Have You Found Favor with God?

Genesis 6:8-7:9
Richard Spencer | Sunday, January 16, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Richard Spencer

Last week Rev. Broderick spoke about total depravity – the fact that “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Gen 6:5). And that statement is universally true of all human beings who descended from Adam and Eve by ordinary generation. In other words, it is true of all people with the sole exception of Jesus Christ, the unique, sinless God-man.

This morning however, we have a much more uplifting topic, a beautiful illustration of God’s amazing work of salvation. For before the creation of the world, God looked at the mass of sinful humanity and chose some to be saved. Oh what a gracious and loving God we serve! Hallelujah!

But we must keep in mind that salvation has no meaning without judgment. In order for anyone to be saved, there must be something from which you are saved. And so our story today also, sadly, includes God’s judgment. And we must not ignore the shocking and terrifying fact that salvation only came to eight people, while judgment came to all of the rest.

Now, we don’t know what the population of the world was at the time, but it was certainly many million. So the fact that only eight were saved should be a grave warning to us all. And this warning that only a few will be saved is obviously important because God gives it to us many times in the Scriptures. The idea of a remnant being saved is common.

For example, we are told in Numbers 1:45-46 that 603,500 men twenty years old or older and able to serve in the army came out of Egypt in the Exodus. But we also know that only two of these men made it into the Promised Land; Joshua and Caleb (Num 14:30).

And we have another important illustration of this principle when, in the late eighth century BC, King Ahaz of the southern kingdom of Judah sought the help of the Assyrians in defeating the northern kingdom of Israel. However, this help proved to be almost as disastrous for Judah as it was for Israel. The Assyrians not only invaded Israel, taking them captive in 722 BC, they also continued on into Judah and destroyed most of that country as well. The helpers that the people had relied on instead of God turned out to be destroyers.

In 701 BC the Assyrians were laying siege to Jerusalem and it looked like they would clearly destroy it, which would finish their conquest of Judah. But God had mercy on his people and sent an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, causing Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, to withdraw (2 Kings 19:35-36). The prophet Isaiah writes about this in Isaiah 10:20-23, saying, “In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down” which is referring to the Assyrians, “but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God. Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.” The word ‘remnant’ appears four times in that short passage! And we also see that destruction occurs along with salvation, and the redeemed are a minority, only a remnant.

God had promised a redeemer right after the fall. Remember that in Genesis 3:15 God had said to the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” And God’s promises cannot fail. Therefore, he always preserved a remnant in order to be able to fulfill his promise with the coming of Jesus Christ, the offspring of the woman, who crushed the devil.

And the idea of a remnant continues on into the New Testament age as well. Jesus himself warned us in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” May we all take this warning to heart! We must make our calling and election sure as we read in 2 Peter 1:10.

And now, with that warning in mind, let’s examine this passage in Genesis 6:8 through 7:9, by looking first at God’s favor; second, God’s judgment; third, God’s command; fourth God’s covenant; and finally, fifth, Noah’s obedience. Let’s begin by looking at God’s favor.

I.       God’s Favor

Our passage begins with a most important verse. Genesis 6:8 says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” The sentence begins with the word “but” because this statement is in contrast to the previous verses, where God had announced that he was grieved he had created man and was going to wipe him off the face of the earth. But, as I noted earlier, God is faithful and true and he had promised a redeemer for mankind, so he couldn’t wipe out every single person or there wouldn’t be any way for the redeemer to be a descendent of the woman as promised. We must always remember that we aren’t saved because we are good, we are saved because God is good and will do all that he has promised, to the praise of his glory.

Therefore, we see this wonderful statement that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This could also be translated as Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The word translated as favor is the same Hebrew word as is translated ‘grace’ in Proverbs 3:34, where we are told that God, “mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.”

I point this out because saying that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord could possibly be misinterpreted to mean that Noah was deserving of that favor. But to interpret it that way would get the cause and effect backwards. It would contradict the clear teaching of the Bible and must, therefore, be rejected. Paul wrote in Romans 3:23-24, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Now, in this church you are well-trained in theology, so you know that the word ‘all’ doesn’t always mean every single one without exception. But in this case, it does. Every single human being, without exception, descending from Adam and Eve by ordinary generation has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore, if a person is justified at all, he is justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. And Noah is no exception.

Therefore, when we read in Verse 9 that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God”, we realize that these things are true of Noah only because he was a new creation, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had prepared in advance for him to do as we are told in Ephesians 2:10. No man can earn his salvation. Even our supposedly good works are as filthy rags in God’s sight we are told in Isaiah 64:6. And in Psalm 49:7-8 we are told that “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough”.

Noah’s good works, like anyone else’s were accepted by God only because of grace, not because they were truly worthy on their own merits. They were accepted because Noah was, and is, a child of God. God chose him before the creation of the world. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:4-6, God, “chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” These verses present us with the doctrine of unconditional election.

God didn’t choose us, or anyone else, because we are worthy of being chosen, he chose us in order to make us worthy of being his children. And when God chooses someone to make them worthy of being a child of God, he is absolutely certain to complete the work he has begun. We are told in Romans 8:29-30 that “those God foreknew”, which means foreloved, “he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” Paul speaks about these things as being in the past because they were absolutely certain from the moment God chose to love us.

And, in keeping with the fact that God’s will is always accomplished, Verse 9 tells us three important things about Noah, which are true as a result of his having been effectually called by God. First, we are told that he was a righteous man, which is speaking about the fact that he was justified in the sight of God. His sins were covered by the blood of Jesus Christ and he was clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.

Second, we are told that he was blameless among the people of his time. This speaks about his own relative righteousness. Our righteousness is never perfect in this life as I said earlier, and it is not the basis for our salvation. But if we have been born again, our lives will show forth the fruit of that inward change. We will have a relative righteousness.

And third, we are told that Noah walked with God. As Dr. Wassermann noted in speaking about Enoch in his sermon How Not to Die from Genesis Chapter Five, this is a significant statement. And it shows forth the grace of God because the really amazing thing is that God would walk with Noah! And this statement also shows us how we ought to live. We should see ourselves as walking with God, which requires that we be immersed in God’s Word, filled with his Spirit, and committed to walking in obedience to his commands. As we are told in Psalm 1:1-2, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

To walk with God is the sum of godliness. In Micah 6:8 the prophet tells us, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

And when we fail to walk faithfully with God, as we all do at times, we must confess, repent, forsake our sin and get back to walking with God. As John wrote in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

We also know that no one can walk with God except by faith. And we are told about Noah’s faith in Hebrews 11:7, where we read that “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

Take note of the fact that Noah was motivated in part by holy fear. This doesn’t mean that he wasn’t also motivated by love, but it is a significant statement. We are told in Psalm 19:9 that “The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.” We are told in Psalm 111:10 that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”, and Proverbs 10:27 says that “The fear of the LORD adds length to life”. Then, in Proverbs 14:27 we read that “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.” And speaking of Jesus Christ, we are told in Isaiah 11:2-3 that “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD—and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.”

Do you fear God? You should! He is a holy and just God. He is infinite in his knowledge, power and justice. And we are all sinners. That should cause us to fear God. But the good news is that God has loved us and saved us and called us to be his holy children. Let us be like Jesus and delight in the fear of the Lord. Let us be motivated by love for God and the fear of God. He is good and his wonderful promises are true, but so are his terrifying threats. As Paul wrote in Romans 11:22, “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.”

Before we move on, I must note that I didn’t read the first sentence of Verse Nine. The verse began by saying that “This is the account of Noah.” The Hebrew word translated as ‘account’ here is used ten times in the book of Genesis as part of a heading of a major section. It occurred in Genesis 2:4 where we read, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” It next occurred in Genesis 5:1 where we were told, “This is the written account of Adam’s line.” And this is now the third occurrence.

This signifies that we are entering a new major section of the book of Genesis. Prior to this verse, the book of Genesis has given us an account of the creation, the fall and the subsequent degeneration of the human race. And we also saw the protoevangelium, the first announcement of God’s gospel of salvation. In the account of Noah, we will see God’s judgment being meted out, but also his mercy and salvation for the remnant he chose to save as well as his renewal of his covenant of grace.

It is significant to note that the name Noah means comfort. We are told of his naming back in Genesis 5:29 where we read that his father Lamech, “named him Noah and said, ‘He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.’” Calvin notes, I think correctly, that referring to the curse of the ground is a kind of synecdoche – meaning that it is meant to stand for all of the effects of sin.[1] It seems that Noah’s very name is then part of a prophecy about God providing deliverance for his people. And, while it may be true as some suppose that Lamech was expecting Noah to be the Messiah, the fact that Lamech was wrong if he believed that does not negate the fact that Noah was, in fact, a deliverer and a type of the Messiah.

And Noah’s name isn’t the only instance of a name also being part of a prophecy. If you go back and look at the birth of Methuselah in Chapter Five you can notice something very interesting. In Verse 21 we are told that “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.” We are then told that Enoch walked with God for 300 years before dying at the age of 365. So, apparently, Enoch did not “walk with God” in the same way prior to the birth of Methuselah. And the name Methuselah means “when he is dead, it will come.”[2] Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that God gave Enoch a revelation of a judgment to come and that the judgment would come only when his son Methuselah died. And that is exactly what happened. If you look back at the ages of Job and Methuselah, you will see that Methuselah died the exact year the flood came.

I personally think it is extremely likely that Noah knew of both of these prophecies, the one concerning his name and the one concerning the name of Methuselah. And it is no coincidence that Methuselah lived the longest of any human being. God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance and be saved as we are told in 2 Peter 3:9.

We should all be comforted by the story of Noah. It is the story of a sinner, saved by grace and walking by grace in the midst of a wicked and depraved generation. It is a story to comfort those of us who are ourselves sinners, saved by grace, walking in the midst of a wicked and depraved generation.

And so let’s now consider my second point, God’s judgment.

II.      God’s Judgment

Let’s read Verses 11-13 and 17 of our passage: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” And now, skipping down to Verse 17, God continues by saying, “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.’”

Contrary to the teaching and hope of many, the Bible is absolutely clear that God does not save everyone! As I labored to show early on, only a remnant is going to be saved eternally. And we see the type of that in the account of the flood. But we also see that God’s judgment is just. Rev. Broderick made this point clearly last week, so I won’t spend much time on it, but note that the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence. And notice that God saw the corruption. God sees everything. Nothing escapes his notice. As we are told in Hebrews 4:13, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Brothers and sisters, we have no secret sins. God knows what you are thinking right now. And he knows what you are thinking, what you are looking at, what you are imagining, what you are saying and what you are doing every single moment of every day. And he is angry with sinners! So he told Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people”!

We must have the fear of the Lord to help motivate us. In Matthew 24:36-39 we read that Jesus warned us, saying, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 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; 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.”

We must be very careful as we live this life. We don’t know if we will see another day. We have been vividly reminded of that fact in the past couple of weeks. Each one of us will die, or Jesus will come again first. But either way, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

We tend to get so wrapped up in our day-to-day lives that we rarely stop to think about the obvious fact that they will come to an end. We don’t know when, but God does! As King David said in Psalm 139:16, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Think about that! We don’t know the day we will die, but it is coming. Perhaps it is March 4^th of this year. Think about that. Maybe you will not live to see March 5^th! And you can truthfully say that about any date you want to choose.

God’s judgment is certain. God’s judgment is just. God’s judgment is irreversible. And God’s judgment is terrifying. Jesus spoke of hell as a place of torment (Luke 16:23), where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12), and where there is eternal fire (Matthew 25:41). It is described as a place of blackest darkness (Jude 13) and a fiery lake of burning sulfur (Revelation 21:8). In Matthew 25:46 Jesus said that the wicked, “will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Oh, be wise friends! God’s judgment will be awful, flee to the ark! Flee to Jesus Christ before the day of judgment comes. Acknowledge that you are a sinner and that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. God commands us to repent and believe. In Acts 17:30 we read that “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” And when he was asked what work God requires of us, Jesus answered in John 6:29, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So, I counsel you with the words of Jesus from Mark 1:15, “The time has come, … The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

And just as God commands us to repent, believe and obey, so he gave a gracious command to Noah. And that brings us to my third point; God’s command.

III.    God’s Command

Verse 14 of our passage begins with God saying to Noah, “So make yourself an ark”, and he then goes on to give Noah clear and detailed instructions. Then, in Verse 19, God says, “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female”, and he again goes on to give more detailed instructions. Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has given us very detailed and specific commands. We have his Word. The instruction manual for life. And we must obey this Word if we want to be blessed by God.

In Matthew 7:24 Jesus said that “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” And in John 13:17 he said, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” Charles Spurgeon once said that “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”[3] Do you seriously read and study your Bible? Do you do it with the goal of hearing from God? Do you view it is God’s authoritative instructions for how to build your life?

Just imagine what would have happened if Noah had not followed God’s instructions to the letter! He had no knowledge of how to build a massive ship. He almost certainly would have failed and built a ship that would capsize or fail in some other way. And, similarly, we have no idea how to be saved except for what we are told in the Word of God. And yet, people want to correct God all the time! People think that his Word can’t mean what it actually says because it doesn’t make sense to them.

The people at the time of Christ had this exact problem. Jesus didn’t do and say the things they expected the Messiah to do and say. He did, of course, say and do more than enough that they should have realized he was the Messiah, and therefore they should have listened carefully and obeyed. But, instead, because he didn’t do what they thought he should, most people rejected him. Jesus himself noted this problem. In Matthew 11:16-17 we read that he said, “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’” What a terrible condemnation of sinful man! Jesus didn’t dance to our tune, so we reject the only Savior.

I counsel all of us to humble ourselves. Where you there when God made the earth? Do you understand how he constructed the heavens? Do you know how life was created? Of course not. So how can you expect that you know better than God how to be saved? How foolish and wicked people are!

God’s commands may be difficult at times, but they are gracious and the way of blessing is always obedience. And we must observe that obedience is not the same thing as agreement. It isn’t that you have to be convinced by God that a certain way is right. In fact, in a sense, agreement is not obedience at all. True obedience is doing what I’m told to do when I don’t understand or agree!

Let’s all learn from Noah’s example. In Verse 22 we read that “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” We will come back to that verse in a few minutes, but first I want to note that when we obey God, we will be successful. I’m not saying that we won’t have troubles, or that we will be successful in the eyes of the world. But if we obey God, we will succeed in accomplishing what God wants us to accomplish and we will be rewarded in heaven. And God will provide all that we need to obey him.

Notice that God told Noah to bring all kinds of animals into the ark with him. Have you ever wondered how on earth he was to do that? I have no idea how to control animals that way, and I can’t imagine how long it would take to try and round up all of the different animals Noah was to have on the ark. In a purely human sense, it is an impossible job to do so quickly. But notice what we read in Genesis 7:8-9, “Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.”

We aren’t told exactly how this happened, but it is clear that God somehow caused these animals to come to Noah and enter the ark. God provided that which Noah needed and could not do himself in order to obey. And he will always do that. God provides what we need in order to obey him.

When Jesus told the disciples to feed the five thousand, they objected because they couldn’t imagine how that could be done. But he asked them what they had available and they said they had five loaves of bread and two fish. We read in Mark 6:41-42, “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, [Jesus] gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied”. Praise God! What is impossible with man is possible with God. He can always make our meager abilities and resources be sufficient for the work he commands.

And God didn’t just give Noah commands, he also gave him a great promise. In Verse 18 of Chapter Six God told Noah, “I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.” And that leads to my fourth point, God’s covenant.

IV.    God’s Covenant

This verse is the first time the Hebrew word for covenant is used in the Bible even though it is a very common word, which is used 284 times in the Old Testament. But, even though this is the first time the word is used, it is certainly not the first time the idea of a covenant is present in the Bible.

God had entered into a covenant with Adam. He promised blessings for obedience and threatened a curse for disobedience. That was the covenant of works. Then, in Genesis 3:15, which we read earlier, God entered into a new covenant with Adam and Eve after the fall, called the covenant of grace. He promised a Redeemer would come. This covenant was then revealed in greater and greater detail over time. The covenant God established with Noah is a part of this covenant of grace and we will see it expanded again when we get to the story of Abraham.

There are two important things for us to know about this covenant. First, it is a gracious covenant. God does not owe us anything good. Our sin has broken the fellowship that man originally had with God and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), which means eternal death. The fact that God offers any way of salvation to anyone at all is entirely an act of grace.

And, secondly, God established this covenant unilaterally. We do not get to negotiate with God. He created us and he has the authority and power to establish his covenant with us. Our only choice is whether we will submit, obey and be blessed, or reject God’s covenant and be cursed. And that leads me to the fifth and final point I want to consider this morning, Noah’s obedience.

V.      Noah’s Obedience

I first want us to take notice of all the reasons Noah had for not obeying God. That may sound strange, but in our natural, sinful condition we tend to look for all sorts of ways to justify our disobedience, and it would have been quite easy for Noah to come up with ways to try and justify disobedience to this command.

Just imagine what objections Satan might have thrown into Noah’s mind:

• Do you really think that the great and merciful God will destroy everyone but you and your family?
• Where is all the water going to come from to flood the whole earth?
• How can you possibly build such a massive structure and have it hold together?
• Where can you gather that much wood?
• How can you possibly get all of the animals to come onto the ark?
• How can you possibly gather together enough food to feed them?
• Won’t they start killing each other?

You can imagine, I am sure, even other questions and objections. And I’m sure that Satan then used Noah’s neighbors to bring many of these suggestions up over and over again over the many years it must have taken him to build the ark. We aren’t told how long it took, but it must have taken many years, some suggest as long as 120 years. When I was young my father built a 16-foot-long sailboat and then he later built most of a 26-foot-long cabin cruiser before selling it. I remember how many hours of work went into those projects, and they are literally nothing in comparison. The ark also must have been very expensive to build. And can you imagine what Noah’s neighbors said to him? And, worse yet, what they said behind his back as he was building it?

And yet Noah persevered. He displayed the obedience of faith that Paul mentions in Romans 1:5. Noah must have reasoned, as Abraham did many years later (Heb 11:19), that God was able to accomplish things that seem impossible to man. Therefore, he didn’t allow himself to be discouraged or to give up on the job. He trusted God and kept working at it, day in and day out.

How long have any of us worked at a single task? I’m quite sure none of us has ever worked steadily on one single project for that long. It is remarkable proof of Noah’s faith. And he didn’t just silently obey God in building the ark, he told others what he was doing and why, and he warned them of the coming destruction. We are told in 2 Peter 2:5 that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. In other words, he preached the gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in the coming Redeemer aone.  And in Hebrews 11:7 we are told that by his faith he condemned the world. When we preach the gospel, God uses it to save those whom he has chosen to save, but he uses the very same gospel to condemn those who refuse to repent and believe.

Also notice that we see a picture of household salvation here. Noah’s wife, his sons, and his son’s wives all believed! What a wonderful thing that is. Millions perished. But Noah’s family was with him. Do you want your family and friends to be saved? Then walk in faithful obedience to God.

And so, we see that Noah remained faithful and completed the work of building the ark. Verse 22 says that “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” And then in Genesis 7:1 we read, “The LORD then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.’” And God continued in Verse 4, saying, “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” Can you imagine those seven days? The weather was fine as far as we know. This massive ship sat on dry ground. And here is Noah and his family climbing into this ark, followed by thousands and thousands of animals of every kind. I’m sure his neighbors thought he was completely crazy, but I can’t help thinking that at least a few of them also had a tinge of doubt – I mean, why are all of these animals coming into the ark? This is truly an amazing miracle. There must have been some who looked at that and thought, “I don’t know, maybe there is something going on here.” But we don’t read about any of them repenting.

And in Verse Sixteen of Chapter Seven we read that “the LORD shut him in” the ark. If we are faithful to do all that God has commanded, he will be faithful and keep his promise to save us. And we will be saved.

In James 1:12 we read that “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” And in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 Paul wrote that “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Do you long for Christ’s appearing? I have noted that we can only be saved by grace, and that is true. You cannot earn your salvation. Nevertheless, there is a parallel truth that you are a morally responsible creature with a free will. And God promised in Romans 10:13 that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Take God at his word. Repent of your sins and call on God to have mercy on you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

It is my prayer that at the end of our lives we will all be able to say that we have fought the good fight and finished the race. Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world. If you are not in Jesus you are outside of the ark and you will perish eternally. I counsel you to repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. God himself will close the door behind you and you will be eternally secure. And if you have believed in Jesus, then continue to walk faithfully with him in humble obedience as Noah did. Believe his promises and his threats. Be a preacher of righteousness to others and bring others into the ark with you. Nothing else will truly matter on the day when God destroys this earth and ushers in the fullness of the kingdom of God in a new heaven and a new earth.

 

[1] John Calvin, Commentaries on The First Book of Moses called Genesis, Baker Books,2009, pg. 233

[2] J.M. Boice, Genesis, An Expositional Commentary, Ministry Resources Library, 1982, Vol. 1, pg. 232

[3] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/397346-a-bible-that-s-falling-apart-usually-belongs-to-someone-who