From the Start - Part 15 | The Ark (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 16)

To Genesis Chapter 6 will be primarily in Genesis.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention Genesis 6 · chapter mention

Chapter 6 this morning will be our primary text.

We will also move briefly into Chapter 7.

Now the ark is one of those interesting things.

We teach our little kids about it.

We teach them in Sunday school. We teach them all about Noah's

ark and how the animals went on to the ark in pairs.

We even teach them, I don't know, this is crazy song the

Lord told Noah to build and hopefully you were louder and

staying with more gusto as little kids, right?

And so we would teach them this little song.

And then we, you might paint your kids bedroom with, with an

arc with animals or, or children's Sunday school

classes. And, and then you get to this

point where we just give them these little toys, right?

You, you, we used to have one of these you, you take the top off

and then inside we have all these cute little animals and

it's just so wonderful and just gives you warm fuzzies and cute.

And, and, and so our little kids, we, we distill the ark

down to this little thing, this toy.

Well, the ark is a bit more than than just a toy.

The ark, of course, is is a symbol of hope and preservation

for God's people, but then also at the same time, the ark serves

as a symbol of God's punishment, punishment on humanity because

God had seen that man's every intention and thoughts were only

evil. So this morning we'll look at

the ark in the situation leading up to it a bit.

But if you're able, would you stand as we read from Genesis

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 beginning at verse 8, and we'll read all the way

through to the end of the chapter.

Verse 8 says, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Then it goes on verse 9. 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 and 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 of 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and

finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark and its

side. Make it with a lower 2nd and 3rd

decks. For behold, I will bring a flood

of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, and 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 in

to 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. He may be seated.

Verse 9 opens with the words these are the generations of

Noah. Now this specific phrase is a is

a design element of Genesis. You see this phrase, or a

similar phrase, This is the book of generations, is used

repeatedly throughout this book in order to signal to the reader

that we're entering a new section.

Now there are ten of these sections and we call them

tolidoth sections. Tolidoth is the Hebrew word

meaning generations. We first saw this phrase in in

chapter 2, verse 4, when chapter 2 drilled down in more detail on

the creation narrative and the painful aftermath of sins on

sets. Then we saw it in chapter 5,

verse one, and it outlined Adam's genealogical lines.

Now we see it here as the Noah narrative begins.

Each time this phrase is used, it tells tells us we're entering

a new part of the story. In this future.

We'll see this phrase point us in the direction of the

patriarchs and highlight some important moments along the way.

Along the way, we'll see God's working and his promises to a

specific family line. And and we'll trace that line

from Adam and Noah through to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Of course, with this new Toledo section, we're entering the the

story of Noah and, and the text tells us three things about this

man. It says Noah was a righteous man

that says that he was blameless in his generation and that Noah

walked with God. Now no one we've encountered so

far in the text has been described like this.

Now how could Noah be described as righteous when Romans 310 in

Romans 310 Paul quotes Psalm 14 in Romans 310 says this as it is

written. That is, in Psalm 14, none is

righteous. No, not one.

No one understands, No one seeks for God.

All have turned aside together they've become worthless.

No one does good, not even 1. Sounds pretty bleak.

Well, when Psalm 14 and Romans 3 declare no one is righteous,

what they mean is that no one is righteous on our own terms, by

our own doing. Our righteousness comes to us

because of because of God. The Holy Spirit works in our

hearts and and we respond to these promptings in faith.

And this produces godly character in US which enables us

to seek after God and to live righteously.

So Noah was righteous because God extended his grace to him.

He didn't earn God's salvation. It was a free gift to him.

Now Noah's righteousness was confirmed by his character and

his actions. As as it says that as he was

obedient to God's commands. That's what righteousness is, is

obedience to God's commands. Now perhaps this goes without

saying, but his obedience wasn't perfect.

We will see that in in the coming chapters.

He didn't have absolute righteousness, but relative to

the rest of humanity and in his time there before the flood, his

obedience excelled theirs. Second, Peter 25 tells us God

judged the world in the flood, but he preserved Noah, who was a

herald of righteousness. Is what it says.

Noah proclaimed obedience to Yahweh in the midst of his

crooked generation, and he didn't deserve the destruction

that was set to come on the rest of humanity.

Noah was also blameless in his generation.

He was blameless in his generation, and to say that is

to say that he stood out. He didn't just blend in with

everyone else, but he stood out from among them.

While they were engaged in all sorts of debauchery and evil,

Noah was living an exemplary life.

There were no evident flaws in his life and character.

His conduct among them was such that it was probably even

convicting to them and no doubt would have drawn their scorn.

And the last quality of Noah was that he walked with God.

He walked with God, which is as I, as I said, Speaking of Enoch

intimacy. Walking with God speaks of

intimacy. Noah is just like his great

grandfather Enoch. They both experienced A vibrant,

intimate relationship with Yahweh, and they're the only two

people in Scripture to receive that label.

That description walked with God.

Their communion, their fellowship with him was deep.

So this, this is the character of the man Noah.

Next in verses 11 through 13 we see creation corrupted.

Verse 11 said 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 so 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. Now, the repetition of

corruption in these verses underscores God's appraisal of

the human condition, and in turn, it proves the legitimacy

of the of the punishment that is about to be meted out upon

humanity. The violence of humanity had

gotten out of hand. What started with Cain had grown

to become an incredible monster. Even the physical earth had been

polluted by corruption. This began back with with Cain.

As the blood of Abel polluted the ground.

The ground was forever changed in that moment and and what had

already been set in motion at the fall.

God says no longer is the ground going to yield to you as it has

before, but now there will be more toil, more work involved in

getting food from the ground. Paul says in Romans 8 creation

was subjected to futility, not not willingly, but because of

him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be

set free from its bondage to corruption, and it would obtain

the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning

together in the pains of childbirth until now.

The earth, God's creation, is in bondage, waiting for the day

when everything is made new. So the connection between the

earth and humanity's fallenness, this connection is strong and

it's deep and it needed to be judged.

It's possible that that when when I say this, you might

wonder to yourself, is a flop really necessary?

Do we really have to go down this route?

Yes, the judgement was necessary.

Sin is extremely pervasive and evil.

It reflects the condition of our hearts and and each act of sin

damages the person who commits it.

It defiles and erodes our conscience.

Then there's the question, what? Aren't all sins the same?

And the answer to that is an emphatic yes and no.

First of all, I'll say that sins are the same in in the sense

that all sin violates God's commands.

From the proverbial little white lie that everyone talks about to

to murder. They all violate God's ways, and

one single sin is enough to disqualify us from God's

presence, James tells us and James 210 For whoever keeps the

whole law that fails in one point has become guilty of it,

of all of it. So that means you can keep the

law, you can keep the whole law. Hypothetically speaking, you

can't do this. But if you can keep the whole

law and only break 1 little bit of the law, just you sin one

time, you have become a Sinner, you have violated the law, and

you're guilty of breaking all of it.

The sins are different though, in a couple ways.

First of all, different sins have different consequences.

Different sins have different consequences.

I have to tell you, I'm doing fantastic today.

You might be thinking, no, you're not.

Oh yes, I am. If you'd heard me yesterday

afternoon, it was bad. So different sins have different

consequences. Gossiping might get you shunned

or or distanced from other people, or cause you to be the

center of ridicule or conflict. But murder?

Murder will land you in prison. Completely different

consequences, right? We innately understand this, and

that different sins carry different types of consequences.

Then there's another category of sin.

These are sins against the body. It's a weird statement.

Sins against the body. These are sins we commit and and

which harm ourselves more than we realize because they are

inside of our bodies. These types of sins have

different types of consequences than do sins that are outside of

our body. Paul tells us about these sins

in First Corinthians 6. It reads Flee from sexual

immorality. Every other sin a person commits

is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins

against his own body. Or do you not know that your

body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have

from God? You are not your own, for you

were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Stealing, lying, cheating, coveting something.

These are all sins that are outside of our body.

They still impact our hearts, but not in the same way that

sexual immorality does. Some in Paul's day, we're having

discussions about right and wrong and whether they could do

something that didn't break the law.

And Paul makes the point that this is the wrong question to

ask. The more I talk, the more I

cough, but this is the wrong question to ask.

We don't ask, is this permissible for me?

Can I get away with this? No, the question, the right

question to ask is, is this beneficial?

If we begin at the wrong place and and we start to go down a

path of can I get away with this?

We might find ourselves in bondage.

We might find ourselves stuck in addiction.

Sexual sin is like that, and it's considered mistreatment of

our bodies because our bodies are the Holy Spirit's temple,

Paul said. Our bodies have been purchased

by Christ's blood, so take care of your body.

We were meant for union with God and these these sins against

their own bodies for fornication for for the single person

adultery for the married person, pornography, all those things

yoke us to other people or or images that we're not intended

to be yoked to. Sexual immorality corrupts and

and and snares like no other sin.

Proverbs 632 says he who commits adultery lacks sense.

He who does it destroys himself. Sexual activity is reserved for

the one man, one woman, marital union.

Anything outside of that is in the category of sinning against

your own body. So sin is pervasive and it

corrupts in a way that we can't fathom.

At the end of Romans, one after after Paula's outlined

humanity's depraved falling and being turned over to sin and to

their to their evil ways of living, Paul gives the final

assessment in verse 32 of Romans 1.

Though they knew God's righteous decree that those who practice

such things deserve to die, they not only do them.

But they give approval to those who practice them, people who

are completely reprobate, encourage others to participate

in sin. And then and then they give

their approval to those people. They say congratulations, good

job. I would venture to say that some

of the moral collapse that we see in our society today is

exactly this. People celebrating what God has

declared evil, what God has declared wicked, what God has

declared sin, people celebrating that.

Now before we leave this topic of sin and corruption in Noah's

day, it is important to say all sin can be forgiven.

All sin can be forgiven. The only sin that can't be is

the sin of unbelief, but all other sins, if you turn to

Jesus, can be forgiven. Ephesians 17 offers hope.

It says in Him we have redemption through his blood,

the forgiveness of our trespasses, that is the

forgiveness of our sins, all because of the riches of God's

grace. God's grace can cover over

anything and everything that you have done.

If by chance you've not yet done so, you can turn your life over

to Him, surrender your will to His and say, Jesus, take my

life, I trust you, I give you control of all of me, and

because of what Jesus has done, I receive your forgiveness.

If you express this in faith and sincere trust and God's working,

then you can be a recipient of God's grace.

Today, human failures around the globe are glaring.

But as bad as it is right now, we don't have the same type of

moral collapse that that was seen in Noah's day.

In fact, the sin of Noah's generation was was so monstrous

that the only proper response from heaven was the gravest of

measures. The only proper response from

heaven in that day was the gravest of measures.

God had a plan for how this reboot was going to happen.

He'd provide for Noah in a way that probably seemed outlandish

to him. In verses 14 through 16, God

laid out the plans for the ark because in verse 17, he told

Noah, I'm going to bring a flood of waters upon the earth and

destroy all flesh. The boat would be the mechanism

for saving a remnant with which to begin again.

Now, this ark right here, you know this ark, it's fairly

impressive. You've got your door, your

windows. No, just kidding.

The Ark really is an impressive thing, especially for for those

of you who have been to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, I've not

been there yet. See the problem is webs like to

go north for vacations. So like we pretty much like

always go north. Going South is just not

something we do for vacation. So yeah, we haven't made it

there yet. One of these days we will.

I'm half inclined to go in March to to do that nice time of year

to be in Kentucky. Don't want to be in Kentucky

during the summer. It's even more humid.

But the Ark is just absolutely incredible, especially when you

consider that it was built some 5000 years ago without the

technology that we have today. The arc was 450 feet long.

It was 75 feet wide and it was 45 feet in height.

Now, to me, I think, yeah, it's kind of big.

But everybody who goes there, they say, Oh, no, you are not

prepared for how huge it really is.

Because I just think, oh, it's a little bit, you know, it's a

football in the field, football field and a half long.

It's, it's only only 75 feet wide.

That's that's not that wide. You know, it's only 45 feet

high. That's not that high.

But no, it is much bigger than we realized.

It had three decks and, and it was large enough to accommodate

these, these eight adults. That is Noah and his wife and

their their sons, Shem Ham and Japheth and and their wives, as

well as all these animals and then food and resources to last

them the the humans and the animals for an entire year.

The building and organization of this would have been no small

feat. So the ark, it could have looked

like that or, or it might have been a little bit more simple.

It could have looked perhaps a little more square, something

like this. We don't know exactly, by the

way, quite a feat and building a vessel like this it it probably

would have would have earned Noah the ridicule of his

neighbors, especially if they didn't live near a large body of

water. We don't know for sure.

To the question of who built it, we don't have specifics.

We assume, obviously, well, Noah built the ark, right?

Noah was told to build the ark. Did Noah's sons help him?

We don't know. Is it out of the question that

Noah maybe even hired some help, some professional people to help

him? Hey, we don't know.

We can guess. We can conjecture all we want,

but we don't know. The text is silent on this.

Then there's the question of how long did it take to build the

ark? A number of people might tell

you it took 120 years to build the ark because God said man's

days will be 120 years, and they said that's when Noah started

building the ark. Some people will say it took 100

years. Text does not say that either.

We can only speculate, but but for my research it seems

reasonable to arrive at the conclusion that it might have

taken less than 75 years to build the ark.

Immediately after instructing Noah to build the ark and

sharing certain details about it, God says in Genesis 617 and

18, He says, For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the

earth to destroy our flesh, in which is the breath of life

under heaven. Everything is on 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. This seems to indicate that

Noah's sons were already married when God told him to build the

ark. Again, this is a little bit of

speculation. So if we go off that math, then

we can arrive at maybe something less than 75 years.

We don't know exactly. It doesn't really matter.

But anyways, as you know, it was built of Gopher wood and, and it

was coated with pitch inside and out in order to waterproof it.

We don't know exactly what Gopher wood is, but some have

speculated that Gopher wood is Cypress.

In Noah's day, most boats or vessels were were much smaller

and they were made for an entirely different purpose.

They were little 10 foot boats made of, made of skin or reeds

and, and they, they were made for fishing or hunting for, for

going along the coastline and, and through marshes and stuff

like that along riverbanks. True sailing ships could have

been as long as 170 feet. These true sailing ships though,

at even 170 feet, that's only about 1/3 of the length of this

ark. And these, these sailing ships

were first depicted in Egyptian Old Kingdom arts and, but even

as late as the late Phoenicians between 1500 BC, they still

navigated within land. They traveled to Crete within

sight of land, I should say, They traveled to Crete, they

traveled, traveled to Cyprus and various ports along along Egypt,

the Persian Gulf and, and Asia Minor.

But the ark, the ark is unique in that the ark doesn't have a

rudder, and the lack of a rudder means Noah's family.

They are entirely dependent upon God.

They're dependent upon God to get them through the storm.

They're dependent upon God as to where they come to rest.

So that was God's provision for the coming storm.

Next we see God preserves a remnant, verses 19 and 20 of

every living thing of all flesh. She 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, of the

animals according to their kinds, and of every creeping

thing to the ground according to its kind, two of every sort

shall come into you to keep them alive.

Now the first remnants we see, of course is the animal Kingdom.

God instructed Noah to to build the ark to the size to be able

to replace all the lost animals from the coming flood.

It was big enough to house land animals, to house creeping

things, to house birds. God was proud of his initial

creation. His remember it was his good

creation. He didn't want to lose it, but

that's where we find ourselves. So he has a reboot in mind here

as things go back to the garden in a sense where he'd made just

a couple of each animal and told them to multiply.

Now, if I asked you how many of each animal were on the Ark, you

would say, hold on, how many of each animal were on the Ark?

Everybody says 2. Diane says 7.

Why is Diane saying 7? Because she knows some things.

Of course. We always just think that there

are there. There's one pair of each animal,

right? That's how we think of it.

But you see in the next chapter, we'll see it there on the screen

in the next chapter, verse 2, take with you 7 pairs of clean

animals, the male and his mate and a pair of the animals that

are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the

birds of the heavens, also male and female, to keep their

offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

So the answer to the question of how many animals he took of each

is it depends. One pair of the unclean and then

seven pairs of the clean. I have to admit I did not

realize that before the other day.

I some I don't know how many times I've read through the

Bible and just have missed that detail.

This is this is interesting though, if you stop to think

about it, because first of all, the law hasn't been given yet.

The law wasn't revealed until this moment when, when Moses is

recording it, which is a long time later.

The law wasn't given yet, yet until this moment.

And secondly, you see humanity haven't been given permission to

to have that steak yet. They were vegetarians, I believe

some may disagree with me, but I believe they were vegetarians.

And here in the next couple weeks you will see why, because

God says God gives them permission to eat meat.

So you have to wonder why the distinction between clean and

unclean? What we can surmise that perhaps

the distinction between clean and unclean is for sacrificial

purposes so that they would OfferUp the correct sacrifice.

Now God wasn't just preserving a remnants of the animal Kingdom

that was important, but He was also preserving a remnant of

humanity. He was preserving a remnant of

humanity. Judgement was coming, but that

wasn't the final word. God preserved the righteous

remnant for the restoration of creation in the wake of his

judgement. Humanity was about to get power

cycled if you will. Things weren't working right

with the first version, so Humanity 2 point O was about to

be rolled out. In order for that to happen.

It all goes through one man. Like like what happened back in

the garden when there was only one man and there was one woman.

We can all say that we are descended from that original

pair, Adam and Eve, but we can also say that we are descended

from the 10th generation of humans of Noah and his wife.

So Noah is what we might call a new atom.

He's a new atom. I would distinguish this between

a second atom. The second atom is different.

The second atom is something that a specific phrase we use to

refer to Jesus. But Noah is a is a new atom.

Everything is getting rebooted with Noah's line.

The flood story is a dismantling of creation and then beginning a

new creation. Like Adam, Noah was given

authority over the earth and animals.

Both men had three sons who were named.

Both figures, as you'll see, have a bad experience with

fruits and a sort of fall. Noah will also point us to the

need for a savior. Now he serves as a as a

genealogical bridge connecting the pre flood.

In the post flood worlds everything funnels.

Actually it was not much of A funnel.

It just goes and cuts off real quick.

Everything funnels down through through Noah and his family, and

then the blessing is passed through on to everyone else.

So we have Adam, and then Noah, and then Abraham and the

patriarchs. So lest this message be entirely

theoretical for the remaining remaining minutes, let's see

what kind of applications we can pull here.

The first point is to be salt, be salt, live as salt in a

crooked world. In Matthew 5 in the Sermon on

the Mount, Jesus told his followers, You are the salt of

the earth, the salt flavors, and it preserves that that which is

around it. So Noah acted as salt even in

the midst of such depravity. Noah's testimony pointed to the

fact that that there is a God now today, all human behavior, I

would say even as bad as it can look, all human behavior has

been impacted at least to some extent because of God's presence

among people in His people by the Holy Spirit indwelling those

who receive Jesus the Deliverer as their hope.

So Jesus followers, we now serve to protect society from the kind

of reprobate behavior that occasionally plagued people

during the Old Testament times, all because we have the Holy

Spirit's right within us. We are we are taking the temple

everywhere that we go. God's presence is going.

So if we live as salt, people will be able to look at our

character and they will know who and what we stand for. 2nd Walk

in obedience Walk in obedience verse 22 read Noah did this.

He did all that God commanded him.

I have to believe that at some point during the building of the

ark, Noah had to have thought to himself, what am I doing?

This, this arc thing seems preposterous to all these

people. They they're ridiculing him.

Surely he would have had his doubts.

Yet he's still obeyed. And then I think about. 75

years, 100 years, 120 years. That is long obedience.

He was fully committed to the task that God had called him to.

When God calls, respond. Don't ignore his call.

Don't ignore what He wants you to do respond to Him.

Be obedient and live in the power that He provides, trusting

that He will provide and His way is right.

So be salt. Walk in obedience.

Lastly, live by faith. Noah had faith.

You might think. What kind of faith could Noah

have had? They didn't have the same

understanding that that we have today.

All the revelation that we have about God and how much we know

about him, what kind of faith could he have had?

Hebrews 11 tells us by faith. Noah, being warned by God

concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear, constructed an

ark for the saving of his household.

By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the

righteousness that comes by faith.

Noah had faith that that God would keep the word he'd given,

that God was going to send a flood, that God would preserve

Noah and his family through that flood.

Noah had faith that someday God would make things right.

The righteous offspring would someday defeats the serpent and

life would return back to the Garden State that that he'd

heard about from his dad. He had faith, so live by faith.

God promised deliverance Noah didn't deserve through a rescue

that he wouldn't have expected, and this deliverance from the

waters of judgment foreshadowed the unexpected deliverance that

God would one day offer through His Son.

Just as God rescued Noah from his wrath via an instrument of

wood, God rescues us, those who believe.

He rescues us from judgments because of a wooden cross, the

cross of Christ. Let's bow our heads and close

our eyes this morning as we close.

I want to remind you to give you that encouragement this morning

as we as we prepare to close with these songs and then and

then to leave this place. We've heard about those places

that that have above the door. You are now entering the mission

field and out there. We need to be salt.

We need to live as salt, preserving those around us,

potentially helping to sanctify them through Jesus Christ if

they come to know Jesus Christ. And may we, of course, walk in

obedience, living by faith, trusting Him that his ways are

right. God, would you enable us to be

salt, to be obedient, and would you strengthen our faith?

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Would you stand as we sing and close with a couple songs this

morning? Amen.

He's the one who has all authority, all power.

When we talk about sin and, and, and the sins that can enslave

you can become addicted to really, I think we're all

addicted to sin, otherwise we would stop.

But he is the one who has authority and power, who can

help you break free from that, from that bondage.

So turn to him. If you find yourself stuck in

sin, don't run. Don't run in shame.

Turn to Him and receive His forgiveness now to Him who is

able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think

according to the power at work within us.

To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all

generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Go and walk in that power this morning.