God Will Deal With Corruption and Violence

Genesis chapter 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 verse 1. Genesis 6 verse 1. Genesis 6 verse 1. Genesis 6 verse 1. Genesis 6 verse 1. And he goes on in the description of this here, but we'll conclude the reading in verse number 14 this morning. We've seen this word corrupt before. If you think about the word, just Well, 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 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 mar, 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, 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. Very corrupt. He was, he was, he took our filthy sins on him, even though he knew no sin. And I've, 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 in 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 up to the trash dump, they're like, oh, this place stinks. And they're like, oh, this place stinks. 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. If you could, 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, in a particular event at a particular location. Um, 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 few, a handful of them do, uh, especially as we saw this week, uh, 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. Um, I'm not downplaying the, the main, stream one that we see. And that, that was not actually a mass shooting. Technically it was a high profile figure that was, 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'd be like to not have my wife. I can't, I can't even, I can't fathom it. Where, where would you get, what would be your next steps? You know, well, first thing you should like, as Christians, we should do is if we were put in that situation, like Job said, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. But that would take a lot of, a lot of time and grace to heal from, 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, 2.14 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. You know, and everybody else's little faction is the reason for the problem. You know, you ask any given person, I don't care what their ideology is. Most people will say it's that group over there, that's causing the problem. Then they need to be, 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. You know, and sometimes, well, it's a miracle he didn't get killed before he finished the ark, right? It's a miracle he didn't, he didn't, they didn't end his life. Well, God preserved him. God saved him alive.

Look with me in Romans chapter 12, please. Romans chapter 12, verse 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 and 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. He had rejected. In Noah's day. The closing of that ark door was this 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, verse 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 yourself. 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 thirsts, 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. And we must not take justice. 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 it. If somebody's breaking in, to your home, you have the right to defend yourself, of course.

But look in Psalm 76, verse 10. Psalm 76, verse 10. What does it say there? Psalm 76, verse number 10 says, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. The wrath of man. What is that? Man is taking, 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. We weren't 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 to love me. 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. 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 it. It 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 is this baby. It doesn't 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 conflict. We have clash. We have tension. We have violence. Satan is just sitting back and laughing, having a heyday at 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 is 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. And if Satan had known all of what was going to be accomplished, would they have crucified the Lord of glory? We see, 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, you know, for however, 13 years or however many years it was. We wouldn't have all the things we have from him. How the, even the hymns we sing, many times you can tell they were born out of trial. They were, they were born in the fire and they resonate with our hearts as we sing them in worship to the Lord. As we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, we, 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, maybe the hymn writer was writing the, 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, we'll 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, we might think of, I like to think of John the Baptist as he was a pointer. He was a, he was an arrow that was pointing at Jesus Christ. Look, don't look at me. I'm not the light. Look at him. Here's Jesus. 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, I've come to bear witness of that light. I must decrease. He must increase. I'm not even worthy, 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. He 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 had, 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 and 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 going to be, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, the, 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 when verse 10, surely the wrath of man shall prevail, praise thee, the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain.

Vow and pay unto the Lord, your God, let all that be round about him bring presence 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, 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 spent. And it seemed like the two on the road to Emmaus said, we thought it was he that was supposed to save Israel. And 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's, he has arisen. Well, the Lord, the Lord is the one who is going to, 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 knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, the depths of the, of the seas.

In Genesis chapter six, 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, 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, we've, 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 the marriage, you talk about children in a home, you know, wherever there's two people wanting to, to do different things, they're going to clash, right? A husband and wife that are on two different, that, you know, I mean, hopefully we can resolve the little differences, right?

You know, I like to fold my, I like to, the toilet paper roll to go this way, or I like to fold the washcloth this way, or whatever. The sheets go into bed that way. That shouldn't be something to get all upset about, right? But you know, if we, if, 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 revival. 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. And 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, is to deal with that stinking corruption that's inside of us. The only hope is to, is for, for the Lord to take our sins upon Him and, and carry them away. And then we say, I love Him because He first loved me. And I want to follow, take up my cross as He's commanded me to do. 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? What was it? Gypsy Smith wrote. Oh, how it causes my heart to tremble when I see Him. 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 had never murdered anybody. But I think there's an honorable sense in which we've got, every person's got to come to say, my sin stinks. And yet, the pure, holy, righteous, you know, 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. 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? Lover 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? If you, 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, of sin. And yet, may we not be, may we not, even though we know the judgment is coming, we've got to tell people that, yeah, there's a judgment coming, but there's still hope. There's still hope. Just because there's a judgment coming, it hasn'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, 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, to the ills of this world is the answer that is, has always been the answer for the ills of the human heart. And it is, it is that the sinner needs the Savior. That is the, that's, 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 and obedient and trusting You and fearing and moved with, with the fear of God rather than the fear of man like Noah was.

Help us not to, not to lose sight of the fact that even though the, the immediate doesn't look too great, the, the big picture is, 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, are, are, are just in a tizzy because they don't, either don't know the Savior or don't have their eyes on, on the Savior, Lord. But help us, help us to be an influence in someone's life. 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.