The New Testament draws a connection between the judgment of Noah's day and the future day of judgment that awaits every soul. With particular emphasis on the suddenness of the coming of judgment. For example, in Matthew 24, 37 through 39, Scripture says, For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
So will be the coming of the Son of Man. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the second coming of Christ, at Judgment Day, at the end of history.
Now that correspondence between Noah's flood and the end of life on this earth as we know it means that we have much to learn from Noah concerning how to go about preparing for divine judgments. As we study Noah's life, we're learning how to prepare for the day when we will see our God face to face. We're learning how to prepare for judgment. The Bible, in fact, has a lot to say about preparing for Judgment Day. Think of the parable of the foolish virgins who failed to be ready for the arrival of the bridegroom, or the parable of the wedding feast where those invited were either uninterested or distracted by a dozen other affections, or they showed up without the appropriate clothing.
They weren't ready for what was to come, and so they missed out. Think of the numerous exhortations to watch and be ready to meet the Lord. Luke 21, 34, watch yourselves lest that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. Galatians 6, 1, keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. 2 John 8, watch yourselves so that you may win a full reward.
Beloved, there is A coming day of judgment, to end all days of judgment, and we are called to prepare for that day. To be readying ourselves for the culmination of human history, when Christ returns and every soul must give account of itself before God. If I am to find myself on God's ark on that awesome and terrible day to end all days, I must prepare for that day now. How then do I prepare myself for that day? And the answer to that question is right here in our text.
We prepare for the coming day of judgment in the same way that Noah prepared for the flood. And so this morning, I want us to consider the character and choices and faithfulness of Noah as we learn from him how to be prepared for divine judgment. I'd like us to consider this subject under three headings. There are three distinct descriptions of the character of Noah. In his relation to God, that we need to emulate if we are to be ready to stand before God.
Noah believed God, he listened to God, and he obeyed God. He believed, he listened. And he obeyed. And if we are to be prepared for the day of the Lord, we must believe God and listen to God. and obey God.
So, first, we must believe God like Noah did. And our text begins with a stark contrast between the character of Noah and the rest of humanity. Noah, verse 9, is righteous, blameless, walking with God. The rest of humanity, verse 11, is corrupt and filled with violence.
Now, as we consider the exemplary character of Noah, if we aren't careful. We might think that verse 9 is suggesting that since Noah was righteous and blameless and full of faith in his walk with God, these character qualities must be the grounds for Noah's preservation and all the blessings of God that flowed to Noah. But that would be a wrong assumption. You see, everything Noah is about to experience by way of blessing and preservation from the impending doom of judgment is experienced by Noah on the grounds of grace, not some inherent righteousness that he possessed that impressed God. The righteous, blameless faithfulness that Noah exhibits is the result of grace, not the cause of grace.
In other words, Verses 9 and following must be read in the context of verse 8. Noah found favor. in the eyes of the Lord. Noah didn't earn favor. He didn't merit favor.
He didn't manipulate favor. Noah found favor. It was unexpected. It was undeserved. It was graciously given from God to Noah.
Everything that will be said of Noah then, the entire story of the ark and the flood and the subsequent covenant of God with Noah and so on, must be understood in the light of, in the context of grace. Matthew Henry put it this way: Noah was no better than the grace of God made him. You and I are no better than the grace of God makes us. This is true of everyone who stands in the way of God's blessing, who stands in right relationship to God. If you are prepared for Judgment Day, It is ultimately because God has prepared you for it by pouring out His saving grace upon your life.
Grace is the great and necessary prerequisite. and grounds of salvation from the wrath of God.
Now to be sure, God uses means. and secondary causes that Bring about the practical outworking of that grace in the lives of his children. And that's what we're considering today as we look at the character and the choices of Noah. But don't forget it's all rooted and grounded in grace. And given this context of grace then, what does the story say of Noah's character?
It says first that he was a righteous man, a blameless man. There is only one way for a son or daughter of Adam to become righteous, and that is through faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In fact, Hebrews 11, 7 attributes Noah's blamelessness to his faith in God.
So Noah receives undeserved grace from God in verse 8, which produces righteousness in Noah verse 9, which stems from saving faith in God, Hebrews 11, 7. It's the motto of the Protestant Reformation, isn't it? Salvation by grace, through faith, in Christ alone. This is how it can be said of Noah that he was righteous. This is how it can be said of any child of God that we are righteous.
And this state of righteousness. Being in right relationship to God by grace through faith is the basis from which Noah was able to be prepared for the judgment that was about to come. Friends, if you lack the grace of faith in Christ, which leads to blamelessness and a righteous standing before your Creator, it doesn't matter how rich you are, how smart you are. how good looking you are, how well mannered you are or likable you are. If you are not blamelessly righteous before God.
You're not ready for Judgment Day. Readiness to stand before God and endure His holy judgment demands first and foremost a saving faith that leads to righteousness.
Now notice how the rest of the world compares to Noah in this regard. Verse 11.
Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. filled with violence. A heart that doesn't know grace and doesn't know faith and doesn't have the righteousness and blamelessness that flow from those realities is corrupt and it turns violent. Humanity, in its sinfulness, was literally destroying itself through the violence that came from faithless hearts. Presumably, had God not destroyed mankind with the flood, mankind would have destroyed itself.
Such was the trajectory of its sin, violence, and corruption. God's judgment of these violent people then is Not bringing about anything that they aren't already doing to themselves. God is simply accelerating. their inevitable self-destruction for the purpose of preserving the righteous line of the woman and putting his sovereign power and holiness on display. The world was violent.
Noah was blameless. The world was corrupt. Noah was righteous. And so we see at the very outset of this story that if we are to be adequately prepared for the impending day of judgment, we must be in right relationship to God. That is, to say we must be blameless before Him, and the only way to be blameless before Him is through faith in the righteousness of His Son.
Are you ready for Judgment Day? Are you ready to stand before God and answer for your crimes? Friends, there has ever only been one redeeming answer for our crimes, and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Every other answer incurs God's judgment. But the answer of faith in Jesus Christ satisfies God's judgment.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. There's a second quality or habit we see in Noah's life. An attribute of his character that contributed to his preparation for impending judgment, and it is that he listened to God. If we're to be ready for judgment day, we need to learn to listen to God. God begins speaking to Noah in verse 13, and he says 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. And verse 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. Can you imagine being in Noah's shoes?
I mean, what a threatening word this would have been to receive. Perhaps even as we read it this morning, your mind immediately begins putting God on trial for making such a threat. It's interesting, however, that not once in this entire account of the flood do we find Noah questioning God's word, God's justice, God's right to do as he pleases. His posture is one of full subjection. To every word of the Lord, even the threatening words.
Years ago, I was working in a call center of a prominent Christian disaster relief ministry. And a particularly devastating storm had hit a region with such unexpected force that many homes were destroyed and many lives were lost.
Well, in the aftermath of this tragedy, all the phone operators in the call center were given a script with answers to questions that might come up in our phone conversations. And this script instructed us that if we were asked why God would let a storm like this happen, we were to say, God did not ordain this storm. He loves people. And orchestrating a storm like this would contradict that love.
Now that viewpoint of God's love And of the extent of God's sovereignty over calamity is first of all incorrect. It has no grounds in scripture. But secondly, it is the opposite of righteous Noah's response when confronted with a much worse divine threat. If we take God at His word, we must acknowledge that His providential control extends to all circumstances over all people in all places for all time, even the threatening providences. The prophet Isaiah says quite clearly in Isaiah 45:7, I form light and create darkness.
I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord. Who does all these things? God is the God of well-being. and calamity.
God is the God of mountaintop experiences and the God of the valley of the shadow of death. God is the God of love and of judgment. The same God who instructed Noah to build an ark for the saving of his family also sent the floodwaters that destroyed wicked humanity before it could destroy itself. Over and over in our text, God mentions. himself as the active doer of all these things.
He wasn't merely allowing or permitting. Friends, he was ordaining and decreeing. and bringing what happened to pass. Verse 13. I have determined to make an end of all flesh.
I will destroy the earth. Verse 17, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth. A theologian from a few centuries ago. made the point that God doesn't just say, behold, a flood is coming. He says, Behold, I, even I, shall bring the waters of the flood upon the earth.
It was not enough for Noah to simply know what was coming. Rather, it was necessary that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who was sending it. That the flood was not some Accident or an unusual alignment of the stars, but a judgment upon the whole earth sent forth by the will and working of the Lord. It was a threatening word. God is to be seen and acknowledged and believed whenever He speaks, both when He speaks words of promise and when He speaks words of threatening judgment.
When we pick and choose what we're willing to accept, as being from God. We're not standing on His word. We're standing on our evaluation of His word. And beloved, there's a vast difference. Noah listened to and believed God's words, even the difficult words.
John Calvin reflects on the purpose of God's threatening words. Calvin says, Truly no one Will ever seriously flee to God's mercy for refuge, except those. who having been stung by God's threats, come to dread the sentence of eternal death.
so that they are sick of themselves on account of their sins. and neither carelessly indulge their vices, nor lie in lethargy of their filth. Rather, they anxiously sigh for a cure for their evils. In other words, it is only those who believe in the devastating effects of sin that are in the right frame of mind to delight in the sweetness of the promises of God. God's threats drive us to God's promises.
And if we reject any of God's true words, we're cutting ourselves off from God's solution to our sin problem. We're rendering ourselves ill-prepared for judgment when it comes. Noah believed the threatening words of God. Which put him in the position to hear and appreciate the hopeful words of God. And truly, God gives hopeful words to his children, especially during times of duress and judgment.
Look with me at the sweet words of verse 18. God said to Noah, 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.
Now, here in verse 18 is the first time the word covenant is used in scripture. This, of course, doesn't mean there was no covenantal relationship between God and man prior to Noah. Hosea 6, 7, for example, alludes to a covenant between God and Adam. But here, God assures Noah that he and his family stand in a special relationship with the very one who is bringing the devastating judgment which they will be witnesses to. And in this first mention of the covenant, the concept of covenant in the Bible, we learn several things.
First we learn that God is the sovereign initiator and executor of the covenant. God didn't ask Noah to enter into a covenant with him. God doesn't say, Noah, do you want to be in a covenant with me? Any more than he says, Is it okay if I send a flood to judge the earth? No, God asserts his sovereign prerogative without qualification, and he says, I will establish my covenant with you.
This is not an invitation, it's a declaration.
So both the threatening word and the hopeful word That is, both God's promised calamity and his promised blessing are attributed to God. And Noah, in response, listens and believes God when he speaks. There's another aspect of covenant that we see here. And it's the fact that the blessings of being in covenant with God extend to Noah's whole family.
Now perhaps we'll leave this aspect of Covenant for another sermon sometime, but I just want to highlight it here because it's It's going to prove to be a consistently recurring theme throughout Scripture. When God makes covenant with someone, the family of that person benefits from God's covenantal blessings. This is how God customarily works. As goes the head, so goes the body. As goes Adam, so goes the human race.
As goes Noah, so goes Noah's wife and sons and their wives. As goes Jesus, so go all who are united to Jesus. This is an important aspect. of covenant relationships between God and man. Church, we need both warning and promise from God.
We need to see both God's sovereignty and His goodness. Because we need assurance that God is Behind the things that go wrong, and assurance that he intends good for his people. Noah received and believed both the threatening and the hopeful words of God. That's the posture of someone who's ready for judgment day. This brings us to the last point of our text.
And this last point is really the outworking of the previous two. If our posture is one of faith in God and confidence in His Word, then that faith and confidence will be demonstrated in a life of obedience to God. If we are to be prepared for Judgment Day, we need to learn to obey God. And Noah demonstrates this for us. After all that God told him, Some pretty incredible and disturbing information.
Verse 22 concludes this part of the story by simply saying, Noah did all that God commanded him. Noah did all that God commanded him. And what had God commanded Noah to do?
Well, in verses 14 through 16, God commanded Noah to build an ark, a floating box. and to cover it with waterproofing pitch. God gave very specific instructions on the dimensions and the layout of this ark. It was to be massive. It was going to be hard work.
But Noah was to do exactly as God instructed him. And he did. He obeyed God. Had Noah not obeyed God, things would have gone poorly for him when the flood came. There wouldn't have been a boat.
If he had not followed God's instructions, the boat would have not floated or been stable in the floodwaters or accommodated the animals and the people that were on board or provided adequate ventilation. God gave instruction. Noah obeyed. I can remember growing up hearing all sorts of speculative stories in Sunday school on the flannel graph board or in children's books about Noah and the process he must have gone through in building the ark. I remember being told that people were jeering at Noah as he built.
or that Noah got discouraged at how long it was taking or how hard the work was, or that his sons who were probably helping him must have gotten embarrassed by their father and his crazy ideas of a flood. Scripture tells us none of these things. I'm sure it was hard work. I'm sure there were discouraging days. Perhaps there was opposition and ridicule and setbacks along the way.
But the details we're given in Scripture simply point out that God gave very specific instruction and Noah very carefully obeyed. I know sometimes in my own life I want God to give me a heroic assignment.
Something that will turn the tide of culture. And make a noticeable difference in the world, something that will advance the kingdom of Christ for the glory of God in some extraordinary way. And yet the vast majority of the acts of obedience to which God calls his children are simple, ordinary demonstrations of faithfulness to God's mundane commands. Love your wife. Teach your children.
Sing psalms with God's people every Sunday. Serve people who need help. Build a box. make it this long and this wide. It's obedience in the ordinary And it is this obedience in the ordinary, mundane things of life that demonstrates faith in God the best.
We say, give me Courageous feats to perform. Give me giants to kill. Give me martyrdom. God simply says, walk humbly with your God for 70 years. Eighty years.
And into your rest, good and faithful servants. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And to listen. than the fat of rams. Noah's faithfulness was demonstrated in his willingness to simply build an ark according to the specifications of God, his Maker.
It was obedience in the ordinary. But it is God's prerogative to require of us, as it pleases Him, obedience in the extraordinary. And there are some extraordinary things that God requires of Noah. Verse 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.
Okay, that's impossible. That's extraordinary. How could Noah possibly obey that command? Um And yet Noah doesn't complain or ask clarifying questions. or protest, he obeys.
He did all that God commanded him. And no doubt, God's power is at work enabling Noah to obey. You see, God has the right to command us to do things we are unable to do and then miraculously enable us to obey those commands. Is repentance and faith not of this very sort? We who are dead in our sins and trespasses are morally obligated to repent of our sin and trust in a Savior whom we cannot see or run to without supernatural help, without the supernatural regenerative working of God upon our souls.
God commands us to do this extraordinary thing and then empowers us to do it. If we are to be ready for Judgment Day, We must learn to obey God in both the ordinary and the extraordinary commands He gives. God commands us to do some very mundane things. Pray. Without ceasing, study the word, honor your parents, speak the truth.
God also commands us to do some impossible things. Make disciples of all nations. Humble yourself. Forgive as you have been forgiven. If we are to be prepared for judgment, we must faithfully heed the Lord's instruction in all things while always depending on the grace of God for the ability to obey Him.
I wonder what is that thing in your life where you say, I cannot obey God in that. I cannot trust God with this. I can't give up this sin or kill this idol or humble myself in this situation. God, you're asking too much.
Well, what God commands, he gives grace for. If it is his prescriptive will, you must pursue it, whether it's impossible or not. Why should I preach? Why should we pray? Why should parents rear their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?
Why should we keep observing the Sabbath? What difference does it make? It makes whatever difference God ordains that it makes. It is for us to simply trust him and go obey him. As we wrap up our time in God's word this morning, I want to.
Point out what perhaps you've already noticed. There is a definite overlap between these three aspects of our preparatory work for Judgment Day. Believing God looks a lot like listening to God and obeying God. Listening to God implies belief in what God has to say and willingness to obey. Obedience is not obedience if it isn't grounded in faith and the Word.
So these three things of necessity exist in our lives together or they don't exist at all. I may think I trust or believe God. But a good measure of how well I'm trusting God is this: am I listening to His Word and doing what it says? Because if I'm not, I don't really trust him. I may think I know His Word and have made it the foundation of my life, but if I'm not believing it and conforming my life to what God says in His Word, I really can't make the claim that I'm listening to God.
If I think of myself as an obedient Christian. But have no real depth of Knowledge of God's word or display confident faith in God and His revelation of Himself, who am I really obeying? It's not God.
So all three of these Interconnected qualities need to be true of me if I'm to be prepared for God's coming day of judgment. Yeah. Friends, the fact of the matter is Not a single one of us. bears these qualities with perfection. Not a one of us.
There are days I don't believe. There are days I ignore his instruction. There are days I obey my will rather than God's will. What hope then is there for me on Judgment Day?
Well, I've got good news for you. Noah, as we will.
Soon see. did not demonstrate these qualities perfectly either. As it turns out, Noah, the little S savior of the human race, needed a better savior. Noah, the blameless man, needed a better blameless man to represent him before the throne of God on Judgment Day. Noah's faith and obedience was not enough for Noah.
Our faith and obedience is not enough to cover our sin. We deserve to drown in the flood with everyone else. We need a Savior. What we find as we continue reading the story of God's redemption is that God Himself provides the Savior that Noah needs, and that I need, and that you need. God sends His only begotten Son into the world to save the world from itself.
This story of Noah ends where it began with a desperate need for God to be gracious, to be favorable to sinners. And that's exactly what happens. God shows grace to his chosen people. Are you one of those people? Are you in God's chosen remnant?
Are you ready? for Judgment Day. By God's own promise, all you must do to be in that group. All you must do to be saved is to call upon the name of the Lord. Matthew Henry summarized it well when he said, Let this be the summit of our ambition.
to find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Lord, truly may we find. Grace. and mercy on Judgment Day. May we find it through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In whose name I pray. Amen. Mm-hmm.
