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[0:00] Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. Kind of has creation written all over it, doesn't it?

[0:15] And I find it necessary, as I mentioned earlier, to share with you comments that I have written by way of propositional statements that I want you to consider as we move through the body of the message.

[0:27] And we will be at several portions of scripture, particularly in the book of Genesis. But by way of opening comments, I want to share the following, and I am confident you will give it your attention.

[0:44] In considering the subject of the big picture that we began during our last session, be reminded that there are but two sources of information that are available.

[0:57] One, God's revelation, both in creation and in the printed word, the Bible. And two, man's scientific investigation.

[1:12] In other words, what God has revealed and what man has come up with. Those are the only two possible sources of information. Despite a very checkered past about issues on which science has proved itself to be wrong, as a result of their later findings, most people will still prefer to cast their lot with the latest scientific research.

[1:40] Never mind that God has a proven track record and has never revised his position, plus the fact that he was there when all this happened, and was in fact the orchestrator of it all, many are still unwilling or at least reluctant to embrace the simple, thus saith the Lord.

[2:05] Perhaps it's too simple, and many can only respect explanations that they cannot understand. God revealed his big picture with the full intent that it be understood.

[2:23] It is simple, straightforward language in the beginning. We have a great deal of respect for science.

[2:36] We are all beneficiaries of science in different areas. But you must always remember that with science, the jury is always out.

[2:50] Science is all about discovery, observation, adding to a body of knowledge that has been gained. And sometimes, completely reversing oneself.

[3:04] Have you never heard the little quip on television so many times, latest studies reveal? And do not the latest studies often contradict the earlier studies?

[3:21] Well, who came to the conclusion with the earlier studies? Experts. Scientists. Scientists. A true scientist is a humble person, not an arrogant person.

[3:38] And when we think that science has solved our problems, we simply do not understand the issues. Now, just, there are so many examples that could be given.

[3:51] Well, let's just take one that's very, very apparent to everybody, I think. In 1799, the father of our country lay seriously ill, and the very best medical scientific minds that were available at the time were convinced that his best bet for recovery was to bleed him.

[4:15] They ended up taking three pints plus of blood from George Washington, and of course he died. Now, there were no medical authorities at the time that would have questioned that treatment, because it was the latest that science had discovered at that time.

[4:38] But it was greatly in error. Today, we know that that probably what finished our first president off, he simply did not have the wherewithal to fight against what he was fighting, having lost three pints of blood taken from him.

[4:53] But that was a scientific approach. Now, we look back on that as barbaric today. But then, you may be sure that our president was attended by the finest physicians that were available.

[5:10] And as you go on through American history and world history, you can see so many places and times where science has been proved wrong about some of the things they were absolutely sure of.

[5:23] is there something wrong with that? No, not really. It just points out flawed human nature and our inability to sometimes understand and appreciate exactly what we're looking at and exactly what the evidence is saying.

[5:41] We misread it and we come to wrong conclusions. That's part of being a human being. But that's what science is. Science is always in process, always discovering, always revealing, always sometimes contradicting earlier points of view that were set forth by very intelligent people with a lot of influence.

[6:05] I only say that to say that that source of information that some tend to rely on so heavily has a very checkered past and you ought to keep that in mind despite the fact we still have many people in the western world who worship at the altar of science to our detriment.

[6:35] Simple, straightforward language of scripture regarding the origin of all things is in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now, what about the millions and billions of years?

[6:49] Brace yourself for this one. There aren't any. There never were any. millions and billions of years never existed.

[7:05] Millions and billions are both measurements of time albeit a very very long time. However, prior to Genesis 1 1 when in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth prior to that time there was no time.

[7:27] There was no clock ticking. There were no pages peeled from a calendar. There was only eternity and it is timeless.

[7:40] It is devoid of time. God inhabits eternity. The Isaiah 57 passage tells us. I want you to turn now if you will please to Genesis chapter 6 and while you are turning there let me remind you that time and space were creations of God that were necessary to accommodate physical matter.

[8:13] Did you get that? both time and space are creations of God that were necessary to accommodate physical matter.

[8:26] God is spirit and does not occupy space or time. We do. Earth does. Animals do.

[8:38] Planets do. Stars do. But prior to the time that God created matter there was no time and space and there was no need for it because all there was was God and God is spirit he does not occupy time and space time and space are both creations by God he dwells in eternity in a spirit state which we frankly cannot really understand even though we all have a human spirit so when God created the heavens and the earth he created space and time because that which is physical requires space and time to inhabit itself God is spirit does not occupy space or time spirit is immaterial and eternal and it gave rise to all that is physical there was a time in eternity and there

[9:50] I used a contradiction when I say there was a time we automatically think of years and months and days so let me put it this way there was there was a period there was an existence of the deity as spirit without having any kind of matter no heavens no earth no planets no atmosphere no nothing yet there was God in spirit form existing in eternity he did not exist from millions and billions of years ago because there are no millions and billions of years there was just eternity what was before Genesis 1 1 eternity God dwelt there this is before anything was ever created even angels so God did not dwell in millions and billions of years and if you think so why not trillions and quadrillions what we're talking about is eternity which is timeless no time at all granted that's a difficult concept to get our brains around because we gauge everything by time we cannot escape from it we are creatures of time we are prisoners of time and we are prisoners of space because we have physical bodies and we need these so spirit which is immaterial and eternal gave rise to all that is physical spirit created physical and not vice versa spirit is superior matter is inferior to it the big picture with scene two is concerned with the destruction of much that was created in scene one all humans who were endowed with the first institution of volition were destroyed and the earth along with them there being but eight human survivors and the animals that were on the ark of

[12:02] Noah so in Genesis chapter six and I would refer you to that now I want to begin reading with verse one this is after of course the original creation this is immediately following the great death chapter of chapter five and the reason there is a death chapter in chapter five where you read virtually every individual ends with and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died until you get to Enoch and he was not for God took him he is an exception so chapter five of Genesis is the death chapter everybody dies and the reason everybody dies is because of the fall in chapter three and the reason for the fall is because of creation in chapter one the reason for the fall is because

[13:04] God endowed man with volition that is the power to obey him or the power to disobey him and we know of course what happened same thing happened then as happens today most people choose to disobey rather than obey so nothing has really changed in chapter six we have the destruction of all that God brought into existence and the text will tell us why it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose now I am not going to get into the debate of whether these angels are whether these are angels or whether they are corrupted human beings suffice it to say that over the almost 50 years that I have been studying this portion of scripture I have been on both sides of this issue at least twice so I switch back and forth and one time I'm not sure and the next time I'm convinced and so on so I still don't know with any confidence that gives me real comfort that I know the real answer to this there's some pretty good arguments on both sides but nonetheless that will not interfere with our conclusion the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh nevertheless his days shall be 120 years the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of

[14:42] God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually now I want you to think of a certain word the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great and what we're talking about is this corruption moral corruption what is corruption corruption corruption is an evil ingredient that is injected into something that had a pure beginning and it becomes corrupt becomes contaminated that's what sin does the world was filled with it at this point in time and God decided to literally do away with it the earth is filled with it now so what is God going to do same thing he did the first time he is going to do away with it that's coming in the future and verse six the

[16:04] Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart these are all anthropomorphisms and anthropopathisms which is the attribution of human characteristics to God for the purpose of communicating with lesser creatures that's us so God is spoken of as having eyes and having arms and having legs God is spoken of as having a heart but I can assure you that God does not have a heart does not have a chest in the middle of which is a heart that pumps blood through the divine body that is not the way it is at all that is the way it was with Christ when he was incarnated in human flesh and took upon him the form of a man of course he had a heart just like we have and it did what our heart does and so on but we are talking about the creator God prior to the incarnation he is spoken of as having a heart and he is spoken of as being grieved but as I said these are anthropomorphisms or anthropopathisms and they attribute to God human-like characteristics in order to communicate to us otherwise we would be at a loss to understand what is being said but heart we can understand grieve we can understand and the

[17:16] Lord said verse 7 I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky for I am sorry that I have made them this is not God second guessing himself this again is an anthropopathism figurative language God knew full well what was going to happen and this did not come as a surprise to him but as we pointed out to you in our first session God created all things for his glory and because of his good pleasure that was all the justification he needed he wanted to do so he did not create out of necessity let's hurry on but Noah verse 8 found favor in the eyes of the Lord these are blameless in his time Noah walked with God and Noah became the father of three sons Shem Ham and Japheth now the earth was corrupt there's that word again corrupt in the sight of

[18:23] God and the earth was filled with violence I wonder if the earth was corrupt in the sight of God I wonder if the earth was corrupt in the sight of men probably not except perhaps for the likes of Noah who had a different value system a different mindset and a different worldview Noah probably saw the earth much as God saw it corrupt how did most of the earth see it same way most of the earth sees it today we are fine everything is okay we are good and added to the corruption of course is the obvious blindness and the earth was filled with violence because violence is bred by corruption and God looked on the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth then

[19:26] God said to Noah the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence because of them and behold I'm about to destroy them with the earth is filled with violence was talking with Chuck McConkie just a few minutes ago and he was telling me that in Columbus there were how many murders for this year 75 murders so far in Columbus Ohio 75 occasions where some individual wantonly took it upon himself to end the life of another human being and that's just little old Columbus Ohio what about LA and New York and Chicago this is filled with violence and behold

[20:31] I am about to destroy them with the earth and then he goes on and gives Noah directions for the building of the ark and telling him what's going to happen and yes I want to make it as crystal clear as I possibly can there really was a Noah a living breathing homo sapien by the name of Noah who built a big ark and yes there really were three sons Shem Ham and Japheth and it was a real honest to goodness ark and it took them a long long time to build it and all it had to do was float you didn't have to steer it all you had to do was just sit in it and let it boil you up over the waters there really was a flood that was worldwide and it literally inundated the entire world why do

[21:39] I believe that that's what the text says and it says it very clearly it is only man looking at a descance and says well I don't know that that should be taken literally and maybe it was just a local flood well if it was a local flood all the inhabitants had to do to save themselves was move to higher ground there wasn't any higher ground the whole earth was covered even the highest mountain some say you mean to tell me that Mount Everest 29,000 plus feet was covered over with water on the earth I don't think Mount Everest even existed then I don't think most of what we see today as mountains existed then but were products of the flood I want you to understand that the flood of Noah was not as a result of rainfall and just a buildup of water on the earth where it was just nice and gentle and the water just kind of rose a little bit more a little bit more a couple of feet each day and the next thing you know it got too high and you couldn't dog paddle and swim for long you couldn't survive and finally you drown but it was just a nice gentle increase there wasn't anything gentle about this if you want to see absolute devastation destruction chaos on the level that you can't imagine you take a good look at turbulent water in motion violent forceful upheaving cataclysmic moves every have you not seen here in our own nation have you not seen whole houses floating down river can you imagine what this would be like and it isn't just rain coming down we are told specifically in the text that the fountains of the great deep opened up and you have an enormous upsurge of water violent torrents rivers of water coming from below upward putting everything in a turbulent swirling motion it had to have been cataclysmic this moved massive boulders moved huge portions of earth shifted the face of the earth the crust of the earth was radically altered as a result of this this was a violent thing and I am convinced that when they were in the safety of that ark there were plenty of times when it was said noised abroad hang on everybody why that ship as massive as huge as it was must have just been tossed around like you cannot imagine this was a this was water in motion the lives of which you cannot begin to imagine and it literally restructured the surface of the earth how many perished we don't know we only know the number of survivors different ones have tried to do the math and come up with some pretty significant numbers but it's impossible to be very dogmatic about it this was the literal destruction of a literal creation both of which are confined to the literal times indicated in the book of

[25:32] Genesis and later referred to by our Lord Jesus Christ who not only identified by name Noah but the flood as well and if it were not so it puts our Lord in a very dubious light because he would have been as misinformed as everybody else if it were not exactly as it says so in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 11 corruption was the problem and it still is corruption is the contamination of the good and originally intended with that which is evil Adam and Eve became corrupted with sin sin infiltrates permeates and dominates and always results in its predictable wages which is death and I would ask you to turn just briefly if you would or you don't have to turn you can just let me turn and you can listen to Romans chapter 8 and speaking of this corruption the apostle is speaking and he says

[26:57] I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God for the creation was subjected to futility not of its own will but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God such was the result of the first creation and such will be the result of the recreation involving Noah and his family of survivors it is coming and when I'm talking about the recreation I'm talking about the new earth onto which Noah and his family moved after the flood and do you know what's going to happen the process of corruption is going to begin all over anew it starts with

[28:10] Noah's drunkenness and of some kind of sexual activity involving one of his grandsons and this new race is off to not a much better start than the first one and let me tell you what this points out this points out the incorrigibility of human volition you understand that human volition willful man is morally incorrigible hasn't history taught us anything even even after living under a ideal environment for a thousand years with Jesus Christ ruling and reigning during the millennium there is going to be a new outbreak of rebellion at the end of that Genesis or Revelation 19 makes that quite clear and Satan will be loosed from his bottomless pit and will go out to deceive the nations once again and there will be people who will line up behind him exercising their volition human volition the human will is incorrigible it is locked in to selfishness and that becomes the whole basis of corruption the whole earth was corrupt when God brought the curtain down on Noah's generation the whole earth is corrupt today our institutions are corrupt congress is corrupt parliament is corrupt our educational institutions are corrupt our churches are corrupt everything is corrupt

[30:08] I'm not saying that every person in those is corrupt I'm saying the institutions are corrupt because they have far departed from what they were intended to be the United Nations is corrupt big time that doesn't surprise anybody does it well it is good intentions good beginning but what happens same thing that always happens human sin infiltrates penetrates corrupts contaminates and the end result is death always that's the wages of sin and we could use sin and corruption as synonymous terms so churches are corrupt the only church that is not corrupt is a church that is tracking in the word of God and any church that has departed from the teaching and the belief in the word of God is of necessity corrupt it's all you can be this is the only place where purity is found and to the extent that we are tracking in it we avoid corruption and if we cave and go the way of popularity go the way of the masses go the way of feel good then we too will be corrupt grace bible church is not immune to corruption we have the same tendency toward corruption that every other institution has we are no different we are no better it's just that you stay tracking on the word that's the only thing that will keep you from corruption you depart from it you've had it you're down the tube just like everybody else

[31:56] Adam and Eve became corrupt with sin and of course that started the whole thing and it is genetic so understand if you will and I know people say things like it's very negative baloney nothing negative about it it's realistic look at the facts look at the evidence just weigh it just look at it just read the newspaper listen to the tube not being pessimistic I'm being realistic this is the way it is but the glorious glorious truth of it is as human volition is incorrigible the love and grace of God are incorrigible also so that where sin abounded grace did much more abound grace is necessary because of corruption grace is vital because of sin grace is essential because that's the only way forgiveness can come to incorrigible sinners wow that is incredible that is what makes grace so amazing in

[33:25] Genesis chapter 8 and we must hurry on I want to give you some time for Q&A and I won't be able to do it if I don't take a hatchet to some of these notes Genesis 8 and verse 18 Noah went out and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him every beast every creeping thing every bird everything that moves on the earth went out by their families from the ark then Noah built an altar to the Lord this is all after the flood and everything is settled down took of every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar and the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and the Lord said to himself I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent hmm what did I just say for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth we could almost add in the white spaces here despite that

[34:39] I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done while the earth remains seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease and then in chapter 9 we have a new foundation for a new beginning and it is spelled out including the prohibition against the taking of life and we are told in a passage that greatly predates the ten commandments that God gave through Moses in verse 5 of Genesis 9 I will surely require your life blood from every beast I will require it from every man from every man's brother I will require the life of man whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed why?

[35:33] for in the image of God he made man and as for you be fruitful and multiply all of present day humanity including of course you and me all of present day humanity has been produced by Noah and one of his three sons Noah is your daddy you go back far enough we all have Noah's DNA in us we all have Adam and Eve's DNA in us that is part of what makes us human in Genesis chapter 10 we have recorded what is commonly referred to as the table of nations and one in particular one in particular is key in Genesis 10 and verse 1 these are the records of the generations of Shem

[36:34] Ham and Japheth the sons of Noah and sons were born to them after the flood verse 2 tells us who the sons of Japheth were and then when you get down to verse 21 we are told that to Shem the father of all the children of Ebal and the older brother of Japheth children were born and the sons of Shem were and then they are named and you follow the list of the sons of Shem far enough and you will arrive at David the king he is out of the line of Shem he is a Shemite or a Semitic person and if you move on down the line of genealogy a thousand years from the birth of David the king you will arrive at Jesus the Messiah a direct descendant of David the king out of the line of Shem and that becomes very very particular in Genesis chapter 11 we have corruption raising its ugly head again and it results in the confusion of languages if you will look at verse 4 of chapter 11 they said come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven and let us make for ourselves a name lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth so this is human arrogance human impudence human insult shaking its fist in the face of God and saying we are going to do our thing this is nothing more than the resurfacing of corruption once again it is the corruption process that raises its ugly head and results in the confusion of languages and you must understand the purpose for the confusion of languages because that too is important and that is the confusion of languages served as a retardant for human corruption it slowed the spread of evil and I would just inject here as evil and as bad and as vile as places in this world are now were it not for the language barrier it would be a lot worse man is limited in what he is able to communicate to his fellow man at least to some extent because of the language barrier but we know that that to a large extent has been broken down and isn't as formidable as it once was so the

[39:31] Tower of Babel is a retardant for human corruption it kind of put the brakes on things but it is still of course running amok God's final solution for resolving the problem of corruption and evil lies within himself he will actually couple with humanity and he himself will become the human via enfleshment of his own person this actually began with Adam and Eve in response to his promise of an offspring in Genesis 315 when their sin brought in corruption that contaminated the gene pool before they even had children and passed that contamination of sin which is a terminal disease sin is a moral terminal disease that dwells in the being of every one of us and God's antidote for that was given by way of a promise that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent and the serpent of course is none other than Satan himself and he'll have a much more important part to play as we move on through the big picture in particular to get into scene 4 and 5 so in the meanwhile we live in a world of corruption this is man doing his utmost in defying

[41:21] God through the misuse and abuse of the autonomy and volition that God has given him and God is going to respond with a cleansing of the earth much akin to what he did the first time with Noah only then it was by water the second time around the cleansing will come via the great tribulation period and in the midst of it all during this age of grace the grace of God is highlighted as the only effective combatant and remedy for human sin is not good works it is not institutionalization it is not human remediation it is not reformation it is redemption and only redemption as provided by a spotless redeemer so that's where God's grace comes in and it is magnified because of the likes of those upon whom he spent that grace for while we were yet sinners

[42:28] Christ died for the ungodly this just magnifies the grace of God true I'm not minimizing the problem of human corruption and human sin it is as awful it is more awful than we can imagine because we do not have pure eyes with which to look at it God does so you can imagine how it must look to him but where sin abounds grace does much more abound and God's tender arms of forgiveness are outstretched to a disobedient and gainsaying people come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest rest that the world cannot give peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you let not your hearts be troubled neither let it be afraid God is active and involved he is very much in the big picture he is behind the scenes orchestrating bringing to pass all that serves his own purpose it is it is a glorious thing so in

[43:45] Genesis chapter 12 to which we will not now go but in Genesis chapter 12 we have the record of the perpetuation of the offspring that is promised in Genesis chapter 3 and that will be through the individual our father Abraham Abraham is the spiritual father of all who are justified by faith and we will see how that plays out and why the Jew is irrevocably the vehicle of God's choice for earth's redemption and ultimate salvation is an incredibly glorious thing to behold and you know the ironic thing about what I am going to be teaching you next week about the Jew is something that even most Jews don't believe and really why is that because all the way back to the first century the Jew has been steeped in unbelief and rejection of the

[45:09] Messiah and even today that's where they remain but that too will change and dramatically so we will see questions or comments that you may have Lynette in the back get the microphone please the tower of Babel I've never heard of anybody who went over to the holy lands saying they saw that is it still there or did it get torn down or do you know no of course it isn't it isn't still there the geographical spot where it was located is still there we just don't know where it is I mean the exact latitude and longitude down to the minutes and seconds is still there it's still if you knew where it was you could go walk and stand on that very spot and it's in

[46:11] Iraq it's in modern day Iraq but we don't know exactly where it was why don't we know what happened to it if it was so tall wouldn't there just be even you know huge rocks that's just in a mound or something if it got torn down or something well there are so many ancient ruins all over the near east and Iraq modern day Iraq was just a seedbed for so many of these things that we will see in upcoming studies probably in session four we won't be there next week but session four we will be and yet there are just so many ruins that are virtually impossible to identify and they go back of course thousands of years and many of them were torn down a long time ago and replaced with other things and those things were torn down and replaced with other things and it's just a real hodgepodge that it's virtually impossible to locate it others other comments or questions

[47:13] Gene up here has in Genesis 9 and verse 5 and it says surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it what does that mean Genesis 9 and surely I will require your life blood from every beast I will require it I have no idea I have no idea what that means on the surface I'll be glad to research it and get back to you but I just can't give you a good answer right now matter of fact I don't know how many times I've taught from this we we spent five years in the book of Genesis remember some of you do years ago it took us five years to get through

[48:25] Genesis and this phrase and from every beast I will require it it wasn't in there then we never studied that that's been inserted in there since then I have no idea I have no idea good question actually it was a bad question but it was a good question someone else from every beast I will require you know this is just part and parcel of the word of God I don't know how many portions I've read in scripture over the last 50 years where was that where was that the last time I read it wasn't there yeah well it was there it was there but I wasn't it was there but I wasn't someone else we as you can well appreciate we are covering an enormous amount of material I mean there is just so much stuff between what we are giving you we are just trying to develop what I've called the big picture and you know what you know what I originally thought about doing big picture in one sitting and then the more

[49:49]  I studied the more notes I made I thought nah I can't do it in one it's going to have to be two well the latest count is five and I'm determined that we are going so far we're on track and just three more to go and and we will be there and we will of course conclude with the book of revelation so let's stand please father once again we are enamored of your word of the truth of it the power of it the enlightenment of it there really isn't anything like it that even begins to compare on the planet surely what you've been pleased to reveal about yourself and what you've created is our most prized possession we thank you for it again in Christ's name amen from host with tenemosgt