God's Way of Salvation

The late President Calvin Coolidge returned home from attending church early one Sunday afternoon. His wife had been unable to attend, but she was interested in what the minister spoke on in the service. Coolidge responded, “Sin.” She pressed him for a few words of explanation. And being a man of few words with his wife, he responded, “Well, I think he was against it.”

—Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations

Today I want it to be vividly clear… God is opposed to sin, sin is direct opposition to God and if God is opposed to it then I have to be as well.

Noah lived to be 950 years old… I wonder in his older age as he reflected back on his life if the memories came flooding back to him!

This morning in the few miniutes we have I want it to be crystal clear the horrid extent of man’s sin and I wnat you leaving here today GRATEFUL for the Extent God went to to extend His grace!!!

Extent of Man’s Sin

Look at Genesis 6:1-8(READ) and consider the state of man’s souls, minds, and hearts!

Genesis 6:1–8 NASB95

Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 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.” 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. 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. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

In verse 2 we see the pattern of sin reproducing… Seeing something , sight appeal to God’s creation, lusting and taking it (the same pattern James warns us of)

There is great discussion and views on the"sons of God”...

The godly line of Seth and the daughters of men were the Cainites. But this does not do justice to the terminology or the context.

Others view the “sons of God” as angels (as in Job 1:6), who cohabited with women on earth. This, however, conflicts with Matthew 22:30.(READ)

Matthew 22:30 NASB95

“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Here it applies to “the sons of God,” a lusty, powerful lot striving for fame and fertility.

They were probably powerful rulers who were controlled (indwelt) by fallen angels.

It may be that fallen angels left their habitation and inhabited bodies of human despots and warriors, the mighty ones of the earth.

It is known from Ezekiel 28:11–19 and Daniel 10:13 that great kings of the earth have “princes” ruling behind them—their power is demonic.

The Canaanite cult (and most cults in the ancient Near East) included fertility rites

Israel was warned to resist this because it was completely corrupt and erroneous.

The sons of God were not divine; they were demon-controlled.

Children of these marriages, despite pagan ideas, were not god-kings. Though heroes and “men of renown,” they were flesh; and they died, in due course, like all members of the human race.

The EXTENT OF EVIL had grown to a place where:

Mankind was inviting demonic beings to come and indwell them

Every thought was evil, violece, evil, wickedness… can you imagine living in this world?

But Noah found FAVOR… GRACE in God’s eyes...

Noah and Methuselah must have had many sad conversations about man’s state…

Extent of God’s Grace

We live in a day where we love to speak to the grace of God… His love and peace.

These qualities are accurate HOWEVER… we often fail to realize He is HOLY!!!

God deals with sin… I want us to briefly look at His PLAN, PROVISION, PATIENCE, PUNISHHMENT, and cloes with His PROMISE

God’s Plan

God woud spare Noah and his family (8 altogether) and two of every “KIND” of animal

God would destroy all life

God’s design of an ARK… a way of salvation

God’s Provision

God provides a way of Salvation… in this instence it would be an Ark Hebrews 11:7 (READ)

Hebrews 11:7 NASB95

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

The Shape of the Ark Genesis 6:15-20

It was to have three stories, each ten cubits high; and each of these “decks” was to be divided into various “rooms”

Most writers believe the Biblical cubit to be 18 inches.

To be very conservative, assume the cubit to have been only 17.5 inches, the shortest of all cubits, so far as is known. In that case, the Ark would have been 438 feet long, 72.9 feet wide, and 43.8 feet high.

It can be shown hydrodynamically that a gigantic box of such dimensions would be exceedingly stable, almost impossible to capsize. Even in a sea of gigantic waves, the ark could be tilted through any angle up to just short of 90 degrees and would immediately thereafter right itself again. Furthermore, it would tend to align itself parallel with the direction of major wave advance and thus be subject to minimum pitching most of the time.

There was plenty of room:

With the dimensions as calculated, the total volumetric capacity of the Ark was approximately 1,400,000 cubic feet, which is equal to the volumetric capacity of 522 standard livestock cars such as used on modern American railroads.

It is estimated that only half of the ark would be needed to carry each species “KIND” of air breathing animals we have today.

God said “come” Genesis 7:1 He invited them into His salvation and they came throguh the door into His salvation

Salvation is not a PLACE called an ark or heaven… it is in the PERSON of Jesus Christ

Jesus says “Iam the door”

God’s Patience

God not only provided salvation… He was patient… Genesis 6:3 states God would give them 120 years

1 Peter speaks to the patience in the dyas of Noah… consider His patience in 2 Peter 3:9 (READ)

2 Peter 3:9 NASB95

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

2 Peter 2:5 states that as God was patient Noah preached righteousness!!!

God’s Punishment

The flood in Noahs’s day is a vivid image of God’s Wrath on Sin...

God dealt with it completly… Genesis 7:17-19 (READ)

Genesis 7:17–19 NASB95

Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.

This was a global flood… man likes to minimize this

Local flood or area

Man is consistently minimizing sin and because he does he also minimizes the consequence

Death is the consequence for our sin!!! Romans 6:23 (READ)

Romans 6:23 NASB95

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Noah and all in the ark were in there 12 months and 10 days

God’s Promise

We would be given a new covenant “promise” from God

Genesis 9:12-17 describes this promise…

Genesis 9:12–17 NASB95

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

His BOW… a symbol of war and peace!

Never again would we see His wrath poured out through a flood HOWEVER...

We would see an even greater wrath demonstrated

At Calvary we would see God pour out His wrath on His only son pure and sinless

He would become sin for us and bear on Himself the wrath you and I deserve…

Understand how horrid sin is… it cost the death of the very Son of God

Understand how magnificent His grace is… He took our wrath upon Himself and offered Salvation

And Jesus says COME!!!

We remember this today as we join together as a Family and partake in communion...

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