Genesis 7:1-16

Salvation in the Days of the Flood

Introduction

Was there a global flood or was it merely local?

A lot of scientific debate

Most agree that there was some type of catastrophic flood event

Science actually points to a global flood

Age of the earth represents a catastrophic event occurred

Flood in Texas in 2007 reshaped how people thought about flooding

An overflowing spillway caused an 80 ft deep, 1.5 mile long gorge just from a 3-day flood

Imagine a yearly flood

Why is the flood narrative disregarded?

Scientific proof is insufficient for saving knowledge of who God is

Second, people avoid the idea of judgment, which flood points to

Third, overthrowing authority/sufficiency of Bible for individualism

How should we see the flood?

As Jesus did in Matthew 24:37–39 “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

We should see the Flood as a precursor to the judgment to come that awaits those who are not in Christ, unbelievers

Versus, the salvation that is found in “entering into” the “ark”, the Lord Jesus, through the door, (Christ), for salvation

Prop: Saved from judgment, saved unto godly living

Main Points

Text

the fruit of righteousness (vv. 1-5)

the fountain of rain (vv. 6-12)

the firmness of redemption (vv. 13-16)

Doctrine - Saved from Judgment

Application

Text

the fruit of righteousness (vv. 1-5)

Covenant promise of God comes to pass

Confirmation that God has upheld His covenant w/ Noah

“I have seen”

Abraham was first justified by faith alone

Hebrews 11:7 “became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

Fruit verified his status before the Lord

He was found to be blameless in 6.9

He walked continually w/ God in 6.9

This demonstrated that his faith was living and not dead

Same w/ Abraham

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

God walked through severed animals verifying His covenant with Ab

Abraham demonstrated His faithfulness to the Lord/ genuine fruit of salvation by obeying

Offering Isaac in Gen 22.

James 2:14-26.

What benefit if someone says they have faith but nothing to show for it?

“Thoughts and prayers” mentality

James 2:21–24 “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

A faith that is not w/o accompanying works of obedience to God

John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

God first loved us, and we love God in turn

Result?

Genesis 7:5 “And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.”

Comparison w/ 6.22

Recognition of the eternality of God’s Law

As w/ sacrifice of Abel - blood sacrifice

Here, before the “giving of the Law” in formal manner Noah is delineating between clean/unclean

Shows that God’s law which includes sacrifice and Sabbath pre-dated Mt. Sinai

Impress upon us the necessity of obedience and our inability to do so

40 days/ 40 nights

Significant nomenclature in Scripture

Period of trial and testing

Moses on Mt. Sinai

Taunting of Goliath against Israel

Elijah’s journey to Horeb - escaping from Jezebel/Ahab

Christ’s ministry is marked by 40d/40n

Led into wilderness by Spirit

Post-resurrection / pre-ascension

the fountain of rain (vv. 6-12)

In Israel, water also meant the place of chaos

Absurdity of Jonah in going to escape in water

Judgment frequently took place in water

Noah and flood

Moses and Egypt

Elijah and Baalites

Gen 6.6-7 shows us a microcosm of the church

Believers and unbelievers intermingled

Ham would be one of the wicked sons

All three were placed in ark

All three benefitted from God’s protection

“… the goodness of God in allowing the making of the ark to take a hundred years, a fact that emerges from Noah’s being five hundred years old when he began it … was done wisely by the one establishing everything, so that on seeing the novelty of the construction, hearing and learning the reason for it, people might desist from evildoing. If they had heard and repented, the flood would not have been sent. That it was out of longsuffering and with the purpose of summoning people to repentance that this happened Peter, the chief of the apostles, confirms in writing in his letter about the Savior: ‘in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah during the building of the ark.’”

Didymus the Blind, Commentary on Genesis, trans. Robert C. Hill, vol. 132, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016), 170.

the firmness of redemption (vv. 13-16)

What was promised

What was preserved

Act of God gathering the animals

What was procured (obtained/acquired)

Salvation for Noah

All an act of God

Entering into covenant = God

Declaring righteous = God

Ability to be blameless = God

Grace/favor to Noah = God

Shutting the remnant in the ark = God

Doctrine - Salvation from Judgment

The early church saw the importance of Noah’s ministry as it compares with that of Christ

Justin Martyr for example, sees the similarities of Noah as it relates to the cross

In his “dialogue with Trypho” he writes, “Now, since Christ was the First-born of every creature, He founded a new race which is regenerated by Him through water and faith and wood, which held the mystery of the cross (just as the wood saved Noe and His family, when it held them safely on the waters”

Christ saves through water

The flood waters are new creational judgment

God works through the waters of judgment to bring about a new creation, blotting out the sinfulness of the world

Christ saves through faith

Faith is a gift of God

Jesus is God

Therefore, faith comes from the Godhead, Jesus Christ as one person amongst Trinity

Grants us faith to believe in Him

Mark 10:23-31, rich and eye of needle

Disciples see impossibility for anyone to be saved

Jesus responds, “with God all things are possible”

Text is indicating salvation, following verses speak of disciples following Christ

Jesus gifts faith, the HS as promised in John 14-16 to His own

John 6:65–69 “And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.””

Christ saves through wood

See this on display on the cross

Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—”

In the same way Christ redeems us from the curse of sin by being submerged in judgment as we deserved

Granting us faith to believe in Him

And one who is the door to salvation, who was hung on the wood of the cross

The comparisons represent the continuity of the OT/NT as God’s plan of redemption continues to unfold from Gen 3.15 onward

Application

Use 1. Find redemption in Christ alone.

Genesis 7:1 “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.”

The time of warning is up, no more chances

Luke 16.19-31, Lazarus and rich man

Presumption that your sins are not that bad

Matthew 7 parable, depart from me

All the more reason to go to the door, Jesus, John 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Saved from judgment by Christ

Unsinkable thought - Titanic

Small iceberg - small sin

Use 2. Find refuge in Christ alone.

Genesis 7:6–7 “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.”

JE, “The company in the ark was safe in the greatest catastrophe, when the world was as it were dissolved. So they that have Christ for their refuge and strength need not fear”

Probably alluding to “A Mighty Fortress” as he quotes Psalm 46 after this

A mighty fortress is our God, / a bulwark never failing; / our helper he, amid the flood / of mortal ills prevailing.

People during time of Noah probably found safety/security in own strength

In city walls

In climbing mountains

When flood waters began, there was no place that could provide a strong enough refuge to save them

Imgaing

Use 3. Find refreshment in Christ alone

Genesis 7:16 “And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.”

What does this have to do with refreshment?

Reference again to sovereignty of God

A sovereign view of God conquers doubts and fears

God shut Noah and his family into the ark

God supernaturally kept the door from being battered by wind/storm

God supernaturally held the salvation of Noah and his family