Sermon for Trinity Three – Sunday June 20, 2021
Calvary/Marquette ● Soli Deo Gloria

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Genesis 6:1–8 (NKJV)
Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

In the Name of Jesus, the Christ,
Through whom we find grace and mercy,
In the eyes of God, Dear Fellow Redeemed –

“Yuck. It sure didn’t take long for it to go bad.”’
(I learned the hard way.)

When we buy milk, like most people we dutifully check the expiration date. “OK, July 4th, that gives us two weeks to use it up before it goes bad.” Perhaps you have also noticed that the expiration date isn’t really an exact science…sometimes the milk doesn’t wait until the date to separate, to get lumpy and go bad.

We were reminded last Sunday – from the 3rd Chapter of Genesis -- when and why things went bad on this earth. The first human beings were created in God’s image, they were intelligent, wise and able to learn and grow (they were far from doltish cavemen and cavewomen). They wanted what God wanted, they were righteous and holy.
Then Satan suggested there was a conspiracy on the part of God to withhold enlightenment from them, they disobeyed the one command that God had given them.

Things went bad quickly. They immediately knew shame and fear. They hid from God. They blamed God and each other and refused to take responsibility for their actions. There were consequences for sin. Childbirth would be painful for the woman and she would be subject to the man. The man would have to work hard for his food. The snake was cursed and the God promised to send a Savior, a descendant of the woman, the Seed of the Woman.

Things weren’t done going bad. Adam and Eve became parents (the natural way) to a son whom they named Cain. Then they became parents a second time, naming the boy Abel. Eve actually believed that God had kept His Promise to send a Savior in the person of Cain (Genesis 4:1). It was clear that Cain was NOT the Promised Savior when He killed his brother, Abel. God banished Cain to be a fugitive and wanderer (Genesis 4:12). Cain turned away from the LORD and became the first unbeliever on the face of the earth. Cain found a wife and began raising children who did not know or believe in the LORD.

Things still weren’t done going bad. When the sixth chapter of Genesis begins, about 1,500 years have passed.
3
 On the one side, Cain’s family of unbelievers had grown exponentially.
 On the other side, Seth’s family of believers had also grown exponentially. Seth’s son Enosh had his own children. Enosh’s son had his own children, and so forth. The sons of Seth called upon the name of the LORD (Genesis 4:26).

How could things get worse, you ask? It was bad enough that the first family was fractured by murder and the firstborn was banished and had turned away from God. There were two distinct groups; the children of Seth and the children of Cain.

In the 6th Chapter of Genesis, we are told how things…got even worse:

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

God had created humanity with the ability to reproduce according to their kind (Genesis 1:28), so in the course of time that’s what happened. People got married and had children. Their children got married and had children. They populated the earth (cf. Matthew 24:38). The families descended of Seth were godly, concerned about God’s Promise to send a Savior. They worshipped the LORD God. They sought to be faithful to Him. They carefully married from among the godly.

But then they saw the ‘daughters of men’ – the daughters of Cain, the unbelieving. They saw that they were beautiful to look upon. They began to take wives for themselves, whoever they chose, from among them.

The LORD God, in His Word, warns us about unbalanced relationships – cases where one spouse is a believer and the other is not. God doesn’t forbid it, because it’s possible that the unbelieving can be won over by their spouse (1 Corinthians 7:12-16). It can also happen that a spouse can turn a heart from the truth. How often doesn’t it happen today that a young couple (one a believer and the other indifferent) decides together to ‘compromise’ each one forsaking their church to choose a new one for themselves? The results are often heart breaking.

Let us teach our children and grandchildren to know what it is they believe; to value their faith and to look for a spouse that shares that faith. Let’s teach them to value the qualities that our God values. He tells us that true beauty is not to be found on the outside, but within.

For it is written (1 Peter 3:3-4):
3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

Why is all of this important?

Well believe it or not, there are some that twist this passage and suggest that ‘the sons of god’ were not believers but angels who procreated with human beings to produce the ‘Nephilim’ a race of giants (that may or may not be Bigfoot). I wish I was kidding. I’m not kidding. In man-made religions like Greek and Roman Mythology the ‘gods’ have children with ‘humans.’ The Bible teaches no such thing.

In fact, the Bible indicates that the angels are a fixed number of beings created by God, separate and distinct from humanity (Hebrews 1:7, 14). Scripture teaches that they are not flesh and blood and Jesus said that they ‘neither marry nor are given in marriage’ (Matthew 22:30). They may appear as human beings, but do not procreate with human beings.

Things went from bad to worse when believers started marrying unbelievers. Things still go bad when people choose a spouse based on their appearance rather than the true beauty within.

3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

When human beings push God away…eventually He stays away. It was one thing when the unbelieving turned away from God, but when even the believing became indifferent to His Promises…God’s Judgment was bound to come.

Even then, God had mercy. When God said of humankind, “his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” He wasn’t fixing a number for life expectancy (in fact, Noah himself lived to be 950 years old). These words were spoken when Noah was 480 years old; and 120 years later, when Noah was 600, the waters of the flood fell upon the earth (Genesis 7:6).

We may see this as yet another example of God’s mercy. God didn’t send the flood immediately, but was gracious and gave humankind 120 years to repent and be saved. God sent Noah to call upon his world to repent, for the Apostle Peter calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).

God does not strike us down for our sins, but has mercy upon us. Let us never put his patience to the test, but confessing our sins trust in Christ and obtain forgiveness and salvation in Him.

4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

In some cases, an unfortunate translation can be confusing. In other cases, it can be just the beginning of a procession of fantastic and foolish ideas. This is one of those cases where a poor translation has given rise to fantastic and foolish ideas. When we read ‘there were giants on the earth in those days’ it sets our imagination on fire…needlessly.

The Hebrew word translated, ‘Giants’ is ‘Nephilim.’ When the King James Translators came upon this word in 1611, they translated it ‘Giants’ and the New King James has followed suit. It’s actually taken from a word that means ‘to fall upon, to attack, to trample on the rights of others.’ It refers to tyrants, to men who live by violence. The word doesn’t actually refer to their size. In Numbers 13:33, the same word is used and similarly violent men are described.

The point here isn’t that there were ‘giants’ but ‘violent tyrants’ in those days and that was just the beginning. Things had gotten so bad that such men were looked up to and became famous men of renown. In many ways, nothing has changed. Wicked men are looked up to; murderers and serial killers are interviewed from death row and write books and have movies made about them.

When believers and unbelievers came together, in some cases they produced more than wicked men, they produced violent tyrants…and people looked up to them!

The Creator was not pleased.

5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

When the LORD looked upon humankind – both the ‘sons of god’ (Seth’s descendants) and the ‘daughters of men’ (Cain’s descendants) he saw nothing but corruption. Every purpose of the thoughts of their hearts was with evil intent all of their days. The heart of the matter…was the corrupt heart and mind of mankind.

So, it took 1,500 years for things to go from bad to worse. Since it wouldn’t do for the LORD to express his divine feelings in a way we can’t understand, He said that He was grieved, sad in his heart that He had made humankind on earth.

God determined to wipe humankind off the face of the earth. Since He had made the animal kingdom for the use of man and for man to rule over and maintain, he determined also to wipe every living thing from the face of the earth.

If God was grieved then…how does He ‘feel’ now? I know when we look at this world and the changes in the last 20 years, we think that things are worse now than they have ever been. We are in no position to judge such things. It isn’t that sin is any worse, it’s just public and people attempt to stuff it down our throats and demand that we approve of their sin.

It isn’t that sin is worse today. It’s much the same as before the flood, there is no dividing line. Both believers and unbelievers still sin against God daily. We all deserve God’s wrath and punishment.

It isn’t just that sin abounds, so does God’s undeserved love, His Grace, for we are told:

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

If you’ve found the sermon a bit of a downer up to this point…I don’t blame you. This is where you can take heart and find hope. For you see, where sin and wickedness abounded, so did God’s patience, love and grace. It’s easy to miss, and we are quick to forget, but remember…

When the first humans sinned…God didn’t only curse the earth, He promised a Savior.
When the godly and the ungodly began intermarrying and their hearts devised all manner of sin…God gave them 120 years of grace and sent Noah to preach peace.
When God made plans to send the flood on the earth…He also made plans to have mercy on Noah and his family.

Note carefully what is said: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” It doesn’t say that Noah was a sinless man (cf. Genesis 9:18ff) or even a good man. It doesn’t say that Noah earned God’s favor. It doesn’t say that Noah did enough to save himself. It says that Noah found something, was given something by the LORD – Grace, undeserved love, mercy. Noah was granted faith to trust in God and in His Savior. He wasn’t himself righteous, but was accounted righteous by faith.

When we look in the mirror…we don’t see sinless or even good people. When we look in the mirror there is nothing in us that we might offer in exchange for the forgiveness of one sin. We see people who have found grace, undeserved love in the eyes of the LORD. We have found forgiveness for all sins…in the perfect life, sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of the Seed of the Woman, Jesus the Christ.

Still today, we see both the wickedness of man…and the grace of God. For though the heart of man is only set on evil, God still has mercy by sending out preachers of righteousness like you and me, to make known God’s Amazing Grace, freely given in Jesus Christ.

Instead of bemoaning how bad things have become…let’s get to work talking about Jesus while there is still time.

Things went from bad to worse…
and then by god’s grace from fallen to forgiven.
Praise God.

Amen.