Sermon - Lent Midweek 2 - 2019 - The Flood

“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… But Noah found favor in the eyes of God...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.” 

The world prior to the deluge of water was flooded with the wickedness and evil of man. The Lord does not abide with such evil. God and evil are fundamentally opposed to one another. We see the evidence of this from the flood account just read, where our Lord sent rain upon the earth for 40 days and nights, and every living creature not inside of the ark was blotted from the face of the earth.

But you might be thinking, we’re supposed to hate the sin and love the sinner. However that statement is a little too simplistic. God hates sin such that God hates those who do sins as well. We learn this from Psalm 5, “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” The Lord hates evildoers, He abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men, and He destroys them! 

Now of course God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He desires that all would repent and be saved and turn away from their sin. That man would choose to pursue sin and have an evil heart grieves God to His heart. Since this is the same God who wept over unbelieving Jerusalem, who wept at the death of Lazarus, no doubt He was deeply saddened when the deluge of water drowned all the people of the earth whom He had lovingly created.

Even when all the thoughts of mankind are only evil continually, God still provided the way of escape from His wrath and from the sins of the world. Noah and his family, eight souls in all, were rescued from the unbelieving world and from the wrath of God through the ark. Still to this day, the Christian church is the ark within which our Lord preserves us amidst a world flooded with sin.

The Lord rescued Noah and His household because He saw that Noah was a righteous man, unlike all the people around Him. This doesn’t mean that Noah and his family were without sin, after all if we had read the next chapter in Genesis we’d hear Noah pass out drunk and naked on his bed and his son Ham come into the tent and mock his naked father. 

Noah and his household weren’t saved because of their moral perfection, but because they had faith. The writer to the Hebrews explains what made Noah a righteous man: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” Noah and his household were permitted upon the ark because of their faith.

This ark sheltered them from the corruption upon the earth. This ark sheltered them from God’s punishment for sin. This ark sheltered them from the storms they faced in life.

Our Lord has given to us an ark in our day as well. St. Peter teaches us that just as “God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water; Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you… through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

The earth is once again flooded with the wickedness of evil man and the thoughts of our hearts are only evil continually. We are among those who must be drowned out and blotted from the face of the earth. So the Lord does drown you in the holy flood waters of baptism. A great deluge has drowned out your sinful heart. In the baptismal font you were drowned and killed. But in that font you put on Christ, the wooden cross He carried is the wooden ark which rescued you from the punishment of everlasting death. 

The waters of baptism have drowned your wicked heart, and the wood of the cross has kept you afloat amidst the treacherous waters of this world. Dear Christians, the scriptures instruct us that the church is the body of Christ, and therefore the Christian church is the ark of the New Testament within which we live. 

Within this ark of the Christian Church we are given faith which declares us to be righteous. Within this ark, you are sheltered from God’s righteous anger against sin. Within this ark, you are sheltered from the sin which floods this world. Within this ark, you are sheltered from the storms you face in life. 

Prior to the flood, it hadn’t rained yet upon the earth, since the plants were watered by the mist that came up from the ground. You can imagine the fear and fright when the dark storm clouds came to gather and water for the first time fell from the heavens. So in our day, this world is changing and is becoming filled with evil such as has not been seen before. It’s frightening. 

So my friends I urge you to take great comfort in the ark of the Christian Church. Bring your household into this refuge, bring your neighbors and friends to this ark of God’s saving grace. Surely the ark must have looked foolish in Noah’s day, just as the cross Jesus was crucified upon looks foolish in our day. But in this ark, in this church, God has established His covenant of grace with us.

Just as beautiful as the rainbow is in the sky as a sign of God’s promise, so how much more beautiful is baptism which is no mere sign but is itself God’s promise of grace given to each of us. If you already look to the sky reminded of God’s promise to Noah, then even more look to your baptism and be reminded of God’s active working in your life to bring you to faith and declare you to be righteous with Noah. 

You’re living through the flood right now, you’re surrounded by sin, God’s wrath will come on judgement day. But you’re kept safe from it all. The wooden ark of gopher wood has become the wooden tree of the cross and the body of Christ. In this ark of Christ’s body you have been sealed with the sign of the cross, God has shut you in and sealed the door so that you will not sink. Be assured and confident in this ark. You’re safe and here you will safely ride out the storm.