Sermon notes August 31st, 2025
GENESIS 5-6
This early history of the world focuses on the stories of five men: Adam, Noah, and the three patriarchs of Israel—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God chooses these men to play primary roles in his story for all mankind. In the first three chapters, the leading actor is the first man God created Adam. Adam changes the nature of humanity and the direction of all history when he follows his wife, Eve, in eating the fruit God expressly forbade them from eating. Consequently, God curses Adam with painful work of producing food from the land and with eventual death, this curse in every man continues.
- Chapter 5 we’re going to read through without a lot of commentary, and you will soon understand why. Most people when they see the first sentence of this book, they decide to skip it and move on, to let’s say more interesting stuff. Like I promised you earlier, I’m not going to skip something simply because I don’t understand, I will tell you when I don’t understand. This is God’s Word and He says it will not come back void.
Isaiah 55:11 New King James Version
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it
- Just because I may not fully understand a part of this Word, I’m not going to avoid it. We will ask for the Holy Spirits help and trust by faith I believe we will get the understanding we need.
Adam was created in the likeness of God. Seth was born in the image of Adam. In between, the Fall took place and the image of God in man became marred by sin. Verse 5 records the physical fulfillment of what God said would happen in 2:17;( in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”) the spiritual fulfillment took place the day Adam sinned.
Genesis 5 New King James Version
1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
2 He created them male and female and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.
3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
- Do you remember last week we had the scripture which said, “in the process of time” (4:3). The Bible doesn’t give us how much time passed from the fall to the birth of Cane. What we do know is that it was 130 years later that Adam and Eve gave birth to Seth. It’s the linage (line) of Seth that continues for his lost brother Able. We have no idea how many other children may have been born because they’re simply not recorded.
4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.
5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.
6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.
- Some of these names sound familiar because of Cains linage told in chapter four he had a son named Enoch.
7 After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years and had sons and daughters.
8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
9 Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan.
10 After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters.
11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.
12 Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel.
13 After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years and had sons and daughters.
14 So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
- Are you seeing the repetitiveness in these scriptures?
15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared.
16 After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters.
17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.
18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.
- Again, a little confusing, Enoch is not Enosh.
19 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.
22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
- By faith Enoch walked with God for 300 years and pleased the Lord. It seems that the birth of his son had a sanctifying, ennobling influence on his life. It is good to start well, but it is even better to continue steadfastly to the end.
- The word walk implies a steady, progressive relationship and not just a casual acquaintance. To walk with God is the business of a lifetime, and not just the performance of an hour. Enoch was transported to heaven prior to the flood just as the church will be raptured to heaven before the Tribulation begins (1 Thess. 4:13–18; Rev. 3:10).
- Listen to what Hebrews say’s about Enoch’s testimony:
Hebrews 11:5 New King James Version
5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Genesis 5:25-30
25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech.
26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters.
27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years and had a son.
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.”
- Methuselah lived longer than any other man (nine hundred and sixty-nine years). The name Methuselah means “it shall be sent,” it may be a prophecy, because the flood came in the year of his death. Perhaps Lamech’s prediction when he named Noah looked forward to the comfort that would come to the world through Noah’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Noah’s name means “rest.”
- As the years passed, man’s life expectancy decreased. Psalm 90:10 speaks of seventy years as normal.
Psalm 90:10 New King James Version
10 The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Genesis 5:30-32
30 After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters.
31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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Genesis 6 New King James Version
1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
- The first view is that the sons of God were the godly descendants of Seth, and the daughters of men were the wicked posterity of Cain.
- The argument is as follows: The preceding context deals with the descendants of Cain (chap. 4) and the descendants of Seth (chap. 5). Genesis 6:1–4 describes the intermarriage of these two lines. The word angels are not found in the context. Verses 3 and 5 speak of the wickedness of man. If it was the angels who sinned, why was the race of man to be destroyed? Godly men are called “sons of God,” though not in exactly the same Hebrew wording as in Genesis 6:2 (see Deut. 14:1; Ps. 82:6; Hos. 1:10; Matt. 5:9).
- There are several problems with this view.
Why were all the Sethite men godly and all the women of Cain’s lineage ungodly? Also, there is no indication that Seth’s line stayed godly. If they did, why should they be destroyed? Also, why should such a union between godly men and ungodly women produce giants?
There second principal interpretation of verse 2.
- One is that the sons of God were angels who left their proper sphere (Jude 6) and intermarried with women on earth, a form of sexual disorder that was most hateful to God. Those who hold this view point out that the expression “sons of God” in Job 1:6 and 2:1 means angels who had access to the presence of God. Also, “the sons of God” as a term for angels is a standard Semitic expression.
- The passage in Jude 6, 7 suggests that the angels who left their own abode were guilty of vile sexual behavior. Notice the words “as Sodom and Gomorrah” at the beginning of verse 7, immediately after the description of the fallen angels.
Jude 6-7 New King James Version
6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
- The main objection to this view is that angels don’t reproduce sexually, as far as we know. Matthew 22:30 is used to prove that Jesus taught that the angels don’t marry. What the verse actually says, however, is that the angels in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage. Angels appeared in human form to Abraham (Gen. 18:1–5), and it seems from the text that the two who went to Sodom had human parts and emotions.
Genesis 6:3-4
3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
- The LORD warned that His Spirit would not strive with man forever, but that there would be a delay of one hundred and twenty years before the judgment of the flood would occur. God is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but there is a limit. Peter tells us that it was Christ who was preaching through Noah to the ante-dilu-vians by the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 3:18–20; 2 Pet. 2:5). They rejected the message and are now imprisoned.
4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
- The term "Nephilim" originates from the Hebrew word nāp̄aḇal (נָפַל), meaning "to fall". The name is often interpreted as "fallen ones" or "those who cause to fall". In the Bible, the Nephilim are described as the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men". While the exact nature of these "sons of God" is debated, the Nephilim are often associated with giants and heroes of old, potentially implying a lineage of great strength or stature The Nephilim are considered by many as giant demigods, the unnatural offspring of “the daughters of men” (mortal women) in cohabitation with “the sons of God” (angels). This utterly unnatural union, violating God’s created orders of being.
Genesis 6:5-9
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (Praise God for Noah)
Genesis 6:9-22
9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.
- God instructs Noah to build the ark out of "gopher wood". The exact identity of gopher wood remains a mystery, as the term appears only once in the Bible, and its Hebrew meaning has been lost to time.
15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17 And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.”
22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
- Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD and was forewarned to build an ark. The measurements are given in cubits (1 cubit = 18 inches). Thus the ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
- It had three decks. The window in verse 16 was literally “a place of light,” probably an opening for light and air which extended the full length of the ark.
- Noah was saved by grace, an act of divine sovereignty. His response was to do all that God had commanded (v. 22), an act of human responsibility. Noah built the ark to save his family, but it was God who shut and sealed the door. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are not mutually exclusive but are complementary.
- Noah (v. 9) and Enoch (5:22) are the only men in Scripture who are said to have walked with God.
- If Enoch is a symbol of the church raptured to heaven, Noah symbolizes the faithful Jewish remnant preserved through the Tribulation to live on the millennial earth.
- Verse 18 gives the first mention of covenant in the Bible. Scofield lists eight covenants: Edenic (Gen. 2:16); Adamic (Gen. 3:15); Noahic (Gen. 9:16); Abrahamic (Gen. 12:2); Mosaic (Ex. 19:5); Palestinian (Deut. 30:3); Davidic (2 Sam. 7:16); and the New Covenant (Heb. 8:8). Needless to say, a subject as complex as the covenants has been interpreted differently by various schools of theology. The treatment presented here is in the premillennial and dispensational tradition
