Genesis 028 – The Death of Humanness

Genesis 028

The Death of Humanness

Dr. Andrew M. Woods

 

Let’s take our Bibles, if we could, and open them to Genesis 6:10. The title of our message this morning is “The Death of Humanness.”  If you are joining us for the first time, we’re continuing our study through the book of Genesis, verse-by-verse, Chapters 1-11, which we’ve been working our way through, is the beginning of the human race, featuring four events:

A. Creation—Genesis 1-2.

B. The Fall of Man—Genesis 3-5. And yet in the whole discussion of the fall, which is tragic to read about because there we discover that the world we’re living in today is very different from the world God originally designed because there are consequences for sin. Even in our fallen world, there’s still hope because it’s in that description of the Fall that we learn of a coming Messiah or Savior, Jesus Christ, per Genesis 3:15, who will make everything right one day according to God’s original design.

So, we’ve studied the Fall, and from there we moved into, and this is what we just began to study a few weeks ago, the third major event:

C. The Flood—Genesis 6-9. Also, we’ve been dealing with what the world was like just before the Flood. I find this part of the study very interesting because Jesus made a statement in Matthew 24:37: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be again at the coming of the Son of Man.”

Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, says ‘There’s nothing new under the sun. What has been will be again.’  When you look at many of the things taking place in our world today, I’ll try to bring out some of those, you wonder how far away we are from judgment because the world today looks almost identical to what it was like just prior to the Great Deluge that’s being described in our chapters.

The first part of that chapter, and we’ve completed it, Genesis 6:1-7, is God’s grief.  God was grieving because of a specific sin [Genesis 6:1-4] and a general sin [Genesis 6:1-5] of unprecedented evil, which was happening in the days of Noah.

But one of the wonderful things about God is that before God sends judgment, He brings grace, or unmerited favor. And that’s in 6:8-10. We have:

A. The object of Grace, Noah [6:8]

B. The results of Grace [6:9]. Noah was righteous. Not on his own account, but because of what was transferred to him:  something he didn’t earn or deserve. That’s why it’s called grace.  Unmerited favor.  And we left off there with 6:9.  We pick it up here with:

C. The descendants of Grace [6:10]. Look at Genesis 6:10, “And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” It’s very interesting to me that in Genesis 6:8-9, it says, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” And because he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, that in turn, impacted his whole family.

Every single human being must be saved by their own faith in Christ Jesus. God, as we like to say, has no grandchildren.  You can’t live off the faith of what your parents believed.  But the truth of the matter is, even though all of that is true and accurate, the fact of the matter is a Christian’s presence in a family, in a certain sense, brings grace to that entire family. You don’t have to get far into the Bible to see this.  For example, in 1 Corinthians 7:14, it says, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise, your children are unclean, but now they are holy.” Very interesting passage. It’s dealing with the situation where you have two people in a marriage; one person gets saved, and the other person stays in unbelief.  What do you do in that circumstance?  Well, first of all, the plain teaching of the Bible is not to marry an unbeliever. But what do you do if you find yourself in a situation where you have experienced salvation, but your husband or your wife, your spouse has not experienced salvation? What do you do? Do you just cut and run? Obviously, I’m not dealing here with situations of abuse and things of that sort.  I’m just dealing with the general rule.  What do you do if you find yourself in that situation?  Well, Paul says you stay in that marriage.  Why?  Because your presence in that marriage is a blessing to your husband or unbelieving wife and is also a blessing to the children.  It’s interesting how God will bless a family on account of the fact that you have a believer in a family of unbelievers.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Genesis 6:8, and that same grace came to his three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth in 6:10.

Acts 16:30-31 records life’s most important question and answer. And after he had brought them out, he said, [This is the Philippian jailer] “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” I can’t think of a better, more important question in life to ask than that. They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Now, certainly the household wasn’t going to be saved just because the Philippian jailer got saved.  It wasn’t automatic like that.  But your believing presence in a now unbelieving family brings the gospel into their midst, and they too, have an opportunity for salvation.

A lot of the choices that we make as people today have an impact on the next generation. That’s what you’re seeing here with Noah. And because grace came to Noah, it came also to his three sons.  Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Paul, writing to young Timothy, brings up the fact that Timothy had a believing grandmother and mother in his family, and their influence in that family gave young Timothy an opportunity for salvation:  2 Timothy 1:5, [Writing to Timothy Paul says], “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.”

This is why Paul would later write to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15, and he would say, “…and that from childhood [literally, from infancy] you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Young Timothy became a Christian, a believer, because of godliness in his family line.  Certainly, Timothy had to exercise his own faith in Jesus Christ. But there is no doubt that God used those people in his family to extend the Gospel to him.

God blesses, I believe, families, because of the presence of a believer in that family.  Exodus 20:5 says, “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

It’s interesting that in that passage, if you have godlessness in a family, it can impact negatively up to the third and fourth generations.  But godliness in a family can impact thousands, it says.  Favor to thousands.  And I think this is the kind of thing that we’re seeing here with Noah.  Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and it had a positive impact on his three sons and their respective wives, and although the Bible doesn’t say his three sons found grace in the eyes of the Lord the exact same way that it says Noah did, there’s no doubt that his godliness and presence as a child of God in that family had a positive impact on those of his later descendants.

It’s interesting how we can make choices, and those choices that we make could have either a positive or a negative impact on the generations to come.  I’ll tell you a personal story, and my wife is here so she can give you the corrected version if I mess this up.  It’s interesting that my father, in the year 1960, six years before the two of us were born, represented her father in a legal matter. And he, my father, an upstanding man, represented him to the best of his ability. It was sort of like an estate planning situation.  And that was in the year 1960—six years before the two of us were born in 1966. By the time we came of age and started dating, and she had a few doubts in her mind, ‘Who was this guy, Andy Woods; is he an ax murderer or what’s going on?’  She talked to her father about me, and her father connected the dots, and said, ‘Well, he’s a man that comes from a good family.  I remember his own father and how well he represented me in that legal matter.’ So, it’s very interesting that my father chose to make righteous decisions in 1960, and it sort of paved the way for my future marriage.

I was sort of ‘in like Flynn’ after that connection was made. And I think about those things.  It’s interesting that we can make choices. We can make decisions, and a lot of times we’re not thinking about the impact of those decisions, but those decisions that we make can impact subsequent generations.

That’s what I’m thinking about when I see Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord, and this grace coming also not by way of transference, but by way of influence to his own sons.  So, Noah has these three sons, and from these three sons, the whole earth, after the flood is going to be repopulated.  This is not the first time we’ve run into these three sons. You might remember we preached a sermon called “My Three Sons.” I know I watch too much television from Genesis 5:32, but there they are for the first time mentioned at the end of Genesis 5: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  And here they are again.  Of all of the three, the one to keep your eyes on as far as the book of Genesis is concerned is Shem because Shem is going to inherit a blessing.  In Genesis 9:26, it says, He also said, “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem….”  In other words, it’s through Shem that God is going to further the Messianic lineage leading to Jesus Christ.

That’s why when we get to Genesis 11, there’s going to be a second genealogy. We’ve already studied the first genealogy from Adam to Noah. When we get to Genesis 11, we’re going to see genealogy number two.  It’s interesting that this genealogy will start with Shem and will go directly to a man named Terah. Terah, of course, is going to be the father of a man named Abraham through whom God will begin the Hebrew race.

So what you see here in early Genesis is this tracing of the promise of a Messiah that is to come. It starts with a promise given to Adam, and ultimately, it’s a promise that is going to be furthered by Noah.  Then once the world is destroyed by the Great Deluge or the Great Flood, that promise is going to continue on through one of Noah’s three sons, in this case, Shem. And then to Terah, and then to the nation of Israel, and ultimately to Jesus Christ.

It is interesting that from the name Shem, we get the word Semitic. And this is where we learn that the Messiah, when He comes, is going to come from the Semitic people groups of the earth.  We don’t know anything about Israel yet in our chronological reading of the book of Genesis, but we know that the Messiah will come from these Semitic groups being the Assyrians, the Syrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Arabs or the Hebrews.  Which of these groups is the Messiah going to come from? He’s going to come from that people group.  You see them there in gray on our map.

There’s also another son named Ham; Ham is going to be responsible for repopulating the area today that we know as Africa. Ham is going to do something he shouldn’t have done by way of sin, which we’re going to see in Genesis 9:25-26. Notice from this map that Ham’s descendants are ultimately going to go into the land of Canaan.  And as the saying goes, “the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”  These will be people that will be enmeshed in sin, no doubt picking up bad traits from their father, Ham, by way of behavior.

This then becomes the justification to the Exodus and Numbers generations and then to the Joshua generation as to why God is going to tell Joshua to go into the land of Canaan and eradicate the Canaanites.  Why would God say something like that?  Because of the sin that the Hamites in Canaan will be embroiled in. And so, to understand this properly, you have to put yourself in the position of the reader who read these words the first time. What you see coming together here is an apologetic for the Canaanite genocide.  And this becomes very important to understand because there are people today that will tell you that Ham was cursed on account of his race, and that is not so.  That is not true. It relates to sinful behaviors that they imitated in the form of their progenitor, Ham, following the flood. And so, what you’ll start seeing is the whole Bible coming together when you pay attention to these details.

And then, of course, there’s this third son named Japheth.  And from Japheth is going to come the European nations, and ultimately, the North American continent. But it’s all beginning right here in the book of Genesis. And so, the grace of God has now come to Noah, and the grace of God has now come to Noah’s sons because of the strategic roles that they are destined to play, the most important blessing coming to a man named Shem, because from him will come Terah and Abraham, and ultimately, Jesus Christ.  That’s why when you go back and study the early genealogy of the lineage leading to Jesus Christ, you’ll find Shem and Adam and Noah and Terah in that lineage.

So, notice, if you will, as we move away from God’s grace and to God’s destruction. God here makes a prophecy concerning destruction which is about to come to the earth via the global flood. We have a sin that was taking place in Genesis 6:11-12, and then God makes a short-term prediction which was fulfilled in Noah’s lifetime.

Notice, if you will, the sin that was enveloping the earth. We’ve already had a few hints of this sin.  Specifically, Genesis 6:1-4 and generally, Genesis 6:5.  Here we get more information about the sins that were happening and moving God’s hand in the direction of global judgment.  But notice, if you will, Genesis 6:11, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. [You might want to underline that word ‘violence.’ We’re going to see it repeated in 6:13, and we’ll have more to say about that once we get to that verse.

Notice also this word ‘earth.’ I need to bring this up because there’s a lot of confusion about this. It says, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.” At the end of 6:13, you’ll see the word “earth” again, and you’ll also see the word “earth” at the end of 6:12.  The Hebrew word for “earth” here is ”eretz.” It’s used four times. The reason I’m bringing this up is a lot of people think, ‘Well, this this just means the land.  Eretz just means the land.  It doesn’t mean the whole world.’  And very clearly, the word ’eretz’ can be used to refer to a local land region. In fact, the land of Israel is frequently referred to with this Hebrew noun, eretz.

Zechariah 12:12 says of Israel, “The land will mourn, every family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan itself and their wives by themselves…”

Clearly, eretz, or land, can refer to a local region, the land of Israel. Now, why is this important? There is a belief that has been popularized, and it’s interesting that it never seems to die. People keep recycling this over and over again. It’s called the local flood theory.  They basically teach that the flood really didn’t cover the whole world. They will deny the global flood and say, ‘Well, this was just a regional flood.’ Or they’ll get tricky with their language and say that it was a universal flood, meaning it wiped out everybody, but it didn’t envelop the whole world.  And they will build this case largely from that Hebrew word “eretz” translated earth, but sometimes used as a local land.

Why would people believe in a local flood? What’s the motive? I believe the motive is as follows: They were convinced by somebody in their secular education that the fossil record and the strata can be explained in terms of billions and billions and billions of years.  And then they got saved and became a Christian, and suddenly they’re reading the book of Genesis, and they’re confronted with this worldwide deluge, and they’ve got a contradiction in their minds because they think that what they learned in secular education is true: that the fossil record is a result of billions of years of accumulation and that the layers of the Grand Canyon were formed over billions of years. And now they’re reading their Bible, and it says, ‘God destroyed everything with a flood,’ but they still want to hold on to this long-ages-of-time that they’ve been taught is scientifically true.  So, what they try to do is to mix the Bible with so-called science.

Now, I know a little something about this because I tried to do this for many years as a Christian.  I was taught certain things through the public school system that evolution is true, and the Earth has been here for billions and billions of years.  After all, the only reason we’re here is because we went from the goo to you by way of the zoo over billions of years. Also, after all, the science teachers all told me that the Earth has been here for a long time.  And you can explain these strata not through a sudden deluge, but in terms of billions of years. And I wanted to mix the Bible with that belief system because I thought both were true.  So, I tried to mix them together.

The problem is, the more you try to mix the Bible with evolution, uniformitarianism, long ages, the more you start to discover that it’s like mixing oil and water. The two don’t coalesce together.  So, I wanted to believe in a flood.  But at the same time, I wanted to believe that what my science teachers told me concerning strata over billions of years must be true.  What I ended up buying into were all kinds of false ideas, one of the most popular being the local flood.  If I just shrunk the flood to a local area and pretended like it was somebody’s bathtub overflowing in Mesopotamia, I could still hold onto my interpretation of the fossil record over billions of years and still believe in a flood. And everybody’s happy, right?

Well, the interesting thing about God is in the process of sanctification, He doesn’t allow you to keep your pagan beliefs.  He takes a wrecking ball to everything.  In that process of growth, I started to realize that the things I had been taught as science really aren’t science. It’s someone’s philosophy or interpretation. You can explain the strata. You can explain the fossil record in terms of a deluge that hit planet Earth at a specific time in history. It’s interesting that you can explain a lot of the rocks from Mount Saint Helens, which we know erupted suddenly and explain the strata in terms of that eruption. I don’t need the billions of years.  I guess I don’t need the billions of years to explain the strata.  So, if I don’t have that need anymore, I don’t have to deny what the Bible says.  I don’t have to shrink the flood to make it sound like it was someone’s bathtub overflowing in Mesopotamia. That’s not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches that this entire globe at one time was underwater through a sudden judgment that hit planet Earth.  I don’t have to play games with the word earth or land or eretz, and it’s interesting that, yes, sometimes the word eretz can refer to a local area if the context defines it that way. So, for example, in the book of Exodus 9:24, it says, “…It was the worst storm in all the land [That’s eretz] of Egypt.”  Well, there very clearly, eretz or land refers to something local in Egypt because the context supports that interpretation.  But there is absolutely nothing here in Genesis 6,7,8 or 9 to argue that what is being described here is something that happened locally. There is no hint, contextually, that would give me any basis as a Bible reader or interpreter to shrink Noah’s Flood.  In fact, you might be interested to know that one of the very first words in the Bible is the word eretz.  It’s all the way back in Genesis 1:1-2.  It says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s Eretz Genesis 1:2. “The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

It’s very clearly there that eretz doesn’t refer to some locality. When God created the heavens and the earth, He created everything. So very clearly, eretz can mean a limited land if the context supports it, like Exodus 9:24. But it can mean the entire globe as it does in Genesis 1:1-2.  So, make the call depending on the context.

The local flood theory wants to pretend that the Exodus 9:24 understanding of eretz, or the Zechariah 12:12 understanding of eretz is that’s what it means everywhere. And I’m here to tell you that that is not the case. You have every incentive or every reason to believe that when the Noahic flood hit planet Earth, it hit everything.  The entire world was put into a deluge.

And that is why Jesus analogizes the flood to His return. ‘As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be when Jesus comes back.’ It’s not going to be a local event. “Every eye” [Revelation 1:]7, is going to see Him.  He’s not going to be hidden in an apartment building somewhere.  It’s going to be the greatest splendor or one of the greatest spectacles human history has ever beheld.  And when the time comes, He is going to take this entire world, per  2 Peter 3:10, destroy it by fire, and replace it with a new world.  And I’m here to tell you when He does that, He’s not just burning part of the world. He’s burning everything.

So be very careful what you’re doing here with this local flood mindset, and we’ll have more to say about it as we continue on and encounter the flood in Genesis 7 and the abating of the waters in Genesis 8.

But notice 6:12, it says, “And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” You’ll notice what it says there in 6:12 that “all flesh had corrupted their way.” The flesh of man itself was corrupted.  I try to interpret that in light of what we said about Genesis 6:1-4; you can go back into our previous lessons and review that. But essentially, as we tried to explain, what was happening in Genesis 6:1-4 is that fallen angels began to procreate with human women for the purpose of creating a race of people that aren’t fully human.  That’s who the Nephilim were, in my understanding. This is why God brought the deluge, because these fallen angels had left their natural abode, and consequently, the genetics of the human race were being altered.

It was something that Satan did at one time in history to prevent Genesis 3:15 from being fulfilled because Genesis 3:15, (backing up here just for a minute), says that when the Messiah comes, He will come from her seed. Who’s ‘the her’?  ‘The her’ is Eve.  In other words, when this Messiah comes, He must be fully God and fully man.  After all, in 1 Timothy 2:,5 Paul tells us “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.”  The Man, Christ Jesus. If Jesus was just God, but not man, and He became Man added to Deity at the point of the virgin conception, then how could He be the Mediator between God and man? If He was just man but not God, how could He be the Mediator between God and man?  He must be both 100% God and 100% man to lay hands on both of us: God the Father and humanity and also be our Mediator.  The only Mediator that has ever existed in human history is Jesus Christ, because He’s the only God-Man.

You see, this was the cry of job in the oldest book of the Bible.  You’ll see Job at the end of Job 9 talking about this.  Job was upset over the things that were happening in his life, and he began to say, ‘I just wish I could get God to understand my perspective.  But how can I do that?  I’m just a man and He is God.  And there’s no one to lay hands on both of us.  So how can I, as a mere man, communicate with God, advocate myself before God?’  And it’s very interesting that this question is posed in Job 9, the oldest book of the Bible, and the rest of the Bible is answering that question. There is a Mediator, and that Mediator is the God Man, Christ Jesus.

A lot of people think, ‘Gosh, you can be saved any way you want.’ You see how impossible that is?  The only person that can save is the God Man, and there’s only been one of those.  The God Man, Jesus Christ.

Satan understands all of this.  In Genesis 6, he is trying to alter the DNA of humanity to such an extent that the Messiah can never be born.  It was a one-time thing he did in history, and that is how I am understanding 6:12, where it talks about, ‘And God looked on the earth and behold, it was corrupt for humanity had corrupted its way on the earth.’ The way it’s described here is that the flesh of the human race had been corrupted.  There are a lot of different interpretations of this. I’m giving my interpretation of it.  I’m interpreting it in light of the great sin that was taking place as these fallen angels were leaving their natural abode in Genesis 6:1-4.

Satan hates the Messiah.  And he has always worked in history to prevent the Messiah from being born because Genesis 3:15, the prediction of the coming Messiah, was spoken to him. Thus, he’s using strategy after strategy.  It really starts with Cain murdering Abel.

Here is strategy number two, the alteration of the human race and its genetics. In the post-flood world, he’ll move to different strategies.  But this is just strategy after strategy after strategy to prevent the birth of Jesus Christ, and God through it all, fulfilled His Word.

Jesus was born despite these satanic attacks and opposition to this coming Messiah. That’s what Christmas is about. That’s why Christmas or the birth of Jesus is such a big deal, because it’s a testimony to Satan’s failure and God’s triumph in the midst of the most radical spiritual warfare you can possibly imagine. And we’re seeing the exact same thing played out right here in Genesis 6. That’s why it talks in Genesis 6:8, about how Noah was blameless and righteous. The last time we were together, I showed you that it’s the same Hebrew word, the second one, used in Exodus 12:5, to describe the genetic purity of the Passover Lamb.  The Passover Lamb must be unblemished. It must be genetically pure. Noah qualified because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah’s sons, particularly Shem, was qualified to bring forth this Messiah because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and the Satanic attempt to alter the DNA and the genetics of the human race had fallen short.

So, when it says ‘And God looked on the earth and behold it was corrupt and humanity had corrupted their way…’ That’s, in essence, how I’m understanding what is taking place here.  This experiment that Satan was running was so out of bounds and so over the top that God had no choice but to destroy everything because it was so outside of the design of God that God brought judgment.

Now, if you’re looking for a parallel with our world today, it’s somewhat amazing to me the things that are being done with AI, Artificial Intelligence, vaccinations that some argue, have an ability to alter the DNA of people. All of that, believe me, is way above my pay grade. It’s hard for me to understand it all, but I know this much. It’s a movement of the human race into what’s abnormal. It’s a movement of the human race into what is paranormal. If humanity becomes successful in all of these experiments, I frequently wonder how far we are away from the judgment of God.

God did not allow this to get that far in Genesis 6.  Could it be that we too, are approaching that point in time?  Time will tell.  But notice this.  We move away from the sin, and into a particular prediction that God makes because of what was happening.  Look, if you will, at 6:13.  It says, “…Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.’”

So, it wasn’t just the Nephilim, it wasn’t just the genetics that hurt the heart of God to the point that He was sorry that He made man and moved into global judgment.  But it was also some other things that were taking place on the earth, in particular violence. And because of these things that were happening, God made a prediction. The prediction is the entire world is about to be destroyed. That’s not talking about people living in a local area somewhere.  It’s talking about the whole planet.  With the exception of Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord being protected in the ark along with his wife, his three sons and their respective wives, eight total, through which the human race would repopulate the earth. Other than them, everything else had gone astray.  Everything else had gone awry.

So, God says, ‘I’m about to destroy everything.’ Now, one of the things that’s very interesting is as you go through your Bible, when God makes a prediction, watch the Bible. Because God’s predictions will come to pass when they’re short-term predictions, exactly like He said. God means what He says and says what He means. He does not speak in enigmas.  He does not speak in riddles.  He does not play, ‘Let’s hide the ball.’ Exactly what He says transpires.

This, by the way, happened in the Upper Room concerning the predictions of God, Jesus Christ, when Jesus was speaking to His disciples.  And He said this in John 13:19, “From now on, I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He…” In other words, He’s saying to them, ’Put Me to the test. I’m going to start making some predictions, a lot of which are going to happen in a few days.  Some of which are going to happen in your own lifetime.  And every time those predictions come to pass; I want you to know that I am He.’

“I am” is a title that belongs only to God.  It’s the great Ago, Ami.  I am.  It’s a title that God ascribes only to Himself.  You’ll find God using that title with respect to Moses in Exodus 3:14, ‘Who should I say sent me?’ Oh, just tell Pharaoh I am sent you.

So, when Jesus says, ‘so that you might believe that I am He,’ what in essence, He’s saying is, ‘I want you to have proof that I am God. And here’s how I’m going to show you that I am God’ with His disciples huddled there in the Upper Room.  ‘I’m going to start revealing things. And within a few days and within your own lifetime, you’re going to start seeing those things happen. And that, to you, is one of the great evidences that I am exactly who I claimed to be.’

If that weren’t enough, He repeats it in the next chapter in the Upper Room. In John 14:29, He says, “Now I have told you you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.”

See slide on Christ’s Short-Term Predictions. And look at these predictions that Jesus started to make here.  He said that He was going to be betrayed by a friend in John 13:21. That happened within a very short period of time as Judas turned Christ over for execution; he betrayed Christ.

He told Peter, ‘Peter, you’re going to deny Me. Not once, not twice, not six times, not five times, but exactly three.’  And of course, that happened.  And Peter remembered it when it happened. That’s why he went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus told them in Matthew 20, ‘Here’s exactly how I’m going to die. I’m not going to be stoned to death’ the way that the Jews killed people in that time period.  ‘I’m going to be turned over to the Gentiles for execution.’ And that’s exactly what happened [Matthew 20:18-19].

Then as He’s restoring Peter, Peter and John are together, and He starts predicting how the two of them are going to die.  He starts by telling Peter how he’s going to die. ‘You know, when you were young, you dressed yourself and you went where you wanted. But when you’re old, people are going to take you to where you do not want to go’.  How would you like it if the Lord said something like that to you?  That’s why Peter looks at John and says, ‘Well, what about him?’ And Jesus says, ‘None of your business.  I’ll deal with John a different way.’ And we know that John had a different destiny.

Peter’s destiny, according to tradition, was to be crucified, upside down. John’s destiny was to be marooned on the island of Patmos at the end of the reign of Domitian. That was exactly where God wanted him, because it was in that place, He would receive the Apocalypses that we call the book of Revelation.

And then Jesus said in Luke 19:41-44, ‘The temple is going to be taken apart brick by brick.’  He didn’t say it exactly this way, but he’s alluding to the fact that the Romans are going to come and destroy the city and the sanctuary in the horrific events of AD 70, which is just a few decades later, and according to the historian Josephus, that’s exactly what happened.

If Jesus had been wrong about any of these predictions, there is absolutely no way that His disciples would have gone to the edge of the earth, so to speak, to preach the gospel, suffering greatly along the way.  Every single one of these people in the Upper Room with the exception of John, were martyred. There is no way a human being would subject himself to martyrdom if they thought that Jesus was a fake and if the prophecies He had made in the Upper Room didn’t happen He said—all of these prophecies happened because that’s the nature of God.  He reveals the end from the beginning.

What happened to John?  Well, Tertullian, in his Prescription Against Heretics, writes, “…where the Apostle John was first plunged, unhurt, into boiling oil, and thence remitted to his island-exile!”  The problem with John is he was very stubborn.  This guy wouldn’t die.  They kept trying to boil him to death and they didn’t know what to do with him because the guy wouldn’t die.  ‘Here’s what we’ll do, we’ll just maroon him on the island of Patmos,’ which was the design of God for reasons I tried to articulate earlier, but exactly what Jesus said when Peter said, ‘What about this man?  Don’t worry about him.   If I want him to remain alive until I come, what business of that is yours?  You follow Me.’

And so, this becomes, I believe, one of the most amazing features of the Bible: its ability to predict the future. Forget the long-term prophecies. Think about the prophecies that were happening in the short run. And if those prophecies hadn’t happened exactly like Christ said, why would these men have gone to the lengths that they did in terms of suffering and ultimate martyrdom?

One of my favorite writers is the late Dr. John Walvoord, long-time president of Dallas Theological Seminary.  Here’s a book you ought to add to your library.  It’s called Every Prophecy of the Bible.  I’ve read through a lot of it, and the title is correct.  It’s every prophecy of the Bible.  It’s a very long book. But he just takes you through prophecy after prophecy after prophecy and shows how all of those prophecies that are short-run prophecies happened just like the Lord said.

God told Adam and Eve, ‘The day you eat from the tree of knowledge, you’ll die.’  They died.  They died spiritually that day. And physically, they died at a later point. Walvoord does this with every prophecy. And the reason I’m bringing this up is because what you see in Genesis 6:13 is another prophecy. “Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”  That’s exactly what God did.  We’re not given how much time it took, but it happened. And the earth, with the exception of eight people, was completely destroyed.

The genetic experiment of the Nephilim was wiped out, and God preserved the Messianic lineage through Noah, then Shem, and ultimately, to Jesus Christ.

Now, back in 6:11, we saw the word violence, didn’t we?  “…the earth was filled with violence.’ You see it again in 6:13. Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence…” You might find it to be interesting that the Hebrew word for violence is hamas.  I find that very interesting because there’s a middle Eastern terrorist group that wants to convince the Western world that they want peace. And the naive Western mind says, ‘Well, they must be peaceful people.’ Not if you understand where the title of their organization comes from.  It’s ultimately derived, I believe, from this word violence.

Violence started pretty quickly in the fallen world. You’ve got the first murder where Cain murders Abel; then Cain begets the Cainite Line. The Cainite Line was known for violence.  In fact, go to Genesis 4:23-24; a member of that line, I think his name was Lamech says that if Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech 77 times.

Lamech said to his wives, [There’s a problem there with sexuality], “Adah and Zillah, Listen to my voice. You wives of Lamech. Give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me; If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” The Cainite line prior to the Flood was a ruthless line. ‘If a boy or a child wounds me, I’ll kill that child.’ I mean, talk about people living by the sword. That’s what the world was like from this Cainite line.  Eventually it spread all over the world to the point where the earth was filled with violence.  Genesis 1 was lost.  Genesis 1:26-27 was lost where it says there that ‘God made man in His own image.’

People are entitled to a certain degree of dignity and respect as image bearers of God. But if we lose sight of that, and it becomes marred in any way, and human beings are being viewed as less than they are, then what’s the problem with killing them? What’s the problem with murdering them? This is why God, later on after the Flood, created the institution of human government. Genesis 9:6, God said, ‘Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.”

‘I don’t want violence.  I want deterrence to violence,’ God says, ‘So I’m going to set up an institution post-flood called human government because if we don’t have human government, then it’s the wild, wild west just like it was prior to the Flood.’ This is why the Bible tells us that we should be in prayer for our government. We should be respectful towards our government. Now I realize that you have this situation of tyranny, and I’m not dealing with that here.  I’m just dealing with the basic institution of human government, for whom we should pray, intercede and pay our taxes.

In fact, in Romans 13:1-7, Paul calls those involved in human government, those involved in ministering it, ministers of God.  So, the police officer who pulls you over for a ticket is just as much a minister as I am. That’s sometimes hard to take, isn’t it, particularly when you weren’t speeding.  No one in here speeds, of course.  But this is a basic, foundational truth that you only learn from the book of Genesis. God set up government to stop violence.  He brought judgment because of hamas, violence. And look at our world today. Would you say that we’re reaching the same level of insanity?  How are we doing in this area of violence?

Last night I just typed into my search engine, ‘How many acts of violence does a child see?’ And it didn’t take much of a search to run into this blog or website called hellomotherhood.com. The title of this article is How Watching Violence on TV Affects Kids. “According to the Academy of Pediatrics website, children between the ages of two and 18 spend an average of three hours a day watching television.  A three-year national television study reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics… [Why don’t I just use the initials AAP]?  A three-year national study reported by the AAP found that in children’s shows they had the most violence of all television programing. Statistics read that some cartoons average 20 acts of violence in one hour, and that by the age of 18, children will have seen 16,000 simulated murders, 200,000 acts of violence on television. Young people are especially in jeopardy of the negative effects of television violence because many younger children cannot discriminate between what they see and what is real,’ reports the AAP.

‘You mean that by the time a child reaches the age of 18, he could have potentially seen 200,000 acts of violence in something as innocent as cartoons or video games?’  That’s exactly what they’re reporting here.

This is exactly what it was like prior to the days of Noah.  Life had become cheapened.  They had lost man and woman as image bearers, because after all in the school system, they teach Darwinism that we’re nothing more than naked apes and animals.  And if we’re merely naked apes and animals, what’s the harm in acting like one?  Ideas have consequences.

I know several people very connected to government who have told me on more than one occasion that when young people enter the military, it used to be that the hardest thing for the military to educate these young people was to shoot another human being.  I mean, that’s a hard barrier to break.  Yet the latest reports are that we don’t have that problem anymore because of video games.  What they watch on TV has already conditioned them.

What’s going on in the United States? What’s going on in our world? The death of humanness. We’re losing the value of mankind as an image bearer of God. And I really don’t know if I have much of a solution for it other than a national spiritual revival.  If that doesn’t happen, we’re just descending into the abyss with all of this violence. ‘Oh, come on, Pastor.  You don’t really believe that what you watch influences how you act?’ Can I ask you a basic question? If what you watch doesn’t impact how you act, why does Madison Avenue, the world of marketing, spend millions, if not billions, of dollars around the clock on advertising? Because they know that what we watch will influence our buying behavior.  And if that’s true in the world of business, if it’s true in the world of marketing, why wouldn’t it be true with these random acts of violence that people commit?  Because it’s what they see all of the time.  And this is why God brought judgment.

You know, when you go out to lunch and they ask, ‘Would you like to order a dessert?’  And you respond, ‘No, thank you,’ there’s a reason that they then ask, ‘Well, would you at least like to look at the dessert tray?’

When I was coming of age as a Christian, we used to call this ‘the behold.’  I don’t even know if they teach this anymore, but my youth pastors taught it as the beholding becoming principal. Whatever you’re beholding, whatever you’re allowing into the arena of the mind, is eventually what you’ll become. And may God help us to understand this. Because this is why judgment came. This, by the way, is why judgment is going to (again) come to the world. There’s only so much of this that God is going to put up with.

Revelation 9:20-21 describes the sins that are being committed by humanity as God is pouring out these judgments. It says, “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so [Now we’re getting a laundry list of the things that they will be involved in which will bring the judgment of God] … as not to worship demons, … [That’s sin number one] … and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk, … [That’s sin number two]…. and they did not repent of their murders [Sin number three]... nor of their sorceries [Sin number four] nor of their immorality…” [Sin number five—Notice right there in the list is murders].  That’s what the world is going to be like on the eve of the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is exactly what it was like in the days of Noah. This was why God articulated what He was about to do.

‘Boy, Pastor, this is the most depressing sermon I’ve ever heard.’ Well, there’s good news in it because what we begin to do starting in our next study together is to move away from the sin into the solution. God always has a solution. God actually doesn’t even bring the judgment until the solution is obvious, and that solution was the Ark. As we begin to move through that section of Scripture, you’re going to see that there’s only one door into the Ark, not multiple doors.  Once that door is shut, you can’t get in.  It is not by accident that Jesus called Himself the Door. The Door is the entrance point, which exempts you from future judgment, and unless a human being takes that door and that door path, they’ll be swept away.

So, our exhortation as we speak of past and future global judgment and the reasons for the coming judgment, we also speak of the reality that the sins of the world have already been judged in the person of Jesus Christ through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. His final words were, “It is finished.”

You don’t have to be swept away by the inevitable judgment of God because your sins were already judged 2000 years ago.  You simply rest by way of faith under His protective custody. And that’s what we call the Gospel. Gospel means good news.  It’s good news because Jesus absorbed the wrath of a holy God in our place so that we could read in our Bible, Romans 8:1, which says, “There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.” That’s the good news that comes out of this. Yeah, that’s bad news. Yeah, it’s a lot of it is hard to to study and take in, but at the same time, there’s always the grace of God and the grace of God is Jesus Christ.

Our exhortation for anybody listening within the sound of my voice is to trust in the Messiah. To trust in what Jesus did for you 2000 years ago.

We aren’t trusting in ourselves, our own works, our own religiosity, our own righteousness, but we’re trusting exclusively in the Savior.

Just like when Noah went into that door with his family, and the door was closed, and they were spared from the coming judgment. That’s what we do by way of analogy with this person of Jesus Christ.  You can become a Christian right now, even as I’m speaking by trusting in what Jesus did.

But you say, ‘Pastor, doesn’t the Gospel get garbled and confused? Don’t people add human works to the gospel?’ The answer is yes. That’s why you need to come back next week because we’re having a guest speaker. I’m really looking forward to next week because I don’t have to hear myself speak. I get to listen to someone else speak, and I’ll be here. I’ll introduce the speaker. But his name is Dr. Dennis Rokser of Duluth Bible Church, and he’s going to be bringing us a message on the Gospel—what the Gospel is and what the Gospel is not.  You can’t understand the truth of the Gospel until you understand what it is not. And in the Sunday school class just before, he’s going to be speaking on Romans 6, “How We Live by Grace.” I would encourage you to take full advantage of this next week. Shall we pray?

“Father, we are grateful for Your Word, Your truth, and how it speaks to us in our day.  Help us to take these things to heart as we walk with you this week. We’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, and God’s people said.  AMEN!