Sermon Tone Analysis

*Genesis 6:1**-* *Noah** And His Times*

 

            People like to make joke about Noah.

For example:

 

Have you ever wondered why Noah didn't swat both flies when he had a chance?

What instructions did Noah give his sons about fishing off the ark?  Go easy on the bait, boys, We only have 2 worms.

But Noah is a real person.

Jesus speaks of Noah as a real person who actually lived.

He didn't speak of Noah in a joking manner.

Look at Matthew 24:36.

Jesus Christ is talking about the last days.

He says there is a way to tell to tell what the last days will look at.

*Matthew** 24:36-39*

*36** “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

38 “For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

NASV*

 

            I want to tell you something, we do not know the hour or even the day that Jesus Christ will return, but we can know the seasons and the signs.

I want us to look at the sings of Noah's time.

There are at least 7 sings.

*FIRST -- IT WAS THE DAYS OF INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT.*

* *

*Genesis 6:1-4*

*/1 /**Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,  2**/ /**that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

3**/ /**Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.

4**/ /**The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore /children /to them.

Those were the mighty men who /were /of old, men of renown.

NASV*

 

            Here are a mighty group of men who were able to make a reputation for themselves.

Don't think of these men as stooped over cave men who could only grunt.

These were brilliant men.

Even today we wonder at the engineering feats of the early Egyptians who built the pyramids.

Today we are in possession of ancient artifacts with writing so small that the only way we can read it with a microscope.

There are walls that composed of stones so massive, that even today we would have great difficulty in moving the stones.

Think of the engineering marvel of Noah's ark.

Take a close look at it.

*Genesis 6:14-16*

*14** “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.

15 “And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred *

*cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

16 “You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

NASV*

 

            The ark had to weather the worst of storms that the earth had ever face.

Look at Genesis 7:11

 

*Genesis 7:11*

*11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

NASV*

 

            Now think of the Engineering marvel of Noah's ark.

do you think that you could build a ship that could stand the very worst of storms that the earth has ever know?

Compare Noah's day with our day.

Here we live in a day where there is a vast explosion of knowledge and ability.

FIRST -- IT WAS THE DAYS OF INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT.

*SECOND -- IT WAS A TIME OF GREAT APOSTASY.*

*Genesis 6:5-6*

*5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

NASV*

 

            Notice the word imagination

KJV      “inclination” NIV       “intent” NASV

 

            The Hebrew word means to mold or fashion.

There was a purposeful molding of man's thoughts.

Just like today.

Did you know that your though life is constantly being molded and shaped by the world?

That's why the advertising world will pay over a million dollars for a 30 second commercial.

They know that the message they send across the airwaves will mold the thinking of millions of people.

And it works.

In many homes of Christians you will find CD's cassettes video tapes that contain language and pictures so bad that the record  and video tape industry has to put warning labels on them.

The first playboy magazine that come out had a centerfold basically showing a women hiding behind a towel.

Today you can go to the grocery store and there at the check out stand you can find a cover girl that is more revealing then the first playboy magazine.

How did it happen?

It happened because our minds have been molded to become accustomed to sin and be involved in sin.

That's why revival is so need in our country today.

*Romans 12:2*

*/2 /**And** do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

NASV*

 

            Notice in verse 6 what the Bibl

 

*Genesis 6:6*

6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

NASV

 

            What was it that grieved God's heart?

It was that the sin of mankind knew no restrains.

What do you think would happen if the Christian community began to marry the unbelieving community.

We would begin to act like the unbelieving community and  the children of that marriage would like unbelievers.

The result would be chaos.

There would be no ethics.

Just how bad was it?

Well Genesis 6:5 says:

Genesis 6:5

5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

NASV

 

            Notice in verse 5 says, "THE LORD SAW..."

Just 5 chapters back  in chapter 1, the Lord saw only good.

How could the world go so quickly from good to bad?  What happened?

I remember hiking up in Snowqualme Pass, I came across a section of numerous small boulders that were piled up.

It looked as though someone had just dumped huge boulders in a pile.

What actually happened was that all these huge boulders once several large rocks.

As the winter snow and rain fell the water got between the cracks and crevices in the rock and then froze.

The small hairline cracks

would get bigger each year until the freezing action over hundreds of years split the larger rocks into many smaller one's.

That is how sin works.

It creeps into the crack and crevices of our lives and continues to work there until all is destroyed.

Do you know how the little cracks and crevices start in our lives?