The Perilous Pre-flood World Genesis 6:1-8

One of the most fascinating aspects of life is that evidence of times past is left behind for us to see. This is what we call history. History was always my favorite subject in school. There are archeological finds, documents, and oral recordings that tell us of times past.

We also see the evidence of times past through the way we find our physical world. We have seven continents, but were those continents always separate from one another? Scientists believe that there was once one large mass of land known as Pangaea.

So what caused this one giant landmass to be broken apart? Then we have canyons, the Grand Canyon being the most notable. How did that canyon and all these canyons get there? Locally, how did the carving of rocks with the St. Croix River in between form?

How about this? You go one mile from here and you have two lakes, Big Lake and Twin Lake. How did these form? Even more significant, you go 90 miles north of here and what you come upon is what looks like an ocean.

If you were the first one to come upon it, you might think it is the ocean, but it's not an ocean, it's a lake. It's a Great Lake, Lake Superior. At the beginning of the world, this lake was not there.

So how did it form? How did the other four Great Lakes form as well? Well, within the landscape of our world, a history is there to be found for those who look. Everything that I just described about the present state of our world was caused by one big, great event that caused many events to follow.

This event was the global flood. The Bible is a history book and it tells us what happened. According to Genesis chapter six through chapter eight, God sent a flood on this earth where everyone died and only eight people were spared.

The eight that were spared were Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives. The question that everyone needs to ask is why the flood? The earth shows that there was a flood everywhere you go on planet earth, but why the flood?

Why did God send this catastrophe upon the earth? The greatest catastrophe this world has ever seen? The answer is it took something very bad. And generally speaking, we know that it was the wickedness of mankind, but there is a question as to what specifically made things so bad on the earth that God decided to destroy the whole planet with water.

Right before God sent the flood, Genesis chapter six verses one through eight describes the sons of God, the daughters of man and the infamous Nephilim. So who were these people and what did they do that God sent a flood on the earth?

We are going to set out to answer this question this morning as Peter alludes to the events that took place on the earth before the Lord sent the flood. To help us understand what Peter wrote in first Peter chapter three verses 18 through 22, I'm going to take the time this morning to preach as I mentioned from Genesis chapter six verses one through eight with the goal that next Sunday we'll have a better understanding of what Peter is communicating in the text first Peter chapter three verses 18 through 22.

So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me not to first Peter this morning, but to Genesis. Genesis chapter six verses one through eight. Now this church is very familiar with Genesis because I took two years to go through Genesis in the earlier part of my ministry here.

So I encourage you to turn there with me. If you do not have a Bible, we do have those red Bibles in the pews. And this sermon is titled, The Perilous Pre-Flood World. The Perilous Pre-Flood World. And I'm going to read the text to begin.

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 into 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 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.

The First Reason: The Godly Line Intermarries with the Ungodly

Here's our big idea. Understand that long ago, humans were so wicked that God wiped out his creation with a flood. And we're going to see three reasons why in this text. The first reason why is this. The godly line intermarries with the ungodly.

Okay, so verses one and two, we will see this. We'll begin by looking at verse one of chapter six. In verse one, he says that man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them.

In verse one, we see the mention of the word man. Gender is not in mind here, but rather this is a general term for humans. Moses is the author of Genesis and what he is communicating is that the human population was fairly large at this point.

We see the mention of the daughters who were born and this sets the stage for what we see in verse two. In verse two, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. God created men to be attracted to women, women to be attracted to men.

These men see that these women are attractive. Now there's a big debate among Bible interpreters as to the identity of the sons of God. There have been three traditional interpretations among Bible believers and I'm going to tell you each of these views and refute the first two and support the third.

I've already kind of showed my hand with which view I hold to, but the first interpretation is that the sons of God are fallen angels. Revelation 12, four says that when Satan rebelled against God, one third of the angels went with him.

This view states that some of these angels who rebelled against God, known later in scripture as demons, took on human form, married women, and had ungodly offspring. This view, interestingly, was supported historically by a book in the Apocrypha known as the book of Enoch.

Enoch was written in between the time of the Old Testament and the time of the New Testament and the book of Enoch interpreted this passage as saying these fallen angels impregnated female humans. Supporters of this view argue that these are the angels that Peter refers to that we will see next Sunday when he writes that Jesus preached to them in first Peter 3, 19, after his death, when Jesus' spirit left his body and he went to the abyss to proclaim victory to them.

Second Peter 2, 4, so it's showing his triumph over them, essentially. That's what this view says that first Peter 3 is saying. Second Peter 2, 4 also describes fallen angels as being held in gloomy dungeons as punishment for marrying these women.

Now, one obvious objection to this view is this. 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 that. And 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, for in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

In other words, in the age to come, humans, when you have a glorified body, this new indestructible body, there's no marriage. There's no children. That's the state you're gonna be in. In the place we are now, of course, humans have children.

We keep the human race going. Angels were created at the beginning, never to have children. They're individual creations of God and that's the way that God made it. Now, the judgment God makes later on in this text concerning the wickedness is directed toward humans and not angels.

Now, while I do not take this view, I do have a respect for those who do. John MacArthur actually takes this view, who I have tons of respect for, but I see too many issues to hold to it myself and again, we can agree to disagree.

This is not a huge doctrinal dissent here, okay? We can agree to disagree on these things and that's totally fine. Now, the second view is that the sons of God 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 pronouncing his judgment on the kings of the earth.

In verse one, the psalmist says, God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. In verse six, God says, you are gods, 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, the word used for God, Elohim, is used for human rulers. In Psalm 82 .6, they are called sons of the most high. It is believed that this kingship arose out of the wicked line of Cain.

Cain's line, as we'll see in a little bit in Genesis four, was known for their advancements in society. This would include leadership by being kings of towns and regions. Well, this view is possible, just like the other views possible.

This was a fairly common Jewish interpretation down through history. This view is, in my opinion, unlikely because there's nothing about kingship in this context or in the previous context. 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 the kings ruled for the gods. But there's no indication that there was a large group of people known as the sons of the gods who caused so many problems by intermarrying with the daughters of man.

There isn't enough there to be certain, so I think it's a stretch to hold to this second view. Now, the third view is that the sons of God refers to godly men or the righteous line of Seth. Now, not to me, of course, my name is Seth, but the line of Seth as is described in the genealogy in the early chapters of Genesis.

If we look at the larger context, we know that the mention of the sons of God follows the mention of the wicked line of Cain from chapter four. And the mention of the righteous line of Seth that starts at the end of chapter four and continues into chapter five.

What we need to understand is that Cain's line was incredibly wicked. This is shown well through the life of Lamech in chapter four, verses 23 and 24. Lamech, he's the first polygamist. Okay, and that's the least of his problems because he's also a murderer.

Just like Cain, who came before him, Lamech was a murderer. On the other hand, the line of Seth is pure. The line of Seth is described in chapter four, verse 26, in this way, to Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh.

At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. So we see the clear indication that Seth and his line are pure. They call upon the name of the Lord. There are two other notable people in Seth's line.

The first is Enoch. Genesis 5, 24 says concerning him that Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. Enoch is one of two men in human history who never died. The other one is who? Elijah.

The statement that Enoch walked with God is stating that Enoch lived a life of close communion with the Lord. And we hear this language in our day. This man walked with the Lord. This woman walked with the Lord.

You know where that comes from? It comes from Enoch. Enoch walked with the Lord and the Lord took him. The other notable person is, of course, Noah. Genesis 5, verses 28 and 29 says that when Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, out of the ground the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.

Okay, so Noah is a man of blessing. He's gonna be a blessing to the world. So we see the evidence that Cain's line was evil and Seth's line was the godly line. The evil line is described first in Genesis 4 and then the godly line of Seth is described starting at the end of chapter four and into Genesis chapter five.

Having a godly and a sinful line is not something that just happened at the very beginning of human history, but rather something that has always happened down through history. In fact, yesterday, Doug and Alan and I were talking about this godly line continues.

It goes through Abraham, it goes through Israel, and it goes all the way to the Messiah, Jesus. There's this godly line down through history and it starts with Seth. And we see this in our day, too. We see this all the time.

My family history is a story of both blessing and curse. My dad's line is godless. My father and maybe one or two others are the only saved ones from his entire line. Lots of people who were unsaved. On the other hand, my mother's line is godly.

My great-great-grandparents were Christians all the way to the present day. So we have the godless line of Cain and the godly lines of Seth. I mean, we see this play out and you can think of your family.

Maybe one side of your family is godly and the other is not. Maybe both of your sides were ungodly and you broke the curse. Or maybe both of your lines are godly. Now what we see in verse two is that these two lines intermarry.

They marry and the bad pollutes the good. The sons of God, the line of Seth, marries the daughters of man. The line of Seth marries outside of his heritage and moral decline happens. With this interpretation, the sons of God means godly people.

God's people are referred to this way throughout the Bible. For example, Christians are described in this way in 1 John 3 .1. Israel was called the children of God in Deuteronomy 14 .1. Israel line, which starts with Abraham in Genesis 12, is traced back to the godly line of Seth, as I just mentioned.

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 Deuteronomy 7 .3 .4.

And 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. The enormous damage that would be caused by a godly line intermarrying with a wicked line.

And by the way, people wonder why did God destroy the Canaanites? Why did he command Joshua and the Israelites to just completely wipe them out? Because it's that dangerous to pollute a pure people. The evil that comes from that is untold.

And we see this play out down through history. So the Lord said, do not intermarry with these godless people, the Canaanites. So we took a long ways to get there, but the correct interpretation, I believe, again, if you disagree with me, that's okay.

I believe the correct interpretation is the line of Seth were the sons of God in verse two. We want to understand every passage of scripture in context and this interpretation, I think, best fits the context.

From chapter four to chapter five to the beginning of chapter six. So this informs our understanding of what Peter writes in 1 Peter 3, verses 18 through 22. What the line of Seth did is they strayed from their godly heritage by marrying, as verse two says, any they chose.

They did not follow the boundaries that they should have followed. They married any they chose. I mean, we did the marriage sermon at the beginning of 1 Peter 3 several weeks back. There was a warning in there, right?

To the unmarried. Marry the right person. Marry someone who loves the Lord. It's gonna save you so much trouble in life. You want to have a godly line and by marrying a godly spouse, you are setting it up to have a strong legacy of godly offspring.

Now that we have seen, as I believe, that the line of Seth are the sons of God and that they made the grave error of intermarrying with the wicked line of Cain, we now get a picture of why things got as bad as they did.

The Second Reason: Widespread Violence Filled the Earth

Okay, so here's our first point. The first reason why you are to understand that long ago, humans were so wicked that God wiped out His creation with a flood. The first reason why is that the godly line intermarries with the ungodly.

The second reason why you are to understand that long ago, humans were so wicked that God wiped out His creation with a flood is that these times were known for widespread violence. Let's begin by looking at verse three, where Moses writes,.

Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. So our attempt to figure out what this passage means continues here. The Lord says in verse three that his spirit shall not abide in man forever.

In the ESV Bible, which is what you have in the pews here, the spirit is capitalized, which tells you that the translator believes this is referring to the Holy Spirit. Some take the spirit abiding in man to be the human spirit, the immaterial side of man.

This would reflect Genesis 2 .7 that mentions God breathing a spirit into a man. Either way, God is the one who maintains life in a human, and He says, I am not going to endure this sinfulness any longer.

Okay, we see the character of God here. God does not put up with sinfulness forever. Now, the next question we need to ask 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 as corruption. Weakness is in mind with this word. Mankind has limitations. Humans will die. Our mortality, the fact that we will die is only there because of sin.

God's spirit will not abide in man because it is corruption. Then we get to what is the meaning of 120 years. Some interpret this verse to mean that God will bring about a flood in 120 years from the point He's making this declaration.

Okay, so there's a warning. A big flood's coming. It's 120 years from now. This would give people a final chance to repent before God brings the flood on the earth, and it also gives time for Noah to build the ark.

The other interpretation is that God lowers the lifespan of humans to 120 years because He doesn't want to see sinners live all the way up to 900 years. That's a long time for sinners to cause problems on the earth.

Since the wickedness of humans and the emphasis on mortality because of that wickedness is the focus of this section, I believe the shortening to 120 years seems to fit better. The argument against this is that people like Abraham, who lived after the flood, lived to past 120 years.

Abraham lived to be 175, as Genesis 25 .7 says. But it could be that God delayed the 120 barrier in the same way He delayed Adam's death to several hundred years later after he sinned. You notice that Adam doesn't just die, right?

He lives longer after the curse is placed on him. Eventually, the 120 barrier was set. Moses, who came after Abraham, and lived to be 120 years old. Very interesting piece of evidence there. Not only do we see the Old Testament show the 120-year lifespan, but we see this in our day as well.

Occasionally, you hear of someone on the news who lives to be 115 years old or something like that, but no one lives past 120. Is this a coincidence? I think not. God actually set the lifespan there, right?

He's the one who determines how long people live at the end of the day, no matter how healthy you are. So think about that. We've got 120 years. No, I mean, most of us don't have that much, but make your life count.

That's the window of time you live in. I had a conversation with a relative one time who's a skeptic of the Christian faith. He had a problem with Genesis, that all of these people were living to be 900 years old.

It looks like this big fairy tale, right? Something out of fiction. But then I told him, there's a verse in the Bible that tells us that the lifespan of humans is limited to 120 years. And then he stopped questioning me at that point because he was like, oh, it actually says that.

I'm like, yeah, it does. 120 years is the lifespan that God limits humans to. The length of years is much shorter than the first humans because God is the giver of life, does not allow humans to live any longer.

Psalm 90 verse 10 actually says that humans' average lifespan is 70 or 80, which is right on the money. If you look at the statistics, men and women live to be in their 70s. That's a pretty average lifespan.

Now we get to get another interpretive issue in this passage, and that is the identity of the Nephilim. There's been so many books written on the Nephilim. The first four verses of this passage are difficult to understand, but the last half is actually much more straightforward.

But let's look at verse four, where we see here, the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renowned.

The question we need to ask is, are the Nephilim offspring of the marriage between the Lion of Seth and the Lion of Cain, or are they contemporaries to the sons of God, also known as the Lion of Seth?

The word Nephilim is used in one other place in Numbers 13. The spies of the Israelites look down at the Canaanites and say they look like giants, and we look like grasshoppers. It is clear that the spies are using an analogy just to describe the Canaanites of their time to the Nephilim described here in Genesis chapter six.

The Canaanites of Numbers 13 were very evil men, just like the Nephilim of old described here in Genesis six four. If you look at verse four, you will notice that the Nephilim are the same as the mighty men who were of old, the men of renowned.

These were people who built quite a big reputation, and this was a negative reputation. What we see is that they were around before the Lion of Seth married the Lion of Cain, and also afterward, as verse four says.

So in other words, the pollution of Cain was there with the Lion of Cain, and then after, as this intermarriage happens, and the pollution goes to the offspring. So who were these people? These were the violent men of this time.

These violent men were from the Lion of Cain and the offspring of Seth's line, they intermarried with Cain's, and it led to violence and destruction. As the Lion of Cain raised havoc, as they polluted the godly line, the world long, long ago became a place of chaos, much like our world today.

There's no right and wrong. People just live how they want. There's violence. I mean, think about what Hamas did to Israel. I mean, just the unspeakable things that they did to babies and children and innocent people.

The world before the flood was like that. So understand that long ago, humans were so wicked that God wiped out his creation with a flood. And the second reason why is that these times were known for widespread violence, as the wickedness of man was great at this time.

The Third Reason: God Would Not Let Evil Continue Forever

And here's the third and final reason why you are to understand that long ago, humans were so wicked that God wiped out his creation with a flood. And that is God could not let this evil go on forever.

I've already alluded to this. He could not let this evil go on forever. Verses five through eight, we'll see this. So what we have seen here is a very bleak picture of the human race. And now you've been told by secular, maybe in school growing up, you've been told men are inherently good.

You've been told that. The Bible says the opposite. Men are inherently evil. It started out good, yes. Adam and Eve were sinless and enjoyed sweet fellowship with God in the garden. But then they fell into sin.

Then God established the line of Seth, which was a blessed line. But things did not stay good because the line of Seth, because they were sinners too, intermarried with the line of Cain. The result was this era became known as a time of great corruption and violence.

The Lord sees all of this. And this is what he says in verse five. The Lord saw the great wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

In theology, this is the doctrine known as total depravity. Total depravity means that on one's own, people will not have holy thoughts. The thoughts will be sinful. Even apparently good deeds are somehow tainted because of the sinfulness of the human heart.

This is how deep sin runs. So we need to understand, this is why God is not going to keep this world going forever. He is going to destroy this earth in the future. He is going to recreate it. He's not going to let sin go on forever.

He didn't let it go on historically. He's not going to let it go on in the future. The darkness of the sinful human heart is a reality that we all need to understand. It's why we have weapons in our homes to protect ourselves.

On the new earth in the age to come, the second amendment won't even, we won't need it, right? Because there's going to be no intruders. There's going to be no evil people. Everybody is going to be perfect at that point in history.

The author of Genesis, who is Moses, by the way, and by the way, a lot of people, there's a lot of scholars who say, oh, Moses, we don't know who wrote Genesis.

Yes, we do.

I mean, Jesus said, Moses wrote of me. Alan talked about this. Somehow the words of Jesus are less than the words of some secular guy. I mean, it's just, I don't know why that is. Well, we know why that is because there's so much corruption out there.

Moses wrote Genesis. And what he does is he highlights that the heart is only evil. Jeremiah 17, nine says concerning the human heart that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Who can understand it? Romans 3, 10 says, no one is righteous. No, not one. In our sinfulness, there is no good in us. When an unbeliever, as I mentioned, does a good work, even that is sinful. So at this point in history, long ago, the Lord looked at how bad mankind had become.

And this is what he said in verse six. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. Okay, this does not mean that the Lord wished he did not create humans to begin with.

But he is sorrowful to see how horrible his image bearers have become. The depths of the sinful human heart grieves God. 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, we bring offense to God. And that's the worst part of sin. And the fact that our sins bring offense to God is the worst part and it leads to judgment because ultimately every sin we commit is ultimately against him.

Now, as the Lord looks at how bad things got, the Lord, as the all sovereign God, has to do something about this. Wickedness runs wild all over the earth and God is not going to let it go on forever. So this is what he says in verse seven.

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. What we see here is the nature of God.

God is not only a God of love. He's a God of justice. It is common for churches to only focus on God's love. But look what God did long ago. It's kind of weird to think about that. There was a global flood, right?

Only eight people survived and yet, sometimes you might go to a church or you've been to a church in the past where all they talk about is the love of God. And yet we live on this planet that was destroyed by a flood.

I mean, think about how ridiculous that is. We must recognize the justice of God. Exodus 34, verses six and seven says, the Lord, the Lord, our God, gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love.

But by no means will he clear the guilty. Part of his perfection is that he is just. He rights every wrong. When there's a crime committed, there needs to be a reckoning. There needs to be accountability.

It needs to be righted. And you'll notice here in verse seven that God is not only going to destroy humans, but he's also gonna destroy animals. I feel bad for animals because they suffer and die, not because of their own actions, but because of ours.

They live in a fallen world. They suffer the effects of a fallen world because of our sins. So God looks on the wickedness of man and he's going to wipe them all out. But there's hope. There is a man in whom God has found favor.

In verse eight says that the Lord found favor in Noah. And this section closes by telling us that this was God's plan, that he would preserve Noah, he and seven others, and the human race would continue.

And through this line, through the line of Noah, which would eventually reach Abraham and then go to David, it would go all the way down, thousands of years, to the Messiah, who would be the savior of the world.

So this text points to the gospel. There is hope. There is hope for humanity. Some leaders in church history have described Jesus as the Ark. Just as God destroys the world with a flood and spares eight by building an Ark, he spares everyone from his holy wrath who finds their refuge in Jesus.

But the question is, the door shuts eventually, doesn't it? Just like the door shut on the Ark. The door shuts eventually. So the offer is there to believe in the Lord Jesus. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will be saved.

You will be spared from the wrath to come. So we see, even in the midst of judgment here, we see the graciousness of God. So as we conclude here, understand that God long ago, sorry, understand that long ago, humans were so wicked that God wiped out his creation with a flood.

And in this text, we've seen three reasons why. The first is that God was led to do this as the godly line intermarries with the ungodly. These times were known for widespread violence. That's the second reason why.

And God could not let this evil go on forever. That's the third reason. So 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 are honest, we would have to say yes. And how much more, even over the last three years? I mean, think about how much evil has advanced, how rapidly it has picked up, even in recent years. So why does God not wipe us out?

He's patient. 2 Peter says that he doesn't wish any to perish, but that all would reach repentance. He's patient. He wants people to repent. Just like he gave time before the flood came in Noah's day, he is patient with people, wanting people to find their refuge in Christ before that judgment comes.

What's interesting is that in ancient times, God destroyed the world with a flood. In future times, he will destroy the earth with fire, as 2 Peter 3, verses 5 through 7 describes. And then after that, he's going to create a new earth where all these redeemed people, all these people who found their refuge in Jesus are going to populate this new earth.

Our refuge is in Christ, and the world's refuge is only in him. So this morning, I thought it was appropriate to preach this text that Peter references in 1 Peter 3, verses 18 through 22. So next week, when we get back into 1 Peter, we will have a better understanding of what Peter means when he writes, Jesus went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey.

When God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water. Next week, I look forward to looking at that text with you and what it means for our lives as Christians.