[0:00] Well, perhaps you'd turn with me, if you have a Bible, to the very beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis, and Genesis chapter 6. If you would like a Bible, if you need a Bible, there's some scattered about the place at the sides, or on various shelves, or just wave your hands about, and somebody will come and give you a Bible, and then you can read along.
[0:20] And it'll be very helpful, I think, if you can. We're studying these early chapters of Genesis. We've got to the end of chapter 5 last week, and we're going to read this evening just a few verses, the first little section of Genesis chapter 6.
[0:36] If you look at the beginning of chapter 5, you'll see it begins, this is the book of the generations. That's a little formula that happens 10 times throughout Genesis. This is the second of them. The first one was in chapter 2, verse 4, the generations of the heavens and the earth.
[0:51] This, then, is the second book of generations, of Genesis, the book of the generations, or the Genesis of Adam. And then the next one begins at chapter 6, verse 9.
[1:04] So chapter 5 was the first part of this book, 2 of Genesis, and chapter 6, 1 to 8, is the second part. And we're going to read that together now, Genesis 6, verse 1. When man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose.
[1:32] And then the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide in man, or will not contend with man forever, for he is flesh.
[1:45] His days will be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man, and they bore children to them.
[2:03] These were the mighty men, or tyrants, you could translate that. The mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. And 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.
[2:28] And the Lord was sorry 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 have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.
[2:49] But Noah found favour, a grace, in the eyes of the Lord.
[3:03] Amen. And may God bless to us his word. Amen. See this verse.
[3:25] We must've asked for it. Say so, God, oh, look.
[3:44] Whoo. Return with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter 6.
[4:02] Now last week, Genesis chapter 5 showed us so very clearly that as the Apostle Paul says, death reigned from Adam onwards, spreading to all people.
[4:12] And the beginning of chapter 6 of Genesis shows us why. It tells us of the mammoth scale of the disaster that human sin is for this world.
[4:28] Verse 1 shows us there God's purpose for humanity, multiplying, filling the earth with people as we were created to do. But, what we see there is not mankind imaging God's good and holy rule, but rather what is seen as outright rebellion.
[4:50] It's man seeking his own glory, not God's glory. And not cherishing life, but in fact breeding violence, exploitation, and death.
[5:02] And it's that appalling reversal of mankind's creation purpose that leads to God's terrible judgment. Where God reverses his creation and causes it to recede again into the darkness and the deep from which it emerged in Genesis 1 verse 2.
[5:24] This passage is grim reading as is the next. But, as in chapter 5, as we saw, it's not the whole story. In book 2 of Genesis, the generations of Adam, it ends here in verse 8, you see, with a wonderful reminder that God's purpose will not be thwarted.
[5:44] Even by the most grotesque and perverse sin of man. And so the message of act 2 of this book of Genesis is that sin reigns, yes, but not forever.
[5:57] Not forever. Now, I'll say right at the start, this passage contains some very difficult verses. Some very disputed verses. Perhaps some of the most difficult verses in the whole book of Genesis.
[6:10] So we'll have to do our best to make sense of them. But, whatever else may be unclear, this much surely is indisputable. As Derek Kidner puts it. Whichever way we take it, a new stage has been reached in the progress of evil.
[6:26] With God's bounds overstepped in yet another realm. What we read here is about the terrible development in the grim march of evil.
[6:37] And so terrible that the awful judgment of the flood is unavoidable. It's a necessity from the hand of God.
[6:50] So let's look first at verses 1 to 4. Which speak about this terrifying reality of evil at the heart of our human world. The predominant message that we have here, I think, is about man's defiance.
[7:06] And yet God's patience. The arrogant defiance of man. But the astonishing patience of God in the face of such sin.
[7:16] Look again at verses 1 and 2. Man began to multiply in the face of the land. And daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives as they chose.
[7:29] And the result of this action apparently was so serious that God declares judgment on the whole human race. Verse 3. My spirit will not contend or not abide with man forever.
[7:43] His days will be 120 years. Whichever way we take that, abiding or contending, it doesn't matter. Either way, the point is the same. God will not endlessly permit those who rebel to fill his world with their evil in that way.
[7:58] God is the giver of life. And he will also take it away again at his will. And so he says man's days are numbered. Only 120 more years until judgment on humanity must come.
[8:16] God gave a long period of notice. During which Noah's building of the ark was a warning.
[8:27] And it served as a call to repentance to people. Largely ignored. Peter tells us in the New Testament, doesn't he, that Noah was evangelist. A herald of righteousness. In fact, 1 Peter 3 verse 20 tells us that God's patience waited in the days of Noah.
[8:45] So God shows astonishing patience. Even in the face of such terrible sin. He gave gracious warnings. And he prepared a way of escape for anyone who would listen to what Noah said.
[8:57] But in the end, he must bring to an end such wickedness. Because it was so destructive to the world of humanity. But what sin could be so heinous that it precipitates the destruction of the entire known human world in such a cataclysm, such a punishment?
[9:20] There's never again been witnessed in the history of the world, despite undoubted horrors and terrors of evil that have resurfaced persistently throughout human history. That's the great question, isn't it?
[9:31] That's what's got to help us understand verses 1 and 2. What was so wicked and evil about this? Who were these sons of God and these daughters of man?
[9:44] Well, some people think that the sons of God refers to those of Seth's godly line. And the daughters of man refers to Cain's ungodly line.
[9:56] So the sin here is mixed marriages between these two lines that leads to a corruption of the house of faith. And certainly that was a problem throughout Israelite history.
[10:06] It was a problem for Moses. But there's no mention of that kind of language up until now here. And verse 1 seems to be very general.
[10:17] It's not talking about Seth. It's talking about man. Verse 2 is talking about the daughters of man. So I don't think this is about something as simple as being yoked with unbelievers.
[10:29] It just doesn't seem to make sense of the context here. And nor does it really explain, does it, the sheer calamity, the appalling nature of the judgment of the flood.
[10:42] So other people see that these sons of God, they say that they are kings or nobles. They took wives from the peasantry. They built up harems with all sorts of women.
[10:54] And they violated women right, left, and center as they chose. And so the sin is polygamy. And it's violent tyranny and abuse and so on.
[11:05] And that does seem to sort of fit better with verse 4. Because they are of the dynasty of these Nephilim, these tyrants, these mighty men of old, whoever they were.
[11:17] Genesis chapter 10 speaks about Nimrod, the first of these mighty men, the first tyrant. And he and others like him built cities and they tyrannized the ancient world.
[11:29] But again, even that seems hardly enough to justify the uniqueness of the situation that necessitated the flood. And furthermore, assuming that the meaning of sons of God is these tyrants or kings is really quite precarious.
[11:46] There's really no biblical support elsewhere for that. Just not used that way. By far the oldest view, the traditional view, if you like, is that the sons of God refers to angelic beings.
[12:03] And certainly that is the usual meaning of that phrase in the Old Testament scripture. So for example, if you read in Job chapter 1, you'll read about the sons of God presenting themselves in the heavenly court before God.
[12:16] And Satan is one of them. Job chapter 38 speaks about the creation of the world. When the sons of God shouted together, the angels shouted together, the morning stars sang together.
[12:26] So if that is the correct reading, and I think that is the consistent biblical usage of that term, what we've got here is fallen angels, disobedient angels, spirits, evil spirits, invading the world of humanity.
[12:47] And bringing about a terrifying demonization of the culture. And that does seem to fit much better with the response of God, which is to destroy completely the whole world of humanity in a devastating way.
[13:04] We can't be dogmatic, but I do want to pursue this because, well, it's important to make clear when we say that, what I am saying and what I'm not saying. There are objections to that view from various different directions.
[13:18] Some, of course, just dismiss any talk of demons and angels. They're just fanciful, just mythology. There's just no supernatural at all. But the Bible is very clear on these things.
[13:31] Others have much more reverent objections. They don't jettison any idea of the spirit world and so on. But what they say is, well, look, if this was an angelic rebellion, why does God punish humanity?
[13:47] And they point out, quite rightly, that in verse 2, if you look, these are talking about real marriages. These are not some sort of acts of sexual intercourse by demons who suddenly appear and rape women and then disappear again.
[14:00] No, it's not that. They're real marriages. And another objection is that they'll say, but surely Jesus says, doesn't he, that angels can't marry? Let me take that objection first.
[14:15] Jesus doesn't say that, actually, does he? What Jesus says is that in the resurrection, we human beings won't marry, but we will be like the angels in heaven.
[14:28] He doesn't say that angels can't or couldn't crave sexual relations. And he's talking about the angels who are in heaven. Obedient angels who are in their right place, serving God as they ought.
[14:44] But that doesn't exclude the possibility that some angels, fallen angels, might crave the experience of human beings and seek to do exactly that.
[14:54] And in fact, the New Testament does point very much in that direction. Both Peter and Jude speak about these things in a way that seems to refer precisely to this incident in Genesis chapter 6, in those very terms.
[15:08] So 1 Peter 3 speaks about disobedient spirits who did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah. And in 2 Peter 2, he speaks about angels who sinned and were cast into hell.
[15:25] And in the very next verse there, speaks about the flood. And then perhaps the clearest of all is Jude, who mentions angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, just as Sodom and Gomorrah likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, literally pursued other flesh.
[15:52] So it does seem that the New Testament gives very good reason to see the work of fallen angels here, sons of God, ones like Satan himself, but rebellious spirits, abandoning their proper place and instead invading the world of humanity.
[16:11] Now that should not surprise us if we've read from the beginning of Genesis, because that's exactly what Genesis 3 tells us happened with mankind's very first rebellion, with the serpent himself invading the human world.
[16:24] And now what we're seeing, I think, is the devil and his angels, as Jesus himself calls them, working their dark powers again to corrupt the human race.
[16:37] And I think we have to take that seriously. But that's not to say that we're here getting into the realm of monsters, of anything like, you know, half man and half beast creatures of mythology.
[16:50] It's nothing like that. That's where the view, I think, that seeing these as earthly tyrants is actually very helpful, because in earthly terms, that is exactly what they were.
[17:02] These sons of God, these ones who bred a race of Nephilim, of mighty men, of tyrants, they were men, but they were men who were possessed by frightful and frightening demonic powers.
[17:21] They were men who were wholly possessed and controlled, it seems, by these fallen angels. As one scholar puts it, their perverted psyches allowed this entrance of the demonic.
[17:38] And I think ultimately, only that can explain the terrifying reality of evil in our human world. We didn't think that strange or fanciful.
[17:50] The whole Bible understands that reality, that behind the veil of this physical world, the world we see and experience with our eyes and ears, there is a spiritual realm of real spiritual powers, evil powers, who have this world in their thrall.
[18:05] This world is in the grasp of the evil ones, says the Apostle John. One of the clearest places that we see that in the Bible unveiled is in the book of Daniel. You know very well, the first part of the book tells us all about the struggles of God's people on earth, Daniel and his friends and so on, with their earthly enemies.
[18:23] But in the second half of the book, it's like the veil is lifted. And we see behind the scenes. And what we see is warfare in the heavenly realms. And in Daniel chapter 10 in particular, we see a dark angelic power called the Prince of Persia, who stands behind the actions of the earthly tyrant kings of Persia as they oppose God's people on earth.
[18:47] And of course, Ephesians 6 in the New Testament tells us explicitly that our struggles are never merely against earthly powers, but against the real forces of evil, the rulers and authorities, he says, in the heavenly places, dark powers.
[19:03] And these powers can, and they do, invade the personalities of human beings. And sometimes with truly terrifying consequences. Witness some of the characters that we see in the Gospels, confronting Jesus, for example.
[19:19] And that, I think, is what we have here in Genesis 6. Verse 4, look, that gives us what you might call the earthly view. What does history see?
[19:29] Well, it sees the Nephilim. The authorised version famously translates that verse giants. There were giants in the earth in those days. But the root means fallen ones. They were mighty tyrants.
[19:42] They were the mighty men, says verse 4. They were the men who raped and pillaged, who brutalised peoples, who set themselves as rulers, as overlords, violating women as they pleased, building harems, oppressing peoples, apparently possessing almost superhuman power.
[20:05] But verse 2, you see, tells us, doesn't it, what lies behind that. It's the terrifying reality of demonic powers at work in opposition to God, in defiance of God, seeking to be gods, to rule themselves and others as God.
[20:23] So you have men, you have whole societies seeking to usurp the place of God in arrogant presumption and pride because they are driven by fallen angels, demonic forces to oppose God.
[20:39] It's exactly the same pattern as what we read in Genesis chapter 3. In fact, the words are the same too.
[20:51] In verse 2, they saw, and they saw that women were attractive and they took whoever they pleased, just as Eve did, snatching at the divine thing that was forbidden in order to be like God.
[21:05] It's just the same when you get to chapter 11 of Genesis, as we'll see, when they say, let's build a tower that reaches the heavens and we will be like gods ourselves. That is the terrifying reality, friends, of human evil.
[21:19] Human beings becoming consumed by such demonic delusion that they seek immortality and fame and power for themselves in sheer defiance of God and over and against God.
[21:31] Homo Deus, gods who are men. And the result is terrifying. It's the world as we see here, the world of the Nephilim. They ruled the world then, notice verse 4, and also afterwards, it says, after the flood.
[21:49] Even such influences resurface again and have done all through history. And human history bears witness to these things. no doubt Moses added that for the sake of his readers because if you read on in the story into numbers, you'll see that the Nephilim, these mighty warriors, these tyrants, faced them as well and that was one of the reasons they refused to go in and possess the land of promise because they balked at their terror.
[22:15] But this is a recurring story in human history. We live in the world of the Nephilim. We live in the world of powerful men, ruthless rulers who do as they please, who wreak violence, who wreak havoc.
[22:32] And nearly always, it involves sexual exploitation and abuse and tyranny. read the history books. The great empires of the ancient world, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, they were famed, weren't they, for their brutality, for their violence.
[22:51] Or just think of the 20th century alone. Think of the Nazi Reich. Here's one writer's description I came across recently about the sheer evil of the Nazi SS squads.
[23:05] He says, it was as if the devil and his hordes had crawled out of hell and walked the earth. In Lithuania, SS squads gathered defenseless Jews together, beat them to death with truncheons, afterwards dancing to music on their dead bodies.
[23:22] The victims were cleared away, a second group was brought in, and the macabre experience was repeated. Imagine.
[23:35] Think of Stalin's tyranny. Think of Pol Pot's tyranny. And today, in the world, think of the warlords. Think of the drug barons.
[23:47] Think of the terrorist tyrants. Think of some of these ghastly sex predators. Some of them using their billions in racketeering these things.
[24:01] What is it that can explain such terrifying evil? The liberal progressive world can't explain it. It just can't.
[24:11] And yet, when you read our newspapers, they have to resort to this kind of language, don't they? Devils. Demonic. Monsters. As they report some of these crimes.
[24:22] Well, yes, says the Bible. That is what it is. That is what is behind all such things. It is the terrifying demonization of man and of human societies. And sometimes, the result is of such epic proportions.
[24:37] It unleashes such vast and terrifying evil on the world that but for the direct intervention of God, humankind would utterly destroy itself. And here, way back in the earliest days of developed human civilization, so pervasive became this malign, this malignant influence of the powers of evil.
[25:00] So arrogant was the defiance of man against God and his rule and his purpose that God must deluge the whole world in a merciful judgment lest the whole world be completely overcome by that demonic evil.
[25:17] Eventually, God's patience must run out and judgment must come. And that even here, God gives time to repent.
[25:30] 120 years of warning and a standing witness and a warning in Noah and his message about the coming flood. And although God promised never to send such a global disaster again, as long as the earth shall last, that is, as long as this whole world has not come to its end under God's purpose, we have seen, haven't we, through human history at times when the Nephilim have reigned supreme, when there has been utter defiance against God, when evil has become so entrenched in society and in a nation or in empires, there has come a time when God has said, enough.
[26:13] And my spirit will not contend with this people forever because man is not God even though he might delude himself to think that he is.
[26:27] It's God who declares the length of days, not man. And that should be a warning to our world. It should be a warning to societies, to governments who also may set themselves up in defiance against God, who defy his justice, who abuse humanity, who pervert all decency, who have no care and concern for human life.
[26:53] Every single tiring empire of this earth in history, in the past, has in the end been left in ruins in the dust and so it will continue to be, friends.
[27:05] Sometimes, yes, they can seem to flourish for a very long time because God is astonishingly patient. Gave the world in Noah's day 120 years.
[27:18] But in the end, God is just and God will show himself to be just. And we must remember that. Sin reigns, yes, but not forever.
[27:29] Not forever. And that's just as true also, isn't it, for the individual human heart as it is for the society and the culture and the world. It's the most dangerous thing in this world to presume upon the patience and the mercy of God.
[27:47] You do not know how much time of that respite is left before that judgment of God must at last fall. Read Jesus' words in Luke 13, verse 9, about the tree given one more year and fertilized to produce fruit.
[28:05] but if not, cut it down. And you see, that brings us to the second thing which is the terrible result of sin in the human heart.
[28:20] Verses 5 and 6 you see, speak of man's depravity but also of God's pain. The absolute depravity of man but the agonized pain of God.
[28:30] Verse 5 is very important because you see sometimes when people speak about the reality of the demonic and the evil in the world and of people's hearts being possessed by the denoic they rather think that somehow that excuses them.
[28:47] This is the devil's fault. It's not our fault. But friends, the Bible will not allow us to think like that. On the one hand, yes, it teaches about the terrifying reality of evil of the demonic influence on the human heart from outside.
[29:04] Paul says the God of this world, that is Satan, has blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel. People are imprisoned. They are in the thrall to real dark power.
[29:19] But the Bible equally says human beings are wholly responsible for their condition because we are willful prisoners of sin and willful pursuers of sin.
[29:33] And that's why the answer to this plight, you see, is never something outside. It's never to try and get rid of that influence. The answer the Bible gives is always something inward in real repentance.
[29:47] Be reconciled to God, says Paul. Don't refuse God's grace. And that's what verse 5 tells us. Look, the terrifying reality of evil at work in humanity is the terrible result of sin in the human heart.
[30:03] Man is wholly culpable for this condition of rebellion against God. Look, 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.
[30:18] You could not have, could you, a clearer definition of total depravity in the human heart. The wickedness of man is extensive, it's great in the earth, but it's pervasive and it's intensive, it's every intention of his heart, it's inward, it's personal, it's the thoughts of his heart, it's absolute, it's only evil, he says, and it's habitual, it is continual all the time.
[30:45] That is pretty comprehensive, is it not? Total depravity in society. Don't misunderstand that, though when we say the human heart is totally depraved, it doesn't mean that we're all as bad and as evil all the time as we possibly could be.
[31:03] It just means that every part of us, every part of our makeup is tinged with the fallenness of human sin. So we're not always as bad as we could be all the time, otherwise this world would be far, far worse without God's restraining grace.
[31:18] But what it does mean is that we are all capable of far more terrifying evil than we can ever imagine of ourselves. That's why when you hear the relative of somebody who's being accused of some terrible crime, some mass shooting or some ghastly murder, when you hear somebody sometimes interviewed saying, oh, they're just not capable of such a thing, that is never true.
[31:43] The truth is, but for God's restraining hand of grace, we and our world would be far, far more wicked than it is. And this world would be a place of terminal evil.
[32:00] And God is merciful, God is patient, be thankful for that. He restrains evil. But there does come a time for societies and for individuals, and ultimately there will come a time for this whole wide world, when God will lift his hand of restraint.
[32:18] when he does, the sheer horror of sin and wickedness and its result in the human heart will become even more clear and plain. And God's judgment then will be shown to be wholly just and wholly righteous and indeed absolutely essential to get rid of that evil.
[32:41] And that is what we're being shown here in the days of Noah, our society, our world of outright rebellion, extensive and intensive and absolute wickedness.
[32:53] Inward and personal and habitual all the time. That's the terrible result of sin in the heart of man. But you notice verse six, it's not just man's heart it affects, but God's heart also.
[33:11] The Lord is sorry that he's made man and it grieves him to his very heart. The NIV says his heart, God's heart was full of pain. We tend to see sin as our problem don't we?
[33:25] But in fact above all else, human sin and rebellion is an assault on God. Not that God can be ruled or overcome by emotions. There's nothing that creatures, humans or any other can ultimately do to change God.
[33:39] That's different to saying that God has no emotion. God is sorry about his creation. It grieves him. It pains him to his heart. Those words echo the curse on humanity for their sin in Genesis chapter three.
[33:56] In pain, you shall live. Well, God himself already feels the pain of that curse. Already, says Derek Kidner, God suffers on man's account.
[34:12] And that conveys the terrible, terrible result of human sin. Not only does it bring absolute depravity to the heart of man, but it brings agonizing pain to the heart of God himself.
[34:27] Pain that he must bear on account of the awfulness of human sin. Just think about that. But that isn't all that there is in God's heart.
[34:44] As we close, don't miss how this section ends. Don't miss verse 8. Don't miss the tenacious refrain of grace in the heart of God. Verses 7 and 8 speak here both of man's destruction, but also of God's promise.
[35:01] Yes, there is global destruction of humanity in the flood, but also there is the gracious promise of God's mercy. God has to judge such overwhelming evil.
[35:11] How could he be a just God? How could he be a good God if he doesn't just judge evil and wickedness? We would never tolerate, would we, a human judiciary that allowed evil, that allowed tyranny and wickedness just to reign freely without ever being punished?
[35:26] There'd be an outcry, of course. God's So there is justice, but there's more than just justice. Look at verse 8. But, but Noah found favor, found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
[35:41] Why? Why in the midst of this world of sin and evil and dreadful rebellion, why did this one man, Noah, find grace and mercy and the favor of God?
[35:51] Well, not because he was any better or any different to the rest. Quite the reverse. Noah belonged to this society that was evil all of the time.
[36:06] Alec Mateer tells us that this phrase, to find favor or to find grace in the eyes of the Lord, it occurs more than 40 times in the Old Testament. And he says it is always a formula that safeguards the pure understanding of grace.
[36:21] grace as the outreaching of free, unmerited favor. It wasn't that Noah found grace by his own merit or his effort or by searching for it.
[36:33] Rather, it was grace that found Noah. William still put it this way, the but of verse 8 is not of human initiative but of divine. It was not God who found grace in Noah but Noah who found it in God.
[36:49] Noah found grace but he didn't create it, he found it where it was and where it ever had been and ever shall be in the eyes of the Lord. See, not even the terrifying reality of evil and the terrible result of sin can extinguish the tenacious refrain of grace all through these early chapters of Genesis.
[37:12] not even grief and pain in God's heart can extinguish the grace and the promise of life and salvation that is also overflowing from his heart.
[37:24] In fact, God bears that pain that there may be grace, unmerited favor to be found in his eyes. It comes to a man like Noah, just like all the rest, but transforms him and turns him into someone who will walk with God and know his great salvation.
[37:46] You see, but for that tenacious refrain of God's grace, this world would have ended completely then and many times since. But there was grace, grace to be found in the eyes of the Lord.
[38:02] Not, notice, grace that does away with justice or punishment of evil and judgment on sin, no. grace that saves and preserves through that judgment upon wickedness and sin.
[38:20] And that is the eternal gospel of God. Apostle Paul puts it this way, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
[38:31] So that as sin reigned in death, grace might also reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. You see, sin reigns in this world.
[38:45] We cannot deny it. But the gospel says not forever, not forever. Jesus Christ, the promised seed of Noah, has come. And by his resurrection, he has called time on this world, just as he did in Noah's day.
[39:03] None of us know how long is left of that time. But the New Testament is very plain. Peter tells us this, just as the flood deluged the ancient world, so this world is being kept for a judgment by fire, when sin's reign at last will be ended forever.
[39:23] And a new heavens and a new earth will emerge, the home of righteousness. And Jesus tells us, and his apostles tell us, we're already in these last days.
[39:33] days, which Paul tells us in his second letter to the Thessalonians, will be marked by God's lifting of his restraining hand on the lawlessness and wickedness of man, until it's fully exposed for what it is, rank, hatred and defiance of God.
[39:50] But behind it, the activity of Satan himself, he says. Read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 later and see all the similarities here to Genesis chapter 6.
[40:03] And then, says the Bible, all will be condemned who did not believe the truth, who refused to believe God's warnings and be saved.
[40:17] As it was in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man, says Jesus himself. See, friends, Genesis 6 is written for us.
[40:29] This chapter is written to make us, you and me, wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. It shouts to us, it says, look around, look at this world and its terrifying reality and its evil.
[40:42] See the terrible result of sin in our world. But be clear, sin reigns, yes, but not forever. Not forever.
[40:52] And if the signs of our time seem to speak of the restraining hand of God being lifted and of the multiplying of evil in the world as humanity multiplies on the face of the earth, well, time may be shorter than we might like to think.
[41:08] But there is still the tenacious refrain of grace. Now is still a favorable time. Now, says Paul, Christ's apostle, now is the day of salvation.
[41:22] Grace is still shining out from the eyes of God our Savior. God's patience waited in the days of Noah. It's still waiting.
[41:37] But you can't afford to wait. None of us can afford to wait. We need to be sure, don't we, that we have found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
[41:48] It's there. It's there to be found. It's there to be received. It's still the same as ever for all who will receive it. This chapter says to us, don't despise it.
[42:01] Don't resist it. Grasp it. Rejoice in it today. As you bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and as you keep on bowing the knee to him.
[42:15] Don't be found on the wrong side, friends. Don't be found on the wrong side when sin's reign ends forever. We find on the side of those who have found the grace of God, the favor of God in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[42:33] That's the message of Genesis 6 for us today. Let's pray. Concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.
[42:47] For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
[42:59] For so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. So Lord, keep us looking to you, we pray day by day.
[43:14] Keep us living in response to the grace, the favor that is ever in your eyes towards those who heed your voice. keep us, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[43:29] Amen.