WHY IS THE WORLD THE WAY IT IS?
BECAUSE OF SIN AND GRACE
GENESIS 5:1 – 6:8
INTRODUCTION
Today we’re beginning an eight part series entitled, "Why is the world
the way it is?" We will be looking at Genesis 5-11. We are actually picking
up where we left off in November. We’re going to do something a little
different today at the end of the sermon. I’m going to ask you to turn
in groups of 2 or 3 after I’m done and pray for five minutes in light
of the sermon. I want you to respond to what God is saying in this passage.
It will be helpful if at least one of you in each group jots down the
main points of the sermon to help form your praying.
The first time my dad let me take the family car I went into Madison
with three friends to Treasure Island. It was a big old station wagon
and only about 1 year old. When we pulled into the parking lot at TI I
brushed the passenger side of the car against the bumper of the car next
to the stall I was pulling into. It put a scratch down almost the entire
side of the car. When I saw it I felt sick to my stomach. Needless to
say I didn’t enjoy our little shopping experience. I was worried the entire
time about how my dad was going to respond. How would he deal with me?
As we pick up the story of Genesis in Genesis 5 we are presented with
the same kind of question. In chapters 1 & 2 the author described
the perfect world that God made and the perfect people that he made to
live in his world. Man and woman had everything they needed and lived
in child-like dependence on God to supply all their needs. But in chapter
3 we discover that, through the temptation of Satan, man and woman decide
that life would be better lived independent of God. They decided He was
not able to meet all their needs and even suspected that He was holding
out on them. Rather than killing them as he promised, he banishes them
from the garden of Eden and curses their lives with relational conflict
and difficult labor. In chapter 4 we see the growing cancer of sin as
one brother murders another and then the murderer’s descendants become
increasingly violent. In the midst of all this sin God patiently works
out his plan.
As chapter 5 begins we are faced with the question, "how will God deal
with a human race that is becoming increasingly alienated from him and
violent in its orientation?" 5:1 to 6:8 are answering that question. They
are explaining how God deals with sinful humanity, with the line of Adam.
MAIN POINT
God responds to the reality of human sin by…
I. Treating people with kindness in spite of their sin (5: 1-32)
As we look at chapter 5 I want you to see how Moses demonstrates the
ongoing kindness of God in the face of the ongoing sin of man. First,
he restates what chapters 1 & 2 so firmly declare. God is the author
of life. He created man in his likeness and then that man reproduced a
son in his own image. Down through the course of human history God continues
to give life to more and more humans in spite of the fact that he knows
each one will spurn him and disobey him. Do you like being alive? Is it
better to exist than to have never existed? All of us would say yes to
that. Yet none of us caused ourselves to come into existence. God, through
the agency of our parents gave us the gift of life. It is total kindness.
You did not deserve to be born, you did nothing to earn your life. God,
in his infinite wisdom and kindness decided that you should live and he
gave you life.
Second, notice that Moses emphasizes God’s blessing of Adam and Eve.
In chapter 1: 28 the blessing of God was given so that man would increase
on the earth and rule over it. This blessing is not withdrawn after sin.
God continues to give people the joy of family and of work. He abundantly
provides all that is necessary for human life. The entire genealogy of
chapter 5 displays the abundance of the blessing of God in the repetition
of the formulae. Look at v. 6, look at the formulae. (Comment on the years:
literal, growth of disease, etc. Only Adam and Seth and Enoch died before
Noah was born. Only Methuselah died in the flood.) This formulae is repeated
10 times to show the blessing of God on human life. There is nothing that
humans need that God has not provided in abundance.
The third way Moses demonstrates that God deals kindly with sinful humanity
can be seen by comparing vv. 1-2 with v. 3. Notice that just as God created
man in his own image and then named them "man", so Adam has a son in his
own image and names him Seth. Adam is like God but that also means that
God is a father like Adam. These verses show us that God deals with humanity
as a father. Now this is not the only way that God relates to human beings.
But it is inherent in God’s dealings with us that he has compassion on
us as a father has compassion on his children, even though we disobey
him.
One of the bedrock convictions of the bible is that God is always dealing
kindly with human beings on this earth. He gives life and sustains life
and has compassion on all he has made, like a father on his children.
In the New Testament, when the first Christians were talking to people
who had never heard of the God of the bible, this was the place they started.
For example, when Paul and Barnabas were in the city of Lystra they healed
a man crippled from birth. The local people were sure that Paul was the
Greek god Hermes and that Barnabas was Zeus. So they called a priest and
were going to sacrifice a bull to P & B. When P & B found out
they ran into the crowd and told them not to do such a thing for they
were men just like them. Then Paul said this, "In the past God let all
the nations go their own way. Yet he did not leave himself without testimony.
He has shown you kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in
their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts
with joy."
There is a theological term for this kindness of God that comes to all
people regardless of their standing with him. It is called "common grace".
(Let me tell you why I think it is important that you know about "common
grace") It is the undeserved favor that is common to all of us. None of
us deserve to have food or clothing or shelter. God is under no obligation
to give these things to us. In fact, we deserve the suffering and death.
We have not earned these things from God, but in his kindness he gives
them to us. The picture here in Genesis 5 is the overflowing abundance
of God towards sinners, towards those who rarely acknowledge him or his
gifts and love to disobey his commands. God is totally different from
us. We only give gifts to those we love, who are kind to us. God is kind
to his enemies, sustaining our lives even as we fight against him.
Our problem is that we rarely view life as a gift, as being given something
we don’t deserve. In our consumer culture we really do believe the advertising
slogans, "You deserve a break today" or "Have it your way". Our erroneous
view is seen in how we rarely notice when we are waited on by competent,
courteous clerks but are outraged when a check-out person is the least
bit rude. Our indignation with inferior products or service and our irritation
with the petty inconveniences of life expose our lack of understanding
of how amazing it is that we have food, shelter, clothing, family, friends,
and a multitude of entertainment options when what we really deserve is
God’s judgement right now. All of this is gift. You will never be able
to enjoy life until you submit to this fact: You deserve nothing from
God and yet he continues to be kind to you, giving you life and the ability
to enjoy life.
God responds to the reality of human sin by…
- Treating people with kindness in spite of their sin
- And by…
II. Planning for the destruction of all who sin (6:1-7)
God is patient and slow to anger. But he is opposed to all evil and will
destroy all who do evil. Look with me at 6: 1-5. These are among the most
obscure verses in the whole bible. There are a variety of attempts to
explain these verses. What I’d like to do is start with what is clear
and then give you my thoughts on what is not very clear. V. 5 is God’s
assessment of the human condition. Vv. 1-4 are put forward as a clear
indication of the wickedness of human beings. While chapter 5 emphasized
God’s blessing on humanity, these verses in chapter 6 show that through
all the years recorded in chapter 5 human evil was on the increase. You
can see this by the first word of the chapter, "when, etc." Actually 6:5
is anticipated in 5:3 when we are told that Seth is born, not in God’s
image, but in Adam’s image. Adam’s image is God’s image marred by sin.
Every human is born in Adam’s image, as chapter 5 makes clear. Because
we are "in Adam", "every inclination of the thought of our heart is evil
all the time." Not only those before the flood but every human who has
ever lived or who will ever live. Look at 8: 21. This much is clear: we
all have inherited from Adam a sin nature. We all love to sin, naturally.
All the inclinations of our hearts are evil all the time. The inclinations
of our heart lead to actual acts of wickedness. We do wrong because our
hearts and minds love doing wrong. (This is the doctrine of the total
depravity of man or original sin..)
This helps us then to understand vv. 1-2 & 4. Whatever is going on
here, it is a chief example of the wickedness of human beings. The majority
of commentators hold that the sons of God are spirit beings of some sort
who married human wives and had children who were the Nephilim or giants.
This required the giving of the wives to them. In other words, human fathers
had to give their daughters into these liaisons. It is clear from numerous
other passages that the worship in many of the ancient religions involved
the giving of virgins as sacrifices and the use of shrine prostitutes
in worship. More than likely, these "marriages" were associated with the
worship of false gods and the attempt by humans to gain entry into the
supernatural world via these spirit beings. Again, all this is tentative.
All we know for sure is that whatever is happening, it is a mark of the
wickedness of men.
What is being described in v. 5 is what has traditionally been called
the doctrine of total depravity. Human beings are unwilling and unable
to obey God. We sin because we are sinners, it is our nature to sin. In
the same way that a dog acts like a dog and not a fish because it is a
dog. It behaves as it does because of what it is by nature. Cornelius
Plantinga in his book, "Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be" reflects on the
progress of human sin with these illustrations and this analysis. Read
pp. 52-53 and then 61-62.
One of the most important self-discoveries that a human being can make
is that he or she is a sinner. You cannot be a Christian without a deep
sense of how hopeless you are because of your own sin. You must see how
addicted you are to loving everything but God and how helpless you are
to change. An overwhelming sense of your own sin is one of the first signs
that God is working in your life.
vv. 6-7 show us God’s response to the fact of human sin. He is grieved
that he made man and "his heart is filled with pain". The second phrase
is perhaps misleading in the English, as it sounds like God is a victim,
yet nothing could be further from the truth. The word for pain is used
in a couple of other places in the OT. Turn to Gen. 34:7 (p. 26). This
word describes the response of the sons of Jacob to the rape of their
sister Dinah by Shechem. They get revenge by killing Shechem and all his
people. Isaiah 63:10 says "Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them."
This is a reference to Israel’s rebellion after God delivered them from
Egypt. God is deeply offended by our sin and becomes our enemy. We spurn
him and his gifts and so his justice is offended.
We seldom experience the kind of grief this is referring to. You may
experience it when you hear of the abuse of a child and your heart burns
with sorrow and you desire punishment for the perpetrator. You may feel
something akin to this when your child treats you with utter contempt.
In v. 7 we see that God is not a helpless victim. Because he is grieved
at human sin, he determines to destroy all of humanity and all of the
land animals. He decrees an end to his kindness. He will be patient no
longer but will pour out his wrath on human rebellion. Notice God’s assertion
of his right to do with man as he pleases because he is our creator. Notice
also that he is going to destroy all mankind, including babies, thereby
including babies in the rebellion. King David, when reflecting on his
own sin says this, "I was sinful from my mother’s womb, sinful from the
time I was conceived." This verse is offensive to modern views of God.
We tend to see God as a benevolent grandfather who winks at human indiscretions
in the same way a grandfather winks at his mischievous grandson. We are
offended that God should have such a strong reaction to our sin. R.W.
Dale says, "it is partly because sin does not provoke our own wrath, that
we do not believe that sin provokes the wrath of God."
John Stott is correct when he says, "We learn to appreciate the access
to God which Christ has won for us only after we have first seen God’s
inaccessiblity to sinners…only he who knows the greatness of wrath will
be mastered by the greatness of mercy."
Dear friend, God sees how great your wickedness has become and how the
inclination of the thoughts of your heart are only evil all the time.
He is grieved that he made you and his heart is full of pain. So he has
determined that he will blot you out from the face of the earth. He will
do what is right and fair, he will execute justice in your case. What
defense do you have to plead with him that he should not destroy you as
he did the entire world of Noah’s day? These verses ought to provoke fear
and despair in us. We ought to be crying out, "what hope do I have?" If
I love sin and am unable to stop loving sin and if it is right and just
for God to punish all sinners, then how will any of us escape?
God responds to the reality of human sin by…
- Treating people with kindness in spite of their sin
- Planning for the destruction of all who sin
- And by …
III. Saving some of those who sin (5: 21-24, 28-32, 6:8)
What is obvious about these verses is that while the text says God will
destroy all mankind, we are sitting here reading these verses, therefore
all mankind was not destroyed in those days. Who escaped and how did they
do so? If "every inclination of the thoughts of every human was only evil
all the time" then how did someone escape God’s judgement? It ought to
occur to us that perhaps we can make use of the same means. V. 8 tells
us how it is that human beings are still on the face of the earth. "But
Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."
Do not let this escape you. Noah was one of those who were wicked and
yet Noah found favor. The word "favor" is the OT word for "grace", it
means unmerited or unearned favor. God, by a decision of his own will,
chose to treat Noah favorably. God’s choice of Noah preceded Noah’s choice
of God. We are told in v. 9 that Noah was righteous and that he walked
with God. However, the placing of v. 8 before v. 9 is not accidental.
God’s favor towards Noah is the cause of Noah’s blamelessness. Noah, like
every sinner who has ever repented and believed and obeyed God did so
because of the work of God in his heart. God is glorified in his powerful
grace.
It is so important that you come to terms with and embrace this fact
of God’s work in us. From the beginning of the Bible to its end we are
told that the only thing that humans are able to do is sin. Whenever a
human being trusts in God and worships God and obeys God, it is by God’s
unmerited favor. There is no boasting in salvation. God alone saves sinners.
V. 8 is a statement of the doctrine’s of election, irresistible grace
and effectual calling.
I want you to see how consistent the Bible is in this. Keep your hand
here and then turn over to Ephesians 2, p. 827. Look at vv. 1-3. Do you
see the similarity between this and Gen. 5:5? All of us gratify the cravings
of our sinful desires is the same thing as saying that every inclination
of the thoughts of our hearts is only evil all the time. Then the end
of v. 3 says we are by nature objects of wrath. Is not that what Gen.
5: 6-7 tells us? Then look at v. 4, it begins with the word "but", just
like Gen. 5:8. In contrast to what we deserve and against every expectation,
God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, etc. "It is by grace
we have been saved." Grace is not merely giving us a promise to trust
in but the ability to trust the promise. God gave to Noah a promise and
the ability to believe the promise just as he gives to all who belong
to Christ the promise of forgiveness because of his shed blood and the
ability to believe the promise. Salvation has always been by grace through
faith.
Tell the story of Gordon H. refusal to take care of himself until he
experienced shortness of breath. Went to the hospital and discovered he
had lots of blockage and required open heart surgery. He entrusted his
life into the hands of the doctors in the surgery and into their instructions
as to how to avoid a repeat. He takes his diet and exercise very serious
now. He was awakened to his danger and made willing to take part in the
solution. In the same way we need to be awakened to our danger and made
willing to take advantage of the solution we are offered in Christ. If
you are here this morning there is strong likelihood that you are on some
level aware of the danger you are in or at least have a sense that things
are not right. I plead with you to not delay in taking advantage of all
that Christ wants to be for you. Abandon all pride and self-sufficiency.
You are under God’s wrath and can only escape by taking refuge in Christ.
Plead with God for a sense of your sin and a new heart that embraces Christ.
Don’t be stiff-necked and hard hearted any longer. Stop resisting God’s
call on your life. Give yourself wholly to him, trusting in Christ alone
as your defense against the wrath of God. Give all your energy to pursuing
Christ as the only one who can give you life and happiness and joy.
© Copyright
2000 John Swanson.
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material
in any format provided that:
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If you would like to post this material to the web, or if your intended
use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community
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