Sermon Central
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End Of The Grace Period
Contributed by Joe Harding on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Our text for today mimics this thought. The living God of all creation has gone from “They are all my children,” to “They must belong to someone else.” But, what has befallen humanity that the Creator HIMSELF would wish it was all a bad dream?
3. Noah was a righteous man because he did as GOD SAID!
a. “Noah did everything just as God commanded him (vv. 22).”
b. Righteousness is not about having all the information together, it is about constant obedience to the voice of the living GOD!
C. Noah gets it right!
1. Hebrews 11:7 says, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
2. Noah trusted God and took him at His word. When God spoke, Noah responded in belief. The net result was that HE and His family were saved!
3. Gen. 7:1 “The Lord then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.’”
4. Gen. 7:5 “And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.”
IV. A RIGHTEOUS GOD PROVIDES AN ESCAPE: A GOD TO SERVE
A. God knows how to deliver his people out of an ungodly world.
1. Gen. 6:14, “So make yourself an Ark...”
2. The Ark was not a boat, but a way of Salvation!
3. Gen. 6:18 “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.”
B. God expected Noah to participate in his salvation.
1. God was not going to send a cloud to pick up Noah and His family.
2. God put Noah to task, to see if his faith would be backed by action.
3. Because of verse 3 of chapter 6, the consensus of most scholars is that it took 120 years for Noah to build the Ark.
4. Dimensions were: 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. This was 1 and ½ lengths of a football fields by ½ the length of a football field, 4 and ½ stories high. This was all done by hand without POWER TOOLS!
5. Not only did he have to build the Ark, he had to bring a “boat load” of Animals with him.
6. God’s plan of salvation always includes our participation!
7. Genesis 8:18-19 proves God’s ability to save. “So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on the earth – came out of the ark, on kind after another.”
8. God not only saves, he blesses. “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (vv. 9:1).”
CONCLUSION: Lessons learned from Noah:
SIN MAKES GOD SICK
SIN CAUSES GOD TO JUDGE
JUDGEMENT MEANS ANNIHILATION FOR THE UNRIGHTEOUS
RIGHTEOUSNESS PROTECTS US FROM GOD’S WRATH
RIGHTEOUSNESS IS BEING BLAMELESS BEFOR OUR FELLOW MAN
RIGHTEOUSNESS IS WALKING WITH GOD
GOD ALWAYS PROVIDES A WAY OF SALVATION FOR THE RIGHTEOUS
GOD EXPECTS US TO PARTICIPATE IN HIS GREAT SALVATION
FINALY: NOAH TEACHES US THAT A GREAT DAY OF JUDGEMENT IS COMING AND WE MUST BE READY, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES.
THE RAIN IS COMING! THE GRACE PERIOD WILL ONEDAY END! ARE YOU READY?
There is a story that comes from Hebrew tradition about a neighbor of Noah’s. This Neighbor would hear the stories of Noah’s God and of the coming judgement. He almost believed. Every time he drew near and would almost accept what Noah had to say, someone would come mocking and laughing and the neighbor would turn away. The neighbor always thought, “One day, one day, I will accept this God of Noah’s.” Then the rain came and the neighbor ran to the Ark. He began to pound on the door and cry out, “Let me in.” Noah couldn’t hear the neighbor over the crashing sounds of the thunder and the torrents of the rain. SPECIAL MUSIC: RON ROGERS “REFINERS FIRE.”
