Sin and God's Grace

Introduction

Ark Encounter Video

Tension

A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, my wife told me that her mother said that she wants us to all take a trip to this Ark Encounter in Kentucky, so I thought it might be a good way to introduce our teaching this morning. Who has been down to see this exhibit? I am not sure when we are planning to go , but I am excited about seeing it in person, I think it will be cool experience.

You might have picked up on the fact that this video was not created or endorsed by the Ark Encounter and I bet you were able to hear as I was the sometimes subtle, and sometimes not so subtle sarcasm throughout the video. He kept saying that he never really got his simple question answered: Why?

Why build something like this. Sure it is fun, but what is the point. Why do we need to spend so much time, money and effort on his story of Noah and the Ark. And if you were to read the many comments below the video you would see that many people strongly affirm his position of skepticism, and that is probably putting it lightly, as many of the comments were completely hostile toward it’s existence.

Why build something like this. Sure it is fun, but what is the point. Why do we need to spend so much time, money and effort on his story of Noah and the Ark. And if you were to read the many comments below the video you would see that many people strongly affirm his position of skepticism, and that is probably putting it lightly, as many of the comments were completely hostile toward it’s existence.

I would like to tell you that this is one of those times when those who call themselves Christians have banded together with our common world view and that any opposition to a focus on this story is only from the athiest, agnostics or people from a myriad of other World views, but unfortunately this is just not the case. Many people who call themselves “Christians” agree that it is a waste of time to focus in on the stories of the Old Testament like Noah and the Flood. They don’t see value in focusing in on a controversial story that happened thousands of years before Jesus and the New Testament. Instead, let’s talk about how much God loves us and how He sent Jesus to die for us and stay away from all that doom and gloom found in the Old Testament stories like Noah and the Flood.

I would like to tell you that this is one of those times when those who call themselves Christians have banded together with our common world view and that any opposition to a focus on this story is only from athiest, agnostics or people from a myriad of other World views, but unfortunately this is just not the case. Many people who call themselves “Christians” agree that spending this much time on a Old Testament story seems to be a waste. They don’t see value in focusing in on a controversial story that happened thousands of years before Jesus. They would rather that we all just agreed that their was bad stuff that happened back there just as their is not and then move on to talk about the New Testament. Let’s talk about how much God loves us and how He sent Jesus to rescue us and stay away from all that doom and gloom in the Old Testament.

I can’t blame them for wanting to avoid talking about doom and gloom, but it is unfortunate that this is all they see in the story of Noah. Because there is so much there for us to learn from.

Typically, Christians consider the Noah and the Ark irrelevant for two reasons.

The first one is because they have only encountered the fit for children, family friendly, Noah and the Ark Story. This story offers a picture of a plump and jovial Noah who appears to be taking a bunch of animals our for a boat ride on a sunny day. There are always smiling Lions, Tigers and Bears and of course you have to have a couple of Giraffes are always poking their long necks out a window enjoying the boat ride. Many of us grew up going to Sunday School with a mural like this plastered all over the wall, complete with fluffy clouds and a happy rainbow. The problem with this happy Sunday School version is that it seems to miss the weightier matters of the story. Noah, his family and these particular animals were the only ones rescued from a devastating, world wide, ecologically altering flood. Real people died. Real sin was punished. While the rescue of Noah is worth celebrating, no one was smiling that day.

The second way in which Christians often dismiss the Noah and Ark as irrelevant is in focusing too much on the catastrophic events and not enough on the rescue. It is just hard for people to believe that this God who judged peoples sin by sending a world wide flood is the same God of the New Testament. How could a loving and forgiving God even allow, much less initiate something that destroyed every living thing on the earth? And yet that is exactly how the book of Genesis describes it. That this was a premeditated act of God to judge and punish sin by destroying every living thing on the earth except for one man’s family and a boat full of animals.

On one far side of the Noah story we have the fit for children, family friendly, Noah and the Ark Story. This story offers a picture of a plump and jovial Noah out on the lake with his boat filled with smiling Lions, Tigers and Bears. And also a couple of Giraffes are always poking their smiling heads through a window enjoying the boat ride. Many of us grew up going to Sunday School with a mural like this plastered all over the wall, complete with fluffy clouds and a happy rainbow. I understand the motivation behind this. If you were an artist trying to paint a picture of a Bible story that would connect with children, then why not one with lots of animals. Truth is that most of the other Bible Stories involving animals involved death, blood, and sacrifice so not exactly fit for children’s classroom. While the truth behind what God for did for Noah during the flood is a positive one, the idea that Noah and the animals were just floating along in peaceful bliss is not accurate. Especially when you consider how turbulent every aspect of creation became in causing the flood, and the many people, animals and creatures that lost thier lives in the process. The larger picture is one of darkness, where God’s wrath over sin was displayed through this catastrophic event.

he second way in which Christians often dismiss the Noah and Ark as irrelevant is in focusing too much on the catastrophic events and not enough on the rescue. It is just hard for people to reconcile that this God who judged peoples sin by sending a world wide flood is the same God of the New Testament. How could a loving and forgiving God even allow, much less initiate something that destroyed every living thing on the earth? And yet that is exactly how the book of Genesis describes it. That this was a premeditated act of God to punish sin by destroying every living thing on the earth because that is how much God hates sin.

Not just how the events on Earth happened, but we hear God telling Noah exactly what He is about to do and exactly why he is going to do it. Even though it is plainly there in black and white, there are still Pastors and Theologians who have such a hard time reconciling the devastation of the flood with the goodness of God that they ignore, downplay or completely reject the story of the Flood as anything that we could or should learn from.

Either one of these perspectives are so limited that holding them will cause you to miss the importance of this story. So before we even go any further let me just answer the question right from the start.

you are on this side rolling your eyes at naivity of “Happy Noah” and seeing the whole story as a gory display of something that cannot be good, you would still wonder like the guy in the video: Why?

Why invest anything in knowing about this controversial and somewhat crazy story? Because we can find a picture of the Gospel here. The Biblical record of Noah and the Flood is one that affirms vital aspects of the message of the Gospel - aspects that many of us in this room might have been quick to forget.

But on the other

We don’t want to believe that God has wrath or judgment

Why should we concern ourselves with the story of Noah and the Ark?

Because we can find a picture of the Gospel here. We are continuing in our series in Genesis from the Gospel project and the Biblical record of Noah and the Flood affirms for us an aspect of God’s character that is vital to the message of the Gospel, even though it is something that we might not really want to spend much time thinking about.

So open you Bibles with me to , starting in verse 5 (page 5) I’ll pray and we can get started.

This is our fourth

vs.

This is our fourth

Truth

To get us up to speed, we have establised that the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. The first week we looked at the beginning of all life. How God had work to create all things on this earth good, and He saw that they were good. Then the following week we saw the pinnacle of God’s creation being formed in Adam and Eve. That mankind was the only thing that God made “In his image” and as such every human life, in any stage, is marked with intrinsic dignity, value and purpose. And God said that his creation in man was “very good” and then he rested because he had perfected his creation so that it now was all “very good”.

To get us up to speed, we have establised that the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. The first week we looked at the beginning of all life. How God had work to create all things on this earth good, and He saw that they were good. Then the following week we saw the pinnacle of God’s creation being formed in Adam and Eve. That mankind was the only thing that God made “In his image” and as such every human life, in any stage, is marked with that dignity, value and purpose. And God said that his creation in man was “Very Good” and that “very good” made all things “very good”.

And we would have liked to stay in chapters One and Two, when things were very good in God’s very good world, but our first parents, Adam and Eve, made the choice that each one of us would have made in the same situation. They rejected God’s good Word and missed the mark that God was aiming them at. So enters Sin into our world, to forever alter everything in it.

Eve gave b

No one sought the Lord. No one desired to walk with God. This how chapter 6 begins:

Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden of Eden and forced into a world of difficulty and hardship that God never intended for them. Their sin and rebellion against God brought more sin and rebellion against God. Eve gave birth to two sons, one a farmer and one a rancher and when God approved of Abel's offering over Cain he murdered his brother. In the very first family one brother murdered the other, and you thought your family was messed up. And things continued to get worse and worse as sin and rebellion against God gave birth to more sin and rebellion and no one seemed to care any more about their creator . This how chapter 6 begins:

Thend

Genesis 6:5–7 ESV

5 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. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 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.”

Sin grieves God and brings his judgement ()

Did you notice all the absolutes that God is throwing out here?

In any conflict situation it is important to avoid using “all or nothing” phrases like this. We like to ramp up our side of the argument by declaring that someone “always” does this and/or “never” does that. God doesn’t operate like this. He isn’t overstating his case when he says things like, “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. Can you imagine if you were in a conflict with someone and you threw that one at them? We would recognize it as the overstatement that it is, but God is not us. We can only judge what we see on the outside, God actually knows our hearts and our thoughts, so He can accurately say that “every intention of our thoughts of his heart is evil”.

So let’s begin this morning by taking God at His Word here, that his assessment of the condition of mankind is accurate. What would we expect a perfectly good God to do in response to this evil? His very good creation that was designed to bring him glory and pleasure is now so stained by sin that all it does is mock Him and bring him pain. God’s heart is grieved.

This grieves God’s heart.

I don’t think we can ever really understand what that means, that God’s heart is grieved. We have enough trouble making sense of our own emotions as they are stained and twisted up by our sin, but to fully understand how God “feels” about something is beyond us. And yet God desires us to have some level of understanding so he reveals his heart to us in his Word. We could never understand God’s mind, but he gives us a picture of his heart.

God grieves over a creation that he made to be very good and is now turning on itself and is no longer good but every inclination is for evil. This grieves God. Notice I didn’t use the past tense. The presence of sin still grieves God. He has this God sized emotional reaction over the Sin that we chose in our lives. He grieves over it because He knows how it will effect us. How it will infect us. As it is constantly at work to destroy in us what God created us to be.

Don’t get distracted by the word “regret”. Some of you translations might say or “was sorry” or even more unhelpful is the KJV where it uses “repented”. We cannot and should not ever downsize the person, emotions or responses of God into a human package.

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God’s ways and thoughts are not like ours. God does not regret the same way that you and I do.

God does not grieve like us and He does not regret like us.

Typically, regret for us is the feeling that we get after we have done something that we wished we had not done. Not only that, but if we had it to do over again we would chose to do it in a different way. We cannot think that an all knowing, all seeing, all powerful, ever present, perfect and holy creator God is looking back on one of His decisions and wishing that he had that one to do over again. That does not fit with God’s nature or character to regret in that way.

It is more like God regrets the consequences of the decisions that we have made, not that He regrets the decisions that he has made. John Piper illustrates it as a Father who punishes his son just to see his son turn around and run away from home. If the father had it to do over again, he would do the same thing, it was the right thing to do. Still, he does feel regret that this situation caused him to be distanced from his son. That is not a perfect illustration, but it might help to brings us closer to understanding God’s kind of regret.

Mostly, as I said last week, we really don’t understand how devastating the power of Sin is. Sin is evil. We like to use words like bad, or problematic, or challenging but none of those things are strong enough explanations for sin. Sin is a destructive cancer that effects every aspect of our lives but we treat it as if it is just a common thing that just kinda trips us up once in a while. It is evil and directly opposed to God and his goodness. When we understand sin properly then it is easier to understan how a truly loving God would never allow evil like this to pollute his very good world. So He washes the world clean, and begin again with Noah.

like Sin go unhis good creation to become evil and op in a state of sin with out offering it a way out. grieves God’s heart. It destroys his creation and in His justice he has to respond. A just God must punish evil.

Sin grieves God and brings his judgement...

(Sin brings judgement,) ...but God provides grace (:)

Genesis 6:8–22 ESV

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 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. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 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. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

If you are like me, you find all the science behind all the dimensions, plans and animal species involved in the Ark fascinating, but we really aren’t going to focus in on that aspect of the story this morning. If you want to know more about the science behind the things here and even the effects of he flood on the created order then I would encourage you to check out the selection of books that we have placed on the New Library cart in the lobby. Also you could check at answersingenesis.org, they are ones that built that huge Ark in Kentucky and they have a treasury of resources there on the scientific arguments for how this great boat could have saved Noah and all the animals.

Genesis 6:8–9 ESV

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

Genesis

Look at the three descriptors there of Noah:

Our goal for this morning is to focus on the aspect of the Gospel message found in this story and one peace that we might miss is found here in verse 8. The Hebrew word for “favor” found there in verse 8 is the word חֵן(hen). It is interesting that the same word is also translated elsewhere as “grace”. That shouldn’t surprise us too much because one of the more common definitions of grace is that it is the “Unmerited favor of God”. This is what Noah experienced.

Understand that Noah was not sinless, God had already declared this. He was not righteous in the sense that Jesus was perfectly righteous. So what was it that was so special about Noah? Well we could look at the list found in verse 9:

Genesis 6:17–22 ESV

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. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

The Hebrew word for “favor” found there in verse 8 is the word . It is interesting that the same word is also translated elsewhere as “grace”. In fact that is one of the more common definitions of grace isn’t it? That grace is the “Unmerited favor of God”. This is what Noah experienced. Understand that Noah was not perfect. He was not righteous in the sense that Jesus was perfectly righteous. This is “righteous” as it is commonly used in the Old Testament to mean that in contrast to what the rest of their world was doing, this person exhibited faith in God. Look again at the three descriptors of Noah that we find in verse 9:

He was a righteous man (morally)

He was blameless in his generation (civically)

He walked with God (spiritually)

That is quite a resume isn’t it? How many of us would like to be known for these three things? They are very good things, so good in fact that we might be tempted to think that Noah earned his salvation from the coming flood through these three character traits. But that would not be true. The reason that we know this is because of verse 8. It was not that Noah was all of these things and so God said, “Well I was gonna destroy everyone but I guess I gotta save that guy - he’s got something worth keeping.”

No Noah was plagued by the same sin nature as each one of us. And just like us, his only hope was not in his performance of righteousness but in his faith in God’s Grace toward Him. The writer of the book of Hebrews was looking at the faith found throughout the history of the Hebrew people when he said this about Noah and his faith.

Hebrews 11:7 ESV

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Hebrews 11:6–7 ESV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Hebrews 11:

Then and now, the only righteousness that brings salvation is through faith:

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Noah could not boast in his righteousness because outside of God’s grace he had nothing to offer that would earn his salvation. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He walked with God in faith and that is what brought about his salvation.

Genesis 6:8 ESV

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

Then God gives Noah, and by extension us, some pretty specific construction details for the Ark. This is what prompted the Ark Encounter. It is hard to wrap our minds around what a boat that would survive a world wide flood might look like. So they guys at Answers in Genesis thought that building it might give us a better picture.

To me this is another example of God’s grace towards us. The Scientific age did not take God by surprise. Among all the great things about this age, He knew that our sin would bring some of us to try and use our new found abilities in experimenting, discovering and learning to try and prove that his Word was not trust worthy. So he gave us the dimensions of the boat so that we could see how it is possible. On top of that we can also see how it was God’s plan, not Noah’s boat building skills, or sailing skills, or animal husbandry or even dumb luck that rescued Him. It was God’s grace coupled with the faith to obey God’s Word that rescued Noah. And we see that echoed in verse 22:

Then God gives Noah, and by extension us, the exact blue prints for the Ark that He wanted Noah to build. Why would He do that? Why do we need to know all of these details? All I can imagine is that God wanted us know that it was not Noah’s boat building skills, or sailing skills, or animal husbandry or even dumb luck that rescued Him. It was God’s grace coupled with the faith to obey God’s Word. And we see that echoed at the end of this section:

Genesis 6:22 ESV

22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

But w

Sin grieves God and brings his judgement ..., but God provides grace, why? because

..., but God provides grace (;)

Sin will not halt God’s creative purpose (;)

We are skipping over a couple of chapters here, but in short Noah first did everything that God said to do and the God did everything that he said he would do and the Noah family spent the next year on the Ark waiting for the earth to return to the new normal. There were many things that were different now that a World Wide flood had washed away every living thing on the earth, but there was also still some things that are the same.

The first thing that Noah did when he got out of the Ark was to build an alter and offer and offering to God. Seems fitting since God had rescued him and his family, but listen to the first thing that God did:

Genesis 9:1 ESV

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Seeing that it was only a couple of weeks ago when we studied the beginning of man in the Adam and Eve story, we can probably recognize how God’s creative purposes in Man still remain. He told Adam and Eve the same thing didn’t he. God’s creative purposes will still continue and even Sin will not stop it. But Sin has altered many things. It altered things for Adam and Eve as they had to leave the garden, and it has altered things for Noah and his family as they leave the Ark. One of the striking differences is in their relationship with the animal kingdom.

Genesis 9:2–3 ESV

2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

At the onset of creation Adam and Eve were vegetarians. God’s very good world had no need for the eating of meat because then death would have been a part of that world. When sin entered the world, so did death. So now man must eat meat in order to have what their bodies need to survive in the new world that the flood waters created. So this is a new normal, but there is a limit to it. Even though sin and death are now a part of the created world, God will not allow every aspect of his glory to be swallowed up by the sin and death. So He gives us commands to retain his purposes:

Genesis 9:4–6 ESV

4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Genesis 9:1–6 ESV

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Genesis 9:3–6 ESV

3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Genesis 9:2–6 ESV

2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Genesis

Again we hear the echo of God’s original creation of man, God has made us in his image and that status remains. Sin has not destroyed that. So that there still must be a respect for human life in every stage of life. Then God makes a covenant with Noah, all his decenedants (you and me) and with every living thing that breathes:

Genesis 9:

Genesis 9:7–15 ESV

7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Again we hear the echo of God’s original creation of man, God has made us in his image so that there must be a respect for every life in every stage of life. But our relationship with animals has changed. We now can and must eat animals to survive and we will no longer have the relationship of trust and wonder that we once had with the animal life on earth. I wonder what that was like? To live in a world where animals don’t run away from you.

Genesis 9:7-15

When God said he will set his bow in the sky he wasn’t talking about a gift wrap bow or a bow tie or a pretty little bow in a little girls hair. He was talking about the weapon of war. God had released his judgement on the sin of the world and he would put his bow in the sky to remember that he would never again flood the earth in judgement again. But understand that this does not mean that another judgement is not coming.

We are all drawn to that aren’t we? That is why petting zoos are so popular for kids and adults alike. To have the animals just come up to you fearlessly is a wonder. I expereinced that on our last camping trip at a state part with a couple of deer that seemed to be very used to people. I took our dog out for a walk and met a doe and her fawn on the path. They didn’t move. I got about 12 feet away and my dog just stared at them and they just stared at me. Nothing. For the longest time. Now animals will fear and dread humans.

God reiterates his command to Noah again, but this time he follows it up with the most important part of the Noah story. The one that directly applys all the way to us today:

Genesis 9:7–11 ESV

7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Genesis 9:12–15 ESV

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

This i

Gospel Application

Many people want to ignore, dumb down or reject the idea that God judges sin, but the story of Noah and the flood points us right to it. We can’t escape it as it is the major point of the story. God judges sin, but in his grace he provides salvation for those put their faith in him. This is still true for us today. There is a judgement coming for all men, but God has provided a way of salvation.

There are so many cross overs between the story of Noah’s flood and the message of the Gospel that it is hard to know where to start and stop.

1. We see the story of Noah in Jesus’s Return (Matthew 24:37-39)

When Jesus was here on earth He told us that the kind of crowd that rejected God in Noah’s day would also be around when he returns to establish his kingdom on earth. They will be just like the people in Noah’s day because they will reject Jesus’s call for repentance and choose instead to live for the pleasures of this short life. But just like in Noah’s day, their willful ignorance will not deter the worldwide judgment that will consume them. But instead of a flood washing away sinful humanity, Jesus will return with fire to remove his enemies, defeat the Devil, and allow his people to inherit a truly renewed creation.

Matthew Two ways in which the people then will be like the people Therefore, the climate in which Noah lived would be replicated when Jesus returns in two ways.

1. The people will ignore Jesus’s pleas for repentance, choosing instead the trivial pleasures of life. But just like in Noah’s day, their willful ignorance will not deter the worldwide judgment that will consume them.

2. Instead of a flood washing away sinful humanity, Jesus will return with fire to remove his enemies, defeat the Devil, and allow his people to inherit a truly renewed creation.

2. We see the story of Noah in Jesus Salvation

2. We see the story of Noah in Jesus Salvation

Just as the ark did for Noah, Jesus also delivers us from judgment. The Apostle Peter said that what we experience in baptism corresponds to the salvation that Noah recieved in the Ark. (). Noah and his family survived the flood waters because they were in the Ark, but as we are lowered into water baptism we identify with Jesus who was lowered into the earth and then raised from the dead.

While a wooden ark delivered Noah from physical death, a wooden cross delivers us from spiritual death. Just as Noah obeyed God by climbing onto a boat to save a few, Jesus obeyed his Father by climbing onto a cross to save many.

Just as Noah obeyed God by climbing onto a boat to save a few, Jesus obeyed his Father by climbing onto a cross to save many.

While a wooden ark delivered Noah from physical death, a wooden cross delivers us from spiritual death. Just as Noah obeyed God by climbing onto a boat to save a few, Jesus obeyed his Father by climbing onto a cross to save many.

3. We see the story of Noah in Jesus’ Success, where Noah (and Adam) Failed

In his article on the “Better version of The Noah’s Ark” Brandon Smith says that “The problem, though, is that Noah’s ability to build an ark and survive the flood didn’t include any power to escape the corruption in his own heart.”

If we were to keep reading, a couple verses later we will find that Noah becomes the first recorded person in the Bible to ever get drunk. Noah was rescued by God’s grace, not his perfection. But just like you and me, Noah was still linked to the promise the Lord had given to Adam. The promise of the woman’s seed that eventually crush the serpent’s head ().

Jesus Christ became the man Adam chose not to be and the man Noah never could be. Adam was born without sin but chose to sin; Noah was born into sin and could never escape it.

But instead of temporarily obeying his Father only to succumb to failure, Jesus obeyed completely so he could be authorized to judge sin and crush Satan ().

Jesus’s new creation surpasses what Noah received after the flood, and even what Adam experienced before sin entered the world.

Landing

So Why should we spend time looking at the story of Noah’s Ark? So we don’t miss this very important aspect of the Gospel. That a just God must judge sin as the evil thing that it is. He must rid his good creation of it, even if it is found in the pinnacle of his creation - you and me. But the good news is that God has provided a way of salvation, just as He did for Noah.

As we’ve seen, the flood teaches several things. First, it’s a sober reminder that God judges rebels who don’t repent. Also, it’s a precursor to the final judgment facing all of humanity. Yet it’s laced with promises of grace, because the flood was part of a bigger story that includes promises of final restoration and salvation.

. Also, it’s a precursor to the final judgment facing all of humanity. Yet it’s laced with promises of grace, because the flood was part of a bigger story that includes promises of final restoration and salvation.

We have to remember that even in washing most of humanity away, God proved faithful in that He spared one family who would lead to the birth of the Savior. This part of our history gave way to a better day—a day when the earth will be restored. Creation will no longer groan in chaos. And a new Adam will lead a redeemed humanity to rule over it.

Creation won’t groan in chaos and be at odds with humanity. It will be restored, and a new Adam will lead a redeemed humanity to rule over it.

Even in washing most of humanity away, God proved faithful. He spared one family who would lead to the birth of the Savior. History was being pushed toward a better day—a day when the earth will be restored. Creation will no longer groan in chaos. It will be restored, and a new Adam will lead a redeemed humanity to rule over it.

Theologians are divided over whether or not Noah tried to invite others onto the Ark. The Apostle Peter called him a “herald of righteousness” so that seems to imply that he at least tried to warn others about the consequences of rebelling against God. Certainly he had to explain why he was building this huge Ark in his backyard.

Bible is very clear though about our responsibilities when it comes to sharing with others about the way to salvation. We love to share the message that “Jesus Saves” but sometimes we are not nearly as clear about what Jesus wants to save us from. At times people get it wrong and they think that Jesus died on the cross to save us from having to deal with any hardship here on earth. Then when hardship comes, they wonder if the Gospel message is even true. I read an illustration this week that said that the Gospel is like a fireworks show, it’s beauty and brilliance is only on display against a background of darkness. The Judgement of God against our Sin in a vital component to the Gospel message. The Good news of Jesus rescuing us isn’t really good if we don’t understand what he is rescuing us from. Our sin has placed us in danger of God’s wrath, and that is why we need Jesus.

We all know floods aren’t pleasant. They destroy property. Worse, they take lives. They leave huge amounts of destruction in their wake. Floods remind us that nature is in disarray, and that things aren’t as they should be. Theologically, floods are illustrations of the conflict that still exists between God and man outside of Christ.

Nevertheless, we’re assured that when Christ returns, there will be no more sea, no more tears, no more heartbreak, and no more funerals. Creation will be renewed and those who took refuge in the ultimate ark—Jesus Christ—will embark into eternity with forgiveness, resurrection, and a new earth immune to God’s curse.

One day we won’t be like Noah, hoping to not stain the world with sin once again. Instead we’ll look to King Jesus, whose eternal reign will never be challenged, and who will conquer the chaos of sin once and for all.

Landing

When the Apostle Paul was evangelizing to the people of Athens he said:

Acts 17:30–31 ESV

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Paul was talking about Jesus, the Christ. Have you placed your faith in Him? He is the only hope that we have against God’s judgement of our Sin.

Let’s pray.