[0:00] Good morning and a warm welcome to the service this morning. Those who are here in the building, it's good to be here for the first time I think in eight months is it?
[0:11] It's good for us to be able to come together physically and to worship God and it's good also to have people who are watching in at home live on the live stream. So a warm welcome to all here and there and those who listen in the telephone later in the day as well.
[0:28] Well, intimations just to say that the evening service will be online just before six tonight. We're not live streaming in the evening, it will just be the normal, well what became the normal over that strange period of time, a pre-recorded service which will go out just before six tonight and next Sunday the service will be live streamed and there'll be a service like this in the morning and the evening service will be a Gaelic service taken by Donald McSween. So be encouraged to come to these.
[1:03] On Wednesday, it's the National Day of Prayer within the denomination and Duncan's been coordinating things for that in terms of the congregation so he's given me an intimation just to read out.
[1:15] This Wednesday, November 30th, is a National Day of Prayer by the Free Church for the Nation. We ask the congregation to observe this day and the prayer resources will be emailed to members and adherents tomorrow. We will also deliver copies to those not on email. There'll be an opportunity to join with others in prayer via Zoom meetings at half past seven in the morning, 12.30pm and 5.30pm for half an hour for each of these. Full details will be provided in the mailing. And then the prayer meeting on Wednesday evening, which will be on Zoom, will have a particular focus on Thanksgiving.
[1:52] It's Thanksgiving time of year so it'll be a Thanksgiving prayer meeting. There's no YF tonight with it being the holiday weekend. So just to note that also. These, I think, are all the intimations.
[2:08] So we'll begin this time of worship and we'll sing to God's praise. We won't sing to God's praise. Cammie will sing to God's praise. And we will worship as Cammie sings. You'll be able to sing in your homes, but we can't sing in the building here. But we look at Psalm 27, verses 1 to 4. Cammie will sing and we'll come together and worship. The Lord's my light and saving health. Who shall make me dismayed?
[2:40] My life strength is the Lord, of whom then shall I be afraid. Down to the end of verse 4. It's a double verse. Down to the end of verse 4. That I, the beauty of the Lord, behold me and admire. That I, in his holy place, may reverently inquire.
[2:56] The Lord's my light and saving health. Who shall make me dismayed? My life strength is the Lord, of whom then shall I be afraid. When as mine enemies and foes, most wicked persons all, to eat my flesh against me rose, they stumbled and did fall. Against me, though on host and camp, my heart yet fearless is.
[4:17] Though war against me rise, I will be confident in this. One thing I of the Lord desired, and will seek to obtain. That all days of my life I may within God's house remain. That I, the beauty of the Lord, behold me, may and admire. And that I, in his holy place, may reverently inquire.
[5:14] And that I, in his holy place, may reverently inquire.
[5:27] Amen. Amen. Let's unite our hearts in prayer. Let's pray.
[5:39] Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, your day. We thank you for this, your house. We thank you for the privilege that we have to come together and worship.
[5:55] We thank you for this, your worship. We thank you for this, your worship. We thank you for this, your worship. We thank you for this, your worship. We thank you that Christ has opened up the way for us to come into your presence. We thank you for all that he has done on our behalf. For that cross that we return to day by day, where we see him put our sin to death.
[6:18] And as we look to the resurrection, which we remember especially each Lord's day, we thank you that the devil, that death, that sin is defeated, that we are forgiven when our faith is in Jesus.
[6:33] We praise you, Lord, that we are able to draw near to you in worship, knowing that you draw near to us. And we can do that in our homes. We can do that in our workplace. We can do that as we walk along the street.
[6:46] We thank you for the special privilege that we have of being able to come together in your house and join together physically in worship. We thank you for the encouragement that we receive as we fellowship one with another, albeit at a distance in these times.
[7:05] We thank you for the promise that you give to us, that where even two or three meet together in your name, you are here with us and you will bless us. And so we pray that we would know your blessing this day.
[7:19] We pray that we would know that sense of your spirit with us. We pray that as your word is read and as we consider it, as we meditate upon it, we ask that you would minister to us in the power of your spirit, that it would find a clear way into each of our hearts.
[7:37] We thank you that you are the God who is sovereign over all. And as we read in the psalm there, we thank you that when we are trusting in you, we do not need to fear anything or anyone.
[7:52] And what encouragement that gives to us. We look back over even these last few days and months and we see our sin. We see how we fall. We see how we fail. But we thank you that we need not fear when we are trusting in Christ because we have the assurance that when we confess our sin, you forgive us our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness.
[8:17] We thank you, Lord, as we look forward. Although we cannot see the future, you are the God who holds the future. And so for those who may have anxieties about the future, when we see things on the horizon that trouble us, when we have fears, we thank you that we can take everything to the Lord in prayer, knowing that you are the God who holds us and who shields us, who protects us, and who is always working in all situations for the good of those who love you and for the glory of your name.
[8:52] So enable us, Lord, we pray, to trust you. Enable us, we pray, as we gather in this place to behold you and to admire the beauty of the Lord and to respond in worship.
[9:09] Be with us, we pray. Meet us at the point of our need. We are conscious, Lord, that we are needy people. We ask for those who are struggling with their health.
[9:20] And we ask, Lord, that you would lay your hand of healing upon them, that they would know your grace that's sufficient for each day. We pray for those whose circumstances are changing, we think, of Nanny in particular, as she prepares to move from Harris to Lewis.
[9:35] And we ask that you would go before her, that you would be close to her. We pray for our young people. And we ask that they would trust you, that they would remember you, that they would walk with you from their youth all the days of their lives.
[9:50] And we thank you for them being with us here today. We pray for those who are elderly, especially those in care homes and Harris House and in Leverborough and across the islands.
[10:00] We ask that you would minister to them where they are. We pray for those who are housebound, who may feel very much isolated and more so over these past months.
[10:12] Bless them, we pray. May they know, even when they are alone physically, that they are not alone spiritually because you are with them. And we ask, Lord, that you would be with us as a nation.
[10:25] That you would be with those who you have allowed to be an authority over us. We recognize that in your sovereignty, that's what you've permitted. And we pray for those who perhaps do not pray for themselves.
[10:38] We ask that you would give wisdom that comes from heaven in the decisions that are taken and need to be taken in future months. We pray, Lord, for the world.
[10:50] We enjoy peace here and stability. But we think of countries where there is war breaking out. We think of countries where your people are persecuted.
[11:01] And we ask, Lord, that you would be at work in these places as they come to our minds, as we see them in the news. Although we are far removed from them physically, we thank you that we can bring them to you.
[11:15] And we can connect with these people and these nations through this gift of prayer. So hear our prayers. Boys and girls, For the first time in a long time, I can actually say, It's good to see you.
[11:55] I used to say, It's good to know you're behind that screen. And it's good to know that there are some who are behind the screen. But it's good to be able to see some of you here today. And I've got one or two things to show you.
[12:10] Well, the first thing, I can't actually show you from here. But I want you to think about what I'm talking about. If you were going to go away from here to say Inverness or Glasgow or Edinburgh, how would you get there?
[12:27] Would you just walk? Michael? Airplane? You could go on the airplane, yeah. And Lois? You could go on? A ferry. You could go on the ferry. See, because of the sea that's between us, if we want to go to the mainland, like I know some of you might be watching from the mainland actually today, because it's the holiday weekend, but if you want to get safely from here over there, we can't just walk out, because we're going to get very wet feet.
[12:55] In fact, we're going to get more than wet feet. It's just not safe. We can't get there. We'll just sink. We'll just sink. That's right, Michael. That's what I've enjoyed. That's what I've missed about children's talks. It's not just having to work through a children's talk, but we get all kinds of interesting diversions.
[13:11] You would just sink. You would just sink. And so we need to have a boat. And so we can look over that way a wee bit along the road, and we can see the boat.
[13:22] But if we want to get safely to the mainland, we need to know more than there is a boat, because you can know there is a boat, and you can see the boat, and you can understand even how a boat works, and still not get to the mainland.
[13:39] So what do you need to do to get to the mainland? If we're thinking about a boat. What do you need to do to actually get to the mainland? Do you want to know? Pardon?
[13:53] You buy tickets, yeah. We're getting closer. So we buy tickets. But you could know about the boat. You could understand how it works. You could buy tickets. But you're still not there.
[14:04] Michael? Be a worker in the engine room. Well, you could be a worker in the engine room, like Murdo and Kenny were doing in the past. But we can't really work in the engine room without training.
[14:17] So how do we get to the mainland? What? You have to get on the boat, don't you? You have to get on the boat.
[14:28] You have to actually get in the boat to be safe and to be able to be carried over to the mainland safely. What's this? Yeah.
[14:41] What's that? You're very quiet over there, Katrina and Christy. What's that? Pardon? It's a phone, yes. And the thing about phones is they're quite delicate.
[14:53] And if you're walking along the road and the phone drops out of your pocket and it hits the pavement, what's going to happen? It's going to... Do you want to? It's going to smash.
[15:05] So what do you need to keep your phone safe? Here's a clue. Yeah, Lois? You need a case or a protector. But more than that, for the phone to be kept safe, it needs to be actually inside the case.
[15:21] My sister-in-law, CJ, Auntie CJ, she's always breaking phones. And Uncle Neil, Mary's brother, he was getting so sick of it that he got her this case and it's the strongest case in the whole world.
[15:38] I think you could drive a lorry over the top of that phone and it wouldn't break. You could drop it from the Eiffel Tower and it wouldn't break because of this strong, strong case. But you know what? She never puts her in it.
[15:51] The phone keeps on breaking. Here's something else. One more thing to show you. What's that? It's a bike helmet. And what's it for?
[16:03] What's it for, alien Alistair? Pardon? It's for protecting your head. So you put it over your head. I'm not sure Alistair with all that hair would be able to get it over his head anymore. But if you want your head to be protected, for protecting your head, but you can own one of these and have it in the shed, how can your head be kept safe, Lily?
[16:26] You'd have to. You'd have to. You'd have to put it on, wouldn't you? You have to have your head in it to be safe. The phone has to be in the case to be safe.
[16:39] We have to be in the ferry if we're going to get safely from here to the mainland. And if we want to be safe in our hearts, if we want to be safe and get from this world to heaven, if we want to be safe and not to be punished for our sin, but to have our sin taken away, if we want to have that place in the place that's forever safe, what do we need to do?
[17:08] Or who do we need to be trusting? Lois? We need to be trusting in God.
[17:20] We need to be trusting in Jesus. That's right. We need to be trusting in Jesus. And a bit like the boat, you can know about the boat, you can have a ticket, but if you don't get on it, don't get into it, you're not getting safely over to the other side.
[17:36] And we can know about Jesus, we can read the Bible, we can go to Sunday school, we can come to church, we can watch online. But unless we're trusting in Jesus, we're not safe.
[17:50] So boys and girls, the message is very simple this morning. Be trusting in Jesus. Not just knowing about him, but let's be trusting in him.
[18:03] And the amazing thing is we're told when we trust in Jesus, not only does he come to us and look after us, but he actually comes to live in us.
[18:15] When we are trusting in Christ, he is living in us. And there's no safer place to be in this world and forever than in Jesus.
[18:26] So let's be trusting in Jesus. And we'll think about that more as the service goes on. So we'll pray just now. Lord God, we thank you for the message of the Bible.
[18:41] We thank you that it all points to Jesus. And we thank you that we are safe forever when we are trusting in him. So help us, we pray, whether we're young or whether we're older, to be trusting in Jesus.
[18:54] And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. If you could turn now in your Bibles, please, to Genesis chapter 5.
[19:11] Genesis chapter 5. I was getting a sense a moment ago that I missed an intimation.
[19:25] Did I miss any intimations this morning? Pardon? The 30th is a week on Wednesday. Okay.
[19:36] Okay. So, the National Day of Prayer is the 30th of November, a week on Wednesday. It's always good to have your wife here to give you a kind of warm look that tells you you've made a mistake during the intimations.
[19:53] Genesis chapter 5. So that's a week on Wednesday for the National Day of Prayer. This coming Wednesday, we'll have a Thanksgiving focus in our prayer meeting. Genesis chapter 5, and we'll read from verse 28 of the chapter through to the end of chapter 6.
[20:20] This is God's Word. When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, he will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground after the Lord has cursed.
[20:41] After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years and then he died.
[20:53] After Noah was 500 years, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they married any of them they chose.
[21:11] Then the Lord said, My spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal. His days will be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterwards when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.
[21:29] They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
[21:42] The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, I will wipe mankind and may have created from the face of the earth men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air.
[21:57] For I am grieved that I have made them, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
[22:12] Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
[22:26] So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it, and coat it with pitch inside and out.
[22:43] This is how you are to build it. The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top.
[22:58] Put a door on the side of the ark and make it lower, middle, and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens. every creature that has the breath of life in it.
[23:12] Everything on earth will perish, but I will establish my covenant with you and you will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
[23:29] Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.
[23:46] Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Amen. And may God bless that reading of his word to us.
[23:59] Pause for a moment again and pray as we come back to God's word. Lord God, we acknowledge again that we need your help as we open your word.
[24:11] Give us understanding, give us attentiveness, clear our minds from any distractions that may cause us to drift away from what you're saying to us. And meet with us, we pray, in the power of your spirit.
[24:26] We ask not only for ourselves here and those who are watching at home. We pray for other congregations around us in this village, those who meet on Zoom, those who meet physically.
[24:37] We pray for those of your church who meet across the islands and across the nation and across all nations. Thank you that we have this constant reminder that we are one small church part of the universal church of Jesus Christ.
[24:54] And we ask, Lord, that we would see the church of Christ building and being strengthened in our days that your name would be glorified.
[25:06] So hear our prayers. Help us, we ask, for we ask all this in Jesus' name and for Jesus' sake. Amen. If you could turn back now, please, to the chapter that we read.
[25:20] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. I brought something to show you.
[25:36] I left it through the back so you'll just have to bear with me. Something that I was going to show you, something that we used to see a lot, I don't know if they actually published them anymore, is the Reader's Digest.
[25:50] Give me a nod. Can you remember the Reader's Digest? A little magazine, probably about the size of one of these psalm books, maybe a little bit thicker.
[26:02] And in this little magazine, the Reader's Digest, what they would do is they would publish a sort of squeezed down version of various books. So if you wanted to get a concise, shortened version of what a book was all about, you'd find it in the Reader's Digest.
[26:20] Some people would cheat with their homework. Rather than reading the whole book, they would read the shortened version of Moby Dick or whatever the story was that had been set in the English class. You'd find the squeezed down version of the big story in the Reader's Digest.
[26:35] Now the Bible, which we turn to each large day and each day in our own homes, this is God's Word. That's why we don't look at this one day and pick a magazine or book up another day to study.
[26:49] We come back every week and we study God's Word. This is God's Word. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit himself, he took hold of about 40 writers to record what God gave them to say.
[27:04] You go through the contents of the Bible, you see it's got 66 books, but they're not 66 disconnected books. They're all connected. They're all joined up. They all fit together into one big main message.
[27:19] And actually, we have the digest, we have the shortened, squeezed-down version of the whole of the Bible in Genesis chapter 6.
[27:30] So three points this morning. The first point is sin. We see sin. The second point is judgment. We hear of the coming judgment.
[27:43] And the third point is salvation. We hear the promise of salvation. So first of all, in this chapter, we see the reality of sin.
[27:56] And if we glance back at chapter 2 to Genesis 3, we see the moment which sin came into the world. We see that that's the entry point. That's the fall of man when sin came in.
[28:08] And from that point when sin came into the world, we see that sin attacks. Sin attacks. And we see that attack on three levels.
[28:19] So within this first point, we see an attack of sin at three levels. First of all, sin attacks the world. Secondly, we see sin attacking the home.
[28:31] And thirdly, we see sin attacking the mind. So first of all, under this heading, we see that sin attacks the world.
[28:43] Not just one little place. Not just one couple. But it attacks the whole of the world. And I think the well-worn, and it's maybe a bit tiresome, but the obvious illustration here is the pandemic that we've been battling with over past months.
[29:00] This coronavirus, it came into existence in some food stall far from us in Wuhan, China. We heard about it in the news. It was far removed from us.
[29:11] We took limited interest in it. But then it became closer and closer. It spread, it spread, until eventually it was everywhere, even here.
[29:25] And that's how we see sin work. It begins with Adam and Eve in that garden of Eden, which is in Iraq, far from us. But it spreads.
[29:41] And it doesn't just attack Adam and Eve, because if we flick on from Genesis 3, we see that very soon this sin is beginning to attack other relationships.
[29:53] Cain and Abel. We see sin at work. And then we start to see the wages of sin coming in. The wages of sin is death. And so we see death, that violent death in Genesis 4.
[30:07] But by Genesis 5, we have this phrase on repeat, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. It's the effect of sin.
[30:21] It's like an avalanche. You know how an avalanche works. There may be some climber at the top of a mountain. And he slips and there's a small movement of snow.
[30:35] And he sees this small movement of snow, but that small movement of snow at the top of the hill, it starts to build, it starts to push the snow down the hill, and by the time it reaches the bottom of the hill, that small movement has become a tidal weed of snow that swallows up a whole village.
[30:52] That's the way sin works. And I think we need to remember that as we think about the nature and the attack of sin.
[31:03] It's never just one sin. Perhaps Adam and Eve in the garden thought, well, it's just one, it's just one bite. It's never just one bite.
[31:14] It's never just one look. It's never just one touch. Sin spreads. And it's transmitted most powerfully through particular things and in particular areas.
[31:30] When the medical people began to understand how coronavirus worked, they told us that it's transmitted in particular ways, so we had to take precautions.
[31:41] They said it's transmitted by touch. So all of a sudden we're at the door of the church, we can't shake hands with each other, we're doing this awkward elbow thing. It's the beginning of it.
[31:53] Then we were told you've got to keep a distance from each other because it's transmitted by touch, so you have to stand back. We were told that it could be transmitted through coughs and sneezes, so we got used to wearing these awkward things, these masks, but they were necessary.
[32:16] These were precautions that we were told we must take if we want this transmission not to come in our direction. And here in Genesis 6, God, he shows us where the virus of sin is most lethal.
[32:30] He shows us where the attack of sin is most focused so that we'll be alert, so that we'll be vigilant. And we see this as it narrows down here.
[32:42] Sin attacks the world at large, that's the first thing. The second thing here is sin attacks the home. In fact, it's even more pointed than that. Sin attacks marriage.
[32:56] Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 6. When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they married any of them that they chose.
[33:18] We see an attack here on marriage. If we rewind just a little and look at the purpose of marriage, we see that marriage, it was God's design. And it was God's design whereby the man and the woman in their relationship with each other would encourage each other to walk close with God.
[33:37] So marriage had that spiritual foundation. But by Genesis 6, the sons of God who are likely those who are from the godly family of Seth, the believing family of Seth, they began to see that the daughters of men and that's likely a reference to the unbelieving family of Cain, they looked at them and they saw them.
[34:03] They knew they weren't believers but they saw them and they saw that they were beautiful. They caught their eye and they began to marry them. And the basis for that marriage was pure physical attraction.
[34:18] and it's suggested and it's suggested here that when they saw someone and they were attracted to them, if they saw more than one, they would take more than one.
[34:29] Not just one wife but the suggestion here is that they took as many wives as they chose. And so we see a huge breakdown as a consequence of that.
[34:41] There's no surprise that there's a breakdown in the home because of that. and sin is behind it. Sin attacks the world at large.
[34:53] Sin attacks the home and marriage in particular. And I think the simplest and the widest application for us to grasp here is that we are to learn from this and make sure that we have God at the centre of our homes, at the centre of our marriages, at the centre of all of our relationships.
[35:20] Because it's at that relational level that the devil launches his attack. He attacks our homes. He seeks to take us away from God's word.
[35:35] He seeks us to take us away from prayer in our relationships. We know that as Christians, don't we? Even if we go out with marriage and think about just Christian fellowship, how many relationships did we have with other Christians that began with such a focus on God's word and prayer and yet now we talk about the weather, we talk about the football, we talk about food, and we talk about holidays.
[36:07] holidays. And we rarely get to the spiritual dimension. There's a focus on the physical, there's a focus on the material.
[36:19] The devil is behind that. So it was going on in Genesis 6. It's an attack the world at large, attack the home in particular.
[36:30] And God's patience as he saw this was being tried because his creation, he could see it crumbling and decaying before his very eyes. Then the Lord said, verse 3, My spirit will not contend with man forever for he is mortal.
[36:51] His days will be 120 years. And so with that word from God, a timer was set. the clock began to tick.
[37:05] 120 years was put on the clock. And for that period, God determined that he would withhold the punishment that man was due.
[37:18] Calvin says, For as long as the Lord suspends punishment, he strives with men. And that's what was happening. We see it through Noah, who we'll come to in this chapter.
[37:33] We see that God, through Noah, he's striving with his people. He's given them the opportunity to repent. He's given them the opportunity to turn away from the sin that was causing such carnage and to turn to him to escape the wrath that was coming.
[37:50] 1 Peter 3.20 it says, God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
[38:05] And all that time the clock ticked. Time passed. But as the clock ticked and as time counted down, people didn't believe.
[38:18] And things didn't get better. Things got worse. Sin did not decrease. But sin increased.
[38:32] Things went from bad to worse. Verse 4. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterwards when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.
[38:47] They were the heroes of old. Men of renown. And you might wonder what on earth is a Nephilim? And if you're interested in going into commentaries you'll see there's various theories on who they may have been.
[38:59] But I think from what I can understand these were mighty men. These were giants of men. And they acted like tyrants because of their physical dominance and power.
[39:13] They used that to get their own way. Using their power to get whatever they desired. They were ugly characters these Nephilim. They were brazenly sinful and yet it says in verse 4 that these ugly, sinful, brutal characters, they were the heroes of that day.
[39:36] The heroes were the greatest sinners. The most violent, dark rebels, they were the men of renown. And God's renown was overlooked.
[39:54] That was the ancient world of Genesis chapter 6. things. And we might say, well, what's that got to do with us? And yet we take a look around in our world and we see it's pretty much where we're at.
[40:11] It's very like our world today. The heroes of our day, those who are most celebrated are often the most ungodly, the most unashamedly ungodly.
[40:27] And the whole time God's name, his renown, his honour, is overlooked. That was the day of Noah. That's today.
[40:42] So we see sin. It attacks the world at large, from the Garden of Eden, out the way. It attacks the home and marriage in particular. And the final thing here under this point is it attacks the mind.
[40:57] Verse 5. The Lord saw that how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
[41:09] We have the reminder here, as we read that verse, God sees everything. We only see a wee bit. God sees everything. Not just the acts of violence, but he sees the inclination of thought.
[41:27] Verse 5. God looks into the wicked mind and heart of man because that's where the trickle of sin begins to flow. Think about when you're out walking on the hill.
[41:40] You head up the hill and you're walking across the moors and you see just a wee burn that's flowing. you step over the burn. You don't want to get your feet whipped.
[41:52] It's easy enough to step over the burn. But a few miles down the hill, that burn has come together with half a dozen other burns. It's gathered momentum. And no longer can you step over it because it's not just a wee burn, it's a wide river and if you step into it, you're getting swept away.
[42:13] And again, that's like sin. You know, it's in the mind, that's where the trickle of sin, in the mind and in the heart, that's where the trickle of sin begins to flow.
[42:27] And so, actually it's in the mind that the spiritual battle must be fought. That's why Paul says to us in 2 Corinthians 10, 5, we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ because if we don't, that little burn, that little trickle is going to get out of control.
[42:52] And think about Genesis 3 with Eve. She's in the garden, along comes the snake, he starts to sow these seeds of doubt in her mind. She starts to think maybe God isn't good.
[43:06] Now if at that point in her mind she killed that thought, things would not have progressed the way they progressed. But she didn't kill that thought.
[43:19] She didn't take it captive. She allowed that thought to grow and mutate and sin came in. And so we're told Romans 12 2, do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed how?
[43:36] By the renewing of your mind. Boys and girls in Sunday school, do you sometimes sing a song, watch your eyes, watch your eyes, what they see?
[43:52] Watch your eyes, what they see. There's a saviour up above, he's looking down in love, watch your eyes, what they see. Watch your ears, what they hear. There's a saviour up above, he's looking down in love, watch your ears, what they hear, watch your feet, where they go.
[44:08] I think actually we need another verse to that song. It goes like this, watch your mind, watch your mind, what you think. Because sin attacks the mind.
[44:24] And so we have to be careful and disciplined about what we think. Others don't see what we think. But God sees it.
[44:35] And if we don't repent constantly, at mind level when sin attacks, but allows sin to grow, before we know it, it's out of control.
[44:47] It's like the wee barn that has developed into a rushing river. We can't stop it. So we see sin, that's the first point.
[44:59] The second point here is we see judgment. judgment. Verses five and six. The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
[45:12] The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Judgment was coming.
[45:25] judgment is one of these buzz words that people don't like to hear. I remember even in training for ministry in some places where there was more liberal congregations and more liberal ministers, I was told certain words, I don't want to hear it from you.
[45:46] Sin was one of them, judgment was another. I could not say that because it's in the Bible, but there are some people and they do not want to hear this. Don't talk to me about judgment.
[46:02] But it's in the Bible from the beginning to the end, so we have to hear it. We must talk about this. So what do you think of when you think of judgment?
[46:14] Many people hate the thought of judgment, and they hate the thought of God because of judgment. Many people see God as a cruel, bad-tempered God that explodes in unpredictable judgment.
[46:30] That's their perception. But that's not God. And that's not God's judgment. That's us taking how we feel and projecting on God.
[46:49] When people go against us, we often blow up rage, don't we? We see it on a football pitch sometimes. A bad challenge comes in.
[47:02] There's an explosion of rage. Sometimes we see it at meetings. The meeting starts to go against someone. There's an explosion of rage.
[47:15] That's how we sometimes act, but that's not how God acts. That's not his judgment. That's not a picture of God's wrath. See, we need to remember, as we think about this passage, as judgment comes closer and closer in this account, we need to remember that the year of the flood, the year when judgment hit, was the year 1656.
[47:44] If you want the calculations, I'll give them to you later. So for all that time, from year one to year 1656, the all-seeing God has seen his creation decaying.
[48:03] He's seen the people that he made for himself shake their fists at him. He's seen how his whole good, perfect creation has been defaced by sin, he's seen a whole line, a whole family, the family of Cain, turn their backs on him, and scoop up every good gift that he gives them, and give no thankfulness and no acknowledgement of anything that God is doing for them.
[48:31] God has seen his designs for marriage, for family life being trampled, he's seen those whom he's breathed life into, and whom he loved being murdered. He's seen how great man's wickedness on the earth had become.
[48:48] He's seen that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. So what did God do? Well, we must remember that for a long time, he did nothing.
[49:07] We count to ten before we explode. For year after year after year after year, God sees it all.
[49:22] Even the thoughts. And he does nothing. He holds back judgment. But these years were painful years for the Lord as he saw the virus of sin spread.
[49:38] We're told in verse 6, he was grieved. We're told in verse 7, that his heart, verse 6 again, sorry, his heart was filled with pain.
[49:51] It's an astonishing thing to think about. That God was grieved. That God's heart was filled with pain. John MacArthur says this is actually a moving insight into the character of God.
[50:05] He is capable of feeling sorrow and grief. What moves him to grief is the sinfulness of a special creature man whom he designed and created to hold a special degree of communion with himself.
[50:20] And we see the same in Jesus. Remember when Jesus was looking over Jerusalem? He looks over the city. And he weeps.
[50:33] Matthew 23, 37. These are Jesus' words. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you are not willing.
[50:53] And God is saying that in the days of Noah. You're not willing. I want to gather you. I want you to come to me. But you're not willing.
[51:04] And it grieved the Lord. His heart was filled with pain. So for you and I perhaps when we are tempted to sin next we should train our minds to go to these verses.
[51:16] where we see how our sin causes God to be grieved. Our sin causes God to feel pain to weep.
[51:33] As the Savior wept. And perhaps when we are tempted sometimes to think that God's judgment is hard and unreasonable we should think again about how great God's patience was back in ancient times in the days of Noah and how great God's patience is with us today.
[52:02] But note here although God is great in patience. Although he is slow in bringing judgment. Judgment will come.
[52:16] Verse 7. So the Lord said I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air for I am grieved that I have made them.
[52:34] judgment. He says so clearly judgment is coming. But even with that repeated declaration of judgment the Lord is giving these people another chance to repent.
[52:51] Remember Jonah. He sent off to Nineveh. What's his sermon? Judgment is coming. What did the people of Nineveh do?
[53:02] They repented and God saved them. And yet here in this day there's no repentance. The word fell on deaf ears and so very soon judgment in the form of the flood would certainly come.
[53:18] God's judgment, his wrath, it's a long settled anger towards sin. It's not unpredictable. It's entirely predictable. but it is inevitable for those who do not repent.
[53:31] So let me encourage you. Let me encourage us all with the words of the sermon that Jesus preached on repeat. Repent, believe and be saved.
[53:45] So we see sin, we see judgment and finally here we see salvation. Salvation. salvation. There's four things.
[53:56] I've only got five minutes left so I'll be very brief. Four things about salvation. The first thing is it's promised. We can see that even looking back to Genesis chapter 5 verses 28 and 29.
[54:10] There's a promise of salvation given to Lamech. That's the good Lamech on Cain's, on Seth's side. When Lamech had lived 182 years he had a son.
[54:25] He named him Noah and said he will comfort us in the labour and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed. So Lamech he's given this promise that through this son that he's having a rest would come.
[54:41] They didn't know rest. They were struggling under the weight of this curse but Lamech knew through the inspiration of God that Noah would comfort them. That's what Calvin said.
[54:53] Lamech knew that this son would be used to bring the rest and the comfort and the salvation that they needed. And so he takes hold of this promise.
[55:06] So we see salvation is promised and if we zoom out from there to ourselves and think about our salvation not from the flood but from the coming judgment for sin. then we're reminded that he was promised.
[55:22] From Genesis 3 15 onwards there was the promise of a saviour who would bring eternal comfort eternal rest to his people. His name would be Jesus.
[55:35] And he did come. Salvation was promised. Salvation secondly here it was by grace. Verse 8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.
[55:51] And yes we read in verse 9 that Noah was a righteous man, a blameless man among the people of his time and he walked with God but that's not the reason that God saved him.
[56:02] And that's not the reason that God used him in the salvation of others. Strasner the commentator says the thrust of this chapter is not that Noah was good but that God is gracious.
[56:13] The word translated favour here is the Hebrew word that means grace. Noah found grace free unmerited kindness in the eyes of the Lord.
[56:28] And if we think about our salvation is it conditional on us being good? Is it dependent on our righteousness?
[56:40] righteousness? Well no it's not. Thankfully because there is none righteous. Not even one. Remember when Jesus has that woman who was caught in adultery brought before him in John 8.
[56:59] all these critics with their stones ready to pummel her and Jesus says that the one who has no sin let him cast the first stone and one by one they all went away because they came to realise under the gaze of Christ that there is no one who is without sin.
[57:24] And so to be saved we like Noah we need God's grace. There's nothing else there's no other way. So the salvation that was promised the salvation that we are offered it's by the grace of God.
[57:43] Third thing about salvation is it's through faith. It's promised it's by grace and it's through faith. If you go back to Noah's day we'll think more about this in due course in order for salvation to be made available and taken hold of there was a need for faith.
[58:05] God speaks to Noah and he tells Noah in verses 11 and 12 I can't go into this that judgment was coming and then he tells him in verse 13 that salvation would be provided and then in verse 14 and following God gave Noah the design details for his salvation plan and it was the ark they had to be in the ark to be safe to the point I never got to in the children's talk that was God's design for salvation they had to be in the ark to be safe so what did Noah do God speaks to him well Noah does in verse 22 everything just as God commanded him Noah acts in faith and obedience so for the 120 years that God is withholding judgment Noah builds the ark and as Noah builds the ark he's preaching salvation to those who would listen and he's telling them that if they come into the ark they'll be safe and because of what
[59:11] Noah did in faith those who followed him into the ark small in number but they were saved and if you think about this for Noah was it easy to act in faith I doubt it and can you imagine the conversations that Noah was having day by day what are you building Noah I'm building an ark why are you building an ark because God told me to build an ark and what are you building an ark for for what purpose to save us from the flood of God's judgment that's going to come in here flood there's no sea there's no water for miles there's no rain we're in a desert it's never going to happen Noah you're wasting your time you're making a fool of yourself and your family how many times did
[60:13] Noah have that conversation over that 120 years how many sermons did Noah preach that seemed to achieve absolutely nothing and yet he kept on keeping on in faith and in terms of the salvation that's offered to us when we speak to people about Jesus I hope you do for Christians when we speak to people about Jesus when we speak about God the son who lived a sinless life for us and died the sinner's death on the cross for us and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven when we share with people God's design for our salvation people look at us the way they must have looked at Noah and they say you're out of your mind a man in the Middle East 2000 years ago he went to a cross to die to give me everlasting life you're out of your mind why are you bothering me with this stuff people laugh at us for sharing the good news about
[61:27] Jesus but if we go back to the days of Noah the same people who laughed at Noah soon began to see the floodwaters rising and they saw Noah and his family in safety on the ark as they perished that's the sobering truth and we're told there's coming a day when Jesus will return and every eye will see him and every tongue will confess that he is Lord but that day will be too late for salvation but today if we believe in Jesus today if our faith is in him we have the assurance that when the flood of God's judgment comes we will be safe because we are in Christ and that's the final thing here salvation that was promised it was by grace not by works it was by faith in
[62:33] Christ so we have this picture of the ark and the flood it's a real picture that we see in history but it's also a parable it's a picture of Jesus when the flood came those who were in the ark they were safe those who were outside of the ark even though they saw the ark and they knew about the ark and they heard the message of the ark they were lost and for us today for those who are in christ we are saved those who refuse it are lost so can I ask as we finish where will you be on the day that god's judgment comes there's only one place of safety and that's to be in christ he is the one who was promised it's through his cross that grace with god is offered to us it's through faith in him that we are saved so there's the message of the bible in digest in genesis 6 sin judgment and salvation promised by grace through faith and then christ we'll pray lord help us not only to hear the message of the rescue plan that you have designed and effected in christ but enable us to be those who believe and who are in christ from now and forever and we ask this in jesus name amen we'll now hear cammy singing and we can follow along quietly in our own hearts amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me our like me i once was lost but now i'm found was blind but now i see t'was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved how precious did that grace appear the hour i first believed through many dangers
[66:34] toils and snares i have already come tith grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun we've known less days to sing god's praise than when we first begun and now may the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god the father and the fellowship of god the holy spirit be with us all both now and forever more amen and continue to to ke 카� to