Noah

Recap of His Story - so far

Hey guys its been a while since we were in our study of His Story, so I figured i’d give you all a quick recap of what we discussed last fall before we jump into tonight’s lesson.

All of history is God’s Story. As we look through the Bible we are discovering what God has been doing and we will see what he is continuing to do.

God created everything and it was good. He chose to create the universe like a painter chooses to paint, or a sculpter chooses to sculpt. He created everything that ever was and made it good.

God set the bounderies of right and wrong. He did not set bounderies to hold us back, rather to help us flurish.

We chose to break his bounderies. this act of rebellion is called sin. Sin causes guilt, Sin causes shame, Sin causes suffering, sin causes death.

God has a plan to bring us back to himself. This point brings us to the unit we are begining tonight. Unit 3 is on redemption.

Redemption-To pay a price in order to secure the release of something or someone. It connotes the idea of paying what is required in order to liberate from oppression, enslavement, or another type of binding obligation.

Stan Norman, “Redeem, Redemption, Redeemer,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1370.

God’s plan of redemption, began before he ever chose to create, but the first promise of it recorded in scripture is found in Genesis 3:15 We spent alot of time in that chapter, so we wont be here long but look at this promise. God is promising that through an offspring of woman will come one who will finish Satan. Often this theme in scripture is called the coming seed.

Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

We will see God use this coming promise to exicute his plan throughout scripture but for tonight skip over to Genesis 6-8 as we look at a famous story about a guy and a boat. NOAH

God saw humanity’s wickedness

Genesis 6:5–6 ESV

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. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Sin had gotten so bad that it became every intention and thought of peoples’ heart. They only wanted evil. I mean stuffs bad now, but I don’t want to imagine what that must have been like.

It says that it grieved God’s heart and he even regretted making people. Have you ever had any regrets?

God judged humanity’s wickedness

Genesis 6:7 (ESV)

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.”

He didn’t just regret making people, this was a time of wrath. He determined to wipe the filth from the world. Sin must be judged. God is love, yes, but he is also Just. He cannot simply ignore sin.

What is justice? Justice is order, fairness, things being made right. Justice demands that evil be delt with, wrongs to be righted, and penalties be handed out.

Example of justice: Think about stealing. There is an injustice done on the victim, the loss of the item, therefore justice demands consequences on the perpetrator. But Justice also demands a restitution of the loss to the victim. The Bible describes this justice in Exodus 22.

Exodus 22:1 (ESV)

“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

During Noah’s time the people’s sin didn’t just affect them, it cursed the ground itself. Gen 3:17

Genesis 3:17 (ESV)

And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

Genesis 8:21 (ESV)

And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

So people’s sin was affecting the entire planet, so God chose to bring justice onto the people, and to clense the earth of the cursings that had been brought onto it through a flood.

Genesis 6:17 (ESV)

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.

But God spared humanity from complete distruction

God was going to judge the sin and clense the world, but he also had a promise to keep. The coming seed from Eve. If God had’ve completely wiped out humanity then his promise would have been broken, so God chose Noah.

Genesis 6:13–14 (ESV)

And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.

Genesis 7:15 ESV

They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.

A year and 10 days later they got out of the ark. and God made a new conenant, an new promise to not destroy the earth again as he has done, nor would he curse the ground again for man’s sin.

Genesis 8:20–22 (ESV)

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

God spared them in order to keep his promises. They were chosen because of Noah’s faith. Imagine Noah spent approx 120 years building the ark. Preaching that the flood was coming while no one believed him. I believe that if people had’ve turned back to God they would have been allowed onto it as well.

Salvation through the flood was only availible through the Ark, in the same way Salvation from Sin is only found in the cross. Jesus died for our sins making a way of salvation. The message is the same turn in repentance and follow Christ before its too late. Then spend you like like Noah humbly serving and obeying God in the face of ridicule and mockers.