1. "Isn't it just like God to intrude in the best way, to intervene? Friends, we're here this morning to praise the intervening God. The interrupting God, the one who will come up in the middle of the sentences of our lives and disrupt them in order to redeem us."

2. "By bringing Noah through the flood, God would in some sense take Noah out of the world, but it would take more than a flood to take the world out of Noah."

3. "Singing does not save you, but saved people sing."

4. "God is not saying he will never destroy the earth again. Scripture is not saying, oh, you won't be judged. No, you will be judged for your sins. But there is a way for you to make it through this judgment."

5. "God poured out his wrath because he is loving. I wonder if you've ever wrestled with the thought that God could be wrathful and loving."

6. "To murder someone who bears God's image is to murder what is most like God."

7. "If you're here just trying to make up for the wrong things you've done by doing a bunch of good stuff, you're doing the exact same thing. We can't provide, friends, the covering we need."

8. "Do you see how the abuse of Scripture can lead to the abuse of image bearers?"

9. "We are all just kids of God trying to figure it out by his grace, by his mercy. There ain't one of us here who's arrived. No, we're all broken stones who make up a great wall of God's work, but nonetheless, we're leaning on one another for support."

10. "Noah was a great man who died in disgrace. But the sweet reminder of this passage today is that even great men, great women, need a great Savior, Jesus, who will cover his people now and forevermore."

Observation Questions

1. According to Genesis 8:1, what did God do for Noah and all the creatures with him in the ark, and what action did God take that caused the waters to subside?

2. In Genesis 8:20-21, what did Noah do after exiting the ark, and how did the Lord respond to Noah's offering?

3. What specific command does God give to Noah and his sons in Genesis 9:1 and 9:7, and how does this echo earlier language in Genesis?

4. According to Genesis 9:5-6, what does God require regarding the shedding of human blood, and what reason does He give for this requirement?

5. In Genesis 9:8-17, what covenant does God establish, with whom does He make it, and what sign does He set as a reminder of this covenant?

6. In Genesis 9:20-23, what happened to Noah after he planted a vineyard, and how did his sons Ham and Shem/Japheth respond differently to their father's condition?

Interpretation Questions

1. The sermon emphasizes that when God "remembered" Noah (Genesis 8:1), this does not mean God had forgotten him. What does it mean for God to "remember" someone, and why is this significant for understanding God's character during times of judgment?

2. How do the details in Genesis 8-9 (the wind/spirit over the waters, the command to be fruitful and multiply, Noah working the ground) echo Genesis 1-2, and what does this suggest about what God is doing through Noah after the flood?

3. The sermon states that "God is wrathful because God is love." How does Genesis 9:5-6, with its emphasis on humans being made in God's image, help explain why God's judgment against violence is actually an expression of His love?

4. Why is it significant that Noah—the righteous man whom God saved through the flood—still fell into sin (Genesis 9:20-21)? What does this reveal about the persistence of human depravity and the need for something more than a flood to deal with sin?

5. How does the action of Shem and Japheth in covering their father's nakedness (Genesis 9:23) reflect what God does for sinners, and how does this connect to Genesis 3:21 and ultimately to Christ?

Application Questions

1. The sermon describes God as "the intervening God" who intrudes into our lives to redeem us. Can you identify a specific situation in your life right now where you need to trust that God has not forgotten you and is working on your behalf, even if you cannot see evidence of it?

2. God established the rainbow as a sign of His covenant promise never to destroy the earth by flood again. What regular reminders or rhythms in your life (seasons, daily provisions, ordinary blessings) do you tend to take for granted, and how might you cultivate a habit of seeing them as evidence of God's faithfulness?

3. The sermon challenged listeners to examine whether there might be ways we twist Scripture today to justify our own desires or harmful practices, just as past generations used the "curse of Ham" to justify slavery. What safeguards can you put in place in your Bible reading and discussions to ensure you are submitting to Scripture rather than using it to support what you already want to believe?

4. Noah's story shows that even after experiencing God's dramatic salvation, sin persisted in his life and family. What specific area of recurring sin or struggle in your life do you need to bring honestly before God and your community, recognizing that you need ongoing grace rather than assuming you've "arrived"?

5. The sermon concluded with the charge to "never recover from having received this mercy." In practical terms, what would it look like this week for you to live with a fresh awareness of God's mercy toward you—in your conversations, your attitude toward others who have wronged you, or your worship?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 3:1-24 — This passage shows the original sin of Adam and Eve, their exposure and shame, and God's covering of them with garments—establishing the pattern of God covering His sinful people that is echoed in Noah's story.

2. Exodus 14:21-31 — This account of Israel passing through the Red Sea parallels Noah's deliverance through water and shows God's pattern of saving His people through judgment while destroying their enemies.

3. Romans 8:1-11 — Paul explains that those who are in Christ Jesus face no condemnation, connecting to the sermon's theme that God remembers and saves His people from judgment through faith in Jesus.

4. 2 Peter 3:1-13 — This passage, referenced in the sermon, warns that the world will face future judgment by fire, not water, and calls believers to live holy lives in anticipation of the new heavens and new earth.

5. Hebrews 11:7 — This passage highlights Noah as an example of faith, showing that his obedience in building the ark was rooted in trusting God's warning about things not yet seen, connecting to the sermon's call to trust God's covenant promises by faith.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Introduction: A Farewell Sermon on God's Actions During Judgment

II. God Remembers His People (Genesis 8:1-22)

III. God Blesses His People (Genesis 9:1-17)

IV. God Covers His People with Mercy (Genesis 9:18-28)

V. Conclusion: Never Recover from Receiving God's Mercy

Detailed Sermon Outline

Good morning.

Let's try that again, beloved. Good morning. There we go. If you're visiting with us, it is great to have you. This morning we'll have in many senses a normal expositional sermon.

All that means is that the point of the sermon will be the point of the Bible passage I'll soon read. So an expositional sermon is one in which the point of the sermon is the point of the biblical text it's focused on. And that is what I have for you, a normal expositional sermon. But if I can be honest, CHBC, while it's a normal sermon, it's also a surreal sermon because this could very well be the last sermon that I preach to you as one of your pastors.

Visitors, so you have some context, because you're kind of stumbling in on a family conversation. I'm currently the candidate for the lead pastor at Iron City Church in Birmingham, Alabama. They vote on whether to call me as their pastor next Sunday evening, so it's not official yet, and CHBC, if Iron City decides to not call me, and the sermon introduction is all for not, we will deal with that awkwardness then.

And we'll trust God's sovereignty. I've been thinking a lot about God's sovereignty. Friends, though, I'm a DC native. The reason I'm happy to head to Alabama is because I want to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's a good opportunity there for me to do that. So, visitors, we talked about how what this church does and lots of churches do is normally preach expositional sermons.

What we also do is normally send expositional preachers. By God's grace, we raise up brothers who will exposit God's Word. And this church sends them out all over because we believe there is a gospel famine in the world. And we want to see as many restaurants as possible open up. So we're not interested in whether everyone is coming to eat at our restaurant as if we're competing with that other restaurant across town.

No, we want to pray for and help and be helped by that other restaurant across town. At CHBC, I think one of God's humbling mercies to us during the pandemic as a church is that we needed other churches to help us. So we helped Franconia Baptist in Virginia by sending Nick Roark a few years ago. And then We had to call them and be like, Hey, Sister Church, a big sister needs to come and stay on your couch for a while.

Oh, for how long? I don't know. How about a year?

But beloved, that's the kind of partnership we can have when gospel restaurants are open for business. So we want to see churches thrive in Anacostia and in Delray, Virginia, and Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and Fayetteville, Arkansas, in Portland, Oregon, in Ankara, Turkey, in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, in Nairobi, Kenya, and beloved, that's just a sample of the work that God in his mercy has allowed this collection of sinners to have a hand in.

So, as I preach and view of you all sending me to a new gospel restaurant, I have to begin by saying thank you. And I love you. I've tried to share my very self with you, foibles and all. You know, the first morning sermon I ever preached here was in Genesis. On June 11th, 2017, the entire pastoral staff was at the SBC.

I wasn't on the staff yet, so I was here, and we said, Jesus, take the wheel. And we let the young buck try to preach Genesis chapter 3. It's an important chapter. It's a tough chapter. I remember preparing that sermon, thinking, why in the world did I pick this passage for my first sermon at CHBC?

But God got me through. He got me through that sermon, and I pray we had an encouraging time in Genesis. Four years later, that's the book we pick it back up in this morning. Turn to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1, it's on page 1 of those red Bibles around you.

I preached Genesis 3 years ago, but Genesis 1 really sets the context for our passage. We've been going through Genesis this summer, but look again at chapter 1, verse 1. Chapter 1, verse 1. If you're new to the Bible, the big numbers are the chapter. The little numbers are the verses.

God's word says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Our story begins with The waters. You see, God had made the world and everything in it, and it was good. And so were the people in it. The people made in His image, they were good.

Until they weren't. Until they sinned. They would take the forbidden fruit. They would eat. They would be exposed before God and He would cover them, but He would also judge them.

And the entire world would be cursed. And under that curse, mankind goes from bad to worse, murdering, hating, sleeping around. And so God says enough.

And God sends a flood.

And we talked about that flood in chapters 6 and 7 three weeks ago. Flip over to Genesis 7:17.

Genesis 7:17, let's pick it up there. Genesis 7:17, it says, the flood continued 40 days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.

The waters prevailed above the mountains covering them 15 cubits deep and all flesh died that moved on the earth birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. God blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground men and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

Beloved, in many senses, we're back to Genesis chapter 1. The waters are covering the earth, but this time they're covering it in God's judgment. Friends, Mark was helping me think through this. You know, aside from the cross, this account about the flood, it's the most horrifying account of judgment that has so far taken place in the history of the world.

And it should cause us to wonder, what is God doing as he judges the world? If you're taking notes, that's the question we'll answer this morning. What does God do as he judges the world? We'll have three answers, and here is the first. He remembers his people.

What does God do as he judges the world? Answer number one, he remembers his people. He remembers his people. This point will cover chapter 8, verses 1 to 22. I won't read all these verses because there's a lot of repetition in them, but I'm gonna highlight and summarize key verses for us.

So let me do just that, beloved. Chapter 7 says, the flood waters have come from top to bottom. They are prevailing upon the earth. But God chapter 8, verse 1 says, look with me, but God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters.

Subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rain from the heavens was restrained and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days, the waters had abated. And in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. Let's pause there. Beloved, what does God do as he judges the world? He remembers his people.

So we should worship him with praise. Look back at verse 1. In the midst of God's judgment, we see that couple that Christians love, but God. Mark's been preaching through Ephesians recently. I think we were somewhere in Anacostia Park when we looked at chapter 2.

It talked about how we, like the people up in chapter 7 under the water, like them, we are dead in our sins, but God made us alive together with Christ. So in our sins, we were on the way to hell, but God God saved us. I remember Lois Watson once talking about the contrasting conjunctions in Scripture. The but Gods, the neverthelesses. And meditating on his character, she said, Isn't it just like God to intrude in the best way, to intervene?

Friends, I don't know if you know, but we're here this morning to praise the intervening God. The interrupting God, the one who will come up in the middle of the sentences of our lives and disrupt them in order to redeem us. Friends, that's what we have in our passage this morning, not primarily judgment, but redemption, by the God who intervenes, the God who saves, the God who remembers. Did you see that in verse 1? But God remembered Noah.

And when the text says remembered, this may confuse you. You know, if God is all-knowing, how can he forget stuff? Well, remember what we talked about a couple of weeks ago when we talked about God regretting in chapter 6. We talked about how that text is describing something true of God, but it's using metaphoric language, language we humans can understand. And we'll see this kind of language in our passage today.

Look at chapter 8, verse 21, and how it talks about God smelling Noah's sacrifice. It says when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma of Noah's sacrifice. Friends, scripture is using anthropomorphic language. So, anthro man people anthropology is the study of people morphic form morph shape. Scripture is describing God according to the form of people so that we can better understand him.

When it says God remembers, what the text is getting at is that God is acting in such a way where he will do good to someone. Friends, by remembering, God is favorably regarding a person. By remembering, God is favorably regarding a person. We sang it in as well. He has regarded me in my helpless estate.

He's favorably regarding a person, usually in a saving way where he provides divine help.

And I wonder if you want that help this morning.

My friend, are you here thinking God has for God in you. Oh, if that's you, think again. That when God judges the world again, if you're trusting in Christ, he will not forget you. That you won't get lost in the shuffle. No, what we see here is that the whole world was covered.

God regarded Noah.

God remembered. And God made a wind blow over the earth. And did you notice that in verse 1? This is an allusion to Genesis 1. We read earlier where the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Hebrew word for wind here is the same word for spirit there in chapter 1. And what we should hear is a retelling of chapter 1 because God is recreating the world, starting over with a new man.

Noah. And if Noah was going to fill the world and rule it, he had to get off that boat. So Noah sends out birds to see if the Earth was sufficiently dry. Noah sent these birds out after 40 days. Chapter 8, verse 6 says, look with me.

At the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window of the Ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Friends, 40 is often a number associated with God's testing or judgment or refinement. So it's interesting, Noah's ark rests on a mountain and after 40 days he acts. Moses, our author, goes up to Mount Sinai for 40 days.

A generation of Israelites was in the wilderness for 40 years.

Brothers and sisters, these aren't random dates. No, God is giving us breadcrumbs across the grand calendar of Scripture to prepare us for the one who Himself would be tested in the wilderness for 40 days. But before we get to Him, we get to a bird or two. In verse 7, this raven goes out first. It doesn't find anywhere to land showing that the waters were still prevailing.

But later in verse 11 and following, Noah sends out a dove and it comes back with a freshly plucked olive leaf. And that's significant because olive trees don't grow at high elevations. Friends, this branch was a sign that the waters had receded. Look at verse 13.

In the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. Brothers and sisters, we have to appreciate what it must have been like for Noah to see dry ground for at least two reasons.

First, he was on that boat a long time.

So the dating at the beginning of verse 13, to save you the time when we compare it to the dates in chapter 7, it means Noah was on the boat for 370 days total.

Can you imagine being on a boat with a bunch of animals and your in-laws? And I love my in-laws. But it's you, your in-laws and the animals. I mean, can you imagine? Day five, I'm like, yeah, I'm just going to go hang with the giraffes tonight.

And we laughed, but life on the ark was probably really hard. So when Noah saw the dry ground, imagine the relief. But more than just natural relief, remember secondly that the ground has been such a theme in Genesis. It was cursed twice over. It was the dirt from which Abel's blood cried out.

But now it's as if God has washed the ground of the violence it has absorbed. And Noah sees a new slate of soil. And God says, go out onto it. Verse 15, look with me. Then God said to Noah, Go out from the ark.

Friends, this is the first time we see God speaking to Noah since he shut him into the ark. You know, had God spoken to Noah while he was on the ark? Had Noah been sailing in divine silence? We don't know. But we do know now that God tells Noah to go out.

And at the end of verse 17, he says, bring everyone and everything with you and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. The echoes of Genesis 1 and 2 and what God told Adam and Eve to do are only getting louder.

And I don't know if Noah got loud with praise, but he certainly gave it to God. Just as the Israelites praised God right after they passed through the waters of the Red Sea, Noah would make it through the waters of God's judgment and praise him. Brothers and sisters, as I think about going out to pastor, I know one of the things I'll miss doing most with you guys is singing. Singing year around, summer and winter, springtime and harvest. Friends, singing does not save you, but saved people sing.

We praise God. Noah worshiped God. He built an altar. Verse 20 tells us. Look at it with me.

Then built. And then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

This offering would certainly express gratitude, but it would also be one of atonement, of paying for sins, and already we see that because God is just, even Noah's sins and his family's sins they committed on the ark would need to be accounted for. And Noah's offering pleases the Lord, verse 21 tells us. And the Lord ends this first section with what one commentator called a poem of praise. A poem of promise in verse 22. Now the Lord resolves in verse 22 that seasons will continue.

Summer, winter, seed time, harvest. Now this is where we get the lyrics for Great is thy faithfulness we sang earlier. God is saying, no longer will there be a cacophony of unpredictable flood waters. No, the earth will have Regular rhythms. But before the end of our section, the Lord also revolves in verse 21, to never curse the ground again, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth, he says.

There's a bit of a depressing note here because the verdict about people's sinful nature after the flood is similar to the one given before the flood. Look at chapter 6, verse 5.

Chapter 6, verse 5. Before the flood, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. Here in chapter 8 verse 21 we hear much of the same except that verb is in the present tense. The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

If you're here and you're not a Christian, it's wonderful to have you. I wonder if you would think of yourself as evil. The Bible says, All people, you, me, are born as sinners. We have a sinful nature, a nature inclined to evil from our earliest days.

And brothers and sisters, I think any of us who have ever served in childcare Get this. Like we don't have to teach little Johnny to not share. He knows how to not share. Kids, if you haven't turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus, you need to be saved.

One of my family's favorite books is Sarah Rejewski's book, for toddlers Jesus saves, in which she clearly says, you, need to be saved, little one. And grown-ups, it's easy to talk to the little Johnnies, it's easy to see little Johnnies sin, but have you ever thought about your own sin? Would you describe yourself as a sinner? Why? Why not?

The text tells us here clearly what the psalmist writes in Psalm 51 that we were conceived. We were brought forth in iniquity. Friend, we're going to see it soon, even in Noah. But the sad reality is that sin persisted even after the flood. But despite sin, God continues to intervene.

It's striking. You would think the sin of the people would make God pull back. But in his goodness, he draws near. He doesn't curse Noah. He blesses him.

And that's our second answer this morning. What does God do as he judges the world? Answer number two, he blesses his people.

What does God do as he judges the world? Answer number two, he blesses his people. This point we'll cover chapter 9 verses 1 to 17. Follow along as I read.

Chapter 9, verse 1, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

Let's pause there. Beloved, what does God do as he judges the world? He blesses his people so we should trust him by faith. And look back at chapter nine, verse one.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth. Verses 1 and 7 of chapter 9 book in this section with this command again, sounding a lot like Genesis 1. But some of the details now are a little different. So mankind will still have dominion over animals, but now they don't, they won't just all naturally get along. You heard of the fear and dread in verse 2.

And yet, dread isn't the primary note of this section. Blessing is. God says in verse 3, I give you everything.

Beloved, God gives you everything you need. Like your food. That's the context of this passage food. God goes on to say to mankind mankind can now eat of the animals. Before in the Garden of Eden they were just eating of plants.

God does give one prohibition about eating animals with their lifeblood in it. In Acts 10 God clarifies that this prohibition is no longer in effect. But God doesn't only talk about killing animals but people.

Killing one another. He says he'll now require a reckoning for the life of man. Look at verse 6. Chapter 9, verse 6, Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. Why?

The end of verse 6, For, or because, God made man in his own image.

Friends, all people are made in God's image. Unlike the animals, we are made in the likeness of God. We show something of what God is like. The image of God means all people are worthy of respect and dignity and love. If the flood sounds to you as if God doesn't care about life, you know, all these people die because heartless God sends this big flood, I wonder if you've ever asked why God sent that big flood.

God sent it because He is love. And because He is love, He values life. He values those who bear His image.

He values you. Friend, to murder someone who bears God's image is to murder what is most like God.

And the earth had been full of this kind of violence. You remember Cain and Abel from chapter four. You remember violent Lamech from chapter five.

For the grand verdict, look at chapter 6, verse 11. Chapter 6, verse 11.

Before the flood, the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. Verse 13, and God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence.

Through them. Friends, God poured out his wrath because he is loving.

I wonder if you've ever wrestled with the thought that God could be wrathful and loving.

Listen to what one theologian said as he came to appreciate the goodness of God's wrath. He said, I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God. Isn't God love? Shouldn't divine love be beyond wrath? God is love and God loves every person and every creature.

That's exactly why God is wrathful against some of them. As a theologian goes on to say, my last resistance to the idea of God's wrath was a casualty of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, two 300,000 people were killed and over 3 million people were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed. My people shelled day in and day out, some of them being brutalized beyond imagination.

And I could not imagine God not being angry. How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandparently fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirming the perpetrators' basic goodness? But wasn't God fiercely angry with them?

Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God's wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn't wrathful at the sight of the world's evil. God isn't wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love. Brothers and sisters, if you're here knowing violence, God sees you and he cares.

That's why he establishes means of legal redress, a means to restrain violence. You remember a few weeks ago we talked about Lamech from chapter five and how he prided himself in executing punishments that didn't fit the crime, 77-fold revenge.

Well, here God lays out a life for a life because He values life.

Now, I know some of you will have good questions about capital punishment. You can see me at the door after. You can talk to an elder or of course talk amongst yourselves, but to be clear, Scripture is not saying you yourself can be an arbiter of capital punishment. That there are duly appointed authorities who are to try people justly and establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt, a process which can be very complex in a fallen world. But Scripture is also clear in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 that the authorities are God-given, and they do not bear the sword in vain, and they punish evil, including the unauthorized taking of human life.

And yet we need to press on because this section is not primarily about punishment but preservation.

It's about covenant, blessing. Earlier in chapter six, God had said to Noah, I will establish my covenant with you. And in chapter 9, verses 8 through 17, he comes through on his promise, his word, which we should trust by faith. Brothers and sisters, as we anticipate God's coming judgment, we should trust his covenant promises. Now, what is a covenant?

A covenant formally binds two parties together in a relationship on the basis of mutual personal commitment with consequences for breaking or keeping the covenant. A covenant formally binds two parties together in a relationship on the basis of mutual personal commitment with consequences for breaking or keeping the covenant. A covenant signed is a visible seal and reminder of the covenant commitment. So in our culture, we treat this ring as a sign of the marriage covenant I've made with Megan. A God here makes a covenant with Noah, his descendants and every living creature saying that he'll never again destroy mankind and the earth by another flood.

And the covenant sign that reminds God of his promise, again anthropomorphic language when it comes to God needing a reminder, the sign is a rainbow. Now look at verse 8, chapter 9, verse 8. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock and every beast of the earth with you. As many came out of the ark. It is for every beast of the earth.

I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. And never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you, every living creature that is, and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Friends, rainbows are not mythical maps with pots of gold at the end or symbols to use for our pride. Rainbows are a divine reminder to God and to his creation of God's preserving promise.

That he has withheld the fountains of heaven from emptying out yet again on the earth.

You know this past Friday it rained. It poured. I wonder if any of you saw this sign.

Friends, this is the first covenant God explicitly mentions in Scripture. It's not the only covenant in Scripture. That's important because I've been saying at this point, God blesses his people. But the noetic covenant is for many senses, it's for all people. Beloved, there is such a thing as common Grace.

Grace God gives to people, regardless of whether they trust in Jesus. Yet it's Jesus who brings about a new covenant. It's Jesus who all the promises of God, God find their fulfillment in. And even hearing of Noah's covenant reminds us that in the new covenant, we, God's people, won't just be spared from the flood of the past judgment, but the fire of the next judgment.

To be clear, friends, through the Noahic covenant, God says he'll never destroy the earth again by a flood. But God is not saying he will never destroy the earth again. Matt Schmucker is going to teach tonight from 2 Peter 3 about the judgment that is to come, not with water, but with fire. So if you're here and you're not a Christian, please do not hear me saying, oh, you won't be judged. No, you will be judged for your sins.

But there is a way for you to make it through this judgment.

Earlier I asked if you know yourself to be a sinner. If you do, listen to this next point carefully. Because we'll see sin in the next point, but we'll also see something more of how God deals with sinners even after the flood. Which brings us to our final point. What does God do as he judges the world?

Answer number three. He covers his people with mercy. What does God do as he judges the world? Answer number three.

He covers his people with mercy. This point will cover chapter 9, verses 18 to 28, and because it's a short section, I'll read it all for us. God has established his covenant between him and all flesh that is on the earth. He has blessed Noah and what happens to Noah? Chapter 9, verse 18, follow along as I read.

The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah. And from these people of the whole earth, from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.

He drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. And let Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

Beloved, what does God do as he judges the world?

He covers, his people with mercy. So we should turn to him with repentance. Friends, I mentioned repentance because the text mentions sin. Did you see what happens with Noah? God's man, he sinned and showed himself to be like that first man, Adam, in that first wave of creation.

So as God in creation had planted a garden that Adam would work, in recreation we have a vineyard that Noah worked. Verse 20 says he began to be a man of the soil. As Adam would sin by taking the fruit, Noah would sin by over indulging in it. As Adam would be ashamed of his nakedness, Noah would be horrified at his exposure. And Noah shows us how sin persists even after the flood.

Friends, do you see it? By bringing Noah through the flood, God would in some sense take Noah out of the world, but it would take more than a flood to take the world out of Noah.

And like Adam, though not exactly like him, we see the sin of the father affect his children. Like Adam's family, which becomes divided and dysfunctional, Noah's family takes a similar turn.

Moses goes on in this text to tell us what happens with Shem, Ham, and his son Canaan and Japheth. So what's going on here in this section with this nakedness in the covering is that, like chapter five, where we looked at those genealogies, Moses is comparing and contrasting two lineages. He's going to show the differences between the evil deeds of Ham, who saw his father's nakedness and gossiped about it and shamed his father. Moses will compare those to the godly deeds of Shem and Japheth, who honored their father. And so we see the curses and blessings that result.

Ham's son, not Ham, but his son, Canaan, would be cursed. So that is what is happening in this passage. But I would be remiss, beloved, to not tell you about what is not happening in this text. Because historically, this portion of Genesis has been horrifically abused to support a heresy known as the curse of Ham. The curse of Ham has been used by Jews, Muslims, and those who profess the name of Christ to justify chattel slavery.

But the gangrene of the Curse of Ham, while prolific during the period of American slavery, was not limited to that time. T.B. Mastin, a Southern Baptist professor who decried the Curse of Ham, wrote in 1959 that the Curse of Ham was used to justify slavery. It is being used by some people today to defend the status quo in race relations.

So it wasn't just Black subjugation that the Curse of Ham buttressed, but the general ideology of black inferiority.

Why black people? Proponents of the Curse of Ham looked at Ham's descendants in Genesis 10:6 and saw Cush, father of ancient Ethiopia, Egypt, Put, father of ancient Libya, and Canaan. Because three of Ham's four sons became fathers of African peoples, and because the word Ham was thought to be related to the Hebrew words for black or dark, proponents of the Curse of Ham saw religious justification for their racist ideologies and practices. And to quote one Southern Baptist president, P.H. Mel, he said this in 1844, From Ham were descended the nations that occupied the land of Canaan and those that now constitute the African or Negro race.

Their inheritance, according to prophecy, has been and will continue to be slavery.

Beloved, do you see how the abuse of Scripture can lead to the abuse of image bearers? The grand irony is that people try to squeeze the curse of Ham out of a text that so elevates the image of God. Oh, I love what one black sister said. She said, Racists may have written many books, but the Bible was not one of them. What's more, Noah didn't even curse Ham.

He cursed Ham's son, Canaan. Noah didn't curse Ham's sons who would father African people. He cursed Canaan, the one son whose descendants did not primarily populate Africa. Chris Davis, Southern Baptist pastor here in Alexandria, did some historical digging on the curse of Ham recently, and he sums up the exegetical reality nicely. He says six chapters after the curse in Genesis 15, God mentions Canaan's descendants in relation to the land God promised to Abraham, telling Israel's father that his descendants shall come back here in the fourth generation because the iniquity of the Amorites, a representative of Canaanite people, is not yet complete.

In other words, the Canaanites would be punished. We see this in the conquest of Canaan. You can read Joshua 9 for more on that. But that conquest happened it's done, and while there was in fact a connection between Ham's sin and judgment, it has nothing to do with skin color.

Friends, the exegetical case for the curse of Ham is laughable. The damage that resulted from its propagation is anything but that.

And yet, We have a choice to make here, beloved. I could read you more terrible quotes by clergymen. And we can sit here and talk about how bad those people were. And yes, I read you one quote so you could hear history honestly as it relates to this passage. And so you could avoid history's mistakes.

And so you could see that I'm not making this up. I got that PHML quote from a thorough and most importantly honest historical report the Southern Baptist Baptist Theological Seminary did on itself. And I stand here as a graduate of Southern Seminary with gratitude. So I gave you one quote, and I could give you lots more, but I think what is more fruitful for us, more just of us, beloved, is not to sit here with the convenient hindsight of history on our side and say with contempt, how could they? As if we would have necessarily had more theological acuity if we had lived then.

No beloved, I think it would be more fruitful to look inside ourselves and see how the intentions of our heart is evil from our youth and how even our hearts are so sick that we would take holy scripture and twist it even if it resulted in the harm of others so that we could get what we want. Whether it be money, power, or some other perversion. Friends, the prosperity gospel operates with a curse of ham hermeneutic. And men twisting scripture so they can have their way with women is a curse of ham hermeneutic. And these are more individual examples.

But the haunting reality is that we are so sick with sin that we have to ask, could there be an obvious evil today that many of us take for granted? And people in the future will look back on us with horror.

Beloved, you think people back then are so bad. You may be right. But what will they say about us in 500 years should the Lord tarry? I'd give you some examples about how we corporately today might grossly abuse Scripture, but that's just it. The abuses aren't always clear in the present moment.

But what is clear is that we, like them, are our own theological forebearers and that we, like Noah, are in need of mercy. And what is clear this morning is that God is willing to give it. Earlier we talked about the connections between Adam and Noah. Adam walked with God, Noah did. Adam ruled the beasts, so did Noah.

Adam sinned with the fruit, so did Noah. Adam was naked, so was Noah. But Adam was covered by God.

And so was Noah. Beloved Shem and Japheth are commended not because they decided, you know, to just be good boys for dad, but because what they did is what God does with his sinful people. He covers them. He covers over their sins. You saw it here in chapter 9.

Flip back to Genesis 3. Genesis chapter 3. Man has sinned, he's made a loin cloth of fig leaves that is as pathetic as the exegetical grounds for the curse of Ham. Friends, Adam and Eve try to cover up their own shame with these leaves. And if you're here just trying to make up for the wrong things you've done by doing a bunch of good stuff, you're doing the exact same thing.

We can't provide, friends, the covering we need. That was the spiritual dilemma in Adam and Noah's day, and the dilemma is the same in ours. But look at verse 21 of chapter 3. What do we see?

The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. And if you're here, exposed before God in your sin, there is a garment for you, the righteousness of Christ. And Christ will give it to you. You see, because Jesus went to the cross, as he was headed there, he was stripped, and beaten. But onward he went.

And on that Roman tree, Jesus died in the place of sinners like you and me. Though he lived a perfect life, Jesus took the death we deserved. Friends, God didn't just remember God the son died. But God the son was raised from the dead three days later and now offers forgiveness. Mercy covering to any of us whether you'd be a racist, a murderer, a drunk or a little Johnny who didn't know how to share your toys.

God now offers mercy to anyone who would turn from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. Friend, if you haven't do that today. Come and be covered. Come and receive mercy.

And as I close, and what I think is my longest sermon at this church, I just have one charge for you.

Never recover from having received this mercy.

Never let mercy be old to you or commonplace. As Meg and I have been thinking about moving, we've looked at houses, we've made trips, we've thought about picking up our family, and I'm like, man, this is hard. This is stressful. I feel like a kid just trying to figure it out. But then I remember, beloved, that we are all just kids of God trying to figure it out by his grace, by his mercy.

There ain't one of us here who's arrived. No, we're all broken stones who make up a great wall of God's work, but nonetheless, we're leaning on one another for support.

And oh how I've leaned on this church and look at how merciful God has been through it. 15 years ago I was a scrawny teenager skateboarding in the parking lot of this church with Mark's son Nathan and Jason Schmucker on a quarter pipe ramp that Andy Johnson built us. Lee Beach, formerly Lee Ue, was my high school chemistry teacher. That was God's sanctification in her life. Former CHBC intern Nick Pietrowski was my theology teacher.

I came into the internship in 2013, worked for Matt Schmucker from 2013 to 2016, came on staff, was discipled by so many of you. Zach Reju, James Dunlop, Ken Garbick, our Dever, My voice gets so high when I cry. Bobby Jameson.

The list goes on. So does God's mercy.

Beloved, we can't out-sin God.

Noah was a great man.

Who died in disgrace. Heard that last note? Andy died. Sound a lot like chapter five, right?

But the sweet reminder of this passage today is that even great men, great women, need a great Savior, Jesus, who will cover his people now and forevermore. Let's pray.

O Father, you have remembered us, blessed us, and covered us with mercy. Our great hope is that you will still remember us, God, bless us and cover us with mercy. Do that until the day we walk with you, O Lord, in the new heavens and the new earth we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.