Noah's Ark

Genesis 6:9-8:19  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 3 views
Notes
Transcript

Intro

This morning we are covering a large section of Scripture that recounts the story of Noah’s Ark. To many, this is a very familiar story that they have heard a thousand times. Noah’s Ark is one of those Bible stories that isn’t just known by sunday schoolers, but by just about everyone. Some see it as merely a legendary myth, others as a kind of allegory. But Christians have always held that this story isn’t mere allegory, but real history.
And this morning we will encounter a story that is familiar and true, but its also so much more than that. This story doesn’t just teach us about something that happened in the past, but it also instructs us in how we ought to believe and live in our present age.
For we live in a day and age that, in many ways, isn’t all that different from Noah’s. From this text our sermon will have three points, each of them with very important implications for our own lives.
First, we will see that God makes promises to the world — to some promises of judgement, and to others promises of protection.
Second, we will see that God always keeps his promises, whether of judgement or of protection.
Third, we will see that God always prospers the people that he protects.
Through these three points, we will ultimately see that Noah’s salvation in the ark was a critical moment in redemptive history that was preparing us to receive a much greater salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God Makes Promises

CFC: Christ is the promised savior to protect us from the judgement we deserve.
State:

Promise To Judge Sin

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 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.

This is a promise that we considered in considerable depth last week. As Pastor Jerry preached on the previous passage, the increasing corruption on the Earth became apparent, and we even learned that God determined to blot out all life from the Earth.
That promise is restated here in the text that we consider this morning, and it is incredibly important context for what we are considering. The story of Noah’s Ark begins with the reason for the flood in the first place.
The Earth was becoming increasingly evil, and God has made clear his hatred of evil.
When you read the book of Genesis, the surprise here shouldn’t be that God is going to wipe out life on the planet, but rather that it took so long before he did.
Death promised to Adam and Eve if they should sin.
Brothers murdering brothers
Humanity being tainted by sin
God was incredibly patient, but his patient hit a limit. And so God makes a promise to flood the Earth and destroy it.
But that isn’t the only promise God makes in this text. There is a second promise, one that was foreshadowed in the last verse we considered last week:

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Promise To Protect His People

14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

As God is telling Noah about the destruction that is coming to the Earth, there is a twist. He simply tells Noah to build a large boat, and he even gives him the measurements for how he is supposed to build it.
And then, after those instructions, we get a really clear contrast between the two promises of God:
Both promises:

17 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. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

So we essentially have two groups: one group is receiving a promise of judgement, and the other is receiving a promise of protection. But what is the difference between these two groups? It isn’t quite right to simply say that those receiving protection do good things and those receiving judgement do bad things.
Those receiving judgement are receiving it on account of their sins to be sure.
But those receiving protection, while being described as righteous, don’t receive protection on account of their righteousness. They receive it on account of “finding favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Jerry shared last week, and I will echo him, that everyone agrees this language is implying that Noah is receiving someone that he does not deserve. Beyond that, God states that he is entering covenant with Noah.
So we see that God promises judgement on the sins of the world, but that in the world there is a people he covenants with, and those people receive a promise of protection.
Illustrate:
Apply: Heed God’s Word
God has warned of another coming destruction. One that brings even greater consequences than the flood. Some indeed mock this warning, just as I am sure many did in the days of Noah, thinking it will not come, or will not be as severe as God promised it will be. The book of Hebrews chapter 12 says,

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

God has also promised protection for a people to escape the coming destruction.

27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

In these texts we learn about the promises that God makes to our world today. Promises of judgement on the sins of the world, but also promises of protection to those who take up residency in a different Kingdom, an unshakable one. This Kingdom will serve as a new “ark” to protect God’s covenant people. But what is that Kingdom? What is our new ark?
That Kingdom throughout Scripture is identified as the Church that Jesus Christ established through his life, death, and resurrection from the dead. In his work he saved a people for himself and gathered them together into one church, which will serve as the new ark to protect us from the coming judgement for sin.
The church is the unshakable kingdom that will persevere the coming judgement. And just like Noah’s ark had a door, so also the church has one door: Jesus Christ. All who enter by faith in him enter into his promise for protection.
These are the promises that God has given our generation as well: judgement for sin is coming, but protection is offered to all who enter God’s Kingdom the church though faith in his Son Jesus Christ.
Friends, heed the warning of God. Do not be like those in the age of Noah who scoffed and were judged. God beckons you come and find protection through Christ.
You might be thinking to yourself, “perhaps God said these things are going to happen, but are they really? Would God really do something like that?”
And as we keep reading in our Genesis account we find out that God always keeps his promises.

God Keeps His Promises

State:

Promise of judgement kept

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

After 100 years of building and preparing, the promise of God finally came to pass. Just as he said it would, God brought a great flood to come upon the Earth. We read about the severity of this flood:

19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth.

While the account of the flood is brutal, this is exactly what God promised was going to happen. In fact, it is entirely consistent with what God has promised from the very beginning. The wages of sin is death, and this has always been the case.
But again, sin bringing death shouldn’t be the surprising part of this text. The surprising part of the text, and the focus of it, isn’t on the flood covering the Earth: it’s on the ark floating atop the waters. An ark with 8 people and two of every kind of animal. An ark that represents God’s faithfulness to his promises of protection

Promise of protection kept

13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him.

Can you imagine what this day was like? Not only for those who perished in the flood, but also for Noah and his family.
They just spent the last 100 years planning for this day. They were building the ark, gathering food and supplies, and collecting the animals into the ark. There was so much anticipation, so much buildup. And up until this day, everything was just future.
Until that one day when the future flood became the present flood. That was the day when preparations became realities. That was the day when faith was truly tested.
That day must have been utterly terrifying. This was no mere rainfall. It wasn’t even an intense storm. This was an absolute deluge. The Earth is being drowned, both from above and below. And Noah is hoping that this boat that he built is going to be sufficient to protect him from this deluge.
But he wasn’t really just trusting in the ark was he? Rather, he was trusting in the one who made him a promise.
Because there is absolutely no way that this ark should have survived the flood. Even if Noah was a master shipbuilder and followed the instructions exactly, there is no way that this ship would have been able to survive the deluge that God sent upon the Earth. But this was no mere ark protecting Noah — Noah was “shut in” by the Lord himself. John Calvin comments,

Moses teaches us, that the waters were not restrained from breaking in upon the ark, by pitch or bitumen only, but rather by the secret power of God, and by the interposition of his hand.

Even if Noah had followed God’s instructions perfectly, this still would not have been enough to save him. He needed God’s hand of protection to bless his best efforts, which would have been completely insufficient by themselves.
And so we learn in the text that God keeps his promises — promises to judge the world’s sin and promises to protect his people. Those promises that we listen to actually become our lived experience.
But you might be wondering — how can this be? How can it be true that God judges the sins of the world, but that he also protects his covenant people? Perhaps there would be no difficulty in this if God’s people were without sin, but this isn’t the case. Even the best person in God’s Kingdom has sinned against him.
So then how can both of God’s promises come true? How can he actually judge sin, and actually protect his people?
This tension is resolved at the cross of Christ. Judgement came and consumed him so that we could be protected from it. Either he is destroyed for you, or destruction is surely coming.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
1 Peter 3:21–22 “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
Baptism doesn’t automatically save you just because you got wet or dirst was removed from your body, but it is a sign and a seal that all who trust in Christ for salvation have been united to him in his sacrifical death and in his resurrection from the dead. Just as the Apostle Paul also says in Colossians 2,
Colossians 2:12–14 “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
God keeps his promises. And because of Jesus, sinners like us can take solace in his promise for protection.
Apply:
Friends, if you have not trusted in Christ, I implore you to consider God’s promises. I assure you that he will keep them. Judgement for sin is surely coming, but he has provided an ark of protection for you. Through faith in his Son, your sins are forgiven and you will surely be protected from the coming judgement.
If you have trusted in Christ, and if that faith has been marked by baptism, then brothers and sisters you have immense reason for confidence in this text. Look back to your baptism as the sign and seal of you ingrafting into Christ, of your participation in his death and resurrection. God has given you that sign and seal as a gift. Just as surely as Noah was sealed into the ark for protection from the flood, so also you have been sealed into Christ’s body the church for protection against the coming judgement.
And if you have been sealed into the church though faith in Christ, then there is nothing that can harm you.
This leads me to one final observation from this text:

God Prospers Those He Protects

CFC:
State: God brings us through destruction into beautiful life. Note also the fruitful labor that is fueled by God’s promising.

8 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth,

It isn’t just that God protected Noah, but he prospered him. He didn’t just spare Noah so that Noah could live a miserable life in a destroyed world. He brought Noah safely through and then led him out of the Ark into a world bursting with new life.
The command isn’t to just survive, but to be fruitful and to multiply, to fill the Earth.
Consider also what Noah’s life looks like leading up to the flood.
For 100 years he was engaged in incredibly difficult labor. He had to find and fell all of the trees that would be required to build this ark. I don’t know if you ‘ve ever been to the Ark encounter, or if you’ve seen renderings of the ark, but it was huge and it took an insane amount of lumber.
After collected the wood he had to cut it, prepare it, and fit it all together. Even if Noah was a professional shipbuilder, this would have been an immense task.
While he was doing that, he also had to figure out how he was going to gather together two years worth of rations not only for himself and his family, but also for pairs of every kind of animal on the planet.
Oh and by the way, he had to gather and collect pairs of every kind of animal on the planet. Even if God led the animals to Noah, this would have been a huge undertaking. Noah would have been dealing with wild animals of every kind, building them enclosures and caring for them without any training.
Noah did all of this — how? Why? Calvin comments,

we must consider how far beyond all human power was the doing of it: and that it would have been better to die a hundred deaths, than to undertake a work so laborious, unless he had looked to something higher than the present life,

For then do we freely embrace the commands of God, when a promise is attached to them, which teaches us that we shall not spend our strength for nought.

Illustrate:
Apply: Work hard and bear fruit, For God has promised to prosper you.
Church, God has made wonderful promises to us — promises to protect us and to prosper us. It is from these promises alone that we derive any power to live in new obedience to God.
It is because God has promised that we can serve him. If you seek motivation to live in obedience to him, remember his promises. If your life begins to grow tedious or laborious, remember his promises. If it seems like there is no path forward for you, remember his promises. If it seems like the weight of the entire world is pressing down on you, remember his promises.
For we have a God who has made wonderful promises to us, and our God ALWAYS keeps his promises. And thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ, every one of his promises to us is yes and amen.
FCF: Great destruction is coming for this world because of our sin
CFC: Christ offers protection, provision, and restoration from the coming destruction
Call: Trust Christ as your only hope in life and death.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.
Copyright 2026 LogosFeatures|Pricing|Privacy|Terms of Use|Support