Perhaps you have all heard the saying, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” Unfortunately there is a line in that saying that is out of place. Remember what I always say, we get it right when we point to Jesus, not to ourselves. We get it right when God is running the verbs. Although we can be sure of what God is doing, we can never be sure of what we are doing. We can not be sure when we are running the verbs. Thus, the second line that states, “I believe it,” is out of place. My faith in what God does or can or cannot do, does not determine what God has done, what He is doing or what He can do, or even will do. God is God and He can do whatever He wants to do and He can do it whenever He wants to do it. If God says it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not. Adam and Eve found that out. Noah and the people of his day found that out and we are still finding that out today.
Before we get to our text, let us take a moment to go over a little background material. We know, we believe, teach and confess, according to what God has told us in His holy Word, not according to the sin infected, tainted stories of humans, but according to the Lord, we know that God created a perfect world. In Genesis we are told that after God created all things they were good even very good, meaning that everything was perfect. We know that it was into this perfect world that Adam and Eve brought sin through their disobedience of God. Evidently they did not believe what God said, but it happened anyway, just as He said, that is that disobedience was sin and sin brought death, eventually physical death, but immediately spiritual death, at least apart from Jesus.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned. Their sin tainted, not only themselves, but also the whole world, all the earth. And their sin begat sin, that is, sin is in the DNA of all the earth and it will remain, continuing to propagate itself until the world is completely filled with sin. So, although God created a perfect world, the world in which we live today is not perfect, but is a sin infected cursed world.
Sin propagated the earth until it reached the point that God brought judgement upon the earth and we know that the judgement God brought was the judgement of washing the earth with the flood. Out of all the people on the earth the Lord chose Noah and his family to save in order to start the world over. Unfortunately, as we know the history, Noah and his family still bore sin infected DNA so soon after the flood, the world continued on its sinful way.
Getting to our text for this morning, our text is the word of the Lord after the Flood, and is the account of God’s Covenant renewed with His people. We begin with God’s promise to Noah, his sons and ultimately to us, that is that never again will He destroy all the world with a world wide flood. Our text begins at verse eight, “8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9‘Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth’” (v. 8-11). God’s promise to Noah and his family and, again, ultimately His promise to us is that He will never again destroy the whole earth by a flood, a world wide flood. Notice He did not promise that parts of the world would never flood, only that the whole world would never experience a world wide flood.
We know God’s promises are faithful and true and in order to help us in our unbelief, God gave a visible sign of His promise, the rainbow. We pick up at verse twelve, “12And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh’” (v. 12-15). We know we can believe these words, because they are God’s Word. God said it and that settles it. We also can look at history and see that there has never been a second world wide flood. And here I might add, do not believe the dooms day alarmist of our world today who suggest that humans can cause the world to warm to the point of flooding the world. We have God’s promise and His promises are certain.
God’s Covenant is still with us today. We pick up at verse sixteen, “16‘When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ 17God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth’” (v. 16-17). Here God reiterates His promise, for our sake, because we need to hear again and again.
And God reiterates His promise yet today as we see the rainbow in the sky. Yes, ever time we see a rainbow we might well remember God’s promise that never again will He destroy His world by means of a world wide flood.
So, what does this mean? Unfortunately we live in a world where too many people do not believe God and His Word. To them the phrase might go something like this, “God said it. I do not believe it. So that settles it, it is not true.” Notice, then, that their focus is not on God, but on themselves, which is what leads them to a wrong conclusion. The question we might as is this, “Is there evidence a world wide flood?” And if there was a world wide flood is there evidence of God’s promise? From “Answers in Genesis,” we get these words from one of Buddy Davis’ songs, “If there ever was a world-wide flood, what would you expect to see? Millions of dead things laid down in layers, buried by water, all over the world. And what do you see? Millions of dead things laid down in layers, buried by water, all over the world.” Yes, there is evidence all over the world of a world wide flood. Interestingly enough, if the flood was not a world wide flood, but was only a local flood and God promised never to destroy the world with world wide flood, or as it might be interpreted, a local flood, then we would have to believe that God does not keep His promises, because we have witnessed local flooding in many places over the past many years.
So, there is ample evidence of a world wide flood, but is there also evidence of God’s promise to never destroy the world in this way? And again, the answer is “Yes!” God placed the rainbow in the sky as a sign of His promise to never destroy the world with a world wide flood and we do, still today, see the rainbow in the sky which continually reminds us of God’s promise.
Again, God said it and that settles it. God created, all things, out of nothing. Not only did God create, God also preserves, all things. God is the Creator and He has power over nature, all His creation. We see this power of God in Jesus. Yes, Jesus is true God and He shows Himself to be true God. In our Gospel reading for today we see Him as He walks on water. At other times in the Gospels we see Him still storms, heal sick people, cast out demons and raise people from the dead. Jesus is true God in human flesh with power over all His creation, over all He has created.
God created, God preserved and God shows His great love for us, His creatures. God is love and He shows His love in Jesus as we hear in our Epistle lesson, that His love surpasses all knowledge (Eph. 3:20). What great love our Lord has for us, His creatures. Think about it. God created all things, perfectly. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin, death and destruction into God’s perfect world. God washed His world with a flood and started over with Noah and his family, yet the world persisted in sin. Today we live in a world full of sin and we are sinners in a sin filled world. How or why would a Creator God continue to love and care for His rebellious creation? And yet, that is what our great God does. Our Lord shows His great love for us, His creatures in the very fact that He, Himself, took on human flesh and blood, becoming one of His own creatures in order to live perfectly for us, which is God’s demand on us and which we cannot do, in order to take our sins upon Himself, in order to pay the price for our sin, that is to suffer eternal spiritual death for us, in our place. He came to die for us so that we might not have to suffer eternal spiritual death, so that we might not have to die, but so that we might have life and have it to the full. Yet, death and the grave had no power over Him. He rose, victorious over sin, death and the devil and He ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father, where He is watching over us, ruling over us and interceding for us. And we also know that because He is truly God that His sitting at the right hand of the Father does not mean He cannot still be always everywhere present, which He can as God. And We know that because He rose, we to will rise again. There is no greater love and certainly His love is beyond all understanding.
Today, we, with God’s help, continue to live lives of faith, imperfect though they may be. Yes, God continues even today to deal with us as He has dealt with His creation since creation and the beginning, calling us to and giving us faith, disciplining us as His children, reiterating and reminding us of His great love for us, including giving His life. Our church year calendar walks us through the events of our salvation as each year we look forward to and celebrate Jesus birth, as we look forward to and celebrate our forgiveness as we are reminded of Jesus’ suffering death and resurrection and as we walk through the Sunday’s of Pentecost reading and hearing God’s Word.
And of course, we still have God’s rainbow in the sky which reminds us of what a great, loving God we have. And how His promises remain still today. Yes, God said it and that settles it.
Our texts for today remind us of what a great and loving God we have, what a powerful and merciful God we have, how our God loves us so and how He delivers us, and guards, guides and protects us. Today we are reminded how God calls to and gives faith, forgiveness and life, and yet, when we refuse and reject, God brings down judgement, but even in judgement, God continues to save and give us His promise and sign that He is good and gracious to us. My prayer is that as you see the rainbow and whenever you see a rainbow, you will be reminded of what a great and loving God we have and what a powerful and merciful God we have. And then you will be reminded to pause and give Him thanks for all His mercies, for all His good gifts and blessings, for faith, forgiveness, strengthening of faith, life and salvation. And that you might rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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