Main idea: Face up to God’s judgment on sin and turn to Him for grace.
The biggest judgments remaining:
Daniel 12:2-3
Revelation
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Good morning. Good morning, friends and brothers, sisters, guests too. I want to just add my welcome with Nathan, to all of you who are here this morning with us, as those offering plates go by if you're a guest with us, just remember that that's just that's for the regular attenders, the members of faith, Bible Church that supports the ministry of the church week in and week out. We don't ask our guests to do that. We are thankful that you're here and gathered with us this morning. Now let's turn our attention to God's Word. We are in the book of Genesis. Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word. If you're brand new to Christianity, in the Bible, this is like your first Sunday. I'm going to read a story to you, and Genesis six through nine is going to be a story that is might you might say what is going on. We'll try to unpack it for you here today, but last week, we looked at how to live in light of death. Death is coming today and over the next several weeks, how do we live in the light of God's coming judgment? So we're going to look at chapter six, one through eight, to get God's perspective on how evil had grown and what he intends to do about it. When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Continually, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals, creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord God. Thank you for your word. You keep speaking to us through it. We are so grateful. We are we are not lost without direction or hope in the world. You give us truth from Genesis that's still important to us today, truth from the whole of the scripture that talks about how you have dealt with sin and what judgment has fallen on Christ, on behalf of sinners, we are thankful now. Help us understand what's here in the passage, there are a lot of debated issues, Father, as we do this, there are people in our congregation who are suffering, and we pray for those. We just did pray for those. There is a set of people I want to pray for this morning that is refugees in our city, refugees who are part of our church, who just had the funding for the transition pulled from them, and we pray for World Relief and other organizations who have have been contracted by the government to help refugee resettlement now have lost that funding. It's going to affect people in this church in a real way. We pray that You would help us figure out what to do and then respond in a way that honors and glorifies you. Help these families around our city and, of course, around the world that have had things changed in a major way. Pray that they would turn to you and trust you. Now we pray that You would help churches in our area. I pray for our Community Bible Church. Pray that you would give them faithfulness in preaching and teaching and shepherding, and I pray for the church to be eager to love Christ and proclaim Christ in the world. Now, help us do the same in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated well. Growing up in the country, far from light pollution, I loved winter nights because we had this brilliant star light on a clear night when I was taking the wheel, barrel of wood, getting it ready to put in the house. Because we had a wood stove, I could see Venus or Mars by five o'clock like it was. It was great. And that that setting is a perfect kind of setting for a Christian sympathy card. I mean, can't you see it? You know the nice. Eye, and it's snowy and cold, and there's a couple of bright stars, and it would say it might feel like the darkest time, but God's grace still shines. Don't you feel warm about that when you think of it? That's not the picture of Genesis six. It's not the picture of Genesis. Six long life, rapidly multiplying population, led to a darkness of unrestrained evil actions and intentions, a smoking fire of sinful corruption darkened the earth and two bright lights do rise, the bright light of God's justice, saying there will not be unrestrained evil in the world. And the bright light of God's grace through Noah. Noah finds favor with God. Genesis six begins our saga, the Bible's saga of the flood. In recent years, Christian publishers have finally gotten it right in the children's books, because in the children's books, Noah's Ark is about what cute bunnies and long neck giraffes sticking its head out of this little, tiny boat. You might have one of those. Kevin De Young's Bible story book portrays it accurately. It is this dark time of judgment. Kids. I mean, should we be telling kids about judgment? Yes, last week we talked about the certainty of death. I remember second hour I said, kids, you will die to somebody back there, one of the kids was like, no. Well, I mean, I don't mean right now. I don't mean you're gonna walk out into death. But I mean, everybody faces death. Kids, you're going to be judged. You're like no adults. Kids, there is a judgment coming. It's not a story about cute animals on a big boat. It's the story of God's righteous judgment on unrestrained evil. It is about real justice. It is also about God's keeping his promise to bring a savior. So in this period of man's greatest corruption, God's justice and His grace shine like a few bright stars in the gloomiest night, justice is absolutely essential to a stable, flourishing life. If evil and injustice expand without restraint, so too does suffering and hopelessness. So if God is truly good, evil must face justice, and it is only in a just world where grace and mercy become clear and visible. In the flood story, we're going to find both. What do we need to do with it, we need to face up to God's judgment on sin and turn to him for grace. Last week, we saw that with the certainty of death, we need to figure out how to live today, with the certainty of judgment, we need to figure out how to live even though, through even though death was certain, God promised redemption. That promise still stood, even though there was this judgment, God's promise still stood. And what's important to remember is that there is a judgment of natural life. It was going to come to an end. There are judgments in the Bible that say even a natural life must end earlier because of the gross wickedness God had various judgments, but this most significant judgment that every human needs to consider is the final judgment before the judgment seat of God toward the end of the Bible, it says this as plainly as possible, and just as it is appointed for man to die once after that comes judgment, there will be a time where you stand before God And you give an account of your life.
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Israel knew the temporal judgments, judgments in life in the wilderness. They knew it because there was judgment poured out in Egypt that allowed that allowed them to be free. But they also knew it in their own lives, as. They were called to go from Mount Sinai to the promised land in faith and trust in God. And they reject Him all throughout the way, through idolatry, through rejection of his commands. And they received temporal judgments where lots of people died. In fact, in the 40 year generation, only the 20 year olds and younger lived to go into the Promised Land. They only lived Israel understood about this. God is gracious and he is holy. He is righteous and he is merciful in His holiness and His righteousness. He demands that we keep trusting Him and His grace. The churches of Revelation go to the end of the Bible. Okay, that's the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? Well, go to the end of the Bible in Revelation, chapters two and three. God is going to remove the influence of churches and bring punishments on them that are not repentant and faithful.
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Even for Christians, there is disciplinary treatment, disciplinary judgments. God is a good father who wants to refine us from our sins, so he brings trial and difficulty into our life, so that we would learn not to trust in ourselves or the things of this earth and keep trusting him. So in life, Israel needed to know it. We need to know it. Thinking about the great judgment day, we need to recognize that there is an eternal judgment. It's outlined in Daniel, 12, two and three, called the judgment of the righteous and the wicked. It's the clearest place in the Old Testament. But the promise there is going to be a resurrection to judgment. Nathan, just read about it in our scripture reading, there is a resurrection to judgment that is going to come revelation. 2015 called the Great White Throne Judgment. So the theme of judgment goes throughout the Bible. The theme of judgment calls us to look for the possibility of grace. And it's not a possibility. It's a reality. It is a offer by a gracious God to sinners to repent and trust him. So for us today, as we rate the return of Christ, who will judge the living and the dead, how do we think about sin? What does God think about sin? What do we need to know about grace? Start it today. We need to know what God judges, where to find grace in Genesis six tells us how to live when judgment is certain. Let's take a look at these two first, let's consider God's judgment on unrestrained acts of sin. This is Genesis one, one through four. Genesis sorry. Genesis one, Genesis six, one through four. Consider God's judgment on unrestrained acts of sin, 61 through four. Verse one begins with this way, when man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them. So this is that picture of rapid multiplication you could imagine with life spans that are nearly 1000 years, near to the perfect creation of the world, the longevity, how long men and women would be in childbearing years, could be triple, quadruple, anything we have. The number of children that could be born could indeed spread out over the whole face of the earth. And that's just what God said he wanted to happen. He wanted them to be fruitful and multiply fill the earth. Now they had filled the earth. They were multiplying on the face of the land. Daughters were born to them, this pre flood population explosion. How would it end? Not good. Verse two, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive and they took as their wives any they chose. I mean, this passage is the most debated in Genesis, one of the most debated in the Bible. You can look at a study Bible for various options. Nathan is going to give those options to you in your growth guides, you're going to have fun talking about them if you haven't already wherever we land, we need to be humble about it, because we don't have quite enough details to be absolutely certain. But the oldest interpretation, the oldest interpretation, is the one that still makes most sense to me. And the oldest goes back to the Greek translation of the Old Testament, 200 years before Jesus. So this is what how the Jews translated to Greek the sons of God, they translated were with the word angelos, angels, who were these? Jesus, according to this view, it's the one I think is strongest. We have angels cohabitating with women, sons of God. As far as that phrase goes, is used almost exclusively of angels. In this case, fallen angels, the only strong argument against this idea is the fact that Jesus says in Matthew 22 that angels don't marry and are not given in marriage. But Jesus doesn't say that angels can't do that. They just say they don't do that. The current ones don't do that. So this idea is plausible. There are other interpreters. Some say that these could be kings who found beautiful women and they married and they built their harems. Other views talk about the line of Seth and the line of Cain merging. They finally marry each other, and there is a corruption in the race. But when we look at verse four, and we see this idea of Nephilim, the word Nephilim is going to be used in Exodus 13, about giants in the land. We know that these Nephilim were great men, powerful, domineering, dominating. At the end of verse four, they're called the mighty men who were, of old, the men of renown. I got a question in between. Somebody said, Could this be the source of all the myths and mythological figures? Absolutely, this could be that source where you have these people with seemingly something like demigod like powers. Certainly, they were the Emperor types, the powerful types. So if demons took on bodily form, which we've seen, angels take on bodily form, cohabitated, that would give me good evidence to why the race grew so powerful, the evil so rampant, God might want to judge such beings off the face of the earth. Second Peter and Jude both describe demons who abandoned their natural order and were condemned to the abyss waiting for final judgment, which would make perfect sense. What natural order the demons natural order? They stay away from humans. So demons had uncontrolled lusts. Notice the same pattern in Adam and Eve and in Cain is now repeated. They saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful. They took them and they married them. Saw, took married or took them as their wives, demons, inflamed by power and lust, took as many women as they chose. Do not only have a scene where you have very violent people, that's what it said in verse 11. Like if you jump down to verse 11. We'll get to next week. Now, the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. Here you have these powerful offspring of demons and women who are uncontrollable in their lusts and their violence. So God says verse three. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. God, the Spirit who hovered over the water and creation, is still operative over man and the earth. He will not animate him forever, or he will withdraw his blessing to bring judgment. Problem number two, what's the 120 years? Either it's a decrease in the average lifespan or a warning that there's 120 years to repent. Lots of people say it's the decreased we have these hundreds and hundreds of years in Genesis, five 120 years here. Noah is going to say 70 or 80 years in Psalm 90. It's just that's decline. Another view is that 120 years, when God saw this evil ramped up, he said, 120 years. And it's done 20 years later, Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord. I I pick you too, because we're gonna see it after the flood. Noah lives a long time. Shem lives a long time. Abraham lives. Long time. Lots of people live a really long time, for hundreds of years after the flood, it doesn't look like 120 years, but it would make complete sense that it's the 120 years, because from the time that Noah is told to build the ark until the time he gets off the ark, 100 years passes. 100 years passes,
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My Spirit will not abide with them forever. Judgment is coming.
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Two unrestrained elements, demonically influenced male and male dominating sexual sin. Demonically influenced men violently over running the earth. From here on out, you need to see these threads demonically inspired unbelief and sin. Israel is compromised in the wilderness, in the book of exercise, in the book of Exodus, in the book of Numbers and their their sin is to fall prey to idolatry and immorality over and over and over again. It is the ongoing issue in Israel's life all the way to the time of the captivity, they start worshiping false gods. They start lusting. It was Solomon's downfall. He married foreign wives who worshiped their own gods, and eventually worshiped those gods as well. The pattern is set here.
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Israel compromised with demonically driven idolatry, and it produced rampant immorality, and there were judgments. There is a warning for the church in First Corinthians. In First Corinthians, chapter 10, there were many people in the church who were joining the pagan festivals in the city of Corinth. And the Apostle was clear that idols are really demons. There is demonic power behind Ian Dollar Tree. So they would go to a cultural festival, a meal, they would participate with the idols, and they would get carried away with the immorality. God promised discipline. Revelation 220, through 22 one of the churches was condemned. Jesus says this to them, but this I have against you. You tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality, to eat food, sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. God promised that this would come to an end, unrestrained, demonically driven evil actions will be judged. Number two, consider God's grief over unrestrained intentions of sin. Consider God's grief over unrestrained intentions of sin. We go to the actions, then to the intentions of the heart. God righteously judges. But remember this, this judgment is not without sorrow or grief. The Lord is not cold or calloused in judgment. He is grieved over the sinfulness of man. Verse five says The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That I mean, that's the best description of depravity in the Bible, sinful actions come from sinful intentions, and every intention of the heart was continually evil. It doesn't mean every action was as bad as it could be, but every intention was sinful and selfish. Verse six, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Now, it's really important to remember this God can be joyful and content in himself and in the relationship with the members of the Trinity, and he can be grieved and so. Sorrowful at how the relationship with his creatures is going you and I can do the same thing, just not at the same time. Typically, you can be happy in your marriage, but unhappy in some other relationship that's going on. Usually, humans flip a switch between unhappy and happy, and sometimes we like to leave the switch on unhappy. God can experience both contentment, joy, happiness in himself, but with the creatures he's made. He experiences sorrow, grief what's the grief? The grief is for the whole lot of mankind, his good work and good intentions for mankind had been fought and defied ever since Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree in the garden of Eden. Think about Genesis. 131 God looks at everything he's made, including Adam and Eve. Remember, we fold Genesis two into the timeline ahead of Genesis 131 looking at that joyful first look that Adam had with his bride, that joyful first day where all was good and right in Genesis 131, it describes the whole package as very good. God was pleased with the creation that he had made. Now just six chapters later, it was entirely corrupt, not just corrupt and selfish, but with unrestrained evil,
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regretted, regret for God doesn't mean, oh, I made a huge mistake. What doesn't mean the God the father looked at God the Son and said, What were we thinking? No, he, he. The word is deep sorrow, compounded by the grieved to the heart.
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Evil must be stopped. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth, of the land. That word for blot out is really a picture of an ancient writing material, like a papyrus sheet of paper. Somebody would write on it with ink, because it's so durable you could wash off the ink. I'm going to wash off man from the face of the earth, of course, it's going to be a little bit more than wiping off a piece of paper. It is going to be a worldwide cataclysmic flood. Notice, since animals were made for man to rule, to serve man and be a blessing to man. They're going to be washed clean too, man and animals, creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them the pervasive evil had affected everything.
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God was not surprised. God didn't think he was wrong. He wasn't surprised. He didn't think he made a mistake, but he had expression of real grief at what had become of his very good world. I just want to jump ahead after the flood, the same statement is going to be made about man, the intentions of his heart were evil continually, man's sinful fleshiness has not really changed, but God's promise to maintain the world will change. We're going to see that the end of chapter nine, God's going to institute human governments to restrain human evil. He is going to restrain evil by conscience. He is going to restrain evil by frustrating human plans, His Spirit indwelling those of faith. Those of faith, are going to restrain evil by righteous and godly behavior and calling people to upright and whole, wholesome, godly standards. After the flood, there are going to be some different things restraining evil.
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Now for those of you who have not trusted Christ in the room, those of you who have not repented, your life is filled with doing nice things for the wrong reasons. Nice things wrong reasons. Your life is filled with doing bad things for bad reasons. Your life is filled. Doing evil things, really nasty things, for nasty reasons. And this grieves God, and it's a reason why you need to turn from that sin, because judgment is coming and you need to plea for mercy. There's only one place to go from your evil and false and wicked intentions. It is to the grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ. It's the only place for you to flee from the justice of God is to the mercy of God you
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here's a summary statement from the New Testament that expands the same idea. Ephesians two, one through three, says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, read yourself into Genesis six, one through Seven. That's how the apostle Paul describes this. Before Christ,
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God has put Christ forward. I'll talk about that in a minute, before we leave this point, believers, those of you who have trusted Christ, those of you have repented, put sinful patterns to death. You still have a principle in the flesh that moves you to sin. You need to keep putting it to death. In this list of things to put to death in Ephesians 430 the apostle Paul writes this, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And this is usually by our speech. It's a section about ungodly speech, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. You believe Christ. Christ gives you the Spirit to live in you, to seal you, to hold you. Don't let your flesh run into sin. It grieves God, makes him sorrowful in his relationship with you.
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If we go back to the beginning and think about the two bright stars illustration, the first that we've seen is God's justice coming in judgment. Now we're going to see God's grace. Now we're going to see God's grace. We all want to see. We all want to we all want to live in a world where evil is restrained or blotted out. We all want a world where God's justice will turn to judgment sometime, but we also need to see the grace of God. Look at number three. Turn from all sin action or intention turn from all sin to God's grace, your death, your worldwide judgment, is coming, but God's saving purposes continue. I want you to hear that your death, or worldwide judgment is coming, but God's saving purposes continue. The first mention of the idea of grace. The word grace is here this passage. It says this in verse eight, But Noah found favor, equally translated as Grace, in the eyes of the Lord, God had made a promise about Eve's offspring, that he would come and destroy the works of the devil, crush the serpent's head, is how it's worded. God's keeping the promise alive in Noah, Noah found grace. Now notice the order Noah gets Grace first chapter or verse eight, Noah walks with God. Verse 910, from grace comes a change to walk in a way that pleases God. There was going to be one family who God would rescue, one family who God would rescue. Preserve his promise, Noah and his sons and daughters in law, and Noah would respond to grace with faith and righteous obedience. If we'd summarize this, that judgment passed, but another judgment is promised. And we could say this, a great judgment is coming, but grace is available. From my take on the 120 years is not the new lifespan, but the distance between the promise to Noah and the flood. And think about this with the grace of God that Noah's building the ark for 100 years and the men of the earth are ridiculing him. They don't listen to the preaching of the building of the biggest boat that no one ever had a need for. As far as we know, according to the biblical record, there had not been anything but rain that was enough to water the ground. No storms, no need for a big boat like this, and they refused to listen. But God was gracious. He gave them 100 years to listen.
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It's a form of grace that patience of God is a form of grace.
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God is giving a warning now about the coming of Jesus to judge the earth. Remember when John the Baptist comes Mark chapter one, Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus comes tells the people repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Why do they need to repent? Because the king is coming to take his earth and He will judge all of his opponents. Repent. Repent. Jesus shows remarkable grace, greatest acts of healings and miracles ever recorded. Remember, last week we saw that Lamech said about Noah that he's going to bring us rest Noah in the ark. It's going to carry the promise to the Savior who's going to be the refuge and the rest for sinners know in the ark become a picture of what Jesus will do. Peter tells us this Second Peter, chapter three, verse eight, chapter two, verse 18, says, For Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. Jesus, Christ becomes the new Ark, so to speak, he is going to use a piece of wood and a cross. What does Jesus end up doing for humanity? As he comes he is takes on full humanity. He is tempted in all ways, yet without sin. He lives a life of perfect obedience, and yet He is betrayed. He is wrongly sentenced, and he is murdered by the Jewish and the Gentile governments. And in general, the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding region condemn Him to death and on the cross of wood, Jesus bears the wrath of God in our place. It is not a flood of waters. It is a spiritual wrath. It is a wrath poured on Jesus so that anyone who believes in Him might have their sins forgiven, the righteous Jesus for the unrighteous man, that he might bring us to God. This Peter passage goes on being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, what spirits in prison, the ones condemned in Noah's day for crossing the boundary From angelic being to humans, proclaims victory over the catastrophic trouble that they caused by his own he announced his victory by his own death. Verse 20 continues this because they formerly did not obey when God's patient waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is, eight persons, were. Brought safely through water. So Jesus, after his death, after his death, for your sin and my sin, went in his spirit to the abyss, proclaimed victory to the demons in prison. He didn't suffer in hell. He proclaimed victory. Ian, so Jesus is said to be the ark that went through the waters of judgment and carried us with him, not just eight, if you jumped ahead to Revelation. Five, there are myriads of myriads and myriads upon myriads of angels and men and women proclaiming praise and glory to the Lamb that was slain. You jump all the way to Revelation seven, and there are myriads of myriads that's that's 10s of 1000s time, 10s of 1000s time, 10s of 1000s, all around the throne praising the Lamb who was slain for sinners. Noah's Ark preserved eight and a bunch of animals for a good reason. We'll get to it in a few weeks. Jesus saved billions it is the most important thing that you need to be freed from sin and guilt, and Jesus does this for those who repent and follow him, from those who turn from their idolatry and immorality to him, it's most important for us to be saved from God's wrath and to be reconciled. That's the most important thing. If you're sitting here. This is the offer that is here for you today, if you have not repented and trusted him, there is a day coming as appointed man for once, to die, and then comes judgment. And if you don't meet that version of it, when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead, you will have to stand before the tribunal of God and bear judgment.
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If you die as an unbeliever, you go to a holding place that's called hell. Sentence is passed in private and in Revelation. CHAPTER 20, everybody is brought out. The sentence is read publicly for all the world to know, and God will be vindicated as righteous if you die in faith in Jesus Christ, you have trusted him for the for the forgiveness, full forgiveness of your sins. If you are leaning on him alone, you may now die. Your soul goes to be with Jesus. You are held in a presence of joy and rest until his great judgment, day in which all the sins you've ever committed will be taken visibly. You'll see them. This is what I died to forgive, and you will praise the Lamb who has been slain for he covered, he washed, he forgave every sin and every act of faith and every act of obedience will be rewarded
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when we look at Genesis six, I have to apply it in a couple of ways. One of them is God's seriousness still about crossing the boundaries in sexual sin. Genesis 61 you have demonic influences seeing beautiful women and taking any as they chose. God has been serious about sexual sin and about violence ever since. So those of us who trust Christ need to keep putting to death these powerful, fleshly passions. Men and women in this room have easy access to screens and the images and the immorality on them, and then follow up with acts that do not please the Lord and are a sin against Him. The warning to Jezebel and her people should make a believer say, I want to confess that I want to repent of that I would get any help. I need to put that to death.
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Grace should be the greatest motivation to walk with God in righteousness. Noah found favor with God. Let's wrap it up three things, confession and repentance of any known sin. God warns the Christian of judgment, and the Christian really listens. God uses these means of promising judgment for unbelief. And you say, I don't want to be that. When the Spirit of God convicts of sin, the believer listens, confesses and repents. If a person professing to be a Christian keeps sinning, refuses to repent, there is a judgment coming, and that profession is found to be false. But one of the surest signs of a true believer is the humility of ready confession. There is a sweet confidence in this promise from First John one nine, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to do what forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Jesus, told us that we're going to do battle with intentions of sin and actions of sin our whole life, and so he taught us to pray every day, Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, our sins as we forgive those who sin against us for
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the difference between then and between now and then is the issue of faith and repentance. The men and women, the time before the flood, were marrying and giving in marriage without a thought to judgment. Jesus says in Matthew 24 The second thing intercessory prayer and evangelism. Intercessory prayer, we don't use that word a lot, but intercessory prayer is when you know someone is in deep trouble for their sin, and you pray for their soul. You ask God to make a change. You ask God to rescue. It is what missionaries do for the people groups that they go to. It is what we do for our unbelieving kids, our unbelieving parents, our unbelieving spouses, perhaps our unbelieving neighbors, our unbelieving coworkers. You plead with them to be saved, because there is another worldwide cataclysmic judgment coming on the wicked. And you want them to see the grace of God that is now available to them. I was, I was provoked by Josiah's prayer request saying, you know, pray that God would frustrate the world view of my neighbors who don't know Christ, they're thinking that hope and happiness and joy lies in this world view frustrated, so that they would see the grace of Jesus, Christ, Genesis, 18. There is this beautiful picture that Abraham gives us about what it means to plead, to intercede. He negotiates with Jesus. Don't judge Sodom and Gomorrah if there's 5040, 3020, 10, and he knows he's pushing his luck at 20, like I might seem impetuous here, but please hear me out. And Jesus says, If there's 10 righteous people, I won't destroy the cities. There were three kind of righteous, like you look at the story of Lot and his daughters. It's ugly at the end, but he pled, and finally, we need to rejoice in the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ, which we're going to do through the Lord's Supper, but to think about what what the world got at the time of Noah is what the world deserves. Now, it's not really significantly different, other than the influence that Christians have in the world, we need to rejoice in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, let's pray and let's do that, Father, we thank you for a warning passage, story of the reason you judge the world, it makes us face up to what you judge for. You judge for wicked actions, and you judge for wicked intentions. And were it not for Jesus Christ, we would be like that world. So we thank you. I pray that you would make us people sensitive to what you sent Jesus to die for, for our wickedness and sin. I pray that you would make us a people that walk in holiness and righteousness and obedience and love to you, especially a love that overflows because you have loved us in Christ we have not gotten that judgment. Christians will not get it in the future, because of Christ and we say thank you to that. In his name, we pray amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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