The Inevitable Solution for Sin
Genesis 6:1-22
January 4, 2014
Well this morning I think it’s safe to say that
The whole thing is about to come to a head.
You probably don’t need much of introduction to Genesis 6.
Most of you already knew that it was the beginning of the story of
What is commonly called “Noah’s Ark”.
And when I mention “Noah’s Ark” you probably first have a mental image
Of a big boat and animals streaming to it with blue skies
And probably even a rainbow.
Everyone loves the story of Noah’s ark.
I would even venture to say that no other Bible story
Is more widely used to decorate nurseries than this one.
And this is a little humorous since no story in human history
Ever depicted the wrath of God and the judgment of sinners
Like this one.
• This story is not just about an ark that Noah built.
• This story is not just about all the animals entering 2 by 2.
This story depicts the obvious end for sinners.
This story is one of death.
This story is one of a global judgment.
We talk about judgment in the Bible and we mention events like:
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• Babylon burning Jerusalem
But those are nothing compared to what occurs in Genesis 6 & 7.
God is about to wipe all humanity.
God is about to kill everyone.
Death is about to occur in the largest scale we have ever seen.
And really we should have seen this coming.
Ever since Genesis 3:6 when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree
This is where we were headed.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
James 1:15 “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
Ever since sin entered the world,
Judgment has been the only possible way the story could end.
There is no way a holy God was going to just let humanity continue to defy His commands and wreck His creation.
Sooner or later it had to come to this.
Sooner or later death had to occur.
And that is what we see here beginning in Genesis chapter 6.
Make no mistake, this is not just some “Children’s Story”.
What we are studying here is the first clear indication
Of what God thinks of sin.
Up until this point, God has been striving against sin.
• God has been warning
• God has been calling
• God has been pleading with sinners
But in Genesis 6 God says, “Enough”
And no story in the Bible should drive into your heart the reality that another judgment is coming like this one does.
In fact even in the New Testament when mockers arose to deny the actuality of a coming judgment, Peter referenced this story.
2 Peter 3:3-10 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”
You should not think it is beyond the nature of God to wipe out all humanity.
You should not harbor such thoughts as “A loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell.”
Listen friends, He already did.
He already wiped out all humanity once, and He will do it again.
Sin only leads to one inevitable result and that is judgment.
It is seen clearly here in Genesis 6.
So this morning we begin this study commonly referred to as “Noah’s Ark”
And I want to begin by showing you God’s solution for sin.
Now think about it for a moment.
Through our study (and even in our society)
We have already come to realize that sin is an epidemic.
• We recognize that sin is the cause for enmity, pain, and toil in this life.
• We recognize that sin spreads like it did with Cain’s line.
• We recognize that sin brings death.
Mostly we realize that something must be done about it.
How do we get rid of sin?
Now Seth taught us what we should do.
Seth taught us to call on the name of the Lord.
But what is God’s solution for sin?
The answer is total eradication.
Now I know that sounds harsh
I know that flies in the face of a tolerant culture
But let’s look at Genesis 6.
Three things:
#1 GOD’S MOTIVE FOR JUDGMENT
Genesis 6:1-7
Now we know where we are in the story.
We have sin on the move.
And it is moving fast.
We’ve already seen deception, disobedience, murder, worldliness, polygamy, and tolerance.
By now I’m sure the list has grown extensively.
But even more than a list of sins, when God looked upon the earth
What He saw was sinners who were completely preoccupied with sin and who had no desire for repentance.
Notice what is occurring here.
(1-2) “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”
Now this is a tough story, and one that has been subject to various interpretations over the years.
But if you’ll give me a moment I’ll explain to you what was happening.
Some have commented on this (Calvin, Henry)
• And said that “the sons of God” were Seth’s line
• And they were sinning because they married “the daughters of men”
• Whom they determine to be Cain’s line.
And the sin is seen that the only reason they married them
Was because they “were beautiful;”
Their application is that God’s people should not intermingle with the children of the world just because they are physically attractive.
But that is not what is going on here.
No adultery is mentioned here, and even though it is shouldn’t be your only criteria, I’m pretty sure it’s not a sin to marry a woman whom you find attractive.
(How many of you men were drawn to your wife because you thought she was ugly?)
Furthermore “sons of God” is not a term of humans.
“sons of men” is a term for humans.
What we have occurring here is a very heinous crime
And one that would greatly motivate God’s judgment.
The New Testament actually gives us a clearer picture of the event.
1 Peter 3:18-20 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”
Peter mentions that in the days of Noah there were spirits sent to prison.
These spirits were still there during the death of Christ,
For Christ made proclamation to them when He died.
And you must understand these were not humans, or else the world used would have been the word for “souls”. These were spirits.
What did these spirits do in the days of Noah; why were they in prison?
2 Peter 2:4-5 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;”
Peter simply says they sinned.
And for their sin they were cast into hell
And committed to pits of darkness and were reserved for judgment.
But even more specific than that, what did they do?
Jude 5-7 “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”
Now Jude is following the same course of thought as Peter
And he is writing about how God is faithful to judge sin.
He first mentions the apostates of Israel.
Men who should have been God’s,
But who defected and because they defected were destroyed.
Then he mentions angels “who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode” and because of this God is keeping them in eternal bonds for judgment.
Well what does he mean they “abandoned their proper abode”?
Notice he compares them to Sodom and Gomorrah saying, “just as Sodom and Gomorrah…indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh”
Well you know the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, they were proponents of homosexuality, which God called going after “strange flesh”,
That is seeking a relationship outside of what God intended.
Well, that is what these angels did.
They sought a relationship outside of their natural abode, outside of what God intended, and because of that God put them in prison.
Now back to Genesis.
(1-2) “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”
Here are those angels, the “sons of God”.
And here is where they went after strange flesh.
Here is where they abandoned their proper abode.
They were marrying the “daughters of men”
(Certainly possessing a human was required for this)
But you have here the first record of demon possession
And heavy demonic influence on the earth.
And as these demon possessed men, and married women
They were producing offspring who were corrupt and violent.
A comparison of their brutality is seen in verse 4.
(4) “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
“Nephilim” was a Hebrew word that meant “the fallen ones” and became the name representing “those with great power who crush people”
To help you understand it better;
When the spies were sent out by Moses to survey the land
They saw men who appeared to be giants and were terrified of them.
Numbers 13:31-33 “But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Those in Numbers are not descendants of these in Genesis 6,
Since they all drowned, but the imagery is seen.
The offspring of these demon possessed men and these women
Were extremely violent and cruel and powerful people.
I suppose the only good illustration of what they were like
Would be seen in the demon possessed of the New Testament.
Mark 5:1-5 “They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.”
Matthew 8:28 “When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.”
That is what we are dealing with here.
It is no longer just humanity indulging in sin.
But it is humanity yielding themselves up to spiritual beings
And the consequence is extreme sin and power and violence.
(11-12) “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”
This violent sinful influence was permeating the globe
And succeeding in corrupting the whole earth.
That is what is occurring on the world.
Sin is spiraling out of control.
And you will notice God’s response to this:
(3) “Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
Up until now man was living 8 and 9 hundred years.
Methuselah lived to 969.
Even the wicked lived that long, and God said, “My Spirit shall not strive with [them] forever, because [they] also [are] flesh”
The picture is of God routinely confronting, routinely convicting,
Routinely correcting sinners and to no avail.
Man was “flesh”
Indicating that they DESIRED the flesh,
That they WANTED the flesh,
And that they FOLLOWED the flesh.
And despite God’s warnings and God’s corrections man wasn’t listening.
And that is especially seen in verse 5:
(5) “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Now there is a statement on sin.
“the wickedness of man was great”
“every intent”
“of the thoughts of his heart”
“only evil”
“continually”
The point here is that humanity wanted sin.
And that is all they wanted.
• They didn’t want to hear from God
• They weren’t interested in God’s correction
• All they could think about was how to keep sinning
The fact that they were dabbling in the world of demonic beings
Reveals that they were willing to travel to any length to expand their sin.
That is all they could think about.
And this is the tragic predicament of sinners
They aren’t interested in God.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
There was a spirit working in them that only wanted the lust of the flesh
And the desire of the mind.
You would think after the fall and all the hardship that came as a result of it, that men would run from sin and seek God.
And yet just the opposite is happening.
Man is running from God and seeking sin.
From God’s view point it is a struggle just to get man to listen
And it is a struggle God has grown weary of.
And that reality led to God’s decision to destroy the earth.
(6-7) “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
God is actually seen here as one who is grieving.
He regrets even creating man.
To know what He created back in Genesis 1
And to see what it has become by Genesis 6 literally grieves God.
And His decision is to “blot out man…from the face of the land”
They are vile, they are wretched, and they defile everything.
They are a heinous cancer and the earth has to be purged of them.
And God was “sorry” that He made them.
Now listen to me, this is important.
SO FAR WE HAVE SEEN that sin separates and sin kills and sin brings a curse.
We know that if we choose sin it will not have the desired effect on our lives.
Choosing sin is never the right choice.
BUT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THAT MAIN PROBLEM WITH SIN?
• It grieves God.
• It offends God.
• It angers God.
• It motivates God to judgment.
That is the problem with sin.
If all it was was some set of temporal consequences
Then you could certainly choose whether or not
The pleasure was worth the consequence.
You could say, “Well, I know it will bring about a negative effect, but the present joy I am feeling is worth it.”
You could actually take that view if that were all it was.
But it isn’t.
The main problem with sin is that offends the One who created you
And motivates Him to judgment.
That is why sin is so dangerous – God judges it!
That alone should you give you pause about sinning.
You know those sins that you can do in secret that no one knows about, and they don’t hurt anyone but you…
Wrong, God knows about them
And He is offended and He is grieved.
At the very least we should read the story about the flood
And take a whole new perspective on the dangers of grieving God.
Isaiah 63:7-10 “I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses. For He said, “Surely, they are My people, Sons who will not deal falsely.” So He became their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.”
Ephesians 4:25-32 “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
In light of the flood
Passages like that take on a whole new meaning don’t they?
God was here grieved with sinners and so He decided to judge the world.
Man was preoccupied with nothing but sin
And God determined to blot them out.
God’s Motive for Judgment
#2 GOD’S MERCY IN JUDGMENT
Genesis 6:8-13
Now there is a breath of fresh air.
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord”
Of all of humanity, there was one whom God didn’t want to destroy.
Well I suppose we should ask why?
(9) “These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.”
Who does that sound like?
Enoch who also walked with God.
Do you think Moses is making a point here?
• One man walked with God and escaped death.
• Another man walked with God escaped judgment.
And notice God’s mercy to this man.
(13) “Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”
God didn’t have to tell Noah that.
God didn’t have to fill him in on what was coming.
But God was merciful to Noah.
God was allowing Noah to see the coming judgment and to see a way through it.
• How important is it to walk with God?
• How important is it seek to please Him?
• How important is it listen to His commands?
• How important is it to learn from His rebuke?
You know the answer.
God was merciful to Noah and to his household
Simply because Noah chose to do His will.
And even in the midst of judgment we find mercy.
God’s Motive for Judgment God’s Mercy in Judgment
#3 GOD’S MEANS OF SALVATION
Genesis 6:14-22
Here we find that Noah was to build an ark.
And if you are a ship builder and want to do the math on the ark
To see if it will work, go ahead.
But the main point is this:
(17-18) “Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark — you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.”
Noah was to build an ark because God was sparing Noah.
Incidentally God was also sparing Noah’s family on his account.
Never underestimate the influence of one Godly individual in a household.
• Lot saved his daughters…
• Cornelius saved his family…
• Rahab saved her family…
• Noah did as well…
Because Noah stood against his culture and did not crave sin,
God spared Noah with an ark and even made a covenant with him.
That is to say God made an alliance with Noah.
God made and agreement with Noah.
Noah sought God while everyone else sought sin and it paid off for him.
Now here is what I want you to understand.
The means for Noah’s salvation was an ark.
• Enoch walked with God and God saved him from judgment.
• Noah walked with God and God saved him through it.
And I want you to know that this type of salvation is the salvation
God has preserved for those today who seek Him.
TURN TO: 1 Peter 3:18-22
What Peter is saying there is that Jesus is your ark through the judgment.
He died on the cross for sin
He entered death and burst out the other side.
Now we are saved “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”
We don’t skip death
We go through it in Christ Jesus.
See friends there is a judgment coming.
First was the flood, next comes the fire.
It is a certainty, for the sin that grieved God then still grieves Him today.
And He will judge sinners.
(just read Revelation some time)
But salvation through the judgment is possible in Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 2:4-5, 9-10 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.”
God knows how to judge the wicked
And God knows how to save the righteous.
One last thing
(22) “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.”
That’s good advice.
Obey the Lord.
• Noah’s command was to build the ark, and he did.
• Our command is to repent of sin and submit to Christ.
Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Today
• I invite you to believe God as Noah did – there is a judgment.
• I invite you to obey God as Noah did and enter your ark.
Our ark is Jesus Christ.
We enter, by repenting of sin, trusting in His saving work,
And submitting to Him as Lord.
