Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever had an experience in your life where all you can think of is “For Real God? Why?” Well today we are going to look at a story that exemplifies that.

Turn in your Bibles to Gen Ch 6

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 6)

GOD WARNS NOAH 9 These are the family records of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.

The Hebrew word used here, tamim, refers to being free from defect; it is often used in sacrificial contexts to describe an unblemished animal presented to God.

However, this does not mean Noah was sinless (compare Job 1:1 and note).

This phrase is similar to the modern descriptions like wholesome, godly, or honorable

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 6)

10 And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness.

12 God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth.

Now lets be clear, EVERY CREATURE means EVERY including Noah and his family.

But Noah, despite his sin, found favor with God because he tried to walk with God

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 6)

13 Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

God has a purpose in all the experiences that believers have in life

Romans 8:28 (CSB) — 28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

There are 4 areas that you can see his purposes in our experiences

To warn and correct

To test and exercise believers’ trust in God

To purify and prepare believers for glory

To benefit others

To warn and correct

God does not punish His people arbitrarily.

Punishment comes as the natural consequence of sin.

When a gracious God withdraws His protective arm from His people, they are left to the terrible harvest of the evil they have sown.

Psalm 119:67 (CSB) — 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

Romans 2:4 (CSB) — 4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

God hates sin

“Some people deny the reality of sin.

But to do so is to deceive themselves (1 John 1:8) and to make a liar of God (1:10).

Others laugh at sin, but the Bible says that ‘fools make a mock of sin’ (Prov.

14:9).

Still others take pride in their sin (Isa.

3:9; Rom.

1:32).

The most dangerous attitude toward sin is to tone down its awfulness.

Psychology calls sin maladjustment; biology labels it a disease; ethics suggests that it is a moral lapse; philosophy regards it as a stumbling in the upward progress of the human race” (Herschel H. Hobbs, Fundamentals of Our Faith [Nashville: Broadman Press, 1960], 64).

But the Bible calls it sin.

God cannot stand sin, sin has a price and it is death to the people that commit it.

But God is always offering ways out of sin if you follow him and obey him.

That is what we see in this part of the story.

14 “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside.

15 This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

16 You are to make a roof, finishing the sides of the ark to within eighteen inches of the roof.

You are to put a door in the side of the ark.

Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks.

17 “Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it.

Everything on earth will perish.

18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.

19 You are also to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

20 Two of everything—from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds—will come to you so that you can keep them alive.

21 Take with you every kind of food that is eaten; gather it as food for you and for them.”

22 And Noah did this.

He did everything that God had commanded him.

To test and exercise believers’ trust in God

6:14 an ark of The Hebrew word used here, tevah, can refer to a vessel of any size.

The same word is used in Exod 2:3 to describe the basket Moses’ mother placed him in.

Or even a coffin

Noah was 500 years old when he had his three sons.

He was 600 years old when he entered the ark.

The Bible doesn’t tell us how long it took to build the ark, it is probably safe to say it took tens of years to build the ark.

Noah lived in the desert where rain was very sparse, think of the Mojave, death valley.

So Noah and his family starts to build this giant coffin and the community around them thinks they are crazy.

Year after year after year, they are building this giant thing at a huge cost of time and resources.

But God said to do it, so they labored on.

Verse 22

Noah’s faith triumphed over all corrupt reasonings.

To rear so large a building, such a one as he never saw, and to provide food for the living creatures, would require from him a great deal of care, and labour, and expense.

His neighbours would laugh at him.

But all such objections, Noah, by faith, got over; his obedience was ready and resolute.

Having begun to build, he did not leave off till he had finished: so did he, and so must we do.

He feared the deluge, and therefore prepared the ark.

And in the warning given to Noah, there is a more solemn warning given to us, to flee from the wrath to come, which will sweep the world of unbelievers into the pit of destruction.

Christ, the true Noah, which same shall comfort us, hath by his sufferings already prepared the ark, and kindly invites us by faith to enter in.

While the day of his patience continues, let us hear and obey his voice.

The beginning of sin is to forsake God.

The end result of sin is to be God-forsaken.

Romans 8:35–39 (CSB) — 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

36 As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lets continue on with the story

17 The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth.

18 The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

19 Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered.

20 The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet.

21 Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind.

22 Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died.

23 He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth.

Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

24 And the water surged on the earth 150 days.

8 God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.

God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside. 2 The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped.

3 The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the water had decreased significantly.

4 The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

Seventh month

5 The water continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

6 After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made, 7 and he sent out a raven.