And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them,
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose.
And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.
The Nephilim were 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 were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
And the Lord 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 the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, and perfect in his generations: Noah walked with God.
And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their 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.
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is how thou shalt make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
A light shalt thou make to the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou finish it upward; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
And I, behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is in the earth shall die.
But I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Of the birds after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.
We mentioned before that the family is not a human idea. Family is a divine concept. In creating man, God had family in His mind. That is the reason why He created man male and female. To that family God blessed and said, “Multiply, be fruitful, fill the earth, and subdue the earth.”
In this first family, before sin entered into the world, what was its condition? We mentioned last time that there was such a transparent, open relationship between husband and wife that they were not ashamed, even though they were naked.
God came to them and communed with them. In other words, in this first family there was not only an open relationship of love between the man and the woman, but God was an essential part of that family. They lived together in the presence of God, and they really had a good time in the garden of Eden, the garden of pleasure.
What is the relationship between the fall and the family? We find that the family failed because Eve became independent of Adam. Instead of being together, Eve was away by herself. When she was away by herself, she was tempted.
God means that the family should stay together. The family should be together before the Lord. Whenever anyone in the family begins to take an independent way, you will find that he or she will be exposed to temptation.
Secondly, in the fall Eve violated the divine order that God had set in the family. Instead of being the body in the family and letting Adam be the head, Eve took the headship. She ate the forbidden fruit, and not only did she do it, but she gave it to her husband to eat.
So in the fall there was the independence of the members of the family, and also the violation of divine order. Because of that, glory left. Most likely they were clothed with glory; therefore, they were not ashamed, even though they were naked. But because of sin, glory left them.
Secondly, love left them. Adam began to accuse his wife, as it were, instead of loving his wife and giving himself for his wife. Love began to fade away in the family. Thirdly, they were cursed.
But thank God, God did not take away His purpose with the family. Even though they were accursed, what God desired the man to be and the woman to be was still there. The woman was still to give birth, but with pain. She would desire after her husband, and her husband would rule over her. That was her protection.
Through the woman, the seed of the woman would come to bruise the head of the serpent, even though the serpent would bruise His heel. In other words, it is through the woman that salvation—the Saviour—would come. To the man, he had to toil for his living. He had to sweat for it. But by sweating for it, he became the provider of the family and thus the head of the family. So even in the curse, in the judgment, there is mercy.
As we go on with the history of the family, we find that the first family had fallen. They were driven out of the garden of Eden. That was bad enough. But then look at the second generation. Adam and Eve began to have children: Cain and Abel.
These children came to the Lord to offer to Him. Cain offered the produce of the ground that he had tilled, and he was rejected by God. Abel offered the firstlings of his flock, and he was accepted by God.
Not because God was partial, but because Cain offered the fruit of the ground instead of the firstlings of the flock. In doing that, it showed that he did not believe that he was a sinner who needed the shedding of blood for the remission of his sin. He thought he could go to God in his own righteousness, by his own merits, by his own work.
But Abel, knowing that he was a sinner, knew that he could not come to God except through the blood of the lamb. So while he offered a more excellent sacrifice, he was accepted—not because he was better than his brother, but because he offered a better sacrifice.
When this happened, Cain, instead of being humbled before God, was jealous of his brother. One day, when he and his brother were talking in the field, he rose up and murdered his brother.
In the first family, in the first generation, something had happened. Sin had entered into the world; sin had entered into their family. Even though the family was not yet broken up, love was already very much lacking. The seed of failure, the seed of defeat in the family, was already sown. So in the second generation there was even murder among brothers.
When you came to the fifth generation, you found a man whose name was Lamech. He married two wives. Instead of obeying God’s original design for the family—a male and a female, and the two becoming one flesh—Lamech violated even that principle.
Not only did he take two wives, but he was such a vindictive person. He told his two wives how he had killed a man because the man wounded him, and how he had slain a young man because of his hurt. He said, “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”
That was the fifth generation. When you come to the tenth generation, Noah belonged to the tenth generation. By then, not only one family was corrupted, and not only the seed of Cain was corrupted, but even the godly seed of Seth was corrupted. The whole of mankind was corrupted. All the families upon the earth were corrupted, except one.
Corruption began with the family, and then it spread to society, to the nation, and to the whole world. When mankind came to the tenth generation, God looked down upon the earth and saw that it was full of violence. Every imagination of the thought of man was corrupt, evil, continually evil.
Think of it: only ten generations, and the whole earth was corrupt. All the families were corrupted. Even the imagination of the thought of man was continually evil. There was not one good thought.
During those days, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, so they took the daughters of men at their will. Out of that came giants, the so-called heroes of old days.
The sons of God there were fallen angels. In the book of Job—the first book of the Bible historically, so far as time is concerned—the sons of God refer to angels. When you come to Genesis, it does not explain who the sons of God are because they were understood to be angels; but they were fallen angels.
Angels do not marry, nor are given in marriage. But here they acted against their very nature. They did not keep their place, as we find in Jude. They did not keep their place as angels; they came and got mixed up with men, and out of that came those hybrids.
From the human standpoint, they were giants. From God’s standpoint, they were the product of the violation of God’s order, because angels belong to one order and man to another order. Here was a violation of divine order.
Brothers and sisters, when it came to the time of Noah, the whole earth was corrupt. Every family was corrupted. God said that He repented of making man. It must be terrible for God to say that He repented of making man. God said that He was to destroy all living things upon the earth.
Did God need repentance? God is not a man, that He should repent. We need to repent; we often need to repent. But God certainly needs no repentance. How then does the Bible say that God repented of His making?
So far as God’s purpose is concerned, He never repents. Once He has set His purpose, He will work toward that purpose until it is fully fulfilled. He never changes His purpose. He never repents.
But so far as God’s ways are concerned, He sometimes repents. That is to say, He changes His method. To use an imperfect illustration, consider parents who have children. What is your longing, purpose, or aim for your children? You want your children to grow up, to reach manhood and womanhood.
That is your longing, desire, and wish for your children. Do you change that wish? Do you change that desire? Certainly not. From the day when a child is born until he or she becomes a man or a woman, you do not change your thought concerning your children. You want them to grow up to manhood and womanhood.
But you often change your ways of dealing with them. When they are little babies, you deal with them in a certain way: you love them, provide for them, and, as soon as they cry, give them the bottle. How patient you are with babies!
When the baby begins to grow, you find that not only do you provide for them, but you begin to teach them and discipline them too—not too strongly, because they are still so young. But discipline begins. When they grow up a little more, you teach them more and discipline them more, and the way of discipline changes as they grow up.
You change your way of dealing with them, but you never change your purpose. With some children, if you beat them, they are finished. But with some children, if you do not beat them, they are finished. You have to see the individual character of each child and try to deal with them accordingly, so that they grow up to manhood and womanhood.
If one method does not work, change to another method. You repent and change another method, but your purpose never changes. God never changes His purpose. He never needs to repent of His purpose. What it means here is that He was going to change His method.
God said He would destroy mankind. But thank God, Noah found favor in the sight of God. Let us remember: even though Noah was a just man, righteous in his generation, he found favor in the eyes of God. It was grace. It was grace.
Before God destroyed the world, He told Noah to build an ark. An ark is actually a chest. Moses’ mother put him in a little chest, an ark just large enough for a baby. But God commanded Noah to build an ark, not a small chest just large enough for one person, but a tremendous thing.
Why? Because when God commanded Noah to build an ark, He had Noah, his family, and all the living creatures in view. The ark was for the preservation of life.
We know, of course, that the ark is a type of Christ. Because of the sin of this world, and because the Lord Jesus said, “As were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man,” there are such similarities between Noah’s time and ours.
In our time the earth is full of violence. How the imagination and thought of man are continually evil! In the newspapers, on television, on radio, everywhere in advertisements, you find things that pollute the human mind. Every thought and imagination is continually evil.
Look at the families. Families are all broken up, and spiritism is prevailing today, just as in the days of Noah. Because of all this, God’s judgment came upon the land in Noah’s day. Dear brothers and sisters, can this earth escape judgment, seeing the situation today? Surely God’s judgment is coming upon this world.
Oh, thank God, He has provided an ark for us to escape that judgment. Our ark, of course, is our Lord Jesus. God has provided for man an ark—the Lord Jesus—that we may escape judgment and be preserved in Him.
This ark is very big. In other words, so far as the salvation of the Lord is concerned, it can contain everybody. It is not just for one person; it is for every family in this world. That is the immensity of the salvation of our Lord.
The ark was made of gopher wood, and we are told that gopher wood is considered incorruptible. This speaks of the manhood, the humanity, of our Lord Jesus. In order to save us, He who is God had to become flesh, taking the form of a man; yet His humanity was perfect, sinless, not like ours.
The ark was pitched within and without with pitch, and the word pitch in Hebrew is the same word as atonement. Here you find that our Lord Jesus came to become a man in order to atone for our sins.
There is a door there. That is to say, we can enter in. The door is not only for entrance; it is also for shutting up, for preservation. We can enter into Christ. He that believes into Christ is saved. When judgment comes, he will be kept with Him and safe.
Not only was there a door, but above there was a light. In the original, it says “a light”; some versions translate it as “window,” but actually it is the light. In other words, in Christ we are divinely guided from above. So the ark speaks of Christ for us today.
In the days of Noah, it was a huge ship. God commanded Noah to build that ark because He said that man’s days would be one hundred and twenty years and no more. Noah believed God and began to build his ark.
Remember, brothers and sisters, up to Noah’s time there had never been any rain. The earth was watered by the mist that came upon it. Yet God commanded Noah to build that ark. People mocked him and laughed at him. They thought that something must be wrong with him. “Where will be the water? Where will be the flood?” They had never even seen rain.
Yet Noah built that ark. During those one hundred and twenty years, he was a preacher of righteousness. He preached to all who came to him, but none believed him—not even one.
His wife believed him. His three sons believed him. His three daughters-in-law believed him. Even though the world did not believe him, his whole family believed what he believed. How Noah must have lived before his family!
For his wife to believe him may not have been too hard. For his sons to believe him would have been a little harder. For his daughters-in-law to believe him would have been hardest. People who do not know us may believe us more easily, but people with whom we live day and night—surely that will be very difficult.
But here you find what a life Noah lived in his family. Even though the world did not believe him, his whole family believed what he believed. One day God said, “Go into the ark: you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law”—eight of them. They all entered into the ark, and when the flood came, that family was saved.
Now, brothers and sisters, the family has fallen from God’s original design. It has fallen down to the very bottom and has to be completely wiped out. But thank God, there is salvation. And when God provides salvation, it is for the family, not just for one individual.
You read the Bible and find this: Noah was righteous before God. The Bible does not say that Noah’s sons, his wife, and his daughters-in-law were all righteous before God. But the Bible says Noah was righteous before God, and God remembered Noah and saved his family.
It is the family that has fallen, and in the redemption of our Lord Jesus, He comes not only to redeem one or two, but He comes to redeem the family. So far as the unit of salvation is concerned, it is the family.
So far as receiving the Lord is concerned, it is individual. It is true that we have to believe in the Lord Jesus ourselves and be saved. Your parents cannot believe for you, neither can your children believe for you. Everyone has to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved.
But remember Acts 16:31. When the jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas said:
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.
That is the original order. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved. You must believe in the Lord Jesus in order to be saved. Yet God promises, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
In other words, because salvation is provided for the whole family, when one person in the family is saved, God promises that person the whole family. That is not from me.
Dear brothers and sisters, we want to emphasize this morning that the provision of the salvation of the Lord is for the family. If any one of us in the family has believed in the Lord Jesus, God has a promise for you. He promises to give you the whole family.
It is true that every one of them has to believe in the Lord, yet they are promised to you. All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. But all the promises of God have to be accepted by faith.
God makes many promises to us, but these promises do not come automatically or mechanically. They have to come by faith. Here is a promise of God, but it will not be fulfilled mechanically or automatically. Someone has to claim that promise by faith: “Our Lord, You have promised it; make it good.”
When there is a claim by faith, God honors that promise. God honors your faith. Some people say, “Why is it that I believe in the Lord and my family is not saved? My family just does not come to the Lord.” It is because God’s promise does not come mechanically. God is a living God. There is nothing mechanical with God. Everything has to be living.
When God promises, He waits for you to rise up in faith and claim it for His glory. If you claim it, He will do it.
Not only should you claim it by faith, but you should live in obedience to Him, that you may be a light in the family. When they see the light, they will give glory to God.
So, brothers and sisters, on the one hand, God promises us that if we believe in the Lord Jesus, our whole household shall be saved. But on the other hand, for that promise to be fulfilled:
Then you will find that God’s promise will come upon your household. As God saved Noah and his family, God will save us and our family.
This is not only true in the case of Noah. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, you find the same thing. They were slaves in Egypt, and God used Moses to save them from death and to deliver them out of Egypt.
God told the children of Israel that every family should prepare a lamb—not every person, but every family. On the fourteenth day of the first month, the family was to kill the lamb, put the blood upon the doorposts and lintel, remain inside the house, roast the lamb, and eat the lamb.
Why? Because on that night God would pass through the whole land of Egypt. When He saw the blood, He would pass over. But if there were no blood, the angel of destruction would kill the firstborn.
Dear brothers and sisters, here you find that it is a lamb for a family. If a family was too small to eat the whole lamb, they could share with their neighbours. In other words, the family could be enlarged.
It depends on your faith. If your faith is large, you can include more in your family. If your faith is smaller, it is at least your immediate family. In the case of the Passover, here again, there was a lamb for a family.
When the children of Israel entered the promised land, the first city they were to take was Jericho. Two spies went into the city to spy it out. They entered the house of a harlot, Rahab.
The king of Jericho heard the report and sent people to Rahab, asking whether she had seen the two men who had come. Rahab knew that Jericho would be destroyed. She had faith in God, and she hid the two spies.
The two spies promised her, “Gather your family—your father, mother, brothers, sisters, and relatives—into this house where there is the scarlet thread. When we come, if they stay in the house, they shall be saved.”
The Bible says that she gathered her family: her father, mother, brothers, sisters, and relatives. They all stayed in the house, and because of Rahab, the whole household was saved. Rahab was not the head of the family.
Of course, if the head of the family believes in the Lord Jesus, it is much easier for the whole family to come to the Lord—but it is not necessary. If anyone in the family trusts in the Lord and has faith, the family can be gathered. They must believe themselves and remain in the house; if they wandered in the street, they would be killed. Yet God promised the whole family of Rahab to be saved.
You come to the New Testament and find the same thing in the house of Cornelius. Here was a Gentile, Cornelius. He was a godly person. He prayed to God and gave alms, and his prayers and alms were answered.
The angel appeared to him and said, “Go to Joppa and get a man called Peter to come, and he will tell you the word of salvation.” So Cornelius sent his servants. When Peter came, Cornelius gathered not only his immediate family and relatives, but even his friends.
When Peter began to speak, the Holy Spirit came upon every one of them—not only Cornelius and his family, but also his relatives and intimate friends who were included in the house of Cornelius. His faith was great. It was great. Oh, God give us that kind of faith.
When you come to Acts 16, you find Lydia’s household. Lydia was a woman, a businesswoman. She dealt in purple, and at that time it was business for princes and merchants. She had a large business, and yet she feared God. She listened to Paul, believed, and her whole household believed and was baptized.
In the same city, Philippi, the jailer and his whole family were saved, and they rejoiced in the Lord.
So, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember one thing: because God’s purpose is the family, in the salvation which He prepares for us, He also has the family in view. It is household salvation.
Oh, brothers and sisters, may we rise up in faith and claim this promise before God. May we live in obedience to God, serving as light to our families. Then you will find family after family coming to the Lord.
Do you know that the building block of the church is the family? If the family is strong before the Lord, the church is strong. If the family is weak, the church is weak. How necessary it is for us to see this.
Brothers and sisters, God is faithful. God is faithful. Let us believe. Let us act on faith and live faithfully to it. We will see our families, our children, and our grandchildren—generation after generation—belong to the Lord. As families, we will serve the Lord together, and may His name be glorified.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee for Thy provision. Thou dost provide Thy salvation for the family. It is Thy promise that if we believe in Thee, we shall be saved, and our house.
O Lord, we do rise up in faith, claiming it from Thee. We ask Thee to be merciful to us, that we may live as light before our family members. We expect Thy promise to be fulfilled in each family represented here and in the families of Thy people everywhere.
We pray that Thy church may be built, and Thy name may be honored and glorified. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.