Today we are continuing our new family series called This is US. Here’s what we know – Everyone has a family and every family has a story. What we want to get pressed deep within our hearts through this series is that God is an integral part in your Family Story. We’re going to take a look at several Bible Families and see, first, that none of them were perfect and, second, that we can see our own Family Story reflected in these families.
Last week we met the crown of God’s creation the first family. From the beginning Adam and Eve were called to live according to God’s plan. God's plan was good. The first family was called to be faithful to God and faithful to one another. They had a wonderful purpose working, taking care of the earth, being fruitful and filling the earth with more worshipers of God. God gave them everything they needed to flourish and be successful. God did not make robots, he made these people with hearts and minds. God placed in the garden the tree of good and evil and forbid them to eat it. Because love and obedience is always a choice that is rooted in faith. Out of love for them God warns them of the consequence of disobeying Him. He said the day that you eat of the fruit if this tree you will surely die. If you were here last week we learned that the picture-perfect family was attacked and deceived by Satan. Satan convinced them that they wouldn’t die they would actually be like God knowing good from evil. Convinced that they where not going to die rather the threat of death was nothing more than a scare tactic to keep Adam and Eve in their place.They chose to believe the lie and saw that the fruit was good for food, a delight to their eyes and that it would make them wise, and they took the fruit and ate. Immediately they felt the guilt and shame of their disobedience and began to see and experience the things the things God was trying to protect them from. God could’ve rightly done what they had done – hide Himself, protect His holiness, and blamed them for not following His commands… And would have been perfectly just. BUT instead of GUILT, God brings GRACE!
Today we meet Noah’s family who 10 generations later are living in a time that had become so wicked, so evil, so corrupt and so violent that God felt that it was necessary judge an entire generation and blot them out from the face of the land.Let’s pick up the story in Genesis 6 verse 5
“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” (Genesis 6:5)
As bad as our world is today, we cannot say it is this bad. As bad as our world is it is not true that “every intention” of the thoughts of every man’s and every woman’s heart are “only evil continually”. But this was the the condition of world in the time of Noah. Moses tells us that the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.This is not the regret you feel when you realize you have made a mistake. When we are sorry about something it is usually because we messed up. God never makes mistakes. God is not sorry for some something bad that He has done. Rather, He is regretful and grieving over these people who has taken everything that God intended to be good, everything that God created for man can flourish and poison it with sin which lead to wickedness, evil, corruption and violence. The only solution is to cleanse the earth, to remove the problem and start over. We begin to see His heart break for the way man turned out. It brought him great sorrow. As a safety manager of the trucking company it would be responsible for me to put that person back to work. When we ask why did God for the Earth we have to consider a world so wicked, so evil, so corrupt and so violent that it would be irresponsible for God to not do something. So God sees fit to wipe the world clean of every trace of humanity, except for the man Noah. What is weaved into the ugliness of their sin and the promise of judgment, is the grace and mercy of God. Look at verse 8
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. (Genesis 6:8-9 ESV)
The first principle for today is
1. “Noah was a righteous man” not because he was perfect, but because he believed God.
Just like Abram who came after Noah, who “believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6),
Noah also believed the Lord. Verse 8 reads: “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” The word translated “favor” here is the Hebrew word hen which means “grace.”
Grace defined is
Grace: 1. The freely given, unmerited favor and love of God. 2. The condition of being in God's favor or one of the elect.
When Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD he found grace. The free, unmerited favor and love of God. The fact that his righteousness came by faith is made unmistakably clear in the New Testament. God tells us in Hebrews
“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:7)
Noah was also described as blameless. Again, Noah was a sinner like everyone else. He deserved the same judgment is all of the men and women in this generation. The curse of Adam had fallen as heavily on Noah as it had on anyone else. The only reason Noah was “blameless in his generation” was because did not engaged in the evil and perversion of his culture. God chose to grace Noah with righteousness and by faith Noah chose not to engage himself in the corruption and violence.
This leads me to our next principle.
2. The gift of God’s grace comes the conviction and power to do what is right.
Noah wasn’t perfect or sinless and neither was his family. But the grace and favor of God comes with the conviction and power to sin less and do what God called him and his family to do.
Verse 12
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 yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. (Genesis 6:12–22)
God communicated two things—a detailed design for the ark and the covenant promise of salvation. The ark was of incredible size. We can visualize it by imagining the length of one and a half football fields! Considering the people corrupt and violent Noah and his family would have been the laughing stock of the community. It would take Noah and his sons 100 years to build the Ark. Imagine the abuse he took! How many Noah jokes do you think people could come up with in a century? Imagine the taunts that came at the expense of Noah and his family
But Noah remained obedient, doing exactly what God said, for twenty-five … fifty … seventy-five … a hundred years.
Finally at the end, as Noah brought supplies into the high and dry ark and collected the animals, we read twice that it all happened “as God had commanded Noah” (7:9, 16). Noah believed God and not his critics. And this is in part what it means to be righteous.
This leads me to my next principle.
3. A righteous Christian rest everything on the reliability of God’s Word and we obey Him.
Noah’s walk with God is not a walk in t he park. For him to walk in obedience to God meant going against the grain of corrupt and violent culture who is marching the opposite direction. Noah believed in God’s promise to him, and it is counted as righteousness.
Salvation
Noah built the ark in faith. He did as he was told. He bought two of every animal and loaded his family safely in the ark. God then closes up the door and He flooded the world.
A deserved judgement because of their constant wickedness, evil, corruption and violence. As the story goes,
The flood lasted 40 days, the waters subsided to reveal dry land and by God's grace Noah and his family are saved. Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. (Genesis 8:20-21)
Jesus, our ark! Today people are still as sinful and deserved of God’s judgment. Romans 3 tells us
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12 ESV)
Peter tells us
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:10 ESV)
This means that just as the days of Noah, God will judge the world again but this time with fire. But the good news is that, just as God did in the days of Noah, He has provided us with a way of escape from this judgment. This story of Noah points us forward to the cross and finds is fulfillment the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This leads me to my next point.
4. Our family’s only rescue is found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is through Jesus were we, like Noah, we too can find “favor in the eyes of the Lord.” And not because of something that we have done to earn it. God gave detailed plans to Noah when building the arc which became what God used to save Noah and his family. In the same way God planned out every detail of the life of Jesus.
God sent Jesus Christ to take our judgement for us and dies in our place. Nicodemus was asking Jesus what he must do to be saves and Jesus tells him he must be born again. Jesus told him;
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. - John 3:17-19
The apostle Paul shares the good news with us in Romans 10 where he writes;
“Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:11-13 ESV)
The day of judgment draws closer every single day. Please hear the words of Jesus;
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.(Luke 17:26-33 ESV)
Peter described Noah as a herald of righteousness in 2 Peter 2:5. Noah’s life preached to his people that judgment was coming. But they rejected that thought and where swallowed up in waters of God’s judgment. You don’t have to be like them. God is offering everyone a way of escape. Today everyone who calls on the name of Jesus and be saved. You CAN find favor in the eyes of the LORD. Like Noah, you CAN be made righteous and with God’s grace comes the conviction and power to live in obedience to Christ—a blameless life.
PRAY
