noah was a man of faith who walked with God. To Noah, God had applied favor, grace, and thereby declared him right with Him. Therefore, Noah was righteous, not because he built a big boat, but because he walked with God with clean hands and a pure heart, and one other thing…

Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. (Gen 6:22)

He believed and acted on that belief.

Precedents are all set:

God’s intention is for people:

·         to call out to Him for salvation,

·         walk with Him in fellowship,

·         and live by faith, conforming to His plans, trusting Him for the outcome.

Connect the dots in your life and you’ll find that’s how the Lord brought you to Himself. He invited you into a forever relationship with Him and you said, “Yes.”

And if you haven’t yet taken Him up on His offer…

TAKEAWAYS are more what you could literally takeaway today. A forever relationship with God

1.      A – Accept what God has said is true and what Jesus did is enough.

2.     B – Believe that He is inviting you to respond.

3.      C – Call out to Him for salvation.

Ain't Over Til It's Over

Good thing we don’t have the responsibility of determining when our lives are over. Can you imagine calling it quits and the very next day God has a boat-load of blessings set to be delivered to your address? Or shutting everything down, then somebody comes by that wants exactly what you’ve been selling all these years. I can’t imagine living forever with this what if stuck in my mind—what if I had waited? What if I hadn’t been so anxious to turn out the lights?

And then, a church calls and says, “We need an interim.” That sounds doable. I believe God would have be do that. So I started the interim. But God had other plans.

People started coming. Excitement began to permeate the place. We opened the spill-over room on one side in the back. Later, we opened the other side. We get done and they won’t go home. They stand around and visit and enjoy the fellowship. The atmosphere is good.

Then God said, “Let’s make this permanent.” And the people voted and unanimously agreed God had spoken. We celebrated and sensed something special was going on.

I even agreed with Obama, “You didn’t build this.” There is no way a person or persons could do what God is doing here. He is setting His seal on North Shore Church and declaring it a place where 

His reputation (glory) rests.

Where He’s taking us is still a mystery, but it is clear He has something in mind.

Now, I just need to keep from messing this up.

When Faith Becomes Tedious

Probably the most tedious part of the Bible is Leviticus and Numbers. I just finished reading through them. The names, numbers and details of procedures can be overwhelming. I often wondered why on earth would God have recorded all of this and preserved it to become a foundational part of our Bible. Then it hit me.

God was taking a group of people who grew up in a foreign culture, shaped by a foreign society and influenced by a foreign religion and transforming them into the collection known as the People of God.

There were no instructions telling them how to transform or guidelines describing what the final product would look like. They were on the path to being in practice what they were by calling yet had no idea where the path would lead. Without direction, they would be left, each man, to his own opinion of how life should be lived.

God gave the tedious laws to provide boundaries to keep them bundled together while they learned how to live as People of God. The do’s and do not’s taught them there was a standard of right and wrong applicable to everyone. Society cannot survive unless the laws apply to everyone.

He also gave procedures for how to present themselves and their offerings. These were quite specific. He described the kind of offerings they were to bring so that people wouldn’t just give Him something of no value. He was establishing His preeminence. You don’t give left-overs to a King.

But the process of how the priests would do the sacrifice was very precise. I wondered why? Just kill the animal, drain its blood and burn it. Sounds simple, routine. Yet, God wanted an exact process followed because the process protected them from changing why they did what they did. The goal was to please God, not just simply sacrifice an animal.

Faith requires us to act according to a pattern. We believe in God. We encounter a trial. We declare God’s faithfulness. We trust in God. We act according to our confidence in God’s direction. We thank God for the outcome. Whatever we add to that pattern that doesn’t reflect upon God’s goodness is unnecessary and unwanted.

James says if we are acknowledging God for our needs and mix in doubt we have become double-minded. We have included something into the pattern that doesn’t belong. Adding something that doesn’t belong taints our faith—whether it’s our motive or our help.

That’s why God wanted the priests to carry out their procedures precisely, so that they wouldn’t include something that didn’t belong, changing an offering to God into a method to gain their own way. Trust means relying on God to accomplish His purposes His way.

As tedious as trusting God the way God wants to be trusted may seem, faith works best when it is unaffected by circumstances, the situation, the timing. God made it specific: cast your cares upon Me, for I care for you…and don’t let anything interfere with the simplicity of that process.

And all the names, tribes, chiefs…what’s that all about? It just shows that God not only knows what He wants to accomplish, but who He wants to accomplish it through. He knows His people and knows their circumstances. Knowing all those names means He knows our names, individually, and has intentions specific to us.