Faith That Saves

Good morning and welcome back to this study in Genesis. Sorry about missing last week, I was down state at an evangelism conference. We are looking at Genesis 7:17-24 today. Water, water every where and not a spot of dry land to be found. Sounds a little bit like that Kevin Costner movie "Water World." Funny how some believe that something like that could happen, but they have trouble believing that it did happen.

So now a little recap of what led us to this point.The Lord Christ Jesus said that in the days of Noah the people were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (Matt. 24:38). In other words they were just getting along with their lives, ignoring the strange man in their midst who was building a massive boat with nowhere to sail it. Perhaps they had grown used to seeing him working and preaching, and as nothing ever seemed to happen they had chosen to assume he was wrong about his dire predictions.

But the judgment fell and as the Lord Christ Jesus reminded His hearers, “so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:39). Noah’s faith and faithfulness are powerful reminders to God’s people to look for the glorious appearing of the Lord Christ Jesus. Noah still has something to say to God’s people when they are tempted to settle into lives just like the unbelievers!

So the righteous judgment of the offended Lord fell. But in the midst of the horror sailed a man and his family secure in the serenity of a faith which had released the resources of grace. So has it ever been throughout human history.

Many centuries after Noah’s voyage another man of faith set sail in very different circumstances. William Carey was a pastor and a shoemaker (presumably he thought that if tent-making was good enough for the apostle Paul, shoe-making was good enough for him). He had published a remarkable tract with the resounding title, “An enquiry into the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathens,” and followed it with deeply felt sermons seeking to awaken the churches to the needs of the unreached peoples of the earth. He had been roundly criticized for his efforts by church leaders but undeterred he set sail for India on the premise that he should “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” He had very little formal education but this did not stop him from teaching himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, and French before setting out for India where he subsequently learned Bengali, translated the entire Bible into Bengali, and helped in producing Scriptures and related materials in no less than forty different languages and dialects. During his forty years’ ministry he buried his wife and all his children in India, but he persisted in his conviction that God had called him, that he should obey and trust Him, that he should use his God-given skills for the blessing of God and man, and that one day he would land safely on the shores of Glory as surely as he had previously landed in India and Noah before him had landed safely on Mt. Ararat.

Gen 7:17-24

17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. 21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished--birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

Verses 17-24 contain a description of the flood: how the water increased more and more, until it was 15 cubits above all the lofty mountains of the earth, and how, on the one hand, it raised the ark above the earth and above the mountains, and, on the other, destroyed every living being upon the dry land, from man to cattle, creeping things, and birds.

If the water covered "all the high hills under the whole heaven," this clearly indicates the universality of the flood. The statement, indeed, that it rose than 20 feet above the mountains, is probably founded upon the fact, that the ark drew 15 feet of water, and that when the waters subsided, it rested upon the top of Ararat, from which the conclusion would very naturally be drawn as to the greatest height attained.

Now as Ararat is only 16,254 feet high, whereas the loftiest peaks of the Himalaya and Cordilleras are as much as 26,843, the submersion of these mountains has been thought impossible, and the statement in v. 19 has been regarded as a rhetorical expression by some. The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, and the raining forty days and nights, had raised the waters 20 feet above the highest mountains. After the forty days it appears to have continued at this height for one hundred and fifty days more. "So," says Dr. Lightfoot, "these two sums are to be reckoned distinct, and not the forty days included in the one hundred and fifty, so that when the one hundred and fifty days were ended, there were six months and ten days of the flood past."

With God doing this there would have been plenty water to cover all the earth. That means everything that lived upon the dry land, who had to breath for life, would inevitably die, and, with the exception of those shut up in the ark, neither man or beast would be able to rescue itself, and escape destruction.

Some say that God was cruel for doing this, but remember the whole time Noah was working on the ark he was tell folks to repent and be saved.(1 Peter 3:17-20) It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. Any who would have done so would have been allowed on the ark.