You will know if you've been with us that we started a few weeks ago a series of studies in Noah. And obviously when we're speaking about Noah, we're going to be talking about the flood and about the ark. And this is not just a nice little story to tell in Sunday school or in the children's meeting or to the children at our knee. This is God's truth. It's revealed in scripture. There was such a person as Noah. There was such an event as the flood, and it was worldwide. And it made a real difference to this planet on which we live. And a lot of that which we see in terms of archaeology, in terms of geology, can be explained by what happened at the time of the flood. And just to put a little plug in here for a book that was written many years ago by Whitcomb and Morris, it's called The Genesis Flood. And I would heartily recommend that book because it's filled with facts. Henry Morris, who's now with the Lord, he was involved with an organization called the Institute for Creation Research. But prior to that, he was a professor in Virginia Tech, in the university down there, a very highly renowned scientist. but a Bible believer. And those two things are not incompatible. A lot of times today you hear people speak as though you have science over here and then you have the Bible over here. But this is not true. And you don't have to buy into all of the ungodly evolutionary theory of many scientists in order to be credible. Maybe you do in terms of their ideas. They don't look upon you as a credible scientist if you don't buy into their theories. But having said all of that, if you read the Genesis flood, Morris and John Whitcomb make a compelling case for the evidence that's there in geology and in archaeology. It can all be explained by what happened at the flood. So we're going to read Genesis chapter 6, some of the verses again. And we'll begin in verse 1. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply in the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days, And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 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 thing 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. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the ark. and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Amen. We'll finish the reading at verse 14. May the Lord bless the reading to all of our hearts. I want to speak tonight about the problem with the world of Noah's day. The antediluvian world as we call it, that means the world before the deluge or before the flood. There was a big problem with that society and it's identified for us here in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. The Bible says 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. Before we speak of the ark that Noah built and the deliverance wrought by God on his behalf and his family, we must think about why the ark was necessary in the first place. Why did there have to be an ark? Why did God send a flood to destroy the world of that day? The answer is found in this text of scripture. The condition, the state of the world before the flood is clearly set forth here. as the writer Peter Jeffrey puts it, there was no limit to the sin of these people and no let up in their rebellion against God. Sin had them totally in its grip. We're confronted again here in Genesis chapter 6 with the great problem first identified for us in Genesis chapter 3. And that is of course the sin problem. And when you think about it, this is still the root cause of all the problems in the world today. The wickedness, the ungodliness, the violence, the wars. the social degradation, the breakdown of the fabric of society, the drug abuse, the breakdown of family life and so on and so on. It's all to be laid at the door of this particular problem. Sin is responsible for it. And there never would have been a flood nor an ark for Noah's family to shelter in if it were not for this. the fact of human sin. And the problem with the world before the flood speaks to our own generation because this is still the problem that is faced among mankind. It's interesting that the Lord Jesus in commenting on Noah's flood and on the ark, he said that as it was in the days before Noah entered into the ark, and he described those conditions, he said, so shall it be in the days when the Son of Man cometh. So we know that history repeats itself and history is repeating itself in terms of the wickedness and the degradation and the results of sin. The problem with the world of Noah's day is identified right here. 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. There are two things I want to say about this. You'll note carefully, number one, the root of sinful rebellion against God. There's a reason why men rebel against God's commandments and against His laws and against His Word. And this text, Genesis 6, verse 5, is unambiguous. It's not difficult to understand. The issue really here, which is identified clearly, is in the words, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart. The issue is one of the heart, the affections and the will of man. So often politicians and even religious people want to deal with the symptoms rather than with the problem of sin. Now when we talk about sin, We have to go back to the Garden of Eden. God gave a command to our first parents. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 17 we read, "...but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not..." There's a commandment. "...thou shalt not eat of it." For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." And in the margin of our authorized version, it is literally, in dying, thou shalt die. So those smart people who say, well, Adam sinned against God. God said you're going to die in that day. He didn't die that day. Actually, he began to die that day. He died spiritually that day. He made himself subject to eternal punishment that day, which is the second death. and he also began to die physically. That's what that Hebrew phrase signifies. In dying, thou shalt die. Adam, from that point on, you will be a dying man in the day that thou eatest thereof. Eating of the forbidden fruit. Now, our first parents, in Genesis chapter 3, we read about this, disobeyed this command of God in response to the promptings of Satan. Interestingly, the devil first comes on the scene in the Bible, in Genesis 3, verse 1, and if you look at it, it says, Now the serpent, the serpent, it's a particular serpent that's in view here, was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And the devil came in the form of a serpent, and he began to speak to Eve. And what did he say to her? Genesis 3 verse 1, Yea, hath God said. You can just kind of hear the hiss of the serpent there. You can hear the mocking tone in his voice. Yea, hath God said. That's not really what God said. That's not what God meant. Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman gets into a conversation and says to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. So Eve got the message. She knew the truth. God said, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. That's what God said. And Eve said, God says, you're going to die if you eat of the forbidden fruit. And notice what the serpent said to the woman. Genesis 3 verse 4. Ye shall not surely die. And isn't that just like the devil? The devil contradicts God's Word. God says one thing, the devil says the opposite. Here, Eve enters into this discussion with the devil and before very long, she sinned and her husband Adam sinned in taking the forbidden fruit. Now, it has been stated rightly that man sinned against God before he ever ate the forbidden fruit. And we should understand that that is true. Man sinned before ever taking of the fruit and eating it. How do you know that? Because if you read it carefully, it says in verse 6 of Genesis 3, that when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof." The sin was in the heart first. A tree to be desired. What was the sin? The sin was in desiring that which God had forbidden. That which God said you're not to eat, Eve began to desire to have that. And therein lies the sin. And so she took of the fruit. She ate the fruit. She gave to her husband with her, and he did eat. But I'm here to tell you that the sin had already taken place before they actually ate the forbidden fruit. Because they desired that which God had said they were not to take. The sin was committed internally in the desire of the heart before it manifested itself externally by any act of the hand or of the mouth. A tree to be desired. Why is that important? Because our ideas about sin are often incorrect and they're often incorrect in this particular area. See, we judge everything by outward actions, don't we? Or at least we tend to, rather than by the inward thought and desire of the heart. When sin entered into the world, it entered into the heart of man first and foremost. And after the advent of sin, it manifested itself further in Adam and Eve's family. They had children. I personally believe they were twins, Cain and Abel. Some people say, well, you can't really be dogmatic about that, but if you look at Genesis chapter 4, it says, And Adam knew Eve his wife, that is in a carnal sense, as a married couple. And she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And notice verse 2, And she again bare his brother Abel. It doesn't say that again Adam knew his wife and she conceived. I believe they were twins. That's my personal opinion. Whether they were twins or not, and I think that that might take the sin of murder of one brother of the other to another level, because they often say that twins are very, very close. And that being the case, Cain certainly overcame his natural affection that he should have had for his twin brother. But in any case, whatever is the truth of that, they were brothers. And Cain murdered his brother Abel. Cain's murder of his brother stemmed from a heart that was in rebellion against a holy God. And the further progression of sin can be seen in its effects upon future generations even right up to the present day. Romans 5 verse 12 puts it like this. By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that, or you could say in that, all have sinned. So, the sin of our first parents is transmitted right down through the ages. We are all partakers in Adam's first transgression. But sometimes we tend to speak of sin. Often times not as God speaks of it. Men, for example, often make no distinction between sin and sins. But God does. Now, what is the difference between sin and sins? Strictly speaking, sin is a condition. It is a state. As Psalm 51, verse 5 puts it, we are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Before we ever perform any sinful action, While we're still in the womb of our mother, we are classified as sinners, because the action is the effect, but sin is the cause. And if we turn to the New Testament, Matthew chapter 15 and verse 19, the Lord Jesus Christ said, and I quote, for out of the heart proceed. And then he gives a list of thirteen things. Now let's read the previous verse. Matthew 15, 18. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. Why do people talk like they do? Because that's what's in their hearts. Why do they do the things that they do? Because that's what's in their hearts. It's out of the heart that precedes evil things. Let's read verse 19. For out of the heart precede evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. That mentions seven things there, but if you consult the companion portion in one of the other Gospels, there are actually 13 things. And 13 in the Bible is the number of rebellion and apostasy. But notice how the Lord speaks about how that these things proceed out of the heart. That's where sin is located. The things that we do that are evil things proceed from an evil heart. The Bible talks about an evil heart of unbelief in the book of Hebrews. In Jeremiah 17 verse 9 it says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. That's our sin. But sins, the sins that we do are the fruit of a sinful heart. It's not the sins that we do that makes us sinful. That's not what constitutes us sinful. But rather we are sinners by nature and therefore we perpetrate sinful acts. The trees at the back of my house They bear peaches. We hope they do. They usually do. If they're healthy. They bear peaches. They don't bear apples. They don't bear pears. They bear peaches. Why do they bear peaches? Because of the nature of the tree. The tree is a peach tree. That's why it bears the fruit that it bears. Because of the nature of the tree. You turn to the words of Christ in Matthew chapter 7, and from verse 17, Jesus uses that very same analogy. He says, Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." The nature of the tree determines the nature of the fruit that is born on that tree. The root produces the fruit. So, we sin because we are sinners by nature. That's the order. Sin is the condition. Sins are the result of that condition. That's a distinction we need to remember. Now mankind, and I'm speaking generally here, mankind often tries to deal with the symptoms of sin without reference to the root cause. I have a friend in Northern Ireland who works with youth mostly, but not exclusively, who are caught up in the narcotics problem. They are drug addicts. And it's a thankless task. It's a very hard work. And yet, it's a good work that he's doing. And I believe the Lord has delivered some from that terrible bondage that they're in. But He will tell you freely that there are many organizations that are not Christian, that have no relation to the Bible, and what they're doing is tinkering about with the symptoms of the problem rather than the root cause. And so many things in our society are geared that way. That's why programs and legislation are so ineffectual, generally speaking, in dealing with human problems, with societal ills, because the root cause is never addressed. The problem is, why do people do the things that they do? It's because of what they are. Remember that portion? It's very much misunderstood as well. where Samuel was choosing a successor to be king after Saul. 1 Samuel 16, verse 7. Samuel made the mistake of looking on Eliab and thinking, well, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. He must be the one. Look at him. He's so handsome. He's so tall. He would make a great king. And the Lord said, listen to it, look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him, even though everything seems right outwardly. That's not the man that I want to be king. And here's the reason. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. And here's the misunderstood part. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. People often use that as an excuse for anything goes. You know, you can dress any way you want, including when you come to church and all of that, because it doesn't matter. The Lord looks on the heart. Man looks on the outward appearance. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. That's not what the Bible is saying here. The Bible is not saying, you know, it doesn't matter about your outward appearance. All that matters is your heart. That's not what the verse says. What the verse says is, look, man looketh on the outward appearance. Men make their judgment solely on the outward appearance, because they can't see the heart. But the Lord, He not only looks on the outward appearance, He looks beyond the outward appearance. The Lord looketh on the heart. And it is the heart that needs to be dealt with. Too often, men attempt to deal with the fruits of particular sins, but not with its root cause. That's the human heart. I'll give a physical illustration of this. Sometimes doctors try to treat the symptoms of a serious condition rather than the root cause. And sometimes, just sometimes, there are people who are on medication who actually require surgery. An instance of that was my wife's dear late mother. One time, she was losing weight. Her skin was sallow and jaundiced. And we honestly thought, I thought, she's dying of cancer. That was the conclusion that I reached. And she just really was not doing well at all. She couldn't eat right. She had a lot of manifestations that would have said, this woman has cancer. But thankfully there's a little doctor out there in the Midwest who couldn't speak much English, he was from Thailand, but a very, very good doctor, used to be in the US Navy. And he tried all sorts of different things and he decided, you know what, we need to do an exploratory surgery because surgery It's a bit like this, when you take an x-ray, it's like looking through the keyhole of a door into the room. But when you do a surgery, it's like opening the door and going into the room. So he did a surgery, and guess what he found? There was a big stone lodged in one of her bile ducts. and everything was backing up in her system, the bile was literally coming out through her skin. And once that bile duct was taken care of and that stone was removed, she began to get healthy. And she got well for many, many years. She lived in pretty much not perfect, but good health. What was wrong? Prior to that, There was a dealing with the symptoms, taking all sorts of products, we'll try this medication, we'll try that, we'll try the other thing, maybe it's this, maybe it's that, maybe it's your liver, maybe it's that, maybe it's the other thing, and then eventually the surgery, that's what it is. The true problem was addressed. And it's like that with regard to this issue. A lot of times there's a dealing with the fruits, with the outward manifestations of particular sins, the symptoms, if you will, but not the root cause, which is the heart. James Montgomery Boyce commented on this passage in Genesis 6 in this way. The first thing these verses tell us is that sin is an internal matter. That is, it is not merely a question of such outward acts as adultery, stealing, murder and other crimes, but of the thoughts of the heart. Secondly, Genesis 6-5 tells us that sin is pervasive. That is, because it comes out of the heart, which controls what we think and do, sin necessarily affects every part of our being, so that nothing we think, do, plan or are is unaffected by it. This is the main thrust of the verse. it says that every imagination, it means inclination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually or all the time and we need to explain this of course when we say that men and women are totally depraved, a good theological term for only evil continually we do not mean to say that they never do anything that we would call good or that they never have aspirations in the direction of real good we mean rather that even their best is always spoiled by their essentially sinful nature. Now why was the world and its people so corrupt? The problem was sin in their hearts that manifested itself continuously in their outward behavior. Sin brings forth sins. That's the first thing. The second thing is this. It's the response to sinful rebellion against God. The response to sinful rebellion against God. God saw the sin, and the Bible shows us that He set about dealing with it. And that's what God always does. He always deals with sin. And Jesus, talking about this, we've referenced this earlier, in Matthew 24, verse 39, said, They knew not, that's the antediluvian world, until the flood came and took them all away. The Lord judged the world with a flood. Do you know God always deals with sin? He always does. We have to understand that. Sin always, and I mean always, brings forth the judgment of God. God never gives sin a free pass. Romans 6.23 says, "...for the wages of sin is death." Now, the original threatening word that we read in Genesis 2 and 17 was, "...thou shalt surely die." And in Genesis 6, verse 7, the Lord said, "...I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth." God's response to sin is to judge it. But some will object, well, hold on, what about forgiveness? How can sin be forgiven if it's always judged? Well, there's a simple answer to that. Sin is always judged either in the sinner himself or in the sinner's substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. But in both cases, the sin is judged. The sin is judged in the unrepentant, in eternal fire, in eternal hell. That's why people are in hell and they stay there. Because their sins are never forgiven. Their sins are never put away. They continue to be eternally an affront to Almighty God. But sin that's laid on Christ was judged at the cross. The Father turned away His face from the Son and punished Him on our behalf. He suffered the equivalent of eternal hell for all who believe on Him. So sin there was judged in Christ. God punished it. So there you have it. Sin is either punished in the sinner himself or it's punished in the sinner's substitute Christ Jesus. And of course this is pictured in the story of Noah. Those outside the ark were judged but those inside the ark were preserved from the judgment because the ark itself went through the billows and the storms of the flood and the ark, if you like, felt the full weight of that poured out wrath. The death threatened by God in Genesis 2.17 included physical death. In dying thou shalt die. But it wasn't limited to that. It included spiritual death. The death of the soul. The fallen will. And it included the second death of hell and the lake of fire. The moment our first parents sinned against God they died spiritually and all men in Adam died too. And Adam began to die physically. He began to die physically. And he died spiritually. His relationship to God changed. And then Adam eventually died physically at the age of 930 years. That's old. But he died. And if you look at Genesis chapter 5, you find that from then on death became a recurring inevitability for every man. Genesis 5 has a recurring phrase within it, and it's this, and he died. Look at verse 5, all the years that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. Verse 8, all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. Verse 11, "...and all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years, and he died." All the way down the chapter, you have that same refrain at the end, "...and he died." And we too will die. Hebrews 9.27, "...it is appointed unto men once to die." But after this, the judgment. As Geoffrey points out, while it may be that those in Genesis chapter 5 died quietly, And those in Genesis chapter 6 died violently in the great flood. They all died for one reason and one reason only. Because of sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Sin brings death. And we're reminded of that every day that we live, aren't we? People die. We drive alongside a cemetery and we see there's a funeral taking place there. happens every day of the week, multiple times every day all over this nation. People die. Why do they die? Because of sin. And without a Savior, men who die physically will enter into eternal death. That's the awful thing. The judgment of God for all eternity. That's a fearful prospect. But the story of Noah as we shall see as we go along, also reveals to us that there's a way of escape from the consequences of this sinful rebellion against God. You could say that for Noah and his family, God's response to the sinful rebellion was to provide the way of salvation, the ark. And God has provided a savior for you and for me in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our ark of safety from the billows and the waves of God's wrath. The hymn says, the wrath of God that was our due upon the Lamb was laid. And by the shedding of His blood, the debt for us was paid. It is His Word, God's precious Word. It stands forever true. When I, the Lord, shall see the blood, I will pass over you. I was reading a sermon by an old preacher and he remarked concerning the ark and the flood. Quote, if it speaks of danger to be apprehended, it speaks no less of a defense and refuge from that danger. What the ark was to Noah and his family, that Christ is to us. All who took refuge in the ark were saved and none but they In like manner, there is salvation in Christ and no other. When the ark was completed and all things ready for the reception of its inhabitants, the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. Who sees not here the gospel call, the merciful invitation of infinite and unspeakable love? See here how God made a distinction between Noah's family and the rest of the world. till they were safely housed, the waters could not flow down. And the moment they were safe, the waters could not be kept within their natural boundaries. A lesson this, a like of encouragement to the Church of God, teaching them that they shall not share the doom of the world. And at the same time, a lesson of warning to the ungodly, teaching them that they shall not share the safe protection. of the righteous. God said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. But then it says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And what a blessing it is to be the recipients of grace rather than judgment because Jesus, our ark of safety, will keep us and will keep us in safety for all eternity. May the Lord bless His Word to all of our hearts.