"Noah's Home: A Place of Faithfulness" (Genesis 6:1-13)

"Noah's Home: A Place of Faithfulness" from Genesis 6:1-13 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on June 21, 2026.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis. We'll begin in this chapter and we'll begin in verse number one. We've taken this month and we've called it Christian Home Month, emphasizing the Christian home and the role that we play. We've looked at some other homes, and we're going to get just a glimpse into a home here in the Old Testament, here in Genesis chapter six. And let's begin reading in verse number one. Genesis chapter six, verse number one. The Bible says, And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days will be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Verse 9 says, These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth, and God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Would you mark one phrase in verse number nine? We'll take this for the launching point for the message this morning. This phrase, Noah walked with God. Noah walked with God. And we'll take for the title this morning this thought Noah's Home, a place of faithfulness. Noah's home, a place of faithfulness. We get not only a glimpse into the home of Noah here, but we also get a glimpse into the state of the world at this time in Genesis chapter 6. Multiple times all through this, what does it tell us? It's a wicked world. I think God's people all through history have read Genesis 6 and thought they lived in a Genesis 6 type time. And yet we look back and we think, oh, well, things weren't that bad back then. They're really bad now, right? We always think we live in the worst time that anyone's ever lived in, right? But we do find that there is a world and there is a culture, there is an underlying idea among the world system that is against God, against his word, and against his way. And yet, what do we find? Right in the middle of this wicked world, we find a man who's raising children and leading a family and living for God. Now, I want us to just get a glimpse of that. If you're taking notes this morning, you write a few things down as we consider Noah's home, a place of faithfulness. But to write this down, number one, we see that Noah lived in a wicked world. Noah lived in a wicked world. Look at back at verse number one of Genesis chapter six, and it says, It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. Now, if you read three different commentaries, you'll get three different ideas of what this is talking about in Genesis chapter six. But here's the point. This was a day of unleashed lust and sexual concupiscence, and it was a time where it says here the daughters of men, and they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose, and the sons of God come down. That relationships were driven by physical decisions concerning beauty at the cost of spiritual decisions. That's really what's happening. And the world is coming apart at the seams. Relationships are coming apart at the seams. It even says in verse number three, the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet the days, his days shall be 120 years. Now, some people have different ideas about this. Does this mean man is gonna live 120 years, or does this mean God's starting a countdown to judgment? This is gonna be 100 years long, 120 years long. You read different commentaries, you're gonna get different ideas. But here's the thing: man only has so long to turn back to God. Whether this is a countdown, 120 years to the flood, or whether this is saying man's only gonna live 120 years in his life, the point is there is a finite amount of time for an evil people to come back to God and get right with him. That's the question we've got to ask. We just have a finite amount of time. We're not going to live forever. Every one of us is going to come to the end of our lives. And have we lived that life faithfully before God in a wicked world? This is where Noah is. This is what Noah has. You may look around and you say, Pastor, we live in a wicked world. I read the news and I see this and I see that, and this is going on. What are we going to do about it? We're going to keep doing what we're supposed to be doing. God's people have always lived in a wicked world. God's people have always lived in a culture that was against the things of God. We see here it says in verse number five, and God saw. I've actually made note of those two words, God saw. You know, there is no act that goes unnoticed by God. You may say, I've been done wrong, Pastor. Things have been done wrong against me. Nobody knows about it. God saw it, and God knows about it. He actually says in verse 5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And here's what it says in the second part of the verse. That the imagination of the thoughts of his heart, speaking of man, were only evil continually. Does it seem like that sometimes when you flip the news on at night? That the thoughts and the imaginations of man are only evil continually? Well, here we are. This is roughly 4,400 years ago. And the lot of man is the same way then, four millennia ago. Their thoughts and their imaginations are only evil. In fact, if you skip down to verse number 11, here's what it says. The earth was also corrupt before God. You know what that means? All sin is ultimately against God. They're not corrupt before Noah, they're not corrupt before local magistrates, they're not corrupt before the local laws, they're corrupt before God. We've got to ask ourselves, in the way we're living, it's easy to point a finger at a wicked world and talk about all the terrible things the world is doing. But we've got to point a finger back at ourselves and say, am I living before God, the life that I'm supposed to live? Because that's really the only bar that we're trying to make it to. That's the only status. That's the only measuring rod that we have is how does God want me to live? And it says in verse 11, the earth was filled with violence. Timothy actually talks about in 2 Timothy chapter 3, he says that there will be people who are fierce. We live in a fierce day. We live in a day where if you're not careful and you just talk back to the wrong person, they will pull a knife out and they will kill you right there. We live in the kind of day where you had to be careful what you say. We live in the kind of day where people are at a moment's notice, at the drop of a hat, they will strike back and they will take a life. That's the kind of day Noah lived in. So then, if we live in a wicked world and Noah lived in a wicked world, what are we going to do about it? Would you make note of a second thing? Not only did Noah live in a wicked world, secondly, Noah led his family in a wicked world. Because here's what it says at verse 10. These are the generations of, I'm sorry, verse 10, Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah didn't say, well, you know, the world's just too bad. Can't bring children into a world like this. The world's been bad ever since man sinned. And it's been getting worse. And yet, what does Noah do? He brings children into the world. Look, if we have an enemy to fight, what should we do? Let's raise up our own soldiers. We're just raising up our own army and training them to go into the fight. We are not a retreating army. We're an advancing army. I read an article recently, The New York Times, and it said the title of the article was To Breed or Not to Breed. It says, in a world of chaos, political strife, climate catastrophe, some would-be parents see the future as too dark to bring children into it. They speak to a couple of people here and they quote them. They say the burden of knowledge is too great. They have anxiety of having children. They said, over the next 10 years, I feel like there are only going to be more reasons not to want to have a child. And while economic concerns remain paramount, 64% of parents citing high cost of child care, 37% citing global instability, 36% domestic politics. To some of these issues are all rolled together. And nevertheless, the concern seems to be gaining traction among childless adults in the United States surveyed last year. One in four cited climate change is a factor on why they do not currently have children. And so people are saying, I don't know about the future, and so I will not have children. And yet, what do we find Noah doing? He says, I'm going to bring children into this, and I'm going to train them and I'm going to raise them up. We should not fear the future. You know why? Because ultimately it's in the hand of the Lord. He knows what's going to happen. We can lead a family in a wicked world. If Noah could do it, and by the way, spoiler, only his family makes it onto the ark. He didn't lose his family. Their wives get on the ark. His wife gets on the ark. He leads them in a wicked world. Noah brought three boys into a world that was running as fast as it could away from God. Now, how did Noah know how to live? We just get back with me and go to chapter 5 of the book of Genesis. Go to verse number 28. Verse number 28, we find a man that says, And Lamech lived 180 and two years and begot a son. And he called his name what? Noah. You know how Noah knew how to live in a wicked world? Because he had a daddy named Lamech that lived in a wicked world and raised a son called Noah that would fear God and walk with God in this wicked world? You know how Lammoch knew what kind of life to live? Well, just get back with me to Genesis chapter 5, verse number 25. It says, And Methuselah lived 180 and seven years and begat Lammoch. Noah had a father named Lammoch that lived for the Lord, and he had a granddaddy named Methuselah that lived for the Lord. Now, how did Methuselah know how to live for God? Go back to chapter 5, verse number 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. He not only had a daddy and a granddaddy, he had a great granddaddy named Enoch that walked with God and left behind an example of how they were to live in a wicked world. The world had just been getting worse and worse and worse and worse, leading up Genesis chapter 6. And God's people kept taking a stand for what was right and what was holy without compromise and showing their sons and their daughters coming after them how they were supposed to live. So we have a choice. We can either close up shop and go out to the middle of some mountain somewhere out in the woods and say, I'm just going to live out my days till Jesus comes back, or we can take a stand in the middle of a wicked world that is coming apart at the seams and say, We will be the example of what a godly home looks like. It's a faithful home like Noah's that is in the midst of this wicked world that is the, I think, one of the greatest witnesses to these people. You know, in the kind of world Noah lived in, leading his family in this kind of world, I don't think they had, now, I think they were vocal about following the one true God. But I don't think they had to say much, probably. I think the way they looked probably told exactly who they were. I think the way they talked told exactly who they were. I think what they ate and drank and what they didn't eat and drink showed exactly who they were. You realize you don't have to, I mean, we're viewed as extreme, but we really don't have to be that extreme to stand out in the world we live in. If you just work hard and you live right, and then we're we're faithful to our wives and we take care of our family, we'll start standing out in the wicked world as we lead. A husband, leads a wife, and leads the children in this world. Every Christian today has the grand privilege to raise children who follow God and live for Him. And ultimately, Noah was responsible for his own actions for how he raised his sons. Noah had to make a decision. Here's how I'm going to lead my family in this wicked world. Now, how is he going to do that? Would you make note of a third thing? Go down with me in chapter 6 of Genesis to verse number 8. He lived in a wicked world. He led his family in a wicked world. Here's what verse number 8, I think it shows us this. Thirdly, he looked to God in a wicked world. He looked to God in a wicked world. How's it going to happen? It's only going to happen if we're leaning on the Lord to do it. Here's what it says in verse 8. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Grace here means favor or acceptance in the eyes of. God looked over the entire earth and found a world that was unacceptable before him. In fact, he's going to destroy it. And yet he finds one man that was acceptable in his sight. Now, was Noah perfect? No, it says here in verse 9, he's perfect in his generation. It doesn't mean he's without sin. This word perfect here means that he is whole. The way he's living is congruous. That means the way you see him in public and the way you see him in private, it's the same person. The way you see him as he's working on the ark and the way you see him before his family, all of that is whole. Everything's put together. He's not one thing one place and one thing in another place. He's not one way on Sunday and another way Monday through Saturday, right? He's the same all the way through. He's a whole person. But it says here in verse 9, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man. He's righteous. He's seeking to rightly live before God. It says that he walked with God. Men, if we're going to have a faithful home in an unfaithful world, we have to walk with God. If we're going to lead children in an unfaithful world, we're going to have to walk with God. We personally are going to have to have a relationship that is vibrant and alive and living with the one true God. That's the only way it works for Noah. It's the only way it's going to work for us. He walks with God. Amos chapter 3, verse 3, Amos says, Can two walk together except they be agreed? You know what that means if we're going to walk with God? We've got to agree with Him about some things. We're going to have to go to His Word, and we're going to have to be convinced of some things about how we're going to live. I think the best way to figure out how we're going to live is make the decision before we have to make the decision. What do you mean, Pastor? I mean we need to nail some things down in our lives about what we're going to do and what we're not going to do, how we're going to live and how we're not going to live before we come to the moment of crisis and have to decide. Because people who act out of crisis and desperation normally make bad decisions. But when we walk with God and we get some things lined up and we say, here's where I draw the line, here's what I'm going to do, here's what I'm not going to do. Then when that decision presents itself, what would Noah say? Well, I've already decided I'm not going to live that way. And even though the world all around me in Genesis chapter 6 says, well, this is how everybody lives, Noah said, No, this is not how God's people live. Because God's already shown me. I walked with him and he showed me how I was supposed to live. I've walked with God, he's already showed me. This is what he expects from me as his child. This is what he expects of us, Shem, Ham and Japheth, how we're going to live and the kind of home we're going to have in this world. Why? Because he walked with God. And then here's the best part. Not only did he live in a wicked world, not only did he lead his family, not only did he look to God, but would you make note of a fourth thing? He labored for eternity in a wicked world. He didn't just circle the wagons and give up, just trying to hold on until Jesus comes. He didn't say, Well, as long as I just get my family, that's going to be enough. What does he do? Look down at look down at verse number six. And he repented the Lord, he'd made man his heart, it grieves him in his heart. So God, God is shows anguish over the sin of man. It grieves him at his heart. He says in verse 7, the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from off the face of the earth, man and beast, creeping things, fowls of the air, and repent of me that I've made them. I'm going to destroy the earth. He's going to send rain, cover the earth with water, and destroy the earth. So what does Noah do? Does he say, Well, I'm glad, I'm glad I'm going to get out of that. I'm already taken care of. No, what does he start to do? Look at verse 13. God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Noah, this world, I'm going to destroy it, but I got work for you to do. Why don't you go build an ark? Well, Lord, I don't know what an ark is. That's all right, I won't tell you exactly what it is. And then you know what he tells him, I'm going to send rain that's going to cover the earth. Noah never seen rain before. You realize you put yourself in Noah's shoes and think about everything God tells him that has either never been done or never been seen before. Go build an ark. All right. Well, you tell me what that is, Lord. I'm going to cover the earth. I'm going to bring rain and cover the earth with water. All right, I'm going to take your word for it, Lord. And he labors for eternity and he builds an ark and God gives him plans and he follows it through, and no doubt his sons are laboring with him. His children are involved in the work as well. It was not a time to stop. It was not a time to let up. If anything, it was the time to push harder and go further and do more for the Lord. Why? Because the clock was ticking. God said, I'm not always going to strive with man. You know what that means? My patience will run out. Often the prophets talked about the cup of God's wrath, and you can imagine that cup is, I always think of it as a saucer with a teacup sitting in it. And you pour the tea in, and slowly it fills up. You know what? The Lord has a big cup. It can take a lot of patience, and it can take a lot of sin, and it takes a lot of time. But there comes a point where the cup of his wrath fills up and it pours over on that saucer. And he's saying, The cup of my wrath, it is coming where it's going to fill up. And I'm going to pour out my judgment upon all the earth. So, Noah, you've just got a little time to do what you're going to do to build this ark. Judgment's coming. Judgment's coming to the earth in Genesis 6. But look, judgment's coming today. We've got to ask ourselves, do we truly know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior? Now, this ark, I believe, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ because it was the way to get out of that judgment. Anyone who did not get on the ark that Noah built would face judgment for their sin by being destroyed in the flood. You can read later on, we find that there's one door in the ark, and it says that God closed the door. And when God closed the door, no one could open it. That window of opportunity was over. And there will come a point where maybe you say, one day, Pastor, I'll get saved. When God closes that door and he stops convicting you and stops showing you're a sinner and you need to be saved, you're not going to get past that. You're not going to get over that. You have just a moment in time if God's convicting you and showing you you need to be saved, that you're a sinner and you need to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Today is the day of salvation. I read recently, sometimes you know, we're made a caricature of. I was reading about, it was talking about churches that go out in active soul winning. And there's a little caricature of us, and they said, people like them are like people out in a boat paddling around in the ocean looking for people from a shipwreck and pulling them out of the waves. And I thought, I'll take that. That's exactly what we're doing. We live in a world that is destroying itself. We live in a world that the ship is going down and everybody on the ship is going down. Then let's man the lifeboats and pull as many people out of the waves as we can. That's the work we've been given to do. Why would we have gospel teams go down to eight World Cup games and give out gospel material and speak to people about the Lord and witness to people from all around the world? Why would we do that? Because we don't have much time. Because we've been given an opportunity to get the gospel to all people. Because we will give account. I think we as a church, I think the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at 425 10th Street Northwest would give account of ourselves if we did not go and be a faithful witness to the people that have come to these games. I think the Lord would hold us accountable if we didn't do it.

unknown 23:33

C.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

T. Studd was an English cricket player. He got saved and he left cricket and became a missionary to Africa. C.T. Studd says, some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Some people want a good, comfy, warm, cozy Christian life and church experience. C.T. Studd, he said, I want to go down where they're about to fall in the fire. And I want to grab them just before they go and pull them back in. There's a story. I read this story recently, and I said, I got to use that one in a message sometime. June the 6th, 1944. We just celebrated the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, Operation Overlord. It was the great push to get our troops, Allied troops, onto the European continent to make a final push for Berlin and end World War II. 130,000 soldiers are part of this amphibious landing, largest amphibious landing ever. The oldest man to land on the beach that day was 56-year-old Theodore Roosevelt Jr. He's actually the son of the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. And Ted, as they called him, was 56 years old. He had to petition high command three different times to try to get in the landing boats. They said, you're too old. He dealt with, he had arthritis. They said, your health's too bad, you're too old, you can't do it. Finally, he pushed so hard. Eisenhower finally said, Fine, you want to do that, you can do it. He was a brigadier general. And he got in a landing boat, and he was in the first group, the first wave that landed at Omaha Beach. He carried a pistol and a walking cane. That's all he had. I love it. His group was launched, and because they had miscalculated the waves, he landed, his group landed a mile off of their landing site. Utter chaos, heavy enemy fire, entire boats hitting mines, explosions, constant machine gun fire from the beaches. He lands, hits the ground, realizes they've landed in the wrong spot, begins immediately to try to get groups together, reform regiments, reform lines, to begin taking the beach. And in all of that chaos, some just totally shutting down. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. said this we'll start the war from right here. Things are going wrong. We've landed in the wrong spot. I can't find my men. I'm not sure what the plan is. Here's what we'll do. We'll just start the war from right here. He would lead that day. A beach head would be formed. A month later, he would die of a heart attack in his sleep, and he would be posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. We live in an imperfect world. And we live in a day where sometimes we don't know what's up, we don't know what's down. And you may say, Pastor, I'm not perfect. Well, look, I'm not either. And we live in an imperfect world. But here's what we can do. We can say, let's start the war from right here. You know where that is? That's in our own heart. That's in our own home. That's in our own church. I don't think we're going to change the world tomorrow. But we can start the war from right here. And we can say, in my own heart, I'm going to follow the Lord and I'm going to live a faithful life. And in my home, we're going to do what's right. And we're going to live right and we're going to live just and we're going to honor the Lord. And in our church, right here, we're going to do what's right. And we're going to live for the Lord. And we're going to be faithful. Let's start the war from right here. Let's have a faithful home like Noah. Boy, you'd look back at Genesis 6 and you'd say, Oh, I wouldn't want to try to raise children in a place like that. I wouldn't want to try to have a home in a place like that. And yet here are three little boys he raises. And when the rains start falling and the flood starts rising, those three boys and their three wives, and Noah and his wife, they get on the ark and they find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Let's start right here. Honor the Lord, live for him, and live a faithful life right where God has put us and be an example of faithfulness in a wicked world.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com