Widespread Wickedness

A lot of people have asked like, hey, what do you do at camp?

And I start to explain it to them

and I thought, oh, there's a great picture. This is what I do at camp.

That's what I do at camp. That's good stuff.

There are a lot of exciting reasons for today.

I can imagine for some of you school being over, summer has officially begun.

Not sure if everyone's excited about that, but I certainly know I have heard

a lot of people who are like counting down the days, Those school days are over.

So happy summer, everyone, to you.

It is RFK Camp Week. We can see that. We can feel that here in the building.

Very exciting time for us.

It's been a time with like lots and lots of praying has gone into this upcoming

week that's here. It is here. We are about ready to do this.

All you people wearing the camp t-shirts, you realize we are like less than

three hours from going to camp.

Yes. It's like, it's a fabulous mission trip.

And expecting God to do great things. Like we are trusting him for that.

Lots of excitement about that.

Also, if you've been a part of the series that we're doing right now,

it's exciting to know that like we covered 45 verses of genealogies last week, if you were here.

And we're like alive still to talk about them. Like we made it, we lived it.

And to top that, this week, it's Nephilim.

How many have never heard the word Nephilim in the Bible?

Oh, most of you have, so you got it all figured out. We can probably pretty

much go home on that part. So yes, Nephilim are here.

A common theme in our Genesis study so far has been like there's so much speculation

that happens in Genesis, so many things that are debated, and probably the first

four verses of Genesis chapter six are some of the most debated of all.

And so here we go, that is us.

And when some of you hear the word debate, you think, oh, that's what I do.

Like practically, it's your middle name. And whether you know about the topic or not doesn't matter.

You're just going to debate. Like I live with the motto of born to debate.

So before the summer fun officially kicks in all the way, we're gonna commission

people here at the end of the sermon.

Before all of that, the Nephilim are upon us. And so let the debates begin.

This is part six, what we are calling widespread wickedness.

Like, whoa, what a title.

But that's true. It comes from the how it started series that we're in going

chapter by chapter, verse by verse through the book of Genesis.

I already know that some of you are like super amped up. You knew this week

was coming, Nephilim week.

But I'm going to set the mood for the sermon like this. The Nephilim are just okay.

Just okay. They are not all that with a cherry on top. They're just okay.

And you might be thinking, what kind of way is that to start an introduction?

Like, Doug, don't you know you're supposed to like draw people in,

get them engaged and excited about the topic? Yes, I know that. I know that.

But I also know two other things. One of them, Mario taught me,

and the other one comes right from the Bible.

Mario has what he calls ministry maxims. It's a list of ministry maxims.

I find them incredibly helpful, very accurate.

And ministry maxim number eight is under promise and over deliver.

So the idea is that too many times leaders use hype that they simply can't back up.

So instead of building up Nephilim as this amazing life-changing thing, I am lowering the bar.

I am bringing it down and saying Nephilim are just okay.

This way, if you walk out of here and you find that Nephilim was like super

intriguing and you want to learn more about them, they're way more than okay.

Hey, and this leads you to study about it more on your own? Well, that's a win.

But at the same time, if you walk out here and go, yeah, Doug was right.

They're not too much about Nephilim. They ain't all that.

Well, that's what I told you. So I'm setting that bar right there.

I'm not over-promising.

And two, the Bible is quick to remind me that Nephilim, they are part of a story,

but they are not a main part of the story.

So why spend so much time focusing on an insignificant matter compared to the

significant part of the story, which is what we wanna do as well today.

I view it like walking, well, not walking to the Grand Canyon,

but getting to the Grand Canyon, walking up to the Grand Canyon and get there

at that edge of the rim and then putting all of your attention like at this

little rock pebble down by your shoe. Oh, look at that.

All the while you are missing this mysterious, massive, majestic Grand Canyon,

amazing sights in every direction.

So what I'd hope for that we can do today is that as we look at these eight

verses, I think that we will gather,

oh, there are some very confusing verses, nearly every verse is debated,

but what we will gather is this one, unbelievably straightforward, big idea of the Bible.

Way bigger than the Grand Canyon, way more spectacular.

So turn in your Bible and follow along.

You can use the screens behind me if you need to. Genesis chapter six,

verses one through eight.

And this is the word of God, and this is the Nephilim. Here they come.

When mankind began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them,

the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful,

and they took any they chose as wives for themselves.

And the Lord said, My spirit will not remain with mankind forever,

because they are corrupt.

Their days will be 120 years. the Nephilim

were on the earth both in those days and afterward when

the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who bore

children with them they were the powerful men of old the famous men when the

Lord saw that man's wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme

his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time the Lord regretted that

he had made man on the earth,

and he was aggrieved in his heart.

And then the Lord said, I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind whom

I created together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the

sky, for I regret that I made them.

Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord.

So here's the part of the sermon where we're going to divide it into two parts.

Part A is going to lay out, try to lay out the highly debated things here in

verses one through four.

And part B is going to be cover this one big overpowering story all throughout

the Bible. And we're going to do that in these eight verses.

So part A, the debated stuff, starting with verses one through three.

And again, let me read them again back to the top.

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born,

the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful and they took

any they chose as wives for themselves.

And the Lord said, my spirit will not remain with mankind forever because they

are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.

Who are the daughters of mankind? That seems to be pretty straightforward that

they were simply daughters born at that time.

However, some suggest that it is not that simple, but that these daughters were

actually from the cursed line of Cain, but the text doesn't say that.

It only says that they were daughters that were born.

But next, who are the sons of God?

And more importantly, why does God not approve of these sons of God marrying

these daughters and having children with them?

Like obviously something is not right about the sons of God marrying and having

the children with these daughters, but why?

After all, wasn't it God, the one who designed marriage, The one who said that

he should leave a father and mother and get married?

And wasn't he the one who made like the big deal about kids be fruitful and multiply?

So how did marriage and having children go from a good thing to now it's called a corrupt thing?

That's the debate. And it seems the answer has to do with the sons of God. Who are they?

And we haven't even yet mentioned or asked the question, who are the Nephilim of verse 4?

So lots of debates come from here. And I realize in this group,

I look out here and I see you.

Some of you are like chomping at the bit. Yes, let's make this a debate.

It's not a debate. Like somebody dying to raise your hand like the elementary

student. I know, I know the answer. Pick me, pick me.

We're not doing that. I will say that's why our community groups exist.

Like if you want to be part of that, jump in a community group.

However, community groups are on summer break. So you're out of luck on that

part, I guess. But I have a consolation prize.

Feel free to stand in the hallway, grab anyone you want and start debating.

Just work it out and get it.

You camp volunteers, like you have an hour ride coming up to camp.

You work it out. When we get out there, you let me know what you come up with.

All right, that will be a great thing to do on all this thing.

Who are the sons of God? It seems there are different possibilities.

Some are better than others in my opinion. I'm gonna quickly give you a few

of them to consider, but here's what you need to know.

Every time we consider one, It comes with its own set of problems.

That's the reason why it's so highly debated. Possibility number one,

the sons of God are the descendants of Seth.

They are seen as the chosen line from Genesis 5.

We've already covered that. And what we see is Genesis 5 is all about this chosen line of Seth.

And chapter six just keeps them as the ones that we are discussing.

If you remember, chapter and verse numbers in the Bible, they were added like

for our benefit, for organizational purposes, but chapters and verses aren't

a part of the original writing. So in context, the line of Seth could be the sons of God.

But if that's the situation, the sons of God as the line of Seth marrying beautiful

ladies and having families together, what's wrong with that?

Like that almost sounds like God is calling something corrupt that he designed

on his own plan. So that's a problem to consider.

Unless the sons of God from the chosen line of Seth, unless they're taking these

daughters from the cursed line of Cain, and now somehow God calls that corrupt,

but nowhere in the Bible do we see that he has said, don't do that.

So that's a problem. Or maybe the sons of God as the line of Seth,

they are acting like Lamech from Cain's lineage.

Remember Cain and Lamech last week, right? Lamech, we found out he was the first

polygamist of the Bible.

So big bonus points right here. One of his wife's name was Adah.

Anyone remember what Adah meant?

Ornament, suggesting she was pretty. So the idea goes like this,

that the line of Seth, also called the sons of God, that they had become like

Cain's Lamech, marrying multiple wives.

It does say in verse two that they took any that they chose,

perhaps any means more than one, and they were selecting these wives based on

their beauty, just like Cain's Lamech was doing, and God calls it corrupt.

Maybe.

Just a freebie side note. Bachelor's here.

Beauty might be the first thing that catches your eye, but it cannot be the

only thing that catches your eye.

Like, you need to find the girl who loves Jesus and the girl who wants her man

to love Jesus, and then you know you are headed on the right direction.

Like, that's a freebie, all right? I heard the amen.

Guys, find her, okay? That's good.

Whoa, the matchmaker.

Another problem with the line of Seth being the sons of God is it just does not explicitly say so.

Nowhere in the Bible is the phrase sons of God associated with the line of Seth.

And that could be a problem because possibility number two, the phrase sons

of God does exist several other times in the Old Testament and none of them

have to do with the line of Seth, but every time they do,

Possibility number two is that the sons of God are angelic beings.

Now, if that's the case, Genesis 6 has officially gone weirdo, weirdo on us.

Because what we're considering, what we're taking on is the possibility of human

daughters getting married, having sex, having children with angels. Angels.

What? Weird, wild, different. And maybe God calling that corrupt seems to be spot on.

There are five times the phrase sons of God is used in the Old Testament.

I've put them all on the chart for you together. There are two right here in

our own text, Genesis 6, 2 and 4, Job 1, 6, Job 2, 1, Job 38, Daniel 3, 25.

These last four, all of them have reference of strongly associated with angels.

In Job 1 and 2, the scene is this, that God is there and there's a bunch of

the sons of God all gathered around and they're having like this little meeting

going on and Satan is there and it's like this check-in. What have you guys been doing?

Well, we've been roaming through

the earth. That's what the Job passage is about. Job 38 is fascinating.

Here we've got, God is like creating, he's giving a review of the creation and that's going on.

And every time God creates something, these sons of God are right there with

him going, Woo-hoo, God, that is awesome.

They are praising God. I can imagine it like, I'm ready for a giraffe. Oh, God, the giraffes.

Praise you for that. And then the last one, very, very popular passage here in the Bible, Daniel 3.

It is Daniel and the fiery furnace.

If you remember that story, you've got King, I almost said Nebi.

It is King Nebi, King Nebuchadnezzar, child's literature there.

King Nebi, as we call him at camp, he throws these guys into the fire and then

there's this point where he goes, hey, didn't we throw three guys in there?

And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, then there's another one. And he says, King Nebi says,

and he has the look as one of the sons of God.

Okay.

Maybe. You've also got New Testament references.

2 Peter 2, Jude 6, both from the New Testament.

Both make this reference of fallen angels and they track them all the way back

to Genesis 6, the days of Noah.

If you also consider Genesis 18, Abraham is approached, finds three angels,

right? That look like human beings.

In Genesis 19, there are two angels that are disguised as men and they are trying

to save Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah.

All of that is going on. So maybe this is the possibility.

But here are the snags to consider.

The sons of God in Genesis 6, they aren't described like angelic beings like

they are in other places.

Here also in context, you have to wonder if we're talking about sess genealogy

in chapter five and then boop, up pops angelic beings out of nowhere and having

relationships with beautiful daughters, That seems weird, a little odd.

And we do have the teaching of Jesus from Matthew 22 and Mark 15,

where he taught that angels are not marrying nor they are given in marriage.

So maybe that's a snag, unless Jesus is only referring to angels in heaven because

that's what he's talking about in that passage.

He's talking about Christians who go to heaven and that we will be like the

angels and we will not be married.

So maybe the idea goes, well, that's just for angels in heaven,

but the angels who are fallen, they've left their proper dwelling places.

That's how Jude talks. Maybe it's different for them.

But at the same time, nowhere in the Bible do we have angels procreating,

other than maybe Genesis six here.

We don't see that aspect from angels. We don't see them procreating with each other.

Like the baby cupids, you know, those aren't the baby angels off of real big

angels, right, mommy and daddy. That's that thing.

And they certainly don't have any other places in the Bible where they're procreating

with humans. So that's problematic.

But perhaps the biggest problem to consider with the sons of God as being angel

beings is that in verse three, God calls mankind corrupt, not the angels.

See that? My spirit will not remain with mankind forever because they, who's the they?

Mankind are corrupt.

God's issue is with man, not angels.

So possibility one, the sons of God are the line of Seth. Possibility two,

the sons of God are divine angelic beings. And I'll give you a third possibility.

Sons of God are kings or rulers. I do think this possibility is a little more

lacking than compared to the first two.

Still worth mentioning. And it's worth mentioning because one,

the Old Testament does use the phrase son of God. It's in Psalm 82.

But this reference, it refers to a king, a ruler, a magistrate,

a judge, but it is never found in the plural form.

In other words, it's always a son of God, a ruler, a king.

It's never this plural class of kings that all come together.

And again, when you consider the context of Genesis five is rolling through

with the line of Seth and then up pops chapter six and all of a sudden we've

gone from talking about no kings to now a bunch of kings and they're gonna marry

the daughters of man and they're gonna have families with them.

Just seems a little odd and out of place. However, at the same time,

what would be so wrong with that?

What would be wrong with a human king, a human man king marrying a beautiful daughter?

Nothing. So we got these questions, these problems that are going on.

And so where do we stand on all that?

You decide for yourself, right? I think that's the right answer.

That the sons of God were from the line of Seth, or the sons of God were divine

angelic beings, or the sons of God were rulers, kings.

I'll give you one more. The sons of God were none of these.

So I'm just gonna move on. Who are the Nephilim in verse four?

It says, the Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward when

the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who were born to them,

they were powerful men of old, the famous men.

Look closely, the verse describes powerful, famous men of old,

but it doesn't tell us who they are.

I know, you go to the Hebrew. In the Hebrew, Nephilim means Nephilim.

Does that help you? It does not help me. And then I think, perhaps the most

important thing for us to know about the Nephilim is that Moses writes about

them in a way that shows that his original readers,

they knew who they were. Like we don't, but they did.

I think that matters.

There are several interpretations. I'm going to give you just the two main ones.

So for you guys, we're hoping for all 68 of them. You get two.

One, the Nephilim were giants.

That's how the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation, that's how they translate

Nephilim, as these massive beings, extraordinary in strength and size,

powerful, famous old men, giants.

And giants are mentioned in other places of the Bible, in the book of Numbers.

You've got the Israelite spies, they went out to check out the land,

and they get out there and they come back with the report.

Oh, we were like grasshoppers compared to the Nephilim, the giants.

And there is that famous giant that most of us know about. You know,

the guy that David killed, what was his name? That giant?

Goliath. Yes, so he was there. So we've got these giants that are there at this

time in Genesis six and we've got giants afterwards going on.

And it seems that these Nephilim or giants could be that they represent being

there with the sons of God and the daughters of man, but that they are not directly

connected any other way than that, other than being a historical marker.

And we do the same thing. Like when we say, oh, remember at 9-11 and we use

those markers in time. So possibly that is it.

And Josh, I just saw the T-shirt. Are you wearing it?

You make sure you see Josh's T-shirt. Here's the shirt, introverted,

but willing to talk about the Nephilim.

Go, Josh.

The other interpretation that Josh is willing to talk about is that Nephilim

were offspring of angelic beings and human women.

Some interpret that what is going on in verses one through three results in

the offspring called Nephilim.

And they are powerful and famous, and they have these reputations of being,

whoa, the children of angel, human, mixed.

So which interpretation is it?

For me again I have hunches on both

the sons of God and the Nephilim

I think it would be a mistake to stand up

here and say this is what I believe so therefore you should believe it I don't

think that's good to do I don't have good conscience about doing that but I

will say this that whatever view you take it should not be a divisive situation

it shouldn't cause tension you don't have to leave and go to a different church.

It's not worth planting the all-important flag on is what I'm trying to say.

And I guarantee you that what you believe about the Nephilim will have nothing

to do with where you spend eternity.

So keep that in perspective. Like at best, Nephilim is a second level of importance,

maybe third. It is not a primary.

Wrap it all up, the sons of God and the Nephilim are two of the many,

many intriguing mysteries of the Bible.

They leave us with a lot of questions, maybe more than answers.

And perhaps that's the point.

Maybe they are there to remind us of things that are going on in our personal

lives and you have no idea and understand why.

And your choice there is trust God or don't trust God. And the advice would

be, the counsel from God's word would be is trust God.

Trust God with everything. I don't understand this God. Okay,

I'm trusting you anyway.

What is clearly known in these first four verses of Genesis 6 is this.

The sons of God, whoever they may be, are marrying and having children with

the daughters of man and the Nephilim, whoever they may be, they are there also

at the same time with the sons of God and the daughters of man.

And all of this package together is contribution to what God says,

I declare mankind corrupt.

That's what we know.

That's part A. Part B.

Part B begins with humanity going deeper and deeper into sin and further and further away from God.

And it ends, now this is important, and it ends right at the very,

very end. It ends with hope.

Things have become so bad that in verses six and seven, it says that the Lord

regretted that he made man on the earth and it grieved him in his heart.

So the Lord said, I will blot out man and animals for I am sorry that I have made them.

Regretted, grieved, sorry. It's the first time God is described in such a way in the Bible.

It is not the only time. There are several passages where either God himself

says this about himself, or he is described this way.

And what has happened over the years is that naysayers, naysayers of God,

they use this kind of language to belittle God, reduce his abilities.

They want to shrink him down, mock him. Some will even challenge that does he even exist at all.

And they will use this logic. They will say things like, if God is omniscient,

all knowing, he would never have created, he never made a world to have evil

in it, so there'd be no regrets.

Or they'll say, how can God be sovereign, have total authority,

and then allow something to happen that's going to cause him to be grieved?

Well i think the bible's answer to that is god's way of regretting and grieving

and sorrowing they are unique to god like he is way different than us he does

things differently than us,

this week i found an illustration from john piper i think it's super helpful

i modified it a little bit but

he's the one who gets credit for the illustration and it goes like this.

If I disciplined my child for blatant disobedience, that really does happen.

If that happens and he runs away from home because I disciplined him,

I will feel some regret and sorrow over the discipline.

Well, maybe, I mean, the rascal probably deserved it, but most likely I will feel regret and sorrow.

But the regret or the sorrow is not because I disapprove what I did the grief

comes the sadness comes from the fact that it took disciplining at all,

and they're running away oh yeah that's going to bring tremendous levels of

regret now this is a very true story I'm going to tell you right now is my dad,

would often, when it was time to discipline Doug,

like, well, often, like it happened a lot, you know, it happened,

and he would start the process with, son,

this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.

And I never believed it, ever, until you became a parent.

And then you realized, oh, yeah, this disciplining stuff, It grieves me.

But if I had to do it all over again, I'd still discipline him.

It's the right thing to do.

I approve of the discipline as the right thing to do.

But at the same time, I disapprove the regret and the discipline altogether.

And sort of in the same way, but much better because God is God and God is unique.

In his infinite mind, in his infinite ways, he is capable of being regretful,

grieved, and sorrowful. and it makes him no less God. The naysayers are wrong.

And for God to say, I regret making man, it's not the same thing as saying,

I would not make man again if I had to do it over.

Yes, he would do it. God can feel regret and grief and sorrow,

even though he has foreknown knowledge of such widespread evil,

and he can do this because he is God.

He is unique. And Isaiah 55 makes it pretty clear. His ways are not our ways.

So we've got God regretting, God is grieved, God is sorrowed. Verse five tells us why.

The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention

of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

God gives an eight-word summary of humanity.

And here it is. I put it on a slide. Every intention of thoughts was only evil continually.

Let's build that out a little bit. Every, no exceptions.

Intention, not on accident. of thoughts, comes from within, from the very core

of our being, was only, nothing else.

Evil. Can't call it weakness. Can't call it disease. Can't call it a struggle.

Continually, no letting up, always ongoing, never stops.

So if we step back and pause for a second we

realize that there was a day when god looked

out and he saw everything he said oh everything

is good and here we are in genesis 6 and when he looks out he says everything

is only evil continually and we see two very clear things right here, and I made them rhyme.

Man is wickedly bad, and God is righteously mad.

Angry. And we've talked about that here before, that there is a righteous anger.

And his righteously mad leads to verse seven.

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 the birds of the heavens.

And God willing next week, we are going to start looking at that judgment and the flood.

But right here, we pause to say, ooh, man is bad.

God is mad. And we need to connect some dots.

That is this, that mankind presented in Genesis 6 also is a representation of

mankind throughout all of history, including now.

And we need to connect the dots that God presented in Genesis 6 also represents

God as the same immutable, unchanging God all throughout history, including now.

And so the questions for us, do you believe this?

Like, do you acknowledge that we are just as wickedly bad and that God has every

reason to be righteously mad?

Because if that's not the case, the flood story is not going to make sense.

If that's not the case, the cross is not going to make sense.

But let's end with Genesis 6, 8.

Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord.

God is bringing judgment through a flood, but he is also bringing compassion

and salvation through favor.

That's it. That's the incredibly big idea of the Bible.

It has taken us all sermon long to get to it, but here it is.

It is here at the very end. That's the big idea.

Noah found favor in the sight of God.

Better said, the favor of God found Noah.

Like, because this is not about Noah. This is about God, the favor of God being extended to him.

And if you don't know, favor is really closely related to grace in the Bible.

So it would not be wrong to say Noah found grace from God.

And we are gonna go spend a week

with a bunch of campers telling them that message, find favor with God.

This is the incredibly good news of the Bible.

We sin, God cannot overlook sin.

We deserve death like a flood death. But God who is rich in his mercy, he offers favor.

He offers grace.

So we get to add another question here this morning. It's not just,

are we that bad? And is God that mad?

But have you found favor with God?

Have you experienced his grace?

That is the point of Genesis 1, 6 through 8. The Nephilim, they are okay.

But the big story is, man is wickedly bad.

God is righteously mad. Judgment is coming except for those God favors.

That's the storyline of the Bible. And the question is, have you found favor with God? Let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much for your word.

The confusing parts, the hard parts, the weird parts, the different parts.

Help us, Lord, in the areas that we just don't understand to fully trust you.

And in the areas that we do understand, that we will believe it, accept it as truth,

call it good because it is from you.

Submit to those words. Obey those words.

Cherish them.

Father, I ask that you would help us connect the dots. I don't know how hard

it is for us to realize how wickedly bad we are.

There are so many places in your word that you've just given us constant reminder time and time again.

And yet never do you leave us there. God, you are so good that sin does not have to be the last word.

Judgment does not have to be the last thing.

Death and separation from you do not have to be the last thing.

And so we, with joyful hearts and attitudes of thankfulness,

gratitude say thank you for grace and favor,

may it be true of all in this room and may that be our marching orders as we

go throughout our weeks day in day out for sure at camp this week,

to celebrate and tell others about the grace that is found in Jesus Christ your son,

it is his name we ask this Amen.