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“THE DAYS OF NOAH AND THE DAYS OF NOW”

 

READ IN THE BIBLE (MATTHEW 24:37-39)

 

Some might wonder, why should we be concerned with events that took place in “The Days of Noah”?  What could possibly be of interest to us concerning mankind thousands of years ago?  Yet, it is always profitable for us to have knowledge of history.  The lessons of history are important, particularly that we might learn from the mistakes of the past.  But, what is it; in particular, about “The Days of Noah” that God wants us to understand?  Some of the events that occurred in Noah’s day are recorded in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  In the Old Testament these events are recorded in the book of Genesis.  Regarding this and other Old Testament scriptures we read in, (Romans 15:4) “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning”.  We see then, that God has recorded these things that we might learn from them.   God wants us to learn about them that we might learn from them.  Our main scripture text in (Matthew 24:37-39) brings before us the primary reason God wants us to be familiar with “The Days of Noah”.  We read in these verses, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be”.  THERE IS A GOOD REASON WE NEED AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE DAYS OF NOAH. IT IS BECAUSE, THE CONDITION OF MANKIND AND THE ACTIVITIES OF GOD, IN THE PAST, ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REPEATED IN THE PRESENT WHICH WILL RESULT IN SIMILAR FUTURE CONSEQUENCES.  In this message we want to consider these “two days”, “The Days of Noah” and “The Days of Now”.  We want to notice the similarities between the past and the present in the following five different ways:

 

  1. THE PRACTICE OF MANKIND. (Genesis 6:5b, 11, 12b)

2.     THE PERCEPTION OF GOD. (Genesis 6:5, 11, 12)

  1. THE PRONOUNCEMENT OF GOD. (Genesis 6:6, 7, 13, 17)
  2. THE PROVISION OF GOD. (Genesis 6:14, 18)
  3. THE PLEA OF GOD. (Genesis 7:1) 

 

Let’s consider these in order beginning with;

 

1) THE PRACTICE OF MANKIND.

The Days of Noah - We read in, (Genesis 6:5b, 11, 12b) “Every imagination of the thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil continually”.  (Hebrew word for “imagination” = not only the imagination but also the purposes and desires).  “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence”.  “All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth”.  And, in addition, we read in, (Matthew 24:38) “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage”.  In other words they were busy with the common ordinary affairs of life.  These were legitimate human activities, things that were not wrong in themselves.  The problem was, they had no time for God, no thoughts of God.  They refused to believe the gospel message preached by Noah.  They were outside the place of safety from God’s coming judgment.  They were unconvinced, unpardoned, unconverted and unsaved.  All their purposes and desires, before a holy and righteous God, were evil in nature.  Violence was wide spread in the earth. 

 

The Days of Now – The lifestyle in Noah’s day was remarkably similar to that which is found on the earth today.  Man today, for all his culture, education and progress, is no different than in the days of Noah.  Just as in Noah’s day, man today is busy with life, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, and so on.  These are normal human activities that are not wrong in themselves.  The problem is, man is too busy for God.  Man is ignoring God’s warning of impending judgment and will not accept God’s offer of a free salvation declared in the gospel message.  Also, we need only to read or hear the daily news reports, regarding conditions in the world, to realize that corruption and violence fill the earth today more than ever before.  Time has not changed or improved the sinful condition of man.  The Bible paints a very dark picture concerning man, and if we are honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that God’s picture of man is true to life.  Man is an ungodly sinner.  God’s portrait of mankind is found in, (Romans 3:9-23) “Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin”.  “There is none righteous, no not one”.  “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God”.  “There is none that doeth good, no, not one”.  “There is no fear of God before their eyes”.  “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”.  “”All the world is guilty (subject to judgment) before God”.  The guilt of sin applies to ALL mankind, to all who are born of human father and mother.  Man is a sinner by nature and by practice.  Each of us came into this world possessed of a sinful nature which makes us sinners by birth.  We inherited this from our parents and they, in turn, from their parents and so on, all the way back to our first parents, Adam and Eve.  Because man has a sinful nature within, sinful practices soon manifest themselves without.  What is in the root of mans nature will be seen later in the fruit of their doings.  Though all may not have sinned alike, or to the same degree, yet all alike have sinned in some degree.  Dear reader, have YOU acknowledged YOUR SINFUL CONDITION before God?  Have YOU ever faced the fact of YOUR OWN individual sins committed against God?  The first step in salvation and receiving forgiveness of sins is “repentance”.  Have YOU ever repented of your sins?  “Repentance” is a change of mind with regard to sins.  It means to think differently about your sins and your sinful condition.  God says in His Word, (Acts 17:30) “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent”.  The Lord Jesus Christ stressed the absolute necessity of repentance when He said, (Luke 13:3) “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish”.  Dear reader, YOU MUST repent of your sins.

 

The SECOND thing we want to notice concerning “The Days of Noah” and “The Days of Now” is;

 

2. THE PERCEPTION OF GOD.

The Days of Noah – We read in, (Genesis 6:5, 11, 12) “GOD SAW that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”.  “The earth also was corrupt BEFORE GOD and the earth was filled with violence”.  “And GOD LOOKED upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth”. The divine perception, no doubt, resulted in much divine displeasure.  Nothing was hidden from the eyes of God.  God saw it all.  He saw all the sin, all the corruption and all the violence that filled the earth.

 

The Days of Now – Neither is there anything hidden from the eyes of God in our day.  The Word of God tells us in various scriptures that all things are naked and open before God.   We read in, (2 Chronicles 16:9) “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth”.  (Psalm 33:13, 14) “The Lord looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men.  From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth”.  (Proverbs 15:3) “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good”.  (Job 34:21) “His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings”.  We also read of this in, (Psalm 14:2, 3)” The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men” (Here is the Divine Perception). “To see if there was any that did understand, and seek God”. (Here is the Divine Purpose).  “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one, they call not upon the Lord”. (Here is the Divine Declaration).  Dear readers, if you have never considered it before, consider it now, that all your words and ways are known to God.  They are all recorded in His books in heaven.  We read in, (Revelation 20:12) at the “Great White Throne” judgment, “The books were opened; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works”.  If YOU do not get saved, your degree of judgment and punishment in the “lake of fire” will be determined by the life you have lived here on earth.  Your life, your words and your ways are all recorded in God’s books in heaven.

 

The THIRD thing we want to notice concerning “The Days of Noah” and “The Days of Now” is;

 

3. THE PRONOUNCEMENT OF GOD.

The Days of Noah – We read in, (Genesis 6:6, 7, 13, 17)”It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”.  “And the LORD SAID, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth”. “And GOD SAID unto Noah, the end of all flesh is before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth”.  “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die”.  Because of the condition of mankind, because of all the sin, violence and corruption, God pronounced judgment upon mankind.  God issued a warning to the people of Noah’s day.  But, God’s words of warning were little heeded by the people at that time. Their unbelief however, did not alter the fact that, “the flood came, and took them all away” (Matthew 24:39).  The judgment upon the people in Noah’s day came at a specific point in time.  It came in God’s own appointed time.  We read of this specific time in, (Genesis 7:11) “In the six hundredeth year on Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened”.  Peter tells us in his epistle, (2 Peter 3:6) “The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished”. Only Noah and the seven members of his family survived the judgment of God.  They did so by simply believing God and obeying His instruction.  Concerning all those who disobeyed God and rejected His provision for escape, we read in (1 Peter 3:18) their spirits are now in prison, the place called hell, waiting the resurrection to judgment and eternal banishment in the “lake of fire”.    

 

The Days of Now –The “Pronouncement of God” is the same in our day.  God has issued a warning in His Word.  Because of sin, He has pronounced judgment upon this world. We read in, (Acts 17:30, 31) “God now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead”.  Notice that God commands and demands repentance because judgment is coming.  God has appointed a specific time, known only to Him, when His judgment will break forth.  God has appointed the day.  And, God has appointed the judge, His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We read in, (John 5:22) “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son”.  We will ask YOU again, have YOU repented of YOUR sins?  The Lord Jesus Christ said in, (Mark 1:15)”Repent ye and believe the gospel”.  Do YOU believe the gospel?  It is the only way you can be saved from your sins and the judgment to come.  God warns in His Word, (2 Thess1:7, 8) “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, AND THAT OBEY NOT THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST”.  Will YOU continue to go on carelessly, ignoring God’s warning of impending judgment?  Will YOU continue to reject God’s offer of salvation explained in the gospel?  They did in Noah’s day until, “the flood came and took them all away”.  Judgment delayed is not judgment postponed.  We read in, (2 Peter 2:9) “The Lord knoweth how to …reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished”. Only a fool will deny that man’s wickedness is as great, or even greater, than it has ever been; and whether man believes it or not, the judgment threatened by God will come just as surely as it did in the days of Noah.    

 

The FOURTH thing we want to notice concerning “The Days of Noah” and “The Days of Now” is;

 

4. THE PROVISION OF GOD.

The Days of Noah – We read that God said in, (Genesis 6:14, 18)”Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch”.  “Thou (Noah and his family) shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee”.  In spite of man’s wickedness, God offered the sinners of Noah’s day a way of escape.  God’s provision and the place of shelter from the storm of God’s wrath was the ark.  When the flood of God’s judgment came, with the waters gushing up from the earth and pouring down from heaven, the ark endured the Divine anger represented by those waters.  The raging waters beat upon the ark, yet the ark was not destroyed. 

 

The Days of Now – In spite of man’s wickedness today, God continues to offer a way of escape from coming judgment.  The ark is a type or symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The provision of God for salvation today is His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  It says in, (John 3:16) “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.  (1 John 4:14) “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world”.  (1 Timothy 1:15) “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.  The raging waters in Noah’s day are a symbol of wrath.  The waters gushing up from the earth and pouring down from heaven are a picture of Calvary where the Savior died for our sins on the cross.  The waters gushing up from the earth represent the hatred of man against Christ when He was reviled, reproached, ridiculed and finally nailed to a wooden cross.  The waters pouring down from heaven above represent the wrath and judgment of God upon the Savior in those three dark hours of Calvary.  We read in, (Matthew 27:45) “From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour”.  It was during this time that, (Isaiah 53:6) “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all”.  The Savior was, (Isaiah 53:4) “Stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”.  In an amazing statement we read in, (Isaiah 53:10)”It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin”.  In (Psalm 69) the Saviors suffering under the judgment of God, on the cross, is likened to Him sinking under a flood of waters.  We read of His words in, (verse 1, 2, 15) “Save me O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.  I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.  Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, nor let not the pit shut her mouth upon me”.  He said also in, (Psalm 42:7) “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me”.  Dear reader, the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross of Calvary to die as our substitute.  He died in our place.  He died the death that we should have died.  He paid the debt that we owed because of our sins.  He endured the penalty that we should have endured.  We read in, (1 Peter 3:18) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God”.  The ark, having endured the Divine anger represented by those waters, emerged from them to stand at last on the mountains of Ararat.  This is a symbolic picture of Christ’s resurrection.  The word “Ararat” means “the curse reversed”.  For all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ the curse is reversed because it fell on Him who is guiltless, so that the guilty sinner might go free.  We read in, (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4) “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the scriptures”.  Jesus Christ is a living Savior.  Death had no claim on Him.  Death could not hold Him because He is the holy, sinless, Son of God.  Do YOU believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?  You cannot be saved unless you do.  Some who are in earnest about being saved will ask the question like the Philippian jailor in, (Acts 16:30)”What must I do to be saved?”  It is God’s will that YOU be saved.  We read in, (1 Timothy 2:3, 4) “God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”.  This leads us to;

 

The FIFTH and final point we want to notice concerning “The Days of Noah” and “The Days of Now”;

 

5. THE PLEA OF GOD.

The Days of Noah – We read in, (Genesis 7:1, 5, 7) “And the Lord said unto Noah, COME thou and all thy house INTO THE ARK”.  God’s Plea to Noah and his family was in the form of an invitation to come into the ark.  “And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him”.  “And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and the son’s wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood”.  IT WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE SHELTER IN THE ARK IN ORDER TO BE SAVED FROM THE FLOOD OF GOD’S JUDGMENT.  Noah and the seven members of his family were the only survivors of God’s judgment.  They were saved by simply believing God, and obeying His instruction.  Only those who went into the ark were saved from the judgment of God.  It says in, (Genesis 7:23) “Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark”.  Concerning the others who were too busy for God and did not heed God’s warning, it says, (Matthew 24:38, 39) “The day that Noah entered into the ark, (they) knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be”. 

 

The Days of Now – The Divine pattern for the salvation of any sinner is illustrated by the events in Noah’s day.  FIRST, they believed God when He warned that the judgment was coming.  This is the first step to salvation.  We must believe that judgment awaits every sinner and awaits us personally.  NEXT, they obeyed God’s instruction which came in the form of an invitation.  (Genesis 7:1) “COME thou and all thy house into the ark”.  God’s instruction to YOU comes in the same form today.  The Lord Jesus said in, (Matthew 11:28) “COME unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.  Notice three important things from these words of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have;

·        The Invitation – The Lord says, “COME”.  You come to Him by BELIEVING in Him.  (Acts 16:31) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”.  You come to Him by RECEIVING Him.  (John 1:12) “As many as RECEIVED Him, to them gave He power (the right or the authority) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name”.  You come to Him by reaching out in faith and ACCEPTING God’s free gift of eternal life.  (Romans 6:23) “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. 

·        The Qualification – “All ye that labor and are heavy laden”.  In order to truly come to Christ you must feel the burden and weight of your sin.  It is only then that you will repent and confess your sins to God.  Only those who acknowledge they are lost can be saved.  Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is preceded by repentance toward God.   

·        The Salvation – “I will give you rest”. This promised “rest” is a gift from God.  It cannot be merited or earned in any way.  This is the rest of salvation and the rest of conscience.  It is like taking refuge in the ark to be sheltered from the coming storm of God’s judgment.

 

In closing, I urge YOU to take advantage of this present time while you can and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as YOUR own personal Savior.    YOU are traveling the “highway of life”, passing through time on the way to eternity.  There are only two destinations before you.  It will either be eternal joy in heaven or eternal sorrow in hell.  Now that you have read this message you have come to a “crossroads” on your life’s journey.  Which way will you go?  In Noah’s day, all who were in the ark were safe from God’s coming judgment.  In this present day, you must be “in Christ” to be safe from the judgment to come.  We read in, (Romans 8:1) “There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM WHICH ARE IN CHRIST JESUS”.  If you continue to reject the Savior you will remain on the “Broadway” to eternal destruction, trading a few short years of pleasure and possibly some popularity, and power for eternal torment in the “Lake of Fire”.  If you accept God’s invitation to COME to the Savior, heaven will be your eternal home.  The “Father’s House” will be your eternal dwelling place.  (Acts 16:31) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”.  Will YOU believe in Him and by a definite act of faith, receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior.  Please give this matter your most serious attention.  Your eternal destiny depends on your decision.

 

Christian Messenger