Sermon From the Last Summit

Genesis chapter 6 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. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.

Those are some of the saddest words in the Bible. And then some of the most blessed words are, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now the flood was on the earth forty days, the waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.

And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. Between the time that the ark started to rise and all the hills were covered, mankind was in the greatest catastrophic event in the history of man. They were all going to die.

For the next few minutes, what I want to do is take you through what mankind went through. There was a great mistake made. The mistake was this, they did not listen to Noah.

It began to rain. Now what happened? Puddles began to form, and low-lying areas quickly turned into ponds and lakes. The waters began to rise.

And I'm not certain how long it took for the ark to begin to rise. I would imagine that mankind had several days of drunkenness and revelry even after the rain began. The Bible says the fountains of the great deep burst open.

The waters of the deep came up. The waters from heaven came down. It was a strange phenomenon.

It was called the end of the world. No weatherman could have predicted it outside of Noah. It wasn't long before the waters reached flood stage.

All the houses situated in the low-lying areas had been engulfed and swept away by the torrential waters. Now imagine this, the bewildered valley dwellers, those that are in the lowlands, grabbed their possessions. Of course they did.

And they headed for higher ground. The hills become crowded. About this time, the noise of partying subsides.

Now fear and panic was on every face. Houses on the hills were at capacity with friends and family. Unfamiliar faces were shooed away like unwelcome mosquitoes.

Now waters are rising so high that everything that was below is up around the mountaintop. You can see all the carnage, the dead bodies, the dead animals. Of course, no one's talking business.

No one's talking who's who. All they're mentioning are two words, Noah and Ark. Because everyone could see the Ark floating off in the distance, or maybe the Ark was just beginning to set sail.

Maybe it was high enough, but it hadn't actually left harbor. Maybe at that time some people were neck high and they were reaching out and they were grabbing hold of the Ark and they were scraping it with their fingernails and beating the sides of it. If you don't think this happened, folks, come on.

The world was populated. God was destroying man. The only way to safety was through that boat and the door was shut.

And so men were standing out there beating on it going, Noah, let me in. This is Samuel. I helped you build this boat.

I'm the one that owned the lumberyard. I'm the one that filed your axes. I'm the one that filed your saws.

Let me in, Noah. Yeah, I mocked you. Of course, I made fun of you.

We had never seen rain before, but it's different now. Noah, let me in. Somebody else is screaming out saying, Noah, my wife Elizabeth is by my side.

She's eight months pregnant. Let us in. Somewhere in a museum is a picture and the picture is called Scenes from the Deluge.

And it shows a picture of a man clinging to a tree at the top of the last hill. His father is clinging on his back. His wife, he's holding the hand of his wife.

His wife has got one of her young wrapped around him. And then another child is clinging to her hand and slipping off. In the background, you see the ark floating off into the distance.

This is the last family alive, the last group of people. And they're dropping to the ground. The strength is leaving.

And I want you to imagine with me what would be the sermon from that last summit? What would be the words that that person says? What would they say to you that are listening by internet? What would that one person say to us? I can promise you they would not from the top of that tree give you a message on how to be blessed. And they would certainly not give you a message on the seven ways to be successful in life. And they would not tell you how great you are.

This would be a dying man preaching to dying men. And this is what he would say. I was deceived in thinking everything was okay, my friend.

Let this be a lesson. Things are not as they seem. God is not winking at your sin.

Just because God is silent, and I say this to America, just because God is silent and he's not pouring out his wrath, doesn't mean he's not taking notes. The man would say, don't listen to your peers, listen to the preacher. Maybe the man on the last summit would say this, learn from my mistake.

There's coming a day when God will no longer deal kindly with you. One day, God's not going to wrestle with sinners. We're going to go, Noah! We're going to go, Jesus! Give me the word one more time! Preach to me one more time! The blood, the cross, anything, Jesus! Just talk to me! But God said, no, I'm finished.

Your time of grace and mercy is over. There's a time when God says enough is enough. Let me give you a word of counsel, says the man that's hanging from the last tree.

The last man to die on earth. Just because you're close to the ark, doesn't mean you're going to get in it. You can be close to Jesus and not have a relationship with him.

The man from the last summit would say, my friend, learn from my mistake. My word for today, get in while the door is still open. Get in while the door, not the doors, the door is still open.

See, right now we're living in a day of grace. If the man from the last summit was here today, he would say to everyone within the sound of my voice, you still have the wooing of the Holy Ghost. You still have the opportunity.

Don't do like I did. I lost my whole family in the deluge, and the water's about to cover my neck. I'm going to drown.

There's no one left but me. And I'm saying to you, if I had to do it over again, first mention of repentance and getting right with God out of Noah's mouth. I would have run up that ramp, jumped in that ark, and been saved.