#4 G RAC E T O N OA H. In T he Beginning...Grace. G e n e si s 6-9

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1 #4 G RAC E T O N OA H In T he Beginning...Grace G e n e si s 6-9 INTRODUCTION The world is not as it should be. Basically everyone agrees on this point. I don t think it matters who you are or where you live, when I say the world is not as it should be, your mind immediately goes to some kind of major problem that makes you think that s wrong or they re wrong. Basically everyone agrees on this point. The disagreement comes when you try and answer the question why? Q. Why is the world not as it should be? Why is there so much addiction? loneliness? violence? injustice? There is a MASSIVE disagreement on the reason the world is not as it should be, and there s probably an even BIGGER disagreement on the SOLUTION to the great problems in the world. This actually brings us to our text for today, starting in Genesis 6:5. 1. ALL ARE SINNERS Genesis 6:5, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was!lled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all "esh had corrupted their way on the earth. What we see here in is one of the most sweeping statements in the Bible about the condition of mankind. Notice the words EVERY, ONLY, CONTINUALLY, ALL FLESH... i.e. Everyone s wicked. Gen 5 shows us the genealogy from Adam to Noah. This guy lived, had a son, and died. 1,656 years! Human history is a stationary bike. Mark Driscoll Q. Has the world changed since Noah s time? Have people changed? A. No! Let me Illustrate. We ve advanced a TON technologically and scienti!cally, it s true. But our technological and scienti!c advances have lead to more genocides, more greed, more envy, more sex-slavery, more murder, more injustices than the world has ever seen... THREE EXAMPLES: 1. PORNOGRAPHY AND SEX TRAFFICKING (Porn is sometimes sex-slavery but ALWAYS fuel) Every second - $3, is being spent on pornography Every second - 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States The worldwide yearly profits of pornography are estimated at nearly 100 billion dollars. That s higher than the yearly profits of the NHL, MLB, NBA, and NFL combined, which is roughly 25b$.

2 I ve looked at porn, but I don t ever pay for it. So I m not a part of that statistic. Wrong. Free sites have paid advertisements. This mean porn websites get more money the more people that click on the site. 2. WAR RELATED DEATH The twentieth century brought the most technological and scientific advances in the history of the world. The twentieth century was also the BLOODIEST century in the history of the world, with the regimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini, Mao, and Hussein. War related deaths number about 262 million for the twentieth century (some estimate that this is more than ALL other centuries combined). 3. ABORTION 57 million little boys and little girls have been murdered in the womb of their mothers since 1973 in the US alone. Most of them were ripped out of their mother s uterus with a vacuum. Q. What about RAPE or INCEST? That makes up less than 1% of all abortions. Q. What about a mother s right to choose? It s not about CHOICE, it s about KILLING an innocent child. Not everyone has had an abortion or is Pro Choice, it s true. Q. What has the majority that is Pro Life been doing? A. For the most part, standing by & hoping it will end. APPLY Q. Why is the world not as it should be? In Psalm 51:5 the Psalmist says, I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin did my mother conceive me. In Romans 3:23 Paul says, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In Ephesians 2:3 Paul says we are by nature children of wrath. Things are not as they should be because WE are not as we should be! We are sinners. We are at odds with God. We are in total rebellion to our Creator. 2. SIN GRIEVES GOD Genesis 6:6 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. In Gen 1 2, we re told that God created everything, looked at it, and thought, This is very good. But in Genesis 3, through Adam and Eve, sin entered the world. Sin is like a virus, it infects and e#ects everything and everyone. Sin destroys what God created! But then we see something that I think is unexpected, at least it is to me. In Genesis 6, God is not just BOILING at the sin and wickedness of the whole earth, He s GRIEVING it grieved him to his heart. *DON T OVERLOOK THIS* Like a parent that grieves over their rebellious son who is destroying his life through his bad choices, so God grieves over our wickedness, our sin, and the destruction it brings on us and the whole created order. Q. Would you think about that for a second? A. Think about the grief that is caused when you witness such horri!c injustice. Now imagine if you had created that thing that was being de!led... Our sin unravels what God has woven together. APPLY Q. What does this mean? This means...

3 Sin is not just breaking the Law of God, sin is breaking the heart of God. God s not a Law, He s a person (he s not a human person, but he s not just a force). 3. SIN DEMANDS JUDGEMENT Genesis 6:7, 13 7 So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all "esh, for the earth is!lled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Explain verse 7 and 13. MANY PEOPLE SAY THEY DON T BELIEVE IN A GOD OF JUDGEMENT I don t believe in a God of judgement they say I believe in a God of love. (I GET THAT! TOTALLY!) BUT HERE S THE PROBLEM WITH THAT If you try and get rid of God as judge, you get rid of a God who actually cares about His creation. If God does not judge us, that means, at most, He s indifferent toward us and this whole universe. 1. Mom lets her daughter do whatever she wants, all the time. Good mom? Loving mom? 2. Judge lets all the convicted felons go. Good judge? Loving judge? 3. Dad!nds out his daughter has been taken advantage of but does nothing. Good dad? Loving dad? APPLY If God is actually good and loving which the Bible says he is then of course he is NOT going to sit back and let the world go to hell, saying Oh well... You guys just do whatever. No! He cares. This god of love and not judgement people say they believe in is actually a god of indi#erence he doesn t care about us. And honestly, he s a false god they ve made up in their minds, not the God of the Bible. Q. So, what have we seen? 1. All are sinners we are what s wrong with the world. 2. Sin grieves God God is not just angry over our sin, he s heartbroken. 3. Sin demands judgement God is so holy and good that he will not simply overlook sin. So, our problem is actually bigger than that the world is a wreck. We re deserve judgement! BUT! Here s the good news: Are you ready for some good news? 4. GOD GIVES GRACE Genesis 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. The order here is incredibly important! Everyone s wicked, everyone grieves God, everyone deserves judgement, BUT Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The word favor in verse 9 is the Hebrew word for GRACE. It appears for the!rst time here in Genesis 6 and 13 MORE times in the book of Genesis alone.

4 GRACE = FORGIVENESS AND LOVE given despite the WORKS of the one receiving. Romans 11:6 If [salvation] is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. Noah was NOT a good guy that did good things, so God HAD to come down and save him. No! Noah was a BAD guy who did BAD things, BUT God DECIDED to come down and save him. Salvation always comes as a contradiction, at least it seems like a contradiction. Romans 3 None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God...there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justi!ed by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 5:8 God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Ephesians 2 We were dead in our trespasses and sins...but God...made us alive together with Christ. 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also su#ered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the "esh but made alive in the Spirit, Grace doesn t make sense! We sin, we deserve God s judgement and wrath. How does God respond? God saves, God gives us his love. That s what we see with Noah in Genesis 6 and that s what we see throughout the Bible! The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary. APPLY Q. What does this mean? It means... The hope of the world is not us! Do you see that? We re not good people getting better, we re bad people getting worse! The hope of the world is God and his grace! *And he s in that business* But God s grace gets even better! God doesn t just save us from the penalty of our sin, He transforms us! 5. GOD TRANSFORMS Genesis 6:8-9, 22 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. Q. When does Noah turn around? When does He start walking with God? A. AFTER God shows him grace. We learn a TON about the Christian life from Noah s story in Genesis 6. Grace comes BEFORE change. Grace AFFECTS change. Titus 2: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ... APPLY Q. What does this mean for us? It means... The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us. C.S. Lewis said that, and he nailed it. Jesus does not say, I ll love you if you change. Jesus comes to us and says, I ll change you because I love you.

5 Q1. How do I know if God has shown me the same type of grace as Noah? How do I know I won t be drowned in the "ood of God s judgement? A1. The same way Noah and his family did. Q2. How did Noah and his family know they was safe from the judgement they deserved? A2. By God s grace, through faith, they took shelter in the Ark. You see, the story of Noah is actually ALL ABOUT JESUS. Jesus is the true and better Ark the One that we take shelter in to be saved from the judgement we deserve. Q3. How do you know if God has shown you the same type of grace as Noah? A3. If you take shelter from the judgement that you deserve in the true and better Ark Jesus. Jesus is the greater Ark because he doesn t just protect us from the judgement we deserve, He actually BORE the punishment we deserve. He paid for our sin, by absorbing the wrath of God that we deserve. 1. Jesus forgives your sin (ALL SIN! because He was cruci!ed and judged for sin on the cross). 2. Jesus makes you righteous (ALL HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! because He lived a sinless life). 3. Jesus gives you life (ETERNAL LIFE! because He is the resurrected Author of Life). 4. Jesus empowers you to live a new life of obedience and joy in Him (because He sends you His Spirit to strengthen you,!ll you, and keep changing you). You will never be RID OF YOUR WICKEDNESS you ll never be free from your sin and out from under the wrath of God until you SEE that Jesus is the greater Ark. You ll never be TRANSFORMED until you are continually BLOWN AWAY by the fact that Jesus was drowned in the flood of God s judgement so that you could swim in the ocean of God s love. Jesus got all the judgement so we could get all the grace. Joy to us, glory to Jesus!