we're turning this morning in the bible to genesis genesis chapter six and if you're visiting we're studying uh and working through the book of genesis and this morning we come to chapter six and that is found on page six in your pew bible and we will read the chapter let's give our attention this morning to God's Word. When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw 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 day 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 thought of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I've 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. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits. Its breadth, 50 cubits, and its height, 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female, of the birds according to their kinds, of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind. Two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. May the Lord bless. the hearing of his word. This is a dark section of scripture to preach. There's nothing easy about it and it's not going to feel good for part of the sermon and it shouldn't. When Jesus characterized the days before the second coming, he said something that always made me wonder just what he was thinking about and what he had in mind because he spoke of a time of great tribulation that he said unless those days were short no flesh would be saved but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened when i hear that i i think about the second coming and what it really is all about and what the scriptures are teaching us as to why he has to bring this all to an end the clear thing that i come up with is those days will be so bad that god will have to bring it to an end to rescue his sheep, to save them. Because if he didn't, no one would be delivered. Other places in the New Testament describe this. They say that before the last day comes, we can expect a great falling away. That's 2 Thessalonians 2. And a revealing of the man of lawlessness, whatever that will look like. What will it look like? How can I know? And what can I expect? Those are questions that I kind of come up with as I think about this. Well, what is this all going to look like? And what do we expect as God's people? And how do we process this? Forgive a brief movie illustration. My old favorite spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood. He would go into these towns with no name. In one particular movie, he went into a town with no name and two families were warring and he walks up into a motel and he walks up to this old loft and so he says what are you doing and he said things always look different from higher up i want you to think about that today that's what god is doing for us god is helping us to look at things from his perspective we're looking high up it's hard when we're on the ground to see everything often that's happening around us and exactly what is taking place but God is is taking us up and he's showing us the world that then was from his perspective what happened and he's comparing that he's drawing that comparison for us to understand what is transpiring and how the world that now is will finish out and what's been moving for us in Genesis is that God is showing us this development of the first world. And he's giving us a quick view of it. A very consolidated view, if you will, of how everything led so quickly to the destruction of the world was that then was before the flood. Remember, Peter divides that existence between two kind of worlds. That's so important. He said there's the world that then was and the world that now is. And it's helping us. It's drawing that comparison and for we to see clearly what is going to happen. So this is what we study this morning, the days right before the flood. Peter said that in the days before the flood, too, there was scoffing going on. And he says that's just like our day. There are scoffers that come. And they say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the beginning of the world, things have always gone on as they always have. That was Peter. and then he said this but i'm concerned about you i need to stir up your minds by way of reminder you need to understand this remember he said that you need to understand that what it's going to look like you need to understand how this is going to to play out i want to stir up your minds by way of reminder lest you're sleeping in thessalonians remember what we read that he said that this day is not should not overtake you because you are not in darkness that this day should overtake you as a thief what what an encouragement in the midst of all this you know it's fascinating that the lord is saying i want you to understand this that's not what we've gotten from our dispensational people have we it's been confusing it's been scary and the lord has never approached it that way as a matter of fact remember when sodom and gomorrah was going to be incinerated what is the one thing that the Lord raised should I tell Abraham what we're about to do and he did and it's always been a mark of his love and kindness to us to open the door if you will and show us exactly what is going to happen and what is going to transpire this is what Jesus said somebody in the darkness doesn't know what his master is doing but you're my friends so I'm telling you everything that my father has told me and that's the relationship isn't it everything that i've heard and so jesus said something that was very crucial in the course of his ministry and teaching about these things when he said as it was in the days of noah so it will be at the coming of the son of man if you want to understand the coming you can get a good understanding studying the days of Noah. And so what we have in Genesis 6 is the Lord taking us back to the world that then was. And remember that he's telling us this today, not to scare us, but the purpose being that you understand and that you understand that you will be sheltered from what is to come as believers. That's his purpose. The Lord was concerned about this. Do not fear, little flock. It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom so genesis 6 is showing us that and there's one major point of genesis 6 this morning if you were to write this down of what genesis 6 is showing us it is showing us in fast pace the escalation of evil on the earth that's it the escalation of evil and looking at it from god's perspective so that we would share it last time we left off we were in chapter 5 and what an encouraging chapter chapter 5 was for us remember that you had all of these these these 10 books of genesis and then we entered chapter 2 and it doesn't say book and into the other ones but chapter 5 says this is the book of the genealogy and then you have a record of names there with no deeds and that was set in contrast to the list of deeds in chapter 4 of the wicked offspring of cain and what we compared that with and what we saw is that what revelation outlines for us is that there are two books there's a book of life and only names are written in the book of life and here's the book of life from adam to the flood of the world that then was isn't that encouraging that was meant to encourage us to show that god preserved his sheep that god kept his sheep it was a wonderful chapter to study in contrast to the awful chapter four and i believe the lord put that there so that we don't lose focus on this so there were your brothers and sisters years ago whom you're going to meet one day who as luther said were giants of the primitive world men of faith men of men of great faith before god and now the question i want you to think about is this by the time the ark is complete boys and girls, I add an ark that is a football field size and a half, 450 feet, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high to give you the dimensions. How many entered? Eight. Peter says eight souls entered the ark. And you cannot read that in the New Testament without asking the question, what happened? That's my question. How do you have a list of these giants in chapter 5 and by the time it's all done, there's generations that were very godly that by the time this was done, eight enter the ark. The text wants us to think about this. Jesus drawing a kind of parallel when he says, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? How did it get that way? What will it be like? Chapter 6 now spans the last 120 years of the world that then was. And we learn a lot here. We learn a lot about God's patience. We learn a lot about what happened right before the flood, what the developments were on the face of the earth, the judgment of the flood, what it looked like, and that's where we begin in verse 1, don't we? If you have your Bibles and you're looking at verse 1, this is what we read. When man began to multiply on the face of the land, daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the daughters of man, that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took his wives, any they chose. I think we quickly jump to verse 2, but don't miss verse 1. Did you notice what he said, that there was a giant population swell on the face of the earth right before the flood? Men are multiplying. There is a population swell like the world that then was, had never seen before. And we know this. We know that with the swell of people comes the swell of wickedness. And anytime you have population explosions, this is exactly what goes on on the face of the earth. I'll come back to that. It's interesting that the second thing that comes out here is a focus on what? Marriage. It's not coincidental that Jesus, when he was speaking about this and drawing the comparison, that he says, as it was in the days of Noah, so they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. And you say, well, what chapter was he looking at? What chapter was he thinking about? He's looking right at Genesis 6. And what was Jesus observing in Genesis 6? I mean, that's the million-dollar question. What was Jesus thinking about? They were marrying and giving in marriage. Obviously, the plain meaning to that passage was they were partaking in marriage without a care in the world. Eating and drinking it up without a care in the world. And that's kind of the very point, isn't it, of Genesis 6. The question, of course, is who is marrying and giving in marriage, isn't it? Genesis, verse 2 of Genesis 6 addresses this. we read that the sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful and they took wives for themselves of all they chose now here's what's clear let's start with what's really clear here because this is a very difficult passage what are they looking at beauty the women the daughters of men and they're multiplying they're just multiplying on the earth and notice how it's the crucial emphasis here without any distinction without any discretion they're just taking let me give you a rough translation they took whatever they liked best and obviously if you compare this with lamech it doesn't matter how many either does it Now, how do you summarize this? In the history of the church, you've had a few different views. One of the views being, one of the older Jewish beliefs was that the angels were involved in marrying and being with women. Citing a verse in Jude, I think, taken out of context. They were marrying women and commanding their souls and producing offspring who were just giants on the earth. That's been one view. I don't accept that. I can't understand that. I don't understand how that's profitable if Jesus is drawing the comparison. How can an elephant mate with a butterfly? I mean, that's the kind of thing you would have to ask when you're looking at that. It doesn't work. Jesus said angels don't marry. The second view is that these were kingly figures. A lot of those who've done extensive writing and scholars on this take this position that these were royal kingly figures who were having royal offspring in the earth. and they were powerful, and they took their stand against the Lord. That's a little more intriguing to me. That's not so far off to me. That's kind of helpful. But I believe there's been a much simpler interpretation in the history of the church that has always been a problem for God's people, and that is incredibly instructive for the time in which we live. And I believe that's what Jesus was doing. When Jesus told us to learn from this, this has to be something that we can understand. I don't see angels marrying women today, but I do see something else. I do see something else. What do you think Satan would love to do if God had established a separate line of a champion who would come and crush his head? Throughout the scriptures, God always called his people sons. And in chapter 5, you have a list of the sons. But in verse 1, you have all these daughters of men being born. And all of a sudden, God mentions his sons. And what are they doing? Without any regard for classification, without any regard for who they are as sons, without any regard for the separation that God has made, the seed in the earth of the woman and the seed of the serpent, They're only looking at the beauty of these women and whatever they liked best, they took. And the point you get, whether you agree with that or not, is all discernment is gone in the earth. That's the big point. There's no discernment anymore. It's the classic interpretation by Luther and Calvin, by the way, that what you have here is that the lines of Seth and Cain became one. and that's the only explanation for me that answers how only eight could get in the ark. You know, this was a huge problem in Israel's history. If you're looking at this play out through the history of redemption, what did the devil do throughout history? That's the bigger question, isn't it? Remember when they were brought back after the captivity from Babylon? Remember what Nehemiah had happen? In those days, I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Half of them spoke their language. Here's Nehemiah. So I contended with them, cursed them, struck some of them, and pulled out their hair. How's that for a pastor? When the children of God forgot who they were, what happened? They assimilated into the world. And now you had yoked together throughout Israel's history. Look at Balaam. Look at the whole history. You had yoked together, believers with unbelievers. that's the issue for me the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent and it's in the midst of this that we hear from the lord notice what he's raising look at the consequences of this if you follow this through the ultimate climax of where all of this this goes the development meant that no longer would there be what godly homes no longer would there be the fear of the lord and and then the question being is if they were marked out in chapter four as gathering together and calling upon the name of the lord what would happen to the church what is the single great tool of the devil to destroy the godly seed what is your greatest burden as parents for your children how about answering that i can tell you right now i got little ones and one of my greatest burdens right now is that they marry in the lord because i know that if they don't i know what's going to happen god may be merciful but that's a disaster if they marry outside and if you lose that you start losing the church what is the one thing that generally happens when a believer is united with an unbeliever? Well, let me read you Solomon. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, you shall not enter marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn your heart after their gods. Notice how adamant the Lord was. And what happened? When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not wholly true to the Lord as God, and he as was the heart of David, his father. In the midst of this, God says, my spirit's not striving forever. Man's flesh, his days are 120 years. My spirit will no longer restrain. I can't bear the evil. Man has become flesh. He's degenerated into evil, which means here that there are 120 years left, which means this, from the point God said it, there's 120 years to the flood. And I don't find it coincidence either. This is my kind of strange view, but I don't find it coincidence that our lives are 120 20 years at Mass, meaning that God is teaching us something by that. Remember the flood. Do you ever stop and say, how much more can God, and this is a bad way to say it, but you'll understand, how much more can God put up with? Do you ever stop and ask that kind of question? Did you see last week that the FBI had to save and rescue 105 children from sex trafficking? Did you see that? is that so common to us that we don't pause anymore and reflect on how wicked that is and what's going on and hear what God's saying I'm not going to keep stopping this it's going to be over I'm not going to keep doing this and bearing with this there's a limit to all of this there's a limit there's one last period of grace fixed so that people might turn and live this is god put it in perspective if the world that now is is given till 2020 this was said when think about that what we have in verse 4 then is the final climax of the end of the 120 years did men repent did it go that way where did it go verse 4 the nephilim were on the earth in those days and and also afterward when the sons of god came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them these were mighty men who were of old men of renown another tough one if we follow the line that i've presented these are the offspring of the marriages and lo and behold what do you have in the children hearts that are totally turned away from the lord they don't know the lord they're called what in some kind of ironic way i think a mocking way men of renown the nephilim giants we immediately think of physical stature but these were amazing all inspiring individuals weren't they the root of their name, though, means to what? Attack. Luther called them tyrants. By the end of this, I want you to look at how the Lord describes this. Look at verse 11. By the end of this, what does the Lord say to us? The earth was filled with violence. The whole earth was characterized as violent. In a simple way, I think the Nephilim are God's description of people on the earth who are fully and totally given over in sin. And it's God's way of telling us that and separating it out. Fully and totally given over into sin. They've run their full course, Romans 1. And so in verses 5 through 7, you get God's judgment on the matter. Here's what it all came to 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 in other words it spiraled so out of control that there was no more restraint in sin whatsoever the wickedness was that great in the earth and i don't know if you caught it only evil continually that's where it went no reprieve on the sin no letting up on the sin no stopping of where it would go and all of that is given to us this morning to say do you see it from the way that i see it says the lord is it so different is it so different in our day let me frame this a little bit for a moment Genesis 6 begins by saying that men were multiplying on the face of the earth. I'm just stating facts at this point. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it's estimated that the world population reached 1 billion for the first time in 1800. That means, to put it in perspective, that in 1800 years, it took 1800 years to get 1 billion people. It took another 123 years to get 2. It took 33 years, 1960, to get three. 14 years, 1974, four. 13 years, 1987, five. 6,099, just last year, 7 billion people. Now you tell me if men aren't multiplying on the face of the earth so bad that they've already said, it just came out last week, that by 2020, the world population will outgrow the food source. We can't feed them all. I told you this would be tough. Are godly homes increasing? Is the family structure doing well in our society? What does marriage look like today? It's a disaster. And we live in a culture that loves violence. We just couldn't do the stand-up boxing anymore. We've got to do MMA with popcorn in hand. beating people to a pulp. And we all champion it. We champion Nephilim, you bet. And if you really want to feel this, if you don't think, God after the flood's going to start over and he's going to put up in the sky a what? A rainbow. Now, if Pastor Gordon went out and put a rainbow on the back of his car, how would that go over today? They've made it a sign of accepted homosexuality. Think of the rage against God in that. That he wouldn't flood the earth again, and that's what they did with his sign. The real question here is, how much difference is the church making today? Have you ever thought the reason we're seeing the culture collapse all around us is because the church makes no difference? My grandmother used to tell me as a kid, Chris, you don't have to watch the world to know what's happening. Watch the church. Where's the discernment? Isn't that the concern of Revelation? Come out of her, my people. Get out. Be separate. Here's the most moving thing of Genesis 6. And the Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth. And he was grieved, notice the language, to his heart. Now, I don't know how you feel about that. It really shouldn't raise questions about God saying that. You should feel that. That's what's meant. Feel it. I'm blotting them out. I'm sorry I've made them. The Lord is helping us understand things as humans. We groan, don't we? Isn't that the characteristic of Christians that we looked at last week, that we groan? We groan inwardly over all this stuff. We groan, Ezekiel, go through and put a mark with the inkwell on the foreheads of all of those who groan and sigh over the abominations within it. Boy, isn't it overwhelming that Genesis 6 as God is doing that? to help us understand how he sees this. See what sin has done. If you understand it properly, you really come to an Isaiah kind of moment where you say, I'm a sinner and I am amidst those unclean lips. We're all tainted, we're all foul. Now, what is God's concern for you? he knows this grieves you he knows in the midst of this you're you're you're you worry about you and your children i mean you got little ones in the midst of this and in the darkest moment he shines down what the gospel and it's really powerful i laid on thick the darkness because Genesis 6 lays on thick the darkness. But boy, when you come to verse 8, it's just a light, isn't it? But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And that favor is not really the best translation. Noah found grace. And verse 9 begins the third volume, doesn't it? Here's my people. Here's the light. Noah was a just man, perfect in all his ways. Noah was complete, meaning there was nothing lacking. And you say, wait a minute, what does that mean? Well, if that's the case, it didn't last long because we're going to study Father Noah drunk in a tent soon. Hebrews 11 tells us this. By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of what? Ready? This is the whole point of Noah. Became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. And any Bible student knows that is the pivotal thing that was said of Father Abraham, wasn't it? And that Paul makes everything in the New Testament the case of of how Abraham was right before God. He believed God, Genesis 15, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. You have the first example, justification, well, Adam, but the first clear, this is a beautiful illustration and picture and story of Noah who received imputed righteousness, as we call it. Faith accounted to him for righteousness. And this is a shining encouragement to the church in the midst of this. God wants you to know He has His sheep. And He wants you to know He'll keep His sheep, even when it gets this bad. That all who believed in Jesus Christ and trust in Him, He is not willing that any should perish, but will receive everlasting life. And so Noah builds this ark by which he will be completely shielded from the wrath of God. You know Reverend Camminga's boat? Give me one second on this one. We went in Reverend Camminga's boat one time, and I asked him, I said, you know, you made this in Escondido. This thing leaks, doesn't it? And he said to me in pride, just dust, Chris, just dust. Just dust is down there. Go look. I want you to think of the ark. The wrath of God falling, water all over the boat. And this ark, when it was shut, there was not one drop of water that entered. The ark tells us, and it announces his gospel. And you'll notice the fascinating thing here in chapter 7, we'll get there next week, is that when the Lord came, he took the giant ark door and shut it. And now you understand why Jesus is saying, enter the door, come today, for when once the master of the house rises up and shuts the door, it's over. See what the ark announced as it was being built? And it tells you that entering the ark, entering Christ, he's our ark. He lived and he came here and he built. His whole life is your ark. And Moses understood this because Moses uses the very same word to describe the little basket that carried him through the Nile and was saved, the ark. And all of that tells us that the life of Christ by entering him, coming to him, he has made this glorious covenant of grace that is here said to Noah that he will bring his people through the judgment. And he demonstrated that at the Red Sea as a giant pillar surrounded them and that water did not touch them. Jesus is our ark. And today we announce the same thing that was announced in Noah's day. And I quote the words of Isaiah to show you. Come, my people, enter your chambers, shut your doors behind you, hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation is past. For behold, the Lord comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain. Come, enter the ark. Enter Jesus and you will be saved. Believe and you will never taste judgment. But he will come and rescue you from the many waters. May you all find grace in the eyes of the Lord that you may be able to withstand the evil day having done all the standard. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord our God, we praise and thank you that you of your abounding grace have taken a people and saved them and have assured us that not one of them will be lost. And we need this encouragement because we see the culture collapsing and we get so defiled and discouraged and sick with our own sin. But today we come to you asking that you would renew us in your promises of your covenant of grace that as you said to Noah years ago that you would establish your covenant with him and he shall come into the ark, him, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him, that you would assure us with those same words that you've established this covenant of grace in Jesus Christ and that entering in him by faith, we will be saved from the wrath to come. Knowing the terror of God, we persuade men. And in this day, may this message get out. And may people again fear the Lord and come with fear and trembling. Let all the earth keep silent. For the Lord is in his holy place. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.