As in the Days of Noah

Few people realize that Jesus came to this earth 2,000 years ago to start a new world, an entirely new and different civilization. And that’s why He said to His disciples when He chose them, over in John 15 it says, “I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” So these disciples of His were to be the future rulers of that new world that He was building, and the Church today is an extension of that movement that Jesus Christ started.

Let’s start over in Genesis chapter 6 to begin with here this morning. The Bible speaks of three different worlds in fact, or three different eras of human experience. There is the world to come, as it’s mentioned in Hebrews 2 and verse 5; there’s this present evil world that we’re now in, Galatians 1 and verse 4; and then there’s the world that then was, or the pre-Flood world of 16 centuries or so—the antediluvian world. Genesis 6 and verse 5 discusses that one. It says, “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.” Now in these first few chapters of the Bible there is just precious, precious little detail about the development of human civilization before the Flood. What we are told, however, is that after 1,500 to 1,600 years the world had become so evil that only one man, Noah, had remained righteous. At this time there had been a huge population explosion and all of humanity, except for Noah as I said, had turned to evil continually, as the Scripture brings out. There could’ve easily been upwards of a billion people in that era, in that world before the Flood. Certainly hundreds of millions at that time. And it wasn’t a backward society, as it’s sometimes easy to assume that these were just sort of like cave dwellers. It rather was a time of great sophistication and advancement. It took right up until the 19th century of our day for human beings to build a ship bigger than the one that’s described in Noah’s day, or the one that Noah built. So there was this rapid advancement before the Flood, and all of these accelerating evils, all kinds of wretchedness and perversion.

Verse 12, a little further down it says, “And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Now as much as the population had exploded they lived longer before the flood, as we know. In fact there were only 10 generations from Adam to Noah. Just 10 generations. Noah is recorded in Scripture as being the 8th preacher of righteousness. So there were only a faithful few that really obeyed God’s laws and proclaimed God’s truth. But they were so prominent, or such prominent figures that the world for the most part had to have been fairly well aware of God’s teaching, of God’s truth, of the origins of man. But the world then just as the world is today, it despised God’s truth; it rejected God’s warning.

Verse 13 says, “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” The Earth was just full of violence, of self-centeredness, of vanity, of lust, of evil objectives, and the violence had become so universal that God determined to spare humanity, in fact, from suffering any longer, from continuing down this road.

You can hold your place there in Genesis 6; we’ll come back at the end of the lecture. Let’s look at Luke 17 and see some of the parallels between that society and our society today. Luke 17.

Violence had become so universal that God determined to put humanity out of its misery and to give mankind a fresh start. And all of this typified the days that we’re in right now. All of it typified what we’re facing in our day. And how do we know this? Well because Jesus said so.

Verse 26 of Luke 17, it says, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” So, Jesus Christ was a believer of the Old Testament. He didn’t think that these were just fables, stories that were exaggerated. He taught from this. He educated people about what happened historically, about what happened in the world that then was, the antediluvian world. And in fact compared it to when the coming of the Son of Man would be. Evil continually, as it was then so it is today.

Verse 27, “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” See they might’ve been physically prosperous, some of them, but they were spiritually impoverished. There was no spiritual foundation in that society. It had all crumbled. Now it had its sectors of prosperity as I said, but there were also large swaths of poverty in that age as well. Again, pretty much like what we see today, just a mix of all kinds of lifestyles, but evil continually.

Verse 30 says, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” So mankind, students, mankind should have learned this lesson, the lesson of the Flood. But we haven’t, and that’s because we’re cut off from God, and we’re just following down the same road, we’re following down to the same outcome. The end of all flesh is near. That’s what Jesus is telling us here. I mean, in Matthew 24 it says that if God doesn’t intervene to cut it short, that every human life on Earth would be killed. That’s what God said through Jesus Christ. That’s the message of Jesus. That’s what Jesus proclaimed.

Let me quote to you what it says in the Epistles of Peter booklet, a booklet we’ve printed and distributed. On page 52 it says, “God is going to take mankind to the point where people will know there is no hope in man and they are willing to heed God’s Word—the Bible.” That’s what God is doing, He’s allowing this, so that we’ll come to the point where we know that our hope only is in God, that there is no hope in man. He says, “The experiment of human government will prove itself a grandiose failure, and people will begin to recognize that they do need God’s help.” That’s what God wants us to understand, and that’s what the world refuses to learn, that’s the lesson we refuse to accept: that we need God, we have to have God in our lives, we must have God’s help, or there’s no hope for man. He says, “What a world that will be! When human arrogance has been leveled, people will be humble and childlike, ready to be taught by God! But to reach that stage, mankind must experience destruction just short of destroying all humanity—every man, woman and child.”

Those are strong words, but look it’s based on what Jesus said himself. He says, finally, “We need to help people understand that this world is about to end—just as in the time of the Flood!” Noah’s time, in other words. Noah’s time, Noah’s world was a type of our world today. It’s a type of what we’re experiencing today.

Look at 2 Peter chapter 2. Jesus taught this, the Apostle Peter, as we’ll see here in a second, also made this analogy. 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. It says, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world,” that’s the world that then was, or that first period or first era of humanity. It says, “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” See God used Noah as a preacher of righteousness, to preach, to proclaim God’s message for 100 years. Noah wasn’t just a shipbuilder, I mean he was a preacher, he was a prophet, he warned the world of what was coming. And the world would not listen, the world laughed and ridiculed him, the world mocked him.

Back to the Peter booklet, it says, “Noah believed what God said about the end of all flesh—enough to proclaim it to the world. This must be a part of our thinking. It must be real to us, as it was to Noah. Our hearts must be in God’s future world, not Satan’s present world. Then we will become like Noah, who defied Satan’s civilization and proclaimed God’s righteousness! Virtually alone, a son of God fulfilled his God-given mission!” All alone, and yet his mind was on the next world. I mean Noah, he transitioned, he was the bridge between the old world and the present evil world that we’re now in; he lived in both.

Genesis chapter 7. He warned the old world of what was coming, the end of all flesh, and then God spared his life and that of his family and protected them inside the ark, and society started all over again. Genesis 7 and verse 1, it says, “And the Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark; for in you have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” God had taken note of Noah’s righteousness. God sees if we’re striving to obey. Noah wasn’t a perfect man, he made his mistakes. But if our heart is right, here is the lesson for us, if our heart is right and we’re looking to God—our relationship with God is the most important relationship we have—God sees it, God takes note of it. God is observing us, God is evaluating us. It’s not like what we do goes unnoticed, whether good or bad. I mean God sees, God knows, He’s God. In this case God saw his righteousness—Noah’s.

Verse 2 says, “Of every clean beast you shall take to you by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” See this was not a time for human reasoning, this was not a time for scientific theory, it wasn’t a time for trial and error, it wasn’t a time to answer back with questions; Why? Well what about this? He just did what God said to do, much like Abraham did when God said, Get out of your homeland, get out of everything that you’re comfortable with, and just leave, just go, just move. That’s what God said here to Noah. And Noah followed every detail, all of the instructions.

Verse 5, “And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.” See God keeps drawing attention to this man’s righteousness, because this is what we must do if we really are intent on waking up to what’s really happening in this world, to start living the right way. If we do, God will take note, God will respond. Noah obeyed God in all that he did, and God call him a preacher of righteousness as we’ve seen.

Back to that booklet on the Epistles of Peter. Page 50, “Noah was ‘a preacher of righteousness.’ He had a commission, as God’s Church does today. In addition to building the ark—a project that earned him nothing but scorn—Noah proclaimed God’s righteousness!” If you look into the Strong’s concordance on that word creature, it means “a herald of divine truth,” or, “a messenger of the authority of God.” This is Noah, this was his work—he spoke for God.

Continuing from the booklet, “But no one believed Noah—not even one other family. In the world around him, people’s thoughts were on evil continually. Noah was the opposite—his thoughts were on righteousness continually.” What a relationship he had with God, this man. It says, “Of course he sinned, but he was a man of righteousness who was severely persecuted by a world of absolute evil. Quite a man.” And then my father says, “You have to respect and admire Noah. Not only was he righteous, but he went out and proclaimed that righteousness!” In other words he acted on that truth, he went out and proclaimed it, he supported God’s work. He didn’t just sit in his living room, or sit in his bedroom and say, “Well that’s a nice message God has.” There’s a lot of people like that in the world today; “Well, boy, I sure liked that message. That sure sounds good, it sure sounds strong.” But where Noah was different was he acted on God’s truth, he did something with it, it changed his life. In fact, it changed the world didn’t it? Certainly did.

Genesis 5, a few pages back in the story. Genesis 5 and verse 21, it says, “And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” So we’re going back a few generations here. Enoch also was a servant of God. He became converted this passage indicates right around the time of the birth of his son Methuselah. It says he “walked with God after he begat Methuselah.” He agreed with God, he accepted God’s message, he did something with it just like Noah. And he had a message very similar to Noah, as you can see just in the brief account that there is in Scripture about him, and even in the name that he gave to his son.

Jamison, Fausset and Brown has an interesting comment to make about Enoch’s work and the name that he gave to his son Methuselah. It says, “Methuselah … literally, man of sending, particularly with reference to water …. Hales interprets the name as signifying, ‘He shall send his death;’ and referring to the time when this patriarch was to die. His inspired father,” it says, “who had announced the approaching judgment of God for the wickedness of his contemporaries,” you can see that in Jude 14-15, “probably bestowed upon his son the name of Methuselah as prophetic of the threatened flood; and accordingly it is computed that Methuselah died that very year in which the deluge commenced.” So he lived a long life, Methuselah did, but he died evidently in that final year; well we know that he did if you just put the numbers together that Genesis reveals. Methuselah lived 969 years; it’s the oldest man recorded in the Bible. I mean his name oftentimes is associated with life and longevity. In actual fact though Methuselah typified the way of this world—this world as being cut off from God, this world without God. His very name was a sign of God’s wrath. And his life, though long by human standards still ended in death didn’t it. It still ended in death, evidently in the Flood, as old as he was.

Let’s look at 2 Peter 3. Enoch by contrast walked with God, so much so that even name his own son “man of sending,” which was a prophecy for the rebellious generation that they were dwelling in. 2 Peter 3.

Why do these New Testament writers have so much to say about this world that then was, the old world? Why do they speak so much of Noah and the flood, and the end of all flesh? We’re not supposed to really believe that are we? That didn’t really happened did it? Of course it happened. These men these men gave up their lives for these truths, these teachings, this revelation.

2 Peter 3 and verse 3, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” Peter says, Here it’s important now, take note of this, here’s what I want you to know first, scoffers are coming in the last days, and what will they say, what will they say? How will they mock God’s Work? He answers, verse 4, “And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” That’s how they’ll reason. They’ll say, Well, we’ve been hearing about the end of the world for so long, for so many generations, right down through the ages. And yet, every generation has comes and goes and everything continues as same as it’s always been. This is what they’ll say; this is how they’ll reason around it. And yet Peter says when they start with that you’ll know that it’s drawing near.

Verse 5, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” So here he refers to the first of those three worlds that I mentioned at the start; the old world—the world that then was, and then this present evil world as I said; and the world to come. And notice Peter here says that these scoffers are ignorant, they’re ignorant of the fact that this world once was overflowed with a flood of water. Those who would scoff today need to be reminded of this history, in other words. That look, this is not unprecedented—the end of all flesh. It has happened in history. Jesus believed it, Jesus taught it, Peter certainly did.

Verse 8, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” That’s the way God keeps time, that’s the way God sees the passage of time. Human beings put a lot of stock in a year or two years or three years, and well if something doesn’t happen in one year’s time then it must not be true—“God must be a liar. God must not be keeping His word.” And in the old world Methuselah, this man whose very name was a prophecy, he just kept living and living and living by human standards. 969 years—31 years short of 1,000 years, a millennium. That’s how long that man lived. And yet if you look back at that society, Enoch was the one who faced the untimely death. Enoch was the one. His father who lived only 365 years—what must the scoffers have said about that? “Oh right, Enoch’s message, Enoch’s prophecy, I gotcha. He’s the one that died right? And he named his son such-and-such, and his son just keeps right on living. And time just keeps going right on—everything’s fine. And look at Noah building this crazy ship. Ha ha, very funny.” But what they fail to realize in their day, and what they fail to realize today is that with God one day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is like one day. God wants us to be thinking ahead just like Noah was thinking ahead to the next world. There’s a verse in Isaiah 57 and verse 15 that says God inhabits eternity. God wants us to be eternity-oriented in our thinking. We’re preparing for the 1,000-year millennium that so many prophecies speak of, by declaring God’s warning today. God’s warning about the imminent return of Jesus Christ, and the end of all flesh—were it not for that return, were it not for the fact that God cuts it short as Matthew 24 brings out.

Verse 9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness.” God’s not delaying this, God’s not slow. It says, “but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God isn’t being slow about His promised intervention in human affairs. He’s not slowing things down arbitrarily. He has such a different concept of time than man does. God, if He does delay the fulfillment of some of these things as verse 9 indicates, it’s for our own sake. God’s plan is unfolding at the exact pace needed to ensure that most will come to repentance and avoid perishing spiritually. Most, whether they call themselves Christian or Muslim or they’re Buddhist, whatever; there’s a plan that’s being worked out here below. And God is not slack concerning these promises. His purpose and plan for man is unfolding right on time. And He carries far more than His share of the workload and burden, you can be sure, always has, He always will. He is concerned, He is observant, He is taking note and He’s taking note of us. He wants to see if we’re doing our part, if we’re preparing, if we’re getting this vision, if we see time as He does. God views 7,000 years as a week—a week. One thousand years to God is like a day.

I’ll conclude with one final quote from Epistles of Peter booklet. My father says, “We must have faith in our great God—He will keep His promise of this wonderful world that is to come. If we believe that, we know,” we know, “that God’s Kingdom is almost here.”