“I Am Bringing the Flood” Series Part 1 10/02/2016
Don’t Try to Save What God is Trying to Drown
A There was about 2,000 years of time that had passed since God created Adam & Eve and the first drops of rain falling of the Flood.
1 In this dispensation of time we are still talking about world that was as sinful as it was beautiful.
a Matthew 24:36-37 (NIV) 36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
aa Noah’s Day looked like this: Genesis 6:5,11,12 ...'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.'
bb So the earth in the days of Noah was full of people who rejected God and walked after their own flesh and served their own interests.
cc And the earth was full of violence.
b Luke 17:28-30 ...'Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.'
aa Jude 1:7 ...'Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.'
bb And what about during Lot's day in Sodom? God's Word says that the people of Sodom had given themselves over to sexual fornication and 'strange flesh', which is homosexuality.
cc So Jesus is saying that the world in the end times would 'mirror' what it was like in the days of Noah and Lot. Do we have a world like that today? Absolutely!
c Not only do we live in a world full of violence and sexual immorality, including homosexuality.
aa These things have become the 'norm' with violence and sexual immorality being turned into ENTERTAINMENT!!
bb The world is now ENTERTAINED by the very things that God DESTROYED the world and Sodom for in Noah's and Lot's day!
d http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/a-spirit-of-violence-rises-in-america-following-the-unveiling-of-the-harbinger-of-baal-in-new-york
2 Genesis 6:6 (NASB) 6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
a Other translations word this passage like this . . .
aa (HCSB) 6 the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth. . .(NIV) 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, . . .
bb The Lord was sorry, regretted, grieved about creating humankind.
b This verse has puzzled us for a long time because God cannot change, nor can He be affected by sorry or other feelings which we do as people.
aa Numbers 23:19 (NASB) 19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
bb 1 Samuel 15:29 (NASB) 29 "Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind." (cf. Mal. 3.6; Js. 1.17)
c We can’t understand/conceive God except in human terms/human experience . . . the inspired writer is giving us the revelation in a way we could understand it.
aa God saw man’s wickedness, perversion, idolatry, sinfulness and it broke His heart.
bb Their sin meant they would have to pay the price and the punishment for sin has always been death (Rom. 6.23).
cc The only way punishment could be escaped was/and always be is through the grace of God, granted through sincere repentance.
B God goes to Noah to tell him that there was a flood coming that would destroy wicked humanity. Why Noah?
1 Genesis 6:9 (NASB) 9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:9 (KJV)
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
a Righteous, Just, Perfect?
aa I didn’t think there was anyone who was righteous, perfect: Romans 3:10 (KJV) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
bb Noah was good/righteous by comparison to the corrupt generation around him: in a world filled with wickedness/depravity, Noah stood alone exercising true faith in God.
cc Noah wanted to do God’s Will: Hebrews 11:7 (KJV)
7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
b There is a need today for more Noah’s who will do God’s Will/speak God’s Word irregardless how unpopular it may be to the masses. (Marriage, sexuality, holiness, family, etc.,)
2 Genesis 7:4 (KJV) 4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
a God was going to destroy/get rid of the old in order to establish the new.
aa IL. We’re rapidly coming up on fall/winter when the greens of spring/summer turn to brown and die.
bb The old must leave/die in order for the greens to return in the spring..
b If God is going to do new things in our lives/another level of living, God will require us to let go of some things.
aa The question: Are you willing to let go of what God is trying to eliminate in your life?
bb God wanted humanity gone, mankind whacked in order to start over again so He brought the rain!
B Genesis 7:11-12 (KJV) 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
1 God said, “Noah, it’s going to rain for 40 days/nights and every living thing I made, except what is in your ark, is going to be obliterated.”
a The rain would be destructive, and everything except what God set apart would die.
aa This may seem like an extreme response to the sin problem, but before God would something new it was crucial that the old would have to go.
bb The old world/new world could not coexist together.
b I don’t think God “wanted” to destroy the earth.
aa It was created “good” remember.
bb But man had become so wicked, sinful, violent that He became sorry/fed-up.
cc God had to do what many of us need to: He had to start over but first there had to be a cleansing/a lot of things had to go.
2 For 2,000 years God had watched man spread over the face of the earth, excel, multiply, invent, interact.
a God much invested in the earth by this time but it was still time to start over.
b Just because you’ve invested time something doesn’t always mean it’s worth keeping.
aa God didn’t sit around with His fingers crossed just hoping man would get their stuff straight.
bb If anything humankind had demonstrated that he wasn’t going to improve on his own.
c As difficult as it would be, it was time for something to drown.
aa There were no lifeguards on the Ark.
bb Before God can do new things in our lives, often time, the old things have to go/drown because the new and the old cannot coexist.
C Noah’s Ark wasn’t like the Titanic. (There were no lifeboats available.) Everything in the water had to drown in Noah’s day.
1 When you get right with God, decide to let the old die . . . expect to hear devils calling from outside the ark, wanting to be rescued. DON’T LET THEM IN!!
a God is patient, but He ain’t blind/lazy. (His patience ran out for Noah’s generation.)
aa Genesis 6:5-7 (NASB) 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
bb After God gives us chance after chance He will do whatever it takes to save us from ourselves. . . and that includes letting some things drown.
b We will never become successful trying to rescue things God is trying to drown.
aa The scene of the Ark was more like The Perfect Storm than the movie Titanic.
bb Noah/boys weren’t out on the deck trying to bring people on to the ark . . .once the door was shut by God, no one could get in . . .or out.
cc The two groups couldn’t exist together.
2 Why do we try to save the things that God says have to go in order for us to move on?
a Grudge you’ve been holding on to for years, brokeness, divorce, rape, habit, poisonous relationship, abuse, addiction, promiscuous past, self-image . . . all belong outside the ark.
b Jesus said it like this, “Mark 2:22 (NIV) 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
aa In other words, you can’t put the new life God has for you into the old wineskins of your old way of living.
bb Your old life and your new life simply cannot live together.
3 As you decide to allow your old life drown, don’t be surprised when you hear it outside the doors screaming, “Don’t let me drown!”
a Your flesh will beg, “Save me! Save me!”; Hear hate shouting, “Help, I’m drowning!”
b You have a choice to make: Do you suffer the violence of the cleanse or do you settle for the life you have always had? (Choose to suffer.)
Conclusion:
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