FBC Morning Light – January 4, 2023

Well a good Wednesday morning to you, and here we are in the middle of the week and we're in our fourth day of a new

Bible reading plan. And today we're reading in Genesis 7 and 8, Matthew 3, and Psalm 3.

And I want to focus on the Genesis passage for just a few minutes this morning. Now Genesis 7 and 8 is right in the middle of the account of the flood, the great flood, beginning in Genesis 6 and then going through chapter 9.

And in Genesis 6, you know, Noah was, by the way, Noah found grace in the eyes of the

Lord. It wasn't that, it wasn't so much that Noah was particularly righteous,

I mean I'm not saying that he was as evil as everybody else, but the wickedness of man on the whole planet was nothing but evil continually, and Noah was a fallen creature.

Noah was a sinner too. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and so God called him, chose him to build this ark, and chose to save him from the destruction of the global flood, so that humanity might be saved through Noah.

Well anyway, you come to chapter 7, and it's now time for the rain to descend upon the earth, and so Noah has to bring all the animals into the ark, and the first several verses talk about, in chapter 7, talk about that very fact that he brought them in, every beast according to its kind, pears, and seven pears of the clean animals, and so forth.

Verse 15 says, they went into the ark to Noah two by two of all flesh, which is the breath of life, and those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him.

But why is it, and how is it, that they were all spared, that they were all saved from the destruction of the flood?

The next line in verse 16 tells us, says, the Lord shut him in.

The Lord shut him in. Now, we don't have a video of this, and we don't have a detailed description of what exactly happened here, and how the

Lord shut him in. I mean, you kind of have this vision that, you know, there was this ramp that led the animals up into the ark, and there was this doorway there, and so on and so forth, and then when everybody was in, then, you know,

Noah didn't have the ability to close everything in and make it secure himself. He didn't.

The Lord shut him in. The Lord closed the doors. The Lord pulled up the ramp.

The Lord caused the seal around the door to be secure, so that the floodwaters wouldn't come in and flood the ark, and therefore cause it to sink.

Now, the point here, I think, is that this is an act of God's grace, and the reality is that in every expression of God's gracious gift of salvation, he is the one that secures and preserves his people.

This was true for Noah, his wife, children, and their wives, and this is also true for you and me, who are saved by the grace of God through the

Lord Jesus Christ. How are we secure? How do we remain faithful to the end?

How do we persevere to the end? Well, you say, well, you know, we have to do certain things.

Well, we are responsible for doing certain things, but when all is said and done, it is

God who, in his grace, keeps us in the palm of his hands. Jesus promised that, didn't he?

That those who are his own, he holds them in the palm of his hand, and we are therefore in his hand, in the palm of the

Father's hand, and that no man can pluck us out of his hand. This is just as secure as Noah, more so, actually, than Noah was secure in the ark.

It is secure because of the gracious and powerful, omnipotent hand of God.

So no man can pluck us out of the Father's hand, because God, in his grace, holds us and secures us and preserves us to the end.

No man can pluck us out. That means even you, even I, we can't pluck ourselves out of the

Father's hand when we are there and therefore secure. What's the appropriate response to this gracious salvation and preservation that God offers to his chosen one, to Noah and his family?

What's the appropriate response? We see it in chapter 8, verse 20. This is after the flood recedes, and they're able to leave the ark.

Verse 20 says, Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

In other words, an appropriate response to God's gracious salvation is worship and sacrifice.

True, we're not going to worship and sacrifice like this. The time and the place for blood offerings is long gone because of the blood offering of the

Lord Jesus Christ, but then what do we offer in worship and sacrifice? We offer ourselves.

Romans 12, verse 1. Therefore, my beloved brethren, on the basis of God's gracious salvation, chapters 1 through 11,

I beseech you, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto

God, and may we do so. And so, our Father and our God, we are so grateful today for your gracious gift of salvation, for your omnipotent, gracious preservation.

You preserve and keep secure all of your own, and we thank you and praise you for that.

Now may we respond to it with worship and the sacrifice of ourselves, and this we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

All right, listen, have a good rest of your Wednesday, and I trust the Lord will bless you on a good day.