Supernatural Sin and God's Sovereignty

[0:00] resurrected as we will be when He comes. What a glorious promise. When we talk about hope, hope as it relates to Christian living, we're not talking about hope as in I hope it doesn't rain today.

[0:16] We're talking about a certain hope. It's a certainty that we look toward. That's what the hope aspect means. It is a certain reality, truth, that we're counting on and that we know is established in the mind and in the heart of Almighty God.

[0:32] That is the hope we live in. That is the hope that even our brother Bob died in. The hope that Jesus would take him to Himself. And that is a wonderful, wonderful truth, isn't it?

[0:43] And so we praise God and we thank God even as we feel the loss in our fellowship. Well, guess where we are today?

[0:56] We're back! Now look, I am a little bit embarrassed to tell you this. Nevertheless, I trust the Lord. Even though Greg and I share this pulpit together, this belongs to God.

[1:08] And so God knew before I did that we would leave Genesis in August and not be back here again until now.

[1:21] When I told Suzanne that, she dropped her jaw and said, no. And I said, yes, we haven't been in Genesis since about early September, I think it was. I started in Genesis 6 at the beginning of August.

[1:37] And we went through 6 and then we shut her down so that I could turn to a couple of other things. I don't even remember why now. And we just kind of kept rolling in that vein through the holidays and now we're back.

[1:49] Okay? We're back. And my intention, Lord, whatever you want, my intention, God willing, is to stay in Genesis. And what I'd like to do is at least preach through Genesis 11 where Abraham receives the covenant, the Abrahamic covenant.

[2:09] Because everything begins to turn on that reality at that point in Scripture. Now, what I've chosen to do is go back into Genesis 6 as a way of reminding for some of us, but also as a way for those who are new to our fellowship, going back in.

[2:28] And, you know, I was tempted to just start at chapter 1, verse 1 again, Mike, and just roll on. But I didn't know if there'd be a mutiny. Like, dude, come on, it ain't our fault you took a break. So here's where we'll be.

[2:39] Supernatural sin and God's sovereignty in Genesis 6, 1 through 4. And we'll go ahead and read that text together. Now, it came about from the New American Standard translation.

[2:50] It came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful.

[3:05] And they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh.

[3:18] Nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. Now, the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.

[3:38] Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Now, we'll stop there. This is an enigmatic passage that has been somewhat of a consternation for scholars for quite some time, trying to understand what in the world does all this mean?

[3:59] And what does it have to do with what God is doing in Genesis? Well, let me remind you, this is right before the flood, and it is sandwiched between that catastrophic event and what God just did in the way of chapter 5, as chapter 5 announces for us this godly lineage, a lineage that He will bring His Savior from.

[4:26] There's a certain bloodline among human beings that God will preserve, and from that bloodline, that one line of people, unbroken, God will bring forth His Messiah, His Anointed One, His Christ.

[4:43] That is the Lord Jesus, as we know today. Satan is going to do everything that he can to corrupt that bloodline and cut off what God wants to do in the way of purposing salvation for His people.

[4:58] This is a promise. Now, I'm drawing on your memory here. Remember, by the time we got here, I'd covered five chapters, and I don't know how many sermons already walking you into this.

[5:09] Remember what this is all about. It goes back to Genesis 3, if you will look there with me, 15, where we have God's first announcement and promise of a Savior.

[5:22] This is right in the midst of God pronouncing the curses on Satan and the man and the woman and the land. And in verse 15, He says, I will put war, or enmity, as He speaks to Satan, between you and the woman.

[5:42] So, between Satan and the woman. And between Satan's seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.

[5:53] Now, I'll just reference you to go back and listen to that sermon where we unpack all of that, but we explain that this is talking about God's promise to send Jesus.

[6:05] And Satan is going to deal Jesus this wound. But Jesus is going to deal Satan a death blow. So, the devils thought they won when Jesus died on the cross.

[6:19] Hell rejoiced. Until Jesus showed up to announce Himself resurrected and said, Hey guys, it didn't work. Guess what? I'm here. Kind of an I'm back thing. Not to make light of it.

[6:30] And He announced that I'm the first fruit now of many who will follow Me in resurrection power. And that would be us. We're that army. This is the glorious truth that we see in Genesis 3.15.

[6:45] That promise will carry forward throughout Scripture as God keeps His promise. And much of what we read in the way of Old Testament strife and family conflict and upheaval will be surrounded by this satanic effort to corrupt this godly bloodline from which Messiah will come.

[7:07] That's a lot of what we see. So, it puts it in perspective, doesn't it? In other words, folks, behind all of this that we see going on among human beings is the reality that this is a supernatural warfare.

[7:22] Paul will later come to tell us that we are in a spiritual war, are we not? Satan wants to keep men's and women's souls. God has come in Christ to release the captives.

[7:36] Set the prisoners free and give them hope in His name. Now, what we're going to do as we march through this, and I had covered this with you prior to our time in chapter 6 when I talked about taking a literal understanding or a literal approach to interpreting, particularly Genesis chapter 1 through 3 as we see God creating the world in six 24-hour days and then a literal understanding of what happened in the garden when mankind fell into sin.

[8:10] Now, we're going to do the same thing. We're not going to shift our hermeneutic. Hermeneutic has to do, or hermeneutics has to do with the science of interpretation. Principles that we use to interpret literature.

[8:23] It doesn't have to just be Scripture if we're trying to understand the author's meaning in a given novel or a drama or Shakespeare or whatever. We want to consider certain aspects or principles that will help us do that in a responsible way.

[8:38] So really, here's what I'm saying. It is not about you and I sitting down with the Bible and saying, what does this mean to me? We would get 60 different opinions, perhaps, about what it means to you.

[8:50] That's not the issue. The issue is, what does it mean by what it says? That's the issue. So let me put this up here just in the way of reminding us all the approach that we're taking as we try to interpret these passages of Scripture.

[9:05] We are taking what is known in conservative circles, particularly theologically conservative circles, the place we run in, we are taking a literal, grammatical, historical approach to interpreting Genesis.

[9:20] Now, what does that mean? Well, literal has to do with what is truthful. We are taking the text that face value to be truthful. It is factual as it is written.

[9:34] It is factual as it is written. Grammatical has to do with a syntactical and lexical exegesis. You go, whoa, those are big words. What does that mean? Syntactical has to do with how grammar relates to other aspects of grammar in a sentence or a passage.

[9:52] How are the sentences and the clauses and the phrases related to it? How do they play off of one another? And then lexical just means definitions. So we're dealing with, exegesis means that we're allowing this, the text itself, to dictate to us what it means.

[10:10] Eisegesis is when I read into the text, my bias. Exegesis is when I allow the text to speak out of what it is. It dictates to me what it means.

[10:21] Alright? You're with me? Amen. Alright. Historical has to do with the reality that we think that these stories, unless they give us good reason to think otherwise, these are real people.

[10:34] It was a real six days, 24 hour days. These people literally fell into sin. There was a serpent that spoke to them. We believe that these are literal realities.

[10:47] True events and depictions. In other words, we're not looking into these matters because they're hard to understand and automatically assuming that these are allegorical or metaphorical or mystical or myth.

[11:02] That's not how we approach the Bible. We're taking the Bible at face value and using principles to help us understand the Bible at face value. If the Bible is going to speak to us in a way that we need to take it metaphorically or allegorically, then the Bible will make that clear to us.

[11:20] For example, in John chapter 6 when Jesus says that you must eat my flesh and drink my blood in order to be saved. Well, we're not cannibals and he's gone.

[11:31] So how are we supposed to do that? Well, there are certain religions that have figured out some pretty wacky weirdo kinds of ways to do that. We understand that he's speaking metaphorically, isn't he?

[11:42] He's talking about believing. To eat his flesh and to drink his blood is equal to believing. You need to believe on me.

[11:54] I am the manna from heaven. I am the drink from heaven that restores your soul. That kind of thing. Are you with me? Now, we want to take an approach to Genesis that helps us understand this.

[12:06] this hermeneutical approach answers this question. Here it is. Can you see this at the bottom? What does this text mean by what it says?

[12:19] In other words, it allows for the text or the passage we're studying to say what it says at face value and to be interpreted as literally true so that we don't read any personal bias into the author's meaning.

[12:36] This is not about us assigning our meaning to God's Word. The Lord isn't interested in that. Neither am I. I don't want Jeff's opinion to cloud what God says and what He means by what He says.

[12:52] So we can say it this way. What we are after is authorial intent. That is, the meaning the author assigned to the text when he wrote it.

[13:03] Most importantly, that concerns what God means by what He wrote. God. So this is God's book so that it's written with God making certain that what we have today is His own trustworthy, accurate, complete, all-sufficient account of what God Himself wants us to know as His people according to the subjects that He deals with.

[13:30] Okay? That's pretty straightforward. I hope we understand that. God is the author. It's His book. We need to look to Him to help us understand, God, what did you mean? Long before Jeff Jackson stood up here to preach these four verses in Genesis chapter 6, you'd already preached that sermon to your people.

[13:50] So Jeff's responsible to preach that sermon according to what you wrote it to mean. Otherwise, what am I giving you? Conjecture, opinion, bias.

[14:00] Your soul doesn't need that. And neither does mine. You need the Word. You came here this morning to sit under the Word of God, not the Word of Jeff.

[14:11] And I understand that. I don't have any problem with that. That's my job. And believe me, brothers and sisters, when I think about the fact that I will answer to God for what I'm doing, it does make my knees tremble.

[14:23] Now look, today, the subject is God's view of the degradation of society. Now that's what we're talking about. That degradation prompted the Lord to sentence mankind to death in a great cataclysm.

[14:41] It's very sobering. So just as we interpreted the creation account as being literally true, six 24-hour days, God making it all from absolutely nothing, we're going to interpret the verses of this text this morning as being literally true.

[14:57] And that presents challenges to us. When we won't allow this to become metaphor or myth, it presents challenges us to understand what is he talking about?

[15:07] Who are the Nephilim? Who are these sons of God? What is this whole sin angel thing all about? It is challenging, no doubt.

[15:19] In part, all of this means that we believe that the individual people that we have read about in prior chapters really did live for hundreds of years.

[15:32] Some of them lived eight, nine hundred years. That's literal. We believe that is literally true. There's no reason for us to monkey around with that, is it? We believe that things are as bad as God describes them for us as He marches us through this chapter to show us the state of humanity that becomes the rationale for God bringing the flood on humanity.

[16:01] Now, we have to be careful that we understand God's view of how bad it really was. Then we come to understand better that God was completely justified in all of His actions against sinful mankind.

[16:14] If you've ever heard anybody say to you, I can't believe in a God who would bring a flood and wipe out millions of people off the face of the earth. That's not a merciful, loving God. I don't want anything to do with a God like that.

[16:26] Well, what's wrong with that perspective? They're not taking into consideration God's viewpoint of why He did what He did and that He's God and He's perfectly justified in all that He does.

[16:39] Amen? Alright, so we're not going to question that. We do not doubt or dismiss God's account based on man-centered ideas or wisdom or what I am calling pseudoscience.

[16:54] Look, God was there. He was there. So we take Him at His word as the author and eyewitness to these events. And God wrote it down for us through some 40 human authors so that we would understand.

[17:12] We take a literal view of these events unless the text gives us good hermeneutical reasons to view it otherwise. Hence my example from John chapter 6.

[17:23] Now, all of this to say, all of this to say, my sermons aren't given to you as college classroom lectures. I'm not up here philosophizing in front of you.

[17:34] That's not what this is about. But look, I'm also not up here to defend the Bible or prove the Bible. I don't have to do that. I just have to preach it. It'll defend itself, right?

[17:47] Right. And I don't have to prove it because the Bible is not on the bar of our judgment. It is God's word, period. And it stands.

[17:58] And so God's word calls us to faith that this is His word. Everywhere that God speaks, He speaks truth.

[18:09] So science and God's word are not at odds. Anything that is scientifically true is true because God says it's true and God established it as true.

[18:25] And so you won't find in this pulpit that Greg and I are at war with science, true science. But we will expose the pseudoscience. Alright?

[18:36] Science is going to be helpful to us as we move through some of this, but science is not the measure of Scripture's veracity or truthfulness. It's not. Now look, today, here's what we'll do.

[18:49] Today, this morning, God tells us just how low society sunk into sin and self. He also goes far enough to tell us why and how things got so bad.

[19:00] Why and how did it get so bad, Lord, that you would take judgment on humanity and send a global flood to wipe off the face of the map anything and everything that breathed air save eight people.

[19:17] Wow! What is that all about? Well, some of you may remember, and this first point that I'll give you today is the only one that I'll be dealing with because the other points, the other major points that I'll take in this little outline that I'm working from will come from the remainder of chapter 6.

[19:33] We'll do point two next week, probably point three, but this morning just point one and here it is. It's the sinfulness of society that we see in verses 1 through 4 of chapter 6.

[19:45] The sinfulness of society. God is giving these people over. We need to understand what that means. We also need to understand this is the end of God's restraining grace.

[19:59] What does that mean? We're dealing now in verses 1 and 2. Let's rehearse those again. Now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them.

[20:12] That sounds so innocent that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful or good and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

[20:24] Now so far that doesn't sound so bad. Now let's put this in perspective. Let me take you to a passage in Matthew. I'm going to put it up here on the screen so that you can get to it quickly with me. Here's what is said in Matthew.

[20:36] For just as the days of Noah were, this is Jesus comparing his second coming to the time of Noah, just as the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

[20:50] In what way Lord? For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage? Until the day that Noah entered the ark and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.

[21:14] Too late. Very sobering. Look, Genesis 6, 1, as we read it, even into 2, it can seem or sound somewhat innocent and innocuous to us as we read it.

[21:27] People are just going about their lives. But as people go about their lives multiplying and fulfilling the earth, here's the truth that we know is behind all of that.

[21:38] They are not obeying the Lord and the truth about them is much more sinister. These are not innocent people marrying and being given in marriage and having babies and going about their jobs and just living their lives in happiness.

[21:55] that is not what this is. We would be remiss to think like that. People are not innocent. People are not even naive.

[22:07] These people are willfully rebellious. Now once again, we don't have the benefit of all that I've done marching us into this. I preached two sermons on a general idea of chapter 6 before I hit these verses.

[22:21] So I told you in those sermons and you can go back and listen to them, that one of the reasons these people are not innocent and they're willfully rebellious is that these people have set their hearts against the preachers of righteousness that God is sending to them.

[22:38] Noah is a preacher of righteousness. He's preaching the gospel to these people constantly and they're having nothing to do with it. They're laughing at him and mocking him. Enoch did the same thing. Enoch was preaching the gospel right up until he died probably a week before the rains came.

[22:55] He's trying to get people to understand you need to come to God and believe on God and trust God and they wouldn't have anything to do with it. They are willfully rebellious.

[23:06] They don't have any concern for God or for holiness. It's a terrible terrible time. Now contrast this attitude with how the Lord sees what is taking place.

[23:18] These people we're just living our lives. We've got our best life now. We're doing our thing. Well what does God say about all of this? Do they even care? No they don't.

[23:30] But the text tells us if you look at verse five. Look at that with me. Chapter six verse five. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on earth.

[23:43] Great. And that every intent every intent of the thoughts of his heart was what? only evil continually. I mean how much more in that?

[23:55] We're going to get to that verse next Sunday God willing. This wickedness was great. Every single intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.

[24:05] And that was a continuing growing reality. Verse six. The Lord then was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart.

[24:16] My goodness. That's a bad scene isn't it? That's not something we jump up and rejoice about. These people were rebellious. This is a huge disconnect between God's view of this society and how they view themselves.

[24:33] Much like our time today. Have you ever watched the news or watched some of these programs where these people come forward and they're in the spotlight for a moment and they talk about God and seconds later they're cussing?

[24:46] even taking the Lord's name in vain? Or they talk I just I'm so grateful to God for this award and you know that's so great and then they sing a song that you have to turn the TV off.

[25:01] It's so lewd. See this is what's going on here. If these people have any mind about God at all it's just lip service. At best.

[25:12] So they're not innocent. They are culpable. It's very similar. I'll put this up here for you. It's very similar to what we experience today. These people are pursuing lies.

[25:26] That's the aspect of continual evil. They're pursuing it. They're going after it. It's serving to define who they are. They're giving themselves over to evil desires and wicked living and taking pride in sinful rebellion and considering themselves independently of confident and free.

[25:45] That's their view. We're just living the high life, dude. Why would God have a problem with that? Well, it's the kind of life that they're living in gross immorality.

[25:56] And here is something that we need to understand about them. They are deceived. That does not mean they're not culpable. They are self deceived as God gives them over to what they've given themselves over to.

[26:11] It's as if God is saying, alright, you've made your choice. Here, just go wallow in it. Go have more of it. It's what you wanted. And so God turns them over to what they've chosen to live like and to be and God will do that.

[26:26] They are self deceived and they are satanically deceived. This is all fallout from the fall. From men coming in to sin. So in God's view, the pre-flood world is in pervasive, gross sin.

[26:45] God-defying sin. But the people are essentially oblivious to just how bad they've all become. I mean, folks, what is it like when a society becomes so evil that evil is normal?

[27:04] There are no checks and balances. The hearts are so calloused over and so given to wickedness that wickedness is the norm. which is why they made fun of Noah.

[27:19] Because he was so outside what is normal. This guy over here building this boat? What does he need? What is a boat? Why does he need that crazy thing?

[27:34] They have no idea. What does the text say that Jesus shared? They did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.

[27:47] Meaning, that when that rain started and those waters started rising and all the cataclysmic upheaval of the earth started and the deafening sounds and the roars and the fire and the volcanoes and all of the catastrophic nature of what went on, I just can't even imagine I tried.

[28:08] Those people woke up then. It's too late. Judgment was upon them. It was too late. Well, all of this is what's defining the spirit of this age.

[28:21] And again, I want to clarify this for you here. So right here at the bottom of the screen, people have given themselves over to gross wickedness so God then has given them over to that wickedness.

[28:33] They chose wickedness and so God is letting them wallow in the fruit of what they've chosen. And it's a terrible judgment. That's judgment. Now, here's the deal.

[28:44] This is why I've covered all this with you in this first verse or two. Listen. Just how gross and depraved they've become is described for us in verse two.

[28:57] The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose. And this is very interesting to me.

[29:08] Verse one serves to connect this passage to what Moses has just revealed about the godly line in chapter five. This is a great contrast.

[29:20] The beginning of six is a great contrast to what he's just shown us in chapter five about all these godly people that are coming. Or will have been here and will continue as God moves through this bloodline to bring Messiah, God's promise.

[29:38] Ten, you might remember, ten generations of godly sons were identified in chapter five. Ten generations of godly sons.

[29:48] But now a shift happens. There were other sons and other daughters born to these families. In chapter five, the daughters were not highlighted.

[30:01] In chapter six, the daughters enter onto the scene for a very specific reason. Moses shifts the emphasis to these daughters to give us insight into something.

[30:14] And here is that something. Satan's plan to corrupt humanity. This is all about God revealing to us that right from the very beginning, Satan set in motion these schemes to try and thwart God's promise in 315 to send his Messiah to save humanity.

[30:33] And now Satan's getting after it. Why is Satan wanting to corrupt humanity as I just said? Look, why does he want to do that? Satan wants to thwart God's promise to bring Messiah from the bloodline of a godly woman.

[30:51] And Satan knows that. That was the promise in 315. She from her, her seed will be at war with your seed.

[31:03] So he knows. The problem is he doesn't know which woman. Satan is not omniscient like God. So Satan knows that from a human woman will come this promised deliverer.

[31:18] What Satan doesn't know is which one. Because he'll want to take her out, won't he? Which woman? Specific family that she'll come from.

[31:30] What about that? That God's going to use for this purpose. So now to exploit the daughters of men. To exploit the daughters of men, Satan used a very deceptive, very wicked, very from the bowels of hell strategy.

[31:46] Very similar to what he did with Eve. It worked before, maybe it'll work again. He wants to corrupt what God made good. That's what he does, isn't he?

[31:57] Everything he touches, he pollutes. your soul, my soul, life. You know, at a point yesterday after Bob had passed and there was much grieving and weeping, I was able to take Bob's oldest son.

[32:14] He has four grown children. And he said some things to me. In my response, I held him and I said, brother, death is ugly.

[32:29] It's ugly. Folks, I'll tell you what I saw happen to my friend was ugly. It was not pretty. Death is the enemy. It's the enemy, right?

[32:42] Where's our hope? What is our hope for life beyond death? What's his name? Jesus. Jesus.

[32:54] Jesus is our hope for life beyond death. death. But death is our enemy. Satan wants to poison. He wants to bring death.

[33:07] Now, several interpretations have been put forward to explain what I have said here as this puzzling, kind of enigmatic, kind of mysterious series of verses.

[33:18] What I'm going to do is hold to what is the traditional Jewish understanding because I think it fits the context best. long ago in seminary they made assignments for us and one of the assignments I received was to go to this passage.

[33:34] They called it problem passages and our assignment for everybody in the class was to take a problem passage and do a careful exegesis of the passage and turn it in to demonstrate our ability to be able to work through difficult passages and research, draw on the resources that are there, use the language, that kind of thing, to demonstrate our facility and being able to do that.

[33:57] Well this is the passage that I ended up dealing with. I'm going to tell you that there are about three or possibly four, I'll give it four, interpretations to this passage of scripture as to what all this is and how it's explained.

[34:13] The one that I'm going to put forward today is the place I've landed. I had to choose. I don't want to be wishy washy. If I ever come up here and say it's going to be either or it's because I carefully, carefully looked at it and I really do think this is what it is or I can't tell you for sure.

[34:32] So in this particular case one interpretation suggests that and this is not the one I'm going to go with but let me mention one of them to you. One interpretation and probably the most popular beyond the one I'll present suggests that the sons of God in our passage refer to the men of the godly line of Seth.

[34:55] Now remember we're talking about a godly line as opposed to everybody else and from that godly line that the Lord will preserve will come his Messiah.

[35:06] So Satan has a stake in this war to try and corrupt the godly line to keep Messiah from coming. That's the idea. So here sons of God refers to men in the godly line of Seth.

[35:21] Daughters of men will then refer to the women of the ungodly seed or the lineage of Cain. The lineage of Cain represents the lineage of all unbelievers as it were.

[35:36] The lineage of Seth represents the godly line that God will bring Messiah from. That's how the scripture kind of pulls this out and shows us the spiritual contention that's going on here.

[35:48] Will God's promise prevail or will Satan's schemes prevail? That's kind of the tension that the scripture is putting in front of us. Now, under Satan's deceptive influence, according to this view, to corrupt the godly line, these godly men from Seth's line intermarried with ungodly unbelievers from Cain's line and that corrupted the whole process.

[36:15] So Satan was successful in that regard. Here's the problem. Assigning the phrase daughters of men to Cain's line is not what the text says or means.

[36:29] That's not what it's saying. We're going to have to make too much of a jump. The Hebrew phrase daughters of men is meant to be a general term or a generic term, not something that is specified to one little group of people from one line.

[36:48] It's not specific as a reference in that way. So here's what I'm saying. Verses 1 and 2 employ the same wording and grammar to emphasize mankind.

[37:01] mankind. So when we have the phrase when men or mankind or humanity began to multiply on the face of the land and the daughters of men simply means the daughters of mankind.

[37:17] That's the idea. The idea is the daughters of mankind. You see that right there in the middle. The daughters of mankind who would include both, not just one.

[37:29] This isn't just referring to the daughters of unbelieving Cain and his line. No. It's both. Seth and Cain's lineages are included.

[37:42] Daughters of men then is being used as a general term for mankind, not as a specific reference limited only to Cain's line. Now don't let me lose you in this. Remember I told you I'm not up here trying to do some college lecture.

[37:54] I want you to understand why this is important to the passage. The interpretation that one line corrupted the other actually serves to fall short in this context.

[38:09] Context is king. So the fact that only, look, the fact that only eight people survived the flood tells us that there were godless sinners in the lineages of both the Sethites and the Cainites, right?

[38:24] Because Seth was having all these people multiplying, in his line, daughters and sons, right? Well guess what? Only eight got on the ark. What happened to the rest of them? Did they all die before he got on the ark?

[38:37] No, they were alive. Many of them were still alive. What were they? Unbelievers. Unbelievers. And yet God preserved from the line of Noah in the line of Seth, he preserved these eight people.

[38:52] Noah, his wife, and then the sons and their wives. And that's what God's doing. Satan's trying to thwart it by corrupting humanity and God says, I'm going to save humanity and then God does it in this crazy, I say crazy respectfully, bizarre, weird way that we read about a boat and you see these pictures with the little boat and the giraffe in the middle and his neck sticking up out of it and he's looking all weird.

[39:19] No, this is very different, right? And so when we get to the ark, we'll throw the pictures up there. Some of you have been to the ark encounter and you've seen, this thing is incredible. It really is.

[39:31] So as we think about this, we understand that it's not dealing with just the daughters of men in one line and those unbelieving people corrupted Seth's line and now we have this giant mess and how's God going to sort all that out?

[39:45] No, it's even more bizarre than that, the truth. It's even more bizarre. That leaves us with the phrase about the sons of God. Who were they?

[39:58] Who were the sons of God? Again, I am trying to allow the context itself to be king in this interpretation. I'm also trying to allow scripture to interpret scripture.

[40:13] Are there other places we can go in the New Testament that will give light? And there are. We'll go there in just a minute. Who are these sons of God?

[40:25] I'll tell you who they are and then I'll try to explain it from the text itself. They are fallen angels. My understanding and where I've landed is they are fallen angels.

[40:39] And again, I just remind you that a couple of sermons prior to this, I laid the groundwork for all this. We're just kind of jumping in. The New Testament helps us with this understanding.

[40:51] But before reviewing those verses, I want you to note that the phrase the sons of God is consistently understood in scripture as referring to either good or evil male angels.

[41:04] Consistently. Whenever you see sons of God, it is a consistent reference to either good or evil male angels. Whenever angels are mentioned, they are always male in scripture.

[41:15] Every time. Fallen angels is how the oldest Jewish commentaries and scholars understood this passage. Now, I realize that just because old Jewish guys say this is what it means doesn't mean that's what it is.

[41:31] It's not foolproof. I get that. So what do we need to do? Well, let's go to other places in scripture and see if we can get a little more light shed on this. We'll turn to allowing scripture to interpret scripture and I think the case will become clear.

[41:44] The first place we'll go is 2 Peter 2. I think I have this reference. Yep. 2 Peter 2, chapter 4. Now look, I know this is a little unusual this morning.

[41:58] This sounds very technical and heady. But God wants us to understand this, folks. So please don't...

[42:08] You've got to work with me here this morning and really put your thinking caps on. And follow the line here. The line of argument. 2 Peter 2, 4.

[42:20] For if God did not spare angels when they sinned. Now the first question we're going to come to because I did preach through this before is who's he talking about and when did this happen?

[42:34] If God didn't spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment and notice right in that context and did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter and if he rescued righteous lot oppressed by the sensual conduct.

[43:15] There are so many themes tying these verses together here. By the sensual conduct of unrighteous people or unprincipled men for by what that man saw and heard while living among them his righteous soul was tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.

[43:35] Then if if if then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, especially those who indulge in the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority.

[43:52] That's the key. That's the key. He's talking about people contrasted with those whom God has saved who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.

[44:06] That is exactly what he's describing in chapter six throughout. So we take these first four verses in chapter six and we understand that there is a tone here that matches this passage as it refers back to Noah.

[44:22] These are unprincipled people who are engaging in this unbridled gross immorality. There is no check in their soul for what they're willing to be and do with this.

[44:36] It's rampant in the world. It is sickening and terrible and it has become the norm of society. This is how just about everybody is living. They are living in the depths of their depravity.

[44:49] Peter tells us that this event with the angels happened just before the flood. That's the context. Notice what he says.

[45:00] I'll put it up here. God did not spare these angels who sinned, but cast them into the pit and delivered them to chains of darkness being kept for judgment.

[45:15] Just before the time of Noah, there were these angels who sinned. Now, clearly, these are evil angels whose sin is especially vile. God sealed them in darkness while they await his judgment.

[45:29] And we say, Jeff, is that the only passage? No. Go now, if you would, turn back to Jude. The book of Jude. Where's Jude?

[45:40] It's right before Revelation. It's one chapter. So, Jude 6 and 7. I'll actually start reading in Jude 5.

[45:54] He says, now I desire to remind you, this is very reminiscent of what Peter's idea was. He wants to remind them of the truth.

[46:05] I'm going to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, there's that theme of salvation again, subsequently destroyed those who didn't believe.

[46:20] Now, you see where we are. We have God doing some saving work and we have God doing judgment work. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? Now, go further in the context.

[46:30] Verse 6. Angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, God has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

[46:46] Sounds very much like Peter. Just as, now we have a comparison, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way, in the same way as these angels, indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

[47:16] Once again, the theme of salvation and eternal punishment. God is both a rescuer and God is a punisher. He is a judge. And this is the theme.

[47:29] Jude helps us see that these sinning angels, these demons, didn't remain in the abode that God had designated for them. What happened?

[47:39] Well, look, in prideful rebellion and by Satan's command, because he commands the demons, these demons roamed beyond their domain and their sin was equated with that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[47:53] So whatever these angels did as they left their domain, it was just like the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. And we know what that is. If I keep preaching in Genesis, we'll get to it.

[48:06] Just like the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. I'll put this up here. Let me see if I can. Notice that Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in the same way as these fallen angels in gross sexual immorality.

[48:22] Most likely, this is the most likely explanation of what is being described here. It's gross. They accomplish this by possessing human men.

[48:33] They possessed human men. So this then was a time, notice the text and how it says it, this then was a time when the sons of God, these fallen angels, came into the daughters of men.

[48:58] The fallen angels or demons left their appointed domain to possess human men from the lines of both Seth and Cain to engage in immorality with human females in an attempt to corrupt all humanity.

[49:13] You have to remember the point. You have to keep in mind as we wade through all this weirdness, because it's weird. This is weird to us, right? This is on a spiritual level that just stretches us.

[49:25] But if we remember what's going on here, Satan is trying to corrupt humanity. And so these demons are possessing human men to go into the daughters of men in order to corrupt the daughters of men in an attempt to do what?

[49:42] Corrupt the lying. He wants to poison the godly lying. Why? Because he doesn't know who it is. He doesn't know which woman it is. So let's just go after it, guys.

[49:53] Release. Go demons. Get them. And off they go to do their dirtiness. It's disgusting. It is. It's just a it's it's a mind boggling. Don't let your imagination go too far with this because it's too ugly to contemplate.

[50:08] Just take it for what it says. The Bible. I just tell you, friends, look, the Bible doesn't pull any punches. It it's not trying to hide the dehumanizing nature of what these people gave themselves to.

[50:23] Look, sexual sin is dehumanizing. Is there anybody in here that thinks rape's OK? Or any form of sexual immorality is OK?

[50:36] It's dehumanizing. It takes away from what God made us as male and female, doesn't it? It strikes at the very core of our souls as either a male person or a female person.

[50:51] God said, I am making them male and female and I am making each in my image. Each of them receive the value of my image, which makes them co-heirs valuable to me in equal ways.

[51:05] The man isn't more valuable. The woman isn't more. They are valuable to me as souls that I've created and made in my image. And when we violate the issues of our sexuality, our maleness or our femaleness, we're violating ourselves at the very core of what God made us to be as human beings.

[51:23] Now, is it any wonder in our minds why right now in our society, Satan is attacking our sexuality? Where does he want to corrupt you?

[51:34] At the very heart and core of what God made you to be in relationship to him. You can't help it. If you're a woman, you must relate to God as a woman. You can't relate to him as a male.

[51:46] Don't try. There is no such thing as transitioning from your sexuality. You cannot do it. It's impossible. God didn't make people to be able to do that.

[51:57] It is not within your power to be your own God and make yourself whatever you want. You see how all this is connected? The truth of God liberates us. It sets us free. It gives us power.

[52:09] We can stand before those people who are the most articulate people on the planet in terms of these sinful things. People that can run circles around us as they express themselves and come off with these high sounding explanations for transgenderism.

[52:25] And all we have to do is retreat into the truth and sound like fools. God made us male and female. That's what God did. And he put us in his image to reflect his character as male and female.

[52:38] And let me tell you something. Being male and female and having that thing come together is glorious. So don't try to tell me anything. I've been married 41 years. I know what glorious is.

[52:51] Don't believe the lie and don't be afraid to tell the truth no matter how foolish it makes you sound. Can you imagine what an idiot I'm going to sound like if I stood up on Fox News and my only explanation and answer to all of this sexual nonsense is for me to say God made us male and female and it is a glorious and beautiful gift of heaven that we should treasure and honor not try to change and try to play God in.

[53:20] Amen. That's it. That's all I got Fox. That's it. That's all I got. Paul said that he was willing to be a fool for Jesus and so should we.

[53:34] These people these people had turned themselves over to gross gross dehumanizing sin. Let me show you if I didn't put it up here.

[53:51] Came in to we're back in Genesis six came in to the daughters of men. Came into the daughters of men.

[54:03] That is a crass Hebrew expression depicting the act as well as characterizing God's view of the vile nature of these acts.

[54:16] In other words my dear friends God sees all. It is a sad reality to know that God witnessed this abomination. He witnessed it. That's what he's saying. I saw the sons of God.

[54:29] I saw these demons possess these men. I saw what these men did with these human women. I saw it all. And it's an abomination in my sight.

[54:42] They went into them. And it ought not be. It ought not be. What did Psalm 90 verse 8 tell us?

[54:53] You have placed our iniquities before you. Our secret sins in the light of your presence. God sees it all. There's nothing we do or say hidden from him.

[55:07] This is a disgusting terrible thing and the Bible doesn't hold back in helping us to understand how vile it is in God's sight. Now look for this unprecedented violation angels and humans now are going to pay the ultimate price.

[55:21] For the angels God is going to imprison them until the day of final judgment. They're locked up in a dark place. They're not like other demons that are God's allowing to roam and do havoc and all that.

[55:32] These demons that did this they're shut up in a dark place. According to Peter and Jude. They're shut up. And what about the humans? Well we know what's coming.

[55:43] Utter destruction. That's just the way it's going to be. God gave these people over to what they wanted. In their sinfulness, in their selfishness, in their rebellion against the Lord.

[55:54] God then removed his restraining grace to the point that they gave themselves completely to Satan's deceptions. What do we mean? It means this. We live under God's restraining grace, his common grace right now.

[56:07] If God removed his restraining grace from humanity right now, we would go at each other like gangbusters and we would annihilate each other off this planet. There would be no limit to us sinking into the depths of expression of our depravity.

[56:22] It is by God's common restraining grace that we're not out here killing and raping each other. And God gets the glory for that. Now, the unbelievers won't give him the glory, but that's the truth.

[56:34] That's the reality of what we live under and what we live in. I can put it in another way about these people. They had so turned their hearts to evil that they became inviting, welcoming hosts for demonic dominance over their lives.

[56:49] And this is the reason God sees these people in comparison with the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah. Friends, look, when godless perversion is pridefully pursued, pandered, and paraded before God, it reveals the rottenness within.

[57:06] Society can expect God's judgment in the form of giving them over to that delusion. We don't want to see this craziness about gender and trans and LGBTQ plus stuff.

[57:20] We don't want to see people in bondage to this because God's going to judge them. Well, the next point that happens here is that God gives them time.

[57:32] What are we to do with verses 3 and 4? Well, God gives them time. This is the end of God's patience, however. He's going to give them time. But that time is going to spell the end of His patience.

[57:45] And it's scary. If you look at verses 3 and 4, then, then the Lord said, my spirit. See, this is how we know that what's going on in verses 1 and 2 is not this innocent thing.

[57:59] This is one of the ways. Then, as a result of what He just said in verses 1 and 2, my spirit shall not strive with man forever. I'm not going to look at this and listen to this forever.

[58:10] This is not going to go on forever. I'm going to put a stop to this. Folks, you can see that as judgment, but it's also mercy. Because He is also flesh.

[58:21] Nevertheless, His days shall be 120. I know He's acting like God. All these people out here are acting like me, acting like God. They can be their own gods, but I'm not going to strive with that forever.

[58:34] I'm going to put a limit on it. And then verse 4, the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

[58:47] Hmm. Is that good or bad? No. It's not good. This unrepentant sin that these people are living under portends the end of God's patience.

[59:01] So the Lord makes a pledge. Here's the interesting part now. The Lord makes a pledge concerning the time frame that they will have for repentance. And it's 120 years.

[59:14] In 120 years, God will judge these people with the great flood. Again, we're back to what Jesus said in Matthew. They didn't understand until the flood came and took them all away.

[59:29] Then it all started making sense. Oh my goodness. He told us this. He told us we had 120 years to repent, to change. So what I'm saying is this.

[59:42] This reference, that is not, can you see it up here? This reference isn't a lifespan decree. This is not where the Bible says that man is going to live 120 years at the top.

[59:56] No. This is a declaration of mercy and a warning of impending judgment if that mercy is refused. You have 120 years to repent. As to these Nephilim in verse 4, the verse could read like this.

[60:12] The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. The question is now this. Renown for what?

[60:24] Something good or something bad? Is it infamous or famous? What are they renowned for? All right. Here it is. Here's the answer. This is a negative reference to the extreme fallenness of mankind.

[60:37] See, Jeff, how do we get that from the context? But let me go a little further. A literal translation of Nephilim means fallen ones. The related Hebrew word nephal means fall.

[60:51] So it can also refer to those who fall upon other people as in like bandits. So these men are not known for good things. No.

[61:03] The Nephilim isn't a reference so much to physical size like we have typically thought as to evil character and evil actions that result from that wicked character.

[61:16] That's who the Nephilim are at this point. In those days, the phrase in those days refers to a time of this angelic sin just before Noah began to build the ark.

[61:31] So in those days is a time when all this stuff was going on with these fallen angels just before Noah started to build the ark. Then we have the reference and also afterward.

[61:43] And that likely refers to the time after Noah began working on the ark. It's not a time after the flood. This is all within the context of what's going on with Noah in his day.

[61:58] In other words, God is setting the tone and the page for us to understand, and he doesn't have to do this, to understand why I brought such a cataclysmic judgment on humanity.

[62:11] This is why. And this is what I did prior to that. This is the offer of mercy that I made. And no one wanted to heed. And so, the flood came and took them all away.

[62:25] It's too late. It seems the context of selfish ambition characterizing this time best supports the understanding that these Nephilim men, these Nephilim were influential, wicked men who used their power and resources to exploit and dominate others.

[62:48] Now look, mighty men, let's get to that phrase, we're almost done. Mighty men is also pejorative. It's disparaging. It's negative terminology.

[63:00] It refers to being mighty in their rebellion against God, which again, fits the context. Why would he shift that? These guys, they were men of renown in that they were infamous.

[63:12] They were known for their wickedness, their rebellious living. And then the children in verse 4 are from the demon human marriages.

[63:24] But the way the text is written, I'm not convinced. Now it could be, but I'm not convinced that the Nephilim are the offspring of these marriages between these demon possessed men and the daughters of men.

[63:37] I'm not ready to say that the Nephilim are the offspring of these unions. It could be, but I don't know. I'm not seeing that right now.

[63:48] So while the sons of God or demons were possessing these human men and then marrying human women so that those human babies were being born to them, did you hear me? They're not having some kind of weird, you know, demon baby.

[64:04] They're having babies. But these parents are wicked. And they're raising these kids watching and listening to their vileness, their wickedness.

[64:14] That's what the, that's what all of the, and so these kids are growing up thinking this is normal. This is, this is what it means to live. This is what we do. These human babies were being born to these, to these people.

[64:29] And they, the Nephilim were also living at this time and they were following their sinful desires to dominate others. Many people feel like some of these Nephilim are the characters that we'll read about as we move toward the Tower of Babel.

[64:45] These great leaders who rose up and were able to command entire communities. Many people think that that's, that has to do with this sense of being a Nephilim, a powerful one.

[64:57] Mighty in the way of evil and in the way of being able to dominate people and get people to do what they wanted to do. How else do we explain these cities that rose up in rebellion against God so that God would then say, I'm going to scatter you because you won't obey me.

[65:13] All right? So now look, here's where we come, come to in all of this. Taken together, these verses then paint a terrifying picture of unprecedented evil.

[65:27] Prideful, rampant, selfish ambition, no restraint. There's nothing about society that's helping these people restrain themselves in evil living.

[65:38] It's a time of unparalleled, widespread wickedness at every level of society, among every family. It's gross. So here's what we can say to close.

[65:48] The flood is God's judgment on heinous sin. It gives us a powerful proof about Satan's corrupting influence on humanity. It got that bad.

[66:00] And of mankind's depravity. But, and here's the part that we'll come to, but the ark tells us that God's sovereignty and salvation is much greater than Satan's schemes to enslave us and even greater than our own sin.

[66:15] Hallelujah, right? Amen. So, God gets the last word. God will bring humanity the Savior he promised. We know that. We look back on the truth of the New Testament and we see the life of Jesus and we see his cross and his resurrection.

[66:31] We see the apostles teaching about his life and truth. He's going to keep his promise. And all who believe on Jesus will be saved from the penalty and power of sin.

[66:42] And that's the gospel. That's the truth that we hope in and live in. I know we went through this a little bit quickly. I know it's a lot of stuff.

[66:52] If you've never been introduced to these concepts, you may be thinking, man, that was a lot to take in. Well, go back and read it. You've got the sermon. You've got the slides. If you want to go back and look it over, you can do some reading.

[67:02] I suggest reading not in liberal literature. Please don't read the liberals on this. It's a mess. Stay in conservative circles where the tradition and orthodoxy of the church since the apostles has been grounded pretty much in this particular understanding of what happened in Genesis 6.

[67:24] Let's pray together. Lord, as always, I'm very thankful to you that you attend to me as I seek to stand before your people and bring the message of your gospel.

[67:45] And I take full responsibility, God, for owning this interpretation of the text. I pray to God, as I have been, that this would be correct and God glorifying.

[67:55] But in the possibility, Lord, that there's some aspect of this that is beyond our understanding and I haven't been able to clarify it, I not only ask for forgiveness, but for mercy as I seek to be your instrument and vessel.

[68:11] This is something that we preach humbly and we receive humbly. All of this is really higher than us. And I pray, God, that you would help us by your spirit to attend to it and to understand, but not only to have knowledge.

[68:27] Father, our prayer as our God and our King, as the author of this truth, is that we will hear this word and it will sober our souls and it will increase in us a desire to a sincere and pure devotion to Jesus so that we are living out of a truthful love, a pure love for you, knowing that you are our God and the God of our salvation and that you punish wickedness.

[68:55] So teach us today to hate our sin. Help us to take another step in the direction of hating our sin and what it means to you when we do sin and help us run to the throne of grace and throw ourselves on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that he has made provision for us. God, we thank you for your goodness and your grace now.

[69:18] Help us to go out as your people to live in that grace in Jesus' precious name. Amen.