I want to read once again the focus of our text tonight, though we will, of course, keep in mind that passage. So we center our thoughts on these two particular statements. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We come tonight, congregation, to the end of this first era in the history of the human race and of the world in which we live. And as we do so, two things stand out in bold relief before us. The first is the awesome magnitude of the wickedness and corruption of the human race after those ten generations that we read about in the genealogies of Seth. And then the second thing is the incredible wonder of the grace and faithfulness of God, who did not give up on the human race, but gave grace to Noah. Let us begin then by trying to comprehend the enormity of what this text is really saying concerning the fallen condition of man of which you and I are members. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now I don't need to tell you that that was not the view of the people who lived in that day and generation. I'm sure that if you could have sent a television camera and crew back there to interview a lot of people, you would have come back with a rather different verdict concerning human life. While it was very bad at that day in the eyes of God, that does not mean that it was very bad in the eyes of men. And indeed, I believe the words of our Savior inclined us to see that that was the case. For what were they doing in those days? Well, they were marrying and giving in marriage. They were doing, in other words, the things that partake of ordinary life. And so we are not to think that every outward act of men in that day was wicked in the extreme, that every man was out to actually physically murder his neighbor or something like that. There's every indication that society was for the most part normal, and we are all the more certain of that from what the New Testament tells us, for our Lord says, It will be like that when he comes again. And indeed, the Apostle Paul, commenting on that, says it is exactly when people on the earth, people in the worldly society, are saying peace and safety, that sudden destruction will come upon them, just as it did in the days of Noah. The point is not, then, that in the eyes of men the world was so bad, but in the eyes of God. This is God's verdict upon the human race. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And God's measurement of that wickedness was not confined to external acts, for there were still in the world at that time restraining influences. You remember God said, I will not always strive with man. I will not always dwell with man. In other words, there was a restraining influence. And God says, well, not always. But at that time, there still was. No, God's verdict is based upon the fact that every thought of the intent of the heart was only evil continually, and there's a very great difference between the two. We have all been horrified at the excesses of the Iranian Islamic revolution. But, my dear friends, what you have seen on your television and read in the newspapers pales into insignificance in comparison with the thoughts and intents of the heart of a man like the Ayatollah Khomeini. If he could only do what he would like to do without any restraining influences at all, there would not only be a dead author in Great Britain, but there would be a lot of other people around the world who would be dispatched and disposed of quite suddenly. You see, God looks not only at the outward acts that men are able to do, considering all the restraining influences under which they live, but God looks upon the heart. And one reason why the evil was so great in that day is because of the evil intentions. These people didn't necessarily carry them all out. Maybe they were not able to carry them all out. But every single thought of the intent of their heart was against the holy commandments of God. Now isn't that something when you stop and think about it? It wouldn't have been so bad if we could say, well, some of their intentions were evil, but they also have some very noble intentions. Well, God says, I looked down and I examined closely, and I tell you that every thought of the intent of their heart was evil. Every single one of them, without any exception. Again, it wouldn't have been so bad if we could say, yes, that's true, there were times when every single thought and intent of their heart was wicked. But it wasn't that way all the time. There were also good times. Well, there were no good times either when it came to the thoughts and intents of the hearts of men. For our text says it was that way continually, or all the days, the way the Hebrews like to say that. All the time this was true of man's deepest intention and desire in his heart. Now that is really astonishing when you stop and think about it. We're not to imagine then that the world before the flood came was necessarily outwardly greatly different from the world as it is today. Because this judgment of God that we see in that fifth verse has to do with the thoughts and intentions, the desires and the lusts and impulses of the human heart. And that was always bad in every single thought without any exception whatsoever. Well, that's God's verdict upon man's fallen nature. Do you realize that? And to make it very clear to us that this is exactly what the text means, we see the Lord's reaction to it. For God, the great creator of heaven and earth, was sorry that he had made man. It even says it grieved him at his heart that he had made this noble being called man in his own image. So depraved had man's nature become, this beautiful thing made in the image of God, so corrupted and perverted had that image become that God was grieved in his heart that he ever made man. And whatever else that may mean, it certainly means that we are not in any way to try to minimize the magnitude of the evil of which our text is speaking. Now, if any of you have ever read theology books, you may know that there are quite a few theologians who like to say that this is anthropomorphic language. Now, what does that mean, anthropomorphic language? Well, it means that God is speaking about himself in human terminology. Under the form of man, God speaks of himself. But, they say, of course, in reality, God cannot feel grief or sorrow because God is infinite. eternal and unchangeable, and that means that God is not subject to the ups and downs emotionally that you and I are subject to. And so there are theologians who really say, in effect, that God didn't really feel sorrow, and God didn't really feel grief. Well, I'm here to tell you that God really did feel sorrow, and He really did feel grief, and that's not because God is a changeable God. After all, who was it that changed? Was it God? Well, you know the answer to that. It was man who changed. And God has always throughout all eternity been grieved at even the thought of evil. And so when man changed and through the devil's temptation man fell and man became entirely different from what he was when God created him, it was exactly because God is unchangeable that he was sorry and that he was grieved in his heart. He couldn't be God, the unchanging God, if he did not immediately react that way against evil. So I say away with the theologians who would tell us that God doesn't have feelings or that God didn't know how to grieve and feel sorrow. Of course he felt sorrow. And truly he grieved. Deeply within the divine nature there was grief because of the enormity of this change in man's nature. Because man now had become wholly corrupt, completely depraved and wicked. the very caricature of the devil himself instead of the image of God. And so the whole world at that time, or the world as a whole, however you want to say it, became rampant with all of the sad effects of sin in man's heart. So much so, in fact, that a holy and unchangeable God, just because he is holy and unchangeable, had to do something about it. God cannot deny himself. It's impossible that God could ever make peace with wickedness, that God could ever dwell complacently with the evil and depraved nature of man. And so God, because he's unchangeable, because he's holy and pure and too pure to look upon evil, God said, I'm going to destroy the human race. I'm going to wipe it out. I'm sorry I even made men, I'm going to wipe it out, except for one family. And it happened because of the magnitude of man's wickedness by nature, by inheritance from Adam, and God's reaction to it. Now I hope you can see from this how absolutely vital it is that in the Church of God, until Christ returns, this unwelcome doctrine be preached. If there's any doctrine that is totally unwelcome today all over this country, it is the truth about man's great depravity. The horror that lurks in the depths of the human heart is one of the most hated truths in the entire Bible today. And I dare say that's not only true in the society in which we live, but in the larger part of the visible church as well. The doctrine of man's basic inherent goodness is the ruling ideology of the day, and the truth is that man is exceedingly wicked. And the heart is desperately wicked, as the prophet said, who can know it. Now, brothers and sisters, you sometimes hear people say, I remember somebody picked up Time Magazine one time, and there was a story in there about a brutal, cruel murder in Central Park, in New York City, I think it was. And somebody said, I just can't understand how such things could happen. The man must have been crazy. He wasn't crazy, he was just depraved, that's all. The serial killer that killed all those people that was put to death by electrocution recently, some people say, the man must have been out of his mind, he must have been insane. He wasn't insane, he was just wicked. And what we have to learn all over again, just like we never heard it from the Bible, is the truth of the depraved wickedness of the human heart. When people say, I can't understand how the world could get as bad as it is today, well, I say you better open your Bible and get acquainted with what the Bible says about the nature of man. For I tell you, brothers and sisters, the amazing thing is not what we're seeing today in our cities. The amazing thing is not the rise in the crime rate and all the wickedness that now is permeating our society. That's not a wonderful thing. That's no marvel. The marvel is that there are still people right in the midst of it all who aren't like that. That's the marvel. That's the miracle. No wonder at all that things are bad, the wonder is that it isn't worse. No wonder at all that you have a mass murderer like the man who was put to death, or religious fanatics that want to tick people off their list all over the world. That is no marvel at all in the light of what the Bible teaches about the nature of man. The wonder is that you still have so many law-abiding people, partly through the external restraints of conscience, culture, the police force, and a lot of other things. But even more wonderful it is that in the midst of all this corruption, there are still God's people who are entirely different by nature, and of whom these words are not any longer a proper and true definition. But the fact remains that the verdict of God pronounced way back there in the days of Noah before the flood are still the correct verdict concerning the nature of man as it is in the world apart from the saving grace of God. If God looks down from heaven today on Carson, North Dakota, I can assure you that in every unconverted and unregenerate heart without any exception, all that God can see in the thoughts and intents of the hearts of those people is only evil continually. I can assure you of that because man's nature is exactly the same today as it was in the days of Noah. except for those who, like Noah, are the objects of God's wonderful grace. And that's the second thing in this remarkable account that we have in Genesis, for right in the midst of that terrible situation we read, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And it goes on to say that he was righteous and even perfect in his generation. So I want to ask you this afternoon, brothers and sisters, do you understand what that's saying really? When it says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, what does that mean to you? The best way to really get hold of it is to read Romans 11 verse 6 carefully, for there you will read words like this. It's talking about salvation. And Paul says, if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. You got fire over here, you got water there. You better not mix them, because they won't mix. Put the water over here, the fire's going to go out. Maybe the water will also be evaporated and you won't have anything. And that's the way it is with grace and works. Now if you're going to take account of works as the basis of saying that Noah was a righteous and just man in his generation. Forget about grace, there's no room for grace there, none whatsoever. But on the other hand, if you're going to say God saved Noah by grace, then forget about works because they're out the window. There is no room, in other words, for any idea of meritorious works in God's accepting of Noah. The only righteousness that Noah had was the righteousness God gave him. Would God look down and say, of any one of you, I see righteous in this generation, and would you have any idea that works, meritorious works, played any part in it? Well, of course not. Because works have no place whatsoever as a foundation for the righteousness of the saints of God. It's always and entirely a free gift of his mercy. And meritorious works are entirely excluded. I remember some years ago I was giving a teacher training course and at the end of it I decided I would give a quiz. It's always a humbling thing when you do this as a teacher because you realize what a failure you are as a teacher when you've done it. Anyway, one of the questions in that quiz was, why did God save Noah? Why do you think I got back? Most of them said because he was a good man. You see, they didn't understand what they'd been taught. They didn't understand that God doesn't save anybody because they're good, because the simple fact is there isn't anybody good. Psalm 14 tells you that, Psalm 53 tells you again, and Romans chapter 3 tells you for the third time that God looked down from heaven to see if there were any people like that, and the answer is no, there isn't. a single one, and there never has been and there never will be apart from the Lord Jesus. So the idea here is not that Noah was saved because of his goodness. No, the idea is that Noah displayed goodness because he was saved. It's an entirely different order. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In other words, God said, I want to be merciful to Noah. And through his electing grace, the Spirit worked in Noah's life. And because Noah was an object of God's favor and grace, he did live an entirely different kind of life from the people around him. But that was a result, not a cause. That was an effect, not a cause. And so the fact that Noah was upright and holy was only advertising the fact that God had wrought the miracle of His grace in the heart of this man. So you must understand that, and that makes it all the more wonderful. In the midst of all this corruption in which God looked down upon the children of man and saw in every heart, including Noah's heart, that every thought of the intent of the heart by nature was only evil continually, still, God had mercy and grace for Noah. So let me say it again, it's not to be wondered at all that God destroyed the whole human race with the flood. I don't have any problem in seeing the consistency of that if the world was what God saw it to be. The fact that he would wipe out the human race, I'm not surprised at that. That's no wonder. The wonder is Did one man escape? That's the marvel. And we might well ask, why didn't God do with man what he did with the fallen angels? You know that there is a vast multitude of fallen angels. They followed the leadership of the devil, and they fell from their first estate, and they didn't keep that first estate. And the Bible says they are reserved under chains of darkness to that great day. In other words, no Savior for them, not one iota of grace, not even for one of them, they are by God just simply consigned to that prison of darkness until the last great day when they will be judged and cast into the lake of fire. Why didn't God do that with man? That's the wonder of it. Why didn't he? I'm not sure that we can give the exhaustive answer to that. I know one reason why God didn't do it. The Bible says God so loved the cosmos. The cosmos is a harmonious system of things that God had made, and at the very heart of that system was man made in God's image. He was supposed to have dominion over the works of God's creation. And because God loved that which he had made, at the heart of which was man made in his own image, God was not going to give up on man. That's one reason. Another reason we know is that God was not going to let the devil have the last word. The devil's out to defeat God. Do you think God is going to allow the devil to defeat him? Not at all. But I think most of all, God didn't destroy the whole human race, including Noah, but Noah was an exception because God is faithful to his word. And he had already promised, right there at the gates of paradise, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And God cannot deny himself. He cannot lie. He cannot go back on his own word. And that is why Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Let us banish from our thoughts forever the idea that Noah merited this. He didn't merit it. It's all the more wonderful exactly for that reason. So one of the things that emerges here in the Bible for the first time, brothers and sisters, is the wonderful doctrine of the remnant. The doctrine of the remnant is that time after time as the devil mounts his attack against the people of God and seems almost to succeed again and again in the history of the kingdom of God, the Lord preserves his work in spite of all the ravages of the kingdom of darkness and the work of Satan through a very small remnant. Here's the first one. The second remnant came at the time when the Tower of Babel was Vested by God, and the confusion of tongues was sent upon men. And you see God then calling Abraham to be his friend. And you have another remnant time when Out of the Babylonian captivity, the Lord brought a handful of people back and planted them in the land and made great promises to them. And you have another time of the remnant when, in the days of the apostles, a small number of the people of Israel believed in the Messiah and became the nucleus of the early church. And it's gone that way again and again down through history, the doctrine of the remnant. The world and sometimes even the church as a whole comes under the power of Satan. But then God steps in and rescues his people. And he says, fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom of heaven. It's happened over and over again. It will happen again and again until the second coming of Christ. And so the incredible thing, as I want to emphasize again, is not what many people think today. It is not incredible what has happened in our country. The rise of violence, wickedness and evil. No mystery about that. Nothing strange. The amazing thing is that in the midst of it all, there are still those who find grace in the eyes of the Lord. And the very fact that over and over in the history of the world, the number of those who found grace in the eyes of the Lord was so small, is also one of those things that just adds to the glory of God. For then you can see it's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by the might and power of the Lord and His Spirit. that the Lord's cause does not perish from the earth. So today, if you are one who believes the whole Bible, and like our confession says, your heart leaps at every promise, and you tremble at every threatening of God, and you're living in the life of trust in Jesus Christ, and you are striving every day, like Noah, to live for God's glory, not to earn salvation, but to show that you're grateful that you already have it, then I have good news for you, for God's saving grace is your portion today as it was the portion of Noah. Now to my mind, the life of Noah was a beautiful thing, all the more beautiful because it was lived out in the midst of a dunghill of general corruption that was in the world in that time. And I wonder if you've ever noticed how often you find that in the Bible. Many of the greatest of God's people that you and I could name were among a very small number in a time of very great corruption. Was there anyone that you can think of to compare with Daniel in centuries of Old Testament history, and yet he lived in the time when the fortunes of Israel were at an all-time low? What about John the Baptist? What a beautiful life John the Baptist manifested in the midst of what he himself, faithful as he was, called a generation of vipers. And so it has been down through the history of God's church on earth. And it's got to be that way with you and me too, if we're really God's people. What God demands of us is that our salt not lose its savor, and that we do not conform to the age, but that we live right in the middle of it, just like Noah did, conscious that we are saved by grace and therefore righteous. Yes, even in a certain sense perfect in our generation. Our Lord Jesus said that it will be like the days of Noah when he comes again. All around us, people will be busy with mundane things of all kinds. Not all of them bad in themselves. Marrying and giving in marriage is not bad in itself. But all around us, there will be people who do not have a thought from morning till midnight about the true and living God, His Christ and His Word. And we're supposed to live in the midst of that. And we're not supposed to have any thought from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep that is not permeated with the light of the wonderful truth of our God and his Savior. Only Noah still had a heart burning for the cause of God's kingdom in that sad generation. And so he alone with his wife and children was saved from the general conflagration. May the Lord grant that we will have the same when he comes. The psalmist put it like this, brothers and sisters, delight yourself in Yahweh and he'll grant your heart's request. Commit your way to him in faith and surely you'll be blessed. He'll also make your righteousness shine brightly as the light, and as the burning noonday sun, your judgment will be bright. May God grant it. Amen. Father, as we look at our day and generation, evaluate what we hear on the news, what we read. Help us, O God, always to see it. with the spectacles of scripture, with the enlightening truth of the real nature of man fallen. And Lord, just because we understand it, grant us all the more grace not to be conformed to it, but to live in the midst of it as those who have been transformed, even as your servant Noah was, standing alone against the tide in his generation. Give us, O God, above all other things, the privilege of doing likewise in this generation, we pray, for Jesus' sake. Amen.