Genesis 6:1-22

[0:00] Genesis chapter 6. We'll read chapter 6 and pray and dive into the word.

[0:13] And it came to pass, when men began to multiply in the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.

[0:27] And the Lord said, And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

[1:06] And the Lord said, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

[1:20] These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

[1:34] The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

[1:47] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood.

[1:58] Rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within, and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make of it. The length of that ark shall be three hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

[2:13] A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in it a cubit shalt thou finish it above. And the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. With lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

[2:25] And behold, I, even do I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven. And everything that is in the earth shall die.

[2:36] But with thee will I establish my covenant. And thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy son and thy wife and thy son's wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort, shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee.

[2:50] They shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive.

[3:02] And take thou unto thee all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be food for thee and for them.

[3:13] Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Father, what a fantastic way to end that chapter.

[3:24] And Lord, we'd like to put that at the end of every chapter of our lives, Lord, every day of our lives, that as you have commanded us, so did we. And Lord, here we are at your command, Lord, that we would gather together, that as we see the day approaching, Lord, that we would not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but all the more.

[3:41] And Lord, we pray that you would come quickly. We pray you'd use us until that time, Lord, to be a light, to be in this world, but not of it, Lord. We pray you'd bring in a harvest. And so today we pray that you'd prepare our hearts to know you more, that you would do that work, Lord, that surgery, that you would take out the flesh, Lord, that we would walk in the Spirit.

[4:00] As the Word says, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. We pray you'd fill us, and in Jesus' name, amen. All right. So today we're going to look at a tale of giants.

[4:13] As we go through chapter 6, we're going to see, you know, we have the giants, the Nephilim, but there's some other giants in here that I think is going to be pretty cool to see.

[4:24] We've come through chapter 5, where we saw the genealogy of Seth, Adam's line that the seed went through for the Messiah. And then we also saw the, in chapter 4, the end of 4, Cain's line, which only goes as far as the flood, only goes to judgment.

[4:42] And the line of sin only goes to judgment, where the line of the seed goes through judgment and on into eternity. So here we have, in chapter 6, we're kind of looking somewhere right in the middle of all of this, as we look through the genealogies, Noah comes on the scene.

[5:00] He's Lamech's son. Lamech meant powerful, if you remember. He had that powerful prophecy about Noah, that Noah would bring rest, that through him there would be comfort and rest. And then it says at the end of chapter 5 there, and Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

[5:19] Shem was the middle child, actually. Japheth was the oldest. But just like when you say Jacob and Esau, Esau is actually older, but you say Jacob first, because that's how God looks at them in order of their relation to the Messiah.

[5:36] And so the seed of the Messiah will come through Shem, and that's why he's listed first. But he's 500 years old. Like we said before, I don't think this is the first time you know that Noah had kids.

[5:50] I bet he's had more children than this. This is just, as we went through the genealogies, just as these men would have, you know, Adam had Seth, but then he had other sons and daughters.

[6:02] So I think it's the same thing with Noah. He's pointing out these three sons, there's something very particular about them. And then we're going to kind of see what's happening in the world. We're going to get a picture in chapter 6 of what's going on in the world at this time, pre-flood.

[6:15] So what do we already know? We know they're living about 900 years. Death is not something that's very frequent. Here we are sitting in what is a funeral home, right? And, you know, you're looking at, Joe said they average about, what, 300 services a year or so.

[6:32] So that wouldn't have, you know, he would have been out of business before the flood because you got guys that are living 900 years. And I think that's why it's so prominent that it points out to us Lamech killed someone because it was most likely the second death since Abel's.

[6:47] So living a long time, this idea that God's word is true is not playing out throughout the mankind's generations except this line of Seth.

[7:02] And so verse 1 says of chapter 6, What does all that mean?

[7:19] So a couple guys and girls, they got married and had kids. Well, whenever we see in Scripture sons of God, in the Old Testament, it's referring to angels.

[7:33] And we see that in Job. Job chapter 2, verse 1 is an example of that. It says, Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.

[7:49] And so it's speaking of the angels in the spiritual realm. They're called the sons of God. You think, well, wait, I thought I was a son of God. I thought I was a child of God. We are. This is in the Old Testament.

[8:00] The Hebrew, the wording for sons of God refers to the angels. But yes, we are. 1 John tells us now in Christ on this side of the cross, 1 John chapter 3, Behold what manner of love the Father's bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.

[8:15] Therefore, the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. So we have the privilege of being the sons of God as well. But this text specifically is not talking about us that are in Christ.

[8:29] It's talking about the angels, the created angels that are the sons of God. What else do we see here? It says, Well, if you remember that God commanded that back in Genesis chapter 1, verse 28, he said to Adam and Eve, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

[8:50] Well, unfortunately, what's happening right now is it's wickedness that's filling the earth because men have rejected God's word. They're fallen into sin. Proverbs 29, 16 says, When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases, but the righteous shall see their fall.

[9:07] It's a true statement. Except you see that colon and then the space between the colon and the word but? That space could be anywhere from a generation to thousands of years.

[9:17] But it will come to pass. The righteous will see the fall of the wicked. But as we're going to find out, God is gracious and long-suffering. He will not bring judgment unnecessarily.

[9:29] He will also not bring it before his grace has stepped in. And so when the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases. And that's what's happening right now. Humanity's rapid increase and advancement only has advanced them further along the path of corruption.

[9:46] So as we saw from chapter 5, Lamech's sons, one of them was the father of music, one of like merchandising and trade, and then one of war.

[9:57] And there was this rapid advancement with these men. You think if someone's living 5, 6, 7, 8, 900 years, and they're giving their time and attention to one field, you know, there's gonna be a lot of advancement you can make along that line.

[10:12] But it's not led them down a path to righteousness. They're going into corruption. And just as we talked about, like, if you live 900 years, if you're like 657 years old and someone's talking to you about death, you're like, what is that?

[10:24] That's like, I'm in great shape, and unless someone kills me, I'm not gonna die. So you might think, I'm like God. The lie of the garden, which was, you shall be like God, is persisting in these people.

[10:37] Because to them, it's like, well, I'm like a God. I'm not gonna die. Anything I put my hand to and my mind to is coming to pass. In one family, Lamech's three boys, you had like this rapid advance in technology.

[10:51] Just one family, one generation. Now, it's funny, because it just said there are three boys, and then it said that one was the father of music, one of war, and one of merchandising. We think, wow, just in one family.

[11:04] But we're used to like people living 80, 90 years, right? They lived like 900, so there's a lot of time for progress to happen there. But anyway, and now they're delving into something.

[11:15] The next step, as you progress further from the Lord, they think they're advancing, but they're not. They're progressing now into something they should not be dabbling in, into the spiritual world.

[11:27] As we go into verse two, It says that the sons of God, so the angels saw the daughters of men, that they were fair. They took them wives of all which they chose. So here you see the absolute arrogance that sin brings to whether it's humanity or the fallen angels.

[11:45] And it says they took them wives. They did, but mankind was willing. They didn't just go in and grab them and say, you'll be my wife. This was like, there's a willingness happening here. There's where humanity is diving into and delving into the things of the spiritual world, the demonic realm, which they should not.

[12:01] You kind of see the same thing happening today. As we progress further, it's like, well, I think we could come up with a technology that would allow us to whatever. You know, like the thing where it's, hey, you can upload your consciousness or whatever to the cloud.

[12:18] And then after you pass on, people can still talk to you. And it's like, oh, okay. You know, well, they will do that, I'm sure. And something will talk back to them, but it's not gonna be their dead loved one.

[12:30] You know, it's gonna be a demonic spirit. It's just another way of interacting with the forbidden. And that's what you see here with these people, these people, the angels interacting with the people.

[12:45] Jude tells us about those angels specifically. He says, And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. So they had a specific place.

[12:56] They rebelled with Satan in his rebellion. And not only that, now they're coming into the manifest world and interacting with humanity. He's reserved them in everlasting chains, under darkness, under the judgment of the great day.

[13:10] We're gonna see what's gonna happen with the cohabitation of the demonic, the fallen angels, and mankind. It's gonna produce some interesting people.

[13:21] And God takes care of that in the flood. And you don't really see them again. You do see a little bit, they'll come up, and we'll look at one of those scriptures later on, like Goliath, you know, 10 feet tall or whatever, and the children of Anak.

[13:35] But Jude tells us that these angels specifically, well, they're in chains, in under darkness. They're not loose like they were at one time. But what was their sin?

[13:46] Now, Jude is saying these are, he's comparing them to false prophets at the time. He's saying these false prophets are like, and he's like, are like these angels, and are like, and so what he's saying is he's comparing the prophets to the angels.

[14:00] And then he's saying, what do these angels do? Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

[14:15] Then he says, likewise, speaking of those false prophets, also these filthy dreamers, defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. So he's likening the fall of these angels, or the sin, the transgression of these angels, for which they are reserved in judgment, to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was immorality and perversion.

[14:35] And so that is the direction that mankind was going as it then opened the door to partake in that with these angels. And that's what you see today, the absolute off-the-charts perversion, where now we have to put stickers on our stores saying, you know, pride-friendly or whatever, and just celebrating sin and perversion.

[14:58] And that will then lead to the next step, which is opening the door into this kind of crossing over into the spiritual realm. So God's patience with sin is long, but it is limited.

[15:14] And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years. A lot of people will look at that and go, it's 120 years until the flood.

[15:27] That means no one spent 120 years building the ark. That's not what it means. It means it's 120 years and then judgment's coming. Yes, the flood. Within that then, is going to be the time frame. Noah will build the ark. But God, here's God's mercy and grace because God looks and says, I'm not going to always strive with man.

[15:42] I'll give him 120 years. We wouldn't do that. We'd be like, I'll give you about 10 minutes. You either turn it around or you're going to your room. But God says, I'll give him 120 years.

[15:54] And in that time, what's he doing? He's reaching out through Noah and through whoever else of Shem's line may still be believing and preaching the truth.

[16:06] Which would probably be Methuselah because he lived right up until the flood as well. And Lamech, who lived 777 years right before the flood. God took him out. So you had at least two or three people preaching the truth.

[16:20] And so God said, his days should be 120 years. There were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

[16:37] So there's these giants. Well, who are these giants? What is this? I don't know 100%. It's extremely interesting. And unfortunately, it's extremely distracting. You don't know how many people I know that want to talk to me about the giants.

[16:50] And is there Nephilim still? Do we have Nephilim blood? People will say things like that. Like someone that's like, oh, doing some whatever in the world. And it's like, well, it's probably because of the fallen angels. Look, we just looked at that those angels are kept in judgment.

[17:04] So they're not loose in the world today like they were. Whatever is happening here is a result, yes, of humanity's delving into the demonic where they should not.

[17:15] Because there's two, it's worded two ways. There were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, the sons of daughters came in unto the children of men. So it seems like before this cohabitation with the fallen angels and humanity ever took place, there were giants.

[17:33] But either way. And the wording is Nephilim. I'm sure you've probably heard of that. Numbers, this will be long after the flood where Moses is in the wilderness with the children of Israel.

[17:47] Numbers 13, 33 says, And there we saw giants. The word is Nephilim. The sons of Anak, which come of the giants, of the Nephilim.

[17:58] And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight. And so this is when the 12 spies go in to check out Canaan. They come back and give this report. So you say, well, were the giants actually giants?

[18:10] Well, they said that we were as grasshoppers in their sight and ours. They called them giants and Nephilim. So it seems like there is some gargantuan size happening here.

[18:23] And the same became mighty men, which are of old, men of renown. And so in the days of Noah, we have these giants. And then moving into verse 5, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

[18:45] daily purposing and desiring to corrupt that which is of God. Purpose and desire, the imagination and thoughts of the heart. And this is what it is in the days of Noah.

[18:59] We know Matthew tells us, Jesus, speaking of the end, when the disciples ask him, what shall be the end? What shall be the sign of the things of the end? Matthew 24, 37, Jesus says, But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

[19:15] For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away.

[19:27] So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Speaking of, not the rapture, but the return, when Jesus comes, suddenly, in the clouds, the world will not be ready for him. Now it says, as the days of Noah, he could have just said, well, it would be life like usual.

[19:42] They'll be eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. But he specifically likens it to Noah. That the days of Noah, where yes, life went on as normal, but there's also going to resemble what was happening then.

[19:54] We see that today. What were the days of Noah? An exploding population. Saw that in verse one. They're multiplying upon the face of the earth. Perversion. Verse two, that the angels came in unto the daughters of men.

[20:08] Demonic activity. Constant evil in the heart of man. That every imagination and thought of their heart is evil continually. And widespread corruption and violence.

[20:19] And we see that again today. As in the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. This is his second coming. Seven years before that, at some point, is the rapture. So if it's looking like that, and that's at his second coming, and the rapture happens first, then man, Lord willing, we are at the door of the return of Christ when he comes to take his church.

[20:39] Well, who cares about the giants? Why look at the giants so much and talk about them? Well, there's a lot of thought today. You'll hear this word transhumanism. You may have heard that. Oh, transhumanism.

[20:50] That they're trying to mix man and machine, or technology and man, or trying to extend the lifespan and longevity of man. Or even this thought, like, well, you know, if you got the COVID shot, it'll alter your DNA where you're no longer human.

[21:06] You're now like transhuman. And if you do that, well, you know, you could be outside the realm of salvation. And it's, there is some truth to the desire of the enemy to try and corrupt humanity.

[21:21] But what does the scripture say here about them? They are men. They're still men. Jesus tells us, Mark 7, verse 18, he says to the disciples, are you so without understanding also?

[21:35] Do you not perceive that whatsoever thing from without entering into the man cannot defile him? Because it enters not into his heart, but into the belly and goes out into the draw, purging all meats.

[21:47] Speaking of food, ceremonially, making someone unclean. And he said, that which comes out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, and evil, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.

[22:08] From without, from out of the heart. In John chapter 5, when Jesus healed, remember the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. Afterwards, he came and he found him.

[22:21] And he said to him, hey, behold, you are made whole. Sin no more, lest the worst thing come unto you. So whatever had happened to him physically, he's linking it to his sin.

[22:31] He's saying the defilement came by way of what was in your heart, sin. You weren't defiled by the thing that happened to you, by the thing that was outward. He says it's within your heart that caused then the outward defilement.

[22:45] If you remember when Jesus went across the Galilee to the Gadarenes, and he met the man who had the demons. And he says to the demon, he says, what is your name? And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are many.

[22:57] A legion would have been anywhere between five and six thousand soldiers in the Roman army. So this demon is saying, we are many, many demons. Skipping forward after Jesus heals the man, they then come to him, the people, they come to Jesus and they see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting, clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid.

[23:18] If anything was going to corrupt this person's humanity, twist someone that they were no longer human, that they were outside the realm of salvation, well, certainly six thousand demons would.

[23:30] I mean, if one Nephilim, one demon cohabitating with a woman creates a giant, you know, imagine what six thousand will do in you. And yet here's this man. Jesus just takes care of it.

[23:42] Jesus didn't look at him and say, I'm sorry, you're no longer human. You're outside the realm of where I can reach you. So, my point is, if you hear that, and maybe it's just me, I hear a lot of that, no, you will not be defiled if someone holds you down.

[23:59] If you were here in the tribulation, we won't be. But if you were and someone held you down and tattooed the mark of the beast on you, you would not be defiled. You would not be outside of salvation because it says those who receive the mark of the beast, there's a willingness.

[24:13] It's in our hearts where the defilement comes from. Those who someday will receive the enemy's mark will do so willingly. They will choose to do it. No one's going to be pinning people down and, you know, giving them the mark.

[24:26] It's the same today. It's out of our heart the defilement comes. Yes, are things like wearing masks and the COVID shot they're pushing, those type of things, precursors to a one world system that's trying to force everyone under this one umbrella.

[24:41] Well, yeah, the same thing we see the currency moving in the same direction where everything's being pulled to this one kind of centralized thing. Sure, those are precursors to it, but they are not it.

[24:54] And even in the tribulation, it's those who receive it. It's out of the heart that we are defiled. So these people, these men of old, these men of renown, say, well, could Goliath then have gotten saved?

[25:08] Don't know. But if he's a man and he has a soul, then it's out of his heart that the corruption comes. It's not because of his, you know, background upbringing or whatever.

[25:20] There. So, moving on from the Nephilim. So that's our first giants, right? The giants that were in the land, men of renown. And you kind of see some of that carried into the Greek culture with the gods and goddesses, you know.

[25:32] And so we know there were some of these in existence. We saw that in Numbers, the children of Anak. There were still giants at that time. We know that Og, king of Bashan, when Moses goes and slays him, that he was massive.

[25:45] Like, he had a huge, massive bed. Tells us how big it is, you know. I think my feet hang over the end of the bed. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart.

[26:07] God didn't say, uh-oh, the genetic pool of man is so messed up that he can no longer receive salvation and be human. No, he said it's the thoughts of their heart. They're so corrupting themselves. They're joining themselves with evil and producing evil.

[26:21] And he repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. Can God repent? Can God repent? Psalm 33, verse 11, tells us some of God's character.

[26:35] One of his character traits is the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Job 23, 13, but he, speaking of God, is of one mind and who can turn him and what his soul desires even that he does.

[26:53] And then Numbers 23, 19 speaks a little more explicitly right to this. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said? Shall he not do?

[27:04] Or has he spoken? And shall he not make it good? So, it says, well, God doesn't repent. But then right here, it says God repented. Scripture contradicts itself. Let's throw it out and go to lunch.

[27:16] No. God, the word repent has multiple facets to it. Yes, it means to like turn into change, but within it is also this idea of being grieved, of sorrow, console.

[27:31] And so God is looking and it's repenting the Lord he made man on the earth. It's sorrowing the heart of God. You and I would look at that and be the type of situation that would cause us to change, to turn from something that is having this effect on us.

[27:44] And so we look at God and say, well, in the same way, the way I'm relating to God is it seems like he's turning, but he's not because if you read the rest of the word, he's got a plan that all pans out.

[27:55] So where it looks like God may be repenting, coming back upon his own word, he's not. It just looks that way to us. But he is grieved. The word there, grieved, you know, it means grief or pain from laboring.

[28:11] And so he is laboring under this pain and this grief which is causing this sorrow, which from our perspective looks like then he is changing his mind, right?

[28:23] The word repent is an interesting word. It has within it the idea of comfort as well. If you look back at chapter 5, verse 29, when Lamech, powerful, gives a powerful prophecy about Noah, he says this, and he called his name Noah, meaning rest.

[28:43] This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands. That word comfort is the word repent. It's the same word, repent. Another example of that, with Isaac in Genesis 24, 67, when Rebekah is brought to Isaac, Isaac brings her into his mother Sarah's tent and he took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her and Isaac was comforted, was repented after his mother's death.

[29:10] What does that mean? Well, I think this is a cool picture because it kind of gives a sense of it. He was turned back from the grief. He was comforted. He was repented after his mother's death. So the grief that his mother caused, Rebekah came in and comforted and essentially turned him, repented him of the grief from his mother's death.

[29:31] And so, here we have within this picture of God repenting is also his comfort. He's like, it grieves me that I've made man on the earth, but I've already got the comfort ready.

[29:42] I've already got Noah ready. The comfort is in the judgment. The comfort is there in God's seemingly repentance in this situation. As corrupt as man was, God already planned out his end here.

[29:58] And God said, I will destroy man whom I've created from the face of the earth. Both man and beast and the creeping things and the fowls of the air. It repents me that I have made them. So God is taking responsibility for his creation here.

[30:12] But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and a perfect and perfect in his generations.

[30:22] And Noah walked with God. And it's going to go on and tell more about his family. So now we run back into Noah. In the midst of God's judgment and his desire to bring judgment, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

[30:37] Romans 5.20 says, But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

[30:51] So where sin abounded, grace did much more. And so God has his grace in Noah. And here's our second giant. We had our first giants. The world doesn't know anything about this guy.

[31:03] But God looks at him and says, Man, this is a giant. This is a giant of my grace. Grace leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to wholeness or uncorruption.

[31:18] And so here is Noah where scripture says he's a just man and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. What did all that come after? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

[31:29] And as we find grace in the eyes of the Lord and receive his grace, it produces what? Well, the same thing it says with Noah. It produces justification. God justifies us through his grace freely.

[31:41] Nothing we do. Perfection. It works. It sanctifies us. It removes corruption. And then Noah walked with God. It builds our walk. And so Noah here finds grace in the eyes of the Lord.

[31:57] The rest of the world is in corruption and under corruption. We know Romans 1. I'm not going to read the whole thing there. Romans 1, 21 through 24 speaks of this downward spiral of corruption of man.

[32:11] But in the middle there, it says, and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. And man has become corrupt and man is going into corruption.

[32:24] And here is Noah standing alone. Where's the rest of his family? Where's Lamech's other children? He had other sons and daughters. Where's Methuselah's other children? Where are all these people that have come through this line of Seth?

[32:37] Only Noah, his wife, three sons, and three wives go on the ark. That's it. There should have been hundreds. There should have been thousands. Where are they? They all fell away.

[32:48] I don't think we can comprehend the corruption that was in the world at that time. We're starting to see it again. We're seeing little children being so corrupted that by the time they're in their teens and 20s, they're not even recognizable anymore as people or as their own gender.

[33:05] It's like, who are you? What are you? And so here the world is being corrupted. And God said, in verse 11, the earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence.

[33:21] And God looked upon the earth and behold, it was corrupted for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. There's only one viewpoint that mattered. It didn't matter that the entire world had a different viewpoint and that thought differently.

[33:35] There's one viewpoint that mattered. It mattered. God's, God's word stands against everything. All of humanity is about to be wiped out except for eight people.

[33:49] God's word will stand. When God, when Jesus returns, remember he says, will the son of man find faith upon the earth? You know, if it says, if he didn't return, then the whole world would have destroyed itself.

[34:01] Humanity has the capacity to completely corrupt itself apart from Christ. That's what sin will do. And so he had corrupted his way upon the earth.

[34:15] And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. And so, unfortunately, they are brought to a place where there is no turning back.

[34:33] And we know Philippians tells us in the New Testament, Paul talks of those who seems like they were at one time in Christ or at one time those who labored with him. Philippians chapter 3, verse 18, he says, And that's like perfect description of what's happening right now before the flood.

[35:08] And so then the Lord gives Noah instruction. He says, Noah, make thee an ark of gopher wood. I don't know what gopher wood is. Nobody knows what gopher wood is. You know, I think what it is is there's so much, you know, it took so long to build the ark.

[35:21] Probably anywhere from 40 to 80 years. We're not going to go through all the numbers, but we're eventually told Shem was 98 when he went on to the ark because Noah was 100 when he had Japheth.

[35:37] And so you can kind of figure maybe two years later he had Shem because afterwards it says Shem had Arphaxad after the flood and he was like 102. So you can back up and you can figure out how old he was when he went on the ark.

[35:48] It says, God says to Noah, you, your wife, your sons and your sons' wives are going to go on the ark to build the ark and to go on it. So that means at that time his children were grown and having, getting married.

[36:02] So there's a long time to build this ark. And I think that, you know, there's a lot of wood. It probably just became, no, you know, it's like, well, what kind of wood is it? You know, these kids are growing up building this ark and they're like, I don't know.

[36:13] Dad just keeps saying, go for wood, go for wood. And it just became go for wood. So, I don't know what go for wood is. But anyway, God says, make go for wood.

[36:27] Rooms shalt thou make in the ark and shalt pitch it within and without. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make of it. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits.

[36:38] A window shalt thou make to the ark and a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. With lower, second, third stories shalt thou make it. My guess is there's a whole lot more detail downloaded to Noah when he built this.

[36:52] This is what we're given. This is what the Holy Spirit wants us to know about this ark. So, how big was the ark? Well, that comes out up to 515 feet long, 86 feet wide, and 51 feet tall.

[37:06] So, something like that is what they figure. Using the Egyptian and Babylonian cubit, which would be 20.5 inches, you can figure out then at the ark what it was built.

[37:18] Now, that doesn't have much context, so I like that one. It's a little fuzzy. But you can kind of see then compared to the Titanic or, for us, you know, compared to a 747 when you're flying, you can think like, hey, about two of these fit in the ark.

[37:32] So, imagine an elephant being on the plane with you. And so, he made, and he pitched it within and without, sealed it, sealed it from corruption so the wood wouldn't rot.

[37:45] And then he makes this window in it, just one single window. We're going to come back to some of these things. And behold, I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die.

[38:03] Now, he said before, when you see where God talks about destroying the breath of life or that which has breath of life in it, that is the word that's used when it says in God breathed life into Adam.

[38:14] It's always referring to those who have more than just air, but have the spirit of God within them as well. Yes, all of creation is going to be wiped out. Anything that breathes, but he's talking here about that man shall be, that every man who's a living soul shall be wiped out.

[38:34] Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3, has this interesting phrasing here about that it links the ark and the flood with baptism. He says, that when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing, wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water, the like figure whereunto even baptism does also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.

[39:03] By the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is gone into heaven, or who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

[39:14] So he's saying, hey, just as Noah was saved through the water and his family, well, in the same picture, so does baptism. But I really like the part here where he puts in there in the parentheses, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answering of a good conscience toward God.

[39:30] And there's that idea again that the corruption is from within as well as the cleansing. We're cleansed within. It's the answering of a good conscience. Noah had a good conscience towards God.

[39:40] In other words, he found grace in his eyes. He was justified. He was righteous before the Lord. And then that allowed him then the outworking of that, like baptism, was being saved through the flood.

[39:54] But we get down to verse 18. But with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

[40:05] That's the first use of the word covenant, that God makes a covenant with Noah. We're going to see that God's covenant of grace leads to blessing and obedience.

[40:19] Because first we see Noah found grace, and then it leads to obedience. And grace and obedience together is the blessing. You know, when God comes to Abraham and says, Abraham, in blessing I'll bless you.

[40:31] You know, come and follow me. Grace works with the obedience, and it produces a blessing. Because grace freely gives, we respond in obedience, we receive a blessing. God wants to bless us.

[40:42] It's not by works, it's by grace. And so he's going to make a covenant with him. What is the covenant he's going to make? That he's going to preserve his life through this and not destroy the entire world.

[40:54] It's the Noahic covenant. And we will see much more of that when Noah comes off the boat. God will then, like, speak out what that covenant is. But this is the first use of the word. It means to cut, to make a cutting.

[41:04] Like, so usually you'd have, like, a sacrifice. You would cut an animal and you'd part the flesh. And then you would walk, the two of you, whoever was covenanting together, would go between the two halves.

[41:15] That's why you have a bride's side and a groom's side when you get married and you cut the covenant. They come between the two parts, bearing witness, bearing witness that, yes, you know, we are ratifying this covenant.

[41:29] That's where that comes from. But this is the first use of that word, covenant. But with thee will I establish my covenant and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee.

[41:40] So they were of marrying age and two of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and female of fowls after their kind and of cattle after their kind and of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind.

[41:58] I just can't find evolution anywhere in the Bible. It's always after their kind. And every creeping thing after their kind. Two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive.

[42:09] And so we see here the residual blessing of obedience. Noah's obedience, the blessing kind of goes out not just on Noah, but on all of creation. If Noah didn't obey, these animals are toast.

[42:22] So there's a residual blessing that when we obey God and we walk in blessing, those around us are blessed too. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten.

[42:35] This is why I don't think they're eating meat yet. And thou shalt gather it to thee and it shall be for food for thee and for them. And God had said that the herb, the green herb would be for the animal as well as the man.

[42:50] And it's not until after they come off the boat that things are different. Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him. Life comes through the word, through obeying God's word.

[43:05] In 1 Kings chapter 8, Solomon is bringing the ark into the temple. He's excited. They've just finished the temple. They're dedicating it.

[43:16] And it says, Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel unto King Solomon in Jerusalem that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.

[43:30] And then he says, Blessed be the Lord that has given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised. There is not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses, his servant.

[43:45] The ark brought rest. They brought the ark in and then Solomon says, Praise the Lord for this rest. So we've seen our first giant, our giants that the enemy produces, that the world produces, right?

[44:05] Their giants are mighty, strong, big, courageous, or so it seems. We've seen the giant of Noah, just one lone man, Noah the preacher of righteousness with his family, just continuing to proclaim the word.

[44:19] Nobody responded. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. And then there's another giant in our midst, too. Jesus is our ark.

[44:32] Jesus is our rest that we can enter into. Hebrews 6, verse 18, says, that by two immutable things that by two immutable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, and those two immutable things are his promise and his word.

[44:46] We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters into that within the veil.

[44:58] Jesus is our ark we enter into. The wooden cross, verse 14, he said, make it of wood, make the ark of wood. In 1 Peter 2, verse 24, says that Jesus himself bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed.

[45:19] So Jesus, our ark, was on the wooden cross, a place prepared. Verse 14, says, to make rooms shall you make in the ark.

[45:30] You shall prepare this. John 14, verse 1, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go and prepare a place for you.

[45:43] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus says things so simple, and it makes so much sense, but it's so profound.

[45:56] If I go and prepare a place for you, that means I'm going to come and get you. Protected from corruption, pitched within and without, but the Holy Spirit does the same thing for us.

[46:06] Ephesians 1, 13, in whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

[46:19] There's ample, there's ample, it's amply sufficient. Our ark, Jesus, is amply sufficient. Verse 15, tells us that the, the size of the ark will be sufficient to hold all of the creatures in creation, two by two at that time.

[46:35] 2 Corinthians 3, 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. He's amply sufficient. In Christ, in our ark, there's open to us a window to heaven.

[46:48] One single window in verse 16 in Genesis 6 is put into the ark. And I like this one a lot. Malachi 3, 10, bring you all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts.

[47:03] If I will not open, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, there shall not be room enough to receive it. It's a picture like Noah, bringing them all in, just bringing them in.

[47:15] God's like, you just do that part. Whatever I've called you to do, you do your part and I'll pour out the blessing. I'll open the window. He pours out the spirit just as the water is going to be poured out.

[47:28] Acts 2, verse 17, And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams on my servants and on my handmaidens.

[47:41] I will pour out in those days of my spirit. They shall prophesy. And in our ark, as we enter into Christ and our rest, he pours out his spirit freely on us with our covenant of grace. Hebrews 8, verse 10, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.

[47:59] Not just Israel, but those of us who are grafted into the vine through Christ. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they to me a people.

[48:09] And so he will forgive our sins and remember our iniquities no more through his covenant of grace. And lastly, communion. Where he says, Take unto you all the food. You know, take the food that's eaten.

[48:22] John 6, 33, Our ark offers us the bread of life. For the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven and gives life unto the world. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.

[48:33] He that comes to me shall never hunger. He that believes on me shall never thirst. But that's Jesus. Jesus is our, he's our ark. In him, we see the wood, a place prepared, protection from corruption.

[48:46] He's amply sufficient. He opens to us a window from heaven. He pours out his spirit, makes a covenant of grace, and through him we have communion. As Jesus is our ark. And so he does today for us.

[48:58] Right? He offers, tells us, you know, enter in, enter in to the rest that I give you, to the rest that I have for you. Remember last week when we ended, we looked at how we have no continuing city here.

[49:15] Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. Because look at how Cain built a city. And named it after son Enoch. Man-focused, earth-centric living. Well, 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 13 through 15.

[49:29] It says, nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. That was Noah's hope. God promised him a new earth where would dwell righteousness.

[49:41] Well, when he first stepped off the boat, that's what it was. Sin had been wiped away for all intents and purposes. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless.

[49:56] Same with Noah where it says that Noah, he was a just man, perfect in his generation. He walked with God. That we would be found in him with peace without spot and blameless.

[50:06] And that we would account the long suffering of our Lord to salvation. where God says, my spirit will not always strive with man. Man, it sure seems like it. Seems like he gives so much rope because he's so gracious that he would do that.

[50:21] So for us, well, one, have we entered into the ark of rest? Well, I have, but am I living in it? Am I living in that place where I'm allowing my rest, my ark, Jesus, to continue through his grace to supply all that's needed?

[50:39] Am I living in such a way that I'm looking forward to this new heavens and new earth? Or am I so fixated on the giants here? The giants that I think are, ooh, maybe interesting or the giants that seem too big for me that I can't handle?

[50:53] Well, God looks down to those who would receive his grace and says, you're a giant. I see you as a giant. I know for me, with Noah, it's hard to grasp, I think, his aloneness in this.

[51:09] And just thinking, didn't he have anybody to talk to? I think he said he had Methuselah and Lamech up until the flood. But thinking of when, we'll get into that next time, when he steps off the ark, everything he was familiar with was gone.

[51:22] Everything he was comfortable with, everything he was used to, gone. And when we go walking with Christ so often, we have to step into the ark and the Lord's like, leave it behind. Leave the thing you're used to and familiar with and comfortable behind and come with me.

[51:34] It's like, this is like some brand new world, Lord. I wasn't expecting this. He's like, yes, but, but you need to come into the ark because that's where you're going to find comfort and rest.

[51:45] And so Jesus, we love you so much. Thank you for the comfort and rest that you give. Thank you for this beautiful picture, Lord. A faithful giant of a man in the halls of faith.

[51:55] They'll say, by faith, Noah built the ark. Nothing to be seen that would say destruction's coming. He lived in a prosperous world. Death was unheard of.

[52:07] People living for hundreds of years. And yet the voice of the Lord, the word of God, came and said, Noah, you need to enter into the ark. You need to enter into rest and comfort and salvation.

[52:19] I'm taking you to a new world, Noah. Thank you for his faithfulness. Without it, we wouldn't be here. And Lord, who do you have through our faithfulness that would not be in the kingdom, Lord, if we weren't faithful to enter into the ark?

[52:33] So we pray, Jesus, that today you give us rest and comfort. And as we close now, you'd speak to our hearts and that you would equip us for this week ahead. We love you and thank you. In Jesus' name, Amen.