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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

Wicked World, Righteous Man

Well, before we begin, I invite you to bow your heads with me and we will start with a brief word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we are grateful that we can enter into your presence this morning, Knowing that you have a blessing in store for us.

Lord, we thank you for the blessing of the Sabbath school hour.

But as we tarry just a little longer in your presence, We ask that the Holy Spirit would come and speak to our hearts.

Thank you, Father, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

You have your Bibles, please turn with me to Genesis 6.

Genesis 6, and we're going to begin in verse 17.

Those of you that are familiar with your Bibles, you know that Genesis 6 and 7 is 1 of the greatest children's stories in the Bible, the story of the flood when God destroyed the earth with water.

Our title this morning, Wicked World, Righteous Man.

Genesis 6 and verse 17, the Bible says this, "'And behold, ' this is the Lord talking, "'I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth "'to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die." Yes, I read that passage, it kind of dawned on me that this seems kind of contrary to the Bible's description of the character of God.

The character of God as you read it through the Scriptures, you know, God is in the business of saving people.

He sent his son to die upon the cross to redeem fallen men.

And here we find a declaration by God that he would send a flood of water upon the earth to destroy those humans who had been created in the image of God, who only just a few hundred years before this, he walked in the cool of the garden, the man who he had created in his image, the crowning act of the creation week.

And now the Lord, as he looks upon the earth, the Bible says that he would destroy it with water.

Why such a harsh destruction, or such a harsh sentence of destruction?

Genesis 6, 1 and 2, the Bible answers this question.

The Bible says this, and it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God, " you can read in there the Christians, saw the daughters of men, " and you can read in there the worldly people, that they were fair and took them wives of all which they chose." The term sons of God is a term that was used to describe the people of God or the descendants of Seth.

As you look at Genesis 4 and 5, you see the descendants of Seth and then also the descendants of Canaan.

And here we find that the descendants of Seth or the Christians saw those who were the descendants of the Canaanites or the worldly people and took them to be wife.

They're intermarriage or unequally yoked relationships.

And it's interesting that as you read Genesis chapter 6, This is the only reason that God gives, or that Moses gives, for why God destroyed the earth with a flood.

There are many reasons that God looked upon the earth and decided to destroy the earth.

But this is the reason that God gives in Genesis 6, why he made the decision to destroy the earth with a flood.

The intermarriage, the unequally yoked relationships that took place, diluted the church of God until it became much like the world.

Bible says this in verse 6, I'm sorry, verse 5.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only what?

He looked upon the earth, the imaginations of men, the thoughts, the purposes, the desires were only evil on a continual basis.

How can the thoughts of men be constantly evil 1 after the other?

No good thoughts, only wicked thoughts that came out of the mind of man.

It was a terrible time of earth's history as God looked upon the earth.

This was the result of unequally oaked relationships.

But the Bible goes on in verses 11 and 12, and it tells us this, the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with what?

And God looked upon the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his ways upon the earth.

It's interesting to me that not only the thoughts of men were only evil continuously, but the Bible tells us that the thoughts became actions.

As a man thinketh in his heart, the Bible tells us, so is he.

If the thoughts of men were only evil continuously.

But the Bible tells us that the thoughts became actions.

If the thoughts of men were only evil continuously, then it stands to reason that the actions that man did were only evil continually.

It was a terrible time in earth's history.

And God looked upon the earth, And the Bible says this, verse 6, and it repented God, that is to be sorry or to regret.

It repented God, or 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 men whom I have created "'from the face of the earth.

"'Behold, man and beast and creeping thing "'and the fowl of the air, for it repented him, "'it made him sorry that he had made them.'" Just a few hundred years.

Went from the crowning act of creation, the joy of the creation week, where God walked and talked with men, to now God saying, it repented me.

Wickedness, unchecked, abound before the time of the flood.

Listen to this description, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 91.

It says this, neither the marriage relation nor the rights of property were respected.

Whoever coveted the wives or the possessions of his neighbor took them by force and then exalted in their deeds of violence." Not only were they violent, but they exalted in their deeds of violence.

She goes on, "'They delighted in destroying the life of the animals and the use of flesh for food rendered them still more cruel and bloodthirsty until they came to regard human life with astonishing indifference.

God looked upon the Earth and all he saw was wickedness that abounded.

It got so bad that man even looked at other men's lives with indifference.

If they saw something they wanted, they just took it.

If they had a resistance, they killed the person and didn't even give it a second thought.

In Luke, the 17th chapter, you can jot this down.

The Bible tells us this, and as it was in the days of Noah, we read Matthew's version of this in the scripture reading, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also, when in the days of the Son of Man, simply put, Matthew and Luke are telling us this.

If you want to know what the earth is going to be like before the second coming, go back and read the story of the flood.

The story of the flood and the reason why God destroyed the earth is an illustration of what it's going to be like before Christ comes back the second time.

Wickedness abounding, wickedness unchecked, wickedness in the hearts of men regarding 1 another with astonishing indifference.

But here's the thing that I want to think about a little bit this morning.

We could talk a lot about the parallels between the wickedness at the time of the flood and the wickedness today.

There have been many sermons that have been preached on that.

But I believe it stands to reason that if the wickedness in the time of the flood is an illustration of the wickedness at the second coming of Christ, That would mean that the righteousness of Noah would stand as an illustration or an example of the righteousness of God's people when Jesus comes back.

Noah stands as an example of how God's people would live in the time of the most wickedness, the most wicked time in Earth's history.

And so this morning what I wanna do, instead of looking at all the wickedness in the time of Noah and comparing that with the wickedness today, I think you can go back and do that on your own.

But what I wanna do this morning is I wanna look at a brief biography of the life of Noah because he is an illustration of how you and I will live in the wicked time of earth's history, right before the second coming of Jesus.

His great-grandfather is somebody that you are familiar with a man by the name of Enoch.

Know that Enoch walked with God and was translated to heaven.

He was the second father of the world, was he not?

That makes you tired just thinking about it, doesn't it?

Noah was about 480 years old when God said, build an ark.

It was right in the middle of his life, if you will.

Right in the middle of his life, God said, Noah, I've got an important job that I want you to do.

You see, Noah didn't have a midlife crisis.

And God said, Noah, I've got an important job that I want you to do, I want you to build this ark.

Halfway through his life, he was called to do something big for God.

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Wicked World, Righteous Man

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