Future Grace

Future Grace, Genesis 9:8-17

Introduction

Some years ago several congressmen, who were devout Christians, were taking a walk one evening. Their conversation drifted to the subject of religion and the state of the world. They were not enthusiastic about the outlook and were just about to agree that the whole world was on the toboggan when they chanced to pass a little chapel. From within came the words of a familiar hymn: “There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

As his face lighted up, one said to the others, “As long as people get together and sing that song, there is hope for the world, after all.”

Transition

Today we will discuss that great flood which emanates from beneath the Cross of Calvary; that is, the flood of grace which flows crimson red; the blood of Jesus Christ! We will also look back to a parallel account in the Scriptures; the flood of Noah’s day. Upon examining the biblical account of both, I am compelled to believe that we will see plainly a parallel in God’s dealing with humanity.

Looking back to the flood of Noah reminds us that God is holy and deals with sin. He must deal with it as He can not look upon that which is impure or ugly in His sight. In the flood of Noah’s Day God washed away sin in a great deluge. The message of the Old Testament is not that God is vengeful and desires to destroy humanity. The message is that God must and always does deal with sin.

In the modern Church age – the dispensation of grace – God cleanses sin according to His mercy that has been poured out, flooding the earth, by the blood of Jesus Christ. Both our identification with Christ blood in His death, burial, and resurrection and the great flood of Noah’s day are symbolized in the washing of baptism as our sin is washed away according to God’s sovereign decree.

In baptism is found the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Noah that He would never again destroy the earth as He had done. Rather than again washing sin away in a great deluge that consumed the whole earth; God’s grace now covers the whole earth through Christ’s blood and we identify with that blanket of grace by faith in Christ; even as we identify with His in baptism.

The Lord flooded the earth in Noah’s day just as He floods it in ours!

Exposition

Today’s message is one of parallels. In Genesis 6:9-12 it says, “This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 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.” (NIV)

The Bible says that in the days of Noah people had abandoned worship of God in favor of violence and corruption. Are these days any less corrupt and violent than the days of Noah? Certainly corruption and violence reins upon much of the world today, just as in the days of Noah. And just as God dealt with the sin of the world in that day He is dealing with in ours.

The Bible also records another parallel with the flood of Noah. There is coming a great day of judgment in which God will judge the nations and all of the peoples of the earth according to their deeds. In that day, just as in the days of Noah, only those who have been called according to God’s grace will withstand the judgment.

In Noah’s day he and his family were spared on the account of Noah’s righteousness. In that great and terrible day which is coming, all humanity will be judged according to their works and unlike in the days of Noah, those redeemed will be those who are found in Christ and judged according to His righteousness. Glory to God! Of that great and terrible day we need not have any fear.

On that Day of Judgment, those people who are found alive in Christ shall be just as the family of Noah, who were shown grace according to faith and escaped judgment. Our hope however, lies not in a boat made of the wood of the cypress tree, but in the power of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ who hung upon the tree of Calvary!

Revelation 20:11-15, says, “Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.” (NET)