Dale Partridge - Genesis 7_1-10 ~ A Greater Ark Than Noah’s

00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, today we start Genesis 7, and we will pause our study of Genesis next week for Palm

00:00:12.620 Sunday. We'll be doing a sermon on Palm Sunday, and then also the following Sunday, which will

00:00:16.760 be Resurrection Sunday. And so we'll get back to Genesis chapter 7 after that. Now, just to give

00:00:22.860 you some context to remind you of what's happening, right? We know Genesis, God created the world,

00:00:26.840 and it was good. We know that he created Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve sinned against God.

00:00:33.200 They chose to disobey the provisions that God had provided in the Garden of Eden.

00:00:39.760 And as a result, everything that came, once Adam and Eve were corrupted, they were like a seed.

00:00:45.020 They were like a seed that was corrupted by sin. And everything that came from that seed was just

00:00:50.380 like that which it came from. Meaning that if you had a seed of a tree and it was corrupted

00:00:55.300 and you planted that corrupted seed, then every branch, every leaf, every twig, every piece of

00:01:01.540 bark is just as corrupt as that corrupted seed. And that is exactly what happened. We saw the

00:01:07.100 birth of Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel. We know that from there we have a replacement of Abel

00:01:14.500 in Seth. We know that Cain goes off and creates a city and a civilization apart from God. Abel

00:01:21.300 and his people worship God. They live long periods of time, 500 years, 600 years, 700 years,

00:01:27.700 800 years, but the world is getting more and more corrupt. We see this beautiful

00:01:32.140 faithfulness in these people of God, but they are few. And then we watch this idea of the

00:01:40.440 Nephilim or these demonic figures that come down and have relations with the women or the daughters

00:01:46.880 of men. They pervert the biology of humankind with an intention to pervert this promised 0.85

00:01:53.160 seed that was going to be the Messiah that was going to come down and crush the head

00:01:56.880 of the serpent. And then we see all of these lines and generations ending in this man named

00:02:04.100 Noah. And he says that everything in the world right now is corrupt. Everything is evil

00:02:08.740 continuously. People are broken. The world is nasty. Everything is dark except for this

00:02:14.620 one man named Noah. And Noah is this man of righteousness, this preacher of righteousness

00:02:20.900 that we see. And he is asked to prepare for judgment and to build an ark. And remember,

00:02:30.060 everything is all about preserving this seed. Because when Adam and Eve fell, the judgment was

00:02:36.700 that there would be a war between two seeds, the war of the seed of the serpent and the seed of

00:02:42.280 the woman. And that seed of the woman would eventually turn into Jesus Christ way down the

00:02:48.100 line of the genealogical record. And so this constant war for the seed and to kill off the

00:02:54.820 seed was happening in Satan's world. And then God is preserving the seed. So Noah is essentially

00:03:01.160 a preservation of the seed. The ark is holding that seed and making sure that seed doesn't go

00:03:08.280 away. And that is what we're seeing is that it is a covenant of preservation. So Noah must live in

00:03:15.240 order for God to be faithful in his promise that he would send a Messiah to crush the seed of the 0.92

00:03:21.700 serpent. That's where we are. That's the setup of where we're at this morning. And so Noah is a

00:03:30.800 righteous man. And by righteous, I mean that he's a faithful man. He's not a sinner. He is a sinner.

00:03:36.080 but he's a righteous man because he's been made righteous by faith. And he's living again in this

00:03:43.900 corrupt, biologically perverted, violent world. And he's a preacher of righteousness over and 0.94

00:03:50.760 over for decades and centuries, and no one comes and repents. If you think your ministry's hard

00:03:57.800 because people aren't converting to Christ, think about Noah, where he's a preacher of righteousness

00:04:04.060 and there's really just is no fruit that's coming from it.

00:04:08.500 It doesn't mean that he's not a righteous man.

00:04:10.520 It means that the world is corrupt.

00:04:13.880 Now, God determined to establish his covenant with Noah.

00:04:17.000 And we saw last week that for the very first time

00:04:19.440 in the scriptures in verse 18 of chapter six,

00:04:22.580 that we saw the word covenant.

00:04:25.620 And covenant is this tangible,

00:04:29.560 structured, relational means

00:04:32.000 by which God saves his people and reveals his faithfulness.

00:04:37.100 It's like when you think about marriage, what does marriage do?

00:04:39.780 Well, when you look at it, it reveals faithfulness.

00:04:42.900 If you can keep covenant with your bride, you are a faithful man.

00:04:48.140 Now, covenant really is like the package.

00:04:51.480 It's the vehicle.

00:04:52.420 It's the structure.

00:04:53.400 It's the framework of how salvation comes to be.

00:04:58.000 It's the thing that you can kind of, it's the substance.

00:05:00.500 It's the legal structure of how God saves people.

00:05:05.660 You must come into the covenant.

00:05:07.320 We know that baptism is covenant entrance.

00:05:10.380 We know that the Lord's Supper is covenant maintenance.

00:05:14.760 So if you're not in the covenant, you will not be saved.

00:05:18.240 You don't get blessed outside of the covenant.

00:05:20.440 You must be baptized.

00:05:22.500 You also must take the Lord's Supper in the sense that it is a means of grace to you.

00:05:30.500 But covenant faithfulness is not something that we just receive.

00:05:33.480 It's also something we're called to reflect.

00:05:37.320 Whether in marriage, whether in church, whether our national commitments,

00:05:41.400 we are to be a covenant-keeping people.

00:05:43.600 You don't want to be known as a man who breaks covenant.

00:05:46.860 You do not want to be known as a woman who breaks covenant.

00:05:49.520 You should be a reliable, steady, faithful, sturdy man or woman of God.

00:05:56.880 That is what it means to be covenant faithful.

00:05:58.940 to be faithful in your covenant, to be long-suffering.

00:06:04.800 When we are unfaithful in our covenants,

00:06:06.960 we don't just fail one another.

00:06:09.360 We actually take this thing that God uses

00:06:12.440 to demonstrate his own faithfulness

00:06:14.100 and we actually tarnish it.

00:06:16.380 We actually make it, we stain it with our own sin.

00:06:19.360 We go, yeah, you know that thing?

00:06:20.520 I entered into that marriage, that covenant marriage.

00:06:24.200 You know that thing that God saves his people with?

00:06:26.860 Well, we did that with me and my wife,

00:06:28.360 but we backed out. We stained that beautiful structure that God created to demonstrate

00:06:34.060 faithfulness. We stained it with our unfaithfulness. It's why God hates divorce.

00:06:40.300 It's why God hates these things. Now, again, God forgives also, and we could repent for those

00:06:46.500 realities. And the truth is that Noah was faithful. He was steadfast.

00:06:53.600 he wasn't a fickle man he wasn't erratic he wasn't unstable he was consistent long-term

00:07:03.420 consistency it's extremely difficult by the way there's not many men that i know who can be long

00:07:10.220 term faithful the average church membership these days is 2.6 years

00:07:16.400 because we can't remain faithful.

00:07:19.760 We're a transient people.

00:07:23.080 Psalm.

00:07:27.160 Well, let me say one last thing.

00:07:30.400 No circumstance that we go into

00:07:33.080 is as extreme as Noah's.

00:07:37.600 I mean, literally,

00:07:38.500 he's got millions upon millions of people

00:07:40.960 that are violent and against him.

00:07:43.000 And yet he remains faithful.

00:07:46.400 what has caused your unfaithfulness?

00:07:49.780 What circumstances are greater than Noah's?

00:07:54.780 Now, the reality is that by God's grace,

00:07:56.500 God kept Noah faithful.

00:07:58.280 But at the same time, there's also the reality of

00:08:00.840 he's a virtuous man and he remained and endured.

00:08:05.260 We know Psalm 127, seven through eight says of the godly,

00:08:08.400 it says, his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.

00:08:11.380 His heart is steady, he will not be afraid.

00:08:14.380 Are you firm and are you steady?

00:08:18.000 Are you a firm and steady person?

00:08:20.840 Well, if you are, it should be because the Lord is firm and steady.

00:08:23.820 And through you, we see that character of God in your own life.

00:08:29.380 So today, we're going to get a glimpse of the gospel

00:08:32.420 that God's judgment is just as certain and reliable as his mercy and grace.

00:08:39.020 We often talk about, oh, God's love is so good.

00:08:41.980 but God's judgment is also so good. God's judgment is just as reliable as his mercy and his love.

00:08:51.480 And so in a culture that treats everything lightly and everything flippantly, I think this

00:08:56.540 text is going to remind us that God is not speaking casually when he promises wrath,

00:09:03.200 when he promises judgment. My seminary professor used to say in the Old Testament,

00:09:10.500 the gospel was concealed, and in the New Testament, the gospel is revealed, right? And so what we're

00:09:17.400 going to see here is how the gospel is, we're going to see a glimpse of the gospel in the Old

00:09:22.560 Testament. It's concealed. It's slightly different. It's like the pre-shadow or the shadow of the

00:09:27.880 substance, right? We're looking at the shadows. We know Christ is the substance, but right now

00:09:32.440 we're looking at the shadow, the thing that's pointing to the substance and preparing us for

00:09:36.860 the substance, but we're seeing that same model here in Noah's ark. Ultimately, this passage,

00:09:43.060 again, it's a pre-pattern of redemption. It's judgment and salvation. It's judgment upon

00:09:48.520 sin and wrath or through wrath and it's salvation in the ark. And so we're seeing again a little

00:09:55.660 bit of that pre-pattern of the gospel. So look to verse one and chapter seven with me. It says,

00:10:02.080 then the Lord said to Noah come into the ark you and all of your household for I have seen that

00:10:11.760 you are righteous before me in this generation if you're reading the ESV it might say go into

00:10:23.200 the ark it's because it uses a different group of manuscripts to provide the translation compared to

00:10:31.380 the New King James Version or the King James Version. I actually prefer the New King James,

00:10:37.200 which says, come into the ark, come into the ark. And I prefer the latter because I think it echoes

00:10:44.440 the language of Christ where he says, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will

00:10:50.480 give you rest. It's come who are blessed by my father. This kind of language of come to me,

00:10:58.180 The word come matters because it reminds us that God does not merely direct his people

00:11:02.640 to salvation.

00:11:03.580 He's inviting people, come, come to me, come to me where rest, where safety, where refuge

00:11:11.360 can be found.

00:11:13.000 You know, he calls them near.

00:11:14.160 We see Christ is that he draws people near.

00:11:16.880 The ark is not just a place of safety.

00:11:19.780 It's a place where God is gathering his people, which only happens to be eight people at this

00:11:24.060 point, to himself.

00:11:25.840 Come into the ark.

00:11:27.580 And it's really, truly a mirror to the message of come to Christ.

00:11:31.620 Come, come into Christ.

00:11:33.200 Be saved from the wrath of God that is to come.

00:11:39.660 And then God offers these further instructions

00:11:42.640 regarding the types and the quantities of animals that come into the ark.

00:11:47.020 If you look to verse 2 through 3, it says,

00:11:49.220 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, 0.77

00:11:54.300 the male and his mate,

00:11:55.520 and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate and seven pairs of the birds of

00:12:04.140 the heavens also male and female to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

00:12:12.740 Now, if you remember in chapter six, God gave instructions regarding kinds of animals,

00:12:17.440 but here we have a different distinction. It's clean and unclean. So it's a different structure.

00:12:21.880 It's another distinction that we're being led into here.

00:12:25.560 So clean animals were those animals

00:12:27.740 that were set apart for sacrifice and for fellowship.

00:12:31.400 Meaning you can actually have relationships,

00:12:33.780 pet relationships, working relationships

00:12:36.560 with these other animals, the clean animals.

00:12:40.300 And so the Lord is anticipating that after the flood,

00:12:43.360 there would be a need for sacrifice.

00:12:46.040 And so God is telling Noah to bring more animals

00:12:49.840 that were clean for those to be sacrificed so that they would still be able to remain

00:12:54.980 and preserve the species of those particular animals and not sacrifice them into elimination.

00:13:02.580 Now, if you're wondering how Noah knew which animals were clean and which weren't clean,

00:13:10.520 because the distinction had not been formally addressed in scripture at this point,

00:13:15.060 God has not yet written the book of Leviticus that tells us all about which animals are clean

00:13:21.120 and which animals are not clean. And so this is an indication that God already revealed this to

00:13:27.140 his people directly, but was not recorded in scripture. And so we see evidence of this,

00:13:32.700 even if you go back to Cain and Abel, where they're making sacrifices. And we know that Abel

00:13:37.040 is bringing a sacrifice of the firstborn of his flock. And so it already shows that there is a

00:13:46.260 standard of sacrificial systems that has been established even before Leviticus. What Leviticus

00:13:52.680 does is that it codifies and expands and clarifies an already existing sacrificial system that's been

00:13:59.940 put in place, which is really awesome because what's happening here is that God is already

00:14:05.280 making it clear that for your sin, something must die. For your sin, something must die.

00:14:12.940 You'll either die or something else must die. It's the idea of substitutionary atonement.

00:14:19.660 It's that something must be a substitute. When you sin, the wages of sin is death.

00:14:25.740 That's what the scriptures say. The wages of sin is death. And not just physical death,

00:14:29.620 but spiritual death, the second death. And we know that death is separation. We know that

00:14:34.540 physical death is the separation of the body and the soul and physical death or a spiritual death

00:14:38.820 is the death of the soul, which means that it is the separation of the soul from God. It is hell.

00:14:45.360 It is hell. And something must die, whether it's you because you're a sinner or a substitute must 1.00

00:14:53.920 die on behalf. But you have to remember a substitute has to be sinless because if they're 0.96

00:15:00.180 not sin, if they're sinners, they have to be dying for their own sin. And this is again, all pointing

00:15:05.320 to Jesus that we need a sinless substitute, someone who doesn't have his own sin. So he's not

00:15:11.500 dying and paying the price with his own blood because he's a sinner, but he can actually act

00:15:16.900 as a substitute dying for you and me because he has no sin of his own. That is what we're seeing

00:15:24.220 in the scriptures, all of it is pushing and pointing and preparing for the relationship

00:15:30.260 of the gospel that is to be revealed in the New Testament. And it says in verse four, it says,

00:15:36.560 for in seven days, I will send rain on the earth, 40 days and 40 nights. And every living thing

00:15:43.760 that I have made, I will blot out from the face of the ground. And Noah did all that the Lord had

00:15:51.780 commanded. So first I want you to notice just the calm matter of fact nature of, it's like a severe

00:16:00.440 statement, by the way, we kind of just read over it. In seven days, I will send rain on the earth

00:16:05.720 for 40 days and 40 nights. And every living thing that I have made, I will blot out from the face

00:16:09.120 of the ground. It's just like a matter of fact statement. Basically what's really being said,

00:16:16.480 it's going to be a bloodbath. It's going to be a bloodbath of human corpses, millions of them

00:16:22.440 floating everywhere. But God just declares it as it's just something he's going to do.

00:16:30.440 And this shows us that his judgment, it's not impulsive. It's not reactive. It's not emotional.

00:16:37.060 It's deliberate. It's measured. It's certain. And it's going to be the same on judgment day.

00:16:43.460 We know Revelation says that the blood is going to be up to the horse's reins.

00:16:47.840 We know that there's references, obviously, to 70 AD about this, but

00:16:51.100 I think this demonstrates the absolute power and authority of God. We actually see in Psalm 29,

00:16:58.140 10, it says, the Lord sat as king at the flood. Yes, the Lord sits as king forever.

00:17:06.460 We often think that the flood was chaos, but the flood was controlled power.

00:17:13.920 God is sitting there watching the flood literally just take out millions of people.

00:17:19.500 It's not chaotic.

00:17:20.720 It's deliberate, controlled judgment, wrath that's being delivered.

00:17:26.780 Next, I want you to notice the scope in verse 4 and 5.

00:17:31.760 the scope. It says on earth, every living thing that I have made will die.

00:17:40.860 And again, this is comprehensive language. You have people that say, oh, it was just a regional

00:17:45.200 flood. It was just a flood in just this one local area. No, none of the language supports that. We

00:17:51.980 saw last week that we have birds that could fly 3,000 to 8,000 miles. Why are you taking birds

00:17:58.520 in the ark if you can have a bird that can fly 8,000 miles away if it's a local or regional

00:18:02.920 flood. No, it's ridiculous. But again, we see that here. We see that all of this global judgment 0.95

00:18:10.160 is global and it's covering all creation under heaven, everything that is on the ground.

00:18:16.960 Now, we also see this pattern of 7 and 40, 7 and 40. And if you're into biblical numerology,

00:18:23.140 you can go through and study all the kind of fascinating realities. I think it's actually

00:18:27.400 somewhat helpful because I do believe that God even takes us through our own trials

00:18:32.280 in those similar number structures. So you might not have noticed how many days or months or years

00:18:41.340 you've gone through trials, but if you look back, you might actually see somewhat of a pattern.

00:18:46.460 And we know that the word seven or the number seven is a state of completion or fulfillment

00:18:51.420 or a fullness. And we know 40 is a number of trial. We see this, the 40 years wandering in

00:18:59.040 Israel. We see Jesus is 40 days of temptation. It is some form of judgment or trial or difficulty

00:19:05.160 that comes through these numbers. And so together, when he says that there's seven days will be the

00:19:11.260 fullness and then 40 days will be the judgment, it lines up perfectly consistently with exactly

00:19:16.540 what Jesus says, what God consistently does in the Old Testament. Seven days, it's coming. The

00:19:22.040 fullness will be here. And then 40 days of judgment. And again, it's very consistent.

00:19:27.040 You start to see the character of God throughout the scriptures. Now, there's something else

00:19:34.300 that I think is clear. This is a cleansing. The flood is a cleansing. There's so many dimensions

00:19:41.580 of the flood. You can talk about it from wrath and gospel and the ark is Christ. But I want to

00:19:46.840 talk just for a second about its relationship to baptism. The flood is not only destruction,

00:19:56.800 it's purification. It's purification. God is washing the earth of its corruption and of its

00:20:04.680 sin. Now the imagery points forward to baptism where judgment and cleansing meet. Judgment and

00:20:13.560 cleansing meet. So death to the old and the promise of new life through God's provision

00:20:18.200 of Christ. It's a different ark, but it's still an ark. And our new ark is not a wooden boat.

00:20:24.340 Our new ark is Christ. But baptism, in baptism, God is not merely giving a symbol,

00:20:33.780 but a sign and a seal of his covenant promises.

00:20:37.000 And I want you to pay attention here.

00:20:38.780 In the flood, God judged the world and destroyed sin,

00:20:44.860 but he also saved Noah and his family through the ark.

00:20:47.480 So that's the pattern, right?

00:20:49.180 He judged it through water and he saved it through the ark.

00:20:54.520 And that's very important.

00:20:56.400 In the same way, baptism is not just a symbol.

00:20:59.300 God uses water of baptism to judge and put away kind of the death of our sinful nature.

00:21:05.280 It's an image of washing away the corruption or washing away the sin.

00:21:09.900 We're cleansing, we're being purified, while at the same time, bringing us into Christ

00:21:13.980 to be saved, have salvation through it.

00:21:17.660 So again, you're seeing an image of baptism and salvation.

00:21:21.400 Now, if you're thinking, oh, that's kind of a stretch, Dale.

00:21:23.820 Where do you see the connection between Noah and baptism?

00:21:26.660 Well, let me tell you. 1 Peter 3, verses 20 through 21, it says,

00:21:31.640 in the days of Noah, eight persons were brought safely through water.

00:21:35.280 And then it says in the very next verse, baptism, which corresponds to this,

00:21:40.600 now saves you. Not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as of a good conscience before God

00:21:46.520 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So there we go. Boom. The connection of Noah

00:21:50.460 and the washing of water and baptism, connection to our own baptism.

00:21:57.760 Symbolically, certainly. Connected, certainly.

00:22:01.320 Typologically, yes.

00:22:04.240 And so in other words, just as the floodwaters were both judgment and salvation,

00:22:08.680 now baptism is in some sense judgment upon sin or washing away sin

00:22:14.380 and also brings about salvation in Christ.

00:22:19.600 And so it's not merely about an outward washing, but God does an inward washing.

00:22:25.720 We know that if you've had the baptism of the outward, but you have not been baptized of the heart, washed of the soul.

00:22:33.020 It's the same way. It's the same language.

00:22:34.820 People in the Old Testament, they were circumcised physically, but they were not circumcised at the heart.

00:22:41.280 And so the key is we want the thing which is signified in baptism, we want it to actually be real.

00:22:47.960 We want the baptism of the Holy Spirit

00:22:50.980 in the sense that we're truly regenerate.

00:22:53.300 We're truly purified.

00:22:55.060 It's not just a symbol.

00:22:56.980 It's real.

00:22:58.320 Now, we trust that the symbol by faith

00:23:01.080 will result in the real.

00:23:03.040 We do that by faith.

00:23:04.220 We trust that that baptism will serve

00:23:06.660 as a beautiful promise

00:23:09.500 and sign of the fruit to come.

00:23:14.040 But your baptism in a sense

00:23:15.240 is really like a miniature flood.

00:23:17.120 It's this miniature flood where God puts your sin to death and saves you by uniting you to Christ,

00:23:23.600 which is the true ark through faith. And so there's some beautiful theological symbolism

00:23:30.180 that's happening here. And it's why Luther would often tell people who were struggling with

00:23:35.120 assurance to go, look back to your baptism, Saint. Look back to the moment where the ministers of God

00:23:42.280 put God's mark upon you, where God said through the ministers, this one is mine.

00:23:49.440 So if you've been baptized, it's not you making your individual decision.

00:23:55.800 The idea that it's all about me, I have made a decision for Jesus.

00:24:01.620 No, there's some of that.

00:24:03.920 The reality is, is that baptism is God through his administers saying, this one's mine.

00:24:14.120 This one, I'm going to put my mark of the covenant upon this person.

00:24:18.100 And the waters are sacramentally Christ coming upon your body and bringing you into salvation.

00:24:27.140 Verse six, stay with me here.

00:24:29.840 verse six. It says, Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.

00:24:37.940 And Noah and his son and his wife and his sons with him went into the ark to escape the waters

00:24:44.340 of the flood. All right. So Genesis chapter five, verses 32, Noah was 500 years old. It says,

00:24:51.800 this is actually the text. It says, Noah was 500 years old and Noah became the father of Shem,

00:24:56.040 Ham, and Japheth. Okay. So that was the age of Noah in Genesis chapter five. He was 500 years

00:25:01.060 old, essentially when he had those three boys. Then in Genesis six, chapter three, it says,

00:25:07.860 my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days

00:25:13.620 shall be 120 years. And we know that was talking about God was saying in 120 years, I'm done with

00:25:22.180 these violent people. Okay. The world was filled with violence. And God says to Noah, hey, in 120

00:25:29.200 years, I'm not going to be patient forever. All of this violence and this corruption and this

00:25:34.280 sinful and this fallen world, 120 years, I'm coming to flood this place. I'm coming to flood

00:25:40.440 this place. And so we know that this is probably about 20 years before Noah has Ham, Shem, and

00:25:47.600 Japheth. And so we also know that you're not really quite that helpful to help build an ark

00:25:54.140 until you're a man. So for probably about 40 years, Noah is building this without his sons.

00:26:00.420 And we know as a result, he's probably hiring pagans to help him build this ark, which my

00:26:07.540 assumption is that he could do. And the reason is because this would be a very expensive project,

00:26:13.600 which also makes me assume that Noah was a very wealthy man. I just believe that he was wealthy.

00:26:20.220 I believe that he hired people to help him for the first 40 years. And I do believe after that,

00:26:24.760 his sons certainly were engaged in the work that very likely took 120 years to build this boat.

00:26:31.240 Now we go again, when we think about, we saw back in Cain's world, Tubal Cain,

00:26:35.980 and we saw that they were building bronze and works of iron. And we know that there was,

00:26:41.200 as a result, there were straps and there was nails and there was tools. And so again, this is not some

00:26:45.980 sort of, you know, caveman-like reality. No, this is not an inferior time. The reality is we actually

00:26:53.680 might even have people that have higher intelligence than we do now. But they had tools and they had

00:26:59.640 the ability, they had cities, they had some degree of organization. And so again, the development of

00:27:05.740 the ark took about 100 to 120 years. And verse 8 through 10, it says, of clean animals and of

00:27:13.100 animals that are not clean and of birds and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two,

00:27:17.600 male and female, went into the ark with Noah as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days,

00:27:23.460 the waters of the flood came upon the earth. All right. The greater theme of this passage is

00:27:35.740 the faithfulness of God in both judgment and mercy and the obedience of Noah for long periods

00:27:44.080 of time. Again, when it says, Noah obeyed everything he commanded. Well, how long was

00:27:48.480 that? Well, that was about 120 years. So we're not talking about short-term faithfulness. We're

00:27:52.680 talking about long-term obedience. We have guys in this church. We have women in this church.

00:28:00.260 You have a sin and you stumble. Okay. You have another sin, you stumble. 1.00

00:28:04.980 You come and you repent and you stumble.

00:28:07.140 Okay, we're looking for long-term faithfulness.

00:28:11.040 Can you be faithful for decades?

00:28:15.480 Decades.

00:28:15.960 Well, you can look back at a sin and you go,

00:28:17.560 I haven't struggled with that sin for decades.

00:28:20.800 I don't struggle with that sin anymore.

00:28:23.540 It's been overcome.

00:28:24.860 It's been conquered.

00:28:27.220 Let me just offer you a few points of application, okay?

00:28:29.320 First, there were only seven days

00:28:33.580 between the warning and the waters. Think about this. You're Noah and you've been building this

00:28:40.900 thing for like a hundred to 120 years. You've become very like, you're not like the anticipatory

00:28:47.380 side is like totally dead at this point. You don't know when this is going to happen. You don't even

00:28:52.860 know if this is going to happen. You're probably thinking, was I dreaming all of this? Am I

00:28:57.880 building this boat for no reason. You're not at this point thinking, oh, it could be any day.

00:29:05.680 It could be any day. No, you're kind of relaxed as it says that in the days of Noah, people were

00:29:11.800 eating and drinking and being merry and then boom. And he doesn't give you like, hey, I'm going to

00:29:17.100 give you like 30 days notice. He gives you seven days, seven days after 120 years, seven days

00:29:26.260 between the warning and the waters. So God's patience is real, but it's not endless. And when

00:29:32.240 God calls you to obedience, you got to move. You got to move quickly. It's like, okay, now it's

00:29:37.220 time to get in. Which again, it just sets us up with this mentality that you go, be ready. Just

00:29:44.640 be ready all the time to be obedient. Be ready to be obedient all the time. Second, trust God's

00:29:52.660 means of salvation, not your understanding. Noah did not understand how the ark would save,

00:29:59.060 and you might not understand how faith saves. You might be going like, hey, I'm not a theologian.

00:30:06.760 It's really difficult for me to understand these deep doctrinal systematic theology

00:30:09.720 issues of the faith. You don't need to understand them. Did you know that the vast majority of

00:30:16.380 history didn't even have their own Bible? You memorized things like the Apostles' Creed or

00:30:21.140 the Nicene Creed. You don't need to know. It's great. It's a glory. It's a wonderful thing

00:30:25.240 to understand the scriptures. It's a great thing. But what I'm saying is you don't need

00:30:28.900 to understand all of these things. What you need to have is faith. You know, like my son,

00:30:35.040 Deacon, was on the counter at my house. And he just jumps from the counter sometimes into my

00:30:45.820 arms. He has no concern that I might drop him. He has no concern that he might just fall. He

00:30:52.140 doesn't understand the idea of maybe being distracted and that he would jump and just

00:30:56.480 land on the floor. He has complete faith that when he jumps, I catch. And that's not really

00:31:05.080 an intellectual understanding. It really is just a blind faith that if I'm jumping off this thing,

00:31:10.860 my dad's going to catch me. And that is the type of faith you need. You don't need to have

00:31:17.840 this deep intellectual reality. Noah didn't understand what was happening. Wait a second.

00:31:22.820 We've never seen rain before, but you're saying that I'm going to build this boat

00:31:26.160 in this place that's never rained, that waters are going to come out at such a degree that it's

00:31:30.400 going to lift this thing that is the size of two football fields and that water's going to fall

00:31:37.560 from the sky. There's no possible way you could comprehend that had you not seen rain or a flood

00:31:44.820 ever before. It's not understanding that saves you. In fact, it's the lack of understanding.

00:31:53.360 I'll read the gospel. I studied this gospel. I went to seminary. And all the time I get to places

00:31:59.080 where I go, I don't get that. I don't understand. And I still trust the Lord. I still trust that

00:32:07.560 Christ is capable that I could jump somehow

00:32:11.520 into his arms and I'll be saved.

00:32:15.820 I don't know.

00:32:16.800 I don't know how it works.

00:32:18.280 But somehow, I believe that it works.

00:32:23.220 Third, be steady in your obedience over time.

00:32:29.620 Noah did not again obey for a moment.

00:32:31.460 He obeyed for decades.

00:32:33.540 And faithfulness is not proven in bursts of zeal.

00:32:37.560 I've seen this as a pastor.

00:32:42.300 Oh, you're faithful for a few months.

00:32:44.160 That's great.

00:32:46.200 I need you to be faithful for decades.

00:32:51.080 Decades.

00:32:52.560 I don't want to see you stumbling back into pornography. 1.00

00:32:55.620 I don't want to see you stumbling back into lust. 0.85

00:32:57.800 I don't want to see you stumbling back into gossip.

00:33:00.080 I don't want to see you stumbling back into lies.

00:33:02.480 I don't want to see that.

00:33:03.500 We want long-term faithfulness. 1.00

00:33:07.560 Kill that sin. 1.00

00:33:10.260 Kill it. 1.00

00:33:15.480 Quiet endurance 1.00

00:33:17.760 is a wonderful thing.

00:33:22.720 You know the guy,

00:33:23.500 like the best guy at the church

00:33:25.460 is the guy who kind of just shows up,

00:33:31.360 disciples his family,

00:33:33.040 and he does that for years.

00:33:36.660 He doesn't actually demand so much of the needs of the church.

00:33:39.920 I've had guys who are years, they don't need counseling.

00:33:44.480 And sometimes you go, is everything good?

00:33:46.580 Yeah, they're just faithful men.

00:33:48.140 They're just faithful, longstanding.

00:33:49.800 Again, we know that the church ministry of counseling is a good thing.

00:33:53.040 It's a good thing.

00:33:54.060 And when men and women fall, you should come to the church.

00:33:56.600 You should come to your pastors.

00:33:57.560 You should confess your sin and you should receive counseling.

00:34:00.580 I've done it.

00:34:02.620 I know Pastor Corbin's done it.

00:34:03.740 but the goal, the mission, the hope is long-term faithfulness, long-term faithfulness.

00:34:16.400 And finally, I want you to take comfort in this. The same God who warned Noah

00:34:21.240 is the God who preserved Noah. God's commands are not a burden to us, right? I think we often

00:34:30.540 think that obedience, like that God's the beneficiary of obedience? No, you fool. You are. 1.00

00:34:37.520 Think about this for a second. God doesn't benefit when you obey. No, you benefit when you obey.

00:34:46.280 No, it is, it is the, what do you, which life do you think is harder? A life of disobedience or a

00:34:52.240 life of obedience? No, people go, oh, obedience is hard. I'm like, oh, obedience is hard. Try

00:34:57.680 disobedience. Try disobedience. Try, you think order and following God's design is hard? Try

00:35:03.440 disorder. Try chaos. I promise you it's way harder. You want to go do your own thing your own way?

00:35:10.680 Like you want to go try and like do the LGBT thing and you want to go try to do the tranny 1.00

00:35:15.260 thing? Try it. I guarantee it ends in chaos and suffering and sorrow and difficulty. You want to 1.00

00:35:22.340 go try and do things with like I'm right and I'm moral and I'm going to do what I think is right?

00:35:26.920 Oh, I guarantee your life is going to be terrible in 10 years.

00:35:31.240 Obedience is hard.

00:35:32.040 I get it.

00:35:32.880 But disobedience is way harder.

00:35:35.440 Way harder.

00:35:37.460 Learn to obey.

00:35:39.220 Learn to be like Noah, where it could say, and Noah obeyed all that God commanded.

00:35:46.660 Put your name in there.

00:35:49.300 And you obeyed all that God commanded.

00:35:53.020 That is a wonderful life to live.

00:35:56.400 And in fact, I would say it is the easiest life to live.

00:36:00.280 Amen?

00:36:01.160 Amen.

00:36:01.660 Let's pray.

00:36:02.720 Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word, for your vision, for your understanding, for

00:36:07.960 all the wisdom that comes to the scriptures that we might be blessed.

00:36:12.900 Lord, we ask, though, that you would strengthen not just our intellectual understanding, but

00:36:16.600 our faith.

00:36:17.860 Lord, that we might be obedient, that we might be holy and righteous.

00:36:22.480 Father, we ask all of these things in the name of Christ.

00:36:25.420 Amen.

Dale Partridge - March 24, 2026

Genesis 7_1-10 ~ A Greater Ark Than Noah’s

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