God Will Deal With Corruption and Violence

God Will Deal With Corruption and Violence

Genesis 6. I’d like to begin the reading in verse 1. This will be the scripture reading, will be our text for the message this morning as well. Genesis 6:1. And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth. And it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God. And the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me. For the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And he goes on in the description of this here. But we’ll conclude the reading in verse 14 this morning.

We’ve seen this word corrupt before. If you think about the word, just the word corrupt this time of the year. Well, we’re going towards fall now, but it’s hot outside. And you know, I noticed that if you have anything in the trash that is a food scrap or food type item, it starts smelling very quickly. My heart goes out to those people that work at the trash dump. They have to smell that. Maybe they get used to it after a while, but they smell it all the time. It’s a corrupt it’s corrupting, it’s going bad, right? That’s the idea of the word here. It’s to corrupt, to spoil, to ruin, to marry, even to destroy. In fact, more times than it’s translated corrupt. It’s translated destroy or some form of the word destroy. So I think it’s interesting that man left to himself will destroy. He’ll self destruct, he will go corrupt. You know, God is the one that brings life. God’s the one that created us in the first place. But man, Isaiah says everyone has turned to his own way, right? We’ve gone our own direction. And so Jesus had to come in and our iniquity, our corrupt sins were laid on him. And he took away that sin from us so that we might not die and seek the second death, the ultimate corruption, you know, where the worm doesn’t die, right? But that we might ultimately live forever. We might live eternally in the presence of the One. That sin alienated us from, separated us from. We might be brought back into fellowship, we might be brought back into union with Him. Thank God that Jesus Christ was willing to die, be made sin. He took our filthy sins on him even though he knew no sin. And once again, I use the trash dump illustration. I just, you know, I go there every week because we’re in the county and we drive there. If the guy that’s running our next door neighbor is one of the people that works at one of the trash sites in Nash county. If they go into work every day and they just, every time they drive up, this place stinks, you know, this place, you know, and every time they walk out the door, you know, after a while they might get tired of saying, you know, this stinks. Okay, it stinks. I work at the trash dump and it stinks. Maybe we can move on to something else besides saying it stinks. You know, after a while, they probably get tired of hearing themselves say it. If they said that all the time.

And I think about us as Christians, we’re living in a stinking world that is corrupt. It’s putrefying. Yes, sin has always been sin. And I think it’s getting worse. And we see violence is filling the earth. No matter. I looked at the number of mass shootings. The commonly used term now for mass shootings is any time four or more people. I don’t know how they came up with that number, but four or more people were shot. Victims, not including the actual perpetrator, but four plus people were shot in a particular event at a particular location. I think that Number is up to 309 in our country this year. If you go by that metric, 309. Not all of these make the news, right? Or at least the national news. A handful of them do, especially as we saw this week, a political figure. But there were other mass shootings this week. I think two other ones. There was a shooting in a school in Colorado. One of them. I forgot where the other one was. Boston or somewhere in Massachusetts. There was another one this week. I’m not downplaying the mainstream one that we see. And that was not actually a mass shooting. Technically, it was a high profile figure that was shot. And my heart goes out to his family. My heart goes out to all these families that have lost loved ones. They’ll never see them again. I don’t think I can even fathom what I can imagine. Try to imagine what it would be like to not have my wife. I can’t even. I can’t fathom. What would be your next steps? Well, the first thing as Christians we should do is if we were put in that situation like Job said, the Lord has given and the Lord is taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But that would take a lot of time and grace to heal from such a thing.

And yet what I’m saying is, you know, we have. When I look back at the statistics from last year, 1.14. I looked this up yesterday. 1.14. Approximately 1.14 million abortions were performed in the United States last year. Last year in the United States, 1.14. We’re in a country where the level of public discourse is at an all time low and everybody else’s little faction is the reason for the problem. You ask any given person, I don’t care what the ideology is. Most people will say it’s that group over there that’s causing the problem and they need to be shut down or whatever the case is. We’re really going down to a low level in our country. You see, people are stressed out. Their fuse is short. Just try driving from here to somewhere else and rock him out on the road and. And somebody will probably try to run you off the road. We’re at a place where, I’m not saying everybody, but there’s a lot of people that are very upset in our world. And it leads, and it’s quick to lead to violence many times. But I believe as Christians, we know why things are the way they are. Sin. It is sin. It’s not Black Lives Matter. It’s not Donald Trump. It’s not all these particular things. Yeah, I mean, all of those have their contributing factors. Yes. But at the bottom, people have got to take accountability for their individual actions, for their sin. But you know, it’s easier to blame somebody or some group and say that’s the problem with our world. No, the problem with our world is sin. It’s man doing his own thing and going his own way and not saying, what is God’s way? What is God’s plan?

You know, Noah did things God’s way, didn’t he? Noah said, well, first of all, the Lord said, here’s the situation, Noah, I want you to build an ark. Yes sir, I’m going to build an ark. I’m going to build an ark exactly the way you told me to build the ark. I’m not going to build an ark. And of course I’m paraphrasing, but I’m not going to build an ark. Just willy nilly any way I feel like building an ark. You know, you’re supposed to have three levels. Well, I think I’ll put five in there. No, I’m going to build the ark the way the Lord said to build it. Well, Noah was a bright spot in a dark world. He was living a clean life before God. I know that he wasn’t without sin. I’m not saying that. But he was living upright in his life before God in and he was just trusting God’s word and obeying God’s word. Did he get frustrated? I’m sure he did. Did he sometimes feel like retaliating against the mocking and scoffing? I’m sure he did at times. He’s a human being. He’s got red blood coursing through his veins. You know, I’m sure he felt some of the things we feel at times. But he obeyed God, moved with fear. He prepared an ark. Hebrews 11 tells us to the saving of his house and for anybody else who would have come into the ark. We see that only eight people ended up in that ark with the animals. But it tells us in scripture he was a preacher. Of what? Righteousness. In other words, he was not just on a little island to himself. He let other people know about the message that God had given him. He let people know the truth. And sometimes, well, it’s a miracle he didn’t get killed before he finished the ark. Right? It’s a miracle they didn’t end his life. Well, God preserved him. God saved him alive.

Look, with me in Romans 12, please. Romans 12:17. I think we it would Be safe to say that we’re living in times that are very much similar to Noah’s days, in that violence is also filling the earth. We know that it happens when people turn to their own ways and reject. Paul told Timothy that the time would come when people won’t put up with sound doctrine, but they’re going to heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and this is going to lead to a lot of trouble, right? But we see that God in that day had rejected in Noah’s day. The closing of that ark door was the final sign that God had given them a chance. And those who were not in the ark weren’t going to be in the ark, right? We notice in Romans 12:17, it says, Recompense to no man. Evil for evil don’t pay back. Right? Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible. As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. We’ve seen this not too long ago, right? For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. We must not take justice into our own hands. We must not take vengeance into our own hands. We must rest in Christ’s gospel and know that he’s in full control. If we’re persecuted for our faith at any point in time and the threat of violence comes against us, I mean, certainly the time may come where you have to flee to another place, right? I think I’ve made the stance clear about if somebody’s breaking into your home, you have the right to defend yourself. Of course.

But look in Psalm 76:10. Psalm 76:10. What does it say there? Psalm 76:10 says, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. The wrath of man? What is that man? He’s doing what’s right in his own eyes, and he’s going to try to carry out what he views to be revenge or vengeance into his own hand. But the wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. James tells us we’re to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, right? The wrath of man doesn’t work. The righteousness of God. We used to be hateful, the scripture says, and we were hating one another. We were hateful and hating one another. We were envying, and we were filled with Malice, contempt, and all these things one for another. But now we’re to love our neighbor as ourselves, right? We are to even love our enemies. The scripture says we just read In Romans chapter 12, the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. You know, it’s something that God doesn’t. He will interrupt man’s plans at a certain point, but he doesn’t just stop every evil purpose in its tracks. He works all things together for good to those that love him, to those who are the called according to his purpose, the wrath of man ultimately will praise him.

Look at the cross. Look at the cross. The cross is a perfect picture of the wrath of man. Jesus said, you’d have no power against me at all except it were given you. God permitted you, My Father permitted you to put me on this cross, to put me in this place, in your wrath against me. But his wrath is much more thorough and his justice is pure. And when his justice comes, we see ultimately that image we see in Daniel of the image of man is going to rise and yet there’s going to be a stone, isn’t it? Cut out without hands? And it’s going to come and it’s going to crush that image and the wind’s going to carry it away like chaff, right? That’s going to be. Doesn’t matter how strong and how powerful man thinks he is, it’s all just like chaff. That’s going to be blown away one day. Everything, when I say everything, I mean everything is working in God’s plan. Every single thing that’s happening. There’s nothing that God looks, gets up. God doesn’t get up in the morning like we do. He’s 24, 7, 365. He’s the same. He doesn’t need to sleep. He doesn’t slumber every day, every single day, he is working every single thing. Nothing slips by him that he doesn’t know about. Working it all together for us who love God and are called according to his purpose, it works together for good, right? And that’s a beautiful message that we can share. That’s a wonderful truth we can share with people in this world that are so confused and angry about what’s happening in the world. Jesus Christ came to take your sins away and your corruption just like he did mine. And he can save you. And you can know that even if somebody took your life, it’s all working out for good. That doesn’t maybe sound popular. It doesn’t sound appealing, you know, but in the worst case scenario, you get to live forever with the Lord himself, the one who made you, the one who paid the price to redeem you and reconcile you unto himself. You have real hope, real hope for eternity.

Satan. Satan’s the first rebel against God, isn’t he? He said, I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to be my own. I would say man, my own angel. I’m going to be my own creature. I’m going to do exactly what I want to do. I’m going to be like God. He rebelled against God’s plan, and what is he doing now? He’s exploiting man’s tendency to rebel, isn’t he? He’s exploiting man’s tendency to rebel against God, his Creator, and do his own thing and say, I’m going to have my way. It’s my way or the highway. And we get a lot of people together that say, it’s my way or the highway. We have conflict, don’t we? We have clash, we have tension, we have. We have violence. Satan is just sitting back laughing, having a heyday in all the division. Satan’s kingdom is divided against itself. He’s Satan. Satan is the master of division, the master of deception, the master of destruction. The thief cometh not but to steal and to kill. But I am come. That they might have life, Jesus says, and they might have it more abundantly. Satan never created anything. He’s only perverted and destroyed things. That’s all he does. That’s his work. But even Jesus, when it seemed like, look back at Joseph in the Old Testament, they meant it for evil, right? My brethren that sold me into Egypt, sold me into slavery. They meant it for evil. And it seemed bad. There were some times where he had what went through Joseph’s mind as he was in prison and then ultimately falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife. But the end of the story was God meant it for good, they meant it for evil. God meant it for good. Jesus. The same thing can be said about his crucifixion. They meant it for evil. But God’s plan overarched and overrode all of their plans, and he turned it for good. If Satan had known all of what was going to be accomplished, would they have crucified the Lord of glory?

We’ve mentioned David. We wouldn’t have all those wonderful psalms of triumph and victory through difficulty. If Saul hadn’t been chasing him around for 13 years, or however many years it was, we wouldn’t have all the things we have from him how even the hymns we sing, many times you can tell they were born out of trial, they were born in the fire. And they resonate with our hearts as we sing them and worship to the Lord as we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and speak spiritual songs, we sing those. They have richer meaning oftentimes in our lives when we’ve just gone through something probably similar to what the hymn writer did, right? And so we see that it’s for good. How many times? How many times, you know, when that maybe the hymn writer was writing those words down with tears running down their eyes because of the pain of what they were going through, but also how the Lord was helping them through it. And God had the bigger picture. He sees the grand picture in all of this.

Jesus said in John 12:32, let’s look over there. John 12:32. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth. How was he lifted up from the earth? It was on a cross, wasn’t it? If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Just like the serpent was lifted up on the pole in Moses day. Look and live right. Look to the. Look to that. If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. Remember John the Baptist. He just. His whole life we might think of. I like to think of John the Baptist as he was a pointer. He was an arrow that was pointing at Jesus Christ. Look. Don’t look at me. I’m not the light. Look at him. Behold. Behold, here he comes. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. Look at him. Look at him. I am not that light, but I’ve come to bear witness of that light. I must decrease, he must increase. I’m not even worthy of. To loosen the shoe latches on the shoes he’s wearing. He ought to be baptizing me, not me baptizing him, but I’m pointing to Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And in that, his love for Jesus Christ, Messiah, his own cousin. In his love for him, he also hated some things like sin. He hated sin. And there’s times where he had to speak out against sin. For instance, in Herod Antipas life, he said, herod, you ought not to have taken your brother’s half brother’s wife, by the way, she was his niece. You shouldn’t have taken Herodias to be your wife or taken her because she’s another man’s wife. And that made Herod upset, put John in prison. But he Wasn’t going to kill him necessarily. He just wanted to get. He didn’t want to hear him anymore. He didn’t want to hear him saying what he had to say. But then Herodias, she didn’t want to let it go. She was cooking up a plan when her daughter went and danced before the king and some of the people that were with him. He liked it so much, and they liked it so much. She said, I’ll give you half the kingdom. What do you want? The head of John the Baptist. I want. My mom wants the head of John the Baptist delivered. Well, he suffered death because he spoke truth. That seems like a bad thing, doesn’t it? But how many times, how many through the centuries have looked back and have learned, have been drawn closer to the Lord, have been drawn to faith in Christ because of the pointer? The pointer. You know, if you’re pointing at one thing, if you’re in love with the Savior, you’re going to be in hatred with sin. You’re not going to love sin. You can’t love sin and love the Savior. And so we see that because of that, bad things, seemingly bad things happened to John the Baptist, but God worked it all for good.

Even Jesus, when he was on that cross, he said, father, forgive them. They know not what they do. The religious Pharisees, they were stirring the crowd up. They hated Jesus because what did he come to do? He came to remove the cloak for their sin, right? He came to expose sin. Why did he expose sin, though? It’s so that they could believe on him, right? They could believe on the way, the truth, the life. They killed him. And yet his prayer, father, forgive them, was answered at Pentecost, wasn’t it? His prayer was answered in the salvation of those who even joined in that chant that day. Crucify him. Crucify him. Caught up in the emotion, caught up. Not even fully knowing what they were saying, but just caught up with the crowd that day. How easy it is to get caught up with the crowd, the emotion, the mood of the time.

Well, back in Psalm 76, and we’ll get back to our text in just a moment here. But Psalm 76, verse 11. We were there in verse 10. But verse 11 says, Remember verse 10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain, vow and pay unto the Lord your God. Let all that be about him. Bring presents unto him that ought to be feared. He shall cut off the spirit of princes. He is terrible to the kings of the earth. Once again, his justice will prevail. He will do what’s right. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. It may seem. Surely it seemed that’s why the sheep were scattered when the shepherd was smitten. It seemed like the two or two on the road to Emmaus said, we thought it was he that was supposed to save Israel. He says, I’m here with you in so many words. He didn’t exactly say that. But as he began to speak, they realized their eyes were open. The eyes of their heart were open. They realized, he’s with us. He’s alive. He’s not dead. He has arisen. Well, the Lord is the one who is going to resolve all of the wrongs of this earth. He’s going to. He’s going to bring an end to all the corruption. He’s going to bring an end to all the violence. And it will be peace and joy, and the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, the depths of the SEAS.

In Genesis 6, we go back to our text here. My purpose was not to give a verse by verse of this passage this morning, but to say, look back in verse number. It was back in verse number two. Notice this little phrase in verse number two. It says, the sons of God saw the daughters of men. They were fair. They saw and they took, which they chose. I’m just leaving out a few words. They saw, they made a choice, and they took. Isn’t this what our natural tendency, every one of us has turned to our own way. We do what we want to do. Nobody’s going to tell me what to do, right? Nobody’s going to tell me. No. Not even God. I’m going to do what I want to do. That’s the idea. People were doing exactly what they wanted to do. And because of that, I mean, you talk about it. I mean, even in a marriage, you talk about children. In a home, you. You know, wherever there’s two people wanting to do different things, they’re going to clash, right? A husband and wife that are on two different. You know, hopefully we can resolve the little differences, right? You know, I like to fold my. I like the toilet paper roll to go this way, or I like to fold the washcloths this way or whatever, the sheets going to bed that way. That shouldn’t be something to get all upset about, right? But you know, if we. If the husband’s going one way and the wife’s going the Other way there’s going to be tension, right? If we’re butting heads on everything, there’s going to be. There’s going to be tension. Maybe we need to say time out. If we’re Christians, certainly we should, and say, well, what does God say now? How do I feel about it? What does God say? What does God say about this? You know, the only hope for our. For our society is from. The only hope for our world is people getting right with God. Because we’re never going to be able to settle our differences in a truly settle them. We might be able to, you know, all behave ourselves for a little bit of time, but not truly settle the differences without God. He’s the only hope. The only hope is to deal with that stinking corruption that’s inside of us. The only hope is for the Lord to take our sins upon him and carry them away. And then we say, I love him because he first loved me. And I want to take up my cross as he’s commanded me and follow him daily, deny myself because of the love that he shows to us. We don’t deserve the least of his mercies. But he’s laid down his life and taken our iniquities on him. That stinking. My own stinking sin on him. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Was it Gypsy Smith wrote, oh, how it causes my heart to tremble when I think of what the Lord has done for me. It’s taken my sins. I think Brother Tim mentioned recently something along the lines of what the apostle Paul said. I am the chief of sinners. You know, we really ought to all see ourselves that way. How can it be that God would love me, take my sins on him? Maybe I have never murdered anybody, but I think there’s an honorable sense in which we’ve got every person who’s got to come to say, my sins stinks. And yet the pure, holy, righteous, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. He took my sin on him. I don’t deserve the least of God’s mercies, but he loves me. He loved me enough to lay down his life for me.

God is going to do what’s right. God is going to do what is just. We do not need to be in a tizzy. We do not need to be caught up in fear. We need to be like Noah. We need to be like Noah. And we need to fear God more than we fear man and love God and say, lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? What do you want my family to do if I’m the head of my home? As a mother, how would you want me to teach my kids? How do you want me to act towards my husband and my children? As a husband, how do you want me to live before my wife? Love her as Christ loved the Church, gave himself for her. Right? How do you want me to treat my brothers and sisters in Christ? How do you want me to treat the lost, even those that vilify the name of Jesus in society? Well, you may be, as we’ve said before, you may be the only maybe in your job, I don’t know, you may be the only Christian somebody comes in regular contact with you might be. How are we shining before those people? How can they see the Lord in us? Let’s not get caught up. I guess at the end of the day, like Noah did not get caught up in whatever movements and things were going on in his world. He kept his eyes on the mission God gave him. The mission was to build the ark. What is our mission? Well, we’re to glorify God in our daily lives. Part of that is using our mouth to confess him before men. Jesus said, if you confess me before men, I’ll confess you before the Father. Right. Whosoever is ashamed of me and my words in this wicked and adulterous generation, I may be slightly paraphrasing that I’ll be ashamed of him before my Father. Let’s not be ashamed of the Lord. Let us with love, but in truth represent him before men. I’ve got to remember, I’m not going to answer to man one day. I’m going to answer to God. I’m going to answer to the one who loved me and sent his son to die on the cross for me, the one who created me. May we be found faithful, building our ark, so to speak, and being a preacher of righteousness in this world that has lost its way is full of the corrupt stench of sin. And yet may we not be, may we not. Even though we know the judgment is coming. We got to tell people, yeah, the judgment is coming. But there’s still hope. There’s still hope. Just because there’s a judgment coming. It hadn’t come yet. It hasn’t come yet. And there’s still hope for anyone who will call on the name of the Lord. They’ll be saved.

Let’s pray. Father, thank you for this opportunity. We’ve had to look into your word this morning. We thank you that the answer. It seems so. Simple, Lord, in the midst of all the seeming complexity that we have, Satan likes to bring confusion, division to deception. But the answer to the ills of this world is the answer that has always been the answer for the ills of the human heart. And it is that the sinner needs the Savior. That’s the answer. That’s the truth. Lord, help us. Help us not to bring shame to you in this world, but help us to be pointers like John was. Help us to be consistent in obedient and trusting you and fearing and moved with the fear of God rather than the fear of man like Noah was. Help us not to lose sight of the fact that even though the immediate doesn’t look too great, the big picture is right on your timetable and right in your plan and that nothing is out of your control. And when our heart. When our heart sees that, and we trust that, Lord, then we’ll be settled. We’ll be stable in our lives. So many people are just in a tizzy because they either don’t know the Savior or don’t have their eyes on the Savior, Lord, but help us. Help us to be an influence in someone’s life for good, to overcome evil with good in this world. Because we know the Savior, the one who is good. We pray now that you’d bless us as we conclude this service with a final hymn. In Jesus name, Amen.