Are You Ready for the Coming Judgment of God

Precept Ministries Genesis Part II – Lesson 7 Genesis 4:16-6:6 – The Signs of the Times

Are you ready for the coming judgment of God? It’s a judgment as sure as the days of Noah. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ Himself likened His coming to the days of Noah. He’s coming. It’s almost like He’s on the brink of His coming, like He stepped forward to the portals of heaven and He’s about to call His army and descend to earth to come as King of kings. But before He does, all hell is going to break loose on this earth. You need to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man because it is a coming connected with judgment. How did He liken it to the days of Noah? Matthew 24:37-39 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, (You can’t stop there…) and they did not understand until [time phrase: mark it with a green clock] the flood came and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of Man.” Kay always marks “the coming of the Son of Man” (Jesus Christ) with a purple cloud, coloring the periphery in blue and the center in yellow. That’s the way she marks it every time in her Bible so she can look down and spot it immediately. The coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah because they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. He’s not talking about the iniquity of that time although there is iniquity then. Understand that they were just going about the routine of life and didn’t even know this judgment was coming and that soon they would stand before God. They didn’t understand it until the Flood came and took them all away.

Civilization’s Growing Wickedness and Evil Genesis happened at least 6000 years ago but is it talking about the signs of the times at the coming of the Son of Man? Yes. It speaks to us today. Genesis 6:5a Then the L ORD saw… That’s an interesting phrase. It hasn’t been used since Genesis 1:31. Genesis 6:5-6 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. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Can you imagine? So many times we don’t think that God has feelings but here He is sorry that He made man. God is grieved in His heart because He sees that the wickedness of man is great on the earth. Every intent of man’s heart is only evil. It is evil continually. It is a lifestyle of wickedness right here on the earth that God created. In Genesis 1 God has just made the heavens and earth and put on it animals and mankind. Genesis 1:31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Six days into God’s creation, He looks at all that He has created and sees that it is good. In the days of Noah He looks at all that He created and He just sees wickedness and continual evil. He is grieved in His heart and sorry that He has made man. So what happened between Genesis 1:31 and chapter six that brings us to this point? In Genesis 2, God telescopes in to give us the details of the creation of man. He sees that man is alone so He makes a woman for the man on the sixth day. He brings the woman to the man and sees the delight and joy in Adam’s eyes as he sees this helper suitable for him. Adam hears that he is going to take care of her and identify with her as a permanent relationship. They are unashamed of their nakedness and where everything is open. There is no hiding or covering up. Everything is open and naked in the sight of God but it’s all right and man’s all right because 2 there’s no sin in man’s heart. It’s open between a man and a woman because there’s no sin. It’s purity. It’s innocence. Then a serpent talks to the woman who believes his lie so she takes and eats the forbidden fruit. She gives it to Adam and he eats. All of a sudden everything is changed. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-- In Romans 8:18-22 all creation is under the state of death and begins to groan because of the sin of man, waiting for that day of man’s redemption. God intervenes in all of His grace. He pursues man in his hiding and brings him out. He gives man a promise as He speaks to the serpent that a Messiah is coming. That someday there will be a seed from the woman that will bruise the head of the serpent who will be crushed and his power taken away. In Genesis 4 Eve gives birth to a child named Cain then to another son named Abel. Here are the first two children of Adam and Eve yet sin is so much in the world that Cain rises up and kills his brother Abel. Does he feel remorse for it? No. He’s only sorry for the punishment that is going to be his. He takes off to go forth, no longer a tiller of the earth because his brother’s blood cries out from there. The ground is cursed because of Abel’s blood so Cain moves on as a vagrant, a wanderer, to settle in the land of Nod. Genesis 4:16-17 Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son. Cain decides to build his own civilization—his own city. He doesn’t bow to God or submit. He wants a relationship with God on his own terms. He wants a religion where he can offer the sacrifices that he wants. If God won’t accept them he’ll go out and build his own city and name it after his son. He begins to raise a family out of which comes one by the name of Lamech who commits bigamy. He doesn’t follow the example of Adam but marries two wives. Genesis 4:18-19 Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech. Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah. (By the way what is your answer to the question “Where did Cain get his wife?” He married his sister. Genesis 3:20 says, “Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living.” You say, “It’s forbidden to marry your sister.” Yes, it is. But that doesn’t begin until the book of Leviticus 2000 years later. At this point the race is just starting thus is more pure. Lamech takes two of his sisters, or two from these families that have developed.) Genesis 4:20-22 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. (Thus they are nomadic.) His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. Look at this first civilization: There are tents, language, family units, settling down, the building of a city, keeping of the herds, making instruments of music. In verse 22 Zillah gives birth to Tubal-Cain who is the forger of all implements of bronze and iron. This is not a caveman lifestyle but that of an intelligent and educated society of beings. Then you see the grief of it all: Genesis 4:23-24 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me; and a boy for striking me; if Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” 3 You see here anger and passion unrestrained; the way of Cain carries down from generation to generation so that now there is murder. But Adam has relations with his wife again and she gives birth to another son. Genesis 4:25 Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.” Can you imagine the grief in Eve’s heart to have two sons but one kills the other just because he’s angry at God? Genesis 4:26 And to Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then [Time phrase. Mark it.] men began to call upon the name of the LORD. There are two lines of descent here: the line of Seth where men call on the name of the Lord; and the way of Cain where those people walk with their backs to the Lord. It is so important that you give your children a godly heritage. You need to begin with your family because we are forging the next generation. What are we bringing into the world? What kind of society do you want? When you look at our society now you can understand why we know it’s almost time for the Lord to come because wickedness is upon the face of this earth. We have murder, divorce; it’s rampant in our society. Families are falling apart but there are relatively few who call upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. This is a key repeated phrase. It’s the second time it’s repeated. In Genesis 2:4 we have “the record of the generations of the heavens and the earth”. Now this is the record of the generations of Adam. Chapter 5 functions as a transition from chapter 4 to chapter 6. It’s introducing us to what is to come. It’s interesting to watch. Genesis 5:1-3 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness [This is a key phrase], according to his image, and named him Seth. From now on man is not created in the likeness of God but in the likeness of Adam. Now we can understand the Scriptures: Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. It wasn’t a sin for mama to go to bed with daddy. It wasn’t a sin to conceive a child. It’s simply that sin is passed on. It’s attached to our genes. It comes from the loins of Adam: Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-- Romans 3:10-11 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God;” Isaiah 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him (Jesus).

Enoch and the Last Days That’s the only way we can get out of that sinful state to move from sinner to saint and be rid of that compulsion to always sin. God puts His seed within us. By the power of the Holy Spirit this seed gives us the option of living in righteousness. As you go back to Genesis you see that Adam produced “in his own likeness according to his image.” Although after Seth’s son Enosh men began to call on the name of the Lord, still you see that Seth was a sinner. How do you know? Follow his genealogy: Genesis 5:4 Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. 4 Mark this by underlining it. This is important for you to mark and know because it shows where Lamech got his wife and where others like Tubal-Cain got their wives. Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters but we only know the names of Cain, Abel, and Seth. Genesis 5:5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. Why did Adam die? Because of sin. He ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You see the effects: “By one man sin entered the world and death by sin so then all men die because all men sin.” Over and over in chapter 5 you see: Genesis 5:8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. Genesis 5:11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years, and he died. Genesis 5:14 So all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died. And so on—except for one who didn’t: Enoch. Genesis 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. What expression do you hear about Methuselah? “He’s as old as Methuselah.” Why? Because Methuselah lived longer than anyone else—969 years. [Note from your transcriber: If you do the math, the year he turned 969 was the year Noah was 600 therefore Methuselah might have died in the Flood or just prior to it. He might have lived even longer otherwise…] Genesis 5:22-24 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. [mark this] Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Enoch lives with all these other people in the midst of all this sin and yet he walked with God. While he was walking with God all of a sudden “he was not” because God took him. Cross-reference with Hebrews 11:5-6 and Jude. Hebrews 11:5-6 By faith Enoch was taken up (regarding all the others Scripture says, “And he died.”) so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he who comes to God must believe that He is (that He is God), and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. God rewarded Enoch but will judge many others because like Cain they don’t live by faith. There is something else about Enoch that is important. Jude is so short it doesn’t have chapters but is absolutely loaded. Kay loves to teach this book. Go through Jude for all the references to Old Testament Scriptures. In Jude 14-18 he refers to ungodly men who are like hidden reefs in the love feasts in the church—destructive men who have crept into the church and are sitting there totally unnoticed as one of the crowd. Jude 14-18 It was also about these men (the ungodly) that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. But you, beloved, (here’s the contrast) ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” We are living in the last times—a time Enoch prophesied about. It will come in our day because God is grieved in His heart and sorry yet He’s not going to destroy the whole earth. There will be people He preserves like Noah with his sons and their wives. The question is, “Are you ready for the coming judgment?” How do you get ready? Listen to that prophet of the seventh generation after Adam who prophesied that the Lord was coming with all of His angels 5 to execute judgment upon all the ungodly. Knowing that, Enoch chose to walk with God, then he was not because God said, “Come on home.” Home is where Christ is and where there is peace. What happens from Enoch on? We have been through the transitional chapter where we’ve seen that every man died: “He lived these many years then he died.” Kay has a theory: In Genesis 1, when it says “It was an evening and a morning the first day.” God lets us know that it is a 24 hour day that He’s talking about in Creation. He tells Adam however that the day he eats the fruit of the forbidden tree he shall die. We know that he dies spiritually; we know that sin enters into the world and we know that he is now separated from God he’s in hiding yet God moves forward in grace. Adam and Eve don’t die within that 24 hour day. In Genesis 5 you see the account of all the years that man lived. They’re all for the most part living into the 900s, except for Enoch, who was taken, and one other. Methuselah lives to be 969 years old. 2 Peter addresses the coming judgment, specifically the seducing spirits accompanying that judgment, which came in the days of Noah and will return in the coming of the Lord. 2 Peter 3:8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief…. In the light of this, if with the Lord a day is as a thousand years in relationship to man, and the day that you eat of the fruit of that tree you shall die, man died within that thousand years. Yet God left him here on earth. Why? Because they had to procreate. They had to multiply and replenish the earth, putting mankind upon it. Draw a horizontal timeline with the cross at the midpoint. Draw Enoch being taken to heaven (a cloud with an up arrow beneath) on the left side of the timeline. In Genesis 5 Enoch is different than anyone else in that chapter because he doesn’t die. Enoch is taken up to heaven. Jude 14-18 tells us that Enoch preaches about the coming judgment. Draw a big cloud high above the timeline to the far right of the cross with an arrow beneath pointing toward the line. This is the Second Coming of Jesus. Preceding and encompassing the Second Coming of the Lord, according to the book of Revelation, is the Day of the Lord. Just before the arrow of the Second Coming, write on the timeline “Day of the Lord”. There draw a vertical line marking this through the timeline. This is a terrible day of tribulation—a time such has never been on the face of this earth and will never be afterwards. It is the most horrendous time that the world will have ever seen, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of judgment called the Tribulation. It starts 3½ years before the Lord comes. In the Scriptures it’s referred to as either 3½ years, 1260 days, or 42 months. Beneath the Day of the Lord write “3½ years of Tribulation”. Enoch prophesied about this time when the Lord would come with all of His angels to execute judgment. Peter in 2 Peter 3:3-9 talks about the coming of the Lord because people were saying, “Christ is not coming.” Peter says, “Yes He is. Remember that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. From the beginning up until the coming of Jesus Christ, there have been about 4000 years. According to Jewish reckoning it’s not quite the year 6000 [2007 is 5797]. It has been about 2000 years since Jesus Christ has come. He is coming back. If we use Peter’s reckoning, 4000 years is as 4 days if a day to the Lord is as 1000 years. The 2000 years would be about 2 days. According to Revelation 20, the Lord is going to rule for 1000 years on this earth after he returns which will be a millennial rest for the nation of Israel. That would be 1 day. So 6 days have passed and 1 is yet to come, not that you add all these years up exactly, but in 6 days God said He made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day He rested. (He told Israel that the 6 Sabbath was for them.) Kay believes this is a sign of the coming of the Lord thus we are nearing the Day of the Lord. This is all just something to think on; you don’t have to believe Kay. Seducing Spirits Enoch prophesies about this time of Tribulation. What follows Enoch? Seducing spirits came. See Genesis 6. Genesis 6:1-3 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh, nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” Kay thinks that God is saying that man had only 120 years left. That’s it. “My Spirit is not going to strive with them beyond that time. What happened 120 years later? A flood came. We know that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came: Genesis 7:6 Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. Genesis 5:31-32 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah then was 500 years old when his daddy, Lamech, died. This is a different Lamech than in Genesis 4. This account of God saying man only has 120 years happens before Noah turns 500. Kay believes it happens when Noah is 480 years old. God has said: Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh, nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” What is going on? Kay believes that it is seducing spirits. Genesis 6:1-2 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, (Adam and Eve are these people’s parents.) …that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. These sons of God came down to earth and looked around choosing women for themselves. Who are the sons of God? Some theologians would say that they are from the line of Seth which was a godly line. But they were still men and therefore sinful. If you go through the Old Testament and run the “sons of God”, every time this term is used it refers to angelic beings. Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. Where is the Lord? In heaven. So the angels come and with them Satan comes because he is an angelic being. They come to present themselves before the Lord. Job 38:4-7 (God questions Job about the creation of the earth.) “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements, since you know?... On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together; and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Therefore the sons of God were there when God was creating the earth, before He ever created man. When you examine that you need to prove: Does God, in the Old Testament, refer to the sons of men as “sons of men” or “sons of God”? He always refers to them as sons of men. Genesis 11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. We will be studying this city that these men create in the land of Shinar which will be called Babylon. 7 Always let Scripture interpret Scripture. Any details not written about are none of your business. If God had wanted you to know all the details He would have told you. He gives you everything you need to know and you don’t speculate beyond that. Jude 5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Jude is talking about the judgment of God, which is coming. You need to beware of seducing spirits that would keep you from understanding this, that would keep you just eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, living as if nothing is going to happen. Jude 6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Who are these angels and what do you know about them? They “didn’t keep their own domain.” What is their domain? Heaven. But they “abandoned their proper abode.” God is keeping them “under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” Jude 7 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they (Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them) in the same way as these (the angels) [Circle “these” and “angels” in verse 6.] indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. What does it mean: “These indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh.”? Just think: Remember these sons of God, the angelic beings, came down from heaven. (By the way, angels are always masculine. The word “these” here is a masculine pronoun referring back to masculine angels.) When the angels came down they indulged in gross immorality: “I’ll take you, and you, and you.” But not only that, these are angels who always take the form of man when they come down on earth. They, though, are a “strange flesh.” They are not of flesh and blood; they are not mankind. They were there when God created the heavens and the earth. They come down to indulge themselves in gross immorality and go after “strange flesh”. They are male so they go after female. They are angels so “strange flesh” from their point of view would be humans. You say, “But that’s not enough to convince me.” That’s okay. Just to the right of Enoch on the timeline write “seducing spirits”. Go to the other end of the chart. Just before the “Day of the Lord” around this time on the line write “seducing spirits” because there is a great parallel between the two incidents of seducing spirits. Add “1 Tim 4:1” near the Day of the Lord and the coming of Jesus. 1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, This is referring to people in the last days, which we are in. The “last days” began with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Write “Last Days” on the right side of the cross. There are 4000 years from Creation to the Cross. After that have come 2000 years which are the “last days”. There are seducing spirits in these last days. 2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. God is telling us that as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be in the coming of the Son of Man. As there were seducing spirits there, there will be seducing spirits here. And you’d better be careful because those people are the false teachers and false prophets. They sneak in among you with you totally unaware that they are there. The only thing that will keep you is to know the Word. That’s why you need to study precept upon precept.