In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of accepting Jesus as the Son of God and believing in his sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. The speaker also warns about the impending global judgment and the need for personal salvation. The sermon discusses the corruption and violence on earth, attributing it to the mingling of fallen angels and humans, resulting in the birth of giants. The speaker urges listeners to share the message of salvation with their loved ones and emphasizes the accountability of every individual to God.

We are in Genesis chapter 5, working our way through the genealogy here that is presented from Adam to Noah. That is our lineage as we follow through. It was our family that was preserved on the ark, and all of us have come from that family. We had come in our study to really verse 18 as we come to Enoch where it says, And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and he begot Enoch. And Jared lived after he begot Enoch eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died. Remember this pattern, and he died, and he died, eight times. And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and he begot Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God, notice, after he begot Methuselah. We don't know about before he had Methuselah. Sixty-five years old when he had Methuselah. After Methuselah was born, he walked with God for three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Now, Methuselah, no doubt Enoch is given the name by God. We know that he prophesied from Jude, I believe, verses fourteen and fifteen there. It tells us that Enoch prophesied to his own generation, which was ungodly. Of all their ungodly deeds, and of all the ungodly things, they were speaking against God. And again, remarkably, his prophecy was that he saw the Lord coming with ten thousand of his saints. This is the first prophecy that we know of, or the first man that is given a glimmer of the second coming of Christ. Certainly Adam and Seth and Abel, there were others who perceived from God that there would be one who would come to take away sin. They saw the first coming of Christ as Messiah to die on the cross. But Enoch has this vision of the second coming of Christ. Now, we don't know how that's tied in with the birth of this child. God gives him the name Methuselah. And Methuselah means, when he dies, it shall come. And God, no doubt, has told Enoch that a universal judgment was coming. And because of that, name your child Methuselah. And he, no doubt, understood that the age of the earth would be synonymous with the age of his child, that the world would only live as long as Methuselah would live. And when Methuselah would die, universal judgment would come. And again, I think, what a remarkable thing to look at that kid every day, or to call his name, or to tell him to settle down, or tell him, you know, don't jump off of there, you might get hurt. And then think, boy, I don't want him to die today, you know, we'll be out of here. This young child, Methuselah, and the understanding that came with his birth, no doubt had a great impact on the life of Enoch. It was at that point in time that there was brought home to his heart the testimony that God was coming to judge, and that it would take place when his child would die. Now, Enoch is held up in front of us in Hebrews 11 as one of those who lived in faith, not that he believed he would be translated. We don't have any evidence that he knew he would be raptured. All he knew was that judgment was coming, and because of that, it tells us he walked with God. He's the one who breaks the pattern of and he died, and he died, and he died. You and I have a much greater hope. We have a much greater light. And by the way, I think our walk will be much shorter. I'm not expecting to walk with God 300 years before I get raptured. I'm hoping that it's soon. But he's an example held up in front of us because here we are. The Spirit of God is living in our hearts. The Spirit of God is bearing testimony, Jesus says, of things to come. You and I live with, if we're willing to respond to, an impression upon our hearts that bypasses our intellect, but is a spiritual reality and impressing on our hearts the reality of the fact that all of the things around us in the world today tell us that Jesus is coming, that he could come at any time. And Enoch, with less light than that, and less, I'm sure, of an impression than that, walked with God in the midst of a generation that is extremely perverse. And as we move on, we'll see that. And it really leaves us without excuse. Here we are, living in days that are paralleled to the days of Noah. Jesus tells us that. And here we are, the Scripture encouraging us to live separate from the world that we exist in, that we are in the world but not of the world. And I think Enoch is an encouragement to all of us. And yet you and I are expecting to be caught away. He was not expecting to be caught away. He was caught away. It tells us that in verse 24 that Enoch walked with God. And it simply says he was not, for God took him, or God seized him, or God caught him away, is the idea. Now one day, somewhere, he's walking, and he takes one step in this world, and the next step in the next world. We're not sure what was going on. Maybe he was saying, Lord, I can't wait till you get me out of here, or I can't wait till you come. Or maybe he had his hands raised saying, oh Lord. Maybe there was a large crowd of people around him to persecute him. And he just, he just lifted his hands and said, oh Lord, I'm yours, whatever, and disappeared in front of them. I don't know. That would have freaked some people out. But God took him. Now some people, of course, say, well, you know, that was just one person. How can that be a type of the rapture? You know, there's just one guy. Well, in a sense, we are one person also. We're the bride of Christ. We're the body of Christ. We are also one body, one person that will be taken when the Lord himself descends with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God. So Enoch is a very interesting type of the church. That is really the only thing that he fits. He is placed into the scenario before a universal judgment comes, which is a type of the great tribulation. Noah is preserved through, which is the type of the 144,000 and those that will endure that period of time. And Enoch is the third category of people living at that point in time who is taken out ahead of time. Now it says in verse 25, Methuselah lived 187 years and he begot Lamech. And Methuselah lived after he begot Lamech 782 years. And all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died. Now he's the oldest person that ever lived. And it's just like God to do that. You know, God gives him a name. When he dies, it'll come. And it's just a demonstration of God's grace that he lived longer than anyone else ever lived. That while Methuselah was alive, judgment was impending, but not falling. Maybe the skies were getting cloudy, but the rain had not begun. And God preserved his life and preserved his life and preserved his life because God's own word said that in the day that he dies, judgment will come. And Noah was preaching to his generation. The Bible tells us that. Declaring the works of God, challenging them about righteousness. And in grace, God preserved this guy. Ends up working evidently on the ark with Noah. Imagine that, having this guy 850 years old carrying buckets of pitch while you're trying to get, you know, thinking, boy, we're not going to get this done very fast with this guy hobbling around on the scaffolding. We better put railings up. If he falls down, we'll never finish the boat. Now, his son's name was Lamech. In verse 28, Adam lived until Lamech was 56 years old. So Lamech, the father of Noah, undoubtedly had a personal relationship with Adam. Lamech then becomes the one who passes the baton to Noah and instructs him in righteousness. Noah walked before God, no doubt with great instruction from his grandfather Enoch, from Lamech, his father. As soon as the ark lands in chapter 8, Noah sacrifices. He builds an altar. So that very thing that had been taught to Adam at the gate of Eden where the cherubim guarded the way to the tree of life is passed on firsthand to the father of Noah, Lamech. And we get an impression of that in the next verse. It says, he called his name, now his son's name, Noah, verse 29, saying, this same shall comfort. So the name Noah means comfort, rest. This same shall comfort us concerning our work and our toil of our hands because, notice, of the ground which the Lord God had cursed. That's back in 317. He cursed it as he dealt with Adam after the fall. So no doubt he had this concourse with Adam, remarkably. And Lamech lived after he begot Noah 595 years and he begot sons and daughters and all the days of Lamech were 777 years. I must have got something, 595 years in the verse before that. All of his days were 777 years and he died and Noah was 500 years old and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So he started his family late. Now we head into a very interesting portion of scripture that describes to us the days that preceded the flood. And no doubt it wasn't immediately before the flood, but there was a long period of time. As we come to this, and maybe we'll next week talk a little bit about it, I want you to know that there are many who, of course, mock this idea of a universal flood. Most archaeologists will concur that in the ancient writings of the Mayans and the Incas and of the American Indians and the Chinese dynasties in Egypt, in ancient Babylon, in civilizations, ancient civilizations around the world have recorded in their ancient writings a record of a global deluge, of a global flood spread out all around the world. We hear the record of this and of a man that survives with his family, no doubt given different names. And as we get to the 10th chapter, we'll see that it was in those days immediately after the flood, when God dispersed the languages of Babylon, that he also divided the continents and there was a continental drift. And no doubt through that, the record of what had happened had spread around the world. So as we head into this period and this study now, know this, look, the universal flood is in agreement with the strata layers that we see in the earth's surface. Many of them are disrupted. There are trees that run through strata that represent millions of years. They'll find a fossilized tree running through all of those strata. There are places where they'll find the higher forms of life at the upper levels, but there are places where they'll find the higher forms of life petrified lower and the lower forms of life higher, which is a contradiction of difficulties around the world. Lake Titicaca in South America is surrounded with terraces, but it's above the timber line. And there's great evidence that at one point in time, it was much lower before the surface of the earth was changed. And as we come to this flood, know this too, it's going to tell us that it wasn't just the heavens that poured down rain, but it was the fountains of the deep that were broken up and undoubtedly made the major contribution to the flood. There was evidently, it seems at this time, a canopy of vapor around the earth. It says that it had not rained, we're told in Genesis 2, but a mist watered the ground. And it seems in agreement with the idea of the longevity of people at this point in time living 7, 8, 900 years, that a vapor canopy would have screened out ultra violent and infrared light and things that enhance the aging process. We're going to find out that after the flood, after this rain, and after that vapor canopy is cleared, that the age of man is shortened to 70 years. We'll find that as we go on in our study. So there are many things that agree with this idea in geological survey and in archaeology of a worldwide flood. Now, I don't have any problem with it. If you're here and you're a little skeptical about this, you need to do some studying. And you may come to a conclusion and say you don't believe in it. And that's fine if you want to say that. But do me a favor, don't say that the Bible doesn't teach it. Because the Bible teaches it clearly, you may not believe in a virgin birth. Many don't. They call themselves Christians. But just don't say the Bible teaches it because the Bible teaches it clearly. And the flood is clearly taught as one of the great judgments that came upon this world that is a type of the judgment that will also be global at the end of the age. When we look at this, there are great spiritual implications. And I think that's important for us because Jesus says that when he returns a second time, it will be as in the days of Noah. And we know there will be great spiritual activity at that time also. The Antichrist will have taken power. It says that all power is given to him to perform lying signs and wonders. Very interesting word, exousia is given to him. It's what Jesus had as his presence was there in his physical earthly ministry. The king was present when he gave power to his disciples to heal the sick and raise the dead and so forth. It wasn't dunamis. It wasn't the power that's given to the church in the book of Acts. He gave them exousia, which is the right or the authority to do those things because he was present. We don't really read of a spiritual exercise of exousia again until the Antichrist comes on the scene. And he also is given that authority or that right by God to perform any kind of miracle he wants to deceive people. So the second global judgment will also be characterized by great spiritual activity. But now it will be a judgment of fire where this one was one of water. So let's jump into it and we'll see how far we get in this. It says 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 the Lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh. Yet his day shall be a hundred and twenty years. And there were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bear children to them, the same became mighty men which are of old men of renown. So the first thing that's given to us, I think when we think of the days of Noah, we think of the violence that filled the earth. We think of the imagination of men's heart being continually evil. We think of a godless society that had turned to idolatry. And certainly that is characteristic of our age also. But that was also characteristic of many of the ages of Israel. God judged them many times as he carried them to Assyria and to Babylon. They were godless. They worshiped other gods. They were immoral. There was violence. I believe that this universal judgment was in response to something that is a little spookier and much stranger. As we come and are introduced immediately into this idea of the sons of God and the daughters of men. Now, there are two major views of what this is speaking of. One of those views, and you can embrace that if you want to, I don't, is that the sons of God speak of the righteous line of Seth. That in the days then of Seth, there was a godly influence in the earth again because Eve said, God, give me another seed to replace Abel. And that there was a godly line that worshiped Yahweh, the true God. And that as they began to mingle with Cain's lineage and the Canaanite-ish women or an ungodly line, that all was broken down. And because of that idolatry and turning away from the true and living God, that the earth was filled with violence. Now we see that in America. America's problem is not something that can be legislated. America's problem is not something we can throw money at. America's problem is that we have forgotten about God. It is simply that is no other thing. There is a living God that every man is accountable to. We have forgotten that. We have pushed him out of the picture as a nation, pushed him out of our schools, pushed him out of our legislation. But he's coming. So there are those who say this is what was taking place, and it led to the very immoral and violent scene that filled the earth. Now, I can understand part of that, but there are, in my mind, great problems with it. First of all, I don't find a righteous line of Seth anywhere in the Bible. It's an invention. There is no righteous line of Seth. Seth was fallen. He was a sinner. He had to sacrifice at an altar. He was no different than Cain's lineage. He was godless in the sense of his own natural ability. His only relationship with God was was not in and of himself. It was through a lamb that was sacrificed. It was through an innocent substitute. That was his only relationship with God. So he was no more righteous in the natural than the rest of humankind that was alive at that day. Besides that, you won't find in the Bible anywhere a righteous line of Seth. You find a messianic line, and that is filled with harlots. You read Matthew's genealogy. Sinners, David, Bathsheba. You go through that line, and there's nothing righteous at all about it. Besides, there's an antithesis set up in the language of the sons of God and the daughters of, when it uses man, it's the daughters of humankind or the daughters of mankind. And in the language itself, there's an antithesis between the sons of God and the daughters of humankind. There's nowhere where it says the daughters of God and the sons of humankind. It strictly says the sons of God and the daughters of humankind, and that what was produced out of that union were giants. Now, we know that when an unbeliever marries a believer, that that's something that God prohibits in the New Testament. He says we shouldn't be unequally yoked, that there is no concourse between Christ and Belal. There's no communion between light and darkness, and you read it in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 that that shouldn't happen. But there are many in our own fellowship here that are married to an unbeliever. Some have compromised and out of desperation put on their sunglasses of optimism and saw this person in the best light possible and took them off again after they got married and realized what happened. There are some, of course, that are saved, where the husband or wife gets saved, and then they're in a situation where they're married to someone who's a non-believer. But we have not yet observed any of them having giants for children. I mean, our nursery would be speckled with monsters, because many of the children back there come from families where the mom or dad is a Christian and the other spouse isn't. We find none of that. We find this term, sons of God, Bene Elohim, three other times in the Bible, Job chapter 1, Job chapter 2, and Job chapter 38. All three places, it speaks of angels, the sons of God. You see, because to be a son of God, you have to be a direct creation of God. That's why when you read the genealogy of Jesus in Luke's gospel, it says, so-and-so is the son of so-and-so, the son of so-and-so. All the way back, it says Seth was the son of Adam, and then it says who was the son of God, because Adam was a direct creation of God. Now, you and I in the New Testament are the sons of God, in that when Christ comes and dwells in our hearts, we are a direct creation. We're a new creation. But there were none of the fallen men that were believers in the Old Testament that were called sons of God, in that sense. So the sons of God, Bene Elohim, everywhere else in the Old Testament, it's speaking of angels. You can look the verses up. The Bar Elohim, which is a close phrase, it's in Daniel, and there in Daniel, I believe 325, speaks of one in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three of them in the fiery furnace. A fourth appears. Nebuchadnezzar says, wait a minute, didn't we throw three guys in? They say, yeah. And he said, how come there's a fourth guy in there with the appearance of a son of God? Bar Elohim. We find the Bene Elim in two Psalms, which is a close phrase. Psalm 29.1 and Psalm 89.6, both of them are speaking about angels. So everywhere else in the Old Testament clearly speaks of angels. The Septuagint translates this phrase, instead of the sons of God, the angels of God. So does the ancient Syriac, so did the old Latins, so did the early church fathers. It was, I believe, Ambrose. It was two of the early church fathers were the first ones to change from that position. All the ancient rabbis held that these were the angels, fallen angels. Josephus, in his writings, says these were the fallen angels. That rebelled against God and tried to enact a rebellion that would stop the Messianic seed. God had said to the woman, I will put enmity between your seed and the seed of the serpent. And Satan understood, well, there had to be a kinsman redeemer, one born of humankind, who then would shed his blood to be a kinsman redeemer and pay the price for humanity. And so they began to intermingle with this human race. Now, the argument against that biblically is in Matthew 22. There, the Sadducees come to Christ and they say to him, Lord, we have a question to ask you. There was a man, took a wife, died before he had any kids. You know that the Levitical law said then his brother has to raise up seed to his brother. So the second brother took her. He died. Third also, fourth. You know, you always think I'm the fifth brother. I'm out there. I'm not marrying this lady. But it goes down to the seventh. All of them had her. They all died. The Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection. So they're mocking Christ. They say in the resurrection, whose wife is she going to be? They all had her. Jesus said, you do err in that you neither know the power of God nor the scripture. He says, because in the resurrection, we are like important phrase, the angels of God in heaven, not the fallen angels that are not in heaven. We are like the angels of God in heaven, who neither marry or are given in marriage. Now, there are those who immediately say, well, the angels are sexless. There is not. And even in your old Scofield Bible, there's a note there, Matthew 22, there is not a sexless angel anywhere in the Bible. Every single angel in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is male. You will not find a sexless angel in the Bible. Study and see for yourself. Now, what does that mean? I'm not sure. I don't know that much, but I certainly know they're never spoken of as sexless. Second Peter and Jude, I believe, give us an insight if you want to turn there. In fact, turn to Jude first. Jude here gives three examples of those that are a type for all ages of coming under the judgment of God, which were the those in the land of Egypt, the angels and Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude, your pages are still rustling. You know where it is, all the way to the right before Revelation. Jude, verse six says, And the angels, which kept not their first estate or principality, their position, but they left, erudite tense, once and for all, they left their own habitation, their position. He hath reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. So we know this. There were angels who left their estate and sinned. It doesn't tell us in verse six specifically, but we know that. They were angels. They left behind their position in a once and for all act. They sinned and they are reserved in judgment and chains. Verse seven is important because it says, even as the Greek grammar is relating back to verse six, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, very key phrase, in like manner to toys in the Greek, it means in, it has to refer back to the angels. It's the rule in the grammar. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in like manner as the angels giving themselves over to fornication, strange idea, and going after strange heteros, strange other flesh, they are set forth for an example of suffering and vengeance. Very much inescapable in the grammar that the angels sinned by fornication. It is something that scholars flee from because it is a very, very strange idea. It's a very spooky idea and it's Christmas time and why don't we just move on and who wants to mess with this? Turn to second Peter. Second Peter chapter two, verse four says this, for if God spared not the angels that sinned, there it is again, but cast them down to hell, this is Tartarus, it's the only place we have this in the New Testament. We have it in classical Greek literature, speaking of a place under Hades, the lowest place, Tartarus. Peter says they sinned, they've been cast down to Tartarus, they are then delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment and spared not the old world. Now see, Peter ties it into this same era, but save Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness and very important phrase, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. It doesn't say anything about a righteous line of Seth, it says the world was ungodly. Turn to first Peter, should be a page to the left. Chapter three, beginning at verse 18, and this is a tough passage, by the way, it's tough to fit in the context of the chapter, and it's tough to exegete because it doesn't seem to agree with the context. Verse 18 says, for Christ, chapter three, verse 18 of first Peter, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive by the Spirit, by which, the idea is in the power of the Spirit, he also went, grammar, from one place to another, and preached, now this is not evangelizo, this is not the gospel, he went in his carousel, he made a proclamation, he went and preached, he proclaimed unto the spirits, this is Numa, this is not souls in prison, now we just read twice about the angels are put in prison, if you get your basic help of Vine's expository dictionary, it tells you right here, that this word is speaking about fallen angels or demons, and not humans, the only place we read about spirits, Numa, referring to men in the other state, is in Hebrews 12, where it talks about the spirit of just men made perfect, when we have this word, this is not talking about the souls of men, Jesus went in the victory of his resurrection, and he proclaimed to the spirits that were in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the day of Noah, that dates it again, while the ark was preparing, wherein a few, that is eight souls, were saved by water, now I believe what it's saying is that Jesus, and I believe this is personally after his physical body was raised, because it says, oh death where is thy sting, oh grave where is thy victory, there was no victory to proclaim until after that, somewhere between his resurrection and his ascension, he went and not preached the gospel, you know, we have the idea from, and it's a long story from Ephesians, of leading the captives out, it doesn't say that, it says he led captivity, not captives, he led captivity, death itself, captive, it wasn't until the third century, they put into the apostles' greed, that he descended into hell, it was never in there, it says he crucified under Pontius Pilate, died, rose again on the third day, they put that in there, even Calvin in his institute says that Christ suffered in hell for three days, no he didn't, he's on the cross, he said it is finished to tell us I paid in full, he said to the thief next to him, today you'll be with me in paradise, he said father in thy hands I commend my spirit, the work was done, was paid for once and for all, no need of three more days, you have Copeland and some of these guys saying Jesus descended into hell and had to be born again to get out of hell, blasphemous, but what he did do after his resurrection is he went and made a proclamation to the fallen angels who tried to prevent the messianic line in the days of Noah and dangled the keys of life and death in front of them and proclaimed his victory, he did do that, so back in the days of Noah, Genesis, we have some very strange things going on, I don't know all about it, I know if you're honest in your exposition of it and your exegesis of it, it is a strange idea, it is an easy to deal with, it says it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and by the way if you read Morris' commentary or any of the scientists, they take the most conservative estimates, if they say, in fact Morris says if you take the average lifespan being 400 years, and it isn't, it's over 800, he said but if you take the average lifespan at this time of being 400 years, we have 1675 years I think or 1676 from Adam to the flood, they can figure that out by the ages of the different men in this fifth chapter, if you take those years, close to 2000 years, you figure the average person lived to be 400, he lived to be older than that, and you give the average person 3 sons and 3 daughters, by the time the flood comes, and most scholars estimate between 5 and 7 billion people living on the planet, because Adam died when Lamech was 50 years old, I mean many of those born right at the beginning were still alive, it wasn't like people were dying in 70 years, so we had a tremendous population on the planet at that point in time, I think sometimes we don't realize that, it talks about daughters being born to them, that at that time the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, the idea is to look upon, desirable, and they took them, wives, women, the same word, it doesn't have to be wives, they took women of all, now the idea of taking them isn't that strange, it's a common word in the Old Testament for taking a wife, but the idea of taking all that they chose adds violence to the idea of this text, they just, whoever they picked out, whenever they picked out, they just took them for themselves, and the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, and it's interesting, in the Hebrew this is implied, and that's why it's written in King James, for that he also is flesh, speaking of these fallen angels producing something with blood, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years, now it doesn't mean that man will live to be 120, what it's saying here is in 120 years the judgment will come, scholars are almost universally agreed about that, what God is saying is I'm not always going to strive with man, there's a point in time where I am done striving with a man, or striving with a woman, and I believe by the way that that can be applied on a personal basis, if you're here this evening, and you don't know Christ personally, the only reason you could be sitting here listening to this, is because the spirit of God is striving with you, God, Jesus said no man comes unless the Father draws him, there's no way you'd be sitting in here listening to me talking about all this weird stuff, instead of being out Christmas shopping, unless God was drawing you, unless his love was set upon you, unless his affections of his very heart were upon you and your eternal destiny, but there is a point where God says I no longer strive, it is with an individual, again with a nation, God measuring the time, the lifespan of this nation morally, not by the calendar, and there's a point in time where God realizes there will be no more redemption out of this group of people, and then he brings judgment, so he's looking at the earth at this point in time, filled with this corruption, this mingling of fallen angels and humankind, he's looking at the violence that's produced in all of this, he's looking at the corruption and idolatry that no doubt were intricately involved with that very act of the fallen angels and women, and the cohabiting, and the production of this Nephilim, these giants, and God says I will not always strive, man also his flesh, his days, now 120 years before the judgment comes, verse 4, there were giants in the earth in those days, now a very important phrase, and also after that, here's how it happens, when the sons of God come in unto the daughters of men, and they bear children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, notice this, of renown, now we have in Babylon, the epic of Gilgamesh, you have in the ancient Egyptian writings, particularly in the Greek mythology, we constantly hear about the mingling of the gods and men, that's where Ulysses, and Hercules, all these demigods, half man, half God, all of this intermingling produced, the mythology was born of something, and it says, and this is important, that the giants, the Nephilim, the fallen ones, it's a plural, were in the earth, not only in those days, but also after that, now this is important, if only the righteous line of Seth was preserved on the ark, where did the giants come from afterward? If only a righteous line was preserved on the ark, and all that was flesh was destroyed in the flood, how was it that we have another outbreak of these giants, the very seven tribes of the Canaanites that are mentioned, the Rephium, the one tribe, is a tribe of giants, we're going to find out as we head off now into Genesis, and into Deuteronomy, and coming into Canaan, that there's the Anakin, there's the Zamzumim, there's the Emims, there's the Amims, there's the Rephium, there are tribes of giants, they have found in Bashan, and Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown list the archaeologists, and where photographs are, back before that territory was separated into Syria, and into Palestine, to Israel, and into Jordan, up in the plains of Bashan, up in the southern parts of the Golan Heights, they found basal houses with 18-foot ceilings, six-foot hinges that were rotted that had been on the doors, where it says at one time there were 60 cities of giants, this is afterwards, it gives the measurement of Ogs, strange name, big guy, nobody made fun of him, his bed 13-foot long, either his bed or a sarcophagus, this is a big person, this is not a 7-foot-2 tall and lanky basketball player, this is a 13-foot person built in normal proportions, that's spooky, it says they were in the earth afterwards, the only reason they were is because the flood did not kill spiritual beings, it killed flesh, and God took the angels that rebelled at that time, bound them, but no doubt there was an outbreak again later, soon as the promise was made to Abraham and Satan saw clearly again where the plan of God was going, there were giants again, and to resist the plan of God from going forward, even down to David and Goliath and that family, which were the last of the Anakin, one of the races of giants, now Moses, by the Spirit of God, is the one who writes the book of Genesis, and he says that there were giants, the Nephilim in the land in those days, the same writer, Moses, as he writes the book of Numbers, he tells us about the spies going into the land, with Joshua and Caleb, and the 10 other spies, when they come back from the land, the other 10 spies say, you know, Joshua and Caleb say, let's go in and get these guys, and the other guys say, you must be crazy, we saw there, there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of, now it uses the word giants in King James, they come of the Nephilim, of the fallen ones, same word that we have back in Genesis, same writer, and we're in our sight, we were in their sight as grasshoppers, you know, Joshua and Caleb say, we could stab these guys in the knees, when they bend over, we'll stab them in the eye, you know, we're not afraid of these guys, God is with us, very strange things happening, now, the only reason this kind of mystifies me, and you know, look, if you've been here for any length of time, we teach the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, normally I'm pretty sane, so you can put out my insanity one time, and you're safe, because I always tell you, don't believe me, be bereaved, study the word of God for yourself, I've got all this perfect, but the reason that it interests me, is because Jesus says, in more than one place, it will be as in the days of Noah, when the Son of Man comes, and I see this proliferation of the X-Files, the three different UFO movies this summer, you know, just all this strange stuff that's surrounding us, and I look at how many people are realizing that evolution is falling apart, so they're only left with creation, they don't like that, and now there's this other alternative, you know, we're hearing about life on Mars, and well, let me tell you something, anybody flying around out there, they are demons, they're Nephilim, there's no, this is no superior life from outer space, some guy's gonna show up with a big head and dark eyes, and little spindly arms, and be more, this is not, this is nothing normal, this is satanic deception, this is not, you know, and by the way, I am convinced that they are restrained, it says in 2 Thessalonians that the man of sin is not gonna be revealed until that which restrains us, speaking of the Holy Spirit, removes himself, and I think what's being restrained around us is a lot stranger than just immorality and violence, I mean, if this is the restrained version of immorality and violence, I can't imagine what's coming, look at the abortion rate, look at the, look at the immorality, look at the insanity we see around us, I think there are spiritual forces that are being restrained until the church is out of here, I don't expect to see any of this weirdness until I get to the mezzanine, but I think it's coming to deceive the entire world, here God brings a universal judgment to deal not just with the violence and immorality of man, but with Satan tampering with all of this at the same time, and I think there's some very strange things going on, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, now that sounds a lot like today, God measuring time morally, he sees at this point that's all man can think of is evil, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart, now we come to an interesting idea here by the way as we enter into this verse, God repenting, and we're going to find that through the Old Testament, you have to realize this, when it uses that word it is not talking about repentance the way you and I understand it, we're human beings, when we repent, we repent of our sin, the metanoia, the changing of the mind, turning away from sin, now that can't be the same thing for God, because he has no sin to turn away from, it gives us a little bit of an indication on the second word here is different, where it says it repented the Lord, then when it says it grieved him, it meant that he was cut to his heart, this word repentance when it's applied to God, it often has the meaning sometimes of just sighing with a broken heart, and when man observes God's actions changing, he interprets that as well God is changing his mind, well God never changes his mind, he knows what's going to happen before it happens, but God says this to humankind, and he says this to you, if you obey me and you walk in my ways, you will be blessed, these things, you know, these kinds of things will surround your life, if you rebel and turn away from me, then these kinds of things will surround your life, so if we walk with God and love God, and then we backslide and turn away, and end up with a black eye, or broken arm, or venereal disease, does that mean God changed his mind? No, it means he kept his mind the same, because he has set out a judgment that will never change, his ways never change, and his way is, when man walks with him and pleases with him, his blessing is there, when man turns away and is rebellious, that God then brings judgment and chastening on his own, by man observing those activities, he can think that God has changed his mind, no, those things happen because God never changes his mind, the way that's communicated to us at times in the Old Testament is that God repented that he had done this, you know, he comes to a point where man now is completely turned away from him, and there is a sigh and a cutting to the heart of God, God is vulnerable to his creation, this is an unimaginable thing to us, Hosea talks about the fact that the nation brought pain to the heart of God, God said to Hosea, Hosea go out and you marry this prostitute, you have children, and then when she turns away from you, and you feel what it's like to have somebody commit adultery on you and be unfaithful to you, then you'll be able to be the prophet after my heart, because you begin to know the pain that I feel in regards to the nation of Israel, and then not only do I want you to sit there and be hurt, but I want you to go back and spend the money, the price of a servant, the silver, and purchase her back, the price of redemption, bring her back to yourself, because he said it's not only that my heart is broken about these people, I'm going to come in human flesh, I'm going to die on a cross, I'm going to redeem them to myself, and in all of this remarkably, you know, we're told in the New Testament not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. For you and I to write that, it would have been blasphemy, but God's allowed to say it about himself, that you and I, with our actions, can cause him pain. That's the cost of love, and he loves us like no one has ever loved us before, and here when it speaks of God repenting, he is cut to the heart, is what it says in the this last word, grieved. Numbers 23 19 said God is not man that he should repent in that sense, but the idea is God realized, now this is turned away, now they will bear the brunt of eternal judgments that I have set into action from the creation of the world, and the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace, the first time we hear the word grace in the Bible. Noah, who was a sinner, when we get to the eighth chapter, we'll see him offering sacrifices, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, not because he was perfect. The next verse is tough, these are the generations of Noah, his family, Noah was a just man and perfect, tamim in the Hebrew, interesting word study, in his generations, and Noah walked with God. It's used of Job of being an upright man, but the word is more properly through the Old Testament, and by far it's used in regards to the physical inspection of sacrifice, this perfect here is in several rare occasions applied to an upright individual. All of the rest of the hundreds of times it's used, it's applied where it says that the sacrifice must be without spot and blemish, and it talks about the physical perfection of the sacrifice, not of the moral condition. And there are those who feel that this thing with the sons of God was so far spread that God looked at Noah, and Noah's lineage, his family, was one of the only lineage that was upright, that was towards him, his heart was towards him, that was not corrupted, that he was perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I believe he had them while building the ark, by the way. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Now look, even if you think a lot of the things I said tonight are crazy, then that's okay. If you take the things that you can relate to, that immorality, the imagination of man's heart being continually evil, the earth being filled with violence, we can see the days of Noah around us just in those things, without any supernatural influence. And of course, there is a supernatural influence behind all of that. And God looked upon the earth, verse 12, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. That's a remarkably broad statement. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Now, again, a very severe judgment if we're only looking at an outbreak of idolatry or immorality. There is something here with great, great consequence that's taking place that I think is supernatural. Now to Noah, make thee an ark of gopher wood. Rooms, everywhere else that word rooms is translated nests in the Old Testament. Rooms, nests, shalt thou make in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within, and isn't this interesting, within and without, with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make of it. Now, this is a remarkable construction, undoubtedly, as we look at it. It is about the size of the Titanic. Well, that's a bad analogy, because that one sank, this one floated. Over 400, you know, it depends whether you're the long cubit, the short cubit. You know, the idea is this thing, as we read through it, the description of this ark has the cubic feet of 150 boxcars. 1,400,000 cubic feet measured by the short cubit. 522 boxcars. 522 boxcars. Every creature today, two of every species could fit in just 150 boxcars. This is 522 boxcars of cubic space. And it's very interesting, everywhere else, where this word pitch here, pitch it within and without, to cover, it's translated 70 times to make atonement. Here's the only time it's translated pitch. And of course, the ark is a type of Christ. We're preserved, you know, and very interesting, the pitch is within and without. You know, I look at this and I think, you know, I think God was trying to preserve this thing. If he would have just pitched it on the outside, I think this boat still has a role to play, by the way. That's why I think it was pitched on both sides. You know, Marco Polo, when he traveled in his log, and we have parts of his record, said when he came to Mount Ararat, he stayed at St. James Monastery. And the monks there showed him crosses that they made of the gopher wood of the ark, that when there was a warm summer and the glaciers would die back, that the monks would go up to the ark. They knew where it was. I mean, there are so many records through history, all the way up to the 1970s, where we have some remarkable aerial photographs and so forth. The great influence in Turkey today is Islam and communism. Now, it's not good for either one of those if you find a boat 5,000 foot up in the air. So there's not a real openness at this point in time. But I still think this thing has a role to play. It was pitched within and out. It was preserved. I think God has a purpose for it. But today, as we build our ships, our ratios are basically 7.2 to 1. This is about a 6 to 1 ratio. It's very, very close to our modern naval technology in regards to displacement. But it was made to drift as more like a barge than to cruise. But this is the fashion of it now, Noah is told. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, over 450 foot. The breadth of it shall be 50 cubits, over 75 foot wide. The height of it shall be 30 cubits, over 45 foot high from the bottom. We're not told if it has a keel to the top. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. And the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. Now, once they were in the ark, the only way they could see light was to look up. The only place that was light and fresh air was under the eaves around the top of part of the construction. And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood, the Hebrew word means a catastrophe, of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven. And everything that is in the earth shall die. This was not a local flood like some try to make it. Everything upon the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant. This is the first time the word covenant is used in the Bible. And all of us are part of this covenant. Our life is here today because we are part of Noah's family, every one of us. With thee will I establish my covenant. Thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and female, of fowls after their kind, of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every sort shall come, notice, shall come unto thee. It isn't as though Noah is there with old Methuselah, his three sons, trying to build a Titanic by himself in his driveway, thinking how am I ever going to go like Frank Buck, bring them back alive and get all these animals while I'm building a boat. It says God brought them. Two of every sort shall come unto thee. Now, it took them over a hundred years to build a boat, so there's plenty of time. To keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee and for them. Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. You know, it's interesting as we come to Hebrews 11 and we read of Noah, he's the only character there whose testimony begins with faith and ends with faith. Imagine this. God comes to this guy, he's already 500 years old, and says, Noah, it's going to rain. Well, the Bible tells us it never rained. Noah had, you know, God might as well have said it's going to snark. You know, Noah, it's going to canarf, build a boat, you know. What is rain? Noah must have said. You can see how Bill Cosby gets his, you know, what is rain? Water's going to fall out of the sky. It never happened. Okay? Build a boat. Okay? You know, a hundred years, this guy and his family is building a boat in the driveway. Imagine the neighbors. Yeah, he started it when your grandfather was around, you know. I mean, we've been watching this. Our family comes to annual Noah Day picnics. We've done this for three generations now. Come here to make fun of Noah and his family. And old, whatever his name is up there. And again, imagine he's cut down every tree in the neighborhood. I can't, you know, he's pitching it within and without, working, building over a hundred years. Imagine the heat that he took. Imagine the mockery. You know, don't feel bad when you try to tell your friends and relatives, you know, I believe Jesus Christ is coming, Mom. I believe, you know, and I encourage you, it was 20 years, me witnessing to my mom before she accepted Christ. 20 years. I don't mean to discourage you if you're just getting started, because a lot, a lot, a lot go faster. And I think a lot of them have to go faster because I'm not sure there's 20 years left. But you know, you just take that heat from your family. I mean, you grow up, I don't know about you, I grew up in a family that had religious, quote unquote, things. You know, we had palms in our room, Palm Sunday. We had Easter eggs on Easter, had something to do with Jesus, I wasn't sure. We celebrated Christmas and Easter. Most of us went on those two days. I made my first communion, was confirmed and all that stuff. I had no idea what was going on. Got presents, that was important. But what a drastic change it is, all of a sudden, when you say, I've met Christ personally. You know, he's saved me, he's washed me, he's cleansed me, he speaks to me. He says, look what the Bible says. You know, when the author moves in, the book just opens up in a wonderful way, comes to life. And you try to tell your friends and relatives, it's so important to me, Mom, so important to me, Dad, that you would turn to Christ. You know, because I don't want to be in heaven without you. I want you to be saved. I want to sit in church with you with our hands raised, with our Bibles on our lap. I want you to be there. And you know what that's like. I mean, the great thing, you know, about my kids is I believe all the four of them are saved. And that, you know, whatever happens, you know, I can close my eyes and know that I'm not, it's not goodbye, but it's see you, see you in the morning. What is there besides that? So yeah, we're here. You know, the Bible says that we should be able to give an account to every man that asks us with the hope that we have, because we're going to see Enoch's prophecy, the Lord coming with 10,000 of his saints. We're part of those saints that Enoch saw returning to set up the kingdom. Certainly one of the very difficult things to explain to your friends and relatives is that before that, we're going to disappear. It's not an easy one. It's not the most important one. The most important one to explain is Jesus was the son of God. He died on the cross for your sins. If you turn to him and ask forgiveness and repent, you will have eternal life. That's the most important thing to communicate. The rest will come. If you're here this evening, and you don't know Christ personally, look, we are headed towards another global judgment. I mean, even without the Bible, you have to have a sense of that. I mean, we have a four earth arsenal, we could blow up every inch of the planet four times over with our nuclear arsenal. The Russians have a five earth arsenal. And now all kinds of quacks have nuclear weapons. I mean, just look at where we are. You have to have a sense even as an unbeliever, that we are in a pickle, you know, this planet, this human race. Well, the Bible clearly speaks of all the things that are happening. And if you ask Christ in your heart, you will be spared all of that. You will have life beyond the grave, you'll have forgiveness of sin. So I encourage you if you're here this evening, and you don't know Christ personally, before you slip out the door at the end of the service, come down and pray with us. We'll give you a Bible, give you some literature to read. And I know it's a difficult thing to walk up to another human being and say, I want to be saved. But look, you're gonna have to walk the rest of your life without being ashamed of Jesus. So this is no big deal, this first step. The Bible says, if you're ashamed of me before man, I'll be ashamed of you. But Jesus, if you're not ashamed to do that act, to say, pray with me, I want to ask Christ in my heart, if you're not ashamed, Jesus says to do that, neither will he be ashamed of you before his Father and before all the angels of heaven. So I encourage you if you are not a believer before you leave. It is a simple act of faith, has nothing to do with religion, has nothing to do with Calvary Chapel, has nothing to do with any denomination, has simply to do with you and the one who's risen from the dead, who died for your sins. On the other hand, look, if you're if you are a believer, and you're and you're living in compromise, I want to say something. First of all, you hurt all the rest of us. Because the Bible says, you know, we're all one body, we're joined every joint, every ligament supplies, if you're living in sexual sin, you're taking drugs, you weaken all of us, you know, you, you have an effect on the entire body, we need you healthy, we need you vibrant, we need your gifts functioning, whether it's an exhortation, or whether it's mercy, or whether it's helps or government, we need you, we need you in these days, we don't need the influence of the world, we're fighting that we're moving we need you as a brother or a sister in Christ, healthy, vibrant, looking forward to the coming of the Lord and encourager, a builder. That's what we're looking for. So I encourage you if you're compromised, if you're away from Christ, you simply by turning back to him. As the prodigal, you can find him with his arms opened, with a willing heart to embrace you, and to draw you to himself.