1. When men became very numerous on the earth, what did they do? "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on 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." (Genesis 6:1)
2. What commandment then was specially disregarded? The seventh.
3. In pursuing this wicked course, what good influence were they resisting? "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3)
4. What is the special office of the Spirit in connection with sinners? "And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." (John 16:8)
5. By what means does the Spirit reprove the world of sin? "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:17)
6. What two things always necessarily work together in producing a perfect character? "God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thessalonians 2:13)
"Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently." (1 Peter 1:22)
7. Then how must the Lord have striven with the antediluvians by His Spirit? By keeping continually before them the right way.
8. By whom was the right way presented to them? "And spared not the old, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." (2 Peter 2:5)
9. How long did God say that He would bear with them? "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3)
10. At the end of that time, how great was the wickedness of men? "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." (Genesis 6:5)
11. What was the condition of the whole earth? "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." (Genesis 6:12)
12. With what was it filled in consequence? "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." (Genesis 6:11)
13. What was the only consistent thing that God could then do? "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." (Genesis 6:13)
14. Upon whom alone did the Lord look with favor? "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." (Genesis 6:8)
15. Why did the Lord regard Noah with special favor? "These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9)
"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark; for you have I seen righteous before me in this generation." (Genesis 7:1)
16. Upon what alone does the Lord look in His estimation of men? "For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)
17. How was it possible for Noah to remain upright in the midst of universal corruption? "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9)
18. What is the extent of God's requirement of man? "He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
19. What effect did Noah's godly life have upon the world? "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." (Hebrews 11:7)
Notes:
"And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with men, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3)
"The long-suffering of God" (1 Peter 3:20) was abundantly manifested here. Men were recklessly plunging into vice, disregarding the marriage relation, and violating the seventh commandment, and with that every other one, yet the Lord said that He would bear with them one hundred and twenty years.
"The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." (1 Peter 3:20)
Waited because God "is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
The Lord does not wait for sinners to desire pardon, before He makes an effort to save them, but "[He] commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
So He says through the prophet Isaiah: "I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not; I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walk in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts." (Isaiah 65:1-2)
At least two lessons should be learned from this. One is a lesson of hope and courage, because of God's intense longing for the salvation of sinners. We should also learn a lesson of forgiveness, for Paul exhorts us to forgive one another even as God has for Christ's sake forgiven us.
"And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:32)
That is, willingly, gladly, and without reserve. More than this we are to be willing to forgive, to long to forgive, before the one who has offended makes any sign of repentance or of wishing to be forgiven,--from the very moment that the offense is committed. That utterly excludes all malice or hard feelings from our hearts. We have no right to entertain such feelings for a moment.
Yet though God is so long-suffering, stretching out His hands to a rebellious people, it will not do to be presumptuous, and to continue in sin, in order that He may have an opportunity to display His mercy. There will come a time when God will leave the rebellious to themselves. He will cut them off because nothing else can be done with them. But if they are cut off, it is solely their own fault. Because they deliberately reject God's gracious invitation, and choose the evil, "therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." (Proverbs 1:31-32)
It is by His Spirit that God strives with men. This striving is not the producing of a vague, uncertain impression, but is a conviction of sin. In this work the Spirit uses a sword, "which is the word of God;" (Ephesians 6:17) a sword which is "quick living and powerful, ... piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
From this we learn that conviction of sin is produced by the Spirit bringing to our remembrance, and keeping before the mind, the truth of God, which condemns our evil course.
But some will imagine that the Spirit sometimes, at least, works independently of the truth of God as revealed in His word, because many persons who have not had the Bible, have been convicted of sin. Paul explains this, when he says: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another." (Romans 2:14-15)
That is, everybody by nature knows something of right and wrong, from the traces of the law that remain in their hearts. The natural tendency is to forget, but the Spirit keeps it before the mind as much as possible, so that conviction of sin may be produced. The antediluvians had the truth brought to them by Noah, "a preacher of righteousness." (2 Peter 2:5)
We said above that the natural tendency of men is to forget the truth. So the Spirit of God has to strive with them. Some persons will submit themselves to God, and willingly yield to the influence of the Spirit. In such will be perfected "the fruit of the Spirit." (Galatians 5:22)
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18)
"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:11)
But to by far the greater number of people it might be said as Stephen said to the Jewish Sanhedrin: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost." (Acts 7:51)
With such the Spirit finally ceases to strive, because there comes a time when the law is entirely obliterated from their hearts, and they become insensible to all appeals, being unable to see any difference between right and wrong.
While the Spirit is striving with them, Satan is also working through their own natural inclinations to fasten them in sin. So Paul says of those who have pleasure in unrighteousness, that strong delusion shall come upon them, that they should all be damned.
"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
Men cannot live under a continued conviction of sin; they must obtain peace of mind in some way. Those who do not obtain true peace from God, (See Romans 5:1; 8:1; Isaiah 48:18) try to get peace of mind by resisting the strivings of the Spirit, and putting from them the sense of their sin. When they have succeeded in this, they feel perfectly easy, but it is a fatal ease. It is the case which the man feels who is benumbed and about to perish with the cold. And so it often happens with the wicked that "there are no bands in their death." (Psalm 73:4)
A seemingly peaceful death is not by any means a sure sign of acceptance with God.
"Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9)
The man who walks with God must be a perfect man, for God is perfect, and two cannot walk together except they be agreed. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3)
The man who walks with God, must forsake his own ways, and adopt the ways of God.
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:7-9)
David speaks thus of those who walk with God: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways." (Psalm 119:1-3)
Then to walk with God is to keep the commandments of God. Those who walk in the way of His commandments, must be perfect, for "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." (Psalm 19:7)
The law of God is the righteousness of God: "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings." (Isaiah 51:6)
It is His will: "Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God, and know His will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law." (Romans 2:17)
"I delight to do your will, O my God: yea, your law is within my heart." (Psalm 40:8)
It is a transcript of His character, a description of the ways of God. All that God requires of men is that they should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him. And in order that they may know what justice and mercy are, and what they must do to walk with Him, He has described himself and His way in His law.
The life of the man who thus walks with God, is the best sermon that can be preached to the ungodly. Such a life can be lived only by faith, for "without faith it is impossible to please Him." (Hebrews 11:6)
They who seek righteousness in any other way than by faith, will come short of it. And so it was by faith that Noah obeyed God and condemned the world.--Signs of the Times, January 27, 1888--Lesson 5 - Sabbath, February 4--Genesis 6:1-13.
E.J. Waggoner