John 17 and the Eternal Covenant

"Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son,

that the Son may glorify You,

even as You gave Him authority over all flesh,

that to all whom You have given Him,

He may give eternal life.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

I glorified You on the earth,

having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.

No, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself,

with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

I have manifested Your name

to the men whom You gave Me out of the world;

they were Yours and You gave them to Me,

and they have kept Your word.

Now they have come to know

that everything You have given Me is from You;

for the words which You gave Me I have given to them;

and they received them and truly understood

that I came forth from You,

and they believed that You sent Me.

I ask on their behalf;

I do not ask on behalf of the world,

but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;

and all things that are Mine are Yours,

and Yours are Mine;

and I have been glorified in them.

I am no longer in the world;

and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name,

the name which You have given Me,

that they may be one even as We are.

While I was with them,

I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me;

and I guarded them and not one of them perished

but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

But now I come to You;

and these things I speak in the world

so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

I have given them Your word;

and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world,

even as I am not of the world.

I do not ask You to take them out of the world,

but to keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

For their sakes I sanctify Myself,

that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone,

but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

that they may all be one;

even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,

that they also may be in Us,

so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

The glory which you have given Me I have given to them,

that they may be one, just as We are one;

I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity,

so that the world may know that You sent Me,

and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me,

be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory,

which You have given Me,

for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, although the world has not know You,

yet I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me;

and I have made Your name known to them,

and will make it known,

so that the love with which You loved Me

may be in them, and I in them."

Pink on Rainbows

As many of you know, I am reading a book by Arthur W. Pink entitled, "The Divine Covenants." In light of our lesson on Noah, I wanted to share with you an excerpt from his writings on the subject:

(I added the bullet points to emphasize his list and make it more readable.)

"There are many parallels between the rainbow and God's grace:

• As the rainbow is the joint-product of storm and sunshine, so grace is the unmerited favor of God appearing on the dark background of the creature's sin.
• As the rainbow is the effect of the sun shining on the drops of rain in a cloud, so Divine grace is manifested by God's love shining through the blood shed by our blessed Redeemer.
• As the rainbow is the telling out of the varied hues of the white light, so the 'manifold grace of God' (I Peter 4:10) is the ultimate expression of God's heart.
• As nature knows nothing more exquisitely beautiful than the rainbow, so heaven itself knows nothing that surpasses in loveliness the wondrous grace of God.
• As the rainbow is the union of heaven and earth - spanning the sky and reaching down to the ground - so grace in the one Mediator has brought together God and man.
• As the rainbow is a public sign of God hung out in the heavens that all may see it, so 'the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men' (Titus 2:11).
• Finally, as the rainbow has been displayed throughout all the past forty centuries, so in the ages to come God will show forth 'the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus' (Ephesians 2:7)."

Notes for Lesson 4

Lesson 4 – Flood and Tower of Babel

Genesis 6-11

I. Introduction to Noah – Genesis 6:1-13

· Nephilim – Who are these giants?

o Sons of Sethites and daughters of ___"Cain"anites_______

o Demon _____possessed men__________

o Angels

· Nephilim were ____mighty____ men and men of _______renoun______

· 100% words – the wickedness of men caused the Lord to regret creating – what a sobering statement!

· v. 8 – first mention of grace – Noah found favor/grace

II. Noah’s Obedience – Genesis 6:14-22

· Dimensions of the ark:

o 438 feet long (1.5 football fields)

o 72.9 feet wide

o 43.8 feet high

o 1,400,000 cubic feet (522 standard livestock cars - 125,000 sheep)

o 3 stories high - divided into rooms

o gopher wood

o pitch inside and out - "pitch" in Hebrew is the same word for
"atonement" - pitch kept the _____judgment_______waters out, Christ's blood (pitch) was the ____pitch/atonement_____ for our sins - keeps the judgement fire away

o one door into the boat

· The animals:

o Less than 18,000 species of animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians – total)

o Double that number with extinct animals of the fossil record

o 75,000 = male/female x 36,000 plus 3,000 for the "5-of-each-clean-animal" category – Brookfield Zoo has 2,300 animals

o 60% of the ark was potentially filled with animals - perhaps less, because "kind" is probably more general than "species"

o large animals would be young – babies most likely

o 1 million species of insects!

o The rest of the space was for food storage and living quarters for Noah and his family

· Further Obedience – Noah was ____thorough__ - Genesis 6:22, 7:5,9,16 – he did as the Lord commanded him

· What day did Noah enter the ark?

· The flood:

o Local or worldwide?

o The flood vs. evolution

o How did the flood change the world?

1. oceans more ____extensive_________

2. land ___less_____ extensive

3. tropical worldwide temperature was ___gone__ - polar regions developed including glaciers and an ice age (i.e. “snap-freezing of mastadons”)

**For more information on Ice Age – read Henry Morris, Remarkable Record of Job, pp. 29,30 and Ken Ham, The Answers Book, pp.12,13

4. mountain ranges ___appeared________- less inhabitable regions

5. wind, storms, rains, snows - _______harder___ existence for man

6. canopy ____protection_____of sun's rays gone - life span _shortened__

7. general ____instability____ of earth's surface - volcanoes, seismic activity increased

· After the flood: Genesis 8:20-9:19

o Noah’s sacrifice

o The Noaic Covenant:

1. Be____fruitful____ and multiply

2. Animals will now _______fear_____ men - Genesis 9:2

3. Animals would be_____food_____ for man (all) - v. 3 (do not eat/drink the blood - Leviticus 17:10-14 - blood = life)

4. ____Capital______ ______punishment______ is established – now government was necessary- v.5-7

o God promises never to ______flood_____ the earth again

o Reminder of the rainbow – I WILL REMEMBER – v.15

III. Table of Nations – Genesis 10

IV. Tower of Babel – Genesis 11

· Story of Nimrod – Genesis 10:8,9

· What was the purpose of the tower?

· What was God’s reaction?

God's flood

This week I asked my ladies to inquire of their friends, family and strangers if they thought the biblical account of the flood was true and if it was local or worldwide. One of my gals posted her inquiry on Facebook and one of the responses read:

...its a myth, but IF it were true

it was the greatest mass murder

by a deity or world leader

in the history of mankind.

What do you think about that comment? Let's make a few simple observations first:

• "myth" indicates that this person doesn't believe in a literal view of scripture
• "mass murder" indicates disdain and judgment on God as the author of the flood
• "a deity" indicate that this person doesn't believe in the God of the Bible, but that there are possibly multiple options within the realm of gods
• "a deity" and "world leader" indicates that this person equates the flood to genocides accomplished by historical figures (i.e. Hitler, etc.)

I will have to agree with one point from this person's comment - more people were killed in this one event than ever in the history of the world. Due to the longevity of life before the flood, it is estimated that the population of the world was similar then to what it is today. So we're talking from 7 billion people down to 8. Yeah. Wow.

So, how would you answer an accusation like this? Yes, the facts are true, but is this person's perspective accurate?

Let's say a child goes outside to play on his swing set and sees an anthill on the ground. He marches over and kicks the anthill and ends up killing the ants that were swarming at his feet. Is he a mass murderer? Of course not, but this is NO WHERE NEAR a comparison of who God is and what He did at the flood. First of all, the boy did not make the ants, and second of all, the ants were not rebellious to the boy. So don't accept sing-song parables like this. Let's try to be more accurate.

You see, God created man. This reality completely puts us out of His league. We're not talking about "creating" like having a baby - we are not the creators of our children, as much as we like to claim we are. God is the author and giver of life. We have to use physical properties (I'm trying not to get too specific here) to make a baby (which God actually gave us to use), where God created from nothing. We are NOT in the same ball park as God.

He is God.

We are not.

Therefore, we do not stand in judgment of God.

Secondly, sin has a price. Because He is God, His holiness demands perfection. That's His standard, not ours because...HE IS GOD and WE ARE NOT. Genesis 6:5 tells us that the wickedness of man was great and that EVERY intent and thought of man was ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY.

We cannot even imagine how bad this was because God has built His church in this current world. But imagine if sin ruled? We see some pretty bad stuff right now - imagine if it was the norm? There was no government at the time of Noah - every man did what was right in his own eyes - absolute mayhem, driven by evil. It was so bad that it GRIEVED the heart of God - incredible!

So as the author of life, He had the right to take it away.

We cannot hold God to what our sin-encrusted mind believes is fair. It just doesn't work that way. When we do this, we struggle with:

• a Father offering the life of His Son for another
• a God who demands that a nation be wiped out to make room for His chosen people
• a thief being given salvation on the cross
• a legalistic Pharisee/murder writing a majority of the New Testament

Do you see it? Do you get it?

By faith, we are given glimpses of the heart of God and rather than standing in judgment of Him, we should fall on our faces and ask, Why didn't He just wipe out all of mankind? And then His Word tells us that He didn't do that because He had chosen us from the foundations of the world and loved us so much, that He chose to keep His Word and spare life on earth, all for His own glory.

Now, as to the one who wrote the comment on Facebook - rather than defending the actions of the Creator of the universe, I think I would start with trying to get him to see that God exists...to debate the flood with an atheist is really futile...but remember, God is the One who saves, so don't be discouraged by the persecution that faith in God brings.