And this is what we'll see. We'll
see the downfall of society. My original title was marrying
the wrong person. Then I changed it to the downfall
of society. But you'll see what I mean when
we go through this. We now come to the degenerating
effects of sin and the downfall of society. And it starts now,
if you'll notice, it really starts going downhill. with marriage. That's where it starts, it starts
with it. You'll notice the breakdown of true religion happened when
the sons of God began to marry the daughters of men. Now, if
you'll look back in verse 26 of chapter 4, it says, and to
Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name
Enos. Then began to men call upon the
name of the Lord, or began to call themselves by the name of
the Lord, or they began to call themselves, they were known as
the sons of God. The sons of God. So that's what we're gonna see
here. We're gonna see the breakdown of true religion happens when
they have this mixed marriage. How important it is for a believer
not to marry an unbeliever. Can't stress that enough. Our
pastor said one time, he said, concerning the lost person, he
said, you can't counsel an unbeliever because there's nothing there
to work with. There's nothing to work with. They're dead. And the word of God has no effect
on them while they're dead. But here in verse one, it says
this, and it came to pass when men began to multiply on the
face of the earth. And daughters were born unto
them. These men and the daughters that were born unto them no doubt
were the descendants of Cain. I think this is mostly the descendants
of Cain. I'm not saying that all the descendants
of Seth were saved. I'm not saying that. But I think
that the biggest majority here were the descendants of Cain.
And it only stands to reason that they multiplied so quickly
Seeing they had so many wives, they began to practice polygamy. You remember Lamech took him
two wives, and I'm sure when others saw that, that just escalated. And he says here in verse two,
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were
fair. And they took them wives of all
which they chose. Here's where things really go
downhill. The sons of God, the sons of
Seth, which were called the sons of God, the ones who believed,
the ones who had began to worship God in spirit and in truth, they
had began to gather, just like we are here, and they began to
worship God. They looked upon these ungodly
women, that's what they did, and they fell for their beauty,
like a hog going to the slaughter is what happened. That's what
happened. But they looked upon them and
they saw that they were beautiful and they fell for them. Solomon
said this in Proverbs 31 30. Favor is deceitful. Don't fall
for that. If you find favor with somebody,
don't always don't just fall for it. Favor is deceitful and
beauty is vain. He said beauty is vain, but a
woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Here again now, we see the problem
of looking and lusting. Looking and lusting. It says,
they took them wives of all which they chose, no prayer, no seeking
the Lord, just following after the flesh. That's what they're
following, just following after the flesh. I tell you what, if
you just marry for beauty, or you don't have any idea what
you're going to end up with. There may be a lot of ugliness
underneath that. Now we're going to look at some
scriptures. I want you to see some scripture. We're going to
turn to some scriptures. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
6. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Look in verse 14. Let me get to 2 Corinthians. Chapter 6. I even got it marked.
In verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. That's in marriage. That's in
business. And that's even in friendship.
my companion." This is what it's talking about, your companion,
whether it be friends, whether it be married, whether it be
in business. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what
communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? That's what the scripture calls
an unbeliever. An infidel, he said, what? Where's
the communion at? Where's the fellowship? Where's
the connection at? Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter seven. In Deuteronomy chapter seven,
look in verse three. Let me read the first, let me
go ahead and start at verse one. When the Lord thy God, Deuteronomy
7, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither
thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before
thee, the Hittites, the Gergesites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites,
and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations
greater and mightier than thou, and when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, Thou shalt smite them and utterly
destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. Listen, for they will turn away
thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So
will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy
thee suddenly. Now, if you can find, I tell
you what, let me read Ezra. Let me read down to you. I've
got it written down here. I wrote these scriptures down.
In Ezra chapter nine, verses one and two, listen to this.
Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me saying,
the people of Israel and the priest and the Levites have not
separated themselves from the people of the lands. doing according
to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites,
the Egyptians, and Amorites. For they have taken of their
daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy
seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.
Yea, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in
this trespass. Now turn over to 1 Kings. In 1 Kings. In 1 Kings chapter 11. 1 Kings chapter 11. Look what this
did to Solomon. Here's an example for us to take
note of. In 1 Kings 11, but King Solomon
loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh,
women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites,
of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children
of Israel, you shall not go into them, neither shall they come
in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after
their gods. Solomon claimed unto these in
love, and he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines. How wise
is that? This is the wisest man, but that
was, there's no wisdom in that. And his wives, listen, his wives,
his unbelieving, ungodly wives turned away his heart. Turned away his heart. For it
came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away
his heart after other gods. You'd have never thought that
would happen. and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his
God as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went
after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians and after Malcolm
the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight
of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord as did David his
father. Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh. the
abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and
for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise
did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense as sacrifice
unto Solomon did this." Don't think, don't think that
a person can marry, a believer can marry an unbeliever and they
say, well, you know, I can lead him to the Lord or her to the
Lord. Solomon didn't. He had a thousand wives here
that didn't do it. He said, don't do it. Don't do
it. I want you to turn over now to
1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7. In 1 Corinthians 7, let me, I
looked this up a little while ago. Look in verse 39, 40. The wife is bound by the law
as long as her husband liveth. 1 Corinthians 7 here, 39. She's bound by the law as long
as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, if
he died, She's at liberty to be married to whom she will.
What'd you say after that? Only in the Lord. Only in the Lord. Now he said,
but she is happier if she so abide. The winner is what he's
saying. After my judgment, and I think
also that I have the spirit of God. Don't make the mistake of thinking
that God will bless such a relationship. We have no place in the Word
of God that suggests that He'll bless that relationship. He might. He might. God is a God of grace.
He's a God of mercy. But we have no warrant for it
in the Word of God. And don't think that a believer
will convert that person. What usually will happen, and
I've seen this over the years, they'll corrupt the believer.
I can think of one case of a man and a woman who came to church
very, very regular. And when her husband died, she
married again. She married an unbeliever and she never came
again. As far as I know, she never has. It says in 1 Corinthians
15, 33, be not deceived, evil communication And that word communication
can be translated companionship. Evil companionships corrupt good
manners. It corrupts good, moral, outstanding
manners is what he's talking about. Now in verse three, and
the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man. for that he also is flesh, yet
his day shall be 120 years. There's an end, and this is what
he's saying, there's an end to God's mercy. We've seen that
here just lately going through the scriptures. There's an end
to God's mercy. We see it in Hebrew today. Today,
today, today. But there's an, he said, my spirit
shall not always strive. And he said, man's day would
be 120 years, and I think it took Noah 120 years to build
the ark. And God killed every one of them
except Noah and his family. For 120 years, Noah was said
to be a preacher of righteousness. For 120 years, Noah preached
the truth, building that ark. You know how many times people
probably ask him about that ark? Noah, what are you doing? Why
are you building this boat for? And Noah told them. And they'd
be like Lot's sons-in-laws when Lot told them that the city was
gonna be destroyed. He said they looked at him as
one that mocked. 120 years went by. God called
Noah to the ark, and there was animals in the ark, and God flooded
this world and killed everything on it. But he said, my spirit will not
always strive with man. A place may have the gospel today.
Now listen, it may have today, but not tomorrow. It can happen. It can happen. It wasn't very
long after Charles Spurgeon died that the gospel just left that
place. Not long at all. There's an end to God's... Turn
over to Romans chapter One, to show you that God's spirit will
not always strive with man. God is merciful, but there's
an end to that. There's a time for judgment. Romans chapter
one, look in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them or to them, for God has showed it
to them. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse." They can look at creation and
see the power of God, the wisdom of God. They can see the existence
of God, that God is. Because when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man, to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also, listen, gave them up. God gave them up. He quit striving with them. He
gave them up to uncleanness, through the lust of their own
hearts, to dishonor their own body, between themselves, who
changed the truth of God into a lie, worshipped and served
the creature more than the creator, who's blessed forever. Amen.
For this cause, God gave them up. God gave him up. My spirit, he said, my spirit
shall not always strive with man, for he's flesh. He's flesh. But God is long-suffering. He's
long-suffering. He said, yet his days shall be
120 years. Instead of cutting them off right
there, because he saw that the imagination and the evil of men's
heart was evil and that continually, there was no break in it. It
just grew worse and worse and worse. He didn't immediately
wipe them out. You know, it's God's long suffering
that every unbeliever is not in hell right now because of
his long suffering. It says there were giants in
the earth in those days. And also after that, when the
sons of God came into the daughters of men, they bare children to
them. The same became mighty men, which were of old men of
renown. Their children were mighty. Impressive. Impressive for their
stature. Impressive for their strength.
And their wickedness. Their wickedness. It says their imagination was
evil and that continued. And notice what God saw. Notice
what he saw when he looked down from heaven. It wasn't faith. God did not see who was going
to believe on him. And God saw, verse five, and
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. and that every imagination of
the thought of his heart was only evil continually. The Eretrian
Romans, they corrupted their ways and their thoughts, their
imagination. It was always motivated by evil. There was something intrinsically
evil in it. Every imagination was wicked.
Every imagination was self-serving. It had nothing to do with God
Almighty. But God sees the thoughts and
intents of the heart. You reckon if it had been a good
man there, he would have said so? You reckon? There was none good, no, not
one. Not even, listen, not even Noah. Because Noah found grace. If Noah was good, he wouldn't
need grace, would he? If Noah was a good man, genuinely good
man, he would not have needed the grace of God. But Noah found
grace in his sight. We're going to get to that next
week. And it repented the Lord that he made man on the earth
and it grieved him at his heart. He's speaking here in language. That you and I can understand.
He's speaking in our language. God is, if God were such a one
that could be upset and he'd never be in a good mood. Because
that's, you look at the human race. You'd never have a good
day. But he's speaking in language
you and I can understand. And we understand this, God hates
sin. He takes no pleasure in wickedness. And he takes no pleasure in a
sinful wicked man or woman. He takes no pleasure in it. And
he said, it repents my heart that I made man, I'm gonna destroy
man. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth. He can
do that, you know, he's the potter. We are the clay. Boy, this ought
to ring loud right here. He's the potter, God can, Destroy
me. He's my maker. Or he can save me. He can do
one or the other. He's just God and a savior. And the Lord means Jehovah. I read it like this and Jehovah
Jesus. Say. I will destroy man whom
I've created from the face of the earth. All things were created
by him and for him. And he's the one who's going
to bring the flood on this earth. Both man and beast, and the creeping
thing, and the fowls of the air, it repents me that I've made
them. Sin affects, you see, sin doesn't just affect me. Sin affects
everything. Everything. Everything I touch. You remember in the scriptures
back in the Old Testament, if somebody touched a dead body,
if they just touched it, they were unclean. They were considered
unclean. If you touched a leper, you're
unclean. Sin affects everything. God's determined to destroy and
to root out wickedness and to take care of this matter. He
said, my spirit shall not always strive with man. And when he
stopped striving, when he stopped sending the gospel, it's time
for judgment. Time for judgment. But right
here in this gloom and doom, it's like the sun went out. It's like there's nothing but
darkness now again on the face of the earth. It's like there's
no hope. There's no hope. God's gonna
destroy it all. He said, I've had enough of it.
It repents me that I've made man, but, but God, who's rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. But Noah, a man named Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Noah by nature was no better
than the rest of them. He's no better than the rest
of them, but he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And here
we sit. You believe the gospel. You believe
the gospel. because you have found grace
in the eyes of the Lord and for no other reason. It's not because
you and I are of a better character. It's not because we have more
intelligence. It's all because of grace. It's all because of
grace. We found grace in God's sight, found mercy. And we'll pick up there next
week, Lord willing.