All right, our subject again
for those on the tapes, CDs, videos, internet, and such like,
human depravity and saving grace, the antithesis between sin and
grace. The text, Genesis 6, 5 through
verse 8. 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 things, and the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Now you see the contrast or the
antithesis, I will destroy all mankind from the face of the
earth, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, in
moving into our subject today, I suggest that we build up to
our subject slowly and with a consideration of the signification of the names
of the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, sometimes
called the Law. I say that because the names
are significant. we will withhold such a consideration
of Genesis for the time being. But there are four other books
that Moses has given us or that God has given us from Moses. Now take the name of the second
book of Moses. Exodus is the name of that book. Exodus and it signifies an exodus
a departure, a going out, a leaving out. Exodus, therefore, is the
proper name of this book because it records the going out or the
exodus of the children of God, the leaving out of Egypt. For example, compare Luke 9 and
verse 31 where Jesus spake of, in the King James, of his decease,
that is, of his departure, literally, of his exodus. Jesus began to
speak to them of his exodus. So it is that Exodus records
the deliverance of the people out of Egyptian bondage, which
is a type of the deliverance we have in the Lord Jesus Christ
of His people. Moving next to the third book,
that would be the book of Leviticus. This book contains the law of
the Levitical priesthood, their services, their sacrifices, and
the laws that they were to teach and were to observe their offering
and their sacrifices typical of the one great coming sacrifice
of our Lord and of our Savior, even Jesus Christ. Then comes
the book of Numbers, which may have its name simply from the
numerous sentences that are taken or that are recorded in the book. Numbering or counting The numbering
of the people and their genealogies are the main thrust of this book. And the fifth and final, Deuteronomy. And most theologians and commentators
are agreed that Deuteronomy is a combination of two words, literally
meaning the second giving or the second addition of the law. Matthew Henry said, this book
that is called Deuteronomy is mostly a repetition of what has
already been given and stated before. And nearly every bit
of Deuteronomy was delivered orally by Moses to the people
some say in the last two months of his life. There is very little
in this book that is new and is not recorded somewhere else. But our text is in the book of
Genesis. And this may be the most interesting
and the most important name of all of those books that Moses
has written. Because some say that the name
of this book is borrowed out of the Greek from a word that
means generation or the original. The original. Keep that in mind. The origin or the beginning. As one expositor put it, this
is a fitting name for the longest book of the writing of Moses. Quote, for it is a history of
originals. Unquote. Gil said the book in
the Hebrew copies is called by the name that means literally
in the beginning by reason of the first word in the book, literally
in the Bible, which is in the beginning. And this is significant
because this is the first book of the canon of the scripture
and in it we are given an infallible account of the beginning of all
things as they had their origin. Here in Genesis is an account
of the origin of the world. It was created by God. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. Now, God did not form the earth
by rearranging already existing matter of some kind, but he created
it out of nothing. In fact, our great God literally
spoke it into existence by the word of his power. How often
do we read in that creative account in chapter one, in that creative
week, how often do we read Let there be, and it was so. Let there be this, and it was
so. Now, this advice to any this
morning, or any that ever listened to this message, if you don't
believe, and if you don't accept this, that God created the world
by the power of His breath, then I say that you might as well
go pitch your tent among the atheists, fare thee well. Again,
Genesis gives us an account of the origin of the race. The beginning of humanity is
right here in the book of Genesis. that God made man from the dust
of the earth, made him in his likeness and in his image, breathed
into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Then God caused sleep to come
upon Adam, and he opened up his side, took out a rib, and out
of that rib he made Adam a helpmate or a wife, And again I say, if
you do not believe or if you do not accept that, then we bid
you adieu. Genesis gives us the pattern
of the beginning of marriage, of man and of woman in union,
forming marriage, a couple, and a home. And just let me take
time to say this and get on my stump a minute. Based upon the
scripture, There is no such thing as homosexual marriage. It does not exist. It cannot. There is no such thing as homosexual
marriage. It is a perversion of the divine
order, but this is not our subject for today. Genesis also gives
us the beginning of the population of the earth, the beginning of
civil law, the rotation of the seasons. Times and season are
given here in this book, or as we said, Genesis is a book of
beginning, nor are these our subjects for the message today. Instead, we vow to focus upon
the two things that I have mentioned already. Number one, the entrance
and beginning of sin in our first parents, Adam and Eve, and continuing
in their offspring. And number two, the saving work
of the grace of God to deliver sinners from the condemnation
of sin. Now we will focus basically upon
those two facets, the entrance and beginning and the spread
of sin and the saving grace of our God through Jesus Christ. Now we see both of them. in the
text that we have read in the beginning. But let us see them
distinctly now. Looking at verse five through
seven, here is a definition, not just of the beginning, but
of the extent of human depravity. And we're told here that sin
had corrupted the way of all flesh upon the face of the earth. Genesis 6 and verse 12 declares
that clearly. We are told in these verses that
God determined to destroy all flesh from off of the face of
the earth. Chapter 6 verse 13, all in which
is or was the breath of life. Chapter 6 and verse 17, this
is the determination of our mighty God to destroy all living things
from the face of the earth because of the extent and degree of sin. Then be, look at verse 8 which
stands by itself, that by the grace of God was extended unto
a man called Noah, and look at the contrast that is seen or
that is made between the wicked and Noah. Now notice that while
the wicked would be utterly destroyed, all in whom was the breath of
life, all flesh upon the face of the earth. Noah, on the other
hand, was given the favor or the grace of our Lord and God. had grace, found grace, was given
favor with our God. God was gracious unto Noah in
the midst of all of this depravity and coming destruction and directed
Noah to build an ark in which he and his family might be saved
and spared from the great destruction of the flood. By grace, through
God's favor, was Noah saved from the common destruction that befell
the whole world beside him. For it has been common, you see,
with our God through history, through the Bible, it has been
common with God to reserve unto himself a remnant. We need to keep that ever in
our mind. Even in the most wicked of time,
even in the most wicked of generation, it has been common with our God
to keep unto Himself a remnant in His faith and to worship Him. I'm just going to throw out some
scriptures to prove the point. in 1 Kings chapter 19 and verse
18. It's mentioned again in Isaiah
1 and 9. Except our God had left us a
remnant, we should have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. Paul mentions that in Romans
chapter 9 and verse 29. Paul says furthermore in Romans
11 and verse 5, even so at this present time there also is a
remnant according to the election of grace. In Paul's time there
was even then a remnant of the Jew according to the election
of grace. Now to press the point but not
too far afield. Not only did God keep unto himself
a remnant when he sent the flood, he delivered a remnant before
destroying Sodom and Gomorrah and in the deep, deep days of
apostasy that occurred during the ministry of Elijah and Elisha,
in those times of apostasy, God did answer the prophet's complaint. Remember what the prophet said,
Lord, I'm the only one left. I'm the only one that's been
faithful to you. I'm the only one clinging unto
you. First Kings 19.14. This with
1 Kings 19 and 18, God said, I have left, that is, I have
reserved unto myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal
and their mouth hath not kissed him. I have even in that day
a remnant." Now, we have already heard Paul speak of his day and
time, that in that wide rejection of Christ by his countrymen,
the Jew, yet was there a remnant, and a remnant owing to the election
of grace. In the midst of all of that apostasy,
some like Noah in his day found grace in the eyes of the Lord
in Paul's day. What of our time and what of
our day? more and bigger churches than
we have ever seen or imagined in our life. And yet I say to
you that most of professing Christendom today is apostate. Yet is there a remnant, a remnant
who hold to the word of God and to the gospel of our blessed
Savior? More about that later on if time
permits. But let us return to Genesis
6 and to our first premise that we want to deal with, the human
wickedness, that it was very great. In fact, the earth was
filled with violence through them. Even as before, Cain had
killed Abel in Genesis chapter 4. And in Genesis 6 and verse
5, sin was ingrained in their very being, in their thoughts. Look at verse 5. every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. I'll call your attention to the
alternate reading in the margin of the King James that the word
Every imagination there in the Hebrew is not limited to what
we call the imagination, but it includes the purposes, it
includes the desire, the very thought, every purpose, every
desire, every inclination, every motive of the heart, the thought,
and the mind, was evil and notice and that continually over and
over all the time every day. constantly, never lying dormant. Sin was ever active in them. It was a sinful generation. So the question is, how did this
come to be? How did man, once made in the
image and likeness of God, come to such a state that God determined
to destroy him from off of the face of the earth? How is it
that sin took such a hold or such a root in the being and
nature part of humanity? How did it engulf not only the
whole person, but the whole race and the whole world? Why did
it become so pervasive? Now, to answer this, we have
to consider Genesis chapter 3. This is the most important chapter
with regard to the fall and sin of man to be found in the Bible. Paul tells us in Romans chapter
5 and verse 12, by one man sin entered into the world and death
by sin for death passed upon all for that all had sin. Now, it did not confine itself
to that one man or that one individual, but both sin as well as the penal
consequences of sin, which are death, passed upon all mankind,
all human beings. Adam, being the father of mankind,
being that one blood that we read about in the 17th chapter
of the book of Acts and verse 26, that one blood from which
God hath made all to dwell upon the face of the earth. We notice
that Paul correctly notes there in Romans that sin entered into
the world by one man. And yet we stop to think, we
realize that sin was in existence in creation before it entered
into the human family and into the world. It appeared first
in the angelic family, a mystery to our minds to understand. Even
in heaven itself there were angels that sinned and sin entered into
our first parents even when they were in the garden that God had
made for them. Now, in regard to the commencement
of sin in Genesis chapter 3, the most important chapter in
the Holy Scripture that we have concerning sin, most are aware
of the sin of Adam and of Eve with a woman, as it were, leading
the way, falling off into sin as the serpent approached her
first in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1 through 6. Paul says
in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3, the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety. Listen to that. He singles her
out. He deceived her by his cunning. Paul writes again, 1 Timothy
2 and verse 14, the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Now she transgressed the command
of God. You shall not eat of that certain
tree of the garden in the day that you do, you will surely
die. Genesis 2 and verse 17. But she ate, she gave unto her
husband. He also ate, and human nature
became corrupt and fallen in the first pair of being. We call it the fall. Adam in
sinning fell and with him all mankind for he produced after
his kind and in his likeness. Now, I'll say this before we
move along. Not many, I fear, church-going
people today, not many professing Christians have really grasped
the true measure of human depravity. I don't believe that. I don't
believe most preachers have grasped the true measure, the depth of
the depravity of the race. And this is a major weakness,
I think, in modern preaching. Oh, sure, we hear some of them
talk about sin in their vocabulary, and then we hear others call
it a weakness. We hear others refer to it as,
oh, well, that's simply human nature. Some think that it is
only the result of a bad environment. Others say that sin is spread
because of a bad example. Others just call it a shortcoming. And some even speak of the depraved
act of men and women as mental illness, not needing a savior,
and divine grace to save them, but therapy and treatment and
medicine. You know, we've reached the day,
I feel, when people prefer to be considered crazy than accept
human depravity as the truth of the Word of God. And in Genesis,
as humanity multiplied, Genesis 6 and verse 1, so did the transgression
until the earth became corrupt before God, filled with violence. Oh, we can only imagine the measure
of the extent. It was not just their outward
acts, but as we read, the imagination, the thoughts of their heart were
incorrigible. They were incurable, as it were. They were evil continually all
the time. Day in and day out, constantly
one following upon another. Moses had earlier spoken of the
outward deed, such as unbridled lust in Genesis chapter six and
verse two. God lay the reins as it were
up on their neck and would not restrain them. Look at what is
said in Genesis six and verse three. That's pretty hard to
understand and to exegete. but let them fill up the cup
of their iniquity and ripen themselves for judgment is how some see
that verse. There were fallen ones. There
were great sinners in the earth in that day and that time. And God, as we read, determined
to destroy man from the face of the earth. But before we consider
that, Let's remind ourselves that God had already given some
tokens of His displeasure against the sin of Adam and of Eve. He had not let it go by to this
time without giving some tokens of His displeasure. First He
sentenced them, then He drove them out of the garden. He sentenced
the woman to the miseries of childbearing. and he cursed the
earth for man's sake, and death began its relentless march through
the human family. Yet God did not kill Adam and
Eve when they sinned, when they fell, when they became corrupt,
but he let them live long lives and propagate themselves and
propagate the race. and then let them be overcome
with that great evil physical death. But then the God who is
angry with the wicked every day determined in his heart to smite
every living thing, everything in which was the breath of life
upon the face of the earth. Now, let's bring in a very powerful
and a helpful text from Paul in Romans 1 and verse 18, that
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the unrighteousness
and the ungodliness of men who hold the truth or literally suppress
the truth in unrighteousness. Now we have several examples
of God's manifesting His wrath against sin, such as the fire
and brimstone that God sent upon the, quote, gay community of
Sodom and Gomorrah. There were the fiery serpents
that God sent among the rebellious people in Numbers chapter 21. Another occasion there was the
earth opening up and swallowing up some of those rebels against
the way of our God. There were those deaths of those
who died in the wilderness for and because of their There were
the deaths of those in the plague for those who made and danced
about the golden cag. These were, let me call them,
localized judgments that God sent against a particular one. But the flood was worldwide and
universal. It was upon all mankind. It was upon man, mankind, humanity. But it included, we read, the
beast, the creeping thing, the fowls, everything in which was
the breath of life died outside of the ark. And the point, the
Lord or rather the flood is God's greatest judgment and expression
of His wrath against sin to date, unless we count the cross. And
I think the cross is God's greatest, clearest expression of what he
thinks about sin. And not only that, but the flood
ever stands as a reminder of the heinousness of sin in the
sight of God, how he views it and how he deals with it. Now,
two things. First of all, we remember that
God will not destroy the earth again or a second time by a flood. Genesis 8 and verse 21. And by the way, in that same
verse, it is said the earth was not to be cursed anymore or again
a second time on account of man's sin. Not that the curse on the
earth was lifted. I don't mean that. Nor would
there be no lesser judgments to come, for there certainly
would. But it is the decree of God that
to send like judgments again as the flood, he would not. Genesis chapter 9. and verse
8 through verse 17. God coveted with Noah not to
destroy the earth again and remember gave him the sign of the rainbow
that he put in the sky. Calvin said God does not promise
to forego all vengeance against sin, only not to destroy all
mankind. Let us remember that God has
many arrows in His quiver that He can shoot at mankind. It need not be a flood. Now again,
the earth would have, notice that in Genesis 8.21. the earth would have a continued
and orderly existence. Genesis 8, 22. By the way, have you read Isaiah
chapter 54 and verse 9 where the prophet makes a comparison
between the judgment of the flood and the judgment upon Israel. The second thing that we notice
here, the same reason is given for not destroying the earth
again as was given for destroying it in the beginning. The flood
in the first place. Genesis 6 and verse 5 which was
the incurable depravity of mankind. All mankind was sentenced to
death and under the condemnation of sin by the divine decree of
God. But it would not happen. The
earth would have and orderly existence, seasons would come
and seasons would go and such like. But here we transition
to the second part of our study that is the saving grace of God. There's that contrast that is
set forth in verse 8 by the word but. There is an exception. I will destroy all mankind from
the face of the earth. But there is an exception. And that contrast or that exception
applies to Noah. And we see the contrast when
we look there in verse 7. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man. But look at verse 8. But Noah
found grace, literally favor, in the eyes of the Lord. While
all mankind else besides lay under a sentence of condemnation
and death, they were marked for destruction. Yet Noah is a vessel
of mercy, a vessel of honor prepared under glory, the favor of God
that was upon him. He found grace in the eyes of
our great God, not in his own eye, not in the eye of his family
or of his generation or of his fellow, but in the eyes of the
God of all grace and mercy. Now, I think here Noah found
grace. We need to stop and take our
club of truth and beat back the merit mongers and the Armenians
and their other free will allies. That Noah's finding grace with
the Lord was somehow because of his works or his goodness
or his faith or his righteousness. It was not a result of Noah seeking
grace. Otherwise, it would not be grace. it would be merit or a debt.
Take the word found, which can be or have a very broad range
of meaning. Some of the meanings are to come
forth, to appear, to exist, to be present. And we see that the
grace which Noah found was in the eyes or was before or with
our God. Consider a couple of passages
along this line In Exodus 33 and 12, where Moses recalled
how God had said unto him, I know you by name, you have found grace
in my sight. To distinguish what he said in
Exodus chapter 32, 33 through verse 35, God would kill the
idolaters who built the golden cave but gave Moses grace in
his eye. In Luke 1 verse 30, perhaps is
the greatest parallel, when the angel said to Mary, you have
found favor with God. And back in Luke chapter 1 and
verse 28, the angel of the Lord greeted her as, O thou highly
favored. of the Lord. The Lord is with
thee. In other words, God had chosen
Mary from all of the women that there were in the world to be
the vessel to bear the blessed Messiah, highly favored, is in
the margin of the King James, graciously accepted much graced,
thou art much graced. Bishop Joseph Hall put it, the
angel salutes her here as a saint, not as a goddess, certainly not
as the mother of God does the angel salute her. Let's go back
to Noah, his finding grace in the eyes of the Lord, right in
the midst of a wicked and perverse generation about to be destroyed
by the wrath of God by means of a flood. We view it now from
the principle of first mention. If you study theology and preach
and prepare sermons, you come across that term, the principle
of first mention. That means the first time that
something is mentioned in the scripture. And this is the first
time that the word grace appears in the Bible. Some theologians
have observed it carries the seed of the doctrine as it is
later and more fully developed in scripture, more fully made
known. So let's notice that God had
already raised up one, Abel, Genesis chapter 4, who had offered
in faith and became the first martyr. He raised up Enoch, who
had walked with God and was not, for God took him. Now, Noah in
chapter 6 and Abraham in chapter 12 is singled out by God. I like this observation that
I found in Calvin that the words Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord, quote, is a Hebrew phrase which signifies that God
favored him and was propitious toward him, unquote. And we make the connection that
his being a righteous man was the result of the grace that
God had given or bestowed upon him. Now we see the difference,
therefore, that God made between the elect and the reprobate in
the sending of the flood. Here is the great difference. In Exodus 11 and verse 7, God
put a difference between Israel and Egypt. You can read those
differences in the place. in the difference he put between
Noah and his generation. Them he destroyed. Noah he provided
an escape and preserved him safe in the ark, kept him alive, sealing
him up in the ark. a type of the Lord Jesus Christ
who endured the wrath of God in our stead and sheltered us
from the wrath of God being, as it were, our ark. How sweet
the words, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. How sweet
the words of Paul, for by grace are you saved. Grace is sovereign
and grace is saving and God gives grace to whomsoever he will. He is gracious to whom he will
be gracious. The whole world lay in wickedness
under the judgment and the wrath of God facing certain and severe
destruction when God gave grace to a man called Noah. Does some
infidel object, this is unfair, this is not right, to save just
a few and not give an opportunity or chance for all to be saved
from the word or from the flood Let the words of Moses ring in
our ear. Exodus 33, 19, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. That's the answer. That's the
end of it. Now, to close, look at our generation
and our time. John tells us the whole world
lies in wickedness. All about us, millions are going
down into the pit, blind, ignorant of spiritual things, living a
godless life, having not saving grace, though many of them would
be called religious. Apostasy in our day is far advanced. God is not in all of their thoughts. And as the hymn writer, I believe,
said, death is coming. Hell is moving. Hell is yawning,
opening her mouth to swallow them up and their end shall be
dreadful and it shall be awful. And yet there are those. There
are those in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation
who have grace. They will be spared through that
grace in Jesus Christ, the death that awaits others and the condemnation
Oh, isn't it an amazing thing that they perish not with the
wicked, though they are as deserving as the wicked, the difference,
the grace of God, for by grace are you saved. Grace given us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now, I'd close
by saying this is an humbling truth. This ought to humble the
most proud and haughty and parasitical child of God, that such wretches
as we, think of what we were, some of you, have received the
grace of God, the saving grace of God to save us in the midst
of a wicked and perverse generation. By grace are you saved. Thank God, thank God, thank God
for that wonderful, wonderful truth.