Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #3 of Genesis, chapter 6 and we are going to read Genesis 6:1-3:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And JEHOVAH said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

In our last study we looked at verse 3 and we saw that when the Lord said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man,” it would probably be better understood to say, “My spirit shall not always plead the cause of man,” because in God’s salvation plan He pleaded the cause through His messengers bringing the Gospel to the poor and needy.

This led up to the statement that said, “Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” In other words, there would come an end, historically, to this literal 120 years and then there would be the flood, but it spiritually points to a much longer period which we will discuss later. But until time reached that point the idea is that God would continue to plead the cause with man; salvation would be possible.

We spent a little time on the next part of the verse, where it said, “for that he also is flesh,” and the Hebrew word that was translated here is not really coming across in its meaning. It is a word that means “err” or “erring” and I think Jay Green more accurately translated it this way: “In erring he is flesh.” This provides a Biblical definition now for the “flesh” in the rest of the Bible and we read such things as “the filth of the flesh,” or “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” The word “flesh” takes on a very negative connotation that is associated strongly with sin and it carries the idea of evil and wickedness and that which is not good. For instance, we saw that it said in Galatians 5:16:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

It is really sorrowful that there are individuals that tell people that if we try to keep the Law of God, we are under the Law and in the flesh. That is basically what they are saying and, yet, the truth is that God commands us, “Walk in the Spirit,” and it is synonymous with other commands to walk in the truth or to walk in His statutes. How do we walk in the Spirit, as compared to walking in the flesh? God tells us what He considers “walking in the flesh,” in Galatians 5:19:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

These are things that God calls “works of the flesh,” and such things as “adultery” violate the commands of God in the Bible. God has commanded man that they are to engage in sexual relations in the marriage institution and there is no adultery or fornication in that. Outside of marriage, if mankind engages in sexual relations it is adulterous and it is fornication. So the “works of the flesh,” in this case, is to go contrary to the Law of God. God further expands this list of “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5:20:

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

We do not have time to go through this entire list, but let us look at the sin of “idolatry.” The Bible says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The Bible says we are not to make an image or bow down to another god. The “works of the flesh” are when you break the Law of God and if we had more time we could provide commandments of God against witchcraft, hatred and even wrath. God says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” He also says that we are to “give way to wrath.” We are not to strive. And what are heresies? It is a doctrine that is false and is opposed to true doctrine. For example, the teaching that Jesus is not eternal God is heresy because it is false and it goes contrary to the truth of the Word of God, which is the Law of God and it is, therefore, breaking the Law of God to say that Jesus is not eternal God, and so forth. It goes on to say in Galatians 5:21:

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like…

If we had the time, we would further see that the Law of God provides the backbone for what the “works of the flesh” are and it is anything that breaks the Law of God in any point. All these things are saying that if you commit sin you are involved in the works of the flesh.

But what are the fruits of the Spirit? It says in Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Why is there no Law against the “fruit of the Spirit?” It is because the “fruit of the spirit” are those things that are accord with and follow the Law of God. The fruit of the Spirit is to “walk in the Spirit,” and it is the same as walking in the commandments of the Bible.

Sadly, some people say, “You are placing yourself under the Law and you are involved in the works of the flesh because you are trying to obey the Law of God.” True believers will testify again, and again, that we desire to do God’s will not in order to get right with God or to become saved, but as a result of salvation we obey God’s Law. When we do obey Him it is a manifestation of the “fruit of the Spirit” because no one can truly walk in the Law of God unless they have the Spirit of God, so God’s people desire to do the will of God out of love for the Lord Jesus Christ and we keep His commandments through His Spirit that is in us. We have the Spirit of Christ and there is now no more condemnation. Through the power of His Spirit, we are able to perform the keeping of the Law of God more and more in our lives. Whenever we fail to do so, in thought, word or deed, we do not say, “Oh, no, I am not saved anymore.” The child of God knows, “I am saved by the grace of God. I am saved by the righteousness of Christ and not my own.” We thank God for His mercy and grace and forgiveness and we put it behind us, as it tells us in Philippians, chapter 3:13-14: “…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” And our minds again go back to doing the will of God. How would we know what God would have us to do, apart from the Bible? The Law of God tells us the will of God for each one of us in our lives. God tells us through His commandments what we are to do. He tells us what is right and He tells us what is wrong. He wills for us to do that which is right and He has ordained good works for us to walk in, as it says in Ephesians 2:8-10:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Really, it is just tragic that there is such misunderstanding and such a cloud of darkness that has veiled the eyes of some when it comes to the matter of doing the will of God and keeping His commandments. God says that Sunday is His holy day and we are to remove our foot from His holy day, so God’s people desire to do that very thing. Why? It is because it is part of the works that God has ordained for us to walk in and it was His plan for His people. It was His plan in the marriage relationship about how the husband is to interact with his wife and how the wife is to honor her husband and how the children are to obey their parents, and so forth. God’s Word tells us how we are to “walk” and as we walk in the commandments of God, we are walking in the Spirit. Some people say, “Well, we are saved by grace, so if I want to light up a big, fat cigar I am going to light up that big, fat cigar and have some alcohol. We do not need to get into the letter of the Law. We do not want to be ‘legalists’ and put ourselves back under the Law.” All of that talk is camouflage and all they are doing is trying to justify their sins. People want to smoke. People want to drink. People want to curse. People want to do whatever they want to do on Sundays. People want a divorce. That is the nature of man, but do not try to use the Bible and its wonderful salvation by grace to justify your evil deeds. It is nothing but the “filth of the flesh” when a man says, “You cannot do the commands of God even after salvation or else you are placing yourself under the Law.” That statement in itself is a dirty, rotten sin of the flesh with that kind of mindset. Again, it says in Galatians 5:17:

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

The opposition to the fact that the people of God perform the will of God after salvation is itself a “work of the flesh.” The word “contrary” is an interesting word. It is Strong’s #480 and it is the Greek word “an-tik-i-mahee” Literally, it means “lying against,” and I was thinking that (idea) is kind of similar to the Old Testament where the enemy is “lying in wait,” ready to attack. This word “an-tik-i-mahee” that is translated here as “contrary” is also translated as “adversary” in Luke, chapter 2, a chapter dealing with the Great Tribulation and the end of the world. It says in Luke 21:15:

For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

All those that are adversaries to the people of God are those that “walk in the flesh” and they will not be able to “gainsay nor resist.” Of course, any truth that God’s elect share from the Bible is resisted and there is gainsaying, but there are those that are just critical because that is their nature, but God is saying that He will give wisdom that will harmonize and fit perfectly with the Bible and there is no actual case that can be made against it, but it is the nature of man to continue to deny and oppose the truth.

In 1Corinthians, chapter 16 this word is also found, in 1Corinthians 16:9:

For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.

When God opened up truth and unsealed the Scriptures during the Great Tribulation, He did open a great and effectual door of salvation to save the great multitude. You can be sure that there were those that were opposed and contrary to this truth because the truth identifies with the Spirit and the flesh is always opposed to the spirit. It is flesh against spirit and spirit against flesh.

There is another verse that especially identifies with the Great Tribulation where we read of Satan, the son of perdition, in 2Thessalonaian 2:3:

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Our word is the word “opposeth.” Satan is the chief leader of those “in the flesh,” as the idea of the flesh is closely aligned with the unsaved world. He is the one that during the Great Tribulation “opposeth and exalteth himself above all this is called God.” Practically every doctrine of the Bible in the churches has been opposed. If you were to search the church world with its 2 billion professed Christians, you would find every doctrine in the Bible is opposed. The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman, but many churches think they know better than God: “Men can marry men and women can marry women.” Whatever God says in His Word is opposed by men that are “in the flesh.” It is their nature to be opposed to what God has said. If God says He is the Creator, man in the flesh will say, “No. We came into being through evolution.” If God says Sunday is now the holy day, there will be those that say, “No. It is still Saturday.” If God says in His holy Word that women are not to teach men in the churches, many say, “Oh, come on! Get with it. We are in the 21st century and how dare you insult women that way!” But, it is the Bible. It is the Word of God. Who are we concerned about offending, the woman or God? God is the one who said it and His Word is as unchangeable as He is. Whatever the doctrine, you will find opposition because it is the nature of fallen man.

This same word “contrary” is found in 1Timothy 1:8-10:

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Our word appears where it says that whatever is “contrary” to sound doctrine, and sound doctrine is referring to everything God has declared and recorded in His Word. Man will do contrary at some point or in some place. You can be sure of it because it is the nature of Satan and the nature of the carnal mind of man, which is another way of saying an unsaved individual that is “in the flesh.” Again, going back to Galatians, it said in Galatians 5:17:

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit…

When you lust after something you strongly desire it and you just insist upon it. You go out of your way to get it. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and that is why people worked “overtime” a few decades ago to make abortion legal. Of course, it was the right thing for abortion to remain illegal because it is murder, but people worked “overtime” as they picketed and wrote letters to their Congressmen. It was the flesh lusting against the Spirit and desiring to break the Law of God. We recently saw the example of the great uprising of people that want homosexual marriage. It is the newest fad. It is the new morality of man and anyone opposed is viewed as a wrongdoer and anyone that approves is considered a good individual according to the upside-down way of the world. It was a lusting against the Spirit and a lusting to break the Law of God. That is the nature of fallen man and the flesh against the Spirit. It is why God’s people are troubled and it is why Lot’s soul was vexed in a place like Sodom and he strongly desired for God’s Word to be upheld and for the Law of God to be done.