Bethany Baptist Church
Sunday, March 22, 2026
  • This is Amazing Grace
  • Holy Forever
  • Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy)

      • Genesis 7:6–8:22NLT

      • Matthew 24:37–39NLT

      • Genesis 7:16NLT

      • Genesis 8:1NLT

      • Ecclesiastes 3:15NLT

      • Amos 7:4NLT

      • Luke 17:26NLT

  • Is He Worthy
  • Make Us One
  • We are fascinated by the end of the world. Some of the biggest blockbuster movies deal with the end of the world. Entire TV shows deal with it. Novels make best-seller lists. Christianity is not immune. I remember back in the early 2000s when the Left Behind books were all the rage.
    In fact, ask a group of people what Bible book they want to study. I promise you most will say Revelation.
    You know why? We are obsessed with the end of the world. We want to see it and read about it and speculate about it and be in the know about it.
    Well, that happens in the book of Genesis. God brought all of creation to an end in the very first book of the Bible.
    I titled this off the REM song, “It’s the end of the world and you know it.” The song itself is a sarcastic look at the chaos of the news and our world and how in the end, the author is fine despite all the instability going on. It’s a song that plays in a lot of movies about the end of the world. The lyric goes “It’s the End of the world as you know it and I feel fine.” And in a way, that describes what’s happening, particularly with Noah and his family.
    It’s the end of the world as they know it and they feel fine.
    READ Genesis 7:6-8:22
    Genesis 7:6–8:22 ESV
    Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. The flood continued forty 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 fifteen 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. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man 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. 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 seventeenth 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. At the end of forty 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. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. In the six hundred and first 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. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. 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. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
    The story of Noah and the Ark is the story of salvation for humanity, for creation, and for Noah. But never forget this is God’s Story. He’s the main character and the one the story is about. In fact, Noah never speaks once in the entire story. God does all the action.
    When I look at this story, it’s the story of the end of the world.

    God ended the world

    We miss that. We teach it in Vacation Bible School. We adorn church nurseries with pictures of smiling Noah bringing the animals two by two into the ark. They even built one in Williamstown, Ky., as a tourist destination.
    But this is not a happy occasion. It’s a tragedy. God has gotten so fed up with human depravity and sin has taken such a hold over his creation that God decides to blot it all out.
    I’m not so sure Noah was smiling and happy. Grateful yes. But on the day of the flood, it was the destruction of everything and everyone. Everything Noah knew was about to be destroyed. Everyone Noah knew was about to die.
    And they didn’t even realize it. On the day of the flood, no one expected it to be the last day of the world as they knew it. Or the beginning of the end of their life. They woke up. They played games. They went to work. They did all the evil they were doing. No one suspected it.
    Jesus talked about this. He should know. As the eternal God he was there before the flood, during the flood, and after the flood.
    READ Matthew 24:37–39
    Matthew 24:37–39 ESV
    For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
    Life was going on as it always had. No one had any clue. Until the waters came from the sky and the ground opened up. When the water rose higher and the high ground they fled too became less and less until it was gone and they had no where else to go.
    This is a sad tale of death and destruction. It’s made sadder because God never wanted this. He created us to spend time with us. He created humanity for relationship. But he also could not ignore the evil prevailing in the earth.
    So God ended the world.
    God’s solution to sin run amok was death and destruction. By the way, this isn’t something new or out of the blue. He warned Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that the consequence of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be death. If they ate of the tree, they would die.
    He warned Cain that sin was crouching at the door and desired to have him. And that he needed to rule over his sinful desires. He did not and was cast further from the presence of God.
    And now, with sin being rampant on the earth, with humans more depraved than ever, the answer now is the same answer then. It’s the same answer today. Because of sin, death results. In this case, it’s the death of everyone and everything. God’s solution for dealing with sin dominating creation was to end the world.
    Make no mistake. This is God’s doing. It’s not global warming. It’s not a meteor that comes from space to wipe out life on earth. It isn’t a freak weather pattern. No. This is 100% God taking action.
    In the insurance world, they label some accidents or claims as acts of God. Sara hit a deer once and that’s how the claim was described. When hurricanes hit they’ll be called acts of God.
    Well, this was an act of God. He flooded the earth. He made it rain for forty days and nights. We complain if it rains for 4 days. He made it rain for 40. And the floodwater filled the earth. And everybody died. Except for Noah and you know why? Because he and his family, and the animals on that ark were preserved and saved by God.

    God saved Noah because of the relationship they had.

    I think it’s important we understand that. Sometimes we can read these Old Testament passages and come to some wrong conclusions. We can view this as all the things Noah did to save himself and his family. He listened to God. He built the ark. He brought the animals in.
    You come away talking about all the things Noah did and in doing so, you’ll miss the theological conclusion of the passage. None of those things saved Noah. God did.
    Think about it, Noah built the boat because God told him to. God gave him the instructions. God provided the material and the time to get it done.
    There is something to be said about following God’s instructions and being in his will. But being in his will starts by having a relationship with God. Following his instructions comes from having a relationship with God.
    Noah wasn’t saved because he was the smartest man alive. He wasn’t saved because he was the strongest or fittest or the richest or the best looking.
    It wasn’t Noah ingenuity or forward thinking. He wasn’t someone with emergency ark plans laying around. He didn’t think anything like this would ever happen, until God told him it would.
    God saved Noah because Noah walked with God. He had a relationship with God that made him different than all the rest of humanity that wasn’t worth saving. Noah’s relationship with God saved him. And others too.
    Noah’s family was saved because of the relationship Noah had with God. The animals that were saved was because of Noah’s relationship with God and the mercy God had on the rest of his creation. The animals serve their purpose to provide for Noah and his family after they get off the Ark.
    God saved Noah, and his family, and the animals because of the relationship Noah had with God. That’s it.
    As Shawn preached last week, Noah had to follow the instructions God gave him without really knowing all that was going to happen. He was given very specific and detailed instructions. It has exact dimensions. It was big enough to house only the animals God sent to Noah and only the 8 people who were saved.
    There’s not a lot of room on that boat. God designed it to save Noah and his family and that’s it. God saved them.
    In fact, look at the text of chapter 7. Noah built the boat. Noah followed the directions. But it’s God who commits the last act.
    READ Genesis 7:16
    Genesis 7:16 ESV
    And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
    And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
    Noah and his family didn’t close the doors. God did. God shut them and the animals in the ark as the end of the world began. God saved them.
    Then look at the beginning of chapter 8. As world floods and all life is destroyed, after 40 days of water consuming the earth, God remembered Noah.
    READ Genesis 8:1
    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.
    God remembered Noah and his family and the animals on board. That doesn’t mean God got so busy destroying the Earth that he forgot about Noah and the animals on the boat. It means he is keeping his promise. He promised to save Noah and his family and the animals. Now he does just that.
    As quickly as he started the flood, he ends it. Just like that. He begins to make the wind dry the earth.
    It’s a process that takes a long time. We learn from the end of the journey that Noah and his family and the animals are on the ark for one year and 11 days. That’s a long time cooped up together. Remember COVID. That was like 3-6 months. We went stir crazy. This was an entire 1 year and some change in a cramped boat with smelly, noisy creatures and all the animals on the boat.
    It took a while, but he brought them to land. He gave them hope that things were getting better. Eventually, when the dove returned with the olive leaf, it let them know that vegetation was growing again and the earth could sustain their life.
    All of that sets up the second act of humanity.

    God gives us a second chance.

    Once the earth was ready, God tells them to exit the boat and gives a command that is eerily similar to the one he gives Adam and Eve and the animals at the beginning of creation in Genesis 1. He tells them to be fruitful and multiply on the earth.
    God is starting over. If this were a Hollywood movie franchise, we’d call it a reboot. Creation…again. Just as he wanted Adam and Eve and all the animals to bring forth children to inhabit the earth, he does so now with Noah and his family and the animals he saved. God is rebooting creation.
    As Noah and his family exit the Ark, Noah makes a sacrifice. This isn’t a sacrifice for his sin. This is a sacrifice acknowledging and recognizing who God is and what he has done. He has saved them, just like he said he would. So Noah, using an animal from the boat, offers a sacrifice to God to show his gratitude and honor his relationship.
    And God smells the aroma of the sacrifice. He accepts the heart of the one offering it. He promises not to go through this cataclysmic flooding again. Evil is still a problem. Sin is still present. We’ll see that in the next chapter. But with Noah and this hard reboot, he will not destroy with flood waters again.
    He is giving humanity a second chance. The hope of humanity now rests with the descendants of Noah and his family.
    And when I look at this passage of scripture and I ponder on it’s meaning for us today, I cannot escape the words of the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes.
    READ Ecclesiastes 3:15 (NLT)
    What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

    God will end the world again.

    Remember, we are only six chapters into the first book of the Bible when God decides to end the world. From this point forward, we will talk about God’s second cataclysmic event. He won’t send flood waters again, but he will end the world with fire and destruction.
    We see that from many places, including the prophets of the Old Testament.
    READ Amos 7:4
    This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.
    Just like in Genesis, God’s solution to sin run amok will be death and destruction. Someday soon, the evil of the world will require God to destroy it again.
    The New Testament has plenty of warnings about the end, including the book of Revelation. And as Jesus reminded his disciples and us, when he returns and the end comes, things will be much like they were in the first end of the world event.
    READ Luke 17:26
    Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
    Many people, when the end of the world happens again, will be marrying and feasting and getting up and going to work, oblivious to what’s about to happen. They will have no idea. It will be the end of the world as they know it, and they will feel fine. Not because they are OK and know Jesus, but because they don’t know any better.
    Now, I’m not smart enough or studied enough or brave enough or stupid enough (I’ll let you decide which one applies) to give you a date for the end of the world. Jesus, when he was on earth, said no one knows the day or the hour except God the Father.
    I’ve heard a lot of people talking end times stuff, especially with the war in Iran. It’s the same stuff I heard during Desert Storm and the Iraq War and every time Israel is under threat. I just want you to know if anyone predicts a date for the end of the world, they are wrong. No one knows the day or the hour.
    But I do know Jesus is coming back. I do know that day is closer today than it was yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. I know Jesus is coming again and that he will bring the world to an end.
    But I also know that everything that was true in the first end of the world event is true about the second. God will end the world. We’ve covered that. He will save people based on their relationship with him.
    When the second end of the world happens, when Jesus comes back, it will be different. It will be fire. And it will feature Jesus personally coming and defeating evil. He will do that.
    And it will end with a great judgement of all humanity for all time. And the only way to escape that punishment, the only way to avoid death and separation from God forever, is through a relationship with Jesus. He is the one who saves.
    We like to think we can save ourselves. That we can pull ourselves up by our own boot straps. But the reality it only Jesus alone saves you and rescues you. You can’t get there on your own. You can’t generate your own forgiveness. You can’t earn your salvation. You and I are completely and totally dependent on Jesus to rescue us from certain death and destruction.
    Just like Noah and his family, it’s the relationship with Jesus that provides forgiveness and salvation.
    And just like Noah, Jesus gives us a second chance. We are sinners and we need his forgiveness. He did that by dying on a cross for us. He gives us a second chance.
    If you don’t know Jesus, know that the end is coming. And the only way to avoid the sudden stop at the end is to know Jesus. It’s the relationship with Jesus that saves you from the end of all things.
    But believer, this is motivation for us. If this is the end of the world as I know it, I do feel fine. I know Jesus. But I know so many people who do not. So many people, like the folks Noah knew outside of the boat, who aren’t going to make it. I can be excited for salvation but saddened for those who are not saved. That’s a tragedy.
    But we can do something about it. We can tell others about Jesus and salvation and way to avoid the pain of the end of the world. We know Jesus is coming. We know who doesn’t believe in him.
    We’re two weeks away from Easter. It’s a great time to invite someone to church. We’ve made it easy for you. We’re having breakfast at 9:45. You can invite your friend, your neighbor or your family member to join you for breakfast and stay for church. I’d even recommend you take them out to lunch afterward and pay.
    All to get them introduced to Jesus. We’re going to talk about truth and what we can trust over the next two weeks. We can trust in Jesus. And you can trust in the truth that he’s coming back.
    Will you do something about it?
    Let’s Pray

      • Genesis 7:6–8:22NLT

      • Matthew 24:37–39NLT

      • Genesis 7:16NLT

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