900 Biblical Characters - Noah Pt.2 (Gen.6.9 - 8.22)
Exploring Biblical Characters • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
- Often, Christians catch things that are at odds with their Christianity
- We do it without even realising it
- The world & its ways are very persuasive
- Christians should be known for their love, but what is love & what does it mean
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.
- The Christian who loves the Father God will love His children also
- Through Jesus each one of us are born of God
- Each one of us will love God & observe His commandments
- This love is rather narrow for John the apostle
- He is not framing love here generally – but specifically to do with the Father who sent Jesus into the world
- This love is not about other religious leaders or other gods
- People enjoin love with the likes of the Delai Lama
-------------------
- Love is not “tolerance” as understood by our society
- Love is patient, but love is not tolerant of any & every thing – it is quite specific
Q. How do we know that we are children of God?
- When we love one another & keep to the commandments of God, not the dictates of ungodliness from a society pushing us towards ungodliness
- We must be careful
--------------------
- Take, for example, Jesus’ action in the Temple where they were doing financial transactions in the Temple grounds
- He drove them out with a whip – hardly tolerant
Q. Ask yourself the question: “Have I confused love as patient, with modern society’s love as tolerant – tolerant of any anti-God behaviour or ideas?
- Again, we must shine a torchlight on our own motivations to see if they align with God’s
--------------------
- What we have seen in the early chapters of Genesis is troubling
- “My Spirit will not abide in Man forever for he is flesh”
- You know what his problem is? He is corruptible; he is weak & falls into sin & disobedience at the drop of a hat; he loves equality with God more than God Himself
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
- God would not tolerate Mankind’s thinking and behaviour any longer – everything & everyone, except for a portion, would be destroyed
- God is not like Mankind – unless we align our thoughts & ways with Him, we may find ourselves on the end of some serious trouble
------------------------
- We have seen that the ultimate problem for mankind is that he desires independence from God = equality with Him
- I asked everyone to think about the significance of that (what did you come up with?)
- Living in independence from God is nothing but the old claim of equality with God
- A person living independently of God is saying that they have the power to act as God; directing, deciding, determining; shaping & choosing their own life’s direction: its goals, its aspirations, its ambitions & its values - all apart from any reference to God
---------------------
- Yet, we have seen that this is the root cause of the problem in the world which we know as sin – mankind not keeping to his place under God
- God is no longer the reference point & so everyone does what is desired in their own eyes
- We saw in the message of Cain & Abel that life sometimes seems unfair
- That God arranges our lives in ways that we don’t always like
---------------
- We also saw there that when God makes an executive decision, that not everyone will be happy
- But whether you think God is favouring you or ignoring you - that does not determine whether He accepts you
- In fact, He says to Cain... “If you do what is right, will not your countenance be lifted up” – will you not be accepted!
----------------------
- Some people live under the allusion that their wealth & prestige is a sign that God is on their side
- Others who live in sad circumstances think it is a sign that God is against them
- Both are untrue – “If you do what is right (emp. do right), will you not be accepted”
- To do right now is as plain as day – believe in Jesus Christ; receive Him as Saviour & Lord - that is what is right by God today
------------------
- This is a divine challenge to Mankind - for all of us to ensure that no matter what our lot in life, that God is with us if we surrender to His sovereignty & stop acting as His equal
- We can better our lot in life – nothing wrong with that – but no matter what situation you’re in, we can know that God has a purpose for each of us but that purpose might not be equal with someone else’s
------------------
- Enoch walked with God & God took him away
- Noah walked with God & He told him to stay & build a boat
- Yes, it doesn’t say that Noah walked with God 300 yrs, like Enoch, but that is beside the point
- Noah did walk with God, at least from when he was 500 yrs old & then for 100 building the Ark & afterwards
-------------------
- Enoch was taken & yet Noah remained & had to work on the building of the Ark
- Not only that, but he also had to experience a tumultuous time prior to the flood with unbelieving scoffers; having to deal with the reality of the deaths of all those people he would have known; then during the flood with all the animals in the Ark & the feeding/the cleaning & also perhaps his own anxieties along with his wife’s & sons – living in confinement for 12 mths - what a lockdown
- We don’t all get the same role nor the same lot in life
- But again, it comes back to our acceptance of our God’s sovereignty over our lives
1. Flood Stories
1. Flood Stories
- Before we start to look at how this global flood unfolds, did you know that different nations throughout the earth all have a flood story?
- Its pretty much universal all around the world
- The stories themselves are, at places, different from the Bible’s account of Noah & the flood
- That shouldn’t surprise us – the long lives of people are also in other nations stories as well
- For example, some Babylonian kings are written as living for the likes of around 42,000 years – that’s a long life!
------------------
- Variations do not mean something didn’t happen, anymore than variations of testimonies at the scene of an accident means the accident didn’t happen
- It just means that other things are in play
-------------------------
- After God scatters the people all over the face of the earth, at a place called Babel, there were bound to be variations of that one account of the flood
- It seems that the people could have re-shaped parts of the story to suit their own culture
- Genesis, I think, has rightly been said to be a polemic against the falsities that have spread across the world since Babel
- In other words, the book of Genesis is an argument against all the false views out there about the beginning of the world & God’s purposes with it
---------------------
Q. How do we know that? By what authority do we claim this against other views?
- The inspiration of Scripture – God has acted in history to affirm His will, His plan & purposes
- The teaching of Jesus (He is from God - look at the miracles, His resurrection etc.) prove that Jesus can speak with utter authority & He endorses the words of Genesis
2. Building the Ark & the Flood
2. Building the Ark & the Flood
- The reason for such a savage judgement is stated:- the earth is filled with violence
11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
- Now the earth was corrupt (lit. ruined/destroyed) in the sight of God – reason is that it was full of violence
- The earth was corrupt (“destroyed”) because of violence, then behold, God says, I’m about to destroy the earth
- You’ve ruined it, I will finish it off
- Yet, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord
- God decreed that he would spare Noah & his family
-------------------------
- On the Telegram app, I have been posting the sermons along with the points of the sermon and some questions to ponder – here’s one of those questions which is based on these two verses
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
Q. Did Noah receive grace/favour because he was righteous/blameless or was Noah righteous/blameless because he received grace?
- This is the mystery of divine providence
- Grace is unearned favour which means that Noah could not have earned something God just chose to do
- If anything, it leans more toward the notion that God’s grace had an impact on Noah’s life
--------------------
- There is here the thought of a remnant left on the earth
- God preserved a remnant on the earth, as He preserved a remnant of Israel & now the church is a remnant of the whole earth
- Noah & his family is a remnant from the whole earth
------------------------
- Noah had to build an Ark which would take over a 100 yrs to build
- He was on the Ark for about a year while the earth was flooded
- The Ark was huge – 140 mtrs long x 23 mtr wide (inside our walls – front to back) x 14 mtr high
- Its displacement is about 43,000 tons
- They have built a full-size version of Noah’s Ark in what they call “The Ark Encounter” in northern Kentucky, USA
- What a monumental task to build a boat of this size
- Without modern machinery, no wonder it took a hundred years
------------------------
- God was going to flood the earth & destroy all living creatures
Q. Was the world flooded & is there evidence of that?
- Yes, there is but, of course, you will always get those who will read the evidence in the way they want
- The question, however, of what we find in the world supporting a worldwide flood is not easy to dismiss
-------------------
- Most of the rock layers in the walls of the Grand Canyon (more than a mile above sea level) contain marine fossils
- As I mentioned last week, at 12,000 ft high in the Rocky mountains there were sea shells in the banks on the side of the road
- Fossilised shellfish are even found in the Himalayas.
- We find extensive fossil “graveyards” with exquisitely preserved fossils which means that they were laid down rapidly
- We find rapidly deposited sediment layers spread across vast areas
- Nath noted this on the wall of the hill when we went to Paradise Falls in King River Valley
- It’s hard to discount the fact that some catastrophic event caused this to happen
---------------------
- What I’d like for us to think about here is the trouble Noah had with his neighbours
Q. Could you imagine doing something like this today?
Q. What would people think? You’re a nut case, right?
- There was a movie produced based on the story of Noah & the flood called “Evan Almighty”
- It’s a comedy &. I think, somewhat a mockery of the true Biblical story
- But I think it displays well, the scoffing & mockery that goes with such an endeavour as that of building an Ark
VIDEO - “Scoffing”
------------------
- Noah would have had to put up with this sort of thing for over 100 yrs while he was building the Ark
- The apostle Peter calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness”
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
- He also said...
18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
- Christ was speaking through Noah to them & making the appeal to be saved from the judgement to come
- Those people were disobedient even though God was patient with them, during the period of the construction of the Ark (100 yrs) before He poured out His judgement on the earth
- Peter’s point is that a person has to make a response to God now
- As people failing to respond to Jesus’ call through Noah, they are failing to respond to Jesus’ call today
21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
- Corresponding to the Ark that saved Noah & his family, the act of responding to Christ in baptism now saves a person
- He clarify’s: not the removal of dirt, but an appeal to God for a good conscience
- It’s not the wedding day that makes the marriage – but what is significant about the wedding day is that it begins the marriage
- The resurrected Jesus is calling for your baptism as your proper response to His call on your life & because it is His resurrected life that can save you
--------------------
- People scoffed at Noah, but they could have turned & been preserved by the action of getting on the Ark
- People scoff at Christ but they could turn & be preserved/saved by the action of being baptised in the name of Christ
- Baptism becomes your statement of agreement with & submission to, the resurrected Christ
----------------------
- Here’s the thing:- people put off & put off - until in the end – their decision comes too late
- In that movie, the people see & hear the dam break & run onto the Ark & are saved
- That is not the Bible’s account
Q. When Noah & his family entered the Ark, had the rain started falling & the water of the deep started to come up? No
- When the floods started to come there were no second chances - God shut the door
- Those who refused to believe were locked out
- Look what Jesus warns here...
37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.
- You have here a warning that when Jesus returns, there are no second chances
- It will be so fast & so quick, that no one will have opportunity to turn to Him at that point - the door will be closed shut!
- This is why we should take the call of Christ to come to Him with urgency for we do not know when He will return
3. God Remembered Noah
3. God Remembered Noah
- The flood waters have come, the water rises for 150 days until it is over all the mountains of that time
- It rained from the sky 40 days & 40 nights, but it came up from the ground for 150 days – probably came up through the sea beds as well
---------------------
- Yet we read “But God remembered Noah & all that were with him in the Ark” & he caused a wind to go across the face of the earth to dry/evaporate the waters of judgement & also He caused the waters to recede
- The flood waters receded for 150 days until the land is dry
--------------------
- The Olive leaf picked by the Dove shows Noah that recovery from the Flood had begun.
- Noah, his family & all the animals leave the Ark & are safe
- God is a saving & faithful God to those who trust in Him
4. Noah “Remembered” God
4. Noah “Remembered” God
- You’ll notice I have used inverted commas around “remembered” here
- I’ve done that only because I wanted to use a play on words in the title
- But really, its not that Noah remembered God – but he did in the sense that he acknowledged God as the first thing he did when left the Ark
- He gave thanks to God & gave offerings to God
--------------------
- I want to highlight that because it really shows what walking with God is all about
Video “I go to Church”
- Walking with God is not “I go to church”, on every other Sunday or I’ve been to church” - I’ve seen what’s inside
- Walking with God is the process of obedience to God
---------------------
- Another flood story has a Noah by the name of Utnapishtim
- In that flood story the Noah character expresses his own grief being in the eye of the storm & of all mankind who are dead - “returned to clay”. He says “I sat & wept, tears running down my face”; he enters the Ark & he shuts the door
- All very nice sentiments - but all that matters in the book of Genesis is Noah’s obedience
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 was crucial is that Noah responded to God in obedience
Q. Are you prepared to do that with your life?