The Days of Noah - Part 2

Recap and Introduction

Last time I preached I preached on the salvation aspect of the story of Noah’s Ark. I was trying to show you the concept of the Scarlet Thread, to show you that God has being revealing His will do us since the beginning, telling us about redemption in shadowy pictures throughout the Bible.

Matthew 24 starts out in verse 3 with Peter asking this question, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

I thought to myself, there should be a good little joke or picture about it being the signs of the times. When I looked, they either completely missed the mark or were totally inappropriate and the missed the mark. After about 40 minutes of searching I thought to myself: you know…that in itself is a sign of the times. The fact that we make light of what we see the Bible pointing to as the impending judgement of mankind by a Holy and Just God, is a major sign of the times

Can you imagine what the people in Noah’s day would have said? If they had computers Noah’s Ark would have been a meme possibly like this:

History is coming to a climax. We don’t know the day or the hour in which Jesus Christ will be coming back, but we can know in a general sense what the days will be like when Jesus comes again. Jesus said himself that they will be like the Days of Noah.

Let us open our Bibles to Matthew Chapter 24 and verse 37

Matthew 24:36–44 NIV84

36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Examining the Text

I want to now highlight a few phrases out of here before we move on that will serve as a bit of a structure as to how we will tackle this verse:

Eating, drinking and marrying and giving in marriage - this speaks of indifference. In verse 39 where it says “They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood took them away” speaks of ignorance.

This is what will characterize the days before Jesus comes again - the world will have two major problems [SLIDE HERE] - Ignorance and Indifference.

You know what they say, a picture speaks a 1,000 words. I am going to put up a picture I found while looking up a meme to introduce the sermon that I have now found a use for. Hopefully you get what I am driving at. [SLIDE HERE]

So as I suggested, we are going to go back to Genesis 4, 5 & 6 to look at what the days of Noah were like before the flood. So open your Bibles to Genesis, and we will examine what was revealed there and how that compares to today, and why we could be living in the last of the last days.

There are 7 signs I have chosen to look at, that were pulled out by another preacher called Adrian Rogers that I would like to show you.

7 Signs: Secular Philosphy

Genesis 6:5–6 NIV84

5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

Imagination [SLIDE]

The King James Version translates “thoughts” here in the NIV as imagination. It is the same root word in Hebrew, but it means the following:

Form

Framework

the “form” of pottery - in that you create a mold

It also means purpose, or intellectual framework

A Dr. John Philips put it in a way that means that we as sinful men mold society with out philosophy, that we [SLIDE] “fashioned wicked philosophies, espoused filthy causes, made fashionable vile sins, and endeavored to pour society into their mold.”

Now days we have a lot of New Age philosophies that infiltrate our churches. We are filled with people who desire personal fulfillment, wondering more about what we can get out of God rather than how to serve Him.

In Churches around the world we have strange doctrines being taught where they deny the Bible, twist scripture to say what they want it to say and mock the Blood of Christ, and do not recognize His Lordship in our lives.

In an illustration of a parallel of Noah’s day, the faith that was delivered to Adam, for he understood blood atonement from the Fall where God had to kill animals for coats of skin, the truth that Abel died for, the truth that Enoch the prophet had preached was now lain forgotten and unheeded. Does this not sound like today?

Secularism has taken over. Taken over the sciences where once great men like Sir Isaac Newton who was a professing Christian had discovered some of the most fundamental aspects of what we now call science, who understood and discovered these things because he knew there was a creator God, that there was order and method to the universe He created. Secularism has taken over education as well. I don’t have to say much about that for you know it to be true.

There is only one acceptable bigotry ([SLIDE]a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance) that is tolerated today - against Bible -believing Christians.

7 Signs: Days of Scientific Progress

The second mark of Noah’s Days was scientific progress. They had great cities.

Genesis 4:17 NIV84

17 Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.

You must remember that our own civilization was built on the success and failures of the people before us, who passed on those achievements so we might build on them. The Bible shows they were in an industrial revolution of sorts

Genesis 4:22 NIV84

22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.

They were in to metallurgy, making new tools and machinery, and urban centers. Man who was driven from paradise was now trying to make his own artificial paradise.

If you are thinking to yourself that how can we equate the technological advances of that age to ours? The ark was an engineering miracle. It was 450 fee long, and those who are oceanographers and sailors will tell you that was the same proportion and size of many modern ocean going liners. That boat had to be built with specifications, engineering strong enough to withstand the greatest storm in history.

I want to read you a quote from a newspaper about the dutch man in modern times who built a replica of the ark:

[SLIDE]“Dwarfing even some modern-day cruise ships, the ark instantly became an international tourist attraction when it was completed in 2012 after four years of construction.”

Here are some photographs:

In modern times we have invented

the atom bomb

Nuclear energy

We have gone to the moon and back

We have Satellites in orbit around the earth beaming signals around the earth in inter-connectivity

The iPad - I mean I remember when this was first announced - I was still watching Sci-Fi movies where these were being depicted but not invented and thinking to myself that it was too good to be true. Now I use one everyday for my Job.

We are now tinkering with genetic engineering. We make genetically modified crops now to increase our production.

US Army has, wait for it, developed a Rail Gun that shoots magnetically accelerated particles at high velocity - no more gun powder.

Virtual Reality

7 Signs: Social Plagues

The days of Noah were marked by secular philosophy, scientific progress and here is the 3rd mark - Social Plagues.

The civilisation of Noah’s Days had not reached utopia of course, because we are fallible human beings. They had not taken their knowledge and turned it for good. They were corrupted by philosophy and they were violent.

Genesis 6:11–13 NIV84

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

Turn on a TV, go to a cinema. The movies are dark and extremely violent. When I came to Australia it was a defining point in my life. I remember how I felt, I felt free. I could stop looking behind my back, maybe not lock my car every once in a while. I can still do that, but I have seen the violence creep into this society, not as bad as it is or was in South Africa, but Australia is not the same now as it was 22 years ago.

In our day we have seen two great wars, World War 1 & 2. In my own lifetime war has not visited my own shores, but elsewhere there have always been wars as the backdrop to my upbringing. Now we hear about wars and rumours of wars. With Russia, China, North Korea and the nuclear threat that overshadows our times.

In Noah’s days there was a spirit of revenge, like it is now.

Genesis 4:23–24 NIV84

23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

This was a man who was eaten up by revenge and filled with a spirit of violence much like we find today. I could mention Brentyn Tarant who was responsible for the Christchurch massacre? He felt justified about the treatment of his own ethnic group that he went out and murdered a whole bunch of people out of a type of revenge that had eaten him up.

Did you also know that since 1960- 2000 there has been a 560 % increase in violent crime. In Australia since 2001 there has been an increase in recorded assaults and sexual assaults by 40 & 20% respectively?

Think of all the school assaults in America. Now people want to legalise drugs and euthanasia. We will have an explosion in depravity among us.

Should I also tell you of the genocide that is state sanctioned abortion? A Professor of bioethics at the university Center for human Values at Princeton University said, “The life of a newborn baby is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog or a chimpanzee.” You just have to look at the militant Vegan and Animal rights activists of today to know that is true.

7 Signs: Sexual Perversion

God had said in Genesis the world had gotten corrupt from their own vain philosophies , they had scientific advancements and there were social plagues. Number 4 is Sexual Perversion.

This could be a relatively short segment but it probably wont be, as I don’t think there is much I need to say to convince you about this, since we wade through this muck and mire day in day out.

Genesis 6:5 NIV84

5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

This doesn’t exactly tell us what that evil was, but Jesus elaborates for us in Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17:26–29 NIV84

26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

Jesus links the Days of Noah with the Days of Lot. He shows us in the days of Noah there had been a sexual revolution and there were days of great sexual perversion which is synonymous with Sodomy. Sodom and speaks of the sexual perversion of the Sodomites.

How does God feel about this? Well if you can read, you don’t really have to guess. We have a movement now in our modern times that so closely mirrors the Days of Lot. There’s no longer any request for us to tolerate it, but a mandate to accept it, or there will be consequences. See Israel Folau for further details.

But it is not just sodomy we must tolerate, but all manner of sexual perversions. Polygamy, pedophilia, bestiality. Don’t believe me? Here are some news highlights:

As a father who wants to protect my children, this strikes at the core of my being.

We live in a time where sexual perversions are an epidemic - unstoppable lust

Romans 1:27–28 NIV84

27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

So what does God do when people begin to justify this type of behaviour? He gives them over to their lusts. People are not born that way, just as we are not born to steal, murder, rape commit adultery. This is sin, and sin starts in the heart.

Genesis 6:5 NIV84

5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

We were born sinners yes, so we are naturally inclinded to do the awful sin in our hearts, but we can be cleansed of that sin, be born again with a new heart, a heart that doesn’t desire these things anymore.

Jesus was saying, As it was in the Noah, as it was in the days of Lot, so its going to be in those days when I come again.” These sins will be normalized and be made fashionable.

7 Signs: Days of Selfish Prosperity

Australia is a prosperous nation, but not all nations are like this. This was similar to the the days of Noah. We read in Ezekiel 49

Ezekiel 16:49–50 NIV84

49 “ ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

They were proud, but not just pride, but he describes them as full of bread, overfed, unconcerned and arrogant. Yikes. Well needless to say they had more than they needed, but they also had an abundance of idleness, which was translated in the NIV as “overfed”. The root word can mean both, in fact it can also mean “prosperous ease”.

Lets do a little bit of a skit. Two men or women are walking down the streets of Sodom, and one goes to the other, You know, God teaches that the lifestyle of Sodom is wicked and vile.

Do you think God is going to judge us because of the way we were living? Well, I don’t think He’s going to judge us, look how prosperous we are.” Now lets change the times, and your average secularists are walking down Hay Street Mall and they have the same conversation. You can see the similarities can’t you?

2 Peter 2:6 NIV84

6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

7 Signs: Days of Solemn Preaching

Noah preached for 120 years for the people to repent of their ways and acknowledge God, otherwise the flood would sweep them away. God never sends judgement without first sending a warning.

Genesis 6:13 NIV84

13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

2 Peter 2:5 NIV84

5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;

Jude 14 NIV84

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones

These men were preaching, why did it not penetrate their hearts? Why? They were eating, drinking, marrying, given in marriage. Their art, culture, entertainment. They saw themselves as rich and increased in goods and had need of nothing.

What if a TV journalist would interview Noah now, what would they say? That he was a narrow-minded fundamentalist? What if would the liberal clergy have said? “Well, if Noah had heard anything about a flood, I can assure you it would not have been literal water…hahaha”

The last days will be marked by solemn preaching, but also of hard headed and hard of hearing people who would rather hear and believe things other than the truth.

Matthew 24:11–14 NIV84

11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

7 Signs: Days of Sudden Panic

The last sign we can learn from Noah is that there will be panic.

Genesis 6:17 NIV84

17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.

The day the rain came would have started like any other day. Eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Sometimes rain can come, and it just comes hard. The summer rainfall here in Moora does that. Cast your minds back to 2016 and the summer storms then. Heavy drops of rain just suddenly. We know what rain is remember, they did not.

It suddenly dawns on the populace that Noah was right, but the door is shut, and it is shut by God Himself. They were warned, but now their ark of salvation has departed, floating away.

I want to read you a direct quote from Adrian Rogers:

Can you imagine in that day a little boy, before it began to rain, coming to his father and saying, “Daddy, can I talk with you?” “Yes, Son, what do you want to talk about?” “Daddy, you know crazy Noah, the one everybody’s laughing about, the one that is building a big boat?” “Yes, Son, I know old Noah, crazy Noah. Yes, I know him.” “Well, Daddy, I was over there, and he stopped working on that boat, and he talked to me for a while, and he said God is going to destroy the world with something called a flood. Daddy, what is a flood?” “Well,” he said, “Son, I’m not sure exactly what a flood is, but don’t worry about it.” “Well, Daddy, Noah says that everybody that’s not in the ark is going to drown, and Daddy, Noah seems very sincere. He seems to know what he’s talking about. Daddy, frankly, I think we ought to go and ask Mr. Noah if we can get on board that boat.” “Now, Son, listen. Excuse me for laughing, Son, but wait a minute, Son. The reason I’m laughing is this: when I was a little boy, I went out there, and old Noah was building his boat back then. You wouldn’t believe it. And Son, the reason I’m laughing—I’m not making fun of you, Son—but I felt just like you did. And, do you know what, Son? I went home, just like you came home to me; I went home to my daddy, and I told my daddy what you’ve told me. Now Son, here’s the funny part: My daddy, your granddaddy, said that old coot had told him the same story. I mean, your daddy, your granddaddy, were frightened for a while about that old man Noah. Son, don’t you worry. Noah is a religious fanatic. Pay no attention to Noah.”

Wrap Up

We and all before us have been warned. The Bible has always been there and there have always been faithful preachers who would preach some of these warnings. Jesus Christ is the Ark of safety, and there is no safety in any other, nor any other doctrine other than that which was passed down to us.

What does following Jesus mean? It means submission to Him, it means you bow the knee and you tell Christ you need Him and the sacrifice He made on the Cross. His righteousness is imputed to you when you believe that He died for your sins. It means your will has died in you and His will is made alive in your life. He could come any time, when you least expect it, and you could be in eternity in the near future, you never know when an accident might happen.