The Deeper Plunge Into Darkness Genesis 6:1-8

What we saw last week was the contrast between the wicked line of Cain and the blessed line of Seth. The wicked line of Cain was represented by the seventh and his line Lamech who was the first polygamist and murdered a man and if he were alive today He would be on the America's Most Wanted list as I mentioned the past few weeks.

The righteous line of Seth was represented by the seventh and his line Enoch. Enoch walked with God and God took him to heaven. The line from Seth was righteous while the line from Cain was wicked. But what I mentioned last week is that the line of Seth was not perfect.

What we are going to see today is that while the sins of Cain's line were bad enough Humanity went from bad to worse. When the godly line of Seth made some costly mistakes plunging into sin themselves.

This led to tremendous immorality in humanity and God's judgment on the earth would follow. And so we're going to continuing this morning in our sermon series Through Genesis and we are in Genesis chapter 6.

We're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 8 and what we're gonna look at today is Why the flood occurred? What made it so that God would send a deluge of water on the earth in? Judgment, but we're gonna see that today in this wonderful passage and our big idea is at this early point in history.

The wickedness of humans was so great That the table was set for God to destroy his creation and we're gonna look at three reasons why. The table was set for God to destroy his creation. And the first reason is the godly line intermarries with the ungodly.

The Sons of God and the Intermarriage of Seth and Cain

The godly line intermarries with the ungodly. What we are going to see in our text this morning are the sins of Seth's lineage that led to the complete downfall of humanity. We will begin by looking at verse 1 and 2 of chapter 6.

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. We see the mention of the daughters who were born and this sets the stage for the sin in Verse 2.

Now in verse 1 we see the mention of the word man. Gender is not in mind here. This is referring to all of humanity. But in verse 2 we see this we see the stage set for the sin committed where it says that the sons of God saw the daughters of man and they saw that they were attractive and they took as Their wives any they chose without any wisdom or any discernment.

Now there is a big debate among Bible interpreters as to the identity of the sons of God. There have been three traditional interpretations among Bible believers over the years. I'm going to tell you each of these views and refute the first two and support the third.

The first interpretation is that the sons of God are fallen angels. This view states that angels who rebelled against God it took on human form Married women and had ungodly offspring. Now this view sounds strange and this view became big.

Because there was a book of Enoch written in Between the time of the Old Testament and the time the New Testament that argued for this view and so this became very popular during that time. Supporters of this view argue that These are the angels that the Apostle Peter refers to when he writes that Jesus preached to them in first Peter 319 in that verse it says that Jesus after he died went to preach to the spirits Who were in prison?

Now there are different interpretations to that and those who hold to this view That the sons of God are fallen angels. Look to that verse as evidence that this is what Genesis 6 is saying and they also look to 2nd Peter 2 4 that describes fallen angels as being held in gloomy dungeons as punishment for marrying these Women and actually an easy interpretation of that verse is to say that all fallen angels Figuratively are being held in gloomy dungeons because They are awaiting destruction and God is going to destroy them.

They will be thrown into the lake of fire as we see At the end of Revelation and there's nothing they can do about it. Now there is an obvious problem to this view. How is it possible that angels and humans could procreate?

We know this from biology. Only humans can have offspring with humans only animals can have offspring with animals. You know what? Not only can angels not have offspring with humans. They can't have children period now proponents of this view say that the fallen angels took on human form so they possessed some men and this led to their children having Mutations and and different deformities that that made them different from the rest of humanity.

So but not only can angels not have offspring with humans They can't have children period. Angels are spirit beings that do not have reproductive organs and Jesus knew this which is why Jesus said in Matthew 22 30 That in the age to come for humans there will not be Marriage there will not be reproduction and what Jesus says is that the glorified humans in the world to come will be like the angels and They will be like the angels and that they won't Marry, and they won't be able to have Children.

The children of God at that time will be set forever. So angels do not marry they do not reproduce they are an individual creation of God that live forever and the judgment God makes because of the wickedness is directed toward humans and not angels.

All of this evidence makes this view very unlikely. So that's the first view of the sons of God. Now the second view of the sons of God is that they are rebellious kings who reigned during this early part of human history.

Interpreters argue this because the word God in Hebrew Which is Elohim can also be translated as rulers. The word Elohim Is used to mean this in Psalm 82. In this Psalm God is pronounced in his judgment on the kings of the earth and in verse 1 The psalmist says God has taken his place in the divine counsel in the midst of the gods.

He holds judgment. In verse 6 God says you are God's sons of the Most High all of you. Like men you shall die and fall like any prince. So we see that in the Old Testament that the word used for God Elohim is used for human rulers and in a few cases.

In verse 6 Psalm 82 They are called Sons of the Most High. It is believed that this kingship arose out of the out of the wicked line of Cain. Cain's line as we saw in Genesis 4 was known for their advancements in society.

And according to this view not only were they known for their advancements in society, but they also ran the show they were also rulers during this time. While this view is possible, and this was a fairly common Jewish interpretation It is unlikely because there is nothing about kingship in this context or in the previous context.

It just doesn't seem to fit. Now there were likely kings at this time who were referred to as sons of God. People believed in false gods at this time, and they believed that kings ruled for the gods. But there is no indication that there was a large group of people known as the sons of the gods.

Like it like interpreters of that view say this says. There isn't enough there to be certain on this view so it is a stretch to hold it and so I Don't think it is right now the third view of the sons of God is that the sons of God refers to godly men?

The righteous line of Seth. If we look at the larger context we know that the mention of the sons of God Follows the wicked line of Cain from chapter 4 and the righteous line of Seth from chapter 5. What we see in verse 2 is that these two lines intermarry.

They marry and the bad pollutes the good. What we will see in the coming weeks is that God is going to wipe out all? The wickedness and preserve a very small remnant of Seth's line. Namely Noah and his family.

The line of Seth marries outside of his heritage and moral decline. Happens with this interpretation the sons of God would mean godly people and this actually fits with with the Old Testament because God's people are referred to this way throughout Israel was called the children of God in Deuteronomy 14 1 and in several other places as well Israel's line is traced back to the godly line of Seth.

So while God did not technically have an official people that he claimed before Israel. The line of Seth was a precursor and this line was known as the sons of God. God would later command Israel not to marry the wicked Canaanites in Israel would have looked at the damage done by Seth's line polluting itself with Cain's line as an example of what would happen if They made that same error and God forbid them to do so and we took a long ways to Understand who the sons of God are.

But I believe that the evidence shows that it is refer it is referring to the righteous line of Seth intermarrying with the wicked line of Cain. They strayed from their godly heritage by marrying as verse 2 says any they chose.

They did not use wisdom. They married those who were enemies of God. Yesterday we celebrated a lathe his birthday and the first year of her life went by fast and I know that the next few decades will go by fast, too and Lord willing a Couple of decades from now there will be a young man possibly in this church Who will come to me and ask if he can marry a lathe?

Yeah, and one of the tests I'm going to look for is is this young man a follower of Jesus Christ? Because honestly, I don't I don't really care what he does with his life as far as work goes I want him to be able to provide for her.

But what I care about the most is is he a follower of Jesus Christ? And if I see that and I'm sure that he is I will say absolutely you can marry my daughter because what what what we what you do when when you promote a godly husband and a godly wife bringing these two young people together is Hopefully you're passing along a Christian heritage and making sure that a new Christian couple is being formed.

That will raise their children to follow Jesus. My parents are here today and last week. I Mentioned that especially my mom's side that the godly heritage goes back. Several generations and it's been passed down from one generation to the next and it doesn't mean everyone was a believer.

But most were and we see the Lord's hand in that the Lord's blessing upon our family. Now that we have seen That the line of Seth are the sons of God and that they made the mistake of intermarrying the wicked line of Cain.

We are now going to see that the Lord delivers his judgment for their sins and wickedness increases on the earth. So this is our first reason That the table was set for God's judgment the godly line intermarries with the ungodly.

Widespread Violence and the Meaning of 120 Years

Our second reason That the table is set for God's judgment is these times were known for widespread violence. Look with me, please at verse 3. Here then the Lord said My spirit shall not abide in man forever for he is flesh.

His days shall be 120 years. Our attempt to figure out what this passage means continues in this Verse. This passage is actually quite challenging and I wrestled with a lot of this this week. The Lord says in verse 3 that his spirit shall not abide in man forever in your ESV Bible Spirit is capitalized which tells you that the translator believes this is referring to the Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity.

Now some take the spirit abiding in man to be the human spirit because a human is a dichotomy dichotomy humans are body and they are spirit and so the spirit here would be the immaterial side of man and This would reflect Genesis 2 7 that mentions that God breathed Into his Nostrils because we saw that man was made from dust and we saw that God gave the man a spirit when it says that he figuratively breathed that spirit into the man either way God is the one who maintains life in a human and he says I'm not going to endure this sinfulness any Longer.

God is the giver of life and he's the taker of life and he says, you know what? I'm not gonna endure this any longer. No, now before we get to the meaning of what is the 120 years? Then the next question is what does it mean that man is flesh?

Some versions say that man is mortal. The words flesh and mortal can be used figuratively at for flesh as corruption. And what is in what is in mind here with this Hebrew word? Is weakness. Our mortality the fact that we will die is only there because of sin.

God's Spirit will not abide in man because of his corruption. The last interpretation here. Okay. So now that we see that the flesh is corruption. The last interpretation of verse 3 is the meaning of 120 years and this is very fascinating.

To ponder this because there's two views here. Some interpret that interpret this verse to mean that God will bring about the flood in 120 years so in other words God's saying okay. I've had enough but here's a warning that in 120 years I'm going to bring upon this judgment of a flood and This would give the people a chance to repent before God brings the flood on the earth.

The other interpretation is that God lowers the lifespan of humans to 120 years. Because remember what we saw last week is that they were living a long time. There were some people who lived into their nine hundreds since the wickedness of humans and.

The emphasis on mortality is the focus of this section. The best of you to hold here is the shortening of life to 120 years. That's the position I take. The argument against this is that people like Abraham who lived after the flood lived past 120 years.

Abraham lived to be 175. But this is a simple solution to this. It could be that God delayed the 120 barrier in the same way. He delayed Adams death because everybody said to Adam when he sinned. Or actually when he warned them that if they sinned they were gonna die he says dying.

You will surely die. So he didn't say that on this very day. You will die. He says in the day that you do this dying you will surely die. And several hundred years later Adam Eventually died and that was because he sinned that was the consequence for his sin.

Now eventually the 120 barrier was set. Moses who came after Abraham lived to be 120. So Moses had that blessing of actually reaching this limit. If we were to take the interpretation that God delayed the flood 120 years.

We have a problem because our experience is that the 120 mark is correct. It's not just a coincidence that this is the barrier. Occasionally you hear of someone on the news who lives into the 100 and teens.

But no one lives past 20 or no one lives past 120. Actually what I saw I looked this up in the 1800s. There was someone who lived to be a 123. I think so past 120 and when I saw that I was thinking okay, there's one exception here.

That's the only report of anybody living past 120 in the history of the world. Except for the Bible here in the beginning of the Bible. And so I'm thinking okay, that's got to be wrong because there was probably some record there that was off.

Nobody lives past 120. 18 months ago my family and I were in Florida and my uncle who is a skeptic of the Christian faith. He had been reading through Genesis and and he laughed at it because he said how could anybody actually live to be?

990 years and he said no one today lives anywhere close that even with all these advancements and technology. And then I took my uncle to this verse in Genesis 6 here verse 3. Where it says of course for it for he is flesh his day shall be 120 years and that end of the conversation.

He's like oh God who's who is the giver of life and the taker of life sets this barrier at? 120 years. The length of years is much shorter than the first humans because God Sets this limit because of their wickedness.

He says no more. I'm not gonna let you live this long. But what we do see in the Bible is that if you believe in Jesus Christ you will live forever. So even though in this age There's a barrier because of the wickedness of man a day is coming when all who belong to Jesus Christ will live forever.

And that's the hope that we have and I hope that everyone here Is grabbing a hold of that hope in Jesus. What's interesting is that if you were to type in what is the average lifespan in the world today it would come up as about 75 for men and women.

Women and it gets a little bit longer than men which interest is that the Bible has this right on the money, too. Psalm 90 verse 10 says that the average lifespan is 70 or 80 Years and so we see the accuracy of the Bible the Bible tells the real Story of life, and we must trust it every step of the way.

Now we get to get another interpretive issue in this passage, and that's the identity of the Nephilim. The first four verses of this passage are difficult to understand, but the last half is very Straightforward, so we're almost there, but look with me first at verse 4.

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.

So the question we need to ask is are the Nephilim offspring of the marriages between the line of Seth and the line of Cain or Are they contemporaries to the sons of God also known as the line of Seth?

Now the word Nephilim is used in another place, and that's in numbers 13 33. Remember that story where Joshua and Caleb and the other spies went up to to scout out the Canaanites? And there were unfaithful spies in there and Joshua and Caleb are the faithful ones and the rest of the spies were the unfaithful ones.

And and they were intimidated because the Canaanites look like these strong warriors. And this is what they said about these Canaanites. They said they look like Giants and we look like grasshoppers. They are big we are small.

Now it is clear that the spies are using an analogy to describe the Canaanites of their time to the Nephilim described here in Genesis 6 the Canaanites reminded them of this story that they knew from Genesis 6.

If you look at verse 4 you will notice that the Nephilim are the same as the mighty men who were of old the men of Renown. These were people who built quite a big Reputation and this was not a good reputation.

This was a reputation of violence. What we see is that they were around before the line of Seth Married the line of Cain and also afterward as verse 4 says and so when I asked the question earlier. Are the Nephilim offspring of the marriages between the line of Seth and the line of Cain or are they contemporaries to the sons of God?

Also known as the line of Seth. The answer is both. What we see is that they were around before the line of Seth married the line of Cain and also afterward is verse 4 says. So who were these people? These were the violent men of this time.

These were the offspring of Seth's line that intermarried with Cain's and it led to violence and destruction. That is why the Israelites Described the Canaanites in this way in numbers 13 because of course the Canaanites were warriors these were men of violence and So were the people during this time in Genesis 6 6 these were violent men and they knew these violent people of old and they compared them and Some people call it with these wacky theories that the Nephilim are Giants or aliens and that's not the case.

They are people from this era with a violent reputation. That's what this is saying. So this is the second reason human wickedness set the table for God's Destruction. These times were known for widespread violence.

Human Wickedness, Divine Regret, and Noah's Favor

The third and final reason that human wickedness set the table for God's destruction is God could not let this evil go on forever. So what we have seen here is a very bleak picture of the human race. It started so good.

Remember what we read in in the beginning of Genesis. Adam and Eve were without Sin they lived in the garden things were good. Then God establishes the line of Seth which was the blessed line. But things did not stay good because the line of Seth intermarried with a line of Cain.

What a lesson this is for us to protect this godly heritage. The result was this this era became known for great corruption and violence. The Lord sees all of this and and this is what he says in verse 5 the Lord's 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 the Lord looks at the heart. He knows what's in the heart. We can't fool him and what comes out of the heart Is our wickedness. Jesus said. In the Gospels out of the overflow of the heart the mouth Speaks.

Out of our heart comes evil actions. The darkness of the sinful human heart cannot be overstated and what is frightening is that before Christ? This is where our heart is. We are capable of doing very bad things.

Because our hearts are dark. We are born into this world as sinners in need of a Savior. The author Moses highlights that the heart is only evil. There is no good in it. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3 10 that no one is righteous.

No, not one in our sinfulness good is not produced in our heart and These are the strong words in verse 6 and the Lord regretted That he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. It grieved him To his heart.

This does not mean that the Lord wished he did not create humans to begin with. He is sorrowful to see how horrible his image-bearers have become. The depths of the sinful human heart grieves him and This should be one of our motivations in turning from sin.

We offend God when we sin. We not only hurt ourselves and others, but we bring offense to God. This is something we must understand. The Lord as the all-sovereign God has to do something about this. Wickedness runs wild all over the earth and God is not just gonna let it happen forever in verse 7.

This is what the Lord says. 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.

The Lord is going to destroy everyone and you will notice here. Not only is God going to destroy humans He is also going to destroy animals. I Was thinking about this. I I feel bad for animals because they don't suffer and die.

Because they sinned they suffer and die because we sinned. They suffer and die because they live in a fallen world where all of this curse happens. So God looks on the wickedness of man, and he is going to wipe them all out.

But there is hope. That's one thing that's so wonderful about the Bible is that even though it paints the accurate dark picture there is always hope. Verse 8. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

There is hope for the human race. God plucks out this man from the line of Seth named Noah. And we saw last week the line of Seth is the blessed line of God. God isn't going to just end it there. He's going to keep it going and he's going to preserve it through the tenth man in the line of Seth.

God's plan Is to wipe out the entire human race and to preserve one man and his family to continue it. Even in the midst of God's judgment. We see his grace and his mercy. We see his provision for humanity through this righteous man named Noah so this is the third reason that the table was set for God to destroy his creation.

As We close this brings up an important application. Do you think that this picture of the darkness of mankind describes our world today if we're honest We would have to say yes, so why does God not wipe us out?

We know from the Bible that God is patient. We also know that he will not clear the guilty. Exodus 34 Verses 6 and 7 this is what this is what it says of the Lord the Lord. The Lord a God merciful and gracious slow to anger in aboundance in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and Transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.

Everyone will be judged everyone. And what we see this morning is that is that at this early point in history the wickedness of humans was so great That the table was set for God to destroy his creation.

The three reasons that God was led to this point is the godly line intermarries with the ungodly. These times were known for widespread violence and God could not let this evil go on forever. What we will see in the coming weeks is that God is going to bring a flood on the earth.

God is not going to let what is happening on this earth to continue and today we live in a godless World. We live in a messy world where there is so much garbage. Out there. We just think of the Las Vegas shooting from not too long ago.

Think of the All the murders that take place in Chicago think of the lawlessness that takes place in so many Countries all over the world think of all the violence. We live in a very dark world and God is not going to let this go on forever.

He is going to judge it. And even though we live in a world where most of the people do not follow God There are people following God including in this room. But most are not. Jesus said why does the path that leads to destruction and many travel down it?

And he said narrow is the path that leads to life and few find it. God will not be patient forever. Which should urge us all the more to share the good news of Jesus with those who do not know God people need to know that Jesus is their righteousness on this Reformation Sunday where There's the stress on the righteousness of God that if you believe in Jesus Christ, not only are your sins forgiven But the righteousness of Christ is credited to you.

One day Jesus will return and this earth will not be destroyed by water. But it will be destroyed in a different way. It'll be destroyed by fire. This is what second Peter three through five says second Peter actually second Peter three five through seven.

For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through Water by the Word of God and that by means of these the world that then Existed was deluged with water and perished but by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stood up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Do you realize that this is coming? It will come on this earth Jesus this world needs Jesus he is The only hope he is the only refuge and if you hear my voice right now I I call you to believe in Jesus Jesus.

It says believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Next week as the flood approaches We will look at Noah and the preparation of the ark and we will see The preparation that Noah took as God's instrument for hope for this world.

Let's pray Father in heaven. Thank you for Jesus on this Reformation Sunday. We are reminded of the importance of the gospel the gospel is so Wonderful. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you Lord that you preserve the human race.

Thank you that Jesus eventually came. Thank you that he died on the cross For our sins and I pray Lord that if anyone here is not trusting in Christ, I pray that they would at this time. I pray Lord That you would open up the eyes of the heart just so that people would see the beauty of Christ The glory of Christ and I ask this in his name Amen.