God and Noah: A Graced Relationship

, anyway, let me invite you guys to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 6 for our time of study in the word this morning as we worship God by opening our hearts to Him and allowing him to speak, into us, and we're doing a verse by verse study through the Book of Genesis, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Genesis chapter 6 verse 9. And my goal this morning is to try to cover verses 9 through 22. And we're doing this with the lighting just to keep you guys awake, variety.

anyway, if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be God and Noah, a graced relationship.

God and Noah, a graced, relationship. Noah is a historical figure who looms large actually in the pages of Scripture. His name shows up over 55 times on the pages of Scripture, and his name is mentioned in 11 different books of the Bible. interestingly, in Ezekiel chapter 14, you might want to write down Ezekiel 14:14.

And then I believe verse 20 also, Ezekiel puts Noah's name together with Daniel and with Job as the three most righteous men to ever live. He cites those three men in order to make a point. clearly indicating Ezekiel viewed Noah up there with Daniel and Job as among the most righteous men to ever live. The prophet Isaiah mentions Noah, the writer of Hebrews enshrines Noah in the hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11.

And Peter in his two epistles mentions Noah in 1 Peter and in 2 Peter, Jesus mentions Noah and Matthew, and Mark, and in Luke. We should be grateful that we have a chance to become acquainted with Noah in these chapters of Genesis verses 6 through 9. Noah is a man of immense gravitas. And righteousness.

And I think it's fair to say that Noah, the man has marked the course of history more than any other man other than Jesus Christ. So far in our study of Genesis, we have learned two things about Noah in chapter 5 verse 29. we heard Noah's father prophesy over him that somehow through Noah, Man would experience rest from the curse that God had placed on the ground. So that's Genesis 5:29.

And then last week, we learned that even though God had determined to wipe out all of mankind in response to man's sin, in Genesis chapter 6 verse 8, and this is where we left off last week, we read the words, Noah found favor. In the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The statement tells us that Noah was a man who was looking for grace from God, and he found grace with God.

The statement tells us that God had set his grace upon Noah, and that his grace was operating. In Noah's life. The statement tells us that God and Noah had a relationship with one another, and it tells us that God's grace operated richly in the context of their relationship with each other. As we come this morning to Genesis chapter 6 verses 9 through 22, let me frame it this way, one of the ways that we can understand verses 9 through 22 is we can interpret it as an unpacking of that statement that is found in verse 8.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These verses, verses 9 through 22, show us how grace operated. And manifested itself in God and Noah's relationship with one another in the time period just prior to the flood. So let me read the passage to you beginning in verse 6, or chapter 6, verse 9.

says these are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.

And behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it.

The length of the arc 300 cubits. Its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top and set the door of the ark in the side of it. You shall make it with lower, 2nd, and 3rd decks.

Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark and keep them or to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, Take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself, and it shall be for food for you and for them. And thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him. So he did This is the word of God and may God help us to understand his words this morning.

The way we're gonna frame this, our study of this passage is we're gonna look at 7 manifestations of grace in God and Noah's relationship with one another, 7 manifestations of grace. And you'll probably notice in the message that the first point will take the longest and then each point will progressively become shorter and shorter, OK? Point number 1, the first manifestation of grace in God and Noah's relationship is that Noah, as we observe in the text here, walks righteously with God in his time.

He walks righteously with God in his time.

in verse 9, the opening title, these are the records of the generations of Noah. This is just another way of saying this is the story of Noah and his family history. And then Noah is described in verse 9 and verse 10. And don't forget, guys, that before we're told that Noah was righteous and blameless, and that he walked with God, we're told first, In verse 8, that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah's righteousness of life, his blamelessness, his walk with God flowed from the fountain of this grace that Noah had discovered with God. But we learned some things about Noah in verses 9 and 10. 1st of all, we learned that Noah was a righteous man. This is actually the first time we see the word righteous in the Bible.

The Hebrew word righteous speaks of that which conforms to what is rightfully expected of it. For example, if I lived in the Old Testament era and I, planted an apple seed, And from that seed grew an apple tree that produced apples, I would literally use the Hebrew term and call that a righteous tree because it conforms to what I rightfully expected of it. And that's the way Noah lived his life. He looked at God's expectations and then he habitually conformed his life to whatever it was that God expected of him.

He was not a man who occasionally did what was righteous, but he habitually did what was righteous. He consistently did what God rightfully expected of him. Secondly, we learned that Noah was blameless. He was blameless.

The word blameless means without defect. This is an amazing word to describe a human being. This is the word that was used to refer to animals that were unblemished or without defect and fit for offering as a sacrifice to God. So Noah here is described.

as blameless, unblemished, without defect, and you might say, so did he never, ever sin? What might interest you to know that this word blameless is actually used by David in 2 Samuel 22:24, describing himself, and he says, I was blameless toward him, toward God, even though earlier in David's life, David had committed adultery. And murder. He committed many sins throughout his life and some of which we read about on the pages of scripture.

But the deal is that David saw his sin, he confessed his sin, he put away his sin, and God esteemed him to be without defect or blameless as a result. Applying this to Noah, we can infer that Noah habitually obeyed God, and whenever he disobeyed. He repented of his disobedience. He confessed his sins to God and received forgiveness from God.

And hence, the scripture can say that Noah was blameless in God's sight. Thirdly, we learn in this passage that Noah walked with God. He walked with God. There are only two instances in all of Scripture where somebody is said to have walked with God.

And those two instances are found in Genesis 5 and Genesis 6. That's the only place in the Bible we see this expression. In Genesis 5, we're told twice that Enoch walked with God. And now here we're being told that Enoch's great grandson, Noah walked with God.

Just a word to you dads, the greatest thing that you could do to increase the chances of your children walking with God is to walk with God yourself. Little did Enoch know in his own day that by walking with God himself, he was blazing a trail that his great grandson would walk on and thus save the human race from extinction. Noah was born 69 years after Enoch was taken up to heaven, but we can be sure that Noah heard all about his great grandfather and was blessed to know that he was able to walk with the same God.

That Enoch had walked with for 300 years.

The fact that Noah walked with God tells us that Noah was not just a righteous rule keeper. It tells us that he had a relationship with God. The language here of walking with God is that a relationship and friendship, companionship. And fellowship.

Wherever God was going. Noah wanted to go with him. Wherever Noah went, he took God with him. Whatever Noah experienced in life, he experienced it together with God at his side.

He experienced all of life. In relationship with God. My wife is, a week ago, she left with my son Benjamin to go across country to take him to school and she's now in Indiana. And we'll be there for a few weeks, but my wife and I are gonna be apart for probably about a month.

And It's hard, and I don't even realize it all the time, but I just start feeling as the days wear on, just, Like half a man. and, she and I were able to talk on, Friday night. And I was just really feeling that ache and not sure what, where it all came from. But when we got done talking, I just told her, I said, I feel whole again.

I feel complete again and we were just able to pray together and thank the Lord for that, but my wife and I, we walk together through life. there's relationship there, fellowship, companionship there, and when we're apart, we feel that. In Noah's relationship with God, he found a wholeness in walking with God in relationship with him. Noah walked with God.

We should appreciate the fact that Noah chose to walk with God, but guys, we should be even more impressed that God was willing to come down into that wicked world of Noah's day and walk with Noah through it. What this passage shows us is that the world is never too wicked for God to walk with us through it. We also learn in this passage that Noah was a dad. He became the father of three sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth.

Noah did not look at the evil world around him and say, I would never bring children into this wicked world. The fact that Noah had children tells us that he was a man of hope, a man who knew that God was on the move. In human history, a man who knew that somehow history would unfold towards its intentional, purposeful climax. Noah was a man who knew that even if the world never gets any better in his day, at least one can walk with God through it.

A word to all married couples, if Noah was not afraid to have children in his own evil day, then we should not think the world is too evil for us to have children in our day. Our world needs you, Christian, to have children. There's a little prepositional phrase that we skipped over in verse 9 that really says a lot. It's the phrase in his time.

This phrase in his time puts a spotlight on the time period in which Noah was righteous and blameless and walking with God. There were other eras in human history where being righteous and blameless and walking with God, might have been easier. This was the hardest day. The hardest era in human history for a man ever to walk with God.

And we learn here that Noah walked with God righteously and blamelessly in his own time among his contemporaries, all of whom were evil. We've already learned in verse 5 of chapter 6 how that God saw the wickedness of man being great upon the earth, but Noah Moses now adds to this description in verses 11 and 12. Listen to what he says. This is a description of Noah's time.

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. This is Noah's time. We see the word corrupt 3 times in verses 11 and 12.

It literally, what this word means? It means to ruin. To destroy. It's telling us that man had destroyed himself through sin.

Actually, the Hebrew word that is translated corrupt 3 times appears, the Hebrew word appears 4 times in verses 11 through 13, but most English translations don't bring this out. Let me use the word ruined and show you. how this word is used. I'll translate verses 11 to 13.

Now the earth was ruined in the sight of God. Verse 12, God looked on the earth and behold, it was ruined. For all flesh had ruined their way upon the earth. And then verse 13, God says, behold, I am about to ruin them.

With the earth. The language used here makes clear that man had destroyed himself through sin. God finishes the job by destroying sinful man with the flood. Sin always destroys.

It never makes anything better and it invites the judgment of God as well. Moses tells us that the whole earth was corrupt in the sight of God or literally before God. The world with all of its wickedness was before God. Every deed that everyone committed was committed in full view of God.

It was right in front of him, for his eyes to see just like God sees everything that we do. Everything. Moses tells us also that the earth was filled with violence, filled with violence. The Hebrew word that is translated, violence is the word Hamas.

Looking at ways that this term is used in the Old Testament. One writer defines the term in this way. listen to what he says. I think I got this somewhere.

Back, there we go. He defines it as the cold-blooded and unscrupulous infringement of the personal rights of others motivated by greed and hate and often making use of physical violence and brutality. Sounds like a description of the abortion industry, which violates the rights of the unborn who cannot defend themselves or speak up for themselves. It sounds like the sex trafficking industry which violates the rights of women.

But the word Hamas entails more than physical violence. This word is used in Malachi 2:15. Write that reference down. Malachi 2:15 to speak of a man breaking covenant with his wife and divorcing her.

Hamas speaks of anything a person does. That ultimately breaks faith with and brings harm or loss to other people and verse 11 is telling us that the world is filled with this hurtful treachery of every sort. Moses repeats his point in verse 12, but this time he words things in a way that is more poignant and personal. He says God looked on the earth, and then he says, and behold, it was corrupt.

His use of the word behold indicates that the level of corruption was a startling thing to behold. Mankind was not just corrupt. But was startling in its corruption, as it was parading its corruption in full view of Almighty God as he, the Creator. Looks upon man.

Moses says all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth, all of them. There are no exceptions except for Noah and his family, and this is Noah's time. Noah was righteous and he was blameless, and he walked with God in this time. Imagine being Noah during this time.

Imagine pursuing godliness in a world where there is not one other person on the planet outside of your own family who is doing the same. Yet without any support from the world around him, Noah was righteous and blameless, and he walked with God in his time. As John Calvin. Beautifully said, Noah was a godly man when he had not even one associate in the worship of God and in the pursuit of holiness.

How would you have done? Today, we have the blessing of godly fellowship. And friendship and support from our brothers and sisters here at Cornerstone and Christians from other churches. Yet even amazingly, even with the fuller revelation that we have and with all of the support and the fellowship that we have, we don't seem to do as well as Noah did.

When Noah had none of that other than God to walk with. Let's be challenged by Noah's example as John Calvin. says, if Noah could bear up against the corruptions of the whole world and against such constant and vehement assaults of iniquity, No excuse is left for us. It's an amazing demonstration of God's grace.

If you came up to Noah and said, man, you are amazing, Noah. You're righteous, blameless, walking with God in this evil day, Noah would say, no, no, no, I'm not amazing. God's grace is amazing. This is an amazing demonstration of God's grace in my life, Noah would say.

That in such an evil time, God would enable me to be righteous and to walk with him and to be blameless, even though everyone around me is doing the exact opposite. This is, guys, this is what the grace of God looks like in somebody's life. This is how that God's grace is operating in a person's life. They walk with God and they pursue righteousness, even when no one else in the culture may be doing it.

They are willing to be different, righteously different. That was Noah, who walked with God righteously in his time. There's another manifestation of God's grace that we see in God and Noah's relationship with one another and that brings us to the next point, and that is that God informs Noah of his intent to destroy the earth. God says, then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them, and behold, I'm about to destroy them.

With the earth or together with the earth. God did not have to do this, but he does. He speaks to Noah and confides to him about what he sees as he looks upon mankind, and he informs Noah of his plans to destroy all flesh. According to one writer, Bruce Wolke, in the Babylonian flood account and in other ancient flood accounts, the gods who send a flood, keep their decisions secret from any person so that everyone will be killed.

That's what they were hoping for in the pagan flood accounts. But the God of the Bible brings Noah into his confidence. This is a grace that is absent from other pagan flood accounts. And by the way, guys, whenever you read your Bible and you read the book of Revelation, and other passages that tell you about the future and about the future judgments to come, be grateful for that and see the grace.

In that. That is God bringing you graciously into his confidence and sharing with you about these things to come, so that you are in the know. That's what God is doing to Noah here. God says to Noah, the end of all flesh has come.

Before me. That word end means extremity. God is saying the extremity of all flesh has come before me. I have seen with my eyes the farthest extreme of depravity and destruction that man is capable of.

This literally is telling us guys that during the days of Noah, the human race truly had become as bad as it could have become. And God is telling Noah, I see this. He says the earth is filled with Hamas, violence because of them. God is letting Noah know that he sees this.

It's a grace from God that God confides in Noah, his own diagnosis of the human condition in this passage. He shares this with Noah so that Noah can see the world through God's eyes. And understand his judgments and understand what God is about to do about what he sees. Maybe there were times where Noah saw this wickedness and he wondered at times, God, do you see this?

Do you see this? Do you see what's going on? And in a passage like this, God graciously is speaking to Noah's heart and saying, I see it, Noah. I see it all.

Just like God sees everything that's going on today. Everything. Nothing escapes. His notice.

God says to Noah, I am about to destroy them all flesh, together with the earth. The earth as it exists right now in this state, God says, will be no more. I will destroy it as it exists right now, together with all those. That I will destroy in this flood.

God then demonstrates his grace by telling Noah to prepare himself and his family for the coming destruction, which brings us to our next point, and that, that is that God instructs Noah to build an ark. To build an arc. Verse 14, make for yourself an ark. And then he begins to give instructions about that.

It's interesting, there are 7 commands in verses 14 through 16 from God to Noah, teaching us guys that God's commands are gifts of His grace. If you're truly walking in God's grace, you will love his commands. You will view his commands as wonderful expressions of his amazing grace and God in His grace gives to Noah essentially 7 instructions here. He says to Noah, make for yourself an ark.

An ark is simply an enclosed entity that floats on water, OK? but God doesn't just say build an ark. He actually tells Noah how to build the ark. He tells Noah what to make the ark out of gopher wood.

We actually don't know what gopher wood is today. no commentator I read has any clue. For sure what it is, but we can be confident that whatever it was, Noah knew what it was. In verse 14, God tells Noah to make the ark with rooms, and the word translated rooms is literally the Hebrew word for nests, like a bird's nest.

These rooms were going to serve as nesting areas for The animals that would be on the ark. God also tells Noah to cover the wood with pitch. The word pitch is the Hebrew word for covering, and no one really disputes the fact that this is speaking of a tar-like substance. Literally, God is saying, cover it with covering.

God does not just want Noah to build an ark, but he wants Noah to coat the ark in a way that would allow it to be preserved. He tells Noah the dimensions of the ark. He is to make the ark 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. In terms of modern day measurements, counting the Hebrew cubit as about 17.5 inches long.

it would put the ark at about 450 ft long. 75 ft wide and 45 ft high, roughly. and if, if you want a visual of the, of the arc, just imagine like from that wall. to this wall.

Just imagine that the alcove is not there, but from this wall to this wall, so imagine it about this wide. And then imagine it as high as the height of this raised ceiling. Imagine this ceiling times 3 roughly. That's how high it would be.

And then from this back wall to that back wall, multiply that times 4. And that's the length of the arc. That'll give you some visual of the dimensions of the arc. That would mean that the arc has, according to Henry Morris, 1,400,000 cubic feet of space.

For Noah and for the animals, which according to Henry Morris is the equivalent of 522 standard livestock cars that you would see being pulled by a train. God tells Noah that he has to make a window or an opening for the ark and he tells Noah to finish it to a cubit from the top. It's hard to know exactly what this Means, no one really thinks he's telling Noah to make one small square, window, but that the window would consist of a one cubit opening that would extend around the circumference perhaps of the arc for ventilation and for light, and evidently there would be something covering that.

to keep the rain and the water out wherever it was.

As for the door, God tells Noah in verse 16 to set the door of the ark in the side of it. The ark would have only one door that would serve as the entrance and ultimately the exit. God also tells Noah in verse 16 how many decks to build. The arc with 3 decks or 3 levels, which no doubt had sublevels in in each one.

So the first level of the arc would be about from here to this raised ceiling and then there would be 2 more decks of the same height. Let me just point something out here. When you look at the arc's design, along with what is said and what is not said, it's evident, listen to what one writer says that the arc was to be designed for capacity and floating stability rather than for speed and navigability. It's noteworthy that nowhere does God tell Noah to build a steering wheel.

Or a rudder or any navigational devices, which is interesting because according to Bruce Walke and others, like in the Babylonian flood story, the Noah character who goes by a different name hires a boatsman to navigate the ship through the ravages of the flood. So it was a skill that enabled them to see their way clear through The flood in the Babylonian account, but in the Genesis account, Moses wants it to be very clear. Listen to what one writer says that Noah's deliverance was not due to his seafaring skill, but only to the will of his Heavenly Father.

Noah had only to make an ark that would not sink in the water.

That was all that was required of him. And all that concerned the unfoldment of events, Noah had to put his trust in the Lord to steer. The ark. God was gonna be the pilot.

Of the ark, not Noah. Noah was gonna be entering into it and being blind inside of the ark through the flood, trusting God. Let me ask you, if God told you to build a boat of this size with no rudder, With no steering device, meaning that you were going to have to enter into it blind and leave it to him to steer the boat in the midst of the worst flood, the worst storm that the world has ever seen, would you build that boat? And even more after building it, would you get into it?

When you see a flood on its way, Noah built it. And Noah entered into it. You'll notice if you're reading carefully that up to this point of the narrative, God has told Noah of his intention to destroy the earth and he's told Noah to build an ark and Noah could probably get an idea why he needs to build an ark. But God technically has not told Noah how he intends specifically to destroy the earth.

And this brings us to the 5th point. Where God tells Noah his method for destroying the earth. God did not have to share this with Noah, but he did. This is a grace from God, just like God gives to us as His people detailed descriptions of the specific judgments that he will bring upon the world during the tribulation period, and how he will specifically judge the world at a second coming.

God here is telling Noah his method for destroying. All flesh. God tells Noah that, listen to what he says, behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh and which is the breath of life. Imagine hearing those words on the evening news.

A flood of water is coming upon the earth and it will destroy everyone and everything that has the breath of life in it. Imagine that. This is the news that Noah is getting from the Lord right now. And God uses very strong language here.

The word, you might want to underline the word flood in your Bibles. This is not the normal word for a flood of water. We have floods talked about in the Old Testament, even in the New Testament. This is not the normal Hebrew word for flood.

This is the Hebrew word Maboll. Say that with me. Mabel. and it is only used in the Old Testament with reference to the great flood of Noah's day.

It's used 12 times here in Genesis 6, chapters 6 through 12, and then once in Psalm 29:10, and many commentators would say that's a reference to the great flood. this is a very significant word in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. the Greek word is cataclysmos, from which we get our English word. Cataclysm.

this is the word the New Testament uses also. This is God's way of saying that the flood that I am about to sin is unlike any other flood. There are floods, but this is no mere flood. There are floods that wreak havoc.

And uproot homes and kill maybe hundreds and even thousands of people. The tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 killed over 220,000 people. That's a flood. That's merely a flood.

And then there's the Maboul, the cataclysms that God is promising to send upon the world. One Jewish commentator indicates that the use of this terminology in the Genesis text indicates the unparalleled cataclysmic nature of the event. There has never been, again, since then, a flood like this flood that God is about to send in all of human history. God wants Noah to know that this will be no natural Mall, no natural cataclysm, but that he is the cause of it.

In verse 17, he says, behold, I, even I, and bringing the Mabool of water upon the earth. God is saying, Noah, I want you to know that I am the one who is bringing this cataclysm, this judgment upon the earth, and the intended result of me bringing this great cataclysm is that everything that is on the earth shall perish. What will come of Noah through this flood? This brings us to our next point where we see just a wonderful manifestation of God's grace toward Noah, and that is God promises to establish his covenant with Noah.

He says, but as for you, Noah, I will establish my covenant with you. This is the first time in the Bible that the word covenant appears. God will make several covenants. Throughout the rest of scriptural history, but here in this passage, God is saying to Noah, I will make a covenant.

With you, Noah God will give the details of this covenant in Genesis 9:9 and following. After the flood, we, we find the specifics of this covenant that God right now is promising that he will be making and establishing with Noah. But as for right now, all God is saying is the day is gonna come when I'm gonna establish a covenant with you, Noah. This is God's way of saying, Noah, you're not gonna die in the flood.

You will live through this, and I will make a covenant with you. And in that covenant, I'm going to make promises to you and you will see in your experience that those promises, every one of them are true. God knew, God thinks of everything. He knew that Noah would need these words of promise to help him during the years of building the ark and enduring the ridicule that lies ahead for Noah.

He knew that Noah would need this encouragement. In the midst of the coming storm, frightening days lie ahead for Noah and for his family, and God is giving to Noah an assuring, covenantal word to help Noah to remain confident and at peace through the tumultuous days ahead. When in the days that follow, Noah thinks he might die from the water, he will remember this promise from God. Whenever Noah starts feeling unworthy of God's grace and thinks that he is going to be judged with everybody else, he will remember these words that God is speaking to him here.

I love what verse 18 shows us about God. A God who thinks of everything. God knows that Noah needs more than an ark. He knows that Noah needs a word of gracious promise, a covenantal promise.

And that's what God gives as a gracious gift to Noah here. But for Noah to receive the benefits of this covenant and for him to be able to survive the great flood, there is something that Noah needs to do. And this brings us to our next point where God graciously gives Noah some instructions regarding entering the ark once it is completed. It's almost as if God is saying, Noah, I'm gonna establish my covenant with you.

There's only one thing I need you to do once the ark is completed, get in the ark. You do that, and we're good. And I will fulfill my covenant with you. So God instructs Noah.

About entering the ark in verses 18 through 21. 1st of all, he tells Noah who is to enter the ark. He says in verse 18, you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. It's very important that Noah get into the ark together with them.

It's not just Noah. From the language here, we see that God is not simply wanting Noah to be saved. He wants Noah's wife to be saved also. He wants Noah's marriage to survive the flood.

He wants Noah's sons to be saved and not just his sons to be saved. He wants their wives to be saved and thus God wants their marriages to survive the flood. As one writer, says this is God seeking to preserve humanity in its basic family structure. God is not just wanting to save 8 people here, he's wanting to save 4 marriages.

He wants 4 marriages to survive the ravages of the flood because there's a lot he wants to do. With these marriages. The real emphasis here in the passage is on pairings. Noah and his wife, Noah's sons and their wives, and two of every animal, male and female.

There's pairing going on here. God tells Noah to bring of every living animal, at least 2 of every kind into the ark. Later in chapter 7, verses 2 and 3, we're gonna see how some of the animals of them, Noah is to bring 7, but for now, God is focusing on the pairing. Idea and so he's telling Noah that he's to bring a minimum of 2 of every animal, male and female.

Into the ark. What kinds of animals, birds and animals and creeping things off the ground. Noah is to bring them on the ark to keep them alive. Not only so that these animals can survive, but so that the species can survive and live on beyond the flood.

At this point, Noah, hearing God speaking up to this point would probably be wondering, how in the world am I supposed to get all of these animals onto the ark. You're telling me to bring them onto or into the ark, but where am I supposed to get them? Do I need to go hunting for them and trap them? How do I do that with all these species of animals around the world?

Well, God addresses this potential question in verse 20 by telling Noah that two of every kind will come to you. They will come to you to keep them alive. Apparently, God will see to it that the animals come. It will be Noah's job to take those animals who come and to bring them into the ark.

With him In verse 21, God also tells Noah that he's to gather of all food. The idea is all kinds of food which are edible so that that food can serve as food for Noah and his family and for the animals during the duration of their stay on the ark. How does Noah respond to all of this gracious revelation from God that God has given to him? This brings us to our final point and serves as an incredible manifestation of God's grace operating in Noah's heart and life.

And that is Noah completely obeys everything that God told him to do. Verse 22, thus Noah did, according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. Noah did what God commanded. We have a twofold affirmation of Noah's obedience.

Thus, Noah did. And if that's not clear enough, At the end of the verse, it says all that God commanded him, so he did. Noah did not just hear what God said, and, and walked away saying, man, that's a really good word from the Lord. I have to ponder that.

No, he heard what God said, and he did what God said, and he didn't just do what God said, but he obeyed everything. Down to the smallest detail of what God had said for him to do. I just, I, I want us to really appreciate the magnitude of what obedience looks like here for Noah. Think about the volume of work that Noah has in front of him, as Henry Morris says, the tasks that God had given him to do were monumental, extremely difficult and discouraging.

And yet Noah never questioned or complained, he simply obeyed. By the way, one of the things you learn about Noah is he's not a talker. He doesn't talk until chapter 9. he's on the pages of scripture.

I know he talked, but, but he listened to God and he was a doer. He was an obeyer of God. And here he doesn't question, he doesn't complain, he doesn't say, are you sure? And what about this detail and that detail and you didn't mention anything about a steering wheel and He, he doesn't do any of that.

He just takes what God says and trust that God knows what he's talking about and says, all right, I'll do it. Think about how huge the arc is supposed to be. Bruce Walke, the commentator, suggests That we think about the tremendous effort and investment involved. It must have taken Noah years of work to cut down the multitude of needed trees, convey them to his building site, and fit and join the huge planks.

Moreover, he must have spent a fortune to build a boat of such prodigious size and to provision it with a sufficient and varied food supply for so many animals, and all of this to prepare for something that had never been seen before in human history. The trust of Noah. To say I'm taking you at your word. I've never seen a mad bull before.

Never seen it. but this is what you're telling me I need to do, I'll do it. And imagine the financial investment, the investment of energy, resources. That went into this and Noah did everything God told him to do.

Think about the opposition that Noah would have experienced as he engaged in this very public act of building an ark. You can't just quietly, privately build an ark of this size. Everyone would see it. We know how infuriating it is in our world today when they hear Christians say that Jesus is the only way of salvation.

It's the exclusivity of our faith that drives the world most crazy about our faith. We are not supposed to, we can share our faith, but we're not supposed to ever make anyone feel condemned in any way whatsoever. But what guys, an ark is pretty exclusive. And it implies condemnation.

This is why the writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 11:7, listen to this, Noah prepared an ark by which he condemned the world. In building the ark, Noah was making a very loud statement. To the world of his day. He is saying this world is under God's condemnation.

Judgment from God is coming because of everyone's wickedness and everyone will die except those who are in this ark. This ark is the only way of salvation. You can bet that that message did not go over well with the people of Noah's day, and you can bet that they tried to oppose him. And hinder his project at every turn.

There is nothing more politically incorrect. Than an ark being built for the reasons that Noah is building the ark. Yet Noah did what he was told. In spite of the size of the task, the investment involved, the time involved, and the opposition that he would have received as a result.

In summary guys, God and Noah's relationship was a graced relationship. This is what a grace relationship looks like. Noah walked righteously with God. God brought Noah into his confidence, told him of the judgment to come and how to be prepared for it.

He gives to Noah a covenantal promise, and he told Noah to make sure that he entered the ark, and Noah responded by doing everything that God had told him to do. In the same way for us as Christians, God has spoken to us in His word. He's given us his assessment of the human condition. He's told us of his judgments, judgments to come.

He's commanded us to get into Jesus, who is the ark of our salvation. And for those of us who have believed in him, he's announced his covenant of grace with us, signed and sealed with the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ. And he gives us gracious counsel in his word as to how to live our life inside of Jesus. Are we listening to him?

Are you listening to Him? Are you reading his word? Are you obeying Him? What is God commanding of you today, at this point in your life?

Is he speaking to you and telling you to spend time in His word? Is he commanding you to pray? Is he commanding you to testify of him to others? Is he commanding you to trust him in the midst of the storm that you are in?

Or for those of you about to start school, the storm that is on its way? That you are about to encounter with everything being thrown at you. Is God commanding you to let him be the captain of your life? Is he commanding you to forgive somebody that has wronged you?

Is he asking you to take a stand for Christ in a world that hates him? Is he commanding you to represent his righteousness to the world, even though the world now views his righteousness as evil? Is God commanding you to say no to sexual sin and to walk in purity? Is he calling upon you to repent of your sin and to look to Jesus and believe in him as your Lord and Savior?

Whatever it is. Whatever it is that God is speaking to your heart about and commanding you to do, and commanding me to do, may it be said of all of us. Thus we did. According to all that God has commanded us.

So we did If we do that, we won't thereby earn grace in the eyes of the Lord. We will thereby show evidence that God's grace is already at work. In our hearts, let's pray together. Lord, we've covered a lot of ground, this morning, and I trust that your spirit will use what we have seen as we have worked through these verses.

Lord, you're, you're, you're an amazing God. There's, there is a grave judgment to come and we're in a passage that's right on the front end. Of the worst devastation that the world has ever seen and before this blinding devastation comes that will destroy everyone and everything we see. This pocket of grace, this amazing relationship between you and Noah, and we get to see how you spoke to him and what you spoke to him about.

How you guided him and we also get to see how he responded to you and walked with you and did what you expected of him and, and how he trusted you. When we look into this relationship here, Lord, we, we hunger for this. Give us the same relationship. With you that Noah enjoyed.

If there's any here today, Lord, that have never called out to you, repented of their sin, cast it aside and surrendered their life to You, Lord Jesus, believing in you, the ark of their salvation, and getting into you. For salvation, I pray that you would draw them to yourself and accomplish that today. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds, do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus and the spread of this amazing gospel of salvation through Him.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.