Noah: Saved From Judgment To Live Under God's Rainbow Series

In Jesus Holy Name May 4,2008

Easter VII Series: O.T. Challenges Redeemer

Genesis 7:24-8:1,15,18,20-21,9:12-13

“Noah: Saved from Judgment to Live under God’s Rainbow”

Today’s message continues were we left off last week in the life of Noah. Noah lived in troublesome times. Mankind had become corrupt and every inclination of the human heart was total and absolute selfishness, bent on evil. God decided to start over. Not from scratch….but pretty close. A flood was sent to destroy all life under the heavens… only eight people survived.

Hebrews 11:7 tells us that Noah was a man of faith. First, he believed that God existed. He believed God and trusted his words. He did what God commanded even though some things were unknown by personal experience.

1) God said; “I am going to destroy the earth and all human beings because they are full of violence, lawlessness. Violence was sweeping the earth and mankind had no inclination to worship God.

2) God said, “Build and ark.” In the middle of no where.

Visualize one man and his 3 young sons building a boat about the size of 1 ½ football fields, about 150 yards long, with hand made tools, trees to be cut and shaped. There was no seaport nearby. No boat ramp. No boat trailer.

Imagine the local conversations. “Strange, Eccentric, a weird fanatic. It took decades to build, all the while answering the questions: “Why?” So Noah told about the coming judgment, he told about the coming flood. He was a preacher of righteousness, much like John the Baptist. (II Peter 2:5)

But remember, no one had ever experienced the things Noah was talking about. No one knew what a flood was. They had never experienced rain.

The first thing Noah had to believe is that Judgment was coming. God needed Noah and his family to survive so that he could fulfill his promise to Adam and Eve to send a savior.

For decades Noah had to listen to the doubters. God told him one time that judgment was coming. God was specific about the type of wood, three decks and each deck was to have special rooms. Food and water had to be stored. Living quarters for Noah’s family had to be built. Once built the inside and outside had to be sealed with some type of tar. There was no rudder, nor sail. One door. Windows around the top.

When the boat was ready God brought the animals to Noah. (Gen. 7:8,15) Then in Gen. 7:16 the bible tells us: “God shut him in”. In the 600th year of Noah’s life, (his children were born when he was 500) it began to rain. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The floodgates of the deep opened up and the waters lifted the ark and it floated on the surface of the water.

Noah was 601 when God told Noah to come out of the Ark with his wife and extended family. (Gen. 8:15) 12 months and 27 days is a long time in a boat with your immediate family and 7000 species of animals.

When Noah stepped off the ark and surveyed the mess, I’m sure he had mixed feelings. Before, his neighbors were top notch sinners. After the flood, he had no neighbors. All he had previously known was gone. Cities were gone. Farms were gone. The sky was different. The whole world before him was empty.

God had told Noah to take 2 unclean animals … a pair each. But when it came to the birds and “clean” animals Noah was to take 7 each, that is 3 pairs and on extra one. Why the extra? (Gen. 8:20)

Because when Noah stepped out of the Ark the first thing he did was offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Using some of the extra animals he offered a burnt offering to God. Noah and his family worshiped God. “Worship is our first responsibility to God. God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving and delight, not duty.” Worship is more than music because God invented all kinds of music, fast and slow, loud and soft, old and new. There are no musical notes in the bible. Every activity, your words of praise, your work, becomes worship when you dedicate it to God. (Rick Warren The Purpose Driven Life)

Everything reflects the glory of God, from the smallest microscopic form of life to the vast Milky Way, from sunsets and stars to storms and seasons. Fall colors to spring flowers and you were created to bring glory to God. You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He custom made your body and determined the natural talents you would possess so that you could bring him glory and worship him.