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Genesis 6:5-22
5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,1 for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.2 Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits,3 its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof4 for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
[1] 6:13
[2] 6:14
[3] 6:15
[4] 6:16
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
We are continuing our study through the book of Genesis, and we'll be looking at the story of Noah and the flood this morning. So if you have a Bible, I invite you to turn into Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. One of the things that I noticed when I first became a parent was just how disturbing many of our nursery rhymes or children's stories or lullabies are. One of my favorite stories when I was small was the story of Little Red Riding Hood, which is essentially about a wolf eating a grandmother and dressing up like her.
Joel Brooks:And then of course you can remember singing, as a child ring around the rosie, which is about the plague, and, and how you would all laugh as you all fell down. And then of course, you would sing, or I remember singing to my kids when they were little. Rock a Bye Baby and lines like, when the bow breaks, the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all. Like, and good night sweetie. For for some reason, we do this with children's stories, and we've done this with the story of Noah and the flood.
Joel Brooks:We've essentially turned it into one of those children's stories. I can still remember first hearing about this story and, I was told it using a felt board. Later it would be told using puppets and and so that's how I came to know the story about Noah and the flood. And so when we tend to think of this story and we paint our nurseries with this theme, what we have in mind are the cute elephants and the giraffes, you know, or, maybe the 2 little lizards, you know, or snails going behind up the ark, getting in the ark last. But it's actually a story about horrible judgment.
Joel Brooks:It's about entire families, parents, and children drowning in a horrific flood. Yet when I was a child, I actually in my crib, I had a mobile that was over the crib, and it was of the ark and the different animals. And that's that's kinda like the equivalent of putting the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, you know, over you to look at when you were a child. Outside of the crucifixion, this is the most horrible story we have in the Bible. It's a sobering story about sin and judgment.
Joel Brooks:Yet it's also a story about grace, mercy, and God's salvation. And I just wanna say I know at the start of this that that many of you are going to have questions. You've always had questions about this story. How could God do this? How could God destroy all of humanity here?
Joel Brooks:Or perhaps you have a question, was the flood worldwide? Or was it just a regional flood? Or how could all the animals fit on the ark? Or why are we skipping over the section of the Nephilim? Those those four verses there.
Joel Brooks:I'm happy to talk about all of those questions during the q and a time. What I really want us to focus on this morning though is the why. Why did God do this? What is this story really about? So if you would read with me Genesis chapter 6, We'll begin reading in verse 5.
Joel Brooks:The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land. Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God and Noah and his 3 sons Shem Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth and God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh for the earth is filled with violence through them.
Joel Brooks:Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits.
Joel Brooks:Its breadth, breadth, 50 cubits, and its height, 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.
Joel Brooks:But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife and your sons wives with you, and of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring 2 of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, 2 of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive, and take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this.
Joel Brooks:He did all that God commanded him. This is the word of the lord. And so do you have You would pray with me. Father, I pray that you would open up our eyes and our hearts so that we might understand the word that you would have for us, that we might understand your hatred of sin, and also just how abundant and lavish your grace and mercy are upon us. May we learn more about the judgment that Christ endured and the salvation that we have in him.
Joel Brooks:May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So it's tempting to think of this story when we read it as God is essentially saying do over.
Joel Brooks:Let's try this again. We're tempted to think that maybe it's a type of reboot. I am not technologically savvy at all. For some reason though, Lauren still comes to me if her phone's not working, her computer's not working, yet I only know how to do one thing. Reboot.
Joel Brooks:Turn it off. Turn it back on. And that's what I do. And, you know, when you get that that wheel of death, which coincidentally is a rainbow wheel of death there, All I know how to do is turn it off and turn it on again and you know what? 9 times out of 10, that solves the problem.
Joel Brooks:Things work better. And so we're tempted when we come to this story to think that's what God's doing. He's just turning off the power, turning it back on, and rebooting with Noah. The world has become so evil, so corrupt that this is the only thing that God can do is essentially start over. But would that fix things?
Joel Brooks:Not at all. That's not the point of this story at all. This is not about God doing a reboot. When we look at this story, what we're gonna see is that God does indeed judge the world, and God does indeed save humanity through Noah and through the ark, but it actually doesn't fix one thing. Evil is still there.
Joel Brooks:The hearts of men are still evil, and this story is gonna point to us that actually a greater judgment is needed and a greater salvation is needed for humanity than what we see here. One of the reasons that we know this is because at the very start of Genesis or in this story, we see the description of man's hearts and we see the evil there. We we just read that in Genesis 6:5. We read that every intention of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually, But then God turns things off and back on. He he wipes the slate clean if you will, but afterwards we find in Genesis 8:8, after the flood, God says I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.
Joel Brooks:And so we see before the flood, man's heart is evil. After the flood, man's heart is evil. The flood does not wash away the sin of the world. It's still there. I mean one of the very first things we see is right after Noah gets out of the ark, is he gets drunk and then naked.
Joel Brooks:It's one of those things that doesn't make the children's bibles. I went through my children's bibles to check and there was no no pictures of it there. It was never presented in the little flannel gram that I learned when I was a child. But that's the first thing that that Noah does. There was still sin in his heart.
Joel Brooks:So this is not a story about God starting things over and then hoping that things go right this time. It's a story about judgment and a story about salvation, both then and then looking to an ultimate judgment and salvation to come. So let's walk through this story. The story begins with a description of evil that was in the world during Noah's day. We just read about that in 6:5 and then in 6:6 we read, and the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.
Joel Brooks:And what we are seeing here is that God's creation is refusing to act as his creation. There's now a separation for the first time. God's creation is not acting as his creation but wants to do its own thing. Wants to follow whatever desire it has in its own heart. And the Lord looks at that sin and says that he regretted that he made man and that it grieved him.
Joel Brooks:He grieved him to his heart. That word grieved is a strong word. It's actually the word that the Lord uses to describe the, the pain of childbirth to Eve. This is a deep pain here. It's actually a shocking word to to be used to describe God, what God is going through.
Joel Brooks:But God is looking at sinful humanity, a humanity that has rebelled against him, and the primary thing he feels is not anger, it's heartbreak. The primary thing that God feels is is pain. Our sin grieves God. Yes. When we lie, when we covet, when we when we commit adultery, when or we commit murder, God is angry at those things.
Joel Brooks:He's angry at us, but even more so than that, he's grieved. Grieved that we're not living according to our design, grieved that we're not choosing to flourish, grieve that we're choosing actually instead our our own destruction. We were not meant to live this way. And so when God sees this all playing out, he's grieved. And through this grief, God decides to do something.
Joel Brooks:He decides to bring judgment, and God is perfectly right and just to do so. When His creation is rebelled against Him and sinned, he has every right to bring judgment on his creation. And so he decides to send a flood to destroy the world that he created. But he's not gonna destroy everyone. In verse 8, we read that Noah found favor in the sight of God.
Joel Brooks:That word favor is the same word as grace. Noah found grace in the sight of God. God had grace on Noah. And because of God's grace, Noah is described as a righteous man. One who's blameless in his generation.
Joel Brooks:Now this does not mean that Noah was sinless. Once again we see what happens. Once he gets out of the ark. He gets drunk and naked. He's he's not sinless.
Joel Brooks:Okay? But what it does mean is he is agreeing with God over the condition of his heart. That he desires to repent. He's trying to do the best he can, if you will. So he's blameless really in comparison to the rest of humanity there.
Joel Brooks:And so God's grace is on him. God tells Noah that he wants him to build a boat, a really big boat, because I know we only speak football here in the South, the the boat is a football field and a half long. Alright. It's a 150 yards long. It is 75 yards wide, and it is 45 yards high.
Joel Brooks:It's a really really big boat. Just building a small boat would take a long time. This is a huge undertaking and it would take Noah a 100 years. 100 years to build this. I think of the ridicule that this man suffered as he was trying to build this, and he's cutting down trees.
Joel Brooks:He's using gopher wood, which by the way we have no idea what gopher wood is. Alright. This is the only time we can find anywhere that this word is used. So your guess is as good as mine, but I'm assuming it's a tree, he could cut down and use this gopher wood and he's building this ark out of it and people would have been mocking him as he's doing this. What in the world are you building?
Joel Brooks:Why are you doing such a ridiculous thing? Noah, we're not around any water. This would be like going to the antarctic and you starting to build a swimming pool. People are like, what are you doing? And you're like, you're not just building a swimming pool, you're setting up the lawn chairs, you're setting up the umbrellas, you're bringing out the suntan lotion, the towels all this and people are like.
Joel Brooks:Have you noticed it's not warm here? There's no need for this and you're not building a small pool an Olympic sized pool. This is what Noah's doing. It's crazy. This doesn't belong here.
Joel Brooks:People are would have been mocking him for doing this, and yet day after day, for a 100 years, Noah faithfully built. One of the phrases we find over and over is all that the Lord commanded Noah, he did. Five times we have that phrase. Noah's faith was working its way out through this act of obedience. In Hebrews 11, we read that by faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, and reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
Joel Brooks:By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith. Noah had a real faith that resulted in a real action that likely resulted in real mockery by the world. And we are increasingly feeling that mockery. Aren't we? The society, the culture we live in, is increasingly mocking our faith for believing some of the things that Noah believed, like there's only one way to be saved.
Joel Brooks:There's only one way, only one door to go through for us to be saved. You believe that and you will be mocked. It's okay for you to just intellectually hold on to that belief, but at the moment you begin acting and building your life upon it, the ridicule will come. And I'm sure in the middle of this, since this is going on day after day, I'm sure that Noah had some doubts. I mean, how could he not have doubts?
Joel Brooks:It's not raining. There's no water. But he kept working. It's actually a very similar faith to what, Abraham and Sarah had, who we have We read, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Abraham was given this word by God, this promise by God that he and Sarah would have a child even though there was no evidence that he could have a child.
Joel Brooks:He and Sarah were way past the childbearing years. People would have ridiculed them for holding on to that promise. But they believed it, and they waited for 25 years before they finally had their child. Noah here is waiting a 100 years, until God will fulfill his word, his promise that he would judge the world. And we're waiting.
Joel Brooks:Jesus promised us that he would return. That he would return to make all things right, and we have been waiting for almost 2000 years, listening to the ridicule of the world. But our faith should result in action and obedience to the Lord as we wait during this time. A good question to ask about this story is, why exactly did God choose a method of judgment and a method of salvation that would take a 100 years? Why why did he do that?
Joel Brooks:I mean, God is always God. Alright? So he could choose to judge humanity however he wanted. He could just snap his fingers and kill off all flesh and preserve Noah. It could have been that simple but instead he chooses this way, this drama needs to unfold and it takes a 100 years.
Joel Brooks:Why does God choose to do it this way? I can think of 2 reasons why God would do this. 1 is he's working faith, a deep faith, into Noah, And the second is this. God is showing extraordinary patience and kindness towards sinners. Every day he delays is another day that humanity has given to repent and to call out to him.
Joel Brooks:2nd Peter 3 says, God is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But hear me. As patient as God is, his patience does come to an end. His patience will not endure forever.
Joel Brooks:When Noah finished the ark God brought to Noah all of the animals and he had them board the ark. And they're they're bordering in pairs and and and still as this is happening, people are not believing. As people are watching all these animals come from all over the place and they're entering the ark, people still do not believe. Then Noah gets in the ark and we read that God shut the door. Noah didn't shut the door.
Joel Brooks:God himself shut the door to the ark. God himself said, my patience is over. There is no more opportunity. And he closes the door, and he says, if you're in, you will be spared. But if you are outside of this door, judgment will come.
Joel Brooks:So Noah, he enters, and he enters with his family. And I actually didn't notice this until recently. Then he waited for 7 days. I mean, finally the animals are in. Noah finally he finishes the ark.
Joel Brooks:He gets in. God closes the door. Nothing happens. Can you imagine how long that 7 days was? I mean to him he's thinking, did I miss something?
Joel Brooks:But maybe I am crazy. Maybe I was just hallucinating this whole thing. God, I did this and literally nothing is happening. And then of course I'm sure the people around would have loved this. I mean they were probably pulling up lawn chairs around.
Joel Brooks:This would have been the spectacle of the entire town. Noah's locked himself up in there. Nothing happening. And I'm sure that Noah could have heard the jeers and the mockery coming through the walls, But after 7 days, a far worse sound will come upon his ears. Far worse.
Joel Brooks:After 7 days, we read that the rains fell, that the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the world began to flood. And I can't imagine the horror of that scene. The people who would have openly been mocking Noah, laughing at him likely were now pounding on the doors trying to get in, but God had closed the door. It was too late. Everyone outside that door would perish.
Joel Brooks:We read about this in Genesis 7 verse 17. The flood continued 40 days on the earth. The water increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.
Joel Brooks:The waters prevailed above the mountains covering them 15 cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the Earth. Birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the Earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was a breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens.
Joel Brooks:They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left and those who were with him in the ark and the waters prevailed on the earth 100 and 50 days. Now throughout history, the church has understood this story to teach us several things about judgment and salvation. First off is this. God does indeed judge.
Joel Brooks:God does indeed judge. This is a message we don't hear often in our culture. If anything, our culture thinks of God as like the cosmic cheerleader. That's all God does, is he's just up there and he's just cheering you on. And he does what, you know, cheerleaders do.
Joel Brooks:The score can be 62 to nothing and, like, you're doing great. You're doing even though you know you're not, you're getting slaughtered, but like you're doing great and we have this picture of God that he's just cheering us on through our sin and through our failure, but that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is a righteous just God and a day will come when he will judge. He will pour out judgement. And the judgement that we see here is horrific as it is.
Joel Brooks:It's just a shadow of the day to come. In Matthew 24, Jesus talks about this judgment, and he says these words. For as in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving away in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware, until the flood came and swept them all away.
Joel Brooks:So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus says that a day is coming in which he will judge the world, and that day is gonna come like the flood came, like Noah's day. It's gonna be a day that's unexpected. And when I read Jesus's description of what they were doing in in in, Matthew 24, it's somewhat surprising to me the way he describes humanity. Because in Genesis, we know that they were given to every kind of evil thought.
Joel Brooks:I mean they're murdering. They're committing adultery. They're doing all of these all of these things that are so easy to see as sin, And Jesus says, it's gonna be just like that day. They're gonna be eating and drinking. They're gonna be marrying and giving away their sons and daughters in marriage.
Joel Brooks:He's just describing life. He's not describing horrific sins at all. He's just saying people are just kinda going about their day, but they're living a life that is against the glory of God. Even in their day to day activities, they're done in an evil way. A day is gonna come in which God's judgment will fall.
Joel Brooks:His patience does have an end. So we learn those things about judgment, and we also learn things concerning salvation. We see that there is only one way to be saved, only one door to go through in order to bring salvation. And once that door is shut, no amount of work will save you. You can try to live a good moral life.
Joel Brooks:You can try to elevate yourself above others. The people here could have tried to climb up the hills. It would not have done them any good to climb up Mount Sinai itself, because the judge judgment waters would even cover that. You are either safe in the ark, or you die outside of the ark, but there's no other way. And, of course, this ark is a picture of Jesus, who said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.
Joel Brooks:No one comes to the Father but through me. There's salvation under no other name than Jesus. So the flood comes. It's described as covering over all the earth and I'm only gonna talk about this part here because I know a number of you have questions. Is it really the entire world or not?
Joel Brooks:Is it really over the entire I mean, could it be a regional flood or does it have to be a worldwide flood? Let me just say this, that if you look at the language within Genesis, it actually can give room for both. Later we come to Genesis 41 and when we have Joseph being Well we realized it wasn't all the people of the earth, it was all the people of that region. And so you can interpret it that way if you want to. You you have room for both, a literal worldwide flood or a large scale regional flood, so let the hate emails begin.
Joel Brooks:Alright? Go ahead. My email is jeff@rccbermingham.org. And I would love to respond to every one of the emails. There is room for both.
Joel Brooks:Don't miss the point though. Don't don't get bogged down in that until you to where you get distracted from the point of the story, which is this. The Lord saved Noah from a large catastrophic flood that he sent to judge the world. Noah was on this boat for a 150 days, which I could not imagine how seasick he was. 150 days surviving this flood, wondering if God's wrath was ever going to cease being poured out.
Joel Brooks:And then we read these glorious words in Genesis chapter 8 verse 1, that God remembered Noah. He remembered him. And of course when we He remembered Noah, he's remembering us. He's remembering humanity. He's remembering that he has promised Eve that he would keep the seed alive.
Joel Brooks:That's what he's doing when he keeps Noah. The seed is alive. Humanity is alive. God remembers us in our storms. He remembers us as we are going through troubled waters.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't forget us. And so finally, after 1 year and 10 days, Noah and his family and the animals leave the ark. After they get off the ark, God makes this covenant with him. He really makes a covenant with all of creation. Just like we looked at last week, we saw the first use of the word sin in the Bible, in which God introduced sin.
Joel Brooks:Now we have the first use of the word covenant in the Bible, which will be used 289 more times throughout scripture. But God is the one who introduces this to us. God is a covenant making God. These are really important verses, so I want us to read through this section in its entirety. Genesis chapter 9 verses 11.
Joel Brooks:I established my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
Joel Brooks:When the bow is in the cloud I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant that I will establish between me and all flesh that is on the earth. So God here makes a covenant or a promise to Noah that he will never again send a flood to destroy all things. Now notice that this this covenant is unconditional. He doesn't ask anything of Noah or mankind.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say now as long as you choose to follow me, as long as you you trust me, as long as you seek to do good and repent, then I won't destroy you with a flood. He just says never again. I won't ever again destroy you with a flood. And as a sign of this covenant, he puts his bow up in the sky. He puts this giant multi colored arching symbol that's a sign of this covenant that he has just made.
Joel Brooks:But but look carefully at the wording here. We don't read that God put His rainbow up in the sky. We read that God put His bow up in the sky. Every other time in scripture that word is used, it's used to describe a weapon of war every other time. It's a bow, as in a bow and an arrow.
Joel Brooks:It's quite significant. What we see here is when God is making his covenant, he's essentially laying down his weapon of war against humanity. He's laying it down. And as many saints have noticed throughout history, he doesn't just lay it down, but he lays it down and he points it back at himself. The bow is pointed back at himself.
Joel Brooks:Now you would think that a symbol that's this gigantic, a symbol that's this important would be a symbol that would be mentioned often throughout Scripture. Referred to over and over again. I mean we certainly see that with other signs of the covenant with baptism, with circumcision, with Passover, with the Lord's supper. We see these things mentioned over and over and over. You would certainly think that this sign would be mentioned a lot, yet it's never mentioned again in the old testament.
Joel Brooks:A rainbow is never mentioned again. A matter of fact, you only see it mentioned 2 other times, and it's both of them are in the very last pages of your Bible. In Revelation chapter 4, we see the lamb of God and he's sitting on his throne and he is surrounded by the rainbow. That's the very next time you will ever see a rainbow in your Bible. The lamb of God sitting around his throne, surrounded by the rainbow.
Joel Brooks:That rainbow is not there because it just looks beautiful. That rainbow is pointing back to this story here. It's harking us back to the story of the flood that we see here in Genesis. That re rainbow is a reminder that God has not destroyed humanity through a flood. He did not judge the world through a flood.
Joel Brooks:That bow, if you will, it's putting a bow on things. He's he's really he's he's putting a bow on this overarching story that we find in all of the Bible. Here we see how man has sinned and rebelled against God and and God showed this temporary judgment through a flood, but it didn't wash away sin. And so we've been waiting for it to be fixed in this overarching story. We finally come to the end where we have the lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of the world, in which we have the floodwaters couldn't wash away sin, but the blood of Jesus can.
Joel Brooks:We see that there at the end. This is how God deals with the problem. He doesn't sin. He doesn't pour out his judgment on humanity. Instead, he says, I will pour it out on my son.
Joel Brooks:I will pour it out on Jesus, my son, and deal with the sin of the world once and for all. And Jesus, he he didn't survive the the floodwaters of God's wrath by getting in a boat. No. He was drowned and dead. But the good news is this, he didn't come out from the boat to be naked and drunk into sin again.
Joel Brooks:He came out as a new creation risen, and we now are a new creation in Christ. The sin problem has been dealt with. Amen? This is what this story points to. Yes.
Joel Brooks:We see judgment, and we see hope and mercy and forgiveness and salvation back then, but, oh, such a greater judgment and a greater salvation that it points to in Jesus. Sin needed to be dealt with, and God dealt with it through the death of his son. So the question is this. Just like Noah went into the ark to be saved, have you gone to Jesus to be saved? Because there is only one way.
Joel Brooks:The only door that you can go through to escape judgement is Jesus. And God has been so patient with you, so patient. But his patience does come to an end. But right now, that offer is for you. He is standing with arms open wide.
Joel Brooks:Will you go to him? Pray with me. Jesus, thank you. The judgment that should have rightly been poured on us has been poured on you, And you are forever thrown enthroned with the rainbow surrounding you. May we never see a rainbow the same way.
Joel Brooks:Lord, for those who have not gone to you, who have not walked through that door, who have not trusted you to save them from their sins, I pray they would do so now in this moment. Never do you say tomorrow is a day of salvation. Tomorrow might be too late. It's always today. And we pray this in your strong name, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.