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00:00 Genesis is found in chapters 6 to9. The story of the ark's construction in
00:06 the waters that covered the earth stretches from uh chapters 6 to 8. Now
00:12 we like the time to read all three chapters. And so our text is taken from um verses 5 to 18 from chapter 6 plus
00:20 two verses uh verses 17 and 18 from chapter 7.
00:26 The one big challenge we face in our study of Noah is the problem of uh
00:32 overfamiliarity. This is a story that is so familiar to us to the extent that we inclined to ask
00:38 what more can be said about Noah. What else is new about this story that we have all heard so many times? And it is
00:46 this familiarity with the story that poses a great obstacle to our benefiting
00:51 from a study of it. For this reason, I shall try to avoid uh talking about the
00:56 animals and about the ark and other stuff that you already know. And the challenge is to find a trajectory that
01:03 can take us right into the heart of the matter. On a broader perspective, uh many of us think of the Old Testament as
01:09 somewhat like a collection of stories and an etch in our mind. are the various
01:15 well-known Bible accounts such as uh Moses and the Ten Commandments, Joshua and the walls of Jericho,
01:21 David versus Goliath, uh Daniel in the lion's dens and so on. And to this we
01:28 surely must add story of Noah's ark and the flood in a list of top 10 Bible
01:36 stories. This story would likely be in the top three. And of course, each of
01:41 these stories tells us a lot about the nature of God and and how he dealt with his people. The other problem that
01:47 arises is a tendency to see uh the Bible, the Old Testament as consisting of all these separate isolated stories.
01:56 But a more advisable approach, however, is to take the view that each of these stories is just a piece of the larger
02:03 jigsaw that paints a bigger picture of God's salvation plan. And so when we
02:08 work our way through the Old Testament starting from Genesis, we ought to see the unfolding of God's plan uh which
02:15 often is also not so explicit and God's salvation plan which started to unfold as early as Genesis 3 uh finds its
02:23 climax in the gospels with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and also his atoning death at Calvary. So within the context
02:30 of this perspective, we shall therefore see how the story of Noah is but a
02:35 pointer or a signpost uh uh uh uh pointing our uh our
02:41 attention uh to the direction to the person of uh Jesus. Shall we commit this time to the Lord in
02:48 prayer? Our father in heaven, so many in the world today think of the story of the
02:53 flood to be just a myth. Many more today regarded regard the ark and the animals to be just a children's
02:59 story. But open the eyes of our faith as we consider the story of Noah and the dramatic events that happened in his
03:06 time. Speak to us, oh Lord, so that we can better understand you and your eternal plan that culminates in the
03:12 person of Jesus. For we ask this in his name. Amen.
03:17 The story of Noah can be appreciated uh in many ways. And as an introduction to
03:24 today's sermon, I shall show you the work of two artists who lived about 100
03:29 years apart. And we shall see through their work two differing approaches uh
03:36 to the story of Noah. The first artist is a British uh
03:42 national by the name of Mike Wils. He gained much, you may not have heard
03:47 of him, but he gained much fame in in 1986 with a publication of a of a picture book uh entitled uh the ultimate
03:56 alphabet. At a glance, the book seems to be something you might buy for your kids, but the contents are really more for
04:02 adults than for children because between the covers of the book, the artist presented 26 absolutely beautiful
04:10 pictures, one for each letter of the alphabet. And this is the first picture
04:16 in the book. All the letter A, you're supposed to identify about 360
04:23 items, objects that start with the letter A. So you can start doing now, you know, A for N, A for this and that.
04:30 Okay. Now from A to Z, 26 pages, you're supposed to identify a total of 7,777
04:37 objects. So this is a really a massive test of your English vocabulary.
04:44 But it is the artist's second book that we are really interested in.
04:50 It's entitled The Ultimate Noah's Ark published in 1993 and I got my copy in
04:56 1994 one year later. Now what happened is that the artist in
05:02 this second book what he did was he painted this huge beautiful picture
05:07 crowded with animals and this alone measures uh 30 ft high sorry 30 in high
05:14 and 45 in across huge poster which was then cut up into
05:21 16 A4siz pictures and presented as a book.
05:27 Uh but some of you might say but this doesn't look like Noah's ark.
05:32 You see what the artist did was that he painted 707 animals in this picture. 77.
05:41 There are 353 different creatures each accompany
05:46 accompanied by its mate. Which means that there are 353 pairs of animals male
05:52 and female. 353 * 2 that makes 706. And so the challenge is to find that one
05:59 animal that came alone. Not easy.
06:04 May I add the whole enterprise was presented as a contest and the winner
06:10 uh stood to to win £10,000 as stated in the bottom uh right corner of the cover.
06:19 But please don't get too excited about the prospects of winning £10,000 because the contest is long over. Sorry. The
06:26 closing date was 1st February 1995, more than 20 years ago. And besides,
06:32 only the residents of UK were eligible to take part. But the reason why I showed you this uh
06:38 this picture is to underscore how the story of Nova is often considered to be
06:43 light and easy. It's a Sunday school story. It's an entertaining story.
06:48 It's it's perfect as a backdrop uh to a contest such as what we have just seen.
06:54 And if you look at the pictures in the book carefully, you will you'll notice a carnivallike atmosphere.
07:00 There is music all around. There is a band, maybe not as good as our BB band.
07:06 And there are balloons everywhere. The animals, they seem to be having a gala time.
07:12 The story of Noah indeed has been made light and easy, even turned into jokes
07:17 and laughter. I chanced upon this other picture of Noah and the ark. And this illustrates the danger of having
07:24 woodpeckers on board the vessel. And you see the monkey laughing while Noah tries to catch the bird before it makes more
07:30 holes in the hull. Earlier I said I would try to avoid talking about the animals. It looks like
07:36 not doing a good job. Let me make just one more mention of the animals before we move on.
07:43 Mike Wil's work here is based on a premise that the animals went into the
07:48 ark two by two, male and female. Now, let me go back to the earlier
07:55 picture I showed you. Here we see more than two ships on the
08:02 ram to the to the vessel to the ark. I think like one two three four at least five and there are more than two deer
08:11 already on the deck. We can count I think it's about five four five deer on the on the deck. So
08:20 which is correct? Did the animals go into the ark two by two or more than
08:25 two? that this is a test of your Bible knowledge. But sorry, no £10,000 for the
08:32 right answer. Actually, Mike Wil's picture is not so
08:38 accurate from the biblical account because in Genesis 7:es 2 and 3, we read
08:43 that for clean animals, sheep, goats, cattle, etc., Noah was commanded to
08:50 bring in seven pairs of each. Rest of the animals, one pair each. And
08:56 so the guy who painted this picture, he knew his Bible very well.
09:02 By showing you the work of Mike Wils and other attempts to trivialize the the story of Noah, I hope to use some sort
09:08 of a reverse psychology to impress upon you that the account of the ark and the flood as recorded for us in Genesis 6:7
09:15 is really not funny at all. Is not supposed to be a light and easy story.
09:21 And so to get our perspective right today, I want to introduce to you a second artist as a contrast to what we
09:27 have seen so far. Now I doubt many of you have heard of this French artist by the name of Gustav Dor who lived and
09:34 worked in Paris in the 19th century. Dor is famous for his numerous
09:41 nononsense very dramatic uh illustrations of fa famous Bible stories. Now I brought some examples of
09:47 Dora's work to show you based on the first few chapters of Genesis that we have uh covered this past weeks. First
09:55 uh a scene from Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve had uh eaten the fruit and they were
10:00 trying to hide from God. And incidentally this illustration of
10:06 Dora is found in later editions of uh John Milton's book Paradise Loss which David Adams uh touch on in his sermon.
10:14 The next one, the expulsion from the garden from the last verse of uh Genesis
10:20 uh 3 and one more entitled uh the murder of
10:26 Abel from Genesis 4 which Dr. Peter preached on last Sunday.
10:33 I have one last example of Dory's work which is based on Genesis 7 which is
10:39 part of our sermon today. It is entitled huge
10:45 terrifying scene showing the final frightening moments before the water
10:51 covered the earth. We can imagine both animals and people trying frantically to
10:57 escape the rising tide. Here we see waves crashing against the rock where we
11:04 see a tiger holding on to its cup and also a man and woman trying desperately
11:10 to save their children but none survived if they are not inside the ark.
11:16 Indeed, it is recorded in Genesis 7:22 that everything on dry land that had the breath of life in his nostrils died.
11:24 So while the ultimate no art the book that we saw earlier is a colorful pictures of festivities and fun in sharp
11:30 contrast the deluge is a grim image of death and destruction
11:36 in the two I strongly suggest that we see Genesis 6 and 6 to8 through the eyes
11:42 of Gustaf Dor rather than Mike Wils we
11:48 need to approach the story of Noah with a sense of fear and respect because it is a serious is reminder of God's nature
11:56 of how he does things and specifically it says a lot about the way God interacts with men which we shall
12:02 examine in greater depth in a little while. Now let's start uh by uh looking at this
12:10 verse uh in the in in the passage which I think is the key to the entire account
12:17 of Noah and it is in verse 18. Uh sorry for the very small font. Uh I will
12:24 establish my covenant with you and you will enter the ark you and your sons and your wife and your sons wives with you.
12:32 Now the living the new living translation NLT presents this verse in another way.
12:38 But I solemnly swear to keep you safe in the boat with your wife and your sons and their wives. Now if you hear what
12:44 God is saying to Noah here, he's presenting Noah with a covenant. The word covenant is not a word that we
12:50 often use. I mean when was the last time you make a covenant with someone? And so the new the new living translation use
12:57 uses a more common word and translated this as but I solemnly swear. So God is
13:03 saying to Noah, I swear to you. But this also may be a little bit uh uh baffling
13:09 because for some reason we like to use the word swear when we accuse of wrongdoing. I swear I didn't take it. I
13:15 swear I didn't do it. But if you check the dictionary, to swear means to make a solemn promise.
13:24 That is the actual meaning of swear. To make a solemn promise as in taking an oath or making a vow.
13:31 Covenants therefore involve promises. A covenant is like an agreement or a
13:37 contract surrounding a set of promises. So when you buy a house, you drop a
13:42 sales and purchase agreement with the seller. When you join a company, you you get a appointment letter. Even a
13:48 marriage certificate is like it's like a contract. And these are earthly examples of a contract which binds two parties in
13:55 a mutually uh dynamic arrangement where each party promises to do his part to
14:01 play his role so that they agree upon arrangement can work. But here we must be a little bit careful
14:07 because God's covenant is not exactly the same as an earthly covenant between
14:12 two human beings. between two persons, they normally enter uh into a contract on equal footing.
14:20 But God is God Almighty. He is the creator God. We cannot enter into a contract with God at a level on power
14:26 with him. We also cannot offer him a contract. Rather, it is God who in his
14:33 mercy and grace offers us his covenant with a promise to rescue us or to bless
14:39 us. And it's up to us whether to accept or to reject this offer. Some choose to
14:45 accept it, but many more reject it outright. In other words, while earthly contracts are mostly bilateral,
14:53 God's covenant is unilateral in the sense that he takes the initiative, he
14:59 initiates it, he sets the terms, he offers it to us for our benefit.
15:05 And the choice is ours whether to accept or to reject it. Why am I touching on the concept of a
15:10 covenant? Why the focus on this particular verse, verse 18? Because the story of Noah and the ark and the flood
15:18 should rightly be be understood in the context of a covenant. A covenant that
15:23 God is offering to Noah. In this covenant, God promises to preserve Noah and his family to keep him to keep them
15:31 safe in the boat. Many people see the story of Noah as mostly one of God's judgment on a corrupted world. They only
15:38 look at the flood. But the story of Noah is more than just a display of God's wrath against sin. To understand the
15:44 account correctly, we need to see through the lens of a covenant between God and uh and Noah or rather from God
15:50 to Noah. I said just now I said just now that covenants involve promises.
15:57 Actually, God's covenant is a little bit more complex than that. God's covenant comprises three
16:03 components. A promise, a pro. So, and the penalty. Simply put, he promises
16:13 safety to Noah and his family. God makes a commitment to keep them safe from the
16:20 flood. But provided they fulfill certain a certain proiso or condition. And if
16:25 you if they refuse this offer or if they break the terms of the covenant, they they would have to face the penalty or
16:31 consequence. to remember the three Ps or the three C's of God's covenant.
16:38 Now let us examine this one by one. Starting from the last one, we will start from the penalty and then we work our way up. The penalty clause in God's
16:45 covenant to Noah is of course intertwined with the impending judgment that God has pronounced on a sinful and
16:51 wicked world. Now this judgment is uh is designed to be total to wipe out a world
16:57 that have been that has been so thoroughly corrupted. If Noah had not accepted this covenant
17:03 from God, he and his family would have perished in the flood. Now, this should be easy enough to understand. But
17:09 actually, it goes deeper than that. Hence, we shall spend a little bit more time on on this P, the penalty.
17:16 Now, a penalty or a punishment is the outcome of a judgment. But a judge when you stand before a judge and he
17:22 pronounce the judgment, he pronounce a penalty or a punishment. Granted that
17:28 the story of Noah is a story of God's judgment. The flood is a punishment from God on a global scale. But this penalty
17:34 actually stem from an earlier covenant uh uh in u in Genesis 2, a earlier
17:41 covenant between God and Adam. In Genesis 2:17 to 18
17:48 it says that God, the Lord God commanded the man Adam here, you are free to eat from any kind, any tree in the garden,
17:53 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.
17:59 Now, we've already covered this uh earlier sermon. And so, the story of Noah is in fact
18:05 connected to the story of Adam and Eve. The account of the flood actually has
18:11 its origin in the account of the fall when Adam and Eve chose to or disobey
18:17 God. And because of their breaking of God's covenant, he then metered out to them the penalty in Genesis 3:16-19.
18:27 Now it's a bit too long and I'll just show you uh ending of uh verse 19 in
18:33 chapter 3 which shows you that the penalty method out included fiscal death
18:42 or dust you are and to dust.
18:47 And since then, because of this pronouncement of judgment against Adam and Eve, it has been destined that every
18:53 man and woman will face physical death sooner or later. Death is a passage that
19:00 we must all pass through regardless of who you are, rich or poor, prince or proper.
19:09 Death is a certainty from which there's no escape. Like Hebrews 9:27 says it very clearly,
19:16 it's appointed for men to die once. And so against this backdrop, when we
19:22 place Genesis 3 besides Genesis 6 to8, we can see that those who perish in the
19:28 flood were actually already condemned because of their sin. They would have died anyway later in life through
19:35 natural causes or or through violence caused on them.
19:40 But still we may say that they would have died eventually anyway. But that doesn't
19:47 diminish our sense of bewilderment or doubt even as to why their lives were
19:53 all cut short and they they all perish at one go on such a massive scale.
20:02 The death that we are supposed to to to go through is understandable. But for them to all die in one stroke, that is a
20:10 bit hard to understand. Indeed, God spoke in verse 7, I will wipe from the face of the earth
20:17 the human race I've created. And in verse 13, so God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all people. And again
20:23 in verse 17, I'm going to bring flood waters on the earth to destroy all lives under the heavens.
20:30 Why a judgment on such a massive scale? Why? Why? Why a penalty in the form of a
20:37 worldwide catastrophic deluge? Now to understand this, we must see what
20:42 happened between Genesis 3 and Genesis 6. A bite of the forbidden fruit in
20:49 Genesis uh 3:6 soon led to the first murder in Genesis 4:8.
20:55 sin progressively got worse and worse. And by the time we get to Genesis 6, the
21:01 whole world was consumed and engulfed by evil. And this is clear from the first
21:07 verse of our text itself. Uh from verse 5, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the
21:13 earth. And that every inclination of the thought of of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. And
21:20 again in verses 11 and 12. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the
21:27 earth had become. For all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
21:33 And some people have problem understanding how the world how the world could become so thoroughly
21:40 corrupted. What was made good in Genesis 1:31 where he says God saw all that he had made and
21:47 it was very good. What started out as very good became very bad. If you wonder
21:52 how human beings can could become so bad, then I recommend that you should visit
22:01 Yatashim or the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. There you will see the kind of evil, the
22:08 kind of despicable evil human beings are capable of doing to other human beings.
22:16 Jesus himself did not mince words when he described the evil in men. He says in
22:23 Mark 7 21-23 from within out of man's heart come evil thoughts immorality
22:31 theft murder adultery greed malice deceit lupeness envy
22:40 arrogance slander arrogance and folly. All these evils come from within. You
22:46 may not be guilty of death or murder, but you can't say the same about greed,
22:52 envy, arrogance. And this is the first aspect of the story of Noah. The flood brought death
22:58 and destruction as depicted in Dor's chilling picture that we saw just now. It's God's judgment on the world so
23:04 thoroughly corrupted by sin. The wickedness of man had filled the earth with so much violence and evil that only
23:11 a massive flood could wash away this utter pollution.
23:16 And on this note, it might be useful for us to to note that the world today is
23:22 also sinking fast into violence and evil. But that is another topic for another time. Now we have covered the
23:29 third P the penalty. Now be before I move on to the next speed of proy so I
23:35 would like to spend a couple of minutes to address two difficult questions that non-believers often ask in relation to
23:42 the story of Noah. These are questions that I've heard along the way many years uh people have
23:50 asked these questions and indeed these are questions that often pose a huge obstacles for for non-believers coming
23:56 to faith and I wish to address them so that you'll be equipped to give a defense of your faith when the need
24:01 arises. The first one these are this is normally asked by
24:08 animal lovers. Okay. Why was the death in Genesis 6 and 7 so
24:14 total that it included the destruction of all animals?
24:19 Really question of course except those animals in the ark. If you remember Dory's uh picture,
24:27 the last picture I showed you, it showed a tiger standing on that piece of rock holding on to its cup. It was his way of
24:34 illustrating the totality of the flood which consumed every creature that had
24:39 the breath of life in it. This is mentioned uh in the verse 17.
24:45 And also uh up there in verse 7, the animals and the birds and the creatures
24:50 that that move along the ground, they were all wiped out.
24:56 Now, if humans were the ones who corrupted themselves, then why not send a plague or a virus, you know, to to to
25:03 wipe them out but spare the animals? Now, this is no easy question.
25:09 One of the best answers to this that I've read or heard comes from a set of DVDs
25:16 which consists of three lectures by the popular British uh Bible teacher David Pawson.
25:22 I bought this from uh event uh this uh evangel
25:28 was it cananan land and this these lectures were recorded in
25:33 the in January 2005 one month after the 2004 tsunami
25:40 that killed a quarter of million people around the Indian Ocean and hence the title natural disasters a biblical
25:47 perspective now Mr. Porson didn't directly answer answer the question that we asked
25:53 because he was more concerned about addressing the issue of the tsunami in 2004. But what he taught in the last lecture
26:00 especially will shed some light on what we asking and let's start by looking at
26:06 some verses in Romans chapter 8.
26:12 In verses 20 to 22, Paul talks about
26:17 creation being being subjected to frustration. Verse 20,
26:23 creation in bondage to decay. Verse 21,
26:28 and the whole creation in a state of groaning. Verse 22.
26:34 But in this passage from Romans 8, Paul is actually teaching about our present
26:39 sufferings and our future glory. But he's also describing the whole of creation in deep trouble. Why?
26:47 There is a sense from the pages of scripture that the moral fabric of human
26:52 society is very much weaved or entwined with the rest of
26:59 creation. that that human nature somehow is locked
27:05 in tandem with mother nature is because when God created everything on earth in Genesis 1, he created them
27:12 as a complete and perfect ecosystem. He then placed man in charge of creation
27:19 from Genesis 1:28. Man was the crowning glory of of God's
27:25 creation, having been made in his image. And so that when man rebelss against
27:30 God, rest of creation will be adversely affected. You cannot dissociate the
27:37 spiritual realm from the physical realm. One will have an effect on the other. A
27:43 simple analogy would be if you are mentally stressed for a period of time because your job is so stressful is like
27:49 a pressure cooker. Eventually your health will be affected. the body will
27:55 be affected because the mind is not well. And that's why in Matthew 24 when the
28:02 disciples asked Jesus to describe the signs of the end times, he replied that there would be earthquakes, many
28:08 earthquakes in various places. As human history rushes to a climactic
28:14 end, as violence and and evil and sin multiply, the rest of creation will react in
28:22 turmoil in the form of an increased frequency of natural disasters.
28:28 David Porson addressed the 2004 tsunami. This is the 2011 tsunami
28:35 that uh that uh crashed on the the island of Japan on Shu Japan
28:42 and that's what Paul means in Romans 8 by creation frustrated
28:48 creation in decay creation groaning and I believe this will help us to
28:53 understand why the destruction was total in the account of Noah and the flood where everything was wiped up including
28:59 every creature that had was creation was in decay.
29:05 When God fixes the problem of man's rebellion, he renews everything. He
29:10 starts over. He did that in Genesis 6 and 7. And he will do that again at the
29:16 end of time as described for us in Revelations 21 and 22.
29:21 If your car engine has been giving you a host of serious problems, you do not just change the engine, you change the
29:28 whole car. Now earlier I said I will address two difficult questions relating to our topic. The second one is
29:36 if God is a God of love, how can he punish people? And in the case of Genesis 6 and 7, how
29:42 could he punish them so severely? In fact, this question is even more common than the first one among non-believers.
29:48 But actually it's easier to deal with. Some people in their objection in their objection to Christianity like to say
29:54 well it was just a fruit even though it was forbidden. So what if Adam and Eve ate the fruit? Why the severe judgment
30:01 to the extent of death even in account of Noah? Uh even if you tell them that
30:06 violence and evil had had reached a pandemic level, they would still never accept the necessity of a judgment so
30:12 total that everyone perished. They just cannot come to terms with a God who would do such a thing. They cannot
30:18 accept the idea of divine judgment. Now in reading in reading about this subject, I was listening to a to an
30:24 audio sermon by Timothy Keller. Uh Timothy Keller is a pastor of a church in New York City. And this is what I
30:30 learned. Ask the person who objects to the idea of divine judgment. The idea of a god of
30:37 judgment. Ask that person if it is okay for a big fish to eat a small fish. Of
30:44 course, he will say yes. No problem. It's part of nature. Next, ask him if it's okay for a big man
30:51 to kill a small man. Of course, he will say no. That is wrong.
30:57 But why? You see, if you take God out of the picture, if you object to divine
31:03 judgment, then you cannot explain why is wrong for a man to kill another man.
31:08 A philosopher from Yale University once wrote a paper and inside the paper he
31:14 wrote that violence thrives today secretly nourished by the belief that
31:20 God refuses to take up the sword. In other words, the absence of God and
31:26 divine judgment. If you take them out of the picture, that would lead quickly to an escalation in violence and evil.
31:35 Those who object to divine judgment often lives live comfortable lives and most certainly they have never suffered
31:43 any injustice. But if their houses were burned down, if their sons were killed or their daughters raped by bad people,
31:49 they will be screaming for justice. And if the human judicial system which is so
31:55 broken today cannot deliver the justice they demand, they will be crying out for
32:00 divine judgment. Yes, God is a God of love, but he's also a just and holy God who cannot stand the
32:08 slightest stain of sin. In his time, he will surely deal with all sin and violence and evil. The same Yale Yale
32:16 philosopher also wrote that if God were not angry at justice and wrongdoing and did not make a final end of violence
32:23 violence, then that God would not be worthy of our worship. God would not be
32:29 God if he didn't act against the violence and evil in Genesis 6. The
32:35 scale of the flood was a fitting judgment commensurate with the
32:40 unspeakable level of violence and evil at that time. Now we've only covered the third P and
32:47 the penalty and quick let's quickly move on to the second P the proviso or the condition.
32:53 Now God's covenant comprises a a promise on one hand and the penalty on the other hand. But there's a condition to fulfill
32:59 if you want to enjoy the promise on one hand and escape the penalty on the other hand. What does Noah need to do? First
33:07 he needs to accept the offer of course but to accept the offer he needs he
33:12 needs to have faith in what God is saying. So faith is that provisiso or the
33:19 condition is just one faith. But it's not as
33:25 simple as that. Because faith is easier said than done. And let me tell you why.
33:32 Noah is told about the impending judgment and he's instructed to build an ark. Remember God is offering him a
33:37 covenant which he promises a salvation from judgment. But we have to consider this offer from Noah's point of view. Of
33:45 course, in hindsight, it is anyone would believe this offer to be a very good one. But would you believe this offer
33:54 from God if there is absolutely no physical sign of impending judgment? Sky
33:59 is clear overhead, not a cloud in the in in the there is no sign of of rain much
34:05 less a downpour. And what flood are you talking about?
34:10 What's more, the sea is miles away and your neighbors are laughing at you, thinking you're a nutcase as you are building the ark.
34:17 You have taken a lot of faith for Noah to respond to what God is offering.
34:23 That exactly is what faith is all about. My dictionary define faith defines faith
34:30 as belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. Listen to
34:35 that carefully. Faith is defined as belief that does not rest on logical
34:40 proof or material evidence. As a person who loves science, it's very hard for
34:46 me. No logical proof, no material evidence. And yet you believe in Hebrews
34:52 11:es 1 and 2 uh explains faith this way. Now faith is the confidence in what
34:58 we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what this is what the ancients were commanded for.
35:04 confidence in what we hope for. Hope only, you know, and assurance in about
35:11 what we do not see or hear. My fellow believers, the story of the
35:17 flood is not just about a worldwide catastrophe, much less about cute animals going into the ark two by two. I said earlier, the
35:24 story of the of Noah is about a covenant. Is about entering into a covenant with God by faith. And Noah's
35:34 faith is best demonstrated by two short verses which are outside of our text
35:39 today in Genesis 6:22. Uh Noah did everything just as God
35:44 commanded him. And again in Genesis 7:5 and Noah did all that the Lord commanded
35:49 him. You know something, faith actually expresses itself at three levels.
35:56 Firstly, there is belief and then trust and then obedience.
36:03 And in that sense, Noah's faith is proven or validated by
36:09 his obedience to God's command. Now, I would like to uh have add one
36:15 last point uh in this discussion on approving. So, he's actually more like a Christian.
36:24 Verse 8 says, "But Noah find fa found favor in the eyes of the Lord." In the next verse, verse 9 added that Noah was
36:31 righteous man, blameless among the people of his time and he he walked faithfully with God.
36:37 My question is, is righteousness a proviso of the covenant?
36:44 Well, was described as righteous man. Righteousness means to be morally perfect. So, doesn't mean
36:52 that Noah had to be perfect in order for the covenant to stand.
36:57 What do you think? Now to help you answer this question, let me tell you that later in chapter 9
37:03 of Genesis 9, Noah turned out to be a drunk
37:08 in Malay. He was a drunk. Would you believe it?
37:14 Noah not so perfect after all.
37:19 Just a sinner like you and me. And the answer to our question is found in an interesting verse in the in
37:26 Hebrews 11:7 which says it was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his
37:32 family. We have seen that from the flood and he received the righteousness that
37:39 comes by faith. You see Noah was certainly a righteous
37:46 man but he was righteous not because of his inherent goodness.
37:51 It was a righteousness that came by faith. Indeed, righteousness on our part is a
37:57 pre prerequisite before we can enter into a covenant with God. But this righteousness cannot be gained by any
38:03 goodness in us if there is any. This righteous righteousness can only be gained by faith. After all, Isaiah 64:6
38:12 says that our all our righteousness are like futile racks. Referring to whatever
38:18 goodness uh uh in us that we think we have all like futile racks. Now, some of
38:24 you may may may may frown on this and say, "Hey, I'm not such a bad person. I
38:29 don't steal. I don't I don't cheat. I even give to the poor. What do you mean that all this doesn't count uh in the
38:36 eyes of of of God?" Now let me offer a quick rebuttal to this kind of thinking.
38:42 In the first place, what is sin? Simply uh define sin is the transgression of
38:48 God's laws. Now once Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment and this is how he
38:54 answered in Matthew 22, love the God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and
39:00 greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these
39:05 two commandments. Which means to say that all of God's laws can be sum up as
39:13 one, love God with your entire being. Two, love your neighbors.
39:19 Now, can anyone tell me that he has not failed on these two counts?
39:25 So, back to uh verses 8 and N. Yes, Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Yes, because he was a righteous
39:32 man. But he was deemed righteous because he walked faithfully with God from the
39:39 end of verse 9 because of his faith. And this is confirmed by Romans 4 and 4:5.
39:45 To the one who trusts God, their faith is credited to them as righteousness.
39:53 And so we are back to what I said earlier that faith is the only proving so in God's covenant. That's why it says
39:59 in Hebrews 11:6, without faith, it is impossible to please God. This is basic
40:05 Christian doctrine and I hope it's clear to all. And so the covenant was offered
40:10 to Noah and he fulfilled uh the condition that came with the covenant. He he lived the life of faith and accordingly he was assured of the
40:17 promise provided for in the covenant. And this brings me to the last P or
40:22 rather the first P, the promise. the promise of shelter from the storm, the refuge from the flood, the promise of
40:28 safety and salvation. Here it's interesting to take a closer
40:34 look at the Genesis 7:1. This is outside our text today. The Lord then said to
40:39 Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family." Now, this is 7 days before the floodwaters came, but the
40:46 phrase go into the ark here is actually a poor translation of the original uh verse in Hebrew. The correct translation
40:53 should be come into the ark. And sometimes the NIV that we often use is not necessarily the best translation.
40:59 The King James version, the New King James version presents this verse more accurately. Then the Lord said to Noah,
41:05 "Come into the ark, you and your and you and all your household."
41:10 And so the promise to Noah was therefore made in a context of an invitation. Come
41:16 come into the ark. And it's interesting to note that just four chapters before this in Genesis uh
41:24 3:9, God was calling out to Adam and Eve, where are you? That was when they
41:29 were hiding from God after they have taken the fruit. If you remember the the first picture I showed you uh by uh
41:35 Gustav Dory, God was calling out to Adam and Eve, where are you? And now he he's he's
41:41 saying to Noah and his family, come into the ark. And to to non-believers who say
41:47 cynically, God is love. Now these are the words of a loving father. Where are you? Come into the
41:55 ark. I would like to think that anyone in the days of Noah, anyone at all could have just could have gone to Noah and
42:02 said, "I would like to join you." It would have been accepted. None of them did. Not one. Instead, they shook their
42:09 fist at God and God had to act. And so as this as recorded for us in Genesis
42:15 7:7, Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons wives entered the ark to escape
42:22 the waters of the flood. God kept his promise. And I also want to
42:27 point out that the promise was not just a promise of safety and and and salvation from the flood, but also a
42:33 promise of blessings because further down in chapter 9:1, God blessed Noah
42:39 and his family. We have discussed the three Ps of of God's covenant in detail. And as we come
42:46 to the conclusion of the sermon, I need to convey a point of application.
42:52 What's the one big lesson we can learn from the story of Noah? One can draw all sorts of lessons from
42:59 this story. Someone uh sent me this recently, very timely. Uh the lessons of
43:05 life from Noah's ark. 11 lessons. For example, number three, plan ahead. It
43:12 wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. Very sound advice. Plan ahead. You know,
43:18 number eight was even more interesting. Speed isn't always an advantage. The
43:23 snails were on board with the cheetahs. But that means, you know, it's not always good to be in too much of a rush.
43:30 you know uh they're all very good advice
43:35 but to me it's like looking at the painting of Mona in the LOF in in Paris
43:42 but instead of focusing on Mona you are admiring the photo frame you know you do
43:47 that concentrate on the main subject and what
43:53 is the one less big lesson from from this from the story of Noah as I mentioned at the beginning the story of
43:58 Noah actually is a signpost a signpost to the larger salvation plan of God in
44:04 Jesus which unfolded in the New Testament. Genesis 6:8 is but a forerunner to the
44:11 gospel of Jesus which most of us have embraced. God's covenant into which Noah
44:17 entered is but a preview or a trailer of his new covenant into which most of us
44:23 have entered. The word testament means a will or a covenant in writing and hence
44:29 the new testament means new covenant. Thank God most of us are part of it.
44:36 This is the lesson from the story of Noah in that it is a window to the offer
44:42 of God's salvation through the person of Jesus as part of the new covenant.
44:48 It's interesting to note that in the construction plan of the ark, it is only
44:54 one door at the site as mentioned in verse 16 here.
44:60 It says here that there are three levels or three decks, lower, middle, upper in the ark, but only one door at the side
45:07 leading into this huge vessel. Only one point of entry.
45:13 The symbolism here is so clear because Jesus declares in John 10:9, "I am the
45:20 gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved." Jesus is the gate to life, the
45:27 only gate to life. Just as there was only one door into the ark.
45:35 We also saw in Genesis 7:1 when God said to Adam, uh Noah and his family, come
45:42 into the ark. Remember, it was an invitation. Come, an invitation to safety and refuge. Similarly, Jesus says
45:50 in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will
45:57 give you rest." Come to me all you who are weary and
46:03 burdened and I will give you rest. Are you carrying a heavy load from the weight of life beseeched by all sorts of
46:12 struggles and pain? Jesus invites you to come and find rest in him. He offers you
46:19 eternal rest for your weary soul of the kind that the world can never give.
46:25 Jesus also issues an invitation in John 7:37.
46:31 I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes
46:37 in me shall never thirst. He's not talking about physical bread or water. If you eat physical bread, you will go
46:44 hungry after a while. If you drink physical water, you'll be thirsty again. Jesus offers you spiritual food and
46:52 water so that you'll be spiritually alive. There an emptiness in your life. Are you
46:58 chasing dreams that have little meaning? Do you feel there is more to life than just working and raising your kids and
47:05 getting old? Then Jesus invites you to come to him for fulfillment.
47:11 But we close with a word of prayer. or in heaven for those of us seated here
47:18 who have not not yet entered the ark of Jesus.
47:23 May your spirit stir their hearts so that they might one day find shelter and safety in the person of your son. For
47:29 those of us who have already done so, may you continue to draw us closer to you so that we might truly live the
47:37 abundant life that you have promised us. We pray this in the name of Jesus, the rock of our salvation. Amen.
