Someone put together a list entitled:
"All I Really Need To Know I Learned From Noah's Ark"
o Noah didn't wait for his ship to come in, he built one.
o Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
o Stay fit. When you're 500 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.
o Speed isn't always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board the ark, but so were the snails.
o Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals.
o No matter how bleak it looks, if God is with you, there's always a rainbow on the other side/
o And above all else... don't miss the boat.
There are many things to be learned from this story of Noah and the Ark, but most folks won't learn them because they don't believe what the Bible said about it.
The Bible is very clear about the facts of the story:
Mankind had become unbelievably evil... so much so that God was grieved and filled with pain and decided to send a flood to destroy all of mankind. BUT God found one man named Noah, and his family, who were worth saving.
God instructed Noah to build a huge box of a boat called an ark and brought the animals to be saved to Noah. The floods came, the ark rose, and the whole earth was covered with water. Noah and his family stayed on board the ark for the better part of a year, and once they came off the boat God promised He'd never flood the earth again.
And you know it really isn't that hard to believe the Bible account. Over 270 cultures around the world still have ancient stories about a great flood, and most of them tell the same story:
* Man became corrupt
* The Flood was worldwide
* Eight people were survived the flood
* Representatives of all land animals were saved
* A dove was released to find dry land
* The survivors came down from a mountain to repopulate the whole world
* And the hero's name is often a variant of Noah:
Nu-u; Nu-Wah; Noh, Nos; and Nuh
Historians have a rule of thumb they follow when encountering stories that are repeated across many cultures which seem to agree on so much. If there are this many facts that agree... the story's probably true.
Now, the question for us this morning is this:
What does God want US to learn from this true story?
Well 1st, God wants us to understand that Mankind had become unbelievably evil.
You gotta be really bad for God to get THIS ticked off.
God described it this way: "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 the time." Genesis 6:5
And just in case He wasn't clear enough, God repeated Himself a few verses later:
"Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth." Genesis 6:11-13
There was no kindness in these people.
No compassion.
Genesis 6:5 sums it up this way:
"... every inclination of the thoughts of (man¡¦s) heart was only evil all the time."
They couldn't even THINK clean thoughts. Unless they could hurt someone, or gain advantage over someone, or they could tell a foul joke or make an obscene gesture... they just weren't happy. Life was cheap and honor was despised.
You can see evidence of this kind of thinking down through history.
Just in the past century we've had Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Cambodia and North Korea. These were entire societies that considered others to be worthless and disposable.
Even our own country - a land dedicated to freedom and dignity - we've had slavery and Ku Klux Klans and Black Panthers and that doesn't even begin mention all the children who have been killed by abortions in the past 5 decades.
Then there have been politicians and judges and religious leaders who have betrayed us and abused our trust.
THAT was what it was like in the world of Noah's day.
Anybody who had any trace of niceness just didn't have a chance.
Nice folks were either corrupted or killed.
Morality was not to be tolerated - it made too many people uncomfortable.
After all, who appointed YOU to be judge over me?
Who made YOU God with the right to say what was is moral or immoral?
It got so bad that after a while, people stopped thinking in terms of something being right and wrong and just tried to "get by" and "fit in." Because if they didn't "fit in" things could get scary in a big hurry.
(PAUSE)
But there was one guy that refused to fit in.
In a world that was unbelievably evil... this man was unquestionably righteous.
His name was Noah.
Genesis 6:8 says "Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
And the next verse says "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." Genesis 6:9
In fact Noah was such a righteous man that - centuries later - God told Israel that "...even if these three men - Noah, Daniel and Job - were in (a nation God was judging), they could save only themselves by their righteousness." Ezekiel 14:14
But what made Noah so righteous?
What made him different than everybody else?
The answer is found in Genesis 6:9 where we're told that: "he walked with God"
What does that mean?
What does it mean that "he walked with God"
It meant that he spent the majority of his time with God.
He didn't just give God his weekends. Everywhere he walked, he took God along with him.
Every day of the week, Noah not only believed that God existed. He believed that God cared for him and was interested in every aspect of his life.
Every day of the week, Noah spent time praying to God. He wasn't just sporadically praying... he was talking to God all through the day.
And every day of the week Noah made a conscious decision to follow God.
And he taught his family to live like that too.
He practiced being with God so much that once God chose him to build the ark we're repeatedly told that Noah "...did ALL that God commanded him" (Genesis 6:22; 7:5,9,16).
Whatever God told Noah to do... that's exactly what he did.
Now THIS is important.
Noah did everything God told him to do... even when it seemed crazy to do it.
Hebrews 11:7 says that "By faith Noah, when warned about THINGS NOT YET SEEN, in holy fear built an ark to save his family."
If you're going to walk with God you've got to be willing to follow Him all the way.
And if you do that people around you are going to tell you you're crazy.
* You'll end up making choices they would not make.
* You'll choose not to take advantage of another person.
* You'll choose not attend this bar or that party.
Do you think people around Noah laughed at him and made fun of him? He's building a huge boat out in the middle of nowhere! People laughed. And then he goes and tells them God is angry with them and he reminds them of their immorality and selfishness.
The ark was a constant reminder of Noah's message of condemnation.
You know, when people find themselves being condemned they tend to do more than just laugh... they tend to get kinda nasty.
That's what Jesus indicated we'd face if we took our faith seriously:
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:10-12
Why would people persecute the followers of Jesus? Well, because our lives (if we live them right) are a constant reminder of their condemnation. As Paul told the Christians of his day: we are the smell of death to those who are perishing. II Corinthians 2:16
ILLUS: When my sister Barb was alive, there was a long period of time where she didn't live a godly life. She was a partier and she did many things I'd just as soon not describe to you here.
But then, one day, she decided she was tired of that life. She wanted to come back to God. She bought herself a Children's Bible because she wanted to reacquaint herself with the Bible stories she'd grown up with. She began to go to church and had a Bible study at her apartment.
But she still liked a lot of the people she'd once spent time with, and she'd go to some of their parties. Only now, she didn't drink and get drunk. She'd carry a cup of Pepsis around with her as she visited and laughed with her old friends.
But at one party a man approached her and was obviously offended at her. Pointing to her Pepsi she said "what the matter? You too good to drink with us?"
She hadn't said anything that would have condemned him. But her actions made him feel the wrongness of what he was doing... and he was very angry about it. And that's what happens when we live our lives for God. We offend people. And they get ticked off and they might even try to find ways of getting back at us.
As I was researching the sermon to find pictures about Noah and the Ark to display on the overhead, I ran across this picture of the Ark. And written on the side of the picture were these words:
"Ah yes, the uplifting story where God massacres every living creature on the planet, including millions of men, women and every single living child. How charming. Because he loved them."
Now that message showed up on a few sites on the internet in various forms.
Does that offend you?
It offended me.
And I was offended because it assumes that those who died in the flood didn¡¦t deserve to suffer judgment. They were just innocent by-standers.
But these folks weren't innocent!!!
They were so corrupt that God couldn't stand it.
ILLUS: Have you ever gone into your kitchen, picked up a loaf of bread to make toast, reached inside and pulled out a piece of bread and noticed that the bread wasn't a normal color? There was green stuff growing on it.
What do you do with it?
Well, you throw the whole loaf away. It was decayed... moldy... not edible.
If you're like me, the sight of that moldy bread revolted you. You couldn't get that bag in the garbage fast enough.
There's even been a couple times that I'd forgotten about a bag of bread and I didn't even have to open the bag up to see that the bread was a sickening shade of green. I felt as if I needed to put on gloves and gingerly pick the bag up before depositing it in the nearest hazardous waste dispenser.
That's how the earth looked to God in the days of Noah. It was moldy, decayed, corrupt.
"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 the time." Genesis 6:5
So, these folks weren't innocent. They were evil.
And they weren't by-standers.
They weren't just hanging around not knowing what was happening.
They'd been warned!
2 Peter 2:5 tells us that "Noah (was) a preacher of righteousness."
Noah was not just a ship builder... he was a preacher, a prophet, a declarer of judgment. He verbally told folks what was going to happen.
It's worth noting that God had NOT completely given up on these people. The ark would have had to have been a major tourist attraction. Folks would have come for 100s of miles to see this man building a huge boat out in the middle of no place. And whenever people came by... Noah would have the same message
"Repent! Change! Seek God! There's a flood coming. And if you don't repent you'll drown!"
And even when the ark was completed and Noah and the animals were on board... God waited.
Genesis 7:10 tells us God waited 7 days: "...after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth."
(Pause) You mean to tell me that God might have spared those people in Noah's day? Well yeah!
Do you remember the story of Jonah and the whale?
God wanted Jonah to go to and an unbelievably wicked city called Nineveh and declare that God would destroy them if they didn't repent. But Jonah didn't like Nineveh - and he had no desire that they should repent and be saved. So he caught a boat going to a place as far as he could get away from that city.
God decided Jonah needed to think that over, so He caused a great storm to nearly sink his ship and Jonah was thrown into the sea where a huge whale swallowed him. As he spent the next 3 days and nights inside the belly of that whale, Jonah did some thinking and he decided it was time to obey God.
He went into the city of Nineveh and began to preach. It took him three days to walk all the way through the city. And his message was very simple. He told the Ninevites that they had 40 days to repent or God would destroy them.
So, did God destroy Nineveh?
No.
The people were so frightened by God's message that they fasted and repented in sackcloth and ashes.
And God spared their city.
But in the days of Noah nobody did that.
Nobody fasted. Nobody repented.
They were too far gone, they were too corrupt, they were too jaded by their sins.
Even with Noah preaching for so many years, and the ark standing as a testimony to God's intentions, nobody changed. Nobody repented.
I can visualize them mockingly looking up at the sky and saying:
"I don't see any storm clouds. I don't feel any drops of rain."
They ignored the warnings because they refused to believe God. And that reaction is as old as the earth itself. II Peter 3 tell us: "... in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, 'Where is this "coming" he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.'
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men." 2 Peter 3:3-7
The people in Noah's day couldn't see the rain and they didn't want to change.
And so they died.
And the fate of many at the end of time will be the same as in the days of Noah.
There will be judgment... and there will be destruction.
And people will have no excuse on that day.
They will not be innocent bystanders.
God had Noah warn the people of his day so that those people would have a chance to change. God didn't want them to perish. We're told He was grieved and pained in His heart.
As II Peter 3:9-10 tells us: "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come - like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare."
CLOSE: As I was pondering on the passages in the Bible that referred to flood I concluded that every single one of them spoke of God's judgment. Every single passage about the flood in Scripture told of man's sin and God's condemnation. Every single passage told of evil of man and the destruction brought by God.
Every single passage... except one.
In I Peter 3:20-22 we're told that:
"God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also¡X not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand, with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him."
Every other passage spoke of judgment and condemnation.
But this one speaks of hope and salvation.
The difference?
In this passage Noah's ministry was linked with that of Jesus.
The Ark was a shelter for the saved of Noah's day.
It was built of wood and had only one door.
And that one door was ONLY way in and the only way out.
But the Bible says Jesus has built a shelter for us as well.
It's called the church.
Not a building like the one we're meeting in, but the body of believers who meet here.
That church is built upon the wood of the cross of Calvary.
And that church has only ONE door. And that door is Jesus.
One person described it this way:
"Noah held a hammer in his hand
Jesus absorbed the blows of a hammer upon His hand
Noah built with wood
Jesus was pinned to wood
Noah constructed a door
Jesus said... "I am the door" (John 10:7)
Noah covered the ark with a pitch
Jesus covered us with His blood."
The lesson from the story and the flood is that there is a coming judgment.
There will be a time when God's patience with us will run out.
And when that time comes will you be inside the shelter of God's protection... or will you be on the outside and face His judgment?
The choice is yours.
INVITATION
