Participants: Pastor Stephen Bohr
Series Code: CGC
Program Code: CGC000013
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01:12 Shall we bow our heads for prayer?
01:14 Our Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for the opportunity 01:19 of gathering together to study the marvelous things 01:24 that you have for us in Your Holy Word. 01:26 We ask that as we study about the flood, the worldwide 01:32 cataclysm which once destroyed the world, and how it represents 01:36 what will happen in the end time, we ask for the 01:39 guidance of Your Holy Spirit. 01:41 Teach us the lessons that we need to learn. 01:44 And we thank You for hearing our prayer, for we ask it in 01:47 Jesus' name, Amen. 01:50 We want to begin our study today at Genesis 3:15, Genesis 3:15, 01:59 which is the verse that has kind of guided us 02:02 in our study together. 02:04 It says there in Genesis 3:15, God is speaking 02:08 to the serpent, to the devil. 02:26 As we've studied, God was telling Satan that He was going 02:31 to send a Seed to this world, born of a woman, 02:35 to do battle with the devil. 02:38 In the process of the battle, the devil was going to be able 02:41 to bruise the heel of the Seed of the woman, 02:44 but the Seed of the woman was going to crush 02:48 his head in the process. 02:50 We've noticed that when the serpent, when the devil heard 02:54 these words, he made up his mind that he was not going 02:58 to allow that Seed to come. 03:01 And so the first method that the devil uses to try and keep 03:06 the Seed from coming, is to attempt to kill the Seed. 03:11 And we find this method of the devil illustrated 03:14 in the story of Cain and Abel. 03:16 In that story we have all four elements of Genesis 3:15. 03:21 We have enmity, we have a woman, we have a serpent, 03:26 and we have two seeds. 03:28 And, of course, the story as it develops, 03:31 we find Cain killing Abel. 03:35 And, of course, the devil is is very happy because he feels 03:37 that God's plan has been frustrated. 03:40 Now no Seed can come from this lineage. 03:47 But God knew better. 03:50 And so we find in Genesis 4:25 that God gave Adam and Eve 03:57 another seed. Well, actually, lets read that verse, 04:01 Genesis 4:25. It says: 04:13 And then she explains why he was called Seth. It says there: 04:32 And so through Seth the lineage continues. 04:37 And soon the devil thinks in his mind, If I attempt to kill 04:45 all the seeds, and God brings another seed in place of the one 04:49 that I killed, I'm never going to be successful. 04:52 There has to be a better method of doing away with the 04:56 possibility of this promise of God being fulfilled. 05:00 And so the devil goes to his second plan: Plan B. 05:05 And, by the way, the devil in the course of time, 05:08 after Cain killed Abel, and in the succeeding years he noticed 05:13 that these preliminary seeds were not really the 05:17 Seed that was promised. 05:19 He soon was able to determine that what God was doing 05:24 was preparing a lineage, or a genealogy from which The Seed 05:31 would eventually come. 05:32 And so the devil says, If I cannot kill all of the seeds, 05:36 I'm going to use a different plan. 05:39 What I'm going to do is try and corrupt the lineage, 05:45 corrupt the genealogy. 05:46 And if I can corrupt the holy line, and I can lead them 05:51 to sin, and to forsake God, there'll be no holy line 05:56 through which to bring the Messiah into the world. 05:59 And this is where we come to the story that we would like 06:04 to study in our lecture today. 06:06 The story of the worldwide cataclysm in the days of Noah. 06:11 Actually, this story in Genesis is a type or an illustration 06:18 of events that will take place at the very 06:21 end of human history. 06:22 Lets turn in our Bibles to Matthew 24:37-39, 06:29 Matthew 24:37-39. Jesus understood this story of Genesis 06:38 to be a typological story. 06:40 That means a story which has a prophetic dimension. 06:44 It says there in Matthew 24:37, Jesus is speaking: 06:58 See the comparison there? 07:00 The days of Noah will be very similar to the days when Jesus 07:06 returns. Verse 38: 07:27 So Jesus understood the story of Genesis 6, 7, and 8 07:32 as a type, or an illustration of events which will happen 07:36 in connection with His second coming. 07:39 And so we are to look at the story in Genesis, 07:42 and find the sequence of events, and the lessons which 07:46 illustrate what will take place in the future. 07:49 Go with me to Genesis 6:1-4, Genesis 6:1-4. It says here: 08:21 And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not strive with man 08:26 forever, for he is indeed flesh. 08:28 Yet his days shall be 120 years. 08:32 There were giants on the earth in those days, 08:35 and also afterward when the sons of God came in to the 08:40 daughters of men, and they bore children to them. 08:43 Those were the mighty men who were of old; men of renown. 08:49 Now there are several things that we need to look at 08:52 in this passage. The first thing, and the foremost, 08:57 is the identity of the sons of God and the daughters of men. 09:02 Who are the sons of God, and who are the daughters of men? 09:07 Well, many scholars today, particularly liberal scholars 09:13 who do not believe in the inspiration of scripture, 09:16 believe that the sons of God were angels, and the daughters 09:21 of men were human women, and that the angels came, 09:25 and had sexual relations with the human women, 09:29 and as a result you have what is called the giants 09:32 in Genesis chapter 6. 09:34 I want to tell you that I do not believe that these giants were 09:40 actually the result of the cross breeding of angels 09:43 with human beings. 09:44 And you say, How do you know that? 09:46 Well, first of all, as we read in Genesis chapter 6, 09:51 it tells us that there were giants, not only after the 09:55 sons of God entered into the daughters of men, but it says 09:59 that there were giants before they went in. 10:02 And so the giants were not the product of cross breeding 10:06 between the sons of God and the daughters of men, because 10:10 there were giants before the sons of God entered 10:12 into the daughters of men. 10:13 Now who are these sons of God, and who are 10:16 the daughters of men? 10:17 I must tell you that the Protestant reformers, 10:21 Martin Luther, John Calvin, etc. all believed that the 10:25 sons of God were those who belonged to the holy line of 10:31 Seth, whereas the daughters of men represented the wicked 10:37 women who were found in the genealogy of Cain. 10:41 In other words, the sons of God were the righteous, 10:45 and the daughters of men were the wicked. 10:47 You say, was there any Biblical basis for this view? 10:51 Absolutely! If you look at Genesis 4 you have the 10:54 genealogy of Cain. 10:56 And there are three women mentioned in the genealogy 10:58 of Cain. In Genesis chapter 5 you have the genealogy of Seth. 11:03 And then in Genesis 6:1-4 you have the sons of God 11:07 and the daughters of men. 11:09 So the immediate context of Genesis 6:1-4 is Genesis 4, 11:15 the genealogy of Cain, Genesis 5, the genealogy of Seth, 11:19 and then you have the sons of God and the daughters of men. 11:23 Clearly, according to the context, the sons of God 11:28 are the descendents of Seth, and the daughters of men 11:31 are the descendents of Cain. 11:33 That's the immediate context. 11:35 The broader context is the book of Genesis. 11:40 And in the book of Genesis, as we've seen, 11:42 there is a controversy between two seeds: between the seed of 11:47 the serpent, and the seed of the woman. 11:49 The seed of the serpent, by the way, are human beings who have 11:52 the spirit of Satan. 11:54 Then we have here the sons of God and the daughters of men. 11:57 We have Cain and Abel. 12:00 See the two seeds? 12:01 We have the builders of the tower of Babel, and Abraham. 12:05 We have Isaac and Ishmael. 12:07 We have Jacob and Esau. 12:10 We have Joseph and his brothers. 12:12 The broader context of the book of Genesis indicates that 12:15 the two groups that are at war are human groups. 12:20 It's not an angelic group and a human group. 12:23 And then, of course, you have the broadest context 12:26 of scripture, and that is we need to determine from the Bible 12:29 itself what is meant by the expression, sons of God? 12:33 The sons of God, in other places in scripture, represent those 12:39 individuals who have been converted in their hearts. 12:42 For example, 1 John 3:1 says, Behold what manner of love 12:48 the Father has given us that we should be called 12:50 the sons of God. The sons of God are those who 12:54 have been converted. 12:56 They are the ones from the holy line; 12:58 from the genealogy of Seth. 13:02 So we find that the immediate context, the broader context, 13:07 and the broadest context of scripture, as well as the 13:10 great theologians throughout Christian history, 13:14 have understood the sons of God to be the righteous, 13:18 and the daughters of men to be the wicked. 13:20 Now I'd like to just pause for a moment and ask this question: 13:26 How many people do you think lived in this world 13:30 the day before the flood? 13:32 A thousand, five thousand, fifty thousand, 13:38 a hundred thousand, a million? 13:43 I can assure you that on this earth, the day before the flood, 13:49 there were millions and millions of inhabitants. 13:53 The Bible says that the whole earth was filled with violence. 13:56 You say, Why is this important? 13:58 I'm going to explain the reason why. 13:59 There were 1,656 years which transpired between 14:06 creation and the flood. 14:07 1,656 years in a world where there was hardly any disease; 14:13 in a world where there was no scarcity of natural resources; 14:17 in a world where men lived to be almost a thousand years old. 14:23 How many children can a 969 year old man have? 14:31 I mean when he's 500 he's just middle aged, 14:35 so you could imagine! 14:37 God said, Be fruitful and multiply. 14:39 There's no doubt that the earth was filled 14:41 with millions of people. 14:43 And yet I want you to notice the terrifying thought 14:47 that out of all those millions, and millions of people, 14:51 when the flood came there were only eight 14:56 that remained faithful to God. 15:00 Let me ask you, what was the devil's agenda in this story? 15:04 We have to look at what his agenda is. 15:06 His agenda is related to Genesis 3:15. 15:10 It says the Seed is going to come. 15:12 He's going to crush my head. 15:13 I cannot allow the Seed to come. 15:15 So what does he do? 15:16 He intermingles the righteous with the wicked in the hopes 15:21 that the wicked will swallow up the righteous, 15:24 and there will be no holy line through which to bring 15:28 the promised Messiah into the world. 15:32 In other words, the devil's strategy was Seed centered. 15:37 He said, If I cannot kill all of the seeds, I will corrupt 15:41 the holy line, and in that way the Messiah will not 15:45 be able to come to the world. 15:46 And, folks, the devil's plan almost met with success, 15:51 because there were only eight righteous people left. 15:54 In fact the Bible says that there was one man found 15:56 righteous, and his family tagged along. 15:59 The Bible doesn't say that, but the Bible says that only Noah 16:03 was found righteous, and perfect before the Lord. 16:07 And so the devil's strategy was to get believers to intermingle 16:13 with unbelievers so that they could lose their identity, 16:18 and the holy line would disappear. 16:21 Now let's examine the events that transpired 16:24 before the flood. 16:25 There's a lot more that we could say about the sons of God, 16:28 and the daughters of men. 16:29 Later on in the follow up series that we're going to have, 16:32 we have a whole topic which is titled, 16:35 The Base Crime of Amalgamation, where we're going to deal with 16:39 the sons of God, and the daughters of men 16:41 more specifically. 16:42 But let's examine the events that led up to the flood. 16:45 Notice Genesis 6:5, Genesis 6:5. 16:52 Here we find a description of the condition of the inhabitants 16:58 of the pre-flood world. 17:00 By the way, this is immediately after it says that the sons of 17:03 God intermingled with the daughters of men. 17:06 This is the result that we're going to read now. 17:09 It says there in verse 5: 17:26 Isn't that quite a description of the moral condition 17:30 of the world? Once again, it says, The Lord saw that the 17:34 wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every 17:38 intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 17:44 Notice the superlatives that we find in this verse. 17:48 It was a very, very wicked world. 17:50 And as a result of this wickedness, of the intentions of 17:53 the heart, we find in Genesis 6: 11, 12 the result. It says: 18:05 So God looked upon the earth and indeed, it was corrupt, 18:09 for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 18:13 What a tremendous description of the moral condition 18:16 of the pre-flood world. 18:19 So God says, I'm sorry that I created this world. 18:27 It pained God in His heart. 18:30 And so God says, I'm going to have to destroy the world. 18:34 But before God sends destruction, He always sends 18:38 a message of warning. 18:39 God never destroys a civilization, or a city, 18:43 or an individual without first of all giving them an abundance 18:47 of light to choose the Lord's side first. 18:50 And, of course, God sent a messenger with a message 18:55 for that pre-flood world. 18:56 His name was Noah. 18:58 Notice 2 Peter 2:5 about this message that Noah presented. 19:05 We kind of catch a glimpse of what Noah was like. 19:23 And now notice: 19:32 Do you know that in Genesis it doesn't say that Noah preached. 19:34 It says that Noah built. 19:36 But when we go to 2 Peter it says that Noah preached. 19:39 What did he preach? 19:40 He preached righteousness. 19:43 He called people to be righteous, to obey the law 19:46 of God, to be holy, to change their ways. 19:50 Notice also Hebrews 11:7, Hebrews 11:7 19:57 gives us an additional description of Noah. It says: 20:24 Folks, Noah did not present a politically correct message. 20:29 It was not a smooth message. 20:32 It was not a message that everything is fine, 20:36 and everything is okay. 20:38 His message was a message calling people to repentance, 20:42 to change their ways, and, by the way, it was a message 20:45 of love, because God did not want to destroy anyone. 20:49 And so He's warning the world. 20:51 He's saying, Please have a change of heart, 20:55 and a change of behavior, so I don't have to destroy you. 20:59 This message is strong, but it's a message of God's love. 21:03 Now the interesting thing is that this evangelist didn't seem 21:09 to have very much success. 21:11 Imagine, we live in a world today where people think 21:14 that God is with the large churches, with the majority, 21:19 with where the great crowds are. 21:21 Listen folks, in scripture the majority has 21:26 never been with God. 21:27 It is the minority that is with God. 21:31 In fact, we notice that Noah's preaching only moved the hearts 21:36 of his own family. 21:38 Imagine preaching for 120 years and showing as a result only 21:45 eight souls, and all of them are from your own household. 21:49 I'll bet you that if He had been a pastor of a church today, 21:52 He would have been fired because he had no success in his work. 21:57 But God does not go by numbers, God just asks us to preach 22:03 the message, to plant the seed, and then people decide 22:07 on the basis of what they hear. 22:09 Now I want you to imagine how difficult it was for Noah 22:14 to preach this message. 22:15 Do you know that before the flood it had never rained? 22:18 I'm just going to mention this. 22:20 I'm not going to read the verses, because we don't have 22:22 the time, and by the way, in the copy of the lecture you have 22:25 much more information than what I'm able to give here 22:28 in the time period that we have, because we're doing this, 22:30 of course, for television. 22:32 But I want you to notice several details about the world 22:37 before the flood, as it concerns the way in which 22:39 the world was watered. 22:42 In Genesis 2:5, 6, we are told that the world was actually 22:48 watered by a mist that came up from the earth. 22:51 In other words, God incorporated in the earth a sort of automatic 22:55 sprinkler system, and the sprinkler heads came up, 23:00 and they watered the earth at certain times during the day. 23:04 In other words, the water did not come from above. 23:07 The water that watered the earth came from below. 23:10 Now where did God get the water to do this? 23:13 Well, in Genesis 1:2 we're told that the world was covered 23:16 with water before creation. 23:18 So what God did the second day of creation was take part of the 23:22 water and place it under the earth. 23:24 That's the fountains of waters. 23:26 And He took another portion of the water and He put it above on 23:31 the other side of what Genesis calls the windows of heaven, 23:34 which at this time, by the way, were closed. 23:37 But at the flood the windows of heaven were opened. 23:40 And so God did not invent water for the flood, He simply took 23:44 the water that was on the planet, and He put part of 23:46 the water above, and He put part of the water below. 23:51 So when the flood came God did not have to create water. 23:56 All He did was bring the water that He had placed above 24:01 through the windows of heaven, and He brought the water 24:04 that He had placed below up again, which is called the 24:08 fountains of the great deep in Genesis 7:11. 24:12 Can you imagine Noah preaching to a civilization, 24:17 building a boat on dry land, and saying that water was 24:22 going to fall from heaven when it had never rained? 24:25 I mean he must have been considered a lunatic. 24:29 I don't know how they didn't put him in a mental institution, 24:33 because it had never rained. 24:35 Imagine Noah preaching, there's going to be water coming from 24:39 heaven and from deep under the earth, and it's going to fill 24:42 the earth with water, and that's why I'm building this boat. 24:46 It was absurd, scientifically, and historically ridiculous, 24:52 philosophically impossible. 24:57 And so the people before the flood said. 24:59 But Noah trusted God's word. 25:02 Now allow me to tell you something about faith. 25:04 There's a lot of talk about faith in the Christian world 25:07 today, and there's a lot of definitions of faith. 25:10 Listen, we don't have to complicate what faith is. 25:13 Faith is very simple. 25:14 It means acting upon God's Word. 25:18 God speaks, and we do what God tells us to do. 25:22 God said to Noah, Noah I want you to build a boat. 25:26 He didn't say, What for? 25:27 He said, Okay, I'll do it right now. 25:30 He trusted God, even though it had never rained. 25:33 He said, I believe that what God is saying is true, 25:36 because I believe His Word. 25:37 It's time to build a boat. 25:40 And if you look at all of the other heroes in Hebrews 11, 25:43 you'll find that all of them are acting, all of them are 25:47 doing something based on what God has said. 25:49 God tells Moses, Get out of Egypt with Israel. He gets out. 25:54 God says to Abraham, Get out of thy country, and go to Canaan. 25:57 Abraham says, Lets pack, and lets get going. 26:00 God says to Sarah and to Abraham, You're going to have a 26:03 child in your old age. 26:04 And so Abraham says, It's time to have sexual relations, 26:09 because we believe what God says. 26:11 Are you understanding what I'm saying? 26:13 Noah showed his faith not only by his words, but he showed 26:18 his faith by his what? by his actions, and he invested 26:22 everything he had in that ark. 26:24 He invested his time. 26:26 He invested his talents. 26:28 He invested his money. 26:29 He invested all of his strength. 26:31 There were no distractions, no side issues that he dedicated 26:36 his time and energy to. 26:37 He was unifocused. 26:39 A flood was coming, and I must use everything I am, 26:43 and everything I have for the honor and the glory of God. 26:47 He was different than that civilization. 26:50 By the way, the message of Noah was accompanied by the 26:54 power of the Holy Spirit. 26:55 Notice Genesis 6:3, Genesis 6:3. 27:02 It says here, and God is speaking: 27:23 What was the Holy Spirit doing as Noah was 27:26 proclaiming his message? 27:28 The Holy Spirit accompanied his message. 27:31 The Holy Spirit was striving with the hearts of human beings. 27:36 The Holy Spirit was telling them, Change your ways. 27:39 Change your behavior. 27:41 Receive the Lord, because God doesn't want 27:46 you to be destroyed. 27:47 And his message was with the power of the Spirit. 27:50 But then the moment came. 27:53 The 120 years were almost up. 27:56 Noah now stands in the door of the ark, 28:01 and suddenly something very strange begins to happen. 28:06 From all parts of the earth animals start coming 28:13 to the ark in pairs. 28:15 And, by the way, it's not the Hollywood version. 28:18 In the Hollywood version you have Noah and his sons, 28:22 you know, lassoing the animals, and jerking them, 28:25 and pulling them towards the ark. No! 28:28 In Genesis 7:8, 9, if you'll go with me there, Genesis 7:8, 9. 28:35 We're told that Noah was at the ark, and the animals 28:38 came to him at the ark. 28:40 Genesis 7:8, 9. It says here: 29:04 They went in to Noah. 29:06 And let me tell you something, I believe that God gave us this 29:09 description of the animals because He wanted to show 29:12 that those who lived before the flood had descended 29:15 to sub-animal level, because the animals listened 29:20 to the voice of God, and they obeyed God. 29:23 And human beings, though God spoke to them through the power 29:26 of the Holy Spirit, rejected the voice of God. 29:29 In other words, the brute beasts had more sense 29:32 than the human beings. 29:33 And then, of course, when all of the animals were in the ark, 29:37 Noah stands at the door and makes one final plea. 29:40 Please come in to the ark. 29:44 It's going to rain. 29:45 You're all going to be destroyed. 29:48 They thought it was a myth. 29:51 They thought it was a fable. 29:54 It was scientifically impossible. 29:56 And so in Genesis 7:16, after Noah makes his final plea, 30:04 we find a very significant event that takes place. 30:08 Genesis 7:16 says: 30:28 Who closed the door of the ark? 30:31 The door of the ark was closed by the Lord. 30:35 God closed the door of probation 30:39 for the pre-flood race. 30:42 Now, as soon as the door closed, it started to rain. 30:48 No! Good! Please protest. 30:52 It didn't start to rain as soon as the door was closed. 30:57 How many days transpired after the door closed? seven days. 31:04 Have you ever wondered why God would keep Noah and his family 31:08 in the ark for seven days after the door closed before 31:14 it started to rain, and the world was destroyed? 31:16 Let me ask you this. 31:19 Do you think that the faith of Noah and his family was severely 31:23 tested in that ark? Absolutely! 31:28 One day goes by, two days go by, three days go by, four days. 31:32 No rain, no rain! 31:34 It must have occurred to Noah and his family, Wow, 31:38 what if we were wrong? 31:39 Maybe God has forsaken us. 31:42 Their faith was severely tested. 31:45 How do you suppose the people outside acted 31:48 as each day went by? 31:50 Oh, listen to that! 31:52 Listen to those crazy people in there. 31:54 You can hear the animals. 31:56 Noah's crazy! Look, one day has gone by, two days, three days, 32:01 four days, five days, and there is no rain. 32:04 We're enjoying this out here. 32:06 They're inside with all those animals. 32:09 And each day they became more, and more belligerent. 32:14 These seven days of trial were the triumph for the wicked, 32:20 and they were the trial of faith for the righteous. 32:24 But early on the last day, on day number seven, 32:30 suddenly in the sky began appearing something that 32:35 people had never seen before: clouds! 32:41 And suddenly they hear noises that they've never heard before: 32:45 thunder! And suddenly they see flashes of light 32:50 running across the sky that they have never seen before: 32:53 lightening! And suddenly they begin feeling drops of water 33:00 falling upon their heads. 33:02 How do you suppose they felt? 33:05 Their hearts must have sunk to the bottom of their feet. 33:10 Noah was right! And he's in the ark, and we are outside! 33:17 And they began banging on the door of the ark, 33:20 but God had shut the door, and they could not get in. 33:26 They were lost! Let me ask you, when were the wicked lost? 33:31 When the door closed, or when it started to rain? 33:34 When the door closed. 33:36 Did they know that they were lost when the door closed? No! 33:41 They did not know until when? until it started to rain. 33:45 I want you to remember that, because all of this 33:47 we're going to talk about as being fulfilled 33:49 in the end time as well. 33:51 Now we don't have time to discuss whether the flood was 33:55 some local flood in Mesopotamia, or whether it was a 33:58 worldwide cataclysm, a worldwide flood. 34:00 It's become very common these days for scholars, so called 34:06 scholars, to say that the flood that Genesis describes 34:10 was some local flood over any rock somewhere. 34:14 Now in the resource material that you're going to get 34:17 at the end of the presentation today, you're going to have 34:19 the whole list of reasons why this flood was not some local 34:22 flood. It was a worldwide cataclysm. 34:27 It was a catastrophe. 34:29 In fact, do you know that in the New Testament there are two 34:32 Greek words for flood. 34:34 One word is the normal flood. 34:37 It's the word potamos. 34:38 For example, when Jesus gives the parable about the man who 34:42 built his house upon the rock, and the floods came, 34:44 and he built his house upon the sand, and the floods came. 34:47 The word flood there is potamos. 34:49 But there is a special word that is used for the flood 34:52 in Noah's day. It's not used for any other kind of flood, 34:57 in the New Testament. 34:58 It is the Greek word, Kataklysmos. 35:02 What word do we get in English from Kataclysmos? 35:06 The word kataklysm. 35:08 And, by the way, in 2 Peter 3: 5, 6, the flood in Noah's day 35:16 is called catastrophe. 35:20 This is a worldwide kataklysm. 35:23 It was a catastrophe. 35:26 Now, we need to ask the question, What happened with 35:33 Satan during the flood? 35:35 Well, the textbook that we're using for this seminar, 35:38 other than the Bible, is the book, Patriarchs and Prophets, 35:41 which is a history of least a large portion of the 35:45 of the Old Testament. 35:47 And I want you to notice on page 99, what the author says. 35:51 Satan himself, who was compelled to remain in the midst of the 36:00 warring elements, feared for his own existence. 36:05 In other words, he was obligated to stay on planet earth 36:09 during this cataclysm. 36:11 And, by the way, were all of the wicked wiped out by the flood? 36:17 Absolutely! And when Noah and his family came out of the ark, 36:22 the whole world was cleansed of the wicked. 36:26 By the way, the devil was bound during this period, 36:29 because he had no wicked people to use. 36:31 He was bound during the flood, because he was in a world 36:35 that was in a chaotic state, and all of his followers were what? 36:39 All of his followers were dead, and he was obligated 36:42 to remain on planet earth 36:45 By the way, when the flood came how many groups were there? 36:48 How many groups? two! 36:52 Go with me to Genesis 7:22, 23, Genesis 7:22, 23. 37:00 And we're going to come back to this when we deal with 37:03 the New Testament. 37:04 It says in verse 22: All in whose nostrils was the breath 37:10 of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died. 37:16 So he destroyed... 37:19 Now notice this. 37:20 He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the 37:24 ground, both men and cattle, creeping thing, 37:30 and bird of the air. 37:31 They were destroyed from the earth. 37:34 Only Noah and those who were with him 37:38 in the ark remained alive. 37:42 Now most modern versions say, Only Noah 37:46 and his family were left. 37:49 I want you to remember that word. 37:51 Only Noah and his family were left. 37:54 All of the rest were what? destroyed it says. 37:58 So the wicked were destroyed. 38:01 Noah and his family were what? were left. 38:06 You say, Why is that so important? 38:07 Well, we'll see in a moment. 38:09 Now, have you understood what happened 38:12 at the time of the flood? 38:14 Let me ask you, Are we to expect the same type of sequence 38:19 of events at the end of time? 38:21 Did Jesus say that, As it was in the days of Noah, 38:24 so also will be the coming of the son of man? 38:27 Usually when people study the flood, they say, Oh, yes, the 38:31 world is going to be wicked at the end like it was 38:32 in the days of Noah. 38:33 And God is going to destroy the world because of its wickedness 38:36 like He did in the days of Noah. 38:38 But let me tell you, the parallel is much greater 38:41 than just the wickedness being similar, 38:43 and the destruction being similar. 38:45 There's a whole sequence of parallel events that took place 38:49 then, which are going to take place again. 38:52 Go with me to Matthew 24:37 again. 38:57 We read this passage before. 38:59 Matthew 24:37. Here Jesus is speaking about the flood 39:06 in the days of Noah. He says this: 39:27 By the way, this means life as usual, business as usual. 39:30 And now notice a very important word. 39:38 The first until marks the moment when Noah and his family 39:41 entered the ark. But now notice verse 39. 39:52 There's the second until. 39:57 The word until is used twice: until Noah and his family what? 40:03 entered the ark, and those outside did not know until what? 40:11 the flood came and took them all away. 40:14 How long was there between the first until 40:16 and the second until? seven days. 40:20 What did those outside know until the flood came? 40:23 They did not know that they were what? that they were lost. 40:28 Do you think it's just possible that at the end of human history 40:32 the door of mercy is going to close before the world is 40:37 actually destroyed, and most human beings are not 40:41 going to realize it until the destruction actually comes? 40:47 No doubt! Now if you continue reading here; 40:50 notice Matthew 24, and lets read verse 39 again, 40:57 and then we'll go to verse 40, verse 39. 41:00 And did not know until the flood came and what? 41:03 and took them all away. 41:05 Verse 40: Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken 41:12 and the other left. 41:14 Who are the taken ones? 41:19 Who are the left ones? 41:20 Let me ask it that way. 41:22 You know, most Christians say, The ones that are taken 41:26 are taken to heaven in the rapture, and the ones that are 41:30 left are left behind. 41:31 But in the light of Genesis, we find that the ones that are left 41:36 are the saved. Are you with me? 41:40 And the ones that are taken are the ones who are destroyed. 41:43 It says the flood came and took them all away. 41:46 The wicked are taken away. 41:48 The righteous are left. 41:51 They're left alive. 41:52 In other words, they survive. Is this clear? 41:56 Now let's notice several other interesting parallels. 42:01 Is the world, at the end of time, going to be 42:06 supremely wicked? 42:07 You know, there's passages I could read. 42:11 We don't have time to read them, but they're all 42:12 in the resource material. 42:14 One passage which describes the wickedness of the world 42:17 is 2 Timothy 3:1-5: a long catalog of sins which will 42:23 exist in the last days. 42:25 The list begins by the apostle Paul saying that: 42:32 Self love, the root of all sins. 42:36 And the list ends by saying that people will have a form 42:43 of godliness, without the power of godliness. 42:47 And in-between you have all sorts of sins that are 42:51 being committed. And listen up, those sins are not being 42:54 committed by worldlings, they are committed by people 42:57 who profess to serve God, because they have 43:00 the form of godliness. 43:02 What led Christians into this condition? 43:05 Well, what happened before the flood? 43:08 The Sons of God intermingled with what? 43:13 with the daughters of men. 43:15 The righteous with the wicked. 43:17 And let me tell you what, when the righteous and the wicked 43:20 blend together, the righteous rarely convert the wicked. 43:25 The wicked generally drag the righteous along with them. 43:30 And so the world is going to be filled with wickedness, 43:35 because Christians have joined and blended themselves 43:42 with the world. That's why the apostle Paul said, 43:44 Be not unevenly yoked with unbelievers. 43:49 It doesn't mean that we're not supposed to preach the 43:50 gospels to unbelievers. 43:52 It means that we're not supposed to share their sins. 43:54 We're not supposed to share their habits. 43:56 We're not supposed to practice their entertainment. 43:59 We're not supposed to listen to the same 44:01 things they listen to. 44:02 We're not supposed to go to the same places that they go to. 44:05 We cannot be comfortable and happy watching violence 44:08 and illicit sexual relations on television. 44:11 Which, by the way, it can't be only worldlings 44:15 that are filling movie theaters, and making Hollywood rich. 44:19 The theaters are filled with Christians as well. 44:22 Because at the end of time the world will be in a similar 44:26 condition of wickedness, because the righteous will have 44:29 joined, to a great degree, the wicked. 44:32 Is God going to present a worldwide message of warning 44:37 before destruction comes? 44:39 That warning is found in Revelation 14, Revelation 14:6. 44:45 Revelation 14:6. We don't have time to study all of the 44:49 three angels' messages right now, but we will study them 44:52 in a later lecture in this series. 44:54 Revelation 14:6. It says: 45:10 Is this a global message? 45:12 It most certainly is. 45:13 What does it call the world to? 45:15 It says here in verse 7, Saying with a loud voice, fear God. 45:20 That expression is coupled in the Bible with obeying the 45:24 commandments of God. 45:25 Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour 45:29 of His judgment has come. 45:31 And worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the seas, 45:36 and the fountains of waters. 45:37 In other words, the first angel calls the world, every nation, 45:41 and kindred, tongue, and people to fear God, to obey God, 45:45 to glorify God, to realize that He is their Creator, 45:50 and that they are in the hour of the judgment. 45:53 The same message that Noah gave. 45:56 At the end of Noah's message, how many groups were there? two. 46:01 How many groups will there be when the three angels' finish 46:04 proclaiming their message? 46:06 Revelation 14, Revelation 14:14 explains how many groups are 46:17 there at the conclusion of the three angels' messages. 46:20 It says there in Revelation 14: 46:38 And He is going to harvest the earth. 46:41 He's going to harvest the harvest of the earth, which is 46:44 the righteous, and He's going to harvest the grapes of the 46:47 earth, which are the wicked. 46:48 What does this end time message do? 46:51 It separates the world into two groups, 46:54 just like in the days of Noah. 46:56 Let me ask you, Will the end time message be accompanied by 47:00 the power of the Holy Spirit? No doubt! 47:02 You say, How do we know that? 47:04 Because what ripened the grain in Biblical times 47:08 was the latter rain. 47:09 And the latter rain represents the Holy Spirit. 47:13 The rain represents the Holy Spirit. 47:15 You notice here in Revelation 14:14 that we're told that the 47:20 harvest of the earth is ripe. 47:23 The grapes of the earth are ripe. 47:25 The question is, what ripened them? 47:27 The three angels' messages, accompanied by what? 47:31 accompanied by the rain, the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. 47:36 Is the door of probation going to close for the world before 47:41 Jesus comes? Notice Matthew 25. 47:45 This is the famous parable of the ten virgins. 47:48 Matthew 25:10, one of the better known parables of Jesus. 47:55 It says there: 48:17 Was there a shut door in the days of Noah? 48:21 Who shut it? God. 48:23 Is there going to be a shut door at the end of time? Yes. 48:27 And, by the way, the shut door is not when destruction comes, 48:30 because after the door is shut, the virgins come back, 48:33 and they knock on the door, and they say, Let us come in. 48:36 They had time to go and try and buy oil, and come back again. 48:41 The closing of the door of probation for the world is going 48:45 to come before destruction actually comes. 48:48 In fact, God is going to make an awesome pronouncement. 48:51 It's found in Revelation 22:11, Revelation 22:11. 48:58 Notice what God is going to say when probation's door closes. 49:21 And in the very next verse Jesus says, Behold I come quickly, 49:25 and My reward is with Me, to give everyone 49:28 according to his work. 49:29 Do you see that the door of probation closes 49:33 before Jesus actually comes? 49:35 The filthy will remain filthy. 49:38 The unrighteous will remain unrighteous. 49:42 The holy will remain holy. 49:44 The righteous will remain righteous. 49:46 In other words, there will be only two groups 49:49 when the door of probation closes. 49:51 And when destruction comes, God's people will be spared, 49:55 and the wicked will be destroyed. 49:58 Is there going to be a period of tribulation for God's people 50:02 after the door closes? 50:03 Notice Matthew 24:31, 32, Matthew 24:31, 32. 50:12 By the way, here Jesus is giving the signs of His second coming. 50:15 And so we can connect it with the story of Noah, 50:18 Because as it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be 50:22 at the coming of the son of man. 50:24 Notice Matthew 24:15: 51:04 Now notice this: For then there will be great tribulation 51:09 such as has not been since the beginning of the world, 51:13 until this time, no nor ever shall be. 51:17 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be 51:21 saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. 51:26 A terrible time of trouble, of tribulation is going to 51:31 ensue in this world. 51:33 Are God's people going to be safe and sound? Yes, they are. 51:37 Is their faith going to be severely tested? Yes, it will. 51:42 What is going to happen with the wicked during this period? 51:46 Are they going to become more and more belligerent? 51:48 Are they going to become more and more violent 51:51 against God's people? 51:52 The book of Revelation says that they will even proclaim a death 51:56 decree against God's people, which we'll talk about 51:58 a little bit later on in this seminar. 52:00 So there's a time of trouble ensuing after the close 52:04 of human probation. 52:06 And then, of course, the catastrophe will come. 52:10 And do you know that this world is going to return 52:14 to the condition that it was in before creation, 52:17 and at the time of the flood? 52:19 Do you remember that in Genesis 1 it says in verse 2, 52:22 that the earth was without form and void? 52:25 Notice Jeremiah, Jeremiah 4, Jeremiah 4:23. 52:32 It's describing the second coming of Christ, 52:35 and what happens with the earth when Jesus comes. 52:38 Jeremiah 4:23. Actually, I wish we had time to read verse 19. 52:47 It speaks about God speaking and the trumpet sounding, 52:49 like when Jesus comes. 52:50 But let's just go to verse 23. It says: 53:09 Is this world going to return to the condition it was in 53:14 at the time of the flood? 53:16 Is it going to return to the condition it was in before 53:20 creation, when the whole world was filled with water? Yes! 53:24 The same expression, without form and void, is used. 53:28 Where is Satan going to be during this period? 53:34 Where was he at the flood? 53:35 He was obligated to stay here. 53:40 How many living followers did he have? None. 53:44 What's going to happen to the devil when Jesus comes? 53:47 when the earth is left without form and void, and in darkness? 53:50 Revelation 20 says that the devil will be what? 53:54 The devil will be chained, or bound to this earth, 53:58 in a chaotic state. 53:59 In a disorderly, and void state. 54:02 How many of his followers will be alive? 54:05 None, because the rest of the dead, according to 54:09 Revelation 20:5, the rest of the dead, which are the wicked, 54:13 do not live again until the thousand years are ended. 54:18 Are you seeing the parallels that we find 54:21 in these two stories? 54:23 It's not only the wickedness which is parallel, 54:25 it's not only the destruction which is parallel, 54:28 it is a whole sequence and series of events which are 54:32 parallel. And then, of course, after the thousand years, 54:36 just like after the flood, Noah and his family came out of 54:39 the ark unto a world cleansed from sinners. 54:43 And God's people will come out of the thousand years 54:47 upon a new earth totally cleansed from sin and sinners. 54:52 Now it's interesting as Jesus spoke about the days of Noah, 54:58 and about what's going to happen at the end of time, 55:01 He dedicated more space to tell us how to be ready, 55:06 than He did to give the signs. 55:09 In fact, in Matthew 24, the last part of the chapter, 55:13 and all of Matthew 25, Jesus gives a series of parables 55:17 about how we are to prepare for the soon close of probation, 55:22 and the tribulation, and the coming of Jesus. 55:26 I'm only going to read the references and tell you what 55:30 they contain, as we bring our lecture to a close. 55:33 Once again, in the written copy of the lecture, you can find 55:36 all of these references. 55:38 In Matthew 25:13 Jesus says, Watch. 55:43 Do you know what that means? 55:45 It means to be awake. 55:48 It means to pay attention to what's happening out there; 55:52 to look at the signs that show that we're near the end. 55:56 Don't slumber, don't sleep, stay awake! 56:01 In Mark 13:33 Jesus said, Pray, watch, pray. 56:09 If we're used to praying three times a day, we should now 56:14 pray thirty times a day, because the crisis that we're entering 56:18 is phenomenal. In Matthew 25: 31-46, Jesus says that we're 56:23 supposed to bless others. 56:25 We're supposed to give them our clothing. 56:26 We're supposed to give them food. 56:28 We're supposed to visit them in prison, and so on. 56:31 We're supposed to be living a practical Christian life. 56:35 In Matthew 24:44 Jesus says, Be ready! 56:41 So He says, Be awake, pray, bless others, be ready. 56:46 And, of course, He gives a parable of the talents. 56:49 Use your talents for the honor and the glory of God. 56:53 And finally, in Luke 19:13, Jesus gives a very important 57:01 counsel. He says, occupy until I come. 57:06 Keep busy about the Lord's business. 57:09 Folks, we are on the brink of the close of probation. 57:14 Let us prepare so that we can live forever 57:18 in the kingdom with Jesus. |
Revised 2014-12-17