Sermon Tone Analysis

Noah & The Flood Genesis 6:1-9:17

Introduction & Review - We’re in the middle of our “Big Picture of the Bible” series that we’re teaching through what is called “Chronological Bible Storying”.

The idea is to learn & internalize the Word of God by applying lessons we learn from the major stories of the Bible.

Each story reveals God’s plan of redemption through human history.

It helps us remember Scripture and the Lord will use this to draw us closer to Himself as He reveals Himself to us through these stories He recorded for us.

These stories will also help you share your faith with others and I encourage you to tell these stories to someone outside of church each week.

I’ve been doing this and it’s amazing to see how people are interested in hearing them.

Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

Review: Since we have had a couple of week break with Dr. Richard’s and our praise & testimony service last week, we need to remember what we learned in our last Bible story.

After the Fall of Mankind into sin, God expelled Adam & Eve from His perfect Garden, the Garden of Eden.

He specifically didn’t want mankind to have access to the Tree of Life and live forever in a sinful condition because our God is a God of redemption who rescues us from our sins.

God is still the author of life as He gave Eve a son, her first born son she named Cain - because she acquired him from God. God gave Eve another son she named Abel.

Both Cain & Abel grew up and began to make their own way in the world, Abel tended sheep, Cain was a farmer growing crops.

Both Cain & Able knew to worship God and both brought God an offering.

Because God is the only God & Creator, He has the absolute right to choose how He is to be approached and worshiped by sinful man.

God respected Abels offering but rejected Cains.

Why did God reject Cain’s offering?

It is critical we understand it is a simple matter of faith.

The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Genuine faith is always based on the Word of God.

Abel believed what God said, Cain disregarded what God said.

We might have thought that Abel’s offering was received because he obeyed, but that’s not right.

Hebrews 11:4 tells us “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts and through it, he being dead still speaks.”

Abel believed God, took God at His Word and God accepted Abel’s faith offering.

Cain rejected God’s Word, tried to start his own religion and did what pleased Cain, not what pleased God.

God graciously warned Cain about his offering & his attitude.

God invited Cain to come back in faith and promised he too could be accepted on the basis of faith and not on his works.

Isaiah 64:6: “But we are all like the unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags.”

Abel’s offering was a faith offering that originated in the heart of God, Cain’s offering was a false offering that originated in the heart of man.

Sin & rebellion against God lurks at the doorstep of the human heart and wants to consume us like it did Cain to the point where he murdered his brother.

Unresolved anger and bitterness leads to devastating actions and consequences causing humans to do the unthinkable, even to their closest relatives.

God holds individuals accountable for their sin.

Adult children are responsible to God for their choices and decisions, not the parents.

God is a gracious God, even in the face of angry rebellion and desires for man to repent when God convicts of sin.

God is still faithful and true to His Word, in spite of evil & wicked sinful rebellion and is always carrying out His redemptive plan.

His plan of redemption included Adam & Eve’s 3rd son named Seth.

Today’s story comes from Genesis 6:1-9:17

In God’s Word in Genesis chapter 5, we are given a list of Adam’s descendants through his son named Seth.

Adam’s children lived for 100’s of years.

Adam was 130 years old when he had his 3rd son he named Seth.

After Adam had Seth, he lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.

All the days Adam lived were 930 years and he died.

It was the end of an era, the first man created in the image of God who was told by God if he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he would surely die.

Satan lied to Adam and Eve and said they wouldn’t die.

Even though it took 930 years, Adam died as part of the devastating consequences of his sin.

God is always faithful and keeps His promises.

One of Adam’s offspring was a man named Enoch.

Enoch loved God and worshipped God in close fellowship.

God’s Word tells us that Enoch walked with God and He was not because God took him (Gen.

5:21-23).

When Enoch was out walking with God one day and he was 365 years old, apparently they were closer to God’s house than Enoch’s so God just carried Enoch to Heaven and no one saw him again.

We only know what happened to Enoch b/c God told us in His journal the Bible.

It’s interesting too b/c Enoch was inducted to God’s Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:5, God said: “By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found b/c God took him; for before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God.

The very next verse in Heb.

11:6 tells us w/o faith it is impossible to please God.

The Bible even tells us that Enoch warned his generation that God’s judgement was coming.

God saw fit to record Enoch’s message in Jude vs. 14-15.

Another interesting fact about Enoch is that he fathered a man named Methuselah who was the oldest man who ever lived.

Methuselah lived 969 years, but guess what?

Methuselah died too.

Methuselah fathered a man named Lamech, who fathered a man named Noah.

Methuselah was Noah’s grandfather, Enoch was Noah’s great-grandfather.

From Adam to Noah, there are 10 generations of people who descended from Adam.

Noah was 500 years old and had 3 sons named Shem, Ham & Japheth.

PROBLEM: What’s really sad is how fast sin in mankind corrupted the human race and each generation became increasingly evil.

Jesus would later say in the days of Noah, it was a big party.

Eating, drinking and marrying whoever they wanted (Matt.

24:36-39).

The Godly line of Seth, the Bible calls them the sons of God were marrying the daughters of men - that’s how the Bible refers to Cain’s ungodly line of descendants.

There was no thought or consideration for spiritual things when it came to choosing whom to marry - sounds a lot like what’s going on in the world today!

We may think it’s not important who we marry but God most certainly does!

God made a promise: He said: “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years.”

That was a warning from God judgement was on the horizon.

Then God tells us about the heart condition of man in Gen. 6:5-7 of His journal the Bible: “Then the Lord saw that extent of human wickedness on the earth, and He saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.

6 So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them and put them on the earth.

It broke His heart.

7 And the Lord said “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth.

Yes and I will destroy every living thing - all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky for I am sorry I ever made them (NLT).”

Now we’ve already seen how when God makes a promise, He always, always keeps it.

So this promise of judgment and destruction from God is deadly serious!

It almost sounds hopeless, however, I said earlier that God is a God of redemption and rescue in spite of the wickedness of humanity, God is working out His plan of redemption & rescue!

God makes it clear He takes no pleasure in the judgment & death of the wicked.

He had Ezekiel the prophet write that down too in His journal the Bible: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn, turn from your evil ways!

For why should you die…?” (Ezekiel 33:11)

Right after this promise of judgment and destruction, we have a glimmer of hope, a flash of light pouring through the clouds & dark skies of God’s promised judgment: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

(Gen.

6:8) Grace is God’s unmerited favor, not getting what we deserved.

To be clear, Noah was a sinner and not perfect, he was rescued by faith and was a recipient of the grace of God.

God declared Noah was a just man before God based on his faith in God and the grace of God.

Noah walked with God by faith and God said he was without blemish in a morally corrupt world that was corrupt and filled with violence.

Three times, God described the world Noah lived in as corrupt - a word that means ruined, spoiled or putrid.

So Noah’s life stood out in great contrast, like a diamond laying on a black velvet cloth under a jewelry store bright light.

RISING TENSION: God came and spoke to Noah and said the end of all flesh was coming soon.

So in preparation, God told Noah to build an ark, we would call it a boat.

It was a way to escape the coming judgment against mankind on the earth.

It was to be made out of a hearty wood called gopher wood.

We know this wood today to be one of the hardiest woods in the world, cypress.

God told Noah to line the inside and outside with pitch, or tar, to seal the boat.

God even gave dimensions to Noah of how big this ark was to be.

It was massive!

The measurements God gave were in cubits, the distance from the tip of the fingers to the elbow of an adult man, roughly 18 inches.