Thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right, everybody. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If we could go ahead and take our seats, we'll get started with our first song for tonight.
Go ahead and take out your hymnal and turn to song number 165, O Worship the King.
Song number 165.
Song number 165, O Worship the King.
O worship the king, all glorious above, And gratefully sing his wonderful love.
Our shield and defender, the ancient of days, Pavilion in splendor and girded with praise.
O tell of his might and sing of his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose cannot be space.
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, And darkest his path on the wings of the storm.
Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite, It breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
It streams from the hills, it teases to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail.
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end, Our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.
Amen.
That's a word of prayer.
Dear Father, we just thank you that we could be in your house this Wednesday night to hear the preaching of your word,
and I just pray you bless Pastor Shelley right now and fill him with your Holy Spirit,
that he could edify the people here and help us, Lord, to just increase in our wisdom tonight as we hear the Bible preached.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Next song is going to be song number 167, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name.
It's a couple pages over.
Song number 167, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name.
On the top.
All hail the power of Jesus' name, Let angels prostrate fall,
Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown him Lord of all.
Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, Ye ransomed from the fall.
Hail him who saves you by his grace, And crown him Lord of all.
Let every kindred, every tribe, On this terrestrial ball.
To him all majesty ascribe, And crown him Lord of all.
O that with yonder sacred throng, We at his feet may fall,
We'll join the everlasting song, And crown him Lord of all.
You can do either six or seven, all right, if there's a mistake there.
On the inside we have the service times and the soul winning times, as well as the
regional soul winning times. I'm going to get a count for the last few
days. Was there anything to report for Monday?
Anything on Monday? Two for Monday.
All right, two for Monday. What about Tuesday?
Anything for Tuesday? All right, two for Tuesday.
What about today? Was there anything from today?
One? All right, keep up the great work on
soul winning. And then on the right we have our
expecting ladies. Please keep them in your prayers, as
well as our prayer list. If you have any prayer requests
throughout the week, you can always send those in through our
email. We have the Adares.
They actually had their baby boy, Samuel, and I think him and his mom are doing
really good. And so please just keep them in
your prayers. But the pregnancy came to fruition,
and so they have a little Samuel there.
Also, Rebecca Negara is her elf.
Brother Hinckley, he was exposed to some chemicals,
so just continued prayer for his lungs and just breathing.
Miss Amelia with some health issues.
Also the Scott family, if you would be in prayer for
Brother Horace and Sister Grace and Elijah.
We'll just say a quick word of prayer for those that were mentioned.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our church, and for those
that are listed here, and for those that even have
other prayer requests, that you just bless them,
give them favor, give them health, that you continue
to bless our church services, that you would allow us
to continue to go out and preach the gospel,
that you bring us more laborers, and that we give you
all the honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Our Texas-Oklahoma Eastern Memorial weekend is going to be
coming pretty soon, April 1st through the 4th.
I got all that information compiled.
I'm going to try and get that out as soon as possible,
as far as a video and just the website of all those times.
But we have lots of different soul winning times
that are going to be happening, and so really excited about that.
Hopefully we can get a lot of people saved.
We have our ladies' tea on May 8th, as well as
our men's conference on May 20th through the 22nd.
There was also a couple other ones that weren't in the bulletin,
but April 17th there was a spring swap by
Ms. Natasha Zermano. Sister Natasha is going to organize that.
So if you'd like to participate, you can see and ask her
for any of those questions. It's going to be
9 a.m. to about 3 p.m. in the afternoon.
And basically, if it has value but you don't want it,
you can bring it. If you don't want it,
it doesn't have value, it's called the trash, okay?
And then you can throw that and dispose of that yourself.
But if it does have value to someone, you can bring it.
Any item that's not collected will then be donated
to Goodwill or some other charity.
And so basically, if you don't retrieve it back,
you lose it, all right? And also, I think on May 1st,
there is a baby shower in honor of Sister Argy
and Sister Kim Fae. So a combined baby shower for them
if you want to put that on your calendar as well.
So that's pretty much all I had.
Four announcements at this time.
Let's go ahead and sing our third song for the evening.
Holy, holy, holy in your handout. Holy, holy, holy.
If you need one, raise up your hand
and one of the ushers will try and bring one to you.
If not, you can try to share with your neighbor.
Holy, holy, holy.
Lord God Almighty.
Early in the morning, our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy.
Merciful and mighty.
God in three persons.
Blessed Trinity.
Holy, holy, holy.
All the saints adore thee.
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim.
Falling down before thee.
Which word and art and evermore shall be.
Holy, holy, holy.
Though the darkness hide thee.
Though the eye of sinful men thy glory may not see.
Only thou art holy.
There is none beside thee.
Perfect and power in love and purity.
Holy, holy, holy.
Lord God Almighty.
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy.
Merciful and mighty.
God in three persons.
Blessed Trinity.
While the offering plates are being passed around, please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 6.
That's Genesis chapter 6.
Genesis 6, the Bible reads,
And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also was flesh,
yet his day shall be in hundred and twenty years.
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 bare children to them,
the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
And 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.
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
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 and the fowls of the air,
for it repenteth me that I have made them.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt,
for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me,
for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms shalt thou make in the ark,
and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of.
The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits,
the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
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, and the side thereof,
with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood 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.
But with thee will I establish my covenant,
and 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,
and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind,
two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive.
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten,
and 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.
Let's bow our heads for a quick word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Genesis chapter 6.
I pray that you would help us to pay attention to the sermon tonight
so we can learn more about this portion of scripture.
And also, Lord, I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit,
helping to preach his sermon boldly and clearly,
and minimize distractions for us so that we can learn something new.
And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
Chapter number 6 of Genesis, we're doing a Bible study,
and we've kind of transitioned from a long genealogy in chapter number 5,
and it left off in verse 32, and Noah was 500 years old,
and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
And chapter 6 kind of picks up in that same timeline of Noah in that 500th year.
It's mentioned again down in verse number 10.
But look at what it says in verse number 1 of the Bible,
so then 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.
Now, we have a couple groups here that are mentioned in verse number 2,
the sons of God and the daughters of men.
Now, when you have a King James Bible, I feel like this doctrine is pretty simple,
and a lot of modern versions or people that like to go back to the Greek or the Hebrew or this type of philosophy,
they try to really twist these portions of Scripture and these verses into something that it's not.
There's all kinds of crazy theories about what this is saying,
but I don't want to focus this on all the crazy thoughts here.
Let's just try to figure out what the Bible says when it means sons of God.
Why don't we just look up sons of God in every place in the King James Bible?
Now, that sounds scary, but it's actually not that scary.
You can go to Job chapter 1.
Now, what about daughters of men? That's pretty simple.
That's just women, okay?
The daughters of men is really straightforward.
We're just talking about women.
When it comes to sons of God, Adam was given that title because he had no earthly father, okay?
And so in a physical sense, Adam was a son of God.
But there is another way that someone could have the title of son of God
that could be spiritually the son of God, okay?
And so the Bible actually uses this phrase, sons of God, to mean two different things.
You're sons of God.
Because obviously Jesus Christ is the son of God,
but when you have the phrase sons of God in a plural form or fashion,
it would be physically or spiritually.
Well, we know there's only two physical sons of God.
That would be Adam and Jesus Christ.
They're the only two that have that title.
But from a spiritual perspective, anybody that's a saved believer is a son of God.
Now, you think of that as a New Testament doctrine,
but the reality is that that's not a New Testament doctrine.
That's always been the case.
Whenever someone believes in the Lord Jesus Christ
or anybody put their faith in the Lord and they became saved,
they were a son of God in that moment as well.
Now in Job chapter 1, look at verse number 6, the Bible reads,
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves
before the Lord and Satan came also among them.
Some people like to say this means angels.
However, there's a problem because in Hebrews, God clearly says,
unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son,
this day have I begotten thee.
So according to the Bible, an angel has never been a son of God,
nor has God ever said that to an angel.
The angelic beings as we know them are not sons of God.
They're a different classification. They're a different creation.
And according to the Bible here, when it's talking about sons of God
presenting themselves before the Lord, someone might ask this question,
Well, where did they come from?
This is everyone that's died and gone to heaven.
This would be Seth and this would be Abel
and this would be all the other believers that have already died
and they're presenting themselves before the Lord
and somehow Satan's allowed to come up there as well.
Look at chapter 2 verse 1,
And again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord
and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
So we have here mentioned the sons of God.
Go to Job 38. Go to Job 38.
Now, again, you look at this in modern Bibles.
You look at this in, you know, supposedly going back to the Hebrew.
They'll say this is angels.
But then it presents all kinds of weird problems
and people try to go back to Genesis
and try to read that portion of angels being with women
and then you start getting even weirder doctrines
and really you can kind of start to see how one small problem with doctrine
ends up causing other problems.
Or someone might have the idea, well, in dispensationalism,
no one's been to heaven before Christ has died on the cross,
which is a false idea.
It's very provably false and I'll show you in a minute.
But they would say, oh, well, since no one can go to heaven,
this has to be angels.
And again they get back to that angel doctrine
where then they're the sons.
But that creates contradictions in Hebrews
and really just a little bit of false doctrine
can lead you down a very dark road quickly.
But look at Job 38, verse 6.
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened,
or who laid the cornerstone thereof,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
Now this is where they would also point
and they'd say, well, look, this has to be angels
because when God laid the cornerstone, what is that talking about?
Well, if we're thinking physically,
physically the cornerstone would be the first building block
of the earth when God laid that.
Now were any men created on day one of creation?
No, man was created on day six.
So from a physical perspective that would have been impossible.
So they say, well, it has to have been angels.
Well, we don't know when angels were created necessarily.
So you couldn't even say that's for sure even angels.
But here is one way that you can interpret this verse
is it could be spiritually
because the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ
is the chief cornerstone, okay?
And if we're thinking spiritual
because the Bible is spiritual
and this is God speaking anyways,
then the sons of God would also be spiritual.
So that would mean the saved believers in heaven were what?
They were rejoicing at the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now you say, how do you know that?
Well, go to John chapter number eight.
What if I can prove to you that the Old Testament believers
were rejoicing at the events happening on earth as they unfolded?
Look at John chapter number eight.
Look at verse 56.
This is Jesus Christ speaking.
John eight verse 56.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day,
and he saw it and was glad.
How did Abraham see Jesus Christ's day?
Because the Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 12 verse one
that we have a great cloud of witnesses up in heaven.
Meaning what?
All those that have gone on before us
are cheering us on from above.
And just like in Jesus Christ's day he had Abraham,
we also have Abraham.
We have other people that have gone before us
and they're looking down from heaven
and they're the sons of God
and they present themselves before the Lord.
That's what's happened in Job.
And so the sons of God has been consistently throughout the Bible here
a spiritual picture of saved believers.
Let me prove this further.
Go to 1 John chapter number three.
Go to 1 John chapter number three
and you say, well, how could you know someone's the son of God?
Or that's something that's going to happen in the future.
No, the Bible tells us present tense
that people are the sons of God.
Look at 1 John chapter three verse one.
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God
and it does not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
So the Bible says before you've been given your new body,
before you've been resurrected,
you're still called the son of God
and it's not even like calling something that's not real.
He's saying, no, we are.
Behold, now are we the sons of God.
He says it's a present tense reality.
The moment you trust in the Lord,
the moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you become a child of God.
Now you say, when did that happen?
Every single time throughout history
that men believed in the Lord,
they became a child of God in that moment.
It's not like an only New Testament doctrine.
It may have been more revealed in the New Testament.
It may be more readily understandable in the New Testament,
but it's still a present reality even back then.
So we're talking about the sons of God in Genesis chapter number six.
Who are we talking about? The saved.
Now, go if you would to Romans chapter eight.
I want to show you a few more places.
Let's look at every verse, okay?
Because there's only a few more
that use the phrase sons of God.
And let's see if the Bible says anything different.
It has anything to do with angels or angelic beings
or something like that.
Romans eight, verse 14, the Bible says,
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God.
Now, how could you read that verse
and then say in the Old Testament,
those that were being led by the Spirit of God
were not the sons of God.
No, they were the sons of God.
Abraham was the son of God.
Isaac was the son of God.
Jacob, Israel, was the son of God.
Joseph was the son of God.
Hey, they were all sons of God too.
We're sons of God.
They're sons of God.
We're also sons of Abraham, okay?
And if you go to John chapter number one,
John chapter number one, a very famous verse.
We're very familiar with that one, verse 12.
Look at John chapter number one, verse 12.
But as many as received him,
to them gave you power to become the sons of God.
So how do you become the sons of God?
By believing, okay?
Even to them that believe on his name,
even means specifically.
So specifically, the ones that believe in Jesus Christ,
they are the ones that have the power
to become the sons of God.
Philippians chapter two,
the last place I'm gonna have you turn.
Philippians chapter number two,
the last place I'm gonna have you turn.
And this one's an important one to think about
in the context of Genesis chapter number six.
But Philippians chapter two,
look at verse 15.
That you may be blameless and harmless,
the sons of God, without rebuke,
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation
among whom ye shine as lights in the world.
Now that is every mention of the phrase
sons of God in the Bible.
And isn't it pretty crystal clear
that it's just believers,
that it's just the saved in the Bible
when you actually compare spiritual with spiritual?
Now, notice another thing though
in Philippians chapter number two,
that you can be a son of God
and yet be displeasing to God.
Why would he bring up the idea
of being needing to be without rebuke,
meaning that you don't have any rebuke in your life,
in a crooked and perverse nation
if it was impossible?
It's not impossible.
It's a very possible reality.
And we're gonna see in Genesis chapter number six
that God is also very angry with the sons of God.
God is disappointed with the sons of God
and the things that they're doing.
Go back to Genesis chapter number six.
Genesis chapter number six.
Now, again, obviously,
you can be disappointed with your neighbor's kids, right?
You could be disappointed with the kids down the street.
They're running amok.
They're causing problems.
They're littering.
They're railing.
They're screaming.
You could be mad at them.
You could be frustrated with them.
You know, you're gonna end up being more frustrated
with your children when they disobey
than just random kids.
It's the same reality with God.
You know, God obviously is frustrated with his whole creation
when they sin and they rebel against him.
You know what?
It's even more frustrating, it's even more grievous
when his own children are the ones disobeying.
His own children are the rebellious ones.
His own children are the ones
that are not following his commandments.
Look what it says in verse number three.
And the Lord said,
My spirit shall not always strive with man,
for that he also is flesh,
yet his day shall be 120 years.
So God notices the sons of God are having all kinds of wives,
as many as they want,
and it makes God upset.
God's angry about it.
He's frustrated at what they're doing.
And so he ends up limiting the amount of time that they live.
Now think about this verse in connection with chapter number five.
I mean, we read about the ages of these men,
and they were extreme.
I mean, in comparison to our lives, at least, right?
I mean, living 900 years.
Methuselah is 969 years.
That's a long time, okay?
And apparently they're having lots of different wives.
I mean, think about some of the other sons of God
in the Bible having lots of wives.
How about David?
Do you have a few wives?
How about Solomon?
Okay, and these guys didn't live to be 900.
Imagine Solomon, at the rate that he was going,
living 900 years old, right?
I mean, these guys are being unrestrained
and they're just taking...
Notice what the Bible words it.
It says in verse two,
and they took them wives of all which they chose.
So it's like basically unrestrained.
They're just having relations with as many women
as they possibly can have relations with.
And it makes sense for a few reasons why this is happening,
and I'll explain that in a few more verses.
But notice God is frustrated with him.
And notice another thing in verse three,
that man is not only flesh.
Because notice how it's worded.
My spirit should not only strive with man
for that he also is flesh.
Why?
Because a man is a body, a soul, and a spirit.
He's a three-part being, right?
We have three different components to us.
We have the body, the soul, and the spirit, okay?
And man is all three of those, okay?
And so some people have this false idea.
I don't know if it's some.
At least one cult leader has this idea
that Jesus Christ basically took on
this like soulless and spiritless body,
and that's what the incarnation of Jesus Christ was in the womb.
No.
Jesus Christ was a full body, soul, and spirit
that is 100% God and 100% man.
It was all of it.
Because look, man is not just a body physically.
It's also a soul and a spirit.
You know, the thing that separates me from a dog
is not only my physical body.
You know, it's not like if me and a dog
could just swap physical bodies
that he would be a human and I would be a dog.
No.
And that's why people try to personify animals.
You watch movies and it's like all dogs go to heaven.
They're like acting like humans or whatever.
Or the animals are talking in a film or something like that.
You know, there's also other parts of an animal
that are different than us.
Their soul is different than ours.
Their spirit is different than ours.
In fact, I don't even believe they have a soul
in the way that a human has a soul, okay?
They really just have a spirit and they kind of have a flesh.
And sometimes soul is just in reference
to the whole organism or the whole being.
But we have an actual physical,
we have some kind of a tangible soul somehow
that is going to live forever either in heaven or in hell, okay?
And that's one part that's really neat to understand here
is that man, while we are part flesh,
we're also soul and spirit
and we're going to shed that flesh eventually
and we're going to put on a new body
and the Bible makes it clear though
that this old flesh was limited to 120 years here in verse number 3.
So at one point, man lived to be very old,
you know, especially the sons of God,
especially of the godly lineage,
the ones that are obeying their parents, right?
Cain didn't really obey his parents very well, did he?
He probably didn't live as old as Seth
and some of the other generations.
But God's putting such a cap on it
that man can only live to be about 120 years.
Now what's interesting is I looked this up,
the oldest person to ever live in recorded history
that's been verified, okay?
So that's a couple caveats,
but the oldest person to ever live in recorded history,
this is something that everyone agrees on,
is Jean Calment.
She lived, it's a woman,
she lived to be 122 years old, 164 days.
She's from France.
She was born in 1875 and died in 1997.
That is the oldest person to ever live in recorded history
that's been verified, okay?
The next oldest of all people in recorded history
is Sarah Noss.
She's from the United States, 119 years, 97 days.
So there's only one person in all of recorded history
that's been verified to live above 120 years,
and it was just barely above, right?
Now think about this.
Genesis 6 was written so long ago, and he already said that,
and we've seen nothing to the contrary, nothing.
And guess what?
We never will.
Why?
Because this is the Word of God.
You don't see other books making grandiose claims like this,
like the Word of God, making it clear.
The oldest man to ever live was,
I'm gonna not pronounce his name right,
but Jirimon Kimura.
He's from Japan.
He lived 116 years, 54 days.
So apparently girls are better at obeying their parents than men, all right?
When it comes to the oldest living,
so I looked up the oldest living woman and man.
So people that haven't died yet, how close did they get?
Well, in Japan, there's a lady, Kane Tanaka.
She's 118 years and 74 days.
She was born in 1903.
The oldest man is Satorino de la Fuente Garcia.
He has a lot of names, all right?
112 years, 37 days.
So the oldest man alive is 112 years old.
The oldest woman is 118 years.
And you know what?
I don't believe we're gonna see anything different than that.
God already told us.
And we see after the flood,
all the ages start to deteriorate
and decline to that threshold and to that benchmark that God had set.
Now look at verse number four.
The Bible says this.
There were giants in the earth in those days
and also after that.
So the Bible's saying that there was giants in those days.
What days?
The days that we're talking about, okay?
When people are beginning to multiply.
And then it's also saying after that.
When's after that?
Well, after the flood, there was still giants in the Bible, okay?
We have recorded stories of many different giants,
David and Goliath, okay?
That's a very clear story of a giant.
So the Bible's making it clear that there's giants in those days
and also after that.
And it says,
When the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men
and they bare children to them.
So it's saying specifically, you know,
that these giants are in the earth.
When?
When the sons of God are coming into the daughters of men.
And it says,
And they bare children to them.
Now there's a couple of ways to look at this
and I believe what it's clearly saying
is that the sons of God are literally producing these giant children, okay?
It's a result of these relationships
that they're having with the daughters of men.
Another way you could look at this
is that it's just denoting the time.
It's just saying,
The time that the men are doing this
is the same timeline that we have the giants.
But it would kind of seem weird
why it would be worded that way.
And it also says,
And they bare children to them.
That to me gives the connotation
or goes back to the idea that there was giants in the earth in those days.
Now when it says the same, okay,
became mighty men which were of old men of renown,
that is clearly talking about the sons of God.
That's not talking about the giants.
Obviously when you have a litany of pronouns in a passage
it can become a little bit confusing about who he's talking about.
But it says very clearly that
And they bare children, who's the they there?
The daughters, the wives, okay?
Bare children to them.
Who's the them?
The sons of God, okay?
The same, meaning the same context that we're talking about
which would be what?
The men, okay,
became mighty men which were of old.
Now that can only be one group.
Why?
Because there's only one group that's super old.
Who is the super old group?
The genealogy that we read of,
the sons of God,
the guys that are living to be 900 years old, okay?
They're men of old, men of renown.
Now it makes sense that these guys would be men of renown.
Think about this.
Lamech was born in year 874, okay?
874 and at the time that Noah is 500
is about 1550 in that range, okay?
You know, Lamech has been around for so long
that Lamech would have known Adam and everyone after him
that hadn't died, you know, prematurely or at a lot younger of an age.
And then Methuselah, his dad,
he was born in year 687, okay?
And he would have known all the same people or even more so.
So when you think about men of old,
I mean, these guys knew everybody, they've known everything.
Think about how much knowledge you could collect
in 6, 7, 800 years of life, okay?
And obviously, according to the Bible, things are a little bit different.
There's less GMO, okay?
There's less Monsanto and McDonald's on the street corner
and there's less things impairing people physically.
So who knows, you know, their mental capacity or how much information.
You know, these guys are godly men.
Obviously, they're going to be very wise.
They have a lot of time to study the Bible, to walk with the Lord,
to know other godly people.
So it makes sense that they would be men of renown.
And think about this, they're the oldest guy to ever live.
Wouldn't you think if we lived on the earth
and there was some guy that was like several hundred years older than us
that's known everybody and seen everything,
that we'd be like, that's the guy you want to talk to.
That's the guy that has the answers.
That's the guy that has, you know, some renown.
And just inherently, these men are going to have some renown
and the fact that the majority of people are their descendants literally.
I mean, that's grandpappy.
You know, in a family, especially if you live in a family
where you have lots of generations,
you know, it's more prevalent in Hispanic culture or an Asian culture.
Unfortunately, American culture is not as good in this manner.
But these cultures really respect their elders.
You know, grandpa or great grandma or whatever has a lot of respect.
People like to hear what they have to say.
They, you know, adore them. They look up to these type of people.
Well, Methuselah is like everybody's grandfather.
You know, he's everybody's grandpappy.
So obviously these guys, and notice the sons of God
are having all kinds of different wives too.
So they're having, I mean, the lineage tree is just like them.
You know, it's just like everybody, you know, it's grandpa.
You know, everybody just says, Grandpa Methuselah and his grandpa whatever.
Even wicked people love their grandpa, okay.
Even ungodly people love grandpa.
So it makes sense that these sons of God are the guys that are the mighty men.
They're the men of renown.
They're the guys that are really famous.
Also makes sense why they're able to have so many wives.
Why? Because they're the mighty men.
They're the men of renown.
They're the guy that everybody looks up to.
You know, it's not hard to understand why David had many wives.
He's the best looking guy.
He's the king. He's the one in charge, right?
You know Solomon, the guy that's just kind of, you know, obvious,
the one that everybody's going to be attracted to or to be with.
And so these guys just have fair, you know, game.
They can basically have as many wives as they want.
But that upsets the Lord.
God doesn't like that.
God's not pleased with this type of multiplication.
He's not pleased with what's happening with mankind
and that the sons of God are having all these relations with people
that they're unequally-oaked together with.
You know, it's not right for saved people to be having marriage,
relationships with unsaved people
and producing all these children in that manner.
Now it also says this in verse 5,
And 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.
That's a scary thought.
To live in a world where every thought of every person is only evil continually.
Now you can't take that verse and take it over hyper-literally
because we would say there's exceptions like Noah.
Okay, Noah is going to be an exception to that verse.
But it's just saying generically that 99% of people, even higher,
they're ungodly, they're wicked.
And we see, you know, giants in the Bible.
Now I remember going to a church and this one pastor, he told me,
or he told the congregation, he was saying that God hates giants.
And I was like, what in the world?
And he basically taught this weird Nephilim doctrine, okay,
that these giants are a result of these hybrid angels
and women mating or something.
And since they're not really human, God just automatically hates them
or something like that.
And it's such a weird doctrine.
But the reality is, obviously, most of the giants in the Bible,
God has nothing to deal with.
God's not using them in a great way.
But there are people that are big that God uses.
I mean, Saul was head and shoulders above all the Israelites
and he was greatly used by God at one point in time.
And to say that these are weird hybrids
really is kind of a strange abstraction from reality
because people we see today are not that much smaller
than the giants described in the Bible.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number three.
Let me show you a few examples of this.
Deuteronomy chapter number three.
But afterward, there are going to be other giants
and they were still normal men, okay?
Obviously, they were abnormal in the sense they're bigger.
They're abnormal in the case that some of them have six fingers.
But outside of that, they still have flesh,
they still have a soul, they still have a spirit,
they still have the same desires as a normal man.
They're just bigger, okay?
And Deuteronomy chapter number three,
you look at verse number 11.
For only odd king of Bashan remained
to the remnant of giants.
Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron.
Is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon,
nine cubits was the length thereof
and four cubits the breadth of it
after the cubit of a man.
So the Bible actually gives us a picture
of how big this guy's bed was.
And it says that it was nine cubits by,
what is it, four?
Nine by four, okay?
Now, a cubit, we don't have an exact measurement
for a cubit in the Bible.
It doesn't say in, like, you know, in inches or whatever
because they're not on that system, okay?
They're also not on the metric system.
But generally speaking, a cubit is just
from the tip of your finger to your elbow, okay?
And generally, throughout history,
this has been regarded as 18 inches, 18 inches.
A span, which is mentioned in another place,
if you went to 1 Samuel chapter 17,
a span would be nine inches approximately.
A span is basically from the tip of your pinky
all the way to the tip of your thumb.
For a normal man, it's approximately nine inches,
which would make sense that it's nine and 18
as measuring tool devices.
We use things like a foot or, you know, a half a foot
or these type of measuring devices.
But essentially, if you take these numbers
and you multiply them by 18
and then divide by 12, you'll come up with the fact
that his bed was approximately,
well, and I had another conversion here,
but I mean, this would be like 162 inches, okay?
And what I also thought about is this.
I have a king-sized bed, okay?
And my king-sized bed is like 80 inches by 76 inches,
and I'm about 70 inches, okay?
So I looked at this conversion rate.
That's about 87.5% of the bed's length is my height, okay?
So if we use the same conversion, right, on him
for the 162 inches, that would mean he's about 141 inches
in height, assuming things are similar, okay, .75.
And that would make him 11 feet, 11.81 feet tall.
Now, that's really tall, okay?
This guy is quite possibly the largest guy mentioned
in the Bible, but we don't know.
Maybe he just really liked to stretch out on his bed.
He could have been a lot shorter, okay?
I can understand why you want to stretch out on your bed.
I like to stretch out.
But I'm just saying, if my bed proportion to me
is similar to his, then he would have been about 11 feet.
Now, we have somebody where the Bible actually gives us
a very specific height for him.
1 Samuel 17, verse number 4.
It is David and Goliath.
And Goliath is mentioned very specifically.
It says in verse number 4,
And there went out a champion out of the camp
of the Philistines, named Goliath of Gath,
whose height was six cubits and a span.
So he's six cubits and a span.
Now, again, if you take the same tactics
that I just showed you of measuring,
you'd basically times it by 18,
and then you would also add the 9 for this.
So you'd have 108 inches for here,
and you'd have 9 for here.
So you'd have about 117 inches in height,
which would equate to 9.75 feet tall.
Now, that's really tall.
Okay, so that guy's for sure almost 10 feet tall.
This guy could have been more or less the same height,
maybe bigger.
But, you know, in today's world,
I looked up the tallest person in modern history,
according to regular history,
a guy named Robert Wadlow.
He was 8 feet and 11 inches tall.
Very recently, okay?
People in the NBA, you know, Yao Ming,
he's 7 foot 6.
That's not that far.
I mean, 11 inches, I mean,
he's basically less than a foot away from Goliath in height.
Now, I'd say this.
I don't think, though, that the people that are this tall today
are very similar to the giants in the Bible,
because people that are this tall are so awkward physically,
they wouldn't really be that much of a threat on the battlefield.
I mean, these people have a hard time standing.
It's usually because they have some kind of a disease
that's causing their body to stretch to abnormal proportions.
I believe that Goliath not only was 9, you know, plus feet tall,
but he's also an athletic 9 feet tall,
that this guy was just a giant monster
that you did not want to oppose.
He could very easily, you know, use his body
in a way that a normal person could use their body.
It wasn't like as much of an abnormality as it is today.
But some people go so far as to say,
well, the giants in the Bible, they're these weird hybrids,
and then they justify it by looking up things in the Book of Enoch.
Well, the Book of Enoch does describe this weird story
of these hybrid angels mating with women or whatever,
which is false doctrine. It's wicked. It's blasphemy.
But to justify their position, in the Book of Enoch,
it says that it bare children that were 450 feet tall, babies,
because it says there were 300 cubits, which you multiply by the 18.
A woman giving birth to a 450 foot tall baby, okay?
And I can't even draw up the scale or whatever,
but it would be like this is like a 450 foot tall building,
and this is like a woman in comparison to scale.
That's what the Book of Enoch is wanting you to believe, okay?
That's stupid, okay?
That's foolishness. It's nonsense. It's not reality.
But to say that a person got this big, that's not that big of a stretch, okay?
That's something that could be understood.
That's something that falls within a modern understanding even
of height and that type of information.
But we have giants now. We're going to have giants in the future.
And you think about this. You say, well, I don't know if it came from the sons of God
because giants are evil and the sons of God are good.
Well, first of all, they're mating with daughters of men,
so there could be the evil side, right?
But secondly, giants are going to come on the scene again,
and it's going to come through the lineage of Noah.
It has to because he's the only one to replenish the earth.
Now, obviously, one of his sons is wicked,
but again, it's still going to come from the lineage of Noah.
And guess what? Let me just wake you up to something.
We're all the sons of Adam. Did you realize that?
Okay, so obviously, all the wicked people came from good people,
and it continues to be the case.
And so we're going to have, we had giants back then.
They had giants right after the flood.
Now, today, I don't know that we'll have giants like Goliath.
Who knows? China's going to try to splice the genes.
But go back if you went to Genesis, chapter number six,
Genesis, chapter number six.
You're not going to have a 450-foot tall giant, though, okay?
That's not going to happen. That didn't happen.
And even weirdos like Kent Hovind have taught weird stuff like this.
I've heard Kent Hovind teach that Adam and Eve were, like, 60 feet tall or something.
Don't quote me on the number. It was, like, somewhere in the ballpark.
Like, Adam and Eve were, like, 40 or 50 feet tall,
and he claimed that Adam could, like, run around the earth in less than a day or something.
Like, he, because he was so fast and he was so big that he's just, like, sprinting around the earth,
and it was just, like, you know, the oxygen levels were so much higher and what,
just basically just nonsense, okay?
And what's the benefit of believing in all this?
Nothing. Just believe what the Bible says, okay?
People love to insert all kinds of stuff into this text that's not here.
Let's focus on what the Bible's really saying.
Verse number six, the Bible says,
And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.
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, and the fowls of the air,
for it repented Me that I have made them.
Now, if you read this story, there's nothing negative about the giants.
Like, it's not saying, like, giants are the reason why God wants to destroy the earth.
But again, that's where they get this Nephilim doctrine,
because they go back to the Hebrew and they insert a new word, like,
it's really Nephilim, and God was mad at the Nephilim, and He had destroyed the Nephilim.
No, God's mad at man.
God's just mad at mankind because mankind is a sinner,
mankind is evil, mankind has rejected the Lord,
mankind is going down a dark path.
Even the sons of God are just having, you know, as many wives as they possibly can,
and it's making the Lord angry.
You know, what caused David and what caused Solomon to commit so much sin?
Oh yeah, all their marriages didn't did.
Why would I think there's anything different in the past?
There wasn't anything different in the past,
it's not anything different in the future,
it's the same problem, just different names.
And sometimes it's the same names, okay?
Because everybody likes to give a biblical name.
But it says in verse number 7,
and the Lord said,
I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast.
He's going to destroy everything.
Man and beast and the creeping things and the fowl of air.
This is a sad verse for repent of me that I have made them.
Now, the word repent can have multiple definitions.
It's really defined by the context, okay?
What is the context saying?
God, it really is just always a change of mind in a sense, right?
Or turning or something.
God's disappointed, he's upset that he made man.
That's a sad reality.
He was literally, he just frustrated his creation.
He's saying, my creation is not good.
You know, it's turned bad.
It started good, but now it's gotten so bad,
I just want to completely destroy it and wipe it out.
And I think some people,
while they realize that God is good and God is love,
he's also holy.
And so when he looks at his creation and it's so messed up,
you know, it makes him so angry,
he's going to literally destroy all of it.
That's the real God of the whole earth and the heaven.
He was that mad,
he's going to destroy every single living thing
that has the breath of life is how he describes this.
It says in verse eight,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
This is also another sad verse.
He found one guy, but Noah.
And I like this though, he found grace.
Notice that Noah wasn't saved by righteousness either.
He wasn't saved by, he was a really, you know,
he's just so, he was perfect.
No, he found grace.
What is grace?
Unmerited favor, unmerited favor.
Did Noah deserve to be saved from the flood?
No, he found grace too.
Just like all of us deserve hell.
There's not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good and zeneth not.
We all deserve hell,
we all deserve a horrible condemnation,
but Noah, he found grace.
Verse nine,
these are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations
and Noah walked with God.
Now what does it mean though that he was perfect?
Perfect could mean complete.
It could mean, you know,
basically that he was the whole package.
He was just, but again, we have to understand this.
Is he just and perfect according to his righteousness
or is it his imputed righteousness from Jesus Christ?
You know, he's just in the same way
that Lot was just by his faith in the Lord, okay?
And we can see this in other places in the scripture,
but it also says that he walked with God.
It says in verse 10,
and Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
So the timeline we have here,
keep your finger and go to Ezekiel chapter 14,
go to Ezekiel chapter 14.
Now I'm not trying to say that Noah wasn't a good Christian,
that he wasn't a godly son of man,
or a son of God,
because frankly speaking,
he, according to the Bible,
is considered one of the greatest men to ever live.
And I'll show you,
there's kind of a list of like the top three guys
in the Bible,
and I'll show you in Ezekiel chapter 14.
Look at verse number 14.
Ezekiel 14, 14.
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job,
were in it,
they should deliver but their own souls
by their righteousness, saith the Lord God.
So according to God, if you want to say,
hey Lord, who are some of the greatest guys to ever live?
Noah, Daniel, and Job.
These are three of the most righteous people
that have ever walked the face of the earth.
But even as righteous as Noah was,
he still found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Go, if you would, to Hebrews chapter number 11.
Hebrews chapter number 11.
We're going to find out that the way that Noah got saved,
the way that Noah found grace,
was the same way that you and I find grace, though.
It's not because he kept the law better,
or because he deserved it in any way.
Hebrews chapter 11, verse number 7,
the Bible says,
Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house,
by the which he condemned the world and became heir
of the righteousness which is by faith.
Now the righteousness which is by faith is what?
Through Jesus Christ.
Read Romans chapter number 10.
The righteousness which is of the law,
hey, you can't get there.
That only points the fact that you're a sinner.
The righteousness which is by faith
is putting your faith in Jesus Christ.
Notice Noah was found righteous because of that.
2 Peter chapter number 2.
We can find out a little bit more information
about Noah specifically.
2 Peter chapter number 2.
Look at verse number 5.
The Bible tells us,
And so Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
So he also preached the gospel.
He also preached the righteousness which is of faith,
which is trusting in the Lord.
Go back, if you would, to Genesis chapter number 6.
Now it says in verse number 10
So that gives us a timeline.
We're around the 500th year of his life, okay?
The Bible also tells us that the 600th year of his life
is when the flood waters came.
This is about 100 years prior is this timeline
that God's giving him these instructions of building the ark.
That's a lot of time when you think about it, okay?
But it says in verse number 11,
Now, you could argue that
Jim Ham and Japheth were born,
and then he gives these instructions,
so it would have been a little bit less than 100 years,
because the Bible makes it clear that Shem
was 100 years old when he gave birth to Arphaxad,
and Arphaxad was born two years after the flood.
So that would mean that Shem was born when Noah was 502.
I at first reading this thought they were triplets,
but I don't believe they're triplets.
Japheth is the elder.
I don't have any verse that I could say they're definitely not.
It just doesn't seem to make sense that they were triplets,
but if any of them were born in year 500,
then they're not for sure,
because Shem would have been born about 502, okay?
So it's just giving us general timeline,
and the Bible's telling us very clearly
that the whole earth had been corrupted.
God's going to destroy it,
but that's going to take some time
because he gives him these instructions.
Now, let's read the rest of this chapter,
and I'm going to give you a few more thoughts.
It says,
To destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven,
and everything that is in the earth shall die,
but with thee will I establish my covenant,
and 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 his kind,
two of every sort shall come unto thee,
to keep them alive,
and take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten,
and 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.
Now, according to these instructions,
liberals would have not survived
because they don't know the difference between male and female.
So they would have gotten off the ark,
and they'd been like,
we can't reproduce,
and they would have all died,
and the story would have been over.
But you know what?
God's people know the difference between male and female
so we can survive,
we can reproduce,
and the Bible gives Noah instructions on how to build the ark.
And we have to understand is
God's not going to necessarily give us
every single instruction
to the point to where we could recreate it perfectly,
or perhaps he gave them generic instructions
and just providentially gave Noah wisdom
on how to build these things.
But he gives us a few different instructions
about what the ark looked like.
He said that it was 300 cubits in length, okay?
Now, again, we can use our modern measuring tools
to get some kind of idea of what that would be like.
But 300 cubits, again, multiplying by 18,
dividing by 12,
would yield approximately 450 feet.
That is really big, okay?
450 feet.
I mean, we're talking about a very long distance.
We also, he tells us the width was 50 cubits,
or the breadth, I'm sorry.
The breadth, so it was like 50 cubits,
which would be about 75 feet.
And he said the height was about 30 cubits, okay?
Now, I'm just going to kind of,
I don't know exactly what shape this thing was,
just like anybody else.
30 cubits, which would have been 45 feet.
We'll kind of round it off a little bit.
He said that he was supposed to put a window in the ark,
and then he was supposed to put a cubit above it to finish.
So that would mean that the window
was at the very top of the ark.
Now, we don't know the width of the window.
It could have been very long.
It could have been not that long.
But approximately there would have been some kind of a window.
Let's say it was a pretty long window.
Kind of at the very top of this ark structure.
We don't know what kind of a roof necessarily,
or anything like that.
He did say there was supposed to be a door
in the lower portion of it.
So there could have been a door down here
that you would have been able to reach.
He said there was supposed to be three layers
within this ark.
So there was supposed to be a lower,
and then another one,
and then basically you have your three tiers, okay?
So, now, just kind of thinking about this
from a geometrical perspective.
And again, this is just a rough picture of our ark, okay?
If we have 450 feet by 75 feet,
if this was a perfect box, which we don't know,
okay, we don't know if it was a perfect box necessarily,
we're assuming the first top layer
was approximately the 450 by the 75 feet.
That would yield about 33,750 square feet for one layer, okay?
If it was kind of like a box shape,
it would be times three,
meaning that the ark would have been
almost 100,000 square feet.
Now, depending on its ark, depending on its shape here,
depending on its curvature,
that's going to take away from some of this square footage,
so we don't know.
But it would be safe to estimate
it was anywhere from 60 to 100,000 square feet in size.
That is very large, okay?
You don't want to clean that, okay?
You ladies that have to clean your house,
you think 3,000 square feet,
how about 33,000 square feet, right?
With animals and everything like that.
And some people scoff at how he could fit
all these animals and everything,
or how could he build it.
Well, first of all, he'd have about 100 years to build it.
That's a while, okay?
I think if I give you 100 years to do something,
that's a while to figure it out.
And we don't even know.
He could have contracted people.
He could have had other people help him.
Methuselah could have helped build the ark.
Lamech could have helped build the ark, okay?
For a long portion of that time,
his sons could have helped him build the ark.
God could have just given him just somehow.
I mean, the animals could have built the ark.
That's how the cartoon versions of it draw, right?
The elephants helping, you know,
lift up lumber and stuff like that.
We don't know.
It could have been the Flintstones, right?
Go to 1 Peter chapter number 3.
They try to make fun of us, you know,
we're like Flintstone believers or something like that.
I don't know how he built it, but he built it, okay?
And the Bible says he used pitch,
which would have been kind of the mortar
to stick between all the joints of this boat.
But, you know, it wasn't really built for an aesthetic design.
It was built to survive.
You know, it's basically just a survival raft,
and if it survived, then it's great.
And, you know, it doesn't need to have
necessarily anything to propel it.
You know, it doesn't really need any propellers.
It doesn't need any kind of sail,
because it's not going anywhere.
It doesn't need to go anywhere.
The oil is going to be bad.
It's basically just a survival tank, you know,
basically to just not drown.
The goal is just not drowning, essentially,
and just surviving for about a year on this ark.
Now, some people make this scoffing idea like,
well, how can you get all these animals?
Well, I'm going to explain all that next week, okay?
So if you wanted to hear about that,
you have to come next week, okay?
But there's not that many animals.
In fact, I even looked it up.
You can look up different Wikipedia articles,
and I'll get real specific next week.
But even in this article that I looked up
about the different kinds of animals that exist,
and they included many fish,
which would have not been on the ark,
there was only about 283 different kinds, okay?
If you even included that kind of a number,
you're talking about 500, 600 animals
on 100,000 square feet, and they could have been babies,
and they're going to be divided into rooms, okay?
It's not unreasonable.
You know what's unreasonable?
And they'll say, oh, you think that all the bunnies
in the world came from two bunnies?
Well, you think they came from a rock.
Right, yeah.
You think they came from nothing!
How is that better than believing bunnies produced bunnies?
And if you do the math on bunnies,
they reproduce quick, okay?
But to believe in the story of the flood,
it's not devoid of science or reason.
What's devoid of science and reason is modern-day evolution.
That's, you know, to believe that men are not men
or that women aren't women,
that's what's really devoid of science today.
We have the fossil record,
which just proves everything about the flood.
If you look at the world,
it all looks like it was destroyed by a flood.
It's filled with water, okay?
And it fits the Bible narrative perfectly, okay?
Spiritually, physically, all of it, okay?
The Bible told us, and I believe it.
1 Peter 3, we're going to get a story about this.
Look at verse number 20.
It says, which sometime were disobedient
when once the long suffering of God
weighed in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Now, another thing that's clear is everything died
that was not in the ark that had the breath of life, okay?
The breath of life would be what?
The birds, the beasts, the mankind, the creeping things.
If it was a fish or whatever,
they could obviously have survived,
but a lot of them died too
because of this catastrophic event
and all the things that were going on.
A lot of fish and sea life
were also going to be washed up ashore
or crashed into things and also perish.
That's where we get all that fossil record from.
But we have a spiritual picture in 1 Peter 3,
and this is some of the hardest scripture
to be understood, I think.
It's the passage that a lot of people get confused about,
so since we're here, we might as well
just kind of talk about it for a few minutes, okay?
Because it fits really well
with what Genesis chapter 6 is all about.
What is Genesis chapter 6 all about?
The fact that God's really angry with mankind
and He destroys it completely and starts over with Noah, okay?
He's going to literally baptize the entire earth in water.
Now, what does it mean to baptize, to immerse?
What does that mean?
Every single square inch of the earth was submersed in water.
And then, in the same aspect of baptism, what happens?
Then you come up out of the water, what happens?
The earth came up out of the water,
just like resurrection, just like coming out,
and that's the same essence.
And it gives you what?
A new earth, okay?
Spiritually, what does it give you?
A newness of life, okay?
Now, let's understand this passage.
Look at verse 16.
Have a good conscience that,
whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers,
they may be ashamed
that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ,
for it is better, if the will of God be so,
that you suffer for well-doing than for evildoing.
So, 1 Peter 3, in the latter portion,
it's very clear that it's all about suffering,
and specifically, suffering for righteousness' sake,
not suffering for being an evildoer,
not suffering for doing that which is wrong,
but suffering for doing that which is right,
being falsely accused,
having people attacking you for no good reason,
being persecuted, being afflicted, okay?
That's the context, and it says it's better.
I'd rather suffer when I did nothing wrong
than suffering because I deserve it, okay?
It's basically the context.
Verse 18.
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 quickened by the Spirit.
Now, people will take verses 18 and 19
and really turn it into something super confusing.
But if you just slow down
and you pay attention to the words,
you don't have to get there.
You don't have to believe in something stupid, okay?
But first of all, it's saying he once suffered for sins.
Don't take that phrase over literally
to a point where you just don't believe the Bible anymore, okay?
What is it generally saying?
It's just saying that Christ came to the earth
and suffered just one time.
But it's not meaning that Christ only suffered
literally one moment, okay?
There's many sufferings of Christ.
Look at chapter 4, verse 13.
If ye reproach for the name of Christ, happy are ye,
for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.
On their part he is evil spoken of,
but on your part he is glorified.
I'm sorry, I meant 13. I said 14.
But rejoice as much as it is your partaker of Christ's sufferings.
Christ suffered in many ways,
but he only suffered once in connection to the fact
that he came to the earth once,
he suffered, and then he returned, glorified, okay?
That was one event.
He didn't have to do multiple times of this.
Just like the offerings in the Old Testament were done multiple times,
multiple calf offerings, multiple goat offerings,
Jesus Christ was a one-time offering.
But that doesn't mean that the experiences he went through,
he didn't have multiple experiences of suffering.
He obviously suffered when he hungered in the wilderness.
He obviously suffered when Lazarus died and he wept, Jesus wept.
He obviously suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He obviously suffered when they whipped him.
He obviously suffered when they shoved the crown of thorns upon his head.
They obviously suffered trying to carry the cross up to Mount Calvary.
He obviously suffered on the cross, okay?
He obviously suffered many different ways
and many different moments of time,
but in just general, it was one time of suffering, okay?
And he was put to death in the flesh,
as the Bible makes it clear right here.
But then what's the next statement?
But, quickened by the Spirit.
Now what's that referring to?
That's referring to the fact that he was resurrected, okay?
The word quickened means to make alive.
Go if you would to a couple places.
Let's keep your finger and go to John, chapter number 5.
And I'm not going back to Genesis.
I'm just going to finish on this passage
because I just want to really understand this passage this evening
since we have an opportunity to look at it.
John, chapter number 5, look at verse 21.
The Bible says this,
For as the Father raiseth up the dead,
and quickeneth them,
even so the Son quickeneth him he will.
So notice the connection of what quickening means,
being raised from the dead, right?
Look at Romans, chapter number 4.
Go forward and go to Romans and look at chapter number 4.
I'm going to just drill this into your head
so that you don't get confused by lying false cult leaders.
Romans, chapter 4, look at verse 17.
So what does God do?
He quickens the dead.
Meaning what?
He makes them alive, okay?
Look at chapter 8 and look at verse number 11.
Chapter 8, look at verse number 11.
Flip the page.
So is this really hard to understand what he's saying?
He's saying the same way that Jesus was quickened by being what?
Raised from the dead,
He's going to do to your mortal bodies also by the exact same spirit.
Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 15.
Now, literally, our bodies will be resurrected at one day.
It's sown in corruption, but it's going to be raised in incorruption.
1 Corinthians, look at chapter number 15 and look at verse number 36.
The Bible reads,
Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened.
Notice this except the die.
So you can't quicken something unless it's dead either.
Why?
Because you're making it alive.
You can't make something alive that's already alive.
It's already there, okay?
So it has to be dead.
Go to Ephesians, chapter number 2.
And look at chapter 2, verse 1.
And you hath be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Now, the word quickened can be applied in two ways for us.
Number 1, the moment you believe your spirit is quickened, you're made alive, okay?
That's one way.
The second way is the fact that your literal physical body will be sown in corruption,
it will die, and it will be raised again.
Both of those are legitimate interpretations of the word quickened.
But when it's talking about Jesus Christ being quickened,
after he was risen from the dead, what does that mean?
That means that his body was raised from the dead.
That's what that literally means, okay?
That's the connection of that verse.
Look at verse 5.
Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ,
by grace ye are saved.
Look at Colossians, chapter number 2, one more verse here.
Colossians, chapter 2, verse 13.
Colossians, chapter number 2, look at verse number 13.
And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision in your flesh,
hath be quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
So again, that's another connection to the spiritual picture.
Go back to 1 Peter, chapter number 3, and let's look again at verse number 18.
Verse number 18.
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 quickened by the Spirit.
Now here's the thing.
Can the death of Jesus Christ bring us to God by itself?
The answer is no.
It also required something else, the resurrection from the dead, okay?
So when it's talking about being quickened by the Spirit,
what's that talking about?
Jesus Christ being raised again from the dead.
So what is verse number 18?
It's the entire event of his coming.
Christ entered into the world, he once suffered for us,
he was put to death, but then he was quickened, he was raised again.
That's the whole gospel, okay?
So then we get to verse 19.
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.
Now, this is what's funny about this.
People then take this verse and apply it to one aspect of verse 18.
They say, oh, verse 19, that's when he preached to the demons in hell.
And I'm like, what?
Oh, it's real obvious.
Haven't you read verse 18?
I'm like, yeah, I did.
First of all, verse 18 didn't mention hell.
It's not talking about hell.
Obviously, indirectly, I can know that Jesus died,
and from other verses in the Bible,
I can understand that that means he would have gone to hell
before he rose again from the dead.
But hell's not even in view in verse number 18, number 1.
It has nothing to do with the context,
and I'm inserting verse 19 into the middle of verse 18,
not going on the top or the back end or the whole verse.
Now, what you have to understand in verse 18,
it was a colon at the end, wasn't it?
What is the colon doing?
The colon is helping me understand there was a divide here, okay?
It's giving me more information to the whole package,
not just to the last little statement made there.
What was the whole package?
Christ came here once.
Now, when Christ came here, he died, was buried, and rose again.
But is that the only thing he did?
Didn't he do other things?
What else did he do?
Didn't he preach the gospel?
Okay, well, what does it say?
By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison.
Now, here's the thing.
Who are the spirits in prison?
Let me tell you.
Unsaved people.
Did Christ, while he was on this earth, preach to unsaved people?
Oh, yeah, he did.
He preached to everyone, okay?
So while he did the whole gospel message,
he also preached to people that weren't going to get saved.
You know who also preached to people that weren't going to get saved?
Noah.
You know who also preaches to people that aren't going to get saved?
You do, if you go out and preach the gospel.
Hey, you preach the gospel to all kinds of people.
And you know what?
There's a lot of people that are disobedient.
There's a lot of people that aren't going to get saved.
And you say, what's a spirit in prison?
It's someone who's dead and trespasses and sins.
They're a captive.
You know, when it talks about being let out of captivity,
when it talks about being freed, what are you being freed from?
The prison of sin.
The captivity of sin.
So Jesus Christ, while he was on this earth,
he preached not just to the saved,
he preached to the unsaved, okay?
And it says in verse 20,
Which some time were disobedient,
when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a-preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Now, again, this verse, just by itself,
kind of in this context, is a little bit confusing,
but I think when you read the next verse, it helps fit it together.
But just think about the concepts, okay?
Because the concepts help you understand this passage.
Because when we're thinking about the concepts,
how long did God wait in the days of Noah?
Almost a hundred years.
That's a long time.
God is ready to wipe out every single person on the planet,
but then he waits a hundred years to end up doing it.
And think about this.
Jesus Christ came to this earth,
but when did he die?
Didn't he die like 33 or plus years after he entered in the world?
That was a long period of time waiting to get to that event.
What's some of the stuff Jesus did before that event?
He preached the gospel, and he preached the gospel to everyone.
What's one of the things that Noah was doing while he was preparing the ark?
He's a preacher of righteousness, so he's preaching the gospel.
Hey, what's something that we're doing before we go to heaven?
We're preaching the gospel to everyone, okay?
So God, notice, when God doesn't punish the wicked immediately,
what's the purpose?
Because he's long suffering.
That's the whole essence that's being mentioned here.
And notice that just like Christ also suffered,
preaching to unreceptive people,
people that were spirits in prison, wicked people,
and just like Noah was obviously going to be afflicted in that same way,
and just like we're going to be afflicted the same way,
he's motivating us and encouraging us to continue doing it.
Hey, Christ did it. Noah did it. They all did it.
They all preached to an unreceptive crowd.
They all preached to people.
And you know, it's the long suffering of God.
And even if we don't get someone saved, we're still fulfilling God's will.
God still wants the gospel to go to every single person.
He says in verse 21,
the light figure, wherein to even baptism,
doth also now save us,
not the putting away of the filth of flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven and is the right hand of God,
angels and authorities, and powers being made subject unto him.
So he tells us in verse 21, this is a figure.
What was a figure?
Baptism is a figure of the ark,
which was a figure of baptism back and forth, okay, here.
Is it the same thing?
Now think about your spiritual life.
Your spiritual life.
Your life, okay, is like Genesis chapter number six.
In Genesis chapter number six, you're just in this world of the ungodly,
and every thought is only evil continually,
and then you get saved, which is what?
The ark.
Now how'd you get saved?
You go through the door.
Who's the door? Jesus Christ.
Okay, and then once you get saved,
you're supposed to go to a whole new world.
Why? And all the other stuff's supposed to be dead.
You're dead to trespasses and sins,
and then when you get off the ark,
you're supposed to walk in newness of life,
and you go through what? Baptism.
That's why it's so important to be a Baptist.
That's why it's so important to get baptized,
because what does baptism picture?
It pictures the fact that you're now dead with Christ,
and then you're going to come up out of the water,
and as Romans 6 words it, to walk in newness of life.
So Noah and his sons,
they were supposed to walk in newness of life.
They weren't supposed to be like the old world
and continue living like that.
They were supposed to be different and new,
and that's the same way for us.
We're supposed to also decide to walk in newness of life,
and we're picturing ourselves dying with Christ
and being raised again, and we have that same baptism.
Now, it's not putting away the filth of flesh,
because that's called a bath.
Listen to the Sunday night sermon called Be Clean.
And if you got baptized before you were saved,
at best you washed away the filth,
because baptism is a spiritual decision after getting saved.
So if you didn't get saved and you got dunked, you got dunked.
If you got saved and you get scripturally baptized,
it was to picture a spiritual renewing of you walking in newness of life,
that you want to serve God, you want to walk in his footsteps,
just like what Noah did and what Christ did.
Now, let's understand this passage a little bit more,
because if you keep reading, it really clicks.
1 Peter 4, verse 1.
For as much as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.
Now, notice, you can't say Christ only suffered by dying,
because notice he suffered for us in the flesh,
and it's supposed to be an example to us.
What sense would it make if he's saying,
hey, like Christ died on the cross as your example?
Does that mean we're all going to die on the cross?
Or is he just saying how Christ suffered in the flesh throughout his life
is the same thing that we're going to go through?
He says, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind,
for he that has suffered in the flesh that ceased from sin,
that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh
to the lust of men but the will of God.
He's saying, hey, stop living like you used to.
Stop living in the lust of the flesh, and start walking in the Spirit.
Start walking in that newness of life for the rest of your time.
Verse 3.
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles
when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine,
revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.
You know, you should have told Noah, hey, you had wine in the old world.
Don't bring wine in the new world, okay?
But he went back to the old way, and it cost him.
And the reality is for us.
Hey, just count it that you got to live it up before you got saved.
Shouldn't that be enough for you?
You know, it wasn't great anyways.
It was just consequences anyways.
Why do you want to go back to that anyways?
Verse 4.
Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you.
So who's the two groups that are being mentioned?
Christians that are saved and people that are unsaved.
What's the difference?
The people that are saved are not living the same as the ungodly.
They're different.
They're separated.
Hey, welcome to an independent fundamental Baptist church
where we actually believe in separation,
where we don't look like the world and talk like the world
and do the things that the world's doing,
and they say, you guys are strange.
Well, praise the Lord.
We must be doing something right then.
You know, shame on an independent fundamental Baptist church
when they can't tell that you're different.
Shame on any church where they look at you and say,
you look just like the world and you act just like the world
and you talk like the world and you dress like the world.
And as bad as the world is today, if that's your testimony,
you're real sick, okay?
I don't want to dress like them or look like them
or talk like them in any manner, okay?
And so we want to be really different.
And notice they'll speak evil of you.
Verse 5.
Who shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead,
for for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh
but live according to God and the Spirit.
So here's their verse that helps you make sense of everything you just read.
He's saying, look, the gospel was preached to the dead as well as to the quick.
Who's the quick? The ones that got saved.
Who's the dead? The ones that did not get saved.
And God is going to judge the dead and say,
why didn't you believe in Jesus Christ?
And they're not going to have an excuse and say, well, no one did
because he's going to say, oh, wait, the quick did.
And notice for that cause is the reason.
One of the reasons, there's many reasons.
One of the reasons why the gospel is preached to everyone
is so that God can judge the unsaved according to the people that end up getting saved.
So you know what?
You going out and preaching the gospel, even as someone that doesn't get saved
or people that are unreceptive, you're still fulfilling the will of God.
You're still a judge. You're still a preacher of righteousness.
And you know what?
Jeremiah's ministry was not one where he's like,
I got this many saved.
You know, they're throwing him in the dung pit.
But you know what?
It was still God's will for him to go and preach to an unreceptive audience.
You know, even Jesus Christ in many cases preached to a very unreceptive audience.
If Jesus Christ only cared about numbers, he would have only gone to the Gentiles
because think, he told his disciples they were going to do greater works than him.
Why? Because Paul going to the Gentiles, they're getting saved left and right.
The Jews are not that receptive though.
The Jews, it was not as many people getting saved.
Hey, yeah, Jesus got people saved. Don't get me wrong.
But he didn't get the numbers saved that he could have if he went to the Gentiles.
Why? Because they were more receptive.
But it doesn't matter if you're going to the Jew or the Gentile, to the receptive, to the unreceptive.
You know what?
Our job is to go out and preach the gospel.
And also our job is to suffer for righteousness' sake, to be different.
Read the story of Noah and say, you know what?
Even though our world's not being destroyed, that doesn't mean God's not mad at it.
That doesn't even mean that God doesn't want it destroyed right now.
He may just be waiting for the ark to be prepared.
And you know, we look at our world today and it seems like, you know, you must be ready.
But for some reason, God's long suffering is allowing us to be here.
And so we should just be like Noah and continue to be a faithful, walking with God,
separated, Baptist, like Noah.
He was a Baptist, all right?
A preacher of righteousness.
How could he not be a Baptist?
He's like the first Baptist, okay?
He got baptized by the whole world, okay?
And so we should be like Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and believe in baptism.
And if you haven't been baptized, you need to get baptized.
And you need to encourage people to get baptized and emphasize why it's so important
and stress your children and stress the people that you get saved to get baptized
and to save themselves from this untoward generation.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for this great chapter.
Thank you for giving us long suffering so that we could preach the gospel,
that it could be used above you.
Thank you for your grace and your mercy to extend towards us.
I also thank you that we have the opportunity to walk in newness of life,
that we have the opportunity to go through baptism
and to cleanse ourselves from our old ways and have a chance to serve you in newness.
And I pray that we would not take that lightly,
that we would take the keeping of your commandments with grave sincerity
and that you would just help us as we go through difficult times
to be motivated to suffer as Christ did.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
With that, let's go ahead and sing our last hymn for tonight.
Go ahead and take out your hymn.
We'll turn to song number 161, Our Great Savior.
Get that song number 161.
Song number 161, Our Great Savior.
Jesus, what a friend for sinners.
Jesus, lover of my soul.
Friends may fail me, foes assail me.
He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Hallelujah, what a friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving.
He is with me to the end.
Jesus, what a strength in weakness.
Let me hide myself in Him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing.
He, my strength, my victory wins.
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Hallelujah, what a friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving.
He is with me to the end.
Jesus, what a help in sorrow.
While the billows o'er me roll.
Even when my heart is breaking.
He, my comfort, helps my soul.
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Hallelujah, what a friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving.
He is with me to the end.
Jesus, what a guided keeper.
While the tempest still is high.
Storms about me, night o'er takes me.
He, my pilot, hears my cry.
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Hallelujah, what a friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving.
He is with me to the end.
Jesus, I do now receive Him.
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness.
I am His and He is mine.
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Hallelujah, what a friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving.
He is with me to the end.
Amen. Thank you all for coming tonight.
You all get home safely. God bless.