Deserved the Flood, Received the Ark

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Good afternoon. It’s so good to be here and to be with you all. I know how hard it can be to come to a women’s conference and even just get out of the house. So thank you for coming. A few years ago, I was on my way to a women’s retreat, and I call it the women’s retreat. I never made it to. I was driving along the road, I was about 30 minutes into my journey. When all of the sudden my car started doing something that it had never done before. The word I say is that it started undulating. It was the strangest thing I had ever felt. And I hope you never feel it, because I have lost complete control of my car. When I was I couldn’t, the brakes weren’t working. And to my right looms, a huge 18 Wheeler. And to my left was the guardrail. And I was in a 70 mile per hour zone, probably going at least 70 miles an hour. My car thankfully veered left, I hit the guardrail, I spun a 360. And I landed in the fast lane at every single moment, and it felt like it was like five minutes, it’ll happen in like 30 seconds. At every single moment, I was in my car cringing thinking, This is it, I am going to die. Someone is going to hit me. And so then I’m sitting in the fast lane. And I’m trying to move my car forward. What I did not know was that my axle had split off the front axle had split apart, my wheels were pointing in different ways, there was no way that I could move my car. So I recognized it was a very bad thing to be sitting in the fast lane part. So I got out, I kind of shoved myself out because the whole side was crush, I got out. And by the time I got out a couple had crossed the highway, and the woman looked at me with tears in her eyes. And she said, I didn’t think anyone was getting out of that car alive. And I looked back at her with tears in my eyes. And I said I didn’t either. My husband came a few minutes, as he drove to come get me when my husband came. And when he saw me and he saw the car, he gave me the biggest hug. And we went home that night. And you know, I didn’t really even think about the conference I was missing. all I felt was joy at what I had been saved from, I knew my situation could have been much, much worse. And there is something about remembering what we’ve been saved from that fuels our joy. And that’s what this whole conference is about. We want to remember our salvation so that it can fuel our joy. And we’re going to look at these Old Testament salvation stories. And we’re going to look at how they point us to our better salvation in Christ. And so tonight, we’re going to be looking at the story of Noah and the ark. It’s probably a story that you have heard many times, there was a silent film and the 1920s There’s been a mini series a movie, there’s even an Argentine Italian animated comedy adventure film from the animals point of view. This is a story that has been told time and time again. And we kind of have a sort of romanticized view of this story. But if COVID taught us anything, and I was studying this passage a lot and COVID if COVID taught us anything, the thought of being with your family for a full year on an ark with a bunch of animals, and no Amazon Prime, and no UberEATS. And I have no idea what they did for toilet paper. No idea. But it’s probably not the romanticized version that we often think of. And so we’re going to look at this passage and I’m going to tell you right now, it’s kind of a hard place to start. Because this is a story of divine judgment. And we’re gonna look at it and it’s a sobering picture. It’s not the pastel nursery rhyme book that we might think of. And so we’re gonna dig into it. So if you will open your Bibles and turn to Genesis six That’s where we’re going to be tonight. And while you’re getting there, if you are an outline taker, I love outlines. So I’m going to give you one, we’re going to look at this passage through three lenses. The first is that God is just there for some salvation is needed. The second one is God is gracious, therefore salvation is provided. And then finally we’re gonna close with God is powerful. Salvation is effective, is that that’s what we’re going to do. And I’ll keep repeating those throughout the talk. So let’s read Genesis six, five through 14, Read along with me. 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 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. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 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 j phi. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence, and God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them, Behold, I will destroy them with the earth make for yourself an ark of gopher would make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. Okay, as we start reading this passage, I want you to think about where we are in the Bible. We are five chapters away from it is all good. five chapters, and now what are we here? The wickedness of man was great. every intention of his heart was only evil continually. The earth was corrupt and filled with violence, everything that was so good, and these people that were supposed to fill the earth with the glory of the Lord, they have filled the earth with violence. And let me say what we learn about what God how God responds, the first thing, he sees the wickedness. Look at verse six, five, the Lord saw the wickedness, he’s not far removed, he sees the wickedness, he is grieved by the wickedness, and he acts to punish the wicked this. This is the full orbed justice of God, he sees, he is grieved, and he moves to punish it. Sin does not make God pleased. He because he is fully holy, will move and will act to give a penalty for any sin. And this is exactly what we would expect of a good judge, we would expect a good judge to hold people accountable for their actions. And I think it’s also important to note as we look at this passage, God did not act right away. Notice he gave know what time to build this arm, so his justice will come. But it doesn’t always come when we expect it to come, but it will come and so let’s go to Genesis 717. Turn with me there. And we’re going to look at how God brings justice. The flood continued 40 days on the earth, and then down to 21. And all flesh died, that moved on the earth birds livestock beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all mankind. Everything on dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He brought it out every living thing that was on the face of the ground man and animals and creepy things of birds of the heaven. They were all wadded out from the Earth. Only Noah was left and those who were with him in the ark. It is difficult to imagine such a terrifying flood. In 2004, Maria Malone and her her family were in Thailand with a 9.1 earthquake struck underground and call them that caused a massive tsunami. They were at the pool with her family. And this is what she described. She said, I heard a very horrible sound. No one recognized it. It felt like the Earth was coming apart. But everything looks perfect. She saw a huge black wall coming towards them, and the water crashed down and rip through the hotel. Her story was told in the movie the impossible. And it tells a story of their family and how they got separated by the flood and how they finally found it. When I watched the opening scene of the tsunami, I was struck with that is probably what Noah’s Flood was much more like than the romanticized version, we often paint of these cute little animals coming to the ark. This was a cataclysmic event. This was an act of divine judgment, and it was terrifying. It was absolutely terrifying. I think we downplay the storytime times. Because as much as we want the justice of God, we’re really, really uncomfortable talking about the judgment of God. I got to admit, I’m a little uncomfortable talking about the justice of God. I mean, I’m like, we’re 10 minutes into a women’s conference, and I’m getting to you ready to use the word wrath. It’s not comfortable. And I want to discuss three reasons. I think this isn’t comfortable for us. And the first is that I sometimes think that we think words like judgment and justice and rather unbecoming to who God is. We need to like neaten up God, and make him look better. Kind of like when you’re at your home, and you’re having people over for dinner. And you know, you look around your kitchen, and you’re like, this place is a mess. And you start taking everything and what don’t we do? We shove it in drawers, we shove it in closets, and we hope, I hope they do not open that closet, because everything might fall out. And I think we sometimes do this with the character of God. We take things like justice and wrath, the notion of hell, and we put him in a little closet. And we don’t want to take it out for the guests to see. Here’s the problem with that. Every single part of who God is, is what you need. There is nothing in God that is not good. There is nothing in God, that is not what you need. Nothing in him that is revealed should be hidden. Because all of who he is, is what we desperately need. I think our problem when we think about these terms like judge judgment and wrath and justice, is we think about God too much like who we are, you know, we think about his wrath kind of like us getting cut off in traffic. And we want to like sack the person. That’s not God. J I Packer has a book called knowing God, it’s excellent, I highly recommend reading it. And he has a whole chapter on the wrath of God. And here’s what he said. God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious self and diligent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is, it is instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. God is only angry where anger is called for all God’s indignation is righteous. God is completely different, and he is always right. And how he judges I think the second reason we’re uncomfortable with these terms is that we sometimes have a mistaken view of the Old Testament in the New Testament. We kind of think of the Old Testament God like this rumpy God, and he’s angry, and he’s send it on fire, and he’s sending them floods. And then we get to the New Testament God and we like him. And we say, Oh, he’s love, and he’s mercy and he’s grace. The scriptures clearly teach us that the Lord does not change. He does not change. There is no difference between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God. And in fact, if we look at the words of Jesus in the New Testament, Jesus speaks of judgment and hell more than any other New Testament author. And I think it’s because he so desperately wants to save us from it, that he speaks of it so much. Listen, turn with me. You can to Matthew 2437. These are Jesus’s words, and he’s harkening back to the flood, Matthew 2437, for as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving a marriage until the Day when no it in or the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So what will be with the coming of the Son of Man, then two men will be in the field one will be taken in one left, two women will be grinding at the no one will be taken on one left, therefore stay awake. For you do not know what day your Lord is coming. Jesus warns us just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be with the coming of the Son of Man, it’s gonna come when people do not expect it. And let me read to you from Revelation, I want you to listen really clearly to this. Because we often go to Revelation as hopeful Christians. But I want you to hear what Revelation has to say for those who do not know Jesus. This is Revelation 615 Didn’t the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains of the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of the wrath is common who can stand? Do you hear what that is? Who’s the lamb? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For those who have longed for his appearing this day is glorious. For those who have not this day is terrifying to hear what they’re asking, give us a natural disaster. So we do not have to look into the face of the Lamb. They would prefer a natural disaster. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are not different. They are calling out to us with the same concerns and the same warnings. This leads us to the third reason I think we’re uncomfortable with the judgment of God. While we may want God to judge the people out there. We are deeply concerned that he may judge the sin in here. Because we all know that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We know that on this day of judgment on our own merits, none can stand. None of us can. The real question before us in this text is not why did God judge all the people of the world? The real question for us in the text is why did he save Noah? Why did God save Noah? That’s gonna be a sore second point. But before we get to our second point, what I want to say is praise God, there’s a second point. Think about it. God is holy and God is good. He could have immediately brought down justice and said we’re done with this. There’s a second point and the reason their second point is because God is gracious. So salvation is provided. Let’s look back at the text. No, but no found favor in the eyes of the Lord that word favor can be also translated grace. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We’re told that he was a righteous man. He was blameless in his generation, he walked with God. So we may read this passage and conclude, okay, so you’re telling me if I’m just good enough, and work hard enough and walk with God enough and I’m righteous enough, I’m going to be okay and I’m going to be saved. That is actually not what this passage is telling us. There are two ways we could read this. You could read it with this first thing and say, No, it was a righteous man. Therefore he found favor We’re in the eyes of the Lord. However, the text is actually pointing us to a different conclusion. And it’s this the Lord favor Noah. Therefore Noah was a righteous man. Do you see the difference? God acted towards Noah with His Grace, God moved forward to know what’s his grace first. And that change? Noah was life. Now, you may wonder, okay, I think I kind of see that in the text. So let’s turn this is really important turns to Hebrews 11, because this is going to interpret this passage for us. If we are asking the question, what does it take to please God? Why did no up please God turn with me to Hebrews 11 Six. Let’s read what it says. And without faith, it is impossible to please some, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists, and he rewards those who seek them by faith. Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen and reverent fear constructed an arc for the saving of his household by this, he contend, condemned the world. And listen to this became an air of righteousness that comes by his good works. That comes by faith. Do you hear that? Noah was a person of faith, and that’s how he was righteous. Now you may rightly ask, but what was his faith in? What was he hoping in? Well, he was hoping in that promise, see, that we just talked about from Genesis 315, the One who would come and crush the serpent’s head, he looked forward, we look back, he looked forward to what Christ would do. He had faith in what would come he looked forward. Well, we look back, and the text actually tells us is that Hebrews 1113, These all died in faith, not having received the things promised. But having seen them, and greeted them from afar. God rescued Noah by grace through faith, just like he rescues you in May. The second thing about this text that shows us God’s graciousness towards Noah is the whole structure of the texts. If I were an English teacher, and I were going to ask you, what’s the main point of this text? You could tell me a few different things. You could say this passage is about man with man’s wickedness. You could tell me it’s about God’s justice, you could tell me it’s about God’s power over creation or Noah’s faithfulness. But here’s the thing about this text. It’s actually written in a Hebrew form called a chiasm. It’s the structure of the text. And you can see it on the side. Here’s how chiasm works. It works with parallel accounts. So notice, if you look, God plans to destroy mankind, and six, seven niches, the parallel account is that God promises to never destroy all living things by a flood. We have God builds the Ark and 614 we have God builds an altar and 820 Do you see how these are parallel things and what this is showing us is de creation, to recreation, de creation to recreations, everything here shows the world being destroyed. Everything here shows recreation. And here’s the thing about the chiasm. And here’s the reason I’m talking about it. What’s really nice about it at the very middle of a chiasm, it tells you exactly what the text is about. Eight one, this is what this passage is about. Not divine judgment, not destruction of all the world, not the evilness of man, this text is about God remembered. Noah. You see the grace, the whole point of this story for you and for me, is to remind us that God remembered Noah. Now you may ask, does that mean that God had somehow forgotten about Noah when he was on that arc for half a year? One theologian says it this way, the essence of Gods remember remembering lies and his acting towards someone because of a previous commitment. God had made a covenant with Noah. And so therefore God fulfilled his promise. This passage is here to remind us if God makes a promise to you, he will remember it And let me say this promise to Noah was actually a continuation of his promise to Adam and Eve in the garden. Think about it with me. If everyone had been destroyed in the flood, if God had not put his grace on Noah, what would have happened to the Promised One, everyone would have been gone. So God remembers Noah because he remembers his former promise. So we can hold to the fact that God will be true to his word, he will remember his people, and he will not forget. And so this leads us to our last point, and this is where we’re going to end on is that God is powerful. Salvation is effective. So if we’re wondering, because this is the real question before us, okay, I know that Noah was saved by faith. So how can I be saved by faith, and I want us to look at three things about God’s power and how it works out in our lives. God’s salvation is effective in that it saves us from since penalty, since power, and eventually it will save us from sins presents, since penalties since power, and eventually it will save us from sins presents. So the first thing I think that’s very evident in this passage is that Noah was saved from sins pencil penalty, God had him construct an arc, and it brought him safely home. And so this is the promise that is given to each of us. And I want you to hear this clearly. The scriptures clearly say, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. That’s it. You might look at me, and you might say, you don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know how much I failed. You don’t know what my life is about. And what I want to say, here’s the good news. It’s not about you. It’s about the soundness of your Ark. What matters is that your Ark is sound, not who’s on the ark. And so the good news for us is that Christ can heal whatever our sins are. Listen to me Listen to this passage from First Peter 224. And He Himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds, you were healed. Here’s what happens at the cross. There’s a divine exchange. Christ takes all the punishment for everything that you’ve done wrong. The cross acts like a divine sponge, and it takes up all the wrath of God, and there is none left over for you. And here’s the good news. The justice that you might fear from point one, now becomes your surety. Because guess what? Because God is just, he would never ask you to pay twice for the same son. He is not a God of double jeopardy. So when you look at your said, and you think I’m not sure, if Christ has paid it for it, it’s gone. It’s fully covered. So now, what you once feared you once feared the justice of God. Now it becomes your very hope. Because he is just he will never make you pay for your sin. Here this good news. We deserve the flood. And we are given the ark. And his name is Jesus. It’s the best news. It’s the best news and we have to understand the bad news, if we’re going to understand the good news. So let me say this to each of you tonight, the question of your life is am I in the arc? Am I N Christ? Do not leave this room? If you’re watching at home, do not go to bed tonight. Without considering this question. Am I in Christ? It is the only question that matters in your life. It is the only thing that matters in your life. Because one day that flood is going to come just like Jesus promise he is going to return and we want to be those who long for His coming. So I asked you put your faith in Christ and For those of you who know Christ, I want to ask you, who in your life, will you tell? Please get on the ark. We have a lot of hurricanes in North Carolina. And when we have them, there’s this you know, phone chain that starts to happen, we start to tell one or the other, hey, you know, there’s gonna be this hurricane, do you have water? You know, I have a generator, you know, we start all talking to each other because we know this thing’s coming. I think sometimes we have lost our urgency to tell people, there is a storm coming. And so I want you to think right now, who in your life needs Jesus? Who in your life needs Jesus? And who can you commit to praying for and sharing Jesus with? And I want you to even think about how can you live your life differently? How can you think about who to share your faith with when you go to the store? When you go to the drugstore, or the market or wherever you go? How can you be thinking, who can I share with you about Jesus? Secondly, God’s salvation frees us from the power of sin. So this is a really interesting thing about this passage, we can clearly see that Noah was saved from the penalty of sin. But we actually see God’s power at work and Noah’s life in this, he continually obeys God’s word. Look with me at Genesis 614, God speaks. He says, make yourself an ark of gopher wood. And then no response in verse 22. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. Same thing. In verse seven, chapter seven, the Lord said, go into the ark. And then in Genesis seven, five, it says, Noah did all that the Lord commanded him that here’s the thing, no went into that arc. And seven days pass before any rain came. Can you imagine, might be sitting in there thinking, huh? We’re just sitting here, you built this ark in the middle of of dry lands, and now we’re sitting in the ark. And I just wonder what conversations may have taken place. And here’s the thing obeying God is never going to be easy, or maybe culturally relevant. The reality is people might think we’re crazy. I’m sure they thought that of Noah. But he obeyed God. And this is actually evidence of God’s power at work, and no one not that Noah was such a great person. Do you see the difference? This is evidence that God is working in us, that we start to obey Him and love to obey Him. That’s evidence of his power within us. And that’s what First Peter tells us. Again, that same passage, I just read, he himself worsens in his body, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, his salvation, will have effect in our lives. Now, you may hear that, and you may say, I feel trapped by some. I’m not sure how to fight it. And so let me just say, clearly, God has given us a means of grace by which we can fight sin in our life. It’s kind of like your cell phone. I’m sure someone in this room forgot their cell phone charger this week. And, and that magical little telephone that we have that we carry with us, if it is not plugged in. It will eventually completely stop working. And the reality for us, if we do not abide in the vine, we will not live powerful Christian lives. Jesus said, Abidan me and my words and you and you will bear much fruit apart from me, you can do nothing. We have got to be women who abide if we want to be women who obey. We need Jesus to help us to turn on the power in our lives. Now, let me also give this caveat. This does not mean that Noah was made perfect. Noah had power over sin. But we know a chapter the very next chapter he’s drunk in his tent. No, it was not perfect. But the power of God was at work in him. And so what we can know is that God’s power if we are in Christ who will be at work in us, but we will still struggle with sin. The Lord’s Prayer even presupposes this. I mean, it says, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. We’re going to sin against others, and people are going to sinned against us that’s going to be part of the Christian life because we are not yet freed from sins presents. So this is our last point one day, because God is true to his word, we will be completely free from sins presents. Read with me, this is Revelation 21. This is the best news for all of us who are weary, and tired, and hurting, and longing. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. Do you want a life of joy? You will never get it by looking at your circumstances. Present joy is rooted in a past reality and a future hope. What do I mean by that past reality. The Cross has fully paid for every sin you will ever commit. That’s good news. That can never be taken from you. Everything else in your life can be taken from you. There are no promises. Everything in life can be taken from us. Your salvation can never be taken from you. It’s also based on a future hope. One day Jesus will come again and he will rescue us from the presence of sin. If we want present joy, we have two anchors, this past reality and a future hope. This does not mean we walk around with a Pollyanna pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I’m gonna put a smile on my face and be joyful, no matter what anyone says. No, this means we live the paradox of the Christian life. We are sorrowful yet rejoicing. We’re like Habakkuk, who looked at an army coming upon him. And he said, even though there’s no fruit on the vine, yet, I will rejoice. Where’s he going to take joy, I will take joy in the God of my salvation. The joy we have is so much deeper and so much richer than any temporal happiness we can get because circumstances happen to go our way. This is joy and the Lord that no one can take from us. I want to challenge you, as you go into Indianapolis this week as you eat meals at restaurants as you go into this convention center. Will you let joy be your apologetic? Will it be the thing in a discontent and disgruntled world that makes us shines like stars and the universe? You know, the verse that Peter talks about where he says always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you. Yeah, so we spend all this time studying. So we’ll have the right apologetics to tell someone. But notice what it says. Always be prepared to give a reason for your hope. It’s a hard world. We all are suffering in this world. Every woman in this room bears the effects of the fall. Well, you put your hope, and that past reality, and put your hope in that future. That Jesus is going to come back for us. Put your joy there, and it will shine to the watching world. So I challenge you go out, be people have joy, and then be ready to tell people about your God. And you can tell them that your God is just that your God is gracious, and that your God is powerful. Praise him for that. Let’s pray. Dear God, says, we thank you for who you are. We thank You that You love us enough to rescue us, to save us to come running after us. Lord, you do not leave us to our sons, but you came from heaven to the cross, that we may come from earth to heaven. Let us be people who rejoice. May our joy be seen and felt by those around us. Help us Lord. Let us look to you. Let us look to the God of our salvation and let us rejoice. It’s in your name we pray, Amen.