Preparation #38 (As it was in the days of Noah)
Brian
Kocourek
HEBREWS 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen
as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the
which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by
faith.
LUKE 17:20 ¶
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God
should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with
observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo
there! for, behold, the
How was it in the days of Noah? "As it was in Noah's day, so shall it be
when the Son of Man's revealed."
GENESIS 6:1 ¶ And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and
daughters were born unto them, 2 That the
sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took
them wives of all which they chose.
3 ¶ And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always
strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred
and twenty years. 4 ¶
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that (or following this), when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they
bare [children] to them, the same [became] mighty men which [were] of old, men
of renown. 5 And 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.
6 ¶ And it repented the LORD that he had made man
on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me
that I have made them. 8 ¶ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the
LORD. 9 These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah
was a just man [and] perfect in his generations, [and] Noah walked with
God. 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. 11 ¶
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold,
it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13
¶ 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. 14
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and
shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
15 And this [is the fashion]
which thou shalt make it [of]: The length of the ark [shall be] three hundred
cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty
cubits. 16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in
a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in
the side thereof; [with] lower, second, and third [stories] shalt thou make
it. 17
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to
destroy all flesh, wherein [is] the breath of life, from under heaven; [and]
every thing that [is] in the earth shall die.
18 But with thee will I
establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons,
and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 19
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every [sort] shalt thou
bring into the ark, to keep [them] alive with thee; they shall be male and
female. 20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle
after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of
every [sort] shall come unto thee, to keep [them] alive. 21
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather
[it] to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 22
¶ Thus did Noah; according to all
that God commanded him, so did he. 7: 1 ¶
And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark;
for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
PREPARATION
53-1111 033 Now, God in
His preparation. Back when God was going to destroy the world. Before He
destroyed the world, He sent forth a preparation for the saving of the
people that desired to be saved. He always does it. He shows mercy
before judgment. And if men spurn mercy, there's only one thing left and
that is judgment. And God don't judge you; you judge yourself.
That's true. As long as you're under this spray of blood that's around the
world, you have a right for mercy.
God's... The Blood of Christ keeps God from killing
you, or He'd kill you just as soon as you sinned. But that's still...
holding God from you, from your death. You're a free moral agent now. But when
you die and your spirit goes beyond that, then your already judged. You
don't have to wait for judgment; you're judged already. God done said,
"The day you eat thereof, the day you die." And that settles
it. Then when God sent forth Noah to preach... Wasn't it strange, never had
rain? No water, was only but beneath the earth. And an old man come out there,
an old holy-roller, with a beard hanging down like this, and got him a hammer
and begin to build an ark--a boat.
034 Could you imagine the people
down in the city talking about it? Why, they'd say, "Hey, what do you
think about that rain story that old guy is telling up there?" But he
had the will of God. And he knowed where he was. And no matter what the
world, how ridiculous it seemed to the world, God had a man He could put His
hand on. And he built the ark. The people laughed at him. That didn't stop him.
He just built right ahead. And any
man that really knows the Divine will of God, is borned again, they could call
you a holy-roller, fanatic, whatever they want to, you'll build right ahead on
the ark. It doesn't make a bit of difference. That's right. You get ready
for it.
035 Now, I can see the time Noah said there's
going to come a storm, the rains are... "Oh, how is He going to do
it?" I don't know. Why, it never did do it. And they were much better
scientists than we have today. Go down in Egypt and look at the pyramids
setting in the middle of the earth. No matter where the sun is, there's
never... Geographically, it's in the center of the earth. There's never a
shadow around it, no matter where the sun is. How'd they do that? And these
boulders, at least two city blocks high, that weigh a billion tons, how'd they
get them up there? Produce something now that'll lift them up there. They can't
do it. They can't make mummies today, as they did in them days with the body.
They can't embalm like they did. None of those things. They were smarter,
really than they are today. And you know they laughed at that man that stood up
there, building the ark and saying it was going to rain, but it rained anyhow.
036 I can just imagine... Let's look at this
just a moment. God was preparing, Noah's preaching. And the first thing you
know, why one day there come a thunder. I hear someone say, "Oh, a blast
went off somewhere." But a cloud begin to rise. Now, I can see the great
big Polly Parrot setting out there, looking over to the mother Polly Parrot and
say, "Mother, that's what Noah said." I can see the little monkey
drop the cone there and say, "Come on, Mammy, we're headed for the
ark." The old camel eat and say, "Come on, let's go." Two by two
they went into the ark led by the Holy Spirit. It goes to show that man hasn't
got the gumption of a wild animal sometimes. That's right. Those wild animals
heard the sound and took the warning of God by the Holy Spirit, and went to
safety. And today man hears the sound of the coming of the Son of God and
rejects and refuses to hear it. Amen. You know that's the truth. But
God preparing... Seems ridiculous. I can
hear someone say, "Well, if it does rain, I'll get on me a big poplar log
and ride." But the big poplar log sunk. And so will every poplar log sink
when Jesus Christ returns. Everything that's not in the Body of Christ will
be left here. "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the
coming of the Son of man."
037 Jesus never asked this, "Will I find righteousness?
Will I find people that's living good?" Goodness and righteousness is
what-what... Jesus said, "Will I find faith when I return? Will I
find..." Somebody, oh they say, "I got faith." Well, faith
without works is dead. "Will I find somebody who'll stand at My Word and
say, 'Every Word's right.' I'm not scared whether this one says so, or that
says so, or nothing. I believe in God, and I'm accepting It, and standing right
there on It." That's the thing. God is preparing a Church today to be
saved just as He did in the days of Noah and that ark. And the Body of Christ
today is that ark.
Why, you say, "We all believe that."
038 If I asked you how'd I get across the Ohio
River here? You'd say, "By the bridge." That's right. Everybody says,
"By faith are you saved; Christ is the way." That's right, Christ is
the way. But how do you get to Christ? Now, there's His body; the Bible said,
"Not by one letter, not by one's confession, not by one profession, but by
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body," into the body of
Christ which is already been judged. And we're free from judgment.
We're just as sure, as God raised His body from the grave, the Church will go
up just as He did, all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Now, I would like to examine the days of Noah for a
moment this morning. Because after all, god told us that as it was then, so
will it be in the day when the Son of Man is Revealed. And I do believe with
all that is within me that we are now living
in the days when the Son of Man has come and has been revealed. Then what does
that leave but one thing and that is destruction.
Notice what Jesus tells us of that day. He lays out
the attitude of the people in a way that
ther eis no mistaking what
their days were like.
Matthew 24: 37 But as the days of Noe
[were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating
and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that
Noe entered into the ark, 39
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40
Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other
left. 41 Two [women shall be] grinding at the mill;
the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know
not what hour your Lord doth come.
Notice, they were eating and drinking. Daily life was
good, their needs were being met. They had food to eat and things to drink. And
they were planning, they were planning marriages and weddings and all sorts of
things. They were so caught up into
their everyday life that they failed to recognize the empending
judgment until it was too late and the rains had already started.
In Luke 17 Jesus said, 28 Likewise also as it was
in the days of
But would they listen? Would they become serious about
this being the end-time? No! They didn't have time to worry about that.
Besides, what were the odds of one man being right in the face of such
scientific evidence that said contrary to His Message. The scientists disagreed with this man, and
if the scientists disagreed, then so did the teachers who taught the students
science, and so did the students who listened to their teachers and therefore,
by rejecting this man, they did not realize they were rejecting God and His
Message. Because it was not Noah's
Message, He was just the messenger. He was the message bearer only. The Message
was from God.
II PETER 2:4 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; 5 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; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow,
making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7
¶ And delivered just Lot, vexed
with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man
dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soul from day
to day with [their] unlawful deeds;) 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly
out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be
punished:
1) Noah meaning "rest" was the tenth in
descent from Adam, in the line of Seth,
and was the son of Lamech and grandson of Methuselah. (B.C. 4948 -- 1998.) We
hear nothing of Noah till he is 500
years old, when it is said he begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet.
In consequence of the grievous and
hopeless wickedness of the world at this time, God resolved to destroy it. Of Noah's life during this age
of almost universal apostasy we are
told but little. It is merely said that he was
a righteous man and perfect in his generations (i.e. among his contemporaries), and that he, like Enoch,
walked with God. Peter calls him "a
preacher of righteousness." 2 Pet. 2:5.
Besides this we are merely told that he had three sons, each of whom had married a wife; that he built the
ark in accordance with divine
directions; and that he was 600 years
old when the world wide flood came. Gen 6:7. He lived about 350 years after the flood.
The times of Noah were degenerate and this finds
pathetic expression in Lamech's saying at the time of
Noah's birth. "GENESIS 5:28 ¶ And Lamech lived an
hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
29 And he called his name Noah,
saying, This [same] shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands,
because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. 30
And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five
hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
Notice, Lamech lived for 595
years after the birth of Noah, and Noah did not enter the ark until 5 years
later, after the death of his father. All of Noah's brothers and sisters inter
married with the sons and daughters of man.
GENESIS 6:1 ¶ And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and
daughters were born unto them, 2 That the
sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took
them wives of all which they chose….8 ¶
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9
These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man [and] perfect
in his generations, [and] Noah walked with God.
Notice, Noah was a just man, the Hebrew
word is tsaddiyq, pronounced {tsad-deek'} 1c)
just, righteous (in conduct and character)
1d) righteous (as justified and vindicated by God)
And the only way he could be justified is if He was in
God to begin with and the life in his was Lamb-Life.
ROMANS 8:29 ¶ For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he
also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified,
them he also glorified. 31 ¶ What shall we then say to these things? If
God [be] for us, who [can be] against us?
Therefore, if God Justified him, he also had to
foreknow him, and if he foreknew him then he had to be in God as a son of
God.
Noah was a just man [and] perfect in his generations,The word perfect here is a Hebrew word, tamiym {taw-meem'} and
it means, 1) complete, whole, entire, sound 1b) healthful which means
full of health. 1d) wholesome,
unimpaired, innocent, having integritywhich means no
admixture, pure,.
And so we find, because Noah was a just man [and]
perfect in his generations, [and] therefore, Noah walked with God.
Noah was justified, He was part of God, he had
God-Life in him, he had lamb-life, he was pure in his lineage, he was pure lamb-life, God-life, therefore he could walk with God. No others could walk with God except those
who had God-life.
And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in
the days when the Son of Man is Revealed.