Genesis 6, starting at verse 5.
Verse 8 says,
Verse 10.
Verse 17.
There it is.
Now turn to chapter 7, starting at verse 11.
Genesis 7, 11 says,
In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month,
on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth,
and the windows of the heavens were opened,
and rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
On the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
and Noah's wife, and the three wives of the sons with them,
entered the ark.
They and every beast according to its kind,
and all the livestock according to their kinds,
and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind,
and every bird according to its kind,
every winged creature.
They went into the ark with Noah,
two and two,
of all flesh, in which there was the breath of life.
And those that entered, male and female, of all flesh,
went in as God had commanded them,
and the Lord shut them in.
This is the word of God.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for how you have unveiled yourself to us.
You've unveiled the God who saves.
Thank you for your word, Lord.
How you minister to your word through the plain reading
to your people,
every true believer in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
Lord, we acknowledge this is a mystery in its foolishness
to those who don't know you.
But those who have your Holy Spirit within us,
it bears witness.
This is the truth,
that Jesus Christ came to save sinners like us.
Thank you for this glorious type,
this shadow that we can study today, Lord.
We pray that you will minister your grace
to your people today through this message.
We ask this for the glory of King Jesus in our midst.
Amen.
Here's an eyewitness account
of a regional local flood.
He wrote,
The water rose so fast,
we had to scramble upstairs from the first floor.
Jim remembered,
the wave of death came right behind us,
waltzing up the stairs like it owned the place,
and quick as a wink,
got to swirling around our ankles on the second floor.
Jim says,
It was my fault that we stayed.
They had just bought a brand new home.
It was made of brick,
and they had put brand new shingles on the roof.
But Hurricane Katrina,
it caused a canal breach on 23 different spots
that made the waters flood 80% of the city of New Orleans.
Some parts were buried in 15 feet of water.
So kids, that basketball hoop is 10 feet,
five more feet above that.
1,800 deaths,
78,000 people displaced by one regional flood.
And Jim said,
It was my fault that my family and I got trapped there.
He thought he had a good refuge.
And it probably was better than most.
But when the floods came,
no man-built refuge was enough.
It's hard for us to fathom
this entire earth buried in the waters
that came from the deep as well as from the sky.
But that's what the Bible tells us happened.
A worldwide flood
in which people like you and me
were living their lives like Jim,
and they were caught without a refuge.
So that's my question for each one today.
Do you have a refuge?
There's only one refuge for you,
for your body and your soul.
It's revealed in all of the Bible
by further steps.
So from this passage,
I want to try to highlight four covenantal observations.
Number one is this.
God is the covenant Lord
ruling over all of his creation.
He is the holy covenant Lord.
He is the holy covenant Lord
who rules over the entire world.
And as the Lord over his creation,
he sees each person's natural evil
inside and out.
look again with me at verse five,
Genesis chapter six,
verse five,
God observed that the wickedness of man was great.
Man's evil deeds had multiplied
in the whole earth.
This speaks to the intensity of man's sin.
See,
it's one thing if man uses evil words,
but we read that these were the deeds of men.
It was blatant action.
The deeds were evil and wicked
because all of mankind had become so corrupt.
To describe this a bit further with biblical language,
we read in Galatians 5,
19,
that the works of the flesh include sexual immorality,
impurity,
sensuality,
idolatry,
sorcery,
enmity,
strife,
jealousy,
fits of anger,
rivalries,
dissensions,
divisions,
envy,
drunkenness,
orgies,
and worse.
Some of you are thinking,
well,
that describes the folks I just worked with all week.
It's not only the intensity of sin that's highlighted,
it's also the quantity.
It's that evil deeds by wicked men
had multiplied to the point that the whole earth
was filled with nothing but that.
The Bible says it was violent.
violent.
And there is the Lord,
the covenant Lord over all his creation.
Verse five,
he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil.
continually.
God saw man's slavery to sin.
He saw what's inside man and described it as only evil.
Your soul is addicted to wickedness,
not just some of the time or most of the time.
Your natural state is to be addicted to evil continuously all of the time.
John Calvin described this as the natural hereditary depravity of all of mankind.
It's a corruption of our nature that is diffused into all parts of your being.
I had to look up in the dictionary,
what does diffused really mean?
You got like a diffuser of puts oils mixed in with the air,
or sometimes you will try to take oil and you'll diffuse a aroma into it.
And it means that one element is so intermingled with another that it takes it over,
even on an atomic level.
So this is describing the root of man's sin.
God sees man's insides.
It's the imagination.
It's man's thoughts.
God sees man's heart.
Romans 1.30 describes this as hating God,
being a slanderer out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
Spiritual rebellion.
It's to be insolent, haughty, boastful, and inventors of evil.
1 Corinthians 6, verse 11.
Paul writes to the church, people like you and me,
so were you.
And so natural sinners cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
It's impossible to have peace with God.
What that means is that as God is Lord over the whole creation,
and his new kingdom of heaven and earth is coming,
there will be no place for sinners.
His rule will be established over all creation.
Where will you be in your natural state?
In our natural state, you and me would be homeless
when the new heavens and the new earth are ushered in,
because God is the covenant Lord over all his creation,
and he sees you and me, each of us, in our natural condition.
And he sees that we are evil inside and out.
You can't be a Christian unless you say, that was me.
And my heart is still bent in that direction,
unless the spirit keeps me close to Christ.
Here's our second covenantal observation.
The Lord's wrath burns against sin because he is good,
and because he is just, he must punish evil.
The Lord's wrath, his holy righteous anger,
burns against sin because he is good.
How could it not?
And because God is just and powerful,
he must punish evil.
The language to describe this to us,
it's using something we can relate to.
Look at verse 6.
God saw the world that way, and God repented.
The King James says,
what he saw repented the Lord,
that he had made man on the earth.
Verse 6 says,
it grieved him, God, at his heart.
Well, we know from all of Scripture that God is spirit.
God is not man.
So God does not have physical eyes,
but the language is that God saw.
God does not have a heart like a man does,
but yet God was grieved at his heart.
That's our prophetic idiom from Moses' pen.
We know that the eternal decree of God is immutable.
It does not change.
But yet, God's wrath against sin is so strong,
the Scripture describes it as God repenting of what he had made.
It's like God says,
O creation, I am holy,
and I made all my creation very good for my glory.
But man's slavery to sin and Satan has ruined my world.
And because he sits on the throne as Lord over his creation,
the holy God cannot tolerate evil without responding.
He is not distant.
Our God is active in this world.
And the just God cannot leave sin unpunished,
or he would no longer be just.
The God who created order, peace, and beauty
won't leave his creation in chaos forever.
He rules over it.
It's his.
He won't leave us to ruin ourselves.
He won't leave his image bearers to self-destroy through violence forever.
So in verse 7, the Lord said,
I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,
both man and the beast and the creeping thing and the fowl of the air.
See, the animals were not God's image bearers,
but they are being affected by man's sin.
Because the second commandment is a prohibition
against turning creaturely things into gods
or worshiping something creaturely,
we can infer that before the flood, people had done just that.
That's what Paul roars about in Romans 1 and 2 as well.
So the Lord will destroy both man and beast.
You can almost imagine the type of idols they came up with,
creeping things, the fowls of the air,
because it grieves me that I have made them.
God is all-powerful, and God is good.
And so God must unleash his wrath to punish evil.
We read in verse 11 that the earth was corrupt before God.
The earth was filled with violence,
and God looked upon the earth, and behold,
he saw that it was all corrupt,
for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
It's a real horror to think of what we deserve
if we were left to ourselves.
We need to understand that the wrath of God
cannot let evil go unpunished.
Eric Alexander pointed out that the real horror
of being outside of Christ
is that there is no other shelter
from God's wrath.
The Lord, ruling over his creation,
because he is good,
he must pour out his wrath to punish sin,
and because he is just, he must punish evil.
But remember the promise.
The seed of Eve will destroy the Satan,
the serpent's head, crush it.
How will the Lord be faithful to his promise,
and also be faithful to being just,
and good, and punish evil?
How will he do this?
And this is our third observation,
that the Lord,
he is faithful to his covenant of grace,
and he provides sinners a refuge for salvation.
Yes, the Lord is faithful to his covenant of grace,
and he provides sinners with a refuge for salvation.
In verse 13, we read that God said,
the end of all flesh is before me,
because the earth is filled with violence.
Behold, I will destroy wicked mankind
along with the earth.
So God will do this.
But we read in verse 8,
that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Let's define this term.
First of all, grace is different than mercy.
Mercy is to withhold deserved punishment.
And God is merciless against sin.
But yet we read that those same eyes,
so to speak,
the eyes of God that saw the wickedness of Noah's heart,
mind, imagination, and deeds,
that same God looked graciously at Noah.
Now grace,
it not only withholds punishment,
like mercy does,
but grace also generously blesses.
Grace is better than unmerited favor.
Unmerited favor would be like this.
Picture a teenager who lives on the street,
and he's always getting into trouble.
And then a man gets out of his car
and sees that homeless teenage troublemaker,
feels pity for him,
and gives him a crisp $100 bill.
That would be unmerited favor.
But grace is so much more than just that.
Grace is giving favor to one who has demerited it.
So grace, in the biblical sense,
is if that teenager saw that same man,
picked up a big rock,
smashed his windshield,
when the guy gets out of his car,
kicks him in the shin,
spits in his face,
gives him the middle finger.
That man doesn't reach for his wallet.
He takes that young man to the courthouse
and adopts him.
You're going to be my son,
and I'm going to disciple you
and show you unconditional love.
That's grace.
It's favor,
great favor and blessing
to one who has demerited it.
So Noah,
he found grace in God's eyes.
Grace is when God shows favor
to a man like Noah,
or like you and me,
who have demerited it.
See, God showed favor to Adam and Eve
and Noah,
even though they were rebels,
and every thought of their mind
was bent toward evil always.
But God is faithful
to his covenant of grace.
Look at verse 18.
God says to Noah,
with you I will establish my covenant,
and you shall come into the ark,
you and your sons and your wife
and the sons' wives with you.
Isn't that a great promise?
God did not find Noah gracious.
Noah deserved God's wrath,
just like everyone else,
just like we do.
But Noah received God's favor.
Where did God find this grace?
God found grace for a man like Noah
in himself.
God graciously elected,
pardoned,
accepted,
and preserved Noah
because he's faithful
to his covenant of grace.
Do you see the work
of the covenant of grace
being unveiled
even in this ancient story?
In verse 18,
Noah gets the promise
that you shall come into the ark.
Noah, do you have faith
in this promise?
I will save you by my grace.
Well, we see Noah's faith,
in his response.
His response was simple,
to believe and obey.
We read in Hebrews 11, 7,
that by faith,
Noah, when warned,
in holy fear,
he built an ark,
and God saved his family.
By faith, Noah condemned the world
and was heir of righteousness
that keeps with faith.
And this is because the Lord
is faithful to his covenant of grace
and he provides sinners
like Noah,
like you and me,
a refuge for salvation.
The fourth covenant observation
is this.
The Lord patiently calls
all covenant breakers
to find safety
in his provided refuge.
The ark was not just for Noah,
it was for whoever
would repent and believe.
The Lord patiently calls
covenant breakers
to find safety
in the refuge
that he has provided.
Through Noah,
God preached free salvation
to the whole evil world.
We read in 2 Peter 2, 5,
that Noah was a preacher
of righteousness.
In 1 Peter 3, 20,
we read that God's divine
long-suffering
waited patiently
in the days of Noah
as the ark was being prepared.
So there's Noah,
hammer in one hand,
preaching from the other side,
and as people are mocking him
and seeing this massive
wooden structure go up,
he's calling to them,
repent,
turn to God the creator.
You know what's been handed down
since Adam and Eve
through Seth.
You know the promise.
Repent and believe.
We read in Genesis 7,
verse 16,
that God then
sent a male and female
of every species,
and he sent Noah
and his family
into the ark,
and then the Lord
shut them in.
God himself closed
the door of the ark
when the day had come.
What comes next
was real clouds in the sky,
heavy rain,
overflowing lakes,
hungry waves,
most likely boiling lava
as the springs of the deep
were opened up,
swallowing up home
after home,
fear,
angry panic,
lost loved ones,
running to the mountains,
and then clamoring
to be the last king
of the hill.
We read in 2 Peter 5
that God himself
protected Noah
inside the ark.
God protected
everyone
who fled
to the refuge
God provided.
And then,
God's judgment
poured down
on the whole earth.
God's wrath
purged the world
of sin
because God
is holy,
but God
preserved those
in his
appointed
refuge.
Well,
this story of Noah,
it shows us
that the effects
of the fall
were so devastating
that God
himself
must act
so the world
doesn't self-destroy
a thousand times over.
And we should
never forget that,
the total depravity
and how broken
the city of man
will be
if God were to
leave it,
take his hands off.
What we're going
to see next week
is that God
himself must
stabilize
the stage,
so to speak,
before the playwright,
God,
enters his own
drama
as the hero.
For today,
we need to see
Jesus Christ
as the refuge
God has provided.
In 1 Peter 3.21,
Peter says that
this was a type,
this was a shadow,
and there's a
greater antitype,
a greater substance
that was unveiled
at the coming
of Jesus Christ.
There's a
corresponding
fulfillment
in the new
covenant
to the flood
and the salvation
God provided.
See,
Noah was
a real person.
The flood
was a real
historic event.
every mountain
range
on every
continent
of the world
has evidence
of marine
life,
not just
fish from
a sea,
but sea stars
and seashells
that would only
be found on
oceans,
are on the
tops of
every mountain
of the world.
We don't need
that,
but we should
not be surprised
when they find it.
Ancient
civilizations
have passed
down in their
oral tradition
even though
they've been
darkened by
the devil.
So we have
in the Sumerian
story,
the Babylonian
history,
Celtic myths,
African myths,
Pacific tribal
legends,
and even the
Chinese character
for ship,
it's three
characters combined.
It's a boat,
eight mouths,
and the number
eight.
There it is.
There's the three.
So a ship
is a big boat
with eight people
on it.
The number
eight is Noah
and his wife,
his three sons,
and their wives.
There's eight
people on the
ship.
Both Noah
and Adam
are foreshadowing
the person
and work
of Jesus Christ.
Adam was
born
without sin,
but he chose
to sin.
Noah was
born into
sin,
and he could
never escape
it.
But Jesus
Christ became
the man
that Adam
chose not to
be by sinning,
and the man
that Noah
could never
be.
Noah could
not start
a perfect
new creation
after the
flood.
He still
had the
depraved,
sinful nature
that he
would pass
on.
In John
chapter 5,
our Lord
Jesus Christ
said that all
of the scriptures
testify of
him.
Genesis
chapter 6
and 7
testify of
Jesus Christ.
Jesus is
revealing to
the world,
I, God
the Son,
I am the
hero.
World history
is my
story.
Jesus Christ
is the
Lord over
all his
creation,
and he
is the
one who
sees you.
Even in
the flesh
on earth,
he could
see what
was inside
man,
and he
sees that
your natural
inclination
is evil,
continually,
inside and
out,
and the
evil deeds,
they
displease
him.
The wrath
of Jesus
Christ
himself
burns
against sin
because he
is good,
and he's
also just,
he will
come back
to judge
the living
and the
dead,
and he
must punish
evil.
Yet
Jesus came
to fulfill
the covenant
of redemption
that God
the Father
had given
him to do
in obedience.
And Jesus
Christ became
the refuge,
he became
the ark,
he became
the one that
whosoever has
an ear to
hear,
run to me
and be
safe.
Why can
you be
safe if
you run
to Christ?
Because
being divine,
the flood
of God's
wrath won't
destroy him,
he will rise
again.
Yet being
a man,
he can
relate to
you and
he can
take you
in,
he can
be the
one that
you have
union with
God,
through
his work.
God
must
pour out
his wrath
against sin
and evil.
And Jesus
Christ endured
the cross.
He received
the wrath
of the
holy God
so that
whoever would
be sheltered
by him
can survive.
He passed
through the
waters of
judgment
and he came
out alive
and victorious
on the other
side to
inaugurate his
new creation.
you see
how all
of this
is unveiling
the person
and work
of Jesus
Christ.
Well,
the tone
of this
passage
today is
of stern
warning.
I'm doing
my best
to present
the glory
of the
gospel,
but not
missing out
on this
tone of
warning.
That's how
the whole
new covenant
interprets
the flood.
See,
just as
Adam's
fall,
it made
all people
of earth
want to
willingly
forget
who God
is.
We don't
want to
remember the
moral law
of God
that he's
written on
man's
heart and
mind.
So also
in 2 Peter
3, 5,
we read that
you willingly
forget the
word of God,
that same
word that sent
the floods
that destroyed
the earth,
that same
word of God
promises that
Christ is
coming again.
And just
as people
were eating
and drinking
and living
as if there
would be
no end
to their
life,
on the
day that
Noah entered
the ark,
Jesus says
in Luke
17, 26,
so people
today are
just as
rebellious in
their minds
and hearts
and imaginations
and they will
be caught by
surprise on
the day of
the Lord.
Just as God
was true to
his word and
he sent a
flood that
destroyed all
the wicked
rebellion of
man,
so also the
wrath of God
against sin,
it will purge
this earth
when Christ
returns to
judge the
living and
the dead
one day.
And this
will be
Jesus Christ,
the man
who is
exalted at
the right
hand of
the Father
coming to
judge and
to pour
out wrath,
have the
right picture
of Christ.
Revelation
6, 16
says on
that day,
wicked sinners
who had
blasphemed
God,
they will
run to
the mountains
and rocks
and beg
them to
fall upon
them and
smash them.
They'll say
fall on us
and hide us
from the face
of him who
is seated
on the throne.
Listen,
and from the
wrath of the
lamb for the
great day of
their wrath has
come and who
can stand.
And just as the
wrath of God
against sin was
poured out in
the waters of
judgment on
the flood,
you who have
run to Christ
as your refuge,
take comfort.
So also the
wrath of God
against your
sin and
against my
sin, it
has already
been poured
out on our
Lord Jesus
Christ on
the cross.
1 John 2, 2
says he,
Jesus Christ
himself, is
the propitiation.
He is the
satisfaction, the
appeasement of
our sins.
The wrath of
God is
satisfied.
I love how
Milton Vincent
reflects on this
gospel truth.
Now, when I
am sinning, God's
grace does
abound, ensuring
my justified
status is
sound.
No wrath is
awakened in
God at my
sin because
Christ appeased
it to say
so again.
God's heart
pulses only
with passionate
grace, which
jealously wants
me back in
his embrace.
If you have
run to Christ
as your
refuge, then
you can know
this promise in
1 Thessalonians
5, 9.
God has not
destined us
for wrath,
but for
obtaining
salvation through
our Lord Jesus
Christ who died
for us.
Amen.
Just as God
brought new
order to his
creation after
washing it with
the waters of
judgment, so also
Christ brings
peace and order
to you who are
a new creation in
him.
You are new.
Your sins do
not determine who
you are.
It's Christ's
righteousness clothing
you.
You are that
new.
You are that
washed if you
are justified by
running to Jesus
as your Savior.
And just as God
patiently waited
with long
suffering, desiring
that none should
perish, desiring
that sinners run
to his son
repenting, so he
calls you and
everyone who has an
ear to hear,
repent, run to
Christ.
God has already
provided your
refuge.
God's wrath
purged the world
of sin, but he
will preserve you
who are in his
appointed place of
refuge.
He will shut you
in.
He closes the door
behind you.
You are safe
from his wrath.
When we think of
waters and judgment,
we have to also
think of baptism.
Christ passed
through the waters
of judgment.
He didn't skip
around them or
avoid them.
He passed
through the death
that you and I
deserve on the
cross.
And he rose to
newness of life
so he could
pass and channel
the blessings,
the grace of God
from heaven to
everyone who runs
to him.
And that's what we
celebrate with
baptism.
You are washed
with his blood
and by his
spirit.
His blood
washes you by
grace.
First Peter 321
makes this
interpretation,
this fulfillment.
Peter wrote that
baptism celebrates
that God has
cleansed your
conscience through
the resurrection
of Jesus Christ
who has gone
into heaven and
is at the right
hand of God
with all angels
and authorities
and powers being
subject to him.
you are baptized,
you are washed
by water and
the spirit.
An orthodox
catechism explains
that at your
justification,
the moment you
believe in Christ
and you receive
his righteousness,
at that very
moment, God
has renewed you.
He has set you
apart to be a
member of Christ's
body so that you
and I may more
and more become
dead to sin and
increasingly live a
holy and blameless
life.
We grow into
what we already
are.
We are washed
by the blood
of Jesus.
So dear Christian,
today, your
Lord tells you
this evil world
is perishing
away.
There is no
other refuge.
Don't be like
the man who
counted on his
home and his
shingles.
There is no
refuge but Jesus
Christ.
And if he has
shut you in,
if he has shown
you his grace,
called you into
his son, Jesus
Christ, he will
keep you alive just
as he kept Noah and
his family alive.
Run to my son,
God says.
I am faithful to
my covenant of
grace.
I will preserve
you, all of you
who are in Jesus
Christ.
My son is your
refuge.
Run to him and
live.
Let's pray.