Riding
Out the Storm
Genesis 7
When most of us think of the story of Noah, we have a “Precious
Moments” image of a child’s play ark with fuzzy animals, or
a cute painting of a happy Noah and lots of colorful animals with their
heads sticking out of the ark. But for the people who were alive
at the time of the great flood, there was nothing cute about this
event, it brought their destruction!
The almighty, holy, jealous God who created all things looked down at
the human race and wept in sorrow and regret that he had even made
us. Yet the righteous Judge of all the earth, even in His just
wrath against humanity’s sin, decided to grant the undeserved,
unasked for, gift of grace to humanity by allowing us to continue
through the family line of Noah.
God the Father meet with Noah and revealed His plans of judgment and
salvation. The plan was seemingly impossible and
preposterous! “Build a
huge boat,” said God to Noah, “make it big enough to hold two of
every kind of animal on planet earth.” God granted
Noah the gift of faith to believe and obey, and so he and his three
sons started gathering lots of wood.
My two sons and I worked on our tree house (which is finally done by
the way!) for three months and we thought that was long! Noah and
his three sons worked on the ark for some 100 years!
We also read in 2 Peter that Noah was a “Preacher of
righteousness.” In Hebrews, we read that the faith of Noah
“condemned the world.” For 100 years, the people of
Noah’s immediate community watched him build a massive boat,
while they continued in their decadent life of unspeakable sin.
Noah preached God’s gospel both through his lifestyle of
faithfully building the ark, but no doubt also through warning the
people of the coming flood. No one listened!
Instead, they most likely just mocked and ridiculed Noah and his
family.
Perhaps their banter went something like: “What do you guys think
you’re doing? Where in the world are you going to use that
boat? The closet lake around here is 25 miles away and you
don’t even have a tow hitch on your camel! Come on Noah,
join us tonight, we’re having a huge party in honor of the
Nephilim King. Lot’s of wine, orgies, dancing.
Don’t you know life is all about doing your own thing, getting
the most for yourself, having the maximum amount of fun possible!
There’s no right or wrong, no eternal judgment. Those ideas
went out of fashion back in Enoch’s day.”
Noah, with tears in his eyes, just kept pleading with them to turn to
God and beg for mercy. They just walked away wagging their
heads. Noah picked up his hammer.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, the day of judgment
finally came. Though promised for 100 years, it still came
unexpected and shockingly. “Hurry,”
said God, “get into the ark
Noah, you and your family.” And God himself shut and sealed
the door!"
Torrential rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights non stop! God
opened up all the underground springs of the great deep and they burst
forth all over Earth massively increasingly the amount of water
flooding the planet. The water flooded the entire planet to a
depth of 20 feet above the highest mountain.
All manner of animals, men, women, children fought each other over the
last places of dry ground. Yet the water claimed each area
eventually…and their bodies sunk into the depths. Those
that could swim to the sides of the ark desperately banged on the side
of the boat frantically screaming, “Noah, please, we’re
sorry, we should have believed you! Let us in, O god, please let
us in! At least let our children in!”
But God had sealed the door shut! It was too late. Millions
of men, women, and children were shut outside.
We hear this account and it is just too much to bear so we do whatever
it is we do to ignore, deny, numb ourselves from the harsh reality of
God’s holiness, justice, and eternal judgment. Most
preachers have abandoned the old “fire and brimstone”
preaching of former days because most such preaching was filled with
more human judgementalism than God’s righteous justice.
But in overreacting against such graceless judgementalism, modern
Christianity has all but left out the sobering, convicting, and
therefore saving message that there will soon come what the Bible calls
the “Day of the Lord,” when once again God’s wrath
will be poured out on the rebellion of humanity. We too often
leave out of the gospel that “it is appointed for every one to
die and then to stand before the throne of Christ, believers as well,
and be judged for how we lived on earth,”
We’ve invented a god in our image who is a doting grandfather who
always overlooks our “mistakes,” and loves everyone with a
permissive, overindulgent love that doesn’t demand any obedience,
and certainly wouldn’t send anyone to eternal hell. After
all, the modern mantra goes, “We are all ‘children of
God.’” “And besides,”this thinking
continues, “did not God himself in this very flood story promise
us never again to destroy the earth with a flood? The rainbow is
a promise of universal salvation is it not?”
And against such a false hope and damaging lies, that can even slip
into our thinking as Christians, comes the sobering, convicting Word of
God such as in 2 Peter 3:
3
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will
come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say,
"Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died,
everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."
5 But they deliberately forget that
long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out
of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that
time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens
and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and
destruction of ungodly men.
8 But do not forget this one thing,
dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his
promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come
like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the
elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it
will be laid bare.
Our righteous, holy God has indeed promised never again to destroy the
world by flood, but in the fine print of that contract, it says,
“this does not exclude a coming destruction by fire!”
We live in a day perhaps as every bit as wicked as the days of Noah, or
at the very least we are on the fast track to being as wicked as those
days. We can barely stand to turn on the news anymore as we hear
story after horrific story of unspeakable, unbelievable acts of
violence, crime and immortality.
Just look at how we treat the most vulnerable among us. The
Clarity Clinic banquet was this past week. I encourage you to
fully support that ministry with much prayer and money. Every
year some 42-46 million babies are murdered through abortion.
Coming up next week, I strongly encourage you to attend a presentation
about the horrific crime of human trafficking on October 23 & 24 at
Westminster and First Baptist. The info is on our bulletin
board. Every year 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked across
international borders each year, 70 percent are female and 50 percent
are children. The majority of these victims are forced into the
commercial sex trade. And US citizens are one of the largest
abusers.
We could list number after number of how wicked our world has become,
but it would be too overwhelming. Yet, we must not stick our head
in the sand of our I-just-wanna-have fun affluence and
Sunday-go-to-meeting Christianity, and pretend that the world is better
than it is, pretend that God’s righteous wrath is not coming soon
that will once again destroy all ungodliness and all the ungodly.
Here just a small sampling of how the Bible describes the “Day of
the Lord,” the soon-to-come “Second Coming of Christ:”
In Revelations 6 we read:
15
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the
mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the
rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks,
"Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and
from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has
come, and who can stand?"
In Isaiah 13:9-13 we read:
9
See, the day of the LORD is coming— a cruel day, with wrath and
fierce anger — to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners
within it. 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not
show their light. The rising sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give its light.
11 I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their
sins.”
We read that in the coming kingdom of
God there will be the great city of the New Jerusalem where Christ will
establish his throne among the human race, and where those of us who
are offered God’s grace will live as well. But just as
millions of people were left outside the ark even though they begged
for mercy, so we read this in Rev 22about the Second Coming of Christ.
12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My
reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has
done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the
Beginning and the End.
14 "Blessed are those who wash their
robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go
through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who
practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters
and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
Multitudes will plead to be let in! But by then, God will have
sealed the door of salvation shut! It will be too late!
Multitudes of men, women, and children will be shut outside!
Anyone ready for the good news yet?
To those who reject the gospel, these promises and warnings are like
the promise of the flood and the ark in Noah’s day, it is a
message of judgment and destruction. But to those of us who
receive the undeserved gift of faith and grace as did Noah and his
family, it is a message of warning yes, but also of hope.
The passage from Peter we read earlier about the soon-to-come
destruction of earth and God’s judgment on all evil, goes on to
say this:
11
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people
ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look
forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will
bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements
will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are
looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of
righteousness.
14 So then, dear friends, since you
are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless,
blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord's
patience means salvation.”
We are to “look forward to the day of the Lord,” as this
will bring God’s righteous judgment and removal of all evil from
the universe, and God will establish His perfect eternal kingdom where
those of us embraced by grace will reign with Christ forever!
This passage also admonishes us that knowing that this world is not our
home, and that everything this world has to offer in terms of pleasure
and reward is crap compared to heaven, frees us to deny ourselves of
this world’s pleasure and rewards in order to receive the
fullness of eternal reward.
May our Lord always forbid that we become like the scoffers in this
passage that say, “Our Lord is not coming back anytime
soon. We can live anyway we want. To our sin, we’ll
find grace, and as to proclaiming the gospel, someone else will do
it.”
God have mercy on us for such thinking, and Christians who hold such
lies and live accordingly will be judged.
Here this warning from Christ in Matthew 24:
36
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven,
nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so
it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before
the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing
about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
That is how it will be at the coming
of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken
and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one
will be taken and the other left.
42 "Therefore keep watch, because you
do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If
the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was
coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be
broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will
come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
And of utmost importance from the passage in Peter we read earlier, is
that this passage commands, invites, and compels us “speed the
day of Christ’s Second coming.” How do we do
this? By getting the gospel out to all the world as quickly as
possible so the full number of the Elect can come into the kingdom!
You see, the passage we read earlier from Isaiah about the “Day
of the Lord,” and ones like that throughout the Prophets, are
quoted many times in the New Testament. But in the NT, what
is emphasized strongly is not the coming wrath, but the present
available of grace and salvation for all. In Acts 2 we read:
19
“I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth
below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned
to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and
glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved!”
You see, there is a Day of the Lord coming; it will be a day more
frightening than even the floods in Noah’s time. It will be
day of God ‘s righteous and wrathful judgment against all evil
and all who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the Word of
God says that right now, “today is the day of
salvation.” When Christ opened up the book of Isaiah to
begin his ministry on planet earth and reveal his mission he said this:
18
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor."
Today is the “year of the Lord’s favor!” Today
is the day when “all who call upon the Lord can be
saved!” In Joel 3 we read this:
“14
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of
the LORD is near in the valley of decision.15 The sun and moon will be
darkened, and the stars no longer shine. 16 The LORD will roar from
Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble.
But the LORD will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for
His people.”
The only way of escape from the great flood was God’s ark of
redemption. The only escape from the coming wrath of God’s
fire is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior. No other “ark” that is offered to humanity
will save you. “The Lord will be a refuge for His
people!”
But right now, “Multitudes and multitudes are in the valley of
decision” as to whether they will get aboard the ark of Christ
before God seals the door shut! Every day some 232,000 people die
and for them this is the day of decision as to where they will spend
eternity. And you brother and sister, if you are already aboard
that Ark, have the message that rescues the perishing! Can you
keep silent for one more day! Are you more concerned about taking
care of your little space on the Ark, making it as comfortable and
pleasurable as possible, while others are still shut outside?
God has not yet shut the door and sealed off the offer of grace!
And we are the “Preachers of righteousness” in our time and
in this city! Hundreds of people here in Dubuque are sinking in
the water. They’re trying to find dry land for rescue
through all manner of sin. You and I are standing on the
Ark…watching them drown…while the life boat stays hanging
in place, and the life preservers stay stuck on the wall! God
have mercy on our complacency and apathy! O Lord change us!
Millions were shut out of the ark. Many will be shut out of the
New Jerusalem. But is Rev 7 we have this glimpse into the eternal
kingdom of God:
9
“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude
that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing
white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they
cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."
Multitudes upon multitudes that no one can count will find rescue upon
the Ark of Christ. But God leaves it to us to get into the life
boat, paddle out into the stormy waters, and rescue the perishing!