The Days of Noah: The Ark and the Heart of God

Genesis 6:3,5-7,13-22

Noah and the flood were both historic, Noah was a real person, a man of faith, a preacher of righteousness, a family man.  His world was a real world, a sinful world that was characterized by certain things: an evil mind-set, the thoughts and imaginations were only evil continually.  It was a foul society, a violent society.  It was also characterized by perverted religion that had corrupted the true religion.  This society was characterized by materialism and pleasure.  Those are the conditions for calamity.  That is the type of lifestyle that brought the flood.  In the light of those things, it all led to something.

What did it lead to?
Gen 6:6 "And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."    grieved means to suffer pain in one's own heart.  It grieved God at his heart, that is what it led to, grief.  God is not sitting up there in heaven uncaring about the people he created, he is grieved at their behaviour and their lifestyle like you are when your little children grow up and they scorn and mock and throw off the standards that you have tried to teach them..  Don't think less of God, it grieved him at his heart.  It also led to judgment pronounced and carried out.  Gen 6:7,13 "And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."  There are consequences for sin and rebellion and the consequences taught in this passage teach a very important lesson, a lesson that is largely forgotten today even in churches where they have a view of a God that has just one attribute and that is love.  That is a heresy.  Sin leads to consequences.  This passage teaches us the consequences.  God is warning mankind of the limitation of his mercy and grace.  

This passage teaches that human beings through their willful sin and willful neglect of salvation can put themselves beyond grace.  Beyond God's mercy.  By gross willful rebellion you can put yourself in the place where God says, "it is now over for you, there is no possibility of recall.  Beyond grace, mercy and redemption forever.  Where the only thing is judgment.  Noah's world was in precisely that position.  120 years and that is it, God says "enough"  There is a limit to God's mercy and grace.  And how much grace has been poured on you week by week, unbeliever.  How many times has God spoken to you in grace and mercy.  But you have scorned his love, rejected his forgiveness.  The lesson this passage is teaching is very simple, you need to be aware that the grace of God is not everlasting.  If God's grace was everlasting the flood would not have come.  If you are not a Christian, one day, if you continue rejecting the gospel, one day you will be one day too late.


God's provided way of salvation:
Gen 14-18 "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.  And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.  A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.  And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.  But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy son's wives with thee."   God commissioned Noah to build an ark, God's provided way of salvation then was the ark.  God gave Noah the size, the blueprint for the ark.

The account of Noah's ark in scripture has come under great attack and great scorn by many people in the last 150 years.  The account of Noah's ark comes under attack by those who are ignorant of history.  Think about it.  No one can pretend they are very clever if they actually believe nothing exploded.. that is what most science teachers teach, evolution.  Nothing exploded and all the living organisms that exist came from a rock.  That is not logical.  How can nothing explode?  Its not logical.  and rocks don't have children. 

There are so many critics that objections have to be refuted.  The ark, the size is 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high.  That is 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.  That is a big ship.  That is what the bible says.  Here is the objection:  the modernist will say "O did you not know that wooden ships cannot be built that big?  It would just break apart".  Wooden ships can't be built that size.  Anyone who says that is totally naive about history.  Some of the wooden ships that were built by the Greeks were bigger than Noah's ark and they were made of wood.  Some of them had 16 banks of oars.   The Roman emperor Caligula built a galley made of wood 400 feet long.  There have been wooden ships the same size and bigger than Noah's ark in recorded history.  For the modernist to say that is this:  modern educated man does not know how they built ships that big out of wood in the past.  He doesn't understand how they did it.  That means that people in the past that did build those ships were clever in that area.  They knew how to do it.  Modern man isn't so clever because he doesn't know how to do it.  Just because we can't do it doesn't mean it can't be done.  Maybe modern man is not as smart as what he thinks.   People in history built many things that modern man doesn't know how they did it.  

What about the capacity.   1.52 million cubic feet, that is the capacity.  That is the same capacity as 522 railroad stock cars which each can hold 240 sheep.  Would all the animals fit? Species is a modern word but the bible says 2 of every kind or 7 of some kinds.  What is a kind? there is a horse kind, a cow kind, a dog kind.  The modern word is Genus, plural Genera.  Two dogs went on Noah's ark, the dog kind and from those two we have variation and this is all the dogs we have today.  Dogs produce dogs.  In one of the debates the evolutionist said "do you really expect me to believe that all the dogs in the world today came from 2 dogs on Noah's ark?"  the evolutionist thought that was funny.  But the evolutionist was teaching that life formed from rock.  Which is the most logical?  The bible says two of every kind (Genera) went into the ark.  All the Genera of creatures in the world would fill 14.4 railroad stock cars.  Even insects would fill 12 railroad stock cars.  The arks capacity is 522 railroad stock cars.  That leaves plenty of space for food and living space.  There was plenty of room because Noah's ark was a big ship.

We have been looking at the world of Noah, the world of sinful, rebellious humans.  God's provided way of salvation is more than sufficient for them who will be saved.  God knew exactly how many people and animals would be on the ark, yet God provided more than enough, an abundance.  God's way of salvation was sufficient for those that were in the ark.  It doesn't save you if you are not in it.  Do you now that the new testament says 2 Corin 5:17  "if any man be in Christ he is a  new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."  1 Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:.."    Its those that are in Christ that are saved and safe.  Christ is salvation, we have to be in Christ.  Exactly as people in Noah's ark needed to be in the ark, that was God's way of salvation so today people need to be in Christ.

Are you saved?  are you in Christ?  are you in the way of salvation?  Jesus said "I am the way"  God's provided way of salvation is sufficient for those who will be saved.  Are you saved?  the people of the world in Noah's day rejected that message and spurned God's way of salvation and they put themselves in the place that was beyond mercy and beyond grace where there was no possibility of recall.  If you through indifference put yourself beyond God's mercy, and the only way to do that is to remain unrepentant, you have no one to blame but yourself.  The ungodly people of Noah's day are in the place of punishment, they are still there.  They will always be there.  Why?  Simply because they were not in the ark.  They neglected God's provided means of salvation.  And that is all you have to do, just neglect it.  A man is drowning and someone throws him a life ring and he pushes it away, he will sink but it is his own fault because someone has provided a way to be saved.  Its not the person on the shore's fault.  We are all sinking.  God has thrown a life line to sinners but more than that, he came into the world and died for sinners, and all you have to do is neglect it and you will sink.  But its not God's fault, it is your fault.  The message of Genesis 6 is very simple, God's provided way of salvation is sufficient for those who will be saved.  Will you be saved?
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The notes above were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1908520262