The Flood Of Noah Series

Genesis (16) (The Flood of Noah)

Text: Genesis 7

By: Ken McKinley

(Read Text)

Now I can’t say that I’ve ever been in a flood. I’ve seen the devastation on TV, but I’ve never actually been in one. I remember a few years back when the Mississippi River flooded. And we all saw what happened to New Orleans when Katrina hit. Well the flood we just read about… it makes everything we’ve ever seen or heard about in our lives look like a joke.

Noah has been building this ark for 120 years, he’s been warning his friends and neighbors that judgment is coming, until finally it’s time. God tells him, that in 7 days He’s going to bring the flood. And this flood wasn’t just a heavy rain. Verse 11 tells us that the fountains of the great deep were broken up. In-other-words, it’s not only pouring down rain, but God has caused geysers to shoot forth from the earth; like a million “Old Faithful’s” erupting all at once. But they’re not shooting steam, they’re shooting water. And the whole earth is covered in water.

Now it’s interesting because there are over 300 cultures that have ancient traditions that tell of a disastrous flood that took place in ancient history. And they come from all over the world. North American Indians, The Incan Indians in South America, tribes in Africa, Aborigines in Australia, Natives in Greenland, the Japanese, Egyptians, the Chinese, the native people of Siberia Russia, and even the Scots… all of them have ancient tales of a catastrophic flood. And these stories go back thousands of years; long before they had any contact with Christian missionaries. There’s a Chinese pictograph from 2500 B.C. that shows a boat with 8 people in a great flood. In India, there is a story involving 8 people, and the main character is described as a “man who was righteous among his generation.”

HELLO? Basically what that tells us is that all of these different stories originated from a common event which has been kept alive through oral tradition, from ancestors who no doubt were descendants of Noah and his sons, as they spread out from Mesopotamia.

Now I want to point out a few things about this story, and ya’ll probably have heard some of this before, but these are some of the things that stick out to me here.

First off, it’s God who initiates salvation. God is going to judge the earth and its inhabitants. But He has grace upon Noah. And He tells Noah, “I’m going to bring judgment, but I’m going to save you.” Noah believes God and his faith is evidenced by his works. Noah goes to work, building the ark, and 2nd Peter 2:5 tells us that not only did Noah spend 120 years building the ark, but also during that time, he was preaching to his friends and neighbors. During that time, Noah was building the ark, and he was probably saying something like, “Look judgment is coming, but if you’ll just get into the ark you’ll be saved. Do you see it? It’s big enough, there’s plenty of room, and we’ll have plenty of food. Now there’s only one door, and you’ve got to through that one door in order to be saved, but if you just will, then you won’t perish in the flood.” Then in verse one of our text we see God give Noah the invitation to “come.” He says, “Come into the ark… you and your whole family.” And that’s awesome, because when Noah went into the ark, he could look behind him and see his whole family following him. His whole family was being saved.

When Peter preached his Pentecost sermon in the Book of Acts, he said, “This promise is to you, but not only to you alone, but you and your whole family.” Now listen moms and dads, grandma’s and grandpa’s. God’s not just interested in you. He wants your families too. I can’t think of anything that would be worse than stepping into heaven and learning that my wife and kids weren’t going to be there too. Especially if it was because I never took the time to share the Gospel with them. Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher from England once said, “If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or un-prayed for.”

Now look at verse 16, once Noah and his family went inside the ark, the LORD shut them in. That has at least 3 implications that I can think of. First of all – God made sure they were secure. They couldn’t get out, and no one could get them out. The door was big enough to let elephants and giraffes go through, so there was no way Noah could shut it. It has to be God saving man, and it’s God who makes us secure. In John 10:28-30 Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” Secondly; once the door was shut, there wasn’t a 2nd chance for those outside of the ark. Turn with me to Matthew 13 and look at verses 24 – 30 (Read), now go on down a little bit to verses 36 – 43 (Read). That’s why the Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation.” When judgment comes, that’s all she wrote.