Chapter 9. Last week we began
looking briefly at Genesis 6 through to Chapter 8 to consider as we
follow Paul in Acts 27 crossing the Mediterranean Sea on his
way to Rome. Paul's in a ship. The Lord Jesus
Christ was in a ship. many times crossing the Sea of
Galilee and salvation is pictured in so many ways like us being
in the ship, the good ship Christ. And we saw earlier that Noah
was amongst all of that generation and we have in Genesis 6.5 that
great description of what it is to be a sinner. God came into
the world, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
says Paul, of whom I'm the chief. What's a sinner? Genesis 6.5
gives us a great description of a sinner. God saw, this is
what God sees, God saw that the wickedness of man was great on
the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil. own evil continually. There are absolutes about sinners,
just as there are absolutes about the declaration of God. And He
saved sinners. If you go down just a few verses
to verse 8, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah
was no better than the rest of them. The difference that was
made was the difference of grace. And look what God goes on to
say in verse 9, But these are the generations of Noah. Noah
was a just man. Noah was a righteous man. Genesis
6, 9. Was a righteous man and perfect
in his generation. And Noah walked with God. and he hasn't changed. He comes
and walks with sinners like us today. But we thought that salvation
was in the ark, and the salvation that's in the ark is a picture
of the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a salvation
that comes by command, verse 14 of chapter six. God doesn't
say, well, let's have a debate about this, Noah, and let's toss
around some opinions and let's see how you'd like to do this. God says, make thee an ark. Come unto me, whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Ark is a
picture of God's salvation. It comes as a divine command
from God. It comes and it's made as a unique
design. It just has one window in it,
the light from heaven. There is only one light in this
world. The Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world. It
has one door. Christ is the door for the sheep. It's a door that
God shuts, Genesis 7, 16. And what God shuts, no man can
open. And what God opens, no man can
shut. So it's a unique design, made
according to a pattern that God gave. And it brings a grace wrought
obedience, isn't it? Noah, verse one of chapter seven,
Noah did all. that the Lord God commanded him. Sorry, chapter 6, verse 22. Noah
did all that God commanded him. That's the only ever said of
one other person in all the scriptures and Noah's a typo, isn't it?
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that did all that God
commanded. He says, I come to do thy will.
So this ark was designed to withstand the wrath of God and the wrath
of God was was pitched, the Ark had a covering
on the inside and a covering on the outside, and that covering
is the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only the Lord
Jesus Christ who absorbs the wrath of God, and those on the
inside are protected from the wrath of God by the propitiation,
by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And on the inside
of the Ark, there's more blood. particular group of people. That's
some of the story to bring you up to speed with Noah's Ark.
Let's turn to Genesis chapter 9. We looked at what it was for
Noah to have found grace and for Noah to be justified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 9 we have a remarkable
picture of this extraordinary man This extraordinary man who
came out of the ark and worshipped God, and God accepted a sweet
savor. This extraordinary man that God
says, let's start in verse 9 of chapter 9. He says, and I behold,
I establish my covenant with you. The first mention of this
word covenant is Genesis 6, 18. I will establish my covenant
with thee. He repeats it in, this verse
here, I will establish my covenant with you and with your seed after
you. And with every living creature
that is with you, the fowl and the cattle of every beast of
the earth with you, and all that go out of the ark to every beast
of the earth, and I will establish my covenant with you. Neither
shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood,
neither shall there be any more flood to destroy the earth. And
God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between
me and you and every living creature that is with you. For perpetual
generations, I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be
for a token of a covenant between me and the earth and it shall
come to pass that when I bring a cloud over the earth that the
bow shall be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant
which is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh And the water shall no more become a flood to destroy
all flesh. And the bow, the rainbow, shall
be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember
the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature
of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said to Noah,
this is the token of the covenant which I have established between
me and all flesh that is upon the earth. And the sons of Noah
that went forth of the ark is the one who becomes the father
of the Semites, the Jews. Jacob is the oldest. Ham is the
father of Canaan, and these are the three sons of Noah, and of
them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to be a husband,
and he planted a vineyard, and he dreamt of the And he was uncovered within his
tent, and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of
his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and
Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders,
and went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father,
and their faces were backwards, and they saw not their father's
nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine
and knew what his youngest son had done unto him, and he said,
Cursed be Canaan. A servant of servants shall he
be unto his brethren, and he said, Blessed be the Lord God
of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan
shall be his servant. And Noah lived after the flood
three hundred and fifty years, and all the days of Noah were
nine hundred and fifty years. We might sing again as we go
to our song. It's good to contemplate, isn't
it, that Noah, for 350 years, was head of all the families
of the earth, was a gospel preacher for 350 years, was a living testament
to the solemn grace of God, and yet in all those 350 years, We'll think about it in a few
minutes. Number 65, we're going to sing
Crown Hymn with Many Crowns. crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing. of Him who died for thee, and
hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity. Crown Him the Lord of love, behold
His hands and side, Rich wounds yet visible above In beauty glorified
No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight Crown him the Lord of life, who
triumphed o'er the grave. Who rose victorious to the strife,
For those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high. He died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die. Crown Him the Lord of Heav'ns,
one with the Father known. One with the Spirit through Him
given, from yonder born. To Thee be endless praise, for
Thou for us hast died. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. Bible study groups was much wrestling
of whether someone as wicked as Solomon could be saved. Do
you remember that time? They thought, because Solomon
ended up being a sinner, then he couldn't be saved. And people
thought the same of Noah. How could a man who lies drunk
in his tent, naked and drunk in his tent, be a saved man? I want to believe that salvation
has got something to do with us and our obedience and our
behaviour and our performance. And let me say right to the very
outset that salvation is of the Lord. And when God taught Jonah
that down in the depths of the sea, what he meant was that salvation
is 100% of the Lord from beginning to end. And if salvation requires
some cooperative activity from you, for some cooperative activity
from me, I'm telling you right now, we're lost. God says it
must be perfect to be accepted. God says you must produce holiness
before him. You must. How good must you be
to get into heaven? What better than most, you say,
don't you? That's what I say automatically
when I think that way. Love the Adolf Hitler defense,
isn't he? I'm not as bad as Hitler was. Or you can think of someone
else, Molly, someone in the government that you said, I'm not as bad
as them. You're worse. If you know
anything of yourself, you are worse. Genesis 6-5 describes
a sinner. Every imagination and the thoughts
of the heart is only evil. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
what it is to find grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Grace presupposes that you have
absolutely nothing. Not only that, grace presupposes
that all you have is demerits before God. God has nothing that
he sees in you that he can look to for a basis on which he can
save you. Everything God does in the salvation
of sinners, he does in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything he looks
for from sinners, he sees in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
that God requires of you, he must give you and he gives it
to you all in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is to
find grace. See, grace in Christ is eternal grace. It's grace
from before the foundation of the world. Noah, when was Noah
saved? Turn to 2 Timothy. I know we
read these verses often, but it's good for us just to see
it again. Because we need to remind ourselves, when you sin
and you fall like Noah, where do you go? Why am I not lost? People spend so much time like
someone blowing The stamen's off a dandelion or something,
isn't it? He loves me, he loves you not, he loves me, he loves
you not, and the cause of what we do. Listen to what God says
in 2 Timothy 1. He talks about the gospel and
the sufferings that you'll be a partaker of. And he says in
verse 9, who has saved us, past tense, completed action, and
called us. with a holy calling. That's not
calling us to be holy, that is the description of God's calling
of his people. It's a holy God calling his people
into the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not our holy
obedience. He saved us, look at the order,
he saved us, and then he called us. Always, he saves first, then
he calls second, with a holy calling, not according to our
works. Don't you love that? If you're a sinner, if you're
a sinner, don't you love that? not according to our works, not
according to our works before we are saved, not according to
our works in our salvation, not according to our works in the
rest of our life here, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
when we believed. Is that right? That's what modern
theology says. That's what modern statements
of faith say all over the place. What does God say? It was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Before there was
a fall of Adam, there was a saviour of Adam and Eve. Before there
was a flood, There was a Saviour of Noah and the eight souls with
him before the world got there. And listen to what it goes on
to say. These are glorious verses, brothers and sisters, for you
who love God's electing eternal grace, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Listen to what
he's done. He's abolished death and has brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Is that what you want? To stand
before God, immortal. You can see why the gospel is
so precious. So grace is eternal grace. It's
unchangeable grace. God doesn't give grace on the
basis of your merits and he doesn't remove grace on the basis of
your demerits. It's demerit and favour in the
beginning. It's not earned, it's not sought,
it's not bought, it can't be lost, it can't be diminished.
It's sovereign grace. It's grace that's bestowed by
a king. It's the divine favor and affection. Mary found grace. Mary was considered
gracious. That doesn't mean that Mary was
without sin. Mary was like Noah, like the
rest of us. If you read on in Luke, she needed
a saviour, Mary. So any grace, any time anyone
speaks of grace, and it's not eternal grace, and it's not electing
grace, if it's not redeeming grace, if it's not justifying
grace, if it's not preserving grace, if it's not glorifying
grace, in other words, if it's not saving grace, it's not the
grace is always saving. The grace of
God never ever loses one for whom the Lord Jesus Christ came.
So to go back to the question that I asked earlier regarding Noah, why?
Why this one account? It's worth noting, isn't it, that Noah is your father, your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great And yet at the beginning of Noah's
life on this earth after he's worshipped God, he's found as
a drunk in his tent by his son. It's fascinating isn't it? Abraham
is the father of the faithful and we rejoice in the faith of
Abraham and all of God's children are faith children. But when
Abraham was squeezed with a little bit of He lied about his wife to protect
himself. And he didn't do it once, he
did it twice. He was the father of the faithful. Noah was the
father of all humanity. Abraham, the father of the faithful.
David, the one, the sweet psalmist of Israel. And when we think
of David, we automatically almost, rather than thinking of the remarkable
triumphs he had and the remarkable walk he had with God, we tend
to think of what? God's own heart, and in an evening
of temptation, he takes a woman who belonged to another man,
had her murdered her son. We think of the early church, The church was built not on Peter
the Rock, but on the confession that Peter made. But Peter was
the one who stood up before all those crowds in Jerusalem, as
the first to proclaim the gospel after the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and he swore and
cursed to prove that he didn't belong to him. He put him under
a little bit of pressure in Antioch and he will deny the gospel by
picking up his plate and going and eating with the Gentiles
so he won't offend the Jews and they won't be troubled by him.
The point of course is and it comes back to the point about
Noah is that all God does in the saving of sinners And in the falls of these men,
in the falls of all the others we read about in the scripture,
Solomon and others included, you and I, brothers and sisters
in Christ included, is to remind us that we Why did Moses write these things
under the inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit? In Romans 15
we read, Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope. This is a passage about comfort
for God's people. In 1 Corinthians 10, so are they
meant to comfort us? and we're meant to find comfort
in them in 1 Corinthians 10 verses 11 to 13 it says these
things now these all these things happen unto them for examples
for examples for they are written for our admonition upon whom
the ends of the world are coming written for humility aren't they?
Verse 12, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken
you but such as is common to man. faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above which you're able, but will with the
temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to
bear it." What happens when you're tempted? We're asked to pray, aren't we?
The Lord said, leave me not into temptation. What happens when
you're tempted? What happens when you fall into temptation?
You fall, Let's find from this passage
of scripture comfort and hope and humility and a reckoning
about how we are to continue in this world. One of the glorious
and most comforting facts of the scripture is that in the
salvation of a sinner, some external things are changed in Adam. All we do for those who look
like they live outwardly moral lives, and I trust you do, and
I trust it's a passion of your life that we want to glorify
and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ in our bodies. Anyone who knows
anything of the plague in their own hearts knows that whatever
might be polished and shiny on the outside is like those tombs
in Jerusalem, isn't it? They're just sepulchers. Inside,
inside is sin. is that Noah found grace and
Noah was declared to be righteous before the flood. Noah was declared
to be righteous and to be just and a man without sin before
the foundation of the world. That's what it is to be justified.
To be justified is to have never sinned in God's sight because
the Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins and sins under the justice
of God can't be in two places at the one time. Noah was a saved
man. And Noah, like all of us, was
a weak man. But in salvation of sinners,
there is a new man created in you that cannot sin, 1 John 3. A new man created, I love Galatians
4.24. We have been reading it often
lately. and put on the new man which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. What is the hope of glory? Colossians
127. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Adam knows no change and Christ
knows no change. The life of a believer The life
of true believers is a life of struggle because two believers
are living in this world with two natures. One that never believes. One that never obeys. One that
is continually wrestling against the purposes of God. You know
it if you're honest with yourselves, don't you? The moment you think about praying,
thoughts come into your heart. The moment you think that you've
done some good deed, you can't wait to go and tell someone about
it. We are. We have two natures. Turn with
me to a couple of passages of scripture. You should, I trust,
know these well. I trust that they are a comfort
to you. Noah's journey and Noah's sin
is meant to be a comfort to the children of God. He says in Galatians 5.17, For
the flesh, this Adam flesh, lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other,
so that you cannot do the things that you would. You'd live in answer to Paul's
prayer that we read in Philippians, wouldn't you? You'd love God
and you'd walk with God and you would want to be in communion
with him all the time. You'd want to have the fellowship
of his sufferings. And yet your Adam flesh, Adam
in you, constantly impedes you. One of the glorious things about
this biblical notion, this biblical truth of the two natures of man
is that it gives us great comfort. because God's not looking to
perfection in us. He's not looking for progressive
sanctification in us. The religious world is continually
in the business of getting people to look like they're Christians,
to behave like they're Christians, so that they can feel comfortable
about themselves being Christians because they're That's part of the reason for
that sin. The solution for man is to put
people under a bondage of works, isn't it? But if you read the
very next verse in Galatians chapter 18, but if you are led
of the Spirit, you are not under law. of the children of God who are
led of the Spirit are not under law. They're not under a bondage
at works. They're not going to be put under
a bunch of rules, do this and do that all the time. They're
led of the Spirit. Let's turn to Romans 7. You know
this passage well. It horrifies me to think that
modern theology in the Bible colleges of our land that I know
of want to remove Romans 7 from the scriptures. They want to
say that Romans 7 was written about Paul prior to his conversion. If you gave this to anyone outside
of religion and anyone who wasn't a trained theologian, they would
never in a million years think that. If you gave it as a comprehension
task to a bunch of primary school kids and asked them what it meant,
they'd say, he's talking about what he is now, not what he was. Romans 7. He says, this is Paul, a mature
believer on his way to Jerusalem and then on his way to this journey
that we are reading in Acts 27 about across the sea, on his
way to Rome. He's been out evangelizing and
preaching the gospel for 20 odd years at this stage. This is
not a new believer, this is the experience of all believers.
He says, for I know, verse 18, that in me, that is in my flesh,
me as I am in Adam dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. Is
that what you find? I know you're a Romans 7 sinner. I know you're a Romans 7 sinner. You might do it to the satisfaction
of someone else's flesh and you might do it to the satisfaction
of your own, but you don't do it if you're honest. But the
evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that which
I would not, it is no more I to do it but with sin that dwelleth
in me. I find a law. I find an operating principle
that directs my activities. I find a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law
of God after the inward man, that is, the new man, the new
creation delights in the law of God. God's children love the
law of God. But I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members, a wretched man that
I am. Not wretched man that I was,
wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with my mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Are
you a Roman seven sinner? See Roman seven sinners can be
honest. Roman second sinners aren't going
to parade their good works before other people and put people under
a bondage of law and a bondage of obedience. We have, believers, have two
natures. being kind and gracious to each
other, to bear one another's burdens. I love what Paul says
to the Galatians, who were a fallen lot in so many ways. He says,
brethren, verse one of chapter six, if a man be overtaken, and
for ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens. Ephesians 4.32. Be kind one another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. See, recipients of the love of
God. Love. Recipients of the grace
of God. tent anyway. What was Ham doing
going and telling everyone about it? Ham, at the end of the day,
hated his father and hated the covenant, and Ham was cursed. A shocking thing to contemplate,
and generations after him. Listen to what the wise man says
in Proverbs 17. He that covereth transgressions There's no excuse for sin and
we're not encouraging drunkenness or any sort of behaviour like
that. But we're living with sinners. We are sinners. He that covereth
the transgressions seeketh love. But he that repeateth the matter
separates very friends. Hate stirreth up strife. hard. You don't have to be very
discerning. You'll find us weak, and you'll
find us frail, and you'll find us faulty. And hate stirreth
up strife, but love covereth all sins. See, that's exactly
what happened, didn't it? The wrath of God The infinite wrath of God fell
on all the sins of Noah when the Lord Jesus Christ hung on
Calvary's tree and God put them away. And he put them away forever. They're gone, brothers and sisters.
Let's go back and just quickly look at the covenant for a second.
The covenant is just such a glorious picture. When you are dying,
if you die as a sinner, If you die as a saved sinner, what glory
to die as David did, when he was breathing his last, and weak
and frail, with the family all around him that was chaotic.
He was the most dysfunctional family you read of in the scriptures,
David's family. And he says in verse 5, these
are his last words, the house of his own doings,
the house of his family, the house of Israel, although my
house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And he says, for this
is all my salvation. And this is all my desire, although
you make it not to grow. An everlasting covenant can't
grow. An everlasting salvation can't change. It doesn't need
to grow. So let's just go back and read
with me these verses in Genesis 9. It's the covenant, isn't it? The covenant in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ that saves sinners. I will establish, verse
9, I will establish my covenant with you. Verse 11, I will establish
my covenant with you. Verse 12, this is the token of
the covenant which I make between me and you. See, God makes a
covenant. The covenant is a covenant between
God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Verse 15, I will remember Verse 16, that I may remember
the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature. Verse 17, this is the token of
the covenant I have established between me and all flesh that
is upon the earth. Noah was saved. God the Father looked to the
Lord Jesus Christ for all these obedience. God the Father looked
to the Lord Jesus Christ for all the payment for all of his
sins. God the Father smelled the sweet
savour of that sacrifice and he says, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. I'll finish by reading that well-known
verse in is the fact that he saves you
by an everlasting covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace. The God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you pretty good, make you try hard, make you perfect. to do his will. And how does
he do that? Working in you that which is
well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to him be glory
for ever and ever. Noel was saved in exactly the
same way you He sighed.