40. "The Grace of God: Walk faithfully with Jesus, " Genesis 6:8-10

 40. "The Grace of God: Walk faithfully with Jesus, "

Genesis 6:8-10 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord .  This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Satan had corrupted man to the uttermost, and God had determined to destroy the man whom He had created for His purpose. Thus, it appeared that God changed His mind to destroy mankind. 

Because Noah points to the sovereign factor that provided God a way to continue to carry out His original purpose with man. Through Noah’s life and work God gained the victory over His enemy and changed the age. God because of his great love for us, who is rich in mercy, deals with His man, who walks with Him, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the prophets and His people. Like prophet Daniel who caused by God to change his position.

 

Daniel 1:1-21   In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.  Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the kingʼs service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the kingʼs palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.  The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the kingʼs table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the kingʼs service.  Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.  But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my Lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”  Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.  At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.  To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.  At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the kingʼs service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.  And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Daniel fought the battle by countering the devil’s temptation with bold rejection (Daniel 2:8-13). God honored Daniel’s fighting (verses 14-20), and Daniel and his companions became the overcomers among the remnant of God’s defeated elect. Because of the captivity of God’s elect in Babylon, apparently God was defeated in His interests on earth. Actually, He preserved His worship and testimony through the young overcomers. The elect were defeated, but the young overcomers were victorious. Their victory was God’s victory. Because of this victory God could boast to Satan that in the midst of Babylon, God still had some overcomers who were victorious over Satan’s devices. Eventually, it was through the overcomers among God’s captured elect, such as Daniel and his companions, that God was able to turn the age and bring a remnant of His captured people back to the land of Canaan.

Daniel said, "Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18 

These faithful ones, the overcomers, were still standing with God. Eventually, God punished Israel by sending Israel away from their fathers’ land as captives (2 Kings Chapters 24—25). Later, it was the overcomers among the captives who brought Israel back. One of these overcomers, Daniel, prayed with his window open toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10 Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before). Through his gracious prayer God brought Israel back to their fathers’ land.  

Even in our time, God expect us that we will walk before Him, will obey His commands, His' overcomers who will fight against satan, His enemies. For by Jesus we are saved.

Ephesians 2:1-22  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are Godʼs handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with Godʼs people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

The church, the Body of Christ, was produced by Christ through His attainment. Now this chapter unveils to us the background—the realm of death—from which the church was brought forth. Dead refers to the deadness of our spirit, which pervaded our entire being and caused us to lose the function that enables us to contact God. The death of our spirit is beacuse of sin, we recieved and we have done in our life. Sins are evil doings. Before we were saved, we were dead in offenses and sins. It was from this background of death that we were saved to be the church, the Body of Christ. The dead have been made alive to be a living organism to express Christ.

Before we are walking with our sinful flesh, but Christ made us alive in Him, in His spirit, so that we'll gain a new life and saved us from spiritual death. 

The spirit, in apposition to the authority of the air, refers to the aggregate power, the aggregate of all the evil angelic authorities, over which Satan is the ruler. This aggregate spirit is now operating in the sons of disobedience. When we were dead in offenses and sins, we walked not only according to the age of this world but also according to Satan, the ruler of the aerial authority, the evil spiritual power.

When we were dead in offenses and sins, we conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires not only of the flesh but also of the thoughts. Three evil things—the age of this world, which is outside of us; the ruler of the aerial authority, which is above and within us; and the lusts of our flesh in our fallen nature—dominated our lives. From these evil things we have been saved to be the Body of Christ. As the sons of disobedience, we were also the children of wrath. In the realm of death we were under God’s wrath because of our disobedience. We have been saved from both our disobedience and God’s wrath.

In comparison with the book of Romans, the book of Ephesians does not consider us sinners; it considers us dead persons. As sinners, we need God’s forgiveness and justification, as revealed in the book of Romans. But as dead persons, we need to be made alive. Forgiveness and justification bring us back to God’s presence to enjoy His grace and participate in His life, whereas being made alive causes us, the living members of the Body of Christ, to express Him. God made us alive by imparting His eternal life, which is Christ Himself, into our dead spirit through His Spirit of life. He has enlivened us together with Christ. We are saved because of the grace of God, even we don't deserved it. Grace is free. Here it denotes not only God freely dispensed into us for our enjoyment but also God’s action in freely saving us. By such grace we have been saved out of our wretched position of death into the marvelous realm of life.

In early time, Noah have been found a righteous man, who walks with God and resulted his salvation from the destruction of entire humanity.

 Noah is an overcomer from the wickedness of life. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord . (Genesis 6:8) But being saved is not enough unless we will live with God, that God will be with us, then we will live in vanity, confuse and with fear.  Genesis 19:19 Lot said to God after being spared his life in Sodom and Gomorrah, "Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I canʼt flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and Iʼll die.

Also in Exodus 33:12-17, " Moses said to the Lord , “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”  The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”  And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”"

-Moses bargained with God for His presence to go with him and the people. God’s presence is His way, the “map” that shows His people the way they should take. The children of Israel had God’s presence in a very limited way, for they were far from God’s heart. Moses, however, was a person very near to God’s heart and according to God’s heart. Hence, he had God’s presence to a full extent. But we, as the sons of God, saved by the grace of God by Jesus death, we are not just near to God's heart but the spirit of Christ lives in us. But of course we are saved only by the grace of God. 

Noah is saved because of the favor of God to him. How He gained it? Noah was able to walk with God in that crooked, perverted, and adulterous generation because he found grace. Grace is God coming to us to be our life supply, our strength, and our everything. Such grace enabled Noah to overcome the flesh and to live a righteous life.

Like apostle Paul who found the grace of God, wrote the claim in 1 Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." 

It is by this grace that Saul of Tarsus, the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15-16), became the foremost apostle, laboring more abundantly than all the apostles. His ministry and living by this grace are an undeniable testimony to Christ’s resurrection.

Ezekiel 14:13-14  “Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its people and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord .

Are we righteous like these three men? Noah, Daniel and Job found righteous before God, for they walked with God in their life? How about us? We cannot be proud of ourselves, we are just saved by the grace of God, we have salvation that we are not deserve, so value your salvation. Walk faithfully with God, put away the sins or do not enter again into temptation so the spirit of God will not be grief. Strive to obey the will of God, do only the righteous thing that God will be pleased. Walk with God faithfully. 

Be like Noah, walk faithfully with God. For Noah was like his great-grandfather Enoch who walked faithfully with God (Read Genesis 5:22-24 "...Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away."), Noah walked with God by faith, which was God’s divine element transfused and infused into him to be his believing ability. As a result, he became heir of God’s righteousness and a herald of righteousness as a protest against the evil generation. Noah’s righteousness strengthened God’s standing to execute His judgment upon that ungodly generation.

We put our faith in Jesus, for He is our salvation from the enemies and from eternal judgment, He is our righteousness in this world full of darkness and wickedness and He is our life in our deadness because of sin. So walking faithfully with God means live your life with Him, that we are dependently living with Jesus. Amen.

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