Why God Destroyed the Earth with a Flood (Genesis 6 Explained)

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Good evening, and again, it's good to have you all back with us, and you can be turning with me to Genesis chapter 6. We're going to pick right up where we left off last week. Once again, for those of you joining us on television, we just love to have you find a Bible, find a place if you can sit down and just share these things with us, learn to study. After all, that's the only reason I teach, is to try to help people to study the Bible on their own, to be able to understand what it says, why it says it, to whom it says it. All right, so if you got Genesis chapter 6, you remember that our last half hour we were talking about that whole human race had become so wicked, had become so corrupt, that God actually got to the place where He said He was sorry that He had made man in the first place, and that He was going to have to do something, and it would be drastic. And then in verse 8, now, as we continue on in Genesis 6, "...but Noah," now I always emphasize to my classes over the years, watch for that little three-lettered word, B-U-T, just a conjunction, but in our English language it usually denotes what I call the flip side. Now, even though on the one side we've seen the demise of the human race, they've just been going down the tube, but the flip side was there was still this one man, verse 8, "...and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Always remember, God has been a God of grace from day one, and even though we speak of our particular church age as the age of grace, yet that doesn't mean that the attribute of grace with God started with the church. If you'll remember when Adam and Eve had sinned, and they had sewn on their aprons of fig leaves, and yet the minute God approached them in the garden, where did they go? They ran and hid. Well, what prompted God to go and find them? His grace. God is a God of grace. That's one of His attributes. And so here again, even though the human race, for the most part, has totally turned against God, they have put Him out of their life, yet we've got this man, Noah, to whom God could extend His grace. Then verse 9, "...these are the generations of Noah." Remember, Noah comes out of the line of Shem, and Seth, I'm sorry, out of Seth and then later Shem. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man. He was a believer and perfect. Now, the word perfect in the Bible, if you'll go and look at the Hebrew and the Greek, and I don't claim to be a scholar in either one of those disciplines, but nevertheless, I can go to a Greek dictionary or a Hebrew dictionary, and you can find that the word translated perfect, at least in the King James Version, never means a sinless perfection. The word perfect simply means a spiritual maturity. Because you want to remember that the Christian life, the spiritual life, begins, and the New Testament makes that so clear, where babes in Christ, Peter writes, "...as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you might grow thereby." Paul refers to the believers of his day of not being capable to digest spiritual meat. Well, what had they been on? They'd been on milk, and so many times over the years, I will tell people coming into my classes, now, the first thing you're going to have to do is get off the bottle, the milk bottle. You're going to have to throw that milk bottle away, because we're going to put you on a And now, the same way here. The word perfect doesn't mean that Noah was sinless, but he had a mature spirituality like no one else of his day and time, all right? So he was perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. He had fellowship with God. He communed with Him. He was a man of faith. And he had three sons, verse 10, "...and Noah's three sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth." Now they become important names after the flood, when we see the whole earth will be populated once again from those three men, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, and we'll cover that in detail when we get to that. Now verse 11, "...the earth was," what? "...corrupt." Now, I don't have to define the word corrupt, do I? When we speak of something as being corrupt, we think of it as being vile. It is something that just simply turns it off, whether it's a corrupt politician or whether it's a corrupt garbage can out there waiting to be picked up. Corruption is something that just is abhorrent. Now this was the civilization here just before the flood. It was corrupt. It was rotten to the core. Read on, verse 11, "...and the earth was filled," and again I like to emphasize the next word with what? Violence. Now, we hear a lot about television lately as being filled with sex and violence. Well, what do we think of in violence? Murder. The killing of human beings by other human beings. That's violence. I read again the other day where foreign movie markets, they don't think our movies in which we think are already awful. But the foreign market doesn't think they're bad enough. If there's only three or four killings in a movie, they won't even look at it. So we can count ourselves fortunate again for living in America. We at least haven't gotten quite as bad as the rest of the world. But the rest of the world wants movies that are just filled with violence and filled with nudity, filled with pornography, and as yet, you see, America, thank God, hasn't swallowed that completely. But here we are before the Flood, and this is the picture. It was a society that had just gotten totally corrupt, but the epitome of that corruption is violence or murder. Now, what I like to impress on anyone that I teach with regard to this civilization before the Flood, and again, let's look at a verse of Scripture. I want you to see it with your own eyes. Go back with me to, oh, let me see, I think it's Luke 21. No, I'm going to have to take that back. Let's look at Matthew 24. The two chapters are so alike, but let's go to Matthew 24, Matthew 24. Come all the way down to verse 36, where Jesus, of course, during His earthly ministry is speaking of the end of the age. And I always like to remind again my students that when Jesus spoke in His day and time, He gave no hint, He gave no indication that there would be 2,000 years intervening between His first coming and His second coming. He never let that even be hinted at. And so He spoke of it as something that was not too far into the future. So here in Matthew 24, beginning verse 36, He says, "...but of that day," that is, of the end of the age as we think of it, "...of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only." Now, here I'd like to stop for just a second, because it always becomes so apparent when someone reads that verse, then Jesus didn't know, oh, didn't He? What do you think? Sure, He did, because you see in John's Gospel, chapter 14, what does He say regarding Himself and the Father? Hey, we're one. Now the reason Jesus said this, and He was not being facetious, He was not putting out misinformation as we like to call it today. He wasn't lying when He said that no man knoweth but the Father. Always remember that Jesus on the one hand was totally man, but on the other hand He was totally gone, and by virtue of that fact, He never let the two interfere. In other words, at no given time when He was operating in the human, did He let His deity interfere with that humanity? Oh, He could have, but He didn't. In other words, when He got tired, when He got exhausted, He could have just let the deity part of Him overtake and rejuvenate Him and so forth, but what did He do? He rested, He slept, He played the role of the human. But on the other hand, He was totally gone, see? But He never let the two interfere. Now what we have to look at when He makes a statement like this in verse 36, now I know this is a departure from Genesis for a moment, but this is the way we cover every aspect of Scripture as we go. Here we have the Lord Jesus speaking from His human side when He says that no man knoweth, but from His God's side He knew, but He was speaking from the human side and so He could honestly say, no man knoweth the time or the hour. That's just a little aside, but My Father only, but He and the Father were one, so of course He knew. He could have told the disciples exactly at what day and time certain things would take place, but He didn't. All right, now then verse 37, now this is where we're connected to Genesis. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also, that is the events and the economy and the activities of mankind, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, now there's nothing wrong with that, and they were marrying and giving in marriage, there's nothing wrong with that, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. All right, now let's just bring that up into our own time. I think all of us are agreed that the return of the Lord Jesus is verily at the doors. Now we don't set dates, we don't know when it'll be, but we know it's getting close. And the more the Middle East broils, the closer the end is coming. And then all we have to do is look at the world in general again tonight. What is the world all hung up on? Materialism, just materialism, a constant pressure to buy and to own things, the constant pressure to have something that as yet you haven't got, but oh you better have it or you just won't be living. And not only that, but it's such tremendous activity, everybody is so busy, and I'm guilty, we're all guilty of it, we are so busy. I'm always amazed that night after night people find time to come to my classes, and I'll mention it once in a while, I'm just surprised that everybody is here on a weeknight because everyone is so busy. Well now, look at it, we're in the same situation, we're busy eating and drinking, satisfying the demands of the flesh, and there's nothing wrong with that. And we're busy with the marriage of friends and loved ones, and we go to weddings and all these things, and all the preparation, but it all just adds to that hyperactivity that man finds himself in tonight, and so it was before the Flood. They were just so involved, they were just go, go, go, go, go, and we're in the same thing today. But, you see, Genesis tells us a little more, now come back with me then to Genesis, that in midst of all this activity, and I think it's the activity that precipitates so much of the wickedness. In fact, when I summon, and maybe I'm a little odd, and I won't deny that, I can be watching a newscast, and I'll see these, oh, riots, and they're out in the streets, and kids are throwing rocks, or stones, or bottles. You know, the first thing I ask myself, why aren't those people at home? Why aren't they at home? If they were at home, you wouldn't have all this turmoil in the streets, isn't that about right? But why aren't they home? Oh, because they're too hyped up to just spend an evening at home with mom and dad, they got to be out burning up that exercise, that energy. And so it was here. These people were just burning up their energy, and along with it, you see, they had inflicted upon themselves such a demise in the fabric of their society, that they were murdering one another in unprecedented numbers. And the violence was getting so tremendous, that God had to look at unborn generations. And what could He see? That these children as yet unborn, as soon as they would come into that kind of a society, what did they have to look forward to? Probably being murdered, because it was getting so common, or becoming a murderer themselves. And so God says, I've got to put an end to it, for the sake of the unborn generations. Now, that's the way I have to look at it. It has just gotten so awful, that it can't continue. And we're fast approaching the same thing in our own day and time. Now I'll continue on to verse 12. So God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. Now, I've mentioned for the last several months, even as we've been teaching on television, that whenever the Bible repeats itself, almost to the place we think, well, you know, why does this have to say it so often? It's for a purpose. And that purpose is to get our attention, or the word we use is emphasis. This is for emphasis, to help us understand that this generation was violent, it was corrupt, and don't forget it. All right? Let's look on. And so 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 with the earth. Now a couple weeks ago, I alluded to a little paperback book, and I couldn't remember the author's name. I remembered the title, well, I went home and looked it up, and in case you want to write it down, and for any of you on television, if you want to go to your library, it's an interesting little paperback to read, the title of which was, We Are Not the First, and it was written by a gentleman, I think maybe an Englishman, I'm not sure, but it was written by a gentleman whose name was Andrew, and I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, but it's T-O-M-A-S, Andrew Thomas, or Tomas, I don't want to mispronounce it. But anyway, if you get a chance to find that little paperback, We Are Not the First, and he is, without a doubt, not a Bible believer. I think it's evident from some of the statements that he makes. But he draws all of his information from archeology and other items of antiquity, going all the way back into the archives of some of the ancient Eastern religions, where those priests had things that, as I read the book, I couldn't help but think, well, I think is very possible. Ham, Shem, and Japheth, as young men going into the Ark, may have taken a few of those things with them, and they came out on this side of the Flood, and it ended up finally in the hands of some of these Far Eastern, Oriental religions. I have no trouble with that, but whatever. He points out in that little paperback book, the technology that existed at some point in time on the earth. Now again, he doesn't allude to the Flood. He never mentions Noah's Flood. All he says that is, at some time in our past, man evidently went into space. Man had rockets. Man had storage batteries. He had the internal combustion engine. They found bits and pieces. I mentioned it a few weeks ago, and a few of you couldn't quite believe it, where they'd found bits and pieces of a spark plug, not just laying in the soil someplace, but embedded in rock, embedded in rock. And all these things show us that at some point in our human history, there were people who had tremendous technology. Now I said he never alluded to the Flood, and I'll tell you why. Turn back with me to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3, 2 Peter chapter 3. And these are good verses to just get you sink your teeth into, if I may use that expression, because it is so on the mark. Where Peter writes, beginning with verse 4, and he says, "...where is the promise of His coming?" In other words, he's quoting, maybe I should start at verse 3, "...knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?" Have you heard that before? I do. Hear it every day. Well, now wait a minute less. The world's always had war, the world's always had earthquakes, the world has always had pestilence from time to time. That doesn't really mean anything. Well, you see, that's the scoffer's line. Where is the promise of His coming? "...for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." People say, they're nothing different. Alright, but read on. "...for this they willingly are ignorant of." Now, if someone is willingly ignorant, what does that tell you about them? They have no desire to learn, and if they heard it, they would just say, hey, I don't believe it, don't tell it to me. They are willingly ignorant. They don't want to know the truth. In other words, I'll always like to use the illustration of electricity. I know enough to be able to hook up a light switch, and I know enough electricity to wire a few things, and I've had a little of it in physics in my days gone by, but nevertheless, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of the knowledge of electricity, I'm ignorant. But now, I'm not willingly ignorant. In other words, someone hasn't said, well now less, if you'll just take the time, I'll teach you all about electricity, and if in that situation I say, uh-uh, I don't want any part of it, then I'd be willingly ignorant. But as it is, I'm ignorant simply because I've never been exposed to it. Now, look at this again. Peter is writing by inspiration that mankind is going to be willingly ignorant of one great historical fact. And what is it? That by the Word of God, in other words, as a result of God's Word of judgment, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. In plain English, what are they willingly ignorant of? Noah's flood. They will not accept the fact that this world at one time was totally demolished and destroyed and renovated by Noah's flood. I always like to remind my classes, I've never had anyone refute this, I don't think you can find a single college or high school textbook in either the literatures or the history or in the sciences that will ever maintain the fact of Noah's flood. They will not do it. Now, it's sometimes mentioned in literature. In fact, I was a guest teacher for a college literature class several years running because the textbook used the first chapter of its course, studying the first six chapters of Genesis, because it was the only literature that alluded to the Hebrew nation. And then they would go to other books of literature for various other people. But anyway, never, never will textbooks of high school or college or anywhere else ever make a statement that they would agree with Noah's flood. They just totally ignore it, and if they're brought to a point where they have to say something, they deny it. They will never admit that there's been a point in time where this world was utterly destroyed. Now, the amazing thing is that the flood is in the myths or the legends, however you want to call it, of every major culture on this planet. It was in the Babylonian culture that there was a great deluge. And, of course, in their legends and myths they always have it that one of their own was the survivor. The South Sea Islands, the Polynesians, had a legend of a great universal flood. But their chief happened to survive in some kind of a bathtub, and then was able to bring about the Polynesian people. South America, the Incas, they had it in their culture that there was at one time a great flood. And so in all the great cultures of the world, it's there. It came from some place, and it's near enough in its description that when you come back to the biblical account, you can say, well, that's where people got it. It actually happened and somehow along the line it was handed down. But our intellectual community, our scientists for the most part, now not all, but our scientists for the most part, reject the fact of the flood. And so they're willingly ignorant of it. All right, now I also said that with regard to this tremendous technology, long before I saw this little book by Andrew Thomas, I have taught, and anyone who has been with me a long time knows that I have, that from Ecclesiastes chapter 1, I could only come up with one reason for the Holy Spirit putting this in the Word of God. And it's Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 9. And again, it's repeated in chapter 3 and verse 15. But look at chapter 1 first. Verse 9, where the Word says, "...the thing that hath been is that which shall be." Now watch the language. "...and that which is done is that which shall be done. And there is no new thing under the sun." Now, this was being written, you want to remember, when Solomon's kingdom was at its height of glory. When Solomon was doing things that for a long time our contemporary people couldn't believe that he had accomplished. But now we know that he did. But whatever, Solomon here is writing that everything that was apparent in his kingdom was not new. It had been here before. But he also leaps into the ages to come and he says, everything that will happen has already been here before. Now turn to chapter 3, if you will. Verse 15, "...that which hath been is now, and that which is to be." That is in the future from Solomon's point in time. And remember that the Scripture is eternal. The Scripture just leaps the centuries. It leaps the millennia. And yet Solomon can write, "...and that which is to be hath already been." Now when I take those two verses in their context and really look at what it says, then I have to say that whatever technology we think we've got today is brand new, it's not new at all. It's all been here before. And I'm of the total conviction that this generation, I haven't got anything on the board, but this generation from Adam until the flood, tremendous intelligence, living up to 900 and some years. Now I guess I made a mistake. I said Adam lived 939. He lived 930 years. Methuselah 969. And everybody contemporary lived that long. Imagine what great men today who have to accomplish everything almost within 40 or 45 years for the most part. What if they could go for 900? Look at the technology that these people could bring out. And they did. And I'm convinced. And then after I read this gentleman's little paperback book, I know that by the time we get to the flood, they had a technology that was just unbelievable. But along with that technology, what had happened to them spiritually and morally, they went down the tube, down, down, up technology-wise, and down otherwise until finally God had to destroy them. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Tinta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7857. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.