Genesis 6:11-22 NKJV The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. (12) So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. (13) And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (14) Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. (15) And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. (16) You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. (17) And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. (18) But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. (19) And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. (20) Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. (21) And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” (22) Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
- If you are joining us for the first time this morning, welcome to Christian Life Church!
- What we do here is preach through Scripture.
- Prayerfully, I pick a book of the Bible to preach through and then we start at the beginning of that book and preach until we get to the end.
- Today you join us for our twenty third sermon in the book of Genesis1
- Last week we talked introduced the events of the worldwide flood, Noah, his family, and the Ark God had him build.
- But what we really focused on was the reason that God sent the flood to the earth in the first place… and those reasons are listed in just two of the verses that we read this morning:
Genesis 6:11-12 NKJV The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. (12) So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
- These two verses give us the two main reasons God decided to flood the earth and start mankind over with Noah and his family…
- Those two reasons are:
The Two Reasons God Flooded The Earth
- All of mankind was corrupt.
- The earth was filled with violence.
- It is important to understand both of these reasons… to really understand what it means for mankind to be corrupt, and what it means for the earth to be filled with violence… because Jesus said the last days would be “as in the days of Noah”.
Matthew 24:36-37 NKJV “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. (37) But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
- So if Jesus is coming back in days that are like the days of Noah, then we need to understand the days of Noah.
- And if the days of Noah are characterized by these two things… corruption and violence… then we need to spend time understanding what God meant when He said that mankind was corrupt and the earth was filled with violence..
- Now last week we preached on the first reason, we talked about how in the days of Noah mankind was corrupt… they turned against their natural desires and went after unnatural desires.
- Specifically listed corruption in Genesis six was sexual corruption.
- We then spent time talking about sexual corruption today… how, at least in the Western World, sexual sin has become a huge talking point.
- Now that was a whole sermon in and of itself, you can go watch that message on our website, CedarRapidsChurch.com… but for today we are going to not talk anymore about Sexual sin and corruption, instead we are going to talk about violence.
- Because, again, God gave TWO reasons why He flooded the earth…
The Two Reasons God Flooded The Earth
- All of mankind was corrupt.
- The earth was filled with violence.
- So, lets make sure we understand this second reason, that the earth was filled with violence… let’s look at what that would have meant in the days of Noah, and what it means today… so that we can properly examine… are we in the days of Noah… and if not, how close are we?
- Our first point this mornings is more of a Question then a statement… The Violence of Man in the Days of Noah was Widespread… how Widespread is it Today?
point 1: The Violence of Man in the Days of Noah was Widespread, Widespread is it Today?
Genesis 6:11 NKJV The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
- Now to understand what God means by “The Earth Was filled with violence” we need to understand the Hebrew word for Violence.
- Here is the Hebrew word for violence…
- חָמָס
- Violence.
- By implication: Wrong doing, wickedness.
- By metonymy (used as a substitute for): Unjust gain, cruelty, Falseness, Unrighteousness.
- Instead of saying “He gained his money through trickery and deception” a Hebrew author might say “He gained his money violently.
- Instead of saying “That man was speaking nothing but lies” a Hebrew author might say “That man was speaking violently”.
- Instead of saying “He was a cruel boss to work for” a Hebrew author might say “He was a violent boss”.
- This word is a word that means all kinds of evil and wrongdoing, but it also, and in a very real way, means VIOLENCE.
- So the days of Noah were days filled with violence… with all kinds of wickedness and wrong doing.
- And of course we see this violence through Cain who murdered Abel, and through Cain’s ancestor Lamech who murdered a man for attacking him.
- But we get a few mor details in the verses about the Nephilim we preached on a few weeks ago..
Genesis 6:5 NKJV Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
- Ok, so men where violent, their thoughts were evil continually, they were wicked.
- And it wasn’t just SOME men, it was all the men and women of the earth, all except for Noah’s direct family.
- The idea here is that men had lost all sense of conscience… all sense of right and wrong.
- If man thought of things as being wrong, he only thought that way in order to keep himself from being caught.
- For example… I ran a yellow light the other day taking the kids to school. I was running behind, and the light turned yellow, and I definitely had time to stop… but I didn’t, I sped up of all things…
- And of course, the light turned red as I was in the intersection…
- And my daughter Hannah who doesn’t miss anything goes:
- “Dad you just ran a red light!”
- And I said “Yep”.
- And she said “Would you get a ticket for that?”
- I said “If there was a cop here I would.”
- And she said “Why, you did it on accident… they shouldn’t give you a ticket for doing something on accident!”
- And I said “Well… I wouldn’t say I did it on accident…”
- And my daughter was shocked “YOU DID SOMETHING ILLEGAL ON PURPOSE?!”
- And I almost responded… these words, church, almost came out of my mouth… I almost said: “Well yeah, but I checked to make sure there were no cops around before I did it…”
- But, the conviction of the Holy Spirit took over, thank God, before I had that big of a parenting fail… and instead I said “yeah, I should not have done that, I am sorry. Sometimes I am not a great driver, I will do my best not to do it again!”
- Yet this is the mindset we see in the days of Noah… minds that are continually on evil… not thinking “This is wrong and I shouldn’t do it” but instead thinking “This is wrong so I better not get CAUGHT doing it”.
- Mindsets that say “Well everyone else is doing it, so why can’t I?”
- Mindsets that say “Do what makes you happy” instead of “Do what makes God happy”.
- Now take a moment to note this… wickedness is the ruin of human society.
- Take away peoples conscience, their sense of right and wrong.
- Take away the fear of God…
- And men become animals… they become beasts… the treat each other with no regard for life, or the wellbeing of others.
- They become no different than a lion in the jungle, the top of the food chain, eating whomever he pleases when he is hungry.
- They become like the fish of the sea, the greater devouring the lessor.
- When there is no conscience, no absolute right and absolute wrong… when there is no fear of God, the world becomes a Jungle…
- Survival of the fittest is no the glory of man, it is the SHAME of man…
- And this is what we become in spiritual anarchy.
- Roman’s 1 talks about such people, we read some of Romans 1 last week, but let’s look at people who’s minds are continually evil… who have turned their back on God… Roman’s 1 describes such people:
Romans 1:28-32 NKJV And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; (29) being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, (30) backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, (31) undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; (32) who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
- People in Noah’s time were evil, full of evil, people in Paul’s time in Rome were full of evil, all kinds of evil…
- What about people today?
- I think that answer is self evident.
- It is almost impossible to watch a movie without sin being glorified.
- Premarital sex.
- Drugs.
- Drunkenness.
- Illicit gain.
- Hatred of the government and police.
- And violence… let’s not forget the violence. Real, physical violence…
- Thus it was in the days of Noah… violence had filled the earth.
- All the descendants of Adam and Eve… One big happy family right?
- No, one big violent family, waring amongst themselves, killing each other…
- I believe the violence was real… I mean the giants talked about in the previous verses of Genesis six are called mighty men of renown… a phrase generally used for WARIORS…
- This leads me to believe there were wars on earth at this time.
- Again, one family, all from Adam, waring with each other.
- Hatfield’s vs McCoy’s? NO! This is more like McCoy’s vs. McCoy’s… or more specifically Adamites vs Adamites!
- Again the question must be asked is this how it is today, is the earth filled with violence?
- חָמָס
- Violence.
- By implication: Wrong doing, wickedness.
- By metonymy (used as a substitute for): Unjust gain, cruelty, Falseness, Unrighteousness.
- Do you know how you pronounce this word? It’s HAMAS!
- HAMAS is the ancient Hebrew word for violence.
- On October 7th of 2023, the military wing of the Palestinians living in Gaza attacked thousands of unarmed Israeli civilians.
- These terrorists invaded Israel and killed 1139 innocent people.
- They started the operation by firing 5,000 rockets into Israel.
- They then parachuted into a concert that was being held to promote peace in the region and they started killing people indiscriminately.
- They entered a nursery and beheaded the children.
- The bust through the border with heavy weaponry and killed, raped, and pillaged.
- They took back more than a thousand hostages, many of them women and children, some of home are still being held captive and raped today.
- What is the name of this army that did such atrocious things to Israel?
- The army, the terrorists… they call themselves “HAMAS”.
- Genesis 6 literally says “The earth was filled with HAMAS” with evil and violence.
- And so we see in todays day, terrorists, literally named HAMAS, killing and raping and pillaging the Bible calls God’s People.
- Of course we see the war in Ukraine, we see genocides happening in China and parts of Africa.
- We see murder on the rise almost everywhere…
- Just this past week we saw shootings at Lakewood Church, the third largest church in America.
- And We saw a mass shooting at the Kansas City super bowl victory parade.
- In the United States there is an astonishing 3376 assaults every day, on average.
- That includes mugging, domestic violence, and any other form of violent crimes that are not murder.
- If you look at murder, there are an average of 6 murders every single day… if you include abortion as murder, which you absolutely should, then that number jumps to about 2,554 murders every day! And that does not even include murders by way of the plan B pill!
- So yeah, I would say America is full of violence!
- Nearly 6 thousand people assaulted or murdered every day in America…
- So yeah… I would say America, for sure, but likely the world… is very close to the days of Noah when it comes to violence.
- Now these statistics mean NOTHING if we don’t do something about them as Christians…
2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
- WE DON’T NEED THE WORLD TO TURN FROM WICKEDNESS, WE NEED US TO TURN FROM WICKEDNESS.
- If my People, who are called by MY NAME…
- ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN?! Christ is God’s name! You are called by HIS NAME.
- If Christians would humble themselves.
- If Christians would pray and seek God’s face.
- If CHRISTIANS WOULD TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS.
- That brings me to my second point, and I don’t want to keep you as long as I kept you last week, so let’s conclude with this… WE SHOULD HATE VIOLENCE.
point 2: We Should Hate Violence
Genesis 6:11 NKJV The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Psalms 11:5 NKJV The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
- God HATES THOSE who loves violence. That is what scripture says.
- How can I preach a sermon about the evil of Violence and Wickedness and simultaneously be ok with violence in my life?
- How can you say “Amen!” against the violence of Hamas and not against the violence in our own hearts?
- Listen, if your worldview says “We should let violent criminals off with a slap on the wrist”…
- You need to repent. You don’t hate violence enough.
- If your worldview says “Hey we should find the most violent criminals and we should offer them money every month that they don’t shoot people… which is what three cities in California does…
- You need to repent. You don’t hate violence enough.
- If your worldview says “We need to lessen the punishment of violent carjackings and just make it a misdemeanor” as they do in Washington DC…
- You need to repent, you don’t hate violence enough.
- These laws that coddle the violent criminals lead to more murders, more crime, more innocent people being killed.
- Like politician Mike Gill who was murdered while being carjacked in DC.
- Like Sheriff’s Isaiah Cordero, who was gunned down by a man who was found guilty of murder in the prior months and was let out of prison while awaiting sentencing in California.
- Like the two men who were shot and killed this month in their apartment by a man who had already been convicted of murder but was released after just five years.
- YOU SHOULD HATE VIOLENCE CHURCH. YOU SHOULD HATE HAMAS.
- OK, now let’s stop being political and talk about YOU!
- If you have a violent temper… you need to repent.
- You can’t be ok with that as a Christian, you should hate violence.
- If you have violent road rage… you need to repent.
- The only thing the Christian should use his middle finger for is holding up a peace sign!
- If you love shows that glorify violence… if you love movies that glorify violence… if you love watching real physical acts of violence…
- You need a heart change… you need to repent.
- Now I love action movies, don’t get me wrong… but there is a difference between watching Hacksaw ridge and watching the SAW series.
- I won’t watch the movie The Joker. I won’t watch Scarface or the Godfather.
- I won’t watch The Sopranos as I repented from watching Breaking Bad…
- I don’t play Red Dead Redemption, or Grand Theft Auto…
- I might play Halo and blow up some aliens… but I am not going to have a fantasy life that fantasizes about violent crime.
- Now I am not a pacifist. I believe Israel has a right to defend itself.
- I believe that I have the right to defend myself and my family.
- But I pray that day never comes… because I hate violence!
Genesis 6:11 NKJV The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Psalms 11:5 NKJV The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
- Altar Car for repentance on Violence. Let’s be a church that hates what God hates and loves what God loves.
- Gospel Call
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