The Unbounded Nature of Sin: Insights from Genesis 6

In this sermon, Mark Bates delves into the nature of sin. He emphasizes its pervasive and unrestrained qualities, and how these aspects manifest in the world as described in Genesis.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

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Woodwind ensemble, appreciate your ministry to us. Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis, chapter six. We are continuing our study through the book of Genesis and are in chapter six. This week, we are skipping chapter five, not because it’s not God’s word, but because it is genealogies, and we could go through that. But the purpose of genealogy is simply to connect the dots of the storyline. Remember, the Bible is a single story. It’s a story. We see it summarized in Genesis 3:15, the story of conflict between the seed of the woman and the serpent.

The conflict will ultimately end with the seed of the serpent seeking to destroy the seed of the woman, the offspring of the woman, but will end with ultimately the seed of the woman, being Jesus, crushing the serpent’s head. But this battle is raging in chapter five. The genealogy bridges the gap of this story and shows the line of Seth and chapter four, the line of Cain, and how these battles are being drawn. And genealogies are not there to give you timetables.

If you go back and you try to add up all the dates and genealogies, it will lead you to some great confusion. That is not the purpose of them in the story. And remember, in all history books, the historian who’s writing the history includes certain details that advance his story and excludes other things. And the same thing is true in genealogies, as he’s showing the line of Cain and the line of Seth being advanced. But we get to Genesis 6, and we see the degradation of the human race.

In Genesis 1-6, we find, first of all, God creates the world. It’s very good. It’s a beautiful place. Wonderful place. Genesis 2, we find God putting Adam and Eve in the garden again. Great beauty, all the provision, everything that they need. Genesis 3, the wheels come off. Adam and Eve sin against God. Sin enters the world. And from Genesis 3 on, we find this downward spiral till we get to Genesis 6, where it reaches its nadir.

We see the evil of the world and the evil of humanity coming out in just the most grotesque ways, and we’ll see it continue to advance for a few more chapters. But here it certainly is at its low point. Usually, when we speak about evil, we talk about the evil in the world that is out there. And so we might talk about the moral degradation of society, the sexual promiscuity of society, or we may even point to some exemplars of evil, Stalin and the great purge, where he murdered 2 million of his own people.

You might point to Hitler and his slaughter of 6 million Jews as great examples of evil. Or you might go to more contemporary examples and look at Casey Anthony, the Orlando mother a few miles from our home in Orlando, who allegedly murdered her daughter, buried her in the backyard, and goes off and parties at least for a month before she reports her missing. You see that? And we see the terrible evil of the human race. Bernard Madoff, here’s a man who built people out of billions, not just millions, but billions of dollars.

And probably most people would not be that upset if it were just the billionaires of the world. But he ripped off charities. I mean, he literally robbed the poor. And we look at the evil of a man who could do that, who could get rich by robbing the poor; we’re disturbed by that.

Yet even more disturbing than the evil that is out there, which is much more pleasant to talk about, even more disturbing is the evil that’s in here and the fact that every one of us, every one of us has to deal with the evil that is in our own heart. How do you explain this, by the way? Non-theistic evolutionists have no explanation for evil. In fact, they don’t really have a problem with evil, because how do you define evil without reference to God? How do you decide what’s right and what is wrong?

And in fact, evolutionary psychologists have noted, which is sort of a contradiction in terms, that we are hardwired to suppress the truth about what is evil. There’s an interesting article in Time magazine about ten years ago, and it talks about how it would say natural selection has caused it so that you do not see the truth about evil in your. And therefore you can’t see this evil, and therefore we do this evil.

In other words, even evolutionary psychologists who deny the existence of God cannot escape from the fact that there is evil and that there is something called what we’ll see in a moment called original sin. But how do we explain evil? Well, the Bible tells us why we are the way that we are, and it gives us some hope as well. Genesis 6:1-8. This is God’s word:

¹ When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, ² the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. ³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. 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 regretted 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.” (Genesis 6:1-8, ESV)

This is God’s holy and inspired word. In these verses, we see the destructive nature of sin and the pervasiveness of sin. Perversity of sin would fit, too. So maybe we’ll even go with that, the perversity and the pervasiveness of sin that is clearly seen in these verses.

Now, I have a confession to make. I wanted to skip this passage because this is one of the most challenging passages in all the Old Testament to understand what it means and exactly how it applies, because we’re talking about the sons of God marrying the daughters of men.

What in the world is that? Let me give you briefly three possible interpretations, and to give you the one I’m leaning on the most at the moment, and then we’ll talk about what it means for us. Three possible interpretations of the sons of God marrying the daughters of men: one interpretation that was favored by John Calvin, Martin Luther, most of the reformers, is that the sons of God refers to the godly line of Cain.

You remember, we have the plotline of the Bible of the war between the serpent and the war between the seed of the woman, this great conflict. And we see the ungodly line of Cain, and then we see the godly line of Seth, and that we see their genealogies in chapter four and chapter five. And so according to this interpretation, the godly line of Seth is marrying the ungodly line of Cain. They see these beautiful cainite wives, these ungodly women, but they’re smitten with their beauty, so they take them and they marry them.

That’s a possible interpretation. One problem with that, though, is that it speaks of women daughters being born to the sons of Adam in verse one. And that seems to apply to both Cain’s line and Seth’s line. So that would seem to be a problem. That would not seem to fit. The other problem is there’s no place where the phrase “daughter of men” refers to wicked people. So I’m leaning against that one at the moment.

The other possible interpretation, or another possible interpretation, is that the phrase sons of God refers to kings, rulers and judges, to people in power. And the reason for this interpretation is the word for God. There is the word Elohim, and it is used at times for those who are in power, those who are ruling, who are judges. And so the idea here is that these kings of old, these ancient rulers of old, would see the daughters of men, they would see their beauty, and they would just take whoever they wanted.

It was an act of violence. In fact, this may have been an early version of the medieval and ancient rite of first night, where the rulers and the powers would seize the women on their wedding night, and they would claim the right of first night with the bride, or they would simply just take women from their homes. They would take the beautiful women for themselves. It was an act of incredible violence. And that certainly would seem to fit with this passage and that God is upset with the violence and the wickedness of mankind.

The third option is that the phrase sons of God refers to fallen angels. And according to this interpretation, the word sons of God. That exact phrase is used in the book of Job three times. And in all cases, it is used to refer to the angels, to heavenly beings, those who are part of the heavenly court. And so the idea here would be that these fallen angels, these demonic powers, were seizing the beautiful women and were intermingling with them, and they were having offspring.

And that would explain verse four, where their offspring are these Nephilim, these giants, these great warriors of old. And it also would fit with what we see in 1 Peter 3 and Jude 6-7. And so that interpretation is out there. As soon as I throw that one out there, immediately you’re thinking angels, women getting together, making babies. It sounds a bit strange. And admittedly, that does sound a bit strange. There’s no way around that.

But we have to remember that the world before the flood was quite different than the world that we live in today. It was, in many ways, of a different order. We see Cain talking to God there at the edge of the garden. We see the angels there guarding the Garden of Eden. And so, it’s not as far-fetched as you might think. I’m going to go with a cross between two and three, and maybe a little bit of one. That these are rulers, that these are powers possibly in league with the demonic forces creating these.

These great warriors who are acting in incredibly violent ways. They see a beautiful woman, they take, they want them, they’re abusing their power. And it’s a way that the human race is intermingling with the demonic in the quest for mortality. We see that God says to them and says, “I will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal. God says, I am spirit. Man is flesh.” And we see men grabbing for mortality, for immortality, seeking to have this great power. As one writer notes, whoever these sons of God were, there is something passionate about.

Their embrace creates offspring, and there’s something monstrous about its outcome: the nephilim. Man is seeking immortality by conspiring with demons. Isn’t it interesting then, either way, no matter where you go, we see this mingling, where mankind or the sons of God are disregarding the proper boundaries, disregarding God’s law. They’re falling into the same sin of Eve. Remember what Eve does? She sees the fruit. She says, it’s beautiful to the eye. And then she takes it. And the Hebrew, what we see here is literally, it says, they saw good took. It’s three words: saw, good, took.

They’re just grabbing for things. And what we see here is these sons of God are making, in a sense, a faustian bargain, selling their soul in order to gain power. They’re wanting to be in control. They’re not staying within the limits that God has prescribed for them. And so they’re willing to even make a deal with the devil in order to gain the power that they want. Of course, we see that continuing today. And the most obvious is many people’s attraction to the occult. Why are people attracted to the occult?

Why do people go to astrology? Why do they find these sorts of things appealing? Because they want power. And if you can’t get power legitimately, they’re willing to make a deal with the devil in order to get it. Of course, that’s not the only place we see it. It’s the most obvious place, but we see the same sort of evil. And those who will win at all cost. What do Bernard Madoff and the baseball player who uses steroids have in common?

They’re willing to win at all cost, even if it means making a deal with Faust. They are willing to sell their soul in order to win, in order to achieve, in order to cheat. Selling your soul, you still are willing to win at all costs. Yet we see the same thing every time we sin, every time we choose the path of sin. What we’re saying is, I would rather be in league with the serpent than in league with God. Because I believe this is going to get me where I want to go.

I remember a number of years ago, I was a youth pastor a long, long time ago. And I was talking with the youth group, and the subject of cheating came up. And I asked them, how many of you have ever cheated? Now, most of these kids went to Christian school. All of them were raised in a Christian home. And every kid, I believe there may have been one who didn’t, but almost every kid raised their hand and said they cheated. I said, I met recently, all the hands go up again.

I’m going, whoa, I’m a little stunned at this. And I said, why? And one of the children explained. One of the students explained, sometimes you have to cheat. I said, why? We said, well, you know, you have soccer practice, you have something else, and you haven’t had time to study, and so you’re there, and you got to take the test. Well, you have to cheat. In other words, I have to win. I cannot fail here. And therefore, the only way I can get to my desired goal is through cheating.

And see, that’s the exact thing we do. Every time you choose sin over faith, you’re choosing to make an alliance, in a sense, with the serpent, rather than an alliance with God, because you believe he’s going to get you to the goals that you want. Moments ago, when we were confessing sin, this is exactly what you confessed. You confessed a moment ago, love. These confessions that Richard brings for us.

He says the confession says we confess that it is still all too easy for us to sacrifice our convictions for our convenience, your standards for status, your principles for promotion, your absolutes for our ambition, our souls for shallow and unsatisfying success. You see that every time we choose to sin, we’re choosing to sacrifice our soul for shallow success.

And so what we see here is that every choice of sin, every time we leave the boundaries that God has prescribed for us, that we seek power, we seek success and illegitimate means, we are making a faustian bargain. We’re making a deal with the devil. We’re in league with the serpent rather than aligning ourselves with God. And so what we see here in this battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, it seems that the seed of the serpent is winning. Evil is overtaking.

And it gets to the point where we read in verse five this very striking verse about human nature.

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. (Genesis 6:5, ESV)

Now, catch this: Every inclination means there’s no inclination excluded of the thoughts of his heart; only evil all the time. Doesn’t that seem like a bit of hyperbole? Haven’t you had some good thoughts, pleasant thoughts, honorable thoughts?

What God is saying here, though, is that every aspect of your being, every part of your being, every part of my being, is tainted by the corruption of sin. There is nothing that is unscathed by it. So ultimately, what this means is, and here’s a key phrase, it’s been very helpful to me, we are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. You catch the difference? you’re not a sinner because you’ve done bad things in your life. Ultimately, the reason you do bad things in your life is because you’re a sinner.

What you do flows from your heart. It’s what Jesus said in Matthew 7. He says,

¹⁷ 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. (Matthew 7:17-18, ESV)

You don’t get poisonous berries off an orange tree, and poisonous plants do not produce oranges. That’s the law of nature. You produce what you are. Therefore, the logic says that if your life is producing corrupt fruit, then your heart must be corrupt. And so the answer to the question is, why do I sin? Why do you sin? Ultimately, it is because we are sinners.

That is the nature of our heart that is corrupted by sin. Went to Japan a number of years ago. In Japan, most people there are atheists by far, overwhelming majority. But there’s still a lot of tradition that goes back to Buddhism and Shintoism. Every year, the Shinto priest would go up into the mountains of Japan, and he would be there in the spring, usually about this time of year when the snow is melting.

And he would take off all of his clothes and he would get under the stream of the cold snow, melt water, and the water would wash over his body. And the idea was that it would rinse all the uncleanliness that has come from being out in the world. And the idea is that evil is out there in the world. And by living in the world, you get stained by it. It’s the same sort of idea. you’ll remember Jean Jacques Rousseau. You remember him back in your history class somewhere.

Rousseau believed in the, and most of the romantics of the 18th century believed in the noble savage. Their idea was that the savage who’s been uncorrupted by civilization is far more noble than the civilized man, and that it’s civilization that causes men to be evil. Now, I imagine there are some people who were living here in the west at that time that might have disagreed, but this idea is that he’s saying that civilization is what makes people bad. Well, the question then becomes, where does civilization come from? How does civilization go bad?

To begin with, civilization is a product of human creation, that we have created this. It is something that we have done. And so the reason that civilization is evil is because the human heart is evil. By the way, that sort of rousseauian belief, the noble savage belief, continues today. There are people who believe that the only reason people do bad things, or the predominant reason people do bad things, is they’re raised in a bad environment.

And so if we can improve people’s environment, if we can do away with poverty, if we can improve education, if the state can take a more active role in raising the children, then we will be able to do away with evil, or at least certainly reduce it. But it fails to take into account that the state, the civilization, that all these things are products of human creation, and therefore all of them are corrupt to their very core. And so what we see is the human heart is corrupt. And that’s why that’s the problem.

The bad environment is a human creation. And so what we see then is the human heart’s corrupt. Well, how did the human heart get corrupt? It goes back to Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit, they did not simply commit an act of disobedience. What happened? Sin, we see there is not simply a wrong action, but a corruption. And when they disobeyed, not only did they become guilty, they became corrupt. And this corruption has been passed on from generation to generation. We inherited this corruption from our parents.

And so that’s what theologians call original sin. Now, the word original sin does not refer to the first sin. It’s not like that was the original sin. They were original in this sin. Rather, it’s the origin of sin in us. And so the question is, why do we sin? We sin because we have the origin of sin. We have a corrupt heart. And so we see that sin is a corruption. It is a power that infects us. It’s a disease that corrupts and destroys everything that it touches.

And since the human heart is corrupted by sin, that corruption spreads to every human action. It affects everything that we do. And we begin to see that even the most loving and kind and gracious things that we do often are tainted by this, are always tainted by this, that we are incapable of escaping it.

A number of years ago, when Adolf Eichmann was arrested, you remember him, he was the principal architect of the Holocaust. He was arrested. Mike Wallace, a number of years ago, did a story of 60 minutes on it.

And they interviewed a man by the name of Yahil Dinur. He was a concentration camp survivor and he testified against Eichmann. They showed a film clip of the 1961 trial in which Dinur walks into the courtroom. He stops short, he looks up, and he sees Eichmann there. And he just begins to weep and to wail uncontrollably. He’s sobbing, he faints, and he collapses on the floor. And the presiding judge had to pound his gavel to bring the courtroom to order. And Wallace is asking De Noor, he says, what happened there?

Was it the memories of what you saw? Was it the trauma of remembering how evil this man was? And Dunure said, no. He said, that’s not it. He said, I was afraid about myself. I saw that I am capable of doing this. I am exactly like him. The problem with Eichmann is that he is a man, an ordinary man. He is like us. We are capable of incredible evil. And the horrible truth is that we can do those things.

Now, have you ever imagined what would have happened if Hitler had been able to develop an atomic bomb? Can you imagine the evil that would have been perpetuated? What if Stalin had had at his disposal chemical and biological weapons? Can you imagine what would have happened in those days? I mean, the death toll would have been astounding. We may not even have been here if those men had that kind of power. But then you begin to think and say, why is it that I haven’t done certain evil things?

And oftentimes it’s because, simply because of a lack of power. A lack of ability. Genesis 3:63. God says, my spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal. Literally, he is flesh. His days will be 120 years. Mankind seeking immortality by mingling with the demonic. God says he’s not going to allow that. Man, God is spirit, man is flesh. God is immortal, man is mortal. And what we see here is that death, while it is part of the curse, death is also part of God’s grace.

Because by limiting man’s lifespan, he limits the evil he can do. That’s a terrible way to think about it, isn’t it? But if man were to live longer and grab more power, he would be able to do far worse things. Because you know the saying, power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the more powerful, the more corrupting it is. And so we see that God restrains that. And so we see then God gives his promise in verse seven, he says, I’ll wipe mankind, whom I’ve created, from the face of the earth.

Men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air. For I’m grieved that I have made man. And we see that God is looking and seeing how his creation is being destroyed, but he’s limiting the evil that man can do. That God’s limit on human power is a sign of God’s grace. You think of the things that we would do given the power if we had them, things that we have done. This old saying, who you are when nobody is looking is what? Is who you really are. I remember.

You remember the Rodney King riots in LA. Some of you will remember those, some of you won’t. But there were these riots in LA and racial riots in LA. And so during the riots, people began to loot the stores and to rob the stores just indiscriminately. People were going into stores and they literally had shopping carts and they were throwing things in their shopping cart like they’re shopping, except there’s no checkout, they’re just taking it. People were going in with hand trucks, getting refrigerators out of stores, just stealing.

It was just people robbing all over the place. And the news crew stopped to interview this man who was robbing the store. And I might add, he was a white man, in case you think this is a racial illustration. He was a white man going into the store and he’s stealing things and he has the camera in his face and they’re saying, why are you doing this? He goes, because I can. He goes, don’t you? And they said, don’t you realize this is wrong? And he says, who cares?

The reason he’s doing it is because he can. He’s doing the evil that he can get away with. Now think about this. Be honest for a moment. If you could do something without anyone knowing, without there being any possible consequences, how far would you go? How much money would you take if you knew you could not be caught and that no one would ever think ill of you, how far would you go in that hotel room when you’re traveling? What would you do? See who you are when no one is looking is who you are.

And when you begin to see where your mind goes when there are no restraints on it, you begin to see that evil is not something that’s just out there, it’s in here. And then we have a huge capacity for it. We see it in that. Maybe we don’t drop bombs on people, throw people in gas chambers. But our words that we use to destroy and to hurt people are violent because it’s the power, it’s the tool that we have at our disposal, and there are no consequences seemingly from using it.

And the hatred and the venom and the bitterness that we store up all show the corruptness of our nature. But God, in the middle of this corruption, still shows his grace. First, he shows his grace by limiting what we can do, and then he shows his grace by bringing judgment. Even judgment is a sign of God’s grace. Look at verse seven.

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.”” (Genesis 6:7, ESV)

Now, for many people, the idea of a God of judgment is offensive. You’ll hear people say, and I’m sure you’ve heard them say, I just cannot believe in a God like that, a God who would wipe out the whole world with a flood, which is what’s about to happen. I can’t believe in a God like that. I can’t believe in a God who would send people to hell. My God is a loving God, and he would never do a thing such as that. If you have a God who’s not a God of judgment, then you do not have a God of love.

You cannot have a God of love and not also have a God of judgment. As hard as it is to worship a God who is a righteous judge, it would be impossible to worship a God who did not judge at all. Think about the events of this week. Around the country this week, people were taking up pitchforks. Congress was mad. The president is mad. Everyone is mad. Over, what, a few million dollars in bonuses? Okay.

You know, I mean, it’s real money; it’s significant money, but we are calling for people’s heads because of inappropriate bonuses to executives of a failed company. Now, if we get that upset over bonuses, how much more should God be upset over the defilement of his creation and the destruction of the human race? People were. When Madoff was arrested, they’re interviewing people about him, and they’re saying, I hope he rots in jail forever. And they have a reason to think that.

But if we want justice for Bernard Madoff, how much more should the righteous God of the universe cry out for justice for those who are destroying and defiling his creation? If your God is not a God who gets angry, then he cannot be a God of love. You know, the opposite of love is not anger, apathy, and hope has its reasons. Becky Pippert illustrates this this way. She says, think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance, as we might toward strangers? Far from it. Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is. And the final form of hate is indifference.

She goes on to quote another man who says, human love here offers a true analogy. The more a father loves his son, the more he hates in him the drunkard, the liar, the traitor. God is a God of love. Therefore, he can’t stand by and watch as his creation is destroyed. And as the human race is defiled, so God restrains evil and out of grace promises to bring judgment on evil. But that’s not all.

We also see God’s redeeming of evil as well. Look at verse eight. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord . (Genesis 6:8, ESV)

Let’s focus on one little word. But this whole section of Genesis, we’ve seen the downward spiral: Adam and Eve eating the fruit, Cain killing Abel, Lamech murdering a man who touched him, and then polygamy, the sons of God and the daughters of men intermingling. Violence is spreading. Everything is growing. The world is on the edge of destruction. And God says, but. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Now the word favor is the same thing as the word grace. And one commentator notes that this sentence is best understood if it’s read backwards: Grace found Noah. God’s initiative of grace towards Noah is mentioned far before. As mentioned before, Noah’s righteousness, Noah is saved by God’s favor, by God’s grace alone. He’s part of the world that is being judged. But he escaped judgment not because he was a good swimmer, but because God is gracious. In the book of Ephesians, we read that we, like Noah, were headed for judgment. In Ephesians 2, we read like the rest. We, that is, us church people, were by nature objects of wrath.

³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:3-5, ESV)

This is an important point, because as we look at the evil in the world, it is our natural tendency to look at the evil that is out there, to see how the world is going to hell in a handbasket and to see the destruction and the immorality. But what God calls us to look at the point of scripture is not to see the evil that is out there, but the evil that is in here. And we see how Noah found favor with God. He found the grace of God in his life.

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (Ephesians 2:8, ESV)

And in the same way, God calls us to depend on his grace as well. Just as God called Noah to believe him and build the ark, God calls us to believe in Jesus Christ. Like Noah, we are in a world that is headed for judgment. But we can escape the judgment, not through our own effort, but through Jesus Christ. Commenting on Noah, Jesus said,

³⁷ For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37-39, ESV)

What Jesus is saying is, just like the days of Noah, there’s a day of judgment that is coming. God is going to judge evil. And just as it was in the days of Noah, there is a way of escape.

But it is not through our effort. It is not through what we do, but it is through Noah putting his faith in the promise of God. We put our faith in the promise of God, putting our faith and our hope in Jesus Christ. Unlike the others, who thought that judgment would never come, Noah believed God. But because we too know that judgment is coming, we believe God and put our faith in Jesus Christ. The whole point of the passage is that we cannot stop evil on our own. We are powerless against it.

We cannot save ourselves. We are powerless to do so. But God, even as in the days of Noah, saw the evil and sent a rescuer for the human race. God has sent a rescuer for us. And that’s why we come to the Lord’s table today. We come and say, Lord, save us from this evil world. Save us from our evil hearts, not through what we do, but through what you have done. And we thank him that Jesus has come to pay the penalty so that we might be free. Let’s pray.

Our father, we do thank you for the hope that the scripture gives us. Lord, we know we live in an evil world. We see it all around us. But, Father, we are sometimes blind to the evil. In our own hearts. We pray, help us to see it. Help us to see that not only does this world need a redeemer, we need one, too. And we thank you, Lord, that you did not cast aside your creation. You did not toss it away. You would have been perfectly just in doing so.

But you have saved the world, first through Noah and now through Jesus. And, Lord, we pray that as we come to the Lord’s table this day, that we would come in full faith, not seeking to commend ourselves through our righteous works, but seeking to find full assurance and your grace through what Jesus has done. Father, we pray that even as Noah found grace, we might find grace today, too. And that your grace would find us and rescue us. Lord, we pray all this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.