Noah Saved From Wrath Series

Genesis 6:5-8. [5] The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually [6] And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. [7] So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." [8] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (ESV)

After more than three months of high tension sparked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s build-up of more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, this week he began what he called a “special military operation” in eastern Ukraine. For the rest of the western world, this invasion, with so many troops at such a high level of tension between western and eastern forces, the risk of an uncontrollable escalation is high resulting in an out war beginning in Ukraine

The Bible tells us how history is going to end. It's going to end when the Lord Jesus returns, destroys all the ungodly, and fulfils His Kingdom. At the end of that Kingdom will be a final victory over the ungodly, and then the entire heaven and earth as we know them will be uncreated and everything that has existed in this realm will cease to exist and be replaced by the eternal state. At that time all of the human race will be destroyed. Only those have repented of their sin will escape that destruction. When Christ returns it will be too late for people to consider their eternal destiny.

The pre-Flood world, the world from Adam to Noah, that world perished, that world was judged, that world was destroyed, that world was flooded. This history is recorded in the Bible, interestingly enough, there are histories of floods in the writings of many, many ancient cultures. There is also evidence for the worldwide flood in the geology of the earth, in the stratification of the earth and in the fossils that are found. The Grand Canyon is one great evidence of the universal flood that covered the earth. But sinful humanity conveniently ignores what the Bible says and conveniently ignores what the evidence indicates to deceive themselves into thinking that there never will be judgment because there never has been judgment. The Flood then is very important because the Flood signals to all of humanity that everything doesn't go along from creation the same, it only went along for about 1600 years and then God literally drowned the billions of people that populated the earth and they were catapulted into a godless eternity by His judgment. What God did in the past is essentially what He's going to do in the future. The only difference is the medium won't be water, it will be fire. Now because we want to understand what will bring the judgment in the future, it's important for us to know what brought the judgment in the past. So, let's go back to Genesis chapter 6.

Why did God destroy the world then? Understanding this will give us some insight into why His wrath will come to destroy it in the future. Wrath comes because four things: 1) Great Wickedness (Genesis 6:5), which results in: 2) Great Sorrow (Genesis 6:6), which brings: 3) Great Collateral Damage (Genesis 6:7) yet it also promises: 4) Great Redemption (Genesis 6:8).

God’s Wrath comes because of:

1) Great Wickedness (Genesis 6:5)

Genesis 6:5. [5] The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (ESV)

God is omniscient. Nothing escapes His knowledge. Everything that exists He knows fully and completely. When it says the Lord saw, it has the idea of the fact that He was aware of, fully aware of, completely aware of at all times. It isn't that as He was moving along one day, or as His eyes were scanning the planet He found something that He had not prior seen. That is not the idea. It is that everything was exposed to His omniscience. Hebrews 4:13 says: Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (ESV) There is nothing that escapes His gaze, or His knowledge. This is not the seeing of sudden perception. This is the seeing of constant awareness. There never was a moment, there never was a split second that He was not fully, completely aware of everything. Verse 5 records the consequence of vv. 1–4: the LORD “saw” and condemned the unprecedented corruption of the human family. What God saw was both the extensiveness of sin and the intensiveness of sin. Geographically, the problem is an infested earth. Note that in Genesis 6:5–13, the earth (ha?are?) is mentioned eight times. Thus, the description has all the appearances of a universal condition rather than a local one (Hamilton, V. P. (1990). The Book of Genesis. Chapters 1-17. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (273). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).