The Corrupted Earth
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
As we approach the story of the flood, which God sent as a judgment upon the earth, which was corrupt before God and filled with violence, it will be most interesting for us to note several things relative to the fifth chapter of Genesis which gives us the story of the genealogy from Adam to Noah.
We have worked out a little table to which we call your attention.
Adam was 130 yrs. old when Seth was born Seth was 105 " " " Enos was born Adam was 235 yrs. old. Enos was 90 " " " Cainan " " " " 335 " " Cainan was 70 " " " Mahalaleel " " " " 395 " " Mahalaleel was 65 " " " Jared " " " " 460 " " Jared was 162 " " " Enoch " " " " 622 " " Enoch was 65 " " " Methuselah " " " " 687 " " Methuselah was 187 " " " Lamech " " " " 874 " " Lamech was 182 " " " Noah " " Noah was 600 " " " The Flood Came. From the chart we learn that Adam lived 56 years after the father of Noah was born. This means that Adam could have personally related the story of the creation to Noah's father. This means, of course, that Adam could have personally instructed Enoch, that wonderful man, who for three hundred years walked with God.
The translation of Enoch took place in the year 987 B.C. Lamech the son of Methuselah died five years before the flood, while Methuselah himself died the year of the flood. Is it not remarkable when we consider that Adam lived long enough to see seven generations born unto himself?
The sad part of this whole story is that in spite of these men who were in touch with Adam and who knew personally his remarkable story, yet, the earth became corrupted and was wicked before God until the very thoughts of the imagination of man's heart was evil continually.
I. FROM ADAM TO NOAH (Genesis 5:1-2)
1. The "Cainites and the Sethites. The story of the immediate descendants of Cain is found in the latter part of the fourth of Genesis. It is interesting to note that Cain's first son bore the name of earth's first city. Cain, therefore, gave his attention to building a city. Many cities have been builded since that day, and they are for the most part the center of sin and debauchery.
Among Cain's descendants was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. Thus musical instruments had an early place in the history of man.
Tubal-Cain was another early descendant, and he was an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. These must have had their place in the homes and buildings of those early days.
As to Seth's son Enoch, we read: "Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord." Thus the two lines began to multiply: the one giving attention to musical instruments and building cities, and the other to worshiping God.
2. The predominance of evil. As men multiplied upon the face of the earth, they gave themselves over to sinning. It is possible that the Cainites contaminated the Sethites. At least, the dominant note just prior to the flood was the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
3. The possibility of good in the midst of evil. The fact of general wickedness did not exclude the godly lives of the few. It was in the midst of these days, more than halfway between the creation and the flood that Enoch walked with God. In the final climax Noah was found to be a just man, and he too walked with God. Thank God, that righteousness is possible in the environment of unrighteousness.
II. THE MIXTURE OF THE RACES (Genesis 6:1-2)
1. Some say that our verses set forth a mixture of Sethites and Cainites. This certainly did occur, as has already been suggested. Not only did it occur back there before the flood, but it is occurring before Our very eyes, and it is coming to pass in spite of every command of God to the contrary.
(1) There is the mixture of the saint and sinner in matrimony. This is forbidden of God, for He has said, "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them * * for they will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you."
(2) There is the mixture of saint and sinner in the pleasures of this life. This is Divinely forbidden. God has said, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men."
(3) There is the mixture of the orthodox with the heterodox. This is Divinely forbidden. God has said, "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house."
2. Some say that our key verses set forth a mixture of angels and men. This is possibly true. We read of certain spirits who are kept under chains of darkness, and who "were disobedient in the days of Noah.
We are told that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Coming of the Son of Man. The fact that the giants, the Anakim, mighty men of renown were on the earth in those days leads to this second contention.
III. THE RESULTS OF UNHALLOWED MARRIAGES (Genesis 6:4-5)
1. Giants mighty men of renown. In the days of Noah, the world had reached a high stage of development. We are not so sure that the world of today has passed beyond the world of Noah's day. We are ready to grant that it has only been in the last century that invention has wrought such wonders in our own land. We, also, grant that there was a climax of wonders in those olden days immediately preceding the flood. The harvest of the earth was ripe then, even as it is ripe now. God then thrust in His sickle to reap, even as He is now about to thrust it in.
When God pronounced the curse upon that age, He shortened man's life, saying, "His days shall be an hundred and twenty years." That period has even been cut down since the days that followed the flood. Christ's expression, "As it was in the days of Noah" carries with it a tremendous meaning.
2. Wickedness only continually. Advancement in the arts and sciences does not mean advancement in righteousness. Advancement in invention and construction does not mean an increase of holy living. As men became great and mighty, men of renown, they also became vile. Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.
With all of our culture and learning and advancement, sin was never more rampant. Our great centers of learning are not centers of spirituality and of holiness. There is a deluge of worldliness that is engulfing our young people today and sweeping them into all excesses of carnal lusts. Modesty and purity seem to have taken flight as advancement in modern invention came in.
IV. GOD'S WORD AS TO HIS SPIRIT IN NOACHIC DAYS (Genesis 6:3)
1. The Spirit strove with men of old as He strives today. We do not mean that there is not a special ministry of the Holy Spirit in this age. This is peculiarly the day of the Spirit. Until Christ had gone back to the Father, the Spirit had not come unto men as He came at Pentecost. However, the Holy Spirit was present of old. It was the Spirit of God who moved upon the face of the waters, when God said, "Let there be light." When God created the heavens and the earth, He sent forth His Spirit and they were created.
In the days from Adam to Noah, the Spirit of God was continually striving with men inasmuch as God said, "[He] shall not always strive with man."
When we think of the Children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, and their sinning against God, we need to remember that in those days, men sinned against the Holy Ghost and grieved Him. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation." This plainly declares that it was the Holy Spirit who was sinned against by the fathers. It was the Spirit who was grieved.
2. The Spirit will not always strive. There is a place when the Lord says, "It is enough." Thus far shall men go and no farther. When we think of the flood and of God destroying men from the face of the earth, let us remember that God waited while the Spirit was striving with men. The flood was God's judgment against sin, but it was God's judgment only after every call of the Spirit had conclusively proved that man was altogether set against the Almighty.
V. GOD'S CHANGE IN HIS METHODS OF DEALING WITH MEN (Genesis 6:6-7)
1. God repented Himself. Repentance carries with it always a change of mind with a resultant change of action. In the case of Nineveh, God sent Jonah to proclaim, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." "When, however, in response to Jonah's warning, Nineveh put on 'sackcloth and ashes, and repented before the Lord, believing in God and proclaiming the fact, then we read, "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not."
Had Nineveh repented and God had not repented, He would have unjustly destroyed the city. As soon as Nineveh changed her course of action, God changed His. All of this is set forth by the Holy Spirit in Ezekiel. "If the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby." God is a just God, and He cannot destroy the guiltless. Thus it was that God repented Himself concerning the people of Noah's day.
2. God grieved for man. How tender is Genesis 6:6, "And it grieved Him at His heart"! God had no pleasure in the death of the wicked then, and He has not now. We read on this account, that "the longsuffering of God waited * * while the ark was a preparing." God had already pronounced man's destruction, and yet He still tarried giving man an opportunity to turn unto the Lord.
Why do the wicked live so long? It is because God has given them every opportunity to turn from their evil ways. Between every man and hell God casts the Cross of Christ, the strivings of the Spirit and the continued calls of God to repentance. It is the goodness of God that leadeth men to repentance.
VI. GOD'S GRACE IN OPERATION (Genesis 6:8)
1. It was grace to subsequent generations to destroy man from the face of the earth. After the sons of God had taken unto them wives of the daughters of men, and children were born, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown. When 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, it was necessary for God in His mercy and grace toward those who should follow to put away the ungodly.
God more than once, in the history of man, seeing that iniquity had come to the full, destroyed certain nations. The very men of our day are hastening toward a corruption which will make it necessary soon for God to send tremendous judgments in which a great portion of mankind will be slain. If this were not done, the Millennial Age would be corrupted by the unrepentant and sin-hardened of this age.
2. It was grace which spared Noah. God found Noah righteous, but not perfect. However, Noah knew God and walked with Him. Therefore, God could not destroy him and his along with the people of his generation.
3. It was grace which led God to keep a seed unto Adam through which He might replenish the earth.
God had made His promise in the Garden of Eden, and every promise is yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Had Noah not been spared, Christ could not have been born of Adam's line. The Book of Luke gives us the genealogy, however, from Adam and Eve by way of Seth through Noah and Abraham and David down to Mary of whom Christ was born.
God moves in a wonderful way to perform His marvels of grace. His ways may be full of mystery to men, but in every age He is working out His eternal purposes and plans. Satan may have thought himself victor, when he saw the corrupted earth; however, the purposes and pledges of God prevailed.
VII. THE BIBLE'S DESCRIPTION OF NOAH (Genesis 6:9)
1. Noah was a just man. This does not mean that Noah in himself was spotless and without sin. Noah was just. 1. Because he was justified through his sacrificial offerings. We know that Noah sacrificed after the ark rested on Mount Ararat, and we have every reason to believe, therefore, that he sacrificed before the flood.
2. Noah was perfect in his generation. "His lineage from Adam down was uncorrupted from any contamination brought by marriages described in the early verses of chapter six.
3. Noah walked with God. This is a glorious statement, when we consider that the world knew not God. Once more we urge that Noah could not have walked with God had he not been a man who had access unto the Father through the anticipated Blood of Christ.
4. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. While the ark was building Noah preached righteousness. He did not, however, preach the righteousness of the flesh, but the righteousness which is by faith in Him.
5. Noah was a man who obeyed God. We read in Genesis 6:22 : "According to all that God commanded him, so did he." While other men were fulfilling the lusts of their flesh and their mind, Noah was fulfilling the will and work of God.
6. Noah was a man of faith. We read in Hebrews, "By faith Noah * * moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Noah believed God, and his faith was counted for righteousness.
We have suggested the above characteristics in the life of Noah, hoping that some who are discouraged as to the possibilities of a spiritual life in this age of sin may be inspired thereby. What was possible to Noah in those days of corruption is possible to each of us now.
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE DOG AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
"Dr. Moffat, the celebrated missionary to South Africa, tells an. amusing story of a lad who had been converted by reading the New Testament.
"One day he came to Dr. Moffat in much distress, telling him that their big watch dog had gotten hold of the Book and had torn a page out of it. Dr. Moffat tried to comfort him, by saying that he could get another Testament, "But the boy was not at all comforted. 'Think of the dog,' he said.
"Dr. Moffat, supposing the boy thought that the paper would do the dog harm, laughed and said, "If your dog can. crunch an ox bone, he is not going to be hurt by a piece of paper.'
"'Oh, Papa Moffat,' he cried, 'I was once a bad boy. If I had an enemy, I hated him, and everything in me wanted to kill him. Then I got the New Testament in my heart, and began to love everybody and forgive all my enemies, and now the dog, the great big hunting dog, has got the blessed Book in him, and will begin to love the lions and the tigers; and let them help themselves to the sheep and the oxen.'
"What a beautiful tribute this African boy, out of the simplicity of his heart, paid to the power of the Bible!" The Indian Christian.