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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) 10:00am Led by: Rev. S. Swets Organist/Pianist: Pre-service singing # 119 & # 302 Silent Prayer Call to Worship help come? Congregation – Our help is in the name of the Lord the maker of the heavens and the earth. *Greeting The Law Prayer of Confession Song # 376 Prayer for Illumination Scripture Text: Genesis 7:11-24 Noah: The Great Flood
Prayer of Thanksgiving *Song # 136:1, 2, 4-6 Offering – *Song # 488 *Benediction- followed by a three-fold Amen *Please stand if you are able. |
Scripture Reading: Genesis 7
Scripture Text: Genesis 7:11-24
Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
If you want to experience the feeling of being labeled an ignorant, old-fashioned, out of touch, brain-washed, Bible-thumper, walk into a room of evolutionists and start talking about the world-wide flood that occurred around 4,500-5,000 years ago, in which God miraculously saved Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives along with two of every kind of animal. The religion of evolution has gained so many followers and continues to do so, as it is worshipped in colleges and universities, primary and secondary schools, that to speak against it, is to nearly break some social more.
And yet, the testimony of the scripture is clear. Unlike Adam before us, let us not seek to be wiser than God. For the book we hold in our hand is his infallible word. In our study of that word, we are at the point where Noah and his family and the animals have entered the ark and the first raindrops have fallen from the sky. The flood is well on its way, and the future of life on earth is kept safe in an ark made of gopherwood and covered with waterproof pitch...this will be the home for church for the next 150 days. Our theme this morning is Our sovereign God judged the world by destroying it with the flood.
- The Event
- The Survivors
- The Dead
I. The Event
In the second month, the seventeenth day in Moses’ 600th year, the flood began on the earth according to verse 11. Read verse 11. One interesting feature about this verse is that it shows two sources to the floodwaters. The water is coming from below and from above. What does this sound like? Turn back to Genesis 1:6-7 (read). The flood un-creates and it brings us all the way back to the time before the creation of dry land when there was only waters. God is going to seemingly start over, but He is not going to start over from scratch, He is going to use that which was preserved in the ark.
Our text explains that the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. What actually happened? The part about the windows of heaven is easy to understand. The word used does not refer to a nice, easy BC rain. It is a torrential downpour. The fountains of the deep might refer to the roughness of the waves and water or even underground springs opening up. Either way, the point is clear that it is the Lord who is lord over the waters. They are his to release (Ps. 74:15) or to control (Is. 51:10). Verse 12 mentions that the flood was on the earth for 40 days, meaning, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. This is repeated also in verse 17.
Verses 13 and following say what God had told Noah to do, Noah did. Now in verse 13 Noah’s Sons are mentioned, though their wife and Noah’s wife, much like Job’s wife, is never named. They all entered the ark along with all of the animals, two by two and each according to their kind. We focused on that word “kind” a couple of weeks ago and saw that the word does not mean the same thing as the modern word “species”. There are many species of dog, though there is only one kind. Dogs mate with each other, the do not mate with cats. Each kind of animal, cattle, creeping thing, birds and beasts entered the ark and there found their safety. Verse 16 ends with this interesting and amazing phrase, “The Lord shut him in.”
The emphasis is on the fact that it is the Lord. What a encouraging comfirmation, if one was needed, for Noah’s sons and wives. It is similar to the ram caught in the bushes when Abraham goes to sacrifice Isaac. God would provide the atonement. God shut them in, He secured them in the ark.
In verse 17 the viewpoint changes from within the ark to outside the ark. The waters rose and rose and rose, the ark was lifted up and floated on the water and the water kept rising until the very tops of the mountains were covered with water according to verse 19. The ark moved about on the surface of the waters, like a cork bobbing up and down with no particular place to go. And yet, the Lord guided the ark safely as God destroyed the world, as he uncreated things.
All of those millions of people and animals on the outside of the ark all perished. Verse 22 says that all that was on the dry land died. The word used there is not the word for drowned, which is what we might have expected to read, but rather died. Why? The focus is on the fact that God killed them. They didn’t die of natural causes, they were not destroyed in a natural disaster...rather they died. Verse 23 says that God destroyed all living things, with one exception, those who were on the ark were saved.
II. The Survivors
Only those who entered the ark by the direction of the Lord were saved from the worldwide flood. For human beings, it was Noah, his three sons, and each of their wives. It was from those four couples that the world would be repopulated. So, once again, all human beings will have their origin from one man and one woman. The Bible doesn’t mention anything about Noah having any more children after the flood.
If we look at the bigger picture of what is taking place, we see that God is going to make a new start with Noah and his family. Noah is the head of the human race, everyone born during his life would have to call Noah grandpa or uncle. However, the line of promise is not merely about continuing the human race, but also the seed of the woman. As redemptive history continues to develop, the day of the climax is approaching, when that ultimate seed of the woman, that head, not of the human race, but of the church, Jesus Christ would come into the world. Through Christ all things are made new.
When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they were kicked out of the garden. A number of commentators have mentioned the language used in Genesis 7 of describing life inside the ark is similar to life inside the garden, and those on the outside, or life outside the garden is the result of sin. God provided a way of protection from divine wrath by promising the defeat of the serpent. Atonement was made already when God made animal skin clothing for Adam and Eve after they sinned. Those animal skins pointed to the atoning blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross at Calvary...for it is there, in his death and resurrection, that we are crucified and raised up anew. Read II Corinthians 5:17.
The world of animals was also saved. Representatives from all the different kinds of animals entered the ark for protection, two by two.
There is a question that is sometimes raised, especially by evolutionists, but even for young inquisitive minds. What happened to the dinosaurs? After all, how large of a door would you have to have on the ark to fit a couple brontosaurus’ onboard. According to what the “experts” say, dinosaurs roamed earth from 125 million years ago up until 65 million years ago. Therefore, man and dinosaur never lived on earth at the same time. But, the narrative of the scriptures is not an earth billions or millions of years old, but rather only thousands. So, why haven’t we ever seen a T-Rex?
Did Noah take dinosaurs onto the ark? Certainly. But how did they fit. Realize, though there are many different species of dinosaurs, using the modern term, there are not that many kinds of dinosaurs. But, aren’t dinosaurs big? Some are, but most were not very big at all, in fact most were closer to the size of a ram or cow. Also, it is possible Noah could have taken somewhat juvenile dinosaurs on the ark. Job later describes a dinosaur sounding creature called a behemoth. So, we know that there were dinosaurs before and after the flood. So, why aren’t there any now? They died. Most of them died in the flood. Not 65 millions of years ago, but thousands, however, with the intense weight, pressure, and violent death, whole fossils have been preserved. When a dinosaur fossil is discovered, scientists then seek to interpret the evidence of the situation. They conclude the dinosaur is 65 million years old. However, they assume too much, including the supposed uniformity of life before and after the flood.
The same can also be true of Pangea, the theory that at one point all of the continents were connected and they were not separated by water. If you look at a globe, they look like they could fit together. Sometimes you find fossils on one continent and also on another and the evidence would be that they were at one point connected. This is fine, this is not a problem for Christians. The flood easily could have separated the continents from each other. The flood was a violent 5 month long event with the immediate death of all things outside of the ark. Whether or not scientific evidence ever shows this to be the case, it shouldn’t really matter to us. Ask a group of scientists what they think happened to the dinosaurs. There are honestly dozens of theories. We know what happened to them, and not only does it make sense, it is true and the evidence is our text this morning.
So, why aren’t dinosaurs roaming the earth today? Simply, they went extinct. They went the way of the dodo bird. Maybe there wasn’t enough food after the flood, maybe they lost habitat, maybe they were hunted to extinction, we don’t know and that is okay. We don’t need to find acceptance at the altar of unbelieving evolutionary scientific forums. Unbelievers are as religious as believers, but their religion is based on their own concocted philosophy, whereas the only true religion is taught in the Holy word of God.
III. The Dead
When we think about the term victim, we often think of those who have had something done to or against them which was not deserved. I first called this third point, “The Victims”, but I thought it brought the wrong message. Those who died in the flood had it coming to them. On the one hand, we could say that God actually put them out of their misery. Their sin had consequences and the consequences or the wages of sin is death.
The world was filled with violence. The giants were renown as great warriors and blood continued to be spilled. The line of Cain intermarried with line of Seth and the result was the deterioration of the church. On the one hand, God permitted sin to run its course on the face of the earth. Sin was the cause of the problem as they inherited sinful natures from Adam and every inclination of their heart was only evil continually. The punishment for sin is death. Read verse 22. That is the result of sin. God could have said to those perishing, “look at what you have done.”
Read verse 23. Noah and those with him on the ark remained alive. Didn’t Noah and his family also sin? Yes, yes they did. But, the difference was that they loved the Lord. Their sins were punished in another, there was another who became the victim of God’s just anger and that was Jesus Christ. Jesus went to the cross to save sinners. In Luke 19:10 he says, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save those who are lost.”
Are you by nature lost? Are you a sinner? The flood is coming and it is coming soon. It will come as a thief in the night. Friends, seek your shelter in the protection of the ark, which is the shadow of the cross. All of those who were outside the ark on the day of the flood perished. What a horrible and scary time that must have been. Parents trying to save their children, eventually giving up and trying to save themselves. If you’ve ever seen pictures of modern day flooding or the aftereffects of a giant tsunami that has to give a bit of a picture of what it must have been like. Everyone fleeing to higher ground. But, the waters prevailed and the mountains were covered. All the while, Noah and those with him were safe and dry in the sovereign care of the Lord.
The call comes to you today, seek your life in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Outside of the local church, there is no protection, for this is the bride the Saviour came to die for. God protected those in the ark, and God continues to gather, defend, and preserve His church, both now and forevermore. Seek your refuge in the Lord. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Steven Swets, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2015, Rev. Steven Swets
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