12-1-19 Grace-Benson, Vail Sermon

Genesis 6:9-22, 7:11-23 [Advent 1—CWS A] Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ

December 1, 2019

Stories of the Promise The Story of Noah—Watch!

Grace, mercy and peace are yours from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Imagine the smell—pigs and llamas and musk oxen and skunks and…well, all of the animals! Imagine some of every kind of animal all cooped up in one ship for about a year. Imagine, not just the smell, but the incredible sight of it all—and the sounds, from the crowing rooster to the trumpeting elephants! If you can imagine what it looked like and sounded like and, yes, even smelled like, then you can see why this account from the Bible has fascinated people of all times. It is an amazing story with sensational details. Every children’s Bible includes it and kids love the story, so it has been a favorite of many since childhood. As we get older, we’re still fascinated by it and we want to know the details of how it all happened.

But more important than our fascination or interest in logistics is the insight this account gives us into God and how serious he is when he calls for all people to look to him as the only God and their Savior from sin. Just as the people of Noah’s day should have watched for God’s words to come true, today you and I are called to WATCH for his promises about the Savior’s return to come true.

The Bible tells us that Noah was a “preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 5).” Not only with his actions as a righteous man, a man of integrity, but with his words, Noah declared that God was angry because people were rejecting God and living for themselves. They were morally bankrupt. God was distressed and angry with them because of their violence toward the people around them. Noah preached righteousness, but his warnings to WATCH for God’s arrival in judgment went unheeded. The people did not listen to Noah and repent of their sins.

I’m pretty confident that sinful people then thought and behaved quite the same as sinful people today. God was angry over the moral corruption that ruled that time and I don’t think we have to wonder about how God feels about people’s morality today.

Greed and winning at all costs—even trampling over the lives of others is morally wrong. The sexual attitudes that dominate our culture and are expected to not only be tolerated, but accepted, are totally immoral. Violence is seen in bullying behavior at schools, in the angry messages and posts online, and on every road every day—to say nothing of headline-grabbing shootings and assaults. These things are all over our phone and computer screens, our streets, and our media coverage. It’s awful. It seems that, overall, people do whatever they want and have no regard for what God’s expectations are for people. God is simply not important to them. It sounds a lot like the people of Noah’s day, which led to a flood of judgment from the Lord.

But don’t we have to admit that we are prone to these things? This isn’t just about how awful Noah’s world was and how terrible people today are too! Our sinful nature wants to be free to do whatever it wants. It wants to serve self over others at all costs. It wants to strike out with angry words at other people…and satisfy lustful cravings…and doesn’t mind at all taking advantage of people if that’s what needed to make it happy.

God says that the people were morally corrupt and violent, sinful in all their ways. Our sinful nature is also entirely corrupt and we are not free from sins of immorality or violence—in our thoughts, the way we speak, or the things we do.

Just as the Lord used Noah to proclaim righteousness to the people then, he uses his Word today—and his people—to prepare others for what God says is coming. Will people listen today better than they did then? Will YOU listen better than the people of Noah’s time? Sometimes it doesn’t look very promising.

Don’t believe me? Think about this: God tells us in the Bible that the end of the world is near. He says to guard your faith, because Jesus is going to return! Now we may say that we agree with that, but how many of us don’t say—deep inside— “Yeah, but odds are it’s not tomorrow.”? Don’t we sometimes feel that we have lots of time—years—to get serious about faith and God? And don’t we often show it in our casual approach to worship and the study of God’s Word? Wouldn’t many of us be absolutely shocked if Jesus showed up this afternoon?!

I’m sure that people at the time of the flood were shocked when wacky Noah got the last animals in and the first drops of rain began to fall. Can you imagine the looks on their faces as the first sprinkles plopped on the ground? Can you imagine the laughing and joking: “Oh, boy, we’re in for it now!”? But soon the smiles faded because the rain didn’t stop…and then looks of terror as water welled up from under the ground too. But why? Why the shock? Why the surprise? God had said it. Noah repeated it, to be sure.

But you see, that’s how sin works. People you know, family even, will be shocked and horrified when Christ returns, even though he has promised it and you have stood as witnesses of God’s warning to WATCH! Whether they are the kind of violent and immoral people who make the news or they are not that high profile, doesn’t matter.

Their rejection of Jesus as their Savior will bring them under the judgment of God, which will sweep them away eternally like a raging flood. All who are not prepared because they refused to WATCH for the return of Jesus with faith in him will suffer judgment, just like others before them who did not trust what God said.

Let’s go back to Noah for moment. Noah was a righteous man, a man of integrity in that generation. Noah walked with God. If Noah lived today, he’s the kind of guy you would see with his family at church each week. He would serve God and others with his particular gifts and time. He would practice his faith at work and live his faith in his home life. He would be the guy who prayed about all kinds of things and gave God the credit for his successes. He would be a Bible reader and a guy who would sit next to you in Bible Class. His offerings to God would not be skimpy, but appropriate and happily given. Noah was a righteous man.

God also calls him “a man of integrity” or “blameless” (depending on the translation) among the people of his time. This was not the kind of guy people would point fingers at and say, “He claims to love God, but you should hear what I heard about him!” We would say that he enjoyed a good reputation with all kinds of people.

There was no flagrant sin people could accuse him of, even though he was not sinless.

Noah lived his faith in a way that others would take note of.

In addition, we hear that he “walked with God.” He was the kind of person who spoke with God regularly, leaned on him for daily guidance, and made the effort to show God that he loved him by listening to him and living in a way that pleased him.

It says here that Noah did everything that God commanded him, just as he had been told. And this is not the only statement like that made about Noah. How wonderful it would be if God could write down for people throughout time to read that you did everything God told you to do! Did Noah ever have questions. Did he ever wonder about the things God told him to do? He was human, so I’m sure he did as he worked for maybe 75 years on his building project and as the waters rose for 40 days and nights and as he and his floating jungle got to know each other pretty well as they drifted for about a year on the waters. But he didn’t let human wondering get in the way of his obedience to his God! And you have to admire the first thing he did when God called “All Ashore!” In Genesis 8, we’re told that Noah immediately built an altar and worshiped the LORD, who loved the smell of Noah’s offering and made the promise never again to destroy the world with a flood.

This is the kind of guy he was. He had raised a family that worshiped God too— another example for us. Don’t think that they just rode Noah’s coattails onto that ship.

There are many cases where God shows that he deals individually with people: Lot’s wife was not spared when she disobeyed God, even though Lot was faithful.

Eli’s sons were not given preferential treatment because they were the priest’s kids.

No, this was a family of faith. But again, they were not perfect. They were sinful too, but sin did not rule their lives, God did. So Noah was a man of grace too. The only way those eight people were on that ark was by God’s grace. The LORD forgave their sins and he saw their love for him in their hearts and the evidence of that love in their lives.

Noah and his family were saved by God’s grace—just as we are.

The eight in the boat believed God, so they watched for what he promised—for the rain to fall. And they found salvation in the ark, the symbol of the rainbow, and God’s promise to send his Son, the Messiah. Your and my salvation is through the water of baptism and God’s promise of salvation through faith in Jesus.

The righteous people of today are righteous for the same reasons Noah and his family were. It all revolves around God’s grace and the promises of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus. As wonderful as those men and women were, they didn’t deserve to be saved at the time of the Flood. As wonderful as you and I might be, we don’t deserve to be saved either. But we will be, by faith in Jesus.

We trust that, so we WATCH for what God says is coming. We trust Jesus when he says that he is coming in judgment on the Last Day, a day that will come upon the earth suddenly like the Flood did. We pay attention when he tells us not to get caught up in living to make our sinful nature happy or it will end badly for us—eternally bad.

We listen when Jesus tells us to WATCH for that day.

It must have been a fascinating spectacle to behold—the ark, the animals, the flood.

But that is nothing compared to what God has in store for us in heaven! You and I are to have the same kind of trust in God’s Word and promises that Noah did—even in a world that doesn’t believe and ridicules you for your faith. Stand firm—your faith in God will find its reward in forgiveness and salvation, just like Noah’s did. As you WATCH for our Savior and our salvation to arrive, respond to God’s grace and love by living a life that gives thanks to the God who has saved you just as he saved Noah and his family.

Amen.

Now peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.