Sunday, August 11, 2024 “Faith that Rests in God” The Faith of Noah – Part One

Rev. Mike Coppersmith

OUR GOD IS A GOD OF REST 

Genesis 2:2-3

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” 

Psalm 46:10

Cease striving and know that I am God”.  

Mark 6:31

“Come away with me to a quiet place and rest.”

 Genesis 5:25-29 

When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 

THE RESTLESSNESS OF SIN 

Genesis 6:5-7

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, ‘“I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”  

Genesis 4:14

“And I will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” 

THE RESTFULNESS OF GOD’S GRACE 

Genesis 6:8-9

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 

Acts 15:11

We are all saved by the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” 

Definition of God’s Grace:

God’s heart-cleansing forgiveness, life-changing kindness, and extravagant favor found in Jesus Christ and freely given to people who don’t deserve it and cannot earn it. 

Ephesians 2:8-10

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. 

GOD’S GIFTS OF GRACE 

THE SALVATION OF AN ARK 

Genesis 6:14-17

“So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” 

Hebrews 6:18

We who have fled to Christ for refuge can have great confidence as we hold by faith to the hope that  lies before us. 

Colossians 3:3-4

Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

THE PROVISION OF GOD’S PROMISES 

Genesis 6:18-22 

“But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”   

1 Corinthians 1:20 

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are all ‘Yes” in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”  

THE GIVING OF AN INVITATION 

Genesis 7:1-6

The Lord then said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.”   

Genesis 7:11-12

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 

Genesis 7:20-23

The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 21 Every living thing that moved on land 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 Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. 

Isaiah 55:1

“Come, all of you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”  

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  

Revelation 22:17

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!”  

THE OPPORTUNITY TO BEGIN ANEW 

Genesis 8:1-5

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 

Genesis 8:15-22

Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’” 

2 Corinthians 5:17

If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 

Hebrews 4:3

Now we who have believed enter that rest.”

 Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. 30 I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”