(God) did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah,
one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the
world of the ungodly.
2 Peter 2:5
Again this week we must thank Mosha Mordecai for another
excerpt from the lost Dead Sea Scrolls. As an avid reader of this weekly
column, Mosha correctly anticipated that this weekŐs article would deal with
the personality of Noah, referred to in 2 Peter 2:5 as Ňa preacher of
righteousness,Ó What follows is attributed to be an excerpt from one of Noah
sermons. His attempt to save others from the coming destruction of a corrupt
society before the world wide flood:
Look! The LORD is about to destroy the earth and make it
a vast wasteland. See how he is scattering the people over the face of the
earth. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses,
buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors--none will be
spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The LORD has spoken!
The earth dries up, the crops wither, the skies refuse to
rain. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted the
instructions of God, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant.
Therefore, a curse consumes the earth and its people. They are left desolate,
destroyed by fire. Few will be left alive.
All the joys of life will be gone. The grape harvest will
fail, and there will be no wine. The merrymakers will sigh and mourn. The clash
of tambourines will be stilled; the happy cries of celebration will be heard no
more. The melodious chords of the harp will be silent. Gone are the joys of
wine and song; strong drink now turns bitter in the mouth.
The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep
out looters. Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has reached
its lowest ebb. Gladness has been banished from the land. The city is left in
ruins, with its gates battered down. Throughout the earth the story is the
same--like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine
after harvest, only a remnant is left.
But all who are left will shout and sing for joy. Those
in the west will praise the LORD's majesty. In eastern lands, give glory to the
LORD. In the coastlands of the sea, praise the name of the LORD, the God of
Israel. Listen to them as they sing to the LORD from the ends of the earth.
Hear them singing praises to the Righteous One!
But my heart is heavy with grief. I am discouraged, for
evil still prevails, and treachery is everywhere. Terror and traps and snares
will be your lot, you people of the earth. Those who flee in terror will fall
into a trap, and those who escape the trap will step into a snare.
Destruction falls on you from the heavens. The world is
shaken beneath you. The earth has broken down and has utterly collapsed.
Everything is lost, abandoned, and confused. The earth staggers like a
drunkard. It trembles like a tent in a storm. It falls and will not rise again,
for its sins are very great.
In that day the LORD will punish the fallen angels in the
heavens and the proud rulers of the nations on earth. They will be rounded up
and put in prison until they are tried and condemned. Then the LORD Almighty
will mount his throne on Mount Zion. He will rule gloriously in Jerusalem, in
the sight of all the leaders of his people. There will be such glory that the
brightness of the sun and moon will seem to fade away.
While this purports only to be an excerpt, or a fragment
of the only recovered sermon from the preacher Noah, today we would find that
his words are not really oriented to seekers. His wordŐs are of repent or die,
and it all occurs for the glory of God. But if these truly are the Words of God
for a generation, there should be some application to our modern church pulpit.
Perhaps there has been a deliberate conspiracy to suppress this sermon, because
it does not seem to fit with our perception of GodŐs love.
The ReformerŐs taught that to truly understand grace, you
must first understand the law. The law that GodŐs holiness demands perfection.
Within the context of that required holiness, only then does the love of God
poured out to mankind through the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ make
any sense. Without that requirement for exact personal perfection, ChristŐs
imputed righteousness for our justification is nothing but an undefined
illusion.
Perhaps, the most significant problem in evangelicalism
today is that we have watered down the law to such an extent that all we are
left with is religious legalism. A list of donŐts and canŐts, moralism and
ethics. ŇI donŐt smoke and I donŐt chew, and I donŐt go with girls that do. I
have been born again, have a relationship with Jesus, and am filled with the
Spirit. I am well on my way to make it into heaven on my own merits. I am one
really cool dude!Ó
Manipulations of portions of GodŐs word may help sell
books and tapes. They may produce religious excitements and prosperous
meetings. But they are not the gospel of Jesus Christ, His death for the sins
of man, and His resurrection for the hope of eternity. In that respect this
Christianity without a cross is as evil as IslamŐs mighty jihad. Without the
miracle of the free gift of grace offered in true Christianity, it becomes just
another path to God as much of the world today discerns.
Speaking of miracles, would you believe it? GodŐs word is
truly inspired, for Kathy, the voice of my word processor and major editor, has
just found out that this very sermon uttered by Noah, before the flood, was
inspired by God to the prophet Isaiah many thousands of years later. MoshaŐs
sermon excerpt from Noah is found written verbatim in Isaiah Chapter 24, as it
reads in the ŇNew Living Translation.Ó
Therefore, the point of this little trick is to get you
to read the whole context of this sermon by the prophet Isaiah. It begins with
this section on judgement in Chapter 24 and continues through Chapter 27. It
puts the context of law and gospel in its proper perspective.
Since many have been taught that the Old Testament is
only law and we are under grace, this sermon is a typical example of GodŐs
unmerited grace to the nation of Israel, sinners condemned in unrighteousness.
Unless we can see that same sinfulness in our modern world, and within the
church, that Noah and Isaiah proclaimed in their generations, we shall forever
be at a loss to make Christianity truly relevant to this present age on the
verge of a modern destruction. This requires the whole council of the Word of
God, not just what some preacherŐs false oracle of self righteousness might
think appropriate.
Which brings us to truly the solution to the problem,
summed up in Romans 12:1,2:
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to
give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he
will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to
ask? Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform
you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what
God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his
will really is.
This executor of my momŐs estate is the most frustrating
ŇjobÓ I have ever had. I spent, in elapsed time Monday, about four hours trying
to find out if the IRS identification number for my momŐs estate had been
issued. All to no avail. ItŐs supposed to take 4-6 weeks, which have elapsed. I
canŐt really do anything related to paying her bills or transferring her funds
until that number is issued. Please pray for a resolution to this problem.
I leave later this week to prepare to move my momŐs stuff
on Monday July 22nd. IŐm still owed money from some previously completed work
that will be required for me to leave and exist in Spokane until I can return.
Which leads to GodŐs direction on what to do, from where, after these
frustrating annoyances have been worked out. Please intercede for those funds
and that direction.