WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW
GENESIS 6:5-13 PRINCETON CHRISTIAN CHURCH 16 JANUARY 2022
Some time ago, probably around 60 years ago a new song was written. Some of you may remember it. The song’s title was “What the World Needs Now is Love.” It was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Now, I need to point out that David and Burt were not writers of Christian or Gospel songs. This was a secular song that became extremely popular. What the theme of the song is, is that love is the one thing that there is too little of in this world. It says that we don’t need another mountain or hillside, or ocean, or river, or cornfields or wheatfields. We just need love. We could probably all agree that the need for love is an especially important part of our lives.
The topic of love has many different facets, definitions, and degrees of understanding. So, I think we need to get a little more specific about the kind of love that the world needs. There is a specific kind of love that this world needs. That love is the love of a Loving Savior. A love that comes from one who, because of His own love for us, causes us to have that same kind of love for one another.
The world has many great needs today. One of the greatest of these needs is the need for love, of course. But the greatest need of all in the world today is our need of a Savior.
At various times down through the ages, God has looked upon the world He created and has seen the condition of humanity, and He was not happy with what He saw.
Today I want us to look at these times, the conditions of the world at those times, and at what God did about the situation, and what He will do in the future.
Genesis 6
First, let’s look at the condition of the Genesis world. In Genesis 6:1-15 God saw that man’s wickedness was great (5). Every imaginable evil thing was being done. God was grieved at His creation (6). The earth was filled with violence (11, 15).
So far, don’t you imagine as God looks down upon His creation that He sees very much the same condition today?
So, seeing the condition of the world, God decided to take action against man. (7). He would destroy all life (7,13). That included all people, all animals, all plant life – nothing would be spared. Nothing, that is, except one righteous man and his family. That man, of course, we know is Noah.
The world needed a Savior. God chose Noah in an attempt to save some. He and his family were the only people found righteous enough to inhabit the earth in God’s eyes. Only Noah and his family believed God. They listened to God. They recognized their need for a Savior.
Next, let’s look at the condition of the world we live in today.
Wickedness is at an all-time high. It would probably be more accurate to say that wickedness is at an all-time low.
We can look at some statistics which tell us how wicked and how low the world has sunk. These statistics tells us that a rape occurs ever eight minutes; someone is murdered every 27 minutes; someone is robbed at gunpoint every 78 seconds. A burglar strikes every 10 seconds. A car is stolen every 33 seconds.
In one day, people drink nearly 100 million bottles of alcoholic beverages. In one day more than 3000 women will have abortions. And the list goes on and on and on.
Basically, the world sees three reasons to do anything. Those reasons are these: Money, Pleasure, and Glory, or Honor.
God is again grieved at man’s behavior. Man has compromised belief in God for counterfeit religions. A Catalog of Cults lists 76 new and different cults, which people are depending upon for salvation.
What if God made the same decision today in 2022 as He did in Noah’s day. He wouldn’t have to use a flood again. He has any method in His power to use to destroy all of life. How many would be saved? Who would be His 2022 Noah? Is there one righteous enough to be saved?
The world today definitely needs a Savior. Galatians 4:4 tells us this: “But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law.”
God knew the proper time to send His Son to a lost and dying world. You see, the world became wicked again – even after God swallowed up the earth and all in it in Noah’s day. And, as we know, the earth has become more wicked in our day.\
It was time to save some. What was the condition of the world at the time of Jesus’ birth? The world was again in a state of extraordinary moral degeneration.
Lasting marriage between a man and a woman was the exception rather than the rule. Divorce and immorality ruled the lives of a majority of the people. Cults became the degrading influence of the day.
The religion of the Romans could not cope with the degeneracy of the times. Greek philosophies had failed. Luxury was beyond description. Vice and crime were prevalent.
The spirit of the times was to corrupt and to be corrupted. People had departed from God and, through vain independence, had set up gods like creatures for themselves. They began worshipping the created rather than the Creator.
From this idol worship they had gone on into moral degeneracy and crime until they were lost in a world of darkness and destruction.
This was the moral condition of the world into which Jesus was born. He was born to overcome the world and its sinfulness with His Gospel.
We read this in 2 Thessalonians 5:4, 6: “But you brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake (or surprise) you as a thief.” “Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others: but let us watch and be sober.” That is, to be alert, be self-controlled.
There was the destruction of the earth in Noah’s day. There was the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, into a world of sin. And there is to be a Second Coming of our Lord and Savior to again destroy the earth and establish the Kingdom of Heaven.
The timing of that Second Coming is unknown to us. No one knows. The Word simply says it will come “in the fullness of time.” The fullness of time will be determined by God and by our Lord Jesus Christ.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love the songwriters tell us. They didn’t mention Jesus, the One and Only Savior of the world. We must constantly be aware that Jesus came into this world to call all men to repentance from the rampant sin of the world.
For some people, sadly, Jesus Christ was not really come the first time, because they have not given their lives over to Him. They have not accepted Him as Lord of their lives.
The condition of the world will probably not get better and better as some hope. It is becoming so much like the evil time of the Flood. It is so much like the evil time into which Jesus appeared as a baby to grow and teach humankind about His plan to save us.
We do not know how much time we have left to yield to His plea, to come and follow Him. He yearns for us to follow His teachings, to believe that He can save us, to repent of sin, to be baptized into Him for the forgiveness of sin.
As we look at this world, my hope is that all of you realize that this world is not our home. Jesus is coming back to save the righteous ones out of this world into the Home He has prepared for us.
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