What to do about sin...
A Study of Humanity • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Chapter 5 marks a new section in Genesis - in fact it was probably even a separate book originally from the first 4 chapters.
the phrase starts the chapter;
‘This is written’ - literally means - the Book of:
And it is the book of people - of human history from here on in in Genesis.
The book before ends on a cliff hanger,
God’s very Good creation is tainted by the disobedience and sin of Adam and Eve.
Sin and evil has entered the world.
And indeed now murder has become a thing with Cain killing his brother Able in chapter 4.
Sin seems to lead to more sin.
So what now,,,
The end of chapter 4 though hints perhaps mankind will return to the Lord for his mercy?
Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.
But as we read the genealogy of Adam’s family here in chapter 5,
it’s clear the consequences and attitudes towards sin don’t change.
And despite the very long lives that they lived back then, the message is clear.
Sin will not be tolerated indefinitely by God
Sin will not be tolerated indefinitely by God
Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.
Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.
Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died.
Altogether, Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died.
Altogether, Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died.
Altogether, Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died.
They all have a life - they all have sons and daughters, but they all die.
Genealogies in the bible don’t normally emphasis that each person died.
But this is the point, and the model we’re being reminded of about all of life.
The existence of sin in the world and in our lives will not be tolerated indefinitely by God.
Death is coming to us all.
As God promised Adam and Eve
And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’
In a world full of death it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
In the last weeks I’ve heard a number of people comment how overwhelmed they feel due to the state of the current world. Death is everywhere.
War in Ukraine goes, on, and on.
Israel and Gaza bringing untold misery.
There are countless wars and bloody territory disputes across the globe we barely hear reported.
Natural disasters, floods, earthquakes and freak weather across the planet causing death and misery.
Poverty and or poor living conditions for many in countries across our globe - some sat here with family and friends in their home countries finding normal life a daily reminder of death knocking at the door.
Close relatives or friends having died, or facing terminal illnesses.
Death is coming for us all - and while it’s not usually directly linked to personal sin,
it is all linked to what Genesis is about to describe as the wicked and evil rebelion of mankind as a whole against the Lord God who showed us love,
Our current situations may not be a tit-for-tat judgement on our personal sin,
but without exception, we are all sinners before a holy and Good God,
And so death is our rightful inheritance!
We deserve it becasue of our sin.
An dour sin is very bad,
Theologians call it
Total Depravity
Total Depravity
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
I know it’s nice to think that us humans aren’t that bad really.
And of course - the very vast majority of people in the entire world are at a human level, quite pleasant.
They are not out to be horrifically horrible or even unkind to you, nor I trust you and I to they.
It’s easy to pick up on the racisit, or the murderer, or the selfish and arrogant power chaser and think - well I’m pretty good really.
And thankfully, compared to those type of people most of us are!
But we are blind to the depth of our sinfulness and depravity towards God.
It’s why the bible is so helpful.
Eve giving her husband some fruit is humanly apparently very loving and good.
But in the context of a Lord God who has given them every good thing they could imagine, and 1 simple command not to eat from that one tree-
well it’s very far from loving towards God or each other!
We don’t have to be murderers like Cain in chapter 4 to be known before God in a way that shows ‘that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time
every inclination, only evil, all the time.
Any self-serving rather than God serving act or thought, even sharing an apple, finds it’s deep roots in the depravity of our relationship that is now in tatters with the Good God of all.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
What’s also interesting, yet sad about this passage is we are,
Helpless to Help Ourselves
Helpless to Help Ourselves
You might think that after Adam and Eve were banished form the the provision of the Garden, they might do all they could to honour and serve the Lord God and to raise their children to do the same.
Yet as we’ve already seen - Cain their second son murdered their first son.
You might think that the end of chapter 4 as we’ve already said - suggests a sign of hope, that mankind is returning to the Lord.
And yet after a long list of names - whom all die, suggesting things don’t improve,
we get what appears to be a fundamental failing of both angels and humans taking place.
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 for ever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterwards—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 son’s of God are generally taken to be Angels who join Satan, also an Angel, in the fall, choosing themselevs over God - the definition of Evil.
There is some debate that perhaps the ‘son’s of God’ are children of Seth, but the normal reading of son’s of God in the OT is in reference to Angels - so that’s how I’ve taken it. But either way - the implication is that something is going very wrong.
The children of these relationships are called Nephilim - and they may have been ‘heroes of their day’
But it is clear they were not heroes in God’s eyes. They along with almost all the rest of humanity are about to be wiped out in the great flood.
Mankind now perhaps look to earthly hero’s rather than their heavenly one,
2 pet 2v4-5
Sin breeds sin is the picture.
entertain sin a little and it snawballs into a lot.
Ignore God a little and you ignore him alot!
And mankind goes from bad to worse.
We cannot make our own way back to God.
It gets so bad that we get a personal reflection from God upon how things are going with mankind in chapter 6.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’
Of course, we have seen how God is in complete control, this is not some terrible disatser he was not prepared for,
he does not regret like we regret something that is outside of our control.
But here, he uses very human language, so that we truly appreciate the darkness of sin that we cannot help but amplify.
The point of course being - not only do we deserve death, to be wiped from the face of the earth,
but it is in fact the only right thing for a good God to do.
How can blame him! no-one.
Sin, evil, wickedness, of which we are all guilty, and of which non of us are able to bring ourselevs back from deserve judgement from God. God regrets the pain of our sin.
Here, they are given 120 years to live.
That might be a general judgement on all humanity that gone are your days that you can sin for 900 odd years - 120 is plenty.
Like a speed limit , limits the damage we can cause, so does shortened lifespan.
Or it might mean there are 120 years from this judgement prophesy until the flood strikes!
Given people after the flood didn’t live as long, and that it is near impossible for anyone to live beyond 120 even today, I take it to be a judgement of a shortened life span,
as a another reminder - sin will not indefinitely be tolerated.
What do we make of all of this?
Hate Your Sin...
Hate Your Sin...
How do you view your life?
As a generally good person who tends to be nice to people?
Well maybe - but before God, certainly not!
Our sin grieves Our lOrd God.
If we are not believers in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins then
every inclination of the thoughts of our heart is only evil all the time!
We have turned away from the glorious God of grace and spat in his face at every turn.
And as a Christain?
Well sadly we in and of ourselves are no better.
Paul puts it like this in the NT
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
The difference is we have had our eyes opened to our sinful nature, so we atleast recognise it.
But even in our desire to then do God’s will, we find we do evil.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
Friends - do we take our sin seriously.
Do we repent and cry out to God fro mercy.
Do we abhor the very sight of our evil nature?
Do we know death i sour reminder,
And God’s regret if our doing.
I find it far to easy to dismiss the seriousness of sin -
Easier to ignore it rather than face it.
isn’t that what every human since Adam has done!?
So what hope is there?
Is death and God’s judgement the only possible inevitability for any of us?
It should be.
Scan done chapter 5 agsin, no in silence and focus on the
And he died - let that phrase remind you of the seriousness of sin,
but also notice one surprise halfway through the list
Enoch is so striking in the middle of all those that die in chapter 5
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years.
so far, exactly as every other man recorded here..
Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Here is a shining star so bright in a cloud of darkness
This s a wonderful mystery - what did he do - how do we get it - he avoided death and went straight o be with God!
How do we walk with the Lord God?
By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: ‘He could not be found, because God had taken him away.’ For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
He pleased God. He had faith.
Perhaps there is hope?
But wait, God is about to wipe out all of humanity,
So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’
yet
But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.
IN the great depth of our evil and wickedness that causes God to describe himself as regretting ever creating us - there are signs of life and salvation.
God finds and places favour on 1 person - here and there.
these are not perfect people, as we’ll dosicover as we see more of Noah’s life in Genesis, but they do look to walk with, follow God. In other words they maintain faith in God, not themselves,
AS RC Ryle puts in
“What is the whole history of God’s saints in every age, but a record of men and women who obtained a good report by faith?”
We cannot save ourselves - but God - as we’ll see next week with Noah - can choose to save us.
After Paul declares his wretchedness at his desire to do good but his sinful nature still causing his evil,
he declares!
Romans 7:25 (NIV 2011)
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Hate Your Sin and Love Jesus
Hate Your Sin and Love Jesus
DO you feel the weight and depths of your sin - the more you do - the more glorious Jesus is!
And wonderfully, we are freed from even our guilt in Christ!
While our sinful nature is not yet fully dead, Christ entres our hearts by His Spirit ,
So when God looks at us he does not rightly regret us - he sees Jesus in us and shows us favour.
We may all still die physically,
but we will not die spiritually if we ask Jesus for Mercy.
Jesus will be the focus of God’s attention when he looks at us, he will not see our sin - for that has been paid by Christ in the cross.
There is a great mystery in God’s sovereignty of evil and salvation,
But we must trust it glorifies our loving Father,
For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Diminishing our disobedience as serious, diminishes God’s mercy.
When we are overwhelmed by the world around - remember it is a reminder that god takes sin very seriously.
And call for His favour in Christ To be found in all people.
When we are honest with ourselevs and see the depravity of our hearts, do not take it lightly, lament, what a wretched person I am.
But remember, in Christ we are freed to enjoy the favour of God.
Diminishing our sin diminishes Jesus!
A passage like this motivates us to hate, fight, avoid, stand up under, desire to flee our sin.
It causes us to lament and cry our in repenatance and ask God for MErcy.
And wonderfully, it elevates Jesus, it elevates his amazing grace, and goodness ot us,
And that is a wonderful thing:
He must become greater; I must become less.’
Pray