The Ultimate Float Trip
Genesis 6:9-22
GE 6:9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 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. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 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. 18 But 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. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them." 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?" "Sorry," the woman told him. "I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person." "But I’m starved," the governor said. "Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer." Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. "Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state." "Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister." (Illustration from Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, pp. 5-6.)
How many of us here today know that when the person who is really in charge tells us to do something, we’ better do it! So it is in the case of Noah. God told him to do something incredibly unusual. Build a big ol’ ark? But Noah knew just what to do. Today, we’re going to see the blamelessness, the obedience, and the faith of Noah. Let’s take a look.
First, we can see that:
I. Noah Was Blameless. (Genesis 6:9 “This is
the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous
man, blameless among the people of his time,
and he walked with God.”).
A. We see in this passage that Noah was
righteous. We are told that he walked
with God. He had a relationship with his
Lord.
B. When we read the few verses in Genesis
chapter 6 that precede our passage, we
see that God is very unhappy with His
creation, because man had become wicked
and only thought of evil all of the
time. That meant that Noah loved God
even when nobody else did. I’m sure that
this must have been difficult for him.
I’m sure that it is difficult for us,
too. Isn’t it hard to serve God and love
Him in a world that is so wicked? Noah
didn’t allow the dirt of his world to
make him impure. And the good news is
that we don’t have to, either.
C. Not only was Noah righteous in the eyes
of God, but nobody had anything against
him. Verse 9 also tells us that he
was “blameless among the people of his
time.” And then the passage goes on to
say in verse 12 that, “God saw how
corrupt the earth had become, for all the
people on earth had corrupted their
ways.” This clearly shows us why God
saved Noah—because he walked with God.
D. This is testimony to us today that God
delivers those who walk with Him and do
not corrupt their way. As followers of
Jesus, we are called to relationship with
Him and to be pure and devoted to Him.
When we do this, He has promised that He
will deliver. Even when we find
ourselves in need of deliverance, and we
are corrupt in some way, it’s not too
late to ask for forgiveness and make our
way right with God. Then we’ll receive
the deliverance we so desperately need.
Not only was Noah blameless…
II. Noah Was Obedient (Genesis 6:22 Noah did
everything just as God commanded him.).
A. We have already established that Noah was
righteous before God. How did he get to
be that way? It was because of his
obedience to God.
B. In verse 22 and the verses that follow,
we are allowed to see him at work. The
picture of Noah that emerges from the
Flood story becomes a model of the kind
of life that finds grace in the sight of
God. It’s a picture of simple obedience
to God’s commands and trust in his
provision.
C. In his book Living Above The Level Of
Mediocrity, Charles Swindoll gives an
excellent illustration about obedience.
He says, “Imagine, if you will, that you
work for a company whose president found
it necessary to travel out of the country
and spend an extended period of time
abroad. So he says to you and the other
trusted employees, "Look, I’m going to
leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to
pay close attention to the business. You
manage things while I’m away. I will
write you regularly. When I do, I will
instruct you in what you should do from
now until I return from this trip."
Everyone agrees. He leaves and stays
gone for a couple of years. During that
time he writes often, communicating his
desires and concerns. Finally he returns.
He walks up to the front door of the
company and immediately discovers
everything is in a mess--weeds
flourishing in the flower beds, windows
broken across the front of the building,
the gal at the front desk dozing, loud
music roaring from several offices, two
or three people engaged in horseplay in
the back room. Instead of making a
profit, the business has suffered a great
loss. Without hesitation he calls
everyone together and with a frown
asks, "What happened? Didn’t you get my
letters?" You say, "Oh, yeah, sure. We
got all your letters. We’ve even bound
them in a book. And some of us have
memorized them. In fact, we have ’letter
study’ every Sunday. You know, those were
really great letters." I think the
president would then ask, "But what did
you do about my instructions?" And, no
doubt the employees would respond, "Do?
Well, nothing. But we read every one!"
D. You see, God gave Noah very specific
instructions. What if Noah would have
said, “Oh, yes, Lord, I got your
instructions, but I didn’t do anything
with them?” Noah was obedient to the
things God had told Him to do.
E. Not only was Noah obedient to the Lord,
but so was Jesus. Romans 5:19 tells
us, “For just as through the disobedience
of the one man the many were made
sinners, so also through the obedience of
the one man the many will be made
righteous.” What if Jesus hadn’t obeyed
the will of His Father? Where would we
be today?
F. God expects us to live a life of
obedience. Sounds like great fun,
doesn’t it??? But it actually is. You
see, God didn’t just give us this giant,
thick rule book and then go away and
expect us to aimless try to do everything
it says on our own. He has given us
commands and things that we should obey.
But He is there with us, giving us
strength to do the things He has
commanded. And the rules He has given
and expects us to obey are rules that
will help make our lives much better, and
give us understanding of how we can
please God and have right relationship
with Him.
Finally…
III. Noah Had Faith (Hebrews 11:7 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.).
A. The African impala can jump to a height
of over 10 feet and cover a distance of
greater than 30 feet. Yet these
magnificent creatures can be kept in an
enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall.
The animals will not jump if they cannot
see where their feet will fall.
B. Faith is the ability to trust what we
cannot see, and with faith we are freed
from the things in our lives that make us
fearful and entrap us. (Illustration
taken from John Emmons,
ChristianGlobe.com).
C. I’m sure that Noah couldn’t completely
comprehend how much it was going to
rain. There probably wasn’t even any
sign of rain. I’m sure he had no idea
how dramatic the events that were about
to unfold would really be. He didn’t
realize exactly what the end result would
be. He just trusted what he couldn’t
see. Because of his faith in God, he
survived, and his family.
D. One night a house caught fire and a young
boy was forced to flee to the roof. The
father stood on the ground below with
outstretched arms, calling to his
son, "Jump! I’ll catch you." He knew the
boy had to jump to save his life. All the
boy could see, however, was flame, smoke,
and blackness. As can be imagined, he was
afraid to leave the roof. His father kept
yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But
the boy protested, "Daddy, I can’t see
you." The father replied, "But I can see
you and that’s all that matters."
E. Our Father sees us. He sees our hurts.
He sees our struggles. He sees our
fears. And He wants us to know today
that that’s all that matters. He knows
all about everything we go through and
experience. What more reason do we need
to put our faith and trust in Him?
Conclusion:
In April 1988 the evening news reported on a photographer who was a skydiver. He had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes. On the film shown on the telecast, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute. It wasn’t until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was freefalling without a parachute. Until that point, the jump probably seemed exciting and fun. But tragically, he had acted with thoughtless haste and deadly foolishness. Nothing could save him, for his faith was in a parachute never buckled on. (Illustration from ChristianGlobe.com).
Had Noah place his faith in anything other than God, tragedy would have been the end result. Maybe today you’re dealing with one of these issues I have spoken about. Maybe the sin of this world has affected you in a way that has made you unclean before God. Maybe you know that God has spoken to you about something and you are not listening, like Jonah when he was told to go to Nineveh, or like many people in the world that shut out the voice of God. Finally, maybe you are going through difficult times in your life and you have just about lost your faith in a God that is able to do anything.
Friends, God hasn’t changed, but He can change us. He can forgive our sin, he can forgive our disobedience, and He can increase our faith in Him, if we’ll let Him.
ALTAR CALL.
