WHEN GOD WITHDRAWS HIS OFFER

Genesis 6:1-3

Morning Meditation 1/1/14

"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 shall be an hundred and twenty years."

God's offer to Adam and Eve followed the exposure of their sin. Before salvation comes to any man there must be an exposure of sin. God says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Next, God makes a promise that will make a way for man's return to God. That is found in Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is the first promise of the coming of Christ to be the Saviour. When He comes God says, "it shall bruise thy (Satan's) head, and thou shalt bruise his (Messiah's) heel." This took place at the cross.

The next thing God does in Genesis 3 is to illustrate the gospel. The innocent must die to pay (in type) for man's sins, and furnish clothes to cover man's nakedness. Genesis 3:21, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them." 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Revelation 7:14 says, "And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

Adam's sons as a whole did not follow the Lord. Cain killed Abel and it was a religious crime. God accepted Abel's blood sacrifice and rejected Cain's bloodless sacrifice. Cain was given a chance of repentance and he refused and became an enemy of God. To reveal his hatred for God, he killed Abel because he was right and approached God in the right way. Then there was--

A POPULATION EXPLOSION

The population explosion involved a rebellion against God. God describes the condition in Genesis 6:5-7, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at 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."

THE STRIVING OF GOD'S SPIRIT WITH A REBELLIOUS PEOPLE

God says, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man. . ." Christ, as God, had by His Spirit inspired Enoch, Noah, and perhaps other prophets (#1Pe 3:20 2Pe 2:5 Jude 1:14), preached repentance to the antediluvians; but they were incorrigible.

The striving of God's Spirit is a grace call to forgiveness and salvation. Man cannot be saved until this happens. Jesus said in John 6:65, "And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."

The striving of God's Spirit reveals God's love and His willingness to save. However, when God deals with a man over and over again and that man continues to reject His Creator, God will cease to strive with that man.

Can a man be saved after God ceases to strive with him? The answer is in the sixth chapter of Genesis. There came a time when God loaded the ark and shut the door. No one after (and probably before that time) could be saved. One does not come when he wants to. He comes when God invites him through the preaching of the gospel.

We are living in those kinds of times today. You hear God's name mentioned in every quarter today. It is men and women working at their jobs and expressing their frustration by using God's name in vain. Many of them may have already crossed the line of God's mercy.

Then God's name is used in the pulpit without any reverence and without faith to believe that there is power in that Name. God has been put to the side by men of earth. It has also affected the saints. Many who claim to know the Lord use His name irreverently.

THE STRIVING OF GOD'S SPIRIT HAS A DEAD LINE

God says, "Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Noah built the ark and preached and the one's he won to faith in Christ were his wife, three sons, and their wives. They would ride out the storm. They would hear the screams of those with whom God had ceased to strive. They will all go down into the tomb of a timeless eternity to cry out for mercy when it is too late.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White