What is the church? Thankful.

What is the church?  And what can we liken it to in Genesis 8?

"So Noah went out, with his sons and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, and everything that moves upon the earth, according to its families, went out from the ark. And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took from all the clean animals and from all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

The church is saved and not just it but as we said before, God delights to have His church participate with him in His saving grace.  To extend it even to the beasts and birds.   The church is God's preferred agency upon the earth.  Here we see the grace He gives to his people purposely extended to creation itself.  But that is not my main point today.  

The first thing we see Noah do with his feet once again upon dry dirt is to gather stones together and make an altar.  To worship the God who saved him.  To respond to the God who called him.  To THANK the God who loved him despite the fact that "the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from his youth."  God's words, not mine.  And this fledgling church of Noah's will prove it before they we are done with them.  But that is another day.  Today they show us that the church are those whom despite their natural bent, God has chosen, made his agents, saved and now...

are purposefully and worshipfully Thankful.

"And it happened that while traveling toward Jerusalem, he was passing through the region between Samaria and Galilee. And as he was entering into a certain village, ten men met him—lepers, who stood at a distance. And they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” And when he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And it happened that as they were going, they were cleansed. But one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, “Were not ten cleansed? And where are the nine? Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”"  Luke 17

What is the church? In the ark.

What is the church?  And what can we liken it to in Genesis 7?

"And every living thing that moved on the earth perished—the birds, and the domesticated animals, and the wild animals, and everything that swarmed on the earth, and all humankind. Everything in whose nostrils was the breath of life, among all that was on dry land, died. And he blotted out every living thing upon the surface of the ground, from humankind, to animals, to creeping things, and to the birds of heaven; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained."

God is holy.  Holy.  HOLY.

You may not understand what holy means but here is one way to think of it: a goodness and righteousness as pure as the Sun is hot.  Nothing impure, nothing unholy, nothing tainted with sin can stand in God's presence.  It just simply can't.   It will be burned.  

Or perhaps it will make more sense to think of it this way: God's justice is perfect.  Perfect fairness.  Perfect exact and proportional punishment for any and all offense.  Nothing missed.  Nothing overlooked.  Nothing ever swept under the carpet and forgotten.  Everyone has perfect justice waiting for them before this King's throne.  Now it is widely accepted that the measure of an offense greatly depends upon who has been sinned against.  Lie to a child and no one cares.  Lie to your boss and perhaps you will be fired.  Lie to a judge and you will be fined and possibly imprisoned.  Lie to a King... Do not pay your brother back a loan and be ignored at reunions.  Do not pay your car loan and they will take back your car.  Do not pay your taxes and you will be fined and possibly imprisoned.  Do not pay the King what is His rightful due...

It is not unjust that God judges mankind.  He gave you life, a world to live in and literally everything you have including the ability to think about it.  He is due.  All these things are not gifts as much as loans.  They still belong to Him.  It is not unkind that God takes back what is His.  It is Amazing Grace that He ever gives it in the first place knowing before hand what you were going to do with it!  It is not unloving that God condemns some to hell for their sins against each other and Him.  It is staggeringly loving that He ever provided a way for anyone of us to be saved at all!  And such a way!  He gave His Beloved Son for us!  Jesus voluntarily becomes our ark; our means of grace with this Perfectly Just Creator King and Judge who has every right over us!  How much more angry should He be with us if we scorn or demean that gift!?!?

The church, therefore, are those IN the ark.  You cannot be saved otherwise.  God has only provided this one way.  No one outside the ark survived.  No one will be "good enough' on their own merit.  You simply cannot tread water that long.  One hundred and fifty days in a limitless ocean will be an afternoon swim at the pool next to eternity in the presence of Righteous God who no longer veils His presence to protect us from Himself.  

Thanks be to God that He has provided a Way of Truth for Life. 

What is the church? ...response.

What is the church?  And what can we continue to liken it to in Genesis 6?

"And Noah did according to all that God commanded him; thus he did."

If God had called and Noah had said, "mmmm, no thanks.  That sounds dumb," the Bible would have only been seven chapters long, and the soggy pages of chapter seven would have read, "and Noah didn't float long enough to regret that decision."  Or maybe Chapter 8 would read, "And God sighed, rolled up His sleeves and brought forth Dave from the earth..."  Only God knows.  But He gave grace enough to Noah for Noah to believe Him.  

Now it's very common for people to say they believe.  And it is very common for that belief to appear to be nothing more than cognitive assent.  Yes, i think that's true.  Yes, i think God is good and trustworthy.  Yet is that what saved Noah and his family?  Simply believing God when he said, I'm going to flood the earth?  That kind of belief would have had him paddling the backstroke thinking, "Yep, knew it, God was right."  Belief not only demands action, it dictates the action.  If you really believe God, it will change everything.  What you are doing.  What your values are.  That year that Noah spent preparing and building the ark, he reaped his fields and gardens but i guarantee you he didn't bother sowing next year's crop.  He didn't waste the time.  He probably didn't put that addition on the house or buy a new car.  Wasn't much point in remodeling the kitchen.  Probably drained the bank account and bought grain and oats.  A fat wallet wasn't going to feed him on the other side.  His priorities fit the belief he had.  The truth he believed.  Anything that didn't add to fitting and kitting the ark was a distraction and a waste of resources.  The church responds with belief and appropriate action.  We might say, it trusts and obeys.

There's so much more to be said about this but tomorrow's another day... if it comes.  "What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have works? That faith is not able to save him, is it?"  James 2

What is the church? Called.

What is the church?  What shall we liken it to in Genesis 6?

"And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth was filled with violence because of them. Now, look, I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood..."

i'm always telling my kids in the Sunday school class i teach, 'Don't skip over that!  Don't read, "And God said to Noah," as if it were, 'Once upon a time,'!  In some ways, it is the most important and improbable words in the Bible!  That God, The God, Yahweh, the Great I AM, spoke TO us!  That's why we know anything!  That alone sets up the church!  God called us!  Jesus, God in the flesh, called us, "Come, put down what you're doing and follow me.  Put down what you presently consider your life, take up your cross, the life I will give to you of service and sacrifice, and follow me.  God calls people as they are, yes; God formed you in the womb and knows you through and through and loves you as He made you, but what we do with that on our own is very rarely what He has for us to do!  Otherwise stories like this one with Noah would read more like, "And God came to Noah who was building a boat and said to him, "Nice boat.  I spoke to the animals, they should be arriving sometime after Thursday."  And Noah spake unto him, "Cool."  And God merrily went upon his way.

"When Israel (which means, 'wrestles with God') was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt (slavery to sin)  I called my son."  (Hosea 11)