And Noah Walked with God

Our study today, friends, is on how to have an effective devotional time with God in our daily morning quiet time. Our passage of scripture can be found in the book of Genesis in chapter 6. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will begin in verses 9 through 14.

The title of my message today is, And Noah walked with God. I believe, friends, the greatest need in the church today is for someone to be able to touch God in prayer, and the explanation for all the deep spiritual decay in our churches is that we are out of touch with God. Here in our passage, we find a man called Noah, and there is a remarkable statement attached to this man, And Noah walked with God.

What is even more remarkable about this statement is the environment which Noah lived in, for we find in verse 11 the tragic description of it by God. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Sounds like our society today, does it not? Morally corrupt, like a filthy sewer spilling out upon the land, contaminating all it touches, and violence filled the land, the text says.

Our street corners today are blood red from senseless killings in our cities. So here is a man called Noah, and this man stands out from the rest of society in which he lives. Why? Was he a great intellect? Perhaps he was a famous person of great wealth and prestige? No, he stands out like a diamond against the black velvet backdrop of a corrupt society, and he shines forth because he was one who walked with God.

God is on the lookout today for such a man, such a woman, who will stand out from the muck and mire of our generation and walk with him. Now there are some principles I would like to draw out from our text today, friends, and I believe they will help us to have a stronger walk with God as we serve him in a polluted society stained by sin. Look at your Bible and see in verse 9 the statement, and Noah walked with God.

Now take your pen and draw a circle around that, and then draw a line down to verse 13 and circle the following words there, and God said unto Noah. I will pause here to make a startling statement that perhaps some of us have forgotten. When we walk closely with God, we will hear his voice.

God shares with Noah what is on his heart in regard to mankind. He reveals to Noah like you would reveal something special to a trusted friend whom you are close to. God tells Noah what he is about to do.

Look at verse 13. And God said unto Noah. The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

That word behold is filled with the magnitude and majesty of a sovereign and holy God who's getting ready to speak to one of his creation, this simple man, Noah. God not only informs Noah of his plan to destroy mankind, but God reveals to Noah that he intends to preserve Noah and his family as a means to reprocreate the earth. So a flood is coming that is so spectacular it will take everyone by surprise that in its intensity and in its immensity it will drown and destroy all mankind.

That is except this man Noah who walked with God. He and his family will be spared. So our principle learned from this passage now expands somewhat into something even bigger.

When we walk closely with God we will hear his voice and he will invite us to participate with him in his great work and through this we will experience God more in a deeper knowledge of him. I am a research revival scholar and I've spent the best part of my life in the study of historical revivals. I've spent decades studying and writing on revival.

The revival that came to the Isle of Lewis and the Scottish Hebrides during the 1949 to 1952 awakening under the preaching of Duncan Campbell where the presence of God saturated the entire island to such a degree that people were drawn out of their homes like a magnet to come to church without any man inviting them there. Why? Because God was there in his manifest presence. People were drawn to that presence.

People would stay out on the hillsides at three in the morning crying out to God in prayer. Oh what must I do to be saved? I asked a minister years ago who lived on the island and who knew Duncan Campbell and I asked this man to describe to me who was Duncan Campbell and why he was used so mildly in that great movement of God and to describe Duncan Campbell to me in a sentence or two and this is what that minister said. He said Duncan Campbell was an ordinary man who had had a extraordinary experience of God and that's what he said.

Do you think friends Noah had an extraordinary experience of God? Do you think Moses at the bush had an extraordinary experience as well? How about David and all his trials and troubles and great deliverances? How about Abraham who was called a friend of God? How about Jacob who wrestled with God? Do you see where I'm going with this? Dear friends each of these men mentioned here were merely men. Men who had a big faith in God and a close walk with God. Is this same God not available to us? Can we touch God in prayer? If we can touch God in prayer he could then touch us and transform us.

We cannot hear from God if we are not in a close intimacy with him through a disciplined life of prayer. Well how is this achieved you may ask? First we must align ourselves to God to his standard and not man's. In Amos 3 3 God declares can two walk together except they be agreed.

We must be in harmony to God to walk with him. In Psalm 24 we get a sense of this. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully.

So we must align ourselves to God. Clean hands speak of our relationship with man. Our dealings with others must be clean and we must make restitution if necessary.

A pure heart speaks of our relationship to God or walk with God where all sin is confessed and put under the blood of his dear son. Clean hands and a pure heart our daily living must be aligned to God. Duncan Campbell related an incident that occurred during that revival.

He said while he was preaching one day an elder of church rose and went out the back door of the church and this man did not return to the meetings for three days. Duncan said to himself there I've done it again I've offended someone. But after three days this elder in the church returned to the meetings and he approached Duncan Campbell after the sermon and explained his absence in the meetings.

The elder said while you were preaching from Psalm 24 on having clean hands I heard a little dog bark. Duncan Campbell replied I heard no dog bark. Oh yes said the man I definitely heard a little dog bark.

You see when I was a young man I stole an expensive hunting dog from a farm and I sold it another farmer out of the village. I had completely forgotten about that incident until you preached that sermon and I heard the dog bark. Immediately I rose from my seat and drove a great distance to that farm where I had stolen the dog.

The farmer had died but his oldest daughter now had the farm and I explained to her what I had done and I made restitution to her by paying her for the price of the dog along with interest these many years. Then the next day I got out of the village in my car and found down dusty roads and the farm where I had sold the stolen dog but the owners had changed hands. So I had to take the next day to locate a relation to the farmer and when I found that person I explained what I'd done and then I made that person take the money along with interest for these many years.

That's why I've been gone from the meetings Mr. Campbell but I say this I now have a deeper walk of God than I've ever had before. That man friends made the effort to realign himself to God. Let me ask you friend is there something in your life that you have never settled with God? Can you hear a little dog bark if I may so speak? Does your conscious ring with a wrong act between you and man with you and your God? Our text says and Noah walked with God.

A man of prayer is a holy weapon in the hands of God. A man of prayer can be an Elijah who awakens a sleeping nation. A man of prayer can make the heavens open from desperate nights of prayer and Noah walked with God.

Wouldn't it be remarkable friend if that could be said of you by the Almighty? Place your name there. He walked with God. She like Hannah walked with God.

Oh friends how God could use you to impact an entire family, an entire church, an entire city, your very nation. Can we touch God in prayer? Let us pray.