The Boat

Thank you, Alex. Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all. Oh, actually, space. Breathing room. Isn't that good?

So it turns out the only way we had to do it was just to see who chooses to travel on a public holiday weekend to celebrate Buddha.

And now we know who are the ones who are going to be saved and those who are not.

It is a good day. Thank you for being here with us. Today is a good day. It's a day that the Lord has made and we rejoice.

We rejoiced. Why? Because today is the day that Arsenal Football Club will be crowned champions.

Yes. Yes. It's been a long wait. And here we are. So we are. And it's going to be an even better day.

We pray hard because it's also the day that Tottenham Hotspur may end up in the championship.

That will be the day. That is. Sorry, I have to get that out of the way before I go into the word of God.

But it's important. We've been going through Genesis.

I don't know if you've been like me, but as I've been going through Genesis, it almost feels like I've been going through it for the first time.

Because I've been looking at, wow, the creation account.

And then just from the beginning all the way to where we are now in Genesis chapter six,

which is probably the first famous story in Genesis that most of us, whether we grew up in church or not, will know about,

which is the story of Noah.

I realized there's so many things that I missed.

There's so many things that I missed.

And if you have your Bibles, please open it up with me just from the very beginning.

Genesis is the first book in the Bible.

And we're just going to go from the beginning.

And I'm going to do a quick recap.

Previously in Genesis, this is what happens.

Genesis chapter one, God speaks creation into life.

He keeps making things on the six days.

And then he says, what does he say after he makes every day?

It was good.

So he looks and he saw creation.

He said it was good.

But then in chapter two, he said something wasn't good.

What wasn't good in chapter two?

He saw, I think I heard it, he saw that man was alone and man could not be left alone because man is hopeless on his own.

And so he says, I will make a helper, a complimentary strength to help him.

And so chapter two zooms in to day six.

And then chapter three is where it really all goes wrong.

The man stays silent.

The woman listens to the serpent and eats the fruit.

And you think, what could be so bad about that?

Well, here it is.

The original sin, the original cause of sin is just the mistrust of God.

And Gabe told us it was also the misvaluing of God.

It's saying, God, you're not really worth as much as you should be to me.

And so I'm going to go in this direction first.

So the fruit is eaten.

And then Genesis chapter four, just when you thought it was just about fruit, it wasn't about fruit.

The fruit then leads to murder.

It leads to the first murder where a brother murders his other one.

And then you're like, whoa, that's bad.

And it's bad for Cain and he gets banished away.

But yet somehow God is still gracious.

And he says, hey, actually, I will still protect you.

But sadly, sin gives birth to more sin.

And the slippery slope of sin begins.

And what was a fruit then led to a murder.

Then at the end of chapter four led to Lamech, who I talked about last week.

The first gangster rapper who was rapping to his two wives and saying, I killed a man because he just looked at me wrong.

And he was proud of it.

And civilization was starting to build.

And culture was starting to happen.

But it wasn't the culture that God wanted.

This line of Cain that came down to Lamech was one that was violent, one that was aggressive, one that was oppressive.

And then you think, well, what hope do we have?

And then at the end of chapter four, you see there's a replacement for Abel and it comes in the name of Seth.

And then there's a line of Seth that happens.

And that group, that group is different.

And it's from that moment at the end of chapter four, it says, and people started to call upon the name of the Lord.

So while there was a group that was so hell bent on violence, there was another group that was starting to call upon the name of the Lord.

And then we started going down the genealogy from Adam all the way to Noah.

And one of the things that we notice there is we look at a boring list like Genesis chapter five.

You're looking at the rhythms.

You're looking at what's actually happening in the details.

And what you see, the first is, and he died.

And he died.

And he died.

And it was a constant reminder of the consequence of sin.

A constant reminder of the justice of God.

And he died.

And he died.

And he died.

And it reminds us that there is an end date to our lives.

Whatever we do, there is an end date.

Why?

Because we chose to go the other way.

Until that line, that rhythm was disturbed.

It was interrupted.

It reaches a guy called Enoch in the middle of Genesis chapter five.

And then suddenly, Enoch doesn't die.

The first person to not die.

Can you imagine everyone at that moment go, wait, everyone else died?

Why did Enoch not die?

Okay.

His life got cut short though, because he wasn't even middle-aged at that time.

He was only 365.

And most people at that point were living to 900.

But for some reason, Enoch did not die.

He walked with God.

And then he was not.

So God took him.

One of two people, Elijah and Enoch, who was taken.

Enoch then gives birth and fathers a line of people who actually do walk with God.

There's Methuselah.

Methuselah, the longest, the oldest man in the Bible, recorded in the Bible, 969.

His name meant, when he dies, it shall be sent.

Can you imagine growing up in school as Methuselah?

And everyone going, hey, what's your name?

Oh, my name is, when I die, it will come.

Can you imagine the jokes that would be thrown at Methuselah?

Hey, what's going to happen when you die, Methuselah?

What's going to come?

And so everyone knows that's his name.

Everyone knows that something's going to happen when Methuselah dies.

But before he dies, he fathers someone else called Lamech, not the gangster rapper Lamech in chapter four.

This is a Lamech who is a godly man.

And actually, we get to see in this list, this boring list of genealogies, we get to hear what he has to say.

And he says, I'm going to have another son.

And this son is going to bring rest and relief.

This son is going to be called Noah.

And out of the cursed ground, there will be relief.

And you're like, whoa, where did he hear that line from, right?

Where did Lamech, all these generations away from Adam, where did he hear that term that the ground is cursed?

Well, we discovered, I discovered last week, he heard that from Adam himself.

Because Adam had lived all the way through those different generations.

So Methuselah and Lamech would have actually spent time with the original man,

would have spent time with Adam and said, Adam, why did you eat the fruit?

And Adam would have had to explain.

Adam could have described what the garden would have been like.

So Methuselah and Lamech, Noah's dad and grandfather, would have lived with Noah in those years when Noah was given a very specific instruction.

And what was the instruction?

To build an ark.

And let me just stop there for a second.

What do you know about Noah?

When I say Noah, let's form a bass line.

What are you thinking about here?

The first thing I thought about was the song that I used to sing all the time.

The animals went in two by two.

Did you remember that song?

The animals went in two by two.

The elephant and the kangaroo.

And they all went into the ark for to get out of the rain.

This nursery rhyme that we read to our children about the animals going into the ark.

But we seem to have missed the point that this story is about the wrath of God wiping out mankind.

Hey, two-year-old, come and sing this song with me about how God killed everyone.

And so we look at this story and we go, well, what was it about?

Why was Genesis chapter 5 so intent on telling us the connection from Adam to Noah?

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

Adam lived with all the people in that list apart from Noah.

He missed Noah.

And so we're going to find out today.

And I hope as we look through this book, this chapter on Genesis chapter 6 and 7 today,

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

you'll find out something a bit more than just the animals went in two by two.

That there is a little bit more to the story.

There's a little bit more than what meets the eye here.

And so I'm going to invite Kara up to come and read the word of the Lord to us.

Can I invite you to stand for the word of God?

Today I'm going to read from Genesis 6, chapter, well, Genesis 6, verse 1 to 8.

Genesis 6:1–8

This is the word of the Lord.

When men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,

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

and they took as their wives any they chose.

Then the Lord said,

My spirit shall not abide in men forever, for he is flesh.

His days shall be 120 years.

The Nephilim were on the earth on those days, and also afterward.

When the sons of God came in to the daughters of men,

they bore children to them.

These were the mighty men who were old, the men of renown.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,

and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth,

and it grieved him to his heart.

So the Lord said,

I will blot out men whom I have created from the face of the land,

men and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens,

for I am sorry that I have made them.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord.

Praise be to God.

Please take a seat.

Thank you, Cara.

So there was hope.

There was another line, the Seth line,

that was call upon the name of the Lord.

But somewhere as the lines kept going,

five chapters in, ten generations down,

no one, even in the line of Seth,

actually makes it other than one family.

What happened there?

Honestly, this is one of the more confusing parts of the Bible

that are just hard to understand.

Because if you look at this,

there's things going on here that we're going to try and unpack.

But I want us to try and keep the main point the main point here.

Because we can actually go down rabbit holes

where we chase and actually look at things

that are maybe not necessarily unimportant,

but just things that we are,

it's impossible for understand.

Okay?

I was talking to a friend here who was reading C.S. Lewis recently.

And he was actually saying,

C.S. Lewis is really hard to read.

And I'm like, absolutely.

Mere Christianity is a book that maybe I've started five times.

And it's taken me time and time again to get to.

Because the English is just different.

If you think about the Chronicles of Narnia,

which you wrote,

you look at the English and you're like,

that is just,

it's actually from a different time.

It's actually a little bit harder to understand.

So can you imagine then,

if we find C.S. Lewis a little bit hard sometimes,

can you imagine going into the original book of the Bible

and looking at Genesis?

Undoubtedly, there are going to be things here

that we do not fully, fully get.

And I want to try and address some things.

I want to try and keep us on track

to what this passage is also really talking about.

But there are a few things that we can look at here.

So the lions start to multiply on the face of the land

and daughters were born to them.

The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.

How did we end up with one lion

that was calling on the name of the Lord?

And eventually at the end,

there was only one family that survived.

The one word, compromise.

Compromise.

Remember from Genesis chapter three,

he already said to the serpent,

he said, hey,

there's going to be two lions of people.

There's going to be two types.

There's only two types of people in the world.

One that trusts God

and one that does not trust God.

That's what he's saying in Genesis chapter three.

And now you see here,

those two lions are happening.

It's in play.

But the problem here,

where it really goes wrong,

where it ends up to the point

where God wipes out everyone,

is because those two lions started to mix.

Let's find out what happens here.

The sons of God saw that the daughters of man

were attractive.

Now, there was a recent movie called Noah,

starring Russell Crowe,

maybe that I say recent,

but it was a good few years ago now,

where it really kind of fantasized

and dramatized this story here.

And some people are like,

oh, the sons of God,

were they the angels?

So did angels come

and actually start mixing with the human race?

If we look at the context of what's happened here,

the answer,

I don't think it is the case.

What we see here are two lions of people,

the sons,

the children,

the lion,

the offspring of Cain,

and the offspring of Seth,

and they are starting to mix.

What does it mean here?

The sons of God,

which would be the lion of Seth,

the good lion,

okay,

they saw that the daughters of man were attractive

and they took as their wives any they chose.

We go back now,

Genesis chapter one,

God created and saw creation

and said that it was good.

But then Eve in chapter three says,

I saw the fruit

and the fruit looked good,

attractive.

It's actually the same word there.

And so suddenly in chapter three,

man takes control

and makes discerning choices themselves.

I think this is good.

And you see here in chapter six,

the same thing.

The sons of Seth look across

and see the attractiveness of the daughters

of the lion of Cain.

And they say,

I would like to choose that person as my wife.

It starts to unravel

when two lions start to mix.

It starts to get corrupted

when there is compromise.

This is actually a good place

to talk a little bit about,

as those who are followers of Christ,

one of the decisions that we're making,

especially when it comes to those we are dating

and those we are wanting to marry,

are these people,

ones that are in line with us.

Later in the New Testament,

talks about to not be yoked,

to not be tied to unbelievers.

Why?

Because it's a bad idea.

Because one person wants to go in this direction

and the other wants to go in this direction.

End of story.

Why would you want to tie yourself

to someone who is going in the opposite direction?

We see here a good case study

of when one lion that's supposed to be trusting in God

looks over and says,

I'm interested in that lion.

I think they're attractive.

I'm going to go over there.

And you can see that starts to happen.

And then the Lord said,

my spirit shall not abide in man forever,

for he is flesh.

His days shall be 120 years.

Again, going back to the beginning,

he creates us out of dust

and then he breathes life.

We are both dust and the life of God.

And God says here,

okay, they are just flesh.

They are alive because of my spirit.

But now I'm going to limit it.

And now it's going to be 120 years.

There's a couple of interpretations with this

that I'm not going to go through today.

One is actually that timer,

that countdown is basically saying,

I'm going to give mankind 120 years to repent.

This is the time for them to repent

and to turn back.

Why?

Because if they don't,

the flood's coming.

That's one interpretation.

Another one is that actually,

remember last week,

people lived up to 900 something years.

But as you see,

eventually mankind,

maybe because of the decisions that we made,

we actually end up around,

everyone lives under 120 years.

Whichever way you go,

it's basically God saying,

now there is a countdown.

There is a countdown to repent.

There is a countdown to go back

and choose me again.

And then carry on.

Verse four,

the Nephilim,

who were the Nephilim?

The word simply means the fallen ones.

But if you carry on going,

these were the sons of God

and they bore children

and these were the mighty men

who were of old,

the men of renown.

So there are some places

where it would depict giants,

sons of angels who are coming.

But really,

I would just say that these are just big men.

These were just big men who were warriors.

And this isn't that hard to understand.

There are big human beings around,

even in our world right now.

We probably live in the place,

in the world,

where maybe those here are

of more smaller stature.

But if you go to the west,

if you go to the north,

there are big human beings.

Something that we have to

kind of surrender here

is we simply don't truly understand

what mankind was developing like.

Imagine someone's living for 900 years

and he's eating,

or she's eating fruit

that comes from paradise.

This food was nutritious.

They're also working and farming

for 900 years.

Can you imagine how?

So these human beings,

it stands to reason,

do not look the same as us.

Does that make sense?

I go back to England sometimes

and I look,

I go from average height here in Hong Kong

to tiny, tiny in England.

And if I went to America,

it would be even worse.

And I look and I'm like,

okay, well, these human beings,

there were probably some

that were just bigger.

And the Nephilim here

were describing people

that were mighty warriors.

There are people in this world right now

that are seven feet tall.

These could be the ancestors

of even someone like Goliath,

around nine feet tall.

So what we have here then

is basically two lines,

mixing, compromising.

And what you end up is corruption.

And this is where God looks.

Remember chapter one,

God sees creation,

sees man and sees woman

and says it was good,

it was very good.

But sadly,

it only takes five chapters.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man

was great in the earth

and that every intention

of the thoughts of his heart

was only evil continually.

Theologians call this concept

total depravity.

You look and you see

the heart of man

and you see the sin that exists.

You're like, okay,

I can see that people

are not truly pure.

This is the first thing

that I really think

we need to understand.

That we sat here

are not really good people.

Psalm 14 says,

there's no one who's good.

Jeremiah 17 says,

the heart is deceitful.

Have you ever described someone,

hey, no,

but that person has a good heart.

Yeah?

That's actually unbiblical.

Jesus himself said,

there is no one good.

And they're like,

okay, well, what about,

and I've joked about this before

and I truly do mean it.

What about the little babies?

What about those little helpless babies

like Lily?

Like,

Joe and Alex will tell you,

Lily's a sinner.

She'll scream

whenever she doesn't get

what she wants.

Connor, you teach

two to three-year-olds,

you see the depravity on show

amongst tiny little kids.

Psalm 51 says,

we were born in sin.

But you're like,

oh, yes, I know,

but there are some people

that are good.

Here's the thing.

There are some people

who are really honest

and really humble.

Well, actually,

I am inspired by something

that Tim Keller said

that actually there is no such thing

as true humility

amongst human beings.

I look at someone,

Caleb,

I don't mean this about you,

you're just here.

I look at Caleb

and I think he's just

a really prideful kind of guy.

Just really cocky.

And I'm like,

you know what?

I don't want to be like Caleb.

I want to be better than Caleb.

I want to be more humble than Caleb.

What am I doing?

What am I exhibiting?

Pride.

Because I'm saying

I'm better than him.

Can you see?

Even our thoughts.

Think about the other

good things that you do.

Maybe the charity work

that you do.

Maybe the good intentions,

the things that you do

to try and care for other people.

If you keep peeling back

while you're doing those things,

I think there's a

people-pleasing element to it.

I think there's a

seeking people's approval

in it.

Even the good things.

Can I convince you of this?

That you are a sinner

through and through.

That there is no ability

in us

to have

pure

and good

thoughts.

Even when on the outside,

it looks like it.

Caleb,

I'm just going to keep

picking on you here.

Here's a glass of water.

Would you like to drink

this water?

It's quite hot in here.

You would love to drink

this water

because it looks,

it's clean.

I got it from the water fountain

that's just around there.

Okay,

you can drink it.

One second.

Sorry,

that's gross.

That's gross.

Would you still like

to drink this water?

Okay,

I may have picked

the wrong person

because I think Caleb

really would just

drink from this cup.

Yeah.

Even I won't drink

from this cup anymore.

Brothers and sisters,

this is us.

You may look

and you see

that you are,

I'm a good person.

I'm not that bad.

Well,

here's the point.

You might even be 99%,

but you're not 100%.

And if we're not 100%,

that means we can't

truly rely on

the thoughts

that we have going on.

There's something about us

that is filled with sin.

We are not good people

who sin every now and again.

We are sinners

who are living out

the way that we're living out.

That's why we need a savior.

I'm not going to drink from this.

I'm just going to leave

this right here.

Please no one drink from it.

Can you see,

that's what total depravity is.

And once you understand that,

we will start to understand

the rest of the passage here.

The Lord saw that

the wickedness of man

was great

and that every intention

of the thoughts of his heart

was only evil continually.

And then the Lord regretted

that he had made man

on the earth

and it grieved him

to his heart.

And later it says

he was sorry for it.

Just an interesting point here,

an important point here.

God's not like,

oh my goodness,

I'm so sorry,

I wish I could have,

I'm changing my mind

about mankind.

It's not that.

What it is,

is that it's anguish.

It's anger.

It's like a parent

looking at a child

who's living

in a destructive way,

not just to themselves,

but to other people.

It's the heartbreak

that comes

with looking at a child,

looking at your own child

and seeing them inflict pain

on themselves

and other people.

It's that kind of regret.

It's that kind of sorrow.

It's that kind of anguish.

And remember,

God saw that his own children,

Cain and Abel,

were murdering each other.

So if you're a parent,

imagine one of your own kids

murdering someone else,

murdering one of the siblings.

It's that kind of anguish.

It's that kind of pain.

It's that kind of regret.

And he looks and he says,

this is not good.

Verse seven,

and I will blot out man

whom I have created

from the face of the land,

man and animals

and creeping things

and birds of the heavens,

for I am sorry

that I have made them.

Of course,

the fish survive

because fish can swim

in the ocean,

which I need to ask God about.

There's some really scary fish.

I'll ask him about rats

and pigeons as well,

how they manage.

You're right.

I'm like,

God,

you wiped them out

the first time.

Just let them be.

But somehow the rats

and the pigeons,

they came back.

But the Chinese

redeemed the pigeons

and we added a little bit

of salt onto it

and it ends up being

something delicious.

Sorry,

that's completely side note.

And he wipes everyone out.

And you're like,

okay,

well,

this is it.

This is the end.

And then the most powerful

word in scripture

comes,

but.

Just like the but

in Ephesians 2,

when we were dead

in our sins,

but God.

Now we see,

verse eight,

but Noah found favor

in the eyes of God.

So in the midst

of both lines now,

mixing to the point

where actually

there's no one left.

Can you imagine

within 10 generations,

there is no one left

who is worth saving.

That's what compromise does.

And if you're sat here going,

I need to make a decision

about a relationship.

I need to make a decision

about a job.

I would encourage you,

look at this passage

and go,

wait,

where am I compromising

in my life?

Where am I actually

making decisions

that I am trying

to justify myself

based on my own flesh

about what I like to see,

but actually,

it's ending up

in compromise

that ends up

in corruption

that ends up

being really evil.

If we're truly

to understand

the love of God

and the grace of God,

we must understand

the wrath of God

and the holiness of God.

We have to understand

both together.

And we'll find out

a little bit more here.

But Noah found favor

in the eyes of the Lord.

Just a little bit more,

let's keep going down.

Verse nine,

these are the generations

of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man,

blameless in his generation.

Noah walked with God.

Whoa, we heard that before.

We heard that in Enoch,

that he was someone

who walked with God together.

What does that mean?

In the midst of this generation,

there was someone

who was actually saying,

hey, I'm just going

to be different.

I'm going to walk

in a different way.

Doesn't mean he's perfect.

Next week,

we're going to look

at the end of Noah's life

and it doesn't really

end that well.

So he's not perfect.

When it says blameless here,

all it means is that

this was someone

who was pursuing righteousness,

who was trying

to walk with God.

That's all it was saying here.

And now this family

would be chosen.

They would find favor

in the eyes of God.

And a little bit more,

scripture expands here.

Now, verse 11,

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.

You have to understand

something about this

because you're like,

you might be sitting here

going,

I don't understand

why God had to wipe that out,

wipe the whole thing out.

That's just cruel.

It's just mean.

It was unnecessary.

He could have just helped

the people who were kind of good

and that would have been enough.

But if you look into

the word corrupt,

the word corrupt there

really meant that actually

creation was getting destroyed.

And so what he's doing,

he's destroying the destroyed.

As he was looking at mankind,

spiraling out of control,

following down

this slippery slope of sin,

what was happening

was everything

was becoming corrupt.

At the beginning,

it looked like a pure glass of water

that had spit in it,

but eventually now

it just becomes

this murky water

that you see in oceans

besides Hong Kong.

Just unclear waters

and then it gets worse

and worse.

And so he's like,

the water is already destroyed.

Society is already destroyed.

And because it's destroyed,

I must clean it all out

and start again.

That's what he's saying here.

It's saying

this is beyond repair.

And something else

that I think

those of us who live in Hong Kong,

we find this hard to understand.

If you've spent time abroad,

then you'll probably understand

this a little bit more.

It was said creation

or culture was corrupt

and that it was filled

with violence.

Hong Kong so happens to be,

in my opinion,

one of the safest places

in the world.

I'm happy to send my children

on the MTR

to go to wherever

they need to go to

and I'll be okay

in terms of just how I feel

whether they'll be safe.

I remember telling Christina,

isn't that good

that our kids can find

their own way home now?

We don't even need to go

pick them up anymore.

We feel safe on the MTR

because the signs

are always there.

If you've lived in London

and if you've been

in the underground system,

it's confusing.

New York is even worse.

But Hong Kong,

you'll be able to do it.

And actually,

she said something

that was interesting.

She was like,

well, it is a good thing,

but it's also a bad thing

because then they're not

really aware

of the outside world.

They're not really aware

of what's going on outside,

so when they go back,

they'll be living

in a way that's

just unsafe.

I remember this happened to me.

Do you remember those,

do you remember

that thing called COVID

where we spent three years

trapped in one city

and trapped in a very safe city?

And so I remember

just living life here

to doing the COVID life here

and it was all very safe

and easy.

And then three years on,

we went back to England

to visit our family

and was just in a shopping center

and pushing one of the kids,

I can't remember which one,

pushing one of the kids.

And then I saw something

in the shop.

I was like,

it's too hard to get to it.

So I just left the pushchair

with the child inside.

And I was like,

oh, you wait here.

I'm going to go.

And I'm saying,

Hong Kong,

that's pretty safe.

You're all judging me now

because I'm not even

in Hong Kong, James.

It was pretty safe.

But then I walked like 10 steps

and I was like,

wait, we're not in Hong Kong.

That could all disappear

very quickly.

I put the wrong child

in the stroller.

They can take the other one.

So we lose that memory

of actually what it's like

to live in a society

that's filled with violence

and corruption.

What are we actually

fearing for our lives?

And when you look at that,

you're thinking,

God, where is your justice?

Where is your justice?

Why aren't you judging

those people?

Why aren't you looking

at those people and saying,

why aren't you dealing with them?

Why aren't you dealing

with that evil?

And yet you see here,

God is dealing with that evil.

He is dealing with it

through what we can see here

as wrath.

Now, the word wrath there

makes us think of just

a violent, aggressive God

trying to lash out,

but that's not what it is.

What he's doing is

when he's defending something

that he loves,

something that he cherishes,

and he sees it as getting corrupt,

he sees it as getting evil,

he sees that it's destroyed,

then he has to operate.

And we'll talk a little bit more

about the wrath of God later.

But Noah,

but Noah found favor

in the eyes of God.

A lot of us,

if we grew up listening

to the song about Noah,

we will then automatically think,

whether we realize it or not,

that the way to get saved

is to be a good person.

How am I going to be saved by God?

How am I not going to drown

in the flood?

I just have to be like Noah,

be a good person.

That is not what Scripture

is saying here.

You can see here

that verse eight,

Noah finds favor

in the eyes of God

before it's described

what he's like.

When we see the words,

Noah found favor,

what we think it means,

society has trained us

to think it means

Noah earned the right

to be saved.

Noah was good enough

that the teacher

looked kindly on him

and decided to save him.

That's not what it means.

What it means is

Noah found undeserved grace,

unmerited favor.

You look at the families around,

whether it's church,

missionaries that go out

and are really just living

all out for the Lord

and you look at them,

you're like,

they are good, good people.

And if you ask any single one of them,

they would say,

no, we are not good.

We are only good

because of the grace of God.

So what we see here is

Noah is only good

because of the grace of God.

If you ask Noah,

if you were lucky enough

to actually spend time

with Noah and his family,

it would be,

we don't really know

why we're picked.

We probably deserve to be

in society outside

and yet somehow

grace found us.

I think that's something else.

If we have to understand

total depravity,

we have to understand

something else,

which is the concept of grace.

that we didn't do anything

to deserve what we have.

That is a key component

to us then repenting

and actually living lives of love,

giving freely

because we received freely.

Noah found favor

before he was described

to be a righteous man,

blameless in his generation.

But then he speaks to Noah.

In verse 13, it says,

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.

And then he goes

and gives instructions

on how to make an ark.

We don't actually know

whether it's rained

up until at this point,

but it's probably reasonable

to assume that there was no flood.

So God says to Noah,

hey, you're going to need

to build something very big

on dry land

and it's going to take you

about 100 years to build.

This makes me think,

grace finds Noah

and then God gives him instructions

to do something

that is completely countercultural.

Imagine,

he has to sacrifice

everything that he's been doing

for about 100 years

to go and build this ark.

Now, remember,

granddad Methuselah is around.

dad Lamech is around

and they spoke to Adam

so they would have described

to Noah,

hey, Adam had told us

about the original creation.

He's told us about Eden.

And so when Noah received

the instructions from God

to build this ark,

no doubt them two

would have been in his ear

saying, do it.

Do it.

We are so exhausted

from the corruption.

We are so exhausted

from the violence.

God needs to come

in judgment

to save us.

Save us from who?

To save us from ourselves.

Both our lines

are now compromised.

We need to do this.

And so, no doubt,

with granddad

and with dad in his ear,

he starts to build

this ark,

which would have been

just an outrageous thing to do.

It would have taken

a long time.

And it makes me think,

when was the last time

we received instructions

from God,

or we felt convicted

to be different

to the people around us.

Not necessarily to go out

and build an ark,

but to just follow God

and obey him.

So even though grace

found Noah,

yet Noah still

had to do something.

Because at this point,

he could have said,

God, that sounds crazy.

I'm not going to build the ark.

Has anyone watched

Evan Almighty?

Steve Carell?

Quite a funny movie.

Not an actual depiction

of what happened here

in Genesis 6 and 7,

but funny and close enough.

To do something

completely outrageous

that your friends

and that your family

don't truly understand.

That is what Noah did here.

That is what made him blameless,

not because he was perfect,

but because he was obedient.

But because he was willing

to follow God.

Interestingly,

in 2 Peter 2,

it talks about Noah

how he's not only

building the ark,

he's actually also

warning people around him.

He's actually preaching

righteousness to those

around him.

So he was actually

trying to build a church

whilst he was doing this.

So he gives up his career,

gives up all the things,

it must have come

at great expense

in every single way,

starts to build the ark,

and then he starts

to tell people,

his friends,

his family,

his neighbors,

repent.

Repent because the flood

is coming.

But your grandfather

is still alive.

Yes, but repent.

He's going to come

to him.

He's going to die soon

and repentance

will be necessary.

And how many people

does Noah

successfully evangelize to?

Zero.

He tries to bring people

to God

and they refuse

to go in.

This blesses me

as someone who tries,

not perfectly,

tries to walk with God,

tries to pursue God,

tries to be obedient

to God,

sometimes not knowing

the fruit that will

come out of it.

It brings me great comfort

to know there was

someone else

who was told

to build a boat

in the middle of land

for a hundred years

preaching the same message

and yet he got no one.

What about that good neighbor?

Okay, surely,

yes, there were violent people

on the other side of town

that weren't listening,

but surely that friendly neighbor

that lived on the plot of land

next to Noah.

Surely they would have been okay.

At the very least,

they probably weren't

trying to sabotage

his building project

in the middle of the night.

They were letting him continue

to build this crazy thing

on the boat.

Surely they would be okay.

But again,

here we have

no one response.

No one.

Not even the kind

of good people.

Not even the ones

who were kind of kind.

That every intention

of the thoughts

of his heart

was only evil

continually.

And so what do we have?

Why is this story

even here?

So then he builds the ark.

Okay, verse 22

at the end of chapter 6.

Noah did this.

He did all that God

commanded him.

Didn't question.

Didn't add to it.

Didn't subtract to it.

Didn't make a deal

and negotiate

and say,

okay, God,

I hear you.

Something's going to happen

when granddad dies.

Okay, I'll build it,

but can it not be so big?

Because it will take forever.

You're only having

my family in any way.

We'll figure it out.

Or what about

you do this for me?

It wasn't.

It was just

he got the instructions

from God

and then he said,

and scripture just says,

and Noah did

all that God

had commanded him.

Again,

the true obedience

that comes,

the grace that is needed,

but also the obedience

that is needed

for mankind

to be saved.

And so he makes it.

Chapter 7 now.

Then the Lord said to Noah,

go into the ark,

you and all your household,

for I have seen

that you are righteous

before me in this generation.

And then he gives

some instructions.

on what kind of animals

to bring.

I always thought

it was just two by two,

which is how the song goes.

But actually,

there were also

seven pairs of animals

that he would have to bring on,

some clean and some unclean.

God was starting

to prepare the way

for a sacrificial system

where mankind

can be covered

and made holy again

in front of a holy God.

We won't talk about that today,

but he instructs him.

And again,

chapter 7,

verse 5,

and Noah did all

that the Lord

had commanded him

again.

And then,

when he was 600 years old,

after 100 years

of building the ark,

it's time to get on.

He gets onto the ark,

and scripture here,

and it's really interesting,

it just says this,

verse 10,

and after seven days,

the waters of the flood

came upon the earth.

After seven days.

Imagine building something

for 100 years

with people laughing

at you constantly,

ridiculing you constantly,

going,

what on earth are you doing?

This has never been done.

We don't even know

what you're building.

And finally,

there comes the day

after 100 years,

you get on the boat,

and the rain doesn't come.

For seven days.

Can you imagine

being the family,

just sitting on the boat,

going,

Dad,

did we just give up

all of our lives,

lost all of our friends,

and now we're still sat here

with no rain?

Again,

not only was he preaching

righteousness for 100 years,

not only was he obeying

for 100 years,

it doesn't make sense sometimes.

And it doesn't come

at the time

that you want it to come.

Can you imagine

the people,

the neighbors,

looking in

at the boat,

hey Noah,

what's up,

how's that flood working out?

How's the boat?

Is it comfy?

Is there Wi-Fi?

Hey,

when are you going to come out?

The ridicule.

I don't know,

I can't even guarantee

that I wouldn't be

one of those people

that woke up.

And yet,

seven days they waited.

But then,

finally,

chapter 7,

verse 11,

in the 600th year

of Noah's life,

in the second month,

on the 17th day

of the month,

you can have no doubt

that Noah would remember

that day.

Exactly that day.

When after all those years

of obedience,

it happens.

And it isn't just

a drizzly rain.

And the fountains

of the great deep

burst forth,

and the windows

of the heavens

were opened.

This wasn't just

a heavy rain,

people.

This was God

decreating creation.

The great depths

were opening up again.

God was saying,

we're going to start again.

This was the great reversal.

And no one,

no one,

that Noah had preached to

would get on.

But now it's starting to rain.

Now the floods are happening.

So you would have no doubt

there would be some people

who were starting to go,

oh,

maybe Noah was right.

Quick, quick,

grab your stuff.

Let's go.

Let's see if there's still time

for us to get onto that ark.

Can you imagine

the screaming,

the wailing,

the death

that would be coming

upon creation

at that point.

Later in the New Testament,

it talks about it,

that the people

in the days of Noah

were eating,

drinking,

marrying,

just living life

as normal.

But when that moment comes,

when that day comes,

it is already too late.

And so they get on the boat.

They stay on the boat.

And maybe the key word here

is this,

chapter 7,

verse 16.

And they went in

as God had commanded him,

and the Lord

shut him in.

Do you remember

in Genesis chapter 2,

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

I said there was a change

in word,

God and Lord.

The word God

was the one

that was in Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

which talks about

the all-powerful God

creating things.

And then in chapter 2,

he turns it

because he creates

man and woman,

and then it becomes Lord,

which means Elohim,

which was not just

the power of God,

but the presence of God.

It was the relational

aspect of God.

So you see here,

again,

the writer shows

two differences.

Chapter 7,

verse 16,

and God had commanded them,

but then the Lord

shut him in.

The writer's here

showing us,

hey,

it's not,

God is all-powerful,

but the one who saves

is a relational God.

The one who saves

isn't just power,

it's presence,

it's being with

his people.

It tells you something else,

Noah himself

could not have

shut that door.

The Lord,

can you imagine,

the family gets on,

it's starting to flood,

the water is starting

to go up,

the boat's starting

to move,

and then his wife

will say,

Noah,

get everyone on,

close the door,

close the door,

and then Noah runs

and closes the door,

but he's 600 years old,

so he's probably

running quite slowly,

and then eventually

he closes the door,

and then it's like,

did you close it properly?

Are you sure?

Because if we have a leak,

we could have a problem.

It is not that.

Sometimes we,

as Christians,

we think,

okay,

what do I need to do

to be saved?

Do I need to do

the best that I can?

And then you might

ask that question,

is it enough?

Am I being good enough?

Am I reading the Bible enough?

Am I praying enough?

From this story of old,

that is not the way

you get saved.

The way you get saved

is if God looks at you

and has favor on you.

You then trust

and obey him

and follow his instructions,

and the Lord

will ultimately be the one

that shuts you in.

Can you imagine

that door would have been

so heavy,

too heavy for Noah

to close,

and yet God,

the Lord,

sorry,

is the one

who shuts him in.

Can you imagine

just the assurance

that he would have felt?

Oh,

thank goodness

it's not down to me.

I have that same fear

when my wife tells me,

did you close all the windows?

Did you clean the toilet?

And I'm like,

yes?

And yet Noah here

knows for sure,

I had nothing to do with this.

The Lord is the one

who's shutting us in.

If we're going to survive,

it's going to be because of him.

It's because he shut the door.

One last thing

I want to show us.

We look at this

and we see some

of the misconceptions

that we had

about our own faith,

about ourselves.

We thought that maybe

we are kind of good people.

This passage tells us

we are not.

There is total depravity.

We are not capable

of pure,

good thoughts.

Even our best intentions

and our best actions

are still laced

with selfishness

and fear

and insecurity

and pride.

Total depravity

is what we see here.

We don't find favor

because we are

an A plus student.

We find favor

because God shows us favor.

And yet then

our response is obedience.

Our response is obedience

in light of when

we're told to do something

that doesn't really

truly make sense.

And from that,

the Lord saves us

and shuts us in.

But there's one

final thing here.

If we go back

to chapter 6,

verse 18,

God tells him

to build the ark

and he gives him

the dimensions.

Remember,

he doesn't have

an instruction manual.

Maybe that's why

it takes so long.

He does not have

Gemini to help him.

But then after that,

verse 18,

God says this,

but I will establish

my covenant with you

and you shall come

into the ark.

It's the first time

the word covenant

is used.

This relational God,

this God of love,

that's about to pour out

his wrath

onto creation.

Says,

I will give you

a promise.

If you trust me,

if you obey me,

I promise you,

you and your family

will be saved.

Would you come

into the ark?

Wait,

God,

you're already

in the ark?

Why are you saying

come into the ark?

You should say

build the ark

and go into the ark.

But yet you tell me

to come in

to the ark.

Brothers and sisters,

this is where we see

the foreshadowing

of Christ.

Where Christ says,

come,

abide

in me.

I am the ark.

I am the only way

that you can be saved.

Not that friendly

neighbor

who's giving you

cookies

while she's trying

to build the ark.

Sadly,

she won't make it.

Not just because,

because it can't just be

because she's a kind

person.

Not how you are

striving to be

that grade A

student.

That's not going to

help you.

The only way

that we can be saved

is if we get

into the ark.

You realize something.

When we look at

Christianity,

when we look at

how we live,

we're always thinking

about how do we

earn our way there?

How do we not

break the rules

is what we're

trying to say.

And again,

I think we need

to tweak it a little bit.

That when we're

breaking the rules,

we haven't got this

angry God who's

trying to punish us.

When we're breaking

his rules,

what we're actually

doing is we're

breaking his heart.

And again,

every parent knows

this.

When you tell

your child,

don't do that.

Don't touch

that hot stove.

Okay?

From this moment

forth,

this is one of

the commandments

in the kitchen.

Do not touch,

do not put your

hand into that

thing that's

called the oven.

Do not do it.

And then you see

your children do it.

Because that's

what we do.

Right?

And then what

happens?

Yes,

they broke the rule,

but they've also

broke themselves,

their hand.

But most of all,

they've broken

your heart as a

parent.

Right?

Because they

didn't trust you.

And in doing

so,

they've hurt

themselves.

When we see

it that way,

we realize that

actually God is

a God of promise.

God is a God

of relationship.

God is a God

of love.

And he is the

one who shuts

us in.

It says,

everything dies.

Everything

goes.

He starts

again.

But next week,

we're going to see

actually some hope.

We're going to see

what he means

when he talks

about,

I'm never going

to do this

again.

We're going to

see what he

means when he

puts the

rainbow into

the sky.

We're going to

see what he

means when

creation starts

again.

But for now,

I want us just

to stop here.

There is going

to come a time

where the Lord

is going to

say,

I'm going to

shut the door

and it's going

to be too

late.

In that moment,

we won't have

a chance anymore.

It's in this

moment that we

can still say,

Christ,

I follow you.

I trust you.

And only you,

I realize you

are the only

way for me

to survive

is if I

obey you,

if I worship

you,

if I believe

in you.

I don't know

where you are

on the scale

of kind of

full-blown

sinner or

kind of sinner

or doing well,

trying your best,

but still sinner.

I'm here saying

it doesn't really

matter.

We all fall

short of the

glory of God.

but,

it doesn't,

again,

but,

but,

but,

but we all

justified freely

by his grace

as a gift

through the

Lord Jesus

Christ.

Get into

the ark.

Get into

the ark

before it's

too late.

It is in

Christ alone

that we can

be saved.

And you

might still

have questions

about the

wrath of God.

You might

still have

questions about

the love

of God.

And that's

where I

point you

to the

cross,

where the

wrath of

God and

the love

of God

meets.

Because the

God is also

God of

justice.

But in

that one

moment on

the cross,

he fulfills

both.

Mankind

can only be

saved by

clinging on

to the

tree.

Let us

pray.

Amen.

as we

finish up

here,

instead of

responding in

song,

we're going