Book of Genesis - Ch. 5, Vs. 1-Ch. 6, Vs. 5 (06/04/2000)

The Generations of Adam and the Line of Seth

This chapter deals mostly with lineage, the names of people, tracing them down primarily to Noah. Before we get into it, I would like to ask you a question. You can tell me how it is that the oldest man that ever lived died before his father did.

The son of Enoch, the oldest man that ever lived, which was who? Methuselah. Methuselah. And he died before his father. Why, Clarence? Methuselah died in the year that the flood came. I don't know if he drowned or whether he died first.

Man, the elect, in the beginning was part of God. Then man, the elect, was separated from God. And now man, the elect, is again part of God. The elect have been part of God throughout all of past eternity and will be part of him throughout all of future eternity.

The creation is but a speck in eternity. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God, made he him. Notice the statement, in the likeness of God, means spiritually, not physically.

Male and female, created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam. In the day when he created, they were created. They were made, actually. Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness.

Why is it? Where'd Greg go? Greg, we see in verse 1 that God made Adam in his own likeness. We see in verse 3 that Adam begat a son in his own likeness. Why did they put that in there? Why is that there?

Well, there's another big distinction also. Fred, in the first verse, we're told that God created man in the likeness of God. In the third verse, we're told, and Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, called his name Seth.

Why did it point out his likeness in the third verse? Is that your final answer? Yes. Seth, Adam, was in the likeness of God, totally without sin. But in the third verse, it makes it very specific that Seth was in the likeness of Adam after Adam sinned.

So Seth had to sin nature. You see that? And it points it out that it's in the likeness of Adam, meaning that everybody now will have the sin nature. And the days of Adam, after he begot Seth, were 800 years, and he begat sons and daughters.

And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. Now, we go through all of these, which I'm not going to read, but you'll see after every one of them that he died, until we get over to a man by the name of Enoch.

Enoch Walked with God by Faith

Enoch lived 60 and 5 years and begat Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. Now, the name Methuselah means when he dies, it comes. And on this side of the flood, we know that was a reference to the flood.

And all the days of Enoch were how many? In verse 23, 365. Does that ring a bell with anyone? One year for one day. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Now, let's look at a few things that Enoch lived without, that we have.

First, he didn't have the Bible. He didn't have the church. He did not have the Lord's Supper. He did not have fellowship with other saints. Yet, Greg, he pleased God. He walked with God. With all of these aids, then I would say that we, too, could walk by faith as Enoch did.

I'll give you two references, Hebrews 11, 5, and 6. Two verses of one reference, and they speak of Enoch. Now, we come back to verse 25. Methuselah lived 180 and seven years and begat a man by the name of Lamech.

And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 780 and two years. And all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, lacking 31 years of being 1 ,000 years old. Lamech lived 180 and two years and begat a son.

His name was Noah. Now, we've come to a man that we feel like we know, Noah. And he called his name Noah, saying, this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.

Don't forget that. The ground is under a curse. The creation is under a curse, even to this day. In all of the days of Lamech were 770 and seven years, and he died. Now, we take up Noah, and we're going to spend some time with Noah.

Noah was 500 years old, and he begat three boys, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We've heard a lot about these three boys. We're going to hear more. Who was the older? Who was the oldest? Japheth, who was second?

The Beginning of Human Depravity in Genesis 6

Come to the next chapter. This one gets a little more interesting for me. And it came to pass. And what have I told you about that phrase? And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them.

Having the little word began, B-E-G-A-N. See that in verse 1? When men began to multiply. Multiply, it's a very powerful word. And it illustrates the downward rush of mankind. In other words, all of the awfulness that's going on in this verse is summed up under the head of began.

The word is kolal, K-A-W-L-A-L. It means to profane either a person, place, or thing, to break one's word, to play the flute, to defile, to gather the grape thereof so as to become drunk, to take an inheritance.

Stealing is coming. Play on instruments. Music plays a great part in Satan's. To pollute, to prostitute, to slay sorrow, stain, and wound. As men began to become degraded, they started to steal, to practice prostitution, to use music as an aphrodisiac, to kill and take whatever they wanted.

And there was no law to prevent this rape of their environment. Remember, it was entirely different than it is today and has been all of our lifetime. There was no law in that time except the survival of the fittest.

And each man was an army unto himself, he and his household. And Abraham gives us a wonderful example of that. Now, in the second verse, let me go back and read the first. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair.

And they took them wives of all which they chose. The word took is loka, means to buy, to carry away, to draw, fetch, to get, to mingle, seize, or to take away. So when they took wives, they just took them, as though kidnapping them.

Anybody they wanted, they took. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. Yet his days shall be 120 years. We'll get to that again in a moment. There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bared children to them.

The same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Now, let's see if we can make a little sense out of all of this. First of all, the sons of God. Most preachers, theologians, claim that these were angels.

And the reason for their belief is based partly on Jude 1 .6, if you want to turn to that for a moment. Greg read that to us. Exactly the same thing that happens today. Praise the sons of God. They are those that believe, and the daughters of men are the non-believers.

And you might well ask about the giants. Nephel, that means bully or tyrant. From another Hebrew word, nophal. And this word means fugitive, inferior. And this is the line of Cain. It's true that there were and are, at the present time, giants in the world.

Physically and otherwise, giant does not exclusively mean large physical stature. It can also mean a giant in the financial world, a giant of intellect, politics. If these were giant men in physical size, it was not because of there being children of angels and earthly women.

I asked you back in the fourth chapter to make note of verse 26. Will you turn back to that, please? Read that one. It doesn't mean that they began in one day. It means it had been started some time ago, and we're told now that there is a dividing of the way, those that worship God and those that do not.

The definition of the word angel is to bring tidings or to be a messenger. These sons of God are not angels. Angels of God wouldn't do such a thing. And if they did such a thing, they would not be called sons of God.

The word son is ben, or bane, B-A-N-E. And it's like that at every place in the Bible. In Hebrew, it's bane, every one of them. It's the builder of the family name. It's exactly what we would consider to be a son.

So if these were angels, which, by the way, are sexless, and if they cohabited with earthly women, their offspring would have been a mutation. Where are they? We see no mention in the Bible of these monstrosities at all.

So I will go on record by saying, and it came to pass when the men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God, which were those that worshiped God, saw the daughters of men which did not worship God, that they were beautiful, fair to look at, and they took whoever they wanted.

And it's going to lead to trouble, as it always does. I think that's as far as we'll go. My voice is almost gone today for some reason. I did want to get this opened and go through that much of it. And we'll go over it again next week.

Very same thing, but I want you to think about it. Spend some time looking up those words, if you want to. And also, in this morning's class, I failed to mention your assignment for the week, but we'll keep it active until next week and hope there'll be more people back.

You even remember what it was, how that proves security of the believer. Anything else? Anything, Pastor? Greg dismisses.