Text: Genesis 6:1-18: 6:1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. 5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

Genesis 8:13-22: 13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
20   Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Introduction

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does.

Cain’s sin may have seemed as bad as it could get. Murder — the intentional taking of another human’s life — always seems like the worse possible sin. Cain’s punishment, banishment from God and his family, should have reminded the new race of the consequences of sin. Undoubtedly these people were intelligent enough to get the message!

Apparently not. In one of the most graphic descriptions of humanity’s total corruption, we find the same words in chapter 6 we saw in chapter 3. This time, the cumulative result would lead to a total judgment of sin. We must remember while reading of God’s judgment in the flood that He promises to judge the world again. Just as we read of a new creation arising from the waters in Genesis, we must remember God’s promise of a new heaven and new earth emerging from the purifying fires in Revelation.

Fortunately, in the midst of judgment, grace appears. In the midst of a corrupt society and race, Noah found “grace” in God’s eyes. God’s preservation of the righteous Noah presages His preservation of the righteous believers in the eternity to come.

Sermon

First, we must understand the comparisons here with the Fall in chapter 3. In chapter 3, Eve “saw” the fruit was good and then “took” it. In chapter 6, the “sons of God” saw that the “daughters of man” were “good” and “took” any they chose. Human pride always leads us to believe we deserve anything we want, regardless of the consequences.

In this case, the ones taking the daughters actually had the power to do as they pleased. Who were the “sons of God”? Throughout the Old Testament, this phrase refers to angels or heavenly beings. In pagan literature of Moses’ time, the phrase referred to deities or demigods. More than likely, this phrase here refers to heavenly beings who possessed men in order to take human women for their own pleasure. According to St. Peter, these angels were cast into hell and chained until the final judgment (2 Peter 2:4).

Even without this unnatural mixing of heavenly and earthly, human society plunged into a spiral of complete depravity. Eventually, God declared His judgment: after 120 years, He would destroy His creation and begin anew.

What lessons do we find in the story of the Flood, and do they apply to us today?

God cannot tolerate sin and will always judge sin accordingly. 6:3-7. As with the story of Adam and Eve, we find that God will always cast sin from His presence. The God we serve is a holy God; He cannot tolerate sin in His presence.

Much has been made of God’s “sorrow” and “grief” at His creation. We cannot take these terms more literally than Moses intended. It is not as if God was surprised; He is omniscient and knew this stage would come. However, we must also remember, especially believers, that our actions always affect the God who loves us. We should seek to bring joy to His heart, not grief.

In this case, the people on the earth had either forgotten the important fact of God’s holiness or decided intentionally to ignore it. We still see the same today; people know the right way to live but choose to live in opposition to God’s commands. Regardless of how they reached this state of affairs, the story makes plain that human depravity had sunk as low as it could go.

Most likely, most of the people facing judgment chose to ignore the fact. “120 years! Wow, I have plenty of time to live it up and then repent!” Jesus, however, stated that “... in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away” (Matthew 24:38-39). Many people were caught unawares by the judgment.

This shouldn’t surprise us, especially in our current society. God may not destroy people with a flood today, but in a real sense, death always reminds us of His judgment. We all know death is inevitable, but we all find ourselves surprised when any but the aged actually die. I’ve been reading about Jonathan Edwards, the American theologian this week, and the contrast between America then and America now will strike anyone. In Edwards’ time, children learned their letters by saying little poems with each letter. The rhymes included a saying for “T”, “Time cuts down all, both great and small;” the children associated “Y” with the rhyme, “Youth forward slips, Death soonest nips” (George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), p. 27). Edwards would find himself amazed at our disregard for our inevitable end.

The lesson is clear: Judgment is coming, because God will always judge sin. Are you more prepared for the judgment than the people of Noah’s time?

God always extends grace for those who would escape the judgment. 6:8-18. The Scripture says that “Noah found favor (or grace) in the eyes of the LORD.” How did Noah find grace in the midst of depravity? The Scripture continues by saying, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.”

Note this: Noah was not perfect, by any means. Noah sinned, and he would one day pay the price for that sin by his death. However, in this circumstance, God chose a righteous man from the corruption and spared him from the judgment. God provided an escape for Noah from the destruction to come.

Noah was only the first in a long line of those who escaped in times of distress. The Hebrews were brought from Egypt; Rahab and her family were spared in Jericho’s destruction; David was spared Saul’s wrath. In the New Testament, we find St. Paul miraculously saved from shipwreck. The author of Hebrews tells us in chapter 11 that many “through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Hebrews 11:33-34).

Today, we know that God has prepared a better means of our escape, our salvation, than the ark of Noah and his family. Today, we can rest not in an ark, but in the family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Everyone who recognizes the depth of his sin and seeks salvation in the grace of God will find grace in Jesus Christ.

There is another lesson in this passage. Although I know that eschatology often brings disagreement among believers, we find that God spared the righteous from a universal destruction resulting from a judgment on sin. We worship a God who consistently works to bring glory to His name through His gracious deliverance of His saints. In the first universal judgment, God delivered His people using an ark. In the next universal judgment, I believe God will take His people from earth to be with Him forever before the impending doom.

God will bless the righteous in times of trial. 8:13-22. After more than a year on the ark, Noah and his family emerged to find a totally different world than they had known. Everything had changed; nothing was the same. The flood erased all traces of sin and civilization. However, they were saved.

When Noah and his family left the ark, their first act was to worship the God who had spared them. When we recognized God’s work in our lives, do we thank Him for His gracious acts? I found a great prayer that may summarize Noah’s feelings at this time:

We confess that Thou hast made us rulers; help us to govern; we know that the world can crush us; help us not to fear it, but Thee; we are sure that we have rebelled against Thee; we bless Thee that Thous upholdest us and unitest us to Thee (Allen Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), p. 197).

Noah and his family faced a tremendous responsibility, the same as Adam and Eve had faced at the beginning of the Creation. Noah and his family were to replenish the earth and exercise dominion over it. They were not delivered for no reason.

Why do you think you were born again? Do you believe that God saved you only to deliver you from eternal condemnation? God delivers us from sin that we might help deliver others. We are to serve others and love them as God loved us. How did God love us? He sent His Son into the world that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). We must tell others of Jesus’ work in delivering us from the impending judgment.

Conclusion

We cannot read Genesis chapters 1-11 without reading the book of Revelation. As with the account of Noah, we find that sin will threaten to overwhelm the saints, only for the saints to find deliverance from evil’s grasp. Then, at the end of the book, we find a new heaven and new earth prepared solely for the eternal enjoyment of the righteous, those who have confessed Jesus as Lord and believed God raised Him from the dead.

In the meantime, we must remember that God’s holiness requires us to live holy lives. We must remember that others need to hear about the means of deliverance through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Only 8 people survived the Great Flood. We must do better in our generation.