“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways” (Genesis 6:11-12).And in the darkness of those days, one man stood out from the crowd. Noah was a bright shining light in the prevailing moral darkness.
In an impure world, he was pure.
In an unrighteous world, he was righteous (Genesis 6:9).
In a world that dismissed God, he walked with God on a daily basis (Genesis 5:24).
He stood alone, believing God, building the ark, no doubt receiving much abuse, always confident that God could be trusted and that the flood would someday come to the world. If his friends called him “Crazy Noah,” it did not bother him. Or if it bothered him, it did not stop him. He stood his ground, and God noticed (Genesis 6:11-12).
During the 120 years before the flood, Noah built the ark and he also preached righteousness to his own generation (II Peter 2:5) .
Like Abraham who would follow him many generations later, Noah believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
Jesus made a direct comparison between the days of Noah and the days preceding his return to the earth (Matthew 24:37-39). As it was then, so it shall be again. The past is the key to the future. Go back to Noah’s day and what do you find? Widespread unbelief and skepticism, a generation that had no time for the Almighty. Killing and violence on a daily basis. Human life was cheap. Sexual perversion was the rule of the day. Better yet, there were no rules. Men and women did as they pleased, and the result was a putrefying mass of evil so sickening that God decided to start all over again. On one level it was “business as usual,” on another level it was “sin to the 12th power.” That same combination of moral corruption and “business as usual” will be the order of the day when Jesus returns.
Learning the Right Lessons
1. Don’t miss the boat.
2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.
3. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.
4. Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old someone may ask you to do something really big.
5. Don’t listen to critics, just get on with the job that needs to be done.
6. Build your future on high ground.
7. For safety’s sake travel in pairs.
8. Speed isn’t everything. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
9. When you’re stressed, float awhile.
10. Remember the Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic by professionals.
11. No matter the storm, when you are with God there’s always a rainbow waiting.
Only one question remains. Are you in the Ark of Safety? I am not asking about your religion or your alms giving or your good works or your religious background. And I am not inquiring as to your baptism or your church membership or even about your Sunday School attendance. Those things are of small value when it comes to the issue of eternal destiny. If Christ is the ark, are you “in” Christ by faith? Or are you “outside” Christ because you have never trusted in him?
Bits and Pieces of sermon by Keep Believing Ministries.
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