INTRODUCTION:

1. Last week we saw how the LORD destroyed this wicked world with a flood (6:13; 7:4, 12, 23, 24).
2. If the flood is historical, and I believe it happened exactly as the Bible teaches, then the doctrine of divine retribution is real.
3. Last week we saw the Divine sentence -- "And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth" (6:7).
4. We saw the Divine design -- "Make thee an ark of gopher wood" (6:14).
5. We saw the Divine warning -- "And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die" (6:17).
6. We saw the Divine invitation -- "And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark" (7:1).
7. We saw the Divine observation -- "for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation" (7:1).
8. We saw the Divine requirement -- "for thee have I seen righteous" (7:1).
9. We saw the Divine testimony -- "for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation" (7:1). Hebrews 11:5 says Enoch "had this testimony, that he pleased God." Noah also had this testimony (7:1).
10. This morning we will look at the Divine commandment (7:5; 6:22).
11. And this morning we will also look at the Divine security -- "and the LORD shut him in" (7:16).
12. And this morning we will also look at the Divine remembrance -- "And God remembered Noah" (8:1).

I. DIVINE COMMANDMENT (6:22; 7:5)

1. Repeatedly we see that the LORD commanded Noah, "and Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him" (7:5; cf. 6:22; 7:9, 16; 8:15-19).
2. Noah's obedience was the outward manifestation of his saving faith. Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
3. In the Bible we see that God speaks, and man listens. God commands, and man obeys.
4. But oftentimes, God speaks, and man ignores God. And God commands, and man disobeys.
5. First Peter 3:20 says the people in Noah's day were disobedient. For one hundred and twenty years the long-suffering of God waited. God waited patiently while the ark was being prepared, but the people despised God's longsuffering and patience.
6. Genesis 7:10 tells us the LORD gave the people an additional seven days to repent, but they still refused to repent, and then the rain came (7:11, 12).
7. By despising God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, they were storing up for themselves the hot wrath of God (cf. Romans 2:4, 5).
8. We must remember why God sent the flood, because the days of Noah are very similar to our day. First of all -- the great wickedness of mankind. Genesis 6:5 says, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
9. Secondly, God sent the flood because the people rejected the preaching and pleading of Noah.
10. Thirdly, God gave up on them. Genesis 6:3 says, "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years."
11. The 120 years passed, and the people were just as wicked, just as obstinate, and just as unbelieving, so God said, "Enough."
12. "My spirit shall not always strive with man" (Genesis 6:3).
13. There comes a time when God gives up on sinners. Right before the Babylonian captivity, God raised up the prophet Jeremiah, but the people abused him and falsely accused him, and put him in a horrible dungeon. The Bible says, "Jeremiah sunk in the mire" (Jer. 38:6).
14. Several times, the LORD said to Jeremiah, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee" (Jer. 7:16; cf. 11:14; 14:11).
15. Then came the Babylonian captivity. The temple was destroyed; Jerusalem was destroyed; the nation was destroyed; and the people were carried off as prisoners in a foreign land.
16. In Hosea 4:17, we read, “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” In other words -- Don't pray for him; don't intercede for him; don't witness to him; God has given up on him. "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone."
17. And in Romans 1, we read three times that "God gave them up."
18. W.A. Criswell wrote, "Three times, in that beginning chapter of the Book of Romans, does Paul say, concerning the sinners in the Roman Empire, 'God gave them up!' It makes you tremble....they're untouched, they're unmoved, no matter what you do, or what you say...they never respond."
19. They did not respond to Noah's warnings, and today the vast multitudes are not responding to the message of Scripture, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3, 5).

II. DIVINE SECURITY (7:16).

1. The ark was a picture and type of Christ. Those who got in the ark were shut in by LORD Himself (7:16).
2. Spurgeon said, "Outside of the ark all was ruin, but inside all was rest and peace. Without Christ we perish, but in Christ Jesus there is perfect safety. Noah was so shut in that he could not even desire to come out, and those who are in Christ Jesus are in him for ever. They shall go no more out for ever, for eternal faithfulness has shut them in, and infernal malice cannot drag them out."
3. The word "prevailed" (7:18, 19, 24) means God showed Himself strong and powerful. Psalm 29:10 says, "The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever."
4. W.H. Griffith Thomas says the word "prevailed" suggests "not merely a physical prevalence of the Flood, but a spiritual prevalence of Divine judgment, irresistible, irretrievable, irrevocable" (Genesis).
5. Those who got in the ark were safe from the judgment of God.
6. Inside was perfect salvation; outside was eternal damnation.
7. Inside was preservation; outside was ruination and devastation.
8. The LORD shut him in" (7:16).
9. Are you shut in or are you shut out?
10. John 3:18 says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned (not shut out): but he that believeth not is condemned already (is shut out), because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
11. John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life (he is shut in): and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (he is shut out)."
12. Genesis 7:16 says, "the LORD shut him in." You cannot shut yourself in by your own efforts, or by your good works, or by your baptism or by your church membership, etc.
13. Genesis 6:8 says, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."
14. Noah was saved by God's grace through faith.
15. Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house..."
16. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).

III. DIVINE REMEMBRANCE (8:1)

1. Genesis 8:1 says, "And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark..." This does not imply that God had forgotten Noah and all the other occupants of the ark.
2. Men are forgetful, but God is not forgetful. Whenever the Bible says God remembers, it means, God protects and God delivers.
3. Genesis 19:29 says that when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, He "remembered Abraham." In other words, God protected Abraham and God delivered him from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
4. Exodus 2:24 says that when the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt, "God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."
5. God protected the children of Israel and delivered them from Egypt.
6. And God protected and delivered Noah and his family from the flood.
7. God always remembers His children. With reference to His children, there is only thing that God forgets, and that is our sins.
8. In Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 we read these precious words, "And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

CONCLUSION:

1. The Bible teaches that God does not move in judgment until He at first provides for the security of His own people.
2. The flood didn't start till after Noah and his family were safe in the ark. This is a pattern we see in Scripture.
3. Genesis 19:24 says, "Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven."
4. But before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels had to hasten Lot, saying, "Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city."
5. But Lot was worldly-minded and very reluctant to leave. The angels had to drag Lot away, and the LORD told him, "Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither" (Gen. 19:22).
6. The LORD would not send the flood until Noah and his family were safe in the ark.
7. And the LORD would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot and his family were delivered first.
8. Soon the Lord is going to pour out His wrath upon this wicked sin-loving world. But before He does, first He will come to deliver His people from the coming tribulation (cf. I Thess. 4:13-18).
9. Jesus said, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:37).
10. And then Jesus said, "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all" (Luke 17:28, 29).