MY SPIRIT WILL NOT ALWAYS STRIVE
Gen. 6:3
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. I got to visit Chi Alphans last Wed. & Thurs. nights and invite them to church. They were very appreciative of our support and love toward them.
2. I was talking to a college student the other day who’s paying her way through college, so she started a laundry service.
3. One day, a man came in to pick up his laundry and asked, “What is the usual tip around here?”
4. She answered, “I don’t know, but looking at you, I doubt I’ll get a quarter!”
5. Miffed, he took out a 10 dollar bill and said, “Keep the whole thing. By the way, what’s your major in college?” She replied, “Reverse psychology!”
B. DIFFERENT TYPES OF POWER
1. MANY TYPES: Political Power, Financial Power, Military Power, Informational Power, etc.
2. NATURAL TYPES: Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Tidal waves, Earthquakes, Lightning storms, etc.
3. EXPLOSIVE POWER:
a. Fire (gun) power
b. Rocket Engines -- thrust (Cape Canaveral)
c. TNT, Dynamite; C-4
d. Atom Bomb – Hiroshima = 20,000 tons of TNT
e. Mount St. Helen’s explosion = 10,000,000 tons of TNT or 500 Hiroshima's. It was a blast of 300° heat traveling 200 mph. 17 miles away it leveled 150 foot Douglas firs. 60 people were killed.
4. But no power can rival that which Paul encountered on the Road to Damascus -- a power able to transform a soul from death to life.
C. HOLY GHOST POWER
1. We read in Genesis 1:2, "Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."
a. He formed the vast reaches of space.
b. He created suns as large as our solar system.
c. He is so powerful, he can suspend or supersede the laws of the universe!
d. He is so powerful, He can go beyond the physical realm.
2. He is the third person of the Trinity Godhead, One with the Father and Son. He is the "Spirit", "Wind", "Breath" of God. He is the active Presence of God.
D. HOLY SPIRIT IN BIBLICAL HISTORY
1. Moses saw Him, Hovering over the waters of Creation.
2. The Egyptians saw Him -- as a Pillar of fire separating them from God's people.
3. The psalmist David -- saw Him as the "precious anointing oil" which flowed down Aaron’s garments (Psalm 133:2).
4. Isaiah saw Him -- as a Royal Robe filling God's temple.
5. John the Baptist -- saw Him as a beautiful white dove which came and settled on the Lord Jesus at His baptism.
6. Joel (2:23) Saw Him as a Gentle rain which would make righteousness grow.
7. Peter and the disciples -- experienced Him as a Hurricane force wind rushing down in mighty torrents from heaven.
8. Ezekiel and John the Revelator -- saw Him as a River of Living Waters flowing out of God's temple.
E. HOLY SPIRIT: HERE FOR DEFINITE PURPOSES
1. To INDWELL us. Romans 8:3
2. To help us be CONFORMED into the Image of Jesus (John 16:13-14).
3. To give us POWER to WITNESS.
4. To SUPPLY the Body with GIFTS to grow.
F. DAY OF PENTECOST: MASS SPIRITUAL INVASION
1. On July 4, 1776, England's King George III recorded in his diary, "Nothing important happened today." Little did he know that the Revolution had begun in America! On the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 33, I imagine the devil wrote in his diary, "Nothing important happened today." But little did he know, that the Revolution of the Ages had begun!
G. TEXT
6 “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the
face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Gen. 6:1-8 NKJV
H. THESIS
1. We’re looking today at how the enemy tries to separate us from God, the barriers God has set up to keep us from sinning, and how far God will go before He says, “That’s enough!”
2. The title of this message is, “My Spirit Will Not Always Strive.”
I. SAD CONSEQUENCES OF COMPROMISE
A. LOSS OF SENSITIVITY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. This chapter is NOT about angels marrying humans and having children who were giants. That’s an impossibility. a. Angels are neither male nor female; b. they are spirits, Heb. 1:7, (“a spirit doesn’t have flesh & bones” Lk. 24:39); c. they can’t marry (Mt.22:30); d. fallen angels are never called the sons of God.
2. So what is this chapter about? It tells how the righteous people of that time – people of God, line of Seth -- compromised and merged with the evil pagans, the descendants of Cain (who was the first murderer).
3. The Cainites were just like our culture – they valued physical beauty, violence, pleasure, and money. That’s why
God said, “Come out from among them and be separate”
says the Lord; “Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you.” 2 Cor. 6:17.
4. This compromise by God’s people led to the …
a. Complete triumph of evil – evil in the imaginations, evil and the thoughts, evil in the hearts.
b. Complete insensitivity to divine influences; they were "past feeling" (Eph. 4:19). “Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.” Prov. 25:26.
4. The ultimate goal of Satan is to SEPARATE YOU FROM THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!
B. WHAT SIN IS
1. Sin is the greatest evil in the universe. It’s the parent of all other evils.
2. ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE, SIN CAUSES…
a. BLINDNESS. It blinds the minds of people so they can’t see the danger they’re in (2 Cor. 4:4).
b. DEAFNESS. It deafens, so we can’t hear God calling to us (Mark 8:18).
c. ENSLAVES US. None of us knew, when we puffed our first cigarette, the bondage it would bring. No man dreamed, when he took his first gulp of beer, that he would one day be in the gutter -- an alcoholic. SIN SEEMS INNOCENT. You can’t play with pornography and not get burned! Everything God says is for your good! The end of sin is death!
3. SIN IS PICTURED AS A:
a. CRUSHING WEIGHT. David said, “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear” Ps. 38:4.
b. A TYRANNICAL MASTER over us. 2 Peter 2:19.
c. A LURKING MONSTER. God warned Cain, “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” Gen. 4:7.
4. Sin is shocking the 1st time you do it, but always easier the 2nd time.
C. ILLUSTRATION: CONTAMINATION
1. In a hospital cleanliness is very important. Doctors are very concerned about contamination in an operating room.
2. Many procedures are set in place to keep the environment of the operating room free from germs and viruses which can kill a patient.
3. If human doctors are so concerned about
contamination, should shock us that God Himself must function in an atmosphere free from contagion?
4. God can't do surgery on us without first sterilizing our lives by the blood of Jesus! [Tony Evan’s Bk. of Illus., p. 150]
II. HOW GOD STRIVES WITH US
A. BARRIERS TO SIN
1. The idea that God has limits on how far He will strive with us, should cause us to hesitate/fear exceeding that boundary!
2. Strive – “to struggle, fight, contend, endeavor, make every effort, bend over backwards, leave no stone unturned, give it His best shot (informal).
3. In restraining us, in the spiritual realm, as well as the physical, God has put many obstacles and hurdles to restrain men and women from giving themselves over to sin.
B. WHAT THOSE OBSTACLES ARE:
1. LIFETIME LIMITATIONS. God shortened their lives after the Flood to decrease the likelihood of sin. With lives of 900+ years, there was too much idle time.
2. THE CONSCIENCE. He gave them & us the gift of a conscience. This is the inner knowledge of right and wrong; the capacity to measure our thoughts, words, and actions against the righteous standard established by God, so that we can see whether an activity is proper or not.
a. HEAVENLY BURGLAR ALARM. The Conscience is like a burglar alarm in your home. When it goes off, you know that an intruder has come into your house uninvited.
b. The alarm is the signal that something is wrong. It means you need to check things out because an intruder has come into God’s sacred precinct of your life. [Tony Evan’s Bk. If Illus., p. 154]. Sin is an intruder.
3. THE HOLY SPIRIT. God gave us the Holy Spirit to strive with us and convict us of sin, to remind us of what God has said, and to reprove us with guilt when we make a wrong choice.
C. ILLUS.: HOW VITAL IS THE H.S. TO US?
1. Deep-sea divers enter the water with tanks on their backs which contain oxygen. The purpose of these tanks are so that the divers can live in a foreign world.
2. In order for them to survive in this foreign world of water, they need a life source from their real world. Their connection to the upper world is the key to their survival because they were never meant to live in water.
3. That life source in the life of a Christian is the Holy Spirit. This world, to the Christian, is foreign territory. If you get disconnected from the real life source, you won't make it! [Tony Evan’s Bk. of Illus., p. 151]
III. HIS STRIVING HAS LIMITATIONS
HE WILL NOT CONTINUE TO STRIVE IF…
A. WE CONTINUE REJECTING HIS DEALINGS
1. The Holy Spirit is the Voice of God, Who calls to us to return to Him. “While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer” Jer. 7:13.
2. When we don’t respond to Him, His calling becomes less. Why throw pearls before swine? Why keep tending a tree which refuses to bear fruit?
B. IT’S LIMITED TO A TIME PERIOD
1. Gen. 6:3 connects God’s striving to a maximum time of dealing with people to a 120 year time span. For Noah’s generation, time ran out and God refused to deal with them any longer.
2. The same is true of each one of us. We each have a span of time in which God will deal with us. If we don’t respond within that time of grace, the door of opportunity will shut and will no longer be available.
3. Someone might say, “God doesn’t work like that; God won’t just cut people off!” What about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah? What about Noah’s generation? What about the Israelites that disobeyed God, both in the desert and in the promised land?
4. In every instance, there came a day when God said, “That’s it. I’m done dealing with them. Their judgment is come!” What about Nineveh under Jonah? They got 40 days to repent. Is that not a limited time?
5. God dealt with Samson until he told his secret to Delilah. He “sold his birthright” for sexual relations. Immediately afterward his eyes were gouged out and his
arms bound with fetters.
C. IGNORING GOD
1. The last danger is ignoring God. Noah’s generation saw the terrible consequences of ignoring God. The entire world died, except eight people. God’s Spirit attempted to turn that generation from their destructive course.
2. Another example is the nation of Israel, that rejected Christ as their Messiah. The Roman Gen. Titus marched in, destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem, and made it a gentile city, forbidden to any Jew to enter!
3. Brushing God off, individually, can have the same serious consequences. Jonah found himself in a storm and then swallowed by a huge fish. Samson found himself blind and strapped to a mill, turning it like an animal.
4. We dare not ignore God, but pay close attention to His Word and His Spirit. Hear God’s Word; “By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” Ps. 19:11.1.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. When you leave church on Sundays, you go home or out to a restaurant. You deplete the gasoline that's in your tank.
2. You don't have to be a bad person for your car to go from full to empty; you just have to use the car. If you drive it, I guarantee you it will deplete the gasoline.
3. Life has a way of draining the Holy Spirit out of us. If you're empty of God's presence, it doesn't mean you're bad, it just means you need to be refilled.
4. Just like you have to continually make trips to the gas station to fill up your car so it will run smoothly, Christians must continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit!
B. HUMOROUS POINT
1. There was a poor college student who was running out of gas. Her car was coughing on fumes as she coasted into a gas station.
2. All she had was $2, but she decided to try and get the attendant to give her a little gas anyway.
3. When she asked for 2 dollars worth, the attendant got a perfume cotton ball and dabbed some gas behind the student’s ears.
4. That’s the way a lot of Christians go to God; they don’t want a full tank of the Holy Spirit, but just enough to dab behind their ears! (give an aroma)
C. THE CALL
1. How many of you would say, "I need a refilling"? Remember that the Holy Spirit is like oxygen tanks to a diver. You can’t exist in this world without the Holy Spirit.
2. How many would say, “I’ve been playing with sin and ignoring God’s voice. I know I need to repent.” Raise your hands.
3. Who would say, “I want to start over with God; I need a new start!”
4. All come to the front and let’s pray.
