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NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!

NEW BEGINNINGS!

Introduction

This is the day we have been looking forward to since that day back in late May when the sewage backed up into our building and made it unusable.

I remember wondering then whether it would ever be OK to hold Church here again. Things were an utter and complete mess downstairs.

At one time we even contemplated just abandoning the building and buying or building something new. However, that was an very expensive proposition and the insurance would only cover a small portion of what it would have taken to do that.

We were assured by both the insurance company and the restoration specialists that this building could be made usable again. So, in these past three months a lot of work has been poured into tearing out the filth, detoxifying, cleaning, remodeling, and refurbishing our building.

If you have not had a chance to walk into the downstairs area, you should go down and take a look. There is the feeling that most everything has been made new.

As you can also see, some of our folks have even made some changes upstairs that gives our building a fresh, new look.

So, though a sewage backup is not something that we would have chosen to have happen and have to deal with, nevertheless, we need to see and understand that God has His reasons for whatever He allows to come our way.

One good thing to come out of this is that God has used this awful incident to give us a remodeled downstairs area that we would not have otherwise been able to afford.

But I pray that God will use this ordeal in some other ways also.

1)           I pray that we will have a greater appreciation for what God has given us here. (Sometimes we take the things God gives us for granted.)

2)           I pray that we will take greater care of God’s property. There has been some tendency in the past not to keep things properly maintained.

3)           I pray that God will use this ordeal to teach us some spiritual lessons.

I believe that the Lord would have this day be a new beginning for our Church.

So I want to look at the Scriptures and see some places where God gave His people a chance at a new beginning.

We will begin today by looking at Noah’s new beginning.

I.            THE CORRUPT SOCIETY. (Vs 5, 11)

It was the corruption of our downstairs area by the sewage that made the need for our new beginning.

Likewise, it was corruption of society in Noah’s day that brought the need for a new beginning.

               A.         The Character Of The People.

God describes these people as being in a state of continual wickedness in their thoughts and imaginations.

Imagination has to do with the thinking and planning in the heart. It has to do with the thoughts that precede the deeds.

                            People do what they do because of they are what they are.

These folks were wicked and so it stands to reason that they thought wicked thoughts and did wicked things.

                            It says that God saw the wickedness of man was great.

Wicked people sometimes don’t seem to think they are doing wickedly, but God does.

               B.         The Conduct Of The People.

When we speak of a person’s conduct we are referring to their actions or behavior.

                            God said here that the world was corrupt and full of violence.

When people are wicked, they not only will have wicked thoughts and imaginations but they will do wicked things.

A person’s character will most always expresses itself in their conduct and way of life.

Again, God said in verse 5, that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually".

Character is what guides the thoughts and imagination. And conduct is the end product of a person’s character.

Matthew 15:11, 18-19–"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." 18 "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:”

We need to see that the things we think about and imagine are important because they eventually work themselves out into our conduct.

The wicked behavior in Noah’s day resulted from people first imagining the wickedness. Their wicked character led to their wicked thoughts and then their wicked thoughts led to their wicked conduct.

The deeper a person goes into sin, the deeper they have to go to get any temporary satisfaction out of it.

People become slaves to their sinful desires, but then they find that they must become more wicked to find any satisfaction.

                            But their never really is any lasting satisfaction in being wicked.

                            That’s the way it was in Noah’s day, but what about our day?

                            As we hear and read about the wicked deeds of our generation,

the hearts of those who truly know the Lord cry out to him and say, “Lord, how long?” But, we know that there is an end coming to it all one day!

               THE CORRUPT SOCIETY.

II.           THE CONDEMNING SOVEREIGN. (Vs 6-7, 17)

We were sickened and grieved by what the sewage did to our building and how it affected our ability to carry on Church here.

But I want you to think of how much more God was sickened and grieved by what had happened to His creation as the result of the cesspool and sewage of sin.

               A.         God Gazing. (Vs 5)

                            1.          God Gazes At Man’s Outward Deeds.

“God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.” (Vs 5a)

There is nothing that happens that escapes the gaze of our great God!

Job 34:21-22–“For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. 22 There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.”

                                         There is nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide!

Proverbs 15:3–“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”

Psalms 33:13-15–“The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.”

Psalms 139:11-12–“If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”

There are none of us who would like our life flashed up on a screen for everyone to see, yet God sees it all!

Hebrews 4:13–“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”

                                         God Gazes At Man’s Outward Deeds.

                            2.          God Gazes At Man’s Inward Depravity.

“God saw. . . that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Vs 5b)

When the sewer backed up into our downstairs area, there was some contamination behind the walls that could not be seen, so the restoration company had to tear into the walls to expose the hidden contamination.

                                         In our lives, God sees behind the walls of our heart!

                                         He sees that which no one else can see or know about!

Jeremiah 17:9-10-–“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

King David told his son Solomon in 1 Chronicles 28:9– “. . . know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”

Psalms 44:21–“Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.”

Psalms 90:8–“Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.”

Psalms 139:1-4–“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.”

The Gospel of John records of Jesus in John 2:24-25–

“... He knew all men, 25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”

God Gazing. (Outwardly at deeds and inwardly at depravity)

               B.         God Grieving.

Sin grieves the very heart of God not only because we fall short of His glory, but because God has our best interest at heart!

Deuteronomy 5:29–“O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”

Deuteronomy 32:29–“O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”

The Psalmist said of the Children of Israel in Psalms 78:40– “How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!”

Psalms 95:10–“Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:”

Psalms 81:13-15–“Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.”

God Gazing. . .God Grieving. . .

               C.         God Gashing.  (Vs 7, 13, 17)

When this building was first built, no doubt those who were around at the time looked at what they had done by God’s grace with a sense of satisfaction and said, “This is good.”

But when catastrophic backup of sewage was added to the damage that had already accumulated from time and use over 35 years, it was no longer good.

And so, that which was corrupt had to be destroyed and removed. A new beginning was needed, but that which was corrupt had to first be removed.

In the beginning when God created everything, He saw that, “It was good.” But sin entered in and made a royal mess of things.

                            And now that mess had gotten to catastrophic proportions.

God was ready to make a new beginning with Noah and his family, but he had to first destroy the corrupt society that had become so prevalent.

Some folks might ask, “Why did God use a worldwide flood?”

                            1.          God is sovereign over all creation and frequently uses nature to judge mankind.

                            2.          The Flood was the most effective way of purging the world.

It washed the earth so clean that not a trace of the wicked could be found.

                            3.          The Flood was used by God to start a “new beginning.”

                            4.          The Flood shows that man cannot get by with sin and

stands as a warning to all of the coming wrath of God.

               THE CORRUPT SOCIETY.

               THE CONDEMNING SOVEREIGN.        

III.         THE CONSECRATED SERVANT. (Vs 8-9, 13-15, 22)

               God chose Noah and his family to make a new beginning on the earth.

               A.         Noah Found Grace.

Noah was a recipient of God’s grace and therefore he was spared from the judgment of God.

Ephesians 2:8-98 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

               B.         Noah Was Just.

                            i.e. He was righteous and blameless before the Lord.

He was justified before God by faith in the promised seed by which he became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Titus 3:5–“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”

               C.         Noah Was Perfect In His Generation.

Not with a sinless perfection, but with a perfection of sincerity;

He was upright. He was consistent in his character, seeking to live according to God’s truth in both principle and practice.

               D.         Noah Walked With God.

                            1.          Walking With God Means To Walk In God’s Direction.

To walk with someone means you have to be going in the same direction.

                            2.          Walking With God Means To Walk By Faith.

Hebrews 11:7–“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”

                                         a.          It Is The Opposite Of Walking By Sight.

                                                      He had to believe some things he hadn’t seen.

                                         b.         It Is A Walk Of Obedience. (Vs 22)

                                         c.          It Is A Walk Of Confidence In God.

                            3.          Walking With God Means To Share His Companionship.

                                         Notice how God speaks to Noah as unto a friend.

                            4.          Walking With God Means To Bear A Strong Witness.

2 Peter 2:5–“And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;”

               E.         Noah Became The Caretaker Of The New Beginning. (Vs. 18)

Conclusion 

Such is the man that God used for this “new beginning” on the earth.

Could I tell you that God is still looking for the same kind of people to give a “new beginning” to.

If you have not found God’s grace, it is available to you today!

If you are not “just” before the Lord because you have not been justified by Him, you can be today!

If you are not upright in your walk, God wants you to be so today and you can be by His grace!

God wants us to walk with Him, not against Him!

               1.          Walking in His direction!

               2.          Walking by Faith! (Obedience to God and Confidence in God.)

               3.          Walking in His companionship!

               4.          Walking in witness to both who He is and what He has done for us!

Will you walk with Him today? Will you let this be a “new beginning” for you?

Home Page   Contact Us    Service Times   Sermons   Are You Going To Heaven?

NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!