Do You Have A Refuge?

Genesis 6, starting at verse 5.

Verse 8 says,

Verse 10.

Verse 17.

There it is.

Now turn to chapter 7, starting at verse 11.

Genesis 7, 11 says,

In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month,

on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth,

and the windows of the heavens were opened,

and rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

On the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth,

and Noah's wife, and the three wives of the sons with them,

entered the ark.

They and every beast according to its kind,

and all the livestock according to their kinds,

and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind,

and every bird according to its kind,

every winged creature.

They went into the ark with Noah,

two and two,

of all flesh, in which there was the breath of life.

And those that entered, male and female, of all flesh,

went in as God had commanded them,

and the Lord shut them in.

This is the word of God.

Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for how you have unveiled yourself to us.

You've unveiled the God who saves.

Thank you for your word, Lord.

How you minister to your word through the plain reading

to your people,

every true believer in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.

Lord, we acknowledge this is a mystery in its foolishness

to those who don't know you.

But those who have your Holy Spirit within us,

it bears witness.

This is the truth,

that Jesus Christ came to save sinners like us.

Thank you for this glorious type,

this shadow that we can study today, Lord.

We pray that you will minister your grace

to your people today through this message.

We ask this for the glory of King Jesus in our midst.

Amen.

Here's an eyewitness account

of a regional local flood.

He wrote,

The water rose so fast,

we had to scramble upstairs from the first floor.

Jim remembered,

the wave of death came right behind us,

waltzing up the stairs like it owned the place,

and quick as a wink,

got to swirling around our ankles on the second floor.

Jim says,

It was my fault that we stayed.

They had just bought a brand new home.

It was made of brick,

and they had put brand new shingles on the roof.

But Hurricane Katrina,

it caused a canal breach on 23 different spots

that made the waters flood 80% of the city of New Orleans.

Some parts were buried in 15 feet of water.

So kids, that basketball hoop is 10 feet,

five more feet above that.

1,800 deaths,

78,000 people displaced by one regional flood.

And Jim said,

It was my fault that my family and I got trapped there.

He thought he had a good refuge.

And it probably was better than most.

But when the floods came,

no man-built refuge was enough.

It's hard for us to fathom

this entire earth buried in the waters

that came from the deep as well as from the sky.

But that's what the Bible tells us happened.

A worldwide flood

in which people like you and me

were living their lives like Jim,

and they were caught without a refuge.

So that's my question for each one today.

Do you have a refuge?

There's only one refuge for you,

for your body and your soul.

It's revealed in all of the Bible

by further steps.

So from this passage,

I want to try to highlight four covenantal observations.

Number one is this.

God is the covenant Lord

ruling over all of his creation.

He is the holy covenant Lord.

He is the holy covenant Lord

who rules over the entire world.

And as the Lord over his creation,

he sees each person's natural evil

inside and out.

look again with me at verse five,

Genesis chapter six,

verse five,

God observed that the wickedness of man was great.

Man's evil deeds had multiplied

in the whole earth.

This speaks to the intensity of man's sin.

See,

it's one thing if man uses evil words,

but we read that these were the deeds of men.

It was blatant action.

The deeds were evil and wicked

because all of mankind had become so corrupt.

To describe this a bit further with biblical language,

we read in Galatians 5,

19,

that the works of the flesh include sexual immorality,

impurity,

sensuality,

idolatry,

sorcery,

enmity,

strife,

jealousy,

fits of anger,

rivalries,

dissensions,

divisions,

envy,

drunkenness,

orgies,

and worse.

Some of you are thinking,

well,

that describes the folks I just worked with all week.

It's not only the intensity of sin that's highlighted,

it's also the quantity.

It's that evil deeds by wicked men

had multiplied to the point that the whole earth

was filled with nothing but that.

The Bible says it was violent.

violent.

And there is the Lord,

the covenant Lord over all his creation.

Verse five,

he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil.

continually.

God saw man's slavery to sin.

He saw what's inside man and described it as only evil.

Your soul is addicted to wickedness,

not just some of the time or most of the time.

Your natural state is to be addicted to evil continuously all of the time.

John Calvin described this as the natural hereditary depravity of all of mankind.

It's a corruption of our nature that is diffused into all parts of your being.

I had to look up in the dictionary,

what does diffused really mean?

You got like a diffuser of puts oils mixed in with the air,

or sometimes you will try to take oil and you'll diffuse a aroma into it.

And it means that one element is so intermingled with another that it takes it over,

even on an atomic level.

So this is describing the root of man's sin.

God sees man's insides.

It's the imagination.

It's man's thoughts.

God sees man's heart.

God sees man's heart.

Romans 1.30 describes this as hating God,

being a slanderer out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

Spiritual rebellion.

It's to be insolent, haughty, boastful, and inventors of evil.

1 Corinthians 6, verse 11.

1 Corinthians 6:11

Paul writes to the church, people like you and me,

so were you.

And so natural sinners cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

It's impossible to have peace with God.

What that means is that as God is Lord over the whole creation,

and his new kingdom of heaven and earth is coming,

there will be no place for sinners.

His rule will be established over all creation.

Where will you be in your natural state?

In our natural state, you and me would be homeless

when the new heavens and the new earth are ushered in,

because God is the covenant Lord over all his creation,

and he sees you and me, each of us, in our natural condition.

And he sees that we are evil inside and out.

You can't be a Christian unless you say, that was me.

And my heart is still bent in that direction,

unless the spirit keeps me close to Christ.

Here's our second covenantal observation.

The Lord's wrath burns against sin because he is good,

and because he is just, he must punish evil.

The Lord's wrath, his holy righteous anger,

burns against sin because he is good.

How could it not?

And because God is just and powerful,

he must punish evil.

The language to describe this to us,

it's using something we can relate to.

Look at verse 6.

God saw the world that way, and God repented.

The King James says,

what he saw repented the Lord,

that he had made man on the earth.

Verse 6 says,

it grieved him, God, at his heart.

Well, we know from all of Scripture that God is spirit.

God is not man.

So God does not have physical eyes,

but the language is that God saw.

God does not have a heart like a man does,

but yet God was grieved at his heart.

That's our prophetic idiom from Moses' pen.

We know that the eternal decree of God is immutable.

It does not change.

But yet, God's wrath against sin is so strong,

the Scripture describes it as God repenting of what he had made.

It's like God says,

O creation, I am holy,

and I made all my creation very good for my glory.

But man's slavery to sin and Satan has ruined my world.

And because he sits on the throne as Lord over his creation,

the holy God cannot tolerate evil without responding.

He is not distant.

Our God is active in this world.

And the just God cannot leave sin unpunished,

or he would no longer be just.

The God who created order, peace, and beauty

won't leave his creation in chaos forever.

He rules over it.

It's his.

He won't leave us to ruin ourselves.

He won't leave his image bearers to self-destroy through violence forever.

So in verse 7, the Lord said,

I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,

both man and the beast and the creeping thing and the fowl of the air.

See, the animals were not God's image bearers,

but they are being affected by man's sin.

Because the second commandment is a prohibition

against turning creaturely things into gods

or worshiping something creaturely,

we can infer that before the flood, people had done just that.

That's what Paul roars about in Romans 1 and 2 as well.

So the Lord will destroy both man and beast.

You can almost imagine the type of idols they came up with,

creeping things, the fowls of the air,

because it grieves me that I have made them.

God is all-powerful, and God is good.

And so God must unleash his wrath to punish evil.

We read in verse 11 that the earth was corrupt before God.

The earth was filled with violence,

and God looked upon the earth, and behold,

he saw that it was all corrupt,

for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

It's a real horror to think of what we deserve

if we were left to ourselves.

We need to understand that the wrath of God

cannot let evil go unpunished.

Eric Alexander pointed out that the real horror

of being outside of Christ

is that there is no other shelter

from God's wrath.

The Lord, ruling over his creation,

because he is good,

he must pour out his wrath to punish sin,

and because he is just, he must punish evil.

But remember the promise.

The seed of Eve will destroy the Satan,

the serpent's head, crush it.

How will the Lord be faithful to his promise,

and also be faithful to being just,

and good, and punish evil?

How will he do this?

And this is our third observation,

that the Lord,

he is faithful to his covenant of grace,

and he provides sinners a refuge for salvation.

Yes, the Lord is faithful to his covenant of grace,

and he provides sinners with a refuge for salvation.

In verse 13, we read that God said,

the end of all flesh is before me,

because the earth is filled with violence.

Behold, I will destroy wicked mankind

along with the earth.

So God will do this.

But we read in verse 8,

that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Let's define this term.

First of all, grace is different than mercy.

Mercy is to withhold deserved punishment.

And God is merciless against sin.

But yet we read that those same eyes,

so to speak,

the eyes of God that saw the wickedness of Noah's heart,

mind, imagination, and deeds,

that same God looked graciously at Noah.

Now grace,

it not only withholds punishment,

like mercy does,

but grace also generously blesses.

Grace is better than unmerited favor.

Unmerited favor would be like this.

Picture a teenager who lives on the street,

and he's always getting into trouble.

And then a man gets out of his car

and sees that homeless teenage troublemaker,

feels pity for him,

and gives him a crisp $100 bill.

That would be unmerited favor.

But grace is so much more than just that.

Grace is giving favor to one who has demerited it.

So grace, in the biblical sense,

is if that teenager saw that same man,

picked up a big rock,

smashed his windshield,

when the guy gets out of his car,

kicks him in the shin,

spits in his face,

gives him the middle finger.

That man doesn't reach for his wallet.

He takes that young man to the courthouse

and adopts him.

You're going to be my son,

and I'm going to disciple you

and show you unconditional love.

That's grace.

It's favor,

great favor and blessing

to one who has demerited it.

So Noah,

he found grace in God's eyes.

Grace is when God shows favor

to a man like Noah,

or like you and me,

who have demerited it.

See, God showed favor to Adam and Eve

and Noah,

even though they were rebels,

and every thought of their mind

was bent toward evil always.

But God is faithful

to his covenant of grace.

Look at verse 18.

God says to Noah,

with you I will establish my covenant,

and you shall come into the ark,

you and your sons and your wife

and the sons' wives with you.

Isn't that a great promise?

God did not find Noah gracious.

Noah deserved God's wrath,

just like everyone else,

just like we do.

But Noah received God's favor.

Where did God find this grace?

God found grace for a man like Noah

in himself.

God graciously elected,

pardoned,

accepted,

and preserved Noah

because he's faithful

to his covenant of grace.

Do you see the work

of the covenant of grace

being unveiled

even in this ancient story?

In verse 18,

Noah gets the promise

that you shall come into the ark.

Noah, do you have faith

in this promise?

I will save you by my grace.

Well, we see Noah's faith,

in his response.

His response was simple,

to believe and obey.

We read in Hebrews 11, 7,

that by faith,

Noah, when warned,

in holy fear,

he built an ark,

and God saved his family.

By faith, Noah condemned the world

and was heir of righteousness

that keeps with faith.

And this is because the Lord

is faithful to his covenant of grace

and he provides sinners

like Noah,

like you and me,

a refuge for salvation.

The fourth covenant observation

is this.

The Lord patiently calls

all covenant breakers

to find safety

in his provided refuge.

The ark was not just for Noah,

it was for whoever

would repent and believe.

The Lord patiently calls

covenant breakers

to find safety

in the refuge

that he has provided.

Through Noah,

God preached free salvation

to the whole evil world.

We read in 2 Peter 2, 5,

that Noah was a preacher

of righteousness.

In 1 Peter 3, 20,

we read that God's divine

long-suffering

waited patiently

in the days of Noah

as the ark was being prepared.

So there's Noah,

hammer in one hand,

preaching from the other side,

and as people are mocking him

and seeing this massive

wooden structure go up,

he's calling to them,

repent,

turn to God the creator.

You know what's been handed down

since Adam and Eve

through Seth.

You know the promise.

Repent and believe.

We read in Genesis 7,

Genesis 7:16

verse 16,

that God then

sent a male and female

of every species,

and he sent Noah

and his family

into the ark,

and then the Lord

shut them in.

God himself closed

the door of the ark

when the day had come.

What comes next

was real clouds in the sky,

heavy rain,

overflowing lakes,

hungry waves,

most likely boiling lava

as the springs of the deep

were opened up,

swallowing up home

after home,

fear,

angry panic,

lost loved ones,

running to the mountains,

and then clamoring

to be the last king

of the hill.

We read in 2 Peter 5

that God himself

protected Noah

inside the ark.

God protected

everyone

who fled

to the refuge

God provided.

And then,

God's judgment

poured down

on the whole earth.

God's wrath

purged the world

of sin

because God

is holy,

but God

preserved those

in his

appointed

refuge.

Well,

this story of Noah,

it shows us

that the effects

of the fall

were so devastating

that God

himself

must act

so the world

doesn't self-destroy

a thousand times over.

And we should

never forget that,

the total depravity

and how broken

the city of man

will be

if God were to

leave it,

take his hands off.

What we're going

to see next week

is that God

himself must

stabilize

the stage,

so to speak,

before the playwright,

God,

enters his own

drama

as the hero.

For today,

we need to see

Jesus Christ

as the refuge

God has provided.

In 1 Peter 3.21,

Peter says that

this was a type,

this was a shadow,

and there's a

greater antitype,

a greater substance

that was unveiled

at the coming

of Jesus Christ.

There's a

corresponding

fulfillment

in the new

covenant

to the flood

and the salvation

God provided.

See,

Noah was

a real person.

The flood

was a real

historic event.

every mountain

range

on every

continent

of the world

has evidence

of marine

life,

not just

fish from

a sea,

but sea stars

and seashells

that would only

be found on

oceans,

are on the

tops of

every mountain

of the world.

We don't need

that,

but we should

not be surprised

when they find it.

Ancient

civilizations

have passed

down in their

oral tradition

even though

they've been

darkened by

the devil.

So we have

in the Sumerian

story,

the Babylonian

history,

Celtic myths,

Celtic myths,

African myths,

Pacific tribal

legends,

and even the

Chinese character

for ship,

it's three

characters combined.

It's a boat,

eight mouths,

and the number

eight.

There it is.

There's the three.

So a ship

is a big boat

with eight people

on it.

The number

eight is Noah

and his wife,

his three sons,

and their wives.

There's eight

people on the

ship.

Both Noah

and Adam

are foreshadowing

the person

and work

of Jesus Christ.

Adam was

born

without sin,

but he chose

to sin.

Noah was

born into

sin,

and he could

never escape

it.

But Jesus

Christ became

the man

that Adam

chose not to

be by sinning,

and the man

that Noah

could never

be.

Noah could

not start

a perfect

new creation

after the

flood.

He still

had the

depraved,

sinful nature

that he

would pass

on.

In John

John 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5,

our Lord

Jesus Christ

said that all

of the scriptures

testify of

him.

Genesis

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6

and 7

testify of

Jesus Christ.

Jesus is

revealing to

the world,

I, God

the Son,

I am the

hero.

World history

is my

story.

Jesus Christ

is the

Lord over

all his

creation,

and he

is the

one who

sees you.

Even in

the flesh

on earth,

he could

see what

was inside

man,

and he

sees that

your natural

inclination

is evil,

continually,

inside and

out,

and the

evil deeds,

they

displease

him.

The wrath

of Jesus

Christ

himself

burns

against sin

because he

is good,

and he's

also just,

he will

come back

to judge

the living

and the

dead,

and he

must punish

evil.

Yet

Jesus came

to fulfill

the covenant

of redemption

that God

the Father

had given

him to do

in obedience.

And Jesus

Christ became

the refuge,

he became

the ark,

he became

the one that

whosoever has

an ear to

hear,

run to me

and be

safe.

Why can

you be

safe if

you run

to Christ?

Because

being divine,

the flood

of God's

wrath won't

destroy him,

he will rise

again.

Yet being

a man,

he can

relate to

you and

he can

take you

in,

he can

be the

one that

you have

union with

God,

through

his work.

God

must

pour out

his wrath

against sin

and evil.

And Jesus

Christ endured

the cross.

He received

the wrath

of the

holy God

so that

whoever would

be sheltered

by him

can survive.

He passed

through the

waters of

judgment

and he came

out alive

and victorious

on the other

side to

inaugurate his

new creation.

you see

how all

of this

is unveiling

the person

and work

of Jesus

Christ.

Well,

the tone

of this

passage

today is

of stern

warning.

I'm doing

my best

to present

the glory

of the

gospel,

but not

missing out

on this

tone of

warning.

That's how

the whole

new covenant

interprets

the flood.

See,

just as

Adam's

fall,

it made

all people

of earth

want to

willingly

forget

who God

is.

We don't

want to

remember the

moral law

of God

that he's

written on

man's

heart and

mind.

So also

in 2 Peter

3, 5,

we read that

you willingly

forget the

word of God,

that same

word that sent

the floods

that destroyed

the earth,

that same

word of God

promises that

Christ is

coming again.

And just

as people

were eating

and drinking

and living

as if there

would be

no end

to their

life,

on the

day that

Noah entered

the ark,

Jesus says

in Luke

17, 26,

so people

today are

just as

rebellious in

their minds

and hearts

and imaginations

and they will

be caught by

surprise on

the day of

the Lord.

Just as God

was true to

his word and

he sent a

flood that

destroyed all

the wicked

rebellion of

man,

so also the

wrath of God

against sin,

it will purge

this earth

when Christ

returns to

judge the

living and

the dead

one day.

And this

will be

Jesus Christ,

the man

who is

exalted at

the right

hand of

the Father

coming to

judge and

to pour

out wrath,

have the

right picture

of Christ.

Revelation

6, 16

says on

that day,

wicked sinners

who had

blasphemed

God,

they will

run to

the mountains

and rocks

and beg

them to

fall upon

them and

smash them.

They'll say

fall on us

and hide us

from the face

of him who

is seated

on the throne.

Listen,

and from the

wrath of the

lamb for the

great day of

their wrath has

come and who

can stand.

And just as the

wrath of God

against sin was

poured out in

the waters of

judgment on

the flood,

you who have

run to Christ

as your refuge,

take comfort.

So also the

wrath of God

against your

sin and

against my

sin, it

has already

been poured

out on our

Lord Jesus

Christ on

the cross.

1 John 2, 2

says he,

Jesus Christ

himself, is

the propitiation.

He is the

satisfaction, the

appeasement of

our sins.

The wrath of

God is

satisfied.

I love how

Milton Vincent

reflects on this

gospel truth.

Now, when I

am sinning, God's

grace does

abound, ensuring

my justified

status is

sound.

No wrath is

awakened in

God at my

sin because

Christ appeased

it to say

so again.

God's heart

pulses only

with passionate

grace, which

jealously wants

me back in

his embrace.

If you have

run to Christ

as your

refuge, then

you can know

this promise in

1 Thessalonians

5, 9.

God has not

destined us

for wrath,

but for

obtaining

salvation through

our Lord Jesus

Christ who died

for us.

Amen.

Just as God

brought new

order to his

creation after

washing it with

the waters of

judgment, so also

Christ brings

peace and order

to you who are

a new creation in

him.

You are new.

Your sins do

not determine who

you are.

It's Christ's

righteousness clothing

you.

You are that

new.

You are that

washed if you

are justified by

running to Jesus

as your Savior.

And just as God

patiently waited

with long

suffering, desiring

that none should

perish, desiring

that sinners run

to his son

repenting, so he

calls you and

everyone who has an

ear to hear,

repent, run to

Christ.

God has already

provided your

refuge.

God's wrath

purged the world

of sin, but he

will preserve you

who are in his

appointed place of

refuge.

He will shut you

in.

He closes the door

behind you.

You are safe

from his wrath.

When we think of

waters and judgment,

we have to also

think of baptism.

Christ passed

through the waters

of judgment.

He didn't skip

around them or

avoid them.

He passed

through the death

that you and I

deserve on the

cross.

And he rose to

newness of life

so he could

pass and channel

the blessings,

the grace of God

from heaven to

everyone who runs

to him.

And that's what we

celebrate with

baptism.

You are washed

with his blood

and by his

spirit.

His blood

washes you by

grace.

First Peter 321

makes this

interpretation,

this fulfillment.

Peter wrote that

baptism celebrates

that God has

cleansed your

conscience through

the resurrection

of Jesus Christ

who has gone

into heaven and

is at the right

hand of God

with all angels

and authorities

and powers being

subject to him.

you are baptized,

you are washed

by water and

the spirit.

An orthodox

catechism explains

that at your

justification,

the moment you

believe in Christ

and you receive

his righteousness,

at that very

moment, God

has renewed you.

He has set you

apart to be a

member of Christ's

body so that you

and I may more

and more become

dead to sin and

increasingly live a

holy and blameless

life.

We grow into

what we already

are.

We are washed

by the blood

of Jesus.

So dear Christian,

today, your

Lord tells you

this evil world

is perishing

away.

There is no

other refuge.

Don't be like

the man who

counted on his

home and his

shingles.

There is no

refuge but Jesus

Christ.

Christ.

And if he has

shut you in,

if he has shown

you his grace,

called you into

his son, Jesus

Christ, he will

keep you alive just

as he kept Noah and

his family alive.

Run to my son,

God says.

I am faithful to

my covenant of

grace.

I will preserve

you, all of you

who are in Jesus

Christ.

My son is your

refuge.

Run to him and

live.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.