Turn with me if you would in your Scriptures to Genesis chapter 7, and we're going to read excerpts from this passage that's listed in the bulletin. So Genesis chapter 7 beginning at the end of verse 16
here the word of the Lord and the Lord shut him in. Now the flood was on the earth 40 days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth and the ark was moved above on the surface of the waters and the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered and the waters prevailed 15 qubits upward and the mountains were covered and all flesh died that moved on the earth. Now chapter 8 verse 1. Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark and God made a win to pass over the earth and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven of heaven were also stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained and the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred at the end of 150 days the waters decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month the seventeenth day of the month on the mountains of error wrapped and the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month on the first day of the month the tops of the mountains were seen. So it came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven which kept going too and fro and to the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the soul of her foot and she returned into the ark to him for the waters were on the face of the whole earth so he put out his hand and took her and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening and behold a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another seven days and and sent out the dove which did not return again to him anymore. And it came to pass in six hundred and the in the six hundred and first year in the first month the first day of the month that the waters were dried up from the earth and they were removed the covering of the ark and looked and indeed the surface of the ground was dry and in the second and in the second month on the 27th day of the month the earth was dried. Then God spoke to Noah saying go out of the ark you and your wife and your sons and your sons wise with you bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons wise with him every animal every creeping thing every bird and whatever creeps on the earth according to their families went out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar and the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart I will never again curse the ground for man's sake although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. The word of the Lord thanks be to God. Let us pray together our Father and our God we are humbled before you and before this passage and we pray Lord that you would teach us that you would give us understanding of these your words. A holy spirit we pray that you would apply this passage, the teaching from this passage, to our hearts and our lives and Lord that you would enable me to communicate your word to your people and we do pray this together in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. We are continuing our study in Genesis and we come to the story of Noah and the ark as we have studied for the last couple of weeks. Now we come to the story of the ark floating on the surface of the earth and there are three things that I would like for us to consider as we look at this passage this morning. The first thing is I would like for us to think about the tremendous peril that Noah and his family were faced with. The second thing that I would like for us to consider is the certainty of the certainty of Noah's safety and God's Almighty hand and then the third thing is the purpose for which God rescued them. Now I want you to think with me a minute about the situation. The the perils that Noah and his family faced were tremendous. Noah begins describing this. I'm not Noah. Moses begins describing this. The floods were upon the earth and it's as if he's struggling for words in verses 17 through 20 of chapter 7. He says the waters increased on the earth then the waters prevailed and greatly increased and then the waters prevailed 15 qubits upward such that all flesh died. You know I think that we often when we consider the ark or the story of the ark and the story of Noah we reflect back to Sunday school and these cute little pictures of the ark and there was nothing cute about this scenario. God's judgment is being poured out upon the earth. This was no cute little situation. Instead not only is there a day loose not only is that not only does it rain for 40 days and 40 nights but also it says that the waters in verse 11 of chapter 7 it says the foundations of the deep were broken up. God had originally set boundaries for the waters of the oceans as we've read about in Psalm 104 but he withdraws those boundaries. He withdraws that protection and he pours forth his wrath upon the earth and against the world and this is a powerful, powerful storm and a powerful flood and Noah and his family were in a very perilous situation. I want you to think about that. Noah and his family endured the most treacherous, the most perfect storm as it were that has ever been known to mankind. I want you to think about the boat. Think about this ark. It had to be the most seaworthy vessel that has ever been built. Now we know that in chapter 5 verse 32 God comes to know and says okay Noah I'm going to destroy the earth by flood. That was when Noah was 500 years old so we know that approximately 100 years has passed. Noah has been working on this this ark for 100 years. Now I just built a deck in our backyard and I used pressure treated lumber and I'm hoping that it will last 10 years. I can't imagine how strong and wonderful Gofer would must be that it was going to last out there in the desert for 100 years. Think about that. How many boats do you know of that have survived 100 years and even more so that have never been in water and this boat was built by a farmer. Noah was not a professional boat builder. He was a farmer. He was not a structural engineer. He had no idea how much stress that main being would take when it was loaded up with cattle and elephants and giraffe and his family and all their provisions to last to stay in that ark and then all of them to face the tremendous torrent that they would face. What do you suppose sustained Noah? What do you suppose kept Noah safe Noah and his family safe? I'm sure you I'm sure you believe it was his tremendous boat building abilities. You know I don't know if you've ever thought about it as I was meditating on this passage and thinking about it. Have you ever thought about the health concerns that Noah must have faced? Some of you doctors may have I never have before. They are in a wooden boat. It says that it was it was covered with pitch inside and out and to think about this there's this completely enclosed boat. There is Noah and his family eight people and a zoo literally of animals. Can you imagine the smell inside of that inside of that ark? All that pitch, all those animals incredible. Have you ever taken note of how long Noah and his family spent in the ark? You know for the longest time I thought well it must have been 40 days plus a little bit for the water to dry up. Look at chapter 7 verse 11. In the 600th year of Noah's life in the second month the 17th day of the month on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken open. So we have in essence February the 17th but they entered the ark one week earlier. So February 10th the 600th year of Noah's life. When did they come out? Look at 813 and it came to pass in the 600th and first year in the first wait a minute. Verse 14. In the second month on the 27th day of the month the earth was dry then God spoke to Noah. So they went in the ark on February 10th 600th year of Noah and they come out on February the 27th 600th and one of Noah. They were in that ark for more than a year for just over a year. You know if you think about the health concerns that they faced been locked in being enclosed in that ark for a full year it is incredible. Let's continue to think about that a little more. Some of you remember that there was a flood in Honduras about two years ago and many people were killed in the flood but the greatest danger came after the flood. You see the contamination of the drinking water represented a greater danger than the flood itself. And we think about all the destruction the contaminants that would have been in the water all the destruction that Moses talks about would have rendered the waters upon which they were floating as terribly contaminated. What do you suppose kept Noah safe and healthy? Suppose it was mere coincidence that all the animals survived in that stormed past ark. You remember there were only two, a male and a female of every animal. You know I'm sure they faced other perils as well. Think about the emotional torture of being locked up with your family in that ark for a year. Now my family, now I love my family but I wouldn't want to be locked up in a boat for a year with my family either. Think about how Noah and his family must have been tempted to fear the Lord or must have been tempted by terribly seized by fear. Had God forgotten them? They're floating out on this ocean? Had God forgotten them? Would God just let them be and let them die? No, God didn't forget them. God wouldn't forget them, but it was by God's strong mighty right on that he would deliver them. This morning the Heidelberg catechism that we read was for a purpose. What do you say when you say I believe in God the Father Almighty? Creator of heaven and earth. What we say by that is that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them who still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence is my God and Father because of Christ His Son. I trust Him so much. Do you really believe that when you say that? I trust Him so much that I do not doubt He will provide whatever I need for a body and soul and He will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this sad world and why does He do that? He is able to do it because He is Almighty God Noah and his family had to remember that. He desires to do that because He is a faithful Father. That same gracious and powerful arm of God kept me. You see 40 years ago today my mother went into labor. She wasn't due for another six weeks. Some of you may have heard this story. Others of you may have not. She wasn't due for another six weeks and as they wheeled her into the labor room they told her and you're going to have twins. She did not know she was going to have twins and rumor has it that she crossed her legs and she said I know I can't already have a three-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old at home. The next day my mother gave birth to twin boys. The first born weighed three pounds and four ounces and the second to the run weighed two pounds and 13 ounces. You know I don't weigh two pounds and 13 ounces anymore as I'm sure you can see and it was I was not supposed to live. We were kept in an incubator for six weeks. We were given pure oxygen and the doctor told my mother that I would be blind that we would probably not live but God spared my life. You know what makes this story even more amazing to me is that Diana was never supposed to be. I was not supposed to live and she was never supposed to be because her parents she was a huge surprise to her 40-year-old parents. Who kept me? Who kept me? Was it capable doctors? Was it advances in medicine? Was it was it fate that brought me and Diana? Was that was it fate that brought us together? No, it was a strong providence of God. The mighty hand of God was what brought us together. The same God who promised to protect Noah and did. That God has protected me, has protected you and I'm trust that you have seen God's providence in your life as well. Now let us continue and consider the ways that the Lord God Almighty kept Noah and his family and all those animals safe. Do you suppose or what do you suppose move God to protect Noah? Was it his goodness? No. It was the fact that God had made a promise to Noah that he would extend his gracious hand to him and that he would protect him. Look at chapter 8 verse 1. Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark and God made a win pass over the earth and the water is subsided. That phrase is actually pretty interesting. Then God remembered Noah. It gives you the impression that God had gone off and forgotten about Noah. That God had set the earth like a pot of water to boil and he had wandered off and forgotten about it and all of a sudden he remembered. That's not the case all. I love what Calvin says. He puts it well and he says God was never unmindful of Noah and his family as they spent five months floating on that water. The term remember connotates that God was moved by his covenant promises to Noah. God was moved to respond to Noah because he had promised that he would. He had bound himself to deliver Noah safely through the fierce judgment that he had poured out upon the earth. God's pledge to Noah couldn't fail and Noah was trusting in that. You see the ark became a cocoon of grace. God remembered Noah because he had chosen to lavish his love, his goodness, his protection upon Noah. God had wrapped Noah and his family together with the animals in that ark in his marvelous grace and there was no safer place on all the earth for them to be. We see in chapter 7 verse 16 that God shut them in. It was God who undertook Noah's cause. It was God who would enclose them in that ark who would keep them safe. He was God who would deliver them safely through those flood waters. He was going to ensure their safe keeping. And so God remembered his promise to Noah and he stopped up the fountains of the deep and he caused a wind to blow across the earth so that the waters began to dissipate. Now I think this is one of two of the greatest redemptive analogies in the Old Testament. I think the first is the story of God delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt. And this story is not commonly thought of in the same way. But you know it really is. God poured out his holy wrath upon the earth for sin. But he invites Noah and his family to come into the ark. That's the first time the word come is used in the scriptures. God says come Noah, come into this ark, come into this cocoon of grace and let me deliver you through judgment. That redemptive analogy has implications for us today. God will again judge the world for sin. There are many scriptures that remind us of that, particularly Matthew, the searing in Matthew 24, the searing pronouncement of judgment that will come. The people in Noah's day, I'm sure the people in Noah's day laugh and mock that Noah and they thought, God will never judge the world. I bet there was great economic prosperity. I bet there was political stability. I bet there was peace. I bet they thought God will never judge the world. After all Noah has been building that boat for 100 years. God's judgment was a long time in coming. But God's judgment was swift and fierce. And God's judgment on sin again will be swift and fierce.
But God provides an ark just as he provided for Noah. He provides an ark to deliver his people safely through judgment. And that vehicle is none other than Jesus Christ. There is no other way that we might escape the fierce and certain judgment of God. If you look to Jesus Christ to rescue you from your sin and to rescue you from God's judgment, God promises to lavish his love upon you and to envelop you in his grace just as he did Noah. And you will be cocooned and protected from God's fierce judgment. Colossians 3-3 is a great reminder of that. It says that your life is now hidden in with Christ in God. The idea is that if you trust Christ, if you trust him to deliver you from your sin, he will envelop you in his grace. And you will pass through God's judgment safely to the other side. That is awesome news. The image there is that the Father will wrap you in the righteousness of the sun so that when the Father looks at you, He sees you as righteous just as His Son. And He will receive you just as His Son. And so when we come to this table this morning, what great news for us that God will receive us as He does His own Son. You will have opportunities to fear. You will feel the storm raging around you as God's judgment is poured out upon sin. But you will be safely delivered. It may not be in this life. But you will be safely delivered from final judgment, God's final judgment against sin because Jesus has paid your debt in full.
Do you trust Jesus Christ? Do you trust Jesus Christ alone to be your savior from sin?
If you do this message, this passage offers tremendous hope to you.
Now, the last point that I'd like to make is to look at what purpose God chose in rescuing Noah. Look again at verses 15 through 17 in chapter 8. Then God spoke to Noah saying, go out of the ark, you and your son, excuse me, go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So Noah went out and his sons and his wives and his sons wives with him. God had rescued Noah and his family from the flood that they might once again populate the earth. He tells them to be fruitful and multiply. Now, that reckons back to the genesis, to the creation story. God tells them to fill the earth. What is the purpose in that? The purpose is that they were to fill the earth with righteousness. God wanted to put his glory on display again through the righteous land of Noah. We see that Noah confirms that that he will be God's man, that he will fill the world with righteousness. Noah treats God with holy reverence. We see that in chapter 7, verse 1, when God commands for Noah to go into the ark, never remember. It hasn't rained one drop. God tells Noah and his family to enter the ark and they do. They enter the ark and they wait for seven days before the first raindrop falls. Noah obeyed God. We see in chapter 8, verse 13, that Noah continues to obey God. He takes the top off the ark, the first day of the first month of the year of the first year or the 601st year. He takes the covering off the ark and he looks at how he says, sure enough, the land's dry. Now, if it had been me and I had been in that boat with my family and all those animals, I would have bolted out of there. We see that Noah waits almost two more months until, look at verse 15 and 16, then God spoke to Noah saying, go out of the ark. Noah didn't leave the ark until God said, okay Noah, it's time. You leave the ark. So Noah treated God as righteous. Noah begins to feel the world with righteousness by his reverential obedience. We see also in verse 20 that as soon as he had come out of the ark, that Noah builds an altar and he lifts up worship to God. He thought he was grateful to God for his mercy, for his goodness that he had delivered him and his family safely through the flood. And God was pleased with Noah's heartfelt worship and he received that sacrifice as a pleasing aroma, as a righteous aroma. These good deeds that Noah did, they didn't save him. That's not what this passage is about. And I wrestle with that. I want to preach to you grace. You are saved by grace alone. But this passage in the other scriptures teach that there's a call to obedience, that those who have received, those who have been graced by God, then respond in reverential obedience and respond in worship to God. You see the act of worship and the obedience that Noah offered were the response of a man who had been graced by God. Now let me ask you this question. For what purpose has God rescued you from your sin and rescued you from judgment? The same purpose, best you know, is the same purpose that he rescued you. He wants to fill the earth with righteousness. He wants to fill the earth with his glory and with his honor. I love the way it's stated in Psalm 67 verses 1 and 2. God be merciful to us. This is a cry from the people of Israel. God be merciful to us and cause his face to shine upon us. Why? So that we can grow in wealth and happiness? No. That your ways may be known on the earth and your salvation to the ends of the earth. God didn't save me as a premature baby that I might live for myself. When I was two years old and I had infantile asthma, they had to pack me all nice to slow down my heart rate so that I could survive, so that I could get enough oxygen to survive. Did God save me from that? So that I could live for myself? No. He saved me that I might live for him. He saved me that I might be a blessing to the nations. He saved me that together with you we might spread the wonders of the glory of his name and the wonders of the glory of his kingdom to the ends of the earth. He's done the same for you. He calls us out of darkness into this community that we might worship him and that we might serve him in spreading the glory of his kingdom to the ends of the earth. Let us pray. Oh God, we pray that that would be the case that each one of us would so be, would so understand how you have graced our lives, that Lord we would overflow with gratitude just as Noah, that we would worship you and would long for our lives to be an offering to you that righteousness might be, might exist in this earth. Lord, use us. Lord, forgive our sins. Forgive my sins. This is not the case in my life, but work in us by your spirit we pray and we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.