Noah and God’s Promise (June 2, 2024)

Civilization and society develop along two streams – two lines of people – the godly and the ungodly. The godly walked with God; the ungodly walked after the flesh and the things of this world.

We find in Genesis chapters 4 & 5 the birth, growth and corruption of the ungodly line of people upon the earth (Genesis 4:1-24) but we also see the descendants of Adam who continued the godly line of people upon the earth (Genesis 4:25-5:32).

What we find in Genesis chapter 6 is the corruption of the godly line of people. This is those believers, who followed God, but neglected and denied God and lived unrighteous lives. The result has been the same all through history, all the way to today: the ungodly pulled the godly down, leading them into a life of sin and wickedness.

Genesis 6:1–3 ~ “1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.””

• The human race began to multiply upon earth. This, of course, refers to both the godly and ungodly families upon earth. But note when the ungodly increase, so do sin and evil. More and more children were being born into ungodly families, families that stressed the outward and worldly rather than the inward and spiritual.

• This meant a terrible thing, for the ungodly always outnumber the godly. There are always more people who follow their own way in life than those who follow God. Consequently, sin and evil were increasing at a far more rapid rate than righteousness and godliness. Eventually, the godly were bound to be contaminated and corrupted unless they guarded and attached themselves ever so closely to God. For now, the point to see is this: when the ungodly increase, so do sin and evil. The more sinners increase upon earth, the more sin there will be upon earth. This was exactly what was happening in the early stages of man’s history. The population was increasing ever so rapidly and so were sin and evil. Sin and evil were increasing at a far greater pace than was righteousness and godliness.

• The godly became worldly and immoral and fed their minds upon the immoral things of this world. They focused their thoughts upon the outward, physical appearance and forgot the inward, spiritual beauty. They did not control their eyes nor their thoughts.

Genesis 6:5 ~ “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

• The godly ignored and rebelled against God. They married and co-mingled with the ungodly. They married “all which they chose.” Jesus Christ tells us they were marrying and remarrying, marrying time and time again.

Matthew 24:37–38 ~ “37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,”

Luke 17:26–27 ~ “26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

• Please note this is lust and immorality among the godly line of believers. The picture is that believers were turning away from God and beginning to live like the world. They were drinking and living immoral and impure lives, marrying, divorcing, and remarrying time and again, remarrying whomever they wished. God’s will and demand for purity and godliness—for a distinctive line of godly believers—was totally forgotten. The human race was losing its godly line of believers: practically everyone was living an ungodly and immoral life, doing his own thing, living like he wished. Hardly any person followed God; hardly any person lived a separated, godly life. The godly line of believers—the godly seed of Seth—was corrupted, almost wiped out and completely erased from the earth. As we shall see, there was only a handful of godly people still on earth, only Noah and his immediate family.

Genesis 6:8 ~ “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

2 Thessalonians 3:6 ~ “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” 

• Oh, but there was no one to tell these people about God and no preaching during this time, so they didn’t know. WRONG!
  • Adam lived for 930 years. He no doubt proclaimed the truth of God: the perfection of the original creation, his own sin and fall, the promised Savior, and the absolute necessity of obedience and sacrifice in approaching God. Adam taught, preached, and warned his children and grandchildren and their descendants for 930 years.
  • Enoch also preached and warned the world of their ungodly deeds and of the coming judgment of God upon all ungodliness (Jude 14, 15).
  • Methuselah’s very name stood as a reminder of coming judgment. He was also most likely a preacher (Genesis 5:25–26).
  • Noah was a preacher of righteousness, warning the people up to the very end (2 Peter 2:5).
• But, in the final analysis, the witness and warning of the preachers was to no avail, not for the mass of mankind. Most people refused to heed the warning of God through the preachers. The people marched right on in their sinful and ungodly ways. The result: God became disturbed, very disturbed, and He warned man. God gave man two warnings:
  • God would withdraw His Spirit.
  • God’s grace was limited: judgment was coming.

Genesis 7:1 ~ “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.”

• These words must have been both comforting and terrifying to Noah.
• Comforting because Noah knew that he was now to be vindicated and delivered from all the trials of this evil world and from the abuse of the ungodly.
• Terrified because he knew that the earth and every living thing upon it was now to be destroyed. Just picture the thoughts that were bound to be flashing across Noah’s mind: every friend, relative, neighbor, and person upon earth was to be destroyed, wiped off the face of the earth; every animal, house, building, tree, shrub—all the earth and everything upon it was to be destroyed.

Genesis 8:1 ~ “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”

• But now, God remembered Noah and it was time to act …
  • to show concern and to have mercy
  • to preserve and save life, but the life of man and of the animals

Genesis 9:12–17 “12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.””

• There is a lot of items built into the covenant God made with Noah. We could spend hours looking into the Noahic Covenant; however, I want to this morning look at the sign of the covenant – the bow, the rainbow.
  • The rainbow is a sign given to all generations. It was not just a sign given to Noah and his family; it was a sign given to all of us, to all generations of people.
  • The rainbow is a sign set in the clouds by God Himself, set there for the purpose of being a sign of His great covenant with Noah and mankind.
  • The rainbow is a sign to provoke remembrance of the covenant and of the flood and its judgment by God. Note that God says He always remembers His covenant when the rainbow appears in the sky. God never forgets His covenant, but when the rainbow appears, He especially remembers the terrifying judgment of the flood and the great covenant He has made with man.
  • The point is this: we too should remember, but we often fail. Too often, when the rainbow appears, we just admire and point out its beauty and quickly move back to whatever we were doing. This, however, is not the purpose for which God gave the rainbow. God gave the rainbow for a sign …
    • that we would remember and think upon the terrible judgment that fell upon the earth
    • that we would remember His great covenant, that never again would He judge the earth with a torrential flood
    • that we would remember the great mercy of God to sinful man, that He will save us if we will repent and turn to the promised seed and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ