Genesis 6-2

Good morning everyone, it is so good to be here and see everyone this morning. Right now is when we would normally welcome our kids to the back to meet their teacher. However, this week we are talking about a story that you typically hear about in your class and so we wanted to have you guys in here with us and I want to challenge you guys to see if you learn anything new. If you do learn anything new or interesting, then I want you to come find me after church and I will give you a special treat…But, that means you’ve got to try and pay attention this morning, ok… I also want to welcome all of you that are joining us online this morning. Whether you are sick, on vacation, at work, or just had trouble getting out of bed this morning we are so glad that you are taking the time to join us and be a part of our extended spiritual family this morning.

You know, we had one of our missionaries last week join us and it was a great time of worship and a great reminder of walking in step with the Spirit. That is just so important for us to walk in step with the spirit instead of walking in step with our own sinful desires. You know that is so important in our culture today, becuase our culture today will tell you to walk according to your own desires, and to walk according to your own truth. However, we know that Scripture is far more important to focus on.

You know, in our culture today you will find so many people that would tall you that besides the increasing violence and crime, and inflation that things are actually pretty good today. You know, the same is true about another time. You see, except for the increasing violence and crime there was a time when things were pretty good. People were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage and life was going pretty good and going on as usual. You know, friends would meet each other at the market and at various wedding and they would laugh at this guy named Noah and him family… “Imagine building a boat that big on dry land, what is wrong with that guy”, maybe they would discuss another guy named Methuselah, the worlds oldest man… “He’ll die one of these days, you just watch…that guys is so old he was probably around when the first tree grew”. Maybe they talked about another guy named Enoch, you know the guy that suddenly just disappeared that Pastor Randy talked about a few weeks ago… “weirdest thing Ive ever heard of…one minute he was there, the next he was just gone, I mean it was weird”

Methuselah was Noah’s grandfather, and Noah knew that when he died, nothing stood in the way of God’s judgment falling on a wicked world. For over a century, Noah had been warning people about the coming judgment, but only his own family had believed him and trusted the Lord. Only his family was walking in step with the Spirit of the living God.

Then Methuselah died and things began to happen. One day, Noah and his family entered their “boat” and the rains came...People would say, “It can’t go on forever.”... “It’ll stop one of these days.” But it rained and rained nonstop for forty days and forty nights. Besides that underground explosions unloaded even more water on the earth. Even after the rain stopped, the water continued to rise; and within five months, the whole earth was under water and everything that breathed was dead. Even people that had lived in the port cities couldn't survive the massive uptick in water, and the violence of the water exploding everywhere. Everything, that is, except Noah and his family, the eight people that everybody laughed at.

What kind of a person was Noah? He was the kind of person you and I should be and the kind of person I believe we can be as we live in our world today. You see, as bad as we think the culture around us is, there are more than 8 people who are tying to live for the Lord, so that means that we are better off than Noah and his family were. So, what kind of man was Noah, and what can we learn about ourselves though his story? Thats what we are going to look at over the course of the next few weeks. We are going to see that Noah is far from perfect, which is good because we are all far from perfect, right… For this morning though, let’s answer the question,

Who was Noah?

In order to answer this question we need to start with Scripture and see what we can learn from what is said here. So, let’s read

Genesis 6:9–13 (ESV)

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 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.

whew, Ok so God has shared some things with Noah that is pretty intense here. I mean, God just shared that he will destroy everything on Earth…I mean how do you deal with that information, and what kind of man does God share this information with. Well, over the course of our passage today I believe we will see two things that are true about Noah and can be true about you and I . First of all I think we can see that

Noah walked with God.

What does it mean to walk with God? Well, thats both an easy and a hard question isn’t it. Let’s look back and see if we can get anything from the passage we read just now. You see, when we read this passage the first characteristic that we see is that

Noah was righteous

You know its interesting becuase right here is the first time that the word righteousness is used, however it is far from the last time that this word will be used. We even see that other Biblical authors wrote about Noah’s righteousness. In Heb we read about Noah’s righteousness.

Hebrews 11:7 (ESV)

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.

Here is the thing, and this is important…Noah’s righteousness didn’t come becuase of his actions, no one receives righteousness based on our actions, no…his actions were a result of his righteousness. We are going to see in a few weeks what Noah’s actions look like when he is acting in his flesh, but for now we see that God is looking at the character of Noah, not individual actions of Noah. You see, Noah’s life was characterized as a righteous man. OK, but how does this work since we know that the only righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ? I mean, how does Noah have Christ’s righteousness when he hasn’t met Christ? Well, you see, from the beginning God told Adam and Eve that there is one coming who will rescue them from their sinfulness. From the beginning there was a plan that God had created in order to rescue all who have faith. Noah here has tapped into that faith somehow, but how is that? How is it that Noah believed things that so many of this contemporaries did not believe?

Well, do you remember Enoch? Pastor Randy talked about Enoch a few weeks ago and showed us that Enoch is a man who was of such faith and walked in step with God that God simply removed him from the Earth. Enoch just disappeared…Well, did you know that there is a Book of Enoch? Yeah, this is a book that is not considered Scripture, but it is important. Well, in the book of Enoch, there are specific prophecies about Jesus, that is why the Jewish leaders did not include that book in the Scriptures. Now, we know that God has orchestrated what is Scripture and what is not, but we can still look at this book as a historical document. Well, here is why I am telling you about this. Somehow Noah was considered righteous and we know that only the righteousness of Christ is acceptable to God, so that means that somehow Noah has the righteousness of Christ. Logic then tells us that Noah heard this from his father Lamech, who learned from his father Methuselah, who learned from his father Enoch. So you see, Fathers it is important to share your faith with your children and your grandchildren. If it were not for the loving concern of these fathers there would be no Noah’s Ark story for us to talk about. Thats not all we learn about Noah though…We also see that

Noah was blameless

So if righteous was Noah’s standing before God, then blameless is Noah’s standing before men. We read about these characteristics in our Elder qualifications in Titus as well. We read that an Elder is a man above reproach. Again, this is not describing perfection, but instead it is describing a life defined by this characteristic. It describes someone who confesses when they do something wrong, who repents when they are confronted with their sin. If a person is blameless they are a person of integrity.

Not to long ago I attended a funeral, Im not going to talk about the person by name, becuase God deserves the glory, but at this persons funeral I heard a story about how they had an alarm installation company and one of the alarm manufacturers that he installed went out of business and left many customers in a bad spot with no customer support for a failing company. This man made the decision that he would go and replace every persons alarms at great expense to himself. You see, a person of integrity, a person that is blameless does not look first to their own best interest, but they interest of others.

You see, being blameless is something that we can see in each other. When your neighbors speak of you do they speak in terms that are negative, or positive? When your coworkers think about you, do they see you as an ethical hard worker, or someone that is always trying to get out of work? When you connect with people in the community do that see you as hateful, or loving? In other words, Noah’s conduct was one that those around him could find no fault with him. What do those around you say about you?

Noah is described by these three phrases: “a righteous man,” “blameless,” and “walked with God.” Each has its emphasis, but they collectively tell the same story about Noah’s life. He stands out from those in his culture as a man of right conduct who enjoys a right relationship with God during a day of unrestrained evil. What does it mean to walk in faith, or walk in obedience, or walk in step with the Lord? I like what Warren Wiersbe says,

“The life of faith and obedience is compared to a “walk” because this life begins with one step: trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This step of faith leads to a daily walk, a step at time, as the Lord directs us. He commands us to “walk in love” (Eph. 5:2), “walk as children of light” (v. 8), “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16, 25), and “walk circumspectly [carefully]” (Eph. 5:15). A step at a time, a day at a time, we walk with the Lord; and He guides us into His will and blesses us with His wisdom and strength.” —Warren Wiersbe

You know, most people know that Noah built an ark. I mean its on baby nurseries all over the world, which by the way is a little messed up when you think about the death and destruction that we are going to read about next week...What they may not know is that he also built a godly character and a godly family. Had it not been for Noah’s godly family, Abraham wouldn’t have been born; and without Abraham, would there have been a Jewish nation, the Bible, and the Savior? Of course God could have used another path, but he chose to use this path and this family for a reason, becuase

Noah faithfully worked for God

When you walk with God, He speaks to you through His Word and tells you what you need to know and to do. So what is it that God told Noah to do? Let’s read the rest of our passage for this morning.

Genesis 6:14–22 (ESV)

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Let me say this again, When you walk with God, He speaks to you through His Word and tells you what you need to know and to do. As Christians, you and I are more than just servants who do His will; we’re also His friends who know His plans, he reveals those plans…through his word. For Noah, God’s plan involved three responsibilities for him and his family. First of all God called Noah to

Build an Ark

Yeah, thats not exactly an easy task, and we don’t know 100% how he managed to do this with just him and his sons. We do know that God worked through them, so clearly God gave them the strength and energy. Now, I think I do have to mention a couple of moves in my memory over the last 15-20 years. First was Evan Almighty, this was a cute movie with Steve Carrel who built an ark becuase the subdivisions damn was going to break. He had animals helping him and it was a cute little parable of doing what is right despite criticism. Then there was another move called Noah with Russel Crowe. I remember being at a Christian conference many many years ago prior to this movie coming out. The producers of this movie gave a great clip to churches and religious groups to try and encourage the church to show up and watch this movie. It worked, Christians ran out and watched a movie that was thought to have followed a Biblical narrative only to find rock monsters and sword fights…Now, we don’t know the details of how Noah got the ark built, but Im pretty sure it wasn’t rock monsters. The thing is that the world we live in, the world that Noah lived in, doesn’t have a way to describe what was going on with Noah. Thats why people thought he was crazy and likely tried to avoid him as some crazed street preacher.

Here is what is amazing though, God described exactly what Noah needed to know about how to build an ark. God gave him the plans, told him the size, how to seal it and everything. God lef Noah to build an ark that was not built for navigation. You see, God was not taking Noah to a new place. No, God led Noah to build an ark for flotation becuase a world ending flood was coming soon. Since we are in an agriculture culture here in Leaf River, I will describe the Ark to you in this way. The Ark has been described as large enough to hold the contents of over 500 livestock railroad cars, providing space for about 125,000 animals. Of course, many of the animals would be very small and not need much space; and when it came to the large animals, Noah no doubt collected younger and smaller representatives. There was plenty of room in the vessel for food for both humans and animals (v. 21), and the insects and creeping things would have no problem finding places to live on the ark. Now this is also important becuase I know we would realize that there are more than 125,000 animals in the world. However, this is speaking of families of animals, not neccesarily each species of animals. Actually, something I found really interesting when we visited the Creation Museum 10 years ago is a great explanation. You see, God put inside the animals everything that is needed in order to diversify into the collection of animals that we see today. That was in the original creation, and that would have been in this ark as well. By the way, someone should really organize a church trip to the Ark Encounter sometime…that would be fun :)

Anyway, Noah had the responsibility to build an ark, and he also had the responsibility to

Trust God’s Covenant

You see, God told Noah that he would establish his covenant with him. This is the first time the word covenant us used in the Bible. That is important becuase this is a huge change that will be taking place…This word tells us that this is a picture of the covenant that is to come through Jesus Christ as God’s ultimate plan of redemption. Now, a covenant is an agreement that involves obligations and benefits for both parties involved. In some of the covenants, God alone is the “covenant party” and makes unconditional promises to His people. But there were also covenants that required His people to fulfill certain conditions before God could bless them. The fact that God had covenanted with Noah, as well as his family, gave them the peace to know that they could trust and act according to Gods plan.

It would be like you telling your child to trust you as they are learning to walk. You are not going to let them fall, you are going to catch them, and protect them as much as you can. Well, in my case, I had a little problem I am told. You see, I had this belief in my head that I could do things that my body was unable to do, so I would walk, but my head would move faster than my body and I would fall on my face. Like this happened so much that the dr told my folks that they should make me wear a football helmet so that I would stop getting injured. Well, I wish I could tell you that Ive outgrown that particular characteristic, but I promise you I have not…I can remember running on the high school track team and my head going faster than my body and falling. I can remember thinking I was more able that I was and lifting things that I shouldn’t have lifted and ended with a back injury. I have found myself in trouble throughout my life because my head goes further faster than my body…That is why my wife is amazing becuase she laughs at me and says, “Stop!”…OK, but thats not the case with Noah, God actually is able to protect Noah and guide Noah through this project. However, it was Noahs responsibility to trust God…just like it is your responsibility to trust God. Finally Noah also had the responsibility to

Gather the Animals

I cannot imagine how this worked out for Noah. Like, we read that the animals came to him, but at the same time, did he have to go grab them and choose which ones to bring, or did God send them up the ramp of the boat? We read a phrase that is pretty important when we read that passage. We read that God will send them to Noah and his sons, for them to keep them alive. Here is what we know from that phrase. First, Noah and his sons had to organize, clean as well as unclean animals to fit into the boat. There had to be thought put into how to organize these animals in the space. Second, Noah and his sons were labeled as their masters to these animals and were able tos ee first hand the sovereignty of God. You see, in His sovereign power, God brought the animals to Noah and his sons and then God controlled them so that they did His bidding. These animals behave in such a way that they obeyed God, and not their base instinct. In other words, the lion did not attempt to eat the lamb while they were gathered.

There is something really sad happening here though. You see, all of these animals and creeping things heard Gods voice and obeyed. However, Noah had been crying out to his neighbors for 120 years and they not only ignored him, but they laughed at him. What we will see in the next few weeks is that God is sovereign over every situation and that God will be heard, one way or another. God was patient toward careless and rebellious sinners; but they ignored His message again and again, and finally lost their opportunity for salvation.

This morning I want to encourage you to consider your own faithfulness. Are you a person that can be described as walking with the Lord, being both righteous and blameless? Are you a person that can be described as working for the Lord despite any criticism? Here is what it all comes down to? Have you trusted in God’s covenant, God’s promise of salvation…or are you still trying to figure it out on your own? Listen, we live in a culture that says you must look inside of yourself to find the truth…Well I want to tell you to look to Jesus to find the truth. The truth is that you and I both sin and deserve the due penalty. The truth is that God made a plan for your and my redemption. The truth is that Jesus died for my sins and yours. Finally the truth is that you must choose to accept or reject that gift of redemption. This morning if you are here and you are unsure what all of this means in your life, then let me encourage you to reach out and message me. If you are here and you have been considering following Jesus in baptism reach out to me and lets talk. This morning if you are here and you would say that you are striving to live a life pleasing to God, then let me encourage you with a “keep going…keep living, and keep trusting. It’s not always easy, but it is always joyful when you are living a life trusting Christ.

Lets pray