Good morning. How are you all doing today? Excellent. Hey, we like to start our
services here by saying welcome to anybody that's here in our sanctuary for
the first time or if you're joining us online for the first time, welcome. We're
so glad you're here to worship with us today. I am Pastor Nathan and this
morning we're going to be looking at the time leading up to the great flood, a
time of great sin, great wickedness, and we're going to be dealing with some
mysteries today like who the sons of God are, who are what the Nephilim are, what
they might be, but I think the bigger thing we're going to be looking at today is
the grief of our Creator, the grief he had at the very sad state of his beloved
creation. You know, we all remember back in the beginning of Genesis God created
a perfect paradise, a perfect biosphere ruled over by his crowning creation, man
and woman who were created in his image, and there was an image that that allowed
us, unlike the animals and plants and everything else other than the angels,
allowed us to be able to hear his voice through his own speaking, through his
word, to even see his existence in what he has created. It also allowed us to
understand his word and then to live according to his word. But the choice
that mankind made to disobey God's one and only commandment, which introduced
the full knowledge of good and evil into man's heart, led to a steady degradation
of man's morality. As first, evil became an option, and then as we're going to see
today, the preference of mankind. All a growing cancer that escalated moral
decline through the generations that followed after Adam and Eve. Now as
mankind pursued deeper and deeper wickedness, expressed among other things
in the perversion of marriage and the celebration of violence, God's heart was
filled with more and more sorrow. Now there were temporary spiritual boosts
during this time, namely with a man named Enoch, who we looked at last time and
said he walked with God. And his testimony, I believe, surely led to many
people during those times to come to faithfulness and belief in God their
creator. But after he was taken, without ever having to experience physical
death, I believe that as hundreds of years passed and as discussions were had
by many about who he was in the life he lived, the majority of people, the memory
of Enoch, began to fade. Say, well that was so long ago. You know, it was a
different time then, are things they might have said when people would bring
up Enoch in his life and his testimony. And so the pre-flood culture just
continued and really began a serious headlong plunge into depravity that was
so deep that it deserved to die. Now the account recorded here in the beginning
of Genesis 6 is appalling, but it should also be sobering to us because what we
see here in all of this, what we see like in most of the record of the sad and
depressing and just horrible decline of mankind, we see that there is still grace
from a personal God who is intimately connected, who cares about us, who knows
about us, who watches us and desires the best for us. A personal God who is
grieved when we sin, but also a personal God who loves us so much that he
provided the way to salvation. And all that reminds us as we look at these
scriptures today that as our modern-day culture marches deeper and deeper into
depravity, even though we, mankind as a whole, his creation grieve him more and
more, there is still grace to be found for those who find favor with the Lord.
Let's pray. Father, we love you. God, we're so grateful for who you are. God, we know
that the number of days we have on this earth are limited. And God, every day we
have on this earth is an opportunity to live in faith and belief in who you are.
Lord, those of us that know you as our personal Lord and Savior, God, our lives
have been changed. But Lord, we live today in a day of wickedness. God, as we look
around our culture and we just see the the perversion of marriage and the
depravity and sexuality and the celebration of violence. Lord, as we look
at all of this, we say, Lord, come quickly. But at the same time, God, there are those
out there who don't yet know you, Lord. And you are patient and long
suffering that they would have the opportunity to hear your gospel and
respond. But Lord, like Enoch and Noah, we as your people, we're called to be the
preachers of righteousness, to live righteousness, to share righteousness, to
share with people not only the promises of God but the warnings of God that
judgment is coming. And so God, may we be encouraged today to be who you've
created us to be, Lord. As we look at the parallels between the days of Noah and
the days we live in. God, as we see the great wickedness that was taking place,
Lord, and see the parallels in our day, we would be reminded, Lord, that as Noah
found favor in the sight of the Lord, so do all who call upon the name of Jesus
Christ. Lord, speak to us today. God, we want to start by worshiping you because
Lord, you have saved us. Lord, we have salvation from the judgment to come. We
have salvation from the power and effect of sin in our own lives. And
God, it's not because of anything we did but because of what you did. And we have
faith in that, Lord. We celebrate you. We praise you. We love you, God. Lord, be
blessed as we worship you and speak to us today in your word. It's in Jesus' name
we pray, amen. We are in Genesis chapter 6. We're gonna be looking at verses 1
through 8 today. And this whole section is really a what the world looked like
before the flood, right? This is the what happened right before the flood. This is
the story of what God did, how he led Noah to build the ark, and all of that.
But these first eight verses we're looking at are what set the scene. They
set the scene of how bad things were at that time. Now the contrast that is
pretty interesting because chapter 5 of Genesis ended on a very hopeful note. We
had the genealogy of Seth and the last person in that genealogy was Noah. And so
Lamech gave birth to Noah and his sons and and that was a very hopeful moment
there because of course we know the end of the story, right? We know Noah means
the ark and salvation and humanity goes on but the point of that is to show us
that there is hope there. Now the hope was really big because in chapter 4 it
says that Seth gave birth to Enosh and his line were the ones that began to
call upon the name of the Lord. So we get to his genealogy and we're like oh
everything got better, right? You know there's Christians in the world,
everything changed, right? Well when we open this chapter it comes to a very
bleak description of the condition of mankind. This is where we transition into
what's called the flood narrative and what we're gonna see here is a condition
of the world right before the flood happened and we're gonna see some very
interesting parallels that the condition of the world then is very very much like
the condition of the world today. But before we get there I want you to
understand that the reason we see parallels between this is because Jesus
in Luke chapter 17 verse 26 said this, just as it was in the days of Noah so it
will be in the days of the Son of Man. People went on eating and drinking and
marrying and being given in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark and
then the flood came and destroyed them all. What we're gonna see today is that
the days of Noah are a time where mankind was completely totally depraved.
Sin had just consumed everything and they were just pursuing wickedness and
just debauchery and they didn't care about it and that is the defining
characteristic. You see this is a time where God and his judgment wasn't a
thought in their mind nor a care of their heart. But even worse than that is
that I believe that they knew of God and they knew of God's warnings and they
simply didn't care. I don't care if God is real or not I'm gonna pursue whatever
I want to pursue. Yeah but I don't care. I just want to pursue whatever I want, my
pleasures, my own stuff and that's what we're gonna see today. Throughout today's
text as I said we're gonna see many parallels to our modern culture as it
marches towards destruction and the story here opens up with what many agree
is the most debated text in Genesis and it demonstrates the first two parallels
to our world today. One being the increase dramatic increase in world
population and increasing sexual depravity and so please read with me in
Genesis chapter 6 starting in verse 1. It says when mankind began to multiply on
the earth and daughters were born to them the sons of God saw that the
daughters of mankind were beautiful and they took any they chose as wives for
themselves and the Lord said my spirit will not remain with mankind forever
because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the
earth both in those days and afterward when the sons of God came to the
daughters of mankind who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of
old, the famous men. And so the chapter opens up they're telling us that man was
multiplying when man began to multiply right. This could be referring to just
everything back from the beginning or it's referring that at this moment right
as the genealogies are developing mankind was developed or multiplying
rapidly and under we can understand that it was due mainly to the longevity of
human lives right. You know how many babies can you have in 900 years right.
People have a lot of babies in 80 years and you know you have those people that
have like 12 kids and 15 kids and you're like you know do you sleep right and
it's like but but that's in the lifespans we have today but imagine
living hundreds and hundreds of years and how many kids one could have. You
know there was a book written by John Whitcomb and Harry Morris called the
Genesis Flood and they were scientists who did a scientific analysis of the
first 11 chapters of Genesis from a creationist point of view and among all
of their stuff in that book they actually did what was called like a
population study to estimate how many people were on the earth during the
pre-flood times and leading up to the flood. And what they found is is they
they tried to figure out what might be the average number of children in each
generation going through you know the the generation of Seth and stuff and the
numbers they came up with said this that they estimated that by the time we got
to Genesis 6 1 there was 774 million people on earth. That's a lot of babies.
Then they estimated that at the rate of growth by the time the flood actually
hit there was actually 1 billion people upon the earth. Now by the time the flood
hit there had only been about 2,000 years of history but again with each
generation multiplying and then their kids multiplying as the previous
generation is still alive multiplying and on and on and on and on a lot of
people were on the earth at that time. Now how long did it take mankind to get
back to a billion people after the flood right? We know that life spans decreased
radically and it's estimated that during the time of Jesus there was about 250
million people on the planet. It wasn't until the 1800s that the population of
earth reached 1 billion people. That was a long time. But then 1927 we hit 2 billion.
1960 we hit 3 billion. 1975 we hit 4 billion. 1988 we hit 5 billion. Ten years
later in 98-99 we hit 6 billion. 2011 we hit 7 billion and in 2022 we hit 8
billion people on planet earth. You know that's just exponential multiplication
because you'll notice the time between each new milestone got shorter and
shorter and shorter and this is happening even with our society murdering 50
million children before they're even born. And so we see that just like in the
days of Noah the population was booming radically and faster and faster. The
second parallel we see from the story to today is this increasing sexual
perversion and deviancy. You see we have these interesting details in the
beginning here that the sons of God saw the sons of daughters or the daughters
of mankind that they were beautiful and they took them as wives. They took any
they chose and so that and another piece of scripture we're gonna look at
a little bit later give the idea that this wasn't a friendly marrying of
people. That it was kind of brutal and it was just taking. There was sexual
violence here as we're gonna see in a little bit but this these pieces of the
scripture here are hotly debated by people you know because people want to
know what are the sons of God? What are the daughters of men? And then the answer
to that question has effect on the answer to the next question who are the
Nephilim and what are they and what's that all about? And so I want to dig
through this a little bit for you just to tell you this we don't know. Okay
there's speculation and I'm gonna address some of those you know because
this stuff comes up in conversation periodically with people but ultimately
we're not a hundred percent sure okay so when it comes to the sons of God people
go who are they? There's three major interpretations of this. The one first
major interpretation is that the sons of God are the the people born of the
Sethite line and the daughters of mankind are the people born of the
Cainites right? And so it was these two people that that that married together
and so on and so forth and the supporters of that interpretation look
at the context of chapter 4 and chapter 5 right? They go chapter 4 we had the line
of Cain, chapter 5 we had the line of Seth and so therefore the people getting
married here the context stipulates that it's those two groups of people
possible. The second major interpretation is that the sons of God is referring to
powerful human rulers right? Warlords and in people that would just kind of
dominate and then the daughters of mankind were simply daughters of
mankind and this was the beginning of of harems and that type of thing because
what they what people who support that interpretation they go back to you know
we were told in Cain's line you had this man Lamech who really introduced
polygamy and multiple wives thing a violation of what God intended for
marriage and so we see that going on here and the reason people some people
support that is there's some ancient Eastern non biblical manuscripts where
sometimes great rulers and powerful men are referred to as sons of the gods. So
people grab that and they go oh that's what it means in the Bible. Problem is is
there not very many places in the Bible that take a secular definition of things
and go yeah that's what it means in God's Word. It's usually the other way
around or it's a perversion so but people do hold to that and then the
third major translation or interpretation is that the sons of God
here are fallen angels demons as the New Testament calls them and these are
fallen angels who then go on to procreate with human women. Now again
challenging the first two interpretations is that Genesis 6 the
beginning here is really setting the table setting the scene for why God
flooded the whole planet right that's a pretty extreme judgment and so
something really bad had to have been happening on earth to do that well up to
this point in Scripture we have read no specific prohibition by God that says
hey Sethites you cannot marry Canaanites right no prohibition here it doesn't
mean it wasn't there but it's not recorded in Scripture for us and so what
we see here is its humans marrying humans if you ascribe to the first two
interpretations of what the sons of God's are now it's humans marrying
humans having kids that's what God wanted us to do that was the the
beginning be fruitful multiply right so it's it's hard for me to go well there
are humans marrying humans whether they were Sethite Canaanite or otherwise
having children and there was something so bad about that that God flooded the
entire world it seems to be pretty extreme and to me it seems to be that
the sin that was taking place here was was uniquely greater than than that
suggestion additionally when you read verse 1 you see the sons of God are
contrasted with the daughters of mankind the word mankind there is Adam
okay it's the name of Adam and it just means human humankind humans and so
verse 1 is saying the sons of God married the daughters of humans and that
seems to suggest that the sons of God are something other than human and then
on top of that that phrase son of God's in the original Hebrew is bene Elohim
and it's only used four times in the Old Testament it's used here where it's not
really defined for us but then it's used in the book of Job three times in
chapter 1 verse 6 chapter 2 verse 1 and chapter 38 verse 7 now in all three of
those places in the book of Job the phrase sons of God refers to angelic
beings supernatural beings so it's it's not difficult to go well the phrase
means this over here so then this place where it's not specifically defined for
us can likely mean the same thing and then on top of that there's some New
Testament writings that seem to indicate that the possibility that these sons of
God here were fallen angels because in 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 19 we read
this it tells us that Jesus made proclamation to the spirits in prison
who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah
while the ark was being prepared and in that ark a few that is eight people were
saved through water so in Peter there when it says spirits in prison that word
spirits is the Greek word new Mata and that word is only used in the Bible to
refer to supernatural beings it's never used to refer to men okay so these
spirits in prison are supernatural beings that are locked up somehow now
they're linked to the days of Noah so what it's saying is that these spirits
these supernatural beings Peter is saying did something in the days of Noah
leading up to the flood that was so bad God locked them up in prison okay then
in 2nd Peter chapter 2 verses 4 and 5 and 9 and 10 Peter says this again for
if God didn't spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and
delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment sounds
like prison and if he didn't spare the ancient world but protected Noah a
preacher of righteousness and seven others when he brought the flood on the
world of the ungodly and then he says some other things but in verse 9 he goes
then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the
unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment especially those who follow
the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority so again in 2nd Peter
Peter is linking these angels to the days of Noah and he's using them as an
example of people who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and
despise authority so in both of those places we see that that some
supernatural beings linked to the day of Noah did something really bad right
and so additionally the phrase son of God sons of God referring to angels or
fallen angels as the New Testament calls them demons really is the oldest view of
Genesis 6 2 that's been the interpretation the oldest interpretation
and so all that to say it's not a case closed type of thing but I do lean
towards the side that these sons of God were demons were fallen angels now some
have issue with this because the first question is how do angels have sex with
human women I don't know neither do I know how the Trinity works neither do I
understand the complete and total nature of God outside of what he's revealed to
me in the word and I just encourage you as Christians you know get past the idea
that unless our limited human mind could understand the depth and complexity of
God it must not be true then we got to get past that right but I will say this
that in Genesis chapter 18 and 19 we read the Sodom when Sodom read the story
when two angels came to Sodom and Gomorrah you guys remember that and they
came to the town and then they went to Lot's house and Lot hid them in his room
and you guys remember what happened there it said the men of the place
demanded that Lot let the angels out so they could have sex with them what that
tells us is that there was something about the form of these angels
something about their appearance something about how they moved and acted
that led the men of Sodom to believe we can physically engage with them that we
could do this terrible thing and there's other places too where the angels appear
physically to us but we also know that they can be invisible and all that right
but some people will use Matthew chapter 22 verse 30 to refute to the idea that
the sons of God are angels because there Jesus is talking about in the
resurrection there's no marriage right people don't get married in the
resurrection in heaven it's gonna be a completely different paradigm you will
still know your spouse and they will still know you and I believe you'll even
have memory of the good times and stuff and all that but but you guys will be
brothers and sisters in heaven before Almighty God so different paradigm
however Jesus tells the people that are asking this question they need in heaven
they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in
heaven now some people read that and they go aha angels are sexless there's
no way they could procreate to which I go where in that verse did you see that
it said angels have no gender all it says is that angels don't marry in heaven
and then on top of that he's referring to angels in heaven not fallen angels on
earth who don't give a rip about what God says they're just gonna do whatever
they want so again I lean towards the fact that these are fallen angels of
some kind and their offspring were something of an abomination we'll get
to that in a little bit and and that leads to why God had to wipe out the
entire planet but scripture does actually never specify whether angels
are or aren't male or female or whether or not they can take a physical form and
procreate it never talks about that but it is interesting that every single time
the Bible talks about angels it refers to them with a male pronoun and a male
name so do with that what you will on top of that there are other writings
that support this idea that these sons of God were indeed fallen angels they're
called apocryphal writings or pseudo pseudo pigrophil writings no idea if I
pronounced that right but basically there's writings out there that aren't
considered scripture that that contain biblical stories biblical things when I
say biblical I mean historically biblical things but they're not
considered God's Word they're not considered canonized one of those books
is the book of Enoch that you've heard about before pastor Gary talked about it
a lot in the past and the book of Enoch is a book that is attributed to Enoch
but everybody knows Enoch didn't write it and that's why it's like considered
well we're gonna set it aside however the first part of this book of Enoch
really talks about the sons of God and daughters of man time it really
embellishes it it kind of makes it a big comic book style story but my point is
this it references the sons of God being angels and typically we would say well
that's not a canonized book who cares it has nothing to say that is true except
for the fact that Jude quotes from the book of Enoch and God included that in
his holy word so what that tells us is at least some of what is in Enoch even
though it was written by a false author somebody who claimed to be some in there
they weren't at least some of what's in the book of Enoch is true right so it
just adds a little bit of credibility to this idea that people always understood
that sons of God meant fallen angels now this is a topic that has no definitive
answer or evidence but the sons of God being fallen angels I believe has strong
contextual and grammatical and historical support how they were able to
procreate with human women we don't know it's not stated and really because I
don't believe it's important what's important here is to understand that the
days of Noah were incredibly wicked that even a group of angels were doing what
was not allowed not permitted by God that they were going outside of their
order outside of their place and something was just coming from this that
was in terribly terribly terribly wicked there was sexual perversion going on
marriage was being demonized if you will and all of it was outside of God's
created order that is what we're being told here so not only was a marriage
being demonized but the entire culture was demonized and it was really nothing
than a takeover by Satan and his hosts many would say that's what we're
watching happen today in our world as people in power are getting more and more
wicked and evil and marriage has been more and more devalued and demonized and
the idea of doing what what God really blessed humanity to do to be fruitful
multiply is is more and more like that's not important that's stupid that's a
waste of your life and then we see violence being idolized which is the
next thing we're gonna look at as people are just you know running down the
street punching people in the face for no reason and just videotaping it so
they could get cloud online and it's just ridiculous so the next thing
violence becoming idolized we're gonna skip to verse 4 real quick it says the
Nephilim were here on the earth but in those days are both in those days and
afterward when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who bore
children to them they were the powerful men of old the famous men now the reason
I say that this is showing us that violence was idolized in this time is
we're referencing again the sons of God coming to the daughters of mankind who
bore children to them now that phrase came to the sons of God came to the
daughters of man in the original language it suggests it suggests sexual
violence all right the idea is that this this isn't wasn't necessarily
consensual relationships here we know in ancient times daughters were given away
in marriage right dads gave them away there wasn't so much of a choice in that
type of situation we already read that the sons of God took any that they
wanted and so there's this this idea of sexual violence happening during this
time which would include everything from rape and dominance and you know the
whole polygamy thing and women just being used and abused is really
terrible but we have this word Nephilim connected to all of this here and
Nephilim always brings up another important question or a curious question
I should say that has no definitive answer but who or what are the Nephilim
right if you look at some of the movies Hollywood has made you see the Nephilim
are angels encased in rock with Russell Crowe fighting against them right and
that's that's not really biblical right there's all kinds of theories and you
know some of them are interesting or not there's a lot of debate but we have to
start with understanding this the word Nephilim is a transliteration not a
translation now explain what that means when there's a Hebrew word and then we
translate it into an English word that's called a translation Nephilim is a Hebrew
word that nobody knows the meaning to and so what they do is they take the
Hebrew letters and then they rewrite it in English letters that's called a
transliteration so Nephilim is actually the Hebrew word for whatever these
creatures are now I said nobody knows what it means definitively but they
think it means fallen ones so it could be referring to people falling into sin
it could be referring to fallen angels it could be referring to whatever fallen
ones could refer to right now the idea is that the people people have gotten
their idea of what Nephilim are through scripture itself and it's traditionally
been translated as giants if you have a King James Bible or a New King James
Bible you'll see the word giants here instead of Nephilim and the reason they
did that is because in Numbers chapter 13 verse 33 when Israel was going into
the land to spy the land right Israel was about to move into the promised land
they sent 12 spies and they all came back and ten of them except Joshua and
Caleb they were the only ones that were faithful ten of them came back and they
say this numbers 1333 we even saw the Nephilim there the descendants of Anak
come from the Nephilim to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers and we must
have seen the same to them so what the spies are saying is we went into the
land and we saw people that were so big it made us feel like grasshoppers
compared to their size and then of course years later because Israel didn't
go into the land they got scared God had him wander the wilderness for a while
and then in Deuteronomy 9 2 years later when they were going in Moses addressed
them and said look the people there are strong and tall the descendants of
Anakim so the description of Nephilim according to the conquest of Joshua's
time is that they were these giant people and so what traditional translators
did is they said well if they're giants we're gonna take it over here to Genesis
6 4 and put in the word giants right but there is this reference to the fact that
that whoever these Nephilim were they were big tall strong people now if the
sons of God truly is fallen angels then that would mean that the Nephilim as
their offspring would be half demon half human there'd be some type of some type
of weird hybrid creature now that could account for the fact that they were
giant in stature that they probably had you know what what was thought to be
superhuman strength it would explain why they're why they're called here the
powerful men of old and then they're also called the famous ones that word
famous also can be rendered heroes that they are the heroes of old the heroes of
the thing and it tells us that these big mighty giant sized people that later on
in scripture we learn are wicked and stand against God that here before the
flood they were idolized as heroes by the culture and it would also explain
too why in so many cultures in our world today the cultures have legends of what
they call demigods right where did the Greek get the idea of Hercules a half
God half man where did other cultures throughout the world get this idea of
that there was creatures on earth that were insanely strong and powerful who
are hybrids of these supernatural creatures in mankind that lends credence
to the fact that it's possible something like that existed at one time on earth
and then it also explains why God had to destroy the whole world and put these
sons of God in prison because there was this an abomination that was probably
created by their line now people ask well why would demons do this one their
demons they're wicked they're evil they hate everything God stands for they hate
God's creation but to I personally believe that this that the sons of God
being fallen angels mating with humans was an attempt by Satan to pollute the
genetic line of mankind you guys remember what God said to Eve your
offspring is going to crush the head of the serpent your offspring now if I was
Satan I'd be like well if I could corrupt the genetic line so that the
offspring could never be born poof I win now that is a theory but it is a theory
that I do ascribe to that that was a part of why this was happening now again
if these Nephilim were half angel and half mankind hybrids then they had to
have been wiped out in the flood because it was only Noah and his sons and their
wives that survived on the ark right but then people go well if that's the case
why do we read about Nephilim in the conquest of Joshua why do we read about
that in numbers 1333 well there's a couple possible answers to that one of
them is that Noah who was of the Sethite line was righteous his kids were the
Sethite line and they were righteous but it says that it was Noah and his kids
and their wives and we don't have any information about their wives so some
postulate that hey the wives had Nephilim genetics within them and then
when the flood came and then they went to populate the earth then you know
Nephilim genetics continued through that's one possibility that people put
out the other one is that Nephilim isn't describing a race of peoples per se it's
just a descriptor right it's just that there was anybody that was giant and
powerful and huge they were called Nephilim meaning that Nephilim wasn't
connected to sons of God at all there were sons of God fallen angels mating
with humans there was also these giant people that existed that were powerful
heroes of old and that would tie into the idea that Goliath he was a giant he
was ten feet tall the Bible references these people called the Anakites and the
Rephaim that are referenced as being giant people in the Old Testament you
have the story about King Og of the Bashan and it's telling about this king
he's wicked he's evil and then it includes this really odd detail that
you're like why would why would they include this detail this is what they
say his bed was 13 and a half feet long and six feet wide why include that
detail about this king because if you went how big was his bed that was a big
dude that was a really big dude and and and these people that we see referenced
throughout Genesis and even the Old Testament is that they were large
people they built cities that that the Israelites said it looks like the city
walls touched the sky there's actually been discoveries recently in Israel where
they've discovered what they think is ancient gas and in this city as they're
uncovering and getting this stuff out they're finding these these foundations
of houses that are giant sized foundations of walls and structures are
like this is way too big for for normal sized people to live in right so there's
there's some support there and then of course some people want to try and
debunk all that and I'll let you deal with that on your own but here's the
point what we can be sure of scripturally is that there were in the
past people who were incredibly tall and strong possibly what we would call
giants 10 feet 15 feet both before the flood and after because that's what it
says there right they were on the earth both in those days and afterward now
they may or may not have been demon hybrids they may or may not have been
just big people or they were both do you see why the answer is we don't know okay
so so yeah it's an interesting thing to talk about all this but ultimately it's
it's not really relevant to the point what is relevant to the story here is
their character those that are referred to as Nephilim both before the flood and
after or people connected to those that are called Nephilim they are always
characterized as wicked evil violent and just against God in his ways in every
way okay and so in verse 3 we're gonna look at that right now where John or God
generalizes mankind of this time in the days of Noah including those that he
calls Nephilim or that are called Nephilim he says they're corrupt they're
all corrupt look at verse 3 and the Lord said my spirit will not remain with
mankind forever because they are corrupt their days will be 120 years now the
first thing I noticed there when I was studying this is it says that the spirit
the Holy Spirit was at work in the world during this time he says my spirit will
not remain with mankind forever which means his spirit was there working in
the world and that was interesting to me because what is the Holy Spirit doing
today in the world the Bible tells us that he is here working convicting the
world of sin and righteousness and judgment to come how is he doing that
he's moving on men's hearts he's also moving through his church that preaches
the gospel to the nations and it was the same thing going on in these days that
the Holy Spirit was working through men like Enoch and Noah who it tells us not
only lived righteousness but preached righteousness the Holy Spirit was there
working in the world and it says God says my spirit will not remain with
mankind forever that word remain is not a positional type of thing like he's not
gonna stay here he's gonna leave the word remain means to argue or to judge
or to contend so what this is saying is God is look my saying my spirit is not
gonna keep making the case to the world that they are sinners and that without
God without giving their life to God judgment is gonna come right he says my
spirit's not gonna be doing that forever and today God's spirit won't be doing
that forever that right now we're in the time of grace and patience just like
they were in the days of Noah and God is using his people to preach
righteousness and to plead with humanity to to trust in him to put faith in him
that they would escape judgment and sadly just like today we see that many
just rejected that rejected that message and so he goes on to say that their days
will be 120 years there's two interpretations to this some go oh see
God limited the lifespan of humans right humans were living 900 years and so he's
like I'm gonna limit their lifespan so they can't multiply so fast so their
years are 120 the problem with that is when we get past the flood we see people
like Abraham and others that lived way longer than 120 years so it's like
either God lied God was wrong or he's being metaphorical right the other
possibility and I ascribed to this one is that when God said their days will be
120 years he was talking specifically of the days of that time or the people of
that time their days will be 120 years meaning they got 120 years left before
judgment comes so anyways moving on to verse 5 we see that God responds to what
is taking place here in the world in a very real and emotional way see back in
creation when God created things he kept saying it was good there was light and
it was good there was animals it was good there was this it was good it was
good it was good then he gets to the sixth day and he makes man and woman he
goes wow it's very good right look what he says here when the Lord saw that
human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the
human mind was nothing but evil all the time he then regretted that he made man
on the earth now this is the third parallel to our modern culture increased
population increased perversion sexual perversion and wickedness there and then
here it's just widespread wickedness not only were the outward actions of
mankind wicked and evil but but it's referring to their thought life that all
they thought about was bad things and sinful things and wicked things and
selfish things and really that's where sin starts right starts in our mind
starts in our heart then it comes out in our actions but it says that it was all
the time nothing but evil all the time that that they didn't ever stop and go
oh am I doing what is am I doing something wrong they didn't even go hey
what about what Noah said can we talk about that it's just it was devoid from
their minds it says that the human wickedness was widespread on the earth
that word means that the wickedness got super wicked right you ever heard that
phrase it went from bad to worse it was bad now it's super bad right that is the
idea here Paul was talking about this type of thing happened in these type of
people when he was in his time writing to the Romans and he was talking about
those that that are supposedly enlightened right and know they're know
that that you know it's all about them and they reject God this is what he said
in Romans 1 21 that their thinking became worthless and their senseless
hearts were darkened that's what happens when we reject God we keep rejecting God
our hearts get darker and darker and darker and our thinking becomes more
ridiculous right how ridiculous is it to think that no there is no male and
female there's an infinite amount of genders it's just insane but how else
are they gonna justify their sexual perversion and sin unless they come up
with these silly silly things and that's why it's like I genuinely believe that
that that type of thinking it's it's a mental health issue it's an issue of
mental health that there's there's deception and it's that's what happens
with sin though and even Paul talked about it then so it gives a good
description of what was taking place in the days of Noah and in the days of Paul
and it's a good description of where we're headed today the idea is that the
depravity wasn't a season it wasn't a phase it was it was it wasn't a
temporary condition that it was it was absolute that there was no backing off
no repenting no hesitating with the sin and the pursuit of sin and the thinking
up new ways to sin it was that lust and personal desire and pleasure and
personal wants were the goal and violence was the method of attaining
that goal total depravity and now we see what God feels about that verse 6 the
Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and he was deeply grieved
then the Lord said I will wipe mankind whom I created off the face of the earth
together with the animals and the creatures that crawl on the birds of the
sky for I regret that I made them can God make a mistake
no he can't God is perfect God knows all things he's everywhere at all times he
can accomplish and do all things you know some silly people go okay well then
can God make a rock so big he can't lift it you'll run across that talking with
atheists and stuff and it's a silly question it's just a silly question
because it's sidestepping the issue you know but when you ask him God make a
mistake the answer clearly biblically is no God does not and cannot make
mistakes he is perfect so then the question is well what does it mean then
that he regretted that he made man like people will point this out to you and go
see God makes mistakes because when when we use the word regret in our English
language it's usually like I wish I didn't do that right that's kind of the
way we use it right I made a mistake I regret that I you know that's how we use
it and so we read it here and of course it's it's translated different ways in
different different translations of the Bible but the idea here is that when
people read this type of thing in English ago aha God made a mistake we
have to understand that the Hebrew word for regretted here simply means to be
caused to feel sorrow that God felt sorrow that he made mankind on earth it's
not that he messed up it's just that he was sad that this is what they have come
to it's like he's saying I feel sorrow and grief that this is where man has
ended up you can do something and know the outcome and allow it to happen and
still feel grief at what's taking place sometimes as parents you get to a point
where as your kids are getting older and teenagers and starting to get in
adulthood where where you're like oh we got we got to let them go a little bit
and let them make a mistake so they learn sometimes it's like well if you
let the kid touch the hot pot on the stove they won't touch it again don't do
that but still but the idea is as you let them suffer and you go oh my heart
breaks right disciplining your kids you know some parents you know when when
they're like hey I've got a discipline my child and spank them and the parents
tear up and cry over that because they feel so bad that they're but but they do
it anyways because you know it's good for them right this is what's happening
here is that God is allowing and has allowed mankind to make its choices
throughout the whole time gracefully warning them of the consequences of
those choices through those that he's preaching through but God knew it was
gonna happen just like he knew Adam and Eve were gonna sin but because God loved
us so much he had to allow free will like if God made us love him then we're
just robots so God allowed the choice it was one choice in the garden disobey
God or not you have every blessing in in creation don't do this one thing well
what did mankind do I want to do the one thing right when you see a sign on a
bench that says wet paint what do you want to do touch it stay off the grass
well that's an invitation to run across it maybe that's just me with attention
deficit disorder but you know there's just this thing in us and when somebody
says don't do that you're like that's all I want to do now it's a sin nature
it's rebellion and so God let man do what he was gonna do but we've already
seen in the in the story with Adam and Eve although God knew they were gonna
sin he needed to let them exercise their free will that it would be a free will
choice to love him he knew they were gonna eat of the tree anyways so when
they did they suffered the consequences but not the full consequences he let
him keep living he covered him with animal skins and then he gave him his
prophecy hey Eve your offspring is gonna take care of this sin issue but as it
was all playing out as God was watching it play out his heart was broken he was
deeply grieved at what man was doing and this just shows us that God is not a
passive observer of humanity right God just did not start evolution and then go
on vacation God is not without concern and care and compassion and emotion and
grief over what sin and wickedness does to us God sees you and he sees the sin
that you commit me too and it grieves him when we do that because sin wrecks
lives sin destroys and it breaks God's heart when he watches us take the free
will he's given us and use it to do something wicked and bad and evil it
doesn't mean he stops us from doing it it breaks his heart and that's what's
happening here now of course Moses is using human words to describe something
that I think is beyond our human comprehension to understand right you
know God's eternal joy and happiness cannot be disturbed in any way God is
perfect and holy and all that yet God who is perfectly and always content and
satisfied in himself and full of joy and happiness can simultaneously feel grief
and sorrow and due to the depth of mankind's depravity at this point where
all of mankind had turned from God didn't care about God the judgment would
only would involve a total and complete erasure of mankind and all he was to
rule over and this is the fourth parallel to a modern world population
explosion increased sexual perversion widespread wickedness what's the fourth
parallel judgment on sin has been declared and is coming this shows us
then and now and in the future there are no half measures when God comes to when
it comes to God dealing with sin no half measures he's gonna deal with it fully
and completely the fact that he's waiting patiently is grace that's what
Paul said don't don't think that God's slacking off because he hasn't judged
everybody yet because when he judges it's gonna be a complete and thorough
judgment and this terrible solution that was flooding the world and doing away
with all of mankind was grounded in that promise that he made to Eve her
offspring was gonna crush the serpent's head and mankind had gotten to a place
where they couldn't possibly give birth to an offspring that would fulfill God's
will thus humanity needed to be destroyed however verse 8 this is where
we'll end today Noah however found favor with the Lord you know this is Genesis
to me bad bad man bad man wicked man evil man grace man you're done you screwed
up you made bad choices grace bad bad right over and over and over again we do
bad God extends grace we're dumb God extends grace I'm so thankful for that
because I've probably made dumb decisions a hundred times by now today
and we do it every day it's just like really drive in here you know someone
cuts me off and you know that thought goes through my mind I just want to bump
them off the road and then I'm like whoa Lord where'd that come from I can't do
it with this car right it's just it's in our nature so what does it mean here no
Noah found favor with the Lord right it's telling us that Noah had responded
to God the way Enoch had and we know this because in verse 9 we're gonna deal
with this next time but it says Noah was a righteous man blameless among his
contemporaries Noah walked with God that's the same exact phrase God used to
describe Enoch that Enoch walked with God and because Enoch walked with God he
was not he wasn't there anymore because God took him right we talked about that
in our last study that that idea that he believed God is and thus he believed
God's promises and God's warnings it's like if God said it I believe it that
ends it there's no discussion no argument he believed him he walked with
God the way Enoch did and like I said we'll talk about that more next time but
suffice to say that he found favor with God not because of any works on his own
but by faith because when we go to the New Testament we look in Hebrews again
the same same place where it said by faith Enoch didn't die it also says by
faith Noah meaning that it was by faith trusting in God's existence trusting
that God is trusting that God is who he says he is and his promises are true and
his warnings are true because he believed that it tells us that he found
favor in the eyes of the Lord he received the fruit of that trust which
is salvation you see that's a tough one for us isn't it you just have to believe
in Jesus Christ that he is God that he died for you that he rose from the dead
and people go it can't be that easy you don't know what I've done God knows what
you have done and still died on the cross for you 2,000 years ago and so he
still says yeah I know everything you've done and if you just put your faith in
me no I need to atone for my own sin somehow you can't that is the point
you're wicked God atoned for your sins and you just believe in that you mean
it's just faith yes yeah I don't have to do 50 kumbayahs no I don't have to carry
around a 50 pound Bible to be more spiritual than everybody else no I don't
have to be in church you know 17 times a week you don't have to it might be good
for you but no you just put faith in Jesus Christ you put trust in God you
say I believe him I believe he is who he says I believe everything he says his
promises and his warnings and Moses or Moses Noah did that just like Enoch and
it was his faith it was directly opposed to the world of his time it was directly
opposed to the morality of his time and we're experiencing that in today's world
right the very tenets of our Christian faith and the things we believe in are
becoming more and more intolerant and more and more racist and more and more
bigoted and and just because I disagree with you people are like you should be
burned you should be killed you should be cast out Wow when did it get to the
point where we simply just can't disagree anymore but we're at that place
in our world and so now I'm not saying Noah was a perfect man he was born into
sin just like Enoch was right he was born tainted with the stain of corruption
just like Enoch was he had the the same nature that the rest of the world had
and he bore the image of God just like the rest of the world did but the
difference was instead of rejecting God and dismissing God's warnings and
pursuing sin at all cost he believed God and thus he found favor in the eyes of
the Lord so today like then I believe our world rightly sits under judgment we
may not be a completely demonized world or a completely demonized culture yet
but we're heading that way you just look at our culture today like sex trafficking
is bigger than it's ever been organ harvesting is bigger than it's ever been
the drug epidemic wiping out entire cities San Francisco is just falling into
a hole the violence that is celebrated as I mentioned earlier I just saw a
video this morning some kid running down the street and the ladies just standing
there minding their own business he walks in me just clocks her in the head and keeps
running and I'm like whoever's filming that why aren't you doing something and
it's probably somebody with the kid it's just the deviancy the violence the
atrocities in our culture and then like the Nephilim so many of the famous men
in our culture are just wicked evil people aren't they the celebrities that
are worshiped the ones paid millions and millions of dollars to go make terrible
movies about terrible things and people go wow they're so great let's celebrate
them they're the heroes of our time but scripture tells us very clearly and
repeatedly that our condition without Christ is hopeless you see in Romans
chapter 3 Paul wrote this where he said without Christ this is the state of the
world a completely corrupt soul speaking only corrupt words doing only corrupt
deeds this is what he said there is no one righteous not even one there is no
one who understands there is no one who seeks God all have turned away all alike
have become worthless there is no one who does what is good not even one this
is mankind without God we attained the knowledge of good and evil in the garden
instead of doing all the good what we did is pursued all the evil Paul goes
on to say their throat is an open grave they deceive with their tongues vipers
venom is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness our souls
are corrupt our words are corrupt and then he goes on to say their feet are
swift to shed blood ruin and wretchedness are in their paths and the
path of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes
that's what was happening in Noah's world I believe it had gone from no
there's no God let me argue with about that God isn't real to the point where
people said even if God is real I don't care and I believe that's what's
happening today that's the direction our world is headed I'm finding more and
more people when you want to tell them about God there they don't argue any
more about is he real they argue about does it matter if they follow him or
not because there's no fear of God before their eyes truly as Jesus said
just as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in the days of the Son of Man
people went on eating and drinking and marrying and being given to marriage
until the day Noah boarded the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all
our only hope individually and our world's only hope is in the amazing grace
of God to find favor in his eyes through faith through trust believing in who he
is that he is who he says he is and therefore his word is true and his
promises are true and his warnings are true the only hope of salvation is to
trust in what he did for you
Ephesians 2 says you are saved by grace through faith this is not of yourselves
it is a gift from God not from works so that no one can boast and then Titus
3 5 says he saved us not by works of righteousness that we had done but
according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and the renewal
by the Holy Spirit God truly grieves at what sin does to his people he grieves
at the wickedness that is consuming mankind he grieves every time someone is
hurt someone is wounded someone is simply taken advantage of he grieves
every time but the Holy Spirit is in the world working today speaking today
hoping to work through every single one of us that call ourselves Christians to
go out into the world and say judgment is coming judgment is coming but
regeneration and renewal salvation is available today all you have to do is
believe in him put your faith in him believe in who he is and what he did for
you by faith except that his death on the cross atoned for everything bad
you've ever done it and everything you ever will do because that is the truth
the offspring the promise indeed came it was Jesus Christ he defeated death he
defeated the power of sin and he offers salvation to all who would call upon his
name but if you don't take it you reject it you go on eating and drinking and
marrying and giving in marriage and and just not even thinking about God one day
judgments gonna come and when judgment hits it'll be too late for you it's
gonna get worse than it is today infinitely worse so much worse and God
wants to save you he's speaking to you right now father we trust you we believe
your word God Lord do we see this picture of how bad the world got before
the flood Lord that it was so wicked God very possibly that it was this weird
spiritual wickedness of fallen angels and humans and offspring being these
weird powerful giant people or none of that at all Lord either way it was
wickedness and evil that was pursued that the thoughts and the inclinations
of the human mind were nothing but evil all the time and Lord our world is
quickly headed that same direction and yet God your spirit is in the world
today just like it was then and I believe it is still doing that work
today that it did then to convict of sin and righteousness and judgment to come
that Lord as you have saved some of us we have a call like Enoch and Noah to go
out into this world and to share with people that we have found favor in the
eyes of the Lord not because of our actions and not because of earning it
but simply because God you loved us and we put our faith and trust in you in
your word and that we'd be people who share that truth with this world that is
heading rapidly towards destruction but God regardless of how bad it gets we're
always gonna see grace until you're done and here we see that there was grace
even in this time as your word says while you were patiently waiting while
Noah built the ark that you commanded him to build and so Lord we ask that
that you would continue to be patient that we would be able to share hope with
more people that we would be able to bring that hope to those that don't know
you that God even those that that are in that place of saying I don't even care
if there is a God Lord that that we would still share with them and love them
and demonstrate the gospel to them through our words and through our
actions and how we live ourselves Lord that we wouldn't live hypocritically
damaging the gospel but instead as Noah did to live righteously and Lord we
know we can only do that through your spirit we could only do that through
your power we cannot do it on our own Lord and so I Lord please fill us with
your spirit please continue to guide us and to lead us and to teach us please
God remind us in the very moment of sin that we could just bring you into that
moment say God please come now and deal with this temptation Lord and you do so
so that Lord we would with good conscience be able to go tell people
about you and what you've done in our lives that they would experience the
same while we're praying with heads bowed I just want to give a quick
invitation if anybody is in this room and you do not know Jesus Christ is your
Lord and Savior or you're watching online and you don't know Jesus Christ is
your Lord and Savior you are here today you are hearing this message today by
the grace of God that the Holy Spirit has brought you here to hear this
warning today that without Christ you will perish in judgment because God's
judgment is coming but right now this moment he is still waiting for you he
is still waiting for you to to believe that he is God that you've sinned
against him in his holiness that the penalty of that sin is death physical
death yeah we're all gonna die but spiritual death permanent separation
from God's suffering in hell forever but God loved you so much that he sent his
only begotten son that if you would believe in him you would not perish but
have everlasting life if God is speaking to you in this room while we're praying
with heads bowed I just want you to raise your hand and say I need to
receive Jesus Christ today if you're watching online and God is speaking to
you just type into the chat there and say I need to receive Jesus I want to
be saved because there's no other important decision you will ever make no
more important decision will ever be than the one you make to say God saved
my soul anybody in this room just raise your hand where I could see it let me
pray with you today if you're online just type it into the chat all right
father God we trust you and we pray God that your spirit speaks to the people
Lord that you are drawing people to you that you're convicting of sin our lack
of righteousness Lord and the judgment that's gonna come upon those who don't
know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior God I pray that that all those
Lord who know they need you would call out to you and say Jesus saved my soul
change my heart I believe you I believe your word for no other reason than you
are God and it's what you said and I believe you when you say you'll save me
if I trust in you so I put my faith in you today God change my life teach me
how to live for you and use me as a light to those who still don't know you
and thank you for loving me so much it's in Jesus name I pray amen
well church I pray that God will keep ministering among your hearts and keep
encouraging you to be about the work that God has called us to do because the
days are short the time is coming and if you're one of those people that say oh
that but they've been saying that for thousands of years guess what then
you're gonna be the one that goes oh dang it just happened I missed it we're
called to be ready at every moment of every day because he'd come at any time
and if you still have people you love and care about that don't know Jesus
Christ tell them about your hope tell them about your Savior amen all right God
bless you guys