Genesis (Part 9)
Bible Study Time 8-10-08
(From James Roberts 9-29-96)
Bible Study Time 8-10-08
(From James Roberts 9-29-96)
Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we met a man by the name of Enoch. Enoch was the seventh from Adam, and we found in the book of Jude, verse 14, that Enoch was a prophet. He prophesied of the ungodly deeds of the people of his generation, and he warned them of the judgment to come.
Enoch had a son by the name of Methuselah who lived longer than any person who has ever lived. Even in our day and time, people make reference to Methuselah when they talk about someone who is very old. They may say, he is as old as Methuselah. Some of these people don’t even know who Methuselah was, but nonetheless, Methuselah did live to be the oldest person on record.
This is significant because Methuselah’s name means, when he is dead, it shall be sent, which is talking about the great flood of Noah’s day. God allowed Methuselah to live for such a long time because God wanted to put off this flood as long as He could so that He could warn the people through prophets such as Enoch and Noah. But Methuselah did ultimately die and then the flood came.
That brings us in our study today to Noah, who was the great grandson of Enoch. Let’s begin reading in the book of Genesis, Chapter 6:
Genesis 6:1-8 NKJV
1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
3 And the Lord said,"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
After this, we find that God speaks of the genealogy of Noah. We see that Noah was a just man. He was perfect in his generations, and he walked with God.
At this time there was an ungodly connection between the sons of God and the daughters of men. It appears that God had previously warned the people about the dangers of such a connection, but His warning went unheeded. As a result, a supernatural kind of race came into being on the earth. The men of this race were giants, and the Bible calls them mighty men of old.
I believe that these men were primarily mighty in knowledge and understanding. They must have been brilliant. They were no doubt also giants in stature. They may have been like Goliath in the days of David. But most certainly, these men were giants in their wickedness as well.
There was only one person who was different from these wicked giants and that one person was Noah, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This does not mean that Noah was sinlessly perfect. He did not come directly from the hands of God to stand before God as Adam did in the original creation. Noah was born of Adam, in Adam’s likeness. He was a sinner, but he had a heart for God.
The Bible says that Noah was a just man. The word just is used to show that Noah was one who was justified, one who was upright before the Lord. By nature, all men are unjust. The book of Ecclesiastes says that there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. So the only way Noah could have been just is if God made Him just according to His grace. Therefore, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah did not deserve to be justified; by nature he was a sinner. But God was able to justify Noah according to His own standard of justice. As with Enoch, it seems evident that God spoke to Noah and Noah believed what God said. It was on the basis of Noah’s faith that God justified Noah. Hebrews, Chapter 11, says:
Hebrews 11:7 NKJV
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household . . .
Noah was justified because of God’s grace. Noah was not sinlessly perfect, but he had a heart for God. The other people of Noah’s day had hearts that were continually evil.
One of the things that we find in the book of Matthew, Chapter 24, is that these evil people just went about their daily activities without any thought for God. They ate and they drank and they married and they were given in marriage. They simply paid no attention to any of the things that God was saying to them through Enoch and Noah. Enoch and Noah warned them of the judgment to come, but none of them listened.
May I say this to you. It may be that you are going about your own way today, without any thought for the things of God. You just go about your daily activities, getting up, going to work, coming home, watching TV, going to bed. Then you just repeat this routine day after day.
Some of you are planning to get married, some of you have been married for 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, maybe even 70 years. You’re just going your own way without one thought for God. That’s an ungodly act. That’s an ungodly act because God created man for His glory, and God wants us to give Him the place that He deserves in our lives.
You may be just drifting along with the world like everyone else, not paying any attention to the Enoch’s and Noah’s of our day who teach us the word of God. You don’t hear the word and mix it with faith, and believe to the saving of your life by trusting the Lord Jesus as your Savior. I trust today that you are not just going along with the flow and drifting along, but that you will stop and believe what God has said in His word.
Well, the earth was so wicked that God decided to destroy the earth, but before the great flood came, God gave the people ample warning. He provided 300 years of warning through Enoch and 120 years of preaching by Noah. The book of I Peter, Chapter 3, says that Noah was preparing the ark for 120 years, and God said in Genesis 6 that His Spirit was not always going to strive with man but that his days would be 120 years. Therefore, we can safely conclude that Noah was building the ark and preaching for 120 years.
For the 300 years of Enoch’s ministry, the Spirit of God was striving with man. Do you know what that means? The Holy Spirit was taking the word that Enoch was giving, and He was putting it to the hearts of the people and striving with them to get them to hear what Enoch was saying.
While Noah was preaching, God was striving with man. I can just hear them as Noah was building that ark. Hey, Noah, whacha’ doin’? I’m building this ark. What’s an ark? Well, it’s a boat that God is going to use to save people from the judgment that’s coming. What kind of judgment; I don’t know what judgment is; I’ve never seen any kind of judgment. Well, God’s going to bring a flood. What’s a flood?
You can just hear this conversation going on with the people sneering and scoffing at the words of Noah while the Spirit of God was striving with them, convicting them of their sin and of their need to trust in the word of God and repent of their ungodliness.
God said, I’m going to strive with these people for 120 years, and then I’m going to destroy them. So during that 120 years, Noah was preaching the word of God.
Now, please notice that God told Noah to build the ark, and He gave specific instructions as to how Noah was to build it. In Hebrews 11, we read:
Hebrews 11:7 NKJV
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
You see, as Noah was building that ark, he was preparing the ark for the saving of his house. Noah had three sons and their wives, and then there was also Noah’s wife. So Noah was preparing the ark to save eight people from the flood.
But as Noah was building the ark, he was also judging the world, because at a certain point God brought Noah and his family into the ark and then closed the door. After that door was closed, the windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep opened up.
I believe that there was a canopy of water in the heavens that had been there since the time of the creation. God created this canopy of water for this particular time of judgment. He created this canopy of water in the heavens, and He created the fountains of water underneath the earth so that when He put Noah into the ark and shut the door, He could simply open up the windows of heaven and open the fountains of the deep to flood the whole earth.
This was not just a rain. It was like someone opened a door that had been holding back a wall of water, and when that door was opened, the water poured out. This flood of water came gushing out for forty days and forty nights. The water came pouring out from the heavens above and gushing from the earth beneath so that the whole earth was covered with water.
The book of 2 Peter tells us that the earth perished along with every living thing that was on the earth. That means that after the flood, the earth and the things of the earth were completely different. The flood changed everything.
But before God ever brought the judgment of the flood, He prepared the way of escape. God respects human life and he gave the people of that day plenty of warning. 300 years in the days of Enoch, and 120 years in the days of Noah, and then it would appear that God postponed the death of Methuselah in order to postpone the flood. Clearly, God is not willing that any should perish, and so God provided the ark for the salvation of all who would enter by faith.
God brought Noah into the ark, shut up the door, and then brought the flood. After all that time the judgment did come. People today often resist the idea of the judgment of God, but judgment is coming. However, God has provided an ark of safety for you and for me. It is the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ who provides salvation. In a sense, He is a three story ark, who is able to deliver us from the guilt and penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and then finally from the presence of sin.
There was only one door to the ark, and it was closed at a certain point. In like manner today, there is only one door into the presence of God and into that salvation that He has provided, and that is faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
There was one window in the ark and that was on the top so that Noah and his family could keep looking up. My father-in-law used to preach on the radio, and he would close each broadcast by saying, keep looking up. We today need to keep looking up as we look for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Well, I see that we have come to an end in our journey today. The Lord willing, we’ll take up again next week in this journey. Until that time we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
Enoch had a son by the name of Methuselah who lived longer than any person who has ever lived. Even in our day and time, people make reference to Methuselah when they talk about someone who is very old. They may say, he is as old as Methuselah. Some of these people don’t even know who Methuselah was, but nonetheless, Methuselah did live to be the oldest person on record.
This is significant because Methuselah’s name means, when he is dead, it shall be sent, which is talking about the great flood of Noah’s day. God allowed Methuselah to live for such a long time because God wanted to put off this flood as long as He could so that He could warn the people through prophets such as Enoch and Noah. But Methuselah did ultimately die and then the flood came.
That brings us in our study today to Noah, who was the great grandson of Enoch. Let’s begin reading in the book of Genesis, Chapter 6:
Genesis 6:1-8 NKJV
1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
3 And the Lord said,"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
After this, we find that God speaks of the genealogy of Noah. We see that Noah was a just man. He was perfect in his generations, and he walked with God.
At this time there was an ungodly connection between the sons of God and the daughters of men. It appears that God had previously warned the people about the dangers of such a connection, but His warning went unheeded. As a result, a supernatural kind of race came into being on the earth. The men of this race were giants, and the Bible calls them mighty men of old.
I believe that these men were primarily mighty in knowledge and understanding. They must have been brilliant. They were no doubt also giants in stature. They may have been like Goliath in the days of David. But most certainly, these men were giants in their wickedness as well.
There was only one person who was different from these wicked giants and that one person was Noah, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This does not mean that Noah was sinlessly perfect. He did not come directly from the hands of God to stand before God as Adam did in the original creation. Noah was born of Adam, in Adam’s likeness. He was a sinner, but he had a heart for God.
The Bible says that Noah was a just man. The word just is used to show that Noah was one who was justified, one who was upright before the Lord. By nature, all men are unjust. The book of Ecclesiastes says that there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. So the only way Noah could have been just is if God made Him just according to His grace. Therefore, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah did not deserve to be justified; by nature he was a sinner. But God was able to justify Noah according to His own standard of justice. As with Enoch, it seems evident that God spoke to Noah and Noah believed what God said. It was on the basis of Noah’s faith that God justified Noah. Hebrews, Chapter 11, says:
Hebrews 11:7 NKJV
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household . . .
Noah was justified because of God’s grace. Noah was not sinlessly perfect, but he had a heart for God. The other people of Noah’s day had hearts that were continually evil.
One of the things that we find in the book of Matthew, Chapter 24, is that these evil people just went about their daily activities without any thought for God. They ate and they drank and they married and they were given in marriage. They simply paid no attention to any of the things that God was saying to them through Enoch and Noah. Enoch and Noah warned them of the judgment to come, but none of them listened.
May I say this to you. It may be that you are going about your own way today, without any thought for the things of God. You just go about your daily activities, getting up, going to work, coming home, watching TV, going to bed. Then you just repeat this routine day after day.
Some of you are planning to get married, some of you have been married for 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, maybe even 70 years. You’re just going your own way without one thought for God. That’s an ungodly act. That’s an ungodly act because God created man for His glory, and God wants us to give Him the place that He deserves in our lives.
You may be just drifting along with the world like everyone else, not paying any attention to the Enoch’s and Noah’s of our day who teach us the word of God. You don’t hear the word and mix it with faith, and believe to the saving of your life by trusting the Lord Jesus as your Savior. I trust today that you are not just going along with the flow and drifting along, but that you will stop and believe what God has said in His word.
Well, the earth was so wicked that God decided to destroy the earth, but before the great flood came, God gave the people ample warning. He provided 300 years of warning through Enoch and 120 years of preaching by Noah. The book of I Peter, Chapter 3, says that Noah was preparing the ark for 120 years, and God said in Genesis 6 that His Spirit was not always going to strive with man but that his days would be 120 years. Therefore, we can safely conclude that Noah was building the ark and preaching for 120 years.
For the 300 years of Enoch’s ministry, the Spirit of God was striving with man. Do you know what that means? The Holy Spirit was taking the word that Enoch was giving, and He was putting it to the hearts of the people and striving with them to get them to hear what Enoch was saying.
While Noah was preaching, God was striving with man. I can just hear them as Noah was building that ark. Hey, Noah, whacha’ doin’? I’m building this ark. What’s an ark? Well, it’s a boat that God is going to use to save people from the judgment that’s coming. What kind of judgment; I don’t know what judgment is; I’ve never seen any kind of judgment. Well, God’s going to bring a flood. What’s a flood?
You can just hear this conversation going on with the people sneering and scoffing at the words of Noah while the Spirit of God was striving with them, convicting them of their sin and of their need to trust in the word of God and repent of their ungodliness.
God said, I’m going to strive with these people for 120 years, and then I’m going to destroy them. So during that 120 years, Noah was preaching the word of God.
Now, please notice that God told Noah to build the ark, and He gave specific instructions as to how Noah was to build it. In Hebrews 11, we read:
Hebrews 11:7 NKJV
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
You see, as Noah was building that ark, he was preparing the ark for the saving of his house. Noah had three sons and their wives, and then there was also Noah’s wife. So Noah was preparing the ark to save eight people from the flood.
But as Noah was building the ark, he was also judging the world, because at a certain point God brought Noah and his family into the ark and then closed the door. After that door was closed, the windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep opened up.
I believe that there was a canopy of water in the heavens that had been there since the time of the creation. God created this canopy of water for this particular time of judgment. He created this canopy of water in the heavens, and He created the fountains of water underneath the earth so that when He put Noah into the ark and shut the door, He could simply open up the windows of heaven and open the fountains of the deep to flood the whole earth.
This was not just a rain. It was like someone opened a door that had been holding back a wall of water, and when that door was opened, the water poured out. This flood of water came gushing out for forty days and forty nights. The water came pouring out from the heavens above and gushing from the earth beneath so that the whole earth was covered with water.
The book of 2 Peter tells us that the earth perished along with every living thing that was on the earth. That means that after the flood, the earth and the things of the earth were completely different. The flood changed everything.
But before God ever brought the judgment of the flood, He prepared the way of escape. God respects human life and he gave the people of that day plenty of warning. 300 years in the days of Enoch, and 120 years in the days of Noah, and then it would appear that God postponed the death of Methuselah in order to postpone the flood. Clearly, God is not willing that any should perish, and so God provided the ark for the salvation of all who would enter by faith.
God brought Noah into the ark, shut up the door, and then brought the flood. After all that time the judgment did come. People today often resist the idea of the judgment of God, but judgment is coming. However, God has provided an ark of safety for you and for me. It is the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ who provides salvation. In a sense, He is a three story ark, who is able to deliver us from the guilt and penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and then finally from the presence of sin.
There was only one door to the ark, and it was closed at a certain point. In like manner today, there is only one door into the presence of God and into that salvation that He has provided, and that is faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
There was one window in the ark and that was on the top so that Noah and his family could keep looking up. My father-in-law used to preach on the radio, and he would close each broadcast by saying, keep looking up. We today need to keep looking up as we look for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Well, I see that we have come to an end in our journey today. The Lord willing, we’ll take up again next week in this journey. Until that time we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
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