Judgment Is Coming...but God - Part A

Now, when it says His Spirit will not always strive with man, God says that.

It implies that the Holy Spirit does indeed strive with us. He is patient with us. David said in Psalm 103, God is slow to anger.

I'm so glad it says that. God is slow to anger. Another word the Old Testament uses about 13 times. He is long suffering, long-tempered. He lets the fuse go and burn a long time.

He is slow to anger. He is abounding in mercy. Some people seem to focus only on God's judgment, but God is also full of love and mercy. Today on Connect with Skip Heide, Skip shares how even as the world faces judgment one day, God is pouring out His grace today. Now we want to tell you about a great resource that sheds light on what the Bible says about God's nature and character, including His plans and purpose for your life. The best biographies make you feel like you personally intimately know the person you've read about, from Mozart to Mother Teresa, Sojourner Truth to Steve Jobs. It's exciting to learn the details of influential people, but one biography stands out above the rest, the biography of God.

Here's the author, Skip Heitzig. There's nothing more elevating to mankind than the study of God Himself. Discover the omnipotence, paradoxes, and mystery central to God's being and remove the limits you may have placed on who God is. I've noticed that almost every problem that a person has in their life stems from an inadequate view of God. Skip's new book is our thanks when you give $35 or more today to help keep this ministry on the air.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Genesis Chapter 6 as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. In that great theologically edifying movie, Nacho Libre, the main character Ignacio works at an orphanage and struggles balancing that with his love for wrestling. And he's got a buddy in this movie who always says, I believe in science. And at one point Ignacio says, you know, I'm concerned about your salvation. You haven't been baptized. And the other guy says, how come you always judging me because I believe in science?

It's a classic moment, but that's what people say a lot. Why are you always judging me? And the truth of the matter is we all evaluate life. We evaluate everything in life.

Part of human cognition is to make judgments, to make assessments about things, all things. When you go shopping, you evaluate that food. Is that fresh?

Is that ripe? When you go to a restaurant, you make a judgment. Was it good?

Did it take too long to get waited on? You can even go on Yelp and give it one star or five stars. You are making a judgment. When you meet someone, you do the same. When you date someone, you judge them, right? You should. You should be asking questions like, is this the right personality for me? Do I want to go on a second date?

Is this somebody that I can trust? According to the Journal of Neuroscience, our brains immediately determine how trustworthy a face is before it is fully perceived, which proves the fact that we make very fast judgments about people. The article went on to say that there are certain features that individuals deem as trustworthy features, and we immediately make an evaluation. In any competition, there are judgments to be made. Athletes are judged. They even call them judges who watch and evaluate them. Singers are judged.

Dancers are judged. When I turned 16, I went to the California DMV to get a driver's license. Somebody sat next to me who judged my performance, gave me a license.

My mom had second thoughts about his ability to discern anything. But I've discovered since I got my driver's license, I'm still being judged. There are police officers who have pulled me over and have told me, you're not doing this very well.

You need to slow down or you need to use your signal. You've all had that experience. You are being judged. Every day in courtrooms, people are judged. They have committed a crime or it is suspected they have, and the judge will pass a verdict of an acquittal or a sentencing.

It could be a light or a medium or even a severe sentence. But then, and more to the point, then there is a judgment in life itself, a judgment about our lives, for our lives. A final evaluation by a perfect and impartial judge, God, is the ultimate evaluator. Abraham in Genesis 18 called him the judge of all the earth. He is the judge of all the earth. He is the supreme ultimate judge.

Years ago, Horace Gray, who was a justice for the U.S. Supreme Court, a criminal stood before him. The judge knew he was guilty, but that he was getting off on a technicality. So the judge said this to him, I know that you are guilty and you know it.

And I want you to remember that one day you will stand before a better and wiser judge that there you will be dealt with according to justice and not according to law. God's judgment is based on God's justice. God judges because God is just. If God does not judge, then he is not just. If he is not just, then he is not perfect. If he is not perfect, then he is not God. God judges because God is just. That's the whole premise of Paul in the book of Romans chapter three. He outlines the fact that God's attribute of justice is what qualifies God to judge the world.

Why? Because God alone knows the facts of every case. He has all the facts. He sees it all. He knows every deed, every whisper, every motivation. He collects all the evidence. At the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20, we are told, and the dead were raised and the dead were judged by what was written in the books. That's a way of saying God has the information at his disposal.

He and his omniscience, the books, has all that is needed to adjudicate that particular case. One time an umpire struck out Babe Ruth or called a strikeout on Babe Ruth. When that happened, the crowd that day booed the umpire.

So Babe Ruth took advantage of it, turned back to the ump after he was struck out, and he said, how could you call that a strike? There are 40,000 people here who are of the opinion that the last pitch was a ball. The umpire smiled and said, that may be true, but my opinion is the only one that counts. That's true about God, isn't it? God's opinion is the only opinion that counts.

It's the only opinion that ultimately we need to worry about. Not anybody else's, but God's. Well, Genesis chapter 6 and 7 and 8 bring us face to face with a judgment of God that happened in the past. We call it the flood, the flood of Noah. It was judgment day for the earth in the past, and according to Peter, that is a model of another judgment that is coming also upon the earth in the future.

Same effect, different mediums, one with water, one with fire. But what it does for us in the series, but God, is gives us some attributes of God's justice, in particular God's judgment, and I'm going to give them to you in statement form. God is patient, but He judges. Chapter 6 of Genesis verse 1 says, now it came to pass when men began to multiply in the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his day shall be 120 years. Verse 4 talks about the result of that in terms of this odd race that comes. Verse 5, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. And so the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.

Look at verse 3, that is the principle. The Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man forever. That is, God is patient, but He judges. God is forbearing, but not forever. God will put up with you, but if you don't turn to Him, He'll put you down.

Another way of saying that. Now when it says, his spirit will not always strive with man, God says that. It implies that the Holy Spirit does indeed strive with us. He is patient with us. David said in Psalm 103, God is slow to anger.

I'm so glad it says that. God is slow to anger. Another word the Old Testament uses about 13 times, He is long suffering, long-tempered.

He lets the fuse go and burn a long time. He is slow to anger. He is abounding in mercy. You say, well, how patient is God?

Let me give you a few examples. In the original creation, God said, He is patient with us. He is patient with us.

He is patient with us. In the original creation, God said to the first being He created, the first human man, Adam, He said, don't eat this fruit of this tree. In the day that you eat this fruit, you will surely what? Die. He didn't die for 930 years.

That's slow to anger. Yeah, He was separated spiritually immediately, but He didn't physically die till He was 930 years old. Then there were the Canaanites. They were in the land of what today is Israel. God said, they're wicked.

I'm going to judge them. But He waited 400 years. And then God said, I'm going to give you their land. But He said, when I drive them out, it's going to be a while. And He says, because the iniquity of the Amorites, that's the chief Canaanite tribe, is not completely full. Interesting phrase. Their iniquity is not completely isn't full.

Well, when was it full? Another 400 years. So God was patient with them 800 years. That's slow to anger. When it comes to the flood, God says, I've seen the earth, I'm going to destroy the earth. But He first sent a preacher of righteousness.

That's what Peter calls Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and spoke to them while he was building this boat for 120 years. That is slow to anger. So the principle is this, God seems to let sin add up and accumulate until the time when God's wrath must eclipse God's mercy. God is slow to anger. God has a long fuse. He lets it burn before He acts, but, but He acts.

Eventually He acts. Once in England, there was an atheist, kind of famous guy named Robert Ingersoll, loved to travel around and mouth off about God and how He didn't exist and you're stupid to believe in Him. So he was sort of famous for the stunt of saying, if there is a God, let Him strike me dead in five minutes. And he put his pocket watch on the podium. And you know, people would watch this. And then after five minutes, he'd slap his hand on the podium and say, see, there is no God.

Well, somebody told us to Joseph Parker, who was one of the great preachers of London at the time. And Joseph Parker heard it, and he laughed and said, did the gentleman presumed to exhaust the patience of eternal God in five minutes? God is slow to anger. He's not going to like wipe you out in five minutes. He'll let the fuse burn a long time. He will strive, but not forever. There's a limit.

There's a window. And when that window is done and his patience runs out. But the Bible speaks of the certainty of judgment for everyone, for everyone. And most people don't know that until they die. And now they're confronted with it. Hebrews 9, 7, for it is appointed to every man to die once.

But after this, the judgment. I had a man come to me last week and he said, let me ask you a question. Is it okay to pray for your dead relatives? I said, no, it's not. He goes, well, I do it all the time. So, okay. Well, you asked me.

Yeah, you can do what you want, but I'm just telling you from a biblical perspective, there's nothing in the Bible that warrants you praying for your dead relatives. And so he goes, well, you know, you ought to speak on that. I said, well, I've spoken on that before, but in case you missed it, I'm speaking about it today. It's appointed at every man to die once. And then after this, the judgment. You get a lot of chances up to that time. That's the grace and patience of God.

But after you die, you face the judgment. I've always liked that story in the wild west about the young boy who was trapped by a stagecoach. He got caught on it somehow and the stagecoach ran away with this little boy trapped to it. And a young man saw this. And so he got on his horse and chased down the stagecoach and saved the boy.

They didn't see each other for years. The young man grew up to be a judge. The young boy grew up to be a criminal. And one day the criminal appeared in that judge's courtroom. Well, now that boy grown up, the criminal noticed the judge and recognized him and said, that's the guy that saved me. So the criminal was a judge.

So the criminal made an appeal to the judge based upon what the judge had done for him so many years before as if to say, you did it once, do it again. The judge, before he put the gavel down and said, you're guilty, which he did. He said, son, on that day, I was your savior. Today, I am your judge. Jesus Christ is both savior and judge because he is the only one qualified. He was sent by God the Father to come to this earth to take the punishment for our sin on himself and provide a solution. And if people don't receive that or turn away from that, those who refuse to be cleansed by it will be judged for their sin.

Now, there's certain things I can't resist, and this is one of them. Jesus made a very interesting remark about Noah and the time of judgment at the flood that linked that judgment at the flood with a future judgment of the world. Listen to what he said, Matthew 24. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of man be.

Now, that immediately piques our interest. He's saying, what's going to happen to the son of man He's saying, what's going to happen in the future is a lot like what happened in the past. As it was in the days of Noah, so also it will be in the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and did not know the flood came and took until the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Among other things, this authenticates the Old Testament story of Noah and the ark because Jesus speaks of Noah as a historical person and mentions the event of the flood as an historical event. So I'll just say if you have problems with Noah, you got big problems with Jesus Christ. But his point is that people before the final judgment will have the same attitude they had before the flood.

They were unconcerned, they were unsuspecting until bam, it was too late. But there's some interesting corollaries. The days of Noah and the days of now.

Let me show them to you. First of all, there was an increase in population before the flood. Verse one of chapter six, it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them. Now, according to Genesis 5, and we don't have a lot of time to talk about the canopy effect and the theories of longevity and all the stuff that we've done before, but according to the genealogical records of chapter five, people had longer lifespans, which would set up for a massive increase in population. According to doctors John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, scientists, they took the geological tables from Genesis and calculating longevity and average number of kids per family, they figured that at the end of 18 generations, there could have easily been 774 million people. That's a conservative estimate. And that a conservative estimate of the earth's population at the time of the flood could be easily 1 billion people if not in excess of that. They say it could have far exceeded it. Now, why is that significant?

Because let's just say that's true. If that is true, this earth hasn't seen a billion people since the time of Noah until our year 1804. In 1804, that was the first time a billion people were on planet earth. It didn't take much longer to get 2 billion people. In 1927, there were 2 billion. In 1963, 3 billion.

Today, 7.6 billion and the big concern social scientists especially are having is, and scientists, what are we going to do with this exponential increase, this multiplying on the face of the earth? Second, I want you to notice there was an increase in sexual depravity. Verse 2 says, the sons of God, Bani Elohim in Hebrew, saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, my spirit will not strive with men forever for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years. Verse 4 describes the effect of that. And I'm not going to again get into the details of the Nephilim and this odd race of people.

We just don't have the margin of time. But let me just sum it up by saying simply, there was a breakdown of the family. In fact, I'll say it this way, there was a breakdown of the traditional family that God had given early in Genesis chapter two and three. The family was now replaced by a sexual freedom that led to a sexual perversion.

I think we see a corollary. In our culture especially, 70% of television programming, 70% of television shows show sexual conduct. It's almost as if we are obsessed with sexuality. We've just got to stick it in there somewhere. 70%.

Two to 3% is about sexuality between people who just met and only half the couples portrayed are in any kind of established relationship. Third thing I'd like you to notice, there was an increase in wickedness. Verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

Now watch what he does here. He takes us into the very thoughts of humanity at the time and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every single thought was only evil continually.

The Berkeley version renders it. Human wickedness was growing out of bounds on the earth. Only evil continually. Very descriptive phrase. In the world of criminal prosecution, a person can have a track record of committing crimes over and over and over again. When that happens, even if it happens a couple times, that a litigator tries to prosecute the criminal as a habitual offender.

Because a habitual offender means, according to the law, that they get more jail time. Because crime has become, according to them, a way of life. It's now a way of life.

It's a life choice. God looks at the earth and says they're habitual offenders. Every single thought of the intents of their heart is evil continually. So an increase in population, increase in sexual depravity, increase in wickedness, and also there was an increase in violence. Verse 11, the earth was also corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. What's the first violent crime committed? What's the first murder? Cain kills Abel. Cain kills Abel. A few chapters later, a guy named Lamech kills someone based upon the fact that Cain killed someone.

That was his role model. But by now wickedness and violence has become epidemic. It filled the earth, God noticed.

It filled the earth. As if to say, once people turn from God, they will turn on one another. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series, But God. Now we want to tell you about a unique opportunity to take your knowledge of Scripture to a new level. Calvary College is now open for registration. Calvary College is offering select online classes as an opportunity for individuals to take their life's calling to a whole new level with an educational emphasis in Biblical studies, with our unique partnerships with Veritas International University and Calvary Chapel University.

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800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in again tomorrow as Skip Heitzig examines the plan God had for Noah and talks about the plan God has for you. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.