Genesis 8:15-22 The Gospel Certainty: The Promise of God
The Introduction
Through judgment and wrath and righteousness and the holiness of God and his right decisions, the people of God who have put their faith, trust, believe, and obedience and yes, hope, in their Christ alone, will be saved.
The Word
Lamentations 3:19–26 (CSB)
19 Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and the poison.20 I continually remember them and have become depressed.
21 Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!
24 I say, “The LORD is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.”
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him.
26 It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.
The Text
Genesis 8:15–22 (CSB)
15 Then God spoke to Noah,16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
17 Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
18 So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out.
19 All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, and all the flying creatures—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark by their families.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
The Support
2 Corinthians 1:20 (CSB) For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God.
God
15 Then God spoke to Noah,
16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
17 Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
Promise of God: God will deliver you through the world
James 4:13-17 (CSB) Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
I am not trying to preach your best life now. Because you if you think you believe there is a God and don't obey him, this is the best that life gets. Because your way is straight to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
If you have put your sins and trust and faith into the Holy One of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord, this is the by far the worst your life can ever get.
Listen, we are here for a moment.
Loss of brother, mother, father, grandmother, children, childhood, jobs--abused, tormented, persecuted, brought to the brink of suicide and death.
Oddly specific? It should be--this is my life! This is the brokenness of my sin and the sins against me. I cannot look to remove those pains away from me--I need someone that will meet me in my pain and bring me up to himself. I need God.
The promises in Psalm 16 and 17?
Actual life. Fullness of joy. Pleasures evermore. Complete satisfaction?
Those are not nice things to have if you get them. I have experienced everything this world has to offer. I have chased the end of the my sin in lust, perversion, pornography. I got to the end and it was death. World has nothing. God has everything. I need all of those things that God is promising so I can truly live.
The Gospel
18 So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out.
19 All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, and all the flying creatures—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark by their families.
Promise of God: the people of God are saved
Tell me when you get bored of the good news.
Matthew 1:21 (CSB) She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 (CSB) For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Romans 5:8-9 (CSB) But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
Acts 2:21 (CSB) Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
If you don't get this: the ark of Noah is Christ our Lord. Christ is the one who judged mankind, released the floodwaters of his righteous wrath but the protector of the his people and his world.
You might say, "But didn't Noah build the ark?"
First of all, who gave the command? Who made Noah? Who gave grace? Who gave strength? Who included Noah on his own plans? Who prophesied? Who made the trees that made the wood? Who made the ore that made the nails that made the wood? Who commanded the animals to come in two by two?
Who alone is righteous? Who alone calls for repentance of sin? Who is the only one who can save us from this body of death?
Jesus Christ is his name!
Matthew 23:37-39 (CSB) Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’!”
Our Response
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Promise of God: remember and worship him
21 When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”