The Flood

RV186-02

The Angels

Babylon

One man came up to me indignantly one time, following a service in which I had talked about doctrines of demons, and I had indicated that socialism was one of the doctrines of demons originating in the demonic system of Babylon. He was very indignant that I called socialism a doctrine of demons. The doctrines of demons consist of the things that are destructive to the human race; that bring misery; and, that bring grief. If there's anything that is a misery upon the human race, it is socialism. You and I don't know that term too much in this country. We know it as "social programs," and you should be educated enough politically to know that when somebody comes up and says, "Social programs," they mean "socialism." All the world is fleeing from socialism in the communist realm, but the United States government is breaking its neck to bring us into those systems. How's that for orientation? Today, all mankind is rushing into a world system of Satan, of one government under socialism and a world religion which defies man as God.

The ultimate divine destruction of the city of Babylon, which will take place at the end of the tribulation at the coming of Christ, and all of its religious and governmental systems is a sure thing. That's why, in verse 8, the angel that John sees and hears says, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon." The act of repeating the word "fallen" twice is a biblical technique for indicating that something is a sure thing. It's going to happen. The angel makes it clear that God has condemned this city to destruction, as well as all of the systems of religion and government that have stemmed from it.

The reason for God's wrath against Babylon is that it has been the source of leading mankind into sexual immorality and perversion. The sex part is the big problem. That, of all things, is the supreme thing that offends the holiness of God, and that is the basis of judgment. As John points out, Babylon has made all nations to drink of the wrath of her immorality – the wrath that is brought down upon a people and an individual for sexual immorality.

Magic Johnson is berating the president of the United States for not spending more to solve the AIDS problem. Our government now spends more on AIDS research than any other disease except cancer. But Magic Johnson does not seem to observe the fact that those who have this disease have brought it upon themselves, by and large, by their violation of God's sexual code. It's just that simple. Now he has no hesitancy of calling upon all the people of the country to be the victims of paying for this gross evil. This is a serious sin which is widespread and accepted, and people scoff at any concept that God's way is the best way, and that God's judgment will be brought down upon those who violate it. Well, here it is. It is very clear in the book of the Revelation. It is the sexual immorality of Babylon, that has been taught to the nations by her, that will be the basis of the final judgment.

The wine of illicit sex is sweet when it is drunk by those who are in rebellion against God's moral laws, but at the bottom of the cup from which they drink is the dregs of the wrath of God, and of death. Government cannot solve the problem of personal sin. They cannot remove the penalty of God through any amount of research that they may try to seek. Those who follow the leading of Babylon's evil in this respect will die with her, and they'll spend eternity in the lake of fire.

After the fall into sin by Adam and Eve, their descendants divided into the Cain line of a godless lifestyle, and the Seth line of godliness. Last time, we went through several generations with you down to the time of Noah. Cain's line followed the example and influence of its patriarch, and made up its own system of religion, a system which was compatible with the old sin nature. The influence of the Cain line upon mankind was so extensive that the human race degenerated into moral vileness, hatred, and brutality, and finally had to be destroyed by a worldwide flood.

The Word of God at that time was generally ignored, and the promise of salvation through faith in a future Savior was completely rejected. The Holy Creator God, however, found pleasure in the Seth line of descendants, but He was grieved with the Cain line. I remind you that the pre-flood world was filled with gifted, highly intelligent people with impressive achievements in the arts and in technology. They did things that it took centuries for humanity to learn after this time. They were into medical practices and into medical techniques. They had an enormous knowledge that ancient records reveal to us, such that we stand to shake our heads in awe of the kinds of things they could do. These were not ignorant people. These were people who were genetically at a superior state because sin had not had its degenerating effects upon them yet.

However, the civilization of Satan's people simply had no use for God, and their human viewpoint arrogance dominated everything they did. By the seventh generation from Adam, Lamech, in Cain's line, was a bigamist; a murderer; and, a seeker of vengeance. On the other side, the seventh in line from Adam in Seth's line, Enoch, was such a pleasure to God that he was taken alive to heaven. That was the contrast between these two lines.

This is the issue that we deal with today. The Cain line is rapidly taking over worldwide today. The influence of Babylon is now permeating societies all over the world in a major way. Remember that the whole concept of the deity of man today is called New Age doctrine. In an earlier period, it was Hinduism, and it still is, of course, in India. And this all began in Babylon: Man is potential deity; and, therefore man needs only to look within himself for any truth he needs. It's all there for you to find. So, to this day, the Cain types are practicing the same evils, as they march into hell, while the types are obeying God's doctrines.

The Antediluvian Civilization

That is increasingly the problem today. It is very tough for a young person to grow up today, and to be able to stand with his knowledge of the Word of God, and to be able to stand firm and courageous with what has been taught to him by his parents and his church, and the training that he has had in God's principles, and to be different. It's tough to be different. It is hard for a lot of you adults to move through society and simply to be different. You don't like to be made a fool of in the way Noah was. You don't like to be standing there being the brunt of jokes the way poor Noah was.

Sexual Immorality

This is why God says, "You've made all nations to drink of this evil sin that is destructive in a multiplicity of ways upon the individual and upon human beings. And for that, the worst of God's wrath will be given to Babylon, and to the systems that she has created."

In Genesis 6, we see that things got so bad that Satan was able to put in motion one of the most brilliant schemes that has ever come into his diabolical mind. Satan allowed a group of his demon agents to take on human form in which they were capable of sexual acts. And they married women of the day, and they formed a corrupt, magnificent civilization. Genesis 6:1: "Now it came about, when men begin to multiply in the face of the land, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God." The term "sons of God" that you see right there is a term which is always used in the Old Testament to refer to angels. "Sons of God" in the Hebrew Old Testament always refers to angels. So, immediately we have a clue here that something very strange is about to take place:

The Nephilim

You've all probably studied Greek and Roman mythology in school. You've read the stories of these mighty people. You've read the stories about gods taking human wives and producing great offspring. Those stories have their origin right here in this text in Scripture. This Scripture tells us where those concepts began. There was a time when that's exactly what happened, because the offspring of these human women and these demonic angels were men of great stature and of powerful capacities. They were half-breeds who were magnificent in what they were able to do. But this violation of God's law against sexual relations between classes of created beings did not go unnoticed by God. God does not permit crossover between the beings that He has created: between angels; between people; and, between animals. Humans do not engage in sex with animals. That is a violation of God's law. And the same goes for angels with humans here.

Now, the children born from these marriages, then, were half-angel and half-human, and they were giants in terms of strength and capacity. What we're saying plan in doing this? His plan was to corrupt the whole human race so that there couldn't be any pure humanity through which Christ could be born, and he would frustrate Genesis 3:15. Isn't that brilliant? Is that brilliant, or what? Satan said, "If I can contaminate the whole human race, and if I can make them all half-breeds, God can't keep His Word to bring a God-man. There won't be any clear, clean, pure humanity through which the Savior can be born. And I suspect that what probably happen (very likely), was that the day that God told Noah to get into the ark, and Methuselah had just died, that there were probably no more than these nine people who were pure human beings on the face of the earth. They were all that God had now through which to create a new line of humanity through which Christ could be born.

Methuselah

So, the Lord Jesus Christ had to be a human being because he had to form the bridge between us and God. He had to be a God-man. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, "For there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." It was very important that he was the man Christ Jesus. He could not have been our Savior if He were not 100% bonafide humanity. In Philippians 2:5-8, you have this principle stressed again: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God (that is, He was God), did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men."

Kenosis

You and I do the same thing, but we do it erratically. But, boy, there are sometimes when we are on target. Our mind is the mind of God; our emotions or the emotions of God; and, our decisions are the decisions of God, and we're on target. And there are times when inevitably we're out of sync, and we become aware of it, and we know the reason, and we go to Him and we confess, and we come back in. But the stress here is that Jesus Christ set aside all prerogatives and the external evidence of the brilliance of His glory. For what reason?

Verse 8: "Being found in appearance as a man." He was more than a man, but He simply appeared like an ordinary man: "He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on the cross." If He had not been a man (if He had not been a human being), He could not have died. So, He had to be a human being who could die for the sins of the world. But He had to be a qualified human being, which His deity provided.

So, under this growing population of mongrel creatures, the Bible tells us that humanity gradually sank to new unbelievable levels of degradation. Genesis 6:5 says, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." These were man's thoughts of his heart. By the way, you see what the heart is there, don't you? The heart is the mind. It is the mind that you think with. When the Bible talks about your heart, it's talking about your mind. So, everything he thought of was continually evil, and that was not a pleasure to God.

The Flood

Genesis 6:7-8: "The Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things, and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I made them." The word "sorry" means that: "T have no pleasure in the fact that I have made them:" "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord," because Noah was a super grace believer. Noah was a person who had grown in the grace of God, and in the knowledge of God, and he was a faithful man of God. And he went on to the super grace level of living. Here was a man who walked with God. And suddenly, God has big plans for him.

Dropped down to Genesis 6:11. What was the problem? "Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their ways upon the earth." You couldn't go out at night for fear of being mugged by somebody. Elderly people were in deadly fear because of the oppression against them. Their lives were in danger. The earth was a place that was filled with violence. Women were in desperate fear. They could be abused and imposed upon by any strong-armed character, and there was no authority to punish them or to stop them. It was truly a jungle:

"So, God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. And, behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth.'" God said, "I'm going to bring this to an end."

Drop down to Genesis 6:17: "Behold, I, even I, am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark: you; your sons; your wife; and, your sons' wives with you."

So, God explained to Noah what He was going to do, and He gave very specific directions on the structure (the vessel) that he was to build. Interestingly, to this day, the dimensions of that vessel represent the maximum stability of an ocean-going vessel. Ships of our day are made in these ratios for maximum stability as a platform on the sea. That is very interesting. God must have gone to the Naval Academy or something to learn such marvelous things – to know how to do that. It was all very specifically outlined to Noah – how it was to be structured, and how it was to be built.

It had one door, and only one. The inside was great, but the outside was lousy on the day that the rains began to fall. But God said that Noah was a righteous man. He said that he was blameless in his time, which means that he was pure humanity, and he was on the positive side, so that he walked with God.

So, Noah was told he had 120 years. So, he signed the contract with God, and he and his sons went right to work. They started building this huge vessel out in the middle of a field where there wasn't any water. Can you imagine the field day that that vile society had with this man at the same time he was standing up preaching? He would write on the side of the ark, "Believe God or perish." And he would put out different signs as they progressed. And the people said, "Boy, let's go see what crazy Noah is doing today out there." But he and his sons kept building and building.

120 years is a long time, but this was an example of the grace of God: "I'm going to wait. I'm going to give you a chance. I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait." And do you know the problem with God being so gracious? We think that He's never going to slam it home to us. We think we can be rebellious against our parents. We think we can be rebellious against the Word of God. We think we can be rebellious against the authority of our local church. We think we can be rebellious against those in authority over us, and that we're going to keep going, and keep getting away, and keep getting away. We think that we can be rebellious against the moral code of God: He's never going to do anything. That's one of the problems of the grace of God. We think we have forever. But I can assure you that grace means that He gives you time. However, once He sets in motion, you've gone beyond the point of no return.

So, no ridicule could divert Noah and his sons from their task. No logic could dissuade them from obeying God. And they proceeded to obey God, and to make this ark so that it would be suitable for this use. Noah, during all this period of time, however, maintained a testimony which fell on deaf ears. Genesis 6:3 says, "My flesh shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be 120 years." When we match that to 2 Peter 2:5, we read this about Noah: "God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly." So, that we know that during that 120 years, while working on the ark, Noah was also preaching the gospel of the grace of God. He was calling people to change their minds and to believe in the coming Savior.

Well, people and animals, in time, were loaded aboard the ark, and then God began to let something happen that had never happened on the face of the earth before. Rain began falling. That must have been a scary experience to see this water falling down from the sky. It had never rained before. The only way the ground had been received moisture before was by heavy dew, part of which was because there was an enormous canopy of water over the earth, which is probably why people lived hundreds of years, because so much ultraviolet light was shielded out with that canopy of water.

Now, when the rains began to fall, that canopy of water just suddenly collapsed. Furthermore, there were underground springs of water, and the bottoms of oceans heaved upward, and these underground springs broke out to the surface so that water was pouring up from beneath the ground, and water was coming down from above, and the result was that the waters rose very rapidly. It wasn't a gradual thing. It was a very rapid rising. So, in time, the water covered a number of feet over the highest mountains. Genesis 7:19-20: "And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed 15 cubits higher, and the mountains were covered." 15 cubits is about eleven-and-a-half feet.

Now, it is tempting for us to try to tell you how high this was by saying that Mount Everest was covered by at least eleven-and-a-half feet of water, but we're not sure that Mount Everest existed then. Mount Everest probably was the result of the changes that took place on the face of the earth as mountains were pressed up from these tremendous water pressures. The whole surface of the earth was completely changed.

Soon the rain stopped. There was no water that was fit to drink, and certainly no food. So, anybody who was hanging on a piece of debris, trying to make it, and putting something together in a raft to float, simply could not survive for the year. So, what happened was that the whole earth became one huge watery grave, and that's where the fossils came from that we find today. By and large, that's the fossil record. That's where the Grand Canyon came from. As the waters began to dry, and they rushed off from the surface of the earth, these huge gorges were carved out at certain places on the earth. The geologists have terrible times trying to explain this in their naturalistic frame of reference, because they don't want to believe that there was such a thing as a Noahic flood. That is because, if there was such a thing as a flood, then their principle of uniformitarianism (that everything is operating today on the same principles it has always operated on, without any external interjection) is not true. And the surface of the earth everywhere shows that something dramatic happened to suddenly put an enormous scar on it.

In Genesis 7:21-23, here are the results: "And all flesh that moved on the earth perished: birds, and cattle, and beasts, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. Of all that was on the dry land, all of whose nostrils was the breath of life, died." Only the marine life survived. "Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man, to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky. And they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him on the ark." They alone survived. So, Noah and his family were safe in the ark. This is a type of the Christian who is safe in Christ, who is our ark, in the sea of judgment against our sins.

Well, Genesis 8:1 tells us that five months later, the waters began to recede; and, one year later the earth was once more dry. The waters had evaporated. They were gone. Now, the canopy overhead was now gone, so there was no longer that protective canopy. And suddenly, people no longer lived hundreds and hundreds of years. They were now down to a little over 100 years of life span, and gradually that was brought down to God's standard life allotment of 70 years.

In the year from the time the flood began, then, the earth was again dry, and Noah's disembarked. Now all the mixed demon-angel and human creatures were now dead. The demon husbands (these angels who had done this) were taken by God, and they were put in a special prison. They can never again do what they did. 2 Peter 2:4 refers to these angels that are now in a special compartment of Hades: "God did not spare angels when they sinned." He's referring to the angels of Genesis 6: "But cast them into Hades, and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment." They are in a special place which is called Tartarus, and they are in total darkness, being reserved for the time of God's special judgment.

Peter referred to this in his first letter in 1 Peter 3:19-20: "In which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who were once disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark, in which a few (that is, eight persons) were brought safely through the water." Jesus Christ was proclaiming now that salvation had been provided, and that those who were in Hades without Christ are now permanently doomed. At that time, the compartment of paradise for Abraham's bosom (which was where saved people went before the cross) was now taken, and all of those people were now placed into heaven.

So, the world became a dramatically different place. It's all wiped clean again. You had three sons who were taught the Word of God, and four godly women. Now the world should be able to operate cleanly. We should not have to worry again, having learned such a terrible lesson, to turn against God.

So, Noah got off the ark, and he proceeded to build a new civilization – the postdiluvian civilization. Today, all human beings are descended from the three sons of Noah: Shem; Ham; and, Japheth. These were told that they were now to repopulate the earth. That was the first directive that God gave them. Genesis 9:1: "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, 'Be fruitful; multiply; and, fill the earth.'" This directive now becomes the basic point of friction between God and the new humanity on the face of the earth, which will result in the Babylon rebellion.

So, I want you to notice this: God said, "I want to do a simple thing. I want you now to have children, and I want you to move out to different parts of the earth, and to populate it." Of course, they have no hesitancy in getting off the ark at God's command. They came back to an earth that was amazing as they looked out upon the countryside of what was left following the flood. And Noah's first thought, very properly, was to worship God.

So, we're told in Genesis 8:20 that: "He built an altar to the Lord, and took of very clean animal and every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." Immediately, he did the symbol. He said, "God, you brought us through. Your grace is going to bring us through someday into heaven, through a Savior who is to come, a Savior whom we symbolize now by sacrificing the blood of these animals." He remembered in this way to thank God, and that is essential to a true relationship to God who is our provider. The day you stop saying, "Thank You, Lord; thank You, Lord; thank you, Lord," it's bad business. And it's in all the little things of life that that sense of gratitude must exist if you are going to have a right relationship to God. Noah was on target in this respect.

Today, the Christian's praise and sacrifice is equally precious to the Lord. That was a very precious moment for God. He took great pleasure in what Noah did. In Hebrews 13:15, this is alluded to for the Christian: "Through Him (Jesus Christ) then, let us continually off up a sacrifice of praise to God." This is one of the sacrifices that we Christians offer to God. We don't offer animal sacrifices, but there are spiritual sacrifices that we offer, and one of them is praise: "That is, the fruit of lips that gives thanks to His name."

I noticed that my mother used to have the habit, when she was out driving with me and we get home, of saying, "Thank you, Lord," as we'd get out of the car. She had that little habit, and she would drive up, and we'd get back home, and she say, "Thank you, Lord," and get out of the car.

Well, that's the same concept you have here – that sense of gratitude, and it's the praise of our lips, and God takes great pleasure in that. God always honors the believer who puts Him first. Expressing your thanks to God helps you to put Him first, because you remember who your best friend is. When you keep thanking God, you won't think that your wealth has come from some secondary source. You will know who has given you your good things: your wealth; your family; and, all the things you may hold dear. You know where it came from.

Matthew 6:33 is the principle that we must live by: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these shall things shall be added unto you." If you go back in the context, you see that they're all the temporal things of life that we need, and the grace of God provides that. We call that logistical grace. The word "logistic" means "supplies." God provides by His grace all of the supplies that you need.

The Rainbow

Of course, God doesn't forget His promise. God doesn't forget His covenant. When he says, "I look at the bow, and that reminds Me of what I promised, that's called anthropological speech. God is talking to us like people talk, and like people act, so that we can relate that the bow is a reminder. It's a reminder to us rather than to Him. But every time you see a rainbow, that's the significance. That is God's promise never again to destroy all the earth by flood.

Animals

Seasons

Eating Meat

Blood

After the flood, the world was pure. ... God had wiped out the half-breeds of demon and angels. Man had a new chance to begin. Things are going to be different now. All the terrible evils that had been on the earth before were not going to be there again. In fact, because God recognizes the nature of man (since it is sinful), God proceeded to establish certain principles to restrain evil in a way that it was not restrained before the flood. The result was that you thought for sure now that there could never again be the condition that existed before the flood.

However, suddenly, something happened. On the plane of Shinar, by the beautiful Euphrates River, a man arose who now became the focus of what has come down to our day in a religious system that you are all acquainted with, and we shall look at that next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1992

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