16 Feb Why Did God Flood the Earth but Save Noah? Genesis 5:1-7:1
– Hey welcome, we like to go through books of the Bible, amen. And we find ourselves in the book of Genesis chapters five and six. And let me just ask you a question. If you had a good, exciting, encouraging week? I got to apologize, ’cause I’m about to ruin it. This is a little bit of a dark text. We’re gonna swim in the deep end of the pool gets a little bit complicated. And so as you’re finding your place in Genesis five and six. Let me say that, I’ve been teaching through books of the Bible for more than 25 years and there are certain parts of the Bible that you would never pick to just talk about those subjects. But if you’re going through a book, God decides for you in advance, what you’re gonna talk about, that’s where we find ourselves. The backdrop today is simply this, that there is a battle between the world and the word and the conflict is which one will have authority over the other? And so what we hear in the world is that we have have good hearts, that we are good people and that human life is progressing and evolving, we’re doing better, we could fix our problems, we could save the planet, we could extend human life, that we’ve got this. The story of the Bible is, no you don’t. The story of the Bible is, we don’t have good hearts, we have bad hearts, that we’re not good people, we’re bad people that we can’t save ourselves, that we are sinners. And ultimately this conflict finds itself in places like K through 12 and college education, social media platforms, where they come along and say, you know what? It is antiquated religion and old things like the Bible and concepts of God that restrict human freedom. If we just get rid of God, if we get rid of this old way of thinking about male and female and marriage and God and Satan and sin and Jesus, if we get rid of all of that antiquated thinking, we could unleash the fullness of human potential. And so their argument would be that the world needs to be over the word. Today, we’re going to hear that God is good, we are bad, that we have bad hearts, but God has a good heart that we are the problem, but that God is the solution, that we are all sinners and that God is our savior. So at some point today you will be offended. And if not come back next week and I’ll try again, okay? So, we’re gonna jump into Genesis 5, and we learn that God is good, we are bad. Now we live in a world that would say that God is bad and we are good, that God judges us, and he floods the world and he creates hell and God’s bad, and we’re good. No, God is good, we are bad. So Genesis 5:1-2. This is the book of the generations of Adam, so it’s going back to Genesis one and two giving us sort of a summary of everything up until this point, when God created man or mankind. The first man is named Adam and humanity is named after him mankind. He made him in the likeness of God. So God made us like him with a soul, for relationship with him, male and female, fixed binary, gender sex, marriage categories. He created them, God bless them. God is a good God and name them man or mankind when they were created. So what Moses is doing here, he’s saying, okay, let me summarize what God did. God made the world good, made us male and female, very good, brought us together for marriage, everything was awesome, everything was perfect, everything was great. And then God handed the planet to us and said, okay, your turn, and we ruined and wrecked everything through sin fall and rebellion. God is good, we are bad. God makes everything perfect and we destroy everything. God blessed everyone who lived and everyone then cursed God. That’s the storyline in the Bible. And so, it also shows us here and you’ll see it in a moment that God still has a plan for human life on the earth, he calls it mankind and he’s gonna work from generation to generation through husbands and fathers, what we now call patriarchs and our world is anti patriarchy. Oh, the men are bad and masculinity’s bad. Come back on Wednesday we’ll talk about this for Real Men. But nonetheless, you’re gonna see that God names every generation, and he gives the head of the family for each generation that the human line is named patriarchy through the male line all the way back to Adam, who is the father of all of humanity. So God did everything good, we made everything bad. And then the assumption is, and this is where our arrogance comes in, we tend to think, yeah, the world is a mess, but we’re gonna fix it. We’re gonna just give us some time. We’re gonna go to college, we’re gonna get some vaccines, we’re gonna vote for some politicians, we’ll raise taxes, we’ll declare some wars, we’ll make some technological advancements, we’ll speed up the internet. We’re gonna get this whole thing fixed, just give us a little bit of time, God, we will fix the mess that we now know as planet earth. And here’s what we read. Human progress is external, it’s not internal. So, we can send someone to the moon, but we can’t get someone to love their spouse. That we have new technology, but it doesn’t increase love and encouragement, we use technology to bludgeon one another. That the evolutionists will look at all the progress we make externally and say, look at all the progress. All we’re doing is creating new ways to do harm and evil. That ultimately there is no internal moral progress, there is only external cultural progress. When Adam had lived. So if you’ve ever wanted to go through the Hebrew phone book, what a great day this is for you. So here we find ourselves at the Hebrew phone book. When Adam lived 130 years, he fathered a son. How many of you are glad you didn’t start your family at 130? Can you imagine 129 you go and be like, honey, I feel like it’s time, we need some kids. What a weird, that had to be weird, like, okay, we’re both wearing diapers, neither of us has teeth, and we’re eating the same mushy food, that’s where we start. When Adam lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness. What it’s showing here is that every human being is the descendant of Adam and Eve, and they are a sinner by nature, that we inherit a sin nature. He was created by God without a sin nature, he sinned , now he has a sin nature, that nature is passed on to every generation. There is no morally good neutral person or generation, we are all infected and affected by human sin. After his image and he named him Seth. So, originally Adam and Eve we looked, they had two kids, Cain and Abel, Cain killed Abel. So now we only have the ungodly line, so God raises up Seth to replace Cain, and now there are two lines to this family, the line of Cain, which is ungodly and the line of Seth, which more godly. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, he had other sons and daughters. They’re having huge families. Tons imagine if you have kids for ladies, just imagine you could get pregnant for 800 years. No, okay, sister testify, all right. And he had other sons and daughters thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he, he what, he died. It’s gonna say this eight times, he died, he died, he died, he died, he died, that’s the theme. It’s not super encouraging, but it is clarifying. The point is that we all sin, so we all die. When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years, had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth’s life were 912 years and he died. How many of you are glad you’re not gonna live 900 years? You’re like I’m into my 200th presidential election. I can’t wait till I’m 800 and I can retire from my job. My wife and I have been arguing about her mother for 700 years. It’s funny that you laughed at that one, I struck a nerve, okay. When Enosh should live 90 years, he fathered Kenan, cool name. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years had other sons and daughters, lots of people. Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died, dirt nap. When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered fun name Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years, he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. Doesn’t tell us anything, like were they lefthanded or right handed, they died. Oh, did they have a peanut allergy? They died. Were they tall or short? They died. Don’t tell us anything. Here’s what’s very interesting is in a few thousand years, people aren’t gonna know this much about us. So we’re like, that’s sad, but it’s true. We used to, before we had the internet, which is where we put our lies today, we used to have something called a newspaper, and so we’d kill trees to put our lies out. And so in a newspaper, most people, they only appeared in the paper twice. You were born and then you died, that’s all that most people really get for their life. The point is simply this, most of life is just rather typical and normal and common, people live, they have kids, they diffuse snacks and they die. You’re welcome. Pastor Mark, it’s sad, welcome to life, Pastor Mark, this is boring, welcome to life. Pastor Mark, I don’t know what’s going on, welcome to life. Okay, well just we’ll continue, all right. Where were we? When Mahalalel we’ll just go to Mahalalel, ’cause it’s fun to say, it’s probably a wine. Mahalalel lived 65 years, he father Jared. Mahalalel lived after he father Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 days and he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, some of you’re enjoying this a little much, you’re a little dark, you’re the punk rock kids you’re like, died. So he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he father Enoch 800 years, had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Well now it’s different. Well, this is new Enoch walked with God. He’s the outlier, he’s the one believer in his family. Some of you are the believer in your family. Enoch walk with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, he didn’t die, what’s different? For God took him. We’ll talk about Enoch in a moment. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years. Oldest guy in the Bible, the most candles on his cake, and he died. When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered his son and called his name Noah. The whole point is to get us from Adam to Noah, 1,656 years of the genealogy is complete from Adam to Noah saying out of the ground that the Lord got has cursed, this one shall bring us relief or comfort from our work, and from the painful toil of our hands. Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died eighth time after Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. Brings the story forward. First of all, we all like to know, or most of us like to know our genealogy, where do we come from, what’s our family history or tree? And at some point in school, they give us an assignment to go back as far as we can. This goes all the way back to the beginning of the human race. Everyone descends from this family, our first father and mother, Adam and Eve. For the Jewish people in particular, this would be their family history, so is a big deal. Methuselah is the oldest one listed. But a few things I wanna point out. Number one, God knows everyone by name. Isn’t that interesting? See you and I, we go through most of our life and people don’t know our name. You go to this store, nobody says your name, go to dinner, nobody says your name, if somebody does say your name like, oh, somebody knows me. God knows your name. God knows everyone’s name. God calls you by name. When God calls you from the grave, he is going to call you as he did Lazarus by name. Isn’t that good to know that in a world filled with people, God knows every person by name? That’s encouraging. That you may be forgotten, that many people are forgotten, but no one is forgotten by God. In addition, everyone dies, which shows that everyone is a sinner. God made our first parents alive, they sin, sin leads to death, everyone sins, so everyone dies. This is just showing that ultimately we are the problem, therefore, we cannot be the solution, we are the source of death, therefore we cannot be the solution for life. In addition, the decisions that are made impact generations, what it says is this guy lived this life and then had this legacy. Your life ensues with the legacy. And so the decisions that were made before you were born impact your life positively or negatively. So for example, I come, my people come from County Cork in Southern Ireland. The famine hit, some of my relatives, boarded a coffin ship landed in America, they didn’t like us in New York, so we ended up in the Midwest, that’s where I was born on a farm. I didn’t make that decision, my relatives did before I was ever born. They didn’t know that I was coming, but God did. Then my parents moved to the Northwest and then my children were born there, but then we moved to Arizona, Grace and I made that decision when our children were young some years ago. So, I’m prophesying grandkids, but when the grandkids are born, there will be born in Arizona because that’s the decision that was made. Ultimately, you should look at your family ancestry and history and ask, what are the decisions that were made positively and negatively that have impacted me? For some of you’re like they were alcoholics, they were abusive, they hated God, they blew all their money, and that’s what I inherited. For some of you it’s like, they love the Lord, they stayed married, they invested, they were generous, that’s what I inherited. And then ask yourself this question. The decisions that I’m making, what kind of legacy will those decisions be leaving? Will generations after me look back and say, oh, it’s like Enoch, they walked with God or will it be like everyone else, they just died and left a mess? And this is really the emphasis and focus for those of us who are men. And this is what it means to be the head of household, is to make decisions that bless generations. Now, that being said, I would submit to you that we put too much pressure on individuals and generations. We know that the world is a complete and total mess. So a generation is born or an individual is born into a generation. And we look at kids and we say, you’re gonna change the world, you can be anything when you grow up, you can do anything. And that’s not true. Like how many of you, if I told you right now, like I wanna be in the NBA, can I? No, because here’s my vertical. Some of you are like, Pr. Mark you didn’t get off the ground, that’s my vertical. You can’t be anything you wanna be, you can’t do anything you wanna do. And sometimes we look at kids and we put too much pressure on them. You’re gonna change the world. They’re like, change the world, I can’t tie my shoes, it’s a lot of pressure. And sometimes we’ll look at whole generations and we’ll say, your generation is gonna change the world. This is every commencement speech in high school. You’re gonna change the world. No, you’re not. That’s what they said last year. And that’s what they said in Genesis 5, they’ve been saying this for a long time. And sometimes we even do this in church. We put incredible spiritual pressure on a whole generation of kids. You’re the Elisha generation, you’re the Joshua generation, they go ah. You need to overcome the curse, you need to save humanity, you need to fix the world, you need to bring the second coming of Jesus. And they’re like, it’s a lot of pressure. The point is this, everybody needs God. And until God shows up, we’re not gonna straighten out the mess we’ve made, we’re not gonna lift the curse that we have caused. So what we need to do is give a little grace to each other, just to be human, do our best, live our life. Knowing that ultimately one of us or a generation of us, isn’t going to save the rest of us. That the problem is down here, therefore the solution needs to come down here from up there. And it sets the stage for Jesus, which is the whole point of the story. So let’s talk about the one guy who’s the outlier, his name is Enoch. It says that he walked with God and he didn’t die. Now what’s interesting here is what’s coming soon is the flood. So God’s going to judge the world and he’s going to bring judgment and justice to sinners. He’s going to save Noah and his family through the judgment. He’s going to save Enoch from the judgment. Before the flood comes, God takes Enoch out. And when the flood comes, God sends Noah through. These are the two ways God delivers his people. Sometimes he gets you out of it, sometimes he gets you through it. Okay, how many of you, this makes sense of your life? And so there’s even a debate. This is the book of beginnings, Revelation is the book of conclusions. And some people ask, well, when the end times come and everything goes crazy and maybe there’s all this tribulation does God get us out of it or take us through it? Bible gives both examples of how God saves, we’ll see. That being said, here’s the story of Enoch. He has a short life in comparison. People are living into their 900s, he lives into his 300s. The point is though, other people didn’t walk with God, he did walk with God. The big idea is this, it doesn’t matter how many days you live, the question is, how many steps did you take with God? ‘Cause you can live a long life and not know the Lord, and the last step is a terrible step, it’s a step off a cliff into hell. You could have a short life and walk with the Lord, and last step is the best step, it’s the step into eternal life. So your eternal life friends doesn’t begin the day you die, it begins the day that you meet Jesus Christ, the Lord. And then every day is a walk with him until the last day, which is the great step into the perfect life. And so ultimately it says that he walked with God then he was no more. And the point is this, the only way to overcome sin and death and judgment is to walk with the Lord. The only hope is to walk with the Lord and it uses this language of walk from beginning to end. And this concept of walk, it’s kind of like a father with a child. We’ve got five kids, they’re grown now, they don’t need to hold my hand. But when they were really little, one of the favorite things I like to do with our kids is just go for family walks, I like being outside, I like fresh air, sunshine and I love my kids. So anytime that the weather permitted, when they were growing up it’s like, hey, get your shoes on, who wants to go for a walk? And what I would do is hold their hand so that we could walk together. ‘Cause when the kids were little, they didn’t know where we were going, but I did. And they didn’t know where danger lay, but I did. So my kids didn’t need to worry about everything, they just need to worry about one thing, staying close to dad. When we talk about walking with God, some people put too much pressure on themselves. What’s your destiny, what’s your future? Where are you going, what are your goals? They’re like, we do this to high school juniors. What are you gonna do for a career? What are you gonna do for the next 80 years? When are you gonna get a degree? Sometimes it’s simply this, What’s the next step? In your walk with God, what’s the next step? So like I can’t see the future. Well maybe, maybe you don’t have to, maybe your dad does and you just need to hold his hand and take the next step, and he’ll walk you into the future that he sees. So for some of you, do you need a Bible? Do you need to pray? Do you need to go back to the prayer team, when we break after the sermon during worship? Do you need to join a life group? Do you need to reset your finances? Do you need to change your diet? Do you need to stop drinking? What do you need, do you need some new friends? Is it time to go to premarital with that girl you’ve been dating? If your marriage is in struggle, is it time to get at some help? Is it time to get a job? Is it time to pay some debt? Like what’s the next step? The key to your walk with God is just always figuring out next step, that’s it. Enoch walked with God. He’s one of only two men in the Bible that don’t die in the Old Testament. Enoch here is taken home to be with the Lord before he dies, there’s another guy later named Elijah. So, Enoch is taken and then for Elijah, God sends a chariot. So Enoch flies coach, Elijah flies first class, and they both are taken into heaven. Which is kind of interesting to think of about right now. There are at least three people in heaven that have a physical body, Jesus, Enoch and Elijah. And Genesis is the book of beginnings, Revelation is the book of conclusions. In revelation before Jesus comes back, there is an outpouring and revival and there are two mighty preachers, prophets who were raised up to preach before Jesus returns and the final judgment. They are then put to death and murdered or murdered some would say it might be Enoch and Elijah. Since they didn’t taste death, they were taken up, they’ll be sent down to preach and then they will taste death at the end, before the second coming of Jesus and the final judgment. Now two New Testament scriptures talk about Enoch. Jude, which is written by Jesus half brother in verses 14 and 15 says, Enoch, the seventh from Adam. So it says that this is a historical person and the genealogy is accurate, prophesied saying, so Enoch is a preacher. He’s the first prophet other than God in the history of the world. Until this point, God speaks directly, he doesn’t speak through anyone until Enoch. And then he is the first prophet, he’s the first preacher and God speaks through him. Jude says, Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. What he’s saying is this, the whole generation was evil and Enoch preached against sin and for the Lord. And what he told him was, the Lord is coming with 10,000 angels are holy ones. Here’s what’s amazing. Enoch is preaching before the Bible was written. Enoch is preaching long before Jesus Christ entered into human history. And what he is prophesying is not just the first coming of Jesus for salvation, but the second coming of Jesus for damnation. He was by the power of the Holy Spirit, able to look into the future and see the second coming of Jesus Christ with 10,000 angels. The point is this, when you walk with God, sometimes God shows you things that are incredible. In addition, the key to your walk with God is to look all the way to the second coming of Jesus and to see him return and you rising to be with him. That’s the story of Enoch. Now here’s the thing with Enoch. He had far less information, but perhaps far greater faith. See you and I we’ve already seen Jesus come the first time live without sin, die for our sin, rise to conquer sin and death. We have the completion of the Old and the New Testament, we got so much information. The question is not just how much you believe, but how much you trust in that what you believe. See, we know more, but we tend to trust less. He knew less, but he trusted more. It also says of Enoch in Hebrews 11:5, the great chapter on those who live by faith. By faith Enoch. So Enoch had faith and in Hebrews 11, the point is he had faith in Jesus Christ. See, he was awaiting the first coming, we’re awaiting the second coming. He was trusting that Jesus was coming, we are trusting that Jesus is coming again. By faith Enoch was taken up, just was taken up, so that he did not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. So here’s the big idea. Everybody lives, everybody dies, everybody lives, everybody dies, everybody lives, everybody dies except for one guy Enoch who walked with God. The point is you can’t overcome death, unless you walk with God. The question is, how are you gonna overcome death? You’re gonna have to walk with God through death or until he takes you up. Now, what we tend to think is because we’re arrogant and foolish that we have good hearts, we’re good people just give us some time and we’re gonna have evolutionary progress and we’re gonna lift the curse, we’re gonna fix our problems, we’re gonna save the world, just give us some time, we’ll straighten it all out. So God waits 1,656 years and nothing changes. How many of you know the difference between a bike and a stationary bike? What’s the difference? Even if you don’t exercise, just bear with me. What’s the difference between a bike and a stationary bike? Progress, they both require an incredible amount of effort, but only one makes any progress. We tend to think of human history as a bike. God here reveals in Genesis 5, human history is a stationary bike. One generation gets on like, oh, we were going to college, we were voting for the right people, we were raising taxes, we were declaring wars, we got a vaccine, we’re making a huge progress. No, you didn’t fall off the bike, dead. Next generation gets on. Ah, they wasted it, they ruined it, we’re so frustrated, we’re so better, we got this, wait till you see the progress we make. Stationary bike 1,656 years, one generation after another, jumping on a stationary bike, promising progress and nothing changes. This just goes to show that apart from God, there is no hope. Apart from God, there is no progress. And so ultimately, this leads us to Genesis 6, perhaps the most complicated mind cramp chapter in the whole book. So what we’re gonna do now, we’re gonna swim out to the deep end of the pool, we’re gonna look at some of the most complicated things in the whole Bible. And if at the end you’re like, I don’t know what the answer is, then you agree with your pastor. Okay, so here’s where we find ourselves. Here’s the first one. The question is who are the sons of God who marry the daughters of men? So were into Genesis 6:1-2. When men began to multiply in the face of the land, tons of people be fruitful and multiply, it’s happening. And daughters were born to them. Two groups of people, the sons of God, who are those guys? Saw that the daughters of man what’s going on here? Were attractive. And they took as their wives, any they chose. So here’s what it’s saying. 1,656 years, people live and die, only one guy walks with God. And then there’s a lot of people and all of sudden it’s the sons of God marry the daughters of men because they are attractive. So if you were to ask these guys, why are you marrying her? They would say, well, she’s hot, and the point is, so is hell. So you gotta think through your options. And what we’ve gone from here is we’ve gone from forbidden fruit to forbidden females and gentlemen, write this down, there are some forbidden females. Now that being said, who are the daughters of man? Our daughters, excuse me, yeah, the daughters of man and the sons of God. How many of you be like, this seems peculiar, who are these people? So what I will give is four options, you may have a fifth, especially if you like watching all the crazy television programs on ancient aliens, they love this, this is their verse. If you got a tin foil hat and a medical marijuana card, this is your life verse, you love this. But I’ll just give you four options. Okay, here we go. Number one, it could be believing men from Seth’s line intermarrying unbelieving women from Cain’s line. So, it says in Genesis 3:15, there would be two line or seed, one that was for God, and one that was for Satan, an antigod. And this could be where the believing line is marrying the unbelieving line. This should be like today, the Christians marry the non-Christians, should that happen? No, all the dad said no. That Christians should marry Christians, that Christians should not marry non-Christians. The Bible says that’s being unequally yolked, you’re not supposed to be together forever. The highest divorce rate is among two people who practice different religions. And so this could be just the beginning of believers saying, well, I know they don’t love the Lord, but they’re attractive and fun, so I’m going to marry them nonetheless, and then the children grow up very confused because their parents are conflicted as to who their God is, that is the first option. The second option, the sons of God are fallen, divine beings like demons, trying to marry human women as a counterfeit of Jesus incarnation. All right, all right, let me, okay. Yeah, I mean, I can tell you looking at your face, you’re like, am I on a “Scooby-Doo” episode? Like you all look a little freaked out. So, let me explain this as simply as I can. So, some would say that this is the first genealogy. Technically it’s not the first genealogy was previous in Genesis 3, Satan, Eve and Adam, all sin. God shows up pronounces consequence on Adam and Eve and curse on Satan. God tells Eve that through her seed or offspring or line would come a male son who would be a savior, who would conquer Satan and forgive sin. This is the first promise of the coming of Jesus Christ into human history. Adam and Eve, you are not the solution, Satan, you are not the Victor, Jesus is coming to defeat the dragon and to forgive the sinners. What’s curious in that genealogy of Jesus in Genesis 3, all the other genealogies in Genesis, they tell us who the father is, except for Genesis 3. It tells us that Jesus would have a mother, an earthly mother, but it has no mention of a father, why? He wouldn’t have an earthly father, he would have a heavenly father. That the heavenly father would work through the womb of an earthly mother to bring forth Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, fully supernatural and natural. Now, Satan and the demons may have heard this, oh, Christ is coming through an earthly woman, but not an earthly father. Perhaps we can bring the antichrist through an earthly mother, but a demonic father. If so, this would be the counterfeit of the resurrect excuse me, of the incarnation of Jesus. Everything God creates they’ve got counterfeits. That being said, incarnation is what the theologians will use, it’s the Latin term. Carne means flesh or meat. How many of you like carne asada? Me too. It says on my laptop. That I believe in Jesus and carne, I love Jesus and carne asada. Because if Jesus is God in carne, in flash and in meat, and the way that works is, divine plus human equals Christ. It could be that demonic plus human equals antichrist. The strongest argument that it’s talking here about human women, but fallen demonic divine beings is in Job 38. God says when I laid the foundation of the earth, the morning stars sang together. The stars are ancient language for angels. Their thought is, God is up there, we’re down here, the stars are in the middle, and angels are like the stars they’re between us and God. Goes on to say, and all the sons of God, same language as Genesis 6, shouted for joy. That the sons of God are in addition to angels, another category of divine beings who are shouting, they are cheering, this is their moment to worship and praise God at the creation of the heavens and the earth, it goes all the way back to Genesis one and two, before human beings were made. This can’t be human beings ’cause they are there at creation before human beings are made. This may be the same category or group that when our first parents, Adam and Eve sin against the Lord and God says they have become like us, knowing good and evil, Satan may be speaking to this group of divine beings, angels and the sons of God. If that is the case, then what is happening here, is that God has a plan for a God man to be born, Jesus Christ. And ultimately Satan has a plan for a demon man to be born the anti-Christ. How many of you are like? How many of you got a tin foil hat at home, you’re like, I love this? The third option, the demonic fallen sons of God appear as human. They’re not human beings, but they appear like human beings to marry human women. You will see this if you come back. And I hope both of you do in Genesis 18-19, there’s a guy named Abraham. He spends a day eating… He spends some time eating meals and conversing with and hanging out with some guys and then he realize, oh, they’re not human beings, they’re divine beings, they’re angels, they look like human beings. Sometimes angels and divine beings, including demons, they appear as humans. That’s where Hebrew says, some of you have entertained angels unaware. So maybe it is demonic beings appearing as human beings seeking to seduce human women. The greatest argument against that would be the language of Jesus who says that, after the resurrection, that we will be like the angels, neither marrying given in marriage. But that is technically post resurrection, this is pre resurrection. The fourth option is demons possess human beings and seek to transfer evil generationally. The theme of blessing and cursing is consistent throughout Genesis. 80 times, it talks about blessing, the converse of that is cursing. If you’re filled with a Holy Spirit, you can bless generations. If you’re filled with demonic spirits, you will curse generations. True or false, there are people in the Bible that are human beings, but they’re demonically possessed and empowered, those people exist. One of them is Judas Iscariot, who is one of Jesus’ own disciples. And it may be here that there are physical human beings that are demonically controlled and possessed and they want to marry and they want to have evil transfer generationally. Is it true to this day that there are people who are demonic and they get married and they have kids who are demonic? And it’s just generations of just horrific behavior. This is where the Bible talks about generational sins or generational curses. Now, the point is this, we believe in things that are closed handed and things that are open handed. What I would submit to you is, who these people are, which hand should it going in? Open hand. So you’re like, I know what it is. Well, you’re doing better than me, I’m not sure. What I am sure about is every option has the same goal of corrupting the human family line to prevent Jesus from coming as savior. The ultimate intent is God says, I’m sending Jesus and Satan says, I’m not going to allow that to happen. People are gonna sin and die and there won’t be a savior to die for them. So this is spiritual warfare, this is a spiritual battle. I would hold that in the closed hand. God’s trying to save people, Satan’s trying to dump people. God is trying to see people filled with the spirit and Satan wants to counterfeit that with people who are demon possessed. Let me tell you this, as we look at the world, we get very frustrated. Like why is there so much corruption? Why is there so much death? Why does one generation just look like the previous? Why is there no progress? What the heck is happening? Sometimes it’s what we don’t see. And it opens this possibility to then understand Ephesians 6, which says our war, this is a war, is not just against flesh and blood, but powers, principalities and spirits. Behind the war, there’s a war, and behind the evil, there’s an evil one. That is not to frighten us, but is to awaken us to the reality that there is a lot more happening than we realize. Next question. What does the 120 years refer to? This one’s a little easier. Genesis 6:3, then the Lord said, aren’t you glad that God speaks? I mean, he still speaks. My spirit, the Holy Spirit, shall not abide in man forever, for his flesh, his days will be 120 years. Everyone sins and dies, one guy walks with God and preaches for God. The human line is corrupt, Satan is trying to thwart the coming of Jesus. God looks and says, I need to shorten human life because if let them continue, no one will be left. Here’s what then happen, people read the Bible, they’re like, God is so cruelly killed whole people groups, that was genocide, he’s so evil. And God’s like, look, if those people didn’t die, they would kill everyone. And because I love you, I need to end them otherwise they will end you. Let me say this, when the Bible says that God is love, it doesn’t give you permission to go to the Bible with scissors and cut out the parts where it doesn’t seem loving, but to go to the parts that you are confused by and say, let me assume and presume that God is loving and his act here is loving for his beloved. So here are the options. Number one, God limits human life to 120 years to restrict evil. The first person to die in the Bible at the age of 120 is actually Moses who writes Genesis. Let me ask you this. Are you glad that Hitler doesn’t have 700 more years on the clock? That cartel leaders and human traffickers and mob bosses don’t live like Methuselah to be 969 years old? Imagine if people had hundreds of years and they were evil and demonic and they got to perfect their evil. Imagine if people were committed to bitterness and vengeance and murder and strife, and they had hundreds of years to perfect it, and they had children, hundreds thousands, born to help them. Literally the earth would be hell and no one would be left. The point is this, if God doesn’t end us, we end everything. This is where many of the blockbuster films that come out humanity is facing the end of the world, it’s apocalyptic. There’s something in us, I think that deep down knows, unless Jesus comes back, that’s where we’re all headed. Unless a savior comes, the end is coming. And so here it would be that God is limiting human life. How many of you are glad that you’re not gonna live to be 900? How many of you, I mean just even, imagine if the last two years was the next 200 years. Just throw open your mouth, process. Second option. God says you’ve got 120 years to repent and to do what Enoch did, and that is to walk with me. So that would be, God is saying in 120 years, I’m gonna judge the world in a flood. This would indicate tremendous patience on God’s behalf. Imagine somebody breaks into your home. You pull a gun, you’re like, look, you stop, or I’m gonna shoot you in 120 years. I would say yeah, you’re really patient. If they’re like, they shot me answer like, well, we’re not surprised they shot you, we’re surprised that they waited 120 years to pull the trigger. That means that they really love you, and they gave you every opportunity and there’s no excuse. The two scriptures that speak of this are both by Peter in the New Testament. 2 Peter 2: 5,9, if he did not spare the ancient world, Genesis 6, but preserve Noah, we just met him, you’re gonna see more of him. A Herald of righteousness. If it is 120 years, then what is Noah doing for 120 years? He’s preaching and building a boat, He’s trying to be the Billy Graham of his generation. And he has Zero converts. For 120 years, they got together for church. No plan your visit, no guest services, no first time welcome bag, you didn’t need a greeter. There was no check in of a new child, Zero people in 120 years converted except for Noah, his wife, their kids and spouses. With seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials. That’s encouraging. And to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment that gives us patience. Last one, 1 Peter 3:20, God’s Patience that may explain the 120 years and why he was able to build such a big boat. You got a few sons in 120 years, you can get something done. God’s patience weighed into the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through the water. Here’s a big idea for 1,656 years, God waited, Enoch preached, nobody got saved. See, we tend to think we’re good people, God’s like, no, you’re not. Well, we have good hearts. God’s like, you’ll see in a moment, I know your heart’s not good. Well, we’re looking for God. No, Roman says, no one’s looking for God. See God is better than we think and we’re worse than we think. So then the really difficult one. Just give yourself a little temple rub, a little, a little brain break, here’s the big one who are the Nephilim? I mean, oh gosh, how many of you you’re like, I’m glad I don’t have your job? Genesis 6:4, the Nephilim, who? What’s a, what? The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God were back to these guys, are these their kids and their grandkids? I don’t know, came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. So when the sons of God and the daughters of men had children, the Nephilim, may or may not be their offspring, but they were alive at the same time. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renowned. The Nephilim are only mentioned one other place in the Bible, Numbers 13:33, spies go into the land. Now Genesis is before the flood, Numbers is after the flood. The spies go into the land and they report, we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. And we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers and so we seem to them. The spies go to the land and are like, these guys are huge, we’re like grasshoppers compared to them. If we go to fight them, that’s all they gotta do to crush us. Like these guys are giants. Question is, who’s a Nephilim? I mean how many of you think you know? I mean please send me an email, I have no idea, I’d love to know who these people are. So here’s what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna tell you a little bit. The Hebrew for Nephilim means fallen ones. This could be fallen human beings or fallen divine beings, it doesn’t say. We just know that they’re sinful and evil. They’re only mentioned two times in the Bible, pre and post flood. So that gives us a few options as to who the Nephilim are, three. Number one, different groups of people with the same name as the first group died in the flood. So, let’s say there was, so this would be sort of the natural, non supernatural explanation. The Nephilim lived and then a flood came, and then after the flood, there was a group of people who took the name Nephilim but it wasn’t the same people because the original people died in the flood. I mean, we’re not looking at the, descendants of Michael Phelps who made it through the flood. In the same way, sometimes there are people groups who will take the title or name of a previous group to honor them. They wanna carry forth their or legacy. So this could be human beings that are different group of people, not biologically related, but keep the same name. Number two, the same demons in different people before and after the flood. So people die in a flood, but demons don’t, because demons are nonphysical. So, demons can survive a flood. Therefore, maybe the Nephilim is actually a category of demons who possessed a group of people before the flood, all those people die in the flood and then later on the demons possess new people, but it’s the same demon. See, we tend to think, well, everybody dies, not demons. Demons don’t have a body as we do, they live, they live. Third option, the counterfeit incarnation, from the children of the divine sons of God and the human daughters of men who survived the flood as God and Satan both rescued their lines. So God says in 120 years, I’m gonna flood the earth, but he has a plan to spare his people. And Satan says, well, then I’ve got a plan to spare my people. If you’re gonna spare your people, I’m gonna spare my people. If you’re gonna try and reset, I’m gonna try and ruin your reset. Therefore, if you’re gonna save Noah and his family, you’ll meet them in a moment, I’m gonna raise up a line of counterfeit incarnation, part human, part divine. They’re going to survive the flood so that I make sure that the line of Satan, the line of the antichrist exists after the flood to attack God’s line, to continue the fight, to stop the coming of Jesus Christ into human history. I don’t know which is true, but there is something interesting. Now I’m a Bible guy, believe the Bible, but there are sometimes stories outside of the Bible that aren’t equal in any way in authority, but they are curious. One is, “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” It’s from a similar time period and also it talks about a flood. The “The Epic of Gilgamesh” is a collection of stories regarding a Mesopotamian hero and the fifth king of ancient Uruk, which is possibly the oldest city in what we now know is Iraq, so a similar region. Most scholars accept that this is a real historical person and king who actually did live. What they debate is, he had seemingly superhuman strength and insight and power, and counterfeit signs and wonders and miracles, he seemed like more than a mere mortal. And “The Epic of Gilgamesh” says that, he lived at the same time as the Mesopotamian flood. So you have a guy who rules as a king, but he’s kinda like a Godman during the time of a flood. And it is said that he was the son of the goddess Ninsun, and the man Lugulbanda, a demigod, two-thirds God and one third human. We don’t know. Here’s what we do know, time doesn’t make things better, it only makes things worse. That Satan and people tend to work together and life on earth gets darker. And so then God decides that he has a solution. And I wanna talk to you about the Noah you never knew. Most people know the story of Noah, but they don’t really a story of Noah because the story of Noah has been mistold. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Are we still seeing that? See, what I like is when you read this, you go it’s a little dark, but it does make sense of the world we live in. And that every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. We tend to say, oh, I did a bad thing, but I have a good heart, and God’s like, actually, you don’t. You have a bad world because everybody in the world has a bad heart. The Lord, God regretted that he made man on the earth. That’s a big statement, I got five kids. Imagine you have a kid, they’re so evil, they’re so despicable, they’re so demonic that you wake up one day and you say, I love them, but I wish they were never born. And it grieved him to his heart. We tend to think of sin as violating God’s law, it’s also breaking God’s heart. You know what? When God sees our heart, it breaks his heart. So the Lord said, I, so God’s gonna do something. I will blot out man, who I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of heaven for I’m sorry, I grieve that I’ve made them. But, okay, there’s a little hope, but, ’cause God didn’t need to do anything, but just send the flood for everyone. Noah found favor, that’s the Hebrew word for grace, in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man because of grace, blameless in his generation because of grace. Noah walked with God because of grace. The sequence here is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very important. And there’s something that theologians will call the order of salvation, which comes first. Do you do good things, so God saves you or does God save you and change you so that your life begins to change? If you do good works and you’re a good person and you get your life together and then God chooses you because you’ve earned it, that’s called works. If you’re a bad person and God shows up and saves you in spite of your self and changes your desires and gives you a new heart out of which you live a new life, that is salvation by grace. This is a major theme of the apostle Paul in the New Testament and something, well maybe we’re saved by works in the Old Testament, grace in New Testament. No, we’re always saved. Anybody who’s ever saved is saved by grace, not by works. So at the end of the day, the story of Noah is usually told that he was saved by works. The story is usually told somehow like this, there were good people and bad people and God chose Noah, ’cause he was a good guy, gave him a boat and he didn’t choose the bad guy, so they had to swim for it. So be a good guy, not a bad guy, ’cause God loves a good people, hates bad people. This is how the story is mistold in most children’s story book Bibles. So when my kids were little, I got a Sharpie and I edited all of the kids’ Bibles. Now kids would be like, dad, what happened to our Bible? We got it fixed. So, because it was moralizing so that we are the hero, Jesus is always the hero. So let’s look at the sequencing here. Who’s only evil outside and inside? Everyone, everywhere all the time, including Noah, everyone everywhere would include Noah. God sees our heart and his heart is broken. It doesn’t bother us, but it bothers him who we are and how we live. And the point is this that God will need to take out our heart and give us a new heart like his heart because our heart is fully compromised by sin. God looked at the earth that said, I only see bad people, evil people, sinful people, rebellious people, and then God looked at Noah and said, you know what? I’ll save that guy. I’ll give him grace. Now when we hear that, we’re like, why did he pick Noah? What was so special about him? Nothing, that’s how I got saved. I got saved at 19 in college, sleeping with a pastor’s daughter. So like God’s heaven gone, look at that guy’s performing? What a great guy. We can’t reach the nation’s without him, go get him. First round draft pick, if I could just get more guys who sleep with pastor’s daughter, I’m sure we can fix everything, those guys have got so much potential. God didn’t pick me because I’m good, but because he’s good. I didn’t find God, God found me, I didn’t earn anything, Jesus earned it all for me, that’s grace. See, I should have just died, like everyone there should have died, but I got saved, like Noah got saved ’cause God gave me grace like he gave Noah grace. This is where the Bible says, if we’re gonna boast boast in the Lord, I’m gonna tell you about my good deeds, tell you about my bad deeds and my good God. And Jesus is the hero of the story. It says that then he was declared righteous and blameless. Now, is he perfect? No, he’s saved by grace. He gets, what’s known as imputed righteousness, it’s a gift. And he’s declared blameless, not because he lives a perfect life, but because he is a forgiven person. And he’s still a bit of a disaster and he spends 120 years preaching and building a boat, but as soon as the flood is over, he gets off the boat, he’s like, I need a drink, oh my gosh, so many animals. Smells terrible and I’m seasick. So, and he looks around, he’s like, there’s no alcohol and there’s no vineyard. So I’m gonna plant a vineyard. You gotta really wanna drink to plant a vineyard. Like I’m gonna plant a vineyard, I’m gonna wait for the grapes to come to fruition, then I’m going to crush them underfoot, I’ll bring them through a fermenting process and then I will make wine in there and I will drink so much wine that I pass out drunk, naked in my tent, Hillbilly 4th of July, father of NASCAR, there he is. Passed out drunk and naked in his tent. You wouldn’t look at him and say, righteous man, walked with God, righteous and blameless, naked and drunk. How many, no, no don’t raise your hand, but how many of you’re like, this sounds familiar. Because we can be saved by grace, God can change us, but we still sometimes do some dumb things and make a total mess of our life. Because God saves us from Satan, sin, death, hell and the wrath of God and he also saves us from ourselves. And just because you’re saved, doesn’t mean you’re Jesus, That’s the story of Noah. So then, here we’ll close with this. One faith filled family, this sets it up next week, we’ll talk about the flood. Noah had three sons Shem, Ham and Japhet. Now the earth was corrupting God’s side and the earth was filled with violence. Still that way. God saw the earth behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their own way on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth, make your, so here’s the deal son. I’m gonna bring an end, so you need to prepare for the end. Let me say friends, the earth is coming to an end, you need to prepare yourself for the end. Make yourself an ark, this is big boat of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, cover it inside and out with pitch, make sure this thing is waterproof. This how you’re to make it, the length of the ark, 300 cubits, it’s breath, 50 cubits, and it’s height 30 cubits. That is 1.4 million cubic feet that can house 522 modern day railroad cars, the shape is the same as a battleship. Make a roof for the ark, son, it’s gonna rain, don’t make a bucket, to catch all the rain, put a roof on this thing. God’s very specific and finish to a cubit above and set the door on the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. He’s making it in the desert and it’s never rained before, that’s faith. Pretty crazy his wife and kids stuck with him, he must have been a leader. Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant. First appearance of the word, covenant in the Bible. God works in relationship through covenant, we’ll talk about that later. With you and you shall come into the ark, you, your son’s, your wife and your son’s wife’s with you. He preached to everyone, but he was responsible for his family. Men, we’re gonna talk about that in Real Men on Wednesday night, how to lead your family through this forsaken world into eternity. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort to keep them with you, male and female, they need to reproduce. Of the birds, according to their kinds, of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve food for you and for them. Noah what he did what he was told, not only that he did all that God has commanded. My question is, are you doing all that God has commanded you? If judgment is coming, you need to do all that God has commanded you. Then the Lord said to Noah go into the ark, you and all your household, for I’ve seen that your righteous before me in this generation. And the scene is set for the flood. Let me show you what this looks like. 120 years, Noah and his sons in the desert, before it had ever rained, preaching every day, God says it’s going to rain and a flood is coming and everyone mocks him and everyone laughs and no one believes him. And next week you’ll see what happens to everyone else. We tend to think that our life is very long and very hard. This had to be a long, hard life. And when they show you the exterior compared to the cars, you get some sense of the scope and size. Let me close with this Genesis is not just about what happened, but about what always happens. Our day is just like the days of Noah. People have bad hearts and bad lives, that violence and wickedness and evil is increasing on the earth. That though there might be external progress, there is internal regress. That we may be growing in technology, but not in morality. That God warned them, that a judgment was coming, and he has warned us that a judgment is coming, that he gave them 120 years and he’s been incredibly patient to us, he’s already given us 2,000 years. Just as he sent out Enoch and Noah to preach, he sent out preachers. And just as most people made fun and mocked and ignored, to this day that continues. My encouragement to you would be this, to live in the grace of God and to walk in relationship with God as Noah and as Enoch did and to lead your family, particularly those of us who are patriarchs in the worship and service of our God. God says that the world was judged with water and the day is coming where and it will be judged by fire. Father, God as we could come to worship you, I thank you for an opportunity to teach your word and God thank you that Genesis, though, it is dark, it is honest. And God, I believe it is dark so that when we see Jesus, the light of the world, he shines most brightly and clearly. And God time is not going to save us, progress is not going to save us, children and grandchildren are not going to save us, politicians are not going to save us, evolution is not going to save us. We need Jesus to save us. And so Jesus, we invite you into our midst, we invite you to bring grace. We invite you to welcome us into covenant relationship. We want to walk with you as Enoch and Noah did, we want to lead our families in your purposes as Noah did. And God, and as long as we have breath in our lungs, let us tell other people about Jesus, because Jesus, you are the head of our new covenants, you are our greater Noah. And I thank you that we can be together today in the church, which is a bit like an ark. It’s where the family of God gets together to pray forever and to prepare forever in Jesus name, amen.
