38. "Be watchful from the works of our enemies," (part 2) Genesis 6:1-4

 38. "Be watchful from the works of our enemies," (part 2)

Genesis 6:1-4, "When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal ; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown."

I. Genesis 6:2 -... the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

 At the time of man’s third fall, a number of the fallen angels in Satan’s principality came down to the earth, took human bodies, and used these bodies to form illegal marriages with the daughters of men, thus polluting the human race by mixing it with the fallen spirits.

 According to Jude 6-7 we can read this, "And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Those fallen angels abandoned their position of authority or their Principality. The fallen angels did not keep their original dignity and position but abandoned their own dwelling place, which is in heaven, to come to earth at Noah’s time to commit fornication with the daughters of men.

These angels were the sons of God in Genesis 6:2, who, putting on human bodies, took humans as wives and committed fornication with different flesh, with human beings, who are different from angels. The males of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities indulged their lust with males, with flesh that was different from what God had ordained, according to the nature of His creation, for human marriage. By committing fornication with different flesh in this way, they acted in the same manner as the angels in the preceding verse and, consequently, underwent the penalty of eternal fire.

Leviticus 18:22 “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

Leviticus 20:13 “ ‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads..

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

These men wanted to have a meaningless talk, proving themself that this such act is a normal, pardonable because of their condition, "...they want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God," 1 Timothy 1:7-11

The doctrine of our blessed God is not homesexuality, but the original human marriage can be read in the book of Genesis 2:18-24 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the manʼs ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Men who commits homosexuality, men having relationship with men will undergo to the penalty of eternal fire, like the fallen angels, and or the burned city of men in Sodom and Gomorrah... 

The example set up by the fallen angels in committing fornication with different flesh was followed by Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19:4-9 "Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Donʼt do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But donʼt do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! Weʼll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door."

"The people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord ." Genesis 13:13

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” Genesis 18:20-21 

The wicked Sodomites were homosexuals. "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.  

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know Godʼs righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:24-32 

-Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his two virgin daughters to satisfy the Sodomites’ lust shows that Lot, having dwelt a considerable time in the sinful city of Sodom, had lost his sense of morality and shame.

In Genesis 19:32-38 we can read, "Letʼs get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.” That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Letʼs get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. 

So both of Lotʼs daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab ; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi ; he is the father of the Ammonites of today."  

When you are looking for the place to live at please be wise, do not go to the den of the enemies, learn from the mistake of Lot, "So Abram said to Lot, read Genesis 13:8-13 -“Letʼs not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole land before you? Letʼs part company. If you go to the left, Iʼll go to the right; if you go to the right, Iʼll go to the left.” Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord , like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord ." 

II. Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The Nephilims or the giants means the fallen ones. The illegal marriage between fallen angels and the human race produced Nephilim, giants, “the mighty men who were of old the men of renown” ( Num. 13:32-33). God sent the flood to exterminate Noah’s generation because that generation had become impure. For the sake of the fulfillment of His purpose, God could not allow such a human race to exist. Are the Nephilims really destroyed after the flood in the time of Noah? 

Numbers 13:32-33 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We canʼt attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Numbers 14:36-37 So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it— these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord .

God said these to His people, Amos 2:9 “Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them, though they were tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below."

Because the Nephilim, a mixture of fallen angels and fallen man, dwelt in the land of Canaan, God commanded the children of Israel to take over this land and to destroy every living being there so that the human race could be cleared up (Deut. 7:1-2).

Deuteronomy 7:1-6 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord ʼs anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 

Deuteronomy 2:20-21 (That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place.

Deuteronomy 3:11 (Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaites. His bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

These are the accounts about the Nephilims, the giants, the sons of the fallen angel, whether they are still alive or not, they are the enemies of God, and God will destroy them. Fallen angels, are the satan or enemies of God destined to destroy by fire, along with the wicked fallen and lustful man who are living in sin, such homosexuality and fornication. Now be watchful, for the enemies are giants and we need to keep on fighting by obeying the will of God.

III. Genesis 6:3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal ; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

This is the second mentioning of the Spirit in this book (the first in in Genesis 1:2 "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters). Before this time God’s Spirit was graciously working and striving with man to counter man’s rebellion and fall. Nevertheless, here a point was reached when the Spirit of God would strive with man no longer, signifying God’s forsaking of man.

For many years God were patient with people. By His Spirit, God warned His people through His prophets. Yet His people paid no attention, so God gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. (Nehemiah 9:30)

God wants to save His people by His spirit lures to His prophets, but the people are so wicked and being blinded by the enemies, and so will keep on ignoring God's prophets but not until Christ came to conquer this wickedness of people and being slave to the sin of the fallen angels injected to humans. "Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophetʼs own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20-21 

No prophecy of Scripture is of the prophet’s or writer’s exposition, for no prophecy was ever borne, or carried along, by the will of man. Rather, men spoke from God while being carried by the Holy Spirit. No prophecy was ever spread by the will of man. Man’s will, desire, and wish, with his thought and exposition, were not the source from which any prophecy came; the source was God, by whose Holy Spirit men were borne, as a ship is borne by the wind, to speak out the will, desire, and wish of God.

-In man’s first fall man did not exercise his spirit; in the second fall he over-exercised his soul, inventing a new religion. In the third fall man abused the fallen body and became flesh, full of lusts, fornication, and violence. The fallen flesh is the strongest and most evil enemy of God (Romans 7:5— Romans 8:13) and is thoroughly and absolutely hated by God. At the time of the third fall the entire human race became flesh. 

Romans 7:5 "For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death."

Romans 8:13 "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live."

 In this verse, to die, to put to death, and to live are spiritual matters, not physical.

Colossians 3:5 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry."

-We must put to death the practices of the body, but we must do it by the Spirit. On one hand, we must take the initiative to put to death the practices of the body; the Spirit does not do it for us. On the other hand, we should not attempt to deal with our body by relying on our own effort without the power of the Holy Spirit.

The putting to death here is actually our coordinating with the Spirit who indwells us. Inwardly, we must allow Him to make His home in us that He may give life to our mortal body. Outwardly, we must put to death the practices of our body that we may live. When we take the initiative to put to death the practices of our body, the Spirit comes in to apply the effectiveness of Christ’s death to those practices, thus killing them. It is not the body itself but its practices that we must put to death. The body needs to be redeemed, but its practices need to be put to death. These practices include not only sinful things but also all things practiced by our body apart from the Spirit.

Psalms 78:39 "He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return..." God remembers that we are but flesh, weak, sinful and unrighteous for these are the works of God's enemies, that is why Jesus came to save us from these. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)

Again, we must to take the initiative to put to death the practices of our body! And let the Holy Spirit dwells and lives in us to show Christ Jesus' characters. Amen.

***