The Heart of God

This morning is Genesis chapter 6. We want to continue our study there and we want to let you see the heart of God this morning. That's very important. I think that as we examine our text today, you're going to get a pretty good understanding of who God is. But I want to say that with a warning attached to it. Because some of the things I'm going to say today, out of what the Word of God tells us, are maybe some things you've never heard before. And for some of you, it's going to be a little hard for you to take.

Others of you might even become angry, might even become volatile toward your pastor. Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just giving the message. But understand the Word of the Lord talks to us about the heart of God. And I'm afraid that most of us come from backgrounds where we have a misconstrued idea of who God is. This week and in the weeks to come, as we examine Genesis 6 and 7, I want you to behold the kindness and the severity of God. Genesis chapter 6, this is our text this morning, turn there with me if you would please.

Genesis chapter 6, pick up the narrative in verse number 5, read down through verse number 12. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth. He was grieved in his heart. The Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time, Noah walked with God. And Noah became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Behold, the kindness and the severity of God. We'll see that in two ways this morning.

Number one, God's repentance, and number two, Noah's righteousness. God's repentance, Noah's righteousness. That's our outline, just two points this morning. There's going to be a lot in between those two points that we're going to cover. But I want you to be aware, there should be a warning on this sermon, on this tape. Beware because there are some things in here that are questionable. There are some things in here that we have lots of questions about. How does God repent? How can God change His mind?

And how does Noah find favor in the eyes of God when no one else did? And as we look at those questions and answer them this morning, some of you are going to be deeply offended.

Let me warn you this morning already, you'll be deeply offended about what the Word of the Lord says.

But I want you to listen with an open heart, with receptive ears, because the Spirit of God is going to speak to you today. I just want to give you what the Word of the Lord says, that you might understand it. First of all, God's repentance.

Three things I want you to see. Number one, the Lord saw. Number two, the Lord sorrowed. Number three, the Lord said.

First of all, the Lord saw. What did the Lord see? Verse 5 tells us, along with verse 11 and verse number 12. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God knows your thoughts. He knows what you're thinking right now.

He knows whether or not you're thinking about the message, or thinking about what you're going to do after the message. He knows everything about you. Let me read to you Psalm 10, verses 3 and 4.

For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. The heart of man says, there is no God. The heart of man does not seek after God. Can you remember that for me this morning? Over in Psalm 14, it says this, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have committed abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

And they have all turned aside together. They have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Can you remember that for me this morning? God looks down from heaven, and he looks for somebody who understands. For somebody whose heart is right, for somebody who seeks after God, and what did he find? He finds no one. There is no one like that. Of course, you know, Romans 3, verses 10 to 18, Paul would quote these verses as he would talk about the condition of man. But listen to Ecclesiastes 7, verse number 20, Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and who never sins.

Let me read that to you again, just in case you missed it. Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and who never sins. In other words, there is nobody on earth who does good. Nobody. You still with me? I've got another verse I want to read to you. That's Ecclesiastes 9. If I haven't destroyed your self-esteem yet, I promise to with this verse. Ecclesiastes 9, verse number 3. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives, end quote.

The Bible says that what's in your heart is insanity. The Bible says that the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil.

That's what the Bible says. Now you see, when you come to church and you look at the ushers and the greeters and you look at your friends who come, your Sunday school teacher, you think that there's some good in that person.

I mean, after all, they're a teacher, they're a leader, they greet me when I come into the church. Isn't that a good person? We think that because we see what they do on the outside. But see, you don't know what that guy's thinking as you're walking up to him. He's getting ready to greet you and you're saying, I can't believe this guy's coming to our church, man. Where'd he come from? He's doing it with a smile on his face though, of course, because he's a greeter, see? And you're thinking, man, this guy is so warm and tender and what a warm church Christ Community Church is.

And that guy's thinking all kinds of evil thoughts about you, you don't even know it. And he wouldn't even admit it if we told him that he was. God knows his heart though, see. You could sit there and say, you know what, I am good, I have pure motive sometimes. And God says, you don't know your heart.

You don't even know your own heart, but God does. He sees it. He sees everything there. That's what the Lord saw. Let's move to point number two, the Lord's sorrow.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart. Maybe your text says the Lord relented. Maybe your text says the Lord repented. And it causes us to ask the question about God's sorrow here. How is it that God can change his mind? If the Bible says, as it says in Malachi chapter three, verse number six, I am the Lord.

I change not. How can God repent and change? Because repentance means to change your mind about what you thought and reverse it. It's a very interesting phrase, God repents, God relents. God changes his mind. What does that mean? When it says that God does not change. Hebrews 13 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Numbers 23, verse number 19 states it this way. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? Interesting. How do you answer that? So how do we reconcile what happens in Genesis six and Genesis seven with the unchangeable character of God? Let me illustrate it for you by having you turn with me to the book of Jonah for a moment.

The book of Jonah. Jonah, of course, was to go to Nineveh to preach to the Ninevites that somehow they might turn to God. God told him that he was going to destroy them. He was going to kill them. And so Jonah preached and all of a sudden people started repenting of their sins, getting right with God. And it says in Jonah chapter three, or excuse me, yeah, three, verse number 10, when God saw their deeds that they turned from their wicked way, then God repented or relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them and he did not do it.

Let me ask you a question. Did God change? Answer, no. Who changed? The Ninevites changed. God didn't change. God has always blessed obedience and always punished evil. God always acts in accord with his character. In Genesis chapter six, God didn't change. He created man good. He created man perfect, no sin. Man decided to bring sin into the world. We studied that in Genesis chapter three. As a result of that sin, it spread throughout the entire human race. God has never changed. God has always been the same.

And sometimes, Scripture portrays God as changing his mind when he threatens some punishment in order to demonstrate how strongly he feels about sin, then withholds that punishment as an act of mercy. It doesn't mean that God changed. It just means that God is acting in accord with his character. That's all. God's immutability simply requires that he always acts in accord with his eternal nature. And that's what God was doing in Genesis chapter six. Is it not true that the Bible says in Ezekiel chapter 18, verse number four, the soul that sins, it shall die.

Doesn't the Bible say in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death? That's what the Bible says, right? That's what God said. God's unchangeable. Yet, how do you reconcile the fact that Romans 8, 1 says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus when our souls have sinned? Has God changed? Who changed? You did. God didn't change. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what God says.

God acts in accord with his character. I wonder when the Lord looks at your life, what he sees. Would there be a smile upon the face of God or would there be sorrow in his heart as to what he sees? Then it says, the Lord said, what did the Lord say? I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them. I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to wipe man out. Man's wickedness is so extreme, so far gone, that the only thing left is to enact my justice upon them.

And as you recall, we talked about last week, he gave them 120 years to repent. He gave them 120 years to change, but because he's the Lord who does not change. Because they would refuse to repent. He would then enact his justice because that is his character. And he would destroy man because he says, I will in no means let the guilty go unpunished. That's God's repentance. In spite of that dark cloud that covered the world, the thunder that was about to be unleashed as God's wrath would be poured out in a way never before seen by these people.

Through that dark cloud, there was a ray of hope. There was a glimmer of hope. We call it the glimmer of grace, grace that would shine through. We see that as we look at Noah's righteousness.

That's our second point in verse number eight. But, Noah, the great butologies of Scripture fill us with great knowledge of our God. But, but in spite of all the wickedness, in spite of all the evil, in spite of all that is corrupt, in spite of the fact that every thought of man's heart is only evil continually, in spite of all that, Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Three things I want you to see about Noah's righteousness, its root, its result, its ramifications. Noah's righteousness, this is so important.

The text says, Noah found favor. In other words, Noah was graced. First time grace is mentioned in the Bible, Genesis chapter six, verse number eight.

Noah found grace. Adam and Eve found grace because God would provide for them a sacrifice. But it doesn't come out and spell it out that they found grace, but here it does. Noah found favor, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, some will say, well, Noah found favor because he was a righteous man. Noah found favor because he was from the godly line of Seth. There was a godly man on the earth. See, there is some good in us. There is somebody who did good and Noah did good. He was a righteous man.

He walked with God. He was blameless in society. And God looked down from heaven and said, there's a man there. There's a man. There's Noah, and I'm going to use Noah. That's not what the text says. Verse eight comes before verse number nine. Grace comes before anything else. I will let you know that Noah's heart was evil continually. There was no good in him either. But Noah found grace. Noah didn't find grace because he was from the godly line of Seth. Noah didn't find grace because there was something in him that was worthy.

Noah didn't find grace because God looked at him and said, there's a pretty good guy down there. And, you know, I think I could use him and that's what I'm going to do. Noah found grace because God graced him. You say, how come God didn't grace anybody else? When you get to heaven, you can ask God that. But God graced one man and his family. That was Noah. Noah's righteousness finds its root in the forgiveness and mercy of God. Noah would be saved because of God's grace. That's the only reason. There is no other answer.

Next, I want you to notice the result of his righteousness. Grace always brings about results. And these are the results. Forgiveness brings about faithfulness. And it says, these are the records of the generation of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. Notice his conduct, his character, his commitment.

Those are the result of a forgiven life. He was a righteous man. Second Peter tells us that he was a preacher of righteousness.

Hebrews 11 helps us understand how he obtained that righteousness. Hebrews 11, verse number 7, we'll talk more about it next week. By faith, Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith. First time that righteousness is mentioned in the Bible is associated with Noah.

He obtained righteousness. Why? Because God would declare him righteous. There was nothing in him that made him righteous. God declared him righteous. And now because he was declared righteous, based on the forgiveness of God and the grace of God and the mercy of God, he became one who was righteous. He walked with God. He talked with God. So his whole conduct changed based on God, not on him. Whenever there's anything that's righteous done through you, it's because God in His righteousness has done it through you, not because you did it.

Anything good that's to be found in your work of service is there because God did it in and through you, not because of you, because your heart is continually evil all the time. See that? The Christian life is all about God and Him working in and through you. And Noah's conduct was righteous. His character was blameless. Can you imagine? The Bible says that he was blameless in a society that was morally corrupt.

Everyone around you was wrong. When everyone else was wrong, he preached that which was right. We will see in days ahead, he did it for 120 years. That's a long time. Most of us can't stay blameless for 120 minutes, let alone 120 years. But that was Noah's commitment. His conduct was one of righteousness. His character was one of blamelessness. His commitment was that he walked with God. Remember we talked about Enoch? Enoch walked with God, Noah walked with God. Wow! It's that unbroken communion with God.

What a testimony! He walked with God. He pleased God. He proclaimed God. He portrayed God. He walked with God in unbroken communion because he loved his God. Why did he love his God? Because God graced him. That's why. He graced him. Was he better than anybody else? Nope. Every intent, the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, but God graced him. The root of his righteousness, God's forgiveness. The result of his righteousness was faithfulness. The ramifications of that righteousness was fruitfulness.

What does it say? And Noah became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Wow! We think of Noah, a man who built the ark, but Noah also built a gaudy legacy. For every one of you in this room today is a descendant of Ham, Shem, or Japheth. Every one of you. Noah became a very fruitful man, many times over. For without that, without God gracing him, there would have been no Abraham. No Abraham, no Jewish nation, no Jewish nation, no Bible, no Bible, no Savior. God knew what he was doing all along because that's the way God is.

Behold, the kindness and the severity of God. I trust that you have been a partaker of his kindness and goodness, and said, I want to follow my Savior, give my life to him, receive the forgiven life. If you have not done that today, my prayer for you is that before you leave, you will come down here to our front, my right, your left. We'd be glad to talk to you about what it means to be graced by God, to receive his forgiveness, that you might obtain his righteousness and live to his glory and honor.

Let's pray together.