To free us from the fear of death

Genesis chapter 6, and we can read verses 1 to verse 10.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 to verse 10.

Genesis 6:1

When men began to increase in number on the earth,

and daughters were born to them,

the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful,

and they married any of them they chose.

Then the Lord said,

My spirit will not contend with man forever.

For he is mortal.

His days will be 120 years.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days,

and also afterwards,

when the sons of God went to the daughters of men,

and their children by them.

They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become,

and that every inclination of the thought of his heart

was only evil all the time.

The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth,

and his heart was filled with pain.

So the Lord said,

I will wipe mankind,

whom I have created from the face of the earth,

men and animals,

and creatures that move along the ground,

and birds of the air.

For I am grieved I have made them.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man,

blameless among the people of his time,

and he walked with God.

Noah had three sons,

Shem,

Ham,

and Japheth.

Our second reading is from chapter 7.

Chapter 7 and verses 1 down to verse 5.

The Lord then said to Noah,

Go into the ark,

you and your whole family,

because I have found you righteous in this generation.

Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal,

a male and its mate,

and two of every unclean animal,

a male and its mate,

and also seven of every kind of bird,

male and female,

to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.

Seven days from now,

I will send rain on the earth

for 40 days and 40 nights,

and I will wipe from the face of the earth

every living creature I have made.

And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

Now turning to chapter 8,

chapter 8 and verses 15 down to 22.

Chapter 8, verses 15 to 22.

Then God said to Noah,

Come out of the ark,

you and your wife and your sons and their wives.

Bring out every kind of living creature

that is with you,

the birds, the animals,

and all the creatures that move along the ground,

so that you can multiply on the earth

and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.

So Noah came out together with his sons

and his wife and his sons' wives,

all the animals and all the creatures

that move along the ground,

and all the birds,

everything that moves on the earth

came out of the ark,

one kind after another.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord,

and taking some of the clean animals

and clean birds,

he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma

and said in his heart,

never again will I curse the ground

because of man,

even though every inclination of his heart

is evil from childhood,

and never again will I destroy

all living creatures as I have done.

As long as the earth endures,

seed time and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night,

will never cease.

And our final reading,

Genesis chapter 9,

Genesis 9:1–17

verses 1 to 17,

where God makes the covenant with Noah.

Genesis 9, 1 to 17.

Then God blessed Noah and his sons,

saying to them,

Be fruitful and increase in number,

and fill the earth.

The fear and dread of you

will fall upon all the beasts of the earth,

all the birds of the air,

upon every creature that moves along the ground,

upon all the fish of the sea.

They are given into your hands.

Everything that lives and moves

will be food for you.

Just as I gave you the green plants,

I now give you everything.

But you must not eat meat

that has lifeblood still in it.

And for your lifeblood,

I will surely demand an accounting.

I will demand an accounting from every animal.

And from each man too,

I will demand an accounting

for the life of his fellow man.

Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed.

For in the image of God

has God made man.

As for you,

be fruitful and increase in number,

multiply on the earth

and increase upon it.

Then God said to Noah

and to his sons with him,

I now establish my covenant with you

and with your descendants after you

and with every living creature

that was with you,

the birds, the livestock,

and all the wild animals,

all those that came out of the ark with you,

every living creature on earth.

I establish my covenant with you.

Never again will all life be cut off

by the waters of a flood.

Never again will there be a flood

to destroy the earth.

And God said this,

this is the sign of the covenant

I am making between me and you

and every living creature with you,

a covenant for all generations to come.

I have set my rainbow in the clouds

and it will be a sign of the covenant

between me and the earth.

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth

and the rainbow appears in the clouds,

I will remember my covenant

between me and you

and all living creatures of every kind.

Never again will the waters become a flood

to destroy all life.

Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds,

I will see it

and remember the everlasting covenant

between God and all living creatures

of every kind on the earth.

So God said to Noah,

this is the sign of a covenant

I have established between me

and all life on the earth.

Amen.

That's again saying this time,

saying to God,

that's important for the church to do

is to, in a sense,

recover the story of Noah.

Because certainly in Western culture,

we've got a sort of funny attitude

to the Noah story

in that we have made it,

the Noah's Ark,

a nice cute children's play toy.

I'm guessing maybe a lot of our children

had one, still have one,

that they like to play with.

You go to a children's Bible,

usually a very popular story

because it's got lots of nice cute animals

being saved.

It can be easy to lose sight of

the huge significance of the Noah story.

On the one hand,

it's the most graphic account

that we have of human sin

and the judgment of God

in the whole Old Testament.

And so you'll find Jesus

and the New Testament writers

using the story of Noah

to remind us of the judgment of God.

But then we also can easily lose sight

of this wonderful covenant

that God makes with Noah.

It's a covenant that ultimately preserves

the world so that Jesus can come.

That what we're going to see

is life is preserved

so that God's plan of salvation

can continue despite human sin.

So we need the story of Noah.

And so what we're going to do

is we're going to look at

some of the key features

of the covenant that God makes with Noah

to help explain

the gospel of God's grace to us.

It's obviously a big story

which shows in itself

that it's significant.

We're going to jump around

a little bit to get a feel

for what's going on here.

But let's begin

where the story of Noah begins

with the darkness of human sin.

So especially the first seven verses

of chapter six.

We could say in the whole of Genesis 4 to 11,

which is sometimes described

as sort of the pre-history

before the time of Abraham,

what we see is very quickly

the effect of the fall into sin.

Adam and Eve in Genesis 3

turn away from God and His Word,

fall into sin.

And we see the impact really quickly.

We see Cain killing his brother Abel.

We meet a man called Lamech

who rejoices at murdering people

because they insult him.

We see the story of Noah.

And then after this,

even in a renewed earth,

beginning again with Noah,

and very quickly we get

to the Tower of Babel again.

And so we see, in a sense,

a race to the bottom

as mankind time and again

rejects their creator.

One of the things that we said last week

when we were looking at Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

and verse 15

is that there's this theme of two seeds.

When God cursed Satan in the garden,

He said there would be war

between two seeds.

There'd be the godly seed

and there'd be a godless seed.

And again, we see that in this story.

And we see it in chapters 4 to 11.

We see Abel, who's godly.

We see Cain, who's godless.

And we meet Enoch,

the man who walks with God

and is taken up to heaven.

And he's the great-grandfather of Noah,

where we are now.

And I think that that two seeds theme

perhaps helps us to understand

this strange, in a sense,

difficult to understand verses

that begin chapter 6.

Especially verse 2,

the sons of God saw that the daughters of men

were beautiful

and they married any of them they chose.

Now, we might think,

oh, here is angels

coming down from heaven

and marrying women.

And that sounds very strange.

But I think,

if we think about this two seeds theme,

it seems more likely

here's a description of

the godly people

deciding,

let's just marry with

these godless people over here.

Let's not try and be distinct

and be for God.

And so it's a sign that

even as God is desiring to show grace,

people are turning away from Him.

It's possibly where it's pointing us towards.

But certainly,

by the time we get to chapter 6

and verse 5,

we see a very dark picture,

don't we?

The Lord saw how great

man's wickedness on the earth had become

and that every inclination

of the thoughts of his heart

was only evil all of the time.

Sometimes theologians talk about

total depravity,

that every part of us

is corrupted by sin.

Not completely,

but every part is affected by sin.

And here is this graphic picture

of humanity

inclined towards wickedness

at every turn.

It's important for us to recognize

that God is not remote

and God is not unconcerned

about the situation,

about the world that He's made

and the people that He's made.

Look at the language of verse 6.

Very powerful language.

The Lord was grieved

that He'd made man on the earth

and His heart was filled with pain.

Human rebellion,

our deliberate rejection of God,

human sin causes God

to feel a sense of pain

and sorrow.

And because of this,

verse 7,

the Lord said,

I'll wipe mankind

from the face of the earth,

for I am grieved

that I have made them.

As the people have deliberately,

willfully dishonored God,

rebelled against God,

God announces that judgment

is going to fall.

If God has made a glorious masterpiece

in creating the world,

then people have taken pain

and they have just defaced it

because of sin.

It's like ugly graffiti

all over God's masterpiece

and He says,

I'm going to wipe it clean

and I'm going to start again.

We were made,

the Bible says,

people were made

in covenant with God.

Humanity is deliberately

turning its back on God

and therefore judgment is coming.

Now it is curse and not blessing

that the people will experience.

That explains the flood

of chapter 7.

Humanity and rebellion,

total depravity,

and God feels the weight

and the pain of that sin.

Fast forward to the time of Jesus,

we see the same thing again.

We go to the cross,

what do we find there?

We find here is Jesus

who's come into the world

precisely because of

our human condition,

precisely because of our sin

and God will again,

in the person of His Son Jesus,

feel the pain of sin

and the consequences

for that sin

as Jesus carries

the sin of His people

so that we might escape

the flood of God's judgment.

It pours out on Him

so that we might be set free.

So we see the darkness

of human sin,

which is so important for us

to understand

why Jesus is good news.

But then alongside the darkness,

we also find Moses presenting for us

the beauty of saving grace.

So we meet determination

in Genesis 6.

We meet a people

who are determined

to turn their back on God.

They're determined

towards wickedness.

We find that God

is determined to judge

in line with His holy character.

He kind of sweeps in

under the carpet.

But we also find

that God is determined,

eternally determined,

to save and rescue some,

to rescue one.

He's determined

to show undeserved grace

to Noah.

Just like you go

into a jewelry shop

and you might see

a diamond ring

that's presented

on the nice black velvet.

Or you think about

when you look up,

if you go away

from where there's streetlights

and you go out

on a dark night

and you see the stars shining,

it's the same thing

that we see here.

It's against the darkness

of human sin

that the beauty of God's love

and God's grace

is going to shine

in the life of Noah.

Verses 8 and 9

are really important.

Let's read them again.

Chapter 6, verse 8.

But Noah found favor,

literally,

Noah found grace

in the eyes of the Lord.

This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man,

blameless among the people

of his time,

and he walked with God.

Now, when it comes

to these two verses,

it's really important

to get the timing

and the order right.

Because some people

read the story,

hear the story,

and think,

well, Noah was righteous.

He was the one good guy

in a world full of bad guys.

God saw his merit,

his goodness.

He's saved because

of his obedience,

in other words.

So some people read

the Noah story that way,

but that messes up

how the Bible presents salvation.

Is that how salvation works?

We are good people,

and then God rewards us

if we've been good enough.

Are we the hero

in our own story,

and God comes to give us

the reward for good work done?

Is Noah the one person

in the whole world

who is staying good and true

while all around

turns away from God?

And that's why

he's declared to be righteous,

and that's why he's spared.

And that's not how

the Bible presents salvation.

What comes first

is that Noah found grace,

found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

He received grace from the Lord.

That Noah too was in the darkness,

and God in his grace and mercy

plucked him out of the darkness

and set his love on him

because of God's mercy

and God's love alone.

That's always the way

salvation works.

Nobody earns it.

It's always a gift of God's grace

so that God gets the glory,

not Noah and not us.

Saving grace is always

a gift from God

towards those who the Bible says

are spiritually dead,

unable to respond to God

unless God sends the Spirit

to reveal our needs.

If you've got time this evening,

read Ephesians 2,

first 10 verses,

and you'll see that really clearly

from Paul.

So God saves Noah by grace.

God makes him righteous.

God declares him righteous.

And as we'll see,

God does that

so that his great plan

of redemption can continue.

Verse 9 begins,

this is the account of Noah.

This is like a section break,

or better,

begins a new section

in the book of Genesis.

Whenever you read,

this is the account of,

in Genesis,

here's a new stage

in God's dealings

with his people.

So because God has shown

Noah grace,

the next stage of God's plan

of redemption can come.

Judgment will fall,

but grace will come to Noah,

and the plan of salvation

can continue.

The human race is kept alive

so that people might turn back

to God and be saved.

One of the things that you see

in all the covenants,

I guess,

is that one person is saved

or one group is saved

for the sake of the many.

So we see it here,

Noah is saved

for the sake of the human race.

Abraham is saved

to be a blessing

to the nations.

We find Israel is saved

to be a light to the nations.

And that's the way it works

individually as well.

So often, God saves a person

in a family

so that he might extend blessing

to others within that family.

Or God saves someone

in a friendship group

so that they might be

a blessing and an influence

to others.

When I think about my family story,

I can certainly see that.

On neither side of my parents' families

was there anybody who went to church

or anybody who was Christian,

but God by grace saved my mom.

And she's still the only one

in that generation

who has any interest in God.

But because of that choice,

it's been a blessing to us.

Perhaps that's been your experience as well.

And it's that principle of God

saving by grace

that drives all of our kingdom mission.

We recognize,

gives us confidence really,

because we understand

that it's not on us

to save a person.

It drives us to prayer

because we recognize

that it's a gift from God.

And so it's really important

for us to understand grace

and how that plays out

in the way we seek

to conduct mission.

So we've seen the darkness of sin.

We see the beauty of saving grace.

We also get to the,

I guess the central,

sort of distinctive feature

of this covenant with Noah.

And it's the idea

that God preserves life.

That's one of the distinctives

of the covenant with Noah.

Life is preserved.

Life is saved.

And this serves to extend

God's plan of salvation.

So chapter 6 and verses 17 and 18,

we are told,

I am going to bring floodwaters

on the earth

to destroy all life

under the heavens.

Every creature

that has the breath of life in it,

everything on earth will perish.

But I will establish,

or I will make firm

my covenant with you.

And you will enter the ark,

you and your sons

and your wife

and your sons' wives with you.

And then they're also

to bring in the animals.

Because,

life will be preserved

because God is going to keep

his covenant promise.

Noah and his family

will be kept alive

because God is a faithful God.

Chapter 7 verse 1

is worth our attention.

Chapter 7 verse 1,

the Lord then said to Noah,

go into the ark,

you and your whole family,

because I have found you

righteous in this generation.

Now when it says,

I have found you righteous,

God's speaking to Noah

and Noah alone.

And that's important

because here is Noah

as the head of his family.

And he is the one

who receives this covenant.

And what happens?

His wife and his children

also are included

in covenant blessing.

Here's one important reason

why we baptize our children.

if we are believers

in this church.

Because we believe

that God chooses

to work through families,

to extend his covenant blessing

to our children.

Now we see it

from the story of Noah.

So Noah and his family

and the animals

are brought into the ark.

And then God shuts

the door of the ark

and the rain comes down,

the floodwaters come,

and everything

outside of the ark

is destroyed.

But there's a clear focus

from the end of chapter 8

into chapter 9

on the fact that God

is still preserving things alive.

So turn over

towards the end of chapter 8

from verse 20

to chapter 9 verse 7.

Let's just very briefly notice

ways in which God intends

to preserve life.

So maybe chapter 9 verse 1,

God blessed Noah

and his sons

saying to them,

be fruitful

and increase in number

and fill the earth.

So here is the same language

that God used

speaking to Adam and Eve,

a reminder that this is

a covenant that's

being established

once more with Noah.

Life will be preserved

as Noah and his family

will be fruitful

and increase in number.

Life will also be preserved

because God is going

to provide food.

Something's different

between life now

and life in the Garden of Eden.

Chapter 3,

verse 3, sorry,

of chapter 9,

everything that lives

and moves

will be food for you.

Just as I gave you

the green plants,

I now give you everything.

So, so far in this,

the story of the Bible,

in the Garden of Eden,

God used animals,

animal skins

to provide a covering

for Adam and Eve

to cover their shame

and their nakedness.

We also see

in Genesis chapter 4,

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Abel using an animal

as a sacrifice

and now here we see

that God provides animals

to help preserve life

for people.

So, it's been added

to our diet.

And then,

very importantly,

chapter 5 and 6,

we get a reminder

about how special

life is,

human life is,

in God's eyes.

end of verse 5,

from each man too,

I will demand

an accounting

for the life

of his fellow man.

Whoever sheds

the blood of man,

by man shall

his blood be shed.

For in the image

of God

has God

made man.

So, even after

the fall into sin,

men and women,

boys and girls,

we are still made

in the image

of God.

our life matters,

is valued by God.

Murder is forbidden

so that life

will be preserved,

so that wickedness

will be curtailed.

And all of this

because of God's

covenant promise,

because of God's desire

to preserve life

so that his blessing

might come

to the world.

Again,

chapter 9,

verse 11,

here's a reminder

of God's covenant

commitment

after the flood.

I establish

my covenant

with you.

Never again

will all life

be cut off

by the waters

of a flood.

Never again

will there be a flood

to destroy

the earth.

So, here is an

everlasting promise.

Until the end

of human history,

there will not be

total destruction

by a flood

that God

is going to

preserve.

If we scale

back a little bit

from what's

happening here,

we're being

reminded that

we live

out our history,

we live out

our days under

the common grace

of God.

God is showing

goodness and

kindness to

everybody in the

world.

End of chapter 8,

he's reminding us

that there's goodness

and kindness

and life preserving

in the seasons,

in the rhythm

of the year,

in the way that

God cares for

families,

in the way that

God keeps people

alive.

And this time

that we live

where God is

keeping people

alive is also

the time

where the gospel

is spreading,

where God is

seeking to build

his kingdom,

where God wants

to show saving

grace to those

he is calling

to himself.

And so,

the two go

together.

Life must be

kept alive

because people

ultimately need

to hear about

Jesus,

the promised

Savior.

our mission

as a church

of living

for God,

of serving

others,

of seeking

to extend

love and care,

of pointing

people to

Jesus,

it only happens

because of

this covenant,

because God

is determined

to preserve

life for

his own

purpose.

Peter,

in 2 Peter

2 Peter 3:9

chapter 3

verse 9,

says,

God is

patient with

you,

not wanting

anyone to

perish,

but everyone

to come

to repentance.

In a sense,

it summarizes

what's going

on in the

covenant with

Noah.

God doesn't

judge us

instantly as

our sins

deserve,

but rather

he is patient

with us,

and he's

patient with

the world,

and he sends

us Jesus,

and he gives

us time to

repent.

It's the

foundation of

Christian mission,

that while we

have life,

while we have

time,

we have

opportunities

to help

people to

hear the

news that

they really,

really need

to.

So life is

preserved,

and then as

Noah and

his family

come out of

the ark,

and as

they've

offered the

sacrifice to

God that God

is pleased with,

and as God

announces the

covenant,

he also gives

a sign,

a covenant

sign of

God's

grace.

verse 13,

is where

verse 12

and 13

of chapter

9,

God said,

this is the

sign of

the covenant

I am

making between

me and

you and

every living

creature with

you,

a covenant

for all

generations to

come.

I have set

my rainbow

in the clouds,

and it

will be the

sign of the

covenant

between me

and the

earth.

And then

verse 16,

whenever the

rainbow appears

in the clouds,

I will see

it and

remember the

everlasting

covenant between

God and all

living creatures

of every kind

on the

earth.

So God

gives this

visible sign

to Noah,

the rainbow.

This sign is

an outward

representation of

God's promise.

We thought

about covenant

signs.

We will see

more of them

as we look at

the covenants,

but in human

terms,

it's like

when we

give a

wedding ring

as a

sign of

commitment.

It's like

the Lord's

Supper,

when Jesus

gives the

bread and

the wine

a visible

symbol

of an

inner truth.

We take

the bread

and the

wine and

it reminds

us that

we are

united to

Christ through

what he does

for us

on the

cross.

God's

love.

And this

sign that

God gives

is a

beautiful

reminder of

grace in

judgment.

Because how

did the

judgment of

God come?

It came

through the

flood.

And where

there is a

flood, there

is inevitably

storm clouds

that gather.

So they

would have

looked up in

the sky,

would have

looked up in

the sky,

would have

seen the

clouds,

and he

would know

that's a

symbol of

God's

judgment.

But where

is the

sign of

grace that

Noah is

given?

It's also

in the

clouds, the

rainbow in

the clouds.

And so he

is being

invited and

we are being

invited to

remember God

is just,

God deals

with sin,

God is

holy,

but God

is also

gracious.

God in

mercy

determines

to save

some.

God

is

how does

the

rainbow

speak hope

to Noah?

That is an

important thing

to recognize.

Look at

verse 16

again.

Whenever

the rainbow

appears,

this is God

speaking,

whenever the

rainbow appears

in the

clouds,

I will

see it

and remember

the everlasting

covenant.

So the

rainbow doesn't

speak hope

to Noah

because he

sees a

rainbow in

the clouds

and Noah

thinks to

himself,

well I've

been a

good person

and I

feel like

I'm living

faithfully so

I've got

hope that

judgment

isn't going

to come.

No,

he can

look at

the rainbow

and remember

God has

promised to

be faithful

to his

covenant.

So the

rainbow is

to speak

hope of

God

seeing

and God

remembering.

It's

supposed to

point him

to the

faithfulness

of God

to keep

this

promise.

God

has taken

the initiative

to save

him

and Noah's

hope and

our hope

rests in

the

faithfulness

of God

to his

promise.

You've

maybe seen

the bridge

in Paris

which has

now spawned

lots of

replicas.

I think it's

called the

Pont des

Arts.

It's

somewhere

near the

center of

Paris.

But anyway,

it's a

place where

it's a

romantic city

apparently in

Paris so

people will

go to

the bridge,

perhaps they'll

write a nice

message to

their loved

one on a

padlock and

then will

chain it

on the

bridge as

a symbol

of their

undying

love for

person X

or person

Y.

And you

know that

padlock,

that permanent

symbol, I

guess a person

could then

return to

that bridge

months or

years later

and be

encouraged to

remember,

ah, that

one that put

the padlock

there, that's

a promise of

their love and

their faithfulness.

when we go to

the Lord's

Supper, we

don't go to

the Lord's

Supper thinking,

ah, yes, this

reminds me about

my faithfulness

since the last

time we sat.

It doesn't

remind me that I

have lived well

and I deserve to

be at the table.

No, it speaks

about the

faithfulness of

Christ to us.

This is a

covenant that God

makes.

This is a

promise that

Jesus brings

and it speaks of

his faithfulness

to us and

that's our

hope.

It's the same

with the

rainbow.

It speaks to

us of a

faithful God,

a God of

grace.

Of course, this

isn't the only

place where grace

in judgment is

seen.

Grace in judgment

is seen too at

the cross of

Jesus, isn't

it?

We see God's

just anger,

God's holy

anger against

sin on display

but there it's

not poured out

on us,

though we

deserve it.

It's poured

out on

Jesus, the

sin bearer of

the world,

as he comes to

be our substitute

and our

sacrifice.

But that cross

which stands as a

place of judgment

also is a

place of grace

for us because

there we find

forgiveness,

there we find

eternal life,

there we find

our welcome into

the love of God,

into the family

of God.

So these signs

of the covenant

are precious

reminders to us

of God's grace

and God's

faithfulness.

So that's a

very brief look

at the covenant

of Noah and

you know we

need this story,

this story of

Noah and God's

grace to him

because it's an

honest reminder

to us of the

darkness of our

human hearts.

You know we

don't need to

look too far to

recognize that

fundamentally

nothing changes,

that the

inclinations of

people's hearts

are still

against God

rather than

towards God.

It's a story

that highlights

again God's

initiative in

saving us by

grace,

reminding us that

Christianity is

not a religion

of works or

merit,

it's sheer

grace,

it's God's

gift.

And it

explains to us

God's kindness

in deciding,

choosing to

preserve life

on earth.

It's an act

of mercy so

that we might

enjoy, we

might live

knowing God's

kindness,

that we

might while we

have time

turn to the

Lord God,

turn to Jesus

and be saved.

Let's pray

about that.