Righteous Noah (Genesis 6:9-22)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.399 --> 00:00:06.040 If you're able, please remain standing and let's give our attention to genesis chapter 2 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:33.780 six, verses nine through twenty two. Genesis six, chapter of Genesis, 3 00:00:33.899 --> 00:00:40.969 chapter six, verse nine. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was 4 00:00:41.009 --> 00:00:47.409 a righteous man and blameless. In his generation. Noah walked with God and 5 00:00:47.890 --> 00:00:55.079 Noah had three sons, Shem Ham and Jafeth. Now the earth was corrupt 6 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:00.119 in God's sight and the Earth was filled with violence. And God saw the 7 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:06.150 earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way 8 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:10.230 on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make 9 00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:14.549 an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. 10 00:01:15.310 --> 00:01:19.900 Behold, I will destroy them with the Earth. Make yourself an ark 11 00:01:21.019 --> 00:01:23.900 of gopher wood. Make rooms in the Ark and cover it inside and out 12 00:01:23.939 --> 00:01:27.579 with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of 13 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:34.090 the ARC three hundred cubits, its breath fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits. 14 00:01:34.849 --> 00:01:38.129 Make a roof for the Ark and finish it to a cubit above and 15 00:01:38.329 --> 00:01:42.450 set the door of the Ark in its side. Make it with lower, 16 00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:48.719 second and third decks, for behold, I will bring a flood of waters 17 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:53.040 upon the Earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life 18 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:57.079 under heaven. Everything that is on the Earth shall die. But I will 19 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:04.150 establish my covenant with you and you shall come into the Ark. You your 20 00:02:04.269 --> 00:02:08.710 son's your wife and your son's wives with you, and of every living thing, 21 00:02:08.909 --> 00:02:13.669 of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark 22 00:02:14.189 --> 00:02:17.539 to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female, of 23 00:02:17.659 --> 00:02:22.419 the birds, according to their kinds, of the animals, according to their 24 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:25.139 kinds, of every creeping thing, of the ground, according to its kind. 25 00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:30.169 Two of every shore, every sort, shall come into you to keep 26 00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:35.449 them alive. Also, take them with you every sort of food that is 27 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:38.330 eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for 28 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:46.280 them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. May 29 00:02:46.360 --> 00:03:07.270 God bless his word to us. Please be seated among the Patriarchs, among 30 00:03:07.349 --> 00:03:13.340 the great heroes of the faith. Noah is certainly a giant. We are 31 00:03:13.460 --> 00:03:17.819 told right at the very beginning of this section that Noah was a righteous man, 32 00:03:19.979 --> 00:03:23.780 blameless in his generation, that he walked with God. That's the third 33 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:28.889 time now we've heard about walking with God. The last one being Enoch, 34 00:03:28.930 --> 00:03:35.330 who was taken up by God and was not, and before that of Adam, 35 00:03:35.449 --> 00:03:38.409 who was not walking with God in the garden, but instead hiding from 36 00:03:38.449 --> 00:03:44.319 him because of his sin and his shame. Not so with Noah, as 37 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:49.360 with Enoch, he walks with God. You remember what that means? Means 38 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:53.719 to walk in God's ways. It means to keep his statutes and his rules, 39 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:59.389 to love, as he loved, both God and neighbor. Noah walks 40 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:05.990 with God. In addition to describing the general course of his life, it 41 00:04:06.150 --> 00:04:13.219 also says in particular that he was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. 42 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:18.500 These are this is high praise. I'm from the God of the Bible, 43 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:25.050 the god of Noah. I'm to declare that a man is righteous and 44 00:04:25.250 --> 00:04:30.449 blameless. Noah, of course, was a cinner, just like Adam and 45 00:04:30.610 --> 00:04:35.769 Eve, just like kine and seth and able and like Enoch and all the 46 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:42.600 rest. But Noah walked in a way that it was righteous. Noah walked 47 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:49.279 in accordance with God's word, and Noah was blameless. The the actions of 48 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:54.110 Noah are then sandwiched, so to speak, on the end as well. 49 00:04:54.509 --> 00:04:57.550 You get this description here of no at the beginning and then at the end 50 00:04:58.389 --> 00:05:01.470 Noah's given various commands and promises and then we read that Noah did this, 51 00:05:01.709 --> 00:05:05.750 he did all that God commanded, so that we don't see here a change 52 00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:10.740 in Noah. We don't see noah sort of starting out as good and then 53 00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:15.819 going through a progression of things and becoming bad or the opposite. Instead, 54 00:05:15.860 --> 00:05:20.139 we see that Noah is good and we see God's actions and commands and then 55 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:26.050 the proof of it that Noah did this, he did all that command God 56 00:05:26.129 --> 00:05:30.689 commanded him. And what did Noah do? Noah built an ARC. In 57 00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:35.519 response to God's promised judgment of the world. He built an arc and the 58 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:42.800 hope that God would establish crew, would establish the world again through him and 59 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:47.399 through the animals that he was bringing on the arc. As we think about 60 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:53.350 these things, it's good to remember why God gives us these stories in the 61 00:05:53.430 --> 00:05:58.149 Bible. God tells us stories from the past as a way to teach us 62 00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:02.230 about the future, as a way to change us in the present. These 63 00:06:02.269 --> 00:06:06.740 are the reasons God tells us these things. Why God tells us what has 64 00:06:06.779 --> 00:06:12.980 happened. It's not merely to entertain us or give us interesting stories or fun 65 00:06:13.139 --> 00:06:19.730 things to remember or helpful narratives on which we can build playroom toys and things 66 00:06:19.850 --> 00:06:25.209 like that. It's much more than that, right. It is given to 67 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:30.970 a specifically by God to tell us something, to teach us about the future 68 00:06:30.689 --> 00:06:36.199 and to change us in the present. The story of Noah is no different. 69 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:43.040 Here God is telling us about the first judgment of the world in order 70 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:46.149 to teach us about the last judgment, so that we might escape it before 71 00:06:46.149 --> 00:06:50.790 it comes. As we think about the judgment of God, I want us 72 00:06:50.829 --> 00:06:58.470 to consider three things this morning. God's Justice and judgment, God's commitment to 73 00:06:58.670 --> 00:07:05.819 judgment and God's salvation from judgment. So God's justice and judgment, his commitment 74 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:14.699 to judgment and his salvation from judgment. People like to think of God as 75 00:07:14.860 --> 00:07:19.610 cruel and unfair. When they hear of God flooding the world and drowning men 76 00:07:19.730 --> 00:07:27.290 and women and children and animals, they imagine a beautiful world filled with beautiful 77 00:07:27.290 --> 00:07:33.199 people drowning in the waters of an angry and capricious God. This is the 78 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:39.800 way that many of the other flood stories in the ancient Near East that were 79 00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:45.430 no doubt perversions of the original one. I'm speak of God in these ways 80 00:07:45.870 --> 00:07:51.589 or the gods in these ways and these kind of vengeful and and silly ways. 81 00:07:54.870 --> 00:08:01.019 People judge those under the sentence of death in this story as good and 82 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:05.620 they judge the judge as bad. The ones who are under the sentence of 83 00:08:05.779 --> 00:08:09.339 death they say, well, those are the good ones, and the one 84 00:08:09.459 --> 00:08:13.290 giving the sentence, they say he is the bad one. But nothing could 85 00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:18.930 be further from the truth. God did not determine to make an end to 86 00:08:18.089 --> 00:08:24.889 all flesh, to destroy the world, because he was annoyed or board. 87 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:31.560 He did not flood the world because of some petty disagreement or a bet that 88 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:35.559 he lost. God did not regret and destroy the very people that he made 89 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:41.080 in his image because he had a bad temper or roke up on the wrong 90 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:46.230 side of the bed. We all know the truth. He destroyed the world 91 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:52.429 because it was corrupt. He destroyed the world because it was filled with violence. 92 00:08:54.230 --> 00:08:58.659 When people think about the flood, they like to forget this part and 93 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:05.659 impute to God things which should never even leave our lips. He destroyed the 94 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:09.610 world because it was corrupt. Three times it's stated. Listen to it in 95 00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:16.730 verses eleven and twelve. The Earth was corrupt in God's sight. The Earth 96 00:09:16.889 --> 00:09:22.490 was filled with violence, and God saw the earth and behold, it was 97 00:09:22.649 --> 00:09:28.080 corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted, had corrupted their way on the earth. 98 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.240 God goes on to say to Noah, I have determined to make an 99 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:35.120 end to the an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with 100 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:41.990 violence. He couldn't be clear, as he pronounces his judgment in this way, 101 00:09:41.149 --> 00:09:46.789 that a judge looks down and sees the case before him. He looks 102 00:09:46.830 --> 00:09:50.830 down and he sees that it is corrupt. This is not an accident, 103 00:09:52.029 --> 00:09:56.179 this is not unfair. Something is corrupt when it is ruined, when it 104 00:09:56.259 --> 00:10:01.980 is spoiled, when it is putred, when you find something corrupt in your 105 00:10:01.059 --> 00:10:07.059 fridge and throw it out, do you blame yourself? Does anyone blame you 106 00:10:07.169 --> 00:10:09.970 and say, will be a little more gentle, let the mold go, 107 00:10:09.210 --> 00:10:15.570 grow a little more, let the decay continue on. No, you don't 108 00:10:15.649 --> 00:10:18.769 question it. You don't even think twice about it. Sometimes you don't even 109 00:10:18.850 --> 00:10:22.240 look at it. You simply know what it is and you get rid of 110 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.840 it as fast as you can, out of your fridge, out of your 111 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:28.679 garbage can, out of your house, for out of the place in which 112 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:39.149 you dwell. God had made mankind in his image, but his image had 113 00:10:39.230 --> 00:10:43.789 become corrupt, not by some accident or him forgetting it and leaving in the 114 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:48.309 back of the fridge, but because of the thing itself, because of sin. 115 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:56.340 People sinned and corrupted themselves, ruined themselves and became rotten and putred. 116 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:01.539 They were in a state of decay, the curse of death on them. 117 00:11:03.659 --> 00:11:09.169 Adam, you remembered, was tad was told from dust you are made into 118 00:11:09.169 --> 00:11:16.649 dust, you shall return. Instead of filling the world with righteousness and blamelessness 119 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:22.360 and love and joy and good society, the things that were found in Noah, 120 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:31.039 men filled the world with violence. It's amazing that God mentions this particular 121 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:35.470 thing. God doesn't name idolatry or false worship as the things which the world 122 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:41.509 was filled with, though certainly that was true as well, but in particularly, 123 00:11:41.870 --> 00:11:46.500 in particular, he focuses on violence, crimes against humanity, human against 124 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:52.139 human it's not merely a relationship that that's between the between man and God that's 125 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:56.700 the problem, but even between man and man. You remember, of course, 126 00:11:56.740 --> 00:12:01.649 the effects of sin as they spread out from Adam and Eve through their 127 00:12:01.649 --> 00:12:05.529 children into the world. What is the first story we have recorded. After 128 00:12:05.570 --> 00:12:15.169 the fall, violence, murder, deception, corruption, the world was corrupt, 129 00:12:15.649 --> 00:12:20.399 corrupt, corrupt. The world was filled with violence, filled with violence. 130 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:26.159 So God was not unfair in flooding the world and judgment. He was 131 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:33.830 perfectly fair. Mankind owed him love and obedience, for the world was his 132 00:12:33.230 --> 00:12:39.590 and he made them, and as fellow creations, they owed each other love. 133 00:12:41.110 --> 00:12:48.059 Instead, the world was in complete rebellion against God. It is astonishing 134 00:12:48.220 --> 00:12:52.139 how arrogant we can be on this point of justice, how much we desire 135 00:12:52.340 --> 00:12:58.970 to downplay our own sins. When someone wrongs us in the slightest and the 136 00:12:58.049 --> 00:13:03.610 smallest ways, we are so quick to think that we are fair and wishing 137 00:13:03.649 --> 00:13:09.009 upon them or giving to them what they deserve. A waitress is sloppy and 138 00:13:09.090 --> 00:13:13.759 inattentive and she feels your wrath. A driver fails to signal and literal curses 139 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:20.200 are brought upon his head. But the when the world is filled with corruption 140 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:24.879 and violence because of our sins, we shift the immorality to God, as 141 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:33.950 though he's somehow wrong to separate unholiness from His Holiness, from purity, for 142 00:13:33.149 --> 00:13:39.830 a corruption from purity, death and decay from life. So you see, 143 00:13:39.870 --> 00:13:46.419 God is not wrong. God is perfectly just, and he always is. 144 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:54.620 That brings us to our second point, God's commitment to judgment. The second 145 00:13:54.700 --> 00:14:00.169 thing about judgment that we see here in Genesis six is that God is committed 146 00:14:00.210 --> 00:14:03.970 to it, and it is certain. We see that this is partly true 147 00:14:05.009 --> 00:14:07.970 because of his nature, as I've just been mentioning, God is just. 148 00:14:09.330 --> 00:14:13.360 It is his nature. He would be evil if he were to look on 149 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:20.039 sin and decay and corruption and look the other way. That's injustice, isn't 150 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:24.309 it? When a governor or a King or a police force or someone in 151 00:14:24.509 --> 00:14:31.669 control, someone who has authority in the law, sees corruption and looks the 152 00:14:31.750 --> 00:14:41.779 other way? Not so with God. He is righteous. If we can't 153 00:14:41.820 --> 00:14:46.460 whisk away the thought of judgment from our minds by thinking of God as immoral 154 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:52.500 or incapable of doing justice, then sometimes we try to whisk it by a 155 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:56.250 way by thinking it won't happen or that it won't happen to us. But 156 00:14:56.330 --> 00:15:01.649 God tells us that his judgment is sure, partly because of his nature. 157 00:15:03.970 --> 00:15:07.559 Psalm one and thirty three says if you owe Jehovah, should mark iniquities. 158 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:13.840 Oh Lord, who could stand a back one hundred and thirteen, says you, 159 00:15:13.879 --> 00:15:18.120 who are of pure eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong 160 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:24.470 or psalm five, verse four and and four through six. For you are 161 00:15:24.549 --> 00:15:28.590 not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. 162 00:15:30.309 --> 00:15:35.230 The boastful shall not stand before you. You hate all evil doers. You 163 00:15:35.470 --> 00:15:43.379 destroy those who speak lies. Jehovah abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. So 164 00:15:43.580 --> 00:15:48.580 just as water repels oil by its nature, so God repels sin. If 165 00:15:48.700 --> 00:15:56.289 you sin, you will be judged. It's as simple as that. Well, 166 00:15:56.330 --> 00:15:58.690 we also know the judgment is certain because of the Declaration of God. 167 00:15:58.850 --> 00:16:04.039 God never lies. And he says I have determined to make an end to 168 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:10.960 all flesh. He says I will destroy, I will destroy and that which 169 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:14.000 is on the earth. I will destroy all flesh and which is the breath 170 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:19.389 of life of Heaven, everything that is on the Earth shall die. One 171 00:16:19.429 --> 00:16:23.230 of the biggest problems is I was mentioning earlier, that exists between God and 172 00:16:23.429 --> 00:16:27.789 man, is that man is always trying to impute to God the corruption of 173 00:16:27.909 --> 00:16:33.580 his own flesh. So, for example, because we judge unfairly, we 174 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:37.980 say that God will the same is also true for delay and judgment. Because 175 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:42.580 We delay and forget judgment when we ought to, we think that God is 176 00:16:42.620 --> 00:16:48.730 also delaying or forgetting or giving up on his intentions or purposes. We change 177 00:16:48.769 --> 00:16:55.690 our minds because we're not entirely always certain about them. Even in some of 178 00:16:55.730 --> 00:17:03.759 the most certain cases, we change our minds and move another direction. This 179 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:07.440 is not the case with God, however. He sees the beginning from the 180 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:11.519 end. He never executes judgment in a way that is unfair or or not 181 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:17.349 taking in all the facts. And God keeps his word in a way we 182 00:17:17.509 --> 00:17:21.589 do not. When he says he determines to make an all, an end 183 00:17:21.630 --> 00:17:25.750 to all flesh, those who ignore him do so at their own peril. 184 00:17:26.029 --> 00:17:30.940 The certainty of God's promise judgment is proved, of course, by the history 185 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:37.900 of God's judgment. As those who are born in that sinful flesh that you 186 00:17:37.059 --> 00:17:42.259 inherit it from Adam, you must wake up to this. You must wake 187 00:17:42.299 --> 00:17:48.250 up to the certainty of God's judgment. Here, for example, the words 188 00:17:48.289 --> 00:17:52.609 of God's Apostle, Apostle Peter, when he tells us that just as God 189 00:17:52.769 --> 00:17:56.130 did not spare the world, here, at the time of Noah. So 190 00:17:56.329 --> 00:18:00.119 No, he will not spare it again when the sun comes. In fact, 191 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:04.680 the judgment to come will be even greater, for it will be final. 192 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:08.599 It will be a judgment that's not simply temporary and on the earth, 193 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:17.630 but a judgment that is eternal. I want you to hear God's own words 194 00:18:17.670 --> 00:18:22.349 of these last days of the judgment, to come and see for yourself if 195 00:18:22.430 --> 00:18:29.099 it is not more frightening than a flood into the world. One example from 196 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:33.900 revelation six. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, 197 00:18:34.059 --> 00:18:41.019 there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth, the full 198 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:47.009 moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell from the earth as 199 00:18:47.089 --> 00:18:52.210 a fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The Sky 200 00:18:52.450 --> 00:19:00.359 vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island 201 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:04.160 was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great 202 00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:10.549 ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free, 203 00:19:10.630 --> 00:19:15.750 hid themselves in caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to 204 00:19:15.869 --> 00:19:22.190 the mountains and rocks fall on US and hide us from the face of him 205 00:19:22.230 --> 00:19:26.220 who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for 206 00:19:26.339 --> 00:19:33.579 the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? When we 207 00:19:33.740 --> 00:19:40.690 think about the judgment to come as it is described in scripture, and surely 208 00:19:40.809 --> 00:19:45.609 our imaginations don't quite reach the point at which they ought to go. But 209 00:19:45.730 --> 00:19:51.849 these descriptions that were being given here, of the sky being rolled back like 210 00:19:51.890 --> 00:19:57.160 a scroll, of the heavenly bodies being darkened and turning to blood, of 211 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:03.640 the stars falling from the sky as figs being shaken from a fig tree, 212 00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:11.670 and this is just the judgment at that moment. Scripture describes eternal judgment going 213 00:20:11.789 --> 00:20:18.789 on from there is terrifying, the fires and torments of Hell. The point 214 00:20:18.910 --> 00:20:23.500 is this. If you ignore the coming a judgment, as the people did 215 00:20:23.579 --> 00:20:30.539 in Noah's Day, you're even a greater fool than they were. For Noah's 216 00:20:30.579 --> 00:20:34.660 Day they had the promise of judgment. You have the promise of the judgment, 217 00:20:34.769 --> 00:20:40.569 plus the terrifying confirmation that God makes good on his promises, plus a 218 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:47.650 history of God working these kinds of judgments again and again, plus these terrifying 219 00:20:47.690 --> 00:20:56.519 pictures of the end God's judgment. Is sure he is committed to it and 220 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:02.079 he must be committed to it by his very nature. So we cannot simply 221 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:08.990 think about other things. We can't simply push those things out of our minds 222 00:21:10.190 --> 00:21:17.470 and say, well, I don't know, judgment comes, justice comes. 223 00:21:18.150 --> 00:21:22.940 The Apostle Paul says to us you judge all the time and if you know 224 00:21:22.099 --> 00:21:26.460 how to judge, certainly do you think you will escape the judge who judges 225 00:21:26.539 --> 00:21:33.490 in Heaven? We, like those in Noah's Day, are also sinners. 226 00:21:34.529 --> 00:21:40.490 We can't exempt ourselves from the judgment of God and think that somehow we will 227 00:21:40.890 --> 00:21:45.849 get a pass simply because we're in a different century or because we have nice 228 00:21:45.970 --> 00:21:49.440 clothes, or because we've got good plans or a nice job, or whatever 229 00:21:51.720 --> 00:22:02.029 excuse you want to make. God is holy and righteous and he will not 230 00:22:02.309 --> 00:22:11.269 fail to execute his judgment on sin. The last thing to consider from this 231 00:22:11.509 --> 00:22:18.259 passage is God's salvation from judgment. In addition to the promise of Judgment for 232 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:25.900 Sin and judgment on the Earth, God also promised in Genesis six and throughout 233 00:22:25.900 --> 00:22:30.450 the pages of scripture and in particular in the Cross of Jesus Christ, he 234 00:22:30.609 --> 00:22:36.650 promises salvation from that judgment to those who seek him. In faith and in 235 00:22:36.769 --> 00:22:41.970 repentance. This is an amazing thing, isn't it? It's an amazing thing 236 00:22:42.009 --> 00:22:48.079 in itself. God would be perfectly fair, as we have seen, perfectly 237 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:52.680 holy in leaving us to the consequences of our own sin and misery, to 238 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:57.119 be thrown out into the garbage, to be thrown out out of his dwelling 239 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:02.950 place and his house, to leave us to the consequences of our own sin 240 00:23:03.190 --> 00:23:07.670 and misery. But he doesn't do that. Instead, he opens up the 241 00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:15.619 hope, a hope for us of salvation in the ancient world. He did 242 00:23:15.740 --> 00:23:22.740 that with Noah. God didn't owe this to Noah, but, as we 243 00:23:22.819 --> 00:23:27.289 read last week in verse eight, Noah Found Favor in the eyes of Jehovah. 244 00:23:27.329 --> 00:23:34.650 Jehovah is Israel's Covenant God, Israel's Saving God, redeem or. God 245 00:23:34.849 --> 00:23:41.759 looks at Noah and gives him his favor, His grace. It's undeserved. 246 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:48.680 Noah's born into sin, has the corruption of the flesh. But God wants, 247 00:23:49.079 --> 00:23:56.069 out of his great love and inestimable grace, to keep the promise that 248 00:23:56.150 --> 00:24:00.589 he made to Adam and Eve that a seed would be born who would save 249 00:24:00.710 --> 00:24:07.190 the world. And so he elects Noah and his family in him to be 250 00:24:07.349 --> 00:24:14.619 saved, that the promised seed might endure, that that his promise of grace 251 00:24:14.740 --> 00:24:21.539 might continue on. Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord, and 252 00:24:22.220 --> 00:24:27.170 this favor is what makes him a righteous man and a blameless man. It's 253 00:24:27.250 --> 00:24:32.730 Noah's faith and trust in the grace of God that makes him and walk in 254 00:24:32.809 --> 00:24:36.809 the path that he walks, that makes him act like he acts, that 255 00:24:36.970 --> 00:24:41.880 makes him withstand the persecutions and idolatry and violence in the world to do the 256 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:48.240 thing that God called him to do. We see God's supremacy not only in 257 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:53.750 judgment in Genesis chapter six, but his supremacy and sovereignty and salvation as well. 258 00:24:55.869 --> 00:25:00.349 God makes a covenant with Noah. God takes the first steps, he 259 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:04.150 initiates the action, he initiates the salvation. He goes to Noah and he 260 00:25:04.230 --> 00:25:10.579 says, I'm making a covenant with you. I am going to destroy all 261 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:17.859 the world, but I'm saving you and with you your wife, your children, 262 00:25:18.779 --> 00:25:23.130 their wives and their children. We see here one of the first instances 263 00:25:23.289 --> 00:25:29.809 in the Bible where God is pleased to make covenant with people and to bring 264 00:25:30.049 --> 00:25:37.440 in with them their families I'm into the visible church. Noah and his family 265 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:45.279 are saved from this wrath and judgment of God here on the Earth. God 266 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:49.349 makes him this great promise, he establishes this covenant of Grace and he continues 267 00:25:49.470 --> 00:25:56.309 on the Covenant of Grace. I'm through Noah. And so what we see 268 00:25:56.509 --> 00:26:00.109 in this is that in the same way that the judgment of the world points 269 00:26:00.190 --> 00:26:04.700 to the greater judgment of the world, the salvation of the world will also 270 00:26:04.819 --> 00:26:12.380 point us to a greater salvation. God continues to offer that hope of salvation 271 00:26:12.619 --> 00:26:19.690 to us. He offers that hope by sending to us his son, one 272 00:26:19.730 --> 00:26:25.289 who was righteous and blameless, not only before the eyes of man and in 273 00:26:25.369 --> 00:26:27.730 a general sense, in the world, but perfect in every way, a 274 00:26:30.289 --> 00:26:34.799 son who would carry not just a handful of people in an arc, but 275 00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:41.559 a multitude of people and would usher into existence the new heavens and the new 276 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:49.150 earth themselves. This greater noah, this son of God, this promised seed, 277 00:26:49.869 --> 00:26:55.390 our Savior, Jesus Christ, would come and has come and has brought 278 00:26:56.029 --> 00:27:00.779 this hope of salvation. But I want to point out, as we conclude, 279 00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:06.819 that this, this hope of salvation, is not a hope that comes 280 00:27:07.140 --> 00:27:11.900 apart from justice. I said earlier, and I meant what I said, 281 00:27:12.660 --> 00:27:18.450 that judgment comes to us all. Every single one of us must be judged 282 00:27:18.529 --> 00:27:25.130 for our sins. Our Hope, however, is that judgment for us has 283 00:27:25.170 --> 00:27:30.079 already passed. As Christians, we don't hope that we won't be judged, 284 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:37.079 that will somehow escape the judgment, but the judgment has already occurred, and 285 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:42.279 it's occurred for us in Jesus Christ, that we don't need to fear the 286 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:45.750 judgment at the end of the world, because the judgment and that the end 287 00:27:45.829 --> 00:27:52.230 of the world has already happened for us in Jesus. How do we know 288 00:27:52.390 --> 00:28:00.619 that? Because the wrath and flood waters of God were poured down on Jesus 289 00:28:00.619 --> 00:28:07.980 Christ. We are told that he was baptized, that he endured these kinds 290 00:28:07.019 --> 00:28:11.539 of things in his life, that he underwent the judgment of God for all 291 00:28:11.970 --> 00:28:18.089 the sins of those whom he was saving. And when we are baptized, 292 00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:22.970 we are baptized into him. We go through those floodwaters and come out on 293 00:28:23.049 --> 00:28:30.640 the other side having passed through judgment, having received new life and regeneration in 294 00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:37.079 such a way that those judgment waters don't merely kill us, but they cleanse 295 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:44.150 us, they bring us to life in Jesus. This is the salvation we 296 00:28:44.269 --> 00:28:49.269 have. But if you're listening to me, you must hear me right. 297 00:28:51.589 --> 00:28:55.819 There is a particular time, in a particular day that the Lord will come, 298 00:28:56.660 --> 00:29:00.980 just as there was a particular time, a particular hour, when God 299 00:29:00.140 --> 00:29:06.339 came and brought judgment on the earth. This hope of salvation is not one 300 00:29:06.460 --> 00:29:10.809 that will last forever. We do not know the hour of the judgment of 301 00:29:10.890 --> 00:29:14.170 God. Scripture tells us it will come like a thief in the night, 302 00:29:14.930 --> 00:29:18.769 in that sense in which you're not prepared, you're not expecting him, you 303 00:29:18.890 --> 00:29:23.759 don't know when it will happen. Judgment comes and we must be ready. 304 00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:33.799 Being ready means turning to Jesus, looking to him as the great arc of 305 00:29:33.880 --> 00:29:38.829 our salvation, to carry us through that and to get on board now and 306 00:29:38.990 --> 00:29:47.430 not wait until it's too late. I said at the beginning that Genesis six, 307 00:29:47.630 --> 00:29:52.309 as is true of all of the history in the Bible, the God 308 00:29:52.390 --> 00:29:56.500 tells us these stories from the past as a way to teach us about the 309 00:29:56.619 --> 00:30:03.420 future and change our actiontions in the present. God tells us the story about 310 00:30:03.420 --> 00:30:08.170 coming about the judgments and salvation and Noah's day to tell us about the coming 311 00:30:08.210 --> 00:30:15.450 judgment and salvation that we have now, so that our present actions might changed, 312 00:30:15.450 --> 00:30:19.730 so that we might not ignore God's judgments, think of our sins in 313 00:30:19.890 --> 00:30:26.000 a light way, think of God and wrong ways, but instead recognized us, 314 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.440 recognize ourselves for who we are and turn to God and say, I 315 00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:34.559 deserve this, but I'm going to lean on your salvation and lean on your 316 00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:41.390 righteousness and lean on Jesus Christ, that great arc that will bring us through 317 00:30:41.390 --> 00:30:45.869 the waters. This is how we should be changed in the here and now. 318 00:30:48.029 --> 00:30:51.539 May God grant this to us. Let us pray