NOAHS FAMILY: WALKING WITH GOD AND BUILDING THE ARK

Genesis 6:1–22

Key Verse: 6:9

WALKING FAITHFULLY WITH GOD

* Review how sin entered the world and spread (3:6; 4:8,23–24; Ro5:12,19a).

1.How had sin degenerated marriage in Noah’s times? (6:1–2,4) What did God see as the root problem? (6:5; Ro1:21) How did God respond to this? (6:3,6) How did the corruption spread to the point of God’s judgment? (6:11–13) How did Jesus characterize those times? (Lk17:26–27) How does this reflect on our times? (2Ti3:1–4)

2.What spiritual legacy had Noah inherited? (4:25–26; 5:22–24,29) How was he different from the people of his time? (6:8–9) What does it mean to walk with God? (Heb11:5b–6) (In Hebrew, the verb “walked” implies an ongoing intimacy with God.) How can we walk with God practically? (Col2:6–7; 3:15–17; 1Th5:16–18)

Live by faith, not by sight
Genesis 6:1-10
Key verse: 6:8
Good morning. Happy Sunday. The title of today’s message is live by faith, not by sight. The key verse is verse 8. Shall we read it together? Let’s pray.
Last week, in chapter 5, we learned Enoch walked with God faithfully. Two pop quizzes? How long did Enoch walk with God? Who lived the longest life? How many years? By P. Jacob’s teaching, what does it mean to walk with God faithfully? Enoch believed that God exists while the people of his time said where is God? He also believed that God would reward anyone who earnestly seeks him. Lastly, he did not just keep his faith to himself, but openly preached God’s coming judgement to ungodly sinners in his time.
In today’s passage, we are going to see another Enoch, named Noah. In his time, without God, people lived pretty good life. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. But surprisingly, in this passage, God saw the world differently. He regretted that he had made humans and his heart was greatly troubled. Why? What was wrong in Noah’s time? God decided to wipe out everything on the earth. However, one man, Noah found favor in God’s eyes. Through this message, let’s learn about sin, God’s view, his pains, and his hope.

1. God grieved that he had made humans.
In this part, we are going to see why God grieved that he had made humans and how his heart was greatly troubled. It was mainly because of sin. Sin entered the world by one man Adam. In Genesis 2, God told him do not eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Or he will surely die. But Adam chose to eat the forbidden fruit. Because of his disobedience, sin came into the world. Then, it began to expand to others as well. It is like one person got a corona virus and then he spreads the virus to his whole family. Then, the whole family got sick.
There are many cases of how people became sinful in Noah’s time. But chapter 6 shows only two exemplary cases.
First case is that when the sons of God chose to marry their wives, they saw only a woman’s beauty not God. Let’s read verse 2. The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. There are some theories about the sons of God and the daughters of humans, but the argument leaves to theologians, today, here, simply, the sons of God are the descendants of Seth, those who called on the name of God, and the daughters of humans are the descendants of Cain who did not believe God in chapter 4. From early age, the sons of God were heard about God, faith, prayer, probably brought offerings to God and worshipped him. But when it was time for them to marry, whom did they choose? Whoever beautiful woman, they chose to marry them. It is nothing wrong to marry a beautiful woman. I think Eve was the beautiful woman in the human history.
But verse 2 points out even the sons of God, God-believing young men, did not regard God when they considered whom they married. God created man and woman. He established marriage system. It is God’s blessing to marry. As you know, marriage is most important event in our life. They should have prayed to God when they chose their wives: God, is this woman a best suitable helper to me? God, is this woman you put in my life? But they did not put God in their choice of marriage. What can we learn from them? I really pray for you that in every step of you choose your marriage partners, honor God, pray for his leading, that you can experience his help and his blessings on your marriage.
Not marriage issue, in a sense, our life is a series of choices. What kind of job, what kind of major, what kind of my life direction, on and on. Each time, you have to choose. What should be your main concern? God. Ask him, pray to him for his leading for his glory and for your best.
When the sons of God chose whoever they liked to marry, what did God say? Look at verse 3. It says Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal, their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” God was not happy with them. Especially, he said My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal. “Contend with” means struggling. In other words, God struggled with humans to help them do what is right. As long as God is struggling with men, they have still hope. When Adam sinned, God asked him, where are you? When Cain killed his brother, God asked him where is your brother? God struggled with them to repent and return to God. But now, basically God said I am done with you because you are mortal. Mortal means flesh. God created man in his image and in his likeness that men have fellowship with God. But as sin corrupted human beings, as they did not like to have God in their heart, God gave them up. It is like Romans 1:21, 24 says although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. As a result, people’s life span sharply decreased: 120 years. In Chapter 5, people lived over 900 years on average. Do you want to live long? Then, struggle with God’s spirit. When God corrects you, do not be stubborn.
The second case is that people became violent and corrupt. The Nephilim is an example. Who are they? The Nephilim means “strong, mighty, or giant”. They were stronger, taller, mightier than others. They were supposed to use their muscles for God’s sake and people’s sake. But what did they do? They became violent. They conquered nations. They killed people. The strong preyed on the weak. To make it worse, people praised them and considered them as heroes like Jupiter and Hercules in Roman mythology or like Captain America or Captain Marvel.
However, how did God see them? Verse 5 says The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. God saw differently. He saw how wicked and evil they were. He saw how the whole earth was corrupt. He saw how everyone became slaves to sin. This reminds us that if we have better gifts or better talents compared to others, use them not for your name but for God’s name. If you have strong muscles, use the muscles to serve God. If you are Ph.D. students, use your academic talents for the kingdom of God.
Then, how did God feel about the wickedness in the world? Let’s read verse 6 together. The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. God regretted that he had made humans. In other Bible versions, God grieved, or God was so sorrowful. It is hard to believe that God was grieved because of humans. In Genesis 1, God said it was very good when he created men. They were the apple of God’s eyes. But now, as people became sinful, as the whole earth was corrupt in God’s eyes, his heart was greatly troubled. He must have been in tears.
What should he do? How could he solve the sin problem on earth? Look at verse 7. So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” In verse 7, God decreased life span: up to 120 years. But now, he decided to wipe out every human being from the earth, even the animals, the birds, and the creatures. God is love but at the same time, he is just. As a holy God, he punishes sinners. Sin brought corruption, evilness, wickedness in the world, and in the end God’s flooding judgement on humans.
Our generation is not much different from the people of Noah’s time. Outwardly, this world looks good. Much better technology, so convenient life, and so on. No one thinks this world is under God’s wrath. But from God’s eyes, this generation is corrupt and evil. Jesus called this generation as wicked and adulterous generation. We need not to follow the trend of this world, but the trend of God. We need to live not by sight, but by faith. Otherwise, as Hebrew 9:27 says Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, we will be judged by God. So, let’s glorify God when you choose someone to marry. Also, let’s use your talents for God’s glory.

2. Noah found favor in the eyes of God.
In part 1, because of sin in the whole world, God was grieved and greatly troubled. He decided to wipe out everything on earth. It is very dark and gloomy. It seems no hope at all. However, in verse 8, there is a dramatic change. Let’s read verse 8. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
“But Noah found favor in God’s eyes”, It is like a hope in the hopelessness, a light in the darkness. What is favor? In other words, it is grace. It means something you do not deserve but you receive freely from God. The Bible clearly says there is no one righteous, not even one in the eyes of God. In God’s eyes, in Noah’s time, not only the people but also Noah himself was not righteous. He was supposed to be destroyed in the flooding too. However, God favored him: Noah found God’s grace.
What kind of grace did he receive? He was chosen to build the ark to save him and his family in the middle of the flood. We are going to learn about this flooding in detail next Sunday.
What is the reason God favored on Noah? To destroy the wickedness on the earth, God had to perish everything on earth. But the Bible repeatedly says, “God does not want anyone to perish, but have eternal life”. How can a sinner not perish but be saved and have eternal life? Through the Savior. In Genesis 3:15, while God punished Adam and Eve, he also promised to send the Savior through offspring of woman. If God would wipe out everyone on the earth, how could he keep his promise? For this purpose, God called one person, Noah, even though he undeserved, through Noah’s line, eventually, God’s hope, our hope, the Savior Jesus came into the world. He was sinless but became a sin offering for sinners. He shed his own blood on the cross to pay for the sins of people. Now, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Who was Noah? Shall we read verse 9 together? This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah was a righteous man. In the Bible, righteous means right relationship with God. In Noah’s time, there was no Bible, no church, no laws. Everyone turned against God, even the sons of God. But he was seeking right relationship with God. He was also blameless among the people of his time. Keep in mind that blameless does not mean he was perfect. Instead, “blameless among the people of his time” means whenever he sinned, he sincerely repented, asked God’s forgiveness, and returned to God. Lastly, Noah walked with God faithfully. As we learned last week, walking with God faithfully is not easy. People say, “where is God?” Also, people think it is unworthy to have the knowledge of God. In such a time, Noah struggled to walk with God faithfully. Also, interestingly, he did not just keep his faith to himself. According to 2 Peter 2:5, he was a preacher of righteousness. With compassionate heart, he went out and preached God’s coming flooding judgement.
But we need to remember that God walked with him faithfully too. It must be not easy for the holy God to walk with a sinner. But God was faithful to him. He was patient with him. It might be slow, but he was happy to walk with him.
Again, our time is almost the same as Noah’s time. In God’s eyes, we all are doomed because of sins. Among us, who has sought God from the beginning of our life? Who has never sinned? Yet, by his mercy, God showed his favor upon us. Joshua found favor in God’s eyes. Dre, Franco, Rommel, Than, Jonathon, Tia found favor in the eyes of God. Because of his grace, we are saved from our sins through our Savior Jesus. We are getting to know who God is and who Jesus is personally. We live a life of learning Jesus. We live a life of seeking a right relationship with him and walking with him faithfully. We go out to share the gospel and invite students to bible study. Praise God!
As conclusion, in this passage, God grieved when every human became sinful, evil, and wicked in his eyes. As Holy God, he had to perish everyone from the earth. However, one person, Noah, found favor in his eyes. He was chosen to be saved in the flood for the Savior Jesus, our true hope. I pray we may continue to learn about God’s view on this world. I pray you may choose God-fearing man and woman when you choose to marry. Also use your muscles, gifts to become the heroes of God’s kingdom. Lastly, seek for God’s grace humbly because we are favored to live by faith, not by sight.