Storms, Sin, and Salvation

Introduction

Welcome

Announcements

Women’s Bible Study is tomorrow night at 6pm

National Day of Prayer is 1 week from tomorrow! Starting at 6:30am

Kidz Choir Program is May 5th at 6pm

Camp Joy training was great on Sunday - had nearly 100 people present! Please be in prayer for camp + VBS + LTN + Mission Trip

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Michel’s / Nelson’s - testing coming up and likely steroid treatment. Pray for recovery and answers

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3 Baptisms coming up

We’re backtracking just a bit tonight as we get started, we just completed Genesis 6 last week

Genesis 7 CSB

1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2 You are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female, 3 and seven pairs, male and female, of the birds of the sky—in order to keep offspring alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will make it rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing I have made I will wipe off the face of the earth.” 5 And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came and water covered the earth. 7 So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives entered the ark because of the floodwaters. 8 From the animals that are clean, and from the animals that are not clean, and from the birds and every creature that crawls on the ground, 9 two of each, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, just as God had commanded him. 10 Seven days later the floodwaters came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the vast watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, 12 and the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On that same day Noah along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, entered the ark, along with Noah’s wife and his three sons’ wives. 14 They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds, every flying creature—all the birds and every winged creature—according to their kinds. 15 Two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 Those that entered, male and female of every creature, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in. 17 The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. 18 The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. 20 The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet. 21 Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. 22 Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died. 23 He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24 And the water surged on the earth 150 days.

We’re fast forwarding a long ways here as Noah built the Ark and proclaimed God’s goodness and holiness for decade after decade, finally we arrive in chapter 7 and it is time for the flood to come. God had told Noah what to do. Noah was faithful. Now it was time. We can think of this in terms of what God calls us to do in His Word - God has warned us, we are responsible to obey, because there is coming a day of judgment. Let’s unpack this chapter into 2 parts: God’s protection and God’s punishment

God’s Protection of Noah in the Midst of His Punishment of Sin (1-24)

The countdown has continued and in chapter 7 we see that there are a mere 7 days before the flood will begin (see verse 10). 120 years has turned into 7 days. We’ve seen how sinful the world was at this point in time. Marriage has been corrupted. Mankind worshiped self. There was the influence of fallen angels on mankind as 2 Peter and Jude tells us. There are serious problems, and it all traces back to sin. What are some ways that we see the effects of sin in our world today?

Celebration of evil

Elevation of mankind

We see that this world is broken and God issued a summons to repent and His mouthpiece was Noah. Sadly no one listened to Noah’s message of repentance. God said during this final week that Noah is the only righteous person in this generation. Noah continued to obey God and do what God commanded of him.

Psalm 1:1–6 CSB

1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! 2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

To be righteous means to be just or right or saved or to trust in God. We can think of an Old Testament example of Abraham who was declared righteous because he believed both in God and in what God told him. To believe in God and to act on that belief, to have faith in God.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We could say that our righteousness is imputed to us - we aren’t righteous through our works or by being a good person by nature, this is given to us through faith in Christ. It is His work. So when we read that Noah was a righteous person it means that he believed in God. He had faith in God. He trusted in God. Not that he was perfect. He stood out from those around him by standing on the things that God said to do. This included building the Ark, but it also included worshiping God and not self or society.

Look at what God tells Noah - there will come 40 days of rain and everything living thing will be wiped off the face of the earth. People wrestle with this story. Let’s consider this question: Does it matter that the Flood really happened?

YES! God’s Word says that it did and the New Testament, including Jesus, talk about the flood as a historical event

If the Bible says it, that settles it

Look at what God commanded - we see both clean and unclean animals, animals that fly and animals that walk/crawl, all getting on board the Ark with Noah and his family. Interesting! 7 pairs of clean animals - this is important for the offering of sacrifices. Why would there be a need to offer sacrifices? Because of sin. Noah was not a perfect person, he was a sinner saved by God’s grace… just as we are today!

They all got on board the Ark - and then we read a powerful few words in verse 16 - the Lord shut him in. The time was finally upon them, the rain was starting to fall, judgment was coming, the wrath of God was about to be poured out… and just before it all, God shut them in. Do you think this provided Noah with confidence?

Some flood stories paint a person as the hero - Gilgamesh for example - but the Bible is clear that the hero is God. God provides. God is in control. God saves Noah. God provides at the right time in order to protect Noah.

Let’s bring this home a bit, is the “door” to the Ark still open today?

YES

Will the door stay open forever?

NO

Hebrews 3:13 CSB

13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.

As long as it is today, there is time to repent and trust in Christ and be saved from God’s punishment against sin. But we must not deceive ourselves into thinking that we will always have this opportunity. We won’t! One day the door will be slammed shut and it will be too late as God will judge sin just as He did thousands of years ago and He will again pour out His wrath against both sin and those lost in sin. But if we are in the Ark, if we have faith in Christ and have been saved, we have full confidence that we will be protected just as Noah was by God Himself. God is still in control.

“Grace found Noah” - David Atkinson

Extent of the Flood - what are arguments you have heard regarding this being a localized flood or a universal flood?

Local - all of the known world. Scientific evidence. This would mean that God destroyed so much.

Universal - seems to match Biblical arguments. Evidence. Sin is serious.

Genesis 6:17 CSB

17 “Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.

Genesis 7:21–23 CSB

21 Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. 22 Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died. 23 He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

We could say that what we are seeing here is a great de-creation. God regretted making mankind. God punished not only mankind, but all of creation that mankind was charged to rule over as the image bearers of God. We see that this stays this way for 150 days. Just as life was God’s to give, it is also God’s to take away as Job 1:21 reminds us.

Gabriel likes to read the story of Noah’s Ark before bed because he points out the animals on the page and he’ll go over the story… God told Noah to build a boat called an Ark so that he and the animals would be saved from the flood. But this isn’t a cute kids story, the more I’ve read it with my 3 year old. What about the people that didn’t get on the Ark? Real people died. Real animals died. Sin has real consequences. The theme can’t be to build a big ark and be a nice person and try really hard to make God happy. That’s not the point. This story should remind us of our brokenness and God’s holiness.

What is the theme of the Flood narrative?

God judges wickedness but through His grace, He saves sinners to be Kingdom ambassadors in this world

This takes our mind forward thousands of years to the cross. God judges wickedness but through His grace, saves sinners not just temporarily, but for all eternity. The only hope is not in Noah but in the greater Noah.

God hates sin and God must judge sin as a just judge

Think of the events that will come in Genesis concerning the sinfulness of mankind.

Tower of Babel - Genesis 11.

Sodom and Gomorrah - Genesis 19.

Israelites failing to trust in God and enter promised land - Numbers 14.

All of these judgments point us to a further punishment that is coming upon sin as we read in the new testament in Matthew 25 that Christ will return to judge the living and the dead.

Grace in Judgment - how have we seen God provide in the midst of His punishing of sin?

Adam and Eve - provided grace by keeping them alive and clothing them while also kicking them out of the Garden of Eden

Cain killing Abel - God marked Cain and protected him following the murder of his brother

When the wickedness of man was great, God provided by shutting Noah and his family in the Ark

Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me.

This is not fair - it’s God’s grace! The Ark, and the Cross scream of God’s grace towards sinners who deserve destruction. We all deserve the wrath of God because of our sin - what about those who didn’t sin? The Bible tells us that all have sinned - and even if we haven’t consciously made the decision to sin due to age, we still see death impact our world (babies in the womb) and Biblically we know the reason why is because of sin. We live in a fallen, sinful world. Sin leads to death. This is bad news and we can blame Adam for it, but we know in our heart of hearts that we are guilty because of our sinful actions. We can’t say, “That’s not fair…” It is what we deserve.

What truly is not fair is the Ark that saved Noah. What truly is not fair is the Cross upon which Christ died. What truly is not fair is that fact that we can be saved through faith in Christ and declared righteous and be pardoned of our sin. That is not fair!

Noah warned people for a century. Jesus has warned people for 2000 years! We are without excuse. Only those who enter the ark through the blood of Jesus Christ will be saved from the coming wrath of God. This is the message today: Repent. Believe. Be saved. The only person who will be saved from the coming universal flood that God will pour out upon wicked mankind is the person who has faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Himself is the true and greater Ark. He saves people from the wrath of God against sin.

Jesus Himself is the true and greater Noah. His message alone saves sinners.

Jesus Himself succeeds where Noah failed. Noah sinned before and after the flood, Jesus was and is sinless.

Floods remind us of the conflict that exists in this fallen world. Things are not as they should be. Something as life giving as water can actually take away life! But they won’t always be this way. God is still in control. And one day, the chaos of the sea will be no more.