Latest / Journey Elgin / Sunday Message March 9, 2026 - Salvation Arc of History - The Fall of Man Escalates
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Well, we are continuing just to kind of talk about the salvation arc of history. Last week we spent time really looking in the first of Genesis. We're gonna still be in Genesis today, Genesis chapters six through 11. We're not gonna read all of those obviously, but that's kind of the time period. so last week we talked about the importance of of what Genesis is showing us. It's revealing more to us about the Creator rather than how He created. And we can have some fun conversations on all of that, but the creation story ultimately is in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So He is the start of that. He is the finisher of that. I think too often we get bogged down in arguing how He created. Right? That's not the... Those are fine. Have those arguments, but don't forget what is most important, that God created, right? And that He created us. And so we looked at Adam and Eve and how they are created in God's image. And everything was good, right? It's the way that God wanted it to be. However, there was a rule, right? And here's the really sad thing when you think about it, you know, because no one likes rules. We don't like that. We don't like to be told what to do. Right. We would rather just be able to do it on our own. And so God knew that. he said, so he's like, he begins, okay, I'm going to make it really simple. You just don't eat from this one tree. One. That's it. One. There's all these other trees and guess what? They probably had fruit that looked and tasted a lot like that one. Right. And by the way, it probably wasn't an apple tree, but who knows? Right. I it sure wasn't a granny Smith apple tree. Right. But, but so, so one rule, right. And, and what What does Satan go after? I'm gonna make you question even that. Because Satan will try to get us to question anything about God. And what was the first thing that Satan said? Did God really say? And then the next thing, so that gets you start, well, did he? And then Eve was even kind of messed that up. She was like, ⁓ we're not supposed to eat, we're not supposed to touch it, right? She actually elevated the rules more than God had had. So then, once the ⁓ deceiver begins to get you thinking and questioning, then he throws in the true root of all sinfulness. ⁓ you will be like God. And he actually uses a little bit of truth there. He says, you will not surely die. Well, guess what? They weren't going to surely die the moment they ate of the fruit. ⁓ So he could use that and say, see, I told you. However, that broke the relationship and sin entered into the world. And now they did know the difference between good and evil. And remember now they had shame. They recognized. ⁓ their fallenness and now this relationship that was so perfect was now broken. And so now they begin to move out of Eden. And we talked about how now all of us are east of Eden, if you will. And we're moving further and further away. So this is the starting point of the need for salvation that God created. He created us in His image. He created us to be in relationship with Him. However, God is a holy God. Sin sin breaks that relationship. And so now there is a need for Redemption. There is a need for salvation. So humanity ⁓ You know really ⁓ It was there really wasn't much of a honeymoon period with humanity ⁓ It was a downward spiral pretty quick. All right, so you have Adam and Eve And then they have their children, right? And things are progressing. And you know, the first brothers, I mean, I've had some pretty serious fights with my brother. Actually, not really. I'm sure when we were little kids, but all brothers, you you've probably had a few rounds with your brothers. Well, the first brothers, one of them killed the other one. Right? So it escalated quickly. Right? It didn't like build up. It was like sin is now making a difference, right? And it's very quick. And what is the root of all sinfulness? It is we want to be like God. That's what it ultimately comes down to. It ultimately comes down to that idea of idolatry, that I want to worship what I want to worship. I want God to look like I want him to look, right? And so we see that. And so that brings us to a major event that I think is important for us to look at. And that's Noah and the flood. So I want to look at Genesis chapter six, verses one through eight. All right. So when man began to multiply on the face of the land and began to multiply, on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive and they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide in man forever for he is flesh. His day shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in these days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah, found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Alright, let's stop there for just a moment. So this is, know, obviously the flood, Noah and the ark is a foundational story. But really it's a devastating story. And I love how, you know, so many ⁓ Nurseries and church nurseries are ⁓ decorated with Noah's and the ark, right? And all the animals two by two, because that's a good story, you know, and a good theme. However, the flood narrative is heartbreaking. It's about evil and evil run rampant, right? And I don't want to go down too many rabbit holes because you certainly can. ⁓ I find it fascinating that the main one of the main issues here and the driver of that evil is this these heavenly beings somehow coming down, right? We this is very interesting. You can go down lots of rabbit holes. I there's some pretty cool stuff with that, but you can also make that an idol of trying to figure out what happened pre flood. So you have to be careful. However, I also think it is very interesting. There's some new science, if you will, that is starting to see some similarities of things that happened around 10,000, 11,000 years ago that maybe there was a cataclysmic event that wiped out everything. Right? That and this is it's still considered fringe, right? Because that, you know, it would actually start maybe confirming there could be a flood that actually flooded the world. But but there are there is lots of evidence of of kind of prehistoric societies that that were that had some level of technology that had some level. of activity and things going on before the flood. ⁓ Maybe there's a reason that nearly every ancient civilization had a flood narrative, right? That they believed that there had been some sort of a flood. It's fascinating to think about. We have to be able to balance that. We are in ⁓ an interesting place where we have become so technologically advanced that sometimes we look back at earlier peoples and we think, they just didn't know as much. And that's why they believed some of these weird things that could happen. And there's some truth to that, but no, people are just people, right? And we do, sometimes we take out the mysticism a little bit to our disadvantage. And I thought this was fascinating. ⁓ This was found in Abraham Lincoln's writings and he's writing about Niagara Falls. I think this was in about 1864 or so. I could be wrong on that because he didn't make it much longer after that. But he wrote this, said, but still there is more. It calls upon the indefinite past when Columbus first sought this continent when Christ suffered on the cross. when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea, nay, even when Adam first came from the hand of his maker, then as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants whose bones fill the mound of America have gazed on Niagara as ours do now, contemporary with the first race of men, the older than the first man. Niagara is strong and fresh today as 10,000 years ago. The mammoth, the mastodon, so long dead that fragments of their monstrous bones alone testified that they ever lived have gazed on Niagara in that long, long time, never still for a single moment, never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested. Now there's lots of really kind of cool things to me in that, the historical, but I love how Abraham Lincoln just kind of casually, the species of extinct giants whose bones fill the mounds of America. And there's actually evidence of this. There's things that point to something that happened a long time ago. ⁓ And I think it's interesting to think about that and understand that God has been working from the beginning. And that God has been moving us towards salvation, but Satan is always at work. And so what you have with this interesting setup to Noah and the flood is that God's created order is being violated. Right? Is that God intended for ⁓ man to be the ones who populate the earth, man to be the one who worships him, man to be the one to attend and care for and be fruitful and multiply. And something messes with that order of things and evil begins to spread. And what a disturbing statement there in Genesis chapter 6. There were where every thought of man had become evil, but for Noah. So what does God do? He does, he sends the flood, but he does not give up. He does not stop. He continues to work. so in Genesis chapter 8, starting in verse 20, says, Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal, some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Again, this recognizing what. the corrupting nature of sin, that now we're at that point where every intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens upon that crops on the ground and the fish of the sea into your hand they are delivered. Every morning, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I gave you everything, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning from every beast I will require it and from man from his fellow man I will require a Reckoning for the life of man whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image and you be fruitful multiply Increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, behold, I established my covenant with you and your offspring after you. All right, so what we see is we see the devastating impacts of sin basically begins ⁓ a reset, right? And one of the key aspects of the sinfulness of evil was clearly the lack of recognizing the importance of life. Because what does God say here? He reinstitutes that covenant. He starts off, says, go, be fruitful, multiply. Now he's going to work through Noah and his family. And he says, all of the animals are here for you. However, remember there's something important about life. And so he kind of gives some dietary things here, says, do not eat or drink the blood of the animal, right? Makes sense. But then he says, whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And he says there requires a reckoning for the life of man. of elevating again understanding that man is created in God's image and life is precious and what is he doing? He's setting up this this of what is to come because what is Christ going to do for us? He is going to give his life. His innocent blood will be shed for us. Right? And he's just talked about how horrible it is. You do not shed innocent blood, yet Christ's blood would be shed for us. The salvation arc of history is moving towards that. And now we are in a place where all of us have sinful desires from the beginning. Right? We all have a capacity to do good. but we all have a capacity to do evil. One of the things, and I've talked about one of the most dangerous viewpoints in our world today is that people are inherently good. We are not. We have to be very careful with that. It doesn't mean everyone is evil. It's not what we're saying here. But understand that We are all fallen and we need Christ to guide us. We need a culture that adheres to those basic principles that to form the things that are just ⁓ that we start ⁓ getting from the moment that we're born of knowing what is right and wrong. Right. That flows from the biblical principles that God has given us without those It can go very wrong very quickly. And we live in a world where we have people that adhere to things like this and people who don't. And you can be a good person without believing that the Bible is true. Yes, you can be a good person. But salvation and redemption only comes through Christ not being a good person because None of us can be good enough. Right? And you have to ask yourself, if we think that we can, it's like how good is good enough? Follow that trail in your mind. It never ends. Right? So if, well, if giving 10 % of my paycheck to the church is good enough, well, why is it only 10 %? 12 % be even better? And then you go, well, maybe it should be 20%. How good is good enough? That's just a silly example. But just start going down that road and talk about being overwhelmed because quickly you will recognize there is no good enough. So it's going to have to be paid by Christ. And so this is setting that up. It's setting up the sacrifice of animals to pay for sin, sacrificing of blood to cover our sinfulness. And Christ himself will be that sacrificial lamb. So now you have a restart and the world continues and the people do, they populate and the world is growing. And again, I encourage you don't get bogged down in trying to figure out all the literal aspect of this. I believe these things happen, by the way. But don't try to, ⁓ well, we've got to be able to rationalize this with all modern science and stuff like that. Listen, there's going to be questions and that's fine. But think of the big picture of what's happening here. San has now infiltrated the world. We are moving further and further away, east of Eden. And all the while, moving to that place where we are wanting to be God rather than allow God to be God. And so after Noah, things descend pretty quickly. And we get to Genesis chapter 11, verses one through nine. It says, now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plane in the land of Sinar and settled there. And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they had bricks for stone and and butamen for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower within the top of the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people. They have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there all over the face of the earth and they left off the building of the city. Therefore its name was called Babel. because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of the earth. Alright, so what is happening here? This is very important for us to really understand the nature of sinfulness. It is rooted in us desiring to take God's place. Fascinating the language that is used there. What do the people say? They say come Let's see, right here, come let us make bricks, right, and burn them thoroughly. Then they said, come let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops in the heavens. The wording there is exactly the same as in the first of Genesis when God says, let us make man in our image, right? Now that people will debate, what does that? us mean? I think there's evidence. Could it be the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the idea of that? Sure. Could it be that God has a ⁓ council? ⁓ There are other heavenly beings. We do know that. We call them angels, but there are other heavenly beings. Could there be ⁓ a of a council? And so God says, let us go and create. We don't know for sure. But what it is, is that is God being the creator. It's very interesting that in the story of the Tower of Babel, the people now are saying, let us go and create. They are taking that role of God, if you will. And the Tower of Babel, it wasn't just a skyscraper. It was probably ⁓ what's called a ziggurat. You've seen these, they kind of look like Pyramids that they have, you know go like that. It was an altar What was being made in this place is an altar an altar to who to honor God? No It was to actually honor them Right. That is why it was so dangerous That is why God did what he did is he knew that if the people were to band together like that that they actually could do some amazing things. God's not saying that they weren't gonna be able to accomplish their goal, which is kind of scary. He's saying, but that will be bad because now they will see themselves as God, because look at what they were able to accomplish. And that's why God comes and disperses them. I think that's very important because that's the danger that all of us face today is creating our own idols. And it's hard for us because no one in here, I don't think, anyone in here, and I hope you don't have some little idol in your house that you pray to. If you do, please come talk to me. Because that's not good. We know that. Because that's been part of our culture. The Ten Commandments have no other gods before me. Many times we think, ⁓ well, hey, we've got that one covered. No, but there's lots of things that can become idols in our life. We can be overly obsessed and focused on politics, and that can easily become an idol if you're not careful. We can become overly obsessed with sports. This is one of the most dangerous things that are attacking our ⁓ men and Christian men is just. becoming consumed with your favorite sporting team. And those can be fun things. There's nothing wrong inherently with that. But that can so easily become an idol. I don't know why this popped in my head. How many even Christian men today, that go to church on a regular basis, you think they know more about their local sports team or their favorite sports team? And have they even heard about Christians in Nigeria being wiped out? I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't ponder that. Because we can let lots of things become idols where now we're not focused on what really matters. one thing also that we have a tendency to do when it comes to the church is we... We tend to focus more on the symptoms of idolatry rather than the heart of the matter. The heart of all sinfulness is that, did God really say, and you can be like God? Then that leads to lots of behavior that is wrong, that is sinful. However, if we just try to address all of the symptoms and don't hit the root cause, we're going to struggle all the time. So many times we talk about sin and it's fine to do, we say, ⁓ there's sexual sin, you don't drink, you don't dance, you don't do all this, right? All of these different things, ⁓ And obviously our actions, we need to know are they sinful or not. However, you can treat all of those symptoms and still your heart. be idolatrous. We need to make sure we're understanding the full picture of what's happening here. And all of us need to be aware that it is so easy for us to become focused on other things, even if they are good. And we have to make sure we step back. And are we following Christ and Christ alone? Really simplify it. And don't get overwhelmed. In fact, there's a, I can't remember what pastor of theologian said this, you know, sometimes we just have to step back and just focus on just do the next right thing. Each and every day, just the next right thing. What is it that you should do in response to worshiping God? And this should not be a burden. Remember Christ said, his burden is light. So make sure our main focus, this may sound weird. Your main focus should not be on behavior. It should be on who are you focused on. And that will then lead to the behavior changing itself. So it's not that we dismiss behavior, but we have to get our hearts where they're supposed to be. And that has to be focused on Christ and Christ alone. And we do not allow anything else to become idolatrous in our lives. I encourage you, think about that each and every day. Remove those idols. If you have something, anything in your life that you can't let go of, That's in danger of becoming an idol. Be careful. Make sure things are in the proper order. but also no. that Christ came to save us from our idolatry. He came to forgive us. He came to give us new life and a new start. And that is what He desires for each one of us. And I encourage you to live that way each and every day. Do the next right thing and always keep Him at your focus. Do not allow this world to start substituting idols in your life that draw you away from Christ. him