Noah Walked With God In Days Of Spiritual Adversity

Temple Baptist Church - 7-16-2017

Genesis 6:1-9

Introduction:

A.  Several weeks ago, I preached on Enoch, a man who walked with God in Consistency. 

1.  The phrase “walked with God” is found twice in Genesis 5:22, 24.  Those were hard spiritual times that rival the days in which we live.  For 300 years, this man walked in agreement with his Lord.  There can be no walking with God without such agreement. 

2.  In our day, so many professing “Christians” walk (as Bro. Richard Rawls would have said) at a “guilty distance” from God.  I believe that the crux of the problem is that they are attempting to make God agree with their sinful lifestyle instead of agreeing with His life of holiness.  “Be not deceived, God is not mocked.”

B.  This morning, I want to look at the third instance where the actual phrase “walked with God” is found. 

1.  In the 700 years between the time of Enoch’s “going home” and the Flood, things spiritually continued in decline.  The ungodly line of Cain became the “rule” while the Godly line of Seth “became the “exception.”  Notice verse 4.

Genesis 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, 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.  (The offspring of the ungodly union of the sons of God with the daughters of men produced men who were mighty men and men of renown.  This verse amplifies the thought that as God’s people became weaker—less known—and less followed, the children of the world became—mighty—better known—and the role models of the world.  Notice their offspring were not giants as some would suggest as the giants were before these children were born.)

2.  Holiness became unpopular among the people of God and they now walked in the ways of the world in spiritual comfort.  In our day, holiness is no longer preached to the modern churches because of its unpopularity with the masses of Christendom so-called.  The sinful now sit in churches with no conviction and impunity! 

3.  We see the disapproval of God shown with the spiritual condition and sinfulness of the masses of people.  God had been striving with man but His efforts were being rejected.

Genesis 6:3-6  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, 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.

C.  Walking with God was not easy in Noah’s day and is not easy in our day as the world tries its best to entice the child of God to comply with its standards.  Noah walked with God in spiritual adversity.  Let’s look at just a few of the things that surrounded Noah’s walk with God and make some spiritual applications to our day.

1.  Noah walked with God in days of spiritual decline.  The advancement of the ungodly “sons of God!”  “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them.” 

a.  This statement constitutes an oxymoron: a rhetorical statement.  A combination of words that have the opposite or very different meanings.  “Ungodly” and “sons of God” are “mirror images” or exact opposites.

b.  From Adam and Eve, which I believe to be possibly the godliest couple in the world. 

1)  NOT because they started as the only couple in the world, but because—after the fall—there is no further mention of sinfulness.

2)  In the process of time, they had two sons—one lost and one saved with the elder son, Cain, killing the younger son, Abel.

3)  In chapter 4 of Genesis, we find the genealogy of the wicked line of Cain followed by the godly line of Seth.  These two lines of people were contemporary with each other. 

4)  In chapter 5, we found Enoch walked with God.  I believe this statement carries two thoughts, one spoken and one unspoken.  There is nothing said about walking with God until Noah’s day which implies spiritual decline that made Enoch stand out.

5)  In chapter 6, we see the wickedness of the spiritually destitute sons of God!

c.  The ungodly line of Cain was greatly multiplied as they introduced polygamy in Genesis 4:19. In Genesis 6:1, the Bible says that men (the ungodly line of Cain) multiplied.  More children were born to lost families than to saved ones. Noah’s family was greatly outnumbered and the godly line of Seth was becoming a minority.

Genesis 4:19  And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

d.  In our day, we have adopted the worldly philosophy that we can no longer afford to have more than one or two children while the world is having multitudes of children out of wedlock.  The unsaved population is growing at an astronomical rate while the children born to godly parents is in decline. 

e.  Because our quiver has become smaller and the world’s larger, sin has escalated.

2 Timothy 3:1  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 Timothy 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Matthew 7:13-14  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many (the unsaved) there be which go in thereat:  (14)  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few (the saved) there be that find it.

2.  Noah walked amid a sin filled world.  “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.” 

a.  Noah walked in days of great temptation.  Sin had become so common place that God’s people no longer saw its sinfulness until they suffered its result.  Sin had escalated to the point that it sickened God to the point of destroying mankind. 

Genesis 6:6-7  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.

b.  In our day, we are surrounded by sinfulness as fornication, drinking, nudity, sodomy, etc. and “Christianity” no longer sees sin as God sees sin.  Sin is no longer preached against because the churches are filled with it.  People who profess Christ as Lord and Savior seemingly live very comfortably in such a wicked world.

1 Thessalonians 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil.

3.  Noah walked with God under great peer pressure.  “ That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” 

a.  These “sons of God” were of the godly line of Seth (not some Angel Theory).  Noah watched as the people of God drifted from their spiritual moorings and became more like the world.  No doubt there was great pressure from his peers to “let his hair down” and join the crowd. 

b.  I am relatively sure that the sons of God let Noah, also one of the sons of God, know that he was the “odd ball out!”  I can hear them now:  “We are the sons of God and find nothing wrong with worldliness.  You must be a fanatic or something.”  When people get out of the will of God, they want others to do the same so they won’t look bad spiritually. No doubt the peer pressure was there.

b.  In our day, people, who claim to be saved, live in worldliness and sin instead of purity and godliness.  The peer pressure is: we are save and see nothing wrong with being more like the world than like Christ so what is wrong with you?  I guess you are “holier than thou” or a member of some old fashioned cult.

1 Peter 4:4  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

4.  Therefore, Noah walked with God in loneliness.  “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” 

a.  Noah chose a path that led him away from the world but toward God.  No one got on the Ark but Noah and his family.  Though there were multitudes of people on earth, there was no spiritual agreement or fellowship for Noah’s family.  The “sons of God” thought Noah’s way was too straight and Noah thought their way was too sinful. 

John 6:66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Hebrews 13:13  Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Titus 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

b.  Today, God’s people are maligned by the very people who claim to know God.  We have become cultic, legalistic, and too straight laced for this world.  We sing the little chorus “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus.”  One verse says, “Though none go with me, still I will follow.”

Luke 6:22-23  Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.  (23)  Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

5.  Noah walked with God in ridicule.  “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” 

a.  Never had it rained and yet Noah was building an Ark.  Not a little pontoon boat but a boat of great dimensions.  For 120 years, he and his family labored.  For 120 years, Noah preached the judgment of God.  Possibly this became known as Noah’s Folly in those days as men walked past and, more than likely, ridiculed his family.  The world does not like people who are different!

2 Peter 2:5  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;

b.  God’s men still preach the Second Advent!  That our Lord is coming to take His people home and the judgment of God will begin.  The world ridicules such preaching as the predictions of men have failed.  We know not the day nor the hour of His coming but we do know that He is coming again.

John 14:3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

1 John 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

6.  Noah walked with God in safety.  “And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.  (6)  And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.  (7)  And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.”  (Genesis 7:5-7) 

a.  The flood came!  The prophesied judgement of God became a fearful reality.  Noah’s family was safe while the world perished.

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.

b.  Thank God that we will one day be forever with the Lord.  We walk safely in this world and will one day walk eternally safely in heaven.

Conclusion:  Noah walked with God in Spiritual Adversity and so will we IF we also walk with God.