Judgment Day!

Genesis 7 can be seen as a dry run of the judgment to come. While the first part of Genesis 6 dealt with why God must judge the world and the second part of Genesis 6 focused on how God prepares His people for the coming judgment, Genesis 7 tells us what judgment will be like.

With that in mind let’s take a look at what will happen on judgment day.

The judgment will be sudden and surprising. It seems that a little more than a century had passed from the time the Lord first spoke to Noah and commanded him to build the ark, until the time when He was to actually judge the world.

The Lord preserved Noah as a faithful, righteous man before Him. Noah had lived righteously before the Lord during this time of rebellion. Noah had prepared the ark and thus demonstrated faith in God’s word concerning the judgment. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Heb. 11:7.
Noah warned those of his time of the coming judgment even as he prepared the ark. if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, 2 Pet. 2:5.
Noah’s lifestyle, act of faith in building the ark in plain sight and constant preaching of God’s judgment highlights the pattern of life believers are called to pursue prior to the next judgment.

The prelude to God’s judgment happens in plain sight leaving all without excuse. God places His people as witnesses of His Person, holiness, righteousness and truth amidst a rebellious world. Like the ark was an undeniable and unmistakable sign of God’s judgment so the church of the Lord Jesus is likewise a sign of God’s coming judgment.
Like Noah proclaimed that the ark was the only way of escape from God’s judgment so the church proclaims that Jesus Christ is the only way to escape from the coming judgment. Noah lived his life right among and besides those who ignored the warnings of judgment completely. The unbelieving world went about their business without even a second thought about the coming judgment. They were busily living life and ignoring God as if the world would go on as it always had. Noah and his family were busily about the Lord’s work. They lived as though the world was about to end because it was.
Noah’s life showed that he was ready for the judgment and though the timing may have taken him by surprise it did not catch him off guard. Your own personal judgment day may catch you by surprise and off-guard. When that day comes what kind of soul insurance will you have?

The judgment will utterly catastrophic and permanent. The judgment displayed God’s complete sovereignty. God is in control, has control and exercises control of all His creation with absolute moral superiority and holiness. God displayed sovereign control over His creation, the time of judgment and those who were judged.
This judgment was a worldwide catastrophe. It was a catastrophe that showed however God’s sovereign control over His creation. God causes great earthquakes in the deep seas causing a great overflow of the worlds oceans. The Lord sends torrential downpours that eventually flood the entire world. The language of the passage indicates that the waters of the flood came quite suddenly and swiftly. The judgment was terrible. It’s difficult for us to imagine the extent of God’s judgment and the loss of life. For those outside the ark the judgment was inescapable. The passage notes how even the high mountains were covered with water. It could be that some tried to escape from the flood by scaling the highest mountains around them.

In almost all of the big blockbuster disaster movies the heroes somehow beat the odds and through their own ingenuity, cooperation, fortitude etc. escape the with their lives to a new world.
But there will be no escape from the judgment to come. Their will be no place to hide, no where to run or way to fight.

The judgment will demonstrate God’s grace. On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
Genesis 7:13-16 (ESV)

God kept His promise to Noah and his family by bringing them to the ark before the expression of His punishment. The Lord Himself assured their salvation by shutting them in the ark which was the only safe place on earth. The Lord then showed His justice by destroying all of the rest of life left on earth. God’s grace is magnified to us in Christ who rescues us from the coming judgment by being the one the Father blots out for our sin.

Where will you be on judgment day? Many of those in the previous generation remember exactly where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated. Many from our day remember where they were on Sept. 11, 2001.
Where will you be on judgment day? I’m not asking where you’ll be physically, but where will you be spiritually? Will you be in union with Jesus Christ having had your sins forgiven and therefore anticipating enjoying His glorious kingdom forever or will you still be in your sins with the expectation of eternal condemnation looming over your soul?

To Him Who Loves Us...
Pastor Lance Lewis