Well, beloved congregation, it is the Christmas season, which of course is all about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is, we know, told to us in passages like Matthew 1, Luke 2, and more. Getting into the Christmas story by jumping into Matthew 1 or Luke 2 is a bit like joining an airplane flight to the Netherlands by jumping in halfway across the ocean. It's already mid-flight. It's mid-story. So I want to bring us back to the beginning this morning. Not the beginning beginning, but a beginning. Close to the beginning. So, in Luke 2, if you were to have spied upon the shepherds as they were watching their sheep in the fields by night, you would have seen joy. Lots of joy. Joy, joy, joy. Or if you would have spied on the house of Zachariah and Elizabeth. The same thing. Expectant mothers are joyful. Shepherds are joyful. Angels are rejoicing. There's light. There's happiness. There's lots of joy at the beginning of the Gospels. But you don't really understand why, unless you go back to the beginning. Back to a time, boys and girls, back to a time when there wasn't much joy at all in the world. In fact, there was a lot of sadness in the world. Boys and girls, back to a time in the beginning when even God was sad. So I want to take you back to the time of Noah this morning. Now boys and girls, why do we know Noah? Why do we know the name of Noah? Why is Noah famous? Because of the great flood, right? Noah is the man who built the ark. This big, giant boat. And by building the ark and then moving his family into the ark, he and his family were the only ones that survived the worldwide flood. Everything in the world was covered with water at the time of the flood. All the trees, the tallest trees were covered in water. The tallest mountains were covered in water. Everything was covered in water. But Noah survives, right, with his family, with all the animals too, of course, that they brought with them onto the ark. So that's why Noah is famous. Is it hard for me, someone, to turn the fan a little bit? It keeps blowing my Bible pages. Sorry. It might be harder than... Well, perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. So that's why Noah is famous. But we're not going to begin with the flood this morning either. We're actually going to go to a time before the flood. Just before the flood. The verses we read in Genesis chapter 6 Happened right before the flood. The flood is told in Genesis 7 and 8. So chapter 6 is right before it happens. So, Genesis chapter 6. This is after the Garden of Eden. Right? That's chapter 1, 2, and 3 of Genesis. But before the flood. So, what was it like to live in the world before the flood? Have you ever thought of that? Have you ever wondered what it was like to live back then in the days of Noah? Well, we don't have to wonder too much because here it is described for us. What does verse 5 say in Genesis 6? It says, 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." So how was it to live in the days of Noah before the flood? Wasn't good at all, was it? No, it was terrible. Now this is not, I realize, the most exciting verse in the Bible. It's not like the days of Christmas, the shepherds. It doesn't make you want to clap your hands with joy. But it is, I think, the most important verse in the entire Old Testament. This verse, Genesis 6 verse 5, definitely a verse that you need to memorize. 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." Everything that flows out of Scripture after that is from that verse. What's better than a scoop of ice cream? What's better than one scoop of ice cream? Two scoops of ice cream, right? What's better than two scoops of ice cream? Three scoops of ice cream. Now, I'm sure you've never done this, but maybe you've seen a picture of a cartoon-looking character who's holding an ice cream cone, and it's not just one or two scoops of ice cream, but it has like six or seven scoops, right? A really big ice cream cone. Scoop upon scoop upon scoop upon scoop. Well, that's a lot, kind of like, I should say, it's kind of like Genesis 6 verse 5, this verse here. Except here, unfortunately, it's not ice cream. It's words. It's words that God uses to describe human wickedness. But words that are heaped like scoops on top of one another. One on the other, on the other, on the other. So look at this in verse 5. The main part of the verse is this. And God saw the wickedness of man. And God saw the wickedness of man. That's the main part of this verse. So, try and imagine this. Try and picture this scene. God is in heaven. He sits above the earth. From his vantage point in heaven, He sees all things that happen on earth. But with His power, He not only sees all things, He also hears all things. And He not only hears all things, but He hears the thoughts in our mind even. He can see inside of our mind and inside of our heart with His power. And so even if you're sitting still like you are this morning, and you say, I'm not doing anything, I'm not even really thinking anything, I'm not saying anything, even now, as you sit there still, God can read your thoughts and your heart's desires. Right now. Right now, God knows what you're thinking. Right now, God knows what your heart is desiring. Right? He knows it all. We are an open book before God. There is nothing hidden about us from Him. He knows everything for every person. He sees it all from His vantage point. So what does He see? What does He see when He looks and listens? Well, what's described here in this verse? Wickedness. Right? He sees wickedness. Now that's an important word, we need to know what that means. Wickedness, this is what wickedness means. Wickedness is the quality of being evil or morally wrong. Wickedness is the quality of being evil or morally wrong. And those are synonyms, evil and morally wrong, they're saying the same thing. So anything against the Ten Commandments is evil. Because the Ten Commandments are a standard of what is morally right. So anything against them is morally wrong, and morally wrong is the synonym of evil. Right now, sin, the New Testament tells us, is when we break the law. When we actively break the law, sin is the transgression of the law, is the definition of sin in the New Testament. And sin is doing evil, therefore. But notice this. It's important. There's a distinction. Wickedness is different. Right? Wickedness is not doing the evil. Wickedness is the quality of being evil. Right? So it's not just that we do sin. It's not just that we do evil. But the human race is evil. And God knows that, right? Because this is His description of what He sees when He looks on this earth. He sees everything about us. And God saw the wickedness of man. He saw the evil of the human race. And that's just what we do. but what we are. You know, sometimes we like, we can make the excuse if someone does something wrong, we say, oh, but they messed up, but they're really a good person, right? We like, we can do that. Well, this verse takes that away, doesn't it? It's not just that God sees us do sin, he sees that we are evil, right? That's what he's looking at Noah's world. So that's the main part of the verse. Therefore, that's our, Not so pleasant ice cream cone. That's the beginning of the cone. That's the cone. And then, in this verse, come the scoops. God heaps word upon word upon word upon this evil ice cream cone, if you will. So the Lord, so count the scoops with me. God saw that the wickedness of man, that's the cone, was, here's the first scoop, great. That's number one. So it's not just that he saw wickedness, but it's great wickedness, right? And then the scoops come really fast. And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Right? That's seven. Seven scoops of wickedness. It's not just, therefore, that our heart is wicked. But God says the thoughts of our hearts are wicked. It's not just that the thoughts of our heart alone are wicked, it's that the imagination of our thoughts of our heart are wicked. How do you read the imagination of someone's thoughts of their hearts? We don't even know. That is power that God has that is far beyond us. We can't even read the hearts. God reads the thoughts of the hearts. No, God reads the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart. and it's still wicked. But still, it's not just the imagination of the thoughts of the heart, but it's every imagination of the thoughts of the heart. They are wicked. They are evil. And still, this is not done yet. God is still describing it. They're not just evil, but what does it say? Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. And he's still not done. Not just only evil, but only evil what? What's the last word in this verse? Continually. Only evil continually. Boy, this is Noah's world. Do you have a desire to time travel now into this world? I sure don't. This was the world that God saw before the flood. This is the human race then, before the flood, without God, right? Very specifically, chapter 6 is the human race without God. Because Genesis chapter 3, we turned our back on God, we were removed from Eden, and this is the result of that. When you and I walk away from God, this is the result. This is what God sees. It is the most important verse in the entire Old Testament. But I think it is the saddest verse in the entire Bible. That verse and the next one right after. Not only should it make us sad, but it should make us sad for what it is, but because of this especially, because it makes God sad. It makes God sad. Think of that. What could make God sad? He has no beginning and no end. He is the mighty creator of everything. Life is in His hands. He speaks a word and life is created. He speaks a word and life is taken away. He is perfect harmony, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Perfect unity. What could make God sad? This. This makes God. What He saw and heard everywhere and in every person. Because listen to verse 6. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. Right? So our heart was wicked. God's heart was sad, was grieved. Now, are God's emotions exactly like our emotions? Well, no. Our emotions are often unpredictable, unreliable, even incorrect. We can respond wrongly to a situation emotionally, and that leads to doing something wrong or sinful. That's not God. God doesn't have emotions or respond to emotions in the same way. But God does have emotions. very clearly tells us this right here. He does feel. And here, he hurts deeply. He hurts deeply, and we know that because of this word, grieved. The word grieve, we translate grieve, we translate it as grieve, but the word in the original Hebrew means this. Important word to know. It means to be hurt by someone. So it's not just that God is generally sad, just a little bit sad one day. No, He's been hurt by someone. The word also means to feel pain because of someone. This word could also be translated as tortured. Right? And torture, we know, is extreme pain because of someone causing that pain to you. So the title I gave, I don't know, is the title in the bulletin? Maybe, yes it is, When God Was Sad. The title I put in the bulletin is this, When God Was Sad. But that is, you know, maybe an understatement, isn't it? Surely. When God was deeply, deeply hurt by us. That's probably more accurate, right? From this verse, if we take our understanding straight from Scripture, that's what this word means. God was deeply hurt by us. You know, sometimes we like to point out other people's sins, don't we? We like it when they fail or fall, and we kind of gloat over it, and it's a little bit of a ha-ha, and we think I'm better than you and you're not. We enjoy it. Wrongly, of course, wrongly. But we can enjoy it. That is not what God is doing here. That is not this verse. This is not God laughing at us when He says, describes the wickedness of our heart. No, this is God in pain. This is God deeply hurt. Every word of this seven scoop ice cream cone is painful for Him to say. Every word that comes out is in pain. He hurts. Why does God hurt? Because we are His creation. We are His creation. He made us. You are not just people whom He has no relation to whatsoever. People that He's just indifferent to. You know that we have that in this world. We don't know everyone in this world. We don't have a close connection to everyone. And so we can hear of suffering happening, you know, even great suffering happening somewhere else in the world to other people and it doesn't really affect us much. You know, you might think for a second and then you move on with your life because we're indifferent to a lot of people in this world, but that is not God at all. God's not indifferent when he looks down and sees the wickedness of this world. No, he knows Each one of us. He made each one of us. He formed, Psalm 139 says, He formed us. He knit us and weaved us together in our mother's wombs. Those are not just extra words or descriptive words. Those are truth. That's intimate. That's personal. Maybe some of the ladies here knit. if someone took what you knitted and just ripped it all apart. I mean, it's not even a person, it's just wool. You'd be a little offended, right? You'd be a little hurt by that person. We are people whom God has made and knit together. You know, parents, we grieve over children who turn their back on us, right? We do. It can hurt a lot. or when they embrace something wicked, turn away from God. This is even more personal and intimate for God than just parents and children. In a way, the world are His children. They're His creation. And we were created not to do evil. We were created to love, to love God perfectly, to love one another perfectly. And God is up in heaven, and He looks from His vantage point over the earth, people whom He created to love. And what does He see? Not love. Not love. He sees wickedness. He sees evil. Only evil. Continually. And you can sense in these verses that God is looking. That he is trying to look. This is not just a casual glance that God makes and says, Oh, I don't like them anymore. They're evil. This is not just a rash conclusion that God comes to and arrives at here. No, this is a painful search that he is making. He's trying to find love, and he sees wickedness. So he's trying to find love. So he searches. He sees wicked deeds done. But he doesn't just stop there. No, he says, I'm going to search their heart. He searches our heart. He searches for love. Maybe I'll find love there. And he sees wickedness. And so still no love, only wickedness. So he goes deeper. He searches more yet. He goes to the thoughts of our heart. Right? And what does he see? Wickedness. Still no love. Only wickedness. So he goes deeper, deeper still. He digs into the imagination of the thoughts of our heart. And still, still with great pain, he finds only wickedness. So he concludes, what I have found is only evil continually. His own creation. His own children, ruined. And God, who is a God of marvelous love, sees this world, and He is deeply hurt. And He's sorry that He made the human race. That's what the word repent means. He's sorry or He regrets making the human race. Now, how do we understand that? I don't fully know. How does God who knows all things become regretful or sorry that He did what He did when He knew it was going to happen? I don't know. But yet it says it here. It's one thing perhaps to know it's going to happen. It's another thing in the the act of going through it with the deep hurt you feel and experience going through it, it's another thing to say at that time, I am sorry I did what I did. So God is sorry, He repents. But how is He going to respond then to all this wickedness? Well, look now at verse 7. 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 thing and the fowls of the air. And here he says it again, for it repenteth me that I have made them. Twice we're told. So it must be true. Now this again is not God just in a rash emotional decision. No, this is God in holy, righteous, patient justice. After searching and searching through the deep recesses of our imaginations. Saying, enough! Enough evil! Enough evil! I've had enough! I will remove people from this earth. And guess what? What does God do? He removes people, right? He sends the flood. which is obviously, in the context, a worldwide flood, because the problem is worldwide. God is deeply hurt. God has had enough, and he sends a flood, a worldwide flood, to destroy the entire world. Enough, he says. Enough. So it sounds like the end, the sad end of a sad story, doesn't it? If only there was one. If only there was one who could have saved the world. If only there was one. Well, look at verse 8, because we're not done. Verse 8 brings hope. Verse 8, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. There's the hope. We need hope after reading these verses. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He didn't earn grace, by the way. He didn't earn this. He didn't make it for himself. He didn't take it from God. He found it. It was given to him. Grace is God's undeserved love and favor, even though we are sinners. And he chose to bestow that love and favor on Noah. Not that Noah earned it, but God chose freely to give it to him and his family, and they were saved. And God gave them a blueprint for the ark, told them what to do, told them how to do it, told them when to do it. And through Noah, the world was saved from complete destruction, through Noah. But the story doesn't end there, right? The Bible doesn't end at the end of verse 8 of chapter 6. And we all lived happily ever after. No, because after the flood, guess what happens? Wickedness returns to the earth. Noah shows wickedness in his heart. Noah's sons show wickedness in their hearts. And then they multiply on this earth. Because the problem was not with certain people. The problem was with any people. Because the problem is our heart. We have a heart problem that we cannot fix. When we turn our back on God and walk away, our heart is broken. Our morals are ruined. Wickedness grows and festers. So did Noah save the world? Did Noah save the world? No, Noah did not save the world. But here's the story. Here's how we come to Christmas. God said to Noah after the flood, I will bless you and your descendants, Noah. And one of Noah's descendants was Abraham. And God said to Abraham, Abraham, through your seed, I will bless all the nations of this world. And then when the story of Christmas begins, finally, at the beginning of the Gospels, in Matthew chapter 1, before we read anything about shepherds, and sheep, and angels, and singing glory to God, and mangers, before any of that happens, God wants us to know, Matthew chapter 1, Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham. And Jesus didn't come just to build an ark to rescue the animals. No, He came to build a cross to rescue us. He came to change, to fix our evil hearts. And He did that first by giving His life on the cross to pay for our sin, but also on that cross to break the power of sin in us, so that, forgiven and willing, we would now receive the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, given to us, would come and begin the process of changing our wicked hearts. You see, that's the problem with the world. That's the problem with us. That's the problem. That's what we need to be rescued from. You know, and perhaps you've never thought of it before, or you've heard it, but you've never cared before, and you've thought, you know what, that's just me. I am who I am. You know, you can like it or lump it. You know, I'm not changing my life for anything. Well then, Genesis 7 and 8 that follow after chapter 6 are a warning, they're a preview for you. This is how God responds to an unfixed heart. You might say, that's just who I am. But, okay, this is your end then. God will destroy wickedness from the face of this earth. You need to be rescued. from a sinful wicked heart, an evil heart. Maybe though, maybe you have been rescued already by grace. Maybe you've already placed your faith in Jesus Christ. And while you still struggle against sin, maybe there was even something this morning on your way to church. Maybe you said something you shouldn't have said, or there was some anger you shouldn't have shown. Maybe that's still present in your life, and it surely is. But by God's grace, you do see your heart changing. Because that is what Christ came to do through His Spirit. But maybe you're here this morning, and for the first time, you've thought about your heart like this. That your heart is broken in this way. And you've seen it now, maybe even just partly, how God sees it here. You know, this great scoop of ice cream. Only evil continually. Every imagination of the thoughts of your heart. And you see that even in part, and you think with sadness this morning, that's me. That is me. I need a new heart. My heart is broken." Well, you know what? God can change your heart. God can change your heart. This is why He did not destroy the world completely in the days of Noah. Why He saved Noah. So that through Noah, Jesus could come from the seed of Abraham to change sinful, wicked hearts. And not just me, but the Bible, Scripture calls you. Come to the Savior. Bring your broken heart to the Savior. Don't fix your heart before you come. You can't fix it. Bring your heart to the Savior. Scripture calls. That's the Christmas message. That's the Gospel message. It's the only reason Christ came. It's to call sinners like you and me. It was because God was deeply hurt and in His sadness, He said, I will save Noah so that I can send my Son. And through Him, God is saving this world through Christ. Through every person who in faith comes to Jesus. Do you see now why there was such joy at the announcement of the birth of Jesus? because of the sadness that comes before it, and then the hope, the hope of life, the hope of being fixed, the hope of being saved. Jesus came because God was deeply sad. Jesus came because God so loved the world that He would not destroy it completely. Jesus, the Son of God, came as a baby born in Bethlehem so that as a man, God could die for our sin and break its power in our life and in our hearts. Do you need its power broken in your life? Do you need sin's power broken in your heart? Come to Jesus. Come. God invites you through Scripture. Noah's ark was joy to his family, for sure. But Jesus' cross really was joy to the world. Let's