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Voddie Baucham - Noah's Ark · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 6 in our journey through these first 11
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  Speaker 1: chapters of the book of Genesis. And on last week
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  Speaker 1: we looked at Genesis chapter 5 and this picture of
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  Speaker 1: the sons of promise. This picture in Genesis chapter 5
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  Speaker 1: of this link between Adam and Noah through the line
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  Speaker 1: of Seth. So these first 10 generations after Adam. And
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  Speaker 1: if you'll remember on last week, we looked at the
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  Speaker 1: fact that though there were some intriguing aspects of that
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  Speaker 1: list of 10 individuals, such as Enoch who walked with
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  Speaker 1: God and then was not, or such as Methuselah who
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  Speaker 1: was the oldest man on record in the Bible, that
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  Speaker 1: the message of Genesis chapter 5 was not how old
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  Speaker 1: people lived, and the message of Genesis chapter 5 was
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  Speaker 1: not not even about the life of Enoch and what
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  Speaker 1: his godliness consisted of. But the message of Genesis chapter
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  Speaker 1: 5 was God fulfilling his promise and preserving this line
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  Speaker 1: through the seed, specifically that of Seth. If you remember
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  Speaker 1: Cain and Abel, those first two boys, we have one
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  Speaker 1: who demonstrated the that he was not that seed that
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  Speaker 1: was promised by his murder of the other godly son.
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  Speaker 1: So it's very important there that immediately following that, we
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  Speaker 1: see the line of Adam and the descendants of Adam
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  Speaker 1: registered for us through not Cain, but through Seth. And
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  Speaker 1: I said that would be important as we looked at
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  Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 6. And so here as we get to
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  Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 6, Follow along with me as we read
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  Speaker 1: here in Genesis chapter 6, because Genesis chapter 6 is
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  Speaker 1: another one of those passages of Scripture that has a
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  Speaker 1: lot of temptations for us. There are a lot of
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  Speaker 1: rabbit trails to run down in Genesis chapter 6. And
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  Speaker 1: if we're not careful, we'll end up running down those
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  Speaker 1: rabbit trails in Genesis chapter 6 and miss the point
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  Speaker 1: of Genesis chapter 6, which would have been even easier
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  Speaker 1: to do had we missed the point in Genesis chapter 5.
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  Speaker 1: But hopefully we're holding it together here. Genesis chapter 6.
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  Speaker 1: When man began to multiply on the face of the land,
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  Speaker 1: and daughters were born to them, the sons of God
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  Speaker 1: saw the daughters of men were attractive, and they took
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  Speaker 1: as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said,
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  Speaker 1: My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he
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  Speaker 1: is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim
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  Speaker 1: were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards.
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  Speaker 1: when the sons of God came in to the daughters
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  Speaker 1: of man and they bore children to them. These were
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  Speaker 1: the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
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  Speaker 1: And immediately there in that first paragraph or those first
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  Speaker 1: two paragraphs, well, yeah, that first paragraph, we read that
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  Speaker 1: and we're struck by several things in the passage of Scripture.
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  Speaker 1: Who are the sons of God? Who are the Nephilim?
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  Speaker 1: Who are these mighty men of great renown? And we'll
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  Speaker 1: get to some of those questions. But keep reading. Beginning
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  Speaker 1: of verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of
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  Speaker 1: man was great in the earth. And that every intention
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  Speaker 1: of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
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  Speaker 1: And the Lord was sorry that he had made man
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  Speaker 1: on the earth.
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  Speaker 2: And it grieved him to his heart.
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  Speaker 1: So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom
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  Speaker 1: I have created from the face of the land. man
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  Speaker 1: and animals and creeping things and birds in the heavens,
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  Speaker 1: for I am sorry that I have made them. But
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  Speaker 1: Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. There
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  Speaker 1: Noah appears again. Verse 9. These are the generations of Noah.
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  Speaker 1: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah
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  Speaker 1: walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham,
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  Speaker 1: and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight.
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  Speaker 1: And the earth was filled with violence. And God saw
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  Speaker 1: And behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted
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  Speaker 1: their way on the earth. And God said to Noah,
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  Speaker 1: This is how you are to make it. The length
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  Speaker 1: of the ark, 300 cubits, its breadth, 50.
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  Speaker 2: Cubits.
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  Speaker 1: Its height, 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark
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  Speaker 1: and finish it to a cubit above. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: that roof part, that was really important. Adam would have
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  Speaker 1: had no idea why that roof part was important, but
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  Speaker 1: he's going to find out. And set the door of
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  Speaker 1: the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second,
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  Speaker 1: and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood
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  Speaker 1: of waters upon the earth and Verse 2. Verse 3.
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  Speaker 2: Amen. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: And so here in Genesis chapter 6, again, we run
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  Speaker 1: into several things that are intriguing. Not the least of
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  Speaker 1: which are those that I mentioned earlier. This issue of
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  Speaker 1: the sons of God and the Nephilim and these mighty men.
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  Speaker 1: But also this issue of God being sorry or in
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  Speaker 1: some translations repenting because he has made man.
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  Speaker 2: What is that about?
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  Speaker 1: The sovereign Lord of the universe being said to be
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  Speaker 1: sorry for something that he has done. There are several
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  Speaker 1: other issues arising here, like the size of the ark.
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  Speaker 2: How big is this thing, this ark?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I found this picture here, and it's kind
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  Speaker 1: of this model of the ark and sort of dimensions
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  Speaker 1: of the ark. But it would amaze us, I believe,
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  Speaker 1: if we were able to stand next to the ark itself.
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  Speaker 1: I was at Liberty University. I was preaching at Liberty University.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, I guess it was a year or
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  Speaker 1: two ago. And I had an opportunity to take a
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  Speaker 1: tour there at Liberty. And there was a very interesting
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  Speaker 1: fact that was shared with us on the tour as
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  Speaker 1: we stood outside the main administration building there at Liberty University.
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  Speaker 1: And our tour guide said to us, interesting piece of
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  Speaker 1: trivia about Liberty University is that Dr. Falwell had this
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  Speaker 1: main administration building built to the specifications of the ark.
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  Speaker 2: So I backed up. And I looked at that thing and.
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  Speaker 1: I said, you know, a lot of animals in there.
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  Speaker 1: We have no concept of how large this thing.
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  Speaker 2: Was. None whatsoever.
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  Speaker 1: But to stand there next to something that was built
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  Speaker 1: according to these sorts of specifications and designed specifically to
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  Speaker 1: give people this sort of visual image of how large
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  Speaker 1: the ark would have been It's actually quite impressive. And
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  Speaker 1: so we're not talking about a little boat here. We're
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  Speaker 1: not talking about a ship. We're not even talking about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, a large ship, if you're familiar with very
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  Speaker 1: large ships. This is something that was massive, unbelievably large.
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  Speaker 1: And so there are, there are those questions that loom
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  Speaker 1: in the text. But all of these rabbit trails we
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  Speaker 1: could run down and we could spend a lot of
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  Speaker 1: time talking about each of them. But the question would
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  Speaker 1: remain the same as it was last week. Is that
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  Speaker 1: what Genesis chapter 6 is about?
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  Speaker 2: Is that what it's here for?
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  Speaker 1: Some of these questions have to be answered in order
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  Speaker 1: for us to determine what Genesis chapter 6 is about.
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  Speaker 1: One of those questions that we need to deal with
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  Speaker 1: is this issue of who are the sons of God?
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  Speaker 1: When you read that here in the text. In verse 2,
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  Speaker 1: the sons of God saw that the daughters of men
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  Speaker 1: were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
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  Speaker 1: What's being referred to here? Well, there are three possibilities.
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  Speaker 1: This has been interpreted three main ways. Again, there are
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  Speaker 1: variations of these, but three main interpretations throughout the years
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  Speaker 1: of this concept of who these individuals are. One is
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  Speaker 1: that this is a reference to the godly line of
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  Speaker 1: Seth and the ungodly line of Cain. So the reference here,
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  Speaker 1: the sons of God, refers to the godly line of Seth. Remember,
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  Speaker 1: we've talked about this just in the chapter preceding in
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  Speaker 1: chapter 5. The second possibility is that these were powerful
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  Speaker 1: kings or princes of the age.
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  Speaker 2: Canaanite kings.
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  Speaker 1: Now, hear me carefully. I didn't say Canaanite kings. There
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  Speaker 1: is no Canaan yet, okay? I said Canaanite kings. So
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  Speaker 1: kings who descended from Cain, okay? So basically, there are
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  Speaker 1: these kings, these rulers, these mighty men who were the
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  Speaker 1: descendants of Cain. And these rulers, these mighty men who
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  Speaker 1: were descendants of Cain, went into the daughters of men. Thirdly,
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  Speaker 1: this refers to fallen angels. This term, the sons of God,
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  Speaker 1: refers specifically to fallen angels. It's not at all a
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  Speaker 1: reference to the men. It is a reference to angels.
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  Speaker 1: So let's look at these three in turn. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: the idea that these are fallen angels. Let me tell you,
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  Speaker 1: you know, some individuals who sort of proposed this idea.
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  Speaker 1: This goes back to Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose. These
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  Speaker 1: are the types of individuals who made the argument that
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  Speaker 1: these were fallen angels. And they made it based on
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  Speaker 1: two main principles. Principle number one, was that that term,
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  Speaker 1: sons of God, meant angels everywhere else, that it was found.
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  Speaker 2: And everywhere else, by the way, is in Job. Okay?
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  Speaker 1: Three times in Job, he talks about the sons of God.
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  Speaker 1: And it's a reference to angels everywhere. It's a reference
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  Speaker 1: to angels when they came before God. The sons of
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  Speaker 1: God came before God, and there are these accusations that
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  Speaker 1: are being made. He refers to the sons of God.
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  Speaker 1: So this argument goes something like this. Well, because in
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  Speaker 1: Scripture when we see sons of God, specifically when we
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  Speaker 1: see it in Job, it refers to angels. Therefore, a
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  Speaker 1: plain reading of the text would have to lead us
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  Speaker 1: to conclude that this is a reference to angels. Also,
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  Speaker 1: they make the argument based on some New Testament allusions.
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  Speaker 1: For example, in 2 Peter chapter 2 and also in
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  Speaker 1: Jude verse 6 and verse 7, there are allusions to
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  Speaker 1: angels in those passages. And they argue that those allusions
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  Speaker 1: to angels in 2 Peter and in Jude bolster the
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  Speaker 1: argument that what's being spoken of in Genesis chapter 6
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  Speaker 1: is actually fallen angels. Listen to this from Charles Ryrie,
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  Speaker 1: who also holds this position. The sons of God are
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  Speaker 1: possibly one. the godly line of Seth. Two, ungodly kings
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  Speaker 1: or kinglets of the day. I love that term, kinglets.
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  Speaker 1: Or more likely, three, a group of fallen angels who,
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  Speaker 1: because of their unique sin, were confined. The phrase sons
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  Speaker 1: of God is used in the Old Testament almost exclusively
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  Speaker 1: of angels. And he refers there to Job 1-6, Job 2-1,
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  Speaker 1: and Job 38-7. So Charles Ryrie joins with individuals like
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  Speaker 1: Tertullian and Cyprian in making this argument that this is
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  Speaker 1: a reference to fallen angels.
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  Speaker 2: Listen to this from Henry Morris.
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  Speaker 1: When Noah was born and Lamech was led to prophesy
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  Speaker 1: that comfort concerning the curse would come through him, in 529,
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  Speaker 1: Satan and his angels must have feared that their opportunity
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  Speaker 1: for victory in this cosmic conflict were in imminent danger.
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  Speaker 1: desiring reinforcements for a coming battle against the host of heaven,
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  Speaker 1: and also desiring, if possible, to completely corrupt mankind before
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  Speaker 1: the promised seed could accomplish Satan's defeat, they seem to
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  Speaker 1: have decided to utilize the marvelous power of procreation which
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  Speaker 1: God had given the human family and to corrupt it
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  Speaker 1: to their own ends. And so now we have Henry
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  Speaker 1: Morris adding an entire narrative here Not just an interpretation.
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  Speaker 1: Morris gives us a whole extra-biblical narrative. He gets into
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  Speaker 1: the motives of Satan. He gets into this cosmic battle.
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  Speaker 1: He gets into them getting ready for this cosmic battle.
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  Speaker 1: So he's not just making an interpretive assertion here. He's
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  Speaker 1: making a broad theological assertion as well as he inserts, eisegetically,
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  Speaker 1: this picture of what was going on in the mind
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  Speaker 1: of Satan to bring this up. What were these angels?
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  Speaker 1: There's three problems, basically, with this argument that there were angels.
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  Speaker 1: Number one, a linguistic problem. Secondly, there's a contextual problem.
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  Speaker 1: And thirdly, there's a theological problem with this argument that
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  Speaker 1: there were angels, okay? And again, just bear with me
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  Speaker 1: as we get through this to get to the meaning
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  Speaker 1: here of the text, because this has to be cleared up.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, the linguistic problem. Sons of God occurs
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  Speaker 1: five times in the Old Testament. Just five, five times
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  Speaker 1: in the Old Testament. Three instances in Job. And Job, remember,
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  Speaker 1: is wisdom literature. And then we have two instances in
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  Speaker 1: Genesis 6, which is the law, okay? Which may or
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  Speaker 1: may not refer to angels. This is far from conclusive.
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  Speaker 1: Five times it's used. Just five times. Bera Elohim. Five
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  Speaker 1: times that phrase is used. Three times Job uses it.
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  Speaker 1: And remember, Job is wisdom literature. You don't interpret wisdom
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  Speaker 1: literature the same way you interpret the law. Wisdom literature
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  Speaker 1: is poetic, for instance. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
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  Speaker 1: These are wisdom literature. They're symbolic literature. So oftentimes you'll
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  Speaker 1: find a word used a certain way in the Psalms
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  Speaker 1: or used a certain way in Song of Solomon that
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  Speaker 1: when you go to another part of literature is not
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  Speaker 1: used the same way or in the same sense. So
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  Speaker 1: first of all, that would be inconclusive. Secondly, it's used
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  Speaker 1: here in Genesis two times. And in Genesis, there are
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  Speaker 1: three major positions as to what it means. So if
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  Speaker 1: in Genesis it's not just straightforward conclusive, you can't say
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  Speaker 1: because we know what Job was talking about because of
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  Speaker 1: Job's context and his context being clear, we can.
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  Speaker 2: Therefore come to the law and know that.
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  Speaker 1: Moses was trying to communicate the same thing that Job
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  Speaker 1: was trying to communicate. That's possible, but that's far from conclusive.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a linguistic problem there. Secondly, there's a contextual problem.
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  Speaker 1: There's no mention of judgment against the angels for their actions.
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  Speaker 1: As we read in the text, when God gets upset,
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  Speaker 1: for example, look at what happens in verse 5. The
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  Speaker 1: Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in
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  Speaker 1: the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of
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  Speaker 1: his heart was evil, only evil continually. So these angels
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  Speaker 1: commit a great sin and God says, I'm mad at man.
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  Speaker 1: There's a contextual problem there. The angels come in and
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  Speaker 1: seduce these women, and God goes, I'm going to get
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  Speaker 1: rid of man. Not punishing angels. Next, there's nothing to
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  Speaker 1: stop the process from reoccurring in the future. If this
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  Speaker 1: is the case, and if angels intermarried with men and
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  Speaker 1: procreated with women, and God somehow strikes out in judgment
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  Speaker 1: against this, and doesn't judge the angels for it, and
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  Speaker 1: doesn't change anything in the world for it, then what's
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  Speaker 1: to stop it from ever happening again?
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  Speaker 2: Nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely nothing. It's never dealt with. Thus, God wouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: addressed the real problem. Here's the other issue. There's no
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  Speaker 1: mention of angels anywhere in Genesis chapters 1 through chapter 6.
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  Speaker 1: There's been no mention of angels. And now all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden, six chapters of the Bible, there's no mention
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  Speaker 1: of angels, and now there's a cryptic reference, and contextually
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  Speaker 1: we want to say with authority, this is a reference
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  Speaker 1: to angels. So there's a contextual problem with making the
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  Speaker 1: argument that these are angels. Finally, there's a theological problem. First,
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  Speaker 1: angels do not marry. Jesus says this specifically. In Matthew, Mark,
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  Speaker 1: and Luke, angels do not marry.
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  Speaker 2: The text says, look at it again, verse 2.
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  Speaker 1: The sons of God saw the daughters of men were attractive,
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  Speaker 1: and they took as their wives any they chose. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: says angels don't marry, but Genesis 6 says the sons
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  Speaker 1: of God took wives. So there's a theological problem here. Somehow,
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  Speaker 1: if these were angels, Jesus doesn't know how to interpret Scripture. Next,
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  Speaker 1: everything in creation reproduces how? After its own kind. We've
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  Speaker 1: seen that over and over. and over and over in
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  Speaker 1: the first six chapters of Genesis. Everything in creation reproduces
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  Speaker 1: after its own kind. Folks, that's our argument against Darwinian evolution.
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  Speaker 1: Darwinian evolution, that's the side that says, no, you can
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  Speaker 1: have one species that eventually over time and through chance
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  Speaker 1: can produce an entirely different species. You don't get that
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  Speaker 1: from the Genesis record. Well, now, not only are we
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  Speaker 1: talking about different species reproducing not after their own kind,
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  Speaker 1: but we're talking about different types of beings, heavenly beings
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  Speaker 1: and earthly beings reproducing with one another. Got a huge
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  Speaker 1: theological problem there. Thirdly, angels cannot reproduce with humans. Angels
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  Speaker 1: cannot reproduce with humans because angels are non-corporeal beings. Here's
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  Speaker 1: the other thing. Angels don't reproduce at all. What about
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  Speaker 1: powerful kings? By the way, This argument was proposed by
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  Speaker 1: a theologian by the name of Meredith Klein.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, Meredith Klein, that's a man.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting, some of the names that used
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  Speaker 1: to be men's names back in the day that now
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  Speaker 1: you'd never think of. But Meredith Klein. And it was
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  Speaker 1: not proposed until the 1960s, by the way. But Meredith
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  Speaker 1: Klein was the main proponent of this argument. First, it
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  Speaker 1: fits the context of 6.1 through 4. Fits the context
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  Speaker 1: of 6.1 through 4. For example, when you get down
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  Speaker 1: here in verse 4, the Nephilim were on the earth
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  Speaker 1: in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of
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  Speaker 1: God came into the daughters of man, they bore children
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  Speaker 1: to them. These were the mighty men who were of old,
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  Speaker 1: the men of renown. So it would go a long
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  Speaker 1: way toward explaining the context of that first paragraph, verses
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  Speaker 1: 1 through 4. These mighty men of old, you know,
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  Speaker 1: these Nephilim. And by the way, Nephilim, a lot of translations,
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  Speaker 1: for example, older translations, If you have the King James,
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  Speaker 1: for example, they will say giants, giants. Well, that word
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  Speaker 1: Nephilim doesn't necessarily mean giants. So the translators there have
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  Speaker 1: actually taken quite a liberty in saying that that word
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  Speaker 1: means giants. Because Nephilim doesn't necessarily mean giants. It could
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  Speaker 1: mean giants, but it doesn't necessarily mean giants. That's why
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  Speaker 1: your more modern translations don't even translate the word, they
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  Speaker 1: transliterate the word. There's a difference between translation and transliteration.
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  Speaker 1: The most common transliteration that we would know about would
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  Speaker 1: be the word deacon. Well, deacon, what does deacon mean?
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't really mean anything. But the Greek word is diakonos.
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  Speaker 1: So rather than translating the word and taking it from
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  Speaker 1: its original language into the receptor language of So that
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  Speaker 1: it means whatever it means in the receptor language, we
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  Speaker 1: just take the word itself and transliterate it. We work
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  Speaker 1: the letters around so it makes sense in the English language.
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  Speaker 1: So diakonos becomes deacon. No translation happened there, just the transliteration, okay?
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  Speaker 1: The same thing here. They just take this Hebrew word
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  Speaker 1: and they basically put it into English writing so we
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: can read the word. The word is nephilim. We don't
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: know what nephilim are. We can speculate about what Nephilim are.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: For example, we read about them in Numbers 13. And
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: in Numbers 13, there's this reference to the Nephilim, and
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: they're the spies who come back and say, we're like
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: grasshoppers in our own sight before them. I'm not even
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: going to argue that they weren't giants, because here's the deal.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: I've been thinking about this.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Preaching Genesis chapter 5 and Genesis chapter 6 has been
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: making me think about a lot of stuff. We talked
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: last week about how amazing it would have been for
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: individuals to live that long and the types of advancements
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: that could have taken place. But think about the human
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: body in pristine conditions, perfectly formed by the hand of God.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I think Adam might scare us when we see him.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: He might be 7'6, 290 pounds, 900 years of working
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: with his hands. Just big, scary, just big, all right?
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Could be.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: You live all that time and working with your hands,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: you're growing in absolutely pristine conditions. I don't doubt for
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a moment because I read about Goliath. So certainly if
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: there were individuals who grew to that size during the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: time of Goliath after the flood, Certainly, there could have
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: been individuals who were massive and unbelievably powerful with these
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: long lifespans before the flood.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: So it could very well have referred to giants. Could have.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Doesn't say. Where Scripture speaks, we speak with authority. Where
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Scripture's silent, we close our mouths.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Amen? Doesn't say. What are the Nephilim? I don't know. Well,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: what do you think? It really doesn't matter because I
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: don't know. Not a whole lot to go on.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: But there is this reference to mighty men, okay? And
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: so here, this idea that this was a race of
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: individuals or a group of individuals who were perhaps very large,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: but at least very powerful and wielded their power and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: authority over other individuals, it fits nicely with the paragraph. Secondly,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: it explains the emphasis on the Nephilim, and it also
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: avoids the theological problem of angelic marriage. But it still
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: leaves the door open for angels having possessed these mighty men.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: So that's why for a lot of people, linguistically, you know,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: you'd like to be able to say sons of God. Well,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: that refers to angels. But then you have a lot
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: of theological problems with angels intermarrying and all this other stuff.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: But if it's this, if it's these mighty men, as
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Meredith Klein proposes, then you can have the angels who
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: are actually possessing these mighty men.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: And it's a twofer. You get both. Some problems.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Number one, Klein's argument is based on extra biblical writings.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Ugaritic texts and things of that nature. And so you
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: look at the Gilgamesh epic and find out about things from,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: you know, the Gilgamesh epic, and then you come back
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: to the scriptures, well, again, you can see where those
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: problems that could lead to. Next, it's not mentioned directly
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: in the text. And thirdly, there's no mention at all
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and no evidence of monarchs at this time. In extra-biblical literature...
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: You find talk about monarchs. But in Genesis chapters 1
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: through chapter 6, there's absolutely no mention that the line
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of Cain had kings.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: None whatsoever. None.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Not to mention the fact that if these were kings,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: there's a lot more clear way for Moses to say
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: that than this cryptic reference, the sons of God.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Listen to this.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: The incidence is one of hubris. The proud overstepping of bounds.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Here it appears to the sons of God, a lusty,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: powerful lot striving for fame and fertility. They were probably
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: powerful rulers who were controlled or indwelt by fallen angels.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: So that's Alan Ross's line of thinking. So not the first,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: not the second. How about the third? He hadn't figured out.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: This is the tack that I'm taking on Genesis chapter 6.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: I believe that that phrase, the sons of God, is
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: a reference to the godly line of Seth.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Several reasons. Several reasons I argue that.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Number one, we're talking about the promised seed that we
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: see in Genesis 3.15.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Remember the curse on the serpent. The first proclamation of
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: the gospel.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: and between your seed and her seed. And you will
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. That's
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: in chapter 3. Well, then what do we see after
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: that in chapter 4? The corruption of Cain. So which
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: seed then is Cain? He's the seed of the serpent.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: So is the seed of the serpent a physical seed? No. No.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: You're talking spiritually. Spiritually. But here's the other interesting thing.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: When it says the seed of the woman, is it
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: talking physical seed or spiritual seed?
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: The answer, yes. Physical seed, yes. But spiritual seed, yes. Well,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: what do you mean by that?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Well, Cain was the physical seed of the woman, but
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: was he spiritually the seed that was promised in Genesis 3.15? No.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: No.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: No. So somehow there was going to be this spiritual
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: seed and this physical seed. And then after that, we
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: see in Genesis chapter 5, what? The preservation of the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: spiritual seed through the line of Seth, not the line
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of Cain. You follow?
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: You follow?
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: So Genesis chapter 3, promise of this seed. Genesis chapter 4,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: we see the enmity between the two seeds that was promised.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: In Genesis chapter 5, we see the preservation of the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: godly seed. through the line of Seth as opposed to
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the line of Cain and in the very next chapter
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: there's this reference to.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: The godly seed intermarrying.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: With the ungodly seed I believe the sons of God
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: here is a reference to the godly line of Seth
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: And the daughters of women as a reference to the
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: ungodly line of Cain. And the godly line is preserved
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: through Noah. He's the link, by the way. Noah's the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: link between Genesis chapter 5 and Genesis chapter 6. Where
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: does Genesis chapter 5 end? We're talking about the godly
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: seed and the preservation of the godly seed. And it
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: ends with Noah. Now in chapter 6, we're introduced to
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: this unbelievable problem and the question comes to us, what
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: are we going to do? And after God introduces the problem,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: just briefly, he reminds us. You remember that.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Last guy I talked about in chapter 5? That Noah character?
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: You remember I told you last week, eight times we
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: see the same phrase, and then he died. Now there's
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: 10 guys, but only eight times we see the phrase,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and then he died. So that means two times we
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: don't see the phrase, and then he died. One is Enoch,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the other is Noah, and I told you Noah's day
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: was coming. So we've run into this problem on the earth,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and God reminds us, Oh, by the way, don't get
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: too scared because remember, I have preserved the seed. I
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: have provided a deliverer. So let's look here at this
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: process as it works itself out. First, the wickedness of man.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Man's wickedness is pervasive. We've seen this already in this
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: first several verses, but also look with me at verses
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: 5 and then verse 11 and verse 12. The Lord
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: heart was only evil continually. Every intention was only evil continually.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: It was pervasive. Look at verse 11 and 12. Now
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: on the earth. There was mass corruption here. Now turn
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: with me, and I want you to see something. Look
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: with me in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, beginning
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: of verse 9. You know, because we've got this flood thing, right?
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: So flood thing, we're done, right? We're cool now, right?
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Got all this bad stuff going on, and then we
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: got Noah, and then we got the flood. We wiped
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: all that stuff out, and we're.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: All good now. Verse 9, Romans chapter 3. What then?
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: are under sin, as it is written.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: No, none is righteous. No, not one.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: No one understands. No one seeks God. All have turned aside.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Their feet are swift to shed blood. And their paths
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: have not known. There is no fear of God before
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: their eyes. That's what we're dealing with. That's the product
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: of the fall. So man's wickedness is pervasive. Understand that.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Don't miss that. Man's wickedness is pervasive. There is no
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: part of man that is untouched by sin. Every part
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: of man is marred by sin. There is no remnant
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: in man that is good. Man himself.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: He's not. He's not.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: It is absolutely pervasive. Secondly, Man's wickedness is internal. Look
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: at the second part of verse 5. Every intention of
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the thoughts of his heart are only evil continually. Man's
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: wickedness is internal. It's not external. There are those who
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: believe that man is basically good. And that the evil
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: things that men do are a result of external forces
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: working against man.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: But man is pristine. Listen to me. People who believe
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: that don't have kids. Amen?
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: They don't have kids. Born in sin, shaped in iniquity.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: And I know we have a lot of wonderful little
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: babies being born. I think we've got four down and
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: five to go, something like that, or whatever, you know.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: It's just something in the water. Y'all keep drinking. Keep
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: them coming, all right?
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: But we do, and so these little babies come, and
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: we have these wonderful baby dedications, and we hold the
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: babies up here, and people are just, oh, they're so wonderful.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: That's a viper in a diaper, all right?
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Wicked. Wicked. Absolutely wicked.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: It's just small wicked, okay? But wicked nonetheless. Man is
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: wicked and it is internal. It is in us. It's
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: not something that infects us later on. It is something
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: that we inherit. Listen, everything in creation reproduces how? After
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: its own kind. So how did Adam reproduce? After his
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: own kind. Adam was fallen. He was our federal head.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: We are fallen just like Adam. It is an internal problem. Thirdly,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: man's wickedness grieves God. Look at this in verses 6
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and 7. It's one of the most awkward sayings in
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the whole Bible. I don't care which translation you have.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: This is perhaps the most awkward saying in the whole Bible.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Look at verses 6 and 7. And the Lord was
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: sorry that he had made man on the earth. And
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: I will blot out man whom I have created from
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: the face of the land. Man and animals and creeping
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: things and the birds of the heavens. For I am
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: sorry that I made them.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: He repented, some translations say. But what is that? Is
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: God saying, oh, my, me. I made a mistake. I
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: made a mistake. Is that what's being said here? No,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that's not what's being said here. But here's what I
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: want to propose to you. You take upon yourself this
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: assignment and using your own limited human vocabulary, explain what
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: must have gone on in the mind of God as
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: he saw the wickedness of man, even though it did
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: not take him by surprise. How do you explain that?
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: How do you put that into words? God looks at
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the wickedness of man and God determines he's going to
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: do something about the wickedness of man. The time has
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: come for the wickedness of man to be judged. God
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: looks at this wickedness and he, what? What word are you.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: Going to use? He turns. He changes directions.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: What word are you going to use and how? No
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: matter what kind of linguist you may think you are.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: No matter how strong your vocabulary is, how do you
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: as a human being communicate to other human beings what
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: went through the mind of God as he determined that
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: even though this is what he anticipated, the time to
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: judge had come? How do you say that? How does
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Moses communicate that better than he's communicated it? God looks
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: at man, he's sorry he made the whole lot. God
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: looks at man and repents. Does God change his mind? No,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: God doesn't change his mind. The immutability of God is
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: one of those attributes of God himself. He doesn't change
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: his mind.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: But he's grieved. Grieved. God is grieved. He's not just
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: this detached, dispassionate observer. God is grieved.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Hey, you and I, you and I know that we
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: have not given birth to the second coming. You and
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I know that our kids are sinful. But when our
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: kids sin, do we just kind of go, oh yeah,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I was anticipating that?
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Or are we grieved?
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Grieved.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: And when you're grieved, does that mean that you're surprised? No,
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: you're not surprised.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: If you are, you've got theological issues because you were
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: expecting your baby to be the next Jesus. If you're
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: surprised when you discover that they're sinners. I told you,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: viper in a diaper. It is going to happen. It's
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: going to happen. But when it does, it will grieve you.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: It was going to happen. And when it did, it
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: grieved God. And one of the things that God does
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: is he shortens these lifespans. Remember I told you last week,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: we could go on and on and on about why
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: man's lifespan was so long and the conditions of the earth.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, there are people who spend hours and write
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: whole books about the condition of the earth and this
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: canopy and why the lives could have been so long
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. You know, right there
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: in verse 3, My spirit shall not abide in man forever,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Why were the lifespans so long then and not that
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: long now? Because God said that's about enough. Amen. The
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: canopy of the earth and the, no, no, that's about
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: enough of y'all living this long.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: 120 years.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Later on, the psalmist is going to say, we get
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: three score and 10.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: 900. Nah, they can't handle that.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: 120? Nah, they can't handle that either. Let's give them
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: about 70. Man's wickedness grieves God, finally. Man's wickedness is
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: incurable apart from supernatural intervention. Man's wickedness is incurable apart
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: from supernatural intervention. Maybe if we live long enough, we
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: could master this stuff. These guys were living 900 years
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: and they didn't work it out. Maybe if we learn enough,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: maybe if we become more intelligent, maybe then we'll become
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: less wicked. You know what our intelligence has done? We
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: have the ability on the battlefield now to kill a
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: thousand men in the time it used to take to
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: kill ten.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: That's what our intelligence has given us.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Our intelligence has taken us from carpet bombing in World
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: War II where you just dropped dozens upon dozens upon
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: dozens of bombs indiscriminately to where now they're laser guided
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: and they've got cameras on the front so that we
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: can see what we destroy.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: That's what our intelligence has gotten us.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Intelligence cannot, does not, will not solve man's wickedness problem.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: It is an eternal problem. It is a pervasive problem.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: It's a problem that grieves God and it's a problem
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: that cannot and will not be solved apart from supernatural intervention.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: So those of you who are here and you're in
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: church because you're trying to do better, here's my question.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: How's that working for you? I hear that all the time.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: We need to get our marriage together.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: So we're going to go back to church and we're
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: going to try harder. Yeah, how's that working for you?
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Because you're still you. And you, my friend, are the problem.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: So unless you can become something other than you, it's
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: not going to be fixed. Apart from supernatural intervention. You
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: don't need more time in this building. Okay?
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: You need the hand of God. Amen?
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: That's the wickedness of man that we see here in
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: this text. But how do we see the wickedness of man?
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: We see the renewal of the covenant. First, God judges
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: sin but provides himself a remnant. Here's what I love. Because,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: by the way, verses 6 and 7, they're scary. God says,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry I made them. I'm going to wipe them out. Now,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: what God could have done is just said, everybody goes.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Not everybody.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Everybody.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Everybody goes. And I'll just make me another Adam. But
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: that's not what he did. Why?
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Because God made a covenant. And he will not go
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: back on his covenant. So God's going to wipe out man,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: as he says in verses 6 and 7. But then
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: look at verse 8. But Noah found favor in the
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: walked with God, and Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: and Japheth. Now, here's the thing. Noah was a righteous man.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: So does this mean that Noah tried harder than other men?
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: No.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: No, Noah's a viper. He was a viper in a
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: diaper too. His wickedness is pervasive. His wickedness is internal.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: His wickedness grieves God. And his wickedness can only be
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: dealt with by what? Supernatural intervention. Noah's godly for the
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: same reason Enoch was godly. Because of supernatural intervention. God
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: made a covenant promise to Abraham. And Noah is a
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: direct descendant And that covenant promise had to do with
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: the physical seed. It also had to do with the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: spiritual seed. So God is going to wipe out mankind,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: but he's going to keep his promise. He's going to
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: keep his covenant. So Noah is spared. And the children
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: of Noah are spared. God makes provision for his elect
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: prior to judgment. Look at verse 18. I love this.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: God's talking about all this stuff that's going to get
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: messed up. Make this boat. And then verse 18. But
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: your son's wife with you. The covenant is continued through
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: the son of promise. Here's what I noticed this week
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: in getting ready for this. As God judges sin and
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: yet makes provision and keeps his covenant, God tells Noah
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: to build this ark. But here's what God doesn't do.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: God doesn't say, Build an ark as big as you
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: can because I'm going to try to get as many
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: people as possible onto the ark.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: No.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Noah says, build the ark this big because that's all
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: you're going to need for who I'm going to bring.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: He knows beforehand who's going on the ark. God's not
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: hoping that people change their mind and get on the ark.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: God has determined he's going to save his elect. He's
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: still that kind of God. Because there's another heart. There's
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: another Noah. Remember we said Noah was a type of Christ.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: It's the seed.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: The seed of the woman who crushes the head of
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: the serpent.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: Who is that? Is that Noah?
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Well, sort of, but not completely. There's another one who
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: comes from the same physical line. The same spiritual line.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: But catch this. He's also the God-man. God wrapped in flesh.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: And God keeps his covenant. But look, same principle. God
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: judges sin but provides himself a remnant. Can you say church?
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: Amen?
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Next, God makes provision for his elect prior to judgment.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Can you say hallelujah for the gospel and for evangelism?
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: And finally, the covenant is continued through the son of promise.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you, God, for your son, Jesus Christ. That is
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: what Genesis chapter 6 is about. Is it fun to
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: talk about Nephilim? It's a lot of fun to talk
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: about Nephilim. Is it fun to debate about the sons
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: of God? Yeah, it's a lot of fun to debate
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: about those things, but they have nothing to do with this.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: That's what we're about. Because now we live in a
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: time where we see the same kind of wickedness that
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Noah saw before.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: The flood.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: And we also live in a time, it's interesting that
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: we're now reading through Revelation in our New Testament reading.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: What's Revelation about?
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Revelation is God saying, hey y'all, remember that stuff I
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: did with Noah? I'm still that God. Remember how I
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: handled sin back.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: In that day?
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: I'm still that God. And it's going to happen again.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: But praise God, this time there's a bigger ark. It's
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: called the New Jerusalem.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: Amen?
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: We serve a God who judges sin. But we also
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: serve a God who is merciful towards sinners. and faithful
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: concerning his covenant. Throughout history, we see this. Folks, that's
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: what Genesis is about. As a family in our morning
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: devotional times, we've been working our way through Genesis. And
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: it's interesting, preaching through Genesis back here, and now as
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: a family, we're, you know, chapter 31, chapter 32, we're
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: going on in Genesis. But preaching through Genesis, as we've
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: already read through Genesis, now all of a sudden, as
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: our family, as we're dealing with what's going on in Genesis,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: you see over and over and over again this same principle,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: the preservation of the seed, the godly line, and God
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: providing for himself this godly line.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: That's what Genesis is about.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Genesis,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: that's what it's about. And newsflash, that's what the whole
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Bible is about. You can lay this over the whole Bible.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: This is what it's about. God judges sin but provides
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: himself a remnant. God makes provision for his elect prior
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: to judgment. And the covenant is continued through the son
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: of promise. From Genesis through Revelation, that's what the Bible
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: is about. Genesis chapter 6 is just a summation of
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: the whole message of the whole Bible.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: And God good. Isn't the Bible incredible? God is merciful.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: And if you are here today and you're working real
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: hard to try to overcome your flesh, newsflash, even your
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: desires and your efforts to get better are wickedness.
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: It's wickedness.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Partly because you are trying to do something that only
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: God can do. So can I help you? Let's just
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: go here for just a moment, all right? I want
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: you to see this picture. If God says you're wicked
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: and I'm the only answer to your wickedness, but you
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: say I'm going to try to fix my wickedness with X,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: whatever X is, you've put it in the place of God.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: So whatever X is, is your idol. Therefore, if you
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: are trusting yourself, if you're trusting your pastor, if you're
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: trusting your mate, if you're trusting your friend, if you're
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: trusting whatever out there to give you the key to
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: make you better, then your effort to become pleasing to
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: God has become idolatry in his sight.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: He's the answer. He's the only answer. Is your family
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: in trouble? The ark. That's the answer. Your marriage in trouble?
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: The ark. That's the answer. Is your soul in trouble?
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: The ark. That's the answer. The son of promise, Jesus Christ.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Christ died for sin once for all, the just for
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: the unjust, in order that he might bring us.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: Back to God.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: God made him who knew no sin to become sin
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: for us that we might become the righteousness of God
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: in him. That's the answer. That's the only answer. You
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: will not get better apart from the supernatural intervention of
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: the God who makes provision for his elect. You come
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: to him through repentance and faith. You cry out to him.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: for mercy, for rescue, for salvation, and you trust in
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: nothing else because you trusting in something else is like
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: an individual in Noah's day saying, yeah, you go on
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: and build your boat, man. I got me a dinghy
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: over here.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: I'm going to trust that. There is no other answer.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: It's the son of promise and it's nothing else. Come
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: to him and be redeemed. Let's pray.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: Father, we are so grateful to you for the goodness
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: that you've shown us, for your mercy toward us, for
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: your long-suffering, for your loving kindness. So grateful to you
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: for not having given up on us so grateful to
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: you for your provision through the son of promise, Jesus Christ.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: And like those in the days of Noah, we live
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: in the face of great wickedness, seen most acutely when
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: we look in the mirror. And we desperately need Deliverance.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Forgive us, oh God, for every instance wherein we have
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: trusted anything else. We come to you and you alone
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: in repentance and faith. Do your work in our midst.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: This we ask because we believe it's in accordance with
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: the will and the nature and the authority of Jesus
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: who is the Christ. Amen.