The family that survived

Genesis 6

This is the story of a family that survived. Why did Noah and his family not perish? We can experience the same blessing as Noah and be like him. Verse 8 tells us Noah found grace or favour with God. Grace is a very significant word – UNDESERVED kindness. Noah was born like everyone else, but he found grace.
NOAH FOUND GRACE FROM GOD.
Noah was willing to accept God’s view of his own sin and he turned from that sin to God, seeking His grace. Grace is God’s doing for us what we could never do for ourselves. It is God coming to our rescue. Grace found Noah and saved him and his family. All like him were saved by grace. He was aware of God’s grace in the darkest hour, there was life and hope when we fear for things. We can look to the Lord for forgiveness. It is like being in an impossibly dangerous situation like in a cave that is sealed and we are rescued by others. We chose to sin, God rescued us by his grace. We need to pray ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’
NOAH WAS RIGHT WITH GOD.
Noah believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness. The grace given to him made him live a life that pleased God – Ezekiel l4:l4. Noah was not perfect but was free from obvious faults.
NOAH WALKED WITH GOD.
Only Noah and Enoch are described here as walking with God. He knew God personally and communicated with Him daily. He went in the same direction God went. He was in step with God. He went the same way as God and took his hand like a little child, you go at the same pace. It is a picture of intimacy and friendship. The Christian life is a growing intimacy with God. Amos 3:3 Ezekiel 5:8. Psalm l:l describes Noah. If you walk with God you will be blessed. If you don’t walk with God you will not stand as Noah did. You will lose everything.
NOAH LED HIS FAMILY GOD’S WAY.
He was the spiritual leader of his wife, sons and daughters-in-laws. It was a negative environment and Noah led them and this led to their salvation. The family had enough faith to follow the head. Noah had enough faith to inspire them to follow his example. It should encourage us to believe so deeply that others believe in God. We may save our families and others besides. The Taylor family – including Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission – show millions can be saved through the Christian witness of parents. It can be destroyed in one generation as happened to Earnest Hemingway, the novelist. He had an evangelical Christian upbringing but rebelled against and ended up killing himself when he was 6l.
NOAH WAS DIFFERENT FROM HIS CONTEMPORARIES
a) The state of things. God saw the world was corrupt.
Single acts can have unforeseen consequences.
(i) Adam and Eve fell from innocence into sin, slavery and death. The children shared this genetic-spiritual union in the fall with their parents. We call this sin of nature original, because everyone is born with this bias, and it is the actual source of sins – Romans 5:l8. The globalisation of sin is a consequence of Adam. Paul describes two men – Adam who brought sin by one act, Christ, the second Adam, brought righteousness.
(ii) Nobody has a perfectly good heart – Psalm 5l:5. No one is born righteous, we do not naturally want to love God.
(iii) What does the world say we can do? – educate, counsel, prozac. We try to set up a nanny state to cure sin. We also try to redefine sin to get rid of guilt. Everything is a lifestyle choice. We see the idea of sin a medieval. We can try to keep sinning so we don’t feel guilty any more, but people are guilty of sin. Everything is seen as an illness and not really sin at all. This thinking cuts off people from redemption.
(iv) What happens when a society thinks like this? The unthinkable became thinkable, then speak-able, then do-able, then praised. In a civilized society evil thoughts stay thoughts. In the days of the flood thoughts became words then deeds. Leading entertainers lives are often utterly immoral.
b) The state of Noah. Noah was a bright shining light in the prevailing moral darkness, distinguished from the world. Noah stood his ground. He was counter-cultural, as the lives of Christians should be in this age. Noah lived when the World was unprepared for judgement, as people are today.
NOAH WAS AN OBEDIENT MAN – Hebrews ll:7
God said it and that settled it for Noah. He did it simply because God said so. It was a remarkable faith. It had never even rained. All he had was God’s word, and he believed. He could not explain where the water would come from but he had the faith to answer people. Christians have reality present, but the future unseen. We know Heaven and Hell are going to be realities in the future.
NOAH WAS A COURAGEOUS MAN. 2 Peter 2:5
Noah preached righteousness, he warned, he invited them into the Ark. Hoah had places in the ark for people who were willing to repent. Jesus is like an ark. There is willingness to receive people so we can have a better life and hope. How do we react to this?