Download 10522 MELBOURNE BIBLE CAMP 1979 NOAH, A PREACHER OF

10522
MELBOURNE BIBLE CAMP 1979
NOAH, A PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Speaker:
Bro. John Martin
Study #1
As it was in the days of Noah
Reading:
Luke 17
My beloved brethren and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ and our dear young people.
Well, b&s, once again it is our very great privilege to come over amongst you, and to
speak about those things which are very near and dear to our hearts indeed!
A more appropriate subject I suppose, we couldn't have than the one that was
introduced by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, 'as it was in the days of Noah', and we,
b&s, are living in exciting times. Oh yes, they are, of course, sad times too because
flesh as it was in the days of Noah, is rampant upon the earth. But none the less, b&s,
there is happening in the world at this present moment of time, those gigantic steps in
prophecy which surely must tell us that Christ is very near at hand. It's an exciting time,
and I suppose there wouldn't be a brother and sister here, who though they may
consider themselves very unworthy of the kingdom, and I most certainly do, and though
we may, b&s, await the Lord Jesus Christ with some fear and trepidation, there is above
all of that a great joy and happiness that this dreadful evil world is about to be brought to
a finish, and that men, women and their children, are all going to be clothed, fed and
educated as we are this day. That is a wonderful prospect, b&s, and we are, I believe,
on the very eve of that! Look, if only we could appreciate what is going on in the earth
today; you know, b&s, in last Tuesday's Australian, there appeared a carton depicting a
certain current event, which in my opinion, is only second to Israel as the greatest sign
of our times, and in that carton there was a man bowed over carrying a great cross, and
the man was called 'Communism' and the cross was called 'Catholicism'. B&S, have
you ever seen anything like that in your life? and bro. Thomas in those incomparable
expositions of prophecy 130 years ago, said that would happen. And until just 5 years
ago, b&s, it was the most unlikely thing in the world to happen, and we see it today; a
few years ago in the Adelaide Advertiser a writer commenting upon the situation in Iran,
concerning which of course, at that time the Shah of Persia was strongly allied to the
West and he said this, 'there is as much chance of the Shah or Persia going Communist
as there is of Catholicism and Communism uniting'; and they've both happened! Think
of that, b&s, think where we stand today!
We ought to be the most excited people on the face of the earth! We ought every one of
us, to be stimulated by the fact that the Son of God is so close at hand, and tomorrow
we could be on our way to the glories of God's kingdom, be it His grace, to be permitted
to enter into that glory! This, b&s, surely must be the background to all our efforts, be it
our effort this weekend, our preaching efforts, our ecclesial activities, whatever we do,
this must be the background to all our work, that Christ is coming! Look, He is coming
and He's nearly here! and I believe that at any moment of time, we could be taken away
to face divinity.
You know, it's a wonderful, thrilling exciting thing to be in the truth today, and if we're not
moved now, b&s, then there is little hope, I believe, for any of us entering into God's
kingdom. God had done everything for us, everything to tell us that Christ is coming!
Events are happening all over this world which tell us quite clearly that prophecy now is
accelerating and those wonderful things, unearthed by that master of the exposition,
bro. Thomas along with bro. Roberts are now transpiring right before our very eyes, and
these are the days that the brotherhood wants to get back to, the very ancient
foundations of our movement, and to learn, b&s, what are the first principles of our
Christadelphian faith! It's a wonderful thing to stand in the situation we are today and
we're all here, aren't we? by the grace of our loving Heavenly Father, and through no
virtue or ability of ours, b&s, by God's good grace we're here, and we bend our knees
before Him in thanksgiving for all that He's done for us! And the fact that we can come
here and open this book and understand it even, is by God's grace.
And we have before us, for this weekend, an exciting story. It is a story, of course,
which you all are very familiar with from Sunday School days, and yet, b&s, in
researching the matter on Noah, I found this story absolutely packed with detail, with
exciting detail, as it opens up the scripture for us in many respects and gives us a better
appreciation of how it was in the days of Noah.
Now in that 17th chapter of Luke which we will briefly look at before we move into the
story of Noah, we have the words of our Lord Himself, as He spoke about those days.
Have you ever seen the background of those words? You see, in verse 20, the Lord is
approached by Pharisees and He was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of
God should come; there was a challenge put before Him as if to say, 'you're talking
about this kingdom, we believe, the Israelites believe that it's suppose to immediately
appear, and we demand from you an answer, when the kingdom of God should come.
And the Lord's answer to them was, 'the kingdom of God doesn't come with outward
show' as the margin says, the kingdom of God does not come with observation and the
margin is correct when it says 'with outward show'. And you know, there are people in
other religions who seize upon that verse to say that the Christadelphians are wrong
because we teach a material, political kingdom upon the earth, the visible personal
return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they say we're wrong! because here's the Lord's
words that the kingdom of God does not come with outward show. But b&s, whenever
anybody says that to you, you make them fix their eyes on those verses and follow you
down through the context, because when He had finished with the Pharisees, in verse
22, He said unto the disciples, 'the days will come when you shall desire to see one of
the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here;
or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteneth out
of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also
the Son of man be in His day'.
Now, b&s, if we were here tonight in the blackness of night and there was a flash of
lightning, the streak from that horizon to that one, we'd all see it! and it would light up
the world like it was daytime, and the Lord says, 'don't you be mislead by what I said to
them; I'm telling you, don't listen to all the rumours about false Christs, there will be
absolutely no mistake whatever when the Son of Man shall come. It will be like a flash
of lightning that splits the sky from horizon to horizon'. Now why would He say that in
view of what He said to the Pharisees? because you see, b&s, the Pharisees were not
in a situation where they were prepared for the coming of the kingdom of God. What the
Lord was trying to tell those people was that it was no good them looking for the
kingdom of God with outward show, unless they were ready for it! But when He turned
to His disciples, He made it ever so plain to them, that the kingdom of God was going to
come with outward show, and not only did He give them the illustration of lightning, He
also said, 'as it was in the days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Lot'. Now if you
can resurrect a person from the days of Noah, who'd been clinging to the last log of
wood that he could find, as the water covered the world, ask him whether the flood
came by outward show? it was everywhere! Ask one of the inhabitants of Sodom and
Gomorrah
when the place blow up out of the ground and shot up into the sky and rained red hot
lava and sulphur, ask them whether there was an outward show? And the Lord said, 'as
it was in the days of those two men, b&s, there will be absolutely no mistake whatever
when Christ comes! We as Christadelphians stand rock firm knowing this, that when
Christ comes we will know it! And there is the proof of it, we've no need to look for false
Christs, false prophets or anything else; we wait, b&s, the day when unmistakenly we
will be taken out of this world and the fact that Christ is here, will be in nobody's mind as
a matter of doubt! It will all be over, we'll know it.
And then there will come those things which will cleanse this earth and shake it to its
very foundations. A flood of the fiery judgments of God and the earthquake which will
make the earthquake of Sodom and Gomorrah, look insignificant alongside of that! And
the world will be shaken to its foundation and a new society will arise. And we're here
this afternoon, to enthuse each other, so that we might be participants in that new
society.
Now let's have a look at the background of the days of Noah! What really was it like?
Noah is a Sunday School story for many people, b&s, for us it's a matter of divine
history. And we know the history, although brief though it is, as is set forth in the
scriptures, contains those indelible words which paint such a glowing picture of the time
of the times as they were in the days of Noah. There were 1656 years between the
Creation and the flood; one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, and the record of
Genesis says, 'men began to multiply on the face of the earth'. Experts have sat down
to work out what sort of a population would have accrued from Adam and Eve till that
time; and the estimates vary, b&s, between 775 million to 2000 million, that's a lot of
people! The estimates vary between that 775 to 2000 million people and men began to
multiply on the face of the earth. You know, it's not a little Sunday School story of a little
old man building a boat among a few friends and enemies; it's a world at large, b&s,
teeming with immorality and you multiply flesh and you multiply sin! for the heart of man
was evil from his youth, says the 8th chapter of Genesis. And sin, of course, now is
impressed in human nature; it's a bias in human nature, and as men began to multiply
upon the face of the earth, so iniquity multiplied with them, as it always does!
And there was a vast growth in technology; we believe that we live in the technological
age, b&s, we live, of course, in the great pinnacle of technology, I wonder sometimes!
Just what was it like? You see, there was a great, I believe, growth in technology, the
fact that men lived longer, would have given a tremendous impetus to technology; you
see, technology is developed, the arts and the sciences, are developed from one
generation to another. Men pass off the scene and leave behind them a heritage of a
life's work. Others take it over from there, but you see, they've got to become accustom
to what other men learnt; they've got to assimilate what other men learnt before they
can start to generate their own knowledge and to add to technology. Imagine men living
for hundreds and hundreds of years, b&s, imagination the acceleration in technology of
man living to 600 or 800 years old, and all the accumulation of knowledge and facts
which he builds upon in his own lifetime. And the acceleration of the output of that
singular man, as he develops into old age and has accumulated behind him a lifetime of
technology. You take the building of that ark. The very dimensions of the ark, the very
balance of the ark, the fact that it was built in that type and the fact that it survived, is
itself a tremendous testimony to the technology of that age. This is not a Jewish fable or
a little Sunday School story, it's a dramatic story, b&s, of a world of teeming millions,
immersed in immorality and growing in technology at a rapid rate. It's our world as it was
in the days of Noah, said the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was the world of wicked men, two of them stand out very prominently before Noah's
day. Cain, of course, Cain the firstborn from Adam and Eve. And what was Cain like,
b&s? He was a man, of course, who was a liar and a murderer; the first murderer ever
mentioned in the scripture, and we read concerning him in Genesis chapter 4, that he
had a son, and all of this lead up to the background of Noah's day. And we read
concerning the man Cain in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 17, 'And Cain knew his wife;
and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the
city, after the name of his son, Enoch'. Now 'Enoch' means 'dedicated' and Cain's son,
b&s, had a city built after him and that city became dedicated to his son. Cain in the
scriptures is the 'first city builder', and it's the cities, the vast concrete and asphalt
jungles, b&s, that are on the face of this earth, that besmirch the creation of God. The
smoke and the grime and the pollution and the immorality that's bred in its streets, make
this world stink in its cities. And there it all started, built by a murderer and dedicated to
his son; and murderers lurk in the ravines of the jungles of all the cities of this world,
dreadful murderers. Things are perpetrated in cities, b&s, that Jesus Christ will
obliterate; you know, Isaiah 14 condemned Babylon and He said concerning Babylon
that He would destroy Babylon because Babylon 'had filled the face of the earth with his
cities'. And that's were it all stemmed from, and this was building up to the great climax
in Noah's day!
Then there was Lamech, we all know Lamech, also mentioned in the 4th chapter of
Genesis; Lamech who Gesenius says his name means 'a strong man' and he felt that
he was so strong that he could defy God Almighty, so strong was Lamech! And he had
children the same, of course, as Cain did, and what did he teach his children? b&s; well,
it says in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 21, 'his brother's name was Jubal: he was the
father of all such as handle the harp and the organ'. So Lamech taught his children the
finer arts, the arts of music and sensual pleasure, doubtless. And in verse 22, 'And
Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron', so his
children also, b&s, were brought up in the industries of godless industrialization. This
was Lamech, the strong man! Godless industrialization and isn't it significant that
Lamech's children started off working with brass and iron? Those metals used
throughout the scriptures of truth; brass is a symbol of sin's flesh, and iron's the great
ingredient of the Roman powers of the last days. And that's where it all started right
back there with Lamech and godless industrialization in all the soulless factories of the
world, where everybody works by route, and all the boredom of that and all the soul
destroying industry of this world, that's where it all stemmed from; and man in his
wisdom decided that he could use his God-given intelligence, that he might improve
upon the Creator's work and he built cities and he worked with iron and brass. And man
today, is reaping the reward of his iniquity, as his cities become his own ruin, and the
weaponry, of course, made out of the metals of the earth, are trained upon each other,
to obliterate his society from off the face of the globe; this is man's heritage, b&s, and it
was all building up to the days of Noah. This is the background to Noah's day!
Lamech, the first man in the bible ever mentioned to have two wives! Verse 19, 'Lamech
took unto him two wives', first reference to polygamy in the bible. 'In the beginning God
made them one' said the Lord Jesus Christ, but Lamech wanted two! There's the first
reference to it, here was the beginning of immorality, b&s, of the worst sort. And one of
the wives he took to himself, her name was Adah which means 'to decorate'; to
decorate and obviously her name was an index to her character, a decorated woman,
done up to the nines, for as we come to the days of Noah, the sons of God saw the
daughters of men that they were fair, and Lamech's household led the way, b&s, in all
this sort of thing! You know, such was the name 'Adah' that later on we read in the
scriptures that 'Adah' was the name of one of Esau's wives. I feel very sorry for the
sisters who are called Ada, I'm sorry about that, but it's not my fault, it's here! But Adah
was the wife of Lamech and Adah was the wife of Esau, decorated. What a tremendous
exhortation we have here!
So look how it all came into the world; but up goes the big cities established by a
murderer. There's polygamy now with Lamech, his children have got sensual pleasures,
they are working in iron and brass; he's got two wives, one of them is decorated to the
nines. Here comes the world of Noah's day, b&s, never let it happen to us! Never let the
Christadelphian society get like that, let us be in control of our families, let's teach them
the noble things in life, the good and the decent things of life; let us have our children
grow up around us as examples to others and let us establish within our ecclesial
circles, those foundation principles which we can hand on, that are worthy of the name
which we bear, brethren and sisters of Jesus Christ. It didn't happen in the days of Cain
and Lamech and they laid the foundation, b&s, for this awful immorality.
Now as Genesis says, 'the women were fair and the sons of God took wives of all that
they chose', and you know, Jesus made this comment about the days of Noah, 'they
were given and taken in marriage; they married and were given in marriage'. And
people wonder what's wrong with that, they think, 'well we allow our children to be
married, we give them in marriage and they take partners in marriage'. That's not what
Jesus is saying, He talking, b&s, in the imperfect tense; the words which are recorded in
Luke chapter 17 which we read, 'they were married and given in marriage' in the
imperfect tense. What Jesus was saying was that they were married and given in
marriage, married and given in marriage, and married again and given in marriage; they
just swapped partners, b&s, one after each other! That's what the Lord's saying! The
Lord sanctified marriage as something holy and divine and given by God, He did not
sanctify a half a dozen marriages, and that's what they were doing, that's what the Lord
meant. They were marrying one after another and you read in the papers daily about
the so-called idols of this world, the stars of the celluloid screen, and all the wives they
have, and of all the husbands they have, absolute abomination in the sight of God!
never to be seen in the ecclesia. And that's what Lamech did, he had two wives, he
started that, and the Lord said that by the time it got to Noah, a thousand odd years
later, the earth was filled with violence, filled with immorality, because it all started here!
And look where the violence came from! Look at the boast of Lamech in Genesis
chapter 4 in verse 23, 'Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye
wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and
a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and
sevenfold'. Have a look at that! Brings his wives up, you know, filled with his own
importance, his poor trembling women there listening to the great boast of this swelling
arrogant man. 'Listen to me my wives, huh, you think that Cain gets protection; well, I
can do as I like. I can do what I like, God can put a mark on Cain that anybody touching
him would be punished sevenfold; I don't need God, anybody touches me, look out!
seventy and sevenfold'. You know, Jude refers to Enoch the seventh from Adam, who
stood up against men making ungodly speeches, you read the 14th verse of Jude in you
leisure, Enoch was the seventh from Adam, Lamech was the seventh from Cain; there's
Enoch's contemporary and Jude talks about the great swelling words of vanity and the
great ungodly speeches made by ungodly men, there it is! and he, b&s, introduced to
his wives, violence! Violence, and by the time you come a millennium later to Noah, the
earth is filled with violence. So then all the immorality and all the violence and all the
crime virtually flowed out of that house, and spread throughout the whole world.
You know, b&s, when I did this study, several things impressed me about the study of
Noah; a lot of things did, but there were some things that stood out, to me as very
powerful lessons. Not only lessons to myself but lessons in this respect, that I learned a
lot about our Heavenly Father's attitude towards His creation. And you know, one thing
comes out of the story of Noah very powerfully and that is this, that our Heavenly Father
hates violence. It comes out of that story powerfully, He detests violence! and here's a
man virtually teaching it, and showing it by example with his own house. 'I can do what I
like, and if I want to wound a man or kill a man, I'll kill him, and I don't need God! I'll be
revenged 70 x 7 fold'. You know, such was the hatred of our Heavenly Father for
violence, but of course, it became one of the great teachings of His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we should be above all people upon the face of the earth, meek and mild in
our attitude, and also brethren and sisters, peace loving people.
You know, it was Peter who couldn't understand the Lord's teaching about the forgiving
of brethren who err against us, and he said, 'should I forgive my brother sevenfold, and
the Lord told him in Matthew chapter 18, 'you're to forgive him 70 x 7; that's the exact
amount of times that Lamech boasted he could get away with what he liked to get away
with; the Lord taught His disciples to be the exact opposite to Lamech! that they might
lay a foundation in their life, and show by their example, that our Heavenly Father is a
just and yet a forgiving God, and that's how we ought to operate before our fellow man,
and especially with our brethren and sisters. Let's learn those lessons, b&s, never let us
slip into the terrible ways of these men upon the face of the earth.
Coming over to the 6th chapter of Genesis now, having seen the buildup to the days of
Noah, we read in verse 4, 'that there were giants in the earth in those days; and also
after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bare
children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown'. Men
of renown, that word 'renown' in the Hebrew is the word 'shem', Shem as we well know,
in the seed of the woman, to build a godly seed, but men had a name that they lived;
you see, 'men' means a 'name' they were men who said they had a name, they were
men of renown. And that's the title they thought they had, you know, in the 16th chapter
of Numbers, b&s, and in verse 2, we read concerning Korah, Dathan and Abiram that
they were men of renown, that is in their own opinion; they said they had a name, yes,
they had a name alright, and the name they never lived up to. They were not men of
renown in God's estimation, there were giants in the earth in those days. Not giants
only, b&s, in physical stature although I believe they were, not giants only in that sense,
giants in crime, giants especially in pride! And do you know something else that comes
out of the story of Noah, very powerfully, and it's a growing thing in my life where I can
see that this is perhaps one of the greatest things of today that we've got to be aware of;
we talk about the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye, but b&s, the pride of life, the
pride of life is the crushing factor. It's a dreadful thing, pride is blind, it's arrogant, it is
self-sufficient, it is God dishonouring, it is everything that is wrong pride is, and here
they were men of the name, filled with their own importance until God swept them away
from the face of the earth.
And what did God think of it all? I'll show you here on this transparency what God
thought of it all. There are some of the statements used in the scriptures about the days
of Noah.
1. The wickedness of man was great in the earth and evil
continually.
2. The earth was corrupt before God; the earth was filled with
violence.
3. All flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.
4. Peter says, 'which sometimes', the Greek word which virtually
means 'all times'
were disobedient.
5. And in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5, He calls it 'the world
of the ungodly'.
That was God's opinion of the world, b&s, indelibly written in the scriptures of truth, and
thrust forward as a warning to that generation; that's what our Heavenly Father thought
of it! and He thinks no better today of the earth in which we live. And His justice is about
to be manifest to all men, and His wrath also; our Heavenly Father is long-suffering but
there's an end to His long-suffering. And they have perpetrated the same crimes and
they will suffer in the same way. We've got to be separate from the world, and I mean,
b&s, separate from that world. We've got to stand out like Noah did, we've got to be
numbered among those people who will not bow to this world's gods and are seen for
what they are, different from everybody else; and we've got to teach our young people,
our teenagers especially, to have the courage to be different! And never mind about the
criticism that comes, that's God's opinion of the world, that world and ours! We want to
be on God's side, b&s, when the storm breaks as Noah was, and he stood out from his
generation.
But do you know something, there was in that world two classes of people; and they
were very close together. And you know, when you look at the names of the people
involved in the same generations, you find that they were very, very closely named,
weren't they? They are the same names but opposite characteristics; we read about
Enoch who was related to godless urban areas, but there was another Enoch, b&s, in
the line of the woman, the seed of the woman and he walked with God. And God
doesn't walk in the streets of immorality; you won't find Him there! You want to walk with
God, you won't find Him in the streets of immorality, He's absent. We want to walk with
God, b&s, it's a wonderful experience to walk with God, hand in hand through this world.
Well, there were two boys of the same name and they were poles apart; there was
Lamech an arrogant man of vice and materialism that we just looked at, but hundreds of
years later when another Lamech came upon the scene, in the seed of the woman, he
was the father of Noah. He bore the same name but his characteristics were absolutely
the opposite, and in Genesis chapter 5 and verse 29 we read about this man's
characteristics. And when he named his son Noah, he named him for a purpose, '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 Yahweh hath cursed'. Now there, b&s,
are the words of a very humble man, note those words, you compare him with the other
Lamech; he doesn't line his wives up, he didn't have wives, he had one wife! He doesn't
line his wives up and boast, no, he's a man who's very humble before God; he's not
involved, b&s, in godlessness and industrialization and materialism. He's a farmer, a
poor farmer. He doesn't stand up and say I don't need God, I'm self-sufficient; he
labours under the curse which God put upon the earth. He's accepted that curse, he
knows why it's there, and he looks for the day when it will be alleviated, and he names
his son in hope of alleviation of all this suffering that he's going through at the present.
What a difference in attitude there is between the two Lamechs, but how easy it would
have been, b&s, as those two seeds first became divergent, how easy it would have
been then for them to affect each other! How easy that would have been in the early
generations, when they were so closely related, would have been to affect each other;
yes, it would have been easy then! You know, b&s, it's nearly as easy today, isn't it? My
word it is, and the pressures of this life are tremendous, the pressures of this life are
absolutely tremendous, and you ask me to name what the pressures are and it's
difficult! and yet we find in this day and generation that there are brethren and sisters
under pressure! Families are cracking at the seams, we've got brethren and sisters,
husbands and wives are tearing apart; I know some people who are just living in the
same house, scarcely tolerating each other's presence, because they know in the truth,
that they ought to get on. That's not the way to live the truth, b&s, the world's done that,
they mightn't see that the world's done it, but the world has done it. The world of
materialism where you've got to have more things, and husband or wife then, pulls
against each other. Some want more, some want less and whatever way it goes,
materialism has come into that house and it's cracking their house to bits. They've got to
work longer for that, and when you work longer you see less of each other, and when
you do see each other, you're too tired for each other's presence. You haven't got a civil
word in your head because you're too tired to talk to your own wife! You can't sit down
quietly and talk about the readings and the lovely things of God and the glorious things
of the truth, and then pass them off to your family and the children and to laugh with
each other; and to love each other for the children that have come from your body that
you might see a reflection of each other in that child, and to laugh about its little ways,
and the lovely little things that it does. We haven't got time for that because of this
godless world crashing us to bits. Too much time is given to it! No, b&s, we've got to
avoid that like the plague, and we've got to find time, and if necessary, live simpler lives!
simpler to the extent that we buy back the time from the world. Give it back what it
wants, and what all the rest of the world wants, and buy with the material things of this
life, that precious commodity that no supermarket will ever sell, time to love God! That's
what we need today and time to love each other and to find the time to sit down quietly.
People say to me, 'John, you're here there and everywhere, you're doing all this;
whenever do you get with your family?' You'd be absolutely amazed to find out what I
am not doing; and I don't go away a lot, b&s, and I have a lot of time in my home to do
studying, and I find that time because I love that time and because it's absolutely
necessary to have that time; and I would go out on an average of 1 or 2 nights a week,
because I've got to get down to the Word and because I love my wife and I love my
family and I am not going to allow this world to crack up that which God has given me.
Now that's got to be the attitude of everyone of us; those two seeds grew up together
and they manifested opposite characteristics though they bore the same names. We're
all flesh every one of us, and we've got to be extremely careful, that we maintain the fact
that we're the seed of the woman and not the seed of the serpent!
And God was patient! Peter says, 'when once the long-suffering of God waited in the
days of Noah'. How do you measure the length of God's long-suffering? Look at that,
the very year of the flood, b&s, saw the death of the world's longest living inhabitant;
that's incredible! Methuselah was born and then he lived for 187 years, at which time he
begat Lamech; Lamech then lived for 182 years and he begat Noah, and in the 600rd
year of Noah's life, the flood came. You add that up, it's not difficult and you don't need
a little calculator like my son does these days, 969 years and that was the age of
Methuselah's death. What is that teaching us? It's teaching us this, that there is no man
or woman alive, who could outlive God's long-suffering. It's teaching us, b&s, that
whatever we've done in the past, or whatever we've been in the past, God's
long-suffering waits for us to change! That's not a coincidence, that's an absolutely
wonderful thing that happened in a man's life, Methuselah, and when he died, the flood
came! MAN CANNOT OUTLIVE GOD'S LONG-SUFFERING! and Peter went on to say
in his second epistle, 'that God is long-suffering to us ward; not willing that any should
perish', and that's the word he took right out of the context of Noah's life! God doesn't
want anybody to perish, b&s, and He waited, and waited, and waited, and measured
that long-suffering out by the life of the longest living human being. What a wonderful
God we have, He waits, and waits and waits for us! Haven't you done what I've done?
repeatedly in my life, and a cycle that goes around in my life and must go on in yours,
unless you're an extraordinary Christadelphian? A cycle that always goes on, we turn
astray from God, ah! we mightn't leave the meetings, we might still be a student of the
Word, we might lead study classes, I could be standing here talking to you now, but
where is my heart? Where is my mind? what dominates my thinking? Is it something for
me to buy or do in this world? or is it the truth of God? Do I really want Christ to come?
B&S, sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't, and God's long-suffering waits and waits
for me; and every time somebody brings home to me, the seriousness of the truth, or of
the age in which I live, my heart bleeds for the stupidity of my mind and I pray to my
Heavenly Father to forgive me; and He waits and waits, and I cannot outlive that
long-suffering and I've got to learn that! and in learning that, b&s, we learn to love Him
and then we learn, of course, that love will do more in our lives than all the Law and all
the things that we learn from the scriptures, that if we can generate the love of God in
our hearts, that will achieve finally, what nothing else can achieve, and we won't have
that cycle in our lives, and maybe we'll learn to be consistent in the things of God, and
the long-suffering of God waits for that! It waits for that all the time. Yes, b&s, that's a
wonderful thing, the fact that the long-suffering of God waited; there's no doubt about
that!
Now, you know something else? Lamech the father of Noah, was a humble farmer who
laboured under the curse of the earth accepting that curse, and showed those humble
characteristics, looking for the alleviation, calling his son, Noah, which means 'rest',
waiting for a rest from the curse. You know, when he died, b&s, don't you? He died 5
years before the flood! and we all know that time and time again, that number comes up
in the scriptures, to speak of God's grace! He died 5 years before the flood, he never
saw it, the tragedy of that flood, God took him and he died in hope of the rest that
remains for the people of God, which was memorialized in the name of his son. Guess
how old he was? Lamech, the humble father of Noah, when he died he was 777 years
old. 7-7-7 five years before the flood and he was waiting for the rest that remains. If ever
there was a character in the Word of God, of whom little is said out of much that is said,
there's one! that in the very details of his life and death, there was impregnated in that
story, that Noah (this is where he got his faith from undoubtedly) taught him by his
humble farmer father, who by the grace of God was taken away from the holocaust, and
is taken away in the 7-7-7 that he will ultimately see, that there remaineth a rest for the
people of God and that rest, as we all well and truly know from our study of the
scriptures, will come in the 7th millennium. Incredible story, b&s, an incredible story!
And what sort of a son did he produce? I want you to notice that in the 5th chapter of
Genesis, as the genealogies are given, we read about men who had sons and
daughters, sons and daughters, they had sons and daughters. We come down to verse
28, 'And Lamech lived 182 years and begat a son' and there seems to be in that record,
written there for us to look at it, that here comes a son above all others; he begat a son
and a true son he was of his father! And he manifested his father's characteristics; his
name as we mentioned means 'a rest, to be quiet, to settle down'. It's the same root
word when we read about the ark 'rested on Mount Ararat'; it's the same word, b&s,
when Solomon brought the ark of the covenant in, and 'it came to the rest' in Solomon's
temple, and it's the word, of course, which was used in Joshua when the children of
Israel were given 'a rest' in the Promised Land. Noah, 'to settle down, to be quiet and to
be at peace'.
Now Genesis chapter 6 and verse 9, epitomizes for us the character of Noah. Have a
look at that! 'These are the generations' we read in verse 9 of Noah, 'Noah was first of
all a just man', what does that mean? Well, I'll tell you what it means, b&s, it not only
means that he was a righteous man but he was a 'justified' man. When the scriptures
speak about Noah being a just man, b&s, it means that he was a man who believed in
God's righteousness. I want to show you something in a minute, the last thing that I
want to say about Noah, it's not the last thing that's said, it's said the first thing actually
but I want to put it on the end, because I want to show you something about Noah. But
first of all, let's learn this about him, he was a justified man. What justifies us? We are
justified when we believe in the ability of God to do with us what we cannot do with
ourselves. Now, I'll say that again because it's extremely important, we are justified in
God's sight when we believe in God's ability to do what we cannot do ourselves, that
b&s, is the sum total of justification without which no man can see God or ever be
justified, if we cannot believe in God to do the humanly impossible in our lives, then we
cannot be justified. Jesus died to teach that, He died to teach us, b&s, that a man who
had lived a perfect life, nonetheless, laid down His life before the side of His Heavenly
Father to declare, one fundamental principle, that God and God alone, is worthy of
honour, is worthy of our acclamation and His righteousness alone is capable of
changing us for the kingdom.
Now, Noah was a justified man, why do we emphasize that? because in a very peculiar
way, through the scriptures we find the term 'righteousness' applied to Noah, in a very
peculiar way. We find for example, that Peter calls him 'a preacher of righteousness'. In
Hebrews 11, that very great chapter on faith, the apostle says 'he was the possessor of
righteousness', he became the heir of the righteousness of faith', and the word 'heir'
there means 'a possessor'; he was not righteous in his own right, but God declared him
so, and when God declared him so, he possessed the righteousness that didn't belong
to him, but justified him nonetheless. So we find that term 'righteousness' applied to him
in particular, Genesis 6:9, Genesis 7:1, Hebrews 11:7, 2 Peter 2:5, four times it's said of
Noah that he was a justified person. And Paul tells us in that wonderful chapter in
Hebrews, 'it was the justification of faith that made him what he was'.
And so he was a 'perfect' man, we read in Genesis 6 verse 9, 'perfect in his
generations', and his generations were not perfect! And he stood out from his
generations, the word 'perfect' there in the Hebrew meaning 'an entire man', a 'complete
man', a man without spot, as the word indicates. Above all a mature man; we bulk at
that word 'perfection', we say, 'well, look, there never was a perfect man but the Lord
Jesus Christ'. In that sense, b&s, that's very true, but you see, that man is justified, and
when he walked with God, and he walked in the light of God's justification because of
his faith, he was a perfect man, because God vindicated him from all his failings. And
we, b&s, Jude tells us, that we're going to stand 'faultless' before the throne of His glory,
how can we do that? Only by believing in God's ability to do what we cannot do, and
that God will justify us and acquit us from all our crimes, because of our faith and belief
in Him. Noah was a perfect man because that's what he's believed! therefore, God
washed him as he walked; and he walked before God entire in his generations. What a
difference he was from the world in which he lived!
And the scriptures say 'he walked with God'. What's the importance of that phrase
walking with God? You know, it's said concerning Abraham that he walked with God; it
says concerning Enoch that he walked with God. You know, Amos of course, (we won't
turn this reference up, I've been quoting a lot of these verbatim, because I want to spare
the time), but Amos gives us the secret of that, b&s, he says, 'how can two walk
together unless they be agreed?' so you see, Abraham, Enoch and Noah all must have
agreed with God, that's the only way you can ever walk with Him! Now if we're going to
be justified from our sins, it's no good going up to God in a pharisaical attitude and
saying, 'Well, God, I've performed certain wonderful works in my life, I've steeled myself
against the evils of this world, I have exercised my will power to do what is right, and I
have done all these things according to your Law'. We'll never walk with God like that,
because He doesn't agree with that! but if, b&s, we accept in the sacrifice of His Son,
the eternal principle, that God has the ability to do what we cannot do, if we come to
God in a humble attitude of Lamech and Noah his son, and put our hands in God's
hands and say, 'God we cannot get into the kingdom, we are unable to get into the
kingdom; we cannot control ourselves, we don't know what to do that is right, but our
eyes are upon Thee'; God will take us by the hand and He'll walk with us because He
agrees with that!
And Noah walked with God, and you know, b&s, the thing I said earlier, the thing that I
was going to leave to the last, was this, you put it all together. Noah was a just man, he
was a perfect man, and He walked with God; and the verse previous says, 'he found
grace in the eyes of Yahweh'. A just man, a perfect man and he walked with God and
he had to find grace in the eyes of Yahweh, and grace if it means nothing else, means
'undeserved kindness and favour', and when all that was said about Noah, he found
grace in the eyes of Yahweh, and that can only be understood if we can understand the
character of Noah's faith; a faith that placed his confidence, his trust in God's ability to
perform in his life, what he could not do himself.
We can add to that list by other virtues of Noah! He was an obedient man; twice it is
said of him 'that Noah did all that God commanded'. He didn't question God, he did
exactly what he was told, b&s, not because it was a blind faith but because he knew it
was best, best by experience. His experience in life had taught him that what God has
said is right; go back in your experience in life. I can go back in my experience of life, I
know what the bible says, and I know what I've done wrong, but when I look back on my
life, I can say this in all honesty, that God was absolutely right! Well, then, why shouldn't
we do everything He says? it's logical to do everything that He says; that's how Noah
looked at it, he did everything that God commanded him. He got the specifications of
the ark, he got the method of building it, and he did exactly what God said. He didn't try
to alter any boards, he didn't try to put any more material in , he didn't try to do anything
other than what God said. So he was an obedient man.
The apostle says he was a faithful man. 'He moved with fear the building of the ark'
says the apostle, 'by the which he saved his own house and condemned the world'.
Now think what he did! First of all, Noah's faith impelled him by fear, he was moved with
fear, or as one translator of the Greek puts it, he was reverently apprehensive. And
when God said there was going to be a flood, b&s, he acted upon the information he
was given, not in a blasé way, 'well, God has said it's bound to happen and I've got
confidence in what God says', though of course, that would have been his belief, but not
in that attitude; he did it being reverently apprehensive. Moving with fear, knowing, b&s,
the weakness of his own nature, having no confidence in his own flesh, knowing about
his failings in life, and knowing he faced other trials in life where he was apt to fail, he
moved with reverent apprehension, so ought we! The Word of God does not tell us to
have a bold, brassy confidence, b&s, merely because we believe we have faith in God.
We move with reverent apprehension whatever we do; that's how Paul said he moved
the building of the ark, and he says he did it to save his house.
Now here's an interesting thing to think about, whether this is right or not, of course, we
don't know, but we believe the information concerning the ark was given to Noah at 120
years before the flood. Now the flood came in Noah's 600th year; the record of Genesis
tells us that Noah was 500 years old and he begat Shem, Ham and Japheth. If that
verse is saying that Noah begat Shem, Ham and Japheth after he was 500 years old,
then he didn't even have a family before he started to build that ark. Yet he built it to
save his house, but if that's what it means by plainly stating that 120 years were given, it
came in the 600th year, and he had children in his 500th year, then for 20 years, b&s,
he was building that ark and he never had a family. That's faith, isn't it? Paul says, 'he
was moved with fear to the building of the ark, of things not seen as yet'. God promised
to send a flood, now either the apostle means (and here again is a measure of
uncertainty) either he means the world had never seen a flood or perhaps, and I say
only perhaps, he had never even seen rain. Genesis chapter 2 verses 5 and 6 tells us,
'that a mist went up and watered the earth', that the LORD God had not caused it to rain
upon the earth (now whether or not that's speaking just prior to the creation of plant life,
we don't know, perhaps it is) whichever way we take the apostle's statement, if there
had been no rain what an incredible act of faith, to believe that water's going to fall out
of the sky. But even if there had been rain, b&s, certainly then the apostle could only
mean they'd never seen a flood, and he was moving to do something, b&s, that had
never been seen upon the earth before that time. Moved, prepared for that coming! Now
we as Christadelphians are likewise doing those things, b&s; look I mentioned that
article in the paper, Communism and Catholicism, 130 years ago, bro. Thomas set that
out clearly in Elpis Israel and Eureka, Exposition of Daniel and other writings, and men
said to him, even those men who believed what he said, 'Well, look , of all the things
that he's ever written, that was the most incredible prophecy'. Here it is, b&s, and we've
seen that! but bro. Thomas moved to write those things which are not seen as yet! And
two of the most diverse ideologies in the world, are not united in that sense, but they've
come together in a coalition of expediency exactly as Daniel had said, and exactly as
Dr. Thomas interpreted it. And he did those things, b&s, out of things not seen as yet!
That's faith, incredible faith in the written word of God, as Noah had incredible faith in
the spoken word of God.
It's all the same, b&s! There were giants in those days, there are giants in the earth
today; there were just men then and there are just men now! God's Word has ever been
active, it's still active and men and women today, believe God because He said despite
appearances! Despite appearances, and it doesn't matter what happens on the face of
this earth, let us be fearless in our preaching; if the Word of God says it, against all
appearances, b&s, believe it and act upon it, because it will surely come to pass.
Now in 2 Peter 2 and verse 5, is the last thing we want to talk about in this session
concerning the background of the story of Noah, when Peter calls him something else,
very interesting indeed! I invite your closest attention to this, b&s, an extremely
interesting comment; 2 Peter 2 and verse 5 Peter 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', now notice in your bibles that the word 'person' is written
in italics, that means to say, there is no equivalent Greek word, Peter then calls Noah,
'the eighth', why would he call him the eighth? Well, you might say well there were 8
people saved; that's right, there was Noah and his wife, Shem, Ham and Japhath and
their three wives, so there were 8 souls saved by water. But how does Peter know that
Noah was the eighth? Well, perhaps it's because he was the last one to go into the ark;
I don't think Peter would worry about calling him the 'eighth' if that's all it meant, b&s.
Peter's got a point in mind, undoubtedly, got a point in mind; what made Noah the
'eighth'? Well, we haven't got time to turn all these scriptures up, but this is what I
believe he's getting at, and I want to show you a transparency of certain words that are
used of Noah, and you'll see the point. What made Noah the 'eighth' of all those
people? Well, you see later on, as the scriptures and history unfolded (and of course,
scripture was written concerning that history) we come to the children of Israel, we
come to the Law of Moses, we've come up a fair way; no, let's go back to Abraham
which isn't that long after Noah. And in Abraham's day, God gave Abraham a sign of the
covenant, and that sign of the covenant was circumcision; and we know, of course, that
God told Abraham that he was to circumcised the male children on the eighth day. And
that became memorialized in the Law of Moses, on the eighth day they were to
circumcise the male children. What's that got to do with Noah? It's got everything to do
with Noah!
Why? for this reason, the Law of Moses said this, 'no uncircumcised person shall eat
the Passover'. Now I'll say that again, that's what Exodus 12 says, 'no uncircumcised
person shall eat the Passover'. What's so wonderful about that? How would the sisters
eat the Passover? What would they do? The Law didn't say males, it said no person;
what happened to the women? Were they excluded from the Passover? By no minds!
How then could they participate? only one way, b&s, and that is, they had to be
represented by somebody else. So the woman, the young sister, either went into the
Passover feast being represented by her father or her husband or her brother, and
that's the only way in which that woman could participate, that she might be represented
by somebody else; and Paul tells us in the Colossians chapter 2, that we've been
baptised into Christ, and we've been given that circumcision made without hands, in the
cutting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ! Now, what
man or woman has ever been able to cut off the body of the sins of the flesh? Well, I've
got news for you, I haven't been able to do it, and I've got a fair indication and a
suspicion in my mind, that neither have you! There's no way therefore, that we can
enter into God's kingdom, with the body of the sins of the flesh cut off, unless we are
represented by somebody else! And Paul tells us it's done by the circumcision of Christ,
and Christ alone, the glorious Son of God, severed from His life, the totality of the body
of the sins of the flesh, and unless, b&s, we are buried with Him in baptism, and
circumcised with the circumcision of Christ, neither can we eat the Passover, the
memorial supper, and neither will we enter into God's rest, and neither will we find
refuge in the ark; we have to be represented by somebody else, and that's what Peter
means when he says 'Noah was the eighth'.
Look at this! All the expressions concerning Noah. We read this in Genesis 6:19, God
says 'He's going to keep the animals alive with thee'.
Genesis 6:20, 'let them come unto thee'.
Genesis 7:1 , 'thou and all thy house'
Genesis 7:9 , 'they went in unto Noah
Genesis 7:15,
'again, they went in unto Noah.
:16, 'Yahweh shut him in'. That's all He said. He shut
him in.
And when he shut Noah in, he shut the lot
of them in.
Genesis 7:23, 'Noah only remained and they that were with him'
Genesis 8:1 , 'God remembered Noah and every living thing'.
Now there's the language of representation! He was in the truest sense of the word, the
eighth, because they all found refuge, b&s, under the shadow of his faith, and it was
because of Noah's motivating influence in the lives of his family and the fact of Noah's
active participation in building and supervising the ark, that all flesh was saved! Not all
flesh in the sense of every man, woman and child, but the whole creation was saved by
Noah's faith; and he represented God's people. And you know, b&s, the Lord Jesus
Christ is going to garnish this earth with a new creation, and everyone of us will be
created, says the apostle, created in good works in Christ Jesus. It's because of His
work, His faith, b&s, that we shall live forever; He's the eighth person!
And finally, we turn to one more scripture, Ezekiel chapter 14, as part of our
background, and here we learn something else concerning Noah that's of extreme
interest to us. God speaking to Israel in a time of great apostacy had this to say and He
includes, of course, the name of Noah here. Ezekiel 14 and verse 14, 'Though these
three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in it (that is in the city) they should deliver but
their own souls by their righteousness, saith the LORD Yahweh'. Verse 20, 'Though
Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, as I live, saith the LORD Yahweh, they shall deliver
neither son nor daughter, they shall deliver but their own souls by their righteousness'.
You know, b&s, Israel had got to such a low state in the days of the prophet, that the
presence of one of those three men or the three of them, could not save them. Now
what did they have in common? Noah, Daniel and Job, they all had one single thing in
common above others, of course, they had a lot in common but there was one thing that
stood out in the lives of those three men; those three men's faith was effective to save
others! Noah saved his house, Daniel saved his friends and Israel from the captivity by
his faith, and Job, of course, saved his three critics. So that those three men's faith,
towering faith, b&s, saved their houses! Now, Israel was so apostate that neither one of
those men could save them! forget about that. Think about the way in which God
speaks of those three men.
Now you think of the responsibility that's yours! You're out there, I'm here, we're here
listening to the bible, God's word. This is going to be effective in our life. Have you any
children? What do you think of them? What do you think of your children? What would
you do for them in life? How much time and energy, what would you give for your child?
You know, b&s, Noah, Daniel and Job saved their families by their faith! We have an
obligation, it's not only to get into the kingdom of God, b&s, and to be saved ourselves,
we've got an obligation to our own flesh and blood as well as to our brethren and
sisters. Our example can be such that it can change others, it can guarantee God's
blessing upon us if our example is such that God will rain His blessings upon us, b&s.
And that's a wonderful thing! WE NEED TODAY TO SAVE OUR HOUSES! Noah,
Daniel and Job, remember them, all of them! they withstood tremendous criticism,
withstood tremendous persecution, withstood tremendous pressures, SAVED THEIR
HOUSES! And that's what we've got to do; and we've got to stand up today and to stand
up for God, and to save our house!
B&S, we hope that those few words have set the scene, for the story of Noah and that
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ might now mean a little bit more to us, when we
consider His words, 'as it was in the days of Noah!'