Jëan Ross: Good morning, everyone, and we'd like to welcome you once again to "Sabbath School Study Hour," coming to you from the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sacramento, California. Like to welcome our online members and our friends who are joining us across the country and around the world. We started a new lesson series talking about the everlasting covenant. It's entitled "The Promise," and today we're on lesson number 3 that's entitled "All Future Generations," so that is going to be our study for today.
But before we get to the lesson just a few announcements we want to let you know about. Today, we're doing our regular Sabbath School lesson, but next Sabbath, in place of our regular Sabbath School lesson--now, I know some of you are watching this three weeks after the live recording, so that will actually be April the--I believe the 3rd. We'll be having--April the 2nd, we'll be having a special program during our Sabbath School time, and we're going to have a focus on the sanctuary, a special sanctuary presentation, so you're welcome to tune in and join us. That will be the live broadcast next Sabbath at 10 a.m., and we'll be recording the lesson for that week on Wednesday evening, so just wanted to give you a little bit of an update on what's happening.
Want to remind you we do have a free offer. It is a book entitled "Satan's Confusing Counterfeits." This is our free offer. If you'd like to receive it, the number to call is 866-788-3966, and you can ask for offer number 191. Or you can receive a digital download of the book by simply texting the code SH058 to the number 40544, and you'll get a digital download of the book, and you'll be able to read the book for free online at the Amazing Facts website.
But before we get to our lesson today, we have a wonderful, special musical item that's going to be brought to us by some young people. It's entitled "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."
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Jëan: Let's begin with a word of prayer. Dear Father, how grateful we are to be able to gather in Your house to worship You today on this beautiful Sabbath. You've given us the blue skies, the warming weather, and, Lord, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come and be present. That the warmth of Your Spirit would fill our hearts and guide our minds as we open up and look at the great promise, this covenant, You have made with mankind and what our responsibility is as part of that. So, Father, we ask your blessing upon our time together. Be with Pastor Doug as he opens up the Word. And we ask this in Jesus's name. Amen.
Our lesson this morning is going to be brought to us by Pastor Doug Batchelor.
Doug Batchelor: Good morning. We're continuing with our study in the new quarterly dealing with the subject of the promise of God's everlasting covenant. We're going to be looking at a number of the covenants that God makes through His Word, and today we're on lesson number 3, dealing with all future generations that are impacted by these initial covenants that you're going to find here in Genesis. And we have a memory verse, and the memory verse is from Genesis 6, verse 8. If you have your Bibles, you might want to go there and look with me. Genesis 6, verse 8, and it says, together, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."
Sounds like a song, huh? Some of you have heard that quartet song, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," so we're going to be talking about the covenant that God made with Noah and why that happened and what happened in the world in those first generations. And I'd like to start by encouraging you turn to the book of Genesis. Go to Genesis chapter 3, and we're going to talk a little bit about why we need these covenants to save, and it's because of section number 1 for Monday, "The Sin Principle," or, actually, this is in Sunday's lesson. The sin principle. And you read in Genesis 3, verse 6, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."
Notice right away something you notice about sin. Your decision to sin never affects you alone. It always seems to involve others. Sin always hurts God, sin hurts you, and sin hurts others. It's basically the inverse of the great commandment, "Love the Lord. Love your neighbor as you love yourself." Sin hurts the Lord, hurts your neighbor. It hurts yourself. People cannot sin and think, "Well, this is just between me, myself, and I." Whenever you sin it engages others, and no sooner had she sinned than she wanted to commiserate with the experience with her husband. She gave it to him. And all of us are witnesses one way or the other. We're either witnessing for God or we're witnessing for the devil, but you are going to be a witness one way or the other. So, you can see right away through disobedience that God promised--He said that "in the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die."
Did Adam and Eve fall over and drop dead the day they ate the forbidden fruit? No. Physically, you didn't see them fall over and die, but in the original, when it says, "In the day that you eat thereof you will die," it really says "in dying, you will die," or we would say in English "you will begin to experience death." And as soon as they sinned, I think that they died spiritually, something happened. See, up until the point when Adam and Eve sinned, God created man in His own image, right? If I was to define God in three words, you could say God is love. So, if man was made in His image, what was the motive in man's heart? Before sin, man was full of love. After sin, the compass broke. And instead of the needle pointing a way to others unto God, the needle now pointed to self, and now the first thought that everyone thinks is, "What's in it for me?" WIIFM. You've heard that expression before, WIIFM. "What's in it for me?" And man began to think selfishly. Adam loved Eve, and Eve loved Adam, but after sin they start to blame each other for everything.
So, man began to die spiritually. Something was damaged, for lack of a better term, in our DNA, and then that selfish nature was passed on to everybody else following Adam and Eve. And, you know, that's why we're all born with these sinful tendencies. And another way, that it says, "In the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die." You read in Psalms 90 and you read in 2 Peter chapter 3 a day with the Lord is as what? Thousand years. How long did Adam live? Nine hundred and thirty years. How long did Eve live? Bible doesn't say. We don't know. We believe that she died before Adam, but you look at the early patriarchs. Did any of them live beyond a thousand years? Only Enoch, who went to heaven, but in their mortal bodies none of them lived in that first millennial day--"In the day you eat thereof you will surely die," so that whole first generation, they all died before that first thousand years went by. So, it was literally fulfilled, and they literally began to experience death. Their light went out. They suddenly became painfully aware of their nakedness. You go to Genesis 3, verse 10, and it says, "So he said, 'I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.'"
Now, were Adam and Eve streaking around the garden in the beginning oblivious to their nudity, and then after they eat the forbidden fruit suddenly they became more perceptive? Well, what happened when Jesus was on the mountain talking to God? What happened to His clothing? Began to glow. When Moses was up on the mountain talking with God, what happened to his face? It was shining so much he had to veil his face. When man was in Holy Communion with God, he had these robes of righteousness, He would glow. But when they sinned what happened to their glowing robes? The light went out and all of a sudden they became painfully aware of a cool breeze, and they felt this need. They had this kind of natural idea to cover themselves, and they felt shame.
So, what else does sin do? We learned sin spreads. Sin causes shame. Go back to that sin spreads. You know, in the introduction to your lesson it talks about how a bacterium--once a single solitary bacterium is introduced into a favorable host, it can multiply to the point where there's about 42 million in 24 hours. Going from 1 to 42 million in 24 hours. We've seen how a virus never -- They're trying to back study and figure out where the coronavirus first originated. I'm not going to get into any of the conspiracies and, yeah, you know, I'm not trying to blame anybody. I'm just saying they know that it originated somewhere, but, boy, look at how it spread. And the immunologists and people who specialize in the transmission of disease, they said, "We'll stop all the airplanes and everything." And they said, "You can't stop it." They said, "It is going to spread, and it is going to go global."
And you watched in those first few months. They said, "Well, it's gone here, and it's gone there, and it's gone there, and it's gone there." We thought, well, maybe South America will be safe. Maybe Africa. Maybe India. And I think there's a couple of islands in the Pacific that still don't have any cases, but you basically have to live on an island. But it just choo. It spread.
That's what sin does. Why can't we go and visit other unfallen worlds? Because sin is contagious, and this world is infected. And you might say that, you know, we've got this disease that is contagious and God has quarantined our planet. After we are cleansed from sin, will we be able to soar to worlds unknown? Sure. Right now, we can't see God and the angels face to face. That just the very glory of it would destroy us, but after sin is dealt with that will be resolved. So, sin spreads. We see sin causes shame.
Now, you go to Genesis 3, verse 11, and I'll read verse 13. "And God said, 'Who told you, you were naked? Have you--'" now, did God ever ask a question because He doesn't know? Does God know all things? Yeah. So, when God said to Adam, "Where are you?" was that for God because God really was wanting Adam to say, you know, "Olly, olly, all come free. Here I am"? Or does God know everything? So, when He said, "What have you done?" did God know? He's running out of it to think about, "Where am I now that I've sinned? Where has it brought me?" Sometimes, you need to evaluate, "What has this done to me?" And why did you do it? What did you do? Why did you do it?
So, God is asking these questions. Jesus asked questions. He asked the disciples, "What were you arguing about on the road?" Did He know what they were arguing about? He asked blind Bartimaeus, "What do you want Me to do for you?" He knew what he wanted Him to do, but He said, "I want you to ask." Does God know what things you have need of before you pray? So, why pray? He wants you to ask. "Who told you, you were naked? Have you eaten the tree that I commanded you, you should not eat?" And the man says, "The woman who You gave me--" "I was having a beautiful nap. I woke up and all of a sudden I'm married, God. It's all Your fault. You didn't ask. You opened up my side and You took out a wife, and now look at all the trouble she's caused. Well, it's her fault, and it's Your fault."
Notice how blame comes into it. You got shame, and you got blame. "'The woman that You gave me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.' And the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?'" Again, another rhetorical question. He knows. "The woman said, 'Lord, who made the serpent? Whoever made the serpent, it's the serpent that beguiled me." So, what's she doing? Adam blames God, and he blames the woman. The woman blames God and blames the serpent. And then, God turns to the serpent and suddenly he doesn't have a leg to stand on. That's a joke. I can't resist. I'm sorry. Serpent then gets cursed, says--and he, of course, serpent, you know, he just was possessed by the devil. So then, you see sin causes blame. Genesis 4, verse 5, and it says--and this is now the conflict between Cain and Abel. You see it also goes off into their family and their posterity, and said, "He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was angry, and his countenance fell." His pride was offended, and he became angry at his brother.
Now, the story that you see here at the beginning with Cain and Abel plays itself out to the end of time. You've got two brothers, one who is truly surrendered to God, and one who is not. One who wants to do it his own way, one who wants to do it God's way. The one who is worshiping the way God prescribes is persecuted by the one who's manufacturing his own worship. And when God shows approval to Abel, Cain wants to kill his brother. You get to the end of time, and you have the same situation. There's two groups. They both claim to worship God. One worships the true way, one worships the false way. The beast power is compelling everyone to worship the way he says. If you don't, you'll be killed. And they both claim to worship the same God.
That's what a lot of people don't understand. They think in the last days the beast power is going to be some green-horned monster, and everyone's going to be encouraged to worship the devil. They'll think they are serving God. Jesus said in John 16, "Those who kill you will think they're offering God service," just like Paul thought that he was serving God when he was killing Christians.
And so, because of his anger and his pride he--his brother tried to reason with him, and he rose up, and he slew his brother. He became filled with the devil. And, by the way, when you lose your temper, that's typically what's behind it, is you've surrendered to demons that control your behavior. "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Then, Cain says he was--his countenance fell. And you go to Genesis 4:19.
Then, of course, Cain takes his sister. Says he took his wife. No doubt took one of his sisters, and I know everyone thinks that's really odd, but keep in mind that Adam and Eve were technically sister and brother. I mean, God made them both, and before there were any defects in the genetics there was nothing wrong with a person marrying his direct sister. I'm sure that's what Seth did and all the other patriarchs, and then they started marrying cousins. Yeah, first cousins. Jacob married a first cousin. Isn't that right? Isaac married a first cousin, and so it was not considered a sin. It wasn't until the time of Moses that He--you know, God instructed him this could cause genetic problems. "Do not marry close to the family tree." And I think there are even some states in North America where you are allowed to marry your cousin. There are different laws, have different states about this.
But so, he took his wife, and he went off, and he began to build in a city and populated it. And then, you read in Genesis 4:19 one of the descendants of Cain, Lamech, he took for himself two wives. The name of one was Adah, the name of the second was Zillah, and so now you have bigamy, technically, and that it ends up going on into polygamy, many wives. And then, you have ignomy that comes after that. All this, and it says you know what happened? It says then Lamech killed a man, but maybe because there was a fight over a woman. And so, you now see that there is the violence, polygamy, selfishness, Genesis 6, and this is where you really see the tables turning. Genesis 6, chapter 1. I'm sorry. Genesis 6, verse 1, "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all they chose."
Now, you know, some of you probably have a Bible right here, some of you sitting here today. And depending on what your translation is, some of those Bibles, if you've got, like, a Good News Bible or something, it will say that these fallen angels married the daughters of men. And it makes it seem like angels, demons intermarried with humans and were able to procreate. That is totally ludicrous and unbiblical. Angels do not marry even other angels. Angels are not wired that way. The Bible says they are ministering spirits. They are not flesh and blood. They do not procreate. Angels do not have babies. They do not nurse babies. Jesus said they neither marry nor are they given in marriage. Angels are not born. They are created. Every one of them is an original, and so this whole idea--and I've just have heard pastors preach about it. One reason that God destroyed the world is because you had these half-human half-demons running around the world.
No, no, no. It's not what it's talking about. You've got two groups. After Cain killed Abel, God gave Adam and Eve another son. His name was Seth, and he was born in the image of his father, and he loved the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord. And he and his posterity, they were the godly line. They were called the sons of God. You can read in 1 John chapter 1, verse 3, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called sons of God!" We are adopted into the family of God. "As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God," and so the Bible is really clear. And even in the Old Testament Isaiah says we will be sons and daughters of God. Seth and his posterity were the sons of God.
Now, I need to say this in fairness. There are a couple of places that it talks about the sons of God shouted for joy, and it's talking about unfallen angels when the world was created. But here in Genesis it's talking about the--in the classical sense, it's talking about the believers, and it says they saw the daughters of men. See, Cain and his family didn't have eternal life. The word there is--I think it's "enos," and it means mortal man. They're dying, and they were supposed to maintain separation. You know, the Bible says, "Do not be unequally yoked together." And when the sons of Gods said--you know, they had to every now and then go to the valley, and they would get involved in trade with the children of Cain. And this may be hundreds of years after creation, you know?
People multiplied very quickly. They lived a long time. Adam and Eve were probably bearing children for nearly 200 years, or longer. We don't know. And so, they had enormous families. I heard there's one Orthodox family, Jewish family, in Israel, and there's one--the father is dead now, but the one grandmother has 900 living descendants. They all had, like, big, big families, because in their faith, you know, they believe be fruitful and multiply. And they did. They got married very young. Can you imagine that? And that's in our time, so can you imagine how quickly humans populated in the days of Adam and Eve?
And so, the sons of God, the children of Seth saw the daughters of Cain, that they were fair, and they said, "Oh, well, let's get married," kind of like Samson said, "I'd like a Philistine wife." And his parents said, "No, no. You need to marry a Jewish girl, you know, even if she's from another tribe." And Samson said, "Oh, but she pleases me well. Get her for me," and they gave into the complaining of their son. And he married a Philistine, and it ended badly, didn't it? Do you know when you read in the Bible one of the most glorious time was the time of Solomon, when the Queen of Sheba came? And everything was gold, and God's people were godly. They built the temple and--but then it says Solomon loved many foreign women and made marriages with them. And spiritually, right after that statement, the kingdom goes down.
When we begin to compromise our faith with the world, it ends up spreading that disease of sin. And after that happened you can read where God says in verse 3, "My Spirit will not always strive with man, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days will be one hundred and twenty years." That's why it says that God then goes to Noah. Noah builds the ark 120 years. He preaches 120 years. That's where that time period comes. By the way, don't ever forget God says, "My Spirit will not always strive with man." Every person in their life, there's a period of time God's Spirit will strive with you. He wants to save you. If we continue to put off and resist the Spirit of God, the volume goes down. It's very dangerous. You can get to the point where you grieve away the Holy Spirit. And God is extremely patient and compassionate, but you don't ever want to temper with His mercy. Don't ever presume on His mercy. His Spirit will not always strive. Sometimes, He will give us up to our choices.
And then, it goes on to say--oh, by the way, some of you are going to ask in verse 4, "If the children of Seth married the children of Cain and they were just humans, then why does it say in verse 4 there were giants on the earth in those days? And also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, they bore children to them. They were mighty men who were of old, men of renown." They say, "Well, if they're just human, why are they giants? Why are they men of renown?" That is a very simple principle called genetic vitality. Do you know if you cross a lion with a tiger, you know what you get? A liger. Do you know that it will be bigger than a lion or a tiger? It's called genetic vitality. If you cross a zebra and a donkey, do you know what you get? A zonkey. It's true, and it will be bigger than a donkey. If you cross--and you know you can cross a donkey and a horse, and you get a mule. And you can cross a dolphin and a whale, and you get a wholphin. They've done it.
This is true, and there are certain people--that in America you've got a lot of examples of what they call genetic vitality, because people that have, kind of, married within particular races and then come to America, and there's more commingling here from different parts of the world. And people end up getting taller. I remember my father saying--you know, my father was my height, and he said, "When I was a man," said, "and I was in the Service," he says, "I was considered tall." He said, "Then all these kids came along eating nuclear cereal, and I don't know what happened." He said, "They all got bigger." Three out of our four boys taller than me. One's the same size, and so just genetic vitality. That's all that's saying. They weren't aliens. They weren't half-demon. Anyway, and so it says then, "Afterward, after the sons of God came in to the daughters of men," verse 5, "the Lord saw that wickedness of man was great in the earth." You know what happens after the intermarriage? They lose their distinctness.
Now, the balance for a Christian is you want to be holy--the Bible says come out and be separate. He wants us to maintain our holiness, but don't be so separate you can't be a witness. We must be in the world as witnesses without the world being in us. And if you're parents, boy, it's really delicate to know how to raise your children in an environment where they're shielded from a lot of the evil in the world, but you also need to prepare them spiritually because they're going to get hit with it someday. They'll be out in it, and you need to know how to help them fortify their own faith. But there's a lot of ways you should try to insulate them and maintain that holiness and beat it into your kids--I don't mean that literally--when they're young. "You're going to marry a Christian, and you're going to go to Christian school." You want to prepare them to know that "you know, this is something--this is God's plan." If they start thinking, "Oh, you know, I'll marry them, and I'll convert them later," that's where all the trouble comes in.
All right, so they began to compromise, so sin brings in--sin spreads. It brings shame. It brings blame, pride, anger, polygamy, compromise, and ultimately corruption. God says man is violent, corruption filled the world, and now He must destroy it. All right, we'll get on to the next section here. Says "the man Noah," but Genesis chapter 6, verse 8, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Here, it introduces this hero. "This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth." Now, it never really tells us what years those sons were born, but I don't think they were triplets. And Shem was probably the oldest.
Now, here's a question for you. Did Noah--notice it says he was blameless. He walked with God. He was righteous. Was Noah righteous, blameless, and walking with God because he found grace, or did Noah find grace because he was blameless, righteous, and walking with God? It's a very--that's--this is a deep theological question. It tells us that Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, walked with God. He found grace in the Lord. Did he find grace because God said, "Here's somebody that trusts me," or did God suddenly give this person grace to be all those good things and then that's why he did it? I'll suggest to you that God's Spirit moved on Noah's heart like everybody. Didn't we just read, "My Spirit will strive with man"? Noah responded to the striving of God's Spirit. He chose to walk with God. He chose to commune with God. He chose to do what was just and walk meekly and humbly with his God, and so God said, "Here's someone who is responding to me. I'm going to extend further grace to him, that through him the whole world will be saved and repopulated." And so, it's, sort of, a mix. It's like what comes first, the chicken or the egg? I think Noah responded to the goodness of God and the Spirit of God, and because he responded he found grace above the others around him. He was willing to obey. God needed someone who was willing to obey to fulfill these very important requirements of building a boat on dry land in a wicked, violent world. He was going to be persecuted for that, and to do it for 120 years he needed someone that was going to trust Him. 2 Peter 2, verse 5 says, "God did not spare the ancient world, but he saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness."
Now, when we think of Noah, we think of him as a carpenter. By the way, Noah is a type of Christ. Was Christ a carpenter? But it says Noah was also a preacher, so Noah was preaching. He was telling the world to turn from their wickedness. God was going to destroy the world. He said, "I'm building a boat, and all that want to get on board, there'll be room. Everybody can get on board." Noah not only preached with his mouth, he preached with his hammer. You know, there's a lot of preachers that preach with their mouth but they don't preach with their life, and you want your life to match what you're preaching. You know, it's like some of the televangelists. They're asking everybody to make tremendous sacrifices for their ministry, and they're driving Bentleys, and you wonder, "How are they preaching with their life the same they're preaching with their mouth," you know what I'm saying? And so, Noah was preaching with his hammer, and he took the persecution, and he was consistently building this boat.
And I think a lot of people believed Noah, but when they finally came time to get on board, they gave in to the mocking of the crowd, because there was not a cloud in the sky. They waited until they had physical evidence. And you had to get on board by faith, in the Word. They waited until they said, "I want to see signs and wonders. I want to see some rain." They did have one sign: all the animals came to the ark. That should have been a clue, but there's no rain yet. They said, "It's never rained." Some people are going to wait until they see Christ coming in the clouds before they repent. It's too late then.
Matthew chapter 24. Some other lessons Jesus gives us about Noah. Verse 37, "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away." Now, is there anything--so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Is there anything wrong with planting and building and eating and drinking and marrying? Is it okay to plant and build and eat and drink? They were preoccupied with these things. They were preoccupied. Jesus said, "Do not be overwhelmed with the cares of this life so that the day comes upon you unaware."
Something else about that. Do you plant if you think you have no future? What good is planting if you have no--do you marry if you think you have no future? Isn't married--marriage predicated on the idea you're going to have time together with the person you're marrying? What about building? Do you build if you don't think you're going to have time to live in what you're building? So, everything they were doing back then, it's basically they were saying, "Oh, we got plenty of time. Noah, you just keep on preaching." And they really didn't never make any realistic preparation. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah--"
And, you know, I might add He not only said as it was in the days of Noah. He said as it was in the days of Lot. You know what? The days of Lot have arrived, friends, if you didn't know it, amen? I know you can't say that or you're going to get canceled, but you know it's true. And I've got to preach the truth. That's right. I was flying back from somewhere couple weeks ago. Oh, it's Mexico. And I read an email somebody sent me where now it's not just men marrying men and women marrying women, but now they've got three people getting married and adopting children. I just said, "We knew this was coming." And, you know, the thoughts of men's hearts are only evil continually. And who would have thought, 40 years ago, this could happen so quickly? That a 5,000-year-old institution of marriage would just vaporize, and churches, some churches, would support it. That's the shocking thing.
We are living in the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Can you say amen? So, because wickedness filled the earth, God was going to save the world. He's going to destroy the world. He destroyed it by water back then. Peter tells us when He comes the next time He's going to destroy it by fire, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now we're looking at the covenant with Noah. Look at verse 16. I'm sorry, verse 17 of Genesis 6. "And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh that is on the breath--that has the breath of life; everything that is on the earth will die. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you will go into the ark--you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you." It's pretty clear about God's arrangement about sons and wives back then, right? This was a covenant that was made based on grace, but it was established by action.
So, when God makes this covenant with Noah, and Noah says, "Praise the Lord. I'm saved. God's going to save me. He's going to save my son. He's going to save their wives, and I guess everything's okay and I don't have to worry." Is that the attitude Noah had? Or Noah said, "Lord, I believe Your Word," and then he started building a boat? So, Noah was saved by grace, but he showed that he was saved by grace by getting out his hammer and his saw. See what I'm saying? And so, when David killed Goliath, he said, "I come against you in the name of the Lord." He was trusting in God, but he also had a sling. So, some people just believe the grace part. They don't believe the practical aspects of grace. If you really believed--it's like James says, "You can show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." This is exactly what Noah did, and it mentions this in Hebrews, as well, Hebrews 11.
So, God's grace kept Noah from the wrath of man. He preserved him that 120 years. The world was full of violence and, let's admit it, Noah was doing something very odd and different from the rest of the world. He was going against the tide of wickedness. God protected Noah from the wrath of beast and from the storm, and so these are some ways we see God showed him grace.
Now, are we saved based on a covenant with Jews? Was Noah saved because he was Jewish? I'll just check here real quick. How many of you have had your ancestry DNA done? I have. My kids did it for me. Okay, we see some. How many of you were related to Noah? Did it show? It didn't show up? It really ought to, because, you know, all of us are here because of Noah. The whole world was saved. Anyone alive in the world today is because of the grace and the covenant of Noah, all flesh, because of the faith of that man. All right, the sign of the rainbow. Boy, I see--I thought--my time went so quickly. Let's talk about this. Genesis 9:12. After the flood, of course, he preserved them from that terrible deluge, the flood.
By the way, you know, I think it's interesting all the paleontologists, they look at the fossil record around the world, and they say, "All of these bones we see are the result of a cataclysmic flood on almost a global scale caused by an asteroid." They can tell from the evidence in the fossils there was a cataclysmic flood that altered the surface of the earth, and all these things died very suddenly, but they can't accept that it was God-caused. They say it was from an asteroid, and they're only speculating. They think, well, maybe it landed in the Gulf of Mexico. They don't know where it landed. That part they haven't quite found yet, because they can't believe that God sent a flood. Anyway. All right. After that he preserves them, and God then puts this bow in the heavens.
Now, it had never rained before, so they'd never seen this phenomenon that you and I take for granted. You know, we see a rainbow. We get our cameras out, say, "Isn't it pretty?" and we send it to our friends. But it is so pretty, but it's--they'd never seen that. It'd never rained. "This is the sign of the covenant that I'll make between Me and you, and every living creature," so this is a covenant, another covenant God makes not just with Noah, but even the animals. "A perpetual covenant for generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. And it will be that when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."
Are there still floods that destroy? But they're not global floods, is what He's saying. "The rainbow will be in the cloud, and I'll look for it to remember the everlasting covenant--" Now, does God need to look at the rainbow and go, "Oh, yeah. I promised I wouldn't wipe them out"? It's just a sign, this, sort of, poetic way of God saying, "I'm going to see that. I'll remember the covenant." God never forgets anything. "'Between you--God and every living creature and all flesh that is on the earth.' And God said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant that I've established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'" So, God gave us that sign, and every time we see a rainbow, even if it's just the sun-shower on a nice day, whenever you see a rainbow we're reminded of the mercy of God. Every day of life is because of the mercy of God He extends. The rainbow also reminds us He did destroy the world once with water, and He will do it again with fire. It's what 2 Peter chapter 3 tells us.
Now, you know a rainbow is just an interesting scientific phenomenon of the light hits those droplets of water and it refracts and bounces off the dense material, and it has that prism effect where it separates the different wavelengths into those colors of a rainbow. And it's really phenomenal. Some of you probably played with a prism before, and you can see how a prism will break down the different spectrum of light, and it is really fascinating how that happens. You know, rainbows appear other times in the Bible. Look in Ezekiel 1:26. It's talking about the throne of God. "And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness of--with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance, the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So when I saw it, I fell down on my face, and I heard the voice of One speaking."
You can also look here in Revelation 4, verse 3. "He who sat there was like jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow all around the throne, in appearance like an emerald," speaking of the throne of God. So, this is a symbol. Now, I don't know how you feel, but I--I'm sometime saddened when I see that this beautiful biblical symbol of God's grace and holiness has been hijacked by, you know, militant homosexuals to be a symbol for them, and I, kind of, wish that Christians would, sort of, take it back again. I can promise you if Christians started putting rainbows all out in front of their churches, the militant homosexuals would stop using it, because they wouldn't want that association. You didn't know I was going to say things that were so plain.
It's interesting. If you read in Sumerian myths--now, the Sumerian myths, you know, there is some similarity between biblical truth, and they've got this story about a Sumerian hero. His name was Gilgamesh and in the "Epic of Gilgamesh" talks about this great flood that wiped out the whole world. And he was to build a boat and bring the animals on board, very much like the story of Noah. He even sends out ravens and doves at the end of the story, and it says, "The god Ishtar created the rainbow and placed it in the sky as a reminder to the gods and a pledge to mankind there would be no more floods." Isn't it interesting that some of these ancient myths mirror aspects--they're drawn from the truth of the Bible?
All right. Then you finally get to the last section here. It says, "Only Noah was left," meaning Noah, his house, his family. Genesis 7, verse 23, "So He," God, "destroyed all living things that were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping things and birds of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive." What does that teach us about the last days? Only those in the ark survived in the last days. Only those in Christ will survive. There was a--side of Jesus was pierced. There was an opening from which came blood and water. There was only one door in the ark. I think I mentioned these things last week. Christ said, "I am the door. Anyone who goes around any other way is a thief and a robber. I am the way. I am the truth. I am life." There's only one way. One of the favorite phrases of the apostle Paul was to say "in Christ."
Over and over, Paul talks about being in Christ, and as we are in Christ, we are in that ark of salvation. You get several arks in the Bible. You know, God's holy law was put in an ark. It's a box. And then, the Savior, Moses was put in an ark and preserved. God's law, His Word was preserved, and then, of course, Noah, the human race was preserved in this ark, and we need to treat our brains like an ark and hide His Word in there and have the Savior in there. So, Noah was the remnant. Everyone is wiped out, but He saved a remnant of humanity, a remnant of the animals. All of the elephants you see in the world today, probably even the woolly mammoths and mastodons, all those derivatives of elephants, from two elephant-like animals that Noah took on the ark. They were the remnants that saved everything else. When God called Abraham out from Ur of the Chaldees, he was the remnant. God saved a remnant from the people that came from Mesopotamia, and He rose up a holy nation from that remnant, as He had done with Noah.
Now, the word "remnant," according to "Webster's Dictionary"--and, by the way, you find it 85 times in the Bible. It means "something that is left over," "a remainder," like a leftover piece of a fabric after the rest has been used, "a surviving trace or vestige." Any remnant that you might see or use is going to have some similarity to the original. If you get a remnant cloth, that last piece that comes off the bolt of cloth, it's going to look something like the original, right? In the last days, God is going to have a remnant that's going to be saved, and that remnant that he calls out of Babylon is going to be like the original, as it was in the days of the apostles. You can have the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Abraham was a remnant. Joseph. He said in Genesis 45:7, "So God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, to save your life by great deliverance."
You remember when Athaliah wanted to kill all the royal seat of David? And Joash was the only descendant that was saved, and from that remnant, that one baby, the line of David was preserved. And, of course, Jesus comes through the line of David. And then, you've got, of course, Jeremiah 23. "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I've driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they will be fruitful and increase." In the last days, God is calling His people back to the Word. He's going to save a remnant from the blizzard of Christianity that is around the world right now.
Well, friends, I can see that I'm just about out of time. I want to reserve a little time just to remind you don't forget about the free offer, and it's called "Satan's Confusing Counterfeits," and you can get this by simply calling 866-788-3966. That's 866-STUDY-MORE. And for those of you who are watching this live next week, which is April 2 and 3, we're going to be having a special program called "Amazing Sanctuary" right here, and it will be streaming for you also on AFTV. God bless you. We'll study His Word together again next week.
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Male: I'm from Armenia. I'm Armenian, and I was born there, but I was raised in L.A. I was a sophomore in high school, so give or take 15, 16 years old. And I had some idea about God because I was raised in a Christian home, but to know Him as the Bible taught, no clue. I was really poor in math, so my mom took me to a math tutor every Sunday morning to sharpen my skills, if you will. And one particular Sunday morning we were watching those Sunday-morning TV shows where the preachers are preaching, and Doug Batchelor happened to be on. I paid attention. I'm like, "Mom, makes pretty good sense, though," because he was backing up with Scripture.
So, once Doug Batchelor finished his sermon, the announcer said, "If you're interested in Bible studies, you can go to the Amazing Facts website, and there's a link there for free Bible studies." So, I said, "I got spring break next week. Might as well just do it because I have nothing else to do." Well, I did it for about two, three days nonstop. I was up until 2, 3 in the morning doing the Bible study guides, and when I was done I was like, "Wow! I have no idea about God. I thought I did, but I don't." So, as I was beginning to learn all these things, my mom was open, because she's the one who was actually watching the shows. And so, she began to study alongside with me after my first lessons were done, and she embraced the truth because she was open to the truth.
But what the real problem was, was my grandmother. Growing up in an Armenian home, if you ever go away from your own religion, from your own Christianity, it's like you're an heretic, so there was a war between myself and my grandma. So, I had to study with her in her own language, in Armenian to show from her Bible the things that I was learning was actually from the truth. So, as my mom and I began to attend the church, we made a decision to get baptized as members, and so we got baptized some months later after doing some Bible studies with the pastor. And then, I went to school, and I said to my friends, "I'm officially a Seventh-day Adventist," with a big grin on my face. And they said to me, "What is that?"
It dawned on me I'm a teenager going to high school. I'm not ordained. I'm not a professor. I don't know much. I just know that I did some Bible studies, I learned about Christ, and now I'm sharing with those friends of mine, so I began to study with some of my friends in the school bus, in the class about the things I was learning. And I began to share the Bible study guides from Amazing Facts with them, and I gave them some DVDs from Amazing Facts, as well. And I began to read and read, because as I was sharing things with people they asked me questions about God, to which I said, "Let me get back to you." So, I had to go back and purchase some more books and study out those topics so I can give them a answer. I probably ordered over a thousand dollars' worth of books from Amazing Facts, books on Revelation and Daniel and prophecy and the law and grace and all sorts of things.
And so, Amazing Facts was really crucial at that stage, where it provided the resources I needed to know the Bible better and to share my faith with others. But it's funny how God works, because years later they themselves got baptized in church. And when they came to me, they said, "I am officially a Seventh-day Adventist myself." To this very day, every Sabbath morning--my mom isn't able to go to church, but she watches Amazing Facts online every Sabbath as her divine worship. If it wasn't for Amazing Facts, I would have not known Christ. I would have not had that peace that He offers, and all these people who came to know Christ would have not had the opportunity. My name is Taron Hovsepyan. I want to thank you for changing my life.
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Josh: Our family was Christian, to begin with. Mom and Dad were involved at the church at times. On the inside our family wasn't really Christian, I guess. It was just--it was a front that we put on. My dad suffered from bipolar disorder. Instead of taking his medication, he turned to alcohol. He could be mad one second and the next second he'd be happy, and it was so confusing for us. Most of the time, we'd be upstairs to try to avoid them. I made good grades all the way up until high school. High school, I started struggling because my mom was a single parent at the time, and I had to get a job. I was working every day after school. I didn't have many friends to talk to, so I was getting depressed. I was always tired. I started failing my assignments because I would fall asleep during class, and I couldn't listen to the teachers. I couldn't comprehend what they were saying.
By my 11th-grade year, I dropped out, and I tried homeschooling. I just ended up working full-time. I had lots of girlfriends growing up, but I was always terrified of talking to guys. Like, my hands would start to sweat. I would tense up. I couldn't talk. I guess that's when I started developing an attraction. Gay guys weren't scary to talk to, so I started talking to them. And then, I started meeting them, and then it just went from there, and then I started having relationships with them.
I just wanted to find someone who would care. After high school, most of my friends were gone, but there were a few left home. We all started getting into drugs and smoking weed and drinking. I was able to leave my depression behind, and I wasn't shy anymore. I was able to talk to anyone I wanted to. It wasn't real, but it felt real at the time. During this time, I felt like God had left me. I'd hear conversations at church talking about gays and people on drugs and stuff, and, you know, they'd talk so bad about them. It drove me to leave church. I eventually just left church. I left God. I just didn't care anymore. I didn't care what God thought because I didn't think He cared about me.
At the beginning of this year, I moved in with my boyfriend. I still felt empty. I still wasn't happy. I thought I had what I wanted. I had a guy that I could love, and I thought he loved me, but I was still empty. I still felt like if I died today I wasn't sure where I was going to go, and I wasn't sure if I'd be a disappointment to everyone. My grandma texted me. She told me that an Amazing Facts evangelist was coming to our church to do a prophecy seminar. I didn't really want to go because I've been to those before, and they were normally pretty boring, and I'd fall asleep. I was planning on making excuses for every night, but she was dedicated. She really wanted me to go, and so did my mom, so I ended up going to church. And the evangelist that was speaking, he was speaking on the sanctuary that morning.
It made sense to me that there was someone up in heaven pleading my cause. I've never heard Jesus this way before. I went back all the nights that I could, except the nights that I worked. At the end of it, I ended up getting re-baptized. I made a decision to leave this life behind. I was still attracted to men, but I wanted to leave the lifestyle. I didn't want to live in it anymore, any longer, because I knew it was wrong.
The evangelist that was at our church that did the prophecy seminar became my mentor. He told me about this school called AFCOE. It stands for Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism, and I was like, "Well, I want that, because I want to learn how to share Jesus. I want to learn how to be able to help others." I prayed about it. I applied online. They accepted my application, but I still had the money problem left. That night, right before I left, He provided over $3,000, and He's been providing for me ever since. The tools that I've learned here are tools that will stick with me forever, and it was life-changing to be able to come here, to AFCOE.
I would love to help other people in my situation because a lot of people have prayed that God would take this stuff away, and then they get discouraged when He doesn't. But what they don't know is that Jesus is there. He'll help you through it. My name is Josh, and Amazing Facts helped change my life.