Genesis chapter 6, and we can read verses 1 to verse 10.
Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 to verse 10.
When men began to increase in number on the earth,
and daughters were born to them,
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful,
and they married any of them they chose.
Then the Lord said,
My spirit will not contend with man forever.
For he is mortal.
His days will be 120 years.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days,
and also afterwards,
when the sons of God went to the daughters of men,
and their children by them.
They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become,
and that every inclination of the thought of his heart
was only evil all the time.
The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth,
and his heart was filled with pain.
So the Lord said,
I will wipe mankind,
whom I have created from the face of the earth,
men and animals,
and creatures that move along the ground,
and birds of the air.
For I am grieved I have made them.
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man,
blameless among the people of his time,
and he walked with God.
Noah had three sons,
Shem,
Ham,
and Japheth.
Our second reading is from chapter 7.
Chapter 7 and verses 1 down to verse 5.
The Lord then said to Noah,
Go into the ark,
you and your whole family,
because I have found you righteous in this generation.
Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal,
a male and its mate,
and two of every unclean animal,
a male and its mate,
and also seven of every kind of bird,
male and female,
to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
Seven days from now,
I will send rain on the earth
for 40 days and 40 nights,
and I will wipe from the face of the earth
every living creature I have made.
And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
Now turning to chapter 8,
chapter 8 and verses 15 down to 22.
Chapter 8, verses 15 to 22.
Then God said to Noah,
Come out of the ark,
you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
Bring out every kind of living creature
that is with you,
the birds, the animals,
and all the creatures that move along the ground,
so that you can multiply on the earth
and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.
So Noah came out together with his sons
and his wife and his sons' wives,
all the animals and all the creatures
that move along the ground,
and all the birds,
everything that moves on the earth
came out of the ark,
one kind after another.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord,
and taking some of the clean animals
and clean birds,
he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma
and said in his heart,
never again will I curse the ground
because of man,
even though every inclination of his heart
is evil from childhood,
and never again will I destroy
all living creatures as I have done.
As long as the earth endures,
seed time and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night,
will never cease.
And our final reading,
Genesis chapter 9,
verses 1 to 17,
where God makes the covenant with Noah.
Genesis 9, 1 to 17.
Then God blessed Noah and his sons,
saying to them,
Be fruitful and increase in number,
and fill the earth.
The fear and dread of you
will fall upon all the beasts of the earth,
all the birds of the air,
upon every creature that moves along the ground,
upon all the fish of the sea.
They are given into your hands.
Everything that lives and moves
will be food for you.
Just as I gave you the green plants,
I now give you everything.
But you must not eat meat
that has lifeblood still in it.
And for your lifeblood,
I will surely demand an accounting.
I will demand an accounting from every animal.
And from each man too,
I will demand an accounting
for the life of his fellow man.
Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed.
For in the image of God
has God made man.
As for you,
be fruitful and increase in number,
multiply on the earth
and increase upon it.
Then God said to Noah
and to his sons with him,
I now establish my covenant with you
and with your descendants after you
and with every living creature
that was with you,
the birds, the livestock,
and all the wild animals,
all those that came out of the ark with you,
every living creature on earth.
I establish my covenant with you.
Never again will all life be cut off
by the waters of a flood.
Never again will there be a flood
to destroy the earth.
And God said this,
this is the sign of the covenant
I am making between me and you
and every living creature with you,
a covenant for all generations to come.
I have set my rainbow in the clouds
and it will be a sign of the covenant
between me and the earth.
Whenever I bring clouds over the earth
and the rainbow appears in the clouds,
I will remember my covenant
between me and you
and all living creatures of every kind.
Never again will the waters become a flood
to destroy all life.
Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds,
I will see it
and remember the everlasting covenant
between God and all living creatures
of every kind on the earth.
So God said to Noah,
this is the sign of a covenant
I have established between me
and all life on the earth.
Amen.
That's again saying this time,
saying to God,
that's important for the church to do
is to, in a sense,
recover the story of Noah.
Because certainly in Western culture,
we've got a sort of funny attitude
to the Noah story
in that we have made it,
the Noah's Ark,
a nice cute children's play toy.
I'm guessing maybe a lot of our children
had one, still have one,
that they like to play with.
You go to a children's Bible,
usually a very popular story
because it's got lots of nice cute animals
being saved.
It can be easy to lose sight of
the huge significance of the Noah story.
On the one hand,
it's the most graphic account
that we have of human sin
and the judgment of God
in the whole Old Testament.
And so you'll find Jesus
and the New Testament writers
using the story of Noah
to remind us of the judgment of God.
But then we also can easily lose sight
of this wonderful covenant
that God makes with Noah.
It's a covenant that ultimately preserves
the world so that Jesus can come.
That what we're going to see
is life is preserved
so that God's plan of salvation
can continue despite human sin.
So we need the story of Noah.
And so what we're going to do
is we're going to look at
some of the key features
of the covenant that God makes with Noah
to help explain
the gospel of God's grace to us.
It's obviously a big story
which shows in itself
that it's significant.
We're going to jump around
a little bit to get a feel
for what's going on here.
But let's begin
where the story of Noah begins
with the darkness of human sin.
So especially the first seven verses
of chapter six.
We could say in the whole of Genesis 4 to 11,
which is sometimes described
as sort of the pre-history
before the time of Abraham,
what we see is very quickly
the effect of the fall into sin.
Adam and Eve in Genesis 3
turn away from God and His Word,
fall into sin.
And we see the impact really quickly.
We see Cain killing his brother Abel.
We meet a man called Lamech
who rejoices at murdering people
because they insult him.
We see the story of Noah.
And then after this,
even in a renewed earth,
beginning again with Noah,
and very quickly we get
to the Tower of Babel again.
And so we see, in a sense,
a race to the bottom
as mankind time and again
rejects their creator.
One of the things that we said last week
when we were looking at Genesis chapter 3
and verse 15
is that there's this theme of two seeds.
When God cursed Satan in the garden,
He said there would be war
between two seeds.
There'd be the godly seed
and there'd be a godless seed.
And again, we see that in this story.
And we see it in chapters 4 to 11.
We see Abel, who's godly.
We see Cain, who's godless.
And we meet Enoch,
the man who walks with God
and is taken up to heaven.
And he's the great-grandfather of Noah,
where we are now.
And I think that that two seeds theme
perhaps helps us to understand
this strange, in a sense,
difficult to understand verses
that begin chapter 6.
Especially verse 2,
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men
were beautiful
and they married any of them they chose.
Now, we might think,
oh, here is angels
coming down from heaven
and marrying women.
And that sounds very strange.
But I think,
if we think about this two seeds theme,
it seems more likely
here's a description of
the godly people
deciding,
let's just marry with
these godless people over here.
Let's not try and be distinct
and be for God.
And so it's a sign that
even as God is desiring to show grace,
people are turning away from Him.
It's possibly where it's pointing us towards.
But certainly,
by the time we get to chapter 6
and verse 5,
we see a very dark picture,
don't we?
The Lord saw how great
man's wickedness on the earth had become
and that every inclination
of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil all of the time.
Sometimes theologians talk about
total depravity,
that every part of us
is corrupted by sin.
Not completely,
but every part is affected by sin.
And here is this graphic picture
of humanity
inclined towards wickedness
at every turn.
It's important for us to recognize
that God is not remote
and God is not unconcerned
about the situation,
about the world that He's made
and the people that He's made.
Look at the language of verse 6.
Very powerful language.
The Lord was grieved
that He'd made man on the earth
and His heart was filled with pain.
Human rebellion,
our deliberate rejection of God,
human sin causes God
to feel a sense of pain
and sorrow.
And because of this,
verse 7,
the Lord said,
I'll wipe mankind
from the face of the earth,
for I am grieved
that I have made them.
As the people have deliberately,
willfully dishonored God,
rebelled against God,
God announces that judgment
is going to fall.
If God has made a glorious masterpiece
in creating the world,
then people have taken pain
and they have just defaced it
because of sin.
It's like ugly graffiti
all over God's masterpiece
and He says,
I'm going to wipe it clean
and I'm going to start again.
We were made,
the Bible says,
people were made
in covenant with God.
Humanity is deliberately
turning its back on God
and therefore judgment is coming.
Now it is curse and not blessing
that the people will experience.
That explains the flood
of chapter 7.
Humanity and rebellion,
total depravity,
and God feels the weight
and the pain of that sin.
Fast forward to the time of Jesus,
we see the same thing again.
We go to the cross,
what do we find there?
We find here is Jesus
who's come into the world
precisely because of
our human condition,
precisely because of our sin
and God will again,
in the person of His Son Jesus,
feel the pain of sin
and the consequences
for that sin
as Jesus carries
the sin of His people
so that we might escape
the flood of God's judgment.
It pours out on Him
so that we might be set free.
So we see the darkness
of human sin,
which is so important for us
to understand
why Jesus is good news.
But then alongside the darkness,
we also find Moses presenting for us
the beauty of saving grace.
So we meet determination
in Genesis 6.
We meet a people
who are determined
to turn their back on God.
They're determined
towards wickedness.
We find that God
is determined to judge
in line with His holy character.
He kind of sweeps in
under the carpet.
But we also find
that God is determined,
eternally determined,
to save and rescue some,
to rescue one.
He's determined
to show undeserved grace
to Noah.
Just like you go
into a jewelry shop
and you might see
a diamond ring
that's presented
on the nice black velvet.
Or you think about
when you look up,
if you go away
from where there's streetlights
and you go out
on a dark night
and you see the stars shining,
it's the same thing
that we see here.
It's against the darkness
of human sin
that the beauty of God's love
and God's grace
is going to shine
in the life of Noah.
Verses 8 and 9
are really important.
Let's read them again.
Chapter 6, verse 8.
But Noah found favor,
literally,
Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord.
This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man,
blameless among the people
of his time,
and he walked with God.
Now, when it comes
to these two verses,
it's really important
to get the timing
and the order right.
Because some people
read the story,
hear the story,
and think,
well, Noah was righteous.
He was the one good guy
in a world full of bad guys.
God saw his merit,
his goodness.
He's saved because
of his obedience,
in other words.
So some people read
the Noah story that way,
but that messes up
how the Bible presents salvation.
Is that how salvation works?
We are good people,
and then God rewards us
if we've been good enough.
Are we the hero
in our own story,
and God comes to give us
the reward for good work done?
Is Noah the one person
in the whole world
who is staying good and true
while all around
turns away from God?
And that's why
he's declared to be righteous,
and that's why he's spared.
And that's not how
the Bible presents salvation.
What comes first
is that Noah found grace,
found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
He received grace from the Lord.
That Noah too was in the darkness,
and God in his grace and mercy
plucked him out of the darkness
and set his love on him
because of God's mercy
and God's love alone.
That's always the way
salvation works.
Nobody earns it.
It's always a gift of God's grace
so that God gets the glory,
not Noah and not us.
Saving grace is always
a gift from God
towards those who the Bible says
are spiritually dead,
unable to respond to God
unless God sends the Spirit
to reveal our needs.
If you've got time this evening,
read Ephesians 2,
first 10 verses,
and you'll see that really clearly
from Paul.
So God saves Noah by grace.
God makes him righteous.
God declares him righteous.
And as we'll see,
God does that
so that his great plan
of redemption can continue.
Verse 9 begins,
this is the account of Noah.
This is like a section break,
or better,
begins a new section
in the book of Genesis.
Whenever you read,
this is the account of,
in Genesis,
here's a new stage
in God's dealings
with his people.
So because God has shown
Noah grace,
the next stage of God's plan
of redemption can come.
Judgment will fall,
but grace will come to Noah,
and the plan of salvation
can continue.
The human race is kept alive
so that people might turn back
to God and be saved.
One of the things that you see
in all the covenants,
I guess,
is that one person is saved
or one group is saved
for the sake of the many.
So we see it here,
Noah is saved
for the sake of the human race.
Abraham is saved
to be a blessing
to the nations.
We find Israel is saved
to be a light to the nations.
And that's the way it works
individually as well.
So often, God saves a person
in a family
so that he might extend blessing
to others within that family.
Or God saves someone
in a friendship group
so that they might be
a blessing and an influence
to others.
When I think about my family story,
I can certainly see that.
On neither side of my parents' families
was there anybody who went to church
or anybody who was Christian,
but God by grace saved my mom.
And she's still the only one
in that generation
who has any interest in God.
But because of that choice,
it's been a blessing to us.
Perhaps that's been your experience as well.
And it's that principle of God
saving by grace
that drives all of our kingdom mission.
We recognize,
gives us confidence really,
because we understand
that it's not on us
to save a person.
It drives us to prayer
because we recognize
that it's a gift from God.
And so it's really important
for us to understand grace
and how that plays out
in the way we seek
to conduct mission.
So we've seen the darkness of sin.
We see the beauty of saving grace.
We also get to the,
I guess the central,
sort of distinctive feature
of this covenant with Noah.
And it's the idea
that God preserves life.
That's one of the distinctives
of the covenant with Noah.
Life is preserved.
Life is saved.
And this serves to extend
God's plan of salvation.
So chapter 6 and verses 17 and 18,
we are told,
I am going to bring floodwaters
on the earth
to destroy all life
under the heavens.
Every creature
that has the breath of life in it,
everything on earth will perish.
But I will establish,
or I will make firm
my covenant with you.
And you will enter the ark,
you and your sons
and your wife
and your sons' wives with you.
And then they're also
to bring in the animals.
Because,
life will be preserved
because God is going to keep
his covenant promise.
Noah and his family
will be kept alive
because God is a faithful God.
Chapter 7 verse 1
is worth our attention.
Chapter 7 verse 1,
the Lord then said to Noah,
go into the ark,
you and your whole family,
because I have found you
righteous in this generation.
Now when it says,
I have found you righteous,
God's speaking to Noah
and Noah alone.
And that's important
because here is Noah
as the head of his family.
And he is the one
who receives this covenant.
And what happens?
His wife and his children
also are included
in covenant blessing.
Here's one important reason
why we baptize our children.
if we are believers
in this church.
Because we believe
that God chooses
to work through families,
to extend his covenant blessing
to our children.
Now we see it
from the story of Noah.
So Noah and his family
and the animals
are brought into the ark.
And then God shuts
the door of the ark
and the rain comes down,
the floodwaters come,
and everything
outside of the ark
is destroyed.
But there's a clear focus
from the end of chapter 8
into chapter 9
on the fact that God
is still preserving things alive.
So turn over
towards the end of chapter 8
from verse 20
to chapter 9 verse 7.
Let's just very briefly notice
ways in which God intends
to preserve life.
So maybe chapter 9 verse 1,
God blessed Noah
and his sons
saying to them,
be fruitful
and increase in number
and fill the earth.
So here is the same language
that God used
speaking to Adam and Eve,
a reminder that this is
a covenant that's
being established
once more with Noah.
Life will be preserved
as Noah and his family
will be fruitful
and increase in number.
Life will also be preserved
because God is going
to provide food.
Something's different
between life now
and life in the Garden of Eden.
Chapter 3,
verse 3, sorry,
of chapter 9,
everything that lives
and moves
will be food for you.
Just as I gave you
the green plants,
I now give you everything.
So, so far in this,
the story of the Bible,
in the Garden of Eden,
God used animals,
animal skins
to provide a covering
for Adam and Eve
to cover their shame
and their nakedness.
We also see
in Genesis chapter 4,
Abel using an animal
as a sacrifice
and now here we see
that God provides animals
to help preserve life
for people.
So, it's been added
to our diet.
And then,
very importantly,
chapter 5 and 6,
we get a reminder
about how special
life is,
human life is,
in God's eyes.
end of verse 5,
from each man too,
I will demand
an accounting
for the life
of his fellow man.
Whoever sheds
the blood of man,
by man shall
his blood be shed.
For in the image
of God
has God
made man.
So, even after
the fall into sin,
men and women,
boys and girls,
we are still made
in the image
of God.
our life matters,
is valued by God.
Murder is forbidden
so that life
will be preserved,
so that wickedness
will be curtailed.
And all of this
because of God's
covenant promise,
because of God's desire
to preserve life
so that his blessing
might come
to the world.
Again,
chapter 9,
verse 11,
here's a reminder
of God's covenant
commitment
after the flood.
I establish
my covenant
with you.
Never again
will all life
be cut off
by the waters
of a flood.
Never again
will there be a flood
to destroy
the earth.
So, here is an
everlasting promise.
Until the end
of human history,
there will not be
total destruction
by a flood
that God
is going to
preserve.
If we scale
back a little bit
from what's
happening here,
we're being
reminded that
we live
out our history,
we live out
our days under
the common grace
of God.
God is showing
goodness and
kindness to
everybody in the
world.
End of chapter 8,
he's reminding us
that there's goodness
and kindness
and life preserving
in the seasons,
in the rhythm
of the year,
in the way that
God cares for
families,
in the way that
God keeps people
alive.
And this time
that we live
where God is
keeping people
alive is also
the time
where the gospel
is spreading,
where God is
seeking to build
his kingdom,
where God wants
to show saving
grace to those
he is calling
to himself.
And so,
the two go
together.
Life must be
kept alive
because people
ultimately need
to hear about
Jesus,
the promised
Savior.
our mission
as a church
of living
for God,
of serving
others,
of seeking
to extend
love and care,
of pointing
people to
Jesus,
it only happens
because of
this covenant,
because God
is determined
to preserve
life for
his own
purpose.
Peter,
in 2 Peter
chapter 3
verse 9,
says,
God is
patient with
you,
not wanting
anyone to
perish,
but everyone
to come
to repentance.
In a sense,
it summarizes
what's going
on in the
covenant with
Noah.
God doesn't
judge us
instantly as
our sins
deserve,
but rather
he is patient
with us,
and he's
patient with
the world,
and he sends
us Jesus,
and he gives
us time to
repent.
It's the
foundation of
Christian mission,
that while we
have life,
while we have
time,
we have
opportunities
to help
people to
hear the
news that
they really,
really need
to.
So life is
preserved,
and then as
Noah and
his family
come out of
the ark,
and as
they've
offered the
sacrifice to
God that God
is pleased with,
and as God
announces the
covenant,
he also gives
a sign,
a covenant
sign of
God's
grace.
verse 13,
is where
verse 12
and 13
of chapter
9,
God said,
this is the
sign of
the covenant
I am
making between
me and
you and
every living
creature with
you,
a covenant
for all
generations to
come.
I have set
my rainbow
in the clouds,
and it
will be the
sign of the
covenant
between me
and the
earth.
And then
verse 16,
whenever the
rainbow appears
in the clouds,
I will see
it and
remember the
everlasting
covenant between
God and all
living creatures
of every kind
on the
earth.
So God
gives this
visible sign
to Noah,
the rainbow.
This sign is
an outward
representation of
God's promise.
We thought
about covenant
signs.
We will see
more of them
as we look at
the covenants,
but in human
terms,
it's like
when we
give a
wedding ring
as a
sign of
commitment.
It's like
the Lord's
Supper,
when Jesus
gives the
bread and
the wine
a visible
symbol
of an
inner truth.
We take
the bread
and the
wine and
it reminds
us that
we are
united to
Christ through
what he does
for us
on the
cross.
God's
love.
And this
sign that
God gives
is a
beautiful
reminder of
grace in
judgment.
Because how
did the
judgment of
God come?
It came
through the
flood.
And where
there is a
flood, there
is inevitably
storm clouds
that gather.
So they
would have
looked up in
the sky,
would have
looked up in
the sky,
would have
seen the
clouds,
and he
would know
that's a
symbol of
God's
judgment.
But where
is the
sign of
grace that
Noah is
given?
It's also
in the
clouds, the
rainbow in
the clouds.
And so he
is being
invited and
we are being
invited to
remember God
is just,
God deals
with sin,
God is
holy,
but God
is also
gracious.
God in
mercy
determines
to save
some.
God
is
how does
the
rainbow
speak hope
to Noah?
That is an
important thing
to recognize.
Look at
verse 16
again.
Whenever
the rainbow
appears,
this is God
speaking,
whenever the
rainbow appears
in the
clouds,
I will
see it
and remember
the everlasting
covenant.
So the
rainbow doesn't
speak hope
to Noah
because he
sees a
rainbow in
the clouds
and Noah
thinks to
himself,
well I've
been a
good person
and I
feel like
I'm living
faithfully so
I've got
hope that
judgment
isn't going
to come.
No,
he can
look at
the rainbow
and remember
God has
promised to
be faithful
to his
covenant.
So the
rainbow is
to speak
hope of
God
seeing
and God
remembering.
It's
supposed to
point him
to the
faithfulness
of God
to keep
this
promise.
God
has taken
the initiative
to save
him
and Noah's
hope and
our hope
rests in
the
faithfulness
of God
to his
promise.
You've
maybe seen
the bridge
in Paris
which has
now spawned
lots of
replicas.
I think it's
called the
Pont des
Arts.
It's
somewhere
near the
center of
Paris.
But anyway,
it's a
place where
it's a
romantic city
apparently in
Paris so
people will
go to
the bridge,
perhaps they'll
write a nice
message to
their loved
one on a
padlock and
then will
chain it
on the
bridge as
a symbol
of their
undying
love for
person X
or person
Y.
And you
know that
padlock,
that permanent
symbol, I
guess a person
could then
return to
that bridge
months or
years later
and be
encouraged to
remember,
ah, that
one that put
the padlock
there, that's
a promise of
their love and
their faithfulness.
when we go to
the Lord's
Supper, we
don't go to
the Lord's
Supper thinking,
ah, yes, this
reminds me about
my faithfulness
since the last
time we sat.
It doesn't
remind me that I
have lived well
and I deserve to
be at the table.
No, it speaks
about the
faithfulness of
Christ to us.
This is a
covenant that God
makes.
This is a
promise that
Jesus brings
and it speaks of
his faithfulness
to us and
that's our
hope.
It's the same
with the
rainbow.
It speaks to
us of a
faithful God,
a God of
grace.
Of course, this
isn't the only
place where grace
in judgment is
seen.
Grace in judgment
is seen too at
the cross of
Jesus, isn't
it?
We see God's
just anger,
God's holy
anger against
sin on display
but there it's
not poured out
on us,
though we
deserve it.
It's poured
out on
Jesus, the
sin bearer of
the world,
as he comes to
be our substitute
and our
sacrifice.
But that cross
which stands as a
place of judgment
also is a
place of grace
for us because
there we find
forgiveness,
there we find
eternal life,
there we find
our welcome into
the love of God,
into the family
of God.
So these signs
of the covenant
are precious
reminders to us
of God's grace
and God's
faithfulness.
So that's a
very brief look
at the covenant
of Noah and
you know we
need this story,
this story of
Noah and God's
grace to him
because it's an
honest reminder
to us of the
darkness of our
human hearts.
You know we
don't need to
look too far to
recognize that
fundamentally
nothing changes,
that the
inclinations of
people's hearts
are still
against God
rather than
towards God.
It's a story
that highlights
again God's
initiative in
saving us by
grace,
reminding us that
Christianity is
not a religion
of works or
merit,
it's sheer
grace,
it's God's
gift.
And it
explains to us
God's kindness
in deciding,
choosing to
preserve life
on earth.
It's an act
of mercy so
that we might
enjoy, we
might live
knowing God's
kindness,
that we
might while we
have time
turn to the
Lord God,
turn to Jesus
and be saved.
Let's pray
about that.