Welcome to Episode #211 of the Way of the Bible podcast. This is our third of eight episodes in our Twenty-Seventh mini-series entitled Response to Sermon on the Mount. In our last episode, we discussed The Rock, Jesus mentioned in Matthew 7:24 upon which Jesus mentions in verse 25, the foundation had been laid. That Rock, being specifically Lord God Almighty of the Old Testament, and the foundation being Jesus Christ as identified by Paul in 1 Cor. 3:10-11. The house being built upon the foundation is according to Paul a temple of God and to Peter a spiritual house of God. Let’s remind ourselves of these passages.
Matthew 7:24-25 – “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16 – According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. …16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Peter 2:4-5 – As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
On today’s episode, we’re going to look at the significance of what we discovered as it relates to the house not falling as the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew, beating against the house we’re building.
Let’s first look to before the beginning of this current terrestrial existence we are now experiencing. I’m speaking of before the flood in Noah’s days. Genesis 6:5-7 – 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. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 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.”
I think it would be reasonable to say that at that time, man was in full-out rebellion against God. Inflamed with the lusts and desires of the flesh, man was drunk with unsatiated madness, questing to fulfill his yearnings and passions. We know nothing of this type of life beyond what is written in the Bible, as the antediluvian world was totally destroyed by the flood. The surface of the earth dramatically changed, and the ancestry of all mankind is tied to Noah’s three sons and their descendants. We could spend a whole lot of time here, but we won’t beyond mentioning Genesis 6:8 - But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
The critical item we want to pick up about Noah is plainly stated in two short verses. Genesis 6:9 – These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Genesis 7:1 – Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.
The teaching of Righteousness is presented throughout the Scripture. It is not something petty or unimportant, but is critical for learning if one wishes to become mature in their faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and the knowledge of God. What we know of here at this point is that Noah was righteous before God in the generation in which he lived.
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