Noah and the Flood

Outline Format

The World After the Fall

Evil Runs Rampant

A Righteous Remnant

I Will Resist the Pressure of the World and Walk in Covenant with God

The Faithfulness of Noah

A Prophesied Savior

Noah Found Grace through Obedience

I Will Commit to Obedience Even When I do not Have Full Understanding

The Faithfulness of God

Faithful in Judgment

Faithful in Salvation and Restoration

I Will Not Live in Fear, for God is in Control

Conclusion

Full Lesson

The World After the Fall

Evil Runs Rampant

We have just stepped out of the sin of Adam and Eve.

They, at the time, could not possibly have understood the continual consequences for their disobedience in the Garden. Well, that is, they couldn’t until one of their sons murdered the other.

Sin is destructive. The first six chapter of the Bible tell this grim story about the progressive spiral of sin. One decision to violate the one commandment there was in Paradise, and it progressed with this devastating speed to the condition that we come to in Genesis 6:5…

Genesis 6:5 KJV 1900

5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

So two things:

great wickedness

and continuously evil imagination

Those two things together paint this picture of what’s going on in the world at this time, and it’s not a pretty picture at all. Something to point out here: it wasn’t only what humanity did. It was also what men and women thought. God cares about what’s going on up here (in your head)!

And I want to give you some scriptural help on that:

2 Corinthians 10:4–5 KJV 1900

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Don’t merely take your actions captive (“I shouldn’t have done that”)… take your THOUGHTS captive (“I shouldn’t have thought that”). Because evil thoughts lead to evil actions! And that is why we have this situation in Genesis 6:5.

People tend to start with their actions, but if you start in the head and the heart, all things we do flow from that. Do you wish that you could be used of God more? Get the Word of God in your heart and head! Think on Him! Pray to Him! Speak with Him! Only good things flow from that!

So… fast forward to September of 2025, and here, thousand of years later, we are still walking through a world in which sin abounds.

What do we see in a sinful world? Strife, abuse, animosity, greed, envy, pride, theft, murder, and much more. All of these things show that sin’s destructive presence is still running rampant through humanity. And before we go labeling and resisting every person who does bad, we need to get a revelation that the truth is, they are EXACTLY the type of person Jesus died for: a slave to sin. That’s been all of us!

And the sin that’s prevalent has left in its wake: pain, regret, and hopelessness. Hopelessness is what I personally believe has been most devastating on people.

Sin is killing people out there. They desperately need deliverance. Because sin abounds today.

But I’ve got an anointed word for somebody here… you ready?!

Romans 5:20 KJV 1900

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

A Righteous Remnant

Now, if you stop at Genesis 6:5, that doesn’t inspire much hope about humanity.

But not all hope was lost! Not, anyway, for those who chose to live faithfully in covenant with God. And the Bible tells us of such people - a “righteous remnant.”

Like Enoch. Genesis 5:24 says Enoch “walked with God.” Despite his surroundings, he had a close relationship with God. So close, apparently, that God was like, “You’re about as close to me as you would be up here at this point, so let’s go, homie!” And God just TOOK him! And God just simply rescued Enoch from the evil of the world.

The writer of Hebrews 11 put it like this:

Hebrews 11:5 KJV 1900

5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Listen… there’s always a remnant! You think it’s all bad. It ain’t! Just like God will offer a “way of escape” during temptation, He’ll always have a remnant among all the heathens!

That’s YOUR testimony, isn’t it?! Because while you were a heathen, there was somebody around you who had decided that no matter what everyone else does, “I’m gonna be a child of God!” And thank God they did! They helped you!

And now YOU’RE the remnant!!!

I Will Resist the Pressure of the World and Walk in Covenant with God

You know, Enoch’s story only fills up a few lines in Scripture, but his testimony speak volumes to us today.

And something that’s interesting is that his covenant relationship with God is defined by walking.

Genesis 5:24 KJV 1900

24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

He walked with God. He wasn’t perfect. He faced temptation. But his desire was to please God and follow His ways.

Psalm 37:23 KJV 1900

23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: And he delighteth in his way.

God has always concerned Himself with ordering humanity’s steps, even when the world gets stupid!

Yeah, sin remains a force in our world. And there’s going to be pressure to conform to it by temptation. We’re going to have to resist. You need a healthy Apostolic resistance about you!

But we’re not alone! We’ve got:

God’s Word to guide us,

His Spirit to empower us,

and a great cloud of witnesses (including Enoch) encouraging us to walk in covenant with God!

The Faithfulness of Noah

A Prophesied Savior

So, Enoch was not the only member of this “remnant.” There was another who, in the middle of wickedness, walked in covenant with God! There was a prophecy of him, also:

Genesis 5:29 KJV 1900

29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.

We don’t know if Noah knew how he would fulfill this prophecy or even knew about it at all. But we do know that there was something special about this man. Something that separated him from the rest of the world.

And you have to understand that God’s creation had turned its back on their Creator almost entirely. And what they had done had hurt the heart of God in such a great way that this is what He said:

Genesis 6:7 KJV 1900

7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

That last part can be translated precisely to be, “I am sorry that I ever made them.”

But thankfully, that is not the end of the story! God always extends hope:

Genesis 6:8 KJV 1900

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Let me tell you what your God is like…

The whole world of people turns on Him. They are evil people. There is nothing that they won’t do to disappoint God and rebel against Him.

It doesn’t matter where you look - their actions or their mind.

It doesn’t matter where you go - anywhere there were people at the time.

But God - in His endless and shocking love - begins searching anyway… through the whole world for even the slightest reason to extend grace.

THAT’S WHO OUR GOD IS. All of everything could be burnt over and hopeless, and He’s going to look and find a way to bring up a beautiful tree!

THERE’S HOPE TODAY!

And, in His searching of the earth, God finds the man Noah. A man who had a prophetic birth. God was getting ready to combat the curse that was on humanity.

Noah Found Grace through Obedience

What we find about Noah is that he was like Enoch: he walked with God.

The world is unravelling around him in unchecked wickedness, and Noah remains faithful to God. And the obedience he had (that’s an important word!) is what would bring salvation to his family and for the human race to be able to continue and be preserved.

Because of ONE MAN’S OBEDIENCE, the covenant relationship between God and humanity held up in the face of evil!

And it’s important to point out here, also, that the OBEDIENCE that Noah had was going to require a great amount of FAITH. Because God tells him, “Build a boat. It’s going to rain.”

“God… what’s rain?”

IT HAD NEVER RAINED BEFORE!

Talk about faith. The countless hours he would be putting into this… for something he had never seen or witnessed before.

And THIS is living for God. If you’re wanting everything to be life as usual, calculated, expected, predicted, and the same-old-same-old… THIS AIN’T FOR YOU!

But living for God is having faith and obedience… and if you’ll hold to that and believe when other people are just here and faithless… YOU’RE GOING TO SEE THINGS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!

And so it’s time to build. And God laid out in great detail the plans for the ark Noah was going to build.

God gave its dimensions.

He told the type of wood to use (anyone know?).

He told Noah where to put the window and the door. And how the pitch to seal it was to be applied.

The ark was supposed to be at least 150 yards long and 3 stories high.

And so God gave all of this with desire for Noah and his family to prepare for what was coming. Faith requires obedience to God’s instructions as Noah did - without hesitation or reservation! That’s why often when it’s time for prayer or altar call, I’ll call for anyone with a need to come QUICKLY in the next few seconds, because I’ve found that if we won’t hesitate, that type of quick faith is a place made ready for God to do a miracle!

Acts 3:1–8 KJV 1900

1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

QUICKEN YOURSELF.

We need to make changes in our lives to be more quick and obedient to the nudge of God! How can I remove the hesitation?

There are three voices that come to us when God wants to use us…

God - telling us what He wants us to do.

Our flesh - telling us maybe we shouldn’t, what might or might not happen, and letting pride and lack of faith control our actions. Talking ourselves out of a miracle.

Satan - saying, “Yeah you’re right! Don’t do it. That’s gonna go bad!” Fear. Timid. Intimidation. Stamping out the impossibilities God can do.

And this is why we need to respond QUICKLY. Our flesh and Satan do a great job of preventing the glory of God in our midst.

Here’s Noah’s mindset:

Genesis 6:22 KJV 1900

22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

So it was simple for Noah. I’ve heard. I’ve felt. I’m going!

I Will Commit to Obedience Even When I do not Have Full Understanding

So we need to commit to obedience.

Commitment is a hard word for people today. Wedding vows are thrown around and thrown away as if they have little importance. People switch jobs like their shoes and churches like their socks.

People don’t want to make commitments or hold to them.

And it’s easier to commit when we have a lot of details or previous experience with the person that we’re committing to. Not so much when there are unanswered questions and parts we don’t understand.

No one - including Noah - fully understood what was going to happen or how building an ark would save anything. But he obeyed anyway.

“Build an ark!” Well… that’s something I’ve never done before.

“It’s going to rain!” Umm… no one’s ever seen anything like that before.

“The rain is going to cause a catastrophic, worldwide flood that takes out everything but the people in the ark.” Whew. God… I have experience with none of that.

“That’s okay - just believe me and obey me… you’re about to see it!”

And that kind of faith and obedience will isolate you. Don’t you know Noah felt isolated a bit! He was the remnant. That’s all of it.

You may feel that way when you have a radical faith like Noah did. But when God begins doing what He says He would do around you… they’re going to see His glory, and they’ll start having great faith too!

Noah could have submitted to fear. He didn’t say, “I’ll just go with the safe route and stick it out. See if rain really falls.”

He trusted God’s faithfulness and put himself out there, even though he had lack of understanding.

I’ve known people who don’t have enormous understanding about the Word of God… but there extreme faith in Him made them A FORCE for the Kingdom of God!

The Faithfulness of God

Faithful in Judgment

Question time!!!

So… the story of the Flood is definitely a story of judgment. What is it a symbol of? (Judgment Day, endtimes, last days, second coming)

But it’s also a story of mercy. And the faithfulness of God.

Sin’s full effect happened. Does anyone know what the end of sin is, when there is no deliverance? (“The wages of sin is death”).

Humanity’s wicked ways had to be judged. Humanity had broken its covenant with God and that warranted judgment. The Flood did what it was supposed to do. It washed away sin, leaving the earth clean of sin and ready for re-creation. And God had saved this remnant so He could showcase His justice and mercy.

Remember: humanity had broken covenant with God. Truth and righteousness demands judgment on that.

But God provided humanity a way of escape: the ark.

Does anyone know what the ark in the water is a type and symbol of? Here’s some clues:

It goes in the water.

It takes Noah’s family in the water.

They are saved from judgment this way.

The ark in the water is a symbol of baptism! And I’ll even show you where scripture says it plainly…

1 Peter 3:20–21 NLT

20 those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You must be baptized in Jesus name!

Noah takes his little family, obeys God, gets in the ark, goes in the water, and they are saved!

Faithful in Salvation and Restoration

So there’s an example here for us.

Noah and his family (we often just mention Noah, but his family were with him)… they weathered the wickedness of the world. They stood firm in what was right. They escaped the Flood. And the lived to repopulate the earth.

God was faithful to everything He had said. And then He speaks directly to Noah and his sons:

Genesis 9:11 KJV 1900

11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

We are all living testaments to the fulfillment of this scripture! Even when we see a lot of flooding.

Now… what happens after the flood? Well, it doesn’t reverse the curse of sin from back in the Garden of Eden. People still had to till the ground. People still had free will to either obey the Lord or give in to temptation. Sin was still lying at the door.

And as it is today, obedience was blessed. We soon see Noah bless his sons Shem and Japheth for their righteousness and he cursed Ham for his unrighteousness. And yet each of these men were used in God’s plan to restore and repopulate the earth and set us on a trajectory toward the ultimate salvation and restoration with a new covenant in Jesus Christ.

I Will Not Live in Fear, for God is in Control

And this whole story is not put into Scripture for us to fear; it’s for us to have hope. Every time it rains, we can look up and see the pages of Scripture come alive before our eyes!

Genesis 9:12–13 NKJV

12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

God paints this rainbow across the sky. And it’s a sign of His covenant with us that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood.

Some have taken it and made it a sign of sin; broken covenant.

But God puts it in the sky. And every time it’s Him saying, “I remember and keep my covenants with you!”

Our covenant-making and covenant-keeping God keeps on proving Himself to be faithful! And that assurance should free us from paralyzing fear! No matter what we hear or see on the news or online, God is in control! No matter which nation threatens another or who is in power in our nation, God is in control!

I’m not afraid to step out in faith today! If I’ll just respond and obey, He’ll come through and show Himself powerful!

I’m going to stay in covenant and see Him work!

Conclusion

If we want to progress in God, there are areas of our life that we are going to have to let go of control and give it to God.

When we begin to move in the Spirit, control and dignity and pride and perception of other are the enemy. You have to let go of that.

The Spirit is like a river. That’s why we use words like “flow.”

If you’re standing in a strong stream of water that’s really moving fast… you can keep control as long as your feet are touching the bottom of the river. If you feel the ground down there, you know you’re still in control.

But if some of us will ever learn to just keep going and let our feet come up off of that riverbottom… what happens is the river gains control of YOU… and it takes you where it wants you to go!

Surrender control! See God do what He wants to do! Listen to that first voice and not the second and third!