NOAH (PART 3 - WHERE SECURITY IS PROVIDED)

Genesis chapter 7 in a simple phrase: Security in the storm.

Genesis 7:1Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark,

Acts 17:3030 now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Genesis 7:1you and all your household,

Acts 16:30-3130 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Copyright © 2014 Thor Ramsey www.canyonlakechurch.org

Whether following Jesus is something you’ve been doing for years or something new to you, we all know that our relationship with Jesus has in turn affected every primary relationship in our lives.

Genesis 7:1for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

There is security in trusting in how God says He see us. In this case, God’s sees Noah as righteous. And when we understand the biblical record of mankind, the question is why was Noah seen as righteous?

•Two types of righteousness

Noah trusted in the promise of God’s deliverance in the ark the same way we trust in God’s promise of deliverance from the wages of our sin. Noah is saved by faith. We are saved by faith.

The story has always been the same. We don’t deserve salvation. In fact, we deserve the exact opposite. We deserve damnation. To disregard God in any way whatsoever is show contempt for the glory of Who He is. God is not obligated to save anyone. So,

Noah and his family flee the wrath of God by faith and enter the ark. The same way that we flee the faithful warnings the Apostles give us of God’s wrath by fleeing to Christ in faith.

Romans 5:9Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

9 Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath.

The security is trusting in how God says He see us. According to His word, we are declared righteous because of what Jesus has done.

Genesis 7:2-42 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

•Real security verses false security

2 Peter 3:4-104 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of

Copyright © 2014 Thor Ramsey www.canyonlakechurch.org

God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator wrote this: “But it is common for those that have been careless of their souls during the years of their health, when they have looked upon death at a distance, to be as careless during the days, the seven days, of their sickness, when they see it approaching, their hearts being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Deathbed conversions are not commonplace.

Genesis 7:55 And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

It’s a little incredulous to me when very intelligent people say that even though the flood never actually happened that we can still glean great theological insight from the story of Noah. Really? How so? Personally, I don’t find imaginary people who obey God fully all that inspiring.

•Kate’s imaginary chickens

I have an imaginary version of my self in the future that does all that the Lord commands,

too. The problem is that I have to live with my real self among real people now. The only helpful examples are real ones. Otherwise, you have imaginary scenarios with imaginary people obeying an imaginary God.

This account is a corrective to a false worldview. It’s interesting to me how dismissive many people are of all these ancient flood accounts. The fact that there are several ancient flood accounts is s ignif icant when we’re talking about prehistory, a time before people started recording historical events.

“The earliest Flood stories themselves were not merely vague echoes of natural disaster, but were legends related to one definite event, a catastrophic Flood which occurred, if not in historic, then in prehistoric times.”

Genesis 7:8-16 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13On the very same day

Copyright © 2014 Thor Ramsey www.canyonlakechurch.org

Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14they 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. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.

The Lord shut him in. This is very significant, because in order to work effectively for God we have to be secure in God. He shuts us in the ark. We are secure in Christ. Noah and his family were secure in the ark, but they still had to endure the storm. Can you go through whatever it is you’re going through with the security of God’s care and concern for you? The answer is yes. You can have the security that God is smiling down upon you, not frowning at your every move.

John 10:27-29My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

John 6:37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 10:28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 3:16“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 5:24Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Romans 8:33-3433 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Genesis 7:17-24 17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18

The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22

Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 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. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

Copyright © 2014 Thor Ramsey www.canyonlakechurch.org

Noah and his family found security in the God who provided the ark. They fled an actual catastrophe, not an allegorical catastrophe. The same way that Jesus Christ died an actual physical death in the history of space and time, the warning of this earth being burned up with fire at the coming of the judgment of Christ is an actual and true warning. One that you can presently find security from if you flee to God’s provision in the gospel of Jesus.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God has provided an ark for you to climb aboard. Much of humanity responds to this message of grace the same way that humanity responded to it in the days of Noah. They simply did not believe the warning of the coming flood. You can ignore the warning of the coming flood, but you will find you’ve trusted in your own faulty judgment. You will die and find the flood of God’s wrath upon you for your sins against Him. The wages of sin is death. He is just, but He is loving. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is keeping you from entering the security of the ark of Christ?

Copyright © 2014 Thor Ramsey www.canyonlakechurch.org