Judgment & Salvation

This morning we are looking at Genesis chapter 6 starting at verse 9 through to chapter 8

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

verse 19.

I won't read the entire passage just because of its length, but I'm going to begin by reading

the chapter 6, 9 through the end of chapter 6.

I think it's page 5 in your pew Bibles.

Let me read this for us.

Genesis chapter 6 beginning at verse 9.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

These are the generations of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.

Noah walked with God.

And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them.

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you are to make it.

The length of the ark, 300 cubits.

Its breadth, 50 cubits.

And its height, 30 cubits.

Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above.

And set the door for the ark in its side.

Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die.

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.

They shall be male and female.

Of the birds, according to their kinds.

And of the animals, according to their kinds.

Of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive.

Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up.

It shall serve as food for you and for them.

Noah did this.

He did all that God commanded him.

So of the major characters in Genesis, Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Joseph, the most popular one may well be Noah.

One person compared over 30 children's Bibles published from 1831 to 2013,

and the number one most commonly included story from the Old Testament was, you guessed it,

Noah and the ark.

If you grew up going to Sunday school or vacation Bible school or any kind of children's church, something or other,

you can probably remember at least one song about Noah.

Who built the ark?

Noah, Noah.

Noah, Noah.

Or the Lord told Noah there's going to be a floody, floody, so get those animals out of the muddy, muddy.

Even outside the church, references to Noah and the ark abound, whether it's the Russell Crowe movie or Evan Almighty

or the full-size tourist attraction replicas of Noah's ark that you can visit in the Netherlands, in Hong Kong, or in Kentucky.

And it's not only in cultures influenced by the Bible where we find stories of a great flood.

The story of a great flood is found in many cultures and people groups on every inhabited continent in the world.

And in particular, in the ancient Near East, in the time and place where Genesis was written,

many other nations, the Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Akkadians, and later the Greeks,

had stories of a devastating flood sent by the gods.

But one man builds a boat, and only those with him in the boat survive.

Now, it's impossible to know for certain whether the author of Genesis knew about these other stories or vice versa,

or whether they were drawing on a common source,

but the overall story was almost certainly familiar in one way or another.

And yet, many of the details in the biblical story of the flood are distinct and different.

And we'll point out some of those distinctive aspects of the biblical story as we go along.

But when we look at the biblical story about the flood,

it's much more than a cute children's story about a floating zoo.

And it's far more than a familiar pattern that one finds across many cultures and religions.

On the one hand, the biblical story of the flood paints a picture of God's terrifying judgment.

On the other hand, it paints a picture of God's promised salvation.

And so this morning, we want to look at those two themes, God's judgment and God's salvation.

The first thing we see from the story of Noah is that God's judgment is coming.

Verse 11, chapter 6,

The earth was corrupt and filled with violence.

That word translated violence can also mean deceit, slander, idolatry, and lawlessness, as well as bloodshed.

We saw last week how tyrannical leaders were abusing power and sex,

and how the wickedness of man was great in the earth,

and every intention of the human heart was only evil continually.

The righteous remnant, those who trusted and obeyed God,

had been reduced to only one faithful family, namely Noah's.

At the end of Genesis 1, it says,

God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

Chapter 6, verse 12 says,

God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt.

So, verse 13, God determines to destroy all flesh on earth.

The word translated destroy in verse 13 is the same verb that's translated corrupted in verse 12.

All flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

In other words, all flesh had disfigured, spoiled, ruined their way on the earth,

and so God would disfigure, spoil, and ruin them along with the earth.

You see, we see here that God's judgment is entirely just.

Over and over, human beings had refused to live within the moral boundaries that God had put in place.

Human beings had exalted themselves to God-like status.

They had blamed and mistreated and threatened and murdered fellow image bearers of God.

They had trampled upon God's creation and spoiled it, and they boasted of their exploits.

This is what we've seen in the last couple of chapters of Genesis.

And so, God says,

because you have rejected my moral boundaries and transgressed them,

I will now remove the physical boundaries that I set in place to sustain life on earth.

Behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth.

Everything that is on the earth shall die.

Creation would revert to a state of watery chaos without any of the wise boundaries between sea and land.

Waters and the sky that God had instituted to promote and preserve life.

Everything would be let loose.

Now, the justice of God is one of the distinctive aspects of the biblical story of the flood

compared to other stories of a flood from the ancient Near East.

In the other stories, the gods send the flood because the world is overpopulated

or because the people become too disruptive or for no stated reason at all.

And then after they send the flood, they are frightened and dismayed by it,

and they realize they don't know what they've got themselves into.

But the God of the Bible sends the flood because of humanity's moral corruption.

He destroys the earth because its people are destroying themselves.

In some ways, the flood prevents sin from simply spiraling downward to its ultimate conclusion.

It cuts it off and puts an end to it.

God's judgment in the Bible is entirely just.

But God's judgment is not only just, it is also inescapable.

Genesis emphasizes the totality of the corruption and the totality of the destruction.

All flesh, verse 12, had corrupted their way on the earth.

Verse 13, I have determined to make an end of all flesh.

Seven times in chapter 6, that phrase, all flesh, comes up.

Verse 17, everything that is on the earth shall die.

Chapter 7, verse 4, every living thing I will blot out.

Chapter 7, verse 21, all flesh died that moved on the earth.

Chapter 7, verse 23, every living thing that was on the face of the ground.

Now, modern scholars debate how we should interpret these expressions.

Some say that these expressions indicate that the flood literally covered the entire globe.

Others say the language could just as well refer to a localized flood.

The author was speaking of the known world,

where the author used intentionally expansive language to communicate an important message.

For example, later on in Genesis 41, verse 57, it says,

Genesis 41:57

all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain,

for the famine was severe over all the earth.

The author is painting a picture, not necessarily making a precise statement,

but the picture, regardless of how we interpret that,

the point that Genesis is making is very clear and should not be missed.

Nothing and no one can escape from the just judgment of God.

If you go to the end of chapter 7, verse 17 or verse 18,

it talks about the waters prevailing.

Four times, verse 18, verse 19, verse 20, verse 24,

the waters prevailed, the waters prevailed, the waters prevailed, the waters prevailed.

That word prevailed is the same word that's translated triumphed.

Like hostile warriors, the flood waters attack and undo God's creation

until the devastation is complete.

God's judgment is just and God's judgment is inescapable.

And when we go ahead to the New Testament,

the New Testament says that God's judgment is not just something that happened way back then,

once a long time ago in the days of Noah,

Jesus says he will come again in the future to judge the world

and his judgment will be both just and inescapable.

Jesus himself said,

just as it was in the days of Noah,

so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.

They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage.

In other words, people were carrying on

with their daily activities and with their worldly ambitions and pleasures

until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

We read earlier from 2 Peter,

the world that then existed was deep, deluged with water and perished.

And the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire.

The day of the Lord will come like a thief.

The heavens will pass away with a roar.

The earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

You see, the Old and New Testaments speak with one voice.

God's judgment is coming.

Because the earth today, like the earth back then,

is full of deceit and violence and idolatry and lawlessness

that cries out for divine intervention and justice.

Tyrannical leaders still abuse sex and power and boast about it.

God still looks upon the corruption of the human heart,

our evil intentions, our self-deception,

our stubborn refusal to live within God's wise moral boundaries.

And God says, this must not last forever.

One day I will expose and wipe out the evil in the world for good.

But the scary thing is this.

We are all tangled up in the corruption.

That God is utterly committed to wiping out.

Sin infects each of our hearts far more deeply than we realize.

We have all transgressed God's good moral boundaries.

And we participate far more than we want to admit

in the deceit and violence and idolatry and greed

of the world in which we live.

God cannot wipe out evil without wiping us out too.

So is there any hope for creatures like us?

Well, thankfully, the story of Noah is not only a story of God's just

and inescapable judgment.

It's also, and perhaps even more,

a story of God's promised and provided salvation.

Judgment is coming.

That's the first thing we learn from the story of Noah.

But the second thing we learn is that salvation is provided.

And the story emphasizes two aspects of God's salvation.

First, it emphasizes God's initiative in providing salvation.

And then it emphasizes Noah's obedience through which many are saved.

So throughout the story, we see God's initiative to provide salvation.

Verses 11 to 13 of chapter 6, God declares to Noah in advance

his intention to destroy the world.

But then in verses 14 to 16, he provides Noah with the means of escape.

Make yourself an ark.

And God doesn't leave it up to Noah to figure out what kind of ark to make

or how to build it.

He specifies precisely how the ark was to be constructed,

just as later on in the book of Exodus,

God would specify precisely how the tabernacle was to be constructed,

where he would come and meet with his people.

Now, chapter 6, verse 14, 15 says it should be 450 feet long,

300 cubits, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

Now, it's hard for us to imagine Noah building such a massive ark

without any modern power tools.

It's also hard for us to imagine,

and even people who have studied it don't really know,

how people in the ancient world built the pyramids in Egypt,

the largest of which is 750 feet long and 450 feet high.

Yet, unless those pyramids are evidence of the existence of aliens,

somehow or other they did.

Now, some scholars suggest that the dimensions are meant to paint a picture,

shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value,

but regardless, nobody in the ancient world

would have been troubled by the dimensions of the ark.

That's a particularly modern concern.

In the Gilgamesh epic,

one of the other ancient Near Eastern flood stories,

the boat is a cube,

180 feet on all sides,

which ends up being four times the cubic volume of the biblical ark,

far bigger and more unwieldy in the storm.

So, the dimensions would not have been a worry back then.

What people in the ancient world probably would have noticed

is that this is no ordinary boat.

There's no rudder,

there are no sails,

there are no oars,

and there are no professional boatsmen

or sailors.

In the other ancient stories of the flood,

it's not just the hero and his family who go into the boat,

but they also bring sailors and a boatsman,

professional people

who can help them with their skill.

And in fact, the word ark does not normally mean boat,

it means something more like a box

or a chest

or even a coffin.

Now, here's the point that we shouldn't miss.

The ark is provided by God.

It's not a marvel of human ingenuity.

And the ark is preserved by God,

by divine grace,

not by human skill.

All the way through the story,

God, it emphasizes that God is the one who provides salvation.

Chapter 6, verse 18,

God says to Noah,

I will establish my covenant with you.

In other words, God's saying to Noah,

I'm promising to preserve you through the flood.

I will stick with you

and I will not let you go.

And in the rest of the story,

God makes good on that promise.

Now, look for a moment.

Take your bulletin

and look for a moment at the middle of the bulletin

where it says,

Sermon Supplement.

Because there,

you will see an outline of the flood story as a whole.

Now, when modern people

read the story of the flood,

they often feel

that it's excessively long

and unnecessarily repetitive.

That's partly why I didn't begin

by reading all three chapters straight through

because it sometimes feels like

it's hard to stick with it.

But it's actually

a very carefully organized

and unified story.

And the pattern of the story

could have been readily memorized

and retold in the ancient world

even by people who couldn't read

or who didn't have access

to a written copy of the story.

Because the story builds up

to a climax

and then it goes back down

sort of the same way.

Right?

Just like the ark.

Goes up on the flood

and then comes down to the land.

Story goes the same way.

So throughout chapter seven,

so the action builds

throughout the first half of the story

and each section repeats.

That's why there's repeats.

Each section repeats

or further elaborates

on the detail of the previous section.

So that's why there's repetitions.

So that,

and then the tension gradually builds.

God tells Noah,

enter the ark.

The animals go in two by two

along with him.

Chapter seven,

verse two and three

tells us that he brings

some extra animals

who are clean animals

because he's going to use them

at the end

to offer a sacrifice to God

of thanksgiving.

Then in verse 10,

the flood begins.

And by the end of the chapter,

the flood covers everything.

But the turning point of the story,

which is also structurally

right at the center of the story.

And that's how these ancient chiasms,

that's the technical term

for this literary structure,

worked.

The middle of the story

is the key turning point.

It's chapter eight,

verse one.

But God remembered Noah.

Now, when the Bible talks

about remembering,

it doesn't just mean

bringing something to mind.

What it means is

following through

on a previously made promise.

God remembered Noah

and he followed through

on the promise he had made

in chapter six

to preserve him

through the flood

and not to leave him alone.

And the whole story hinges

on God following through

on his promise of salvation.

Salvation is from the Lord

all the way through.

God remembered Noah

and he followed through.

The rest of chapter eight,

if you look at chapter eight,

we see God recreating the world,

forming and filling it

just as he did in Genesis one.

So God remembered Noah,

chapter eight, verse one,

and all the beasts

and all the livestock

that were with him in the ark.

And God made a wind blow

over the earth

and the water subsided.

That might remind us

of the beginning of Genesis one

where the spirit of God,

the same word,

spirit and wind,

same Hebrew word,

translated both ways,

the spirit of God

was hovering over the waters

at the beginning of creation.

And here God sends a wind

or his spirit

over the earth

to renew it.

In Genesis one,

God had separated

the waters above

and the waters below

and the waters in the sea

and the dry land.

And that's what we see

in verses two to five.

The waters receded,

the rain from the heavens

was restrained

and the waters receded

from the earth continually.

End of verse five,

the tops of the mountains

were seen.

Then in verse six to 19,

God begins to fill the world

with life once again.

First with birds,

Noah sends forth a raven

and then a dove

in verse six to 12

and then with animals

and human beings

in verses 16 to 19.

So the flood is not only destructive,

it's also purifying

and preparing,

God's preparing his whole creation

for a new beginning.

So throughout the story,

we see God's initiative

to provide salvation

to Noah

and Noah's family

and ultimately

to all of creation.

But there's another theme as well.

Along with God's initiative

to provide salvation,

we also see Noah's obedience

through which many

find salvation.

At the beginning of the story,

chapter six, verse nine,

Noah is introduced

with three characteristics.

He was righteous.

Now that's a legal term.

It means right with God

or approved of by God.

Then it says he was blameless.

That was a term used

to describe ritual offerings

or sacrifices

that they were whole

and without blemish.

Noah was whole and complete.

He was approved of,

right with God,

whole and complete.

And finally,

like Enoch and Adam,

Noah is described

as one who walked with God.

And as the story unfolds,

we see Noah embodying

these characteristics.

One of the interesting aspects

of this story

is that through the entire story

of the flood,

Noah doesn't say a single word.

But he always listens to God.

And he faithfully obeys God.

Twice, the end of chapter six

and then again,

chapter seven, verse five,

it says,

Noah did all

that the Lord had commanded him.

So we see Noah

as an example

of faith-filled obedience

to God.

We also see Noah's character

on display

toward the end of the story

in chapter eight.

Look at chapter eight,

beginning at verse six.

Now, by this time,

Noah has been in the ark

for many months.

For a long time,

things seem to be getting

crazier and crazier,

floodwaters raining down,

everything getting destroyed.

Now they're finally

just starting to settle down.

The mountaintops

are becoming visible.

Now, just imagine

what your psychological state

would be

if you were confined

to a three-story boat

with only one window

for several months

with only your spouse

and your three children

and their spouses,

countless animals

of every sort,

and you are responsible

for overseeing everything.

Yikes.

But here we see Noah.

He sends out a raven

in verse six.

A week later in verse eight,

he sends out a dove.

So he's neither cynical

nor desperate.

He's patiently waiting,

actively hoping

for the fulfillment

of God's promise.

And then in verse nine,

there's this unexpected

flourish of detail.

When the dove comes back,

the dove found no place

to set her foot

and she returned to him

to the ark,

for the waters were still

on the face of the whole earth.

So he put out his hand

and took her

and brought her

into the ark with him.

That detail is not

strictly necessary

to the story.

But it's a picture

of Noah's

tender kindness.

Even after managing

a zoo

for several months,

which is probably enough

to drive even the most

animal-loving person

crazy,

Noah is still

kind

to the needs

of a little

bird.

And

the

little bird.

Proverbs 12,

Proverbs 12:10

verse 10 says,

being kind

to the needs

of animals

is one of the marks

of a righteous person.

You see,

righteousness

is embodied

not just

in big

decisions

and bold

ventures

like building

an ark,

but also

in small

acts of kindness

and steady

expressions

of patience.

Caring

for people

and even

for animals

who are

vulnerable

and hurting.

In the end,

it's through

righteous Noah's

faith-filled

obedience

that many

are saved.

It's not just

Noah who's brought

safely through the

flood.

It's his entire

family and even

the animals

that reap the

benefits

of his

obedience.

And throughout

the Old Testament,

we see this

pattern.

In the midst

of a dark

and corrupt

world,

God raises

up a

righteous

one

through whom

many others

find salvation.

Through the

obedience of

one,

many are

made

righteous.

And yet,

what we'll

see next week

is that even

Noah falls

short.

Just like

Adam,

Noah and his

sons will

become corrupted

by sin

and they

will continue

to be

subject to

death.

And we'll

see that the

salvation that

came through

Noah still

leaves much

to be

desired.

And throughout

the Old

Testament,

that pattern

continues.

God raises

up Moses.

Right?

Through Moses,

the people of

Israel find

salvation.

They're delivered

from slavery

in Egypt.

And yet,

in the middle

of the desert,

Moses dishonors

God.

And Moses is

prohibited from

entering the

promised land.

And then they

get into the

land and then

God raises up

David to reign

over his people

and to deliver

them from their

enemies.

And then David

becomes an

enemy of God's

own people when

he commits

adultery and

murder.

Through the

obedience of

one, the many

are made

righteous, but

no one quite

lives up to

that description.

Until the

coming of

Jesus Christ,

when we see

the fulfillment

of that

hope.

In the midst

of a dark

and corrupt

world, we

see a man

who is

righteous and

blameless, who

walks with God

and obeys his

word, who is

bold and

brave, who is

tender and

kind.

And Jesus

did not need

to build an

ark because he

came to be

the ark.

He did not

need to build

a temple

because he

came to be

the temple.

You see, in

his life and

ultimately in

his death,

Jesus himself

entered the

flood of

God's judgment

upon corrupt

humanity so

that all who

enter into

him might

find refuge

and salvation.

salvation.

God

promised and

God provided

salvation for

Noah, and

today God

promises and

God provides

salvation for

all who

enter into

Jesus Christ.

Until the

final day of

God's judgment

comes, the

door of the

ark is still

open.

man.

Now from

the outside, on

a nice sunny

day, when

all seems like

it's well in

the world, you

could look at

the ark and

say, entering

into that seems

like entering

into death.

Go with Noah

into that box,

that seems like

walking into a

coffin.

And similarly,

many people look

at Jesus, and

they say, my

life seems to

be going pretty

well, why

would I want

to surrender

to him?

That seems

inconvenient and

unnecessary.

But when you

are confronted

with the

darkness of

human nature,

and the

persistent

corruption that

infects our

human world,

when you see

the storm

clouds of

God's

approaching

judgment,

when death

rears its

ugly head and

intrudes upon

our pleasant

existence, then

the ark, then

Jesus Christ

himself starts

to look like

the way of

salvation.

You see, all

the sunny days

and all the

pleasant things

of life are

expressions of

God's kindness

and patience,

that he doesn't

immediately judge

us as we

deserve, but

God's word warns

us, do not

presume upon

God's patience.

The Lord is

patient toward

you, not

wishing that

any should

perish, but

that all should

reach repentance,

friend, that

includes you.

Come to

Jesus.

Enter into

him today.

Find refuge

in him.

Come into the

ark of his

saving grace,

and don't

delay.

For those of

us who have

come to

Jesus in

faith, rest

in his

covenant

promise.

Look at

chapter 7,

verse 16.

There's another

little phrase

that we haven't

looked at yet,

ark, but it's

right after

Noah and

the animals

and his

family all

enter into

the ark, and

it says,

and the

Lord shut

him in.

In every

other flood

story from the

ancient Near

East, the

hero shuts

the hatch

himself.

He goes

into the

boat, and he

closes himself

in.

He protects

himself.

But here

it is the

Lord, who

has established

his promise

to Noah, who

also secures

him safely

within the

ark.

Are you

worried that

you lack the

resolve to

persevere as a

Christian?

Are you anxious

that something

outside of your

control could

throw you off

the path for

all eternity,

take comfort

in this

verse?

The Lord

shut him

in.

Charles Spurgeon

has a whole

sermon on that

one little

sentence.

You can look

it up online.

But he says,

when God has

brought us into

union with

Jesus, he

shuts us in,

and we are

saved in the

Lord with an

everlasting

salvation.

The great

door of God's

covenant

faithfulness is

shut behind the

believer, and he

is surrounded by

the power and

grace of God.

Even as Noah was

housed within the

strong timbers of

the ark, God's

omnipotent love has

shut us in.

So, brother or

sister, rest in the

security of God's

great love to you in

Jesus Christ.

Christ, he is

upholding you by

his love and by

his power, and he

can keep you.

You know, maybe

you're facing trials

and temptations that

seem completely

overwhelming.

Listen to the

words of 2 Peter 2.

If God preserved

Noah, a herald of

righteousness with

seven others when

he brought a flood

upon the world of

the ungodly, then

the Lord knows how

to rescue the

godly from

trials.

The Lord knows

how to rescue the

godly from

trials.

If he brought

Noah and his

family through the

flood, he can bring

you through whatever

seemingly overwhelming

trial or temptation

that you are

currently facing.

And know that on

the other side of

every earthly trial,

no matter how

severe, and

ultimately on the

other side of

death itself, the

Lord Jesus Christ

has promised to

make all things

new.

just as God

did on the

other side of

the flood.

Because Jesus'

once-for-all

death ended

in resurrection,

every death

that we die,

everything that

we have to

sacrifice in

union with

Jesus will

most assuredly

lead to

resurrection

life as

well.

Judgment is

coming, but

salvation has

been provided

through Jesus

Christ our

Lord.

Let us

pray.

This morning

I want to

lead us in

two prayers.

First, a

prayer for

those who

want to

turn to

Jesus.

Lord Jesus

Christ, I

admit that I

am weaker and

more corrupt

than I ever

dared to

admit, but

through you I

am more loved

and accepted

than I ever

dared to

hope.

Thank you for

paying my debt

on the cross,

taking what I

deserved to

offer me

complete

forgiveness.

believing that

you have been

raised from

the dead, I

turn from my

sin and

receive you as

my Savior and

Lord.

Amen.

Second, for

those who

trust in Jesus

and who are

enduring great

trials, Lord

Jesus Christ,

grant us your

assurance that you

are behind and

before us, that

we are surrounded

by your faithful

love.

Help us, like

Noah, to hold

fast to your

word and to

persevere in the

obedience of

faith.

Pour out your

Spirit within us

that we may be

bold and brave,

compassionate and

kind.

For Jesus'

sake, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, we're

going to close

this morning by

singing this

great song about

Jesus, our

solid rock, the

one in whom we

find refuge, the

one on whom we

stand.

Let's stand

together as we

sing.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.