The Days of Noah Part 7: What Does the Flood Teach Us?

1 Peter 3:18-20 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."

Matthew 24:36-39 "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.  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."

This is the last in the series of the Days of Noah.  The most important thing is, what is the lesson?  What does the flood teach us.
 
God judges and punishes sin always:  In the book of Genesis 6 it says 6:5-7 "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.  And it repented the LORD that he had 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, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."  It was all because of the wickedness of man, sin.  Both in mind, imagination, the thoughts of the heart, and the violence.  It all happened because of sin in thought and in deed.  God sees all sin, and all sin brings judgment and punishment. 


 Sometimes there are great periods of time when God appears not to be doing anything about sin, he allows sin to go on and on but then it reaches a certain  climax and God reacts and judges and punishes.  That is the theme of the whole bible.   Old Testament, Israel was going to go into the promised land.  But they had to wait hundreds and hundreds of years.  Why? The bible tells us it was because the iniquity of the Canaanites and Amalekites was not yet full.  God was waiting until the sin and debauchery of the Canaanites and the Amalekites reached a pinnacle in its depth.  Then God suddenly acted through his people in a miraculous way.  God allowed it to go on to a certain point and then he judged.  Israel in their sin, did God destroy them immediately?  No he sent them prophets, he warned them hundreds and hundreds of years. He waited and waited.  It was only eventually when God's people Israel were totally wicked and then God had removed almost all of their prophets, then suddenly God acted in judgement in 698 BC.  Babylon: judgment,  exile, destruction, but God had waited all that time.  God didn't immediately send the flood, he waited as the bible says until the earth was filled with violence, and then he acted.  God didn't immediately judge Israel when they crucified his only begotten son Jesus Christ, he waited.  Some of the people repented, he waited. God waited until that nation of  Jewish people thoroughly hated Christians and hated his church and were persecuting them wherever they went and then in AD70 God judged that nation and that nation ended.  There are times when God appears not to be doing anything about sin, and sin gets worse and worse and this principle is through the whole bible.  Though God doesn't act immediately be sure he will act.  He waits and gives people over to their own way, Romans 1, he lets them go on and on, gives them over to a reprobate mind until their wickedness comes to a point, past the point of no return.  That is what happens.

So for you, if you are not saved, it is no comfort to you that you continue in your sin and God hasn't judged you yet.  You appear  to be getting away with it.  Well that's not actually a comfort if you understand how God acts.  What you are doing according to Romans 2:5-6 "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds."   You are not getting a way with it, it just appears that way.  God waits.  And the waiting is indication of God's patience and God's mercy.  Not one of us would be here if God didn't wait.  So don't take comfort in the fact that God has not punished you.  Use the time to repent and get saved.

God provides a way to escape:  the flood shows that.  There is a way of salvation, the ark planned by God.  Noah didn't make the plan, the way of salvation is planned by God.  Not human ingenuity.  God gives you the way to be saved.  Nothing man-made can save you.  Need I tell you that there a judgment upon sin that is eternal.  God has provided the only way to escape that judgment.  One way of salvation and that way is Jesus Christ. John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."  God has provided a way to escape, and if you are found to be outside of Jesus Christ, you are every bit as blameworthy as those men and women who were outside the ark.  They refused, they mocked, they wouldn't get in, they wouldn't use God's way of salvation, the ark.  They refused and if you are not saved, you have done the same thing.  But the thing is this, the door of grace is still open, we are still in a day of grace, so why do you wait?  Be careful that your procrastination doesn't seal your eternal destiny.

The flood teaches us that judgment is nearer than you might think.  In Noah's day before the flood the people were wilfully ignorant.  Jesus says as it was then, so it shall be.  They were living for the flesh and they did not know until the day the flood came.  Do you see these things in the world today growing worse to a greater extent than you used to see them?  Do you see the God of pleasure becoming more and more important?  Life is made up of choices, if we abandon reason and moral sense we end up with destructive consequences.   As it was in the days of Noah, so it is today.  People these days don't think for themselves, they do not have a firm idea of right and wrong.   There is an increase in the evil mind of society, gross sin is being justified.  Christ says, as it was then so it will be just before I come again.  And when Christ comes, he will come for his elect, those who are saved.  He will come in judgment.  

The Christ that preached to Noah's world preaches to you.  Did you realize that Christ preached to Noah's world?  1 Peter 3:18-20 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."
 
 When God was patient in the days of Noah when the ark was being built,  Christ preached by his spirit to those who were disobedient and are now confined.  How did Christ preach in Noah's day? You don't read about Christ preaching in Genesis 6 but that is what the verses in 1 Peter say.  The only person who preached in Noah's day was Noah, but it was Christ through Noah by the spirit of God that preached.  Noah was Christ's messenger, he preached Christ's message, and God counts that as Christ preaching to those men and women.  In the new testament 2 Corin 5:18-20 "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as through God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."  Christ still has his ambassadors and every time you hear a true bible message it is like Christ preaching to you "repent" 

Those in Noah's day did not listen, will you listen?  will you learn the lessons of the flood?  The lessons are very simple: God punishes sin, God has provided a way of escape, the judgment is nearer than you think, and the Christ who preached to Noah's world preaches to you.  Why, unsaved, don't you get on that way to salvation.  You are clinging to the rim of a volcano.  That to which you are clinging is disintegrating more and more and you are putting  it off and while you are hanging there, Christ is offering you a rope.  It cost Jesus Christ his life, and that rope will take you out of that danger.  That rope is the gospel.  You don't deserve it, but nobody does.  You think your works are good enough.  But the son of God offers salvation to you, will you take it?  will you cling hard and fast to the gospel and be saved?  None of us deserve it, but it is offered.
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The notes above were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=260894190