The Days of Noah Part 3: Noah's World

This is the third in a series of 7 posts regarding Noah and the flood from Genesis 6 to 9 in the bible.

The Days of Noah Part 3:  Noah's World




In the previous two messages we have studied the proofs from the bible and from geology and geography that Noah and the global flood were historic events.  Noah was a real person and the flood was a real event.  Noah was a man of faith who walked with God, and because of that God told Noah that because the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, (Gen 6:5) that God would destroy every living thing that he had created, from the face of the earth and Noah, in the light of that, became a preacher of righteousness, and he warned the generation in which he lived of the judgment which was coming.  The fact that the generation of his day didn't listen is irrelevant because they were warned.  Because of that there are no excuses in the day of judgment.  

What kind of world did Noah live in?   
Noah's world was a real world, not  a world of fun added things of children's stories. It had a culture, it had a philosophy of life, a way of thinking.  A way not very different from our society.  Indeed we may discover that the same philosophy that prevails today in Western society is very similar to the way of thinking in Noah's day because humans don't change.  They are the same today as they were in the whole of history since the fall.  Technology advances, but humans do not change.

Gen 6:5 "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."   They had an evil mind.  God saw that man's wickedness, man's morality or ethics was evil.  The wickedness of man was great, abounding, overflowing.   Man's wickedness had reached a new low.  Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  Every imagination, every concept, every purpose or device of the thoughts of his plans of his heart.  All day, all month or all year, continually.  Genesis 6 teaches that man coming up to the flood had come to such a stage of moral evil just before the flood, that everything was utterly evil all the time.  They did not do evil through carelessness not heeding what they do, they did evil deliberately, contriving how to do mischief.  There was no good to be found among them and God saw it. In other words, an evil mind-set had come down.  A depraved mind-set.



There are times in the history of the world when men are evil in practice but they were not as evil in their minds as in other times in the history of the world. In some times, men commit sin secretly but outwardly they try to be decent and upright.  And then there are other times in history when men reach a new low in iniquity where they sin openly and blatantly.  Even worse than that, at other times in history man becomes perverted and he calls evil good and good evil.  He perverts his morality, and that is the lowest form of morality possible according to the bible.    And where are we today?  its the same.

Gen 6:12  "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." It was a foul, polluted, decayed society, being destroyed, being ruined.  The whole society was corrupt, it was destroying itself from the inside out, like Sodom.  The old standards were gone.  Just like today there are decaying standards.

Gen 6:11,13 "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."  It was a violent society.  It was full, overflowing with violence.  Abundantly violent, it was getting worse.  There has always been violence since the fall, but in Noah's day it was more than violence, the brutality was wide-spread.  God says twice that the earth was filled with violence in Noah's day.   Is the world violent today?   

Gen 6:12 "corrupted his way"  Perverted religion. Corrupted "his way"  God's way.  Human beings had corrupted God's way.   God's way was the way of life, true religion, God-ordained.  God's way had become polluted with false religion.  The corruption of true religion.  In Noah's day God's way had been corrupted by man which leads to false religion. Is the world corrupting God's way today?  Certain bits are selected corrupting God's way.  False religion, all of it, is all corruption to a greater or lesser extent of the true religion.
Matthew 24:37 "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark.  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."  Jesus Christ describes what it was like in the days of Noah, and so shall it be when the Lord comes again.  They were living the materialistic life.  they were eating, drinking, living, no time to listen to Noah's message.  They were celebrating, living for their physical appetites without a thought for God or Noah's message.  They lived for materialistic pleasure.    Today it is called psychological hedonism.  Hedonism, living for pleasure, living for the now, living to satisfy bodily appetites.  That is the modern term for the way it as in the days of Noah and that is how it is today.

These were the conditions for calamity,  the conditions just before the flood.  
V5 "And God saw"   V12 "And God looked"  V13 "the end of all flesh has come before me."  God saw it all, the wicked mind, the corruption and the violence, the corrupt religion and the materialism.  They thought that judgment would never fall, but it did and it will again.  But the second time the judgment won't be flood, it will be fire.   

The evil mind is evident today, the corruption of society is evident today. 
If any sinner does not repent of their sin now in life, and confess Jesus Christ as your Saviour and your Lord, if you remain unforgiven, unrepentant sinners will be consciously tormented forever.   You must turn, repent, and believe on Jesus. 

Believers what are we to do?  Just be different, don't show the signs of Noah's world in your lives.  Walk with God, a living witness comes from godly living. 
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The above are notes made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed)  at Sermon Audio

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=51115942427