As It Was in the Days of Noah

“As It Was in the Days of Noah”

(Sunday Morning April 10th, 2011)

Passage: Matthew 24:37-39

O.S. As Most of Us Know,Predicting a Date for the Rapture of the Church
and for the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ is Nothing New

-> I Even Found a Website Recently That Describes 220 of These Predictions

Starting With a Man Named Theudas in the Year 40 A.D. Who Claimed
That He Was the Messiah and That He Had Returned

-> One of the More Famous of These Predictions Was Made by a Man Named
William Miller Who Predicted That Jesus Would Return on March 21st, 1843

-> After That Failed to Occur, He Changed His Date to October 22nd, 1844; and Now,
That Date Has Become Known Historically as “The Great Disappointment”

-> The Jehovah’s Witness Cult Has Made at Least Nine Predictions Complete
With Specific Dates for Jesus Return That, of Course, Have Not Occurred

-> Hal Lindsey Suggested That the Lord Might Return in the Year 1988, and He
Later Suggested That Jesus Might Return in the Year 2007(We Need to be Fair)

-> A Man Named Edgar C. Whisenant Wrote a Book Entitled “88 Reasons Why
the Rapture is in 1988,” and That Book Became a NY Times Best Seller

-> And Now, We Have Two Predictions Out There

a. One Based on the Date of Noah’s Flood Says That the Rapture Will Occur
on May 21st, 2011 (So, I Guess We’d Better Get Ready) and That the End
of the World Will Occur Just Five Months Later on October 21st, 2011

b. And While This Second One is Not Related to the Rapture or the Return
of Christ, I Think It is Worth Noting That Some Involved in the New Age
Have Decided to Make an End of the World Prediction
-> Their Prediction is Based on the Mayan Calendar, and They are Saying
That the End of the World Will Occur on December 22nd, 2012

-> A Movie, in Fact, That Was Produced by Sony Pictures and Released Back
in 2009 Entitled “2012” Was Based on This Prediction

St = Personally, I Think That We Should Keep in Mind That Jesus Himself Said
About This in Matthew 24:36 (Read)

-> That Statement, by the Way, is More Controversial Than Many People Realize,
Because It Causes Some to Question the Deity of Christ

-> For You See, Being Divine Also Means Being Omniscient Which Means “All-
Knowing”; And Therefore, Some Will Ask “How is It Possible for the Son of God,
Who is Divine, to Not Know Something?”

-> Well, My Answer is Related to His Incarnation, Because We are Told
in Philippians 2:5 That Jesus Pre-existed as God
-> AND We are Also Told in Philippians 2:7 That He Voluntarily and Temporarily Set
Aside Some of His Divine Prerogatives When He Came to This Earth

-> That is Why He Said This to His Disciples in John 15:15; He Said,

“…for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you”

-> So, Listen, Jesus Did Not Know Everything While He Was on This Earth,
Because He Had Chosen to SetAside This Particular Divine Prerogative

-> But Now, I am Sure That He Does Know, Because He is Seated Again in His
Place of Divine Authority at the Right Hand of the Father

-> The Point, of Course, is That WE DO NOT KNOW, and We CANNOT KNOW
the Exact Time of the Rapture and of Jesus’ Return

-> If Even the Angels, Who are Constantly in the Presence of Our Heavenly Father,
do Not Know, Then, No Mortal Man or Woman Can Possible Know

PAUSE

-> There are, However, Some Hints Given to Us in the Bible, and This is One of Them

-> For You See, Jesus Himself Said That, “As It Was in the Days of Noah” so Shall
It be When the Rapture Will Occur, and He Will Return to This Earth

-> So, With This in Mind, I Want Us All to Turn Back Now to Genesis Chapter 6
so That We Can See What the Times Were Like in the Days of Noah

I. It Was a Time of Achievement

1) Genetic Abnormalities

vs 1-3 (Read)

-> There is a Lot of Debate About What This Means When It Mentions the “Sons
of God” Marrying “The Daughters of Men”

-> Some Have Said That “The Sons of God” Refers to the Descendants of Seth,
and “The Daughters of Men”Refers to Descendants of Cain(Elaborate)

-> Others Have Said That the Phrase “Sons of God” Refers to Fallen Angels,
Demons, Infiltrating the Human Race

-> And Although This Sounds Very Bizarre, I Believe That This One is the Correct
Interpretation

-> Because, First of All, There is a Reference in1 Peter 3:19-20 to Christ “Preaching”
After His Death, Literally “Making an Announcement” After His Death, …
“19…to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience
of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark,
in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water”

-> There is Also a Reference to God Imprisoning Some Fallen Angels Prior
to the Flood in 2 Peter 2:4 Which Says

“4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell
and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did
not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness,
with seven others, …”(Elaborate)

-> And in Jude 6-7, We Read,

“And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode,
He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, 7 just
as (Listen to This) Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they
(Listen) in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange
flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire”

-> There is Even a Reference to the Abyss in Revelation Chapter 9(Elaborate)

St = This View, Known as the Angel View, is Also the Oldest View

-> The Earliest Jewish Exegetes Interpreted It This Way

-> It is Found in the Non-Canonical Books of Enoch and the Book of Jubilee;
It is Found in the Septuagint, the Writings of Philo and Josephus, and It
is Even Mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls

-> Moreover, This Was the Position Held by the Earliest Christian Writers Including:

Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Origen

-> And So, I Believe, as Bizarre as It May Sound, That This Was Some Demonically
Inspired Attemptto Create a Super Human Race

-> It Was Satan’s First Effort to Corrupt the Human Race in the Hopes That This
Would Prevent “the Seed of the Woman” From Eventually Coming to Destroy Him

-> It Apparently Produced Some Genetic Giants Which is What the Word “Nephilim”
Refers To, and They Might Have Been Attempting to Prolong This Lifespan

-> And This Might Help Explain Why God Chose to Limit Their Lifespan and Ours
After This Occurred

-> For You See, They Thought That They Could Extend Their Lifespan and Obtain
Immortality With This Sinful Behavior; and So, God Decided to Intervene,
and He Dramatically Shorten It Instead (That’s What They Got for Trying to Mock God)

-> This Was a World, in Other Words, That Was Filled With Sexual Perversion
and Sexual Experimentation of the Most Bizarre Kind

Q.n = So, is This True About Our Day Age?

-> The Presence of Sexual Perversion is Beyond Debate

Q.n = But What About Sexual Experimentation and Genetic Engineering?

-> Well, You Can Correct Me if I’m Wrong; But as I See It, a Lot of This is Going
on in Our Day and Age, and Abortion is Often the Byproduct of It (Elaborate)

-> We Have Sperm Banks, and Artificial Insemination (Lesbians); We Also Have
Surrogate Mothers, and Cloning; and Now, We are Tampering With DNA

-> We Have More Tools Available Now Than Hitler Could Have Dreamed of Having

2) GrandAccomplishments

vs 4 (Read)

-> This Literally Means That These Men Were Able to Make Great Accomplishments

and to Make a Name for Themselves

-> And This Was Indeed True

-> In Fact, a Lot of People do Not Realize How Advanced These People Were Before
the Flood Occurred

-> We are Told in Verse 1 That There Was a Population Explosion

-> The Geneology Recorded in Chapters 4 and 5 Covers a Span of 1656 Years;
We are Also Told That the Average Lifespan in the Antidiluvian Age Was 912
Years, and That Noah Became a Father at the Age of 500 (Elaborate)

-> So, a Very Conservative Estimate Would be That the Population of the World

at the Time of the flood Was the Equivalent to What We Had at the Time of the CivilWar

-> And Back in Genesis 4:20-22, the Bible Says
“20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have
livestock. 21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play
the lyre and pipe. 22 As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger
of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah”

-> So, We Know That They Had Made Advancements in the Area of Animal
Husbandry;They Had Made Advancements in the Area of Music and the Arts;
and They Had Even Entered Into Their Own “Iron Age”

-> Just Consider the Technology Involved in Building Noah’s Ark

. It Was Approximately One and a Half Football Fields in Length
450 Feet Long and 150 Feet Wide and 3 Stories High

. It Had a Deck Space of 100,000 Square Feet Which is the Equivalent
of 522 Box Cars, and One Box Car Can Hold 240 Sheep
. Listen, It Was Not Until 1884 That a Ship Was Built That Was as Large
as the Ark(It Was an Italian Ship Called “Eturia)

-> By the Way, There is a Plan in the Works to Build a Noah’s Ark Theme Park
In Frankfort, Kentucky With a Replica of Noah’s Ark – Cost = $125 Million

Q.n = Can This be Said About Our Generation?

Ans = Of Course It Can

-> The Technological Achievements That We Have Made in Just the Past Three
Decades is Phenomenal

-> I Can Remember When Superman Needed a Phone Booth, and a Salesman
Had to Keep a Pocket Full of Quarters (Can I Get a Witness This Morning?)

-> But Now, We Have Cell Phones, and Bluetooth Technology, and MP3 Players,

and IPods and Ipads and Personal Computers the Size of a Fountain Pen

Show Picture

-> Oh, But Listen, That News Came Out in the Year 2008

-> I’m Sure That We’ve Seen a Lot of Advancements Since Then

-> In Daniel 12:4, We are Told That…

“…at the time of the end, many will rush to and fro and knowledge shall increase”

Q.n = Has Anyone Here This Morning Found Themselves Rushing to and Fro?

-> Just Think of How Long It Takes to Travel From the East Coast to the West Coast

. In 1850 by Wagon, It Took………166 Days

. In 1870 by Train, It Took………….11 Days

. In 1930 by Airplane, It Took………26 ½ Hours

. In a Modern Jet, It Only Takes…….4 ½ Hours

-> And if Any of Us Could Afford to Pay the Russian’s Enough for Them to Allow Us
to Participate in the Space Program(There’s Some Sarcasm in There Somewhere)

-> Anyway, if We Could Afford It, We Could Hop on Board a Space Shuttle
and Circle This Planet at 17,500 Miles Per Hour

Pt = Our Day and Age, Like Their Day and Age, is a Time of Great Technological
Achievements

______
T.S. I. It Was a Time of Achievement

______

II. It Was a Time of Apostasy

1) Recognizable Evil

vs 5 (Read)

-> I Want You to Notice That Little Word “Saw” That Appears in Verse 5;

We are Told That the Lord “Saw” Something
Q.n = And What Was It?

Ans = Wickedness

-> And Please Notice That God Saw This as the Most Basic Level –Their Thought Life

-> He Read Their Minds Just as He Can Read Our Minds

-> The Psalmist Tells Us in Psalms 139:2 That God Knows Our Thoughts From Afar,
and the Writer of Hebrews Said It Like This; He Said,

“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid
bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do”(Hebrews 4:13)

-> God Knows Everything About Everybody, and He Could See That the “Yetser,”
That is the“Intent” of Their “Heart” or Literally “Their Mind” Was, Listen,
“Only Evil Continually”

-> That Word “Yetser” Literally Means “To Form;” It’s the Same Word That
Was Used to Describe God Creating Man From the Dust of the Ground

-> It Tells Us That Everything That They Dreamed Up; Everything That They
Created in Their Minds, Every Thought Pattern, Every Ideology,Every Self
-Styled Religious View, Was Turning Out to be Ungodly and Evil

-> And He Also Saw Their Acts of Violence – vs 11 (Read)

Q.n = So, Is All of This True About Our Day and Age?

Q.n = Well, is It Just Me, or Does Anyone Else Here Get the Impression That
We are Now in the Habit of Calling Good Evil and Evil Good?

-> And We are Promoting Secular and Godless Ideologies Like Humanism,

and Evolution, and Moral Relativism and Multiculturalism

Q.n = What About Violence? (Elaborate = The Islamic Religion)

2) Regrettable Emotions

vs 6-7 (Read)

-> God Not Only “Saw” Something; He Also “Felt” Something; He Felt Sorry That
He Had Even Made Man

-> And This, of Course, is in Great Contrast to the Emotions He Experienced When
He Created This Universe and Mankind as the Crown of His Creation

-> Genesis 1:31 Says,

“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good”

-> He Was Glad, at That Time, That He Had Created Man; But Now, He Was Sad,
Because of the Pervasiveness of the Sins of Mankind

-> This Tells Us That God is Not Apathetic About the Sins of Man; He is Grieved
by Them, and He is Also Grieved by the Fact That He MustJudge Men Because
of Their Sin

-> In 1 Samuel 15:11, for Example, God Said,
"I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me
and has not carried out My commands…"

Q.n = Why Did God Regret the Fact That He Had Made Saul the King of Israel?
Ans = Because Now, He Was Going to Have to Execute His Holy Justice

-> Likewise, We are Told in Ezekiel 18:23 That God Takes No Pleasure in the Death
of the Wicked

-> God Did Not Want to Bring This Judgment Upon the People of Noah’s Day

-> In Fact, He Gave Them More Than Enough Time to Repent, and He Send Them
Some Prophets and Preachers to Warm Them Like Enoch and Noah

-> He Always Does That

-> But if Men are Not Willing to Repent of Their Sins and Turn to Him in Faith,
He Has No Other Option; He Has to Uphold His Standard of Holiness

-> And So, Even Though He Regretted Having to do It, He Brought His Judgment
Down Upon Them

III. It Was a Time of Apathy

1) Forgiveness Was Available

vs 8-9 (Read)

Q.n = So, What is It That Caused Noah to Stand Out From the Rest of Those
in That Evil Generation?

Q.n = Was He Any Less Evil Than They Were?
Ans = Not Necessarily

-> Noah Was a Sinner Just Like the Rest of Them, But We are Told Here That
He Found “Favor”, and That Could be Translated “Grace”

Q.n = And How Did He Find the Grace of God?
Ans = By Faith

-> You See, This is Really Just One of the First Descriptions We Have in the Bible
of the Total Depravity of Man

-> In Fact, I Can Say That the “Hearts” or We Could Say the “Minds” of Men
are Just as Evil in Our Day as They Were in Noah’s Day

-> In Jeremiah 17:9,for Example, the Prophet Said,

"The heart (The Mind of Man) is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked;…”(NKJV)

-> And in Romans 3:10, the Apostle Paul Said,
“There is none righteous not even one”

-> No Listen, the Only Real Difference Between Noah and the Others Was That
Noah Listened to God; and Noah Believed God, and Noah Accepted the Grace
That God Was Offering

-> And Therefore, He is Referred to Here as Being “Blameless” (Did You Notice
That?) “Blameless” – “Holy” – Without a Single Flaw – Why? FAITH

-> “By faith (The Writer of Hebrews Said) 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 (LISTEN CAREFULLY)ACCORDING TO FAITH” (Heb 11:7)

2) Faith Was Advertised

vs 9 (Read)

-> Last Week, I Described How the Word “Walked” in the Bible Refers to a Person’s
Lifestyle, and We Can See That Again Here

-> Noah’s Faith, as the Writer of Hebrews Also Tells Us, Was Demonstrated by His
Works, and the People of His Day Witnessed That

-> He Spent 120 Years – LET THAT ONE SINK IN ALRIGHT = Noah Spent 120 Years
Building This Ark

-> And He Did Something Else Too

-> We are Told in 2 Peter 2:5 That Noah Was a “Preacher of Righteousness”

-> This Means That He Spent 120 Years Building This Very Noticeable Object,
This Mammoth Symbol of Judgment, and He Tried to Convince These People
That They Needed to Repent and Come on Board

-> But in All of That Time, He Was Only Able to Convince Seven Other People,