The Love of The King
Before we get into today’s message, I want to remind you that our Christmas Eve Candlelight service is only a few weeks away. On your seats are some invite cards to invite somebody you know, and you can also take a picture of those cards to share on social media or text invite some friends. Last year my family made Christmas potpourri jars, attached an invite card to them, and gave them to several neighbors we’ve been building relationships with. The reason we do this is because it’s invitations that leads to transformations, meaning those invitations aren’t just print on paper, they’re invitations for people to meet our Savior. So let’s invite, and let’s pray for those we invite.
Now as for today, we’re continuing our teaching series called Advent. It’s a Christmas series about how the King has come, and will come again! The word advent means to arrive or to come, which is exactly what the Christmas season is about. The Christmas season is about celebrating Jesus already arriving with his 1st coming, but it’s also about waiting with great anticipation for the arrival of his 2nd coming at the end of history. So in this series we’re exploring some of the gifts King Jesus brought us with his 1st coming, and what it means for our lives today as we wait for the arrival of his 2ndcoming. Last week Robbie started this series explaining how the 1st advent of Christ fills us with hope, as we’re waiting for the 2nd advent of Christ. Well this week we’re talking about how advent points to the great love of Christ. We’re talking about how we often misplace our love for Christ, but Christ never misplaces his love for us. The reality is both skeptics and believers were created to love, but sometimes we love the wrong things. Sometimes we love unhealthy foods, instead of healthy foods. Sometimes we love being served, instead of being the one serving. Sometimes we love being right, instead of admitting we’re wrong. Both skeptics and believers were created to love, but sometimes we love the wrong things. So today we’re studying Genesis Ch. 6, which isn’t a normal Christmas text since it’s about Noah and the flood. But the reason we’re studying this is because Genesis 6 gives us a deep look into the misplaced love of humanity, and the grieving loving heart of God that eventually leads to the incarnate birth of Jesus. So let’s turn to Genesis 6 and get into it. You can find Genesis in the beginning of the bible, it’s the very first book of the bible, and we’ll be in Genesis 6:5-10. Title of the message is The Love of The King, and the big idea is we misplace our love for the King, but the King never misplaces his love for us...We misplace our love for the King, but the King never misplaces his love for us...
Here’s your context. In Genesis 1-3 we learn after God created the world, he said it was very good. There was no sin, sickness, sadness, or death, so it was total peace and paradise. Life was very enjoyable, it was very good. But everything changed when the first humans misplaced their love and sinned. It damaged humanity’s relationship with God, each other, and the natural world. This is when things went from being very good, to being very bad. In today’s text we’ll learn things get even worse, and we’ll learn about the following three things: 1st The Flood of God’s Grief, 2nd The Flood of God’s Wrath, 3rd The Flood of God’s Love. Simply put, we’ll learn we misplace our love for the King, but the King never misplaces his love for us. Let’s check it out.
Genesis 6:5-10 states, “When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.” Okay so the 1st thing we’re learning about here is The Flood of God’s Grief. The text says God was deeply grieved by humanity's wickedness. In vs 5 God’s evaluating humanity's wickedness, but in vs 6 he’s grieving humanity's wickedness. His heart’s filled with a flood of grief, and when it says he regretted making humanity that doesn’t mean he’s saying, “I made a mistake. I didn’t see this coming, and if I had the chance to do it again, I’d never create human beings again.” That isn’t what he’s saying. He isn’t blindsided by any of this, instead he’s deeply grieved over this. In fact the Hebrew word regret is sometimes translated as sorrow or grief. God’s feeling sorrow, he’s feeling grief over the current situation of humanity's wickedness. He’s feeling what a loving parent feels when they have to spank or take something away from their child. A truly loving parent doesn’t enjoy disciplining their child. They hate it, they grieve it, they even regret having to be in that situation. But that doesn’t mean they made a mistake having kids or they wish they never had kids. We misinterpret the text if we think God’s saying he made a mistake or wishes he never made humanity, because he has the chance to completely annihilate the human species forever. But instead he allows a remnant to survive which tells us his regret and grief is really over having to discipline humanity in this situation. The fact that there’s a flood of grief in God’s heart over this proves God’s love for humanity, because we grieve over the things we love. In this case God grieves over us, because he loves us and hates seeing what our sinful wickedness does to us and the rest of his creation.
See as humans we were created to be relational beings who love God and love others, but when that doesn’t happen it grieves God and causes grief to others. We’re supposed to love the very God who loves us, and our love for God is supposed to shape our thoughts, motives, actions, and words in ways that positively affects our relationships. But the problem is we misplace our love for God with other things, and those other things start shaping our thoughts, motives, actions, and words instead of God. Like I said before both skeptics and believers were created to love, but sometimes we love the wrong things. Those wrong things negatively affects our relationships, which grieves God and causes grief to others. The primary way this happens is by misplacing our love for God with love for ourselves, because you’re now the one who’s driving your life instead of the God who created your life. I mean when do married couples have conflicts in their marriage? It’s when they’re being self-centered instead of God-centered and other-centered...When do parents and siblings have conflicts in their family? It’s when they’re being self-centered instead of God-centered and other-centered...Every conflict in our marriages, families, and relationships begins with people being self-centered, instead of God-centered and other-centered. It begins with us misplacing our love for God with a love for ourselves. Vs. 5 says humanity reached a point in history where this was happening, evil was happening all the time. There’s a flood of grief in God’s heart over this. The more we recognize how deeply personal this is to God, how deeply God loves us and grieves us, the more we’ll appreciate the gift of Jesus that’s celebrated during Christmas. The more we recognize how deeply God loves us and grieves us, the more we’ll appreciate God’s love and grief that gets fully displayed, through the incarnate birth and crucifixion of Jesus.
Again vs. 6, “The Lord was deeply grieved. 7 Then the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.’”There’s the 2nd thing we’re learning about here, and it’s The Flood of God’s Wrath. We’ve learned about the flood of God’s grief, but now we’re learning about the flood of God’s wrath. God is about to wipe mankind off the face of the earth with a flood, and many biblical scholars believe it only took a regional flood instead of a global flood, because the world wasn’t as populated as it is today. But regardless of how large the flood was, there are two main things we need to remember when it comes to the flood of God’s Wrath. The 1st thing is we need to remember that God grieved over the flood, because as skeptics or believers the thought of God doing something like this bothers us. But the fact that it bothers us tells us our emotions are actually in alignment with God’s emotions. I mean it should bother us, because it bothered God! God isn’t leaping for joy over this, he’s deeply grieved over this. If you notice the flood of his grief comes before the flood of his wrath. It’s because he knows what he has to do, and he’s grieving over having to do it. Sometimes in life there are things you have to do, even though it grieves you to do it. God knew what he had to do, and it grieved him to do it.
Now some of you might be wondering if it grieved God so much, then why didn’t he do something different, which leads to the 2nd thing we need to remember. We need to remember God had a good reason for the flood. I mean he could’ve stopped his grief, but he doesn’t. Nobody puts themselves through grief unless there’s a good reason for it, like somebody going through chemo. Nobody wants to go through chemo. But you’ll go through that pain to kill the cancer inside you, just like God was willing to go through pain to kill the cancer inside our world. God has infinite wisdom, which means he could have an infinite number of reasons for the flood. One of those reasons is in vs 5, and it’s because humanities wickedness had become so frequent and widespread. Now let’s say during that period of history, the world was full of only Hitlers. You’d most likely say “Well yeah, of course it’d be good for God to wipe out people like Hitler.” Well who’s to say it wasn’t full of violent people like Hitler? Contextually the world was much less populated back then, and they didn’t have restraints on evil like we have today. They didn’t have things like the United Nations, global sanctions, or nuclear bombs deterring nations from war. With a small population and little restraints on evil, it’s certainly possible for violent people like Hitler to fill the earth, which it says in vs 11-13. It says humanity became filled with corruption and destruction.
Vs. 11-13 states, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, ‘I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them, along with the earth.’” It’s saying humanity became so corrupt, that they were destroying the world. But God says “Enough is enough. I regret and grieve having to do this, but I have to destroy the destroyer. I have to kill the cancer that’s killing creation.” God is judging the wickedness of humanity here and he’s flooded with grief, because he knows the flood of his wrath is coming. But thankfully this isn’t the end of the story, or else there wouldn’t be any hope for humanity. The story doesn’t end with the flood of God’s grief and wrath, instead it continues with the flood of God’s love in vs 8-10.
Vs. 8, “Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.” Noah found favor with the Lord, because he believed the Lord’s warnings about the flood, and received God’s offer of salvation. The Lord warned him a flood was coming, in vs. 14 God tells him to build an ark, and by faith he builds the ark or else he would’ve died in the flood too. He found favor with the Lord not because he was perfect, but because he kept his faith and trust in the Lord when nobody else would.
Again vs. 8, “Noah, however, found favor with the Lord. 9 These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” So the flood of God’s wrath eventually comes and wipes out mankind except for Noah and his family. This leads to the 3rd thing we’re learning in this text, and it’s The Flood of God’s Love. The flood of God’s wrath comes to wipe everything out, but the flood of God’s love comes to save a remnant. The flood of God’s love is displayed even more in Ch. 9, because after the flood waters dry up God promises he’ll never flood the earth like that again. He promises in Genesis 9:13, “I’ve placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” God places his bow in the sky, and the Hebrew word for bow isn’t rainbow. It’s obviously talking about a rainbow since it says it’s placed in the clouds. But the Hebrew word for bow isn’t a rainbow, it’s a war bow, a battle bow. If you look at the curvature of a rainbow, it’s shaped like a war bow, and it’s pointing away from the earth instead of towards the earth. What God’s saying to humanity is “I love you too much to keep shooting arrows at you. So I’ve put up my war bow, to have a loving friendship with you.” The next time you see a rainbow let it remind you that God put up his war bow, to have a loving friendship with you. Let it remind you that on the cross, Jesus took the arrows of God’s wrath we deserve for our sins, to give us the flood of God’s loving friendship we don’t deserve.
In fact this is what vs. 10 is pointing us to when it mentions the family lineage of Noah! I love vs. 10, because it points us to the future hope we have in the incarnate birth and crucifixion of Jesus. How? It’s because over 2,000 years after the flood, Jesus comes through the family lineage of Noah’s son Shem. The family lineage of Noah that’s mentioned in vs. 10 is a reminder that the human narrative doesn’t end with the flood of God’s grief and wrath over our sins, instead it continues with the flood of God’s love through Noah’s family lineage. It continues with the flood of God’s love being fully displayed, through the incarnate birth and crucifixion of Jesus. This flood narrative points us to the Christmas narrative and our great need for Jesus, because like the people back then we often misplace our love for God with love for ourselves and other things. In fact the way you lived your life this past week is evidence there’s still a misplaced love war in your heart. If we examined your thoughts, motives, actions, words, and daily interactions with others from this past week, it’d reveal there’s still a misplaced love war going on in your heart. It’d reveal you might have had some moments where your love for God and others shaped your thoughts, motives, actions, words, and daily interactions with others, but there were also a lot of moments where your love for yourself and other things shaped those things more. There were also a lot of moments where you brought some corruption and destruction into your marriage, into your family, into your workplace, into other parts of God’s creation like the people in Noah’s era. Your life and my life this past week is evidence there’s still a misplaced love war in our hearts, which is why we still need the great flood of God’s love to cover us and transform us. The flood narrative is a great reminder for each of us to reset our hearts this Christmas season on King Jesus, because each of us still needs the help of King Jesus to transform us, into having a more loving heart like his.
The big idea of the message is that we misplace our love for the King, but the King never misplaces his love for us...We misplace our love for the King, but the King never misplaces his love for us...Genesis 6 teaches us that God’s heart is grieved over this, but the fact that God grieves proves his love for us. It proves God loves his creation and grieves the sinful corruption and destruction of his creation. He grieves the sinful corruption and destruction that our misplaced love, our self-centered love causes in our lives, marriages, families, and relationships. But the good news is we can go to the Savior this morning to receive his forgiveness, guidance, and love. The good news is our human narrative doesn’t end with the flood of God’s grief and wrath over our sins, instead it continues with the Christmas narrative and the flood of God’s love being fully displayed through the incarnate birth and crucifixion of Jesus. It continues with God showing he loves his creation so much, that he enters into his creation through the incarnate birth of Jesus, and dies for the sins of his creation through the crucifixion of Jesus. The continuation of the Christmas narrative proves even though we’ve misplaced our love for the King, the King never misplaces his love for us. The continuation of the Christmas narrative, the incarnate birth and crucifixion of Jesus, proves God hasn’t given up on us. It proves God hasn’t given up on you...The continuation of the Christmas narrative proves instead of Jesus giving up on you, he gave up his life for you...