Genesis 6-1

Good morning everyone. It is so good to be back and get the opportunity to share with you this morning. Right now the kids have the opportunity to go back and meet their teachers and go back to their amazing classes, while we all get to take a look at a really strange passage this morning and see what God has to show us in the midst of the amazing. Hey, speaking of amazing, I want to welcome those of you that are joining us online. We know that there are times when you are unable to going together in person, but we always encourage everyone to participate in your own local church. If you are unsure how to find a local church, then please feel free to reach out and let me help connect you with a Biblically based Gospel preaching fellowship of believers. If you are in Ogle County then we would love to welcome you here as part of our spiritual family.

Hey, who here loves Sci-fi stuff? If your online, comment what your favorite sci-fi show is? Personally I love a good sci-fi movie or TV show. My family and I for a while were really hooked on a show called Dr. Who, we have also all loved the Jurassic Park franchise, although I will tell you to hold onto you money before you go see the latest Jurassic World, it just didn’t live up to the franchise, although maybe it did since Jurassic Park 3 was a bit less than stellar as well, so....Anyway, Im getting off track here. Im not sure if I can really say what my favorite sci-fi has been though, especially becuase the sci-fi genre is really big and keeps getting bigger. I guess the sub genre I would really like, at least right now, is the dystopian storylines. Maybe thats becuase those shows feel a bit more realistic over the last couple of years :) …Anyway, the point is that sci-fi is really fun to imagine and think about what could be or maybe even a historical sci-fi thinking about what could have been.

Well this morning we are going to begin looking into what some might think of as a sci-fi story. Its a bit of a strange and an amazing story that is pretty much setting up a bigger story that we are going to look at next week. So, with that said, I think the best think to do is to just jump in and read the passage and then we can kind of talk about it…how’s that? Ok, let’s open our Bibles, and if you don’t have a Bible of your own then I want to invite you to take from the Bibles in the back and feel free to keep that as our gift to you. You can also use the YouVersion Bible App and all of our notes will be right there in front of you as we go through the service together. So, let’s open up to

Genesis 6:1–8 (ESV)

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

OK, so who has ever seen the movies or TV shows or books about Hercules and his half brothers and sisters? I remember growing up and watching Kevin Sorbo play Hercules on TV and I really enjoyed that show. If you don’t know who Hercules actually is he is a man that was born out of a relationship between a god and a woman. Hercules father was Zeus and his mother was a mortal woman. The idea is that this woman was beautiful and Zeus the god of all gods saw she was beautiful and so he left his heavenly realm and had a relationship with her. Well, being half god Hercules had various powers. He was strong and mighty and wise and a great solder. He was in fact a man of renown...This sounds a lot like what we just read in Genesis doesn’t it? As a matter of fact there is much controversy over this passage and trying to figure out what exactly is being said. However, there is something more important going on that this controversy…there is a pattern of behavior that is happening that we should really pay attention to. That pattern of behavior is

Man’s Compromise

You see there is alot of compromise going on here that we need to pay attention to because it has an impact on our own lives as well. You see, we learn about the future by looking at the past. In this scenario we can see what compromise will lead to, so let’s pay attention this morning. There is something that we notice here. Satan is not mentioned here is he? Yet we know he is working. If you remember God declared war on Satan back in

Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

That’s not a thing that Satan looks forward to, so he is working in the background in order to do everything he can to stop this from happening, even though its a futile attempt.

Kind of like this…Ok, Im going to tell you about another dumb thing I did. When I was around 19 or 20, I was driving the church van down in Puerto Rico and dropping people off. Well, I got to someones house and quickly jumped out of the van to go get the door open for the ladies that were getting out. Well, i jumped out so quickly that I forgot to put the van in park…Yeah, I did that. So, I see the van start to move, and I decide Im going to stop it with my bear strength…Now, this was a 15 passenger van from the 80’s so I promise you I was unable to stop anything…I pushed and pushed until I realized I needed to jun and get into the van and use the brakes…That is when I realized that I forgot to put the van in park. You see, I knew there was no way I could stop that van, yet I tried anyway…

That is pretty much was Satan is doing throughout all of the Old Testament history. God declared war, and Satan is going to fight back.

How is Satan going to fight back though, that is the question isn’t it. One of Satan’s greatest tools is compromise. You see, if he can get the believer to compromise his holy living for a life a little less holy then over time there will be more non beleivers than there will be believers, right? Think about that concept in our current culture. If you were to look 5 years ago the things that we see today would not be tolerated. If we were to look 10 years ago you would be called crazy to say that this would happen. What am I talking about? Well, it just so happens we are in the middle of what is called pride month. This is the month that we as a culture get the privilege of of celebrating the some of the most degenerate actions a person can make. I remember sitting in a pastors meeting in Lafayette, Indiana close to 10 years ago and there was a conversation about gay marriage and how we as pastors should or shouldn’t speak up against it. I specifically remember hearing pastors talk about how this isn’t the fight worth fighting, just let people live their lives. Well, when I and others brought up the idea that this is just the beginning I was told that I was relying on the slippery slope fallacy. The slippery slope is a logical fallacy that basically states that one action does not necessarily lead to another. The problem is…Christians compromised and look at where we are today. Compromise is a great tool of the enemy. So, how do we see that in this text this morning?

What compromise is happening in Noah’s time?

IN order to see that, let’s look back at our text for today.

Genesis 6:1–2 (ESV)

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.

Right here we see something pretty big happening. When the sons of God saw the daughters of men they were married…Ok, so what is happening here. This is the sci-fi part I was telling you about earlier. I will be honest here this morning, this is a text that has troubled me for pretty much my whole Christian life. If I could get away from talking about it I would, the problem is, its in the Bible, so clearly something important is happening here. So we need to figure out who are the sons of God, and who are the daughters of men? That is our next task here, so let’s dig in a little bit. Now, if we can figure out who the sons of God are, then we will know who the daughters of man are. Historically there are three arguments about the sons of God that have had a significant following in the scholarly world.

Angels

Human Judges or Rulers

Descendants of Seth

Now, Im going to give you a super brief view of these, and then we will move on. 1. If they were angels, that causes problems becuase we know that angelic beings do not have sex organs meaning that they would not be able to give birth as we see later. Although, maybe they were angelic forces that possessed men and used their bodies. This seems pretty fantastic to me and has alot of additional problems that kind of show up here. However, this is the view that was held by those closest to the events. This is a view that was held by the Jewish authorities until at least 1 bc, so there is alot of history with this one.

Next, we can thing about the idea of judges of rulers. in this view we see that those in charge hold a godly view of themselves. We see through throughout history that many times in the Ancient Near East those that were kings were thought of as gods, and becoming a deity. We specifically see that through the lineage of Cain that there are cities built and those city included violent tyranny. It is actually argued that Lamech from Cains descendants is the background for verse 1 here. That the “mankind” is referring to the lineage of Cain growing. The problem here is that we are not specifically talking about kingdoms in this section of Scripture, so it seems a little out of place, although it could make sense.

Finally we have the descendants of Seth. This is the view that most modern scholars as well as our church fathers are taking. In this view it is seen that the sons of God are seen as “godly men”, that is the descendants of Seth that had been living a Godly life. Now, this view definitely has some challenges as well, but it does seem to make the most sense based on the context of the surrounding passages. You see, in chapters 3 and 4 we are able to see the contrast of the two main lines of Adam. In the descendants of Adam, you have Cain and Seth, Seth being the son that took Ables place in history. Therefore we have the Cainites, and the Sethites. This passage then shows us the results of these 2 lineages intermarrying with each other and bringing about a great wickedness.

You see, you really could believe any of these three views, and great men and women of faith believe and have believed all three of them. However, when we look at the context of Scripture and understand the story of man it seems the most likely that the sons of God refer to the descendants of Seth.

Now, that being said, it is true that there is a strong belief that Lamech is the cause of this first verse, and if that is the case then it makes sense to see that these men had daughters and then the sons of God were attracted to the daughters of man. Then the offspring of these two became the Nephilim. Ok, this bring up a whole other controversy. You remember I told you about Hercules earlier…well that is what many people basically believe that the Nephilim are. However, that belief if based on the idea that the sons of God are angelic beings that came and invaded Earth. The word Nephilim is a transliteration of the Hebrew word. The word Nephilim is defined as the fallen ones. I can understand how one can have the view of the fallen ones being those that have fallen from God’s grace is the Heavens. But what if the fallen ones simply means that they have fallen from God’s grace right here on Earth. In other words, they have fallen from the truth.

The Nephilim are seen as men of renown and they are seen as giants. Those who follow the fallen angel theory would say that the Nephilim were angels with human bodies. However, if that is true, then either the Nephilim survived the flood, or these angels would have to invade the Earth again becuase they show back up in Number 13 when the spies look into the promised land. No, that doesn’t really make sense.

No, the most likely explanation of the Nephilim is that God saw the people as “fallen ones”, while man saw the people as mighty leaders…men of renown. Even today, much of what is admired by the world is rejected by the Lord. If you don’t believe me look at our current culture here. I mean we live in a time when sin is celebrated as heroic and Christlikeness is looked down on as a joke. We live in this time becuase of compromise...

When the Sethites compromised their Godly beliefs and lifestyles for the beauty of the Cainites they fell from God’s blessing. This led to a place that the Lord saw the wickedness of man and that every intention of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil continually…Every thought of mans heart was only evil continually…this is where we find ourselves at this stage. This is also where we find ourselves today. We find ourselves in a time when people have compromised so much that there are churches that believe actively living in sin is ok. There are churches that will allow members to live in sin becuase it is uncomfortable to confront their sin. Listen, when we, as beleivers compromise our belief in the Gospel, meaning all of Scripture, then we deserve the same judgement that we will hear about next week. So, what can fix this, what or who can save us?

God’s Grace

This is the only way people can be saved from Gods wrath. We are in a time when only Noah and his family of 8 people in the whole population of the Earth was seen as salvageable. Why is that though? Well, it is important to remember that God’s grace is not a reward for right living or a reward for a good life, no instead grace is a God’s response to a saving faith.

Hebrews 11:7 (ESV)

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

True faith requires all of you, not only a part. True faith includes your mind desiring to know and understand the Word, your heart yearning to be like Christ, and the will to act in obedience to God’s Word even if it is something you don’t want to do. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says,

“To understand God’s truth but not act upon it is not biblical faith; it’s only intellectual assent to religious truth.” —Warren Wiersbe

Listen, this is important especially in the world we live it today. being emotionally excited without understanding the Gospel isn’t faith becuase true faith is based on understanding the Truth, at least to the level you are capable. We see that in Matthew 13 with the parable of the sower. Equally though to have a mind that understands the truth but is not stirred to act in obedience is not faith becuase faith without works is dead…we see that in James 2. You see, the mind, heart, and will are all involved in true Biblical faith.

Listen, everyone who has ever lived has been saved by faith. No one was ever saved by sacrifice, it was faith that led to action that saved those in the Old Testament. It is faith that leads to action that saves us today…Salvation is a gracious gift that can be rejected or received by faith. Like Noah, we must all “find grace in the eyes of the Lord”...So my question to you this morning is....Have you found grace in the eyes of the Lord? This doesn't mean your perfect, I guarantee Noah was woefully imperfect, but you have a mind that desires to learn more about God, a heart that desires to be like Christ, and a will that is living it out…

Let’s pray