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[0:00] Open up your Bibles again to Genesis chapter 6. The Christian life can often feel like a tug of war, can't it?!

[0:30] That the gospel is going out, there are real encouragements, ministries grow, the kingdom advances, but then we feel a pushback. That church gets an email saying they can't meet at their venue anymore because of what they believe.

[0:45] The building application gets rejected. The government implements laws to make Christian parenting even harder. Whatever it may be, life in God's kingdom, it feels like a tug of war.

[1:00] A back and forth with this world. You go one way, you get pulled back the other. And if you've been following along in Genesis, these early chapters east of Eden, it feels like that too.

[1:12] There's been this constant tug of war of progress and setback with God's plan of salvation. We know God has promised salvation. It's going to come through a family of believers.

[1:25] God is creating an immortal bloodline to belong to himself. And we know from that immortal bloodline, there's going to come a son to crush Satan's head, to end evil, to save the world.

[1:38] But there's been this tug of war in these chapters. The promise makes progress, but then there's this pullback. Adam has a son, but it's Cain.

[1:50] Then Adam has Abel, but Cain murders Abel. But then Seth is born, but Seth's line is dying. But Seth's line is escaping death.

[2:04] God is creating an immortal bloodline. There's been this tug of war, this back and forth over the past two chapters. The promise has been working. Sons have been coming, but not smoothly.

[2:17] It's been a tug of war, just like the Christian life. But there's a reason behind all of this. A reason why there is a tug of war east of Eden, even today.

[2:30] Don't forget what God promised. What did God promise in Genesis 3.15? Yes, there will be a godly family, an immortal bloodline. But that bloodline will have enmity with Satan.

[2:44] Satan and his unbelieving family, unbelievers, they're going to be in conflict with the godly family. Two bloodlines, belief and unbelief, will be at war.

[2:57] The reason this tug of war exists in Genesis, and in our own lives, and the church, is because Satan is at war with belief. That's the promise.

[3:08] Satan doesn't want the immortal bloodline to keep going. He doesn't want the son to arrive. And so with chapter 5, last week, we make progress in the war.

[3:20] The promise is working, that the godly family grows, the immortal bloodline is created, and already a son, Noah, has come to bring rest. But don't forget Satan. Don't forget the war.

[3:33] If grace is pulling the rope one way, Satan is going to pull back the other. And so as we enter chapter 6 now, we need to wonder, well, how is Satan pulling back?

[3:46] What is his next step going to be in this war? And we find there is a threat to the immortal bloodline on the horizon. Because if salvation is coming through the immortal bloodline, Satan wants to blur the bloodlines.

[4:06] That's my first point today. Satan wants to blur the bloodlines. Now, this chapter, it contains heavy things. And it contains lots of unusual things.

[4:18] There are sons and daughters, children and Nephilim, mighty men of old. And I can't address every question in this passage, but the big thing I want us to see that's going on here is that all of this is still related to the genealogy in chapter 5.

[4:33] It's not a coincidence that we get the genealogy of the immortal bloodline and then we get this. Because what's going on here is the immortal bloodline, the godly offspring, is disappearing by being merged with the ungodly bloodline.

[4:53] And this is Satan's tug in the war. So do you see that there are two families mentioned here in verse 1? When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive and they took as their wives any they chose.

[5:15] So do you see that there are the sons of God and the daughters of man? So two families, two bloodlines, and they began to marry. Now the question is, who are these bloodlines?

[5:29] Well some say that the sons of God are fallen angels, demons essentially. Sons of God, it's the name given to fallen angels in the book of Job.

[5:42] And according to this approach, those angels fell from heaven, came to earth, started to breed with humans, that they married human daughters. And that's what's going on here.

[5:55] Now I know that sounds pretty out there, but I think that is a possible option, that that could be the case. But the better option, I think, is that these are the two families mentioned in Genesis 3.

[6:09] The sons of God are the godly family of Seth, the immortal bloodline, and the daughters of man are the daughters outside of that bloodline, not friends with God, but basically Cain's unbelieving bloodline.

[6:25] That's what I think is more likely the case here. And just an aside, the Nephilim, I can't get into this, but the Nephilim aren't the product of these marriages, they're not the children of these marriages, it's just saying that these marriages happened whilst a group of people called the Nephilim were on the earth.

[6:45] And the Nephilim, they also appear in Numbers 13 as well, they're just a group of big warrior people. And so this passage, it sounds unusual, but really what it's saying is the sons of God, the believing bloodline, married the daughters of man, the unbelieving bloodline.

[7:03] And so as these two bloodlines began to multiply on the earth, something happened, they started to marry each other, to blur.

[7:15] And you might think, so what? Why is this such a big deal? Well, because God sees it as a big deal. Because look how God responds.

[7:25] He looks upon the earth, sees these marriages, and he pronounces judgment, verse three. Then the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh.

[7:38] His days shall be 120 years. It's like God sees these marriages and says, I can't have this happen. I can't encourage this. This needs to stop.

[7:49] And so I'm going to remove my spirit of life from humanity. And I'm going to drop their lifespan even more. It was going down already because of sin, but now I'm dropping it way down to 120 years.

[8:03] That's the maximum. God did something to our genetics. Now why? Why is Seth's bloodline, marrying Cain's bloodline, such an issue?

[8:16] Why such a severe judgment from God? Well, the problem, it's more sinister than you think. Look at how the sons of God were choosing their wives, verse two.

[8:28] They took as their wives any they chose. They weren't thinking about God when they chose a wife. They weren't thinking about the promise.

[8:38] They weren't thinking about the promised son, but they weren't thinking about the promised family. Salvation just left their minds, and they thought, I'm just going to marry whoever I want. And so the bloodline of believers, it starts to blur with the bloodline of unbelievers.

[8:57] Which means, what's going to happen to the godly family? It starts to get diluted and phased out. It's like, you know when you make squash?

[9:09] You know, orange squash, blackcurrant squash. And you have the concentrator squash, and it's bright purple, and then you add water, and then it gets diluted, doesn't it? It gets less purple.

[9:20] And then if you add more and more water, it gets less and less purple, doesn't it? And what happens if you keep doing that, keep adding water and water and water, soon, it's not purple at all.

[9:32] It's gone. Well, that's what's going on here. If Seth's line is like the concentrated purple, that's where the promise is, that's where the belief is, that's the immortal bloodline where the Saviour Son is coming from.

[9:48] But the unbelieving bloodline, it's like the water. No promise there. And as the two bloodlines start marrying and mixing, the promise starts to dilute.

[10:02] But belief and friendship with God starts to disappear. And so what will happen to the Son? How will the serpent crusher appear? Well, if there's no family, there's no Son.

[10:17] These marriages are salvation getting diluted out of existence. And this is what Satan wants. This is his side of the tug of war. Just think about it.

[10:28] If you were Satan, and you knew the serpent crusher is coming to kill you, and you know he's coming from the immortal bloodline, and you've tried killing that bloodline, Abel, but that didn't work because God just brought another son, Seth, then what is your next option?

[10:46] Well, if I can't kill the bloodline, then I'll dilute it. I'll breed the Son out of existence. This is Satan trying to stop Christ being born.

[11:00] This is Satan's pull in the tug of war. Satan wants to blur the bloodlines. And this is why God is so severe about this. His people are forgetting about their God, abandoning the promise, abandoning Christ.

[11:16] And so God shortens their lifespan even more. You walk away from God, there's only death. The immortal bloodline was doing so well.

[11:28] But now it's like the promised people have fallen again. And you can even see that in the language of verse 2. Did you notice, it sounds just like the fall. The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.

[11:43] attractive. In Hebrew, that's literally good. They saw that they were good. And they took as their wives, as any they chose. Saw, good, took.

[11:55] It's just like Eve. She saw the fruit was good and she took it and ate. It's the fall 2.0.

[12:08] Godliness is disappearing off the face of the earth. And this is such a threat because this works. Satan isn't stupid with this tactic because we know God's people have always been prone to abandon his promise because of relationships.

[12:28] We see this warning throughout the Bible. As Israel enters Canaan, God says, do not marry the Canaanites because you're going to end up serving their gods. Solomon married many unbelieving women and what happened to him?

[12:43] His heart turned away from God. In Malachi, Israelite men started divorcing their wives and marrying unbelievers and God condemns it because the Lord says he's seeking godly offspring.

[12:58] God knows if our hearts go after an ungodly spouse, it affects the heart of the whole home. And so it starts to affect our children. Who we marry matters for our godliness and for the godliness down the line.

[13:17] And sadly, we see Satan's tactic work in Genesis, in Solomon's life, and even today. I'm sure almost every adult here can think of at least one person who has walked away from the faith because of a relationship.

[13:35] I'm sure you can think of one right now. I can think of at least five. And they started texting that guy from work. They started pursuing that girl at uni.

[13:46] They thought it would be fine. They said don't worry about it. And then a year later, no church, no interest, no faith. And it's not a coincidence they end in disaster.

[13:59] It's the same tug of war as in Genesis 6. and it works. Satan is trying to phase out God's grace, dilute it out, and he couldn't do it with Christ.

[14:12] He couldn't dilute out Christ and so Satan goes for the church instead. And so if you're not married here today, we need to be very careful with who we marry as Christians.

[14:27] We can be tempted to just go for whoever we want. Someone that simply looks good to the eyes and we take. And we do so without thinking about God, without thinking about the promise, without thinking about the bloodline.

[14:43] But we need to take Genesis 6 very seriously here. Don't be like these sons of God. Always have God in mind when you're seeking a spouse.

[14:55] Our hearts are too prone to wonder that this is how Satan loves to pull at your heart. And so just let me be very direct with you, especially the young people here.

[15:08] Christian, do not date a non-Christian. Just do not do it. Or if you're dating one now, end it. Or if you're like Eve and you have someone in mind and you're texting and you see and you're close to taking, end it now.

[15:27] Don't let this be your fall. And I know it's easy. I know you could get a boyfriend like that. I know you want to be married. I know you could download an app and the loneliness would be over.

[15:39] And I know that this is particularly hard for Christian girls because there are just more Christian girls than guys out there. The numbers make it so difficult. And it feels like a constant tug of war in your heart.

[15:52] I know the temptation is there but please think about the bloodline. Think about the promise. Just think about God. Now it needs to be said if this is already you, if you're already married to an unbeliever, you must never ever think you're hopeless.

[16:14] In fact, the New Testament acknowledges that there will be Christians in the church married to unbelievers. It does not exclude you from grace. Never, never ever think that. In fact, there is extraordinary grace for you.

[16:29] The fact that you are here shows God's grace in your life. It shows Satan does not win this tug of war. The fact that you are still holding on to Christ is God's grace in your life.

[16:44] And even more so, God is so gracious. This grace is for your children. God calls your children holy, that they're special to him.

[16:56] And so the promise has not disappeared in your life. No, God's grace is for you and for your children. Satan has not won. And that's because even Satan's plans aren't enough to dilute God's grace.

[17:13] Because look how this passage ends. Satan tries to blur the bloodlines, he's trying to dilute it out, but verse 8, but Noah still comes from these bloodlines. But Christ still comes.

[17:28] Satan cannot wash out God's grace. Whatever your past relationships, whatever that tug of war you feel, God's grace cannot be washed out of your life.

[17:40] But at the same time, the point mustn't be lost about going into marriage. The Lord is seeking godly offspring. The real blessing in this world, it's not going after whoever you want, no.

[17:52] It's not just seeing, liking, and taking, the real blessing, it's with God. It's a life holding onto his promise, waiting, a life waiting for Christ to come.

[18:06] And so this is the tug of war. And you might expect for God to pull back, and he does, but not before we see what happens when godliness is diluted out of this world.

[18:21] And we see when the blood lines get blurred, sin comes into focus. It's my second and final point today, sin comes into focus. So without the godly bloodline, look what the world becomes, verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

[18:43] God is like all the concentrated purple has gone from the world, and everything becomes transparent. Humanity is shown for what we really are, and God looks and sees, and there's just wickedness.

[18:59] It's like God's grace and godliness, we're containing the monster of sin, reigning it in, but now with no godliness, the monster is just let loose. Like the tug of war is being launched to Satan's side.

[19:11] And with grace removed, God looks not only at the face of the earth, but he looks into the human heart. He opens us up and looks deep within to see what we really are deep inside, what humanity is really like east of Eden, and what does God see?

[19:32] Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. I remember in English lit class in year 11 GCSE, our teacher asked us all, put your hand up if you think we are born naturally good.

[19:53] And about half the class put their hand up. I wonder if you would put your hand up. To my shame, I did put my hand up. But how does God answer that question? Well, it's verse five.

[20:05] this is how we're born. And God doesn't pull his punches with this description. It's like God heaps up these phrases to describe us.

[20:18] So just look again. What is the human heart like? God saw that his heart was evil. But not just that, the thoughts of his heart were evil.

[20:30] And not just that, but the intention of the thoughts of his heart was evil. evil. And not just one intention, but every intention of the thoughts of his heart was evil. And not just that, every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.

[20:46] And this isn't just now and again, but every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This is every heart of every human, of every second, of every day.

[21:00] This is what happens when godliness is diluted out. This is what remains. This side of Eden, no one can put their hand up in that glass. Yes, the image of god continues, but the image has shattered.

[21:16] There is no place in the human heart where sin hasn't touched. And so this says something that we must not forget about the human heart.

[21:27] The heart cannot be trusted. God is a man recently. He recently left his wife for another woman. And this man, he was a church-going man.

[21:38] And when he was confronted about it, he said, but when I'm with this other woman, I feel true to my heart. That's a church-going man saying that. we have drunk too much of the lie that our hearts can be trusted.

[21:55] That just because a feeling is natural, it must be followed. No. Look what comes naturally from the heart. And so the moral decline of the world right now, it can be explained here.

[22:08] It is because godliness is being abandoned and the heart is being trusted. This is why such outrageous immorality is celebrated. This is why such crazy things are being believed.

[22:22] God is getting pushed aside, godliness is getting diluted out, and the heart is just being let loose. And this is why we feel that tug of war in ourselves.

[22:35] It's because our heart is like this. The tug of war pulls in that direction. And when we follow our hearts, we can think, so what?

[22:48] So what? I'm not hurting anybody. So what? I'm being true to myself. Well, this passage shows us, so what? Verse 7. So what? So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, for I am sorry that I have made them.

[23:07] So what? So judgment. God sees the state of his once good creation, his precious image, now this, and it grieves him.

[23:21] He hates it. And when we see the word regret and the sorry describing God here, it's not saying that God made a mistake. It's not saying that God messed up his plan, whoops.

[23:35] No, it's human language describing God's divine judgment. judgment. It's human terms describing God's response to sin.

[23:46] He hates what man has become. And so he says, I must blot out man. It's like when someone drags dirt into your house, you see it, and you have to wipe it away, don't you?

[24:00] Well, God sees the dirt of our hearts in his house, and he must blot it out. And that is why the flood comes next. But for now, it feels like Satan is winning this tug of war, doesn't it?

[24:16] He's winning it in this world with the moral decline. He's winning it in our hearts as we give in to evil again and again. It's like East of Eden, all the colour of godliness is getting diluted out.

[24:31] But not completely. Because look how this passage ends. But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord. It's like God has preserved this one flash of colour in the world.

[24:48] And it's found in a man, a man who finds favour with God, a son who walks with God. And that is where we can find colour in this world.

[25:01] Because if Satan is diluting godliness out of this world, if evil is continually there in the heart, what do we need? What do we need? We need righteousness. And when Christ came and walked amongst the wickedness of this world, he was like the most intense, saturated, flash of colour in this washed out world.

[25:24] A colour that Satan can never dilute. The son who walked with God perfectly, the man who found complete favour with God. And if you looked into his heart, looked deep down and stared into that colour, what do you find in Jesus' heart?

[25:42] Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was never evil continually. Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only holy and pure and good and God honouring all the time.

[26:01] Satan tries to dilute out godliness but nothing, nothing can wash out the righteousness of Christ. And this is what we need right now. If you're not trusting in Jesus today, but you see this washed out world, you see the state of your heart and you wonder, is there any hope?

[26:22] Is there any answer to all of this? Well, there is. There is a way to be right with God, to find favour with him, and it's found in a man.

[26:36] It's found in Christ. And when you trust him, something remarkable happens. All the colour of his righteousness he gives to you, all his righteousness he puts to your name, he is the only relief in this washed out world.

[26:55] And that is what has already happened to you, Christian. This passage is heavy, it can weigh on us, can't it? We might look back at how our hearts were pulled in all those directions, how we gave into that tug of war too many times.

[27:14] We may look at our hearts now and it's like we see no colour at all, and our sin just weighs on us. take comfort Christian, in Christ, God does not see that anymore.

[27:29] All the righteousness of Christ belongs to you, all that colour is now yours. In Christ, you really have found favour with God.

[27:42] This life may feel like a tug of war, but praise God, there is relief, there is the righteousness of Christ, and in him, you will never lose this war.

[27:58]  Nothing can drown him out, nothing can wash out that colour from your life. Let's pray.