A Gracious Invitation, A Great Response

You fell quiet very quickly today. it's good to see all of you here this morning, and what a great, time of, just celebrating gospel themes through our worship of the Lord, together and hearing your voices. join with one another as we celebrate those themes as a special experience that, that we have every Sunday as we join our hearts and our voices together in the worship of God. before we open up the word this morning, let me encourage you to, just look in your bulletins.

There's a, an insert regarding our men's leadership, meetings, that you'll find in your, bulletin. some men have thought, well, that's a men's leadership meeting, so I'm not really, supposed to be a part of that. Well, our, our philosophy here at Cornerstone is, If you are a Christian man, welcome to the pastorate. that is your calling from God, and, you are called to stand before your wife and your children and to shepherd them and to pastor them, and it's our job as a church to make sure that we do everything we can to equip and to resource you in that most important ministry that you are, engaging in.

So I want you to know that we see you as a leader. all of you are leading. You may be leading poorly, And leading in the wrong direction, or you may be leading rightly and in the right direction, but you are a leader, every man is. a leader, and we want to help you to be the right leader.

And so our men's leadership, meeting, we've got the man forums on Tuesday mornings at 6 in the morning and then on Thursday evenings, but we also have our men's leadership meeting that takes place, on Tuesdays. There are two different meetings, one at 9 on Tuesday morning and then one at 6 o'clock on Tuesday evening. We do the same thing in both of them. We just, hold both of those meetings to accommodate as many men's schedules as, as possible.

And what we're gonna be doing beginning this Tuesday, we're gonna be resuming our men's leadership meetings and we will, be, continuing to work through Romans chapter 8, picking up where we left off 2 or 3 months ago, learning about life in the spirit and how we as believers in Jesus can walk in victory, even though sin. is ever present and dwells, both inside of us and outside, of us. How we can walk in this victory, experiencing life in the spirit and how we can help others to do the same.

So, this is for all of our men, and we would love to have you to come to one of these two, meeting times if your schedule will allow.

That's 9 o'clock Tuesday morning. To show up here at the church and we'll direct you where you need to go, or 6 o'clock Tuesday evening and both of those meetings will take about an hour and 15 minutes. We'll try to honor your time commitment with that. Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 7.

Genesis chapter 7 for time of study in God's word this morning. My goal this morning as we continue in our study through this book is to look at verses 1 through 9. And if you want to give a title to the message today, it would be a gracious invitation, a great response. A gracious invitation, a great response.

Imagine Noah's situation at this point of the narrative. Imagine standing in front of a completed and fully furnished arc that is 450 ft long, 45 ft high, and approximately 75 ft wide. Before you sits the ark in all of its steadfast glory. Behind you is a world that is about to be annihilated by the judgment of God.

The possibilities for you as you stand at this point are twofold. You can either be allowed into the ark and allowed to experience the safety and the salvation of being in the ark, or you can be prohibited entrance into the ark and be left to die. Under the wrath of Almighty God. The decision about your destiny is really not in your hands, it's in the hands of God.

You can't just go into the ark. You have to be invited into the ark by God Himself. It is he who will either invite you into the ark, or he will tell you that you must stay outside of the ark and suffer his wrath. His decision about you will be made on the basis of whether or not he sees you as righteous.

He sees everything. He sees and knows everything about you, including your thoughts, and his decision about whether he invites you into the ark will be dependent upon whether or not he chooses to see you as righteous. That would be a profound And sobering moment for you, would it not? Actually, it's very similar to the moment that we will all face one day.

One day we will all stand before the judgment of God, and he will determine our destiny. He will either invite us into heaven and say, enter into the joy of the Lord forever, or he will forbid us to enter heaven and he will cast us into the lake of fire. Where we will suffer his wrath forevermore and his decision. About our destiny, about our fate in that moment will be determined by whether or not he chooses to see us as righteous.

We will all face this moment one day, and it is in this moment that Noah finds himself in our passage today. Noah stands before the ark and he also is standing in a world that is 7 days away from complete annihilation. Decades earlier, God had told Noah to build an ark, according to the instructions that he had given to him. And even though God did not explicitly say so, it was clearly implied that Noah and his family would be rescued aboard that ark.

Noah has obeyed the instructions that God has given to him, and he built the ark. But I am sure that Noah knew as the decades rolled by and he's building this ark, that he knew that he has not been a perfect man during that span of time. Perhaps he wondered if God still felt the same way about him. And about his family as God did decades earlier, perhaps 100 years earlier when God gave him the initial instructions to build the ark.

Maybe Noah wondered, would God still want me? On this arc Would he still want me to have shelter from the flood that is about to come? Would God still want my wife and my sons and their wives to come into the ark and be saved from his judgment. As the time of the great flood draws near, Noah waits.

To hear the voice of God on this matter. Matthew Henry, the commentator, is probably onto something when he points out that Noah did not just board the ark without a command. Or an invitation from the Lord. Matthew Henry says Noah did not go into the ark until God bade him.

Though he knew it was designed for his place of refuge, yet he waited for a renewed command. So Noah, as the curtains open on Genesis 7, is waiting for God's invitation to enter this fully furnished and completed arc of salvation. And we will see this official invitation spoken by God to Noah this morning. The words that God speaks to Noah in these verses that we're gonna see today, probably rank as the most important words that Noah ever heard in his life.

As the curtains open on chapter 7, we find ourselves exactly 7 days before the flood breaks out. And verses 1 through 9 happens, all these events happen beginning on this day, 7 days prior to the beginning of the great flood. Let me read the passage to you. Then the Lord said to Noah, enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before me in this time.

You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female, and of the animals that are not clean too, a male and his female. Also of the birds of the sky by 7, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For after 7 more days, I will send rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights, and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made. And Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

Now Noah was 600 years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground. There went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand His holy word this morning.

The way we're gonna break down our study of this passage today is we're gonna observe 5 things that happen before God judges the world. 5 things that happen before God judges. the world, and the 1st 4 of these things God does, and then the 5th thing is what Noah does in response. And the first thing that we see happening at this 0.7 days prior to the great flood is God invites Noah and his family to come into the ark.

God invites Noah and his family to come. Into the ark. It says in verse one, then the Lord said to Noah, enter the ark, you and all. Your household This whole section here begins with a, an invitation.

A gracious invitation. The invitation, that says enter the ARC and the New American Standard, which is the translation that I am using. could be, translated, come into the ark. Some commentators point that out, that God is saying, come into the ark, which would mean that God is speaking here from the vantage point of his special presence being in the ark, and he's inviting Noah to come inside and join him.

In the ark Matthew Henry says the call itself is very kind. Like that of a tender father to his children to come indoors when he sees night or a storm approaching. God is saying, come inside, come inside, a storm is coming. God does more than invite Noah into the ark here.

He says, into the ark, you and all your household. Or another way of saying this would be you and your whole family. Noah's household includes his wife and his sons and their wives, which according to 1 Peter 3:20 amounts to a total of 8 persons. You might say that's a no-brainer, but actually, that's actually a helpful number because it tells us that Noah had 1 wife and that his sons each had 1 wife.

There's 4 monogamous marriages that God is preserving through, the, in the ark through the flood. So he says, enter the ark, you and all of your family, your whole household. That God would tell Noah at this 0.7 days prior to the flood to bring only his family indicates that nobody on the planet had repented at the preaching of Noah. Noah's only fruit from his years of being a preacher of righteousness.

was his wife and his sons and their wives. In fact, we learned in Hebrews 11:7 that Noah had prepared an ark for the salvation of his household. if you ask Noah, what are you doing in building this ark, one of the things he would say is, I'm building an ark. I'm preparing an ark for the salvation of my family, of my household.

In Genesis 6:18, God had, told Noah that only Noah and his family would be a part of his covenant blessing, and that clearly was implying that only his family would be aboard the ark and would be rescued. but God is very specifically now telling Noah to come into the ark and to bring his family with him. They are the only ones on the planet who are interested in coming into the ark and who actually believe that judgment from God is coming. But ponder this for a minute.

Noah's wife and Noah's sons, and his sons' wives are blessed to have a husband and a father who is obeying the voice of God and making provision for the great flood. Because of Noah's obedience to God's instructions, his family now has a place of shelter in the storm that is about to come upon the world. I would ask you dads, is your wife, are your children blessed to have in you a man whose obedience provides a shelter for them? In the storms of life.

As one writer says, I love this, it is good to belong to the family of a godly man. It is safe and comfortable to dwell under such a shadow. Dads, are your wife and children blessed like this? What shadow do you cast?

Noah's family is very blessed. God invites Noah into the ark and says, bring your whole family with you. Notice the second thing that happens before judgment comes. God tells Noah to enter the ark with his family, but then he tells Noah why he's going to allow Noah and his family into the ark and no one else at this point.

And that is, here's the second thing God does, he declares that he sees Noah as righteous. He declares that he sees Noah as righteous. He says, for you alone, I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. And the word you is singular.

God doesn't say for you and your family members, I have seen to be righteous. He's saying, you, Noah, I have seen to be righteous in this time. God is affirming Noah's righteousness. He's putting forth Noah's righteousness as the reason that he is wanting to save Noah and Noah's whole family and is inviting them to come into the ark.

This means, guys, that Noah's family members are getting into the ark on account of Noah's righteousness and not their own. Now this does not have to mean that the members of Noah's family were not righteous at all. They came with Noah into the ark and we would presume that they came of their own accord, and that tells us something good about them and about their mindset. But it's clear though from the language of verse one that Noah's family members are invited into the ark because of Noah's righteousness and not their own.

Each of Noah's family members had to humbly embrace the fact that they were being invited into the ark on the basis of the righteousness of another person. And not their own. When I was a kid living in South Carolina, we would sometimes go to air shows with our dad. And I remember my mom and us kids, me and my 3 siblings, we would get to sit in the VIP seats whenever we went to the air shows, and I remember always feeling like pretty hot stuff, walking to the VIP section and taking my seat.

In one of the VIP seats, but I also knew that it felt good to be important in that way that there was only one reason I got to sit in those seats, and that was because my dad was faithfully serving our country in the United States Marine Corps. His status, as it were, was projected onto us and we got to sit in special seats because of him. And what he was doing. And the same thing is happening here in Genesis 7.

Noah's wife and his sons and their wives are getting a seat. Aboard the ark because of their connection to Noah, who was righteous. Now the wording of the text here is, is fascinating. Literally, the way that the Hebrew reads is God says, I have seen you, a righteous person.

That's the idea. I've seen you alone, a righteous person, but let's just focus on this part of the statement. I have seen you, a righteous person. There's a fascinating double entendre.

Here. first of all, this statement is not simply an affirmation of Noah's righteous lifestyle, but it is a declaration of how God sees Noah. The real story here is not simply that Noah was a righteous person, but the fact that God sees Noah as a righteous person. God is saying to Noah, come into the ark, Noah, and the reason I'm inviting you into the ark along with your family is because I see you as a righteous person.

I want you to know something, Noah. I want you to know how I see you. The fact that God saw Noah as a righteous man does not mean that Noah was perfectly righteous in every way, inside and out, throughout the entirety of his life. We will learn later about Noah after the flood getting drunk and leaving himself naked and exposed before his sons.

However, if Noah Even with his imperfections were to say to God right now, Lord, when you look upon me, what do you see? God would say, I see you, a righteous person. Where did Noah get this? Righteousness from?

How did Noah obtain this righteous verdict? From God. Fortunately, we're actually not left to guess about this. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11 describes this exact moment.

In Noah's relationship with God. In Hebrews 11:7, he tells us how Noah obtained this righteous verdict from God. Listen to what he says. By faith, Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness, which is according To faith.

So we learned from Hebrews 11 that Noah's righteousness was not something he generated himself, but it was a righteousness that he inherited. A righteousness that he received from God as a gift, a righteousness that he received by faith and not by the works that he had done. Let's say it this way, Noah did not produce his own righteousness by the works he did, but he received his righteousness by faith. From God.

There's yet another layer to what God is saying to Noah that we have to look at it and, and saying to Noah, I have seen you, a righteous person. God is saying, Noah, I've been watching you and I have seen you to be righteous before me in this time. This is a comment. This is an affirmation of Noah's righteous lifestyle as well.

In calling Noah righteous, God is saying to Noah that I have seen that you have lived your life in conformity to what I have rightfully expected of you. This is God saying to Noah, I am pleased with you. It's interesting to note that there is no other word more frequently associated with Noah than the word righteous. in Genesis 6:9, the text tells us that Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time.

In Ezekiel 14:14 and in chapter 14 verse 20, Ezekiel lumps Noah together with Daniel and Job as having Righteousness. In 2 Peter 2:5, Peter describes Noah as a preacher. of righteousness. And now here in this passage, God speaks to Noah and says, for you alone, I have seen to be righteous before me in this time.

Just imagine hearing God speak those words to you. You, I have seen. To be righteous. There's several things about Noah's righteousness that God is spotlighting and what he's saying here.

First of all, we see that Noah is a righteous person in his being. From the language of the text, we see that it is Noah that God sees as righteous, not just some of Noah's actions. This action was righteous, that action was righteous. No, he says, I see you.

You have been righteous before me in this time. He's a righteous man in his character. Secondly, we see that Noah was alone in his righteousness. You alone, God says, I have seen to be righteous.

Noah was righteous. Even though no one else around him in the world of his day was living a righteous lifestyle. Clearly God is not grading the human race on a curve. And if you think that he might, this should dispel that illusion.

God is not choosing to deem, looking at the world of Noah's day and say, well, I'll take the top 50% and I'll deem the top half to be righteous because they're more righteous than the bottom half. That's the way so many people think. And they compare themselves to other people and I'm not that bad. I'm not as bad as that person, as bad as that person.

I think I'm in the top 50% of the most righteous people on the planet. So I'm probably gonna get into heaven. Well, however many millions or billions of people were on the planet at this time, God looks over the entirety of the human race, and then speaks to Noah and says, you alone. I have seen to be righteous.

Only Noah Thirdly, we see that Noah was righteous before God. He says, I've seen you to be righteous before me. Noah was righteous before God. This tells us that Noah lived his life in relationship with God, living his life with the mindfulness that he was always before God, always in God's presence.

Even when no one else was looking except God. Noah knew that he was before God and he behaved accordingly. Noah almost certainly was not righteous in the eyes of men before men. He was no doubt roundly condemned by the people of his day, but before God, he was righteous.

He was esteemed righteous by God, and he was righteous before men, only their values were such that they did not esteem him to be righteous, but God did, and that's what matters. We also see here in God's affirmation. His statement that Noah was righteous in this time. Well, we've learned about this time.

This is the most wicked era in human history. Yet Noah during this wicked day with the earth filled with sin and with violence and unrighteousness, he lived a righteous life before God during this era. Noah did not blend with his culture. He was willing to stand alone and be different and live a righteous life that conformed to what God expected from him, not what his culture expected from him.

Noah lived a righteous life even if it contradicted everything in the culture around him. He was righteous in his time, his wicked day that he lived in, he was righteous, and God sees that. Looking at God's statement to Noah here, we also see that his righteousness qualified him for entry into the ark. God states this affirmation of Noah's righteousness in order to explain why Noah gets an invitation.

Into the ark, he says, for, or because you alone, I have seen to be righteous. And we also see that Noah's righteousness was his family member's ticket. Into the ark. God is making this affirmation, uttering this affirmation of Noah's righteousness, as an explanation for why Noah's family gets to come into the ark.

So this statement by God to Noah is a loaded statement, and it's probably the greatest single sentence that Noah ever heard from God. There's little doubt that the world of his day ridiculed and condemned Noah, and he got no encouragement from the world around him. Yet Noah cared little about what anyone else thought. And is it not true that you would care nothing about what the world may think of you if you could obtain this verdict from God?

To just hear God say, I see you as righteous. What more could you want than that? The statement by God is not only an endorsement of Noah, but it is also a validation of his justice, of God's just decision. He's validating the justice of his decision to invite Noah into the ark and to destroy everyone else in judgment.

When God says to Noah, you alone I have seen to be righteous, he's not just saying something about Noah, he is saying something about everyone else on the planet. There's a huge difference between Noah and everyone else in the world. The rest of the world, as we have seen, had corrupted their way upon the earth, given way to wickedness, which was great upon the earth during this time. Every thought of every heart was only evil continually, we learned in chapter 6, but Noah was righteous and blameless in his time, and God makes this statement to explain why he's inviting Noah and his family into the ark and why he is not inviting anybody else.

Why the rest of the world will be left outside of the ark to face the wrath of God. God does more here than just invite Noah into the ark with his family. This brings us to the next thing that happens before God's judgment falls, and that is God tells Noah to bring animals into the ark. With him.

God tells Noah to bring animals into the ark with him. He says, you shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female, and of the animals that are not clean too, a male and his female, also of the birds of the sky by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face. Of all the earth. We learned in Genesis 1 and 2 that God gave to man dominion over the animal creation, and here God is giving to Noah a very important obligation or responsibility that goes with the exercise of that dominion, and that is to bring these particular animals onto the ark.

Now, when we read this statement in Genesis 7, we, we have to at least give us a, a moment's thought to what God said back in chapter 6. In chapter 6, verse 19, God had said to Noah, decades earlier than where we're at today, he said, and of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Understand that the word two could be translated as pairs, pairs.

So all God is really saying in Genesis 6:19 is that Noah is to bring pairs of every kind. Into, the ark. In Genesis 6, God's focus is simply on the fact that Noah will need to bring in animals that are paired up with one another, but his focus in chapter 7, God's focus with the instructions he gives in chapter 7 is also on the number of each animal that Noah is to bring onto the ark. God divides up all of the animal creation into the categories of clean.

And unclean, and he gives Noah instructions accordingly. Literally, the text reads this way, he says, you shall take with you of every clean animal 77, a male and his female. And the language here causes some commentators to suggest that God is actually telling Noah to bring 7 pairs. 7 pairings of clean animals which would amount to 14 of a particular clean animals.

Other commentators suggest that God is simply telling Noah to bring 7 clean animals of a particular kind, bring 7 to where 6 of them are paired up with one another, and then there's 1 that One poor pathetic animal that doesn't get A match to come into the ark. I'll let you guys figure that out. It's actually tough. Commentators are like divided 50/50 on whether this is 7 of each clean animal or 14.

of each kind. But either way, this is the first passage in the Old Testament where we see this distinction made between clean and unclean animals. Interestingly, God speaks about this distinction to Noah in a way that it seems like he totally expects Noah to know exactly what he's talking about. So Noah, no doubt had some understanding of what a clean animal was and an unclean.

Animal was. We know that after the flood, Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. So it seems evident that Noah had some prior understanding of what a clean animal was and what an unclean animal was, and that distinction was important to him in his worship of God as he offered sacrifices to the Lord. God tells Noah to bring these animals onto the ark to keep offspring alive or literally to keep seed alive.

The idea is that the purpose of Noah bringing these particular animals onto the ark was not simply to save these animals alone. But to make it possible that the future generations of all of these animals' offspring would be able to come into existence. And God instructing Noah to bring these animals onto the ark, you can look around today at every animal you see. God was thinking of those animals you see today.

God was sparing the animals you see today from non-existence. In inviting Noah to bring, instructing Noah to bring these animals into the ark to keep the seed of each kind, the offspring alive. Now it's interesting that God is wanting Noah to preserve animals clean and unclean. God's actually telling Noah, bring unclean animals onto the ark along with the clean.

This says something about God. As one writer says, these unclean animals are spared from drowning. They are as much an object of Yahweh's compassion as his Noah's himself. So God is showing His mercy, His kind providence, even over the unclean animals.

In addition to that, we see God making provision for an extra abundance of clean animals for man's future benefit. God is already thinking of life beyond the flood. Man at this point in history is not eating meat. That is something that God will allow for after the flood.

but God knows that man is going to be eating meat after the flood and that he will ordain for his people, the people of Israel to eat from those animals that are clean. God will also later instruct his people, the Jews, to offer sacrifices, and the animals that they would offer for sacrifice would be clean animals, not unclean animals. So with all of that in mind, just think of the original readers of Genesis, the Jews, as they're maybe wandering through the wilderness or they're standing on the verge of the promised land, and this is Being read to them and they would read of these instructions to Noah, they would see here in Genesis 7, as early as Genesis 7, that God is even here looking out for man's physical need for food, and man's need for provision for atonement through the sacrificial system of clean animals and making provision.

For man's, his people's worship, as they worship by offering clean.

Animals for sacrifice to the Lord. So this is what God instructs Noah to do. But in verse 4, God tells Noah why. As we move into verse 4, God says, here, I want you to come in the ark, bring your whole, family, you alone, I have seen to be righteous.

Bring animals onto the ark with the instructions that I give you and the quantities that I am, giving to you here. and then in verse 4, God does something else, and that is he assures Noah of his approaching judgment. He assures Noah of his approaching judgment. We don't know how long it had been since Noah had finished the ark.

It may have sat for decades, for all we know. Noah may have wondered, is this promise that I heard decades ago really going to come true? God here is saying to Noah, get aboard the ark, come inside, there is a storm coming. That's what he does here in verse 4.

He assures Noah of his approaching judgment. God says, for after 7 more days, I will send rain on the earth, 40 days and 40 nights, and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made. The last recorded time that God had spoken to Noah, he told Noah that he would destroy the earth with a great flood, but now God is stating it again with some details that were not included the original time back in chapter 6. He tells Noah that he will be sending the flood beginning 7 days from that point.

So he's telling him the starting point of the flood. He tells Noah how long the rain is going to last, 40 days. And 40 nights, and he tells Noah what the net result of that rain will be, and that is that God through that rain will wipe out from the face of the land, every living thing. that he had made.

Notice that God only says here that he will blot out creatures from the face of the land. Sea creatures are not included in this. Many sea creatures will no doubt die and perish in the flood, but many of them will survive. God's goal in the flood is not to destroy every living thing in the sea, but to destroy everything.

Every living creature on the face of the land. There's something ominous, just so sobering about the end of verse 4. I will blot out, God says from the face of the land, every living thing that I have made. This is the final sentence.

That God speaks, containing the final words of God before the flood actually comes, and it is a promise of absolute and total destruction. After the period on this sentence, there are no more words from God. After this, only the execution of God's promise to send the flood. And 2 execute.

His judgment. God wants Noah to understand that he's the cause. He's the one who will be bringing this flood. One writer says it this way, God does not shrink in this passage from the responsibility of the impending cataclysm.

God doesn't say, hey, no, I, because I'm God, I know everything and there's a cataclysm that's coming, there's a storm that's coming, and I can't stop it, but I do want to serve you by letting that it's on its way and tell you to prepare. No, literally, the wording of the text, God says, I myself will send rain and will blot out from the face of the land, everything that I have made. God wants it to be very clear that he himself is the one who is bringing the flood. And that in bringing the flood, he deliberately intends to destroy every living creature from the face of the land.

Notice that in the language here, God emphasizes that he's the maker of everything that I've made, that God is the maker of all that is, and he has the right to do whatever he pleases with whatever and whoever he has made. Nowadays, Christians are embarrassed. Professing Christians are embarrassed by The doctrine of God's wrath or of his judgments, but here we see that God is not embarrassed. At all, nor does he speak of the flood in more distant terms.

Noah, get into the ark because a storm is coming, a flood is coming, people will die. No, get into the ark because I myself. Will be sending rain. With the net result being that everything that lives on the face of the land will be destroyed.

This is the God of the Bible. And it's rather than hearing that and going, what God would do that? We should see the severity of God's judgment and then look at our sin and say, wow, I never realized it before, but our sin against this God must really be that bad. And what an amazing thing it is that God would make provision for Noah and his family and these animals to be rescued on the ark.

And in the process save all of us from non-existence. What a mercy this is. We see a God of justice, a God of judgment, a God of wrath, and a God of mercy at the same time. God says this to Noah to explain why it is that he's now inviting Noah onto the ark.

Everything is gonna be destroyed. God wants to preserve Noah on the ark, so he invites them into the ark with his whole family. And he tells them, the reason is, is because I see you, Noah, as righteous, gather the animals into the ark as well, because I am about to send. Judgment.

How does Noah respond? This brings us to the next point, which is the final thing that happens before the flood comes, and that is Noah obeys everything God commands him to do. Noah obeys everything that God commands him to do. The text says verse 5, Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. there's a repeated emphasis in the flood narrative on, Noah's obedience. we saw in chapter 6, verse 22. a twofold affirmation of Noah's obedience when the text says, if you go back to chapter 6, verse 22, it says, thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

So, what we're being told there in chapter 6 is that Noah, twice, Noah did what God said, Noah did what God said. He obeyed the Lord. And now here again, we are told that Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. He didn't just do some of what God commanded, but he did according to all that God had commanded.

We're told here in the passage that Noah was 600 years old when the water came. This puts us about 100 years after God had initially spoken. To Noah in chapter 6 and first told him to prepare an ark and to prepare for judgment. verses 7 through 9 details for us what Noah did.

Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with them, they, they entered into the ark, according to the text. They entered because of the water of the flood that God had promised would be coming. In verse 8, we're told that the clean animals and the unclean animals and the birds and the creeping things all went into the ark by twos, or in other words, by pairs, male and female. And the, the indication we get is that Noah did not have to go and get these animals.

The text says they went into the ark to Noah. So the picture is that Noah boarded the ark and the animals followed. The animals know, we even know nowadays animals have an intuitive sense. When an earthquake is about to, to happen.

I don't, I don't even know how they know that, but they, they read things in the atmosphere and, and feel things that our senses just don't necessarily pick up on and the animals here, they're clued in to something, something is happening, and they come to Noah by the grace of God, God leading them through their intuitive sense. They come to Noah aboard the ark. In the very end of verse 9, we're told that Noah and his family and all the animals boarded as God had commanded Noah, as God had commanded Noah.

Here again, we're told that Noah is doing everything, everything exactly as God instructed and welcoming the animals on board with the pairings and the numberings of the different kinds of animals that God had given Noah instructions about.

Now, this process of boarding probably took every bit of 7 days, which would explain why God told Noah 7 days in advance. The text seems to indicate that Noah obeyed instantly and later verses indicate that it took Noah all of 7 days. To get everyone and everything on board the ark and distribute it into the appropriate rooms of the ark. Verse 13 is going to tell us that Noah and his family entered the ark for the final time on the very day that the rain started.

So, again, we just have this picture of God speaks these words to Noah, and they, he immediately goes into action and begins the process of boarding the ark, and it took every bit of 7 days. And Noah and his family for the very last time stepped onto the ark on the very day that the rain had started. God told Noah to board the ark at exactly the time where Noah needed to hear that to get everything done before the flood came. So Noah obeys everything that God tells him to do.

That's what verses 5 through 9 are all about. These verses begin with a statement that Noah did. according to all that the Lord had commanded him, and these verses end with the words just as God commanded Noah. Moses' intention in writing the text this way, his burden is to let us know that Noah obeyed God.

He did everything that he was told. Let's ponder for a few minutes what we're not told in this passage. first of all, there's nothing said in this passage about Noah speaking at all. Fat guys, if you read this entire narrative, Noah doesn't say anything.

Until Genesis 9:25, and what his first words are? Cursed be Canaan. That's the first thing he says is he curses Canaan and then blesses his other two sons. Noah doesn't do a lot of talking in this narrative, and he doesn't speak back to God.

Nothing's recorded at least of him protesting God's plan to judge the world. Noah is not offended at the thought that God would judge sinners for their sin. He accepts the wisdom of God and the purposes of God and the decree of God. Also, Noah doesn't protest the fact that God has chosen to see him as righteous.

He doesn't say, oh no, no, no, I don't accept that. I don't accept that. No, he accepts the verdict of God upon his life as gracious as it was, as undeserving as he may have felt, he accepted God's verdict upon his life. Also, let's note that nothing is said about any of Noah's feelings.

In This passage. we care about feelings, right? And that's not a bad thing. There's even stories in the Bible about how people felt when things happen.

Read the resurrection narratives and, and so forth. That's, that's, that's important, but in our culture, we really care about feelings and perhaps uniquely so when we read a story like this, we're like, what must he have been feeling? But as one writer says, one of the remarkable features of this flood story is it's entirely objective character. Noah's subjective feelings or reactions are not even indicated by a single word.

It's as though human emotions were but trivial things in the face of the vastness of the disaster that befalls the earth. Enough to know the implicit obedience of this man of God. He receives orders and he obeyed them to the letter. That's the burden of Moses in writing this narrative the way that he is.

I think we can imagine what Noah might have been feeling through this whole process. Imagine if you knew what Noah knew. Everyone is going about their normal business, marrying, eating, drinking, giving in marriage, but no one knows that in 7 days, all life that exists on land will be destroyed. He knows this.

No one else knows this. How traumatic this must have been for him, but nothing in the text is said about any of Noah's feelings. God wants us to know, I spoke to Noah, and he did what I said. Also, this text details nothing about Noah's heroic construction of the ark or even of his preaching of righteousness or of how he would have handled the opposition of the world around him as he sought to obey God.

whatever Noah's deeds were, During this time period, we would love to know of them and to read the stories about them. If a book were made available to us that detailed the exploits of Noah during this 100 year period as he built the ark and stood up against the world of his day, all of us would buy that book. However, as one writer says, listen to this, Noah's rather long and complicated exploits are condensed into these words. He did it.

He did it. God gave instructions. Noah did it. Not a note about his expertise in construction and zoology.

By condensing Noah's considerable achievements into an unbelievably skeletal statement, the author concentrates on one fact only, Noah's obedience to and successful completion of the divine mandate. That's it. The only thing the writer of Genesis wants us to see is that Noah did what he was told. God spoke and Noah did what God had said.

God commanded and Noah obeyed. God invited and Noah responded, God wants you to know that Noah obeyed him. In closing, I, I recognize that I can end this sermon this morning by saying to you all, Noah obeyed God, now go and be like Noah. that would not be a bad thing for me to say.

God's commands are wonderful. They're gracious and benevolent directions from God to us. God is worthy of our obedience. We should strive to obey God, but I would be cheating you if all I did was point to Noah, and then point to you and say, be like Noah, and go forth from here and obey God.

If that's all I did and did not point you to Jesus Christ, who is greater than Noah in his righteousness. In the righteous life that he lived, and in the scope of salvation that comes to people like us because of his righteousness. When you read this passage in Genesis, you probably should most identify yourself if you're a believer. With Noah's sons or with his daughters-in-law.

God sees Noah as righteous and invites him onto the ark and tells him, bring your family members with you. Think about that. Noah's sons and his daughters-in-law got into the ark not because of their own righteousness, but because of the righteousness of another, the righteousness of Noah. And that points us to Christ, who is our Noah.

Christ did all that God the Father commanded him to do. Jesus Christ is the only one in all of human history that God could say, you alone, I have seen to be perfectly, spotlessly righteous in any time. And so Christ through his death and resurrection and his righteous life, he provides an arc of salvation for us. And you and I can get into that arc of salvation because of his righteousness.

Not our own And in a future day our ticket to heaven will be his righteousness, not our righteousness. Also realize that Christ's righteousness is available to you. Today, God speaks to Noah and says, I have seen you, a righteous person. You might hear those words and go, oh, to be able to hear those words from God and yet I know the life that I have lived.

And I know the sins that I have committed. There is no way that those words would ever come out of God's mouth toward me. But that's why we exist as a church. That's why Christ came into the world to give the news to you and to me, and the news is this, there is a way for you to get God.

To speak these words about you, and to declare you righteous, and to see you as righteous. You say, how? How? should I clean up my act?

No, it's too late for that. You've blown that. Should I try to be more righteous? No, you've already blown that.

In Luke 18:13, write that reference down. Jesus says, here's how to do it. He tells about a tax collector who was lowly esteemed, known as crooked, disrespected, the lowest of the low in Jewish culture, and he says a tax collector came to the temple one day and he was so broken over his sin. That he was beating his breast, he stood far away from the temple.

He didn't even feel worthy to come close to the temple, and he could not even lift his eyes up into heaven, but he did in his brokenness, speak to God in prayer, and he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus says in the next verse, I tell you. That man went to his home. Justified.

What he's saying is that man went to his home righteous. Righteous The way to have God look upon us and pronounce us as righteous is we repent of our sins. We recognize that our own righteousness is as filthy rags. We see the bankruptcy of our own righteousness, and we see that we're unable to save ourselves or commend ourselves one iota to God, and then we turn away from ourselves recognizing that, and we set our eyes upon Jesus, and we see that he lived the right.

righteous life that I failed to live, and he died the death that I deserve to die. And God raised him from the dead and ascended him to his right hand. And from that position of absolute lordship, Jesus Christ is giving out forgiveness of sins. And the gift of righteousness.

To all who look upon him and call upon his name. as their Lord and Savior. Write down the reference Romans 5:17, where Paul uses the expression, gift of righteousness. Righteousness is a gift that comes from God to the humble.

If you have never believed in Christ, run to Him today. Believe in Him, call upon his name, and he will be pleasured to give to you the gift of righteousness, and he will say to you in that very moment of your faith in Him and becoming his child, he will say, I see you as forgiven and I see you as righteous. Lastly, if you're saved, I just want to encourage you to embrace, accept and embrace God's verdict of righteousness upon your life. When he tells you I have seen you, a righteous person, accept that.

That is God's explanation for every blessing that he gives to you and that he invites you into. God says to us, come into my presence and pray, for I have seen you, a righteous person. Receive the gift of my Holy Spirit and all the other blessings that I want to give you. Why do I give them to you?

For I have seen you, a righteous person. Enjoy the privileges of, of being my child and of having a relationship with me. Come and enjoy them, for I have seen you, a righteous person. Guys, the Christian life, one way of looking at it is it's a lifelong series of invitations from God for us to come deeper and deeper and deeper into the experience of His love, and with each invitation to go deeper into his love, God says, for I have seen you.

A righteous person, forgiven. Of your sins. And one day we're gonna stand before God at the gates of heaven, and he's gonna say to us who have believed in Christ, enter into my eternal home, for I have seen you. A righteous person in Christ.

And if you look forward to that day, And you plan on in that day accepting that verdict. And that invitation, then accept that verdict and that invitation. The 1020 times God speaks it to you every day, as he invites you more and more deeply into his love. May the biography of all of our lives, may the title of it be gracious invitations and great responses.

Let's pray together. If you're here today and you've never I know, I know there are people in this room that have never been converted. You've never been born again. You've never become a child of God.

I just want you to feel the grace of what, what's happening this morning. God is speaking to you and there's Christ who is the ark of your salvation. There is God's wrath, there is his judgment for sin. that people will experience who do not get into Christ.

And yet this God of justice has made provision of salvation for you, and he points to his son, and then he looks at you and he says, enter into him, come into him. For he alone is righteous, and you will find salvation in him. Will you accept that invitation? And come into Christ today.

And make him your strong tower, your refuge, and your salvation. If God's spirit is speaking in your heart, even right now where you're seated, just pray to Him, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Save me and make me your child. Through Christ Who is the ark of my salvation.

I don't want to be anywhere else. Other than in him. Father, we thank you for Your word, how consistently we see the theme of your grace throughout all of Scripture. It's not just a New Testament thing.

We see pointers to Christ everywhere. We're sobered by this reminder of your justice, how awful the great flood must have been. You are a big God and your, your justice is mighty and strong and unyielding, and yet you are a God of grace and you make provision. For salvation And we here at Cornerstone have accepted that invitation, not because we think we're better than others, but because we've acknowledged our guilt and our need.

So we hear your words of grace this morning and we, we respond to you. We accept your verdict upon those of us who believed in you. And we thank you for your grace. We thank you for this opportunity to give up our offerings to you, receive these funds, too much.

With every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus and for the spread of this amazingly good news of salvation through Christ. It's in his name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.