As it was in the days of Noah

 

COLERAINE INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 26 MAY 2024 – PASTOR K JOHNSTON

MATTHEW 24 VERSES 37 – 39 AND GENESIS 4 TO 6

“The days of Noah”

 

Genesis chapters 4 to 6 – that age was ripening for judgment.  One day the Lord will judge every nation, every country, every continent, every tribe.  The Lord tells us in Matthew 24 this is the way it will be before he comes again.  Verse 39.  Should we have an interest?  Yes we should.  Look at the state of things now.  Isn’t this what the Lord says will happen? 

 

In Genesis 6 we see that the world was marked by spiritual decline – verse 2.  The Lord is patient with sinners.  He gave them time to return to him.  Proverbs 2 verse 1.  Time will run out one day.  There comes a time when God’s spoken word is not getting through.  Are we still as keen today?  “My spirit shall not always strive with man.”  Genesis 4 verse 26 “then began man to call upon the name of the Lord.”  There was a godly line of people seeking the Lord.  They wanted to worship the Lord, wanted fellowship with God.  In chapter 6 there is a vast change.  There we see a broad spiritual decline.  He will give them another 120 years and he says then I will take them out and judge them.  What a spiritual decline we have in our day.  We have so many churches closing today.  Pastors striving hard but people just not coming out.  Spiritual decline is so evident today.  It is happening all over.  Everyone doing their own thing.  Nothing wrong with getting married or eating.  People seem to be just going about doing their own thing.  Some today say “the gospel is not me” and they are Christians – “Christ doesn’t thrill the soul.  The Lord doesn’t tug the heart.”  “Many will say to me on that day Lord Lord and I will say I never knew you.”  Spiritual decline as it was in the days of Noah.

 

A social dilemma – Genesis chapter 6 verse 1.  Men began to multiply on the earth.  Population explosion.  A mass increase in population led to spiritual decay.  The World Health Organisation today is telling us that food will run out yet we put so much on the scrap heap.  Some of us have too much.  We are running out of food.  Clean water – powerful need for it.  There is also a marked increase in crime – verse 11.  The earth was filled with violence.  Parents killing one another.  Children killing children.  Husbands killing husbands.  “As it was in the days of Noah.”  God gets the blame.  The Lord says this is what you are going to get.  A marked increase in violence.  Robbing and stealing.

 

A shameless depravity – chapter 4 verse 19.  The first case of bigamy in scripture.  Not satisfied with one wife he had to have 2 wives.  It began to spread through Israel.  Began to live like the people around them.  God said “therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and they shall become one flesh.” A shameless epravity is on the increase.  We would think this was written yesterday.  God says that is what is going to happen.  Morals in marriage are now in the gutter.  This is sin.  A marked wickedness.  Genesis 6 verse 5 God did not miss it.  They thought they had got away with it - “only evil continually”.

 

A scientific development.  Genesis 4 verses 20 – 22.  Produced the arts, sciences, agricultural pursuits, music.  How many in the world’s crowd have a delight in music today? This man could make and produce it but there was one thing they cannot do is save a soul.  Only Christ can save a soul.  No matter how much since has developed man can never outsmart God.

 

There was some devotion – chapter 6 verse 8 and 9 “but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”  Living in a wicked evil perverted violent generation he walked in the light as he is in the light.  It is not hard to walk with God.  Not hard to serve the Lord. There is a battle today. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  All the violence, wickedness, depravity, crime, corruption this man finds grace in the midst of all that is going on.  He found grace.  In the midst of the filth and dirt of the world he has saving grace.  There is also sufficient grace.  People don’t want to break from the world.  “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  There is grace to say no to sin.  Some have been walking in grace for a long time.  They have found sufficient grace.  Isn’t that wonderful to know.  He walks with God in grace.  “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

 

The godliness of Noah.  Chapter 6 verses 8 and 9.  Man of God but his life corresponded with what he believed.  He walked with God.  He lived for God.  Like his godly ancestor Enoch he separated himself from the wickedness around him.  What does it mean to walk, to progress in fellowship with the Lord, to be loyal and faithful?  A little girl got into bed one night.  She fell out of the bed and her parents heard the thud.  Her mum asked her what had happened.  The little girl responded “I stayed too close to the place I got in.”  People are like that – they never move on.  When people drink of the well of salvation they do not want to return to the wells they left behind.