I got this message, friends, while a good
number of you were still asleep.
Our text is found in the book of
Genesis in chapter 6.
You can turn in your Bibles there now,
friends.
We will be in verses 5 through 9.
Hear now, it's the Word of God, and
may the Spirit of the Lord attend the
reading of His Holy Word.
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.
And he repented the Lord that he had
made man on the earth, and it grieved
him at his heart.
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.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of
the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and perfect in
his generations, and Noah walked with God.
I will stop there, friends.
This striking passage of Scripture says that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth,
meaning it was predominant.
That's a big thing.
Secondly, our passage states that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually.
That's the description of a society that has
become so vile and corrupt with sin that
it exists to only sin.
That's a big statement.
That points us to Job 15, 16, which
describes the condition of man in the following
terms.
How much more abominable and filthy is man,
which drinketh iniquity like water?
God is saying here in Genesis that mankind
has reached a tipping point, that his thoughts
were only evil continually.
That man can't get enough of sin.
Man wakes up with sinful thoughts and goes
to bed with sinful thoughts, and throughout the
entire day, he is consumed with thinking only
evil continually.
He is undressing his secretary in his mind
while he's at work.
He's imagining the most perverse things he can
lust over.
He's drinking iniquity like water.
He can't get enough of sin.
In all this spiritual darkness and devilry is
a man, a man by the name of
Noah, who stands out like a white diamond
against a black velvet background because it is
said of him, and Noah walked with God.
While everybody else is walking away from God
in sin, here is Noah walking with God
in obedience to him.
Our text is saying you are either in
step with God or you're out of step
with God.
If you're in step with God, then you
hear his voice and you have his vantage
point of heaven, but if you are not
walking with God, then you are walking away
from God.
You are walking with the devil.
You're turning your back on God in sin.
Amos 3.3 states, can two walk together
except they be agreed?
Well, the answer is no, they cannot.
This startling passage from Genesis 6 is a
stark warning to us today for our society
is very similar to the days of Noah
where the earth was corrupt and filled with
violence.
Why, it's not safe to go outside today.
You can be gunned down by a madman
just standing in line at the grocery store.
Blood spills over the streets of this nation
through violent crimes daily.
The murder of the unborn is enough spilled
blood to provoke a holy God to destroy
us completely from the land.
At this moment in America, the devil has
the highway and the bulk of mankind is
crawling over each other's backs on a mad
dash to hell.
There's no fear of God in the land
today and atheism is abounding.
Like a filthy sewer that's overflowing, evil is
rampant in society and the most popular TV
shows are the ones with the most frontal
nudity and perverse sex.
Evil abounds in such large measures that even
most Christians are desensitized to sin and they
sin as if it is a light thing.
And Ahab the son of Omri did evil
in the sight of the Lord above all
that were before him and it came to
pass as it had been a light thing
for him to walk in the sins of
Jeroboam.
Christians sin like it's a light thing today.
The psalmist says horror had taken hold upon
me because of the wicked that forsake thy
law.
But I fear there is little horror today
over sin in our churches.
We are quite cozy with sin.
There's no fear of God in our hearts
and no obedience to his word.
And in all of this darkness all around
us, God is looking for a man.
A man who will stand out from society
like a white diamond against black velvet.
To where it can be said of him,
he walked with God.
A man who is up at odd hours
of the night on his knees and in
his Bible crying out to God in desperation,
crying to God in desperate prayer over the
sins of the nation.
God is on the search for such a
man.
We see this to be the case in
2 Chronicles 16 9.
For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth to show
himself strong in the behalf of them whose
heart is perfect toward him.
God is on the lookout for that kind
of man.
God can work with that man.
God can speak to that man.
God can reveal the secrets to that man
as seen in Psalm 25 14.
The secret of the Lord is with them
that fear him.
God will speak to that man like Noah
and use that man like Noah to preserve
a generation.
What cause counts and what counts cost.
There is a price to pay, a sacrifice
for that kind of walk with God.
That kind of walk with God doesn't come
easy.
That kind of walk with God has a
cross right smack dab in the middle of
it.
That kind of intimacy with God comes only
through a life lived in surrender to God.
A life lived under the absolute lordship of
Christ Jesus.
A life lived on the full stretch for
God.
A life of brokenness that goes against the
grain of society and lives in a higher
atmosphere where the most high dwells as seen
in Isaiah 57 15.
For thus saith the high and lofty one
that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy.
I dwell in the high and holy place
with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit to revive the spirit of
the humble and to revive the heart of
the contrite ones.
God is looking for the man who will
walk with him like Moses atop Mount Sinai.
He's looking for the man like Peter and
John in the book of Acts where it
was said to them.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John and perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men they marveled and they took
knowledge of them that they had been with
Jesus.
God is always on the lookout for such
men.
God is looking for a man who's so
intoxicated with Christ and so eaten up with
the gospel that nothing else matters.
Nothing but the glory of God.
A man willing to be so pruned with
a sharp knife so fruit can grow abundantly
through its life.
A man like a Jonah who will emerge
from the deep waters of purging and preparation.
A man truly revived who can stride across
our cities crying out in God's name for
repentance to bring a nation to its knees.
Let me ask you friend are you that
man or are you if we as a
nation sit on the brink of utter destruction
and the devil has the highway and the
world is going to hell what are you
doing with your life?
Are you squandering it on the things of
this world?
Are you just living for yourself and your
family or are you doing all you can
to reach the world for Christ?
You're either all out for God or you're
not.
Christ held nothing back on Calvary.
How can we hold anything back from him?
A day is fast approaching where we will
each stand before God and give an account
of how we lived our life for him.
Will our life be gold, silver, and precious
stones reflect in the face of the glory
of Christ or will we stand there in
the ashes of a wasted life and bend
over in an attempt to scoop up those
ashes and press them in his nail pierced
hands?
Are we all out for God or not?
He will not honor a divided heart or
a selfish life.
What's going to be on your tombstone friend?
I want on my tombstone the little poem
of C.T. Studd that reads, Only one
life which will soon be past.
Only what's done for Christ will last.