Sunday School - Roger Phipps - From Creation to Deluge

[0:00] We left off with the birth of Lamech, not the Lamech, Cain's descendant, but the other Lamech.

[0:12] So, let's start with 528 and read through the end of the chapter. 528, there are six verses, there are four verses, I guess, five verses.

[0:30] Lamech is the son of whom?

[0:46] I'm sorry? Methuselah. Methuselah, what? And Methuselah is famous for what? He's the longest on record.

[1:00] Now, 969 years is a couple of years, right? That's a long time. So, his son's name is Lamech.

[1:11] Lamech has a son. Now, he doesn't have just one necessarily, we know that, but he has the one that is in the lineage.

[1:23] What's his name? Noah. Anybody ever heard of Noah? Even many folks who have not had a church background know the name Noah.

[1:45] Noah. Because it's become synonymous with a heavy rain, hasn't it? Well, this is the flood. It's like Noah's flood.

[1:56] Well, no, it isn't, but that's a little hyperbolic. So, what does Lamech say about this son?

[2:12] See, I just asked these questions so that I... It forces me to read it. This one shall give us rest from our work, and we'll boil our hands to write me from the ground.

[2:25] Now, I found a couple of things interesting in that. What were they? Or did you find anything interesting in that phrase?

[2:38] Well, what did Lamech know? What did he know?

[2:52] What? Working the ground was hard work. Why was it hard work? Okay, he knew about the curse. So, we're a number.

[3:05] I didn't count them up. I should have done this. I wasn't thinking about asking this question. But we're several generations. And now, there are multitudes of people.

[3:18] Because these people were living 900 years. The men, 900 years. And our listing only gives one son.

[3:31] Right? But we know that there are many. Because they begat other sons and daughters. By the way, why is it just the one son that's listed?

[3:42] Why is it? I'm sorry? Because of Noah. Does it stop at Noah?

[3:58] Now, I know I'm asking you to have read ahead. But I know that you folks have. Or most of us have. Far enough.

[4:09] When we step down through this lineage, we're going to arrive at whom? We're going to arrive at Jesus.

[4:21] In Matthew. And. But in the immediate context, who penned it? Who penned the first five?

[4:34] Moses. Who told him to write it? Who told him what to write? Okay. I'm just making sure that we're both all on the same page here.

[4:46] Because God not only told him to write it. He told him. What to write. Now. Moses.

[4:59] Was. The one God called to lead whom? Out of Egypt. Israel. Israel. Why are they called Israel?

[5:12] Why is this group of people called Israel? Yeah. God called him that. God changed. Jacob's. Name.

[5:22] Didn't he? And he said, from now on, your name's going to be. Israel. And. That's who they're named after. Jacob was the son of.

[5:38] Who was the son of? Okay. So. When we go down through this. If you. If you continue on.

[5:50] With the lineage of Noah. You're going to arrive at. Abraham. Abraham. Now. It's written to whom?

[6:01] The first five books. This is a history of their family. Right? It's a history of. This is where you came from. This is where you came from.

[6:13] So. They are the one family on earth. That can actually document. The original ancestor. Right? Now.

[6:23] We all know. Who our original ancestor is. But. I don't know of anybody. Who can document. To there.

[6:35] And God left them. This ordinance. Now that's. That's. That's not. Scriptural changing. One way or another. But.

[6:45] But it helps me understand. When somebody asks. Well. Why did they only talk about this one? Was this. Kind of. What's this business?

[6:59] Well. It's a history written for. One person. One people. Now. I'm supposed to learn from it. I'm supposed to read it. In fact.

[7:09] Paul's going to say. Look. He's going to say. To the Gentile church. He says it. To the Corinthians. He says it. To several others. He's going to say. These things were given to you.

[7:23] So that you. Learn. From what happened. And he's going to talk about. Old Testament stuff. Isn't he? They all came out of Egypt.

[7:35] They all passed through. Were baptized through the cloud. But. Nevertheless. God was not pleased with all of them. And they fell in the wilderness. Right? Now.

[7:46] These things are given to you. So that you don't. Behave that way. Not because of the same thing. Because. In your salvation. It's not dependent upon that.

[7:56] But your behavior matters. Roger. Right? The answer is yes. Roger that. My behavior.

[8:07] Matters. It doesn't determine. My standing with the Lord. But it matters. To the Lord. Obedience.

[8:20] Obedience is better. Than sacrifice. In all dispensations. Right? That's. That's a.

[8:31] That's why it's written to us. So. I'm. I want to learn from that. Okay. So. The other thing that. That. Lamech said about Noah. Was. This one will give us rest from the labors.

[8:43] Which. He knew. About the curse. So. Somebody's been. Somebody's been. Talking. Now.

[8:55] I gave up on the timelines and stuff. I. It's okay. For me to look at it on a screen. But you couldn't see it. So. I gave up on bringing it.

[9:06] But. When you look at that. When. Noah. When Noah's born. Some of those people are still alive.

[9:20] In fact. When Noah's told. To build the ark. Adam had just died. Or Seth had just died.

[9:30] Excuse me. That's. Longevity. That's longevity. And it also tells me. It doesn't take you Roger.

[9:42] Too long to drift from God. Does it? I'll learn that lesson. We. We learn that lesson. When we read judges. Don't we? One generation.

[9:55] Boom. Boom. Boom. I'm always. My propensity is all wrong. Isn't it? As far as.

[10:08] As obedience. That's why I need a savior. I need a savior. So. Thankfully. God has provided that savior. We're going to see that.

[10:19] A little bit. So this one will give us rest. Now. Did that occur? We don't know. Do we? It's possible that it occurred for.

[10:32] 500 years. He may have. Been able to. Relieve his parents. For 500 years. But.

[10:45] Noah was alive. 500 years. And. And then what. Will God say to him? Build. Build an ark.

[10:57] There. So. Chapter 5. Ends with the birth.

[11:08] Of whom? Go ahead. Yes.

[11:22] The three sons of Noah. Up to this point. We're told that. Many people are being born.

[11:33] Right? As far as we know. These are the only three. That are born to Noah. Do we know that any others are born to Noah?

[11:46] Noah? We don't know. But in. Now. I'm going to jump ahead a little bit. Because you already have.

[11:57] In chapter 7. When they actually board the ark. Or. God tells them to get on. He says. Bring your whole household on to the ark. And there were only eight that went on.

[12:11] So. For that reason. I'm. Pretty certain. That these are the only three sons. When. When. When Abraham. When Abraham.

[12:25] When the five kings came down. And attacked Sodom. And the plains around there. And took Lot. And all those people captive. Right? You remember that?

[12:37] Abraham chased them. Abraham chased them. With. With. All the people born of his house. Or the armed men.

[12:47] Born in his house. Abraham's household numbered 300 armed men. At that time. So. When. When the scripture says household.

[12:59] He's talking about. Your sons. Your daughters. Your whole family. And. Your servants. Your sons. Because at that time. Abraham didn't have children.

[13:11] Yes. In. Chapter 9. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

[13:39] So. So, anything else?

[13:53] Let's move on to the real fun stuff then. Chapter 6. Read the first five verses. Well, read the first four verses.

[14:10] Now, there are a couple of interesting comments in there, aren't there?

[14:39] What are they? Sons of God and daughters of men.

[14:53] The Nephilim. There's also another interesting one in there. Yep.

[15:07] What's God say about that? It's a profound statement. My spirit will not always strive with man.

[15:21] The length of his days is going to be 120 years. Now, is that what it says? Nevertheless. His days will be 100. No, I won't give him 120.

[15:32] I'll give him 120. Now, he's going to give some people thereafter longer life than that. Abraham's going to live 170.

[15:45] Approximate. But, he shortened the lifespan. He shortened the lifespan by 85% nearly.

[15:58] Right? Pretty close to 85%. That's, in our lifespans today.

[16:09] The average man's lifespan is 72. Is that right? So, it doesn't mean you've overstayed your welcome day, but it just, it means God's blessed you.

[16:28] Think about how many years that would shorten. That kind of brings it home, doesn't it? So, that's one thing.

[16:41] Now, we get to the part that has bothered, I shouldn't say it's bothered people, but it's interested people.

[16:56] For generations. And, there's no real consensus. What are some of the things that you think are possibilities or that you have heard of?

[17:11] The sons of God are angels. The sons of God are angels. Okay.

[17:23] What are the pros with that? That is, what lends that? Yeah, I've heard that.

[17:35] So, have you heard the reasoning for that? How about, how about in Job?

[17:51] There are three times the sons of God are used in the Old Testament scriptures. And, all of those times, they almost, it almost certainly has to refer to angels.

[18:10] In Job, oh, let's see if I can figure out where that may be. Job chapter 1, verse 6.

[18:25] What's that say? Someone read it. Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves.

[18:39] Let's see. And also remember. Okay. And, chapter 2, verse 1. Job chapter 2, verse 1.

[19:11] And Job chapter 38, verse 7. Job chapter 38, verse 7. When the morning stars sang together.

[19:33] Okay. I'm sorry. Who's speaking in this verse? This is where Job has made his complaint to the Lord.

[19:46] Did God answer him? Not really. God's answer was, where were you? You're questioning me, Job.

[19:59] But, where were you when I created? Now, that's the context. Go ahead. When the morning stars. These almost certainly refer to angelic beings, don't they?

[20:19] And look at Daniel. You know this one. Daniel chapter 3, verse 25. Nebuchadnezzar has sacked Jerusalem.

[20:33] He has taken captive all these people, among whom, and I'm sorry I did not rehearse it. So, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah, who Nebuchadnezzar renamed?

[20:54] Yeah. I almost always remember the pagan name, right? I don't know why, but anyway. And Daniel, who was renamed Belteshazzar or something like that.

[21:12] All right. So, Nebuchadnezzar has raised up this great image, overlaid with gold.

[21:23] And whoever hears the music and does not bow, what happens to you? Char-broiled.

[21:34] Char-broiled. Yeah. Well, like I do it. You know, he's going to be burned, right? He's going into the furnace.

[21:45] Okay. Go ahead and read that verse, someone, please. 38-7. Nebuchadnezzar is responding.

[22:01] 325. Is that what it is? Okay. Oh, 325. Yes. I'm sorry. That was, I see four men loosed and walked around in the midst of the fire of the hell bar.

[22:15] The appearance of the four, like the son of God. Okay. Or, so, so, essentially what we see is there is some credence to the, angel business.

[22:33] Now, are there any other supports for that? Alright. What are the detractions from that? What are the problems with it, or are there any?

[22:47] With the theory that, with the idea that the sons of God here in Genesis were fallen angels who cohabited with women, with human women.

[23:01] Okay. Actually, we don't have any record that angels can have sexual intercourse at all.

[23:21] In fact, Jesus is approached by the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, but they wanted to trip him up and show him that, you know, this resurrection business, that's a little dicey anyway.

[23:38] So, what was their question to him? Yeah. Okay. Here's a woman.

[23:48] She married one of these boys. What happened to him? Come on, quickly. He died. So, what did she do? Okay. And he died, and he died, and he died, right?

[24:00] I'd quit marrying her, but... Something's going wrong in here, right? But that wasn't really the message. The message was, whose wife is she in the resurrection?

[24:18] Huh. Got you there, Jesus. And what does Jesus say to them? You know neither what? You know neither the scripture, nor do you know the power of God.

[24:35] For angels in heaven, what? Or they are like the angels in heaven. In the resurrection, you'll be like the angels in heaven. You won't become an angel.

[24:48] Don't misconstrue what he says. What Jesus said was, you'll be like the angels in heaven. How? They're married, nor do they in marriage. Yeah.

[24:58] They neither marry, nor are given in marriage. So, that's kind of a... Okay. Now, who has heard that answered by, yeah, but those are angels in heaven.

[25:13] These are fallen angels. Has anyone ever heard that one? Hmm. I heard that one. Well, what's the difficulty there?

[25:26] Or is there a difficulty? So, that means angels who keep their first estate, who are obedient to the Lord, do not cohabit, right?

[25:41] But, angels who rebel pick up an ability that they did not have before. I'm not sure I have any scriptural evidence of that.

[25:57] Right? So, there... Eh. I'm not trying to lead one or the other necessarily, but all of our positions that I, at least in my small mind, all of our positions have some support and some detractions.

[26:19] And it's not that it makes a huge difference. What other... If that takes care of fallen angels... There's one other problem I have.

[26:34] What is it? Okay. There were giants. Your King James will say there were giants on the earth in those days and also...

[26:45] Also later. And we do know that, don't we, from the report from Canaan. And even in the days...

[27:00] Even as late, Joshua didn't drive all of the giants from the land. Some of them, some of the Amalekites, went to Gath.

[27:13] Well, who do we know came from Gath? Goliath. And his brothers. And his... And at least one of his sons.

[27:27] So... Nevertheless, then we have to answer the issue. If I hold to the fallen angel, I have to answer the issue.

[27:39] Okay. So, how'd the Nephilim come after the flood? Because they were there after, too. So... So... How'd that happen?

[27:50] Were the angels still cohabiting? And where are they? And why don't I see them now? So...

[28:03] These might be questions... This also... Well... These might be questions that I have to entertain. What other... What other...

[28:13] What other... Theory... Have you heard... About who the sons of God were? The sons of God... They... They... They... They...

[28:24] They... They... They... They... They... Okay. So... The... The godly line of Seth.

[28:36] Now... What are the... What are the... Supports for that? Well...

[28:48] One... One support for that is that it's the line of Seth that gets recorded. Right? So...

[29:01] They knew about some of this stuff. Right. It is in the line of Seth that men began to call upon the name of the Lord.

[29:16] That's recorded in his... We're not told that nobody else did. We're only told that. That's true. Um... Is there any other support for that?

[29:36] If that is true... It takes me back to the warning that Israel... Or... Whether it's true or not... I'm still going back to the warning of Israel... To Israel.

[29:47] When they entered Canaan... What were they told not to do? Don't marry the Canaanites. Why? Because they're...

[29:59] Ugly? Because you're going to become... Like they are. Who was the wisest man in the world?

[30:18] Yeah. And what did he do? And did what?

[30:31] What? Hmm. That kind of sounds like this, doesn't it?

[30:42] Yeah. Okay. What else? Anything else on that? The one difficulty is...

[30:56] That would have to be answered... Well... Maybe only one person in each family was godly. Because who gets on the ark?

[31:09] Now, was he the only descendant of Seth? Nope. So... So I... You know...

[31:20] There's that. There's that that I have to deal with. Now... Are there any other theories that you've heard?

[31:35] Okay. Roger. Roger. I heard that after the... Donored the men's fiasco... That God neutered all the angels. Okay.

[31:54] There... I want you to know... Some very godly... Theologians and Bible scholars... Take differing views on this.

[32:09] And... The... The danger becomes... If I take the view as being a turning point in the gospel...

[32:19] It's not a turning point in the gospel. And... As long as all the views are scripturally based and not fantastic...

[32:31] The book of Enoch talks about it. Now, the book of Enoch is from what? The Apocrypha. It's... It's...

[32:42] Ascribed to Enoch... But... Now... And the reason is... He says that the Nephilim... He gives the size for the Nephilim.

[32:55] And the height of them was 3,000 cubits. 18 inches. Yeah.

[33:06] A mile. And that they devoured... They were devouring all of men and all of nature...

[33:18] And committing... And eating one another and eating men... And drinking the blood... Which is why... We're told by...

[33:30] God through the Apostle Paul... Be careful. Don't be teaching Jewish myths. You know... Don't do that. Stay with what I said. Stay with my doctrine.

[33:43] If it... If it... Gets apart from my doctrine... Go away. Run, don't walk. Right? Be careful. Well...

[33:54] Well... You know... Right along those lines... One of the things... You talk about... Where it's not a visible point in the gospel... But with the people... You go down the road... The sons of God... Leaves... All this stuff...

[34:05] People start looking at... What's going on today... And trying to trace back... Right? People that they see today... And trying to go... Where are they today? And it gets really...

[34:16] Any time I try to use... God's word... As a... Cryptic... Secretive... That's Gnosticism.

[34:29] The initiated... Have the in road... Right? And it... It's a... It's a... It's a big secret... It's a big secret to be discovered...

[34:41] And only those who are really good at it... Can work through it. You get this with the numbers... And you get this with... With... Okay... You start counting letters...

[34:51] And this is who the Antichrist is... And... Or when Christ is going to return... Be... You know...

[35:02] Be careful with that... Right? He says be careful with that. So... We did not... I... I was afraid of this... Joe... It's your fault.

[35:16] Good job... Right, Joe? There are other... There are others... And I'm going to blast one... We... We started ten minutes early...

[35:27] So don't blame me. Or late, rather. Elohim... Elohim... Which is used here... Sons of God...

[35:37] Elohim... Does not have to mean... God... Jehovah... In fact... It is often used... In... It is often used...

[35:47] Of men... I'm going to give... This is not the only time... But I'm going to give one... Because we know him... Abraham is buying a field...

[35:59] For to bury Sarah... And he makes an offer... And this is the response... From this...

[36:10] I think it's the sons of Heth... Right? This is their response... It's in Genesis 23... 23... If you want to... Look it up... Hear us, my Lord...

[36:21] He's speaking to Abraham... Hear us, my Lord... Thou... Abraham... Art a mighty... Prince among us... Elohim...

[36:31] Prince... So if we translated it... The same way as in Genesis... You are a God-Prince among us... Abraham... So we...

[36:43] All I'm saying... I'm not trying to... Throw any consternations... I'm just saying... It does not have to say... God Jehovah... So...

[36:55] In there... They're calling Abraham... Elohim... Elsewhere... Elsewhere... In the law... In... Of slavery...

[37:06] God... God told them... Bring... Bring the slave to the judges... Or in the case... In the case of... In the case of a...

[37:16] Of a judgment... Whatever the judges decide... About this theft... That will be his punishment... Okay...

[37:28] So... There... The judges... Are... Elohim... So... It... It does not require... That it be... Sons of Jehovah...

[37:39] So... I... I know that... So... There... The one... There's another possibility... That these are great men...

[37:50] Among men... Warlords... If you will... Because... At the time... Preceding... By the way... It's a lesson for me today...

[38:01] As I look at what happens in my country... And the... And the destruction of law... When... When there is no law... And men...

[38:14] Do what they want to do... It always brings us to tyranny... And somebody arises... Who's a better warrior than others... That's how the feudal system worked...

[38:28] It was a fair system... I'm not a real good fighter... But... Joe is... And Joe's got a mind for battle... So... I give my allegiance to Joe...

[38:41] And... Several of the others... Join in with Joe... Some of you other guys... Join in with John... And we fight...

[38:53] Because... They're the strongest ones... Somebody's going to emerge... As the tyrant... That's... That's what happens with that law... That's how the feudal system began...

[39:06] So... Or... Or... Or... Or... Or... Or... Or... Or... Or...

[39:17] Or... Or... Or... Or... Mighty men... Mighty judges... Amongst men... So...

[39:28] That's possible... We'll finish it later... Right... Right... My problem with that is...

[39:46] The fallen angels are reserved in judgment... What... Maybe the ones that took on human form... Okay... Okay... So... So...

[39:57] They might be... Fallen angels who were able to... Take on... Human form... Yeah... But they don't stay human... Yeah...

[40:09] Right... If it was them... Right... But... And... And then after the flood though... There are also Nephilim... So...

[40:21] We'll... We'll finish this... Then... God willing... Next week... We will finish it next week... One way or another... I'll just quit... Joe... But...

[40:33] No... Have a great day... Have a great week... Take...