Lenox Federated Church - Firm Foundations, Creation to Christ

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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 14 - God Judged the Whole World,

and Delivered Noah and All in the Ark

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

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REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Why did God accept Abel and his offering? Abel believed God:

a. Abel agreed with God that he was a sinner and that only God could save him from punishment.

b. Abel believed God. He was trusting God to send a Deliverer, just as He had promised to Adam and Eve while they were still in the Garden of Eden.

c. Abel brought a sheep, killed it, and let its blood run out, just as God had told them to do.

2. Why did God reject Cain and his offering? Cain did not believe God:

a. Cain did not agree with God that he was a sinner and that only God could save him from punishment.

b. Cain did not believe God. He did not trust in God’s promise to send a Deliverer who would destroy Satan and save man.

c. Cain didn’t bring the offering which God said they must bring.

3. Why did God reason with Cain? Because God loved Cain and wanted him to agree that he was a sinner and that he should bring the correct sacrifice.

4. Did Cain believe and agree with God? No.

5. What did Cain do? He was angry, and he killed Abel.

6. How did God know what Cain had done? God sees and knows everything.

7. Why will God punish people for saying and doing evil things to others? Because all people rightfully belong to God. When people hurt others, they are also sinning against God.

8. Does God forget about sin against others if the person makes it right with the one whom he wronged? No, God’s punishment for all sin is separation from Him forever in the place of everlasting punishment which He prepared for Satan and the evil spirits who followed him.

9. Did Cain finally change his mind? No! He went away from God.

10. What was the result? Cain’s descendants followed his example. They all lived and died separated from God.

11. Do you know of anything you can do to make payment for the sins you have committed? No. There is nothing man can do to make payment for his sins.

12. What were the things for which Cain and his descendants lived? For money and the material things of life.

13. Why did God give Seth to Adam and Eve.?

a. God gave him to replace Abel.

b. God gave him so the Deliverer would be born through his family line.

THE FOLLOWING IS AN OPTIONAL QUESTION:

14. What lessons can we learn from these stories of ancient men? Answers will vary, but some of the key areas are:

a. Men who refuse to believe and obey God often have children and successive generations who refuse to believe and obey God.

b. Men who refuse to believe and obey God involve themselves with worldly things and soon forget God altogether.

c. Men who believe God and obey Him often have children and successive generations who believe and follow God.

d. God severely judges those who refuse to believe Him.

e. God is gracious to those who believe Him.

In our last lesson we saw the terrible results of sin, passed down from one generation to another. We also saw God’s gracious provision of a way for men to come to Him by faith.

The Bible is an amazing historical record. Let’s begin by taking a look at the chronological chart. From Adam to Noah there were ten generations of men who believed God and continued to look for the coming Deliverer promised in the Garden of Eden.

CHRONOLOGICAL CHART: This chart shows the names of the generations of believers from Adam to Noah: Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah.

The portion of Bible history we will study today tells about God’s grace to Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their families. This story took place 1,500 years or more after the creation of Adam. Keep in mind as we read that this account in Genesis is mentioned again many times throughout the Bible, and it is always presented as historical fact.

By the time of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, there was a large population living on the earth. But the vast majority were interested only in having what they thought was a good time.

- They were obsessed with sex and marrying.

- They gave no thought as to how they should please God.

God saw and hated the sin of these people, but He also loved them and wanted them to repent.

- He wanted them to change their minds.

- He wanted them to admit they were wrong.

- He wanted them to believe in Him.

God the Holy Spirit was constantly telling them to repent, but they would not.

God warned them that He would not always continue to tell them His message.

- If they continued to resist Him, He would let them follow Satan, and He would punish them.

- God said He would give them 120 years.

- If they did not repent in 120 years, He would punish them.

There is a battle raging for men’s minds:

- God the Holy Spirit speaks to us in our minds, striving for our attention. He speaks to us through God’s Word and through other people. The voice of God the Spirit says to us, “Listen to God’s way and trust in Him.”

- But because Satan also speaks inside our minds, sometimes it seems as if a war is going on inside of us. The voices of Satan and his demons say, “Don’t listen to God’s message.” Satan tries to tell us, “You can get along without God.”

But if you refuse to listen to God and believe, the voice of God the Spirit which has been talking to you may leave.

- His voice may not always keep trying to make you believe God.

- If you refuse to agree with Him and believe His message, His voice may become quieter and quieter.

- He will let you go your own way.

When a person’s heart no longer listens to God, the Bible calls this a hardened heart.

- This is terribly grievous to God, for He knows that when a person dies with a hardened heart, he will go to everlasting punishment to be separated from God forever.

- God says in Ezekiel 33:11, “...I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live...For why should you die,...?”

The majority of the people followed the godless ways of Cain.

- They were becoming more and more sinful.

- They refused to believe God’s message and to trust in Him and His mercy. These people were born sinners because they were Adam’s descendants. Besides, they loved their sin and deliberately refused to agree with God.

- Consider:

Not only were the people of Noah’s day the offspring of Adam, but all of us, too, are descendants of Adam .We were all born outside of the Garden of Eden, separated from God, and sinners because we are from Adam. All people sin because we were all born sinners, separated from God.

People also sin because they love their sin. No one can blame anyone else. We cannot blame Adam or God or Satan. We ourselves have chosen to sin. As we read the Bible, we need to ask ourselves, “How does this passage apply to me? Am I thinking in the way that is talked about here? Am I doing any of the things mentioned here?”

The people of Noah’s time had no room in their thoughts for God.

- They refused to acknowledge God even though they knew of His existence. Signs of His handiwork were all around them in His creation, but they were not thankful to God nor did they believe Him. He also spoke to them through men called prophets.

- One of Seth’s descendants, Enoch, was one of God’s prophets.

- Now God was speaking through Noah. (II Peter 2:5 calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness.”)

- Men had no excuse for their behavior. They were simply rebelling against God. They were giving in to their own evil desires.

Verse 5 tells us that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

- Their minds were focused on material things and on their bodies and on their ambition for self-advancement. They were proud, self-centered, and boastful. They wanted what other people had. They were jealous of and hateful to other people. They argued and fought all the time. They were cruel, and many were even murderers. They constantly tricked, lied, and deceived one another. They were ruthless in their business practices. They continually gossiped and said evil things about others behind their backs. They were totally unrestrained in their sexual passions, and they even engaged in unnatural relationships.

- Consider:

As we read today’s newspaper or listen to the news on television or radio, we can easily become almost deaf or insensitive to the parade of sins being announced unashamedly. The moral and spiritual condition of mankind described in Genesis 6 should make us stop to think about the fact that man is now in a similar state of decline and wickedness.

God saw all their sin.

- They may have hidden their lies, adultery, stealing, and murder from others.

- But none of it was hidden from God; He saw it all. God always sees everything. No one can hide anything from Him. God is everywhere and sees everything at all times. He knows our thoughts and sees everything that is done in secret. He hears every word we speak and knows the motives of our hearts.

The people were so wicked that the Lord said He would destroy them and everything on the earth that He had made and given to them.

- Consider:

Do you think God really would destroy all who would not repent and trust in Him? Yes, God does what He says.

- Consider:

Back in the garden, God said to Adam and Eve, “If you disobey, you will die. You will be separated from Me .”They disobeyed, and they died just as God had said. God made it clear to Cain and Abel that, if they wanted to approach Him and be accepted, they had to bring a sheep and shed its blood. God meant what He said. He rejected Cain because he came in his own way. Now, in Noah’s time, God said He was going to destroy the earth and all life in it by sending a great flood. God was going to make it rain, even though it had never rained before. Does God keep His Word? Were these mere threats? How many times have you threatened to do something when you were angry, and then forgotten it when you “cooled off”? Or how many times have you who are parents threatened to punish your children and then let them slip by without your making true your word? Is God like people? Does He merely make threats? No! God always does what He says.

Because of God’s love and mercy, there was one man and his family whom God was not going to destroy.

Noah was born a sinner under Satan’s control just like all of Adam’s descendants.

- Noah did not deserve to be saved by God.

- He, too, deserved to be punished.

But Noah came to God like Abel, Seth, and Enoch, bringing the blood of animals.

- Noah listened to God’s words to him.

- He repented, believed, and came to God in the way God told him.

- Noah trusted God to save him through the coming Deliverer. Because of His grace, God forgave and accepted Noah. The word “grace” has many depths of meaning, but here is a simple definition:

Because the people were so evil and would not change their minds and come to God, He decided to destroy the whole earth. But what about Noah and his family?

God told Noah that He was going to send a great flood which would cover the whole earth. God also told Noah to build a large boat so that all those who trusted in God could be saved.

- This boat had to be built just as God told Noah. Noah had to follow God’s instructions. The ark had to be built according to God’s plan.

- Consider:

God didn’t just say, “Noah, I am going to judge the world. I am going to send a great flood. You had better do something about it. Now start building an ark.” God instructed Noah how to build it.

- Consider:

It was just like the clothing of Adam and Eve. The clothing they made was not acceptable to God. Their clothing had to be what God wanted. Cain and Abel’s offerings also had to be according to the way God had said. The ark, too, had to be built according to God’s plan.

- God knew exactly how the ark should be built, and He gave Noah careful instructions.

- Consider:

We do not know exactly how the ark looked, but God did record specific dimensions that are meaningful to us today. Interestingly enough, the dimensions that God gave Noah for the ark were proportional to the huge, ocean-going carrier ships built in this century. God created the universe; God set up the laws that control flotation; God had no problem creating the perfect design for a huge ship! And, to our knowledge, no ships this large were built from the time of the ark until the twentieth century! These are interesting details that remind us of God’s great knowledge of all things and of the truth of the Bible.

- But there is one very important point we need to especially remember about the way God told Noah to build this boat.

- God told Noah to put only one door in the side of the ark. There was to be only one way to get inside. Every person and every animal that was to be saved from God’s judgment had to come into the ark by this door. There was only one ark in which people could be saved from God’s wrath, and there was only one door to enter the ark.

Noah believed God.

- He trusted in and depended on God to save him and his family from the flood which God said He would send. Remember, there had never been rain in the world. Until this time, the world was watered by mist which rose up from the ground. No one had ever seen rain.

- Nevertheless, Noah believed that God could not lie when He said He would send a flood. Noah believed God, so He obeyed and built the ark just as God had said.

- Consider:

Because some people cannot see God, Heaven, or the place of punishment which God has prepared, they will not believe. Nevertheless, all that the Bible says is true. Noah believed God, even though Noah had never seen rain.

Noah warned the people of God’s coming judgment. The people in Noah’s time did not accept God’s words which Noah spoke to them.

- They wouldn’t agree with the Holy Spirit when He spoke in their minds, reminding them of God’s warnings.

- They refused to agree with God that they were wrong and that they deserved His punishment.

- They would not trust in His promise to send the Deliverer.

- They didn’t believe that God would destroy the world with a great flood.

God had waited patiently for 120 years for them to change their minds, but He would wait no longer; it was time for God to punish them

Before it started to rain, God told Noah to take his family and the chosen animals into the finished boat.

Noah believed that God was going to destroy the whole world. He also believed that he and his family could only be saved by God, so he did what God said. God didn’t save Noah because of his good life. God saved him because Noah agreed with and trusted in God.

Noah and his family all went into the ark through the one door which God had told Noah to make.

- This was the only way anyone could be saved from the flood and God’s wrath against sin.

- All the animals also came into the boat by the only door.

After they were all inside, God shut the door.

- Consider:

- “...the LORD shut him in” (v. 16)! Sometimes we read right through wonderful things in the Bible without even realizing what God has said! God Himself shut Noah, as well as his family and all the animals, inside the place of safety.

God wasn’t going to allow more time for the other people to change their minds and believe.

- When God shut the door, it was too late. Even if they cried or pleaded outside the door, they could not enter the ark. Noah could not let them in because God had shut them out. They had no way to be saved.

- Those inside the boat were safe because God had shut them in.

- Those outside of the boat now had no way to escape God’s anger because God had shut them out.

Consider:

When God put Adam and Eve out of the garden, away from the tree of life, was there any way for them to get back in? No, none! When God decides it is time to punish the world, there is no escape from Him.

After God had shut the door of the ark, He sent the rain.

- God has control over all the earth, the rain, wind, sun, moon, stars, and everything else.

- He made all these things, and He controls them all. There was so much water that it covered the whole world—even the highest mountains. Where did all the water come from?

- Do you remember what the world was like when God first made it? It was in darkness, and deep water was covering the whole earth. On the first day, God created the light. On the second day, He made the air and the blue sky, and He put much of the water which had been on the earth up above the sky, probably as a canopy of mist or vapor which encircled the earth.

- Now, when God’s time to flood the earth had come, God made the water which He had placed up above the sky fall back onto the ground as rain.

- This was no ordinary rain; this was a deluge!

- The waters also came from underground sources. Originally, the rivers and streams on the earth were probably fed from subterranean reservoirs and rivers of water. God may have caused great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to open the earth’s crust so that these great fountains of water gushed out onto the earth’s surface (Genesis 8:2).

God can do anything.

- Nothing is impossible to Him.

- He alone is almighty.

God made it rain for forty days and nights until the whole earth was covered with water, even the highest mountains and trees. Everyone outside of the ark was destroyed by God.

- All of the other people had refused to believe, and God destroyed them all.

- Only Noah and his family had believed God and had entered the ark. God is patient with men. In Noah’s day, God waited for 120 years for men to repent of their evil ways. They had no excuse for their sin. They simply refused to listen to God, though He warned them again and again through Noah.

Then, in a moment, in the midst of their sin and their godless living, they were swept away. Every man, woman, and child outside of the ark died in the flood. God is holy and righteous. He is a God of love, but He is indeed a God of wrath against sin. But Noah and his family believed God, and they weathered the storm safely inside the ark.

QUESTIONS:

1. What was the attitude of the majority of the people in the time when Noah lived?

2. Do we see many similarities in the world today to the times of Noah? Name some of these similarities..

3. Who was speaking to the people’s minds, telling them to change their attitude and come to God in faith?

4. Who reminds people of God’s Word and wants each one to seriously consider and believe what God has written in the Bible?

5. What did God say He was going to do because the people would not repent?

6. Did Noah deserve to be delivered from everlasting punishment by God?

7. Why then did God decide to save Noah?

8. What did God tell Noah to do?

9. Did God allow Noah to build the ark however he thought best?

10. What one important thing should we remember about the ark?

11. Did Noah build the ark just as God said?

12. What else did Noah do while he was building the ark?

13. Had the people ever seen rain before?

14. Did the people accept what Noah said and change their attitude?

15. How long did God wait for the people in Noah’s time to agree with Him and to believe His Word?

16. How did those saved from judgment get into the ark?

17. Who shut the door?

18. Why did God shut the door?

19. Can anyone escape God when He decides it is time to punish sin?

20. How did God cause the flood to cover all the high mountains and the earth?

21. Did anyone outside the ark escape death?

OPTIONAL DISCUSSION QUESTION:

22. The Bible tells us that the people who predated Noah were skilled men—materialistic but very capable. By Noah’s time, men had become so thoroughly sinful that their every thought was totally evil and godless. What does this tell you with regard to the theories of so-called “evolution” of man, which imply that man is continually improving?

Suggested Daily Bible Reading:

Day 66: Numbers, Chapters 14 and 15

Day 67: Numbers, Chapters 16 and 17

Day 68: Numbers, Chapters 18 and 19

Day 69: Numbers, Chapters 20 and 21

Day 70: Numbers, Chapters 22 and 23