The first issue of man's third fall was the withdrawing of the Holy Spirit, signifying God's forsaking of man. The Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever" (v. 3, Heb.). This word indicates the gracious work of God's Holy Spirit. It is a word which proves that before that time God's Spirit was continually working and striving with man. This is the second mention of the Spirit in the book of Genesis. The first mention is in 1:3, which says that God's Spirit was hovering over the dead situation in order to bring life into being. When the Spirit is mentioned the second time, we are told that God the Spirit would not strive with man any longer, proving that prior to this the Spirit had been striving and working. God was gracious. Do not think that Abel was good by himself. That was impossible. All the dear saints mentioned in Genesis 5 were helped by the Spirit of God. Do you think that Enoch could have walked with God by himself? I do not believe this. Enoch was helped, strengthened, and moved by the Spirit of God. God's Spirit was striving against man's rebellion. Nevertheless, in Genesis 6 a point was reached when the Spirit of God would strive with man no longer. How dreadful this is. If the Spirit of God were to withdraw from us, how terrible it would be!
The second issue of man's third fall was the coming of the deluge, which brought in the judgment of destruction (6:17; 7:10-12). The issue of man's third fall was that something so good, the Holy Spirit, was to be withdrawn and that something so terrible, the judgment of the deluge, was to come to execute the sentence of death upon fallen man.
The third fall of man was a prefigure of the present age. The Lord Jesus likened the present age to the time of the third fall (Matt. 24:37-39). The Lord said that before the flood came, they were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and took them all away. People knew nothing except eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage. At the time of the third fall, fallen man was abusing marriage. The situation is exactly the same today—eating, drinking, and abusing of marriage. It is not wrong to be married; it is holy. But do not abuse it. Your marriage must be according to God's principle. This will bring God's grace and blessing upon you and your family. But the abuse of marriage will cause judgment to come upon man. Look at the present situation. It is the same as in the age before the flood. People know about eating, drinking, and marrying, but they do not know the coming judgment. It seems that, as far as they are concerned, there is no God in this universe. They do not care about the coming judgment. However, the Bible assures us that God is still on the throne and that the earth belongs to Him. One day He will intervene and exercise His judgment upon this ungodly age. What then should we do? We must go to Noah and see what he did. We shall consider Noah in the next message.