What was it like in the days of Noah?

1909 260 All government in the world has heretofore been of God. In the remarkable clash of opinions today, and wild projects for the improvement of the world, there has arisen a company of men more dangerous from their audacity than their number, who call themselves Nihilists in Russia, and in other places, Anarchists. The etymology of both names indicates the principles held — no government of any kind, no law, no worship, no God — nothing — nihil! Or, anarchy — without a chief, but with all that this chiefless lawlessness involves — mankind to be left to their own ungoverned impulses. And from this low-level swamp into which all evil will drain, the anarchists are deluded enough to expect that good will arise to humanity. Alas! for the neglected light of the Bible! Had they known the Scriptures they might have seen that in the varied demonstration of principles which God has wrought out on the platform of this world, man has already been tried on the very ground of no government; for that was the condition of the world before the deluge. There is no record, no trace of any government until then. Man, now that he had listened to Satan and rejected God, was allowed to display what he would come to without law and without interference. And what was the result? "The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 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 from the earth" (Gen. 6:5, 11-13). That was the development of fallen human nature left to itself.

What was the result of this trial? "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (ver. 11, 12). The evil rose to such a height, that God could no longer tolerate its existence; so the flood was sent to destroy man from off the face of the earth.

How incisive is verse 5! Man's wickedness became great, or abundant, for he was wholly evil in the deepest springs of his being. His heart was evil; the thoughts of his heart were evil, and the imagination, which lay behind and prompted his thoughts, was evil. And all this was only evil — not one trace of good — and that continually. Thus before the flood we have exactly the same verdict as to man as is presented to us in Romans 3:10-18, by quotations extracted from scriptures, which describe the condition of men after the flood.

It was a black and dark night that set in through the transgression of the head of the race. A night of self-will and rebellion against God on the part of man, a night of violence and corruption, of lawlessness, of envy, of oppression, of murder and unutterable wickedness. We are told that “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. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.”

One man alone found favor in the eyes of the Lord (v. 8). Noah was righteous as regards his human relationships and blameless in his personal character, because “he walked with God.” When the population of the earth had increased so tremendously, it is tragically sad to consider that only one man walked with God. In this he is typical of the Lord Jesus. Yet he does illustrate the fact that it is possible for a believer to walk in true, godly separation from an evil world, even when he has no fellowship of others in so doing. Sometimes a believer may find himself in such circumstances, though this is exceptional, for 2 Timothy 2:22 tells us, “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” But in any case, a lonely path with God is infinitely better than having many friends without God's presence.

Noah's three sons are again mentioned in verse 10, though evidently born after he was 500 years of age (Gen. 5:32). The most serious evil of man is then emphasized — his corruption before God — which led to an earth filled with violence (v. 11). Violence is of course against others, and people consider this the worst thing; but their corruption is against God, though they think lightly of it. If there were no corruption there would be no violence. But at this time “all flesh” had corrupted itself. God tells Noah that the end of all flesh was imminent because the earth was filled with violence, for violence was the glaring proof of man's corruption (v. 13). God would destroy the inhabitants with the earth.

The Spirit of God has been pleased to state two grounds upon which God brought the judgment of the flood upon man. First, because of what he had done - "The wickedness of man was great in the earth;" and further on we read that this had assumed the twofold form of corruption and violence, those parent sins of Genesis 3 and 4, which will find their full consummation in the day of the Lord, the former in Jerusalem and the antichrist, and the latter in Babylon and the beast. Second, because of what he was - "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually;" or, as the margin reads, "The purposes and desires of his heart" were such.

By the fall, Adam and Eve acquired and transmitted to the race the knowledge of good and evil. This gave conscience a basis for right moral judgment, and hence the race came under this measure of responsibility-to do good and eschew evil. The result of the dispensation of conscience, from Eden to the flood (while there was no institution of government and of law), was that "all flesh had corrupted his way on the earth," that "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," and God closed the second testing of the natural man with judgment: the flood. See Gen. 3:7, 22; Gen. 6:5,11-12; Gen. 7:11-12, 23.)

I dare say man thought the days of Noah were days of wonderful progress. But "the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence," what is it now? let it even speak for itself. The world's newspapers say, we have no sooner recorded one deed of violence, but we are called to report another. But what is it before God? and what will it be very shortly, when the true church of God, shall be taken up to meet Christ, and Satan deceives the whole world? Peace shall then be taken from the earth. (Revelations 6.) And men shall kill one another, in that day of tribulation, tribulation such as never was, and never will be again. It will be as literally true, as it was in the days of Noah, when the earth was filled with violence; yes, far more literally true than men expect.

The greatest evidence that man has a darkened mind and a corrupt nature is not the existence of the gambling den, nor the house of ill fame. The greatest evidence is unbelief; the fact that the human heart definitely and positively refuses to listen to the voice of God; that there is a heart which hates the light and loves darkness; and the greater the light which is rejected and refused, the greater the darkness, and finally God who is Love and Mercy can do nothing else. In fact, He must mete out judgment for a race which refuses to listen to His voice. That has been the story of the race from the beginning. God did not leave man, after he had transgressed, without light. Man had the light of creation and though there was not a written word, yet there was the Word of God nevertheless, and yet as you follow the Divine Record, you find that man's evil nature was evidenced by turning away from that Light. And though in 1650 years of the first age of this earth, they built cities, invented instruments, were lovers of art and music--the race wandered away from God, the earth became filled with violence and vileness, the voice of God was rejected and finally God had to bring a judgment upon the earth. And let no one imagine that that judgment, the deluge, is a myth; it is not. It is written in the Book and it is verified by science, by geology and by tradition.

The Scriptures teach that every regenerate person is the possessor of two natures: one, received by natural birth, which is wholly and hopelessly bad; and a new nature, received through the new birth, which is the nature of God Himself, and therefore wholly good. The following Scriptures will sufficiently manifest what God thinks of the old, or Adam nature: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9) "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10-12). God does not say that none of the unregenerate are refined, or cultured, or able, or sweet-tempered, or generous, or charitable, or even religious. But He does say that none are righteous, none understand God, or seek after Him. It is one of the sorest of faith's trials to accept the divine estimate of human nature, to realize that our genial and moral friends, who, not infrequently, are scrupulous in the discharge of every duty, filled with sympathy for the woes and the aspirations of humanity, and strenuous in the assertion of human rights, are yet utter despisers of God's rights and untouched by the sacrifice of His Son, whose divinity they with unspeakable insolence deny and whose word they contemptuously reject. A refined and gentle lady who would shrink with horror from the coarseness of giving a fellow creature the lie, will yet make God a liar every day! (See 1 John 1:10; 5:10). And this difficulty is vastly increased for thousands by the current praise of humanity from the pulpit. How startling the contrast between appearances and realities in the time before the flood. "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown" (Gen. 6:4). And so it appeared that the world was growing better, in men's eyes; a continual improvement they probably would trace, and the apparent result of the unholy intermarriage of the godly with the worldly was the lifting up of human nature to still grander heights. But "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" (Gen. 6:5). "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile man" (Mark 7:21-23). "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14). "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:7-8). "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3). By these it appears that the unconverted man has a three-fold incapacity. He may be gifted, or cultured, or amiable, or generous, or religious. He may pay his honest debts, be truthful, industrious, a good husband and father-or all these together-but he can neither obey God, please God, nor understand God. The believer, on the contrary, while still having his old nature, unchanged and unchangeable, has received a new nature which "after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." The following Scriptures will show the origin and character of the new man. It will be seen that regeneration is a creation, not a mere transformation-the bringing in a new thing, not the change of an old. As we received human nature by natural generation, so do we receive the divine nature by regeneration. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee [Nicodemus, a moral, religious man], Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13). "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:26). It will be observed what bearing these Scriptures have upon that specious and plausible, but utterly unscriptural phrase so popular in our day, "the universal fatherhood of God, and the universal brotherhood of man -- an expression all the more dangerous for the half-truth of the last clause.