Scripture reading for this morning comes from Genesis chapter 6. Excuse me a moment. It'll be verses 9 through the end of the chapter. Blameless in his generation, Noah walked with God, and Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their ways on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh. The earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an arc of gopher wood, make rooms in the arc, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the arc, 300 cubits, and breadth, 50 cubits. and the height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower second and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of everything of all flesh, every sort of thing into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female, of the birds according to their kinds, and the animals according to their kinds, and every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind. Two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. And this is the word of the Lord. Please pray with me. Father God, again, we thank you that we can come before you to worship you collectively, to give you the worship and the praise that you are due. And we praise you through the preaching of the word, through song and prayer. I pray that all will be done well. I pray especially now, Father, as the word is presented that it would glorify you, edify your children, and ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I believe I was here last, in August of last year, and I finished up with verse 8 of Genesis chapter 6, so we will continue and pick up where we left off with verse 9 this morning. So a quick recap, we see that God had created a perfect kingdom that was free of sin, evil, and death. Then there was the fall of Adam, which brought the curse onto all of creation. And now we come to the next step that's in God's eternal decree that I've labeled the reboot. And I want you to not think that the fall, the flood, or even Israel's failure to be the kingdom of priests that God wanted them to be to the world, that somehow these were different plans that God had. Plan B, Plan C, Plan D for the creation. In fact, the fall of Adam did not ruin God's plan, God's eternal decree. Because before time, matter, energy, and space were created, God had already created the covenant of redemption. He had planned and worked out our rescue. Now, many people would ask, well, if God knew the fall was going to happen, why did he allow it in the first place? Well, the Bible gives an answer to that. And the answer to that is there is no answer. As we go through all the scripture, God does not answer that question. But what we do learn is that God is sovereign and that God is in control. In fact, Alistair Begg, a pastor up in Wisconsin, said the motivation in God's eternal plan was not to make men and women happy. The reason that God determined to execute this eternal rescue plan was because he was concerned about his name." End quote. And so we read here that the antediluvian age is coming to an end. There's gonna be a new age, a new world that's gonna begin in about 120 years. Tyranny and the rule by the biggest stick created anarchy and violence to the point where the wickedness of man was great on the earth. Men did what was right in their own eyes, had no fear of God. Destruction and misery were in their ways. And one has to wonder at the difference, if any, is there in the world today than the one of Noah's day. The earth was experiencing the curse, a near final judgment that was coming due. It was coming due to mankind's run down evil lane. But God's curse just wasn't a curse alone. God also provided promises along with the curse. In Genesis 3.15, with the curse came the promise of the Redeemer. We see that God provided clothing for Adam and Eve. And when God exiled Adam and Eve from the garden, he did so with promises. We read about Cain. Cain was evil, but God gave him promise. He showed him grace. Because he told him that, I will put a sign on you. If anyone takes vengeance on you, I will take vengeance on that individual sevenfold. And then in Genesis 5, as we read through that passage, we read that there's this repetitive, this dismal repetitive phrase. And then he died. And then he died. And then he died. Except we come to verse 24. And here we read that Enoch walked with God. And then he was no more. And he was no more because God took him. Which is really a curious part in that passage. Because then you have to wonder. Is there an indication here? Is there an indication that there is some possibility that one could escape death? And one has to wonder, what is this particular passage pointing to? And that'll be a sermon for another day. So in this passage this morning, we're introduced to Noah. We're given information about Noah, about the society that he was living in. If we go back to verse eight, we read that Noah found favor in God's eyes. And then when we read verse nine, some folks read verse nine, that Noah was righteous, blameless, and walked with God. And we would tend to think, ah, this is why Noah found favor in God's eyes. That's not quite the case. That's not the accurate deduction. Because we go back a few more verses, in verses five and seven of chapter six, we read that the thoughts and every intent of man's heart was only evil continuously. Mankind had taken God's perfect creation and just totally destroyed it, totally marred it. And the destruction of God's perfect creation grieved God to his heart. He was grieved that he had made man. Verses 5, 11, and 12 declares, it was all the earth all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. That included Noah. Noah was no different than you or me. Noah is included in this indictment from God against corrupt man. And as you know, God would have been perfectly just to have left man under the curse and not provided a means of salvation. It would have been his divine right to leave man under his divine judgment and condemnation. But if Noah was that evil, how was it that he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, found favor in the eyes of the Lord? How is it that you or I find favor in the eyes of the Lord? And God's judgment was to blot out man who might have created from the face of the land. And that was without exception, the entire race being wicked to the core. All have sinned. The wages of sin is death. All must die. So why Noah? Again, looking at verses 5, 7, and 12, Noah cannot make any claim to being righteous, blameless, and walking with the Lord. As I said, Noah was no different than you or me. In fact, curiously, we go to Hebrews 11, we just read that passage, the great hall of faith, where we read, by faith, Noah, being warned of God of the things not yet seen, moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. So what's going on here? Noah was wicked, outwardly and inwardly. He was wicked to his core, just like you and me. So in Genesis 6.8, It's not that Noah found favor with God. Actually, the verse should probably read that God's grace found Noah. And the same is true today when you hear people talking about, I found God, I found Christ, I came to Christ. No, no. Christ Jesus found them. God's grace found them. Why did God's grace find Noah? Why did God's grace find you or me? It was because God wished it. God chose the individual to be found by his grace. And as we read through this passage, we see it's all God's work, his blessing, his mercy. Paul writes to Titus, for we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hurting one another, hating one another. He saved us not on the basis of our deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy. by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior." And again, Pastor Begg adds this comment, the only thing that distinguishes us from the culture is the same thing that marked Noah out from the people of his day, the unmerited Outreaching favor of God. All right, so now, put yourself in Noah's place. Okay, there you are, you're in your backyard, and you're surveying the South 40, looking at your vineyard in the backyard. And you hear a voice. You read that God speaks to Noah out of nowhere. God speaks to Noah. And from what we read in scripture, Noah doesn't miss a beat. He seems to know this is the Lord talking to him. He doesn't seem to miss a beat in responding to God. So as you read this passage, what did Noah do to initiate the conversation? What did Noah do to initiate a relationship? between God and Noah. God introduces himself to Noah, no discussion, no negotiation. Basically, God says, here's the situation, here's what I'm going to do, here's what you need to do. That Noah was righteous, blameless, and walked with God, that was imputed, imposed, On him, God declared Noah justified, righteous, blameless. Remember the first words to Noah. The end of all flesh has come before me. The earth is filled with violence because of them. Behold, I am about to destroy them on the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch, and so on. But God tells Noah, I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and their wives. God unilaterally establish or declares that he and Noah are going to enter into this covenant together, just as God did with Adam. Created Adam, here's a covenant of works. The only command that I give you besides the law that I put in your heart, do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As long as Adam obeyed that, there was that relationship. There was that covenant. but it is God who establishes and administers the covenant. Now depending on which theologian that you read, you may get a different definition of what is a covenant. My preferred definition comes from Robertson's book, Christ of the Covenants. A covenant is a bond made in blood, sovereignly administered. God's covenant with Noah is a special promise of deliverance. It is a covenant of preservation. And God makes it to convince Noah to have the confidence to be able to rest and trust in God and in God's covenant. The substance and the terms of the covenant are related in this chapter. 9-21. And this is the first occurrence of the actual term covenant for the Hebrew Berit that occurs in the Bible. We have the same type of covenant, the same Berit with Adam and God in the Garden. This is the first time that it is used. But what's unique about the term here, the Hebrew term denotes that it's not an initiation of a new covenant. Rather, it's the confirmation of an already existing covenant. Noah's salvation from the waters of the flood is an example of God's covenant grace and covenant mercy. And God is not just saving Noah and his family. God is saving all of humanity. He's saving all of humanity to come, the lineage of Messiah, and all those who will enter into union and communion with the Lord in heaven. Now there's an interesting side note to this, with this covenant, and that's that this covenant with Noah alludes to the doctrine of infant baptism. I know this is a touchy subject for a lot of people, but bear with me. The blessing of God's covenant with Noah states and includes you, Noah, your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. And we read further on in Genesis in chapter 17 that there's the foundation here for this covenant, this doctrine of infant baptism. And God says, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you." Now in baptism we hear the phrase, you know, a public profession of faith. We normally use that when individuals come up and they profess their faith in their and they're baptized. In infant baptism, the believing parents or parent, they are presenting their child in order for God to put his name on that child. And in the baptism, God does. God places his name on that child and declares him a member. of his family, now don't get ahead of me. I am not saying baptism saves, it does not. But God declares that I'm putting my name on this child because of the believing parent and because they are asking me to watch over their child. I'm gonna put my protective umbrella, if you will, over this child, the blessings of the covenant I will apply to this child. But at some point in the future, that child is going to have to make that decision. They're going to have to decide to keep God's name by professing their faith in Christ alone for their salvation. or they simply reject God's name and reject the salvation that is offered through Christ Jesus alone. All right, so returning back to the covenant of preservation with Noah. Now, there is this refrain in Genesis regarding Noah and his household where it talks about you, Noah, and your household, and it emphasizes that God is preserving humanity and he's preserving it through what we call the basic family structure. That God deals savingly with the entire family unit. This includes the children. And we see here with the events with Noah that physical salvation is secured in the midst of a flood water, the type of Christian baptism. And we usually will talk of the flood as a symbol of being washed, being cleansed, death to sin, alive to Christ. In modern times, we're observing in countries and cultures around the world, the satanic attack on the family unit. The basic structure of the family unit that God has designed from the very beginning. Good parents not only concern themselves with their own individual salvation and sanctification, but they also are concerned with salvation and sanctification of their children. Blessed are those children whose parents teach the word of the Lord diligently to their sons and daughters and talk of them when they sit in their house and when they walk by the way, when they lie down and when they rise up. The family unit, one man, One woman for life, having and raising children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. That is the foundation of every society. And it's the foundation of society as God has planned it. So here we see that God is making Noah a great blessing to the world. And he makes Noah an archetypical Messiah. Obviously not the Messiah. Noah was a preacher to the people of his generation. Noah was a watchman. The entire time he was building this ark, remember it took him 120 years to build the ark. And all that time he's talking about a flood. And that passage where it talks about Noah Trusting in God, believing in things not seen yet could very well mean it had never rained before. This concept was just totally unknown to them. There was no previous cataclysm that wiped out the planet and started over again, as some want to hold to. Noah was a watchman. He received the word from God's mouth, that he could give them warning. Just like we read in Ezekiel, God talks about Ezekiel being the watchman in the tower to warn the people when danger approaches. Thus, while the long-suffering of God waited by his spirit in Noah, he preached to the old world. This Noah, who was a type of Christ, preached and mourned the people of the judgment. I remember this in a land full of violence and destruction, rejection of God, but Noah never backed down, never stopped, kept building the ark, trusting in God's promises, judgment and his promises. As no one about his business of constructing the ark, he preached repentance, warning men of the deluge of the wrath to come. And he didn't have to say many words. I mean, if you have done the measurements, or if you've seen the ark encounter of Anges and Genesis up in Ohio, you know that is a hulk of a ship that Noah built. And so the entire time that he's building this huge structure, people were asking questions and Noah would be answering them. And of course, the people mocked, laughed at him, but Noah never stopped. And just because the world, the current cultural climate, or even a majority of believers accept certain behaviors that are in opposition to God's word or God's revealed will, doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. In Ephesians 4, 17 and following, there's a nice list there, fairly comprehensive list of how we should be living our lives, just on a day-to-day basis. How we are to live in the world and walk with God. Just like Noah did, we do the same thing, and wherever we are, It doesn't matter, ditch digger, lawyer, doctor, retired. We can each walk with the Lord in our respective spheres of influence and be a witness. And most times we can witness like Moa did without saying a word. They can watch us, how we act and react to situations in our lives and react in ways that are in scripture. Makes them wonder, why did you do that? Why didn't you do that? Judgment is coming, have no doubt. Again, God says, behold, I, even I, am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish. And the fact that God states it, I, even I am bringing a flood, is stating the certainty of the judgment and the destruction that is to come. And of course the flood is symbolic of the next judgment that is to come. It may come tomorrow, it may come a hundred years from now, a millennia from now. We do not know. Our job is just to be ready today if it does come. But for many, death is certain. Each human being, well, back up, there's one or two that have not walked through the portal of death. But the rest of us, we will walk through that portal of death at some point in our lives. And again, we don't know when that will be, but we just need to be ready and just know that it's going to happen. Like our brother Steve Edwards that died from the cancer. He waited patiently in his suffering with all the cancer, but he never faltered. He knew he was going to walk through that door, and when he did, he was going to see his Savior waiting for him. And we all need to do the same. Sometimes the question comes up about, well, why did God use water? Why didn't God use some spectacular method of wiping out the life on Earth, you know, the lightning bolts or the cherubim with the flaming sword? or what he did with the Assyrians. It seems that R.C. Sprouls had a better, or possibly the best answer. He said, the punishment fit the crime. Man ruined God's creation. God used creation to destroy life and man. By this cataclysm of a worldwide flood, all the world shall be made to know that he is God to whom vengeance belongs. Now to Deuteronomy 32. Vengeance is mine in retribution. In due time, their foot will slip, for the day of their calamity is near, and the impending things are hastening upon them. So don't think that there's two gods, this evil, angry God of the Old Testament and the kind, loving, merciful God of the New Testament. They are one and the same God. The punishment for the crimes committed against holy God is death, physical and spiritual. God reaffirmed his covenant of grace, first with Adam through Noah and through this covenant of preservation. And God gave the human race over a century to repent, to come to faith, to turn from evil and seek the Lord. But they did not. Noah did. Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did by faith. And this is the work of the Lord. that you believe on him whom he has sent. Please pray with me. Father, thank you that you have awakened us. Being dead in sin, the Holy Spirit regenerated us by your grace because in eternity past you have chosen us to be with you. And we thank You and praise You and do ask that You would help us to grow in sanctification, to grow in living a life that would reflect You in what we say, what we do, what we think. We thank You for this time, Father, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.