I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Genesis 6. Genesis 6 for us today is a glorious
day as is always the case when we have an opportunity to see
our brothers and sisters make a public profession of faith
in the waters of baptism because that is exactly what baptism
is, a public profession of faith as we shall see. The message
today, if you have your Bibles, at Genesis chapter 6 is Noah's
Ark and Baptism. Noah's Ark and Baptism. If you are not aware of the way
the Bible is crafted, the purpose and design of Scripture, the
goal and objective of the testimony of the Word of God, you need
to know that this Book is about God. And you also need to know
that more specifically, this book is about his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you don't know that already,
a lot of people don't. A lot of people go to church
and they have never been taught the fundamentals of the gospel
or the primary purpose for which God has given us special revelation
in the scriptures. And so we would let you know
that when you come to a church where biblical truth is explained
accurately, you are privileged to be an observer of the work
of God in the redemption of men and women in the context of biblical
truth. And what that means is in church,
it is not primarily the people that are sitting in the pews
who are the subject of the discourse. In church, the people of the
pews are privileged to hear once again what great things God has
done by which he saves those who trust him. When you and I
are under sound biblical theology, we have the privilege of learning
about God's purpose, his plan, his work. As we talked about
some of these fundamentals in our men's theology class last
night, the question was raised, what is theology? And the technical
answer is theology is the study of God. But the more accurate
answer is theology is God talking about himself. and letting us
in on the conversation. That's what theology is. For
if God doesn't open his mouth and speak, it doesn't matter
how much we search for God, we can never come to know him. Can
a man by searching find out God? Will a person know what's in
your heart until you open your mouth and begin to speak? People
will think that you are a mystery until you open your mouth. So
the Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, doth the mouth,
what? This is how I know who you are because when you begin
to speak, your character comes out, your intentions and purpose
comes out. Those subtle things that make
you uniquely you begin to emerge. And now I get to know you. So
God doesn't speak. We can't know him, can we? And
for us, the word of God is the very mouthpiece of God by which
we come to know him. Is that true? The word of God,
when it's open and explain you and I are for a moment, gripped
with a story, which is his story. Biblical theology is history
according to Jesus. And one of the subjects that
runs through the scriptures or permeates the scripture is the
subject of the salvation of sinners who are in a horrible plight
before God. And the narrative in front of
us serves for that precise purpose as well. The first point in your
outline, if you'll follow me in your outline, is man's condition,
man's conduct, and man's consequence. Obviously you have had read by
the elder a historical narrative of some things that were transpiring
and the opening verses say, and it came to pass. Whenever you
read the term and it came to pass, you and I are entering
into a conversation that is historical and narrative in nature. It's
like watching a sitcom and being in the second scene or the third
scene or the fourth scene. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? And you would really want to know how this thing began. But here you are where you are
and we are in chapter 6 of Genesis and it opens up and what it says
is it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth and the daughters were born unto them. This here is
the proliferation mandate that God gave Adam and Eve in Genesis
1 26. It came to pass when the earth was filled with people
men women and children. that the sons of God saw the
daughters of men that they were fair. The word is good or beautiful. And it implies good to look upon. This is the same term that's
used in Genesis 3, where Eve was deceived into being allured
to look upon the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as
something that was attractive. Same concept here. And so the
daughters of men were beautiful. And you know, ladies, men have
always had a problem with beautiful women, haven't they? So there's
nothing new. If you and I wanted to tamper
with how old is the historical narrative of scripture and you
follow the evolutionists we could go back billions of years and
suggest that Genesis chapter 6 is an old old old old old story
of men stumbling at the external beauty of women and it would
be true today wouldn't it So at least whether or not we know
the chronology of Scripture, the reality is that the ethical
truth of the Bible is honest when it comes to the struggle
between the sexes. God here is talking and He's
giving us a narrative from His perspective as to the danger. Now mark what verse 2 says, that
the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful,
and they took them wives of all which they chose, verse 3, the
Lord said my spirit shall not always strive with men for that
he is also flesh yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty
years now you're wondering why did God say that after giving
the narrative of Earth being filled with people the sons of
God that's religious folk the term sons of God is referring
to you and I who are religious people and I saw the daughters
of men, and that's secular people. Those are unsaved people. Those
are non-religious people. These are the people of the world.
So we're dealing with two categories, aren't we? We're dealing with
church folk who see the non-church folk, and the church folk are
attracted to the non-church folk. Y'all got that? That's what's
going on there. I just want to make sure you
understand the context. This is really not about a gender
battle, although there is an analogy to be carried out here.
It's religious folk who ought to know better. than to be allured
and seduced and attracted to the secular, seductive ways of
the world. Now, even though it's set in
the context of a male-female paradigm, our model, which is
primarily what you and I are dealing with in life, I'm looking
in the room of a whole bunch of people that are male and female,
right? And so what we are dealing with
is life on a normal level of males and females interacting
But what the narrative is teaching us is that there's something
more here for which God is really concerned God's concerned with
the condition of the culture and God is concerned with the
conduct of the culture and God then draws up some consequences
according to verse 3 He says my spirit shall not always strive
with flesh Strive with man for he is also flesh yet. His days
will be 120 years. What did God just do right there?
He actually audibilized Articulated a consequence he basically said
the idea that the sons of God are now intermarrying with the
daughters of men is a bad deal and The idea that religious people
who are taught sound doctrine and ostensibly believe in the
truth of God's Word and therefore are called to live their lives
in a certain fashion with certain commitments and devotions as
the basis of their conviction have now decided to cross that
line and cross those barriers and enter into a league with
the secular institutions of the world. And God says that's not
going to work. Here's what God is saying, like
He taught the children of Israel in the Old Testament. He said,
now when you sow your seed into the ground, do not sow diverse
seed together. Do not mix the wool with the
flax in your clothing. Do not sow your beans with your
vegetables. Do not mix. Don't hybrid the
seed. Let every seed bearing herb bring
forth fruit after it's what? On kind. There therefore is a
necessary distinction that God is making, as it were, to teach
his people what is holy and what is not holy. what's clean and
what's not clean. And discerning Christians learn
to determine when we are crossing the line over into forbidden
territory. The discerning Christian comes
to discover that there are deceptions and distractions and temptations
and allurements that have the capacity to draw us over into
forbidden territory. And if we linger there too long,
we'll be trapped. And if we get trapped in those
cultural genes and those cultural, uh, constructions that are designed
to distract you from the truth, you'll find yourself compromising
biblical truth. Have you ever been there? Have
you ever crossed that line and said, you know, I'm just going
to stay here for five minutes and found that you were there
for five months or five years. and found yourself suffering
consequences that you knew were inevitable because you stayed
way too long in the place where you shouldn't have been. Well,
when God says in verse three, listen, I'm not going to be striving
with these knuckleheads all day long. That's my translation.
And what it means is this. God will talk to you and I, and
he will tell us in our conscience, you're wrong. It's just that simple. I can
close in prayer now. Hallelujah. You know what's interesting
about us as human beings, particularly as professing Christians, we
labor hard to not hear the voice of God. I'm not even talking
about the secular folks who don't listen to God. I'm talking about
Christians who try very hard to justify their sin. when the
Holy Ghost speaks so vividly and crystal clear to you and
I that the Bible says in the day of judgment, there will be
none that can say, I did not know. You know what God just
said? Listen, I'm going to stop talking
to them and let them have their way. Now, let me share something
with you, child of God. You don't want God to stop talking
to you. You don't want God to stop having
free access to your conscience. You don't want God having free
access to your will. You don't want God to remove
the fear of God from your thinking. See, because if he removes the
fear of God from your conscience, you will do that which is wrong
in his sight with your eyes wide open. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? It's God's goodness to strive
with us. It's his goodness. The word means
to referee. You know what a referee is? He's
the person that tells you when you're inbounds and out of bounds.
when you're committing a foul and when you're legal. I need
God to tell me that. I don't know about you. Because
see, I'll change the rules in the middle of the game. I'll
erase the lines of demarcation and move them back a little bit.
I'll change the landmarks just to enlarge my inheritance and
get myself in trouble. But you won't do that. See, what
God is doing is saying to this whole world, okay, we have a
group of people in the world that are called the sons and
daughters of God. These are supposedly my believing people, and what
they're supposed to do in the world is let people in the world
know who God is. But these people have abandoned
their mission to jump into the agenda of the world. Now, saints,
you already see the trouble of that, don't you? Have you ever
been able to take a glass of pure, clean water and take a
speck of dirt and put it in the glass of pure, clean water and
expect the water to clean the dirt. Have you been able to do that?
You know what's about to take place, right? A contamination
of the water. So what God says to his people
is this, your mission is not to abandon biblical truth and
enter into the world's agenda. For you to do that is to lose
all of the indicatives with which you are privileged. If you are
salt, your job is to be salty. If you are light, your job is
to be light. If you are true, your job is
to be true. If you are righteousness, your
job is to point to righteousness. If you are hope, you are to let
people know what hope is. But the moment that you abandon
those principles, the lights go out. And the Lord sees that
in this context. He says, I'm going to stop striving
with them. Now, this is an alarming, alarming statement that we have
here. Very alarming. What's taking
place, if you don't know why, verse three emerges so quickly.
is that from chapter two of Genesis to chapter six of Genesis, we
have what is called 10 generations. 10 generations when you read
genesis chapter 5 we have what is called the generations of
the sons of adam right adam lived so many years and he had sons
and sons and sons and adam was 930 years old and adam died and
then the son after him he lived so many years and he had sons
and sons and sons and after that he died right so from genesis
chapter 5 verse 1 to genesis chapter 6 verse 1 we have actually
and precisely 10 generations now the number 10 in the Bible
is the number for completion and in the mind of God humanity
humanity had come to a place of completion in terms of The
testimony that the true believer was to bear to the world and
in terms of the world's needing to respond to the message of
the true believer and by the time we get to this 10th generation
We are all messed up The church is through preaching the gospel.
The church is through being that distinct witness that is called
to. The church is through now suffering for the glory of God.
The church is through now expanding the kingdom of God. The church
has jumped on into the world. You know what we call this? Apostasy.
Departure from the truth. Where the church is the world
and the world is the world. And the world now is comfortable
in the church because the church has compromised biblical truth.
You guys understand that context? That's precisely what's going
on here. And the 10th generation is that generation where God
has determined, OK, now I'm going to act in a radical way to stop
the continual process of what's going on. Because if I continue
allowing what's going on, there will be more of the children
of the devil running the world than the children of God. So
God is going to be decisive here. He's going to give mankind 120
years. The seventh from Adam was a man named what? Enoch,
who walked with God in such a noble way by the grace of God that
God just let that brother walk right on out of here. I've been
praying that since I was 18 years old. Lord, can I just get one
of those steps of Enoch so that when I step on it, I go poof,
disappear. Wouldn't you want to have such
a fellowship and intimacy and walk with God that he enjoys
communion with you so fully that he said, look, man, look, let's,
let's, let's stop this thing. I want you with myself. Wouldn't
you want that? And see, that depicts the perfection
of the church in Jesus Christ. It speaks to the ultimate translation
of the church out of this world when Christ comes again. Our
hope for that kind of communion and fellowship is only rooted
in Christ. Only Christ walked with the Father
like that. But I'm so glad He was my substitute,
aren't you? That tells me one day the Father's
gonna come get me like that. Snatch me out of here. Then what
God did was allow three more generations to go by. From brother
Noah, we have brother Methuselah. He lived a long time, godly man
too. He had a son named Lamech, and Lamech was a good brother
too. Lamech had Noah. Noah was the 10th generation. God's gonna wipe the world out
in Noah's day and start all over with his three sons. Isn't that
right, ladies? You see, God has to start over sometimes. You
know how you start a project and it don't work out right?
You're kind of ambivalent about what to do. Really, that thing
needs to be tore up and start it all over? Well, that's what
God is doing here. And he's doing that because there's
no more witness. And this is an allusion to what's
going to happen when Jesus comes again. Do you guys believe that
Jesus is coming again? You believe that the Lord will
come again? Well, the Bible clearly depicts that when he does come
again, the world will be just like the days of Noah. For in
the days of Noah, they were giving in marriage and being married,
and they were eating and drinking, and they were building houses,
and they were doing all sorts of things, apparently being normal,
but in reality, living an exceedingly rebellious life against God.
Doesn't that depict our time? For those of us who are on the
summit, you young people don't know about the summit, but for
those of us who are on the summit and are able to look out over
into the horizons of eternity, don't we know that our present
world is a mess? Do we have to, as it were, soften
the reality that our culture is confused, our culture is crazy,
our culture is whacked out, and we don't see a whole lot of hope
for our children outside of Christ? Am I telling the truth? For those
of us who are older right about now, we would really want for
God to solve the problem of what we see inevitably coming here
in America in a short time. Because you see, the Bible is
clear. The wages of sin is what? You can play with God all you
want to, but there are rules that he will not violate. the
wages of sin is death. And when I think about my grandchildren,
I think about my youngest daughter who is 12 now getting ready to
launch right on into that high school malaise. I am so daily
burdened, burdened in the bottom of my heart with my concern for
her soul. How about you? How about you? Now listen, I know that if God
doesn't come, now watch this now, He's only got one other
solution we can consider. There's only one other solution.
And that solution is depicted in our text. This is what's so
important about the doctrine of baptism of which you guys
will observe today. Baptism is a symbol of the only
solution before judgment. It's God's only soul singular
solution before the judgment. It says that God looked upon
the sons of men and saw that the imagination of the hearts
of men were only evil unendingly. Now let me ask you a question
ladies and gentlemen. Does God see right or does he need to
clean his glasses? Does he see right? Does God see
it the way it really is? Can I share something with you?
You and I don't. You and I can look out at the world and we
will find spots in the world that we will think, you know,
this is all right. But God might see it totally different than
you and I. Because God sees the heart of a thing. He sees the
motive of a thing. He sees the intention of a thing.
He sees the end of a thing. He sees that the thing is rotten
through and through and that there are no redemptive elements
in it. Now, can God see a thing that
way? Can God see a generation of people for whom he knows they
will never receive Christ? They will never come to Christ.
They will never bow to the crown rights of Jesus Christ. They
will never, never come to Christ. And if that's true, that God
can see the end from the beginning, isn't it appropriate for God
to act in accordance with his omniscience? Now, do you guys
know God? How many of y'all know God in
here? Raise your hand up. Don't lie now. Now watch this. If you
know God, now watch this. God is a merciful God, isn't
he? God is a gracious God, isn't
he? God is a good God, isn't he? He's a kind God, isn't he?
God always does right, doesn't he? Isn't God holy? Isn't God
holy in his justice? Isn't he holy in his punishment?
When God punishes sin, isn't he good? So we don't want to
be blaming God for what he's getting ready to tear up. There's
a reason for which he's doing what he's doing. Now the reason
I'm laying this foundation is because I want to hold you culpable
of knowing God or knowing some things about God so that you
can stop being mad at God when God is simply being God. Because
we have a tendency to do that. We have a tendency of getting
mad at God for God being God You ought to thank God for letting
Him know something about you or you about Him. Because most
people don't know Him. People fabricate ideas about
God that are contrary to His Word. But if you and I know that
God is holy, just, God is merciful, kind, God is patient, long-suffering.
Now you know God's long-suffering because He's long-suffering with
you. Isn't that right? See, now if God didn't wipe anybody else
out on the planet, He should have wiped you out. Come on,
tell the truth now. And what is it, do you think,
that's delaying God's wrath against you but is mercy? See what I'm
getting at? But is mercy. And so we actually
have the mercy of God manifested in the text because its intentionality
is made known. See, like if I didn't like you
and I wanted to take you out, I'm not gonna tell nobody what
I'm gonna do to you. I'm not going to tell them that
I'm going to get his brother 120 years, but on the 120th year,
I'm taking him out. That's God's mercy, isn't it?
Now, between the time that I have determined to do something decisively
about your rebellion and that time when it actually happens,
I also am going to be extremely gracious. And that grace is manifested
in what God does in the life of a man named Noah. So point
number one, God, He exposes us to the condition of the human
race. And ladies and gentlemen, whether you know it or not, the
Bible teaches this, that mankind by nature is a sinner. This stuff
used to be taught long ago when we actually believed the Bible
in church. We don't believe it today. But long ago, the Bible
would be plainly taught that the wages of sin is death, that
the soul that sinneth it shall die that in the day we eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we're going to
perish that washes all have sinned and come short of the glory of
god you might ask the question pastor what do you mean by all
i'm glad you asked i mean all from the first to the last of
us are sinners and we are culpable to the judgment of god the wrath
of god if god were to wipe all of us out he would be just right
that's what we used to teach that men are sinners. And then
we used to teach what kind of sinners they are. You know what
that was? Hell-bound sinners. See, today we might teach sinners,
but we don't teach hell-bound sinners. Because if you're not
a hell-bound sinner, you have no reason to be desperate. You're
just a sinner. And you know, today, folks kind
of laud being a sinner, especially religious folk that go to church.
Now, you might be a sinner, but you're not coming to Christ until
you realize that you are a hell-bound sinner. Bound to hell. See, and then the offer of escape
won't actually make any sense to you. What God said in the
narrative is he's gonna destroy this world. Know what he told
Noah? All flesh is getting ready to perish. The world's in a bad
way, isn't it? It's in a bad way. So now, when you know that
God has come to you, let's say you're Noah. I'm gonna just be
therapeutic today. Let's say you're Noah and God
come to you and say, hey, Noah, I'm getting ready to destroy
this world. I'm gonna give him 120 years. And I need you to
build an ark because I want you to let them know there's only
one option out. Got it? Wouldn't you feel privileged?
Now, if you loved God, wouldn't you do what he said? So point
number two in our outline, God sees things as they really are.
Now, I began to touch on that a little bit, but let me help
you understand something. God's eyes, and this here is
what we call anthropomorphism, The God of the Bible doesn't
have physical eyes. Let me help you. He's spirit
right everywhere present immutable in his nature unchangeable But
when it uses the term God's eyes because he created us in his
image. These are terms by which we can relate to God The Bible
says that God's eyes are like fire And fire is a metaphor in
the scripture for that which penetrates through all darkness
it penetrates and it purges and and it clarifies, it purifies. So the eyes of the Lord see everything
for what they really are. Remember what John said concerning
Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter 1 verse 14? And when I turn to
see the voice that spake with me, I saw one like the Son of
Man standing in the middle of the seven golden candlesticks,
and he had on a robe, and he was girded from his loins all
the way down to his feet, and he had, as it were, hair as white
as wool, and he had eyes as a flaming fire, which means as the high
priest of the church, as the God-man, he sees every one of
us for who we really are. Am I telling the truth? He sees
it for who we are. And see God sees everything the
right way. He doesn't mix it up like you and I do. God sees
it the right way. So God sees that culture as well. Now let
me share something with you as we work through this. If you
and I would have been in Noah's day, it's very possible that
we wouldn't have detected any of the horrible things of which
the scripture here is now indicating. It's very possible because of
our own personal prejudices and our own preferences that you
and I would have looked at Noah's day and say, man, this is cool.
Man, they're building. They've got plans. They've got
agendas. They've got amusement parks. They've got great music.
Work is plentiful everywhere. They're increasing in their knowledge,
in their technology. Science is just abounding. And man, look at the relationship
between everybody. I mean, this is a wonderful scenario. But you wouldn't be seeing it
the way God sees it. You and I would just simply be
seeing it according to the flesh. The way you and I see it on television.
the way you and I see it in media, the way you and I interpret it
by our interactions with our culture. Ladies and gentlemen,
what I am saying is you and I don't see the world by nature the way
God does. And if we're going to ever see
it the way God does, we're going to have to take heed to his word.
because his word makes it very clear what our culture is like.
And when it does that, when the word of God depicts our culture
the way that it's designed, the way that it really is, as opposed
to what we think it is, it's not so much giving us an insight
to look at our culture and say, oh, look how bad our culture
is. No, it's designed to give us an insight so that we can
say, oh, look how bad we are. Because you and I are contributing
factors to the problem. I know you didn't think you were
coming to church to hear that. You are part of the problem. I am
too. We live in that world. We operate
in that world. There's a good portion of that
world that we aid and abet and support. That philosophy drapes
itself on us. It cleaves to us. There's a lot
of ideas in the world that feel good to us, don't they? And we
subtly promote them and we subtly engage in them. You and I are
in trouble too. Can I get a witness? All right,
here goes the next point. But, that's a wonderful word
in the scripture. B-U-T, it's a contrasting conjunction. And what it implies is, is we
getting ready to turn around and go in another direction.
Isn't it good when God turns things around and goes in another
direction? Cause see that train, that train called the world in
that context had everybody on it, including you and me. And
that train was headed over a cliff, but God in his goodness and his
mercy, you're standing before the judge. The judge says you
need to be locked up for life, but that rare hope shines through. This is only applying to criminals
like myself. You folk who never been to jail,
you never stood before. Don't worry about this is for
criminals. Judge, you got a butt there? Judge, you got a butt?
Help a brother out. Help a brother out. Because I
know I'm guilty. But, Mr. Gistin, okay, what,
what, what? I'm drinking that butt in, boy.
I want to know what that butt is. Give me that one. The butt
that we speak to here now is really with reference to what
God must do in light of how he feels. Look with me at verse
7. I'm going to start at verse 6
and go through verse 8. Verse 6, And it repented the
Lord that he 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,
beast and creeping thing and the fowls of the air. For it
repented me that I have made them. three times. Repented,
grieved, repented. You guys got that? Repented,
grieved, repented. What we have in these two verses
is an insight into an aspect of God's nature, which he has
now voluntarily let us know. And I want you to know what that
is because it has three applications to you and I. First and foremost,
God's view concerning the sinful condition of the human race is
not apathetic. God is not indifferent to our
rebellion against him. In other words, God is not just
some unsympathetic deity that sits way up in glory and doesn't
really care a wit what you do. Contrary to that, he really does
care. You guys got that? Now, again,
we are dealing with what we call anthropomorphical terminology,
It actually is what is called an anthropopathism. Pathos is
the term for feelings, how we feel, how we feel. And you'll
read that frequently in the Bible about a God who is immutable
and unchangeable. And yet he has, as it were, or depicts that
he has what? Feelings. Does God use the term
rejoice concerning himself? Does God use the term being pleased
concerning himself? Does God use the term being delighted
concerning himself? See, does God use the term exercising
what we call slowness to anger? Does he use that? All of those
are anthropopathic terms. Those are emotional terms. Those
are feeling-oriented terms to teach us something about God. Secondly, it is designed to teach
us how we ought to feel about the same things that God is dealing
with. You got that? See, in other words,
if God shares with me, watch this ladies and gentlemen, that
he takes no delight, no pleasure in the death of the wicked, that
he's teaching me that I ought to be that way too. that I ought
not to take any pleasure in the death of the wicked, that I ought
not to rejoice in the demise of any human soul, that I ought
not to have such a cold and callous heart that I don't care about
people groups. See, because the revelation of
God's character is designed to influence and impact and inform
my own character since I'm his son. Thirdly, the reason why
the Old Testament gives us these anthropopathic expressions of
God. He was grieved with Israel 40
years. He took great delight in the
sons of God. He had great pleasure. He had
so much pleasure in Enoch. He took him, right? And the text
says that God loves. That's emotional. And the text
says that God hates. And that's emotional, that's
righteous too. His anger will burn against the wicked and the
ungodly. Those things are designed to inform us. But ultimately,
you know what we are learning in verse six and seven? That
you and I can one day look forward to a God-man, watch this now,
who was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Are you hearing
me? See, and so the God of heaven,
Jehovah, God the Father speaking from heaven in His displeasure
of the behavior of the whole human race is telling His sons
and daughters, listen, don't you take any delight in it. You
are sinners by nature and naturally we drink iniquity like water
and we can take pleasure in the things that God doesn't take
pleasure in. Is that true? And God is informing us by his
word that you and I need to be transformed by the renewing of
our mind so we can think God's thoughts after him and feel what
God feels. Without it, we can never be compassionate. And without it, we can never
be righteous in our conduct. Please listen to me. You can
learn all the Bible you want and you will never move one step
forward in your soul to help deliver men from the pit of hell.
Unless the pathos of God takes hold of you. Unless the pathos
of God takes hold of you, you will only watch them perish like
the Levite and the priest when they walk by the man that was
wounded on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Remember, they just
went around him. They assessed him right, but
they had no feeling for him. They had no feeling for him.
Let me say another couple of theological truths about this
for those of you who read your Bibles just a little bit more
than most of us. When the bible says that it repented god that
he made man It doesn't mean that god changes his mind In the bible
the bible is very clear in numbers 23 19 that god is not a man that
he should what? And nor is he the son of man
that he should what? So if the bible says that god is not like
us we change our mind all the time because we're fickle creatures
Whichever the way the wind blows be sure of this god is of one
mind Job makes it very clear and who can change him. We are
talking now about the immutability of God's intellect, God's wisdom,
God's omniscience, God's counsel, God's purpose. It does not change. God's overall arching linear
objective for what he wants to do is rooted in his counsel. Am I telling the truth? Now watch
this. Therefore, every other thing
operates in accordance with God's will. Ephesians 1 verse 9, all
things are working after the counsel of his own will. You
know what that means? God has a will and purpose which
he himself constructed, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, before the
world began. And they are working it out to a T. You know what
that means? God does not have to adjust his will or his purpose. His plans are gonna come to pass
only within the framework of that linear objective. You know
what God has allowed? What we call contingencies. It's
God's immutable purpose to destroy mankind when he sins against
God. That's why he said he's going to die. That's an immutable
purpose of God. Genesis 3, verse 7, Genesis 2,
17. You're going to die in the day
you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? God
sees the end of it. You're going to die. But you know what is
also in God's immutable purpose and plan? To save a people for
himself. Isn't that good? in God's immutable,
unchangeable purpose of grace. He said, even though men are
gonna perish according to their own will, I will deliberately
show mercy in the context of my justice and save people for
myself. You know where the word comes
in upon this consideration? The word grace. Grace. Grace is preceded by the word
but now. You got that? He knows the world's
gonna perish. His justice must be executed
as part of his glory, but because his nature is also to save, he's
gonna save some people. Aren't you glad that God saved
some people? Now we got folks in the world
who like to say, well, you know, how come God didn't save them
all? And here's the answer, because
he didn't want to. You got that? You got that? The question you should be asking
is why did God save any? Am I making some sense? Why did
God save any? See, if you were really thinking
God's thoughts after God, if you were trained from Genesis
1-1 to Genesis chapter 6 verse 11 and 12 or where we're at,
if you were trained to think the way God thought, all you
would be saying is, God, why are you waiting so long to destroy
these folks? but because within the framework
of his immutable counsel, God has chosen to save a people for
himself. Now he's revealing an aspect of his purpose to us called
redemption on the basis of grace by which he answers to the sins
of certain people whom he has chosen in Christ before the world
began. And there's a man he's getting
ready to call to our attention and his name is what? Noah. He
put a big old butt on Noah's head. There it is. Verse 8 but Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord Do you see that how many of you how
many of you your name is Noah right now? My name is Noah Hallelujah
My name is Noah. I Have found grace in the eyes
of the Lord now watch it now. I didn't find the grace the grace
found me See we're still looking at things through God's eyes,
aren't we? We're not looking at things through our eyes. The
text tells me that Noah was highly favored of God and it actually
gives us three characteristics in terms of how Noah was before
God. Notice what it says in verse
89. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and these are the
Generations of Noah nor was a what just man and nor was what? Perfect
in his generation and nor what walk with God. Can I share something
with you? All four of those characteristics
are true of every believer First of all, every believer is only
saved by grace We are never saved by our words God doesn't look
on us because of who we are he looks on us because of his grace
and He looks on us because of a covenant of grace that he made
before the world began in his son, Jesus Christ. Am I making
some sense? And because of his grace, God
can constitute us just in his sight. Now, some folk, when they
catch up with the word just, are justified or righteous, which
is the same Hebrew term, they are thinking that Noah is righteous
because of what he did. But I would beg to differ with
you. that Noah was no different than
the generation in which he lived. Other than the grace of God caught
up with Noah, watch this now, because God had chosen Noah unto
salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. Now let me help you make this more practical. Noah didn't
just kind of arbitrarily come into this auspicious relationship
with God's grace. He had a daddy who heard the
gospel. And he had a granddaddy who heard
the gospel. And he had a great granddaddy
who heard the gospel so much, he walked right out of here.
So from Enoch to Methuselah to Lamech, Noah had the gospel of
grace preached to him. And God in his mercy prophesied
of Noah being a comfort to his generation. You know what that
means, ladies and gentlemen, particularly those of us who
are parents? Do you understand how exceedingly important it
is for us to train our children in the truth of the gospel? Because
God sees generations way down the line. He sees them way down
the line. He sees them way down the line.
Way down the line. Look at Noah. Look at Noah. He's in the midst of a world
where none of them are going to turn to God. That's a tough
situation, isn't it? He's in the midst of a world
where none of them are coming to Christ. None. Isn't that a
tough situation? But do you know what God did
for Noah? God saved him. God sanctified him. God called
him and God equipped him and God kept him. Isn't that what
God must do for us? God called him by the gospel,
God quickened him by his spirit, God preserved him by his spirit,
and God now is using Noah, not because of who Noah was, but
because of who Christ is, and because of the faithfulness of
the gospel preached by every believing family subsequent to
Noah. I just want you to know how it's
practically done. As Paul said to Timothy, I thank
God for the faith that is found in you, found in your mama, and
found in your grandmama. Got it? It's important for us
to understand this because we might just think that God saves
arbitrarily He saves on purpose and he saves by means so if you
and I are interested in our children being saved Don't you even think
for a moment that we have hope of their salvation if you don't
teach them the truth of the gospel if you don't keep them under
sound teaching if they are not confronted with the realities
of Jesus Christ and the reality of their sinful condition, the
certainty of them going to hell like their mama and their daddy.
If you and I don't teach our children that God has left only
one way of escape from terminal death, and that's what you and
I are about to deal with. If we don't teach our children
this, you and I have no hope that they will be saved, none
whatsoever. I thank God for Noah, but I thank
God for Noah's daddy, and I thank him for his granddaddy. And I'm
thanking for his great-granddaddy. I'm looking forward to meeting
Enoch one day and saying, man, how did it feel? Point number three I outlined.
Noah's calling, a pattern for every believer. I have just substantiated
that. This is not uncommon. When you
think about Noah, please understand this. If God has saved you by
his grace, you are justified freely. through the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ, if God has saved you by his grace,
you are righteous in God's eyes, just as righteous as God's darling
son. If God has saved you by his grace,
listen carefully, you are perfect, perfect, perfect in Christ. You know what perfect means?
Complete, totally furnished. Adequate for every work having
no necessity of anything because of your substitute providing
for you everything Necessary for life and godliness through
a knowledge of him if you are a child of God You know what
God says concerning you like he said of Noah like he said
of David My goodness. He said this of David David was
perfect in his generation. Isn't that wild? But it makes
sense when what he was meaning was that David believed the gospel. That's what it means to be perfect.
It means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ without any compromise. The man or the woman that's perfect
is the man or the woman who believes what the gospel teaches, preaches,
proclaims, and hangs on it with all of their hope. To be perfect
in God's sight means to be committed to the revelation of the glory
of God in Christ. Are you guys with me so far?
To be perfect in God's sight is for you to say, like the disciples
said in John chapter 6, Lord, where shall we go? You only have
the words of eternal life. It was this basis upon which
Noah was able to live in a full world that hated God. How are you going to make it
through a world that hates God? If your love for God and God's love
for you doesn't sustain you in the midst of that hate, am I
making some sense? How are you going to make it
where everybody hates you? I'm talking to your kinfolk, your cousins, your
uncles, your aunt. Listen, no one was saved for
that 120 years with Noah. No one called on Jehovah, died
in faith, helped Noah built that ark. No one. So you understand
by implication that Noah had to deal with all sorts of obstacles. Am I making some sense? What
sustained him is the same thing that will sustain us and that's
the grace of God in Jesus Christ. This is the grace of God in Jesus
Christ. So now let's mark, let's mark then what is going on here
with regards to Noah's call. Noah was called to build an ark
And in the building of the ark, verses 15 and 16, God is using
Noah to establish a worldwide testimony. Noah now becomes this
weirdo who has engaged in this enterprise that no one understands
nor has seen, and they can't reconcile it with Noah's prophetic
ministry. Noah is telling the world it's
gonna rain and it had never rained before. Noah is telling the world
that God is going to destroy every soul in a flood. And they
had never experienced the lightest precipitation. You know, they
were going around saying, Noah, you know, Noah, you got problems,
brother. Not only was Noah proclaiming
a message that had never ever been experienced before, he was
building a boat that was larger than two football fields. Everybody
on the planet heard about this enterprise. Now you know what
they thought? Foolishness. Foolishness. This man is insane. This is ludicrous. How on earth can this individual
tell me he knows God? How on earth can this individual
tell me that God has told him that there's only one escape? How on earth can this individual,
and no one else, is saying there's an incoming, what makes Noah
right and everybody else wrong? Similar? Similar? What makes
Noah so passionate and consistent in the building of this enterprise,
even though daily he's being ridiculed, even though daily
he's being ostracized, even though daily he's being persecuted,
daily his project is being tampered with? What makes Noah so persistent? He believed God. He believed
God. He believed when God says, there
is a day appointed unto men And that is a day of judgment wherein
all men will stand before God. He believed that He also believed
that there's only one way of escape And that's our final point
in our outline. There's only one way of escape
Now the text tells us actually i'm in point number four. I don't
want to I actually i'm going to jump over there I'll deal
with that next week with the ladies deal with me with point number five
the ark our only way of escape no other method no other message
God's solution Is that men must get into? The Ark. You got that? Now the reason
why we talk about the Ark and baptism is because as we have
read in Peter, turn with me in your Bible to 1 Peter chapter
3, that Peter takes the Ark account in Genesis 6 and makes it a metaphor
or an analogy of what? Baptism. So let's just talk about
this for a few minutes before we wind this up. Peter tells
us over in first Peter chapter three, verse 20, which sometimes
was disobedient. He's speaking concerning the
people in Noah's day. When once the long suffering of God waited
in Noah's day, while the ark was in preparing, where in few,
that is eight souls were saved by water. He goes back to the
Genesis 6 account, and now he ties in the analogy of baptism. Here's what he says, ladies and
gentlemen. The like figure, the word is type, whereunto even
baptism doth also now do what? Save us. And then he explains,
not the putting away of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God. Now, I want to explain some things
around the subject of baptism for us today. as we prepare to
observe six men get baptized. Noah's baptism or Noah's call
to build the ark is the same as the church's call to preach
the gospel. When you and I are called to
preach the gospel, we are telling men and women that God has made
only one way of escape. And that one way of escape is
faith in Jesus Christ. Isn't that the exclusivity of
the gospel? When we share the word of God with men and women,
here's what we say. Man cannot be saved by his works. Man cannot
be saved by his human merits. Man cannot be saved by something
that he does. Salvation can only be experienced
by humanity when they bow to the reality that they are hell-bound
sinners and that the only way of escape is through the death,
burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is that the gospel? The
message that we share with the world is this you will perish
you will perish under the wrath of god If you die without christ,
have you heard that priest in church lately? Let me say it
again If you if you if you you will perish if you die without
christ if you live and die without Submitting yourself to the righteousness
of god in christ. You will certainly perish Now,
when the gospel is preached in power and penetrates the conscience
of men with that very truth, the conscience comes to an awareness
that they are in a peril at that time. And that peril grips them
to the degree that they come to the place of saying, then
what must I do to be what? Oh, if we could hear that these
days. What must I do to be saved? What
a work of grace that would be. We do so much religion and so
much churchianity folks are too dignified to stand up and say
help. I need to be saved We don't get
that anymore Except where the spirit of god in his own way
Opens the door of the heart as our elder said Takes his seat
on the throne of your heart and convinces you that you need christ
And when he does that, watch this ladies and gentlemen, when
he convinces you that you need Christ, you know what you do?
You submit to every ordinance of the gospel. And one of the
reasons we love baptism is not because we love getting people
wet. We love baptism because it is
an ordinance that our Lord Jesus Christ gave by which when it
is done properly, men and women are taught exactly how God saves
the sinner. When baptism is done right, it
is analogous to Noah and his family on the very day that it
began to rain, where God warned them, get into the boat. On that very day, Noah got into
the boat. And guess who closed the door? God did. And on that
very day that God closed the door, guess what it did? It rained
a torrent from the heavens breaking up through the ground and it
covered the whole world. Guess what? The ark went through
the judgment. Who does the ark point to? Christ! Our Lord Jesus Christ died under
the wrath of God. Do you believe that, ladies and
gentlemen? The world hung Him high and wide on a cross. And
God poured His wrath out on Christ. And He endured the suffering
of hell, as it were, as a substitute for sinners. This is what humbles
those of us who are saved. That Christ became a propitiation
for our sin. He became the object of God's
wrath. God poured out His justice on
His Son. We are looking at the human ark. suffering the torrents of God's
wrath until every bit of God's justice was satisfied on Jesus. What love is that? What love
is that? For a God-man to stand between
a holy God and a sinful people and absorb the whole of God's
fury against our sin. What love is that? Have you ever
loved anybody like that? Have you expressed that kind
of love to anybody? What God on planet Earth has
stood up and said, I'll do this for undeserving sinners like
us? See, it humbles me every time I think about it. And it
gives me great privilege to simply tell men and women, for God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son under His
own holy justice and holy wrath, the Lamb of God, which takes
away the sin of the world. The Lamb of God, which shed His
blood for the remission of sins. The justice of God, mediated
upon the Son of God in such a way in such a way that God can count
me now righteous because of Christ. Now watch this now. Now watch
it now. You know why God can count me
righteous? Because I was in Christ when God was pouring His wrath
on Christ. But because Christ loved me,
He covered me. See, love covers a multitude
of sins. See, Christ was the ark. And
those that are in Christ are in the ark. it means we went
through the judgment with him and we came out on the other
side with him so that for those of us who believe the gospel
watch it ladies and gentlemen watch it now there is therefore
now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus because
the condemnation was placed on Christ and I was in Christ, which
means I endured the condemnation, but I made it out on the other
side because of the pitch and the gopher wood. And because
God is a wise carpenter and he makes a good house. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Are you hearing what I'm saying? The ark is God's only solution
to hell bound sinners problems. And the message that we preach
is Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes
unto the Father but by Him. And the message is clearly that
Christ died according to the Scriptures. He was buried according
to the Scriptures, and He rose again according to the Scriptures. And the Bible is very clear that
He died for our sins and He rose again for our justification.
And therefore, by faith, we have what with God? Peace. with God
through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Those are simple
propositions, aren't they? But they are eternally, eternally
important. Simple propositions. There is
only one way to be saved, and that is through faith in Jesus
Christ. May those of you who watch now, these six men get
baptized, and you brothers, you guys can get ready as we take
the offering. I want you to see in the emblem what God has been
doing for 2000 years. and the salvation of sinners
through their public profession of faith. Some of you may be
on the brink of wanting to close the deal with God. You've been
playing games for a long time, just doing church, learning doctrine,
getting doctrine right. But you have never closed with
God. It may be fear, it may be this, it may be that, it may
be something else. But let me assure you, if you
die tonight without Christ, you're going to hell. You're going to
hell. you're going to hell. And let
me assure you that if you will find yourself but trusting him
as your savior, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your
only substitute, as your only hope for glory, you don't ever
have to worry about God looking upon you apart from the righteousness
of Christ. You get to own, listen to me
ladies and gentlemen, you get to own the grace of God. You
get to own the declaration that in the grace of God, he's provided
righteousness. He's provided justification.
He's provided sanctification. You know what that means? God
makes you holy on account of who he is, not you. Oh, that's
good. And God can view you as perfect. There's not a perfect thing in
this universe but God. You know what that means? That
means God takes you and puts you in himself and says, now,
good, perfect. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.