Aspire to Walk with God

Genesis 5-7

December 16, 2007

ch. 5

The official history of the human race, especially of the

line of promise!

ten patriarchs are sketched - basically they were born, grew to

manhood, married wives, begat children and then died.

In only two instances does the scripture deviate to tell us

of the piety of Enoch and his different mode of departure

from this earth and of Noah, whose birth is depicted as

a happy occasion in a time of SOCIAL DEGENERACY

and RELIGIOUS DECLENSION that led to the world

being overwhelmed and destroyed by the FLOOD!

They both were witnesses against the wickedness of the

age and ministered in times of great apostasy - Enoch

prophesied of the coming of the Lord - Jude 14 and Noah

was a preacher of righteousness to the men of

his generation - II Pet. 2:5

Of these two, it is said that they walked with God in a

rapidly degenerating age. As a child Enoch influenced me -

my plea to God in the gap on the way to school, "I want

to walk with you as Enoch walked - home place - the gap

and home place now obliterated by the

Somerset-Pulaski County Airport - and the irony of

the later call to "stand in the gap" - Ezek. 22:30 - at

Oak Hill Church - making a commitment in 1966 to

try to do this - in retrospect - the gap was the attack on

the Judaeo-Christian value system in the public schools!

The Bible tells us that David served his generation -

Acts 13:36 and I should think that that is all our duty -

to serve God in our generation - He in His great wisdom

has placed us in the time and place He has chosen -

I have often and erroneously said that I would have been

better off being a century earlier - that I would have fit in

much better and with less conflict - but who knows? Our

personality goes with us where ever we go

punishment man is viewed in his relations to the God of

redemption and grace.

It is a great thing to be born, but a greater to be born again!

To be in God's world is a great blessing but to be a part of His

eternal kingdom is much greater! To be of Adam's line by

nature is a questionable honor but to be of Adam's line by

grace is unquestionable glory.

These ten people believed in God and His promise of the

Seed of the woman who would redeem them - perhaps not

all had the same tenacity but they all had the same reality -

they clung to the promise of God!

Remember - "without faith it is impossible to please Him"

vs. 1-2 - the dignity of man's nature -"in the likeness of God"

vs. 3-5 - Adam lived 930 years - this longevity the result of

the original immortality with which man was endowed

and which is now being frayed away by the inroads of sin.

"and he died" - the words that reoccur at the close of each

biography of each patriarch proves the dominion of death

as an immutable law - Adam's obituary announced the

fulfillment of the physical aspect of the death sentence that

was pronounced on him in ch . 3:19 and assuring all

humanity that "the wages of sin is death" - Rom. 6:23a

vs. 6-31 - ditto except for Enoch who "was not for God

took him" -

Heb. 11:5 - "By faith Enoch was translated that he should

not see death; and was not found, because God had

translated him: for before his translation he had

this testimony, that he pleased God"

Heb. 11:6 - like those whom God will translate at the coming

of Jesus! - I Cor. 15:52, I Thess. 4:16-17

v. 22 - "and Enoch walked with God" - to walk after God

portrays a life of elevated piety, a perpetual effort

of holy obedience, a maintenance of a personal

and daily relationship with God and His Christ!

It was not an intermittent and fluctuating walk, but

steadfast and persevering. Note - Enoch's piety flourished in

evil times.

Too often men, are like the teaching of Christ in Matthew 13:22

where the "care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches"

makes it less important to walk with God than to be admired

of men

Jude tells us in verses 14-15 that Enoch's life was

active and aggressive towards the evil times in which

he lived.

Those who are like Enoch in life will not be very different

from him in their end - the peace and triumph of a good

man's end is little short of translation.

Psalm 37:37 - "Mark the perfect man, and behold the

upright: for the end of that man is peace!"

v. 24 - "for God took him" - the same word is used in

the translation of Elijah in II Kings 2

v. 25 - "Methuselah" - the shortest life was followed

by the longest - Methuselah is proverbial - old

as Methuselah, I have heard all my life.

"When he dies it shall be sent" - the year Methuselah

died the Flood came - since he lived longer than any

other human being it is evidence that "God is long

suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,

but all should come to repentance" - II Peter 3:9

ch. 6

vs. 1-2 - "sons of God....daughters of men"

Either humans with humans or angels with humans?

If angels, Satan was desiring reinforcements for the

coming battle against the hosts of heaven and desiring

to corrupt mankind before the promised Seed could

accomplish Satan's defeat - trying to utilize the

power of procreation to work out their own ends.

The Spirit World by Clarence Larkin - in our library.

Jude 6 & 7 speaks of comparing angels with men of

Sodom going after "strange flesh "

"saw the daughters of men that they were fair" -

regard to this alone - instead of looking for the

spiritual nature in women as in I Peter 3:3-4 -

they had an eye only to the pleasure of sense.

"they took them wives of all whom they chose" -

a general state of profligacy which made

indiscriminate sexual unions quite commonplace,

characteristic careless attitudes -

at least they bothered to get married - today the

rebellion against God in modern society - people

don't bother - I notice they still give children names

after the father as if they were legitimate - no

different than the attitude in the Proverbs of

eating a piece of bread and wiping off the mouth

as if nothing happened or as getting a drink of water?

This, no doubt, was a part of the cause of God to

resolve to destroy the people from the earth - vs. 5,7, 11

How as a Christian do you react to this? there is a fine

line between condoning such action and being overly harsh.

The evil indicated is simply that of promiscuous marriages

without regard to spiritual character.

v. 3 - "My Spirit shall not always strive with man"

v. 4 - an outbreak of abnormality and wickedness that

can only by explained by a demonically super-

natural cause - something akin to demon possession -

indwelling the bodies of humans - compare today

and the rise of demonic characteristics in the

drug culture today which also is obsessed with sex.

Apparently God no longer allowed them to roam the

earth as at the first but pent them up in prison - II Pet. 2:4

Consider: I Tim 4:1-4, Eph. 6:12

Spiritism, witchcraft, and other forms of occult beliefs and

practices - even Satanism itself, are captivating the minds

and bodies of multitudes today, especially among young people.

The goal seems to be to gain direct Satanic control

over the minds and bodies of hosts of human beings

before Christ returns.

Demons can control only those whose minds and

hearts are in rebellion against God - the angels did

not take all the women - only "all which they chose"

v. 5 - "And God saw that the wickedness of man was

great in the earth" - a loud noise, to rage, hence

to be wicked - it was no slight iniquity but wide

spread and firmly rooted - not only in the world

but pervading it!

Materialism, ungodliness, violence and wickedness -

the breakdown of the wall of separation between

believers and unbelievers.

"every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was

only evil continually" - it sounds like one gigantic

modern sit-com or a vulgar continual Hollywood

production to me.

The heart is the seat of the affections and emotions

of the mind and then, as now, apparently, "the people

love to have it so" - Jer. 5:31

"evil continually" - every day - total depravity!?

Hence the withdrawal of God's Spirit - there was no use in

further restraint or reproof - they were "past feeling" - Eph. 4:19

The striving of God's Spirit comes to an end, not because

God's willingness to help ends but because human nature

sinks beyond the possibility of help. Man becomes incorrigible.

Man became no different than the animals - he was exclusively

dominated by the flesh - no longer concerned with God - only

with his fleshly appetites, just as animals - compare the sad

scripture in II Peter 2:12

God said "the end of all flesh is come before me" - 6:13

"all flesh died" - 7:21

There is good reason to believe that these present times

are those that will immediately precede the return of

the Lord Jesus Christ!

v. 6 - "And it repented the Lord that He had made man

on the earth and it grieved Him at His heart"

To grieve, to groan, to lament - a touching indication that

God did not hate man

Man had been told to fill the earth with people but he

filled it with violence instead?

v.7 - Divine Resolve - I have often commented that modern

man does not have the resolve to do anything about the

sad, sinful state in which we find ourselves but GOD DOES

AND WILL!

v. 8 - "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord"

The first time in Scripture the word grace appears - the

gratuitous favor of God to sinful men! What a wonderful

word is grace!

Only a life of close communion with God will prevent one

from being overcome by the wickedness of the age!

v. 9 - "Noah walked with God" - although surrounded by

the filth of the age - he was distinguished from his

contemporaries in that he was of pure descent and

they the offspring of mixed marriages - godly with

the ungodly and you know who usually wins out.

"a just man and perfect in his generations" - no doubt

he was tempted and ridiculed - he preached a hundred

years, yet with no converts but his immediate family -

MY WORK?!!?

Satan had managed to corrupt the whole world but the

man whom he most wanted to destroy, Noah, was under

the invulnerable protection of God!

v. 11 - "earth....corrupt before God and....filled with

violence" - the special sins were licentiousness

and lawlessness - openly, flagrantly and

presumptuously!

Matt. 24:22 - "except those days be shortened there

should be no flesh saved"

Those who begin by breaking the laws of God are

not likely to end by keeping those of man!

It is vain to expect mercy from those who will not do justice.

v. 12 - "And God looked upon the earth" - Ps. 11:4, Heb. 4:13

"behold, it was corrupt" - a sharp contrast from the good

state in which it was made.

The word corrupt in the Hebrew is often translated

"destroy" - compare Rev. 11:18 (Contemplate the possiblity

of people living today are they "which destroy the earth" and

it is not "Global Warming" after all!)

"all flesh had corrupted his way" - destroyed, wrecked,

ruined, wholly subverted and overthrown his way - the

entire plan and course of life in all its ethical and

religious aspects as designed by God!

v. 13 - "And God said, the end of all flesh is come before

me.....behold, I will destroy them"

vs. 14-21 - God's commission to Noah to build the ark.

The Plan of Salvation, like the ark - was to be according

to God's specifications with no additions nor subtractions -

we are only to obey!

"pitch" - a covering - a regular word for atonement -

"pitch it within and without" - daub it real good!

A perfect covering for the ark - just like the blood of

Jesus Christ - a perfect covering for your soul, my soul!

There was only one door to the ark - there is only one

door to the Kingdom of Heaven - Jesus Christ - God's

only Son - John 10

v. 17 - "And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters

upon the earth" -

"I, even I" - "I am that I am" - who are we to deny the

Flood?

v. 22- Noah did all that God commanded him -

here, ch. 7:5,9,16

Also, it is said that God spoke to Noah - 6:13, 7:1, 8:15,

9:1,8,12,17

It had never rained before - Heb. 11:7 - Noah, "warned

of God of things not seen as yet.... prepared an ark to the

saving of his house" - he was "moved with fear" so

much for fear not being a deterrent!

The people had ample warning - they ignored God's warning

to their peril - Matt. 24:39 - the word is cataclysm

ch. 7

v. 1 - "Come thou and all thy house into the ark"-

"Come" - not "go" for God was in the ark with

them!

vs. 4-5 - "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain

upon the earth forty days and forty nights"

Only a sixth of the time given to the men of Nineveh,

"yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown" - yet

not seven days are promised in the gospel call - no one

knows the day - it will come as a thief in the night!

Noah was given time to complete his last minute things

and the world one more opportunity to repent.

"and Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded"

Hebrews 11:7 tells us that Noah "moved with fear" - for a

world best described as "There is no fear of God before

their eyes" - Romans 3:18 - so much for minimizing the role of fear by the secularists of today - unless they repent they too will

perish - this time by fire - not by a flood!

vs. 8-9 - orderly entrance of the animals into the ark -

nothing short of Divine power could have effected

such a timely and orderly entrance into the ark.

v. 11 - a careful statement which marks the exact day,

month and year of the Flood - rain for forty days

plus the breaking up of subterranean reservoirs.

The entire system was a marvelous heat engine consisting

of reservoirs, valves, governors, and conduits - the details

of its design were not revealed but it was and is an ideal

machine hydraulically and thermodynamically - when

the time came for the destruction of the world all that

was required was to bring the "two deeps" together

again, as at the beginning they had been separated -ch. 1:7

vs. 13-14 - "In the selfsame day" - a phrase intended to

convey the idea of the utmost precision of time -

entered Noah, his family, and the animals and fowl.

v. 16 - "And the Lord shut him in" - Notice the difference

between being shut in and "shut out" - all the rest

of mankind and all animals and living things - they

couldn't deal with the mass of water - "water, water

everywhere" - same will be at the end except fire,

fire everywhere!

This shutting in was a final assurance to the occupants

that they were in the will of God and under His protection.

v. 19 - notice the waters covered "all the high hills" -

v. 20 - "the mountains were covered"

v. 21 - "all flesh died"

v. 23 - "And every living substance was destroyed" -

literally - "wiped out"

Yet the world today, arrogantly continues to ask the

question - "Where is the promise of His coming, for all

things continue as they were from the beginning?"

"But the day of the Lord WILL COME as a thief in the

night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a

great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent

heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be

burned up" - II Peter 3:4,10

And you and I can do nothing to prevent it - Deut. 32:39

Jesus Christ is the heaven-provided ark of salvation for

a lost world! WE NEED HIM DESPARATELY!

Few things connected with the Flood are more impressive

and paralyzing to the mind than the suddenness of surprise

with which it sprang upon the wicked generation that for

120 years had been disbelieving its reality and ridiculing

the preaching of the gospel!

The way Christ termed it was "and knew not until the

flood came and took them all away" - Matt. 24:39a

Note: God promised Noah that his family would be

saved (ch. 6:18) long before they voluntarily

chose to enter the Ark (7:7), but choose they

did when the time arrived.

This reminds me of that emphatic passage - "They

people shall be willing in the day of thy power"

Note: the earth was cleansed of its corruption by water.

next time it will be purified with fire!