Final Warning

Genesis 7:1-16

In Genesis 7:1-16, we find two elements of the final warning from God before judgement: 1) Salvation Offered (1-10); 2) Secured Door (11-16).

Salvation Offered

You guys know what’s coming right?

You know this story

If you were raised in church this was likely one of the stories you heard about on repeat

My mom was my Sunday school teacher when I was little and I remember singing a song about the flood with her. You might know it. It went like:

The Lord told Noah

There's going to be a floody floody

The Lord told Noah

There's going to be a floody floody

Get those animals out of the muddy muddy

Children of the Lord

It goes on for a lot more verses, but you can hear the nice tune!

It’s happy! That along with pictures of rainbows and arks with everyone smiling!

I left Sunday school with a picture in my mind of the ark that was happy, bright, and colorful

This is not the picture we get from the text though

It’s not pretty, it’s not happy

Here’s the picture that we get

Noah has been building the ark for over 100 years

As he gathered the material and began to assemble it he was calling out to the people constantly to turn from their sins and be restored to God

But as he sweat and worked over the ark, the people around him didn’t care

In fact, as Noah was begging them to repent the mocked and insulted him

Continuing in their sins.

Take a moment to imagine Noah’s heart in this matter

He loves the Lord. He desire righteousness

But he certainly loves his sinning neighbors and family as well

Imagine the heartbreak of Noah to preach the Gospel to them day after day after day for over 100 years only to see them become more and more and more sinful

And then for God to speak down from heaven and tell him that the time is up

The world, filled to overflowing with every kind of sinful act suddenly swept away in the flood of God’s wrath.

If Noah looked out of the ark, he would not have seen cute fishies swimming around. He would have seen the corpses of millions as their cries faded beneath the thunder of the raging wages.

He would have seen the home that he and his wife had lived in for centuries, crushed and swept away along with those of his friends, family, and neighbors.

This is not a pretty scene

This is a tragic one

It is a dark scene, one of the two darkest moments in all of history

We need to see the sorrow of this scene.

We need to see the tragedy

But you ask why?

Why can’t a stay with my cute Sunday school songs and pictures?!

Because God intends for this text to show you the true horror of your sin!

How bad is sin, really?

Our sin is so immensely awful that God would send a global flood with the soul intent of blotting out and extinguishing all life on the earth, so that the highest mountains would drown beneath the waves. Our sin is so horrific that it called upon God to send those waves to drown untold millions of people beneath the waves so that the whole earth was filled with the shrieks of their agony as one by one their corpses floated to the surface of the water. Our sin is so terrible that all of this can happen and our attention is locked on the eight people to be saved.

There were only eight people saved out of untold millions and yet that is a grace that seems unbelievable!

We stop and say LOOK at what mercy and grace God had to save Noah from the flood!

And it is mercy… it is grace

Because Noah was a sinner.