Genesis 617, And behold, I, even
I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all
flesh where it is the breath of life from under heaven, and
everything 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 son's wife 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,
and 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 food for thee and for them. Thus did Noah, according
to all that God commanded him, so did he. And the Lord said
unto Noah, Come down all thy house into the ark. For thee
have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every
clean beast I shall take to thee by sevens, the male and his female,
and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens,
the male and the female. to keep seed alive upon the face
of all the earth 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." And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded
him. I want to talk about the flood. God said there in verse
17, said, behold, I, even I do bring a flood upon the earth,
a flood of waters upon the earth. And Noah was 600 years old when
the flood of waters was upon the earth. Now, up to this time,
there's little, little said about the human race from Adam to Noah. Very little said about it. probably
because there's nothing to record concerning the kingdom of God
and the progress of the kingdom of God. Because man, you know,
it says in Enoch's day, they began to call on the Lord. And
it didn't go very far because before men went very, very far,
far away from God. But what we do have is the solemn
and awful progress of sin. Oh, how sin progressed so quickly
from Adam all the way down to Noah. How quickly, quickly sin
progressed. And we know, beloved, according
to the Scriptures and according to our own natures, that man
left to himself, left to himself, will sink to the lowest and most
despicable state that you can imagine. There's no telling how
far down the human being will go. and the things that he'll do
unrestrained of God unrestrained of God and I tell you notice
the contrast between the sin mentioned in the character of
Noah back over here in verse 5 through 7 notice the contrast
between the sin that's mentioned look in verse 5 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 every day. And it repented the Lord
that he had made men 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. But look at the difference in Noah and that generation.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And here's the thing. God's people are not like the
world. Enoch stood out from the rest of the world. He walked
with God. Noah stood out from the rest of the world. What made
him stand out? It wasn't because he was any
different than anybody else. Because he just read there, all
flesh is grass, and the glory of man is as the grass that withereth,
and the fire that fadeth away. Man in his best states altogether,
vanity. The best he is, he's vanity.
And here we see, you know, that the only difference that God,
between him and the world, was what God meant. What God made. God made Adam, I mean Noah, to
differ from everybody else. He made Eden to differ. And that's
what God does. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, we would be just like everybody else in the world. We wouldn't
think about God. We wouldn't pray to God. We certainly
wouldn't attend some place where they preach the gospel. We might
go to a service somewhere, and we might speak in tongues, and
we might jump benches, or we may go to a priest and let him
sprinkle holy water on us. We could be born in Africa and
put mud on our hair to make it look red. But God sees the world
as it is. And here's the thing. The only
difference between us and God out there in the world is for
by grace. Noah found grace. For by grace
are you saved. And that's not of yourselves.
Grace is not of yourselves. Salvation is not of yourselves.
It's through faith. By faith. And here's the reason
that no man should glory in God's presence. And we are His workmen. His workmanship. It's the work
that God does. We're His workmanship. And listen
to this. Created in Christ Jesus. Not created separately, created
in Christ Jesus. God made us so one with Christ
that He created us in Christ. And listen to this, unto good
works. Do you know why Noah's way was? God made him that way. Every
work he did, God caused him to do it. When he built that ark,
God caused him to do it. When he knew how to build it,
God taught him how to build it. But let me show you the purpose
of the flood. Let's talk about the flood tonight. The purpose of the flood. It
says there in verse 17, it says, Even I bring a flood of water
upon the earth to destroy all flesh. And you know what the
flood was? And you find three times in the
New Testament where God judged the world. And the flood, it
was God's judgment upon sin. And you thank God, and here He
is, He says, the earth has corrupted itself, and man has corrupted
himself, and violence has filled the earth. And wherever you find,
and that's the character and expression of sin. Corruption
leads to violence, and sin is the cause, and the violence is
the effect of it. I'm telling you, sin always,
whatever happens, it corrupts. It's a corruption. That's why
he prayed tonight. He says, thank you, God, for
saving the ungodly. And how many people understand
how ungodly they were? And here's the thing about it.
You know what it takes to be ungodly? Just don't know God. Just don't know God. and live
according to yourself the way this people was. They knew not.
They did not know God. They did not know grace. They
did not know sin. They absolutely knew one thing,
to live according to the flesh. And corrupt themselves and vile
and evil in all the things that they do. In a life that's not
right with God, that God doesn't save, will become wrong with
their fellow man. It just assures you, mark it
down. Why do you think there's so much divorce in this world?
Why do you think there's so much murder in this world? Why do
you think there's so much evil in this world? Why are people
killing one another? Why are people destroying their
children, destroying their home? Why do they do that? Sin by its awful, awful character. And here's the thing about it,
they'll justify themselves. I've preached in several prisons. And it's a rare, rare, rare thing
to find a man in there that says, boy, I deserve to be here. But most of them would say, if
I'd have just had enough money and the best lawyer, I wouldn't
be here. And look what it says God looks
God looks look over here in chapter 5 in verse verse verse 5 And God looked upon the earth
God looked upon the earth In verse 12, look what he says.
Excuse me, verse 12 is where I warned you to look. And God
looked upon the earth, and behold, it was clear. And verse 5, it
says, and God saw that the wickedness. He saw and he looked. When God's
looking, that's what I'm trying to say. God saw that the wickedness
of man was great. God looked. And let me show you,
keep Genesis and look with me in Proverbs chapter 15. Proverbs 15. God scrutinizes
everything. God scrutinizes everything. God
scrutinizes me. God scrutinizes you. But here's the thing about it.
He's going to scrutinize us in Christ. But this is what we understand.
This is what I love about knowing God. that we cannot hide from
Him when we don't want to hide from Him. Adam went and hid and
Eve went and hid. We don't want to hide from God.
We want everything open and naked before Him with whom we have
to do. And that's why, beloved, when
we say things and do things and act things, that's what brings
us to repentance and say, I'm sorry. But look what He said
here in Proverbs 15 and 3. Talking about God saw and God
looked. The eyes of the Lord are in every
place. Now wonder what that means. Every place. You reckon that
means here in Cumberland County? You reckon that means here in
this building right now? You reckon that means that he's
watching Chicago? Watching China? His eyes, look
here, the eyes of the Lord are in every place. There's not a
place on this earth where God doesn't see. And look what he
goes on to say, and behold the evil and he sees the good. There's nothing, nothing that
God does not see. And I love that. God scrutinizes
everything. Here he says he's all the thoughts,
He saw the intense of the hearts, the evilness of the heart. And
let me, I believe it's in Hebrews. Let me see if this is not right.
Let me read something to you in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter four. I believe
it's verse 12. Hebrews chapter four and verse
12. See if this ain't right. Yep, yep, yep, yep, that's it.
And oh, this is what we're talking about. God looked and God saw.
And people think, you know, and there's a verse of scripture
in Ecclesiastes that says, because God judgeth not speedily. For what men do is set in men's
hearts to do more evil. People say, well, if God's there,
he'll stop me from doing this. No, no, he'll stop you just like
he stopped this generation. Just like he caused this flood
to come upon this generation, there's going to be a fire come
upon the next generation. But God is a just God and He
must punish sin wherever He finds it. But here's what I'm trying
to say is that God sees everything. For the Word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing, piercing
to the dividing asunder soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, getting wrapped between the joints of your bones, and
the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And
listen to this, neither Neither is there any creature that is
not manifest in his sight. Not any creature is not manifested,
but all things are naked and open under the eyes of him with
whom we have to do." Oh my! God knows your thoughts. And
that's what he did here. He looked and he saw that the
condition of men upon this earth, God saw. Now back over here in
Genesis, back over here in Genesis. And all God said, there's going
to be the purpose of the flood is the judgment upon sin. It's
like Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah. But I'll
tell you what a difference between what happens here in Genesis
6 where the men corrupt themselves in violence and God's going to
punish sin and God comes upon sin and judges sin. Look at Genesis
1.31. See the difference. Just see
the difference. What a contrast from Genesis
1.31 over here to Genesis 6. And God, here we go again, God
saw, God sees, and God saw everything that he had made. And behold,
it was very good. And then you go over here, six
chapters later, and all flesh has corrupted itself. Everything
was good. Now everything's bad. Now everything
was good. Now you've got to destroy everything. And God's not indifferent. God's
not indifferent to human life. He's not indifferent to human
life. He's not cruel. He's not mean. He did not enjoy
doing this. But the very fact of sin compels
Him to judgment, compels Him to judge. He must do that. And the destruction of the earth
is an expression of His justice. That's just an expression of
his justice. And as he said already, he's
going to put the goats over on the left. And he tells men, depart
from me. I never knew you. You're workers
of iniquity. I never knew you. And he told
the Pharisees, how are you going to escape the damnation of hell? That's what he asked them to
do. How are you going to escape it? That's God's justice. When men take Christ, and they
deny Christ, and they deny God, and they live as if God doesn't
exist, and live according to their own opinions, and own wills,
and own faith, and own ideas, and own desires. Why in the world
would make them think that God's going to let them get by? I'll
tell you why they think it. They think I'm as good as anybody
else. Well, no, when you're not as
good as anybody else, that don't mean nothing because the Bible
says there's none good, no, not one. So I mean, you're not saying
you're as good as anybody else. That don't mean nothing. And
oh God, and this is, this is, And this, you know the cross,
you look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, you won't
see what God, what He thinks of sin. Just destroying the earth,
that wasn't nothing compared to what He did to His Son. What an expression of the justice
of God. When He made His Son to be sin, When He charged His Son with
sin. When sin was laid upon Him. Don't you think about an expression
of sin. He was the Son of His love. He was in the bosom of the Father.
He was daily His delight. And God never done anything in
this world without doing it through His Son. Oh, he loved his son. But the son stood up and said,
I tell you, Father, I'll do what you require of them,
I'll do it for them. And that's why Noah, do you know
why Noah's family was saved? Because of Noah. Noah was the
one that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And you know why
we're saved? Because of Christ. And people
say, oh God could not be that way. Listen, you see what he
done to his son? And that gives you an idea of
what sin is. And that's why when we hear about
him and how precious he is and how blessed he is and what he
did for us and how he satisfied God's justice. These people couldn't
satisfy God's justice. When the flood came upon this
world, they were all perished and it never satisfied God's
justice. It didn't do it. But I'll tell
you what, Christ took God's justice and consumed it. Took it away. And there's no
danger. We're like Noah was in that ark. Judgment fell on the ark, but
it never fell on Noah, only in the ark. And judgment fell on
us, but it fell on Christ for us. And oh my, and not only is
this shows how God's a just God, but it also shows how He's a
Savior. He's a Savior too. You know where
is the Savior at? In that ark. Listen, how many times have our
hearts been broken and tears come through our eyes when we
think about what Christ did for us, what He suffered for us. And here, beloved, was a God
that there was no alternative. for the end had come. Look at
verse 13 of chapter 6 and it says the end had come. There's
no alternative. And it says there, and what did
I say? Verse 13. And God said unto Noah,
the end of all flesh has come before. The end has come. The
end has come. And you say, well, That's pretty
extreme. Let me tell you something. Do
you know how long he endured that generation? He said, my spirit shall not
always strive with man. He strove with man and he spoke
to man and the Holy Ghost was in that world in those days. And there were sons of God that
took to themselves daughters of men. And the scripture says
that they were giants in their earth in those days. And that
don't mean they were great big people. They were giants in their
character, men of renown. Giants in their character, giants
in their reputations. But here, oh, listen, God was
long suffering for 120 years. And here's the thing about him.
God, which much long-suffering, endures the vessels of wrath
that's fitted for destruction. He endures right now, which much
long-suffering, vessels, men and women out here who are fitted
for destruction. These false prophets did it for
destruction. God endures it. Listen, the only way to get rid
of such an awful sin and immorality is to destroy it. Is to cause
judgment to fall. Judgment to fall. And it did. And here's the thing about it.
It's going to be as it was in the days of Noah and in the days
of Lot. That's the way it's going to
be when Christ comes again. Now look what else happened here.
Look at God's plan. How He's going to save Noah and
how He saves His people. Look what He says here in verse
14 through 17. He said, Make the an ark of gopher
wood. Rooms shall thou make in it,
pitch it within and without." And all this and God gave him
the plans and said, and this is the fashion, this is the way
I want it made. I want it to look like this, this is the way,
how big I want it, this is how long I want it, this is how high
I want it, this is how many layers I want in it. And then he said,
this is the window that I want in it. I want a window in it.
Right in the very top. And I want a door in the side
of it. And there's going to be lower,
second, and third stories. Are you going to make in this?
And God gave you the plan and the passion of it. And then He
says, when this ark's done, He said, behold I, even I am going
to bring a flood upon the earth. And here's the thing, God saved
Noah, saved eight people in that flood. And this means that God
will not leave himself without a witness. He will not leave
himself without a witness. Here's a remnant according to
the election of grace. And that's what we have today,
a remnant according to the election of grace. God's not going to
leave himself without any witness. Oh, Elijah went to him and said,
Lord, I'm the only one left. They've killed all your prophets,
killed all your people, and I'm the only one left. Just go ahead
and kill me too. Said, I like you to retreat.
And God said, oh, listen, Elijah, I've got 7,000 people over there,
7,000. Now this is out of millions upon
millions upon millions of people. Said, I've got 7,000 over here.
Ain't never about to need a bail. He said, I've got a remnant.
And God's gonna have a remnant. Just as sure as he, God's gonna
leave himself without a witness on this earth. And I tell you
there's always a remnant according to the election of grace. Have
you ever seen these remnant cells? A remnant is something that's
left over when everything else is gone. That's what we are when
everything else is gone. We're the remnant. We're the
remnant of His election of grace. Oh my. And God deals with families. God deals with families. Here
He dealt with this man Noah and his family. And he dealt with
that race and his family by one man, by Noah. God deals with us by one man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And God dealt with Noah, and
look what he says there in verse 18. But with thee will I establish
my covenant. I'm gonna establish my covenant
with you. And God, He made the covenant
with Noah. Noah didn't make a covenant with
God. Noah came and made a covenant. God made a covenant with Noah.
And I tell you, a covenant is an ever covenant in the scriptures,
except for the covenant of works. God made the covenant. God made
the covenant. We didn't. We had nothing to
do with between the father and the son. And then look here,
a great task was undertaken by Noah. Oh, what a great task was
undertaken. God told him to build the ark.
Build the ark. And then look what he told him
to do. Take your sons and your wives
with you into that ark and of every living thing of all flesh. Two of every sort, shalt thou
bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee. See, God said,
I'm going to save you. You're going to live, Noah. You're
going to live. Keep them alive with you. And
look what he says. They should be male and female.
Fowls after their kind, cattle after their kind, ever creeping
thing. Keep them alive. Come unto thee to keep them alive.
And then he told him, get all the food that you need, take
unto thee all the food that's to be eaten, gather it to thee,
and it shall be food for thee and for them. They got to be
fed too. Thus did Noah, according to all
that commanded. And can you imagine what ridicule
he endured, what ridicule that Noah endured on this earth? And oh my, the ridicule and all,
what a testimony to the grace of God that would enable him
to do this. What God enabled him to do this. So look at God's
command. So Noah, Noah did everything that God told him to do. Everything,
got everything into that ark. Now, you know, I'll tell you
what, it took a while. It took a while. You imagine. Shirley and I was talking about
this the other day. If God hadn't put the fear of
animals, of man, in them, do you know how dangerous it'd be
in this world? If God didn't put animals' fear
in our hearts, in their hearts for us, you couldn't get in the
field with a bull or a bunch of cattle. A cat? It'd be dangerous. I'm
not trying to be funny, but I'm telling you, we go out in the
woods and so many things you don't see that can destroy you.
A bear sees you and he runs. What if he don't run? He says,
I hate that man. I hate him. If he didn't put
their fear in their heart, you know it'd be dangerous on this.
God did this. And oh, Noah and his family are
in there, and look what it says in verse 4. Noah said, God said,
come in, come in, get in here. And they imagined the mockery
that they endured because it didn't rain for seven days. It
said down in verse four, for yet seven days, and I will cause
it to rain upon the earth. So they had to stay in that ark
for seven days. And can you all imagine? You
know, he got all these animals in there. He got all this food
in there. And everybody standing around,
just looking and looking, said, he'd been in there seven days,
ain't nothing happened yet. He'd been in there five days,
ain't been nothing happening. Wonder what's the matter with
that old man? I guess he's lost his mind. But oh my, but it shall rain 40 days and
40 nights. And this says in verse 5, and
Noah did all according unto all that the Lord commanded him.
And then look down at verse 10. And it come to pass, and it came
to pass after seven days. Just exactly what God said would
happen after seven days. It came to pass that the waters
of the flood were upon the earth. It came to pass, and it always
does. It always does. It always comes
to pass. And down here in verse 17, in
verse 24, let me just make a few comments. And the flood was forty
days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and bear up
the ark, and it was lifted. above the earth and I mentioned
this last week and the waters prevailed and increased greatly
upon the earth and the arc went upon the face of the waters and
again and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth up
to all the high hills that were under the web and were covered.
And down verse 21, and all flesh, and the waters prevailed till
the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved
upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and of beasts and
of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every
man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life of all that
was in the dry land died. died. And every living substance
was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground. Both
man, cattle, creeping thing, fowl of the heaven, they were
destroyed from the earth. And listen to this, and Noah
only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark.
And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty
days. 150 days. Oh my. There ain't going to be a flood
next time. There's going to be a fire. But look what he said there in
verse 1 of chapter 8. And I love this. And God remembered
Noah. That's the way it's going to
be when judgment comes. I remember them. They're mine.
They're mine. I remember them. God's got a
Book of Remembrance. Oh, listen. God remembered Noah
and every living thing that owes a cattle upon the ark. And oh,
my. So God remembered Noah and his
covenant with him. And I tell you, this is the blessed
thing. Oh, Noah, I'm telling you, just as sure as you and
I are here, Noah has some fears. Noah, no doubt, had some anxieties.
Noah, no doubt, when that arc just kept going up and up and
up and up and up and up and up. And it rained and it rained and
it rained and it rained. And he couldn't look nowhere.
He couldn't get out. He couldn't look nowhere to see
what condition things was in. He only had one place he could
look. So instead of looking around
us and seeing how bad things are around us, let's look up,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Yes,
this world's in bad shape, but we're in Christ. God's gonna
judge the world, but we're judged in Christ. Look up! And our Lord
Jesus said like this, look up, for your redemption doth not. It doth not. Amen? Amen. Our Father, oh blessed Father,
thank you for your great and abundant mercies given us in
Christ. Thank you that you gave us this
blessed, blessed grace, that you chose us in Christ, created
us in Christ, justified us by Christ, preserved us in Christ,
and that your judgments already fell on us. We thank you. And Lord, we look for the day
when you'll remember that covenant. And you'll call all your children
home. And we'll dwell on that new heaven and that new earth
as Noah came out on a new earth. A new earth. Lord, we'll come one of these
days on a new earth. A new heaven and a new earth.
And all of us will dwell in it. His righteousness. Lord, we look
forward to it. And oh Father, please open men
and women's hearts to the fact that they're sinners without
help and without hope apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. May you
bring them to trust Him and Him alone for their salvation. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's sing that chorus
again. Sing it all the time. Turn your
eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, will grow strangely dim in the
light of His glory and grace.