Genesis 6-7 The Flood (1)
- Read Genesis 6 - 7
Have you ever done something you regretted? I mean, you knew ahead of time what the outcome of your actions would be. You knew ahead of time there would be a price to pay, but you went head and did it anyway?
This past Wednesday, my brother Dusty brought his daughter Melinda down to catch a plane at the Orlando airport. She had to be at the airport at 5 something, so they were leaving his house in Jacksonville at 3 something in the morning.
Do you know what that dummy did the night before? He stayed up and watched a basketball game until around midnight, knowing that he was going to have to get up around 3 the next morning to drive down to Orlando, then come by my house to pick up a trailer and log-splitter before driving back to Jacksonville.
Did he know he had those things to do? Yes. Did he know he was going to pay a price for his actions Tuesday night? Yes! But he watched that game anyway.
Do you think that perhaps he had some regrets about 1/2 way back during his drive to Jacksonville on Wednesday morning when he was struggling to keep his eyes open?
Did he know what was going to happen? Yes. Did he know there would be a price to pay? Yes! But he did it anyway, and that decision brought regrets.
In this passage we find an incredible statement about God. In verse 6 of chapter 6 we read, “ the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.”
God regretted that He made man.
That’s some statement, isn’t it? God regretted that He made man. Did He know what was going to happen? Yes! Did He know it was going to cost Him? Yes! God knows all things. But HIs actions caused Him pain and regrets.
God regretted that He made man. Why did He regret making man? Verse 5 says, “When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, He regretted.”
God regretted because of man’s actions. He regretted because of man’s decisions. He regretted because of man’s choices.
So what did God decide to do about the situation? Look at verse 7.
- Read Genesis 6:7
God said, “I’m going to destroy everything on the earth. I’m going to destroy all mankind, and all of the animals, and everything that has breath in its nostrils. I’m going to destroy all of it.”
My friends, we need to get over the idea that the earth, this planet we live on is some kind of holy sacred, thing and that our highest goal in life is to protect, guard, and worship it.
I don’t want to live on a dirty nasty, polluted planet anymore than I want to live in a dirty and nasty house, but God built this place. He destroyed it in the days of Noah and rebuilt it, and will destroy and rebuild it again in the days of the book of Revelation.
Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to examine this event, and it will take us a couple of weeks because there is so much to cover.
The sermons will be somewhat different than usual, because there is just so much for us to learn from this destruction, and so many questions to be answered. We’re going to talk about things like where all of the water came from, and was the ark big enough to hold all of the animals, and what did the world look like before the Flood and after the Flood. We’re going to look at how the Flood explains many of the things folks now try to explain away by adding billions of years to the age of the earth.
Many things we’re going to cover over the next couple of weeks, and I encourage you to do some outside reading of your own, and there’s some good material out there showing how science actually supports the Bible and the Flood.
I am a creationist. I am a Biblist. I believe the Bible cover to cover. And there is so much to cover here. So we are going to look at a couple of points each week, and then try to pull them together.
As we look at this passage, and we think about theology, about the study of God, there are several things we learn here about God.
I. ITEMS WE LEARN ABOUT GOD
1. God is not primarily an environmentalist.
“This is the great judgment of all judgments in the history of the world, and the lessons which it teaches are potent and dramatic. The passage before us, then, is simple, careful, precise, and repeated. It is the historical record of God’s destruction of the entire earth and all its inhabitants except those in the ark. And there are so many things that can be said about what this flood teaches and we’ll look at some of them this morning.
One thing that is very obvious is that God is not primarily concerned with environmentalism. We can’t even fathom the energy, the power, the wisdom, the might, the intelligence, and the design that it took to create the original universe and the original earth. Sixteen hundred and fifty years or so after it was created, God destroyed the entire thing. And out of that flood came, essentially, a new earth and a new humanity, a new animal life and plant life. As magnificent as God’s creation is, as reflective of His glory as it is, He would not hesitate to completely destroy it because of sin and bring forth a new earth.
Righteousness is God’s concern. The physical world is not His concern; the spiritual world is. The Lord destroyed this planet once and remade it, that’s recorded in Genesis, and He will do it once more, and that’s recorded in the book of Revelation. So the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible begins with the destruction of the earth and it ends with the destruction of the earth. In fact, in the book of Revelation, the earth is first of all renovated and then totally destroyed along with the heavens as we know them and in their place, the new heaven and the new earth, which is the eternal state, is created.
All of that simply to rehearse simply what I said a moment ago: God is not primarily an environmentalist. His concern has to do with the spiritual, not the physical. He has concerns about righteousness and sin, not about environment. If necessary, He will destroy the entire planet and universe for the sake of His holiness. (Judgment on the Horizon, sermon by John MacArthur,
2. God Hates sin
Second, we understand that God hates sin. Sin isn’t something that irritates Him. It isn’t something that upsets Him a little bit. It isn’t something that He will overlook forever. God hates sin.
After each day of creation, God looked at what He had made and He said, “It is good.” When God made everything, He was pleased with what He had made. But now, He looks at the sin-stained world, He says, “Everything is touched and stained by man’s sin. Every thought of the people of this generation is on sin. From the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night, the people of this generation are thinking about sin.
So God told Noah, “I am going to destroy everything with the breath of life in it.”
Why did God say this? He said it because He hates sin.
3. God is patient and gracious
Third, we are reminded that God is patient and gracious. Does He hate sin? Yes! Is He going to punish sin? Yes! But, before His promised judgment, He gave those He would judge some time.
Some suggest Noah spent 120 years building the ark, because in chapter 6 and verse 6 God says,
- Read Genesis 6:6.
But, that verse does not promise He will wait that long. I believe that is more of a general guideline of man’s later expected life time.
Look at a couple of verses with me.
- Read Genesis 5:32
- Read Genesis 6:13-18
- Read Genesis 7:10-11
First, we see Noah began to have sons in his 500th year of life (Gen 5:32).
Next, Noah's sons were already alive when the Lord appeared to Noah and gave him instructions to begin building the ark (Gen 6:18).
Finally, the flood came in the 600th year of Noah’s life (Gen 7:11). Therefore, Noah must have spent a maximum of 100 years (and probably slightly less) building the Ark.? Regardless of the exact time it took Noah to build the arc, God allowed that time for everyone to repent. God allowed time for folks to see the error of their ways and to repent.
> 2 Peter 2:5 and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly;
Even though God regretted that He had made man, and even though God said He was gong to destroy the whole thing, He gave them time.
And during that time, according to 2 Peter 2:5, Noah was preaching righteousness. Noah was warning them. Noah was telling them what was coming.
God is patient and gracious.
Aren’t you glad God has been patient and gracious with you?
Do you think you might be a bit more patient and gracious with those around you?
God is not primarily an environmentalist. God hates sin. God is patient and gracious.
4th, there is a difference between clean and unclean.
4. There is a difference between clean and unclean
- Read Genesis :1-5
Even in the days of Noah, man understood that there is a difference between clean and unclean.
We don’t know exactly when or how God explained to man the difference between clean and unclean animals, but there was a difference.
And, these extra animals were not placed on the ark as food for man, as some have incorrectly guessed, because man was vegetarians until after the flood when God told man that He was going to put a fear of man on the animals and that from that time on man was to kill and eat the animals.
No, these animals were declared and set aside as clean for another reason.
- Read Genesis 8:20
There were some sacrifices that were acceptable to God and others that were not. Some were clean and others were not.
My friend, what is true of animals is also true of the way to God. There are some sacrifices that are acceptable to God, some that are clean and others that are not.
Do you remember when Cain and Abel brought their sacrifices to God? 1 was accepted and 1 was not.
There is a difference between clean and unclean, and acceptable and unacceptable.
And ultimately, there is only one way that is acceptable to God.
> Acts 4:12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
Our Bible verse for today is John 14:1.
> John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me.
In 3 weeks our verse will be John 14:6 where Jesus says:
> John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.
You see, there is a difference between clean and unclean. There is a difference between one who can save you, and others that cannot.
Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Is He really your Lord?
God is not primarily an environmentalist. God hates sin. God is patient and gracious. There is a difference between clean and unclean to God. Fifth, God’s patience has its limitations.
5. God’s patience has its limit.
“We also learn from the flood that God is patient, that God is gracious, and that God warns sinners of judgment before He brings that judgment. But when that judgment comes, we also learn that God judges sin in deadly fashion. Such judgment as seen in the flood is the most massive and comprehensive judgment of God that has occurred in history, and the greater one yet to come will occur when Jesus returns. But that’s not the only judgment, the flood in the past, and certainly the coming of Christ isn’t the only judgment in the future.
There are judgments going on all the time as God expresses His anger and His wrath on sinners. But when you look at the flood, you do learn that God can judge in deadly anger. Allen Ross writes, “Such a judgment protects every succeeding word of grace from any kind of innocuousness. God’s gracious redemption,” he writes, “is meaningful in the light of that judgment.”
If you get a grip on the flood, if you can really comprehend the fact that God destroyed the billions of people that populated the earth and saved only eight people, then you know He’s not kidding when He talks about judgment because there’s a record of Him having done it. And every tender warning and every word of mercy and every expression of compassion and every act of grace and every extended breath within the framework of God’s patience is not to be treated lightly or trivialized.” (Ibid)
If God judged all of these people, and I believe with everything within me that He did, and if God destroyed billions of people, men women and children, and I believe that He did, then what in the world would make you think that things will be different next time? Why would God make exceptions, or changes, or whatever next time?
In Hebrews 9:27 we read, “It is committed unto men once to die and then the judgment.”
Once to die and then the judgment.
God was patient, He gave man nearly 100 years after He said He was over it.
God was merciful, He warned man through the preaching of Noah.
But God was just and His patience reached an end.
If God’s patience reached an end, if it reached a terminal point in those days, don’t you think that His patience will reach a terminal point for those who ignore His warnings after the great sacrifice He made of sending His Son?
> Hebrews 2:3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation had its beginning when it was spoken of by the Lord, and it was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
God is gracious, and God is patient, but God’s patience will reach its limit.
6. There is room for you.
Although God’s patience came to an end, He had made a way to escape. He had told Noah to prepare a way of escape. To build an ark.
And let me tell you, that rascal was big. Gladys, who is a much better teacher than I, has had classes she taught both in Mississippi and here, go out and mark the permitter of the ark God had Noah build.
The ark was approximately 510 feet long. It is so long that it would take nearly 1 1/2 football fields to equal the length of the ark. It was so long that NASA could put 3 space shuttles end to end and it wouldn’t reach the length of the ark.
The ark was more than 50 feet from bottom to top. As high as a modern 4-story building. And within this tall ship there were 3 decks, 3 levels.
The ark had the same storage capacity as about 450 semi-trucks. A standard livestock trailer holds about 250 sheep, so the ark was big enough to hold about 120,000 sheep. (Ark Encounter web site)
So, the ark was big enough for those 8 people and all of the animals and their feed and food. God provided this for those who wanted to escape the coming flood waters.
They could not head to the mountains, because the waters covered even the mountains. They couldn’t head to another country, because the waters covered the earth. There was only 1 way to be saved, and it was big enough for all who wanted it. God had Noah prepare it.
Well, let me tell you my friend, God has made provision for you if you want to be saved. He has had His Son prepare a place for you.
Jesus says in John 14,
> John 14:1-3 KJV Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
God has prepared a place for you, if you want it.
Plan of salvation
7. We have a responsibility to share with others.
Can you imagine what it was like for those in the ark that day as the waters began to rise? The people outside the ark begin to bang on the sides of the ark wanting to be let in.
Noah hears the guys he used to meet at the coffee shop, pounding on the ark, asking to be let in, and Noah wonders if he did everything he could to tell the men about God.
Mrs. Noah hears the ladies from the book club, and the cashier from the grocery store, wanting to get in, and she wonders if she did everything she could to warn her friends to be prepared.
The boys hear their friends, they grew up with in school, wanting to get in, and they wonder if they did all they could to warn their friends about the danger coming.
Oh my friends, Jesus is coming again. We know judgment is coming. You and I have a responsibility, just as righteous Noah did, to tell folks.
