God Appoints a Rescuer – Genesis 6:11-22
Amen. If you have a copy of God’s Word, I invite you to turn to the book of Genesis chapter 6. The passage we will be looking at this morning is also typed in the worship guide on page 6. Our Scripture today is the account of Noah and the ark. Many of us who grew up in the church, I would say, are familiar with the Biblical account of Noah. Whether you are familiar with the account or not, I believe God wants us to look at it again with an eye toward what he is telling us about how he deals with the problem of sin. Not just sin in the world but our individual sin as well.
So, follow along with me as I read. The first book of Scripture, Genesis, chapter 6, verses 11-22. Moses writes and God says, “11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 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. 17 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. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” My friends this the inerrant, infallible Word of the Lord.
Let us pray together. God, you are the sovereign Creator of all things. You created the heavens and the earth by the power of your Word, and you sustain the heavens and the earth by the power of your Word. By the mere sound of your voice, creation occurred. And in the same way, you have the power to destroy all of creation. However, we know you are a kind and patient Father. We are so thankful for your mercy. As we look at the account of the flood in Genesis 6, we pray that you would help us see the love that you have for your covenant people and the unmerited favor that you have shown to those who are yours. We acknowledge that we are completely dependent upon you this morning to open our hearts and minds so that we may see the wonderful truths of your holy Word. So would you illuminate your Word for all here to see and understand the redemption, the rescue that is offered to those who trust in you by faith. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Have you ever made a mistake and tried to fix it yourself just to realize you did not have the ability or the expertise to correct the mistake? I recall a time when I was a senior in high school and decided to skip class. Anybody in here relate to this, skipping class? No? Just me? Oh well. So, several of my buddies and I had gym during our 4th block and decided this particular day that we would skip class. We made a plan to meet behind the school and go to one of the guys’ house to hang out and shoot basketball. We were going to drive my car. Well, it wasn’t actually my car, it was a rental car that I was driving while my car was in the shop for repairs. On the way to my friend’s house, I decided to take a detour down a dirt road. Then I had a brilliant idea, I thought it would be cool to show off in front of my friends by making the car fishtail back and forth. Mind you, I had never really fishtailed a car before, so I was not an expert in that art by any stretch of the imagination. Needless to say, my showing off landed us in a ditch. It wasn’t a big ditch but enough of a ditch to put some major dents and scratches in the side of the car. I knew my parents would be furious. But I had a thought, I could probably repair this damage myself. So, we pushed the car out of the ditch and drove to my friend’s house. We washed the car and then proceeded to try and knock the dents out. I thought if we could get most of the dents out maybe my parents wouldn’t notice. However, after a couple of hours trying, I realized it was futile. You see, I did not have the expertise and ability to repair the damage. And isn’t it true that we often try to do the same thing with sin? Because of our fallen nature, we believe we can deal with our sin ourselves. Whether it's by trying to cover up sin, or trying to muster the power to not sin, or even trying to convince ourselves that our sin is not a big deal. Regardless of how we try, we believe we can fix it ourselves. But that is not true. We need something outside of ourselves to deal with our sin. We are incapable of fixing ourselves. We are incapable of dealing with our sin. What we must realize is only God correctly sees our sin and only God can correctly deal with our sin, through the person and work of his son, Jesus Christ. And because God is the only one who can correctly see our sin and the only one who can correctly deal with our sin, we must look to him and not to ourselves for rescue. But how does God deal with sin? If you look at your outline on page 6 of the worship guide, you’ll see three ways this passage teaches us that God deals with sin. We understand that God sees sin, we discover God deals with sin by appointing a rescuer, and we see that God’s appointed rescuer obeys him. So let us look at each of these in turn.
As we saw in the beginning of Genesis chapter 6 a couple of weeks ago, man’s corruption and wickedness on earth had been increasing. That is, since the Fall, mankind’s descent into depravity continued to grow. Left to his own devices, man will inevitably move towards wickedness. Romans 1:21 states the corruption of man this way, “ 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” And in verse 11 of chapter 6 it says, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.” God is aware of mankind’s corruption. God sees the sin that is prevalent on the earth. In verse 12 it says, “And God saw the earth.” So, we understand that God pays attention to mankind’s depravity attested to in chapter 6 of Genesis. But it certainly did not start in Genesis 6. It started in Genesis 2 with the fall of Adam and Eve. And remember what happened: God made a covenant with Adam, the covenant of works, in which Adam simply had to obey God’s commands and in return would receive life and have fellowship with God. But Adam and Eve disobeyed and as a result, we end up with what we see in chapter 6 verse 11 and 12. Moses, the author of Genesis, notes that there was much violence on the earth. So not only had mankind corrupted its way before God but it had corrupted its way before other men. Notice how it is stated in verse 12, that “all flesh had corrupted their way on earth.” The responsibility or the culpability of man’s corruption was on man. Man had corrupted his way on earth. We understand that, because of the curse, we do not naturally seek God. This reminds us of Psalm 53 where the psalmist writes, "The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” Or Psalm 14:2-3, “2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”
So, we get the point, God sees sin. God sees our sin. We cannot hide from God. There is nowhere that we can go that God does not see us. And while that may be unsettling to us when it comes to our sin, it is a great blessing that God sees us, every part of us, including our sin. Why is it a blessing? Because God is the only one who can deal with our sin. We cannot. We do not have the ability or the power or the expertise to deal with and remove our sin. So, if He is the only one who can deal with our sin, wouldn’t we want him to see all of it so He can deal with all of it?
We notice something else here as well. We also see that sin is always accompanied by God’s judgment. In verse 13 God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh. Behold, I will destroy them.” Interestingly, the word used here for destroy is the same word used in verse 11 and 12 for corruption. Man corrupted and ruined earth with their sin therefore God will corrupt and ruin man using the earth. Mankind has become increasingly sinful and has not repented. God is a jealous God and therefore cannot allow sin to go unpunished. We see similar language used in Ezekiel to describe God’s judgment. Ezekiel chapter 7:2-3 says, 2 “And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. 3 Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.” A dreadful thought indeed.
However, God does not abandon his people in their sins. You see God deals with His people’s sin by appointing a rescuer. In verse 18, God calls Noah. We read back in verse 9 that Noah was a righteous man and that Noah walked with God. And what this indicates is that Noah was a man of faith. He had faith in the one true God. But Noah’s faith was a gift. Notice the wording here. The use of the personal pronoun I emphasizes that it is God who acts to appoint the rescuer. It is by the grace of God that Noah was found righteous and therefore was appointed as the rescuer of God’s people. God redeemed Noah and his family and decreed to confirm his covenant with mankind through Noah.
Instead of destroying man completely for their corruption and wickedness, God determined that he would honor his covenant with mankind. God goes on to say in verse 18, “but I will establish my covenant with you.” This is the first occurrence in Scripture of the Hebrew word for covenant, although such a covenant relationship was in effect in the garden between God and mankind. Hosea 6:7 says, “but like Adam they transgress the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.” We will hear more about God’s covenant with His people in the coming chapters of Genesis. But for now, we note that God chooses to “establish” or more appropriately translated “confirm” his covenant through Noah. Noah’s salvation from the waters of the flood is an example of God’s grace and mercy. Dr. RC Sproul says this about God and Noah, “God’s mercy toward Noah would have meant a great deal to the first readers of Genesis - the Israelites freed from slavery in Egypt. They too made a covenant with the Lord that was not entirely new.”
And how is God going to preserve Noah? God commanded that Noah build an ark because he was going to send floodwaters to cover the earth and wipe out all flesh on the earth. It’s very interesting that the Hebrew word for ark used here is only found one other place in the Old Testament. In Exodus 2:3 the same word is used for the shape of the basket in which Moses was placed on the Nile River. Dr. John Currid writes in his commentary on Genesis, “this is not coincidental. Both arks were used to save the occupants from destruction by water. Noah and Moses both endured watery ordeals that led to their preservation, and both of them ultimately served as deliverers or rescuers of the godly seed.” So, God deals with sin by appointing a rescuer. Of course, Noah was simply a foreshadowing of the true rescuer who was to come. The true rescuer would not simply provide a temporary deliverance from sin and corruption but would deal with sin fully and finally for all eternity. The true rescuer was the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Finally, we see that the rescuer obeys God. God gives Noah specific instructions for how to build the ark. One of the significant points to note in the instructions of the building of the ark is the way in which the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of a man are interwoven. Though God appointed Noah and decreed that Noah and his family would be the ones who were saved, Noah was still required to obey. And why did Moses obey? Because he had faith in God. A faith that had been given to him by God. A faith that helped him see his inability to save himself. A faith given through grace.
And what is to be the response to God’s grace and mercy. What is the response of the
rescuer? We see the answer to this in verse 22. Moses writes, “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” Here you notice the completeness of Noah’s obedience. He did all that God commanded him. He followed God’s directions for building the ark meticulously. John Calvin writes, “the obedience of Noah is celebrated on this account, that it was entire, not partial; so that he omitted none of those things which God had commanded.” This faithfulness was not rendered in order to earn a place in the Lord’s kingdom, rather, Noah obeyed out of thankfulness for salvation. Dr. John Currid notes this, “Noah was obedient, no matter that he was at odds with the world. Instead of conforming to the world, he was obedient to God’s word. Hebrews 11:7 tells us, “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. Buy this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
And we certainly see this in the life of Christ, the rescuer perfectly obeying God. This is why Christ was able to deal fully and finally with sin. He was perfectly righteous and holy. And therefore, secured our rescue, our salvation. His righteous life and sacrificial death are what we trust in to be saved. God has seen our sin. He has seen our sin for what it truly is, an abomination to him and fully deserving his judgment and wrath. But God has dealt with our sin by appointing The Rescuer, Jesus Christ, who obeyed God perfectly and completely satisfied God’s judgment of sin on our behalf. God tells us in Isaiah 55:7, ““Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” God sees all sin, yet He still calls us to confess and repent of our sin. Have you done this? Have you looked to God’s rescuer, the Lord Jesus Christ, to deal with your sin? Have you trusted, not in your own obedience, but in the obedience of the Rescuer who obeyed perfectly and who was wholly righteous? Look back at what we proclaimed earlier as a congregation from Titus 3:3-7, “3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ that the psalmist speaks of when he says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” It is in Christ that our sin is fully and finally dealt with. Is Christ your Rescuer?
Let us pray.