"In one year, I am going to make it rain enough to cover the whole earth with water until all flesh is destroyed. But I want to save you and your family, and I am commanding you to build an ark."
Then, In a flash of lightning, God delivered the specifications for an ark.
In fear and trembling, Noah took the plans and agreed to build the ark. "Remember," said the Lord, "You must complete the ark and bring everything aboard in one year."
Exactly one year later, fierce storm clouds covered the earth and all the seas of the earth went into a tumult.
The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his front yard, weeping.
"Noah," He shouted, "Where is the Ark?"
"Lord, please forgive me," cried Noah. "I did my best, but there were big problems.
1) First, I had to get a permit for construction, and Your plans did not meet the codes. I had to hire an engineering firm and redraw the plans.
2) Then I got into a fight with OSHA over whether or not the ark needed a fire sprinkler system and flotation devices.
3) Then my neighbors objected, claiming I was violating zoning ordinances by building the ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission.
4) Then I had problems getting enough wood for the ark, because there was a ban on cutting trees to protect the spotted owl. I finally convinced the U.S. Forest Service that I needed the wood to save the owls. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service wouldn't let me catch any owls. So, no owls.
5) The carpenters formed a union and went out on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board before anyone would pick up a saw or a hammer. Now I have 16 carpenters on the ark, but still no owls.
6) When I started rounding up the other animals, I got sued by an animal rights group. They objected to me only taking two of each kind aboard.
7) Just when I got the suit dismissed, the EPA notified me that I could not complete the ark without filing an environmental impact statement on Your proposed flood. They didn't take very kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of the Creator of the universe.
8) Then the Army Corps of Engineers demanded a map of the proposed new flood plain. So I sent them a globe.
9) Right now, I am trying to resolve a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that I am practicing discrimination by not taking godless, unbelieving people aboard.
10) The IRS has seized my assets, claiming that I'm building the ark in preparation to flee the country to avoid paying taxes. I just got a notice from the state that I owe them some kind of user tax, and failed to register the Ark as a 'recreational water craft'.
11) Finally, the ACLU got the courts to issue an injunction against further construction of the ark, saying that since God is flooding the earth, it is a religious event and, therefore, unconstitutional.”
"I really don't think I can finish the ark for another five or six years", Noah sadly explained.”
The sky began to clear, the sun began to shine, and the seas began to calm. A rainbow arched across the sky.
Noah looked up hopefully. "You mean You are NOT going to destroy the earth, Lord?"
"No," said the Lord sadly, "I don't have to. The government already has."
There is a lot of truth to that story!!!
Let’s look at the story of Noah in the scriptures.
The Bible has a great deal to say about things before and after the flood.
How were things before the flood?
They were …
I. A MESS
Look at Genesis 6:1-7, we read, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 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. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
For further evidence OF THE WICKEDNESS ON EARTH look at verses 11-12, they also tell us how it was before the flood, we read, “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.”
Reading these scriptures, we would all agree before the flood came the wickedness on earth was a mess.
However, our age makes us think of what God’s Word tells us in Matthew 24:37 we read “as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man”
We can all relate to Noah’s age because things are in a mess in the world in which we live.
Illus: Some in this congregation are old enough to remember growing up before our society became so wicked we did not have air-condition homes so each night before we went to sleep:
• We would raise all the widows up for the fresh breeze to enter our homes to keep us comfortable.
• Also, we would leave the front door open so that the cool breeze could enter our homes to keep us comfortable through the unlock screen door.
But we cannot imagine doing such a thing today because of the wickedness of our age.
This scripture refers to the truth that the world will be just as wicked when Jesus returns for His church as it was during the days of Noah before the flood was sent upon the earth.
WHEN DID THIS CORRUPTION TAKE PLACE IN NOAH’S AGE?
All this took place when the population began to expand.
For example:
• The largest cities in the US are the most wicked cities in America.
While this is a statistical fact.
• It is also true that the smaller cities are the godlier.
WHY IS THAT THE SITUATION?
This is true for two reasons, such as…
(1) “GANG MENTALITY”
As the population increases, the people feel they can do whatever they want to do.
Illus: For example, you can take a street bully by himself, and he won’t open his mouth. But if you put a dozen hoodlums behind him, all of a sudden, he is the toughest man on the block.
This “Gang Mentality” exists among the large crowds.
Illus: For example, we are told by the professionals that there are some who are considered to be descent folks who can find themselves in the midst of a riot and looting, and these so-called decent people will join in the looting of stores.
Why? They know it is wrong, but they feel that since so many are doing it, they can do it also and get away with it.
Large crowds bring the worst out of people.
Illus: There are motorcycle clubs that travel the country in large numbers. (I am not talking about the “Hells Angels”) I am talking about clubs that have doctors, lawyers and business people in their membership.
Sometimes they will go into a town and literally take the town over. They know that law enforcement is too small to handle them, and in a crowd of 25 to 30 thousand, they feel they can do whatever they want to do and get away with it.
Illus: One of the television documentaries was doing a story about this “Gang Mentality,” where around 30 thousand of these motorcycle club members had congregated. The reporter was talking with one of the women that had joined other women in walking around exposing the upper part of their bodies.
The reporter asked this very decent looking woman, “Do you do this back home?”
She said, “No! I have never done this before. Since no one knows me in this crowd, I thought I would do it because I can get away with it!”
Listen, when you find a crowd of people you are going to find wickedness.
It was this way before the flood, and it is the same today…GANG MENTALITY.
But another reason you find wickedness among the large crowds is due to the-
(2) “BLAME GAME” MENTALITY
Anytime you have a large crowd, you can always find someone to blame things on.
Illus: (humor)One of the disadvantages for us dads is when the children grow into adulthood and move out of the home there is no one to blame things on since they are not there anymore.
Illus: I always feel sorry for an only child. Why? Because they do not have anyone to blame their evil deeds on. When you have a lot of brothers and sisters, you can do whatever you want to do, and always find someone to blame your evil deeds on.
It is astounding how people today blame their evil deeds on other people.
Illus: One lady acknowledged that she had a bad temper. She said, “I get my bad temper from my grandfather, he had a bad temper”. Listen, her grandfather had died twenty years ago, and here she was blaming her bad temper on her dead grandfather!
Evil people do not want to take the responsibility for anything. If they have to, they will even blame God.
Illus: They remind me of the little girl in her Sunday clothes who was running as fast as she could to get to Sunday school on time.
As she ran, she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late. Dear Lord, please don't let me be late."
At that moment she carelessly tripped and fell, getting her clothes all dirty. She got up, brushed herself off and started running again, praying... “Dear Lord, please don't let me be late, but please don't shove me again!”
The Bible tells us that when the population began to multiply, so did sin!!!
Mimicking others is something we see among mankind.
Illus: I wish I could find the young man that first wore his britches where his underwear is showing, and his britches are about to fall off. He started something with other young men that I find very offensive.
But there is no excuse for people choosing to follow those in the society in which they live.
In the days of Noah, the wickedness of man abounded.
In this MESS, the Bible tells us God saw a…
II. A MAN
Look at verses 8-10, we read, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
In this generation of wickedness God was going to send a flood that would cover the earth.
What folks fail to understand is that GOD SAW THE MESS, but God also saw A MAN in that mess that, “…Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
Mankind had made the earth a “Cesspool” of immorality and lawlessness. During this age, mankind was living for:
• Sex
• Money
• Possessions
• Position
• Power
• Honor
Mankind had forgotten God, and all he think of was living for himself.
THIS EVIL IN THE WORLD CREATED A PROBLEM.
WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?
God had made a promise that He would always have a godly line of people He could use to send the Savior to the earth through.
HOW COULD GOD DO THIS?
He looked upon the evil world that mankind had created, and the Bible says, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
He would use Noah and His family.
Look at verses 8-10, we read, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
Noah stood head and shoulders above all the men of his day. Wow!
I never thought about this until I was working on this sermon.
Illus: For example, every year when USC and CLEMSON play each other both coaches will dress out around a hundred players.
But out of that hundred they always have a STAR PLAYER.
What an honor it for that STAR PLAYER out of the hundred that is dress out they are the best.
But think about this during Noah’s age God looked over the whole world and Noah was chosen by God to be a Just and righteous man…WHAT AN HONOR!!!
The Bible says two things about him:
(1) When it comes to Noah, this is the first time the words “Just” and “Righteous” are used.
The words mean to be upright, honest, and virtuous. We cannot go around telling people that we are upright, honest, and virtuous, but our life must reflect that we are.
(2) Also, the Bible says that Noah was, “…Perfect in his generation…”
The word “Perfect” does not mean sinless perfection.
Illus: For example, a baby is not perfect.
Infact babies are selfish little creature and they do not care if Dad and Mom worked hard all day and need a good night sleep…they selfishly will start to cry for attention waking everybody in the house up from sleep.
• But that is what Babies do at this stage in life. You might say that baby is perfect at that stage in his/her life.
• Now if they do this later when they are twenty-one in life you could not call them perfect.
When God tells us that Noah was perfect God is saying at that stage in his life Noah, he had become a upright righteous man.
Was he sinless no! But at that stage in is life he was perfect.
The word PERFECT DOES NOT MEAN SINLESS PERFECTION.
Also, the Bible tells us Noah was BLAMELESS!
Now you might be saying, HOW CAN YOU LIVE A LIFE AND BE BLAMELESS?
The Apostles could not do it, how can we do it?
Actually, none of us can live a sinless life. The only one who has ever done this is the SON OF GOD.
We may be accused of all kinds of evil, but it is our job to make sure that the accusations are not true.
• If they are not true, it means in the sight of God we are BLAMELESS!
• We can never be BLAMELESS in the sight of man, but we can be in the sight of God.
In this evil society, God looked down on earth, and the Bible says, “Noah found grace in the eyes of God.”
Noah was known for his godliness while others are known for their wickedness.
Illus: Did you hear about former President Bill Clinton?
We are told that on the way back from one of his foreign mission trips he apparently picked up a strange, life-threatening disease.
He was rushed to the Bethesda Naval Hospital for a complicated surgery. He went under the knife in the early morning, and when he awoke, he saw that the curtains were closed around him and it was dark.
The president asked a secret Service agent sitting beside his bed, “Why are the curtains closed?” “Is it night already?”
He said, “No sir, but there is a huge fire across the street, and we didn’t want you to wake up and look out the window and think that the operation was not successful, and you were in hell!!!”
While Bill Clinton was known for being ungodly, Noah was known for being a godly man.
Noah was not part of the “Gang mentality” or the “Blame Game” mentality.
Before the flood God saw his society was:
• A MESS
• A MAN
and there was …
III. A MESSAGE
Look at verses 13-21, we read, “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.”
In these verses, the Bible tells us that God instructed Noah to build an ark.
In fact, God gave him detailed information on how to build the ark.
The dimensions of the ark are given in Genesis 6:16-17. And God said “This is how you are to build it:
• The ark was to be 450 feet long,
• 75 feet wide
• 45 feet high.
• Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.”
• So, the ark was 1½ football fields in length,
• As wide as a football field is wide,
• 4 stories high.
• It had 3 decks on which you could fit 20 college basketball courts.
• And the inside of the ark was over 100,000 square feet.
To many of our Sunday School teachers do not explain that Noah could not build this ark alone. He had to have plenty of talent, help and money.
God gave the instructions for how it was to be built, and God expected Noah to obey.
When it comes to obedience, some dogs are more obedient to their owners than some professing Christians are to God the Father.
Illus: Did you hear about the man who said, “My wife and I enrolled Molly, our lovable but dumb cocker spaniel, in a ten-week obedience class.
At the end of the term Molly had made little progress.”
“We re-enrolled her, but at the end of the second course Molly was still noticeably behind her canine classmates.”
“The instructor, perhaps determined to succeed with our dog, offered to let her repeat the course for the third time at no charge.”
That man who had enrolled Molly was telling his friend, "Molly was the only dog in her class to get a scholarship.”
Noah was given very specific instructions about how to build the ark.
• Can you imagine the ridicule that Noah’s neighbors thought of him as he built this huge ark?
• And He told them God was going to send rain which would flood the earth.
There are two theories about the rain before the flood.
(1) Some say it had rain before the flood.
(2) Some said it had never rain before the flood.
I think the Bible makes it clear that before the flood it had never rain before.
Look at Genesis 2:5-6: “. . . before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
So, when Noah preached it was going to rain which it had never done before the flood he was probably mocked!!!
WE CHRISTIANS CAN RELATE TO THAT!!!
When we talk about God is going send judgment on the ungodly, they look at us like we are crazy.
But God said before He returns it will be AS THE DAYS OF NOAH.
HOW DID HE RESPOND TO THOSE INSTRUCTIONS that came from God?
Look at verse 22, we read, “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.”
Obedience involves commitment.
We can identify people who are committed to obeying God by two traits:
• The truly committed are concerned about grieving the heart of a loving God when they sin
• The truly committed are concerned with how the consequences of their sin will affect them and others
Noah loved the Lord, and he was a godly man that knew his disobedience would not only affect the:
• God he loved
• The family he also loved.
Something that many disobedient people fail to understand is that their decisions to choose evil in life have serious consequences to them.
This was a deadly mistake for Saddam Hussein, and it is one today that sinners are making.
Conclusion:
Illus: In 2002, President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair sent word to Saddam Hussein to comply with the disarmament obligations that he agreed to in order to remain in power.
Saddam continued to tell the world that he's clean of any offending chemical, biological and nuclear material.
But even though Saddam Hussein continued to make bad decisions in refusing to disarm, he was warned that if he refuses to disarm, his decision will lead to some serious consequences.
His disobedience led to some serious consequences costing him the life of himself and his sons.
Likewise, there are those in God’s church, that God has commanded to disarm themselves of the deadly sins in their life, but they refuse.
Their disobedience will lead to some serious consequences.
Why is it important that we consider Noah and His generation?
Because God’s Word says, in Matthew 24:37, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
We can relate to everything we read about in Noah’s generation, because we are a carbon copy of that generation.
But as God saved Noah, he will save us in the same manner.
HOW WAS NOAH SAVED?
The Bible says he found “Grace” in the eyes of the Lord.
Everybody that enters heaven will have this in common, every one of them will be saved by GRACE ALONE!
Some will ask, “What about all that work that Noah did in building the ark?”
Some say this proves we are saved by GRACE and WORKS!
Listen, before Noah ever drove a nail or cut a board, he had already found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
After grace, then comes works.
The same is true for those of us who have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. After grace come works.
One day God the Father is going to tell His beloved Son Jesus go and get my church.
When this takes place:
(1) The Lord will look down on every cemetery in the world and all those who are RIGHTEOUS Like Noah God is going to rapture them.
(2) Then the Lord will look at the population of the world and all those who are RIGHTEOUS like Noah in the twinkling of an eye rapture them from this wicked world.
(3) The same thing for this congregation if the Lord returns before we close in prayer He knows the RIGHTEOUS and they will be plucked from this congregation
The Bible tells us AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH SO SHALL IT BE IN THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN.
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
In the life of Noah we have looked at:
I. THE MESS
II. THE MAN
III. THE MESSAGE
