Breaking Bad

Living Right in a World Gone Wrong  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Lead Pastor Wes Terry preaches on how the world and individuals "Break Bad" out of a Genesis 6:1-8. This message was preached on April 30th, 2023.

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INTRODUCTION:

Why is it, without some kind of intervention, things trend towards a state of decay? Why do thing naturally drift towards a place of disorder instead of order?
In Physics they call this the Law of Entropy or the second law of thermo dynamics. It’s a fundamental principle that governs the behavior of energy in a closed system.
Basically, the law of entropy states that in a closed system “energy tends to disperse and structures tend to devolve.” They go from a state of order to disorder, from predictable to unpredictable, from reliable to random.
It also ties in to what’s called “irreversibility” which says “once something has ‘broken bad’ it can be ‘unbroken.’ What’s done is done and cannot be undone. You can patch it, you can fix it, but you cannot reverse it.

From Physics to Culture

Well what’s true in physical world is also true in a spiritual or “metaphysical” sense.
You might think of an “open system” as a life with God. A infinite source of energy and power and truth and goodness.
You might think of a “closed system” as a life/society without God.
In that kind of world, spiritual and social entropy begin to take hold. Things begin to devolve instead of evolve.
Rejecting God leads to a state of ruin. For individuals, systems, cultures the principle holds true. Cut yourself off from God and you’ll set yourself up for disaster.
Things from from order to chaos, predicable to unpredictable, from reliable to random.
That dynamic is what Genesis 4-11 are all about. It’s what we’ve been looking at in this series: “Living Right in a World Gone Wrong.”
When Adam and Eve rejected God’s design they introduced sin into this world.
In a sense, our “open system” became a “closed system” because we shut out the source of infinite goodness, truth and beauty.
Mankind was driven out of the garden and began to deal with the curse of sin on the world.
Disorder, chaos, and wickedness begin to multiply and spread. A righteous remnant remained but the vast majority dove headlong into darkness.
Our text this morning explains the steps of that decline.

Read the Text

So with that in mind let’s read Genesis 6:1-5
Genesis 6:1–5 (ESV)
1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
5 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.
Listen to that last phrase. It’s like the lowest of the lowest of the lows.
“great wickedness, every intention, only evil, continually.”
This passage is setting up for God’s judgement of the earth with a world wide flood.
A few verses later we’re going to be introduced to a man of righteousness named Noah and his family.
They stood alone in a world that had broken bad. Next time we’ll look at the profile of his righteous stand.
This week we’re looking at how righteousness gets destroyed.
Genesis 6:1-8 shows us how the world went wrong. It’s a blueprint for how individuals, cultures and systems “break bad” and God’s judgment in response.

How The World Broke Bad

This passage is famous for it’s mention of “The Nephilim.” Commentators have been debating about the identity of the Nephilim for thousands of years.
So who are these people and what is their relationship to the Sons of God, the daughters of men and the spread of wickedness throughout the earth.

The Sons of God

Before we define the Nephilim we first have to define the phrase “sons of God” and “daughters of men.” Because it seems as though the Nephilim are the “offspring” of this kind of union.
When trying to untie an thorny interpretive knot like this it’s important to read a text in light of it’s context.

Context

What’s the context of Genesis 6?
In Genesis 1-2 God creates everything good, man in his image and marriage as a covenant under God between one man and one woman for one life time.
In Genesis 3 mankind rebels against God and feels the consequences of sin’s curse on their relationship with God, with each other and the culture they were called to cultivate.
God gives a promise in Genesis 3:15 that from the seed of the woman would come a savior who would crush evil and deliver God’s people from the curse.
In Genesis 4 we see the beginnings of that promise with a contrast between Cain and Able - both sons of Adam but one gives himself to God and the other who gives himself to sin.
In Genesis 5 we begin to see a contrast between two family trees: God’s tree (through the line of Seth) and Satan’s tree (through the line of Cain) Satan’s scheme was to destroy the promised seed of righteousness but God preserves a remnant none the less.
You might think of Genesis 6 as Satan’s second attempt to destroy the seed of God’s promise in Christ.
If he couldn’t do it through the murder of Abel then perhaps he’d be successful through an attack on marriage and family. That’s Satan’s new vector of attack.

Fallen Angels

So who are these Sons of God?
Some suggest the sons of God are fallen angels from heaven.
The evidence they point to is that the Hebrew phrase “sons of God” is later used in Job 1:6 to describe fallen angels who appear before God with Satan at their side. (also mentioned in Job 2:1)
According to this view, these angelic beings descended to earth, became enamored with these attractive “daughters of men” and married them.
On this view not only do demons marry human women, they also produce a hybrid offspring: aka they Nephilim.
In addition to the lexical evidence in Job, they would also point to the “Book of Enoch.”
This is an ancient book, not included in the biblical cannon but attributed to Enoch the seventh son of Adam and the great grandfather of Noah. (Genesis 5:21-24)
The first section in the book of Enoch talks about “The Watchers” (1 Enoch 1-36) who are identified with the Nephilim in Genesis 6:4.
Azazel (the demon leader of a horde of fallen angels) intermingles with the human race, teaching them arts and science and special secrete knowledge but also corrupting them morally and spiritually.
Their offspring, the Nephilim, wreak havoc on the earth, consume all available resources and eventually develop a blood lust and devolved into cannibalism.
Makes for a GREAT sci-fi plot but is that actually what Genesis 6 is describing?
I personally don’t think so. One of the main reasons is because these “Sons of God” get married and Jesus says the “angels neither marry nor are given in marriage.” (Matt 22:30; Mark 12:25)

Mighty Men

The second view understands the phrase “Sons of God” as mighty warriors or heroes.
This view points to the Hebrew word Nephilim and points out it’s derived from the Hebrew word “Nephal” which means “to fall.”
But instead of interpreting it as “fallen ones” as in “fallen angels” they suggest it be interpreted as “those who cause OTHERS to fall” (i.e. warriors or conquerors.)
In this view, the Nephilim are simply exceptional individuals knowns for their military acumen and effective leadership. They might not have supernatural abilities but they stand out from the rest nonetheless.

Redeemed Humanity

The final two views understand the phrase “Sons of God” in a more basic and spiritual sense: aka believers in God.
These “sons of God” are not fallen angels but redeemed humanity.
Obviously these men would not be “Christians” in the strict sense of the term like we mean it today. Christ had not yet been born much less crucified, buried and risen.
But the Bible teaches that the Old Testament saints WERE SAVED by grace through faith in the Christ they could see from what God had revealed.
In Genesis 6 that faith would’ve been in the Christ presented in Genesis 3:15. The serpent-crushing, death-defeating, curse-reversing Savior of men.
This view certainly has support from the immediate context because Genesis 5 is all about that righteous remnant preserved by God through families who leave a legacy of faith for the next generation.

The Line of Seth?

The fourth view is a variation of the third but sees the sons of God as all men who descend from the line of Seth.
Perhaps they were believers. Perhaps they were just sons and/or grandsons of a believer. Either way, they are distinct from the line of Cain and thus identified as the Sons of God.

Phase One: Unholy Alliance

Personally, I think the third view is most accurate.
On this view - these “believing Sons of God” intermingle and intermarry “daughters of men.” (aka, women who do NOT come from a godly family and do NOT share the faith of these believing men.)
Genesis 6 is talking about “believers” being “unequally yolked” with unbelievers.
God’s original design for marriage was that both the man and the woman be people who are submitted to God and his designs. In this case, the man “claims” to be a believer but unites himself to a partner who does not believe.
The apostle Paul warns against this in 2 Corinthians 6:14
2 Corinthians 6:14 (ESV)
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
The image is of two animals yoked together but one is way smaller or larger than the other. As a result, they cannot effectively “move forward” because they’re out of balance in the way they go about things.
When a believer forms a partnership with a non-believer (especially a covenant partnership like marriage) their efforts are going to be frustrated and futile.
This leads to the first phase of how righteousness gets destroyed: unholy alliances.

Priorities & Partnership

There are actually two steps in this phase.
First, these “sons of God” was prioritizing the wrong things.
This leads to the second thing, partnership with the wrong people.
When you are driven by the wrong priorities it results in the wrong kind of partnerships.

Bad Priorities

You can see the first phase in Gen 6:2. “They saw that the daughters of man were attractive...”
I see this dynamic all the time when it comes to teenagers and dating. I even experienced it myself I’m ashamed to say.
What single people are often MOST CONCERNED about - when it comes to their future spouse - isn’t their wisdom, virtue, character or spiritual beliefs - it’s their physical bodies.
A boy or a girl might be morally and spiritually corrupt but they’re EASY ON THE EYES and that’s what really matters.
What people often think is - “I’ll marry for looks and then later on I’ll get them to believe what I believe.” Sometimes we call this “Missionary Dating.” But that’s now how it works.
It’s the spiritual law of entropy. When you take God out of your relationship things will inevitably lead to brokenness, decline and destruction.
Through temptation and compromise the faith of the believing person is eventually subdued.
They might still “personally” believe in the God of the Bible but their effectiveness FOR God and enjoyment OF God is usually decreased.

Bap Partnerships

So bad priorities inevitably lead you into bad partnerships.
By this I don’t mean that these “daughters of men” were necessarily evil, undignified, less than human.
Just because a person doesn’t believe in God doesn’t mean they’re not made in God’s image. It doesn’t mean they’re unloved by God or incapable of one day coming to know God.
I know MANY MEN who were ungodly husbands and through the ministry of their wives God saved them and redeemed them.
So the word “bad” doesn’t necessarily mean evil. I don’t mean we should totally separate ourselves from unbelievers or discriminate against those who don’t share our views. That would actually contradict OTHER parts of Scripture. (1 Cor 5:9-13)
The warning isn’t against living in the world or association with unbelievers. It IS however a warning against FRIENDSHIP with the World. (James 4:4) It’s a warning against “love” for this world. (1 John 2:15-17) and FELLOWSHIP with darkness. (2 Cor 6:14)

Diluted Influence

Fellowship with darkness dilutes the influence of righteousness in the earth.
That’s why Jesus says, “You’re the salt of the earth. Don’t don’t lose your saltiness less you be thrown out and tramped on by the feet of men.” (Mat 5:13)
You’re the light of the world. Nobody lights a lamp and then puts it under a bowl? No! That’d snuff it out and it wouldn’t have it’s intended affect on the world. (Mat 5:14-15)
As believers we’re called by God to pursue righteousness, to let our light shine, to slow down the decay and advance God’s kingdom because it WE don’t, nobody else will. (Mat 5:16)
If it wasn’t for the moral influence of the church today I promise you - you wouldn’t even want to live here.
When men and women of righteousness are removed then all hell will literally break loose.

Phase 2: Unrepentant Hearts

The second stage of breaking bad is found in verse 3
Genesis 6:3 (ESV)
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
Some say that 120 years are the number of years until the flood. Others say it’s a cap on the human lifespan.
What’s so amazing about verse 3 is that the Lord himself begins to speak to mankind. “I’m not going to strive with mankind forever… there’s a limit to the conversation we’re having!”
There are those who suggest that God was speaking this message through the ministry of Noah. The book of Hebrews calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness.”
It very well may be that Noah was out there preaching this message of repentance and faith and right living in a world gone wrong.
The problem was nobody had ears to hear what the Holy Spirit was saying. Seeing they could not see and listening they could not hear.
As the Word of God was preached, God’s people hardened their hearts and went on living as they pleased.
Phase 1 in the development of unholy alliances. Phase 2 is the development of an unrepentant heart.
It’s no surprise they would reject the message of repentance. Repentance, in their case, was probably COSTLY.
I can’t do this I’ll be rejected by my wife. My kids won’t speak with me any more.
I can’t do this I’ll be laughed at and marginalized.
I can’t do this I’ll lose my job and financial future.

Having Ears to Hear

There are always compelling reasons for silencing the voice of the Holy Spirit. I know from personal experience.
For many of us the problem isn’t that we don’t know what God wants us to do. The problem is we’re not willing to pay the price.
The price of repentance is TOO HIGH in our minds.
The truth, however, is the opposite. The price of repentance may be high. But the price of resistance will be even greater.
Why? Because as you see in verse 3, God will not "abide in man forever.”
I looked up that Hebrew word this week. It carries the idea of having an argument with someone about something. Sometimes it’s translated “to judge” “to strive” “to content.”
Imagine the image of a superior (Holy Spirit) arguing with an inferior (mankind) that He was right and they were wrong. But the inferior person in the wrong stubbornly and relentlessly refused to acknowledge. At a certain point the Holy Spirit just stops having the conversation.

God’s Wrath in Handing Over

This is what Romans 1 talks about. The wrath of God isn’t always a flood or active form of judgment. Sometimes the wrath of God is more passive.
He simply “hands us over” to what we SAY we really want. When we continually suppress the truth and become foolish in our thinking God eventually says to us, “thy will be done.”
Romans 1:24–25 (ESV)
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Verse 26 - God gave them up to dishonorable passions (homosexuality)
Verse 28 - God gave them up to a debased mind (moral confusion/decay)
Romans 1:32 (ESV)
32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

How Will You Respond?

Rejecting repentance deafens your spiritual ears and blinds your spiritual eyes so that you become desensitized to God’s mercy and invitation of grace.
The longer you resist repentance the further you will be from grace. He’s so patient. 120 years!
How long has he been striving with you? Will you keep silencing his voice or will today be the day of surrender?
Today is the day of salvation. TODAY if you hear his voice do not harden your heart as they did in the wilderness.
There is a clock that is ticking and are opportunities that will one day cease. Today might be the last day you have to repent. What if it was? would you be ready?

God’s Response

We see God’s response to these things in Genesis 6:5-7.
Genesis 6:5–7 (ESV)
5 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. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 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.”
What you see here is the principle of spiritual entropy at work.
There is no such thing keeping sin and evil at bay. When the influence of righteousness is removed, things will go lower and lower and lower and lower and lower.
Every intention, every thought, only evil, continually.
This leads God to “grieve” and “regret” having ever made man in the first place.
That’s a huge statement! Imagine having a kid that is so wicked, so demonic you say to yourself, “you know what I love them but I wish they were never born.”
As a result of mankind’s unyielding and universal wickedness, the LORD decides to judge them and destroy the world.
We’re going to look at the judgment in the upcoming weeks but for now let me make this one point.
The Lord is slow to anger. He is abounding in steadfast love. But he will be NO MEANS clear the guilty. (Numbers 14:18)
For God to be good he must also be JUST. Justice demands that wrongs be made right. Justice demands retribution.
The wages of sin is death and sinners deserve their wage.

Our Real Problem

So what are we to make of these things? The most obvious point is that the description of the world in Genesis 6 doesn’t just describe a world in the past.
The world of Genesis 6 has striking similarities to the world we live in TODAY.
Which means the problem of sin in Genesis 6 isn’t just a problem for people in the past, it’s a problem people deal with today as well.
The root problem isn’t our sinful actions. It’s our wicked hearts! The will is a maidservant to the heart and the mind.
And our hearts and our minds are sick because of sin. We’re not sinners because we sin. We sin because we’re sinners.
We didn’t just inherit a sinful world. We inherited a sinful heart.
The prophet Jeremiah said “the heart is deceitful and desperately sick, who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
The answer? God does. And that’s our problem.

The Only Solution

So if we have a universal sin problem that demands the punishment of a just and holy God how in the world do we escape that judgment?
We get a clue to the answer in Genesis 6:8
Genesis 6:8 (ESV)
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
A lot of people read this verse in light of what follows. Noah believes God, preaches righteousness, builds the ark, so on and so forth.
And it’s true that Noah is obedient to trusts God and does all of those things.
But this verse shouldn’t just be read in light of what follows. It should also be read in light of verses 5-7.
The language of man’s wickedness was very thorough, sweeping and universal. I’m pretty sure that included NOAH!
In other words, Noah didn’t find favor in God’s eyes because he was righteous. Noah found favor in God’s eyes because God is gracious.
You say, “Yeah but Genesis 6:9 says “Noah was a righteous man!” And it’s true. Genesis 6:9 says he was “blameless in his generation” and that Noah “walked with God.”
But two verses later it says Genesis 6:12
Genesis 6:12 (ESV)
12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
I think all flesh included Noah! It wasn’t until verse 13 that God changes that situation by his grace.
Genesis 6:13 (ESV)
13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
God speaks to Noah. That is an act of grace. God reveals the reality of Noah’s sins, the impending judgment of God for those sins, and the means of grace for Noah to escape that judgment: aka the Ark.

Saved by Grace Through Faith

So what made Noah righteous? What made him blameless among others in his generation? How was Noah saved from the judgment of God for his sins?
The same way you and I are saved today: by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Favor with God cannot be earned. It it only received.
This Word of Warning is a type of Gospel message to Noah. I’m coming so exercise faith and build the ark. The ark is a type of Christ in this story. It is our only means of salvation from judgment.
Which means the unique solution to our sin problem today is grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
We are saved by grace through faith.
I asked you earlier if today was the day you finally stop rejecting God and repent of your sins.
The good news is God’s response to your repentance isn’t judgment or damnation. It is mercy and forgiveness and cleansing of your sin because Jesus has died in your place.
Jesus received into his own body on the cross the flood of God’s judgment. Even though he didn’t deserve to die, he willingly laid down his life so that you and I could have our sinful hearts healed.
And the means of our salvation also becomes the means of our healing.
God’s love and mercy and grace in Jesus don’t just save us from his judgment. They transform us more and more into God’s image.
In the Gospel, we are not just forgiven by God’s grace. We are changed by God’s grace as well.
God’s grace in Christ saves us from sin, transforms us into saints and leave us eternally secure no matter what.
So as we respond to the Lord, let us stop resisting repentance and instead run to our father who loves us in Christ.
And instead of loving this world and suppressing the truth let us seek first the Kingdom and shine our lights on the earth.
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