Destruction by Flood- Genesis 7

Sermon Nuggets, Mon April 16 Gen 7  Destruction by Flood

Verses Genesis 7

When God Asks the Impossible                                  

Some of you may have heard the following story of Noah:

“The Lord spoke to Noah and said: "In six months I'm going to make it rain until the whole earth is covered with water and all the evil people are destroyed. But I want to save a people, and two of every kind of living thing on the planet. I am ordering you to build Me an Ark." And in a flash of lightning he delivered the specifications for an Ark..

"OK," said Noah, trembling in fear and fumbling with the blueprints."Six months, and it starts to rain," thundered the Lord. "You'd better have my Ark completed, or learn how to swim for a very long time."

Six months passed. The skies began to cloud up and rain began to fall. The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his front yard, weeping.. And there was no Ark..

"Noah," shouted the Lord, "where is my Ark?  “Lord, please forgive me!" begged Noah. "I did my best. But there were big problems. First I had to get a building permit for the Ark construction project, and your plans didn't meet code. So I had to hire an engineer to redraw the plans. Then I got into a big fight over whether or not the Ark needed a fire sprinkler system.

Then, my neighbors objected, claiming I was violating zoning by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission. Then I had a big problem getting enough wood for the Ark because there was a ban on cutting trees in order to save the Spotted Owl. I had to convince Fish and Wildlife people that I needed the wood to save the owls. But they wouldn't let me catch any owls. So no owls.

   Then the carpenters formed a union and went out on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board before anyone would pick up a saw or a hammer. Then when I started gathering up animals, I got sued by an animal rights group. Just when I got the suit dismissed, the EPA notified me that I couldn't complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. Let me tell you, they didn't take kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of a Supreme Being. Then the Army Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the proposed new flood plain. So, I sent them a globe. They weren't amused.

Now I'm trying to resolve a complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over how many minorities I'm supposed to hire. And on top of all that the IRS seized all my assets claiming I'm trying to avoid paying taxes by leaving the country. I really don't think I can finish for at least another five years," Noah wailed.

The sky began to clear. The sun began to shine. A rainbow arched across the sky. Noah looked up and smiled. "You mean you're not going to destroy the earth?" Noah asked, hopefully.. "No," said the Lord sadly, "The Government already has."

           

Many people refuse to take the biblical account of the flood as literal history, preferring to regard it as some kind of mythology which conveys to us certain important truths about ourselves and about the world. They point to the survival of various flood stories in different traditions in the East, and tell us that the account in Genesis 7 is one of these mythologies. However, the New Testament is under no illusion about the truthfulness and the trustworthiness of the Genesis account. Jesus tells us that no word of the scripture can be broken, and Peter, in 2 Peter 3, takes the account of the flood as the foundation for his emphasis upon the doctrine of the second coming, and the need for us to be prepared for final judgement, which, he argues, will come as surely and as certainly as this particular judgment came at this particular time.

Taking on the momentous task of saving the world, Noah is asked to do the impossible. The story of the flood is not so much a record of Noah’s job as it is God’s work in saving the world.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Tues April 17 

Verses- Genesis 7:1-10  “The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. ² Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, ³ and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

 ⁵ And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

          ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, ⁹ male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.¹⁰ And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth

We Recognize God Gives Provision

            Noah is called righteous again in contrast to nearly everyone else in the world. His righteousness led him to obey God so also God would single him and his family out for salvation because the Lord had found him righteous.

            Ki Gulbranson has been teaching our SS class on Mathew 6:33 :Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”  The prime job description for mankind is seeking God’s kingdom. We saw that means submit yourself to the King of King and Lord of Lords, and seek to do what is right. That is not possible without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is to live like Jesus and reflect the character of God in our world.

            So God provides for Noah his grace and Noah responds in faith and in righteousness, doing the right things. Noah did exactly as God had commanded him to do because  Noah had faith in what God was going to do, even though he didn’t have the slightest clue how God was going to pull this off. Someone said, “Faith is responding to God’s word without regard to outside circumstances or feelings.”  So God was going to give to Noah exactly what he needed. God gives his provisions.

            It made no difference that Noah was 600 years old. He built the ark and got the food. He gathered his family. Notice v. 8 “Pairs of clean and unclean animals of birds and all of creatures that move along the ground, male and female came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.”

            There were some things Noah could do and some things Noah could not do. God saw to it there was wood, but Noah had to cut it down gather it and follow God’s blueprints. Noah knew what he was to get with the animals, but unlike popular stories he didn’t spend his time roaming about the land looking for these beasts and furry things, God brought them to him. It says, “They came to Noah and entered the ark.” There is no stubborn donkey, or uncooperative hog refusing to go where Noah wanted him to go, God saw they were cooperative and provided the animals for Noah to carry out his own job.

Some have suggested this may have involved the origin of animal migratory instincts or, at least, an intensification of it. We also know that most animals possess the ability to sense danger and to move to a place of safety. Perhaps this instinct started with a couple of animals of each kind here. And seven pairs of other kind of animals.

            This raises another popular question, How many animals needed to be on the ark and isn’t it really a myth to think they all could be accommodated with only 8 people taking care of them for such a long time?

John Woodmorappe in his well documented book, Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study”, demonstrates that as few as 2,000 animals may have been required on the ark. He continues his study by showing that the ark could easily accommodate 16,000 animals.

But, let's also be realistic. It is very doubtful that if you are going to have animals on for year that you will pick full grown giraffes and elephants, and hippos. But these were probably newborns, small babies to begin with, needing less food and water.

Woodmorappe noted that assuming the average animal to be about the size of a sheep and using a railroad car for comparison, we note that the average double-deck stock car can accommodate 240 sheep. Thus, three trains hauling 69 cars each would have ample space to carry the 50,000 animals, filling only 37% of the ark. This would leave an additional 361 cars or enough to make 5 trains of 72 cars each to carry all of the food and baggage plus Noah's family of eight people. The Ark had plenty of space.

           

God does not put us into situations and ask us to do something without giving us the resources needed to do his will. That is a given. Now those resources are not always put into our laps, but sometimes they are. We are to be faithful by doing the right thing and God will take care of the rest. We need patience, and that is hard especially in our society, but God will provide.      

           

He provided for Noah the plans, the workers, the time he needed, the animals and provided for him salvation from the storm that was brewing.

           

What is God calling you to do? Can you believe he will provide the resources, the time, the strength, the wisdom, the lessons, you need to carry out his plan? Obedience is our part, God’s provision for carrying out his will is His part.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Weds April 18 

Verses Gen 7: ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

           ¹³ On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. ¹⁴ They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. ¹⁵Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. ¹⁶ The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

            ¹⁷ For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 

We Recognize God Gives Protection

God’s word is pretty specific here also giving us a date and time of the rain. Time is kept often by generations of people, just like it is today. The generations after Jesus is how we calculate our years. In the days of the Kings they used to keep time by the calendars based on the years of the reign of so and so. Hence, months, dates and years are mans’ calendar in relationship to peoples lives.

On this day recorded in history the rains fell 40 days and 40 nights. And all his sons, three of them were saved with their wives, and all the animals wild and tame, of the ground and of the air. Every kind that needed breath had either seven pairs if they were clean animals and two if they were unclean animals.

We always hear the story that they went in two by two. I like the artist portrayal of the ark downstairs donated by the Frietags it gives a marvelous thought of reality, not marching like a band, but throughout some scattered. It is fun to look for the mate in each of these pictures. Verse 2 tells us there were seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of the rest. Perhaps these clean animals were needed for sacrifice and that is also a provision of God.

But this is a story of judgment tempered with grace, for Noah and his family were preserved alive by God. In the midst of darkness there is light, and in the midst of hopelessness, despair and threatening, there is the power of God displayed in the rescuing of Noah.

Alan Cambell a Presbyterian minister reminds us of three things that God did for Noah: God took him in. The time came when the ark was ready; Noah had built it according to God's design and provision. It was Noah's ark, but ultimately it was God's ark, and God's provision alone was what gave salvation to Noah, his wife, his sons and his daughters-in-law. God said to him "Come into the ark" (7:1). This was a word of grace indeed. When the flood of judgement was to fall, a place of safety was provided. God protected his creation. Rather than starting over in creation he sought to redeem mankind and animals by special protection in the midst of the flood.

And the Gospel today is the same. In a world ripe for God's judgement and under God's threatening; in a world of sin, hopelessness and despair, God says - "Come into the ark". He tells us that there is a place of safety for us all. The predominant Gospel word is "Come" - it is on the lips of the Saviour again and again. There is no salvation without it. The Gospel invitation reverses sin's curse and sin's despair. When Adam and Eve sinned, God sent them out. Now he takes Noah in. Sin drives us away from God; the Gospel calls us to God. The message of grace is the message of a free, unfettered offer of pardon to lost sinners. God says to us "Come into the ark".

           

            Cambell also noted, God not only called Noah in; we read in verse 16 - "God shut him in". God closed the door, and made the ship finally watertight. For Noah, there was no condemnation any more. So it is with the rescue ship of the Gospel. There is finality about God's salvation in Christ that gives to sinners a complete and ultimate guarantee of salvation and of hope. There is no more condemnation for those who are shut in and closed in with Jesus Christ. To be sure, there may be difficulties in the way, trials to meet with, problems to overcome. But God has shut the door behind his people, "and no man opens it" (Revelation 3:7). With the key of David - with all the promises of God's eternal covenant of grace - God opens a door of hope for his people, and closes them in with Christ, where they are safe for all time.

The third thing is God kept him in. As the world drowned into a lost eternity, "Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive" (7:23). Outside there was chaos, judgment and death. Inside there was the presence of the living God, preserving life and keeping them through divine power. The Gospel not only promises us salvation; it promises that we will be kept by the power of God. It promises that the God who took us in, and who shut us in, will keep us in the hollow of his hand, where none can perish. To be in Christ is to be safe forever.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Thurs April 19 

Verses- Gen 7:  ¹⁷ For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. ²¹ Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

 ²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

We Recognize God Gives Punishment.

God’s plan was to wipe out all living beings on the face of the earth. He was so fed up with sin and evil all the time in the hearts and lives of people.

            Some people wonder if the flood was global or only covered the area where Noah lived. The Bible says it covered mountains to the depth of more than 20 feet. Would not a flood covering the highest mountains of the Middle East not affect the rest of the world?

The Bible confirms that man had multiplied upon the face of the earth. Violence and corruption filled the earth  Man could not have existed only in the Mesopotamian region - a region too small to support such a large population, especially considering the natural dispersion affect of a violent society.

            Likewise if only those animals in a specific geographic location died, it would seem unnecessary for God to protect pairs in the ark for the express purpose of preventing their extinction. Surely there would be representatives of their kinds in other areas. If, on the other hand, there were some unique kinds of animals in the local flood's path, then it would seem more logical for God to send representative pairs out of the area, rather than to the ark, as He did. The Bible is clear that all the air-breathing, land animals perished during the flood, except those preserved with Noah - from which all modern animals are descended.

Peter delivered a clear global warning, confirming that God created the earth, devastated it by the flood, and will one day destroy it again by fire (2 Peter 3:5-7). Peter certainly did not mean that just a local area on earth would be burned. Just as the flood was global, so will be the final judgment.

There are also many evidences of fossils and geological discoveries showing this world wide catastrophe. Even the glacier ages made be some explanations of large bodies of water that after the atmospheric changes froze and we still have the effects of what is called the ice ages. The differing theories of the time can be accounted for the adjustments of temperatures and the location of oceans where only 1/7 of the earth now is not water.

            Although we rejoice in the provisions of God and the protection of God I can’t get away from the awfulness of the punishment of God. We see the horrible consequences of sin. When God offers freely salvation and people are so caught up in sin that they turn against God and do not respond to his grace the effects of sin are devastating. So many people say “How could I have been so blind?” I never realized that sin hurt so much.  People can be warned continually of the dangers of illicit sex but when AIDS or STD hits kids think only of the pleasure of the moment not the option that sex can kill. God’s plan is still best. When violence takes our land and children are being tried as adults popping off someone you don’t like is as easy a video game annihilation, no problems, no guilt. 

            How many people can be warned of drunk driving, yet 1000s are killed every year do to the influence of the damage of alcohol. Only now are some listening the dangers of gambling after notable affluent people have lost family house, jobs and even their freedoms when borrowing a little money for little time to pay off debts soon enslaves people to addictive habits. The lists go on, but dear people there comes a time when we have lived our lives for ourselves and rejected God’s offer of grace when there is punishment and many are hurt by it.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Fri April 20 –

Verses- Gen 7

We Recognize God’s Patience.

           

Last week we talked about grace. You cannot do what is right without accepting the gift of God first. That gift was offered to Noah and it is offered to you. Noah preached God’s coming judgment and importance of responding to God’s gift for 120 years. No one responded. I admit when no one responds to God’s salvation after I preach for a few months I get awfully discouraged. If I don’t see some people come to Christ I want to quit the pastorate and get someone else in here that can do the job. But I realize that salvation by my efforts is not salvation. Only if God’s spirit chooses to use words or lives do people get converted. And he uses many (including you) to plant, water, weed and harvest.

       So I look at Noah and think here is a guy who was in God’s will and had God’s Spirit and still everyone hardened their hearts to God’s message. He never led anyone to the Lord unless it was his own family.

God says it is going to rain. It really doesn’t make any difference that the people have never experienced rain before; it is enough for God to provide the rain. They may have scoffed at the idea of a flood. They could give great scientific arguments that say, “It has never happened before so we can logically conclude it will not happen.” That is a sound scientific theory. “All our observation has shown rain does not happen, so Noah you are wrong in living your life putting a boat together.”

I wonder what it was like for Noah and his family aboard the ship after God shut them in. He had no way to open the door when neighbors were crying to be saved, but it was too late. Can you see them calling from outside the Ark, "Let us in!"? As the waters rose the number of people outside the Ark rose as well. I wonder if Noah and his family could hear the whimpers slowly dying out as one by one the last people died.

Imagine how eerie it would have been to know that you were the only ones left on the earth. Everyone neighbors, enemies, friends, co-workers, all destroyed. The world as you knew it was gone. What would the future be like?

This is no movie. This was real life. These were the horrible consequences of sin. This is one of the things we must learn from this record. We need to see and feel the horrible consequences of sin in the record of Noah. Why? Because day after day you and I trifle with sin. We rationalize it, we excuse it, we seek to make it seem noble. And as we do, we lose sight of the horrible nature of rebellion against God and the subsequent judgment.

Matt 24:  ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

How long has it been since the witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? In America people scorn the gospel. Throughout the world believers in the Word of God are marginalized and persecuted. Look at the patience of God!

If you are have not accepted Jesus as you savior and don’t know for sure you are saved I have good news for you. This door is open right now. Rev.3:20. There are two ways this door can be closed by God- by death or by the rapture at the second coming of Jesus Christ. Are you prepared?

Don’t miss the way in which God chose to save the world. By making a provision, by giving protection, but God also gives punishment and the warning of the flood is a prophecy of something worse. For when the door of the ark was closed it was not opened again. Now is the day of salvation. Now is your day of witness and prayer for your friends and neighbors. God always warns of judgment and gives time for people to repent. Judgment is always against sin and he always follows through on his judgments and punishments for those who do not turn to God.

Only because of God’s patience that He hasn’t sent more floods. He promised the next destruction will be by fire.

“… him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37b

Pastor Dale

Noah Found Grace- Genesis 6

Sermon Nuggets Mon April 9 

Verses  Gen 6

Noah Found Grace                                     

            Around this last Easter time I saw there was to be a TV special for two nights entitled Noah. It was supposed to be the presentation of the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark. I had to turn it off during the first hour or so because it was so fictional that any resemblance to the original story was purely coincidental. It was full of action, intrigue, sex, sin, judgment, but missed many of the main points of Scripture.

            The story of the ark is perhaps one of the best known stories in the Bible. There is more to it than a children’s exciting Sunday School lesson. Controversy among scientists have tried often to attack the validity of the Bible through theories that contradict the story, but over again through geology and archeology more and more evidence points to the validity of the Biblical account.

            I remember John Warwick Montgomery’s exhibitions and even photographs into the mountains of Turkey discovering under ice the original ark. Avalanches and changes of politics and weather conditions have keep people from exploring that area in recent years. I had read a most interesting document describing how the ark was to have been made and how the particular design was so crafted as to withstand not travel, but buoyancy in the most troubled of waters, and still maintain balance as well as stability.          

There has now been a tremendous undertaking by some producers of a musical drama called Noah which was playing in Branson and in Pennsylvania to over 100,000s of people. Sight and Sound Theatre build a huge stage with hundreds of characters and animals depicts the outside of the ark during the first half, and the inside of the ark that is four stories during the second half.  

            There are four chapters in Genesis given to the story which for the rest of April will serve as our scriptural studies. After the world continued in great sin the Lord was grieved that he ever made man. But this story of Noah is also the story of the grace of God in saving the world He created. I want to look at the lessons of love and righteousness of God that are demonstrated in the story of Noah as we reflect on this chapter from Genesis this week.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Tues April 10 

Verses Gen 6: ¹ When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, ² the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. ³ Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

 ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Wrong Attractions.

            God is intimately involved with his creation. Just as disobedience and rebellion grieves the heart of a parent, so more does it grieve the heart of God when his most favorite part of creation, willingly and purposely turn their backs on God’s goodness.

One question that continually is raised is, “who were the Sons of God and Daughters of Men?” (1-3)

            Two interpretations have been given: The phrase “sons of God” frequently refers to angels in the Bible. I won’t take the time to look them up, but some translations that use the term “angels” in literal Hebrew words are “sons of God”.  An intriguing interpretation is that somehow angels started having marital relationships with women.

Since it resulted in horrible sin there are some who teach that these were demons taking human form and marrying women and having offspring that depict the most evil of humanity.

            Romans mythology includes gods marrying other humans. The gods would fight and steal and lie and use their powers for selfish purposes. Of course, the Bible teaches there is only one God who has no family or rivals. In fact, the Hebrew language did not even have a female word for goddess.

            Some who hold this interpretation point to 1 Pet 3:19,20 which speaks about the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.”

            And objection to this would be Luke 20:34-36 when question is raised whose wife would the widow be in the hereafter if she had 7 husbands who died. Jesus answers “Those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. They can no longer die; for they are like the angels.” Angels do not marry. Each creature was a unique design of God and created to serve him, but apparently also had the will to disobey and rebel.

            A second interpretation  would refer to certain kind of men are marrying certain kind of women.  One objection to this interpretation is Old Testament never uses the phrase ‘sons of God’ to refer to humans. They are called children of the Lord. Hosea 1:10 says the people of Israel are called the sons of the living God.” In the NT this is more common, Adam is called the son of God in Luke 3:38 Christians are referred to as children of God And in Luke 20 after the resurrection they are Gods’ children, literally sons of God. 

           

So if that is the case the sons of God in this passage mean, more specifically, godly men. Since they chose to marry daughters of men rather than the daughters of God, or godly women.

            There may be more another interpretation. Chp 4 gives us the lineage of Cain, chp 5 the lineage of Seth. One is considered Godly the other evil. Although there are people within Seth’s line like Enoch and Noah who are walking with God, no one in Cain’s line is depicted as godly, only those mentioned are evil. I think this is showing one line of Seth is marrying the ungodly line represented by Cain. Often the Bible warns against the Israelites, God’s chosen people, from marrying foreign women. Not because of the racial issue, but the spiritual issue. Foreign women implied other gods and false religions.

            The new Testament also teaches against Christians marrying non Christian spouses. Marriage is the most intimate of all human relationships and in some sense has more to do with the spirit of man than any other relationship. I have been criticized more than once for declining to do weddings where one is a professing believer in Jesus and their fiancée is not. I have seen many marriages break up because of this and other marriages have a lot of undo strife, especially after children are born. .

            I will also add a word regarding the Nephilim.  According to Num 13, They were people of great size and strength and some called them giants. They were heroes of old and men of renown. But the context shares they were wicked sinners in the eyes of a holy God. The depths of evil into which they had fallen, starkly portrayed in the next few verses of Genesis, had made them ripe for judgment.

            Who we marry has a great effect on our spiritual lives and how we live. Scripture often warns us to not marry pagans as they will lead us from the worship of the true God. This is true today. How important it is to find mates that encourage faith and devotion with one another and children to come. But according to 1 Corinthians 7 we are not to separate from spouses if one becomes a Christian unless the unsaved spouse wishes to no longer be married because of one’s new found faith.

             

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Weds April 11 

Verses Gen 6:  ⁵ The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. ⁶ The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. ⁷ So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” ⁸But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

God’s Grief

            The thing that grieved God was the growing disregard for God and righteousness and the increasing love for evil. Sin was pervasive and all encompassing. No one was ever free of its influence. Man’s wickedness had become so great that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. It was not merely that he harbored a sinful thought every so often, but all the time.

            The Lord was grieved that He had made man in the first place. Our God is a loving Father and his heart breaks when we disobey Him. That is why Paul says to us, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Eph 4:30.  When God is grieved by man’s sin His heart is filled with pain because He loves us.

The Bible says that God must judge sin, but his delight is to respond in forgiveness to anyone who repents of their sin and desires to change their ways. But there is a warning. God had a deadline for repentance, just as he does for you and me.

            People tend to ignore the reality of judgment. Jesus is speaking in Matthew 24:37-39 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Sin is a reality both in our day and in Noah's.

The moral decay in our society is obvious. Sexual immorality has become so common that many folks no longer think it is a big deal. Honesty, simply telling the truth, is becoming a lost virtue. I listened to one of the news commentators this week wondering what is the world is happening with all the increased violence in our land. Every week there is more news about mass shootings, rapes, child molestation, Thirty years ago a student might put a tack on a teacher's chair, but now there are students who attack their teachers with knives or guns. They break every one of God's commands, but do not even consider the possibility that the Lord would punish them for their disobedience. Even as the culmination of history approaches, when Jesus Christ will return to earth, people will still go on living in rebellion against God, giving no thought to the consequences of their sin.

This week as you watch television notice how many times the Ten Commandments are scorned in a typical half-hour comedy or hour drama. Look at the innuendo regarding illicit sexual relationship, look at the deception, the violence and the utter disregard for human life that is brought into our homes. Listen to the radio (talk or music, ipods) and notice the values of the people involved. Notice that the standard for right and wrong appealed to is personal preference, not God's eternal standards. Pay attention when people talk about God in our world. Their description of God is nothing like the God of scripture. Lot's of famous people talk about their belief in God. Notice what this God they describe is like. Generally God is concerned that we feel good. His only goal is to help us have a fulfilling life. There is no talk of holiness, sin, or judgment. The God of the world is a caricature created in the image of man. Watch a recent movie. Pay attention to the language, the morality, the ethics, the behavior and also notice the way Gods people are often portrayed as lunatics.

Chuck Swindoll wrote, “Because of sin, man has taken the deity out of religion,

the supernatural out of Christianity, the authority from the Bible God out of education,

morality and virtue out of literature, beauty and truth out of art, ethics out of business,

fidelity out of marriage.”

God was grieved. But don’t think that He is not grieved over sin today. What about in your life?

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Thurs April 12 Grace

Verses: Gen 6: But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

 ⁹ This is the account of Noah and his family.

   Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Gods Grace 

Notice the bright spot in the line of sin, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Or as the NIV says Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah did not find favor because he was a righteous man, but rather he became righteous because he found favor from the Lord. Like everyone else in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, Noah is a righteous person because of God's grace alone, and he experienced that righteousness through faith alone.

            When the gift of grace is offered to mankind, some accept it and most do not. Those who accept his grace by faith receive favor and blessing. Those who reject or ignore God’s offer experience the consequences. Noah responded to the Grace of God and his life was changed. He was a sinner just like us all, only he went a different path.

            None of us can ever earn God's favor. If God were looking for men and women who on their own live righteous lives, He would come up empty. All are sinners, no one is righteous. Yet, in His grace, God chooses to show favor to many. He enables people to stop trusting in themselves and put their trust in Jesus Christ. That is how someone becomes a Christian, a child of God. We can only experience God's salvation by turning to Jesus Christ.

Noah’s faith allowed him to respond to God’s grace. Ephesians tells us “it is by grace that we are saved through faith. It is a gift of God lest anyone should boast.” Noah shows that one of the marks of genuine faith is that it leads to action. Hebrews says that because Noah had faith, he obeyed God as Genesis 6:22 says: Noah did everything just as God commanded him. If Noah said, "Sure, I believe You, God," but then never got around to building the ark, he would have gotten wet, and he would have demonstrated that his faith was not real.

One of my great fears as a pastor is that perhaps there are people who like listening to the sermons, who think they are fine Christians, but who have never really trusted Jesus Christ to follow Him. They know the facts that Jesus existed. He was the son of God, He died on the cross, and even that He rose from the dead. But have not committed ones life to Christ and relied on him to save.

Noah was a man who did what God wanted him to do. He did what was right (thus the term righteous). He allowed God's standards to effect and direct his life. Noah was unafraid to live differently from the others. Hebrews tells us that Noah, by faith, was warned of God of things not yet seen, and he believed God, constructed an ark, thus condemned the world, and became the heir of that righteousness which comes by faith. It is a righteousness which is not a result of our working, not a result of our best efforts put forth to try to please God, but a righteousness which comes by believing God. That is the kind that Noah had.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Without grace Noah could not have been saved from the destruction that came upon the world. There was no inherent merit in Noah greater than in other men of his time. The only difference was that Noah believed and obeyed God.  Likewise grace has come unto us through Christ

Many of us who were baseball fans in the 50s and 60s were impressed with the New York Yankees of old. Roger Marris, Yoga Berra, Mickey Mantle, were boyhood heroes. I watched a couple of stories on Mickey Mantle when  he died and talked about his life and party days. He revealed how he and Billy Martin drove the head coach nuts with their practical jokes and breaking curfew.

Bobby Richardson another teammate and outspoken Christian reported in the Los Angeles Times that just a few days before his death, Mantle told him that he had accepted Christ as his personal savior.  Richardson commend that he had received more than 300 letters form Christians who had been praying for Mickey in the last months of his life.

This hard drinking, fast living, millionaire was not living for God, but self and the pleasures of this world. But faced the effects of his sin in destroying his liver, he needed the gift from God. He realized he had no place else to turn. God was good to him. He didn’t have to give him another chance. Some don’t have another chance. He didn’t have to bring Bobby Richardson into his life, but he did. He didn’t have to lay it upon the hearts of 300 people to pray for his salvation, but he did. Think of the fact that God, who had been ignored and offended for a lifetime stood without rage at the edge of eternity offering mercy and grace to Mantle’s repentant heart.

Bobby Richardson’s wife knelt by Mickey chair a few days before he went home to be with the Lord asking him how he knew for sure that he had been born again. Mantle recited, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

            Grace was also revealed in the fact that revealed his intentions to Noah. He gave him commands to follow and obey to save himself and his family. None of those things did God have to do. He did it out of his grace and love. He gave him careful direction how to save the whole world through a different way- the ark, but it took trust and obedience by faith.

God gave the people of Noah’s day 120 years to repent and hear the warning of judgment. The Bible says God was longsuffering. He is patient, but there was a time when grace was no longer extended. A warning now for this is the day of salvation and the time to respond to the grace of God. Tomorrow may be too late.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Fri April 13 

Verses- Gen 6: 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 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. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubithigh all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 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. Everything on earth will perish. 18 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. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.20 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. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

God’s Guidance

God comes up with a plan to start over. God is going to bring a worldwide flood that will destroy every living thing. His plan is to preserve humanity through Noah and his family.

The enormous ship was the vehicle that God chose to use to save the righteous few.  It had 3 decks which in turn were divided into rooms.        The ark’s dimension was truly remarkable for its time and even today. It was 450 feet long-that is 1 ½ football field lengths. It was 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, that is 4 ½ stories. Modern ocean liners rarely exceed twice the length of Noah’s ark. Someone has done the math and figured that the ark had a carrying capacity of 522 standard railroad stock cars. Or the equivalent of eight freight trains of 65 cars each! This was no little ship.

To make matters worse, Noah and his family lived 500 miles or more away from the closest body of water! And there is no record that it had ever rained before! Can you imagine explaining a need for a boat and the concept of a flood under these conditions? So, not only did God ask Noah to build this great vessel for which there was no precedent, he had to do so in the midst of public ridicule. Certainly he was known by others as "crazy Noah". I wouldn't be surprised if families traveling on vacation would make it a point to drive by and see the man who was building something "God told him to build". He was a freak.

Whatever the shape of the ark, its declared purpose was to provide sanctuary for 8 people and all the main species of animals through the flood. The devastating power of the floodwaters would totally destroy all other life under the heavens and every creatures that had the breath of life in it would die. But the Lord would keep alive Noah his 3 sons and wives.

The story of salvation from the Flood used in the Bible typifies Gods deliverance of all who trust Him. Some say this provides a symbol of baptism as well.

            God announced in advance that He would establish his covenant with Noah, a covenant that Noah would fully understand only after the Flood was over. God's people will be protected, even when the Lord is executing judgment on the ungodly. Nowhere in the Bible does God promise His people freedom from adversity. Whether we like it or not, Christians sometimes have trouble paying their bills, Christians some-times get fired from jobs, Christians sometimes get F's on their report cards, Christians sometimes play for teams that don't win a game all season, Christians sometimes have terrible conflicts in their marriage, Christians sometimes get sick, Christians sometimes die. But, like Noah, our afflictions, our troubles, are all temporary. God will be with us and will protect us in the midst of our trials. That is a testimony I have heard over and over again from those Christians in other countries who have suffered persecution for their faith in Jesus.             

Friends, if you are a genuine Christian, the good news is that no matter what you are going through, no matter how hard it is, God is with you.  It was not fun in the ark, but it was a lot better inside the ark than outside. It is much better to be going through a tough time with God beside you, than to be going through an easy time without the Lord.

And all this time Noah is preaching to the people!

 How frustrating it would have been to have such an urgent message and get nothing but scorn and ridicule in response. He preached but no one responded. But Noah continued doing what God called him to do. He trusted God's Word and God's promise. And that's what made him a man of faith and saw the salvation of the Lord.

            Where in your life is faith tested? When is it you have the hardest time trusting God? Remember Noah.

Pastor Dale

Walking with God - Genesis 5

Sermon Nuggets Mon April 2 Gen 5     Walking with God

Verses    Gen 5

Does the name Josh Gibson ring a bell? There has been lots of comparisons in the sport of baseball with muscle man Mark McGwire against the gentleman Sammy Sosa. There are still discussions that both surpassed Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs and then flew by Roger Maris claim of 61 before McGwire took the prize with 70 homers.

Yet there was hardly a mention of Josh Gibson. He was considered by many as the greatest power hitter ever to hold a bat in any baseball league in the US. He played form 1930 to 1946. At the age of 19 he hit 75 home runs in one season a feat that no one has ever accomplished. Perhaps the reason that Gibson is an unsung hero is that he played mostly in what was known as the Negro League. This period of racial discrimination ignored such achievements among the whites even though the white and Negro leagues did play.  The white league lost 3 to one games on the average According to some accounts, Gibson hit 962 home runs in his 17 years career and complied a lifetime batting average of .391 in 1972 he was inducted posthumously into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

There are many unsung heroes in the Bible. Some of them would be put in the Hall of Faith but maybe there isn’t a great deal of publicity about them. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Man is created in the image of God. Yet when you read the book of Adam and his family tree one after another the record says and he died. That is the result of the fall. Death comes to all. We might be impressed with the longevity of life, but sooner or later all die. Everyone except Lamech lived to be about 900 years old including Noah.

Now there are some explanations as to how this can be literal. Some believe the climatic conditions before the flood were ideal and were conducive to long life. Or simply, God in his sovereignty determined that certain special people should live unusually long lives and made it possible for them to do so in order to populate the earth.

Spurgeon used the illustration of waves at the shores of a tide ocean when describing death. One wave takes your grandmother. Then a while later another wave comes and takes away your mother; and a little later your wife; and is now at your feet. We live, we die- then what?

But in the middle of these lists of names we read vs. 21-24. There is something about a man born that was different from the others. Enoch walked with God. He is in God’s Fall of Faith in Hebrews 11, but not an awful lot is said about him. More is said about Enoch in the NT than in the Old. There are only 5 passages that refer to Enoch two are genealogies; Heb. 11:5 and Jude 14, 15.

We may never get our names in books or biographies of faith written about us, but God keeps the books and knows his own. Enoch serves this morning as our model to follow. To follow Enoch’s example will take away the fear of death.

What is implied in walking with God? That is the topic of this week’s devotions.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Tues April 3 Faith

Verses Gen 5: 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.23 Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

Heb 11: 5 & 6 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Walking with God implies Faith.

The Bible says in Hebrews "without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Enoch pleased God. Now Enoch had no portion of the Bible. His revelation of God was small and dim as compared with ours. He believed in the existence of the Supreme Being and was convinced that God is and knew something of his holy will.

To walk with God implies he had faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." When it comes to God there is confidence in his promises, even though we don't see them.  We cannot see that part of our being which thinks and feels hopes and fears, loves and hates. Spiritual truth is invisible.  But because you cannot measure it for scientific experimentation doesn't deny it's reality.

We live today in the clear and full light of Divine revelation. For God hath spoken unto us in his Son. We know how to please God. It is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and following Him. If you want to begin a walk with God you  have to confess your sins, ask God to forgive you your sins and put you faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

One speaker at our State’s Annual meeting said for him it was as if he was driving the car of his life and making a mess of it, until he finally gave up the drivers seat and allowed Jesus to do the driving in his life. That is a good explanation of faith.

It was harder in the Old Testament when the revelations of God weren't as clear as today. He did not have the revelation of the coming of the Son of God on the earth. He did not have the historical evidences of the effect of Jesus life in the world. He did not have the testimony of the million of lives since Christ time that have been changed not the witness of the centuries of the Christian church.

But as we live our lives we learn that we need to do it God’s way even though we don’t always understand. In order to go God’s way, Enoch had to have experienced testing of faith because all the examples of the people in the Bible make choices. Those choices fall down to the question of trusting God or not. Faith is an obedience response without regard to circumstances or feelings. There will be times when God puts you and me to those tests of trusting his word instead of our wisdom and to do so is faith.

Which is a better prayer, “Lord, walk with me in my travels, or “Lord let me walk with you in your paths”? Faith is not asking God to help us on our agenda. It is putting ourselves at His disposal and going his way. Walking with God is a faith agreement to go in his direction. Enoch did not fight or resist God but delighted to walk as God directed.

What does it mean for you to walk with God in faith today? What does it mean for your choices, your relationships, your words and your actions?

Pastor Dale

 

Sermon Nuggets Weds April 4 Intimacy

Verses- Gen 5:22b , Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.

 Walking with God implies Intimacy.

A pastor’s wife was speaking to pastors one day about some of the needs of a pastor’s wife. She was trying to impress on us thick headed men that women need to have time with their clergy husbands. She reminded us that being in the house together at the same time is not the same as being with your spouse. When she suggests to her husband to go for a walk what do you think his first response is? “Where do you want to go?” Makes sense doesn’t it?

She doesn’t really care where they go as long as they go together to talk and maybe hold hands and develop a closeness without other distractions of phone, or books or jobs that each can see.

We sing, “And he walks with me and his talks with me and He tells me I am his own. The joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” One of the greatest privileges we have is we can have a closer walk with God in our personal lives.

There is a vast difference between merely living on the one hand and walking with God on the other. To walk with God is to desire to be in his presence, to enjoy his fellowship, to experience  his love. It is to want to talk with Him and listen for what He wants to say to us.  I often thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have that dialogue like these OT saints? Well we can and do even more because God lives within us wherever we go. It is a privilege available by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 Do you desire a closer relationship with God? Most do not and therefore do not seek Him. What are you willing to change to see that happen?  Others call upon Him and determine in their hearts to face what needs to be faced, confess what needs to be confessed, obey what needs to be obeyed for they want nothing to get in the way of the joy of the presence of God.

I can think of nothing more important to strengthen your faith walk than in personal private prayer.  When one grows in prayer there is an intimacy and love with God that brings out joy. Have you come to times in your life you just want to read the Bible as part of talking and listening to God?  The more time you spend with a person the better you know him. The same principle applies to you and the Lord.

Too many Christians spend an hour or two a week in church. But you don't get intimately acquainted with a person you meet only in a group. One group of ministers were  polled revealed they averaged only 10 minutes of prayer and personal quiet time a day. If that is the statistic for ministers what about the church people? Most do not have any consistent daily time spent in personal prayer, devotional reading, or meditation at all. You just don't develop a walk with God unless you spend some time in His presence. I'm not talking about the Pharisee who makes a mockery of prayer and fasting by watching the clock or calendar. I am saying that if there little desire there is not much room for faith to grow. May Enoch be an example to us all in faith where his time being with God was the most important in life.

Part of the walk that is ours with the Lord and the sweet communion of being in his love is also the realization that he is involved in our lives. Prayer and the reading of the Word not only strengthens the relationship that is ours in Jesus Christ, but gives us the wisdom that is from above. "Call on me and I will answer thee and show thee great and might things that you know not"  Jer 33:3.

There are enemies of intimacy. Time is one enemy. Our daily commitments can  become an enemy if we don’t rearrange priorities. Interruptions are enemies. Is there anything we can do to minimize interruptions? Perhaps we don’t have to answer the phone in the middle of prayer, or respond to email notifications. Maybe it is going away for a short period of time without one being able to be contacted. 

The greatest enemy to intimacy with the Lord is sin. To ask God to reveal things in your life that may hinder your relationship and be committed to confess and repent will take away the spiritual barriers that get in the way of your walk with God. It is worth it.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Thurs April 5 Consistency

Verses – Gen 5: 22 Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.

Walking with God implies Consistency .

I often wondered what life was like when Adam and Eve and their great great great grandchildren were all still living and could sit down and have them tell their families what it was like to be with God in Paradise. But what the Bible tells us from Cain on, that sin had grown to unbelievable portions in just a short time. Sin abounded and resentment against God and leaving his ways was the norm.

To walk with someone may be but for a brief time. To walk together may have been only as long as the road to Emmaus with the resurrected Jesus. It is significant to be sure. But to walk consistently, daily, and for years will develop a character including faith, intimacy, and love.

Spiritual growth doesn’t happen by trying harder to be perfect. Growth happens when we spend time with God. His character begins to rub off on us. When we think of the fruit of the Spirit we know that when Jesus comes into our lives and hearts he begins to change us, only with our permission. God does not look so much at our performance, as he does the motives of our heart.

Peter had tremendous potential for growth for two reasons. First God called him to himself and began to let him see more of Jesus, and secondlyaAlthough Peter kept getting it wrong, he had the right motive. He wanted to please God. He wanted to serve God. He wanted God to work in his life so whatever he did was for Jesus.

God sees our motives; He has perfect love and understanding. Faith of Enoch serves as an example to want to please God by facing sin repenting of it and living for God in righteousness even in a area were unrighteousness abounds. Faith is seen in the sincere effort to do His will consistently in life, not just the spurt of emotional commitment. 

Jesus Christ came as the example of desiring to please his Father in Heaven.  His joy was to do the will of him who sent him. Twice the Father testified of him from heaven.  "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” He was sinless.

As Enoch made his faith commitment to God there was a growing commitment to live for God in a consistent manner and not for self or for others.  To the man of faith he trusts the Spirit will illuminate his mind to do God’s will. The world will say all that is important is what you store up on earth. But the Spirit shows the foolishness of that thinking and says what is important is what you store up in heaven and peace is not in what we have here, but what we have inside. Be content with what you have, Contentment doesn't come from the outside but the inside wisdom.

If you know that God is trustworthy and loves you and wants what is best in His mind for you. If you are convinced that God know the beginning from the end and will reward you richly in the glories above then you will have confidence that all He does in your life will be for your good. Even if you do not understand respond on what you do understand. 

What Enoch did understand was simply the ways of the world around him were different than the ways God wanted him to walk. When he made his commitment to God he saw evil in a new and horrible way.  There is an interesting couple of verses in Jude 1:14-15 "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones  to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

When we are committed to God we see the world as He sees it. There is judgment coming. That is troubling. So Enoch becomes a preacher. He does not hate the people he loves them to warn them of the judgement. The moral separation which sin causes between soul and God was seen right from the earliest of generations.

Enoch lived in a sinful age. Man’s wickedness on earth had become great. In his day there were acts of evil, sexual promiscuity, materialism, demonism,  What would Enoch say if he were here today? Ungodly? The outcome in Enochs day was terrible judgment of God by flood

Enoch walked with God. Jude says that he preached judgement to the world by his walk with God. He preached judgement not only in the words he spoke but also in the life that he lived. Just as Enoch was active in proclaiming the news of salvation to the people of his day,  Christians today play a significant role in God's plan. Our lives warn others of the judgement that is to come. Consistent living and walking with God is something honored by God and has stability in our maturity.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Fri April 6 Blessing

Verses Heb 11: 5 & 6 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

To Walk with God implies Blessing

 When I was young there was a short piece in the newspaper called “Ripley’s Believe it or Not”. It had tidbits of unbelievable, odd, or different information. One time this question was posed: “How did the oldest man on earth have a father who outlived him?” That was a riddle. The answer of course is Enoch outlived  Methuselah. Yet Methuselah was the oldest recorded life in history- 969 years. This happened because Enoch was taken up into heaven without dying.

Contrast the fate of Abel and Enoch. One was crushed to earth by the hand of a brutal murder, the other conveyed to heaven by God. Enoch’s son was Methuselah who lived up to the time of the flood and whose grandson was Noah who was saved by the ark.   How sad that the testimony was there but apparentely he didn’t listen.

There is much speculation of Enoch's miraculous removal from earth.  There are many questions as to what happened. How does God translate a body from here to heaven without death? He did not pass from earth by the same way as other men but his body must have undergone great change.

1 Corinthians 15 shows that our bodies change.. There is a natural body and a spiritual body.  So the body of Enoch was spiritualized by God. It underwent essential change. It was mortal and now immortal; it was corruptible now incorruptible; it was of the earth, now it became of heaven. His body was refined and purified by God

 His translation was a distinguished honor and reward to Enoch. The only two men who passed from this world without tasting of death were distinguished as prophets fearless in rebuking evil- doers and asserting the divine message, and each in an age of dominate wickedness.  Enoch and Elijah's translation was testimony from Heaven that these men, though no sinless, were especially honored by God.

Those who remain until the Lord’s coming will also experience this translation without death .1 Thess 4: 17 “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” Perhaps Enoch experience was a shadow of what is yet to come for many.

Enoch pleased God. Wouldn’t that be great if that were said of us? Unpopular with people, but popular with God. 365 years old God took him home to be with Himself. It was as if God said, “Let’s not go back to your place tonight. You’ve walked so long with me it’s closer to my home than yours. Come home with Me.”  Through the revelation of God they learned that Enoch had not been murdered but taken away by God and given a place in Paradise. Death is not the end but there has been another place prepared for us and set aside better than this present existence.

I believe this was for a sign to the men of that age. Enoch was a prophet to the sinners. His prophecies and rebukes had created enemies instead of repentant followers of God. Now perhaps his sudden and strange removal from them would give new and addition light to his words. It was God's way of stressing the spiritual and eternal.  The people were reviling in pagan worship and sinful actions but the extraordinary removal of the holy prophet of God from the world might force them to reflect on the existence of the real God and reward that awaits us of faith.

We have the confidence of blessings from God. I already spoke of the blessings that are ours on this earth in Jesus Christ. But there is more to come. I think Enoch's blessing was means of testimony not only to his faith but to draw people to God who witnessed it as a sign of God's reality in the world and his reward to the one who diligently seeks him.

But as all die where are you going to spend eternity, and how are you going to spend your life? Enoch’s walk was exhibited by faith, intimacy, growth, consistency and blessings. What about yours?

Pastor Dale

Effects of Sin Gen 4

Sermon Nuggets Mon March 26

Verses- Gen 4

Effects of Sin-
I liked Jerry Shirley’s sermon on the first in our previous chapter. Last week we were introduced to the first time Satan was mentioned, Sin came on the scene. It introduced for the first time a sacrifice for sin as well as a need for a Savior. And it was the first time a sentence was carried out.
We saw the sin has consequences. When God said in the day that you eat of this forbidden fruit you will surely die. What died that day first and foremost was a spiritual death. There was not the intimacy with God. There was the beginning processes of the body decaying. There was death in the garden when the animals died for the sins of Adam and Eve.
Sin is initially attractive. It is pleasurable for a season. But as we see in the rest of the book of the Bible it destroys self, relationships, spiritual vitality, and our circumstances and environment.
A Minister tells the story of Jill, their 6-year-old, who was “helping” him in the front yard of the parsonage. She chattered away about her Sunday school lesson on Adam and Eve. He thought he’d test her. “Did you know Adam and Eve sinned?”
    “Yep.”
     “What did God do to them as a punishment?”
      Her answer was immediate and matter-of-fact, without even looking up she said: “He made them have kids.”
This week we will look at the kids they had. It is the first mention not only of children but the jealousy and crime of murder taking place.
We read regular of the sons and daughter of Adam committing murder. We read about it in countries overseas with the terrorist bombing. We know about it in US with shootings that are publicized in schools. We see people beaten by gangs for various reasons include racial hatred. We have families killed because of fighting going on between husbands and wives, between boyfriends and girlfriends. We have been churches bombed and entered into with mad gunmen.
The first murder of an innocent godly person came right from the beginning chapters of Genesis. As soon as sin entered the world it didn’t even take one generation before the worst of sins was committed against the closest of relatives.  Right from the beginning we see how the fall of man affected the sons of Adam.
  What Satan meant for evil God can bring out good. In the depths of the effects of sin God is still at work providing ways to overcome our evil and fallen heart. The questions are appropriately asked, “What is wrong with our world?” Why do wars persist? How can we live in peace?
        The effects of sin will continue until the reign of Jesus Christ and Satan is judged and bound. But much is revealed about how the world has changed from how it was first created. We know that God is not finished yet. He has a plan.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Tues March 27

Verses Gen 4:1-51 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
   Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.


Original Sin
  In the previous chapter we read not only about the first sin and the fall of man, but some of the curse and the hope that God gives to conquer sin. It was prophesied that an offspring of the woman would crush the serpent. Perhaps that is one of the reasons Eve was so excited about the baby. This is a gift from God, an offspring of a woman. Perhaps she had her hopes he would take away evil when Cain was born.
  What we found out instead was the place original sin plays itself out beginning with the first born of mankind. Original sin means not only the first sin, but it means that all humans ever born right from the beginning of time have been sinners. We are under the judgement of God in that all will face death and we are also under the curse of the world affected because of the original sin.
       People ask about the bad weather and natural tragedies from draught to plagues, to hurricanes and earthquakes. The Bible tells us the sun shines and the just and the unjust, meaning there is something we all experience both the grace of God even if people act out in evil ways and the traumas and tragedies of this life even if people act in good ways.
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— In the Old Testament, King David tells us “In sin did my mother conceive me.” He was the last son of Jesse and it didn’t speak about the immorality of his biological parents, but rather pointing to the fact we are born into a world of sin- we are victims of it’s affect.
       The concept of original sin bothers some people, but I do not know why because everyone if given the same choices that Eve and Adam had would do the same thing. Frankly we all have been disobedient to God. No one can claim they have lived a sinless life. So the scripture applied is correct. “All of sinned and come short of the gospel of Christ” We are all in need of salvation and all are effected by the fall in separation from a Holy and righteous God.  Ish tells us there is none that is good no not one.” All our righteousness before a holy God is as filthy rags.
         So in this chapter we see two offspring of Eve and Adam. The firstborn is called Cain and she celebrates life by saying I have received a man from the Lord. Her delight is recorded in the Bible. Her pain is not, for she did suffer in childbirth as predicted in the previous chapter. Then she conceives again and Abel is the other offspring.
Some people have proposed the idea that it is society that makes people corrupt. If kids were left to their natural inclinations they would be good. You  have to be taught how to hate, and hurt others. The world would be a better place if we didn‘t have other people influencing out thinking. If our social circumstances and upbringing was right, if we had good playmates then the world would be a perfect place.
       Cain did not go wrong through the influence of neighborhood boys. There were no drinking crowds and rowdy companions that lead him into sin. Although no parent is perfect, the Scriptures are full of examples of Godly kings who had sons who were particularly wicked and evil. And likewise there were some examples of men who were evil whose sons and daughters followed God.
            Sin has its effect on all the people of the world. We are all Adam’s offspring.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Weds March 28

Verses- Gen 4:  3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Sin Offerings
          We see that the worship of Cain and Abel was revealed in two different offerings.
Cain had an offering of fruit and Abel presented before God a blood sacrifice. Some commentaries want to make a point of the difference of attitude and other sacrifice. I think both are important to understand the prophecies of God.
When we talk about worship, primarily we think of the worship service. Worship is more than just getting together to read Bible passages, sing songs, pray, listen to somebody preach, or have communion. True worship comes from the heart. It is an expression of adoration. Worship can take place in church, but just because we’re here in church doesn’t necessarily mean we’re worshiping. If it’s not coming out of the heart and head, then it’s just a ritual — and ritual, without the corresponding heart-feeling, has never satisfied God. God looks upon the human heart and can cut through all of our acting and pretending to see what we’re like down deep.
          Could it be that God was not pleased with Cain’s offering solely because he looked into Cain’s heart and saw that his worship was done grudgingly and out of superficial motives?
In November of 1995, Paul Harvey told this story: The Butterball Turkey Company set up a hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys.
          One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for twenty-three years. The operator told her it might be safe if the freezer had been kept below zero degrees the entire time. But she warned her that, even if it were safe, the flavor had probably deteriorated, and she wouldn’t recommend eating it. The caller replied, "That’s what we thought. So we’ll just give it to the church."
           True worship comes out of a desire to please God, to show one’s gratitude to God, to show one’s love for God. True worship comes from the heart.
            There is another way to identify an attitude. Cain does not give the best or first of his produce, but Abel does. The first took from his bounty, the second from the best and first of his flock. Heb 11:4 “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.”
Some might prefer the offering of fruit or flowers over bloody sacrifice, so messy and repulsive. But let’s not also miss the prophetic point. Abel’s sacrifice involved blood and therefore testified to the death of a substitute. He was coming to God as a sinner in need of forgiveness. Cain came on the products of his own works. When God killed animals in the Garden and then clothed Adam and Eve with their skins God was showing that because sin means death, innocent victims must die in order that sinners might be pardoned. The sacrifices pointed forward to Jesus. When Abel came with the offering of blood he believed God and was looking forward to the provision of the deliverer.
The offering of Cain represented all the beautiful things of this world that God has given to us and which you and I would like to offer back to Him
     . There are lots of churches that come with offerings of men without relying of the conditions God wants. Today's church does whatever it can to attract new people and as many as it can. Some churches do not even preach gospel because it may offend people. I know of one BGC pastor that admitted he doesn’t speak about sin because people want something positive when they come to church. Preaching on sin can be negative and judgmental. He doesn’t speak about judgement because he doesn’t want to instill fear in his people, but love.
God loved us so much he wants us to know about sin and judgement. Christ took the judgment of death in order that we might have peace. But if we come to God on our own offerings of good works and sincere hearts and are sincerely wrong then we are no better than Cain.  The first cause of Cain's problem was he came to God as he wanted, not as God required. It is possible for us to offer our works to God, but only after we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ by accepting his perfect sacrifice to cleanse us from unrighteousness. We do that as a step of faith and commitment our lives to Christ and believing and receiving him into our lives by an act of the will.
           Our offerings to God are received in the form of money, as well as service and worship. Many give talents, as well as time and treasure. But if we haven’t first come before God calling on Christ to forgive our sins we have come with the wrong offerings. Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes unto the Father but by me. We must come with the offerings that are well pleasing unto God. Rom 15:15-16
          The grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Thurs March 29

Verses- Gen 4: 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

God’s Warnings
         It was true with Adam and Eve. It was true with Cain and Able. There were warnings before sin needed to be committed. Adam and Eve knew taking the forbidden fruit would have adverse consequences. Likewise God warned Cain before he committed the sin of murder what answer can do. He had a warning also. Sin is personified as a wild animal lurking at the door ready to pounce on it’s victim. Sin is temporarily under control, but dangerously ready to attack us when we least expect it. To master the beasts and not allow sin to grow further one has to do what is right.
         All of us are enticed by our own evil desires. James tells us that after sin is conceived in our hearts it gives birth to sin and sin give birth to death. Yet we learn that by God’s grace we do not have to remain enslaved to our evil desires. With His help we can resist temptation.
         I am impressed that God did not turn his back on Cain, but gave him the plan whereby he finds acceptance. God initiated the relationship and called Cain to Himself. Is that true today? Are there people who have disobeyed and wandered from God? God is not rejecting you, but calling you to Himself to know Him, to find his love and power and peace, but there is one way. It is the way of faith expressed by obedience.
         The fault was not outside of Cain with his anger. It was something that could be changed. We tend to blame others for our troubles, although others can be a factor, the true cause is mostly within us. “If you do what is right will you not be accepted?” Asked God. If Cain had been admonished to do the right it was because the right had been made known to him. Yet he rejected the right not for lack of knowledge but lack of humility and faith, and obedience.
         George Martin tells the following true story of a fellow who wrote a nasty letter to his father. George told his co worker not to send it because it was written in a fit a anger, but this man sealed it and gave it to him to mail. George Martin simply put it into his pocket and kept it for a couple of days. Sure enough when he arrived to work after the weekend the man came to him and said, “I wish I had never sent that note. I’d give 50 dollars to get it back.” Mr. Martin reached into his pocket and returned it, and declined the money.
           So often what we do in anger or hurt comes back to haunt us if we would only wait and think about our actions. That is what God wants us to do. He knows that such emotions can overtake us at the time and we do something stupid. We often get warning from God because he knows the damage that sin does.
           Someone pictures sin as a swimmer in a rapids of large river, miles up stream for mammoth waterfall. The swimmer can easily get out of the water but as the rapids get rougher and he gets closer to the falls it becomes more and more difficult to be free of the currents and the force of the water. The safest and best time to resist temptation is before it is too strong or powerful to resist. The rising doubt or evil thought quickly becomes in when we dwell on it and allow it to take up residence in our hearts.
         I Jn 3:12-13 “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.”
         Eve had been talked into her sin. Cain could not be talked out of his, even by God himself
Why did Abel have to die? Luke 11:50-51 Jesus says, “Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed” God declares war on murders and abusers and those in their evil plot against the innocent, but like so much in the Old Testament Abel is called a prophet, meaning his life and death are foretelling something that God is doing. The death of the innocent at the hands of the evil one will be played out by God himself in the form of one who was sinless and killed on a cross.

Pastor Dale


Sermon Nuggets Fri March 30

Verses- Gen 4: 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
   “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
 10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
 13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Sin’s Outcome
          God’s guidelines for our behavior are there to protect us. Think about it: think of something named as a sin in the Bible. Doesn’t matter what it is? A person will always be safer and better off if they follow God’s laws for mankind. Obedience is commanded for our own good. God’s rules for our behavior are not things we must do to earn our salvation or rules to obey because of some arbitrary decision made by a vengeful Creator, they are there to protect us, to make our lives easier and the sooner we stop thinking of God’s rules as ruining our lives and see them as things that make our lives easier the better off we’ll be.
          One is killed and one is lives. What we consider the worse of sins was the first of sins recorded after the human couple was driven from the garden.
Now the question posed to Cain was similar to the one given to Adam in the previous chapter. Here God asks “Where is your brother?” God asked Adam, “where are you? “ Adam identified his hiding place. Cain did not.
         He said in essence, “How do I know where my brother is? I am not responsible for him.”. Adam pointed the finger the other way trying to divert responsibility from himself to his wife, and she to the serpent. Confession is hard. The most difficult words are, “I was wrong. I did it. I sinned.”
          Did you think God didn’t know the whereabouts of Abel? Of course He did. He is asking, not because he didn’t know, but  he wanted a confession. As parents we might well know what happened to the cookies, but we ask our child what happened. “I don’t know.” “Did you take them?” No. Evidence might be all over the child’s face and hands, but lying comes naturally.
            God reveals to Cain the truth- He did do it. Abel’s blood cries out from the field. This is the way of saying the victim is crying and I heard his cries. But instead of intervening at that time, God waited and watched as the first murder occurred just as he watched when the murder of Jesus occurred. Murder turns to lies and cover up.
          Cain was allowed to live, but it was the life that is typical of sin. He lived out of fellowship with God with his family and from others. He could not make a living any longer from farming. The land would not cooperate with Cain from that day on. He was a wanderer in fear of his life and in fear of revenge and guilt for his sin. His life was not as he wanted, now in the fellowship of God without Abel, but worse than before.
           Edward Hale published a story in 1863 right during the civil war called “The Man without a country: It was about an US Army officer Philip Nolan who had been involved in the revolutionary war treachery of Aaron Burr. At his trial he was asked if he wished to say anything in his defense to show that he had always been faithful to the United States. But he cried out “Damn the United States. I wish I may ever hear of the United States Again”.
          The judge decided to take Philip Nolans request seriously. So instead of sentencing him to death for his treason, which he had every right to do, he sentenced him to be imprisoned at sea on government vessels with instructions to the officers that no one was permitted to have him hear the name or receive any information about his country. In this fashion many years go by. He passes form ship to ship, always being transferred just before the one on which he has been traveling returns to the US port
  As last he dies at sea but not before a naval officer broke orders and told him about America and its remarkable growth and prosperity during the 25 years. Noland’s last words were that no one ever loved his country as much as he.
         A man without a country. This was the outcome of Cain’s sin. As far as we know there was no change of heart.
           There seemed to be a progressive curse on the land of Cannan. In history we know it was once flowing with milk and honey but has had countless wars and invasions. The land shorn of its forest resulted in topsoil eroded. The rainwater flows away. It has turned into desert land in an increasing among. Where of the giant civilizations of Babylon and Assyria and Nineveh and the cities of Baalbek and Jeresh are now desolate. Sin brings a curse even on the ground. And God made Cain know that.
             Later the Bible speaks of the way of Cain. It means that although Cain’s case is a sorry one it is sorrier when people follow in Cain’s ways. If you are alike in Cain’s way you have rejected the way of salvation and warning. He had rejected God’s sacrifice gift of his son Jesus. Yet look at the outcomes. Abel is mentioned as well as a prophet. One who does what is right. Here is the death as an innocent victim, but also acclaimed by God in glory. There is the judgment when God will avenge his death, just like the death of Jesus Christ. He has a testimony for all of mankind to follow.
           By faith he was commended as a righteous man, who God spoke well of his offering and by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. (Heb 11:4).
           The final judgment those in Cain’s way, those who remain in sin are banned from the country of God and excluded forever from His presence. That is the eternal curse for all sin that has not been cleaned by Christ and faith in Him.

Pastor Dale