The Grief of God. Genesis 6:1-8.

Oct. 15, 2006. The Grief of God. Genesis 6:1-8.

Genesis introduces us to God by telling of His work and relationship with His creatures. Through the first few chapters of Genesis we learn that God is the all powerful, self-existent, all-knowing, holy, sovereign of the universe. We also learn that He is all wise, good, orderly, beautiful and intensely personal. Genesis 3 reveals a God who is gracious. He is unwilling to execute the fair punishment for Adam’s disobedience and shows favor to him instead. Genesis 4 reminds us that God is to be the object of our worship and obedience. Though we have sinned we are still expected to carry out the command He gave us to subdue the earth and honor Him through regular, proper worship. Last week from Gen. 5 we learned that God wants to walk with us. That even though we have sinned and deserve His eternal judgment God still wants to have a growing, ongoing relationship with us.

Genesis 6 unveils a couple of other things about God that are important in our understanding of Him. The first is related to His holiness and something we’ve already been exposed to in Gen. 3, namely, God will punish sin. Though He showed grace to Adam and Eve and didn’t reject them eternally they did die, brought sin’s curse in the world, ruined the creation and were driven from the garden of God. Genesis 6 once more reveals that God will punish sin and those responsible for it. Mankind will not be allowed to spread out and multiply ungodliness throughout the world indefinitely. God will uphold His own holiness and restore order to His universe and this world by fully and finally dealing with sin. Sin and those who persist in it will be punished and punished severely.
Before we go on let me say that that applies to you if you haven’t repented from your sin and believed in Jesus Christ for forgiveness. Don’t fool yourself, for Jesus Himself said, Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Jn. 3:18.

Genesis 6 enlarges the theme of judgment for sin first seen in Gen. 3. The theme of judgment though one of the most prominent in Scripture is probably one of the least talked about. Yet judgment is a reality of human experience as sure as death and taxes are. For believers it’s important to know what Scripture says about judgment since it’s part of our witness of the gospel. For unbelievers it’s important to know about the judgment because it is certain.

- Judgment is the time when God will evaluate how each individual has lived up to His word regarding holiness, righteousness and justice. In brief God will make a decision regarding the state of your soul.

- The judgment is absolutely fair and objective. You will in no way be cheated or treated unfairly in this judgment. At worst you will get exactly what you deserve.

- The judgment will examine your heart and inner most thoughts and desires. You won’t be judged on your actions only. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. 1 Cor. 4:5.

- The judgment will be final with no appeal.

- The judgment will come unexpectedly -

- While unexpected, the judgment is absolutely certain.

- God has promised to judge the world by Jesus Christ.

Why did God judge the world He had created?

God judged the world due to the exponential multiplication of sin.

As man spreads throughout the earth he spreads the dis-ease of sin, unrighteousness, ungodliness, injustice, oppression, perversion and violence. Instead of mankind subduing the earth and spreading the knowledge, love and worship of God they were instead spreading the corruption of sin.
From Galatians 5 we get an idea of some of the things mankind was doing that caused God’s judgment.

Sexual immorality - Mankind was engaging and glorifying any kind of sexual encounter outside of marriage between a man and a women.

Impurity - the condition of having one’s mind and heart soaked in immoral thoughts and behavior.

Sensuality - excess, unbridled lust that leads one to want to live an unrestrained, wild partying life.

Idolatry - the worship of false gods along with the refusal to worship the one true God. Idolatry is seeking to find one’s identity, significance, dignity and destiny in something or someone other than God. Also, idolatry is seeking ultimate satisfaction, security, comfort, control and contentment outside of God.

Sorcery - from the Gk. Word pharmakeia which is closely related to the English word pharmacy. The meaning behind the word is to control one’s state of mind or being through drugs. It also came to mean looking to things like magic, astrology etc. as a way of controlling your circumstances, finding your destiny or controlling someone else.

Enmity - a state of hostile, hatred toward others.

Strife - ongoing fighting, discord, contention and selfish rivalry.

Jealousy - a boiling feeling of suspicion toward others.

Outbursts of anger - sudden, uncontrolled and destructive rage.

Disputes - arguments stemming from self-seeking ambition and self-will.

Dissensions - to stand apart. Standing against others, splitting off from others and generally refusing to abide by any authority.

Factions - from a word translated heresies in other places. Self-willed opinion substituted for truth.

Envy - The word means that a person covets what someone else has, covets it so much that he wants it even if it means that it has to be taken away from the other person. He may even wish that the other person did not have it or had not received it.—Practical Word Studies in the New Testament

Carousing - unrestrained partying, revelry and indulgence in where you are encouraged to let yourself go and do any debased thing.

Does this sound like the first century world of the Roman empire or 21st century America?

God judged the world because the godly were too easily enticed by the world.

The phrase ‘sons of God’ does not refer to angels, but to the godly line of Seth through which both Enoch and Noah came. The daughters of man refer to the ungodly line of Cain spoken of in Genesis 4. As the godly line of Seth was more and more enticed by the ungodly culture of Cain’s descendents they intermarried and increasingly lost their witness.

God’s people are always in danger of being enticed by the world, adopting their ways and losing our witness.

Even now the American church is intoxicated by the idols of our culture. We more value personal prosperity, comfort, convenience and an ease of lifestyle that prevents us from taking Christ’s call to discipleship seriously.

What surprises us is that this passage that gives the reasons for God’s judgment also reveals the grief our sin brought to God.

Genesis introduces us to a God who is almighty, self-existent, eternal, utterly holy and set apart from His creation. The God of Scripture is all knowing, everywhere present at the same time, perfectly just, orderly, good, wise and gracious. Genesis 6 reveals that this God who is rightly the object of our complete worship, obedience, love and loyalty also grieves over our sin.

Though all sin is against God, all sin inevitably hurts and harms other people. Sexual immorality, drug abuse, rage, enmity etc. are all sins against the word and holiness of God. Yet each of these when committed hurt other people.

God was grieved over how our rebellion damaged and destroyed us. The Scripture speaks of God being sorry that He made man. This sorrow doesn’t mean that God had done recognized He did something wrong and was now going to correct His mistake. The term translated ‘sorry’ refers to a deep, heavy sorrow for something.
This leads us to see that God is not an unfeeling tyrant bent on mindlessly destroying the human race for His own glee.

God judged the world yet, showed grace to Noah, thus providing a way for humanity to escape His judgment.

Noah found grace in God’s eyes, not because He sought it, but because God decided to show favor on Him. Grace is not something that is given through effort. If that were the case it wouldn’t be grace, but merit.
God’s display of grace to Noah reveals an important aspect of the biblical theme of judgment, namely though God’s judgment is final and complete it is not universally exhaustive. Out of His own good will and pleasure God reserves a remnant of humanity who will not be subject to His judgment.

Though Noah provided a temporary rescue from God’s judgment, Jesus Christ provides the full and final deliverance from His condemnation. Jesus didn’t come to fight against the Father to save us from judgment, rather He became the object of God’s wrath against sin so that all who trust in Him and Him alone won’t have to face God’s judgment on our own.

There are still certainties regarding God’s judgment. One certainty is that there is another worldwide judgment to come upon humanity. The other certain reality concerning judgment is that you, me and any who trust in Christ will not have face that judgment and suffer the punishment for our own sin. Christ was punished as if He committed all the sins mentioned in this message so that those who actually committed them, yet trust in Him will not have to suffer eternal condemnation.

To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance