The Corruption of Mankind

Intro:

Moral insanity in Noah’s day, it’s the same in ours… looking into a mirror… so relevant a passage

A world out of control

A world gone mad

A world with a reprobate mind

A world where people think right is wrong and wrong is right

A world where men are with men and women are with women

An insane world where women are becoming men and men are becoming women

Whenever mankind rejects the knowledge of God, it will always result in their corruption… loses its moral compass… self-destructs

This is the description of the days before the flood, of a corrupt people, with a debased mind, with one family as the exception… Noah’s

Chapter 1: Creation

Chapter 2: Image of God

Chapter 3: The Fall

Chapter 4: Cain & Abel

Chapter 5: Bridge… concludes with Noah, “the one who will give us rest”

Chapter 6 describes the situation we find ourselves in today

1. Man corrupts himself in sin

Genesis 6:1–5 (NASB95)

Genesis 6:1 (NASB95)

1 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,

In fulfillment of Gen 1:28, they “multiplied”

Why are daughters mentioned and not sons?

Daughters have the capacity to deliver babies… to multiply

Genesis 6:2 (NASB95)

2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Who are these “Sons of God” and “Daughters of men”

4 Options:

Fallen Angels

Demon spirits in some human form

In a fallen demonic state that co-habitated with daughters of men

I don’t believe this is correct, although “Sons of God” is used 3 times in Job to describe angels

Mark 12:25 “25 “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”

Too far of a stretch… called “man” in verse 3 not angels

Mighty Men

Dominant/proud men

Line of Seth… (Daughters from line of Cain)

Might be true, but I believe the 4th option holds the most weight

That the sons of God are exactly what it says they are: sons of God

Believers, adopted into God’s family

Whereas the daughters of MEN, are unbelievers… b/c they are not of God.

In this interpretation, believers are marrying non-believers

Whomever they choose, based on outward appearance

Sought after daughters who lacked faith, devotion to God

They married against the will of God… v2 says whom THEY chose

Their flesh/lust were leading them

God design marriage to be in HIM!

2 Corinthians 6:14–15 “14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”

This person isn’t my partner in ministry, she’s my mission field!

This wasn’t the only sin, but it led to a host of others, leading… to a corrupt nation.

We live in a corrupt nation.

If it was not for the church, and its moral influence upon America, we would not want to live here.

What once was a nation with family morals/values

What once was a nation that stood on the Word of God

What once was a nation that honored God

Is now a nation that’s wicked and corrupt.

The sons of God continued to take the daughters of man, and each marriage was a further departure… further departure… further departure…

Until one family was left

In a WHOLE WORLD that’s caught up in the worst depravity

Genesis 6:3 (NASB95)

3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

God is the speaker

Noah is described in 2 Peter 2:5 as a preacher of righteousness

Noah may be the preacher, but it is God Himself speaking

It is not Moses just writing, it is God speaking

God the Father… affirms the Spirit.

Found throughout the OT

Gen 1:2… until Jesus says I will send the Spirit

The Spirit was already here… He is omnipresent, everywhere present.

Jesus referenced a greater demonstration of the Spirit in His day, but the Spirit is seen at work throughout the whole Bible or else NO ONE could be redeemed to God! or sealed in salvation, or called unto God!

“My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.”

Means: Right now the Spirit of God IS striving with man!

But there comes a point and time where God will turn you over to your own ways and abandon you, if you heed not His words. Thats the essence of Rom 1.

John 16:8 “8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;”

God was there and active, yet the world was stiff-necked and rebellious

The word “nevertheless” is a transition to show that despite “being in the flesh”… God would give a duration of time to repent, but it wouldn’t… last… forever.

120 years

Not that man can now only life for 120 years…

But that mankind only had 120 years left to repent until they were blotted out

Similar to Jonah 3:4 “4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.””

Message of condemnation, but also salvation

There is a limited number of days for our nation, our world today.

Matthew 24:37–39 “37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Genesis 6:4 (NASB95)

4 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. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Nephilim?

We don’t know

“Mighty men, men of renown” … power stature and influence

Name means: “the fallen ones.” Which is either an indication of who they are, or an indication of the people who fall before their power

Dominating, domineering dictatorship… and the people follow suit

Men of “renown”… are like the sinful men and women we glorify and try to be like today… movies/hollywood/celebrities/singers.

Genesis 6:5 (NASB95)

5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Every Intent: plans, designs, premeditated forethought.

It is sin that is well thought out!

This is as bad as bad can get!

Psalm 14:2–3 “2 The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.”

Jeremiah 17:9 “9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”

As we look into our world, there is no political solution, that can fix a spiritual problem.

The only hope for us is the gospel.

You may have the best form of government imaginable… by the people for the people… but if they act as wicked immoral ANIMALS, I’d rather have the most fierce dictator in the world if he held fast fully to the word of God and implemented it faithfully.

2. Sin grieves the heart of God

Genesis 6:6–7 (NASB95)

Genesis 6:6 (NASB95)

6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

God was sorry?

Means He was grieved/pained

Despite the fact He knew it would happen all along!

And was apart of His plan even though He is not the author of sin!

Yet God was pained!

God has a heart! God can feel great emotion! He isn’t some passive passionless ruler! He CARES!

We can GRIEVE the Holy Spirit when we sin—Ephesians 4:29-30.

Genesis 6:7 (NASB95)

7 The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Blot: wash completely away

Man: all mankind

It’s as if God said “I will just drown them to death”

One may ask, how could a holy and righteous God do this? …

How could He not?

He should have done it far sooner

Long-suffering & patience

How does God feel when He looks down on America?

Sees the corruption of that which was made for good.

Sees the chaos, despair, pride, lust, the absence of any good moral.

I truly believe that God’s wrath is stored up upon the ungodly like a dam, waiting till the day when it cannot be held any longer and bursts forth upon them with no way to escape

3. God will redeem a remnant

Genesis 6:8 (NASB95)

Genesis 6:8 (NASB95)

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

In a world of pure evil… there was but one man… his wife/children/their wives

Noah would preach 120 years with no response

Like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel

Yet God was glorified

Favor means grace: “unmerited favor”

Like a bright star in a dark night

In the death of the whole world apart from Noah, God will start all over again… and spare a remnant.

You and I are apart of that remnant of believers… will extend through the coming of Christ

In the days we do have, do not be married to the world, but to Christ.

Don’t walk in the ways of man but in the ways of God.

For the only way to escape the great wrath of God to come, is to be in the ark… to be in Jesus Christ

There is a period of time, as in the days of Noah, that we have and then it’s gone.

Have you been convicted of your sin this day?

Believe in Jesus, who lived perfectly and died at the hands of ungodly men, so that those who do believe may have their sins wiped clean and be seen as morally perfect as He.

Turn away from your sins, and be baptized into Christ, washing away your sins.

We sing the song: What can wash away my sins? NOTHING but the blood of Jesus.

Place your faith in Jesus, that you might be apart of this great remnant, today

Man corrupts himself in sin

Sin grieves the heart of God

God will redeem a remnant