God, Who Built the Ark Through Noah

This passage deals with how Noah built the ark at God's command just before the judgment of the flood. Even though the corrupt world had reached a point beyond recovery, God had already made a plan of salvation and called Noah. On the basis of the truth handed down to him through his ancestors, Noah believed that judgment was coming, and he went on to complete the ark despite people's mockery and persecution.

The sermon points to the deep loneliness and anguish Noah experienced while building the ark. It conveys how lonely and hard it was to live believing in a judgment that could not be seen, and Noah's grief as he saw the people he could not save before the door was shut. It also points out that the isolated life inside the ark connects with the reality of believers, and explains the weight of a life that is separated from the world's values and obeys God's word.

Finally, the sermon speaks of the emptiness and discouragement Noah felt when he came out of the ark and faced a desolate land, and of the grace with which God forgave him and waited for him when he briefly fell. Along with the comfort that God does not rebuke believers but embraces them when they waver in suffering and loneliness, it reminds us that the line between inside and outside the ark is still clear.