SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT - GENESIS 7:13-16 - Christ The Door

Introduction

Over the past few years, as you probably know, our family has gone down to The Ark Encounter in Kentucky for the annual Answers for Pastors and Leaders Conference. (Next year is the bi-annual G3 Conference in Atlanta, so that’s where we’re headed Lord willing next September!)

This past October, though, we got to have access to a part of the Ark that we hadn’t had a chance to do before. If you have ever been there, you’ll remember that there is a long wooden gangplank that leads up to the door set in the bow of the ship. The door of the Ark is a significant part of the indoor display on the second deck, but recently the attraction has opened public access to the outside gangplank itself for guests to walk up to the door from the outside. Caleb and I walked up the ramp and got some pictures of Jodee and Selah sitting at the picnic tables down below.

Walking up that ramp to the door set right in the side of the hull makes you realize that it is a very unusual design choice—putting a hatch on the side of a boat. But this is clearly what Genesis 6 describes in God’s instructions to Noah:

Genesis 6:14–16 (LSB)

“Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and you shall cover it inside and out with pitch. “Now this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. “You shall make a window for the ark, and complete it to one cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

An odd place for a door, from a naval engineering standpoint—but this is exactly what God described, and Noah in his obedience did exactly what God had commanded.

I want us to consider that door this morning—it was the only way to get into the Ark, and so it was the only way to escape the Flood that God was bringing on the earth:

Genesis 6:12–13 (LSB)

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

So just as the door in the side of the Ark was the only escape from the destruction of the Flood,

Christ is our only secure SHELTER from God’s righteous JUDGMENT

This is the second Sunday of Advent; the season when we remember Jesus’ birth as a baby in Bethlehem and consider how His coming has rescued us from the darkness of sin and rebellion that we were lost in. Christmas is always held up as the season of “joy” and “peace” and “happiness”—and it is—but the real joy of Christmas comes from understanding how desperately lost we were until Jesus came.

How is Christ our secure shelter from God’s judgment? What does it mean to say that the door of the Ark represents Christ? Let’s look at Genesis 7 together and trace some of the connections between what Jesus came to do when He came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem.

Consider first with me that the door of the Ark was

I. A door of ESCAPE from JUDGMENT (Genesis 7:11-12)

See verses 11-12 of Genesis 7--

Genesis 7:11–12 (LSB)

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the fountains of the great deep split open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. Then the rain came upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

This was the day that Noah and his family entered through that door:

Genesis 7:13 (LSB)

On this very day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark,

as we saw earlier, this flood was coming upon the whole earth was an act of

God’s WRATH over our CORRUPTION (cp. Gen. 6:11-13; Ps. 14:1-3)

Genesis 6:11–13 (LSB)

Now the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

You’ll notice that word “corruption” appears three times in these verses. It represents a Hebrew word that gives the sense of something good that has been spoiled or ruined or perverted. The same word is used in Jeremiah 13:7:

Jeremiah 13:7 (LSB)

Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined;[there’s our word] it was totally worthless.

God had instructed Jeremiah to take a new piece of clothing and bury it by the river, ruining it. In the same way, Genesis 6 says, the continual sin and wickedness of the human race had ruined and perverted and corrupted the good and perfect world God had made:

Genesis 1:31 (LSB)

And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

But that perfection was corrupted by the sinful rebellion of Adam and Eve, and that corruption continued for a thousand years, until it had reached such a state that God was done with it. And like a rotten garment that had lain in the mud for a year, there was no mending it; it had to be thrown out.

God’s good and perfect creation had been ruined by the violence and rebellion of fallen man—a corruption that you and I share down to this day:

Psalm 14:1 (LSB)

The wicked fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They act corruptly [same word]; they commit abominable deeds; There is no one who does good...

Mankind corrupted and twisted and perverted God’s good order; the early chapters of Genesis are a record of the descendents of Adam and Eve taking God’s decrees into their own hands and tearing them into pieces and throwing them back into His face. And so when the Flood comes in Genesis 7, it is an expression of

God’s JEALOUSY for His RIGHTEOUSNESS (Gen. 6:5-7; cp. Isa. 64:6)

In verses 5-7 of Genesis 6, we read

Genesis 6:5–7 (LSB)

Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And Yahweh regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I regret that I have made them.”

God saw that there was simply nothing left in the heart of man but evil—the Hebrew word under the English translation has at its root the idea of something that has been smashed, ruined, decimated, crushed. There is nothing left in our hearts that has any motion toward God or desire to please Him.

This even extends to our own ideas of what it means to be pleasing to God—in our own estimation, we really believe that we have some redeeming value of our own; that we might be in rough shape, but there are at least some things we can do to show God that we are not totally gone.

But Isaiah 64:6 tells us

Isaiah 64:6 (LSB)

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away.

The corruption that had ruined the creation after the Fall—the corruption that had led God to destroy all living flesh in the Flood—is the same corruption that has ruined you and me. In our natural state, you and I are utterly incapable of any truly righteous action. All of the things that we think will please God in fact disgust Him; everything we believe is praiseworthy and noble in our behavior is loathsome to Him. It is as if someone were to dump the contents of a truck stop restroom garbage can on top of your breakfast—your attempts at pleasing God or impressing Him are utterly abhorrent to Him. You think you deserve praise, but what you really deserve is destruction.

The picture I am trying to paint for you this morning is to understand that this Flood that God was preparing in Noah’s day would bring a judgment on corruption and evil and violence and wickedness that you and I utterly deserve. And notice that destruction didn’t just stop with mankind:

Genesis 6:7 (LSB)

And Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I regret that I have made them.”

God had created mankind to keep and tend and cultivate the earth and its living creatures; but the wickedness and violence and corruption of mankind had even made the animals loathsome to God—He decided to throw all of it away. There was nothing left worth saving. Pause there for a moment—how utterly vile and perverted and wicked had mankind become that his evil had even corrupted the animals to the point where they weren’t worth saving? Consider here how completely lost and worthless that world was. There was nothing worth saving...

“BUT...”

See it there in verse 8—as Charles Spurgeon said, the most beautiful word in all the Bible:

Genesis 6:8 (LSB)

But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.

This brings us to the second connection to the door of the Ark and Christ—that door was a door of escape from judgment, and next we see that it is

II. A door of REFUGE for all who SEEK Him (Genesis 7:13-14)

In verse 9 of Genesis 6, we are told that

Genesis 6:9 (LSB)

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among those in his generations; Noah walked with God...

See here that in a world that wasn’t worth saving—not even the animal kingdom would escape this judgment of God’s wrath against our corruption—even as utterly and completely as mankind had turned against God in violence and corruption

Noah found GRACE in God’s SIGHT (cp. Gen. 6:8)

In verse 9, we are told that

Genesis 6:9 (LSB)

...Noah was a righteous man, blameless among those in his generations; Noah walked with God.

But it is instructive that his righteousness appears after he finds favor in God’s eyes! It wasn’t that Noah was the single “good man” surviving as a good man in a sea of wicked men, and God saw his righteousness and showed him favor as a result. The order of the account is important—God rested His favor on Noah first, and afterwards Noah became a righteous man, walking with God.

God’s grace to Noah is demonstrated again as the account continues in verses 12-14:

Genesis 6:12–14 (LSB)

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and you shall cover it inside and out with pitch.

Notice here that it wasn’t that Noah saw how corrupt the earth was and decided to start building an Ark in order to escape God’s judgment. He knew nothing about what God was going to do—it was God who warned Noah to build the Ark; it was God who gave Noah the instructions on how to build it. Noah was only ever the recipient of God’s grace in this whole account. If God had not told him to build the Ark (and if He had not given him specific instructions on how to build the Ark), Noah would have utterly perished along with the rest of his miserable race in that Flood.

We have to understand this, beloved—

Noah’s OBEDIENCE was found in God’s GRACE (cp. Heb. 11:7)

You’ll remember that Noah appeared in our study of Hebrews this year. Turn with me for a moment to Hebrews 11:7 (page 1007 in the pew Bible). It says of Noah that

Hebrews 11:7 (LSB)

...being warned about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household...

The word rendered “reverence” here comes from a Greek word that means acting with godly fear—to obey out of respect and awe toward the One Who has commanded you. When Noah finished that Ark—when after decades of labor and toil and accomplishment he stood back and looked at the finished product, his response was not one of pride. He did not look at the Ark and say “What a magnificent vessel I have built! Look at this craftsmanship and ingenuity!” His response was reverence: “Oh YHWH, I have only done what you have commanded me. I have obeyed You, Lord, this is all of You, and not of me!”

This is so important for us, beloved, we who have found favor in the sight of God and who have received His righteousness by faith—because so many times He calls us to obedience as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12): Growing in the ordinary means of grace of worship, prayer, Bible study, evangelism, discipleship. We seek to obey His direction as we build our lives according to His Word.

But if we are not very careful, we may start to take the kind of ownership of our obedience that in fact opposes God. We begin to think that our achievements in understanding the Bible or our growth in our prayer life or the establishment of a godly Christian household shows that we are really good craftsmen. We start to look at the means of God’s salvation of us in terms of what we have accomplished and not what He has done through us. And the danger in this is that when we struggle with prayer or Bible study or worship or evangelism, when we are confronted by our failure to progress in holiness, we begin to find fault with God and ourselves. We realize we are not the perfect specimen of Christianity that we thought we were, and so we become discouraged and despondent.

We need to hear the same words that the Apostle Paul spoke when he admonished the believers in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 4:7 (LSB)

What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

On the one hand, the Ark that saved Noah was built by his own two hands. But on the other hand, there was nothing about that Ark that Noah could point to and say “I contributed that...” There was nothing about that Ark that had not been given to Noah by God’s grace; in the same way, beloved, there is nothing about your salvation or the Christian life you have built that you can point to and say “That was from me...”

IT. IS. ALL. OF. GRACE. You would have nothing if it had not been God’s grace calling you out of your depravity and wickedness. And you would have nothing had His Word not come to you to instruct you on how to build your life and your walk before Him. It was the grace of God that rested His favor on Noah when he was still a member of that vile, wicked and violent race—favor that called him out of the corruption into a walk of righteousness before Him. And it was the grace of God that warned Noah that a Flood was even coming; it was the grace of God that taught him how to construct the Ark; the grace of God that gave Noah the breath in his lungs and the strength in his limbs to labor for decades to build it, And it was the grace of God that invited Noah and his family through that Door—because just spending 75 years building that Ark would not have saved him if he didn’t enter it himself.

And this, I think, is where the seemingly odd placement of the Door in the hull of the Ark speaks to us. For all the remarkable work that went into that vessel, putting a door in the side of it seems the height of thoughtlessness—how could they possibly make that door watertight enough to withstand the enormous pressure that would constantly beat against it for the duration of their voyage?

Look again at verse 16:

Genesis 7:16 (LSB)

And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and Yahweh closed it behind him.

Noah and his family and all living breathing flesh inside that Ark were protected because God Himself shut that door. That door was held shut by His supernatural power, beyond anything mere mortal effort or expertise could do. That door was held shut not by Noah’s excellent craftsmanship, but by God’s infinite power. Not by how hard they had worked to build it, but by how perfect God’s care was for them. There was no door they could build that would keep out that Flood; only God Himself could preserve them.

That door was a door of escape from God’s judgment; it was a door of refuge for all who sought Him. But see here in our text that that Door of escape is also

III. A door that will CLOSE forever (Genesis 7:15-16)

It is not for nothing that the apostle John writes in Revelation 3:7 that what God shuts no one can open, and what He opens no one can shut. But see here the warning represented by this verse. In Genesis 7:10 we see that God let that door stand open in the Ark for a week before the Flood came:

Genesis 7:4 (LSB)

“For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”

One more week to seek refuge; one more week to believe the warnings of God’s impending judgment. The door stood wide open during all that time, until

Genesis 7:10 (LSB)

...it happened after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth.

And when the rain began, when the waters began to rise, Noah and his family entered the refuge God had provided for them, and notice that it is said that YHWH shut the door—the faithful covenant-keeping God Who poured out His grace and mercy on Noah and his family—YHWH shut the door

To KEEP His CHILDREN forever (John 10:27-28)

Christian—do you see this? You are held fast not by how remarkable your Christian walk is; you are held inside that safety and security not by how consistent your personal quiet time is or how serene and peaceful your heart is or by how perfect your family is or how stainless your spiritual reputation is. You are kept from the storms and waves and floods not because of how well you keep the door of the Ark shut; you are held fast because the almighty Hand of God Himself has shut you in, and what He shuts no one can open:

John 10:27–28 (LSB)

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

Can you imagine the fear and trepidation that must have filled Noah and his family’s hearts as they heard those Flood-waves beating against that massive hull, pounding against that door, rocking that giant ship with forces they could not have dreamed possible as almighty God poured out His wrath on that corrupt and wicked world? But they were perfectly kept by the power of God within that refuge. God Himself had shut them in, and nothing could pull them out.

Can you see it, beloved? You can stop fretting and pining over your failures and imperfections; stop beating yourself up over how holy you think you should be by now—can’t you see here that you are held fast by Christ Himself? That Door that you have entered through cannot be forced open—either by the judgment and destruction from outside or by your own sins and failures from the inside. Once you have entered through the Door—once you have entered the only secure shelter from God’s righteous wrath—you are perfectly and eternally kept by His power.

Noah did not close himself into the Ark that he made, YHWH did it for him. You do not seal yourself into salvation by your own obedience—God has done it for you, and He has sealed that Door with the blood of His own Son. He has sealed you in—that Door has been shut fast and held fast by His own hand, and nothing can tear you out of His grasp.

Noah and his family would have sat inside that Ark listening to the pounding of the waves and winds and currents of the Flood beating against the hull and against that door. God Himself shut that door in order to keep His children forever, but it is also true that He shuts that door

To CONDEMN the WICKED forever (Matthew 25:10; Luke 13:24-25)

They would have also heard the screams and cries of the wicked inhabitants of the earth who had hated YHWH and His decrees; they would have heard the pleas and the cries of people who realized too late that their judgment had fallen upon them and they were about to be drowned by the wrath of the righteous God they had scorned.

Jesus speaks about the Day when all those who have rejected His call to repentance will realize that it is too late—they will cry out for the door to be opened, but their cries will go unanswered. He warns in Luke 13:24-25:

Luke 13:24–25 (LSB)

“Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’

It won’t matter on that Day what kind of bargain you try to strike, it won’t matter how you appeal to Him:

Luke 13:26 (LSB)

“Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’

But on that Day, the Door will be shut forever:

Luke 13:27 (LSB)

“And He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you workers of unrighteousness.’

And you will find yourself utterly, completely, and eternally lost:

Luke 13:28 (LSB)

“In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out.

Christ is our only secure shelter from God’s righteous judgment. Christian, what does God’s Word reveal in you today? Have you been trusting in your own obedience over God’s grace? Have you been letting pride trickle in where only reverence should be found? Noah did not find any reason for pride in obeying God’s commands; had it not been for God’s unearned, unmerited favor resting on him, he would have been swept away in the Flood along with the rest of his wicked race. Christian, go back again to the grace that saved you and realize that everything you are and everything you have done is a gift of that grace. Like Jesus’ parable in Luke 17, even if you have faith that can rip a tree up by its roots and plant it in the middle of the sea—even if your Christian life is an amazing monument of holiness and righteousness and spiritual maturity—Luke 17:10 says

Luke 17:10 (LSB)

“In this way, you also, when you do all the things which are commanded of you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”

You are not saved from God’s wrath because you have built your salvation with your own two hands—you are saved from God’s wrath because you are held securely in the nail-scarred hand of Jesus Christ. He has shut you in, and He will keep you. So you can let go of your striving and your score-keeping and your frustration that you are not as perfect as you think you should be; you can let go of you disappointment with yourself and others; you can simply rest in Jesus Christ.

You say, “But I have failed Him—I do not desire Him as I ought, I do not obey Him as I ought—I am utterly unworthy of Him…” Well, of course you are unworthy of Him! That is the whole point of your salvation! As the old hymnwriter put it, “And from my striken heart, with tears, Two wonders I confess: The wonders of redeeming love, And my unworthiness.”

So take your unworthiness and your imperfect repentance and your pride and your disobedience and your unholiness and throw it all in a big pile at the foot of His Cross. And then take all of your accomplishments, all of your maturity, all of your triumphs and your victories for Him and throw them on the same pile—and cast yourself on Christ’s work for you!

What does God’s Word reveal to you today? Do you see by the Scriptures here that you are outside of that Door—that one and only door? Jesus Christ makes it clear in John 10--

John 10:9 (LSB)

“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved...

There will never again be a Flood that destroys the world—God promised that in Genesis 9:11, and He always keeps His promises. But He has also promised that there is a Day coming when He will judge the world—Acts 17:31 says

Acts 17:31 (LSB)

...He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”

On that Day, the Door to salvation will be closed forever. But there is another day coming—whether it is closer than that Day no one can tell you—when you will end your life here on this earth. And after that day when the door of your coffin closes over you, the time to find salvation in Christ will be past:

Hebrews 9:27–28 (LSB)

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

When that Day comes, will you be eagerly awaiting Him, or will you be terrified at His approach? Will you be glad because you have been hidden in Him from the wrath of God’s judgment, or will you be horrified by the weight of your sin that condemns you in His presence? The Door is standing open today; the rains have not yet started to fall, there is still time—while it is called Today—to turn away from your self and your pride and your corruption and your violence and your unbelief. Confess that He is Lord and that there is no other; cry out to Him for forgiveness for all of your mocking and scorn and disregard of His truth. Stop giving Him lip-service from time to time when it suits you; fall at His feet and beg Him for mercy.

And He will hear you—He will rejoice to pick you up from the shame and regret and guilt of your past, He will delight to show you His favor; the angels in Heaven will burst into rejoicing and celebration to see you come. He has called you here this morning to hear this invitation, to come through this Door while there is still time. Don’t wait another day; don’t turn up what may be your last chance to come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LSB)

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

What does the story of Noah tell us about the nature of sin and the consequences of disobedience? How does this differ from the way this account is typically told in our day and age?

What is the relationship between grace and obedience in this account—in what ways is God’s grace seen to be the basis for Noah’s obedience? How does this help you understand the nature of your obedience to God?

In what ways can you relate to Noah's experience of finding favor with God despite the corrupt world around him?

As we reflect on the season of Advent, how can understanding God's promise to judge the world shape your view of Christ's birth?