Good morning. How are you doing today? Yeah? I'm doing good. I am doing really well.
If it's your first time joining us here at Hosanna here in our sanctuary or if
you're joining us online for the first time, we want to say welcome to all of
you. We're so glad you're here to worship with us here at Hosanna. I am Pastor
Nathan and this morning we are going to be starting the story of the Great Flood
in Genesis chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. You know, the story and the
details of it and the truth of it, the real historical fact of this flood is
hinted at by a lot in our world. Across the history of mankind there have been
over 270 different nations, people, groups, and cultures that have flood stories in
their historical accounts, their own accounts of how the world came to be.
Which suggests that there was truly a flood in the past and that story has
carried down through many unconnected cultures that it's not just a Bible
story, it's not just allegorical. Some argue whether the flood we're gonna be
reading about was a worldwide flood or a local flood. You know, people like to get
sidetracked on so many silly debates, but there is a lot of natural phenomena in
our world today across the entire planet that really does point to a global flood
that the flood we're gonna be reading about was across the entire planet.
There's things like inland saltwater seas, there's things like fossilized
whale bones at the top of mountains, there's sedimentary and stratum
evidence geologically, there's all kinds of stuff that that really points to a
global flood, but we're gonna deal with some of that next time. But you know, as
we've been studying through Genesis, we've seen that the pre-flood culture
had gotten so bad, so evil, so wicked that God had no other recourse than to
destroy it. We've seen how marriage was demonized, violence was idolized, sexual
violence was so commonplace, it was the celebrated norm of this culture. You know,
back in chapter five of, or chapter six verse five, this is how this time was
described. Human wickedness was widespread on the earth, and every
inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time. Now we
have to try to imagine what that's like because we're in a world today where
there is a lot of evil. There's a lot of evil stuff happening, but we are not yet
to the place where every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all
the time. But we know the world's headed that direction, and we know it's gonna
end up in that kind of place. We read that God was grieved at this time that
mankind had gotten to this place. It wasn't that he had no idea, it wasn't
that he thought he made a mistake creating mankind, it was simply the fact
that they were this bad, that there was this much evil and wickedness, and it
grieved his heart terribly. But because that is what mankind was choosing, he
declared judgment on all of humanity except one man, Noah and his household.
Now the story that is involved here is a fascinating one, and you know all the
different elements of the flood that we can get into, like how it affected the
planet, and how it affected the ecosystem, and what about dinosaurs, and all those
things that people want to talk about. They've spawned many different theories
on the Genesis flood. They've spawned many different movies, and maybe you've
seen some of those things that are radically unbiblical and just silly.
We're gonna deal with some of that as we move forward through the story, but we
have to be very careful lest we miss the point of the flood narrative altogether.
You see the story itself is a narrative bridge between this very
mysterious, anti-deluvian, pre-flood world. It's a bridge between that and
the more recent time that followed, which we would consider from then all the way
up till now. But we have to understand that the flood story is not about the
flood, even though that's one of the most shocking, dramatic stories in all of
Scripture. We also have to understand that the main point of the flood story
is not judgment on sin, although it describes a very awful judgment that
came upon the world. The flood story is about the type of person that God saves
from judgment. That's what this story is all about. That's what we'll be
paying attention to. For the flood story is about a man who is saved out of a
lost world because of his relationship with God. Not a sinless man, not a
perfect man, meaning he's never done anything wrong, but one who is called
righteous due to his faith in God. Here we learn why God saved Noah, how God
saved Noah, and what that means for us today. But first we're gonna open in
worship and praise God. So many of us in here have received the salvation that
God offers us, that free salvation that has set us free from the power of sin
and death and promised us heaven when we leave this earth, and we so look forward
to that. But we do know that as the Bible tells us, we are called to be people, to
go out and preach, to share, that judgment is coming. That judgment is indeed coming,
and the only way to avoid that judgment is to believe that God is, to believe in
what God says and to commit one's life to him. We want to praise him for
everything that he is and everything that he's done and everything that he's
going to do. So pray with me. Father, we thank you so much for sending your son
Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Lord, we know that you came as a perfect
individual without sin, without error, absolutely completely blameless and
spotless in every way. And yet God, somehow through our faith in what you
did, that righteousness is imputed to us. It's not because we deserve it and it's
not because we earned it. That is impossible, Lord. It's simply because you
loved us and you wanted to give it to us. Lord, may we understand what that means
not only in our salvation, but then in how we live our lives, God, that we
wouldn't be people who live a transactional relationship with you, Lord,
thinking that if we do this, you'll do this for us, and if we don't do that, you
won't do that for us. But we would understand, Lord, that we are your
children, that if we put our faith in you, you see us through the righteousness of
Jesus Christ that is imputed to us through our belief, our faith in what he
did and who he is. And God, we want to praise you for that. You are so worthy.
Lord, teach us through this story today. Teach us through the story of this flood
and who this man Noah was, God. Teach us the absolute importance of how man is
saved that we would be able to take this message and continue to share it with
people that don't know you yet in this world. Lord, we love you. We thank you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, guys, we're gonna be in Genesis
chapter 6. We're gonna be starting in verse 9 today. And as I said in the
beginning, we're beginning the story of the great flood. But to give context to
what I believe God is speaking through the story today, I just wanted to touch
on something that we all know. We should know if you're a believer and a Bible
student that scripture has a lot to say about why we are saved, how we are saved.
And any Christian should know that our salvation is not about us. It has nothing
to do with us. It has nothing to do with anything we do or earning it or anything
like that. The Bible is very clear. For example, in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6,
this is how it describes mankind. We all went astray like sheep. We all have turned
to our own way. And the Lord has punished him, speaking of Jesus, for the
iniquity of us all. In the New Testament, it says this in Romans chapter 3,
starting in verse 10. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one.
There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned
away. All alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good,
not even one. And then back to Isaiah again in chapter 64 verse 6,
this is what it says about our good deeds. All of us have become like something
unclean, and all of our righteous acts are like a polluted garment. Now in the
more traditional translations, polluted garments as filthy rags, and I won't
describe what that actually is referring to in the Hebrew, but it's gross.
All right. So, excuse me. Having that as our backdrop and our understanding as
as Christians, it could be confusing when we get to verses like verse 9 in
Genesis chapter 6, because this is what it says here. These are the family records
of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries. Noah
walked with God. And Noah fathered three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now in a
later study, we're going to deal with Noah's sons because they're important to
the chapters to come, but just for a quick reference, through these three sons
came all the peoples of the earth, right? God destroyed the whole earth except for
Noah and his household. And so through these three came all the people. Now,
Shem is the one that all the Semitic races came from. These are the Hebrews,
the Jews, came from his line. Now, because they came from Shem's line, they were
referred to in the past and sometimes still as the Shemites, because they came
from Shem, right? Or that word is also said the Semites, and that's where we get
the term anti-Semitic when we talk about people who are against the Jews or
racist against the Jews. It's anti the people from Shem, right? Is literally what
you're saying there. His other son, Ham, is where the Canaanites came from,
Africans, Egyptians came from Ham. And then Japheth is where all the Medes and
the Persians and Germany and Russia and the Gauls and the Greeks and the Romans
came from. So that's just a real quick overview. We'll deal with that later
because the point that I want to focus on in today's study starts with this
question. How do we reconcile the Bible saying there is none righteous, no not
one, with Noah was a righteous man? Well, the Bible contradicts itself, everybody
go home, right? Is that how we solve that? No. But verses like this can cause
people to stumble a little bit, especially people you're sharing your
faith with. They like to go on to, you know, corners of the internet and find
these places where someone goes, oh the Bible, duh duh duh. Now, the way we
reconcile things like this and really how to answer what is it saying here when
it says Noah was a righteous man is to start with 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16,
which says this, all scripture is inspired by God. It literally means
breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting,
for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped
for every good work. All of scripture is breathed out by God. So we can't say,
well this part of the Bible is right and this part of the Bible is wrong. You
can't say that. Now, we know God doesn't lie, he is truth. We know the Bible is
his word that has spoken to 40 different authors over 1,500 years on 3 different
continents and yet it has a seamless continuity of message because God
orchestrated it, it's his word, God is truth. Well then, what does it mean that
Noah was a righteous man if no one is righteous? Well, that's an important
thing to be able to answer because it has to do with the question, why did God
save Noah? It answers the question, why did God save you and me? It answers the
question, why does God save anybody and how does he save anybody? Well, to kind of
give backdrop to this, I want to jump to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 where it
talks about Noah according to his faith, it says this, by faith Noah after he was
warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear built an ark to
deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the
righteousness that comes by faith. So to sum that up, it says by faith he
inherited the righteousness that comes by faith. Well, what is the righteousness
that comes by faith? What does that have to do with Noah was a righteous man? Well,
we have to understand that Noah's righteousness wasn't from him. It can't
be of Noah's, it can't be from him. Right here in Hebrews 11 7 it says that it
was a righteousness given to him, it came to him through his faith. This is a
biblical doctrine called the doctrine of imputed righteousness and this is a very
important doctrine to understand not just in salvation but then in how we go
on to live our lives. The doctrine of imputed righteousness starts with this
because humans are sinners by nature, right? We inherited the sin nature from
Adam and Eve. We have zero righteousness of our own. That's what Romans 3 was
saying, there are none righteous, no not one. And then biblically we understand
that one day we will stand before an almighty, perfect, holy God and we'll
literally have two destinations, two eternal destinations before us. One is
heaven and one is hell. Now heaven is for the righteous, hell is where the
unrighteous go. Now if we have no righteousness of our own and we're gonna
stand before God one day, we got a problem don't we? We don't have what is
needed to get into heaven, to get into paradise, to live in eternal perfection
with God our Creator. And so if perfect righteousness is required to spend
eternity in heaven and we have no righteousness of our own, nor can we do
anything righteous enough to count, right? Our righteous deeds are like filthy rags,
then that would mean that we need to get our righteousness from another source,
right? And we get that through the faith in the untainted work of another, another
who was perfect, who is without sin. And that perfect righteousness that he had,
that he was, is imputed to us by faith, is given to us, is draped upon you in a
sense. So that the idea is God is crediting righteousness to your account.
You ever had someone do that? You open your bank account one day and there's
like plus $100 and you're like, where'd that come from?
Have you ever heard those stories of the people where the bank made a mistake and
sent them a million dollars and they spent it all before the bank could catch
it? The Robin Hood in me is like, yeah, go for it, right? But you know, anyways,
sidetracking myself, God is crediting righteousness to your account. That's
what imputed righteousness is, so that when the sin bill comes due, it's paid
for. Somebody else paid for it. Now this side of the New Testament,
we know that that other source is Jesus Christ. God the Son who came to
this earth to die on the cross for all sin, the sin of all mankind. But the
problem is, is Jesus wasn't around when Noah was here. So how does that
reconcile? Well, we have to understand that throughout the Old Testament,
the people of God were looking forward to a promised Messiah. You remember in
Genesis chapter two, or no, chapter three, the fall, where when God was speaking to
Eve and he said, hey, Eve, your offspring is going to crush the head of the
serpent. That was a future hope. He said, I'm prophesying that through you, Eve,
you're going to be the mother of all life, and through you, a Messiah is going
to come, a savior. And so God's people were looking for that. But pre-flood, the
people that were looking forward to that got smaller and smaller and smaller as
the wickedness became more pervasive in the culture. And so this side of the
cross, we look back to a finished work and say, someone, the Messiah already
lived and already died for me, right? And the Bible says, you put your faith in
that, you are saved. On Noah's side, they were putting their faith in something to
come. And we see this idea of imputed righteousness throughout the whole Old
Testament. It's all over the place. Righteousness was credited to Noah
because of his faith in God's promises of the future Messiah. In Genesis 15, 6, it
says this of Abram, Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as
righteousness. That phrase, believe the Lord, means he had faith. So was it
because Abraham did this or did that? No. Was it because Abraham said, you know,
the proper number of kumbayahs? No. Did he raise his hands the right way during
worship at the right angle? None of that. He just believed God. He had faith in God
and who he was. So it can be said of Noah that he was righteous because he
believed God, and as he believed God and had faith in God, the perfect
righteousness of God was imputed to him. Isn't that beautiful? I just believe you,
God, and God goes, okay, my perfection, I'm gonna clothe you with it so
that when I look at you, guess what I see? Perfection. Sinlessness. That's why
it can be said Noah was righteous. We're gonna walk through this a little bit
more. But it's not because Noah was without sin. You know, when I taught my
previous study, somebody online commented and they were like, what?
Because I was like, Noah was a sinner just like everybody. He goes, didn't you
read verse 9 where it says Noah was perfect in all his ways? That's how it
reads in another translation, and I hope they listen to this study to then
get the explanation to that because Noah was not without sin. Noah is. Noah was,
and Noah will ever be. But he was righteous because he believed God and
then God gave him the righteousness because of that faith. It goes on to say
that he was blameless among his contemporaries and that Noah walked
with God. That word blameless is another word when we hear that we go, oh, well
without blame. That can't be somebody that did something wrong, but in the
Hebrew the word doesn't mean that never done anything wrong, it just simply
means he's filled with moral integrity. He's a moral, he pursues good morals
in his life. He's filled with it. The idea is that Noah was on the inside what
you saw on the outside. Not sinless, but full of faith. The faith he preached was
the faith he lived. Now there's a difference between reputation and
character, and you know a lot of people in this world, we want to have a good
reputation, right? That's incidentally one of the qualifications of elders and
deacons within the church, that they have to have a good reputation among the body
that they're going to serve. And so reputation is what others think you are
and see you to be on the outside, right? They see how you live, they see what you
do, and you have a reputation for being good or being bad or being trustworthy or
being a liar. It's the you that you are in public when other people are around.
That's reputation. Character however is who you are when nobody's looking. And
sadly in the church today there are many people that live one way publicly and a
completely different way privately, right? They read Colossians 3 that says,
let no foul language proceed from your mouth, and when they're among people
now in public, wow you'll never hear a cuss word out of their mouth. But in
their car when the windows are up and nobody could hear them and somebody
cuts them off, oh boy, right? I didn't even know you knew that many cuss words.
Now we all stumble, but the person who lives this double life is living a
divided heart. So when it says he was blameless, it means that Noah was the
same on the inside as he was on the outside, that his reputation reflected his
character and his character was seen in his reputation, that he wasn't a
hypocrite. He didn't live one way publicly and a different way privately.
And so that the faith he preached was the same as the faith he practiced. That
was Noah. That was the life he lived. Now walking with God, when it says Noah
walked with God, it's the same thing as Enoch and we looked at that when we
studied Enoch, right? Genesis 5 24 says Enoch walked with God and then he was not
there because God took him. Enoch was raptured. He didn't die. He never
physically died. He lived a life for God and is preaching the gospel and then God
was like, hey bro, come home. And he went. So we talked about that. When Enoch
walked with God, that phrase was referring to the closest, most
personal, intimate relationship you could have with God here on earth. That was the
relationship Enoch had. It was also the relationship Noah had with God. That
phrase walked with God means that Noah had the deepest trust and the deepest
commitment and the most radical dependence on God for everything. And this
was pretty remarkable considering the time he lived in because look at
verse 11 in Genesis 6. It says, now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the
earth was filled with wickedness. That word wickedness in other translations is
violence. What the word in the Hebrew is referring to is acts of aggression.
Particularly physical acts of aggression. So we could say that in God's sight he
saw that the earth was filled with assault and murder and running down the
street and hitting people in the face and filming it for their TikTok. Do you
see a correlation? It was violent. God saw how corrupt the earth was for every
creature had corrupted its way on the earth. 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. A
pretty bleak picture. Back in verse verse 5 of Genesis 6 God said human
wickedness was widespread and we read this earlier that every inclination of
the human mind was nothing but evil all the time. Now 2nd Peter 2 5 tells us
that Noah was a preacher of righteousness so we know that during Noah's life during
this time when every thought was wicked and it was corrupt that he was preaching
righteousness. Now we don't have any record of exactly what he said in
preaching righteousness but we can imagine it based upon what we know of
Noah. He had faith in God. God saw him as righteous and Noah preached that
righteousness. That means it was likely Noah was preaching hey guys judgments
coming. God's gonna judge sin. You need to put your faith in God and trust him
for salvation because in him and him alone is salvation. The only way you could
get saved from the judgment is by being perfectly righteous and the only way you
could do that is putting your faith in God and following him right. It's likely
what he was talking about. Preaching belief and faith and trust and then we
can imagine how it was received in the world that was described to us among
those people. It's interesting when God keeps saying they were corrupt they were
corrupted they were corrupt the word corrupt means lacking integrity. What did
we just see about Noah? He was blameless among his contemporaries. That he was
filled with moral integrity and again it says among his contemporaries. That's a
very important part of that phrase. It's saying in contrast to this wicked evil
world Noah was the opposite of that. Not that he was without sin as I said but he
was the opposite of what his culture was and so as he's out there preaching this
righteousness I don't believe he was a very popular dude. I believe he was quite
hated. Noah wasn't very popular and nor are we today when we preach
righteousness. The world is turning more and more violent against Christians. More
and more outright. More and more destructive. You know I mean who thought
we would ever live in a world where the state would take kids away from their
parents simply because the parents won't lie to them about their pronouns. And
yeah that's happening around our world today. Because a mom or dad will not
refer to them with these weird obscure pronouns and go no you're a boy you were
born a boy you're a he. That the state is stepping in and oh we're gonna remove
your kids because you're abusing them. Our world is violent and when we preach
righteousness the world hates that. Cockroaches scatter when the light is
turned on and when we shine the light into the wickedness of this world we want
to evil wants to scatter. And so we know the world today is rapidly moving
towards more and more hostility and eventually the Bible tells us that it
will get so bad that during the tribulation time there will be two
witnesses preaching in Jerusalem and they will be publicly murdered in front
of everybody's eyes probably on the internet or something and that they will
just leave their bodies there on the sidewalk to rot and the whole world will
celebrate their death. That's what it tells us is gonna happen in the end
times. Pretty wicked. So when God says he's gonna put an end to mankind and
earlier in Genesis 6 he said he was gonna wipe away mankind those two
phrases we know that did happen. There was an end to mankind there was a
wiping away of mankind it did happen but it also is going to happen again. That
there is a judgment coming in this world and I believe God is referring to that
in the last part of verse 13 because if you look at the end of verse 13 he tells
Noah I am going to destroy them along with the earth. That word destroy there
means to destroy completely to damage beyond repair. Was the earth completely
destroyed in the flood? No it was not but the next time God comes back to judge
guess what Revelation 21 tells us that he will build a new heaven and a new
earth for the former one has passed away. So I believe there's prophecy here even
of the coming judgment. Now verse 14 in Genesis 6 God then gives Noah the
instructions for the ark. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Nobody is sure
what gopher wood is so we're not gonna deal with that. Make rooms in the ark
and cover it with pitch inside and outside. This is how you're to make it.
The ark will be 450 feet long 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. You were to make
a roof finishing the sides of the ark to within 18 inches of the roof. You were to
put a door in the side of the ark and make it with a lower middle and upper
decks. So God is now giving Noah the commands. Noah you believe me that a
judgment is coming. You believe my words you believe that I'm God so I've imputed
to you my righteousness. You're preaching that righteousness to the world but I
also want you to build a boat. And so Noah gets these instructions and I
believe this particular ark was like nothing ever seen before. Like I believe
that that pre-fled the people were probably smarter and had better
understanding of technology stuff than we have today. I really believe that not
that they had cars and you know cell phones and tick-tock and internet and
all that but you know when we look at things like the pyramids and even today
engineers cannot figure out how the pyramids were built how they are still
standing but the Egyptians did it without electricity. So anyways that's a
whole nother Bible study. But he gets these instructions this massive
undertaking to build this thing called the ark. Now the word ark means a chest
or a box or interestingly enough a coffin a casket right. But as Bible
believers we look at this and we understand that it is both a real vessel
but it is also an allegory of death right. It's the death through judgment
we're gonna get to that in a little bit but but he gives Noah these these very
specific dimensions. Now I believe there were sure more instructions for Noah as
he was building this boat but what we have here is a summary of what God gave
him and what we have recorded here is specific dimensions that God gave him
about these boat about this boat. Now these dimensions if we you know making
something that big today it's huge it's a giant boat. Now we have to understand
that the original measurements are in cubits right they weren't in feet and
we're not sure how long a cubit was right. It's either 18 inches or 21 inches
or somewhere in between. The reason I point that out is because here in the
CSB it uses the 18 inch cubit and that's when it says the ark was 450 feet long
by 75 by 45 feet high but in other translations you might see a different
measurement because they're using the 21 inch cubit you know to do that so just
want you to see that so if somebody goes ah see look the translations are false
yeah but somebody did build a boat in our modern day following the
instructions we have in Genesis obviously making some some design
decisions because we don't have the details of those things but there's a
thing in Kentucky called the Ark encounter. Some of you have heard of it
they built a full-size ark there as an exhibit that you could walk through and
stuff and they have this thing called the Creation Museum there and I'm
thinking about like doing a church trip next year to go see this thing so we'll
have more information that as we go but that's what they built. That is a life
size ark that they put together based upon the instructions in the word here
and their ark happens to be based on the 21 inch cubit so it's 510 feet by 85 feet
by 51 feet high. What it is is one and a half times the length of a football
field. It's half the width of a football field and up to seven stories high. To
give you guys a reference it's from here to the sheriff's station. It's from the
middle of this room all the way out to the boulevard and up to seven stories
high. It was huge you see the tiny people in that picture? They're standing right
next to it. It's just an amazing thing. Now the second pig we have here is just
a side view of it and again you see tiny people like that's not photoshopped
that's real. It's a gigantic vessel and so again why was God so specific to Noah?
Why was he so explicit in his instructions? Because like I said it's
it's I think it's safe to assume that there was more instructions that God
gave Noah as he was doing this but it's possible that Noah had never
built a boat before. It's possible that Noah even though I believe there
was some advanced technology in the in the minds of people then that maybe Noah
himself didn't understand water displacement and buoyancy and all the
things that makes a boat float and then God was saying hey this is gonna be a
cataclysmic flood so it's gonna have to be a certain kind of boat. Well guess
what God invented physics so he understands water displacement and gave
Noah the exact instructions for this boat so that it would do
exactly what it was supposed to do. Now Genesis chapter 6 verse 17. Understand
God says I am bringing a flood. Flood waters on the earth to destroy every
creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will
perish but I will establish my covenant with you speaking to Noah and you will
enter the ark with your sons your wife and your sons wives. You are also to
bring into the ark two of all the living creatures male and female to keep them
alive with you. Two of everything from the birds according to their kinds from
the livestock according to their kinds or from the animals that crawl on the
ground according to their kinds. They'll come to you so that you can keep them
alive. Take with you every kind of food that is eaten gather it as food for you
and for them. So God reiterates his promise of judgment here to Noah the
floods gonna happen but he does this really interesting thing he establishes
his covenant with Noah. Like he didn't just tell Noah hey the floods coming
build a boat you'll be safe but it says he makes this covenant with him and
covenant is a very important concept throughout Scripture. When you're studying
the Scripture there's this thing called the rule of first mention. When you
read something or a word in Scripture and you're like oh covenant what does
that mean? Well it's good to go back to the very first time it's mentioned in
Scripture and study the context that it's in as you start to look at that to
find out what what is meant by that word covenant. Now the word covenant
incidentally can also being testament. So guess what we have in our Holy Bible
the old covenant and the new covenant. Now covenant you know in a very
simplistic way means agreement and really a covenant with God is a
foundation from which God can interact with mankind right it's an agreement
between God and mankind. But in in the ancient world there was two major types
of covenants one was called a parody covenant one was called a suzerain
covenant I have no idea why it's called that but the parody covenant was
basically two equals making an agreement. We covenant with each other based upon
the terms of this thing. We might call it a contract today right but it was two
equals like two kings or as we see in the Old Testament Abraham makes a
covenant with Abimelech the king of Egypt. Abraham's a leader of his people
Abimelech is a leader of the Egyptians and right so that's a parody covenant
but a suzerain a covenant is an agreement between a superior and an
inferior right. Like a like a king making an agreement with a with a conquered
country a vassal state. Now and underneath those there's all kinds of
different covenants but we don't have time to get into all that. The idea is
that that a covenant that God makes with man is obviously a suzerain covenant
it's a superior making the covenant with an inferior. And as you study through
scripture you're gonna see a lot of covenants right. We had the covenant with
Adam where God made this agreement with Adam of what's gonna happen and here we
have the Noahic covenant and there's the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic
covenant and on and on and on. But all of those covenants lead up to the new
covenant. The new covenant that Jesus established with his people with us his
people and what's interesting about the new covenant is it's an unconditional
covenant. There's no terms of agreement on our side you do these things then I
will do these things. The new covenant is God saying I'm gonna do this
accept it. And the thing he said he was gonna do is to die in our place to pay
the price for all of our sin. And he said all you need to do is have faith that
that applies to you. Now we're gonna deal with those as we get to them through
Genesis in a deeper look but back to the ark in that book called the Genesis
flood that I've referenced a couple times already written by Henry Morris
and John Whitcomb. They you know kind of took all this stuff in the Old Testament
and then did sciencey stuff with it to figure out what it would look like in in
our frame of reference. And so the inside of the ark they estimate was a hundred
thousand square feet of deck space. Those three levels that are inside the ark it
was huge. If you think of a normal train car 522 of those is how much floor space
was inside this ark. The point of that is when people go how'd they fit two of
every animal in the ark that's impossible. A hundred thousand square
feet of floor space could easily accommodate a hundred and twenty five
thousand animals the size of a sheep. Now of course we got bigger animals like
elephants and we got smaller animals like dogs right. So the idea is that as
far as the space is concerned mathematically yeah you could fit a ton
of animals in there. And then again it says that they go in there the two male
and female of each one according to their kinds. We dealt with that in
creation right. God didn't have to create Labrador and Poodle all he had to do is
create dog and within dog is all the other dogs right. Dog is a kind. You guys
understand that right. Cat this animal that animal. So you didn't have to take
every kind of dog he just had to take dog a male and a female so that the
species would live on. And he did that with the birds and the livestock and the
animals that crawl on the ground right. That includes like the rat that one is
like God what's up with that you know. He could have left that one behind but
verse 20 he says two of all animals male and female. Another thing I want you all
to notice here is that none of the animals were non-binary okay. The
survival of the species required a male and a female. The two and only sexes
that exist because that's how the species would propagate. No males cannot
get pregnant and people are confused about that today and that's like so silly
but that's again another Bible study as well. So but verse 20 look what it says
there he says the two of animals are gonna come male female according to
their kinds and then he says they will come to you so that you can keep them
alive right. How did how did Noah get all these animals? Well they came to him and
people go well that's just dumb that's hard to believe you know how could that
possibly happen. Does anybody question the reality of
birds that live in one part of the world and then at a certain time of the year
they fly thousands of miles to another place. Does anybody go that's not real?
No we see that and we go oh that's called a migratory instinct right. God
built that in them. So why is it so hard to believe that that God just like
booped GPS coordinates into all the animals and they gave them an instinct to
go. Not impossible to believe especially because we know there's there's you know
it already exists and so that's what happened I believe. I don't know if it's
GPS coordinates but that's just the modern vernacular and then verse 22 we
close the chapter with this and Noah did this he did everything that God had
commanded him. That phrase is going to be repeated three times all the way through
chapter 7 verse 10 and is one of the foundation elements of why God saved
Noah. You see belief begets action. Back to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 it said by
faith Noah after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by
godly fear built an ark. By faith motivated by godly fear Noah built an
ark. Godly fear there means respect reverence. It's like the king has spoken
there is no question of what he has spoken and he has the power to enact
what he spoke but he believed God. Noah said look he's God and he said which I
personally believe the interpretation that 120 years from now there's gonna
be a flood that's gonna wipe out the whole earth and because I believe what
God said and I believe God was gonna do what he said he was going to do well
then I'm gonna do what God tells me to do to be spared that judgment. Belief
begets action or to put it another way faith begets obedience right? Why do we
or most of us perhaps stop at red lights?
Because we have faith that if we get caught running it we will get a ticket
right? Do you ever pull up to a red light and you go you know I don't know if
that's true right? Faith begets action and Noah's
faith was demonstrated by his building the ark. This is what the book of James
talks about. If you truly believe it's gonna be evidenced in a changed life in
a changed way of living and so Noah's faith was demonstrated by his building
the ark and you know when you think of the world he lived in and stuff imagine
Noah going out every day day after day hammering one more nail you saw the
picture of how big that boat was Noah Noah built it. I imagine his sons
probably helped with him but but I don't think many more people helped with him
because every thought of every person was only evil all the time and it's
possible that Noah was building this boat for up to 120 years right? People
argue that point but I think it's irrelevant but the point is is for some
long amount of time Noah was building this boat and and I imagine the questions
that came to him from those around him. Hey Noah what are you doing? What are you
building? Oh I'm building a boat. Yeah we could see that. Why? Why is it so big? You
don't need a boat that big for your family. Oh it's because God told me that
he's gonna judge this wicked evil world. A flood is coming to wipe out the whole
thing and and God said this is how you're saved and so I'm gonna do it
exactly according to his specifications and he said that all the animals are
gonna come to me. Imagine people laughing they're like oh God speaks to you now
huh? You know what are you smoking Noah? And they probably were like can I have
some right? I remember Pastor Gary years ago I I hope and I'm getting the details
of the story right. He was going through an application process I believe is to
be a clergy member in the prison to have access to it and or some something of
that nature and then one of the questions in the the application right
he's he's a religious leader applying to go in as a religious leader and one of
the questions on the application was do you believe God speaks to you and he
checked yes and they called him in for a psychological evaluation and he's like
are you kidding me? I'm a pastor I'm a I'm a I'm a Christian
minister and you're whoa God talks to you you weirdo you know he got in that
was good but but the idea here is is God's promises are supposed to be the
sustenance of his people right? They're supposed to be what we live on they're
supposed to be we we breathe his promises they are a very life right? It
says elsewhere in the Bible that man shall not live by bread alone but by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It's God's word that nourishes
that makes us healthy and yeah God's word does say eat or you'll die right? In
other words but so but it also says judgment's coming it also says the only
way to salvation is what? Faith in Jesus Christ and and and we live on that we
trust that we we believe what God says and then God imputes righteousness to us
which still feels uncomfortable for me because I'm like I know me but God says
I see perfection and I'm just like Lord help me to live worthy of that and that
is then the living we endeavor to be obedient we endeavor to do what God
calls us to do and when it says there that Noah did everything that God
commanded him that's what we're seeing God I believe in you so everything after
that I believe your word I believe what you said therefore I believe what I have
to do in response to it now those who aren't sustained by the word of God God's
words go unheeded they scoff they mock they ignore and that's exactly what
happened in these times because second Peter told us that Noah preached
righteousness and I believe he preached it year after year as he was building
the ark but then when we get to the end of the story we find that the only
people that went into the ark was Noah and his family that means everybody else
that existed on the planet everybody that heard Noah's preaching of
righteousness none of them repented because I believe that there was one
person out there that turned from their evil and went oh my gosh Noah you're
right God wouldn't like God would have been like boom bunk for him to give them
a space but nobody but Noah and his family
chapter 7 verse 1 says then the Lord said to Noah enter the ark you and all
of your household for I've seen that you alone are righteous before me in this
generation you are to take with you seven pairs a male and his female of all
the clean animals and two of the animals that are not clean a male and its female
and seven pairs male and female the birds of the sky in order to keep
offspring alive throughout the earth seven days from now I will make it rain
on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights and every living thing that I have made
I will wipe off the face of the earth and here it is again Noah did everything
that the Lord commanded him Noah was 600 years old when the flood came and the
waters covered the earth so Noah his sons his wife's and his son's wives
entered the ark because of the flood waters from the animals that are clean
and from the animals that are not clean and from the birds and every creature
that crawls on the ground two of each male and female came to Noah and entered
the ark just as God had commanded him seven days later the flood waters came
upon the earth so the time comes for the judgment to be enacted and God gives Noah
final notice hey it's seven days look the boats done you know good job
judgments coming not that Noah needed to be reminded but maybe in our weak flesh
sometimes we're like we doubt for a second right is the end really coming
God it's been so long you know I don't know that that's what happened with Noah
but I know that happens with me a lot and so God has to remind me again and so
he reminds Noah and then there's some final last-minute preparations that are
made but you read this and you're like what's up with the seven pairs of
animals like I thought he just said two of everything right again oh my gosh
another contradiction let's go home no right we know later on in the story
when the floods done that Noah's does animal some animal sacrifices to the
Lord which was already something that was in the thing this was long before the
law the law didn't exist the temple didn't exist Moses hadn't been born yet
but there were sacrifices made to God to honor him right and so God knew that
that's what was gonna happen when they get off the ark maybe he had told Noah
to do that it doesn't record that for us but he's simply saying Noah you need to
take these animals extra of these animals for a purpose now the law of
Moses as I said didn't exist yet so how did Noah know that it doesn't tell us so
we don't know it's already been established in scripture that God spoke
to his people in this time and so we're not told how we're not told why Noah
specifically knew what the definition of clean and unclean was except what God
told him but we do know that God said take extras of these in order to keep
the offspring alive that of these animals that would be sacrificed to God
in honor of God after the event of this flood and everything he goes look take
extra of those ones so you don't sacrifice them all and then there's no
more in the species can't propagate pretty simple right but it's not a
contradiction with earlier there indeed was two of everything and just extra of
some right so but the point I want to close on here is those two additional
references to Noah doing everything that God had commanded him see in verse 5 in
verse 9 of chapter 7 it tells us that again and what we see is that that that
righteousness that was imputed to Noah because of his faith in God because he
believed God and he believed God's word is evidenced by him doing what God
wanted him to do here's the simple lesson when we follow God's instructions
we are saved that's it out of this demonized world this corrupt violent
wicked culture an amazing man had risen with an amazing message now today we have
those same simple instructions right this side of the cross the Bible tells
us very very simply listen to Jesus do what he says that's Christianity in a
nutshell guys it's not that hard but I know it's almost impossible right it's
such a struggle I'm with you but listen to Jesus do what he says now we had this
man Noah who was likely ridiculed for his faith mocked threatened none of that
deterred him none of that swayed him why I believe that because in his mind in his
heart God was greater to him than any threat any violence any mockery God was
greater to him than all of that God's promises were more sure to him than any
threat and I think threats of death even came because it told us his culture was
was very aggressively physically violent so Noah went on built it and in Noah we
see what it means to be righteous we also see why God saved Noah the
righteous person is the person who rests everything on the bare word of God that
just says if God said it I believe it and that settles it they trust it they
depend on it they live by it they believe what it says when it says
whoever believes in Christ whosoever would believe in him they would not
perish but have eternal life eternal life and then they go on to live
according to what God teaches them to do that's faith and that's faith
evidenced the reason I think this is important for us is because it's not
just about salvation you see so many Christians and I myself lately have
been have been wrestling through these things where I've been walking with the
Lord for 25 years now something like that and I've been blessed to be
serving the Lord for most of that probably 20 years of that and in
teaching his word and just recently God was like hey my relationship with you is
not transactional because I was having situations where I'm like this event
this thing in my life is not happening and I start going oh is it because I
got sin is it because like is God punishing me is God not blessing me
because and God spoke to me and he goes my relationship with you isn't
transactional you're saved you put your faith in me you believe the sin you now
commit you stumbled but you're my child forever you're saved forever you're in
my family forever nothing will ever change that now is there discipline that
comes when I directly disobey God sure is there consequences could come when I
disobey God sure but God is not watching us and going okay you got two points
therefore I'm gonna give you this now God blesses as he chooses to bless and
doesn't bless as he chooses to not bless you're his kid if he wants to bless you
he's gonna bless you but it's not because of the points you earned in the
last week if he blesses you it's because you're his kid and he wants to bless you
now God wants us to live in obedience but we can't go from this okay God you
imputed your righteousness to me through faith I did nothing to earn that we
can't go from that to okay well I did I read my Bible three times this week so
God's gonna bless me three times this week shoot I missed my prayer time this
morning that's why there's so much traffic right it's not that what we
learned from Noah is what type of person God saves what type of person God works
in what it means to be righteous now that faith in his word specifically I
mentioned earlier the the specific dimensions of the ark and you know why
is it so precise I think the lesson there for us throughout time and today
is that because the way of salvation is exactly and only according to how God
says it is without deviation right John 14 6 Jesus said I am the way the truth
in the life no one comes to the Father except through me there is no other way
to be saved than exactly how God said it to be and it's faith in Jesus Christ
God the Son God in the flesh second member of the Trinity that we find
salvation it's not in 90% of what the Bible says but then we sprinkle some
other stuff we want it's not in this faith it's not in that denomination it's
not in it's it's according to his word right God was very specific with Noah
he didn't say hey go build a boat-shaped thing and you know do whatever you want
no it was Noah this is exactly specifically how you're gonna be saved
and follow my instructions to the letter and he did and he was saved now then of
course we see all these parallels between the ark and Jesus you know as the
ark ensured the physical safety of Noah and his family through the flood they
were in the ark when we are in Christ we're carried through faith and ensured
our spiritual survival as we leave this earth as the ark protected Noah and his
family from the watery judgment and the wrath and unrighteousness when we are in
Christ we are protected from the fiery wrath to come and the judgment to come
as the ark had only one door through which Noah and his family could enter
that ark John 10 9 Jesus said I am the gate or the door if anyone enters by me
he will be saved when we're in Christ we die to ourselves right no in his family
we're in the ark a coffin and there are many others but what type of person does
God save the one who believes not the one who does this or does that just
believes believes in his promises both in his promises of blessing and in
judgment those that take his instruction and regardless what others say regardless
of what the culture says regardless of any of that they set out to live
according to his word they're gonna do business according to his word they're
gonna do family according to his word they're gonna they're gonna everything
is according to his word and they say God I want to do this for you because you
love me so much we can't do it perfectly because of the sin nature we're born
with but God doesn't ask us to do it perfectly he says lean on me and I'll do
it through you trust in my righteousness that was on your life for salvation and
then try and live according to that and you can't live according to that that's
why I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit into your life to empower you to do it and
when we're walking with God as Noah and Enoch did we find ourselves sinning less
we're never gonna be totally free because we have this sin nature that's
with us right that's what Paul was talking about in Romans that's why he
said here's the secret to Christian living on the earth whichever one you
feed your spirit or your flesh that's the one that's gonna dominate so feed
your spirit Wow deep theology right but so often we we we stray into these just
seasons of life where we're living contrary to what we know and just as
fallen sinful corrupted just evil mankind goes on right everybody every
person every every human being has this inherited nature from our forebears we
have to understand that the life we live we have nothing righteous to offer God
there wasn't anything righteous in our salvation there's not gonna be anything
righteous in the rest of your life either it's his righteousness that he
gave to you that we need to understand that we have to trust in the only and
one solution provided by God his sacrifice on our behalf and it's not
again because we're righteous because we're saved because his righteousness is
imputed to us Noah was saved through the ark because he believed in God and
believed in God's Word we are saved through Christ when we believe God and
his word let's pray father we love you so much God we thank you for your word
and we thank you for just everything you give us in your word Lord we read about
this time and this man Noah Lord we see the type of person that is righteous and
ironically it's not a righteous person it's a person who trusts in you believes
you and then you give them righteousness we see that you saved Noah for that same
reason that he believed you he trusted in you he had faith in your word your
declaration and your solution and he did it he did all that you commanded him
Lord you're asking the same thing of your people today that we live according
to your word that that we don't have a reputation in in one place but then an
opposite character in private but God we would be people who who our character
reputation is the same God it's not about us being perfect it's about us
trusting you for everything because you are our hope your word is our sustenance
but while we're praying if there's anybody in here you you've never trusted
God you've never put your faith in him I tell you this with all the sincere
honesty I could possibly say that the time is coming where God is gonna judge
the world he's gonna judge the sin of mankind and if you want to know what
that's like read through the book of Revelation it's gonna be a horrible
terrible time and death will come not just physically but then you'll be
spiritually eternally separated from God in torment that is going to happen but
God has made the way of salvation today for you that if you would trust in Jesus
Christ if you would put your faith in him to say I know Jesus you were on this
earth couple thousand years ago but but you're God I believe it your word says
that I believe it and I trust in it that if you do that you will be saved from
the judgment to come that then you will be empowered through God himself the
Holy Spirit live in within you to to teach you to empower you how to live
differently because he's gonna change you from what you were before that if
you've never experienced that you've never had that and you want to know for
sure that if you walked out of this building today and something tragic
happened in your life was taken you would have the assurance of salvation in
the hope of heaven if you want that today while we're praying with heads
bowed and eyes closed I just want you to raise your hand where you're seated and
say I need to be saved I want to receive God today if you're watching online and
God is speaking to you and you don't know the Lord but you want to receive
him today just let us know in chat just say I want to get saved anybody in this
room God is speaking to you this morning that you've never known him that maybe
you've been living this double life and God is revealing to you today hey I've
never known you and today is the day of your salvation just raise your hand let
me pray with you this morning because this decision is the most important
decision you will ever make in your life all right father God we thank you Lord
and for those that know they need to receive Christ those watching online
just pray this prayer with me say God I believe in you I believe you exist I
believe you are real and therefore I believe your word I believe everything
it says about you and I believe everything it says about me although I
may not understand most of it yet I put my faith in you save my soul God forgive
me of my sin fill me with your spirit that I would live different and be
different teach me how to be an example to those that I know that don't know
you that they would be saved to help me to be a preacher of righteousness to
warn those that are living in darkness until the judgment comes I thank you
Lord for saving my soul I thank you for loving me so much and it's in Jesus name
I pray amen well for the rest of us you know obviously I say this a lot but you
know we're not at the end yet it means we've got a lot of work to do you know
I'm so grateful that in the month of October our evangelism teams are more
busy than it seems they are in the whole year you know one of our staff members
used to always say and she still says it I think like October is the month of the
devil because everything goes wrong right everything breaks everything is
just everything's wrong right and and and I've seen it I'm just like wow like
your life really goes haywire in October but God is greater and that's why we hit
the pavement even harder that's why we do things like the realm of shadow
Halloween maze that we could get the gospel into people's hands but we don't
stop we don't only do it in October we do it all year long we do it in our
homes in our workplaces we do it with our friends tell people about your faith
tell people about why you're saved tell people about the God who looked at you
and all your grossness and said because you believe in me I'm gonna give my
righteousness to you you're coming to heaven one day and tell people about
that because if you believe the judgment is coming truly believe it and you
should because God said it's going to happen then our actions should follow
that faith and as you trust God and step out in faith yeah God's gonna use you in
amazing ways and it's just it's awesome when he does that so trust him have
faith in him and do what he commands you to do that you'd be in that place God
wants you to be at all times and then one day when we're all in heaven together
it's gonna be glorious God is so good God is so worth living for God is so
worth trusting so do it amen all right guys let's worship God as we close