“END OF THE GRACE PERIOD”
GENESIS 6: 9-22
JANUARY 28, 2001
INTRODUCTION: An anonymnous pastor wrote the following: In the first five years of my ministry, I had a sign on my desk that read, “Win the World for Christ!” In my second five years of ministry, I put up a new sign that read, “Win One or Two for Christ!” Since that time I have this sign on my desk: “Try Not to Lose Too Many!” POSSIBLY GOD SIGNS ON THE INTERSTATE!
TRANSITION SENTENCE: 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?
THESIS: GOD WILL SPARE THE RIGHTEOUS, BUT THE WICKED WILL PERISH!
I. SIN MAKES GOD RECONSIDER: “A GREIVED HEART”
A. Does God notice our “little bitty, insy winsy,” sins?
1. Gen. 6:5 “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” This has got to be one of the scariest verses in all the Bible.
2. God can read minds!!
3. In verse 11, the scripture states, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all thepeople on earth had corrupted their ways.”
4. God notices STUFF. PSALM 139 IS A TESTIMENT OF THIS. You can’t hide anything from God! Hear what the Psalmist says: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
BLT HERE: GOD KNOWS!
B. Does God care about our insy winsy teeny tiny sins?
1. Gen. 6:6 “God was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”
2. God is greatly affect by our sin! Read the Gospels and see how serious God takes sin! The entire tenure of the Scripture is focused on this one issue, “MAN’S SEPERATION FROM GOD BECAUSE OF SIN!”
II. SIN CAUSED GOD TO ACT: “A DAY OF JUDGEMENT”
A. A clean slate.
1. Gen. 6:7 “So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, who I have created, from the face of the earth -- Men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air -- for I am grieved that I have made them.”
2. Gen. 6: 13 “So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.’”
3. Gen. 6:17 “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” 4. Would you call this PREMEDITATED? God had an agenda and he was going to fulfill it. SIN IS THAT SERIOUS TO GOD!
B. If God is so loving, kind and Gracious, surely HE would not destroy all living flesh? 1. 2 Peter 3:3-7 “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago, by God’s word, the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
2. God really will judge the world and destroy it because of the wickedness of man. This is the principle lesson that Peter draws from the story of the Flood.
3. Do you believe in Judgement? Do you really believe you must accept Jesus Christ as your Savior or you are doomed to Hell? The reality of the text is that once God sets a plan in action, HE FULFILLS IT!
4. Jesus prayer in the Garden, “My Father, If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” WHAT WAS GOD’S RESPONSE? JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS FOR ALL OUR SIN!
5. Hear the account of 2 Peter, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgement; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher fo righteousness, and seven others; ... If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority (2: 4- 5, and 9-10).”
6. Our God is a righteous JUDGE and HE will Separate the Wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, the grain from the chaff. God takes sin so seriously, it causes HIM to Act!
7. Chapter 7 verse 4 records this promise from God, “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living Creature I have made.”
8. Verse 10 says, “And after seven days the flood waters came on the earth.”
9. Verse 12 continues the affirmation of the promise, “And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.”
10. But verse 23 is the saddest of all, “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth.”
11. Will God ever JUDGE MANKIND AGAIN? Luke 17:26-27 “Just as in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the son of man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.”
12. Matthew 24:39-41 adds, “and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”
III. RIGHTEOUSNESS SETS A MAN APART: AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW
A. A beacon of lift shines in the darkness
1. In the middle of the worst of places you will find righteous people.
2. Gen. 6:8 “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
3. In the midst of a world in rebellion against God was a righteous man. A righteous man named Noah. But, What made him Different.
B. Righteousness defined
1. Noah was righteous because he was “BLAMELESS AMONG THE PEOPLE OF HIS TIME (vv. 9a).”
a. Blameless means that Noah was a man of integrity.
b. Noah did not cheat, steal, or lie to His fellow man.
c. Noah had wronged no one. They couldn’t find any fault with him. 2. Noah “walked with God (vv. 9b).”
a. How do you live a righteous life?
b. You walk with God!
c. What does that look like?
d. It is a daily relationship with God. Walking and talking, communing and praying, spending time with the great lover of your soul.
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.”
