Open your Bible, please, to Genesis
chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Long time ago, it came to pass When men began
to multiply on the face of the earth, daughters were born to
them. At the sons of God saw the daughters
of men that they were fair, and they took them wives, all which
they chose. And the Lord said, in response
to their attitude and their conduct, He said, My spirit shall not
always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days
shall be one hundred and twenty. And 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, they bear children
of them. And the same became mighty men,
men which were of old, long time ago, men of great renown, famous
men. And God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart were only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, grieved him in his heart, And
the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I've created from the
face of the earth. Both man and beast and the creeping
things fell to the air, for it repents me that I've made them.
And Noah found grace. in the eyes of the Lord. And
Matthew 24, if you will. Matthew chapter 24, verse 36. Talking about the day of the
coming of the Son of Man. Of that day and hour knoweth
no man, No, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But this we can know. As it was
in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be. As in the days of Noah, before
the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, all the way up until the day that Noah entered the
ark. And they knew not till the flood
came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be. Then shall two be in the field,
one taken, the other left. Two women shall be grinding at
the mill, the one shall be taken, the other left. Watch therefore. Watch therefore. For you know
not what hour your Lord shall come. But know this, understand
this. That if the good man of the house
had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched
and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore,
be ye also ready. For in such an hour as you think
not, the Son of man, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus is coming
back to this earth. One other place, Hebrews chapter
11. Hebrews chapter 11 and one verse,
verse 7. By faith, by faith of Noah, being warned
of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world
and became the heir of righteousness, which he is by faith. I want to talk to you a few minutes
this morning to stir up your minds by way of remembrance,
recollection, maybe to alarm you a little. of those days back
then and now. Then and now. That's the title
of my message, Then and Now. I want to say first of all, and
most people don't believe it, but God Almighty is ruler over
all things, all men, things in heaven, things in earth, things
under the earth. The old heathen came to David
and said, now where is your God? He said, my God's in the heaven
where He's always been. And He's doing what He's always
done. That means whatever He pleases. Whatever He pleases
in heaven, whatever He pleases on this earth, among the inhabitants
of heaven, among the inhabitants of this earth, and in the seas
and all deep places, He does whatever He pleases. Job said,
whatever his soul desires, that's what he does. If that weren't
true, he wouldn't be God. He wouldn't be the All-Supreme,
the Absolute God, if that were not true. But Almighty God is
not an unconcerned and disinterested observer of what's going on down
here. He knows everything. He knows
all things. And our Lord judges things. He
sees things as they are. Not as we see them, but He sees
them as they really are. Men look on the outward appearance.
They look on the perimeter road. God looks on the heart. God looks
on the heart. He sees all kingdoms and all
governments and all rulers And the king's heart is in the hands
of the Lord, in the hands of our great God. And I say, I repeat,
he's not a disinterested observer of things. This world belongs
to him. What goes on down here concerns
him. It either glorifies him or it
does not. He said, you're either for me
or against me. You can't be on middle ground.
And so he's very interested in what goes on down here. He sees
individuals, all individuals, all of them. He sees them as
they are. He knows the least of the greatest. He knows our words. He hears our words before we
ever speak them. And he knows our thoughts before
they ever come to mind. This is our God. He's interested. He's an observer. He knows. He understands. And one day,
the Bible said, every sin and disobedience shall receive a
just, just recompense of reward. God's marking what goes on down
here. God's keeping a book of what
goes on down here. And one day everything will come
into judgment, every thought, every deed, every imagination
of the heart. He knows not only all these things,
but He knows every evil propensity of our souls. He knows every
motive that moves us. He knows everything. He's our
judge, our infallible judge. And once again, I assure you,
that he is not a disinterested observer, but he is a holy and
just and righteous judge, a judge of everything. And I repeat,
every sin and disobedience shall receive a just recompense of
reward. Nobody getting by with anything.
They pay. They have to pay. The lake of fire, the bottomless
pit, that place of outer darkness, awaits all of those who die in
their sins, who die outside or without the Lord Jesus Christ. It's just so. It's just so. There's one arc of safety, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one place of salvation,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, God deals. That's what's
going to happen in the end. One day we'll all stand before
God to be judged. But God deals with sinful men
and women in this life, in the here and now. That's what me and Cain hardly
seem to understand. They didn't in the days of Noah.
They don't today. They were going about their business
in the days of Noah as if there were no God. And men are going
about their business in the days in which we live, almost as if
there were no God. Our leaders are trying to move
God's name off all the buildings, get Him out of our remembrance. Sometimes God seems, as old Ralph
Bernard used to say, sometimes God just gets fed up. Had enough! Gets fed up with
what's going on. And I wonder from day to day
how much longer. I'm fed up with it. I'm fed up
with me. I'm fed up with what's going
on around me. And I wonder how fed up God is, how much longer
it's going to last. Romans chapter 1 and 2, when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were
they thankful. Eating, drinking, marrying, and
giving in marriage, and God just let them go. Look at Psalm 106
in a moment. I want you to see this. This
is so shocking, sad. Psalm 106. You know, these children of Israel,
They saw so many miracles, and they believed God for a few days,
and then they were grumbling again. They believed God a minute,
and then they grumbled again. They sang a song of praise to
God, and then they were grumbling again, and begging for temporal
things as if God couldn't take care of them. Verse 12, God brought
them across the Red Sea, and then they believed His words,
and they sang His praise. But, verse 13, Psalm 106, they soon
forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel,
but did that which was right in their own eyes, and lusted
exceedingly in the wilderness, tempted God in the desert, never
were satisfied with God's provision, always wanted more, always wanted
it right now, never willing to wait on God. They didn't trust
God. They didn't believe God. And
because of their unbelief, their carcasses fell in the wilderness.
But listen, this is the way God treated them. They lusted exceedingly
in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert, and God gave
them their request. I heard Brother Mahan stand right
here in this place where I'm standing. And he said, be very
careful what you ask God for. He might give it to you. He might
give it to you. Do you want watermelons and leeks?
Do you want to be back in Egypt? Rejoice in Egypt? Or do you want
fellowship with God? You don't trust God or rebel
against Him? God gave them their request and
sent leanness, leanness into their souls. God dealing with
men in the here and now according to their attitudes and actions. God dealing with men. God's in
control. God's on the throne. I shall not always strive with
man. Let him go. Let me show you one
other place. Look at Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians,
just a moment. 2 Thessalonians. Now this context here is a time
of great, great, great deception. Men being deceived. Men following the son of perdition. And then in verse 10, verse 9,
even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness and
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. They had
their own ideas, their own opinions, their own church doctrine. They
received not the love of God's truth that they might be saved. And this book is the word of
truth, which is able to make us wise unto salvation. This
book is the testimony of God concerning his Son, whereby we
may hear and believe and live. Now look what God did. They receive not the love of
the truth that they might be saved, and for this cause God
shall send them, on purpose, in judgment, God shall send them
strong delusions that they should believe a lie." God does that. God is doing that
right now, today. that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,
had a form of godliness, but denied the power thereof. In
the Old Testament, there were occasions when people didn't
want to hear the truth. They wouldn't have the truth
in God's in of lying spirits, lying preachers. Tell them what
they wanted to hear. Could that possibly be going
on in our day? You better read your Bibles.
Check everything you hear, everybody you hear, by the Word of God. Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 20,
and if they speak not according to this book, because they're
still in darkness, deceivers. These ministers transform themselves
into ministers of righteousness. But they're devils. But they're
devils. They're devils. God will not
always strive with man. One day, he'll be fed up. One
day, he'll say, that's enough. And the hammer comes down. That
means that word strive there means he's not striving to save
them. He's striving to hold back their
wickedness. And finally, he just removes
himself and lets them go. But he'll not always strive.
with their natural corruption, their natural wickedness, their
natural violence, their natural violence. He will not always restrain man
from acting out their own evil imaginations, the imaginations
of their own wicked hearts, but just let them go. Let them go. Sometimes I repeat, it's as if
he just gets fed up, padded up. I want you to look with me this
morning, just a few minutes briefly, at some views of Noah's day,
our day. We have in our day, we're coming
up on a national or federal election, we have the democratic view of
what's going on, we have the republican view of what's going
on and what we need, and we have the independent view, and then
we have the Al Gore and the scientists, they've got it all figured out,
what we need to do to make this a better place to live. What about God's view? what the
Democrats say might be insignificant, and the Republicans, and the
scientists, and the doctors, and the lawyers. What's God say? Back a long time ago, He looked
down upon the sons of men. He said that their hearts, the
imaginations of their hearts are evil. continually, only evil,
always evil. But they were happy. They were
eating and drinking and marrying and building and everything was
fine. They were happy. Their view of
the world was pretty good. God's view was pretty bad. Their
view was wrong. God's always right. What's God's view of the world?
I just told you in the days of Noah, and so shall it always
be. I want to look at the natural
view of the world and the divine view just briefly this morning. The natural view of the world
in Noah's day, it was a time evidently of compromise and unionize
and let's all get along and go along and work together and no
fussing and no fighting and no controversy and eating and drinking
and marrying and giving and marriage building bigger barns to put
their stores in, all of these things. And those things are
not bad. It's just when you do it without
respect of God, when you leave God in the background and your
interests, your motivations are all on these things. Back in those days, it seemed
to be a time of blessing and prosperity, so everything must
be all right. Our gods must be happy with us.
They're blessing us. We're happy. We're at a time
of peace. Everything's great. Many mighty
and renowned men. Boy, we have them in our day.
Many in sports. Eating and drinking and marrying
and just going on about the everyday things of life and forget God.
Forget God. Time of building and time of
agriculture. You read the history of those
times. There were many, seemed to be many, many advances, many
inventions and arts and crafts, skills and music. They were making
advancements. Everything fine. That's not what
God said. But that was the natural view.
That's what they wrote about in the newspaper. Prosperity
is good. The economy is good. Everything
is going well. All the churches are meeting
together and holding hands. You know that has a good sound
to it, doesn't it? It has a contemporary sound.
contemporary Savior. What's God's view of the world
in Noah's day? The natural view, it seems to
be, it had never been better. Boy, what about today? We've
got all these time-saving conveniences and all these comforts of life,
things that have never been better. They haven't. I lived through
the best time this world will ever know, this country will
ever know. And we didn't have all those things. And I guarantee you that before
we had all these time-saving conveniences, we had a lot more
time. Time to visit, time to sit and
think about who we are, where we came from, why we're here.
We don't have time anymore. God's view of the world, wickedness. Every imagination of the thoughts
of men's hearts are evil, only evil, continually evil. That's only evil. In religion,
out of religion, evil. Marrying and giving in marriage,
evil, because they left God out. Eating and drinking and marrying
and building and all, all else they did was without God. They sought not His counsel,
and it was evil. It was evil. They had many gods,
but they were without God, Jehovah. Much like the present age, I
fear. Do this or that. Put God to work
for you. Let God have His way. He's standing
by to help you if you let Him. That's not the God of this book.
That's a false God. False God. Someone came to Abraham
Lincoln one time during a horrible war here between the states. Said, President Lincoln, do you
reckon we're on God's side? I mean, you reckon God's on our
side. That's what he said. He said, that's a wrong question.
Are we on the Lord's side? Not, is the Lord with us? Are
we with the Lord? Are we following Him? Now we have God's and their messengers
say, it's all in your hands. God says evil, only evil, continually evil. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. Well, God did a had mercy upon
them, He sent them a preacher of righteousness. That man preached for 120 years,
tell them the truth. Building an ark. And that's what
we do. We're telling men that judgment's
coming, that God's holy and just and good, and we're upholding
Christ as the only ark of safety. The Lord Jesus Christ, all in your hands. Oh, I'm afraid
it's not. God sent him a preacher, 2 Peter
2.5. He had a sure message, an unwavering
message, an uncompromising message for the world. He told them the truth. He never
had two Gospels, he only had one. Salvation is in that ark. Get in. His message was, if he
was telling the truth, it said all their gods were false. All
their gods were false. Their religions were evil. Their
lives were evil. And judgment's coming. Judgment's
on the way. God is angry with the wicked
every day. God is going to destroy this
world very soon. That was His message. That's
my message to you. This is not our home. We're just
passing through. God will not spare. He will not
spare. A flood is coming. And only those
who believe God and enter into this ark shall be saved. That's what we say, Betty. That's
what we say today. Only those who believe God, unite
themselves to the Son of God, shall be saved. Only those. Only those. What about the world's view of
themselves? What do they think about themselves? Our gods are blessing us. This
is repetitious, some of it. They must be happy with us. Everything
must be fine between us and our gods. Peaceful, happy, marrying,
giving in marriage, building, advancing, all these inventions. Prosperity. The economy is good. They were making the world a
better place, making the world a safer place. Of course, they didn't believe
crazy old Noah. He's eccentric. He's off center. He's unbalanced. Crazy old Noah. All is well with them, so they
were happy. Their gods were happy. This talk
about an angry God and the flood, we've never seen a drop of water
yet. But it came, didn't it? It came
according to God's Word through God's Preacher. Here's what's important to us
today. Two things of chief importance.
Number one, God's view. of this world. And number two,
our view of this world. You sitting here this morning,
most of you, I know what your view of this world is. Same as
mine. It came from God. God taught
us. God showed us. God opened our
eyes to see the reality. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We've seen it as it
is. By faith we understand this world
was framed out of things which are invisible, which do not appear. Faith. We see it as God sees
us. He gave us the gift of faith
through His Word, and we see as He sees. Not as clearly, but
we see the truth. We see the truth. Oh, the world
had a good view of themselves. New York Times, they had their
view, and the other newspapers, they had their view about our
needs and what we, strong points. Then we get to God's view. And then we get to our view.
What do you think? Individual, what do you think? Christ came
to the apostles one day and he said, who do men say that I,
the Son of Man, am? Who do they say? They said different
things. Elias, Jeremiah, John the Baptist,
one of the prophets, somebody like that. He said, what do you
say? What do you say? Peter said,
we know, we're sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. Christ looked at him Gazed at
him a moment and said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. Flesh
and blood never taught you that. That's a revelation from God.
That's a revelation from God, if you really know. how things
are, God revealed it to you. Christ told His apostles, blessed
are your eyes, because they see. Your eyes, because they see.
God's given your eyes to see. This old Noah, this old Noah,
he's kind of off center. But Noah, in chapter 11 and verse
7 of Hebrews, Noah believed God. That's it right there. Noah believed
God. The rest of them heard Noah's
message, but Noah believed it. Somebody asked Benjamin Franklin
one time if he believed what George Whitefield preached, and
he said, no, but he sure does. They didn't believe what Noah
said, but he sure did. And every day I can give you
proof of it. He was out there driving nails in that ire. He
believed what God said. He moved with fear, built that
ark to the saving of his house. He believed. He believed. And this is a key thing, move
with fear. It wasn't just a matter of indifference,
it's a matter of urgency. Urgency. Urgency. Believing God, he acted, he obeyed
God, he moved with fear. And being a believer, God had
translated him into a different world, a world of faith, by faith,
by faith. And he was, as Christ would say,
he's in the world still, but he's no longer of the world.
You remember how those men lived? I'll read it to you in the closing
of this message. But they lived as men passing
through. Passing through. It's not my
home. I'm just passing through. I've used the illustration before
when I was in Okinawa a year and a half. I was fairly happy
over there, but my heart was back here. I couldn't wait to
get back here. And one day I landed out in California. Caught me another plane, came
further east, and pretty soon I was home. My home. I lived over a year and a half,
but that wasn't my home. I was a stranger and a pilgrim,
a foreigner just living through there for a while, just passing
through there for a while. That's all it was. These men
were in the world, but no longer of the world. I remember this
about Noah. He was an ordinary fellow, just
like you and I. A man of like passions, just
like we are. But he had faith. He believed
God. And he acted, he moved with fear.
He really believed God. He wasn't putting on a show. He didn't just want to be a member
of the church. He believed God. And it moved him. He was a husband. He was a father. He had to provide
for his family. But he was a man of faith. A
man who seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And all these things be added to him. That's what the Bible
says. Matthew 6.33. He saw the world
as sinful and under God's holy wrath. That's what I see. That's what I see when I go to
Walmart, all those multitudes of people not having a clue of who God
is. They've heard some preacher tell
them what God's trying to do, but that's a different God. I
repeat, that's a different God. He can't save you. The God I
preach can save you. And we'll save you if you'll
throw down your weapons of resistance and bow to Him and call on His
name for mercy. We can save you. Noah was a man of faith. He preached
and warned men. Not only did he preach and warn
men, but every sound of the hammer against that ark was a sign saying
judgment's coming. Judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. Get in. But they didn't believe him. The world view of old Noah. Another
view. They probably thought he was
a pretty good fellow. Honest. Hardworking. Loved his family. Cared for his family. Faithful
man. But he sure had strange beliefs. Strange God. Strange religion. He preached that God was going
to destroy this world. And every living, creeping, breathing
thing was water. Crazy old fella. Never had rain
to drop. He was always talking about God
being righteous and holy and going to punish sin and can by
no means clear the guilty. Crazy old Noah. Turned out he was telling the
truth. He was truly representing the God of the Bible, the living
God, the only God. And you know that flood that
carried away the wicked? It lifted that ark up and saved
the righteous. Noah and his family. That flood of God's wrath upon
the Son of God, Mount Calvary, that brought him down to judgment
and hell, lifted up his people to everlasting salvation. He
bore our judgment. He was made sin for us. His soul
was made an offering for sin. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. And we walk away free. Our sins
were charged to Him. He suffered the wrath of God
for us. God is satisfied and we are tickled
to death. Galatians 2, verses 19 and 20. Paul said, I through the law
did to the law that I might live unto God. How could you be dead to the
law? Through the law, you're dead
to the law. He said, yeah, the next verse, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh.
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. When Christ died, my sins were
punished. purged, put away, gone. And God sent the Holy Spirit
to tell me about it, to show me. And He did. And we see salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Noah never preached, smile, God
loves you. Noah preached God's anger with
the wicked every day. Repent and get in the ark. But they didn't believe him.
The salvation, the love of God, the loving, the redeeming love
of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not in Christ, you
don't know anything about the love of God. It's in Christ,
Romans 8, 39. What was the outcome? Well, we
read it. nor his family were saved by
the ark, that ark being a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God sealed them in and they were saved. The rest of the world, unbelievers,
knew not, did not believe until the very day that Noah entered
into that ark, the very day that the flood came, the very day
that they were swept away, then they believed. There may be some
here this morning like that. You won't really believe. You
believe what I'm saying kindly, naturally, but you won't really
believe it to move with fear, to act, until the flood comes,
the fire comes, the fire comes. We must believe God that we're
guilty sinners and deserve nothing but His wrath. We must believe
God that His wrath abides upon us. We must believe God that
there's not a solitary thing we can do. to remove the wrath
of God from us. No work. You can't earn it. You can't merit God's forgiveness. We must believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. In Hebrews chapter 11, I want
to show you one other verse. And this is a special verse to
me. It's where I live. Talking about Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and their wives, and the patriarchs. Verse 13 of Hebrews 11, these
men and women all died Believe in God. Believe in God. They died in
faith. Not having received the promises, but by faith having seen them
afar off. And they really believed. They
were persuaded. Persuaded of these promises.
Believe God. Boy, they wrapped their hearts
around these promises because they were persuaded they did
believe God. And they confessed, I don't belong
down here. This is not my permanent home.
Philippians chapter three says my citizenship's in heaven from
whence I wait for the Savior. I'm just passing through. I'm
looking for a country. looking for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God himself." Believe
God. Noah believed God. We believe God. We must believe
God. Lord, increase our faith. I pray
for Christ's sake. Okay, David.