The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Genesis 6:1-8; 7:1-7, 11-12 Rev. Christopher D.

White

New Hope Lutheran Church, Toledo, OH St. Pauls Lutheran Church, Monroe, MI June 24, 2012

HOMILIES ON GENESIS: THE FLOOD Oh, there are times when I walk into one of my childrens bedrooms and ask, What happened to this place? It looks like a tornado came through here. It literally looks as though an f-5 tornado touched down in the middle of this bedroom, spun around for a while, and then just lifted away. What happened, guys? Tell me, please. What happened? When God made Adam and Eve, he looked upon them and upon everything that he had created and declared that it was, very good! He looked with satisfaction on the entirety of his creation and deemed it perfect, fit for his honor and glory; but, it didnt take long at all for Adam and Eve made a mess of it. Then, with that first generation of children in this world, the mess worsened exponentially. As more generations entered the world, the mess became astronomical, to the point where God was not only dissatisfied with mankind; he was grieved! He was in pain! We read in verses 5 and 6, The Lord saw how great mans wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. It pained God to see what had become of the human race, which was specially formed and made for Gods praise and glory. It was painful for him to watch the spiritual deterioration of mankind. So, what happened? Thats what were going to spend time on today. There are some very important lessons for us today embedded in the account of the flood, not the least of which is Gods incredible patience towards a human race that is increasingly ungodly and is decreasingly concerned with matters of the soul. The population of todays world is not unlike the population of Noahs day when it comes to attending to what is to be our primary concern: our relationship with God. Day after day, people go about their regular daily lives giving absolutely zero thought to what would happen if they should come face to face with God by days end. Gods patience is incredibleand yet in the midst of vast unbelief, how persistent God is in calling us to repentance, in reaching out to us with his Word so that we are made ready for the day when we are brought to our eternal dwelling. Virtually nobody was ready for the Lords judgment in the days of Noah. On the entire earth, only four righteous men were noted (and when we say righteous, what is meant is believers) Noah, and the three sons that he had brought up in the training and instruction of the Lord: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Four out of how many millions? Four! And the wives of those men were the only noted female believers in the world. So, overall, eight people in a world of (estimated) millions.. Everybody else just went about their daily lives not caring one bit about their relationship with God. You see it in the way the sons of God selected their wives. When it came to marriage, the men were not concerned at all with the spiritual fortitude of the women they were about to marry. Their only concern was, (that they) saw the daughters of men were beautiful. How shallow! Marriage was established by God to be an institution of spiritual support where husband and wife would assist each other as they both walked the path of faith. And already by the time of Noah, marriage had devolved into she looks good, Ill take her. They werent picking out apples at the grocery store. They were choosing partners for life, with whom they would have children; and the basis for that family foundation was not is she someone who will help me in faith and help to bring up my children in the nurturing and instruction of Gods Word. It was, She looks good.

How shallow! But, again, that speaks to the spiritual state of the worlds populace in Noahs day, an utter lethargy for anything that had eternal significance. In short, the majority of people just didnt care! They didnt care that they were put on the earth to give glory to God through lives of worship. No wonder God was grieved in his heart. The human race was created by God to love and serve him as his dear children. The worlds populace, save 8, ignored God, and went about their daily lives as if ignoring God, shutting out his Word, shutting him out of their lives was no big deal! How patient God is! He watched as generations became increasingly spiritually destitute. He watched as generations progressively stopped caring about their relationship with him, the one who created them and loved them as his children. He saw how progressively each generation became more corrupt, more vile, more depraved than ever before until, finally, he had chosen in divine wisdom to pour our his perfect justice on the entire world in the form of the great flood. And the only ones that were prepared were those who listened to Gods Word and received it in faith: Noah, his sons and their wivesthats it! 8 out of millions and millions. Lets not kid ourselves. The ratio of those who are believers to those who are not is not as drastic as in the days of Noah. Butthe majority of people in our world are not prepared in faith to meet their creator when their lives are over, either because of unbelief, ignorance or apostasy. Most, just like those in the pre-flood era, live in a state of absolute spiritual oblivion. And the danger of that spiritual oblivion is exacerbated for those who live lives with relatively few hardships. We, who live in a country of plenty, need to especially be on guard, lest we go about our daily lives, planning for this, planning for that, but giving no thought to our relationship with God, as if we could NEVER have our lives cut short in any way. Most people dont care what their standing is before the Almighty, dont think about it, dont attend to it, and thus dont care! Christian friends, Ive said this before and Ill say it again: We cant not care. We need to be in a constant state of readiness for the time when our Lord will call us out of this world, whenever that is. Could be today. Could be tomorrow. We need to be ready at all times lest we be caught among those who are spiritually asleep. The sirens of Gods Word are sounding and they call for our full attention. Now, I dont know about you, but when I hear the Tornado Warning sirens here in Monroe, I go take cover. In fact, here in Monroe, (and this is something that they didnt have in Saginaw), not only do the sirens go off, but then theres a loud announcement: Tornado warning, and THEN, assuming no one knows what to do when a tornado is coming, the announcement says, Take cover. All of that is to prepare us. The warning is clear, its concise, you cant really misinterpret it, and people only have themselves to blame if they fail to take heed to the warning. Do we need any more evidence than whats in front of us to heed the call to faith? From the pages of Genesis, the warning call of Gods judgment sounds like a siren amongst a world populace that, honestly, could care less about eternal matters. Its sounding for you for your benefit. Remember, Everything written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Hopeso that we are sure of whats ultimately in front of us and ready for whatever challenges the Lord places into our lives until we are brought to our eternal resting place. And where is that hope found? Not in our emotions. Not in our deeds. Only in the Scriptures, in the course of revealed divine activity, and Gods consistent loving interaction with mankind, especially when it is found in the context of incredibly terrible judgment. Think about that for a moment. We find hope for eternity, hope for heaven in the way that God acts to save, even in the context of judgment. Did it delight God to destroy in the flood? Certainly not. By the mouth of Ezekiel, the Lord tells us, As surely as I live, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their evil ways and live. Paul says in 1 Timothy, God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

It pained God to send the judgment of the flood on the worlds populace, yet what love for mankind that the promise, made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, would not be snuffed out by apostasy, but instead preserved through the saving of Noah and his family. What patience our God has that he chose NOT to end it all when the vast majority of human beings turned their back on him in unbelief. Instead he chose to save. He chose to rescue. He chose to keep his promise to send his Son Jesus to enter this sin-sick world, to enter the worlds history to save the world through deathnot the death of the wicked, not the death of sinners but through the death of the innocent Lamb of God, through the death of Gods one and only Son, whose flood of innocent blood paid for all the sins of all people for all time. What incredible patience our God exhibited with the pre-flood world, and what patience he shows when time and again we act like the pre-flood populace, going about our lives, giving no thought to matters of eternal significance; failing to be the sources of praise that God created us to be as his children. What patience and love, for still, undeservedly, he sounds the call to repentance; still he bids us follow to the cross; still he presents and confers his promises of forgiveness and eternal life in the simplicity of baptism, in the simplicity of his Word, in the simplicity of the supper. Brothers and sisters in Christ, there are so many things we can learn from the flood account that they cannot all possibly be contained in one homiletic exposition from the pulpit. Please take with you just a few tidbits: 1) God is patient, and continues to exercise incredible patience with us because he desires the salvation of sinners; 2) God is persistent in giving ample opportunity for sinners to come to repentance and to the knowledge of their Savior Jesus, that they may receive everlasting life through him; and 3) those whose faith firmly rests in the promises of God, fulfilled in Christ Jesus, will be brought safely through death to life everlasting. Now thats worth every bit of our attention. Thats worth caring about! Amen.