OPEN: Mary Farwell of Green Castle Missouri, told of the time she was listening to her 5 year old son, Matthew, as he worked on his Speak and Spell™ computer. He was concentrating intensely, typing in words for the computer to say back to him.
Matthew punched in the word “God.” To his surprise, the computer said, “Word not found.” He tried again with the same reply. Staring at the computer in disgust he declared: “Jesus is not going to like this!”
APPLY: What is it that God doesn’t like? Obviously, there is a point where you can end up pushing God too far.
In the Bible we’re told that this God of ours:
Kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden
Condemned Satan to ultimate defeat in the fires of
hell
Flooded the world destroying all but 8 people
Came down onto tower of Babel - scattered people to the 4 winds by confusing their languages
AND THAT was just the 1st eleven chapters of Genesis.
There’s obviously a point where you can push God too far. The God of the Bible kind of reminds me of the big gentle kid we had in High School. Everybody seemed to like him. He was friendly, outgoing, and caring. You could trust him. But he was obviously a strong, powerful giant of a boy who could be somewhat imposing. I heard somebody once observe - "you don’t really want to get him mad"
Likewise, we have a God who is loving, merciful, gentle and kind. David describes Him this way: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14)
But there is a point to which you don’t want to push God… You don’t want to get Him mad. In Genesis, chapter 6 - somebody obviously got God good and mad. What did they do that made Him so angry? What was it that brought down the wrath of God so severely that He destroyed every living creature upon the face of the earth, except those in the ark Noah built?
I. In Genesis 6:1-3 I believe Scripture hints at part of the problem = the cheapening of marriage. Question: What seems to have been the primary qualification that the "Sons of God" applied in finding their life mate? Answer: beauty. Now, what’s wrong with marrying someone you like looking at? I mean, does God expect us to marry people we think are ugly?
Is it somehow "righteous" for a man to tell a woman: "honey, I want to marry you cause you’re as ugly as they come" OR "you look like you’ve been beat with the ugly stick 3 or 4 times and I really want to marry you?" No, not only is that not "righteous," a man who would say that is bound to be a bachelor for a long, long time.
Besides in the Song of Solomon, we read the words of a righteous man telling his bride that he loves her eyes, her hair, her skin, etc. - he likes looking at her. There’s nothing wrong with being married to someone you like looking at.
So, what’s God so upset about here?
Well, the problem here seems to be in "Sons of God" marrying "daughters of men." There are several theories on who these 2 groups were, but the one I like best is the one I think is the simplest: The sons of God were the children of Godly parents who became attracted to women who weren’t godly. Women who were given over to idol worship and loose living.
Why would Godly men be attracted to such women? Simply because they were good looking.
We read in Deuteronomy 7:2-4 "when the LORD your God delivers them (your enemy) over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.”
ILLUS: I talked with a man recently who had thought the Bible spoke against inter-racial marriage. I explained that the only time the Bible ever spoke about mixed marriages was when Moses married a black woman. Moses’ sister Miriam objected (seemingly out of bigotry and self-righteousness) and God responded less than favorably. God basically said to Miriam: “You like white… I’ll give you white.” And God struck her with leprosy.
God does not appear to be bothered by interacial marriages. God is less concerned with the color of the skin of someone you marry than He is with the color of their hearts.
As II Corinthians 6:14-18 says: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
“What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
I repeat, God is less concerned with the color of the skin of someone you marry than He is with the color of their hearts.
II. The 2nd reason, I believe God destroyed the world -they had cheapened their heroes
Genesis 6:4 talks about the “men of renown and the heroes of old.” Then verse 5 goes on to say that the wickedness of man had caused God unleash His wrath. That leads me to believe that the heroes of that day were men of action, men of accomplishment. They were not necessarily holy people, but they were men who were powerful and successful. They were doers… not believers.
Lamech for example is quoted in Genesis 4:23-24 "Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."
What’s Lamech saying? He is saying: “Cain’s my hero. He’s my example. I’ve modeled my life after him.”
Why would heroes like that appeal to people. Because those "heroes" were "human." People felt they could "identify" with them more than the goody two shoes holy types that seemed to worship God.
In our day, the push has been on for some time to reveal the "human" side of our past heroes. Commentators don’t seem to be satisfied until they can reveal, or at least strongly suggest, some form of sexual immorality or dark motives for men and women who’s been respected for years.
They say this "humanizes" the hero or heroine.
ILLUS: Recently Jesse Jackson admitted that he had committed adultery and fathered a child out of wedlock. He has asked forgiveness and shown humility and repentance in his confession.
I think he should be forgiven. But what I found interesting were the comments of people on the street who were asked about Jackson’s sinfulness and repentance. At least two of the people I heard interviewed said "it just shows that he’s human," or "he’s only human."
Now think about that for a minute. What they’re saying is this: To be human is...
1. To be sexually immoral
2. Betray your wife
3. And father an illegitimate child
That’s their idea of being human. (I reject that, but that is the underlying reality of what they’ve said). Being human like that is what the “heroes of old and men of renown” were like in the days of Noah…
III. The result of cheapened marriages and cheapened heroes was a society degraded to the point that when God looked upon the earth He “saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5).
This was an MTV society where vulgarness invaded every corner of their conversations, their music, their literature…. They couldn’t even THINK without dwelling on impurity and violence. “Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all of the time” Verse 12 says “they had corrupted all of their ways.”
It had gotten so bad: that when God sought for someone that was righteous enough to be worth rescued out of this cesspool society - only found one man… vs. 8 "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."
Here was a man who set the standard for his family when it came to marriage. Did you notice who the only people were who he could save? His wife, his sons, and his sons’ wives. I believe that implies that Noah taught his sons about what kind of wives they should marry, and thus those sons and their families escaped the judgment of God.
ILLUS: We have a local preacher named George Faull. He told his sons as they were growing up, they could marry whoever they wished… But if they ever married a non-Christian girl, he wouldn’t go to their weddings. Was that cruel? Yeah. But each one of them married a Christian girl. And they married right because their father cared enough to hard on this one issue.
I believe that Noah was a man who set standards for his family because of heroes that he modeled himself after. Bible doesn’t tell us who his heroes were… but I can guess. I know for certain they weren’t the men of renown and the heroes of old. More likely Noah’s heroes were the Godly men of the past. If you were to look at a chart of the lifespans of the pre-Flood men of the Bible you’d find that Noah was only one generation away from knowing men like Adam, Seth and Enoch (and Methusaleh lived during his day). Enoch is interesting in that Genesis says he “WALKED WITH GOD” and God took him away. Hebrews 11 tells us Enoch was taken because he pleased God.
Now notice how Noah is described in Genesis 6:9 “This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and HE WALKED WITH GOD.” I believe Noah was describe this way because he modeled himself after at least one of the heroes of the faith who had lived before him: Enoch.
IV. Last question: Why did God destroy the world? Isn’t God supposed to be loving and forgiving and caring? Yes, He is. But apparently there is a point at which God won’t tolerate the sinfulness of man any longer. A point at which God says: “enough is enough.”
BUT even when God decides to put a stop to the wickedness of man, he warns us well ahead of time. II Peter 2:5 tells us "Noah, a preacher of righteousness" That implies that for a 100 years, while building the ark, Noah warned people of the coming judgment.
In 2 Peter 3:10 we’re told: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare”. Again, God has warned us well in advance, that a day of judgment will come. A day when "enough will be enough."
And His warning is meant to encourage us to repentance… as God tell us in the verse just before that one: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
CLOSE: Back in the Middle Ages, one of the old Saxon kings set out with an army to put down a rebellion in a distant province of his kingdom. When the insurrection had been quelled and the army of rebels defeated, the king placed a candle over the archway of his castle where he had his headquarters and, lighting the candle, announced through a herald to all those who had been in rebellion against him that all who surrendered and took the oath of loyalty while the candle was burning would be spared. The king offered them his clemency and mercy, but the offer was limited to the life of the candle.
Every great offer of life and of time has its candle limitations. This is true of the offer of fortune and prosperity, or knowledge, or health, or affection. There is a limited period of time in which to make use of their offer and their opportunity. This is true most of all of the greatest offer ever made to man, the offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
2Co 6:2 For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
